94-23 Suffering: Faith on Trial – The Sin Which Easily Besets Us

The following sermon by Dr. Chuck F. Betters is from a 7-part series on suffering.

In this scripture-packed sermon series, Dr. Chuck F. Betters walks suffering believers into the honest, holy language of the Psalms, where God’s people bring their doubts, fears, questions, and grief into the presence of the Lord. Beginning with Psalm 73, Chuck helps listeners wrestle with the questions pain often raises: Is God truly sovereign? Is He perfectly good? Why do the wicked seem to prosper while God’s people suffer? This series reveals the building blocks of a shabby belief system, like proof-texting, a lack of understanding of the omnipotence and goodness of God in an evil world, and then builds a theology of suffering that is more than a belief system. Such a strong biblical understanding of suffering equips God’s people to turn to Him when crisis comes. It points hurting hearts to the steady love of Christ, the purposes of God that cannot be shaken, and the comforting truth that in our weakest moments, we are held securely in His grip.

Transcript

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Welcome to In His Grip with Dr. Chuck F. Butters, produced by Marking Ministries. Each in his grip message is designed to help turn your hearts toward Jesus and equip you to walk by faith. Let's join Dr. Butters as he preaches today's message.

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We've been trying over the past few weeks to look at what the scriptures say are some key life principles on crossbearing. We want to begin to take a more careful look at a very familiar yet a very profound passage of Scripture, Hebrews chapter 12. Now, in this series, we have talked about spiritual snow, sleet, and freezing rain. That is suffering that is common to all men, suffering that all of us endure, such as social evils common to all men, or poverty, some poverty that's the result of tragedy or oppression or laziness or dependents who are experiencing the suffering from those who are punished. Wars and natural disasters, death, illness, bereavement, all of these things are common to all men. Whether you're a Christian or not a Christian, these are sufferings and pain and evil that is common to all men. In the first part of this series, we tried to address the question of whether or not our God is omnipotent. Is he truly who he says he is? Is he all perfect and all good? If so, why then does he allow such suffering and evil to take place? And over the past few weeks, that's what we have been trying to address. The last time we were together, we talked about targeted lightning. Certainly there are evils and suffering and pain that is common to all men simply because we're part of the same world. But there is such a thing as targeted lightning, that is suffering that is peculiar to the people of God. Suffering that is peculiar to his elect people. And at the top of the list is discipline. Discipline is peculiar to the people of God. In fact, we are told in Scripture that if we do not endure discipline, we are not legitimate children. That is, we are phony in our profession of faith. Discipline is a part of being a Christian. Targeted lightning. Now we spend some time talking about that kind of discipline. We looked at Psalm 6 and also at Psalm 63, but specifically we focused on an example in Scripture of the question that is raised concerning discipline, and that was Habakkuk. The wonderful story of Habakkuk, where God promises that he would discipline his people through the evil Babylonians. And if you remember, we gleaned some key principles out of the life of Habakkuk. First, he committed himself to understanding his discipline from the perspective or vantage point of the end. That is, Habakkuk was committed to seeing suffering and evil at times unexplainable in this life. That is, he had to be patient to see how God was going to work it all through. And so he took the long view of suffering. But fundamental to Habakkuk understanding God's discipline in his life and in the life of his people was a desire to seek an intimate relationship with his God. If you endure discipline and fail to understand that God is in the process of that discipline of driving you to a greater level of spiritual intimacy, of knowing him more intimately than you ever did before, then you've missed the whole point of discipline. God's discipline is not simply for the purpose of correcting bad behavior. God's discipline is for the purpose of driving us to the foot of the cross, to see him for who he is, to embrace him in his love, and to discover higher and higher heights of spiritual intimacy. And that I suggest to you is one of the missing ingredients in 95% of the people sitting here. We don't have that intimacy. Now we have faith. We have a love for the Lord. We are certainly Christians. But there is an intimacy that I believe escapes most of us. And the reason is because we fail to see God's disciplinary care. We fail to respond to targeted lightning. Habakkuk learned thirdly that he would praise God rather than complain. That God was not going to remove the suffering. God does not promise us anywhere in Scripture that he will remove us from suffering. He never promises to remove the pain or remove the evil. We often quote 1 Corinthians 10, 13, there has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful in that he will not permit you to be tempted above that which you are able to bear, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that you may endure it. We miss that last part. We miss that last phrase, that you may endure it. God nowhere promises to remove us from the context of evil and suffering and pain. He promises to walk us through that suffering and through that pain and promises that in the midst of that pain we may discover a greater intimacy with Him than we knew before we walked through it. Somehow or another, we've bought into this health and prosperity, wealth and prosperity gospel, that we must now control our environment in such a way so as to ensure that we are happy. We are entitled to happiness, we think. That is a materialistic, atheistic worldview. We are entitled to nothing but hell. God owes us nothing. The only reason we can sit here today and claim hope in the promises of God is because of that wonderful word that we need to learn the meaning of more and more every day of our lives, and that is grace. It is by grace that we have any hope or comfort whatsoever. And so when the rain starts to fall, and when the lightning starts to hit, and when the disciplinary hand of God is experienced firsthand, the message He wants to drive home to us is I want to know you. I want to love you. I want you to be intimate with me. I want you to experience more than a catechism type of faith. Your doctrine may be correct, your membership may be in the right church, your stewardship may be proper. You may be serving on committee after committee, carrying more than your weight in the church, and still miss intimacy with the Lord. And that's the sad part. We play at church. It's amazing how cliched we are in the church. Did you ever notice that? How cliched we are? We play at church. For example, baseball has a certain jargon all its own. Now, if you're a baseball player, you know, baseball players can string together sentences that are incoherent to the general public. For example, a baseball player may say something like this that headhunter threw me some cheese, a yakker, some chin music, and then punched me out when he pulled the string. Now, how many of you know what that baseball player means? You see? I see a few hands going up. And the reason you know what that baseball player is talking about is because you're on the inner circle. You know from firsthand experience. What's good cheese in baseball language? A good fastball, you say. What's a yakker? A curveball, a good curveball. What's a punch out? It's when you take three strikes, you struck out. What's a headhunter? A pitcher who throws at a batter. What's chin music? When he throws at your chin, you see. Pull the string, that means you're expecting a fastball and in comes a slow pitch. What's a salami? A grand slam. What's a frozen rope? A line drive. What's the big show? The big leagues. And what's the yard? The ballpark. You have to wonder, why don't they ever say those things? See, but if you're in on the inner circle, you'll understand that. You see, if you're on the inside, you'll understand that. We talk about extending the right hand of fellowship in the church. Now, if you're a non-believer and you just walked into the church, what in the world does it mean to extend the right hand of fellowship? If I were a non-believer walking into a church, I would see somebody's arm starting here and then growing all the way out there. Why don't we just say, shake hands? Look what we've done with social issues. What is what we used to call a sodomite or a homosexual call today? He's gay. Is he really? Is he really? What are the baby killers called? Pro choice. You know what politically correct means? Flaming left-wing liberal. That's what it means. How about government reform? You know how that translates? Higher taxes, that's what that means, you see. We need to get out of this jargon, this ritualism, this churchiosity, and get down to the nitty-gritties of what it means to have an intimate walk with God. We go to church and we fail to see we are the church. We come to a worship service and fail to see that when we go to work we're worshiping. The way we treat our wife is worship, the way we raise our kids is worship. The way we drive our cars is worship. The way we talk is worship. The people we talk to is worship. We're so cliched. We need to get out of that clicheism. You see, we're failing to understand that God is trying to bring us to a point of spiritual intimacy, of driving home the message that through the disciplinary process, He wants us to know Him. And knowing Him means you know the fellowship of His sufferings. Remember what I told you the last time we were together? It intrigues me that the apostle chose the word fellowship to describe sufferings. Fellowship is usually a joyful word. It's a wonderful word. It talks about an intimacy and a union between two people. To have fellowship with someone ought to bring you joy. But he talks about the fellowship, having fellowship with the sufferings of Christ. How can suffering possibly bring joy? The Apostle Paul sums up the whole of his life when he says, My desire is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. And when suffering happens, what do we do? We moan and we groan and we complain against God as though we are entitled to a life that is free of all suffering, free of all pain, and fail to get the message that that pain is a stepping stone to grabbing onto the cloak of Jesus. Are you in Hebrews now? I've entitled this message, The Sin Which Doth So Easily Beset Us, as we continue to talk about targeted lightning and discipline in particular. Look at Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Now, as you develop an overview of Hebrews chapter 12, several key principles concerning God's targeted lightning begin to emerge. And at the top of the list is discipline. Habakkuk is an example, but now the theology is shaped for us in Hebrews chapter 12. The first thing he does in verse 1 is to draw a line from Hebrews 12 back to Hebrews 11. That's the first thing he does with the very first word, therefore, in light of what you've just read, in light of the story of Abraham and Isaac and all the great saints of the Old Testament, in light of the fact that they are now in the hall of God's fame. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, he draws that line. What he's about to say in the next few verses is going to be conditioned by what he has just said in chapter 11. Now there's considerable debate as to what this cloud of witnesses means. I believe it means that the people who have gone before us can and do observe us. The reason I believe that is because the kingdom of God is one kingdom. We live in the visible kingdom of God, but there is a spiritual kingdom of God that is in heaven. The kingdom of God is not two kingdoms, it's one kingdom. The kingdom in heaven, the kingdom on earth. The only thing separating us now is time. Time becomes the restrictive element. And the moment time ceases, which will be when Christ appears the second time, time will come to an end. That's what the sun refusing to shine and the moon refusing to carry its light is really referencing, that God will bring time to an end. And when time comes to an end, the wall that separates the invisible kingdom of God from the visible kingdom of God will be dismantled. I have maintained for years that if God were to allow us to lift the veil even in this sanctuary, between the physical world and the spiritual world, you would see something very dramatic in the spiritual world, even in this sanctuary. The first thing I think you would find is Jesus. You say, why? Because God inhabits the praises of his people. He says, where two or more gather together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. I like to imagine it, even as we're worshiping, I pick out an empty chair or an empty space in the sanctuary, and I like to think that's where Jesus is. Of course, he can only get there unless you've saved seats or something. But uh I like to imagine that he is there. And it's not real imagination, is it? He is here, he is physically here. So are the angels, so is the cloud of witnesses, so are the demons of hell. So are the demons of hell. And you see, when time comes to an end, God is going to lift that veil. That's what the writer of Hebrews is telling us. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, we need to focus on something. We need to focus on something. He says, Let us lay aside everything that hinders. Now you see, that could be a variety of things that keep us bolted down in love with this world. That's a question you need to ask yourself this morning. What hinders you? What has bolted you down so that you are more in love with this world than you are with your God? What has bolted you down? What is he talking about? The sin that so easily entangles, by the way, that's a poor translation. The King James Version says, the sin which doth so easily beset us, that's a worse translation. When you go and examine the Greek word, it's really one word. It's an interesting combination of words that he brings into one word. Eupharistaton, you know what it means? It means the sin, listen, the sin that is in good standing. Well, wait a minute now. The sin that is in good standing. In other words, the sin that is most admired and respected. Respectable sin. You know what that is? In this world, respectable, admired sin is the sin of cynicism. Refusing to believe. And I gotta tell you something. You stop and think about what you, by being here this morning, are saying you believe. No wonder the scripture calls it foolishness. Stop and think about what you're going through the next time you pray. You're speaking in the air. Stop and think about what you believe this world is coming to. That Jesus Christ is going to come back in the sky, and he's going to take the bodies out of the graves, unite them with their spirits, glorify them, and we are going to be taken up. Be me up, Scotty, here I come. That's what you're saying you believe. And then you have the audacity to come and give 10% of everything you earn to a system that teaches that. Are we foolish or what? From the world's perspective, we're absolute fools for believing this. We're absolute fools. From their perspective, it's Eupharistaton. It's the sin which doth so easily entangle, it's the admired sin. The sin of cynicism. The sin that eliminates the miraculous. No room for a transcendent God who is above history yet who invades history. No room for that kind of God. We are just the product of chance. We are just a gathering together of atoms and molecules. We just happen to come together. And that's acceptable. You don't believe that. Take this message into the circle of influence you work with, the environment you go to school in. Take it into the classroom. Take it to any major university in the country today. And I would say, including some Christian colleges. Take it into the seminaries with very few exceptions. Say I believe in a God who invades history. Say I believe in a personal savior. Say I believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. And apart from him, we are lost and on our way to a physical place called hell. That there's a physical heaven and a physical hell. And the only way to that physical heaven is through the blood of Jesus Christ. Go and declare that message, and you'll see Eupharis Staton spitting at you in the face. We are in the minority. This is what the writer is trying to say to us. Discipline is designed. Now see, he's going to talk about discipline. Discipline, God's discipline in our lives, is designed to combat the propensity we have for that very specific sin of Eupharistaton, of cynicism. I gotta tell you something. You don't have to be a professor of biology at a local university with a firm belief in evolution and a denial of anything theistic. You don't have to be a professor of philosophy or a sociology professor at a liberal university in order to experience the sin of Eupharistaton. You can be a born-again believer, a child of the living God, and you will be tempted at the very core of your being with that kind of cynicism. Especially, listen carefully now, especially when God begins to impose the discipline. Why? Because no one likes discipline. That's what he's going to tell us later. No discipline for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. Grievous. All complaints against God's discipline betrays something. You want to know what it betrays? It betrays our spiritual immaturity. Look at verse 2. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Weakness and infirmity, that is discipline, curtails all spiritual pride. Experience the discipline of God, and there's no room for pride. None at all. It's like when you go into the hospital. I don't know if any of you have had major surgery. I've had major surgery once in my life. I gotta tell you, right up front, you lose all your dignity when you go into the hospital. All your dignity. I mean, I had people poking at me and pulling at me and you know, looking at me and examining me, and you lose all your dignity. Why? Because you're sick and you need to get well, and there's radical surgery involved. And when God begins to perform radical surgery, you will have to lose all of your pride. Otherwise, you won't be able to grow into that understanding of intimacy. Notice that expression in verse 2. Fix our eyes. Let us fix our eyes. Now there's several words in the Greek, common words, for fixing or looking at something. For example, there's one word that speaks of looking in an ordinary sense. Like you're walking down the street and you see a kangaroo hopping across the highway. You're looking at a kangaroo. That's one word for it. There's another word that speaks of looking with perception. You're looking in order to discern something. There's another word that speaks of earnestly inspecting something, investigating it very deeply, or to watch something critically. Now, there's a whole variety of words, and those are some of the definitions, but now this word, fixing our eyes on Jesus, is the only place in the New Testament this specific word is used. It is unique to the New Testament. And here's what this word renders. To fix our eyes on Jesus, this is the only place it's used in the whole New Testament, means to look at something or to stare at something until that something captures your mind. Until that something captures your mind. Now, what the writer of Hebrews did is he took that word and put the little preposition APO in front of it. And you know what putting APO in front of it does? It means to stare with wide open eyes, to be so captivated that all of the surroundings fade away and you're focused on one thing and one thing only, that which has captured your mind, that is Jesus. You get the picture? Now, the best illustration I can come up with to talk about that. I don't know if you've ever seen these 3D illusions, these paintings. You look at them and they look like nothing but a mess. Okay? You have to stare at those things. In the mess, there's a picture. And you can stare and stare and stare and stare and never see that picture. How many of you have seen those? Okay, you know what I'm talking about. Now, I am horrible at those. Somebody gave me a book of 3D illusion pictures. At the beginning of the book, they say, these are the easy ones anybody can get. At the end of the book are the hard ones. I can't even get past the first page. I'm staring and staring and staring and staring. Now, the thing you have to do in fixing your eyes is you have to actually look through the picture. And in the process, it has to capture your mind, and all of the surroundings have to be removed. In other words, your brain has to become uncluttered with everything else. That's the closest I can come to understanding this word, fixing my eyes upon Jesus, looking through him, having everything else dissipate around me, uncluttering my cluttered brain. You see, one of the reasons I can't do well on those pictures is my brain's too cluttered. But if you stare long enough, you will see what's behind the picture. That's the word. That's the word the writer of Hebrews is using. You see, first comes the element of complete surprise. You're surprised. Oh, I see the picture. Then you're completely captivated, that makes you unmindful of everything else around it, and then it's the only thing you can see. Oh, yeah, I can see that again and again and again. Why? Because I stared through it. Do you view discipline that way? Do you see that discipline that God brings targeted lightning into a believer's life is for the purpose of uncluttering the brain so that you can fix your eyes on Jesus. Removing images of all else. Fixing your eyes on him.

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You see, that's what he wants. That's what he wants. That's the purpose of discipline.

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Intimacy. Well, look again at verse 2. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him. Now underline these next three words, endured the cross. Now I want you to examine a coin in your mind. Here's a coin. On the one side of the coin, on the one side of the coin is something that is designed for your own good. Something designed to pull you into that intimate focus upon the Lord Jesus Christ. But on the other side of the coin, same coin now, is a calamitous evil. And it's one in the same thing. That's the principle the writer is trying to give us. Sometimes God's means of discipline, even though it's designed for our own good, can simultaneously be called a calamitous evil. This is Paul's view of running the race. The motivation behind his enviable ability to see suffering in 3D. Can you see suffering in 3D? Hold your place there. Go over to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Let's catch the flavor of Paul's 3D view of suffering. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Now I want to paint the image for you. What has just happened to Paul? As 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7 picks it up, something happened to the Apostle Paul. You know what happened to him? God took him in an out-of-the-body experience to heaven. God took the apostle Paul and gave him a glimpse of heaven. Now I gotta tell you, since our son went to be with the Lord, I have begged God to do that for me. I have begged him. Now you go ahead and criticize me and go ahead and find doctrinal error with it. If you haven't lost a child, you don't know what you're talking about. I have begged God, just give me one second. A half a second. Give me, give me, why? If you could do it with Paul, why can't you do it with me? Just one second. Just show me for one second. But notice what he says. To keep me from becoming conceited. Because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given to me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord, take it away! But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, Paul says, I will boast all the more gladly about my revelations that I got when he took me up to heaven. Right? No. I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest upon me. You see, there's that two-sided coin. That's the three-dimensional perspective that this man has of suffering. On the one side is a messenger of Satan designed for the purpose of manifesting the grace of God. Showing Paul what the grace of God looks like and smells like and tastes like and experiences like. Again, a poor translation. The word author there means file leader. He is the file leader, the one who goes first in the procession. He is the supreme illustration of what faith means and what faith does. All of those people who were in the Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11, read about them. Wonderful saints of God. Abraham, the father of all who believe in the Old Testament, was a liar. David, the man after God's own heart, was an adulterer. Rahab, Joseph, Elijah. All of the saints of the Old Testament, whether they're listed in Hebrews 11 or not, every one of them are human illustrations of the grace of God. He says that to us. Who is the author of our faith? Do you want to be like Abraham? Do you want to be like Gideon? Do you want to be like Elijah? Do you want to be like anybody? Be like the file leader. Be like the author of our faith. Be like the one who's heading up the procession. Be like the one who is the director of the Hall of Fame, the founder of the Hall of Fame, the essence of the Hall of Fame. Go back to Hebrews 11. See what the writer says about these people. Even in their glaring weaknesses, and we know the weaknesses of all of them. That's why they're in the Bible, to show us their glaring weaknesses and to show us the grace of God. He's our file leader. He is our perfecter. That is the vindicator, that's what the word means, of all who went before without seeing the promise ever fulfilled. All of these Old Testament saints looked forward to a promise they never experienced. Do you know how blessed we are living on this side of the cross? Do you know how blessed we are living on this side of the cross? The promise has come. Christ is the promise. We are able on this side of the cross to see his life and his death and his burial and thank God, his resurrection. And we live in that wonderful hope. He's the foul eater. He died so that they could live. He fought so they could win. He suffered in order to save them. And what's his motivation? What pushed him? What motivated him? Look at verses 2 and 3 of Hebrews 12. Who for the joy set before him endured the cross. You see, all of God's discipline is with this in mind: to prepare us for glory. To get me ready for glory. You see, my problem is I'm too bolted down to this world. I'm too much in love with this world. I feel like this world owes me pleasure. This world owes me peace and joy. And I'm bolted down. And we look around us at all of the things that we can manipulate to make us happier. And God begins to discipline and target the lightning. Why? To unbolt me. To set me free. Because you see, I'm not really a citizen of this world, am I? I don't really belong here. I'm an ambassador passing through. This is not my home. Ever notice that when you travel? You go away somewhere. No matter where you go, no matter how pleasurable it is, you go to Bermuda, you go to Hawaii, you go to the Holy Land, you go to France, you go to England, you go to Marcus Hook. It doesn't matter where you go. When it's all said and done, you want to what? Come home. Come home. You see, that's what the Christian ought to crave. That's what discipline ought to encourage us to crave. I want to go home. But the more I'm bolted down, the more I'm clinging tight, the more I'm holding on, the less I will desire him. Who for the joy that was set before him? You know what motivated Jesus to go to the cross? You want to know what motivated him to take those six and spikes and have them pounded through his hands and through his feet? Do you know what motivated him? The joy that was set before him. And so he was willing to suffer the distance and alienation from his father for my sins and yours. So that he could say triumphantly, It is finished, and enter into the presence of his father. He said to Pilate, My kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is not of this world. All of God's discipline is with this in mind, to prepare us for glory. You see, there's a new heaven, and there's a new earth coming. Those words, by the way, new, do not mean new of a different kind. But new in the sense of renewed from the same kind. God is going to take this earth and his heaven, and he is going to melt them and destroy them and mold them into a new heaven and a new earth out of the same essence, out of the same substance. I don't know how he's going to do that. But we are anticipating that day, a new heaven and a new earth. How then should we view God's discipline in light of the evil of this day and the shortness of the time remaining? How should we view it? Do you know that 85% of the churches in North America are dying? Those are cold-hard facts. Do you know that 15% of the churches that aren't dying? You see, there's 85% are dying. They're just wilting away to nothing. So you have 15% of all the churches in the North American continent are growing. But do you know how they're growing? You put the facts and figures together, we're recycling the saints. Recycling the saints. 15% of the churches that are growing are recycling the saints. What's that tell you? That tells you that the paradox principle isn't working. At least we haven't discovered it. In order to find our lives, we must lose it. We're not engaging our world. You know what we're doing instead? Bolting ourselves down to our world. And the world takes a look at us and says, you know, you're no different than I am. You're miserable and lost and wretched and depressed just like I am. You have no joy and peace and contentment in your life just like I have no joy, peace, and contentment in my life. You're bolted down. You have no message for me. You want to know why we're having difficulty engaging our culture? Because the culture we're trying to engage, we're so much a part of, they can't see the difference. They can't see the difference. To be a Christian means to run counter to the kingdoms of this world morally, socially, philosophically. They believe in other gods. And what are we doing? Bolting ourselves down, fastening ourselves down to the altars of Baal and sacrificing our children on their altars. Discipline is a form of targeted lightning. But you know there's an even greater targeted lightning. Opposition and persecution. You say, what do you mean? Do you know that there are more martyrs in the 20th century than in the first 19 centuries combined? Are you aware of that? Are you aware of the fact that every year 500,000 people worldwide literally die as martyrs for their faith in Christ? Opposition in the Old Testament could have been more than religious. Some say, well, it was political, it was economic, but when you come to the New Testament, it takes on a whole unique form. Opposition is directed against the crucified Christ and against his followers. A pattern is established early in the New Testament church that is not going to end until Christ comes again. The world hates Christ, and as the result of its hatred of Christ, the world hates you, unless you're part of it. Unless you're part of it. In the New Testament, the move of the clash of the two kingdoms goes from the social and the political arenas to the invisible world behind the realms where there are demons and devils and angels. That's not to say that we're not going to struggle in our society with government and politics, but there's a greater war that is being raged than whether or not you agree politically or disagree politically or socially. You know, it's interesting to me. You can check this out when you go home. But Ephesians chapter 6 and in verse 4, it says, Fathers, do not exasperate. Your children, instead bring them up in the training and the instruction of the Lord. Now we've all heard that verse. How many of you have heard that verse? You've all heard that verse. Ephesians 6.4. But have you ever examined the context of that verse, the bookends in which it exists? Because you see, in Ephesians 6.12, he says, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. It is in the context of demonic powers and the struggle against demonic kingdoms that he says, Fathers, protect your children. You know what saddens me? It saddens me. We have a whole generation that's missed this message. Maybe they missed it by choice, but they missed it. They don't understand what forces there are struggling for their children. They don't understand opposition and persecution against their children. You know what we do? We have a whole generation that's coming up. Now, this is going to offend. Some of you may even leave the church. So be it, you've heard the truth. God does not give you your children to sit them out in a daycare center and have the government raise them. Now, you don't have to like that. But what fascinates me is how we pray and pray and pray and pray and pray to get pregnant. Then when we do, we look for a way to bolt ourselves down to the world and give our children over to Moloch and let him raise them. Don't you understand the days are short? Don't you understand the powers of the kingdom of hell? Don't you understand the war that's being raged? Are you missing it? Are you that blind that you cannot see? That your children are the only hope this world has. What are you gonna do? You're gonna give them over to somebody else. Jesus says in Mark chapter 8, if you want to come after me, deny yourself. Boy, now there's a message for some materialistic couples. Deny yourself. Show me your checkbook and I'll show you your value system. Show me what you're spending your money and your time on, and I'll tell you what's important. You better start greasing those bolts and unhooking them, or somehow or another, Satan is going to move in and snatch your kids. Thank God. As I can stand here today, thank God, from the time Mark was a little baby, we prayed over him and said, Satan, you can't have him. His mama and his papa raised him to know love and fear God. Or my boy would be burning in hell right now. You self-centered Pharisee. Get the message. You are in a war. And that war is not going to end until the Lord Jesus Christ comes back. And when he comes, what will he find? Father, thank you for showing us that targeted lightning is painful. And I know this message has been painful to some. Lord, we are bolted down. The sin of cynicism doth easily beset us. And we're just not willing to pay the price tag. No cross. And because we have no cross, we have no relevance. We see the cross, Lord, as a means of public execution, and so our faith must become public. We think of the apostles when they left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name of Christ. Oh Lord, we're just not willing to do that. We hide our faith. We don't want anybody to know. We don't want them to ask questions. We don't want to engage our culture because we're so bolted down. Oh Lord, set us free. Set us free. Liberate us from that kind of selfishness. Oh God, we desire intimacy with you. Now may the grace of God, the love of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus the Christ, the very presence, person, and power of his Holy Spirit abide with each of you now until Christ comes again and forevermore. And all God's people said.

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You have been listening to In His Grip, featuring the preaching and teaching ministries of Dr. Chuck F. Betters and produced by Mark Ink Ministries. Mark Inks Ministries exists to offer help and hope to hurting people by pointing them to the promises of God and the comfort of his word. Through In His Grip, Ask Dr. Betters, Daily Treasure, and Help and Hope, we provide free, faith-based resources for those walking through suffering, grief, confusion, and seasons of peace and need. To learn more about Dr. Betters, explore our resources, or contact us, visit N S R F I N C dot org. May you rest today in the assurance that God can be trusted, even when we do not understand his thoughts.