Reading with verse 1 and read
down through the part of the 10th verse. Peter, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus,
Galata, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye
greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be ye are in
heaviness or grief, through manifold temptations, that the trial of
your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and
honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having
not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing
ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which
salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied
of the grace that should come unto you. I want to speak this morning
on the subject on why believers, why do believers suffer. But
in order to do so, I think that first of all, we ought to review
a little bit of what we had to say last week to lay the groundwork
for what we are to say here this morning. And we have some with
us today that were not here last Sunday morning, and so we would
like for them to be able to enter in to what we're talking about
and to be able to hear the message of the Word of God in their own
soul to the prophet and the up-building of their hearts in the Lord.
Now, beloved, I would to God that a number of years ago, back
when I was young like some of you young people here, that I
could have heard a message like this. It would have done me a
world of good if somebody would have had the backbone to get
up and to preach what I'm going to preach this morning to you.
It's basic, fundamental Bible truth, but my friend, it's greatly
needed in our day, and I want the young people to especially
listen. to what we have to say today,
that they might be able to hide this message away in their hearts
and to be able to deal with some of the difficult situations that
are most surely to come to you in your lifetime in this world. Now first of all then in our
review, first of all let me mention who this letter was written to.
We read here in verse 1, Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ, him
being filled with the Holy Ghost and enabled to write to the edification
and up-building of the people of God, he speaks to the strangers
that are scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia. And these are the disenfranchised. These are the dispersed. These
are the refugees. These are those that are scattered.
And we explained last week that it was through the persecution
of Nero that these believers had been driven out of their
homeland and had been driven into the caves and the dens of
the earth and that they were greatly persecuted by Nero and
therefore Peter is writing to them They need encouragement. They need a word in their souls. They need somebody to say something
that's going to stand them instead in this difficult and trying
time. And then we said in verse 2 that
we had the plan of salvation. We said that Peter did not write
to them telling them to get together and try to make a run on the
government or to have a pity party. in order to be able to
maybe to let each other know what was going on with them,
but he was writing to them, giving them foundational Bible truth
so that they would have something to support a holy joy in their
hearts. So they would be able to have
a God-given joy in their souls. So he tells them that they're
elect of God. He tells them they've been selected
by God according to the foreknowledge of God, according to the foreordination
of God. Nothing can be foreknown that
has not already been predetermined. These people were preordained
before the foundation of the world to be God's people, and
they belong to Him in the covenant of grace before the foundation
of the world. And so Peter tells them that.
And there's nothing wrong with a man telling God's people that
their experience with the Lord began with the Lord. It didn't begin when they made
some kind of a little decision, but it began back yonder in eternity
because God had set His love upon them and determined their
salvation. And he went on to explain to
them that the whole Trinity was involved in their salvation and
in the plan of it. Because he goes on to say through
sanctification of the Spirit, the Spirit of God had set them
apart and had called them, had convinced and convicted and converted
them. They had been regenerate by the
Spirit of God. And so they were alive in the
Lord. And he tells them that this was
unto obedience. Remember, we had something to
say about that last week, how that we ought to make our calling
and our election sure. If we're not sure this morning
that we're one of these that Peter talked about when he was
talking about the elect, then my friend, we ought to make our
calling and election sure. We ought to go through the motions. We ought to get down on our face
before the Lord. And we ought to cry to God. We
ought to ask God to pardon and forgive our sin. Yes! I'm saying
to you, God has commanded all men everywhere to repent. Repent
and believe the gospel. And my friend, you go through
the motions. However you can, God giving you grace, more light,
more grace until you feel the power of the cleansing blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ in your own soul. Seek the Lord with
all of your heart until you find Him. Seek Him that you might
know, that you might be able to say, I've made my calling
and election sure. And my friend, if you've made
a profession of religion, but there's never been anything happened
down in here, if you've never been changed, if God hasn't got
a hold of your heart, I mean, if you're not a new creature
in the Lord Jesus Christ, then it's time for you to make your
calling and election sure. Get serious about your relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he points out to them
that they have been sanctified, hallelujah, been set aside by
the power of the Holy Spirit, been drawn to the Father, being
one of God's elect. And then he speaks of the blood
of Jesus Christ, the sprinkling of the blood. There's no salvation
apart from the blood of Christ atoning for our sin. Our sins have been put away,
buried in the depth of the deepest sea, but our sins have been atoned
for. God has covered our sin with
the blood of His Son, and that blood has been applied by the
Holy Spirit. And peace, He said, grace and
peace be multiplied unto you. Now beloved, if these things
are true in your life, or in the life of any individual, then
I believe the grace of God, as Kent quoted the verse, more grace,
he gives more grace, and he will give grace, and grace and peace
will be multiplied all your journey, all your pilgrim journey through
this world. And then, in verse 3, he says,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here
we have, as we told you last week, the praise of salvation. The praise of it. And so we said
that this word blessed means, that it means to take words and
to eulogize the worthy. And we told you that God was
the extreme worthy one in the universe. And that we ought to
take words and bless God and bless Him first of all because
He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah
that Jesus Christ has been given unto us. God is the Father of
Christ and the Father has given up His blessed Holy Son to be
the Savior of our souls. And so we bless Him, we worship
Him, and we take words and we eulogize Him this morning. And Peter tells us that it's
according to His abundant mercy that He's done this, all these
things, and that He's begotten us again, He's born us again,
we've been born from heaven, and we have a living hope. A living hope. We have a living
hope because we're in union with that Living One the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, then he goes on to say that
we have this lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. And we pointed out last week
that there must be a belief in the resurrection of Christ or
there is no hope for tomorrow. There's no hope for any believer. Paul said that if Christ has
not been risen, then we're all yet in our sins, every one of
us. And all those that have fallen
asleep in Jesus back through the years, they all are lost. There isn't any of them saved
if he didn't come out of the grave. And so we believe in the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And then in verse
4, we see here the possession in salvation. He said, to an
inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you. This is the possession that
all believers have and that these believers, who at this time were
greatly tried, this is the possession that they have. They have an
inheritance that is pure, incorruptible, one that is undefiled and that
will never fade away. will never fade away. Everything
loses luster in this world, but not in the world to come. And
this we told you, it's reserved in heaven for you who are kept
by the power of God in verse 5. And in verse 5 we talked about
the power of God's salvation. and told you about the keeping
power of the Lord, how that God keeps His people and we're garrisoned
about by the strength of God and the power of God and the
grace of God and we're kept into eternity. There was an old man
who was about ready to die. And his family gathered around
and said, what would you like for us to put on your tombstone?
He thought a little bit. He was a Christian man. He thought
a little bit and he said, just put kept on there. Kept. And
bless the Lord, we are kept by divine power. We've been given
all things that pertain to life and godliness. Okay, then after
these words were spoken by Peter unto these tried and tested and
disenfranchised and dispersed people, he said in verse 6, wherein
ye greatly rejoice. You greatly rejoice in all this.
You greatly rejoice in God's salvation. And they did, they
rejoiced. You say, I don't know how they
could do that. Well, they greatly rejoiced in God's salvation. Now this morning, first of all,
I want to talk a little bit about the paradox of salvation. In
this verse we have the paradox of salvation. No. Wherein you
greatly rejoice. Now these believers are rejoicing. Yes they are. You say, well how
did Peter know that? Well, he knew that because in
his own heart and soul, the Spirit of God had given him a message
for them, a word for them, and he believed and knew that the
Spirit of God would make it effectual in their hearts once they read
it. He said, you're going to rejoice. I've told you these
blessed things about God's salvation and you're going to rejoice.
And he said, you are! Right now as you read these things,
you are rejoicing. Now beloved, here is the paradox. You can be happy and sad at the
same time. That's a paradox. You can rejoice
and grieve at the same time as a believer. You can smile through
tears, and beloved, that is a paradox. Remember, I don't want you to
lose sight to whom he's writing these things and to what they
were going through, and notice the meaning of these words. Here in verse 6, he says, wherein
you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you're
in heaviness. The word heaviness there, It means grief, it means sorrow.
These people were in a state of grief and sorrow because of
the persecution of Nero. And it says through manifold
temptation. Now this word manifold means
here varied and many. They have varied temptations,
they have many, and the word temptations means trials, and
especially trials with a beneficial purpose and effect. These people
were being tried in such a way that it would be to their benefit
and to their purpose and to God's purpose and to effect trials,
principles that were permitted or sent of God. Trials permitted,
divinely permitted and sent of God. These trials were of God. These trials, God had sent them
in. He was the author of their situation. You say, oh, you mean to tell
me that Nero wasn't responsible? He was responsible, absolutely. But my friend, we are not permitted
as believers, as children of God, to argue with second causes. We deal with the Most High God. We're God's servants, and we
know what sovereignty's about, and we must bow to the Lordship
of Jesus Christ. And stop looking, just be like
old Job. Whenever the Sabians and others
inflicted great pain and misery in his life, he said, it is the
Lord that gives, it is the Lord that takes away. And so, these
people needed to learn that lesson, and they did. They did. Now my
friend, listen to me. He talks about this heaviness. God sent these trials. God sent
this heaviness and this fiery trial of their faith which they
were going through. And you are rejoicing in your
salvation. Peter said, Bless the Lord, but
you're grieving also. So this is the paradox. Rejoicing
and grieving at the same time. Now you listen to me very carefully.
I want you to pay attention to what we're saying this morning
because I know, I know, I know that you're going to need what
we're saying. Now, beloved, there are so many
people today in this world who believe, who think, who preach
that unless you are shouting glory on top of the mountain
all the time that you're living in sin. This world is full of
these health and wealth boys, full of these divine healers,
faith healers, and they tell you that unless you're on the
mountain all the time shouting glory, then you're a big sinner. They say if you have any kind
of problem, any kind of trouble, if you have sickness, any financial
setbacks that you are, you must be a very big sinner that God
never intended for His people to have to suffer. And that,
my friend, is a lie from the pit. That's a lie from hell.
It's not true. These people were Christians.
They were called the selected of God, the elect of God. They
were born again. They had an inheritance awaiting
them in heaven, but they were also suffering at this very time. So this leads us to the age-old
question, why do believers Why do Christians or believers have
to suffer in this world? Now this word, suffer, I believe
is found 15 times in the book of 1 Peter alone. This passage
is teaching us that we're to be glad when we're sad. Not glad
that we are sad, but even when we are sad. God's people are
to be glad in this world. They're to be a joyful people
even when they're sad. Well, how do we handle suffering? How do we handle trial? How do
we handle difficulty in our life? Well, do we go into hiding? Do
we murmur? Do we complain? Do we grumble? Do we come unglued? When situations
occur, things happen in our life, do we begin to badmouth God?
Do we begin to rebel in our hearts and begin to set up a strategy
whereby we're going to deal with it ourself in the face of God? How do we, listen, do we carry
our cross with a smile? Or do we rebel and do we go kicking
and screaming down the path of life when our very lives are
crossed with various trials and difficulties? Let me give you
several reasons for suffering. Some of these I want to deal
with at length, and others of them I'll deal with very briefly. But the number one reason I want
to give you this morning as to why the people of God suffer
in this world, you know, we are in this world. We are definitely
in a world. We're not in a place where all
is righteousness. and where everything is as it
ought to be. We're in a sin-cursed world. Number one, God allows us to
suffer to verify our humanity. Now if you're taking notes, just
write, God allows us to suffer to verify our humanity. Job 5 and verse 7, Job said,
Yet man is born into trouble as the sparks fly upward. Now
Job is the oldest piece of literature in the Bible. This is not new. This is not new what I'm talking
about. Job had trouble, did he not?
He had boils from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet. He had losses in his life. He had great affliction in his
life. He had miserable friends. He
had a wife that was a traitor to him. But nevertheless, he
said, as sparks fly upward, a man's born into trouble. So he would
say, A man is born to trouble, born to sickness. He'd say a
man is born to suffering as sure as the sparks fly off the emerald
wheel upward. Or as sure as sparks fly upward
out of the fire. It's true, man is born into trouble. You see, we are mere mortals.
We are not immoral. Not yet. Not yet. We are corrupt. We're not incorruptible. Not
yet. Not yet incorruptible. But Paul in 1 Corinthians 15
and 53, in the resurrection chapter in the book of Corinthians says,
for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal
must put on immortality. But that is, my friend, in the
future. That's not now, but later. But later, this is going to be
true of us. Now until then, we are mortal.
And as such, we are susceptible to disease, we're susceptible
to sickness and death, because that is the human condition because
of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. In Romans 5 and verse
12, it says, Wherefore by one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that
all have sin. Now suffering and death are the
inevitable consequences of living in a fallen, sin-cursed world
and having a sinful nature. Now, Brother Halbert read Genesis
3, and you remember there when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden
fruit? how that God cursed the earth. He cursed the ground.
And God said that you're going to, in sorrow, eat your bread
until you go back to the dust of the earth. We're living in
a cursed world, my friend. Excuse me, you tree-hugging environmentalists. Let me say that we're living
in a cursed world, and it's under the curse of sin. It is indeed. Death is passed upon everything. Sin is the mother of death. Everything is dying. Everything
is in a state of decline. You say, Preacher, that's an
awful gloomy assessment of things. My friend, that's exactly what
the Word of God teaches and you need to be aware of it. You need
to be aware of whatever your age is. You need to understand. Suffering proves that we're human. It proves that we're sinful,
that we're in a body that is a fallen body. It is part of
the whole sinful human condition to suffer and to die in this
world. Suffering is part of living.
Dying is part of living. The moment we begin to live,
we begin to die. I'm telling you the truth. From
the cradle, what is it? From the cradle to the what?
to the grave, from the cradle to the grave. Everybody takes
the same path. Everybody. No one exempt. No
discharge from this war. All go the same path. That's
because, my friend, we are dying in spite of all of our health
fads. And I say, go for it. If it makes
you feel better, if it makes you look better, if it makes
you act better, take your medicine, your vitamins, take care of yourself,
eat well, sleep well, do all you can to keep this thing from
stinking and rotting and looking ugly. But in spite of all we
can do, we're dying a little at a time. We're all dying a
little at a time. No body dies perfectly healthy. unless they're shot, unless they
commit suicide, or unless they have an accident on the highway
or something. Men die because of illness, they
die because of sickness, they die because of disease. No, perfectly
healthy people die, and that includes faith healers. Isn't that interesting? They
are, I think, the modern day witch doctors, faith healers. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4
and 16, now listen to the word of God, he said, though our outward
man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. Look in
the mirror, my friend. Use all the products that are
available to you. Shave, primp, Put on all your
cosmetics. Use your Avon and your Mary Kay.
Use every potion and lotion that you can find. And it's still,
just watch it, watch it, it'll still go downhill. My friend, get your face lift
if you can afford it. But I'm gonna tell you what,
you better get you a face lift. Forget the facelift and get you
a faith list. Get it. My friend, listen to
me. You need to believe what God
says. Trust God. Believe what He says. And you
say, well, I'm working on it. I'm going to keep this up. Well,
you go right ahead, my friend. May God bless you in your effort,
but you're not going to win the battle. The outward man perishes. He perishes. It's perishing. The old man. No faith healer
ever preaches on that verse of scripture. They won't touch it.
He's lying. The faith healer is lying. He
doesn't heal anyone. Scientific evidence has proved
he doesn't heal anyone. I'm not saying God does not heal.
God is able to heal if he wants to. And sometimes he does heal. Not in all cases. Not in all
cases. Listen to me. These faith healers
cannot keep you well. They can't keep you well. And
I'll tell you something else, your doctor cannot keep you well
either. No, he can't. I'm telling you
that man is living in a cursed world. And I'm telling you because
of sin, all of us are going to suffer, all of us are going to
come down, the tent will be taken down, and we all eventually will
succumb and go back to the dust of the earth. It's going to happen. They cannot keep you well. You
can visit the graves of faith healers who lived in days gone
by. You can. You go out. Now these
fellows are fellows who claim to be able to heal people. Touch
them and they fall down and they heal people, they say. But yet
you can go out and visit their graves. Now my friend, what does
that tell you? Well, it tells me, physician,
heal thyself. I think that's applicable right
here. What I'm saying is that suffering
verifies our human condition. Suffering reminds us of living
in a cursed world. Now that's what it's to remind
you of, and that's to make you look away from yourself unto
the Lord. Now the second thing I suggest
is, as to why do Christians suffer? First of all, they're in this
world, they're part of this world. And they're made out of the same
thing, cut out of the same piece of cloth as whirling unbelievers.
And they will all suffer the same common difficulties and
problems. They'll all suffer that. That's
what I was talking about. Now the second thing, why do
Christians suffer? John 11 and 4 tells us that it's
to glorify God. It's to glorify God. This is
believers. You remember Mary, Martha, and
Lazarus? And Jesus heard on one day that Lazarus was sick. And it says that He heard that,
Behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. And He said, This sickness
is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of
God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus said it. It must be
true. I believe what the Word of God
says. The day I quit believing what
the Bible says, I'll throw it all out. I don't have any intention
to do it, I believe this book. Jesus said it, must be true.
No faith healer ever would tell anyone this either. That sickness
can be to the glory of God. It'll put him out of business.
He's making too much money. He's not going to tell nobody
that sickness can be to the glory of God, that a man can be sick
for God's praise and honor and glory. In this case, his sickness,
and I do not know what it was, but he died. I don't know whether
he had cancer, I don't know whether he had heart problems. I don't know what his situation
was. The Bible doesn't spell it out.
All I know is he bought the farm. I mean he kicked the bucket.
His expression is he died. This man died. But now, how is
God going to get any glory from this? How is He going to do that?
Well, Jesus raised Him from the dead. That's how He got glory.
He raised Him from the dead. Now, beloved, listen to me. God
is out to get glory. He's out to get glory. Now you
say, I've got a problem with that preacher. You may have,
but that's not going to change anything. God is out to get glory
unto Himself. Because He's God and He's worthy
of glory. He's worthy of honor. He's worthy
of praise. God does and will and can get
glory from our suffering and even our death. Now Paul said
that he would glory in his infirmity. Now I want you to know that after
Lazarus died, Jesus spoke and said, come forth, and he came
out of the grave. He said this sickness was not
unto death, meaning permanent death, And so he glorified himself
by raising Christ from the dead. But Paul said now, as we continue,
that he would glory in his infirmity. Now Paul had a sickness, he prayed
about it, and God said, no, I'm not going to heal you. Now I'm
going to do it. Now, I don't know what you think.
I don't know where you'd stand on this issue, but I'm going
to tell you this, if there was anybody that could move heaven
on his knees, to me it would be Paul the Apostle. I just believe
he was in touch with heaven. Wouldn't you believe that? I
mean, I believe that. That's what I believe in my innermost
part of my soul, that Paul was one who could get a hold of God.
He could call down God's blessing and God's power, but God said
no. Prayed about it three times.
Three times. Lord, remove this messenger of
Satan that has been sent to buffet me. Remove it! And God would
not move it, but he said, I'll give you grace sufficient to
bear it. And Paul would say, if I have to be sick in this
world, if I have to suffer, I'll glory in it. I'll glory in it. God's strength is made perfect
in weakness, and that will glorify God. If I'm in trouble, if I've
got problems, if I've got difficulties, physical, mental, emotional,
whatever be my problems, God, I get glory. He'll give me grace
sufficient to bear my trial. God can heal. He certainly does
not heal everybody as we said. He didn't heal Paul. But how
can I glorify God in my suffering, you ask? Well, first of all,
let me suggest that you can do so by having a sweet spirit about
your suffering. Now, some don't have a sweet
spirit about their sufferings. You don't want to be around these
people. I mean, they drag down the best Christian that ever
lived. You get around them. They think they were the only
people who were ever sick. Well, I've got news for you,
my friend. You take a trip out to the cemetery and you'll find
out that there's been some other people sick, too. And you'll
find that out by just looking around the cemetery. Other people
have been sick. There was an old woman who had
put on her tombstone for an epitaph, see, I told you I was sick. I told you I was sick. Well,
we can glorify God. We can glorify God with a praiseful
spirit. Now, like we said, there's all
kinds of way to suffer in this world. All kinds of way. We can
suffer emotionally, we can suffer under stress, mental, anxiety, we can have serious
physical illness, terminal illness set in, sooner or later it will. But my friend, we must have a
praiseful spirit, and this will glorify God. Praise God for it
anyway. He knows about it. God's not
ignorant. There's a reason for it. There's
a reason for it. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you, that you give thanks in everything. Have a praiseful spirit. So let us have also a trustful
spirit. Now Jesus suffered on the cross
and he said in Luke 23 and 46, Father into thy hands I commend
my spirit. A trustful spirit glorifies God. Jesus, before he died, said,
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. What would be better
for you than to say to God, God, I know you're not ignorant of
my situation. I know you know exactly, you
being who you are, knowing what you know, you know about my situation
and I'm going to trust you in it. I'm going to trust you just
like Jesus did. He commended his spirit into
the hands of his Father. We must trust God and imitate
the example of our Savior. Susanna Spurgeon, the wife of
the great English preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon, was an invalid
much of her adult life. Was not able to get out, hardly
able to get about. And one day she was sitting before
the fireplace And she was bemoaning her situation, her affliction,
and asking why, why, why. And the fire was going in the
fireplace, and directly there was a log in the fire that began
to sing. It began to sing as the heat
of the fire got against it and began to burn it. It began to
sing. And she said, Lord, thank you.
Thank you, Lord. Now I see, I see and I understand
that this affliction brings out the song in God's people. It brings it out, the fiery afflictions,
the fiery furnace. It brings the song out the hearts
of God's people. You know, if we could not glorify
God in suffering, There would be scores of people in this world
who could never ever glorify God. If you had to be perfectly
healthy to glorify God, there are very few who could ever enter
into that glorious work of glorifying God. Job said, though He slay
me, yet will I trust Him, and when I am tried, I will come
forth as what? Anybody know? What? Gold. He said, I'll come forth
as gold. Most of you know a little bit
about a blast furnace probably and how they dump metal into
it and heat it up and all the slag comes to the top. And how
a goldsmith takes the ore and puts it in a pot and puts the
fire under it until all of the dross comes to the top, skims
it off and lets it cool down and dumps it out of the pot and
got pure gold. That's exactly what's going on.
in the lives of the Lord's people. And this trial of our faith is
more precious than the gold that perishes. Faith is not going
to perish. Faith, hope, and love will continue
on in the world to come. Gold will never show up, except
maybe on the streets of glory. Now then, I'm going to just give
you two more quickly and then I'll talk about one or two more
quickly. I'm trying to finish here this
message. Now, in John 15, I'm doing this
for the benefit of those that maybe are taking notes. John
15, 2 through 8, tells us about how that the Lord takes the vines
that are in him And He prunes them, or not the vines, but the
branches. He prunes them that they might
bear more fruit. And God, you know pruning takes,
it says purging, but pruning is what it is. And with a sharp
knife, you know how that somebody prunes the branches. And so you
can look that up and work that out. And then, the next place
to rectify what is wrong in our life, God allows suffering through
chastisement. Hebrews 12, 6-11, God allows
His chasing rod. All the sons of God are visited
by God in chastisement in order that their life and what's wrong
in their life could be rectified. Okay? And then number six, I
want to give you this and talk a little bit about it. It's to
identify us with Christ. Suffering identifies us with
Christ. Luke 24 and 26 says, Jesus said,
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into
His glory? Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into His glory? God had one Son and
He suffered. Why should we be exempt? Is the servant greater than his
Lord? No. He was a man of sorrow acquainted
with grief, Isaiah 53 and 6. He suffered, Hebrews 2.10, the
captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering.
Hebrews 2.18, for in that he himself has suffered being tempted,
he is able to succor them that are tempted, qualified to be
our succor, to be that one that would help us because he suffered
being tempted like we are. And then look at 1 Peter 2.21.
1 Peter 2 and verse 21, where it says, For even hereunto were
ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an
example, that ye should follow his steps. leaving us an example. He suffered for us and the example
is to us that we should follow in his steps. Philippians 3 and
verse 10, Paul said that I may know him and the power of his
resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made
conformable unto his death. Are we members of the fellowship
of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ? Philippians 1.29
For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to
believe on his name, but also to suffer for his sake. If we
suffer with him, Paul said, we shall reign with him. In 1951, in the fall of 1951,
when I was in Moody Bible Institute, For a while, there was a man
who was president of the college by the name of William Hubbardson. And he was a good man, I think,
a godly man. A lot of people testified that
he was a very godly man. And one time in chapel service,
he was preaching to the students there. And he told, this man
was a man who was not emotional at all. He was a man who was
very straight-laced. and a very dignified man, but
he told about a dream he had. And in this dream, he saw himself
in heaven, and there was a huge crowd of people that were gathered
around him there in heaven. And as this crowd had gathered
around, they began to speak, talk to each other about what
they had suffered for Christ while they were in the world.
John the Baptist was there and told about how that his head
was cut off by Herod. Stephen was there and talked
about how that he was stoned to death by that crowd in Acts
chapter 7. And Paul was there and he said
that he was beheaded by Nero, this Nero that we've been talking
about. And another spoke up and said,
one of the old prophets, and said that they had been sawed
in two with a saw. Another one spoke and said that
he had been borrowed in hot oil. And old Peter spoke up and said
that he had been crucified upside down for his Lord. Praise the
Lord, he said. And all of a sudden there was
a quietness came over the group, and Mr. Culbertson said that
he felt that every eye of that group was on him. And someone
said, Brother Culbertson, and what did you suffer for our dear
Savior? What did you suffer for him? And this man was not given, as
we said, to emotions at all. But this got to him. And he broke
down there in the chapel service. And he asked, weeping, what have
I really suffered for the Lord? Now, they're not putting Christians
to death in our day in Chicago, Illinois, he said. I do have,
he says, a cross to bear. He was ill at that time and died
shortly later. But he said this, he said, it
seems to me to be so, oh so insignificant, that is my cross that I bear,
so insignificant in comparison to the testimonies of these I
heard in heaven. And he vowed, he vowed that he
would never ever complain again. Well, beloved, why do we suffer? Well, let me hurry. I'm going
to hurry. I will get finished. And that is to edify us. To edify
us. Now, that word means to be built
up in the faith. Brought closer to the Lord is
what it means. When we suffer, we're brought
closer to the Lord. Psalm 119 verse 71 says, It is
good, is what David said, for me that I have been afflicted
that I might learn thy statutes or decrees Meaning that I might
learn your Word. That I might learn your Word.
So are you ever driven to the Word of God? I think it's more
precious to us because of what we're going through, no doubt,
at different seasons of time. The Word of God is more precious.
For that's the reason, I think, that the Lord brought upon us
what He did. Now Martin Luther, the Reformer,
said that Affliction was the best book in his library. He said, I've learned more through
affliction than I have from any other book that I have in my
possession. I've learned more from affliction. To build us
up. God often builds us up after
he gets us down. And somebody said this, some
knees bend only under the load of a heavy heart. Some eyes are
opened only after the head is bowed. And so these things must
happen. They must happen. And so God
would edify our hearts. I would ask you, are we learning
anything through our trials? Are we learning anything but
what we're suffering in this world? Why do we suffer, lastly? So that we can testify of the
sufficiency of the grace of God in our weakness. Now in Philippians
1.20, and I'd like for you to turn there, if you will. Just
turn there. We got time because we only meet
one time a week. So you turn with me to Philippians
1 and look at verse 20 and you'll see what I mean here. According
to my earnest expectation, Paul said, and my hope, that in nothing
I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always,
so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by
life, or by death. Now listen to me. What does a
magnifying glass do when you use it? Somebody says it makes
everything bigger. No. No. No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't make things bigger.
Not actually. But it makes them appear bigger.
And you see, this is what Paul is saying here. He said, I want
Christ to be magnified. I want Christ to look big. in
my body. I want Him to be magnified in
my body, in life or by death. I want God to look as big as
He can look. I want Him to be magnified. Now
beloved, that's what I'm talking about. Testify the sufficiency
of the grace of our blessed Lord. Now beloved, you know about John
Bunyan back in the 1600s. And he was put in jail, and he
was in jail I think for a dozen years. And great trials and afflictions
came because of that. But there he wrote Pilgrim's
Progress. We would never have Pilgrim's
Progress if it hadn't been for his suffering and for the fact
that through those years the grace of God sustained that old
brother there in that prison. And what would we know about
Fannie Crosby? and her eight or nine thousand
hymns if it had not been for her blindness. What would we
know about her? Would we know anything about
her? Would she have written all these hymns? If it had not been? Well, beloved, listen to me.
Listen to me. We know her now. She wrote, Blessed
Assurance, Jesus is Mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine. What a blessed, blessed series
of hymns that dear lady wrote. Because she was blind, God used
her. And A.W. Tozer made this statement,
It is doubtful that God can use any man or any person greatly
until he has hurt him deeply. And God often hurts an individual
deeply in order that they might magnify God and glorify the Lord. Well, beloved, we're either overcome
this morning, or we're overcomers. And if we're overcomers, we're
going to testify that the grace of God is sufficient, come what
may. There's an old song, and I'd
recommend it to anybody who could sing a solo, and the chorus of
it The name of the song is Whispering
Hope. Whispering Hope, O how welcome thy voice, making my
heart in its sorrow rejoice. I want to tell you this story
about this preacher down in the Appalachian Mountains many years
ago. Well, the fact is it took place back in the early fifties. And this preacher was coming
home one night. He had been preaching in a meeting. And he was traveling
a highway that was not used much in that day, and down in coal
mining country, and he rounded a curve running 55 or 60 miles
an hour, and there was two or three deer that appeared in front
of him, and he couldn't stop, and he hit them all. And he broke
his headlights out on his car, went up underneath the front
of the car, and messed up the steering, couldn't steer in pitch
black, and the car went on down the road and went right off of
the road, and lo and behold, he couldn't steer at all, but
went right up an old dirt lane, six or eight car lengths, and
stopped, come to a stop. He sat there, thanking God that
he was not hurt, that he was alive, and a little while he
looked up, And he saw coming down the mountainside a light,
a little light. And he kept getting closer and
closer as it worked its way down to where he was. And after a
little bit he heard an old man hollered out and said, Who is
it? Who is it? And so the brother got out of his car and he said,
It's a preacher. I hit some deer in my car. I
went off the road here and I'm in trouble. So the old man got
up and he could see that the old man only had one arm carrying
this lantern. So the old man said, well, we
best go on up to the house. So they made their way on up,
said probably won't be anybody come by here till tomorrow. So
they made their way on up to the house, and as they got up
to the house, stepped up on the porch, there was another light,
a kerosene lamp that came on in part of the house. And there
was an old lady that cried out and said, John, who is it? He
said, it's a preacher. He hit some deer down on the
road and messed his car all up. And she said, praise God. Tell
him to come in here. And so he came on in through
the kitchen and pulled a blanket that was over the door, hanging
over the door, and walked in. And he said, oh, I'm so sorry
to have bothered you people and all at this hour of the night."
It's about midnight and she said, well, Paul and Silas sang and
praised God at midnight. And she said, preacher, do you
know the gospel? And he said, I know the gospel.
And she said, you tell me what the gospel is all about. And
he told her what the gospel was. And she said, yes, you know the
gospel. She said, I've been praying for my husband, John, out there.
for years. And she said, I've been praying
that somebody come up here and know the gospel that could tell
him how God saves sinners. Will you tell him how God saves
sinners? He said, I will. And so he went out and John with
his one arm was trying to put on some water to boil some coffee.
He started talking to him, visiting with him, witnessing to him,
telling him the gospel. And after a while, they forgot
the coffee. After a while, old John broke down, and God gloriously,
marvelously saved him. And the preacher said, maybe
you better go in and tell your wife. She'd been praying for you for
years. And he went in, told his wife what had happened, and she
began to shout, and praise God, praise God, glory to God. And I tell that story to show
you that even in the midst of sorrow, sad situations, Even
living in that old coal miner's shack, there without any running
water, and no plumbing, and no electricity, that old woman bit
fast. She could still rejoice, even
though she had much to be sorry about, sad about. God blessed
her and saved her husband. Glory to God. But let me hurriedly
close by saying, Earth is temporal. Heaven is eternal. Things will
get better by and by when the morning comes. Revelation 21
and 24 says, And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,
and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed
away. Christians will only suffer in
this life, only in this life, but unbelievers must suffer the
common afflictions of men living in a cursed world, and then they
must go off yonder in eternity to suffer the vengeance and wrath
of a holy God for all eternity. Unbelievers. Unbelievers, Jesus
has suffered. He suffered the just for the
unjust that he might bring us to God. I say to you this morning,
seek the Lord. Seek the Lord with all your heart.
God is able to save. God is able to save. Father,
in the name of Jesus, bless this message and use it, Lord, to
your glory and honor, and as Chris prayed earlier, if not
today, maybe in time to come we shall hear that the Lord visited
a soul here this morning. We ask it in Jesus' name, and
for his sake, amen.