It's insane. The Gospel says
it's normal. For you see these radical people
bent on living their lives for the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. We see people who call themselves,
we call them sometimes, fanatics. These are normal Christians. It is the normal Christian who
does everything and says everything and lives always pursuing and
striving to please God. Not so that God would be happy
with us, but that God would be glorified in us and through us. It is the normal Christian who
allows division for truth. It is the normal Christian who
stands bold and proclaims the gospel in the face of losing
their job. It is the normal Christian who suffers
because of their faith. And in the last four or five
weeks, we've dealt with suffering. We've been in Colossians chapter
one. Week after next, we will continue in Colossians. Brother
Stephen will come and bring some messages in Colossians, as will
other men and some of the elders will be bringing some of the
messages to you. And so today I want to close
out, if we will, not necessarily the first chapter, but it looks
like that, although there may be some other things that might
need to be preached there. I'll leave that up to the men
who are going to preach them. But I will close out the understanding
of suffering today. We've seen why we suffer, is
that it's an identifier with Christ. We've seen that we suffer
because Christ commands it. He ordains it. He gives it. It's a promise. It's a gift.
If you look under the tree of Christianity, under every bow
is suffering. Under every page of every box
wrapped is a box full of glorious suffering. It's beautiful. Every gift that God gives comes
with a grain of pain. Because only in the new life
will any of our pain be taken away. I believe Paul wrote Colossians.
Well, I know he wrote Colossians to the people of Colossae, but
I believe Paul wrote Colossians for a day such as this. in that a day where people are
enamored by false teaching, not just false doctrine, not just
improper theology, not just traditional mindsets that cannot be proven
with Scripture, but an ideal and philosophy over and over
and over again that runs quick through the veins of the American
church, that every time the heart beats, this false idea and philosophy
of what the body of Christ ought to be doing pumps through every
fiber and every molecule of its vein, of its body, of its core,
of its soul. And church, I'll be straight
with you. There's a church growth ideal
that needs to be stomped out in America. There's a program
driven ministry that needs to be cut off at the head. There's
a purpose driven life that needs to be burned at the altar. Traditionalism needs to be stamped
out and ran out of town with a stick. And the gospel needs
to be the herald. It needs to be the proclamation
of the church. Not just from the pulpit, but
from the pew. We just got through with a wonderful
conference two weekends ago. From the pulpit to the streets.
We should have done a double-sided name to that. From the pew to
the streets. See, from the pulpit to the pew, from the pew to the
street, that would have been a better name. Too long, yeah. Maybe the pew could do something.
Maybe sometimes the pews hear better than the people that sit
in them. I think that, sometimes for even myself. Man, this chair
that I'm sitting in has heard better than me. But by the grace
of God, we do hear. And friends, the body of Christ
is not to be about business. The body of Christ is to be about
Christ reflecting. We learn over the last few weeks
that suffering is a promise of God. Suffering is the purpose
of God. Suffering is for the people of
God. And this is His plan before the world began to illustrate
His love through suffering and to identify His people with suffering. And so that we suffer for the
sake of Christ, We fill up what is lacking in the suffering of
Christ. I will deal with that very extensively today. Hopefully,
prayerfully. And then we also, we suffer for
the sake of the church. And that we are able to edify,
we are able to equip, we are able to encourage each other
through suffering. We suffer for the sake of the
world. It is through suffering that God brings people to Himself. There are very few burning bushes
today. There are very few pillars of
fire and pillars of smoke. There are very few theophanies
where God just stands before men. But I will tell you, there is
a pillar of fire and a pillar of smoke and a theophany and
a burning bush forever living before us. And it is the Word
of God. And if the Word of God is not your platform for what
you're going to buy for breakfast, You are buying breakfast in vain.
And for so many people, they say, that is the most ridiculous
thing. If that's ridiculous to you, my friend, I pray you repent
and believe the Gospel. If holiness is one of these things
that fanatical old people, when they can't do anything else but
live moral, I pray you repent and believe the Gospel. Friends, my heart has bled for
you since the day I stepped foot in this pulpit. And it will continue
to bleed for you in prayer and supplication throughout the ages,
as long as there's breath in my body. And my heart will bleed
and my mind will bleed and my hands will bleed as I labor for
your sake. Because I know that you will
suffer. Some of you think you're in the worst place of life, but
friends, you've not seen anything yet. You've not seen anything yet. And friends, today I want us
to see what... Last week I looked at the leader's response to suffering
in some sense, and today I want to look at the church's response
to suffering, of which the leadership of a church is a part. Let's look at the Word of God.
I'd like to just take a moment, and if you don't mind, just bear
with me. I'm going to read the first chapter of the letter to
Colossians. Colossians chapter 1. Just listen. Listen to the Word
of God. God is speaking to you now. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus
by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and
faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae, grace to you and peace
from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard
of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have
for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.
Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the
gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world
it is bearing fruit and growing, as it also does among you, since
the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just
as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He
is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known
to us your love in the Spirit. And so from this day we heard,
we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled
with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to
Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge
of God. May you be strengthened. with
all power according to His glorious might, for all endurance and
all patience, with all joy, giving thanks to the Father who has
qualified you to share an inheritance of the saints in light. He has
delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us
to the kingdom of His beloved Son in whom we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of all creation, for By Him all things were created
in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones
or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through
Him and for Him. And He is before all things,
and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body,
the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in
Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through
Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in
heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross. And you, who once
were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has
now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death in order to
present you wholly and blameless, and above reproach before Him,
if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast,
not shifting from the hope of the Gospel that you heard, which
has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I,
Paul, became a minister. Now I rejoice in my sufferings
for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking,
in Christ's afflictions for the sake of His body, that is, the
church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship
from God that was given to me for you to make the Word of God
fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but
now revealed to His saints. To them, God chose to make known
how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of
this mystery, which is Christ in you. The hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone
and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone
mature in Christ for this I toil, struggling with all His energy
that He powerfully works within me. Wow! That is amazing stuff. It makes me want to just start
over and just stay all day Teach it again. Response to suffering. It is
through suffering, church, that you will grow. It is through
suffering, church, that you will grow deeper, deeper, deeper in
your love for Christ. It is through suffering that
you will grow with your deeper understanding of Him and deeper
in your knowledge of Him and deeper in the grace that He gives
you. It is through suffering. It is through suffering. There's a piece of text that
has been dear to my heart this week. It's not here in Colossians,
but it ties oh so greatly to the theme. In 2 Timothy 2, verse
19, it says, But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal. Here's the seal. You ready for
the seal? The seal is this, The Lord knows
those who are His. And let everyone who names the
name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Church, when we depart from iniquity,
it's going to cause us pain. And church, if we don't depart
from iniquity, it's going to cause us pain. Which do you prefer? The pain
of righteousness through discipline of a Father who saves you in
His mercy, or the pain of judgment? Which is it? There's a response to suffering.
We see Paul. We see him toiling, struggling,
hurting, being arrested, being shipwrecked, being stoned, being
left for dead, being whipped. Behold, I bear the marks of Christ. By His stripes were healed, the
prophet Isaiah shows. God's speaking there, seeing
it is not the physical healing on this earth that God is talking
about. It is the healing from His judgment
that He's talking about. Christ is a sufficient and perfect,
purposed Savior. That through His suffering, He
saved His people perfectly, fully, forever. Not possibly. Not probably. Absolutely. Christ
is saved. If He is not an absolute Savior,
He is no Savior at all. Hear that church. Everybody,
most people, I can't say everybody, most people will hear that statement
and they will say, Amen! And then they will walk around
in their lives as if that does not have power. What am I going
to do? What are we going to do? How
am I going to stop? How are we going to go? What is going to
happen here? Christ is sufficient. My grace is enough. It's either
one or the other. You can't have both. There is
no such thing as a sovereign God who paves a road down the
middle of His will and says, oh, please come down that road. Please, please, no, don't go
there. And He screams and cries because
His will is being thwarted. That's not a sovereign God. That's
a wuss who deserves not to be followed, but pushed off the
edge of the universe. God is sovereign for every road
we take is the road He purposed. And He promises to save His children. He will take and He will pluck
out of the world His own. And He will bring them to faith.
Many will profess His name. Many will say, I believe. But
you who say that truly do. Those are the words of Christ.
Depart from Me, brother elder. Brian said in the last special
conference we had in relation to discipline, the question is
not, do you know Christ? Nowhere is that! The question
is, does Christ know you? Beautiful. That'll preach all
day, brother. Straight from the Word of God. Does Christ know
you? The problem is that there's a
haughtiness in some spirit. Sometimes we get to the place
in our lives where we have this haughtiness in our heart, this
haughtiness in our mind. Oh, I know best. You do not know
best, little church. You do not know anything. You
only know what God reveals to you. And if you think you know
best and it flies in the face of God's Word, you have been
turned over. Your mind is clouded and your eyes are blinded and
your ears have been plugged and your heart is growing cold. And
you will sit and rot in despair until God takes you into judgment.
But in His rich mercy, He's caused us to be born again to a living
hope. See? You see the balance of what the Word of God teaches
in that though we are dead, Christ has made us alive. Do you believe
that this morning? Are you alive, church? If you're alive, where is it?
If you're alive in Christ, where
is it? That's the warning. You can sit and you can wail
and you can move down the conveyor belt of eternal life, but there
is no gold at the end if it is not God's grace. And friends, it ought to make
us shudder. We ought to fear God. You know
what's wrong with the world today, especially America? They don't
fear God, much less His Word. And they certainly don't fear
the teachers of His Word as the heralders of truth. You ought
to fear the message of the gospel. For it says, except by God's
grace you stand condemned from birth, from conception. In sin my mother did conceive
me. was a sinner from the womb, condemned
under the mighty holiness of God, who is just and right to
not save a soul. But this isn't a message that
the world wants to hear. You've got that right and it
will push the world over to damnation. And that's what the gospel is
supposed to do. Save those who it will save and
damn those who it should damn. For the Scripture says that God's
Word will not return void. For it will fulfill the purpose
from which it was sent. So if you hear the Word of God
and your heart goes cold, it is by the will of God that His
cold, hard heart is the result. Because He will not be moved
by your decisions. Only by His will. Only by His
pleasure. And the suffering that comes
to the church. The suffering that comes in our
lives. Sometimes it's because of the Gospel. Paul was suffering
for the Gospel. I've been preaching to you, church,
as a saved people. I don't preach to lost people.
There ain't a word written to a lost person in this text. Not one lost person ever received
this letter in 1st Century. It was written to the church.
Now, through that, God saves those who are lost. It is the
preaching and the teaching. But we don't cater this to the
lost. We don't seek out people in the
world and say, what would make them want to come to church?
That's an abomination before God's holiness. What makes people want to come
to church? That's the problem anyway. There's
no such thing as a church. This isn't a church. This is
a building that God will burn to ash when He returns. We are the church. You are the
church, beloved. And it is God working in you. and through you that bring others
to faith, through the right teaching of the Word, through the sharing
of the Gospel, through the words of not James, through the words
of not you, but through the words of what does Romans 10 and 17
say? It is the words of Christ alone
that bring salvation to the heart of man. It is not philosophy.
It is not argumentation. It is not debate. It is not apologetics. It is not tracts. It is not movies. It is not stuff. It is not things. Nothing. But Christ brings life. God has given Him the authority
to bring life. And friends, my heart for you
this morning as you suffer is that you don't suffer for these
things. There's two ways, two reasons for suffering. And I've
got a list here of a few that just popped into my own heart
through the years. Sometimes we suffer not for the
Lord's sake, but because of pride. You know what pride is? You know
what pride is? Well, some of you who just said,
well, I don't really have pride, you probably are suffering from it. Not me. How about anger? I'm not talking about the anger
people can see. You ought to have enough self-control as an adult
to be able not to express anger. But the anger inside, is it a
righteous anger? Or is it because something's
going on that you don't like? Are you angry because something
is going on in your life that's an affront to God? Then get angry.
Are you angry because it's just not the way you ordered it? Be
very careful. If you're suffering because of
that, God's going to bring it thicker. And even worse, worse than thicker
is that He lets it up and lets you go. And you just sit blissfully
unaware of the fact that you're just half, half happy and life
is just moving on down and then one day you stand before Him
and He says, I never knew you. How about disobedience? Well,
I'm not a disobedient. Really? You're not disobedient? How many times have you gossiped
this week? How many times have you said something about someone
who was not in the room that was not an exhortation or encouragement?
You are a murderer. If you've gossiped, you're a
murderer. No murderer inherits the kingdom
of heaven. No murderer loves his brother.
Why do you think John used that illustration about Cain murdering
Abel because of Abel's righteousness? Heck, that was number four on
my list. Disobedience. What has God called you to do?
God's called you to be humble. To submit. Submit to His Word. Submit to the elders. Submit
to the law. Submit to the President. God is the ruler of the world.
His Word is the final authority. Not tradition. Not Americanism.
Not decisionism. Not cultural relativism. God
alone. Jesus even says to the Pharisees
that the world will be judged by the Word. How about false teaching? Are
you suffering because of false teaching? Are you suffering because
you've been listening to false teaching? You've embraced someone
for so long. Do you know how many pastors
that I cannot listen to anymore, that I listened to since a child
because of their false teaching and erroneous teaching of the
Word of God, who are three times my age and more learned than
I'll ever be? But they're lost! The list is
too big to list! Of all the people that I used
to listen to, Once God showed me truth, there was only one
left. One. And although these other
men had a good word, there was no word in it. They'd say, well,
this is what the Bible wants you to do. Let me find a verse
that proves it. Yep, that'll work. Those three sentences right
there. That's called a pretext, and that's the devil's number
one tool. What does he do? He takes the
Word of God, and he takes it out of context, and he puts it
into a position to make it work for himself. It's the devil that
does it. God did not say you would die. God Himself was tempted. Jesus,
the God-Man, in the wilderness for 40 days. The devil came to
the author of the Word. How amazing! It's so stupid,
isn't it? And he saw the hunger. And he
saw the pain of the Christ. And he said, you have power to
create. Just speak to the stones and
make them bread. Why don't you throw yourself
off this cliff? That's what Satan said to Jesus. Just throw yourself
off. For the Scriptures say that He
will send multitudes to tend to your knee. That not even your
heel would strike the ground. Not one part of your body would
be. He uses the Word of God to manipulate people into staying
where they are. Ignorant and blind. And he uses
pulpiteers like me. And he did for years. Why am I hard on false teaching? Because that's what a pastor
does. That's his number one job, is
to fight against error. Everywhere you see in the text,
the elder's job is to fight against error, false teaching and ignorance.
That is their only call. Shepherd the flock. What does
it mean? Teach them to stay in the meadows
of God's truth. You see a sheep running out to
the edge. You see wolves in sheep's clothing.
And they say, hey, come on, this is sounding good. Give your money
over here. Give your time over here. Put your brain over here.
Put your heart over here. And then what happens? The shepherd
goes and says, no, that's not a sheep. That's not a shepherd. That's a wolf. We suffer sometimes
because we hold so dear to false teaching. We suffer also sometimes
because we are being disciplined because of sin in our lives.
We know what that sin is sometimes, most of the time. And that's
a good thing. Discipline means you are a child. Romans 1 says that God turns
those who are not His over to a reprobate mind and they just
live blissfully unaware of their sin. Or apathetic toward it,
rather. How about tradition? Sometimes
we suffer because of tradition. This is the way we do it. Friends,
if we took Baptist churches back to what they were founded on,
and like what I have done since I've been here is just teach
your statement of faith to you. As a matter of fact, it was your
statement of faith that God called me to this church. It was your statement of faith
that helped me see when the men of this church came and approached
me and said, would you consider being our pastor? See, the pastor
search committee did not find me. God brought me here. And looking at what the church
believed, I said, this is the first time I've ever seen a church
that believed this. I want to be obedient, God. Because my excuse was, I'm not
going to sit here and bury a church. And I haven't. And church, you're
alive. You're alive in Christ. Are you
alive? Are you individuals alive? Because
there is a body here and I'm looking at it. My prayer is that
you continue to live for Christ, walk in Christ, but you're going
to have to suffer. Fight tradition. Fight the cultural ideal of what
religion ought to be and stand for truth. Because it all boils
down to one big sin and it's idolatry. And the apostle James
says it's adultery. The adulterous people. And friends,
if there's never a time in your life where God just sort of puts
you down and you sit back in your chair or lay back in your
bed and you go, wow, I am such an adulterer toward Christ, then
friends, you're not growing in your faith. I'm honestly saying
that to you. That's dogma because that's Scripture. Scripture is dogmatic. This is
this. This is this. There is no such
thing as gray areas when it comes to truth. It's either right or
it's wrong. If it's almost right, it's wrong.
If we care what other people think about it and disobey God,
we're wrong. That's troublesome. But idolatry. We all need to sit down and see
and go, where is the idol in my life? What idols do I have
in my life? Because we have them. Sometimes
it's ourself. Sometimes it's our possessions.
Sometimes you want to see where idols are? Move. And then let
your truck run out of room and you go, now what am I going to
get rid of? Oh, that was great grandma so-and-so's. I've got a set of bedposts in
one of my minivans. Because they were my grandmother's. And I was told not to come home
without those beds. And yesterday I put my mother
to the test. God bless her. I pick on her like this. And
I said, Mom, I've got some bad news. What is it? I said, I don't
have room for the beds. I'm going to have to give them
away. Son, those beds were handmade for
your grandmother and her sister. I said, now they're going to
be handmade for somebody. And I was joking with her. She didn't know
I had them in the van. I said, what do you want me to
do? She said, well, if it means you can't do what you were supposed
to do, you just leave them. Throw them off the side of the
highway. I don't care. Is it? Well, you passed the test, Mom. Good
job. I'm bringing them home. I was just picking at her. But
you see, and it's not wrong to cherish things. It's not. But
there is some sense of idolatry there. It's the spirit of idolatry.
Not that we would ever choose beds over Christ, but some of
us might. And some of us have split relationships
over personal property. Some of us have split relationships
over methodology. Some of us have severed ties
with people because of inferences or words or different things
that have taken place. And friends, we actually make a mockery of
the power of God who says we restore all things. He restores
all things. He brings and He reconciles all
things to Himself by the blood of His cross. He's drawn us near
to Him and He's brought us near to God. And friends, that's an
amazing reality that we ought to live in every second of our
lives. And the stuff will come. The
anger will come. The frustration, the disobedience,
the gossip, all this stuff will come into our hearts and minds.
But it is by God's grace that we have the power to overcome
them as His children. These things cause suffering,
but to suffer for the gospel is different. See, the response
of the flesh in these things, when stuff happens, the response
of our flesh, this is the fleshly response. We get angry and sin. We get depressed. We lose all
hope and we put our hope in everything but Christ. We become frustrated.
We become hostile. But see, what does Paul say?
You who once were alienated, and I'm going to put the We put
it in front of every article here. And once we're hostile,
and once we're doing evil deeds. See, we don't have to do those.
We're free. We're a slave to righteousness. We're free from
the flesh, for it has been crucified with Christ. And it is not I
who live, but Christ who lives within me. And I live by faith,
this life, by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave
Himself for me. See, that's the joy. That's the
power. That's where it comes from. frustration, hostility, all these
things. Seeking a different teaching.
Friends, I've heard people through the years who will just say,
well, I'm going to go find a pastor who will agree with me. You know what that is? That's
an absolute answer to this, what I would say prophetic word of
God in 2 Timothy 4. Paul says to young Timothy, I
charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who
is the judge of the living and the dead, and by His appearing
and His kingdom, preach the Word. Be ready. End season. I've yet
to find an end season for the preached Word. And out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort. That's what pastors do with complete
patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people
will not endure sound teaching, but – listen – having itching
ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their
own passions. And will turn away from listening
to the truth and wander off into false teachings. Timothy? Always be sober-minded. And here's how the Greek portrays
this. Run into suffering. Do the work of an evangelist.
One who shares the good news and fulfill your ministry. See, the response of the church
to suffering should be this. What does Paul do? I rejoice. I rejoice. I rejoice in my sufferings. I rejoice. And I look at it.
It's everywhere. Rejoice. What does he say? Look at it. I've already read
the first chapter. May you be strengthened with all power according
to His glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy. May you be. He's praying. with
joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share
in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us
from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom
of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness
of sins." How many times do you need to hear that? Every day.
Every second of your life. Friends, it's the frustrating
times where your mind is furthest from the Gospel that that should
come to mind. I started something a few days
ago with the stressful, we had to relocate hotels. Very frustrating. I won't give you the reason why,
but we had an employee there that was very not nice to anybody,
not just us. Very not nice. And it was very
bad. So we just checked out politely
and moved on. That was a stressful day. And
what it did is it bred a lot of complaining and grumbling
in my home. You know? You know that look. All of us. All six of us. Everybody.
From Little Ruby up to me. Everybody was complaining and
grumbling about something. I don't like that. You know, because
we were just overwhelmed. But the reason that we were overwhelmed
is because we were sinning. We'd taken our mind off Christ
and we put our mind on the issues. We took our mind off the Gospel.
And so what did I do? I went to Philippians 2.14. Do all things without grumbling
and complaining. And not only did I write it out
and I stick it on the mirror or the picture in the kitchen, I put
it out in the Greek. And then I put the two hard words
and I put them in the Greek with their transliteration and the
meaning underneath and I stuck it up there. Why? Because I really, you know,
it's something for my family to see, but most importantly
for me to see. Because as the head of my home, I have to lead
the charge in doing all things without complaining. Not to make
sure my family doesn't. Because the one good thing you
can do, husbands, that will defy the gospel, is complain about
your family not living the gospel. I'm sick and tired of y'all not
always complaining. Let me complain about y'all complaining.
Stop complaining! I mean, you know. No, lead. Let
people see you. That's what leading means. They
see what you do and they hold to what you believe based on
how you live it. And there is a time to speak. But you ought to do it visually. We rejoice. Joy is the evidence
of the power of God which results in thanksgiving. He says we are
there, we are joyful, we are thankful. And the question is, and I've
said this even when I preach this text in verse 11 of chapter 1, are
you thankful? Are you thankful? Are you thankful
today? Are you thankful? Are you joyful? If you're not thankful and you're
not joyful, the question is why? Why are you not thankful? Why
are you not joyful? Something's wrong with your knowledge
of grace. Something's wrong when we can
sit. Now, we get there, but when we stay there, and when the issue
that causes ingratitude and unjoyfulness – I know I'm making things up
here – but when we overcome that by the power of grace, And then we see it. Whoa, I was
being foolish. I was being selfish. I was being
fleshly. I'm sorry. I repent. I trust
in the gospel. Then that thing that caused us
stress should not cause us that much stress the next time. Because
it's already been called out and defeated. See, you think you enjoy. Here's
the problem. We have this mindset where there's a will, there's
a way. That's the biggest bunch of junk that's ever been perpetrated
in America, and I used to buy it. You can determine anything
you want to do, but you can't make it happen. That's where
we get what's called the Word of Faith theology. I won't go
there today, but if you ever hear that, speak it, say it,
and it will be. That's garbage. And if you want
to spend about six hours with me, one-on-one discussing that,
I'll show you why it's garbage theologically. The problem is we think we can
choose to be joyful, we can choose to be happy. No, we can't, but
it's going to go just as far as we stub our foot. I'm going
to be joyful today. Ow! I'm going to be happy today. And somebody rams into your car. You get a headache. You get a
toothache. Or somebody says something to you, or you get in an altercation.
You see what I mean? If you think your joy is a choice
or something that you must decide to have, then you've missed it
completely. You've missed it completely. God is the giver
of joy, and if you don't have it, you need to test yourself.
You need to test yourself to see what in the world you're
burdened over. What burden do you have? What
is so bad that is causing you joylessness? What is so frustrating
that is causing your joy to move out of your life? What is it? See, put aside all malice. Put
aside all wrath. Put aside all these things. Put
aside your plans. Put aside your schemes. Put aside
all these things that are rooted from the flesh, that are rooted
from the enemy. Put them away and live in the
joy of the Lord. Crucify the will. Because it
is not free, it is bound to sin. And if you don't put it to death,
it will put you to death. The power of God is at work in
you, church. So rejoice, because you've understood that God has
done something for you and He's given you the gift of repentance.
So repent! Every time you sin. Every time. See, I look at it like this.
We ought to always be rejoicing and we ought to always be repenting. And we ought to repent of our
not rejoicing and rejoice over our repenting. And in all things,
rejoice. Count it all joy. What's the
second? Well, I know how many times I've
seen that in Count Across Stitch because it's such a play on words.
Count it all joy. Count Across Stitch. I see that,
but I don't ever usually see the second part of that verse.
Count it all joy, dear brothers, when you face trials. What kind of trials? Of any kind.
Thessalonians. Count it all joy. You know what's
crazy? It's hard to even understand
what that means, but when you've lived it, you've experienced
it, and you know what it means, but you can't articulate it.
That's why Peter says in his first epistle, the prologue there,
he says that we have a joy that is inexpressible. Because if we could explain it
away rationally, then we could bottle it up and sell it. And
many have done so. And it leads you to a false hope.
Many ministries bottle up and sell joy. See, I believe there's a dividing
line in the world. And here's the dividing line.
The dividing line is there's only two camps. There's only
two camps in the world. There are only two camps in this
room. There are only two camps listening to this sermon. Camp
number one are God's children by His grace and pleasure. And
camp number two are the children of the enemy who are going to
be destroyed. And I don't say destroyed, it's
not an annihilation. There are only two camps. We've
got this mindset in the world today that everybody's in one
big bag. And that God put a ladder down
there, and if you just climb out that ladder, you'll make
it out. And he's standing at the top going, please climb up.
That's wrong. It's not biblical. There's nowhere
in Scripture that it teaches that. And sometimes I believe
our suffering comes from our lack of understanding of the
Gospel, and we still think we must work to bring our joy. So we need to learn to suffer
well, with humility and with joy. And oftentimes there are some
people who are thinking that God's wrath will
be tamed by some decision or spiritual attitude. Sort of like
you can take a pill. Friends, there's nothing you
can do to take God's wrath away from you. But the charge to all men is
not a request, but a command to repent and be holy and believe
the gospel. And it is an impossible task
except that Christ was holy. And that if you are in Christ,
you are gods. And if you are gods, there will
be life in you. There will be joy in you. And
you will fight for that joy. by going back to the Word and
going back to the cross and going back to the Gospel and going
back to God. See, God has saved you out of Darton's church. God
has saved you when you could not see your own sin. He has
given you hope in Christ alone. Therefore, why must we do anything
but rejoice? What else is there for us to
do? Many of us suffer today because we failed to remember that Jesus
is the author of our faith. What does it say in Hebrews?
Jesus, look to Jesus. Doesn't it? The author and finisher. Some translators say perfecter.
It's not even a word. Finisher of our faith. So He starts it. He wrote it. He gives it. He finishes it. is the author and finisher of
our faith. Many of us suffer today because we don't hold on
to this. We hold on to some undergirded
false hope that we've lived with for so long that we just try
to do all sorts of things to bring joy into our lives. And
then we're told by false teachers and evil people that you've just
got to have enough faith. And if you have enough faith,
God will fix these things. That's garbage! Christ is faithful. He's already
won the victory. He is the victor over sin and
death. But we will suffer in this life, and when we do, we
will have joy because Christ has won. It's like being last
in a race, and you know if you're not first, you're going to die.
But you know that the guy who owns the race, that there's already
a winner, and he's going to bring you into the winning party. And you're not even strong enough
to get down the track. is there. Christ has gone before
us. Christ has suffered like we have,
but none of us have suffered. None of us has suffered like
Christ. God has the answer. And Paul
says here, I said this last week, verse 29, I toil, struggling
with all His energy that He powerfully works within me. And we see over in verse 10,
walking in a manner worthy of pleasing the Lord, bearing fruit
in every good work, increasing in knowledge of God. Verse 11,
you may be strengthened with all power. What power? His power according to His glorious
might. With all endurance and patience and with joy. And so we look and we see that
Paul is able to uphold and endure and then preach for others to
endure suffering because he has and holds and has been embraced
by the power of God. Have you contemplated the power
of God in your life? Are you alive with God's power? Are you alive in your willpower?
Your willpower will get you to the next ant bed. Your willpower
will get you to the next door jamb. Your willpower will get
you to the next carpet thread. But God's power will take you
faithfully home into His embrace. God's power will bring you from
death when your children die in front of you. God's power
will bring you for the loss of a spouse. God's power will bring
you through divorce. God's power will bring you through
all the trials of life if you are His children. And they may
never let up, but you can have joy in the midst of them. And joy is a command. See, it's
not about our determination. It's about God's declaration.
Those things just come to me sometimes. It's not about our determination.
It's about God's declaration. Joy is a command. And it's a
command that without Christ is impossible to uphold. But with
Christ, God has provided for those He has empowered the ability
to have joy. What is that power? It's the
gospel. Romans 1.16, For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God. And what does that power do?
That power transfers us out of darkness into light. Transfers
us out of death into life. That's what the power of God
does. See, without joyful suffering, we can't even display God's manifold
wisdom, which is where Paul says in Ephesians 3, the only purpose
of the church is to display the wisdom of God, which is joy in
pain. My people will suffer, but they
rejoice, for I am their victor. And I pray for you, for at least
nine years, that I can recollect people have not liked these messages. Well, why are you preaching that?
Because it's here. It's here. I rejoice in my sufferings. Is that as far as you've thought
of it, church? Well, Paul was different. Paul's
no different. He's a human being with greater
sins than all of us. How many of us have ever murdered
Christians? But yet, if you steal a penny,
you're going to be found guilty. If you're born, you're going
to be found guilty. If you're conceived, you're going
to be found guilty by your very DNA. So we are to rejoice, number
one, in those ways. That was the introduction. Number
two, and it's a short one, we ought to display the gospel.
Display the gospel. Make the gospel visible. Where
do you get that? Listen. Look what he says. Look.
I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, that in my flesh I
am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the
sake of His body, that is, the church. So in other words, there
is no longer a visible suffering of Christ with us except through
His people. So there's a visible suffering
of the people of God and that suffering displays the gospel. So the church is to be a living
display of the gospel. Not a bunch of stuff. Not a bunch of plans. Not a bunch
of different ideas and philosophies and methods. It's supposed to
be a people sold out that looks nothing like the world. One of the biggest lies that
the devil put in my heart Years and years and years ago, when
I first became a pastor, is that I felt like there was a way that
I could offer alternatives from a scriptural standpoint to what
the world had. You know, the world's got movies?
Let's do some good Christian movies to the best quality. The
world's got dances? Let's do Christian dances. No!
Don't be a part of the world. spiritualized things. You either
love the world and everything in it, or you love God. 1 John
2, 15-17. There is no ground for merging
these things. And people look at me and say,
you're crazy. I am crazy. And I'm proud to say that I'm
insane for the gospel. And I will stand until God strikes
me dead to say that anyone who tries to merge the world into
the church is apostate at best. Church, fight that. Don't ever
let someone bring the world into this pulpit. Stand up where you
are and say, apostate. It's okay to say that when the
preaching is not of God. Ironically, we've even called
people out of pulpits in apostate churches. That's fun. How does
that work? Well, that's not Christlike.
It most definitely is Christlike. We have painted a picture of
Christ today, church, that when we actually open the pages of
Scripture, the Jesus that some of us think or some of us have
thought is not the Jesus of Scripture, is not the God of Scripture.
The God of Scripture commands us to stand against false teaching. The God, the Scripture, the Christ
of Scriptures in Himself said He will divide people relationally
over doctrine. When you say Christ alone and
people say, yeah, but, there's a dividing line right there.
And I'll tell you one thing, I'm moving back to my homeland
and I've already divided with family over that issue. And I'm
gentle and I'm patient and I teach, but there will come a point where
they'll get tired of hearing that and they'll have to go.
Go. You cannot be in fellowship with
me if you put but after Christ alone. especially in the church. We display the gospel without
joyful suffering in closing. There is no possible way for
the church to display the gospel. As people come against you, church,
listen to me, church, maybe from the midst of the body itself,
you will suffer. If you hold fast to Christ, you
will suffer. If you hold fast to truth, you
will suffer. If you hold fast to the doctrines of grace, you
will suffer. You will be hated. You will be
persecuted. People will bring arms against you. People will
bring accusations against you. People will have corners. And
this is my corner. And my prayer is that this body
would not experience that. But to say that it won't would
be wrong of me. If and when – no, no – when you
do suffer for the gospel, if you revert to the flesh, if you
go into the flesh and you get angry and you start acting like
the world, you'll prove your immaturity. And thus, you will
have many, many, many more seasons of pruning ahead of you. I don't
know about you, but if I were a rosebush, I'd rather just not
be pruned. So we display the gospel, church,
through right suffering. We display the Gospel through
joyful suffering. We display the Gospel through
right teaching. We display the Gospel through
right warnings. These are all Paul's words. I
talked about them last week. Verse 28, Him we proclaim, Christ
we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone. With all
wisdom. Why? That we may present everyone
mature in Christ. Mature in Christ is not living
a moral life. Newsflash! Maturing in Christ
is not living a moral life. Maturing in Christ is that the
power of God is at work in you in such a way that everyone can
see that you are His. That everyone can see that you
are an exhibitor of grace. That everyone can see that you
are one who will actually stand bold and say, this is truth,
and I love you even though you disagree with me. that they can
see that even though you may come at odds with someone in
your home, or someone in the church, or someone in the community,
you lay down your will so that the world would say, that's the
weirdest thing I've ever seen. And thus display the nature of
Christ Himself who, though He was reviled, did not return with
revile, but He entrusted Himself, what does Peter say? To Him who
is just to the Father. Church, you will
suffer. And you will display the righteousness
of God. You will rejoice through your
suffering. And you will display the gospel through your suffering.
And people will see Christ not by the things that you do, but
how you handle the pressure. I know a lot of secular organizations
who do a much better job of morality and community than the church. But here's the final paste. Because everybody right now is
saying, yes, this is good. This is great. How do I do it? You can't. That's the kicker. But God can. Are you trusting in God to give
you your joy? Are you trusting in God to bring
to light? You know what God doesn't do?
God does not grow the one who's not eating. Bathe in the Word. Battle with
it and breathe it out. I've been saying that for a while. You won't grow without that.
And the Word of God should be the closest thing to your heart. You want to see the power of
God in your life? Then you've got to be in the Word. And please, don't use
your teaching time as time in the Word. That's wrong. Are you
intimate with the Word of God? Are you struggling with the Bible?
Are you going, what the heck does that mean? And I want to
know. Or I disagree. And I want to fix it. And I'm so irritated at so-and-so
that I need to get in the Bible just to get my mind off of it.
Whatever. Get in the Word of God so that God's Word will get
a hold of you. And it is through His Word that
you will learn The power of God. See, Paul says it is with His
power, His energy, powerfully. That's the adverb there. His
energy working powerfully in me. Is the energy of God, is
the power of God working powerfully in you? If it is, you'll have
joy and grace and kindness and gentleness. You go over there
to chapter 3. I read almost the whole chapter
last week. And you see the things that the
church does when the power of God is alive in them. You see
what happens. And the power of God, you will
display the Gospel, the power of God, you will display it by
what you learn from Scripture. You will display the power of
God by the power of the Gospel. This is the power. God became
man. He created the womb from which
He was born and then came out. into the world to live among
the people whom He created for His own purpose and His own pleasure.
And then He lived a perfect life, not even a thought of sin. And
He was crucified by the hand of the Father before the world
began. God created the world. He said, let there be light so
that Christ could die. That was His plan. The God that
created all things. The God that became like us.
The God that lived a perfect life. The God that was crucified.
The God that was judged by God. The Son that was judged by the
Father. And the power that raised Him from the dead resides in
you. You have the power of God within
you. It is something that you will
see evident in your life through your joy and through the power
of the Gospel working in you. There's a series in there. And look at verse 9, and I'm
done, I promise. I know we're flipping around, but it's just
a culmination. The writing builds. It's an argument
that starts from God our Father to here and continues. Verse 9, and so, so what? Because of everything we've heard.
All the good report. And friends, I'm leaving tomorrow
morning. And I want to hear good reports from the elders of this
church about you. And so, from the day we heard,
we have not ceased to pray for you, asking, listen to what He
asks, that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will
in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk. You see that? How am I supposed
to walk in Christ? filled with the knowledge of
His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you
can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing to Him, bearing
fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of
God. May you be strengthened. Verse 11, back there. Not wavering,
strong in the faith, enduring, patient, thankful, joyful. Do you have joy? Consider Christ, church, who
suffered by the will of the Father to display the righteousness
of God, and then how we, the flock, will suffer by the hands
of the imitator, by the hands of the apostate, by the hands
of the world, by the hands of the false teachers, by the hands
of each other sometimes as we fall into sin, by the hands of
the world as we share in the suffering of Christ. Church,
I pray that you hold fast. Hold fast. Love the brethren. Run off the goats. Laugh at the
pigs. And shoot the wolves. Protect
the flock. Christ is victorious. And all
that He has ordained for you will come to pass. Let's prepare
our hearts for the table of the Lord. Let's pray. Father God, we are overly humbled. Father, we are just overwhelmed,
really, when we contemplate all that You've done and all that
You've called us to do, for that You've empowered us to live our
lives the way You've called us, by faith, not perfectly, but
entrusting ourselves to You. And God, as we contemplate the
suffering of Christ, let us really reflect on our own hearts and
ask ourselves, are we suffering because of sin in our lives? Because we are disobeying God?
Because we are not trusting in the Gospel? Because we are not
having faith in Christ on certain issues? Are we suffering emotionally
and mentally on these areas? Father, or are we suffering just
because of the world that we live in? We just suffer, Lord,
sometimes because we live in a fallen world empowered by sinfulness. It's like it breeds it. The bodies
that we live in, even though it themselves are, you know,
our soul may be regenerated and saved, our bodies are still flesh
and they are going to die and they're going to be sick and
we're going to have these problems, Lord. Those are things that are
out of our control. Father, help us to discern whether
we're suffering just because or whether we're suffering because
of sin. in our own lives because of rebelliousness. And Father,
help us to identify on those areas where we're suffering because
of righteousness. Please, Father, help us to discern
the difference. But for it all, Lord, we know, as I preached
months ago, that we entrust ourselves to you in such a way that we
know that everything you have ordained will come to pass. And Father, that You work out
all things for good for those who are Yours. We thank You for all the trials
of life. We thank You for sending Your Son to pay the penalty of
sin that we might be forgiven. And Lord, I pray that we would
look deep within our hearts and ask ourselves where we stand
with You. Father, that we stand justified
before you because of your grace, or we stand condemned. And Lord, if you show us today
that we stand condemned, would you bring us to life through
your power, and to help us believe and trust in Christ alone. And Father, my prayer is, as
we take the Lord's table, We would reflect on the sacrifice
that You brought, the perfect lamb. And Lord, that we also
then would look internally at how we have related to each other,
Lord. Are we at odds? Or are we at peace through the
blood of Christ? Let us work out difficult doctrines with
love. Let us work out things that are somewhat dividing with
humility. But Father, We as Your children,
Lord, pray that You would keep unity and that we could embrace
each other with tears of joy even as we disagree passionately. Let us walk in the knowledge
of Your grace and be filled with the fullness of Your power. Lord,
that is my prayer. As we examine our hearts to reflect
on the cross and what Christ has done, May this be what Your
Spirit is doing in us. And it's in Christ's name. Amen. I know we've gone a little bit
over. Just a few more moments. We don't want to rush it. My
last message, I can go over a little bit.