Ron Dunn Podcast - Concerning Suffering (Ron Dunn Podcast)

Episode Date: June 3, 2020

From the sermon series on Romans

I'm going to read verses 16, 17, and 18. Three verses. Romans, the eighth chapter, verses 16 through 18. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and of children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. 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. One of the outstanding characteristics of Jesus is his honesty. Jesus never left men in any doubt as to what might

happen to them if they followed him. And he didn't use very good psychology in trying to get people to follow him. Because instead of painting a pretty picture and telling how great it would be to be a disciple and what an end thing it was to follow him, in the first recorded message that we have that Jesus ever preached, what he emphasized was not so much the glory that would be theirs who followed him and not so much the joy, though that's so. But what he emphasized was the fact that to follow Jesus meant you'd probably get into trouble. And Jesus expected his followers to get into trouble, and they didn't disappoint him.

If you read the history of the early church, and in particular the book of Acts, you'll find that they were always in trouble. And in that first sermon that Jesus preached, what we call the Sermon on the Mount, he comes to the Beatitudes, and the very last one he says, Blessed are ye when men shall revile you. He didn't say, Blessed are you if men do it.

Jesus wasn't putting a question mark there and saying, now, if you follow me, it might mean that you'll suffer. No, he didn't say, blessed are you if men shall persecute you, but he said, when men shall persecute you. The only doubt about the persecution was the time. And Jesus promised that if you follow me, if you cast your lot with me, you are going to suffer. In John, chapter 15, before Jesus was about to go to the cross, he met with his disciples

and was giving them the last information. And he said, The world has hated me, and if the world has hated me, it's going to hate you. The servant isn't any better than the master, and if they've treated the master this way, they're going to treat you this way. Jesus again said, If you follow me, there's going to be suffering and persecution. In this world, he said, you will have tribulation. Jesus was honest. He didn't want anybody following him under false pretenses.

He didn't want anybody to misunderstand. And I think one of the saddest things that modern-day Christianity has done is to water down this aspect of discipleship and to make it all but unknown. Jesus wanted people to sit down and count the cost. He did not want people making merely an emotional decision. He did not want people coming to follow him and to be saved simply as a fire escape from hell, a reserved seat in heaven. He wanted people to understand completely, fully,

what he demanded of them as disciples. And once they had counted the cost and weighed all of the cost, then they could make an intelligent decision about following Jesus. Not unemotional, but not strictly emotional either. I was in a church this past spring and I preached on the Lordship of Jesus and I mentioned that Jesus demanded absolute obedience, absolute lordship. And after I finished, a lady who's older than I, been in the church much longer than I, been a Christian longer than I've been saved, longer than I've even been born,

came up to me and she said, I have never heard that in all my life. Every place that I have preached and emphasized the Lordship, the absolute, lonely supremacy of Jesus in the individual life, daily life, in the home, in the business, in the school, I've had someone come up after the service and say, I've never heard that before. And I told the one adult department this morning as I spoke to them, if I was preaching when you were saved and I did not make it unmistakably clear,

I want to apologize to you. Jesus wanted everybody to know exactly what it meant to follow him. And the reason the early church was so dynamic and spirit-filled and so effective under God is because they understood this and they lived in the light of it. We do not understand it and we do not live in the light of it. We live in the darkness of it. And Jesus wants you to know today that if you follow him, if you cast your lot with

him, and if you receive him as Lord and Savior, it means he expects you to suffer with him. And that's the fourth point of the sermon I preached last Sunday morning. Marvelous passage is the book of Romans, just about my favorite outside of John 15, 14, and 16. I read them in that order, too. Wonderful chapter, telling about the glory that belongs to us as his people. We have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, witnessing with our spirit that we're children of God. And say, listen, if you're a child, that means you are an heir, heir of God, heir of God. And listen, if you are an heir of God, that means you are a joint heir with Jesus. His children are adopted children. They are assured children. They are affluent children. We are heirs of God.

I share equally everything that Jesus is and has and ever will have. And the Father cannot break my title without breaking the title of Jesus. My inheritance is just as secure as is the inheritance of the Lord Jesus Christ. If children, then heirs. And if heirs, join heirs with Jesus Christ. But listen, there's a fourth point to that. They are also afflicted children. I am sure the Apostle Paul didn't want anybody to misunderstand those Christians that he was writing to at Rome.

He wanted them to have absolute understanding that to be a child of God was a great thing and always will be. And you are affluent, you are an heir of God was a great thing and always will be. And you are a fluent, you are an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ. But he says, notice in that 17th verse, if so be, you underscore that expression, it's one of the most important phrases in this chapter, if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together. The child of God is a suffering child.

Now, most of us are ready to reign with him, but we're reluctant to suffer with him. And one of the chief characteristics of a child of God is that he suffers with Jesus, that he meets tribulation in this present life. Paul says, And all they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 1 Peter says, Brethren, don't think it strange concerning this fiery trial which has come upon you, as though some strange thing happened to you. Don't be surprised, don't marvel at suffering and persecution. I imagine those Christians to whom Peter was writing were feeling sorry for themselves,

wondering, Well, what have we done wrong? Everybody is persecuting us. The Roman emperor is burning us at the stake and throwing us to the lions, and we're being slaughtered at the hands of the gladiators. What have we done wrong? Acting surprised. And Peter says, listen, don't marvel, don't be surprised at all of this that's happened as though it's some strange thing. He says, you rejoice that you're locked with Jesus Christ. Now, Paul in these verses says three things about these present sufferings

that a Christian is supposed to experience. First of all, our present sufferings identify us with Christ. They are our identification with Christ. One of the key words to understanding the Christian life is the word identification. I am one with Jesus. I am in Jesus and he is in me. Paul says, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Jesus dwells in me and somehow, miraculously, I dwell in him. He is the vine, we are the branches. There is a vital living we are the branches. There is a vital living union, a relationship. We are identified with Jesus. Notice what the apostle says in verse 17, if so be that we suffer not for him. Now listen, this is an important difference. He doesn't say if we suffer for him or for his work or for his cause. He says if we suffer with him. If we suffer with him. That means if we share in the sufferings of Jesus. Now what are the sufferings of Jesus? The sufferings of Jesus do not refer only to his death on the cross. The sufferings of Jesus refer to his entire

life from his virgin birth until his death on the cross. All of that, his whole incarnation, his whole lifetime on this earth, these are the sufferings of Jesus. Why? Because his whole life was one of self-denial and sacrifice. When he cut himself off from all that he had known previously and took his stand to do the will of God and only the will of God, and all of his life he suffered. The word suffering doesn't refer only to physical pain. And so the sufferings of Jesus refer to his entire life. Now, when I come to Jesus and I embrace him as my Savior and as my Lord and I become his

disciple, that means that I share in his suffering. I'm going to take my stand with him. And as Jesus took his stand against the world, I stand with him. And I stand with Jesus on every issue. And I stand with Jesus on every question. And I stand with Jesus on every situation, no matter how unpopular it may be. I take my stand with Jesus against the world. And if the world hates Jesus, I share that with him. I've discovered

something. I think you can discover it too. The world doesn't mind us talking about God. Have you noticed that? Have you noticed that? You talk about God, you mention the name God, that bunch you work with, they don't get uptight. They may get a little embarrassed, but they don't get really uptight. And nobody seems to really be offended at the name God. Have you noticed that? So when you begin talking about Jesus, have you noticed how people get offended? Why do you think that is?

Why do you think that is? The world still hates Jesus. Somehow they feel like they have to acknowledge God because, well, they don't want to be classified as an atheist. And there has to be some supreme being, and after all, it's popular to believe in God, and everybody believes in God. But when you begin talking about Jesus, you'll find the reaction is different by and large. Jesus suffered being ostracized from the world, standing against the world, against popular opinion. And to suffer with him means that I identify myself with Jesus, and I'd rather be identified with him than anybody else I know. I want to be identified

with Jesus. I want to cast my lot for him. Let me read a few verses over in the book of Hebrews that explains this. During the Old Testament days, when the high priest would offer up the sacrifice, they would spill the blood for the sacrifice inside the temple. But then they would take the body of that slain animal, and they would take it outside the city gate. Now, outside the city gate was the place of reproach. It was the place of being ostracized. It was the place of being outcast. And that body, you see, that body bore all the sins of the people. Therefore, it was ostracized. Therefore, it was outcast. And so they would take it outside the walls of the city, and they would burn it there, a symbol, a symbol of being cast out.

Now, notice in Hebrews chapter 13, For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the count. Wherefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Jesus Christ died on the cross. He was suffering outside the gate, outside the pale of organized religion, outside the pale of his own people, outside the pale of popular opinion. He suffered alone outside the gate of his own people, outside the pale of popular opinion. He suffered alone outside the gate. Now notice verse 13.

Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. What a verse. Let us therefore go to Jesus without the camp, outside the camp, bearing with him the same reproach he bears. To suffer with Jesus identifies us with Jesus. That means I feel everything Jesus feels, just like my body feels what my head feels. Jesus is the head and the church is his body. And when my head hurts and my head feels, my whole body shares in that.

And to suffer with Jesus means that I identify with Jesus in His suffering. I identify with Him in His love. I identify with Him in His compassion. I identify with Him in His tears. And the same things that break His heart break my heart. The same things that cause him to rejoice causes me to rejoice. I share his feelings. I share his suffering with him. Oh, I can't understand some professing church members who seem to have no feelings like this. They seem to share nothing that Christ shares. The same things that break God's heart don't break yours. What he cries over, you laugh over. His compassion is met by our indifference.

His righteousness is met by our sinfulness. His being ostracized by the world is met by our being a friend of the world. We're children, and children suffer with their father and with their family. I love that verse in Philippians chapter 1 and verse 29 where it says, For unto you is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. Suffering with Jesus, meeting the pressure, the persecution, is just as much a part of your salvation as is believing. It is just as much a gift of God's grace as is believing.

Are you identified with Jesus this morning? Are you identified with Jesus in your home? Are you identified with Jesus this morning? Are you identified with Jesus in your home? Are you identified with Jesus in the schoolroom? Are you identified with Jesus? Who are you identified with at school? At work? On the job? Are you identified with Jesus? These sufferings identify us with Jesus. And nobody, listen, nobody, according to this book, has any right to claim identity with Jesus who does not go outside the camp and bear with him all his reproach. That brings me to my second point. The sufferings of this present life not only identify us with the Savior, but they are indispensable to our future reward.

They are indispensable. Now look, in verse 17 he says, And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. Now notice, if so be, there's the condition, if we are going to share all the glory with Jesus, we're going to be glorified with him, we're going to inherit all things, if so be that we suffer with him

in order that we also may be glorified together. The apostle is saying that the sufferings of this present life are indispensable in the Christian life. They are not optional equipment. It is not a luxury item. It is indispensable. You cannot do without it. You cannot do without it. It was indispensable in the experience of Jesus. First Peter says that Jesus first of all had to suffer before he could enter into glory. Jesus had to go to the cross before he could be resurrected. There has to be a Golgotha before there can be an Easter. There has to

be suffering and death before there can be resurrection and life. This was the appointed order of Jesus. Now listen. This was the way it was with Jesus. This is the way it was with Jesus. And he asked you a question. Is the servant greater than his Lord? For he must through suffering, he must through suffering enter into the glory that should follow the Bible. It had to be this way. And it's the same for us who follow him. It's the same for us who follow him.

It's the same for us who follow him. If so be that we suffer with him, in all that we may be also glorified together. You say, What are you trying to say? What I'm trying to say is this, that the person, first of all, who this morning is lost, and you sit in this place never having been saved, and you're toying with the idea of becoming a Christian. You must understand that to come to Jesus, you know where Jesus is? He's outside the gate. And if you're going to Jesus, if you're going to come to Jesus, you've got to go out there where he is.

It means you sell out to Jesus, lock, stock, and barrel, and you suffer with him. You stand with him. you stand with him, you identify with him, and if you don't want to do that, you stay where you are when the invitation is given. Because if you walk down this aisle, God is not going to save you anyway. Unless you're willing to come to him and submitting your life to his lordship. Uh-uh. For it says in Romans chapter 10, If we shall confess with our mouths, Jesus is Lord,

and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt not be saved. Listen, Jesus wants your life. He wants all of you, not part of you. Salvation is not a cafeteria line where you take what you want and leave what you don't want. It's all or nothing. It's all or nothing. You take all of Jesus or nothing of him. And I promise you one thing, you can walk down an aisle and kneel at this altar and pray all day long, but until you're ready to go outside the

gate with Jesus and say, Lord, I don't know, I don't understand, I know I don't have the strength, I don't know anything about this, but I do know that I'm willing to let Jesus have me completely. I'm willing to submit to his lordship. I don't know what all that involves. I don't know what all that means, but as best I know how and as best I understand, I'm willing this morning to submit my life to his lordship. Now, God will save you on that kind of condition. That's what it means to believe, anyway. The word believe in the Greek doesn't always mean what we think it means in the 1971 English. It means to submit. It means to commit. It means to trust. And you can't trust something without submitting to it. You just cannot do it. If you trust a bank to hold your money, you've

got to submit your money to that bank. If you trust a chair to hold you up, you've got to submit yourself to that chair. If you trust an airplane to fly you to Los Angeles, you have to commit yourself and submit yourself to that airplane. And if you are going to trust Jesus to save you, you have to submit to his Savior-self and Lordship. It is indispensable to the man who's lost, it's also indispensable to the fellow who's wanting Jesus to have it all. Listen. Heard about a staff member of a church. Came to a church there for about, oh, six months. Then a little opposition came up.

A little opposition came up to his ministry. So he began looking around, wanting to go somewhere else. The Lord certainly wants to move him on. It certainly must be God's will now that I move on. You know, the question I want to ask him is, you think maybe God didn't know when he called you there that there was going to be that opposition? You think maybe this is just as much a surprise to God as it is to you? Listen, when God led you there, he knew all the opposition was going to come.

That's why he led you. I've heard of people dropping out because they have a few bad experiences. And I want you to know something. Jesus didn't drop out because he had a few bad experiences. I want you to know something. Jesus didn't drop out because he had a few bad experiences. And the church rolls are littered with Christians who, when they're going, got a little bit rough. And there was some opposition at home, at work, at school. They gave it up. I want you to know if Jesus Christ had done that,

we'd have been in hell a long time ago. Jesus expected you to be opposed. And if you identify yourself with Jesus, you're going to suffer with him. Listen, it's not strange when you have problems. Don't sit around wondering what you've done wrong when people begin to give you problems and give you pressure and laugh a little bit at your religion and the devil heaps these things upon you and tries to discourage you.

Whoever told you anyway that the Christian life was all easy? You know, there was a novel written some time ago that said, I never promised you a rose garden. I want you to know God looks in this life and he ago that said, I never promised you a rose garden. Well, I want you to know God looks in this life and he says, listen, I never promised you a rose garden in this life. Where did you ever get off thinking that if you became a Christian and you identified yourself with Jesus, and Jesus went to the cross with a crown of thorns, that you're going to be born on this life with a velvet cushion underneath you? You didn't get that out of the Bible. You may have gotten it from some preacher,

but you didn't get it from the book. It's indispensable. Indispensable. Listen, young people, if you take your stand for Jesus, and I don't mean just play around with it because it's popular. I mean if you really sell out to Jesus

and identify yourself with him, listen, you're going to have problems. You may not be the most popular boy in school. You may not be the most popular boy in school. You may not be the most popular girl in school. Who wants to be anyway? You say, I do. Well, the Lord will have to deal with you about that. I've heard Christian businessmen

who have been financially successful and have been wealthy. And Christians, they give their testimony as though if everybody would trust Jesus, they will become successful and wealthy too. Not necessarily. Some of them do. A lot of them don't. It may cost you your job. I know some people that it cost them some sales. When I was in San Antonio a few weeks ago, we went down to that Christian nightclub, you know, the burlesque house that was closed forever.

It's called now the closed forever burlesque house, the Green Gate. And we were down there witnessing, and the night before, the week before I was there, a salesman from New York City was walking down the street of San Antonio. He went in there. They witnessed to him. He trusted Christ as his Savior.

He just turned it all over to Jesus. You know what he did? The next day, he called his home office in New York City and said, Hey, I got saved last night, and I want you to know that I cannot service some of these accounts that I've been servicing now that I'm saved. I'm not going to be able to service some of these accounts. And they fired him right there on the spot over the phone. And some of us would say, well, he must not have played it right. He must have made a mistake. I'm sure that God would not want that to happen. Listen. If we suffer with him,

you mean that we're supposed to go out here looking for somebody to persecute us today? I don't mean that at all. I want you to know you won't have to look for anything or anybody. All you're asked to do is just to identify yourself with Jesus. Just identify yourself with him. And then let what happens happen. But it's indispensable.

It's indispensable. Don't ever think, dear Christian friend, that you're going to live your Christian life without suffering. One form or another. Now, if you play it safe, if you play it safe and don't let anybody know who you are and what you are, then you'll probably make it all right. You'll probably skin through. I want to be identified with Jesus. Third and last point. These present sufferings identify us with Jesus. They are indispensable in our Christian life, but I want you to know

they are not. They are insignificant when compared to our future glory. They are insignificant when compared to our future glory. Look what Paul says, And if children and heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. For I reckon, I calculate, that has to do with a fact. That's not wishful thinking. I reckon, it's that it has to do with a fact. That's not wistful thinking. I reckon, it's a bookkeeping term, I calculate that the sufferings of this present time are

not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Amen. The Greek word worthy comes from a balance, and it means the motion in a scale. For instance, if you have a pair of scales here, and you put one thing in this side, and then you put something else in this side, it's so light it won't even register on the scales. It won't even move the scales. It won't even be a motion of the scales. There's no comparison. There's no comparison. That's what Paul is saying.

That's what the word worthy means. That's where the word worthy comes from. Listen, Paul isn't saying that our sufferings weigh less than the glory. He says our sufferings weigh nothing compared to the glory. When I put all the glory that is mine in Jesus Christ, when I put all of that glory that's going to be revealed not to me, you look at it, not to me, but in me, I'm not going to be a spectator. I'm going to be a participant. I went to Billy Graham's service the other night. I can't stand to hear somebody else preach. I want to do it myself. I enjoy being a spectator. I'd much rather be a participant. The only thing I don't want to participate in is when I watch football.

I love to be a spectator at football, no participant. But I'll tell you one of the good things that's going on. I don't want to be a spectator. I want to be a participant. And I want you to know when God brings all this off, when the late great planet Earth finally comes to its final curtain and Jesus Christ comes in all of his glory, I'm not going to be just a spectator. I'm going to be a participant. He says the glory that shall be revealed in us, not to us, in us.

Paul says, listen, and Paul, I think, had a right to say this. Nobody suffered outside of Jesus like the Apostle Paul. You read 2 Corinthians 11. All that he suffered, the shipwreck, the stoning, Nobody suffered outside of Jesus like the Apostle Paul. You read 2 Corinthians chapter 11. All that he suffered, the shipwreck, the stoning, the scourging, being outcast, giving up all things. Oh, gee, Paul had a whole gob of suffering to put in that scale. He puts over here on one side the glory that is going to be his in Jesus in the near future. And then over here on the other side, he takes all of the sufferings, all the privations,

all of the hungers, all the shipwrecks, all the scourging, all the cursings, and he heaps the whole mass into the other side of the scale, and it doesn't even move. Insignificant when compared to the glory that's going to be ours. And that writes sense. Now, I want you to notice one other thing. Paul has been using the we pronoun all through this passage. If we suffer with him, we may be glorified together. But I want you to notice in verse 18, he doesn't say,

We reckon that the sufferings of this present time. He says, I reckon. I reckon. Paul can't speak for everybody. Paul can't speak for everybody. Paul can't speak for every Christian. Because you see, there are too many Christians that don't reckon that way. They don't calculate that way. They calculate playing it safe. Take the easy route. Don't witness it might be embarrassing to you. Don't be so narrow-minded in your convictions you might lose a sale. Paul is not reckoning for everybody. This is individual. You have to discover this for

yourself, friend. You have to come to this conclusion on your own. You have to come in your own Christian experience when you say, Lord, I reckon that anything I have to endure or suffer in order to have Jesus Lord and Master is not even worthy to be compared, not even worthy to be in the same room, not even worthy to be on the same scales with what you have for us. You've got to come to that yourself, and I want to know if you've come to it yet. Paul doesn't speak for everybody, and I can't speak for everybody. You've got to say that yourself. You've got to speak for yourself.

I reckon. I reckon. Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. Will you come to Jesus this morning? Will you come to him? Some of you have never been saved. You Will you come to Jesus this morning? Will you come to him? Some of you have never been saved. You've never come to Jesus.

Will you come to him? Will you come to him? Will you share in his glory? Will you share in his inheritance? Will you share in his suffering? Will you come to him this morning? Walk down this aisle. Stand right here and I'll suffering? Will you come to him this morning, walk down this aisle, stand right here,

and I'll meet you as you come, unashamedly, humbling yourself, without embarrassment, saying, I don't care what anybody else says or thinks, I'm going to take my stand with Jesus. I'm going to identify myself with him today. Maybe God speaks to you another way.

There are some Christians here that haven't learned to reckon right, you may want to come and just kneel here at the altar and just turn it over to Him. You may not want to talk to me. You don't have to speak to me. You can just come and kneel here at the altar and do business with Him,

confessing your sins, identifying yourself with Him, turning your life over to His Lordship. Jesus has saved you, but you know that He's not Lord this morning, not absolute Lord. Maybe God wants you to unite with the fellowship of this church.

We'd be glad to have you if that's God's will. If you feel the Spirit of God impressing you and drawing you to come and unite your life with the membership of this church, we want you to come. Let's do what He wants us to do, whatever it is. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for

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