Well, let us turn to God's Word
in the psalm that we read. Psalm 94. And I'll read again. Verses 12
and 13. Blessed is the man whom thou
hast chastened, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law, that thou
mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the
pit be digged for the wicked. In Psalm 94. and considering
these two verses 12 and 13 and I want to say something with
regards to the blessings of the dealings and the teachings of
God the blessings of God's dealings and God's teachings and how different
those dealings are to those of men see how the psalmist speaks
previously Verse 4, How long shall they utter and speak hard
things, and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? They
break in pieces like people, O Lord, and afflict Thine heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger,
and murder the fatherless. And they imagine that God Himself
is not aware of any of these things. But what does the psalmist
say? Verse 9, He that planted the
ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall
he not see? Verse 11, The Lord knoweth the
thoughts of man that they are vanity. He is that one who knows,
because he hears all things and he sees all things. He sees the wicked, they're in
his hand. But though they deal so wickedly
with the godly, yet God himself will accomplish all his goodwill
and pleasure in the lives of his children, and instruct them
even by his own chastenings. Well, turning then to consider
what is said in these two verses, verses 12 and 13. And first of
all, we have mentioned of the Lord's chastenings. Blessed is
the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord." How different God's
dealings with the godly are when we consider His way with the
ungodly. He does speak of God dealing
with them in verse 10. We read of the God that chasteneth
the heathen, shall not he correct. He chastens the heathen. He is
the judge of the earth, as we see in the second verse, lift
up thyself thou judge of the earth, render a reward to the
proud. He deals with the wicked in a
certain way, shall not the judge of all the earth do right, says
Abraham. And they're very solemn words
that we have here at the end of verse 13, until the pits be
digged for the wicked. And then the very last verse,
He shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them
off in their own wickedness, yea, the Lord our God shall cut
them off. And we see it, of course, when
we consider the content of God's words. And much of what we have
in Holy Scripture is history. It speaks of God's providences.
the way in which he has dealt with the nations even from the
beginning. We have that solemn account in
Genesis with regards to the antediluvian world, the world before the flood
and the wickedness of men in those days. Back in chapter 6
of the book of Genesis, We read how God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that
he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from
the face of the earth, both man and beast and the creeping thing
and the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made
them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God makes
a difference. And even then, God had a purpose
to fulfill with regards to the godly, be it just one man and
his family. But now God's judgments came
upon that wicked world. The earth, we're told, was corrupt
before God. The earth was filled with violence.
And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt. For
all flesh had corrupted His way upon earth." And what does God
do? He visits His judgment in the
universal flood. And it is just those who are
in the ark Noah and his wife and his sons
and their wives are the only ones who are preserved at that
time. So we have the account there
of God's dealings with the wicked. He deals with them. He does the
same later in the case of those wicked cities of the plain. Sodom
and Gomorrah, Genesis, this historic book, tells us of these terrible
judgments that God visited upon men who were perverse in their
sinful courses. There in Genesis 18, verse 20,
the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great
and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now
and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry
of it. which has come unto me, and if not, I will know." And
God condescends to speak in these human terms, but we see that
God is a just God. He comes and He visits the earth
and He examines events here upon the earth, and it was so. And
so what does God do? He brings a terrible destruction
upon those wicked cities. Genesis 19.24 then the Lord rind
upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord
out of heaven and He overthrew those cities and all the plain
and all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon
the ground. For the overthrow of those cities,
how great it was, it was the judgment of God. He does in that
sense, as it says in the Psalm, chastise the heathen. And then when we come to his
dealings with the children of Israel, that people that he had
set his sovereign love upon, he had not chosen them because
they were more numerous than any other nation. It was simply
the divine purpose. You only have I known, He says,
of all the families of the earth and He will use them to destroy
those wicked nations that lived in the land of the Canaanites and the Amorites
and the Hivites and the Jebusites. And what does He say? Again here
in Genesis, Genesis In 1516 it says, the iniquity of the Amorites
is not yet full. The iniquity of the Amorites
is not yet full. There would be a stay of God's judgments, but
eventually that judgment would come and it came, of course,
by the children of Israel when God brings them forth out of
the bondage of Egypt. takes them through the wilderness,
brings them into the promised land. And there in the opening
verses of Deuteronomy chapter 7, they're told quite explicitly,
those children of Israel, that they must utterly destroy those
nations. They're not to enter into any
league with them, they're not to give their daughters to the
sons of those nations, and their sons are not to take wives of
those wicked nations, no, they were to be utterly destroyed."
God deals with men and God deals with the wicked. He is that one
who is the judge of all the earth. But how different when it comes
to the godly, and this is what we see here in the Psalm. Blessed is the man, it says,
whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law,
that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until
the pits be digged for the wicked." God chastens his people. He has
a gracious end, a good purpose in view. And so the Apostle As
you know there in Hebrews chapter 12 reminds us that chastening
is a mark of sonship. It's the privilege of those who
are adopted into the family of God. My son, despise not thou
the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of
him. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye
endure chastening, Paul says, God dealeth with you as with
sons. What son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? It is that mark then, that they
are God's favourites, the blessed. Blessed is the man that God takes
account of in this fashion. in a certain sense we might say
this chastening as a sort of priority. It's one of the blessings
of the Covenant. Who is it? It's the Lord. It's
the Lord. It's the Covenant name that we
have here in the middle of verse 12. It's Jehovah. It's that One
who is the Great. I am that I am. And when he deals with his people,
he is dealing with them for their good. Or even when he disturbs
them and troubles them. Think of the language that we
have in the book of Job. What an example Job is of the
chastenings of the Lord. In Job 33.19, he is chastened
also, it says, with pain upon his bed. His sleep is taken from him,
he's in pain, tossings and turnings. And yet the Lord is in these
things. As it says there in that 33rd chapter, in verse 16, then,
openeth he the ears of men and sealeth their instruction. Remember
what we have here back in the psalm, we have really these parallel
statements, this feature of Hebrew poetry where the same truth is
declared in a different fashion, but it's
the same truth that we have in each part of the verse. That
blessed man, the chastened man, is the one whom God is teaching.
And that's what Job has to prove. Then openeth God the ears of
men, and sealeth their instruction." The Lord's voice, it crieth unto
the city, and the man of wisdom shall see the rod, and in that
rod he will see also the instructions of the Lord. Now we need to be
those who are wise, those who would observe these things, to
take account of God's dealings with us when he comes and crosses
us and goes contrary to us. And we can't understand the mystery
of his way, that way that's in the sea, his foot, a step in
the deep waters. This is God and the dealings
of God. And we see it, as I said, so remarkably in the case of
a man like Job. He is chastened. How is he chastened?
He's chastened with regards to his possessions, initially. He's a man of great substance
and yet he seems to lose everything. And then he's chastened also
with regards to his family. And how hard are God's dealings
with him. He loses his children. And then
God even permits that this man should suffer also in his own
person. He's struck down. And he's covered
from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. And the
Lord is in all of this. And the language that we have
there is the words of one of his comforters, Job 5.17, Behold,
happy is the man whom God correcteth. Therefore despise not thou the
chastening of the Almighty. And Job was taught not to Not
to despise. When we come to the end of the
book, what does he have to say with regards to himself? Behold,
he says, I am vile. Behold, I am vile, he says. He feels what he is. He feels
the awful reality of his, of his sinnership. And who is this
man? Well, when we're introduced to him in the opening verse of
the book, we read of a man perfect and upright, and one that feareth
God and astuteth evil. And that is a description of
him as a man who is a justified sinner. Oh yes, there might have
been something of self-righteousness in Job. This is why the Lord
permits the devil to assault him as he does. but he was a
righteous soul and that righteousness that he had was the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus he was saved in Christ as all those who are
saved must be and he is that blessed man, blessed is the man
whom thou chastenest oh Lord and teachest him out of thy law And these chastenings, they are
profitable. That's the truth that we see
there in the book of Job, how profited he was. The hymn writer
says, afflictions make us see. Make us see what? Make us see
ourselves. How foul and dim we are. And God, how pure and bright. We come to understand, like Job,
what we are and what God is. That's a great favor. I've already
referred to Hebrews chapter 12, and there in that chapter the
Apostle makes it plain that there's profit. The Lord's dealings with
us are profitable dealings. He chastens us for our profit,
it says, that we might be made partakers of His holiness. We
not only have righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ, our justification,
but in the Lord Jesus Christ we also find our sanctification. We are partakers of His holiness,
the holiness of the Lord Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. that as it is
written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. That's
what the Lord brings us to. We must find our role. Our role
is to be found only in Him. This is why the man is a blessed
man, when the Lord is dealing with him. His dealings are profitable,
but also we need to remember that these contrary dealings,
these strange ways of God, are only for a period. It's not always that we're being
taught in this fashion. It's only when the Lord God sees
that it's necessary. Remember the words of Peter there
in 1 Peter 1 6, now he says, for a season, if need be. You are in heaviness through
manifold temptations. Oh, it's just now, for a moment,
for a little season. It's only as it's necessary,
if needs be, says the Apostle. He will not always chide, says
the Psalmist. Neither will he keep his anger
forever. This is the God that we have
to deal with. He doesn't treat us as some plaything. There's nothing capricious about
God's ways and God's dealings. We often misjudge Him. but all
his ways are just and right and equitable. Think of those words
that we have in the Lamentations, Lamentations 3.31. It says, The
Lord will not cast off forever, but though he cause grief, yet
will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men."
He doesn't afflict willingly. It's not from the heart, which
is strange work. It is a strange work. It's a
strange work to us. But it is a blessed work. It's
the indication that we're those who are truly the children of
God. We have that spirit of adoption.
We can call upon Him as our Father. And we remember that like as
a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear him. He knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are dust. But then turning to the second
part, Blessed is the man whom thou
chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law that thou
mayest give him rest from the days of adversity." He teaches. In all his dealings,
God is instructing us and teaching us. Now, what does William Gadsby
say? You can read the hymn 618. and
he makes it clear there that in the school of the Lord Jesus
Christ we must not learn God's truth as schoolboys learn their
task, he says. God doesn't teach us by ropes. We're not schoolboys, we're to
be those who are mature in the ways of the Lord Jesus Christ
and how God teaches us and how God teaches us from the very
beginning we can only know salvation by the teachings of the Lord
how Christ makes that abundantly clear in his own ministry he
says they shall be all taught of God they shall be all taught
of God we cannot teach ourselves Christianity We can study the
Word of God. We can know a great deal about
the Word of God. We cannot, by that dint of study,
make ourselves Christians. We have to be taught of God.
They shall be all taught of God, says Christ. Every man that hath
heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me. That's what happens when God
is our teacher. We are brought to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
this is what Job knew. This is what Job knew. Job 36.22,
Behold, God exalteth by his power. Who teacheth like him? Or who
teaches like God? What is God doing when he teaches
us? He is teaching us the way of salvation. He is teaching
us the need of salvation, from the very beginning God has to
take us in hand and be our teacher and our instructor. And how does
he teach? He teaches by his word, and he
teaches therefore by his law and by his gospel. There must
be the conviction of sin, and then there must be the comforts
of grace. Oh, there is administration of
the law, we see it so plainly. Paul says, We know that what
things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, who are under the law. The law is not made for the righteous
man, but for the sinner. All men in their natural state
are subject to that holy law of God, though it was given to
the children of Israel. Paul says, we know that whatever the
law says, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world become guilty before God. And Paul knows what
he's talking about. He knew a great deal about the
law. He was a Pharisee. He was the son of a Pharisee.
Doubtless, he had studied the law of God. He imagined that
he was righteous, touching the righteousness which is in the
law, he thought himself to be blameless when he was a Pharisee. But you know the language that
he uses there in Romans 7, verse 8, sin taking occasion by the
commandment brought in me all manner of concupiscence for without
the law sin was dead And that was his state. He was
dead in trespasses and sins. I was alive without the law once,
but when the commandment came, he said, sin revived, and I died. Verse 11, sin taking occasion
by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me. Oh, he knew. He experienced these things.
And how hard it was, he was kicking against the pricks, was he not?
That's what the Lord says to him there in Acts chapter 9. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. How his conscience was obviously
awakened. He's under conviction. This is
the experience of the godly man. This is those who are being taught
by the law. And this was the experience of
David, that man after God's own heart. Look at the language that
David is using in Psalm 32. Verse 4, he says, Day and night thy hand
was heavy upon them. My moisture is turned into the
drought of summer, Selah. I acknowledge my sin unto thee,
and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my
transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgave us the iniquity
of my sin, Selah." Oh, this is how God deals with His people
then. He will trouble them, He will disturb them, He will convince
them. Job says, "...he maketh sore,
and bindeth up, he woundeth, and his hands make whole." He
has a good and a gracious end in view then. He will not only
teach out of his law, but he will also bring forth the comforts
of the Gospel. Now, here the word that is used,
"...blessed is the man of thy chasteness, O Lord, and teachest
him out of thy law, that thou mayest give him rest from the
days of adversity." Now, it is derived from the word Torah. The Hebrew word for the
law is the Torah. And literally, it means to teach,
to instruct. and we know that there is a law,
there is a law that was given at Mount Sinai and that law certainly
reveals God to be holy and righteous and just and good but we also
read in scripture of another law in Isaiah chapter 2 and verse
3 it says out of Zion Mark that, it's not out of Sinai, out of
Zion, shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem. What is this law out of Zion,
this word of the Lord, the covenant God of Israel that comes forth
from Jerusalem? Well, it's that Paul speaks of
in Romans 8.2 as the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. It's the gospel. It's the gospel
and James speaks of it as the perfect law of liberty. The perfect
law of liberty. It's the gospel that comes not
from Sinai but from Zion. And so, God doesn't just teach
his people that they're sinners. He doesn't just take them in
hand and show them themselves in the mirror of his holy law
and convince them of their sins. He then brings this other law,
this gospel. All the law was given by Moses.
Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Isn't this what we have
here? The one that God is teaching
and instructing in the text, that blessed man whom the Lord
chastens, He teaches him, it says, out of the law and makes
or brings him to that place of rest that thou mayest give him
rest from the days of adversity. Where is rest found? Well, the
Lord Jesus says, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find
rest for your souls. Oh, this is that rest, you see,
that remaineth to the people of God. It's that rest that remains. He that is entered into this
rest has ceased from his own works, says Paul, as God did
from his. And this is what the Lord is
always teaching his people. That they must be brought to
rest in the Lord Jesus Christ for everything. And what a blessed
rest it is. the cessation of all works and
that life of trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to be brought to
see that in Him and only in Him can we find all the fullness
of salvation or to be those then who in some measure are able
to enter into the text, into the experience of this blessed
man This man who is made happy by the Lord's dealings. The strange
life of the blessed man. He's a chastened man. God crosses
him. God corrects him. But in it all,
God is bringing him out of himself and teaching him to trust only. in the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed
is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out
of thy law, that thou mayest give him rest from the days of
adversity until the pits be digged for the wicked. May the Lord
be pleased to bless his word. Let us now, before we pray again, Turn to the Hymn 871 and the tune Wiltshire 268. Happy the man that bears the
stroke of his chastising God, nor stubbornly rejects his yoke,
nor faints beneath his rod. They who The Lord's corrections
share a favour in his eyes, as kindest fathers will not spare
their children to chastise." The Hymn 871.