A Transcript for the Suffering Saint

It's a privilege to be with you and declare the gospel to you again. I do ask your prayers for me as I strive to preach the gospel of Christ. And. If he's not with me. There's no hope of me preaching the gospel of Christ, and if I preach the gospel of Christ ever so Eloquently, if he does not apply it to you, you will not hear the gospel. But I know it's his pleasure and his will that his people should be encouraged and strengthened by the preaching of the gospel, and it's his will that those who are outside of Christ he has chosen will come.

That sure is encouraging to stand up here and know that. to trust completely that God will be with us. Let's go to him in prayer again. Our gracious Holy Father, please be merciful to us tonight. I ask you to send your spirit that you would take the heart of every saint, every troubled, tried, afflicted, dried up heart of the saints of thy people, and that you would refresh our souls, that you would encourage us and strengthen us. We who do look to Christ desire tonight to look to Christ. We who live by faith desire constantly to live by faith. Resting only in the promise of our savior and his blood and his righteousness. I ask you to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of our unrighteousness. Set our minds and hearts upon the word this evening. And may your name be honored and magnified and may your people rejoice. In Christ, our savior, his name, I ask, amen. If you take your Bibles and turn with me to Psalm 77. Psalm 77.

I preached this on Sunday, and I had another message I was going to preach tonight. As I studied, the more I studied, the bigger it grew, the bigger it grew, the more I knew that was not the message. And so I went to another text, and then that text did the same thing, and the Lord had put me on this again for you. And I do pray that God would bless it to your heart. I've entitled it, A Transcript of a Suffering Saint. A transcript. God has left us a personal transcript of this man Asaph during a time of great affliction, great suffering.

You notice how the psalm begins. It doesn't begin with praise. It doesn't begin with adoration. It doesn't begin with hallelujah. It begins with this, I cried. It doesn't give the reason. I cried unto God with my voice. Notice once was not enough even unto God with my voice. And this he knew, God gave ear unto me. Now, one thing we know as believers is that no one of us is exempt from trouble, affliction, pain, sorrow, grief. None of us are exempt from the dark providences of God.

Every son of God will at one time or another feel the chastening hand of our father, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son. Everyone who is bought by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never escape the warfare within. The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary one to another so that you cannot do what you would. And none of us will be able to avoid the snares, the difficulties, the traps set by our enemies, by the world, by Satan and by the worst enemy self. Every believer in Jesus Christ will suffer great afflictions as we journey to Zion.

And the thing that is common about these afflictions is this. We're always surprised. When something happens. that it seems contrary to God's promises. Now, God promises peace. God promises joy. God promises life. He promises forgiveness and pardon and grace. And yet our experience feels the opposite.

And when that happens, the first thing is we're surprised. Why did this happen to me? We all have that same confused look on our faith. Why did God allow this to happen? Yea, we know better than that. Why did God decree this to happen to me? Because we know he did. Whatever it is, it is decreed of God. Whatever happened to Asa, it was decreed of God. Whatever happens to you and me, it is decreed of our father.

We know this. And the days of our joy, we sing, oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful is my savior's love for me. But in the days of darkness, in the days of sorrow, in the days of grief, our joy is turned to confusion. We are troubled with these sore afflictions. What is it that the believers to do? He doesn't need a prelude, he doesn't need To preface anything, he does exactly what this man does. He cries. He cries. He said, I cried unto God with my voice. And so in our confusion, we cry.

But believer, don't we know this is what our Lord promised? In this world, so you're not surprised, in this world you shall have tribulation. The apostle said, we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. We know that these times of darkness are decreed and that we must go through them. And so when our faith is put to the test, when the deep calls unto deep at the noise of his water spouts so that all his billows are made to flow over our souls, God has left these texts of scripture for us. He has left these things for us in such times of darkness. God has not left us without a word of comfort. And in this text, we are going to find a word of comfort. He's not left us hopeless, but has given us these things.

And one thing that every believer knows, and I'm just telling you something, you know, You know that every affliction ordained of God has purpose. Every affliction is ordained of God has purpose. And I'm going to tell you what it is. It's simply this, the trial of your faith. Every affliction, small and great, is a trial of your faith.

Peter said, your faith being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, it shall be found under the praise of his glory at his appearing. In other words, when faith is tried, how do we know it's real? I mean, how do we know we're not imagining?

Because there are many people who have imagined faith, haven't they? We've seen them over the years. They've come in, they set ablaze and then they're gone. We've seen them leave. How do you know you're not going to leave? Doesn't that cause you struggle? When the Lord said, well, you go away also. In the very pains of your life, you say, where else am I going to go? The believer has no place else to go. That's the evidence of faith. We have no place else to go, and I don't want to go anywhere else. I don't want to go anywhere else.

So we see the necessity of these afflictions. We know we're going to go through them. We know we have them. And when they come, they always surprise, but yet, and we're in confusion. I like I got this earlier today from Philpot. He said this. What benefit is there in affliction? Does God send them without an object in view? Do they come merely as men of the world think by chance? No. Their benefit is intended by them.

The branch cannot bear fruit except it be purged. The love of sin cannot be cast out. The soul cannot be meek and humbled and softened and made contrite. The world cannot be embittered. The things of time and sense cannot be stripped from their false hue and their magic appearance, except through affliction. That's the only way it's going out.

So we see the need of it. We see the man in our text is afflicted. And we understand his need. But we're also, when we look at this man this evening, we're going to look into a mirror. We're going to look into a mirror. In our own affliction, we're going to see what this man did is what we do. What we're prone to.

And I got three points here. I want you to see the cry. The cry of the saint in suffering. Then I want you to see the conflict of the saint, the inner conflict that these trials make. And then I want to show you the last thing. This is the most important thing, the consolation. What's the remedy for this pain? What's the remedy for this affliction? The consolation, the cry. The conflict and the consolation. First of all, the cry. That's what he says.

I cried unto God with my voice, unto God with my voice, and he gave ear unto me. In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. My sore ran in the night and ceased not. My soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God and was troubled. I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed, he cried.

We're not exempt from these troubles. Now, I want you to understand as believers, our troubles are no different than the troubles of the lost. Our troubles are the same. We lose those that we love. You have a believer loses somebody they love. Well, so does a lost man. And the pain, we don't say that there's any difference in the pain. They both feel pain, hurt. The believer can lose his wealth, his health, just as the lost man can. So our sufferings are common in that sense. But you, as a believer, have something they don't. Access. You have access to God, and they don't.

Go to Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five. Verse 1 of chapter 5, what does the apostle say? Therefore, being justified by faith, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." We are justified.

See, what's the grounds of your access? If you want to approach unto God, by what grounds are you able? You're justified. Now, what does that mean? That means two things are necessary to be justified. You must be righteous and redeemed. Those are two things you need to be justified. You being a sinner are not righteous in yourself. Therefore, our righteousness is made.

And notice that he said being justified by faith. You know, you're not justified by your faith. Your faith simply receives it, but your faith does nothing for the justified. That's talking about his faith. So my Christ, you're being justified by the faith of Christ. Late earlier in Romans three, he tells us even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. You that believe you have a righteousness approved of by God himself.

You have it. You don't need to barter for it. You don't need to. You have it. And you have redemption. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world and the scripture says in Roman Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12, having obtained eternal redemption for us. You have been redeemed. You paid the sin debt has already been paid. And what is the result? We have peace with God. You know, we don't barter for peace. What could you barter? What could you give to have peace with God? You could give nothing. But our Savior has already given his blood so that we have peace with God.

So whether you're in a time of joy and everything's going well, or you're in a time of sorrow and dark providence, it doesn't matter. You are righteous. You are redeemed. You are justified. You have peace with God and you have access. When? Anytime. Anytime. Because of the perfect, perfect salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Absolutely perfect. You know what it needs? Nothing. You know what it needs from you? Nothing. It's perfect. Therefore, you have constant access with God.

Paul said, let us come boldly to the throne of grace. Why? That we may obtain mercy. Man, who needs mercy? I know this is only true of believers. We're the only ones need mercy. I need mercy. I need mercy every day. I need mercy. Well, I can have it every day. I can go to the throne of grace and find mercy. And you know what I also need? I need help. I mean, I don't need just mercy. I need help. Well, he said, that's good because you come to the throne of grace and find help in time of need.

And so we have something that they don't have. You know what the problem with us is? We don't use it. We don't use it. We have it all the time. We're justified. We have access with God. And you know what we do? We wait for the big stuff, right? We say, I got this. No, you don't. No, you don't. The first thing we should do is run to God. The first thing.

But being sheep, you know what the major characteristic of a sheep is, right? It's stupid. Sheep are just dumb. And that's exactly how we are. It's just honest. We've got to be honest. We don't always run to Him first. We're leaning on someone or something else.

You see, The psalmist Asaph here, when he's crying unto God, it had welled up so much that he had to let it out. It was not he had it had balled up so much inside of him that he said, I cried unto God. Listen, with my voice, he couldn't hold it anymore.

In other words, he did what we did. We don't normally go to God until it's overflowing. May God teach us to go to him first. But if the Lord, if you would not have go and use your access and it builds up, use your voice. That's what the psalmist here is doing. He's using his voice. He cannot contain it any longer. And he feels free to vent his voice unto God.

But notice this, God did not answer immediately. Look at that again, he said, even unto God with my voice did again. Once was not sufficient. Once was not sufficient. How many times have we went to God when once was not sufficient? Often are God delays on purpose.

I think of that Canaanite woman. Now, she had, she, her daughter was grieving. She had a very great need. It was very urgent. And she comes crying after the Lord, and he does not answer her a word. After a while of this, the disciples get tired of hearing it. They turn around and say, Lord, send her away. She cries after us. She's not crying after them. So he turns to her and does something uncharacteristic. He rebukes her. Calls her a dog. Is it meat to give the children's bred dogs? And yet this woman knew her need was great, and that was the only one that could answer. And importunity prevailed. She would not be silenced. Truth, you call me what you, you're right.

But don't the dogs receive the crumbs from the master's table? See what he did? He delayed, he rebuked her to bring her to the end of herself. What do you think he's doing with you? When he doesn't answer, what do you think he's doing? He's bringing you and me to the end of ourselves. We cry into him. We cry into him and he doesn't answer. What do we do? Cry more. Cry more.

Importunity always prevails with him. The gate is always open to the steady knock. And so it will be with us in our hour of trial. But notice this. He cries and he cries. And notice what he says. God gave ear unto him. He said, I know God heard me. I know God heard me, but notice in verse two, something is strange about this. He says, In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. But notice. My sore ran in the night and ceased not. It wasn't just the Lord was silent to him. He cried unto the Lord with his voice. He cried again.

He knows that God heard him. He has access. He comes to God. God hears him. He cried immediately, said, in the day of my trouble, I started crying. But something happened, something reverse of what he thought. It's not just silence now. God is seemingly Purposing to aggravate. His sorrow. He said, when I cried to God, it's not like my my trouble stopped, it got worse. It grew. And it cease not in the night. We're surrounded by our afflictions and troubles and griefs and we cry to God and he's silent. That's one thing. But it's totally another when our God turns our troubles and they get worse.

Remember that poem by Newton, I asked the Lord that I might grow in grace and love and faith. That I might more, he might more in salvation know, and seek more earnestly his face. T'was he who taught me thus to pray, and he I trust answered prayer, but it's been in such a way that almost drove me to despair. I hoped in some favored hour at once he'd answer my request, and by his love's constraining power, subdue my sins and give me rest.

Isn't that what you want? You want immediate. You want him to turn, put your sin down and exalt it up and let you. Hallelujah. You want to go. You want to go directly from sorrow to hallelujah. Instead of this, he made me feel the hidden evils of my heart. and let the angry powers of hell assault my soul in every part. Yea, more his own hand he seemed, intent to aggravate my woe, crossed all my fair designs I schemed, humbled my heart and laid me low. Our Lord here in this psalm not only is silent, but he aggravates the woe of this troubled man. And here, the psalmist becomes completely honest.

I love Scripture being the way it's honest. God paints His saints warts and all. And here we're going to see a wart. A wart within Him that's in us. Because when God doesn't answer our prayers, or He's silent, or He aggravates our woes, what stirs? The old man of sin stirs. And that's exactly what happens to this man. Look what he said. He said in verse three, I remembered, wait, I'm sorry, look at verse two again. In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. The sore ran into the night and ceased not. Here it is. My soul refused to be comforted. My soul refused to be comforted.

You know what Christ says to every troubled saint in the midst of his affliction? He always has this word for you. Always. My grace is sufficient for you. That's enough. That's all you need. When we look at our troubles, is that all like you feel that you need? You feel like you need to get out of this. You feel like he has to do something about this. And when he doesn't, We become angry, we become bitter.

And so then the word of God ceases to comfort us. It's not enough. Spurgeon wrote, as a sick man turns away from even the most nourishing food, so did he. It is impossible to comfort those who refuse to be comforted. You may bring them to the waters of promise, but who shall make them drink if they will not do so? Many a daughter of despondency has pushed away the cup of gladness, and many a son of sorrow has hugged his chains."

In other words, this believer pouted. God did not answer him when he thought he should. God did not give him what he thought he deserved or wanted. And so now, what does he do? He rejects the only thing that's going to bring him comfort. The gospel. Isn't this true? When believers, and I'm talking about believers, they get into big kinds of trouble, and then the first thing they give up is what? Well, they give up. The gospel. They're so focused on their own difficulties, they refuse the only thing that would be nourishing to them.

My friends, this is not good, this is rebellion. This is rebellion. How often have we been found in rebellion? I want my way and I want it now and we wrestle with God. You know, the only thing here between the difference between an apostate and a true believer is the next verse. I remembered God, but not in a good way. Look what he said, I remember God. And was what? Oh. When God will, God will never leave his children in that state of rebellion. He will always reveal himself. And then when they see who they've been wrestling with, they're not comforted. They're troubled. They're troubled.

This man was troubled. At the sight of the Lord, his grief and his sorrow over his sin now consumed him. His rebellion, his sorrow over his rebellion and his guilt now consumes him. And when he remembers God. He's troubled. And he complains of his lot in this situation. He said, I complained and I was overwhelmed. Now we see, now we're beginning to see the inner conflict here. When the saint of God knows that God hears our cry, but doesn't do what we want to, we go and rebellion against him. And God comes to us and he reminds us who we're talking to. Not talking to another man. We're rebelling against God.

And he brings us into trouble. Now, then you begin to see something of this inner conflict, because now this man is troubled concerning his own salvation. Look what he says. He said, Thou holdest mine eyes waking. I am so troubled I can't speak. Before he couldn't shut up. And now. He's so afraid he can't even speak. He's troubled. He knows this, that God is the one causing this fear. God is no longer his friend. He feels like God is no longer his friend, that God is his judge. He said, I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient time.

I call to remembrance my song in the night. I commune with my own heart and my spirit. Make diligent search. Search for what? Am I saved or am I not? Now he's troubled as to even his own salvation. He's brought to a point where he's actually considering that this is a diligent search. That song in the night that once comforted him brings him no comfort now. Look at the questions he asked. These are serious questions. He says, will the Lord cast off forever? Will he be favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone forever? Doth his promise fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in his anger shut up his tender mercies?

When I think of this text, I think of that Shulamite woman, the bride. You remember how she treated the Lord when he came to her. He said, open to me my love, my dove, my defiled. I put off my shoes. I can't get up. I'm already in bed. It's inconvenient for me. And he put his hand to hold the door. And the scent of her beloved came to her nostrils and she immediately sprang up and tried to fix herself up.

Isn't that what we do? We ignore him. We wrestle with him. We turn against him. We rebel against him and our pain and our sorrow become bitter. And what do we do? We try to fix ourselves up. She came to that door and he was gone. There's no greater pain. Whatever pain the saint was feeling before this, this is the worst. Tis a point I long to know. Oft it causes anxious thoughts.

Do I love the Lord or no? Am I his or am I not? If I am, why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly could they be worse who never knew the Savior's name. This is the real grief and inner conflict of one who has fallen. One who grieves over his sin and rebellion. Has God left me? Has God left me? Is he cast off forever? Does his word have no more meaning? Is it going to fail?

Are his promises to me Now see, I can see how He could love you. But ask for me. This is not the only Psalm Asaph wrote. Remember Psalm 73? He said, I know that the Lord is good to Israel, but ask for me. Ask for me. My feet have nigh well slipped. Tell me, believer, is it so with you? Are you in trouble? Are you in grief? Has the Lord amplified your pain and not helped? Have you felt bitterness toward Him and rebellion? Does the Word of God no longer have any comfort to your soul? Do you feel as though the Lord has cast you off? Well, I've got another point. The consolation. I'm so glad God does not leave us. without comfort. What love? Can you, you know anyone that loves more than God? He leaves his children with great comfort.

Now I'm going to give you the consolation. Look at this in verse 11. He says, I will remember. Let's go back to verse 10. He says, I said, and I said, this is my infirmity. Oh, it's my infirmity. All right. But I will remember the years of thy right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work and talk of thy doings. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God as our God? I don't know if the Lord's mercies are gone, but I'm going to do this.

I'm going to remember His right hand. Who's that? The right hand of God is always our Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you this, if you're doubtful as to whether you believe or not, listen to this. Remember the Lord Jesus. Look to Him. Look to Christ. I will remember the works of the Lord. Remember this, salvation is the work of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord.

Remember the wonders of old that he in eternity has chosen a people. Remember, he chose the people out of mercy and grace and love, not based on anything they ever done or ever would do for him. He chose them in love and purpose that they should be holy. Remember that. Remember that. That's a wondrous work. Remember that he gave them to Christ. Remember that he gave them to Christ and he said by Jesus Christ, they should be made holy. Not at work. It's not a it's not a cooperative effort. Remember that salvation is not a cooperative effort. It's all ordained to be by Jesus Christ.

Notice what he says here. And I'm going to spend the rest of my time on this. This phrase here. He says, I look at verse 13, Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. I think that's the key verse of this comfort here, the sanctuary. He says this also, if you go to Psalm 73, he says that too. When I went to the sanctuary, I remembered. Sanctuary. This was the only place where God met with sinners. I'm going to remember the sanctuary. Why? Because that's the only place God meets with sinners like me.

It was the place where God had sent the high priest. The high priest. And you remember the high priest, he would come in those robes with the jewels on his chest, the names of the people, the children of Israel on his heart. Oh, what a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember the sanctuary. Remember that God sent a high priest. Jesus Christ is our high priest. He came with the names of all the children of God on his heart. He came in His white robes to provide righteousness. That reminds me, He came to be my righteousness. Not part of it, all of it. He's all my righteousness.

When you go to the sanctuary, you remember that there were two goats there on the great day of atonement, weren't there? Two goats, one the scapegoat and one the sin offering. Both picture Christ. On the one, he confessed the sins of the people, the scapegoat. And then they'd have a strong man grab him and take him away. That picture's Christ. He's both the scapegoat and he's the strong man and he's the high priest. And he took our sins away by being the other goat. The high priest took that knife and slew the other goat and the blood poured out.

That's a picture of my Lord Jesus Christ offering Himself for my sins. When I'm in such a dire state, I'm going to remember this, that Christ died for my sins. And as He died, He bore them away, never to be seen again. Remember that. even this sin of the rebellion that you're struggling with. He bore that away.

And that high priest took that blood and he brought it into the sanctuary, into the very presence of God. You know, the sanctuary itself is a picture of Christ. That tabernacle in the tent, that badger skin inside was purple and scarlet and golden thread, beautiful on the inside. ugly on the outside, what our Lord pictured when he came into this world. And he brought that blood into the very presence of God, and he sprinkled it on the mercy seat, which is a picture of who? Jesus Christ. You're getting the picture of this whole sanctuary is a picture of Christ.

So when he said, I remember the sanctuary, I remember Christ. I remember the Lord Jesus Christ, my high priest, my offering, my scapegoat, the one who offered his blood and brought it into the presence of God and sprinkled it on the mercy seat, and he came out. When that priest came out, what does that tell me? That tells me this, my Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered for our sins, rose again for our justification.

In such times, remember the sanctuary. Remember Christ, our priest, our offering, our salvation. And then we say this, who is so great a God as our God? Who is so great a God as our God that he would do that for this? I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder Sinner, condemned, unclean. Verse 14, Thou art God that doest wonders.

Thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and the sons of Joseph. This is what I remember. He has redeemed me. He has. It's done. What were the words of your Lord before he gave up the ghost? It is finished. So what is it? It's finished. It's done. Now, verse 16, through the rest, he's talking about the Red Sea, and I'm going to give you a little bit about that. Remember the Red Sea? The Lord delivered Israel by blood. Israel goes out shouting, whoa, everything's wonderful. We're leaving. They're giving us all their stuff. We're going out.

Where does God lead them? He puts them in a place, mountains on the left, deserts on the right, and hardens Pharaoh's heart to come after him. He puts them in a vice. What's the first thing they did? Complained. They cried and they complained. Would to God we just died in Egypt. But instead of killing them, he saved them.

Notice this, the water saw thee, O God, the water saw thee, and they were afraid. The depths also were troubled. The very thing that troubles you is afraid of God. The very thing that troubles you fears God and does exactly what he determines it to do. He parted the waters and they went through. That wicked, rebellious people.

Remind you of anybody? Remember that. Remember that. And notice this last verse. I'm just going to move down a little bit. Look at verse 19. It says, Thy way is in the sea. Thy path is in the great waters and thy footsteps are not known. You ever see any footprints in the sea? That's how God moves. You're not going to be able to tell what he's going to do next. But here's the consolation. Thou lettest thy people like a flock. Thou leadest thy people. You lead us. Does it matter where we're going? Does it matter what path we take? Does it matter if it's a path of green grass or desert? Does it matter? It doesn't matter if he's leading.

So I'm not going to be able to tell what he's going to do. Can you? No, we don't know what he's going to do, but we know this when we cry here. And if he delays, it's on purpose. If we rebel, he's still gracious. He won't leave us in such a state, he'll chasten us. But he'll always bring his people back.

And this is our consolation. in the sanctuary. Christ, our priest. Christ, our offering. Christ, our scapegoat. Christ, our tabernacle. Christ, our Ark of the Covenant. Christ, all. Christ is all and all in all in all. Christ is all. And what's my comfort if I don't know what's happening? Thou leadest me. You lead me. We don't lead God. You found that out? We don't lead God. You don't get to tell God where you want to go. And I'll tell you what, I am very grateful for that. I'm grateful that our God is God and he leads us where he pleases. I pray God will bless this to you.

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A Transcript for the Suffering Saint

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