In this sermon, the speaker shares stories of Christians who were converted to faith in Jesus even while facing persecution and death. He emphasizes the power of their testimony and the way they pointed to heaven even when they couldn't speak. The speaker then discusses the comforting and frightening aspect of God's constant watch over both the righteous and the evil. He shares a personal story of a father who repented and sought forgiveness for failing his son, and how their relationship was eventually restored through their shared interest in archery. The sermon concludes with a reminder that God disciplines those he loves and calls them to turn away from sin, and the impact that parents' actions can have on their children.

I don't know if anyone's told you this or not, but it's very dangerous to be a Christian for several reasons. First of all, Satan is our enemy, and in Revelation 12 we're told that Satan went out to make war against those that keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Satan is ceaselessly planning and plotting war against you. Then, as we sing in one of our songs, this vile world is not a friend to grace to help me unto God. Satan is the god of the world, this world, this age, the world, all its standards and ideas, that which is highly esteemed among men as abomination in the sight of God. So Paul says, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And then we have not an enemy, but a friend who sometimes has to treat us as if we were an enemy. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. You have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faith when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. If you be without chastisement, whereof all our partakers, then are you illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh who gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather than be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live? For they verily chasten us for a few days after their pleasure. But he, that is God, for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down in the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Fall at peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. God loves us too much to let us get away with sin. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. That's another reason why it's dangerous to be a Christian. He shall baptize you with the Greek word, there is an in. He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire. And the moment you become a Christian, you're in the fire and you stay in the fire as long as you live. It's dangerous to be a Christian because whom the Lord loves, he chastens. You can't get away with sin as a Christian. If you can, you are not a Christian. That's what Hebrews 12 is telling us. If you're without chastisement, whilst all are partakers, then are you illegitimate children and not sons. A professing Christian who can sin with impunity, get away with it, he's not born again. He's not God's child. Because God chastises every one of his children. What's that got to do with Job 36? Quite a bit. Now he mentions first of all that God is mighty. And we know a little bit at least about how mighty and great God is. But you know, it's really hard. I find it hard. It's hard to think in terms of God as the spirit of the universe, the one who fills the heavens and the earth. And we constantly have the problem of thinking of God in terms of a man. And that's not entirely wrong. But though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. He is King of kings and Lord of lords, and he fills the heavens and the earth. And he is so great that we read in Isaiah chapter 40, which chapter by the way is a chapter we Christians ought to read once a week to keep from getting proud. All the nations before God are like a drop in a bucket, it says. All the nations, like a drop in a bucket. Less than nothing and vanity, all the nations before God, less than nothing and vanity. Can you understand that? That's hard to get a hold of, because less than nothing is a mathematical impossibility. And it's not as if God is saying that about one person who's a particularly low character. He's saying that the whole human race, less than nothing and vanity. That's because God is so great. Well think of that verse that tells us in one of the Psalms that God is so great. We say he's a transcendent God, which means he's greater than anything he's made. That God is so great that he has to humble himself to behold the things that are in the earth. And that's not all, it says he's so great he has to humble himself to behold the things that are in heaven. Now that's difficult to understand, but that's how great our God is. And although he's so great, he doesn't despise any. We have to make one exception here though, because it says in Proverbs 3, surely he scorns the scorners and gives grace to the lowly. Thus saith the Lord, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you build unto me? And where is the place of my rest? For all these things has my hand made, and all these things have been. And then he says, but to this man will I look. The word man is not in the original Hebrew at all. So what he's saying is, I won't look at your costly ornate buildings, but here's where I will look, to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembles at my word. This great, great, mighty, mighty God, nothing attracts him but a broken heart. I mean there's nothing, you can make something, you can paint something, you can do something and people's mouths will flood and say, oh did you do that? That's marvelous. But God will never react that way to anything you do. Paint a picture, no matter how beautiful. I mean God being God, he couldn't spend a second in an art gallery because the picture's in an art gallery, you know. It's just like a monkey or somebody got his feet in some paint pots and ran across the canvas. That's how it would look to God. Highly esteemed among men, abomination in the sight of God. But to this man will I look, to him that's poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembles at my word. And I think that line in one of our songs is taken from that portion in Isaiah 66, then I trembled at the law I'd spurned, then my guilty soul imploring turned to calvary. God is mighty, he doesn't despise any, but he does scorn the scorners. Though the Lord be high, yet he has respect unto the lowly. Now you see there's another verse that says that God is no respecter of persons, but again there's a qualification. He is a respecter of the lowly. Though the Lord be high, yet he has respect unto the lowly, but the proud he knows are far off. And like someone said, he has no desire to get any closer. He sets himself in array against the proud. That's the way one translation goes. The lowly. God is looking for people like that. Then it says that he doesn't preserve the wicked, and it looks like he does, but he doesn't. The wicked should be cut short. When the wicked springs of grass, when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they should be destroyed forever. I think that's what we're seeing in the world today. This unprecedented worldwide springing up of weeds of people that hate God and hate Christ, that hate everything that's right. It's never been like this in the world before, that is on a worldwide scale. It is that they should be destroyed forever. We're nearing judgment time. That's one of the things that we have to think about. God doesn't preserve the wicked, but Paul once said, the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom. Do you have that faith, that God will deliver you from every evil work and preserve you unto his heavenly kingdom? People sometimes said, well, you know, if they stuck me against the wall and turned a machine gun in my direction and said, give up your faith or die, I'm not sure what I would do, because the way I feel now, I think I would chicken out. So if people would like to have grace today to die a martyr's death, which may never take place, and you'll never have it, you see, you'll get the grace when the time comes. You'll be able to laugh in the mouth of a machine gun and die singing a hymn. Yes, you will. My mother used to worry about that. She thought the time would come when she'd have to die, you know, this way, and she didn't think she'd be able to do it, see. Well, she's in heaven now. The Lord didn't want her to die that way, but she wondered about it and worried about it. It's really a phenomenon. You know, back in the days when Christians were dying by the thousands, and Dr. Carroll of the Southern Baptist Convention did a study on it, wrote a book on it, and felt that over a period of a thousand years, there were probably 50 million Christians who gave their lives for Christ rather than give up their faith. And it was amazing. Do you know that so many thousands of people were converted, listening to Christians preaching when they were dying, tied to a stake with the flames licking up around them. Thousands of people were converted, listening to these Christians testify and preach and sing, praise God. Do you know what they finally did? They made a thing like a horse's bit out of a piece of wood, and they put it in the Christian's mouth, and they tied it behind their head so they couldn't talk when they were dying. See, all they could do was tie it up like this, and people got converted even then. Smiling from ear to ear, pointing up. That's where I'm going, brother. What about you? That's what it meant. Well, it goes on to say, he never takes his eyes off the righteous. Isn't that comforting to know that? Or is it frightening? The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. That's frightening, or comforting as the case might be. Some people would rather not have God looking on when they're doing their little business deal, which is sort of crooked, or when they're fooling around with somebody else's wife they don't want God watching. But in the nature of things, it has to be. Nobody ever sinned without God seeing it. That's why in Psalm 90 it says, thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of your countenance. Our secret sins in the light of God's countenance. You blasphemed, and God heard it. He couldn't help but hear it, because he's present everywhere. His eyes are in every place. Hagar learned that. It was a great comfort to her. Sarah dealt heartily with him. She ran off in the wilderness, and the ease of the Lord found her, and spoke to her. There was a well of water there. And she called the name of the Lord that spoke to her, thou God seest me. I don't know who her God was prior to that, whether he was just a tribal deity or whatever, but at this point she realized that God was somehow present everywhere and saw everything. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding, watching the evil and the good. So you see, whether we like it or not, it's still true. And you can't dismiss God and tell him to get lost. He doesn't give account of any of his matters to anybody. He never has, and he never will, because all his works are done in truth. And as Abraham said, shall not the God of the earth, the judge of the earth do right? He always has, and he always will. You can quibble, you can complain, you can criticize all you want, and God won't answer you because he doesn't have to, because he's God. That's why it says in the Bible in Isaiah 45, let the potter strive with the potters of the earth, but woe unto him that strives with his maker. Don't ever strive with God, or question or query anything God does, or anything God has said, whether you understand it fully or not. Murmuring, complaining, put it away. The Bible tells me that. Do all things without murmuring and disputing, that you may be blameless and harmless as sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Now, God never, ever, ever takes his eyes off the righteous. Have you ever felt sometimes that God had taken his eyes off you? Impossible! Impossible! No matter where you are, what the situation is, the conditions are, God's eyes are always, in a very special way and sense, on his people. And you know what? If it wasn't so, every time God took his eyes off you, Satan would kill you. You'd have to die a thousand times maybe then. No, God never withdraws his eyes from the righteous, but with kings are they on the throne. Now, I don't want to appeal to anybody's pride, but I do want to remind you, for another reason entirely, that Christians are very special people to God. Jesus said, Isaiah 8, quoting Hebrews 2, Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and for wonders. Special people Christians are. Paul says, don't you know that the saints will judge the world? Are you ready for it? You better get ready. You're going to judge the world. Don't you know Paul says that we shall judge angels? Just think of it. You're going to sit on some kind of a throne and you're going to judge angels someday. Millions of angels sinned, you know. A third of the angels at least defected and served Satan. Now, I presume that's what Paul meant when he said we Christians are going to judge angels. Ready for it? Are you ready for this? Christ said, Have thou authority over five cities. Have thou authority over ten cities. Are you ready for that? Well, God is working to make this possible, working in us even now to prepare us for the coming time. With kings are they on the throne. Kings and priests, Revelation 1, 5, and 6, unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God and his followers. Even now, in Romans 5, if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more. They who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Paul said, I would to God you did reign, that we also might reign with you. They thought they were reigning and they weren't. They were not living and overcoming Christian life, but they were proud. They were looking down on Paul and they had problems. He withdraws not his eyes from the righteous, but with kings are they on the throne. Yes, he does establish them forever. In Romans 16, it says, Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel. You ever get tired of being tossed around by every wind that comes by? We call it a yo-yo experience, up and down. Ever get tired of that? Ever say to yourself, will it ever change? If you want it to change, it will. You don't have to be that way. God is of power not only to save us, but to establish us, to make us strong. So, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the chapter ends that great chapter on the resurrection of Christ and resurrection generally and so on, by saying, Therefore, because the resurrection of Christ is a fact, because your own resurrection will be a fact, therefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. He doth establish them forever and they are exalted. We are exalted. That I, a child of hell, should in his image shine, that's how exalted we are. Deserving hell and receiving heaven. Deserving death and receiving life eternal by the gift of God. The wages of sin is death, eternal death, separation from God forever, called in the Bible a second death. I die physically, then I die a living death, from which there is no escape forever if I die unsaved. Where the worm never dies and the fire is never put out, Christ said, Mark's gospel. We've been saved from all of that if we are saved by the grace of God. They're exalted, exalted. So it says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. There are people in this building, I am sure, that are hurting spiritually and hurting deeply, but you won't let anybody know, because you're too proud to let anybody know. And you won't respond and come forward in a meeting, because you are too proud to do that. And sometimes, even in homes where there's a great deal of tension between husband and wife, there's an unwritten agreement that the one will not betray the other. You know what I mean? They may say all kinds of nasty things to each other in the home, but they'll never do it in front of other people. They're put on the front by an unwritten mutual agreement. It's a pride thing, of course. I remember reading this, you know, fella Stedman, body life, and there was, I think there was 80 or 90 couples in this meeting, and there's a couple sitting in the front pew, and they're sitting about six feet apart, and finally the lady got up and she said, my husband and I had a big fight six or seven days ago. We haven't spoken since. What do we do? She sat down. So the preacher said to the crowd, anybody else here ever had a problem like that, raise your hands. And the couple turned around to watch, and they couldn't believe what they saw. Almost half the hands went up, and it suddenly dawned on them they were not alone, that their problem was not all that peculiar after all. Gordon was talking about the fella that struck his wife with the flowers. That's probably not as uncommon as you think, only sometimes they don't even bother with the flowers. Well, I know a Christian woman, you know, she told me what she did. She knew her husband had been a lumberjack, so she figured, you know, deep down underneath he still got those lumberjack tendencies, you see. So she determined to find out how far she had to razz him and push him until he exploded. And one day he exploded and cursed and blasphemed. Aha! So you call yourself a Christian, she said. Don't let Satan tell you that your problem is peculiar because it isn't. That's very common. Whatever it is, there are many people here whose lives have been touched and changed, and yours can be touched and changed too. But by faith, he that comes to God must believe two things. One, it says that God is, and two, that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him or carefully seek him out. Now we come to the if. And if, he's talking about the righteous, remember, if they be bound in fetters and held in cords of affliction, what then? Are Christians bound? Yes, they are. Many times, deeply bound. And not like Samson. I mean, he knew their oaks would melt when God came. That's true too in another sense in our day. But it doesn't always happen when we want it to happen. It did for Samson because he believed God. If they be bound in fetters and held in cords of affliction. It talks about that in Psalm 107. About people that are bound in affliction because they rebelled against the words of God and contend, not condemned, but contend, which means they despised or made light of the counsel of God. So now they're all bound up. Paul Rader was a famous American evangelist. He was a boy preacher, a wonder preacher. Then someone persuaded him to go to a certain higher institution of learning. They lost his faith and came out of that school an atheist. And was that way for some years apparently. And got deeper and deeper and deeper into trouble and bound up and so on. Until one day he was walking down the street. And you know this corticelli yarn ladies? Remember that? They used to have an advertisement showing a little kitten all caught up in a ball of yarn. And he saw this sign on a big sign board and the Lord said, that's you Paul. And he got off into a house all by himself and spent two days or so in the house fasting, praying, oh God if you're there speak to my heart. And he came out of that house totally transformed. We'd have never heard of Paul Rader, the evangelist, if this had not happened. If they be bound in fetters and held in cords of affliction. And God has a thousand ways of afflicting us. You know what happened to David? He sinned with Bathsheba, confessed his sin and Nathan said the Lord also has put away your sin, you will not die. But that didn't end the story. When Nathan told David about the fellow who stole the lamb, he didn't know Nathan was talking about himself. And he said the man that's done this is a son of death, he's worthy to die. He shall restore fourfold. Well David had to do that too because four of his sons died. For the life of Uriah that David took, the child died that was born to Bathsheba, that was number one. And Adonijah died. Adonijah the son of Haggath exalted himself saying, I'll be king. One of David's sons. His name meant the Lord is my master. Solomon had to have him killed because he exalted himself to be king. Amnon, which meant faithful and true, one of David's sons, was assassinated by Absalom, one of David's sons, whose name meant father of peace, who died violently when he tried to murder his father. And all of this was because of David's sin. His own iniquity shall take the wicked himself and he shall be held with the cords of his own sin. Your sins and mine will tie us up, we don't need to look beyond that, and bring problems into our family. They cannot be resolved until my inner problem is resolved by the grace of God. So you can name, give all your children Bible names and have every one of them go to hell. That's not the way it's done. And Christian parents, we have to be right with God. For our children to be right with God, if they be bound in fetters, I say again, his own iniquity shall take the wicked himself and he shall be held with the cords of his own sin. Do you remember when the king of Judah put Jeremiah into jail? And it says, Jeremiah sunk down in the mire. There was no water but just mire down in the bottom of the thing. And there he is up to his knees in muck and mire sloshing around down there. He couldn't sit down he couldn't lay down, he could just slosh around in the mud. And I suppose Jeremiah saying to himself, hey God, what are you doing up there? Can't you dry this place out? What have you got me down here for? We don't find Jeremiah saying anything like that. I'm just assuming or presuming, probably too much. But I'm sure he wondered as his boots filled with slime and so on the mud. But he found out, he found out because in the same chapter in Jeremiah, when he had a meeting with the king, his feet are sunk in the mire. Where did he get that from? He got it from his own experience a few moments before. Wow! Jeremiah wasn't the one that had his feet in the mud. The king was the one. Your feet are sunk in the mire. The mire of his own making. Because he refused to walk with God, King Zedekiah, through the fear of man. And do you remember what happened to his sons? Because Zedekiah wouldn't walk with God. Do you remember what happened? We don't know how many sons he had. Zedekiah was maybe in his early 30s, 33 or so. He had some boys, we don't know how many, how old. But they were slaughtered in front of his eyes. First of all, the nobles of Judah were slaughtered, all these men. Then they brought his sons and they murdered his sons. Then they bored his eyes out. And the last thing he saw before his sight was taken from him was his own sons and all the nobles of Judah, his men, lying there in the ground in blood. And I wonder if at that time the words of the prophet Jeremiah didn't thunder through his soul. Your feet are sunk in the mire. You made it. You'll have to live with it. His own iniquity shall take the wicked himself and he shall be held with the cords of his own sins. Yet they rebound in fetters and held in the cords of affliction. Then he, that's God, shows them their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded. Are we listening? Has God been perhaps showing you your transgressions? Areas of your life that need to be changed for the glory of God? Are you listening to God? Are you still pretending these are not problems, they're not there? Or if only you had a different job or married a different person, your life would be different than it was? Have you come here for a place? Jeremiah 3.13, only acknowledge your iniquity. Only acknowledge it. Ahoseah 5.15, the marginal reading says, until they be guilty, God said, I'll go and return to my place until they're guilty. God can't forgive what I don't acknowledge. God can't take out of my life what I don't admit is there. God can't do anything for me as long as I blame it on my wife or my husband, until they acknowledge the offense and seek my face. That's what it says. God will hide until we do that. So, he shows them their work. You know people, if there's one thing God can do, it is he can communicate. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see? And to add on that, he that made the tongue, won't he talk? Can't he talk? God made us in his image, so he could communicate with us. And often when you're counseling with people, they will say, God isn't saying anything to my heart. I don't believe it. The problem is we shut the doors in our ears and we're not listening. God's talked about some things to us for so long that we're sick and tired of it. We don't want to listen to it anymore, so we shut our ears off. And after a while, you can persuade yourself that God never even said. Then he shows them their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded. Then it says he opens their ear to discipline. To discipline. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Most translations call it a spirit of self-discipline, the Holy Spirit. In my heart, he opens my ear to discipline. The Lord God has opened my ear. And I was not rebellious. Now they turn their way back over in Isaiah, a prophecy of Christ. He was not rebellious. Should I be? And he commands us that we return from iniquity. And we stop doing what we're doing. You know, sometimes people say, well, I can't help it. I have to do this thing. Yet, if you were told, if you do that again, I'll shoot you, you wouldn't do it. All of a sudden, you've got the power to not do it. Like people, you know, they can't stop drinking. And then they're told, you have one more binge and you'll die. Your liver won't take it. And all of a sudden, they find they can stop drinking. He commands that we return from iniquity. Why? Whom the Lord loves, he chases. Are you tied up? Why has God done it? He's done it to bring us to time, to face up our sins, to change for the glory of God. If they obey and serve him, what then? Prosperity and pleasure, it says. If they obey not, they'll pass away. They'll perish. They'll pass away. You know, even for Christians, there's a sin unto death. Paul committed certain men, professing Christians, to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, in order that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. His spirit was saved, but he lost his life. That happens. I know a Christian young man, went to Winnipeg Bible College years ago. I knew him well. As a matter of fact, had the joy of leading him to Christ. Then he got in with some bad company, and forgot his God. And one day, he was struck with lightning in the field, and he died. His body was destroyed, but I believe his spirit was saved, because there was every evidence that he had been a real believer in Christ. There is a sin unto death. The Bible says that. That's God's last resort for a stubborn Christian. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens. Ever thank God for all the afflictions he sends? He does it, people, because he loves you, not because he hates you. Spurgeon, that great preacher, went through a great deal of suffering. Oh, how he suffered with gout, and sciatica, and lumbago, and respiratory problems, and kidney ailments. And he said, gout? You know what that's like, he said, gout? It's putting your foot in a vice, and tightening the vice as tight as it'll go, and then giving it a full turn more. It was so bad one day, that Spurgeon asked everybody to leave the room. And everybody left. And he lay there in his bed, and he just wept, and wept, and wept, and he said, God, if you were me, and I was you, I sure wouldn't let you suffer like this. And he said, never again can I have to suffer as deeply. Yet, he and his wife, his wife was bedridden for 20 years, you know what they said? They said, due to the spectacular results of my ministry, God had to do this to keep me from becoming proud. It was always that danger. Someone accused Spurgeon of being proud, and he said, no wonder is it, I'm not more proud than I am. Which, of course, was true. But in any case, whom the Lord loves, he chases and scourges every son whom he receives. If they be bound, and fettered, and held in accord to the affliction of man, he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have exceeded, and he opens their ear to discipline, and he commands that they return from iniquity. Parents, listen. The way you live has a profound effect on your children. And usually, it's not people outside the home. Let me give you one example before I close. A preacher friend of mine, he was so busy doing the work of God, he had no time for his own boy. And one day, the police brought his boy home, 14 years old. And he woke up with a start. I mean, the father did. He told me what happened. He had no idea his son was running with a gang, doing the things they were found guilty of doing. He repented before God, and asked God's forgiveness. Then he laid a plan to capture his son, and it didn't work. Every avenue he tried, the kid just turned him off. Wanted to have nothing to do with him. Then he just kept praying. Oh, he repented a thousand times before his God, for having failed God in this matter. And then one day, he saw his boy reading a book on archery. So he got a book on archery. And read it, so he could talk with his son about archery. See, and that's how it started. One day he said, hey son, what do you say we get some archery tackle? He says, yeah dad, that would be key. So his dad went out and bought archery tackle for his son. They started going out once a week and plunking in the fields. They call it field shooting. About a year later, the kid said to his dad, gee dad, I feel sorry for the old gang. He said, why? He said, none of their dads will spend any time with them the way you spend time with me. Guess where that boy is now? He's in full time Christian work. Guess where he could have been? He could have wound up in those buildings with bars in the windows. It depended on the dad, not on God. I know, in the final analysis, it depends entirely on God. But the blessings of God come down through human channels. And so, to fathers and to mothers, to those who are not married and who someday will be fathers and mothers, I say, is God tying you up? Has he tied you up? Would you do something about it? You know, there is a prayer room. Why don't you go to the prayer room, seek the face of God. There are people that can help you, take the word of God, counsel with you, pray with you.