Good morning, brethren. Let's
be turning to Genesis chapter 16. Genesis 16. When I first read this passage,
we were in the first few verses last week. But when I read the
second half here at that time, I thought that I would skip over
it. And As I continued reading it, I wanted to read it more
to be sure. The more I read it, I began to
notice that the angel of the Lord spoken of here must be Christ
and as I continued to read it I was certain this is Christ
pre-incarnate and like Moses who saw when the angel of the
Lord was burning in the bush in the wilderness and he paused
and looked at it and said how is this possible? that the fire
that is is burning in this bush but it's not being consumed and
so he said I shall turn aside and look more closely and that's
how it was for this passage I was turned aside and I thought if
if the angel of the Lord if Christ would come and minister to this
Hagar, and he would pause in the wilderness and bless her
and do her good, well then surely there's something we must see.
There's something here for the people, the children of God.
And so that's how I landed on this passage this morning. The
Lord here, what I see here, what was impressed on my heart as
I read this a number of times was how that the Lord teaches
us about affliction and about persecution in this text. And it regards the truth that
the Lord is the one who has appointed afflictions and trouble for his
people, for the good of his church. And there were two things in
regards to that that were impressed upon me. Now I'm well aware that
Hagar at this time, she was being afflicted by her mistress, Sarah
the free woman. But there's a child in her womb
that she carries that will prove to be a constant means of affliction
and persecution for the people of God. And Hagar, is given to
minister to Sarah. Hagar, she's appointed to minister
to Sarah. And from this understanding,
we understand how that She serves the purposes of God. We see sovereign
God is the one who sends Hagar back to Sarah, knowing what she's
carrying in her womb. It's God who sends her back to
Sarah, to minister to Sarah. And that's a comfort to the people
of God to know this. We're familiar with that passage
in Romans 8, 28, where Paul says, we know that all things, all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are called, thee called according to purpose. And that's a comfort
to us because the Lord's saying all things, All things that I've
permitted, that I've brought to pass, are for your good. And that helps, because a lot
of times we beat ourselves up over former decisions, over things
we've done, and we can really lay it on ourselves and trouble
ourselves about it, but we're reminded, yes, it was wrong for
me to do that, but the Lord has purposed it for my good. It's
for my good. And so, That helps us when we
come to passages as Paul reminded the Thessalonians when he said,
no man should be moved by these afflictions for yourselves know
that we are appointed thereunto. Our sovereign Lord has appointed
the afflictions which he gives to his people to minister to
them, to serve them for their good. And then the second thing
we see here in this passage is We're encouraged, I'm encouraged.
I'm encouraged in seeing the afflictions and tribulations
that we see, how the Lord directs his people to humble themselves,
to submit themselves under those afflictions that he brings because
it works good for them and it works good for his people. So
we'll see that today in this passage. So Sarah, what happened
here, the reason why Hagar's in the wilderness, because that's
what happened. She's fled from Sarah and she's in the wilderness
alone and the Lord comes to her. The angel of the Lord comes and
speaks to her. Well, what happened was Sarah
was grieved with Abram. She was mad at Abram because
he hearkened to her word. He hearkened and listened to
her when she said, the Lord has promised you a seed. Take Hagar
for your second wife, and perhaps the Lord will give us a child
by Hagar. And the problem is they were
trying to effect to bring to pass the promise that God made
to Abram in the covenant of grace. They were trying to bring it
to pass by the works of the flesh. And we're not going to do that.
We're not going to do it. It's not going to be that work
which God purposed to bless his people in. And so, of course,
it failed. It failed. Hagar did conceive,
and she did bring forth a son. But Hagar, as we saw previously,
she's a picture of the covenant of works, of that covenant given
at Mount Sinai, whose people who follow it are in bondage.
And when Hagar conceived in her womb, She pictures the law. When she conceded and she said,
I've brought forth fruit, and you, free woman, have not brought
forth fruit. And she despised her mistress,
Sarah. That's what we saw in the beginning
of chapter 16. She despised Sarah. And Sarah saw that she was despised. And it's a picture that says,
those people, those in religion that labor by the law and bring
forth works, They despise those who hope and wait in the mercy
and grace of God to save His people. In fact, our Lord gave
a parable in Luke 18, I think it is, where He gave this parable
for those who trusted in their own works and despised others. They despised others. That's
Luke 18, and that's the parable of the of the publican and the
Pharisee, who both go to the temple. And one went home justified. One went home justified, the
publican, who cried out to God for mercy, rather than trust
his own works. Now, Abram was given wisdom,
and he spoke very wisely and comfortably to Sarah. And he
comforted her heart, because he loved her. She's his first
wife, and he loved her. And he said, Hagar's your servant,
she's in your hands, you do with her what you think is right.
And at the end of verse six it says, when Sarah, let me just
say Sarah, when Sarah dealt hardly with her, Hagar fled from her
face. And the name Hagar actually means
to flee. And she fled from her face. And
that word hardly, it means to afflict. Sarah was afflicting
her, she was troubling Hagar now. She was forcefully dealing
with her and she was seeking to weaken her. to take her down
in her pride a whole lot of notches, to bring her low in herself. And Hagar was proud. And we see
that because Hagar said, I don't deserve to be treated like this.
I have rights. Here's a servant, a slave to
Sauron. She's saying, I have rights.
You can't talk to me like this. And so she got out of there.
And we see that's the pride that's in us by nature. We have unspoken
rights that we think should be honored. And so when a humbling
situation is brought upon us, we naturally, in pride, resist
it. And we rise up and fight against
it. And so that's what happened here. Hagar was upset, and her rights
were crossed, she thought, and so she fled from her mistress.
And she was on her way back to Egypt, because that's where she's
from. She's from Egypt. It's possible that either Abraham
and Sarah picked her up when they were on their way into Egypt,
or on their way out of Egypt, or perhaps Pharaoh gave her a
servant girl when he was courting Sarah, because he didn't know
she was married to Abraham. Anyway, they have Hagar now,
and she's a servant to Sarah. And it says in verse 7, The angel
of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by
the fountain in the way to Shur." Now today that's in that peninsula,
the Sinai Peninsula. So if you're looking at the map
this way, you'd see Israel here and Egypt here. And there's the
Red Sea, and it has a little fork in the Red Sea of two gulfs,
the Gulf of Aqaba, I think, and Suez. And it's that little Sinai
Peninsula where she fled into. And that was probably her area
close to where she lived. And she ultimately does live
there in the Sinai, where I believe the Mount Sinai is in the Sinai
Peninsula there. And that's where she went between
Israel and Egypt. It's part of Egypt today. But
anyway, it's at this point that the angel of the Lord is first
mentioned in scripture. It's the first time that an angel
is mentioned. In Genesis 3, if you're thinking
of that in the Garden of Eden, that's a cherubim. And this is
the angel of the Lord, and the first mention of it. And what
that means is, this is not a created angel. This is not a created
angel. And we know that if you look
at verse 10, it says, and the angel of the Lord said unto her,
I will multiply thy seed exceedingly that it shall not be numbered
for multitude. No created angel speaks like
that. They say the Lord will do something, but here the angel
of the Lord says, I will do this. I will do this because he alone
can speak as God because he is God. He has that authority as
the true and living God to declare what he will. So verse eight
says, and he said, he's speaking here, Hagar, Sarah's maid, whence
comest thou, whence camest thou, and whither wilt thou go? And
she said, I flee from the face of my mistress, Sarah. Now, what
really jumps out to me is what he calls her. He says, Hagar,
Sarah's maid. He says her name and her occupation. He's putting her in memory of
who she is. He's saying, Hagar, you're a
bond maid. You're given to serve your mistress. How did you come here, away from
your mistress? What do you think you're going
to do here? Your whole purpose is to serve your mistress, Sarah. And she went back. She was made
honest there. She didn't hide it. She said
the truth. And she went back and continued to serve her mistress. And so at this time, Hagar's
being afflicted, but the son she carries in her womb will
be used to afflict the son of promise, the children of promise.
And it'll be for their good. It'll be for their good. Turn
over to Genesis 21. Genesis 21, and let's just read
verses eight through 10. At this point, in Genesis 21
now, Abraham and Sarah have had that son of promise. They have
conceived and brought forth Isaac, and Isaac's being weaned. where
he can eat regular food now. And the child, it says, grew
and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast
the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar,
the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. He was
mocking. Ishmael was about 13 years old
and he was mocking his little brother, his half-brother Isaac. Wherefore, Sarah said unto Abraham,
cast out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of this bondwoman
shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. Now, as regards
the gospel, we saw that Hagar is a picture of the law, that
law of bondage. And what the Lord is teaching
us there is that the law has no place. It served its purpose,
and now it's not given for the children of God. It served for
a time in Israel. And the purpose of the law is
to give us the knowledge of sin. to show us that we are sinners,
that we're exceedingly sinful, and we think we're doing it,
and the laws find sin in us all over the place. We're sinners,
and it gives the knowledge of sin and the exceeding sinfulness
of sin. But when the promised seed came,
and you could be turning to Galatians chapter three, when the promised
seed came, I'll put a marker there too, because we'll look
at a few scriptures in the New Testament, when the promised
seed came, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, and when He was
revealed in our hearts, having been crucified, having laid down
His life for the sins of His people, and having been raised
from the dead, and the Father and the Son having given the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to regenerate the people of God, to reveal
Christ in our hearts by faith. When that came, well, then the
rudimentary things of the law and the elemental things practiced
in pagan, idolatrous religion, all the ABCs of religion, Those
things were put away, those things that we trusted in and thought,
this is my righteousness. I do this, and I do that, and
I do the other thing, and that's my righteousness. The Lord said,
that's not your righteousness, my son. Look to my son whom I've
sent. He is the righteousness of my
people. And those things were expelled
from us. That's what repentance is. When
Paul was preaching to the Greek philosophers on Mars Hill in
Acts 17 31, he said, but God hath commanded all men to repent. of those things. Repent of that
vain, false, wicked works religion that you are trusting in and
be turned to Christ, the servant of God. Be turned to Him whom
the Father hath raised from the dead, because He will judge all
men by that man whom he raised from the dead. And so that's
repentance. It's not just from stopping doing
this sinful thing and start doing this good thing. The repentance,
first and foremost, is be turned from Ted Work's religion that
cannot save and be turned to the Lord Jesus Christ. Put those
things away and trust Christ. Wait upon him. And so Galatians
3, verse 23, But before faith came, we, and
he's primarily speaking of we Jews here, and now you guys are
getting hit with it by the Judaizers, but we were kept under the law,
shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster. It showed us the knowledge of
sin. It showed us, it was given to
teach us that we cannot save ourselves. It was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, and in the original, until Christ. It was given as a schoolmaster
until Christ, until Christ came, that we might be justified by
faith. that repentance will be worked
in our hearts from trusting the law for our righteousness and
to be turned to Christ for all our righteousness. But after that faith has come,
we're no longer under a schoolmaster. We're not being trained up by
that schoolmaster anymore. For ye are all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. That's what God has given to
us. a heart of faith that hopes in and waits in and calls upon
the Lord, Abba, Father, have mercy on me, turn me, Lord, deliver
me from trusting dead works that cannot save. And so God brought
what we read in Genesis 16 to pass, to teach us this, to give
us that allegory, his grace being sufficient for Abraham and Sarah,
because they did sin. What they did should not have
been done. There's no excuse for what they did in Abraham
taking his second wife of Hagar, but God provided. And he gave
us this allegory to show us that we're not saved by the works
of the flesh, We're saved by grace, by grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so he turns us from wicked
works in the oldness of the letter as a hope of righteousness and
trying to please God by these things to obtain acceptance with
him and to find our acceptance in Christ alone, in Christ alone. And we seek him for his grace
and mercy and help in all our needs, in all our needs. Even
when we're troubled, even when we're troubled with our own sin,
we're crying out, Lord, save me. Put away this filth from
me and turn my heart to the living God. Turn me to Christ. Keep
me in Christ. But we also see here how that
the Lord sent Hagar back. He sent her back, knowing what
she carries in her womb to be a means of trials and afflictions
for the children of promise. Look at Galatians, if you're
still in Galatians, Galatians 4, 428. We'll see this right
here. Galatians 4.28, now we brethren,
as Isaac was, are the children of promise. Those who believe
Christ, they are the children of promise. They're born of the
promised seed, Jesus Christ. But as then he that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit,
even so it is now. The Jews were zealous for the
law. They put to death Christ. And
the Jews, being zealous for the law, chased after and persecuted
Paul from city to city, going after him and hunting him down
and speaking contrary to the things that he was teaching the
Gentile churches. And so they were zealous for
it, and they persecuted believers. He said, nevertheless, what sayeth
the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her
son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son
of the free woman. He's saying, no matter how much
they persecute us, and trouble us, and go after us in the flesh,
don't conform to them. Don't give in to them. I could
deliver myself by preaching circumcision, he said, but I'm not doing it.
I'm trusting the Lord. I'm going to keep holding forth
this gospel, the light of this gospel, because this is how God
saves his people, by Jesus Christ alone. That's how he saves his
people. And so he said, don't conform
to them. Don't conform to them. So then,
brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the
free. We're delivered from death. in
Christ, wholly, completely. Now, don't turn away from Galatians,
but let me just say, back in Genesis 16, 9, the Lord sent
Hagar back, and it says, the angel of the Lord said unto her,
return to thy mistress and submit thyself unto her hands. You have
a purpose, go serve it. That's what he's saying to her,
and she went back and did it. Ishmael, the son that she carried,
pictures those who by the law and by carnal religion, the Greeks
as well, that carnal idolatrous religion, they persecute the
people of God. When you speak the truth, when
you declare the free grace of God, who is it that fights against
it the most? Religious people. People that
have a righteousness of their own, that trust their own righteousness
and their own works. They're the ones that get most
upset about it. That's who Christ spoke to and was angry with the
most was the Pharisees, because they're the ones that were constantly
speaking against him and constantly trying to show him up and turn
the people away from him. And he's the very righteousness
of God. And so he was very hard with them. But he was very gracious,
very patient, very merciful to sinners, especially any sinner
that came to him seeking mercy. Christ was always gracious. and
always heard them, always received all that come to him. Every sinner
that comes to Christ, they are received and they're never turned
away from him. Now, for everything I just said,
look at one more scripture in 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians
chapter two. If you get to Timothy, you've
gone too far. So 1 Thessalonians chapter two. Verse 14 is where we'll start. And here Paul, by this example,
confirms everything I just said to you about the religious persecuting
brethren and countrymen persecuting the brethren. For ye brethren,
verse 14, became followers of the churches of God which in
Judea are in Christ Jesus. For ye also have suffered like
things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews,
who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have
persecuted us, and they please not God, and are contrary to
all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might
be saved, to fill up their sins always, for the wrath is come
upon them to the uttermost. Now that description at the end
of verse 15 that they are contrary to all men is a description of
Ishmael in Genesis 16 verse 12. Let's look at Genesis 16 verse
12 and this is how the Lord describes Ishmael here. And he will be a wild man and
what he's likening him to is a wild ass. Like a donkey, an
ass is a beast of burden. It's made to carry burdens. And
it's submitted and subdued under the hand of man who uses that
beast to carry his burdens. And he's saying, this one, he's
going to be wild. He's not going to submit. He's
not going to be subjugated. He's not going to bow down and
be tamed by any man. No nation is going to rule over
them. He's going to be a trouble and
a nuisance to anyone that tries to rule over him. And it says
his hand will be against every man. he's contrary to all men
his hand will be against every man and every man's hand against
him and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren
that is a packed verse that is loaded with a lot of things that
gets the mind going here and what the Lord is saying the spirit
here Because there's a lot of fleshly things that we could
look at and get sidetracked on, but what he's saying here is
that that evil spirit resides in man, regardless of his race. Because we saw it in the Jews,
we saw it in Catholics, we saw it in Protestants persecuting
Baptists, we see it in man all the time rising up and trying
to bring his brethren under subjection to him. We see it in our own
hearts. And the old man of this flesh
is constantly rising up to persecute and trouble the new man of faith. And so this is what Ishmael is
and what he pictures. All right, don't get caught up
just in a fleshly description of this man, but it says, he
shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren, meaning he
is everywhere. He is bordered right up to the
brethren scattered throughout the world. Everywhere that God's
people are this man is right up there next to him. That's
why we see him even in this old flesh He's right there He's persecuting
the the new man and it's also seen and witnessed in those that
persecute the truth That would war against the truth of God. Paul said to Timothy, Yea, and
all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And after he was stoned, when
Paul rose up, it says that he went back through the churches
of Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, telling them to continue in the
faith, and that we must, through much tribulation, enter into
the kingdom of God. These afflictions are appointed. Just like He said to the Thessalonians,
don't be troubled, don't be moved by these things. Our afflictions
are appointed unto us. God has appointed them. Sovereign,
holy, almighty God has appointed our afflictions for our good. They're for our good. They serve
us. They minister to the Church of God for the good of His people. All these tribulations, hardships,
difficulties, sorrows, sufferings, sicknesses, worries, doubts,
fears, they all work for the good of God's people. To turn
us from the flesh and trust in the flesh and believing the promises
of God made unto us in Christ. Now, Having laid that foundation,
I want to show you one other thing. Because when we look at
Hagar, there's actually some sweet and precious things there. How we see that God said to this
Hagar, because she was in, the Church of God was Abraham's house. That is the Church of God there
in the wilderness. And she was there, she heard
the truth. And the Lord ministers to her in spite of the allegory
that she fulfills for us in scripture. He came to her and he ministered
to her, directing her back, directing her to submit, to humble herself
under the hand of her mistress and to submit though there would
be trouble and hard to deal with. And so what we see here, what
we're reminded of in this is that our God is gracious and
merciful to his people. He's the one that strengthens
our hearts. He strengthens us in the Lord
and encourages us to not withdraw, don't draw back, don't flee from
every hardship and trouble. That's what we do naturally.
We want to flee just like Hagar did, but there's good in it. Humble yourselves under the the
mighty hand of God trust him through the hardships and difficulties
because he means it for your good and the good of your brethren
and so Paul And the other apostles, how did they refer to themselves?
Like Hagar, they called themselves servants. We're the bond servants
of Christ. We're the slaves of Christ. We're
His. He's our Lord. He's our all. He's our master and our Lord.
He's our God and our Savior. He's our husband and our friend.
And we submit to Him. We trust Him. We believe Him. And so, like Hagar to Sarah,
we too have a ministry. a ministration of the gospel
that we're to serve in and to declare this gospel for the Lord's
people, to call out the lost sheep of God, to strengthen and
give bread, heavenly bread to the Lord's sheep, to feed the
sheep of Christ. That's our ministry. That's what
we're called to do here in the earth. And that means that those
that persecuted them will also persecute and trouble us. It's
going to happen. But don't change the message.
Don't shrink back. Don't draw back from it to improve
your standing with the carnal man, because we don't answer
to him. We answer to our Lord, our God, our Savior. And so Paul
said in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 1, he said, therefore, seeing
we have this ministry, this ministry of the gospel, as we have received
mercy, we faint not. Just as the Lord, the angel of
the Lord, ministered and strengthened Hagar to go back and submit herself,
our Lord strengthens his people. ministering his gospel. He strengthens
us who support and labor in this work. Verse 5, 2 Corinthians
4, 5, for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and
ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake. So he gives that
to his people. And you that love the Lord and
love his gospel, that's the heart you have. to lay down your lives
and to submit your lives going through the hardships and the
difficulties and the adversities that trouble us because we have
this glorious testimony. We have this faithful testimony
of our God in Christ. Now look what he told Hagar to
do in Genesis 16, 9. The angel of the Lord said unto
her, return to thy mistress and submit thyself under her hands. And the Lord gave her a promise,
not for her submission. He didn't give her a promise
because she submitted to the Lord, but to attend, to attend
her submission, to strengthen her and to encourage her heart. Verse 10, and the angel of the
Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it
shall not be numbered for multitude. And it's a picture, it's an encouragement
to us, the Lord saying, I'll bring forth thy fruit abundantly. I'll set my fruit in you, and
you shall prosper and bring forth your fruit in its season. I'll
do that. You trust me. You submit yourself
under the afflictions. You do what you have to do, declaring
this gospel faithfully, and I'll bless it. I'll bring forth fruit
in you. just as he said to Hagar. And
so our Lord brings his people through appointed afflictions,
appointed tribulations, and there he blesses them. That's where
he blesses us. He blesses us through those things.
They don't take away. They don't destroy. They don't
ruin the work of God. Like Paul said, the prisoner
of the Lord. It didn't stop the word. The
word went forth in Caesar's palace. It still conquered the hearts
of those that God purposed it to conquer. He still delivered
and saved his people because though we're bound, Though we're
put in prison and shut up, the word of the Lord cannot be bound,
and it goes forth doing that which God purposed it to do.
It can't be stopped. And that's an encouragement to
you that love the Lord, and love his record, and love his witness
and testimony. And so these riches attend those
made alive by Christ, and it testifies that God has done this. We have this blessing in earthen
vessels. The things that are easily broken,
easily shattered and kicked around and scattered. That's where God
has put this treasure so that God himself receives all the
glory, the praise, and the honor. And so like Hagar, I confess. When I see trouble, I want to
hide myself and get out of it. I want to protect myself and
those that I love. I don't want to go through persecution.
And it's hard, especially when you're untested and unproven.
It takes time to firm up under that. And so we seek to deliver
ourselves. But I want to go to 2 Corinthians
with you, 2 Corinthians chapter 1, and show you five blessings
that the Lord gives to his children, that attends the children of
God as we labor in this ministry. Five blessings. So second Corinthians
chapter one and verse three is where we'll pick up. Remember,
it's our God leading us through the afflictions is he's appointed
them and these are the blessings. These are the multiplication
of his fruit and blessings in his people. He said, verse 3,
blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforted
us in all our tribulation. So the first thing here is that
our Lord tells us that he is our comfort in tribulation. And without that tribulation,
we wouldn't know this comfort of our God. But we know him. We learn of him. We grow in the
grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior going through these
tribulations, going through these trials. It's for our good. That's
where, as we're comforted in the gospel, so God purposed it
that way. We wouldn't know that comfort
otherwise. We wouldn't see it otherwise. But submitting to
God in humility then God says, I'll lift you up, I'll bless
you, I'll provide for you. And Peter writes of this too.
I think it's in first Peter five, where he says, when you've gone
through it, when he's humbled you and brought you low in yourselves,
he'll raise you up and you'll be perfect in him. You'll be
established, strengthened and settled in the Lord Jesus Christ. You won't be blown about and
moved all over the place. You'll be settled in him. Second,
Experiencing God's comfort, we're blessed then to be a comfort
to our brethren. As we've experienced it, so we
now comfort our brethren. Look at the second half of verse
seven, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any
trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of
God. I believe it's because when we're
humbled, when we've been afflicted and gone through troubles and
our puffed up head has been deflated and we're brought low, that's
when we're made tender to the difficulties and the trials and
the troubles of our brethren. Because we're humbled by them
and we see our need of Christ. And so that's how we're made
tender and and gracious to our brethren and kind to our brethren
because the Lord through these things shows us kindness and
is tender toward us and has done it for our good. And so then
we're in likewise made kind and gracious and gentle to our brethren.
Third, this comfort and consolation is commensurate or equal to the
sufferings. God never comes in under what
he's given to you. He always meets the need at or
above what is needed by us. He says in verse five, for as
the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also
aboundeth by Christ. So sufficient to the day. is
the grace that our God gives to us. When the trial comes,
if we knew what trials face us, we'd be terrified. But he promises, my grace shall
bear you up. My grace shall be sufficient
to keep you and hold you and keep you in the truth. Fourth,
brethren are encouraged and strengthened to endure their own trials as
they see the Lord supporting and giving you enduring faith
in your trials. As we see our brethren being
held up and supported by God and provided by Him, it strengthens
us as we're going through our trials as well. Could you imagine
if the churches saw Paul flee and run away, crying and never
coming back? They'd be deflated and their
faith would go right out with them. But as we saw, as he faced
his opposition, it strengthened the brethren. That's what he's
saying, verse six. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your
consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring
of the same sufferings which we also suffer. As you see us enduring, as God
strengthens us and keeps us, you're strengthened and kept.
And that's what the Lord does in strengthening you. It encourages
your brethren, whether you know it or whether they ever say it
to your face or not. The Lord does that. He strengthens
his people. It's effectual. And whether we're
comforted, it's for your consolation and salvation. Either one, whether
we're in the fire or we're resting, it's all for your good. And fifth,
your encouragement and consolation then returns again to your brethren
who encouraged you. It now comes back to them, and
then they're further encouraged. It just keeps reciprocating and
going around and around to strengthen the body of Christ. Verse seven,
and our hope of you is steadfast, knowing that as ye are partakers
of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation. And Peter assures us, saying,
these same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren throughout the
world. They're going through the same
things. You're not alone. You're not alone. God's done
this for your good. And he reminds us, Peter in 1
Peter 1, 7, through trials, he said, that's where faith is found.
You don't. We don't know the extent of the
faith that our God has given to us until we go through fiery
trials that bring forth, that remove the dross and bring forth
that brilliant shine of the precious things he's given to us in Christ.
He said that the trial of your faith, being much more precious
than a gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might
be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ. And so our God has done this
for us. It's for our good. It's for our
strengthening. It's for the strengthening of
you and your brethren. He said we're troubled on every
side. In 2 Corinthians 4, he said, we're troubled on every
side, yet not distressed. We're perplexed, but not in despair,
persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed,
always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. And so, the Lord has appointed
these trials and afflictions. They blow across us like a cold,
fierce wind, and they wither the flesh, they weaken the flesh,
they bring us low in ourselves, but it's for our good. and the
good of our brethren. And he said, for we which live
are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life
also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. And so brethren, these trials
are appointed by your sovereign God. and there to bring forth
that life of Christ which he has given to you, to reveal him,
to manifest him in your hearts, to turn you from trusting the
flesh and the strength of your own flesh, and to put you on
your knees, to put you on your face, crying out to the Lord
to save you, to have mercy on you, and to keep you, and for
your brethren also, and to help you in them. So that's where
we're strengthening, brethren. I pray the Lord bless that word
to all our hearts and to help us in this ministry, this glorious
ministry which is given to us. Amen.