Let's open our Bibles to Lamentations
chapter 3. Now, the basis or the main verse
of Scripture that forms the foundation of this message is in verse 27.
That's where we left off in Lamentations. Which reads, it is good for a
man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Now, he's speaking
of the yoke of suffering for Christ's sake. That's what he's
talking about. And I've entitled this message,
A Yoke That Leads to Repentance. A yoke that leads to repentance. Now, the Bible as you know, mentions
several types of yokes. You know what a yoke is, that's
the wooden bar and the U-shaped forms that they would put around
on the oxen on the neck to make them go together so that the
farmer, when he was plowing or whatever he was doing, he could
guide them where to go. The scripture speaks of believers
sinners saved by grace as being yoke fellows, we're yoked together
in the gospel. We follow the same way because
we follow Christ who is the way, the way, the truth, and the life.
We're not different denominations. We're not different ways to the
same God. There are not different ways
to the same God. There's one way, there's one
truth, there's one salvation, one spirit, It's all unified
by the grace of God in Christ. There's no other way. Every other
way is a false way. There's the broad way that leads
to destruction, and there's the narrow way that leads to eternal
life, and that's the way of Christ. So the scripture mentions several.
Let me give you some things to think about before I get into
this yoke of suffering for Christ's sake that the prophet Jeremiah
is speaking of as he's going through his sorrow and his suffering
and lamentations, which is what that is And I think about this
too because it's appropriate For our situation. We've lost
so many of our dear Brethren in Christ and it does bring us
sorrow, but it's not sorrow unto despair. It's sorrow unto hope
I've talked about in the last message here in lamentations
three of suffering unto hope suffering that brings hope We
know that it's the suffering of Christ that establishes our
hope. We're not saved by our suffering,
we're saved by his suffering for our sins. That's how righteousness
comes about, through his suffering, not ours. Our suffering doesn't
make us righteous, but our suffering makes us look to Christ and depend
on him and rest in him and follow him, who is our righteousness
and who is our hope. But, for example, there's the
yoke of the law. Think about the yoke of the law.
Now, the yoke of the law can be a bad thing or a good thing.
In the hands of a false preacher, it can be a bondage that no man
can bear. Scripture speaks of that. Those
who preach salvation in any way by the works or the will of man.
That's the yoke of the law. It says something like this.
If you think or aspire to be accepted or saved by God by your
works of the law, then you're a debtor to do what? The whole
law. That's a yoke of bondage that
no man can bear. That's deadly. That's a yoke
of death. But think about the yoke of the
law in the hands of the Holy Spirit. to bring a sinner to
conviction. That's a good thing, isn't it?
Paul spoke of that in Romans chapter 7, when he spoke of how
before God the Holy Spirit broke him and brought him to conviction
of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, brought him to Christ,
how he didn't understand the depth and the extent and the
spirituality of the law. He said, before I understood
or knew the law, I thought I was sinless. I had no sin, he said.
I was OK. I had everything going for me.
But when sin came, I died. When the law came, I died. Sin revived, and I died, he said. That's the law. That's the Holy
Spirit killing us with the law, killing our self-righteousness,
killing our hopes of salvation by our works, and driving us
to Christ. And I'd certainly say, and I
hope you would too, that it's good for a man to bear that yoke
in his youth. Incidentally, when he says in
his youth, he could be talking about our years here on earth
and speaking of our youth. I wished that I had come to a
saving knowledge of Christ before I did in the age that I did,
but that was God's purpose and God's way. And it certainly would
be good for a man to bear that yoke in his youth. But I really
believe what he's talking about is our life here on earth as
a youth. Because for a believer, I want
you to think about this. For a believer, our life here
on earth is a short span of time, isn't it? I mean, it's nothing
compared to eternity. We've had brothers and sisters
step out into eternity in the last two months. And they're
realizing in their experience what we can only think of and
read about and believe by God's grace, but eternity. It's like this life here on earth
is like our youth, you might say, in that sense. So it's more
the case of it's good for a man to bear the yoke on this earth
while he's here on this earth in his sojourn. We could also
speak of the yoke of teaching, the yoke of truth or the yoke
of doctrine by which God guides us first in the gospel of God's
grace, bringing us to submission to Christ as our only way of
salvation, bringing us to submission to Christ as our only righteousness,
our only way of forgiveness. And that's certainly good for
a man to bear that yoke in his youth. And then we can talk about
the yoke of grace and love. inspiring and motivating us unto
godliness and obedience. Christ said, come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. He said,
take my yoke upon you. My yoke is easy. My burden is
light. You see, he doesn't put a bondage
on us, a legal bondage, a burden that nobody can bear. But he
brings us into the saving grace and light of a of a bond-servant
of Christ, serving out of love and grace and gratitude. And
that's a good yoke to bear in the youth. But as I said, Jeremiah
is speaking of the yoke of suffering, the yoke of discipline. Nothing
wrong with using the word discipline. That's what we say disciple. That's the same root word if
you're a disciple of Christ. You're brought under the discipline
of your Heavenly Father, the scripture says. Correcting us,
driving us more and more to Christ for hope, for comfort, for peace. Everything that is said in the
rest of this chapter, there are 66 verses in this chapter. Everything
that is said from verse 27 on is said in light of the hope,
that Jeremiah described beginning at verse 22. Remember he said
in verse 21, look at it, let's read it. He said, this I recall
to my mind, therefore have I hope. That literally means this is
the expression of what is really on my heart. That's what that
means. I know I'm complaining. I know
I'm griping, I know I'm hurting, I know I sound like I'm an ingrate
and just a non-believer, but here's what's really on my heart,
verse 22, it is of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed.
I'm suffering, but I'm not consumed. You know that word consumed,
what it means, it means alienated from God, it means cut off. Remember
Isaiah said, I'm cut off. Well, we're not cut off if we
have Christ. We're not alienated from God
if we have Christ. We're brought near unto God.
And it's of the Lord's mercies that I'm not consumed. And it's
because His compassions, His covenant love, His covenant loving
kindness fails not. It's not based on our love not
failing. Our love does fail. All the time. But His love never fails. His
compassions, His mercies, verse 23, are new every morning. I
need it every day. There's not one second of my
life that I don't need His mercy, His grace, His compassion that
fails not. God never leaves us to ourselves
in any way, shape, form or fashion. He'll never leave His children
to Himself. He can't because we'd fall. And then He says,
great is thy faithfulness, God's faithfulness, the faithfulness
of Christ to do the great work that He set out to do. in redeeming
us from our sins. You read about it. The redemption. And it had nothing to do with
us, even when we were enemies, Paul wrote there. Even when we
were enemies, Christ died for us. Does that sound like salvation
conditioned on the sinner? Absolutely not. He says in verse
24, the Lord is my portion. I have Christ, I have everything.
The whole inheritance of grace and glory. All grace here, all
glory hereafter. The certainty of it, because
the Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope
in him. The Lord is good to them that
wait for him, to them that seeketh him. To wait for him is to believe
in him. To believe in him is to seek
him. To seek him is to find him. That's all the work of God. And
it's good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the
salvation of the Lord. In this hope, that's the only
thing that'll quiet us down. Only thing it'll shut our mouths
and make us ashamed of ourselves and say, Lord, forgive me this
hope. And so then he says, it's good
for a man that he bared the yoke in his youth. What a, what a
yoke that is. He's talking about the yoke of
suffering. When brother Joe sent me the hymns for this service. I don't know if you read on in
Lamentations and decided to extract the hymns from those truths or
not. But we didn't get together on this, but each hymn that we
sang has something to do with this message. And you think about
it. For example, beginning at verse
28 and to verse 30, he speaks of submission. Submission. Now listen to what he says. Verse
20, he sitteth alone and keepeth silence. Let God be true and
every man a liar. I can't figure this thing out.
Can you? This suffering, this discipline, this chastisement,
what I'm going through, what you're going through. You may
feel like tonight you're going through the hardest trial you've
ever gone through. And you'll wonder, when is it going to quit?
You might even pray this way, Lord, won't you spread it out
a little bit? Let some other people take a little bit of this
off of me. You might pray that way. But
when you understand the reality of the yoke that leads to repentance,
here's what it says. He sitteth alone and keepeth
silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth
in the dust, if so be there may be hope. Is there any hope for
me? He giveth his cheek to him that
smiteth him. He is filled full with reproach.
Who does that remind you of? Our Savior. He gave his cheek
to them that smite. Why did he do that? Why did he
suffer? To establish the hope of our salvation. That's why
he did it. He loved his own until the end.
And then he says in verse 31, For the Lord will not cast off
forever. The Lord will not cast off forever. Now this is the way of God. We
suffer. We're persecuted. We read it
in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 there, how he said, we're troubled on
every side. Listen, we have the greatest
treasure that a human being could ever hold within their heart.
The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, he calls it.
The fact that I, a sinner, can stand before a holy God and be
declared not guilty and righteous before Him. And yet, we're the
off-scouring of the earth. That's what the Scripture says
of us. That's what it says. And what
it's talking about is our... Now, it's not talking about your
relationship to the world in your job and in your families.
It's talking about our relationship to the world in this gospel. And so he says, we have this
treasure in earthen vessels. We're weak vessels, breakable. But he says we're troubled on
every side, trouble. Man is a few days full of trouble,
but not distressed. Now this distress that he's talking
about is a form of unbelief. We fight unbelief, but we're
not in unbelief. We're perplexed. That means we
don't know it all. That means we're confused about
some things. Why did that happen? Why did you do it that way, Lord?
Have you ever said that? Why did you do it that way? Well,
I'm perplexed about that. But not in despair. In other
words, not altogether without help and means. He said we're
persecuted. Christ said, blessed are you
when men persecute you, but not forsaken. In other words, just
because men, ungodly men and women, persecute us and revile
against us and say all manner of evil against us, that doesn't
mean God's forsaken us. We're not forsaken. Cast down,
but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus. And what is it about? Well, look
at Romans chapter 5, what Brother Aaron read. We're justified. before God in Christ. And by
faith in Him, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And we have access into this
by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope
of the glory of God. And look at verse 3. Not only
so, but we glory in tribulations also, trouble. Now, when it says
we glory in tribulations, that doesn't mean we go looking for
trouble. It doesn't mean we act like it feels good when it doesn't.
That's not what it's talking about. Well, what's it saying?
Well, he explains it. We glory in tribulations knowing
that tribulation worketh what? Patience. Now, what is that patience?
That's endurance. In other words, this is one of
God's means to keep me looking to Christ. To keep me focused
on Him. To keep me running to Him. To
keep me in His Word. I need His Word. I tell people
when I, you know, I told somebody, I said, I'm in a perpetual way
of preparing funeral sermons. And I don't say that jokingly. What I'm saying is, is this,
you know, this is the words that we have to say to each other
at death don't mean anything. It's the word of God. It's the
word of God. That's what we need. And that's
what he's saying here. It worketh endurance because
it keeps me focused on God's Word. Verse 4, patience, experience,
that's maturity is what he's talking about. That's how I grow
in grace and in knowledge. And the more I grow in grace
and knowledge, experience, the more that hope is sealed in my
mind and in my heart. And hope maketh not ashamed.
We don't have anything to be ashamed of. Why? I'm not talking about our sin
now. We do. I'm talking about our hope. Our hope is in Christ
and we don't have to be ashamed of him. He's the apple of his
father's eye. He said, this is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased. And that's how the love of God
is shed abroad within our hearts. You see all of that. And that's
why I was thinking about that hymn, How Firm a Foundation.
Listen to this, When through fiery trials thy pathway shall
lie, My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply. That's what
it's all about. It's about God's grace. It's
not about our strength or our goodness. It's about God's grace.
Look back at Lamentations 3 now. Verse 31, The Lord will not cast
us off forever, But though he cause grief, yet will he have
compassion according to the multitude of his mercies." Now that's God's
way. We sang that hymn, Teach Me Thy
Way, O Lord. You know, sometimes the way I
act, I ought to sing it this way, I want my way, O Lord, I
want my way. That's the way I ought to sing
it if it's really just being honest with you. But that's not
what it's about either. Listen to what he says in verse
33. For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
Now what does that mean? Does that mean that when God
brings chastisement to his people, he's doing something that he's
unwilling to do? That's not what it means. Look
at your concordance, if you've got one in your Bible. When it
says, for he doth not afflict willingly, it literally means
this. It literally says, he doth not
afflict from his heart. Now what does that mean? What
it means is that in affliction, the affliction itself is not
the goal of God in that act. In other words, he's not afflicting
you or afflicting me just to do that, just to say I've afflicted
you. That's not the purpose of it. That's not his heart. Well,
what is his heart? Well, his heart is to bring us
to what? To repentance. To faith in Christ. All things work together for
good. That's his heart. Good to them
that love God, who are the called according to his purpose. He
says, listen, verse 34, to crush under his feet all the prisoners
of the earth, to turn aside the right of a man before the face
of the Most High, to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord
approveth not. It's not that when God brings affliction, for
example, by way of persecution, it's not that he's condoning
those who are persecuting us as if that's the right thing
to do. No, they're doing wrong. But his goal is not just to afflict
us. His goal is not just to trouble
us. His goal is to bring us to repentance. Look at it, verse
37. Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord
commandeth it not? Now God's in control. That's
what that verse says. God's sovereign in all these
things. God's working all things after the counsel of his own
will. Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil
and good. Everything that happens, I know people don't like this.
What was he talking about here? He's talking about that all the
purpose, all the works, all the will of God, his sovereign will,
will be done. Wherefore doth a living man complain,
a man for the punishment of his sins? In other words, why should
we complain? Anytime we're afflicted, we're
just getting what we deserve, aren't we? I mean, it's not because
we don't need it. But look here, here's the goal.
Verse 40, let us search and try our ways. And he says, and turn
again to the Lord. Here it is. Keep turning to the
Lord. To whom coming, Peter said, not
just coming one time, not walking an aisle, not this time or that
time or sometime, to whom coming every day. Let us search and
try our ways and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our
heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. Let's worship
God. Let's praise God. That's what he's saying. Even
in affliction. Verse 42, we've transgressed.
We've rebelled. What's he talking about? He's
talking about submission. He's talking about motivation.
What's the motivation? The grace of God in Christ. That's the motivation. And it's
not that affliction is against or outside of God's sovereign
will and purpose. It's not that He's not working
all things after the counsel of His own will. It's His heart
to bring us through as we just sang in two hymns. If we sang
it from our heart, teach me thy way, O Lord. Teach me thy way. Salvation in Christ is the expression
and revelation of God's heart and delight. He delights to show
mercy. You know, Isaiah in Isaiah 28
said that judgment is God's strange work. Have you ever wondered
what that really means? Does that mean that judgment
is something that is against God's nature? Well, you know
it doesn't mean that. God is a holy God. He must punish
sin. I heard a preacher say one time
about the death of Christ on the cross and the salvation of
a sinner from sin. He said, whenever God punished
his son on the cross, and whenever he brings a sinner to salvation
and fellowship with himself, he said, God is doing something
that he doesn't want to do. And I thought, what are you talking
about? That's absolutely, it's really
blasphemy. This is well within God's will.
When it says judgment is his strange work, what he's simply
saying is this, that the judgment of God against sin, or even the
chastisement of God against the sins of his children, is not
his ultimate goal. His ultimate goal is what? Salvation. Go back to Romans 5 that Aaron
read. Listen. He says in verse 8 of Romans
5, but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now
justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. And that's eternal salvation.
That's not just a one-time act. And he says, four, if when we
were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son,
much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. That's
the life of Christ. He who died was buried and rose
again the third day. He gives us life everlasting
and it's a continual thing. It's a forever and ever and everything.
And it never stops. It never stops. That's God's
ultimate goal. It's salvation. And that's what
we need to realize. Salvation of the Lord. God is
all wise. God is sovereign. God is in control. And we don't have any right to
complain because we're a sinful people, even we who are sinners
saved by grace. So do what? Repent, he says.
Keep on repenting. That's not just a one-time thing
either. It's a lifetime. You see, this thing of faith,
this thing of repentance, this thing of person, it's a lifetime
of living, not by your own power, your own strength, your own wisdom,
your own goodness. No, it's a lifetime of living
in the grace of God. Even the thief on the cross,
how long do you reckon he lived after the Lord brought him to
a saving knowledge of Christ? I don't know, a few minutes?
A few hours? Well, whatever it was, that was
his lifetime. That was his youth, you might
say. And he bore that yoke. Before
then, he was bearing the yoke of the law, wasn't he? He was
a criminal under the sentence of death, and he was dying. He
was getting what he deserved. And then all of a sudden, of
his own free will, huh? No, you know better. I mean,
I think of the way it's recorded in Luke, he was railing on Christ
with the other thief, wasn't he, at first. I know this much
about him. I know whatever happened to him.
And you know, people, you know how they do now. They say, well,
what about the thief on the cross? He didn't do this, he didn't
do that. How do you know what the thief did or didn't do? Were
you with him in his lifetime? Is there any scripture and verse
you can turn to to prove the point you're trying to make?
The answer is no. All we know about this thief
is he was convicted of his sin. He knew he deserved what he was
getting. He told that other thief. He
said, why are you even opening your mouth? He said, we're just
getting what we've earned. But this man, he's not a sinner. Even the thief
knew that, didn't he? This man here, he did nothing
to deserve this in himself. And yet the thief knew Christ
as substitute because he said, remember me, who? Lord, when
you come into your, what? Kingdom. Now how much theology
was behind that thief in his mind? I don't know, but I'm not
gonna use the thief to deny other scriptures and to boast about
my experience about being saved when I was ignorant as a goose.
I'm not gonna do that. That's not repentance. But I
know this. I know this. Whatever time he
had there as a regenerated child of God, that was his lifetime. And his whole lifetime then as
a regenerated child of God was nothing but suffering in this
life. He didn't even have any time of respite, did he? No time
pain free. Some of you all know something
about pain, don't you? Physical pain. The last few weeks,
I've come to learn a little bit about it myself with my wife.
And I know something about it too, myself, for brief times. They were telling me that Brother
Buford, that the last two months, he's had pain all over, just
all the time. Could you imagine spending your
life here on earth 50 years with nothing but pain? 40 years, 30
years, 10 years, how about one year? Well, for whatever purpose God
had in it, it was to bring a sinner to realize that his hope is in
Christ. And that's what repentance is
all about. Repentance is all about that. Now, in the last
part of this chapter, we see Jeremiah's prayer. And I just
want you to look at one verse. Look down at verse 59. He talks
out of his pain, just like we see Jeremiah
has done before. We sort of compared him to Job,
remember? Job, you think about Job. And
Jeremiah is the same way, in a lot of ways. Here, Job, having
lost his whole family, lost all of his possessions, and he tells
his wife, who told him to curse God, he said, well now, you know,
shall we not receive these troubles at the hand of the Lord and receive
good too? And he said, I'm not going to
curse God. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
It's the Lord who's done all this. And then in another segment
of his life, we see him saying, Lord, I don't deserve this. Why
are you doing this? Get me out of this. You've forsaken
me. I don't have any hope. Now that's
us, isn't it? Are we any better than him? And
Jeremiah does the same thing. He talks about that. Even in
his prayer, he's crying out to God. But in verse 59, we'll look
at verse 58. He says, O Lord, thou hast pleaded
the causes of my soul. Thou hast redeemed my life. O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong. Judge thou my cause. You know
what he's saying there, don't you? What is our cause? We've got
a cause. Everybody's got a cause today,
don't they? What is the cause of a child of God? It's the glory
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, isn't it? He said, Lord, thou hast pleaded
my cause. Thou hast redeemed my life. How
did he plead our cause and redeem us? Through Christ. by His grace,
by His mercy, through Christ, who is our advocate. And He continually,
He's seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living to
make intercession for us at our good times. Listen, Christ is
not there to make intercession for you or for me when we mess
up. He's there forever and ever and ever. Because we need Him
even when we don't mess up, to be our advocate and to plead
our cause. He stands before the Father, pleading the merits of
His blood. He stands before the Father,
pleading for His people, the merits of His own righteousness,
to the glory and praise of God's grace. He's our advocate. And He says in verse 59, O Lord,
thou hast seen my wrong. God knows who we are. God, listen. God does not charge His people
with their sins. But He knows who we are. He knows
our hearts. He knows our thoughts. He knows
our motives. He knows our attitudes. He knows
what we think and say all before we do it. So He says, judge thou my cause.
Now what does He mean by that? Judge thou my cause? Well, it's
the same thing up there. He'd already defined what his
cause was. Oh, Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul.
Thou hast redeemed my life. What is the judgment of my cause? It's my redemption in Christ.
It's my salvation by the grace of God in Christ. That's the
purpose of God for his glory. And then he ends it by praying
to God to exact vengeance on God's enemies. That's what he
does. Now let me conclude with this.
Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. This is kind of a summation of this whole thing. Putting
things in perspective, the right perspective, as we sang it, teach
me thy way. Oh Lord, teach me thy way. When
all these fiery trials and sufferings and afflictions and infirmities
that will attack us weak vessels. Teach me thy way. And here it
is, verse 6 of Hebrews 12. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth. Here's your perspective. Can
you see the afflictions, the chastisements of the Father as
expressions of His love? Well, not always. That's why
the Scripture calls us children. When you correct your children,
they don't always, they don't turn up at you and smile and
say, oh man, I know you love me now, do they? They'll say
all kinds of things, won't they? But you see, what do we have
to go by? It's not feeling, it's not our
limited perspective, it's God's word. For whom the Lord loveth,
he chastened. That chastening there is not
paying for our sins. We cannot do that. Christ did
that. Jesus paid it all. All the debt I owe. That chasing
is correction that I must have and instruction that I must have.
That yoke that it's good for me to bear in my youth that brings
me to hope and repentance. And it says, and he scourgeth.
You know what scourging is, don't you? It's a whipping. He doesn't
spare the rod, does he? He whips every son whom he receives. Now who does he whip? Every what? Every son. Not enemy. Every son, every child of God. Ladies, that includes you, all
you who know Christ. That's a generic term, a general
term for the children of God. And then he says in verse 7,
now you remember what Brother Aaron read in Romans 5, that this suffering,
this chastisement, Brings endurance. Well, look, if you endure chastening,
now to endure chastening doesn't mean to grit your teeth. I know
when my mother used to whip me, I'd grit my teeth, you know,
because that seemed like it's like biting a bullet, you know,
that kind of thing. Especially with a switch. I hated
switches. Man, I hate it. I'd rather been whipped with
a belt nine times out of ten than a switch. But if you endure
chastening, the enduring of chastening means if you look to Christ.
in this chastening. God dealeth with you. Now how
is he dealing with you? As with what? Sons. He is dealing with his children.
He is not dealing with his enemies there. He is dealing with his
children. And he says, for what son is
he whom the father chasteneth not? That is unheard of in God's
kingdom for a father not to chasten his children. Verse eight, but
if you be without chastisement, now if he doesn't chase you,
where of all our partakers, now who, all who are, all sons. In other words, this is common
to every child of God in some form or some fashion, in some
way, at some time. So if you be without chastisement,
where of all our partakers, then are you bastards, that's an illegitimate
child, and not sons. Verse nine, furthermore, we have
had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them
reverence, respect. That's what he's talking about.
It doesn't mean we worship them, we give them respect. Shall we
not much rather be in subjection unto the father spirits and live?
Now remember in Jeremiah in Lamentations 3, we talked about submission. Verse 10, for they, those earthly
fathers, verily for a few days chastened us. Comes a time when
they couldn't do that anymore and we got older, had our own
children. They chastened us after their
own pleasure. They didn't mean they took pleasure out of us
when they thought it was needed. But he for our profit. Now there's the good. It's good
to bear that yoke. Because it's for our profit,
it's for our good. God doesn't do anything to his
children that is not for his glory and their good. And it's
hard for us to see now. I mean, have you ever been through
something you say, I don't understand what good can come out of that.
I've done that. Do it now. But I guarantee you, there'll
be good come out of it. And you know why? Because he's
still working all things after the counsel of his own will.
He's still working all things together for good. I may not
see it at the time. I certainly don't feel it. But
he says it. And that settles it. And so for
our prophet, that we might be partakers of his holiness. We're separated in that way.
That's what he means by that. This is different from the sufferings
of the world. Now remember I mentioned in the
last message, the whole world suffers. There's suffering that's
common to all human beings. But ours is different. That's
what he means there. In our suffering, for Christ's
sake, as we're identified with Christ and as we witness for
Christ, it's different. And it's not different because
we see it that way. It's not different because we
feel it that way. It's different because God says it. And that
settles it. Now look at verse 11. I'll close
with this. He says, Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be
joyous, but grievous. It's heavy. Some heavier than
others. Paul called it all our light
affliction. I believe there he was comparing it with the afflictions
that our Lord suffered for our salvation. Nevertheless, afterward,
I've got that word afterward sealed in my mind afterward.
That means not during, but afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit
of righteousness under them, which are exercised thereby. Now, what is that peaceable fruit
of righteousness? Here it is. Verse 40 of Lamentations
3, let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. There's that peaceable fruit
of righteousness. We turn to Christ. We look to him. We're sealed in him. We stay
with him all by God's grace, all by God's power, all by God's
means. And weaned from the world, looking
to Christ. All right.