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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 air. 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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

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, they’re 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. 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? 1st 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-saying 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 disbelieve. 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. over there in the book of 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians chapter, I’ll be there in a minute, 2 Thessalon chapter 1. 2 Thessalonians 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 had told you to stand in your head and spit wood nickels, then 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 rests with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, and flaming fire taken 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 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 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. See, when you realize that, yes, you were lost, you trusted Christ’s Savior and you experienced what grace is about. To be:::::::: 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 the Lord. 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 the 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. 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 and so into order to reject Christ.

So faith cometh by hearing so they can be presented the truth and then not believe the truth. And so he makes the 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 trust the Christ is Savior to be like the Lord. So one of these days is gonna be complete. We still got a body to go yet and when that happens we’ll be complete.

And the Bible says we’re complete in him. but my body isategal. But my body is not in him. He is in me.” Now look at this. When he makes this 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 is made a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

Now a whole sermon can be built this on the word rock and stone. As you know 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 we are like living stones and it’s amazing that Peter, 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 rockaditional 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 stone upon a living foundation and is building a spiritual house for the Lord to dwell in. And therefore we become the temple of God. verse eight and a stone bling 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 if people persecute in 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 shall we… Change a little bit and add a little works to it so that they won’t persecute us and they will get along. Don’t God do his 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, wearing to also they were appointed. We are appointed as God’s children to bring 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 ride around here. And I stopped over there on the other side and looked out toward or the stress way and standing there 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 hand and probably thought I was a kid in 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 bestuo.

all is this they believe in so far. But 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 half 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 was trying to think 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 that’s 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. 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 the Holy Trinity. Verse 18, for Christ also hath once suffered. Why? The just for the unjust. Well, why? That he might bring us to God. He was put to death in the 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 three. Second Peter chapter three, 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 continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. Well, did they ever hear the truth? Was it ever preached to them?

For this they get this willingly, or ignorant of, that by the Word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was been overflowed with water perished. But the heavens and the year of which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment in the 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 in counts likeness and get this. This is so important. But is long suffering to usward or toward us? Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repinnest 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 three, by which also he went and preached 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 some time were, get this. The spirit mentioned here, like I said, it should be a people men, which once in the Old Testament, when time passed, the word sometime, were 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 noticed that we looked at this before when he says in verse 11 of chapter one, a first 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 Christ and the glory that should follow.

The sufferings 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. upheavant and you can get a strong sense of look it up and I believe that that will bear that out.

But now notice when it says here in verse 20, the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah. Now when you went over there just a minute ago to 1 Peter chapter three, why it was God waiting so long, not willing to what? And he should perish. He tells you why. He says he preached the gospel. They had the gospel preached. Seeashion people that will hear the gospel and reject it. But there’s a lot of people that have never heard the gospel.

Remember this. He says the Christ is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. So we have some knowledge when we’re into this world and we know this is a God. have a little truth then. Sometimes there’s the desire that people have, I want to know the truth. I want to know God. And there’s a hunger, a longing, sometimes a searching because of this truth that God’s given to us. No man searches without that light that God’s given to every man.

And every man has faith that he can believe and maybe whether the measure of faith is given to everybody is the same or even referring to lost people or just to those that know the Lord. But people can believe on the Lord that they hear and follow, even light that they have. So yes, they need to believe, but they need to hear the gospel. And this is why we keep working. I had some people who responded to some of the messages we put up on the YouTube recently.

And one of them is saying, now I know I’m saved. Now I know I have eternal life. Now I see. Now I understand. And they’re so thankful for the message we’re putting up. And they come from everywhere. I think it’s just wonderful. But if you sit inside these four walls and after a while we think, well, it’s just us four and no more. And there’s a whole big world out there that’s never heard. This is what makes what we do so important.

You’d be surprised at the people that wish they had some preachers that are the Florida Bible College flavor that could go out and preach. Wouldn’t it be neat if we had a thousand young men to go out and preach. Some evangelists like Freddy Cole doing like that. What if we had a hundred of them doing that? Going to all the churches and preaching and clearing things up and it wouldn’t be fantastic. You know if we just stay faithful, you never know what God got forced down the road.

be faithful to do what you can with what you have. Instead of, well, we can’t be faithful right now because we don’t have much. To me, these few guys that we have are just as important if we had a hundred others. Why would they be more important than them? How can a hundred more make them more important? They are important and they’re worth everything we can do for them and try to teach them. Because if this isn’t true, then we can stop doing what we’re doing.

But I just kind of believe all of this is true. I think it’s in the word and that we ought to keep on doing it. I’d take your Bible and look in 2 Peter. Like I told you, we may come back to 1 Peter, yet. I don’t know. But in Luke and verse 11, of chapter three where he says, see and then that all these things which shall be dissolved. He says, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness in every area of your life?

What manner of life? Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God where the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, the elements shall melt with fervor and heat. In other words, this world is going to pass away. And he talks about past the time of your sojourn in here in fear. And be holy for I am holy. In other words, first Peter’s telling us how we ought to live and second Peter’s telling you what you better watch out for.

A lot of dangers and things. The next time I speak, I might just talk about the hogs and the dogs. You might know where that is in the Bible. the hogs and the dogs. What’s that? Beware of dogs. But we’re talking about Christians becoming dogs, or Christians becoming hogs. Anyway, we’ll get to that later. But look what he says here in verse 13. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.

We look for something new, why based upon his promise. And then he makes the statement there in the same chapter, the Lord is not slack concerning his promises, some men count slackness, but is long suffering. But he promised, and we’re supposed to believe the promise. And then he also says up there in verse four and saying, where is the promise of his coming? You see, what false teachers do is getting you to question the promises of God so that you don’t believe his word so you won’t get done what you should get done.

And so in 1 Peter, he’s talking about all the things that we should do and how that suffering for the Lord is so worth it, it is gonna be so worth it. But look what he ends up with here in chapter three, a second Peter. He says in verse 14, wherefore be limit seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless. Talking about your life. How does God want you and I to live?

Now we don’t do that to get to heaven’s salvation is a free gift. Once you’re saved, you are saved for eternity and God will never cast you out and never lose you. But we’re not in heaven yet. So he says because of that, I want you to look down the road, look into the future, see what God’s going to do. And because of the promises of God, that’s what helps you and I now to live for the Lord. So he says in verse 15, in account that the long suffering, here it is again, long suffering of our Lord is salvation.

Even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given in himFrameworks written unto you. As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood, which I believe is a reference to the book of Hebrews, but that’s just in theology right there. Which they that are unlearned and unstable rest, I think that’s in chapter five, I really do. and also of other scriptures unto their own destruction. Yee, therefore, that’s back to us now.

Yee, therefore, be loved, seeing you know these things before. Beware lest you also be led away with the air of the wicked fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in grace. And in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Look up here. Letting this hand represent you and me and the wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us.

God loves us, hates the sin. But God says that to pay for the sin is eternal separation from the Lord in hell. And God says to go to heaven, you have to be perfect, no sin. We have to be as righteous as God. But none of us are. We’re all sinned. We’re all sinners. So God says you cannot save yourself. There’s nothing we can do to get into heaven. Because we’re going the other way. We’re already condemned. This hand represents Jesus Christ.

He’s the Lord God in the flesh came into the world because He loves us, hates our sin because our sins separates us from Him. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die. So He took ours. All the sins of the world. The Lord says that He laid all these sins up on His Son. Christ paid for them, came back from the dead. And 700 years before He did it, He says, Lord, who was going to believe this report?

right in the newspaper, 700 years in advance. How would you like to get the morning newspaper and it tells you exactly what’s going to happen in detail, 700 years from now on that particular day? Well that’s what happened. But Jesus came back from the dead and God says the only thing He wants us to do to go to heaven is believe that He did that for us. So when I believe He did it for me, He saves me. When you believe He did it for you, He saves you.

And there’s some people who hear this and then reject it. To disbelieve means you had to hear it in order to not believe it. There are people who have never heard the gospel before. So when we explain the gospel, they might believe it. And there’s people who have heard it and rejected it, and then lay it on, may accept it. I don’t know. I just just keep doing it. Just keep doing it. Just keep winning souls. Let’s pray, shall we?

With his bow and eyes closed, no one looking around. If you’ve never trusted Christ as your savior, or if you’re watching by internet, we often have people that trust the Lord because they’re watching. And right on the screen, it says, yes, I will trust Christ as my savior. And if you’ll trust him, he will save you. It just means that you’re dependent upon Jesus Christ to take you to heaven. You realize you cannot save yourself by your works. Would you do that?

You can do that. It’s the free gift of God. and by faith and faith alone in what he did for you, would you believe him? Obey the gospel means to believe it. If you have not trusting Christ as your savior, right where you are. You see, yes, I will trust him tonight and my only hope of going to heaven. Friend, I’d like to have prayer for you. Would you just let me hand it very quickly, but just let me know that what I said made sense to you.

Then what at all? Our Father, we thank you again for your blessings. Thank you for all you do for us. We thank you so much for your word. So simple, so clear, so understandable. But Father, help us to explain it to others. And for these that are here to listen and to learn and to spread your word, we pray that Lord, that we have a beautiful feet. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen. Are you a new listener to Bibleline?

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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. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.