The Role of Suffering — Robert B. Thompson

All right, we'll ask the Lord to help us in. Amen, Lord. As we come unto you tonight, Lord, as with praise and thanksgiving, oh, Lord, you're so good, so wonderful, and we just give praise to you, Lord.

Thank you for your goodness, getting us here safely, Lord, and in health, praise you. Thank you for each family represented here, Lord, and I pray your hand on their homes and their relatives, Lord. Keep us in this time, I pray, in Jesus' name.

I need your help, Lord. Bless out the nursery there, the little ones, and help us, Lord, to pursue what you would have pursued tonight. Open our hearts and minds, Lord, and speak to us, I pray, in Jesus' name, amen.

The Church of Smyrna and the Call to Endure Suffering

We went pretty thoroughly into the tree of life, and I'd like to move on in Revelation 2 to the churches of Smyrna. I think that's what the Lord's talking to me about tonight, is the church of Smyrna.

For those of you that weren't here when we went into the church of Ephesus about the tree of life, that's very important. You'll get the tape. For Revelation 2 .8, to the angel of the church in Smyrna, these are the words of him who was the first and the last, who died and came to life again.

Boy, you've got to know that when you're in Smyrna. I know your afflictions and your poverty, yet you are rich. I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He that overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death. It's not obvious at first why these two are related, the second death and the prison, but we'll get into that God willing.

So the first reward to the overcomer was eating of the tree of life, getting the body and blood of Jesus. How do we get a right to eat of the body and blood of Jesus? What gives us the right to do that?

I know you have that answer. The Baptist says overcome. Oh, Gabriel says you have to overcome, and that's in Revelation 2 verse 7. He that overcomes will have the right to eat of the tree of life. It's not he who believes, but he who overcomes.

Overcoming Temptation Through Faithful Practice

We've got believing out of balance in Christian doctrine. It's necessary, but it's out of balance. It's too much just in the head and not enough in the doing. And why did Adam and Eve lose the right to the tree of life?

Yes, that's right, Anthony. And with relationship to what we just said about getting the right to it, what do you have to do to get the right to it? Okay, and what did Adam and Eve not do? Precisely. They were, to be overcome you have to be presented with a challenge, which we all are every day.

Anybody that was not challenged along some line today? And if you overcome, how do we overcome?

By resisting evil or the temptations that afflict your course.

Yeah, and we pray some things. You have to do a lot of prayer. Some you have to exert what willpower you have and ask the Lord to help you. You have to keep yourself from temptation. Sometimes people go into things they know.

I guess they're trying to see how close they can come and still not fall in. That's not a good idea. It's good to keep as far away from temptation as you can get. Lead us not into temptation. Don't fool with it.

Keep away from it. And sometimes prayers of other people help us to overcome. So whatever God is, help. Help me to keep my peace. And make this stand in victory. Randy?

It's one of the things, Lord, I know you've spoken and I'm sure other people have heard it. But I know, Lord, what's urgent more and more in my heart is to seek, not just on Sundays or Tuesdays, but to really enter into His presence as if like in worship.

It's a way, I guess, to say, if you can enter into His presence or enter into Him, it will be a positive. You're less apt, as the Bible says, to enter into temptations or not fulfill the lessons of prayer.

Amen. Yes, Sandra?

Well, I guess I want to make an example of what I went through today. Because today I was getting some warranty work done on my car. And the first time I took it in, they ordered it a little apart. And I had to go back and get it a second time.

And they asked me to fill out a questionnaire that was grading them on their services. And they wanted me to put in a perfect when I didn't have to come back. So that they would get a perfect score. And they were telling me they would give me a $20 auto change for putting in that mark.

And it was like nonsense. I never would have thought of that. I was just like, sure, fine. I'm not surprised by that. But because of your preaching of righteousness, it was like, please say, that's not righteous.

And that's not the way. And so I'm going to write a letter to the person in charge of me. Because I'm just a nun. Because that's not teaching me how to live a righteous life. And it's so easy. And it's something I would have never thought of.

That sounds great to me.

Amen, Larry. You guys don't do that, do they? Hand out a rating. Hand out a rating sheet and then stand over you to see how you fill it out? That's not kosher. I'm not in that, of course. Jack, be nimble.

Jack, be quick. All right. So, if you want to keep eating, if you want to keep fellowshipping with Christ and partaking of his personality, you have to overcome. And when you don't, you don't get to eat of the tree of life that day.

You don't get to eat of the body and blood of Christ that day. And it's really not, I guess the reason that's the first thing on the hip parade here is that tree of life is because it's so totally important.

That's why he says, I hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. And I don't know what they were. I told you last time, didn't I, some scholars say it was, they thought it was Nicholas of Antioch that was trying to get the local church to conform to the community.

And others say it was the priesthood, the Catholic system of having priests and people, breaking up the body of Christ and the priests and people. And others say it was early Gnosticism and antinomianism that we're all saved by grace.

So, there's three different scholarly viewpoints. But see, you can't find Bible truth by going to commentaries. So, the fact that the Bible doesn't explain what the deeds of the Nicolaitans is, the practices, it says in NIV, tells me that it's something that the Lord hates.

He says, you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans as I also do. And I think that's important for us. Because in America, the value is on being bland and cool about it. You don't hate anything. You keep real mellow.

But the Lord said approving of you because you hate it. And I hate it too. I'm not mellow about this thing. And I think it would be something that would keep you involved in some way so that you weren't really interacting with the body and blood of Christ.

You weren't in a daily, intense interaction with Jesus. Whether it was priests and people, whether it was antinomianism, whether it was trying to conform the church to the local community or some other practice.

Whatever it was, whatever they were doing, it was robbing them of their first love of Jesus. That intent, I want to be with him all the time. I've got to walk with him and everything. And that's number one on the hit parade.

The Crown of Life and the Subjugation of Idols

Okay, so when we come to the next church, Smyrna, what we're talking about is the role of suffering. And each one of these represents a part of our land of promise. And the part of the land of promise of the first one is to eat the body and blood of Christ.

And now it's to have the crown of life. Which means that you are in control of your surroundings. You're ruling instead of being ruled. Now one of the main things that goes on in our Christian life is getting the things that are ruling us under our feet.

And it is painful. Because these are gods over us. And they've held us and enthralled us for a long time. And we're used to them and we don't like to be messed with. Now, the role of authority is God the Father's on top.

And Christ is in subjection to him. You know, I'll throw out something for you guys to think about. I don't know why, but in evangelical doctrine, there's a tremendous emphasis on making Christ equal with God.

And that's not a Bible emphasis. I don't know where that's coming from. But whenever anything is wrong, it's because it's going to produce bad results. And it's like a pseudo-exalting of the Lord. But you can't exalt the Lord by going against the scripture.

And we know that Jesus is God's Son. He's not another God in heaven. There aren't three gods in heaven. Jesus is God's Son, God's Servant, God's Prophet. And according to 1 Corinthians 15, when God has put everything in subjection to Jesus, then Jesus will be in subjection to the Father.

And again, we find twice in Hebrews that Christ learned obedience. He learned obedience. And I like where he said, Go tell my brethren that I ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God. The Father is Jesus' God and your God.

Again in Hebrews he says, In the midst of the church will I, Jesus, sing praises unto thee. Now the Father doesn't sing praises to Jesus. Jesus sings praises to the Father. Christ died as a sin offering that God's would be pacified, His wrath would be pacified.

And again we find that Jesus said, No man knows the hour of his coming, not the Son, but the Father only. Again he said, There's none good, why do you call me good? There's none good save one, that is God.

Again he said, My Father is greater than I. And yet for some reason unknown to me, theologians have an answer for every one of those things to show that Jesus is co-equal and co-existent with the Father.

And that simply is not scriptural. Yes?

Can I take a shot at why Satan would over exalt Jesus like that? Because if he is so high, to therefore take a creature that might overcome sin, there's no hope in us overcoming sin.

Precisely. And that's my own feeling on it. That's what's behind that thing. Because the greatest thing in our Christian experience, the apex, the ultimate, is to become one with Jesus as he is one with the Father.

That's the highest form of righteousness that there is. And we do that by eating his flesh and drinking his blood. That's John 6, 55 I think it is. You can't go higher than that. But you see, by putting Jesus up there to make him another God like the Father, we can't relate to that.

And one of the real objections that has been voiced concerning my teaching, and I'm sure others who teach as I do, is that you're making yourself equal with God. And therefore, when the Bible says that they shall be one as we are one, which is only a quotation, you're saying that you're equal with God.

And I've said to people like that, I'm not saying anything. I'm only teaching what the Bible says. I don't have anything I'm pushing here. But I'm not going to be pushed off the Bible. And so, when you say, and people are bothered by that, they say, well, God is greater than Jesus?

Could anything be greater than Jesus? Yes, God is. The reason that Jesus is Lord and Christ, according to the first sermon in Acts 2, is because God made him that way. So, then they say, well, yeah, but in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

That's true. But the Father was not in the beginning. There is no beginning with the Father. He doesn't begin. He always is. And our poor brain can't even comprehend that. We're not made mentally to comprehend infinity or eternity.

We are simply unable. We can talk about it, but we cannot imagine it. You cannot relate to it. And we cannot relate to the fact that God always was. Well, doesn't it say He was with God and He was God?

Yes, He is God. Jesus is God. Because God has made Him God. And we worship Him because God has said for us to worship Him. Now, when you're saying that God is greater than Jesus, you're saying that something is so far beyond anything we can imagine, is greater than something else that is so greater than anything we can imagine.

In other words, you're comparing quantities that we cannot grasp. That it isn't even realistic to say one is greater than the other. Because Jesus is so high and lifted up that for our purposes there's no sense in trying to lift Him any further because He's been lifted as high as it is possible to go.

But by the same token, according to Ephesians, we are with Him at that same spot. Far above every name that is named. And as Mark said, that's precisely what's behind that. You know, sometimes when they're dealing with a troublemaker in a corporation, you know what they do?

They kick him upstairs. Did you ever hear that expression? They get him up to where he won't mess up the situation anymore. And I think that's exactly what that teaching does. It kicks Jesus upstairs in what's a pseudo sense of worship and reverence.

And it isn't that at all. What it does, it destroys the whole practicality and feasibility of our tabernacle experience where we enter in with Jesus and become part with Him and with Him together worship God.

Yet, none of this takes away from the fact that Jesus is our Lord and we worship Him. Because that's what it says in Psalm 45. He is thy Lord, worship thou Him. So, the only problem that we have is when we leave the Bible and begin to philosophize.

Then we begin to argue about philosophy, and that I refuse to do. If someone wants to point out a verse, I can learn from that verse. But I will not philosophize. Because it goes nowhere. And then we have a private interpretation of the Scripture.

If we take what the Scripture says, we have no problem with it. It exactly says what it means and means what it says. And the book of Revelation starts off by saying the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him to show to His servant John.

I mean, it's all over the place. It robs something, you know. We don't even know the Father. In salvation, we are apprised of Jesus Christ. In Pentecost, we are apprised of the reality and the Godhead of the Holy Spirit.

That He is God, not just a fuzzy feeling in church. The Holy Spirit is really God. And then, now in the Feast of Tabernacles, we're being apprised of the Father. And we have never known the Father. And in Matthew 11, and I didn't mean to get into this.

Matthew 11, maybe it will help somebody. I don't know, maybe it will help me. Matthew 11, listen to what Jesus said. You ready? You got rid of all your philosophy? Okay. No man knows the Son, save the Father.

And no man knows the Father, save the Son. And, He to whomever the Son will reveal Him. So there is such a thing as having the Father reveal to you. And I don't think we have to make a big thing out of it, and change our sign out there in the name of the church and leave the four square.

It's just something that you experience. It's like Christ is helping you to worship your Father. That's my Father up there. Hallelujah. I was not raised in a Christian home. My Father, and I respect Him, and I believe God saved Him.

I know the time He was saved in a mission. Because He was a drunk, and He was saved in a mission in Los Angeles. I remember the night He got saved. And I come back from the Bible school, outing we had, and He says, take a look at your Father, I got saved.

Well, He'd been a drunk most of His life. He was a merchant seaman, and He was on His way up to a third mate's license, and He lost that, because He was a drunkard. I mean, at home, He had His, He had His quadrant, He had a sextant, and He had that, what's that seaman's manual?

Is it a bow, B-O-W something? Bowden? Huh? No, it's a manual. It's a seaman's manual. A merchant seaman's manual. Anyway, He had all the stuff, and He was studying for His third mate's license, and the drinking did Him all in, so I was raised in a, you know, I mean, my Father was just not there for me.

And, uh, but now I've got a Father. I mean, I've got a Father that I love, and I want to be just like Him. I mean, He goes along, and here I go along behind Him. And Jesus is my brother. And we have the same Father.

And that's Hebrews 2. For which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Because they have the same Father that He does. And, so it doesn't lessen Christ's glory in any way, but it makes it possible for us to relate to Him as a friend and a brother and a savior and a Lord, and then He brings us to God.

Jesus is the door to God.

But we've lost that somewhere. Yes, Colleen? I was just going to say that's accurate. I hadn't even thought of this. It's accurate that He's exalted with God. I, for seven years, went to an evangelical church, and the way overcoming is presented is something like overcoming a drug addiction or alcoholism.

And I had never ever heard sin presented as something you can overcome. So I came here and I actually asked my pastor about it. I had said, I wish I could be like an angel so I could stop sinning. And he said, we can't.

There's no way to do it. So, as far as part of Satan's deception, I can see that it's just... Like Mark said, if Jesus is up there with a father or something, He can't even...

He can't approach it. And Revelation 3 .22, I believe it is, says, He that overcomes shall sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and have sat down with my Father in His throne. That's one of the most powerful verses in the Bible given to the worst church.

Laodicea. Isn't that God's way? So, Mark is exactly right. That's what it does. It kicks Christ upstairs to get Him out of the human business. And we don't have Him walking with us or anything. He's so far up, there's no use of this.

Three gods up there, you know, and there's no dealing with them. Well, as I said, Jesus cannot be exalted any higher than He is because God has exalted Him above everything and we worship Him. But we are sons of God not like Jesus is and that Jesus was from the beginning with God.

We're not Lord and we're not a sin offering for anybody. And nobody's going to worship us. Jesus is different from us in those things. Nonetheless, Jesus has been born again by the resurrection from the dead and it's the beginning of the new creation.

We have been born again from the dead and He's the first of the new kingdom of which we are a part and God is over all and that's absolutely scriptural. So, I thought, why do they do this? But Mark has got it.

The Order of Creation and the Church's Rule Under Christ

That's exactly right. He put into words what's been in my craw. Alright, now, what's going on here? What does this mean to rule? He said, I'll give you a crown of life and I said that, oh, I see how I got into it.

The proper order of the creation is this and I think it's expressed in 1 Corinthians. God is above all. Under God is Christ. Under Christ is the church and under the church is the whole remainder of the creation of God.

Angels and everything else. You get that? The Father is a bubble. Under the Father is Jesus. Under Jesus is the church. Under the church is everything. Let's see if we can find that. Can somebody find that?

Isn't it in 1 Corinthians? And you are Christ and Christ is God. That's the way it finishes. Is that chapter 3? That last verse in chapter 3? And you are Christ and Christ is God.

Belongs to God? Belongs to Christ and Christ is God. Where is that?

3. 3 .23. Read those last couple of verses there where he says neither Paul's anything nor Apollos is anything.

So then let know, no one goes to men for all things belong to you whether Paul or Apollos or Sepphus or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all things belong to you and you belong to Christ and Christ is God.

Sepphus.

That's a Greek term for Peter. Okay? Everything belongs to the church. Everything. I didn't say that to embarrass you. You're my student. I take you under my wing. Okay? The uh... Everything belongs to the church.

Life, death, the world, anything. And the church belongs to Christ. And Christ belongs to God. See that? See that there? Now, when we get saved, there's still an awful lot of personalities that are between us and Christ.

They're idols. You can call them bondages. Sins. You can call them whatever you want to. But they're anything that rob you from your freedom to rule under Christ. Now, read that verse again. If you will.

Go ahead, read that once again, please. Would you look at that? See, God doesn't want any of those things to rule you. He doesn't want things to rule you. He doesn't want people to rule you. He doesn't want anything between you and Jesus.

Suffering as God's Means of Removing Bondage

Now, one of the most painful things that we experience is uh... I'm glad to see you, Jeannie. Glad to see you. One of the most painful things that we experience is God removing those things that are between us and Jesus.

Now, you'd think we'd be glad to get rid of them. You see? But when we have a strong bondage of a relationship to a person or a desire for a thing or a position or whatever it may be that's in the world it is governing us and we don't realize it.

It keeps us in an uproar. And God does not want us in an uproar. He wants us in absolute peace and He doesn't want anything... I told you how I was really bound with classical music. I wasn't serving... it wasn't serving me.

I was serving it. And now it's serving me. I can take it or leave it. It's been taken from up here and put beneath my feet. I can enjoy it but it doesn't govern me. Okay? But you don't get that done in a moment.

So what God does is He allows you to suffer. He allows Satan to put you into prison. Of some kind. Something that you do not enjoy. That keeps you from doing what you want to do. Now, if you take that incarceration in the right way you don't blame people because very often Satan will... as he's putting it in there, will use people, he'll use sickness, he'll use all kinds of things.

He used sickness with Job. Okay? He used all kinds of things. Domestic situations, marriage situations, poverty, loss of something maybe that should have been rightfully yours. Maybe something that you had worked hard for and somebody else came in and took the credit for it.

That's hard to take when that happens. Because you want to say, He didn't do it, I did, you know. There's all kinds of things that happen that keep us in a prison. We're imprisoned in a situation. We're not getting what we want and we're compelled to do things we do not enjoy.

Now, when we get in these pressure cookers all our gods begin to act up. They all begin to insist that we're not in the right place. And how you respond to the prisons that the Lord allows you to be put in.

And he has control. That's why he says ten days. He knows how long it is. He's got it in his... He lets Satan do it. And that's another thing that troubles us. If we could see it was God doing this, we'd have no problem.

Well, if the Lord did it, that's okay. You ever have anything like that in your family, you know? If so-and-so does this, it's okay. You know, like maybe, have you ever said that to your brother? You can't tell me to do anything.

If mother says, it's okay, but you're not going to tell me. You never did that, did you? And so, we do... See, if we see it was God, no problem. Because if God wants it, well, fine, you know. But we can't see it.

And he uses bad people and bad things. Like they're going on in our government today. And if we knew that God was doing that, which he is, because he's working something, we wouldn't have any problem.

Okay, but we can't see it. And all we can see is wicked people, and we get mad. See? And our gods begin to jump within us. We want to get even. We want revenge. We may want to swear. We want to start writing letters.

Do something. Vote Republican or do something. And that's when we have to go to God and find out, why am I losing my peace? Why am I losing my cool here? Why is the fruit of the Spirit being arrested here?

What is it that's causing me to do this? And of course, we feel righteous about it. I have my rights. We all have our rights. But this is an unjust world. Okay? This is an unjust world. And so many times, you won't have your rights.

And if you've got to have your rights, you're going to be in an uproar from now on. And if you've got to have people speak well of you, you're going to be in an uproar from now on. And if you've got to defend your testimony, you're going to be in an uproar from now on.

Because these are the sufferings of Christ. That's what He suffered. And so, here we are in a prison. Now, you do have a couple of options here. You can kick and scream and make everybody around you miserable, including the Lord, and throw a tantrum, and wrench yourself out of the situation.

Usually, to get yourself out of the situation, you have to break God's laws in some way. Or you have to betray someone who trusts in you. Not always. Now, I have to throw in a disclaimer here. Sometimes the heat gets on us because God wants us to make a move.

We don't get a spirit of masochism where we just enjoy taking punishment. That can happen. That's an occupational hazard. You know, let them beat me some more. Well, that's not mentally healthy. It's not psychologically healthy.

So, you've got to pray. Lord, is it your will that I'm being beat around the head like this? Am I really in your will? Or are you telling me that I'm doing something wrong? So you have to, don't take anything for granted.

Don't take any kind of a hell you're going through for granted. Pray. And even in the deepest pit that you get in, always let your request be made known to God. Always pray and tell God what you want.

It's fine to be in prison. Don't become a prisoner. And it's easy to do. Joseph never became a prisoner. I mean, he was in the jail one night, and the next night he was lured over Egypt. And he had no problem making the transition.

He could have come out and said, I'm not worthy, and, you know, the sun hurts my eyes, and choose somebody else, you know. Because he's feeling so sorry for himself. And prisons can make you feel sorry for yourself.

Prisons can make you hate God. So, there's live bullets there. So it's a dangerous business. So when you get in hard straits like that, that's no time to be a fool. You get serious with God. Lord, I'm not a happy camper at this point.

Things are going wrong. Lord, is this you? Sometimes Satan will fill your house with dread. I mean, just fill your house with dread. Something to worry about will open the door, and in comes the dread, and first thing you know, your whole house is full of gloom.

You've got to kick it. It's not God's will for you to have a gloomy house. What in the world is happening? That's not God. See that? The door was open through your worry and your concern about something real.

But, you can still be burdened, and you can still be concerned without getting gloomy. Because once you get gloomy, nothing's being done. You just feel rotten, and everything's dark, and down and depressed, and that's not God.

So there's skills you'll learn there. But in the meanwhile, all your gods are acting up. And the purpose of keeping you in there like that is so that you can deal with these gods, because that heat will cause the stuff to keep coming up to the surface.

And even though you're in a constraint, even though you're in a box, you're shut up, and you can't come forth. You don't kindle sparks and walk by your own fire, as it says in Isaiah. You don't do that.

You wait. And you say, Lord, why am I in trouble? Am I afraid of dying? Very often, like this year 2000, that people get on and up and roar about, and they're going to move to another state, and they're going to stockpile rice, and they're going to do this and that.

That is seldom God. If anybody in here is doing that, you ask the Lord if He's telling you to save your life in this way. Say, Lord, where do you want me? Do you want me to be off hiding with my family?

Or do you want me to be where I can help people? Ask God and see if He tells you to be terrified of the year 2000. Because I'm going to tell you something right now. If you go running away from danger, you're going to run right into the line of fire.

Right into the line of fire. There's a famous poem about that. Anybody remember it? In your classical studies? It's a Persian poem. Bill, maybe you remember it. I'm trying to think of the name of the city.

The name of the poem is the name of probably Rudyard Kipling. But anyway, it's this guy that was prophesied that he was going to die or something like that. So he fled his city, and he went to another city.

That's where he got killed. And that can happen. We're not to panic about the year 2000. We may very well be heading for a severe recession. We're not to panic about it or stockpile gold or anything else.

You're to ask the Lord what you should do. Your responsibility and my responsibility is to take care of the body. To see to it that our brothers and sisters are taken care of. Not to go fleeing somewhere with me and my wife and my kids.

Is us for or no more? Well, that's not what God has called us to do. What did Jesus say about saving your life? You're going to lose it. So keep away from these people in the year 2000 thing. I'm not talking about playing the fool.

I'm saying you go to God. And what's behind these things is the fear of death. And God doesn't want us to be afraid of death. OK? God does not want us to be afraid of death. It's a bondage. So clinging to this life is one of these gods that's up here.

And God wants it under our feet where we're happy. So we're going to die tomorrow. I remember reading a story about a missionary family during the Boxer Rebellion. And they knew they were going to die.

And they had their little children around them. And the kids were scared. They said, oh boy, we're going to be with Jesus. That's the way the Lord wants us. And that's true. They were killed and they went to be with Jesus.

The kids were tickled to death. God doesn't want us afraid of death. And when that's motivating us, it's something to be put beneath our feet. That's a god. And so all these things come popping up when we're in prison.

The Second Death and the Behaviors It Judges

OK? Now, I said that it's not obvious why this He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death. It looks like it's not related, but it's directly related to the prison. Because the second death has authority over all these bondages.

And if the prison sets you free from them, the second death can't hurt you. Let's take a look at some of the things that the second death has authority over. In Revelation 21, 8, and I think there's 8 of them, aren't there?

In Revelation 21, 8, there's 8 things. And you can ramify these out. They are things that have to do with our behavior. And they are gods. And God puts us in prison. Now, one thing we need to understand as Christians is that the Father has given the second death, the lake of fire, authority over certain behaviors.