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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.

But take your Bible and turn to the book of 1st Peter. I want to just talk to you a little bit because of a reason. I got a reason. I’m tired. I’m tired. Are y’all tired? Do you feel like you’re just worn out sometimes? Not sure if you can go anymore. Just got to slow down, take it easy a little bit. I think everybody in the whole church, I’ll take a month vacation. that be neat. But you know what we ought to do is we ought to all take a cruise for about a week.

The whole church, we’re in the whole floor on the boat and just, and then we’ll have our services on the boat and surely something like this ought to be able to work that. And too far to take a last in cruise so we’ll just go down here somewhere close. After what I hear about some of these ships going under, I’m not sure anymore. Man, And you got some crazy guys driving these boats. But you do get tired and you get weary.

And sometimes the devil knows just when to jump all over you. When you get down just a little bit or discouraged a little bit or depressed a little bit, you’d be surprised how the devil watches us and just looking for the right moment. Now the Bible says that the trial of your faith, so that means your faith is on trial. In other words, somebody is doing something. Your faith is on trial. The trial of your faith being much more precious than gold and silver.

There’ll be tried with fire, he says, might be found in the praise, honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So the Bible teaches that those that live godly are going to suffer. It means you’re going to suffer things in areas and ways that you wouldn’t if you didn’t serve the Lord. Now there’s enough troubles in the world, but whenever you make up your mind to serve the Lord, the devil is not going to leave us alone. The devil works on you.

You may know that, but sometimes we forget about it because he tried to convince you, I’m leaving you alone. I’m leaving you alone. And you can’t do that. You can’t do it. You’re too tired. You’re too weak. You can’t keep going. You ought to just quit. Just quit. And you’d be talking about probably how the devil just whispers in your ear, tells you all kinds of things. But what I wanted you to look at there is because in this book, the key word I think is to suffer.

suffer. And who in the world likes that? But you know the Christian life isn’t about what we like. It’s about a job done and paying a price to get it done. So it’s not going to be a cakewalk. It’s not going to be easy. You’re going to struggle. There’s always things that you think, well I could have done this or I could have done that. And the devil just always constantly wants to pull you down down. Drag it down.

But look what he says here in this verse. In 1 Peter in chapter 1, it says, in verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, or a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Two in inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, that fate if not away reserved in heaven for you. So we know we’ve been saved. And saved to something, to an inheritance that’s incorruptible and undefiled and fade, if not away.

We’ve got us a place already reserved in heaven. And God’s not going to take and cancel your reservation. I’m sorry, you canceled it. You didn’t check back in with me. You didn’t live right. You forgot your last payment on that thing. There’s nothing to pay for. A reservation made. We’re in good standing because we’re in Christ. So then he says in verse five, who are kept by the power of God? So we didn’t have the power to save ourselves and we don’t have the power to keep ourselves saved.

That’s his power. He saved us. He keeps us saved. I don’t worry about it. I don’t have any doubts about it. And so he makes the statement in verse six, however, he says, We’re in you greatly rejoice. This truth that what we have in Christ, we greatly rejoice. We’re so thrilled to death about that. We know we got it made. We know in the end we win. We know we’re going to heaven. But we’ve got to live in the nasty here and now.

And so he says here, we’re in you greatly rejoice though now, now, for a season. For this little period of time God gives us to live right now, he says, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, and that’s the sufferings of living in this whole world. We’re in heaviness through manifold temptations. We can sometimes, it seems like there’s so many things to do, and it can begin to snowball and you have to learn how to rest while you work, rest while you work.

And that’s why he says in verse 7, that the trial of your faith, the trial of your faith produces sorrow. It produces a heaviness because there’s a burden to bear. See, a lot of God’s children, they’re AWOL, they haven’t even reported for duty because they don’t want their responsibility. If you learn what God’s Word says, there is an element that puts pressure upon you to do something about it. But if you’re ignorant, ignorance is bliss, it may be for a while.

But when a person stands before the Lord and finds out what they could have done if they had only known, but they didn’t take the time to listen, to learn, to study. And it’s going to cost them so much that they could have had. And so he makes a statement here in verse 8, home, having not seen ye love, in whom though now you see him not yet believing. You rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. We don’t see him, but we love him.

And we rejoice exceedingly because we know that one day we will. And it’s also very interesting that when you study in the book of Peter and he’s talking so much about the suffering, the suffering. And it is mentioned all throughout, that he uses an illustration in chapter 3 about marriage. Now I don’t know why he did that, but he did that. Did you know that most of your pressure and so forth can come from home? If a man wants to serve a Lord and his wife doesn’t, he relies the pressure the suffered can be there.

Or sometimes we We have a lot of time, women that want to serve the Lord, and the man doesn’t want to. That puts pressure. It causes them to suffer. They hurt because of it. Because they think how wonderful it could be. And they want it to be, well, the ideal marriage, the ideal family. But we have an old sinful nature and everybody does. It seems like there’s nothing ideal. It’s just not that way. I’ve count for people and I say, why do you want to get married?

I said, have you ever seen a marriage exactly like what you want? And I’ve had several couples come to get married? No. They all want something better than whatever they’ve seen, but they don’t know how to get it. I think a lot of people who are married want happiness and peace and joy. In unity, but don’t know how to get it, because they don’t know that all they’re doing is just beating up on each other. Or to have children that know the Lord and love the Lord and love the parents, wouldn’t that be neat if all children did that?

And yet you talk about if you want to serve the Lord, you’ve got to suffer because you may not get everything you want. You may get a wife that doesn’t serve the Lord. You may get a husband that doesn’t serve the Lord. have kids that don’t want to serve the Lord. You may have health problems that cause you to suffer and you can have financial problems that puts a lot of pressure upon you. You say well is it worth it?

This period of time, remember, is so short. It’ll be over like this. Be found faithful. Do what you can with what you have where you are. So here in 1 Peter and then chapter 2, it talks about the power that God has. And see now we give Him praise, we give Him honor, we give Him glory. Because later on when we get to heaven, God will give us praise and honor and glory. So you see down here in verse 21, he says, who by Him do believe in God that raised Him came up from the dead and gave Him glory and gave Him glory.

We ought to give Him glory just for the opportunity, and get this, not to be rich, not to be famous, but to suffer. Be thankful we have an opportunity for all these pressures because it’s an opportunity for us to prove our love and loyalty to the Lord. And we often sing this song, it will be worth it all. Do we really believe it? So he says up there, that your faith and hope might be in God. Our faith, our hope should be in the Lord.

How do you know it isn’t? What things happen to you? And it’ll reveal how much faith you have, how strong you really are. What does it do to you? What do the problems and the pressures of this life, what does it do to you? Now, I get tired sometimes. I get so weary sometimes. I was talking with Betty and we both went to each other today and said, we want to just go on and go to sleep. Because sometimes you just go and you get tired.

But there’s so much that it seems like it needs to be done. And we’ll rest one of these days. It’s coming down the road. There comes a day when no man can work. I want to do as much as I can while I can. Now notice what he says here. In verse 11 of chapter 2, nearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lust, which in you ought to underline those words, war against the soul.

There’s things that war against you, tries to keep you from achieving that which God has, burden you down, cause you questions and doubts, and wonder whether or not is it worth the struggle. It’s easy just to quit and give up, and a dead fish can float downstream, But you’re going to have to be pretty alive to go upstream. That’s why I’m always amazed at the salmon that goes up in the last gun waters and they go all the way back to up there and they jump up good big old things.

I saw the news the other night. The salmon jumped clean that way up out of there and there was a big old bear rating right there. Big old bear standing in the stream waiting for that fish. But he was shocked and that great big old fish came up there and slapped him right in the face and it fell back in the water and got away. And the bear is still like, you would think that bear had his mouth open at home, made a meal.

But that big old fish came up there and just slapped him right in the face, big old bear. I wonder if that fish thought about that before he jumped. And you know, war against the soul, wars against the soul. And so this is what God wants. Now look there in verse 19. Verse 19, and this is thanks worthy if a man for conscience toward God. Enjoy grief. No. Endure grief. Suffering wrongfully. Remember, in this life, you can’t make everything right.

Sometimes you may have to just allow yourself to be defrauded, to be wronged. I’ve been wrong many times over and over and over again. It ain’t worth it. Because what you’re about and what you’re doing is you’re not going to be wrong. get any worth it. Because what you’re about and what you’re doing is so important. You see, the train doesn’t stop for every barking dog. The train just keeps on a moving. Like that dog ain’t even there. And like I’ve said before, the best way to deal with all of your critics is outlive them.

Because you see, if they’re bad and you’re good, you just I live long enough to enjoy the moment. But look at that. Suffering wrongfully. Suffering. It’s almost like it’s present tense, like it’s an ongoing thing. Not like something that happened in the past, but you’re enduring it. You’re doing it now. It’s now. It’s where you are. Then look what he says in verse 20. For what glory is it when you be buffeted for your faults? You should be, but there’s no glory in that.

And you take it patiently. I’m suffering for Jesus say, no, you could have been stupid. Don’t blame everything on the Lord. You did something wrong and you suffered for it. Well, I’m suffering for Jesus. No, you’re not suffering for Jesus. You suffered because you made some dumb mistakes. But when you’re doing what’s right and you suffer for it, You don’t get the credit you think you ought to receive. And that’ll happen a lot of times. Nobody appreciates you like the Lord.

No people may appreciate you a little bit, but now you know you’re worthy of more praise, honor, and glory than you’ve been getting, right? So he says, take it patient. But if when you do well, when you do well, when you do well and you suffer for it, He says, this is acceptable with God. So whenever you’re suffering, just chalk it up. That’s fine. God sees. God’s going to take care of it. I win. You lose. In your mind, you know that.

Who keeps the books? He keeps the books. Just let him keep the books. He won’t forget anything. would be a sin for God to forget your work in labor for the Lord. Look what he says in the next verse verse 21, for even here unto word you called because Christ also in here is that word again suffered, suffered for us. Leaving us an example that you should follow his steps in the word maybe God is concerned about your suffering for him.

You said boy I didn’t know going to be this much, but it comes in different ways. You see, it would be different if you and I could choose which way to suffer and when to suffer. Then we’d be ready for it, but we don’t get to choose. We don’t get to choose the trial and the testing. God does all that for us. There’s a course laid out. We’ve got to run our race. So as we’re running our race, God puts little obstacles or allows them to be put in their way.

And they cause us a lot of heartache. And you know, all those things causes the person who wants to serve the Lord, get a little bit closer to the Lord. So God uses things to crowd you to Christ, crowded to Christ. I got a book this thick. I got from Dr. Lee Robertson years ago called Crowded to Christ. I read that book and I try. I’d raise some more and I cry. I read that book and I cry. I cried almost way all the way through the book because I was living the book.

What I was going through in my life, I was living that book. Everything seems to be pointed, this is me, this is me. And Buddy did it really help me to understand some of the trials that you go through in life. And so he says, follow I’m looking verse 23 where he said, who when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, when he suffered. So all of this is, wouldn’t it be easier for God just to remove all the things it causes us to suffer?

Now that would be a blessing. That would be an answer to prayer. But then he might as well just go ahead and take you on home, because that’s not why he left you here. He wants you to demonstrate to the world, You love him more than anything that could ever happen whether good or bad. It wouldn’t change you. You are the way you are because this is your character. Good things happen, praise the Lord, bad things happen, praise the Lord, and it doesn’t matter.

Remember in the book of Job, the Lord giveth and the Lord take of the way. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Should we bless the Lord only when He gives and curse Him when He takes things away? When it’s easy for us, we praise the Lord. God sure is good. Did you know when your worst day, your darkest day, God is still just as good? His characteristic, he don’t change. God doesn’t become evil one day and good the next day.

He is a perfect God that makes no mistakes. We’re supposed to believe all of that, but he says here in verse 23, there’s a word here committed. I want you to look at the first 20th weekend. Who when he was revowed? Revowed not again. When he suffered, he threatened none, but committed himself to him that judged righteously. Can you commit yourself to him that judge it righteously. Knowing God saw this, God saw what people said and what people did, God knows how I hurt and what caused it and I’m committed to Him knowing He will judge righteously and I don’t have to worry about it.

It keeps you from taking matters into your own hand and saying or doing something that you wish you hadn’t done 20 years later. It’s pretty good information really. Now look there in chapter three, chapter three. And look down there in verse seven, verse seven where he says, so likewise the husbands dwell with them, talking about your wives, dwell with them according to knowledge. Now that’s going to be difficult, I know. I was talking to the college kids the other day and I might even mention it yesterday or Sunday that you know just because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.

And they don’t understand God so God must not exist. So I said that would be like since I don’t understand my wife, therefore she doesn’t exist. No, she does exist and she is for real and you may never understand her all the days of your life. That’s okay. That just comes with the territory. You should have known that when you married them unless you got married young and didn’t have any sense. And so a lot of people get young in the marriage when they’re young and you got a bit of sense.

Don’t even know what love is. All you know is I like you, you like me, let’s get married. There you go. And could cost you as much as $5. If you’re the right kind of a man, the wife will be willing to buy you, you know, pay five dollars for you. My wife got me 50% off. Good deal. But anyway, you look up there in this verse, seven where he makes a statement, according to knowledge given honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life, eternal life, that in you ought to underline this, your prayer to be not hindered.

And so your prayers can be hindered if things are not right at home. And you want to do right. You don’t want your prayers to be hindered. But also to look at this verse. Look over in verse 14. Verse 14 where he says, but and if you suffer, but if you suffer, in that word it means and you will. The same as you read over there in the book of James when it says when you fall in the divers temptations, you know, and you will.

And if you suffer for righteousness’ sake, you’re doing right in your painter price. You try to discipline the lawyer you should, try to be a good dad or a good mom and kids and all that kind of stuff that goes on. everything is going to work out like you think. A lot of things down here is going to be a lot of loose ends. It’s kind of like this little boy was sitting on a porch and he was looking up at grandma and she’s sitting in the rock and chair and she’s doing some embroidering.

So he’s looking from his end. All he says is those broken pieces of strings. But she’s up there just to work an on a pattern. I said, what are you doing? So I’m making a picture. or don’t look like it to me, or what does it look like to you? It was like nothing. Nothing, there ain’t no picture there at all. Nothing. So when she got through, she let him see it. See, he was looking from his perspective and she was looking from her perspective.

For you and me, we see things from this perspective and all we see is a lot of broken ends, no continuity, nothing going together, no pattern. We don’t see a design and it just seems like it’s so haphazard and yet one of these days God’s going to bring us to heaven and kind of show you what he’s been doing and you’ll find that God has been working in your life in a marvelous way that you’re nothing about and you won’t understand it do you get there.

So can we be patient? Can we wait long enough to see what God has been doing? The longer you live you start seeing some of these things coming together and you can see how God did this and why did that and why did that and it’d be a lot of things that you don’t understand but he says secret things belong with unto the Lord. So if you look at it it makes sense. But up there in verse 14, but if you suffer for righteousness sake happy are ye.

See those three of the words? It’s okay to suffer when you’re doing right and it’s okay to be happy when people do your own And there’s a lot of people who say hurting, cutting, detrimental things to you. And people will fail you. Not everybody’s faithful. It would be great if everybody was just faithful. Everybody’s on the same page. And nobody hurting your body. But we don’t. We fail each other. I’ll fail you. I’m a preacher, but I’m a man.

I got faults. I think I found one of them about two years ago. It’s a small one. But everybody, the best govus has faults. Now you may not have known that. I had to tell on you. But he says, happy are ye and be not afraid of their terror. Neither be troubled. In other words, there are terrorists in the world. There’s people who cause us fear. terrorist, little terrorist. And did you know that Christians can be little terrorist? They can hurt you.

They can scare you. Don’t you hurt for those you love and you’re afraid they’re gonna make some decisions that might put scars on them for the rest of their life and you can’t stand it. You cringe because you don’t want them to do that and you’re looking way down the road and all they think about is right now. Give me, give me, give me. I want to do whatever I want to do. It’s my life and all that stuff.

I know. And you suffer for it. But you can still be happy if you’re doing what’s right. Look at the next one I want you to see. Look in verse 17, for it is better. For it is better if the will of God be so that you suffer for well-doing than for evil doing. It is God’s will that you suffer for doing right. Those that live God shall suffer persecution. You’re going to be persecuted in one way or the other.

And it might be the devil that will persecute you. We hope you’ve enjoyed this lesson today from Dr. Arnold and pray that Bibleline is a blessing in your life. We are so grateful to our listeners and supporters who help us accomplish so many great things for the Lord. During this month to that every person making a financial donation in any amount, we’re going to send to you the DVD teaching series on how to witness to Roman Catholics. Many Catholics love the Lord so much, but sadly they are lost.

Although the Roman Catholic Church uses words like grace and mercy, they rely upon works as the cause of salvation. So many wonderful people are being deceived by the world’s largest religion, and this DVD series could help you win them to the truth. Again, we’re so grateful to those of you who support this ministry. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. God bless you and thank you for supporting 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. Friends, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound and we will be changed. Cut up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.