The Intolerance Of Tolerance, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. The way we suffer has so much to do with the effectiveness of our testimony.

So we're living in a time right now in America where the whole country, everyone trying to cope with what we call these really difficult circumstances. But what if we weren't? What if we weren't right?

What if we weren't complete? What if the people who knew us said they're always joyful? They're just always joyful. They're total peace here.

They really don't care. They're at complete peace in the midst of all this turmoil that we keep saying that we have. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Persecution and suffering shapes your character. God says I can use this to make your character better. Now I know what you think. You think like most American Christians.

I like prosperity better. Just make my life as healthy and prosperous as possible and every day without any bumps and then I'll be good. And God would say and you won't. John Ortberg said this. He said God isn't at work producing the circumstances I want. God is at work in bad circumstances to produce the me he wants.

That's what happens. It shapes your character when we're persecuted for all of us. Now back to Philippians 1 again, right where we were, back to that same chapter, Philippians 1. The second thing that suffering and persecution brings us, verse 12. Paul says now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel. So that my imprisonment is the cause of Christ become well known throughout the whole Praetorium garden to everyone else.

And that most of the brethren trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment have far more courage to speak the Word of God without fear. So Paul says, look, I want you to know something. Now they all know where is Paul? He's under arrest. He's being guarded under house arrest in Rome by the Praetorium guard.

At this stage, he has no idea if he's going to live or die. And he says, yeah, this is great. This is really good because he said, I can produce the gospel. And we realized from the rest of the scripture that apparently some of the Praetorium guard even became Christians because of Paul being in prison.

But he said there's more to it than that. He said in verse 14, and that most of the brethren trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment have far more courage now to speak the Word of God without fear. In other words, the persecution and suffering I'm experiencing reveals my courage and grows other people's courage. In other words, when our culture persecutes us, the best of us, hopefully the most mature of us, handle it with real joy like the early apostles. That will encourage all the rest of us to have the courage that we need.

So it not only shapes our character, but it reveals and grows our courage. Now go with me to 2 Timothy chapter 3. One verse, verse 12. I can remember I preached this verse, one of the first I ever preached here at the church way back when there were dinosaurs here. That's when I preached this sermon. And I said when I looked at this verse, I know none of you have a refrigerator magnet with this on it. And I can remember doing that. So one of the ladies in the church took that up as a challenge and she took calligraphy up and she wrote the verse out for me and we still have the verse.

She wanted me to know that she thought about it enough. But listen to this verse. He says, and it's interesting to me, he says, verse 12, indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. How many of you want to live godly in Christ Jesus?

You see? Well, yeah, you will be persecuted. You might be persecuted by your family. You might be persecuted by your friends. You'll be persecuted wherever you're employed. You can certainly be persecuted by your neighbors and you can be persecuted by your country. If you want to live godly, you will be persecuted. Now, there's a way to avoid that, isn't there?

There is. A lot of Christians choose this. I'm not going to live godly. I'll live just like they do. I'll be nice and say, God bless you to some people. But out there, I'm going to be just like them.

Then they won't know and they won't bother me. But you'll never be godly. Everyone who wants to be godly is going to be persecuted.

A.W. Tozer said, to be right with man, excuse me, to be right with God has often meant that you're in trouble with men. He's right.

That's the way it is. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, if you are suffering as a Christian and because you are a Christian, it is one of the surest proofs you can ever have of the fact that you're a child of God. So the point is, suffering goes along with being a child of God. Somehow, we think, no, that can't be right.

That really can't be the case. I don't really want to suffer. But believers have suffered since the time of Christ everywhere in the world. They're suffering all over the world right now. It's amazing that most Christians don't realize how many Christians have been martyred in the current world. And yet, we're all upset because our culture is post-Christian.

And because it's post-Christian, it has completely different values than what we have. But suffering persecution shapes our character. It reveals and grows our courage. It proves our godliness. And this one that's very important, go with me to Acts chapter 16, the book of Acts chapter 16.

And this is a great illustration of how we should handle this. Verse 22, it says, the crowd rose up together against them. And you'll see in a moment who they are. He said, the crowd rose up together against them. And the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods.

Now, this is Paul and Silas. They're getting beaten with rods. Now, please understand, that's not a little tap on the behind. Beaten with rods almost always ends up with a lot of broken bones. These are rods that are heavy, and you're really beaten with them. So he says, we order them to be beaten with rods. And they struck them with many blows. They threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely. And he, having received such a command, he threw them in the innermost prison and fastened their feet in stocks. OK, would you call that, if it was for you, a good day? Would that be a good day to you, beaten with rods, put in the innermost prison?

And then, your feet go in stocks. How would you react? I'm afraid a lot of us would do what? Wine, oh, where's God, how could this possibly happen to me?

Let's see how they react. But about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God. Is that the context that you sing hymns of praise? You've just been beaten with rods, putting it in a prison, feet in stocks. Let's sing and praise the Lord.

What is that? Oh, that, that's joy. That's joy. It says the prisoners were listening to them. I bet they were. What would you do if you saw two men coming into prison, they were both beaten badly with rods, and then you put them in a special cell in the middle of the prison and they put their feet in stocks? What's your first thought? Oh, those poor guys. I don't know what they did, but look how bad that is. And then all of a sudden you see them or hear them singing praise songs. What would you wonder? Oh, there must be something wrong with them. Why do they, what?

Yeah, they're singing. Suddenly there came a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened. When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors were opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

By the way, if they did escape, it's a capital offense to the guard. So he said, I'll just kill myself. And he must have said something because Paul cried out with a loud voice said, do not harm yourself. Now watch, we're all here. Not just Paul and Simon, we're all here.

Don't harm yourself. Now the point for a lot of people in prison is for the guards that if the doors are open, most of the time where do people go? Out, right? If I can get out, I'm going out. So he's ready to do what he thinks is the only thing he can do and Paul says, don't worry about it, we're here.

Now imagine what's going on in his head. He called for lights, he rushed in trembling in fear and he fell down in front of Paul and Silas. And after he brought them out, he said, sirs, what must I do to be saved?

Wow. What must I do to be saved? You're in a completely hopeless, difficult situation. Your body is probably wracked with pain and you're singing joyfully praises to God. And God supernaturally opened all the doors. Can I have what you have? Could I experience what you're experiencing? See, the context of suffering gives us an enormous platform for sharing Christ.

It's an amazing platform. The way we suffer has so much to do with the effectiveness of our testimony. So we're living in a time right now in America where the whole country suffering from, wow, depression, drugs, drinking, everyone trying to cope with what we call these really difficult circumstances. But what if we weren't? What if we weren't whining?

What if we weren't complaining? What if when people knew us said, they're always joyful? They're just always joyful. They're at total peace here. They really don't care.

They're at complete peace in the midst of all this turmoil that we keep saying that we have. Peter wrote, he said, you know what? There may be a time when you have to give an account for the hope that's in you. And that infers the idea that someone may ask you, why are you so different? You see, why are you handling this in a way that no one else does? Now, I'm afraid in our country, even on the basis of what we've gone through right now, I'm not so sure we're doing that. And so the country's not asking because we're just like they are. We do the same things they do.

But this produces an enormous amount of joy. They said to him, believe in the Lord Jesus. You will be saved. You and your household. They just want people to Christ. And I'm guessing not just the guard.

I'm guessing a lot of other prisoners who listened to it the whole time probably thought the same way. What do we have to do? You just need to believe in Jesus Christ.

Hey, I can do that. You see, it produces a joy that makes us effective witnesses. But I don't know if anyone in our culture right now is saying, you know, all the things we're going through right now, everything, the only thing I can understand is there's a whole group of people out there that are Christians. And they're joyful and peaceful through this whole thing.

And I just don't understand it. Because we should be. You see, we should be. But are we?

Or are we just as angry, just as whining, just as demanding as everyone else in our culture? It produces joy. I want to go now to Romans 8, Romans chapter 8.

In this one verse, verse 18, Paul's going to give another perspective. So suffering and persecution shapes our character, reveals and grows our courage. It proves our godliness, and it produces joy in our life. Or it should produce joy in our lives.

Now, Paul's going to give you a frame. Like, Paul, how can you be joyful in the midst of all this suffering? Doesn't it hurt to be stoned and left for dead? Doesn't it hurt to be flogged with 39 lashes five times?

Doesn't it hurt to be beaten with rods three times? And Paul would say, well, of course it does. So that's why he writes verse 18. He said, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Not comparable. Now, I don't know how many times he almost died, but I'm guessing on several occasions. There were several occasions where his enemies wanted him dead. He said, that's not even worthy to be compared.

And that's because he was a Christian. That's the whole point for us. The best is yet to come for us. It's not comparable with the present in any way.

Not in any way. That's what Paul says. He says, in that sense, we know from the rest of scripture there will be what? Rewards. From who? From God.

You see, that's the point. So if I have to endure this suffering, but I do it with joy and peace, I am rewarded. When you get to the book of Revelation, God tells him in Revelation 6 and 16 and 18 and 19, in your suffering, you will be avenged.

And what he means is, I'll be the one that exercises judgment here. In chapter 6 of Revelation, it says, they will be rewarded with white robes, signifying their holiness and their purity. In chapter 12, I love this. Heaven will rejoice over them because they did not shrink from death. If you're a martyr, just imagine that. If you had to die for Jesus Christ, then you did. When you get to heaven, there's a celebration. Not just because God is there, but because you are there.

I love that. Heaven will rejoice over them because they did not shrink from death. Here they are. These people were willing to die for Jesus Christ. And there's a celebration in heaven for them. James says they will receive the crown of eternal life. This tolerant culture we call America is fast becoming completely intolerant of us. And that's going to continue.

But that's okay. We have to remember, even in the midst of persecution, that this suffering persecution for the name of Christ, for living the Christian life, shapes our character, it reveals and grows our courage, it proves our godliness, it produces joy in our lives, and it promises us a reward. I want to have God have the last word in this. I want you now to turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

And sort of an overview of this whole thing that I've been talking about. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7, Paul says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. So, that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not of ourselves.

Couple things. One is, where does the power come from to endure the persecution? Not from us. God says, I'll give you the power. Howard Hendricks, who was my mentor at Dallas Seminary, he always used a different thing with this verse and I thought it was more pointed. He always translated this verse, we have this treasure in peanut butter jars. And you and I are the peanut butter jars. He said, this presence of God is in peanut butter jars. People just like you and me.

Just regular people. He said, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. Therefore, we are afflicted in every way. But we're not crushed. We are perplexed, but we're not despairing. We are persecuted, but we're not forsaken. We are struck down, but we're not destroyed.

Wow. Always caring about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also be manifested in our body. Those verses tell us something, what? It tells us about our attitude.

How should we be able to go through this? Well, we're not crushed, we're not despairing, we're not forsaken, and we're not destroyed. Does that describe you, though?

It's an amazing thing to watch how Christians are living in so much fear because they fear what this country is going to become. And it doesn't really matter what this country becomes. It really doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is your relationship with Jesus Christ.

How closely do you walk with him? That's all that's going to matter here. We keep hoping, let's change the circumstances.

Hey, you can do the best you can. But everything that I think has been happening has been happening for almost 100 years here. And now it's just starting to get this tremendous amount of momentum. Verse 16, therefore, we do not lose heart. No matter what's going on, we do not lose heart. But though the outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. Now, here's his description of suffering. For momentary light affliction is producing for us the eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. He calls everything that can happen to you in this life momentary light affliction. Why would he call it just momentary? Because that's all it is.

Just imagine you had to suffer for 20 years. How does 20 years stack up with eternity? It's a millisecond.

It doesn't mean anything. That's why Paul calls it momentary light affliction. He said in the last verse, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things that are seen, they're temporal.

The things that are not seen, they're eternal. That's the perspective. Now, we live in a country that's quickly becoming intolerant of us. And all I want to say to you is that's okay. That doesn't change at all the way you and I should live our lives. And it may be the circumstances by which you and I will, as he's already said, have our character improved, have our joy manifested, have more courage than we've ever had, be more effective in witnessing for Jesus Christ, and being able to lead men and women and boys and girls through a saving knowledge, all because the culture is becoming intolerant of you and me.

Just pray. Father, the history of our country in some ways has had a detrimental effect on us as believers in Christ. We have had such peace, such tranquility, such assurance. We have always had a major seat at the table, but those things are changing.

And it should not shock us or surprise us. We should do all that we can in order to stay at the table, but we do realize that won't really matter, because all that really matters is how close we stay to you. And so because you are a sovereign and loving God, use the circumstances to make me a better man, to make me more effective for Jesus Christ, and to give you all the glory. We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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