Well, I shouldn't be surprised.
I find it amazing the way the Lord puts all this stuff together
in our services. And you'll see what I mean in
a minute. Turning to Bibles to Psalm 116. When we fell in our father Adam,
our God cursed all creation. More than that, he said, an enmity
between Satan and man. And on top of all that, there
was division amongst men, as each of us in some way had a
desire to be as God. You see, there can only be one
God. And so that personal desire to be God within each of us,
it causes us to bite and to devour one another. And all this just
further explains the punishment for our sin in Genesis 3, reading
from 17 to 19. The Lord says, Because thou hast
hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree
of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, Cursed
is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shall thou eat of it
all the days of thy life. Thorns also, and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee. And thou shalt eat of the herb
of the field, and in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread. Till thou return unto the ground,
for out of it thou wast taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust
thou shalt return. And I want you to note there,
in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread, and it does
refer to our physical needs. But there's also a spiritual
element to it, isn't there? As men work to be as gods. For the Lord's people, we're
beset with a great many trials. It's promised in our lives. Over the years, I've had a number
of conversations with people who say that men must have free
will because a sovereign God would never have wanted men to
sin, to fall. We need to realise that our God
is indeed sovereign, even over the will of men. And if there's
anything that's not subject to our God, then our God's not sovereign,
and at that point, he ceases to be God. He is sovereign, and he has ordered
all the events of our lives. perfectly, no matter how they
seem to us. Now we can't possibly know the
depths of the mind of our God, but we can see from the scriptures
and from our own experience that there are certain benefits to
the saints of God that come to us through the trials and difficulties
of this world. You see, we rightly deserve the
punishment from our God for our sin. But our sovereign God has designed
it in such a way that even our trials and sufferings bring good
to those he loves. Now, I'm not wanting to make
light of anyone's suffering, and I know at times, These sufferings
are incredibly agonising to us. They're painful. I do however
want to encourage you to look for God's blessings in the midst
of those trials. Now, it's suggested that Psalm
116 was written by David on account of some trouble that he was rescued
by God out of. Whether it's David or whether
it's any other child of God, it's the story of the lives of
the saints of God here on earth in one way or another. We're
promised these sufferings in life, but we're also promised
that these sufferings will bring good to our lives. And we may
not see the benefits that come through these sufferings straight
away, or at times we may never see them until we get to heaven.
But we do have scripture like this psalm that reveals some
of these blessings that come through our trials and afflictions.
So my hope today, if the Lord will allow, is that we'll read
through this psalm and our gracious God will show us some of the
blessings that come from our trials. And I pray that in the midst of even our greatest
trials, So just reading verse one and
verse two, it begins, I love the Lord because he has
heard my voice and my supplications, because he has inclined his ear
unto me. Therefore, I will call upon him
as long as I live. We know that we love God because
he first loved us. And we know that that love is
embedded in that everlasting covenant that Angus has spoken
of. His love for us is everlasting. He loved us in eternity before
this world was made. But he also comes to us in our
needs. And he reaffirms his love to
us. And because of that, he rekindles
love in us. And the Psalmist says, therefore,
because of this initialising of this love in us, we continue to look to our Saviour
throughout our life. In verse three, he says, the
sorrows of death compassed me and the pains of hell get hold
of me. I found trouble and sorrow. These trials are designed to
strip away all our worldly props. They're designed to exhaust all
our natural wisdom and strength. They drive us beyond all hope
in man and in this world. And why? Because they not only
threaten us physically, they threaten us spiritually. Look
at what the Psalmist says there. He talks of death, but he also
talks of hell. Verse four to six, then called
I, Deliver my soul. See, this is
spiritual. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple. I was brought low and he helped
me. Notice that begins with then.
Then, when these trials have reached their desired effect
upon us, when they have fulfilled God's purposes towards us in
them, when that measure that he has set has been fulfilled,
when they have driven us to be mercy beggars before the only
true hope that we could ever have. Then they cause us to be simple,
base, unable to do anything for ourselves. Then we acknowledge
that our God is the only true source of grace, righteousness,
and mercy. And then we own our God personally. Look at what he says, our God
is merciful. We own him because he's revealed
himself to us in our trials. Personally, he promises to draw
alongside us, to carry us, to be with us. And then we begin of his glory in our salvation. Verse seven and eight. Return
under thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully
with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul
from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. See, the first person we witness
to is ourselves, isn't it? We comfort ourselves in the knowledge
that our gracious God has blessed us richly, even in our trials. We witness that he has saved
us spiritually, comfort us emotionally, and sustained us physically. we witness to ourselves that
His salvation is absolutely complete in every way. And for this reason, because
we have experienced the grace of the Lord in the midst of our
trials, because this grace has had such a profound impact upon
us, both physically and spiritually, we continue to look to Him throughout
our lives. These trials change our priorities. Verses nine to 10. I walked before
the Lord in the land of the living. I believed, therefore I have
spoken. I was greatly afflicted. To walk is a reference to how
we look to sustain ourselves in this world. These trials,
as painful as they are, turn us from trusting in men. Not
just ourselves, but in any man. They turn us from trusting in
the promises of physical and spiritual security in the natural
man. You see, the saints of God walk
by faith, don't we? Not by sight. We travel through
this life trusting in the grace of God for all things, rather
than trusting in our own wisdom and our own strength. Then look at what the psalmist
says. He presents us with a question, doesn't he? Verse 12, what shall
I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me? What can wretched sinners ever
give to God for such amazing salvation? Brothers and sisters, we have
nothing to offer God. He provides in us. You see, He works faith in us.
And it's a faith that clings to Him for all our needs. Verse 13, I will take the cup
of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. To take this
cup is to trust in God for all our salvation. It's to rest all our souls in
our Lord Jesus Christ. And when we do this, we actually
please our God by honouring His Son, our successful and sufficient
substitute. We please Him by looking to our
Lord Jesus Christ for all that the Father requires of us. We
please him by relying on him and his grace for every facet
of our lives. We please him by looking to him
for life itself, both physical and spiritual. And when this
is the case, we don't just witness to ourselves, do we? We take
this witness to others. Verse 14, I will pay my vows
under the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Again, how
can we pay God? What do we have to offer our
God? And this is where the second
fold of our witness comes in. Our trials cause us to witness
to others as we declare simply praises to our God. Verses 15
and 16. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord, truly I am thy servant. I am thy servant and the son
of thine handmaiden. Thou hast loosed my bonds. You
see, when we witness to others, we remind our brethren that they
truly are precious in the sight of the Lord, especially in their
suffering. He sympathises with us. He draws
alongside us. And as Hebrews 2 tells us, he's
able to succor or care for them that are tempted because he's
also suffered. When we witness to others, we
declare our own faith in our God, that we're his servants. We also declare that we're sons
of his handmaiden. That's a picture of the church.
We're members of his body, the church. We witness that we're servants
of our brothers and sisters for his glory. We witness to others that we're
no longer in bondage to Satan in this world, but we're free
now, free to serve the living God. And no matter how it seems to
the natural man, this is the way that we serve him best, by
declaring his glory in the gospel of his Son amongst his people. Verses 17 to 19. I'll offer to thee the sacrifice
of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord. I
will pay my vows under the Lord now in the presence of all his
people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of
thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord. When the Lord brings his people
through the great trials of this life. This is the impact of His
grace upon them. They declare His glory by proclaiming
the gospel. We can see it in the Lord's sufferings
in Psalm 22, when His sufferings had reached fulfillment, when
He'd satisfied the needs that we all had in Him at the cross. the requirements that he went
through on our behalf. We see it in verse 25. He pays his vows by declaring
the glory of God in the great congregation. We can see it in Jonah's testimony
after his struggles in Jonah 2.9. Again, we see it. He declares the sacrifice that
he gives is the declaration of God's glory. And in one way or
another, we see it in every saint of God saved by grace. See, that's what our sacrifices
really are. They're simply giving thanks
to God for his salvation and continuing to trust his grace
for all things. This is what it is to pay our
vows to God. It's to encourage his saints
in all his churches, every opportunity we get. It's to simply trust
in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and to declare it to our
brethren. And how do we do that? Those
last four words, we just praise ye the Lord. And that's what
we do here. That's how we encourage each
other. That's how we declare the gospel faithfully. We just
praise him for his grace in our lives. That's our personal testimony
to one another. And he takes that and he uses
it mightily. We're promised trials. Believers are promised trials,
and whether you're going through great trials at the moment or
whether they're just around the corner, we're promised trials,
and especially for the sake of the gospel. But these trials
cause us to love our God, don't they? and they bring forth praises,
the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to our God, both in ourselves
and in His Church. In 1 Peter 1, Peter says, or
the Lord says, wherein ye greatly rejoice, Though now for a season,
if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. And this is the purpose, that
the trial of your faith, being much more precious than that
of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might
be found unto praise and honour at the appearing of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Gold will sustain us physically,
and you can get a lot of money out of gold, and it'll take you
a long way, but it's nowhere near as valuable, believe it
or not, as our trials and our struggles. These trials grow us in our faith,
And it's that faith that pleases our God. Hebrews 11, 6 says,
without faith, it's impossible to please Him. For he that cometh
to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. See, that's the result of our
trials. We diligently seek our God at the height of our trials. That's his work in us. All the saints of God will suffer
trials in this life, and every one of these trials, whether
we see it or not, have been promised to bring God's blessing into
our lives. In the book of Acts, regarding
the church as it is with all God's children, persecution and
suffering growth. And our trials cause us to grow
in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
look at the order Peter used there. First we grow in grace,
don't we, as the Lord visits us in these trials he's created
in our lives. And then comes knowledge. Because he's drawn you and obvious care for us. We're promised trials, and I'm really sorry that I can't
help very much with your trials. I can't comfort you properly.
I can't do much at all, and what I can do will just be temporal. But I can direct you to the one
that can help, that can comfort. I can encourage you to look to
these promises, these precious promises that we have in the
scriptures and cling to them. I can encourage you to harass
our God, put him in remembrance of those promises and give him
no peace until he answers you. And I can pray for you and take
my petitions to my father in heaven. May God sanctify our trials,
every single one of them from the least to the greatest. And in each of them, may he bring
us closer to himself.