So let's think, first of all, about the hatred that it would take to cause people to put Paul in prison, whip his back 39 times on five different occasions, beat him with rods, and stone him. You know, I believe he was being a little sarcastic when he said that he was in prisons more often than these false preachers. I highly suspect that none of them had ever been in prison before. Who has ever experienced any of this? Very few people would have ever experienced one of these things.

But Paul suffered all of them. And just imagine the outright intense hatred that would be necessary just to pummel somebody with big rocks, just pick up big rocks and throw them and hit people with them until they died. And then remember why they hated him. Everybody used to love Paul. They respected him, they revered him, And then Paul met the Son of God, and that's when his troubles started. His earthly, physical troubles.

Because that's who people really hate. Why do people hate the Lord Jesus Christ? Turn with me to John 10, 22. We ask this question and answer it from the scriptures often because It teaches us our nature. When we say people, we mean us. We mean sinners.

People hate the Son of God. Little children are, you know, taught to sing, oh, how I love Jesus when they're five and they don't even know who Jesus is. And when they're 15, they hate his guts unless the Lord has mercy on them. What they need to be taught when they're five is that they hate God, and why they do, and what the only remedy to that is.

John 10, 22, and it was at Jerusalem, the Feast of the Dedication, and it was winter, and Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you believed not. The works that I do in my Father's name they bear witness of me.

They admitted nobody could even talk. No other man could even talk like he did, much less do the miracles that he did. It wasn't that they didn't understand who he was. And when they asked this question, we've seen how that they asked him questions to trip him up in his speech. They're getting him to claim to be the son of God, which he did, and then they accused him of blasphemy for claiming to be the son of God. That's why they asked him. Not because they want to know who Christ is.

I told you and you believe not, the works bear witness, but look, verse 26, you believe not because you are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. I think about, these are not stupid people, the Pharisees, when it comes to earthly, when it comes to mental understanding of the scriptures.

You think about what he just told them. The reason that you don't believe me is because you don't belong to me. You're not mine. Because you gotta take the all rest of this in the context that he had said just before this. Very clear, my sheep. I've got sheep and there are those who are not my sheep. And you're the latter of those two. He told him that plainly. And look at verse 27. This one verse ought to destroy every false religion in this world.

My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Dead certainty. What characterizes religion is uncertainty. Uncertainty. The apostle wrote that it is of faith that it might be by grace so that the promise might be sure to all of his seed. Certainty, certainty. With religion, it's all up in the air. It's all which way, you know, what are you going to do? And look at look at the certainty of this, and then he just got through saying, here's why you don't believe me. My sheep do.

But you don't because you're not one of them. And I give unto them eternal life, verse 28, and they shall never perish. They shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Dead certainty, security, no contingencies, no up in the air. My sheep hear me, all that the Father give me, they come to me and then they do, I won't cast them out. No way will I cast them out. Same message. Here in John 10, my father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one then. He just said, I'm God. I and my father are one. If you've seen me, you've seen the father.

Same message, he always preached the same thing. Himself, who he is and what he did for sinners. Then the Jews took up stones again Stones again. That sounds like Paul's resume, doesn't it? Stones again. Here we go again. That's what we always do and will do until the Lord has mercy on us and reveals the truth to us, reveals to us who he is. Jesus answered, many good works have I showed you from my father.

You think about how he called them on this. He went around healing everybody. He did. What did he do that would cause them to stone him? Same with Paul. What did he do? How did he ever hurt anybody? How did he ever do anybody any harm? Which good work have I done that you're stoning me for? That's a tough question to answer, isn't it? But they diverted and didn't really answer the question, but they told the truth on themselves. Listen to it.

Showed you good works many good works have I showed you from my father for which of those works do you stone me? The Jews answered him saying for a good work. We stone thee not but for blasphemy Because thou being a man make us thyself God They hate him because he's God And the thing is they're saying you you're just a man and you're making yourself God to discredit him, but they knew he was God It's obvious that he was God He created things out of nothing. He made dead people come alive. He called him on that too, didn't he?

The works that I do in my father's name, they bear me witness. So why do people hate the Lord Jesus? Think of this. Anybody who robs God of glory, God hates them. He says it plainly. God hates those that work iniquity. And that's what iniquity is. God says, do this, don't do that. And we don't do what he says do and do what he says don't do.

Read Psalm chapter two. It's a challenge to his throne. All of our sin is a challenge to his throne, to his authority. When you are bowing to the authority of somebody, it means doing what they say. Not what you want to do, not what you think is right.

So God hates them with this caveat. If you are redeemed freely by the Lord Jesus Christ, because of his electing grace towards you in eternity, then God loves you and always has loved you. But apart from Christ, God plunged a whole race into spiritual death and depravity, because they intended to rob glory from God. That's what it was about.

You shall be as gods. Now consider this from the standpoint of those who rob God's glory. Remember Satan's false promise in the garden. You shall be as gods. Man's problem has always been, as long as man has had a problem, here's what it is. He thinks he's God. Then you meet God in the flesh. or as now in his word, when Paul is preaching to these people, and everything he says takes all the glory away from you. How does God feel when you take glory away from him?

What will he do about that? He takes every bit of boasting away from you. All of his teaching, everything that came out of his mouth makes you, me, them, everybody to be a sinful, wretched, depraved, hopeless, helpless failure who richly deserves the eternal fires of hell. Everything he says.

Now you think about that. In the gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ epitomized, that he himself was, the gospel that he spoke and the gospel that Paul preached, boasting for the sinner is excluded. It's absolutely excluded. Now, God did all that he did and told us this flat out, that he did it this way. He did everything he's done and said all that he said so that no flesh should glory in his presence.

Just as God hates all pride and boasting in the sinner, remember six things God hates. A proud look. A proud look. And so also, the would-be God that the sinner is hates Christ for taking the glory away from them. It's reciprocal. They don't want any of their glory taken away.

As soon as you say it's not up to you, they bow up. As soon as you say God chose you, you didn't choose him. If you're chosen, he did the choosing. They bow up because what? The glory is being taken away from them. Who gets mad when their glory is taken away? God does. That's what we think we are. The difference between us and God, of course, is that God is worthy of all glory, and we are worthy of absolutely none, none in anything.

But tell that in the form of the gospel to a lost sinner without Christ, and they will hate you just like they hate him. because it's his gospel and he is that gospel. And hating him, they're gonna hate you. That's what he said. The world hated me. Don't be amazed. Don't be shocked when they hate you too. It's very simple. The truth always is. It's very simple.

The Antichrist religion that preaches your will, your works, your way, will not tolerate the preaching of salvations by God's will, God's work, and God's way. They will not tolerate it. You could make seven points about that, why sinners hate Christ, but it boils down to that. They despise grace because they love, treasure, and trust their own works. Works destroys grace, and grace destroys works. Sinners don't want to be saved, they want to get saved.

Unless and until the Son of God stands them up like he did Saul of Tarsus, aka the Apostle Paul. They despise the God who chooses because they consider that to be their prerogative. It's a question of who's God and who's not. How did David define God? We've quoted this hundreds of times over the years. In all the different ways that David could have defined God, when they asked him, where's your God? He said, my God is in the heavens and here, let me tell you something about him.

He does whatever he pleases. The sinner claims that for themselves. I'll do as I please. It's all gonna be hinged on my will. You're not God though, and he is. They despised the Christ who redeemed every woman for whom he died because it takes their decision out of the equation. He decided, not you. And the wrath of the would-be God, the sinner, will come down on you when you press that upon them. The gospel exalts God and puts us in the dust. John the Baptist was just fine with that. He must increase and I must decrease.

What will God Almighty do to those who challenge his throne? What's he going to do to them? You've read the scriptures. You've heard the scriptures preached all these years. He's going to destroy them. And he didn't make any bones about that. He's going to absolutely annihilate and destroy them forever.

What do pathetic sinners do to someone who preaches the gospel that not only challenges all that they are and do, but leaves them hanging helplessly upon the mercy of Christ? They stone them. That's what they do. They beat them with rods. They put them in prison to shut them up. They can't rain fire down on heaven like God did to Sodom and Gomorrah. So they do what they can. with their own hands. They will absolutely destroy the Son of God, like they did, and everybody who preaches Him. That's what we're seeing in our text.

They whip them, they punch them in the face, they rip out their beard, they mock and ridicule them, and they stone them and they crucify them. That's what they do to those who rob them of their glory and salvation. Those who would dare to violate the almighty so-called free will of man. Paul says in our text that these false preachers, they can glory in their educational degrees, in their lineage, in their heritage. They can compare themselves to me and make me look like a fool. I will glory in that I have been included in that most blessed of all sororities, the fellowship of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, my savior, my God, redeemer.

Paul never mentions anything about his credentials, nothing about his oratory skills, which were considerable. He deliberately didn't talk the way that they did. Remember why? Christ. I'm determined not to know anything but Christ. The harling is going to flee when the wolf comes. But Paul said, by the grace of God, I face better wolves than these fools in Corinth. And I'm still not deterred. Still not deterred, I count not even my life dear unto myself that I may finish the ministry that the Lord's given me to preach the gospel of his grace.

And notice that Paul includes false brethren in the same list of perils as robbers and heathens. Verse 26. That's often the way Satan comes through false brethren. Judas, the Judas kiss. a show of affection, a false pledge of allegiance to the Lord, and yet conspiracy, treachery, and hatred. Satan comes that way often, and he's a ravening wolf seeking whom he may devour. And we see this all through the scripture. There's nothing more terrifying or more harmful than a person, a religious sinner, that hates God and his son. Nothing. Nothing even comes close.

So you see what Paul is using here to compare himself. He's making his own comparison now. They made theirs. And instead of trying to say, well, I'm more educated than you are. I studied under Gamaliel. And I have a Pharisee of the Pharisees. It's touching the law. I'm blameless. I got to the top. I could kill whoever I wanted to for preaching the gospel. I had great authority.

He doesn't ever say any of that. He just says I've been stoned a few times. I've been shipwrecked, I've been beaten with rods. I've been put in prison often. And let me ask you this, would you be more inclined, it's an interesting way to defend yourself, isn't it, to say everybody hates me? But you think about this, would you be more inclined to listen to the message of a man with a college degree, or somebody that was stoned for preaching his message?

And then when they got done stoning him, which by the way, in those days you might beat somebody with rods, with the intention of coming short of killing them. But you didn't stone people that way. You didn't kind of stone somebody. You didn't stone people up to a point. But would you be more inclined to listen to somebody that was stoned for preaching what they preach? and then after the last rock was thrown, got up and preached what he preaches.

You see, this is a college that these false preachers had never been to, and could never attend. They could never graduate from this one, because that's heart. That's, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he's able. to keep that which I've committed to him against that day. There's likely to be more sincere and honest and more likely to have courage of their convictions. The one wearing the fancy robes and having the golden rings for you to kiss or the one who's described in verse 27 of our text. in weariness, painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. That sounds like a career, you know, I'm ready to sign up for. How about you?

He never mentioned his education at one time. He was very well educated and very eloquent. But he counted all that, but no, for Christ's sake. He never mentioned being a Pharisee here. And you know, it's interesting because he only mentioned it in Philippians 3 in order to denounce it. That's the only reason he said I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees in Philippians 3 was so that he could totally denounce it.

The gospel that glorifies God in His free, electing grace, that glorifies God's Son in the successful, complete redemption of all for whom He died, and the gospel that glorifies God the Holy Spirit in His sovereign prerogative to quicken whomsoever He will, is not just another road to the same heaven, And that's also set forth clearly in our text. Religion is all fine and well with saying, oh, we're all going to the same place. We're just on different paths to get there until you tell them who Christ is.

And then they don't want to be on the path you're on. And they'll kill you for it if they could get away with it. Have people gotten better, you reckon? Do you think people have gotten more tolerant of the truth? Or are they just not hearing it? And when they do, there's consequences now, by the grace of God, that you can't just stone somebody, in this country at least, for preaching Christ.

So the same hatred is in the sinner's heart for God's Son, because He's God. because he's God's son. It's simply because of who he is. You say, well, it's limited atonement that they hate. I know, but that's the atonement that is provided by God. The other one is just somebody doing his best. The limited effectual atonement of Christ is how God redeems sinners. So it always goes back to who's God and who's not.

And in all of these manifestations, his sovereignty, his predecessor, he can't do that. Why can't he? Why do people hate that so much? You don't want God determining everything? Are you better qualified to do so than he is? Do you really want your destiny to be in your own hands? Really? Is anybody really that stupid? Yes, we are. All of us are. It takes the wisdom of God to show that the wisdom of man is foolishness, revealed in our hearts in the person of his son. It's just knowing who he is. It gets simpler and simpler all the time in our understanding.

Those who will not submit to the authority and the righteousness of Christ are preaching another gospel, which is not another. It's not an alternative. It's not the gospel of God's grace. It's not the gospel of God. It's not an alternative one. We're not on different roads to the same location with those who preach the imagined free will of man.

Christ is the narrow road and everything else. Remember this, there's not a whole lot of different religions. There's the narrow road, which is Christ, and then there's the broad way, which is everything but Christ. That's not complicated either, is it?

They can call themselves by all these different names and they can fight amongst themselves over dotting an I a certain way or crossing a different T. There's Thomas's gospel, my Lord and my God. And there's man's gospel. It's up to you. It's up to you. There's a vast difference.

What a vast difference is made by grace. Those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous hated the Lord Jesus enough and his servant. They hated the Son of God enough to imprison, beat, flay, and stone the Apostle Paul. But Paul, by the free grace of God, loved the Savior enough to be imprisoned and beaten and flayed and stoned. What a difference grace makes. And go back for more.

Paul mentions the fellowship of Christ's sufferings in Philippians 3.10.

That no doubt includes being a partaker of the benefits of Christ's own personal sufferings. No question about that. But clearly and manifestly from the scriptures, it also includes suffering and being willing to suffer for Christ's sake. Both of those things are a result of God's grace in Christ to include us with Him, to include us with Him. When He paid for our sins, we paid for our sins. We're included with Him in that we're in the fellowship of His sufferings in that sense, the sufferings that satisfied God for my sin. I'm in on that. Christ suffered it for me.

This if I'm willing to suffer for him in whatever way different ways these days Much less in many senses But if I suffer or I'm willing to suffer for Christ to be included in that what a privilege That's God's grace also To be included with him the key words are with him Paul mentions this fellowship, again, Philippians 3, we won't turn there tonight, but he mentions this fellowship of Christ's sufferings as being part and parcel to Paul pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God, which is in Christ Jesus. That's what the sufferings are about. Paul didn't like to suffer any more than anybody else does. But if pressing toward Christ brings with it some pain and some cold and nakedness and all the things that he mentioned, then so be it.

So be it. That's the heart that we're looking for. That's the heart that God gives. Without that heart, you will sell him out for way less than that. for way less than a little comfort from suffering, for 30 pieces of silver or much less, for a pot of soup when you're hungry.

It's all about him. You see that? What's the fellowship of his sufferings have to do with? I'm pressing toward him. And on that path comes the beatings, the imprisonment, the lashings with the cat-of-nine-tails, Stones. What would make a man as determined as Paul was? Christ. Paul's great desire was just to be with him. Again, that's the key, with him.

If I must be reproached, let it be this way. Hebrews 13, 13, let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. Prepare reproach that let's be with him in it If I must suffer Let me suffer with him Acts 540 if you turn there will close Acts 540 you're familiar with this, but it's good to read it again. I Is it my lot to suffer for the Lord? And there's a whole lot of different kinds of suffering, aren't there? Acts 540.

Skip the first phrase there because it harkens back to something that we're not reading, but start with the word and there, the second and. And when they had called the apostles and beaten them, They commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name."

That's the heart we've got to have. This again, this is not a history lesson. That's the heart, as the Lord given us that heart, that for his name, whatever. It just mentions beating them. You could almost miss that in that sentence, couldn't you? They let him go, they beat him, and then let him go. I told him to shut up about this Christ. And they praised the Lord for being counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

If you need to beat me again, let's get on with it so I can get on with the preaching again. That's the heart we've got to have. That's the heart the Savior gives. It's a heart for Him. It's a heart from Him. To be with Him now would be far better, Paul said. to be with him in this world, with him. Lord, if you're not going, I don't wanna go. Lord, give us grace to love you like that. Amen, let's pray.