The Persecuted Church, Part 4

Introduction: The New Sense of Vulnerability and the Persecuted Church

0:02 Now let us turn again, as we have for several Lord's Day mornings, to the 13th chapter of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13, verses 1 to 6. Let love of the brethren continue. Do not forget to show love unto strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

0:29 Remember them that are in prison, as imprisoned with them. And then the verb, remember carrying over, remember them that are ill-treated, as being yourselves also in the body. Let marriage be had in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled. For fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

0:55 Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have. For himself hath said, I will in no way. I will in no way fail you, neither will I in any wise forsake you. So that with good courage we say, the Lord is my helper.

1:15 I will not fear. What shall man do unto me? Well, let us once again pray and ask God for the help of his spirit. Pray with me that God will help me to preach through the remnants of that bronchitis and the rest.

1:31 I have every reason to believe he has done it hundreds of times in the past. George Whitefield said, the best cure for any illness was a good preaching sweat. And I have found that to be my experience as well. Let's pray.

1:48 Father, we do desire to know your presence in the ministry of the word.

1:55 We have no desire simply to thread words through our eyes and sounds into our ears. We long to hear your voice. We long to hear it in such a way. That we'll never be the same again.

2:12 Come then by the Holy Spirit. Uphold your servant. Give him facility of utterance. Liberty in the Holy Spirit.

2:21 And with everyone who sits before you and your word. May there be an open, believing, obedient heart. We plead in Jesus' name. Amen.

2:32 Since September 11th, 2001.

2:45 In the unprovoked. Brutal. And cowardly act of war against our nation. Many of us have experienced something we have never before experienced.

3:00 And that something is the gnawing. G-N-A-W. That's hard to say with a stuffed nose. But it is the gnawing, unsettling sense of uncertainty.

3:12 And vulnerability concerning our safety. And our well-being. Amen. To all the citizens of this nation.

3:22 When those two towers were converted from the centers of international commerce into a pile of rubble in less than several hours, we began to experience something we have never experienced before. This past week, I'm sure you're aware that those who know the things that need to be known apprised us. That we should come to a higher level of sensitivity to the possibility of terrorist activity in our midst. This is new for all of us.

4:04 Even for those of us who lived through the Second World War. And I'm one of them. Never did I have a sense of terror and dread that German soldiers would come to 94 Soundview Avenue, Stamford, Connecticut.

4:19 And even when it was discovered that they were going to be killed, that they were going to be killed, that they were going to be killed. And I'm one of them. Never did I have a sense of terror and dread that German soldiers would come to 94 Soundview Avenue, Stamford, Connecticut. And I'm one of them.

4:21 Never did I have a sense of terror and dread that there were submarines off the Jersey Shore. There was never that sense of foreboding that our dear friends in the United Kingdom had when war was not something over there, but above them and possibly on their shores. However, though this is entirely new for many, if not all of us, there are many of our brothers and sisters in Christ in many parts of the world who have never known that there was a war. what it is to live in any other context other than the context of the gnawing, unsettling sense of uncertainty and vulnerability concerning their own safety and their well-being. Not because they are citizens of a particular country, but because they are citizens of a heavenly country, because they are outspoken disciples of Jesus, because they confess Jesus to be their Savior and Lord and the only Savior of sinners. And it is with reference to such of our brothers and sisters that we've been considering for several weeks this portion of the Word of God, Hebrews 13 and verse 3.

5:45 Remember then that a relationship between the Lord and the sinners is a relationship that is a relationship between the Lord and the sinners. Remember them that are in prison as imprisoned with them. Remember them that are ill-treated as being yourselves also in the body. We come this morning to the fourth and final message on the theme, the biblical mandate to remember our persecuted brethren throughout the world.

Review of Previous Messages and Spiritual Benefits

6:10 In the first message, having sought to sketch in the larger context of the book of Hebrews as a whole. The immediate context of this directive, which is the mandate of love of the brethren continuing, I then sought to open up the text under those four simple headings. The duty commanded, remember, the objects of the duty identified, the imprisoned and the ill-treated, for Jesus' sake, the disposition with which the duty is to be performed with respect to those in prison as imprisoned with them, the ill-treated, and the imprisoned as ourselves being in the body, and then I concluded with two ways in which we can all begin immediately to obey this directive, obey it not perfectly but purposely, not meritoriously or legally but evangelically, not with self-generated but with grace-impelled, spirit-empowered obedience. And those two ways are these. We can actively...

7:16 We can actively acquire the available information concerning our imprisoned and ill-treated brethren, thereby remembering them, and we can engage in Bible-framed intercessory prayer on their behalf, remembering them in the way that counts most, namely, at the throne of grace. Then in the next two sermons, with that exposition as the solid biblical foundation, I set before you...

7:46 I set before you the first three spiritual benefits that will come to us in the way of obedience to Hebrews 13.3. I asserted and then sought to demonstrate from the Scriptures that obedience to Hebrews 13.3 will contribute to the attaining and maintaining of a good conscience before God and man.

8:10 Secondly, that obedience to Hebrews 13.3 will create a continual reminder of the importance that suffering for Christ is the normal accompaniment of being a true disciple of Christ. And in my application of that second point, I underscored why it is crucial in the training of the rising generation that they be aware that suffering goes with being a disciple, and that this will affect how we train them, what we will seek to project as the worship of God, what it is to be a Christian. And since then, I was reminded by one of our sisters of something I had read, and it struck me at the time. This is a little addendum to point number two. In John Piper's book, The Hidden Smile of God, the ministry of affliction in the life of William Cowper, and there are two others, notice what he says. If the Christian life has become, the path of ease and fun in the modern West, then corporate worship has become the place of increasing entertainment.

9:25 You see what he's saying? If the Christian life is ease and fun, then corporate worship is the place of increasing entertainment. The problem is not a battle between contemporary worship music and traditional hymns. The problem is, there aren't, enough martyrs during the week.

9:49 If no soldiers are perishing, what you want on Sunday is Bob Hope and some pretty girls. You see what he's alluding to? During the war, in the period of non-combat, Bob Hope would go over with a troupe of pretty girls. He would tell jokes, and the girls would bounce around on the stage and sing and entertain the troops.

10:13 He said, if nobody's dying, then Bob Hope and pretty girls will do, not the army chaplain and the surgeon. And today the church ceases to be chaplains counseling soldiers facing death, and surgeons seeking to heal wounded battlers. Those who gather cease to be real Christians. And then my third point that I sought to preach last week, as one of the practicals, as one of the practicals, spiritual benefits of obedience to this text, it will provide an effective inoculation against the careless, thoughtless, and selfish indulgence of our Christian liberty. Now today, as time permits, and I know some of you will be skeptical when I say it, but that only challenges me. Skepticism challenges me like perhaps few other things challenges me. I purpose to set before you the final four spiritual, spiritual benefits.

Benefit 4: Underscoring Belief in the One Universal Church

11:24 Each of them of course, much more briefly than the previous ones. Benefit number four, obedience to Hebrews 13, three will continually underscore for us and for those who come among us, our belief in the one universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I repeat obedience to Hebrews 13, three will continue. It will continually underscore for us and for those who come among us our belief in the one universal church of our Lord Jesus Christ.

12:06 Now let me first of all explain what I mean by the words the one universal church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many of you are familiar with that ancient creed called the Apostles' Creed. It wasn't composed by the apostles. In various expressions, some say it goes all the way back to the second century, but in its present form, as you'll find it in the front of our Trinity hymnal, it can be traced back to the sixth century to the five hundreds a B and in that Apostles' Creed, these words occur.

12:43 I believe in the holy Catholic church, the communion of saints. Now in that tree, they are not saying, I believe in the Roman Catholic church, but the holy Catholic church. That is, I believe that there is a company of people who comprise the church and they exist throughout the entire world, the universal church, and they are those who are holy. That is, they have a saving union with Jesus Christ, have been set apart from sin, its consequences, its bondage and power unto God in Christ.

13:26 And that confession states, I believe there is such a thing as a holy universal church. And these words simply reflect the teaching in such passages as Ephesians chapter one, where Paul writes these words in verse 22, and he put all things in subjection under Christ's feet, gave him to be head over all things, to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all. That is not bounded by any specific local church. He is head over all things to the church, his church, universal, the company of his people that exists throughout the world at any one given point in time. Ephesians chapter four, verse four, there is one body, and one spirit, even as you were called in one hope of your calling. And there is a sense in which we can say that that holy catholic church, the holy universal church is not only comprised of all the saints, wherever they may be found in whatever quote denomination, or whatever the name of that group may be. If they confess faith in the Christ of Scripture, and they are trusting only in the work of Christ,

14:51 for their acceptance before God, they are not clinging to doctrine which is damning. There may be a lot of the mixture of error and limited perspective, but they comprise the one holy catholic church. And that may be in the minds of some, even including those who have already gone to heaven, the church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven. But for our purposes, I'm thinking of it in the way, our confession speaks of it as well.

15:23 Listen to these words in the London Baptist Confession. The catholic or universal church, which with respect to the internal work of the spirit of truth and grace, may be called invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ, the head thereof, and is the spouse, the body, the fullness of him that fills all in all. Now, when I have asserted that obedience to Hebrews 13, 3, remembering those imprisoned, remembering our ill-treated brethren, will continually underscore for us and those who come among us, our belief in the one universal church of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I'm talking about when I say the one universal church of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, in the local church, we obviously sustain more intimate ties of shared life and shared ministry with those churches whose full-orb doctrinal and practical perspectives are more aligned with ours and ours with theirs. How can two walk together except they be agreed?

16:44 And it is right and proper that when we prayed this morning for our sister churches in the Caribbean, we were praying for churches that hold our more extensive doctrinal understanding, that stand with us in the outworking of that doctrinal understanding in how we worship, how we minister, our view of preaching, our view of the family, our view of the roles of men and women within the family, et cetera, et cetera. It is only right that we should cultivate those more intimate ties with those who hold more closely to us in this broad, in this more defined perspective and understanding and practice of the Christian faith. And it's right that we should do that. But, but, we believe that the church of Christ is much more extensive, and hear me carefully, much more extensive than the collective body of those who hold to the London Confession of Faith, the Westminster Confession of Faith, or the Canons of the Synod of Dort. If we could right now find someplace large enough to gather together every church and all of its membership that's subscribed to the London Baptist Confession, the Westminster Confession of Faith,

18:08 perhaps the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, the Canons of the Synod of Dort, the Heidelberg Catechism, could we look at that group and say that is the universal church? I would rear back and say, by no means. The universal church is comprised of all who hold to Christ the head in a saving way. And though it may be humbling, the majority of them would not subscribe to the 1689 Confession, would not subscribe to the Westminster Confession.

18:42 Many parts of it, yes, the parts that point to the authority of Scripture, the parts that point to the essential deity of Christ, the parts that point to the fact that He's the only way of salvation, and He is received by faith alone, on the basis of grace alone. But in a number of other areas, the universal church is comprised of a company far broader than our confessional standard. That's a reality. Anyone who knows reality cannot deny it.

19:19 Now, when you have among those, who stand outside the orbit of our more defined confessional standards, but within the parameters of the church universal, who not only confess Christ as Lord, obey Christ as Lord, but are spilling their blood for Christ as Lord, God have mercy on us if we don't cheerfully acknowledge that they are part of the one, true, universal church of Jesus Christ. And what I'm saying is, if we, by the grace of God, incorporate into the corpus of our normal spectrum of obedience, Hebrews 13, 3, getting information about the people of God around the world who are imprisoned for Jesus' sake, who are ill-treated for Jesus' sake, and we as elders responsibly keep setting before you, not an order, not an overkill, not a glut, but in due proportion to other biblical duties, sufficient information to keep you constantly aware. There's this one there who's suffering in this way, this one imprisoned here, this group of people who've been ravaged, and their homes burnt, and their churches destroyed. This will be a constant reminder to us

20:46 that there is such a thing as the great universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me say by application, have any of you ever wondered why in this pulpit, or from this pulpit, so seldom do you hear the words Reformed, Calvinistic, the five points of Calvinism, our Reformed Baptist movement? Have you wondered why, at least under my ministry, and the ministry of my brethren, you could sit for months, and maybe several years, and never hear the words of Jesus Christ? Maybe several years, and never hear those words? Have you ever wondered why? Is it because we do not believe the things that people say, oh, if you believe that, you're a Reformed Baptist? No.

21:38 We periodically teach through our confession of faith without embarrassment. We say these are the things surely believed among us. When you stand here or there, and are received into membership, you are asked the question, does our confession of faith reflect the things that you believe, so that they are the things most surely believed among us, even with you coming in among us? Are we embarrassed?

22:05 No. Are we ashamed? No. But we refuse to have a cultic climate that the church of Christ is co-extensive with us and with ours.

22:18 And that's deliberate. Deliberate. Deliberate. And by the grace of God, it will continue to be deliberate.

22:27 And it will be underscored, and amplified, and strengthened, as by the grace of God, more and more we individually and together enter into a grace-impelled, Spirit-empowered obedience to Hebrews 13.3. I say that obedience will continually underscore for us and for those who come among us our belief in the one, true, universal, church of our Lord Jesus Christ. In that church there are people who believe that tongues are a present spiritual gift.

23:09 We do not believe that. There are people who believe in a lot of things we don't believe in. But they do not sever them from Christ the head. And while I may and other elders in this pulpit in preaching on some of those issues take a right-angled stand, we must never be accused of saying, you think the church of Christ is only coextensive with you and your position.

23:32 That's not true. That is slander, if that's ever said of us. It is not true. And we want those who come among us, first Lord's Day, they hear us praying in the morning for churches in the Caribbean.

23:49 They say, oh, they believe there are churches other than Trinity. Yeah, that's right. And they come back Sunday night, and they hear one of the elders reading a little excerpt of what's going on with believers in Korea. And the next week, what's going on with believers in Pakistan.

24:05 And the next week, as tonight, I think the next one in that updated flyer is going to be what's going on in Colombia, in South America. And they realize, hey, these people are not just thinking about themselves, turned inward upon themselves, believe us and me and mine and nobody else. No, my dear friends, if Christ loved them, died for them, prays for them, and will take them safely to heaven by his grace, they're part of the one true universal church of Christ. And we want to make it plain.

24:37 We believe that. We believe that. If ever there's place for spontaneous corporate amen, it's there. All right.

Benefit 5: Challenging and Encouraging Examples of Persevering Faith

24:50 Number five. Obedience to Hebrews 13.3 will continually keep before our eyes challenging and encouraging examples of persevering faith. Obedience to Hebrews 13.3 will continually keep before our eyes challenging and encouraging examples of persevering faith. Again, let me explain my meaning. According to the writer to the Hebrews, a major means to motivate and encourage those doubting, tentative Hebrew Christians, one of the major means to motivate them and encourage them to persevere in faith was to set before them the remembrance of those who have persevered and are persevering in faith in spite of imprisonment, ill-treatment, and even death itself. Look at Hebrews 12, verses 1 to 4.

25:53 Therefore, let us also, seeing we are compassed about, with so great a cloud of witnesses. Now, there's a lot of misunderstanding about that. People say, well, this is the picture of the big, the big Grecian games, and this is the heroes of faith in chapter 11 that are sitting in the grandstand, and they're watching, they're witnessing, they're watching, they're witnessing. No, that's not what it's talking about.

26:21 That's not what it's talking about at all. What he's saying is, since we are compassed with so great a cloud of witnesses, they surround us in terms of what he has described of persevering faith against every kind of difficulty. Hebrews 32 to the end of the chapter is this concentrated description of those who persevered in faith, those who were sawn asunder, tempted, slain with the sword, went about in sheepskins, goatskins, ill-treated, wandering in deserts and mountains, holes in the earth. Since we're surrounded with such a great cloud of witnesses, that is, those who testify to the blessed end of persevering faith, they weren't disappointed. They were willing to be ill-treated, sawn asunder, driven from cave to cave and hole to hole. Why? Because they believed better things were coming at the end of the road.

27:22 And they're there now. And they see and enjoy all that was promised in Christ. They witness to us saying, come on there doubting Christian, come on now, you're bent over and doubting and vacillating because you're getting a little persecution, a little misunderstanding, a little pressure. We witness to you.

27:44 It's all worth it. It's all worth it. Press on. Therefore lay aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset us.

27:53 Run with endurance the race that is set before us. Now look. Looking off unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that has endured such gainsaying of sinners against Himself that you do not wax weary, fainting in your souls.

28:25 You've not yet resisted unto blood. What are you complaining about? You haven't shed your blood yet? Buck up!

28:36 Look at your Savior in the path of obedience. It was obedience. Unto death. But it was obedience suffused with the glory of the coming joy.

28:48 Who for the joy that was set before Him endured. Look to Him. Look to these who've gone before you. Those examples are calculated to nerve us and to strengthen us against every opposition and every threatening influence that would cause us to turn away from the Lord Jesus.

29:12 And you see, as we get more and more involved in remembering the imprisoned in our own day, remembering those ill-treated in our own day, it is setting before us examples, current examples of persevering faith that can only challenge us and encourage us in our faith. It will challenge us to ask some searching questions. Do I have that attachment to Christ? That I'd be willing for Christ's sake to bear what they are bearing?

29:53 But then it encourages us. Frail, weak human beings holding up under the most unspeakably disastrous and negative pressures from others and yet they remain firm? How come? Because Jesus says, as He did to Peter, Satan has desired to sift you as wheat, but I've prayed for you that your faith fail not.

30:19 And we say, Lord, I'm such an innate, native scaredy-cat if someone appeared at the door with a pea-shooter, I'd deny you. Huh? You in that school? But I read, as I'm going to read to you, a nine-year-old boy who looks at a group of Muslim militia who've killed his mother and his siblings before his eyes.

30:46 And Jesus gives him strength to say, I'm a Christian. I won't cave in. Kill me if you want to. And we say, Lord, if you give that nine-year-old boy a broken heart over watching his parents be slaughtered, Lord Jesus, get into it for me, whatever I may face.

31:05 Here's the story. Here's the contemporary. James Jeda watched as the Islamic soldiers killed his mother, father, and four brothers and sisters. He was nine years old.

31:22 The soldiers did not kill James, but they did take him as a prisoner. That evening, they instructed him to gather wood for a fire, and he assumed they were preparing to cook their evening meal. When the fire was well stoked, the soldiers asked James if he knew of any rebel soldiers in the area, and he told them he did not. Then they told him that he must become a Muslim and bow to Allah.

31:46 James, remember now, nine years old, still in shock from seeing his parents killed, told them bravely that this was not possible. He simply declared, I am a Christian. Infuriated, the soldiers picked up the young boy's body, hurled him into the flames of the fire for which he had gathered wood. Thinking him dead, they packed up their weapons and left the area.

32:17 James was not dead, though. Somehow he rolled out of the flames and ran into the bush to safety. Today, his entire abdomen is scarred and his arm is partially deformed due to the torture. Clearly visible on his body are the places where doctors grafted skin over his third-degree burns.

32:35 He still grieves the deaths of his parents and siblings. He still feels the pain of their loss. And looking into his eyes, you see a boy who has suffered, who has suffered unspeakable things. Through all of this, though, his faith remains strong.

32:54 I am a Christian. There are thousands of James Jitas in the Sudan, children who've lost parents to a religious war raged against them by fanatical Muslims from the North. The children who will say, I am a Christian. Some of you children, young people, believe God has made Christ precious to you.

33:20 Sitting here today, you believe the Lord Jesus has forgiven you, that you are His child, God's child and Christ's disciple. When you hear something like this, what does it do for you? I hope what it does for you is this, Lord Jesus, left to myself, I couldn't do that. But Lord Jesus, you did it for James.

33:43 You can do it for me. And the greatest assurance you'll do it for me if I have to face that, is that I'm willing to face the opposition from my own siblings when they try to tempt me to sin. And from my buddies in the Christian school when they try to tempt me to sin. When they hand me a CD that I know my parents wouldn't approve of, I look them in the eye and say, No!

34:10 I'm a Christian, young man. I don't disobey my parents. Keep your stinking CD. Yes, that's what you do.

34:20 Oh, but I'll... No.

34:22 If you're afraid to be called a few names, what are you going to do when the flames are raging? You trust Jesus to give you the boldness to stand against your peers in a quasi-Christian context of the Christian school, of your own siblings. That's right. This is Christianity, folks.

34:48 This let's go play stuff, that's heresy. This is biblical Christianity. And by more and more engaging in obedience to Hebrews 13.3, God will keep before us, our spiritual eyes will be fastened upon challenging and encouraging examples of persevering faith.

35:09 It is good and right to read Fox's Book of Martyrs, to read Faith Cook's Singing in the Fire, to read and reread the thrilling account of Latimer and Ridley. I've stood on that place in Oxford where these men were burned at the stake. And some of you will remember the account that Latimer is said to have encouraged his comrade Ridley at the stake with the words, Be of good comfort, Master Ridley. We shall this day light a candle by God's grace in England, as I trust shall never be put out.

35:45 And it hasn't been put out. You read that stuff, if you don't get the goosebumps of that, there's something neutered in your goosebump producer. Be of good cheer, Master Ridley. They're lighting our bodies, but this is a candle of truth that will never be extinguished.

36:05 You don't get goosebumps of that? Go see your doctor and say, Doctor, there's something wrong with me. My goosebumper ain't working. I'm serious, folks.

36:14 This is the stuff that nerves us. But that was the past. And obedience to Hebrews 13.3 will take us into the present.

36:22 And ordinary children like James Jeda and ordinary pastors as those who have suffered greatly in Indonesia and those in China, and some of the countries of Africa, and those who've been slaughtered, caught in the crossfire of the rebel forces and the drug trade in Colombia, in South America. And we say, Lord, I see these who, like the Savior, who for the joy set before them, endure. Lord Jesus, you can do it for me. Let me tell you something, young people.

36:55 I'm going to talk to you young bucks. I'm going to leave the ladies. Let your mama tell you. Now let me talk to the girls, too.

37:03 You don't make martyrs by feeding on pulp fiction and so-called Christian romance novels. You make martyrs when you read the lives of current day men and women who manifested this spirit of attachment to Jesus at any cost. You read Jim Elliot and it stirs you to the depths of your soul. You read a book my wife has just read and hopefully will make available to the church family, though probably not generally, in the church bookstore, called He Knows My Size, about a precious Romanian woman who, when she was struggling with her faith, when it was still under communist rule, does God really exist? Is he all my father said he is? She had a need for shoes and a sweater and several other items and was aware that some of these things were going to be sent in as care packages. And she said, God, if you're there, you know my size.

38:05 You send me shoes size such and such. You send me a sweater. And a box came and every item was her size. And that woman went on to be a marvelous, brave witness in communist Romania.

38:19 You see, girls, that's the stuff that will put the fiber in you to be a martyr if necessary. You guys, you're not going to get the stuff of martyrdom, making Kobe and Shaq your idols. Your idols and your models and Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin and tattooed big boys playing games, living like animals. Most of them, not all of them, but most of them.

38:48 Shaq living shamelessly for years with his paramour and fathering children. I'm ashamed of it. Kobe, thankfully, keeps his nose clean sexually. At least it's reported that he does.

38:59 But listen, guys, Jason Giambi isn't going to nerve you to be a martyr. He can hit home runs, yes. But he isn't the stuff that will make a martyr out of you. I can name the others, too.

39:14 I know who plays for the Yankees. All right? I'm not stuck in the mud. Some of you want to throw off these things and say, well, that's from another...

39:21 No, it isn't, folks. This is serious business. And I'm begging you, I'm begging you, as parents, take hold of what comes into the hands of your kids to read. Put into their hands the stuff of which martyrs are made.

39:36 As far as you have a business, as far as you have ability to control it, don't you let the fluff of which wimpy, denying, simpering, fun-loving, pseudo-Christians are made. The world has got enough of it. We don't want to contribute anymore to it. Number six.

Benefit 6: Unlocking Many Parts of Our Bibles

39:59 I think I'm going to make it. All right. Number six. Obedience to Hebrews 13.3 will help unlock many parts of our Bibles, hitherto closed to us. Obedience to Hebrews 13.3 will help to unlock many parts of our Bibles, hitherto closed to us. Now again, let me explain what I mean.

40:28 According to the Bible's own testimony about itself, this book in its original manuscripts is composed of words that God Himself breathed out. All Scripture is God breathed. 2 Timothy 3.16.

40:45 God Himself, as Peter says, by the Spirit carried men along so that what they wrote were the thoughts of God expressed in the very words of God. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 13, Paul says, which things we speak in words, which the Spirit teaches. Words. Not just broad concepts, but words.

41:11 If the words aren't right, the concepts are skewed. You can't convey concepts in a non-word form. The grammar, the figures of speech, all of those things, our Bibles are the word of the living God. And as these words embody the mind and will of God, they can be understood so as to grasp the intention of the human author who was guided by the Holy Spirit to write them.

41:40 Guided by the Spirit, our minds illuminated by His ministry, responsibly interpreting those words and phrases in their context, their grammatical structure, figures of speech. We can know what God meant when God spoke. Now for some of you kids going into college, you're already there. Some of you others, you'll say, what's Pastor talking about?

42:03 They'll be thankful for this. You're going to hear this nonsense of post-modern hermeneutic that we can never grasp authorial intent. That is, we can never grasp what the original author meant. That's nonsense.

42:15 And the author is God, and God has spoken. And when we handle His words responsibly in dependence upon the Spirit, we can know what God said and what God meant when He said it. However, now follow me closely, the true significance of any passage, any verse, any section, is often not truly understood and felt until our experience puts us into the text. You follow what I'm saying?

42:46 The text is objectively the Word of God. Whether I ever read it, whether I ever understand it, it's the Word of God because God breathed it, God spoke it. But what I'm saying is, with all of our prayer, with all of our study, there are certain passages you will not understand and feel their significance until God in His providence puts you into the circumstances of the text, either personally or by proxy. Let me illustrate.

43:16 In Psalm 32, you've been having your devotions and you are reading through the Psalms and you come to Psalm 32 and you read that this is the Psalm that David most likely composed after Nathan the prophet came to him and he confessed his sin of adultery and murder, etc. You read these words, verse 3, when I kept silence, that is, I didn't confess my sin. My bones wasted away through my groaning all the day long. Day and night your hand was heavy upon me.

43:48 My moisture was changed as with the drought of summer. In other words, I cried till I couldn't cry anymore. You say, well, that's interesting. David was in bad shape.

43:57 He sinned grievously. A time period passed. He didn't confess his sin. He was miserable.

44:02 He felt like his bones, his very bones were affected. He couldn't cry anymore. He was a mess. And you say, that's what it says.

44:13 That's what David experienced. He believed that. Then six months later, you grievously sin. And like David, you don't immediately go to God and to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness.

44:28 For fear of the shame that will come if you own your sin, you're silent. For fear of the consequences that will come with mom or dad or husband and wife, you bury your sin. And what happens? You begin to understand what it is to groan all the day long.

44:45 To feel the hand of God pressing you. You can't find comfort in any diversion. You can't find delight in any kind of food. You say, ah, now I know what David was saying.

45:00 You see the difference? The meaning hasn't changed a bit. But your circumstances have put you into the text. And you say, ha ha, now I understand it.

45:10 Now I see it. Now what I'm saying is this. Obedience to Hebrews 13, 3 will enable us, by the grace of God, to enter in and understand passages that hitherto have been closed to us. You see, much of the New Testament, many of the Psalms and the book of the Revelation, envisions the people of God as oppressed, harassed, persecuted, and hated by the world.

45:43 And as I said two weeks ago, in the providence of God, we have in great measure been insulated from that in our country. In great measure. Not 100%. Some have really known more of it.

45:57 But generally speaking, we've been insulated from that. How are we going to understand the many passages in which our Lord is warning of the sword of division? Men will hate you. The time will come when men who kill you will think they're rendering service to God.

46:13 Passage after passage in the book of the Revelation, be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life. To him that overcometh, to him that overcometh, the Christian life is pictured as warfare and great cosmic forces and political and social forces doing all they can to draw us away from Christ. Well, what happens is what happened to me this past week. In using Open Door's prayer guide that I keep in that threefold form right there in my devotional Bible at home, I was praying during the midweek for those dear Nigerian students.

46:54 Twelve of them murdered. Fifty of them seriously injured and put in the hospital for one reason. In a setting where there is aggressive Islamic prejudice against the Gospel, one of the students had received an honor who was a Christian. That very day, my psalm in my consecutive reading through the Psalms was Psalm 56.

47:19 Be merciful unto me, O God, for man would swallow me up. All the day long he fighting oppresses me. My enemies would swallow me up all the day long, for they are many that fight proudly against me. What time I am afraid I will put my trust in thee.

47:39 I confess sitting up there in the comfort of my study, I didn't know anybody out to get me. I know there are a few people who wouldn't shed a tear if they heard I was gone. But I don't have, I can't say my enemies would swallow me up. They that fight against me are many.

47:57 But I tell you, when I took out my prayer guide and I heard of twelve Nigerian students taken home by brutal murder, fifty others hospitalized simply because they are Christians, I entered into the meaning of this Psalm vicariously. You follow me? You get my drift? And that's true of many portions of the Word of God.

48:27 One of our members wrote me two weeks ago in terms of what he's experienced. I quote him, referring to some quotes from an author whose quotes, the quotes I'm going to mention briefly as well. He said, This has certainly been my experience. What has been my experience?

48:45 I've come closer to my Bible as I've begun to be more aware of my suffering brethren and use the prayer guide of Open Doors. This is what he says. I quote him now. Since I started to read and pray over the material from Open Doors some months ago, my reading of the Psalms in particular has been revolutionized.

49:04 How often I've had the experience of saying to myself, Well, it's the Word of God, so it must be profitable. But I must confess there isn't a whole lot in my experience that helps me to relate to such songs. See, that's the Word of God. It's true.

49:17 But I don't really enter in and feel it and understand it. Not because it's not the Word of God, but my experience is so foreign to what it reflects. Then he goes on to say, Now I'm finding such Psalms to be rich veins for material to use in prayer for my persecuted brethren around the world. So this is what it feels like to be surrounded by people who hate you and want to kill you.

49:47 This has been a tremendous help to me. That's exactly what we're talking about. I got at least one church member who gave me the fuel to support this heading before he ever knew what the heading was going to be. And I'm saying, dear brothers and sisters, if you want to know your Bible, start obeying Hebrews 13.3 in a new way. And passages will leap off the page. And you'll say, yes, Lord, that's what it feels like. David the warrior who faced eye to eye, not guided missiles from behind a computer console ten miles from the enemy, but face to face with short swords.

50:29 And they said, David has slain his tens of thousands eye to eye, hand to hand, spattering each other's blood on one another. But this man says, things got so bad, he said, what time I'm afraid I'll put my trust in you. Ain't no real fear. We're not in circumstances where most of us feel it.

50:56 But many of our brothers and sisters are and God says, remember them. Remember them. There's a Catholic author who's written a book. One of his main theses is that the Western church, that he would call the church in the northern hemisphere, in contrast to the people of God in the southern hemisphere, he says some very perceptive things.

51:20 I don't often give quotes from secular writers, even though this man would be in some form of a Christian. He writes, considering Christianity as a global reality can make us see the whole religion in a radically new perspective, which is startling and often uncomfortable. In fact, to adopt a phrase coined by the theologian Marcus Borg, it is as if we are seeing Christianity all over again for the first time. In this encounter, we are forced to see the religion not just for what it is, but what it was in its origins and what it will be in its future.

51:58 I continue to quote, when Jesus was not talking about exorcism and healing, his recorded words devoted what today seemed like an inordinate amount of attention to the issues of persecution and martyrdom. He talked about what believers should do in order to be saved from the evil and the evil of the world. He talked about what believers should do when on trial for their faith, how they should respond when expelled and condemned by their families, villages, and Jewish religious authorities. A large proportion of the Bible, both the Old and the New Testaments, addresses the sufferings of God's people in the face of evil secular authorities.

52:41 Again, I quote, millions of Christians around the world do in fact live in constant danger of persecution or forced conversion from either governments or local vigilantes. For modern Christians in Nigeria, Egypt, the Sudan, and Indonesia, it is quite conceivable that they might someday find themselves before a literal tribunal that would demand that they renounce their faith upon pain of death. Dear people, the world is broader than the silly sitcoms that make their way into American living rooms by means of the boob tube. And the Christian faith is not advanced by having hoedowns for Jesus. And as God helps us as a people more and more to obey this text, I believe we're going to find our hearts thrilled as many portions of the Word of God open up to us in a new way. Seventh, spiritual benefit that comes is this.

Benefit 7: Anticipating Judgment Day with Peace and Assurance

54:04 Obedience to Hebrews 13.3 will enable us to anticipate the day of judgment with much more peace and assurance concerning our vindication in that day. I repeat, obedience to Hebrews 13.3 will enable us to anticipate the day of judgment with much more peace and assurance concerning our vindication in that day.

54:37 Now again, let me explain myself. Lest I be misunderstood, I want to affirm in the most emphatic manner the teaching of Scripture that the only foundation for any sinner's vindication in the day of judgment is Jesus Christ Himself and Jesus Christ laid, which is Christ. Do you hear me? What Christ has done in the glory of His person, the sufficiency of His work, is the only foundation on which any sinner can be righteously vindicated in the day of judgment.

55:21 As there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, so in the day of judgment if the question is, is it Christ that died, yea rather that is risen from the dead who represents His people. If you want to be vindicated, declared righteous in the day of judgment, you've got to get to Jesus empty-handed and cast yourself upon Christ and Christ alone for acceptance with God. I don't know how to state it more plainly, more bluntly, more simply, more emphatically. In the day of judgment shall I lift up my glorious dress, midst flaming worlds the day of judgment in these arrayed. With joy shall I lift up my head, bold shall I stand in thy great day, for who ought to my charge to lay, fully self and Christ alone, is the foundation of the believer's vindication in the day of judgment. The superstructure of that vindication is the believer's works. Works done out of love to Christ,

56:50 works done by the power of Christ, works acceptable to God through the mediation of Christ. The superstructure, the Bible everywhere teaches that we'll be judged according to our what? Our deeds. We shall all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each may receive the deeds done in his body, whether good or bad, 2 Corinthians 5, 10.

57:23 John chapter 5, all that are in the grave of the gospel foundation. Our works, the superstructure of our vindication. And when we turn to our Bibles and ask the question, Lord, are there any works upon which you have placed more emphasis than others in the light of that day, the answer's clear. And I want you to look at it with me from now on.

58:06 When you look at the book of Romans chapter 4 in the start of the gospel plan, you will see that you will see the question of what it means basis I welcome you and in what it says because you see the passage is not dealing with the foundation of the sinners vindication but the super structure and what is the super structure look at it for I was hungry you gave me to eat I was thirsty you gave me to drink I was a stranger and you took me in naked and you clothed me I was sick and you visited me I was in prison and you came to me then shall the righteous answer and saying Lord when did we see you hungry or feed you a thirst or give you to drink when do we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you and the King shall answer and say to them verily I say to you in as much as you did it unto one of these my brethren

59:28 even the least you did it unto me couldn't be clearer could it in that day our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord Jesus said there will be a peculiar focus in the super structure of our vindication not the foundation the super structure in terms of the very thing we're talking about our response to Christ's brethren in special need on the surface and the goats are told verse 41 depart from me into eternal fire for I was hungry and you didn't give me to eat thirsty and you gave me no drink strange you didn't take me in sick and you visited me not naked you didn't clothe me in prison you visited me not and they say Lord when did we see you in these conditions then shall he answer them saying I say unto you in as much as you did it not unto one of these least you did it not unto me they are publicly damned for what they didn't do I tell you folks you and I are going to look forward to the day of judgment and anticipate that day Paulтакo

60:55 how else do you understand this passage it lays bare my heart spend wives texting Hebrew sense brewing for several years, and I have had to mourn and confess with shame before God how pathetically flimsy is my superstructure in this area.

61:37 And I trust that this ministry over these several weeks will bring this church, Trinity Church, to corporate mourning and confession and resolution by the grace of God, that in that day the Lord Jesus will have much to point to and say, you did remember my imprisoned ones, and you did remember my ill-treated ones. In hymn number 366, there is a beautiful expression of these things. I don't have time to quote it. I want to bring the message in this series to conclusion by speaking briefly to you, the Lord's people, and then a word to the unconnected.

Pastoral Application to Believers: What Are We To Do?

62:22 Bear with me. This key text has been expounded. I've set before you seven spiritual benefits of obedience to the Lord in the light of this text. What are we to do?

62:35 Thank God many of you are already asking that question. You're beating the door to your elders saying, Pastor, what are we going to do? Our consciences are persuaded. And I said, that's exactly what I expected of you.

62:47 That's telling someone who's learning our principles of leadership. I said, you throw the word of God out. You lay out the duty, then you back off. You don't dump a whole bunch on God's people.

62:57 When you see it's taken hold, and God's people come to you and say, Pastor, we've got to do something about this. And you say, oh, you want to do something? Well, we'll see what we can do about that. And thank God, among the many of you who have already spoken to one or more of us, I believe there are many more.

63:11 That's the passion of your heart. What are we going to do? Well, my answer is, have dealings with God in the context of confession, commitment, renewed determination. To be obedient to this text, then begin to do right now what you can do with what you have at hand.

63:29 You've got the open doors, monthly prayer list. Start using it conscientiously. You've got the monthly announcements that come focusing on a given area. The one for this past month focused on the six areas of the world that are experiencing the most intense persecution.

63:45 Take those two pieces of literature and begin to work them into the fabric of your prayer life.

63:52 Enter in. When we pray. For our persecuted brethren. At that point in the public prayer, say, Lord, if I marshal all the faculties of mind and soul at any point when Pastor so-and-so is leading in prayer, Lord, may it be when I pray for my persecuted, imprisoned, and ill-treated brethren.

64:12 And then pray for your elders and deacons as we work on proposing a comprehensive but reasonable framework to implement. We don't want you all glutted with literature from every outfit that claims to be. We don't want you all concerned for the imprisoned and suffering saints around the world. It'll be confusing.

64:29 I know. I get all the literature. All right? And we are working, and it's one of the things I want to thrash out even further in my own mind and heart to come back with a proposal to my fellow elders and then to lay before the deacons so that, God willing, within the next several months, there will be outstanding opportunities of specific projects set before you where you can take discretionary funds above your normal tithes.

64:55 And offerings and be able to say, I want this to go for this, this for this. We want to have a framework in the Sunday school where the kids can feel we're having a part in buying some of those life packs. We're going to have a part in getting Bibles for Christians, suffering saints in China. That's our concern, and please pray for us that God will give us wisdom.

65:14 We don't want this to become a top-heavy dimension. We have a lot of other biblical commands and a lot of other biblical mandates, and though we've lived with this for four weeks, this is not the beginning, middle, and end. It's the beginning. It's the beginning of our duty.

65:25 You have organizations that that is the beginning, middle, and end of their duty, and they would like you to share their extensive passion. Well, they don't have anything else to do but promote that particular thing. We've got the whole Bible to try to promote and see implemented in the life of the church. So you pray for us that God will give us wisdom as we thrash these things out, and then, especially you young men and women, and some of you come in near retirement, whatever that's supposed to be.

65:53 I don't know what that is. You pray. You pray, God, make me open to face what some of the practical implications of this may be for me. You see, you get praying for someone in need, then in long before you begin to say, is there something I can do to meet that need?

66:09 And it may be that some of you will need to radically rethink where you're going to invest your life, how you're going to invest it, how you're going to invest your so-called gold in retirement years, and have that sense of openness. You see, to me, that's the thrill, and in the right sense, the role. I don't know what God's going to do around the corner. We don't have a spreadsheet all mapped out like this.

66:35 The Lord is the Lord of this church, and by His Word and Spirit, He guides us individually and corporately. So that's my word to you, the Lord's people. Now I want to have a final word to you who are not Christians.

Evangelistic Appeal to the Unconverted

66:47 You perhaps have sat here and said, I cannot in the life of me figure out why in the world would anyone be willing like that little boy, little James Jeter? He's thrown in a raging fire. All he needed to say, yeah, I'm willing to become a Muslim, and let them take him off and force him to be circumcised. What's the big deal?

67:08 He could just say, Lord, forgive me. I told a little white lie, but I really love you. And what in the world would make a nine-year-old boy say, I'm a Christian?

67:20 Thrown in the fire.

67:23 What is causing millions of our brothers and sisters today to take privation, and all the things I've mentioned? And I've tried not to say it. I've tried not to sensationalize. I haven't gone into gory details.

67:37 What would make them do this? Well, let me answer that. And the answer is relatively simple. These people, without exception, who are willing to face privation, threats, and death itself for Jesus, they are a people who have seen their condition as hell-deserving sinners.

68:01 And the issue that has become a problem for them is that they are not willing to face sin. They are not willing to face the death and death itself. That is the important question. And the reason has become the all-important issue to them.

68:05 How can I be right with this God who's got a controversy against me as a sinner? You see, that issue has become the burning issue in every one of their minds and hearts. And furthermore, they have come to understand through the preaching of the gospel that Jesus is the Savior sent by God, who's perfectly suited to sinners in their guilt, in their helplessness, and in their bondage. They've come to the place where being right with God is the most important thing.

68:33 in life. They've come to see that Jesus is the only one by whom they can be right with God. And by the operation of the Holy Spirit upon their hearts, they have experienced the great divorce and the great death grip. You know what I mean by that? Those are just contemporary terms for repentance and faith. By the work of the Spirit they've seen, look, my sin is what has bound me. My sin is what puts me under judgment. I don't want to go on the slave and the lover of sin. And they've had a spiritual divorce from the love and commitment and practice and dominion of sin. And they've laid hold of Christ with the death grip saying, no, I choose Jesus. And if to cling to Jesus means I've got to take a little garbage on my way, welcome the garbage. Jesus is going to take me to heaven. Now folks, that's it

69:31 then. In a nutshell, that's why they're willing to be thrown into fire, have hands chopped off, watch wives raped and children killed. They see themselves as sinners with a controversy with God. They've seen that this God in love has sent His only begotten Son to live the life they should have lived and died the death they deserve to die. And they've experienced the great divorce and the great death grip. That's why. They don't need to look any further. And that's what's happened to us. That's what's happened to us. And until that happens to you, you are not ready to live and you're not prepared to die. That's reality. And if you don't face that reality and have that reality become the all-absorbing issue in your life, it will be in the day of judgment when it's too late.

70:29 You will know in the day of judgment that the greatest issue you ever confronted and should have concerned you was God's controversy with you because you're a sinner. And you're a sinner. And you will see as there is an innumerable company out of every tribe and kindred and tongue and nation, redeemed by Christ, that He was indeed all that He promised Himself to be in the gospel. Perfectly, completely, eternally redeemed multitudes will be in His presence. And then those who mocked them for the divorce and the death grip will themselves be mocked by the devil and his demons as they sink into sin. I plead with you, my unconverted friend, take seriously the only issues at the end of the day that really count. Let's pray. Our Father, we've trafficked in very sobering things this morning, but we've trafficked in very joyful things. We think of those who have been chased up to heaven by the martyr's

71:45 flame and by the persecutor's sword. Amen. We thank You, we thank You that with our Lord Jesus we may fix our eyes upon the joy that is before us and that in the strength of Christ, our Savior and intercessor, we may be given the strength that our faith fail not. We pray, Lord, that You'd help us. We sense we're treading in new ground as a church and we want Your guidance. We want to be led of the Spirit. We want to be kept from imbalance. We want to be kept from anything that would detract from Your glory, that would detract from our ultimate usefulness. But Lord, Your Word is clear. We have heard it. We've seen

72:32 it with our eyes. We are to remember those imprisoned as imprisoned with them. We're to remember those ill-treated as ourselves being in the body. Help us, Lord. Help us.

72:44 For Jesus' sake.

72:49 Amen.