Well, good morning everyone.
If you wouldn't care to open your Bibles with me, the book
of Mark. Mark chapter 13. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord and praise his name and ask his blessing. Our father,
which art in heaven, holy and reverent is your precious name.
And Father, we've gathered here together this morning in the
name of your son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We've gathered together
to worship him. We've gathered together to lift
up his matchless name. And Father, I pray that you would
bless us with your spirit this morning and enable us to truly
worship you. We pray that you would deliver
us from just going through the motions of religion and feeling
good about ourselves because we did something religious. Father,
enable us to worship you from the heart, I pray. Send your
spirit upon us. What man is sufficient for these
things? But Father, as we look into your
word, how I pray that you give us eyes of faith to see the Lord
Jesus Christ and a heart to believe him and love him and would paint
after him. Let his name be glorified in
everything that is said and done here this morning. What we pray
for ourselves, we pray especially for our children's class right
now that you'd bless our children in hearing. I pray you'd bless
Dan in teaching. Father, use this time, we pray,
to plant the seeds of faith in the hearts of our young ones.
How we pray that you keep us faithful to always point them
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we Pray a blessing
for your people that you brought in the time of trouble and trial.
Father, we pray that you would give them a fulfillment of your
promise that you'll never leave nor forsake your people. That
you've sent these trials for your glory and for our learning.
Father, cause us to learn what you're teaching us and then deliver
as soon as it could be thy will. All these things we ask, Father,
in that name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It's for his sake and his glory
we pray. Amen. Now, I've titled the lesson this
morning, The Believer's Road to Glory. Now, every believer,
we have different experiences as we go through this life, but
generally speaking, our stories are always gonna be very similar.
You know, the way you came to first hear the gospel may be
quite different than the way someone else came to first hear
the gospel. But you heard the same gospel,
didn't you? In that respect, it's very similar. The Lord crosses our path with
the gospel and gives us faith to believe him. Generally speaking,
that's true for every believer. And the same is true for many
other things that we experience as we're going from here on our
pilgrimage home. And the first thing is this,
it's very common to every believer. The believer's road through this
world is a road of trial and heartache. Our lesson begins
in verse nine with Mark 13, where the Lord says, take heed to yourselves
for they shall deliver you up to councils and in the synagogues
you should be beaten and you should be brought before rulers
and kings for my sake, for testimony against them. Now, We hate this,
that it's so, but we ought not be surprised that the believer's
road through this life is a road of trouble, trial, and heartache. None of us want heartache. None
of us want sorrow. None of us want these hard trials
that the Lord sends our way, but we ought not be surprised
that we suffer them. First of all, because suffering
and heartache is just the natural effect of sin. Sin, when it is
finished, bringeth forth death. That's all it can produce. The
only thing that sin can produce is heartache and separation from
God. Every ailment that we suffer
in these bodies is because of sin. Everything that's wrong
in this world is all because of sin. It's just the natural
effect of sin that's in us and sin that's in the world around
us. Whether you're a farmer or not, you're gonna face thorns
and thistles, aren't you? Thorns and thistles in every
way, physically, in our bodies, and in our hearts. It's just
the natural effect of seeing the sorrows that it produces.
Secondly, we ought not be surprised that the believers rode through
this life as a way of trial and heartache, because that's exactly
what our Lord promised us. Look over at John chapter 16. John 16, verse 33. These things have I spoken unto
you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall
have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
And in this world we're going to have tribulation. Our Lord's
overcome the world. We have peace in Him. but this
world is gonna give us nothing but tribulation and heartache.
The Lord promised us that it would. Now look over Philippians
chapter one. Philippians one verse 29. For
unto you it is given in the behalf
of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for
his name's sake. We're all very thankful that
it's given to us that God would give faith to his people. Faith
to believe Christ, faith to trust him, faith to rest in him. Faith
is a gift of God, and we love that. I mean, if you've received
that gift of faith, I mean, what a gift. A gift to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, to see him in his word, to be able to
rejoice in him when you hear him preach. But what's also given
to us, just like faith, is trials. The Lord gives his people trials,
and he gives them to us for our good. There's just no denying
it. The way you and I learn best
is in the furnace of trial, is under the heartache and difficulty
of trial. It's just the way that we learn
best. And the Lord sends these things, these trials, us for
our learning. So we'll learn more about ourselves. We'll learn
more about our own weakness, on our own insufficiency, our
own inability to handle anything on our own. And he also sends
these trials so we'll learn something about our Savior. We'll learn
something about his power to deliver. You learn something
in trial that you can't learn anywhere else. the preciousness
of His presence with you. When He gives you a sense of
His presence in time of trouble and trial, that is so sweet,
it's so precious to your heart, and you couldn't learn that any
other way but in the furnace. The Lord teaches us in times
of trial how faithful he is, and how sufficient his grace
is, and how sufficient he is. We can only learn those things
in times of trouble and trial. They're for our good. And they'll
increase our faith. The more we learn of Christ,
the more we learn of his power, his sufficiency, the more we
learn of our weakness, the more we'll trust him. So our faith
is increased. So, Lord's gonna send these things
to us as a wise father who's gonna give us what's good for
us. Next, look back at John chapter 15. We ought not be surprised
that the way of a believer, his road through this life is a way
of trial and heartache, because as we go through this world,
we're going through a world that's gonna hate us for Christ's sake.
John 15, verse 18. If the world hates you, you know
that it hated me before it hated you. If you are of the world,
the world would love his own, but because you're not of the
world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hateth you. Remember the word that I said
unto you, the servant's not greater than his Lord. If they've persecuted
me, they'll also persecute you. If they've kept my saying, they'll
keep yours also. But all these things will they
do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that
sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not
had sin. But now they have no cloak for
their sin. It's been uncovered. There's
no excuse for it. He that hateth me, hateth my
father also. Now the world hates the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now people say, I love Jesus.
I love God. But it's the God of their imagination.
It's not the God of this book. The world hates the Lord Jesus
Christ because he exposes our sin, our sin nature. He exposes
how rotten that we are. The world hates him and they
hate the gospel, the gospel of Christ that tells the truth,
that tells the truth about the sinfulness and the depravity
and the utter helplessness of our sin. The world hates that.
The world hates the gospel that declares a sovereign savior that
saves whom he will, when he will. The world hates that. They want
their own chance to be saved. They wanna be able to earn it
themselves. The gospel hates the Lord Jesus
Christ and it hates the gospel that declares who he is. And
they're gonna hate anybody who loves him. They're gonna hate
anybody that believes that gospel that they hate. You're just not
gonna be able to get along with them. The world is gonna hate
believers because as our Lord said here, we're not of this
world. Now I know we were born into
this world, we live in this world, but the believer while we're
in this world is not of it anymore. Now we have new citizenship. We have a new citizenship. We
have a new king. We're going to a new home. And
this world is just not our home anymore. We're not from here
anymore. We just don't care about the world like we once did. Because
we're just passing through it. We're just going through. We're
not from here anymore. This is not where our heart is
set anymore. Our heart is set on home. Our
heart is set on the Savior, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, and pressing towards him. That's where our heart's
at, and the world can't understand that, so it's gonna hate you
for it. But here's the other thing about this way, the believer's
way is a road of heartache and trouble and trial. We know it
has to be because of our sin, the sin that's in the world,
it's the natural effect. We know we're gonna have these
troubles and trials because the Lord promised us that we would
have them. But when they come, oftentimes
we're very surprised, aren't we? Even though the Lord promised
them to, we're surprised because it comes from unexpected sources. Look back in our text in Mark
chapter 13. These things, when they come
from unexpected sources, they hurt all the worse. Look at verse
12. Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the
father, the son, and the children shall rise up against their parents
and shall cause them to be put to death. When this trouble and
trial and heartache and affliction and hatred comes from the world,
I mean, we don't like it, but we can understand it. But when
it comes from our family, I mean, now that's just tough
to take, isn't it? And everybody here has family
members somewhere that do not believe the gospel. They hate
the gospel. They hate what you love. And
I know it can cause friction in your family. And if you allow
me to give you a piece of advice, this is my advice to you. If
you're in that situation, don't cut them off. Don't cut them
off. We're not a cult. You don't have
to cut your family off and your loved ones off because they don't
believe, but you don't have to do that. Now, if they do it,
maybe there's nothing you can do about it, but you've told
him about the gospel. You've told him about Christ.
If they tell you, I don't want to hear about that anymore. As
painful as that is to your heart, let it go and just enjoy your
time with them. If it's your parents, you got
one set of parents. If it's, a brother or a sister, you got
one family. You got one family. And who knows,
maybe by being around them more, maybe they'll finally come to
hear something. It could be. But don't cut them
off. If that's going to happen, you
make them do it. Don't you do it. Don't cut them off. But I
tell you why that conflict is always, you know, we ought not
be surprised even when it comes from our family. Because isn't
that the story of scripture? Look at Galatians chapter four. Galatians chapter four. The flesh
and the spirit, they're never gonna get along. Galatians four,
verse 29. Well, let's start verse 28. Now
we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But
as then, he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that
was born after the spirit, even so it is now. Whoever it is that's
born after the flesh is always gonna persecute him who's born
after the spirit. It happened with these two brothers,
Isaac and Esau. We ought not be surprised if
it happens to us. And I tell you what is even more
of a shock, and maybe even this makes it even more painful, is
the unexpected source of these heartaches and troubles and trials
that's part of the believer's road when it comes from other
believers. There are other people that claim
to be believers. Many times, they really are believers. There comes up something where
they'll Slander you they believe something about you that said
about you That's not true. They get mad at you for some
reason that's not the gospel But you know, they try to say,
you know, make it a gospel issue And it hurts I mean, there's
just really nothing that hurts worse than that hurts the hurts
the heart of a believer You hope it's temporary, you know, the
the example that everybody uses in scripture is Paul and Barnabas
I mean, these are two believers And they split. A lot of hard
feelings when they split. I don't know if they ever got
back together, but I sure hope they did. Don't you hope they
did? And when they did, don't you
know that they just hugged each other and all that was forgotten?
You hope it's temporary. But even if it's temporary, it's
still gonna hurt. It's still gonna hurt. And it's
gonna shock us, at least it will me. It's gonna shock me every
time it happens. But we ought not be surprised,
should it? It's the believer's road through this life. And I'll
tell you, the biggest for sure area that this trouble and trial
and heartache is gonna come from is the believer's path home.
It's the civil war going on inside of us. Everywhere you go, if
you're a believer, you take these two warring parties with you.
the flesh and the spirit, the old man and the new man. And
they're always fighting. They're always just in such a
battle with each other. And you can't escape. I mean,
no matter where you go, you can't escape it. The flesh will never
do anything but want to trust the flesh. And the spirit will
never do anything but trust Christ. And those two, since they're
at opposite end of the spectrum, are always gonna fuss and fight. And it's gonna make you miserable. all through this journey home,
it's gonna make us miserable till we finally lay this flesh
down and go be with the Lord. Till then, it's all with that
kind of heartache and trouble and trial that is always gonna
be in you, going on inside your heart. But here's the second
thing. The believer's road to glory,
it's a road of heartache, trial, and trouble, but it's the road
of God's purpose. Look in our text at verse 10.
For the gospel must first be published among all nations.
Now, everything that we go through, everything that is in the path
of a believer's path home is all for the glory of our Savior,
whether we understand it or not, whether we ever see it or not.
The things that the Lord's telling his disciples here that they
must go through, they had to go through it. so that the gospel
would be preached everywhere. This world cannot come to an
end until every one of God's people have been brought to faith
in Christ. And the way they're brought to
faith in Christ is the gospel being spread. Everything God
does in the events of Providence Every one of them, whether we
think they're significant or insignificant, they're all being
worked together by our God for this purpose, for the salvation
of his elect, for the glory of his son, that his son be glorified,
that everybody that the father gave him to save in divine election
during man's time on earth, they're all saved. And they'll be glorified
together with Christ when the whole thing's over. And everything
that's happening in our lives, everything that's happening in
the world around us must happen exactly the way it's happening
in order to accomplish God's purpose. Now, I can't see that. I can't explain that. I can't
explain why things that we think are so bad and so painful and
so sinful and so wrong. Why is it that the Lord did that?
I have no idea. But I do know this, it's so that
his purpose will be accomplished. That all the people that he gave
to his son to save will be saved. Now when we're in times of trouble
and trial, now this is God's purpose for us. And you know
one of the purposes of trial, I don't know what God's purpose
is in every trial that he sends people or every trial the Lord's
ever sent me. I can look back and see some
things, I can't see everything, I don't know, but I do know one
thing. In times of trouble and trial, if you're a believer,
the gospel's sweeter to you than it ever was before. If times
of trouble and trial make you bitter and make you want to leave
the gospel, I'm very worried. But in times of trouble and trial,
if the gospel is sweeter to you than it ever was before, that's
evidence of having a believing nature. And after you've gained
that hard-earned experience, and the trial's over, and now
you've got this experience, and you can look back, as you go
forward, the gospel will still be sweeter to you, won't it?
Because of what the Lord's taught you about yourself and about
Him. This happened according to God's
purpose. Everything in the path of our
road home is all according to God's purpose. can settle us right down. It'll
settle us right down until the time we get riled up again, but
knowing that this is God's purpose for me, it settles us right down,
doesn't it? Thirdly, now this is true for
every believer. I don't care where you find them
and what age that you find them, this is true. Every believer
on their way home, the Lord will give them grace sufficient for
every trial that he sends them. Verse 11, the Lord says, but
when they shall lead you and deliver you up, take no thought
beforehand what you shall speak. Neither do you premeditate, but
whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye.
For it's not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost. Now, let me take
first an error that men have used from this verse and used
to promote laziness in the ministry. The Lord's not talking about
preaching here, not one bit. A man who is a preacher is a
workman. He's described as a workman.
And buddy, if you're a workman, you better work hard. If you
don't want to be ashamed, you work hard. Paul talked about
the work of the ministry, the work of praying, the work of
seeking God's message from the word, the work of begging God
to let you do what is impossible for a sinful man to do, to preach
his son and to glorify his son, to pray for the people that God's
given you to preach to, the work of the ministry. He's not talking
about that. The Lord's not talking about
that here. You better get, if the Lord called you to preach,
you better get to work at doing it, because it's hard work. But
this is what the Lord is teaching. When these different trials and
heartaches come up from all these different enemies that are surrounding
you, when that happens, the Lord will give you the words to answer
them. The Lord will give you grace
that's sufficient for that particular trial, that particular moment.
Don't try to figure out ahead of time what you're going to
do if a certain trial comes up upon you. Now, we've all done
that, haven't we? We think, well, if this trial
comes on me like I see it come upon other people, this is what
I'm going to do. Well, now you don't know what you're going
to do until you're put in that box, do you? You don't know.
Don't try to figure out something that you can do that'll get you
out of trouble, that'll get the heat turned off from these enemies
or get you out of this trial. Don't plan ahead now. What it
is that you're going to do to get yourself out of this trial
that the Lord sends you. When it comes, you trust the
Lord. You trust him. to give you grace
when you need it, to give you grace for that particular trial. I mean, the example that is frequently
used is dying grace. I knew a dear lady one time who
was going into surgery, and she was crying. And all of a sudden,
as they were getting ready to take her back, she stopped crying
because she thought of this. Well, I don't have dying grace,
so I must not be going to die. The Lord will give you grace
particular to what you need at the time. And here's another
piece of advice from Frank. You take it or take it or leave
it. When you're in this time of trial,
it's coming, it's coming. The Lord's promises us trouble
and trial, and he's also promised us grace sufficient for the hour.
Don't pray, Lord, take this trial from me. I guess that's part of what we're
praying. But will the Lord answer that? I don't know. I don't know if he will or not,
because he hasn't promised that he would. But here's what you
can pray for. If you would pray and ask God
to do something, ask him to do what he's already promised to
do in his word. Ask him to give you grace that's sufficient for
this moment. Each moment, Lord give me grace
sufficient for this. You'll be surprised how much better you'll be able
to endure the trial if you're praying that the Lord give you
grace sufficient, because he will do that. I know he will,
because he promised in his word that he would. All right, here's
the fourth thing. Now, this is true of every believer.
I don't care how difficult the path is. I know some people's
path Seems easier than others, doesn't it? Some seem harder
than others, but no matter how difficult the path, the believer
will persevere to the end. Verse 13 in our text, for ye
shall be hated of all men for my name's sake, but he that shall
endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Now this is a
commandment to every believer, endure to the end, don't quit. Don't desert. You be a soldier,
a hardened soldier, and don't desert. Don't desert. Don't flee
from the battle. This is a command to us. Don't
quit. And boy, you've seen examples
of people who have. Lot's wife, she didn't quit outwardly,
but in her heart. And she looked back longingly
to Sodom, didn't she? Demas hath forsaken thee. Paul said he loves his present
world more than the gospel. Diotrephes, he wanted the preeminence. Judas, who knows what was wrong
with that fellow, he wanted some money, he wanted whatever, you
know. Every last one of them quit to disaster for their souls,
a disaster for their persons, and it's all their own fault,
isn't it? It's all their own doing. Judas can't blame the
Lord from hell and say, well, you know, I was foreordained
to do that. No, it's his own fault for quitting. You know
the parable of the sower, the stony ground here. Boy, the seed
took root and sprung up real quick, didn't it? Oh, it grew
so fast. Grew a whole lot faster than what was planted in the
good ground. But then the sun came out, the heat of the day.
What we're talking about here, the heat of trial and trouble
got turned up. And it quit. It died. It faded away so quickly. The
command to us is to persevere to the end. Everyone who's saved
will endure to the end, no question about it. Well, how do I persevere
to the end? What is it for the believer to
persevere? It's to keep trusting Christ,
to keep looking to Christ, and don't get your eye off Him. Keep
looking to Him, keep going to Him. The writer of the Hebrews
said, Hebrews 3 verse 14, We're made partakers of Christ if,
and here's the evidence that we've been made partakers of
Christ, we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast until
the end. Now, when you first came to Christ,
what was the beginning? What was it that was your confidence
at that time? Well, it wasn't how much you
knew, because you didn't know nothing. It wasn't how long you've been
in the faith. You're bathing in Christ. That's
not it. It's not all of what you've done for the Lord, because
you haven't done anything. The beginning of your confidence
was this. Christ came to save sinners,
and I'm a sinner. And I trust Him. He said His
blood will forgive all my sin. I trust Him. He said that He
will be with me, that He'll teach me. You believed those things
and you were so happy to arrest everything in Christ, weren't
you? Now don't think now that you've grown in grace, Now you
can handle some things on your own. No, you keep going just
like you did on the very first second, trusting Christ alone,
looking to him alone, trusting him alone, being glad that you
can't do anything on your own, but that you trust Christ to
do it all. That's how you began. See, that's how you finish. That's
enduring to the end. Peter said to whom coming, not
just that we come to Christ once, but constantly. Be coming to
Christ. Constantly keep looking to Him.
Constantly turn away from what the flesh wants you to trust
in. Constantly be coming to Christ. Paul told Timothy, hold fast
the form of sound words, which thou have heard of me, in faith
and love, which is in Christ Jesus. You hold these things
fast. You hold them fast. Don't let
them slip. The writer of the Hebrews said, let's hold fast
the profession of our faith without wavering, hold it fast. Now don't
waver, hold it fast, do not surrender, do not retreat. That's the command
to us, we must persevere, isn't it? But we can't do it. The Lord has to be the one to
make us to persevere. The Lord is the one who's gonna
keep his people and he's gonna get all the credit and all the
glory for it. And everyone who believes Christ,
I promise you this, they will persevere to the end. They will. Because Peter, we looked at this,
I believe it was last Sunday, if you believe Christ, you must
be saved. You must be. Then you'll persevere
to the end. You'll never perish because what
you're gonna find out is, oh, I was held in the hand of the
Savior all along. And what he promised is exactly
right. No man can pluck them out of
my hand. No man can pluck them out of
my father's hand. That's why I persevered. It wasn't
because I was so strong in grace and so strong in myself. It's because God kept me. God
kept me. And I have absolutely no doubt
who it will that will endure to the end. Who's going to endure
to the end? I know. It's everyone the father
chose to save in divine election. Every one of them will endure
to the end. God's gonna see to it. Everyone
Christ came to save, every last one of them shall be saved. He shall save his people from
their sin. If Christ saved you, you're gonna
endure to the end. You can't quit because he won't
let you quit. I'll tell you who else I know will persevere to
the end. Sinners, sinners. The self-righteous won't, because
they'll start trusting themselves. But Christ came to save sinners. And what will a sinner keep doing? They'll keep looking to Christ.
They'll keep trusting to Christ, because they've got nowhere else
to look. They've got nowhere else to trust. If you're a sinner,
you'll persevere to the end. I know this, everybody that the
Lord calls will endure to the end. Now if I call you, if somebody
else calls you, you feel called because of many other different
fleshly circumstances, it won't last. But if the Lord calls you,
you're gonna endure to the end because he's faithful. Everyone
who's been given the gift of faith in Christ, they will persevere
to the end. If God gave you faith in Christ,
it's genuine and it won't quit. If you genuinely believe Christ,
you'll always believe him. You'll endure to the end. And
when you get to the end of the road, you know what you'll call
that road? That was just light affliction compared to the glory
that awaits me with Christ. That's how this road's gonna
end up for every believer. All right, hope God bless that
to you. Okay.