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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.

family. Turn in your Bible to the book of 1 Peter, book of 1 Peter. And sometimes you are always looking for a word or a phrase that kind of describes a book. And sometimes it helps you to remember what that book is about. And we know that 1 Peter has an awful lot to do with suffering and yet the one word that most people use when it comes to the book of 1 Peter is not the word suffering but the word hope because when you have suffering you’ve got to have something to hope for.

And so when we studied the book of Hebrews we study an awful lot about the word faith and you’ll see it mentioned all the way through the scriptures. wrote an awful lot about faith. The whole book of Romans is the justification by faith and shall live faith and the book of Galatians and Hebrews. So James we’ve covered many times, let us know what kind of faith we’re supposed to have is supposed to be a faith that can produce some good works in our life.

And one of of the things is if your faith is growing in the Lord, are you learning more, accomplishing more, becoming more settled, stabilizing your life, not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, not being an unstable person, but learning how to ride the waves but not let the waves push you around knowing how to be stable in your Christian life. So you learn how if you’re going to be maturing the Lord to have the endurance concerning your temptations in life.

And there’s a lot of testing that you’ll have to endure to go through. And then we also know that James Chapter 2 talks about being benevolent, not being a respecter person, learning how to treat people the same way and learning how to do some of those things. And it talks about a sign of maturity is that a man is able to bridle his tongue and to control the tongue. And then we also find out that we’re to be godly in all things.

In every area, godly means like God. Ungodly means you’re not like God. So the Christian has a great responsibility. God is given to us that which we need to do the things that God wants us to do. And so first Peter does tell us an awful lot about our future hope and points us back to the time when he actually won the Manor Transfiguration. he saw the Lord. The way he’s going to be in the kingdom. He got a glance into the future.

And so he had to come back in time. But what he saw he saw. And something that really motivated and helped somebody like Ezekiel is that God took him back in time to see some of the things that were justification for the Lord to take the children to Israel out of the land. So So he was working in Ezekiel’s life and looked what God allowed him to write, things that we haven’t even seen and can’t even figure out yet.

Wheel inside of a wheel. Things moving, speed of light, some things not turning to right or left, going straight, four faces, not to scare you to death. You don’t know what he’s seeing yet. A UFO or what did he see? But anyway, there’s a lot of things in it. And when you talk about 2nd Peter, it’s the present grace and the growth in your Christian life and he talks about us growing in the Lord and in the knowledge of our Savior.

So, because everything that happens to us is to cause us to grow. Think about it right now. Since the day you trust the Lord, whether you tried to grow or not is not the issue. You don’t have to try to grow. You just get with some of the right people in the right place and eat the right food and be active doing what God wants you to do. And you let me know you grow. Your knowledge is growing. There was a time in your life when you didn’t even know John 3 16 was in the Bible, or Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 are 1 John 5, 13.

You probably couldn’t even found some of the books. Probably still can’t find some of them. But you’ve grown a little bit. Your knowledge is growing. Your experience is growing. So you’re learning an awful lot. So we find in the Word of God, the thing you can study the Gospel of John 1 John 2 John third John, but it all tells us about love. You want to learn a little bit about love, you just studied the gospel of John, and it covers many of these things.

Then we talked about Jude, understanding how to contend for the faith. So there’s a lot of things that God has for us that he wants us to learn so that we can be stronger. Now I like the book of Peter, because you know, as well as I do, Peter was one of those that, well, he didn’t get started all right. And you had a lot of faults in his life. I mean, he had a lot of things that were not even cursed.

Talk about foul language. He had that. So God couldn’t use him, right? But God did use him. Think about the great apostle Paul. Look at all the bad things that he did. And then God was able to still use him. understand how God uses any of us because when you stop and think about it, I’m not sure we all deserve to be used only by the grace of God. Now what I want you to do is you’re looking there in 1 Peter in chapter 1.

I want you to know that there’s five basic precious things that are mentioned in these first, you know, these two books of 1 Peter. And so he looked there in chapter 1, chapter 1, and look in verse 7, in verse 7, where he says that the trial of your faith be in much more precious than of gold. Now think about that one statement alone. The Bible says the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold. Now if you had a choice would you rather have gold or testings or heavy trials?

Well if I had all the money I could pay my way through all the problems. That’s what a lot of people think. But what makes you more valuable the gold or the experiences you gain by going through various trials. But get what he says, that the trial of your faith being much more precious, not just equal, but much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found under this, under praise, honor, and glory.

So praise, honor, and glory from the Lord is more precious than gold. So what do you think God wants you to have? Praise, honor, and glory, or gold. What do you think He wants you to have? Praise, honor, and glory. Now what would we rather have? Don’t don’t answer that. I think you have an idea. Now look in chapter 1 in verse 19, verse 19, where he says in verse 19, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

So we know that Jesus Christ as the lamb, when he was to be slain for the sins of the world, he had had no sin. He was sinless. He could not sin. He was God in the flesh. He never sinned. He was above sin. He could not commit sin. And this is why it makes his blood so precious because blood without sin. He was able to pay a debt that all of us owed. Think of how many sins everybody has made in their lifetime of all the people and all the world, what great debt we owed, and yet his blood was more precious.

It was more than enough to overpay for all the sins anybody could ever commit all their life. His blood was more precious than that. So if you understand how can praise, honoring, glory be so much more valuable, so much more precious than gold. In our mind, it just doesn’t make any sense. Or to think that His blood was so precious that there was more than enough. That’s why Bible talks about it in the book of Romans. It says, His grace did much more abound.

Not only that all we have sinned, but His grace was much more than that was needed. God has enough mercy, enough grace to save anybody. And if there’s somebody else, He got that covered too. And if another billion people were born into this world, it’ll cover them too. It’ll cover every person that ever has been born or ever could be born. I think that’s pretty good. Now look in chapter two and verse four. Chapter two, verse four. This is for those who have already trusted Christ as their Savior to realize that He has given to us a new birth.

We’re born into God’s family. And He says there in verse four, “‘To whom coming as unto a living stone, “‘This allowed or rejected indeed of men, “‘but chosen of God.'” And that one little word is so precious. Precious. Jesus Christ is precious. Jesus Christ is precious. His blood was precious. The trials that you and I go through, they’re precious. That’s why you would not despise the blood. You would not despise the sun. Should you despise the trial? Should you?

No. Are you and I going to have trials? Do we wind up despising sometimes the hardships that we have to go through? Or can you like Paul says rejoice always? See, that’s why the book of James is the book of Hope. The joyful anticipation of the end results. And this is why as you read the book of 1 Peter and it gets into some of this, it’s a wonderful thing to know.

Look over there in 2 Peter. 2 Peter looked there in verse one, in verse one, where it says, Simon Peter, a servant and a apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like and go down the line as precious faith. Now God says your faith is precious. think what your faith in Christ got you. It caused you to have a new birth. And that’s why this precious faith is so valuable. You see, without my faith in Christ, I didn’t get to go to heaven.

But when you put your faith and what God said, look what you received, a new birth, gonna get a new body, get to go to a new place and live for all eternity with the Lord. You see, we got so much by putting our faith in Christ. But not only that, but He wants us to live by grace. In other words, God wants to give us some more. He wants to give us some more. So that’s why He says, add to your faith.

Add to it. And your faith becomes more precious and more precious and more precious. But that’s because you’re growing in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So the more you do that, the more you have and the more you’re gonna get. Now look what he says down in verse 4. Because when you study God’s Word, your faith in the Lord begins to grow. Your faith becomes precious because now you know more of the precious promises in the Word of God.

And look what you’re going to get by learning how to trust the Lord. So in our times of suffering, our hardships, our trials and tribulations, God wants us to learn how to trust Him and keep serving Him. But that’s why our hope is called a living hope. It’s a living hope. Go back there to the book of 1 Peter 1. You’ll notice in verse three of chapter one where he says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again or caused us to be born from above, unto a lively hope or a living hope, get this and here’s why.

By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. See, Peter was blessed by God to be able to be there, see the Lord, saw Him. He was there when He denied Him three times. He saw Him on the cross and the Lord looked at Him. And he knew He was dead. And he saw Him after the resurrection. And then he saw Jesus walking on the water. And then he saw Him supply some food for them to eat. And then he asked him, says, Peter, love us thou me.

He never asked him if you love the sheep. He said, you love me three times. Do you love me? Do you love me? So Peter knew what it was like to have now. What a trial he went through. Remember when the Lord said to him, get behind me, Satan, for Satan hath desired that he may sift you as wheat. See, that’s what trials are for. See, Satan wants to sift you as we, he wants to take the weed out, God wants the devil to sift you because he wants the chat to be taken away and leave nothing but the good Colonel Louise.

He wants to purify your life. The devil can take the same thing, same trial, the devil’s trying to destroy you and the Lord’s trying to build you. But it makes the testing that you go through very, very important. So you have in this book a very simple thing about the living hope, learning how to put your confidence in the Lord regardless of what you’re going to go through and you’re going to suffer. So the Bible says that Jesus Christ is our hope and He is our example.

Look there in chapter 2 in verse 21. Chapter 2 verse 21 says, for even here unto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should, what’s those three words? Follow His steps. You and I in this life have been called upon to suffer for the Lord. In other words, you decided to do what God wants you to do with your life, which means you gave up your plans and your will and your goals, your dreams, to do whatever God wants to do with you.

You gave that up for something else. You sacrifice. What is a real sacrifice? A good sacrifice typically is when you give up something that isn’t any good for something that’s a lot better. Now should sacrificing for the Lord be that hard? When you know He has a better purpose for your life, a better plan for your life and He’ll watch over you and bless you and give you all that you need to fulfill His will. And there’s where your peace will come from.

That’s where your strength will come from. You don’t have to understand every trial and every testing, but you know that God can use it to make you strong and the way that you ought to be. So he says here, he in verse 22, who did no sin, neither was Gao found in his mouth. He did all of these things and God says that we have been called upon to suffer for the Lord. Oh look what he says here in verse 19, verse 19 of chapter 2, where he says, for this is thanks worthy if a man for conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully.

So in this life it doesn’t mean everybody’s going to treat you right even though you deserve it they could treat you wrong. And you can have grief. And suffer wrongfully. Now it’s one thing when you suffer, you know, for doing right God says not to suffer because you did wrong. They don’t necessarily see that everything to do is for the Lord and why you do it and therefore you may suffer but it says least suffer for doing what God wants you to do.

Suffer for doing what is right. Now this is why you have here looking chapter four real quick. in chapter four because you’re going to suffer. Now when we get to chapter three, and it talks about a man and a wife, chapter three, I guess one of the best illustrations he could think of after Christ suffering on the cross was married to life. But we’ll get to that later. In chapter four, in verse one says, for as much then as Christ had suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves, Likewise with the same mind, why?

Because you’re going to suffer also. Arm yourself with the same mind. Why did Christ suffer? Because it was the will of God. And he also could see the fruit of his suffering. It’s mentioned back there in the book of Isaiah in chapter 53 that he, even though his soul made an offering first in, he was able to see the results. fruit that came from that. And so here we have a promise from God. See one day we will see the result, the end result of our faithfulness to the Lord.

So he says that this is going to take place. You’re going to suffer. Now look what he says there in verse 12. Verse 12 ought to be underlined in your Bible. Verse 12 says beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as those some strange thing happened under you. Now remember that Peter was an apostle to the Jewish people, Paul to the Gentiles, but Paul also went to the synagogues. And Peter also had gone to the Gentiles.

But when you go all the way back, when Christ was actually here, He had a lot of runnings with those Pharisees, the so-called law keepers, and they had a false message. They were misleading the people. As long as they did what the book says, Christ told them, says, obey that. But he says, you have overlooked the weightier matters of the law. He says, you forgot about mercy and judgment and grace and these things that are also important. And Christ called these Pharisees, he says, of whiteed sattraka, full of dead men’s bones.

And so here you have Jewish believers who have in chapter one of the second Peter where these are strangers and it mentions some of the countries where they were from, but strangers, Jewish I believe, believers who have gone out and he says, you are strangers and pilgrims. You are the ones now that are high priests, don’t you understand what God has for you something so much better but also that because they were Jewish they were also suffered great persecution.

The persecution was strong and so this is why in 2 Peter in chapter 2 as he Christ had referred to a man who cleans his house, cast out the demons and And then they come back seven times worse than it was before. He also refers to those false teachers as dogs or sows and pig wallowing in the mire because you see they can clean up and they’re worse off than they were before. The Pharisees were doing exactly that. They had cleaned up the outside, but the inside was still rotten, full of dead men’s bones.

And so Peter, in talking to Jewy believers, is telling what’s out for false teachers, because there’s a lot of damage that they do, and they can rob you of your hope, rob of your joy. And next thing you know, you’ll think that, I guess, God doesn’t love you, but this is why he says in 1st Peter chapter 5, cast all your cares upon him for he care for you. That’s hope. The reason you can do that is because you believe.

ItInvalid, it gives you something to live for to go through all these terrible rough times. But look there first of all in verse 12 where he says, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you. Remember the very first chapter he told me says that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold. They’ll be tried with fire that it might be found in the praise, honor, and glory at the appearance of Jesus Christ.

Then He says in verse 13, but complain, murmur, gripe, because nobody loves you. Act like you’ve been baptized in lemon juice, but rejoice in as much as you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings that when His glory shall be revealed, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad. You may not be glad now, but be glad as you can be because you know how it’s going to be. You’re looking down the road at the end results. You know where you’re going to end up with because you’ve already cheated, read the last book in the Bible, and you know you’re in.

You know you’re going to win. So in between nothing really matters. You put your confidence in the Lord and you keep serving the Lord. And though things seem rough and just dragging you down and all that, I know, I know. But how I do know the Lord has had to teach me a lot of lessons over the years. I am alive only by the grace of God. But suffering and the trials and tests that you go through, I’ve been through a couple of them.

And then He makes this statement, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. See that exceeding joy. He just talked about the fiery trial that you’re going to have, not if but when, because you’re going to be tried, it’s going to happen. Also look there in 1 Peter 1 where it makes a statement in verse 9. He says, because you’re going to go through these things, it’s going to be trying for you. He says in verse 9, receiving the end or the result of your faith.

salvation of your soul. Do you realize what you got by trusting Christ as your Savior? Because he mentioned that in verse 3, you are born again, born into God’s family. Then he says in verse 4, yes, you’re saved from something to something to an inheritance that’s incorruptible and undefiled that faith if not a way reserved in heaven for you. So this is what God has got for you. So as you serve the Lord, You’ve already got a place reserved for you in heaven.

You can’t lose that. Now you know where you’re going to end up. You know where you’re going to be. And nothing between here and there can change that. That ought to give you hope. So that everything you have to face and go through God who keeps the books, knows every trial, every testing that you go through. And I think he says somewhere in 1 Corinthians and chapter 10, maybe verse 13, that with the temptation will also come away of the escape that you may be able to, that you may be able to bear it.

You can escape it because your escape is going to be because you’re hunkered down in the Word of God and you’re trusting what God has to say. 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 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. Leaving that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.