Alright, John chapter 16. The title of the message this morning
is Sorrow Turned Into Joy. At the end of verse 20, our Lord
gives us a very blessed promise. You shall be sorrowful, but your
sorrow shall be turned into joy. I want us to look at these verses
this morning and see if we might not learn what that means. Take a blessing and a comfort
for our times of sorrow home with us. In verse 16, where we
begin this morning, our Lord says, a little while and you
shall not see me. And again, a little while and
you shall see me because I go to the Father. Now, more than
likely in just two or three hours after our Lord has spoken these
words, he's going to be taken away from his disciples. He's
going to endure abuse. He's going to endure that mock
trial. He's going to suffer more abuse. And then he will be crucified. He'll be mocked as he suffers
and bleeds. And he'll die and they'll bury
him in the tomb of a rich man, a borrowed tomb. And these disciples
will not be able to see our Lord, their master, for three days. And I know they're filled with
sorrow at just the thought of this coming. But our Lord tells
them, it's just going to be for a little while. And in a little
while, you'll see me again. You know, when we dropped our
children off at school in the mornings, the first day of school,
then all through the times of their school, we'd frequently
drop them off. They had something to do before school. We'd drop
them off. And I know I speak for Janet. Neither one of us
liked it. I just, I never, like, drop them
off at school and send them to that place, you know. And mostly
they didn't like it either. Some they did. Some guys are
looking forward to doing things and being with their friends.
But usually they didn't like it either. But I always told
them when I drop them off, I'll see you this evening. It'll be
just a little while. And I'll see you again. I'd probably
comfort myself as much as I was them. And once they got in that
school, you kids, you go to school, I'm sorry. I know it's just a
miserable place to spend your day, but you've got to get educated.
You've got to go, you know. And maybe with small comfort
to them, Holly and Savannah, I'd tell them, I'll see you at
the end of the day. It seemed like a long day to them, I know. That was their daddy telling
them, I'll see you this evening. A man of flesh who cannot make
my desires come true, come to pass. But our Lord makes a promise
to his children that we'll see him in a little while. It's just
going to be a little while. And I'm afraid that we often
lose the comfort that is ours because of this promise. Our
Savior is ascended on high, seated on the throne of glory, sitting
on the throne, making intercession for his people. We can't physically
see him, but we'll see him soon. We will. And we should take comfort
because of who made this promise. The Lord who cannot lie promised,
you'll see me again. Our Lord who will always do the
best for his children. I tried to always do the best
for my children. What was in my heart and my desire,
whether it was right or wrong, and sometimes it was wrong, but
my desire was to do the best for my children. But sometimes
it wasn't. Our Father, who will always do
only what is best for His children, promised, you'll see me again
soon, in a little while. And we should take comfort from
who it is we will see in just a little while. Can you imagine the glory, the joy of seeing the face of
our Lord Jesus Christ? Unfortunately, it's usually small
comfort to us in the times of trouble and trial and sorrow
and anguish that our Lord has promised, you'll see me again
in a little while. It shouldn't be, but because of the flesh,
We often lose the comfort of this promise, but it's still
precious to us, isn't it? And our Lord includes a very
important phrase in this promise. At the end of verse 16, He says,
because I go to the Father. Now, our Savior must go away.
He must go to the cross. He must suffer and die as a sacrifice
for the sin of His people. And He must lay dead in that
tomb for three days. But then the disciples will see
him again because he went to the father. The son must go to
the father and do business with the father. The sacrifice for
sin must be offered before the father. The Lord had to go away
to do that. He had to go where they couldn't
see him for a while. But then they will see the Lord
Jesus again because he went to the father. And because when
He went, His sacrifice for the sin of His people was accepted.
That's why we'll see Him again. And after Christ is raised, the
Spirit comes. And He reveals more of Christ
to us than we have ever seen before. Or that we ever could
have seen before He went away. The Spirit couldn't reveal all
these truths of the Gospel to us until Christ was sacrificed. And once He went away, Now there's
blood to sprinkle. Not animal blood that can never
take away sin, but the precious blood of Christ that cleanses
us from all sin. Now that He went away and was
sacrificed, now the Spirit can sprinkle that blood on the hearts
of His people. Now there's righteousness to impute. Now there's a Savior
of sinners to reveal. Now there's a man, a man in our
nature, sitting on the throne of glory. Making intercession
for his people. He understands us. He understands
the weakness of our flesh. And that's who's making intercession
for us. That's who the Spirit reveals.
Now, after our Lord's gone away, the Spirit can reveal so much
more of the person and work of Christ. All because he went to
the Father. And then our Lord was resurrected.
And sure enough, the disciples did see him again. It was just
three days. Just a little while. And they saw him again. They
saw him for 40 days, and then the Lord ascended back on high.
And they didn't see his bodily presence on earth again. But
the Spirit of Christ came and dwelt in them, so that they were
never separated from Christ at all. You can't separate the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. They have different functions,
but you can't separate the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They had
the Spirit dwelling in them, so they weren't separated from
Christ at all. And having Christ in the heart is far better than
having His bodily presence. Having the bodily presence of
Christ didn't do Judas any good, did it? But having Christ in
the heart, having the Spirit of Christ in the heart is salvation
for even the chief of sinners. Having Him in spirit is much
better, isn't it? And we have that because Christ went to the
Father. But, oh, it takes the Spirit.
We must have the Spirit reveal these things of Christ to us
because we're so slow to understand. Look at verse 17. Then said some
of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto
us? A little while, and ye shall not see me. And again, a little
while, and ye shall see me. And because I go to the Father.
They said, therefore, what is this that he saith a little while?
We cannot tell what he sayeth. We don't know what he's meaning,
what he's saying. They didn't know what the Lord meant. How
can dying just be for a little while? That sounds pretty permanent
to us. Now doesn't this show us we can't
know anything unless the Spirit teaches us. We can't understand
any verse of Scripture. We can't understand any part
of the Gospel with our natural mind because these things are
spiritually discerned. They're spiritually understood
and spiritually loved and the Spirit's got to give it to us
or we'll never have it. They didn't understand. Of course, all this is after
the fact, but you and I read this, we understand perfectly
what he's saying, but they didn't. In verse 19, now Jesus knew that
they were desirous to ask him. And he said unto them, do you
inquire among yourselves of that I said a little while and you
shall not see me? And again, a little while and
you shall see me. Our Lord Jesus. Is God and he
knew their secret thoughts, their secret conversations, their off
whispering over themselves and they're thinking these thoughts
in their heart. He knew them all because he's God. Now, this is important. My Savior. must be God. He has to be. I am so great of a sinner, only
God could save me. Only God has the power to save
a sinner like me. And this is also comforting.
The Lord Jesus Christ is God. God's my Savior. And He also
knows the secrets of my heart. It's my secret thoughts. He knows. our groanings. He knows. Even
when we don't know Him exactly. Even when we don't know how to
put our prayer into words. He knows. He knows our hearts
cry. And this is also comforting because
He's God. Our Savior knows what we have
need of before we ask. He knows what we have need of
a whole lot better than we do. This is exactly why he went away.
The disciples would have said, this is a bad thing, that our
Lord and Master is going away. They didn't ask him to go away.
They didn't ask him to go offer sacrifice for their sins, but
he knew what they have need of before they asked. And that's
why he went to the cross. Without a doubt, it will cause
sorrow, but his sacrifice was offered to the Father for the
eternal good of his people before anybody asked him to go. Before
anybody asked to be washed in his blood, he went away to the
cross because he knew what we had need of before we asked.
Salvation of the Lord. I mean, how many different times
do we have to see that? Salvation is in nothing I do.
I didn't ask. He just gave. I didn't ask. He just sacrificed himself. He
knew what we had need of before we asked. Aren't you thankful? Our Savior is all wise. He does
all things well. He understood it will cause sorrow.
I'm going to go away for your good. You'll see me again. Verse
20, he says, Verily, verily, I say unto you that you shall
weep and lament. I know you shall weep and lament,
but the world shall rejoice. And ye shall be sorrowful, but
your sorrow shall be turned into joy. Now, when our Lord was crucified,
the whole world rejoiced, didn't they? The Romans rejoiced just
out of pure meanness. I mean, you know, these soldiers,
they enjoy just being mean to somebody. They just, they enjoyed
it. I suppose part of Rome and all these old puppets are out
here, you know, Pilate and Herod, you know, ruling for Rome, they
rejoiced. This perceived threat to the
throne is gone. You know, they, they pleased
the people. They kept their rule, you know, for a while. The Pharisees
rejoiced. They thought they got their way.
They thought they won their victory over their archenemy. Oh, how
happy they were celebrating that Passover without having any realization
whatsoever that the Passover had just been slain for God's
people. They rejoice because this man who speaks with authority,
not like them, he's not going to be teaching this truth anymore
that contradicts everything they believe. They're rejoicing. The whole world is rejoicing.
Jew and Gentile alike. And God's people, they're weeping
and lamenting. They're filled with sorrow. They're suffering soul grief. They're shedding tears. But you
know, that's the way of this world. The unbelieving world
rejoices. And God's church weeps in sorrows. That's the way of this world.
I don't know if the right word, the flight of this of the church
through this world is sorrow and tears. And here our Lord
tells his disciples how filled with sorrow they'll be. Now,
they've got a pretty good idea. Boy, if he goes away, I'm going
to be filled with sorrow. But the Lord tells them you're
going to be filled with sorrow and lamenting. You're filled
with it. Just filled to the brim. They're going to be filled with
sorrow because their hopes of a Jewish kingdom are once and
for all going to be destroyed. Even up to this point, they're
still hoping for this Jewish kingdom. And that hope is going
to be destroyed and they're going to be filled with sorrow. They
had just imagined themselves sitting on these thrones, no
rule in the world. And they're going to be filled
with sorrow when they realize they're going to be the ones,
you know, hunted and thrown in dungeons and, you know, all these
horrible things. They're going to be filled with
sorrow when they see their Lord mistreated and beaten and lied
on and even forsaken of themselves. Betrayed by one of their own.
They're going to be filled with sorrow when they see their Lord
put to death like the worst criminal on earth. Crucifixion was reserved
for the worst. They loved the Lord. Of course
seeing Him suffer like this is going to fill them with sorrow.
And here's another reason they're going to be filled with sorrow.
Seeing the Lord suffer like He will be suffering will offend
them and will cause them sorrow. There is offense in seeing the
Savior given into the hands of men. There's offense. It offends our logic. It offends
our minds. It offends even our love for
Him to see God given into the hands of men to do with Him as
they will. bloodied. He'll be beaten in
his visage. He doesn't even look like a man.
Nobody's beaten and suffered like he has. And he's suffering,
too, under the hands of God's justice. And that offends our
flesh. It just offends us to say the
Lord, the perfect, holy, beloved Prince of Glory is going to be
made sin and treated like I ought to be treated? That offends our
flesh. So that we say with Peter, not
so, Lord. Lord, you can't suffer this.
This is beneath you. You can't do this. And it offends
the flesh and causes sorrow. And then they'll be filled with
sorrow because the master that they love so much is going to
be gone from them. They've been with the Lord every
day for three years. Can you imagine how much they
depended on Him? I mean, they just depended on
Him completely. And now He's gone. They feel
like they've just been thrown out in the middle of the ocean
without a life preserver. He's gone. I mean, can you imagine
the joy that they felt just every day being with the Lord, hearing
Him teach, seeing all the things they did? John said, if I wrote
them all down, the world couldn't contain them. They were with
Him for all of that. And now their joy is gone because
He's gone. And they really, truly didn't
understand. How am I going to survive? He's
gone. How am I going to survive? I watched my Master nailed to
a cross. I watched Him lay Him in a tomb.
I wasn't even brave enough to go with Him. Two Pharisees had
to go do it. How am I going to survive? I
betrayed Him. I ran and hid, forsook Him. Even if I do survive, how will
He ever accept me? My joy is gone. They're going
to be filled with sorrow. And our Lord knows it. But in
His love for them, He gives them this precious promise. Your sorrow
will be turned into joy. Now you'll notice he doesn't
say your sorrow will be replaced by joy. He says your sorrow will
be turned into joy. The very reason that you will
be filled with sorrow will be the very reason you're filled
with joy. When God the Holy Spirit gives
you an understanding of what's taken place, because I go to
the Father, because I've gone away, I know that fills you with
sorrow now, but that will be the very reason for all of your
joy. Once the Spirit gives you an
understanding. When our Lord arose from the grave and those
women came and said, he's risen, we've seen him. The disciples
couldn't believe it for the joy that they felt. They thought
this is too good to be true. I can scarcely believe it. But
you know, a believer's joy, your joy goes much deeper than that. The believer's joy comes from
a spiritual sight, a spiritual understanding of who Christ is
and what He accomplished when He went away. If the only joy
that the disciples had after our Lord arose was seeing Him
physically, if that was their only joy, if that was their greatest
joy, forty days from now, their joy is going to be gone again
because He's ascended back to the Father and they don't see
Him anymore. But look in Luke chapter 24. That's not what happened. In Luke 24 verse 50. And when he had led them out
as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed
them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted
from them and carried up into heaven. Well, they seem no more.
My joy is gone. That's not what happened. Verse
52. And they worshiped him and returned
to Jerusalem with great joy. And they were continually in
the temple, praising and blessing God. Where did their joy come
from? Their sorrow was turned into
joy because now they understood who the Lord is and what he had
accomplished as their substitute when he went away. Just like
the water became wine, They didn't dump the water out and replace
it with wine, did they? The water was turned into wine in the exact
same way their sorrow was turned into joy. And the reason for
all of our joy comes from the death of Christ. Our joy is the
same joy as the joy of the disciples. We cannot have any joy unless
Christ dies, unless He goes to the Father. And once the Holy
Spirit gives us life and gives us understanding, we find joy
in the sacrifice of Christ, because we now know that's the only way
my sin could be paid. My sin is not paid because I
started doing better and sin less. My sin was paid because
Christ put it away through the blood of his sacrifice and the
blood that he shed in his death. We find joy in the death of Christ.
He is my life and my salvation. He took my death and gave me
His life. That's my joy. We have joy in
the death of Christ because Christ is my righteousness. He took
my sin and made me righteous in Him. We have joy in the death
of Christ because Christ is our peace. When He died, He made
peace through the blood of His cross. That's our joy. We have
joy in the death of Christ and how He went to the Father. How
He went away. He didn't just die. He went to
the Father. Now my Advocate is with the Father. And now my Advocate has blood
to plead because He suffered and died, shed His blood on the
cross, and when He pleads for me before the Father, He pleads
His blood. And boy, I'm accepted. Forgiven.
That's my joy. But couldn't have had that unless
Christ died. His death is the joy of believers. But the disciples don't understand
that yet. So the Lord gives them an illustration that they can
understand. I like illustrations. And our
Lord used an illustration here so that they could understand
what he meant. Look in verse 21, John 16. A woman when she
is in travail has sorrow because her hour has come. But as soon
as she delivereth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish
for joy that a man is born into the world." Now, because of the
fall of man, women suffer a great deal in giving birth to a child.
It's a difficult process. God told them, in sorrow thou
shalt bring forth children. And God's true to his word, isn't
he? Now, I understand that I'm getting ready to talk about something
I have not experienced. And you men, if you're fathers,
you probably already know this lesson. Just be very careful
in talking about labor and delivery and these things. You boys and
young men who are not married, let me give you a piece of advice
that will help you. Just listen to me. This will
help you. This will come in handy someday. You grow up and get
married, and your wife is pregnant. She's delivering that baby, and
even after the baby's delivered, And she talks about her pregnancy
pains. And she talks about her birth pains. And she talks about
her recovery pains. It's difficult. She's recovering.
This has been a traumatic thing, you know, in her body. Here's
my advice to you. Please listen to me. I care about
you. Just say, honey, I'm sorry. Honey, you're doing great. You're
just doing great. She's just in anguish. Honey,
you're doing great. I'm so proud of you. Don't say
anything else, because you'll get a knot in the head and she'll
never forget it. So that's my advice to you. It'll
help you with your marriage. So I understand. I'm talking
about something I have not experienced. But I see women go through great
pain and anguish. Our Lord calls it anguish. It
causes screams and yells and gets all red-faced. And that
baby that's delivered, she's exhausted. I mean, she just wiped
out. But I also see the smiles of
pure joy when they lay that child, that baby on her chest. Oh, I
see pictures. Janet says, oh, so-and-so out
at bay. You want to come see the pictures? They always show
that she's exhausted. She's wiped out. But it's pure
joy, pure love. If that's her first child, it's
love like she'd never felt before. And Thanksgiving, God's given
me a healthy baby. I count all the fingers and the
toes. Oh, she's beautiful. Pure joy. Now, I know those labor
pains are not forgotten because I hear y'all talk about them.
But I never heard one woman ever say it wasn't worth it. They
all say all is worth it. If nothing, that suffering was
nothing compared to the joy of holding that baby and watching
that child grow. That mother, she remembers the
birth pains. She remembers the labor pains.
But that's not the first thing on her mind when she sees that
child. The first thing on her mind when she sees that child
every day is love and joy. The reason that mother was in
such sorrow has been turned into the reason of her joy, that baby. Her sorrow wasn't replaced by
joy, was it? The thing that caused her sorrow
is the very thing that causes her joy. Now that's the earthly
illustration our Lord used. Here's the spiritual application.
Our Lord went to the cross and he gave birth to his church. He suffered those labor pains
and give him birth to his church. He went through all the suffering
and all the agony of body and soul on the cross so that he
could give life. He could give new birth to his
church. And that gave him joy. It was
worth it for him to see his people that he loves, his children redeemed
and born again. Look at Hebrews chapter 12. I'll
show you that. It gave our Lord, our Savior,
joy to go through the suffering that he endured to give life
to his people. In Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who
for the joy that was set before him, the joy of seeing his people
redeemed and righteous and holy and brought to him, who for the
joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Our
Savior saw the travail of his soul and was satisfied with pure
satisfaction when he saw his children." Well, if our Lord
and Savior finds such joy in his sacrifice, in the birth of
his children, in the result of his sacrifice, Shouldn't we find
joy in His sacrifice? That ought to be our joy. And
it will be our joy if God saves us. Look at verse 22 back in
our text. And ye now therefore have sorrow,
but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and
your joy no man taketh from you. Now I want you to look at the
way our Lord says this. He says you now have sorrow.
Because you don't see me for a while, you'll have sorrow.
But he doesn't say, you'll see me again. He says, you now have
sorrow, but I will see you again. It says it different, doesn't
it? I will see you again. He will see them again in three
days. He'll see them again for those
40 days before he ascends to the Father. But when he ascends
to the Father, he's not taking his eyes off of them. He still
sees them. He'll see them all through this
life below until they come to Him in glory. We'll just see
them in eternity. But this means a whole lot more,
and I'll see you again in three days. This phrase our Lord uses,
I will see, is very special. It means I will look upon you
with approval. I will look on you with joy. Because you're made perfect.
I'll look on you with approval. It also means, this phrase, I
will see, it also means allow to be seen. The Lord Jesus Christ
will allow His people to see Him as He is. This matter of
salvation is not will you accept Him. This matter of salvation
is will He allow you to see Him as He is. And if He does, that
will be your joy. That He will allow you to see
Him as He is. And you know why there's such
joy in that? Because when we see Him, we'll be like Him. That joy. The joy of being like
Him. That is too great for our finite
minds to be able to comprehend. But it ought to fill our heart
with joy. when we see Him, we'll be like
Him. And this joy is eternal. No man can take it from you.
The world rejoices, but its rejoicing is just temporary because they
rejoice in earthly things, which are all temporary. One day they'll
all be gone. And you know, by the same token,
the flip side of that coin is this. Everything that causes
a believer to sorrow is just temporary. Now our sorrow is
real. Our anguish is real. But brethren,
it's temporary. The believer's joy is eternal. Because Christ is our joy and
He's eternal. No man can take from you what
God's given to you. All of our sorrow is because
of sin. Sin that's in us. Sin that's
in the world around us. But one day sin is going to be
completely removed. Now, it's been removed as far
as the penalty of the law for a believer. But one day, you're
going to be in a body and in a world without sin. And when
that happens, there's no more sorrow. There's just joy. Christ
is our joy because He's the one who removes the sin of His people.
And if you'd like to rejoice, you think of this. If you believe
Christ, your sin is forgiven right now. You don't have to
wait for this Sunday in eternity right now. Your sin is forgiven. If you believe Christ, you are
washed from all of your sin right now. You don't have to wait until
you have a body. The Lord gives you a body in
the resurrection without sin. You're washed from all sin right
now. If you believe Christ, you're
righteous at this very moment. You don't have to wait to awake
in glory to be righteous. You're righteous right now. And if you believe Christ, you
don't have to wait to be with the Lord. You're with the Lord
right now. Look at Matthew chapter 28. You're
with the Lord right now because the Lord promised He's with His
people right now. You're already with the Lord. Actually, you're already in glory. I'm sitting right here in these
seats. You're seated with Christ in
the heavenlies right now, if you believe Him. And you're with
the Lord right now. Matthew 28, verse 19. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. And you go, because lo, I am
with you all the way, even until the end of the world. The Lord
is with His people now. Why shouldn't we rejoice? Paul
said in 1 Thessalonians 5, rejoice evermore. Well, we ought to.
We have good reason to rejoice, don't we? Our sin is forgiven. We're washed from all sin now.
We're made righteous right now. We're with the Lord now. What
reason don't we have to rejoice? Your sorrow is turned into joy. I'd like to close with a word
of comfort. Comfort to a sorrowing people.
And God's church is a sorrowing people. So this will hit you
where you live. This is right where God's people
live. God's people have joy and they
rejoice in Christ Jesus. That joy and that rejoicing is
real. It is real and it's eternal.
But God's people also have sorrow. Now, we know that sorrow is temporary,
but that sorrow, there's no point denying it, it's real too, isn't
it? Just as real as our joy is, our sorrow is real. Our pain
is real. Our heartache is real. That sorrow
is real. That's why Paul said in 2 Corinthians
6, we're sorrowing, yet always rejoicing because both are real.
So our Lord said, you sorrow now. So when Christ sees you,
and you see Him, you shall rejoice. Right now we sorrow over sin.
And it's real sorrow. And it's not pretend, it's real. Anything that causes sorrow comes
from sin. But you rejoice. Christ has taken
that sin away. bore it away like the scapegoat
of old. He put it away under his blood, the blood of his sacrifice. We sorrow over death. We die
because of sin. I look forward to the day that
I die. I do. I'll be with the Lord. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. I probably Don't look forward to the process of this body dying.
It'll cause sorrow. More than likely, it'll cause
sorrow. It'll cause pain for me and my family. My dear friend,
my old Sunday school teacher, went to be with the Lord last
week. His dear wife told me, she said, his last night here,
he slept in his chair, his recliner, and I slept on the couch next
to him. She said he was in pain all night. And every once in
a while, he'd moan, Lord, help me. Lord, help me. It caused
him sorrow and it caused her sorrow. That sorrow's gone. She said, I got up in the morning
and I opened the shades, let the sunlight in. I looked over
at him and he was just sitting there standing. Gone. He's with the Lord. That causes
sorrow. But you rejoice. Christ died
so that his people will never die. The body will die, but they'll
never die. They'll be with him eternally.
And we sorrow over the loss of a loved one. We can't see him
anymore, just like that short time the disciples couldn't see
the Lord. And we sorrow. We can't see him anymore. But
you rejoice. One day we'll see Christ face
to face. We see them now by faith, don't we? But one day, face to
face with all those who believe, you'll see them again. We sorrow
over sickness. I don't like being sick, do you?
And we get serious sickness. I don't like that. I sorrow over
sickness. But you rejoice. Christ bore
all of our spiritual sicknesses, and by His stripes, we're healed. And one day we'll be with him,
no more sickness, no more sorrows, no more tears, only joy. And we sorrow over the many trials
of this life. The brothers and sisters rejoice.
Those trials are sent to make us more dependent on the Savior,
to learn more of Him, more of who He is, more of His power,
more of His ability, more of how precious He really is to
our souls. Look in 2 Corinthians chapter
4. Our brother Don preached from this last week. And because of
our Lord Jesus Christ, one day we'll be with him. For there
will be no more trials and no more tears. And that will be
eternal. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 15. For all things are for your sakes,
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many
redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not,
we don't quit. But though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. For we look not to things which
are seen, but to things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not
seen are eternal." You know when we'll say our light affliction
which was but for a moment? We don't say that now. It seems
like it's a heavy affliction. It seems like it lasts a long
time. We'll say that in glory. Then our sorrow will be turned
into joy. What causes us sorrow now when
we see all things as they are? We'll say I'm thankful for that.
That was a light affliction. It didn't last for long. It was
just for a moment. And I'm glad I went through it. What caused me sorrow is now
my joy. Now I see what the Lord is doing.
Now I see. We sorrow over the temptations
of Satan. Rejoice. Our Savior has crushed
Satan's head. He causes us sorrow now, but
he can only go as far as our Heavenly Father allows. And one
day, you're not going to have to deal with him anymore. He
can be put away forever. The sorrow over pain. Nobody
likes pain. Even in that pain, rejoice. Rejoice
in Christ. See, this is not saying this
poem is fake, you know, rejoicing. No. Rejoice in Christ. You think of the pain that he
endured to save our souls and redeem us from eternal damnation.
That'll give us cause to rejoice. We sorrow over the weakness of
this flesh, but even so, rejoice. You know, this body, it's got
to go. I mean, at some point, it's got
to go. I can't take it to glory. So
at some point, it's got to go so that we can be given a body
just like our Lord. And that body will never decay.
That body will never grow old. It'll never grow tired. So that
there's joy in laying this body down, isn't there? So that we
can be made like Christ. We rejoice in Christ. And when you sorrow, because
you only see through a glass darkly. And this bothers believers. This is something that causes
believers sorrow. I can't see very much of the
Lord. I can't see very much in His
Word. I can just see a few shadows and then I forget them so easily.
And that causes me sorrow. I understand. Me too. But rejoice. Because one day, soon, it'll
be soon, we'll see Him face to face with clear, perfect understanding,
with perfect fellowship and perfect communion with God's Son. And lastly, when we sorrow over
the weakness of our faith, and that causes us all to sorrow,
we all wish we had better faith, stronger faith. Even so, rejoice. Because of Christ, because He
went away, He went to the Father, one day faith is going to give
way to sight. And what a sight that will be when He sees us. When He sees us, with joy. When He sees us with perfect
acceptance. When He sees us with approval
and delight. And He allows us to see Him as
He is. With delight. That will be soul
ravishing. Just soul ravishing joy that
no man will ever take from you. And you'll say, He was right. Now I have the
fulfillment of His promise. My sorrow has been turned into
joy and will have it eternally. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank You
for this precious promise that in You and because of You, because
of Your sacrifice, because of Your work for us, because of
Your Spirit, giving life and revealing Christ to our hearts,
that our sorrow is turned into joy. We're thankful. And we pray that this promise
would strengthen us and encourage us and comfort our hearts during
all the time of our sorrow in this journey here below. And
Father, we're thankful for your mercy and your grace. How thankful
we are that you made such a great promise to sinful men and women. Father, we're thankful. Thankful
for your electing grace. That you give us what we need
before we ask. That before man was even created,
you determined to go to the cross. To go to the Father. and sacrifice
yourself to put away the sin of your people. They were washed
in the blood before we even asked because of your mercy and grace.
Father, cause us to rest in thee, to rest completely and entirely
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, bless your word. Bless
your word, we pray, to your glory for the good and the comfort
of your people. For it is in that matchless name,
the name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, we pray and give thanks.