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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s Word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. 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 prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us at 813-884-4328, or you can donate on the homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org. 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.

Look down at the last bold on page one. The handwriting was on the wall for Israel’s defeat. When you know the end result, or are you going to have, and here’s two phrases that I put here, and I want you to circle them, one is called the spirit of resolution. The other one is the spirit of resignation. You see, you’re either going to be a result. I am going to finish what God wants me to do with my life, or I resigned to doing whatever is my own will and not God’s.

You see, if you know and you can look and see the end result, would you be tempted just to quit and give up? It’s too hard. God’s asking too much. Now in the book of Luke in chapter 14, it gives a whole chapter on discipleship. And it says, many people start, he said, but they don’t finish. And he says, they didn’t finish because they didn’t count the cost. They didn’t count the cost. They were not willing to forsake all that they had.

He says, you cannot be my disciple. There’s people who play around with it. Piddle here and there. But I’m talking about a person sold out to the Lord. Lord, whatever you want to do with my life, you’re free to do it. You can take it. You can leave me here. You can do anything that you want. Bring anything in my life you want. If it’s for your honor and your glory, I’m for it. and you hold nothing back to the Lord.

And if it turns sour and everything seems to go wrong, are you with the spirit of resignation or resolve? He’s like a man who’s set his face like a flint and nothing’s going to stop him or change him. He’s made up his mind. I’m going to serve the Lord. And like David says, though he slay me, though he slay me. Yeah, well I trust him. Look at page two, the top of the page where Jeremiah 25, 10 says, Moreover, I will take from them the voice of myrrh and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, the voice of the bride and the sounds of the millstones and the light of the candle.

In other words, God said, I am going to strip you of all that you love. I’m going to take away and your husbands are going to be killed. The women are going to be raped. These are your kids are going to be killed. They’re going to starve to death. There’s going to be a great famine. All these things, your love, your joy, your peace, everything that you want, you’re going to lose it all. It’s not the way God wanted.

And it broke Jeremiah’s heart to see that the people were willing to run that risk. I grieve myself when I see some of God’s people who throw away God’s best for them and then take whatever crumbs are left. It’s said, I want the best. I want the best God has for me and I will end the pay whatever price there is to pay, but I want it. Look at number three there in your notes. See verse right before Jeremiah 25 and verse 11, where he talks about you’ll be in Babylon 70 years.

We see there’s some things that happen that cause this to take place. So number three, sometimes we’re a cursed without a cause. You’ll live a life and people will curse you and it seems like everything is against you without a cause. It’s not because you did something wrong and you deserve it. It’s because you did something right and people make wrong decisions and they wish not who you are. They wish not what you’re doing. They don’t appreciate where respect the stand that you take and understand where you’re coming from and you’ll face all these things all alone.

Jeremiah didn’t have a close buddy buddy. He was forsaken. Look at the next statement. Under number three there, Jeremiah loved them, but they took their hatred out on him. He did them good, but they wronged him. This is what they did. And many of the statements that you’ll see that they did to Jeremiah, when you read Isaiah 53, you’ll see a lot of these same statements that are made. Talking about the Messiah, Christ. Looked there in Jeremiah 11, 19, right there in your note.

But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter. You ever heard something like that before? And I knew not that they had devised devices against me saying, let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof and let us cut him off from the land of the living. That statement is also used in the book of Daniel in chapter 9 when he talked about the Messiah will be cut off out of the land of the living.

Look at the next verse, chapter 11 verse 20, but O Lord of hosts that judge us righteously, that triath the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them, for under thee have I revealed my cause.” In other words, Jeremiah poured out his heart to the Lord. And he knew all these things that the people had done to Jeremiah. And knowing that he says later, he says, God, you deceived me. You didn’t tell me it was going be this bad.

It wasn’t supposed to be this bad. And he says, Lord, what did I do? It wasn’t like he got up and he just decided one day, I think I’m going to serve the Lord. No God called him from the womb. You read Jeremiah chapter 1 and verses 4 through verse 7 and you’ll talk, see how God had a purpose for his life. And he didn’t ask Jeremiah, he just told him this is what you’re opposed to do. This is what I want.

I ordained you for this. Jeremiah had a choice. He could have been a rebellious prophet not done what God wanted him to do. But he says, you put your reins on me and you guided me and you led me and I wanted to stop. I wanted to quit. But inside Jeremiah, he says, I couldn’t quit. He says, your word was in me like a fire. Like It was in my bones. And I said, I’m not going to say anything, but the burden of the Word of God was so strong in Jeremiah’s life he couldn’t quit.

He had to go on. Look at the next statement. Jeremiah was persecuted, rejected, beaten, and imprisoned and slandered. Jeremiah 18 verse 18, right there, you know. Then said they come, let us devise devices against Jeremiah. for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us might him with the tongue and let us not give heed to any of his words. They agreed together. We’re not going to listen to anything Jeremiah has to say.

Sometimes I wonder if people come to church and I don’t care what that preacher says today, I will not I will not he’s not going to get me to do anything. Now I know none of y’all did that or did you want to come back tonight. But there’s chances are people who have already made up their mind. I’m not going to move. I don’t care what he says. I’m not going to do it. After all, I don’t need him telling me what to do.

And you think it’s a personal thing between you and me? No. If I tell you what God’s word says, it’s between you and God. Not between you and me. That’s why when I talk to somebody about the Lord. I say, this is what God says. No, here’s you, not. Look what God says. Tell them what God said. Now, it’s not between you and me, between you and him. But there’s times when you will have people turning you. As I know of, I don’t know one person I have purposely ever set out to try to hurt in all my ministry.

I wanna help everyone I can. I wanna teach everyone that I possibly can. I wanna tell you the truth. I don’t like to play a little game where I come in the side door in the back door like I did. I like to take it straight up front, right between the eyes. You know where I’m coming from. No hope in or guessing. No, and where I stand on just about every issue. If you ever go to our YouTube channel and you’ll find out that I try to hit every issue I can think of.

Because I know that I’m running out of time. And I want people to know where I stand, of what the Bible says about hell. And that’s why I preached that this morning. I want people to know what I think about Jeremiah. That’s where I’m teaching about Jeremiah. But I don’t cover the whole book. I give you a little snippets of highlights, an overview. You can go back through and you can read all the things in between. But it’s very important to do so.

Now, the way he makes a statement. Okay. Okay. And. Yeah. Okay. So. Oh, yeah. Okay. And. Yeah. They. Yeah. Yeah. So. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. In Jeremiah 15 verse 15, look what we have here at number four. Jeremiah suffered without quitting. He suffered without quitting. Now this same thing you’ll find in 2 Corinthians in chapter 4, when the Apostle Paul having stated that having this ministry we faint not means we don’t quit. He says when we were perplexed but we didn’t quit.

Cast down but we didn’t quit. And all the things he said but we didn’t quit. We didn’t quit. We didn’t quit. Because if we quit, who else is there? Who else is there going to do this if we quit? And you have to believe that you are necessary. You are important. I had people tell me a long time ago, yank you. God doesn’t need you. God doesn’t need you. And I thought, man, that just takes and rings it right out of you.

I’m not needed. I’m not needed. He doesn’t need me for anything. I mean, God, the Creator, the Heavens and the Earth, He doesn’t need me. Then why did He make me? He made me and He saved me and He left me here. Therefore I believe He has something for me to do.” And I believe that. Looked in your notes again. Jeremiah 15, 15 says, Oh Lord, Thou knowest, remember me and visit me and revenge me of my persecutors. Take me nut away in thy long suffering.

Know that get this and this is why he’s pouring out his heart to the Lord. For thy sake I have suffered rebuke. In other words, you serve the Lord and you’re doing right but you’ve been rebuked every time you turn around. People are knocking and cutting and criticizing you. But he says, Lord, I did all of that and I suffered all of this for your sake, for your cause, for your name. Lord I want you to get him. God did.

He committed him to the Lord. Jeremiah took no vengeance on anybody but he sure committed him to the Lord. Somebody who can do something about it. But look at the next statement. In verse 18 of Jeremiah 15 says, why is my pain and you’re not on the line these two words, pain perpetual. Have you ever gone through some sickness and illness and it seemed like it never ends. You wonder when is it going to be over all one day?

One day, just be patient. Wait. The day’s coming for all of us and it’s going to be over. One of these days, just think about this, Larry’s going to be good looking. Isn’t that something to be thankful for? We’re going to have a healthy body. We’re going to look good. Whatever good looking means, whatever that means. My brother will not be suffering from a stroke and leave patterns, suffering from heart problems and breathing problems. He’s had cancer. He’s gone through everything.

That poor guy, but Lord has kept walking him through it. And he kept thinking he’s going to die. He’s going to die, but he keeps telling to live and God ain’t taking him yet. But we know that one day he will and he’ll be delivered from all of this pain. But right now it’s like a perpetual pain. Look at the next two words in here. wound and that word incurable. It’s like the nation of Israel, as it was in the eyes of a perpetual pain to Lord, read Isaiah chapter one, the first chapter.

Gives you an idea from the sole of his foot to the top of their head and he says, you’re sick. The whole nation, you’re sick, what God says. And your wound is incurable. At that time he says, come into me in, let us reason he gathered, sayeth the Lord. He said, there was a time when something could have been done about it, but they wouldn’t do it. And now it’s too late. It’s too late. Chasing hand of God is coming.

Look at the next statement. Jeremiah suffered in prison and in a pit. Now there’s some scripture here, but I can see that I don’t have much time, there’s a good scripture. Also, whenever you read Jeremiah 38 verses two through six, read also Jeremiah chapter 37, chapter 37, and then verse 15 and 16, and also though in there verse 21, that verse is also a good verse. Look at number five there in your notes. Well, in verse 37, Jeremiah 37, 15, that verse right there.

wherefore the princes were off with Jeremiah and smote him. You’ll be surprised how many verses will say some of the same things of what happened to Jesus. Cause when Jesus came, look at all the things they did to him. And he was innocent. Jesus never wronged anybody. And look how the world treated him. And Jesus told his disciples, he says, if they will do this to me, what do you think the world is gonna do to you? If the world loves you, something’s wrong with you.

Because he says, all they that live godly shall what? Suffered persecution. If you’re not being persecuted for something, you’re not doing something right. Because the world is not supposed to love us. We’re supposed to love the world. And that means in a good way for the Lord’s sake. Look at the next statement. Number five, Jeremiah remained faithful without friends. He was forbidden to marry because of the terrible times. And that’s found in Jeremiah 16, verse two, the next statement.

He was betrayed and denied by those who pretended to be on peaceable terms with him. Because, see, when he talks about his familiar, those who knew him well, those who knew him the best, those that should have been of his own family, of his own friends, and people that would stand with the prophet Jeremiah. What they wanted to do is stand back in this, Let’s just wait and see if he really messes up so they can get him.

Kind of like a man named Job who had a wife and all the things that begin to happen to Job. And his wife says, why don’t you curse God and die? Nothing like having a woman standing behind her man. She didn’t stand behind her man. Look at the next statement. Number six, Jeremiah did right, but not rewarded in this life. Jeremiah was not rewarded nor promoted for doing right, but he suffered evil instead. You think you’re going to serve the Lord and everything’s going to work out just as they say, hunky-dory.

There they’re going to be wonderful. Great. And you can lose everything in this world. And people can turn against you. People can slander you. And their paths on the back might simply be a place they’re looking to plan a knife. to plan a knife and people don’t always respect you. They don’t know who you are and what you’re standing for. And devil can work in a person’s mind and turn people against you. Disunderstand it. Now if you knew all of this and all of this was going to happen to you and how the world was going to accept whatever you did for the Lord, would you want to serve the Lord?

After you’ve read all of this and heard all of this, I said, man, I want to be a servant God just like Jeremiah, just like the Apostle Paul. You see, most Christians, those aren’t their heroes. Those aren’t the people they want to be like. They want to find something where there’s no problems. And we think, serve the Lord means that God is going to so bless me that I’ll not have any hard times. If God can just keep me safe, if I don’t get sick, if I don’t have financial difficulty, if I don’t have that, some people have all of these things happen to him.

doesn’t mean they’re doing something wrong. It could be that they’re doing everything right. But sometimes if you’re not going through some bad times, it’s so easy to land that long, fair, seal, connose and look at everybody else and say, you know, if they serve the Lord like I did, that wouldn’t be happening to them. I know Christians who do that and they’re hypocrites. Leave it with the Lord. God will take care of it. Look at number six where I have these couple statements here.

God does not guarantee us rewards in this life but in the life to come. In Jeremiah 31 16 here, thus saith the Lord, refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded. The work that he did will steal the work of the Lord. And the work that you do for the Lord, regardless of how it’s received in this life, will be blessed by God. And when you get to heaven, you’re going to be rewarded for what you did because we’re not going to have to answer for the way people respond into our messages.

We’re going to be rewarded because of the efforts that we put into the work in our faithfulness to the Lord. Number seven, down at the bottom of the page, God promised Jeremiah much help I will be with you I will help you and God worked with him from the time of his birth all the way to the time that he finally left and went down into Egypt and then his final days there as far as we know but God promised Jeremiah much out but no hope for success because when there was no hope for the children of Israel to listen, to yield, to obey, then there could be no hope for success in Jeremiah’s life.

But he still had a job to do, and he was to be thankful in doing that job. And the thing about this, God told him, you’re the right man for the job. He says, if I had Samuel, I would not spare them for them. So it’s not you Jeremiah. Look at that verse Jeremiah 51, then said the Lord unto me, though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people. Cast them out of my sight and let them go forth.

In other words, I wouldn’t change my mind even for those two righteous men. So Jeremiah was the right man for the job and the time in which he lived. And we don’t get to choose the time in which we live. We have got to face the life that’s going on when we get here. I wasn’t here 100 years ago. And I don’t think I’m over here 100 years from now. This is my time. And I want to reach as many in my generation that I can.

And so you are supposed to try to figure out how to serve this God, not on how to be so happy in life. I don’t chase those things. I just chase obedience. Is this right? Is it wrong? Too much in my life is governed by, it’s black and white. And I try to hinge away and stay away from anything that seemed like it’s too fuzzy. You know, dirty gray. I have things that I believe that are right and things that are wrong.

My biggest problem is always deciding between right and right, then right and wrong. So sometimes you can do this and that would be right. And you can do this and that would be right. Then you gotta say which one would be the most fruitful, which would be the best. In the long term, what would be God’s will for me? And so you need to be patient and seek God’s will. Look at the last thing here.

God knew that Jeremiah was the best man for the job. And then in the last statement, Jeremiah was given no hope, but was told not to be discouraged. Do the job, no hope for success, but you’ll win in the long run because this life is gonna end. And he will be rewarded by the Lord when he gets to heaven. Now here you and I are. What do we look for in this life? The success that God promised to Joshua in the book of Joshua chapter 1 is that meditated in my word that Thomas prospered to do his will to know what God wants you to do so you can have good success.

But it’s whatever God calls success. It’s the will of God. Did he have any failures after that? Well what about the sin of AI? That broke Joshua’s heart, but he still had to go through it. Because sometimes you suffer the consequences of other people’s disobedience. And sometimes God will tell people what to do and they won’t do it. They won’t do it. I was on television for eight years, and as long as the people gave, I would stay on.

But when they stopped giving, I had to go off. I wasn’t off the television because I didn’t want to be there. I wasn’t off the television because God didn’t want me there. I was off the television because some people did not obey God. And people will stand before God one day they’ll give a count to God for what they could or could not have done. Same thing where it’s the radio, the internet, I don’t get what we do. Sometimes we can make it possible for kids to come to ranch, but that won’t make kids come to ranch.

You can be there and you can play the music and have the Bible study and everything’s ready to go. all the facilities, got a party and a picnic and got this going on and whatever they’re doing on that one night, I won’t be there. And you can do all these things. But that doesn’t mean it’ll be a great success. But they will be rewarded for their faithfulness in doing what they can with what they got where they are. But you can’t make people respond.

You understand what I’m saying, right? It’s an individual thing. Sometimes you suffer the consequences of other people’s obedience or disobedience. Now you can just have to enjoy the blessings. And so that’s why these things are important. If you want to know what’s it like for the Christian life, you just read it. Go back and read the Apostle Paul. The Christian life, you can’t live the Christian life in better than Christ. Christ was the Christian life. And look how he ended up.

Let’s see, we don’t want to hurt. We don’t want things to go wrong. We want totally blessed all the time. Everything’s wonderful. And we don’t want this perpetual pain, perpetual sorrow, all the hurt. We don’t want to go through that. Jeremiah didn’t want to go through that. But God had to let him go through that without any hope. No revivals, nothing. People turned against him. Yet in God’s eyes, he’s got a book in the Bible. I mean, books do you have in the Bible?

Do you have any in? Have you wrote any yet? Jeremiah has one. And that’s why he’s called the Weep in Prophet. Look up here. This hand represents you and me. The wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. God loves you. us. Did you know that God weeps over us? He loves us so much that God’s in His Son, Jesus Christ. And He wept over Jerusalem. Well, I’m just as important as Jerusalem. You are just as important as Jerusalem, but God loves them.

You see, the pay for our sins, we have to spend eternity separate from the Lord in hell. But God loves us, wants us to go to heaven. They go to heaven, we have to be perfect and none of us are. We have all sinned and come short of God’s perfection. The sin represents Jesus Christ, He’s the Lord God in the flesh. Came into the world because He loves us, He hates our sin because our sin separates us. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die.

So He took all the sin of all the world, patron on the cross, came back from the dead. So the only thing He wanted us to do is believe He did it for us. So when I believe He did it for me, He puts that payment to my account. When Jesse believed that he did it for him, he puts that payment to his account. You see, the payment was Jesus Christ. He was the payment. So when I accept him, he was my payment for my, say, Christ died for me.

And he says, tell everybody in the whole world the gospel, the good news of how you can know for sure you’re going to heaven when you die. Because when you believe he did it for you, he gives you as a gift, eternal life, and never cast you out and never lose you. Let’s pray, shall we? With heads bound, I suppose, no one looking around. It’s very important that if you have not trusted Christ as your Savior, that you do so.

We have no guarantee in life. Time is short. If you’ve never trusted the Lord, would you trust Him right now? You can trust Christ as your Savior right where you are. There’s nothing that you have to do there that these people don’t have in heart. Lord, I believe Christ died and paid for my sins. If you’ve never done so, do it right now. Our Father, we thank You again for Your blessings to us. We’re thankful for the free gift of everlasting life.

And Father, we’re thankful that we’ve been given an opportunity as Your children to serve You. And Father, we’re thankful for the testimony of Jeremiah, how that You used Him. And Father, what He went through. But Lord, we know that now, now, for all eternity, it was well worth it. Well thank for First Testimony. And even though he wanted to quit, your word was in his bones like a fire and it could not stay. We ask your blessings upon each person here.

Thank you for this time together. Christ that we pray. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing 813-884-4328. That’s 813-884-4328. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, just go to our home page at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broadcast link.

If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030, and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org. 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, and just keep looking up.