“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
I- the AFFLICTION:
it is light
#Bodily Affliction:
fallen men, partakers of flesh and blood, heirs of that sad legacy of sin that Adam left to all his ruined race, and living in a world of sorrow and woe, we must needs have our measure of those temporal afflictions that were entailed upon all the posterity of our first parent.
Sickness and disease...
But the strongest Christian I have seen in my years of pastoring are those person with terminal disease...
Randy a tambourine dancer, having his dialysis every twice a week... spent his money for a grocery that is supposedly should be spent on his dialysis... Went to his room and there waited for his death....
under all the pain and languor of their afflicted body, they find the Lord near and dear to their heart, ‘sanctified illness’ is proved to them far better than ‘unsanctified health’, and pain of body a far less evil than pain of conscience.
#Family Affliction
another frequent source of grief and sorrow to those that love the Lord, and whom the Lord loves. Many of the most eminent saints of God have had to drink of this most bitter cup in a large measure.
1. What afflictions of this nature befell DAVID!
How he, if possible, would have given his own life for that of his rebellious son Absalom– so deeply did he feel his death,
and as Joab reproached him, would sooner have lost all his fighting army than that one beloved idol.
2- And who can ever forget Joseph and his brothers’ trouble which spanned 13 years!
Psalm55:12
For it was not an enemy that reproached me;
then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:
13But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. 14We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.
#Material Affliction
God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith, as knowing that “the love of money is the root of all evil,” and therefore mercifully cuts the root to prevent the evil. Poverty starves a good deal of ‘self-indulgence’ by denying the means; and thus the poor are cut off from the gratification of many “foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition” by the very lack of means possessed by the rich to gratify them. Still, if poverty has its blessings, it has its miseries; and under them many who fear God deeply groan.
#Spiritual Affliction
What is loss of health, of family, of friends, of property, to the hidings of God’s face– to guilt of conscience– to distressing fears as to the reality of the work of grace upon the soul– to anticipations of that tremendous wrath of God which is revealed in a broken law?
II- the WAIT:
What is time compared to eternity?
A drop compared to the ocean; a grain of dust compared to the world in which we dwell. These are insufficient comparisons.
Time and eternity never can be compared together.
they are but for a while, and that a little while; at most they are but for the present time of life, and that is but as a vapour which appears for a little while, and then vanishes away; it is but as a moment, a point of time, in comparison of eternity: but the glory the saints are chosen and called unto, that weight of it which shall be put upon them is "eternal", it will last for ever; it will know no end: hence it is called an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, an everlasting kingdom, everlasting habitations, an incorruptible inheritance, and a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Now the present affliction of the people of God has a considerable influence upon this...
III- the WEIGHT
The Hebrew word “glory” literally signifies “weight;”
and the apostle seems to have some allusion to that circumstance by connecting, as he does, the two words together. There is indeed a natural connection between what is weighty and what is solid and substantial. He would thus represent future glory as something solid,
lasting, and durable, and therefore utterly distinct from the light.
On a weighing scale, the afflictions on the other side of the scale seemed so heavy... but as we looked on the other side of the scale?
It far outweighs with the heaviness of Glory of God!
The heaviness of heaviness of weight seems what Apostle Paul is telling us... Glory!
CONCLUSION:
Now, compare your afflictions and sufferings with those of the Lord Jesus. Was your back ever mangled with stripes?
Was your head ever crowned with thorns?
Were nails ever driven through your feet and hands?
Did you ever hang upon the cross amid the taunts of jeering foes,
the forsaking of disciples, the hiding of God’s face, the withdrawing of the light of the sun, and the sins of millions charged upon your head with all the wrath of God due to them?
Did we ever sweat great drops of blood?
Was soul ever bowed down within us, that we were baptized as Jesus was with a bloody baptism, and drank the cup of suffering to the last drop?
Look at the suffering Jesus!
Behold the Lamb of God in the garden and on the cross!
Where are our sufferings now?
Compared to Jesus....
A little bodily pain; a little languishing for a time;
not quite so much money as you would like;
a child afflicted; a husband, perhaps, more a trial than a comfort!
Compare these afflictions with the sufferings and sorrows of the God-Man? Viewing then, the matter in this light, can you now say that your afflictions are heavy?
Now, now...
It is now light... right?
Jesus said it in Matthew 11:28 “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.
30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
(HCSB)
Now I conclude therefore that our afflictions are really worth the wait for the blessings, for the transformation into Christlikeness, for Eternity...
Compared to the sufferings of our Lord?
It is light when given to Him.
It ain’t heavy after all!
Worth the weight for us.
WORTH THE WAIT
WORTH THE WEIGHT.
