STU: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 himLuke, 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 it2 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
punishmentthe 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.
