Suffering for Christ's sake

Well this morning we're going to, I'd like to get someone to read, we're going to kind of read back a little bit, read back starting in verse 21 in chapter 1 of Philippians. So if I could get a volunteer to read Philippians, starting in verse 21 through the end of the chapter which is verse 31, which is verse 30.

For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall choose I know not. abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And having the confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all of your furtherance and joy of faith. That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again. Only let your conduct be as it should come of the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God. For unto you it is given on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which he saw in me, and now hear it to be in me.

Thanks, Bob. Well, actually, we're going to start back at verse 27. Jim, we didn't get into 27 last week, and actually, 27 really starts, I think, a major section here in Philippians. Some have titled this, starting in verse 27 onward into the middle of chapter 2, an exhortation to unity. So he's speaking to the body of believers in Philippi, and he's actually speaking to us, and he's going to talk about how unity is key to our Christian life and how that unity among the body of Christ has effects on us.

So it's kind of neat. I was all ready to go. Well actually I can do this. I can do this. So that's a little bit the old-fashioned way right. I know, I have to walk over there. Manually do it. One of us could sit over there. Yeah, that's true. Actually, I used to do that. Back in the old days, you'd have somebody, a colleague, sit at the computer and they would do it manually. I've done that for people. To be able to do it yourself remotely, or you have a long cord, That's another approach to this. So anyway.

So verse 27, the first part of that says, only conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. And so that's kind of the key idea that's going to flow down for the rest of the verses here. Your conduct, or actually we're going to find out it's your citizenship, living your life as a citizen of heaven. Kind of cool. And actually different translations have all kinds of things. So we're going to see some really neat things there as we walk through that.

And then it kind of comes down and he's talking to the body of believers. He's saying, you know, so whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. And this idea of the faith, Vernon's talked about this quite a bit, the faith, the truths revealed, the truths of the revealed in scripture about Christ and the gospel.

And then this is kind of a quote, in no way alarmed by your opponents or frightened by your opponents, which, and this is mind boggling, which is a sign of destruction for them. I mean, at first I said, this is, wow, how can that be a sign of destruction for them?

But salvation for you. So the same message has two outcomes. And that too from God. For it has been granted to you, for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. Another just eye-opening thing. You know, people who you know, they preach a gospel of, you know, no pain. That's not the gospel that the Lord has. He says, he ties our believing in Him and suffering for Him together. I mean, that's another just marvelous thing. And then Paul, he kind of ends it out, experiences the same conflict you saw in me. So you saw Paul suffer in jail with the Praetorian Guard. You're coming alongside and you're sharing in that. So it's really cool.

So we'll get into the particulars here as we... Okay, so the first part here is this neat phrase, only conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. And this word conduct yourself is actually from the word for politics. This is good politics. This is heavenly politics. So it's really cool. Conduct your life. as a citizen of heaven, basically.

And we're going to see that. So, and actually I'm kind of giving part of this away here. I'm getting so excited about it here. But the first couple of verses here, and let's look at a couple of those. The first couple of verses talk about basically being a citizen. And let's see here.

Let's look at Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15. And you know what I find, you know, and I find by looking at some of the other places, it really helps you to kind of get a handle on the different words that we kind of come across. So, it can take a little bit of time to do this, but I find it's kind of, it's certainly beneficial. Luke 15, Luke 15, 15. Actually, let's start in 15, 14.

Could I get someone to read that? And when he had spent all, when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. Okay.

So I'm just trying to get you the idea of this is that the core word is citizen and then this is living as a citizen is a word that we're concerned with. So the first two references there are just to being a citizen. Whereas the next one, which is what I want to kind of focus on that one, the Acts 23 is actually kind of a companion idea here. So let's look at Acts 23. verse 1 Acts 23 and verse 1 and if someone could read that and Paul looking intently at the council said brethren I have lived my life for the perfect purpose perfect good conscience before God up to this day.

Okay, so that phrase, I live my life, is the same word for conducting yourself as a citizen. So we're going to see here, and I've already kind of answered this question, so, you know, where is our citizenship at? I've kind of already answered the question, but, you know, I think it's just pivotal to see that as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, our citizenship is in heaven.

If we don't see that, I think we don't see how we can live the Christian life. We don't see how it's possible. Well, the only way you can try to do it is under the law. Exactly. I mean, that's where the law comes in, because people don't recognize where their citizenship is. Exactly, exactly. And so I found a real key verse.

I didn't put it on here, but it's actually, we're going to study it later in Philippians, but if you turn over to chapter 3, In chapter 3 of Philippians, and this is really a key verse talking about our citizenship, and we're going to be studying this down the road here a bit. It says, for our citizenship is in heaven. and from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I've read this many times before, but look where we're waiting from. Are we waiting down here?

We think, wow, this is a tough place to wait. Boy, it's got all kinds of things going on here. We're waiting from heaven. Wait a minute. I'm waiting from heaven for the Lord to come. It seems just to the natural mind, it's like, that's strange. That's where I want to go, but we're We're to look at who we are and where we're at.

We're waiting from heaven. So that's just key to not being frightened. We're going to see about being frightened, not being frightened by your adversaries, because we're waiting from heaven. That's a cool place to wait from, right? Wait at the bus stop, wait at the whatever. No, I'm waiting in heaven. You tell somebody, I'm waiting for heaven, they'll look at you kind of strange.

So anyway, that's neat. So to keep going here, it goes on. Only conduct yourself as a citizen, basically, as a citizen of heaven, in a manner worthy. And the idea here is suitable or properly. There's actually another verse that kind of matches this verse.

If you look in the... I didn't put it on the sheet. Ephesians 4 and verse 1. Ephesians 4 and verse 1. And let's see, can someone read that? Ephesians 4, 1. to which you've been called. So a very similar kind of exhortation. You're a citizen of heaven.

Conduct yourself in a manner worthy, here it's the case, in a manner worthy of your calling. Here it's a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. So in both cases it's looking at who you are and then you're conducting yourself that's consistent with the message of who Christ is and what he's done. So it's just, it's really, you know, And what's interesting is this isn't just a suggestion, this actually is in the imperative mood. So it's a command. So when we see commands in scripture, we look at them in light of grace, in light of the fact that we're not being put under a law system, but it is something that is consistent with who we are in Christ.

So it's the manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. And actually Paul uses that in his different writings eight times and I wanted to look at actually I have them down here so there's a couple here I wanted to look at so let's see here let's look at the Romans passage Romans chapter 15 Romans chapter 15 So we're looking at, we're kind of tracing through this, he calls it the Gospel of Christ. And he's going to talk about different, he's going to have different things. In this case, it's a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. We're going to find other modifiers to that and then some of the other passages here. The first one is Romans 15, and let's do 18 and 19. Yeah, Bonnie, could you read that?

For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me. resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit, so that from Jerusalem and round about, as far as Illirikim, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ."

Well, all that I was searching for, the modifier before that, I fully preach the gospel of Christ. So here he says, you're conducting yourself so that your life matches what you're telling them. And earlier, back in Romans, he talks about, I fully preach the gospel of Christ. So he has many occasions where he talks about the gospel of Christ. And he says, here's what the Lord has allowed me to do in doing this. In this manner, I'm conducting yourself, preaching the gospel of Christ.

Let's turn over to the Corinthians passage, 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 12. It says, If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endured all things that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. So you'll find when that gospel of Christ is used, he's going to say, that we preached it, conducting our lives, and he didn't have any hindrance.

That's the key message that Paul wanted to put out to people. So that's what you'll see in those other verses as well. I've heard people say, if you want to know what somebody believes, look at how they live. And I just think that's exactly right. using that idea basically he's going to say you know Philippians you know you're a heavenly citizen Who you are ought to match the message you give out to people. And that's what he's saying. Thanks, sir. That's great. Let me just go back here. So conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

And then it goes on, the verse, so that when I come and see you, or remain absent. So here he kind of says, when you already see so that or that in scripture, it typically means the purpose is going to follow that so that or that, the word that. So that, when I come and see you or remain absent, you've got two scenarios. Scenario one is, and what's interesting is, it's stated in the Aorist tense, which has the idea of completed action.

So it's like, I'm going to come and see you. He says, having come and having seen you is literally what it means. You think, well, I thought he was saying I might do this and I might do that. Well, he already says it's going to happen. So whether I come, or I have come and have seen you, in the other case, or being absent, and then it's going to go on.

I will hear of your standing firm in one spirit and so on. So here he just says, you know, conduct yourself as a citizen of heaven. And whether I come or I don't come, I'm going to hear of what's happening in your life. I'm going to hear of the Lord working through you. So I think that's kind of cool. Okay, so we get to the middle part here. I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit.

And this is another key to this passage. This is a pretty long verse. There's probably like A, B, C, D, E, F, G. I label this as B, but you chop it up. There's plenty of sections here. So now he says, when I come and see you, I'm absent. I'm going to hear something about you. And here's, I will hear that you are standing firm in one spirit. So this is kind of interesting. Okay, literally I'm hearing the things concerning you.

And the idea here is that you're standing firm, to stand firm in the faith and duty to be constant to persevere. And this is in the present tense. So that's to be the conduct of your life. That's the present, ongoing conduct. You're standing firm. So let's look at a couple of verses here. The first one is in Philippians. It's kind of neat that we'll see that we have future things that are coming down the road here.

We're going to see in Philippians 4.1. Can someone read that?

Care for my brethren, dearly beloved, and long for my joy and crown. So stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. So, in this case, he's saying, stand firm in one spirit, kind of speaking of the unity of believers. And then he's, next to this one he just read here, so stand firm in the Lord. So our standing firm, our ability to stand firm is not based on anything that we can do, it's based on all what God can do. We're standing firm in one spirit, and we're going to dig into that in a moment here. And then later on in Philippians, in 4.1, he says, so stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.

So he's encouraging them to stand firm in the faith, but it's something the Lord is going to accomplish. They're not saying, boy, I'm not going to be afraid. I'm not going to be afraid. I'll just say it a bunch of times, and I won't be afraid. They're saying, no, I'm seated in heavenly places with the Lord. He said, I'll have trials. I know what's going to happen. I know the game plan. And I'm going to impress him through the situation. So that's kind of the message that he's giving to us there.

So it says, in one spirit. I didn't put a whole lot down about that. But then I kind of thought about it a little bit. This idea of one spirit, and it's not capitalized here. So it's speaking, it seems, of of the unity of the Spirit among believers. And there's just a lot of neat verses that talk about the unity of the Spirit among believers.

And Ephesians is just a real rich area for that. So let's look at Ephesians chapter 1. This is not on my notes here. Ephesians chapter 1. Now actually, let's try Ephesians chapter 4. Let me read a few verses here. Ephesians chapter 4, starting in verse 1. And what's interesting is, these are the prison epistles, and Ephesians is also one of those. I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling which you have been called. So he's basically saying, where do I have my one spirit here? Let's keep going.

With all humility and gentleness and patience, showing forbearance in one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. And now let's just skip down to verse 14, verse 13, I'm sorry, verse 13. Until we all attained the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the statute which belongs to the fullness of Christ." So that phrase there, the first part of 13, it says, until we all attain the unity of the faith. So this unity of faith, unity of spirit, he's telling it to stand firm in the fact that as a body of Christ, we have a unity. And that unity is centered in the facts of the gospel of Christ and something called the faith, which we'll look at shortly here.

That's the game plan, if you will. We're standing firm, united in what we know. And that's why it's really important. You look through here, actually back up earlier in chapter 4 of Ephesians, and it says he gave some as apostles and teachers and so on. That's why it's so critical that there be consistent teaching and consistent understanding.

To have a unity among the body of believers, we have to be on the same page. If we're on different pages, if some of us are on some of us are on law and some of us are on grace, we can't have this unity of the spirit. We can't do what Paul encouraged them to do, be of one spirit. And I think that's why, before coming to Holly Hills, I was in the body of believers where sometimes we had law, sometimes we had grace. And people were very confused. I guess the question is what is the true gospel? We're so simplistic in thinking Christ died for my sins and I have an eternal life. I mean, that's gospel, but the gospel's a little bit more than that, isn't it?

Right. What he's going to talk about shortly here, we're going to see, and it's right here, we're going to see striving for the faith of the gospel. And that little term, the faith of the gospel, is this collection of truths that were delivered by the apostles. We're going to go down that rabbit trail a little bit and we're going to look at that about the faith. So that's kind of key. It's the faith of the gospel. We're going to see other modifiers to that term of the gospel.

So you're right. The gospel is the bare-bones gospel that Christ died for our sins. He was buried and rose on the third day. But there's this body of truth that tells us about God's gracious plan and so on. There's accompanying things that go with that. Well, you talked about our conduct being consistent with the gospel. Right, right. I mean, so whatever this gospel is, I mean, anyway. Hopefully we'll cover some of that. Okay. All right.

So what we're going to see here, this phrase, I will hear that you're standing firm in one spirit, and then there's going to be a couple things that are going to come out of that. The rest of what we seek, the very last part of 27 into 28, are going to be things that are going to be evidence that we're standing firm. They're going to be benchmarks, if you will, things that we can observe, and that's what he's going to delve into as we go down that path. But then he's actually going to talk about another aspect of this, about striving here for a second. So we're going to see, we're standing firm in one spirit, and then we're going to go into these two other aspects. And I'll show you that in just a second.

So the first aspect we're going to look at, And actually I found it better that, I'm not sure how other translations, but it has, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. Actually, striving together, it fits better if you're striving together with one mind. So it flows that way for the faith of the gospel. So it's the same information, but it's easier to grasp. You're striving together with one mind. as a team, as a body of Christ, we're striving to present the faith of the gospel, is kind of the message. So this word, striving together, is an athletic term and there's another one in Philippians again that kind of shows that. And Paul talks about this striving together as a body of believers and you know he was Remember earlier on in the first in the chapter one he talked about you know I'm in prison here, but you're sharing with me and my my interaction with the inspiratory guards are encouraging you are lifting up your faith because I'm encountering these difficulties, but you're you're sharing with me my trials and tribulations.

And that is actually encouraging the whole body of believers. And that's kind of what he keeps in that theme as we go into here as well. The trials and sufferings we see, we share it as a body and as we see results from that, that encourages the whole body of believers.

So in chapter 4 and verse 3 it says, Indeed, true comrades, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle." And that's the word right here. Striving together. Shared my struggle. So these women have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel. Once again, we see these modifiers in front of the gospel. They share my struggle in the gospel, the faith of the gospel, and other phrases. The cause of the gospel.

Together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. Okay, so they're striving together, they're sharing together. He wants to hear them standing firm, and here's the first thing that they're striving together. This is the first thing that is an outcome of that, by standing firm.

We're striving together of one mind, literally one soul, in the faith of the gospel. So let's just spend a little bit of time looking at this thing, the faith. And one of the best places that defines what the faith is, is in Jude. So, Jude is sandwiched in there before Revelation. So, let's look at Jude here for a second. And could I get someone to read verse 3 in Jude?

11, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. So, the faith is, and there's other passages we can look at, is a body of truth that was delivered by God, and it's an inspired word, and notice that it was delivered once for all, so it wasn't like, so it's complete, and he talks about our common salvation, So once again, he wants to focus on the fact that it's the faith and it's the faith of the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ.

And I also found that the term of the gospel, as with the previous, the one spirit, is used by Paul, actually in Philippians, seven times. So if you want to just go back to Philippians for a second, we'll just take a short, just in chapter one, I was amazed, I hadn't realized If you look in verse 7 of chapter 1, he talks about the defense and confirmation of the gospel. And in verse 12 of chapter 1, he talks about the greater progress of the gospel. And then in verse 16, he talks about, I'm appointed for the defense of the gospel.

So he's focused on the gospel being understood and being not being any misunderstanding, and that's the message that he wants to get out to the people. And there's effort involved in this, and it's not our effort, it's Christ working through us. But we're working together, we're striving as one. As one soul, literally. Go ahead. Jude verse 3 is actually good for both the striving together and faith of the gospel. It is. It is. The contending earnestness. Right.

And you notice that you see that you know I begin to as I look through this the set of verses I begin to see wow Paul has talked about this in all his so many other of his writings about the centrality of the gospel and how that message is to is a message that we need to agree upon and it's a message that needs to be proclaimed and So his message, you pick all these dots up, it's the same message. That body of truth needs to be put out to the believers and to the unbelievers as well. It seemed like I was alluding to it before, Roger.

I think the truth of the gospel is that we're presented before God as perfectly righteous and holy. And that's just not our sins being forgiven, it's the fact that we were crucified with Christ, right? So in a sense, the unity of the Spirit really relates to those truths bearing out in the body, don't they? I think the view of the Christian existence is so different if you just see that your sins are forgiven. The truth of the Gospel is grace. It really is.

And that's so much deeper then most people tread water. And we're not being elitist here, we're just looking at the Word of God and what it really says, right? And when you come to realize that it's Christ in you, the hope of glory, ultimately you've come to the end of yourself, haven't you? I've been trying to please God, but I'm just not quite cutting it.

Isn't that really the true gospel, that grace That's cool. Well, Bob, this is a great, great lead-in because actually we're going to see graces in these verses. It's coming up. Thanks, Bob. And they're the verses we mentioned in Philippians. So this is outcome number one. Of standing firm in one spirit, outcome number one is that we'll be striving together for the faith of the gospel. Outcome number two is pretty interesting. In no way alarmed by your opponents. So there's two aspects. As you're standing firm in the faith of the gospel, you're in no way alarmed by your opponents.

And this alarm is either to frighten, to terrify, And actually, the first verse there is like wars and rumors of wars. Actually, what I found was that this is the only place this particular word is used. But there are synonyms that are used in other places. But it basically means that it's a terrifying. Let's look at the Luke 24 passage just to have one verse of that. Luke 24, 36 to 37. I'm going to read that 24, 36 and 37. And as they thus spoke, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. So the frightened or affrighted is the same word.

We're not to be alarmed or terrified because basically of who we are. And as Bob was saying, Who we are is the key asset. If we don't know who we are, then we will say, well, wait a minute. Something might happen and I'm, you know, whatever. But if we know who we are, we're grounded. That's our anchor.

And opponents are literally to lie opposite to or to be set over against. And basically, the first verse you can cross out, that's not the right address. The second one talks about the fact that in the Christian life there will be adversaries. And I don't think that's any great news. There will be adversaries in the Christian life, and we're not to be surprised.

You know, I was reading, there was an article yesterday in the Wall Street Journal that was talking about for the first time in countries around the world where Christians have been since the beginning. For the first time, Christians are now being pushed out in areas where countries have been mainly Christian. And now, for the first time in history, whereas we remember Jews have been pushed out in previous time periods. But now Christians are being pushed out in parts of Europe and countries that this has never happened before because they were Christian countries.

Interesting. We're starting to see it. Exactly. That's what 1 Corinthians 16 and 9 talks about. Don't be surprised basically. Don't let this shock you. And then I kind of ask the rhetorical question, why are we not to be alarmed? and I've kind of already answered it. Yeah, where's our trust in faith?

Right. If we're standing firm in the Lord, who He is, and we're heavenly citizens, I mean, it's sort of like, well, I come with the, I show my passport, I'm a heavenly citizen. Isn't that cool? Here's my heavenly citizenship. So that's our dependence. Not that we're somehow clever and can avoid, you know. Okay.

Now what's interesting is, in no way alarmed by your opponents. So we're going to find that has some results here. First result is, which is a sign of destruction for them. So as you conduct your Christian, as a heavenly citizen, you're conducting your heavenly life here on earth, and that, and you're not being alarmed, and you're standing firm in the gospel, that is a sign of destruction for them. implying unbelievers.

I just, that was just kind of mind boggling. I said, wow. It's just, I mean, only in scripture would you get that piece of information. You think, well, wait a minute. It's sort of like, well, Christians are being pushed out. They're getting, you know, they're going to be hurt. They're going to be killed. They're going to be maimed. Well, wait a minute. It's a sign of destruction for them. But then for you, it's for your salvation. So there's sort of life, death versus life. The same message, the same message of you're carrying out what God would have you do for one body of people is destruction, but for others is a sign of life.

We've seen this often. Paul has talked about this all the time, all through his writings, in different ways he's said this very same thing. It's just really cool. Is that salvation, speaking of our personal salvation, or is that just being were saved from something somehow.

Well I took it as, I took it as, and we're going to see that a little bit later on, we're going to see about grace here, but I took that as to being, you know, destruction here is going to hell. I mean actually the word is literally perdition. We're going to see destruction. We'll try to answer that question.

I'm pretty sure that's selfless, you know, you've saved, you're saved under life, you're going to live. Now what you're saying, is that just life for right now? I think it's, you know, we're contrasting the eternal, this destruction versus eternal life. I don't know, I take it as being, you know, being the Lord. they're trying to act out their salvation, whether it be the Islam faith or whatever.

And how gracious of the Lord to, I mean he's told us the whole story. Right he has. So the fear has been taken away from us because we know the ending. Regardless of how we get there, we're secure. Right. And that's true. So we start off with the fact that, well, who am I? I'm a heavenly citizen. So he starts off with that and he kind of flows down. He says, we're not to be alarmed. And guess what? That message, it's going to impact. You may not think, it's going to impact.

It's a sign of destruction for them. And the word literally is perdition, which is everlasting damnate hell. You know, the sun of perdition? So that's a sign of, it's a proving, that's a proof. It's like a proof text. Someone says, I have my proof text here. That's a proof text of their destruction. But for you, it's a sign of salvation.

I mean, it's just really neat. So these verses talk about destruction and it's indeed, if you look in the Matthew one, the word prediction destruction is hell, it's destruction. So I ask another rhetorical question, what is the sign of destruction? I just already have said that.

It's this message of you standing firm in one faith of the gospel, not alarmed. So you're cool. You know, you're saying, Lord, it's okay. Things are going crazy out there, but it's okay. And that unnerves people. Have you noticed that? It unnerves people. How can you be so calm about this? Well, it also unnerves them because when you are standing firm on the gospel and you are saying, this is the way to God. There is no other way to God. That shakes their foundation.

Because they think that they can do it on their own. Right. Or that they've heard another gospel. Exactly. That that's their way. I mean, you know, just like when we were in Istanbul, we heard that a lot. Well, Allah is the way. Islam is the way. Muhammad is the way.

I hope this isn't too off track, but recently Fern's mom sent me a video clip from YouTube of Franklin Graham being interviewed I think it was MSNBC, but I'm not positive about that. I believe four people interviewing him, and they were asking him about Rick Santorum, and Mitt Romney, and Newt Gingrich, and they were asking his opinion about their faith. And he was standing firm on the gospel.

And about Obama. Well, Obama says he's a Christian, so I'll have to accept that, but I don't see him living that out. Oh, they were so offended. Well, you must spend your whole day judging people. Well, no, he's saying his life doesn't match his words, what we were just talking about a few minutes ago. Rick Santorum says he's a Christian, and he's kind of living that out, isn't he? And then Mitt Romney a Mormon, well that's a little different than mainline Christian.

Oh, they were so offended. I hope that's not too far afield. No, that's good. How dare him. He was not at all, by the way, saying you need to vote for this particular person. He was just... They were asking direct questions, he was answering directly, and then they were offended. They were asking for an opinion, they didn't want to be judged. Okay, that's great Nancy, that's great. Okay, so let's get to the good news.

But of salvation for you, and that too from God. And we're going to see the grace in you in a second. but of salvation, literally, which is a sign of your salvation. So the same message is for the believer. That message is to be great encouragement as we're standing firm in the faith of the gospel, not being alarmed. It's the same sign. The same sign results in two different outcomes. And that too from God. So basically, I'll just answer the question. So what is from God, according to this verse, is basically death and life. That's what is from God.

And we're going to see, is this, for to you it has been granted, for to you it has been granted, for Christ's sake. So here we come along, and this word ought to look kind of familiar. It has been granted, or it was given. It's a form of charis. So if you look through some of those verses, what you'll see is that this is part of God's grace. He is gracious. He has provided salvation. And one outcome is death, one outcome is life.

But that's God acting for you and has been granted. And now he's going to talk about that this is believing in Him and suffering go together. That's part of the package. And it's on behalf of Christ or for Christ's sake. Oh, and the other thing is that it has been granted. God has granted it. It's in the passive voice in the Greek. So God has granted it. We didn't come up with that. God granted it.

And it was for Christ's sake. Not only to believe, so here it is, not only to believe in Him, everybody likes that, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. They come as a package deal. You say, well, I'll just take one. Lord, I'll just take the believing in Him, the suffering part you can leave over here. No, no, no, no, no. That's not part of the deal. And so basically, believing in Him and suffering for His sake are part of His plan unto grace. So that's part of his gracious plan. And actually, suffering is this word, to suffer, to be affected by something from without, to be acted upon.

There's a verse that talks about, don't think it strange my brother, when all kinds of trials and temptation come into your life, they come for your... I can't remember the rest of the verse, but basically, That's not a strange, should not be a strange thing to a believer. He should, well Lord, that's what, that's what Christ endured and actually I'm to complete that suffering. I'll have suffering that will complete the sufferings of Christ, which is mind-boggling. We kind of mentioned that the other week. So suffering is part of the Christian life, part of what God, through his grace, has allowed the believer to endure. God, your year is a burst. Okay. I was just thinking about Luke.

And these are in red, so they're Christ's words. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. And there are many of those, where Christ himself said this over and over to the disciples and to other people. So that's part of the thing that when we see those come along, people are, you know, pushing us out, saying you don't belong here. That's just what Paul's talking about. And we're not to be alarmed by that. People are alarmed right now. Our country's, and it is, you know, it doesn't sound like it's going in the right direction, but is that I don't know how I say it right. Is that outside of God's plan? Or is it? Actually, I think Donna, you had a question? Well, I was thinking under that, if it's been granted, it's under the grace umbrella, right?

So your attitude has to change about the perception of the trots and suppers, right? Or resign to it or whatever. It's a welcoming. I know, and that's tough. There's suffering and then there's suffering, right? Okay, well maybe you wreck your car and nobody gets hurt. Well, okay, that's the suffering. You have to call up the insurance company and you may have to get a loaner car. And then there's suffering where it's maybe a family member.

And it goes on. There's different levels. You think, well, this one I can sort of handle, Lord. But this one over here, my goodness. But he says, that's part of your Christian life. And that's part of my grace. And you think, Lord. It's all about citizenship. Exactly. And you think, well. Where am I from? Not from around here, as Mike would say.

In fact, you had on the slide before this, 1 Corinthians 2.12. Can we take a look at that? Sure, sure. Actually, I zoomed in on a bunch of good verses. Oh yeah, that's it. Would you please read that, Bob? I don't have it. You go ahead. I had it before.

1 Corinthians 2.12. Actually, I found it here. It says, Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, But the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God." Isn't that incredible?

Now there's a lot of cool verses here and I apologize we just kind of zoomed past them here. And we'll have, you know, next week in the review we could come back and revisit part of this. So we'll have a little bit of time to do some of that. So it's okay to be pushed out because we're leaving anyway. We're just passing through. But you know, that's why our suffering is such a witness to other people.

It is, it is. Because, you know, everybody says, well, you know, non-believers, they can take suffering and a lot of people stand up tough and all that. Yeah, I know. But you know, as times get tougher and tougher, and I think the Lord is going to use all of that in believers for all those unbelievers that are finally, they've kind of had it with standing tough. Right. I mean, how tough do they get? They lose their job. losing their house, things go on and on and on. It's difficult. And they see believers who maybe were having all the same trials they are, but for some reason we have a different attitude.

Like you said, it's a different view. That's neat. So some good verses there. Maybe we'll visit some of those next week. And then verse 30. experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me and now here to be in me. So you're experiencing, you're having to hold and applying So you're possessing, he's saying, experiencing the same conflict. So Paul's basically saying, I had conflicts, you think mine was severe, I was in prison with this, but you're suffering the same thing. So that's kind of interesting. And the word, this is actually the word for agony in English. Struggle, conflict. And let's see, anything. And it says, you both saw and heard about these things in me. So you saw them in Paul, and you heard about them, and you're going to be suffering the same thing.

Hey Roger? Yes? That same conflict, would that have anything to do with him staying or going that he talks about earlier? Well... Or is it just about conflict from the outside? Yeah, that's a good question. I took it as being in prison and the agony he had in there being tied to a Roman soldier. That's what I took it as. But you're right. He basically says, which is, you know, you read that, and the review will look at that quite a bit. If you look in Philippians chapter 1, he says, And he talks about to remain on the flesh is more necessary for you.

And convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue to be with you for your progress and joy in the faith. so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again." So he saw God working in him and that was to build up the body of Christ in Philippi. And he was totally convinced of that and he said, and the Lord wants me to stay here. To live as Christ, to die as gain. He says, well, but you know, God's plans for me to be here.

And he focused on that. I mean, we all may not be able to say that as precisely as he did, because he's an apostle. He had a little bit, and he'd been with the Lord. He kind of knew what the Lord had for him. So we may say, well, I may live or die. We're not actually sure which one the Lord had in mind.

Anyway, so I found these verses just pretty incredible. So next week, we'll try to do a summary, which is always It's incredibly challenging to go through. What do you include and what do you don't include? But we'll give it a shot. Any last questions or thoughts? OK, well, let's close then.

Dear Father, we thank you so much for this day. Father, we thank you for the marvelous grace that we have, Lord. Even in struggles and conflicts and trials, that you're glorified and that we, standing firm in the faith of the gospel, that can be a witness to others, Lord. A witness to encourage believers and a sign to those who don't know you that they're on a path to destruction, Father. We just pray that they would see that and come to faith in you. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.