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this morning we'll be looking at just one verse Verse 18 but I'm going to read from verse 16 to uh put it in context I'd like to ask Josiah if you'd pray for the ministry of the word this morning
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Romans 8 beginning in verse 16 the spirit himself Bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children heires also Heirs of God
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and fellow heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him for I consider that the sufferings of this
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present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us let us pray dear heavenly father we thank you so much that you've
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allow us to gather together today and to be encouraged by one another and to be lifted up by the teaching and preaching of your word we ask that you please just bless the word this morning and that we might go out into the world this week
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and honor you all that you do we ask this in Jesus name amen over the past few weeks as we've followed Paul through this Treatise and
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the climax of The Treatise of Romans here in chapter 8 we have learned that through the spirit we are the children of God we have Assurance by the testimony of the Holy Spirit within us
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that we are the children of God we found we find that we are not just coming to Jesus as a savior but by the spirit
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of the flesh it's the way that we've also learned can only lead to one place and that is death it's the way of this world and it seeks to appropriate the
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consummation of the ages into this present time during which Paul says we suffer but there's no word of suffering
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in the Prosperity Gospel God does not want us to suffer a father a loving father would not want his children to suffer unless through suffering they
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would come out the other side better for it unless through suffering they would find that that is a path that leads to Glory whereas the path that avoids
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suffering the path that seeks fleshly Indulgence prosperity and wellness in this life leads only to death there's a tremendous
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amount of deception being spewed forth from pulpits today and sadly every Sunday understanding what Paul means
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back in chapter 7 when he says Wretched Man that I am who will set me free from the body of this death that phrase right there is a fundamental anthropology for
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all believers and it explains so much of what Paul is then going going to teach us concerning the sufferings of this present time but understanding that
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phrase the body of this death we can better understand that most popular of Psalms Psalm Psalms Psalm 23 The Shepherd's Psalm the psalm that
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that supposedly gives us comfort as we consider how God guides our ways but there's one verse that perhaps doesn't give everybody give everybody Comfort Perhaps it is best ignor
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by some even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort
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me many of us read that is you know when I go through hard times God's there for me that is not what the verse means the though I walk is not sometimes if I walk
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it's all the time I'm walking through the Valley of the shadow of death because frankly there is no better definition of life in this world than
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that phrase the Valley of the shadow of death so David is not saying when I have rough times you know when King Saul's giving me a hard time you are my guide
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you are my comforter no every day of this life which we all know unless the Lord returns will be ended by Death we walk
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through the valley of the shadow of death and where does that death reside for each one of us in the body of this death in the weakness of the Flesh in
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the insufficiency of the Mind in the feebleness of the heart but also the infirmities of the body these are
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all incumbent upon walking through the valley of the she shadow of death there's no better day on the calendar to rejoice in the one who
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conquered death to consider the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave as the first fruits from the dead the one thing that that we all have
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in common the Roman order juvenile said the grave is the measure of every man because every man must die but one man
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who died conquered death and rose again and we are in him now to rise from baptism to walk in newness of life but
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that new walk is still in the old valley and that's what Paul's talking about here when he says if we by the spirit put to death the Deeds of the
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body we shall live He's acknowledging that I am no longer under sin I am no longer under law I have conquered death through Christ
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through Christ yet I still reside in the body of this death and I still walk through the valley of the shadow of
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death only the unbeliever can live his best life now those types of sermons those types of books should be should be marketed to unbelievers atheists people who flat
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deny the existence of God and of judgment because they can live their best life now Paul actually wrote in in one verse what that Infamous Pastor has
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put into an entire book in 1 Corinthians 15 said if Christ be not raised then let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die in
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the Greek literally it's let us live our best life now I mean that's basically what Paul said conditioned on the tomb still having a body in it
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but Christ is raised and our best Life Is Yet To Come and when you hear people and you he on Instagram these influencers telling us
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how we can have so much now you can think yeah that's all you're going to get that's all you're going to have your reward will be given to you in full and
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you will exchange 70 or 80 years if by strength of living your best life now to an eternity of damnation where the worm Never Dies and
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the fire is never quenched is that what we want well Paul certainly didn't want it when he says for I consider that the
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sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be re reveal to us he's not again talking as I said with Psalm 23 he's not talking about ifs
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suffering he's not talking about the the occasional times that we might be persecuted or ridiculed for our faith rejected because we are Christians or
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maligned because of our faith he's not talking about if he's talking about when because the suffering of which he speaks goes hand inand with the times in
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which we live he says the sufferings of this present this present time they are conditioned by the times in which we live they they belong to the
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the Valley of the shadow of death they inhere to the body of this
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death but they're not without purpose in God's plan and I think that's very important as we go through Romans 8 Paul is unfolding in a Majestic Way the purposes of
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purposes of suffering it is not that our father wants us to suffer it's that because of who we are now in Christ suffering is in this world is
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inevitable it belongs to the environment in which we must live the valley through which we must walk but listen to what Paul says in
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first 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians excuse me chapter 4 he says for momentary light Affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of Glory far beyond all
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comparison there's a purpose to this men have seen that suffering is an integral component of religion throughout history throughout all the
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various different religions there are elements of self-denial self-abuse self-abasement there is elements in which we think in our minds that somehow in order to atone for our sins we must
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suffer and beyond that in order to increased devotion and Holiness we must deny ourselves we must suffer suffering is then made to be a cause of
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sanctification is not popular in our time in the 21st century evangelicalism doesn't like to even speak about Sin much less suffering and I use the term
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evangelicalism very evangelicalism very Loosely self-denial self-abuse and even martyrdom have always been however Central to True devotion within religion
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consider for instance the biblical example of fasting denying ourselves the pleasures of of food for the purposes of Devotion to God so there's an element in
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which suffering and self-denial is integral to all religious thought no matter how we want to deny it today and we think that that God is simply a
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vending machine into which we put in enough faith and out comes whatever we want there are still those who understand now that's not what it's all about there are still those who will
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abandon Evangelical protestantism and and join Roman Catholicism even to the point of entering a monastery because that that feeling of self-abasement self-abuse self-denial is
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then at at the heart of my devotion but is this suffering of which Paul speaks here in verse 18 is it purely physical does it consist solely of being
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ill treated abused or or maybe even killed because if that's what this suffering is then we can as Believers we can indeed bring it upon
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ourselves just as we read Islamic fundamentalism are looking for Glory and Paradise by blowing themselves up and taking hundreds if not thousands of infidels with them there have been times
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within Christianity where people have sought out martyrdom they have put themselves out there to be persecuted and to be killed
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even today we invite rejection we invite ridicule by our obnoxious behavior to the World by our offensive and militant
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attitudes toward the world is that what it's all about that I'm doing this for Jesus I'm a jerk for Jesus and therefore when I'm suffering even though I'm a gossip I'm a
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malignant cancer on my neighborhood I'm doing it for Jesus and therefore I'm suffering no that this is not self-inflicted and it is
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not justifiably the result of our own bad behavior Peter says this he says if you suffer suffer for doing right he say don't ever suffer for doing
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wrong what he says what distinction is there in that if you suffer for doing wrong well many of our attitudes toward the world are frankly wrong they are
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unloving they are ungracious and they are nothing more than us trying to seek our own sanctification through our own suffering that we bring upon
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ourselves Paul writes in Colossians he says he says these are matters which have to be sure the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion literally will
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worship and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body but listen they are of no value against
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fleshly Indulgence notice how he uses the terms body and flesh in Colossians as he has here in Romans we are in the body of this death but it is only by the spirit
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that we can put to death the Deeds of the body Colossians saying all these other things that we people do in religion and people have done in Christianity they have the appearance to be sure of wisdom
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in will worship but they're powerless against fleshly Indulgence they're powerless against what one really desires you can deny
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yourself what you desire but you still desire it they are powerless against what one thinks and they are actually only
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powerful toward one result and that is pride look how holy I am which we have read goes before a fall
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so when we talk about sufferings we're not talking about purely physical means of persecution and even martyrdom because these things really do
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not constitute putting to death the Deeds of the body by the spirit even the ultimate physical suffering does not account for anything
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anything more than the revelation of the God's Providence that we should die for faith many belie many immature
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Believers have been killed for their faith in Jesus Christ martyrdom has never simply taken the most mature martyrdom Al often is a net that
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captures hundreds more who are led to their death though they may have only accepted the Lord the day before martyrdom has often been held up
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especially within Roman Catholicism as the ultimate evidence of a Sanctified life now it's just evidence of God's Providence that that was the day upon
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which God had ordained that his child should die but it's no statement upon the sanctity of that child whether good or bad but only that that was the day appointed for them that was the end of
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the days that he had appointed for them before there was yet one you see suffering in and by the world is inevit for the believer Jesus told us as much
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he said in the world you will have tribulation you will have tribulation but it's almost as though that that phrase and I'm going to finish it in a moment that phrase is an introduction to
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what Paul is about to tell us in Romans 8 because Jesus goes on to say but take courage for I have overcome literally I have conquered the
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world a little bit later we we're going to get to that verse that we all kind of know that we are more than conquerors through him Paul is is expanding on what Jesus
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told us and he says uh in his letter to Timothy says indeed all who desire to live Godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted again we read that word and
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we think oh that must be we'll be thrown to the Lions or we will be uh beaten and and told to deny our faith and then we will be martyred and frankly that doesn't really happen that much in World
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in our Western world anymore it does still in the world indeed but not in our culture in our culture we are ridiculed we are marginalized we are laughed at we are
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made to exit the public forum that's the persecution that we we are to endure but how well are we enduring it because all of these different forms
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of the of the rejection of Jesus Christ in us are all of the same nature so it doesn't really matter whether we are martyred or whether we are laughed
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at because the key element between all of them is its association with Jesus himself Paul gives us one of his many
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little mini biographies in Philippians chapter 3 where he outlines all of the accomplishments that he had attained to within the Jewish world and he was at the top of his
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class and yet he says that all of of that I count as Refuge dung he says that I may know him and the
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power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering well here in Romans 8 and 6-8 he has talked about the power of his resurrection by which we walk in newness
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of life and now he's talking about the fellowship of his sufferings I mentioned last week that the very cry that the spirit motivates within us ABA father is
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Christ's cry in Gethsemane and I think that should direct us to the nature of the suffering of which Paul speaks all those other
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sufferings may come they are in The Sovereign will of God whether we should live our life peacefully for 80 years or whether we should be dragged out of this church thrown into prison and
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martyred and we are always afraid of those things those things and As Americans who can vote we're constantly saying that if this man or that man is elected president then there will be persecutions and Christians
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Bibles will be burned churches will be ransacked and Christian men women and children will be martyred you know that is exactly what the Press
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the Press said would said would happen if Thomas Jefferson were elected in 1800 things haven't changed by the way he was elected in 1800 and again in
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1804 and churches weren't ransacked they weren't burned and Christians were not martyred okay there's a lot of Hysteria this year happened to be election year
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you know that we're going to lose all our rights and our Privileges and our very Christianity if we don't vote one way if we vote another way and that has even been reinforced in the last couple weeks
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because we all got a new Bible published so run out and get that new Bible kind of gets me a little angry how it keeps coming back to the same thing and that's
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we're just afraid to be persecuted and we actually think that Congress or the White House is going to stand in the way of persecution we actually lean upon that
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broken re of man year after year and election cycle after election cycle and I've been privileged to live through quite a few and it's always the same
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litany you got to vote this way or we're going to lose our religious rights that's all in the hands of God and frankly that has nothing to do with the
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sufferings of this present time I've said this before living as we have in the United States of States of America unique among all nations
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throughout history in terms of religious diversity and diversity and freedom When We complain against what we
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persecution how will we Face the Face the martyrs of the Roman Coliseum how will we Face the martyrs of the Marian persecution in England how
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will we Face the millions of Armenians slaughtered by the Turks how will we face those brothers and sisters throughout the ages who have suffered
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school how do they compare they compare in one way none of them actually account for the sufferings of which Paul's te teaching here or speaking of the loss of property the
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loss of life the loss of the right to pray in a public school are all the nature of this world but what Paul's talking about here
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is a whole lot deeper than that and it doesn't matter who we are when we've lived if we are in Christ then we will suffer this
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suffering this persecution of which he speaks the key point then is its association with Jesus as he talks about um himself in Philippians 3 I want
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to point out is what he's saying is what all what matters not all of these other things but what matters is that I may know him and in knowing him he divides that
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into those two aspects the power of his resurrection which now is at work in every believer to enable us to endure the
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fellowship of his sufferings that is what it means to know Christ not to live your best life now but to know the fellowship of his
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sufferings if we're going to know the fellowship of his suffering ings we ought to know what those sufferings are we're not dealing with opposition to the world but obedience to Jesus Christ
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what Paul calls The Obedience of Faith Believers are not instructed in scripture to be militant combative or
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obnoxious Paul writes in Romans do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil by good we would do well to consistently apply that ad
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in our political thinking the ends do not justify the means fear of what might happen if one
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path is taken does not excuse us from taking the path of truth no matter what happens as a result that is in God's
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hands we must be faithful to what is true what is revealed in God's word we must act accordingly which in our our day and age and in our country means we
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must vote accordingly according to the truth as it is in Jesus Christ and let me say we must vote that
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way or not vote both are a decision that the believer is challenged with in this present time the life we live in the
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flesh in the body of this death the life that we live as we continue to walk through the valley of the shadow of death we live and walk by faith in the Son of God and therein lies our
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suffering it is not in the vagari is of the reaction of the world or our families or our neighbors to us it is
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integral to our knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings when Paul speaks in Philippians 3 of all that he
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had attained I want to point out that he makes another comparison just like he did here in verse 14 or Verse 18 He says they are not worthy to be
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compared and so in Philippians 3 he says all that he had accumulated in his lifetime all of the learning all of the respect all of the honor that he had
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accured to himself as a righteous pharisaic Jew he considered to be
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dung manure okay he considered it all to be as worthless as manure compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ you
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see his Focus was never on the result of his knowing in this life he says I've been crucified with Christ I no longer
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live elsewhere he says it does not matter to me whether I live or die in fact to die would be better but to live means further labor to him life and
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death were in the hands of God and the treatment that he would receive whether they would receive the Gospel that he planted or whether they would reject it was all in the hands of God he would
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rejoice in those who received the word implanted and he would shake off the dust from his sandals for those who did not and he walked through the valley of the shadow of death never looking to the
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Shadows never even looking to the mountains but only looking ahead to the goal that was set before him just as his Lord walked to the goal set before him
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and endured the cross so the fellowship of of the sufferings of Christ is not going to the Cross none of us can do that but it's living as a righteous man
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in an unrighteous world and it is proclaiming the truth when the world world says to us what is truth that that is suffering and that is
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the suffering of which Paul speaks here so Paul speaks of the way that is truly valuable that is of knowing Christ and it's also something that increases in
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value the more we know the more we know of Jesus Christ the more valuable that became becomes it is truly that precious Pearl that we go
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and sell all that we have so that we might buy the field and own that Pearl but that Pearl is not static it is dynamic and throughout our lives as we
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walk through the valley of the shadow of death the light of the end of the valley which is Jesus Christ shines brighter and brighter as the psalmist says until
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the Noonday Sun that is what our righteousness will become as we walk that path but our eyes are fixed entirely on Jesus
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Christ the nature of things knowing Christ results in knowing more and more of the wretches wretchedness of all that is outside of Christ and now we're
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getting to the Crux of it he's going to really expand it beautifully throughout the rest of this chapter but we think suffering comes from outside now suffering comes inside
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suffering comes from inside there's a lot that goes on in the world and and I think you've got to admit this you can read of tragedy in the world and you do not suffer for it it does doesn't really impact
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you the same day my father went into the hospital for the last time there was a tsunami in Myanmar 250,000 people
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250,000 people died in a few moments and I had to I have to confess that that did not impact me as much as the death of my father Stalin said one man's death is a
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tragedy a million is a statistic well frankly hate to say this he was right we we we don't suffer and often what we think we're suffering from for our faith if we look
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deeply we realize no that's probably because I was I was kind of a jerk in that situation you know I I really brought that on myself now I'm not saying we don't suffer from outside but the suffering
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that Paul is speaking of here the suffering that is The Fellowship of the suffering of Christ is inside and that's what he's dealing with my physical body this flesh and blood
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that Paul said says in 1 Corinthians 15 cannot inherit the Kingdom this this body must be exchanged and while in the in the
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meantime before it is exchanged it is a burden often it it gets in the way but it also has desires that are unrighteous that we
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wish to wish to fulfill and and as your mind may think to the more socially illegitimate desires you know I'm just thinking of
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rightous he knew what was right and he saw all around him nothing but wickedness we see that now in the churches and I often think of of a line in the Horatio horn blowers uh blower
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series when Captain PW says I despair I truly do when I listen to sermons even within evangelicalism and I see on the one hand
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nothing but lenti justness nothing but compromise but also on the other hand nothing but doctrinal Purity and pmic nothing but but angry men who are upset
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that Believers don't believe in supralapsarianism can can you imagine that what is the state of a church that is that is suaps Arian you think I don't
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know I'd like a sub for lunch um this kind of stuff is going on within reformed circles like you know you're your your tire is not touching the road and
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road and that is cause for suffering the Hopeless estate of of humanity you know is we we look at War you know Jesus says there will be wars
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and rumors of wars and we're supposed to just say oh well whatever no the world is going to hell and it doesn't even have a hand basket
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okay it's just hurling down the road to destruction every generation and Believers see this and that is suffering but even
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but even creation even creation even nature is full of suffering our pets die the animals that we see in the
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wilderness are red in tooth and nail God's creation is not what it was supposed to supposed to be you know I I frankly do do not like
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the National Geographic videos of this animal killing that animal I'm I'm a little soft in the head I guess in that regard no soft in the heart isn't that
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better that's death it's it's death and you know while I'm not to the point where I won't SWAT a fly I will or a spider yes I mean there's death in the
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world death in creation and this is where Paul's heading because what he's saying in this suffer this suffering is that knowing Christ lifts our eyes and
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our minds and our hearts to the promise of glory and that Glory means a restitution of all that we see around us that is that is imperfect that is not what it's supposed
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to be from our own bodies and souls and Minds to the creation in which we live nothing but imperfection and so we either look at that and we
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despair or we look to Christ we look to the inauguration of his kingdom because of his resurrection we look look to the Advent of a new Heaven and a new Earth
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in which righteousness dwells and we see ourselves as Paul did as New Creations within this new creation all things have passed away behold everything is
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new and we do this in the midst of this present time we do this in the midst of the Valley of the shadow of death nothing in the old age is right
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and those who try to make it right are doing nothing but trying In the Flesh to do what was begot in the spirit and within us nothing in this
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world as I said is right but also Christ is not yet returned to redeem this world and to make it right and so the result and this is where we're heading a word
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that Paul uses three times in the next few passages few passages groaning this is it this is The Fellowship of the sufferings of Jesus
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that Jesus who stood over and looked at Jerusalem and said Jerusalem Jerusalem I would take you under my wings as a hen her chicks and you would not have
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me that's groaning groaning in Gethsemane so that sweat as if drops of blood fell from his body let this cup pass from me yet not my will but thine
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be done groaning and Paul is going to speak of groaning three times the whole Creation in verse 22 for we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the Pains of child
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birth together until now Believers in verse 23 and not only this but also we ourselves having the first fruits of the spirits even we ourselves grown within
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ourselves eagerly for our adoption as Sons the Redemption of our body there's the suffering and then he adds one more amazing the spirit
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himself in verse 26 and in the same way the spirit also helps our weaknesses for we do not know how to pray as we should but the spirit himself intercedes for us
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with what groanings too deep for Words the more and more that we know Christ and the power of his
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resurrection we know the vast Chasm that exists between what we see with our eyes both within ourselves and within creation and what will be at the
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revelation of the sons of God at the perusia of Jesus Christ at the Advent of the new Heaven and the new Earth there will be
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glory the amazing Eternal weight of Glory is what draws us through the valley of the shadow of
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death so the suffering is unavoidable well it is avoidable I don't know that it's avoidable for one who is truly regenerate I don't know I'll leave that up to up to God but it is avoidable we can fix our eyes on this
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world and the troubles that we face in this world and trying to deal with them as best we can because that's manly we can ignore what God has
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promised to do both in us and in this creation and we can think well you know what I'm not going to hell when I die and that's good enough for me in that way we can avoid the
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sufferings of this world and replace them with just the frustrations and the despair of failure read Ecclesiastes in your spare time but to increasingly know
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Christ is to increasingly feel the despair of this age and it is often to be persecuted for bringing that up in the public
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forum but Paul's solution was not to live your best life now rather to fix our eyes above where Christ is seated at the right hand of
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God and Paul writes for you have died and your life is hidden in Christ in God when Christ who is our life is revealed then you also will be revealed with him
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in glory and as Paul says in verse 18 there's nothing to be compared to that let us pray father we do ask that you would fix our
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eyes on eyes on Jesus and that you would enable us to walk through the valley of the shadow of death your word is our rod and our staff it it leads us through but Jesus Christ
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is the one who has conquered death and even especially on this day let us let us consider the incredible hope that exists
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for those of us who believe and let us not look to any human process whether in the church or in government to bring about the Utopia of
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the new Earth knowing that Christ has already done that work and is doing that work within his people we pray father that we might be living stones fitted together into a
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holy habitation a temple a true Tabernacle in which the name of the Lord dwells For Your Glory and for the exaltation of Jesus Christ we ask in his
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name amen please rise for the benediction this morning from Romans 15 now may the god of Hope fill you with all joy and peace
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in believing that you may abound in Hope by the power of the holy spirit amen
