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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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of 1 Peter. There’s some thoughts there in the book of 1 Peter First Peter that I believe are very, very beneficial to us. As you know, we’ve talked about once you trusted Christ as your Savior, you have eternal life and you’re going to heaven when you die. In the first chapter, it talks about two things, the glory of man, the glory of God. In other words, there’s praise, honor, and glory that everybody wants.

If you seek it down here, then that’s all you’re going to get, and it’s temporary. If you seek the honor, the glory and the praise of God is something you can have forever. Because once God gives you honor, praise your glory, it’s forever. It’s not temporary. And so if you understand that, do you need to understand why the opportunity of living in this world after you trust the Lord is such a great thing because this period of time that you and I are in is called a time of suffering.

And therefore, if you don’t understand it, you will greatly resent anyone who wrongs you or things in life that don’t go according to plan, things that interrupt your schedule because you see God says the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold and silver that’s tried with fire but that it might be found under praise, honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So your faith is on trial and there’s something that God is working toward.

What did God intend before man ever fail? You see Christ coming into the world and down on the cross paying for sins is to redeem us back to the original purpose that God had already intended before man ever sinned against God. God wants you and I to walk with him in fellowship for all eternity. God wants you to be like his child and he wants to be like a father to you. you. So God has arranged many things designed with you in mind.

You are precious to God. And because you’re so precious to the Lord, the Lord tells us in the book of 1 Peter in chapter 2 that you are coming unto someone that is a precious stone. God says, my son Jesus, he is precious and he is. But he says also that you are also a precious stone. You are precious in the eyes of the Lord. So it doesn’t matter see how other people see you because some people don’t really appreciate you for what you are.

They may not see and understand that you are an object of God’s love. And if there was nobody else in this world, God loves you. I have to see myself this way because I have to understand that not everybody in this world loves me. God loves me. I am a valuable piece of commodity in the eyes of God. God thought that I was worth the love of His Son, the death of His Son. So yes, you and I are precious in this side of God.

He also tells us in the book of 2 Peter, he talks about the precious faith, the precious faith that you have in Him because faith in God is a precious thing. You see you may not have a lot of gold and silver but your confidence that you have in God can get you more than money can buy. My confidence in God because I believe in God so strongly, so much I can ask my heavenly father to do things for me that money can’t do for me.

And so it’s a precious thing to be a child of God. Now look in verse 7, verse 7, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishesth, though it be tried with fire, might be found in the praise, honor, and glory at the period of Jesus Christ. some. There’s a time coming where the Lord is going to reward you for what you have done for him. And so in this period of time upon the earth, you’re going to suffer.

But he uses an illustration. He refers to Jesus Christ and talks about how that the Old Testament saints didn’t understand everything that was going on. A part about the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. I want you look at that verse in chapter 1, look there in verse 11. In a reference to the Old Testament saints when they wrote the Old Testament Scriptures, they didn’t always understand what they wrote, but they wrote what God told them the right.

And it says in verse 11, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify when it testified beforehand these two important things, the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. Now we all know that Jesus came into the world. We all know that He suffered while He was here. We all know that He suffered on the cross, that He was crucified, He was killed, and He was buried and He came back from the dead.

And then the Bible says that when God raised Him up from the dead, God said He exalted Him and gave Him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee He shall bow on every tongue shall confess that He is the Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now He has been glorified, He has been honored. So here in the book of 1 Peter it gives us the illustration. Look, Jesus suffered then glory.

You and I are supposed to keep it in mind. We suffer here glory later. But you see, some of you may not suffer too much because you see, if you don’t serve the Lord very strongly with all your heart, you won’t suffer. as much as somebody who does. Because see, the more you want to serve the Lord, it means you have to give up something. You have to give up your own way, your own will. That means there’s things that you can’t do.

There’s places you can’t go. There’s a language you can’t use. That means you’ve got to be faithful instead of doing whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it. You see, whenever you realize, I’m God’s child and I want to serve Him, and He says, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the knowing of your mind that you may prove or discover that good and acceptable and perfect will have gone. Some people aren’t willing to pay that price because it’s a price to pay.

It’s gonna cost you something. See salvation going to heaven, that’s free. The discipleship following the Lord, that’s very expensive. It’s gonna cost you. You’re gonna have to give up something in this life of what you would like to do or be and have for the Lord. And God says, if you’ll do that for me, when you get to heaven, He says, you suffer from me here and I’m gonna to give you glory when you get there. See, going to heaven, that’s free.

That’s because of what Christ did for us. That’s what gets us into heaven. But now that you’re going to heaven, if you will serve the Lord and suffer from Him, that means you got to give up something. When people are mean and ugly and unkind to you and you’re gonna be sweet back. But if you argue and you’re mean and you’re unkind and you just carry grudges and bitterness in your heart toward people, that is costing you rewards. It’s costing you honor.

It’s costing you glory. you’re not getting away with it. You say, nobody’s gonna talk to me like that. Well, pay the price. It’s gonna cost you something that you could have had for the Lord. So you can’t live as you please and get away with it. You can live as you please. Yes you can. You’re a Christian. You can have eternal life go to heaven whenever you die and live as you please. You may live to please yourself. You can live for the devil.

If you’re his child, you’re still going to heaven, but it’s gonna cost you dearly. What a price you’re going to pay. but it is so much better that you put God first and servant. Also look there in verse 21. Or in reference toward Jesus Christ, he says, who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory. Why did God do that for his son? So that in the last part of that verse that your faith and hope might be in the Lord?

So that as you live your life upon the earth, you put your faith in God and you’ll believe it, that I’m gonna be receiving honor, praise, and glory by suffering here. So I’m gonna be faithful now because I believe what God said. But if you don’t believe what God says, you’re not gonna be faithful here. You see, my goal is not to try to make you be faithful. I’m supposed to teach you the word. And if you see this and you understand this, you will be as faithful as you choose to be.

You will be as dedicated as you choose to be. Nobody can make you faithful, nobody can make you dedicated. Nobody can make you really love God and serve God. I can only present the stuff, but here’s what God said. He said, well, I wasn’t there. I didn’t get to see all of this. I didn’t see Christ when he was walking with the disciples and I didn’t see him feed the 5,000 and all that. Well, look what he says here in 1 Peter.

Look now in verse eight. whom having what not seen you haven’t seen them I haven’t seen them I wasn’t there whom not having not seen you love here you are asked to love someone you’ve never seen you can love them though you’ve never seen them Thomas says I believe because I’ve I seen them and you can touch him the scripture says blessed are those who have never seen him yet believe. But what he says here, he says, though now you see him not yet believing you rejoice with joy and speakable and full of glory because you believe that it’s true.

You believe that the sacrifices you make now are going to be worth it because when you get to heaven you believe God is going to reward you for what you’ve done. You see that’s why you give. What you give, the motive of why you give is a thermometer of your love for the Lord. You don’t love God, then you won’t give right. But if you do love the Lord, you won’t mind sacrificing given to the Lord’s Word, because you want people to trust the Lord.

Money is a reflection of people’s love for the Lord. And people who don’t love the Lord don’t want to give. People who do want to. It’s a, like I said, a thermometer of where are you spiritually in your Christian life? But you see, you don’t mind doing certain things for God and sacrificing for God. If you really believe that what God said is true and he’s gonna reward you when you get to heaven. But if you don’t believe that and you don’t think about that out of sight out of mind, you’ll do whatever you want to do.

And it’ll seem right in your own eyes. See, it’s a personal thing. It’s what do you want to be done with that which you work for and this is an expression of your love. See, people should not give because, well, I got a responsibility. I got a tie. I do that you just keep money. Give it because you want to. You’re motive of why you do it so important because God says you can give your body to be burned.

And though if you do that, well, so what? If you don’t love, he says you have nothing. It doesn’t profit you. Now what you give can profit for whatever you do for, but it doesn’t profit you none. God’s word is so important. Look what he says in verse nine. He says, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Now those words that are in italics read this without the words in italic. What is the end result, or should be the end result of your faithful serving God, receiving the end or the result of your faith, the salvation of souls.

That’s why, because God left us in this world, is for the salvation of souls. So we can try to reach other people. You see, there’s people that will be reached because we pay a price. These that work with the young people, they’re paying a price, they’re having a dedicate, they’re putting out their pockets and giving time, they’re giving money to try to reach kids and yet you don’t know the all that’s going to be accomplished because of this. You’re investing in people’s lives.

Receiving the end result salvation of soul that’s what it’s about. Now look what he’s talking about here because it’s so important for you to see this. When it makes the statement in verse 11 beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow you understand this look up at me. If this is what happened to Christ and he is our example. Makes that statement over there in verse 21, sufferings and the glory. Where are we right now? We’re here.

We’re in a world where we suffer. You’re going to get old. Things are going to go wrong. You’re going to get sick. You’re going to have financial problems. You got all these things. But how strong is your faith? See, whether you have it or you don’t have it. Good health don’t have it. None of that is the issue. What is the issue then? Your faith. Your faith in God is precious to Him. And so God allows all these things to happen in this world of suffering to prove to God you love God more than the world.

Do you love God more than your body? Do you love God more than your job. You love God more than money. Do you love him more than health? God wants to know you love him supremely. He is ultimate. Not just one of many things that you love because God doesn’t appreciate the Bible says he is a jealous God. He doesn’t, jealousy is the fear of being replaced. God doesn’t want to be replaced by anyone or anything. And anything you can put between you and God, God has a tendency to remove that which you love the best.

And that’s what causes you such heartache and sorrow, because you see, you lost something you really loved. And sometimes you can lose those things because you become so attached to things, not attached to something that you can’t lose, sets your affections on things above, because if you don’t, you’re in for a life of a lot of sorrow. It’s bad enough as it is, but to add to it on purpose, That’s a little ridiculous. Look what he says in verse 13, wherefore, gird up the loins of your minds.

In other words, they used to have these long robes, you know. But when they were, they had their little girl on and they have a sword and then when they get ready to fight, they would gird up the loins. They would pull up their skirt. So they’d pull it up and they would tighten it around so that they wouldn’t trip on so they could fight. So they could run. They could do whatever they needed to do. God says, gird up the loins of your mind.

Some people are scatterbrained. They can’t focus upon one thing, not very long. Can’t think the way God wants them to think. These are a thousand things that come to the mind. And they don’t know how to think. They can’t control their mind. If you can’t control your mind, you can’t control the body. Can’t control the mind, you can’t control the tongue. You can’t control anything. Can’t control your actions, can’t control your emotions. and the Delet can just do anything he wants with you and he does it through people or circumstance, there’s probably anything can happen.

And there you go. So he says, good of the Lord, if you mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought under you by the revelation or at the revelation of Jesus Christ. One day he’s coming back, everything’s gonna be revealed. What all the suffering you’ve gone through, God is gonna reward you when you get to heaven. He’s coming. Now, I know what he says in verse 14. So we’re not talking on how to be a child of God.

We’re talking about how to be an obedient child of God. See that in verse 14, as in you are the underlineness in your Bible, as obedient children. So we’re not talking to how to go to heaven. It’s because you’re already going to heaven. You have trusted Christ as your Savior. You have eternal life. You’re God’s child, but He didn’t take you to heaven. The reason He left you here is for the salvation of souls. You’re here to reach people.

And so the longer we stay here, then we try to do what we can to reach people. Oh, why pay out money for radio time? How much are people worth? And how many thousands upon thousands may have trusted Christ of Savior we don’t know anything about? There’s a price to pay, but there’s a reason why we do it. You gotta have vision where there is no vision, the people perish. Not only the people that weren’t reached, but the people that didn’t have the vision.

You perish as far as your purpose in life. It amounts to nothing. You accomplish nothing. If you ever visited some home where there’s a nice, elderly couple and you walk into the house and everything is neat, everything is in place, there’s no loud noise, it’s quiet, so homely, comfortable, so wonderful, peaceful. If you’ve ever gone to somebody who’s marrying they got about four or five kids through the Le Rugrats, They’re all kind of hollering and yelling and running all over the place and baby bottles and diapers here and baby cribs and it looks like a jungle in there.

You know when you have kids it probably looks like it, sounds like it. We could have a church where we have ten people that are ready to die and say well we’ve got a real quiet little holy church here and we’re so thankful for all of our senior citizens and I am. Don’t misunderstand me. But when you die, it’s over. If you don’t keep young kids coming to church and teenagers coming to church and getting young people coming to church, your church will die.

You have to have them coming up. And so we’re a family. And then a family, I like to see all of them. And yes, some kids, the other talk. And some of them are writing the song books and some will write wall thing little messages on the bathroom walls. And they’ll mess up and they’ll dirty things up. And they’ll have to always be corrected. And they’ll run and they’ll yell and shout and call all kind of disturbance. I told the Censored Class this morning, I said, I can tell that I’m getting older.

Little kids just drive me up a wall. I can take about five minutes of it, but that’s that I can’t handle it anymore. Teenagers, I can bear just a little bit better, but not much. I am now looking forward to settling in with those 10 senior citizens and Just sit there and just talk about the good old times. But anyway, I have my son’s good class. It was so quiet Well, nine of the ten were sleeping No, but we have different stages go through in life But we have a church.

Yes, we got little children and we’ve got some teenagers And over here we are going to have college age kids, a young married couple. But that’s what a church, a church is not just one segment of a society. And a church that only has the oldest folks, eventually when they die and you don’t have no young people, what are you going to do? So you have to have new people coming in, but we’re not interested in robbing somebody else’s gold-faced bowl.

Just trying to swap fish from one to another. We want to win people to learn. We want raw material. We want people that we can win and train and bring them up from the inside. Because I believe that’s what honors God. And looking verse 14, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust and your ignorance. In other words, when you didn’t know any better, that’s one thing. When you were lost, and all you had was old, sinful nature, and you did whatever you wanted to do with your life.

Well, that’s one thing. You were naive. Now you’re God’s child. as a child of God, don’t fashion your lifestyle after the world. Don’t copy the world. Don’t be like the world wants you to be. I don’t like the direction that it’s going so I don’t care to follow them. I want to fashion myself and my life, my thoughts after what the word of God says. Because if I am a child of God, then I should live like a child of God.

I should act like a child of God. I should talk like a child of God because that’s who I am. God says I am his child, I am his ambassador in this world. Then I should act like it and live like it. My biggest goal in life is this and I always try to remember. Start fires. Start fires. Now don’t go out of here starting real literal fires. That’s what I’m talking about. I’m talking about starting a fire within the hearts, the bosom of individuals where you win somebody Lord and you start a fire where If you’re not there, it’ll keep on burning.

I’ve got some fires that I started at in Colorado. I got fires that I started in Minnesota. I started a fire up there in Alaska. I’ll be going back there next year. I wanna go to Egypt and start some more fires. I wanna start a fire, fire, spiritual fires. Because see, you can’t start a fire unless you’re on fire. And many people have already died. The colds are dead. That burning that they used to have in their hearts, It’s already gone.

And sometimes the Bible will talk about and he stirred up the gift that is in me. Have you ever seen a fire that you thought was dead and you’re getting to start poking around and there’s a few hot coals left. There’s a few hot coals left there and you put some little dry stuff on it and put some paper on it and next thing you know, I gotta blaze. There was some hot coals left. I just had to get the fire burning.

And some of y’all have been saved for so long, but you burned out. He didn’t got colds for the Lord. You can’t do anything. You won’t do anything. You won’t get involved. You won’t help. You won’t because you’re cold. You got cold. Let the fire burn within you. I wrote a poem about Dr. Curtis Hudson when he died called the flame. Anybody remember it? Flame in the wind. Talking about how Dr. Hudson went around starting fires. He was a flame in the wind.

It means you don’t want to burn just in one place. You want to start little fires. I guess I’d better burn out than rust out. But it’s a shame if you know Christ is your saving, you’ve lived all these years and you have still never had any burning desire in you and you haven’t led one soul to Christ. You haven’t even lit a light enough for somebody else to see to come to the Savior. Isn’t that a shame? We are to be lights in this world.

And God says, if you’ll shine, then he’ll use you. Be willing to burn for the Lord. As some people say, boy, that person was on fire for the Lord. Start little fires. When people to the Lord challenge people to serve the Lord. That’s what I’m talking about. Why? Because I’m in this world and because the Bible teaches in, not fashioning yourselves after the world for the salvation of soul, for people can come to no Christ or their Savior. The reason we want to reach the little kids, because he, those little kids, they’ll become teenagers someday and they’ll become adults someday.

When’s the best time to reach an adult when they’re a child? They’re a lot easier to win at that age than this age or older. And so when you win them here, next thing you know, we got save teenagers and save teenagers is where you get saved adults from and the older Did you get the possibilities of an adult trust the Lord go down greatly? That’s why it’s so important for you while you know Christ is your Savior. Let God use you to stir somebody else.

Motivate somebody. Who have you motivated to serve God? Who have you challenged to serve God? I mean, they’re serving God because of you. You influenced them. You motivated them. I’ve used you. It’s a powerful thing when you really get to understand it. Let me give you this two verses here before we close. Look there in verse 16. He says, because it is written, be holy for I am holy. In other words, God wants you as a child of God to live a holy life.

And if you call on the Father who without respect a person, judges, according to every man’s word, pass, and you are on the line, is pass the time of your sojourn here in fear. Fear of what? In fear of missing the will of God. God for your life. The fear of living your whole life and it wasn’t for the salvation of souls. Invest in the Lord’s work. See that you do all that you possibly can. Be involved. Help participate.

That’s what it’s all about. Look up here. This hand represents you and me and the wall it represents sin. We all have sin upon us. The Bible says that God loves us and he does. He hates our sin and people need to understand this. See a lot of people are told God hates them because they do this bad. You’re going to hell because you’re bad. That is not true. God loves sinners. And the Bible says to go to heaven we have to be perfect as righteous as God and no one’s perfect.

No one’s righteous because God said we got the sin. And the Lord says you cannot earn eternal life because you see good work doesn’t pay for sin. Death pays for sin. This sin represents Jesus Christ, he’s the the Lord he got in the flesh, came into the world because he loves us and he hates our sin. See our sin separates us from them. So Christ took the sin. How much? All of it. What did he do with it? Paid for it.

Then what? He came back from the dead. Sins of the world have been paid. Only thing you have to do or I have to do is believe he did that for us. If I believe he did this for me, he would put that payment to my account and I would go to heaven on what Christ did for me. But when I trusted Christ as my Savior, I believed that He did this for me. Nobody can do it for anybody else.

Everybody has to do it individually. It’s not you walking an hour. It’s not even you raising your hand. Raise your hand and you’re going to save nobody. But I asked people to raise their hand for this reason. Because I want to know what I said made sense. I want to know if you trusted Christ as your Savior. I asked you to do that because, see, it lets me know that you understood and you trusted Christ as your Savior. And it kind of cements it in your mind right now, right now.

I will trust Christ as my Savior and you didn’t have to do anything. Other people can do a different method. I’m not against the method. I don’t want a method that I don’t feel comfortable with. I don’t feel comfortable in putting people on the spot like that. That’s why I do it with heads bowed, nice clothes. I don’t put nobody on the spot because it’s not between me and them. It’s between them and God. And if I can get you to believe what God said, then God said he will save you if you’ll trust him.

So it’s between you and him. I just have to raise your hand because I want in on it. And if you don’t raise your hand, you’ll still be saved. But I sure like it and I’ll sure rejoice with you. So if you’re here this morning, you know your center. You believe Christ paid for your sins and you’ve never done it before, but you right now, you’ll trust Christ as your Savior. And if you’ll do that, God said, I’ll save you, give you eternal life.

I want to know it. That’s right, shall we? 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. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.