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2 Corinthians 4:17-18
So today, as I mentioned, the title of my sermon is Holy Violence and Suffering. And I want to start off with a brief illustration. Why does a boat float? Have you ever wondered about the science behind this phenomenon?
Maybe you haven't. I'm always interested in how do things work. When an object's in the water, an object in the water faces two competing forces. First, there's the force of buoyancy pushing up. If you were trying to dive to the bottom of the pool, you'll feel that force pushing back against you.
You've got to fight against that. It's hard. Second, you have gravity as the other force. Gravity pushes down on all objects. If we didn't have gravity, we would go flying off the earth into outer space.
So thank the Lord for gravity. Only when these forces are equal does an object float successfully. So when the force of gravity and the force of buoyancy are equal, then something floats. Generally, more surface area equates to greater buoyancy.
So if you think about lying flat, you float in the pool when you lie flat. When you bundle up in a ball, you sink. Now, moving on to the spiritual realm, what keeps a Christian afloat during suffering?
How do we keep afloat during suffering? All around us, we see unbelievers sinking in despair, sinking, submerging, going under, under the weight of their sorrows. So how are we kept afloat? The Christian's buoyancy in suffering, it really comes from our eternal hope.
That is what keeps a Christian afloat. The weight of glory. So if you think about buoyancy and gravity, when we have sufferings pushing down, the weight of glory pushes back up. That counterbalances the weight of our suffering, and it enables the Christian to survive the storms that wrack our soul.
So the weight of glory is what keeps us afloat. So what gives meaning to Christian suffering? We don't endure suffering for the sake of itself, or because we enjoy pain. I don't know about you, but I do not enjoy pain.
That's not something it's like, oh great, here comes some suffering. Let's endure it so we can get the pain. Christian suffering is predicated on the object of our adoration, namely Christ himself. We endure suffering because we want to be like Christ, and we desire to obtain a better resurrection.
That's why we suffer. Those that are afflicted, they look past their current miseries into a certain hope of a glorious eternal home in heaven. Holy violence and suffering is very different from holy violence and sanctification, prayer, evangelism in two main ways.
The first is our suffering cannot be planned or predicted. You can't predict when suffering comes. And finally, victory is achieved through confident endurance and not relentless action. You're not doing something during suffering, you're enduring the suffering.
God controls the timing and the mode of our trials, so we must practice awaiting endurance rather than an active endurance. That's how the Christian survives. People can put off evangelism, people can put off prayer, but no one can avoid drinking the cup of suffering when it's presented to our lips.
You can't avoid it. Since we cannot stop suffering, how are Christians to be distinguished from unbelievers during trials? How are we? How are we different? We have hope. That is the main difference. Our response to suffering is what sanctifies us, not the mere act of suffering itself.
Non-believers suffer, but our response is what sanctifies. If you think about several grains of sand or sugar in a gas tank, that'll destroy your engine. But put those same grains of sugar in a clam, and what does it produce?
Elegant pearls. So the sand is not what's important, it's the clam's response to it that produces a pearl versus destroying an engine. Perseverance in trusting God during suffering, it purifies our soul and it perplexes the world.
The world is perplexed when it sees a Christian enduring suffering through Christ. So please turn with me to 2 Corinthians 4. We're going to read verses 16 -18 together. And while you're turning, we're going to focus on 17 -18, but I want to read 16 because I think it's important.
Of all the verses in the New Testament, I believe this one summarizes our Christian hope best. Paul was no stranger to suffering himself. He gave an extensive list in chapter 11 of this very book. However, when Paul weighed all these difficulties against Jesus Christ on the scales of eternity, he found that he always came out a winner.
Always. Hear what he writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He says in 2 Corinthians 4,. Therefore, we do not lose hearts. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
For our light affliction, which is for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal way to glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. In the Gospels, Jesus commanded his disciples, he said, you sit down and you must count the cost before you resolve to follow me.
Therefore, I'm going to divide this exposition into three parts. To demonstrate holy violence through suffering, we need to consider the length of eternity, number one, the value of eternity, number two, and the God of eternity.
Finally, the length of eternity, the value of eternity, and the God of eternity. Think about unbelievers. They weigh the cost, longevity, and manufacturer's reputation before you buy a house or car. Before they put substantial sums of money into something, they look at those three things.
Believers use the same framework, but we view these, when we're looking at eternal blessings, we view these heavenly promises through the lens of faith. As the author and finisher of our faith, Jesus evaluated the cross through these exact metrics, the length of eternity, the value of eternity, and the God of eternity.
Jesus' suffering, we can safely say, eclipsed the suffering of any man, and his power to skip this bitter cup must have been an incredibly potent temptation. Fast forward, go straight to glory. But he was strengthened through prayer and the hope of his reward, and he said, I am resolved to suffer.
Why? To accomplish our salvation and obey his father's will. These three qualities can help us persevere, even when we are in the darkness of our own personal Gethsemane. Please bow your head and pray with me.
Lord, I pray that you would be with us today, Lord, be with the members that are not here, that are traveling or sick. Lord, help us to think about eternity, Lord, and what our redemption costs, and to fix and focus our eyes on you, for the things of this world may grow dim as you look more and more into the light of your glorious face.
Christ's name. So for my first point, let's consider the length of eternity, verses 17 and 18. I'm going to highlight a few verses here. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a more exceeding and eternal way to glory.
While we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Consider time. This simple sentence contains volumes of truth.
Time and value have an interesting relationship. For most items, time is a thief of value. Machinery, cars, technology have a rapid depreciation. The truck that you bought for 30 ,005 years ago is worth $4 ,000 today.
Same with my car. Advances in technology and wear and tear from daily use, they quickly conspire to make most items you own worthless in a decade or less. Very few things retain their value. A new car, for example, a new car loses 10 of its value in the first month of ownership, and 20 of its value in the first year.
By contrast, if you put an equally sized investment in a 401k, that can return 8 to you in an average year. You see, those that choose to invest their money, they're deferring current pleasure for a greater reward in the future, right?
However, that's a smart move in terms of financial planning, but it's not the wisest in eternity. How many people die with a fully loaded 401k and never enjoy it? You know, our pastor had a guy he worked with, he retired, and two weeks later he was dead, right?
That happens. If your retirement aligns with the matter of days. So people who retired in a recession see this happen. Trading a current pleasure for future pleasures only works if you can be certain of the future.
That's the only way it works. Knowledge of the future, that is an attribute of divinity. Mortal man, we can only forecast our future based on limited information. The rich fool in the gospel would have gladly traded his bigger barns to be the lowest citizen in heaven if he was given a second chance.
He would have gladly exchanged that. In these verses, what we see, we see Paul use something like this investment analogy. He compares the duration of eternity to our present suffering at the end of verse 17, and he compares eternal things to earthly things at the end of verse 18.
You look at different versions, they render this clause in different ways. The NASV says momentary light affliction. The ASV renders this clause as afflictions are for a moment. The New King James Version, King James Version, I prefer the New King James, says but for a moment.
For those that have great trials, this language may seem incredible. How could the apostle Paul say his sufferings were but for a moment? If every hour of pleasure seems like a minute, then every minute of pain seems like an hour.
Nothing slows the clock down like suffering. And yet, when you look at these verses, Paul chose to use a brief interval to describe his trials. See, Paul was considering, perhaps he was considering the weight of his sins against his appointing sufferings.
That's one potential explanation there. If you consider this in our own lives, I think we can all concur that no matter how great our sufferings, we have not suffered as much as we deserve for our sins.
We just haven't. Holy violence suppresses the sinful revolt of our heart against outward circumstances, and it focuses on the grace that we have received. I like this prayer from the Valley of Vision.
It's one of my favorite of that book. It says my trials have been fewer than my sins, and when I have kissed the rod, it has fallen from my hands. Thou hast often wiped away my tears, restore peace to my mourning heart, and chastened me for my prophet.
All thy work is perfect, and for that I praise thee. How much suffering would you really need to atone for your own sin? Hell provides a stark example of that. An eternity of suffering can never suffice to pay the bill that our sins have signed.
We all have a sin nature. You know, Keith talked about this in Sunday school today, because our first parents committed a single act, one of rebellion against God. Moses, the meekest man on earth, God called him that, was forbidden to enter the promised land because he struck a rock in anger, rather than obeying God's command to speak to it.
You know, David's adulterous spirit, Bathsheba, it cost him the life of three of his other sons, if you count it up. One lie to the Holy Spirit costs Ananias and Sapphira their lives, one lie. So considering these examples, we come to the conclusion our afflictions can never be enough to atone for a lifetime of sin.
They can't be. Paul's thoughts could be on his role in the stoning of Cephan, or he could have thought of the persecution of other early Christians when he penned these words. Perhaps he was thinking of those things.
Sin causes suffering, but suffering also works righteousness in us. See, this is the double-sided nature of God's providence. The same instrument that's used to chasten us is also the most effective instrument to make us more like Christ.
In modern medicine, if you get bit by a snake, the cure for snake bite, anti-venom, is actually formulated from the snake's own venom. They take the venom of the snake and formulate a cure. How fitting that our God would defang the serpent of old by making suffering the avenue to bring us closer to him.
That's what Christ does. What the devil intends for evil, God returns on our own head for our spiritual good. We see this very frequently in the Bible. I like what Mark Dever says here. He's summed up our afflictions in this manner.
He says the sufferings that we endure in this life are the last gasp of the judgment from which we are being delivered. We are being delivered from judgment. It's the last gasp that tries to hold on to you, but it cannot hold on to the believer.
Paul says, he says that affliction is working for us. Isn't that an amazing statement? Affliction works for us like a servant. The next time you're weighed down with earthly trials, apply holy violence to your mind and dwell on this fact.
Affliction is not a robber. Rather, affliction is a tutor or a personal trainer. Try as it might, it cannot do anything that it does not result in our spiritual good. Suffering cannot do anything but that.
All children eventually outgrow their tutors and they move on to either adult pursuits or they move on to higher education. If you were a successful tutor, you literally work yourself out of a job. That's the point.
Personal trainers at the gym, they have a transient relationship with their clients as well. Once a person gets comfortable working out alone, you don't need a personal trainer anymore. The days of that are over.
See, these careers, they exist to further someone's personal development. Those careers are not an end in themselves. You don't want to train them forever. You want to start working out on your own. Their authority of these people is constrained and their reign is short-lived.
If you look at what Paul says in the Epistles to the Romans in 828, he says the same exact thing. All things work together for good, for those that love God and for those that are called according to his purpose.
Affliction, joy, physical blessings, freedom, captivity, relationships, they all work together to fulfill God's purpose in our lives. When you think about a cook, you know, Keith and Phoebe made a great cookie today, a Grinch cookie that we were tasting.
A cook mixes sweet, sour, bitter, salty together to make a what? A delicious entree. See, God, in his work, he's the same way. He uses all circumstances, whether the circumstances are good or bad, to prepare us for glory.
Suffering in Christ is always meaning, suffering when you're in Christ, is always meaningful, and suffering without Christ is a living death. It's interesting if you note in this verse, Paul pairs two words together, namely, far more exceeding and eternal as the antipodes or opposites of our momentary affliction.
See, as finite beings, we have no problem understanding short periods of time, but infinity boggles our mind. See, what is 75, 195, or 969 years compared to the grand scale of eternity? Is 1 ,000 gallons of seawater really much more than one when you use the ocean as a scale?
No, it's not. They're not that much different. Perhaps Paul anticipates this weakness in his hearers, and thus he uses two different words when attempting to convey the scale of an infinite future. We see similar phrasing from Paul in the benediction that is found in Ephesians 3.
He says, now to him who's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, to him be the glory in the church of Jesus Christ to all generations forever and ever.
Exceedingly abundantly all we ask or think, kind of a similar phrasing there. You see, the only limits to Christ's blessings are in our own imagination. That's the only limits to them, and our failure to comprehend them is no fault of the creator.
It's not his fault that we can't comprehend them. Christ's bounty for his saints, it exceeds the wildest dreams of the most sanctified believer. He can do anything he wants. Our afflictions, if you look at them, they have a definite time limit.
They have a definite conclusion. Like the waves of the ocean, Christ tells our sufferings, this far you come and no further. See, but our blessings from Christ on the other's hand, they're as endless as the inexhaustible goodness of his holy nature.
Remember the blessing that God promises the generous man in Luke 6 .38? He says, give and it will be given to you. Good measure, press down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom.
For with the same measure that you use, it'll be measured back to you. This is the return that God will give to his saints in eternity. See, God's blessings, they're only limited by the saints' desire for them or their ability to absorb them.
They're not limited by the munificence or benevolence of our great creator. Try meditating on God's generous nature without becoming joyful. It's hard to meditate on God's generosity and not become joyful when you think of all he's given us.
If you put this more frequently into practice, then our spiritual life will be greatly benefited. Let's return to Paul's superlatives in our texts. He says, far more exceeding, that's an expectation. When he says eternal, that's a duration.
To put it another way, one represents a subjective quality, and the other is an objective reality. See, no human could ever imagine the pleasures that God has for those that love him or grasp and join them for eternity.
You know, I've heard from those that have been to the Grand Canyon. I've never been, but they said there's no words to beauty. And then how can we represent heaven when our minds are accustomed to joy mixed with sorrow and blessings mixed with curses?
We can't. See, when we get to heaven, we're no longer slaves to time. Time is under Christ's feet, along with sin, along with death. And God has finally freed us from sin to live with him. And he frees us from time so we can serve him alone.
We no longer have to worry about, I have to be here at this place, I have to be here at this time. Our time is God's, and we live for him always. You know, even when you're in heaven, even the formerly beneficial ties like marriage and family, those are important ties.
But those are dissolved in heaven and replaced with our new relatives in the family of God. Christ assumes the role of eternal husband as he is the head of his bride, the church. And as a man, as a leader of his household on earth, Christ assumes that role in heaven.
And endless eternity, it necessitates a leader with an inexhaustible character. You have forever. You need a leader whose character cannot be exhausted. You know, we will come no nearer to plumbing the depths of Christ's goodness, wisdom, justice, and glory in our two millionth year in heaven than we did in our first one.
The words of John Newton ring especially true here. He said, when we've been there 10 ,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. See, Paul closes verse 18 by alluding to the temporary nature of earthly things.
Our afflictions here are fleeting, and thus the time we have to enjoy our material blessings is limited as well. The brevity of both our positive things in our life and the negative things in our life, these are functioning as a spiritual street sign to point us to the everlasting Savior.
You know, consider how many great kingdoms thought they would last forever, and yet they collapsed. And now they're merely a historical curiosity. You know, like the Egyptian, the Greek, the Roman, the Babylonian, the Persian empires, all these seem to last forever, but now they're just subjects of history books.
Of the seven wonders of the ancient world, there are seven wonders. Only one remains, the pyramids of Gaza. The Pharaohs are gone, but Moses is dwelling in God's heavenly Zion. Babylon lies crushed in the dust.
Jeremiah is reigning with Christ. Rome beheaded Paul, but God cut off the head of this pagan nation with the coronation of Constantine. So you see, Christ will have his victory over pagan nations. Idolatry that was formally practiced openly after Constantine went underground and eventually died out.
We don't see people, very few, worshiping Mars or Jupiter or any of the Greek or Roman gods. It's gone. You know, death and its wages, sin, are the greatest affliction ever visited on mankind. You know, the Greek word for care comes from a primitive in the Greek that signifies to cut the heart in pieces.
So we think of care. Care is something in the Greek that cuts your heart in pieces. That's what a care is. You know, when you think about the invariable decline of our bodies, that's a leading cause of depression and suicide in our country.
Our bodies break down over time. If you value this earthly temple above the one in heaven, then guess what? You will be depressed as your glory fades and as your confidence sags, as your body suffers in the weight of sin and becomes closer and closer to the grave.
Paul alludes to this in verse 16 when he says, the outer man is perishing. You know, imagine being on the Titanic and you're rearranging the furniture and repainting the walls while the Titanic sinks beneath you.
Isn't that ludicrous? But this is exactly what people do when they prioritize their health and their appearance over preparing for a heavenly kingdom. They're rearranging the deck chairs in the Titanic.
True holy violence accepts the aging process. It's a natural part of our sin-cursed world. And it says, you know what? My body is declining, but I'm going to seek to grow more and more spiritually every single day.
Being old is no excuse for coasting in your spiritual life. That's no excuse. You know, let's see what the psalmist says about this. The psalmist in Psalm 92, it says, the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree.
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age. They shall be fresh and flourishing.
So there is no old age is here, time to coast. Old age is here, time to press on. That's what the Lord says. You know, old age may hinder us from active ministry, but here's the thing, you know, you can't do what you can before, but that should be no obstacle to growing in grace, kindness, patience, and increasing our prayers for others.
Old people can do that as well as young people. We may be physically old, but our spiritual lives should be marked by the vigor of our youth. They should be marked by that. Senior citizens rely. So when you're a senior citizen, they rely on investments to protect their future, right?
I'm going to protect my future. And we see Paul moves on from time to value in the next portion of the text. So for my second point, let's consider the value of eternity in verse 17 for our light affliction, which is, but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
While we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. What value can you put on eternal life of Christ?
What is the weight of glory? What is that? I would like to consider the value of this gift as the second pillar of suffering triumphantly. You know, glory has a weight that's both physical and spiritual because when you're in heaven, your soul and your body participates in glory.
If you've ever brought a dresser like I have many times, you probably noticed that the older dressers are more durable and they're consistently heavier than newer dressers. They're much better. The new ones are lights because in the newer dressers, particle board and plastic have replaced solid wood and steel.
So when these dressers are light, it makes them very easy to transport. But what's the downside of that? They fall apart very quickly. You get an old dresser. It's going to last you. A new one's not going to last you long.
You see eternal life has a weight that temporal existence lacks when subjected to trial. Those temporal hopes fall apart like that cheap dresser. But with an older dresser, faith grows stronger through temporal trials.
When Paul describes weight in this verse, he uses weight in other ways. He says that he calls the sin that so easily entangles us, throw aside that weight and run with perseverance. Now when he's using weight here, it's a different type of weight.
Words don't always mean the same thing in scripture. You got to examine the context. So this weight that Paul describes, it's not a dead weight. It's not a slothful weight, but it's a glorious and precious weight.
The Hebrew word for glory used in the Old Testament, it's kabod. It literally means weight, heaviness or substance. That's the Hebrew word for glory. See the Jews understood that glory was weighty and Paul is conveying the exact same message to the Gentiles in this epistle.
The purest gold, what's the purest gold? 24k. How do you tell 24k gold from 18k gold? It's heavier. It's a lot heavier. It weighs more because gold's density is directly related to its purity. The purer gold is, the heavier it is.
The less pure it is when it's an alloy, it weighs less. When you mix other metals with gold, you get an alloy. Like I have a white gold ring on right now. That's an alloy. It's mixed with silver. When you mix them, you get an alloy.
Alloys tarnish more quickly and they corrode faster than pure gold. Gold's weight can be directly correlated because it withstands external environmental pressures. Gold doesn't corrode quickly. Gold doesn't waste away quickly.
That's one of the things that makes gold valuable. The same is true of a Christian's hope. If our hope is completely resting on heaven, then external pressures cannot leave an eternal mark on us. It's impossible.
They won't leave a mark. They may leave a temporary mark, but not for eternity. If we mix some of the alloy of worldly pleasures with our eternal hope, then what are we doing? We're exposing ourselves to the sorrow and corruption of the world.
Tarnishing of guilt and the corrosion of sin is what you do when you do that. These things, while sad, they're short-lived battles for the saints. You're not going to be here forever. You will be with Christ one day where you will be made perfect.
Both Jews and Gentiles, we rest in the same hope. The Jews that follow Christ rest in the same hope. The same hope of Israel is now the hope of all the nations. We listened to how the apostles to the Gentiles describes glory.
That was Paul. Now let's see what the chief apostles to the Jews says. Peter writes the following in 1 Peter 1, 3, and 4. He said, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.
So Paul uses triplets here. Sorry, not Paul. Peter uses triplets here. Paul used two, Peter uses three. He says incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, to describe our heavenly inheritance. Why is it incorruptible?
Well, because the forces of evil are unable to turn us against God ever again. As a new creation, we can never be turned against God. There's no defilement because the curse of sin has been removed and banished forever in hell.
That's where sin is. The effects of sin, they don't splatter the same. We're like, spill paint. Sin splatters. He says this frequently. We don't see that in heaven. It does not fade away because God's dwelling is incapable of becoming less glorious.
As we go through the endless eternal day, the glory of God only increases. God's glory doesn't fade. It gets stronger and stronger with time. You know, our enjoyment of heaven increases as we learn more about God and about his chosen people.
If you fortify your souls with this hope, you will learn how to turn your suffering for Christ into a white-hot desire for his eternal presence. That's what the Christian does. It's like, I'm suffering.
That makes me want Christ more. I don't want this earth. I don't want the things of this earth. I don't want the sin of this world. I want to be like Christ. You know, King Louis IX, he was a very important figure in the 6th and 7th Crusades.
And one of the times when he was on the crusade, I think, he asked his knights, he said, is it better to commit 30 sins or to be a leper? And the knight said, I'd rather commit 30 sins than be a leper.
And King Louis XIX said, he said, how can you say that? He said, there is no leper so hideous as he who is in the state of sin. He said, the leprosy of this body will pass away after death, but the leprosy of the soul will cling to our souls forever without Christ.
And see, he was right. Here was a Christian monarch that understood the weight of sin against the weight of earthly suffering. I'd rather be a leper for life than have an eternal leprosy of my sin. This pious king, see, he had the correct attitude towards suffering.
The weight of glory is intricately linked with Jesus's sacrifice on the cross. We cannot divorce those two. Jesus's death, his death is precious to us. And because his death is precious to us, our souls are valuable to him.
Charles Spurgeon, he phrased it this way. He says, consider how valuable a soul is when both God and the devil are after the same thing. As the epistle of the Hebrew state, Jesus, he doesn't aid angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham.
It is interesting to note that the author of Hebrews, he never states his Jewish bona fides or lineage anywhere in the same epistle. There's a lot of discussion about who wrote it. I wonder if that was purposeful.
So maybe Jewish Christians would discard their ethnic idolatry and focus on worshiping the triune God instead of focusing on who they came from. And how they focus on God? Through faith in his risen son.
Abraham was saved by faith in an unknown Messiah, just as we are saved by faith in a risen Lord. We're saved by faith the same way Abraham was. Abraham was an idolater for the land of Ur. He wasn't a noble, righteous person, not at all.
When the Jews glory that Abraham was their ancestor, they missed the plot. Abraham wasn't special because of his birth, his actions, his decision to choose God or his great piety. None of those things set him apart, but he was set apart because God sought him out and God put his special love on Abraham.
That's what made him great. See, when God selected Abraham, God selected Abraham for the greater weight of glory. When Abraham was still occupied with the fading pleasures of this world, the maker of our universe, he came down and he made Abraham his friend.
And guess what? God gained nothing in that relationship, but he still made Abraham his friend. Is there anything weightier than this? God intervenes to be with us, even when we're against him most every day of our lives, God still comes down to be with us.
See, if these truths do not make your heart rejoice, then I pray to ask that God would restore the joy of your salvation or that he would save your soul these days. Those that have this hope, those of us that have this hope, we're actively purifying ourselves through the process of sanctification.
John writes this very thing in his third epistle. He says, behold what manner of love the father has bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God. The world does not know us because it did not know him.
Beloved, we are now children of God. It has not yet been revealed to us what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as he or Jesus is pure.
See, eternity is interwoven with glorified immortality, like radio waves combine magnetism and electricity. You cannot separate electricity and magnetism without destroying the radio wave, and you cannot separate eternity.
Glorified immortality and eternity are woven together. You know, when God is revealed to us in eternity, our wonder at seeing his beauty will only be matched by our joy at being made like him in his glory.
In the same way, sinful flesh cannot abide in God's presence. The Bible is very clear on this. And so God gives us a glorified body, and that glorified body both protects us from God's wrath and it makes us eternally useful in his service.
So when we have this hope, we purify ourselves through sanctification so that one day we can be as pure as Christ. That's our hope. Suffering is an essential part of our sanctification, and thus we should rejoice in the results even if we are fearful during the process.
Women understand this much better than men because they go through the agony of childbirth, and they understand that securing the reward is worth the agony. You know, my wife said that her labor pains were forgotten when she saw the face of her, you know, of our three kids for the first time, because that reward is worth it.
And Thomas Watson said something very similar. He said, Christianity is not the removal of suffering, but it's the addition of grace so we can endure suffering triumphantly. That's what Christianity is.
So if we return to Abraham, we find that God's grace did not stop at mere friendship. It wasn't just a friendship with God, as great as that is. But God made an everlasting covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, with him and his spiritual descendants.
If you look at Genesis 12, 1 through 3, we'll see this. He says, Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who curse you, and in you all families of the earth shall be blessed. That's us. All families of the earth are blessed through Abraham. You see, when you talk about a covenant, covenants are usually entered into by peers, by people who are on the same level, because when you have covenants between peers, both of them have something to gain from that relationship.
God's covenant with Abraham is unique because God is Abraham's creator. And guess what? God gains nothing from his covenant with Abraham. God entered freely in this covenant. God chose to lavish free grace on his creatures that were undeserving of his favor.
That's what God did. See, oftentimes we think, would God, the Father's love for souls of man, it gets obscured by the love that Jesus showed during his earthly ministry. We think, well, Jesus loves us, but God the Father, you know, he's wrath and anger.
But that's not true though. In these verses we see God's heart for redemption, the Father, is no smaller than Jesus. And of course it's not. They share the same essence. God and the Father and the Spirit are one essence in three persons.
You know, as it befits God's heart, as it befits the first person in Trinity, as God is the first person in Trinity, God laid the foundation of our salvation with this promise to Abraham. See, this promise is not for physical Israel.
It's not for Tel Aviv. It's not for Jerusalem. This promise is for spiritual Israel, and spiritual Israel is the church of God. The promise is for you. You are descendants of Abraham if you believe in Christ.
You know, Esau despised his heavenly birthright and traded it for a bowl of stew. If we prefer ease and comfort over our heavenly inheritance, we have committed that exact same sin. If you put ease and comfort over being close to God, you're just like Esau.
Holy violence and suffering, it prizes closeness with God over everything else in life. As Charles Spurgeon poetically said, I know many of you are familiar with this, he said, I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the rock of ages.
We kiss that wave. We don't run from it. See, what does it really profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What does it profit you? These words of Jesus, you can find them in Matthew 16, verses 25 to 26.
These are some of my favorite verses in the entire New Testament, top five for sure. But I want to pivot this question slightly for my application today. What would you refuse to give up in exchange for your soul?
What would you refuse to give up? See, even the best gifts become idols if those gifts are preventing you from having a close communion with God. That's an idol. Would you give up your health, your wife, your children, your home, or even your life for the sake of Christ?
Would you give those things up? See, if you hold back and say, I don't know if I can give that up, you place a lower value on your soul than Christ did. What did Christ do? Christ gave up his comfortable home in heaven.
He gave up his unbroken communion with the Trinity. He gave up the praises of angels. He took the fellowship of the saints that are glorified to come live as a homeless person and to die a tortuous death on the cross.
Love for us compelled him. And the reason that love for us compelled Christ is because the weight of glory was never far from his mind. It was right there. He did not leave his heaven for his own glory.
He already possessed that glory before the incarnation. Christ has always been glorious. Rather, Jesus came to earth so that we might be free. Why? To feel the weight of glory for ourselves. Now, you might be asking, how do you know he was thinking this?
Are you just assuming? Well, I'm going to give you evidence for that. I'm glad you asked. Let's read his words in the High Priestly Prayer. In John 17, he says,. And the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one.
I in them, you in me, that we may be perfect in one, and the world may know that you have sent me, and I have loved them as you have loved me. That's John 17. See, Christ wants us to participate in the glory that he had with the Father before the world began.
Isn't that a marvelous hope? That's an incredible hope. See, that paces a very clear picture how high a value Christ places on the souls of mankind. We get to participate in a glory that existed before we were born.
You know, those of us who have been to college or done this in high school, think about those people that contribute little or nothing in a group project, and they still get the same grade as you. They did almost no work, and they got the A, right?
Like in my day, we called those title sheet people. They would just do the title sheet, everything else would be other partners. But guess what? They get the A. You know, these free riders, they're some of the most despised people in society.
No one likes that person in the group project. But consider how Christ purposed from eternity past to freely share his glory with wretched sinners like us. We are free riders on Christ. We are the slackers in the group project, but Christ shared his glory with us.
He did this despite knowing he knew a rebellious nature, and Christ possesses complete knowledge of every sin we would ever commit. It's not like in a group project where you bring someone in a group and you don't know how they're going to perform.
Christ knows our beginning from our end. He knows how we would perform, and yet he put his love on us the same way. How can any sacrifice on our part be too great for such a love as this? Can any? No, there's none.
See, if you are not a believer, then you must not take these covenant promises for granted. You are not guaranteed a way to glory, but an internal burden of suffering. If you do not truly place your faith in Jesus Christ, unlike the believer, your suffering is pointless and your suffering has no promise of glory.
That's what happens. All things work together for evil, for those that do not love the Lord, and for those that are not called according to his eternal purpose. Let's hear what Asaph writes in Psalm 50 concerning those who claim God's promises and yet live to fulfill their lusts.
This is a frightening warning. He says, but to the wicked, the one in their sin, God says, what right have you to declare my statues? What right have you to take your covenant in my mouth? Why? Seeing you hate instruction and you cast my words behind you like trash.
When you saw a thief, you consented with him and you have been a partaker with adulterers. You give your mouth, you give it over to evil and your tongue frames deceit like a picture frame flames a picture.
You sit and you speak against your brother. You slander your own mother's son. This is what Asaph says in Psalm 50, 16 through 20. If this describes you, I plead with you, beg for mercy from God and his son, Jesus Christ, the repentant thief.
Think about the repentant thief on the cross. He saw Christ's future glory through the eyes of faith while he was on the cross, dying next to our savior. What did he realize? It was a very simple thing he realized.
He realized that he was sinful. Christ was not sinful and Christ was going to receive a kingdom that very night. Christ went straight to be with the father that night. See weighing the value of glorious eternity, he spurned being part of the vile abusers at the foot of the cross and he threw in his lot with the suffering Messiah.
His suffering was a prelude to glory while his companion suffering on the left hand or the right hand, the other one, his suffering was a prelude, was a forestate of eternal punishment. So one went from suffering to eternal glory.
One went from suffering to eternal punishment. Don't be like the unrepentant thief. Fly to Christ while there is time. And what that means by time is today is the day of salvation. Christ is the author of our salvation.
He's the guarantor of our glory and yet he also daily intercedes for us at the throne of grace. His work for us doesn't stop. His work continues even now as we sit here worshiping him. He is interceding for our sins on our behalf in heaven.
Final point I want to talk about is verse 18. Let's consider the God of eternity, the God. Therefore, so I'm going to read the whole thing but focus on 18. Therefore we do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
For our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding eternal way to glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Now we don't see the name of Jesus directly in these verses. It's not directly mentioned but his fingerprints are all over them. You know who died so that our inward man can be renewed day by day? That was Jesus.
You know Jesus is the paragon or the supreme example of enduring affliction for the sake of glory or eternal glory. And finally we cannot see him physically like we cannot we don't see his name in these verses but see we behold him through the eyes of faith.
We see our savior through the faith in our savior. You know as we walk through this life as saints Jesus is always in the background. He's interceding for us. He's praying for us. He's loving for us and even in his earthly ministry we see that Jesus shunned the spotlight for our salvation.
Did he not? He shunned it. But in return our privilege is to lift him high as a Christian duty in the eyes of the world. What did Jesus get tempted in his earthly ministry? He was tempted to forgo the cross, become an earthly monarch, and ultimately use his power for himself.
See these earthly stratagems are all things that are visible to the naked eye. Forgo the cross you can see that become a monarch. There's a crown. There's a throne. And use your power for yourself. Obviously if you use power people see it.
But what made him persist so all these things were used but when they were used why did he persist in self-denial and obedience to his father? Because he persisted because he focused on the invisible.
The things that were not seen as what Christ focused on. Not the things you could see. The Jews dwelled in what you could see. Christ dwelled in what you couldn't see. You know see the inhabitants of ancient Israel, especially the non-believers, they could not see the glory on which Jesus fixed his gaze.
So they were confused by that. They're like what is he doing? But Jesus was looking at the glory. He wasn't looking at his circumstances. Likewise the father. The father in heaven was invisible to Jews.
But he wasn't invisible to Christ. Jesus could see God the father. And most of the souls that Jesus died for, I'd say the vast majority, were either not yet born or had already died. So most people he came to die for were not alive in his early ministry.
But see they were unknown to the world but beloved by Christ. When Christ was down on the earth fulfilling his work he was thinking of the saints in heaven as well. Abraham, Moses, Isaac, Jacob. They're not here on this earth but I died for them.
Just like I died for Keith, Jordan, Zach, Sarah. He died for us as well. His mind was fixed on the glory of God and his mind was fixed on our salvation. You know Jesus's life is our ultimate example. We should mirror his love like the moon reflects the sun rays back to earth.
You know the moon's rotation is synchronized in orbit around the earth. So when it travels we always see the same side of the moon. Like you don't see different like if you look at other planets you see different side of the planets at different times.
But when the moon rotates around the earth it's synchronized so we always see one side of the moon. Hence the phrase the dark side of the moon. And it's it's whizzing through the universe at approximately 2 ,200 miles an hour and we see the same side.
See as believers we are called to keep our face fixed on Christ in the same way the moon keeps its face fixed on earth. And the forces that try to tear this away from us we need to disregard those forces and fix our eyes on Christ.
The apostle Peter gives us a great example of this in his first epistle. In first Peter 1 he says this. He says that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than the gold that perishes though it's tested by fire may be found to praise honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ whom having not seen you love though not no not you do not see him now yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.
See as Christ loves us so we should cherish him. That the term Christian originated in Antioch. It was a pejorative. It was an insult a slur if you will. It was mockingly used to label true believers as little Christ.
But what mankind meant for evil you're a little Christ we Christians see as the highest honor. It's enough for us to be like our master in his suffering and scorn. We're going to share in his eternal glory.
So it's enough to be like him in that too. Consider Christ when mankind speaks evil of you consider Christ and you will repel the world's assaults with holy violence. We have not yet resisted to bloodshed in our endurance of the world's hatred.
Should we lose heart at suffering when we are promised a glorious future? Such a mindset betrays an earthly focus and not a heavenly obsession. I like how William Gernal summarized this. He gave us the proper outlook on suffering.
He said Christian has God not taught you by his word and spirit to read the shorthand of his providence? Do you not know that the saints afflictions they stand for blessings? God's afflictions are standing for blessings.
How many of you if you read books I like to read how many of you open books up and have seen the personal dedication page in the front of a book? Usually the people listed there not always but most of the times they're those that sacrifice their time or their energy so their spouse family member friend could successfully write the book.
I want to thank my wife. I want to thank my father for this so I can focus on this book. When you read a book do you linger on that page or do you skim past it on the way to your first chapter? Like I can tell you when I read books I never look at the dedication page.
I fly by it. But see when you buy a book you benefit from the sacrifices of the author's loved ones even though you don't know their names. You don't know these people but you benefit from their sacrifice the same.
You know our sufferings in this life they're like the dedication page in the first volume of an unending book set. We're going to skim by them into eternity. What are the sufferings in this life? They're forgotten.
They're forlorn. Just it's a dedication page. I don't even look at that anymore. We look at eternity we're going to say I don't even remember who was on that page because we're in an endless volume of eternity.
We will have we'll have no time to dwell on past sufferings because we're gonna be swallowed up by the enormity and beauty of our God and his eternal city. Like how do we suffer triumphantly? We look to Christ.
We look to eternity. We look to a glorious future where sin and pain are gone in that order. First Christ. Then eternity. Then our body that's glorified. You know those that's the order. That's how we endure suffering with holy violence.
If you know like how if you know anything about how the bible is put together the third of the three tests for canonicity was that any book in question must be doctrinally in sync with the rest of the scriptures.
You're not going to add the epistle to Judas or you're not going to add the shepherd of Hermes when what they say goes flagrantly and blatantly against what the scripture teaches right. You know the bible is inspired as a unified whole.
So biblical doctrine is uniform but there is a diversity in diction or how the language is inspired in genre. You have different books. You know earlier in the sermon we saw Peter and Paul even though they're very different people they had similar views on the glory in heaven.
These very different men had a similar view. Why? Because there's one God inspiring them. Now we're going to turn to first Peter 4 12 and 13 and let's see how Peter also not copies Paul but agrees with Paul through the spirit on the connection between suffering and eternal bliss.
He says in first Peter 4 starting in verse 12. Beloved do not think it's strange concerning the fiery trials which which try you as though some strange thing happened to but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings that when his glory is revealed you also may be glad with exceeding joy.
If you are reproached for the name of Christ blessed are you for the spirit of glory of the spirit of glory the holy spirit and God rest upon you. You know in this paragraph as we read this we see Paul adds the qualifiers the adjectives strange and fiery to describe the trials the early Christians were enduring.
These adjectives show us some gives us some insight into their souls. They were perplexed and frightened by their persecution. They were perplexed because they were they were suffering for being righteous.
Why am I suffering for being righteous? And they were they were fearful because martyrdom was very very common in those days. All of the original disciples were martyred except for John who died a natural death right.
Paul encouraged them to take their eyes off their circumstances and place them where? Squarely on Christ. Strange and fiery trials that they're temporal things in this world very temporal. Christ in his glory our eternal lord.
Does the promise of the spirit resting upon us remind you of any other New Testament passage? Can you think of anything in the New Testament? Like as I thought of it I thought about how how Jesus um on during Jesus' earthly ministry during especially during his baptism we see the holy spirit descends on Jesus.
So in a similar way as he descended on Jesus he descends on believers in times of trial. The sign this sign shows that when God gives us an extra measure of the spirit in a trial it shows that God is well pleased.
He's like my son or daughter is walking in the footsteps of my beloved son. Our endurance of suffering is is unnoticed by the world. The world may or may not notice. Sometimes they do sometimes they don't.
But see God is never forgets it. God cannot forget the sufferings the saints have done. For further proof let's look at the patriarchs of the Old Testament. How did Jesus rebuke the Sadducees for denying the reality of the bodily resurrection in the gospels?
What did he say? He quoted God's words to Moses found in chapters three and four of Exodus. In this passage God said I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob which proves what? They're still alive. They're living today.
See this life was more than the life that that Abraham Isaac and Jacob. It wasn't a mere subsistence or just getting along of a poor servant and it was a full sensory experience. It's not like a pre-born infant that doesn't have uses of his senses.
They were living a glorious life with all their senses activated. You know the eternal life and this is what the annihilationists get wrong the ones that push that doctrine. Eternal life is both a duration and equality.
It's a duration and quality for the believer and it's a duration and quality for the unbeliever. There's a parallelism there right. They are the ones they call us inconsistent. They're inconsistent when they when they do their auction because eternal life for the believer they say oh that's a duration and quality but eternal life for the non-believer just a duration.
They're dead forever. It's a duration. It's like no no it's a quality too. The worm never dies and the fire is never quenched but the quality of life that the quality is really the main thing that separates sinners and saints and eternity.
There's both an eternity for a non-believer and believer but the quality is what's important. You think of like a person that keeps a lighthouse an isolated lighthouse keeper. He's alive but for how many of us would his occupation be like a prison sentence?
You're alone 360 days a year. You're all by yourself. You don't have society. You don't have your friends or family. That's a living death basically for me it would be at least but see God's reward for the Old Testament saints and all Christians is an abundance of life.
That's what God promises us not some lonely vigil in a lighthouse somewhere. Abraham was no longer a man without a country. He had a country now. He's in heaven. Isaac's eyes finally saw the promised land of God.
He did. Jacob was not second place in the eyes of his heavenly father. He was second place in his father's eyes but in God's he was in first place. See the memory of their physical and spiritual suffering for these great saints they faded into amnesia as they were overcome by the glorious fullness of their God and that's where they are today.
They're enjoying God for eternity. That's where we will be as well if we endure and and persist in the suffering. You know consider the transfiguration. Who appeared to be between Moses and Elijah? Jesus did right?
But what's funny is Jesus' incarnation it occurred after those men had died so it wasn't a chronological order. A chronological order would have been Moses Elijah Jesus. That's the correct chronological order right?
This was a symbolic order because Christ was the center of what? Both men's ministry. Moses pointed to Christ. Elijah pointed to Christ. So in the transfiguration Christ is the center. You know after their suffering all their suffering that they'd suffered was instantly rewarded upon one sight of Emmanuel, God with us.
You know a couple months ago I listened to a sermon by Pastor Nick Kennicott of Emmanuel Baptist Church. It's down in Coconut Creek, Florida and he said something very profound I'd like to share with you.
He said the Christian hope of sharing Christ's glory it has both a physical and a spiritual fulfillment to it. Immediately after death we are made like Christ spiritually. So as soon as you die you are like Christ spiritually immediately because your soul is eternally free from sin's curse.
However we are not yet made complete because we lack a glorified body. The physical fulfillment of our hope occurs at the final judgment when God will resurrect our glorified body and unite it with our perfect soul.
Thus we see the glorious unity of the salvific history throughout the Bible. All the saints through the Bible were saved through belief in what? One Savior. And all the saints in the Bible will be perfected as individuals?
No as a group. We will be perfected together. You receive your glorified body the same time Adam does. We will be perfected as a group. My prayer today is that this sermon it causes you to focus on the length and value of eternity as well as the God who makes it all possible.
Suffering gives way to glory and glory gives way to glorious unity in the body of Christ. I pray that may God may richly bless you as you endure suffering for the sake of Christ. Let's pray together. Dear Lord we thank you for your suffering.
Thank you for your finished work on the cross. Lord your passive obedience. Lord your active obedience as well. There's no hope without it. As a great man once said, Lord we want to be like you in many things.
Lord suffering is not easy. It's difficult. It's painful but we know it works an eternal way to glory beyond comparison. Lord I pray that we just be with those Lord that are suffering today that are sick.
Especially for our pastor's wife as she suffers with cancer. Please be with us Lord and strengthen us. Give her a special measure of your spirit and help us to focus on you in Christ and our eternal reward.
Christ's name. Amen.