We are in 2 Timothy chapter number 2, start reading in verse 8, the Bible reads, "Remember
that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel,
wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound."
So here we see that the Apostle Paul is suffering trouble as if he were an evildoer, as if he
was doing something wrong or wicked or criminal, but really what he's doing is he's just preaching
the gospel, and the Bible says that all those that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall
suffer persecution, so he's doing that which is right, but yet he's suffering trouble for
it.
Then it says in verse 10, "Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they
may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."
So he's going through all these problems, he's having these issues, but he's saying,
"Hey, I'm not quitting, I'm not giving up, I'm going to endure all things for the elect's
sake."
Now, what does it mean to endure?
To endure means to hold out against, to sustain without impairment or yielding, to undergo,
to bear without resistance or with patience, tolerate.
So basically he's just saying, "Hey, I'm willing to continue going through these hard
things, I'm willing to continue to even suffer as an evildoer," even though he's not doing
anything wrong, he says, "I'm enduring all things for the elect's sake."
And when I think about this word endurance, I just got done reading a really awesome book
called Endurance.
And any of you homeschool parents out there, I would highly recommend that you read this
book and that your kids read this book, but I'll give you a quick synopsis of what it's
about.
The book Endurance recounts Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914 through 1916 Imperial Trans-Antarctic
Expedition, where his ship, the Endurance, was trapped and crushed by Antarctic ice stranding
the crew.
The book was about how the crew survived extreme conditions, isolations, and an open boat journey
to secure rescue.
Really awesome book.
This guy Ernest Shackleton in 1914, he wanted to try to be the first person to sail to Antarctica
and then go basically on foot across the Antarctic continent to the other side.
His boat ends up getting trapped and him and his crew kind of have to survive on these
ice flows where they're not even on land, they're just kind of going from ice flow to
ice flow and it's constantly like breaking up and they're losing their stuff and they're
just going through insane hardships.
They end up making it to shore and I'll stop right there, you can read the book if you
want the rest of the story.
But it's just a great picture of like a group of people that just endured and went through
hardship.
And of course, the most important area that we need to endure in life is in our Christian
life.
We need to make sure that we're enduring in our service of God.
Of course, you know, it's great to have this attribute in any part of life, you know, enduring
in your career, enduring through your workouts, enduring through everything.
But really, we want to make sure that we endure in our Christian life.
And so the title of my sermon this evening is "Endure All Things."
Endure All Things.
And I want to show you first the purpose of enduring.
Let's read verse 10 again of 2 Timothy 2, the purpose of enduring.
The Bible says, "Therefore I endure all things," notice, "for the elect's sake, that they may
also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 4.
So we see here Paul, he's going through problems.
He's going through issues.
He went through tons of hardships that none of us have gone through.
He's been shipwrecked several times.
He's been beaten with rods.
He's had people turn on him.
He's constantly having people stone him, falsely accuse him, I mean he has a rough life.
But yet he endures and he says why does he do that?
He does that for the elect's sake.
He does that so that people can get saved.
He's doing it for other people.
And really that should be the main motivation that we have in life as Christians.
We should be those that serve other people, right?
Jesus came and he gave us that example of he came as a servant, he came humble, he came
to minister unto others.
You know that's our role in this life is to give our lives in service of other people.
Why do we endure?
We do it for others.
Look at verse one of second Corinthians four, Paul said this, therefore seeing we have this
ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not.
Why is it that he's enduring?
Why he's not fainting through all his trials?
He's saying, well, because we've received this ministry and you know, all of us too
in this room have received the ministry of reconciliation, and if you get backslidden,
if you decide to stop serving God, if you just completely quit church and quit soul
winning, you know what, that will hurt other people.
And there are tons of people out there that you can reach with the gospel, that you can
be a blessing to, that you can help come alongside you in the Christian life, and if you don't
do that, let me explain something to you.
That could be an opportunity that could be missed for forever.
You know, our church between yesterday and today got 13 souls saved that Jesus Christ
died for, and what if just we didn't go soul winning this weekend?
What if we didn't care, we just quit soul winning, we didn't go out and do the work
that we were called to do?
Those 13 souls would still be on their way to hell.
And who knows if they would have ever gotten reached?
Who knows if they would have ever been at the place of life where they were ready to
accept like they were this weekend?
I'm telling you, God has given us a ministry, and if we fail to do it, if we quit, that
will hurt other people.
Notice verse 2, it says, "But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking
in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them.
The truth is that if you fall away, if you are led away by the air of the wicked, falling
from your own steadfastness, if you stop serving God, stop soul winning, if your gospel's hid,
it is hid to those that are lost.
You know recently, even amongst the new IFB, there's just been so much drama, there's been
so much infighting, but you know what my sincere goal for every Christian in this world, including
even ones that don't like me or don't like our church, don't like Pastor Shelley or Pastor
Anderson, my sincere goal for those people is that they will endure in their Christian
life and that they will still preach the gospel with their life.
That they will still serve God despite our differences, despite any infighting.
The devil would love to see people get all upset and all tired of the fighting, tired
of the drama, tired of the war, and just give up and stop serving God.
The devil would love to see that.
But you know, all the people that don't like me, that think I'm over the top, that think
I'm mean, that think Pastor Shelley's mean, hey, I hope you still go soul winning.
I hope you still preach the gospel.
I hope that you still endure because if your gospel's hid, it's hid to those that are lost.
If my gospel's hid, it's hid to those that are lost.
So the rest of the sermon, I want to give you several areas of life that you should
focus on enduring through.
And the reason why is because all of these areas we're going to talk about, it's going
to serve the main purpose of enduring through preaching the gospel.
Because sometimes if you mess up some area of your life, it can cause you to withdraw
from the things of God and withdraw from soul winning.
And so I want to give you several things to endure through this evening.
Number one, endure through hard times in your marriage.
Endure through hard times in your marriage.
Go to Matthew chapter 19.
You know, don't listen to any preacher or Christian that wants to paint this picture
of marriage for you, that there's never going to be any fights, there's never going to be
any issues, you're always just going to be 10 out of 10 madly fiery in love with each
other at all times, there's going to be no problems.
That is not reality, folks.
The reality is that marriage has its ups and its downs.
It's a human relationship that takes work and effort and is going to go through hardships.
It's like why is divorce so rampant?
Because marriage is hard.
That's why.
Because people go through hard times.
And you know, I talk about that early phase of dating or marriage where you're infatuated
with the person or you have that like in love feeling.
And it's just so easy.
Well yeah, because there's no effort required.
There's no sacrifice required.
It's just every moment spending with them is just ecstasy and every word they see is
great.
And every second around them is just so wonderful.
But you know what?
That's not how 50, 60, 70 years of marriage is at all times.
And anyone who tells you differently is lying.
Oh, I've never fought with my wife.
You're a liar.
Or you just don't like your wife at all.
Just stay away from her or something like that.
No, you're going to go through problems.
Matthew 19 verse 3 says this, "The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying
unto him, 'Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?'"
He's saying, "Hey, can I just divorce my wife whenever I want?
Can I just get rid of her?
Can I just trade up for a new one?"
Notice Jesus' response.
"And he answered and said unto them, 'Have ye not read that he which made them at the
beginning made them male and female?'"
By the way, when people have false doctrine on divorce, it comes from not reading the
Bible.
Because the Bible's very clear that God hates putting away.
It's wicked.
The Bible never condones divorce.
I believe you should never divorce for any reason.
And that's what the Bible teaches.
And so he's saying, "Hey, have you ever read the Bible?"
Because if you have, you wouldn't even have been asking this stupid question.
He says, verse 5, "And said, 'For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall
cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, wherefore they are no more twain
but one flesh.'"
Here's the words of Jesus, "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put
asunder."
Now, that is a clear statement from the Lord Jesus Christ, and when you build your doctrine,
you want to build your doctrine off of a clear statement, and when it's a clear statement
from Jesus, that's even better.
Now, of course, the whole Bible is God's Word.
All of it's the Word of Jesus Christ, in a sense, because He's the Word of God.
But, I mean, especially here, Jesus is just flat out saying, "What therefore God have
joined together, let not man put asunder."
What is He saying?
Don't get divorced.
Don't leave your spouse.
Don't give up on marriage.
Verse 7 says, "They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement,
and to put her away?"
Notice, these people are not sincere, because when Jesus gives you a plain statement, that
should settle it right there.
I mean, you read something, Jesus said, don't separate, don't put us under, and you're like,
but doesn't Moses somewhere in the law say this, this, that?
You know, what's so funny is these liberal preachers and these permissive preachers on
divorce, they never believe anything in the Old Testament.
They don't want to go to the Old Testament and talk about the death penalty laws.
They avoid the Old Testament whenever it's convenient for them.
But just like the Pharisees, as soon as the law is convenient to excuse their sin, they'll
try to twist the law of Moses to back up divorce.
And that's kind of what's happening here.
It's like, Jesus says no, they're like, well, doesn't somewhere in the Bible say that it's
technically fine?
No, it doesn't actually, but we'll go there in a minute.
He's like, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement to put her away?
You know, when you want to do wrong, you'll find any excuse to do wrong.
When you want to disobey the Bible, you'll find some obscure passage that you could try
to twist to make it look like you're doing right.
But you know what Jesus said?
He said, don't put us under.
He said, flat out, no, don't do it.
And notice Jesus's response.
Verse eight says, he saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered
you to put away your wives.
But from the beginning, it was not so.
So there is a provision in the Old Testament, and we'll turn there and look at it in a minute,
that has certain specifications for when you could do something that we would now call
like an annulment.
If you found some uncleanness in your spouse before coming together, yes, that exists.
But even in that scenario, even in that exception, if you will, Jesus says that the reason why
that exception was given was because of the hardness of your hearts.
So Jesus isn't saying like, "Yeah, this is good.
This is great.
This is what you should do."
He's saying, "Yeah, there was this provision given in the Old Testament, but it was given
because of the hardness of your hearts."
He's not saying, "Yeah, this is great.
Yeah, do this.
Yeah, this is wonderful."
No, it was bad.
Go to Deuteronomy 24 and keep your place there.
In Matthew 19, we'll come back to it.
But let's look really quickly at what the Pharisees are referring to.
Remember, we just had a clear statement from Jesus saying, "Hey, don't do it.
These guys are looking for an excuse."
That's why they said, "Can we put her away for any cause, any reason?"
They didn't take His answer.
They want to use this Old Scripture here.
Look at Deuteronomy 24.
1.
The Bible says, "When a man hath taken a wife and married her, and it come to pass that
she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her, then let
him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.
And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife."
So it's a situation here where He takes a wife, marries her, He's got the ceremony,
and when they go to consummate the marriage, He says, "Oh, there's no favor in His eyes,
not just for no reason, like, 'Oh, I just don't like this girl, oh, she's kind of annoying,
oh, she's kind of loud.'"
No, she doesn't find any favor in His eyes because He had found some uncleanness in her.
So she's got some sort of disease or some sort of issue here, maybe there was some sort
of fraud that was going on where she said, "Hey, I'm a virgin, no big deal," and then
it comes out that that's a lie, that that's not true.
Well, then in this case, Moses is saying, "You can write a bill of divorcement, give
it in her hand, and send her out of His house."
Now, Jesus is going to add further clarification to this scripture.
Let's continue in Matthew 19, go back there and look at verse 9.
So this is the scripture that they have in mind.
Keep that in mind when we read in Deuteronomy 24.
Look at verse 9, He says, "And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except
it be for," what, "fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and whoso
marryeth her which is put away, doth commit adultery."
So he's clarifying, he's giving us more information about the scripture in Deuteronomy 24.
It wasn't just like, "Oh, they've been married for a while," and he just randomly decides,
"She doesn't find any favor in my eyes anymore."
Jesus uses a very specific word here, "fornication."
Now what is fornication?
Fornication is carnally lying with someone before marriage.
What is it when it's during marriage?
It's adultery.
So he says, "Hey, you cannot put your wife away, except it be for the cause of fornication."
A lot of preachers will say, "Oh, any type of infidelity or any type of sexual immorality
allows for divorce."
No, no, no.
Jesus said very specifically fornication that happens before marriage.
So in the case of like Mary and Joseph, Joseph thought that this situation had happened because
his wife is pregnant and he had never been with her, and he was going to be a just man
and put her away privately.
But then the angel came to him and said, "No, take her.
This has been conceived of the Holy Ghost, and obviously you want an angel to clarify
that for you, because that's not happening every day, right?"
So in that situation, if that was true, that she had committed fornication, that would
be an example of this scripture here.
You marry a woman, oh, she lied to you, she's got uncleanness, she's got some sort of disease.
This would be kind of like an annulment, something that happens before the consummation.
But this is not, this is not, oh, she spent too much money, I'm divorcing her, oh, she's
dirty, I'm divorcing her, oh, my husband's lazy, I'm divorcing him, oh, my husband doesn't
make enough money, I'm divorcing him.
No, you can't just put away your spouse for any reason.
There is one annulment exception in the Bible, and even that annulment exception, Jesus said
it was because of the hardness of your hearts.
Because the reality is the right thing to do would be, hey, you already made a vow to
God, you already said till death do you part, you already said for better, for worse, the
right thing to do, the best thing to do would still be to stay with that person.
Yet for the hardness of their hearts, there was that one exception.
Go to Colossians chapter number three, Colossians chapter number three.
Now as you're turning there, I forgot to read one thing for you from Matthew 19, I'll keep
reading verse 11.
Jesus said, but he said unto them, all men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom
it is given.
Look, this is admittedly a hard saying for many people.
This is a hard truth to accept, which is exactly why a lot of people try to deny it, try to
twist scripture, try to make themselves feel better about what situation they're in, why
a lot of pastors won't preach the truth about it, why a lot of people get divorced in general.
It is a hard saying, but you know what?
You need to endure all things like the Bible said.
You're going to go through hard times in your marriage, and look, I hope that everyone's
at a great point of their marriage right now.
I thank God.
My marriage is wonderful right now, but I'm just going to be honest with you.
You're going to go through times of very hard difficulties.
You're going to go through times where you're struggling in your marriage, where the love
isn't as hot as it used to be.
Don't give up during those times.
Realize that everyone will experience those times.
And you know, I just think that Hollywood and TV and songs and all these, you know,
love songs that are out there, it's just put, it's brainwashed us into thinking like marriage
is a certain way.
Marriage is always just super, super exciting 100% of the times and everyone's always super
in love and everything's always wonderful.
It's just not reality.
We are sinners.
When you got married, you got married to a sinner and that other sinner got married to
you who is also a sinner.
You know that's going to bring problems, issues, fights, bouts of selfishness, doing wrong
to each other.
It's just reality.
But you have to endure through these times.
Marriage takes work.
Look at Colossians 3 verse 18, Bible says this, wives submit yourselves unto your own
husbands as it is fit in the Lord.
You know, wives, what is your main calling in marriage?
What is the big thing that the Bible focuses on that your duty is in marriage?
It is to submit to your husband.
It is to obey him and do what he says.
And you know what?
That is going to take work at times.
Let's just be real.
I'm sure that wives not 100% of the time agree with 100% of their husbands' decisions and
opinions.
And it's just like, so what?
Obey anyways.
That's what the Bible says.
Yeah, you're going to go through those times.
You're going to have those feelings.
But you know what?
You're going to do the work of obeying your husband anyways, right?
Then you have verse 19.
The Bible says, husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them.
Why does it bring that up?
Because it's going to be a natural temptation in marriage to get bitter at each other for
husbands to hold on to bitterness against their wives.
But the Bible commands us as husbands to love our wives.
Why does it give us that command?
It's because love is a choice.
And this is what we've been brainwashed into thinking.
That love just hits you and there's nothing you can do about it.
And really what happens, what they're really meaning is that that infatuation feeling can
hit you sometimes.
And there's nothing you can do about that.
But here's the truth.
Love is a choice.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, the Bible says.
Love is the fulfilling of the law.
Regardless, men, of how you're feeling in your marriage, whether it's just the greatest,
hottest time of love that you're feeling for your wife ever or not, you should make the
choice to continue to do good to your wife, period.
No matter what you feel, you should still love her.
You should still sacrifice for her.
You should still give her the things that she needs.
You should still be there for her, support her.
Show actions of love, even at times that you're not really feeling it inside, because you
know what often happens is you start doing the action, and then the feeling follows.
Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established, the Bible says.
The more work you do, and the right things, often times it can change your heart and how
you feel, and I'm just telling you, especially if you've never been married, you should just
expect to go through times where you don't really feel the emotions that you thought
you would feel.
You should expect that.
That is normal.
That is completely normal, but you should endure through those times.
Endure all things.
And why am I even talking about marriage?
Because when people have marriage problems, this is one of the biggest things that causes
people to quit church.
This is one of the biggest things that causes people to stop soul winning, stop reading
their Bible, is they'll go through a serious rough patch in their marriage and it'll just
take them away from the things of God.
And I'm telling you, just to expect hard times, but hey, when those hard times come, still
love your wife.
Still do good to her.
Ladies, when those hard times come, still obey and honor and reverence your husband anyways.
That's going to carry you through those hard times.
Go to Job chapter one.
Here's another area of life we need to endure through.
Endure through personal tragedy.
You know, we kind of touched on this this morning, that we're all going to have hardships
in our lives.
We're all going to have different crosses to bear, and we're all, some of us are going
to go through extremely traumatic things.
You know, one of the hardest days of ministry for me has been when a family lost their young
baby in a car accident one time, and it was at a different church, but that was one of
the worst days of my life.
And it didn't even happen to me, you know, and I'm just saying like those days happen
to real people, folks.
There are people lose their kids.
There's people who lose their spouse in a tragic accident.
There's people that die suddenly, have serious illnesses come out of nowhere, kids get cancer
in this world.
Like there's just evil in this world, and we can go through it just because, you know,
we have this normalcy bias that life has been good so far, nothing could happen to us.
Look, it can happen to you, which is why it's so important to make sure that your faith
is strong now, that you're digging those deep roots now, that you're laying a solid foundation
on the rock of Jesus Christ now, because these days can come.
Job 1.13, the Bible says, "And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating
and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house, and there came a messenger unto Job
and said, 'The oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them.
The Saviour fell upon them and took them away, yea, they have slain the servants with the
edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.'
While he was yet speaking, there came another also, and said, 'The fire of God has fallen
from heaven and hath burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I only
am escaped alone to tell thee.'
While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, 'The Chaldeans made out
three bands and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, they have slain
the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.'
While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, 'Thy sons and thy daughters
were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house.
Behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and
it fell upon the young men, and they are dead, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.'
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and
worshipped and said, 'Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return
thither.
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.'
And all this job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
What an amazing example to us of a man who endured through personal tragedy.
And this is a real story, folks, this really happened, but I think the reason why God shows
us such a severe and extreme case of tragedy is that you and I are probably not going to
get to this level.
I mean, even if something terrible happens to us, even, God forbid, if one of our children
died tragically, or our parents died tragically, or you get some illness or disease or something
like that, you're probably not going to get the full totality of circumstances that Job
went through.
Because if we kept reading, he gets struck with boils, and he's scratching his skin,
he's got some terrible disease, he's got his wife nagging him, he's got his three friends
saying that he's evil, that he's wicked, that he's deserved all this stuff that's happened
to him, but yet the Bible says what?
That he did not charge God foolishly.
This was a man that endured through personal tragedy and you know we're all going to go
through this, but I love the mentality that he had.
He said look, the Lord gave.
That's the first part of his mentality that he had.
The Lord gave.
What does that mean?
Anything you have good in life, it came from God and this.
Anything you have good in life, you do not deserve.
I do not deserve.
Why?
Because what do we deserve?
We deserve hell folks.
We are sinners deserving of hell and you know what?
Just as fallen, sinful, wicked creatures, I am not deserving of the beautiful family
that God gave me.
I am not deserving of the beautiful sunshine outside today and the nice food that we eat
and the nice coffee we drink and you know the clothes that God gives us and the car
and the house.
All the things that God gives us, I am worthy of none of it.
And you know what?
If you are honest with yourself and you read the Bible, you know neither are you, neither
are you.
And the fact that we have any good in this life, the fact that God gives us any amount
of years with our parents and our children and our friends and our church, all of it
is so much more than we deserve.
When we lose it, we can say, "Hey, the Lord gave, and you know what?
The Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord."
He's like, "Hey, can we not, are we not going to receive good from the hand of the Lord
and also receive evil?
You know, can the thing form, say to it, that formed it, why hast thou made me thus?
Why are we going to sit here in judgment of God?
We should not look at our circumstances and say, why God, why me, why am I going through
this?
You know, you should just say, it's like, wow, my life is so much better than I actually
deserve.
Let me focus on all the good.
That, that should be our mentality is focusing on all the good.
And of course, when you're going through these times, of course you're going to be extremely
sad.
Of course you're going to be heartbroken.
But when we read the end of the story, we know that Job comes forth as gold.
You know, God used this trial to strengthen him, to harden him.
But why is it that he got to experience the latter end of him being blessed more than
the first was because he endured.
If he would have given up, if he would have cursed God, if he would have stopped trusting
in him, well then that blessed latter half wouldn't have even come in the first place.
And so don't sit here and say, you know, oh, I expect my life to be perfect.
And God, how dare he ever put a tragedy in my path?
How dare he ever put any hardships in my path?
No, no, no.
You should expect that.
And you should thank the Lord for anything that he gives you.
And you should thank the Lord for the time that he gave it to you, and not get angry
and bitter at him.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter number 7, 2 Corinthians chapter number 7, 2 Corinthians 7 verse 7,
Paul said, "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations,
there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest
I should be exalted above measure."
So that is some suffering.
That is some pain.
And the Bible says that God allowed this suffering and pain and problem in Paul's life so that
he would not be exalted above measure.
Because if Paul would have gotten prideful and arrogant and puffed up, you know what
would have happened?
He would have been destroyed.
His ministry would have been destroyed.
He would not have been able to continue doing the great work that God was having him to
do.
So hey, he had this messenger of Satan to buffet him with the thorn in the flesh.
And what I believe that is, is you know, if you read 1 Corinthians, I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians,
it lists all the terrible physical tortures and persecutions he went through, how he was
beaten and stoned and shipwrecked and all these things.
And so I think that messenger of Satan was the Jews that were attacking him and the thorn
of the flesh, I believe is the pain and permanent scars and issues that he had in life as a
result of that persecution.
I think that it tends to be probably an issue with his eyes because it talks about in Galatians
how he wrote so large a letter with his own hand and it's really a short letter.
It's not that large of a letter.
I think it's talking about the fact that he wrote really large because he had eye problems
elsewhere.
Don't quote me on it.
I want to say it was in Philippians.
He talks about how, no, I think it's 2 Corinthians.
I'll check later, but about how they would have given him their own eyes for his sake.
So I've always kind of thought that it's talking about his eyes being the issue as his thorn
in the flesh.
But regardless of what you believe it is, it was something that wasn't pleasant.
It was something that was not fun.
That's why in verse 8 it says, "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might
depart from me.
And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect
in weakness.
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ
may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches, in necessities and persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake.
For when I am weak, then am I strong."
And you know, for us as Christians, the bright side of our problems and tragedies and hardships
is that there can be, there can always be a good outcome as a result of those things
when we endure in Christ.
Whereas the world, you know, they're not really getting chastened by God, they're not really
getting strengthened and hardened by God, they're kind of just going through life and
bad stuff is happening to them just as a result of sin and being in a sinful world.
And then they die and go to hell.
The end.
It's really sad, but it's true.
But you know, for us, you can go to John 6, I'll read for you Romans 8.
For us, it says, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose."
You know, the good news for us is that there can always be a positive outcome when we go
through our sufferings, when we love God, when we are the ones that are called according
to His purpose.
Number three this evening, endure hard preaching.
Look at John 6, verse 57.
The Bible says, "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that
eateth me, even he shall live by me.
This is that bread which came down from heaven.
Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead, he that eateth of this bread shall live
forever.
These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum."
Notice verse 60.
"Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, 'This is an hard saying.
Who can hear it?'"
So notice Jesus here is preaching and He's preaching some hard truths here.
Some truths that really offended people and even His own disciples, they start to murmur
and complain when they hear it, they say, "This is an hard saying.
Who can hear it?"
And you know a lot of reasons today why Christians stop serving God, stop going to church, stop
going soul winning is because they can't endure the hard preaching.
But you know what?
If you can't endure hard preaching, you also would not have been able to endure if literally
Jesus Christ was your pastor.
Because sometimes people want to use the pastor as an excuse and he'll read something from
the Bible and even though he's reading it from the Bible and applying it correctly using
the scripture, people say, "Well, that guy's mean.
That pastor's mean.
He preaches too hard."
Well, you know what?
You wouldn't have lasted with Jesus either because even some of his disciples murmured
at him, complained saying this isn't hard saying, who could hear it?
But the question is, was Jesus saying true?
Was it not true?
It was true.
And this is always how you should evaluate preaching, not do I like it?
Was it nice?
Was it directed at me?
Are people thinking something?
You should think, was it true?
Was it true?
And you know what?
If you go away from a sermon and you're mad, even though it was true, you need to change
your heart.
You need to endure hard preaching.
And I've told this story before.
It just blows my mind how people get offended and quit church.
When I literally had a pastor of mine look me in the eyes and said, come to church tomorrow
because the whole sermon is about you.
He was not kidding.
He wasn't playing around.
He wasn't trying to be funny.
He was saying, don't skip church tomorrow because the sermon is about you.
And you know what I did?
Showed up to church, opened my Bible and I took the rebuke that I needed.
Now what's so funny is all these people that quit church, that give up on hard preaching,
that get all angry at the pastor and join the little hater groups and complain and whine,
they've never had anything even close to that happen, ever.
But they heard a sermon where one part might have kind of applied to them.
Guess what?
If the sermon applies to you, then you should just take it as it is about you.
But what's funny is I never even told you, "Hey, this is about you."
Even if I did, you shouldn't quit.
Even if I said, "Hey, next sermon is about you, don't skip church, you should just take
it.
You should just do it anyways."
But what's funny is people get so soft and they're such babies, like, I've seen people
use misquote this teaching of Jack Hiles where Jack Hiles, he says, "Hey, pastors should
not use their pulpits like as a bully pulpit or as a whipping post to pick on certain people."
And amen, I agree with that.
I agree with that 100%.
But people will twist that into saying, like, you could never preach against individuals
or you could never call out certain sins or certain instances or where someone could even
possibly understand who you're talking about.
Look, that is not biblical.
That's not what Jack Hiles was teaching.
That's not what the Bible was teaching.
It would make preaching virtually impossible.
If I could never say anything that could ever apply directly to someone or you could ever
kind of know what I'm saying, no, that's ridiculous, folks.
I mean, if I preach something and I'm preaching what the Bible says and someone could say,
"Hmm, that might apply to me," okay, you're thinking that maybe because you were intimately
involved with the situation and so you already knew details before the sermon was being preached.
But if some random person who didn't know about the situation heard the sermon, they
wouldn't have known it was about you.
They wouldn't have known that it was applying to you.
And so it would be so immature and foolish to sit here and get all butt hurt and all
upset about hard preaching.
You know, I use this really silly example because I don't think this will ever happen.
But it's true.
If we had multiple church members in the parking lot that just kept getting in fistfights,
just like, "What's up with this, guys?
Every Wednesday, you know, Brother John and Brother Cameron are just duking it out and
it's just like they won't stop.
You know, I might preach a sermon on violence.
I might preach a sermon on being a brawler.
I might preach a sermon on patience and people here that know the situation, they might be
like, "Oh, that might apply to them.
I think that might..."
Yeah.
But you know, people on listening online, they wouldn't have known.
They wouldn't have had any idea, right?
And so look, don't get this idea that, "Oh, preaching could never be specific."
Hard preaching is specific.
That's what we need.
Why would you not want the sermon to apply to you?
And look, hard preaching is not hateful, folks, it's loving.
Getting called out for your sin, you should want to be corrected.
You should want to get that out of your life because the sin is actually what's going to
hurt you.
The hard preaching is not.
The truth from God's Word is not going to hurt you.
Look at verse 61, "When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said
unto them, 'Doth this offend you?
What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?'"
You know, I like how Jesus didn't back down.
I like how Jesus didn't apologize.
He didn't back off from the truths he was saying.
He's like, "Oh, does this offend you?
Well, here's another offensive statement.
How about that?"
And you're like, "Hey, if you don't like hard preaching, the worst thing you can do is come
and complain about it.
The worst thing you can do is tell me what I am and what I am and I'm not allowed to
preach on."
Like one time I was told, "You can never preach on vegetarianism."
And I'm just like, "Wow, I know what I'm preaching right away.
Don't come up to me and tell me what I can and cannot preach on.
That's a really bad idea."
Oh, you're so offensive.
So is Jesus.
Verse 63, "It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.
But there are some of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they
were that believed not and who should betray Him.
And He said, 'Therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto Me except who were given
unto Him of My Father.'"
Verse 66, "From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him."
I mean, that is a crazy statement in your Bible right there, that these guys are following
Jesus Christ, He's the perfect leader, He's the perfect preacher, He never even messes
up His words, He never even just crosses His words like I do sometimes.
I mean, everything He says is right and He says it with the right attitude, He says it
with the right intensity, like He's just perfect, He's a perfect leader.
Yet there are still some of His disciples that got offended and no longer walked with
Him.
And guess what?
You know whose fault that was?
That was their fault, not Jesus' fault.
And don't sit here and tell me as you've quit on church, you've quit soul winning, you've
quit serving God.
Don't sit here and tell me, "Oh, I'm a recovering fundamentalist, I'm church hurt, it's church
abuse."
No, no, no.
You go follow Jesus.
You go find a church then that's preaching right.
But you don't have an excuse to just stop following, stop, you know, listening to Jesus.
No, you need to keep following.
And then Jesus asks in verse 67, "Then said Jesus unto the twelve, 'Will ye also go away?'
Then Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go?
Thou hast the words of eternal life.'"
You know, he doesn't change his message, he doesn't soften the preaching, he doesn't
change the culture of his ministry, he just says, "You're offended by the truth?"
He's like, "Okay, will you guys also go away?"
You know, that is the type of leadership that we need today in pastors, where it's not like,
you know, if you offend people, if you preach hard, that you all of a sudden just change
the culture, change the strategy, stop hard preaching.
No, you need to stick with the hard preaching, stick with what the Bible says.
And if people quit on Jesus, realize that they're going to quit on you too.
That people might leave church sometimes through no fault of the pastor, no fault of the ministry,
but just through their own weakness.
But I like Peter's attitude.
He says, "Lord, to whom shall we go?"
Thou hast the words of eternal life.
Look, I think if everyone is honest, if you've been in church for any long amount of time,
there has to have been a time in church where the preaching stepped on your toes, where
it got on you, where you felt a little uncomfortable.
And you know, you have two options, really, at that point.
You could quit, just stop serving God because you got angry, or you could just, hey, take
that rebuke, fix what needs to be fixed, and move on serving Christ.
But you ought to ask yourself this question before you quit, it's like, to whom will we
go?
And look, no pastor is perfect, no church is going to be perfect, but it is interesting
to me how people will be in a good church with a good pastor, it's King James only,
it's salvation by faith alone, it's eternal security, it's King James Bible, it's soul
winning, it's hard preaching, it's events, it's doing all these things, and they'll quit
because they're offended from one sermon, they'll leave that and then they'll go to
the old IFB, where there's Zionism every Sunday, where there's an altar call every service,
where it's, hopefully it's the King James Bible, but not all the time, it's, man, half
the time the guest preachers are preaching repent of your sins, right, I mean it's just
crazy that people will just strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, they'll be so mad about
one sermon, but then they'll just gladly lap up the old IFB and all their major serious
issues or they'll just not go to church at all. It's just crazy to me and it's like look,
even if you disagree, even if you think like, hey, I kind of got my toes stepped on there
and I don't even think it was right, I don't even think the pastor was correct in his facts
or anything like that, but did you die though? Honestly, because I could say I've had times
when I was in a subordinate position where I was corrected and I believed that the person
correcting me did not have the facts, it was not correct, and you know what, I just took
it. I didn't die, my head didn't explode, I just said, hey, that's fine, I don't have
to have myself understood and I don't have to be right in every situation. Sometimes
you can just let the situation be how it is, and here's the thing, I guarantee you that
the authority, whoever that is in your life, is going to respect you more for just taking
it rather than saying, but, but, but, but, every single time you're corrected. Even if
sometimes your authority is a mistake, you don't always have to go and correct that.
Sometimes you're going to hear a sermon, you know, there's been times I've heard, I'm just
like, oh, I don't think they have that correct about my situation. Oh well, move on to the
next service, move on to the next soul winning time. Hey, let's go get someone saved. Let's
hear another great sermon, right? Passers are going to make mistakes, but it doesn't
make sense to quit the church over a mistake or especially over the truth. That's even
crazier. Quitting the church over a hard sermon is nuts. Go to 2nd Timothy 4. While you're
turning there, Psalm 141 verse 5 says this, "Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a
kindness." I love that verse. "And let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent oil."
Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness. That is some vivid imagery there.
Let the righteous hit me and it's actually nice. Now, of course, it's not talking about
physically hit there, but sometimes the preaching of God's word is going to smite you. It's
going to feel like you just got hit. But was that mean? Was that hateful? No, it was actually
a kindness. And you know what? Ninety nine point nine nine nine percent of the times
that I was corrected by my boss or by pastor through a sermon or directly face to face,
they were right and I was wrong. And you know what? That correction, that reproof that what
felt like a smiting to me, it was actually a kindness to me. It actually helped me. It
actually made me better. Second Timothy four, verse one, the Bible says, I charged thee
therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at
his appearing and his seat and his kingdom. Notice preach the word be instant in season
out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. And you know,
I want to think about this from two ways when it comes to hard preaching. Number one, from
the perspective of a preacher, what does the Bible say? Preach the word. It should not
be that most of your sermons and most of your statements, it's just like opinion, opinion,
opinion, human philosophy, article, poem, story. It gets annoying. It's like insufferable
to listen to preaching where someone is just constantly giving their opinion, especially
when they're so adamant and worked up and angry about their opinion. It's like, you
know, screaming your opinion louder doesn't make it true. And it's funny to me when I
see sometimes pastors, it's like, they don't really scream and yell and rip face on things
that the Bible actually says. But the moment their opinion comes out, man, it's like, literally,
I'm not exaggerating. You know what I'm talking about. It's like, speaking teenagers doesn't
work. It's like, okay, that's interesting. But the Bible doesn't say that. And that's
your opinion. And you know what the Bible says? Preach the word. Hey, why don't you
yell that? Preach the word. How about that? How about you get real angry about what the
Bible actually says? It's so weird to me how pastors, they won't get fired up for things
that the Bible says. But the second they're ready to punch their other preacher, ready
to get something over on us, then they're so fired up, so angry. Hey, preach the word.
Preach the Bible. Let that be the majority of your preaching. That's what the Bible says.
Be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering. Then
I want to focus on the congregation. It says, "For the time will come where they will not
endure sound doctrine." Hey, endure sound doctrine. Don't endure lies though. Don't
put up with lies. Don't just soak in and accept lies. And you know, it makes me sad today
to see so many of God's people just drinking in the world's philosophy, drinking in opinions
as if it's scripture, and defending that even though they've got no scripture to defend
it. To me, that's sad. You're not enduring sound doctrine. You're not enduring the Bible.
You're doing what? "After their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having
itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto
fables." Here's the truth. Most people do not like hard preaching. Most people do not
like hard preaching. And look, even amongst churches that are friends with us, there's
going to be peppered in throughout the congregation, the occasional wife that's being dragged, or
occasional husband that's being dragged, I don't know, occasional kid that's being dragged.
There's going to be people in the congregation that they just don't like the preaching. They
don't like the hard preaching. They don't like the Bible. But you know what? Preachers
should not cater to those people. Preachers should not be afraid of the people that are
reading the Bible, their backs slid in, they don't like the hard preaching. Preachers should
be concerned with one thing. What is the truth? What does the Bible actually say? That should
be the emphasis of our preaching. And you, you should endure hard preaching. You should
endure sound doctrine. But you know what? You should not just believe lies. And you
know what? If a lie is coming out of the mouth of your pastor, believe the truth. Believe
what the Bible says. And look, even great men can make mistakes, say things that are
wrong. I've listened back to some of my preaching and be like, I meant to say the exact opposite
of that, but I said the wrong thing. You know, hopefully you understand sometimes that I'm
just making a verbal error with my words. But look, when preachers just dig in and it's
like they're corrected and they just keep digging into false doctrine, don't just follow
that off the cliff. You believe the truth. You believe what the Bible says. Good Ephesians
6. First Thessalonians 520 says, "Despise not prophesying." Do not despise hard preaching.
Do not despise when your pastor has to fight a battle. Do not despise when he has to call
out false doctrine, bad preaching, bad philosophy. Don't get tired of that. Number four, endure
spiritual warfare. Endure spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6 verse 10, the Bible says, "Finally,
my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor
of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." You know, whether you understood
it or not, when you got saved, you got enlisted into a spiritual battle. The Bible says that
we're supposed to endure hardness as what? Good soldiers of Jesus Christ. And while we
don't fight a physical battle, we're not taking up AR-15s today and tanks and all these fighter
jets and stuff like that. We are still in a war that is just as real, just as real, but
it's a spiritual war. And here's the thing, I think sometimes people, they just get tired
of the fight. I see it in people all the time. They just get battle weary. They're just like,
"Man, why is there all the fighting? Why is there all this drama?" I'm just here to tell
you that fighting in the Christian life is here to stay. Do not think that there's just
going to be this time of your life where there's this huge season of no drama, no battles,
it's all peace, it's all good. That's just not reality. That's not the reality of a war.
It's like, have you ever read the Bible? Have you not read? You know, I miss that time in
the Old Testament where it's just like, and then everything was going great for hundreds
of years. There was no problem. Everyone served God perfectly. It was great. Turn the page.
And then the next generation, they just did great. They all love God. They all followed
his word. Everyone was just singing and dancing kubaya. Wow. The third generation in a row.
It's just so much peace. And so no, you know what the Bible constantly is? It's just like
warfare, death. Oh, then this group of people started serving idols. Oh, then, you know,
Moses has to come down and burn all the idols and make them drink it. Oh, God's killing
24,000 people for fornication. Oh, Babylon's destroying your entire nation because you're
wicked as hell. You stop serving God. Oh, here comes the next. It's just like that's
what reality is. And you know, in the New Testament, we're not fighting a physical battle,
but we're still fighting a battle. And you need to stop being such a baby. I hate to
say it like that, but you need to stop being such a wimp and just embrace the warfare.
Embrace the battle. I mean, how would you like to go out to war with someone like you're
dressed out, you're ready to go to combat. Everybody's like, I don't want to do this.
I'm scared. I don't want to do this. Just punch that person in the face. Come on. We're
going to war. You're getting fired up here. Wouldn't you like have some doubt if your
buddy next to you is just like crying and sucking his thumb and asking for mommy? It's
like, look, this is war. There's going to be times where preachers are going to have
to preach sermons that piss a lot of people off. And sometimes it's going to piss off
backsliding Christians. And sometimes there's going to be men that rise up among us trying
to draw away disciples after themselves who are actually wicked, who are wolves in sheep's
clothing. You know, that can happen. We could have battles with the world. You know, Steadfast
had years and years long battles with lawsuits and with sodomites. You know, there could
be damnable heresy that creeps in to a church. There's just always going to be a battle.
And as soon as this battle is over, there's going to be another battle. And I don't know
what that battle is going to look like. But what I know is that there's going to continuously
be battles. And you need to learn to endure. Endure through the spiritual warfare. Because
what I see happen is I see people get tired of the fight. They just want everyone to get
along. They don't want any drama or any issues. And they just slowly get out of church. They
slowly get out of soul winning because they just can't handle the fight. You know what?
You need to endure the fight. Let's go to Judges chapter number eight. Judges chapter
number eight. Judges 812 the Bible says, "And when Zeba and Zalmunna," these are wicked kings
of Midian, "fled, he," that's Gideon, "pursued after them and took the two kings of Midian,"
Zeba and Zalmunna, "and discomfited all the hosts. And Gideon, the son of Joash, returned
from the battle before the sun was up and caught a young man of the men of Sukkoth and
inquired of him, and he described unto him the princes of Sukkoth and the elders thereof,
even three score and seventeen men. And he came unto the men of Sukkoth and said, 'Behold,
Zeba and Zalmunna, with whom ye did abrade me, saying, "Are the hands of Zeba and Zalmunna
now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thy men that are weary?" And he took
the elders of the city, I love this part, and thorns of the wilderness and briars, and
with them he taught the men of Sukkoth." He's teaching them a lesson here with some thorns
and briars, some old-fashioned education there for sure. Verse 17 says, "And he beat down
the tower of Penuel and slew the men of the city." I mean, this is spiritual warfare right
here. I mean, Gideon's a great man of God. You know what he's doing? He's just taking
it to the enemy, just capturing the kings of Midian. He's teaching people a lesson with
briars and sticks. He's just beating them up. He's going. He's beating down the tower.
He's slaying the men of the city. I mean, this is a man of God who's taking care of business,
and he's slaying the enemies of God. And you know, in the New Testament, we spiritually
need to take it to the enemy, and we need to use the sword of the Spirit. We need to
constantly be cutting down false prophets, cutting down bad teaching, bad ideology with
God's word. Verse 18 says this, "Then said he unto Zeba and Zalmunna, What manner of
men were they whom ye slew at Tabor? They answered, Is thou art? So were they. Each
one resembled the children of a king. And he said, They were my brethren, even the sons
of my mother. As the Lord liveth, if ye have saved them alive, I would not slay you. And
he said unto Jethur, his firstborn, Up and slay them. So you know, Gideon's about to
have these kings of Midian here executed for killing a bunch of innocent people. And so
Gideon, he gets Jethur, his firstborn son. He's like, All right, son, I've got a job
for you. You know, dads, how would you like to tell your sons to do this? I want you to
go ahead and kill these kings real fast. Go ahead and just chop off their head. But notice
what it says, But the youth drew not his sword, for he feared because he was yet a youth. And
then of course Gideon takes care of business. But you see that the first born son here,
the youth, he didn't want to draw his sword, he didn't want to shed blood because he was
afraid because he was a youth. And you know, I can excuse a child, I can excuse a Christian
that just got saved last week, just got saved a few months ago, for not fully understanding
why it is that the pastor's up there screaming and yelling about why we have to call upon
the name of the Lord, you know, maybe not understanding what, whoa, did you just call
out someone by name? What is that? That's crazy. I've never heard anything like that.
I could understand how a little child and someone who's a babe in Christ would not necessarily
understand that. But you know, it just goes to show though, that that person is weak.
Why did the youth not draw his sword? Because he was afraid, because he was weak. But you
know, when you mature and grow up, you expect to tell the man to take the sword and slay
and for the man to do that. And it's really sad to me when sometimes the people I hear
complaining the most about the fighting and the drama are grown men. And it's like, aren't
you supposed to be a man? Aren't you supposed to be a leader? Aren't you supposed to be
setting the example here? Aren't you supposed to, when there's the enemies of God, aren't
you supposed to say, "Hey, give me the sword. I'll cut their heads off right now." You
know, why is it that even some men get battle weary? You know, they're weak spiritually.
You need to start doing some spiritual push-ups instead of waking up every day and reading
your Bible. You need to start consuming some hard preaching instead of listening to whatever
soft, soul preacher you're listening to out there. You need to start getting strength
spiritually. Go back to 2 Timothy 2, 2 Timothy chapter number 2. So look, stop whining about
the battle because the battle's not going anywhere. Anywhere where people are doing
a great work for God and actually striving to preach the correct doctrine and striving
to reach a lot of people with the gospel, striving to do something big for God, there's
going to be a lot of opposition from the devil. There's going to be Satan infiltrating churches
with false prophets. There's going to be people rising up. I mean it seems like every two
or three years the calling upon the name of the Lord battle resurfaces and it's just like
a fight we have to fight and guess what? Get used to it. Just endure it. Get ready for
it because I'm sure it'll happen again. I'm sure we're going to have to fight over the
King James Bible in the future. I'm sure we're going to have to fight over, I mean we're
fighting over authority in the last couple months. I never thought that the new IFB would
be divided over authority. I never thought that the new IFB would be divided over corporal
punishment, over hard preaching of the word of God. Yet, here we are. And some people
can cry and moan and say, "Oh, I give up, it's too hard." And others can just embrace
the battle and just say, "Hey, whatever the battle it is, you want me to fight, Lord?
I'm ready for it. I'm here for it. I'm here to preach the word. I'm here to be instant
in season, out of season. Whatever battle needs to be fought, I'm ready to fight that battle.
And I hope that you, in the pew, are also ready to fight with me, and that you're not
just going to be like, "Oh, another battle. Oh, another drama." Get used to it, because
it's going to happen. It's going to happen. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2, 3, "Thou therefore
endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warth entangleth himself
with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."
See, God likens us unto soldiers in the spiritual army. And you know, the soldier doesn't wake
up, at least he should not, wake up and just be like, "Sir, I'm tired of fighting. Oh,
sir, I'm tired of doing whatever you're having me do." You just follow the orders. You just
go out and do it whether you want to or not. It's like no one wants to go fight, no one
wants to go die in combat. But hey, if you're a soldier, you've called to be a soldier,
you need to endure hardness. You need to keep going. Go to Hebrews 12, this will be our
last point this evening. Hebrews chapter number 12, "Endure chastening." Endure chastening.
What does the Bible say in Hebrews 12 verse 5? "And ye have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of
the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. So notice, what is the command? What is our
emotion supposed to be when God chastens us or corrects us or scourges us? The Bible says,
despise not thou the chastening of the Lord. You are not allowed to get angry at God when
he corrects you. You're not allowed to get all bitter and get all rebellious and get
all mad at God when he corrects you. That's not allowed. And you know, if someone was
having that bad attitude, would I look at God and say, "Oh God, look how terrible you
are. You provoked him to wrath. Why are you provoking this person to wrath?" Or would
I tell this person, "Hey, fix your attitude. Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord."
Right? You're supposed to endure chastening. You know, I heard this ridiculous preaching
recently from Pastor Jared Przarnski where he just said, like as a carte blanche statement,
just like as a total fact, he said that if you spank your teenagers, that you're provoking
them to wrath. Just period, every situation, every family unit, doesn't matter the situation,
doesn't matter the case, if you're spanking your teenagers, you're going to provoke them
to wrath. Well, what's funny is that number one, the Bible doesn't say that. Now the Bible
does say not to provoke our children to wrath, but to raise them up in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord. And amen to that verse, and I believe that 100%. And I believe 100% that
we should balance love and care and friendship and camaraderie with our kids and the rod,
100%. But to just say like, oh, you spank your teenagers, you're provoking them to wrath.
Okay, so are we going to use that same logic with God? Because the Bible tells us, "Despise
not thou the chastening of the Lord." So if God chastises us, are we allowed to sit here
and get angry and mad at our Heavenly Father for spanking us? No, we're not allowed to
do that. And if you're mad at God for disciplining you, you're the problem. You're the one with
the bad heart. And let me tell you this, children, I don't care if you're two years old, 12 years
old, or 18 years old, if your parents punish you, if they spank you, if they discipline
you, and then you hate your parents, you get mad at your parents, it's your fault. You're
the one that's got a bad attitude. You know, I'm sick and tired of this preaching that
is promoting and excusing rebellion, where instead of backing up mom and dad, who are
the God-given authorities, who God has given in place to rule those children, to give them
rules and to punish them and chastise them the way that they see fit, instead of getting
mad at the children rebelling, now we're saying, "Oh, well, parent, you're provoking your kids
to wrath. Don't you dare spank your kids. Don't enact discipline on them because you're
provoking them to wrath." And then you know what that's done, since the pastor has preached
that behind the pulpit, what happens is when kids get spanked by their parents, they now
get provoked to wrath. You know why? Because they heard that that was the reaction that
should be happening when parents spank their teenagers. So kids have heard, "Oh, parents
who spank their teenagers are terrible. They're over the top. They're authoritarian. They're
bad. They're wicked." All these things. Then they have parents that do that. Instead of
the preacher saying, "Hey, children, you better honor your mother and father. You better respect
them. You better obey them. You better follow their commandments. You better take their
chastisement with a good attitude like you should." Now they've been emboldened to rebel,
right? And it's the same thing with God. Like, we're not gonna sit here and blame God for
our chastisement. And if God decides to punish me for something or correct me for something,
I'm not allowed to sit here and get mad at Him. How dare you? How dare you provoke me
to wrath, God? No, you know what we should do? We should submit and respect authority
in our lives. Go to verse number seven. It says, "If ye endure chastening, God dealeth
with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?" So, every
single dad should be chastening their children. And the Bible says, "If you endure that chastening,
God dealeth with you as with sons." So, when God chastens us, what should our reaction
be? We should be to endure that. We should be like, "Hey, we're not going to get bitter
at God. We're not going to quit the things of God just because God came down on us for
something. We should endure that." And of course, we can then apply that to every other
situation of life, every other authority structure in life. Wives, if your husband corrects you
for something, you should endure that and take it. And it's like we live in this weird
society where if the wife is mad, the husband has to cater. I mean, he has to change. He
has to win her back over. He has to make sure he bends over backwards to fix her attitude
when the reality should be, "No, no, no. If your husband corrects you, you should be worried
about pleasing your husband. You should be worried about if you've just pissed your husband
off." Because you know what's funny? If I go to work and my boss isn't mad at me, I'm
not like, "You corrected me. No, no. Don't talk to me. You corrected me." And wait for
him to come make things right with me. That's not how it works, folks. No, no, no. The person
who's under authority should be trying to please the person who's in authority. If at
work my boss is pissed at me, it is now my job to bend over backwards to make him happy
and to accept the correction and to do whatever I need to do to please that person. Same thing
in marriage. Same thing with God. Don't get mad at God if he corrects you. Don't get mad
at the pastor if he preaches a sermon that steps on your toes. No, you should actually
be worried about pleasing your authorities by doing right and just accepting the correction.
Endure chastening like the Bible says. Verse 8 says this, "But if ye be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons." So look, every single child
of God is going to receive correction from the Lord. And if you don't, the Bible's saying
you're a bastard, you're not even a son. Period, you're going to get chastened by God.
In verse 9, this is interesting, it says, "Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh
which corrected us." Notice, and we gave them what? Reverence. Huh, that's interesting.
The Bible says actually that when our parents corrected us, did it provoke us to wrath?
Did spanking provoke us to wrath? No, no, no. Our father's correction actually caused
us to revere them, to respect them. And so it's just bizarre to me to hear pastors getting
up and saying, "Oh, anytime you spank your teen, that's provoking them to wrath." When
the Bible's saying, "We've all had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave
them reverence." And you know, I use the example of my wife, how my wife and all of her siblings
did get the occasional spanking in their teen years. Of course, it was nowhere near as often
as when they were young children, but my wife and all of her siblings, they revere and love
and respect their father. And he did not abuse them by spanking them as teens. He did not
provoke them to wrath. It didn't work. It worked. It's funny how it worked though. Weird, right?
No, it's not, because the Bible teaches this. He says, "Shall we not much rather be in subjection
unto the Father of Spirits and live?" Oh, God. Hey, God. Chastening your children doesn't
work. Spanking your children doesn't work. Really? It's saying like, hey, let's be much
more rather in subjection unto the Father of Spirits and live. Endure chastening, you
know? That should get your attention. And if you don't want to get constantly chastened,
you know what you should do? Take the correction, take the chastening, and change. And then
you wouldn't have God constantly coming down on you. Just like parents, you know, kids,
if you're constantly getting spanked, you need to change. You need to not get mad at
mom and dad and don't despise them and don't get angry at them. No, you need to change
your attitude. You need to change your heart and obey your mom and dad. Keep your place
in Hebrews 12. Go to Proverbs 13. Proverbs 13. You know, these people that are just saying
with their full chest, "You can never spank a teen. It's always wrong to spank a teen.
It'll never work." I mean, let's just think about this logically. We've already looked
at a lot of Bible, but are you telling me you could really never foresee any instance
whatsoever that a teen might need some corporal discipline? And I'm telling you, these guys
are a bunch of liars because I could just start telling you instance after instance
that everyone would agree, "Oh yeah, in that situation they would need corporal punishment."
But how about if your teenage son called your wife a bee? "Oh, it's always wrong to spank
a teen. Yes, you can continue calling her that, no problem." No, you and I both know
that you'd start laying hands on that teen, and rightly so. What if, you know, your teen
boy struck his mother? You'd punch that kid right in the face, and you know what? That
kid would deserve it. You can never do that for any reason. No, no, no, no. Teen puts
his hands on mom? Hits mom? I mean, the Old Testament, the Bible says that kid's worthy
of death. Oh, yeah, they could be killed, but not spanked. This is the retardation that's
being preached. And that's what happens when you just stick with your opinion rather than
what the Bible says. Here's what Proverbs 13 verse 24 says, "He that spareth his rod,"
what? "Hateth his son, but he that loveth him, chasteneth him betimes." Look, if there's
ever a time where your teen needs the rod and you spare that from them, you're in the
wrong. Now, look, I hope we're all smoking the hopium lately. At Baptist churches it
seems like, "Hey, I hope that your teen rarely or never needs the rod. I hope that for you.
I hope that for my future kids." But here's the thing, if your kids do need the rod though,
you know what you should do? You should give them the rod at whatever age that is, at whatever
age appropriate spanking you're giving. It's not my job to interfere with your authority
as a father and mother in how to raise your kids. It's my job to preach what the Bible
says, not preaching what it does not say. Not sitting here and undermining your authority
in the home. Hey, if that's not I mean, I've heard as a teenager, you know, I went to
public school, I had a bunch of friends in baseball teams that weren't Christians. And
I've seen a lot of different things with kids. I've seen teenagers say to their parents,
I hate you mom. I've seen teenagers call their mom Satan. She's like, shut up Satan. I literally
have seen I've heard kids do this. It's just like I was sitting there as a teen, just thinking
like I wish that his dad would just beat him right now. I wish his dad would just smack
him across the face. It's like, do you really think there's never ever an appropriate reason
for a teenager to get spanked? That's just wrong, my friend. It's just wrong. It doesn't
make sense how there's, you know, corporal punishment for kids, there's corporal punishment
for adults, there's death penalty for both, but for some reason it's just wrong all the
time to spank a teen. It's just not biblical. Look at Proverbs 20 verse 30, Proverbs chapter
20 verse 30, the Bible says the blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil. So do stripes
the inward parts of the belly. You know, I believe that this is talking about an adult
receiving corporal punishment and this person's receiving a serious beating. I mean, this
isn't just like a spank on the butt with a spoon or something like that, like kids get,
this is the blueness of the wound. It's talking about bruising. I mean, this is a serious
beating, but it says the blueness of the wound, what, cleanseth away evil. So do stripes getting
a whipping, the inward parts of the belly. What this is teaching, let me just tell you
what this is teaching. It's telling you corporal punishment works. That's what this is saying.
It's saying, hey, you can correct someone's behavior with corporal punishment. Now, of
course, this is a general statement because there's some people, the Bible talks about
that though you braid them, I'm going to misquote it, it's like if you braid them like mortar
and a pestle or something like that, yet will his foolishness not depart from him. There's
some people, it's just like no matter what you do, they're going to be an idiot, they're
not going to listen. But the rule though is that corporal punishment works. And this is
talking about on an adult. So if corporal punishment works on an adult, why would it not work when
they were 17, 12 months earlier? Why would it not work when they were 16, 15, 14? No,
again, it's just people preaching their opinion and not actually sticking with what the Bible
says. Let's look at this verse in Deuteronomy 21, turn there, Deuteronomy chapter 21. You
know, I know we've talked about this a lot in the last couple of months, but you know
what? Hey, endure the spiritual battle. I'm not going to just keep letting these bad philosophies
and bad ideas being preached out there without being checked because I don't want it coming
here. And look, a lot of these preachers that have suddenly gone all weird, I've heard from
multiple individuals in this church like, "Oh, I listen to that person all the time. Oh,
I listen to every sermon. Oh man, I had no idea what was going on." And it's like, that's
why this stuff needs to be talked about. It's not like it's just fun or a hobby for me.
But again, I want you to look at this, Deuteronomy 21 verse 18. "If a man have a stubborn and
rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother,
and that," notice, "when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them, then shall
his father and his mother lay hold on him and bring him out unto the elders of his city
and unto the gate of his place. And they shall say unto the elders of the city, This our
son is rebellious, stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton
and a drunkard. And all the men of the city shall stone him with stones that he die. So
shalt thou put away evil from among you and all Israel shall hear and fear. So notice
there's actually a capital punishment law in the word of God that if you have a wicked
son and this isn't talking about some 10 year old kid. I believe this is talking about an
adult son you know late teens early 20s something like that stubborn and rebellious son he doesn't
obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother and that notice what it says
when they have chastened him so before this stubborn and rebellious son who's a glutton
and a drunkard and doesn't obey his father and mother before he's taken to the elders
of the city to be killed to be judged and executed they have to have first said that
they have what chastened him what does that mean corporal punishment so in order to even
exercise this law the parents first had to attest that they have been chastening their
son okay so no spanking as teens though right so are they saying like well yeah you know
we spanked him back when he was two three four five six seven eight nine ten ten then
we stopped because after that spanking is wrong somehow after that spanking is bad after
that spanking doesn't work you know the elder of the city is gonna be like what is wrong
with you no no no it says after they have chastened him so this kid this teenager this
young adult was still getting chastened in his teen years getting whipped and look it's
like I thought that we're actually supposed to base our beliefs off of the Bible I thought
that we're not supposed to sit here and just let's just drink in worldly philosophy in
our own ideas in our own opinions aren't we supposed to base what we believe off of what
scripture says hey isn't every word of the Lord pure aren't all of his laws right no
I thought that we actually loved the law of God I thought that we looked at this law and
said yeah this is a good law I think we should have this law in our society right now by
the way I do believe we should have this law in our society right now you wouldn't have
all these crazy videos you see on X I feel like my X you know algorithm is just cursed
just stuff to piss me off like I saw this video of these older teen kids that just took
an old lady and just body slammed her on the ground and just threw in our swimming pool
and I'm just like number one why is this on my feed and number two that would be like
these kids right here I mean what kind of a child does something like that it's absolutely
insane it's wicked those kids should not be in our society period go to if you will second
Timothy chapter two and Hebrews chapter number 12 second Timothy two and Hebrews chapter
number 12 and look it's fine to have a personal opinion but you know what don't condemn people
that believe the Bible don't condemn people for their other opinions keep that opinion
and you believe it but you know also I heard this preaching from pastor Buzarnsky he said
first Corinthians chapter number 7 teaches your wife can leave did you guys catch that
in first Corinthians chapter 7 first Corinthians 7 teaches your wife can leave he said this
isn't Afghanistan your wife has to be with you willingly I mean I am so sick and tired
of this preaching that undermines authority that enables rebellion it is satanic just
saying like oh yeah first Corinthians 7 it just says your wife can leave and it was coming
from an era of like you know you dads that are like ruling they're leading by constraint
it was coming from this attitude of like oh those that lead by constraint better be careful
because you know first Corinthians 7 says that they can leave could you imagine how
pissed people would be if the roles were reversed on that and I would never say this to someone
but just imagine for a moment that a pastor said hey ladies you better be really careful
with how you act because he can go find him another woman he could do it do you know that
he could do it he could find another one wouldn't we all be sickened and disgusted and just
outraged by such a suggestion coming from a pastor but it's totally fine because it's
like oh you know first Corinthians 7 teaches your wife can leave this isn't Afghanistan
you know what if I told you that Afghanistan had some things right what if I told you that
there's some things about Afghanistan they're actually pretty cool like how about the fact
that they execute sodomites hey I would love to have that in the United States and is that
my opinion no that's Leviticus chapter 20 verse 13 that's the Bible oh you know does
Afghanistan make divorce illegal I'm not even sure but if they do I'm for that I'm for divorce
being illegal and why would I sit here and make fun of Afghanistan for doing things right
you know why don't we attack Afghanistan for the things that they're doing wrong how about
like worshipping a pedophile named Mohammed you know let's get on Afghanistan for that
how about strapping bombs to women and children to go kill innocent people you know let's
go ahead and condemn that for that but I'm not going to condemn them for something that's
right I'm not going to condemn them for believing that divorce is wicked and here's the thing
no fault divorce was illegal in the United States until 1970 so it's like we were all
Afghanistan here in America until 1970 it just shows how far people's mind has gone
from the word of God where it's like we're sitting here mocking Christians for believing
that divorce is always wrong and that it shouldn't be allowed and then we're comparing that to
Afghanistan he said this about wives he said she has to follow you like you have to follow
me willingly so he made the comparison that the same level of obedience and and fidelity
and follow ship if you will of congregants to their pastor is the exact same as a wife
to her husband no folks the Bible says that a pastor is not supposed to lord over God's
heritage the pastor is the under shepherd that's in charge of running things in the
church but I'm not allowed to rule your lives I'm not allowed to walk up to your wife and
say do this and do that but you are you are allowed to walk up to your wife and tell her
here's the rules here's what you're going to do you can walk up to your kids and tell
them here's the time you're going to bed here's the time you're waking up you actually do
have that authority because the Bible says that a wife is submit to her husband as unto
the Lord see the Bible actually compares the husband's authority over his wife to that
of Jesus's authority of the church it does not compare your obedience to the pastor as
the same thing as a husband and wife that is weird folks and I wouldn't even want that
type of power or authority not interested it's weird I don't want to run your life I don't
want to tell you what to do I don't want to be that involved in your decision-making like
ladies your husband is for that men you command your family that I'm not going to do that
I think that's such a weird statement and he said this if you need the Taliban to be
running the United States to get your marriage to work you've got problems buddy big problems
so you know if we needed the US government to actually have laws that the Bible supports
then we're the problem again it's this preaching of it's like you got problems just be awesome
like me and then all your problems will be solved great so helpful I love that preaching
so much just be awesome like me and you won't have any problems oh you know if you need
the US government to be run by the Taliban you've got big problems buddy big problems
no what if the problem is that the United States is forsaking God's work what if the
problem is that the government should be enforcing God's law and it's not what if that's actually
the problem what if the problem is preaching lies he says this leading by constraint doesn't
work constraint means limitation or restriction so leading by constraint doesn't work he says
no limitations no restrictions it's like how do you even have discipline then how do you
even have chastisement why does the Bible tell us not to despise the chastening of the
Lord why does it tell us to endure chastening sounds to me like God rules with constraint
sounds like God has given us some rules and it sounds like if we step out of line he's
going to enforce those rules he's going to chasten us no leading by constraint is the
only way that leadership works leading by constraint is the only thing that works but
here's the thing preaching ought to be emphasizing what the Bible emphasizes what does the Bible
emphasize hey don't despise the chastening of the Lord what is the Bible emphasize endure
chastening as sons what is the Bible emphasize you know let no man despise thee what the
Bible emphasizes is for followers to be in obedience to their authorities the Bible does
not emphasize this preaching that is constantly chastening and tongue-lashing leaders and
getting mad at leaders for being leaders that's not what the Bible emphasizes we need to emphasize
what God emphasizes hey don't despise your husband ladies obey your husband don't despise
your parents obey your parents don't despise God obey God and within the constraints of
biblical authority in the realm of church don't despise your pastor obey the legitimate
authority that he has now please don't ever compare me to the same authority that you
have over your wife because that's creepy and weird but you know what a pastor does
have authority he is in charge of the house of God humanly speaking under Jesus Christ
and he should be obeyed as well Hebrews 12 verse 10 says this for they verily for a few
days chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers
of his holiness now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous
nevertheless afterward yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are
exercised there by you know discipline that's coming from a godly authority it is for our
prophets and especially when it comes from god and so you should not you should not you
know despise god's chastisement his discipline you should endure patiently because that endurance
yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness you got to realize if god's correcting you
through some situation in your life or through the preaching of god's word you should take
that in stride you should obey that and submit yourselves to that because it's going to be
for your profit let's finish in second timothy chapter number two second timothy chapter number
two second timothy two verse eight the bible says remember that jesus christ of the seat
of david was raised from the dead according to my gospel verse nine wherein i suffer trouble
as an evil doer even unto bonds but the word of god is not bound therefore i endure all
things for the elect's sake that they may also obtain the salvation which is in christ
jesus with eternal glory look salvation thank god is easy salvation is like drinking a glass
of water it's like walking through a door it's like eating a piece of bread but you
know what the battle the christian life becoming a disciple of jesus christ that is hard that
is not going to be a walk in the park and you are going to suffer trouble sometimes
as an evil doer you might go through persecutions you might go through personal tragedies you're
going to have warfare and fighting and striving but you know if you actually want to make
a difference if you actually want to be in the real fight in the front lines making a
difference in the war you're going to have to endure hardness you're going to have to
endure all things the bible says for the elect's sake that they may also obtain the salvation
which is in christ jesus with eternal glory hey let us not be people that are the battlefield
casualties that quit in the war that quit serving god and again i want to reiterate
one more thing that i said at the beginning even those people that have turned from us
that have separated from us that don't like us anymore that don't like the new ifb anymore
here's my sincere hope for those that are saved is that they will endure in their christian
faith that they will endure all i for the elect's sake and you know if you go to a different
church and your pastor doesn't like me doesn't like the new ifb doesn't like pastor anderson
all these people but you know you're in a church that's saved and he's preaching the
king james bible and there's still hard preaching going on and he's winning people to christ
i want you to still endure i want you to keep serving god and those of us in this room hey
i want us to be ready to endure the fights that we go through not get tired of it not
complain about it but just endure all things for the elect's sake let's have a word of
prayer thank you lord for the word of god and for the spiritual warfare that you've
entrusted us with i pray that you help us to be strong to be good soldiers of jesus
christ help us to have endurance in all things for the elect's sake for those that are hanging
in the balance out there i pray that you give us hearts to win them to christ to teach them
all things that you've commanded we love you in jesus name we pray amen