CHRISTIAN SUFFERING

Our next lesson is on Christian suffering, a very practical thing
to study for the child of God as this world is still a vale of
tears. We must never forget that although God sent one Man into
this world without sin, He sent no Man into this world without
sorrow, and the sinless man was, according to Isaiah, "a man of
sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isa. 53:3). Very often
Christians have severe and fiery trials. Some are affected
bodily, others mentally, some financially, and others have direct
or indirect attacks by Satan.

Men are calling out to God, "Why? Why did I have to suffer this?"
The modern apostate, Charismatic approach toward this thing is
that you don't have to suffer anything. If you listen to the
average radio broadcast today, you will find the modern, apostate
Christian is telling other Christians that you don't have to be
poor, you are supposed to be rich; you don't have to be sick,
you're supposed to be healthy; and you are supposed to have what
you want when you want it. This is a Satanic teaching. The Bible
says, "all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution" (2 Tim. 3:12). Paul said to the Philippians, "For
unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe
on him, but also to suffer for his sake" (Phil. 1:29). The matter
doesn't end here.

When Paul speaks about trouble for the Christian, he speaks about
physical trouble and mental trouble, as well as other trouble.
Paul tells the body of Christ to "comfort the feebleminded,
support the weak" (l Thess. 5:14). But it goes much further than
this. For example, the Bible says, "Remember them...which suffer
adversity, as being yourselves also in the body" (Heb. 13:3),
talking about bodily trouble. The greatest apostle to the
Gentiles who ever lived, the apostle Paul, said in Romans 8:18,
and he said it very clearly, "For I reckon that the sufferings of
this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us." When this great apostle spoke
about suffering in Romans 8, he said, "Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? shall tribulation [he had it], or distress
[he had it], or persecution [he had it], or famine [he had it],
or nakedness [he had it], or peril [he had it], or the sword [he
had it]?" Shall these separate us? "Nay, in all these things"
(not getting around them, not getting by them)  "IN all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us"
(Rom. 8:35, 37).

Suffering is the common lot of every child of God. "For whom the
Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth," (Heb. 12:6). My Bible states clear facts.

1. You have the opportunity to believe on Jesus Christ.

2. You have the opportunity to suffer for His sake.

This suffering, of course, should never be for your own faults.
The great book on Christian suffering is
1 Peter. If you are taiking to a Christian who is going through a
fiery trial, nothing could be more comfort to him, I suppose,
than I Peter in the New Testament and Job and the Psalms in the
Old Testament.

The teaching that every Christian is to be healthy, wealthy, and
wise is a Satanic teaching of an apostate church. It is the
Laodicean balm of Gilead, which is a false balm and not from
Gilead, given to raise income and keep up with the standard of
living, which in America has gotten so high that unless man cuts
corners he can't keep up with it. So, preachers in order to keep
up with the Joneses have to develop the peculiar habit of telling
people that faith will solve all their problems so they won t
have any more problems. May I say as kindly as I know how, some
people are cuckoo. Somebody has blown out their pilot light.
Christ said that while you are in this world you are going to
have tribulation. When God called Paul, He said, "I will shew him
how great things he must suffer for my name's sake" (Acts 9:16).
If that weren't enough, you were told by the Holy Spirit in a
language you could not possibly misunderstand that Jesus Christ
was to be your example in suffering (I Peter 2:21). Why the
modern people who fake these gifts of the New Testament keep
avoiding these verses is rather hard to understand. When you pin
them right down, the hypocrites say, Well, that suffering there
is just talking about persecution. It's not talking about your
health." Some more non-Biblical nonsense. Paul was sick all his
life. When he died he had a registered physician in jail with
himÄLuke, called "the beloved physician," Colossians 4:14. Luke
is with him in 2 Timothy 4:11 right before he dies, and he left
his buddy sick at Miletum (2 Tim. 4:20).

Now, don't get mad at me just because you want to get well so bad
that you will believe a con man. I understand. If a man is really
sick and really hurting, he would almost rather do anything to
get well than stay sick. When a man is really sick and hurting,
he will almost sell his soul to get well. I understand that. God
understands that. God knows that if some of us had to go through
the trials some of you people do, we would probably faint by the
wayside. I understand that perfectly. Nobody is throwing any
rocks. What I am telling you is Paul was sick all his life (2
Tim. 4:11); that he gloried in his infirmities, his sicknesses (2
Cor. 12); at the end of his ministry when the apostolic signs
were no longer in effect he left one of his buddies at Miletum
sick (2 Tim. 4:20). Read it. Don't you get mad at me just because
you won't open your Bible. Paul told Timothy to drink a little
bit of wine for his stomach's sake and often infirmities (I Tim.
5:23). Don't get mad at me because I recommended medicine. Get
mad at God for writing those things against your theology. Read
it.
1 Timothy 5:23. Read itÄ2 Timothy 4:20. I have to repeat it for
some hardheads, who aren't going to read it anyway. They're
confirming their own ignorance.

In 1 Peter 2:21 you are told that Jesus Christ's suffering was an
example for you. Somebody said, "Well, He never was physically
sick. So, that isn't our example." Paul was your example (1 Cor.
11:1), and Paul was physically sick all his life. You say, Where
does it say that Paul was my example" Didn't you read 1 Timothy?
Didn't you read 1 Timothy 1:16 where it says, "I obtained mercy,
that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering,
for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to
life everlasting." The greatest Christian who ever lived was sick
all his life, while he was healing sick people and raising dead
people. Now, that is something to think about. Isn t it? All
right, then let's get this thing clear to start with. We believe
in healing. Any Christian does. We believe that God can heal. Any
Christian believes that. We believe God can heal when the doctor
can't. Any Christian believes that. But, we go beyond simply
believing that God is a glorified bellboy to take care of our
problems. We know from reading the New Testament that Christians
suffer all kinds of trouble, and anything can happen to a
Christian that can happen to an unsaved man in this life. Did you
hear what I said? Anything that can happen to an unsaved man can
happen to a Christian in this life. Now, some people get the idea
that when they get saved their troubles are over. To the
contrary, when some of you got saved your troubles just began.

The privilege of believing on Christ is coupled with the
privilege of suffering. Paul said in Philippians 3:10 not merely,
"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection," but
also, "and the fellowship of his sufferings."  Jesus Christ
suffered. His financial needs were not met. When He died He had
no buildings, no property, no real estate, no title deed, and He
didn't die in a hospital bed. In Bethlehem Jesus was
misunderstood, cursed, and blasphemed. In Gethsemane there was a
bitter trial. He was smitten, lashed, spit upon, cursed,
crucified, called the devil, and called Beelzebub. The sun smote
Him; the rain soaked Him; the cold chilled Him; thirst parched
His throat. He was kicked and hounded and hunted across this
earth like a renegade anarchist for three and one-half years and
died by capital punishmentÄthe death of a criminal.

"Hast thou no hidden wound on hand or foot or side? I hear the
son is mighty in the land. I hear them hail thy bright ascendant
star. Hast thou no scar? No wound, no scar, yet as the Master
shall the servant be. And pierced are the feet that follow me.
But thine are whole. Can one have followed far who has no wound,
no scar? I doubt it. I doubt it."

Our sufferings are very light in comparison with eternity. Paul
said, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,"
(2 Cor. 4:17). To some, life is meaningless, for it consists only
of turmoil, trouble, pain, suffering, and tears. But to the child
of God, turmoil, trouble, pain, and tears have a plan, for God
has a purpose in each life, and, although heaven is the place for
understanding, earth is the place for trust. We know that "all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them who
are the called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28).

Now, how does suffering come?

First, through our own mistakes and our own sins. Peter says, 
"what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye
shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for
it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God"
(I Pet. 2:20). "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal. 6:7). The
man who has committed murder can be forgiven of God, but he still
must suffer prison for his crime. I would dare say that
ninety-five percent of the troubles we have, we suffer for our
own mistakes and our own sins. The man who ruins his body with
liquor must still reap the effects of the body that has been
wrecked by sin. Whiskey will ruin your brain, and wine will ruin
your stomach, and beer will ruin your liver. We need to accept
even these punishments as from God and search our hearts fully to
repent and seek grace not to repeat these terrible things.

Sometimes we can suffer for the mistakes and sins of others. We
say, "Why did God allow him to say that terrible thing?" Well, no
trial or affliction can reach you without His permission. If you
were born blind because of syphilitic parents, you are suffering
for the mistakes of others. If you are born into a land where
there are idolators, the Lord said He will visit the iniquity of
those idolators unto the third and fourth generation of them that
hate Him (Exod. 20:5). When you put idols ahead of God, you
suffer the fate of the populations of Italy, Spain, and South and
Central America. Idolatry is a sin that God said He would visit
for four generations. Sometimes you are suffering for the
mistakes of others. Now, tell me something: is this unjust in
view of the fact that some people are suffering for your
mistakes? Do you see how people are? They are perfectly willing
to cause trouble in this world to other people, but they aren't
willing to suffer for the trouble caused by other people.

Now, if there is any unsaved, educated fellow reading, I can tell
you what your philosophy is without even talking to you. Your
philosophy is this: "I believe that a fellow ought to enjoy life
and do the best he can, and as long as he doesn't hurt anybody
else it's all right." Haven't you heard that before? That is the
talk of a deluded fool who is sowing sin, death, and hell every
day of his life. He thinks he is not hurting other people because
he has deceived himself, but other people are paying for his sins
every day:

1. He isn't leading them to Christ. That's a sin of omission.

2. He isn't getting the things he should have by prayer because
he is not in fellowship with God to get prayers answered. That is
a sin of commission and omission.

3. He is leading people away from God and Christ by his daily
example. That is damning other souls. That is a sin of commission
.

You can always tell these educated fools by the way they talk.
"Well, the way I believe, as long as you don't hurt anybody
else...." Now, listen, when you hear a man fifty or sixty years
old say that, you mark it down, if you went back in that fellow's
life in detail and checked all the letters he wrote and all the
letters he got and let all the skeletons out of his closet from
Germany, France, Italy, Africa, the Philippines, Korea, Japan,
and Vietnam you would find one of the dirtiest, most hellish,
damnable lives that an unsaved sinner ever lived. Of course you
are going to suffer for the sins of others. Others suffer for
your sins. Now, if that is not the case, we're not through yet.

It is possible to suffer through God's providential dealing.
These can be the most incomprehensible to the troubled soul than
you can imagine, and he can only call out, "Why?" When Jesus
Christ suffered on Calvary's cross He suffered for your sins, but
He had no right to suffer for your sins and no reason to suffer
for your sins, because He was sinless. God does not promise to
give us the reason for all His actions. Christ cries, "My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?" I am sure that cry has gone up
from many a torture chamber, many a prison camp, many a death
ward in a hospital, many a death cell in a prison. But, even in
the deepest afflictions the born again child of God can rest
assured that he has a loving, heavenly Father who is going to
work all things together for his good. John the Baptist was
mightily used but later was imprisoned. Do you know what he was
supposed to do while he was in prison? Go right on trusting God
like he did before he got there. Don't you know when John was put
in jail and Paul was in jail all the leading, orthodox,
fundamental scholars of the day said, "God has cast him on the
shelf and put him out of the ministry because he was a
hell-raiser and a trouble maker. Now you see what God has done to
him. Let that be a lesson to you."

Let me tell you something. The old whitewashed Pharisees didn't
run out of whitewash in the first century. They are with us
today.

Now, why do sufferings come?

Well, first of all, as a result of sin. Sin comes into the world
in Romans 5 and Genesis 1 and stays with us. Jesus told a fellow
whom He healed, "sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee"
(John 5:14). Sickness is often a result of sin. That man had been
sick for thirty-eight years. We are not saying that all sickness
is because of sin, but Miriam became as white as a leper (Num.
12:10) for murmuring against Moses. Asa was diseased in the feet
because he refused to trust God for his healing (2 Chron. 16:12).
So, sometimes sickness is the result of sin.

Then, sometimes sickness is the work of God, that God might be
glorified and made manifest through healing, as in the case of
John 9:2-3 where the disciples wanted to know who had sinned, the
man or his parents, that he was born blind. But Jesus gave the
startling answer, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents:
but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." This
happened so Jesus could heal him as a testimony . So, when other
people are sick, don't cruelly judge them and say, "Well, what
sin has he committed this time?"

The Lord may make a Christian sick for any number of reasons. For
example, God can make a Christian sick to produce holiness. If
God wants to make you more holy, more godly and more like
Himself, it will take their fire of suffering to do it, for he
that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, and God
chastens us that we might be partakers of His holiness. That isn
t all.

Suffering is for our profit. Suffering is for our good. After
all, what is the difference between an oyster without a pearl and
an oyster with a pearl? Why, it is suffering. Suffering produces
the pearl. It is the result of the secretion of an infected or
diseased organism inside the oyster. What is the difference
between a diamond and a piece of coal? Pressure. So, when you
pray for God to heal you every time and pray for money all the
time and get it all the time, there is one thing for certain. You
are not being turned into anything worth anything. It is pressure
and suffering and tribulation that produce the diamond and the
pearl and the worthwhile Christian. "Yea, and all that will live
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Tim. 3:12).
Suffering is one of God's choicest fertilizers to increase the
harvest.

Do you know why some saved people suffer? I'm not talking about
unsaved people; we'll get to them in a minute. Do you know why
saved people suffer? To make them heavenly minded. There is a
commandment in Colossians 3:1-3 that isn't obeyed, as far as I
know, by one Charismatic I have ever heard anywhere in the world.
In Colossians 3:1-3 you were not told to love gifts, you were not
told to love your ministry, you were not told to love your
experience, you were not told to share your experience, you were
not told to get funds for your radio program. You were told to 
"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth."
God will take many a dedicated, consecrated, Spirit-filled
Christian and put the lash to him until his affections are in the
right place.

I wouldn t be a big enough fool to think that all sickness is
because of lack of faith. I am just not that big a fool. The man
who had enough faith to heal people with pieces of apron and
handkerchiefs, Paul, didn't have enough faith to get out of jail
in 2 Timothy 4. The man who had enough faith to raise Eutychus
from the dead after he fell out of the loft didn't have enough
faith to heal Timothy without medicine. You Christians who are
always worrying about the nice, polite, sweet way to say a thing
and choice sound words, don't you tell us all sickness is due to
sin, and don t you tell us that all sickness is due to lack of
faith. You go kid those suckers like yourself with that stuff.
There is one born every minute according to P.T. Barnum. The
greatest Christian who ever lived was sick all his life and had a
physician in jail with him when he died.

Do you know what Christ said? I'll tell you what Jesus Christ
said. He didn't just say, "According to your faith so be it unto
you." He said, "They that be whole need not a physician, but they
that are sick" (Matt. 9:12). Why don't people quote all of their
Bible instead of just part of it? Jesus said, "They that be whole
need not a physician, but they that are sick." You surely read
that in the Bible, didn't you? How could you have possibly missed
that one? You say, "Where are you quoting from?" I'm quoting from
Matthew. In the book of Matthew when that bunch came around,
Jesus Christ said, "I am not come to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance" (Matt. 9:13), and in Matthew 9:12 Jesus
said that sick people need a physician, and He was not referring
to Himself in the passage. You say, "How do you know that?"
Because Luke, a medical doctor, is called the "beloved physician"
by the Holy Spirit. Of course, you know where that verse is,
don't you? Colossians 4:14. Do you mean to tell me the Holy
Spirit would call a man a beloved man if he was in a devil's
profession?

The truth is that all sickness is not from the devil; the truth
is that not all sickness is due to lack of faith; the truth of
the matter is that all sickness is not because of sin; and the
truth is that God will use sickness in the life of a Christian to
make him heavenly minded, to help him sympathize with others, to
let him become partaker of Christ's holiness, to have power in
his life and to prove that God is all he needs. He said to Paul, 
"My grace is sufficient for thee." You don't need the healing.
Three times Paul asked God to take the thorn out of his flesh (2
Cor. 12), and He said that thorn had to do with bodily, physical
sickness: "infirmities." You say, "Where do you get that from?"
From the passage. You say, "What does the passage say?" Do you
mean to tell me you don't know? Some of you spend all your life
being sick and trying to get healed and don't even know that
Paul's bodily sickness was a bodily infirmity (2 Cor. 12:9-10).
If you didn't get it, read
2 Corinthians 12:9-10, where infirmities are not reproaches,
infirmities are not necessities, infirmities are not
persecutions, and infirmities are not distresses.

Infirmities are infirmities, as infirm, or, as in the Army,
"infirmary." Is that clear?

The purpose for suffering then for the Christian is not merely
punitive. It is designed to bring fruit for God, the fruit of the
Holy Spirit. "All things work together for good to them that love
God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. "

Our response to suffering: we may despise it, but we shouldn't.
We may rebel against it instead of submitting, but this attitude
will only lead to hardness. On the other hand, although we should
not despise it and rebel against it, we should not faint under
it. We shouldn't quit. We need not, for the Lord said, "My grace
is sufficient for thee." God will give the Christian grace to
bear the thorn, the trial, the suffering. If you merely bear it,
that is victory, but that's low victory. But if you happily yield
to the will of God, embrace the will of God and thank God for
your progress, this is the highest form of victory; this is
claiming the promise that "we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us," and "thanks be unto God, which always causeth
us to triumph in Christ."

Two of my best friends are Christians who are in wheelchairs.
They have been in wheelchairs for twenty years. They will die in
wheelchairs, not because I don't have faith or you don't have
faith. They will live in wheelchairs and die in wheelchairs, and
God will give them grace and victory in those wheelchairs, as
they "come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain
mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:16). Two
of my best friends are born-again, saved people who have been
flat on their backs in beds; one of them for thirty years, and
one of them for ten years. They are as fine, powerful,
Spirit-filled, sweet, thankful, grateful, godly, dedicated
Christians as any professional healer in the business. And, if I
may add, at least five hundred percent more godly than most of
them.

I will say it again. The greatest, godliest, Spirit-filled man
who ever lived in the New Testament, the apostle Paul, had fleshy
infirmity all the days of his life which was never healed in
answer to any prayer. He was not backslidden; he was not
unfaithful; he was not ungrateful; he was not unthankful; he was
not suffering for someone else's sins; and he wasn't suffering
for his own sins. I mean, God Almighty knows, for every Christian
Paul whipped he got a whip mark back. He paid for his physical
body before he was saved. Before he was saved Paul followed his
conscience and was blameless as touching the law (Phil. 3), but
he was sick all his life and he had to carry Luke with him all
his life and died with Luke standing by him, ministering to his
physical disabilities .

Now, quit throwing away your money and your livelihood on men
trying to convince you that the reason you are not healed is your
lack of faith, when it may be (I didn t say for certain), it may
be (don't misquote me), it may be that the trial and tribulation
and troubles God has given you to bear He intends you to bear as
a testimony to His grace and power and strength, and testimony to
the fact that a Christian has grace to put up with things that an
unsaved man could not get through. This will bring honor and
glory to God, and this, of course, may be the purpose in the
particular suffering you are undergoing. May God give you grace.
I love you. I sympathize with you. I feel for you. If I were with
you I might weep over you. But don't change the counsel of the
word of God for any reason. Believe God; obey God; submit to God;
love God; and may God give you grace to be a glorious testimony
for Him.