Five Foundations(Sermon 4/18/21)

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:07

Amen, you may be seated. If you have your

00:36

Bibles, turn with me please to the 12th, the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews.

00:43

The epistle to the Hebrews, really a sermon to the Hebrews. Chapter 11, you're probably familiar with it, but I wish to read beginning at verse 32.

01:01

Hebrews 11, beginning at verse 32. And what more shall

01:07

I say, for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

01:32

Women received back their dead by resurrection and others were tortured, not accepting their release in order that they might obtain a better resurrection.

01:40

And others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment.

01:47

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword.

01:54

They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill -treated, men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

02:07

And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.

02:19

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance in the sin which so easily entangles us.

02:29

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

02:48

Thus far reading of the word of God. There are many sermon topics that I would rather present to you today.

02:59

I have thought over and over again about the appropriateness of our subject today, in light of the fact that we have young people with us.

03:10

So parents, you may need to have some discussions this evening in light of the difficulty of the subject that we seek to address.

03:19

But I simply think that it is absolutely necessary that as the pastors of this fellowship, we address you and prepare you for difficult times and situations.

03:36

You may have read the story recently of a former Chinese detainee, a member of a

03:42

Chinese house church who was imprisoned in 2018 in the

03:49

Southwestern province of Sichuan. He was placed in a mobile facility specifically designed to break

03:58

Christians and deconvert them, to get them to deny Christ.

04:05

He was held in a windowless room without ventilation with no time allowed outside for 10 months.

04:17

He received only two meals per day. And he confessed when his story was told that suicide very quickly became a regular thought in his mind, self harm.

04:33

You may also remember the story of the Uyghur Muslim woman who was in prison for 18 months and the experiences that she had.

04:43

And again, much of the issue had to do with isolation, removal from one's family.

04:53

When we think about persecution, we often think of it in the context and maybe even have in a humorous fashion, spoken of, well, see you in the gulag.

05:07

And that has happened to Christians in the past. If you've already heard me quote this before, forgive me, it is obviously for me, one of the most incredible elements of church history and letters that have come down to us from church history.

05:25

But I wanna read to you briefly from Cyprian's letter.

05:31

Bishop Cyprian was a martyr. He was beheaded by Rome in 254

05:36

AD. Before that took place, as the

05:43

Bishop of Carthage, he wrote to Christians who had been arrested for their faith and enslaved in the mines.

05:52

They were forced to dig for gold and silver for their captors. And obviously mine safety was not the biggest thing in the

06:01

Roman Empire. Many died. They were expected to. That's why they were sent there.

06:09

I wanna read you just a little bit from a letter that Cyprian sent to them. And I'm gonna read from the beginning with the names because these were real people.

06:17

These are real Christians. Cyprian to Nemesianus, Felix, Lucius, another

06:25

Felix, Lydius, Polyanus, Victor, Yader, and Dattivus, his fellow bishops, also to his fellow presbyters and deacons.

06:34

And the rest of the brethren in the mines, martyrs of God the Father Almighty and of Jesus Christ our

06:40

Lord and of God our preserver, everlasting greeting. Could I be silent and restrain my voice in stillness when

06:48

I am made aware of so many and such glorious things concerning my dearest friends, things with which the divine condescension has honored you so that part of you have already gone before by the consummation of their martyrdom to receive from the

07:04

Lord the crown of their deserts? Part still abide in the dungeons of the prison or in the mines and in chains, exhibiting by the very delays of their punishments greater examples for the strengthening and arming of the brethren, advancing by the tediousness of their tortures to more ample titles of merit to receive as many payments and heavenly rewards as days are now counted in their punishments.

07:33

But that being first severely beaten with clubs and ill -used, you have begun by sufferings of that kind, the glorious firstlings of your confession, is not a matter to be execrated by us, for a

07:47

Christian body is not very greatly terrified at clubs, seeing all its hope is in the wood.

07:55

The servant of Christ acknowledges the sacrament of salvation, redeemed by wood to life eternal, he is advanced by wood to the crown.

08:03

But what wonder if as golden and silver vessels you have been committed to the mine that is the home of gold and silver, except that now the nature of the mines has changed and the places which previously had been accustomed to yield gold and silver have begun to receive them.

08:20

Moreover, they have put fetters on your feet and have bound your blessed limbs and the temples of God with disgraceful chains as if the spirit also could be bound with the body or your gold could be stained by the contact of iron.

08:32

To men who are dedicated to God and attesting their faith with religious courage, such things are ornaments, not chains.

08:40

Nor do they bind the feet of the Christians for infamy, but glorify them for a crown.

08:46

Oh, feet blessedly bound, which are loosed not by the smith, but by the

08:51

Lord. Oh, feet blessedly bound, which are guided to paradise in the way of salvation. Oh, feet bound for the present time that they may be always free with the

09:01

Lord. Oh, feet lingering for a while among the fetters and crossbars, but to run quickly to Christ on a glorious road.

09:10

Let cruelty, either envious or malignant, hold you here in its bonds and chains as long as it will.

09:18

From this earth and from these sufferings, you shall speedily come to the kingdom of heaven.

09:25

The body is not cherished in the mines with couch and cushions, but it is cherished with the refreshment and solace of Christ.

09:35

The frame, wearied with labors, lies prostrate on the ground, but it is no penalty to lie down with Christ.

09:43

Your limbs, unbathed, are foul and disfigured with filth and dirt, but within they are spiritually cleansed, although without the flesh is defiled.

09:54

There the bread is scarce, but man liveth not by bread alone, but by the word of God.

10:01

Shivering, you want clothing, but he who puts on Christ is both abundantly clothed and adorned.

10:07

The hair of your half -shorn beard seems repulsive, but since Christ is the head of the man, anything, whatever, must needs become that head which is illustrious on account of Christ's name.

10:19

All that deformity, detestable and foul to Gentiles, with what splendor shall it be recompensed?

10:26

This temporal and brief suffering, how shall it be exchanged for the reward of a bright and eternal honor, when, according to the word of the blessed apostle, the

10:36

Lord shall change the body of our humiliation, that it may be fashioned like to the body of his brightness.

10:45

It goes on. It would be one thing to say, well, Cyprian's just trying to cheer them up, but Cyprian would himself, in a very few years, cheerfully lay his head upon the block to have it severed from his body by a

11:04

Roman soldier. Gulags and prisons would allow some level of fellowship, some level of communication.

11:17

Prisons might even allow us a Bible, but I'm here today to talk to you, and hopefully you will take note and you will put in your

11:30

Bible and you will take time to memorize and to think, what if it were to happen to us, what is happening to our fellow believers in places like China and North Korea today?

11:47

I do not want to be a pastor who does not try to prepare the people for the worst case scenario.

11:58

I pray that that will not be our experience. But I don't know about you, but the past year and a half has forced me to think much more about these issues than ever before.

12:18

What if we are cut off? What if we are isolated? Years ago,

12:26

I did not realize at the time how important it would be. I was ministering in Berlin and my contacts there, my hosts there, on a day when

12:39

I was not teaching, took me to visit a place that has haunted me ever since.

12:45

It was called the Stasi prison. It was the East German secret police prison that functioned up until 1989.

12:55

That wasn't long ago. Some of us remember 1989 very well. You're allowed to tour it now, and what

13:07

I remember so clearly, not only the dark, windowless, single light bulb cells, dark walls, but the fact that in the hallways they had built what you would call traffic lights.

13:28

Why? Because the whole idea was to completely isolate you so the only human being you would ever see would be the guard and your counselor.

13:43

So that when they would be taking someone for a session of counseling, which would be brainwashing, abuse, maybe beatings, you would never, ever, ever, ever see another prisoner.

13:58

Because they knew that if you even saw for a moment someone else who was suffering like you, such a connection would be forged, that you would be encouraged and they'd lose weeks worth of the effect of the isolation upon you.

14:19

What would happen? That's what they're doing in China. Unfortunately, those same

14:25

Chinese people seem to have a tremendous amount of influence over political people in the West today.

14:35

The question has been central to my thoughts for the past few months, and so I want to provide you with five foundations.

14:42

They are not the only things to consider, but if you are being deprived of sleep, which they will do, if you're being deprived of fellowship, of food, five things is a lot of things to remember.

15:02

So I figure you start with the basics and build out from there. I hope these will be basic points you can put in the flyleaf of your

15:10

Bible, memorize them, work on them as foundational, helpful, necessary sanctification and preparation.

15:19

Five things, let me give them to you and then explain each one. Number one, fingerprints.

15:28

Fingerprints, I'll explain, don't worry. Fingerprints. Number two, light from the empty tomb.

15:36

Light from the empty tomb. Number three, established in the heavens.

15:44

Established in the heavens. Number four, a cloud of witnesses.

15:50

A cloud of witnesses. And number five, faithful promises. Faithful promises.

15:59

Fingerprints, light from the empty tomb, established in the heavens, a cloud of witnesses and faithful promises.

16:06

What do I mean by each one of these? These would be the foundation that would allow you, when your faith is being attacked, you are separated from your brothers and sisters, your family and your friends.

16:27

The war will be taking place right here. You will not be in any position to be debating the secularist who may, in their decision, in their deception, think they're actually trying to help you by torturing you.

16:51

You will not be in a position to be debating them. This will be warfare going on right here.

17:01

And you need to have foundations, stakes driven deeply into the ground. And we need to be working on these now.

17:14

We need to have been working on them for years. But it's always a good time to start.

17:23

First point, fingerprints. I was thinking about the fact that if you are isolated and given nothing, you still have your body, you still have these fingerprints.

17:42

There can be no question, and we must have this as an absolute conviction.

17:48

There can be no question of God's creation of this universe and of all the life therein.

17:59

Yes, you're a unique person. That fingerprint proves it. But I'm not talking about your fingerprints.

18:07

I'm talking about the fact that God has left His fingerprints all over His creation.

18:16

And what that person and those people are gonna be trying to do, because it's all they have, is to convince you that that God does not exist and those fingerprints aren't right there in front of you.

18:30

You must be convinced. You must recognize that by the very fact that person is seeking to attack your faith and to break you down and to get you to deny your

18:42

God, they're even using the very gifts and abilities that He Himself gave to them.

18:52

The mind that they are using, the eyes that they are using, the speech that they are using cannot be explained by random accident.

19:05

You've heard the terms and they're proper terms. You've heard the debates that Jeff has done where he's talked about stardust.

19:15

That's what you are. You're just stardust. You're random, unmeaningful, unpurposeful remnants of stars that have collapsed in the past.

19:29

Just dust, fizzing chemicals. I prefer being a person who, yes, was old enough to have watched the original

19:40

Star Trek series when it first aired. I heard someone say, wow.

19:49

I prefer a term that came from Star Trek, ugly bags of mostly water, because that's a good description, especially if you're a silicon -based life form, but let's not get into that right now.

20:06

Ugly bags of mostly water. Ugly bags of mostly water do not reason.

20:13

They have no purpose. What one ugly bag of mostly water does to another one has no eternal ramifications, and there would be no reason for this person to be trying to get to break you if that's all you are and that's all they are.

20:30

They are a walking contradiction. But not only that, as you look at your hand, the biological processes going on within just your hand are astonishing in their complexity.

20:51

Darwin had no idea, none at all. He could never have come up with this crazy theory if he had known.

21:00

If you ever get a chance, while you still have that opportunity, look on YouTube. Look at the mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell.

21:12

Look at the complexity of how your body produces energy.

21:20

How do you take a french fry and turn it into a coherent thought?

21:27

That's a pretty amazing trick, but your body doesn't.

21:35

There are the most amazing little tiny micro -machines. It's so small we can't make anything like it, and if we ever do, it'll just prove how much technology it took to do it.

21:46

Tiny little micro -machines inside the mitochondria that allow you to transfer particular proportions of chemicals so that you can reconstitute what's called

22:01

ADP and ATP. That's what your body runs on. Right now, your heart is beating.

22:06

Well, it takes energy to contract. Where is it getting that energy? Adenosine triphosphate. It's breaking a phosphate group off from ATP and making it

22:16

ADP, but your body is so amazing, you can take ADP and in the mitochondria, you've got little, they're literally little spinning machines that grab hold of ADP particles and grab a phosphate group and snap it back on and then kick it out to run your body a little bit more.

22:39

It's astonishingly complex. And we didn't know about any of this stuff until just the past number of decades.

22:47

God has left his fingerprints all over his creation, and no matter how dark it is in a cell, those fingerprints are still clearly seen to those who have eyes.

23:05

When your enemies seek to convince you that you live in a meaningless, purposeless universe, they're a walking contradiction because every time they move their mouth, they're using what

23:20

God has designed. They're borrowing from him.

23:28

His fingerprints are all over them. So take some time to contemplate the evidence of God's design and creation.

23:39

Look at some of the things I've talked, I would recommend looking at the irreducibly complex systems found in the eye, in the blood clotting mechanisms, in the genetic systems, and especially the incredible system of cellular respiration which is what

23:53

I was just describing. No amount of screaming or threatening or beating or rhetoric can change the fact that the world around us is covered in evidence of God's existence.

24:09

Know it, remember it, connect it to what you can see in yourself because that may be all you have in that situation.

24:19

Fingerprints. Number two, light from the empty tomb.

24:25

Light from the empty tomb. While it's true the resurrection of Jesus must be seen in its context with the rest of the divine drama of redemption, must be seen in light of the incarnation, must be seen in light of the teachings of Christ, his ascension to the right hand of the

24:46

Father, all the prophecies and everything else, still it is the resurrection that is the center point of history itself.

24:57

What happened before pointed to it, what has happened since has been indelibly marked by its reality.

25:05

Death is the universal human enemy. Christ and he alone has conquered it.

25:17

Man left to himself will trade his very soul for another hour of life but since the stone has been rolled away, there is no need to fear what he has conquered for those who are in him.

25:35

This is only true for those who are in him in relationship to Christ.

25:43

That means even in the darkness, we have a supernatural light that cannot be extinguished.

25:54

The world can try to lock us away but the light that comes from the empty tomb cannot be stopped by walls and gates.

26:05

It cannot be stopped by buildings and loneliness. The light from the empty tomb is yours at all times.

26:17

At all times. The enemies of Christ may hold us in darkness in this world but what we must remember, it is they who stumble in spiritual darkness even when they have the light of the sun.

26:35

And the one torturing you may go out to breathe fresh air and eat wonderful food but they walk in darkness.

26:48

One of the most difficult things to try to communicate and I don't believe that until we would experience these things, we would be able to fully comprehend it and understand it.

27:04

If you have not had the chance to read The Hiding Place, please do so.

27:11

Please do so. Yeah, you can watch the movie if you're, but please.

27:20

I had the opportunity barely two years ago to visit

27:27

The Hiding Place. To see the room where the

27:32

Jews were hidden. I'm talking of course about Corey Ten Boom and the Ten Boom family and they're working in the underground in Holland and rescuing so many

27:44

Jews during the Nazi Holocaust. Then they themselves were discovered and Corey and her sister

27:52

Betsy ended up in the Ravensbruck concentration camp for women. Very few of their family survived.

28:03

Corey did, Betsy did not. But the constant theme that ran through what

28:12

Betsy said to Corey was that we must not hate.

28:25

We must not hate those who mistreat us and beat us.

28:32

We must not hate those who kill our friends and our family. If we give in to hate, we become like them.

28:42

And I'll admit, I can't do that.

28:48

If I saw the things they saw, experienced the things they experienced, but Corey would have told you.

28:59

She couldn't do it either. Outside of the miraculous work of the

29:04

Spirit of God in her life. If you have the light from the empty tomb, live in it hatred for those around you who are persecuting you will plunge you into darkness.

29:25

Easier said than done, I know, I know. Number three, established in the heavens.

29:35

Established in the heavens. The focus of any attempt to deconvert a

29:41

Christian, whether it is in isolation and torture or in a large classroom at Arizona State University will be upon the

29:54

Bible. That'll be the focus. While it's always good to have a broad and solid understanding of the history of the

30:05

Bible and its proper context. And we try to provide that to you as best we can in the ministry of the word in this place.

30:13

No one can know everything there is to know about the scriptures. But one thing we must remember, the same one who conquered death and rose from the grave and ascended on high held the highest view of the scriptures as God speaking.

30:36

The very words of God himself. No enemy who comes against us can predict his own death and resurrection and then bring it about.

30:49

Hence, they lack sufficient authority to overthrow Christ's testimony to the word.

30:59

You may become tired of hearing the attacks. You may be presented with things you've never heard of before that you don't have answers to.

31:12

You may be lied to. If we've learned anything over the past number of years and if you've read anything and I would suggest to your reading.

31:26

Last weekend, I did a real long ride and I was listening to just fascinating stuff.

31:33

Stuff that's meant to make you pedal so much faster in the dark. A history of Stalin's great terror.

31:44

Oh yeah, that's upbeat stuff. And what

31:49

I was struck with as I was listening to this book was how the story never changes.

32:01

Once you leave a Christian worldview, there is no reason for ugly bags of mostly water to speak the truth.

32:15

Lying is no problem outside the Christian worldview. We are frustrated today.

32:24

We are frustrated because we have people in power, in office and they put their hand up like this and they swore an oath to protect and defend the

32:38

Constitution of the United States and they're now doing everything they can to destroy it.

32:43

And you and I go, how can you do that? Let me explain something to you. If you're nothing but a cosmic accident, this means nothing, nothing.

32:56

I put my hand up, so what? You see, this had meaning in a

33:02

Christian worldview because a day of judgment is coming.

33:08

And therefore I swear before God that I will fulfill this oath had meaning.

33:18

Means nothing to an ugly bag of mostly water. You die, the bag gets punctured and the water evaporates, big deal.

33:26

There's no punishment, there's no result. So lying to you, lying about the

33:38

Bible, it's happening every day at ASU, every day.

33:47

And you think if it's happening there, it won't happen in that situation? In other words, don't trust any of the alleged facts that are thrown at you when someone's trying to get you to disbelieve scripture.

33:58

They're willing to lie, they are willing to lie. Jesus, who rose from the dead, who knew every syllable of that scripture because he's the one that gave it to us, believed it was

34:16

God speaking. He has greater authority than anyone else. The greatest thing we can do right now to prepare our hearts and minds, you ready?

34:27

Is to memorize the word. If you know the story of the 10 booms,

34:35

God miraculously, miraculously allowed them to have a little, tiny

34:44

Bible. Miraculously kept guards from seeing it.

34:52

It's the only way you can say it. God miraculously kept that Bible with them so that they could have

34:57

Bible studies in the Ravensbrück concentration camp and see people who were consumed with hatred, consumed with love and forgiveness.

35:14

But there have been many others in China today, in North Korea, in other places like that, they don't have the word.

35:26

And so we ask ourselves a simple question. How much of the word do we know? How much have we hidden in our hearts?

35:36

I've told you the story about why I read through the Bible the first time, remember?

35:43

I'll tell it to you again. You're sort of silly to go, oh, remember? Okay, we'll move on from there. And everybody's like, what?

35:50

Picked up a jacked chick track. It told the story of a guy who died, went to heaven and ran into Habakkuk.

35:58

And Habakkuk said, how'd you like my book? What are you gonna say to Habakkuk if you haven't read

36:06

Habakkuk's book? That night, I read Habakkuk, had no idea what it was about.

36:13

But I read it just in case maybe a jetliner lands on the house that night, something like that. So if I ran into Habakkuk, I'd be in good shape.

36:21

But then I realized, what if I then ran into Zephaniah? And so we can chuckle a little bit.

36:30

It led to my reading through the entire Bible. So whoever I ran into, yeah, great book.

36:40

And if that's the motivation that God used, great, fine, wonderful. Now we have a lot more serious motivation, a lot more serious motivation.

36:54

How do you meditate upon God's word if you don't know what God's word says, if you have not memorized it, read in it widely?

37:04

Some people say, I just can't memorize scripture. There might be a few.

37:10

You can pray about that, read widely in it at very least. But I think for most of us, you know why we struggle with memorization?

37:20

In our generation, when I went over to do that debate on transgenderism on CNN a number of years ago, one of the

37:31

CNN producers came in before the program and told us, don't be upset if people cut you off and keep things moving along.

37:38

Our studies indicate that the average adult changes the channel if the subject does not change between every 15 to 20 seconds, 15 to 20 seconds.

37:54

We've all been impacted by it. We are all so easily distracted, and here's why.

38:04

Oh, but I can memorize from this. Yeah, but then someone text messages you, right?

38:11

Or another notification comes up and, oh, someone on Signal has said, oh, takes discipline.

38:22

But the single greatest thing we could do right now, know the word, memorize the word.

38:29

Make it a part of your daily life. Not just snippets outside of a context like you find in a

38:36

Christian bookstore up on a wall someplace where they have this fine -sounding little thing that if you actually know the context, it was

38:43

Satan speaking or something like that. That's happened. Or the next verse is about how

38:49

God's gonna cast you into hell or something along those lines. They just didn't bother to look. Not just snippets outside of a context, but proper memorization, the text along with the flow that leads to and interprets the text.

39:06

We simply do not know if we will be allowed to have a copy of the Scriptures. If we face the kind of persecution our brothers in China are facing today, but it's highly unlikely we would be allowed to have a

39:17

Bible. And so while you have it, devour it. Let me put this real simple.

39:30

If you're a Christian today, you should be spending far more time in the

39:36

Scriptures than you are spending playing a video game or on Facebook or anything in that realm.

39:52

How many friends you had on Facebook will not matter. When persecution comes, memorize it, learn it.

40:06

Plant the word deeply into your heart. Read it, ponder it, meditate upon it, let its roots grow deep, deeper than any hurt, than any threat, than any beating can ever go.

40:23

Know the word, the Spirit of God will bless it. A cloud of witnesses, a cloud of witnesses.

40:34

While you may be separated from others physically for a brief period now, even years is a brief period in God's economy, you cannot be separated from the great host of believers who have suffered for the name of Christ or in the service of our

40:55

God. It is beyond the capacity of man to cut you off from the presence of the

41:03

Spirit of God and hence by His presence with you from the great host of witnesses who have endured before you.

41:12

There is a reason why the Scriptures talk about those who have gone before us.

41:21

There's a reason why we read from Hebrews chapter 11. There's a reason why on the one hand, we heard about people who had overthrown kingdoms and a few verses later were sawn in two because in God's providence,

41:39

God's people have done both by faith, by faith and they're all brought together in that tremendous text that we'll look at in a moment.

41:54

I have never experienced forced isolation. I have been told it is incredibly difficult.

42:03

The time just ceases to exist. Minutes become hours but the

42:12

Christian knows he or she can never be isolated. The secularist who has no spiritual connection to anything outside the world of atoms and chemicals has no resources, no hope in such a situation but the

42:31

Christian can contemplate Scripture, sing hymns if even internally, think upon all the examples of those who have come before us and can have true communion with the

42:48

Spirit and by the Spirit with the Father and the Son. When I was working on this sermon,

42:55

I could not help but think, a man named

43:01

Fritz Erba. How many know who Fritz Erba was, a couple?

43:12

If you get a chance, go online, look up James White, Fritz Erba on YouTube, believe it or not, a video will come up.

43:21

A video we shot five minutes long, a few years ago when we were in Germany at the

43:28

Wartburg Castle, the same place where Luther went, was hidden after what he said 500 years ago today.

43:37

But a few decades later, a man named Fritz Erba read

43:43

Luther's translation of the New Testament and became convinced that baptism is for believers only.

43:49

And he was arrested, separated from his family and imprisoned.

43:55

He was a family man, had a wife and children. He was thrown in prison down there in Eisenach, the city that the

44:04

Wartburg Castle is above. So he started preaching to the townspeople outside the window of his prison cell.

44:13

So they decided that wasn't a good idea. So they took him up to the castle and in one of the castle turrets,

44:25

I guess you would call it, there was a cell, no windows, no doors.

44:35

The only way into it was to be lowered down by a rope, 35 feet down through a small opening about yay wide, yay wide, called the terror hole.

44:51

Can you imagine being lowered through that hole into complete darkness and living there?

45:01

That's where they deposited him. Oh, what terrible, horrible people did that? Lutherans, state church still existed.

45:12

And preaching against infant baptism was preaching against the power of the state. It was considered heresy.

45:21

So he was put down in that dungeon and Lutheran preachers for the first few months would come and would sit up there and preach to him about baptism to try to convert him.

45:36

Can you imagine, think with me for a second, how convinced are you about the mode of baptism?

45:46

I don't know about you, but 35 feet down in the darkness, pedo -baptism all of a sudden starts making lots of sense.

45:57

He died down there. They think they found his body in 2006 outside the castle walls.

46:07

You know how long he was down there? Six years, six years in darkness.

46:19

Let me tell you something, it gets cold in Germany in the winter. Can you imagine what that was like inside those stone walls?

46:25

I don't know how he survived that long, six years.

46:32

There is a man of conviction. I wouldn't have survived that.

46:39

I wouldn't have survived that long. Could not help but think of that man and his faithfulness.

46:49

Even under persecution from Christians. And the reality is we can speak of having communion with the

47:02

Spirit, of contemplating the Word of God. However, my friends, listen to me.

47:11

I'm speaking to myself and to all of us. If we do not cultivate that kind of communion now, it will be very hard all of a sudden to initiate it should we find ourselves under persecution.

47:34

You put it off now, that won't be the time to be taking the first baby steps.

47:47

Reading the stories of those who have suffered faithfully under God's will in the past could be a tremendous help to us today.

47:54

And it's amazing how those stories stick with us. It's amazing how we can memorize them, we hear them just once.

48:03

You'll never, you may not remember Fritz Erba's name, but you'll never forget the man that was stuck in the tower and how he lived in that darkness for six years.

48:13

You'll never forget that. Last point, faithful promises.

48:21

Faithful promises. There are so many promises given to the suffering in Scripture that we could not even begin to enumerate them here.

48:30

Christ has promised to lose none of his own. He will always do the will of the Father. The Father's will is the

48:36

Son lose none of those that have been given to him. Your security for eternity is as secure as the

48:43

Son's obedience to the Father's will. That is the true foundation of Christian salvation.

48:51

But we must look beyond ourselves so as to see our place in the much larger picture.

48:59

Isolation would force you to see the world as a small, tiny thing.

49:04

One of the greatest things that you can do in that situation is to see that you are a part of something much larger than yourself.

49:12

You may not see or understand how it is right now, but you are. I exhort you, we must look beyond ourselves.

49:27

Persecution can limit our scope. We must create a place deep down in our souls where we remember we are but grass that flourishes and then fades away, but what our

49:38

God is accomplishing is so much greater. I may not see how my suffering is accomplishing

49:49

God's purpose, but he has promised me that in fact, it is accomplishing his purpose.

49:55

In some amazing fashion, I am entering into the sufferings of Christ.

50:03

That's the terminology used in the book of Colossians. Those who are persecuting me are actually persecuting him.

50:13

And just as he has risen victorious from the grave, despite the best the enemy could do, so will we.

50:23

So will we. Jesus will crush his enemies under his feet.

50:30

He must do so as it is the Father's will. He will receive an inheritance of nations.

50:36

His strong scepter has been extended over all the earth and he reigns the rod of iron.

50:42

Many of those who have gone before us could only look forward to that day, but they died in faith and the same spirit who upheld them will uphold us as well.

50:58

Five points, five foundations, fingerprints, light from the empty tomb, established in the heavens, a cloud of witnesses, faithful promises.

51:11

And so we turn back to the Scriptures. We turn back to the

51:16

Scriptures and we hear them again. What more shall I say? For time, chapter 11, verse 32, for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets.

51:33

Here's the victorious side. Here's where God used his people and it was clearly obvious that he was bringing something about in their day, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions.

51:56

Who obtained promises? Well, Abram certainly did. He had children.

52:02

So did Israel, so did Joseph. Shut the mouths of lions. Well, we've heard that story.

52:09

Even in Sunday school, we know that one. Quench the power of fire, Daniel again.

52:16

Escape the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

52:28

Yes, God can use his people to do amazing things. Women received back their dead by resurrection.

52:34

Others were tortured, not accepting their release in order that they might obtain a better resurrection.

52:42

Yes, there have been those who refused the offer of freedom. And remember, we have brothers and sisters right now in prisons, in Muslim lands, where all they would have to say is la ilaha illallah wa muhammadun rasulullah and the door would be open and they would be out.

53:05

All they have to do is to deny Christ. Fritz Erba could have been released from his imprisonment at any time.

53:17

He knew exactly what he'd have to say. And in China, all you have to do is bow the knee to Xi Jinping.

53:30

All you have to do is acknowledge the state as having ultimate authority.

53:37

The doors will be open wide. But this text says, others were tortured, not accepting their release in order that they might obtain a better resurrection and others.

53:53

Verse 36, and others experienced mockings, scourgings, chains and imprisonment.

54:08

They were stoned. That's a horrific way to go by the way. They were stoned.

54:17

They were sawn in two. That would be a pretty bad way too. They were tempted.

54:25

They were put to death with the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted and ill treated.

54:38

Maybe they had once had many of the things in this world all taken away because of their faithfulness to Christ.

54:46

That has been one of the most effective ways of turning people from Jesus. I've said it to you,

54:53

I don't know how many times. The greatest power this world has over us is our love of the things of this world.

55:06

It's true for every single one of us in here. If any of us collapse and give in, it's because we've loved the things of this world, the things that are passing away.

55:24

Being destitute, afflicted, ill treated, men of whom the world was not worthy. Wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

55:35

Sounds like Brother Matt, right? Where's Matthew, is Matthew here? Over there, okay.

55:44

That's what, he likes doing that part, so this may be one of his favorite verses. And all these having gained approval through their faith did not receive what was promised.

55:55

Notice, all these, you mean the people that clothed the mouths of lions and brought down kingdoms and wore really bad clothing and wandered in deserts?

56:08

They're all, yeah, they're all together. All these, why are they together?

56:18

Having gained approval through their faith did not receive what was promised because God had provided something better for us so that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.

56:31

He's talking about the fulfillment and the coming of Christ at that point in history. He's looking back at all those who had believed the promises that God had made about the coming

56:41

Messiah, but they had faith. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, this is not some weird spiritual idea that everybody in heaven is sitting there watching everything that we're doing.

57:04

They're contemplating their Savior. They are in joy, not watching us sinning and shaking their heads at our stupidity.

57:14

They are a great cloud of witnesses because they were faithful in whatever situation

57:21

God placed them in. Since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every weight, every encumbrance, every hindrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, even if the course takes us into prison itself.

57:56

You cannot, you cannot think that if God calls you to walk through trial and difficulty, that means he loves you less than someone else who experiences blessing.

58:12

That is a fundamental denial, not only of God's sovereignty, but of his wisdom. It's also denial of the fact that there is one thing that proves

58:22

God's love for you, and it's not the size of your house, and it's not the health you have in your bones.

58:30

It's the Savior on the cross giving himself for you.

58:41

And then here's the key, verse two. Fixing our eyes on Jesus.

58:48

Now it's interesting, that's an appropriate translation, but in the original language, the description of Jesus comes before the name

58:59

Jesus. So fixing our eyes on the author and perfecter of faith,

59:08

Jesus, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

59:23

God is not going to call you to experience anything more than what

59:29

Jesus experienced. The sinless Son of God, the one who had been eternally worshiped by the very denizens of heaven, laid all that aside, was beaten and spit upon by his own creation, and hung naked on a cross to be mocked by his enemies.

59:57

And this text says, for the joy that was set before him, he looked past, he saw the goal.

01:00:10

And that's the description. Setting our eyes on the author and finisher of our faith,

01:00:17

Jesus. You see, persecution makes us lower our eyes to look at what's going on around us.

01:00:30

Oh, woe is me. Fixing your eyes.

01:00:41

You've seen people like this, absolutely focused. They're looking down the way.

01:00:49

They're not gonna be distracted by anything in the way. That's the description here.

01:00:57

That's what we have to be. That's what we have to be every day. But especially, especially when we are called to experience, to have endurance like Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame.

01:01:17

He has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. The promise for us is our glorification.

01:01:26

But the path to glory is the path through suffering. Always has been, always will be.

01:01:34

That's God's will. That's what he has right here in scripture. Are we ready?

01:01:44

Not a one of us in this room should in any flippant manner go, oh, hey, we're ready, no problem.

01:01:56

Let him come get me right now. You see, I'm seeing people doing that online right now and it scares me to death.

01:02:05

I mean, you would at least think, remember Peter, you know, maybe there might be an example given to us.

01:02:16

But the fact of the matter is the promise of God for us is that he by his spirit will give us the grace to endure at the time we need the grace to endure.

01:02:32

Not before and not after. The healthy, proper

01:02:38

Christian attitude is one of utter dependence. Lord, I pray that you will deliver me and my loved ones.

01:02:48

Lord, that you will restrain evil men and women. But that Lord, if you call me to endure,

01:02:56

I will fix my eyes on Jesus. And I will wait for that grace that you've promised will come to me.

01:03:11

The one who promised to come out of the grave and who did will be faithful to all of those who fix their eyes upon him and seek to glorify his name in whatever he calls us to endure.

01:03:36

Let's pray together. Father, in the quiet of this place, in the quiet of our hearts, you have called us during this hour to think about ultimate things, think about our lives, think about what is truly important.

01:04:07

We want to glorify you, we want to honor the name of Christ. We do not want to be amongst those who offered the pinch of incense, who denied

01:04:20

Christ, who gave in. We truly desire to be amongst those who remain faithful.

01:04:30

We want to be Hebrews chapter 11 Christians. We want those who come after us to be able to look at us and take from our patient endurance strength that will help them.

01:04:49

But we know Lord that we live in a day of pampered luxury.

01:04:59

Almost all of us have all the food we could ever want. We confess, we complain when the smallest thing goes wrong.

01:05:14

We recognize that it would be very difficult for us to be separated from our loved ones, to be separated from the fellowship of the saints.

01:05:24

We pray that will not happen. We pray that you'll restrain evil men and women.

01:05:34

But Lord, if that time comes, if you call us to experience that, if judgment has to be so severe as it has been at times in history,

01:05:46

Father begin the work in us now. To ground us so that we will have the foundation to stand in the midst of that great difficulty.

01:06:04

You've given us the foundations. You've given us the spirit. You've given us your word.

01:06:12

Drive us deep into it. Make us to be a people serious in our commitment to you.

01:06:24

And now Father, as we prepare to celebrate once again the great cost by which we have been redeemed, may we once again as we partake of this supper recognize the tremendous blessing that it is.

01:06:46

For if we were cut off from being able to do so, Lord, our desire is that we would be able to think back upon this precious time and relive it over and over again by your spirit.

01:07:01

Lord, thank you for these precious people, these precious children that are in this room right now.

01:07:16

As parents and grandparents, we pray for their protection. We want to do anything we can do to keep them from experiencing such things.

01:07:33

But Lord, we know you build your church and ultimately they are all in your hands.

01:07:42

All of us are. May we trust you completely. Pray these things in Christ's name, amen.