Welcome to Harmony Primitive Baptist Church. I told Brother Sonny last Sunday, as soon as I could get him after services, that the Everlasting Covenant was one of my favorite subjects also, if not the most favorite subject. That is not, however, what I have on my mind this morning. And I pray that it's of the Lord. I do beg an interest in your prayers. that the subject that I have on my mind is for all of us and not just for me. If you'll turn to, I quoted this, read a few verses several Sundays back in an introductory way in 2 Timothy. I wanna go back there and look at those same verses, but I would like to look into the afflictions of the gospel. In 2 Timothy, the apostle Paul writes that young minister, and he says, in verse 7, he says, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. He says, be not thou therefore ashamed. of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner." Paul was in prison at this time writing this. But be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling Not according to our works, we all know this verse, don't we? Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. There's that everlasting covenant, huh? the everlasting covenant. But it's now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through, how? The gospel. The gospel does not give life nor mortality. The gospel brings that which has been given to you by God the Father to light. So before we get into the afflictions, why did God give us the gospels? If it doesn't give you eternal life, why did he give us the gospel? He gave us the gospel so that we would know who the giver of eternal life is. That's one reason. The triune God, by the way, is the giver of life. The triune Godhead. gave us the gospel for conversion. Conversion to what? Wasn't Paul, before I go there, wasn't Paul trying to convert his brethren in Romans chapter 10? And it wasn't, it was for their salvation. He even makes that comment, and hopefully we'll get to that later. He makes that comment for their salvation. But it wasn't eternal salvation that he was looking for. And he was wanting to convert them from the law. They were trying to keep the law, as the brothers pointed out. They were trying to keep the law in order to gain eternal heaven. That's one form of conversion. Converting from keeping the law to really understanding who it is that has given you, that the work is complete, right? The gospel is given to us by God to call His children to repentance. Did you know that every born again child of God whether he's heard the gospel or not, has a unction, the spirit of the new man has an unction knowing it's unworthy, but doesn't know. You understand what I'm saying? If you've never heard the gospel, if you're in some foreign land, and you've been born of the Holy Spirit, God, and you're one of his, every person that's been born of God, that new creature groans. to repent, because it knows it's unworthy inside. Now, your flesh may keep that new creature so subdued that you don't realize it, but that new creature does. And probably the most important thing the gospel was given was to learn of him. Who sacrificed, gave his life for you. So, we know some of the reasons why the gospel was given. So Paul is encouraging Timothy here to endure the, be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. Wow. Brethren, that's, if these brethren were, I don't know how I'd take that. If they were encouraging me to endure some afflictions, to be a partaker of the afflictions, that's a hard saying. He says, be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. So you've got the power of God. That's what that according means. You're gonna be endued with that power to endure those afflictions. afflictions of the gospel, hardship, sacrifices, persecution. He said, well, Brother Richard, we don't have any hardship. We don't have to make any sacrifices. We've not endured any persecution. It's true that in this, great country of America that we've been blessed and not had to endure a lot of hardships. There's a book out there called Fox's Book of Martyrs, I think. I've never read it all. I did some pieces of it. There was a time when there was a lot of affliction, a lot of persecution. We read about it throughout the New Testament, and the first church, and churches afterwards. Do we think, if we are the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we're not gonna have to endure some afflictions? And you also say, well hey, Brother Richard, he's talking to a preacher here. It's true, he is addressing Timothy. But throughout the Bible, and hope to get to some of those places, The church itself, the congregants, the lay person, will endure sorrow, afflictions, and persecution if they don't compromise. That's a big if. You see, there's enemies of the gospel. Did y'all know that? Who would be an enemy of the gospel? Satan and his evil little devils running around all over the place going about seeking whom they may devour. I read an article not too long ago. A preacher always made this comment and I know you've heard it. But every time he baptized somebody, He would say afterwards, the baptism to that person that now the devil's really gonna be after you. Did y'all know that? That's when the devil's working his hardest, is on Christians, God-fearing people. I know that the preach brethren, they've probably endured more afflictions than most of the congregants, made more sacrifices. As I said, we've had it fairly good here in the United States, not really had to deal with a lot of that. And maybe the reason this is on my mind is because I'm seeing the world as a brother prayed. get colder and colder towards God, more vile and evil surrounding us. I'm not too concerned about it right here in Donaldson, Arkansas, and most of y'all aren't. But you don't have to drive very far. You don't have to drive very far. Some of these brethren live in the place I'm talking about. You don't have to drive very far to see a lot of evil. A lot of evil going on. Paul warned the church at Ephesus. Let's just go get that real quick. Instead of reading it from my notes, I want to read it straight out of scripture. Here's what Paul says to the church at Ephesus. Of course, now he's He said a lot in the book of Ephesians, hadn't he? Here in the sixth chapter, he says, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. He didn't say not just obey your parents, obey your parents in the Lord, the things that they teach of the Lord. For this is right, honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to rapt, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart as unto Christ. We don't have servants today. I hope we're all servants. Right now, that's the servants I'm talking about, that's the servants I believe he's talking about. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart as unto Christ, not with thy service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart with goodwill, doing service as to the Lord and not to men. Will we compromise? and do our service, continue to do our service. Look, I'm surprised, to be honest with you. I'm happy and thankful, and I know these two elders are wonderfully surprised and happy that so many came out this morning on such a wet, rainy, dreary day. Out of all the days that you could've laid off and laid it home, you came out anyway to worship the Lord. That's encouraging. I wanna tell you that's encouraging for these brethren. It's encouraging for the pastor of this church to see that. He says here, and ye masters do the same things unto them, forbearing, threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is their respective persons with him. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God. I would ask you, if we're not gonna be persecuted and there's not the possibility of a fight, why would Paul encourage us, the church at Ephesus and us, to put on the whole armor of God? We need it, right? that you may be able to stand against the wiles of who? The devil. Then he says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. I... I often wondered about spiritual wickedness in high places, what that really meant. Well, I'm gonna tell you that since the beginning, the devil's been at work. Since the very beginning, he's been at work. And all of his angels, And what happens most of the time, thankfully it hasn't happened in this church, and I'm talking about this local body that I know of, but elders or ministers, ministers of the gospel, would begin to compromise. That's wickedness in spiritual places. Would we compromise as a church, would these brethren compromise the fact that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was a successful Savior, that it's done? That He did it, did it alone. Would we compromise that? I hope not. Did you know that there are outside of the old Baptist church that I know of, everybody else compromises the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is a successful Savior. Done. I want to ask you, do you think that a church that is willing to compromise on that would have more persecution or the church that will not compromise that Who's going to be persecuted the most? Am I willing? Here's a question for you as a congregant. And Lord, give me strength. Some of the subjects in the Bible aren't always And the things that are supposed to be taught to God's children aren't always pleasant. But I had to ask myself this question, would I be willing to compromise that life begins at conception? Did you know there was a time in this country when there was no compromise on that fact? All it takes is a little bit of compromise. And it starts to eat and erode the truths of the gospel. Look at this country today, because we compromised on whether or not life begins at conception. Hundreds and hundreds of millions of children aborted. And if you don't believe that life begins at conception in the womb, Take a look at John the Baptist, who shouted in his mother's womb, just at the salutation of the mother of his Savior. I believe that with all my heart, by the way. It's not just a fairy tale, it's not just a fable. Were we willing to compromise? You know, there's religions right now, Christian religions, that have compromised on that. Promoting it. Life doesn't begin at conception. The more that we will compromise, Harmony Church, the more we compromise, the less suffering we're gonna do. It's that simple. The less compromise, the more suffering. That sounds pretty grim, doesn't it? Sounds pretty grim. I relate to you that a dear friend of mine is in bondage. And I wish I could free him of his bondage here on earth. He's a child of God. He's going to heaven. just doesn't get it. And the reason is somewhere along the line. You see, back when the church was established and the preaching of Jesus Christ began in that New Testament church, the first church, everybody was taught the same thing. But do you remember one of the times that Paul was placed in prison? was he wouldn't compromise on the having to be... I lost the word. In Galatians, they were... What is the word? Circumcision. He wouldn't compromise on that. Pretty much, if he had compromised, back when they threw him in prison for that, Okay, the Jews are trying to tell him, we believe everything you're saying except, right? We believe everything you're saying except you still gotta be circumcised. Y'all remember that? He wouldn't compromise on that. Never compromised on that. The true church of the Lord Jesus Christ, who stands for the truth, doesn't compromise, doesn't deviate, is under attack. Boy, that sounds so grim, Brother Richard. Well, the gospel is good news also, right? It is the good news, right? Let me give you a little good news. I'll give you the upside. I'll give you the upside to enduring, being a partaker of the afflictions. in the song service this morning, quite a few songs, and enjoyed the song service tremendously. And there was quite a few songs. People looking forward to going to that heavenly home. I appreciate that. And I do, too. Come quickly, Lord. But you know what? We're here. We're still here. And we don't know what tomorrow holds and we're going to be here a little while longer, it seems. So we need to follow instructions and take heed and then take comfort what the gospel gives us. Let's look at just a few verses that assure us there is an upside to not compromising the truth of the gospel. Let's first go to Mark. Mark chapter 10. We'll begin with verse 28. Then Peter began to say unto him, lo, we have left all and have followed thee. Talking to the Lord Jesus. Like, we've done all this, what are we gonna get? Jesus answered and said, verily, I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my sake and the gospels. but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this lifetime, houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the world to come, eternal life. But many that are first shall be last and the last first. So, I'm a living testimony and you are too if you'll admit it. By being a part of the Old Baptist Church, by being a part of the true gospel, understanding a little bit about the true gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, I've gained that. Have you not? Are you willing to sacrifice all the brethren and sisters and mothers and fathers that you've gained? I can go, there was a time when I could go to 10, 15 states and these brethren too, And most of y'all, whether I knew him or not, I used to go to some of these meetings afar off and those people brought me into their homes as if I was their best friend, their brother. How many of you have enjoyed that? But he received a hundred fold in this time, houses and brethren and sisters and so on. In the world to come, eternal life, but many that are first shall be last. Here's you another one. Go to Romans 8. We'll begin with verse 15. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him. that we may also be glorified together. Sounds like to me there's a little bit of suffering. To enjoy those things, there's going to be a little bit of suffering. Have you ever suffered for what you believe in? Have you ever been persecuted for what you believe in, standing firm on what you believe? You may not have up to this point, Well, look around. There are governments in this very land that have tried to shut this down right here. I'm gonna say it's here. And if we're willing to compromise, we'll lose it. Well, let's just go back to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy has something to say about what a little suffering brings. Remember, this is the upside. We shouldn't be looking at suffering as all doom and gloom. There's an upside to it. Second Timothy chapter two. We'll start in verse nine, it says, wherein I suffered trouble as an evildoer. See, Paul, he suffered as an evildoer. How many times when you've tried to teach someone or talk to someone about the elect or the sovereignty of God, did they look at you as if you were an evil person? I promise you, these brethren are not going to compromise the elect and sovereignty of God. Did you know there are all across this land that have compromised that true fact of the gospel? They've compromised. Well, yeah, he elected a people, There's the compromise, but let's add to it a little bit. There is no add to. He elected a people, he's sovereign in that. He says, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory, It is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him. Here it is, if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. I'd say if we're not doing any suffering, we're not reigning. Isn't that what that said? If we're not doing any suffering, we're not reigning with Him. And then he says, if we deny him, he also will deny us if we believe not. Well, this is one of those where, when I read this verse, there's a proof text that he is sovereign in election. If we believe not, how often have you heard, well, yeah, but you gotta believe. Right here, Paul tells Timothy, if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself everlasting covenant. He made that everlasting covenant, he cannot deny himself. He chose a people before the foundation of the world, whether you believe or not. And whether you believe that statement or not. If you're one of his, You'll continue to be one of his forever more. I've already stated that there may come a time in the future, in the very near future, that our afflictions may be a little bit more or a lot more than just a little suffering or inconveniences. Right now, that's all they are. inconveniences for the most part. What happens? I ask you, congregants, what happens when they say, you can't meet here? I'm so thankful for my pastor and the comment that he made last Sunday. He's going to be here. Whether any of us show up or not, he's going to be here preaching the gospel. I think Elder Dan Sammons would be too. I plan on being here. I'm not compromising the assembly of the saints. I will not compromise that. Pray to God that you won't. And I feel like you won't. I'm going to end with this. I got two more places I want to go. I want to go to 1 John. 1 John chapter 4, it says, Beloved, believe not every spirit, and try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Y'all, this is 2,000 years ago. Are we so blind to think that we don't have false prophets? Many false prophets have gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of antichrist. See, there's a lot of religions out there that are looking for one Antichrist. There's a lot of Antichrists out there. Where have you heard that it should come? And even now, already is it in the world. And then he says this. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them. Why? Look, I couldn't do this, I could not be strong if it wasn't for the strength that God gives me. These brethren couldn't stand, even if we're told we can't assemble here, I plan on being here, I'm not gonna do that on the strength of myself. Here's where it comes from. You are of God, little children, have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. That's how we're gonna do it. Now, go to the Gospel of John. I'll read to you what... I'll find it here in a second. So we need to stand firm. We need to be true to God. We've been taught tremendously well at Harmony Church, the whole counsel of God. We need to take all those things into consideration. And whether we're suffering or whether those afflictions seem great or small, here's what the Lord told His disciples. John chapter 16, I'm going to start with verse 22. Do a little reading. He says, And ye now therefore have sorrow, But I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day you shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Hitherto have you asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things I have spoken to you in Proverbs. But the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in Proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. At that day you shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you. For the Father himself loveth you while because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am coming to the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father." So he's telling his disciples, and they don't quite understand. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things? Lord, we know that you know all things. We've seen it, we've had evidence of it. And needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest from God. Jesus answered them, do you now believe? Good question for us. Do you now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone. And yet, I'm not alone, because the Father is with me. And this is what I'll leave you with. These things I have spoken unto you, That in me, you might have peace. In the world, you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. I'm telling you, if the Lord and Savior has overcome the world for us, and he has, we have nothing to fear. But as I made that statement, a little bit of compromise on anything. About the truth in the Bible, it'll start eating away, eating away, little by little. And then soon, we'll have a true church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank you for your kind attention. May God bless you, my prayer. Thank you for visiting Harmony Primitive Baptist Church.