This morning, we are at a break in our reading of the Bible together, having just finished with the Book of Joshua and about to begin our reading of the Book of Judges. I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to insert a brief study about something that has been at work in so many of us. 
This is precipitated by the fact that I was led to share a few scriptures with the prisoners whom we keep in earnest prayer. They are each going through things of which we have no real conception. I wanted to encourage them with the fact that God has all things well in hand in their lives despite the momentary affliction they are undergoing.
One of the inmates, after having received these scriptures, wrote back with the statement - quote, the thought that God wants humans to suffer is troubling to me, end quote. 
This study is the response that the Lord put upon my heart. It seemed like something that is very appropriate in each of our lives as we go through these troubling and difficult times. 
All of us have to work through the fundamental and so rapid changes in our governmental society due to the covid pandemic. Some of us are dealing with the issues of aging and all the aches and pains that come with the deterioration of our physical bodies. There are those, as well, who are dealing with medical issues and illnesses which cause severe limitation of movement and abilities of comprehension. 
Others are facing emotional distress and complications of how this current society puts such intense pressure on the methodology of blame and disillusionment. We are presented with a new social more with no basis in what is really right and wrong. 
Many are dealing with the current and drastic financial difficulties of making it day to day. There is no social or financial security to be found as we watch the seemingly eminent collapse of all the safe-guards of this economy. Others are having spiritual battles with all the compromises and castration of the social church order, which causes some egregious internal strife and anguish. There are those who are dealing with the difficulties of parental obligations and duties in an environment in which this social order would dictate the utter abandonment of our responsibilities before the Lord. 
This overall massive and concentrated degree of persecution weighs heavily on the mind and spirit of the believer. Many of us are abjectly suffering from the onslaught of the seemingly more furious and constant and tenacious attacks of this age through every avenue at its disposal. 
 Accordingly, as an encouragement to those who are suffering at the hand of what this age is heaping upon the heads of believers in Jesus Christ and in our obedience to His Word by the power of the Omnipotent Holy Spirit, we want to read what God has to tell us in His Holy and Inspired Scriptures. We need to set our eyes on the One by Whom we are now given life and all sustenance to go through the trials and tribulations and pains and sufferings of this age. We do so with unbowed heads and in the courage of our conviction that it does matter unto Whom we give our allegiance and our service!
We will begin with the Apostle Paul as he was dealing with the basis of his ministry as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was Paul through whom the Lord was able to bring to the forefront of the knowledge of those who read his letters, the reality of what is being worked out in the lives of believers as we walk through all the trials and tribulations of this age. The Apostle knew the full weight of what suffering now would bring forth from those who would respond and receive and rejoice in the truth of the Salvation of God freely given in Jesus Christ.
Paul was being attacked by those Jews who were adamantly seeking to destroy the name of Jesus and all those associated with the declaration of Jesus as the Messiah. As well, Paul was being assailed from within the church as being too hard-line and not being true to the Gospel. He was accused of preaching that which would enrich his own pockets and not really being interested in the spreading of the truth of Christ. 
In his response to this type of allegation by some in the Church at Corinth, he was lead, by the Holy Spirit, to offer up the following declaration that is recorded in 2 Cor 11:23-31. He was being derided as not as much a servant of the Lord as were some who were trying to persuade those believers to turn away from the teachings of the Apostle. Accordingly, Paul described the suffering that was required from him in regard to His witness of the Gospel. This was to show that, to Paul, the Good News of Jesus Christ, crucified, resurrected, and glorified was worth more than anything that could have been done to him.
2 Cor 11:23-31, Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as if insane) I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern? If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. 
	It was because of all that he had suffered for the sake of the Good News that believers need to know, beyond any measure that the essential and living relationship being taught by the Apostle is true and is vibrant and is worth the cost of teaching it to those is such need. The life of Jesus Christ is worth anything that must be suffered for the sake of its delivery to those who are lost and dead in their sin and trespasses against God. 
	The Apostle even made it all much more personal as he let the readers of his letter know what was individually taking place within his own growth into the fullness of Jesus Christ. This is recorded just a few verses later in 2 Cor 12:7-10. 
Paul had sought relief from the suffering due to a physical ailment, and yet saw that even that was a tool of the Lord. It served to keep him on track in the need of his utter and absolute reliance upon God to be the very means of his daily walk on this earth. He found his contentment, not in his own strength to face the troubles of his body and ministry, but in the power of Jesus Christ to overcome and to maintain him despite those sufferings which were intense and constant. He knew the Lord could have caused it all to cease with but a word. However, Paul also knew that the Lord uses such ailments and strife to cause us to hold all the more firmly and resolutely to Him in each crisis of our beings.
	2 Cor 12:7-10, And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me — to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. 
In his letter to the church at Galatia, Gal 2:20, the Apostle then makes the pronouncement of that which is very specific to this whole reality of what we are undergoing on this earth. Please remember that since the fall of Adam in the Garden, man has been cursed with the human nature that is in utter opposition to fellowship with the Lord God Almighty. We are born as slaves of sin and under the resultant and righteous and just curse of death. We are born into a world that has been utterly defiled by the introduction of sin through the vehicle of Adam and Eve’s corruption in seeking to be as God. 
Their selfish motivation to be equal with their Creator has so infested this realm with that self-centered deception. While this age puts forth the blatant lie that man is basically good, the reality is that man is unrepentantly at enmity with God because of our sinful nature. We are dead in our sins and trespasses. There is no righteousness in man of himself. 
Therefore that old man, that old nature needs to be put to death under the holy justice and righteous judgment of God. Accordingly, as the only means by which any person can receive eternal salvation, God sent His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth as a man. He was born of a virgin, without any sin or stain of death upon Him. He lived the only perfect life in complete obedience to the Heavenly Father. This was the means of showing all of Creation that God, Alone, is worthy to be completely and perfectly honored above all other human desires and ambitions. 
Because He was that Light of Truth in this world of darkness, Jesus was viciously hung on the cross by the hands of those whom He came to save. He chose to die our deserved death, in our stead. Then, in the glorious power of God, He was raised from that death and seated at the right hand of God to reign as Lord over all creation. Those who believe in Him and call upon Him to be both Savior and Lord are endlessly blessed partakers of His life everlasting.
In us, however, on this earth, we still have that residue of the old nature which needs to be put to death in order for the new life of Christ to be manifested. That process is a painful one of death to self. It is a process that requires the daily sacrifice of what needs to take place in us for the life of Christ to be preeminent. That is what the Apostle was detailing in this so powerful statement of why we do suffer death to self on this earth in every area of our lives. It has to be so in order for the true and vibrant and holy life of Christ to become the consistent and daily course of our walk now and forevermore.
Gal 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me. 
Then, in the Apostle’s letter to the Philippians, Phil 1:12-21, he made known the full aspect of why we can rejoice in our salvation even in the midst of all the suffering of this world age. There is an earthly finality to our suffering for the sake of the Good News of Jesus Christ as both Savior and as Lord of our lives. This will be revealed as our glorious eternal reality. 
Phil 1:12-21, Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ shall even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 
	The Apostle saw the Lord at work in his imprisonment. While he was suffering the loss of his freedom along with the knowledge that his life was forfeit for the sake of the Lord, he was able to see the fruit of his suffering. There were those involved in his imprisonments who were accepting the Gospel, including the guards of the most powerful force on the earth at that time. God was spreading the Word of Christ in a way that could not have otherwise been accomplished. 
Paul was also privy to the fact that even while he was being derided among the believers, those who were teaching about Christ out of spite and envy and maliciousness toward Paul, they were still teaching the Good News. Their efforts to blame and to besmirch Paul were only further serving the purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ being proclaimed throughout the region. This did not fill Paul with anger and frustration at the plight of his suffering and this abusive treatment by those even within the church. It caused him to rejoice despite every abuse that was being hurled at him. He saw that the Lord was using it all to bring forth glory to the Name of Jesus Christ!
Then Paul capped this discourse with the great truth that …For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. The very worst that this world could do in inflicting pain and suffering upon a person is to kill the human body, which did happen to this Apostle.
However, when that happens, the believer is immediately brought into the presence of Our Savior and Lord. What this age sees as the abject worst punishment is really, to a Christian, the ultimate relief from all the pains and ills and misery of our intimate separation from our Lord.
We must never choose to subject this final recourse upon ourselves, because we know that it is utterly against the will of the One for Whom we live. At the same time we do not dread nor do we fear death. It is our release into the eternal joy of our salvation. We do suffer on this earth, but we do so with the full understanding of what it works out in our hearts and minds and spirits. This is with regard to our greater knowledge of the life of Jesus Christ being manifested in our lives despite the decay of these earthly bodies and minds. 
We will continue with this course of seeking the truth of what earthly suffering institutes in our hearts, Lord willing, next time as we continue looking at the letters of the Apostles. So be it!
"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Judg 5:3, Hear, O kings; give ear, O rulers! I — to the Lord, I will sing, I will sing praise to the Lord, the God of Israel. Amen.