God ordains trials & suffering to reveal His Glory - Part 4

Alright, well Roger said there's consequence here, maybe no consequence that I'm teaching these verses. So let's go back, we're going to read from verses 8 down through the end of the chapter, because this is part 4. And I've missed part 1, 2, and 3, but I've read them in my absence, so it's been good.

Everybody have their Bibles open? Alright, we're troubled on every side, yet not distressed. and were perplexed but not despaired, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our own bodies.

For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Him might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death walks in us, or works in us, but life in you. We have in the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believe, and therefore have I spoken, that we also believe, and therefore speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sake, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction is but for a moment, which worketh in us a far more eternal and exceeding way to glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but the things that are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal." Wow. Okay, so this is the passage that concludes the topic God ordains trials and sufferings to reveal his glory.

So we just read verses 17 and 18, and Dr. Dodd, whoever this is, by the way, I went to Google when I saw somebody quoting Dr. Dodd, and I put in theologian Dr. Dodd, and there must be 15 of them out there, so I have no idea which Dr. Dodd this is. But nevertheless, I'm quoting him, and he says, this is one of the most emphatic passages in all of St. Paul's writings, in which he speaks as much like an orator as he does an apostle. So ponder that for a second. an orator versus an apostle. Tom, you've got thoughts going through your brain, I can tell.

Well, I would say that in the context of that time, I would say that the Shakespearean rendering of a certain speech by Mark Antony over the grave of Caesar does not cut it anywhere close to the scripture it has to offer. Shakespeare doesn't meet Paul, is that what you're saying? It's very useful beyond belief to some who do not believe. I knew he had something going on upstairs that he didn't want to share with us, and it's Shakespeare. At least it wasn't Bullwinkle, right? So we've revisited verses 8 through 16, and remembering again that this is part 4. The verses we read this morning have been dealt with by Roger and Randy going forward, so I get the culmination. I should just say, I personally see these verses because at the time of my late wife's illness, which was prolonged and difficult in many, many ways, these verses carried me.

And I think we need to put these in perspective. We're going to discuss how we might interpret the term light. because I think how we interpret the term light really relates to how we put these verses on and how we apply them to our lives. So, define light affliction. Well, let's drill down.

The only other time this word light, the noun light, is used in Scripture in the New Testament is the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he said, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Now, what did Christ mean when he used the term light? We've heard this verse multiple times. This is gospel truth, right? And he's talking to an unsaved, largely Jewish world around him. But what do we think Christ meant when he said his burden is light? Put him into perspective eternally. Don't you think he was probably talking about leaving the throne and coming to earth as a man? I think that was a burden to him, too. I mean, I think being in the world... Well, is the burden...

I'm going to give you two options for the definition of the term light. One, light could be brief. just for a very short period, and in context we may want to interpret that way, but the other interpretation would mean that this is no big deal, right?

How do you think Christ interpreted it, Carolyn? I think the way I see it, it's kind of like, where is your focus? I mean, you know, we look at things and it's like, something's just, there's such a big deal, and there's such, you know, there's so much we have to deal with, and you know, there's a lot of garbage in this world, but if we keep our eyes on Him, then it doesn't, it looks like it really doesn't matter. A lot of it, you know, it's really just the stuff we're going through and what we're, what we're heading for is so, so much more, so much better. And, you know, it's just kind of where you have your perspective. And if we have that definition of life, how do we put that into perspective as we walk the paths of this earth?

Tom? Well, if we see ourselves as seated in the heavenly places, human, horrific, jaw-dropping pain away. Good. That's right. Now, most commentators that I read would interpret... We're going to get into this in more detail because these are two verses and we have 45 minutes to cover them. But these verses are worth digesting and chewing on and putting into perspective. The interpretation for the most common part is light reflects but for a moment, which is in verse 17. but I strongly disagree with that application for me personally and I think both Carol and Tom are on that right track. When Christ said his yoke is easy, what do we think of a yoke? Is that easy? Is a yoke easy? Think about a yoke pulling the cattle, Carol?

I think there's kind of another way I look at it too. And I think non-Christians look at us and they say, well you have to do all these things, you have to be good and you have to be kind to people and you have to do all this stuff, you know, to be a good Christian. And yet for us, you know, when you talk about, and the yoke I think is kind of we're under his control, kind of, and we have a relationship with him, we're connected to him. But I think, you know, if we keep our focus on him and we abide by him, then it's just like, It's not stuff we have to do.

It's just kind of who we let him flow out of us as. That's another way I... Or who we are. It's just who we are. I think the cloak of citizenship is really what we're talking about. And we'll get into that in more detail as we further our discussion of these two verses. But Christ saying my yoke is easy and my burden is light is anything but what we reflect on his human existence, is it not?

The same with Paul. If you look at Paul's life and his list there of all the afflictions he went through. He was beaten so many times to the point of death. By any measure that's not light. By any measure in this world that's not light. But it seems like in relationship to eternity What do you measure by? Do you measure by our position? Do you measure by eternity? When you measure the eternal things of the Lord, then it changes that word light.

Good, Roger. Thanks, Tom. Other thoughts? The one area in which Paul has a leg up on the rest of us in that one sense is Jesus told Ananias He knew Paul would be going through a lot and give him a preview of what he would have to suffer. So at least Paul had that much of a leg up being raw, fresh out of the pharisee fold, all that. And yet God, through Jesus appearing to him, gave him a preview of what's cooking here, Doc, and what's going to happen. And then he didn't have to explain anything else.

Jesus let Paul grow like the rest of us into the grace and knowledge of him as he continued to persevere and trust and rest in the Lord Jesus. As we identify with the Lord Jesus Christ by a spirit-led walk down here, remember we live by faith. And our faith is we're crucified with him, buried with him in baptism unto death, and risen in newness of life. As we identify that truth of the cross and everything it's worth to us. His, my yoke is easy and burden is light really fits, doesn't it? In our identification with the Lord Jesus Christ. Gary?

Oftentimes we look at Romans 8.28 and forget Romans 8.29. We're going to get to 8.29 today, excuse me. I spent some time with a friend over the weekend.

He is a believer, but he's super depressed and he's on medications. But he's not willing to be under subjection of grace teaching, and therefore he really doesn't understand what identification with the truth means, and rest in that. Well, he's not saved, right? He's a believer. He is a believer?

Yes. Boy, I tell you, we could talk about that the rest of the morning. Tom, were you raising your hand? Not yet. You were not yet. OK. OK. I'm waiting for you. All right. So affliction, that speaks for itself, oppression, tribulation, distress, straits, I mean this is anything that we don't choose to have come our way. And sometimes we consider things affliction that really aren't much really, but yet we personalize affliction. And so what affliction is to Jack may not be the affliction it is to Sean.

I mean the point is we all are burdened by this earthly existence, right? We don't have to define that any further. Doesn't this seem like an oxymoron, a light affliction? If you think of the afflictions Paul is relating to in terms of his own existence, these weren't light worthy from the perspective of not burdensome. These were pretty significant afflictions that he had in his path. And so the question is, we just kind of answered that, how can an affliction be light? From an earthly perspective, it's not.

So the only way you can look at this, our light afflictions but for a moment which worketh for us a far more eternal and exceeding way to glory, is the only way you can look at this and believe what God has shared is to be looking from above and putting on the cloak of citizenship. It's the only way. Now the problem here is, and we're going to get to this, let me save that until we get there. Now when we relate this to our citizenship is when it's no longer an oxymoron. So that point's made. And it's but for a moment.

Only New Testament use of this term. So interesting. Light's only used twice and but for a moment is only used once. Is this redundant with light? And that's the discussion we had. Because most commentators say it's just for a moment, it means that light means just for a moment, it's brief. I don't like that at all. But there is another interpretation for light if you go to Thayer's thesaurus and look up definitions, and light can mean minimal, not very burdensome. I personally can apply that relationship much other than but for a moment, because in a sense, but for a moment would be redundancy as to what light is. it's both light in terms of burdensome and it's just for a moment both. Now you can interpret the other way if you want but the application for me personally has been light meaning not burdensome.

I've seen people also go the route they say well think of eternity as... Eternity, right? Yeah, big. We're in a finite time period so they'll take that analogy they'll say well this is for a 70 years of your life or whatever it is but eternity is this big so in that way It's small versus infinity. So I've seen them go down that path. But I still like what you pointed out. But still, if you were going to interpret that as just temporal or very brief, like just for a moment, in terms of eternity, it is.

Everything. People will use that. But I think I'm much more superior, as you pointed out, is the fact that from the eternal perspective, from God's perspective, this is very much His will. The believer is not being acted upon willy-nilly by some external force. God allows things for a purpose, and he has a purpose in all things that happen to the believer.

Keep in mind, Paul is not the only one that reflects the fact that trials and tribulations come our way. Peter repeatedly talks about this, and John talks, anyway, John does to a more modest extent. Jude talks about the apostate and the body and how we're dealing with that, and that being a trial to the body of Christ. Anyway, this is not unique to Paul, but Paul's personal life in terms of these experiences really is exemplified.

And so, if it's but for a moment, this is our earthly perspective, and that's just what Roger said. Eternity's big. It's infinite, right? And we're talking about for a moment. A moment in eternity could be days, weeks, months and years, couldn't it? I've heard people say days seem long, but years are short.

Think about that historically in terms of your own lives. Yes, Tom. One more paraphrase. My older brother told me this kind of, I guess, handy to remember if you're in the flesh. Yard by yard, life is hard. Inch by inch, life is a cinch. Well, moment by moment, the Lord is still there. And that's a more powerful, more supportive argument in favor of just living moment with the Lord.

The heavenly perspective is one of eternity and how we place temporally what these trials and tribulations look like in our day to day existence. Somebody said, I'm not sure who this quote comes from, mourning lasting until morning. That's kind of cute. Alright, so here's good news and bad news, it's all good news if you're looking from the heavenly perspective we all have.

But it works for us a far more exceeding and eternal way of glory. Working is present indicative, means it's true. How do we put this on as truth? Indicative, truth, it's working for us, that means it's true. Actually, Newberg Center has this producing, and I really, I was listening to Macaulay a little bit, so this is not totally my own idea, but just the fact to think, wow, what I might think as being this terrible affliction is producing something down the road, right? I mean, is producing or working out an eternal way of glory. So in a sense, we're building up, maybe this is another parent, we're building up through our afflictions this eternal Way to glory, whatever that is. Well, producing means that, well it's factual in terms of an outcome, but the reason I've memorized this and it's part of my heart and soul, so working, working and producing could be the same thing, but working is the idea, but producing is the same thing, it's an active indicative.

So it's happening, right? But what's it take to believe this? Faith, right? We've got to put this into right perspective. We live in an earthly, you know, sin-driven existence here in a world system that's anything but godly and we, you know, need to think of this looking through a different pair of glasses. Not easy. This isn't intellectual. You can't mentally convince yourself this is what you need to do. It's an act of faith. Do we believe God for what He's revealed? And it's that simple. Do we believe God that this is true? And if we believe God this is true, then we take a step back and we rest in the trust that the Spirit is going to handle it, take it through us.

I mean, Gary, everybody in this room has lost loved ones and you have both lost wives. We've been through this and we know how painful it is, but yet when we put it into eternal perspective, there's a rest and a peace through the trials and tribulations that we experience there.

But why so often doesn't this seem to be happening? I think it's because we sit in our earthly couches and not on our heavenly thrones and position and we feel sorry for us because we're so hampered by these afflictions and trials that we go through. It's human. Welcome to the flesh. Because the flesh can respond in no other way. And we often say that how can people who are unsaved put up with the loss of a spouse or a child or a parent it's because we often respond in the same way and I've seen occasionally non-believers who seem to handle death and a loved one better than some of us do that's because we all have the human existence and how each one of us responds personally may differ from another and none of us are measuring what one person's going through versus another because we can't compare I mean it's it's it's so anyway It's not happening in us because we're too tied into this earthly existence.

Roger. And maybe you're going to get here, but I think actually verse 17 is going to give us some, 17, 18, is going to give us some, you'll probably get there, an answer here. I better get there, we've only got half an hour left. 18 is going to tell us why that may not seem that way. You're going to get there, I know. Okay, Roger's provided the appetizer and the dessert will follow if we get there. Alright.

Far more exceeding. How's that for hyperbole? I mean, you know, superlative, you know. Far more exceeding. Far more exceeding. It's not only exceeding, it's far more exceeding. It's a lot. An eternal weight of glory. What's this eternal weight of glory? An eternal weight of glory? Is that something you carry on your shoulders? Heavy weight? Nobody has any answers here to me. Randy, what's an eternal weight of glory?

Well, the eternal weight and glory, he's using that in contrast to the light affliction. So the aspect of weight is in comparison to the light affliction. So the glory is obviously the eternal presence of the Lord. Whose glory? God's glory, not our own. Always. Compare this weight or trouble or burden with our earthly affliction. How's that for a contrast? I mean, as we walk by faith through these afflictions, which are light but for a moment, ultimately, where's the glory? Do we get that glory?

No, the Lord does. Because people observe our faith. It's not to observe our performance. Remember what I said earlier, and I believe it for a second, some people who are not saved deal with, apparently deal with stress better than we do. And that's not to be compared, it's just simply we're all different. But here is, when our view is by faith that this is an earthly, temporary, but for a moment issue, God gets the glory for how he carries us through these circumstances.

Remember Christ came to tears on several occasions. I mean there were things that happened to the earth that brought him emotionally to the point of crying over a loss of a loved one. Lazarus is a good example. He was not skating through this life. He had deep emotion about it and felt deeply.

Do you think this exceeding weight of glory, are these rewards that we get? I think that's the key. It's working out or producing. It seems like we're building something up here. Just at a quick glance. If you're working for rewards, I would contend that you're working in the flesh. I think God's reward system in heavenly places is going to be things that we had no idea that he was doing through us. That's an opinion, but I don't think this is something we work for. It's something by faith that we ultimately are granted when we're in heavenly places. Alright, good.

Romans 8.29, Gary, for whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. Welcome to being conformed through trials and afflictions, but for a moment, just for a short time. And their light, meaning in terms of their apparent burden upon each and every one of us. And therefore, 1 Peter 6 and 7, in this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if ye need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, notice this, the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it's tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory of the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Wow, how's that for kind of a conclusive scenario of what Paul's relating to here. Notice again, the genuineness of your faith. That's what carries us. Do we believe what God has revealed? All right, let's go on to that verse that Roger has pounded down on us.

Well, we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. Interestingly, and maybe it just was interesting to me, but to look at present active, but seen as passive. Is that interesting to anyone else? When we are looking at it, we are doing it, right? I'm looking at Margaret right now, I can't think of anybody I'd rather look at than Margaret. But what is seen is passive because we are not the ones who are seeing, it's the fact that we are actively looking at, but what is seen is passive in terms of the way we interpret it.

If we all went to some event today and we came away with a description of what we saw, we all looked at the same event. But let's say it's a sporting event. Let's say it's the terrible massacre that occurred in Manchester. If we were there witnessing that, I mean, David, you might describe it very differently than Caroline might.

The point is what's seen is passive because it's what we've in fact seen because it was out there and that's we've looked at it, but the scene is something that is basically what it had existed from our perspective. What does this mean to look at? Well it's not only visual by the way, but also it's what we direct our attention to, and it's what we regard or care for. So seeing can be visual, but what about a blind person? Doesn't she or he experience or regard things that they hear? or things in their life. So it doesn't have to be visual, it can be something that's simply experience.

Now contrast what we look at here with what's not here. Second Corinthians, for we walk by faith, not by sight. So what's here versus what's not here? It says here, while we look not at the things which are seen, but the things that are not seen. What are these things that are not seen?

Okay, eternal. Further that thought, Joe. Roger, further this thought. Come on, people. What's that, Tom? The things of the Lord. And what things of the Lord? The things of the Lord that are eternal, not what's temporary, not just limited to the life he would live while living with us, but beyond. Alright, Gary's been waving his hand over here. He's got some thoughts here. All the positional truths that we have. We don't, maybe cannot imagine that are there, but are there. Blessings we have in Christ.

John Davis, a former person, had a lot to do with my building faith. I was just saved when I came to Denver many years ago. John ran an international ministry and was ultimately in Southeast Asia and Laos for a lot of his time. He posed an important question that I'll always remember and give John credit for this. Everyone asks, who am I? Where did I come from? And where am I going? Everybody that exists who has the mind to be cognitively capable of asking three questions asks those questions.

So in terms of things not seen, what do you think the believer has any compost or rest in when they look at things not seen? They have no idea, right? And how many people, Margaret mentioned this the other day, the Jewish faith, well they're in heaven now, right? What's heaven to a Jew, right? When somebody dies, a friend, a loved one, well they're in heaven because that's their things not seen, but it's not based on anything that relates to biblical truth of faith, right?

Scripture is our source of the things not seen. Because it describes the things, it describes God's love, His care, our place in Him, all that we have in Christ is described in Scripture. And we can't see God's love, we can't see His grace. You can see it maybe through circumstances possibly, but you don't see grace, you don't see love.

So all those things. So this verse is really pretty tremendous and that's why I kind of think it folds back to the other one. I think we have time, I'll go aside here just for a moment. What Roger was saying just made me think of something else. A different way for me to look at it anyway is things that are not seen are things like love, relationships, caring for people, and those things are eternal. Whereas you look at the cars, the houses, the boats, the things that you see when you go through your daily life, but you can also see there are these things that aren't seen that are much more important and they're eternal, and Christ love. But see, to have that perspective, I think you have to be positioned above and really see you identified with Christ. I mean, I think that gives you an imperfect view of eternity.

But it's certainly not looking to God to give us new aspirations of what the future may hold. We believe it's true and we believe it because of who we are in Christ and positioned above. I think it's really important to approach that this way. Yeah, Margaret. Well, I was going to say, I think of friends that I have who are believers and they're always anxious. Because they're not resting. Because anything that comes in their life, it's like, why did God allow this to happen to me? If God really loves me, I wouldn't be dealing with this issue.

As opposed to the other view, which many of us have, I hope, that we understand these light afflictions are going to come through our life, and it's to conform us. And when we're resting in Him, we have a whole different view. It's not that we want these things to happen, but I think you understand why they're happening and you accept that, but also you're looking at the bigger picture. That this is a light affliction for your growth.

And where we're going to be eternally is a whole different ballgame. Like Carolyn said, these are not important. For the things which are seen are temporary but the things which are not seen are eternal. So we've kind of really drilled down on the eternal nature of the things that are not seen.

And we believe those by faith, don't we? Think of all the great saints who've walked the path of this earth and gone on to be with the Lord. Nobody that I know of, and I'm sure you don't know anybody either, has seen the Lord Jesus Christ, right? I mean, to think we're going in a resurrected body to be with the Lord, I mean, how do you put that on from an intellectual perspective? I'll share a recent experience. My trip last week was Madison in Philadelphia.

So in Madison I had the privilege of being invited back as a visiting professor at the place I'd done my internal medicine residency. and I grew up with a my father died before I was a year of age and my mother never remarried but we had friends who thought my dad walked on water now I'm sure he didn't but anyway so Joyce was a girl my age that I went to elementary school with and junior high school with and high school with who then basically I haven't seen since but nevertheless the Hartman family was one every Christmas day my mother and my brother and I would go over to the Hartman's and they had two boys that were One was Ed's age and my brother and then one a little bit younger than that. Anyway, let me get to the point. The cousin or the uncle of Joyce, Actually, the cousin of Joyce, Bob Woodson, when I went to Madison to do my internal medicine, he knew that I knew the Hartmans, and so he made himself known to me. At that time, I wasn't saved at that point, and I didn't know whether he was or not. But anyway, when I went to Madison just last week, he met with me, and he is a saved man. I got there in the middle of the afternoon, we sat down and had a cup of coffee together and started talking about all this.

But we got to the point of saying, is man created in God's image or has he evolved? And he believes unequivocally that we're a ball from lower species. And he subsequently has sent me tape after tape and book after book for me to be acknowledging this. And the only reason I mention this to you is here's a brother in the Lord who is clearly a saved man. Kind of like Francis Collins, by the way, the head of our National Institutes of Health is a saved man. and he has a book called DNA the language of God he's a geneticist by by training and by his expertise he leads our National Institutes of Health which is a 30 billion dollar you know enterprise as part of our government anyway back to the Bob Woodson story so he sent me all this stuff but the reason I bring this up is that he clearly doesn't believe the Word of God that he's just created after his own kind you know I mean he doesn't believe that so if we're going to approach the Bible by faith we need to be accepting of the things that the Lord has given us. And he sent me all these things.

Well, you know, Neanderthal man, humans have some Neanderthal sequence in their DNA. Well, I say we have some sequences from worms in our DNA. So the question is, do I go back and try to read all this to challenge him scientifically? And my feeling is if he rings my bell again, I'm just going to have to say to him, you know, Bob, this is all nice and good. but I don't believe that we were an evolved species." Now, Ben Hill said, well, how do you put this into perspective in terms of the ages of the earth and all this? I said, you know, I can't, but nevertheless I believe that we as man are created by God in his image and that this is just some mistake of evolution.

Tom? I think Joe kind of stole the march on all these geneticists and everything when he just simply said when he was going through all this despair in two parts. He first said, and then a number of chapters later said something different, but the first part he said was, I'm a worm, not a man. Well, I did. I know.

We need to put the things that are seen versus those that are not seen into perspective. Hebrews 13, therefore let us go forth to him outside the camp. bearing his reproach. In other words, it's kind of saying, you're a different kind of citizen. So as these trials come up, we need to ultimately, being outside the camp is going forth in him, in his perspective. And things seen include all that's part of the world system or the cosmos which includes sin and poverty and want and care and lack thereof and persecution and trial.

Welcome to the earthly existence. Now some of us have security blankets and I'll admit I have one. I have a decent house and some vehicles that run and I have a good job. Again, retirement plan. Margaret wonders when I'm going to apply it. I keep hearing that time and time again. So anyway, you could pray about this. Pray for Margaret if you would. So anyway, welcome to the world system.

Keep in mind that all these things that surround us Are those things we should ignore completely? I mean, what about poverty and the homeless, the street people and all that? Does scripture call us to meet those needs? Carol? I think there's kind of a balancer. I think some people get it really extreme one way or the other. They just ignore them or they just say, you know, we have to do everything for these people. And I think it's kind of in the middle. I mean, we're always going to have poverty. we're always going to have people on the streets, but we're called to be compassionate. So I think each person has to find their own balance there.

But I'm going to kind of summarize, I'm interested in some challenging this maybe, but scripture calls us clearly to meet the needs of the body, right? That's unequivocal. If there are needs within our body, whether it be poverty or illness or whatever, that's our primary mandate in terms of scripture. Now that doesn't mean we can't reach out outside the body, and the Lord will provide those opportunities and times to look at that if we need to.

But nevertheless, really our immediate needs, that includes missionaries and people here, people abroad, and everywhere else. So that's what we're called to, not to solve the world's problems. That's a social gospel, isn't it? I mean, I grew up with a social gospel at a mainline church, and ultimately it was the woes of the world was what our responsibility was. Well, it's not something we need to ignore. But that's not what we're called to as believers. Remember, we're citizens of a different country.

And Carolyn's right. Poverty, street people always be with us. Sin, right? Go ahead, Carolyn. It's kind of relative. I mean, there are some people who don't have food to eat and other people who have lots of money, but they still think they're poor. Some people can have everything they want. They still think they want more. And they don't have. So I think some of it is relative. So some of that will always happen. Roger, you had your hand up. Please. You're not. This is great.

When you're teaching, I'm saying as much as you are. Randy's kind of quiet today. That's why he's an elder, because that was when he pulled his tongue. As a young whippersnapper, I have a hard time with that. Would you like to say something now? Actually, the thing is that I agree with you completely.

The New Testament biblical mandate, what we see repeated in Acts, and we're going to see it again, is that the Church is to care for its own first. but there are larger biblical principles that get drawn in from the Old Testament that are often used where the nation of Israel is to have a government that is to take care of its own and the law provides for taking care of its own that often I see Christians bring in in the church and they say is because they pull things in from the Old Testament. And so we just want to be careful as stewards of God's Word that we don't take what was a national governmental policy that God instituted and pull that into the New Testament and say, ah, well, the church needs to take care of everybody all the time. Because we can't exposit that from the scripture. We can't exposit care for the body.

And that's why, like in Acts 2, 42 to 47, brand-new instituted and the people were selling and giving as they could to take care of the needs within the body. Immediately, the Holy Spirit's move in the body was, we're going to care for one another. You're my brother in Christ. You're my sister in Christ. Alright, getting near the end here.

First John 2.16, for all that is in the world, The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world.

Now we all have those ingredients but this is world system stuff. And the thing that I think is so amazing as we walk by grace and the light becomes lighter in terms of who we are in Christ, the darkness gets more revealed for what it really is. And to think that the flesh is ever capable of improving is just really bad theology. We don't get better, we get more revealed for who we really are and what great grace was utilized to bring us to salvation. So the world system is the world system and Satan rules it and ultimately we each have a sin nature and the world system has anything in its apparent success equation other than God. Everything but God is in the view of the world system. So, I think when we think about the things that are not seen takes us beyond this human existence and that's where we should be paying by faith our attention.

And all this is going to be left behind. And this is where our citizenship currently resides. It's not here. And I've said it before, but my late wife had something out of the refrigerator and said, this is not my home, it's my business address. So that's a good way to think about it. We enjoy the things of this earth. I mean, most of us.

J. Bernard McGee, I listen to on the way to work every morning. Margaret's been so sweet, they cut all the CDs.

I'm just finishing June now, so I'm almost done for the second time through this. But Jay Vernon had cancer and he had I think progressively more extensive cancer and he kept saying this and I think I can identify this and I think many of us in this room would.

Do we want to die today to be with the Lord? I want to go to be with the Lord but I just seem to be alive through the party tomorrow anyway, right? But Jay Vernon was very honest. He said no I don't want to die. I want to be with the Lord. His faith was great.

As ours is. But yet we still live in this earthly sphere and the Lord's not done with us yet, right? So the idea of wanting to continue living to be with your spouse or your children or your parents or your siblings or whatever else, nothing wrong with that, right? I mean, it's perfectly normal to be that way. But yet we have this hope in things eternal. And that's a rest that we have. And that's our looking at things above that are eternal and not temporal.

And kind of Revelation 21.4 gives us a little bit of peace, doesn't it? And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There should be no more pain for the former things have passed away.

And I think, you know, there's nothing else we need to, you know, really think about, but just keep looking down, as Miles has said many years ago. Todd, you remember Miles, don't you? No, but Miles wasn't here, but I presume that he may have been exposed to him, but not that long ago.

Anyway, keep looking down as that heavenly perspective. Other thoughts for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, which worketh for us a much more far and exceeding eternal way to glory, when we look not at the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen, for the things that are seen are temporal, things that are not seen are eternal. Randy? Actually, this is a Macaulay observation that verse 18, as we focus on the things not seen, the things of the Lord, who we are in Christ, who we grow in grace and knowledge of Him, that kind of folds back to the fact that we are producing or working out eternal way of glory. As we do that, as we focus on the world, we're not going to gain too much, we're not going to grow and raise the knowledge of him. As we do focus on the things not seen, that's kind of the mechanism by which we can produce a more eternal way of glory. He kind of flips it around and says 18 conditions on 17. That's how it works out. I thought that was kind of an interesting observation. Yeah, good. That kind of extends 17, doesn't it?

Randy, if you had a thought. Yeah, I was going to say, I think that this was a very purposeful mile marker building on the highlight of Chapter 3 with the beholding. The idea is that the eternal, seeing that which is eternal and beholding the Lord, and then looking at that which is unseen.

Paul is drawing their attention back to that principle because Right, you're talking about 318, right? 318, yes. And 418 is harkening back to that somewhat that I wish you could see and are looking at. Because these are some pretty carnal folks. I'm trying to correct them. Right, and you know we have this kind of interlude, if you would, between 318 and 4-8, right? I mean, because 4-8 really picks up on the four parts of what we're finishing up today. in terms of the suffering and trials we go through to reveal his glory. So this is kind of the conclusion of that. No question, 3.18 is a verse that in terms of looking into that mirror to ultimately have that life of our Lord Jesus portrayed in our human existence.

Any other thoughts today? Randy, close us in prayer, would you please? Sure. Heavenly Father, we come before you. We're grateful for the chance to study your word together and fellowship together. And Lord, we thank you for our identification with you and that that is what we are anchored to when we think of our citizenship and eternal glory and living with you as your bride. We thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.