I would not trade Romans 832 for all the gold between here and Gatorsburg piled to the stars.

Would you?

He who did not spare his only son, but gave him up for us all, how then shall he not?

Let me stick in through tribulation and distress and persecution and peril and sword and famine and nakedness how shall he not through

all those things give us all things with him would you trade that for anything how do you prepare for

suffering before it comes? In this episode of light and truth, John

Piper examines John Bunyan's unwavering trust in God's sovereignty, showing that the treasures

of his promises far surpass anything that the world can offer.

This biographical message was originally delivered at the 1999 Bethlehem Conference for Pastors.

You know, it is remarkable as I read church history and biography and look around the world today,

it is remarkable to me how many of the people who cherish the full sovereignty of God over will and nature and demons and bodies, the fullest expression

of the sovereign control of God are the people who have suffered most.

And thus, from an academic perspective, would have the hardest time rendering an account of theoretically how you can believe in such a thing.

And they have found the most comfort in it.

And Bunyan was among that number.

He wrote a book called Seasonable Counsel's Advice to Sufferers. It was based on one verse, and the verse was

1 Peter 419, which goes, let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful creator.

And to watch him unpack every word in that is a thrilling thing.

Let me give you a taste. He said, it is not, he took the phrase especially according to the will of God, suffer according to the will of God. He said,

it is not what enemies will, nor what they are resolved upon, but what God will and what God

appoints that will be done. No enemy can bring suffering upon a man when the will of God is

otherwise, so no man can save himself out of their hands when God will deliver him up for his glory.

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