The Lord's hand of guiding everything
in this earth is quite amazing. We're about to enter into a series
of three or four messages that have to do with suffering and
sorrow, but it's a different kind of suffering and sorrow
than what you may be suffering over your classmates. But I want you to try to use
that sorrow that you feel and channel it into thinking about
this sorrow that we're dealing with tonight in our text. The
Ephesian brethren had great sorrow. They had great trouble in their
minds and in their hearts. And here's what Paul said to
them in Ephesians 3.13. He said, Wherefore I desire that
you faint not, don't be turned away, don't be discouraged, don't
be made to give up at my tribulations for you. This is what they were
suffering and sorrowful about and troubled about was the tribulations
Paul was suffering. He says they're my tribulations
for you. And he says, which is your glory. This is something to rejoice
in, it's not something to faint and be discouraged about. Now
years before this, the Apostle Paul had been in Ephesus and
he preached the gospel there because Christ sent him there.
And through his preaching, Christ called out many of his redeemed
children from among the people in Ephesus. He called them out
by His Spirit, gave them life, gave them repentance. And they
loved Paul dearly for the gospel that he preached. You know how
you love your father, your mother? You love the person who preached
the gospel to you. You love the person who God used
to bring the gospel to you like that. You love them like that. And they loved Paul. Remember
when Paul was leaving, he was going up to Jerusalem and they
wept on him. They fell on his shoulders and
wept at his leaving Jerusalem. They begged him not to go because
they knew trouble awaited him. But he said, I'm ready not only
to go to Jerusalem, I'm ready to die for Christ. And so he
went. They couldn't stop him. He went.
And so that was the last time they saw him. Now most of those
members were old by now. But there were some there, and
there were some there who knew that they had been called out
by the other preacher that God sent to Ephesus, and they didn't
even know Paul. They didn't even know who he
was. But the last time that these older believers saw the apostle
Paul, he was going up to Jerusalem. Now you imagine what their hearts
felt like when they got news, when the news came, And this
is the worst tragedy of all right here. The news came that their
beloved Apostle Paul had been arrested and thrown into prison,
beaten, mistreated, and he was awaiting death as far as he knew
and as far as they knew. And all these false rumors began
to spread throughout all the false churches around them. They
relished in this thing of Paul being cast into prison. And they
began to spread all the rumors and all the accusations and everything. It was sweeping through the church. And everybody was hearing these
things. Now here's what Paul was accused of. I'll just read
this to you. It's in Acts 21-28, but here's
what he was accused of. They said he teaches. This was
their issue. He teaches. He's preaching. He's
teaching. He's preaching doctrine. And
here's what they had an issue with. He teaches all men everywhere
against the people. That was the first thing. He
teaches all men everywhere against the people. And the second thing
they had a problem with, they said, he's teaching every man
everywhere against the law. And the third issue they had
with his preaching is, they said, and he preaches everywhere against
this place. And they had a problem with Paul's
brethren. Not only with his preaching,
but they had a problem with his brethren. They said, furthermore,
he has brought Greeks, he's brought Gentiles also into the temple
and he's polluted this place, this holy place. Now you just
imagine, imagine if I traveled to preach somewhere and word
comes to you that your pastor is in jail. And the Word comes back to you.
All the churches around us start talking about it. And they start
speaking of it, and it's publicized, it's known, and you're hearing
it everywhere you turn. And they're saying, here's what
your pastor's doing. He's preaching against God's
people. And he's preaching against the
law of God. And he's preaching against the
place where we worship. And he's taken up with rebels
against God. And he's polluted everything
that we hold dear and holy. Now, if you hadn't heard from
me personally and you heard that, that would trouble you. You would
begin to be troubled by that. It would cause some confusion
in your minds. Just try to imagine if that happened. It would cause some of your faith
to be shaken possibly. It would cause you to be very
discouraged by it. You know it would because if
we just see folks leave and depart from us, doesn't it cause you
to be discouraged? Doesn't it make doubts come in
your mind and fears enter into your mind and you begin to think,
is God in this? Is He in this? This is the man
that God used to preach the gospel to me. Was he preaching the truth
to me? And so they had all this confusion,
and without hearing from Paul personally, this confusion would
go on. And so that's the issue. That
was the situation here with Paul and the church at Ephesus. And
so Paul is writing this letter to them to set the record straight. And he's writing this to assure
them that his persecution was reason to rejoice rather than
to be discouraged. He's telling them that in spite
of the persecution, in spite of the scandal, in spite of the
rumors, this was also for their good. For their good and for
God's glory. He says, verse 13, Wherefore
I desire that you faint not at my tribulations for you, which
is your glory. Now here's my main point. When
we as believers behold God's preachers suffer persecution,
rejection, false accusations from men because of the gospel,
never become discouraged. but rather rejoice and continue
steadfast, believe in Christ and gather to hear his gospel.
I've titled this Rejoicing when Persecuted for the Gospel. Rejoicing
when Persecuted for the Gospel. We have reason to rejoice in
persecution when it's because of the gospel that we preach
and we believe. Now, we've studied the first
two chapters, and you would expect, after reading the gospel in these
first two chapters, that the statement would be this. For
this cause, I, Paul, have been gladly received for the gospel's
sake. But that's not how it begins.
Look at Ephesians 3.1. Instead, we read, For this cause,
I, Paul, the prisoner. Now we're going to look at more
of this later in another message, but I just want to take that
phrase right there. For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner. What is it that makes men so
offended by the gospel that they would treat somebody like they
did Paul? Throw them in jail, beat them, kill them. What would
make somebody so offended at the gospel that they would do
that? Do men get that offended today? Yes, they do. They do. They would do the same thing
today if they could. They sure would. What makes a
man get offended like that for the gospel? Well, let's just
take what they accused Paul of and that's going to be our outline.
Here's the first thing they accused Paul of. They said he preaches
against the people. That's what offended them first.
He preaches against the people. Now they meant he's preaching
against earthly Israel. They meant he's preaching against
us who are natural sons of Abraham, natural born Jews. That's what
they meant. But folks get offended for the
same reason. When they hear the gospel in
our day, what they hear being spoken is, he's preaching against
the people. He's preaching against me, he's
preaching against my mama, my grandma, my daddy, My preacher,
he's preaching against the people. That's what they hear. Why was
it that they heard this? It's because the gospel declares
that God's people, God's holy nation, God's kingdom, God's
church is not earthly. It's spiritual. It's spiritual. It's of God. Every sinner that's
born into this world is born in a state of sin. There is absolutely
nothing about our natural state. When you hear me say flesh, I'm
talking about our nature. I'm talking about what we are
as we're born in Adam. I'm not talking about our skin.
I'm talking about what we are as we're born in Adam. Our flesh,
our nature, everything about us. There's nothing about your
natural state. that contributes anything to
salvation. Nothing whatsoever. Not even
if you were a direct son of Abraham himself. Ishmael was born of
Abraham, he was Abraham's son, and God said he's of the flesh,
cast him out. He's not going to be a partaker
with Isaac. Not even if you were born in
natural Israel. Not even if you were of the tribe
of Benjamin, a Pharisee of Pharisees. Paul was all those things. He
was all those things. And listen to what he said after
God quickened his heart, regenerated him, gave him faith to believe
God, and granted him repentance from all of that. Listen to what
he said. What things were gain to me. He said, I thought all that was
gain. It was all natural. I thought it was gain. He said,
what things were gain to me, those I counted lost for the
excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And he said, and
I do count them but done that I may win Christ. I want to be
found in Him, in His righteousness, in His faithfulness, not in anything
I've done. You see, God's people, God's
holy nation is spiritual. Would you listen? Listen carefully
to me. God's nation is spiritual. It's not of the flesh. made up of God's elect chosen
people. That's what Paul began the letter
with. He said, God the Father blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places according as He chose us in Christ
Jesus before the foundation of the world. That's what God did
for everybody He calls out and gives faith. That's what He did.
That means I don't choose God, God chose me. We don't choose
God, God chooses us. We don't love God, God loves
whom He will and saves whom He will. And they're chosen out
of the Gentiles and out of the Jews. This holy nation, this
holy Israel, this true people of God, the true church of God
is made up of elect Gentiles and elect Jews whom God chose. You remember we all came from
Adam. There was no difference between any of us until God said,
OK, I'm going to call you the Jews. And they said, well, hey,
we're somebody. But God put the difference, and
it was to show God puts the difference between His people. Redeemed
out of every nation, not redeemed and left in them, redeemed out
of every nation, the Scripture says, by Christ's blood. free
born into this holy nation, into this holy kingdom by the Holy
Spirit of God, by Christ Jesus, by the incorruptible seed being
born again of His Spirit. Christ came and preached peace
to you, Paul said, which were far off, you Gentiles who were
way away and didn't know anything about God. And He came and He
preached to you that were near, that were in Jerusalem and it
was in the middle of religion. Why did He preach gospel to them?
They needed to hear it too. They didn't know it. And He said,
and through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the
Father. Now, understand this. Please
try to understand this. Get this. Try to get this. You're
going to hear folks say, well, I believe God's going to call
Israel. In the end, He's going to call
all Israel. Listen to what I'm about to tell you. To say any
natural thing contributes to our salvation. To say God will
call sinners in Israel because they are natural sons of Abraham,
simply because they live in Israel, is to attribute salvation to
the sinner. You understand that? It's to
attribute, it's to glory in the flesh. Salvation is by God's
grace. He may call some folks out of
Israel, but it ain't going to be because they're in Israel.
It's going to be because they're chosen before the foundation
of the world in Christ. That's why. Salvation is not
because of anything natural about us. Turn over to John 4. Let's
look at John 4. I want you to see this now. John
4. Turn to John 4. Turn to John 4. Turn to John
4. The woman at the well was a Samaritan. She was a heathen woman. She
worshipped idol gods and an earthly mountain that was way away from
Jerusalem, from Mount Zion, that earthly mountain in Israel. This
woman was totally separate from that mountain. She worshipped
in another mountain, worshipped idol gods of her imagination.
She was no different from a man sitting in the First Baptist
Church in New Jersey, on the front pew, worshipping his idol
gods, in his earthly temple, in his earthly church, in his
earthly kingdom, worshipping the works of his hands. She was
no different. No different than such a man.
Now listen to what... But, here's what made her different.
She was a chosen child of God. That made her different. And
she was about to hear the gospel at the mouth of the Incarnate
Word Himself. And she was about to be born
again and worship God, really worship God. Now look at what
Christ said. Verse 22, Woman, believe me,
the hour cometh when you shall, now catch this, neither in this
mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. You're going
to worship God, my father, not in this mountain and not at Jerusalem. Neither one, neither place. You
worship, you know not what. Would you listen to me? If you
hadn't been born of God, you worship, you know not what. Man
will say, well, I believe God this way. You worship, you know
not what. Listen, we know what we worship
for salvation is of the Jews. Now you hear what he just said?
He just said you're not going to worship the Father at this
mount or at Jerusalem in the middle of those natural Jews.
So what's he mean here by salvation is of the Jews? He meant what
Paul said in Romans 2 when he said he is not a Jew which is
one outwardly. natural born. Neither is that
circumcision that's outward in the flesh. He's a Jew which is
one inwardly. Circumcision is that of the heart,
in the spirit, not in the letter. He's a Jew whose praise is not
of men but of God. He's been made one by God. That's
a true Jew. That's a true Israelite indeed. Now look at verse 23. He says,
But the hour cometh, and now is. He's speaking this word affectionately
into her heart. That's why the hour was right
then. She was fixing to start worshiping
God because He's speaking affectionately into her heart. And He says,
The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers... You
mean there weren't true worshipers up there in Jerusalem? No. No. He said, The hour come when
the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship Him. God is a spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Now look
back at Ephesians 3. Paul had been declaring this
in those first two chapters. All through those first two chapters.
And so he states this, he writes here in verse 3, he says, By
revelation Christ made known unto me the mystery, the gospel.
And he says there in parenthesis, As I wrote before in a few words,
in those first few chapters we've studied, whereby when you read
you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. Now
look at verse 5. Which in other ages and time
past was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now
revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. Now
here's the mystery. That the Gentiles should be fellow
heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ
by the gospel. Look down at verse 11. He said
this is according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in
Christ Jesus our Lord. in whom we have boldness and
access with confidence by the faithfulness of Christ. He said
this was done long time ago by God. So when Paul preached this,
when Paul preached to men and he preached the doctrine of election,
he preached God's people or spiritual people by divine election. by
God electing them unto salvation in Christ. And He preached to
them that there are people free-born into this nation, this city,
this church, because they're born of the Spirit of God. They're
given spirit and they're given the truth so that now they can
worship God, really worship God, be a true worshiper of God in
spirit and in truth. And he said, and that by Christ's
work, by His blood, by this work of God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit, we're made one body in Christ, Jew
and Gentile. And when they heard this, it
offended them. Why? Why did this offend men?
Why does it offend men today? It offended them because they
were trusting in fleshly, natural, earthly things. They thought
they were the children of God because they were born of Abraham.
They thought they... Do you think you're a child of
God because your mom and daddy believes the gospel? It don't
necessarily mean so. You might end up in hell. Does a man think he's a child
of God because he's come to a building and sat down while true worshipers
are worshiping God? And he went through a fleshly
activity? That don't even mean a man's even entered into worship.
God's got to give you the Spirit and give you worship and let
you worship Him. And so when they heard these
things, it cut them to the heart. See, naturally religious men
are offended when they hear that nothing about them makes a difference
in their salvation. They might not imprison you like
they did Paul, but they'll separate from you, they'll leave you,
and they'll say, I'm not going to hear that anymore. And they'll
make a smokescreen of excuses. But the excuse, the real reason
for it is, they're trusting in their flesh. I don't care what
they say. So Paul says, wherefore brethren,
when you've heard this, and you hear these things, and you see
men reject me, and you see men go away, and you see men slander
me, and you see men beat me, he says, wherefore I desire that
you faint not at my tribulations for you. Rejoice! This is for
your glory. To glory in. Now here's the second
thing. They accused Paul of preaching
against the law. Because Paul preached what he
wrote in Ephesians 2. Remember what we studied there?
He said Christ alone fulfilled the law. He said Christ on behalf
of his people came to where we are and he broke down that middle
wall of partition. That middle wall was the law.
That was the enmity between us and God and between us and one
another. Because men used the law like a whip. Men used the
law like an axe. Men used the law like a club.
to beat down other people and exalt themselves. And Christ
came and fulfilled the law in every jot and tittle for His
people, crossing every T and dotting every I so that there's
not anything left to be done. It's fulfilled. It's fulfilled. He did it by the body and blood
of Himself. Why is that offensive to men?
Because men are trusting in their law keeping. Men are going about
to establish their own righteousness. They won't say that. They won't
say, oh I'm trying to come to God by my works. They've read
it in the letter and know that's not true. But in their heart
of hearts they're thinking, I got to do this. I got to do this. I got to, just for insurance
sake, just in case Christ ain't enough. And when they hear the
gospel that says Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes, they don't believe it. If they did,
they'd rest and quit working for salvation. And the other
thing men claim is they grow in sanctification by their law
keeping. And this is just an ignorance
of what sanctification is. Righteousness is obedience to
the law. Sanctification is in that new
man born of God. It's that new heart. And that
is grown inwardly by the Holy Spirit and has nothing whatsoever
to do with what's going on in the flesh. We're born of God. We're grown through the Spirit.
And the flesh prophets nothing. And men hear that and they hear
that preached. They hear we are the circumcision.
We're the true Jew which worship God in spirit, rejoice in Christ
Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. And you know what
this gospel does? It takes away the cloak. I don't
mean a cloak like you put on a coat to go outside and keep
warm. I mean what you wear at Halloween when you go trick or
treating. A costume. It strips away the disguise when
they hear it. Because it says, if Christ is
all righteousness and all sanctification, and I'm born of God, and I have
to be grown by God, and I have to be made willing by God, and
I have to be kept by God, and I have to be saved by God, and
I contribute nothing, that means I can't do a thing to save myself.
And men, whoo, it strips away that cloak and they don't like
that. Paul said, so this is why I'm in prison. This is why I've
been beaten. This is why I've had men get
me down and beat me bloody. This is why. Now thirdly, they
accused Paul of preaching against this place. Accused him of preaching
against the people. accused him of preaching against
the law and accused him of preaching against his place. Let me say
one other thing about that law. I'm for the law. The law is holy
and it's just. The law is holy so it's got to
be fulfilled by somebody who's holy in their heart. And the
law is just so it's got to be fulfilled by somebody who's perfectly
just. And Christ is that one, the only
one. All right, thirdly, they accused Paul of preaching against
this place. Paul declared they'd be at, by
that, Jerusalem and their temple. In our day, men do the same thing,
though. They say he's preaching against
this place. They hear this gospel preached, and they'll go, that
means my denomination's not right. How dare you preach against my
place? That means that My tradition's not right. How
dare you preach against my place? That means that my people and
my family and everybody that I've been looking to and trusting
in are not right. How dare you preach against my
place? Paul declared all God's saints
are fellow citizens of a greater city than any earthly Jerusalem,
heavenly Jerusalem. He declared that his church is
not, it's not a church in this earth. He has local churches
in this earth that he's established, but his church is those members
in that church who've been born of his spirit that belong to
that heavenly church, that heavenly Jerusalem. That's his church.
That's his kingdom. Paul declared all God's saints
are of a better temple The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb, Christ
Jesus, are our temple. And we're a habitation of God
through the Spirit. You see, He just systematically
went through and took everything man could rejoice in and strips
it away. That's what the Gospel does.
Today, men are just as offended. Naturally, religious sinners
are of the earth, so they want earthly things. They want things
they can see and things they can do. They want touch not,
taste not, handle not. They want an earthly kingdom,
an earthly nation, an earthly city, an earthly temple, an earthly
priesthood, and to offer up earthly sacrifices. Paul called that
elements of the world. He called it weak and beggarly
elements whereunto you desire again to be in bondage. He called
it a vain show, and he said, and it in no way mortifies the
flesh. You know what it does? It puffs
up the flesh. It's feeding the flesh. Religion without Christ, without
the Spirit, is a flesh feeder. It's a flesh grower, is what
it is. It don't mortify the flesh. All
that cutting away and all that trying to act like we've crawled. We don't look at anything that's
vile and anything that's corrupt. And the heart's just full of
whoredoms the whole time. And thinking he's righteous because
he don't do those things. That's flesh. If you're dead
with Christ from the rudiments of the world, he said, Why, so
living in the world, are you subject to ordinances, to touch
not, taste not, handle not, which all are to perish with the using
after the commandments and doctrines of men? Look at 1 Corinthians
2. 1 Corinthians 2. I got to hurry. Why do men love earthy things? He said, why do you do these
things that are after the commandments and doctrines of men? So let's
ask that question. Why do men love earthy things? Why don't
they rejoice that the city of God is heavenly? That it's a
new kingdom and a new earth and created in righteousness by Christ.
Why don't men rejoice in that? It's because the earthly man
doesn't have any discernment of spiritual things. This book
is spiritual and you've got to be born of the Spirit of God
to understand anything it says. Look here, verse 12. Now we have
received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is
of God. Are you there? Are you at this
verse? Huh? 1 Corinthians 2.12. We've received
the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God. Lord, I preached it to them.
They wouldn't look at your word. Wouldn't look at it. I preached
it. They wouldn't turn to it. While I was in one verse, they
was in another one. I tried to tell it to them. They wouldn't
listen. Which things also we speak, not
in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy
Ghost teacheth. Comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. This book, I'm looking at this
verse and I'm showing you what Paul was in prison for. I'm showing
you why men... I'm showing you something spiritual.
This book is of God. This book is of the Holy Ghost.
And I'm showing you here what God wrote. And I'm comparing
spiritual things with spiritual things. Why won't a man turn
to these scriptures and look them up with me? Why won't he
do it? I'll tell you why he won't do it. Verse 14. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for their
foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because
they're spiritually discerned. He's blind as a bat, that's why.
Can't know them. Hard heart. Won't be told to
do anything. I tell you what, if God tells
him he will. God tells him he will. I encourage everyone in
this place to use a King James translation. I do it because
it's like in a classroom. If I'm If you're studying, the
teacher's using one textbook and you're using another one,
you're going to miss stuff. And I do it for that reason. And
I know what people think. They think if I get a modern
translation, I can understand this. You can't understand it
with a modern translation. You can't understand it by the
words I'm speaking to you now, by my arguments, or by my illustrations. You won't be able to understand
this unless God gives you spiritual discernment. And if He gives
you an unction from the Holy One, you'll know all things then.
You'll know when you hear the gospel and delight in it. You
see, this word is alive. This word and the living incarnate
word can't be separated. And if you don't have a heart
to chew on this word, to read it and study it, you don't have
a heart for Christ either. They rejected because their affection
was on the earth rather than things above. Because Paul said,
they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh,
but they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. I'm
saddened for the folks who died in that car wreck, but you know
what? This right here saddens me a whole lot worse. A whole
lot worse. This is much more tragic, that
a man would be put in prison and beat because of the gospel.
Here's the last thing. Now, not only did they take offense
with his gospel, they took offense with his brethren. Lastly, they
accused Paul of polluting their earthly place because he was
seen in fellowship with Gentiles who that they considered unclean
simply because in their flesh they were Gentiles and had not
been circumcised. They considered him unclean because
of that. And so, earthly religious men only judge earthly judgment. Look at 2 Corinthians 5. They
only judge earthly judgment. And so they reject Christ's saints
because they don't see us measuring up to their standards. You know,
a man that rejects the gospel and leaves the gospel, he never
just leaves the gospel. He always has to throw out a
little bit from his tongue, a little bit of venom towards God's people
too. He does. Because they don't measure
up to his standard. They don't reach his high and
lofty plane and as good as he is. Christ said you judge after the
flesh. He said I judge no man. Look here. This is what happens
when you're born of the Spirit. Verse 16. Wherefore henceforth
know we no man after the flesh. Yea, though we've known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more after the
flesh. Therefore, if any man be in Christ..."
Here's why we don't. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new, and all things are of God, who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us
this ministry of reconciliation. That believer given a new spirit,
he knows that the flesh profits nothing, so now he's not looking
at other men's flesh. He's not looking at them and
saying, oh, they just don't love like they ought to. He's not
looking at them and saying, oh, I just wish that they served
more by doing this or by doing that and all those things. Old
confidences and old prejudices and old standards are all passed
away. They're in our flesh still and
we got to grapple with that old man still. He's a self-righteous,
God-hating rebel. But the new man sees all things
new. Now we know being made a new
creature by the blood of Christ and by the Spirit of God, all
things are of God who's made all things new. And now we look
to Him. Our affections are set on Him.
And yet that judgment, that fleshly man, he only judges fleshly judgment.
Paul did the same thing before he was born of God. He took letters,
he got letters, desired letters, got letters, so that he could
go to folks who didn't conform to his religion, and his race,
and his nation, and his temple worship, and his sacrifices,
and his form of worship, and in the name of God, saying I'm
doing this for God, and for the Messiah that's coming, I'm doing
it for His glory, he went out and he imprisoned them, and beat
them, and consented unto their death. And when God put his face
down in the dirt, showed him what he was, and showed him that
he'd made him new in Christ, and made Christ everything to
him, God used that very man to turn around and preach the gospel.
And when he did, his fellow brethren, now they did the same thing to
Paul that Paul did to men. They put him in prison and beat
him for that. And so Paul tells us here, brethren,
Verse 1, he says, for this cause, this is why I, Paul, am a prisoner. Did you notice how he says, I,
Paul? He says, I'm not ashamed of it. I, Paul, am a prisoner. That's right. For the gospel's
sake, I say to you, I, Paul, am a prisoner, he said. And yet
he'd have us to remember this. Yes, we might be persecuted for
this gospel, we might be rejected for it, we might be slandered
for it, but you know what? We were saved by this gospel.
So he says, wherefore, verse 13, I desire that you faint not
at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. Rejoice in it. Rejoice when your pastor is persecuted
for the gospel's sake, slandered, accused, ridiculed, and your
brethren are slandered. Rejoice for the gospel's sake
and continue trusting God and hearing that gospel. Amen.