And before we begin this, we'll
go to God in prayer again. Tia's doing well. She's all right. She just had
appointments late and got in late. So she's been watching.
Pray for Joanne. Did she go to the doctor yet? She went to the hospital today.
No broken bones. No heart attack. No bruising. No bruising. No heart attack. I just thought
the bone might be bruised, I didn't know. Okay. Okay, we'll continue
to pray for her as she heals. Obviously, we heal slower before. Pray for her. Continue to pray for Jill and
Angela. Remember her in your prayers
and others. I pray that you pray for me.
Please remember me in your prayers as I long to prepare the messages
and study for the messages. You know, I kind of thought this
would get easier when I first started. It seems to be more,
I am more dependent. I'm not less dependent on Him.
I am more dependent on Him for everything. Okay, if I study
or prepare and as I stand here now, I probably couldn't tell
you exactly what the next page says. My mind just seems to float
away sometimes. So pray for me. This message
was encouraging to me. It's helpful to me. And I pray it'll be helpful to
you. So pray that God would use this for the comfort of his people. Many of God's people are going
through afflictions. Trials. And hopefully tonight,
by God's grace, He'll show us the meaning of them, the purpose
of them. They have purpose. They have
meaning. Trials are not ambiguous things. They're not by chance
or accident. They're designed specifically
for the person. God does that. And they have
a purpose. They do. So I pray that God will
reveal this to us and give us a little relief in our affliction. So pray for those churches without
pastors and remember our upcoming conference. Do you, have you met with the
ladies yet at all? If you wanna, you know when you
wanna do that, this week, next week? Okay. Is Sunday good? Okay, if there,
ladies would mind meeting with Miranda for Sunday after service,
just to kind of go over what the menus and things like that,
what's going on. I'll pick up those things Friday.
I think Tia's got me scheduled to pick this stuff up from Sam's
on Friday. Remember our conference. Pray
about it. I know the logistics of it is going to take a lot
of effort, a lot of work. Appreciate Terrence with the
door, putting the door in for the nursery. We still need to
get that paint stained or painted. Whatever you're going to do with
it doesn't matter. So there's a lot of work that needs to be
done before the conference. But remember, the conference
is not about the building. It's not about the food. It's
about the gospel. And so we need to be preparing
in our hearts and minds, thinking about the men that are preparing
these messages for us. Think about them. God puts them
on your heart. If you think about fixing a door
or think about preparing food, pray for them. Pray that God
would deliver these men here and give us a good conference
that He would be here. Really, if there's just us and
Him, that'd be just the best. If Christ would be here, is that
not the best? It is. If He's here, then what
else matters? He's here. Heaven has come down. Heaven comes down. I pray he'll be with us tonight.
I pray he'll give me liberty. The
function of the spirit. I need it. I need it. Remember those in our families
who are lost. Don't forget to pray. Don't quit Ask Him. Don't give up. Keep beseeching the Lord for
them, that God would be merciful and save our children. Let's go to Him in prayer. Father, we come before Your throne
thanking You that You are good. that you are gracious, that you
are merciful, slow to anger, and plenteous in redemption. And Father, yes, you are omnipotent,
all-powerful, so that all that you will to do, all the grace
you're willing to display and show and manifest and give, You
alone have the power to give it. We come to you asking that you
would give it. To this group, Father, that have
gathered and assembled together at this time, all that you would come down
and preach this word to our hearts through the Spirit, make it effectual
to us, make it so powerful to our souls and our minds that
we might understand, that we might have good judgment and
understanding. Not just in knowledge, but experience
and grace. She would help us in our afflictions.
She would deliver us from them. Father, that You would once again
show us the glories of Christ and His perfect work. Show us the glories of Your Spirit's
power in giving us life and faith and keeping us, sustaining us,
and not letting us go. Manifest Your love again in Your
grace. These that we have mentioned
that are sick, we lift them up before you and pray for them. We ask you to heal them. These
that are lost in our families and among our friends, Father,
that you would be gracious to them, that you would give them
life, that you would grant them faith and
repentance. Use us as you please in your
service to preach, declare the word. Father, in all of our works,
we own no glory for ourselves. All the glory belongs to you. Be with those that are preaching
the gospel in other places. As much as we pray for ourselves,
we pray for them. I pray you'd lead us and guide
us and forgive us our sins. In Jesus' name we do ask. All right, Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Text is going to be found in
verse 71. Psalm 119 verse 71. I've entitled
this message, The Good of Affliction. The good of affliction. The psalmist
writes, it is good for me that I have been afflicted. that I might learn thy statutes." And I read that over and over
again. Who in the world would have ever said that? Had God
the Holy Spirit not moved on the psalmist to write this for
us, it is good for me that I had been afflicted. Now, there are
three questions I want to answer tonight regarding the good of
affliction. What good is affliction? When affliction comes, no one
says, wow, great, I have affliction. Wonderful. No. It's painful. It's a sorrow. It's a misery. It's a grief. Yet it has because it has a purpose
designed by God. Listen, you that believe, it
is good. It is good for us. Now, so I
want to answer three questions regarding this. First of all,
to whom is affliction good? It's not good for everybody.
It's not good for everybody. Only very specific people can
say it is good for me that I have been afflicted. I'm going to
give you the answer to all these so you can just have it. Believers
in Christ. Only this group of people, only
the elect of God, those redeemed by Christ, those that are called
by the Spirit of God may say this with confidence in the very
teeth of their affliction. Listen, it is good for me that
I have been afflicted. It's good. Only believers can
say that. Second of all, what is affliction
good for? Affliction has a purpose and
this is what it's good for. It is good to try your faith. Affliction, the purpose of affliction
is that you might learn. You ain't gonna learn. And what's
the most important thing, we're gonna learn this, what's the
most important thing to the believer? Is my faith real? Is my faith real? And this is what
affliction does. It tries our faith. And thirdly,
how is it good? Because if your faith is real,
it always proves it to be true. Affliction will always prove
that your faith is genuine. And this said, then you may say
what? It is good that I have been afflicted. So, now I gave
you the whole thing, so now I'm going to break it down a little
bit more for you. So first of all, who is affliction
good for? Well, who's right? We know that
this is David, the psalmist. He is right. And so this is a
representation of all of God's elect. Every elect, redeemed,
called sinner may say this with great confidence, it is good
that I have been afflicted. It's good. But this is only for those who
are true believers in Christ. There are many, listen to me,
there are many who profess to believe. Many. I know some who profess to believe,
but if you were to even question their faith, they'd get angry. They get mad. They get upset.
You question their faith. If you suppose their faith is
somewhat false or something, they'll get upset with you. When
our Lord exposed those Pharisees, that's exactly what they did,
didn't it? They got upset. Matter of fact, they sought to
kill Him. But for the true believer, listen to me, for the true believer,
there's nothing more vital to our souls. There's nothing that
brings us more joy than to have our faith tested and proven to
be true. This is the cause of our love
and need to hear the gospel over and over again. Isn't this why
you need to hear it over and over again? What are you doing
listening to this over and over again? You're looking for this. Is my faith real? Is it of God? Because if it's not, if I'm a
pretender, there's no hope for me. When the scripture says, make
your calling and election sure, does that offend you? Are you
offended by that? No. I'm not offended by that
at all. I need to make sure of my calling
and election. I need to make sure that my faith
is not pretend faith. So what is the greatest fear
of the saint? It is this, to be without Christ. Isn't that
your greatest fear? We have a bunch of fears. But
the greatest fear that we'd ever have is to be found liars. That would be, there is nothing
more fearful than that group of people when they stand before
the Lord and say, Lord, have we not done this in your name?
Have we not cast out devils? And when he says this, depart
from me, you that work with iniquity, I never knew you. Can you imagine
a more horrible thing? There's never a more horrible
thing than to be found out a fraud. Now the false professor fears
to be without his religious works. A false professor fears to be
without the prosperity of the flesh. They fear to be without
the love and praise of men. But the believer's greatest fear is that I am not in union with
Christ. And it's what Newton said, "'Tis a point I long to
know. Oft it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I His or am I not?" Asaph in Psalm 73 had that very doubt. He said, I know God's good to
Israel, but as for me, my faith is nigh well spent. And so the heart of the elect
is what? What is our desire? My desire
is this, to be found in Christ. That is my greatest desire, to
be found in Christ. To be in union with the Lord
Jesus. I want to have His righteousness
as my righteousness. I want to have His blood as my
only atoning for my sin. The only washing of my sin. I want to have His Spirit to
give me life. and faith. Go to Philippians
chapter 3. Look at the words of the Apostle
Paul here. Look at his desire and tell me if this is not yours.
If you believe in Christ, is this not the same desire you
have? Look at Philippians 3 in verse
8. The Apostle said, Yea, without
doubt. You take this to the bank. Without any doubt, listen to
me. I count all things but loss. Is that true of you? All your religious deeds. You
count them but loss. Religious works, works of the
flesh, anything that would oppose your union with Christ, you count
that what? You count it loss. Garbage. Why? For the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things and do count them but done. Why? That I may win Christ, listen
to this, and be found in Him. Is there anything better than
that? There's nothing better. There's nothing I want more.
There's nothing in this world that usurps this. I must be found
in Him, and I count everything but loss for that knowledge. I need to know that I'm in Him. And that knowledge is what? Excellent.
Isn't it? When you know you're in Him,
is that excellent knowledge? The excellency of that knowledge. There's nothing else better to
know. Listen, not having my own righteousness.
which is of the law, but the righteousness which is through
the faith of Jesus Christ." That's a vital phrase, the faith of
Jesus Christ. Now that's the righteousness
I want to be found in. Not my righteousness, but I want
to be found in the righteousness that is merited by the faith
of Jesus Christ. the righteousness of God, which
is by faith. Now that righteousness was merited
by the faith of Jesus Christ, but how did I receive it? How
did you receive it? You received it by faith, didn't
you? Why? That I may know Him. You suppose Paul knew Him? I mean, he met with him face
to face for over three years. I mean, imagine that. Every day
for three years, the Lord Jesus Christ came to him and they met
together. Now, he knew him, but you know
what? Paul said, I don't know him enough.
Do you know him enough? Are you satisfied with the level
of knowledge that you have about him? Paul said, no, I want to
know him. I want to know him. And listen,
the power of His resurrection, what does that mean? I want to
know the success of His work. Isn't the resurrection the proof
of His success? I want to know the power of that.
I want to know the surety of my salvation rests in His resurrection
from the dead. And I want to know my part in
it. I want to know if I have a part
in that resurrection, don't you? And listen, the fellowship of
his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. Now there are
certain marks that are true of every true believer. So affliction,
listen to me, it's only good to those who are believers in
Christ. And the most important thing
to a believer in Christ is to be found in Christ. I need to know this. So what are the marks of a true
believer? First of all, a true believer confesses the sin of
his own nature. Isn't this so? You that believe,
do you not confess the sin of your nature? Have you, like Paul, counted
all things but dung? Isn't this flesh and all its
deeds, isn't it to you just a steaming pile of dung? That's how good
it is. That's how much it's worth to
me. Now Paul was one of the most
religious men that ever was. In this chapter in Philippians
3, he describes his pedigree. But as soon as the Lord God revealed
Himself, He revealed His nature to him, and He said, I was alive
without the law once, but when the law came, the commandment
came, sin revived, and what? I died. I died. The law was no longer carnal,
it was spiritual, and he found himself to be sold under sin. Is this not true of you? You
that believe, isn't that your nature? I tell you this, we know this
as believers, this flesh doesn't get any better. Have you found that to be true?
My flesh seems. Now, it doesn't get worse. It's
always been this bad. I just now realize it more. The second thing about true faith
is true faith abhors self and clings to Christ. You cling to
Christ. When Jesus Christ was preached,
when Christ revealed Himself to us and we were sinners, when He revealed that His obedience
had merited the righteousness of God and His offering had atoned
for our sins, immediately we forsook ourselves and fled to
Him. You that believe, you fled to
Him for refuge. You forsook your righteousness
and by faith you received His. So if you haven't, listen, I
would encourage any sinner who has not fled to Christ, do it
now. There's no reason to wait. Do
it now! That God would reveal your sin
to you and that you should flee to Him. And you should believe
on Him. You should take this to the bank.
We that believe understand this, that we could never merit the
righteousness of God. You that believe, isn't that
so with you? Could you ever merit the righteousness of God? No,
but Christ did. He came down as God manifest
in the flesh. And as our representative, he
merited the righteousness of God. And not only this, but Christ
came in the flesh to pay our debt of sin that we owe to the
justice of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ died for
our sins. You that believe, you understand,
He in love came to obtain our righteousness, and He in love
died in our stead. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree, And the justice of God slew he. Scripture says, surely he hath
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded. For what? Our transgression. He was bruised
for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. See, His suffering
upon the cursed tree was for our sins, and the justice of
God fell on Him. This is what we believe. This
is what we trust. We who want to be found in Him,
we know this, that His death is the only hope for my life. He died for my sins. He was forsaken
of God and endured the affliction of God's wrath. And we believe this with all
of our souls, that having satisfied God's justice, He has forever
removed our sin from us. I tell you what, I don't feel
that way. My feelings don't have a thing
in the world to do with this. Before I could feel anything,
Christ had already put them away. He had already taken them away.
And so we who believe, we believe on Christ alone. We believe this, that Christ
didn't come to make my salvation possible, but He actually saved
me. You that believe, is that so? He did it. He said this, it is finished
and we believe, we believe what? We believe it is finished. It's
done. Christ has accomplished our salvation. He said, Father, I finished the
work which thou gavest me to do. Isaiah 45 verse 25 it says,
in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified. Now is
that true or not? Will all Israel be justified?
You bet! All spiritual Israel will be
justified, because Christ justified us. God justified us through
Christ. And this is the will of Him that accomplished
and finished it, that none of His people shall be lost. He
said, this is the Father's will which is sent me, that of all
He has given me, how many shall He lose? How many will our Savior
lose? He said, I will lose nothing,
but raise them up again at the last day. You believe on the
Son. Is this the object of your faith? I believe and know that Christ
has satisfied God's justice, He is now seated on the throne,
and all that the Father gave Him will come to Him. He will
call them, He will quicken them, He will save them, and they will
believe on Him, without doubt. This is so. Now all who would boast in the
faith of their own will and the power of their own works, this
is not true faith. If faith is resting partly in
Christ and partly in something you've done, that's not the faith
given of God. That's not faith given by God.
Paul says this, they have a form of godliness. People who profess
faith in Christ and faith in their works, They all have a
form of godliness. You look at them, they're moral
people. They're outstanding citizens.
They're very zealous in their religion. Paul said they have
a form of godliness. What's the problem with that
kind of faith? They deny the power. They deny that faith is of the
power of God. It's salvations of the Lord. But true faith knows this. that
salvation is simply by the grace and power of God alone. You that
believe. You know that all your salvation
is of God. If I walk out of this building
and get in my car still believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, that's
God. If I continue in faith until
the day I die, guess what? That's gone. It's not me. And so our faith then looks to
Christ who sits on the throne, where he now intercedes for us,
and we know that he is our righteousness, he is our sanctification, he
is our redemption, He is our wisdom. So, I want you to know this. If that's what you believe, that's
what true faith looks like. But I also want you to know something
about true faith. True faith is a lifelong experience. Isn't it? It's not a one-time
thing. How many religions believe faith
is a one-time thing? They come down, they make a profession,
and then they just go away. They never really have to darken
a door of a church again. No, I made it. I did my decision
that one time. I know that we don't believe
that. It's really foolish to us. But really, that's 80, 90% of
religion in today. I made some kind of decision,
and that one time. But we know this, that faith
is not a one-time thing, is it? true faith. Our Lord says, whosoever liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. Those words are very important.
The ETH at the end of both of those words are vitally important.
It's not he that lived and believed in me. But he that liveth, that
has lived, is living and shall live. He that did believe is
believing and shall believe. Only those shall never die. And so when
we who believe on Christ, we know this, that if our faith
is real, it must continue. It must continue. One says, Breacher, I believe
on Christ alone. I confess that he's all my hope. He's all my standing before God. I confess that faith is a product
of God's grace and power. Well, that's a sign of true faith. Those are marks of true faith.
But I'll tell you what, that never ends. I'll never stop believing
that. The Apostle says, if we continue. He said, you know, you were aliens.
You were strangers from the commonwealth of Israel. But Christ is coming,
made peace by the blood of His cross. You're now fellow citizens. And what does he say there in
Colossians? He says, if. you continue, grounded and rooted
in the faith. So true faith must continue. It must continue. You must always look to Christ
continually. Now if this is your confession,
then you have confidence that you are saved by His grace. But
now, listen to this truth. If you have true faith, I want
you to understand something. You must learn something. All
true faith must be tried. If you have faith, you must then
expect this to be the reality. All true faith must be tested. Not by men. I'm not going to
put out a questionnaire and have you check off a bunch of things
and say that's the trial of your faith. No. God's going to try
your faith. I want you to understand that.
God's going to try your faith. And let me tell you how He's
going to do it. One word. Listen to this. Do you want to know if you have
true faith? Do you want to know if your faith is real? Let me
tell you how you're going to do it. Affliction. It's the means
God uses to try your faith. Now David in this psalm, you
look back to your psalm, in verse 65 he says, You know, God dealt
with him so well according to his word. He asked this of God. He said, teach me good judgment
and knowledge. For I have believed thy commandments. Before I was afflicted, I went
astray, but now I have kept thy word. David asked for something,
didn't he? He said, teach me. You want to
know something? You want God to teach you something? That's how he does it. He teaches
you by affliction. By affliction. Go to 1 Peter
1. Look at what Peter says about this. 1 Peter 1, look at verse
6. The Apostle says, wherein you
greatly rejoice? He said you rejoice in your election, you
rejoice in your redemption, you rejoice in your calling, you
rejoice in the fact that the Spirit keeps you. Don't you rejoice
in those things? You that believe, you rejoice
in them. Listen, though now for a season, I like these words,
if need be. It's not going to happen unless
it's necessary. If need be, you are in heaviness. heaviness concerning the corruption
of your nature, heaviness regarding God's hiding His face, or some
dark providence, through many manifold temptations. Listen,
that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than
gold, to perish it though it be tried by fire, might be found
to the praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Believer, I want you to understand
that you will, if need be, go through many temptations, many
afflictions, many trials, manifold. Why? Because they're necessary.
They're necessary. What did our Lord Jesus tell
us and promise us in this world? He said, these things I've spoken
unto you that you might have peace. Where? In here. But out here in the world you
shall have, you shall have, you shall have tribulation. It was a promise, wasn't it?
You that believe, listen to me. You shall have tribulation in
this world. But here is your cheer. I have
overcome the world. This tribulation is not coming
on you by accident or something outside of my design or my control. I have overcome the world. I rule it. The affliction you
face is at my hand. And listen what it's for. The
trial of your faith. Trial of your faith. We have these afflictions to
try our faith. True believers are promised manifold
temptations. We are never promised peace and
prosperity, health and wealth in this world. You're not promised
those things, are you? You'll never find that in this
word. You'll never find that God promised you perfect health
and well. Now, you may give it. You may
ask for it if you want. You're welcome to ask. But you're
not promised those things. You're not promised to be happy.
You understand that? You're not promised to be happy.
You know what happiness is dependent on? Something that happens. If something good happens, then
you are what? Happy. If something ill happens,
then you lose your happiness. God has never promised you to
be happy. What he has promised you is a
cross. Jesus said, if any man will come
after me, let him deny himself and take up what? His cross. How did He take His cross? He took it willingly. How do
you take yours? You didn't believe. How do we take this affliction? We should take it the same way
He took it. Willingly. Understanding it has
a purpose. Affliction is to try our faith. And listen, if you have no trials
of faith, it's because you have no faith. Remember Pilgrim's Progress?
A young lady asked me about this book this last week. I was excited.
Tell her to read it. It's great. It's wonderful. Allegory. Remember Pilgrim? He came out.
The first thing when he left the city of destruction, he fell
right in the slough of despondent. Trouble. He gets to the Wicked
Gate, gets to the Interpreter, and what does he find? Trouble.
And in trouble. Then he goes off the path and
he gets into the Doubting Castle and captured by the Giant Despair. He's all locked up. Trouble.
Affliction. Pain. He fights Apollyon with
the darts. Satan throwing the darts at him.
He's always in trouble. And one time Pilgrim comes across
this guy Ignorance. And ignorance, he's talking with
ignorance. And he said, where are you going? Ignorance said,
I'm going to heaven. I'm going to celestial cities. He said,
oh, did you hear what the evangelist said? No, I ain't heard no evangelist. He said, did you have a burden
of your sin on your back? Well, no, I ain't had no burden
on my back. Did you ever go to the cross and have the burden?
No, I ain't never been there. Where's your scroll? Where's
your promises? He said, I don't have any of
that. Have you ever been afflicted or troubled? No! And he just kept walking on?
Well, that's because he had no real faith. Believers are surrounded by persecution. Listen to me, your faith is going
to be tried. It's going to be tested. And
it's not going to be easy. Now, I'm not going to have the
time to go through it, but Abraham, I think someone said he had seven
trials in his lifetime. seven trials of his faith that
are revealed to us in Scripture. You know what the first one was?
Abraham. I promise we'll make you a father
of a great nation. Now get up and leave your home
and go to the wilderness. Is that not a trial? What did faith do? Could Abraham
have faith and stayed home? Could he? Is that possible? Well, I believe you, but I think
I'll just stay here in Ur of the Chaldeans. It's okay. I can
believe in you and not have to, you know, really follow you. No, true faith is tried, and
true faith follows. When God said to Abraham, take
your son, your only son, and kill him, did he say, well, you
know, I believe you, But I think I'll just keep eyes on him. True faith is tried. True faith
is pressed into service and love and obedience to God. Through
what? Affliction. You think it was
easy for him to leave his home? You think it was easy for him
to offer his son? No. It was a pain! It was an affliction! Yet what did his affliction prove?
It proved his faith to be real. Proves his faith to be real. So only sons of God are chastened. Only sons of God are afflicted. And only the sons of God in affliction
are proven to continue. That's the evidence of it, right? Affliction comes to both those
who have no faith and those that have faith. You've got false
professors, they're afflicted, and true believers are afflicted.
What's the difference? How do you know if yours is true
faith? Because of this. If you are afflicted,
you will always continue to believe. Remember the parable of the sower?
that some fell on the wayside, some fell on the ground that
didn't have any earth in it, hard ground, and some fell on
thorny ground, and some fell on good ground. When the sun beat down on the
one that was on the hard ground, that didn't have much earth,
it said it shot up, and then what? Withered away. When affliction
hit that person, what happened? He left. When the affliction hit the one
on thorny ground, what happened? He abandoned the Word for the
things of the world. What happened to the one that
was planted in the good ground? Scripture says that same sun
that burned up the one that grew the thorns in the other, that
one produced fruit. And so everyone that is a true
believer in Jesus Christ, what does affliction do? Does it drive you away from Christ,
or does it drive you to Christ? What's his purpose? His purpose
is to prove your faith to be real. Jesus said, therefore whosoever
heareth these sayings in mine and doeth them, I will liken
him to a man that built this house upon a rock. When the rain
descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on
the house, it fell not." Why? It was founded on a rock. And
everyone that hears the sayings of mine and doesn't do them,
I liken him to a foolish man that built his house on the sand.
And when the rain descended and the floods came and the winds
blew and beat on the house, it fell and great was the fall of
it. What do these two have in common?
They both had the same rain, and the same floods, and the
same storms. What was the difference? One
was founded on Christ, and the other was founded on His works.
The one founded on Christ, what did it do? It did not fall. If your faith is truly on Christ,
what will affliction prove? It will prove that you're on
Christ. That's what it proves. Believer, consider then the reason
of our trials. It is not to destroy you, but
rather to comfort you. It is to cause us to grow in
grace and faith. That's what David wanted at the
very beginning of this psalm. He said, teach me. Anybody want
to be taught? Consider this. Go back to your
psalm. Look at this. I think this is
very interesting. Notice this. David said, teach me good judgment
and knowledge, for I have believed thy commandments. I believed
on you. I trusted in you. Listen. Before I was afflicted,
I went astray. Now, wait a second. He wanted
to know something. And yet, instead of automatically
learning, he did what? He went astray. Why'd God let
him do that? He said, before I was afflicted,
I went astray. But now, after I've been afflicted,
what happened? I've kept thy word. Affliction is a necessary tool
to teach. Remember what Newton wrote, And
see if you can identify with this. I ask the Lord that I might
grow in faith, in love, and every
grace. Might more his salvation know,
and seek more earnestly his face. It was he who taught me thus
to pray, and he, I trust, had answered prayer, but has been
in such a way that almost drove me to despair. I hoped in some
favored hour, at once He had answered my request. And by love's
constraining power, subdue my sins and give me rest. Instead
of this, what did you get? Affliction. Instead of this,
He made me feel the hidden evils of my heart and let the angry
powers of hell assault my soul in every part. More with his
own hand he seemed intent to aggravate my woe, crossed all
my fair designs I schemed, blasted my gourds, and laid me low. Lord, why is this? I trembling cried. Wilt thou
pursue thy worm to death? Listen to the answer. This is
the way, the Lord replied, I answered prayer for grace and strength. These inward trials I employ
from self and pride to set thee free, to break your schemes of
earthly joy that you might find your all in me. Do you see the reason of affliction? It only is good for believers
because it tries our faith. But I want you to see that it's
necessary to try our faith because it also does something else.
It proves it. It proves it. When a believer is tried, listen
to me, he will always endure. He will always endure. Therefore,
when affliction is finished, when affliction is finished,
It proves our faith, and we may say then with the psalmist, it
is good that I've been afflicted. Why? Because it manifests that
my faith is genuine. It manifests that I am one with
Christ. It manifests the truth. In the same way wasn't Job afflicted? Who sent the trials on Job? Was it Satan? Or was it God? Satan could do nothing except
God tell him. But God had a purpose. And what
was that? That Job might know Him. Isn't Job's end better than his
beginning? And so when Job was finished
with his suffering, what could he say? He could say this, it
is good that I have been afflicted. It is good that I have been afflicted,
that I might learn thy statutes. That I might know that I'm yours. For the child of God, there is
no greater joy than to know I'm in Christ. I don't know about you, but often
I find myself doubting. I find myself wavering. My unbelief seems so great. You know what the cure to that
is? Affliction. Affliction. I know you want to
be over fast. I know you want God to come down
and in a moment teach you. That's not how he does it. But
when God shows us affliction, listen, it has a purpose. That
our faith should be tried and proven to be true. Listen, if
my faith is genuine, what do I have to fear? If Christ is all my righteousness,
what do I have to fear? If Christ is all my justification
before God, what do I have to fear? But the only way I'm going to
learn that is affliction. It's God's means to teach us
His statutes, to reveal His promises. It's one thing to know His promises. It's another thing to experience
them. And that's what affliction does.
Therefore, we could say with David, what? It is good that
I have been afflicted. Why? That I might learn your
statutes. that I might know that I'm in Christ safe. I hope God will comfort us in
our afflictions. Use it. Give us understanding
why we're being afflicted. It's not by chance. It's by design. So that you might grow in grace
and love and faith. I pray God will bless this to
you. Let's stand and be dismissed and pray. Father in heaven, we pray you
bless your word according to your mercies. We pray you use
it by your Holy Spirit, the power to teach and instruct your children
Father, you would give us great assurance and confidence that
only resides in Christ our Savior. Let us hold fast to Him. Forgive
us our sins, our murmurs, our complainings. Let us completely trust in your
providence and your divine hand. Bring us safely to yourself.
We pray this in Christ's name.