Alright brethren, we're going
to be in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. While you're turning to 2 Corinthians
4, Paul, writing to the Philippians, Philippians 4.8 says, Finally
brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just, Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things
are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there
be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. These are things which are given
for our joy and our comfort. And Paul encourages us. He speaks to us and tells us,
think on these things. These are good for you to dwell
on, to consider, to pray concerning these things, to pray to God
concerning these blessed things. And so this morning, I want to
talk to you about eternal things. These are things that are lovely.
These are things that are pure. These are things that are just
and comfort our hearts. Eternal things. So let's read
now in our text 2 Corinthians 4 verse 17 and 18. For our light affliction which
is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal. They're temporary, they're passing
away. But the things which are not seen are eternal. And that's what I want to look
at with you today, eternal things. Eternal things. In Christ, our
God makes us to see things as they really are. Not as this
flesh sees things, but as God sees them. And even when we don't
see it, there's times where our view gets clouded and we get
fuzzy and we don't see things or interpret things or discern
things rightly as we ought to, knowing what we know of the true
and living God. Even when our sight gets blurred,
we know. By the grace of God and by His,
to the praise of His glory, we know that God is just, God is
good, God is right. He's doing all things well. Everything He does, we know that
our God is good because He's taught us that. He's given us
His spirit whereby we know that He's just and perfect, holy and
righteous. And what He does according to
purpose is for our He gives us that, and we take comfort in
that. And the reason why this is so is because in Christ, the
children of God are given faith. We're given faith to see our
God, to interpret and understand that what we don't see, we know
our God is still yet in perfect control. that He's doing everything
well. And so the children of God have
been given that gift of faith, true God-given spiritual faith. In fact, we're told in Hebrews
11, verse one, that faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen. So just like with these
natural eyes I see and I can touch this Bible, Well, so it
is with faith. I see that and know that my God
is and that he's doing all things well. He's in sovereign control
of everything and nothing happens by chance, nothing happens by
accident. It's all according to his goodwill
and purpose. It's all according to what he
purposes to do. Now, faith is a spiritual fruit. It is a fruit of the Spirit which
is given to us and that faith lays hold of eternal things. It lays hold of that knowledge,
that understanding that our God is in perfect control of all
things. And it's by this faith that our
God teaches us. He makes us to know what he will
have us to know. He makes us to know the mind
of our God by his spirit bearing fruit in us. Turn over to 1 Corinthians
2. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 2. Let's pick up in verse 9. But as it is written, I hath
not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man, the natural man, the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him. And so what the Lord's teaching
us is that by carnal reason, by our knowledge, our wisdom,
our understanding of things, we cannot come at God according
to carnal reasoning, according to our natural wisdom. We don't understand the things
of God except God give them to us, except he reveal them to
us. And this is what he says in verse 10, but God hath revealed
them unto us by his spirit. For the spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?
And I don't know what Brother Scott is thinking. Scott doesn't
know what I'm thinking. We don't know it unless we have
that spirit, unless we have his spirit, and then we'll know what
he's thinking. Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the
spirit of God. Now, we have received. Those in Christ have received,
not the spirit of the world. We already have that by nature
in Adam. We have that spirit and that's why we go the course
of the world and think nothing of it, of the evil and the wickedness
in the world that we're partakers of. We justify ourselves by that
wicked spirit. But we've received now the Spirit,
which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God. And so our God, in the covenant
of grace, which is established for us by the blood of Christ,
we were born in Adam under the covenant of works. but we've
been established and we're now in the covenant of grace by the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he makes known unto us eternal
things, eternal things. And that's what we're looking
at, eternal things. One of the first eternal things that we
are given to know by the spirit of God is that God is. There is one God, one true and
living God, and He gives His children to know that God is. There is a God who does all things
well, who made us, created all things, and He's given us to
know Him. Listen to what Moses wrote. There's
a psalm written by Moses. It's Psalm 90, and in the beginning
of that psalm, he wrote, Thou hast been our dwelling place
in all generations. There is one God, one God for
all generations. There is one true and living
God. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever, Thou
hadst formed the earth and the world. Even from everlasting
to everlasting, Thou art God. And that really puts in perspective
things for us. God's eternal. We're just passing
through here. Our lives here in this flesh
is very temporary, and it's very brief, and it's over before we
know it. We're but vapors before a holy
God who is eternal and has no end. God is eternal. And he makes his child to know
that God is, that he exists, and that we exist, by His power,
that we exist for His pleasure, not for our own, but for God's.
He's created us for Him. Hebrews 11.6 says, but without
faith, it's impossible to please Him. We cannot please God without
faith. There's a scripture which says,
even the plowing of the wicked is sin. plowing of the wicked
is sin. You mean someone getting up early
for his family, going out and plowing a field to provide for
himself and his family? To give them things to provide
for the community and provide food for them? That's sin? Yes. Because it's done not in faith. It's done for himself according
to the flesh. Without faith, it's impossible
to please him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. And so everything that we see,
when you go outside, even here, everything we see was created
by God. Even these things, these inventions
that we make, it's all given to us by God, by his wisdom,
his power. his ability. All things were
created by God. And we see things that are visible,
visible. And the things that are visible
to us, nothing was made without him, not without his power, except
everything was made by the word of him who was invisible to the
naked eye of man. And so we don't see him with
the naked eye. We don't see him with this natural
eye, but God is. God is, and we know that. We
know it to be true by faith. Hebrews 11.3 says, Through faith
we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God,
so that things which are seen were not made of things which
do appear. Everything that God made. He
doesn't require the things that we require. We need trees and
rocks and elements to build things and to make things. God made
it all out of nothing. The universe that He's made did
not require there to be dust and rocks and elements and gases. He made those things and made
things out of those things. He did the whole thing. Listen
to how God is worshipped in heaven. For these works, listen to how
he's worshipped. In Revelation 4.11, these are
the elders and the beasts falling down and worshipping God, saying,
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For Thou hast created all things,
and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. See, in heaven,
they see things as they really are. They see eternal things,
and that's why they glorify and worship God. And when all we
are is flesh, and when we don't have the Spirit of God, all we
see is carnal things, visible things. But in the new man, by
the gift of his Spirit manifesting faith in us, we see and behold,
God has done this. God has created these things.
God is in perfect control of all things. And he makes the
heart of his child to bow before him and to worship him and give
him all glory, all praise, all honor for what he has done. Now,
our Lord tells us why we don't see God with the naked eye. In
John 4, 24, he tells us God is a spirit and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. That's why he doesn't
just appear to us, because he's given us faith. He gives his
child faith to know these things, to believe beyond a shadow of
a doubt that God is. These things cannot be except
there be one true and living God. And he gives that to his
children. God is pleased by faith. We saw that God isn't pleased
with the flesh. By the flesh no man can please
God, but he's pleased by faith which believes him even though
we don't see him. Now why do you suppose that God
is pleased with faith? Well, first of all, faith is
not of man. It's not of this flesh. Faith is given to us through
the blood redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why God
is pleased with faith. because it's born in us of Christ. It's given to us by the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's a fruit of the Spirit, and
it's given to us through that blood redemption of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We don't have faith, except Christ
give us faith, because faith is not of the flesh. And because
faith sees spiritual things as they are, the children of God
worship God by Christ. We worship God through and by
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's how we know that God
is. Because Christ has come, and
he's accomplished salvation for his people, and he reveals Christ
to us. Now, we're talking about some
things of the Lord Jesus Christ. We were talking about God being
eternal. God the Father is eternal. Well,
so is his Son. That's the second thing. Our
God shows us that his darling Son is eternal. And so John,
speaking of Christ now, John chapter 1, verses 1 through 4,
confirms that Christ is eternal. We're told that in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men. We don't have any light
except Christ give us light by His life. Just as we see even
back in Genesis chapter 1 verse 3, And God said, Let there be
light, and there was light. Before then it was only darkness,
and that light is Christ, and that manifested God's gracious
will and purpose to be gracious to a people that He would create
and put here on this earth. Before then it was just darkness,
it was void and without form, but that light of Christ declared
the purpose of God to be gracious to a people. And that's what
our Lord does for us in Christ. When Christ gives us light, it's
because he's given us life to know the true and living God.
He reveals, Christ is sent to us by the Father to reveal the
Father to us, to show us the true and living God. And then
in John 1, dropping down to verse 14, and the word was made flesh. That's how we know this is Christ.
He was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. And so the Eternal Father sent
the Eternal Son, the only begotten Son who is eternal, and He came
in the flesh and served His Father for His sheep, for His bride. for our eternal salvation. And
that brings us to the third thing. We've seen that the Father is
eternal, the Son is eternal, our salvation is an eternal salvation. It's an eternal salvation. Christ
died on the cross. He came in the flesh, being sent
to the Father, and He willingly went to that cross. When He came,
He first spoke the things that the Father gave Him to speak
of, He did the works that the Father gave Him to do, and He
went to that cross willingly not for any of his own crimes,
not for any sins that he committed, but for the sins of his people
in order to put away our sins. And by putting away our sins,
he put away the wrath of God from us so that we are safe and
secure and provided for and protected by Christ. We now have fellowship
with the true and living God in the Lord Jesus Christ because
He justly bore our punishment, justly to put that sin away as
our substitute. He stood in our place and bore
the wrath of God for us. put away the justice of God which
was against us, to deliver us from that justice and to make
us righteous, the righteousness of God before Him, to stand before
Him complete. The justice of God is satisfied
so that we're accepted with God in Christ. You that come to the
Father in the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting,
that's all my sufficiency. That's what the Father requires,
is Christ. And we come in Him, we're accepted
and received of the true and living God, in the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. And so our salvation is an eternal
salvation. Listen to Hebrews 10.14, for
by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Why do we need a sanctification
that is forever. Why do we need it? Because we
have an eternal salvation. So he has provided everything
that is lasting eternally lasting forever because we have an eternal
salvation. The Apostle John wrote it this
way in 1st John 5 verses 10 through 12. He that believeth on the
Son of God hath the witness in himself He that believeth not
God hath made God a liar. Those that don't believe God,
that don't believe that Christ, that Jesus is the Christ and
that his salvation is sufficient to the uttermost, it's not just
saying, well, that's just not for me. You're calling God a
liar. You're saying, I don't believe
that. I don't need that. When God's telling us we need
the blood of Christ to wash away our sins. We have no righteousness
of our own. We don't dare approach the throne
of God except in the blood of Christ. And that's otherwise
we're calling God a liar because he believeth not the record that
God hath given of his son. And this is the record that God
hath given to us eternal life. And this life is in his Son.
He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. Our Lord himself said, he that
believeth on me hath everlasting life. This is an eternal salvation.
He hath everlasting life. And remember, it's God who gives
us eternal life. Eternal life, when you read that
verse there, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. And you can look it up later,
John 6, 47. You can look it up there. Eternal life is not given
because we believe. I know that that's taught in
many so-called churches, that eternal life is given because
we believe. That's not what Christ is saying.
Our faith is not the fuel that fires up the engine of salvation
and makes it effectual unto us. Our faith is given to us because
we have been given eternal life. You wouldn't have faith except
Christ gave you life first. And then faith is a natural fruit
that follows, not natural, but in eternal things, it's a spiritual
fruit that follows out of necessity because it's all given, it's
all part of the eternal redemption of Christ. It's all the blessings
of Christ. We believe because Christ has
given us life and blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ our Savior. And so, it's not
given because we believe, we believe because we have been
given life. Christ has done that. And so, What you could say in John 647
is, he that believeth on Christ testifies that he hath everlasting
life. It's a manifestation of God's
glory and power. It's a manifestation that he
has given you life. You that believe Christ, doubt
no longer. If you know that Christ is the
Savior, that you're the sinner, and you need His salvation, that's
of God. Flesh and blood doesn't reveal
that to you. Our Father, which is in heaven, He reveals that
to us through Christ. Through Christ. Just as the Apostle
John said at the beginning, when I quoted 1 John 5, 10, He that
believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. See,
it's testifying. You have that witness. If you
believe Christ, God has given you that witness in you to reveal
that you're His. You're covered with the blood
of Christ. Christ came and laid down His life for you. It's a
testimony that God is your God and that He saved you and put
away your sin forever. Your sin is paid for. And He's
given you His Spirit. Look to Him. Thank Him. Praise
Him. Give Him all the glory, honor,
and praise, just like we saw them do in Heaven, with the elders
and the beasts there, giving all glory to God. Because the
more and more you see it, the more you know, without Him, I'd
have nothing. Nothing. But He's given it freely,
in grace, in Christ. Again, our Lord Himself said
in John 10, 27-29, My sheep, because He has sheep that were
given to Him by the Father, they hear My voice, and I know them,
and they follow Me. God chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. Ephesians 1.4 And he said, I
give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. And so our salvation is an eternal
salvation. It's eternal. It's forever. What
Christ has given, it's forever. His gifts are without repentance.
It's forever, and He gives it with power. He gives it with
power. And then fourth, the fourth eternal
thing that we'll look at is our union with Christ. We have an
eternal union with Christ. And Paul wrote it this way. I
don't know why this verse is what caught my attention in considering
this point, but Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4, 16 through
18, well, I know why, because God, that's what the Spirit put
on my heart, but, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with
a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump
of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which
are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever
be with the Lord. We are eternally joined to the
Lord, and that never ends. It shall never end. When he comes
and picks us up, we shall ever be with the Lord. His presence
with us, He'll never cease to dwell with us. We have Him forever. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words. Today, our Lord dwells in our
hearts by faith. But in that day we shall see
him as he is, and we shall be like him, for we shall see him
as he is, and we shall ever be with the Lord. We're his bride. That's another thing that he
gives us. He's given us marriage, the bond
of marriage, to teach us something of that eternal union with the
Lord. A man and a wife, it's not to
end. We're not to put that away. until
death do us part, right? But until then, we're not to
put that away. And so he gave us marriage between
a husband and a wife to give us an understanding of our union
to Christ, that we're his forever, forever and ever, and that never
changes. He's our head and we're his body. Adam, when God created
Adam and then created Eve and brought Eve to Adam, It says
in Genesis 2.23, Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh
of my flesh. She shall be called woman because
she was taken out of man. And therefore shall a man leave
his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they
shall be one flesh. All right, we don't, when my
kids got married, I don't get involved in their marriage. If
they have some questions, you know, I'll give them a little
bit of advice, but I stay out of it. If they're having an argument,
I don't get involved. I don't want to know nothing
about it. You guys work it out. You're now one flesh together.
It's between you guys now. And so that's what the Lord is
showing us. They're one now. They're one
flesh. And in Ephesians 5, verse 30 through 32, Paul says we are
members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause
shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined
unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. And he tells us,
this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and
the church. God gave us marriage to give
us a picture of Christ and the church, to teach us something
about that. Now in this life, brethren, death
separates us. Once one of us dies, you're free
from that law of marriage. You're free. You can remarry
if you want. Even if you're 80 years old, you can remarry if
you want. You're not bound to your husband or your wife anymore. Death separates us, but in heaven,
there is no death. There's no death, so there will
be no separation ever from the Lord. No more tears, no more
separation, no more sorrow. When Christ returns, so shall
we ever be with the Lord. That's never gonna end, brethren.
Never gonna end, it's gonna be eternal joy and happiness in
Christ. John said, I saw a new heaven
and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were
passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the
holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great
voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God
is with men, and he will dwell with them. and they shall be
his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
And it just reminds me of what Peter said, husbands, dwell with
your wives. Dwell with them according to
knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel,
and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your
prayers be not hindered. Brethren, we're heirs together
with Christ our husband, and he tells us he will dwell with
us. and it shall be forever. It's
an eternal union with our Lord. Now let's go back to our text
and wrap this up. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 17 and
18. Let's read it again. He says, for our light affliction,
our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for
us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. while we look
not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not
seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, they're passing,
they're just a vapor, here today, gone tomorrow. But the things
which are not seen are eternal. And Paul is saying there, when
you take whatever the burden is that you're carrying, and
the weight of it, the trials, the sufferings, the sorrows,
the sicknesses, the diseases, the separations, all these things,
and you put them up on the scale of things, he says in comparison
to these eternal things, which are given to us, and I've just
brought four things there, God our Father, God the Son, our
Savior, our head, our husband, our salvation, our eternal salvation,
and our eternal union with Christ. All these things that we're going
through in this temporary brief little life here, they're light,
light afflictions. Paul was beaten, mistreated,
misused, shipwrecked, hungry, thirsty, in poverty many days,
and yet it's all a light affliction. And so whatever we're going through,
you keep in mind those eternal things which are given to you,
that belief, a manifestation that you are Christ, that he's
given you life. And they become light things,
light things that we can just let go and be content and happy
with and what our God has given to us. Amen.