2nd Corinthians chapter 4. Let me read verse 16, 17, and
18. For which cause we think not,
but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed
day by day. For our light affliction, for
our afflictions which are easy to bear, which is but for a moment
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. I wanna speak on verse 17 on
our light affliction. this morning, our light affliction. Well, I wondered as I read this
text of scripture and meditated upon it, I wondered what would
be your attitude toward a man who would make such a statement
as this, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment. Now
I know that affliction can be very, very heavy. I know it can
be very weighty. And I know many, many times when
we're under the afflictive hand of Almighty God, we think it
to be anything but light. We do not feel that our afflictions
are easy to bear. Well, what is our attitude toward
the writer of this scripture? Light affliction. Somebody says,
huh, if this man would have known about my affliction, if this
man would have walked in my shoes this last week or this last month
or this last year, he wouldn't have been talking about light
affliction. And so you might bristle up a
little bit this morning, but I trust that and you have maybe
a right to at the outset of our message this morning, but I trust
by the time we get finished today that you will agree with Paul
that our afflictions are light, comparatively speaking, and that
our afflictions are easy to bear in the light of many scriptural
truths. Now, whoever calls affliction
light, somebody says, must have been a person who knew very little
about what affliction really is. Maybe he never had any sickness. Maybe he never had to face a
surgeon's knife. Maybe he never endured, had to
endure hour upon hour of pain. Maybe he never had any loneliness.
Maybe he never got up to empty mornings, and maybe he never
spent long lonely nights. Maybe he didn't have any experiences
like we have. He must have been in robust health
and known nothing of what it is to be laid aside in pain and
in misery. Did he not live at ease and have
all that his heart could wish? that he would speak like this
and call the afflictions that the people of God, the family
of God endure and experience in this life, to call them light
affliction. If he'd just known the trials
that I've had, then he wouldn't have called them light afflictions. And if he had stood by an open
grave, if he had went with me or with others when they went
out to bury the most precious loved one that they had in this
life, then he wouldn't have called our afflictions. He would have
known what it is that we have suffered and what we have experienced. Well, he calls it our light affliction,
and he must have had a reason for doing so. But I think we're
all wrong about this man, Paul, if we haven't in any way concurred
to the remarks that's already been made. And if in our hearts
we feel that this man is not an experienced man, that this
man somehow or other just missed that vein in life that we've
had to travel, and missed that road in life that we've had to
travel, then we're all wrong about this man, Paul. We're mistaken. If we think this man had no trials,
if this man, if we think he had no hardships, if we think he
had no crosses, if we think he had no bereavements in this life,
we're mistaken. Paul had afflictions which were
peculiarly his own, just like we do. And beloved, I believe
this man could spell affliction with capital letters due to his
experiences. Now turn, if you will, to 2 Corinthians
chapter 11. Turn on over to chapter 11 here
of 2 Corinthians, and I'll try to show you this. I think we
need to understand who it is that we're talking about here.
2 Corinthians chapter 11. And let's read verses 23, beginning
with verses 23, down here through verse 31. Let's look at this.
Paul says, are they ministers of Christ? He says, I speak as
a fool, I more. In labors, more abundant. In
stripes, above measure. In prisons, more frequent. In
deaths, often. Of the Jews, five times I received
40 stripes, save one. Five times he received 39 stripes.
on his back because of the gospel and because of the truth that
he expounded and preached. Thrice, he says, I was beaten
with rocks. And he said, once was I stoned.
And I believe on that occasion was when Paul was caught up into
the third heavens and saw those unspeakable things that he mentions
in the scripture. I can't prove that, but I believe
that's when it was. He was stoned and left for dead. And he said, thrice I suffered
shipwreck. A night and a day I've been on
a plank. Out in the middle of the ocean, I've been out in the
deep, just on a piece of wood, floating around, waiting for
somebody to save me. In journeyings, he said, often,
I've traveled here and there and yon. I've been all over the
known world at this time, preaching the gospel, and he said, I've
been in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own
countrymen. And you know how it is to start
out across the country. Well, anymore, even in america
while we feel somewhat that we need to take a three fifty seven
with us we need to have a thirty eight special or something with
us because of those things that we might encounter on our trip
across the country we don't know what to expect when we stop at
a service station we might be robbed before we get back into
our vehicle or we stop at a motel somebody might break the door
down we've heard of that or when we come out to pack our car as
someone might be there to rob us. But the Apostle Paul, back
in his day, he had the same thing to deal with, but worse. He says
that he was in perils of robbers. He was on boats that wasn't seaworthy,
and he was in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils
by his own countrymen. Even those of his own country,
he was not safe in traveling even around them. And in the
city, in perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, in perils
among false brethren, those that claimed to believe what he believed
but really didn't. He said, I was in perils among
these brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings
often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold,
and in nakedness, besides those things that are without, that
which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. And
who is weak? And I am not weak. Paul says
if anybody's been brought down in Christ to a place of weakness
where the strength of Christ is made perfect in their life,
I'm one of them. I'm one of them. I would have
to join with them, be numbered among them. And he says, who
is offended? And I burn not. If I must need
glory, I'll glory of the things which concern my infirmities. This was a man who had experienced
these infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, which is blessed forevermore, knoweth that I lie
not. Everything that I've told you,
Paul said, before God, God knows that I haven't lied about it.
I've told you the truth. This has been my experience.
So the man that we're talking about here is a man who can spell
affliction with capital letters. Did he have no feelings? Was
this man a stone that he would talk about our afflictions being
easily to bear? Was he like a stone? Was he indifferent
to our problems and to the problems of the Lord's living family?
No, I don't think so. In Romans 9, And verse 2, Paul
says, I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart
for my brethren, for my kinsmen after the flesh. He had heaviness
and continual sorrow in his heart. Are these the words of a man
who's like a stone? Is this the words of a man who's
indifferent? Absolutely not. He desired the
salvation of his own people, of the Jews, and he desired that
God would open their hearts to the gospel, and he had a tender
heart toward them. And in Philippians chapter 2,
in verses 24 through 27, he writes about Epaphroditus, and he's
so concerned about his fellow labor in the gospel. His fellow
labor is sick. And he says, God had mercy on
Epaphroditus and not on Epaphroditus only, but he had mercy on me
also. He had mercy on me because he
was sickened to death and God spared him and raised him up.
Does that sound like a hard man to you? Does that sound like
somebody to you that's got a no-care attitude and doesn't care what
people are experiencing or suffering? Absolutely not. This man knew
something about affliction, and he knew something about others
that were in afflictive circumstances, and this man graduated from the
school of affliction himself, and he understood what people
were going through, but yet he speaks of our affliction. in
this world, in this moment of time, in this little window of
time, in this world, he speaks of our affliction as being a
light affliction. Now if you're looking at your
present afflictive problems and that alone, And I know that it'd
be a rare thing if there's not somebody here this morning greatly
tried, somebody here greatly tested, somebody here who has
afflictive circumstances that are right now in their lives. And if you're looking at that
alone, And that's all you're looking at, is at this time,
this place, your problems, your difficulty, your adversities,
what you face and what you're dealing with, then these things,
no doubt, are very, very heavy. And you cannot understand the
language of a man who would speak like the Apostle Paul, who is
speaking of affliction as being life. Now, affliction is something
that beats down. Affliction is something that
presses upon a man, presses sore upon the soul, and is in itself
very grievous and tormenting. Well, I know a little bit about
affliction, not as much as some of you, I'm sure, but I know
a little bit about it. And Job said, man that is born
of a woman is a few days and he's full of trouble. Our Lord
Jesus Christ said that in the world, you will have tribulation. In the world, you'll have trouble.
In the world, you're going to have difficulties and adversities. In the world, you're going to
have setbacks. In the world, you're going to lose and experience
losses, both in your families, your children, your loved ones,
and you're going to suffer material losses in this life. You're going
to have trouble. and through many, many trials
shall we enter in. Much tribulation shall we enter
in to the kingdom of God. David said in Psalm 34, 19, many
are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out
of them all. In Zephaniah 3 and verse 12,
it says, I will also, God said, I will also leave in the midst
of thee an afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in
the name of the Lord. So God's living family is an
afflicted and poor people, and we have these heavy, heavy trials,
but we dare not look at them alone. We dare not just allow
ourselves to be utterly and totally consumed with our afflictions
and with our difficulties. I know that the Lord's living
family is rarely out of afflictive circumstances for any length
of time. Every one of us will experience
sometime between now and the time we leave this world, we
will experience circumstances that are like the rocks in a
man's bed. Somebody spoke, I remember reading,
I believe it was Jeremiah Burr's book on contentment, how contentment
is such great gain. And he was talking about how
that in everyone's bed, sooner or later, every child of God
has stones like in their bed because they have something that's
irritating, something that's pressing down, something that's
very troubling in their life. Now some of us may be suffering
from physical condition, a physical condition. Some may have some
mental problems. Some may have some spiritual
problems. Maybe your children have broken
your heart. And you know, it's amazing to
me that we don't have more broken hearts. over our young people
today and over children growing up in this world. It's a miracle
of grace that we here have been spared like we have been. A miracle
of the grace of God that we haven't had more broken hearts around
here over children than what we have. And then your marriage,
you entered into your marriage, you was very, very happy and
elated. When you walked down the aisle
and you were just so, so thrilled that you were beginning life
with this wonderful, wonderful, perfect new mate. And you were
thrilled to death. And after a while, your marriage
possibly is turned into misery. And these are afflictions. And
they're anything but light. in our estimation when we're
going through these afflictions. They bear upon our minds and
they occupy our thinking and they take our strength and it
brings on sometimes overwhelming depressions and it seems so,
so heavy and so weighty, these problems. I remember a number
of years ago one of our sovereign grace preachers that we enjoyed
listening to so very, very much. He had physical afflictions,
and one night after a couple of operations and after being
sorely tried and was undergoing a considerable amount of therapy
and medication, taking medications for his situation, that he finished
his message up on a Saturday night and pushed his Bible back
on the desk and took out his pistol and ended his life. A
sovereign grace preacher, a man who God had blessed to bless
many. But yet this man was so depressed
that he was unable to bear it, unable to continue, didn't feel
that he was able to face another day, couldn't do it anymore.
And so, beloved, when you take your situation and you look at
it alone, and you just put your attention on your situation and
on your problems, you just absolutely can be overwhelmed. They can
just take over your life. And you will not agree with the
assessment of the apostle that our afflictions are light. It
seems that everything is closing in on you at the time. And believers,
I'm telling you, can get into that state. The outward man,
Paul said, perishes. It perishes through age and through
the age process and through the torils of the road. The torils
of the road, my friend, our outward man, it will perish. And so if
we call these afflictions light, I feel that I must explain. I feel that I must explain what
it is that the apostle is talking about. Why would he call these
afflictions light? Well, there's six things that
I want to give you this morning. And I think that when we compare
our afflictive circumstances, whatever they are, I want you
to look at these things with me, and I think that most of
you will agree with me, after you've listened to these six
things, that you will agree with me that our afflictions are like,
comparatively speaking. The first thing that I'd like
to say, that our afflictions are like, compared to what we
deserve. compared to what we deserve.
Psalm 103 verse 10 says, He, that is God, hath not dealt with
us after our sin, nor rewarded us according to our iniquity. And so, beloved, I say, whatever
your affliction is, that it's light compared to what you deserve. We're all sinners. Romans 3 and
23 says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All
of us have missed the point. All of us have fallen short of
what God demands, and we've fallen short, and we sin in thought,
word, and deed. And Romans 6, 23 says the wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. through
Jesus Christ our Lord. We may in various ways excuse
ourselves for what we are and we may not feel that we've got
any just desserts coming for what we are. And I'm sure that
most of us underestimate what we are, and we may blame the
devil for everything that we are. And I feel we're wrong in
doing that. Now, I know the devil's a liar
from the beginning, and I know he's old Satan, old Lucifer,
and I know that he's a roaring lion going about seeking whomever
he may devour. But you've got a problem, and
that problem is you've transgressed against God You've broken this
law, you're a sinner before God thrice over. Sinner by nature,
sinner by choice, and a sinner by practice. And if you got what
you deserved, you'd have a whole lot worse than you have today,
whatever your situation is. Now I think we look at sin not
as God does. I think we look at it a whole
lot different than what God does. But God tells us in the Word
that sin is damning, and the soul that sinneth Now the scripture
says that there's going to be a resurrection, a resurrection
of the just and a resurrection of the unjust. And it says that
those that have done evil will be resurrected to the resurrection
of damnation. Now, you know, I've often asked
myself this question. How much evil does a person have
to commit? How much evil do they have to...
How much sin has to be in your life before you're going to die
and be resurrected to the resurrection of damnation? How much? Well,
I believe that if, when you die, if there is one sin charged to
you, that you'll be resurrected in the resurrection of the dead.
I believe your body will be raised from the dead, your soul will
be united with your body, and it'll be cast into everlasting
burning. One sin is all that's necessary,
unforgiven, one sin uncovered, one sin that's not been remitted
by a holy God, one sin not been blotted out by the blood of the
Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, will send your soul to hell for
all eternity, and you deserve to go there. Somebody said, Preacher,
do you mean that I deserve to go to hell? Absolutely. And God's
not dealt with you after your sin. He's not dealt with you
after your iniquity and after your evil. No, God said I'll
put the good of my son on your account and you'll be resurrected
in the resurrection of the just. The resurrection of those justified
in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now sin, beloved, is hell in
the germ. We need to remember that. It
is eternal death. Sin is the rape of God. Sin is
damnation in the bed. And if you got what you deserved,
you'd go to hell, my friend. The lash of God would be on your
back for all eternity. You'd hear these words, depart
from me! Depart from me! Into everlasting
burning. And so, beloved, our afflictions
are in no way, shape, or form to be compared with eternal damnation. Do you understand what I'm saying?
Whatever it is that's troubling you, whatever problems that you're
dealing with, my friend, compared to what you deserve, compared
to what I deserve, My friend, there's no way that we can compare
it to what we would have gotten in eternity if it hadn't have
been for the mercy and the free sovereign grace of our adorable
Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. They're not worthy to be mentioned
alongside of that. Men do not have their hell in
this life. Some people say, oh, I believe they do. No, they don't.
Men don't have their hell in this life. Lost men and women,
what they experience in this life, lost men and women, it's
only the first droppings of the eternal hailstorm of the wrath
of God. That's all it is. They haven't
experienced what's coming to them yet. The poet said, there's
a dreadful hell and everlasting pains where sinners must with
devils dwell in darkness, fire, and chains. Lost people are going
off forever to experience the wrath of God. And the Lord's
people are to give thanks unto God and rejoice in the everlasting
mercies of our sovereign God, in that that he's not dealt with
us after our sin, but he dealt with our substitute, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that brings me to the second
thing. And that is this, that our afflictions are like, and
I'm talking about the most tried, I'm talking about the most tested
person that's here in this congregation this morning, compared to what
our Redeemer suffered for us when he died for us. on the cross. Compared to what the Lord Jesus
Christ suffered, my friend, our afflictions are easy to bear. Would you not say they're easy
to bear? They're very light? If you would,
turn back with me to the book of Lamentation, chapter one,
and I'd like you to look at verse 12. Is it nothing to you, verse
12, Lamentation one, to you, all ye that pass by, Behold,
look, he says, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow,
which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in
the day of his fierce anger. My friend, if we would get just,
if we would open our eyes, if the Lord would illuminate our
souls and our hearts and minds and we could get a picture of
our Lord Jesus Christ in his sorrow. And he said, he said,
behold and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow which
is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the
days of his furious anger. Our Lord Jesus Christ compared
to his sufferings And whatever happens to us, you see the Lord
Jesus was utterly forsaken of God as he was hanging between
heaven and earth on that old rugged cross. He was utterly
forsaken of God. But whatever happens, and you
mark this down, whatever happens to you in this world, in this
life, you will still have God to comfort you. And the Lord
Jesus Christ didn't have. He didn't have. He cried out,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And the suffering
of our Redeemer on the cross was due to the fact that he was
totally and utterly abandoned there to suffer in our room instead
in place and to deal with almighty God on the behalf of my sin and
your sin. the sins of the Lord's people. And in Isaiah 53, it speaks like
this. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. He poured out his soul unto death. And so when you look at these
verses, and when you look at these truths, and you look again
at your situation, and you look at your blessed surety, your
blessed head, your blessed representative, your blessed substitute, and
see how he endured all of this pain and suffering at the hands
of Almighty God, his own Heavenly Father, in order that he might
be able to spare us, in order that we might be spared. He spared him not. And so, beloved,
look at your circumstances in that way. No way can it be compared
to the suffering of our Redeemer, whatever you're experiencing.
Thirdly, our afflictions are like compared with what others
have suffered, with what others have suffered in this life. Now,
it doesn't matter what we're going through. There's always
someone, if we just look around, and if we open our eyes, we'll
see somebody that's in a whole lot worse situation than we are.
And I'd invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews.
The book of Hebrews, first of all, I wanna read Hebrews 12,
four, and then I wanna read a few verses here in the 11th chapter
of Hebrews. But Hebrews chapter 12, verse
four says, ye, Paul writing here to these Christians, Said you've
not yet resisted under blood, striving against sin. You hate
sin, do you? Well, we ought to hate sin. But
have you resisted unto the shedding of your blood yet, resisting
sin? Absolutely not. There have been
others that have. So don't become too smug in your
pious religion and think you're somebody and you're suffering
so much because you're against sin in this world. I'm telling
you, there are people that have resisted sin unto the shedding
of their blood. Now, let's look in the 11th chapter,
verses 35 through 38. Women, this is the chapter you've
often heard it called, heroes of faith are spoken of in this
chapter. Women received their dead raised
to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting
deliverance. Oh, they could have been delivered
if they would have recanted, if they would have renounced
their faith. They could have been delivered,
but they would not accept deliverance. Wouldn't accept it. They said,
no, we're going to stand back. We know what we believe. We're
children of God. This world is temporary. We're
not looking at the things which are seen. We're looking at the
things that are unseen. We're going out of this world.
This world is not our home, and we're leaving this world. And
they would not accept deliverance. that they might obtain a better
resurrection. And others had trial of cruel
mockings and scourgings, yammer over bonds and imprisonment.
You remember old John Bunyan? Imprisoned 12 years and would
not, he would not give his captors any peace. They said, John will
let you out. You can go back to your family.
You can go back to blind Mary. You can go back. to your daughter
who is in need of your help. You can do this if you won't
preach when we let you out of here. John Bunyan said, I'll
stay here in this dungeon until moss grows over my eyes, but
when I'm out of this prison, I'm going to preach the gospel.
That's what I'm going to do. And John, old John, The tinkerer
stayed in that dungeon for 12 years. And so he was in prison. And they were stoned and they
were sawn asunder. You remember reading about the
old prophet Isaiah? They cut him right in two with
a sword. sawed him in two, with a saw, I'm sorry, with a saw,
but he says they were slain with a sword, and many of God's people
have been. They wondered about his sheepskins and goatskins
being destitute, and there's that word afflicted. Being destitute,
afflicted, and tormented. The world wasn't worthy of these
people. Here they was in this world, this sin-loving, God-hating
world, this place of desolation, this place of sore, sore trouble. And they were in this world,
but the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts
and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. They
all had a good report. They all believed what God said.
They all believed the gospel. But now, how have you fared in
this world? You're not in prison, are you?
No, you're not in jail like John Bunyan. And you're not hungry
either, are you? Most everybody here had plenty
to eat probably before you came this morning. And if you didn't
have, it's probably your own fault. You didn't want it. If
you had wanted it, you could have had it. It was available.
But there are people, listen, living in this world this morning
who their only thought when they was awakened this morning When
they got up this morning was, where am I going to find something
to eat today? Where am I going to find something
to put into my belly today? Where? I don't know whether I
can find it where I did yesterday. I don't know. But they are worse
off, a whole lot worse off than you are. And now we've not cried
yet for death to release us. Have you been praying to die?
There are some people that pray to die, but I think they're just
trying to impress somebody. I don't know of very many people
that really and truly are praying to die. Sincerely praying that
God will take their life. Things are not that bad with
you yet, but I'm sure somewhere this morning that there are some
people not too far from us that genuinely would like that the
Lord would release them and allow them to get out of this body
of misery, this body of affliction and pain. But how are things
with you? Well, is your lot really unbearable? I mean, are you really as miserable
as you let on like you are? Is things really that bad to
where you just don't have a minute's rest and a minute's peace? Is
things really that bad with you? No, my friend, I don't believe
they are. And comparatively speaking, whatever your problems are, they're
light compared with what others have suffered and what others
are suffering this morning. You know, if you were to go into
some of these nursing homes and walk down the hallways of these
nursing homes and hear these people crying out, if you were
to go into some of these insane asylums and see some of these
young people, 17, 18 year old boys and girls standing around
waiting to be diapered, if you just go into some of these places,
if you just open your eyes, you would recognize that your afflictions,
whatever they are, are light. compared with what others have
suffered. That brings me to the fourth
thing. Our afflictions are like compared to the blessings that
we now have and enjoy. Now we are a thankless people. We really are. There's an old
song that says, count your blessings. Count your many blessings and
see what God hath done. But we are not to be a designing
creature. We should be satisfied with what
we have and be content to do the best that we can with what
we have, and we're to be thankful for what God has put into our
hands. We're counting, though, our afflictions. rather than counting our blessings. Are we not murmuring and complaining
other than singing? Most of us are going about murmuring
and complaining. I said a few weeks ago, we all
got a vocabulary to murmur and complain, and we all have got,
we all got the will to murmur, and we all got the will to complain,
every one of us. But my friend, we need to be
thankful for all of the blessings that we now have and enjoy in
this life. For the most part, we can walk.
For the most part, we can walk. I'm mighty glad I can get around.
And people that are not so blessed, they're in a wheelchair. Maybe
they have to walk with a walker. Scoot around. But you can walk,
can't you? Yes, you can. Well, you've been
blessed. And also you can talk, you can express yourself. You
can say what you want to say. Well, you can speak up and you
can let your various ideas and you can convey to others your
wants and your needs. Yes, you can do that. And so
you're blessed. And then you have, as we mentioned,
you have food and then you have shelter. And there's not anyone
here that I know of that's got any children that's going to
go hungry tonight. There's not any of them going
to bed hungry that I know of. Every one of you have got something
to feed your children. And so you've been blessed. So
what are we whining about? What are we whining about? This
generation is characterized by the fact it's a whining generation. Whine all the time. And they
got less reason to whine than any generation that I know of
ever lived on the face of this earth. Less reason. When I come up, when I grew up
in a big family, 11 of us kids, you didn't sit around whining.
It wasn't allowed. Wasn't allowed for you to sit around and feel
sorry for yourself. Wasn't allowed. Wasn't allowed.
Wasn't long. If you didn't, wasn't satisfied
with your situation, they could change it. And they would change
it. They would change it in a hurry. Fix it up so that if you wasn't
happy, you'd really be unhappy. They'd fix it up. You see, if
this wasn't done, I mean, they'd give you this job. You didn't
like that job? Give you something else. Something you'd have to
work twice as long with. Somebody said, that's cruel.
Might have been cruel, but it taught you some lessons. It taught
you that in this world, be thankful for what you have, and go about
your business, and do what you're told to do, and keep your mouth
shut. And stay at it. Stay at your
business. Stay at your task. Now, I know
that's an entirely different philosophy. But I'm doing the
preaching, and I'm telling you why it is that Paul talked about
our afflictions as being light. I'm telling you, measured against
the blessings that you have, your afflictions, whatever they
are, are mighty light. They're mighty light. And that's
material things we're talking about. Fleshly blessings. But look at your spiritual blessings.
Look at your spiritual blessings. You know for the people of God
it's said in the book of Isaiah that they shall not even say
they're sick. Measured with the good news of
the gospel and measured with all of the spiritual blessings
that God has heaped upon us in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we should not even go around saying we're sick when
we're sick. Because The great things the
Lord's done. Romans 5 and verse 1 says, Therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, there's no more
quarrel between us and God. Isn't that wonderful? Praise
the Lord. That's a great spiritual blessing that God's not up in
arms against me this morning. Oh, we talked about what sinners
we are and how much we deserve to go to hell. But isn't it wonderful
that God's at peace with us? Talked last week about the Lord
being pacified. You remember that? No, I don't
think you were here, brother. You ought to have been here to
have heard that. I'll tell you, the Lord is pacified toward His
people. Pacified, and He's not at war
with us. Now, mercy, pardon, forgiveness,
and hope all through our blessed Lord. Romans 8.28, a very familiar
verse, but it tells us that our afflictions are all going to
work out for the eternal good. of our souls and life and for
the glory of God in the end. God is too holy to allow anything
to come into the lives of his children that he would not ultimately
rule over to his glory and our good. Ultimately! Just wait.
Just wait. Be patient. Be patient. You say,
well, this situation, something's got to be done about it now.
No, just wait. God said, I'm going to rule over
it. It'll be for your good, and it'll
be for my glory. Just wait. And that's one of
the spiritual blessings that we have, that God has our case
in His hand, and that God's going to deliver His people. Now then,
the fifth thing, and we're hurrying on here to a conclusion. Our
afflictions are light compared to the blessings that we're going
to enjoy over yonder in eternity. Light. And you remember what
Paul said there? For our light afflictions, which
is but for a moment, it worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. Isn't that marvelous? Now in
Romans chapter 8 verse 17 and 18, it talks about us being heirs
of God and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know
that if He inherits, I'm going to inherit? I'm in him, he is
my head, and whatever, what, listen, I'm going to be, I'm
an heir of God. Now you know we get real proud
sometimes if there's somebody in our families that are well
off, we think we're going to be their heir. We get real proud
about, oh, Uncle so-and-so's going to die and going to leave
some money and I'm going to inherit some of it. But how is it, my
friend, that we don't rejoice more over the fact that we're
heirs of God? Can you think about that a moment?
Heirs of God! Everything that God has is ours
in the person of His Son. We're joint heirs with the Lord
Jesus. God has turned all things over
to His Son, and as we stand in Him, if He inherits, if He's
honored, if He's glorified, we're going to inherit. We're going
to be glorified. We're going to be honored along
with our head, our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
would invite you to turn with me to the book of the Revelation
chapter 21. Revelation chapter 21. I want
to read a few verses here because I think it'll help you to see
what I'm talking about. John said in chapter 21 verse
1, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven
and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be
no more death. You see, compare your situation
now with the way it will be then. There shall be no more death.
All tears be wiped from your eyes, neither any more sorrow. Oh, what a day that will be!
As the songwriter said, what a day that will be! No more sorrow,
no more pain, no more parting over there. What a day! That
will be glorious day! That will be. And so there's
not going to be any more crying, no more tears shed, neither shall
there be any more pain, for all these things, these former things,
are all passed away. And what you're dealing with
now, going to be passed away. It too shall pass. And He that
sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He
said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful.
You write because these words are true. They're true and they're
faithful. It's a faithful testimony. And
he said to me, it is done. It is done. Hallelujah, it's
done. This thing is going to be exactly
like God said. And we can stand here today and
we can challenge you to look at your afflictions in the light
of the blessings that we're going to enjoy in eternity because
it's done. It's done. It's not something
that has to be done. It's already done in the mind
of God. He says, I'm the beginning and
I'm the end. And he says, it's done. It's done. And he says,
I will give it to him that is a thirst of the fountain of the
water of life. And it is done. He that overcome
us shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall
be my son. So we're going to inherit over
there. And these things God has prepared for them that love Him.
And He's revealed them today to us through the Spirit and
through the Word. And so hallelujah. I'm looking
for a new city. I'm looking for a city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. I'm looking
for a new body. He will change these vile bodies.
The day is coming when, according to the power whereby he is able
to subdue all things unto himself, he will take this whole vile
body and he'll change it. And it'll be changed into a body
like unto the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. The day will come,
my friend, and you don't know it and you don't understand it,
maybe, but you'll even thank God for your death. The day will
come when you'll thank God for your death. Now listen to me.
It's a solemn thing to die. There's so much about it that
we just absolutely do not understand. It's all beyond our capability
of understanding, comprehending it, laying hold of it. But there's
going to come a day, it'll undoubtedly, now the time of our death, be
a time of test when Satan will accuse and when he'll disturb
our rest in the Lord. But when we set our feet in Jordan's
river, in the river of death, when our feet touches Jordan
and we look, as the old song said, on Jordan's stormy banks
we stand and cast a wishful eye to Canaan's fair and happy land
where our possessions lie. That's where they're at. They're
over there. They're on the other side. Our
real substantial blessings are over there on the other side.
And as soon as our feet touches the water of Jordan and we begin
to cross over And when we change worlds and we go upstairs, there
we shall see Jesus and we will be like Him. For we shall see
Him even as He is. And we'll walk all over God's
glory, the song says. We're going over yonder to be
with the Lord. We're going upstairs to be with
our God. Now listen to me, my friend.
That, that, when we compare all of that to what little petty
things we're dealing with here, we see that our afflictions are
indeed They're very easy to bear. They're very easy to bear. Do
you think your loved ones today, those that have gone on, do you
think they're looking down over the banister of heaven and longing
to be back down here with you? No, no, no, no, no. They wouldn't
want to come back down here if you were to make them the potentate
and ruler of every nation in this world. They wouldn't want
to come back. They've already touched their feet in Jordan's
river, and they've already crossed over, and their eyes have seen
the king in all of his beauty. They've seen the king, and they're
not interested in coming back. They'd like for you to be there
with them, but they don't want to come back down here. They've
already thanked God for their death. and they praise God that
they're in his presence and in his fellowship. Now then, I saw
in a magazine one time, well, it was actually on the front
page of a paper that said that there was a particular man, certain
man, that died and he went to heaven and then he came back
down here to this earth. And you know what I asked? I
said, why would he ever do that? Why would he do that? And I don't
understand. Of course, I don't believe that
it actually happened. The only one who ever came down is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only one who came from
heaven. The God-man. He came down here,
the Bible says, to seek and to save that which was lost. He
came down here on a mission. He came down here because God
sent him down here. And if it hadn't been for there
being a great work to be done, You know what that great work
was? It was coming to make an end of sin and to bring in everlasting
righteousness. That's why he came down here.
He came down here to do a job. And he accomplished that job.
He accomplished it. But everybody up there They're
not wanting to come back here. No, no. You say, oh, they love
me. Oh, they might have loved you, but they don't want to come
back here. They don't want to come back down to this place.
And so you compare your afflictions to the blessings that's going
to be over there. And my friend, I think you'll say, Paul, you're
right. You're right. These afflictions
are easy to bear. as we compare them to that weight,
that exceeding eternal weight of glory which we're going to
soon experience on the other side. That brings me to the last
thing. Lastly, our afflictions are light
compared with the end that God has in mind in sending them. The end that he has in mind in
sending them. Now, I just want to say this,
that I believe that God's overall reason for giving you trouble
in this world and allowing you to have trouble in this world
is to wean you away from this world. I'll tell you, when you
get down to a certain place in this life, you've been through
some things that other people have been through, and you've
been through maybe a whole lot more than some others have been through.
There's going to come a day when you're going to say, you know,
I'm done with this. I'm tired of it. I'm worn out
with it. As far as I'm concerned, God has weaned my heart away,
and there isn't anything here anymore that I'm that interested
in. And you know, I'm just thinking about home. Thinking about going
home. That's what I'm thinking about.
When you get to a certain place in life, thinking about home. Thinking about going home. Getting
out of this place. Going yonder to be with the Lord.
And so the Lord would lean us away. He would wean us away from
this world. All right, now the second thing
that I say in this, I want to say a few things about. This
is our last point. In 2 Timothy 2, in verse 10,
Paul said, I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they
may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with
eternal glory. Now, whatever the Lord calls
upon us to bear as an individual, as a body, as a church, and we
need to be aware of the fact that we all being members of
the living family of God, if we're saved and if we're in the
Lord Jesus Christ, that we're all in this thing together and
that no man is an island and we touch each other's lives.
And what God is doing in the life of the preacher it is to
the end that he would touch other people's lives and what God's
doing in the lives of the membership of the body where he's placed
you wherever it is he's doing it in order that you he could
use you to set before people that are in need a message, a
word. So we're all in this thing together,
you see. We're the elect of God and we're
God's mouthpiece. We're to speak for God in the
generation that we live. He means to bring his elect to
himself. God's going to save His people.
His gospel He'll bring to the lost. God will bring glory and
honor to His Son. And this is the end that He has
in mind by dealing with us and sending affliction in our life.
Now listen to me. God has given us certain trials
to prepare us so we'll be ready when our lives touch that other
person. We will be able to answer the
question that they will ask. We'll be able. You are the sum
total of your experience. You are what you have experienced. If you hadn't had any trouble,
then you cannot minister to those who are in trouble. You are like
a cloud that is empty, and it looks good, maybe, and promising,
but it's empty, and there'll be no moisture come from that
cloud. It's a dry cloud. All right,
you are the sum total then of your experience. You cannot tell
what you do not know any more than you can come back from someplace
that you've never been. Now, you just remember that because
that, I think, will be something that you can take out of here
with you. You cannot tell people something you don't know. No
more than you can come back from some place that you haven't been.
Now you can never speak a word in season to a poor afflicted
child of God unless you have experienced affliction yourself. We comfort others with the comfort
wherewith He comforts us. Have you had any comfort from
the Lord? Do you know anything about what
it means to be comforted? Oh, for the right words. Have
you ever been around somebody and you sensed here is somebody
that needs to hear something? Oh, my soul is so dry. I don't have anything to say. And you begin to pray inwardly,
silently, Lord, grant me a word that I'll be able to leave this
word with this poor soul. That I'll be able to say something
to this individual. And generally speaking, what
God does, He brings something to our mind. out of our experience,
out of what we've been through, out of what God has done and
meant to our lives in peculiar and difficult situations, and
gives us something to say to that soul, and enables us to
answer their question and to minister unto them. Oh God, may
you grant us, for Christ's sake, something to say to these poor
souls. Maybe that God has put you into
a closet, and maybe he has hemmed you in. And Gary and I was talking
yesterday, talked about how that sometimes it looks like walls
are around us, stone walls, and it looks like that the river
is coming behind us, and we'll have no way of escape. No way
of escape. It may be that God has shut you
up, and it may be that he just wants to use you one time. It
may be that he's afflicted you so he can use you one time. You remember old Moses? God sent
him out in the desert for 40 years and he was out there 40
years. God prepared him for a job. One
job God had for him to do. And so he sent him out there
in the backside of the desert until he could learn about the
power of God and the ableness of God and the blessing of God. God had a purpose. and sending
him there and isolating him, putting him there in the closet
to use him one time. And so you see the end that God
has in mind, what he intends our afflictions are like compared
with what he means to do with our life. So if we could view
our afflictions and our troubles and trials like this, like we've
explained this morning, I believe we could accept them as being
light, easy to bear, and not be overwhelmed by them. Not just
be overwhelmed. Well, I want to read just a couple
quotes and we're done. There was a man by the name of
Lindsay Clegg. He said, if there's one thing
that I would like to have said of me by those who are left behind
when I've gone into the glory land, It would be just this. Now, he wouldn't want them to
be talking about how that he was overwhelmed with his trials.
How that he was just completely, just knocked out of the race
by his trials. But he said, I would want them
to say that the overflow hid the vessel. And do you know what
he meant by that? That the overflow hid the vessel. Now what he meant was that in
my looking at my situation, I looked at the end that God had in mind
in everything he sent into my life. And I got the victory by
the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ and was more
than conquer and the overflow of the blessing of God in my
life hid all of my affliction and hid my trial and hid all
that I'd been going through. The overflow, the victory that
I had in the Redeemer hid the vessel. And then Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones,
who I had a lot of respect for, he said, There are two things,
I think he said, that are the very essence of the whole Christian
position and the secret of a successful spiritual life is to realize
two things. One, to have complete, absolute
confidence in God and no confidence in myself. Absolute confidence
in God, none in myself. And then Robert Murray McShane
said this, Oh, for a true, unfeigned humility, I know I have cause
to be humble. This man died when he was in
his early thirties. And yet I do not know one half of that cause. I have a cause to be humble,
but I don't know half of that cause. He says, I know I'm proud,
and yet I do not know half of that pride. You know, as we begin
to think, meditate, as we begin to study, and as we begin to
look at our true state and our true situation and examine it
in the light of the Word of God, how blessed we are. How blessed
we are. Glorious, how blessed we are.
And I just believe with all my heart that we just need to get
our eyes on the Lord and get our eyes off of our situations,
get them more focused on these things that we spelled out to
you here this morning. May God receive the glory. May
God receive the praise.