The following teaching is titled, Why Do the Righteous Suffer? and was delivered by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. 

I want to come to what I think is the hardest verse in the Bible. That's quite a statement, isn't it? But I really believe that I've found it, or at least I haven't yet found one as difficult to deal with.

It's in the book of Job, chapter 2, which is just before the book of Psalms. The book of Job is a very much quoted book, almost all the time we quote it out of context. It's a very much quoted and very little read book, and I think a very little understood book.

because most of the time most people who refer to it are trying to explain it away because it doesn't quite fit. Interestingly enough, as best we can tell, Job probably lived about the time of Abraham. And so the issue being confronted in the book of Job is really one of the earliest issues to be dealt with in sacred history.

Job was not a Jew. That would really be a misnomer. He lived nearby.

He lived across the Jordan. He was a godly man. That's what we're told in the very first opening words of the book.

He was a righteous man. He feared God. He was a priestly sort of man, although it would be an anachronism to call him a priest per se.

You all probably know something of Job's story. Satan comes to God in the most extraordinary kind of an encounter. Satan comes waltzing right into God's throne room, along with the angels and archangels.

He has access to the Most High. I don't understand that. But he comes right into the presence of holy, almighty God.

And he in fact challenges God. He says, you think Job is so special. You think Job is so righteous.

You think he's so committed to you. But I tell you, God, that it's only because you've blessed him so much. you let me take away some of his blessings and see how long Job remains faithful to you and God accedes to the challenge that astonishes me God allows Satan to harass Job and he does it in two parts the first part he's able to touch Job's family and his possessions and we read in the most horrifying series of events all in the course of a morning his flocks, his herds, his servants, his children are taken from him one after another.

One servant comes running in with a report of what's happened to the flocks and he barely gets it out of his mouth and another one comes in to tell him what's happened to the herds. Job was a very, very wealthy man before all this and he was an extremely well respected man. People sought out his counsel.

He was one of the city elders. He was a man who enjoyed great honor and esteem. And one by one, all of his possessions, all of his wealth and his children are wiped out.

And it says in verse 20 of the first chapter, Then Job arose and rent his robe and shaved his head and fell upon the ground and worshipped. But the story isn't over. It's hardly begun.

It says, In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. And so Satan comes back and asks for a second try. And this time God says you can touch his body.

Not his life. You can't take his life away. But you can afflict his body.

And so again, for a very long time now, for most of the rest of the book, we read of the affliction that Satan is allowed to impose on the body of Job. And it's unbelievable. It is horrifying.

I don't care what you've suffered I don't care what other members of your family or your friends have suffered I don't think you've gone through what Job went through he's covered with terrible itching boils from head to foot how many of you have ever had a boil? I had one once that was enough it hurts so bad you want to scratch and the more you scratch the more it hurts and he's covered from head to foot with boils His skin grows black and hard and it begins to break and it begins to ooze and it begins literally to fall off of him. Perhaps it was a form of black leprosy.

Perhaps it was a form of cancer. I don't know what it was. He has a bloatedness.

His kidneys are full of pain. He says it feels like they've been slashed open with a knife. Sleeplessness.

Terrible, terrible racking pain. day after day, week after week, month after month. I'm not going to go into any more detail.

You can read it for yourself. In the midst of all of that, Job becomes an outcast. And the people who used to esteem him, used to seek him out for his counsel, now mock him.

Now mock him. And Job had three very close friends. You get the sense, reading between the lines, that they probably met together with some frequency and they enjoyed to talk about things spiritual.

They were sort of like C.S. Lewis and his little band of friends. Maybe you know about the Inklings.

They used to meet together in England and they'd kind of chew over the great theological issues and try to make sense of the world. And Job and his three friends evidently did that. And when his three friends hear what's happened to their friend Job, they come to comfort him, some comforters.

when they finally get there, they don't even recognize him. He's become so distorted. And then when they do, they're horror-struck.

They're dumbfounded. They don't speak for a whole week. That's probably the best thing they did.

They just sit there and shut up. They probably might have done some good. But finally they begin to speak, and there are some differences between what they have to say one to another.

But in essence, their message is the same. It's a very simple message. You get the sense that prior to all of this happening, Job would have agreed with them.

And the message was this. God blesses the righteous. He curses and afflicts the unrighteous.

And therefore, you have done something horrific for all this to befall you. What is it, Job? What have you done to bring this upon yourself?

Job's answer is, you're wrong. He doesn't claim to be perfect. But he is a righteous man.

I have not done some ghastly, horrific thing to bring this upon me. Job becomes a man without a creed. He can't explain what's happened to him.

He can't answer his friends, but he maintains his confidence that God is good. And that, in essence, is the story of the book of Job until almost the very end. It goes on chapter after chapter for 37 chapters of telling the incredible ghastly affliction that Job is suffering.

I want us to look at the second chapter, verse 3. And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered My servant Job that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast His integrity, although you moved me against Him to destroy Him without cause.

If there is a harder verse than that in the Scripture, I haven't yet read it. How many of you believe that God hears prayer? Praise God.

That God has invested you and me, sinners though we are, with the authority of Jesus Christ so that when we pray in His name, God hears, we get the ear of the Almighty Ruler of the universe. We can change the course of events by agreeing with Him in prayer. If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

If two of you agree as touching anything in my name, I will do it. You and I can move Almighty God to change the course of events. And we can enlist His power against Satan.

How many of you believe that? Jesus said, you can't go into a strong man's house and plunder it unless first you tie up the strong man. Then you can go in and plunder his house.

That was a reference to His own ministry. He was saying, I am going into a strong man's house The strong man is the evil one. Satan, the ruler of this world.

I'm going into his house and I'm tying him up and I'm plundering his house. That's how Jesus justifies His own ministry. They accused Him of doing things by the power of Satan and He says, you've got it all wrong.

I'm going in to tie Satan up to plunder his house, to steal things away from him, to steal you away from Satan. That's what Jesus has come to do. And He invites us to enter into that same kind of a confrontation, to enter into that same ministry, to tie Satan up and plunder his house.

That's our commission. That you and I have been given the authority by Jesus Christ to get the ear of Almighty God to turn Him against Satan. But look what He said.

This is the Lord Himself speaking. And He's speaking to Satan. and he says he still holds fast his integrity, Job does, although you, Satan, moved me, almighty God, against him to destroy him without cause.

Satan moved God against Job. I thought it was supposed to be the other way around. moved God against Job without cause.

Almost every sermon I have ever heard on the book of Job has tried to get around that verse. Has tried to find an explanation that gets God off the hook of responsibility. Job did this.

Job did that. Job did the other and that's why God allowed all this to happen. God Himself answers that.

You, Satan, moved me against him without cause. You cannot find a reason in the activity or the behavior of Job for why this happened. That's pretty heavy, isn't it?

I've heard people try to explain the whole book away in terms of the last two verses of chapter 3. Job confesses, The thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I'm not at ease, nor am I quiet.

I have no rest, but trouble comes. And I've heard people say, Well, you see, he just brought it on himself. He was fearful, he was doubtful, and therefore it came upon him.

God does not say that. God says he's a righteous man. There is no cause to be assigned in the behavior of Job as to why this has happened.

And God does not duck the responsibility. I did it, he says. Now Satan did it.

But if Satan did anything, God allowed it and that makes God responsible. Do you believe that? If God is God, he's responsible.

Satan could not do one blessed thing in the life of Job without God's permission. That makes God responsible. You moved me against him, says God.

And he was righteous. That, I believe, is the toughest question that we ever have to face. You can boil it down to this.

Why do the righteous suffer? Why do the righteous suffer? Now, nobody is righteous.

There is none righteous, no, not one. But you know what I mean. I mean exactly what this book means.

There are people whose hearts are trying to be right with God, who believe God, who are trying to serve Him, who are quick to confess their sins and try to make amends, who believe in His forgiveness, and before God they are accounted righteous because of His grace. Why do they suffer? That, I suggest to you, is just about the oldest question in the Bible.

And mind you, Job's three friends were giving the same answers that we hear coming from most of the teachers running around the church today. You brought it upon yourself. You doubted. You feared.

You sinned. There's something wrong in you. Claim your healing.

Get right. Get right. This goes on and on and on.

Chapter 23. Job says, He says, but I don't understand him. I cannot explain it.

I have no creed. If only I could see him face to face, I'd ask him and I know he'd give me an answer. And slowly he leaves off arguing with his friends anymore and begins to demand an audience with God.

I demand on the basis that you are righteous that you explain this to me. And finally he gets his answer in chapter 38. And it's not at all the answer that he expected.

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man. I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

Saying, Job, who do you think you are to be asking the questions? I've got a couple of questions for you. And God begins to ask questions.

And what strange questions they are. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements? Surely you must know. Who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk? Who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together? Who shut in the sea with its doors when it burst forth from the womb?

Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place? Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Where is the dwelling place of light?

He says, Joe, tell me, can you do anything about the weather? Don't you love Willard coming on every morning? And he gives you this great explanation for why it didn't happen the way he told you it was going to happen yesterday morning.

Do you know they're paying him $200,000 a year to do that blessed job? And he can't even predict it, let alone control it. He says, Job, can you do anything about the weather?

He says, have you entered into the storehouses of the snow? Do you realize we're talking about a God who can't even make two snowflakes alike? he says has the reign of father job can you bind the chains of the Pleiades he says have you considered the crocodile what is going on here here's this man I mean his whole body is one incredible scream of pain and God says have you considered the crocodile He says, tell me, Job, can you explain ostriches?

Or hippopotamuses? Some of you have behemoth. It means hippopotamus.

Job, explain the hippopotamus to me, and then I'll tell you why you're suffering. What's going on? God is saying, Job, do you really think that your puny little mind can even begin to understand me?

Do you really think that if I explain to you what is right and wrong, it would make any sense to you? You don't understand what is. How do you expect to understand what ought to be?

And finally, Job repents. He doesn't repent of sin. He repents of presumption, of thinking that he would understand.

Chapter 42, Job answered the Lord, I know that you can do all things, that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. he quotes the question that God had asked him who is this that hides counsel without knowledge therefore I uttered what I did not understand things too wonderful for me which I did not know hear and I will speak I will question you and you declare to me he quotes God again and Job says I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees you and I despise myself and I repent in dust and ashes. I despise myself not for the awfulness of me but for the wonder of you.

Not for the awfulness of me. God never takes back His judgment on Job that this is a righteous and an upright man. not for the awfulness of me but for the wonder of thee.

And in a little epilogue God restores to Job fortunes greater than the ones that he started with. But that really is the point even without the epilogue. The epilogue is like you know the cherry on top of the pie.

That's the point. I had heard of you by the ear but now I catch a glimpse of you. It's too wonderful.

I can't begin to take it in. I despise myself. I repent of the presumption of thinking that I could understand.

Now I want to make one thing very clear to you. I believe in healing. I believe in God's power to touch and make broken bodies well.

and I've seen it and I want to see more of it and I pray for it. We had a man come into our service last night whose body was twisted up like a pretzel. He had his leg in a cast and he came in on a cane and he couldn't stand up.

And we laid hands on him and anointed him with oil and suddenly his body straightened up and he ripped the cast off of his leg and he threw away his cane and he danced out of the church. Okay? I believe in that.

And I believe that God is gracious to heal. And most of the time, we're not believing enough. We're not desiring enough.

We don't dare to walk with God into the blessing that He wants to give. I want you to understand that I'm committed to that. But there's still a question.

What about those that don't get healed? Why do the righteous suffer? Why did God allow that to happen to Job?

What about the folks for whom we pray and lay hands on and anoint with oil whose bodies still remain twisted? What about them? I want to suggest to you that the answer to that is the exact opposite of what Job's friends tried to convince him.

They said, Job, you're suffering because you are unrighteous. It's not what the Bible says. Why do the righteous suffer?

Sometimes precisely because they are righteous. Let me say that again. Sometimes because they are righteous.

Satan hates righteousness. Satan wants to destroy righteousness in any way that he possibly can. His principal technique, his principal tool, is to tempt us to sin.

If he can get us to sin, he's destroyed righteousness. If he can't get us to sin, then one of the things that he might do if God lets him is to attack us in our families, in our jobs, or in our physical being. Get us to somehow capitulate to doubt, to denial of God, to turning bitter against Him.

Satan wants to destroy righteousness, and if he can, he'll attack us in our physical bodies to do it. Why does God let him? Because as much as Satan hates righteousness, God loves it.

And God would have us grow in righteousness, and the only way that you're ever going to grow is by exercising the muscles of righteousness. The only way you're ever going to grow in faith is by exercising the muscles of faith. The only way you're going to grow in trust is by exercising the muscles of trust.

maybe God loves you enough trusts you enough to let affliction come into your life and see whether you can exercise the muscles of faith while your physical muscles begin to atrophy are you with me? perhaps the second hardest verse in all the scripture is in the book of Hebrews where it says Jesus Christ though He was the Son of God learned obedience by the things He suffered. Does that stretch your head?

Jesus Christ though He was a Son learned obedience by the things He suffered. He was already perfect. He was already absolutely perfect.

And God made Him more perfect still by allowing Him to suffer. What's going on? As He suffers affliction he grows in his relationship with the Father which is already perfect.

It's like a balloon. It's already full of air. And yet it can get fuller still.

Jesus Christ is already full of perfection. And yet God's will for him is that he get fuller still. Fuller and fuller.

More and more perfect. Already perfect and still more perfect. Though he was in the form of God He counted equality with God a thing not to be grasped, but humbled himself, being born in the likeness of men, taking the form of a servant, and being obedient even unto death upon a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him. He already had a name above every name. But because he was obedient unto suffering and death, therefore, God has highly exalted him and given him a name above every name at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow.

Already perfect. And God wants to make him more perfect still. Why do the righteous suffer?

Because they're righteous. And Satan wants to destroy it and God wants to strengthen it. Turn with me to the book of Romans.

Turn to the New Testament. That's to the right. Chapter 5.

Chapter 5. Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.

And we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. Now I think that the form of suffering that Paul is talking about here was almost certainly the suffering of persecution.

But he doesn't limit it to that, does he? He doesn't say we rejoice in being persecuted. He says we rejoice in our sufferings.

Because there is a progression that takes place. Suffering produces endurance. Endurance produces character.

Character produces hope. And I think I first began to grapple with that paragraph when my dad became very, very ill about 15 years ago. He was struck with, no, it was nearly 20 years ago now.

He's been dead six years. 20 years ago, he was struck with MS. MS, the great crippler of young adults, they call it. MS is a disease of the central nervous system, and what it typically does is it forces one part or another of your body to become inoperative.

And sometimes there are remissions. but generally speaking your body degenerates over a period of time. It becomes more and more useless and finally you succumb usually to pneumonia.

That's exactly what happened in his case. Usually MS is not painful. It's just debilitating.

In my father's case it was extremely painful, excruciatingly painful because of other complications that set in. My dad was one of the strongest men that I've ever known in every way. He was kind of a New England Yankee.

He used to carry his family on his back. He was equal to any problem. You know, we never knew what was troubling dad because he kept it inside and he could cope.

He could rely on himself and he was equal to any problem. And he was a good man. He was a righteous man.

And I began to watch this strong man go to a cane, then to two canes, then to a walker, you know, a frame that you lean into and you push it along a few inches and you lean into it again, and then to a wheelchair, and then to a bed, as his body gave out. I remember one day when he was at the walker stage, He came to visit us. He decided to try to make it to the lavatory to wash up before dinner.

Halfway down the aisle, he screamed. He said, catch me, I'm falling. In his inactivity, he'd become a very, very heavy man.

And it was like everything was in slow motion. He couldn't hold up the bulk of his frame. And it kind of twisted around.

I ran to him and tried to prop him up. I've got my arms under his arms and I couldn't hold him. And he just kind of collapsed in slow motion, rolled over on his leg and it twisted under him and he was crying in pain.

I don't know if you've ever held your father in your arms as he once held you in your arms when you were a little child and tried to help him and couldn't. Or turned to look into the eyes of your mother as he said, get me a gun. Happy Father's Day. A strong, proud man became more and more impatient.

If you've ever seen long-term suffering, you may have noticed how people become impatient with themselves, with their affliction, and then it begins to branch out and they get bitter and impatient with the people around them. The very ones that they need most to rely upon, they tend to be short-tempered with. I watched that happen. It was tragic.

As my dad became more and more dependent on his wife and his teenage daughters, as dignity was being stripped away from him, and they had to do for him what he wanted to do for them, he became short-tempered with them. Finally, more and more despairing until he said, Get me a gun, and I'm sure he would have used it if anybody had obliged. and about that time I read Romans 5 and it said suffering produces endurance endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope doesn't disappoint us and I said God you're mocking me suffering isn't producing endurance it's producing impatience impatience isn't producing character it's producing the breakdown of character Character isn't producing hope, it's producing despair.

You're mocking me. My father, being a self-made, self-reliant man, had no place in his world for God. When I became a Christian, I almost got thrown out of the family.

They couldn't understand why I would want to be that kind of a fanatic. When I told them I was going into the ministry, they were sure I had really departed of all sanity. Shortly before he died, my father asked me to step aside with him.

He said, I want you to know this. He said, my life isn't worth very much anymore. He said, but I've given what's left of it to the Lord Jesus Christ.

He said, and I now realize that when I reacted so angrily to your becoming a Christian when you were a teenager, it wasn't your fanaticism that I was rejecting. It was the Lord Jesus Christ. I was fighting with Him.

He said, I'm praying every day that my body would be healed, and it doesn't look like it's going to be healed. And I don't know how much more time I've got, but I've discovered the most important lesson in life. I've discovered that I am totally dependent upon Him, and I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

in the last few months of his life I saw the reversal of this pattern the impatience, the despair the breakdown of character began to reverse itself not perfectly, not completely he was a suffering man and there wasn't much time left but there was a sweetness that came into my father's personality there was a beauty that exceeded what was there at the beginning. There was a self-righteousness there at the beginning. And there was a godliness there at the end.

And I understood God wasn't mocking me. This is addressed to Christians. The key to making this progression work as over against the other one is that hope does not disappoint us because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.

The Holy Spirit hadn't been given to my father. He didn't know anything of the love of God. He had to hit rock bottom.

He had to learn how to depend on other people. He had to learn how not to depend on himself. When he learned that, he could reach out to God.

When he reached out to God and the Holy Spirit came into his life and the love of God flooded him and made him a new person, the whole thing began to reverse itself. how many of you know that we are absolutely dependent upon the grace of God only some people don't realize it and sometimes God loves them enough to let them be afflicted to the point that they realize it he takes a great chance in doing that doesn't he because they can respond with bitterness and anger that proves there is no God What kind of a good God could let this happen to me? But sometimes they learn the lesson.

I understand. I understand. I was always dependent upon Him, only I didn't realize it.

Now I realize it. I've seen this over and over and over again in hospitals, on deathbeds. It's amazing.

I used to despise deathbed conversions. Now I understand. God in His love is reaching out and giving people a view of themselves as they have always been.

Absolutely helpless. Only they never noticed it before. And in His mercy, He lets them notice it before it's too late.

So that they can reach out to Him. Turn over a page or two to Romans 8. Paul says in verse 18, I consider that the sufferings of this present time aren't even worth comparing with the glory that's to be revealed, but that's probably more accurately in us.

I consider that the sufferings of this present time, the sum total of all the sufferings of all the people of all time, The whole ball wrapped up together isn't even worth comparing with the glory that's to be revealed in us. In us, not just to us. To those of us who believe in us.

He says the creation itself waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God. In other words, for us to finally become fully what we are already in embryo. For it to be made manifest.

For it to be seen by all creation. Creation is standing on tiptoe, says J.B. Phillips in his paraphrase.

Waiting for the manifestation of the children of God. Creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of Him who subjected it in hope. God's in control.

God has not left the throne of the universe. Satan somehow didn't get a hold of things when God was taking a nap. God's in control.

He let this happen and he's got a purpose for it. God is not the author of evil. But God will use evil for his own greater purposes.

The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. I want to look at one more passage before we quit. We sang this tonight.

Revelation 19. Revelation 19 and verse 6. John is being given a glimpse into the heavenlies.

And he says, It was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. There is coming a day when the church is going to be seen with a splendor, with a glory that is like unto that of her bridegroom. That we're not going to see all these broken bodies.

We're not going to see hair turning white, falling out, teeth rotting, eyeglasses. Where'd you go? Oh yeah.

I consider that the sufferings of this present age aren't even worth comparing. Aren't even worth comparing. We're not even going to think about it.

You're not even going to remember it. With the glory to be revealed in us, the bride is going to be without spot or blemish. She's going to have the glory of her bridegroom.

Hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory unto Him. And the angel said, the one who's showing John all these things, write this, Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

and he said to me, these are true words of God. Blessed are those who are invited to that marriage feast. And then I fell down at his feet to worship him.

Now wait a minute, that can't be right. Then I fell down at his feet to worship him. If there was anybody who ever lived who knew that you don't worship anyone but God.

It was John the Beloved. John was on the island of Patmos when he got this vision and probably about 90 years old at the time because he refused on pain of death to bow down before Caesar or any other human being. They were burning Christians.

They were crucifying them. They were throwing them to the lions. and Christian legend, we're not absolutely sure it's true, but it's relatively well substantiated, is that they boiled John in oil and God spared his life by a supernatural miracle.

And that's why he's alive on the island of Patmos to get this revelation. He would not bow down before anyone but the Lord Jesus. I have an interesting footnote on this passage.

It says that in the original, it does not say the angel. it says he said he said and it was the revised standard translators who supposed that it was an angel who was showing this to John I think they were wrong I don't think it was an angel there are angels that appear throughout this book and who show John many wonderful things but I don't think this was an angel why? because look at what he says he said to me you must not do that I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus.

No angel holds the testimony of Jesus. Angels were not redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Did you know that?

Why? Because they are of a different nature. The Son of God became a man in order that men might become the sons of God.

It was our nature that He took upon Himself. It was our nature that He redeemed when He died and rose again. We are the ones who hold the testimony of Jesus.

Angels don't hold the testimony of Jesus. It says that we've been shown things into which angels long to look. They don't understand it.

Angels don't have any personal understanding of redemption. Did you know that? They stand in wonder of it.

They know that He's redeemed us. they have no personal experience of it. Do you remember when Cornelius was praying?

Cornelius the Gentile, a God-fearer, and praying and worshipping and trying to know God, and God sends an angel to him, and the angel says, you go send somebody and get Peter. He's down at Joppa. Bring him back here and let him tell you the gospel.

Why didn't the angel tell him the gospel? Because the angel couldn't. The angel cannot bear testimony to the gospel. He cannot be a witness to it because he wasn't saved by it.

But Peter knows what it is to be saved from sin. Peter's an expert on sin. You send for Peter.

I think this is a human being, not an angel. You must not do that. I'm a fellow servant with you and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God. In a way, it's even more astonishing, isn't it, to think that it wasn't an angel in all of his splendor that so overpowered John the Beloved that he found himself compelled to his knees for the awesomeness of it. It wasn't an angel.

It wasn't an archangel. It was a sinner. It was a human being.

It might have been you or me. Do you understand what I'm suggesting to you? That in that day, the marriage feast of the Lamb when the Bride of Christ is revealed in all of her reflected splendor without spot or wrinkle, when the glory that's to be revealed in us is revealed, that John the Beloved could for a moment mistake one of us for the Lord Jesus.

Could I put it to you this way? That if you and I were to meet here in this room again, say, 200 years from tonight, we might, if we didn't know better, be tempted to worship each other. Because we will look so much like Jesus.

But we do know better, don't we? I consider that all the sum total of all the sufferings of all the people of all the ages, all those broken bodies, all those seemingly unanswered prayers, all the agony, all the suffering, all the unanswered questions, I consider that the sufferings of this present age aren't even worth comparing to the glory that's going to be revealed in you if you walk with this Lord Jesus Christ. Let's stand.

applause