If you take your Bibles and turn
with me to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. We'll have our text be found
in verse 71. Psalm 119 and verse 71. I've entitled this, Good Afflictions. That sounds like an oxymoron,
doesn't it? Good Afflictions. No one seems
to think afflictions are good. But as you read my text, you
will find out that David, this psalmist, writes this, and he
said this, It is good for me that I have been afflicted. And then he gives the purpose
of the affliction. He gives the reason why it's
good. He said, That I might learn thy statutes. First of all, we want to ask
this question, who is afflicted? Now, everybody's afflicted. Everybody
has troubles in this life. But this affliction that's spoken
of here in Scripture that leads us to learn of God, to learn
of His statutes. This affliction is reserved only
for believers. Affliction is good only for the
child of God. The only good for the child of
God. Isn't that what Paul said? All things work together for
good. Specifically to who? Those that
love God. Those who are called according
to His purpose. Now, that is who all things work
together for. Including what? Afflictions. Afflictions. So, afflictions
for the believer are good. They're good. Now, how do we
get to this? Because in afflictions, It don't
feel good. It don't seem good. And so, I
hope the Lord will bless us this morning, especially if you're
in affliction, that God would bless you with this. David is
the one here writing. So we know this, David here represents
all of God's people. As he is writing this, surely
this could be said by every believer in Jesus Christ. Now listen,
if you're not a believer, surely this, I have no promise affliction
is good for you. Matter of fact, I know this,
it will work towards your ill. But if you are a believer in
Christ, this is the promise. You can say this. It is good
for me that I had been afflicted. It's good. Now, like I said,
you're not going to say that at the beginning. You're not
going to say that in the middle of affliction. David is saying
this at the end. He's saying this at the end of
affliction. This is how God works, and you can go back to that golden
chain in Romans chapter 5, tribulation, work in patience, patience, experience,
experience, hope, hope maketh not ashamed, the love of God
shed abroad in our heart. You see, at the end, when the love
of God shed abroad in your heart, then you're able to understand
the goodness of affliction. So this is for believers. And
so the first question I have for you is this, are you a believer
in Christ? Is this speaking to you? Now,
there are many who profess faith in Christ out there. We have
millions upon millions of people professing faith in Christ. And
you know what's most offensive to people, most people who profess
faith, is if you question their faith. You question. You ask them this, Are you a
believer in Christ? Well, they'll say, Yes. How dare
you question me? They get really upset. I've had
people be really upset at me for asking that question. I'd
say, are you a believer in Christ? He'd say, yes. I'd say, are you
sure? Are you sure? Remember when the Lord exposed
those Pharisees to be vain professors? What'd they do? They sought to
kill him. They sought to kill him. Remember our Lord said this,
not everyone that sayeth, Easy to say. Not everyone that sayeth
to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father. Those are the ones who really
believe that He is Lord. They do His will, and that will
is this, that they believe on Him. That they believe on Christ,
that they trust Christ, and have no confidence in the flesh. Those
are who the Lord are true believers. I'll tell you this, I'm not offended
when someone asks me that because a believer in Christ, nothing
is more vital to us than to know our faith is real. I don't want
to pretend, do you? I don't want to get to the end
of this and be cast out into outer darkness. I don't want
to be deceived. Do you want to be deceived? I
don't want to be deceived. I want to know my calling and
election are sure. So it's not grievous to me to
do that. I want to take my faith and I
want to put it in the light of Scripture, don't you? I want
to take my conduct and I want to put it in the light of Scripture.
Why? Because I want the darkness to
flee. I want to know that I know that I know Him. More important,
I want to know that He knows me, that He's mine and I'm His. And this is why we love to hear
the Word preached, isn't it? Because this is what we need
to know. You want to know if your faith
is real? God's laid it out for us here. God's laid it out for
us in His Word. And so we love to hear the Word
of God. And so what's the greatest fear you have, believer? What's
the greatest fear? The greatest fear is not being
found in Christ. That's our greatest fear, to
be outside of Christ. False professors, they don't
fear that. They fear if their works are good enough. They say,
man, did I do enough? Did I do enough? They fear that.
They fear that they'll lose the praise and honor of men. They're
fearful that they're going to... They're so afraid as how men
perceive them. Who cares what men think about
us? What does Christ think about
us? That's the question. That's the
question. What we care about is this, am
I in Christ? A true believer cares about if
he's in Christ. I want His righteousness to clothe
me. I want His blood to wash me. I want His power to keep me.
I want His love to carry me. Don't you? That's what God's
people, that's what believers want. Go to Philippians chapter
3. Let's read what Paul says about this. In Philippians chapter
3, the question is, if we're going to know if afflictions
are good for us, we've got to know this, are we a believer? Because
they're only good for believers. Look at what Paul says in Philippians
3 verse 8, he said this, Yea, doubtless, without a doubt. What
does that do? I count all things lost. All my religion, all my self-righteousness,
all my self-worth, All my sin, all my lust, all my passions,
all my desires, I count it lost. For what? That I might know Christ. The excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I've suffered the loss
of all things. That's past tense. And listen,
here's present. I do count them right now as
done. That I may win Christ and be found in Him. What is it to
be found in Him? Listen, not having my own righteousness. To be found in Him, you have
no righteousness of your own. You don't want any. You don't
want any of your own righteousness. You want to be found in Him.
But that righteousness which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith that I may know
Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering,
be made conformable to his death." True faith in Christ has a clear,
unmistakable mark. They're just unmistakable. What
is this saying? We confess our sin. True faith
always confesses our nature of sin. Like Paul, because of our
nature, what do we do? We count all of its dung, all
of our self-righteousness and works, religion, as dung, as
useless. This morning, do you count all
your works as useless to make you acceptable with God? True
faith recognizes that there's nothing in us. There's none good. No, not one. Paul said, In my
flesh dwelleth no good thing. No good thing. Now, Paul, he had some religion,
didn't he? He could put us all to shame
in his religion. You couldn't pick a bad thing
from Paul before he was saved. And yet, what did he say? When
the commandment came, I was alive without the law, but when the
commandment came in power, sin revived and I died. I died. The law Seen in its true nature,
being spiritual is not just outward obedience, but inward thoughts
and motives and intents. What does that prove? It proves
that I can't earn my way to God. True faith sees that the flesh
can never earn its way to God. And listen, true faith believes
this, the flesh never gets better. You as believers in Christ, I
know we experience this. This is our experience in this
life. It's the Word of God, it's what God says, but it's also
our experience. The flesh doesn't get better. The flesh doesn't
get better. The second thing true faith sees
is true faith abandons self. True faith abandons self. It
abandons, and it clings to Christ. Therefore, Jesus Christ, when
He preached, when Christ revealed Himself as the Savior of sinners, what did He reveal? That His
obedience alone merited the righteousness of God. That's what Paul's saying.
He said, I want His righteousness. True faith wants His righteousness,
and His alone. that he merited the righteousness
of God by his obedience, and also by his one offering, he
atoned for sin, all the sin of his people. He satisfied God's
justice. And so what does Paul do? What
does every believer do? We forsake our righteousness. Now, how much of your righteousness
do you forsake? Well, all of it. Why would you
forsake all your righteousness? Because you don't have any. It
should be easy to forsake. You don't have any righteousness.
He has all the righteousness. And so true faith clings to His
righteousness. And when Paul says the righteousness
which is of the faith of Christ, he's talking about how it was
merited. When Christ came into the world, who was He? He was
God. Who else but God could merit
God's righteousness. But the wonderful thing is, He
was not only God, He was man. So that by being man, He might
let us, He might give to us that righteousness as a representative. But not only this, He also must
pay for sin. You see, He had to not only merit
righteousness, he had to suffer on the cross to pay the debt
of sin that we owed to God. This is what Jesus did when he
was made sin for us. Paul said he was made sin for
us that we, that he that knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. So on the cross, the spotless
Lamb of God bore our sins in His own body on the tree. Isaiah
said, Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. But we esteemed it, stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But what was the real reason
He was there? He was wounded for our transgressions. God smote Him because of our
sins. God killed His own Son because
of our sin. The wrath of God fell on Him
because of our sin. And what was the result? He was
wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquity, the
chastisement of our peace was upon Him. Listen to the result.
And by His stripes we were healed. We are healed. Let me ask you this. Is that
how you came into this world? Healed? Now, He did that 2,000
years before we came into this world. How did we come in? We
all, like sheep, have gone astray and turned everyone to his own
way. But here's our hope. The Lord
had laid on Him the iniquity of us all. The Lord had laid
on Christ the iniquity of us all. He was forsaken of God,
endured the cross, despising the shame, So that he should
satisfy forever the justice of God for his people. The scripture
says in what? The law and it was weak through
the flesh. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin, what did he do? Condemn sin in his flesh. Condemn sin. For what? So that
there should be no condemnation. No condemnation to those who
are in Christ. You see why we want to be in
Christ? You see why it's necessary that we fear being outside of
Christ? Because only in Christ is there no condemnation. Outside
of Christ is only condemnation. This is what the believer wants.
I want to know, am I in Christ? Because he's the righteousness
of God. Because his sin, his atonement for sin is the only
thing God was pleased with. The only sacrifice. Oh, friends, do you believe?
I'll tell you this. If you believe, this is one thing
we believe about Christ, that He actually accomplished redemption.
True believers believe Christ actually accomplished redemption. We don't believe He made it possible.
We don't believe He did it for all men. We believe He did it
for whomsoever the Father gave Him. And He accomplished that. Isn't that what it said in Hebrews
10? Hebrews 10 and verse 12. 14.
It says, for by his one offering, he hath perfected forever a specific
group, them that are sanctified. He did it. That's the gospel
message today, isn't it? It's finished. It's finished
is the gospel message. Jesus said, Father, I have finished
the work. I have finished the work. Thou
gave me to do. What was that work? It was the
will of the Father. Lo, I come, in the volume of
the book it is written of me, to do Thy will, O God, by the
witch will, by the witch fulfilling of that will. We are sanctified,
made holy by that. And what is the Father's will?
Jesus tells us that in John 6, it is that none of those the
Father gave Him should be lost. He said this, this is the will
of Him that sent me, that of all He had given me, I should
lose nothing. I should lose nothing. And then
He gives us the experience of it. And this is the will, by
experience. This is the will of God, that
everyone that seeth the Son, everyone, That's a pretty inclusive bunch,
isn't it? Everyone. Everyone that what? Seeth the
Son. I just showed you the Son. Didn't
I just show you the Son? God manifested in the flesh,
the righteousness of God by Him, the crucifixion for the atonement
and redemption of His people, the successful accomplishment
of that salvation. I've shown you the Son. Now then, do you believe on Him? Because that's what's next. He
that seeth the Son, and what, believeth on Him. Listen, if
you ever see the Son, you'll believe on Him. If you really
ever see Him, you'll believe on Him. And what do you get? Everlasting life. Everlasting life. Now today,
Jesus Christ is not dead. He died, but He's not dead. He
is seated on the throne of God, and He is right now, at this
very moment, working all things after the counsel of His own
sovereign will. He is holding to none but His
own self. And He is moving all things for
one purpose, one aim, one goal. You want to know what that is?
To save His people from their sin. That's what He's moving
everything for. This morning He is moving providence
and everything to call and quicken His elect and redeem sinners
to faith in Him. He is right now fulfilling all
He swore to do. Save them. This morning He is
saving me. If you believe on Jesus Christ,
you know what He's doing for you right now? He is saving you. That's
what He's doing right now. He is right now saving you. Do
you believe on Him? I tell you this, listen to me,
you should forsake all in believing. You should believe on Him. And see then that faith is not
then a product of man's will. I said you should believe on
Him. But when you believe on Him, is that a product of you
or of God? True faith recognizes this, it
is always of God. Do you believe that? True faith
recognizes, surrenders that it's all of God. Now, we who believe
in the sovereignty of God, we do not believe that... People
say, well, you don't believe in will. No, we believe in will. Man has a will. And listen, you
choose things all the time. And when you do, there are consequences
to anything you choose. We believe in man's will. We
just don't believe it's free. I don't believe you have life
enough in you to choose salvation, to choose God. You're dead. The Scripture says this, as many
as received Him. We believe that's part of the
will, isn't it? To receive Him. I'm willing to receive Him today.
Do you? I love to receive. I want Him. I want Him to come. I receive Him. If you receive
Him this morning, you are a son of God. Now how did you receive
Him? By will? John says, no, you didn't. It is not of the will of the
flesh, nor the will of man, but the will of God. That's why you
received him. Now, all of us who boast, all those who boast
of faith by will, you listen to me, you deny the power of
God. That's just simple. Paul says, he said that they
deny, you see that, I got the scripture here, He said, They
having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, turn
away from them. Anybody denies that salvation
is of the Lord, you turn away from them. Turn away from them. They're given to fables. But
true faith knows that salvation is by the grace and power of
God, even because the word of God and the experience of grace
in our hearts. And our hope, then, is in Christ. Our hope is in the effectual
work and obedience and death of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. And right now, true believers are looking to Him. This morning
as I'm preaching, I hope you're looking to Him. Don't look at
me. Don't look to me. I'm just a
messenger to point you to Him. That's it. I'm a vessel. That's
it. All I'm trying to do is just
point you to Christ so you look to Him. And true believers, you'll
look to Him. You'll look to Him. And listen,
this is the hope for you. He ever lives to make intercession
for you. Always interceding. Always interceding. But true faith is not a one-time
experience, is it? True faith is a constant life
experience. Over in John chapter 11, when
the Lord says... You read this with me, John chapter
11. You just flip over there. John chapter 11 and verse 25,
look at what the Lord says. He said unto her, unto Martha,
He said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth
on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. This is a true
experience of God's true believers, as though we were dead. By nature,
we were dead. Yet through faith in Christ we
now live. And whosoever liveth and believeth,
listen to this, they shall never die. You believe this? If we believe on Christ, it is
because we've been quickened. And we that have been quickened,
what do we do? We continually live and believe. That's what that ETH at the end
of the words means. It's a present perfect tense.
It's a constant living and a constant believing. True faith constantly
lives and constantly believes. That's one who has been brought
to life in faith in Christ. And listen, when we die, we don't
die. We don't die. Now, is this your
faith? Is this your faith? You say yes. If you say yes, then friend,
I believe in Christ alone. Yes, preacher, I believe in Christ
alone. I confess my sin and my guilt and the filthiness of my
nature. I look only to grace. That is
in Christ Jesus, and I confess my faith is a product of God's
grace and power, and no praise to me or my will. I continually
forsake all and cling only to Christ, forsaking my sin, forsaking
myself, and looking only to His righteousness and blood. If this
is your confession, listen, you are saved. Now go back to your
text. This is yours. This is yours. It is good for me. It is good
for me that I have been afflicted. Afflicted. I want you to listen to this
truth. All true faith must be and will be tried. It will be proven. Isn't that
what we were... Isn't that what I said at the
beginning? The most important thing for the believer is to
know that our faith is real. I gave you marks, but yet I know
this, we're not always 100% on those marks, are we? We oscillate
sometimes. Our faith is very low. Our glove
is low. Our grace is low at times. And
so we begin to doubt. And afflictions come in. And we say, well, why? because
your faith has to be tried and it's only by these afflictions,
this is why they're good, only by these afflictions is your
faith proven to be real. If you were to take Judas and
Peter and put them together at that time before he betrayed
Christ and hung himself, you could not have told the difference.
You couldn't. You know, the disciples, they
didn't wander around and say, you know that old Judas, he's a bad seed. No, they gave him the money.
They obviously trusted him above everybody else. What was the
difference between Peter and Judas? Peter's faith endured
trial. Judas' faith failed in trial
and he died in his sins. The difference between Lot and
his wife. Lot's faith was tried and he
failed. Didn't he fail miserably? And
yet God still, through that trial, brought him out and his faith
was restored. What happened to his wife? She
looked back. She went back. And so all faith
must be tried. David, he praises the Lord. Look at that in verse 65. He's
praising the Lord, first of all, that God saved him. He said,
Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, Lord, according to thy
word. And what does he want? What does every believer want?
Teach. Don't you want to learn of him? He said, teach me good
judgment and knowledge. For I have believed that commandment,
I believe the gospel. Now teach me. But notice what
David did. He said before I was afflicted,
I went astray. Now, why did the Lord go astray?
So that his faith should be tested and tried. And when it was tried,
he said this, I have kept that word. After faith is tried and
proven, what do we say? I have kept thy word. I have
kept the faith. Isn't that what Paul said? I have kept the faith.
That's what every believer does. And so at the end of his trial,
he says, it's good for me that I've been afflicted. Isn't this
what Peter said? Go to 1 Peter chapter 1. Tell
me if this is not exactly the same thing. 1 Peter chapter 1
and verse 6. He said, wherein you greatly
rejoice. He's talking about your election. He's talking about
your redemption. He's talking about the keeping power of the
Spirit of God. You rejoice in these things. What about this? Though now for a season, if necessary,
you are in heaviness, heaviness concerning inward corruption,
heaviness concerning the hiding of God's face through manifold
temptations, manifold trials of your faith. that the trial
of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes,
though it be tried with fire." What is it going to be? If it's
true, it's going to be found to the praise and honor of the
glory at the appearing of Christ. We greatly rejoice in our salvation,
but we must not expect a smooth road. Pay attention. I mean, this is very important.
You believers, listen to me. Most of our anxiety, Most of
our fear and trouble come from this. We expect a smooth road. We expect the waters to part.
We expect every thorn to be plucked. We expect to experience no difficulties,
no troubles. Why? We're children of God. If
God has given us Christ, how shall He not freely give us all
things? And what do we think? We think all things is what?
A good life, happy life. and we're disappointed. No, this road is full of trials,
heaviness, and manifold temptations. We must rather know and trust
that these are necessary. These are necessary. These manifold
temptations are necessary. What does Jesus say? He said
this, I've spoken these things, I've given you the gospel that
you might have peace. Doesn't the gospel give you peace?
But what's going to happen outside? In the world you shall have tribulation. Our Lord promises this, if your
faith is of the world, the world will love you. You won't have
many trials against the religious world, against the things of
this world. But to believers, the world will
hate you. This world, you shall have tribulation. He said in another place, if
any man come after me, if any man believe on me, if any man
follow me, if any man serve me, if any man obey me, listen, deny
himself. That is to deny all you think
is O.D. Isn't that what we think God
owes us something? God doesn't owe us anything. He only owes us what He promises
to give us. Isn't that right? He's going
to give us what He promises, other than that, and what He
promised. In this world you shall have tribulation. Now he's going
to give it to you. Affliction is necessary for the trying of
your faith. And so you deny yourself, take
up your cross and follow him. Listen to the truth. If your
faith is not tried, if your faith is not tested, it's dead. Dead. You don't have any faith. We are never promised peace and
prosperity in this world, but rather across. We're promised
a world to hate us, a flesh to oppose us, and a devil to accuse
us. We, like David, are brought into affliction, heavy afflictions. You remember the two in Pilgrim's
Progress, Christian and ignorance? Christian, his life, his road
was filled with trouble. You read that book, and he is
constantly in trouble. He is constantly being attacked.
There's always something trying his faith. And there's no ignorance. He's just going wherever his
flesh leads him. You know, some people think that,
you know, well, this seems like God's in this. You know, everything
seems to be opening up for me. Everything seems to be going
well. The road seems to be smooth. I question that, if that's God
doing that. If that's really of God. Ignorance,
he just walked around and did what he wanted to. But you know
they had two different endings, don't you? Ignorance died in
his sins, and Christian, he was led to the celestial city. Now
it has been said of Abraham. Abraham's a good example of what
true faith being tested is. Abraham, it's said that Abraham
was given seven large testings. Seven times in Scripture that
he's been tested. First time he said, Abraham,
leave your country and go out into the wilderness, and I'm
going to give you a land, I'm going to give you a people. He didn't see a city, he didn't
see a land, yet by faith he went out from his city, from his people. He left his home not based on
what he saw, but on God's promise. The second trial was he was led
through the wilderness. He left riches for tents because
he looked for a city whose builder and maker is God. Is that not
trying? You think that's not a trial of a faith to wander
about in the wilderness? The third one was his nephew
Lot. Remember, they had that big fight
between their herdsmen. And Lot, And Abraham said, okay,
where do you want to go, Lot? You pick which way you're going
to go. And remember what Lot did? His faith was being tried,
but what did he do? He looked. He looked over there
and he saw all that green pasture over there, and he said, I'm
going to go that way. Was that faith? That was not
faith, was it? His faith was being tried, but
he failed. And Abraham's faith was being
tried, and he saw a desert, and he didn't care. because he knew
God had promised. He believed God's promise. The
fourth testing was that wealth of the kings. When he delivered
those kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, they wanted to give him wealth.
And what did he say? No, I don't want your wealth. God will provide
for me. He trusted God's provision. What
a testing of faith that was. when he was childless and a hundred
years old, yet he still believed God's promise. Against hope,
against hope, he still believed God. And remember the casting
out of Ishmael and Hagar. This was done for our benefit,
because those were to be an allegory. Hagar and Sarah, Ishmael and
Isaac were an allegory of grace and works. And just as the bondwoman and
her son was cast out, so must anyone who comes to God in works. But as the free woman and her
son of promise are a picture of salvation in my grace, so
is everyone that comes to faith in Christ through grace. You
see, don't you think casting out Hagar and her son was a trial
of God's faith? And the seventh thing was the
offering of Isaac. God says, in that boy, I know
I'm going to bring the Christ out of that boy. I promise, I
swear, I'm going to bring the Messiah from Isaac. And yet,
what did He say the next minute? Go and kill Isaac. Does that
make any sense? Did Abraham sit around and think,
well, God, that doesn't make sense. No, he obeyed God's word
in faith, believing God had the power to raise that boy from
the dead. And so what does it have to do
with us? When we're afflicted, listen,
when we're afflicted, there's two ways to go. By sight or by
faith. By feelings or by God's Word. Faith and sight are often opposed
to one another. Isn't that right? Well, I feel
like this is the best way. What does God say about it? Well, this is how I feel. Who
cares how we feel? Faith trusts God's word, not
how we feel, not what we think, not the reason of man or the
reason of this earth, not worldly reasoning. You see, when we're
afflicted, faith always believes God. Faith always believes God. May God give us such faith in
our trials and troubles. Another affliction is this, chastisement. We may be afflicted by the world,
we may be afflicted by our flesh, we may be tried and tested by
those things, but also chastening is a trial, isn't it? Only sons
of God are chastened by their father, and that's what's happening.
David, he said, I went astray. sin against my God. And what
is the result of our sinning against God? If you're a child
of God, what's going to happen is you're going to be chasing.
God will not permit his children to remain in their sin. They may go astray. We're all
capable of going astray. We're all capable of such evils
and sins. But here is the the good thing
of affliction. God, by affliction, by chastening
His children, brings us back to Himself. And what's the result
of chastisement? It's always faith. Paul said
this, "...if we continue rooted and grounded and be not moved
away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard, which was
preached to every creature under heaven..." I'm a minister. If
you continue, if you're rooted and settled, then are you sure
you are His children? You remember the parable of the
sower, don't you? How could we know the difference
between the good ground, the stony and the thorny ground here,
except there be sun and thorns? You wouldn't have known the difference.
When the sun rises and it beats on all the plants, doesn't it?
It doesn't just pick one plant. The sun rises, and that sun beats
down on all of those plants. And you remember which one withered?
The one that didn't have much root. How many people profess faith
in Christ and a little tribulation, and they're gone? How many people
profess faith in Christ and a little temptation to sin, and they're
gone? How many people profess to believe
on Jesus Christ and the cares of this life choke the Word? They hear the Word, they know
what God says, and yet the lust of their flesh, the pride of
life, the cares of this world, their family, their friends,
their jobs, it chokes the Word. And they don't obey the Gospel,
they don't obey God's Word. And there's no fruit. There's
no fruit. Jesus said, Whosoever heareth
these sayings of mine, and listen, doeth them. You know what faith
does? Faith does the Word of God. Faith
obeys. Faith submits. True faith does. And what does God say? I'll liken
him to a man that built his house on a rock. You built your house
on Christ? Remember these two men, they're
both building houses, aren't they? One man builds a house
and he builds it on a rock. Another man builds a house and
he builds it on sand. What's the difference? Not the
house, it's the foundation. And you know what happens to
both those houses? They both are in a storm. They both are
afflicted. What happens to the man on the
sand during the storm? His house collapses. His faith
collapses. He has nothing. But those who
are really built on Christ, listen, our house will stand, not because
of the house, but because of the rock. Our faith will stand
because of the rock. Because of Christ. Now you see the reason affliction
is good? It proves our faith. That's what
David said. I went astray, verse 67, but
now I've kept Your Word. Paul said, I've finished the
course. What joy that brings us when we come to the end of
affliction and our faith is still here. When we're still obedient
to Christ. When we serve Christ through
faith in Him, it brings us great joy to know we are in Him. Believer,
consider then the reason for these trials is not to destroy
you, but to comfort you. The cause of these trials is
that you might grow. Listen to this hymn, you know
it real well. I ask the Lord that I might grow.
In faith and love and every grace might more his salvation know
and seek more earnestly his face. Who doesn't want that? What believer
doesn't want that? We want that. It was as he taught me thus to
pray, and thus I trust he answered prayer. But it was in such a
way that almost drove me to despair. I had hoped in some favored hour
that he had once answered my request, and by his love's constraining
power, subdue my sin and give me rest. That's what we want,
right? Tribulation, work at the love of God in your hearts. That's
what we want, right? We want to skip patience, we
want to skip experience, we want to skip, we want to go right
to the end. No, that's not the way God does it. Instead, He
made me feel the hidden evils of my heart. He let the angry
powers of hell assault my soul on every point. Yes, more with
His own hand He seemed intent to aggravate my woe. He crossed
all my fair designs, I schemed and blasted gourds and laid me
low. Lord, why is this? I trembled
and cried. Will you pursue your work to
death? This is the way, the Lord replied. I answer prayer for grace and
strength. These inward trials I employ,
listen, from self and pride to set you free and break your schemes
of earthly joy that you might find your all in me. Read that text. David said, teach
me. What was God doing in the affliction?
He was teaching him. Listen, you're in affliction
now. What is God doing? He's teaching you. He's answering
your prayer. You've been asking for faith.
You've been asking to grow in grace. You've been asking for
love. You've been asking to see more
of his power, more demonstration of his power, more of his presence.
How do you think that's going to come? Did Israel learn more of God
in prosperity or in affliction? Did you see more of the power
of God when Israel was in Elam or did you see it at the Red
Sea when they were being pursued? You see more of the power of
God in affliction than you do out. So are you in affliction? You know what you're going to
see? in affliction, you might have
good hope of this. God will bless you. God will show you more of His
grace in affliction than out of it. This is why David could
say, it is good that I've been afflicted. Now listen, it's not
in the affliction you're going to feel this. Don't think in
the affliction you're going to feel, well, I know, you know
it. Faith receives it, but it's only
after you experience it. Only after. This is how the Lord
causes us to grow and prosper. That's what he says in our text.
Look at that. That is good for me to be afflicted, that I might
learn, what? Thy statutes. That I might actually
experience this gospel I've been hearing. You remember Job, don't you?
God testified of his faith, didn't he? He said, oh, there ain't
nobody like him. Ain't nobody like Job. And what does Satan
say? Ah, because you got a hedge. You take that hedge away and
he'll curse you. Okay, take the hedge away. And what did he do? He said this, the Lord giveth
and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And then he had to take away
all he had. took away his health, took away everything he had,
all of his money, sitting on an ash heap, got nothing left.
It's all burned to the ground. There he is, sitting on top of
that ash heap. Now I'll tell you this, Job was
not what we would call a patient sufferer in that he was quiet.
Job griped all the way through the book. Now listen, you're
in trouble, that doesn't mean that believers don't gripe, complain. We do. When God shows you Himself,
what did Job say? I put my hand on my mouth, I
ain't gonna say no more. I ain't gonna say no more. Why? Job realized it was good that
he did affliction. And you know what happened to
Job? Job's end was better than his beginning. And listen, at
the end of affliction, it's better than the beginning. God always
has a better end for us. Let us, therefore, by faith and
obedience, trust Him. That's what true faith does.
True faith trusts God. Not what we feel, not what we
think, not how we reason. We trust God and obey Him. That's faith. That's faith in
affliction. And we're going to learn something.
We're going to learn about Him. Just what we've been asking. So I pray God will comfort you
in your afflictions by giving you faith in your afflictions.