I want to talk about things that
are good. Davis said that was good for
him. And I believe it's good for all
of us. Down there in verse 71, it said,
it's good for me that I have been afflicted. Good for me that
I have been afflicted. You know, we quote that verse
of scripture, Romans 8, 28, for we know, we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God is qualified. And
who loves God? Them that are called according
to his purpose. And so, Things ain't good for
everybody, but they're good for God's people. And David said
here, it's good for me that I have been afflicted. David found out
in his experience that there's some things that was good for
him. And I hope I get to the second one. I've got two things
to talk about, but I hope I get to the second one. Maybe I won't.
But I do know that I have not fully learned these things that
are good for me yet. The other place is Psalm 73 and
verse 28 where it says, it's good for me that I draw near
to God, for I put my trust in Him. But this first one I want
to look at. I want to learn them, not only
in my head, but also in my heart. And then maybe by God's blessed
grace, I could submit myself to Him Submit myself to you. Submit myself to His church.
And it's plain that our Father, our gracious God, is teaching
me and I think teaching other people these two things. It's
good for me to be afflicted. It's good for me to have been
afflicted. And it's good for me to draw
near to God. But I'm a slow, slow learner.
Oh, how slow I am to learn. How slow I am to learn. But let's
look at these two things and say maybe you'll say maybe they're
good for me too. He says there in verse 71, it's
good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn
thy statutes. It's good for me that I've been
afflicted. Look what he said up in verse 67. Before I was
afflicted, I went astray. But now I've kept thy word. When
David says here, it's good for me that I've been afflicted,
this is absolutely contrary to today's health and wealth gospel. Absolutely contrary to that.
It's contrary to the name it and claim it gospel. It's contrary
to the do the best you can, come to the front, God loves you.
It's all contrary to that. But it's the word of God. It's
good for me that I've been afflicted. Paul told the Philippians, he
said, not only is it given unto you on the behalf of Christ to
believe on him, but also to suffer, suffer for his name's sake. He said, if you're without chastisement,
you're a bastard, not a son. And when Paul was lifted up in
pride, God sent a messenger of Satan to buffet him. And he asked
the Lord three times to remove that thorn from him. It's an
awful thorn. Don't know what it was. Don't
make any difference. But he said, the Lord told me,
is what he said to me. My strength is made perfect in
weakness, and my grace is sufficient. My grace is sufficient. So he
says, so most gladly, therefore, if his grace is sufficient, our
glory in my weaknesses and in my infirmity, because I don't
seem like I have anything else. And our Lord said, in the world,
you're going to have tribulation. You're going to have it. And
all Peter said, think of my strength concerning the five trials, which
is to try you. So I say, and I hope that I'm
right by this, that no man, no believer should be disturbed
by affliction. We should not be disturbed by
affliction. Because we have been appointed to affliction. It's
been called to us. A man that's born of a woman
is a few days and full of troubles. And I can take three or four
things off the top of my head that I'm going through, but I
know what other people are going through. I know that they're
going through some very, very dark, dark times. But we shouldn't
be disturbed by affliction, for we were appointed unto these
things. Now, I'm not saying that trials and afflictions are good
for everybody. They're not. But they're good
for the believer. They know how good they are for
the believers. Some, when afflictions come to
some people, it makes them bitter, makes them sour, makes them rebellious. But for a true believer, afflictions
are good. And I can give you several reasons
why afflictions are good for us. Now, I'm not saying that
they feel good. I'm not saying that we rejoice
in them. I'm not saying that we jump up and down and say,
hallelujah, I know I'm one of God's because I've suffered.
That's not what I'm talking about. But these things, God's appointed
us to these afflictions. All things work together, I'm
telling you. But here's the reason why afflictions
are good for us. These trials and afflictions
reveal the reality of our faith. How can I know that I have faith
in the Lord if my faith isn't tested? If God don't put my faith
in the fire, how do I know that it's real? If He don't put it
to the test, if He don't put it in the furnace, if He don't
put it under affliction, how do I know that it's real? How
do I know that it comes from Him? So that's one thing that's
good for us as believers. It lets us know that our faith
is real. And every true believer in the Bible, everyone that you
find in the Bible was put to severe tests and trials and came
forth from every one of those trials trusting God. Ever since
you can't find nobody in this book that didn't do it. Look
over with me in Job 23. Back to your left there, Job
23. Look what Job says here. He said in one place, though
he slay me, yet will I trust him. What else are we going to
do? That's why David said, it's good
for me that I have been afflicted. How else am I going to learn
about you? How else am I going to learn about myself? How am
I going to learn that my faith is real? And look what he said
here in Job chapter 23 and verse 10. Listen to this. But he, God,
knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, when he
hath tried me, Not when Satan tried me. Not when my wife tried
me. Not when my husband tried me.
Not when my children tried me. When God has tried me. He may
use all of those things. But when He has tried me, I shall
come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps,
his way have I kept and not declined, neither have I gone back from
the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of
his mouth more than my necessary food." So I tell you all the
believers in the scriptures were put to severe tests and trials
and came forth from the trial trusting in God. Abraham We've
been looking at Abraham and had three messages and have a few
more to go. But Abraham, his whole life was
one trial after another. And yet through every single
trial, he believed God. He believed God. Now all trials,
sometimes they're not unpleasant. I'll tell you why. One of the greatest things that God
can try a person with is with prosperity. with prosperity,
with ease. Because if you have prosperity
and ease, you suppose that gain is godliness. There's been more
people fell through prosperity than they ever have through poverty. He said, this is the sin of thy
sister Solomon. She was fat and full of bread
and idleness. And when a man gets full of bread,
And his idol, the Scriptures tells us that more people fought. It said, let the man that he
that trust in his riches be not high-minded. And oh, I tell you,
that's why O Agar said, Lord, don't let me have riches lest
I forget you. And don't let me be too poor
lest I steal and take your name in vain. Lord, give me what's
convenient for me, what it takes to keep me looking to you and
trusting you. And trials, oh my soul, these
afflictions are good for us. Trials enable us to see the frailty
of the flesh, and to long, long for our Lord Jesus Christ. When
we see the frailty of this flesh, and trials prove how frail it
is, and we long for the Lord Jesus Christ, and Solomon said,
I've tried it all, I've tried everything there is to try under
the sun, And he said, you know what I found out? It's vanity. All is vanity. And I tell you,
you can read that. He said, I've tried everything
and all of everything I've tried, it's all vanity. Vanity of vanity,
says the preacher. Now you can read that and say,
yes, that makes sense to me. But you won't know it's vanity
until you've experienced how vain this world is. And the only
way you can experience the vanity of this world is through affliction. And when He afflicts you, you
understand that this world has no taste left to it for you.
And affliction is the only thing that can make us that way. I
mean, listen. Take a few trips to the graveyard,
and you know what you find out? It's appointed unto men what's
to die. No matter how precious they are
to you, it's appointed unto men what's to die. A few trips to
the hospital and you reveals that all flesh is grass and the
grass withers away. A few trips to the altar of confession
reveals that in my flesh dwells no good thing, no good thing. A few trips down to the valley
of disappointment Disappointment in yourself. Disappointment in
somebody else. Disappointment in your family.
Disappointment in other believers. Go a few trips to the valley
of disappointment. A few trips to the valley of
depression. I don't know if you all know what depression is like
or not, but depression is an awful thing to go through. It's
just dark, dark, dark, dark, dark. No daylight, no light,
no hope, no help. depressions often. A few trips to the valley of
disappointment and depression and a few trips to the valley
of doubt. You know what it'll do? It'll
reveal us our utter and absolute dependency upon God. Oh, when
we get there. And we'll find out the hard way,
this way, that without me, you can do nothing. Huh? And I tell you, trials and afflictions
leaves us looking to the grace of God. Oh, how we need God's
grace. How do we stand without God's
grace? How do we continue without God's
grace? How do we go through trials without
God's grace? And when these trials and afflictions
come, it makes us look and keep looking to the Lord Jesus Christ
for strength, for help. We're like the apostle who said,
Oh Lord, let us come to the throne of grace to obtain mercy. and obtain grace and find mercy
in the time, in the hour of our need. It's like Paul. When Paul had that thorn in the
flesh, God taught him two things. Taught him two things. When he
told him his grace was sufficient for him, it showed him how frail
his flesh was. Showed him how frail he really
is. This is an apostle. Oh, the Lord told him, says,
my strength's made perfect in your weakness. You ain't got
no strength. He told him how frail flesh was and that his
grace, regardless of what happened in his life, was sufficient to
get him to it. His grace is sufficient. And
I'll tell you, beloved, here's another reason why it's good
for us to be afflicted. Trials and afflictions. enable
us to sympathize with, pray for, and understand the weakness and
burdens of others. If you ain't never been under
a burden or been through certain things, you can't sympathize
with people. But if you've ever been afflicted, put down, and
God himself puts his hand hard on you, It'll help you to sympathize
with others. Pray for others. And if you see
a weakness in somebody, it'll help you to understand their
weakness and sympathize with them. A man can't weep with anybody
that hasn't wept himself. If you've never been brokenhearted
and wept yourself, you'll never be able to weep with somebody
else. No man can forgive somebody or
forgive someone unless he's experienced, really experienced forgiveness
himself. And no man, no man can show mercy
unless he's received mercy. And God, you know how God teaches
us to treat one another and help one another and minister to one
another? by putting us in the valley of
affliction. Then, when you see somebody else
in it, what you do is you go and say, well, I may not know
exactly what you're going through, but I have been in some trials
myself. And so you reach out to help them. Reach out to help
them. And that's how God prepares us
to help one another, by these trials of affliction. And trials
and afflictions Bruce Craft and I was talking about this today.
Trials and afflictions help us to see our own, the sinfulness
of our own heart. Trials and afflictions, huh?
Teach us the sinfulness and see the sinfulness of our own heart. Why would we not submit completely,
entirely and say, Lord, why have you done to you? Like John Newton
said, will thou pursue thy worm to death? I ask for grace to
grow and help and to grow in knowledge and then when I ask
you that, you give me trouble. When I ask for you to come and
give me light, you send me darkness. When I ask for you to help me
to grow in grace and faith, you started pursuing me. Are you
going to pursue your worm to death? And all I asked was for
grace to grow and knowledge and wisdom of Christ and everything
I asked for there, the whole world went against me and my
soul went against me. Oh, if our hearts, if our hearts
is as sinful to us as we seem to be, if these trials and burdens
of affliction, how must they appear in the sight of God outside
of Christ? Thank God for Christ. That's
when we see the sinfulness of our own hearts through these
trials and afflictions. Oh, that causes us and enables
us to rejoice in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh,
His righteousness makes us stand in the presence of God and His
righteousness alone. Oh, as the Apostle said, Oh,
wretched man that I am, Oh, wretched man that I am, not
the wretched man I'm going to be or the wretched man I was.
The wretched man that I am. And oh, Paul said, I thank God. We need to learn what Paul learned.
He said, I know how to be amazed. I know how to abound. I know
how to be full. And I know how to be hungry.
I've learned, I've learned that whatsoever state I'm in, therewith
to be content. You know, I ain't learned that. I ain't learned that. After all
these years, I ain't learned that. I ain't learned that. I've been passing this church
for 38 years, last March. And I ain't learned that. What in the world is the matter
with me that I ain't learned that? Why? There's only one way to learn
these things. That's by experience. Through trials and God's senses.
So it's good for me. Good for me. David said that
I've been afflicted. Now look over in Psalm 73. Let's
look at the second one. Look at the second one. How do
you think I did? Psalm 73. Look what he says in verse 28. You know, it's a great blessing. I know this by experience. It's
hard on the flesh, but I know by experience. The lower God
keeps us, the better off we are as believers. The lower God keeps
us, the better off we are. If He lets us have a lot of ease
and a lot of comfort, And this is what's so special. You know
a man can have the finest home money can buy. He can have a
wonderful comfortable bed, a wonderful chair to sit in, the best food
money can buy to put on the table. He can have lots of money in
the bank and he can go buy anything he wants to. But with all of that, That's
where man learns that all is vanity. God brings that person
to know that this is not my life. Christ is my life. And he understands
that everything he's got, this means nothing without Christ. And if Christ keeps me looking
to Him, dependent on Him, and afflicted, that's what I want,
if that's what it takes to keep me cleaving into believing on
Christ. Alright, the second thing over
here in verse 28, Psalm 73. The second thing that's good
for me and good for you, I hope it is. It's good for me to draw
near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord
God that I may declare all thy works. It's good to me to draw
near to God. And to understand what he's talking
about here, you have to read the 73rd Psalm. But what he's
doing here, he sees the world just prospering. And he's suffering. He's suffering. Here's what he
says in verse 12 and 13, just to give you an idea. He said,
Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world. They
increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart
in vain, and wash my hands in vanity, for all the day long
I've been plagued and chastened." And so he said, it's good for
me, these things are, that I draw near to God. And you know there's
some, when we talk about drawing near to God, there's as believers,
especially young believers, people that's just learning the gospel,
people knows just They have some startling things that just startle
them when they discover these things. One thing is that all
men don't rejoice over your faith in Christ and desire to give
God the glory. They don't care about your faith.
They don't care about your relationship with God. They don't care about
your relationship with God. They don't rejoice over your
faith. My family didn't. That's good, you know, that's
fine for you, just leave, don't even talk to me about it anymore. My son's mother used to talk
to him all the time about the gospel. He finally one day says,
Mama, I'm satisfied, so just don't bother me about it anymore. That's awful. And all men, and our fleshly
appetite, this is startling discovery, our fleshly appetite and sinful
thoughts are not totally curbed. Our fleshly appetites and sinful
thoughts are not totally curbed. The battle goes on, and as we
grow, it seems to get worse. I asked an old man, he's way
up in his 90s one time, an old preacher, I said, old Frank Silva,
I said, Frank, is it any easier for you? He said, oh no, age
don't have nothing to do with what you go through spiritually. Being 90 years old ain't going
to change the battle you have in the flesh. Oh, he says the flesh lowers
against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And they're
contrary one to the other. Oh, here's one. Here's one why
it's so good for us to draw near the Lord. Our seemingly sincere
and reasonable prayers are not always answered in a favorable
way. Not always answered in a favorable
way. Oh, we pray, and we pray, and
we pray, and we wait on the Lord to answer, but He don't always
answer in a favorable way. He don't do for us the way we
want. And I tell you, this is another
one. Our spiritual growth, mine, I'll say for me, I'll speak for
myself. Leave you all to decide whether
it's true or not for yourself. Our spiritual growth seems to
be so slow, so slow. We have an appetite for knowledge.
We have an appetite for maturity. We have an appetite for growth.
But as we ask for these things and want these things, but we
find out that we're so immature and so ignorant. We think we took a step, several
steps forward, and then all of a sudden we say, how could I
have been so immature? How could I act this way? How could I be so ignorant of
such a thing? The spirit is willing, but the
flesh is weak. And we're so often disappointed
in ourselves and disappointed in other believers. And ain't
you glad that charity covers a multitude of sin? Ain't you
grateful that it does that? Shirley come up that other day,
she said, where's that at, that charity covers them all to the
sins? She found it over 1 Peter 4, 8. Charity covers them all
to the sins. And boy, if it didn't, oh, it'd
be awful. And we see the wicked prosper.
The rebel, he gets great gain. Blasphemers are free of trouble.
And here we are, we're burdened, we're afflicted souls. And the
psalmist, look what he said in verse 17. He went into the house
of God, into the sanctuary. Until I went into the sanctuary
of God, then understood that I therein. The Lord showed him
the end of all things. Then he said, I know what's good
for me. It's not what they're doing,
not what they're thinking, not what they're experiencing. It's
not what I thought. You know what's good for me?
That I draw near to God, for I've put my trust in Him. Huh?
I put what's good for me to trust the Lord God, to cease to look
or lean upon the arm of the flesh. Draw near to God. Oh, to draw
near to God. Draw near to Him in faith. Draw near to Him in worship. You know how you draw near to
God? You know who He receives more
readily than anybody else? A man who comes as God made him.
God made him to be a sinner. And he comes and stays on that
ground in the sight of God. Staying in the dust, God will
receive that man every single time. Come as a sinner in need
of mercy. Come as a seeker. Say, Sir, we
would see Jesus. Come as a servant. You're my
master. Tell me what to do. Come as a
son. I'm your son. You're my father.
And then draw near to God in praise. Oh, to draw near to God. Draw to Him in praise. You know, it's a sad, sad proof
of our selfishness and sinfulness. if we never approach God except
to ask for something. And boy, if we approach Him with
nothing but praise and thanksgiving, oh my! No wonder David said,
let everything that hath breath praise ye the Lord. You know why he saved us? To
the praise of the glory of His grace. So it's good for me that I've
been afflicted, good for me. That I see, we look at the world
out here, Bruce and I talk about how dark this world is, how confused
it is, how sinful it is, how wicked it is. But let the world,
the world ain't never gonna change, it never has, never will. But
it's good for us. When we see this world, and this
world in all of its wickedness and all of its Prosperity and
rebels just making it a hand over fist. We'll draw near to
God. We'll draw near to worship Him.
We'll draw near to Him in faith and we'll draw near to Him in
praise and thankfulness. Huh? That's what we're going
to do. We're going to let the world
do what they want. We're going to draw near to God. It's good for us to do
that. Good for us to do that. Our Father, in the precious name
of Christ our Lord, thank You for allowing us to have this
blessed privilege. Lord, Your Word is so cutting. It's sharp for me tonight. So
sharp for me. Oh, it cut me. Oh, it cut me
so. And I thank You. Oh, Lord Jesus,
I thank You. I thank You that Your Word is
sharp. I thank you that you don't leave
us to ourselves, leave us to our own will. And Lord, we pray that if you're
pleased to send us afflictions, send our brother's afflictions,
our sister's affliction, that you would help us to pray for
them, sympathize with them, bear their burdens. We ask for your
great and abundant mercy for each and every family represented
here. We bless you and praise you in Christ our Lord's name.
Amen. Amen. Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light
of His glory and grace uh...