Walking Through Fire, Part 2

still in chapter 1, the passages
there in the bulletin with essentially the same outline that we were
working through last week. And as we saw last week in picking
up in this verse, Paul is turning the corner, kind of addressing
some of the same things, but certainly turning his focus upon
the Philippians themselves Because in verses 3-11, where Paul there
spoke to the Philippians, the greater portion of chapter 1
was really focused upon Paul and his circumstances and their
effect on the Gospel. But here in verse 27-30, he comes
back again to apply kind of the same lessons that he learned
with regards to himself that his life was indispensable, that
the Gospel was paramount. The effect of the Gospel on the
community was what was most important. And Paul wants to apply those
same lessons to the lives of the Philippians. If you would,
let’s pick up in verse 27 and read through these four verses
where Paul urged Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy
of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or
remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm
in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith
of the gospel, in no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a
sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you and
that too from God. For to you it has been granted
for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer
for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in
me and now hear to be in me.” Paul wanted his Philippian believers
to be prepared for anything really. And in a sense, he features them
as even what the hymn we just sang represented, that we are
walking through fiery trials. That whole issue of trials and
persecution kind of caught us off guard because we think of
Philippians as the epistle of joy. Paul is joyful. He’s urging
the Philippians to be joyful. He recognizes their joy and that
makes him more joyful. That’s kind of how the Philippian
epistle goes. Everything is joy. And so we
don’t tend to think of it as an epistle about affliction,
about trouble, about difficulty and trials and persecution, but
it is. They were walking through fire,
as it were. They were in the midst of their
own difficulties. They had their own challenges,
as we’ll see again in a moment. But what Paul wants to constantly
put before them is their destination. Because we can get so caught
up in the troubles, the difficulty, if you will, the fire, that we
lose sight of the destination. If we keep the destination fully
in view, which, as Paul points out, is none other than heaven
itself. If we keep the destination fully in view, that makes the
walk through fire worth it all. It makes it endurable. In this passage we began last
week, we wanted to refocus on what Paul laid out for us. There
are three reminders of our heavenly citizenship, and he goes about
it in a very roundabout way. Three reminders of our heavenly
citizenship. First of all, an exhortation
to citizenship. He basically says, live like
citizens of heaven. Look again at verse 27 when he
says, only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel
of Christ. Live like people whose roots,
whose citizenship is already in heaven. That little word there that some
of the older translations translated conversation. And I pointed out
that it was not even a mistranslation, but really a transformation of
the word over time. Even back then when the King
James was written, conversation meant your entire life and lifestyle. What Paul is saying there. is
that let your entire citizenship, everything that you do as members
of God’s kingdom, let it be done with Christ in view. Paul said, live like citizens
of heaven. In short, is what he exhorts
them to do. And it’s a common phrase for
Paul as we saw. Paul uses this exhortation on
three other occasions. Briefly, in Colossians 1.10,
he said it this way. Live or pardon me, walk in a
manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects, bearing
fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of
God. That is our calling as Christians. We are to walk in a manner worthy
of the Lord. That is probably the most general
way that Paul ever said it. And may I remind that I think
he has the same thing in view when he says it four different
ways. He said it a little bit differently
to the Thessalonian church when he said that they were to walk
in a manner worthy of God. worthy of the God who calls you
into His own kingdom of glory.” And there Paul supplies detail
that he didn’t supply to the Colossians. A manner worthy of
the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. And he
said it a fourth way to the Ephesian church when he said, I therefore,
the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you In a sense, he says, I’ll
get down on my knees and I’ll beg if I have to. I beg you walk
in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.
And as we said, that whole thing of worthy requires that we set
a value for that thing that is in view, whether it is God himself
or whether it is heaven or whether it is Christ or in the passage
in front of us, whether it is the gospel. We are to set a value
and we are to live according to that high value that we’ve
placed on that thing. The calling is the same. The
standard is the same. That we are to live and walk
worthily of the gospel of Christ. We are to live out our estimation
of Christ Himself. One pastor said of this exhortation
that the figure implied here is a common one. It describes
the general tenor of one’s life. What a simple way to say it.
When you talk about someone’s conversation or their way of life, if you will, he
really begins to narrow it down when he says the general tenor
of one’s life. It’s not how are you in your
worst moment or how you are in your best moment. It’s how you
are in the day-to-day mundane sphere of life. It describes the general tenor
of one’s life, his peculiar gait, his progress in his spiritual
journey, who are his companions, what are his tendencies, Whether
he holds his way with a steady step or is seduced into occasional
aberrations. What is the general tenor of
our life? Another said that to walk worthy
of the Lord is to feel the solemn bond of redeeming blood, to enshrine
the image of him who shed it, to breathe his spirit and act
in harmony with his example. In other words, that is what
it begins to mean to approach an understanding of esteeming
Christ for who He is and for what He’s worth, to hold that
blood and that very Christ in the highest esteem and having
esteemed Him to seek and to desire to live according to that value. He goes on to say, to exhibit
his temperament in its elements of purity, piety and love, to
be in the world as he was in the world, to be good and do
good, to show by the whole demeanor that his law is the rule which
governs and his glory is the aim which elevates and directs. Conduct yourselves worthy Conduct
yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” What
he wants us to do is live our lives in harmony with the responsibilities
that we have now in this new relationship that we have with
God Himself, the Creator of the universe. Paul goes on. And he says, not only does he
present to us these exhortations to citizenship, but he wants
to show us, and we looked at these briefly last week, the
particulars of citizenship. What is it exactly that we’re
called to as citizens of heaven? Read on with me, if you would,
in verse 27 where Paul exhorts, only conduct yourselves in a
manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ, so that whether I come
and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are
standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together
for the faith of the Gospel, in no way alarmed by your opponents. Three basic elements. of what it means to live like
a citizen of heaven. First of all, standing firm.
We saw it last week. That steadfastness of spirit
that is so common to Paul’s epistles. One pastor characterized it in
these terms. That there was a good reason
the Philippian church was addressed on this very issue. that you
are standing firm in one spirit because there was and often are
a multiplicity of spirits, aren’t there? A lot of different attitudes,
a lot of different ideas, a lot of different priorities. One pastor summed it up in these
terms. He said, from various hints given in the epistle, we
see that dissension had arisen among members of the church at
Philippi. And that is true. Paul will go so far as to name
names in chapter four. News of these have greatly pained
the apostle, both on the account of his affection for the persons
immediately concerned as in as his interest in the progress
of the cause of Christ. Do you hear the summary there,
what he says? That some of the friction in the church was irritating
to Paul. Some of the friction in the church
was beyond irritating. It was irritating to Paul because
it was having a negative effect on the work of the gospel in
their midst. And Paul says, you are to stand
firm in one spirit. You’re to stand together and
work together and serve together with one common purpose. not
to fight and quibble and squabble over trivial things that don’t
matter in the long run anyway. One Puritan writing on this passage
summed up that destructive spirit in these very graphic terms,
and this is not by way of review. That’s the beauty of kind of
doing a review as I get the opportunity to take another run at it. Listen
to the words of how he characterizes this destructive spirit. Where
combined action is desirable, incongruities and repugnances
of natural temperament may be so given way to that sound judgment
and right feeling are for a time vanquished. Do you hear what
he says? I mean, I joked about it last
week when we talked about the annual meeting, but we’ve been
in some annual meetings where incongruities and repugnances
of natural temperament may be given way to. That people resort
to what they really are like at their core. And it’s never
a good thing. And he says, so that sound judgment
and right feeling are for a time vanquished. They go back to living
and behaving like they used to be. You’ve seen it. Perhaps you’ve even admittedly
seen it in your own heart. He goes on and says, and legitimately
divergent opinions regarding the best modes of doing the Lord’s
work may be maintained with a discourtesy and a virulence very much calculated
to do the work of Satan. Did you hear that? He said sometimes
we get so lathered up in our own perspective of what the work
of the Lord is that the end justifies the means. I think I told, whether
it was this group or whether I said it in Sunday school one
day, there’s a great book that somebody handed me years ago
called Well-Intentioned Dragons. I thought, you know, I don’t
need, you know, expose on Dungeons and Dragons or whatever this
game is. I don’t, you know, I really it
sat on the shelf for the longest time. I had no idea what it was
about until one day I read the subtitle on it. What it’s about is people in
your church. Some of you are well-intentioned
dragons. Sometimes I’m a well-intentioned
dragon. And what it’s about is people
that they have good ideas. They just go about it with the
wrong spirit and the wrong attitude in a divisive manner. He goes on and concludes by saying,
carnal tempers often take to themselves the noble name of
conscientiousness and in the plausibility of this name lies
their strongest entrenchment and the chief hazard for Christians.
We get so locked into our positions. We so want to justify our positions
and our perspectives that nobody can stand in our
way. It’s a dangerous, dangerous thing.
And that’s Paul’s exhortation. That’s what was going on in the
Philippian church. He wanted to hear that they were
standing firm in one spirit, not many. And further, that they
were with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. You see, that’s what in the Philippian
church and in any church that goes astray, that’s what happens
first is they lose sight of the big picture, that the entire
goal is the testimony of the church to the community in which
it lives and resides. He wanted to hear that they were
shoulder to shoulder, proclaiming Christ, that they stood together,
if for no other reason than for the Gospel. With one mind, striving together
for the faith of the Gospel. That’s what Paul wanted to know.
And the third little thing there, again, by way of review, in no
way alarmed by your opponents. He didn’t want frightened, scared
sheep there in Philippi. And they had much, from a human
standpoint, to be frightened. The Roman government, the Jews
were constantly harassing the various churches, perhaps not
the Philippian church specifically, but almost everywhere Paul went. One concluded this way, that
the firm stand of the church would become manifest insofar
as the believers were not frightened, terrified or intimidated by the
action of their adversaries. I love that little passage It’s
that for which I pray when anybody new comes up here to preach.
It’s that for which I pray when I come up here to preach. Composure
allays great offenses. If I ever go into a difficult
meeting, difficult time with somebody, composure allays great
offenses. From the book of Ecclesiastes.
In no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction
for them. It’s a literal testimony to them
from God that you are so unafraid of them that it is a harbinger
of doom for them. That’s powerful. And not only is it a harbinger
of doom for them, but it is a sign of salvation for us that we are
so at peace. We are so much at peace with
God and so trustful of His sovereign protection over us that it is
affirming to us that we are in Christ. One characterized it in these
terms, the undaunted bearing of the Philippians in the face
of opposition and persecution would be a token of destruction
to their adversaries. Because it would show their persecutors
are powerless to thwart God’s work, that their resistance is
working out their own spiritual ruin, that they are fighting
against God, which can only mean their own destruction. And that leads us to our third
observation, the third reminder of our heavenly citizenship,
and here we pick up fresh. Jump back to verse 27, so we
pick it up in its context. Only conduct yourselves in a
manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come
and see you or remain absent, I may hear that you are standing
firm in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith
of the gospel in no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a
sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you and
that too from God. For to you, it has been granted
for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer
for his sake. It has been granted. Paul, just
in mentioning salvation in verse 27 or verse 28 there, right at
the end, he cannot even mention that word without conceptualizing
its origin. without thinking of where that
salvation came from, and immediately what floods his mind is grace,
God’s grace. For to you, it has been granted.”
Their trying circumstances, their salvation, it all came as a package
and it all was a gift of God. Let’s see how that unfolds. The
word there, it has been granted, speaks of a love gift. It was
freely bestowed on them as a gracious gift from God. God had rewarded
them with this entire package that consisted not only of salvation,
but also suffering. You say, well, what kind of gift
is that? Essentially, that gift, as we’ll see, was a proof of
divine favor. That suffering that they endured,
that suffering that you go through, that draws you closer to Christ
is a divine favor. Let’s ponder this one for a moment. When Paul says, for you it has
been granted, he uses that word that points to those grace gifts
that are so often bestowed in Scripture. Gifts to the church. Gifts to individuals. There’s
a grace gift. And it is given, as Paul goes
on to say, for Christ’s sake. Christ is the one that gets the
glory. Christ is the one that gets the glory in our faith.
Christ is the one that gets the glory in our work in the church.
Christ is in view. It isn’t this, you know, airy, abstract
truth that we believe in. We’ve placed our faith in Christ. And when we suffer, we suffer
for Christ. Romans 5, Paul said it a little
bit differently there. Jot it down, if you would, Romans
5, 3 through 5, but listen carefully. Where Paul said, not only this,
we exalt in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings
about perseverance. In perseverance, proven character,
and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint because
the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through
the Holy Spirit who was given to us. This is a grace gift for
Christ’s sake. Verse 29, goes on to say, it has been granted
for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him. And at that,
some wince. What do you mean, it has been
granted to believe in Him? Because I exercised my faith. I laid hold of Christ. I owned Him when I first came
to see Him for who He was. No, you didn’t. That’s not what
Scripture says. To you, it has been granted for
Christ’s sake to believe in Him. And immediately here, faith is
immediately brought into perspective as a gift of divine grace. It’s divinely given. Ephesians
2.8, you know the passage well. Ephesians 2.8-10 says it quite
simply when it says, For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And that should be enough. But some would still contend
that yes, it’s of grace, but it’s also by my faith. For by
grace you have been saved through faith. And that, pointing back
to that faith, that faith not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God. And it echoes the same thing that Paul says here. It
has been granted to believe in Him. Paul goes on to detail that
whole concept when he says, for we are His workmanship. He started the construction project. He dug the foundation. He erected
the structure of our lives. We are His workmanship from the
ground up. created in Christ Jesus four
good works which God prepared beforehand so that we should
walk in them.” It’s all of God. It’s all part of God’s sovereign
plan in our lives to believe in Him. Puritan said of mankind that
it was necessary that God would provide grace. He said grace
is a provision for men who are so fallen that they cannot lift
the acts of justice, so corrupt they cannot change their own
natures, so averse to God that they cannot turn to Him, so blind
they cannot see, so deaf they cannot hear, so that He must
open their graves and lift them. Paul says here, it is a grace
gift, this faith. It’s the gift of God. And he goes on to say that to you it has been granted not
only for Christ’s sake to believe in Him, but also to suffer. This faith, didn’t consist of merely accepting
all these truths. The faith came as part of a gift
package from God that beheld God for who He was and took in
not only the facts, but committed the entire heart and soul, body,
mind and spirit to this God that it had come to know through Christ. It is a faith that will not and
cannot and must not ever be shaken. To you, it has been granted for
Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer. And
you can’t take one without the other. Some would like that first
part. They would even acquiesce to
what they call hard Calvinism and say, OK, I’ll take it for
a minute. That’s fine. I’ll go that far.
And to say, OK, God has granted me faith. God has granted that
I believe in Him. But I can’t quite buy this second
statement. God has granted that I suffer
for his sake. But the call and the power to
suffer for him were both part of the gift of God. Romans 8,
17 says that if we are children, heirs also, heirs of God and
fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, So
that we may also be glorified with him. It is part of the package. We spent almost two years studying
the book of First Peter, First Peter 4.13. You probably have
it memorized to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ. Keep on rejoicing so that also
at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation. It is part of the package. To
walk with Christ and serve Christ. Is to suffer. One pastor said it this way.
their sufferings may properly be called Christ’s sufferings. They are of the same kind and
for the same cause that Christ suffered. They make us conformable
to Him. He suffers in them. He feels
our infirmities. And if we are partakers of His
sufferings, we shall also be partakers of His glory.” What
I get from that is we willingly accept the faith
Or at least with some debate after we contend a little bit,
we come to agree that, OK, God granted that we believe in Him. And we’ll willingly take the
faith. We certainly will take the salvation by it. And we eagerly look forward to
the glory, but it’s the suffering in between that we so often bristle
under as Christians. But he says that their sufferings
for Christ should not be a ground of doubt. The Philippians shouldn’t
give up. They shouldn’t lose hope and
lose heart. They should look through those
sufferings to glory, that they should keep a firm fix on heaven. That is their perspective. And
that’s the only way this fiery walk can possibly be endured. That’s what he says to the Philippians. It’s been granted for Christ’s
sake, not only to believe, but also to suffer for his sake. Let me take you to a lengthy
passage. We’ll spend just a few moments
in it, but it’s so lengthy that I want to have you turn there.
Acts chapter five. It’s a difficult part with Scripture. It’s all so good that I have
this tendency to want to spend too much time on too many rabbit
trails. But this is a good one, I hope. Look at verse 12. At the hands of the apostles,
many signs and wonders were taking place. Among the people, they
were all with one accord in Solomon’s portico. None of the rest dared
to associate with him. However, the people held them
in high esteem. And all the more the believers in the Lord, multitudes
of men and women were constantly added to their number. And so
the church is just growing and flourishing to such an extent
that they even carried out the sick into the streets, laid them
in cots and pallets so that when Peter came, it came by at least
a shadow might fall on them. And so there’s just this amazing
time in the church. which, of course, the local Jewish
authorities get all upset over. And they imprison the apostles. And remember, through the lengthy
reading of this passage, the doors are open. The apostles,
the prisoners are set free to go about preaching again. And
all of a sudden, the report comes back up that they’re preaching
again. And it was in that context that Gamaliel said, leave them
alone. We don’t want to be seen as ultimately fighting against
God. Look at verse 37. Look at, pardon me, 38. So in
the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and
let them alone for if this plan or action is of men, it will
be overthrown. But if it is of God, you will not be able to
overthrow them or else you may even be found to be fighting
against God. So they took his advice. And
after calling the apostles in, they flogged them. They beat
them severely. And they ordered them not to
speak in the name of Jesus, which they had no intention of submitting
to. And then they released them.
And in verse 41, you have one of the most astounding statements
in Scripture. So they went on their way from
the presence of the council, rejoicing that they had been
considered worthy to suffer shame for his name. That is exactly
What Paul is urging the Philippians to embrace that it is a privilege. It is a grace gift as part of
the package that includes faith and salvation. One pastor summarized
by saying Christian courage must come from God, if at all, because
after enabling to put us to put our whole trust in Christ, he
grants the glory of suffering for Christ. To the pagan, this
is an absurd paradox. He doesn’t wish to suffer at
all. But Christian experience proves that the paradox is true. No wonder. No wonder Paul said,
I am well content with weakness, insults, distresses, persecutions,
difficulties for Christ’s sake. It’s not that we need to go around
looking for trouble and looking for difficulty and looking for
suffering, trying to see how much we can heap on ourselves
and embrace. There’s plenty out there that
is part of the grace gift that is already ours. I am well content, Paul says,
for when I am weak, then I am strong. That’s when God has me
right where He wants me. And He said it the same way in
Romans 5. He said it the same way to the Colossian people.
When in Colossians 1.24 He said, Now I rejoice in my sufferings
for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His
body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in
Christ’s afflictions. There are going to be adversaries.
There are going to be difficulties. There are going to be frustrations
and heartache. There is suffering that is part
of our life. Suffering in and of itself isn’t
a privilege, as I’ve said. We don’t have to go courting
suffering. But when we suffer on Christ’s
behalf, when we suffer in his interest, when we suffer for
the sake of the gospel, that kind of suffering is a gracious
God given privilege. It brings us nearer to Christ.
It gives us that assurance of salvation that if we can endure
this, there must be divinity behind it. And that kind of suffering will
be rewarded in heaven. Paul goes on to say that the
conflict that they were experiencing was the same kind that he had
been through. Look at verse 30. It has been granted to you for
Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for
His sake in experiencing the same conflict which you saw in
me and now hear to be in me.” It’s an interesting word, this
word conflict. And it’s a Paul word. It’s a
favorite word of Paul. And it’s a word that Paul probably
picked up in Rome. Or at least that’s where he really,
you know, how we go through those things where you hear a new word.
Well, that’s a good word. I think I’ll plug that in. And
then you use it in its context. It feels pretty good. You start
driving that word everywhere you go. Right. That’s kind of
how Paul takes this word, the word conflict originally occurred
or referred to a contest in the arena. The arena is like there
were in Rome. The word is agonizomai, agonize. And the word suggested this athletic
struggle, this wrestling match, but it was a hand-to-hand combat,
usually to death. That’s the kind of word. And
Paul uses it repeatedly in his epistles. Here are just a few. 1 Corinthians
9.25 Everyone who competes in games, who agonizes in the
agony. Everyone who competes in the
games exercises self-control in all things. Colossians 1.29,
for this purpose I labor, striving, I agonize in my labor. I want you to know, Colossians
2.1, how great a struggle I have on your behalf. How great the
agony is. First Timothy 6.12, fight the
good fight. Agonize the good agony is literally
what he says. Second Timothy 4.7, I have fought
the good fight. I’m done now because I have agonized
to the very end. That’s what Paul says when He
says, I know that you’re experiencing the same agony that I go through.
I know that you have your troubles. I know because that is part and
parcel of the Christian life. You saw them in me when I was
in Philippi. Now you hear about them. But
I know it’s very true that they’re in you as well. And this is a
device that was so typical for Paul to empathize with his readers
and to say, look, I know what you’re going through. I know
exactly what you’re going through. First Thessalonians one six one
six. You became imitators of us and
of the Lord having received the word in much tribulation. Paul
constantly would view their circumstances in light of his own and say,
I know what you’re going through because I’ve done it myself. Do not be ashamed.” 2 Timothy
1.8. Do not be ashamed of the testament
of our Lord or of me, his prisoner, but join with me in suffering
for the gospel. Paul doesn’t try to gloss over
his circumstances. Paul doesn’t try to hide them.
He uses them for God’s glory to say, look, if I can do it
by God’s grace, you can do it. Do it. It wasn’t the same exact kind
of suffering that Paul was going through. The Philippians weren’t
in jail. Perhaps they weren’t even beaten. They certainly hadn’t
been shipwrecked. But they were exposed to suffering. Because it’s part of our calling
as Christians, we haven’t gone through hardly anything that
Paul’s gone through, but we suffer. One said that the Philippians
were vexed in a variety of ways. Idol worshippers, emperor worshippers,
legalistic Judaizer, paganistic centralists, quarreling church
members. All of these, the result of satanic
influence, were engaged in the same conflict. We live in a difficult
society, constantly barraged by the world’s images, the world’s
thoughts, the world’s attitudes. We know what it’s like to live
in conflict. The Philippians certainly knew
when Paul wrote to the Corinthians later, he spoke of them. I fully
believe that he had the Philippian church in his heart when he wrote
Second Corinthians 8.1. Now, brethren, we wish to make
known to you the grace of God, which has been given in the churches
of Macedonia. Right smack in the middle of
that was Philippi. that in great ordeal of affliction,
their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the
wealth of their liberality. Even in the midst of this, the
Philippian church would not be daunted. They would not give
up. They would not give in. The same must be true of us.
That if we’re willing to accept heaven, If we’re willing to accept
glory and glorification, if we’re willing to accept salvation and
the faith that leads to that salvation, then we must be willing
to embrace willingly as part of that grace gift, suffering. One said it this way. He said
circumstances infinitely vary and so, therefore, do sufferings. The Master assigns their kinds
and degrees not arbitrarily, but sovereignly. And it is his
manifest will that not all equally faithful Christians should equally
encounter open violence or even open shame. But it is his will
also definitely revealed that suffering in some sort for his
name’s sake should normally enter into the lot of all that live
godly. in Christ Jesus. I remember coming across the
hymn years ago. It isn’t one that we sing that
often. The music is difficult. But the words. The words are
what impacted me. Am I a soldier of the cross? Is the name of the hymn. And
it goes like this. Am I a soldier of the cross?
A follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own his cause
or blush to speak his name? Must I be carried to the skies
on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize
and sailed through bloody seas? Do we think, after reading the
entirety of Scripture, that we in our modern day Christianity
are somehow going to escape the difficulties and the sufferings
that come as part of the package of believing. Spurgeon said it
in much more plain and graphic language when he said, what?
Would you choose that you alone may fare better than all God’s
saints? that God should strew carpets
for your nice feet only to walk into your heaven and make that
way smooth for you which all patriarchs, prophets, evangelists,
confessors, yea, even Christ himself has found rugged? Away with this self-love and
come down, you ambitious sons of Zebedee, and before you think
of sitting near the throne, be content to be called to the cross.
Now is your trial. Let your Savior see how much
of His bitter portion you can pledge. Then you shall see how
much of His glory He can afford you. As snow is of itself often
cold, yet warms and refreshes the earth, so afflictions, though
in themselves grievous, yet keep the soul of the Christian and
make it warm and fruitful.” Let’s pray. Oh, Father, even our hearts,
even as we’ve seen that salvation and suffering are bound up inextricably
together. And even still, we would pray
that we would be spared. We don’t desire to suffer. But
Father, we do pray that you would change our hearts. Help us to
adopt an eternal perspective that looks beyond these things
of the world to heaven. And embraces this fiery walk. That we might glorify you. In
all that we do. We do thank you and praise you
in Jesus name, Amen. You.