WE have to consider as briefly as possible, in the first place, a little in connection with the affliction that is brought before us here—the affliction of the Church of God. You can see that Paul joins himself here with the Church; he says “our afflictions, his own afflictions, and the afflictions of the children of God to the end of time.
In the second place, we will endeavour to say a few words in connection with the description given here of their afflictions. He says “our light afflictions,” and we will endeavour to say a few words in connection with the way in which they may be considered light, however heavy they may be. Some of the Lord’s children have had very heavy afflictions in this world, yet it is designated here as light afflictions. “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment.” This is one of the reasons that causes it to be light. It is only of a short duration; it will pass away in a moment, and if we are saved and in Christ, as soon as we leave this world we will leave trouble and affliction behind us.
I. With reference to the afflictions of the Church of God, if we read our Bible, as we ought to read our Bible, we can see that the children of God from the very beginning had their afflictions in this world. Some have heavier afflictions than others, but they all had their own share, and the share with which the Lord saw right to visit them. If we begin at Abel we see that Abel had his own affliction. He was persecuted even unto death by his own brother, and this was a heavy affliction, but his affliction was only for a moment, and as soon as he died he entered the paradise above—he went home to be with Christ throughout an endless eternity. My dear friends, this should be our absorbing desire, first of all to make sure of Christ, to make sure of being in Christ, and if we are in Christ we will have an interest in this promise. All the promises are yea and amen in Christ, but as long as you are without Christ and rejecting Him in the gospel, you have no right to the promises—you have a right only to the curse of a broken law, to the condemnation that is due to your sins and to my sins. This is all that we have a right to as we are by nature, but as soon as the sinner is united to Christ he is one with Him, and then he has a right not only to one of the promises, and not only to a few of them, but he has a right to them all in Christ.
Then if we come to Enoch, we are told that he walked with God, that he pleased God, but we are told also, especially in history, that he lived in a fearfully wicked generation, and it is the opinion of some that that was one reason why the Lord caught him away. You know that in those days men lived until they were eight and nine hundred years old, and he was taken home when he was only a little over three hundred years. He was a witness for God in a wicked generation, and, according to some, the witnesses were very few in Enoch’s day, and we might just think of them and of the ways of the Lord towards them as of a tender Father looking on his children mobbed by enemies. You know that if you are a father and would see your child on the street or in any other place mobbed by his enemies and that you could rescue your child, you would just go and pluck him away from them and bring him into your house in safety. That is, in a sense, we might say, the way the Lord came and plucked Enoch from that wicked mob that lived in his day. He took him home with Himself to glory, and Enoch could say, “Our light affliction is but for a moment, and though I have been suffering much from this wicked generation for the last three hundred years or so, it is only a moment, and my Father is coming, and He will take me away from them.”
If we were to continue and come on to Abraham. Abraham had his own trial; he had battles with unbelief from the very first day he got the promise in regard to Isaac until the day in which he got Isaac, the son of promise, and after receiving Isaac from the Lord the Lord tried Abraham. He tried his faith, but although Abraham had great faith, we believe he had great battles with unbelief, and it will be true in regard to the child of God in all ages that, however great his faith and other graces may be, they will be tried in this world. They will, however, stand the test, because they come from God, and what comes from Him will stand the test, but whatever we have of ourselves it is weak like ourselves, and it will not stand. They were trusting in the Lord, as it is said, “Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.”
Now if we come on to Jacob, Jacob had his afflictions in this world. That was a very sad day in the history of Jacob when the brethren came home with the coat of Joseph rent and besmeared with blood and presented it to Jacob. He said, “All these things are against me.” This was a very heavy affliction, but it was only for a moment; and you remember the day came in the history of Jacob when he, even in this world, got his Joseph back again. The dispensations of the Lord are wonderful, and it would be well for us if we had faith, and if we were seeking faith, that we would trust our all in the hands of the Lord. If you trust the Lord, give Him your soul and your body—give Him your family if you have a family, or whatever your concerns are in this world—commit them all to the Lord, and He will keep that which you have committed to Him; as Paul said, “I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day.” My dear friends, if we would commit ourselves to the Lord it would be well for us going through this wilderness of troubles and trials, for if you belong to the children of God you may put this to your account, that you will have your afflictions in this world. That does not mean that the children of God have nothing but afflictions and sorrow in the world. No. They have their days of joy and happiness, but if you take it upon the whole and put their joys in one balance and their sorrows in another while they are here on earth, their sorrows will certainly bring down the scale. “In this world,” Christ told them, “ye shall have tribulation.” In this world they have their night, and the day is before them, and you know the gloominess of a winter night. The believer has his winter here; his summer is before him. If we go to heaven there we will find our summer, but not on this side of heaven, although, as I have said already, that is not to say you have winter nights always on your journey; you will get glimpses now and then of the sun. I often compare this in my own mind to a very stormy and cloudy day. You see when the sky is full of clouds which are going very fast with the wind, you might get a glimpse of the sun, but as soon as you get it another cloud comes and takes away the sun from your sight, and we might say that this is something like the life of the true Christian in this world. He will have a glimpse of the sun here on earth now and then, but he is on a voyage from time to eternity, and on that voyage he will meet with storms. The wind will be high and the clouds thick, and he will only have a glimpse now and then of the Sun, but when he gets home to glory it will be an eternal summer, an eternal day, never a winter, never a night there, but as long as the believer is in this world he may put this to his account, that he will have affliction. I have met with some who had affliction in their body during most of their lifetime until the day of their death. In many cases the Lord was very kind to them in their soul, but they had their spiritual troubles also, their dark moments, but ah! my dear friends, it was only for a moment. Some of those afflicted ones, who are now in glory we believe, could say by faith many a time, “My affliction is light because it is only for a moment, and I will soon be in heaven with God the Father, who loved me from all eternity: I will soon be in heaven with Christ the Son, who loved me and came from the bosom of the Father to this world in order to save me: I will soon be in heaven with the Holy Ghost, the third Person of the glorious Trinity, beholding angels and saints.” This reminds me of an anecdote in connection with an eminent man, John Grant, who died, I think, in Caithness. Shortly before he came to his deathbed a friend visited him, and he said to his friend, “If you will hear that I am sick, do not stay long in coming to see me, for I believe that the Lord will not keep me very long at the ferry when He will send the ferryboat for me.” His friend went home, and some time after this he heard that John Grant was ill, and he came to see him. John was in bed very poorly when the friend came, and he said to him, “You are very poorly to-day, John.” “No,” said John, “I am not poorly, and I am not to be poorly. The Father will welcome me when I go home, the Son will welcome me when I go home, the Holy Ghost will welcome me when I reach home, the angels and the saints in glory will welcome me when I reach home, and do you call that a poor man?” Oh, my dear friends, if this were true of us, whatever afflictions we would meet with in this world would they not be light?
Then others have afflictions, troubles, and trials in their families, in their congregations, and should we have no cause of sorrow in the day in which we live than seeing the great majority of our congregations careless in regard to their immortal soul, would this not be affliction? And if we were as we ought to be, seeing our own children, our sons and daughters, hearing the gospel from their childhood, and still without Christ, and that we are sure of this, that if they die as they are their sorrow will be an eternal sorrow, would this not be affliction? There were many parents we believe who had very heavy affliction during the fearful war—their sons away in the war zone in danger of being killed at any moment. I remember being in Portsmouth, the last year of the war, in March or April, when we had the fearful reverses, and I was standing at a station one day when the ambulance train came in with the wounded. There was an old man standing beside me, and he was weeping. He said, “It is awful, so many young men dying out there daily, and others wounded and maimed,” and they were coming in there some without hands, others without feet, and some without eyes. He said, “I had only two sons, and one of them was killed right out with a shell, and the other was wounded four or five times, and he is now a prisoner in Germany.” Now that man had his affliction, and I had some hope it worked for his good; he had other afflictions along with them, but, however heavy they may be in this world, if they are to come to an end at our death everything will be well. Whatever prosperity you may have or I may have in this world, if we are without Christ then, at our death, our afflictions will begin, and they shall not be for a moment. No, they shall not be only for a hundred years, for, remember, if you die without Christ your sorrows will only begin at death, and there is an eternity before you without an end. This is what we may call and what the Scriptures call affliction—awful sorrow and anguish of heart, and it will meet the sinner who dies without Christ, let him be a prince or a beggar, but the affliction of the children of God is but for a moment.
II. Now I am going to say a few words in connection with the reasons which are brought before us here why the afflictions of the people of God are light, and the first reason is that they are but for a moment. My dear friends, we may say that all time, since the world was created until it will be going out of being, is only a moment in comparison with eternity, so that although you or I were suffering in this world, say, for a hundred years—and we would consider that very long—the end would come at the expiry of the hundred years. Even if we were suffering for a thousand years, and that would be a long time suffering, it would only be a moment in comparison with eternity, and we should lay this to heart. There are very few in this world who have the heart to suffer for Christ or His cause in the world, but I have no doubt that the Apostle Paul had sufferings on that account when he wrote this epistle and these words. He suffered much persecution from men from the very first day that he followed Christ and His cause. You remember that he was let down in a basket over the wall because of the persecutors after him; you remember that he was stoned and afflicted in different other ways, but he says here, “our light affliction.” He had a good grounded hope that whenever he would die he would be with Christ, and that all his troubles and sorrows would be at an end then. We should all examine ourselves this very night, and ask ourselves, “Do I know anything of the troubles of the children of God? Do I know anything of their sorrows? Do I know anything of their joys?” We heard one man saying that he could follow the Lord’s children better in their sorrows than in their joys, and that is true of some of the true children of God; but that did not mean that they had no joy—that they had no moments or glimpses of joy in this world. If you have found Christ as the Saviour of your soul, surely you know something of the joy and happiness of having your sins forgiven. But perhaps you say, “But very soon I was plunged in darkness and unbelief, and the devil came with his temptations and all the other things that I had to meet with in my own bosom.” That may be, and, as I have said already, if the sorrows of the Lord’s children in this world were put in one scale and their joys in another scale, we believe that the scale with the sorrows would weigh down the other scale; but this is not the home of true believers. You know that when a traveller is away from home, however great the hardship he may meet with on the journey, he will say, “Ah, I am only to be here one night; I am on my way home, and when I reach my family and my home it will make up for all the troubles that I have met with.” And if this is true in a literal sense, surely it is more so in a spiritual sense, and we should be willing to glory in the cross of Christ and whatever trouble we had to meet with in the world for the cause of Christ. I am not speaking of the trouble which the children of God bring upon themselves in this world, and for which they have to smite their breasts and say, “This is my own folly; it is myself who causes this trouble and this sorrow.” That is not to be welcomed or gloried in, and where will they go to be relieved? Oh, they must go to Christ.
Another reason or cause of this trouble being light is that they have the Lord’s promise that He will be with them. “In all their afflictions He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them.” And He says, “When thou goest through the waters, I will be with thee.” He speaks to Jacob and to the true Church of God, “Behold, I am with thee.” This is what makes the affliction of the children of God light. Perhaps, however, they will not see him always. No, their eyes may be blinded with unbelief, and they will think they are alone, and this makes the burden so heavy; but if you and I could see clearly and believe that the Lord is with us in all our troubles, then we could say in reality, as well as Paul, “Our light affliction.” This reminds me of a little boy who fell into the river and was nearly drowned. As the current was taking him down he caught a stone in the river, and by this help, as he thought himself, he got out of the stream and came home to his mother. “Oh,” she said to him, “what came over you?” “I fell into the river!” “And how did you get out?” she said; “what a mercy that the Lord was so near you; you would have been drowned were it not that the Lord was so near you and took you out.” “Oh, no,” said the boy, “I did not see the Lord there at all; it was the stone which I caught that helped me out.” This is so like you and me when we are in our troubles. Although it is clearly evident—and the child of God will see it at some times—that the Lord was with him to help him, he will be under the power of unbelief and saying, “I was there alone; the Lord was not there,” just like the little boy.
“Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” I may tell you another note in connection with a young woman who was in Caithness in the days of Mr. Cook. He was at a communion season there, and on the Sabbath he was serving a table—I think it was the last table that was served—and he was speaking to the child of God at the table in this way, “Child of God at the table, you have found the presence of the Lord at the table to-day, and you are saying to the Lord, ‘Take me home with Thyself as long as I am in this joyful frame. I am afraid of meeting the world and that the world will take away from me this joyful frame that I got at the Lord’s table. Take me home to the mansions above! Mr. Cook said, “The Lord says No. I will not bring you home yet. You have a lot of trouble to meet with in this world before I will bring you home.” When the soul heard this it cried out, “Oh, take me away home with Thyself, so that I will shun these troubles.” He said, “The Lord says No. I will not bring you home yet. If I were to bring you home just now without going through the troubles you have to meet with in this world, you would lose part of the exceeding great and eternal weight of glory.” And when the soul heard this it cried out, “If that is so, leave me here on earth as long as Thou seest right, so that I may not lose even one drop of the exceeding great and eternal weight of glory.” Oh, my dear friends, I do not say that it is what we have to suffer in this world that is to merit in the least the exceeding great and eternal weight of glory, but I say this, that these troubles are, as it were, preparations preparing the child of God to drink more and more out of the joys above when he is brought home. We read this question in the Word of God, “What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?” And we are told that “these are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” This was what sustained our forefathers when some of them had to lay down their lives for the sake of Christ. They believed that their affliction was only for a moment, and that in a very short time they would be home with Christ in Glory, and they were willing to go to the stake and face death in other ways. Ah, my friends, we look too much on the things that are seen—the pleasures of the world, riches and honour, but what will it avail us on our deathbed although we were millionaires like Carnegie if we are without Christ? Your millions would be as little in your eyes in that moment as the dust that is under your feet. The pleasures of this world will not make you happy even in time. Should you get your fill of them, you would be like the prodigal son at last. They would be nothing but husks, for the things of this world cannot satisfy the immortal soul, the never-dying soul. Nothing will satisfy our souls but Christ, and if you have Christ as your Saviour, you have everything that you need for time and for eternity. May the Lord bless His word.
ON what soul-undoing bargains do some make with the devil! He is a great trader for souls, he hath all sort of commodities to suit all men’s humours that will deal with him. He hath profits for the covetous, honours for the ambitious, pleasures for the voluptuous: but a soul is the price at which he sells them: only he will be content to sell at a day and not require present pay—so that he is paid on a death-bed, in a dying hour, he is satisfied.—John Flavel.