Sermon on the Mount: Blessedness and Persecution — J. Glyn Owen

I would explain to those of you who are new to Knox that it is our custom to take sometimes the book of scripture sometimes the theme and to try to expound it reasonably fully over a period of time. And if this is your first time here you are coming in when we are on our way through the Sermon on the Mount.

The Beatitudes and the Theme of Persecution

It's a little while ago since we began to look at the beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5 and that's where we're at at the moment. We have come to verses 10 to 12 in Matthew chapter 5. And the theme is blessedness and persecution.

Rather a strange subject I might imagine for students coming back to college or for people coming to the city for the first time. And yet it may be very relevant and very applicable particularly if you're a Christian.

Let me read to you then these words of our Lord. Matthew chapter 5. Verses 10 to 12. Blessed said Jesus. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you. When people insult you persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because me rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Christ’s Honest Warning About the Cost of Discipleship

Now our Lord Jesus Christ certainly did not gain followers by false pretenses. That will become very evident from the first reading of this text of ours today. He did not. He did not casual people. He did not make easy promises in order to gain their vote or to secure their discipleship far far from it.

He told them that following him involved being persecuted. And when once men and women have become so intimately bound up with him that they have to stand for righteousness or stand for what he stands for then he says it is going to be inevitable that in one way or another in a world such as ours which is a fallen world a sinful world you too are going to have wounds as I have already been wounded and at the point of speaking was to be much more sorely on the cross of Calvary.

The startling honesty and realism of our Lord concerning the costliness of discipleship is is is just something that stamps his message with with the imprimatur of deity. He was sure that he would gain a following.

He was confident that men and women would come to him out of every kindred and tribe and people and nation. But he did not. He did not attempt to win men by compromising truth. The truth that the father had given him to declare to mankind.

Jesus said in another place. Those that the father has given me will come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. They will come. But they will come because I declare the truth I am the truth as I am the way and the life.

Spiritual Bankruptcy as the Beginning of Blessedness

Now you will notice that Jesus began this series of Beatitudes with a terrifying picture a picture that could very well have put people off right there. He pictured a man waking up to the sudden realization that he was or she was spiritually bankrupt.

I don't know whether you've had that experience of suddenly waking up to the fact that in terms of providing what God requires of men and women you simply haven't got it. I say that is a devastating experience.

It's a traumatic moment in an anybody's life to realize that what God requires of me I simply have not got and I have to pledge spiritual bankruptcy. That's where Jesus began. That's where these Beatitudes begin.

That's really where the road to blessedness begins. Many of you may be seeking for joy happiness fulfillment contentment blessedness call it whatever you like. This is where it begins as Jesus by the discovery that in yourself and of yourself you haven't got it.

But in the very discovery of it you turn away to the God who made you and who has come in his son to save you and he your maker. God is able to endow you with the riches that you need in order to please him and to serve him in this life and to enjoy him forever.

Persecution as the Path of Christian Blessedness

Jesus now concludes the series of the Beatitudes with some further equally if not more solemn words. He has moved away from the sense of spiritual penury and bankruptcy. And he says all right. The road to blessedness goes on and it goes along a very remarkable route.

Blessed are those who are persecuted persecuted for righteousness sake. And then he applies it to the people in front of him. Because this is what we have in in in the passage beginning with these words blessed are you having given the principle having enunciated the principle now he applies it.

Blessed are you. When men insult you persecute you falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your heaven. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The root to real blessedness as Jesus believe it or not goes the way of persecution. Persecution for the sake of righteousness as Jesus or for my sake. That kind of persecution is a signpost that marks the root to ultimate blessedness.

And so you have our Lord Jesus Christ. You're turning the thoughts and the concepts and the philosophies of this world right upside down. We think of course that if we have to suffer for something well now everything's gone wrong.

A number of people that we have speaking to us pastorally as a staff here they're sick and they think something's gone wrong. They're persecuted somebody somebody slanders them somebody says something terrible against them and they think everything's gone wrong.

No says Jesus if it's for righteousness sake that's an important qualification of course. Or if it's for my sake that's exactly the way it should be. And if you're suffering for righteousness sake and for my sake it only means says Jesus that you're walking in the way of the prophets and you are sure of where you're going to.

And when you get there this is what will happen. Blessed are you. Great is your reward in heaven your members of the kingdom that is indestructible and eternal. Now there are two or three things that I want to say about this great theme in which you notice the central theme is righteousness.

Righteousness and the Rule of God’s Kingdom

Righteousness. Brothers and sisters we are so concerned today about getting things for ourselves. We become so obsessed selfishly obsessed. And have you noticed how all the politicians pander to that.

They very rarely talk about principles of righteousness today. What do the people want. This group wants this group wants that and we must pander to what the people want not what is right of necessity.

And you see we're going down a slide. And if we continue to go this way we are moving towards moral chaos and social chaos. Jesus says as far as his people are concerned righteousness is comes into the very center of their lives.

And that's what a Christian man or a Christian woman is not a person who takes his hat off or her hat off to righteousness and says oh yes everybody should have his due. But let me be first on the list he or she is pledged to seek first of all the kingdom of God and his righteousness and to pray God in the words of the Prophet that righteousness shall through the land like a river in spate moving into every segment of the social order at the top and at the bottom and everywhere in between righteousness.

Three things about righteousness. One righteousness and the rule it entails for members of the kingdom of heaven. Oh these are stirring words and the more you ponder them the more challenging they become.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake or because of righteousness. And then Jesus goes on and he kind of he kind of pursues the Hebrew parallelism of saying something almost identically the same in a different way.

When he goes he applies it. Blessed are you when men when people insult you persecute you falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Now I want to focus on those two statements because of righteousness.

One two because of me because of righteousness. As the portrait of the Christian is being completed our Lord Jesus leaves the impression that a notable if not the one outstanding feature of the Christian life is his devotion to righteousness.

His devotion to righteousness. The subject of heaven's kingdom is right with God. He stands for righteousness among men. He seeks righteousness for others. And he is prepared as this the attitude inevitably implies he is prepared and must be prepared to suffer for the sake of righteousness.

It's not just a subject in his curriculum that he reads about every now and again in order to pass an examination. He's pledged to it. He's he's given to it. He lives for it. Righteousness is the girdle of his loins.

Now permit me to remind you that this is not a note that is peculiar to the gust this gospel or even to the Beatitudes. For that matter it is it is not peculiar to the Gospels even it's found everywhere in the Bible.

And if time permitted we could show how it is constantly recurring in the prophets and in then in Moses and in the earth in the Old Testament from beginning to end. But when you come to the new you meet it everywhere.

This upon righteousness. The Christian is essentially concerned with righteousness. Righteousness is a must for the members of God's kingdom. You're not in his realm. You're not under his rule. Unless you have seen that righteousness demand your loyalty.

And what governs your life. If you're a subject of his kingdom is not first of all what you want to do. But what is right to do. I tell you says to his disciples in Matthew 5 and verse 20. Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

The people of God must seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Matthew 633. Paul is entirely in line with this. When writing to Titus he says. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

It teaches us notice the negative and the positive side of righteousness. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions positively and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives. In this present age.

The grace of God in Jesus Christ teaches us how to live. There are certain things that we should not do. They're not right. They don't come into the category of that which is right. And there are certain things that we should do.

They come into the category of what God requires and come in to the Romans. Paul explains that by our union with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection and ascension we become slaves to righteousness.

Romans 618. If by the Holy Spirit we have been baptized into him and become members of him we are slaves to righteousness. And that by the work of the Son and the Holy Spirit the righteousness of the law should be constantly being fulfilled in us if we are Christian people Romans 8.

For accordingly the Apostle constantly calls men to righteous living. Listen to him. Listen to him. Writing to the Corinthians awake he says to righteousness and sin. Not. You've been asleep pieces. You're drowsy.

To moral issues. The real issues of the day are passing you by and you're talking about speaking in tongues and healing and exercising your gifts. But to morality you're deadly silent. He says you're asleep.

You're in a dream. Awake awake to righteousness. Stop your sinning. He says you're concerned about your own spiritual pleasure and enlarging your experience. That may be all right within itself but it must lead to righteousness.

Or it's no good says Paul. Wake up man. Writing to Timothy he says something very similar. You man of God. Having talked about the the temptations of youth he says you man of God flee from all this and follow righteousness 1 Timothy 6 11.

And you remember that the Apostle John makes a blanket statement when he says in 1 John 3 10. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God. Now I'm quoting these scriptures not because I've got nothing else to say but because I believe this is what the Word of God says.

And this is the summons of the Bible. And we must not tease ourselves that we are Christian men and women by simply saying well we go to church on a Sunday morning. We live for ourselves after that. But we come to church we sing we listen to what goes on and we're very interested.

And sometimes we put our hands in our pocket men and women in the name of God. I ask you are you pledged to righteousness. Our God is holy and our God is righteous. And the man or the woman that comes under the rule of Jesus Christ is a man or a woman that is given to righteousness for Jesus sake because of righteousness persecuted for righteousness sake.

This is the hallmark of the Christian man. From whatever angle you view him in the New Testament he is he is. He is given to righteousness. But now the second thing is this because of me. Blessed are you.

He says when people insult you persecute you falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Now I am personally very glad that Jesus added this word of explanation to the bold statement about a subject of his kingdom suffering for righteousness sake.

Personal Allegiance to Jesus Christ

You see had he left it at that he might have created the impression that the Christian life is all about a cold principle period. Now there are many principles involved in the Christian life. There's no question about that the whole of the Sermon on the Mount has to deal with moral and ethical principles.

But fundamentally the Christian life is not a matter of principle. If we were simply to talk our allegiance to principles it might convey the notion of something cold heartless. But Jesus moves on you see.

And he explains what it means to live and suffer for righteousness sake. By putting it in this way because of me and you see what he does he transposes the principle into a matter of personal allegiance to himself.

And these are two sides of one and the same coin the Christian life. Living under the rule of Jesus Christ. Being subject of the kingdom of God means suffering and living for righteousness sake. Yes. But turn the coin over.

And this is what it means. It means being loyal to Jesus Christ. It means loyalty to a person. Jesus would have us see you see that if we are involved in this matter it's not simply it's not simply the question of having ideas in our heads but of having him in our hearts ruling over us reigning over us.

And and and when we have to suffer persecution or a slight or whatever it may be. It is not just for the sake of an impersonal impersonal principle but for the sake of our allegiance to the person the Son of God.

As the first thing righteousness and the rule it entails. Can I pause them to ask the question would you say that you are in the kingdom of God by this test. Now it's not mine. It's not mine. It comes from the scriptures.

And in accordance with your answer the answer of your soul I'll tell you whether or not you're on the way to blessedness. For Jesus said blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake. Or because of me.

Righteousness and Its Reaction in a Fallen World

The second thing I want you to notice following upon righteousness and the rule it entails. I'd like us to look at righteousness and the reaction that it excites in a fallen world. Let's underline these words.

Persecuted because of righteousness. People insult you persecute you falsely say all kinds of evil against you. You see what this means. It all brings out the kind of reaction that righteousness will elicit in a world such as ours.

And this is only another way of saying that the world in which we live is a world that does not honor righteousness. This world is off its kilter. This world is off being. It's a fallen world. This is not the world as God meant it or as he created it.

Something's gone wrong. And in consequence of that which is good which has gone wrong. The world does not love righteousness. And if you are going to represent righteousness in an evil fallen world you're going to be bruised.

You're going to be hurt. And if you're not prepared to take the hurts the best thing for you is to turn your back on Jesus Christ and walk in the other way and acknowledge what you're doing. Be honest about it be open about it.

Say I don't want to pay the price. I go my own way. Okay there are thousands of doing that. But don't be a hypocrite. Don't say my friend that you're following the Christ of Calvary and then whimper at every difficulty on the road.

That's not consistent. If any man will come after me says Jesus let him take up his cross. Notice. Luke says in one place daily daily and follow me righteousness. And the reaction it excites. What is the price of loyalty.

Well the prophecy of Jesus is here as here embodied is very clear. He is telling those who are dedicated to serve him as Lord those who mean to stand for righteousness in this world that it will necessarily mean sorrow suffering persecution and so forth.

If someone is unwilling to face that kind of trouble. Therefore the best thing is to keep your distance from him. And this is a very challenging thought. And particularly you see when you when you see these beatitudes as a cluster of truths the one leading into the other because that is what happens here.

There is a progression of thought in these beatitudes starting with poverty of spirit and then mourning and becoming meek and so forth. The thought moves on and one beatitude moves on into the other. There is a sense in which all the beatitudes are one.

They form one whole. Now. That means this you see those who are being persecuted to go back to where we were last Lord's Day morning though we didn't really finish that those who are being persecuted are peacemakers.

Peacemakers persecuted peacemakers persecuted peacemakers stand in the breach between warring parties and try to see what is right for both sides not for one against the other but for both sides. And tries to bring them together.

And is is a kind of mediator. You see. Oh yeah. But that in a world such as this when you try to do that when you try to douse the conflagration and stop it you'll get into trouble. You ever try to stop a quarrel on the basis of righteousness.

Oh boy peacemakers listen I'll tell you something which is even more startling. You go back beyond that and you will find that the very people who are persecuted by the world are those who are pure in heart.

Pure in heart. See we go under the strange notion that if we are really pure if we are really good if we are really godly then everybody will speak well of us. Beware says Jesus when everybody speaks well of you.

Well how come. For this reason brothers and sisters we live in a fallen world. And this fallen crazy world doesn't like holiness and purity. And if you're going to take purity into your job purity into your office purity into your college you're going to suffer for it.

This is up-to-date stuff this no arguing about that. This is absolutely right on ball. And some of you know it as I know it it doesn't really matter where you go whether you have the purest motives.

And you may go as a peacemaker wanting the right for both sides. Probably both sides are going to slap you on the face. I'm something worse than that. This is the price of loyalty to righteousness and to Jesus Christ.

See in this world there's hardly any party that is ever innocent of everything. I may sound terrible but we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Whether you're a conservative or a liberal or an NDP.

Whether you're rich or whether you're poor whether you're on the staff of the University or whether you're a humble scholar or whether you left school years ago and knew very little about intellectual disciplines all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

And we don't like righteousness. And of course the remarkable thing about it is this. And you will not only discover this from the world but sometimes you will get this even in a more vicious way from within the ecclesiastical setup from the church.

Persecution Within Religious Institutions

Read your history books and you will see that the church has invariably been in one way or another a persecuting agent. And it's not all on one side. It's not all Catholic are all Protestant now. I wish I could say that but I can't say it.

I cannot honestly say that all the persecution has been on one side brethren and sisters our hands are dyed with the blood of men and women that our fathers have murdered in the name of the Church of God.

You and I have to be careful how we read our history books. We need honesty. Where did our Lord Jesus Christ find his fiercest critics and opposition and persecution with the profligates and the sinners.

No. No no. But where then they were scribes and Pharisees and teachers of the law. Where did Paul find his most bitter enemies out in the world. Yes he did actually get into trouble in Rome and in Ephesus and in various places.

And yet fundamentally if you follow his three missionary journeys especially you will find that the first people to persecute him invariably were Jewish leaders very religious very ecclesiastical. In the verses immediately following our text Jesus proceeds to describe the righteous and the righteousness of the righteous in these terms we shall be coming to this later on.

He says you are the salt of the earth you are the light of the world. You're different from the world. If you're a member of my kingdom if you're if you're dedicated to righteousness and to my person then he says that means that you you're a changed person.

You're transformed. You're not quite like the world which is not under my dominion. And when you go out into the world and even when you go into a into a religious society that only professes something that knows nothing of reality you know what will happen when they will taste the saline properties of your moral life.

They want to spit you out. And when the light of your character and behavior will cast its beam into the chaotic darkness and shadiness and illegal and unrighteous things that men and women are doing.

I want to hound you thrice of loyalty. How vividly do these words illustrate the startling truth. You see that the Christian must inevitably be hated and be hated because of the of his very character as salt and light or as being righteous not because he's an oddity.

I must say no one is persecuting me as far as I know I've done. I've known very little of this. Perhaps that reflects on the fact that I'm not sufficiently loyal to the Lord. But those people who from time to time do pull me up invariably pull me up because of some oddity in me.

And I've done something which was a despot to the gospel. And the fault has been in me knowing my character some quirk in my personality some roughness some sharpness some something or other. Jesus is not talking of that.

Many of us think that we're persecuted for righteousness sake. When as a matter of fact we're not persecuted for righteousness sake. But we're persecuted because we're queer and we're oddities and we're thoughtless and we're sometimes cranky.

That's not what Jesus is talking about for righteousness sake. For my sake I mustn't stay longer with this. But this is the record of history. And this is one thing I want to get across this morning. Here I turn to my last main point.

Historical Witness to Christian Martyrdom

It is this my friends you simply cannot objectively read history without seeing that this is true that righteous men and women men and women devoted to righteousness that is until the person of Jesus Christ have always suffered the eleven loyal disciples had to suffer.

And whether the whether it is absolutely foolproof or not the the testimony of history would appear to say that they were all martyred for their Lord's namesake. Each one of them we have to take up our cross daily.

You know when those spirit-filled disciples went out from Jerusalem and they were filled with love as well as with grace and power and courage when they went out into those Jerusalem streets and then moved from Jerusalem out into the surrounding countryside.

How were they received. Oh follow the story. Will you follow the story. And it's a story of bloodshed and persecution all down the way. Now when I read history books of the Christian Church I am a little bit suspicious until I know something about the writer.

I would advise you to be the same. And I know many people who are good historians in one way. But there's all they're looking at history through tinted glasses. You know you ever done that. Really you can read the newspaper through tinted glasses and everything's colored by your own perspective.

It's a great thing to have historians whom you believe are dedicated to the truth as it is. William Barclay mentions one of these. Now there are many of them but I will just want to choose one one of them.

And I have proved for myself that HB Workman who wrote a famous book some years ago called persecution in the early church. He he he certainly was one of the outstanding historians dedicated to objectivity as he found it.

Now I want to read you a few words. Now you won't like it. So some of you may want to put your fingers in your ears. Well carry on for a moment. I'll wake you up when we come to the end. Now this is HB Workman.

If we confine ourselves to strictly historical cases the savagery though to a large extent part of the judicial process of the edge is appalling. Some suffering. The punishment of parasites were shut up in a sack with snakes and thrown into the sea.

Others were tied. Others were tied where am I. Or shut up in a sack with snakes and thrown into the sea. Others were tied to huge stones and thrown into a river. For Christians the cross itself was not deemed sufficient agony or ignominy.

Hanging on trees they were beaten with rods until their bowels gushed out while vinegar and salt were rubbed into their wounds. In the Thebius during the persecution of Diocletian Christians were tied to catapults and so wrenched limb from limb.

Some like Ignatius were thrown to the beasts others tied to their horns. Women were stripped and closed in nets and exposed to the attacks of furious bulls let loose in the arena. Many were made to lie on sharp shelves and tortured with scrapers claws and pincers before being delivered to the mercy of the flames.

Not a few were broken on the wheel or torn in pieces by wild horses. Of some the feet were slowly burned away cold water being poured over them the while lest the victims should expire too rapidly. Peter one of the servants of Diocletian was scourged to the bone then placed near a gridiron that he might witness the roasting of pieces of flesh torn from his own body.

One other small short paragraph at Leon they tried to overcome the obstinacy of Sanctus of Vienne by fixing red-hot plates to the more delicate parts of his body. Down the backs of others melted lead hissing and bubbling was poured while a few by the clemency of the Emperor escaped with a searing out of their eyes or the tearing off of their legs.

Why am I reading that. I just want you to get the feeling that this has happened and it's happening today. A friend and a brother of mine stood in the hall behind us here just two years ago and told us of a group of men being taken to Siberia.

And because they had no drink and no food one of them dared to lick some of the ice in the cattle truck in which they were taken and his lips froze to the side and as his lips so his face and ultimately his body.

And I won't say anymore you couldn't take it generally. Of course this may not be you a lot and mine it may be today the assassins pen more than his pistol. Will you forgive me for saying something. I hope it is clear to the congregation here that I'm not taking sides in political matters but I'll tell you one thing which has really challenged me this week.

I'm not talking about the man's philosophy or politics but I'm talking about a principle. The one man the one leader of the three parties who has been most decimated by the press and by the media is also as it happens to be the one man concerning whom the reporters said that every morning he came to them from his Bible and who told his leaders in Ottawa before the beginning of this campaign that however many faults were found in his life he looked upon this kind of leadership in the as second only in importance to the ministry of the Word of God and of the priest in the church.

Now I'm not taking any side on politics but I am on issues. And I'm telling you the world hates anybody that is pledged to righteousness. You get so near to it that you're associated with righteousness.

You too will have to suffer. And so will I. The refusal to toe the popular line even in church today in ecclesiastical settles join on the bandwagon of theological and moral departure from God and his word means this.

Your preferments are lost. You lose that key job that you were after. And if you wanted to be a professor in the college he'll not get it. I'm not talking about ideas in the sky that I can't vouch for.

They're here. It's happening for Jesus sake. I close some of you visitors will have given me up by this time. Will you bear with me one moment righteousness and the reaction it excites. I must say something about righteousness and the reward it secures.

The Reward of Persecution in the Kingdom of Heaven

Blessed are those for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven. Or in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

I cannot deal with this as it deserves. Let me throw out two or three thoughts as we conclude this very pathway rough and rugged though it may be can may will yield something to the child of God that is positively to his credit and advantage.

Not that there is any blessedness in persecution as such. Anybody who loves persecution per se is psychologically abnormal. Nevertheless there is the possibility of the turning of the Valley of Acre into the door of hope as Hosea puts it.

There is the possibility of of finding that in the furnace that is is it so hot or in the lion's den. There is a presence there that I never knew before and a knowledge of God and hitherto was beyond my range as a principle here observe that Jesus puts this first of all in terms of a principle he says theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Now. This is precisely the sentence by which the blessedness of the poor in spirit were described at the beginning of the Beatitudes. That's what Jesus said about them. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now he says when you come to the end and you're persecuted. Blessed are you. When you're persecuted yours or theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You say isn't there any extra.

Isn't there anything different. Isn't there anything bigger for someone who bears persecution for Jesus sake. The answer is yes and no. I'll put it to you like this. Tell a child that he is to be heir of a kingdom the prince of the realm.

And what will he want. A few extra candies a few extra balls to play with. Or what depends whether it's a girl or a boy you know in your kiddie state. And somebody tells you you're heir to the whole vast realm.

The poor kiddie doesn't know enough about it to know what to ask or what to appreciate. But when once you've grown up to maturity and you're told yours is the realm you begin to realize what unsearchable privileges are yours.

And you'll begin to call upon and to expect things commensurate with your principles and with your knowledge and your maturity. That's what Jesus has in mind. Here there is the kingdom of heaven not just in prospect not just in name like a child underage.

But now you're enjoying it. You're experiencing it. You're drawing upon the power of the kingdom and the grace of the kingdom and the fatherly care of the king and of God. You're living it. You're living it.

Now something of that kind is involved in our Lord's promise. I believe he is now speaking to someone of such maturity that he envisages them living on the benefits of the kingdom. Indeed if I may be so bold as to say it I believe that there is something in persecution and suffering generally.

There is something in persecution and in suffering which is necessary in the providence of God to communicate to fallen men the full blessedness of his kingdom. Paul says so categorically in 2 Corinthians 4 17 when he says that our light affliction he calls it light.

His wasn't light if you read the context but he calls it light. Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us is working for us is achieving something for us even a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory than all the pressures upon us.

You see what he's saying. Everything that a Christian is allowed to suffer works for his good. How can everything that a Christian suffers work for his good. Because his God is Lord his sovereign his supreme and he makes all things work together for good to them that love him.

And that's our God. And you see sometimes we are too proud to turn to God in all honesty and receive of his grace and receive of his testament just as months and receive of his teaching until we suffer.