Will you please turn to 1 Thessalonians—1 Thessalonians, chapter 4? We will read the first part of verse 3.
For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.
Verse 7:
For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.
And please turn to chapter 5. We will read from verses 16 through 18.
Rejoice always;
Pray without ceasing;
In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, as we gather here this morning, our hearts are full of gratitude. As we remember Thee at Thy table, Lord, we see our unworthiness; but we praise and thank Thee because we see more of Thy worthiness.
Who are we, that Thou shouldst look upon us and shouldst love us even to the uttermost? Oh, dear Lord, Thou hast touched our hearts. We are Thine forever, Thine; and we are willing, by Thy grace, to follow Thee all the way.
Whatever Thy purpose may be in our lives, Lord, bring it to pass that Thou mayest be glorified. We thank Thee for giving us this opportunity of sharing Thy Word. Thy Word is life, living and operative.
And we trust Thy Holy Spirit to quicken Thy Word to our hearts. May Thy Word be our life, that Thou mayest be glorified. We commit this time into Thy hands, trusting in Thy own working. We ask in Thy name. Amen.
I think, brothers and sisters, we all know the theme of this time. It is taken from 1 Thessalonians 2:12: “Walk worthy of God.”
And yesterday morning, we shared somewhat on what is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is where God rules. The kingdom of God is where His sovereignty is respected and obeyed. The kingdom of God takes its character from Himself. Who God is and what God is, is what the nature of His kingdom is.
And we also talked about the kingdom of God being called the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. It is the same, because God’s purpose is centered upon His only begotten Son. He has given the kingdom to His Son. He has made His Son the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and we are to obey Him, to submit ourselves absolutely to His rule.
The kingdom of God is not of this world. It is the kingdom of the heavens, because there in His kingdom the heavens do rule over the affairs of men.
Our Lord Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. I came to bear witness of the truth.” So the kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom. It is not eating and drinking; it is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, as we are being saved, probably our whole thought is centered upon what He has done for me and what I have received from Him. This is our emphasis.
But when our Lord Jesus began to preach the gospel, He preached the gospel of the kingdom of God. Even after His resurrection, during the forty days that He appeared to His disciples, He spoke to them concerning the kingdom of God.
He is the One who commenced this message, and we find the apostles followed and reinforced it. God used miracles, wonders, and distributions of the Holy Spirit to support it.
So, dear brothers and sisters, the gospel, as we know in the Word of God, is so great a salvation. It is something that our Lord preached, His disciples and His apostles preached, and this is the gospel that we must proclaim.
When we are saved, something happens that is far more than personal. Before we were saved, as we said before, we were dead in sins and transgressions. We followed the course of this world. We could not help it, because behind the world there is the power of darkness that rules and controls everyone.
We were enemies of God. That was our position before we believed in the Lord Jesus. But thank God, as we find in Colossians 1:13, God has transferred us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
So, brothers and sisters, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, there is something more than merely what we personally gain in believing the Lord. There is a change of position.
God has delivered us out of the power of darkness, just as God saved the children of Israel—how He delivered them out of the tyranny of Pharaoh and transferred them into the land flowing with milk and honey. So in like manner, we find that as we believe in the gospel, God does the same thing to us.
Our position today is no longer under the power of darkness. We are now, positionally, transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
But, brothers and sisters, position is one thing; possession is another thing. Position gives us the possibility, the potential; but possession is the real inheritance.
So, when God transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, what is in His heart? He does not want us merely to have a position. He wants us to possess the kingdom. He wants us to be transformed and conformed to the image of His beloved Son, that we may enter into our inheritance.
Just like the children of Israel: God promised them the land of Canaan, but they had to go in. When they put their feet down, that was the place that belonged to them.
So in the same manner, brothers and sisters, do not think that because we have a position in the kingdom of God, therefore God’s kingdom is ours. It is promised to us. It is supposed to be our inheritance. But something more is necessary: we have to put our feet down. We have to tread upon it. We have to claim it in order to possess it.
So the emphasis this time is on walking worthy of God’s kingdom. When you read the word walk, it immediately gives you the impression that this is not merely a position. It is based on a position, and you begin walking in it; that is experience.
It does not mean that because you have been given that position in the kingdom of God, therefore automatically the kingdom of God is yours. You may have it, and you are meant to have it. That is God’s will for you. But you can lose it. You can miss it.
As our brother mentioned last night, remember Esau and Jacob. Esau came out first. He had the right of the firstborn. Now, among the Jews at that time, the right of the firstborn was very important, because the one who was firstborn was the priest of the family. He was to continue the promises of God to Abraham.
And he had the double portion of the inheritance. That was his right; that belonged to him. But unfortunately, we find that Esau, even though he had the position of the firstborn, lost it.
He lost it for a cup of lentil soup. He despised the birthright, and even afterward, he wept and cried, but he could not regain it.
So, brothers and sisters, there is the hope, the glorious hope, presented to every one of us: we have the privilege of possessing our possession. We have the privilege of the firstborn son. But it does not mean it is automatically yours. We need to walk worthy of God’s kingdom.
Now, of course, we know that in order to walk worthy of God’s kingdom, it is something beyond us.
Our brother mentioned the Sermon on the Mount. Some people take the Sermon on the Mount as a higher law. We must keep it, just like the children of Israel: God gave them the Ten Commandments, the law. “Thou shalt; thou shalt not.” You must keep it. You must do it. If you do, then you are My people, and I am your God. It is conditional.
Somehow, this kind of impression is deep in our thought. We think that in order to gain the kingdom, in order to walk worthy of the kingdom, we must try our very best. If we try, we may get it; if we do not try, then certainly we will not have it.
Now, I recall when I was a boy—a teenager. That was in the 1930s. There was a movement beginning in England, and it spread over the world. It even came to China. It was called the Oxford Group movement.
It was founded by Frank Buchman. They took the Sermon on the Mount as their objective. They emphasized four absolutes. Now, I forget three of them; I can only remember one, and it was absolute purity.
So they tried to live their lives according to the Sermon on the Mount: absolutely pure, absolutely honest, absolutely real. When they came to China, a number of Christians among the upper class joined the Oxford Group movement.
There was one man who was well known in China in the Christian literary world, respected by people, and he joined it. Later, during wartime, we met in Chongqing. Even though he was much older than I, we came together, and he shared with me his heart.
He was a very honest person, well respected. But he told me that every time he was physically weak, all his past sins came back to him and bothered him. He had to confess every bit of sin again and again in order to get peace. A tortured soul.
I tried to share with him the preciousness of the blood of our Lord Jesus. Once it has cleansed, it has cleansed forever. God said, “I will forgive and forget.” But somehow, it could not register in his mind. What a pity.
If we do not try to keep the Sermon on the Mount, probably we feel better. We may even deceive ourselves into thinking that we are better than anybody else. We are all right. But once you really try to follow the Sermon on the Mount—now, if you try—it will kill you.
In a very real sense, brothers and sisters, the kingdom of God is so heavenly, so spiritual, so of God, so of Christ Jesus, that it is beyond anybody’s ability to keep the law.
So, first of all, I think we need to be very clear: to walk worthy of God’s kingdom is not to walk by our own strength, by ourselves. Formerly, we used ourselves to commit sins; now we change and say that we will use our own flesh to keep the law of God. Try it. Nobody can.
As the Bible says, this is something impossible with men. But that does not mean it is impossible with God. So, brothers and sisters, to walk worthy of God’s kingdom is a matter of grace.
Grace begins our spiritual life, and grace ends our spiritual life. From the very first day we believe in the Lord Jesus to the very last day when we shall see Him face to face, it is grace—grace upon grace.
What our Lord Jesus did on Calvary’s cross gave us the position. He said, “It is finished.” That means there is nothing left to be done so far as God’s salvation is concerned. Everything has been done. You cannot add anything to it; you cannot take anything away from it.
What Christ has done gives us the position. He has led us into His kingdom. He has done it. But in order that whatever Christ has done may become our personal experience—in other words, that what Christ has done two thousand years ago may become what He is doing in you and me today—there must be an application.
What He said was finished outside Jerusalem, at Calvary, is transferred, as it were, applied, and becomes personal and operative experience in our lives by the Holy Spirit. That is experience.
May I put it this way? What Christ did on Calvary’s cross is objective truth—the whole truth, nothing but the truth. You cannot deduct from it; you cannot add anything to it. That is the salvation our Lord Jesus has accomplished for us.
But Christ is made real within us by the Holy Spirit. That is the reason why, when we are saved, God not only renews our spirit—“that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”—but He even puts His own Spirit into our spirit.
Why? Because He is there to do the work of transferring, translating, what has been done by Christ two thousand years ago into our very being. He becomes our daily experience. Christ becomes real and living to us, and we are enabled to say, as Paul says, “For me to live is Christ.”
Brothers and sisters, this is the work of the Holy Spirit. So by the two works—one by the Son of God, one by the Holy Spirit—we find that we enter into our possession. That is the way we can walk worthy of God’s kingdom.
Now, having said that, we will see how Paul comforted and testified to these young Christians in Thessalonica.
We know Paul was a Pharisee, but he did not instruct or help those young Christians in Thessalonica as a Pharisee—that is to say, as someone who sits on the throne, who will not move even his finger, but just instructs, commands, and gives people laws to obey. That is the way the Pharisees taught people.
But not our Lord Jesus. Nor Paul. We find in the first letter to the Thessalonians, in the first chapter, how Paul mentioned that when he was among them, he was as a nurse among them—not just a teacher, but a nurse.
There is a great difference between a nurse and a teacher. A nurse also teaches the children, but she nurses the children. She brings up the children. You can say she shares her life with the children and enables them to grow up.
And he also mentioned that when he was among them, he was like a father to them. There is a difference between how a father teaches his children and how a teacher teaches children. A father is supposed to bring up the children in the admonition and discipline of the Lord.
You find that the father sets an example. He lives before his children. Whatever he instructs his children, or whenever he disciplines his children, he is the model; he is an example. That is the reason why the children will obey.
Now, if the father does not set that example and tries to teach the children, then the children say, “What about you?” That is the difference.
So we find that when the apostle Paul instructed, helped, and testified to these young Thessalonian Christians, he set himself as an example before them. Even though his days with them were short, if you read 1 Thessalonians, you see how he lived among them, how he worked with his own hands so that he would not be a burden to them, and how he set himself as an example to them.
You see how he loved them and was willing to give even his own life for them. Brothers and sisters, within just such a short time, he had left such an impression upon the Thessalonian believers. No wonder they followed his example.
So, brothers and sisters, how do we teach others to walk worthy of God’s kingdom? You cannot teach them merely as a Pharisee. It will not work. You have to teach them as a nurse and as a father.
So we find that when our Lord Jesus was on earth, this was the way He discipled His disciples. He set an example before them. Whatever He said was what He was. That is the reason, when they heard what He said, they believed and they followed.
So, brothers and sisters, how do we walk worthy of the kingdom of God? Walking is something we do day by day. It is not a hundred-meter dash; it is a daily, continuous going on.
After we are saved and transferred into the kingdom of God, that is where we are to walk patiently, continuously, constantly, without ceasing, according to the way of the kingdom.
To walk in the way of the kingdom is not something we can do by ourselves. As we walk, we walk according to the life of Christ that is within us. He walks with us and talks with us. That is the way we may walk worthy of God’s kingdom.
Now, when you read 1 Thessalonians, you will find a few things that the apostle Paul mentioned especially to those Thessalonian believers. Our brother last night already mentioned one of them.
In chapter 4, verse 3, he says, “This is the will of God: your sanctification.” And again, he says, “You were not called for uncleanness, but in sanctification.”
So, brothers and sisters, after we have been justified, God expects us to be holy as He is holy. That is our walk. We cannot walk anymore like the people of this world.
We cannot try to befriend the world or seek the things of the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
This is not only a trap for young people. We often hear young people say, “You old people have already experienced the world. We have not yet. Give us a try.”
Love not the world, nor the things of the world. Because if we love the things of the world, the love of the Father is not in us.
Sanctification simply means to be holy. To be holy simply means to be separated—separated from the world and separated unto God. That is holiness.
Now, thank God, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, He says He has already sanctified us. When you read 1 Corinthians 1, Paul writes to the Corinthian believers, “Sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints.”
Now today, if anybody should call you a saint, what would be your reaction? “Oh,” you say, “I am not ready.” Why? Because the Catholic Church has made people so-called saints, and the so-called saints are those who, while living in this world, lived so piously.
They accumulated so much merit that this merit would not only help them go to heaven, but they would have more to spare. So, they say, if you use a rosary and pray to the saints, he can spare you some of his surplus merits and get you out of purgatory faster.
And even recently, they have tried to make a pope a saint. They say he has to do a few miracles after he dies, and then he can be entitled a saint. But anyway, if you read the Bible, you find that we are all called saints, because we have been sanctified by God.
In other words, God has already set us apart from the world. He has already set us apart unto Himself. We belong to Him. We belong to another world—the kingdom of God. So our position is a sanctified position.
But having a sanctified position, should we live an unclean life—an unsanctified, unholy life? Would it not be a contradiction?
Thank God, He is not only the One who gives us the position, but when He gives us the position, He has made every provision for us to take up that position and make it our possession.
God has already given us all things concerning life and godliness. He has given precious promises that we may become partakers of His divine nature and be delivered from our flesh.
So you find in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24:
And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly;
and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it.
So, brothers and sisters, we need to experience sanctification—holiness, being set apart for God—day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, in our whole being: spirit, soul, and body being sanctified.
Now, of course, according to God’s order of man, a man is made of three parts: the spirit, the soul, and the body.
The spirit is that by which we communicate with God. That is the reason why man can worship God in spirit and truth.
And God gave us a soul. Man became a living soul. That makes you conscious of yourself. You have your feelings, your emotions, your mind, your thoughts, your will, and your volition. These faculties represent your soul.
The soul makes you what you are. It gives you personality. It makes you different from everybody else. I often say we have a soul shape, just as we have a body shape. Everybody is different, and every soul is different. We have a certain shape that represents you individually.
Then, of course, we have a body. The body is made of dust, made of earth; therefore, it is in contact with the world, with the surroundings. Through your five senses, you are in touch with the world.
The Bible tells us that salvation is not something that happens only once and for all. In other words, when you are saved, it does not mean your whole being is completely saved.
What do we mean when we say a person is saved? Strictly speaking, it means this: “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” You are born from above.
Your dead spirit, dead in sins and transgressions and cut off from God, is now cleansed and renewed by the blood of our Lord Jesus—a new spirit before God. So your new spirit and the Holy Spirit within you cry together to God, “Abba, Father.”
So, brothers and sisters, do you know that you have a new spirit? The Holy Spirit dwells in your spirit, and Christ is the life of your spirit.
But when you are saved, are you totally changed? No. Is your body changed? Was your body changed when you were saved from a mortal body into an immortal body? No.
This is still the same body, open to the attack of bacteria, of sin, and even of death. Well, there may be a superficial change: a long face may become a round face. But that is superficial. Very soon, that long face will reappear.
As long as we live in this life, we still live in this old body. But thank God, as Romans 8 tells us, one day this mortal body will be changed into an immortal body.
First Corinthians 15 tells us the same thing: this corruptible body becomes incorruptible. We put on a new body, a spiritual body, just like the body our Lord Jesus took up when He was resurrected. Wonderful.
So we have yet to be saved in our bodies. But during this time, while we are still in this mortal body, how are we going to deal with our body? How are we going to use our body? How are we going to walk worthy of God’s kingdom?
You remember 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. We are told that this body, even though it is still a mortal body, is the temple of the Holy Spirit—the Holy Spirit who comes and lives in us.
This body is no longer ours, because we have been bought with a price. Who bought us? God bought us. With what a price? His only beloved Son. He paid the highest price to redeem our body.
We are not our own; we are His. Therefore, glorify God in your body. So, brothers and sisters, do not treat your body as if it were your own. It is no longer your own. Even this old body, this corruptible body, this fading body, belongs to God.
He is the Owner, and He expects us to glorify Him in our body.
The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9 that we are in a race; we are in a wrestling. How we need to discipline our body. He says, “I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage.”
To put it very vividly: “I beat my body black and blue, lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.” In other words, this body tries to rule over us. We should rule over our body.
We should not listen to our body, to the lust of the body. We should listen to the Holy Spirit, and even beat it black and blue. In other words, you do not allow your body to be your owner.
People in this world live for their body: “What shall I eat? What shall I drink?” But we ought to live to seek the kingdom of God first and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto us.
Brothers and sisters, how do we live our life today? Are we still indulging ourselves? Are we still living for our body? Or are we really living to glorify God, even in this mortal body?
That is what Saint Paul did, and he encouraged the young Thessalonian Christians to do likewise.
Again, I say, it is not by our own strength. Who does not love his body? Who does not care for his body? But it is only the love of God, the grace of God, that enables us to put our body under us, that we may glorify God.
To use a very small example, as one sister said, the battle is between you and your bed. Whether you are able to rise up early that you may spend time with the Lord, or whether you love your body so much that you will roll over in your bed—that is a battle.
Now, I wonder how many brothers and sisters here are still in that battle. Are you losing? Are you winning? That is our body.
One day that body will put on immortality, incorruptibility, a spiritual body, living forever and forever. Only at that moment will you be able to really live for God without any trouble. Is this not a battle to the end?
And not only so, but we find that not only were we delivered from the great death—that is, our spirit was born again—but we are being delivered today. Salvation is going on in our soul today.
Even after we have believed in the Lord Jesus, and He has come and dwelt in our spirit to become our life, brothers and sisters, there is yet another whole life remaining in our soul.
In other words, when Christ is our life in the spirit, self is the life in our soul. There is still that selfish self, living for itself, self-centered, having many opinions, many ideas, many reasonings, and many resistances.
The flesh is an enemy of the Spirit. It cannot obey God and cannot understand God. It is the enemy of God.
So, brothers and sisters, after we are saved, what happens? We find there is an inward war within us. There are two lives within us. The law of the life of Christ in us tells us one thing, and the life of self tells us another.
Unfortunately, as Philip Melanchthon, the theologian of the Reformation, said, “Old Adam is too much for young Melanchthon.” Martin Luther said the same thing: “I am not afraid of the pope, of the cardinals, of all these kings and rulers, but I am afraid of the tyrant within me.”
Do you have such a feeling? Is it not that which seems to hinder your spiritual growth?
That is the reason why our Lord Jesus seems to be so unreasonable in saying that he who loves father or mother more than Him, brother or sister, children or parents, even his own life more than Him, cannot be His disciple.
If we mind our own mind, we cannot be His disciples. If we will our own will, we cannot be His disciples. In other words, our soul has to be saved, to be purified. This process of sanctification is going on day by day, without ceasing.
Whenever the Holy Spirit within us, the life of Christ in us, tells us one thing, and the self-life in our soul insists on another thing, a cross is made. That is the time to see whether we are willing to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow the Lord.
If we cannot, then we cannot be the disciples of our Lord Jesus. But by the grace of God and the love of God, if we are willing to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow Him daily, then our soul is being saved.
He who saves his soul-life today for himself shall lose it; but he who loses his soul-life for My sake and for the gospel’s sake shall gain it unto eternity. This is what 1 Peter calls the salvation of the soul.
Many Christians know only the initial salvation, the salvation of our spirit. But they need to know the saving of our soul and the saving of our body. Brothers and sisters, God’s salvation is perfect.
So do not wonder why the cross cannot be separated from the Christian, just as the cross cannot be separated from Christ. If you have a crossless Christ, you have no Christ at all. If you have a crossless Christian, you are not living as a Christian.
Praise God: to us it is impossible, but with Him all things are possible. When the love of Christ constrains us, we will refuse to live for ourselves, but live for Him. His grace—grace, grace upon grace.
Now, how about our spirit? Can our spirit be contaminated? Yes. That is the reason why you find in 2 Corinthians 7:1: “Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
The influence of our soul can penetrate into our spirit and make our spirit mixed. So Paul says, “Purify your spirit in the fear of God.”
In other words, do not allow any influence from outside, even from your soul, to penetrate and invade your spirit, so that you may obey God with your whole heart.
Thank God, this is the work God says He will do. He will do it by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. But it requires our cooperation. It requires our yieldedness, our obedience. Are you willing to do that?
Be ye holy; for I am holy.
Number two: we find in 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13:
And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we also do toward you;
to the end he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before our God and Father,
at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Thank God, the church in Thessalonica, even though it was a young church, was known for its love for God. They were known for their labor of love. They were known for their love of the brethren.
But Paul did not praise them and say, “Well, you have reached it.” No. Because love has no end. God is love. If that love is from Him, then there is no limit to that love.
The Bible says, “Owe no man anything, save to love one another.” There will never come a day when you can say, “I have loved enough.” You can never say, “I have loved God enough,” nor can you say, “I have loved my brothers and sisters enough. That is enough. No more.”
That is not love. Love never ends.
Our love is limited. Our love is self-centered. Our love always finds a reason to love. But God’s love is unlimited—no reason, but love.
Sometimes we hear people boast of their love. Then you wonder: is it natural love, like Peter’s, or is it divine love, like Christ’s?
So, brothers and sisters, there is one thing of which we should never be satisfied or proud. We should always feel that we do not love enough. We do not love God enough. We do not love our brothers and sisters enough. Love knows no end.
So let us go on.
Thirdly, you find in chapter 5, verses 16 through 18:
Rejoice always;
Pray without ceasing;
In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
There are three things that are the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you. That is to say, it is God’s will that if you walk worthy of God’s kingdom, these three ingredients cannot be missing.
Rejoice always. Now you will say, “How can I always rejoice? Sometimes I do, but most of the time, no. Things around me make me sad, and I am dissatisfied with myself either.”
But there is a difference between gladness and joy. You may be glad, but that is superficial. To rejoice is something deep within.
As the Bible says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” It is not a joy that comes from outside. It is not a joy because you enjoy something tremendously, your soul is satisfied, and it makes you glad or happy. Those things change.
When the Lord Himself is your joy, that joy never changes.
So the apostle Paul, when he wrote the Philippian letter, in spite of his terrible, unbearable circumstances, mentioned the word joy in every chapter.
Why? The Philippian believers really loved one another, except for two sisters who were in rivalry, and that cast sadness over them. If we look at our environment, we will not rejoice always. Even if we look into ourselves, we do not find joy.
But every time you think of the Lord Himself, the joy is there. Nobody can take it away. This joy becomes our strength and enables us to go through any kind of circumstances. That is the way of life, the will of God for you and for me.
Pray without ceasing. Prayer is not merely something done once a day, twice a day, or even three times a day.
Prayer is something that is going on within us all the time. In other words, we are in touch with heaven.
And give thanks in all things. Now, are we able to do that by ourselves? No. Sometimes we give thanks when we consider what God has bestowed upon us, but many times we are not thankful.
Especially this generation is an unthankful generation. But to walk worthy of God’s kingdom, He expects us to give thanks in all things—good things, bad things, all things—because this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Now, are we able to do it ourselves? No. But when we look to the Lord, that is what He is, and that is the way we can walk worthy of God’s kingdom.
Finally, in 2 Thessalonians 1:5, the apostle Paul said:
Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God;
to the end that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God,
for which ye also suffer.
So here we find that they suffered. Suffering with faith is a sure token that they have the kingdom.
So may the Lord use these words to encourage us, to strengthen us, and to press us onward. Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we do want to praise and thank Thee. From the beginning to the very end, it is Thy grace. There is nothing that we can do.
But we can open our hearts and receive grace upon grace, that Thyself may be manifested even in our daily walk. Make us worthy of Thy kingdom. We ask in our Lord Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.