Psalm 119. Psalm 119. I have just told someone today,
as I've told you so many times, if you need some comfort, you
need some help, you can always go to the Psalms. And especially
Psalm 119. You just can. You start reading
Psalm 119. And you'll get some help, some
hope, some comfort, because the whole psalm is about God's Word,
which is our comfort. Who is our comfort? The text is verses 49 and 50. I asked the Lord, I don't know,
Monday, to give me a message for you, and I woke up with these
verses. Sounded in my head, my heart.
Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me
to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction,
for thy word hath quickened me. This is a message I hope will
be of help to many. Hope and comfort in affliction. All our hope, all our comfort
is from the Lord. He is called the God of all comfort. There is no comfort anywhere
else, with anyone else. And it comes from His Word, His
promises to us, both His warnings and His promises. I love His
warnings, don't you? I need His reproofs and rebukes
and correction. I need His correct instruction,
don't you? If we don't get it, we're not His children. We don't
want that. All our hope and comfort comes
from Him, and this is a message from His Word. And I hope it
will comfort you you know, your affliction, if not now, later. Affliction, the word affliction
actually means, and I know you, like me, like to look these words
up, the word means depression. That's what it means. It shocked
me when I read that, but no, it makes sense. It's something
that weighs you down and some trouble you get into. It's something
that brings you down and so deeply troubles you that you're down
and you're depressed. You're depressed. But we shouldn't
stay depressed for several reasons. If we stay
that way, it dishonors our Lord. It brings reproach on Him. We
say we believe Him, we trust Him, and we stay depressed. It
means we're not trusting Him. We're not quietly and patiently
submitting to what He's done. You remember the patience of
Job and what he said. It hurts us. The joy of the Lord's our strength.
So the opposite it brings. It hurts us and it hurts others.
It doesn't help others. It doesn't help others. Our Lord
in His greatest affliction. He's great. Remember we looked
at how right before we went to the cross, He started singing.
And then He went to the garden and
He told His disciples, now is my soul troubled. And we will
never enter into the trouble that he went in. He was about
to go through hell, literally, for us. He says he witnessed
a good profession before Pontius Pilate. All the affliction he went through,
not for us. He took our blood. He didn't
open his mouth. He witnessed such a good testimony
and profession before the world that Pilate was amazed. He said, Behold, the man never
seen such a man as this. And it says, and we read with
me, for the joy set before him endured the cross. My, my. Now, so I say, you know,
we all get depressed. We do. It's what afflictions
do to us. And, but there's hope, there's
help, there's comfort, there's consolation to be found. One time, Brother Walter Gruber
told me that a man in one of the Pueblos was just so down
and downcast and would not be comforted, like I remember David
one time, would not be comforted. And he was rebuked by a friend. And Walter told the man, where's
the consolation? There's supposed to be a consolation
with the trouble. And that helped that man. And
the Lord brought him out of that deep depression. There's hope,
there's help, there's comfort to be had only in the God of
comfort. But it's from Him only. And it comes from His Word. This
is what David said, Remember, remind me, bring the Word to
my remembrance, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. Because
this is my comfort in my affliction. Now, here's the first thing we
need to remember. This is what we need the Lord
to remind us from His Word. All things are of God. All things. Right? All things work together
for what? Now, let's just not quote that.
Let's believe it. To them that love God. You love
God, don't you? You do. Because He first loved you. Him
who loved God, He was a call. Have you been called? Has the
Gospel called you? You believe the gospel, you believe Christ,
then you've been called. Foreknown, predestinated, called,
justified, glorified. You've been called. You've been
called according to His purpose. Everything is on purpose. Absolutely on purpose. Every single thing from the hair
falling out of your head is on purpose. There's not a sparrow
that falls to the ground but by the purpose of God. You believe that? That's our
comfort in it. He's the God of all grace and
He's the God of all affliction. He tells us so in His Word. And
though people and things afflict us, God did." This is the first
column. We should never get mad at people
and things so much because it is God that sent them. Now, all the world is afflicted. Everybody in the world is afflicted.
Why? Why is there afflictions all
over the world? Why? Give me one word. Sin. We know that, don't we? When
sin entered this world, so came afflictions. Misery. Afflictions means misery also,
trouble. But God's people seem to suffer
more so. They just do, don't we? We read
that in Hebrews 11. Psalm 73, David got down. David was in
trouble. David was depressed. David was
downcast. There's psalms that we love so
much, like Psalm 42. Why art thou cast down on myself? He said, God, I am down. He said,
why? And then he said, well, I am.
He said, well, hope in God. Hope in God. But in Psalm 73,
he let it get him down, didn't he? He said, Lord, I don't understand. The wicked prosper on every hand.
I see them spreading like a green bay tree. They have no trouble. God's people have waters of a
full cup around them. I don't understand. He said,
until I went into the sanctuary. And perhaps Nathan preached to
him and reminded him from God's Word of their end. And how that we're always with
the Lord, that He is our portion, like the Lord told Abraham. Abraham
got the well-watered plains of Sodom and almost died in there. Abraham
said, well, Lord, what do I get? He said, Me. You have Him, you have it all.
And then Job, there's a reason Job is the oldest book in the
Bible. He lived during the time of Abraham. Because Job, the
whole book is about a man that God loved. God said, He's mine. Perfect man, just man, upright
man. Fears of God and his Jews, he's my son, he's the son of
God, Job. And the whole book was about his suffering. What
a picture Job is of Christ, we've seen that. But Job was a man
whom God put through every, the most severe suffering a human
being could go through. Every single thing that a human
being could endure, God heaped it all on Job at one Significant. That's the oldest
book. It's all about suffering. Because
in this world, you shall have tribulation. What's the next
line? But be of good cheer. Women are
allowed to repeat when I ask for repetition. You're just not
allowed to stand up here and preach. But you can say amen
and you can quote those scriptures with me, okay? There are all
things are of God. We need to remember that. Remind
me, O Lord, everything, every single thing, good, what I think
is evil. He said in Psalm 91, no evil shall befall you. All right, next thing, all things
work together for good. Number one, for His glory. For His glory, the glory of the
Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the glory of God's love and mercy
and grace in choosing such rebels as we, the glory of God's Son.
He would come down here and die for such rebellious creatures
as us. And in the Holy Spirit, He sent
to lead us and guide us and direct us and protect us and keep us
and all our days and salvations of the Lord. And everything He
brings us through, He brings us through. And it's for His
glory, to show us Himself. It's for our salvation. Everything
He brings us through is to save us from wrath, save us from destroying
ourselves. Because we will, if left to ourselves. It's all to the praise of His
glory. Everything's to the praise of the glory of His grace. Everything. The praise of His glory by us. You know, we spend our lives
trying to be happy. Don't we? Everybody. Everybody
wants to be happy. And we spend our lives trying
to be happy. And we just can't obtain it, can we? And nearly everything ends up
with some sadness, doesn't it? Now what's that going to make
eternity like? Eternal joy, Peter said, unspeakable. Eternity, you know, trials, afflictions,
and troubles on earth, who would not gladly endure? And Paul,
we're going to look at in a minute how our light affliction, Paul
said that, worketh for us a far more exceeding
eternal way of glory. So we're going to have to wait,
aren't we, and go through these things patiently. My pastor used
to say this, that God had one Son without sin. He had no sons
without suffering. One son without sin, but no sons,
no daughters without affliction, as we will see, as we will hear.
All right? The text says, remember the word
unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This
is my comfort in my affliction. Thy word hath quickened me. Now,
this is for our hope. We hope for the best, don't we?
We hope for good. We hope for good for ourselves,
for others, hope in the future, hope of eternal life. This is
for our comfort while we go through these things. This is to ease
our pain, give us some strength to endure these things. There
is balm. There is balm, you know. You
take medication when you're suffering, don't you, to ease the pain.
Well, this is the balm of Gilead. This is how you're going to do
it, okay? All right? Now, the first thing we need
to consider and remember, the thing that our Lord needs to
bring to our mind is the afflictions of Christ. That will make our
afflictions much, much, much, much less. We should read it like this.
Look at this. Read it with me again. I'll tell
you. Remember the Word unto thy servant. Remind me of Christ
the Word. Didn't our Lord say, This do
in remembrance of me? Remind me, O Lord, of Christ
the Word, thy servant, upon whom thou hast caused me to hope.
Remind me of what Christ came to do and did for me on Calvary's
tree, what He endured for me. Read on, verse, this is my comfort. He is my comfort in my affliction. For thy word hath quickened me. Do you like Ephesians 2? What's
it say? How's it begin? And you, who
were dead in trespasses sin, hath he quickened. Quickened
together with Christ. You're nodding your head. You're
nodding your head. You're smiling. You believe all
this. It means something to you. Why?
You've been quickened. Been quickened. That's how we
should read that in. Remember thy word. Remind me
of Christ who suffered for me. Unless I just feel sorry for
myself. Remind me of Christ upon whom
I hope. He is my hope. The gospel is
my comfort. You've quickened me, oh Lord.
Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you? Does the gospel
give you hope and comfort? Even in your deepest distress? We're going to see how every
single one of God's people go through deep distress. And does
the gospel give you comfort, eventually give you comfort in
your deepest distress? But that's a good sign. That's
faith. That's it. That God has chosen
you and loves you and Christ died for you and he will raise
you up at the last day. He's not going to leave you behind. Here's what we all think. Every
one of us at times think when we're going through something,
something happens, something terrible. We think this is happening
because God is angry with me because I'm so sinful. And he's punishing me. He just
might cast me out. Maybe He's just going to do away
with me. Anybody ever thought that? I
want you to turn to Judges 13 with me. It will make you smile. Judges 13. Now, you know the
Lord does use the word punish. Yes, He does. Amos 3.2, He says,
You have I known of all the people on earth, therefore will I punish
you. When my father and mothers, when I rebelled against them,
you know what they did to me? They punished me. But it's not
the same as legal or law or strict justice. You understand? There's
a sense in which we need to feel like we're being punished. David
said, and he knew why, God. David said, it's mercy, Klingon.
He said, take not the Holy Spirit from him. Have mercy on me, O
God. Why? He needed to feel that.
Why? Against thee and thee only have
I sinned, I said. You're going to be judged if
you send me to hell. That's what he said then. We need to, there's
a sense in which we need to feel that way. But it's not punishment
in the sense of strict justice. The Lord's not out to kill us.
I didn't turn to judges. Judges 13. This story, you've
heard it many times. Manoah and his wife, remember,
they saw the Lord and Manoah said, verse 22, we shall surely
die. Why did he say that? He knew he was a sinner. He saw
the Holy God. That's what Isaiah said when
he saw the Lord hiding it. Oh, it's me. I'm undone. I'm
cut off. I'm undone. Oh, no. No, Isaiah. No, Manoah. And look at his wife's
answer. I love this. One of the greatest
sermons was preached by a woman here to her husband. His wife
said unto him, If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would
not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering in our hand.
That's Christ. You wouldn't be hoping in Christ,
the Lord's just going to cut you off, kill you. Oh no, God
doesn't give people hope in His Son and then cast them out. None
of them that hope in Him shall be desolate. And she went on
to say, neither would He have showed us all these things. He
wrote it all down. He wrote it all down. Neither
would he have at this time told us all this. You read it, and
you hear it preached, and you rejoice in it. No, no, God, I'm
not going to kill you. You're not going to kill you.
Look at Psalm 103. Psalm 103. We all think that. Oh, he's punished. That's it
now. I've sinned. It's the last. No more grace for me. No more
mercy. No, no, no, no. Look at Psalm 103. This is good.
Verse 8. The Lord is merciful. How merciful
is He? Isaiah says it's higher than
the heavens are up in heaven. We just don't know how merciful
He is. And gracious. Slow to anger. Boy, do you know
how slow the Lord is? You know how slow the Lord is
to anger. plenteous in mercy, he will not always chide, and
he won't keep his anger. If he gets angry, he won't keep
it. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded
us according to our iniquity. He hath not. And next verse is
where the heavens are high above the earth. Why hadn't God dealt
with us in strict judgment? Why hadn't God punished us? Why
doesn't God punish us in strictness and just kill us and cut us off? Why? One word. Christ. You know that, don't you? You
know that. Oh, blessed are you. God the Father did punish Christ. in our state. Remember that for
your hope, for your comfort. If you're in trouble and you
have no peace and no comfort, always turn to Isaiah 53. Okay? Turn there with me one
more time. Wouldn't that be great if this
was the last time we ever looked at that? One more time. If you can't find any reason
that God should spare you, turn to Isaiah 53. Okay? Okay. Because Isaiah 53 verse
4 says, Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.
Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
He was. I mean, not for his own, but
for that. Read on. He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity.
The chastisement, whipping of our peace was upon him. With
his stripes we are healed. Read on. Verse 7, verse 6, all
we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. It's sad, isn't it? But man, the Lord hath laid on
him Are you getting this? The iniquity of us all. He was
oppressed. He was afflicted. He opened not
his mouth. Why? He was us. He brought us a lamb for the
slaughter. The sheep of the Lord shearers is done. So he openedeth
not his mouth. Read on. Taken from prison, from
judgment. Cut off. 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Why? Because it pleased the Lord to
make you his people. And it pleased Christ to go through
this. Isn't that something? He put him to grieve. God put
him to grieve. He made his soul an offering
for sin, and when he sees his seed, he shall prolong his day.
The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. What's that?
Make you his people. He shall see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied. God is satisfied with what Christ
has done. And by his knowledge Christ shall
justify, my righteous servant shall justify many. He justified
us. His blood justified us. He shall
bear their iniquity. Are you reading this? Therefore,
he says, I'll divide him a portion with the grey, he'll divide the
spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death,
numbered with the transgressors, he bared the sin of many. Why
not me? And made intercession for the
transgressors. My, my. Listen to this. You know these verses well. Behold,
and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is
done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day
of his fierce anger." That's Christ speaking. There's never been any sorrow
like his sorrow. He bore our sorrows. The Lord
afflicted him in the day of his fierce anger. The Lord will never
be fiercely angry with us. But he was with Christ. And then
it says in Lamentations chapter 3, it says, Behold, he said,
I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He said,
He set me as a mark for his error. And this I recall. and bring
to mind, therefore have I, say it, hope. It's of the Lord's
mercies that we're not going to sin. Where are His mercies?
One word. Christ. Because His compassions, they
fail not. They do every morning. The Gospel
is good news, isn't it? Good news every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. That's how it is. Well, listen to this. Listen
to this. Psalm 63. We've got to consider
Christ. He gets the preeminence when
we speak of afflictions. And we've got to look to Him
in all our afflictions. We've got to remember Him. We've
got to look to Him. And we'll drown in sorrow. We'll be deeply
depressed and never get out. He came out of affliction, didn't
He? Nobody was depressed like He
was depressed. Nobody had a weight, a burden on Him like He did.
Listen to this, Psalms, Isaiah 63. In all their affliction,
He was afflicted. And the angel of His presence
saved them. In His love and in His pity,
He redeemed them. Who's He talking about? Israel. Oh, there's no good Israelite.
Yeah, that's me. And He bared them, that is, carried
them all the days of old. Oh, God put Him through hell
for His people, substitute. And He did it, He did it to Him
as our substitute and for our sucker. or help. It's a Bible
word. He's able to succor them. He's
tempted in all points, touched with a feeling of infirmity,
compassed with infirmity. He's able to succor, help them. He remembers us. He remembers
our praying when we go to him. He has pity upon us. And let's
see if I can find this. This is the first time I've really
seen this verse. It's in Judges 10, I think. Listen, this will give you a
blessing. My, my. Listen to this. It says, children
of Israel, say unto the Lord, we've sinned. But do thou unto
us whatever seems good unto you. But deliver us, we pray thee.
Listen to that. And they put away the strange
gods, and they served the Lord. And it says, His soul was grieved
for the misery of Israel. It grieved God, the misery they
were going through. Isn't that something? That is something. I don't think
I've ever seen that before. I have, but haven't. You know what I
mean. All right. Here's something to remember.
Remembering all things are of God and all things for good.
Remember, look to Christ, see his afflictions for us. And we
need to remember that all of God's people are afflicted. Every
single one of God's people are afflicted with the same afflictions
to one degree or another. We all go through the loss of
loved ones. We all go through sickness, pain,
suffering, losses of this and that, the other, fears and doubts. Children are people we love.
We all go through this to one degree or another, according
to the measure that God gives to us. Look at 2 Corinthians
4. 2 Corinthians 4. I'm about to quit. 2 Corinthians
4. Peter wrote, he said, remember
that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
throughout the world. The same afflictions, he said,
are accomplished in your brethren. God sends them to accomplish
something. That's what we're going to see.
2 Corinthians 4. And verse 8, it says, we're troubled on every
side. All of us. We're not distressed.
We're perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, not forsaken. Cast
down, not destroyed. Going down to verse 15. All things are for your sake.
The abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many and
redound to the glory of God, for which cause we faint not.
Though our outward man perish, the inward man is renewed day
by day. Four. Our light affliction, which is
but for a moment. You know, in light of eternity.
We're not, the former things aren't even, this is such a short
period of time, it's not even going to be remembered. And Paul's
the one that wrote this, and if you want to read of his afflictions,
he's the one that wrote this, and he called it our light affliction
compared with our blessings. Compared with how much God has
blessed us. And are there light afflictions compared with what
we deserve? With His mercies. And there are
light afflictions compared with many people. Were you not ashamed
when you read Hebrews 11 with me? There are light afflictions that
are just for a moment. You know, in a moment, in a twinkling of
an eye. You're going to be changed. But they work for us a far more
exceedingly eternal way to glory. And here's what we need to do.
We need to look at things that are seen as being temporal. This
is not going to last. And at things that are not seen,
eternal. And set our affection on unseen
things. So all of God's people suffer,
and there's a reason. Whom the Lord loves, he chases.
We saw that. He sends afflictions, some more
than others, some more of one kind than another. According
to this, great. But there are afflictions like
in Psalm 107. Brother John Chapman preached from it, and we've looked
at it many times together. But the children of Israel represent
that. And they went through afflictions first when coming out of Egypt.
God sent hard taskmasters. hired taskmasters to bring them
under bondage and inflict pain and suffering, so the world gave
them nothing but trouble. Why? Was that good? They started calling on God.
They weren't calling on God, fool. Help. And he heard them. He said, I'm coming down. Bring
you out. Bring you up. Bring you in. So they reflected through other
people, through the world and the things of the world, and
we are too. If you find this world a pleasant place and a
lovely place, I'm wrong. But we're afflicted, aren't we?
We're afflicted. So they experience afflictions through others. They
experience afflictions that they cause themselves. In Psalm 107 it says, because
they rebelled against God, He brought them down with hard labor
and this and that and the other. And it said their souls were
brought down and then they cried unto the Lord. Delivered him
out. He heard them. Oh, that man would
praise the Lord for his goodness. He called them fools. They're
fools. They did it again. Got themselves right back in
trouble again. That's afflictions. Afflictions
that we cause ourselves. Yet the Lord, they cry, and the
Lord... And then they experience afflictions from the Lord just
to try them. Those that go do business go
down to the sea in ships. It's a fellowship of His suffering. Those that go down to the sea
in ship, endeavoring, we're trying to cross this Red Sea. Due to
visits in deep waters, the Lord sends a storm, commands the winds,
and they go up, and they go down, and they go up, and they're down,
and they go down deep, like Jonah in the belly of the whale. They're
up one day, and the next day they're cast down. Afflictions
after afflictions. A little bit of happiness, a
little bit of affliction. And it goes on to say, then He
quiets the storm, and He brings them to their desired haven. It says they're happy when they're
at rest. Let me ask you all, what is your
desired haven? Do you really desire? It sounds
like heaven, but haven rests with Christ. Do you not? Afflictions
are good. Even the kind we cause ourselves.
They're good. And God sends these things to
wean us, to wean us. You know, He warned the children
of Israel. He said, Beware. He said, I'm
going to bring you into a land full of milk and honey. I'm going
to give you, I'm going to be so good to you, you're going
to have more than you could possibly ask or think. Beware, he said, that you don't
forget me. Did they? Do we? You know, God gives us all things
richly to enjoy. But here's the problem. We start
enjoying them too much. So much so that we forget God. And you know what's going to
happen if we belong to Him? He's going to take it away. Something's
going to happen. And it's His goodness. Isn't
it good? Wean us from His Word. Wean us
from His Word. Oh, Lord. So, He says, remember
the Word. I've just been trying to tell
you what God's Word says. What Christ went through. Remember
the Word unto thy servant. upon which thou hast caused me
to hope, this is my comfort and my affliction, for thy word hath
quickened me." I hope this has been some comfort for you. All
right, stand with me.