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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.

What book do we study in? First Peter. Now don’t tell me we’re about in First Peter in 1 Peter just in there somewhere I know. We’ve been in chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. It’s okay to go a little bit of everywhere. But I wanted to cover it with you in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 7, if you look at it, verse 7. And it says in verse 7, unto you, therefore, which believe, He is precious. But under them which be disobedient to stone, which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word been disobedient.

We’re unto also they were appointed. Now I want to make sure that we are on the same page when it comes to you know we know what the gospel is and we know that. But there is verses that seems to say that you have to obey the gospel and I believe that you do have to obey the gospel. But I have done enough teaching in cults that many people take the word obey to mean you have to keep the commandments, obey Christ, do all the good works, everything Christ wants you to do.

Now you’re not under the law of Moses but you are under the law of Christ and he told us to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, so it is so many things we got to do. I don’t think that’s what it’s referring to. But I do want you to look at a few verses with me. But first of all, look there in chapter 4 of 1 Peter 4 and verse 17. Just so that you see this, in verse 17 he says, for the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.

And If it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? So it’s talking about those that do not obey the gospel. So there is some verses that teach that we are to obey the gospel. I want you to take your place and we’re gonna keep coming back here to first Peter. So look there in the book of Isaiah in chapter 53. Isaiah, chapter 53, and it’s written about 700 years you see before Christ ever came.

And because of that, why would you write something so far in advance telling what people are going to say 700 years from then? And so he says, who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? the arm of the Lord mentioned there in verse one of chapter 53 goes back up there to verse 10 in chapter 52 where it says the Lord hath made bear his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

So he’s talking about God is going to send his servant and he’s going to make him bear and everybody will see that this one that God’s talking about. He said he will grow up before him as a tender plant. So you see there in verse 1 when he says, who hath believed our report? Not when you get to the New Testament and it quotes this verse. It’s talking about the gospel. You read Isaiah 53 and this is a story of the gospel.

You see what he says here in verse 5, but he was wounded for our… Transgression, that’s substitution. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastime of the vah, peace was upon him, with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord have laid upon him the iniquity of us all. So there are people who try to say that what these verses right here in verse five is talking about there’s there’s healing in the atonement.

And so they will quote this here because it says, and with the this right where healed. So automatically they believe you’re supposed to be healed whenever, no, that’s not what it’s referring to. You’re being healed and if you’ll notice and just take a quick look there in chapter 1 of Isaiah and you’ll see what he’s talking about being healed. In chapter 1 he tells you how bad off you are. See down there in verse 5, when he’s talking to the nation of Israel, he said, you are one sick puppy.

In verse five, why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick. The whole heart is faint. From the soul of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. And the question is, is there any bomb and Iliad. Well, there’s this medicine that God is going to provide. That’s going to heal the sin-sick soul.

So there’s nothing that can solve the problem of sin except a Savior, which is Christ. So Christ is going to come and He’s going to make that payment so that you and I can receive eternal life, become God’s child, and we can be healed from that old sinful nature. Now, we got a few more years to go, but eventually when we get to heaven, you will be 100%. I guarantee you, totally cured. I don’t know what’s bothering you, but it won’t bother you anymore.

When you die, when you leave this world, when you’re separated from that body, you won’t have to worry about it anymore. And so when you read this and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed, who had believed our report. Now go all the way over there to the book of Romans. The book of Romans in chapter 10. Romans in chapter 10. And those are what it says there in verse 15. Verse 15, we believe he’s talking about the gospel.

Because in verse 15, how shall they preach except they be said? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel? If you think he’s talking about the gospel, maybe, just to per… Yeah, I think it is. Have you ever took your shoes off, look at your feet and said, boy, I got pretty feet. You think I got pretty feet? You got pretty feet, John John. Well, this says right here, how beautiful are the feet of them that do you praise the gospel?

That means you’re taking the gospel and you got pretty feet. I mean, you ought to have the more long, lanky toes. I mean, if they can get you around the basketball court, they ought to be able to get you around this person, that person couldn’t know anywhere you want to go. Now I know some women that go and even get their toenails done. You ever hear women that get their toenails, ballish, and all that there? So they can have pretty feet.

So anyway, he says here in verse 16, and they have not all obeyed the what? The gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord who hath believed our report, and the report was on the gospel. It’s the whole story about Jesus Christ coming and becoming the substitute for our sins, where it says in our iniquities, all laid upon him, all we like sheep have gone astray. And he’s talking about we’re all sinners, we all need a savior. And the Christ died and paid for all of our sins.

So he says, Lord, who hath believed this report? And so he says in the last part of our 16, Lord, who hath believed our report? Then he says, for then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. But when he talks about in verse 15, he’s talking about the gospel. And then he talks about verse 16 about obeying the gospel. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the gospel, the Word of God. So we’re supposed to go into all the world and preach the gospel so that people can hear the gospel and believe the gospel.

But just because you hear it, doesn’t mean everybody believes it. Now, if I was to ask you, you know the word DIS, D-I-S. If I said a man had ability, that means one thing, right? He has ability. What if I said he had disability? What would that mean? Just the opposite? You think of how many words that we have that we have the word dis in front of it? Have you been, have courage, have courage? What would discourage be?

Not to have courage. See, it’s one thing to not believe something because you never heard about it. Now we know we have rules and laws and so forth in America. I’d say one ignorance of the law is no excuse. Well, when it comes to, something like the gospel. Can you just not obey or can you disbelieve? You’d be surprised that it’s a totally different word from pastua which means to believe, to have faith in. So you can do that.

But disbelieve, it means perhaps. There’s people see that have never heard so they haven’t believed the gospel because they’ve never heard the gospel. But when somebody hears the gospel and you present the truth and then they willfully disbelieve, they refuse to believe the truth. It’s a different word altogether in the Greek. So there’s people who will not believe and then there’s people who won’t believe after they’ve heard the truth. So there’s people that’s never heard it And then there are people who do hear it and refuse, willfully, not to believe it, not to accept it.

So there’s those who have heard and obeyed, and there’s people that have heard and have not obeyed. See there in verse 18, but I say, have they not, what’s that word? Heard, but didn’t mean they obeyed. They didn’t believe it. It’s just one thing when you don’t believe something, when you never heard about anything, But it’s something else when you have heard and you refuse to believe it. So he makes the statement in verse 19, but I said, say, did not Israel know, did not they know?

First Moses says, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people and by a foolish nation, I will anger you. But Isaiah is very bold and said, I was found of them that sought me not. I was made manifest to them that asked not after me, but to Israel, He said all day long, this is the long suffering of God, I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gain say in people, people that have heard and refused.

And so that’s a different group of unbelievers. They’re unbelievers, but it’s not because they haven’t heard, they’ve heard and rejected. And you can walk, I mean talk to people, and they’ve heard the gospel and they don’t want nothing to do with it. So there is a disbelief, it’s a total different word than not believe. But anyway, I want you to take your Bible and also look at another verse with me. Look over there in the book of 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians chapter, I’ll be there in a minute, 2 Thessalon chapter 1.

that’s thelonians chapter 1. And you notice that the Lord’s coming back and he makes this statement very strongly so. When he says to obey the gospel, simply means to do what it says to do. What does the gospel say to do? To be saved. What do you got to do? Believe. So if you obey the gospel is to believe the gospel. Now if he’d have told you to stand on your head and spit wood nickels and that’s what you’d have to do.

But he says to believe on Jesus Christ, trust him as your Savior. And so he says here in verse 7 of chapter 1, and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, inflaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So there’s some people, probably never here, and there are those who are here and they will reject.

But he says they did not obey the gospel. And in verse 9, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord from the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired at all them that you know what? That believe. So we know up there in verse 8, to obey the gospel is to obey the gospel to believe the gospel. And those that do not obey the gospel do not believe the truth.

Then you can see what happens to them. They’ll be eternally separated from the Lord in a literal fire burning hell and be punished for all eternity. But he says he’s coming back and there’s those that will That will be saved. And they’re going to come back with the Lord. Now back here in 1 Peter, it tells us that we have here in these verses an interesting statement. You’ll notice in verse 7. unto you therefore which believe he is precious, but he also says up there in verse 3, if so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

So when you realize that yes you were lost, you trusted Christ the Savior and you experienced what grace is about. To be saved by grace God is gracious. And it may not really make that big of an impact upon you at that moment. But down the road years later you’ll find out he is so precious. He’s so precious to you. And this is why you’ll also see right there in the previous chapter when he says in verse 19, but with the precious blood of Christ.

You are not redeemed with corruptible things of silver and gold, things like that, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. So he is precious and he should be precious to us. But look at the rest of verse 7 where it says, but unto them which be disobedient. Now this word disobedient, it means the same thing I was telling you just a moment ago. It’s a different word which means it’s a willful rejection of the truth. They heard but willfully choose not to believe it.

You see when he says it in verse 8, they stumbled at the word. You can’t stumble at the word unless you hear the word. You can’t reject the stone if you don’t know it’s a stone. You have to know about Christ in order to reject Christ. So faith cometh by hearing so they They can be presented the truth and then not believe the truth. And so he makes a statement here that, see, God knows who would believe, yes, and God chose who believed to be like Christ.

Once we trust Christ as our Savior, God has chosen all those who have trusted Christ to save it to be like the Lord. So one of these days is going to be complete. We still got a body to go yet. And when that happens, we’ll be complete. the Bible says we’re complete in Him, but my body is not in Him. He is in me. Now look at this. When He makes the statement in verse 7, unto you therefore which believe He is precious, but unto them which be disobedient.

And it means to disbelieve, to hear and to reject, refuse to accept the truth. The stone which the builders rejected, disallowed. The same as made the head of the corner and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Now a whole sermon can be built us on the word rock and stone. As you know in Matthew and he talks about he is the rock and Peter is the stone and then in Corinthians when he says this rock that followed them was Christ there’s no other foundation than that which is laid which is Christ.

And then SERVICE is like living stones. And it’s amazing that Peter is the one that brings it up because Christ is the one who mentioned to him about, I’m the rock. You’re the stone. Upon this rock, I will build my church, not upon Peter, but upon the truth. I want the Christ, the Son of the living God. And He’s the one that happens to be bringing this out. And so, yes, they’re taking these living stones, which all of us delight living stones upon a living foundation.

And it’s built in a spiritual house for the Lord to dwell in. And therefore we become the temple of God. In verse eight, an astound of stumbling and a rock of offense. Even to them which stumble at the word, the rock of offense. Now just hold your place right here. Look there in the book of Galatians in chapter five, the book of Galatians. Galatians in chapter five. Now without me saying anything, I’ll bet you Peter knows where I’m headed.

The offense, look in Galatians chapter 5, look in verse 11. And I brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, or that you had to keep the law to be saved, you got to be circumcised, put you under the law. He says, why do I yet suffer persecution? Why are people persecuting me if I was preaching that? But I’m not preaching that. He says, then is the offense of the cross cease. In other words, if the gospel was the same as under the law, then there’s no persecution.

Thereby, leave me alone. If I just taught works for salvation, but when you teach salvation by grace, it offends people. The truth of the gospel is offensive to everyone who’s trying to save themselves. And that’s why most religious people who are trusting in their works to get them to heaven. Are offended by the clear presentation of the gospel. So, should we change a little bit and add a little works to it so that they won’t persecute us and they will get along.

So, all God do is compromise just a little bit. But like He says down there in verse 9, a little 11th, the whole lump. It ruins everything. It ruins the whole message. Add one word to the gospel and it permeates the whole thing and it’s not a grace. And so, that’s why it’s not good. So Christ is the rock. They hear the truth. They heard the word and then reject the word. And so once again, when he makes that statement there in verse eight, he says, being disobedient, where unto also they were appointed.

We are appointed as God’s children, the brain-forth good works to live the way God wants us to live, but not to be saved. And God has pointed to gospel for everybody to hear, but there’s people who will not listen. They will harden themselves and they rebel against it and willfully reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have to be honest with you. I was thinking about this today. I got out and I started walking my little route around here.

And I stopped over there on the other side and looked out toward the stress way standing here thinking, just think how can they hear the gospel? How can they hear it? And then reject it. What’s there to reject? I mean that’s the best news in all the world. Why would you reject the only message that can keep you out of hell? And I have to admit I got to tear you out. I couldn’t even see any cars coming up and down the road.

I had to pull up my I think in, and probably thought I was catching a cold, but it just bothers me so much because you just want people to see it, to see it, to understand. But remember this, even when you go to the book of John in chapter 3, verse 16, even verse 16, verse 18, the words that are there is postuo, it’s all, they believe and so forth. you look at verse 38, 36, and it’s a different word.

That word is different. As though at the final, at the end of it, when he that believeth on him, hath everlasting life, but he that believeth not, final conclusion, he that believeth not, who willfully will not believe shall not see life but the wrath of God abides upon him. Now I’m thinking in my mind, okay, here’s me, and here’s the wrath of God that abides upon me. But I’m so thankful that in the meantime, I’ve also got a little mercy in there.

The only thing is keeping God’s wrath from falling upon me is God’s mercy. But one of these days, God’s going to take and remove the mercy and the wrath’s going to fall. God is long-suffering that’s due to the mercy of God. He doesn’t have to wait on anybody, but he does. He wants people to know him and to believe on him. I want you to take a verse, a scripture, look over there in the book of 1 Peter chapter 3, and you’ll notice that there’s three in the Trinity that are mentioned here in verse 18 19 and verse 20 also talks about you know the Holy Trinity.

Verse 18 for Christ also has once suffered. Why? The just for the unjust. Well why? That he might bring us to God. He was put to death and to flesh but quickened by the I believe the Holy Spirit. And then he makes the statement in verse 20, which sometime were disobedient when once the long suffering of God waited the days of Noah. But all of this has to do with the patience of God. And you take your Bible and look over there in the second Peter chapter 3.

Second Peter chapter 3, and you’ll notice whenever he talks about the flood and so forth in verse 4, he says, where is the promise of His coming? For Since the Father’s fellow sleep, all things continues. They were from the beginning of the creation. Well, did they ever hear the truth? That was it ever preached to them? For this they get this willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God, the heavens were a bold and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, where by the world that then was, been overflowed with water perished.

But the heavens and the earth, which are now, By the same word of Kepin Store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment in tradition of ungodly men, but beloved be not ignorant of this one thing. Now one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some encounter slackness and get this. This is so important but is long suffering to us or toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repent or come to faith in Christ.

God wants everyone to believe on Him. He was patient. 120 years and did they preach? Well, I think so. Go back there to 1 Peter chapter 3 and you notice when he makes a statement in verse 19 of chapter 3 by which also he went in praise unto the spirits in prison. Now, some believe that it’s a reference to angels and so forth. I really don’t care if somebody what somebody else believes. I myself, I believe he’s talking about the spirits of believers.

But he says here, which sometime were, get this, the spirits mentioned here, like I said, it should be a people, men, which once in the Old testament when time passed the word sometime, where disobedient, that word disobedient is the same one that says willfully rejecting the truth. To disbelieve is not that they couldn’t believe, but they chose not to believe. So that means they heard and if they heard and if it’s about the gospel and about being saved, then I don’t see how that could be a reference to any angels at all.

but the people that lived before the flood in God’s long suffering and the Spirit which was in those Old Testament saints when they preached the gospel because you notice that we looked at this before when he”},” in verse 11 ofredd 1 ofphasis Peter searching what are what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of the Christ and the glory that should follow. The suffering of Christ is the gospel.

When you talked about that, and the saints talked about that, and even though it was before the flood, they heard but refused to believe. The Bible says that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Noah was a preacher. What do you think he preached? Works for salvation? I believe he taught the truth. But there’s people who heard and would not believe it to disbelieve. And you can get a strong concordance in looking up, and I believe that that will bear that out.

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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 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 shine. And we are here to help you. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Cada can meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.