Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 55. Psalm 55, and reading
for our text, verses 12 and 13. It's especially verse 13, but
to keep it in context, we have verse 12. For it was not an enemy
that reproached me, then I could have borne it. Neither was it
he that hated me, that did magnify himself against me, then I would
have hid myself from him. But it was thou, a man mine equal,
my guide and mine acquaintance. Psalm 55 and verses 12 and 13. and the subject that is upon
my spirit is hurt by those close to us as Christ was. This psalm is a psalm of David
and many of these psalms we know there is a parallel, it's not
mentioned over this psalm, as to the parallel in his life that
we know whom he was referring to. David was referring to Ahithophel. Ahithophel was one that he went
to the house together with, and whose counsel was of a man that
had inquired at the mouth of the Lord. He was a longstanding
friend of David, partook of many, of David's trials and troubles
as he fled from King Saul. And yet, when it comes to the
time that Absalom, again David's own son, one very close to him,
rose up against him and conspired against him to take the kingdom
from him And David was driven out from Jerusalem, fled for
his life, and it was said to David, and Hephaphel is amongst
the conspirators. What an arrow that that must
have been. What a hard thing to be told,
that not only your son has risen against you, but your best friend
as well, the one that you went to the house of God together
with. one that has stood with you through many trials and many
troubles, he is turned against you. And so this is why he speaks
in this psalm, it was not an enemy that reproached me, then
I could have borne him. Neither was it he that hated
me that did magnify himself against me, then I would have hid myself
from him, but it was thou a man mine equal, my guide, and mine
acquaintance. And if we went on, we read in
the next verse, we took sweet counsel together and walked unto
the house of God in company. And so this is the experience
of David. But it is also prophetic that
a thousand years from this time, when our Lord and Saviour was
to come and was to suffer at Calvary, and the one that should
lift up his heel against him, that should betray him, was not
an enemy, but one of his own disciples, one of the twelve,
one that was chosen. The Lord said, Have not I chosen
you twelve, and one of you is a devil? And yet he partook of
the ministry, as the apostles said. Judas, he went to his place,
but he partook of their ministry. And to the other disciples, he
was not deserved as not being one of the Lords at all. And
it is spoken of one of those things that added to the sorrows,
the trials, the distress of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We wonder really at the ordering
and providence of God, God who devised the way and plan of salvation,
who had appointed that his beloved son should come to this world,
that he should suffer, that he should bleed and die, but also
that he should be betrayed in this way, that he should endure
as part of his sufferings, that aspect of being spoken against
and betrayed from those that had been close to him and friends. God appointed that our Lord and
Saviour should actually walk through, and we should not just
pass over that as just being something, well, that is how
it was, but that it must relate. to the redemption in Christ Jesus,
to his ability to be a sympathising high priest over the house of
God, to be able to succour those that are tempted and those that
suffer in the same way. We're exhorted in Hebrews 12
that we should consider him who endured such contradiction of
sinners against himself lest we be wearied and faint in our
minds." And as David intimates here, that because of the close
nature, that made the trial even more. If it was an enemy that
reproached, he says, then I could have borne it. If it was those
that hated him, then he would have hid himself from him. But
the aggravating factor was that those actually that rose up against
him were his friends, were close to him, were ones that had been
such a companion, such a help. And that is why this aspect of
David's suffering, this aspect of Christ's suffering is highlighted,
and this aspect is highlighted that will feature in the experience
of all the people of God in less or greater extent. And so, on to look with the Lord's
help, firstly, at the experience of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus
Christ. Let us begin there in opening
up our text, and then secondly, Consider fellowship with the
Lord in His sufferings. The many aspects, as we have
said, of the sufferings of our Lord, but especially these knocks
from His own. And then thirdly, the path of
some of the Lord's dear people that have gone before us. And
we will see that it's not only David, but many others that have
walked this same path and we must expect the same ourselves,
and in fact be encouraged if we are called to have a similar
path. But firstly, our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, His experience. We read right in the beginning
of the Gospel, the Gospel according to John, now that in verse 11,
He came unto His own, and His own received him not. What an introduction to the ministry
of our Lord Jesus Christ, his own nation. Pilate highlighted
this, that it is thy own nation, thy own people that have delivered
thee unto me. All of the enemies that the children
of Israel had had over all the years, the Assyrians, the Babylonians,
the children of Ammon, the Samaritans even, and the Romans that they
had over them at this time. It was not them, but it was his
own ancient people. It was the Jews, his own nation,
that had delivered him and did not receive him. He came unto
his own and his own received him not. And so he's not just. words that are spoken, but he's
just receiving, not even receiving him, shunning him, not acknowledging
his authority, not acknowledging who he said he was. He testified that he was the
son of God. They said that he was the prince
of devils and by Beasley Barber, He cast out devils. They said
that is not this Joseph, Jesus the son of Joseph, the carpenter's
son? And they derided him. They did
not accept what he said of himself. They did not recognize him as
the Messiah. They did not equate with him
anything of what he said. And this then was part of his
sufferings and highlighted right at the beginning. You know, the
Gentiles could well have stumbled at this when the gospel was sent
to them and said, well, their own people, the Jews, they haven't
believed this. Why come to us? Why bring us
this gospel, this news, when your own people don't even accept
it and believe it? This was a path of our Lord,
ordained and appointed by God, and yet in spite of that, the
Gentiles did believe, and in spite of that, we read in verse
12 in John chapter one, but as many as received him, there were
some, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name. which were born not of blood,
does not run in families, nor of the will of the flesh, not
with us willing that our loved ones or those that are our kindred
be saved, nor of the will of man, not of our own will, but
of God, God's will made them believers. And so we read of
our Lord as well, that neither did his brethren believe on him. We know, of course, that some
of his brethren, his brothers, sisters, his brothers were those
of the number of the 12, but the more extended family and
brethren, in John chapter 7, we read of those of his brethren
saying, Unto him depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples
also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that
doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known
openly. If thou do these things, show
thyself to the world. Then was added this, for neither
did his brethren believe in him. And the Lord had to endure this
from those that were very close unto him, not James, Joseph,
Simon, Judas, no, but those of his brethren, his kin. We read when he came to the time
of his being taken in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he was to
be betrayed, betrayed by Judas, who came and kissed him and betrayed
his master in that way to the Romans. But his own disciples,
they all forsook him and fled. Not just Judas to betray him,
but those of his close, his twelve, his, the apostles, and then Peter,
the leader of them. to deny three times that he ever
knew him, and in his hearing too. And then with oaths and curses
completely separated himself from the Lord, distanced himself
in his greatest hour, his sufferings, his coming death, his bearing,
of Peter's sins, and the sins of all the people of God. When he has sweat in the garden
before being betrayed, the great drops of blood falling to the
ground. Praying, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will, but thy will be
done. The agony of his soul, the weight
of sins not his own, made sin for us who knew no sin. He had laid upon Him the iniquity
of us all. Those things were done. Even in the garden we find that
those nearest to Him, of His dear disciples, they could not
watch one hour. They fell asleep. They fell asleep. Our Lord went through this. But in his life, in his ministry,
you know, he came to redeem and to save. He came as the great
antitype of all of the sacrifices. He came as the real antitype
of the temple. The Lord said, destroy this temple
and in three days I'll raise it up again. They thought he
meant the literal temple. he spake the temple of his body. And though he comes in that way,
the religious leaders of his day, the scribes, the Pharisees,
the chief priests, the elders, all of them, we read the many
accounts in the Gospels, how they sought to trap him. They
did not believe him. They did not receive his words.
They despised the people that did, the publicans and sinners.
You think of this, the Lord of life and glory and the highest
ones in the church at his time, the highest ones in the synagogue,
the ones with the most authority, the ones that were looked up
to, the ones that were guiding the nation, the ones that made
long prayers, that appeared unto men, religious and holy. They did not receive him. They
did not believe on him. They rejected him. Not the Romans,
not those that had no religion at all, but the ones that did
have religion, the ones that hold to Moses. Those were the
ones that rejected and spoke against our Lord. And yes, of
course, later on, it was the secular rulers, Pilate and Herod,
Pilate, though, of course, would have let him go. He says, I find
no fault in this man. But when his own people said,
if they'll let this man go, they are not Caesar's friend. And he feared the multitude. He feared what they were saying.
Tried to wash his hands of the whole matter, but he couldn't. And these were the things that
our Lord went through. We might think of the sufferings
of our Lord as the nails, the nails in his hands and his feet,
the thorns upon his head, the weight of sin laid upon him,
the hiding of a father's face. We think of the sufferings in
that way. that that which he endured by
those you at least expected, and even when hanging upon the
cross, mocked and jeered, he saved others, himself he cannot
save. If thou be the Christ, save thyself,
come down from the cross, and he is his own people, his own
nation, and in fact those for whom he came to save, he says,
And praise Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
They did know, if you'd have asked them, they said, yeah,
we're riling and speaking against this deceiver. We know what we're
doing. But they didn't. They didn't
know the Lord. They didn't know who he was.
But later, the day of Pentecost, many of them were pricked in
the heart. Many of them realized what they had done. and done
to the Lord. But this was then the path, the
experience of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to highlight this
morning because it is the path of the people of God that they
should have fellowship with the Lord in his sufferings. And I want to notice this in
our second point. fellowship with the Lord and
his sufferings. Turning to Paul's epistle to
the Philippians in chapter 3 and verse 10, we have this word,
that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, if
by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Fellowship with the Lord in his
sufferings. We might have fellowship with
someone on a holiday. We might have time with a person
Council together, walk together, have those things in common that
we speak about, experience together. In many aspects, many things. If we were to visit a hospital
ward, there in that ward, bed after bed, there were those that
had the same pains, the same operation, the same experience,
and they speak one to another. And what thing unites them is
that they've all experienced the same thing. They've walked
a very similar path. And Paul speaks of having fellowship
with our Lord, but in his sufferings. And especially, of course, it
relates to the cross and taking up the cross. Our Lord was emphatic
upon that, that the people of God are to take up their cross. They won't be Or some were, Peter
was crucified like our Lord and upside down. But most of the
people of God, they won't suffer crucifixion in that way. And even if they did, they couldn't
really know the sufferings of the bearing of sin like our Lord
did, or the hiding of his father's face. But there is the sufferings
that our Lord went through, and especially due to sin, that he
bore the sin of manning, made intercession for the transgressors,
that every child of God, when quickened by grace and born again
and brought to know that they are sinners, know that they are
lost, know what sin is, a bitter and evil thing, will then have
some knowledge of that aspect of the sufferings of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Most people, they'll be able
to tell you about the cross, but have no idea of any suffering
in themselves due to sin. Yes, some will know about the
consequences of sin, because they reap what they have sown.
But few, really only God's dear people, know what David says,
against thee only have I sinned. and done this evil in thy sight. And it is seen, sin is the transgression
of the law of God and is seen as against him, not against man,
though he may have done things against men like David had with
Bathsheba and Uriah, yet it was a sin against God that he was
convicted of. And so with the fellowship with
our Lord, we may ask ourselves, do we have anything in common
with our Lord Jesus Christ? If we have that fellowship with
Him in prayer and come before Him in prayer, have we anything
in prayer to speak of to Him that is common in our life and
with His life, with what we are going through and with what Christ
went through? Do we have those times? We bring
in prayer before the Lord, the things that are such a sorrow
and burden to us, like no doubt David did with Ahithophel, as
in the psalm where our text is, and with Absalom, and then to
realize that our Lord actually had these things in a much greater
measure. It is God's will and purpose
that his people will have that fellowship with the Lord in his
sufferings, and especially in this aspect of his sufferings. Remember in another aspect, years
ago, walking back from the local supermarket and carrying in each
hand a plastic bag with various things in it, and they were heavy
bags. Straps of the bags were cutting
into my hands and I felt I could hardly walk any further. The pain in my hands, the pain
in my shoulders. And then I suddenly thought of
our Lord upon the cross. What agony he must have had with
that nail through his hand. And I had an accident once where
I had a nail go right through my thumb. muscle, and the pain,
the sickness, the dizziness, that which came on me when that
happened. And to think our Lord had that,
not just in one hand, but both hands and feet as well, and his
back already scourged, and the pain of the thorns in his head,
and he could not calm down, he could not relieve that pain.
all the weight of his body hanging on his arms. He could not relieve
that. And I said to myself, you keep
carrying this and you carry it all the way home and you think
of your Lord and Master and what he endured. And I've never, never
forgot the occasion. And it was just a simple thing,
made me have some fellowship with the Lord in his sufferings
in that way. And so it will be the Lord has
ordained it in the other things, things that we pass through,
and especially in what is before us here, when those that are
very close to us, those that are near to us, those that we
may equate with the religious leaders of our day, those of
our fellow brethren in the ministry, those of our churches, those
that we walk with to the house of God, those of our families,
those of our loved ones, those that we would least expect that
we should have knocks from and suffer from, yet it is from them
that we, like David, have those knocks and have those trials. And sometimes we may be greatly
dismayed, greatly discouraged by those things that come upon
us. And maybe even question how the
whole Lord's plan of salvation and the things of God, they seem
so muddled and so disjointed and not have any plan or purpose
in them at all. But I'd say to you and to me
this morning that this is part of God's plan. God says, our
Lord said, woe is you when all men shall speak well of you. Our hope for heaven is not to
be based upon the approval of men. And when our Lord was speaking,
speaking of accept you, eat the flesh and drink the blood of
the Son of Man, You have no life in you. We read that many walked
back. They went back and walked no more with him. And our Lord
said to the disciples at that time, will you also go away? Will you follow these? And we
had some fellowship in that way. We've had those that have gone
back from the things of God. They've turned away. They've
turned away from us. They've turned away from the
Lord. And the temptation is, are you also going to go away? and the hurt, when there's that
divide in churches, divide in families, divide between brethren,
is not what we long for and look for. The Lord has said, by this
shall all men know that ye are my disciples indeed, in that
ye love one another. But there are sometimes those
things come in between, and that love is greatly strained. That
may be that we see The Lord's purpose in this, to have fellowship
with him in his sufferings, in this closest way. Our text is emphasizing the close
nature, the hurt because it was not an enemy. It was not one
that hated us. It was thou a man mine equal,
my guide and mine acquaintance, that made the hurt even more. And this is the point that I
desire to bring before us of fellowship with the Lord in his
sufferings. The Lord says that if they've
called the master of the house Beelzebub, what shall they do?
of his household. And if these things be done in
a green tree, what will be done in the dry? If they've done these
things to me, what will they do to you? He said, I've given
them thy word, and the world hath hated them. And yet, it
comes very close when it comes not the world. It comes in the
church, and the apostle Paul, He warns that there shall be
those even among you that shall bring in damnable heresies and
have those that he spoke of, diophranies, who would not receive
Paul, but cast out the brethren, casting them out of the church,
those that were truly the godly, and yet there were those that
came in that appeared to be Godly, they made out they were amongst
the people of God, and yet the sufferings of the people of God
came through them. And so, in their second point,
to think of the fellowship with the Lord in his sufferings, and
fellowship in this very point. David, a thousand years before
Christ, having faith, looking for Christ, seeing his day, and
yet he had fellowship with the Lord in what he went through,
what he suffered. No doubt he looked through those
things and knew that his greater son, when he came, he would suffer
in that way too. And we can see clearer, we can
look back We have the actual account of what the Lord went
through and what He did endure. And so when these things happen
to us, when we walk through them, may our minds immediately go
to the Lord, go to what was His path, go to what He endured. And instead of casting away our
confidence, though it does hurt us, Though it does pain us, though
it is like arrows, may it make us to understand a little more
of what the Lord endured for us, that we might humble ourselves
before the Lord, that He has seen fit to bring us to have
fellowship with Him, to know a little taste of what He endured,
to be able to realise in our own experience what His sufferings
in this way were. And may in that it be some help
in those things we may be passing through now, or those things
that we may yet be called upon to pass through, or have passed
through in years gone by. And this shows an interpretation
to it. Why? What purpose the Lord has
brought us into these things? which otherwise we would have
had no, no thought, no sympathy, no realisation what our Lord
endured in suffering for us, coming to this world, shedding
His precious blood, working out a righteousness for us. And really
that righteousness in all what the Lord suffered in this way,
He never reacted in a way that was sinful or wrong. How often
we react in ways that bring sin upon us because of what someone
has done to us, then it causes us to sin by our reaction to
that. But our Lord never did, never
did. Perfect, spotless, pure. And when we realise how hard
it is, to keep under our anger, our backbiting, our response, then we realise what a wonderful
thing and what grace and what purity and holiness was in the
Lord. If we were provoked like Him,
if we endured what He did, how different as sinners we would
be, and we have been, and we are, that the Lord came to suffer
and bleed and die for sinners. But these things, we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them that are the called according to his purpose. And these things,
these things, when it was thou a man mine equal, mine guide,
and mine acquaintance, they also shall work together for good. But let us come then to our third
point, in the path of some of the Lord's people that are before
us. We've spoken recently, I think,
of Job. Dear Job lost so much in a material
way of all of his family. his goods and then his health. And then he was wounded by what
his own wife said. Dost thou still retain thine
integrity, cursed God, and die? And then when his friends came
first with the intention of comforting him, and they sat down with him
for seven days and said nothing, But then afterwards, they said
much. And Job had to say, miserable
comforters are ye all. Their judgment was because God's
hand was on Job, he must have done something outwardly very
sinful and wrong. And because his hand continued,
the trial continued, that surely that was also an evidence of
God's hand against him and his walk wrong. It wasn't. The Lord clearly says that Satan
had moved him against Job without a cause. And there are several
times our Lord says that his servant Job was a righteous man. Yet Job was brought into these
fiery trials. He was given patience, endurance,
much teaching. and brought out of that trial
better than in the beginning. Fiery trials, but what was added
to that trial was the knocks he had from those that were really
close to him. Do we know that? The outward
trial, but then the knocks that we have from those we least expected. those in the family, those in
the church, those of near relation. Not only Joe, we think of Isaac. Isaac had to be wrought to realize
that one of his sons had come and sat before him and testified
that he was the other son. One of his sons had deceived
him. in that way and stolen the blessing
that was to be. Esau's Jacob had stolen it. Must have been a hard thing for
a father to think this of a son. Those of us that are fathers,
how would we feel if one of our sons, and a son, a son that we may hope to have a blessing
through, The elder shall serve the younger. The blessing, no
doubt, Isaac knew would come through Jacob. And yet find that Jacob is deceiving
him, trying to get that blessing. He didn't need to do that. He
would have had the blessing anyway, but God overruled it for good,
not because of his deceit, but in spite of it. But it must have
been hard. for Isaac. But Jacob, he reaped
tenfold that deceit that he'd done to his father. When Jacob
had to flee and flee from Esau for his life and went to Laban,
Laban his uncle, then Laban deceived him in the most tenderest thing.
When Jacob thought that he was marrying Rachel, Laban gave him
Leah and then changed his wages ten
times. If you and I went to work for
an uncle or fled to an uncle to be a help because we got trouble
at home, would we expect that he'd deceive us, take advantage
of us, in all of those aspects. Our dear Jacob had that. And then later on, we had that
with Shechem, how they dealt with the men at Shechem because
of Dinah. Jacob, he says, you've made my
name to stink. And then later, what Jacob's
sons did, to Joseph. They deceived Jacob, their father,
made out it was some evil beast that had taken him, and for 20
or so years he thought that he was dead. And then we think of
Joseph's path. Where did he suffer from? His
own brothers. They were the ones that threw
him into the pit. They sold him. Who was it then that had falsely
accused him? His own master, his own master's
wife. Who was it that forgot him? The
butler that he told the dream rightly to, been such a help
to. And yet he forgets to speak of
him and he languages still for another couple of years in jail. Joseph walked through this path
were those that were very near unto him that walked this way,
that deceived him, that were the cause of his troubles and
his sufferings. What about Elisha? Elisha had
Gehazi for a servant. And yet we find that when Naaman,
the Assyrian, was healed of his leprosy, the covetousness that
was in his servant, that he should then go behind Elisha's back. He should deceive him. When he
is asked where he went, I went, nowhither. unless you knew exactly what
he'd done. But how painful to have a servant, to have one that
had been with you, one that has seen the miracles, one that had
been the means of help in several times. And yet he's got so much
the world in his heart and so much desiring the things of the
world, he would lie and deceive. Would not that wound us if we
had someone like that, that was our servant or close to us? What about Moses? Moses had his elder brother and
sister Aaron and Miriam. And when the Lord exalts Moses
and brings them through The wilderness, the children of Israel, and Moses,
the leader. Moses takes an Ethiopian woman
to be his wife, and his brother and sister rise up, and they
say, hath God spoken to you only, but has he not spoken to us as
well? Who is it that is replying against
Moses? Moses had many that he had to
contend with, Takorah, Dathan, Labar, and others, but here it
is, Just close that hand. Aaron is his mouthpiece. His
sister Miriam. But the Lord stood for Moses. Miriam was smitten with leprosy. The Lord caused her to be put
out of the camp for seven days. But how trying that must have
been for Moses. It was thou, a man mine equal,
my guide, mine acquaintance, that has spoken in this way. What about Daniel? Darius, he'd
been a good servant to him, but Darius had been deceived by the
other princes to make the ruling that one that called upon any
other god but him in thirty days would be cast into the lion's
den? What if we had one that we were
serving faithfully and well, thought would be our protector? And yet they make a law that
is completely against us. What if we had got those in our
parliament and we thought, well, they're for us. They're happy
to have us worship freely and to served the Lord, and then
suddenly we heard that a law had been made in our parliaments
that prevented us from preaching, that meant if we did preach certain
things, then we would be put into prison. Wouldn't we be wounded? Wouldn't we think, well, we did
not expect this of perhaps a representative in parliament or those who were
standing for us? those that are close at hand. How we are so warned to not trust
in man, whose breath is in his nostrils, and put no confidence
in princes, even in those that seem to be our friends and seem
to be for us. So often we've seen in the past
the greatest wounds and hurts from them. We have the situation
described in the Acts of the Apostles, even amongst the Apostles. There had been a time in the
missionary journeys that Mark had gone back from them. He hadn't continued in the work. Paul and Barnabas, they were
very close. They had done many things together. But then there was a dissension
amongst them. In Acts 15 we read, when therefore
Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with
them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, certain other of
them, should go up to Jerusalem. That was against the Jews and
those that were against them at that time. But then they had
something much closer at hand. Some days after, Paul said unto
Barnabas, let us go again and visit our brethren in every city
where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they
do. And Barnabas determined to take
with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought not
good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia. That must have been hard, that
John Mark departed from them and just let them down in that
way, went not with them to the work. And the contention was
so sharp between them that they departed asunder one from the
other. So Barnabas took Mark and sailed
into Cyprus. Paul chose Silas and departed. being recommended by the brethren
unto the grace of God. Must have been very painful division,
separation, but no doubt God used it, that one went one way,
another went the other way. Sometimes we may have those divisions
that separate brethren, but God uses it and says that you brethren,
your work is to minister there, you brethren, your minister is
there and the Lord using it in that way to pair off and to join
together those of his people that he'd have to be with them. They're hard things, they're
bitter things, they're hard to understand. We sung in one of
our hymns not only about the knocks that we have from sinner
and from saint, but we have about pride, our middle hymn. You know, the disciples, our
Lord asked them at one time, what was it that ye were disputing
on by the way? And it was, who should be the
greatest? Pride is the greatest enemy. Often it is through pride that
there's troubles, strifes, divisions, amongst even the people of God.
We know that the Jews, it was through envy that they crucified
our Lord. Our best way is humility and
lowliness of mind. Our Lord says, take my yoke upon
you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye
shall find rest unto your souls. Who does he say that to? Come
unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden. And if that's
who we are, we are this morning, and we can point to those things
that make us like that, heavy laden. May we learn of the Lord
in meekness, to cease from pride, cease from man, and to have that
fellowship with the Lord in his sufferings. May the sorrows that
we have, even with the Lord's people, drive us closer to the
Lord, to love him more and to have fellowship with him at the
throne of grace, fellowship in the closet, fellowship with him
who suffered for us in the similar, same ways, much more intensely. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.