I realize it's been 38 years
since we first met, and God has made you precious to me and to
my dear wife. Did you notice when Brother John
read the 104th Psalm? You don't need to turn back there.
In verse 20, David said, Thou makest darkness. And it is night. And when God makes darkness,
it's night. Some of you know exactly what
I mean. And when it's night, all the
beasts of the forest do creep forward. Because you have a faithful pastor,
I deliberately do not stay in contact with any of you. I leave
that to you and your pastor. That doesn't mean I'm not aware
of difficulties, trials, heartaches, and troubles you go through.
And it doesn't mean I don't care. And it doesn't mean I don't pray
for you. Exactly the opposite is true.
I do care. And I do pray for you. But there
is one who cares much more and who intercedes with efficacy
all the time. And that is God our Savior who
sends the darkness and makes the night wherein all the beasts
do creep forth. And I believe God's given me
a message for you. Open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter
4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We will
begin reading at verse 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse
1. Paul has been describing this
ministry God has given us. Us who are his servants, his
preachers. Us who are his church, his people. This ministry of the spirit,
this ministry of life, this ministry of liberty in Jesus Christ the
Lord. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, oh what grace God's given
me that I should preach to you the unsearchable riches of Christ.
What a mercy, what a mercy that God would take me for his own
Teach me the gospel of His grace, and give me grace to preach to
you." Therefore, we have this ministry, and as we have received
mercy, we faint not. We just don't give up. We just
don't quit. We faint not. But, have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty. Every faithful servant of God,
every faithful gospel preacher is open and above board about
everything. He's open and above board about
everything. He doesn't have any hidden agenda.
He doesn't have any hidden desires. He doesn't have any hidden motives.
He's open and above board about himself and about the things
of God and about the word of God and about the cause of God
and the way he conducts himself. We've renounced the hidden things
of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, not living in such
a way as to manipulate people and in such a way as to hide
from people what we're about, nor handling the word of God
deceitfully. We open the Word of God and declare
to you what is obviously written in Holy Scripture. Now, that's
exactly what that means. But by manifestation of truth,
by manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience
in the sight of God. That means, Brother John, when
I get done here tonight, what I've said will be so obvious
in the Word of God, everybody hears, well, that's just what
it says. That's just what it says. It's the open manifestation
of truth. You know, sometimes you say,
oh, boy, that's deep. Well, city folks don't know the
difference between deep and muddy. Muddy is not necessarily deep.
If a man preaches the gospel of God's grace with understanding,
you understand him. And if you don't understand him,
it's either because he doesn't know what he's talking about,
or he doesn't want you to understand him. One of the two. It's so
he can take it back in time. God's servants don't handle the
Word of God deceitfully, but they openly, manifestly declare
what is written in the Word of God, verse 3. But if our gospel
be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of
this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. Now,
I know our English translation translates the word God with
a little g, but that's a mistake. Satan is never called the God
of this world. Nowhere in this book, no hint
that he's the God of this world. Men believe not, because God
blinds their minds. He sent darkness to Israel, lest
they should see. Lest they should hear, he sent
deafness to their ears. Lest they should believe, he
hardened their hearts, and he still does. If you believe the
gospel, It's because God gives you light and understanding and
faith. It's because of God's grace heaped
upon you in Jesus Christ. And if you refuse to believe
the gospel, that's your responsibility and God Almighty will blind your
eyes so you cannot believe the gospel. Read the first chapter
of Proverbs and you'll find out. Paul says if our gospel's hid,
it's not because we hid it. It's not because we preach somehow
that these things are in a corner and kind of hid things from men.
Oh, no. If our gospel's hid, it's because
the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. There is such a thing as
judicial reprobation. Men and women who hear and will
not believe, God fixes it so they cannot believe. Oh, you
who hear my voice, you've just heard a man call you to life
and faith in Christ by the gospel, by the Word of God. Believe on
the Son of God and live. If you dare refuse, you ought
to tremble. You ought to be terrified lest
God fixes so you can't believe. For we preach not ourselves.
Now those words can be translated many ways and all of them accurate. We preach not for ourselves. We preach not from ourselves. We preach not about ourselves.
But Christ Jesus the Lord. We preach for Christ. We preach
from Christ. We preach about Christ. And ourselves,
your servants, for Jesus' sake. God's servants are your servants,
your servants. You have heard Brother Mahan
refer to Junebug preachers. For you who never lived far enough
south to know what a Junebug is, when we were boys and we
didn't have electric games to play, we'd go out and find what
we could to play with and we'd catch Junebugs and tie a string
around their legs and just fly them around. And the Junebugs
would just fly and fly and fly. But they could only go as far
as our stream would let them fly. God's servants aren't that kind
of servants. No, they're not servants under the thumb of men.
They're not Junebug preachers. You tell what to do, where to
go, what to say, what not to say. No, no. But they are genuinely
your servants. They serve your souls. For the
glory of God, they serve the interest of your immortal souls.
Ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake, for God. Now watch this. God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, turned the lights on one day.
He had shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He has shined
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Oh, what mercy, what grace, what
abundant mercy and grace our God has heaped upon us in Christ
Jesus. And what the Apostle Paul goes
on to say here, we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We're perplexed but not in despair. We who have this ministry, we
who serve your souls and serve the cause of our Redeemer in
this world, we're persecuted but not forsaken,
cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about in our body
the dying of the Lord Jesus. Get used to it. We're dying.
We're dying. That's what life in this world
is. It's a process of dying. And we who serve our God in the
cause of our Redeemer are dying in this body of flesh. We bear
in this body not only physical death, but the dying of the Lord
Jesus. Crucified continually with Christ. Crucified once and for all with
finality, when He died, we died in Him. And if we walk with Him,
we continually experience this dying of the Lord Jesus. That
the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in us. For we
which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. That
the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal
flesh, so that Christ might be known while we live in this world. Oh, God! Oh, my God! Will you for your glory, for
Christ's sake, use me to convey the Word of life to sinners in
bed and sin? Will you be pleased to use me
to help you? you in your immortal soul to
know and live with and walk with God our Savior in this present
evil world. We don't. So then, verse 12, death worketh
in us, but life in you. We have in the same spirit, same
spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believe, therefore
have I spoken. We also believe and therefore
speak, knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise
up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you." Isn't that
a remarkable way to put it? Not present you with us. He shall
present us with you. We are saved by the same grace. Redeemed by the same blood, called
by the same Spirit, kept by the same power of God through faith
in the life everlasting. And God's going to raise me up
with you. As He raises you up with Christ
Jesus, He'll raise us up with you. Now, verse 15. For all things
are for your sakes. Child of God, if you don't get
anything else I say tonight, you be sure you get this, all
things are for your sakes. 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 think not. Remember back up
in verse one, he said, we think not. These 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? For
God's glory and your everlasting salvation. We faint not, but
though our outward men perish, yet the inward man is renewed
day by day." This man is dying. This man has
died, and that's not a problem. That's just the way it ought
to be. Dale, we're dying. Soon we shall die, and we will
rejoice when God's appointed day comes when this body of flesh
dies. But, though this outward man
is perishing, though this outward man is continually dying, yet
the inward man is renewed day by day. Every day revived by
God's grace. Every day resuscitated again
by God's grace. Every day renewed by God's grace. The outward man continually died. The inward man continually, by
the fresh overflow of grace in our souls, made new in Jesus
Christ the Lord so that we are renewed day by day in Him. Now
what's the next line? for our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory." Did Paul say, our light affliction? Our light affliction? How on earth Could this man,
inspired by God the Holy Spirit, describe the afflictions that
break your heart, wring out your soul, perplex your mind, cause
you to awake in the middle of the night and taste the floor
and cry out from your heart to God in silence because you dare
not let your companion lying next to you hear you? You dare
not allow the children in the next room hear you. You dare
not offend against the generation of God's children. But in your
soul, you cry like David. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why are you so far from the words
of my roaring? Why won't you hear me? Is your
mercy clean gone forever? I light a flicker. I light a
flicker. Is there a light thing to endure
bodily sickness, financial hardship, domestic trouble, desolation
of soul, heaviness of heart? Oh, no. No, not at all. God doesn't
expect us to be stoics without feeling. We are men and women,
not stones. And we feel things. We feel pain
and pleasure. We feel happiness and sorrow. We feel things. That's because
we are just men and women of flesh and blood. Sometimes we
hurt. And sometimes we hurt horribly. I know the joy of happiness and
the comfort of love. I know a lot about that. And
I know a little bit about the pain of sorrow. of what it is
to be elated, of what it is to have such heaviness of heart
that you think you just simply can't go on. And yet, there's
a very real sense in which these things that literally crush our
souls, these things that you just think,
I can't take it anymore. All spoke of his afflictions. We just read this list of things
here in 2 Corinthians 4. Read the 11th chapter of 1 Corinthians. My soul is beaten, stoned, left
for dead, beaten with rods, beaten with forty stripes, saved one
three times, shipwrecked, day and night in the deep three times,
forsaken of men. He was in perils of the deep,
in perils of false brethren, in perils all the time for forty
years. And yet he says this is my light
affliction. My featherweight affliction, which is but for
a moment. How can he say such a thing?
Let me address those three words, those three strange, strange
words, our light affliction. First, understand this, and I'll
speak personally. Preach this message to me, and
Brother Booth, I hope you can get in on it. I know. I know what this book tells me
about my afflictions in this world. It doesn't matter what
the newspaper columnists say. It doesn't matter what psychiatrists
and psychologists would have you to believe. The psychobabble
is as meaningless as dirt under your feet. I wish this generation
could learn that. If you have a therapist, don't
pay attention to what he says about your troubles. He's wrong.
He's wrong. And if you have an inclination
to listen to these money-grubbing preachers like Joel Osteen on
television, don't pay attention to him. He's a liar. He's not
telling you the truth. But I do know what God says about
my trouble. I know what God says about the
things that weigh heavy on my heart. I know what God says about
sickness and sorrow and pain and bereavement, and I know what
God says about those things to be absolutely true. Understand
this. This is what God says. So long
as we live in this world, we're going to live in a world of sorrow. It is written in the book, Acts
chapter 14, we must, through much tribulation, enter into
the kingdom of God. That's just fact. And Mike Barton,
the fact is not going to change. Not for you, not for me. We must,
through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. Yes,
I'm redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Yes, I'm justified
and sanctified by the blood and righteousness of God's Son. I'm
saved, born again. I'm an heir of God, joint heir
with Christ. All my sin has been put away.
By God's free grace, I stand here tonight, a man anxious for
glory, anxious to meet God face to face, with no dread at the
thought of doing so. I'm saved by God's free grace.
But as long as I live in this world, I'll have to deal with
pain, affliction, and heartache. My body is subject to sickness,
disease, pain, decay, and death just like all other men. You and I who are gods still
are the fallen sons and daughters of Adam. And while we live in
this world, we must expect to experience all the pain, and
all the sorrow, and all the heartache, and all the difficulties, and
all the trials that any other son of Adam experiences. There's
no escaping that. I know this too. I know this
too. Turn over to 2 Thessalonians.
We'll come back to 2 Corinthians in a little while, but turn over
to 1 Thessalonians. It's amazing, isn't it, how God
gives us what we need just when we need it. When I was a young
man, 17 years old, I was going through what I thought were hard
times, real trials. And, you know, I'm 64 now, and
if a 17-year-old comes up to me and says he's having a real
trial, I wouldn't laugh in front of him, but as soon as he moves,
I turn around and laugh. Son, you don't have a clue. The
only thing I ever heard Billy Graham say that was worth repeating,
one time he was talking to somebody on some news show, and he told
them about a young man When he was a young man being in love
with a girl, he said it was puppy love, but it was real to the
puppy. Well, the trials are just puppy trials, but they're real
to the puppy. And God gave me some scripture, scripture that
helped me, scripture that has been a foundation for me these
47 years. Here's one of them, 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. Rejoice evermore. Pray without
ceasing. In everything give thanks. Brother Gary was speaking to
me about things you're all aware of. I was totally unaware of.
And I could hardly stand to listen. Could hardly stand to listen. Let alone think about experiencing. Oh God, help me. In everything
give thanks. How come? How can you do that? For this, this, ah, carry whatever you experience
now, this. Whatever you experience tomorrow,
this. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. Whatever it is, whatever the
joy, whatever the heartache, whatever the pleasure, whatever
the pain, this child of God is the will of God in Christ Jesus,
especially for you. That's the second thing. Whatever
comes to pass in this life, is the will of my God. Nothing ever happens in this
universe by chance or luck or blind fate. Those things are
non-existent. They're words that men use to
talk about things they have no knowledge of. All that comes
to pass, be it good or bad, prosperous or adverse, both the great and
the small, is ordained by my God from eternity, and governed
by my Heavenly Father momentarily, every second of every day, for
my good, everything. All things are of God. For of
Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. Now that either includes all
things or it doesn't. All things. All things are of God. Brother
Don, I don't see how this is going to be for God's glory. I don't see how any good is going
to come out of this. Most of the pains and difficulties,
I see people experiencing. Most of them. Pastor, I can't
imagine how any good can come of it. I can't imagine. I had a dear
lady I correspond with regularly, known her for about 10 years
now. She's out of Washington State. She has a daughter, a grown lady,
who because of severe radiation burns given Cobalt when she was
a baby, the grown woman's terribly, terribly retarded. She's got
to go through a lot of surgery and so forth. And I can see some
good in that. That I can understand. Here's
one I have no question about. This is one of God's children.
This is one of God's elect. This is one of Christ's redeemers.
I don't have any question about that. But most trouble, most
heartache, I don't see how on this earth anything good can
come from it. But I don't need to see it. I
don't need to know. We should not try to find out
what the future holds. We don't need to know the future. We need to trust our God. It should be enough. It should
be enough for you and me to believe God. You expect that of your
children, don't you? I did. Faith was a little girl. I guess
you'll mind me telling you, she's 42 years old now. I still expect
her to believe me. If I tell her something, I expect
her to believe me, whether I explain it or not. I just expect it.
And when she was a little girl, she better act like she believes
me. She better act like it. Well, who are you? I'm her daddy. And I only do what's best for
her. So I expect her to believe me. God's my father. God's my father. You understand
that? Christ is my Savior, and he rules
the universe. Would you tell me any reason
why I shouldn't believe him? It's enough to believe him, and
in heaven's clearer light, we'll see. All things worked out for
good. I don't know. I'm just guessing.
We don't know much about heaven, but I suspect, I just suspect,
that one of the wondrous, glorious joys of eternal life in heaven
with our Redeemer, remember we will always just be finite, is
that we will be forever learning what God has done for us. Look back over the mountain ranges,
the Alps of God's providence. Well, look at that. No wonder
the Scripture says, He only doeth wondrous things. He only does
wondrous things! Wondrous things! From the numbering
of your hairs, to the overthrow of Satan, to the redemption of
your soul. He only does wonders. Whatever
my Heavenly Father does, I know He does because of His infinite
mercy, love, and grace toward me. Because of His goodness. Never because of His anger. Now,
child of God, get this if you can. Oh, God help you to get
it. God punished our sins in His
Son, our substitute. He never punishes us for sin. He never deals with us in hard
trials in judgment. Never, never, never. God's never angry with His children. But wasn't God displeased with
David when David said, in the matter of your eye of the best
sheep, oh no, oh no, no, no, no. David was accepted in the
beloved. God was displeased with the thing
that David did. Is that what the book says? He
was displeased with the thing that David did. And he showed
David and the world he was displeased with it. But not with David.
Well, why'd God kill his son? Because he loved David. Because
he loved David. He showed it when he had another
son. He said, call his name Beloved of the Lord. Nothing's changed,
David. God never sins, trials, and heartaches,
and adversities because of judgment against us, only to correct us,
to mature us, to grow us in the grace and knowledge of our Redeemer.
Most of you know, Shelby and I had just one daughter, just
one child, and she's the apple of her daddy's eye. She always
has been. Just thought she's something else. When she was
growing up, I considered it my responsibility to do the correcting
in the household. I insisted she listen to her
mama, and Shelby would occasionally when she was a little tight and
spanker, but as she got a little older, Shelby just, I'd be out
waiting for a meeting somewhere, come home, been gone for a week
or two, and Shelby says, Faith has done this, you need to be
paddled. Not once did I ever ask Faith about it. I said, Faith,
go get the paddle. That's part of the punishment.
You got to go get it, and you got to put it up. And I would
bend her over my knee and I would apply it firmly ten times to
her backside. Oh, didn't that hurt her? Ask
her. Yeah, it hurt. I intended for
it to hurt. If it hadn't hurt, it wouldn't
have done any good. I intended to bring tears to
her eyes, pain to her body, and more tears to her eyes. That's
what I intended to do. Why? Oh, what a mean daddy. Oh, if you could just see her.
Oh, if you just knew her. That's the reason I did it. That's
the reason I did it. That's the reason I inflicted
the pain. That's the reason I brought the tears, to make her a good
mother, a good woman, a good wife, a good citizen in this
world. That's the purpose of the trial.
And you can ask her, first chance you get. Send her an email. I
don't care if you do. Not once, not once, not one time did I
ever even shake her, let alone hit her, because I was angry
with her. Did you ever get angry with me? Yep. When I did, I'd
leave the room. Wait a little while. Wait till the anger's
gone. That would be to satisfy me. That would be to please me. But the correction, is to help
you. Child of God, your sins were
punished in your substitute, and God never lifts His rod in
anger upon you, but only in goodness, mercy, love, and grace. I know
this too. No matter what my trial may be,
the Lord God my Savior is with me. He said, Lo, I'm with you
always. The Apostle Paul was about to
leave this world. He wrote to Timothy, his young
son in the faith. And he said, Timothy, do your
diligence to come to me. Winter's coming and it's cold.
Bring my coat with you. He said, everybody's forsaken
me. He's the only Luke stood with
me. My other faithful brethren I've sent to preach the gospel
elsewhere. Demas, the man I trusted so much, he's forsaken me. No
man stood with me. Nevertheless, the Lord stood
with me. The Lord stood with me. When I was 19 years old, I prepared
and preached a very good sermon. on the faithfulness of God. Oh,
faithfulness of God. And I could preach the notes
today, wouldn't change a word. But David, I didn't know anything
about God's faithfulness. It was all theory. Not anymore. He abideth faithful. He abideth faithful. Our light afflicts you. How light
when you consider what our Redeemer suffered. See Him with blood pouring from
His body on Gethsemane. as He anticipates being made
sin for us. See Him on Calvary's cursed tree
when He was made sin for us. When He bare in His body our
iniquities, our transgressions and our sins. Suffering justly
all the fury of God's wrath. as our substitute. And understand that we know nothing
of sorrow. We know nothing of affliction.
We know nothing of heaviness. Our afflictions are light in
comparison with all the grace of our God that he has heaped
upon us in Christ the Lord. Eternal grace, immutable grace,
covenant grace, forgiveness, justification, righteousness,
acceptance of God. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. And our light afflictions are
lights because they're just momentary. They'll soon be over. When we see our Savior face to
face, our God will wipe all tears from our eyes. Bob, this is just almost more
than I can think of, let alone say. When all of this is done, for
you and me, there'll be no regrets. about anything. No regrets about
anything. God teach me to live in that
knowledge. God teach me to live in that
knowledge. Our light of fiction, which is
but for a moment, worketh for us. a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. Isn't that something? Isn't that
something? In other words, the glory of heaven shall only be
increased for us in the experience of it because of our light affliction. The trial of your faith, more
precious than gold that perishes, shall redound to the glory of
God and to your everlasting joy in Jesus Christ the Lord. I look back over things that I
knew of. By the time you get to be 64
years old, you realize you don't know much. Just a few things
I know of, both before God saved me and since God saved me. The
nights when God sent darkness. And the beasts creep out. And your heart's heady and broken. Not one trial, not one heartache,
not one tear, not one pain would I have chosen. Not one, not one. But now I'm on the other side. And God is my witness. Not one would I choose to undo.
Not one. Not one. He hath done all things well.