We have a very significant and
I believe important message for you today. And I say that this
message is important and significant especially in the light of what
we're hearing from most pulpits and especially from TV programs. I hear things like this all the
time and I do make it my business to listen to other preachers.
I hear them saying all the time, God wants you to be prosperous.
It's God's will for you, if you're a believer, to be prosperous.
Then I hear another one come along and say, God wants you
to be healthy. God wants you to have a lot of
money, pay all your bills, drive two or three cars, live in a
mansion, have a swimming pool, and he wants you to be in perfect
health. That's what God wants. That's the will of God for every
one of his children. That's what I hear men say. And
I hear them saying, all sickness, all sorrow, all affliction is
of the devil. That's what they're saying. And
some poor, afflicted, sick child of God out there is listening
to that preacher, and he says, if you're not healthy, and if
you're not wealthy like I am, because he got wealthy by you
sending him what you have. That's the reason you're not
wealthy, you send it to him. And that's the reason he is wealthy.
But if you're not healthy and wealthy, it's because you don't
have faith. If you had faith like I am, and charisma like
I have, and you could hoodwink and con people like I can, then
you'd be wealthy. And then I hear them say there's
healings in the atonement, and all Christians ought to be well.
Now let me tell you something, and you hear me well, and you
hear me well. This is contrary to experience,
and it's contrary to the Word of God. This thing, God wants
you to be prosperous and God wants you to be wealthy and healthy
and God wants you to have the best of everything and all sicknesses
of the devil and all afflictions of the devil and all sorrows
of the devil, that's not a word of truth in that at all. It's
contrary to experience and it's contrary to the word of God.
Some of the Lord's choicest people have been very poor, very poor. You go back through the years
and go back through the past many years of religious history,
and you'll find some of God's choice people have been poor
people. I have friends right now in Spain and in Mexico and
Indians in Canada, and they're not prosperous people or wealthy
people. They're very poor people, but
they're people who are rich in grace and rich in faith, and
they know Christ and they love Christ. But many of his people
have been poor. Some of them have been persecuted.
John Bunyan spent 12 years in prison. Many of God's people
have been martyred. Read the 11th and 12th chapters
of Hebrews and read how that they lived in caves and how that
they were persecuted and martyred and slain and sent to prison
for their faith. Tribulation. Many of God's people
have been greatly afflicted, beginning with Job and then come
on through the New Testament, greatly afflicted. Some of the
greatest preachers of the past several hundred years have been
greatly afflicted as far as bodily health is concerned. Charles
Spurgeon, one of the greatest preachers England's ever heard,
spent about 30 of his 58 years very sick, out of his pulpit
sometimes for months at a time. The Word of God, now this thing
of God wants you to be prosperous and wealthy and healthy and all
these things and all healings and the atonement, and if you
don't have perfect health and if you don't have prosperity,
it's because you don't have any faith. That's not true, not according
to experience and not according to the Word of God. Listen to
the scripture. Christ said, In this world you shall have tribulation. They that would live godly in
Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. David said in Psalm 193, it's
good for me that I've been afflicted. It's good for me that I've been
afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. The Apostle Paul
said, I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. I have
learned in whatsoever state I am to be content. Listen to James.
My brethren, count it joy, count it joy when you go through trial.
The trying of your faith worketh patience. And listen to the Apostle
Paul in 2 Corinthians 4. Now listen to this, verse 7.
He's talking about this ministry God had given him. He talked
about this faith God had given him. This relationship with Christ
that God had given him. And he said in 2 Corinthians
4, 7, we have this treasure. this treasure of grace, this
knowledge of God, this relationship with God. We have it in an earthen
vessel. This is an earthen vessel. This
is not a glorified body. This is a temporary tabernacle,
a temporary tent that someday is going to fall down. My body
is subject to disease just like anybody else's body. My body
is subject to infirmities and afflictions just like anybody
else. I don't have any magic Hedge about me to prevent disease. I have the mercy of God and the
blessings of God and the will of God But it may be God's will
for me to suffer so that I can sympathize with someone else
who suffers you can only weep for those that weep if you've
wept and Paul said we have this we have this treasure in earthen
vessels that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not
of us Paul said with trouble on every side Yet not distress
We're perplexed, but we're not in despair. We're persecuted,
but we're not forsaken. We're cast down, but we're not
destroyed. For this cause we faint not.
Now watch this. But though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. I tell you, as you
get a little older, the afflictions begin to mount, the infirmities
begin to mount. Some of you notice I wear hearing
aids because most of my hearing's gone. I wear glasses because
my eyes are very dim. I'm getting close to 60 years
of age. I'm getting close to the time when this tabernacle
is going to fall, this tent's going to fall down. I'm going
to have these infirmities. I cannot expect in the flesh
to have perfect health, but yet, though the outward man perish,
the inward man is renewed day by day. Now watch this line here. for our light affliction, which
is but for a moment our light affliction, whatever those afflictions
are. Work is for us a far more exceeding weight of glory. My
friends, our light afflictions. Did you bristle a little bit
when I read that, our light afflictions? I wouldn't blame you. I wouldn't
blame you. Some of you are going through
some heavy trials. I know that you are, some heavy trials. And
when I read that, our light affliction is but for a moment, I imagine
some of you bristled a little bit and said, what do you mean
light? This trial is heavy. This burden is heavy. And it
does seem heavy. It does seem heavy. Some of you
have physical distress. Some of you have been sick a
long time. Some of you have heart problems.
Some of you have cancer. Some of you have several. And
I'm not saying that you don't have faith. You're not healed. If you had faith, you'd be well.
I'm saying this, God's grace is sufficient. The Apostle Paul
had a thorn in the flesh, and God gave him the grace. He didn't
remove the thorn, but he gave him the grace sufficient for
his needs. God does heal. Sometimes it's
the will of God to make men well. Sometimes it's not the will of
God. But some of you have physical distress, and some of you have
been to the cemetery a time or two and buried loved ones. And
I know some of you are very lonely. You know what it is to live alone,
to eat alone, to sleep alone, to sit alone. The loneliness
sometimes is so heavy you can cut it with a knife. And some
of you have children who've broken your hearts, just broken your
hearts so many. Some of you are crippled and
lame. Some of you are growing old and
you're getting feeble. Well, you know the hymn writer
put it this way, swift to its close, ebbs out life's little
days. Its joys grow dim, its glories
fade away. They will. Change and decay in
all around I see. O thou that changest not, abide
with me. Abide with me. That's what I
need. I don't need perfect health. I need the perfect presence of
Christ. I don't need prosperity. I need the person and presence
of Christ. That's what I need above all
things. And then Paul comes along here with this light afflictions,
light afflictions. Our light afflictions is but
for the moment. What does he mean by that? Does Paul call
our afflictions light afflictions because he was without feeling?
Oh, no. Paul wept with those that wept.
rejoice with those that rejoice. He was a man of deep feeling.
He said on one occasion, I could wish myself a curse from Christ
for my brethren according to the flesh. My heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.
Was he frivolous or careless? Oh, no. Well, maybe it was because
Paul didn't really have any afflictions. I tell you this, Paul graduated
in the school of affliction. If you want to read about Paul's
afflictions, you jot this down. You read 2 Corinthians 11. verse
24 through 28. And you'll read about the afflictions
of Paul. He was a man who could write afflictions in capital
letters. And yet, listen to what he says.
He said, I am troubled on every side, but I'm not distressed. He said, I'm perplexed, but I'm
not in despair. I'm persecuted, but I'm not forsaken. I'm cast down, but I'm not destroyed. And then he said, though this
outward man, this outward man perishes. Yet the inward man
is renewed day by day. For our light afflictions, our
light afflictions, which are but for a moment, which are but
for a moment, are nothing, nothing." Now, how could he say that? Well,
Paul learned to look upon afflictions in the right frame of mind. That's
what I want to try to help you with and help myself with today.
Paul looked on afflictions with the right frame of mind and with
a proper attitude. Knowing that God, our Father,
is the first cause of all things. That's right. Even, you know,
when Satan came to persecute Job and to try Job, he had to
get permission from God. God's the first cause of all
things. He has to be, or he's not God. If there's any power
greater than God's power, then that power is God. If there's
any force that can turn God, or influence God, then that's
the force we need to worship. But God's the first cause of
all things. In Him we live and move and have our being. God
created all things, and all things exist in Him. And He's the first
cause of all things. Our God is. And all these things,
good and bad, work together for His glory and our good. That's
what He said in Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things work
together for good. to them who love God, who are
the called according to his purpose. So let me tell you something.
Now you listen to me. It's not true, not by experience or the
word of God, that it's the will of God for every one of his children
to be prosperous. That's just not so. It's not
true, according to experience and the word of God, that God
has willed that all of his people be in perfect health, without
any affliction, infirmity, or trial or sorrow. These afflictions
are God-ordained. These infirmities are God-ordained
if you're a child of God, and they work with God's glory and
you're good. But I'm going to give you five or six things here
that may help you in regard to these infirmities and these afflictions
and to adopt the right spirit, attitude, and frame of mind toward
them. Now, Paul had them, but he had
the right frame of mind toward them. He said these life's afflictions
are but for a moment. But for a moment, and they work
in us and follow us, a far more exceeding weight of eternal glory.
And they're not worthy to be compared with the love and grace
and mercy of God. So let's take our afflictions,
whatever they are, heartache, bodily infirmity, poverty, disappointment,
loneliness, sorrow, the death of a loved one, Let's take these
afflictions and let's look at them a little bit. Look at them
straight and truthfully from the Word of God. Well, first
of all this, my afflictions, whatever they are, they are light. They are light compared to what
I deserve. You see what I'm saying? Whatever
God brings to pass in my life, however severe it is, however
difficult it is, it's light. compared to what I deserve. Listen
to David in Psalm 103. Now here's, we need to get straightened
out in our thinking here. Some of us think we deserve something
from God's hand. We don't deserve anything but
the wages of sin, and that's death. But it says here in Psalm
103, 8, listen, the Lord is merciful and gracious. The Lord is slow
to anger. He's plenteous in mercy. He will
not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. God
hath not dealt with us after our sin. God hath not rewarded
us according to our iniquities. No, he hasn't. God hasn't dealt
with me according to my sin. God hasn't rewarded me according
to my iniquities. He's dealt with me in grace,
and he's rewarded me in mercy from the bountiful hand of a
merciful God in Christ Jesus. And whatever I'm called upon
to suffer in this life, it's the mercy of God compared to
what I deserve. I could be in hell. That's exactly
right. I could be crying now with a
rich man in hell. Father Abraham, send Lazarus
to dip his finger in water and touch my tongue. I'm tormented
in this flame. My sins. Go back to the Garden
of Eden. I was with Adam when he fell.
So were you. Go back to Judea. We were with that multitude when
they cried, crucify him. Will I have this man reign over
us? We were with that crowd that danced around the cross and spit
upon the Son of God and laughed while he died. I tell you this,
we could be in reprobation. That's right, like Judas and
Pharaoh and a few others. We could be in heathen darkness. That's exactly right. So anything
this side of hell is mercy. God has not dealt with us according
to our sin, nor rewarded us according to our iniquity. God has dealt
with us in mercy, so whatever I have, it's more than I deserve,
a whole lot more, whatever I have. All right, secondly, and I'll
get a hold of this thing, I'll get a hold of the right attitude
toward affliction or infirmity if I consider it in the light
of God's Word. Secondly, my affliction is light compared with many others
who live right now on this earth or have lived on this earth.
Read Hebrews 11 and read how some of those people suffered.
and how they were persecuted for preaching and believing the
gospel. We've never resisted the blood.
We're not in prison for our faith. We haven't shed blood for our
faith. I read the story of John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress.
He was put in jail for preaching the gospel. You say, didn't God
know he was down there in jail? I'm sure that he did. You mean
God permitted him to remain in jail 12 years? He had a little
blind daughter. He had several children. And
he had this little blind daughter who loved her daddy so much,
and they'd bring her up to the jail to visit her father. And
she'd beg him to come home. She'd say, Father, come home,
come home. Well, all he had to do to go
home was just tell him he wouldn't preach this gospel anymore. You
see, they had a state church, the church of the establishment,
and you had to preach what the state church agreed upon, and
the theology of the state church, or you couldn't preach. Well,
John Bunyan was preaching the gospel of God's grace, and they
had him thrown in jail. And he could go home any time
he quit preaching, but he wouldn't quit. He was called to preach
the gospel. And this little girl begged him
to go home. I tell you, I've never spent 12 years in prison.
And then most of us can see, we can hear, we can speak, I
read a poem one time, a fellow said, I complained that I had
no gloves till I met a man who had no hands. I complained that
I had no shoes till I met a man who had no feet. I tell you,
when so many have so much less than we do, we ought to give
thanks to God for everything we have, even our afflictions,
even our infirmities, because even they work for our good and
God's glory. You see, infirmities and afflictions
work patience. It caused me to grow in patience
and grow in grace and grow in the knowledge of the Savior.
So my afflictions are light compared with many others. I've never
suffered like some men have suffered, and you've never suffered like
some women have suffered. There are people all around you
that have so many more afflictions than you do, and here we're complaining
about our light affliction. And then thirdly, my afflictions
alike, compared to what my Lord suffered for me in bearing my
sins." Listen to Hebrews 12, 3 and 4. Consider the Lord Jesus
Christ, who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. Consider him, lest you be weary. and faint in your minds, you
have not resisted the blood." You read Isaiah 53. Our Lord
was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief,
wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. the
chastisement of our peace laid upon him with his stripes, where
he'll see him in hand-to-hand combat with Satan, see our Lord
Jesus Christ tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, see
him in the garden agonizing under the weight of our transgressions,
see him in Pilate's hall beaten and mocked by soldiers, see him
hanging on that cross and hear him cry in Lamentation 112, is
it nothing to you? All ye that pass by, and behold
my sorrow, is any sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger? I never
suffered like that. When my son was killed in Vietnam,
I read something that helped me a great deal. Another man
had lost a son and some mocker came up to him and said, well,
where was your God when your boy died? Where was your God
when your boy died? Where was your God when your
son died? And he replied, right where he was when his son died,
on the throne. And that's what I'm telling you.
You and I, our afflictions alike. compared to the afflictions that
our Lord bore in our place and in our stead on that cross of
Calvary. Yes, he suffered. Why shouldn't
I suffer? Must I be carried to the skies
on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win that prize
and literally sailed through bloody seas? Shall I shy away
from bearing my share of affliction for Christ's sake? refused to
bear in my body the marks and the dying of Jesus Christ? God
have mercy on this generation that wants everything on a silver
platter, not willing to give, not willing to suffer, not willing
to bear any reproach or shame for the glory of Jesus Christ
when he bore so much for us. Oh, my afflictions are so light,
so light compared with what he suffered for my sins. And then
fourthly, my afflictions are light compared to the blessings
I now enjoy. Yes, sir, that I right now enjoy.
1 John 3, 2 says, Beloved, now
are we sons of God. I'll tell you, being a son of
God, that's the greatest blessing God can give a man. I don't care
whether he has tuberculosis, or whether he has cancer, or
whether he has heart trouble, or whether he has a wayward boy,
or whether he's an old man with two years to live, if he's a
child of the King, God has crowned him, God Almighty has blessed
him, God Almighty has given him benefits and mercies like he's
given not even to the fallen angel, he's given him the gift
of his love. What more do we want? Now are
we sons of God, therefore being justified by faith? Right now
we have peace with God. Who maketh thee to differ? What
hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if you received
it, why do you boast as if you didn't? Rejoice that your name's
in the book of life. Rejoice that even your trials
work together for your good. Even my trials are being worked
out by God for my good. You ever sing that old hymn,
Count Your Many Blessings? Name them one by one. It'll surprise
you what the Lord has done. But no, I'll tell you what we
do. We look at what's wrong. There are 40 things right and
one thing wrong, and we stay on the thing that's wrong. There
are 40 things good and one thing bad, and we stay on the thing
that's bad. That's such a bad trait. That's such a bad characteristic. Give God the glory for what you
have. These infirmities just go with
the flesh. You wake up in the morning with
a headache. People all over the world have headaches. Why shouldn't
you? You wake up in the morning with a backache. People all over
the world have backaches. Why shouldn't you have one? You
have all the blessings of God. In Christ you have wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. We have so much to rejoice in.
Why do we complain and find fault with God's good providence? I
tell you, that is rejoicing the Lord. God hates murmuring. The children of Israel in the
land of the wilderness, God's judgment fell on them more for
murmuring, murmuring, murmuring than anything else. They complained
about the manna. They complained about the longness
of the journey. They complained about all these
things. They complained about Moses. And God let their carcasses
die and dry up in the wilderness, and they never entered the promised
land. I'll tell you God's good providence, by his grace he's
brought me safe thus far, and his grace will lead me home.
Let us give thanks. Paul said, Rejoice in the Lord
always, and again I say rejoice. Now watch this. My afflictions
are light, very light, compared to what I shall enjoy when God
calls me home. Do you know what I have? I have
an inheritance. that's reserved in heaven, undefiled,
that fadeth not away, that's waiting my coming. That's right.
Paul said in Romans 8, verse 16, the Spirit beareth witness
with our spirit that we're children of God. And if we're children
of God, then we're heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. If so be that we suffer with
him, we shall reign with him. Now watch this. I reckon that
the sufferings of this present time, the sufferings of this
present time, are not worthy to be compared with the glory
that shall be revealed in us. Brethren, I'm looking for a city
whose builder and maker is God. I'm looking for a new body. This
body is going to decay and rot and fall apart. I expect it to.
I may have 12, 13 more years. I'm nearly 60 years old. Some
of you are older than that. I don't expect to live here always.
This body is going back to the dust from whence it came. But
I'm going to have a new body. This mortal is going to put on
immortality. This corruption is going to put on incorruption.
This weakness is going to put on strength. This shame is going
to put on glory at the coming of the Lord. I'm looking for
a city. I'm looking for a new body. I'm
looking for eternal glory. And John wrote in Revelation,
and God's going to wipe away all tears from their eyes. And
there shall be no more death, no more sorrow, no more crying. Neither shall there be any more
pain. There's going to be pain as long as we're here. There's
going to be sorrow as long as we're here. There's going to
be sickness as long as we're here. That's right. And you're
not immune. You're not immune. But one of
these days, all these things are going to be taken away. He
said, right, behold, I make all things new. All things new. Right. These sayings are true
and faithful. Yes, sir. My afflictions, my
light afflictions, they're light compared to what I deserve. Yes,
they are. And they're light compared to
what I have. God's blessed me. They're indescribable,
innumerable. David said, when I think about
your blessings and benefits, they're innumerable, more than
I can number. My blessings are nothing compared
My afflictions are nothing compared to what my Lord suffered in my
place. And then when I look at folks around me who suffer much
more than I do, I'm ashamed when I complain, aren't you? Just
ashamed. I have so much. And one of these
days, in Christ, we're going to have everything. When our
Lord returns and we're raised from the grave, we're going to
be made into His likeness, and it'll be a new day.