This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleignmenistries.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.

We’re going to talk this morning about the great escape. Dave, turn in your Bible to the book of 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 2. We have a lot of problems in the world. We are a lot of problems. We are a problem. We have this thing called fear, and most times, most people do not know how to deal with fear. We’re afraid of something. Just about every day, something will happen that caused you to have a little bit of fear.

The Bible tells in the book of 1 John, chapter 4 that, on verse 19, that love casteth out fear because fear brings torment. People are tormenting themselves because of fear because there’s some things that we’re afraid of that we don’t understand. So you’ll notice in this verse, verse 11, he says, Dearly Beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstained from fleshly lust, which war against the soul. Fleshly lust, war against the soul. Now this isn’t written to the lost man, this is to the believer, but everyone born into this world has the lust of the flesh.

We do not see ourselves the way God sees us. See, when you read the book of Isaiah in chapter one, he says from the soul of your foot to the top of your head, you are sick. In the book of Revelation chapter three, when he’s talking to the church at Laodicea, he describes them. They’re not hot, they’re not cold. He says, you make me want to puke. And He describes Him as being naked and undone and just all kinds of things.

He says, buy of me gold, try it in the fire, that you may be clothed upon and blah, blah, blah, blah, God sees us different than we see ourselves. We even compare ourselves among others so that we’ll decide whether or not are we doing that good or that bad, based upon how everybody else is doing, what I’m not as bad as, what I’m better than. I remember when I first came down here, I preached a sermon on, my sin is better than your sin.

Anybody remember that sermon? Not on one of you remember the sermon. Boy, I really made an impact. I’m gonna have to preach it again. My sin is better than your sin. No, I better not preach that again. Now, if you will, you’ll notice there in the middle of the page at the top, because you do not look at the last two lines on that page. You do, you’ll get a bad case of hiccups. The great escape from the fear of death.

Now, once you just look at this, look there in the book of Hebrew, just a couple of pages to your left from where you were there in Peter. And you’ll notice in Hebrews and chapter two, and notice in verse 14, Hebrews chapter two. Now, since I did not give you this verse, you need to write it down beside this point. the great escape from the fear of death. Look what he says here in verse 14. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, talking about Christ.

That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil. And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Because you see, when you don’t know the truth, we always have this element of fear because we don’t know at what point we’re going to die. It could be today, it could be tomorrow, but we don’t know. And then when you die, What is it like to die because none of us have ever done that before?

So there is a natural fear of the unknown. Now everybody wants to live forever, but we want to live forever in a good healthy body and enjoy life. But we don’t want to be miserable during life, but there is this fear. Also take your Bible and look in the book of Job, chapter 14. Job, chapter 14, back here in the Old Testament. Nehemiah, Esther, Job, the Book of Job. And look at chapter 14, where has the fear of the grave, the fear of the grave?

I’ve done a lot of funerals, and it’s incredible how so many people want to talk about everything in life, but not when they die. They don’t want to talk about dying. It’s just met morbid. I mean, that’s just, I don’t want to talk about that. But the thing is, it happens to everybody, but nobody wants to talk about it. It’s like an elephant that’s in the room. We don’t even like to ask people the question, do you know where you’re going when you die?

Because it’s just so repulsive to talk about something like that. Now if you know the truth, it changes everything. But when you don’t know, I don’t want to talk about that. Because we think ignorance is bliss. Well, it’s for a point of time it might be. what I want you to notice there, look in verse 1. In chapter 14 verse 1, and he says, man that is born of a woman is of few days full of trouble. Don’t that sound like your life?

Few days, all of a sudden you’re an old person. I was done yesterday. It was just a couple of weeks ago. I was a teenager, men I aged fast and full of trouble. He’d come for a flour? Oh, she’s so cute. And then she gets old. And he looks so young and healthy. And then he gets old. And he’s cut down. He fleeceth also as a shadow and he continues not. The Bible says our life is but a vapor that’s appeared for a little while and then vanishes away.

and as does Thou open thine eyes upon such a one and bringeth me into judgment with thee. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Every person that’s born can only give birth to another person that’s just like they were. They all die. We haven’t come up yet with a person that’s incredible, that doesn’t have a sinful nature, and they live forever. We all come from the same source. We all die. We’ll look good for a while and then and then.

So he says here in verse 5, seeing his days are determined. The number of his months are with thee. Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass. You are trapped. You’re like in a prison. Your body is a bar’s a bone and you live inside of this body. One one day you will escape the body. But when you do, you’re dead. Unless the Lord comes and all of a sudden he changes these vile bodies of ours and made it like his.

But the question is asked, look in verse 10. Job asked this question, he says, but man diet and waste it away. Yay, man give it up the ghost and see those three, where is he? What happens when you die. See, this is an old question. This is a question of over 3500 years ago, and people had the question back then. Well, when Jesus Christ came and He died on the cross and came back from the dead, He answered the question, where is He?

Well, will a man live again? Look down in verse 14, if a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my chains come? Will he live again? Questions that people have. And sometimes these questions causes us fear because if we don’t know the truth, we don’t want just an answer. We want to know how do I know that that answer is the truth. So we have it from the infallible word of God.

What happens so we don’t have to be afraid? We don’t have to be afraid to die. We don’t have to be afraid of the grave because we know there’s more to it than that. And this is all temporary and we didn’t ask when to be born and we probably won’t ask when to die, but it’s going to happen. Look at the next statement. There is the fear of evil. Not just take your Bible and you’ve seen this many times, but look in the book of Psalms.

Psalms 23, the 23rd Psalm. As you know, King David, the sweet psalmist of Israel. He was a little shepherd boy, and he makes the statement, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. But then in verse 4, he says, Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Evil is in the world. We never know at what point someone is going to do something evil to us. We live every day.

I was listened to the radio this morning when somebody hit someone that was on a bicycle at 3.30 in the morning, killed him, and then drove off and they’re looking for the person. There’s evil in the world. There’s things that happen. things that you can’t control. Think of a man like Castro that did a lot of evil down in Cuba, and there’s some people that are rejoicing that he’s dead. And some people hope that somebody else will come along and maybe have some freedom so they don’t have to live on that evil tyrant of communism, the dictatorships, because it produces fear.

Nobody can trust what they ought to. This is a wicked world in which we live. There’s enough natural fear in this world because we’re in these bodies that have a sinful nature. Look at the next statement there in your notes. The great escape from the fear of hell. Look at this verse, Matthew 23, 33 says in your notes there, ye servants ye generation of vipers. How can ye escape the damn nation of hell? Now think about this, hell is real.

Jesus is the one who said that. How can you escape the damn nation of hell? If there’s anything that I want to get away from, I want to get away from hell. I don’t want to go to the place. I am so thrilled that my father-in-law cared enough about me to share the good news with me on how to escape hell. And there’s only one way to escape hell. You’ll never be good enough to escape hell. The church can’t do it for you.

And your money can’t do it for you. Your good life can’t do it for you. So Jesus Christ came into the world not on the cross paid for your sins so that you wouldn’t have to go to hell. And all he wanted you to do was believe he did it for you, and you call it great escape. That’s the greatest escape in all the world, to escape the place of hell. So when you trust Christ as your Savior, you realize that as a child of God, you don’t have to worry about when you’re going to die.

It removes the fear of death. It removes the fear of the great, the fear of evil. It’s the answer. But I’m so glad that I know the answer. I know the Lord and it has removed a lot of fear out of my life. Now look at the next statement. The great escape from the fear of sin. How do I escape the way that I am? Do you realize one of the greatest fears you have is not being able to trust yourself?

Some of you know that you can’t trust yourself been in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people. You know that you’re tempted. You just don’t know if you’re going to fall or not. And some of you can live your life in fear of falling, afraid you’re going to mess up, afraid you’re going to bring shame to your family, or shame to the Lord, shame to yourself, your kids. Sometimes we’re ashamed of our kids, bringing shame to us, but everybody has this element of fear, afraid of something.

You see, we’re born with this whole sinful nature. This whole sinful nature, the Bible says in the book of Jeremiah 17, verse 9, he talks about the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And you can know it. Who can understand why we do what we do because we have this whole sinful nature. We covet things we shouldn’t. We lust after things that we shouldn’t. And that the Bible is full of all the things that happened to so many good, Godly people that messed up because this whole sinful nature that we have.

How can you escape the sinful nature? So you see, that’s why the Bible is so important because there’s things that happens to us. Look at the next statement. Romans 2 and verse 3 says, And thinkest thou this, oh man, that judges them which do such things and doeth the same, that thou shall escape the judgment of God. You see, God says there is a hell and there’s going to be a judgment. So every man needs to know how do I escape hell, because there’s going to be this judgment of God, where God’s going to judge every man, every thought, every word, every deed.

And God already told us the conclusion of the matter. The whole world is guilty before God. There is only one way to escape. Hell, this judgment, because see, I have no fear of hell because I’m not going there. I have no fear of this great white-thrown judgment because, see, I’ve already had my sins judged. Christ paid for all of mine. I’m not trying to earn my way to heaven. See God gave it to me as a free gift. He offers it to the world as a free gift.

So that’s why it’s so important to know. Now, this is an important verse, but we’ll just look at it on your notes there. The greatest gate from the fear of temptation. Do you believe that you are a strong Christian? Are you a strong Christian? How strong do you think you are? If the Lord was to allow the devil to go after you like he did after Job, would you be able to stand? If he brought that good looking little blond bombshell in front of you, you know the one And it’s got that hourglass figure.

You know the one that’s wearing that atomic dress, 50% fall out. You know that one that looks so good? Just try to picture this. All these bodies are made out of nothing but dust of the earth. A litter of water and you’ve got five to six foot of mud. The most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen in your life. What you see is about five and a half feet of mud. Now can you shape it in such a way that you can lose all of your integrity and lose your character, lose your testimony?

What could be shaped in such a way that would cause you to lose everything? For the way some meat is shaped on some bones and you’d be surprised how many people have fell because there’s this fear of temptation. This is why it’s always good if possible. Stay away from the places that you shouldn’t be going to. Stay away from the people that you ought not be around. Because he regards how strong we think we are. Let him think of the extent of take heed lest he what?

Lest he fall. You should have a certain fear of falling. But the only cure is to find something worth standing for. You see, if you stand for something, then you can stand for something. But when you lose something to stand for them, you’ll fall for anything. And you need to guard yourself, guard your testimony at all times. Bible says this, there have no temptation taken you, but such is as common the man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that, you’re able, but with the temptation also make a way to, and here’s that word, escape.

you can escape that you may be able to bear it. You see, there’s a lot of things in life, but one of the things is this. There is the desires for the things above, and there is the desire for the things below. My first birth, my flesh birth, likes the things below. My new birth likes the things and desires the things above. So if you walk in the spirit and desire the things that are above the things that honor God and please God, then that power can be stronger than the desires of the flesh.

But it’s your choice. You can desire the things of the flesh. And the flesh, the lust of the flesh, war against your soul, trying to bring you down and destroy your life in your testimony. If you understand it, it can help you. So you want to be able to have the power that you need to escape the things that are trying to trap you, to ruin you. Now, take your Bible and look in 1 Peter chapter one, 1 Peter and chapter one.

There are those who have trusted Christ as Savior, decided to add to their faith, as it says in 1 Peter chapter two, 2 Peter chapter two, and to grow in the Lord, and you have learned to escape some of those things in this world. See, we often call growing in the Lord is escaping some of the traps that the devil lays out there for us. And you recognize, oh, that’s a trap. See, you didn’t know it before. As you studied the word, the Lord said, that’s a trap.

That’s a snare. But it looks like that’s a snare. And so as you mature in the Lord, you’re gaining wisdom to discern right from wrong, or that’s a trap. That’s a trap. So spiritual maturity is being able to define the traps and avoid them. Many of God’s children have done just that and they begin to grow in the Lord. They learn. And then there’s others that haven’t learned so much. So you’ll notice what he says in verse 14. First Peter chapter 1 verse 14 says, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust in your ignorance.

So you see, there was a time when you didn’t know. When you didn’t know you were ignorant. The Bible says in the book of Timothy in chapter 1 where he talks about Paul’s testimony, he says, But I did them ignorantly. I did a lot of things, but I was ignorant. You see, once you know the truth, God holds you responsible to obey in the truth. So yes, as you learn more, you have greater accountability. Children are not held accountable for adult decisions.

But as they learn and grow, they gain more knowledge. Then you hold them more accountable. When they become teenagers, you want to hold them more accountable. When you become an adult, you should be accountable for your own actions, your thought, and deeds, and you don’t blame somebody else. You take responsibility. So he makes this statement. This is right here in the Word of God. But he talks about in the former lust, because these fleshly lusts that you have in your physical body, in that old sinful nature that you have will war against your soul and keep you from doing what God wants you to do.

keeps you from being what God wants you to be, keeps you from having what God wants you to have. They reward, they rob you, bringing you into captivity. And this is why you have to be careful. Looking in 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 1, where he makes this statement, wherefore it let us land aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envies and all evil speaking. That’s the flesh. That’s the fleshly desires. If you want another categories, read chapter five of the book of Galatians.

And notice the battle that you’ll face if you want to read that in the book of Romans in chapter seven. But every one of us, we have the sinful desires of what we want to do. We want to go our own way. We want to do our own thing. It’s my life. But there’s consequences to our decisions. anytime God says, don’t do this, it’s because that is going to hurt you. God loves us and wants us to do right, but He will not make you do right, but He will allow you to suffer the consequences of your decisions, good and bad.

Look what He says in verse 2, desire that sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. So God wants every one of His children to grow, to mature in the Lord. But we know that there’s something that’s working against us. Second Peter chapter 1. Second Peter chapter 1. Notice what he says. Now he’s talking to those who already know the Lord, to believers. So second Peter chapter 1, notice what he says in verse 4. He says, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.

Now, Now, you heard of the promise that if you trusted Christ, he promised to give you everlasting life. All right, you believed it, you have everlasting life. You believed the promise. Look what, believe it what God said got you. It made you a child of God. Oh, your sins are forgiven. You’re going to heaven. Look how wonderful God is. But there are a lot of precious promises in the Word of God. So God said he wants to add to your faith.

So he wants all of his children to listen to learn to grow and claim the promises that God has for us. With what he says in verse four again, whereby or given unto us exceeding grain and precious promises that by these you might be partakes of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through love, having escaped. In other words, once you have trusted Christ’s Savior, Did you realize God separated you from that old birth?

That old sinful nature gave you a new birth? Now it is the will of God that you live your life as though you have escaped from the lust of the flesh. And if you walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But if you don’t, you’ve got a choice. You can walk in the flesh. So he talks and warns about the power that the lust of the flesh have. Your biggest problem is not the election.

Your biggest problem is not the IRS. Your biggest problem is not the devil. Your biggest problem lies inside of you. It’s that old sinful nature, that’s what will do you in. That is what’s going to destroy you. Because most of the great men and women of the Bible live at times just as difficult as the times at which we live. But it’s what’s on the inside of you that’s eating you, that will destroy you. Things that you desire, that’s not what God wants you to have.

And some people will figure this out and some people will live their whole lives and never get it. and they’ll live their whole lives in captivity after the Lord has set them free. Because you have been given by the power of the Holy Spirit, a power that’s over all of these things that can ruin you and cause you to fear. You see, we don’t have to fear death anymore. We don’t have to fear the grave. We don’t have to fear hell.

We don’t have to fear the temptation. If you love the Lord, love casts us out the fear, but when you don’t love God like you should and don’t want to please God, then you want to please yourself. Now you have reason to be afraid because now you’re putting all your hopes in yourself and you shouldn’t trust you. I don’t trust me. I trust the Lord, but I don’t trust me. It takes you so many years to build a reputation where you can be trusted and you don’t want to ruin it because you yield to temptation.

You use reason and logic instead of the word of God abstain from every what? Abstain from every appearance of evil. No one, no one has ever seen me take a drink, a strong drink, not even a sip because I don’t want it. I don’t want to run the risk. I’ve never had a cigarette in my mouth. I don’t want to run the risk of liking it because I can’t trust this physical body of mine. I don’t become a drug addict.

And therefore I believe that I’ll have a healthier body and I’ll last longer and I’ll have a clear mind if I just honor the Lord and do what God wants me to do because there is a a war of the flesh and it wars against your life and wants to ruin your traipheal and after you have escaped to things of this world, why no war would you want to put yourself back into prison. Now get this, these verses are so important.

But 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 10, look what he says, Wherefore the rather brethren, so we’re talking to believers, give diligence to make your call in the election sure. For if you do these things, he shall never fall. Your election that means you were chosen for a higher purpose. Use your life for a higher purpose. God’s purpose. Not yours. You’re not the best at making decisions. Curse it as the man who put it as confidence in man. Blessed is the man who put it as trust in the Lord.

So put your trust in the Lord. Take him at his word. And you be surprised the better decisions you’re going to make because you said, no, does this please God or not? Is this honoring to God or not? Doesn’t matter whether you like it or not. Does it please God? Is it right? Or is this this honoring? Learn to discern these things Wasserman because there is a war against your life. A war gets your soul. Are you a new listener to Bibleline?

Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well661 Adamant, theRepeat, the Scripture. 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 Simply Paulus 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 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. And we will be changed.

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.