Psalm 34. And the title of the message
this evening is, Affliction, God's Instrument of Instruction.
Affliction, God's Instrument of Instruction. In Psalm 34,
this week as I was reading, I came upon verse 11 and it struck me
When David writes here, Come, ye children, hearken unto me. I will teach you the fear of
the Lord. And I thought of this as David
wrote this psalm as he was moved by the Holy Spirit to write it.
What gave David the ability to be the teacher? The Lord here gave him this word,
Come, you children. He's not speaking to everyone,
but to his children. And truly this evening, as I
speak to you, I'm speaking to those who are children of God,
those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And David
says, Come, let me teach you. And so I began to think of what
it is to be a teacher. What gives David the qualification
of this role? Now, David, no doubt, is the
writer of this psalm, and most likely he is writing from the
cave of Abdullam. You remember, when he was alone
there in his abject failure, When he fled from the Philistines,
he had pretended to be mad, you remember. He went to Ahimelech. Ahimelech the priest, and he
got the showbread, and he got the sword of Goliath. And he
heard Saul was coming after him, and so he fled. He in fear fled. But where did he go? He went
to the Philistines. He went to God's enemy. And you
remember, fear struck David. And he pretended to be insane. He pretended to be mad before
the king of the Philistines. And the king of the Philistines
looks at him. He's got dribble running down
his face. He's acting crazy. He says, Who is this? I thought
this was a great man. And he shooed him away. He drove
him out. As a matter of fact, you can read the title. It tells
you this is exactly what happened. The psalm of David when he changed
his behavior before Bimelech. who drove him away and he departed. And so I'll ask you, believer
in Jesus Christ, are you like David? Are you alone in the cave
of Bedouin, surrounded in darkness? Have you played the madman and
used deceit to escape your troubles? Have you failed to trust God
and turned to the enemies of God for comfort or solace? O soul, are you wearied and troubled? No light in the darkness you
see. There's light for a look at the
Savior, and life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon
Jesus. Therefore, David, our teacher,
by the Spirit of God, the psalmist, Before He is able to instruct
us, you see, He must first have been instructed. He must first
have been taught of God. He must first have Himself been
instructed, and this is the result of His instruction. Look at verse
1. I will bless the Lord at all
times. His praise shall be continually
in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. Now, my heart's desire and prayer
tonight is this, that God teach us. That God teach us. That God
teach us this lesson in the darkness of affliction. This lesson is,
bless the Lord at all times. There's the lesson. There's the
lesson of affliction, is to bless the Lord at all times. And if
God ever teach you in affliction, He will teach you this, to bless
His holy name at all times. David said, I will bless the
Lord. Again, he is speaking to us of
the desire and determination of his heart after God had taught
him through affliction. I will bless the Lord. I've said
this many times, and it's worth repeating. To bless the Lord
adds nothing to God. When I say, bless the Lord, you're
not doing God a service. You're not doing anything to
add to God. When God blesses us, He adds
to us, right? If He gives you something, you
say, I am blessed of the Lord. He can add to us blessing. But when we bless God, we add
nothing to God. He is perfect. So what is it
to bless the Lord? Bless the Lord. It is to kneel. That's what it is. The root word
of this word, bless, is to bow down. David said, I will bow
down to the Lord at all times. I will kneel down and render
to God what belongs to God. What belongs to God? Praise belongs
to God. Honor belongs to God. Glory belongs
to God. He ascribes to God what belongs
to God. Praise belongs to God and is
to be given to God when? When are we to give praise to
God? When we feel like it? When are we to give praise to
God? When everything is well? When are we to give honor and
glory to God? David said, I will give honor
and glory and majesty and dominion unto God. When? At all times. At all times. In all circumstances. In all places. In all things. We render to God what belongs
unto God. Glory, praise, and honor. Believer, let us learn this as
David did. Let us learn then that all our
afflictions, all our sorrows, all our troubles, all our difficulties
and every situation that God has placed us in is for this
intent to teach us to instruct our hearts to kneel. That's what
he's doing. If you're ever confused as to
what God is doing, you can know this. He is causing you to bow. That's what He's doing. He's
causing us to give adoration and praise to Him. Paul says
this in Colossians 3, 2, he said, set your affection. And I like
this because it's a singular, it's not plural. Not set your
affections as though they were to be divided. He says, set all
of your affection, all of your heart, all of your strength toward
heaven, toward those things above. and not on the things of the
earth. But in order for this to happen, because we have this
fleshly nature, because we have this old Adamic nature still
residing in us that is drawn to the things of the earth, therefore,
God uses affliction so as to burn off this affection toward
the earth. He uses the furnace of affliction
so that in all things, in all times, Christ should have the
preeminence. He should have the preeminence
in all things. I'm going to go to a couple of
places here. Go to 1 Peter. I want us to see this. 1 Peter
chapter 1. Apostle Peter covers this very
thoroughly. He says, to us, in 1 Peter 1,
to who is He speaking? He says, to us who are chosen
of the Father by sovereign election, those who are redeemed by the
precious blood of Christ, those that are sanctified by the Holy
Spirit and begotten again to a living hope by the resurrection
of Christ. In other words, we who believe.
We who trust in Jesus Christ alone. Look at this, what he
says to us. He says that we are heirs to
an inheritance incorruptible. undefiled, that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for you." We have an incorruptible inheritance
that will never go away. It will never be corrupted by
anything or anyone in heaven or earth or hell or any other
place. This inheritance is so sure,
it is so steadfast, that He says it's untouchable. No one can
corrupt it. No one. Not even you. Isn't that? Because this is the one that
I'm worried about corrupting it. Me. This is the one that
I have the problem with is me. But He says that it's incorruptible. It doesn't fade away. It's reserved. And He says this of us who are
kept kept by the power of God by the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit through faith. Praise God He doesn't say we
are kept by the power of our faith. Isn't that right? How
is your faith today? Did it fluctuate? Oh my, a fluctuation. It's not even a word to describe
how our faith plummets. It soars only for a moment and
it plummets. Least bit of trouble and our
faith plummets. But he says we're not kept by
our faith. He says we're kept through faith by the power of
an invincible, omnipotent, omniscient God. We are kept to a salvation. Kept to what? Unto salvation
ready. I like that word, ready. Isn't
that what they said about the wedding feast? All is what? Ready. Ready. Come, all is ready. The salvation that we have is
ready to be revealed. It was already purposed. It was
already obtained by the Father, obtained by the Son, promised
and kept by the Spirit, which is the earnest. but soon to be
revealed, wherein you greatly rejoice." Don't you greatly rejoice
over that? Aren't those words rejoicing
words? Hopeful words. Oh, they're precious. We rejoice. "...wherein you greatly rejoice."
Uh-oh, here's a speed bump. Though. Yeah, here's a but. You know, I love you, but...
And then there's that speed bump. There's something coming. Though
for now, now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness
through manifold temptations. Manifold temptations. Why are
we going through manifold temptations, believer? Why are we in manifold
difficulties? Why are we in manifold heaviness? Peter gives us the reason. That. That the trial of your faith
being much more precious than gold that perishes. Why? Why are you in heaviness? Here
it is. the trial of your faith. And notice he uses this, that
it's much more precious than gold that perishes. What is precious
about this? First of all, faith is precious,
isn't it? Faith is much more precious than
anything else. My children are precious. They're
precious to me. But I tell you that they are
infinitely less precious than faith. Faith is altogether more
precious than anything else in the face of the earth. Why? Because
faith cannot be bought. You cannot buy faith. With all the treasure in the
world, you can't buy it. You can't win it through intellectual
study or academic knowledge. You can't win faith. You can't
merit faith by any religious, righteous, or goodness, or anything
you can do. Faith can't be merited. Matter of fact, faith is a gift
only of the free and sovereign grace of God. That's it. If you have faith, it is so precious
because God gives it. And there's no one else that...
I want my children to believe. You know this? I cannot give
them faith. Ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. Cannot give them
faith. I want you to believe. I cannot give you faith. Faith
is something that only God Himself must reach down from heaven and
give you. And if He doesn't give you faith,
you will never come to Christ. No man can come to Me, Jesus
said, except the Father which has sent Me draw him. Do you
see how precious this is? It's precious. No man has ever sought it. You
know, no man ever sought true faith. No man ever sought God.
There's none that seeketh after God, Scripture says. But we are saved, we're saved
by grace through what? Faith. And that faith is a gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So faith is
precious. But also notice this, the trial
of your faith is precious. The trial of your faith. You
see, only those who have faith will be tried. If you don't have
faith, you're not going to be tried. There's nothing to try.
Now, you may be exposed to have no faith at all, but we who have
faith, our faith is tried, not for the purpose of destroying
it, but rather purging it. That's what God's doing. He's
purging it. When gold is tried, when you
put gold into the fire, you wouldn't be saying you're destroying it,
would you? No. What are you doing? You're purifying
it. You're making it of greater value. And so this is what God
does with us, is He puts us in the fiery furnace of adversity
and affliction, not to destroy our faith, but to rather reveal
the genuineness of it. Believer, is there anything more
precious to you than to see Christ more clearly by faith? Is there anything more precious?
Is there anything you desire more than to see His glorious
face by faith? I often think of the picture
in the Song of Solomon as the bride sees the bridegroom through
the lattice. I see Him, I don't. I see Him,
I don't. I see Him, I don't. I want to see Him. There's nothing more precious
than to see Christ. Not to us. Not to us who believe. Even so, then our faith must
be tried. It must be tried. The dross of
unbelief must be burned up and purged. The deeds of the flesh
must be mortified. And this our faith must shine
then more brightly after the fire. We are encouraged, strengthened
in love, hope, and every grace when our faith in Christ is proven
by God to be genuine. Proven by God. Oh, the joy of
my soul is to know my interest in Christ. To know my union with
Christ. There is nothing higher. There
is nothing of more value to me than to know I am in Christ. Are you in Christ? Is your faith
genuine faith? Is it a gift of God? Is it not
the Scripture that says, make your calling and election sure? Is there anything more important?
Do you have anything else you'd rather be doing? Is there anything
of more value? There's nothing. Nothing. I want
to know that I know that I know I'm in Him. That's it. And what
is God doing? He is making sure that I know,
that I know, that I know I'm in Him. That's what He's doing.
By these afflictions. By these trials. This is the
reason for my trials. These are the reasons. The trial
of your faith. Look back at Peter, what he says,
at the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold,
it perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found to
the praise and the honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ, whom, having not seen, In whom, though you see Him not,
yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory,
receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. The reason for our trials is
to manifest genuine faith in Christ, which yields praise and
honor and glory to who? To Christ. To Christ. Why are you having your trials?
So that you should bless the Lord. That you should bless His
name and praise His name. Therefore, our trials move us
to grow in love toward Christ by faith. We rejoice receiving,
obtaining, and enjoying the end of our faith. even the object
of our faith. Faith causes great joy. Faith causes us and moves us
to love for Christ. By faith we see now through a
glass darkly that there is coming a day when faith will end. Isn't
that a glorious thought? That faith Though causing me
joy, though by now obtaining the end of my salvation, the
end of my faith which is a saving of my soul, I see that there
is an end of faith. There is one day coming when
the dark glass will be taken away and I shall see Him as He
is. I shall see Him whom my soul
loveth. So then after the fiery trials,
now then, we see Him through a glass darkly, but one day we'll
see Him completely as He is. So then, until then, we endure
these trials of our faith. And what does these trials do
but consume our unbelief and fears? These trials are meant
to consume our unbelief and fears. Faith sees clearer the fullness,
the glory, and the grace of God in Christ. And by this we grow. We grow. And this is what David
experienced. By this trial and by his failure. His heart was tried, His faith
was tested and proven. Not to God. When we say the trial
of our faith, God is not proving our faith for Himself, is He? If you have faith, He knows you
have faith. He gave you the faith. It's not
for God. It's for you. The trial is for
you, so that you should know your faith. And the end result of this is,
I will bless the Lord. When? In this cave, right now,
in the darkness, I will bless the Lord. I will bless the Lord. His praise will be continually
in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. Believer, let us learn the value
then, the preciousness of trials. Now, would you call a trial precious?
The Scripture does. God's Word calls it precious,
more precious than gold. Our God is not intent on our
destruction, but rather our growth in faith and love and every grace. This is the intent of God putting
you in the trial. You want to know why? How often
do you ask that question? Why? Why? Well, now you know
the answer. Now I know the flesh may not
like the answer, but that doesn't matter. That's the answer. Not
to kill you, but rather to prove you. So that we should grow closer
and closer to Christ. That we should cling more tightly
to Him and let go of everything else but Him. But Him. That's what the trial is for.
Now then, go to Romans 5. I'll show you another place.
I'll show you another place. The apostle says that, therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we also have access by faith into
this grace wherein we stand. And you rejoice in hope of the
glory of God. So what has he said so far? He
said, you've been justified. God's given you faith. Christ
is made peace by the blood of His cross, and you have access
to God 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and
366 on leap year or something, whatever it is. You have access
to God. And not only so. Now you glory
in that, don't you? Justified. I'm free. I'm free
from the law. I'm justified. You glory in your
peace with God through the blood of the cross? You glory in access
to God by grace? And thus it is. Not only so.
But we glory in tribulations also. Why? Knowing that tribulation worketh
patience. Listen to me, calmness and peace
never work patience. Why? If everything's going well,
what are you waiting for? I'm not waiting for anything.
You want everything to stay just like it is. When everything's
calm, you don't want anything to change. You're not expecting
the next thing. You're not hoping for the next
thing because you want everything to stay the way it is. It's only
in tribulation do you expect the next thing because you want
to get out. So what do you have to do? You
have to wait. Wait. Patience is waiting on
God in simple faith. There's no other way to wait
on God but in simple faith. Stop looking around and trying
to read the signs. Simply trust God. I read this
earlier today. I preached it before. Let's see
if I can find it. I believe I can real quick maybe. Here it is in Isaiah 50 in verse
10. It says, "...who among you that
feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that
walketh in darkness?" Oh man! Did we not spend most of our
life stumbling? Remember, faith is not something
you see. Otherwise, it wouldn't be faith.
And so we walk in darkness. He says we trust the Lord, we
fear the Lord, and we walk in darkness. Who is it that walks
in darkness? What is he to do? Let him trust in the name of
the Lord and stay upon his God. What is patience? Stay upon your
God. Rest. Trust. And what does his
patience do? It works experience. Experience. David was blessing God as he
waited alone in his trials and failures because his soul was
sure and believed God, and this was his experience. He blessed
the Lord based on what? His experience. Go back to your
text. Look at this. Look at David's
experience. Look at verse 4. He said, I sought
the Lord, and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears. Verse 6, this poor man cried,
and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. And look at verse 5, and David's
not only using his own, he said, there's others. I'm not the only
one. Look at this. They looked on
him. and were lightened, and their
faces were not ashamed." Verse 17, "...the righteous cry, and
the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles." And here's the conclusion. Here's
the conclusion of David's experience. Verse 7, The angel of the Lord
encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them. The angel of the Lord. Believer
in Christ, can we not say amen to all of these experiences of
grace that David just mentioned? Can we not put ourselves in every
one of these? I sought the Lord, and He heard
me. and delivered me from all my
fears." Can we not say, this poor man, this poor bankrupt
sinner, cried unto God and He heard me. This vile sinner cried out unto
Christ for mercy. I heard of His great blood that
clenches from all sin. I heard of His righteousness
that clothes the naked exposed sinner. And I sought Him, and
He saved me. We cried like that blind Bartimaeus
cried, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And many like those in His day
charged Him to hold His peace. The flesh told us to shut up.
The world told us to shut up. The Satan told us to shut up,
but the more we held our silence, our bones waxed within us, waxed
old, and we roared all the day long. And we cried the more,
Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And what is our
experience? Did He not stand still? Did He
not come to us and save us? Did He not give us faith, hope,
love, and every grace? Did He not bestow upon us a new
nature, a heart to love Him and serve Him? We sought the Lord
and He heard us. And now Jesus, the angel of the
Lord, that's who that is, encampeth, abideth round about them that
fear Him. Listen, even in the midst of
your darkness and troubles, He abideth around you. He has made
His abode. He has put His stakes into the
root of your heart, and He's not going anywhere. Behold, believer,
Jesus abideth, He dwelleth, He pitches His tent of refuge round
about us. I like this. When I think of
Him abiding with us, I think of Him as our foundation under
our feet. He is the rock on which we stand
before God. He is the rock upon which His
church is built, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. I like to see Him as the wall of fire round about us.
so that not one arrow of accusation will ever fly over him to God. And he is the refuge over our
head, so that the justice of God fell on him, and it will
never touch you. Never touch you. Believer, Christ
is our ark. You remember Noah in the ark?
The judgment of God fell. It fell on the ark. And those
who were in the ark were safe. He endured the judgment of God
for us, and we are safe. And this is the experience of
all of us who fear Him. Therefore, we hope in Christ. We find after every storm, after
every trial and difficulty, what do we find? The same thing Noah
found. A covenant. A covenant. When Noah came out, God put the
rainbow in the sky as a covenant. No more judgment. The rainbow was given as a sign
of a covenant. Even so, in Christ are all the
promises of the covenant of grace. And believer in the storm, you
cannot see the rainbow. You cannot see the covenant at
times. But that doesn't matter because
God can. Isn't that the only one who necessarily
needs to see the covenant promises? Is God? And you know what Revelation
reveals? That round about the throne is
what? The rainbow. The covenant is
ever before Him and He never forgets it, even though you can't
see it. And our hope, our confidence,
which stems from our experience and patience in troubles will
cause us to be bold and unashamed of the glorious gospel of Christ.
These afflictions that burn away our unbelief and fears cause
us to be more courageous in the things of God. Is that not a
desire of your heart? That we would be unashamed of
the gospel of Jesus Christ. That God may use us in His service. The only way he used David is
to put him down. The only way David could say,
children come and learn, come and I will teach you. The only
way he could say that was that God first had to put him down,
make him low. See, then the David must first
have been taught by the fires of affliction and the result
will be, I will bless the Lord I will bless the Lord. If God
should ever use us to teach his word and proclaim his gospel,
he must first put us through the fires of affliction. Before
we can say to others, magnify the Lord with me, we must first
say in our own hearts, I will bless the Lord at all times.
If you're taught that, then you may be used to say, oh come,
magnify the Lord with me. And let us exalt His name together.
We must first taste that the Lord is good before we encourage
others to taste. We must believe on Christ. We
must see His goodness and grace before we compel others to trust
Him. Listen, today I tell you, I tell
you, fear the Lord. You, listen, you should fear
the Lord. You should reverence the Lord. And I will teach you
by faith in Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. How do I know this? Because I
myself have tasted. I myself have come. I myself,
this poor man has cried and he has heard me. Faith has been
given to me. He keeps me and he tries me. And I endure. I'm still here. I'm still here. You still here?
You still believe? How is that? Joanne, how have
you made it through? I'm just not even halfway there,
Joanne. And yet, God has brought you
through. How is it? Crying your faith over and over
and he is proved faithful again and again and again. And that's
your experience. And experience does what? Yields
hope. Not gee I wish or gee I hope,
but rock solid confidence. David said, I had fainted except
I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord where? Now, in the
land of the living. I expect to see God's goodness.
I expect to see it. I believe. And God will show
it. Why? He has. Time and time again,
He's already shown me. That's been my experience. And
that experience gives me hope and confidence that He will again.
He will. I testify to you that He is my
refuge, my tower, my rock. O sinner, taste and see that
the Lord is good. And I will teach you to fear
the Lord, even believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If you will ever bless the Lord,
if you will ever be heard of Him, He will deliver you only
through faith in Jesus Christ, through a broken and a contrite
heart. But how are you so sure? How
are you so sure? How do you know? because this
poor sinner has tried and found Him faithful. And His arm is
not too short to save even the worst. This is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save who? Sinners. Of whom I am Jesus. What shall we expect who do bless
the Lord? I expect this, that God will teach me to bless
His holy name. I expect God to teach me to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart. That's what I expect. This troubles that I'm going
through, these trials that I'm facing, that you're facing. I
expect God will teach me. Teach me to what? To bless His
name. To kneel down at all times and say, Lord, Thy will be done. Is that not what He's teaching?
And then, may God use us who have been taught to teach others. And you know what, truly, if
I teach you something and you actually learn anything, it wasn't
me that taught you anyway. It was God. They shall all be
taught of who? God. God. So why are you in trouble? God
put you there. Put you there to teach you. Teach
you by affliction to bless the Lord. Now what should you do
in your affliction? You should bless the Lord. Bless
the Lord. May God even teach us that by
His grace. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.