Okay, good morning. Let's turn in our Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter number four. And I would like us to read together from verse seven to verse 18. Second Corinthians chapter number four, verse number seven to verse number 18. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus's sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into His presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Lord God, send forth Your Holy Spirit that we might have eyes to see, to see things unseen, to believe things spoken of You. Beyond the sacred page, we seek You, Lord, so that through the word of scripture we might come to know You. Believe on You, trust in You all the more fully. Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove, with all Your quickening powers and kindle a flame of sacred love in these cold hearts of ours. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Last time we considered James chapter number one, and we looked at the practical perspective that we are to have concerning our trials. And that is that the trying of our faith produces steadfastness, so that God is working in us Christlikeness through our trials, through our temptations, through our sorrows, so that we can therefore count it all joy when we are met with various trials. And James helps us understand that. He helps us see that we need to look beyond what is happening at the present just to also into this realm in which we live, I mean this age in which we live, and see that through our trials, God is going to make us like Jesus. These are things that we expect in this life to see take place in our lives as a result of trials. This text of scripture that we're going to be looking at this morning offers us another perspective, a perspective which formed Paul's reason for why he says in verse number 16, "So we do not lose heart." Paul experienced trials not like many people in the world today. Yet he had this resolve, this persistence, this fervor, this deep dependence upon his God that would make you look at him and either conclude that the guy is a madman or he knows his God. Losing heart is something that we need to be careful of and is always part of that testing of our faith in trials. Trials cause us to grow wearisome. Trials cause us to feel sore, to feel wounded, to feel confused, and they really present us with a range of complex emotional and psychological challenges. The reality of trials is that they've formed a pressure upon our lives that if not responded to well will bring us to breaking point and, in fact, will could potentially destroy us. And this is the idea of losing heart. The word translated "faint" in some translations is probably not the best translation to use at this point because Paul is not talking about the fact that you might grow physically tired and weary and therefore you just need a holiday and a rest. There's nothing wrong with a holiday, there's nothing wrong with a rest. You're not fainting because you take a break. You see how that word "faint" may imply a physical kind of fainting. It's metaphorical, and "losing heart" captures that idea really well. Therefore, we do not lose heart. It is more than just the idea of taking a rest and a break. That is not a problem at all. The idea of losing heart is shirking and shrinking away from duty which you have been called to do like a soldier, or like a warrior who goes out to battle and he has a station, and he's meant to protect and guard that station. He has a duty given to him by his commander, and at not at any point is it appropriate for him to retreat in cowardice because of the pressure that comes into his life from the coming enemies. He stands his ground. He fights, as what Paul would say, the good fight of faith. And he does not lose heart, and he fights even unto death. This is the kind of fight that all Christians are called to. It's the fight of spiritual warfare. It's the fight that we are called to fight all the way to the day that we meet our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is never a good enough reason for a Christian to put the sword down and retreat in the face of trials and testings. So the losing heart from which I'm referring to is more the idea of discouragement that causes you to cast in the towel and say, "I'm done with it. I'm done with God. I'm done with Christianity. I'm done with the pressures of life that are coming my way," and you curse God and die, and listen to the advice of Job's wife. It's the idea that you are throwing in the towel. And it is used of different things in scripture. Men ought always to pray and not lose heart. So we need to keep on praying. We never put prayer down. Let us not grow weary in doing good, for due in season, in due season we shall reap if we faint not. There you go. We should never stop doing good. This is the call of the Christian. We should never lose heart and get to the point where we throw in the towel and say it's useless to do good, or it's useless to pray. Therefore, I will not pray, and I will not do good. The trials that Paul experienced in his life would give us ample reason, humanly speaking, to say, "Just throw in the towel, Paul. Just throw in the towel." In verse number seven of this text, as I read to you just this morning, verse 8, he says, "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed." This man is facing death, he and his companions, day by day, threatened with death. Their flesh is taking a flogging and a beating. And if anything, we would just say to Paul, "Is it really worth serving God?" And so Paul says, "But nonetheless, we don't lose heart. We don't throw in the towel. We don't give up. We do what God has called us to do, and we don't let discouragement cause us to quit." The severity of Paul's trials is also seen in chapter number 11, verse 23 to 28. Paul talks about imprisonments, countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews 40 lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, that is basically they took up stones to stone him. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day, I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeyings in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own countrymen, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, though many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from other things, it's like he could continue to put a great big list there for us, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. A day in the life of Paul. A man whose life was marked by trial and testing and tribulation to the point that it would seem almost humanly reasonable for him just to throw in the towel and say, "I quit." Or to stand back and look at this and say, "God, You said You're going to protect me, but I'm getting beaten with rods." "I thought You said you'll give Your angels charge over me, except I dash my foot against the stone, but I've been lashed so many times that my back is bleeding and scarred. Danger is all around me," says Paul. But he still not loses, doesn't lose heart. And it is an amazing thing that he doesn't lose heart. And he does what he does, not even for his own glory, not even for his own namesake, not even for his own comfort. Look what he says in verse 15, he says, "All of it is for your sake, so that the grace extends to more and more people that it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God." You know, he's saying, "This is for your good and for God's glory that I go through all this." Now how does Paul handle all this? Why doesn't he lose heart? How can a man sustain such pressure and hardship and pain and sorrow? Well, Paul had a very strong convictional perspective about trials. And it is revealed to us in verse number 13 to verse number 14. He says this, after he goes through his trials and explains them, he says, "Since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what has been written, 'I believed and so I spoke,' we also believe, and so we also speak." That's not the end of the sentence, "knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into His presence." Paul has a conviction, a deep conviction, referenced in this passage as "we have the same spirit of faith." His heart is set. He is trusting in the Lord. And he is saying we have this same spirit of faith, according as it is written in the Psalms concerning David, who said the very same words. Now what Paul is saying is we're no different to David of old, who held onto the promises of God about the things that were to come, about him being enthroned as a king, as it were, over Israel and what God had promised to him and his offspring. He held onto the truth of the gospel. He held onto the truth of Messiah. He held onto the truth of the promises made concerning the king and the throne and the kingdom. And although he did not see them, and all he saw was Saul and his armies after him, and his life was threatened day after day, and he was like a bird fleeing to the mountains, he had the same spirit of faith as Paul, and Paul had the same spirit of faith as David. A conviction that upheld them through their most difficult trial, their most difficult time, the same spirit of faith. What they spoke, they believed. In fact, they spoke what they believed. They believed things concerning the promises of God, and they spoke the things that they believed. Now Paul's relating this to the gospel because he goes on to talk right in the next verse about the resurrection of Jesus. Now what Paul is saying is the ministry that we have, which is to make known the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, teaches us of the fact that Jesus has risen and He will raise us. And that He will reunite us together as one people in the presence of God forevermore. And so Paul says, "My spirit of faith, my deep conviction is that I believe that the gospel that I preached to you is true. And that gospel contains promises. And part of those gospel promises is that Jesus is coming again. And when He comes again, He will raise me from the dead. And when He comes again, He will raise you from the dead who believe in Him. And when He raises us from the dead, we will be gathered together, and we will live forevermore in His presence." And Paul says, "I don't lose heart because I believe that. My eyes see that. I speak that because I believe that, and I know it's going to come to pass even though I cannot see it." This is his hope. The restoration of the body is encompassed in the resurrection of the body. The reunion of God's people, so the friends, the anxiety of the churches, the loss of Paul's fellow workers, different things that happened, persecution, and people dying before his eyes, part that formed the sorrow and the trial that he experienced, the resurrection deals with that very thing, because one day Jesus is going to raise them up also with Him. And also, what is most glorious to Paul is that he will forever be in the presence of his God. So that his time of prayer and communion and strength that he experiences in part in this life in the midst of his trial will be manifested with a glory like none other, and he will bask forevermore in the presence of his God and he will rejoice in his God. His perspective that enabled him to endure under trial was one that was grounded, and listen to this, grounded in the revelation of God and was not grounded upon naturalistic reason. Let me explain myself here now for you. Paul was in the position of a man who believed God, who believed God created the heavens and the earth, and he believed that this God has spoken. He has spoken in creation, He has spoken through the word of the gospel, He has in these last days spoken to us through His Son. And Paul believed that what God says is true. He was in the position of receiving revelation from God. And what I mean by that is Paul did not interpret the world around him as if there was no God, as if there was no resurrection, as if there was no supernatural, as if all that was before him was enemies, hardship, trials, death, and that's the end. You see, Paul did not have an atheistic view of the world. He believed in God. He had the spirit of faith. He trusted in his God. You see the atheistic or naturalistic reason, this kind of view that comes from naturalistic reason, basically says, "If I can't see it, if I can't measure it, if I can't test it, I won't believe it." And the truth is, many of us as God's people fall into that kind of thinking, especially when we go through trials. We try to make sense of them merely from a standpoint of human reason. But Christianity is a religion of revelation. As I said, the God who created the world speaks, and God gives us the categories of how we are to interpret the world. You understand that? We don't form our own categories to interpret the world around us. God says, "I exist. I made you. There is a heaven, there is a hell. You are sinful. We are humanly depraved. There is a gospel, there is good news. There is Jesus. Death is not the end." You see, God gives us all these categories and He expects us to receive them and to believe them because human reason is not sufficient. We need God to tell us about reality. Our mind fails us to comprehend even the things that are created by God. Consider the galaxies that are around us. We can't even work out our own galaxy, let alone all the other stuff that are out there. You see, this is this is what it is. The heavens declare the glory of God. And the glory of God should tell us, "God, You're glorious. My mind is feeble. My heart is frail. You tell me. You tell me. I trust You. I believe in You." And so the Christian message and the Christian religion is a religion built upon revelation, and the implications of this perspective, this eternal perspective that is given to us by God, is powerful. It is so powerful that when you see the martyrs possessing this same spirit of faith that Paul speaks of, they die a death that causes us to wonder, what on earth... how do they have such serenity of mind in the face of death? The world looks at that and they don't know, they maybe think it's some psychosomatic illness or something that we haven't yet worked out, because their categories begin with "there is no supernatural, there is no God." But when we read the scripture and we look at how the martyrs died and take Stephen, I guess for an example, that he was full of the Holy Spirit, he gazes into heaven, he sees the glory of God and he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he says, "Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." But they, his enemies, cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And all this and as they were stoning him, listen to this, Stephen calls out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep, or he died. His face shone like an angel. He had this same spirit of faith as Paul. He had the same spirit of faith as David. He's looking not at the men that are holding stones and ready to stone him and gnashing their teeth at him. He is looking up toward Jesus, and he's seeing Jesus. And because his eyes are fixed on Jesus, he's lost sight of all beside. His spirit is so enraptured with the truth of God at that moment, the spirit of glory and of Christ is resting upon him, that he goes to his death with serenity of heart and mind. We see this same spirit of faith in Job, as was read to us this morning. How do you explain this? Another man came and said, "You've lost your property." Another one came and said, "You lost your cattle." Another one comes and said, "You lost this and you lost that." Oh and by the way, you've lost all your children all in one day. Oh and you know what, you got next thing, skin for skin, you're going to lose your health too, Job. Now, humanly speaking, we would think that the advice of Job's wife, "Hey, curse God and die." Like, really? Is this it? But Job has the spirit of faith, and he looks beyond the present struggle. He looks beyond the present trial, and he falls down and worships God. Listen to this. And all the biblical categories that God has given to the believer come to his heart and mind. Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked I'm going back. You see that? He's not a materialist. He doesn't think everything that he possesses in this life is the most important thing. No, in fact, he loses sight of all that he possesses in his life and he says, "I came naked and I'm going naked. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He gives and He takes away. He's sovereign." "Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord and not evil?" And Job did not sin with his lips in those moments of his dependence upon God because of the spirit of faith. In chapter number 19 of Job, Job says this, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last day He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another." You see what's happening with Job here? Spirit of faith, the resurrection, the things to come, the things he cannot see, they're possessing his thoughts and his mind at the time of his trial. And yes, he's struggling in and out of those things. He is human, we are frail, but understand this, he has deep-rooted conviction that carries him on through his trials. In fact, even in his complaints against God, his entire complaint against God is not to run away from God, it's to run to God. "When can I appear before God? God, tell me what's going on." That's a man with a spirit of faith who's yes, wrestling with what God's doing in his life, but he's not fleeing from God. He's not denying God. He's not cursing God. He's pursuing God in the midst of his trial. Yes, in a very rough and rugged way, but nonetheless, in a way that shows that he's a man of this kind of conviction. Same as Paul possessed this spirit of faith. "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Amazing. This same spirit of faith possessed our Lord Jesus Christ, who when He speaks of His death, at least 50% of the time that Christ speaks of His death, He mentions with it His resurrection. And if you look at the life of our Lord, he's always looking beyond the cross. You see, He's saying, "My death is not the end. I go to prepare a place for you at the cross." But you know, if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and bring you to Myself that where I am, there you may be also. "You will sorrow for a little while, but your joy will return to you soon." What is He saying? You're going to see me, I'm going to rise. "Destroy this temple and in three days I will rise it up, raise it up again." Yes, the Son of Man has been appointed suffering and death and crucifixion, but hey, I'm going to rise. He'll rise again the third day. You see what I'm saying? The spirit of faith is possessing his thinking. He believes what his Father has told him concerning Himself. He knows what the Scripture says of Himself. And he knows that death is not the end. He knows that his wrestle with the trials that are to come is not the end point. And so he goes on in the spirit of faith. And so all this also relates to Paul's endurance under the hardships and also to ours. Paul is fundamentally seeing himself and all these people that I've just read to you and explained to you, they're fundamentally seeing themselves as this, pilgrims and sojourners. A pilgrim and a sojourner. They are not interpreting the world as this is our final destiny. They are passing through. They're looking beyond the grave. To them, their destination is a celestial city. For them, the warfare and fights below are all the preparation of the things to come. For them, their life and their substance and their the material things that they possess are all a means to the end, the end of being with the Lord in His presence at the resurrection of the just. All these people as pilgrims and sojourners, of which we are called to be also. There's always the sense in a pilgrim of that place beyond. That sense in which as the hymn writer puts it, "There is a land that is fairer than day, and by faith we can see it afar, for the Father waits over the way to prepare us a dwelling place there. In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore. In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore." The pilgrim's home is heaven. This world is not his home. His anchor points are over the mountain, over the hill. He is holding fast to that which he cannot see. He is acting now and responding now to the things of this life because his vision is enraptured with something beyond the temporal. He receives that revelation from God and believes it. Now, does that mean Christianity is without reason? It would be utterly foolish to think so. I said that the ground is is revelation. The ground of our faith is that we receive from God His word. This is the substance. This is the reality. This is the truth. This is what we lay hold to. But Paul was a man of colossal intellect. Have you ever read the book of Romans? My goodness. We can write volumes and volumes of commentaries of this man and still struggle to fully comprehend the glories of what he is saying because the man, yes, it is the word of God, but he was possessed by the truth of God. He wrote the word of God as inspired him by the Spirit, but you also see his mind at play in all those passages. He, you've heard it before, "What shall we say then?" Reason. "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?" He reasons out the revelation. He takes his categories from God, but he goes into the truth of God and he reasons through the revelation of God. He says there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. And he goes on to develop that God has given us His Spirit and he develops all these blessed truths. But he doesn't end there. He says, "God loves us." And you know what, if He didn't spare His own Son for us, how much more will He give us all things? You see the reason there? He's reasoning it out. He looks at the cross and says it just, it means more than just forgiveness, it just means more than just salvation, it means God cares for me in such a way that He will never let me down and He'll provide for all my needs. He does it time and time again in Romans chapter 5. He says if if if if if when we were sinners, we were reconciled by the death of His son, how much more then, there's the reason, how much more then shall we be saved by His life? Beautiful, isn't it? If God saves us while we're sinners, if He reconciles us while we're at enemies with Him, how much more is He going to keep us and save us finally by his son? 100%. And so Paul uses logic and arguments and builds his case like a master symphony. And he glories in God. But he does it from the categories of revelation. The spirit of faith in operation is worked out in this text. Look what he says here in this passage. "So we don't lose heart, though our outward self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day." Now listen to this. "For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison." Okay. Paul, what are you talking about? Light, momentary affliction. Those hardships that I mentioned that are, in fact, like we think to ourselves, "Paul, how are you even surviving this?" He calls it light momentary affliction. The world looks at that and says, "Paul, you're crazy." But Paul says, "I'm going to hold up my trial in light of that resurrection day in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and all the beauty of the eternal perspective, and I'm going to hold it up according to what God says, and I'm going to then compare it with the glory which is to come, and I'm going to work it out. I'm going to try and reason through that revelation, holding up my trials to the truth of God, and then I'm going to make conclusions." And Paul does that, and this is what he concludes. That all the sufferings that I go through, if it is true that Jesus has risen from the dead, and if it is true that I'm going to be reunited with those that have gone before, and if it is true that I'm going to live in the presence of God, and if it is true that the pain and suffering and sin and sickness in my body will one day be gone forevermore. If that is true, if the categories that God gives me to work through this I receive as truth, as revelation from God, and I take my trial, no matter how bad it is, whether it be sickness or cancer or suffering or hardship or the loss of a spouse or a loved one, no matter what it is, you take the hardest, most deepest, most darkest thing that you can think of this side of the earth, and Paul says, "You hold that up into the glory that's going to be that's going to come," and you know what you have to conclude? That it's a light, momentary affliction. And Paul goes even further than that, which might just make us a little bit more confused, but he goes further. He says, "You know what? Let's think about it this way. The light momentary affliction," he says in this passage, "is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory." Okay Paul, now this is too much. Now you're going on to say that the light momentary affliction that we're suffering and the hardship that we're going through is actually working for us, producing something for us. Yes, exactly. Paul says that's how you look at trials through the eternal perspective, when your eyes see the truth of God, and you live in light of the resurrection. You take your momentary light affliction, you see that it doesn't only, it compares with the eternal weight of glory which is far better, that is beyond all comparison. But beyond this, what it does is that momentary light affliction actually works for you. It prepares for you that. Okay, now that really changes the way that we respond in trials. Maybe now that's why we know why Job says, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked that I will return there. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord." Maybe Job knew that all my suffering is preparing for me an eternal weight of glory. That same spirit of faith that possessed David and all the saints of God that have gone on before. There was a joy set before him. There was a glory to be revealed that they longed for. And it strengthened them and helped them and prepared for them that eternal weight of glory. Look, trials therefore then are like stocks. Stocks that produce dividends a hundredfold. Pretty good stocks to buy, hey? You have a trial, you have a hardship. God says that's preparing for you an eternal weight of glory that's beyond all comparison. What's going to come, the dividends, is not just less than the stock itself. It's incomparable to the stock itself. This is God's economy. And God says then let your trials be a moment of investing yourself more fully into the grace of God and into the heart of God and into the mind of God and leaning upon God more fully. So Paul can say in Romans chapter 8 verse 18, "For I reckon, I count it as true, I believe this to be true, I reckon, I hold fast to this, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us." Not even worthy. This is the secret of Paul's endurance. This is why he doesn't lose heart, because he has been given eyes to see the eternal. That's why he says in verse number 18, "As we look not at the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." Paul sets his gaze like a sailor with a telescope who wants to look out in the distance. He lifts that up, that's what the word means, is a scope. It's a focal vision. And he goes, "I keep my scope set toward heaven. I keep my eyes fixed on that which I cannot see. I hold fast to the promise of God. I hold fast to the truth of God. And though the storms are around me and the billows are rolling over me and the ship seems like it's going to sink, I have my scope set on that hill from whence comes my help." "I am looking to the day of resurrection. I'm looking to the coming of Jesus. I'm looking to the day of reunion with the people of God. I'm looking for the day where there will be no more pain and sorrow and suffering and the form of things have passed away and God will say, 'Behold, I make all things new.' I'm looking forward to that day." His vision is onward, upward, heavenward. I could imagine Paul saying to himself being lashed, saying to himself, "I will arise and those scars on my back will be no more." He could see Paul losing friends and loved ones and saying, "I will be reunited to those whom I love so dearly." He could see Paul even questioning where's God at times and wondering what's going on and his heart's wrestling with these things and he's probably saying, "One day, even though the presence of God now seems dim, when the resurrection comes, I will be in His presence forevermore, and I'll never question it. It will be to me reality like never before." This was the power of Paul's vision that rejuvenated his life, that his outward man is perishing, his inward man's renewed day by day. And that's exactly what you need when you want to lose heart, isn't it? You need renewal. Day-by-day renewal, strengthening of the inner man. And the way that Paul gets that is that he leans and looks upon his God and looks to the things that God has promised and lays hold to them. Do you, this morning, know anything of that hope from which I, which I now speak? You cannot know this hope and perhaps you do not know this hope because you do not believe in Jesus the one who was raised from the dead. What I'm sharing to you ultimately is the hope of the Christian gospel. Christ was raised from the dead. He died for our sins. He was buried. He rose again. He will raise us up. He will restore us. He will restore all things to Himself. This is the Christian gospel. The one that died and was raised is now coming again. And we look to Him and we long for Him and we hope for Him. And that hope begins at the very first when you believe on Jesus. You understand this? You're a sinner in need of his mercy, and Christ says to you this this morning, "Come to me and I will give you rest. Believe on me. I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes on me will never die." You don't have to perish for your sin this morning. You can trust in Jesus Christ and know the hope of His resurrection power in your life. You can lean upon His word, the word of His promise, that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. You can trust that He who was raised from the dead will also raise us up. What's your alternative? Christ not raised from the dead? Well, Paul says then your faith is vain, everything's vain, we're of most men, we're most miserable. What's your alternative? Science? How's how's science going to bring you on your deathbed, deathbed comfort you in that final day? What have you exalted as your only strength and confidence? Human reason? Where will human reason be when that, when, when, when the, your heart is is failing you and your friends are around you and they're saying goodbye to you, where would human reason be in that day? Whatever it is that you are trusting and hoping in has become your god. And God says, "Let me be your God. Trust in me, lean upon me, believe on Jesus Christ, be ready, have the hope of the resurrection and trust in me." This is how the only way you can go through suffering, I believe. In a Christlike manner, in a way that will sustain you throughout your days. Brothers and sisters, maybe you're shrinking from duty this morning because of trial and affliction in your life. You're like that warrior that has become cowardice. It's difficult, it's hard, it's stressful. There's anxiety, there is panic, there is pain and you wonder to yourself, "I can't do this anymore." And you just want to pick up the towel and throw it in. Maybe you're thinking to yourself, "I deserve better than this God." I mean, I've seen others have better than I've had it. Maybe this morning you're bitter with God. You don't understand His words and His ways and you're thinking, "Man, I would do much better than God would do." Maybe you're drawing back in response to trials and afflictions instead of drawing near as a way of showing that that you are shrinking back from duty under the weight of trial. You're putting aside the word of God. You're putting aside prayer. You're putting aside Christian fellowship because you're letting hardship dictate to you the way forward instead of the truth of God and holding tenaciously to His word and hoping in His promise. Perhaps you have found or seeking to find satisfaction in other things besides God because you feel that God's let you down. Brothers and sisters, beware of an evil heart of unbelief that departs from the living God. You remember the children of Israel when they went through the wilderness and God gave them trials? He said I did it to test what was in your hearts. And the writer of Hebrews picks up on the psalm and he says, "Today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts, as they did when they were tested in the wilderness." You see the danger? The trying of your faith is a test of your faith. And the word comes to us this morning saying, "Trust me, believe in me. I am the one who sends manna from the wilderness, the one who brings you out of Egypt, the one who redeems you is your God and will sustain you." He sends quail to you. He gets water from the rock. Trust in Him. He will bring you home to Canaan. But the trials and the tests come, and the voice of God we say, "Despise it, Lord. Don't speak to me me anymore. I don't want your word." Hebrews says, "Beware, beware of this hardening of your heart." Brothers and sisters, we need to be sure that we get ourselves a right vision of God daily. That we recognize that part of the satanic attack against the Christian's faith includes the way that Satan comes alongside in trials to cause us to question God. And he often comes in the voice of human reason, trying to drown out the truth of God's revelation. But we should learn that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Asaph, he looked at the troubles and the trials that were before him and he says, "My feet almost slipped. I couldn't understand why did the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer." He said when I thought to understand this, it seemed to me to be a wearisome a task. Listen to these words, "Until I went into the house of the Lord." Until I went into the sanctuary of God. And listen to this, as when he goes in the sanctuary of God, he sees God, and all the biblical categories start coming back to him again. Listen to what he says, "Then I discerned their end. Ah, now you see. You discern the end. I was brutish and ignorant. Ah, now you see yourself rightly. Not as a man who deserves better. I was like a beast towards you. Ah, there we go, closer to the truth. Nevertheless," listen to this, "I am continually with you. God, despite who I am, I'm with you, and you hold my hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward," listen to this, "you will receive me to glory." See you have it? Then he says, "Who am I, who have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing that I desire on earth besides you. My heart and my flesh fail. But you, God, you're the strength of my heart. You God, you are my portion forever." He went into the sanctuary of God. You understand? It happens to us all. Stay near God. Commune with God. Be around God's people, be under the word of God, so that you might look to the things that are not seen. So that you might not faint. So that your problems and your trials and your testings will take on an all-new significance in the light of eternity, and your sick-ridden, failing body, will you'll be looking at it as producing for you a new redemption body. When the perishable body will put on imperishable, and the mortal will put on immortality. And it will come to pass that saying, "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?" When you sorrow because of many troubles and trials in this life, you you you go into the sanctuary of God. You draw near to God. You commune with God and God shows you that that that this is not the end. The sorrow shall be met with joy in heaven. For there is coming a day, as the scripture says, that He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be any mourning or crying or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. You look at your failing relationships and you think to yourself, "Oh goodness, I am sick of fighting and failing and hurting people and being hurt. When is it going to end?" And you remember what Paul says in this passage, when He comes, He will raise us up and He will raise all of us up together with Him in His presence. And the bickering of the church shall be no more. Hallelujah. Brothers and sisters, to be in God's presence and the beauty of that is incomparable. This is the weight of glory that awaits us in the day of our trial. Martin Lloyd Jones, just want to finish with this, in his final days of sickness and weakness, was so severe that his voice had left him entirely. When his doctor attempted to increase his medication, Martin Lloyd Jones refused. And when the doctor insisted upon the medication to relieve his sadness, Lloyd Jones burst forth, "Not sad! Not sad!" While sitting with his wife Elizabeth in those final days of his speechlessness, Lloyd Jones pointed his wife to the scriptures and directed her attention to 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." When his beloved wife asked if that was his experience, he nodded his head with certainty. On February the 6th, this is just before he died, a couple of days I believe, he wrote on a scrap piece of paper, "Do not pray for healing. Do not hold me back from the glory." Do not pray for healing, do not hold me back from the glory. He knew it was his time. He believed it was his time. And he was so looking forward to seeing Jesus. He was so looking on the invisible. He said, "Don't pray for healing any longer. I'm can't wait to see my Savior." May it be so with us. May it be so with us. Let us pray.