Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. We'll read verse 32, first part of verse 33, and then verses 37 and 38. And we're going to entitle this sermon tonight, Sufferings Worse Than Death. And we're using that title because there has been a progression of things that are worse and worse. And I'm sure you've heard the expression that, you know, there's just some things worse than death. And you remember how that Job, after the great grief that he suffered, he cursed the day of his birth, he cursed the fact that he didn't die. soon after he was born, and he cursed the fact that he didn't die from the things that he was currently suffering from. And he thought it was far crueler at the time. But in Hebrews 11, in verse 32, it says, And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, and again, who through faith, this is what was done through faith. Verse 37, they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, and what we'll note tonight, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, and they did that by faith. Being destitute, afflicted, tormented, that was done by faith. Verse 38, of whom the world was not worthy, they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. Again, we find here in Scripture, a progression of things that it seems to get worse. There were trials, it says others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, moreover bonds and imprisonments, some were stoned, sawn asunder, tempted, slain with the sword, and then we come to this. So the concept, as we understand it here, is it's getting worse and worse and worse. And so again, that which is suffering is worse than death. But this is from the human perspective. We are so short-sighted as human beings. But we have, and there is, and He is ours, those who are saved by God's grace, the Lord God who is not short-sighted. He knows the end from the beginning. He is bringing His will to pass. He has determined, and He is bringing it to pass. And so, when we go through things, even as these did here, and what they endured by faith, what they suffered by faith, and even things that we go through and endure, we have to understand that our God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, we must understand that As we heard in that song, I know who holds tomorrow. He's in control of these things. He is bringing His will to pass. Now the first thing I'd like you to notice, concerning our subject here of these sufferings that took place, is that this was merely, and I don't mean to put it in an ill fashion or lessen it, but this was, they were following the Lord. Albeit, it is referring to the Old Testament before the Lord literally did these things, but these were things that the Lord Himself would endure. If you turn over to Hebrews chapter 4, and I know we've read this before, but it's such an encouragement to God's people to understand and to know that the Lord Jesus Christ is one who has gone through the very same things that you are dealing with. Or even things you've never dealt with. Because the Bible teaches and tells us in Hebrews 4 and verse 14, it says, Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. So let us continue on. let us endure, so to speak, for or because we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. So, first of all, he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And then he continues on and he says, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. So secondly, every single thing, I don't care if you're a boy, a girl, a man, or a woman, every single thing. Everything. In all points tempted like as we are. Doesn't matter what you're going through, you can put Christ's name at the top of a ledger, you can put your name at the top of a ledger, and you can write down what you are going through, and you can duplicate it on the other side of the ledger. In all points. You might say, well, you just don't understand what I'm going through. No, I might not, but the Lord does, because He was in all points tempted like as we are. Yet without sin. He is the high priest, and He is a great high priest. And those who are saved by God's grace, we have a high priest, and then in verse 16, let us therefore, because He is a great high priest, because He is passed into the heavens, we can hold fast our profession of faith, and because He is touched with the feeling of our impurities, and because He was tempted at all points like as we are yet without sin, therefore, we ought to come boldly before His throne of grace. For what purpose? That we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Now again, these cases in Hebrews 11, we've gotten to some extreme cases, haven't we? Some extraordinary or extraordinary cases. And we ought to reason out that if faith and the high priest Jesus Christ, if He can tend to and lead and feed and take care of His sheep in extraordinary cases, ought He not to be able to take care of me in my ordinary cases? And maybe you're going through an extraordinary case. Or maybe it seems like when you're going through it, it is extraordinary. But if He can tend to these who wandered and wandered and were destitute and afflicted and tormented, I think He can take care of me. I mean, we think about it, and you think about the miracles that Christ performed during His earthly ministry, it was basically, well, if He can do that, then He can heal us from sin. That was supposed to be the reasoning out behind it. That He has divine power. And He does. He still does. So here we're just finding, and you turn to Hebrews 2. Again, we wanted to emphasize the fact that these are just following the Lord because in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Now in Hebrews 2, again, it is a following of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what we desire to do. That's what every saved person wants to do is follow the Lord. There's not a saved person who wants to say, well, I'll do the easy things. Well, there's nothing easy about following the Lord. All of it is contrary to our human nature. All of it. Not one thing is where the flesh says, yes, let's do that. In Hebrews 2, and notice if you go to verse 9 and 10, it says, But we see Jesus, who is made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man, for it became Him. for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." He was perfected through suffering. You say, well, how could he be perfected? He became a perfect high priest, didn't he? He became a perfect servant, didn't He? He became a perfect Son through the things that He suffered. And He's a perfect Savior through it too, isn't He? We look at Christ and everything is just swallowed up by Him, isn't it? And as we read that, you look at that and you say, listen, He is perfected through sufferings. And if I'm going to be like Christ, then that means I am going to have to be perfected through sufferings. And if these here walked by faith, and this was their lot that God gave them in this life, that they wandered and wandered and were destitute and afflicted and tormented, and God was using that to perfect them, and He sustained them through that, how much more me? Certainly, that ought to be our conclusion. Look in the Gospel of Luke chapter 9. The Gospel of Luke chapter 9. Again, we said in our text of Hebrews 11, they wandered, didn't they? Those are two different words in the Greek. They're two different words. They're both translated correct into the English. From my studies and looking it up, they're both translated equally wandering or wander. But they're two different words in the Greek and they have different contexts or different meanings in the Greek. And we'll look at it here in just a minute just to give you those, but it's We find here that they wandered in Luke 9, in verse 58 if you would. Here the Bible says Christ is speaking, and let's read verse 57 as well. It says, And it came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And what did Christ say to him? He said, Jesus said unto him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. He wandered, didn't he? Christ did not have a place to lay his head. I mean, there was no woman who went to her husband and said, listen, This is the prophet that Moses spoke of. Let's build a little prophet quarters on the side of our house like was done for Elisha by the Shunammite. None of that. John 1 and verse 11 says that he came unto his own and his own received him not. He was rejected by his own. Christ said, a prophet hath no honor in his own country. There were places where he couldn't work many mighty works because of their unbelief. Israel rejected the Christ of God who was long prophesied. He wandered about, didn't he? We find as well, if you look in Luke 2, a well-known passage here. And again, the Scripture describes, these here were just following the Lord. Now again, this was not the Lord's will for everyone, was it? Some were sawn asunder. Some were slain with the sword. Some escaped the edge of the sword. later to be wandering and destitute and afflicted and tormented. And all we can say is, thy will be done. I mean, that's it. And here in Luke chapter 2 and verse 7, And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. So there is the birth of Christ. From the beginning, He was rejected. Yet He still did what the Father sent Him to do. He walked by faith. He didn't come to the age of 12 and say, I'm not really going to go teach in the temple today because I was born in an inn or in a manger and not in an inn. And then when he was 30, or 30 however years old he was, when he started his ministry there, he'd say, you know, I'm not going to do any miracles, because I'm still holding that grudge against God, the Father, because I was born in a manger. Or I was born to these lowly parents. You know, I'm the son of David. And I'm the king of the Jews. No, He did as the Father sent Him to do. Look in John 13, if you would. John chapter 13. Again, a following of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's going to be very difficult to be a follower or a disciple of the Lord Jesus and not suffer. It's impossible. Because if we're going to follow Him, then we're going to suffer. In one way, shape, or form. Unlike Christ, we sometimes mix up that we say, well, this is suffering, when it's our own sin. These were not sufferings because they had sinned, they were suffering because they were doing what God said. They were walking by faith. And sometimes we say, well, I'm suffering because of this, that, and the other, and really, again, it's because I'm reaping what I sowed. And the Lord will give clairvoyance and discernment concerning that. So we can't mistake the one and say, well, all my sufferings are because I'm following the Lord and this, that, and the other. When some of them might just be because I'm not doing what God says. And these over here, these might be because I'm suffering because I'm walking by faith. So we have to seek the Lord on that. But in John 13 and verse 16, Again, remember, the Bible says, "...verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." See, therein lies a great consternation and problem for many of God's people is that we know that we're not greater than the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that. And Scripture teaches us, as it states here, that the servant is not greater than his Lord. So if we're not greater than Him, how can we think that we're going to avoid things that He went through? And then the Scripture says, if you know these things, happy are ye if you do them. Well, we know it. We know we're not greater than Him, and we know if we walk by faith we're going to suffer, but there's not happiness because we don't do it. We're still trying to avoid suffering. That is human nature. When we ought to be trying to follow the Lord. These verses and many others in Scripture teach that we are merely following the path that Christ has already trod. Unbelief or walking by sight keeps us from walking with the Lord, and as Paul said in Philippians 3 and verse 10, the fellowship of His sufferings. There is a fellowship of the sufferings of Christ. Why would we want to avoid that? Why would we want to avoid any kind of fellowship with Jesus Christ? If you want to avoid fellowship with Jesus Christ, don't come to church. Because Jesus said in Revelation chapter 3, when He had John right in the church of Laodicea, that I'm standing at the door knocking and if any boy or any girl or any man or any woman opens the door, I will come in and sup, or fellowship, is the idea there, with them. This is a place when we assemble together with one another as His church, that Christ comes and fellowships with His people. And if you've missed that, and if I've missed that when we've assembled, that's shame on me, and shame on you, and shame on us. But He's never missed, has He? He always comes. And we say, oh, we enjoy that fellowship. Well, there's a reason there's a fellowship of sufferings too. They're to be enjoyed. They're to be desired. They're to be sought after. Well, let's look back at our text secondly tonight. Again, just following the Lord. These here were not setting out to wander about in sheepskins and goatskins. These here were not desirous to be destitute and afflicted and tormented. to wander in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. No one in their right mind would seek that out. They sought the Lord. And this was the path that God had cut for them, that He had ordained for them to walk in. These here understood what Christ would later teach, that what will a man give in exchange for his soul? And they were not willing to exchange their souls for it. Now this is not the path that God would have everyone to trod. But it was for these. Now there are two parts. There are wanderings and there is being. And you look here in the text, in verse 37, we find here, they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins. They wandered about. Here we find that it deals with what they wore. In verse 38, it's where they wandered. None of these sound real pleasant, do they? The idea behind sheepskins and goatskins were that these were, the animals were slain, they were skinned, and it was put on. There was no taking it and, you know, shearing the sheep and taking the wool and making something with it. No! It was literally, we skinned it, we cut holes in it for arms, we cut holes in it for legs, or what have you, however it was done, and they put it on. I mean, this wasn't the idea that we have today where, well, you know, they took it and, you know, they went to Walmart and they bought, you know, ooh, that's made out of wool. No, this was the raw material, not processed. And it was done out of necessity. It implies here, this word of wandering implies some state that it was done of choice. Well, in the fact that they chose to follow the Lord, yes. And in the fact that the world said, we will not give you quarters, it was done out of necessity. If you turn over to 2 Kings 1, 2 Kings 1, The idea conveyed here, of which the Holy Spirit gives us, is that this was the clothing of the prophets. And you know, as we've read before in 2 Chronicles 36, how that the prophets of God were not treated well. They were mistreated, they were afflicted, tormented, killed. This is basically, this description from verse 32 on down has been a description of God's prophets. Those who simply would declare, thus saith the Lord. I mean, imagine that. Those who just said, this is what God has to say. 2 Kings 1 verse 7, And he said unto them, What manner of man was he which came up to meet you, and told you these words? Verse 8, And they answered him, He was a hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite." Again, sheepskins and goatskins. What is that? That's leather. And think about that, as soon as he heard the description, he's hairy and he's got a girl of leather about his loins, and the reply was, that's Elijah. I'd know that man anywhere. He's hairy and he has a leather girl. This again is describing the garments of the prophets. I mean, you think about it today, and some of the absolutely ridiculous things, and it's amazing that people fall for it. You know, the big thing now is some guy's getting a 54 million dollar jet, and God told him he needs that jet. It's such a farce. And the fact that anybody would give them one twentieth of a cent, It shows how deceitful sin is. And the Spirit of the Antichrist is greatly at work today. And at the same time, there you and I would be if it weren't for God's grace and enlightening us. The Bible tells us of John the Baptist. I mean, the man ate locusts and wild honey. He wandered about. His clothing was given as a description in Matthew 3 and in verse 4, and the Bible says as well, in Matthew 11 and verse 11, Verily I say to you, among them that are born of women, there is none, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. And then Christ continues, Notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Isn't that something? Look over in Zechariah, the second to last book in the Old Testament. Zechariah, chapter 13. And we'll look at verse 4. And here again, in the Scripture, this is prophecy speaking ahead of things that have yet to take place in the day in which you and I are living. But it says in Zechariah 13, verse 4, it says, And it shall come to pass in that day that the prophet shall be ashamed of every one of his vision when he hath prophesied, neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive. We're in it. I mean these false prophets, they're going to be ashamed one day of their visions and prophecies because they're false, but he said right now they're not wearing the rough clothes that John wore, Elisha wore, Elijah wore, all of them. Oh, they're in $3,000 Armani suits. Driving Rolls Royces, well they're not driving them, somebody else is. but in Scriptures they were wandering, and this is what they had on. The next wandering speaks of the place of their wandering. And let me say this, what they wandered in and where they wandered, God will require that at the people that he sent them to. They shouldn't have been in goatskins and sheepskins. And they shouldn't have been in dens and caves and mountains and deserts. They should have been received by the people that God sent them to. And the people should have treated them as they were prophets of God. And God will require that at the hands of those he sent them to. He already did with Israel to some extent when He sent them into captivity and slaughtered thousands of them at the hands of Babylon. And He'll require it at the judgment of His people. In Hebrews 11 in verse 38 it says, Of whom the world was not worthy, they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. Well, if you've ever read anything or heard anything about our Baptist heritage, it sounds a lot like it, doesn't it? But turn over to 1 Kings chapter 18. You know, our Baptist forefathers were not the ones who invented wandering in deserts and in caves and in mountains and in dens. This has been the refuge, the meeting place, the hiding place of God's faithful for generations to come. And it may turn one day in this very country again that way. In 1 Kings 18, you'll notice in verse 3 and 4, here during the time in which Ahab reigned over Israel and his wicked, wicked wife Jezebel, said she was going to cut off the prophets. In verse 3, it says, And Ahab called Obadiah, which was the governor of his house. Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifty in a cave and fed them with bread and water. And I've heard people say, well, he didn't really fear the Lord or he would have withstood Ahab. He did what the Lord told him to do. Because we find in Scriptures that there were some who by faith escaped the edge of the sword, some by faith who were slain with the sword, and then some who may have been cut by the sword and still wandered about afterwards. They walked by faith and God had already chosen the result that would take place. And He brought it to pass. Here, Obadiah took 50 prophets. He feared God. He wasn't afraid of Ahab, because if he was afraid of Ahab, he just said, hey, I brought you 100 prophets, here they are, you can go ahead and kill them. But he feared God, and so he took 50 prophets, and he put them in one cave, and he took 50 in another cave, and he gave them bread, and he gave them water. I don't know what he paid for it with, I don't know how he did it. Maybe he had a really, really awesome wife. And some really, really strong kids to pump a well. I don't know. But he fed them with bread and he fed them with water and he kept them alive. They were prophets of God. And he hid them in caves. Caves speak of a place of refuge and they speak of Jesus Christ. So here's where their wanderings were. Then the Bible tells us in verse 37 of Hebrews 11 about their being. It says they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented. The word being or the word am are interchangeable. It is what you are. Kind of like the Lord said, I am that I am. This is it. And here the Scripture says that their being, or while they were being, they were being destitute, afflicted, and tormented. The word destitute means not having, being in want, needy. They were destitute. They weren't deprived. They were destitute. They never had it in the first place. They lived mean, base lives. They were content with what things they had. And the scripture bears this out as they walk by faith. And I'm like everybody else in this world, I got more than what I need. And I have some of my wands. These here, didn't really have any wants. They were destitute. In fact, it was so bad that they were needy. That's what that word means. They didn't have their needs. Scripture tells us, and you look, that they were destitute, they were afflicted, suffering pain, grief, or distress continually. They were tormented, or evil treated, male treated. They suffered adversity by way of tormenting. Today, this is essential spiritual bullying. John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos because he taught and preached what Christ revealed to him. Here they were by faith, wandering, stripped of daily living, in physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual pain, treated with torments, all because they would not depart from thus saith the Lord. Satan has done a masterful job today, because he has lulled us to sleep, hasn't he? He has rocked us in a cradle, So that, oh man, it's not afflictions, it's not torments, it's not destitute, it's not any of that. He has lulled us to sleep. No wonder Paul said in Romans, it is high time to awake. For our redemption is nearer than when we first began. There was no in their lives, well maybe it won't hurt, or well we could try this. It was all about following the Lord. Paul said in Philippians 4 and verse 11 that he learned that whatsoever state he was in to be content. Most people haven't learned that. I haven't learned that. I like to think I'm learning it. But Paul learned it, didn't he? Look over in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Let's just look at some of the states that Paul was in. I mean, goatskins, and sheepskins, and wanderings, and destitute, and afflictions, and tormentings, and caves, and mountains, dens, deserts. I don't know if I've ever been in a desert. It felt like that sometimes in Kansas in the summers. But in 2 Corinthians 11, let's just notice here, if you would, in verse 23, Paul gives a list here of some things that he suffered. And again, remember that Jesus Christ said concerning Paul that he is a chosen vessel unto me. And we might say that all who are saved are chosen vessels. Yes. That is true. But Christ chose him to suffer great things for his namesake. He does not choose all of his vessels to suffer great things for his namesake. But we are all chosen to suffer for his namesake. That is true. But it's not always great things. And here is a list of those great things in 2 Corinthians 11 and 23. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool, I am more. In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft of the Jews, five times received I, forty stripes saved one. That was just the Jews. Because he says in the previous verse, in stripes above measure, he says, I can't even count how many times I've been striped. And then he just lists that, well, here's what the Jews did to me. You say, well, I've never been striped. Well, maybe not physically. But there's some spiritual stripes that people hand out, aren't there? Next, verse 25, it says, Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I've been in the deep. in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. He endured it all. How did He do that? By the grace and strength of the Lord Jesus Christ who He looked to. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Look in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. So those were the things that He went through and as one writer put it, here are the things that He felt when He went through those things. Because again, they wandered and they wandered, and then this was their being. So we might say that in 2 Corinthians 11, this was Paul's wanderings, and now here in 2 Corinthians 4, this is his being. Because in verse 8, he says, we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. Ever had that? Or this, just like it doesn't matter where you turn, there is trouble everywhere, and pretty soon you start getting distressed, don't you? And in 2 Corinthians 4 and in verse 8, Paul says, we are troubled on every side. We are troubled. Not, we have been, we went through it, everything ended up being fine. At the present time of this writing, we are in trouble. every sign every 360 degree to the left to the right to the up to the down there is trouble there is no word except Christ which is why Paul says we're not distressed we are not distressed it's just listen the churches that have already been preached to or established. There's problems in Corinth. There's problems in Philippi. There's problems in Ephesus. Issues in Thessalonica. I mean, he wrote to Corinth about some very grievous sins that they had. He wrote to Philippi. There was two women who were having problems with one another. He wrote to Thessalonica. They had some struggles with doctrinal teaching on the second coming of Jesus Christ to the point he wrote them two letters about it. The care of all the churches. Not just one, as I have, but all of the churches because he was an apostle. He says all the things going on. I got no money. I've been beating all these things that are going on. Ah, we're not stressed. And he didn't brush it off either as, eh, no big deal. Because you know what he did with it? He took it to the Lord. If you brush it off, you'll eventually become distressed. But if you put it on the Lord, and if we will actually leave it there, as sometimes that hymn is sung, take it to the Lord and leave it there, If we will actually cast our cares upon Him, or our burdens upon Him, then we won't be distressed. He goes on, He says, we are perplexed, but not in despair. Ever been perplexed? It typically leads to despair, doesn't it? Not here. Verse 9, persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed. That was their being. Oh, there's always a but with the Lord, isn't there? The first but you ever have with the Lord is that we are vile and wicked and wretched and completely undone and sinners, worthy of nothing but hell and condemnation, but God who is rich in mercy. You can read that in Ephesians 2.4. And then as you go through life, you're going to have, we are trouble on every side, yet not distressed, or but not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Why? Because of God. Sometimes people get all upset because their path doesn't go where they think it ought to go. Because they're not a who's who among so-called Baptist ranks, which are absolutely meaningless. Because they want to be something that God doesn't intend them to be. They're not content with the work that God has given them to do. As a church member, as a parent, as a spouse, as a minister, as a pastor. And people ask me, I just don't understand. Why would you move from one church to another church? It's not bigger, they don't have a bigger ministry. I go, you don't understand. And you never will. People don't get it. Most people, they get older and they upgrade. Well, humanly speaking, as we follow the Lord, God's people tend to downgrade. Because He weans us off of this world, doesn't He? We don't want more of this world, we want more and more and more of Him. And these here wandered about, and they wandered in this, and they wandered in that, and they were destitute and afflicted and tormented, but they were walking by faith. So these here said, what will we give in exchange for our souls? We will give nothing in exchange for them. We will follow the Lord. We will follow Jesus and walk in His footsteps. So may God help us that we will, by faith, do that as well, wherever it leads. It may not be into some of these cruel sufferings. And we don't seek after that. We just seek the footprints of the Lamb of God. While we stand tonight...