Christian Life and Its Sufferings (8)

0:00We praise the Lord for thy great plan, that we might well in place may be. Thou with Him as we filled with thee, Thou in the sun as fresh might be. Welcome to Life Study of the Bible with Witnessly, a program brought to you by Living Stream Ministry. Witnessly, a servant of the Lord for over seven decades on five continents, culminated his ministry with a 21-year book-by-book exposition of the entire Bible, which he called a Life Study. This Life Study is the basis of our program today, which includes short portions of the spoken messages given by Witnessly. Now, let's join today's Life Study.

1:02First Peter, chapter 4, verses 1 and 2, say, since Christ therefore has suffered in the flesh, you also arm yourselves with the same mind, because He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin no longer to live the rest of the time in the flesh in the lusts of men, but in the will of God. This is Matt Miller and John Pester's Join Me. Welcome back to the radio program, John. It's good to be here, Matt. John, a common misunderstanding among Christians today is related to the matter of blessing and suffering, and that's what our program is talking about today. Many think that if we're suffering, then something's wrong, but the Apostle Peter here in his first epistle in chapter 4, he tells us that Christ suffered in the flesh, and we should arm ourselves with the same mind. Please give our listeners a little foretaste of what we're in for today in this program.

2:03Well, I really appreciate this program, and I really appreciate this message that Peter brings to us because it is central to our understanding of what it means to be a Christian. Many Christians have this thought that the Christian life is a life of blessing. We receive the Lord, and then the Lord begins to pour out abundant blessings. And most often, these blessings in the minds of Christians are material blessings. And so when suffering comes, any kind of suffering, but especially deep suffering, when those kinds of sufferings come, many Christians believe that something's wrong with them, and ultimately they think something's wrong with God. They question God, and eventually they even question the existence of God if that suffering continues. But Peter had a completely different renewed mature understanding of what the role of sufferings and blessings in the Christian life. And it's completely different from this notion that if we believe in the Lord, if we name it, we can claim it this kind of prosperity gospel that is infiltrated. Today's Christianity, it is completely different.

3:05Peter is absolutely 100% focused on the will of God, pursuing the will of God, having his whole life and being directed in pursuit of the will of God. And he realized if this is the way we are as Christians, we will suffer. And he armed himself with that mind. He prepared himself for battle. And as Christians, we need to have this same mind. We need to have the mind of Christ when it comes to suffering. And realize that the sufferings that we experience are related to our fulfillment of the will of God. If this is our goal, if this is our heart, you should expect and you will receive sufferings. Well, we saw that in the life of Christ when he lived on the earth, and we also saw it in Peter's life historically. We know he suffered a terrible death. Right. This is not just the mind of Christ, a mind to suffer, and to be prepared for suffering. This was the experience of Christ. So if this is the mind and the experience of Christ, Christians should have this realization that they cannot be exempted from this as well.

4:05It's a really important word in the program today, John. I hope our listeners will stay with us. We prayed beforehand that the Lord would really have mercy on us as we release this word. Because the listeners really need to get it. I was talking to someone recently a believer who was explaining to me some deep suffering. You just mentioned this word, deep suffering. He went through years of deep suffering in a family situation, and now he's through it. And he looked back on that situation and it nearly tore his life apart. Yet in the midst of that, he gained the Lord like he never could have gained the Lord without that suffering. And I bet also he would testify that he was saved from many, many negative things. He does. That was a real salvation for him. And he even referred to the false concept that many have of blessing. What is a real blessing? And looking back on that experience, you can truly say that he wouldn't sell that experience for a million dollars. Right. But he wouldn't buy it back again for a nickel. That's the proper mind.

5:05Well, John, let's go to witness Lee for Life Study, number 26 of First Peter, which was originally spoken in December 1982. Christ, therefore, having suffered in the flames, you also arm yourselves with the same mind. Peter charges us to arm ourselves with what? The mind of Christ. It is questions Peter's expression. He says arm yourselves with the mind of Christ. Our mind is the strongest part of our being. Whatever we do, it is directed by our mind. Whatever you think you say, whatever you think you practice. So Peter here charges us arm ourselves with the mind of Christ.

6:07That means with the concept, with the thinking of Christ. You have to change your mind. This implies a lot. You know, the coming Christian mind always thinks as long as we love God, as long as we do his will, we will be under his blessing. We sure will not suffer. God would bless us. God would not put us into any kind of suffering. Okay, now, look at Christ. Didn't Christ of God? Didn't Christ do the will of God? He loved God to the animals and he did God's will. My goodness, in full to the animals. Yet, what happened to him? In all his life, 33 and a half years, no blessing there.

7:09At the beginning of his life, he was put into a manor and at the end of his life, he was put on the cross. Where is the blessing? And this one loved God to the animals and he did everything to perform. God's will. Did he enjoy any blessing? No. Suffering. After suffering. All the time suffering. He even didn't have any place for the last time. How about this? Okay, John, there's a lot to say here. But I'm just going to ask you what witness ledges to ask. How about this? What a wonderful word, what a balancing word. Here is the God of the universe, the source of all blessing in the universe, living a human life of suffering on the earth. He begins his life in a manger. There's no room for him in the end. He doesn't have the luxury suite, the presidential suite. He has a manger.

8:10And at the end of his life, he's unjustly put to death on the cross. His life begins in suffering and it ends in suffering. But here was a man who was under the full blessing of God. This is a man when he was baptized, the voice from heaven said, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. God was well pleased with this God man as he lived this life of suffering on the earth. He had nothing. The foxes had holes, the birds had roots, but the son of man had nowhere to lay his head. And we should expect nothing different. We really have to have a renewed understanding not only of suffering but of blessing, because we are so materialistic now. We associate blessing purely with the material things. But the blessing is to be under the ruling and guiding and in the pursuit of the will of God. And this is what Christ experienced. And if we have this understanding, then the sufferings that come to us, we will receive,

9:11we will accept, and ultimately we will even appreciate. You know, I was thinking, John, of the Lord's life on earth and how even at the height of his ministry when he was going into Jerusalem and they were laying out the palm branches before him, he didn't ride in on a white stallion. As a great leader, he rode in on a little donkey. Right. Even his choice of steed, he didn't choose the top beast of burden. He chose a little donkey. And I remember witnessed Lee commenting one time that even about this, the Lord didn't choose a big Cadillac. Right. He chose a baby Toyota. Even the kind of transportation he used was even in a sense of suffering. Right. You know, the blessings that come to us from God are spiritual blessings. And we should have as Christians, we should have the realization of the thought that God owes us nothing. We've already received the highest benefit by receiving Christ. He is the source of all spiritual blessings. We've received him.

10:12He's lives in us. He's part of us. We can be armed with his mind. We can follow in his footsteps. We have really have no need of anything else. And so if we would shift our understanding of blessings and be thankful for what we have already received from the Lord, we would have a real way to go on. And we would have a real way to be armed with this same mind. Well, John, there's a lot more to say. In fact, I will say a little bit more before we go on, that how would people respond to this who focus their whole life and ministry on blessing? They spend their whole ministry talking about material blessing. They may say, well, that was Christ's suffering. But so that we could be blessed. He suffered for our blessing. Yet Peter is here saying, harm yourself with the same mind. And Peter suffered. Paul suffered the whole pattern in the New Testament as a pattern of those suffering with the same mind that Christ had. Because he was absolutely focused in and locked in on the will of God. He knew, he said, he told his disciples,

11:14don't you realize that the Son of Man must needs go to Jerusalem to suffer? He knew what was coming ahead of him because he was pursuing the will of God. And we should have this same mind. We should have this same thought. We shouldn't have the thought that if we follow God, then we're going to get the Cadillac. We're going to get the big house. Frankly, that is so beneath God and the pursuit of his will that it's shameful. It's a shameful testimony that a person would either claim credibility for their ministry based upon any kind of outward material blessings or denigrate a ministry based on the lack of these things. This should not happen. We should be people that are fully pursuing the will of God and prepared to suffer because of that. Well, it's important concept. And as witness Lee said, it's your mind that takes the lead. If this thought is in you, it's going to affect the way you talk. It's going to affect your actions. So we hope that a new thought is entering into many of you right now

12:18as we cover these points that Peter covered in 1 Peter chapter 4. Let's go on to another very important section here with witness Lee. You also arm yourselves weights the same mind because he was suffered in the flesh as seized from sin. No longer to live the rest of the time in the flesh in the lust of man, but in the will of God. And there are God's economy. Suffering does a good job for God's children. What job? Suffering stops your lust. The more you enjoy materially, the more lust you would exercise. You would even indulge in the lust, but who you suffer?

13:18Who you suffer? Your suffer poverty? Your suffer persecution? Your suffer sickness? All these kinds of sufferings stop your indulgence of lust. It is not so easy to do God's will, who you are so rage in material things. So God sends God a signs certain portion of sufferings to you, to stop, to restrict your lust. All the things have been assigned to us by God. In this sense, we all have to worship Him for sufferings. Lord, how I worship you and your sovereignty, you have assigned this much suffering to me. Don't be afraid that suffering will bring you to death. No, the Lord knows.

14:20The Lord knows. Surely He knows how to assign sufferings to us. He would not assign little or much. He would just assign the right portion. You need it. You need it. Well, John, we need it. We need this assignment of suffering and it really is a preservation to all of us whether we're rich or poor. Peter says very clearly that the sufferings that a Christian will experience in his pursuit of God and pursuit of the will of God are, let me see if I can read this quote, it says, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Many Christians believe that their sufferings are related to sins that they have committed in the past. And to a certain extent, that is very correct. But Peter's talking about a different category of sin. He's talking about the category of sin that we may become involved in in the future.

15:23And so the Lord, if you're pursuing the will of God, the Lord will assign sufferings to us so that we will cease from sins that may come to us in the future. Because when what suffering does is it tamps down the indulgence of the lust of our flesh. There's lust in all of our flesh. It's a question of whether we will indulge in that lust and allow that lust to rule us and guide us and be the source of our activities. But Peter says that the sufferings that God assigns to a person who is pursuing the will of God are a kind of protection that will cause him to cease from sins that may come his way. And so in that respect, we have to be thankful to the Lord that when maybe you're sick or maybe you're suffering in an emotional kind of way, those kinds of sufferings, they keep our flesh from being indulged in and that is a real source of salvation to us. And we need to have this kind of mind.

16:24We need to have this kind of renewed mind that realizes that in this suffering, the Lord is actually preserving me and protecting me and keeping me in such a way that I can continue to actively and 100% pursue the will of God. Pretty clear word, John. I think for the sake of time, I'm going to limit my follow-up comments and encourage the listeners to get the printed life studies. We're going to give the phone number at the end. There's a lot more in the printed message that we can't cover in this short radio program. But let's go on to verses three and four of chapter four. For the time which has passed is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles. Having gone on in licentiousness, lusts, debaucheries, carousings, drinking bouts, and lawless idolatries, in this they think it's strange that you are not running together with them into the same flood of disilluteness, slandering you.

17:24Here's witness for the conclusion of today's life study. Verse three, for the time which has passed is sufficient already to have routed the desire of the nations. The time has been sufficient already. Don't prolong that time to live in the flesh in the lust. Having gone on, then in the past you were going on. In the sensuality, lust, debaucheries, carousings, drinking bouts, and lawful idolatries, all these expressions in Greek denote indulgence in different aspects. Two thousand years ago in the Roman Empire, the corruption in the society was like this. Roman Empire was defeated, not by foreign armies. It was defeated by its corruption.

18:29You all know this, so so many ones who know history are very much concerned for the essay. The essay is military powerful, but the terrible thing is the inward corruption. Today, at the weekend, Sunday was a rent begot for his people to have a free day, to worship God, to learn the things of God. This was the purpose for which God arranged for people to be away from work. Look at today, what is going on all the time at the weekend. Nearly all the things mentioned here, sensuality, lust, debaucheries, carousings, drinking bouts. This is the man of life of the nations. You believers were there for quite a

19:29long time. The time is sufficient. Don't remain there any longer. Then verse four in which in all these things, they think it is true that you are not running together with them into the same flood of dispassion. All these indulgences are like a flood. There is a current of the flood of indulgence, yet we believers would not do that. So they think it is true. It is foreign, considering us, alien, foreign, they blasphemy. Here, the blaspheming is not to God. It is a kind of evil speaking to you. I think many of you, in your schools, in offices, in your corporations, among your neighborhood, even among your relatives, you all heard the

20:32blaspheming word. Just because you wouldn't go there away. John Peter spoke these words about 2,000 years ago, but they apply so well today. I like this phrase. He said, they think it's strange that you're not running together with them into the same flood of disilluteness, slandering you. There really is a flood of disilluteness today, isn't there? The whole world is on a downward trend. It has been on the downward trend from the beginning of the fall, and it just keeps going deeper and deeper. And the whole world, and especially the United States, there's just a mass of inward corruption based upon the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. And as a Christian, we should not be in that flood. And when people see us stepping out of that flood, stepping out of that tide, they think it's strange because the whole world is going this way.

21:36This seems to be normal, to be in debaucheries. But that is not what is normal for a Christian. A Christian, it is normal to be outside of that tide, outside of that flood. And so when a person steps outside and everyone that's in the flood sees them stepping outside, they think it's strange. And they blaspheme. And we should have this realization that that kind of criticism, that kind of blasphemy really is a glory to God. It indicates that we are a person that stepped out of that flood, and that we are persons that are in pursuit of the will of God, and not these kinds of gross, sinful debaucheries, and unmentionable, and unspeakable things. You know, he mentioned the Roman Empire collapse because of the inward corruption in it. And there's some concern that maybe America would have the same kind of collapse in the future. But that's not our message. Our message is we hope the listeners would step out of the flood and stand with the Lord.

22:38The situation with the Roman Empire, the strongest nation in the world had the mightiest military yet it crumbled from within, which shows the power of the lust of the flesh, it shows the power of this tide, that if you give into it, then you open the door for a collapse, not only personally, nationally, it's a serious matter. I just appreciated Peter's words. The time which has passed is sufficient. The things that we did in the past, it's sufficient. We don't need to be involved in those anymore. Whether you were a gross sinner or just a small sinner, whatever sins we were involved in in the past, that's sufficient. We don't have to be involved. We should completely put that aside. I appreciate, as a cross reference to that word, sufficient in the recovery version, to Ezekiel 446, and it says that this is the Lord speaking to Israel, it says, and you shall say to the rebellious to the house of Israel, bus says the Lord Jehovah, enough, O house of Israel, of all your abominations. It's even, it's not only sufficient for us,

23:43the things that we've done in the past are sufficient for God. It's time to say enough, let us be people that put aside the indulgence of our flesh, let us be people that arm ourselves with the mind to suffer, let's be people that step outside of this flood, and let's be people that are fully actively engaged in pursuing the will of God. John, that's a very clear word, and I think it's a good word to stop with. Thanks for coming into the studio. I appreciate it. And thank you for listening. We hope you've really received some enlightenment and inspiration from today's program to cause you to really have a new mind, to arm yourself with a mind to suffer. If you'd like to get the printed messages that go along with today's program, you can call us at 1-888-543-3788, or an easy way to remember is that's 1-888-life study, or you can write to Living Stream Ministry, PO Box 2121, Anaheim, California, 92814, or just send an email to radioatlsm.org.

24:45On behalf of John Pester, this is Matt Miller. Thanks for listening. The New Testament is a marvelous and clear revelation of God's purpose and plan. In 1984, Witness Lee spoke a series of 51 messages based on God's New Testament economy, which is his plan to dispense himself into his chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people, as their life and everything to produce the body of Christ, which is his corporate expression as gold and lamp stands in this age, and ultimately as the new Jerusalem for eternity. These messages have been printed in the book God's New Testament economy.

25:47God's New Testament economy by Witness Lee from Living Stream Ministry is available at Christian bookstores everywhere, or you can order by calling 1-888-543-3788.