Let's open our Bibles again to
Romans chapter 8. Our text this morning begins
with the verse of great comfort for God's suffering saints. All
of God's people suffer in this life. At one time or another,
to one degree or another, all of God's people suffer in this
life. So this message should apply
to our hearts right where we live. I've titled the message
Heavenly Accounting of Suffering and Joy. Begin in verse 18 of
Romans chapter 8. For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. Now Paul does not use
the term reckon like we do here in eastern Kentucky. You know,
Jan will ask me a question. I say, well, I reckon. Well,
that means I guess, but I don't know. I reckon. That's not the
way Paul uses this term. Paul is using a mathematical
term, an accounting term. You know, when you're doing an
algebra problem, I always liked this about algebra. Both sides
of the equation, you had to always keep them equal. They had to
be equal. In accounting, if you're doing
an accounting balance sheet, The assets and the liabilities
have to be equal. Heavenly accounting doesn't work
that way. It simply can't work that way. Because there's nothing
in our experience here on earth, whether we say it's good or whether
we say it's bad, nothing in our experience here on earth can
be compared to the glory of being with our Savior, being made like
Him, be with him face to face. Nothing can compare to that.
So when Paul says he reckons, what he means is he has carefully
added up both sides of the ledger. Paul got out of scale. And on
one side of the scale, he put the sufferings of this life.
Those sufferings seemed heavy. That scale just dropped all the
way down. They seemed so heavy. Until on
the other side of the scale. Paul puts what awaits believers
in glory. And the scale flipped around.
It wasn't even close to being balanced. The glory of heaven
is so much greater than the suffering of this life. It's not even fair
to compare the two. There's no comparison. Look at
2 Corinthians chapter 4. You can't balance something that's
light against something that's heavy. Second Corinthians chapter
four. Verse 17. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. Well, we look not at the things
which are seen, but the things which are not seen for the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. Now, Paul says our light affliction. I don't think anybody that's
suffering would say my suffering is light. Nobody would say the
trial that God has sent me is light. No, Peter said it's a
fiery trial. These are burdens. But our suffering
is light compared to what we deserve, certainly. Our suffering
is light compared to what Christ suffered for his people. Nobody's
ever suffered like he has. Our suffering is light in this
sense, that it's just temporary. It's but for a moment. Glory
is eternal. How can you compare a moment
to eternity? The two can't be compared, can
they? The believer's suffering in this life is going to soon
be over. The very moment the Lord calls us home, trouble. There'll be no more. The moment
the Lord brings us home, that joy of being with Christ will
never end. Look at First Thessalonians.
First Thessalonians chapter four. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13. But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you
sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you
by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord should not prevent, we won't perceive
them which are asleep, For the Lord himself will 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, forever, without end, be with the Lord. Wherefore,
comfort one another with these These are words of comfort that
we will soon be with the Lord forever. Now, you just can't
compare the light, temporary, earthly things of this life to
the weighty, eternal things of glory that wait for every believer.
All of the effects of sin that's in us and around us, you can't
compare that to the forgiveness of sin in the blood of Christ.
All the sin that's in us, you can't compare that to being made
righteous in Christ. Now look over at John chapter
16. Now these sufferings that we endure right now, they're
real, they're tough. But one day, do you know we're
going to rejoice about those things? The things that cause
us so much suffering right now, we'll actually rejoice in them.
John 16 verse 20. Verily, verily, I say unto you
that you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice and
you should be sorrowful. But your sorrow shall be turned
into joy. Your sorrow will be turned into
joy. The very thing that you weep
about right now, the Lord told his disciples, is the very thing
later on you're going to rejoice in. And that happened to them
in just a matter of days, didn't it? How they wept and lamented
that Jesus had died. Their master had died. And they're
so full of sorrow and fear, they're hiding, you know. But in just
a matter of days, they rejoiced that Jesus had died. Their sin
was forgiven because Christ died. They had life because Christ
died. They were justified because Christ
died and rose again. And the same thing one day will
be true about our suffering on this earth. Now we can't rejoice
in it now. It's difficult, it's painful.
But one day, we're going to see. I don't see, I don't understand
what it is that the Lord's doing. Really, anytime. But one day
we will. When we see how He worked these
things out for His glory and for our eternal good, we will
actually rejoice. and the thing that caused us
so much sorrow here because we see the end of it. We see the
purpose of it. Now, Paul tells us eternal glory,
the weight of that cannot be compared to temporary suffering
of this life. And if anybody knew what he was
talking about, it's the Apostle Paul. Who knew more suffering
for preaching the gospel than the Apostle Paul? How many times
was he beaten and shipwrecked and stoned? All the things he
suffered. Paul understood he experienced suffering for the
sake of Christ. And he also was taken up into
third heaven. He saw there and heard things
there. It's not possible for human language
to express the glory that he saw there. So Paul knew from
experience that the glory of being with Christ is far greater
than the suffering of this present life. Now, Our suffering in this
life is still very grievous, very painful, isn't it? The writer
to the Hebrews said, now, no chastening for the present seems
to be joyous. This is not joyous at all, but
it's grievous. And it seems grievous. You know
why? Because it is. It is grievous. It is painful.
It is a fiery trial. So how great and glorious must
it be Be with Christ so that we will say, the suffering that
I feel is so great right now is not even worth mentioning.
How great and glorious must it be to be made like Christ, to
be with Him, to see Him face to face. We just simply cannot
begin to start to get ready to fathom the glory of being with
Christ. Paul said it just hasn't even
entered into the human mind. Our pea brain can't conceive
of it. We simply can't conceive of it.
However great and glorious you think being in heaven with Christ
is, you just think, how great do you think that is? I promise you we haven't scratched
the surface. We just haven't even scratched
the surface. Now listen, I am not making light of our suffering
and our pain and our sorrow in this life. That suffering is
real and it's painful. I've got some good advice for
it. Don't go to a brother or sister who's suffering and tell
them that the pain they're suffering. You imagine going to one of our
brethren, laying there in the hospital, one of our sisters
laying there in the hospital. And stand there beside that bed and
say, well, you know, you ought to be glad that it's not as bad
as it could be. You're not getting as much pain
as you deserve. That kind of makes light of what
they're going through then. Someone's sorrowing and weeping
at the funeral home. Don't go to them and say, oh,
it'll be all right. It hurts. It's hard to endure. The best thing we can do is keep
our mouth shut. and weep with those who weep.
Because they have a good reason. Your parents ever tell you, you
better be quiet, quit crying or I'll give you a reason to
cry. The Lord gave them a reason to cry. Now, they got real reason
for their tears. These things are hard to endure.
I was with a young believer one time, Brother Parks. We were
sitting in my living room talking the other day and he said, well,
we were all young ones, weren't we? I was with a young believer. who told their family, now when
I die, don't y'all weep and cry, and I want you to be happy and
throw a party, don't anybody be crying, don't anybody, because
I'm going to be better off. I said, well now that's true.
You will be, no question about it, you're going to be better
off, but we won't. We won't. So we're going to cry,
and we're going to weep, and we're going to lament. And there are many things that
cause the believer to weep in this world. You've got good reason
to weep. You know, a child of God suffers everything that an
unbeliever suffers in his life. Everything. All the effects of
sin. We suffer them the same as unbelievers does. But on top
of that, a child of God suffers the hatred of this world. This
world hates our father. It hates our father. This world
hates our God. So it hates those who love him.
It hates his children. It hates those who believe him.
We suffer the hatred of this world. We suffer living in this
world that's not our home. We're living behind enemy lines,
and we're just trying to get out of here and get to our new
home. We've got a new citizenship that
God's given us, and we're not looking at this country. We're
looking for a better, just like our father Abraham. So we're
going to suffer. That is the lot of God's people
in this earth. Don't think it'll ever change.
Our Lord told us it won't. But I have some words of comfort
and encouragement for us while we suffer and while we weep.
Our comfort and our encouragement is what Christ our Savior has
accomplished for his people, what he's given us in him. What
we have gained in Christ is far greater than what we lost in
him, far greater. And Paul gives us three ways
that we cannot compare future glory to the suffering of this
present life. Three ways that these things
cannot be compared. The first one is this. In glory,
there will be a perfect creation. Verse 19, back in our text, Romans
chapter eight, verse 19. For the earnest expectation of
the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of
God. For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly,
but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope. Because
the creation itself also should be delivered from the bondage
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now. That word creature, you know,
you notice I read it creation, the same word creature in verse
19 and verse 20, verse 21, It's translated creation in verse
22. I don't know why the translators
didn't always translate that creation, but that's the better
meaning of it. Paul here is talking about creation.
Now, when God created this world, what did he say about it? When
he was all said and done, God looked at it and said, it's very
good. It's very good. And then that
creation was ruined by sin, marred by sin. Now you think creation
right now is beautiful. I mean, it's stunning. It's just,
wow. Sandy Park showed Janet a painting
that she had done and Janet showed me and I said, she gets that
view every day? There's this beach and this ocean,
this island out there. She gets that view every day?
That is stunning. I just can't get over how beautiful
that is. This creation lets us see something. We get a hint
of how great God is, how glorious he is, his power and his might
and his wisdom. And that's what the creation
is marred by sin. At the time God created it, oh,
it's so much more spectacular than it is now. But now it's
marred by sin because when Adam fell, All mankind, everyone who
was in Adam, when Adam sinned, we were all made subject to vanity,
weren't we? That word vanity means worthlessness,
depravity. It means decay and change. Every
one of us was made subject to that, depravity and worthlessness
when Adam sinned. But when Adam fell, when he sinned,
not only were you and me made subject to vanity, The creature,
the creation, was made subject to vanity too. Now, it's obvious
to everybody that God's people are anxiously awaiting Christ's
return. We look for his return, don't
we? We long for it. Just about every single day,
I think, maybe it'll be today, maybe it'll be soon. And we long
for that because when Christ returns, the sons of God are
going to be made manifest. It's going to be obvious to everyone
who God's children are. It'll be obvious to everyone
how God has loved them from eternity. It'll be obvious to everyone
how Christ died for them to make them perfect. The sons of God
will be made manifest. They'll be made just like Christ.
We long for that, don't we? I long for that day. When Christ
returns, All of his people were going to be set free from the
bondage of corruption, the bondage of this vanity that we have and
will be made like him when we see him. Would you know creation
longs for the same thing? Creation longs for that day.
The sons of God are made manifest and creation groans right now
under the burden of sin, longing to be set free from that burden.
You hear about earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and hurricanes
and tornadoes. You know what that is? It's creation
groaning under the curse of sin. But there'll be no more of that
when Christ returns. There's not going to be any sin
at all in God's elect when he returns. There'll be made perfect
body and soul. And there's not going to be any
sin left in creation either. God's gonna burn it up and he's
gonna create new heavens and a new earth. Wherein dwelleth
the righteousness. It'll all be perfect. Right now,
creation is groaning under the curse of sin. We won't turn there,
you're very familiar with it. In Genesis 3, Adam fell. God came to Adam and said, Adam,
because of your sin, the ground is cursed for your sins. It's going to bring forth thorns
and thistles to you. The very ground you walk on is
cursed because it's the creation is. The ground brings forth thorns
and thistles and weeds and to make it hard to grow crops, to
make it hard for us to make a living. All that curse is going to be
gone when Christ returns. I pointed this out before, I
love this. In Genesis chapter 3, there's curse everywhere hidden
there. Cursed is the ground. Just everything's cursed, you
know. Man is living under sin. Man's going to die. Just all
that, you know. That's the beginning of the book. Go over some time
to the end of the book. Revelation chapter 22, verse
3. It says, there shall be no more curse. Something happened
in these pages in between to tell us how it is that the curse
is removed so that there'll be no more sin, no more effect of
sin anywhere, both in God's people and in the creation. You think
how creation changed when Adam sinned. Adam's sin brought in
death and hatred. You and me, for creation too. Plants never died. Even plants
never died until Adam sinned. Animals never killed each other.
Animals were peaceful until Adam sinned. One day, the lion and
the lamb were friends. And in an instant, something
changed. And that lion hated that lamb. That lamb was afraid
of that lion. The lion became a predator and
the lamb became a prey. And I'm telling you, I bet you
just in moments, the lion killed the lamb and ate it. Left part
of its carcass laying there. And Adam came around the corner
one day and saw it. Don't look what I did. He brought that on
creation. Creation didn't do it. It wasn't
made subject to vanity willingly, but because of what Adam did.
But you know, all of that is going to be over when Christ
returns. Look in Isaiah chapter 11. Isaiah chapter 11 verse 6. The wolf also should dwell with
the lamb, and the leopard should lie down with the kid and the
calf and the young lion and the fatling together. And a little
child should lead them, and the cow and the bear should feed,
and their little ones should lie down together, and the lion
should eat straw like an ox, and the sucking child should
play on the hole of the asp. And a weaned child shall put
his hand on the cockatrice den, on that den full of snakes. That
young child is going to play in it. They shall not hurt or
destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of
the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And
that day when Christ returns, all that hatred, all that killing
is going to be gone. You know why? Because sin is
going to be gone. The Lord is going to completely
remove that sin from his creation. And right now, creation hopes
to be delivered from that, expects to be delivered from that. Creation
expects to be set free from that corruption of sin when Christ
returns. And when he does, wow, what that
perfect creation is going to be so glorious. We're just we're
not going to be able to get over how glorious and perfect it is,
because God will have removed all the effects of sin, all the
curse of sin from this creation. So what we lost in Adam can't
be compared to what we gained in Christ. What this present
world is cannot be compared to the glory that's going to be
in the future because this creation is going to be perfect. Second,
it can't be compared. What we have now can't be compared
to what we'll have in the next life. Because in glory, we will
have perfect bodies. Verse 23, Romans chapter eight.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which had the first fruits
of the spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting
for the adoption to wit, namely, this is what we're waiting for,
the redemption of our body. Now creation isn't the only one
groaning, waiting for Christ's return, is it? Now God's people
do too. God's people are the ones who
had the first fruit to the spirit. What's the first fruit to the
spirit? Well, it's the spirit coming
and dwelling in our hearts. It's what Paul told us in Ephesians
chapter one is the earnest of our inheritance, the down payment
of our inheritance. What tells us there's more to
come is the spirit dwelling in our heart. Now, everyone who
believes Christ, They are saved. If you believe Christ, you'll
never be more saved than you are at this very moment. God's
people have been born again. They've been given a new nature.
And that nature's perfect. And it's that nature that's in
us. It's that nature that groans. That nature groans. That new
man, he's holy. He's righteous. He loves God.
He believes God. And he's trapped in a body of
sin. The wandering groans. He groans
because he's tied to that old man and he longs to be set free
from him. He longs to be set free from
the corruption of him, the stink of him, the rebellion of him,
the sin of him. He longs to be made perfect, both body and soul. He's tired of dwelling in a body
of sin. He longs to dwell in a righteous body. He's groaning. And you know what? He's going
to be satisfied. He's not going to be groaning
forever. One day he's going to be satisfied. When Christ returns,
we'll be made perfect, both body and soul. That perfect nature
is going to be put into a perfect body so that we're made just
like our Lord Jesus Christ. When we see that new creation,
creation no longer groaning, some glory is going to be revealed
to us. Here's the best thing. Glory
is going to be revealed in In every child of God, we're made
just like Christ. That's what Paul meant there
at the end of verse 18. The sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us. God, the Holy Spirit, has already
begun a work in his people, hasn't he? He's going to perfect it.
He's going to finish it when he makes his people perfect in
body and soul. Not only will we receive the
spirit of adoption. Remember, we looked at that a
couple of weeks ago. When we receive the spirit of adoption, we receive
a new man, a new nature, the new birth. But when Christ appears,
our bodies are going to be adopted. Our bodies are going to be made
perfect, just like our nature is perfect. Now that is too good. I mean,
I can say these words and I don't have just very little clue what
they mean. That is too glorious for us to
be able to comprehend, to be in a body just like the precious
body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then there'll be no more dwelling
in this body of sin and longing to get rid of it. There'll be
no more. There'll be no more desiring to be holy, but we can't.
There'll be no more desiring to love being hateful. No, instead,
we're going to live in a holy body, a righteous body. There's
going to be no more dwelling in a dying, decaying body, but
being forever with the Lord in a body just like His. I want
to give you a mystery, a mystery that faith believes. Unless the
Lord returns first, every one of us is going to die. You know,
funeral service, put a dead body down on the ground. And when
Christ returns, all those bodies are going to be resurrected.
And when we're resurrected, we'll be in perfect bodies. But you
know what? We're going to be ourselves. That's right. We're going to know each other
in glory. At the Mount of Transfiguration, there stood Moses and Elijah.
How did the disciples know who that was? They'd never seen them. I can't explain that, but they
knew each other. You and I will too. We'll look just like we
do now. We'll be... Our brother Job said that. The
oldest book in the Bible is what they tell me, the book of Job.
Written before Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. Written before Moses
lived. This is what Job said. I know my Redeemer lives. And
with these eyes, I'm going to see you. And someone's going to say, How
can that be? How can I be myself in being
glorified flesh? 1 John chapter 3. How can that be? When you look
at me, you're not getting a hint of glory, are you? Well, you
just hang on. You ain't seen nothing yet. 1 John 3 verse 1. Behold, get a hold of this. What manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of
God. Therefore, the world knoweth us not because it knew him not.
Beloved, now, right at this moment, now are we the sons of God. And
it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when
he shall appear, we shall be like him. But we shall see him
as he is. You ain't seen nothing yet. But
when we're in glory, we'll be ourselves, recognize each other,
but we will be in a perfect body. That's cause for rejoicing, isn't
it? That's a good hope. All right. Third, you can't compare what
we have in this life to glory. Now we have a hope. There we'll
have it all in possession, in reality. Hope cannot be compared
to the actual possession of a thing. Verse 24, back in our text, Romans
8. For we're saved by hope, but hope that's seen is not hope.
For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope
for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Now Paul says we're saved by hope. Well, we're not saved by
hope itself. We're saved by Christ, aren't
we? We're saved by His obedience, by His blood, by His sacrifice. We're saved by Christ. This word
hope, it means to expect. It doesn't mean like, well, I
hope this will happen, but I don't know if it will. No, it means
to expect. And you know, it's not presumptuous
to expect God to give us what He promised. Not presumptuous
at all. Matter of fact, it's wrong not
to expect God to give us what He promised. We're saved by Christ and all
of our hope is in him. Paul told Timothy, Christ is
our hope. When Christ who is our hope shall
appear. He is all of our hope. And when
he returns, we're going to have him. So we won't hope for anything
ever again. We're not going to expect to
get anything else. And what's more, we won't want
anything else. We've got Him. We've got Him. You won't want anything else. You'll never be able to say that
in this life. Always want something more. Because we'll have Christ. We'll
already have everything we expected to receive from God's grace.
He'll give it all to us. Christ dwelling in you right
now. That's your hope of glory. That's the down payment. One
day you'll have all of that in actual possession. We have hope in this life. And
I'm glad. If there's no hope for something
better, that's when people get so depressed and so they just
can't go on. If there's no hope for this thing
to ever get any better. Aren't you thankful God's given
us a hope? A hope in Christ. We have a hope of life and it's
a good hope because God promised it. But we're not going to receive
the fulfillment of it until Christ returns. David, he said, I'm
going to die, but my flesh shall rest in hope. I've got a good
hope of rising again. I'm not going to receive all
these things, David said, in this flesh, but I'm going to have
it in my new body when I'm with the Lord. We have a hope. Now, what is it that a believer
hopes for? What is it that a believer expects?
What should you expect? What should you expect based
upon the promise of God? I'm sure there are a lot of things,
I'll give you four. Number one, the believer hopes, expects righteousness. Galatians 5 verse 5, for we through
the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. We
have a hope of righteousness. Now the believer is righteous
right now. If you've been born again, you'll
never be more righteous than you are right now. but in glory,
we'll be righteous, both body and soul. We just can't compare our experience
now to what we hope for. Expect being made righteous in
body and soul. That's a good hope. Second, we
hope, we expect salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 8, put
on for an helmet, the hope of salvation. Now what are you talking
about hope of salvation? If we believe Christ, we're saved
right now. You're absolutely right. If you believe Christ,
you'd never be more saved than you are at this very moment. But one day we hope, we expect
that salvation to be complete. You know, we have been saved.
We are being saved. One day we're going to be plumb
saved. And that's what we expect. And you just can't compare back
to our experience now, can you? Thirdly, the believer hopes for,
they expect eternal life. Now again, if you believe Christ,
right now you have eternal life. He that hath the Son, hath life. You don't have to wait for eternal
life. If you believe Christ, you've got it right now. Boy,
that life on this earth, our experience of it is far from
perfect, isn't it? In glory, we'll have that life perfect.
We won't live in this body of death anymore, but a body that
lives forever with the Lord. Now, why should a believer expect
that? Why should you expect to have eternal life? Why should
you expect to live with Christ eternally? Because God promised
it. If God promised it, we ought
to expect it. Titus 1 verse 2, in hope of eternal
life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began.
You should expect it because God can't lie. And then fourthly,
we have a hope, an expectation of the resurrection. The believer
hopes, we expect to be raised from the grave long after our
skin worms destroy this body. We expect to be raised. That's
23 verse 6. Paul told all those gathered
there, he said, of the hope and resurrection of the dead, am
I called into question? I have an expectation of the
resurrection of the dead. Why shouldn't I? Christ my Savior
already rose. He promised he's gonna raise
his people, then I should expect it. Now, I can't see any of those
things now. I've never seen that. I've never
seen my race from the dead. I've never seen any of these
things. And really, I can hardly imagine them. I just can't imagine
what those things must be like to have them in perfection. Well,
how can I expect all those glorious things? I've never seen them.
How can I expect them? By faith. Because of faith in
Christ. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. If you have faith in Christ,
that's the evidence that you're going to have all these things.
He's going to give them all to you in perfect possession. Now, thank God for faith in Christ.
We're saved by faith, aren't we? Thank God for faith in Christ. But in heaven, we're not going
to need faith anymore. We'll see Him face to face. We'll be
with Him face to face. Now, is that your hope? Is all
of your hope found in the Lord Jesus Christ? Is He your hope?
If He is, you've got a good hope. good hope through grace. It's
a hope that can never be lost. Paul said it's a hope that's
laid up for you in heaven. It's kept for you there in heaven
where you can't mess it up. And God's going to give it to
you one day. You see, everything a believer hopes for is going
to be had in perfection, in glory. So that here, all we do is suffer. There, there's going to be no
more suffering. There'll be no more weakness, no more sickness.
There's gonna be no more tears, no more sighing. There's gonna
be no more loss. You know why there'll be no more
loss? Well, I've already gained everything. You got it all. There's gonna be no more doubts.
We will know as we have been known. There's gonna be no more
seeing through a glass darkly. There's gonna be no more thinking,
I wish I could see that better. I wish I could understand that
better. We'll see Christ face to face. There'll be no more
questions. No more falling asleep while we listen to a message.
No more fall asleep while we pray. No more fall asleep while
we read your Bible. You know, if you've got insomnia,
sure cure for it. Read the word, fall asleep. There'll be no more
of that. Serve God continually. So while
we suffer and while we groan, let's wait for Christ's return
to receive the promised possession. but everything he promised. That
lets us groan and suffer patiently, knowing that what we have in
Christ, that inheritance is sure. Let me quickly go back to where
we started. Now that we got some idea of what we're comparing,
future glory to present suffering. Let me give you this illustration.
Every business has a balance sheet and they have those things
so you can get an idea of the health of the company. If you're
a public company, you use the balance sheet so investors can
get a good idea if they want to invest in that company or
not. Luke, you can explain this a whole lot better than I can.
If you only look at a company's assets, you think, wow, they're
rich. I want to invest in that company.
But you can't get an accurate view of the company until you
see their liabilities, too. And you're going to see them
even out on a company's balance sheet. They'll be equal. If you look at the believer,
only in this life, you're looking at liabilities. And you think,
that fella, that woman, they're a fool for believing Christ.
They're a fool for following Christ. Look how they suffer. They're following a master who
promised them, you follow me, you're going to suffer. You follow
me, you're going to have to take out your box to follow me. He
promised them suffering. Who gets it following like that?
Look how the world hates him. You're following a master who
told you, you follow me, the world's going to hate you. And
look how they're tried by their very own master. They say they
trust this God and he sends them these fiery trials. He puts them
in the furnace of trial. Man's a fool for following him. Now wait a minute. But what's more, look at them
live in this world. They can't find any permanent
satisfaction here. They're not satisfied with anything
here. No, now you're looking at it just from one side. You're
just looking at the liabilities. You're not getting an accurate
view if you look at things just in this temporal life. Oh, but when you look at the
other side of the scale, now you see the eternal weight of
glory. And now the scale's... Oh, now
I get an accurate picture. That's the true balance sheet
of every believer. It doesn't match like what you
got to do balance sheets, but it's the balance sheet of every
believer. You can't compare anything to
the glory of knowing Christ and being found in him. May God be
pleased to make that so for every one of us this morning, to make
him our balance sheet. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for this comforting portion of your word. Father, we pray that
you would give us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, cause
us to be less taken up with the things of this world and cause
us to look to, desire and rely upon our Lord Jesus Christ. And as we live in this world,
we've got lives to live, we've got burdens to bear, responsibilities
to keep, things to do that you've given us to do. Father, we pray
that you'd comfort the hearts of your people, that you'd be
with us. Father, don't leave us alone,
but go with us and comfort us. Cause our comfort and our assurance
and our confidence to be found, not in the things of this life,
but in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, reveal your Son to the
hearts of your people, we pray. Cause us to leave here as we
saw. We'll leave here sorrowing and
hurting, but cause us to leave rejoicing. Rejoicing in Christ
our Savior, that he's our all and in all. It's in his precious
name we pray, give thanks.