Go to 1 Timothy chapter 2. I'll just say this before we get into the lesson. Everybody should have a lesson sheet, by the way. Oh, thank you. I gotta get my mic on here. You know, just about every year that I've been around as a Christian, There's always been controversy over politics. There's always been controversy over who should you vote for, and if you should vote, and what kind of a role do you have as a Christian, as a citizen of the United States. And I just want to maybe help clear up a little confusion, if I may. Your position ought to be that you thank God for living in the United States. That ought to be your position. This world is not our home. This world, the Bible says, will grow worse and worse, and men in the world will grow worse and worse and deceive. We surely have a lot of deceivers in our country. We have a lot of wickedness in our country because of our freedoms. We've allowed all kinds of wickedness. But I'm but I will tell you that there is no country on the face of the earth ever in all of history of reading the Bible and even observing today that is like United States of America. And the one thing you may not understand when you think about it or is that the gospel has been propagated in this country to such an extent that it has gone to the whole world. And missionaries that we're gonna have speaking tonight, going over to Haiti, being supported by the people in this country to be able to evangelize that country. And so there's a lot to be thankful for. And I read a commentary on 1 Timothy chapter two, and that's what I wanna get to just in introduction, which has nothing to do with the class today. But 1 Timothy chapter two, I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, For kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who will have all men to be saved. and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. So the idea that we have that situation right now, we have a quiet and peaceable life, and that's my prayer. And when I vote, that's what I vote for. I want the ability to have the freedom of speech. You may not realize it, but that one thing right there is allowing you and I to be here this morning. If it wasn't for that, I guarantee you with the men that are in office today, they would have shut this down a long time ago. Right? Because they do it in China, they do it in Russia, they do it in Saudi Arabia, they do it around the world. And so, thank God. And so, when I was reading a commentary and it said that Paul prayed this prayer too, no doubt he wrote this. And he prayed this prayer, and I don't know, you know, all through time, all times, there has been, I'm sure, quiet and peaceable lives here and there, but never like it has been here in the United States. And to think that when Paul asked Timothy to pray like this, that some I don't know what, 1,600, 1,700 years later, there would emerge a country called the United States of America, and people who come here would lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, and that the gospel would spread. So the next time you get too down on your country and too upset about politics, and you know, we have no, as Christians, we have no business in politics. I've heard that. I don't agree with that. I hear that from preachers. I don't agree with that. You can do what you want with it, but you have Bible on it right there. God asks you, at least for nothing else, to pray that that would be so. And do you pray for that to be so around the world? You should, because there are a lot of our brethren, and we'll talk about it today. Go to Romans chapter 8. There's a lot of our brethren who are suffering, and we don't suffer. We don't suffer. Me having a sniffle this morning is not suffering. There's a common suffering of mankind, which is the fact that we all die and we all live in a corrupt body. But then there's suffering for the cause of Christ and for the faith of Christ. We'll get into that here soon. Romans 8 verse 17 is where we are picking up. We ended up with verse 16. So we'll read it because it has to do with 17. Verse 16 says the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children in verse 17 and if children then heirs. We're heirs with God. It says, and joint heirs with Christ. Now imagine that. We talked about the spirit of adoption last week, and it's in verse 15. And you've been adopted into a family where not just that you get the privilege of having them as, in this case, God as your father, but you actually become an heir. of everything that God has planned through Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is God. You get everything that God wants you to have through Jesus Christ. Whatever he gets, you get. And so that's amazing, but we're heirs of that in verse 17. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be also glorified together. Now, we've talked about conditional and unconditional before. I have a note on your paper right there in parentheses. I added to the scriptures. I really just added commentary to the scriptures. So when we read, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, that is unconditional. You are an heir of Christ. You are an heir of God. It's unconditional. And what are you gonna get for that? Well, It's right under the verse on your paper. Every Christian will receive a standard inheritance. If children, then heirs. If you're a son of God today, in 1 John 1, 12 is it, for as many as received him, to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them who call on his name, something to that effect. So you are a son of God, and if children, then heirs. So you get a standard inheritance. This inheritance includes receiving a new body, You are gonna get a new body, just look over in verse 23. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit. That's what happens when you got saved, you got that. Even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our bodies. So we are gonna get into it later, but you're two-thirds saved right now. Your spirit and soul are saved, but your body is not. Your body is that same old person that you drag on through life, before you were saved, the same one after you were saved. But you get a new body, and you get to enter into the kingdom of God. Now I give you plenty of references, and I try to do this every week, try to give you plenty of references that you can take this home with you, and check up that I'm not lying to you. All right, then I'm telling you the truth according to what I believe the Bible says. So I try to give as much supporting scriptures for the statements I make so that you can go back and read the Bible for yourself and decide. But I want you to turn to John chapter three and see something here. John chapter three, we'll look at the first reference. Now, John is in the Gospels, and I hate to have to go into all this, but I will for a moment. John is in the Gospels, and we know that the Gospels were written before Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, which is our Gospel. 1 Corinthians 15 tells you that we are saved by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and by His life thereafter, but not It was not the same before. He was still living and bringing in the kingdom, the gospel of the kingdom throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But John is a little bit different, and John does talk about our salvation. And he talks about it here in John chapter 3, in verse 3, and it says, where am I? Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So if you're not born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, if you're like Nicodemus this morning, you say, well, what is that? What in the world? How can a man be born again? How can he enter into his mother's womb a second time and be born again? That is not what he was talking about. He was talking about spiritual birth and getting born again in your spirit because you were dead in Adam, you were dead in trespasses and sins. So if you don't become born again, you cannot see heaven. You cannot see the kingdom, you will not have an entrance. That's a standard inheritance for anybody who becomes a son of God, is you get to see. Then go into verse five, Jesus repeats himself. Well, there it is in verse four about Nicodemus, but verse five, Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water, that's a physical birth, and of the spirit, that's a spiritual birth, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. So you can't see it and you can't enter into it without being born again. So a lot of people say, well, I'm working my way to heaven, and they're contrary to the gospel of the Bible. Well, you're not going to see heaven, and you're not going to go into heaven unless you are born again. All of your works don't cause you to be born again. Only the Spirit of God can cause you to be born again. So when we read Romans 8, 17, we talk about If we're children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. That's unconditional. Once you get saved, you get the Spirit of God. You're going to get a new body someday. You're looking forward to that, and we'll deal with that in the text here. It's called our hope, and that's discussed later on. But you also get to enter into the Kingdom of God. So what many Christians don't realize, however, is that there is more to gain. Now let's look at your paper because I have some verses laid out for you. Paul said he wanted to win Christ in Philippians 3.8. Have you ever read that before? That I may win Christ. Why don't you go over there just real quick. I want you to see the wording there. and what Paul was saying. A lot of religions today teach you that you need to keep your salvation. You need to get saved, however, usually they say through baptism, which is not scriptural for today, or receiving the Holy Ghost by laying on of hands or some other way, or getting the sign of the Holy Ghost, the baptism of the Holy Ghost through speaking in tongues or some miracle. They never talk to you about just simply receiving Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, repenting like Jesus said, and becoming born again. But they say that in order for you to stay saved, you have to do what Paul said, like here in Philippians 3, and win Christ. Look at it where it says, yea, doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ. So it sounds like Paul is saying there that he needs to win over Christ, that he needs to keep his salvation by doing what he did and counting all things but loss for the excellency. But notice it says, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. So not only are we saved, but we're supposed to grow as Christians, and we're supposed to get the knowledge of Christ. And that's what Paul's talking about here. He wanted to win Christ. He wants to know everything about Christ that he can know. But he also knows that there's a prize for it. Look back on your paper, and it's right there if you want to stay there in Philippians 3.14. Let's just turn over the page if you're still there. He says, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. So not only are you saved and get a standard inheritance, but God says He has a calling on your life, and if you fulfill that calling, the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, He has a call on your life. We talked about it last week that we're supposed to be ambassadors. We're not supposed to be closet Christians. We're not supposed to be hiding behind, you know, something and not letting people know we're saved. And I had people tell me, well, I don't want to talk about that, you know, because religion is a private matter. Really? Religion is not a private matter? Well, of course, I'm not religious. That's first thing. I'm a child of God. I am one with my Creator. I have reconciled with my Creator, the Creator of all these things. If you want to call that a religion, fine, but it's not a private thing. It's an open, public thing. We're supposed to testify on behalf of Jesus Christ. When we do that, we're pressing toward the mark. We're looking for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And I'll tell you what that gets to in a moment. He also told us, back on your sheet, He also told us of a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory in 2 Corinthians 4.17. So this goes beyond, as I've been saying, beyond the standard inheritance. All of this comes through yielding and suffering. as referenced in the text. Look back at your text there at the beginning of your paper. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Now that is conditional. If so be that we suffer with him. You say, well, who wants to be a Christian if it's looking forward to suffering? Well, again, thank God you live in the United States of America. You really don't have much suffering in this country. But you look around the world and open your eyes to what's going on in the world, and you're going to find Christians, just to be a Christian, they're going to be put out of the family. They're going to be disowned. They're going to be excommunicated. They're going to be kicked out of the church, whatever church they were in, that was never preaching the gospel. Finally, they get saved, their eyes are open to the truth, and they start telling the people in the congregation, the next thing you know, they're churched. Kick that person out, they're a heretic. No, they got saved. Their eyes have been opened. So that's when persecution begins. And you know, it's not all that bad. We can be joyful in the persecution. Like the apostles said, we counter joy to suffer because we have the truth and you don't have the truth. And the reason you're doing this to me is because you're blind, but I see and I'm happy that I see. And so no matter what you do to me, I'm grateful that it can be done because of what I've been given. I've been given a great gift, I've been given eternal life, I've been given a relationship with the Heavenly Father, I get to see the Kingdom of God, I get to enter into the Kingdom of God. And not only that, I can press toward the mark for the prize, I can win Christ, and I can have a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory looking for me. And so, there's other passages on your paper there, 2 Timothy 2.10, Paul said, therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake. that they may also obtain the salvation which which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. So I highlighted that word with I capitalized it for you in the verse. It's not that way in the scriptures, but I wanted you to know that he's not giving any. He's not saying that your salvation is conditional. He's just saying that when that I may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It'll be one thing to go to heaven. and to be there and just get in, have that standard inheritance of getting that new body and getting into the kingdom of God. It'll be another thing if you come in with eternal glory. with prizes, as the Bible calls them, rewards laid up for you, and gold, and silver, and precious stone, and crowns, and things that we'll be able to even rule and reign with Christ. Because look at what 2 Timothy 2.12 says, right after what we just read there. It says, if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. So there's going to be some kind of reigning going on, and I'm talking about in an overruling way, that you and I will be a part of if we suffer with Him. But if we don't suffer with Him, if the persecution comes and we back down, if the family gets on us and we say, well then, you know, blood is thicker than water, so I stick with the family and not with Jesus Christ, Well, then we're entering into the kingdom, we're looking at a brand new body someday, praise the Lord for all that, but we are not looking for an eternal weight of glory. We're not looking for reigning with Him. When the people in the pew, because you have the Word of God now, and you're sticking with the King James Bible, and the right salvation, and you're getting rid of the tongues, All the other sign gifts that are not for you, but they're for the Jews at a different time in the Bible, and you're starting to get doctrine right, and the brethren, if they're brethren, kick you out of their fellowship, well, you have a decision to make. Are these friends worth more than my relationship with Jesus Christ? Are these friends worth more than an eternal weight of glory waiting for me? These things are conditional. I want to rule and reign with Jesus Christ. Can you imagine that? You know, a lot of people say, well, I'm just happy to get there. Well, you won't just be happy to get there when you get there. You'll be looking at all the people around you that did things for Christ, that fulfilled His will, and that had blessings not only in that life, this life here, with the joy that comes with that, and the peace of God that comes with that, and the satisfaction that comes with that, but then the eternal weight of glory that they're looking forward to for eternity. So 2 Thessalonians 1.5 says that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which also ye suffer. So guys, I got bad news for you. It comes with some suffering. You're gonna face some suffering. And you look at Job's life, and Job didn't deserve any of it. Job just got in a situation where God was trying to prove his righteousness to the devil, and even Job didn't know what he was going through to the point where he was questioning God. And so God will do things. He will allow suffering. All right, but don't think it's for naught. Look what happened to Job at the end. So Jesus himself was exalted through suffering. Well, you're not probably still in Philippians, but go back there real quick. Go back to Philippians and look at this. If Jesus did it, if Jesus had to do it, then surely I have to do it. Philippians 2, verse 8 and 9. And being found in fashion as a man, can you imagine Jesus coming as a man? You may not have ever put yourself in that situation before, but Jesus becoming a man? I mean, that's like you becoming a worm. You becoming a dog. I know some of you don't think that's bad, but the Bible talks very bad about dogs. you becoming the most vile creature you can think of. And that's what he did. It says, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant. Am I in seven now? Sorry, let's go back to eight. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death cross. Wherefore, because of that, Because of that suffering, wherefore God hath also highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. And by the way, I'll read on because I like it. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord of that. I like to quote that to every Muslim I see. because one of these days you wanna deny Jesus Christ right now, fine, go right ahead, but one of these days you are gonna fall flat on your face and you are gonna confess Him as Lord, you're not gonna confess Allah and you're not gonna confess Muhammad, you're not gonna confess Buddha, whoever else you wanna slip in there, you're gonna confess Jesus Christ. And you better just make up your mind to do it now and get this eternal weight of glory and a standard inheritance of a new body and being in heaven in the kingdom of God rather than take your risk with these other gods. So anyway, that's what Jesus did. If we yield to the works of the flesh, however, we will forfeit our inheritance. We won't turn to Galatians 5. Well, we will. I want to do this. I'm taking the time intentionally on this because I want you to get this very clear that the Bible does not teach a work salvation. It teaches you that once you are saved, you can earn. It's a work salvation after you're saved. In other words, you don't work to get saved and you don't work to stay saved, but you work because you're saved. And because you're saved, you want to do things for your Savior. And get this, when you do things for your Savior, He will do things for you. And if you want to have a bad life as a Christian, then just back off and make it a private thing and don't talk about it. And I don't talk about religion or politics, you know. and you'll have a bad life. Galatians chapter 5, verse 19 through 21, now the works of the flesh, we read this before, now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like, of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Now, I'm pausing for a minute. You read that with me? People will take you to that passage. I know many preachers will take you to that passage and say, see, if you are any of those things, You will not enter into the kingdom of God. You will not inherit it. Well, they're wrong. Because that's not what the Bible's telling you there. I want you to, let's see, turn over, where am I? Go to 1 Corinthians chapter six. Keep your finger there in Galatians, okay? Go to 1 Corinthians chapter six. What I want you to know about Galatians, chapter 5, while you're getting to 1 Corinthians 6, is that any Christian, any Christian is capable of adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, ambush, I'm not going to read the whole list, but any Christian is capable of that. What those are, are a list of sins that are in the body. Didn't we read that? If you're still in Galatians 5, go back to 19. Now, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. Right? Those are the works of the flesh. You are still in the flesh. I'm looking at you. You're still in the flesh. And the works of the flesh are these. And if you do these things as a Christian, you can certainly do these things as a Christian, you will not inherit the kingdom of God in the way in which we've been describing to you on your notes here, which Paul says that I may win Christ and press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. You will not earn that inheritance at the judgment seat of Christ. You will forfeit a lot of things. You will have your standard inheritance as a child of God. You will see and enter into the kingdom of God and you will receive that glorified body. But you will not receive the rewards that your other brethren will be receiving all around you. And you will not be ruling and reigning with Christ. That's what is going on in Galatians, chapter five. Now in Galatians and first Corinthians, sorry, chapter six and verse nine, Now look at what it says in verse 9, So who's not going to inherit the kingdom of God? The unrighteous. Are you unrighteous this morning? If you are in Christ, you are not unrighteous. You have the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to you. Okay, so read on. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither, this sounds like the same list we're about to come up to, but it's different. Notice, see if you can pick this up, I'm gonna read the list, but we'll go back to it. Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. Now there's a difference in the two wordings of these passages. Anybody pick it up? There you go. This is, go back to Tuesday night Bible study class. We could have done this for an exercise. But when you look at the words, the works of the flesh are adultery, fornication, uncleanness. These are works of the flesh. These are not ascribed to the person. Over there in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, you have this. You have idolaters. That's someone who does it. You have an adulterer. That's the person who does it. You have the effeminate and the abusers of themselves with mankind. These are people that are committing these things in the act. Let me just tell you something you may not know. And we'll go back to Romans now. What you may not know is you are none of those things as a Christian. As a Christian, you are a child of God. Your soul has been separated from your body and you are free from that flesh in the sense that when God looks at you, your soul is sinless. You are not an adulterer. Now, you may commit adultery. But in God, now this is deep, okay? So hang with me. You may commit adultery, but you are not an adulterer. Because adulterers will not go to the kingdom of God. They will not inherit the kingdom of God. So you can't be that. So if you sin after you're saved, do you lose your salvation like a lot of people try to teach you in these passages? No, because you are not these things. You are a child of God. You are sinless. You are covered in his blood. Right? And so you're waiting, as we're going to look in the rest of this chapter, to lose this body. You're waiting to be free from this body and get the new body because this body does those things. But you're free from that body. Is that clear? If it's not, we'll talk after class, because I have to move on. But all of this will be made manifest at the judgment seat of Christ. where we will receive a reward or suffer loss. I gave you the reference to First Corinthians there. You can look it up later about receiving reward or suffering loss. Yet he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire, the Bible says. You will, as a Christian, you will suffer a loss or you will gain reward based on what you do once you're saved. It's not to get saved, it's to earn reward once you are. Verse 18 of chapter eight of Romans. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. So I highlighted the phrase there, are not worthy to be compared. So when we go through things in this life, Paul has given you a little psychology here, if you will, but it's scriptural psychology, it's Holy Spirit psychology, and that is, compare that, whatever it is you're going through, put that in relation to what it is you're looking forward to. So whatever it is God has put you through down here, whatever suffering that you're going through right now, just say, but it's going to be worth it all someday. You know, we sing that song, it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. And Paul said, it's not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. So this is quite a statement coming from Paul. Realize what Paul did, and I just give you a short list here. He forsook his education. That's something every one of us should do. Forsake the learning that we got from this world and the mindset and the science, you know, science, science, science. It's like science is on the ballot this year. We're gonna vote for science or we're gonna vote for the crazies. You know, well, some of the people in science, in fact, a lot of the people in science are the crazies. They believe you came from a monkey or a one-celled organism, which is, by the way, that is impossible, not to get into it, but that is impossible. It's impossible. You realize that? So if the highest PhD in the land says that you came from a one-celled organism, some amoeba, you can just write him off as crazy. Nut job. You know? And that's his religion, by the way. Because he has more faith in that than you have to have in this Bible. He has more faith in that than you have to have in Jesus Christ. And that there's a God and a Creator. But that's something that gets me going, but I'm going to just leave it there. But that's quite a statement. He forsook his education, Paul did. He forsook his place in society. A lot of people aren't willing to do that. Well, if I got saved or if I started serving Christ or if I had to go to church every time like you do, I'd have to lose my place in society. I might not get a promotion at the work. Well, Paul did all that. He forsook his place in society. He was wrongly imprisoned. He was beaten with rods and whips. Now that's about where I get done right there. You start beating me with rods and whips, you know, I don't know. I've never had that happen before. But I don't like the sound of it. You read 2 Corinthians 11 where Paul lists some of this stuff. He was stoned, he was given a thorn in the flesh, and that thorn in the flesh came from God. He was forsaken by the brethren. And that's what we don't expect sometimes. Hey, I'm serving the Lord. I have truth in the Bible. Wow, this is great. Look at what the Bible is saying. And the brethren come against you. And the brethren say, oh, you're going off on the deep end. You need to hold it back a little bit. You need to just not have all those standards and convictions like you have. And you're missing the point. And they will come after you, not just family. Let me just read something to you along the lines of what Paul went through, and I think this is great. The reality of the world is that there are places on this earth, and there have been since A.D. 33, that's when Christ rose from the dead, around that time anyway, where your brothers and sisters in Christ are suffering persecution and torture because they won't deny the Savior. Thank God, thank God for America. Thank God you have never had that. You have never had to sit under a bright light even with handcuffs on and being asked to deny your Savior. It's been happening all over the world for thousands of years. I guarantee you that some of them have been tortured to the point where they signed a confession recanting what they believed as Christians. You can only take so much pain until you'd be willing to confess anything. I believe that. At some point, your mental faculties just change and you can't handle the pain. Now, if it was possible to deny Christ and go to hell, then we'd be in trouble, but it's not possible. Once you're saved, you're saved. This is what happened to Harlan Popov. I don't know if you know who that is. You might want to look him up. Harlan Popov in Bulgaria. The Communists tortured that saint until he signed a confession to all kinds of crimes he never committed. At the time, he had no idea what he was signing. Consider this. If you were able to withstand the most severe torture imaginable, would you hold up if they were doing the same thing to your wife or your husband or your children or your parents? This is where we think we're spiritual sometimes and we would suffer for Christ in any way possible and we would never recant. Well, They know, people have invented many, many ways of torture. And it's sadistic, and it's evil, and it's wicked. But they will not just torture. If you're too tough, they'll just go after your kids. Or they'll go after your parents or someone you love. And they've done that. There was many a mama in the Middle Ages who saw her children taken away from her to be raised by the nuns and priests in some monastery because she wouldn't acknowledge that salvation was in the Catholic Church. They saw their children thrown to wild pigs and torn to pieces. Ladies, when you get to heaven, you'll meet some of your sisters in Christ who watched their husbands' heads blown right off in front of them and then had to pick up the pieces for the burial. You'll meet others who had body parts cut off by Muslims because they wouldn't acknowledge Muhammad as a prophet of God. Parents, you'll see little children in heaven who are there because they would not deny Christ for Allah. In one such incident, the good Muslim cut off an arm on the one side of the body, then cut off a leg on the opposite side of the body. Still professing Christ as Savior, the little 12-year-old then had his other arm cut off and his other leg cut off and was left to bleed to death. But that's how that child enter into glory. Now, God allowed that. I won't go on. There's much, much more like that that is happening around this world where people are suffering for the cause of Christ, for the gospel of Christ. Just something simple like not acknowledging Allah as the true God. Not acknowledging Mary as the mediatrix between God and men. Not acknowledging the Pope as sovereign. not acknowledging salvation in the Catholic Church or in infant baptism. And people were tortured, mercilessly tortured, and their children. And the people doing this did it in the name of God, to take a little baby and do these excruciating things to little children, and call it in the name of God. And you stand there and watch it, and the Savior is also watching. And understand, God is watching too. but there is a far more and exceeding eternal weight of glory waiting for those. Now, suffering comes in many forms. It can be physical, it can be emotional, it can be economic, but compared to our forefathers, people we just read about just briefly, American Christians are soft. Many today would not suffer to drive more than 15 minutes to church. I've had that plenty. I've heard that from plenty. Well, I'd go to your church, but it's too far. Well, what do you mean too far? Well, it's like 30 minutes away. While you drive in your brand new car with the air conditioning, with the radio, with all the comforts around you, while you're texting on your cell phone, it's too far? Let me ask you a question. How far do you drive to work? How far would you drive to work if you had a really good paying job? Well, why don't you just work at the Wendy's? It's right around the corner. It's more convenient. That's the church you go to, the convenient church, the one on the corner. You know, you go door knocking and you talk to people and they say, well, I just go to the church on the corner because it's close. I can walk there. Yeah, but it's a Catholic church or it's a Lutheran church or it's a whatever it is. It's not a Bible believing church. But many today would not suffer to drive more than 15 minutes to church or tolerate the service going 10 minutes too long. They wouldn't even consider the loss of wages or career advancement so as to remain faithful to church. They would not suffer the loss of a friend over biblical standards like entertainment, dress, or doctrine." Now, I'm being a little snarky here. I dare not go on at the risk of inflicting more suffering. But can you imagine standing before that little 12-year-old boy who had his limbs cut off for the name of Christ, and you're standing there, and you weren't even faithful to church? And God's going to lay out the rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. And here's that little boy is getting just heaped on and heaped on because he gave up his life. He gave up his future. He he listened to his mom and dad scream for his life. And he did not deny the Savior. And here we are. Well, it was cold that day. Oh, it was raining. You know, I had I know where I'm sick today, but, you know, I had a little I was a little under the weather. It's too far. And I'm just talking about church. I'm not talking about, did you pass out a track today or this week? Or did you open your mouth for the Savior? Did you stop somebody for damning his name in cuss words? I mean, those are basic, simple, easy kindergarten things, people. These are not things like having a gun to your head if you deny Jesus Christ. or being put out on the street because you can't work here. And that'll happen in the future when you can't take a mark. If you don't take a mark, you won't eat or work or have any money. So it's very something to think about, isn't it?