You understand what you were
thinking? He asked the Lord to grow in
faith and love and every grace. And he thought the Lord would
remove all his troubles. But he gave him troubles. And
that caused him to grow in faith and in every grace. Alright, 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. There's not enough time to deal
with each verse. And since I want to dwell on
one verse more specifically, verse 17, I've had this on my
mind for some time. Verse 17 is written, For our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. So the title of this message
and the subject is Momentary Afflictions and Eternal Glory. Momentary Afflictions and Eternal
Glory. Now the lot in life for most
believers, the lot for most believers in
this world is trials and afflictions. It is not health and wealth as
false prophets, P-R-O-F-I-T, prophets would tell you, tell
us, but rather trials and afflictions as we read and sung in that hymn. Turn with me to one of mine and
Brother Stan Anderson's favorite psalms, Psalm 73, and perhaps
many more of you. Psalm 73. David, in this psalm,
if you're not familiar with it, David is sort of complaining
to God in the first more than half of this psalm.
He's complaining that it seems like the world doesn't have any
problems But God's people have nothing but problems. Psalm 73. And as I said, the lot for most
believers in this world is trials and afflictions. And for that
matter, Job said this concerning all mankind, really. He said,
man, all mankind, man that is born of woman. is a few days. That is, this life is just a
vapor. It doesn't last very long. A
few days. The Lord tells us, or has written,
teach us to number our days, not years, days, that we may
apply our hearts to wisdom. But Job is written, man that
is born of woman, is a few days and full of trouble. There's enough trouble in this
life, in the life of every human being, for them to stop and think
that, hey, there's nothing of any lasting Happiness here is, there's enough
trouble in the life of most human beings that should cause them
to stop and think, there's nothing of any lasting peace and joy
and happiness here, is there? Well, but they don't. Men, I don't know where it is,
Job or Proverbs, it says their secret thought is that they're
going to live forever. But it's not so. But for the
believer, this life is especially trying. Let's just look at a
few verses. Psalm 73. Let's read verses 3
through 7. David said, I was envious at
the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. There are no bands
in their death. Their strength is firm. They
are not in trouble. as other men. Neither are they
plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them
about as a chain. Violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than heart could
wish. Down to verses 12 through 14.
He says, Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world.
They increase in riches. David says, Verily I have cleansed
my heart in vain, I have washed my hands in innocency. For all
the day long I have been plagued and chastened every morning.
Verse 16, When I thought to know this, it was painful for me,
too painful, until. See, David is just rationalizing
in his own mind, looking around. But he says, until I went into
the sanctuary of God, I went into the house of God, I heard
God's word, then I understood. Their end. That's the important thing. Their
end. Look at verse 18. Surely thou
did set them in slippery places. Thou cast them down unto destruction. Slippery places. So, go back
to 2 Corinthians 4. So the apostle is saying the
same thing here in 2 Corinthians 4. In light of what the believer
has in the end. See, this is the important thing.
What the believer looks forward to. He calls it eternal glory. In light of what the believer
has in the future, he calls these afflictions and these troubles,
light and momentary. Momentary. He says, our light
afflictions. Now, I know what some of you
were thinking when you read that. You were thinking, my troubles
aren't light. They're very heavy, they're very
difficult to bear. Well, let's turn over to chapter
11. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 11.
Now, the Apostle Paul is the writer here. And I want you to
look at Paul's afflictions with me, alright? Let's look at what
Paul went through, and then see what you have to say. 2 Corinthians
11, verse 24, Paul says, Of the Jews, five times received I forty
stripes, save one. Five times he was beaten with
a cat of nine tails. And you know what those torture
devices look like. Five times, forty stripes, that's
two hundred, save one, that's a hundred and ninety-five stripes
with a whip, with broken bones and pieces of glass on the end
of it. Most people didn't survive one whipping. Most people died
five times. Keep going, that's not it. Three
times I was beaten with rods, heavy staves or sticks. Once was I stoned. That's the
time we believe over in chapter 12, it talks about a man going
to the third heaven. That was Paul. He died, but the
Lord raised him. He was stoned to death. Three
times I suffered shipwreck. If you've ever been out to sea
in perilous waters, It is one of the most frightening things
you'll ever experience. I've had a brief encounter with
it, and it was horrifying. The thought of drowning, three
times. A night and a day, 24 hours treading
water in the ocean. A black sea at night time, can
you imagine? In journeyings, read on, in journeyings
often, He walked on foot. You look at Paul's travels in
the map in the back of your Bible, how many thousands of miles he
walked. We have real trials when our
car breaks down, don't we? Journeys in perils of waters,
in perils of robbers, in perils by my unknown countrymen, his
friends. in perils by the heathen, in
perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils
in the sea, in perils amongst false brethren." In other words,
Darnell, wherever he went, whoever he's with, his life was in danger. That's what he wrote there in
2 Corinthians 4. Always ready to die. Every day. Day in and day out. In weariness
and painfulness. In watchings often, that is,
staying awake, in hunger and thirst, fastings often, cold
and nakedness, beside those things that are without, that which
cometh upon me daily, the care, the burdens, the trials, the
troubles, the problems of all the churches, everybody's problem,
wanting Paul to help them. And he writes, our light afflictions. Now tell me how tough our afflictions
are in light of that. That's my first point. They're
light. Why does he call them light?
They're light compared to what some other people go through.
Right? Compared to what some other people
go through. They're light compared to our blessings. If we would
stop and think about the blessings we've experienced through this
life, our blessings far, far, far outweigh our trouble. Do they not? Most of us have
lived a pretty long time, and most of the time we've been blessed. And then the trials have come,
though, so they're light compared to our blessings and compared
to what others go through in their life, compared to what
we're going to experience. Future glory. Paul said in another
place in Romans 8, he said they're not worthy. They're not worthy
to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Nevertheless, they're afflictions.
Look over at verse 8 in our text. They are afflictions, and Paul
had them. All of the apostles had them.
All of God's people had them. I think it was Peter that said,
the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren throughout the
world. The very same thing. that you haven't gone through
that's common to other people, and has been from the beginning
of time. All of God's people have gone
through. There's nothing we've gone through that all of God's
people haven't gone through or will not go through, will go
through. So he says, our light affliction,
look at verse 8. There are afflictions, though. We're not saying they're not
trouble and not difficult. He says in verse 8, we are troubled
on every side. Troubled on every side. Paul
could not see into the future. That is concerning every event.
Right? He's just a man. God's the only
one who's omniscient. Paul had some prophetic vision,
but he didn't know. Remember, he would have said
to go somewhere, he'd want to go here, he'd want to go there,
and the Spirit of God would prevent it. So Paul was troubled with
world events, was he not? I remind us who the king was
of the Roman government when Paul lived. Nero. Nero's the one who filled up
the floor of the Roman Colosseum with the bones of believers. The gladiators and all that.
He's the one that started all that. Nero. Paul calls him the
lion in another place, that the Lord delivered him from the mouth
of the lion, a roaring, raging lion. Nero. Paul was troubled
by world events. He was troubled by the government
which he lived under. He was troubled by sin around
him. He was troubled Like we are,
with the perverse and wicked world that we live in. He didn't
have any children, but the young believers were like children
to him. He was troubled for the children of his people, growing
up in a world like that. Are we not troubled for our children?
He was troubled with his own sin. That's a believer's greatest
trouble, is it not? Besides trouble without, there's
trouble within that never leaves you. Trouble with your own sin.
But look at what he said. We're troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. All of them need to take a pill.
Old Jehoshaphat said in that prayer, we don't know what to
do, but our eyes turn to thee, O Lord. We don't know what, we're
troubled. Look at the thing, next thing,
we're perplexed. We're perplexed. We don't have all the answers.
Paul didn't have all the answers. He was perplexed. Aren't you
perplexed about why some things happen? Do you not ask the Lord,
Lord why? Why are you doing this? There's
not a person in here who hasn't Ask the Lord reverently, carefully,
respectfully, but ask him. Lord, I don't know why you're
doing it this way. Is there any other way? We're
perplexed, he said. But known unto God are all his
works from the beginning. We're not in distress because
God reigns. God rules. God Almighty orders
all things. We're perplexed, but we're not
in despair. We're not going to despair of
any help, because God reigns, and God rules, and God ordered
all of this. Persecuted. Our Lord said that
this would happen, didn't he? He said, blessed are you when
men shall persecute you or vow you, say all manner of evil falsely
against you for my name's sake. For so persecuted they the prophets
before you. Persecuted. That's the lot of
God's people, to be persecuted, not loved. He said, woe is unto
you if the world, if the religious world speaks well of you. They
hated me, Christ said. They wanted to kill me. They
did kill him. And they'll hate you also. Worry about it if this
religious world thinks you're a swell feller. Must not be standing
up for the truth, because they don't love the truth. He said
you'll be persecuted. Persecuted. And persecuted by
Satan, the world, self, but not forsaken. I tell you, if you've
really been persecuted, and you felt like everybody was against
you, And the Lord has come to you, as He will, in times like
that. There's never been consolation
like that. He's never... If you've gone through that,
you know that the consolation afterward is worth it all. That He makes Himself more real
and near and dear to you than ever before in your life. When
you stand up for His sake, for His honor, though the whole world
hates you, He'll stand up like he did for Stephen. Guarantee
it. Not forsaken. He said, I'm with
you. I'll never forsake you. I'm with
you to the end of the world. Cast down. Do you ever get downcast? Every one of us in here get downcast.
Every one of us in here get depressed. Sometimes for reasons unknown. The Scriptures talks about the
rain coming down, the floods coming up, and the winds. Those
are three manner of trials. Trials we know the Lord sent.
Trials that come from this earth all around us. And the wind. Don't know where that came from.
Those trials. And why? Cast down. Down cast. But not
destroyed. It didn't destroy you. It didn't
destroy you. Well, let's go back to the text
now. So he says there are afflictions. There are afflictions. But he
says there are light afflictions compared to what others go through. There are light afflictions,
and Paul perhaps was thinking of Job. wasn't he? Paul was probably thinking of
Job. Of all that Paul went through, he was probably thinking, well,
at least I didn't go through what Job went through. It's just
me. So he calls them, our light affliction,
he said, now look at verse 17 again, which is but for a moment. A moment. for a moment, can you
stand something for 60 seconds? You know, the younger, young
children, when they're going through something difficult,
young children, like if they have to wait, 60 seconds is an
eternity, isn't it, for young children? The younger they are,
the more difficult, the least little problem is. More difficult,
more trying. I've got to tell this one. My
daughter, when she was very, very young, she would fall and
get hurt, as children do. And being an only child, my wife
would run to her, oh honey, darling, sweet pie, and scoop her up in
her arms, it's okay. And I always tried to, well the
little older she got, I always tried to, honey, don't, you know,
she's toughing up a little bit. Toughing up. Right? And there's certain things, and
the older you get, the more you go through and you become toughened
to it. It's the same thing spiritually.
Our light afflictions are but for a moment, a moment. Again, they're temporary, they're
just for a moment. What do you mean a moment? The
grief I'm experiencing, the trouble I'm experiencing, I'll never
forget. Well, they're momentary compared to, again, our blessings. If we would stop and think about
our blessings, how much the Lord is right now blessing us, has
blessed us, is blessing us, and you can fully expect him to continue
to bless you. So these light afflictions are
momentary. If you'll stop and consider the
blessings, that temporary trouble and difficulty will go away in
place of thanksgiving. I'm telling you the truth. If
you stop, it's like prayer. If we won't moan and groan and
complain so much, but rather give more thanks, we'll forget
about what we were moaning and groaning about. What's that song that group sang? Get over it. Get over it. Some things, you know, we just
really need to get over them and grow up about. for a moment,
compared to our time on this earth. Now, if I was Enoch, or if I
was Adam, we might have more reason to
complain if we were going to live 900 years. Woe is me. What if we were only
40, I'm 47, what if I was only I've got nine hundred more years
to go. Oh! It would be hard not to complain
anyway. And moan and groan. Moan and
groan. So we've got seventy. That's
about all we've got to endure is seventy. And some of you are
past the time. It's over, Charles Ross. It's
over. You're on borrowed time. Honestly. There's no more room for complaining,
and we're going to get to it in a moment. Well, it's over. Some of you are just about 10.
Nancy, a few more years, 8 years, short of 70. Are you that old? Don't look at me. Close, getting
close, right? What is your life at a vapor?
Compared to our time on this earth, these afflictions are
momentary, but for a moment. And now look at the next thing,
compared to eternity. The time we're going to, eternity, I can't
even describe eternity, it's forever. What's 70 years in the
light of forever? So they're momentary in the light
of eternity. Look at the next line, he says,
our light afflictions which are but for a moment, worketh for
us. Romans 8, 28 isn't the only verse
like that in the Bible. 2 Corinthians 4, 17 is. It worketh
for us. These afflictions are working
for us. If they weren't for our good,
God wouldn't have sent them, would he? He's too kind to do
evil. He's too good to do evil. He's
too wise to err. As, again, I quote what Brother
Richardson said, he said, if we knew what God knows, we would
order our lives exactly the way he's ordered them. Wouldn't change
a thing, because we'd know exactly why he sent everything in our
life. It can't be any other way. Because
it's God's purpose, and it's for us. It's for our good. Everything
works for us. Now look at this. Here's the
next thing we're going to dwell on. It worketh for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Weight of glory. A far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory. Now this word weight here is
the only time, it's the only time this word is used in the
New Testament, in all the Bible, in this sense. Weight. And the word weight here has in mind or what it means is such
a load or an abundance of something. Like, well, it's like Jacob,
Jacob's sons. Remember when Joseph was on the
throne in Egypt and Jacob's sons all came and brought little sacks
Those sacks to get corn in, you remember that? And Joseph, they
didn't know who Joseph was at the time, but Joseph knew them.
They didn't come expecting much, but Joseph filled up all their
sacks, and not only their sacks, but loaded their wagons. Loaded
their wagons full. So the word here is eternal abundance. of glory. Our Lord called it
life more abundant. Abundance of glory. That is blessings, joy, happiness. More happiness than you could
bear right now. Have you ever been so happy and
so overjoyed right now that you think, I can't Like trials, you
know, you've been under such severe afflictions and trials,
you think, I can't, I can't take it anymore. Have you ever been
so happy about something? You think, this is gonna, I'm
gonna explode. But we ain't seen nothing yet. The
reason we, we just experienced a foretaste of it. We sing the
song of foretaste, of glory, divine. We just experienced a
foretaste of it. right now, a little bit of it,
just because if he really poured, we couldn't live here. I believe
that's what happened to Enoch. Enoch lived 365 years. He walked
with the Lord, and the Lord so, so blessed him spiritually to
finally, he just walked into heaven. The Lord said, he can't
live there anymore. joy, happiness, peace, life abundant. Our Lord called it abundant life. Glory is the word. Glory that
he said far excelling, far more exceeding an eternal weight of
glory. Now, Lord help me here. Now,
glory. There's many glories. Paul talked
about the glory of this earth, the glory of the celestials,
the glory of the terrestrials. There's glory. What God has made,
what God has done is glorying. When God Almighty created this
world, when he created this planet, can you imagine? when he was
creating things, what it must have been like. Have you ever
looked at the sky at a time when it was just the most glorious
display of colors? You thought, this is incredible. Have you not? Sure you have.
Every one of us has. There have been times I've looked
at the sky and I thought, if somebody painted that, nobody
would believe them. They'd believe they made it up.
So colorful. Well, can you imagine when God
was creating this whole thing? We, you know, we go to the stadium
and see a few fireworks. Ooh, ah, ooh, fireworks. God was flowing the stars out
of the sky. Jupiter, phew, Pluto, phew. The sun, the moon, the
star, the heavens declare His, what? Glory. Can you imagine
what that was like? Someday, it's going to far excel
the glory of creation. And we're going to be there. Are you hearing me? Far excel
it! the glory of the creation, the
heavens and the earth. Adam, when God put Adam, God
made everything before he put man in that garden. God made
everything. Adam, people, this world is beautiful. If it wasn't for sin, this world,
everything God has made is beautiful, isn't it? Well, God created it
all perfect. No thorns, no thistles, no flies,
no skeeters, no nothing like that. Nothing to mar His creation. Every vegetable was perfect.
Every fruit was perfect. Every tree was perfect. No brown
grass, no brown leaves, no nothing like that. Perfect. No weeds
in the grass. He created it all and put Adam
in it, and Adam I know just for days, maybe months, maybe years. walked around just beholding
the glory of God's creation. The new earth. God said in Isaiah 65, Behold
what I create. I create new heavens and a new
earth. And the former shall not even
be remembered or come to mind. For the glory that excels. We're going to be there. We're
going to be there, beholding. That's the glory of this earth,
the glory of creation. Lord, help me here. I ain't said
nothing yet. The glory of the gospel. Do you
ever sit and listen to the gospel and think, that's the times when
you think, I can't take any more, I'm going to pop. Isn't it? Every
now and then, every now and then, when the Lord helps a man to
preach the gospel in such a way, and you enter into it, you hear
it, you think, I'm ready to go right now. The half has not been told. There's not one verse in this
Bible a man has ever, even to a degree, touched the truth of
it, the glory of it. When we get there, Jesus Christ
is going to stand up. And open the book, Genesis 1-100,
and preach from it for a thousand years, and we're not, we're just
going to be... He's going to tell the whole
story. We preach in part, we know in
part, but we're not, we're going to know. He's going to tell us. Our jaws are going to be on the
floor. And that the scripture says, Here's some men I love
to hear preach. I just love to hear them. My
pastor is my favorite. That's the way it should be. The Scripture says no man spake
like this man. His voice, I can't even, we can't
even, far excellent, the most beautiful voice ever heard, the
most commanding voice, the most precious and glorious countenance. the glory of his person. It says, Paul, Peter, James, John say,
We beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father.
We beheld his glory. Peter said that. We were up on
the mountain. Back in chapter 3, verse 18,
it says, We all with open face behold him, but in a glass, the
glory of the Lord. Like looking through a, I don't
know, screen door or something. A glass darkly, Paul called it.
Sunglasses on. Seeing him. There are times when
we get a view of Christ's glorious person and it's just, isn't he
wonderful? We're going to see him as he
is. The glory of his person. That
what we've seen right now doesn't even compare. It's not worthy
to be compared with the glory we're going to see. And what
we're going to hear. Paul, when Paul came back from
heaven, in chapter 12 of this book, when Paul came back from
heaven, he said, I heard things that are impossible to utter.
He didn't even tell us what he saw. He said, I heard things.
You can't believe it. I can't begin to tell you what
I heard. Old Brother Barnard's dream of
that angelic choir, you remember that? I've told it to you. Maybe
some of you haven't heard it or don't remember it. Old Brother
Ralph Barnard loved to sing, but he couldn't sing. He was
a terrible singer. If you ever have any of his old
tapes and heard him singing, he'd go, grr, grr, grr. He made
a joyful noise. But he couldn't sing, and he
dreamed of singing well. But he loved good singing, and
he said he dreamed that he went to heaven, and he was outside
the city there, and he heard the most beautiful singing he'd
ever heard. Just impossible to describe, the most beautiful
singing. And he walked in this vast room and he said there was
people with no man can number, filling up the sky singing, singing
beautifully. He said, Oh, I'd love to be a
part of that singing. I want to be a part of that.
I want to join in with them. And he looked around and saw
there was a vacant seat, an empty seat way up there in the back.
He said, well, I'll try to get that seat. And he walked and
walked and walked and went by the people, and he came up to
the seat, and it was written on the back of the seat, Rothbarn. He said he sat down and joined
in. Paul said, we heard things unlawful
to utter, the glory, eternal glory, and the glory of fellowship. That's my next point. This right
here is really what makes this life worth living. God's people are the salt of
the earth, and of whom the world is not worthy. And I can't think
of anybody out there other than God's people that I want to spend
more than a few minutes with, honestly. I don't. But I just
can't think of anybody. I've got nothing to talk about,
nothing to enjoy. But now, the fellowship that
God's people have together. It's glorious, is it not? We
have experienced a little of glory in here, together. Heavenly. We've been together.
We've been through a lot of things together. We've been through
glory together. You ain't seen nothing yet. Wait till everybody. When you go to these Bible conferences,
you like to go to these Bible conferences, don't you? Like
me. I just don't like to preach them. But I like to go to them
sometimes. Kind of getting like my dad,
though, I'm so hard of hearing that I can't, with all the noise,
I can't hear anything. But anyway, they are enjoyable. When you get all these believers
together and everything, the messages are so good, the scenes
are better than it's ever been, the fellowship is so sweet, there's
never a discouraging word. You ain't seen nothing yet. Wait till everybody is together. Everybody that's missing. Everybody
that's gone before us, do you know what a reunion we're going
to have in heaven? How about if you haven't seen
somebody in a long time and you see them and you're so happy
to see them? It's far excellent, the reunion. It's going to be,
no tears. I don't know how we're going
to do it without tears. Tears of joy, but he said not.
The glory, the excellence, far excellent. more exceeding eternal
weight over an abundance of glory. And get this, here's the last
thing. It's forever. It's eternal. It's eternal. It never stops. Now, we can't understand that.
We can't enter into that. I can't. That's it. That's all
I can do. It's eternal. Eternal. Glory. No end. No end
to the happiness. No limits to the enjoyments. None. We're going to see each
other, be with each other, and be so overjoyed as if We're going
to act around each other like we hadn't seen each other for
years, and we're going to act that way forever. We're going to hear the preaching
like it's the first message we ever heard, and the best. Forever. Never grow weary, never dull
of hearing, never sleepy, never... That's it, that's all I can do.
So he says, verse 18, in closing, so while we look not at things
which are seen. What he's telling us here is
don't look at things that are seen. He said in Colossians,
set your affection on things above. We look not at things,
while we look not at things which are seen, it's this way. If we won't look at this world
as lasting, as going on, as all there is, we will have this glory, but at the things
which are not seen. And what you're doing right now
is helping you to look not at the things that are seen, but
at the things which are not seen. If you hadn't come here tonight,
you'd be sitting at home moaning and groaning over your lot in
life. Now, I hope, you're going to go home thinking, ain't it
going to be wonderful? And isn't God good to me now?
What would I have done without that? It helps us to keep our
eyes focused, our eye. Without an eye, I'd be single.
The whole body's full of light. While we look not at things which
are seen, but at things which are not seen, for people, the
things that are seen are temporal. Everything here is temporal.
But these things we've been looking into, eternal, forever. So, again, I ask us, remind us,
why polish the brass on a sinking ship? Why worry about something
that's just for a moment? Children, it's not that trouble's
going to be over soon. It's already been three score,
two score, three score, hasn't it, for some of you? It's just
for a moment. And the glory is going to far
exceed. arts, any glory we've ever experienced. Okay, stand with me. Our Lord, thank You so much for
Your Word, just one verse of which is glorious. We thank You
for it. We ask that You would keep us
from looking at things that are seen, that we would walk by faith,
not by sight. and set our affection on things
above where Christ sits and cause us to wait, to watch and to wait
and to look for those eternal things we have with him, future
glory. Let us go on from glory to glory
by your grace. It's in Christ's name we are
met here tonight. Amen.