All right, if you would open
your Bibles now again to Philippians chapter one, passage Brother
Dan just read for us. The title of the message this
morning is The Believer's Rule of Life. I trust this will be
comforting to your soul, will point you to Christ, and find
very useful to your hearts. I took my title from verse 27
where the apostle says, only let your conversation be as it
becometh the gospel of Christ. And that word conversation there
means how you conduct yourself. What is our rule of life that
guides how it is we conduct ourselves in this life? What is the believer's
rule of life? Well, the answer is the gospel
of Christ. That's the answer. And I hope
to spend the next few minutes showing you that from scripture.
I often tell Janet, I'll come out of the study We talked about
what I was doing there. I said, well, I've got an outline. I know what I want to say. What
I want to say is this, the believer's rule of life is the gospel of
Christ. And I tell her now, if I can stretch it out about 35,
40 minutes, I got a message. So let's see if we can do that. Number one is this. The believer's
rule of life is to further the joy and faith in Christ of others. Verse 23, Paul says, for I ministrate
betwixt two. having a desire to depart and
be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide
in the flesh is more needful for you. And having this confidence,
I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your
furtherance and joy of the faith, that your rejoicing may be more
abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.
Now, it sounds like that the spirit had given Paul some indication
he's going to be set free from prison. Remember, Paul was writing
this letter from prison in Rome. The spirit must have given him
some indication that he would be set free from prison and he
would at least for a while be able to continue preaching Christ.
And this was what Paul was thinking. If I'm going to be set free from
prison, I'm not going to be put to death here, but I'm going
to continue on in this life. My desire is to be able to get
out of this prison and preach Christ. preaching so clearly
and in the power of the spirit that others will believe him,
that others will be given faith in Christ. And that those who
believe might be given more faith in Christ, that they might believe
on Christ more fully and that God's people would find their
joy in Christ. I don't want just people just
to believe this, uh, this doctrine I preach. I want them to be happy
to find their joy in Christ. That's what Paul is saying here.
And we can all understand the apostle having that attitude,
can't we? But you know, this attitude is
for each of us. It's not just for a preacher, it's for every
believer. And you might think, well, how can I help others have
more faith in Christ? How can I help others have more
joy in Christ? I understand, I see how a preacher
can do that, you know, from the pulpit, but how can I do that?
Well, here's how. It's by living the gospel. It's
by acting like we believe, we really do believe what we say
we believe. It's by talking about the gospel with our brethren.
Let me give you a few examples. The gospel that we believe and
that we love declares a sovereign savior, doesn't it? We know our
God is sovereign. The Lord saves whom he will,
when he will. This is what he said, I'll have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. of compassion on whom I will
have compassion. Wasn't that the very definition
of sovereign mercy? God giving mercy is a free gift
to whoever it pleases him to give it to. We believe in a sovereign
savior. We believe in a sovereign God
who rules over everything, every, the most minute event, the big
events and the most minute events in his creation, God rules over
that. We believe that, don't we? Well,
then may God's sovereignty, the rule of your life. Talk about
our sovereign God with each other. You know, we need to be reminded
of this from time to time. Our God is in control of all
things. As crazy as this world is, I
mean, it's getting crazier by the day, isn't it? As crazy as
this world is, brother, this thing's not off the rails. This
is not being a train wreck. Matter of fact, it's just the
opposite. God's trains are running right on schedule. Right on schedule
because our God's sovereign. Something hadn't happened outside
of his purpose. Something hadn't happened to
derail God's purpose. God is doing whatever it is that
he's doing, however it is that it's affecting our lives, to
accomplish his purpose. It's true today just like it
was with the Apostle Paul and the things that he was suffering
and the way people were acting, the different preachers were
acting when he was there in prison. Somehow this thing is gonna work
out to the furtherance of the gospel. The very same way it
affected Paul in prison. God hadn't changed. He's still
doing the same thing today. Somehow this thing is gonna work
out to the furtherance of the gospel. Somehow God's using this
to save his people. Somehow God's using this to bring,
it might just be one, but he's using this to bring one of his
sheep to Christ. And he's using this thing to
bring this creation to its ultimate end, to bring all of his people
to glory. That's what God's doing. It's
not one nanosecond off schedule, because our God's in control
of all things. Now don't just give mental agreement
to this thing, the sovereignty of God, and then go out there
in the world, don't just believe it here in this room, and go
out in the world and act like God's not sovereign. Live your life
trusting the Lord. who does all things well. Our
God does a lot of things I don't understand. And I know this,
he's done it well. I know that. Live without excessive
fear, without excessive worry about what's going on in this
world. Give it its proper attention. You know, we're all citizens
of the United States of America. Give these issues your proper
attention so you know how to vote, you know how to do those
things, and then let them go. Don't give excessive worry and
fear to these things. Why would we give excessive worry
to something our God's gonna take care of just exactly right?
I mean, have you ever thought about it that way? Why am I giving
such excessive worry to something I know God's gonna take care
of just exactly right? And when you talk to other believers,
your brethren, especially those who are in times of real trial,
Paul's writing a letter here to believers who are in times
of real trouble, real trial, being persecuted for the sake
of the gospel. When we talk to our brethren who are in times
of trial, don't just talk to them about the sovereignty of
God. Well, you know, God's sovereign. You know, God's done it too,
because God's sovereign. Well, I know that. But when you say
it that way, you make it sound like God does what he wills.
without any regard for his people. And that's not true. Talk about
how our sovereign God does his sovereign will in his love for
his people. In his love for his people. Hadn't
our God proved he loves his people? He chose his people. He elected
a people to save. They're an undeserving people. And the father chose them anyway.
I'm telling you, that's love. He proved his redeeming love
when the Son of God gave himself. He didn't just take money out
of his wallet to pay the price. He gave himself to pay the price
for his people, to redeem them from their sins. That's love.
The Spirit's proved his love in regenerating love. When he
comes, it takes the preaching of the gospel and gives life
to a dead sinner. There's suddenly life where there
wasn't there before. There's suddenly interest where
there wasn't there before. And he dwells in the heart of
that child of God. Dwells in their heart. The Holy
Spirit of God dwells in your heart if you believe Christ. That's condescending love, isn't
it? Self-sacrificing love. God does
that for his people because he loves them. Now talk about that
love for God's people. God is sovereign in Everything,
everything. And the one who's sovereign over
everything is the one who loved you and gave himself for you.
He hadn't quit loving you. He'd not suddenly start acting,
you're not in this trial because God's suddenly acting hateful
towards you. No, he's accomplishing his sovereign
will. And when he is accomplishing his sovereign will in everything
that he does, this is also true, he's touched with the feeling
of our infirmity. He's touched with the feeling of the infirmity
of his people in everything. Now live trusting the one who
is sovereign, who cannot fail, and who loves you and gave himself
for you. Let your conversation, let your
conduct be that of a loving person. I believe God's sovereign, and
he loves his people. I promise you, if you do that,
you'll further the joy of people around you. I promise you. Next,
the gospel declares a savior who saves his people in sovereign
mercy. God's mercy to his people is
undeserved. God has not given his people
what they deserve. Isn't that wonderful? We believe
that, we love that. That's the doctrine that we preach.
You cannot preach the gospel without preaching God's mercy
to his people. That he did not give his people
the punishment they deserve because he gave it to Christ our substitute.
I'm telling you, that's the greatest display of mercy we'll ever be
told. And our hope, a hope of salvation,
the only hope we have of being saved is God's mercy to his people. That's what we believe in. Well,
make God's mercy your rule of life. Talk to each other about
God's mercy, especially to those who are in times of trouble. Sometimes it feels like God's
beaten us. Sometimes it feels, hmm, it hurts. will remind them God hadn't run
out of mercy. God's still merciful. He's not
punishing you. He already punished Christ, your
Savior, for your sin. He's not punishing you. Now,
He's teaching you. He could be correcting you, but
He's not punishing you. He sent us these trials to teach
us something, to teach us more about Him, to teach us to trust
Him more, to teach us to wait on Him. Now, wait on Him. Wait
on Him. God hadn't changed. He's still
merciful. He's still being merciful. Live
trusting the Lord who's merciful to sinners. Let your conversation,
let your conduct be that of a merciful person. Be merciful to others. Give them a break. Be merciful
to others. Be easy to get along with. Don't be so harsh all the time.
Be easy to get along with. I promise you if you'll do that,
you're going to further the joy of those around you. I promise
you you will. Next, the gospel declares this.
The sin of God's people has been forgiven. It's been cleansed
by the blood of Christ. You just can't make too much
of the blood. The father punished his son fully
for the sin of his people and the blood of Christ sacrificed
has made it so that sin is gone. So that it does not exist. Because
of the blood of Christ. Because His blood cleansed away
all the sin of His people. Cleansed away all the stain of
it. Every spot of it. The Father is just and He's right
to forgive the sins of His people. Because the blood of Christ put
it away. Now don't we love that? That doctrine? We love preaching
that and hearing that and thinking the blood of Christ. He shed
His blood for me on purpose. will make the forgiveness of
sin and the blood of Christ your rule of life. Talk to each other,
remind each other, this thing's sure. Oh, especially to those
who are in trial. They need some encouragement.
Remind them, your body's hurting. Your mind's hurting. I mean,
I know you're in trouble, but this thing of the salvation of
our soul is certain because God's just. God's not doing something
wrong. God's just. He's faithful and
just to forgive us of our sin because the blood of Christ put
it away. I know this trial feels like God's cast you off, but
he hasn't. He hasn't. That would be unjust. And God
will never cast away the people, which he foreknew. God will never
cast away the people for whom Christ died. Never. Because that
would be unjust. God's not going to cast you away.
He's going to pull you up to his side. Live, trusting the
Lord whose blood put away the sin of his people. Let your conversation,
let your conduct be that of a forgiving person. When somebody wrongs
you, forgive them. Maybe they meant to. Maybe they
meant to hurt you. Maybe they meant to wrong you.
Just forgive them. Very likely with these people
right here, maybe they didn't even mean to. Maybe they didn't
mean to. Maybe they didn't even know it.
Forgive them. Now I know that's hard to do.
It's impossible for this flesh to do. What's our motivation
to make this my rule of life? To be a forgiving person. What's
my motivation for that? Because God, for Christ's sake,
has forgiven me. And this I can promise you. All
my sin against Tim's intentional. My sin against God is a whole
lot worse than somebody's sin against me. That'll at least
motivate me to try to be a forgiving person. Just be a forgiving person. Try your best to do it. If you
do, I promise you this, it'll further the joy of people around
you. Then the gospel declares this.
It declares the righteousness of God. In this gospel we preach
declares the righteousness of God. Who is the righteousness
of God? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is our righteousness. That's why I preached Wednesday
night. I've tried to righteousness imputed the righteousness of
Christ given to us. God's people do not earn a righteousness
by our obedience to the law or by our morality or by observing
certain religious ceremonies and things. Christ is our righteousness. The only righteousness we have
is the obedience of Christ. As He was a man made under the
law, He has perfect obedience under the law. That's the righteousness
of His people. Just like we were made sinners
in Adam, God's people are made righteous in Christ. And the
Father gives His people the righteousness of Christ. Do you know why? Because
He took the sin of His people away from them and He made His
Son sin for His people. He took it away. gave it to his
son, and the blood of Christ put that sin away. He hath made
him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made what? Righteous. The righteousness of God in him.
Oh, that's the gospel. And a believer knows that and
loves that. Oh, that just takes all the pressure
off. I don't have to keep the law.
I mean, I don't want to break the law. I don't want to be a
vile, sinful person. Well, I don't have to keep the
law to make God happy with me. That takes all the pressure off.
I don't have to trust any works of my own. And I'm mighty glad
about that. If we're truthful, we're ashamed
of our works. I mean, ashamed of the very best
things that we've done. We see how full of sin and self
they are. Oh, to be able to trust Christ
our righteousness, to have his righteousness be given to me,
oh, It's thrilling, isn't it? What a thrill to preach that.
I love to be able to preach that to God's people. I love to believe
that, that God made me believe that. I'm so thankful. You believe
that? You believe that Christ is your
righteousness? Then make that your rule of life. Talk to others
about Christ, our righteousness. Remind each other that Christ
is our righteousness. And I tell you, here's how you
do that. It's one thing to say that, but here's how you do it.
Take the pressure off each other. Don't be judgmental. People do
something, you know, you disagree with them. You know, a believer
would never do that. Oh, yes, they would do. I mean,
you just read Scripture. A believer will do anything.
Period. Except not believe Christ. Won't
do anything. Don't be judgmental. Don't put
the burden on somebody. Now, you've got to act this way.
You've got to dress this way. You've got to part your hair
this way. Your hair can only be this long. Or ladies, your hair's
got to be this long. Take the pressure off, people.
Don't put the burden of the law on people. Don't have a standard
that people got to live up to before you'll put your seal of
approval and say they're saved or whatever. Who cares if I think
somebody's saved? Who cares if you think somebody's
saved? It's the marriage between Him and God. Take the pressure
off people. And all your brethren who are
in times of trouble. Take the pressure off of them. Maybe they feel like God's doing this
to me because of my sin. If God was always putting us
in trial, putting us just in the fire of the furnace because
of our sin. We'd never get out of it. Who knows why God purposed
this trial for us, this pain for us. When you go to your brother
who's in times of trouble, don't be like Job's friends and say,
well, if you weren't doing this, you wouldn't be in this trouble.
Straighten up this part of your life and you won't be in this
trouble anymore. Take the pressure off by reminding them. As sinful as we are, not as sinful
as you are, sinful as we are, Christ is our righteousness.
We're perfect in Him before the Father. Now I promise you, if
you remind people, God's people, that they're righteous in Christ,
that they're perfect in Christ, that the Father accepts them
in Christ, I promise you, it'll further their joy. If you don't
put people under the burden of the law and you take them out
from under the burden of the law by telling them about Christ
and His righteousness and His grace and His mercy, I promise
you this, you'll further their faith in Christ, you'll give
them a good reason to believe in Christ, and you'll further
their joy. Then the gospel declares this.
Christ is coming again. When He comes, He's going to
gather all of His people to Himself to be with him where he is forever,
made just like him. This is not a pipe dream. This
is not something, you know, it could happen. I don't know. He can't fail to do it. He can't
fail to gather all of his people to be with him because he is
the successful, victorious savior. He finished the work the father
gave him to do. That's why he can pray, father,
I will. All those that God has given
me be with me where I am. That they may behold my glory,
that they may be one as we are one. The Savior's coming. Oh, what a day that'll be. What
a day that will be to see the Savior as he is, not through
a glass darkly, but face to face. What a day to be not like this
flesh, not like Adam anymore. and be made just like Christ.
He's coming for his people. Make that your rule of life.
Remind each other when we get all caught up in the goings on
of this world, remind each other. This is not all there is. I know
this is not good right now and you can't expect anything in
this earth to be good. But very, very soon we're going
to be with the Lord. That puts all this in perspective,
doesn't it? All this is temporary, but life with Christ, that's
eternal. I know we got to pass through
this place, but remember, we're just passing through it. We're
not staying here. We're going someplace far better.
To be with someone far better. That's why the apostle said,
I'm going to straighten twigs too. I have a desire to be with
Christ, which is far better. We're going someplace far better.
If you remind each other, now, this is not all there is. Let
go of it easily. Christ is coming. We're going
to be with him. You know, it's interesting to
me, the scriptures, if they say it, it's not very often that
Christ will come. You know why scripture says it?
Christ is coming. He is coming. Make that your
rule of life. Oh, you'll make people around
you so much happier. You'll make their joy in Christ
increase. You see the difference? The gospel's our rule of life.
False prophets, when they talk about a rule of life, buddy,
you better buckle up and beware, because they're getting ready
to put you under the law. They're getting ready to put you under
the burden of the law. They're getting ready to put you under the burden
of some rules and regulations that they made up. And Peter
knew about that. You know what he said? Men and
brethren, neither we nor our fathers could bear that. We can't
bear being under the burden of the law. So don't rule. Use the
law to motivate people and give people constraints how they should
live and how they should act and what they should do, what
they shouldn't do. God's servant doesn't do that. God's servant
motivates God's people to come to Christ, to believe Christ
and keep believing Christ, to love one another by preaching
the gospel. The gospel that God uses to save
his people. reveal himself to his people
for the very first time, make them believe on Christ and make
them come to Christ is the very same gospel God uses to feed
his sheep, to comfort their hearts, to instruct them in the gospel. The gospel is for God's children. Now there's a difference between
a child and a slave. A slave has got to be beaten. has got to live under the threat
of the whip in order to work. And what happens to that slave? They live under the threat of
the whip. What does a slave do? The slave does the bare minimum
he has to do in order to not get whipped. A child just has to be reminded
your father's love for you. And that child would serve with
everything they've You're going to have to tell them to quit.
You're going to have to tell them to rest, because they'll serve
with everything they got out of love. Well, make that your
rule of life. Live like a child of God who
serves God out of love and thanksgiving, not a slave under the law that's
afraid to get whipped. And don't do that to others.
Don't put others under the law. Talk to them about the love of
God. Talk to them about the grace of God. Oh, how their joy will
increase if they find themselves not under law but under grace.
Now listen, be loving, be gracious, be kind, but don't ever compromise. Don't surrender an inch. You know, saying you gotta love
people doesn't mean, oh, well, you just love them no matter
what they do and act like whatever they're doing's okay. No, no,
it's not okay. Don't ever compromise the gospel.
Don't ever compromise this matter of self-righteousness and false
religion, don't give in an inch to it. Set your feet on the line and
don't back up. And do it in an attitude and
spirit of meekness. If God will enable us to do that,
we will further the joy of people around us. Follow these things. Doing that, that's having the
gospel as our rule of life. And here's something you can
avoid doing is your rule of life. Remember, our goal is the furtherance
of faith and furtherance of joy in Christ and others. That's
our goal. Let's not let our bad attitude
and our bad conduct be the reason somebody stays away from the
gospel that we preach and believe. Don't do that. Live showing some
humility, showing some graciousness, showing some kindness that adorns
the gospel of Christ. Somebody just might come to hear
of Christ themselves, and maybe they'll believe him. And if they
do, brother, it'll further their joy. So here's our rule of life. Point others to Christ. Live
the gospel so that people have their joy and faith in Christ
increased. All right, number two. My other points aren't near
that long. Our rule of life is striving together with one spirit
and one goal. Verse 27. Only let your conversation
be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come
and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs that
you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together
for the faith of the gospel. Now we here, Hurricane Road Grace
Church, we enjoy coming here and seeing each other. I pulled
up in the parking lot this morning, saw Sean's truck. He'd been sick.
I don't know if he'd be here tomorrow. I was so happy. Sean's
here. We're happy to see each other. And we should. People
come in. We greet each other. Happy to see each other. And
we should let brotherly love continue. We should. We enjoy
talking to each other and greeting each other. I sure hope that
we find ways to help one another, help outside of this building,
help one another and being encouragement to one another. Doing those things
are important. But now listen, this is not a
social club. This is the church of God. And
our goal is preaching Christ to our generation. We're not
trying to create ministries of the past. Our job is to preach
Christ to our generation in our day. That is our one and only
job. Now if we can We enjoy being
with each other as we work together in this. It's a matter of preaching
Christ to our generation. That's a blessing. That's the
way it ought to be. But fellowship is not our goal. Our goal is
preaching Christ. So sinners come to believe on
Him. So God's sheep are fed and encouraged and strengthened.
And that's the responsibility of every believer here. Every
believer. You know, there are lots of ways
to serve in this ministry. I tell you this so often, whatever
it is that the Lord's given you the ability to do, do it. Do it with all your might. And
our goal in serving together, and this with one goal, one spirit,
one heart, is not so that we get recognition for ourselves.
You know, in most ways, it would be best if we could serve without
anybody seeing us. Kind of hard to do if you lead
singing. Kind of hard to do if you preach. People are going
to see you. If you go help somebody, well,
they're going to know it. I mean, you come and help them,
they're going to know it. But, oh, avoid this attitude,
doing it to be recognized. So everybody pat you on the back
and say what a good Christian you are. Don't serve to be seen
because we're not in this thing for self-glory. We're in this
thing for the glory of Christ. So God's people will be pointed
to Christ. So God's people will be blessed.
That's the sole purpose of this church body. So strive together
with one goal. Not a bunch of different goals,
not a bunch of different selves here. Christ is our goal with
one spirit, with one attitude, the spirit of love and unity
and peace. I promise you this. If we're
all looking to Christ, and we're all striving together for His
glory. Not my glory, but His. Not my good, but yours. I promise
you this, there's going to be peace. There'll be peace. There's just no time for fussing
and fighting if we're all looking to Christ, all striving towards
Him for His goal, His purpose. And listen, put you back into
this thing. This word strive is like a wrestler strives. Like
he strives with all of his might and all of his strength. Strive
hard. and do it without fear of enemies
of the gospel. Strive. Don't compromise now.
Don't compromise on account of them. Look at Paul says in verse
28 and nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is them an
evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that
of God. You know, the world will say,
well, you've got these enemies and you've got these trials and
you've got these hardships because you're doing something wrong.
You know, if you weren't, if you weren't being so dogmatic
about holding to the truth of scripture, you know, people like
you a lot more and you wouldn't have all this trouble. Well,
no, that's what the world says. What does the word of God say?
The word of God says you're going to have enemies and trials because
you preach the gospel. If you preach Christ, you're
going to have enemies. If you preach man's free will, you won't
have any enemies. So the believer's code of conduct is this. I'm
just going to do whatever I can to help the preaching of Christ
be heard. I mean, if it's making the building
comfortable, if it's, I mean, just, if it's preaching, if it's
reading the scripture and leading in prayer, if it's leading the
singing, if it's in the congregation, someone don't want to sing. Solos
all the time. I mean, sing out the top of your
lungs and help him out. You know, just whatever. I mean,
whatever it is, whatever it is, do it with all you got so that
so that Christ can be heard, preached and heard in our generation,
in this area, in this tri-state area, and do it without ever
surrendering an inch. If we do that, no matter what,
we're just going to keep preaching Christ. If we do that, faith
in God's people will be furthered and their joy will, too. All
right, here's the last thing. The believer's rule of life is
stand fast in trials. It's easy to stand fast when
nothing's wrong, isn't it? The believer's rule of life is this,
stand fast in trials. Verse 29, for unto you it's given,
it's given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but
also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which
you saw in me, and now here to be in me. Now I know it goes
against the flesh to say, this has been given to you. You've
been given the privilege to suffer for Christ's sake. The flesh
doesn't like that. We love to think about the blessing
being in faith in Christ, don't we? We love the blessing of hearing
the gospel of Christ, hearing of his sacrifice, hearing of
his blood, hearing his mercy, his grace, nothing throws my
soul more than that. But we don't like pain and suffering,
do we? that comes from real trials. But look at 1 Peter chapter four.
Suffering for Christ's sake should make a believer happy.
1 Peter chapter four, verse 12. Beloved, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some
strange thing happened to you, but rejoice. Rejoice, insomuch
as you are partakers of Christ's suffering, that when his glory
should be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy.
If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye,
for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. God's spirit
of glory is gonna rest upon you when you're reproached for his
sake. On their part, he's evil spoken of, but on your part,
He's glorified. Now be happy. If you're approached
for the name of Christ, be happy, rejoice. In Acts chapter five, the apostles
rejoiced. Remember they were beaten and
out of prison and they said, now we're gonna beat you. Now
don't you be preaching the name of Christ anymore. And they went
out and rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame
for the name of Christ, shame for his name. And you know what
they did? They preached Christ everywhere they went. I mean,
buddy, you just couldn't stop them. They rejoiced that they
were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. Well, preachers,
anything you can give me. I mean, the apostles, they must
be different than me. Can you give me anything from
the word of God that make me counted a blessing to suffer
for Christ's sake? I can give you about three or
four things. I want you to look at John chapter 15. Try to turn
to these scriptures with me if you would. If not, jot them down.
Go back and read them later. It's not something I think I
should quote to you. I want you to read. Maybe this
will sink in better. The Word of God gives us several
ways and reasons we can consider it a blessing to suffer for Christ's
sake. Now, just let me point this out.
I'm not talking about suffering the pain troubles of sin that
are common to all men. That's just the effects of sin
in the flesh. What I'm talking about here is suffering for Christ's
sake. I've suffered loss. I've suffered something because
I've taken up my cross and followed Him. I set my toes on that line. I'm not backing up. I'm not retreating
for it. Here's the first thing. Suffering
for Christ's sake is the evidence you're a servant of God. John
15, verse 20. Remember the word that I said
unto you. The servant's not greater than his Lord. If they 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 namesake, because they know not him that
sent me. When you suffer for Christ's
sake, that's the evidence you're a servant of God. Now I can rejoice
in being a servant of God, can't you? That's what we want. I know,
I look at second Corinthians, or I'm sorry, Romans, Romans
chapter eight. Here's a reason that we can rejoice
in our sufferings for Christ's sake. Because our suffering,
as painful as it is in the moment, is nothing compared to the glory
that's gonna follow. Romans chapter eight, verse 18. For I reckon, and Paul doesn't
use that word reckon like we use, we use the word reckon,
we mean, I guess, this is an accounting term. Paul's added
up both sides of the ledger. He said, I reckoned out, this
is the equation I've reckoned out, that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which
shall be revealed in us. Now 2 Corinthians chapter four. Verse 17. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are seen
are eternal. Now, the Lord sends us trouble
for Christ's sake. It's gonna hurt. I mean, you
know, it's gonna hurt. As great as that hurt is, to
think that's nothing compared to the glory that's coming. That's
nothing compared to the eternal glory that there's gonna be with
Christ. That makes me rejoice, doesn't you? All right, now look
at Philippians chapter one. Our suffering could be the means
that God uses to bring someone else to trust Christ. Philippians
one, verse 12. But I would, you should understand,
brethren, that the things which happen unto me have fallen out
rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds
in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. Those people in the palace of
Caesar never would have heard the gospel if Paul wasn't there.
Paul's suffering worked out to the furtherance. Somebody believed
Christ because Paul was there. And he said, I can rejoice in
this and suffer this patiently. No one. God's using this to reveal
Christ to his people. Then Hebrews chapter 13. This
is a reason to rejoice. Suffering for Christ's sake brings
us closer to the Savior. Every believer here wants to
be closer to the Savior, don't you? Our sufferings bring us
closer to him. Hebrews 13 verse 13. Let us go
forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. If you're bearing His reproach,
you're going to Him. You're going to be closer to
the Savior. Alright, here's the last thing. 2 Corinthians chapter
1. You know, earlier in the message when I talked about being a help
one to another, every believer thought, I like
to do that. I like to be a help to God's people. Especially these
people. I love, I worship with them every week. We're one body.
Every believer here thought, I'd like to be a help to God's
people, didn't you? Our suffering for Christ's sake
makes us able to do that. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3. Blessed be God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God
of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that
we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the
comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as
the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also
aboundeth by Christ. Whatever it is that you suffer
for Christ's sake, God will deliver you. And later on, somebody else
is going to be going through the exact same thing. And you
can come put your arm around them and tell them, I know. I know right where you are. I
know. And you can talk to them about
how God comforted you. And you can be a help. to one of your
brothers and one of your sisters. I can rejoice if God allowed
me to help you, couldn't you? That's our rule of life, that
in all times, we're gonna trust Christ. All right, I hope God
will bless that to your hearts in his glory. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. How we thank you that you've
given us such clear instruction in the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. How we thank you for faith to
believe him, to see him, to cling to him, that the Lord Jesus Christ
would be our all and in all. And we thank you how simple that
you made the believer's rule of life to live the gospel of
Christ our Savior. Father, enable us to do that
for your glory, for the help of our brothers and sisters.
Oh, how we pray you would not let us be a stumbling block that
would Stop someone from coming to Christ, or stop someone's
joy that we have in Christ, but cause us to be a help, an encouragement
one to another. Give us one heart, one spirit,
one goal that we might put our backs into this thing. In this
blessed privilege that you've given us of preaching Christ
to our generation. Father, I pray you'd make it
effectual, that you'd cause it to reach the hearts of your people.
Call them to faith and joy in Christ our Savior. For his blessed
name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, Sean.