Let us turn again to the Word of God and the Psalm
that we read, Psalm 118. Psalm 118, I'll read once again verses 17 and 18. And our text is really
the latter of these two verses. In the 118th Psalm, verses 17
and 18, I shall not die, but live and declare the works of
the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore,
but he hath not given me over unto death. When I was preaching here just,
I think it was two weeks ago, the first time I had taken the
service of course, for about six or seven weeks and we considered
those words of the Apostle in the 12th chapter of 2nd Corinthians
where he confesses himself to be nothing. I did say on that
occasion that the verses that we just read were also verses
that I was made to recollect during the time when I was not
well. I did they collect the verses
and I thought they were somewhere in the 119th psalm only to discover
that my memory wasn't altogether reliable they're not there of
course having the previous 118th psalm but discovering them was
a comfort and one was able to pray over these particular words
and I thought it appropriate that One should, having been
directed to such words, attempt to also preach from them, and
particularly these words in the 18th verse of Psalm 118. The Lord hath chastened me sore,
but he hath not given me over unto death. The Lord's chastening,
how the Lord does often deal with us in that manner. chastisement
and I want as we take up the subject tonight simply to consider
two aspects of chastisement. First of all the difficulty that
comes when God is pleased to lay his chastening hand upon
us and then in the second place to consider the end or the design
that the Lord God has in view. God is never capricious of course
in any of his ways, any of his dealings. He doesn't treat us
as playthings simply to pick us up and put us down to no profit. He is a God who is good and when
God deals with us he has a blessed end in view. But first of all
to consider something of the difficulties that are associated
with God's chastening. Chastening is that which is very
much associated with the matter of discipline. When God chastens
us, His discipline is teaching us. There is something for us
to learn. And the basic meaning of the
word that we have here in the text, to chasten, means to correct,
to teach, by and through pain and suffering to discipline. It contains all these various
ideas of this word of chastening. Now we would usually associate
that discipline, that training, that chastisement with our formative
years. We associate it with those who
are children. We see that quite clearly in
the wisdom literature, the book of Proverbs, for example, and
there in chapter 13, at the end of the chapter, Solomon says,
He that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him
chasteneth him betimes. Chasteneth him oftentimes, is
what he's saying. He that loves his son doesn't
spare the rod. but he will correct him again
if we turn over a few chapters and there are several references
that we could turn to here in the book of Proverbs but one
other reference there in chapter 19 and verse 18. Chasten thy
son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying. Chastenings then are usually
associated with With childhood we have to correct our children,
we know that when they're born into this world, they're born
of course as those who are dead in trespasses and in sins, that's
true of all of us. The innocent little babe, alas,
has inherited a fallen nature from our first parents, Adam,
and even so children as they grow up, they often times have
to be corrected. They have to be taught to do
the thing that is right. They have to learn that there
are certain things that are very wrong. And so I say again that
chastening is associated in the main with those formative years
as the child is growing into youth. Now here in the words
that we've read as a text, it's interesting to compare what we
have in the New Testament, because there is a New Testament equivalent,
I would say, to these two verses. I shall not die, says the Psalmist,
but live and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened
me so but he has not given me over unto death. And the New
Testament equivalent is found in 2 Corinthians 6 and verse
9, one of those portions where Paul to the Corinthians is speaking
of his various experiences and all that it cost him to be a
faithful minister of God and a true preacher of the Gospel. There, in the end of that verse,
2 Corinthians 6, 9, he speaks of himself as dying, and behold
we live. Verse 17 of the psalm I shall
not die but live and declare the works of the law and so there
as dying and behold we live as chastened says Paul, and not
killed. Here in verse 18, the Lord hath
chastened me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death.
It's the same truth then that we have there in what Paul is
saying as we find here in the words of the text. Now I refer to that particular
verse because when we come to the New Testament We discover
that the word that is usually translated as chastened is the
word that is derived from the noun for a child. The very word
that is used there as chastened and not killed. It is associated
with a child and the teaching of a child, the correcting of
a child. This, I say, is one of the difficulties
when it comes to God's dealings with us in the way of chastening,
because it's a very humbling experience. It's a very humbling
experience, is it not? Remember how Paul rebukes the
Corinthians in the third chapter of his first epistle to them? He tells them that he's having
to deal with them not as those who are mature but as those who
are as children the opening words there, the opening verses in
that third chapter of the first epistle and I brethren could
not speak unto you as unto spiritual he says but as unto carnal that
is fleshly not spiritual but carnal even as unto babes in
Christ I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto
ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able."
How humbling, you see, that he had to deal with them as children. How we like to imagine that we're
those who are growing in grace, those who have grown in grace.
We like to imagine that we're those who are mature, with those
who are well established. And it is a very humbling experience,
I say, when we are dealt with as children. And that's what
God is doing with us, is it not? When he comes to us in the way
of justicement. It's a humbling experience. And that's difficult for us.
We do well to remember, really, that there are different stages
of growth in Christ. we shouldn't really be surprised
in. Besides children we know that
there are those who are referred to by John as young men and there
are some that John refers to as fathers. Remember how he addresses
people in these various stages of growth in grace when he writes
in his epistle, his first epistle, There
at verse 12 in the second chapter he says, I write unto you little
children. In a sense there is nothing wrong
with being a little child in the ways of God. I write unto
you little children because your sins are forgiven you, for his
name's sake. What a blessed state and condition
to be in, a little child whose sins are forgiven. I write unto
you fathers, because ye have known him that he is from the
beginning. I write unto you young men, he says, because ye have
overcome the wicked one. I write unto you little children,
because ye have known the father. I have written unto you fathers,
because ye have known him that he is from the beginning. I have
written unto you young men, because you are strong and the word of
God abideth in you and you overcome the wicked one. It is clear that
John is very much aware with regards to those that he is addressing
in his epistle that they are going to be at various stages
of growth in Christ. And in that sense you see there
is nothing wrong with being a child.
A child of God One who has been favoured to know that new birth. Surely when we are born again
of the spirits we have to recognise at that instance we are but babes.
Just as when we are born naturally we come into this world at our
birth as babes, we grow into children. And then as we grow
up we grow into young men and young women and then we become
fathers and mothers. Fathers and mothers in Israel
we trust in a spiritual sense if we've known that new birth.
Because with the new birth there is also that growth. Growing
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But it's
humbling I say when God has to come to us and treat us again
as he sees us needing to be humbled and he comes to us and humbles
us in the way of chastisement. nor the blessing of being a child. Remember how the Lord Jesus Christ
spoke of the necessity of being converted and becoming as a little
child. He was teaching his disciples,
of course, at that instance, the necessity of humility. They wanted to know who was the
greatest in God's kingdom. there at the beginning of Matthew
18 at the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying who
is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and Jesus called a
little child and it is very much the diminutive that used there
not just a child, a little child, it's a baby or a toddler Jesus
called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them,
and said, Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become
as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little
child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. There
is nothing wrong then ultimately with God's humbling us, it's
a good lesson, but it's a hard lesson. It's a difficult thing
for us to be those who are humbled under God's mighty hands. And yet all chastening is it
not a mark of God's dealing with us, as with his children, as
with his sons, whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourge
of every son whom he receiveth. If ye enjoy chastening, says
Paul, God dealeth with you as with sons. What son is it that
the father chasteneth not? But all the experience of it,
the difficulty. We don't like to be humbled.
We like those disciples. We like to think of being great,
being something, somebody. We want to be those who are reckoned
to be grown up and mature and well established. But the Lord
chastens us. But as chastening is a humbling
experience, so it is also a hard experience. It's a hard experience. The beginning of verse 17, I
shall not live, I shall not die, he says, but live and declare
the works of the Lord. I shall not die, but live. Now, again, compare that with
the verse that I referred to in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians
6 and verse 9, where Paul says, as dying, and behold we live,
as chastened and not killed, there are parallels that are
being drawn there by the apostle and clearly there the dying is
equivalent to being chastened and the living is equivalent
to not being killed as dying and behold we live as
chastened and not killed observe the parallel, the not killed
equivalent to the living and so the chastening equivalent
to the dying and sometimes when God comes and deals with us in
that way of chastisement it does seem that we will be altogether
overwhelmed it will altogether overwhelm us when God comes and
deals with us Now I read that portion in Job quite deliberately
because are we not reminded of that there? It's Elihu who is
speaking after the three friends had ceased endeavoring to speak
words of comfort to Job, they were no comforters In chapter
32, so these three men ceased to answer Job because he was
righteous in his own eyes. Then was kindled the wrath of
Elijah, the son of Barakal, the Bethite of the kindred of Ram. And he speaks and he addresses
himself to Job in the following chapters and see how he speaks
here of God's dealings with men. At the end of chapter 33, that
portion that we read. Verse 29, Lo, behold,
all these things worketh God oftentimes with man. He is speaking
of God's dealings. And God does deal with His people
sometimes in the way of bodily afflictions. God deals with His
people in the way of illness and sickness. Verse 19, He is
chastened. He is speaking of a man you see
here He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude
of his bones with strong pain, so that his life hath o'er us
bread, and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away that
it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out. Yea, his soul draweth near unto
the grey, and his life to the destroyer. when God afflicts
a man, lays a man low in a physical sense. Now this is said to be
part of God's chastening, and it's hard, it's not an easy experience,
it's a difficult experience. But we know that God has a variety
of ways, God works in a variety of ways. The prophet Micah, for example,
says, the Lord's voice crieth unto the city, The man of wisdom
shall see thy name, hear you the wrought, and who has appointed
it. To see the name of God, to hear
the voice of God, and to see his name, to hear his voice even
in his chastenings. The man of wisdom reminds us
of the end of some 107 who so is wise and will observe these
things and the observation there at the end of the psalm is God's
providence. Well isn't Micah speaking of
the same things, the Lord's voice, cryeth unto the cities, God's
providence. The man of wisdom shall see thy
name. Hear ye the rod, there are providences
in God comes and he deals with us sometimes in that way. and
it can be in the way of family troubles when troubles come into
the family troubles that are not our own personally and that
they don't really affect us in our own persons but they do concern
us because it's our children who are troubled or it might
be a situation that arises in the workplace difficulties at
work, or difficulties in the way of obtaining work. Those
cross providences. Or it might be that God comes
and visits in the way of trials in the church. That church that
is so dear to us. We should count it a great privilege,
a great honour, should we not, that we should have a name and
a place amongst the people of God, that we should be those
who are members in the local church. What a blessing, what
a favour. And those trials that so often come into the church
should affect us. Don't these things all have a
voice? The Lord's voice cries to us in many ways. But besides
those things that are external to ourselves, be it in the family
or in the workplace or in the church, There are also inward
spiritual trials, are there not, that sometimes come into the
lives of God's children, when the Lord God hides his face from
us, as it were. When God, it seems, doesn't smile
but frowns, when we try to pray and we feel there's no access,
sometimes when we pray we do feel that we really have the
ear of God that is hearing us and as he hears so God will answer
us there are other times when we feel the heavens are like
brass and our prayers don't really enter and God seems to be not smiling
upon us he's not lifting up the light of his countenance upon
us And we fear that God will cast us off. We have to examine
ourselves, do we not? We know that God will not cast
off His people. Psalm 94 verse 14, The Lord will
not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance.
That's the assurance that we have in the Scriptures. He will
not forsake us, He will not cast us off. If we are those who are
truly His, there is that blessed security for those who are the
people of God. But we have changes. In Psalm
55 we read of those who have no changes. And they fear not
God. They fear not God, but there
are changes. Do they not teach us? Teach us a lesson. That we must
be those who are truly fearing God. We are not, you see, to
take these things lightly. when God is dealing with us in
our own souls in a way that seems to be so contrary to us. Now, in the midst of these things
we do well to remember a very basic truth that the Lord Jesus
Christ as himself bore the judicial punishment of our sins. This
is why God cannot cast off his people. He doesn't deal with us in that
way of strict justice because Christ himself has borne that
judicial punishment. He has made atonement for our
sins. He has satisfied the wrath of
Almighty God in the room and stead of his people. And the
psalm that we are considering in our text from Psalm 118 is is messianic, it does speak of
the Lord Jesus Christ, does it not? Verse 22, the stone which the
builders refused is become the headstone of the corner. This
is the Lord's doing, it is marvelous in our eyes. Now, the Lord Jesus
Christ himself refers, quotes in fact, that verse in the New
Testament in Matthew 21 and verse 42 Christ quotes that verse in
reference to himself and doesn't Peter also make some reference
to that same scripture in his first epistle and there in the second chapter
Verse 4 following he says, and he's speaking of Christ, to whom
coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men. Or the stone which the builders
rejected, you see. This is Christ. A living stone,
disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also as lively stones are
built up a spiritual house. and holy priesthood to offer
up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." They
say, from what we read here in verses 22 and 23, we can conclude
that this psalm speaks to us of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
does it not again speak of Christ here in verse 27, buying the
sacrifice with cords even unto the horns of the altar. That sacrifice bound to the altar
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is that one who has suffered in the room and in the stead
of his people. Presently we'll sing that Hymn 873 and it's one of the
hymns, there are several of course in the book that is speaking
of justicemen, that's the heading. But look at verse 4. What would
my blood avail if spilt, thou hast in richer blood been paid,
when all my dreadful debt of guilt was on my dying Saviour
laid. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one who has shed that richer blood. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the one who was born the wrath of God, satisfied, the justice
of God. Chastening then by God is not
something that's vindictive. Chastening is really a loving
punishment. It's a mark of the favour of
God and the blessing of God. I shall not die, says the Psalmist,
but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened
me, saw, but he hath not given me over unto death. Oh, there is another, you see,
who has died for me in my room and in my stead, and borne that
which was the real punishment that was due to my sins, whom
the Lord loveth he chasteneth, whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Chastenings might
to us be difficult. Difficult in the way that it's
a very humbling experience. We're taken back as it were to
our beginning. We're being treated by God as
a child once again and yet there's a favour in that. But it's also hard when it seems
that that chastening is going to altogether overwhelm us. It's
likened to dying, is it not, there in 2 Corinthians 6.9? Joseph Hart said, for his correction
render praised is given before thy good. The lash is steeped
beyond delays and softened in his blood. All it's an evidence
in of our sonship, that we're the children of God, and that
God himself is dealing with us for our good. And so, turning
in the second place to God's design in the chastisement, it
is clearly for our profit. That's what it says. The passage
on chastening, of course, is that that we find in Hebrews
12, verse 9. Paul says, Furthermore,
we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave
them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? For they verily
for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for
our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. He for our profit. For God sees, you see, that it
is profitable. Remember that word that we have
in the book of the prophet Hosea concerning Ephraim. He is ministering
to the Northern Kingdom after the division of Israel from the
death of King Solomon, of course. There was that sad division when
the Northern tribes rebelled against the House of David because
of the foolishness of Rehoboam, Solomon's son, and they chose
Jeroboam. Ephraim was so prominent in that
northern kingdom, Israel, and the southern kingdom was then
referred to as Judah. But Hosea speaks to those in
the north, and he addresses them as Ephraim. Ephraim is joined
to Hydal. Let him alone. It's a terrible sentence, is
it not, when God says to any people, when God says to any
individual, let him alone. Let him alone. Don't have any
dealings with him. It's a terrible thing. What a blessing then, when God
takes account of us and corrects us. Doesn't leave us to ourselves
and our own foolish ways, our own idolatrous ways. But comes
after us and takes his rod and corrects us. It's a blessed thing,
you see. And God has a good end in view. There's a design in these things.
for our profits that we might be partakers of His holiness,
it says. Chastening is necessary then in order that there might
be that spiritual fruit in our lives. Now isn't that principle
taught by the Lord in what He says in the 15th of John concerning
the vine and the branches. I am the true vine, says Christ,
and my father is the husband man. Every branch in me that
beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth
fruit he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. He purges it. Isn't that what
chastening is? It's God purging, as it were.
And why? that it might be more fruitful,
that we might be partakers of His holiness. He goes on at verse
4, Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except
ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches,
he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit, for without me ye can do Nothing. And what does God do with us
in chastening? Does he not bring us to that
realisation of our complete, our utter dependence upon the
Lord Jesus Christ? You see the connection here between
that text that I preached on two weeks ago, Though I Be Nothing,
and this text tonight that speaks of God's
chastening. We have to learn what we are
in ourselves, that we're nothing. We have to learn our complete,
our utter dependence upon Christ. What is a believer? He's all
weakness. He's all helplessness. And so
all that he is, all that he has, ultimately comes from the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's one of the great lessons
that God is teaching us by chastening. Again, look at what Paul writes
to the Corinthians in the second epistle in chapter 4 and there in verses 10 and 11 again he's been speaking of his
own experiences in the preaching of the gospel and he says this
always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that
the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
It's that dying to self you see. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus sake that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. That is the prophetess. It's a dying to ourselves that
we might live unto the Lord. I am crucified with Christ, he
says to the Galatians. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. This is the great lesson, is
it not, that all our life is in the Lord Jesus Christ. and so there in 2nd Corinthians
6 verse 9 it's as dying and behold we live as chastened and not
killed but how significant is that word
behold dying and he says behold it's a wonder you see something
to be looked on gazed upon something for us to fix our eye upon We're
dying, and yet behold, we're alive. How is that? It's all
in Christ. Reminds us, does it not, of the experience of that
godly king, Hesychiah, in Isaiah 38, when he praised to God his
great prayer of thanksgiving and all what trials, what troubles,
what chastenings that man had known. How the Assyrian army
had been at the very gates of Jerusalem. How Rabshakeh, that
great General of the Assyrians had come. Hassan Akrim had sent him, you
see, with a message and it wasn't just to the king, it was to all
who were there in Jerusalem. As if the city was going to fall,
they laid siege to it. They're going to die. And God,
of course, accomplished a glorious deliverance for them. But then, after that, there's
another trial that comes into that poor man's life Isaiah the
prophet goes and tells him to set his house in order he's going
to die and not live oh he sorely afflicted it when Rabshakeh had
come previously with his threatenings with a letter from Sennacherib
he'd been able to take that letter to the temple to the house of
God and to spread it before the Lord that's what he did he tells
us that took that letter, that threatening letter to the Lord,
he laid it before the Lord, he prayed and the Lord appeared
and granted the deliverance but now he's so sick he cannot rise
from his bed and the Prophet comes and tells him plainly he's
going to die and he turns his face to the wall and I like to
think that that was the wall in the direction of the temple
cannot go physically to the temple but he can look to the temple
and all that the temple represents in the Old Testament is Christ,
is it not? It's Christ he's looking to and
before ever the Prophet has left the Royal Court the word comes
that he is to return to the King and tell him that he's going
to live, he's going to have 15 years added to his life And then
we have that remarkable prayer in Isaiah 38, O Lord, by these
things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit. Spiritual life, you see, that's
what comes in chastenings. But there must be that exercise.
No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, says Paul,
but grievous nevertheless afterward. There's an afterward. Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable
fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby. There has to be that exercise
in these things. That's what we have to look to
God for, that we might be truly, properly, spiritually exercised. That's a sign of life, is it
not? When there's something going on in our souls, when we're not
just apathetic, I shall not die, says the Psalmist,
but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened
me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death. And the Psalm, of course, is
really a great song of thanksgiving. It opens with thanksgivings to
God, or gives thanks unto the Lord. For he is good, for his
mercy endureth forever. And it ends on the side note,
O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy
endureth forever. Amen. while of him this evening was
him 873 to Ashfield 285 873 to thee my God I make my plea to
thee my drengling sword draws near let not thy chastening make
me fit nor guilt overwhelm me with despair What would my blood
avail it to? Thou hast in richer blood been
here, when all my dreadful death and guilt was on my dying servant
there in 873. To Thee, my God, I make my plate,
To Thee my trembling soul draws near, Let not my chastening make
me faint, this day. What though Thou frown to try
my faith? What though Thy heavy hand afflict Thou wilt not give me up to death,
Nor enter in to judgment's gate. I know Thy judgment's Lord arrives, Thy rod commands me to repent,
If with my sin competest light, And all in faithfulness is spent. What would my blood avail if
still Thou hast in richer blood been paid? When all my dreadful
debt of guilt Was on my dying Saviour laid Then help me by Thy grace to
bear Whatever sin to purge my cross If in this crown I hope
to share Why should I grudge to bear His cross? Though Thou send me with me,
dear, Still will I in Thy mercy trust Accomplishing me all Thy will,
Only remember I am Thine. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost Be with you
all. Amen.