Title: From Temporal to Eternal
Text: 2 Cor 4: 17-5: 9
Date: Sept 3, 2020
Place: SGBC, NJ
Before I went to bed Sunday night I counted 10 texts
from brethren here and other places with whom I have been corresponding concerning
their heavy, heavy burdens. We have many
brethren—in this congregation and others—bearing heavy, heavy burdens. Some mourn over loved ones recently departed
to be with the Lord. Others with aching
hearts watch their loved ones near the end of this life. Some have heartbreaking news about their
health. Others suffer other heavy trials
that give heavy hearts.
Monday, I was outback thinking on
my text, seeking a word of comfort for these brethren, when a shadow came over
the parking lot. I looked up to see giant white clouds drift over the tree
tops. Immediately this verse popped in mind—"Jesus saith…Hereafter
shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in
the clouds of heaven” (Mt 26:64). When
I saw those clouds, I thought wouldn’t it be wonderful if our Redeemer came right
now! One day we will look up and he
shall be coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. So why does God send afflictions?
Proposition: God sends these afflictions to prepare his people
either for our departure or for his return, whichever comes first. He reminds
us this is not our permanent dwelling, our life is in Christ in glory—"When
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in
glory” (Col 3:4).
So for a little while I want to
turn our attention and affection from this life to eternal realities. I’m not
interested in end times or signs or debates over the order of things—I want you
to behold Christ! Only God’s people will be comforted by this message;
those without Christ are terrified by these things—but God’s people are
comforted, that is what I pray God do with this word.
THE
FACT
First, let’s look at the fact
that our Savior is coming again. He is
on his way now. At any moment Christ
shall appear. Be it our departure or his
second appearing Christ is coming to receive us to himself.
We have our Lord’s
word on it. Among the last words to John in Revelation, Christ
said, “Surely I come quickly.” That statement could be translated, “Surely,
I am coming quickly. Surely, I am on my way.” Our Redeemer is not a man that he should lie;
he cannot lie; Christ is God and we
have his word.
He reminds us he himself is
coming. This is the word we use to
comfort brethren whose loved ones have departed to be with the Lord—whose
bodies sleep in the grave—notice it is the Lord himself that is coming.
1 Thessalonians 4: 13: But I would not have you
to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not,
even as others which have no hope. 14: For if we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15:
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and
remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them [go before them] which
are asleep. 16: For THE LORD HIMSELF shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in
Christ shall rise first: 17: Then we which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so
shall we ever be with the Lord. 18: Wherefore comfort one another with these
words.
We have
Christ’s word. Christ himself is coming. He shall gather all his people to himself
Also, we have our Savior’s accomplished work to assure us
he is coming again. He said, “And if
I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto
myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (Jn 14: 3). On the cross, Christ prepared a place for
his elect. He bore God’s judgment for
us—he died our death and satisfied justice for each of his people. He put away all the sin of his people making
his people the righteousness of God in him.
So his holiness demands he come again for us. Law and justice demand he fulfill his
covenant word to come for each of his own.
And, brethren, he shall—he is coming again
Hebrews 9: 26…now once in the end of the world
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27: And as it is appointed unto men once to
die, but after this the judgment: 28: So Christ was once offered to bear the
sins of many; and UNTO THEM THAT LOOK FOR HIM SHALL HE APPEAR THE SECOND TIME without
sin unto salvation.
His second appearing will not be
like the first. First time he bore our
sin; second time he shall appear without sin..
First time, he redeemed us from the curse of the law, second time he
shall redeem us from this world into glory those he purchased with his precious
blood.
First time, he wore a crown of
thorns; second time he shall wear the crown of universal dominion. First he came in humility on a lowly asses’
colt, the second time he is riding on his white horse, conquering and to
conquer, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
First time his heel was bruised
by the serpent, second time he shall break the serpent’s head for good and dash
his enemies in pieces as a potters’ vessels. First time he was despised and
rejected of men; second time he shall be glorified and admired in all them that
believe. First time men spit in his
face, the second time every knee shall bow and confess him Lord to the praise
of God
Revelation 1: 7: Behold, he cometh with clouds;
and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all
kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. 8: I am Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which
was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
So brethren, as you suffer remember—Christ has entered “into
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: And “unto them that look for him shall he
appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb 9:24, 27).
Acts 1: 9:…a cloud received him out of their
sight. 10:…[two men in white apparel] said,…why stand ye gazing up into heaven?
this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
WHY
TRIALS?
So why does God send trials? He sends them to work for us. God sends trials to prepare us for
glory. He sends them to keep us
watching, waiting, longing for Christ—2
Corinthians 4:17: For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
God gives burdens to make us behold something
far, far weightier—“a far more exceeding and eternal weight”—of glory! One he reminds us our affliction is light compared
to what our Substitute suffered on our behalf. Bearing the sin of his people—yours and mine—under
the fierce justice of God and wrath of satan and wicked men
Isaiah 52: 14:…his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form
more than the sons of men:
Lamentations 1: 12:…behold, 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.
Hebrews 12: 13: For consider him that endured such contradiction of
sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. 14: 4: Ye
have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
But by his affliction, Christ
worked for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory because “with
his stripes we are healed!” So that
shows us why our suffering is needful—to turn us to him.
JC Philpot said, “He
means to conform you to the image of His Son in glory—therefore He now
conforms you to the image of His Son in suffering.”
Two, by these afflictions, he turns us from
this flesh, from our troubles, our cares and concerns to Christ at God’s right
hand; to him who is our far more exceeding and eternal riches of glory! He makes us behold Christ our Life, Christ
our sovereign King, Christ our Acceptance with God. He makes us behold that we have, right now,
eternal Life in him and an inheritance awaiting. Doing so God graciously reminds us that our
purpose in this life is Christ and his glory, Christ and his kingdom, Christ
and his people. It puts our present afflictions
in perspective. It makes them light and
momentary in comparison with that far exceeding weight of eternal glory with
Christ.
God turns us from the temporal to
the eternal—from the seen to the unseen—2 Corinthians 4:
18: 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. God reminds us
that we and everything around us is weak as dust and shall soon return to dust.
We are dying dust living amongst dying dust. Everything in this earth is made of earth:
our bodies, our houses, cars, clothes—nothing was created, all was made with
hands out of dust—all temporal, all dying, all decaying right this minute, all
will soon return to the dust including us.
James 4:14
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life?
It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
Also, Christ makes us know the
eternal is the real—2 Corinthians 4: 18…the things which are
not seen are eternal. 5: 1: For we know that if our earthly house of this
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens. He
reminds us our body is only a house, a tent, soon to be dissolved. Man does not have a living soul, man is
a living soul. Our soul is us. Our souls shall live either in the bliss of
glory or the torments of hell. But our
souls are immortal and shall never die.
So Christ reminds his child that Christ
has prepared us a permanent eternal house; not of the earth, not of dust,
created by our eternal Redeemer in righteousness and true holiness; our
building of God is immortal, incorruptible and righteous in Christ. Believer, notice “we have”
it! “We have a building of God,
an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
1 Thessalonians 4: 17: When
Christ shall appear, we shall see him as he is, and be like him…
Then by making us behold Christ in these
afflictions, he makes us long to be with Christ—2 Corinthians 5: 2: For
in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is
from heaven: 3: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 4: For
we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would
be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. 5:
Now he that hath wrought us for [prepared us for] the selfsame thing is God,
who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. 6: Therefore we are
always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are
absent from the Lord: 7: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8: We are confident,
I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with
the Lord.
It is the Lord Jesus we groan for, not merely to be
delivered from burdens, but to be with the Lord. The Spirit of God continually reminds us we
are strangers in these bodies and in this life.
Our conversation—our citizenship—is in heaven.
Philippians 3: 20: Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look
for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21:
Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious
body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things
unto himself.
We are confident
and willing, not in ourselves, but in Christ—the very purpose for
which God works this to make us have no confidence in the flesh but all
confidence in Christ alone. "For
we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ
Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Php 3:3)
Oh, but in
Christ, having Christ’s righteousness alone, we are confident and willing to
be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. We are willing to behold Christ’s face, to know him as he knows us, to be perfectly
conformed to his image. It is our
desire to be freed from all sin and trouble and
division. We long for that day with Christ when we will have no more corruption of worship, no more persecution from the world. We long to have Christ present us as his glorious church
without spot or wrinkle (Eph 5: 27).
Brethren,
has God ever worked this in you? Has he
made you be burdened—by your sin, by the self-righteous Pharisee in you, by
trouble within and without—so that you long to be with Christ in your eternal
abode? Then you will know this last
thing.
RENEWED
INWARDLY
Through trials God mortifies our
old man of sin and renews our inward man.
He revives us. The Spirit renews
and refocuses us to live less for self and more for him—2 Corinthians 5: 9: Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we
may be accepted of him.
He increases our faith in Christ. Then while present in this body we labor to
enter Christ our Rest by faith, the only
way we shall be accepted. Beholding our
sin we know more fully that our only acceptance is to be “accepted in the
Beloved”--accepted by being found in him, not having our own righteousness,
but the righteousness of Christ given by God through faith. He sets our affection on things above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, not
on things on the earth. He renews us to remember we are dead, and our life is
hid with Christ in God.
Also, he increases love for brethren. We labor for brethren to enter into Christ
our rest and be accepted. We only have
this spiritual fruit by Christ filling us with the fruit of the
Spirit. He gives that love that
scripture calls charity. He makes us
love this way
1 Corinthians
13: 4: Charity suffereth long, and is kind; envieth not; vaunteth not itself,
is not puffed up, 5: Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is
not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6: Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but
rejoiceth in the truth; 7: Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all
things, endureth all things.
After every true trial, we are made to behold Christ by
faith in a greater way. And we are made
to be longsuffering, to bear our brethren’s shortcoming, to hope for God’s grace
upon them, to endure all things and believe all good things concerning
them. We do not rejoice to commit
iniquity but also we do not rejoice if our brethren are overtaken in
iniquity. He makes the preaching of the
gospel of Christ and his glory preeminently important.
We begin testing our actions by this acid test: what will
help my brethren hear the gospel of Christ.
He makes us do all waiting, watching, hastening
to the coming of our Lord. Christ said,
Matthew 24:
42: Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
2 Thessalonians 3: 5:…the patient waiting for Christ.
Titus 2: 13:…looking
for the blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our
Saviour.
We are brought to cry out, “Whom have I in heaven but
thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my
heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.”
(Psalm 73:25-26).
Christ says, “He
which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen.”
As his bride, we answer, “Even so,
come, Lord Jesus.” (Rev 22: 20)
Amen!