In this sermon, the speaker discusses the concept of suffering and temptation in the Bible. They emphasize that suffering is not just a historical event but a continual process that believers go through. The speaker also highlights the importance of not trusting in oneself but in God's ways, as demonstrated by Jesus' suffering and reliance on God. They emphasize the need for believers to find their answers and solutions within themselves, rather than relying on external circumstances. The speaker also criticizes the idea of labeling mistakes as mere errors, emphasizing the need for personal introspection and growth.

I'm sorry I'm being lumped on you again, that is. I'll talk a little, maybe, and some of us can talk. Do we square to what the Bible says on suffering? Because the Bible says suffering is a necessary quality. And you can't have glory without suffering. So we'd better understand suffering, we'd have glory. The Scriptures are full of it. The great victory chapter, of course, is Romans 8, full of it. The moment he speaks about our inheritance, Romans 8, he says, 17, if children then heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, if so be it we suffer with him, oh, on condition we suffer with him, that we may be glorified. The two are bound together, aren't they? Heirs, joint heirs, ooh, if so be it you suffer with him. Then glory. And the whole of this chapter, we call it the victory, this is not the victory chapter, it's the groaning chapter, it's full of groans. So unless you're groaning, you're not there. This chapter says that the creature was brought to it too, the whole creation groaned it. The whole creation was brought to it who groaned it in pain, not only they but ourselves also, so we're co-groaners. The Bible says that this is the victory chapter, this is not the approaching chapter, this is the arriving chapter. So we've arrived in groaning here on earth, and then it says the Spirit groaned with us too. The Spirit groaned with groanings which cannot be uttered. Likewise the Spirit hopes and affirms it is, for we know what we ought to pray for. That's interesting he says that, making the intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered. And this chapter, this is the victory chapter of the Bible, isn't it? Chapter 8, no separation, all that, no separation. What it ends by saying, in the last verses of this chapter, it says, as it's written, for thy sake we're killed all the day long. Not alive all day long, killed all day long, read it. I say we'd better be Bible readers, read it. See what it says yourself? Verse 36, as it's written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. That's not something about an earthly marble palace, is it? We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. That's Romans. Look at Corinthians. This mighty Paul, who just was sharing and confessing, taking Corinthians as quite a confessing letter. He says, he's comforted, he says, comforted in all his tribulations. In chapter 1, verse 9, for we have the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves. But in God, so he went through something, he was trusting, mighty Paul trusting in himself, that's something, isn't it? A little bit of Satan, isn't it? Sentence of death, yeah, now don't stop, don't stay there, don't suffer that suffering stuff. What's the answer? Sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves. But in God is raised the dead, who delivers the dead from death, and did deliver, and so on. Chapter 4, he says it's a continual dying. Not only a dying 2,000 years ago, a dying of the Lord Jesus continual. Chapter 4, he says, chapter 7, verse 11, no, verse 7. We have this treasure in earth and vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are troubled on every side, but not distressed. Troubled means you feel it, but not distressed, you feel it. You're troubled but not distressed, because it's divided between troubled and distressed. You're perplexed, oh, we get mixed up a bit then. This is Paul, perplexed but not in despair, perplexity and despair, but there is perplexity. So there is trouble, there is perplexity, there's persecution, well we know a bit about that. We're cast down, not out. Cast down but not out, we are cast down. This is the mighty Paul, where you do, if you do better than Paul, you do pretty well. I don't despise that one. See what I mean? Always bearing about the dying of the Lord Jesus, not his death, his present dying, that's in me. The dialogue is, I'm bearing about the dying, there's something in me which is dying. Always, always, always. So that's a strong word, isn't it? Continual dying, continual glory, continual dying, continual suffering. Because life only comes out of death, death to life may be manifested in our body. But the life is only manifested because there's a dying. So life is in my body, it shows it. It says here, my body, I hope you're following in the Bible. It says here, the body. About the dying, the life of the Lord Jesus may be manifested in our body, so it's physically operative. It shines out of us. Yet the basis has been a dying, if that's arising. That's strong stuff. Verse 11, for we are always delivered unto death. We're stuck into death. God sticks us into death. Always delivered unto death. That's the life of Jesus may manifest. Then he does call it, in verse 17, our light affliction, some lightness. Our light affliction which is for a moment, some moment. Works its force far more exceedingly. Works to operate. One builds the other up, doesn't it? They're connected. The suffering works that glory. They're connected. Our light affliction works its force. A far more exceedingly eternal weight of glory. Light, suffering, so we call it light. Doesn't feel light down here at the start. Weight glory. It's something. In the chapter he says, oh, a whole list of them. But he says, without authorities, with inner fears. Oh, I can't find it. Somewhere here. Without the suffering, but inner fears, and he says that. Chapter six. Thank you, six somewhere, isn't it? The whole of six is tough. The whole chapter six is stripes, imprisonment. In all these he's approving us as ministers of the gospel, how? By their patience, afflictions, necessities, distresses, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors, searchings, fastings. Wow. That's mounting glory. And then in second Timothy, in his last letter, before he's executed. He tells Timothy again. It's a faithful saying to Timothy 2.11. If we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we be dead with him, we shall live with him. If we suffer with him, we shall reign. And that is again, if you want glory, you have suffering. If you are reigning, you want suffering. If you suffer with him, if you don't suffer with him, you want glory, doesn't it? If we suffer with him, we also shall reign with him. And then the pattern. It becomes God that we perfect in suffering. Not perfect in glory. It becomes God. It suits God. That's a strong thing, isn't it? It suits God. It fits God by, it says, for whom are all things. By whom are all things. To make a captain of us, a person perfected through suffering. Number one person, the captain, the leader. That's in Hebrews 2, where he's made like unto us. I hear all the rattle of the pages being turned all round me. In my deafness I hear it. It's a good thing to be deaf sometimes, isn't it? I'm sure we need to be more Bible-minded. I do believe it. I do believe it. Unless I can give it to my Bible, I'm not safe in the end, you know. The Bible's got to be encouraged by the Spirit. I've got to have it in my Bible first, have it in the Spirit. I must. So there's something there we've got to keep reminding ourselves of. And this, last year, Fred gave us a whole series on Hebrews. Very good, a whole series in our talk, Blowing Rock on Hebrews. But here in Hebrews it says that, verse 10, we see Jesus. Verse 9, we see Jesus made a little lower than the angels. If I taste death, very man, for it became him, God. It becomes him, it suits him, it's right. This is fitting for God. But what's fitting? By whom are all things? By whom are all things? In bringing many sons unto glory, to make the leader of them, professing through sufferance. What's suffering, sir? And then verse, it calls temptation suffering. That's in chapter 4. It's in chapter 2, I think. My eyes aren't very good these days. Thank you. Last verse of chapter 2. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted. The word temptation and trial are the same thing in the Bible. So some say the temptation is an inner pull, the trial is out of impact, somewhat. We're tempted through inner pulls, trials hit us from outside. Same thing, the same word in the original. He suffered being tempted. So there's suffering in being tempted, or tried. There's suffering in it. And then in the great description, the amazing description of the perfect pioneer of our salvation, I think we quoted it yesterday, it says in the fifth chapter, who in the days of his flesh, verse 7, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, this is Jesus, to him that was able to save him from death, was heard also in that he feared. I'll read it again. Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, strong words, strong words, aren't they? unto him that was able to save him from death, was heard in that he feared. He wasn't saved from having death. He was saved from positive death. He went through death and resurrection. He wasn't saved from the utter death, but through the utter death came resurrection. No death, no resurrection. So the salvation didn't take place, he was saved from the cross, but there hadn't been the cross, there wouldn't be resurrection. So there is a resurrection from out of the death, out of the death, out of the suffering comes the glory. It says so here. And then it kind of brings it home. It goes on to say, Oh dear, my eyes have to... Yes, then, next verse. 2 Corinthians, Hebrews 6, Hebrews 5, 8. Though he was thine, yet learned he obedience to the things which he suffered. What's happening? Is this the suffering? It is for my eyes. What's up? Oh, I'm fine, thank you. I'll get it from inside. Thank you. Thank you, dear. Caring for the poor and needy. Thank you. Thank you, love. See here, though he was thine, yet learned he obedience to the things which he suffered. We talked yesterday about how you learn a thing and get it. About becoming a doctor and all that. How you become a beer, a godder. By learning, you learn obedience, you learn it. Obedience, of course, is the process of believing. The only obedience we have is not doing it, but believing it. Because we believe he's the doer. So all the doing we do, the real doing, is believing, and then he's the doer, and then we do it, but we're doing it, and then he's doing it. Then that's the learning of obedience, we know that. We had talked about that yesterday. Being made perfect. So he's perfected through suffering, he says, perfected through suffering. Settle in something, settle there. So sufferings settle you in something. What's that mean? Settles you in something. And being made perfect, he then became the author of eternal salvation, unto them who went the same way, the obedient way. To those unto whom them to obey him. Remembering all the time, obeying is believing, because we're so geared to thinking, believing, but obeying is working. Obeying is the obedience of faith. We had that yesterday, Steve brought that up just again. Obedience of faith. So he parted on, you see, what is suffering? Suffering is what I don't like, that's all. Suffering is what I don't like. Quite plain. Maybe spirit suffering, or soul emotional suffering, or body suffering, I don't like it. It presses me to find a remedy. That's the secret. It presses me to find a remedy. That's why the great King of Gods says, life is inside you. Subjectivity is truth. Object is outside you. You escape it by saying, oh, it's out here somewhere. Real life, answer it inside. His great words, existentialism, you live in existence, existence is inside you. How do I handle that? How do I make that suffering operative? You live from inside you. Not, oh, I get off it somewhere, it'll go tomorrow, it'll leave off for tomorrow. Life is not objective. Objectivity is operating by, oh, they're out here, we'll handle them. Subjectivity, what's that mean to me? Why is that like that? I must find my answer inside me. And that's dialectic. That's opposite, doesn't, I don't like it. Ah. I've got to find a remedy, a thing I don't like, inside me. Oh, it'll be fine that day tomorrow. That's not the answer. It's to find the day in the storm. That's subjective. Objective says, oh, it'll be fine tomorrow. Subjective says, it's a fine day today. It isn't a fine day, it's a bad day. Find out how it's a fine day. Find how a nasty day is a nice day. That's inside you. That's subject living, that's existential living. Existence is inside you, existence is inside you. I'm a, how do I handle that? How do I make, how is that really workable to me honestly? Not just saying, oh, it'll be nice tomorrow. This is the life. And something forces me, if I'm real, to find my answer inside me. And then it comes to my body. It says, if you bear the dying inside you, find out how to die and rise inside you, it comes out, then out with your body, you show it. It's spontaneous, spontaneous. So it says something here. Force and the glory comes out of suffering. And the perfect person has to be a perfect sufferer. Learn the obedience when he may be made perfect. May be made perfect through sufferings. So I'm not a person who has to handle sufferings. Not made perfect through victory, or through glory, through sufferings. The Bible says so. Number one person, Jesus, perfected through sufferings. And when he knew how to handle and turn the sufferings, the glory came out of the sufferings. How is that done? Because sufferings forces me to be what I don't like. And face it, I don't like it. Sufferings, I don't like it. Like Paige, I couldn't hear too much, but Paige was saying yesterday, she hated me. She couldn't stand me. We all have done that, hopefully. Hated me, but how do I like me? Now I don't find it outside by pretending something. How can I turn a nasty me into a nice me? I've got to get my answer. That's why Kierkegaard was a really great teacher. He said, the art of subjectivity. Subjectivity means subject inside you. The object is outside here. Subject means it's in me. You must find your answer in you. And it starts with conflict. I don't find an answer, I don't like it. How can I say that I don't like it when I do like it inside me? That's the teaching of the cross. That's why Jesus said, or Kierkegaard said, you see, how can you handle your sins? How can you handle your sinnerhood? The baby said, how can you handle your sins? By a leap of faith inside you that he took them away. Now that's absurd. Where's God? Where's this resurrection stuff? You've leapt. The absurdity of it. Oh, I believe he did it. I believe in resurrection. I believe in the Holy Spirit to forgive me. So I dissolve my sin problem by my Jesus problem inside me. Oh, he took them away. Salvation, rebirth, rebirth. Oh, he took them away. You had an inside solution. You couldn't be saved unless you were miserable inside. But you had to be inside. And the whole world tries to escape their sins. That's objectivity. This terrible world they use it as a mistake. They call adultery a mistake. It's a horrible way to talk about girlfriends with a bad life. Girlfriend is usually fornication and adultery. We never say so. Our papers are full of girlfriends. Which is fornication and adultery. We never say so. Only the Bible says so. Or we might call it a mistake. It isn't a mistake, it's a sin. Oh. The world escapes. Objectivity. They say, he's a girlfriend. Often you meet the best people of the day. Like this poor fellow resigning from the government. Standing for president because he'd been attacked on the gold business. Escape, escape. All he needs to say. They actually challenge him. That gary man. He comes from Nazarene so he should know better. Have you been adultery? Well he could have said, I'm sorry I have. But God has mercy. We believe him. You say, I shouldn't ask that. Don't say I shouldn't ask that. Say I have done that. I'm sorry. We don't. That's honesty. It isn't a mistake. It's a sin. I'm sorry. I only wish Baker did say a little bit. I wish he'd say that. Subjectivity is truth. I must face it and find the honest answer. How can I find the answer inside me when I'm a nasty person? I must find I'm a nice person. By a leap of faith. I discovered the nasty person was Satan in me. And Jesus Christ put him out. And the nice person is Jesus in me. So I'm a nice person. I find inside me. Now my body shows it. Harmony. I'm a Jesus person. Because I was a Satan person. And we all are stuff. And the Satan was put out by Jesus. And I believe the leap of faith. I can't prove it. That's why somebody quoted yesterday. Kierkegaard says we walk on 60,000 paddles of water. You walk. Life is built on doubt. Doubt is suffering. Paul says, Kierkegaard, you always suffer. Faith is built on doubt. You can't prove it. Richard told that bit in the thing he's going through. The battle of faith. Can't prove it. Shall I starve? Shall I do this? You can't prove it. You can't prove you're saved. You've only got a book. Who says the book's true anyhow? So you can't prove anything. You've got the leap inside you. And of course you get the inside person. But you can't prove him. The Holy Spirit says, oh yes, that's so. Oh, I see. You can't prove that. You're a fool of faith. It's the foolishness of faith. The wisdom of God which is wiser than men. The weakness of God. That's the weakness. You can't prove it. But somehow you know it. To the world we're talking about. This is inner suffering resolved. All life is resolving inner suffering. But all I have to face is that it's always suffering. It's always suffering. We touched it yesterday. One of you talked about it a bit. I get your name. Talked about being pulled and getting behind you. Being pulled to self. Say, that's Satan pulling me. And then praise took it up as far as I could hear it yesterday. Pick it up. Of course, that's our principle. So you see, suffering means I'm pulled into what I don't like. But I'm supposed to like everything. Oh, then I'm off-beam. I don't like it. But I'm supposed to like everything. Jesus took three hours to get his inner self right. I don't like the cross. But I better like it. Because I've come to do it. Not my will but thine be done. The cup which my father hath given me shall not drink it. But it took him three hours to say that one. So it's not out of place to be pulled by suffering. And it may be suffering by imagination. By what you think may come or what has come or might come. It's not the point. It may come on the feeling level. Of course, that's the soul level. Oh, I don't feel imagination. Feel a fuller life. Life's fuller. We're precious. We're full of feelings. We use our feelings rightly. We love each other. Or meant to. We need to learn a few things like among ourselves these days. We're meant to anyhow. And all feeling can be the other around. Fear and fuss and faith and so on. Or it can be physical. It doesn't matter. So suffering has diverted me to something I don't like. I was meant to. That puts me in the process of faith. Faith means I've got to resolve an inside problem. I don't like that. Whatever form it takes. I had one last night. The old Lanyon was attacking me. He said, I'd better get back to faith. I like attackers. What shall I do with that? We must start there. Jesus started there. You must start there. That's why I'm so sorry we don't put Lanyon. He says, don't live by what you see. We need Lanyon. He isn't always right on everything, but he's right on that. Don't live by this. Don't be affected by this. This house burns down. If it does burn down, there's another one coming. See through the burned down house to the new house. But we must not be hurt by a burned down house. We must be real. So we have to start suffering. We don't like this, don't like this, don't like this. But you cannot resolve it by saying, oh, it'll pass over. That's what the world does. It's a mistake. It is a mistake. It's an adultery. It is a mistake. It's an alcohol, drunk, murder or something. It isn't a mistake. Cut the word mistake out. It shows how hypocritical we are. We talk about it. Even Reagan talks about mistakes. They aren't mistakes. He should have done better. He should have said so. They aren't mistakes. They're real. Mistakes is babyhood objectivity. You don't live objectively. You live in subjectivity. What does it mean to me? Why don't I solve that? What's happened? Why have I got a mess? What's the mess? How can I turn the mess into a solution? Inside me. You don't read that, maybe, even if they turned Kiergod, his great word, Existationism, the greatest word, we turned that into heresy. Schaefer, silly men like that attacked the great Kiergod. Kiergod and Burma are the two greatest men. Jacob Burma, the mystic, and Kiergod, the philosopher, are the two greatest men. Out of them I learned something. His subjectivity, what is subjectivity? Existence. Existence. Subject. You're subject. You exist. You're subject. Not object. Subjectivity is your you. You. You. You. Not out here. Find the answer in the you. Why don't I like that? Why is that doing this? Now are there any answers in me? Of course, the answer is the absurdity of faith. It's in a person who came once, they say he came, they say he died, and they say he rose again, and I've believed it. And if I don't believe that for the whole thing, I'm most miserable. And I'm believing this person, and this, by the leap of faith, the solution. The solution. The solution. And he's God's devil. Now you get it. Finally, he's God's devil. And Jesus found Calvary as God's devil. The cup my father had given me. Now, he said at the supper table, the prince of this world cometh, and nothing in me. Everything on it. Everything on it. Nothing in me. He got it there. But even he had to go to Gethsemane and face it out. The prince of this world cometh, and my day has come. Mind you, Jesus lived under threat of death. We baby people call fully somebody threatened with death, and we get God's use on us. Baby stuff. Jesus lived from his first miracle, when on the Sabbath day, he raised that person going to water, and healed them. And they said, from that day we're going to kill this man. So he lived under threat of death. He comes and says, my day has to come. They won't get me yet. But he was under threat. He lived under threat of that suffering. He didn't just get threatened later on. He was always threatened. And we howl if we're threatened. We've been in a great fuss. One of my dear missus had a great fuss just recently. Some burglar got into the house. We're all in a magazine commiserating her bravery. Goodness me. That is a terrible thing to be threatened by a burglar. We've been raped and glorified. Several of our women have been raped and glorified by God. One of our greatest women was raped and glorified by God, and told everybody. And she's blessed thousands since. She went back to people who raped her, to win them for Christ. Why escape? Objectivity escapes. Subjectity resolves. It resolves inside you. Now, we've all done that, because you wouldn't be here if you hadn't. You resolved all your sins. You resolved it inside you. By Jesus, you couldn't prove. The Spirit had to take you. He's a real Jesus. He did do this. And the thing is done, and therefore your sins aren't there, and so on and so forth. And you found your peace. It resolves. The truth that edifies is truth to you. Pierre Cagras said that. The truth that edifies, it edifies you. Oh, yeah. That's peace with God, of course. The truth edifies you. You'll see a safe dinner. Inside you, not outside. That's this thing. That's subjectivity. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Through a faith you can't prove. You have a book. You can't even prove the book. And the Spirit, who is he? He's a weird person. Could he have done something to me? I don't know. But that's it. He's real to me. And the truth edifies. I live by that. We live by that. We now find the edification that we were Christ as us. That's our deep edification. We were Satan as us. Now we're Christ as us. That's our great secret, of course. The truth that edifies is truth. We die for it. Give ourselves for it. Because life is passion. We're made of passion. Of course we are. We're made of fire. Everything's fire. God's fire. Fire and his fire become blessed fire. Light, light. Or consume each other one. So the Bible calls it fire and light. Tremendous realization that. Hebrews 12. Consuming fire. Fire consumes or something happens to it and becomes light. A death. We know scientifically a death in this helium atom business. And releases it as energy. It becomes light. Instead of burns, it blesses. That's the paradox. What burns, blesses. When it's resolved inside it. It's resolved in the sun element. And what resolves the sun element for helium, the fuse, that's what it's like to do the fusing atom, of course. When the heat fuses it, out comes this new power. New power is light. And the whole life, electricity is light. Walter Russell taught us that. The sick is a light. Light is electricity. God is light. This is light. Everything is light. Everything is light. Light, fire in an edifying form. Self-giving form. Self-getting form. Fire is a self-getting. Light is self-giving. And that's what God is, was, is. Fire, light. And we become that. We're all fire. We're passionate. Of course we're passionate. Thank God we're passionate. Depends where your passion goes. Lust is a beautiful word. You burn with lust. Depends what kind of lust. We put bad connotations in some of those words, but there they are. The word in Greek is epithumia, which means strong desire. With lust am I lusty to feast with you in kingdom, Jesus said. The Greek church, we use the word lust, just strong desire. Passion. And now our passion goes into this. Our passion goes into give Jesus the solution we've got, inner solution. And give people the whole business of I as He. But suffering. Suffering. Suffering is every form of thing. Trial. Suffering. I don't like it. We always get it. All life consists in that. You see what Paul said? Perplexed. Who isn't perplexed? Who isn't perplexed? Don't run away. Accept your perplexity and turn it into a solution. Don't run away and say, oh, well, we'll find an answer somewhere. Get the answer inside you. That's giving God. Subjectivity. Get it inside you. Find the answer to that perplexity. Perplexed but not in despair. Oh, I see. It's a bit of a mess, but it's God's mess. You watch God coming through that mess. Now then, I've got inner harmony. And I've died then. I've died to being governed by negative perplexity. I've turned perplexity. It's God's perplexity. So God has a... I may not quite see how yet, but God has the answer. I'm satisfied. I'm watching for God's answer. Now I'm back in harmony and the life of the body is coming... His life is a resurrection of life coming through our body. Other people can catch the harmony. All life is there. In every form. Pressure, pressure, suffering, suffering. Every life. Life's built on... Don't kid ourselves. But the point of getting it is you then see it's the background to glory. We aren't fighting our sufferings. That's a poor world. Fighting our sufferings. Many try to escape it by calling it a mistake or something. And try to escape it. Or dissolve it somehow. And put up our terrific armaments and all this ridiculous stuff. Get the nation to debt for doing it. All this miserable stuff we do. Fear, fear. So we have to do it out of stuff. Make armaments and all this sort of stuff. We... Existentialism, suffer, solve it inside you. Find the solution inside you. And there's a solution inside you. Of course it's God's stuff. It's God's devil. That's something Jesus came to. It's God's devil. The devil could... I told you. The Christmas will come and has nothing in me. Subjectivity. Outwardly, objectively, tore him. Tore him to bits. Inwardly, he didn't get him. And you're an inner person. This is only part of you. It's things that are to your temple. Like a friction. Inside is me. And Jesus was an existentialist. Satan has nothing in me. But it took him three hours to settle it. After that, that was supper table. Then he went out to the garden. For three hours he said, well, I don't like this. I don't like this. I don't... If it's possible, I don't want to do it. That's real. Of course, we see that Satan, you see, Satan on the tempting level is good practice. Satan's only a nuisance when he gets us into sin. But that's only occasional. So, tempting level is good practice. And occasionally it goes into sin. Then it's trouble. But that's only rare. And so Jesus had Satan on tempting level. Not my will. He sensed that this was Satan saying, come on, come on. You shouldn't do that. Come on, come on, come on. No, I should do it because God said I should do it. He resolved inside him in bloody sweat. They couldn't meet with that prayer. They went to sleep. Three times over, alone. Alone in the garden. Inside him, inside him. It came out in some bloody kind of sweat of some kind. But inside him. He resolved it. And then when they did take... when the soldiers did come, you know, and Peter cut the ear off the high priest's servant and all that. And Jesus heard it. He said, suffer that. The cup which my father has given me. He got it. The devil was God's cup. So I've resolved it when the enemy becomes your friend. Becomes your means in which God does something. The cup is my... Satan was God's cup. God's cup. That's inner solution. That's perplexity, not in despair. Persecution, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. But you are first cast down. And you are first perplexed. You are first persecuted. And that's the suffering. So there isn't glory without suffering. Now we all suffer. You see, until I recognized that... I must get this principle. Everybody suffers. The poor world suffers, but we don't know what to do with it. We're the people who do know what to do with it. That's our point. The world... We all suffer, but don't know what to do with it. We do know what to do with it. Inside you only. You do not know outside. You have to reverse the outside into the inside to find the answer inside me. Existentialism. Inexistence. Inexistence. How do I respond? I'm in existence. I'm inside me. How do I respond? I don't like it. Where's the response? Now, wait, wait, wait. That I is that Satan gets at me. My real I is Christ. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Satan gets at my suffering. Satan gets at me. Don't like it. Don't like it. Must not that way. Gets me. As well you said yesterday, you're pulled. You see, and so we always get pulled. And the whole life is how to resolve the pulling by saying, well, I am pulled, but I forget who I am. That's all. Praise was out yesterday. In the other one, I forget why I talked about it. Page put it up last night. Very good. You're pulled. You must be pulled. And that pulls Satan on you. That's good health. That's good practice. That's all. You see, it may take days. It may take a long time. If you're a learner, it may take... It took even Jesus three hours. That's Jesus. So that's okay. And being pulled, Satan's saying, here, here, here. And you hear him. You hear him. You see it in situations, imaginations and so on. Hear him. Here, here, here. And it's real. They're waiting me. I go inside myself. I go inside myself. I inside myself. Hi, you're not that. You, you're me. Hi, you're not that stuff. You're me. You're me. Now inside, you move. You move back to who you are. You always were. Just forgotten. So it takes me to forget who you are. And you must do so to be real. And the suffering is there. And the suffering begins to be glory. But it's still suffering. But God's got an answer. You watch. You watch. God's got, God's got, God's playing tricks. He's going to turn this thing into a good thing. He turned Calvary into Resurrection. No Resurrection, no Calvary. I mean, in other words, no Calvary, no Resurrection. You know what I mean there? There couldn't be what we are forever, but for Calvary. And as we walked, he prayed that he might, he prayed he shouldn't be dying. Interesting. He said he prayed, you know, he prayed that he shouldn't die. He did die, but the dying, the outer dying, because the Resurrection. So there it is. So you see, all life is this. It's under every kind of form. Big forms, little forms, outer forms, inner forms. All life is suffering. Because this is the only way you're perfecting. You've got to be pressing the thing, like you learn your, you talk about being a doctor, until you learn your medicine, until you practice it. Until you learn our Christ, until you practice it. So, see, so the suffering, it's necessary, it perfects you, you see. It's the only way. And every other thing, God had it. Now that's the mystery, we can't wholly prove, Where it says God can't lie, it means there came a time when God turned down being a selfless self. Now, that's the best we can say, because that's using temporal terms, eternal facts, which can't quite fit together. But somewhere in eternity, there was that amount of suffering. A God who could have been me for me, brought his son into being, I'm me for you. And the fire became a light. There's a death there. There's a death in God. And that's the glory, Jacob Berber gave us that, we talked about that this morning, and then Alan Parker, the lawyer, picked it up and produced that little booklet, the cross in the heart of God. That's the best human terms we can use. Of course, it doesn't really fit, but it's the best we can say. Because it levels us, then Jesus became that as us. And he should have perfected through suffering, as he learned obedience, and the high priest could do it now, you see. The high priest, the eternal high priest, he's risen again, now he can operate into us, this stuff, this is how you do it. This is how you do it. You go as I did, and you don't like a thing, and you see it like that, and I don't like it, wait a minute, God, you're in this thing, now I go speak a word of faith, and you're getting this out, and you're getting this out of it. Sometimes it is healing, speaking a word of faith, it comes through. And even before that's done, we have the resolution inside ourselves. We spoke of the word of faith, inside ourselves we have it. And then out in some form comes the substance. That's turning suffering into glory, it starts inside us. So Paul, that 2nd Corinthians has a terrific list, beatings and imprisonments and starvings and fears, miles of them. Light affliction, wow, light affliction. Light affliction, wow. Because inside it turned light, because it was God's suffering. Paul says that, you see, in Colossians for instance, he uses that expression, which we often quote, I don't know, you know it, but I'm quoting, or more sensual reading it, who now rejoiced in my sufferings for you, Colossians 1.24, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. That is, now this is suffering for others, this is the intercession. Rejoice in my sufferings for you, sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake, with the body of course, which is the church. And he called it, you see, he called Nero's imprisonment God's imprisonment. That's strong stuff. I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, Ephesians 4. I therefore the prisoner of the Lord. He wasn't the prisoner, he was the prisoner of Nero. He didn't say that. He's God's Nero. He's God's Nero. So it's God's Nero, puts me in prison, out of prison, of course, came the prison of Epistles. It's through the prison we get the glory of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, of course. But, you see, so he calls it the prisoner of the Lord. So he resolved it every time, inwardly. It isn't a Roman jail. It's God's prison. And the prison, it's a wonderful phrase, prisoner of the Lord, isn't it? When he went through in that jail and chained up, chained up their fellow soldier and all that sort of stuff. And Peter called it, in 1 Peter, he calls your suffering the sufferings of Christ, which is a good phrase. Oh, I don't know. Yes. 1 Peter 4.13 Rejoice, as much as you partake of Christ's sufferings, Christ's sufferings. As I said yesterday, that is the manifest tragedy of the Holocaust. Because there may have been some precious persons. We don't have anybody who gloried in dying. They howled in their dying. They didn't know the sufferings of Christ. They didn't know Christ was there because they didn't know Christ. So the poor people, the believers in God, Jews and all that, they didn't know that this is part of Christ. They were sharing the martyrdom in Christ. So they went howling into the gas chamber. And we blame Hitler. No, blame the unbelief. Don't blame Hitler. Blame the Jews' unbelief. They should know better. Poor things don't know better. We do know better. There may be some, we don't know, precious people did go praising. We don't know among all those masses. Please God, there probably were some. That's, you see, that's the sufferings of Christ. It wasn't Christ. It was people beating him about. He said, this is the afflictions of Christ. So that's this, this temptation, which is a difficult word because the word is trial, really. Temptation is the more, the personal type. Trial is more the afflictions that hit us all around us all the time. They're both the same word really, the Jewish sufferings. I suggested that, to touch, the danger of temptation is mistaking temptation for sin because Satan, temptation is a first response. A first response isn't sin. The ultimate response is sin. And the church mistakes the first response for the ultimate response. If I'm a quick person, I'm quick. I'm very quick. Oh, I can't even bend over. Oh, I bother, I drop that thing. Now that bothers me. It's just a temptation. I don't like it. Oh, I've got to get, bend down and get that. Oh, my typing isn't exactly perfect. Oh, I've made that mistake, oh bother, I've mistaken again. That's not a sin. It's a temptation. I'm responding, I don't like it. I don't want it. It shouldn't be. That's not a sin, it's a temptation. That's the importance of James 1, in those two verses. You're drawn to my desire, to my desire. I type well, like I thought Fred did until I know better now. But, but, you see, my bad typing. I drop things, I'm very quick. Where's that thing? I've lost it. Where is it? I've lost it. Bother. Bother isn't sin. I told you my famous little story a year or so ago, a lady I know very well, a very sharp lady, a Christian lady, in Tallahassee, knows the law, but she's very sharp. She said, normally she says, when somebody works me up, I say, damn you, you hit him over the head. Is that sin? I say, the dam's okay, hitting you in the head just goes too far. That's the point. You can't help the dam, but you can help the head. And that's the, James says, desire, you're drawn, of course you're drawn, we're full of desire, we're made of it, fire, we're just made of passion. But it comes out, for some you're too slow, for some you're too quick, some are too positive, some too negative, all sorts. Some have quick sex, sex responses, some don't. Some have pride responses, some have damage responses, all different, millions of types, different responses, okay, we all get them. Because we're made of, we're made to be human, on every level, on the physical, on the, on the, on the soul, mental, emotional, of course we are. Now, drawn away, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, and I am responding a little bit, that's not sin. Temptation, it wouldn't be temptation if I didn't respond. Jesus tempted, tempted means you feel something. Otherwise it's not temptation. Don't tell me, because I'm made to feel I'd like to do that. Otherwise it's not temptation, of course. Temptation is, make me feel like to do it. Or, maybe begin to do it. Oh, I shouldn't do that. Shouldn't say that. The first reaction, first reaction, that's not sin. Now mainly we condemn, because we, He had those reactions and he thinks they are not sin. Fourteen, the next verse says, when such love has conceded, it's adultery. And it's very interesting, you know, in the very same letter in James 4, Paul calls sin adultery. He says you're adulterous because that means I've married that thing, I'm meant to do it. I've gone into an affair with that thing, and I'm meant to tell that lie, and I'm meant to commit that thing, that sin. That's why sin is rare, but it's there, and sometimes it comes, occasionally. If I've really done it, then you go to 1 John 1, 9. Oh, I've done it, oh, and you confess your sin, you admit you did it. But you don't admit a temptation. You admit you did it. You look, it's very rare you really tell a lie. You don't live, I hope you don't live committing adultery. It's a joke for us to talk like that, we don't do that kind of thing. We don't live that kind of life. But you may be tempted. Temptation's OK. You get it if you're a live person, depends what kind of life you have. What kind of response you have. Different responses. They're OK. Don't mistake the first response for sin. It is a kind of response. Oh, that irritates me. I don't like that. That's OK. Depends what you do with it. So the first response shows you're tempted. The second response, a hit over the head, becomes a sin. We don't too often do that one. But that's a sin. And there's a great release there. Poor precious people in churches, all over the place, think they've sinned all the way year round because they felt hate or felt lust or said a sharp word or something. See, they felt they've sinned. But they haven't sinned unless they meant to do it. Sin has behind it, a daughter has a choice, an affair has a choice. I mean to do that. It isn't a temptation. I mean to do it. And you do it. That's a sin. Therefore the first response isn't a sin. Oh, I don't like the worry and fuss. That's OK. It's a good practice. It says, wait, that's Satan getting at me, making me forget who I am. It's what you said yesterday. I forget who I am for a moment. I always am. When I see materiality is real, I'm forgetting. It's a bunch of atoms, really. It's being slowed down. It's invisibility. That's all it is. When I look at it, it's like wooden walls. Well, that's not a sin to look at it like wooden walls and operate. It would be if I lived on that. Oh, my sorrow was because this place, my attitude, this is where I belong. And that would become a sin. You know what I mean. When you live in the material. So we must accept. So it isn't wrong to be affected by the material. Of course, we live that way. And disturbed by the material. Perplexed. Paul didn't see. Perplexed. Wasn't perplexed. Perplexed. I don't know what. Oh, I'm not despair. Here's a way through. Cast down. It's very strong. Cast down. Oh, I'm down. Paul didn't sin. This is part of the way. Wait a minute. It's OK. It's OK. See, the sin is I continue. The Hebrews is they continued in it. The unbelievers, they beat Moses up. It wasn't they complained. It wasn't they complained there was no manna, no water. It's because they said, let's beat him up. Then it becomes sin. Ah, let's get back to Egypt. Let's get this Moses out. Get back to Egypt. That becomes sin. Sin is when you purpose to do it. We don't often do that by the grace of God. If you do, then you get the remedy. You have to have some temporary guilt. No condemnation. You have guilt, then condemnation goes in above the cross. The faithfulness to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from our righteousness. Cleanses us from the sense of being wrong. The Hebrews 11 blood is not from the sins. It's from the consciousness of sins. How much blood can your consciousness from dead works. That consciousness of dead works. But so much of our consciousness is a false one. Consciousness of temptation is a sin. Most of us live in sin because we think we shouldn't have felt angry. I shouldn't have done so. Don't say that. That's a wrong consciousness. That's OK. But if you did the angry thing, or if you really did it, then you're cleansed. It's OK. Then you move into OK-ness. That's this life. So I'm saying there's a great relief that we can learn to subdivide between temptation, which does mean some response, and the sin which means I go around you and do it. Sin is a marriage and adultery which produces a child called sin. That's another matter. And so, life is consistent suffering, which is the only way to glory. I've always been impressed by billions... When you get the habit, you understand, you get it. You don't say, I shouldn't have it. Of course I get it. That's what we got to know. Of course we get it. But then we know gradually how to resolve it all the time. It's all in the back of Christ's religion, Christ's religion, Christ's religion, and you turn it from Satan pulling you off a bit back to who you really are. So you're very good last night when you said Satan pulled you off. It is Satan universal. And how can he be... Alright, the question is if Satan is a created being, how can he be an omnipresent spirit like... And dwell everybody as God. Because I prefer Bible interpretations to their interpretations. And the Bible says several things. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4, you know it, the God of this world, he's called God. The God of this world. That's 2 Corinthians 4. Oh, my eyes again. Someone... Sorry. Oh, verse 4 of course. In whom the God of this world. Therefore he has a universal output, this world. And then he's called a universal spirit. Because he's leveled up in one John 1 to the spirit. No difference. 1 John 4 says... 1 John 4, 6 says... We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby though we... These created truths and these created error. He's leveled up with the Holy Spirit. So I prefer the Bible to the evangelical twists and turns. The Bible's leveled up as the same level of spirit as the Holy Spirit. And then when you finally go back to Ephesians 2, and this I usually try to shut people up. When they say, well he's a local, he can't be to everybody in the same sense as God can't be. That's what they say. You can't say Satan's in you the same way as the Holy Spirit's in you. Oh, I said? What does Ephesians 2 say? Among whom, where in their time past, verse 1 to verse 2, chapter 2, he walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Well all the disobedience, the whole world's disobedience. The whole world's taught disobedience. So the spirit has worked and works in all humanity, because all humanity is disobedient. They usually say, they shut up, they can't answer that. So the Bible is saying, leveled up as a spirit with the Holy Spirit, and leveled up as a universal spirit in the spirits of all the unredeemed people. That should be enough. And when you add to that such statements as Paul, Jesus raised, you, your father, devil, lust of your father, you do, he must be inside of them. If we're doing, our lust is inside us. If he's doing his lust in you, he's doing his lust by our lust. So if I'm the father of the devil, it means he must be operating his lust by my lust. He must be inside me. So the Bible's clear as can be. These different, put these scriptures together. And there's a prince of the power of the air. It's a strange phrase. It means his power apparently is limited to our atmosphere. Including us, I suppose that means. It's called in the same scripture, the prince of the power of the air. Well, we take the air these days, don't we? It goes a certain element up, doesn't it? We're in this sort of element. And air is in everything. So all those things make it simple and plain to me. And then Jesus said, I quote it for you, John 14, the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. Therefore it can be in Jesus. The prince, that's John 14. The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. It means he could have something in him. If Jesus found it, he'd find this person in him. And then it says that Jesus, Satan, entered into him at the supper table. Entered into him. So it's an inner person. So it's just, to my mind, this silly fundamental fiddle stuff. The kind of fiddle things into bits and pieces. And says, oh, he's very local. Well, he's a pretty good local. He's local enough to contain us all. And we hear him. If I read you a Bible now, that's all I've got to say. Just let me, lumping it on me instead of yourself. We all quote from this last chapter of Genesis. God meant it. It isn't he did it. He meant it. He meant that the effects would be good. He meant Satan's evil to be good by preparing us for salvation. He didn't do it. There's a difference there. So God means an evil. He didn't do it. But he means, because he's God very well, I'll mean that evil for good purposes. That's the wonder of it. He turned the Calvary into resurrection. He didn't do the Calvary. Satan did the Calvary. So if I get the word, an emphasis, the word means. It doesn't say God did that for good. They did it. They learned evil by that. That's why they found their repentance. Those other children of Jacob. It worked in them. You can see he proved it too. It worked in them. They saw that they'd done evil in lying about Joseph and selling him and all that. So God didn't, but he meant it beautifully. And then that's the glory, that God means that thing and produced the whole area for the children of Israel to go into Egypt and become a great nation and all that. And it says the cup which my father has given me. He gave the cup. The cup wasn't the father's. It was Satan's cup. God gave it. God gives us Satan. He's God's Satan. He must be. Otherwise you've got something that isn't God. He must be the reverse form of God. God gives it to you. But he's not the Satan. He gives us something which is in its freedom. Take the form of him and make it the misused form which he never was. The fire form. The Satan form. So I don't personally get difficult that way. But parents of folks do get difficult that way. As if God actually did the thing. Well we know that. I can't take that. We know that. That's why it boils when people call their sins mistakes. They know they aren't mistakes. They meant them. And this poor world gets out of it facing sin by saying it's a mistake. It stirs me. It's like they're lying and they know they're lying. They know they're lying. But we don't want to say we're liars. So if a person says God was responsible. I know they know he isn't. If it's a murder or adultery or a lie. They know it was God who didn't do that. They know it. And it's a hypocrisy to pretend that God did that. He meant it. He meant you to be yourself. He must give freedom. That's his answer. The whole answer to all the tragedies of the world is freedom. There must be freedom. But suffering isn't in the utter effects. It's very hard to face these terrible famines and things. Suffering isn't in the utter effects. How do I take it? And the whole string of promises in Psalms for those in famine. It's never said. God judges. God knows those who die of famine. He knows what's inside them. That's not to outjudge. But suffering isn't out there. Suffering is how I take it. But of course the world doesn't see that. So they call it suffering or the poor this or the poor that. I know that because we had the leprosy business. We began to rescue lepers who had just left to die in their villages in the early days in the Congo. One of our vigorous, wonderful women gathered about a thousand of them together. But the point wasn't to... They would complain, Oh, I'm neglected and nobody cares. Poor things. Left to starve with their toes off and noses off and all this leprosy business. But when they found Jesus, they said, Oh, we've got life, we've got life. And they'd leap off with their name, leap off to tell other people they got life. That was inside. They were still lepers with no toes and no this and no that. But they got life. Got Jesus in their mortal, their disturbed body. Life, suffering isn't in the body. It's inside of us. How we take it, our whole key. We know how to take it now. How to start suffering and turn it around. You start suffering. So I turn, if people really try to justify that God did the thing, I say, you know better. If it's justifying some evil thing, that God did it. No, he meant it. Meaning he meant it, he meant it and he meant you to be free. If you're free, you did it. And if you go that way, you'll end in damnation. Maybe even he'll turn it into his purposes. Now... I know that Pharaoh was evil because God hardened his heart. I've, of course, discussed it with you. But because hardening is the process in me of God operates, he leaves me free to operate my me form as it is. And when my me form goes to disobedience, it gets hardened. And that's God hardening it because it's God's Satan anyhow. I mean, see, we're a person. Now we're governed by Satan. Now Pharaoh's governed by Satan. But the word of God comes to Pharaoh through Moses. And the word came again. Come on, Moses. Come on, Pharaoh. Listen. Come. Now then, Moses governed by... Pharaoh governed by Satan. He says, no, I'll go Satan's way. I'm not going to go that way. I'm not going to let you go, lose you. I'll go Satan's way. He chose. That's the hardening. The hardening is God confirming in us what our situation is. And if it's a Satan situation, then it's God's Satan if you like it. And that's the hardness. It doesn't mean God put the hardness in you, of course, because you're a free person. It gives God his final sovereignty. If you go that way and God damns you, this is you. It gives, in the end, the ultimate authority of God. And you damn yourself, and God damns you. And Pharaoh couldn't find the penance. Aethel couldn't find the penance. He threw it out. He threw out his promises. And he couldn't find the penance. He hardened. Aethel hardened himself, hardened himself, hardened himself. He sold his birthrights for better pottage and all that stuff. He sold himself, hardened himself, hardened himself. But we're all God's. He's God's devil, he's God's esau, and everything else. And so in that sense, it's God confirming in you what you are. And I think we're meant to see it as God. The absolute is of God. And the spirit eye can reinterpret that and say, of course, it is really. I did it, and God confirmed what I did. But in the end, it is God. It is God. It's God's heaven, as well as God's heaven. So Romans 9 gets you back. It is God. Romans 10 says, Whosoever shall call on the Lord shall be saved. Romans 10 balances Romans 9, which says, God hardened Pharaoh's heart. God did so and so. The pot is what God made it and so on. Romans 10 says, Whosoever shall call. We live by this paradox, this dialectic paradox. You make the two work together. Life is a paradox, which is Jesus becoming man and taking our sins. It's a paradox. How does a universal God become a human being? It's ridiculous. It's a paradox. You have to leap and see things happen and believe them, and they happen. This is a movie to believe. That's all. Norman, would you say possibly that God has fixed it so that if we continue in sin, like Pharaoh, we become hardened so that we do worse things, as Pharaoh did, so hopefully they'll shock us when we see the worst things we've done. Thank you. Are you repentant? Yes. That is Romans 1. Romans 1 says, We all start with a basic knowledge. But we refuse that knowledge. It went into our imagination and God hardened us until we went into the sin of sin, in order finally to shock us. Then the law comes to shock us. See, Romans 1 starts off by saying, Oh, I'm looking at the wrong chapter again. The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, even His eternal power and God, so without excuse. Because when they knew God, they knew God. Everybody knows God. Somebody says, Yes, it's the devil who said that, the fool has said it in his heart. God knows. Here it says, in the creation, everybody knows God. When they knew God, they glorified Him. Not here, freedom comes in. They went thankful, and their foolish heart, there's this self-pride taken in them, came up to the imagination to make images and all this business, and it goes on and says, Who changes the law of God, changes it into a corruptible man, a beast, into flesh which we can follow, and go into following the flesh, then making God of flesh, then we can do our flesh stuff. And the gays are the uncleanest, it goes worse into this horrible sodomy, and all this disgraceful way they use the word gay, and what is vital, vile, sin, and we never call it sodomy. It's a shame. It's a shame. Our papers never talk about sodomy, they just say it's the homosexuality. They won't use God's word. Of course, when this world doesn't want to, because you're caught in this sodomy, you'd better get saved in sodomy. People get burned to hell in sodomy. They don't call it these things. We'd better get back to the faith. Here it is. It gives them over to these things. It says, finally, we justified. Therefore, knowing the judgment of God, at the end of this chapter, they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only to do it, but to have pleasure in the end to do them. Now it's called perversion. That's what this gay person is. A whole list of things you hear, all sins and rebellions and hates and fears and lusts, who, knowing the judgment of God, they which commit such things are worthy of death. Death, of course, everlasting death. Death is selfhood in itself. Hell's condition. It isn't even physical. Not only do they, but have pleasure in the end to do them. That's the finality of Romans 1. So, you see, there is there in us, which have been caught up by Satan. We chose to be. Of course, we've been automatically caught up from the fall. Caught up by Satan. Satan causes us to see this way, see flesh and delight in flesh and enlarge flesh and deny the existence of God and so on. And so we've become slaves. At the mercy of God, of course, he changes our slavery. He took that slavery on himself and gives his slavery back. But there is that element in which we have responded. There is that element in which we've responded. Otherwise, we're not free people. And then Romans 10, whosoever call on the Lord shall be saved. Call on the Lord. So there is that in me which can call on the Lord. And so Jesus said in John 3, I don't condemn the world. This is the condemnation. The lights come into the world. I've saved the world. The lights come into the world and reject the light. Men love darkness. Loving darkness is loving self, of course. I've got my own self, my own ways. I prefer to risk that. That's my darkness. Self for self, Satan is darkness. Self for self, darkness is Satan. I love that. I'm not going to risk that. So I hate the light. But the others come to the light, which means I'm wrong. My wrong can be shown. And then I find the controversy, justification. So there is a... I can't get away from the ultimate element of free... We are free people. I like Billy Graham. When that man has the early morning 8 o'clock and chokes and quarrels with you all in the 8 o'clock TV news, I don't listen to him. My sanity hears him. He's always getting up and quarrelling. Because Billy Graham has said, what about going to hell? But he said, only those who choose will go. He's right. Only those who choose will go. I'm glad he said that. So the way we're getting on this... I have to say something to my Bible. I've come to free from sin, love and sex. Because this is William's Bible. Oh, it's a will, a wish. So by the death he died, he once for all ended his relation to sin, and by the life he now is living, he lives in unbroken relationship to God. Once he's let go of the self, the self, Satan couldn't be able to touch him. It's a temptation, but it wouldn't be the thought. Thank you, Billy, but we're all just touching on me.