We're going to look at Genesis
again. I want to focus just really on
a single question from all that we've studied so far in the book
of Genesis and visit a couple of verses there as we look at
this question together. Because I think this question
is something we haven't addressed yet, really in much detail, but
it probably naturally occurs to you. And so I wanted to raise
this question because God really raises this question and answers
it in Scripture, thankfully. So I want to look at this question
with you. But before we do, let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father,
we pray that you would guide us in your word and show us your
infinite wisdom, and your faithfulness, your eternal purposes, and your
work, and why you have created this world, why you've brought
us into it, and why you've done all these things. Help us, dear
Lord, to see our Savior, and your purposes, and your goodness,
and trust you. And so trusting you, live upon
the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. We pray this blessing on all
here today, dear Lord, that you would open our eyes to see spiritual
things, eternal things, invisible things, and live our lives on
the ground and foundation of your word alone. In Jesus' name
we pray. Amen. I've entitled this message, The
Sufferings of Grace. And you'll see shortly why I've
entitled it that. But just to recall what happened
here, if you were to look at the book of Exodus in chapter
12, I'm not going to look there right now, but in the book of
Exodus, chapter 12, in verse 40, the children of Israel left
Egypt. And at that time, it says, they
had sojourned in Egypt for 430 years. And then, before, if you
look back in Genesis 15, verses 13 and 14, what we see there
is that God told Abraham that his children would go down into
Egypt and that they would be there, afflicted, for 400 years. So, 430 years they were there
and they were afflicted for 400 years. And you remember, so the
difference is 30 years. 30 years after they entered Egypt,
they began to be afflicted. And you remember that Joseph
was about 39 or 40 years old when his father, Jacob, came
to him in Egypt. He died at 110, so add 30 years
to his 39 or 40 years and you get about 70. Joseph was about
70 years, therefore, when another king arose in Pharaoh who did
not know him. That's the words used in Exodus
1, verse 8, that another Pharaoh arose who did not know Joseph. What it means is that it wasn't
that he didn't know who he was. It's just that he chose to disregard
the fact that it was by Joseph that all of Egypt was saved from
dying in famine. And that even Pharaoh's household,
which meant he himself, owed Joseph his life. But he chose
not to acknowledge that and so he turned at that time, and the
book of Exodus is about this, the first few chapters, about
how the Pharaoh in Egypt, the king of Egypt, afflicted the
nation of Israel and held them under bondage of slavery with
bitter and cruel bondage for 400 years. That's a long time. Their time of ease and peace
in Egypt was only 30 years. And their time of suffering and
trouble was 400 years. And then God brought them out.
So the natural question is, why? Why did God bring Israel into
Egypt? Egypt was clearly a wicked nation.
They served idols. Israel ended up serving their
idols while they were there. And it was a lot of pain and
suffering for a long time for them. These were God's people. He had promised to give them
the land of Canaan. Why would He bring them to Egypt?
Did He? Did He do it or did somebody
else do it? Well, we know that the Lord did
it because He promised Abraham that they would be brought to
Egypt in Genesis 15. And we know that that time was
before Ishmael was born. And Abraham was 86 when Ishmael
was born. And then Isaac was born when
Abraham was 100. And so there was about 15 plus
years before Isaac was born that God told Abraham his children
were going to Egypt. And then Isaac was born, and
he lived 60 years, and Jacob was born. So there's another
60, which makes about 75. And Jacob lived 130 years before
he got to Egypt. So we're looking at over 200
years. that before they came to Egypt, that God told them
that they would go there. That's a long time before. We know, therefore, that God
did it. He said that it was going to happen. And in Acts 15.18,
James, the apostle, said that known unto God are all his works
from the foundation of the world. So, whatever happened, happened
by God's will. And God brought them there, so
the question still remains, why? Why would God do this? Now, if
you want to look at Exodus chapter 5, I want to show you that Moses
actually asked this question. Of course, this is outside the
book of Genesis, but it helps us to see this in order to answer
this question that we might have, knowing the history of Israel. Why would God bring them to Egypt?
We know they got there because God was saving them, the entire
nation, from dying in famine. He sent Joseph before them to
Egypt. So God sent Joseph, God told
Abraham, and God preserved the nation while they were there.
And so we look at Exodus chapter 5. I want you to see this. God
had told Moses in the earlier chapter, in chapter 4, go to
Pharaoh and tell Pharaoh this, Israel, the nation, Israel is
my son, my firstborn. And you will let Israel go or
I will kill your firstborn. That was God's word from Moses
to Pharaoh. And so Moses did what God told
him to do. He went to Pharaoh. He preached
that sermon. Let my people go. Let Israel
go. They're my son, my firstborn.
If you don't let my firstborn go, I'm going to kill your firstborn. And Pharaoh said, who is the
Lord that I should obey him? And instead of obeying him, not
just mocking, but he actually turned up the heat. He turned
up the affliction of the people of Israel while they were in
Egypt. after Moses told him what God said. Moses obeyed God. Moses told him exactly what God
told him to say. And Pharaoh turned and became
more cruel to Israel. Why? That's what Moses asks here
in Exodus chapter 5. And it says, In verse 20 it says,
And they met Moses and Aaron, these are the children of Israel,
who stood in the way as they came forth from Pharaoh. And
they said to them, These are the children of Israel, the rulers
are talking to Moses and Aaron. The Lord look upon you and judge,
because you have made our savor, what we smell like, to be abhorred
in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants to put
a sword in their hand to slay us. And Moses returned to the
Lord. And listen to what Moses said
to the Lord. This is Moses talking to God. He said, Lord, Wherefore
hast thou so evil entreated this people? Why is it that thou hast
sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to
speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people, neither
hast thou delivered thy people at all. What's going on? Why did you do this? Why did
you bring them here? Why didn't we just go around
Egypt into Canaan? We could have saved 400 years.
Seems like it. But it was God's purpose that
they go to Egypt, and it was a place of bitter, cruel bondage. Why did God send Israel to Egypt? Isn't that the question? And
then, listen in chapter 6, the Lord answers it in verse 1. Now,
get the picture here. This is a people that had multiplied
in Egypt. They were over a million people,
perhaps two million people. It says, then the Lord said to
Moses, now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh. You see
what God said? You went to Pharaoh. You told
him what I said. He completely mocked you and
mocked me. You've done all you could do.
Now you're going to see what I will do to Pharaoh. And he
says, for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with
a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. This is
God saying exactly what's going to happen long before it happens.
And God spake to Pharaoh and said to him, I am the Lord. And I appeared unto Abraham,
unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty. And by my name Jehovah was I
not known to them. And I have also established my
covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan." So the Lord
is instructing Moses, because he's going to instruct the people.
God made a covenant before this people came into Egypt. Hundreds
of years before they came here. With someone they were related
to before they were ever born. They were in His loins, but they
themselves had no part in this covenant, in making it. But God
made it with their fathers. And because He made it with their
fathers and promised that their children would go to Canaan,
this is the covenant He's mentioning. I have established my covenant
with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their
pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. And I have also heard
the groanings of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians
keep in bondage." So because of the affliction, the people
of Israel were crying to the Lord. They were in bondage and
they were suffering and they cried to the Lord. And He said,
and I have remembered my covenant. He never forgot it, but he's
showing that at this time he's going to take action so it appears
that God remembers it finally. Wherefore, say unto the children
of Israel, this is what they need to know. I am the Lord,
and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a
stretched out arm and with great judgments. And I will take you
to me for a people, and I will be to you a God. And you shall
know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from
under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the
land concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham,
to Isaac, to Jacob. And I will give it to you for
an heritage. I am the Lord." So God says, I made a covenant
with your fathers. I promised to give them the land.
You are in Egypt. I'm going to bring you out. I'm
going to redeem you from your burdens, from your bondage with
a strong hand. And I'm going to bring you out
and then I'm going to give you that land. And when I do, then
you'll know I'm the Lord." They didn't make the covenant themselves.
They contributed nothing to it. God made it beforehand with their
fathers because of that. Their relation to them by birth,
He brought them out of Egypt. He redeemed them and brought
them in because of that promise God made. So the reason, in the
historical sense, that God brought them into Egypt is so that God
could show this great faithfulness to His covenant promises and
His power over their enemies. But it really raises a bigger
question, doesn't it? It's interesting to see, in history,
what God did with Israel and to Egypt. But it really asks
a bigger question, a more extensive question. Why does God allow
His people throughout time and in this world to suffer? Why
is it that God actually ordained that His people should suffer?
Did God do that? Does God mean for His people
to suffer? Look at Romans, just a couple
of verses here. This is throughout the book of
the New Testament especially, and the Old, but look at the
book of Romans in chapter 8. He says in verse 37, I'm sorry, verse 36. He says,
I'll read verse 35 too. He says, Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or danger,
or sword? As it is written, listen to what
this statement says here, For thy sake, For thy sake we are
killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter." So, it's clear it's God's will that His people suffer.
Because for His sake, they're counted like sheep for the slaughter.
And they're confessing this here. This is God's purpose. It seemed
good to God to bring His people into this suffering in Egypt.
It seemed good to God throughout time and throughout the history
of this earth across the world wide to bring his people into
suffering and to sustain them in that suffering for a reason.
What is that reason? Why? Why does God do that? Why wouldn't God simply save
his people and make their life easy? Why would God put us in
the United States today When the United States is declining
at a rapid rate so that politicians, education, families, there's
perversity, there's lawlessness, open lawlessness, and there's
no prosecution of it. It's getting worse and worse.
Lawlessness is being put in the laws so that people who protest
against it are judged by the laws of our land. And no one
is allowed to say anything without some kind of persecution. It
wasn't that way when I was a kid. You could say what you wanted
to, but nowadays you can't call people by the wrong pronoun without
getting some kind of reaction. And it'll be a time, I bet, when
it'll be considered. I heard someone tell me that
someone in the UK was actually put in jail for using the wrong
pronoun for somebody else. taken from their home and taken
from their children and put in jail. That's what our country
has come to. That's what this world has come to. Why would
God do that? Why would God leave us in this
world as believers and increase, allow the increase of evil in
this world? Why would God do that? Why would
God allow Israel to go into Egypt for 400 years under affliction?
Why would God allow His people to suffer? Why is there so much
evil in the world and God doesn't seem to do anything about it?
Why, in fact, did God even allow Adam to fall into sin? Why did
He create this world? Aren't those questions really
the same kind of question? Did God do that? Did God bring
the... Was it God's purpose that Adam
should fall into sin? Did He do that? Or did it just
happen? Did God just permit it? Well, I want you to consider
that God actually did ordain that Adam did fall into sin.
Think about the implications if He didn't. If He didn't. If He didn't, Then He created
an everlasting covenant, because it says in Hebrews 13.20 that
the covenant God made to save His people from their sins, He
made it with the Lord Jesus Christ, and it was a covenant in His
blood. If God didn't ordain that Adam
should fall into sin, then it means that God made a covenant
in the blood of His Son to save us from our sins. But he didn't
know whether Adam was going, or he didn't ordain that Adam
should fall. How could he ordain Christ to
die if sin was also not part of his will? If God did not approve
of sin entering the world by one man, if he didn't approve
of that, if it wasn't his will that sin enter the world by one
man, that this man would be put in a garden, he would be made
perfect, And yet God would leave him under the temptation of Satan
and he would actually fall by that sin. And so sin would pass
upon all men and death by sin. If God didn't mean to do that,
Then why did he set him up that way? Because it says in Romans
5.14, he's a figure of him who was to come. God created Adam
in that role in order to teach us, when Christ came, what he
was doing. Who he was to us. That he was
actually going to, by himself, save us from our sins. Why would
God ordain that his son should stand in our place and make Adam
as a figure of him, knowing that Christ would obey where Adam
fell if he didn't ordain Adam to fall. If he didn't ordain
Adam to fall. And look at Acts chapter 4. I
want you to see these words here. If God didn't ordain the fall
of Adam, then how can we explain these words? It says in Acts
chapter 4 verse 27, "...of a truth against thy holy child Jesus,
whom thou hast anointed with both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together,
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done." When did God determine this? When did God, by His hand
and counsel, determine? His hand means His operation,
controlling the circumstances of the world. And His counsel
means His eternal counsel. Known unto God are all His works
from the foundation of the world. Whatsoever the Lord did, that
did He, in heaven and earth, and the sea, and all deep places.
Whatever the Lord thought, that's what He does. That's His counsel.
Why would God determine by wicked hands to kill His Son if God
didn't ordain that sin would enter the world by one man? Nothing
is outside the control of God's sovereign will. Nothing. Nothing. And it's not just that He permits
it. Because what does it mean to
permit something? Doesn't it mean to approve of it? To prove
that it would happen. But he himself is not the one
who did the sin. Because that's our fault. God
created man upright. He has gone after every invention. Don't say when you're tempted,
I'm tempted of the Lord. God doesn't tempt any man. Neither
is he tempted. But we're led away by our own
lust. It says in James 1, 12 and 13.
So we know that God isn't the one who does the sin, but he
ordains that by man's sin he'll bring about his good will. All
that God does is wonderful. Psalm 72, 18, it says that, in
Psalm 72, 18 it says, Now, He only does wondrous things. Only does wondrous things. So
whatever the Lord does is right. Psalm 145 verse 17. Whatsoever the Lord did is right. It's holy. So we know whatever
God does is right, but He uses the wickedness of men in order
to accomplish His will. Because he has a bigger reason,
a bigger purpose in view. And that's the answer to this
question. That's at least the first answer to this question.
Why? Why does God bring suffering
to his people? Why did he bring Israel into
Egypt? Why did he ordain that they should
go into Egypt and suffer under the hand of a wicked king? Why
does he allow wickedness to multiply in the earth when he could stop
it? Psalm 76.10 says, The wrath of
man shall praise thee. The wrath of man shall praise
thee. That means that God's going to use this man's hostility against
himself. And his offenses against himself.
And he's going to show his superiority, his power, and directing all
of the evil intents of his enemy. in order to achieve His holy
and good will. That's what God does. The wrath
of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath thou shalt
restrain. This is God. This is our sovereign
God. Our almighty God. He does what
He does. It's alright. It's all holy.
It's all just and good. We do what we do, and it's full
of sin. And so God deals with us accordingly. Why did God allow these things
to happen? The answer, the first and foremost
answer is this. Because He wanted to glorify
His Son. And He chose to glorify His Son
in the salvation of sinners, even those who offended Him.
The reason why God ordained that Israel should go into Egypt is
so that He could deliver them from Egypt and save them, redeem
them from Egypt. And they would know then that
He's the Lord, their God and Savior, their Covenant God. The
reason that God allows suffering in the lives of His people is
that they would see that He shows Himself strong on behalf of His
people in Christ. It says in Romans 8.37, right
after where we just read a moment ago, where it said there that
we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. For your sake,
Lord. Right after that it says, we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. We are saved, not just a little. Saved in such a way that our
enemies' hostility and inventions and intentions against us are
actually turned to give us such a victory that it were better
for us that they came against us than if they were not our
enemies at all. That's our God. And He's almighty
and faithful to do His will. So the first thing we see here
is that the reason that God brought Israel to Egypt allows His people
to suffer in this world and increases and allows evil to increase in
this world as seemingly uncontrolled, worse and worse at an exponential
rate. Then we stand by, helpless to
do anything about it. All of our protests are squashed
and silenced. And men make it their, you know,
it's misguided, I think, but men make it their business to
cry out in protest against the moral depravity of this world.
abortion, homosexuality, whatever it is. Things that in our day
are common. And 50 years ago, maybe 60 years
ago, when we were kids, it was never heard of. It just didn't
happen, or you didn't hear about it. Now, it's on the news. It's
in our schools. They teach it to our children.
And we seem helpless. It seems like wrong is on the
throne, and right is on the scaffolds. as the poet said, but God stands
behind the whole thing, orchestrating it. Andrew and Hannah like to
work crossword puzzles. And if you've ever held up a
piece of a crossword puzzle and looked at it, you wonder how
in the world, what is this part of the picture? I can't see it.
I don't understand it at all. And then you have to look at
the box. Oh, that's what it is. And you try to find that little
thing on that big picture. That's what it's like in our
life. All the details of our life. You turn on the news. You
walk down the street. You see your children grow up.
You see their friends. You see everything happening
in the world. People dying that you know in wicked ways. And people going into a greater
and deeper sin in their lives. You wonder, what's happening?
That's just a piece of the puzzle. Look at the big picture. It's
in scripture. The big picture is that God,
from beginning to end, He created this world in order to exalt
His Son and glorify Him in the salvation of His people. Look
at John chapter 12. Jesus is going to the cross.
And he recognizes that the Greeks are coming and they are interested. They want to come to him. This is the beginning of the
church that is going to be built right after he goes to the cross. And it says in verse 23, Jesus answered them in John 12,
23. Jesus answered Philip and Andrew
because they came to Him to tell Him that these Gentiles were
coming. And Jesus answered them saying,
The hour has come. The hour has come. This is the
time. This is the pinnacle of all of
history. The center stake in the tent of all of God's purposes
is coming. This hour has come. What hour? That the Son of Man should be
glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides
alone. If you don't plant your seed, it'll never grow. But if
you plant that seed, it's got to die. But if it dies, it brings
forth much fruit. Christ is that seed. He that
loveth his life shall lose it. He that hates his life in this
world shall keep it to life eternal. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
love his life in this world. He laid it down. Verse 26, If
any man serve me, let him follow me. And where I am, there shall
also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will
my father honor. Verse 27, listen to what he says,
Now is my soul troubled. All of history, building up to
this point, how? In this way, the wickedness of
hell is unleashed and man's wickedness against him is unleashed. And
this is the hour in which the Son of Man would be glorified.
Now, he said, verse 27, now is my soul troubled. And what, shall
I say, Father, save me from this hour? No. For this cause came I unto this
hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then
came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified
it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore that stood
by heard it, and said that it thundered. Others said an angel
spoke to him. Jesus answered and said, This
voice came not because of me, but for your sake. Now is the
judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up on the
cross from the earth, I will draw all men to me, all Greeks
and Jews, from among all the people, the nations of the world.
And this he said, signifying what death he should die." That's
the purpose. To glorify his son. Elijah, the
prophet, Moses, the lawgiver, stood on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Peter, James, and John are there. And the Father speaks from heaven.
He says, this is my beloved Son. Hear Him. Because God wants to
glorify His Son. And He does it in the salvation
of His people. That's the big picture. That's
the big picture. That's the first and foremost
reason why God did this. To save His people. To redeem
them. In order that they might know
that He is the Lord. And then secondly, the second
reason, and I'll go through these other reasons more quickly. Because
of time. But in Romans chapter 9, I want
you to read the second reason why God did this. The second
reason is that He would show His power in Pharaoh, in the
wicked. It's God's purpose not only to
save his people, but to have an absolute, unquestionable,
utter defeat of his enemies and subjugation of them so that they
cannot even protest. They have to own the fact that
he's right and bow the knee to him in his victory over them
in the death of his son. And so he says to Pharaoh in
Romans chapter 9, he says in verse 21, Hath not the potter
power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel to honor
and another to dishonor? What if God, willing to show
his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy
which he had aforeprepared to glory. It's a two-fold reason. It's a double-edged sword. God's
wrath falls on man because of his sin. And his wrath that falls
on man because of his sin has a dual purpose. To turn that
wrath into the salvation of his people. Because by the wrath
of man, he's going to praise himself. He's going to get glory
to himself. Wicked hands took the Lord Jesus
and nailed him to a cross according to the eternal counsel of God.
And God did it to save his people, and at the same time he did it
to destroy those who rose up against his sovereign authority. And he tells this to Pharaoh,
I've raised you up to show my power in you. That's God. God does what he wants, and he's
good in doing it. In glory, when we stand before
the Lord at the seat of judgment, It says in Revelation chapter
20, the books will be opened. Let me read this to you in Revelation
chapter 20. He says in Revelation chapter
20 verse 11, I saw a great white throne. That's God's throne.
This is the final judgment. And him that sat on it, that's
God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, from whose face the earth and
the heavens fled away. And there was found no place
for them. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God, and the books were opened." The books
were opened. The book of God's record of all
of our thoughts, all of our motives and intentions, like the Word
of God is quick and powerful. It divides us under the thoughts
and intentions of the heart. This is that day of judgment.
And the books are opened. The book of all that we've done. The book of our works. And God's
going to judge them. And He says here, "...and the
dead were judged out of those..." I'm sorry. The books were opened.
And another book was opened, which is the book of life. Two
books. "...and the dead were judged out of those things which
were written in the books according to their works." But in the book of life, there's
some names written. And the names written are the
names of God's elect. Those were chosen by God in Christ
before the foundation of the world. That's the book of life.
Now when you look in the book of works, what do you see? All
the names of all the people who ever lived in the world, born
to Adam. And there's your name right there. And so the Lord
looks in the book of works, and there's one of God's people written
there. And there's an indirection. Have
you ever been reading a text and it has C and it gives you
a reference to something else. You've got to go find that and
read that other thing. That's what's under God's people.
The names in the book of works. In computer science we used to
have a concept called indirection. It's like you go to your mailbox
to get the address of the mailbox where the mail is delivered.
The book of works is where God looks and for the names of his
people he finds an indirection. It says, go look in the book
of life and there find all the works that the Lord Jesus did.
And there God looks and he says, everything is perfect, it's all
done. All their sins paid for, every requirement fulfilled.
And so he judges all men out of the books and those who were
written in the book of life. It says, the sea gave up the
dead which were in it. Death and hell delivered up the
dead which were in them. They were judged, every man,
according to his works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. And whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. And that's
what happened. That's the second reason. Because
God would judge Pharaoh. And God would judge all of the
wicked of the earth by their works. So that's the second thing
here. I want you to see that. Another reason why God would
send Israel to Egypt, why he would raise up an evil king to
afflict them, and why he has wickedness in this world and
has put it in his will that all of his people should so suffer.
The second reason is to show Israel that He would save them
according to a covenant He made with their fathers. A covenant
He made with them, not personally, but in their proxy, in their
covenant head, before they had ever been born. And this is to
show us that God made a covenant with His Son, with His people,
and will save us because of that covenant. The third reason, the
third reason that God does this, and this is something we know
in our experience, Why does God send trouble into our lives?
I mean trouble that we can't control. Trouble that's too big
for us. We're overwhelmed by it. It says in Hebrews chapter
12, if you want to turn there, Hebrews chapter 12, it says this in verse Five, for you have forgotten
the exhortation which speaks to you as unto children. My son,
my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, neither
faint when thou art rebuked of him. How often has someone told
you you've done something wrong and just like, I don't want to
admit that. That would make me a bad person.
That would admit that I've done something wrong. I don't like
to be wrong. I like to be right. But when
the Lord rebukes us, he says, don't be faint. Don't be faint
when the Lord rebukes you. I used to shrink like a wilted
flower when my dad would speak to me like that. For whom the
Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he received.
God chastens his sons, those he loves. So he chastens all
of his sons. All those sons are the ones he
loves. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with
sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But
if you are without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then
are you bastards and not sons. You are not legitimate. Furthermore,
we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave
them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection
to the Father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few
days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our
profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening
for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless afterward
it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are
exercised thereby. You see this? God brings trouble
into our lives as a form of chastening. Chastening. What does that do?
It causes us to pay attention, doesn't it? I was just going
about my own way. Wham! Dad got hold of me. He got my attention. And now
I'm completely fixated on what he's saying to me. Because what
he says has got implications. It's not joyous, it's grievous.
He did it, not for my profit, but the Lord does it for my profit.
Because the Lord does this. And how does He do this? What
is affliction? What does this kind of affliction
do to us? Whether it comes from without
or from within. Because it came from within for David. When he
had sinned against the Lord in Bathsheba. It says in Psalm 32,
his bones waxed old within him. All the day long when he kept
silent because he didn't confess his sin. His bones. God had afflicted
him in his very conscience. But God's affliction does something
to us when it's from God to His sons. The first thing it does
is it makes us pray. It makes us cry. It makes us
come to God. Oh Lord, help me. Help me. In Exodus 2.23 it says, "...the
children of Israel cried by reason of their affliction." Why did
God bring Israel to Egypt? So they would cry to the Lord
and He would save them. Isn't that a good reason? He
was going to do it, but he wanted to do it out of their cry. Because
only when a sinner is afflicted will he cry to the Lord. The
psalmist said, before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I
kept thy word. It's good for me that I have
been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. That's what
the psalmist says. And so it is with us. God afflicts
us in order to get our attention. So that we cry to Him. And when
we cry, the Lord hears us. In Psalm 50 verse 15 it says,
Call upon me in the day of trouble. Call upon me in the day of trouble.
I will answer you and you shall... Let me read it to you. I'm not
quoting it directly. Psalm 50 and verse 15. There's
a lot of Psalms that are like this. This just happens to be
one of them that comes to my mind in this context. Psalm 50. What does affliction do to God's
people? It makes them cry. And so crying and calling, the
Lord saves them. And then they glorify Him. Look
at this. 50 verse 15, And call upon Me in the day of trouble,
I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me. What should
you do then in trouble? What should you do when your
heart seems cold and sin afflicts your conscience? What should
you do when you feel like the world is overwhelming you with
its wickedness? And your own soul, your own nature
rises up out of control it seems like. What do you do? Call upon
Me in the day of trouble. Iniquities prevail against me,
Lord. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away. Psalm 65 verse 3. This is what
the Lord teaches us. Over and over again. The righteous
cry. Psalm 34 verse 17. Psalm 79 verse
8 and 9 says this. He says... Verse...chapter 79.
He says... Oh, remember not against us former
iniquities. Let thy tender mercies speedily
prevent us, for we are brought very low by trouble. Help us, O God of our salvation,
for the glory of thy name, and deliver us, and purge away our
sins for thy name's sake. That's what troubles do. They
make us realize that God has to save us by Christ, and that
he must do it, not for anything he finds in us, but for only
what he finds in himself, his grace, and what he found in Christ."
You see, when God judges us, He judges us because of what
He finds in us. When God judges us, He judges
us by what He finds in us. Doesn't He? But when He saves
us, He doesn't judge us for what He finds in us. He saves us for
what He finds in His Son, by His grace. Do you see the difference
there? Justice and judgment are for
what He finds in us, according to His law. But mercy and truth
and grace are for what He finds in Himself. He saves us for His
namesake. This is the story of history.
God saves His people. And God is teaching us this in
our lives, in our experience. As He's given us faith in Christ,
in order that we, as helpless, weak, sinful people, would find
all of our salvation in Christ. And call upon God to save us
for His namesake. I want to read one more psalm
to you. In Psalm 94. Because this is something we
know by experience. If you're a believer, you know
these things by experience. In chapter 94 of the Psalms,
in verse 17, listen to what the Lord said. This is what God's
people say, "...unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had
almost dwelt in silence." I would have been snuffed out, left in
the dark, unless the Lord had been my help. Verse 18, "...when
I said, My foot slippeth!" Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. In
the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight
my soul." Isn't that amazing? I had fainted unless I believed
that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
living. We would faint, wouldn't we? If God hadn't given us his
word, if he hadn't anchored our soul in the rock of ages, and
we would see that our salvation Just like our fall is by one
man. Not in us. This is not in us. It has to be outside of us in
Christ. This salvation is to glorify
God's Son by Himself. for our own sin in Adam, and
we're condemned for our own sin, our own transgressions, but we're
saved by the righteousness, the obedience of Christ, and so we
cry and we call. And God has designed these things
in order for us to live upon Him by faith. Because faith ascribes
all strength and goodness to God. Faithfulness to save us
in spite of our sin. That's what faith does. And hope
takes God's promises and expects God to fulfill them because His
promises are based on His faithfulness to His Word and because of the
merits of His Son. So we come to God fully expecting
Him to deliver us from evil in the day of judgment. and to give
us all blessings, all because of what he thinks of Christ.
If Christ is seated in heaven, I'll be seated there too. That's
what the believer says in hope. We know it's true. We know that
God has received us for Christ's sake, and so we expect it. He
gives us boldness in the day of judgment. When God judges
the wicked, He's going to send them away and tell them to depart. But what is He going to say to
His people? You, come here. Sit by me. Remember what King
David said to Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, David's enemy? Throughout his life, Saul tried
to kill David, but David swore by an oath to Jonathan that he
would show mercy to Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth
was completely useless to David. He was lame on his feet. He had
no strength. He couldn't do anything. And half the time he was running
around in ragged clothes and an unshaved beard. And David
said, Mephibosheth, sit down here by me, right here at my
table. You're going to eat with me from
now on, from this time forth. And so the Lord says to his people,
you, come here, sit by me on my throne in my Son, because
you have found grace in my sight. Why? Why me? For nothing found
in you out of my goodness, out of my faithfulness to my Son,
to magnify my grace. Isn't that what it says in Ephesians
1.6? Ephesians 1.6, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Why
did God do this? Because it showed Him to be so
gracious to such an unworthy, hell-deserving sinner. And helpless
too. So it makes us pray, it makes
us cry. A man who doesn't know suffering
is proud. Have you ever tried to tell the
gospel to somebody and they just like, it doesn't even resonate. I'm not even interested. You
know why? Because they've never suffered at the hand of God's
grace. That's why it's called sufferings
of grace. Because the sufferings of grace
cause us to cry. It causes us to be glad when
the Lord sends his word and saves us. It causes us to be glad to
leave this place. Israel was glad to leave Egypt
when they left. They were glad. Sufferings do
that. And sufferings show us that God
is responsible for our salvation, but man is responsible for his
own destruction. Sufferings do that. Pharaoh,
he received the just rewards of his deeds. And we would too,
right along with him. All of Egypt did. All of Egypt. Man, woman, boy, and girl. They
received the plagues and the judgments of God. And God judged
everyone in that land at that time. But the children of Israel
he judged in the chosen lamb whose blood was shed. And God
received for them. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. And so all these things teach us why God did this. Look
at 2 Corinthians and we'll close with this. 2 Corinthians chapter
4, the Apostle Paul, he made an amazing statement about our
sufferings. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, he
says, if you read through here, this is about the gospel. In
verse 6, we know this is about Christ. God's glory is seen in
the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that light of that glory
is shined in our hearts by the power of His Spirit. But he goes
on, and he says, in verse 15, he talks about all these things
they suffered. He says, for all things to these
people, these Corinthians, who were sinners, he says, all things
are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might, through
the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God. Why did
Paul suffer as an apostle? Why do God's people suffer? Why
did the Israelites suffer in Egypt? Under their suffering,
do you know what happened to the nation? They actually prospered. The people multiplied. And when
the gospel, when the apostles and the faithful preachers of
the gospel in the New Testament brought that, they suffered.
And the persecution actually made the gospel more effective. So that they were scattered and
it multiplied. And the people were blessed because
of it. And so Paul says here, all things are for your sakes.
He goes on and he says, for which cause? Because it's for your
sakes and it's going to be to the glory of God by all those
who hear and believe. He says in verse 16, for which
cause we faint not. But though our outward man perish
in all this trouble that comes upon us, yet our inward man is
renewed day by day. And then he says this, for our
light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a
far more exceeding eternal weight of glory." Light affliction.
Light affliction. What is the Apostle Paul talking
about? Is he talking about the fact
that he had to walk a mile to get to the grocery store in the
blazing 100 degree sun? That's what we call affliction.
Now, he says in 2 Corinthians 11, five times he was lashed
just one stripe short of the number that would kill a man.
Forty stripes. They had it to a science. Thirty-nine
times he said, I mean five times I received thirty-nine stripes.
Three times he was beaten with rods. One time he was stoned
and left for dead. Three times, three times he was
shipwrecked and he was a night and a day in the deep. He took
lots of journeys. If you look at the map in the
back of your Bible, if you have one of the missionary trips of
Paul, he went all over the whole Mediterranean. All that whole
region on foot and by ship. And he was in prison most of
the time. It says he was in danger in water. dangers of robbers,
dangers from his own countrymen, dangers by the heathen, in the
city, in the wilderness, in the sea, among false brethren, weariness,
painfulness, watching often, hunger, thirst, fastings often,
cold and naked. All these things happen to the
Apostle Paul. He says, our light affliction is but for a moment. And you know what was a heavier
burden to him? The daily care he had for all the churches.
He said, who is weak and I'm not weak. Who's offended and
I'm not. Because he suffered mostly when
those to whom he preached, those he served with all these other
physical afflictions, When they were tempted by the false prophets
to go back to the Law of Moses, or to depend on their own work's
righteousness, that caused them the greatest suffering. Or to
live like the Gospel was nothing. But it was light affliction for
Paul because, like every believer, we know that we deserve more
than we get, don't we, in sufferings? We know that our sufferings compared
to others, like Paul's, is really nothing. And we know that our
sufferings cannot even be reasonably compared with the glory that
will be revealed in us. So God's sufferings in our lives
have a purpose, a multifaceted purpose. But if you sum it all
up, it's to show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
towards us in the Lord Jesus Christ in the ages to come. Throughout eternity, God will
unfold the Gospel And I don't think it'll ever end because
it's an infinite story about an infinite person in his infinite
love for people who deserve an infinite punishment. Let's pray.