Well, good evening. If you would,
open your Bibles with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2 Corinthians chapter
12. As you're turning, let me tell
you how much I miss seeing you all and getting to meet together
and worship. I miss you. I love you. I've
enjoyed the opportunity to talk to a few people on the phone
and text and email and make contact that way. I really do miss seeing
you here, but I am convinced that right now this is the best
way for us to worship, doing this electronically, to keep
everyone safe until this storm passes by. I pray that the Lord
will enable us to meet together again face to face soon. I happen
to think it might be some time, but we'll meet together again
soon in the Lord's will. All right, 2 Corinthians chapter
12, we'll read the first 10 verses. It is not expedient for me, doubtless,
to glory. I will come to visions and revelations
of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above
14 years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell or whether
out of the body I cannot tell. God knoweth such a one caught
up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether
in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell. God knoweth how
that he was caught up into paradise. and heard unspeakable words which
it is not lawful, it's not possible for a man to utter. Human language
doesn't exist to tell the glory that this man saw. Of such one
will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. For though I would desire to
glory, I should not be a fool, for I will say the truth. But
now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which
he seeth me to be. or that he heareth of me, and
lest I should be exalted above measure, through the abundance
of the revelations, there is given to me a thorn in the flesh,
a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted
above measure. For this thing I besought the
Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me,
my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect
in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, Well,
I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake. For here's why Paul said he could
take pleasure in these things. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. Let's bow together in prayer.
Our father, which art in heaven, Holy and Reverend is your matchless
name. And Lord, we bow before you this
evening. We bow seeking a blessing from your storehouses of grace
that you have reserved, stored up for your people. Father, I
pray that as we look into your word this evening, that you'd
bless it. Bless your word. Bless your word to your glory. Enable us to see something, something
special. of the glory of Christ our Savior.
Father, bless Your Word to our hearts. Give us a believing heart,
a heart that would believe and receive Your Word, that we might
understand Your Word, how it points us to rest in our Lord
Jesus Christ, who has done and always will do all things well
for His people. Father, we pray at this time
for our world, our nation. I pray that your hand of mercy
and deliverance be upon this world, upon this great plague
that has swept across the world. Father, I pray that you'd send
deliverance. We beg of thee that you'd send
deliverance and that you would preserve and protect your people
in this very difficult time. And Father, we don't just pray
that the trial be removed, although we do seek that you would remove
this trial, Father, enable us to see something of Your glory
in this. Enable us to learn what You would
have us to learn in this trial. Father, if it could be Thy will
at this very difficult time, enable us to see some special
revelation of Your glory in how You save, keep, and preserve
Your people, even in these most difficult times. Let us see Your
glory, Father, we pray. Father, for those who are hurting,
Those who are heartbroken, need you especially, Father, we pray
for them. We pray you'd give them a fulfillment of your promise
that you not leave nor forsake your people, but comfort their
hearts until such time as you see fit to bring relief, bring
healing. Father, all these things we ask
and we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the
name of Christ Jesus, our Savior. Amen. All right, now, if you
would, Turn with me to Psalm 119. We're going to continue
our study in Psalm 119 this evening. Let me remind you what you probably
have memorized. You've heard it often enough
now that this psalm we're looking at, Psalm 119, is a poem that
has one eight verse stanza for each of the letters of the Hebrew
alphabet. And the theme of the psalm, the
theme of each one of these stanzas, is the word of God. the written
word, the incarnate word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. So from
A to Z, the whole alphabet, the whole Hebrew alphabet, Christ
is all. I've told you it's not my intention
to preach verse by verse through this longest chapter in the Bible,
but I desire to give you the main point in each stanza to
show you how Christ is all in each one of these stanzas. But
tonight, I want to take our time and look at this next stanza,
verse by verse. This stanza is a very important
stanza to all of God's people, especially to God's people right
now. The title is Christ from A to Z, Part Four, The Afflicted
or The Afflicted. This ninth stanza tells us that
affliction, you understand something about that this time? This ninth
stanza tells us that affliction is good. for God's people. Verse 65 of Psalm 119. Thou hast
dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according unto thy word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge,
for I believe thy commandments. Before I was afflicted, I went
astray, but now have I kept thy word. Thou art good, and doest
good. Teach me thy statutes. The proud
have forged a lie against me, But I'll keep thy precepts with
my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease,
but I delight in thy law. It's good for me that I've been
afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. The law of thy
mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. Now, the Hebrew letter for this
stanza is a letter that's connected to goodness. So this stanza tells
us about God's goodness. That's the only goodness that
there is. This letter is like our letter T. All of God's people
can testify. I think this T stands for testify,
testimony. All of God's people can give
this testimony that God is good. God is good in the blessings
that he gives to his people. And God's people can also testify
of this. We can testify of God's goodness
also in the trials that God sends our way. But the key to this
stands, I'm sure you noticed it, and I read it just a second
ago, is in verse 71. This is the key to this stanza.
David says, it's good for me that I've been afflicted, that
I might learn thy statutes. Now, every believer is going
to learn to say this same thing that David says here. We're going
to learn to say it and to mean it, to mean it. A believer can
say this, it's good for me that I've been afflicted. And we can
say that and mean it for this reason. Affliction and trials
that God sends to his children teach us something that we could
not learn any other way. These afflictions teach us something
very, very important. Affliction that God sends his
people teaches God's children spiritual lessons. And these
lessons are the best lessons we could ever learn. Conviction
of sin is a painful thing. It's like an affliction. Conviction
of sin is painful to the soul, painful to the heart. It's a
painful thing to endure, but conviction of sin is the best
thing for us. God teaches his children through a painful conviction
of sin that we are nothing but sin. We don't have any righteousness
of our own. There's nothing good about us.
This psalm is about goodness. It's got to be about God's goodness
because we have no goodness whatsoever. That's a painful lesson to learn.
That's a painful lesson, a humiliating lesson for the flesh to learn.
But boy, it sure is good for us to be afflicted like this.
Because when I learned that I don't have any righteousness of my
own, that I don't have any goodness of my own, that all I am is sin.
Then and only then, when God teaches me this through the painful
conviction of sin, then and only then will I learn to trust Jehovah
Sid Kennedy, the Lord, my righteousness. When God teaches me through a
very painful affliction, the conviction of my sin that torments
my heart, then and only then will I learn to trust Jehovah
Jireh, the Lord will provide. The Lord will, just exactly like
Abraham promised his son Isaac, the Lord will provide Himself
a lamb for the sacrifice. God will provide the sacrifice.
He'll provide the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, as a sacrifice
for my sin. And if God lets me learn that,
to trust Him, it was good for me that I was afflicted, wasn't
it? And that conviction of sin. When the Lord teaches me, through
the painful affliction, the conviction of my sin, and causes me to see
myself as I really am. If God ever causes me to see
I'm nothing, that I'm completely helpless. And that's a painful
experience to go through. None of us want to be dependent
on somebody else. We all want to be self-sufficient
and independent. But when through painful conviction
of sin, God teaches us we're nothing, that we're helpless.
Then and only then will I see I've got to depend upon Christ
for And whatever God uses to teach me to depend upon Christ
for everything, to depend on my arm for nothing, to depend
upon the arm of the flesh for nothing, whatever it is God uses
to teach me that has been good for me. The Lord teaches me that I am
dead and dying. That's a painful truth to learn
about ourselves, that we're dead. We're spiritually dead and that
we're dying. We're not going to live forever.
It's good for me that God teaches me that. Because when I've been
afflicted in that way, to learn that I am dead and that I am
dying, then and only then will I look to Christ. The commandment
of the gospel is look and live. Well, the only way I'll ever
look and live is if God teaches me I'm dead and dying. When the Lord teaches me of the
guilt of my sin, when he teaches me that he would be just to damn
me, When God teaches me that it would be right for Him to
never hear my cry for mercy. That's a painful experience.
It's frightening. It's very frightening to think,
to finally come to the realization God would be just to damn me.
He'd be absolutely just and right to do it. That's frightening.
But it's good for me if God will afflict me in that way. Because
then and only then will I learn to cry from the heart. Not just
the cry of my lips, but then I'll cry from my heart. God,
be merciful to me, the sinner. Whatever it is God uses to make
me cry for mercy like that. It's been good for me, hasn't
it? This is true spiritually. It's
good for me that I've been afflicted. That I might learn God's statutes,
his word. But you know, it's also true
physically. It's good for me that I've been afflicted. That
I might learn God's word, the promises, the truth of his word. You know, from the time I was
just a little teeny tiny fella, I've always believed that the
Lord will provide. I believe that because I read
it in God's Word. I've heard people talk about
it, how the Lord provided. I believed that to be true. Then
there came a day, it was the day after, I mean the morning
after, the morning after, Jan and I signed our very first mortgage.
We really didn't know exactly how we were going to completely
pay for this thing. I mean, we were right at the
edge of what we could pay for. We signed this mortgage. That
next morning, I found out the company I worked for had closed.
I had babies, little babies at home. That happened to me again
one day, a week from a surgery one of my daughters was scheduled
for. It's painful. It's frightening. But do you
know what I learned in that affliction? This is what I learned. The Lord
will provide. See, I believed that to be so,
but now I know the Lord will provide because I learned it
by experience. See, that affliction was the
best teacher because I learned by experience. You trust the
Lord. He'll provide. I've always believed
that God's grace is sufficient. I read that in God's word. I
heard people talk about how God's grace was sufficient for them
in very difficult times. And I believe that to be so.
Then one day God convicted me of my sin and I was terrified. I was terrified of how long that
I had heard the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. I was
terrified how long I refused to believe it. I was terrified
of how long I rebelled against God. I was terrified how long
I refused to bow to Christ as a terrifying experience. But
you know what I learned? I learned by experience, God's
grace is sufficient. His grace is sufficient to save
even a rebel like me, a rebel sinner like me. Then one day
in the middle of the night out of the clear blue sky, I lost
my dad. The Lord quickly and unexpectedly
called him home. I loved and I respected my dad
like nobody else. And that was a very painful loss
to suffer. I had a lot of plans. I had a
lot of plans for him and me. Things I thought we would do,
now difficult. But you know what I learned in
that affliction? I learned what I had heard was true. God's grace
is sufficient. See, I believe, I mean, I didn't
disbelieve that before, but now I know that God's grace is sufficient
because I experienced it. So the affliction that God sent
to teach me that was good for me. It was painful, but it was
good for me. And during this pandemic, we've
not been able to meet together in public worship. And that's
a, that's a difficult thing to get used to. I don't like it. And you know, I've told this
congregation many, many times that public worship is the most
important thing we can do every week. And that's still true. It is the most important thing
that we can do every week. And many people in this congregation
feel the same way. I know you do. I know you're
not just saying that because of how faithful you've been to
always attend the services in good times and bad. But you know,
several of those people who It's obvious the public worship service
is very, very important to them. Several people have told me,
you know, I used to think the public worship service was important
to them. I used to think that. Now I realize it's more important
than I ever realized even before. Well, God teaches us that it's
been good for us. We've been afflicted in that
way. Some others, maybe they didn't realize how extremely
important the public worship service is. And now it's been
taken from them. at a time when they really feel
the need to hear a word from God. And now they've learned
the importance of public worship by experience. They say, oh,
this is important. This is important. And I just
promise you the first time we meet together again, we're able
to meet here in this building, all of us together again, if
it's humanly possible, they'll be here. I hope we truly learn
this lesson, that we're faithful. to attend the public worship
service. This is how God speaks to his people. This is where
God meets with his people. I hope we remember this lesson
for the rest of our lives. If we do, this time of affliction
has been good for us, isn't it? Because it's taught us something
very, very important. Now, before I go on, I feel like
it's very important. It's been impressed upon me by
the Lord to make this point. about learning that it is good
for us when God afflicts us. These things that God teaches
us in affliction are good for God's children. There's no question
about it. This is the way God teaches his
children these lessons. It's in affliction is good for
us that we learn these lessons. But now you listen to me. That
does not mean that you have to act all happy about affliction
and trial and pain. Not at all. It wouldn't be affliction
if it didn't hurt. Now it hurts. You don't have
to pretend like it doesn't. When you lose a dear loved one,
don't pretend that your sorrow is not real. I talked with our
sister Joyce Brown a couple of times after our Lord's called
her husband, our brother Carter, home. And Joyce will tell you
this, God's grace has been sufficient, but it hurts. It hurts. When
you lose a dear love, don't pretend it's your sorrow and your hurt
is not real. It hurts. Don't pretend that your heart
is not broken. Don't pretend your pillow hasn't
been covered with tears because it has. And if your loved one
was a believer, your loved one belonged to God. They believed
Christ. They rested in him. Of course
you're happy that they're out of this body of sin. They're
out of this world of sin. Of course you're happy that they're
with the Lord. Of course you are. But don't
be so happy and just tell everybody, I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm happy.
No, it hurts. You can be happy and it hurts
too. Both are true. Your sorrow over
loss does not make your joy not real. Both are true. So don't
pretend that you're not really hurting too. Because if you do
that, you're not being honest. You're not being honest with
your brethren. And it will actually hurt them when they go through
this same experience and they suffer this pain. And, you know,
they feel like, oh, if I show this pain and the suffering,
then I don't have faith. I'm not. If you pretended not
to hurt, you're hurting your brethren and they go through
this, allow them to be in pain, allow them to to to express their
emotion and to suffer. Their pain is real and their
joy is real too, just because their pain, their sorrow is real
does not make their joy to be untrue. It doesn't invalidate
their faith. Here's some good advice for us.
Worship. Worship God wherever He puts
you. Wherever it is God puts you,
you worship Him there. If God is pleased to lift you
up to the mountaintop, He's pleased to bless you with plenty. He's
pleased to bless your heart richly with his word. When you're there
on the mountain top, you worship God. When all is going well,
you worship God. That's what Job did, isn't it?
When everything was going well, Job offered a sacrifice for his
children. He worshipped God, in case they forgot to. He did.
In those good times, Job worshipped God. And when the Lord puts you
down in the dust, I mean when he throws you down in the dust,
and he fills your body, and your heart with pain and worry and
fear. God puts you down there in the
dust, worship God from down there in the dust right where he puts
you. Just like Job did when God tried him. Job never pretended
he wasn't hurting, was he? He never pretended he wasn't
hurting, but he still worshiped God and did not charge God with
folly. And that's good advice for us.
If God puts you on a mountaintop, worship Him there. And when God
puts you in the dust, worship Him there. See, just because
I know that something is good for me does not mean I'm happy
about the pain that it causes. Many of us have had a surgical
procedure at some point in our life to correct something that
was causing us a lot of pain. Well, I'm not happy about the
pain, that post-surgery pain. I'm not happy about that. I mean,
it's real, it hurts. But I'm thankful for the result.
That's what I'm saying here. You'd be thankful for the result,
not the pain. You don't have to be happy about
the pain. So with all that being said, I want us in the time we
have left to look at the rest of the verses in this stanza
and see five or six things that a believer learns in affliction.
God's afflictions are good for us if we will learn these lessons,
these six lessons from God's afflictions. Number one, Afflictions
teach God's children the importance of God's word. Look at verse
65. Thou hast dealt well with thy
servant, O Lord, according unto thy word. Now, God always deals
well with his people. Always. And it's easy to see
that the Lord is dealing well with us when the Lord blesses
us, isn't it? But the Lord is also dealing
well with his people when he sends them trials and afflictions
and heartaches. As the Lord weans his people
from this world, he's dealing well with them. Troubles and
trials are not God punishing his people. God's already punished
the sin if his people in Christ are substitute. Trials and afflictions
are sent by God for our good, to teach us something that's
important for us to learn. And one thing that God's children
almost always learn in times of affliction is the importance
of God's word. David says, Lord, you dealt well
with me according to your word, according to the promises of
mercy and grace in Christ found in your word. Now, I learn more
about those promises. I learn more about how the word
of God strengthens my heart. The more I read God's word. I
mean, the more I read God's word, the more it's going to bless
me, be in my heart. Well, I just bet you. that during
this time of this pandemic, this suffering and disruption and
worry and fear, I bet we've all read God's Word more. I bet you
have, haven't you? Have you read God's Word more
in the last weeks than you have before? Well, the affliction
that caused us to go to God's Word and read it has been good
for us. It's been good for us. The affliction
that caused us to want to hear God's Word preached more than
we ever did before, that's been good for us. Because my friend,
eternal life is found in this Word. Christ the Savior is found
in this Word. Whatever it is that causes us
to want to hear God's Word preached more, that's been good for us. It'll give us life. Give us life. There's food for the soul. There's
comfort for the hearts of God's children in the children's bread
of this Word. Anything that God uses to drive
us to this Word has been good for us. All right, number two,
afflictions teach God's children what is truly important. Verse
66, teach me good judgment and knowledge for I have believed
thy commandments. I believed your word. That's
what the word, the commandments there is referring to all of
God's word. Now believers are still in the
flesh. So the things of this flesh will
always appeal to us. But if we're not careful, if
we're not careful, the things of this flesh will start taking
priority in our life. We'll start to think, I cannot
live without these things, these fleshly creature comforts. I'm
going to think that until God takes them away from me. That's
a trial, isn't it? That's an affliction. God takes
these things away from us, these things of the flesh that we think
we can't live without. But that affliction teaches us
good judgment and good knowledge. It teaches us to see things as
they really are. Brother Wayne Kendall, I love
how he refers to these Wednesday night services. He says they're
an attitude adjustment. You go out there in the world
and you're working in the world, you're just inundated in it.
He said you come in here on Wednesday night and you get an attitude
adjustment to remind you what's important. These afflictions
teach us to see things as they really are. Those creature comforts,
things in this flesh I think I can't live without. Oh, when
God takes them away from me, I found I can live without those
things. I can't live without Christ. I can't do it. But I
can live without those things. And only affliction can teach
us that. Only affliction sent by our Father can teach us spiritual
blessings are more important than these physical blessings.
Only affliction can teach us the brevity of life. Only affliction
can teach us the certainty of death. Affliction teaches us
that spiritual, eternal blessings are more important than temporary,
fleshly blessings. But I'll tell you the real blessing.
This is the real blessing. When God teaches me right judgment
about myself, when he teaches me right knowledge about myself,
when the Lord teaches me that my works and my righteousnesses
are nothing but filthy rags that are polluted with my sin, they'll
never cover my nakedness and never cleanse me of my sin. When
God teaches me that, that's a painful lesson to learn. But we need
to be taught that lesson. So we have good, right judgment
about ourselves. Because then we see the importance
of Christ's righteousness. We see the importance of Christ
being our righteousness. We see the importance of salvation
in Christ, and we see our desperate need of Christ. When God teaches
us good, right judgment about our own selves, that we're nothing
but sin. That forces us to depend upon
Christ. And it's good for me that I've
been afflicted. That's a good thing. It teaches me what's really
important. All right, number three, afflictions
teach God's children to keep coming to Christ. Verse 67. Before I was afflicted, I went
astray, but now have I kept thy word. Now we all went astray
from God in Adam. By our sin in Adam, we have separated
ourselves from God. But Christ came to bring his
people back to God. Christ, the great shepherd of
the sheep, is going to do just that. He's going to bring every
last one of His lost sheep back to God. That's what Christ has
done when He redeemed His people from their sin, and that is what
God is doing right now for His people. He's bringing them back
to God. He's using His gospel to call
out His sheep, to give them faith and repentance, to bring them
to God. And our God is bringing His people through this life,
through this veil of tears, to bring them to be with Him, and
He's not going to miss one of them. Every last one of them
are going to be presented faultless before the Father. We know that
to be true. We know that's true. But believers,
like I said a minute ago, are still in the flesh. That's why
we're called wandering sheep. That is the nature of a sheep.
It's just the nature of a ignorant sheep to want to wander away
from the shepherd, to want to wander away from the green grass. The shepherd has made us to lie
down. It's the nature of a sheep. The shepherd leads us by the
still waters and we want to wander away. Wandering sheep. We're all prone to do it. Maybe
we find ourselves getting lax about coming to the worship service.
We get, We get lax about reading God's Word. We get lax about
praying. We get lax. We get lukewarm about
spiritual matters. And the Lord brings us back to
Him. He brings that wandering sheep back to Him by His rod
and His staff. And that can be a painful affliction.
The shepherd reaches out and whacks us on the side with that
rod and that staff Get away from here. That's dangerous. So get
away from here. Get back over here to the green grass. Get
back over here by the still waters. It can hurt to get whacked by
that rod and that staff, can't it? Oh, but it's good for us.
It's good for us. The Apostle Peter wrote about
our Lord and said, to whom coming? To whom coming? And that's what
believers do. Believers are constantly coming
to Christ. I tell you all the time, come
to Christ. Come to Christ. Right where you
sit, you come to Christ. But brother, listen, coming to
Christ is not a one-time thing. Believers are constantly coming
to Christ. And one of the ways that the
Lord keeps us constantly coming to Christ, constantly depending
upon Christ, is affliction. You know, if I get rich and increased
with goods, I'm going to think I've got some strength in myself,
I'm going to start depending upon the arm of my flesh. Well,
God sends affliction. It keeps me coming to Christ.
It keeps me from straying away from Him. And anything God uses
to keep me coming to Christ has been good for me. It's been good.
All right, fourthly, afflictions teach God's children that God
is good. Verse 68, Thou art good and doest
good. Teach me thy statutes. Teach
me your word. Now God is always good to His
children. God is good. Nobody else is good but God.
So since God is good, everything God does is good. He cannot do
evil. It's not in his character. It's
not in his nature. When the Lord gives to his people, the Lord's
good to give it to them. Every good and perfect gift cometh
from above, comes from God. God's good when he gives to his
people. And when the Lord takes away from his people, the Lord
is still good. When the Lord takes away something
that I've been leaning on, something that I've been depending upon
instead of Christ, the Lord's been good to take that away from
me so that I go back to trusting and leaning upon, depending upon
Christ alone. Our God is sovereign over all
things. It's God who gives to us and it's God who takes away
and he's good both times. He's good when he gives and good
when he takes away. That's why our brother Job could
say, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the
name of the Lord. God's been good either way. His
name is blessed either way. That's why when Eli heard, God's
going to kill both your sons, Eli. He's not going to put up
these rebels anymore. God's going to kill both of your
sons. Eli could say, it's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth
him good. because everything God does is
good, even when it hurts the flesh. And if God does something
to teach us that he is good, to teach us to find his goodness
in his word, that's been good for me. As painful as it might
be, it's good for me. All right, fifthly, afflictions
teach God's children the lie of false religion and the truth
of Christ, verse 69. The proud have forged a lie against
me, but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart. Now this
proud flesh has forged many lies, has forged many lies on God.
Proud flesh has forged many lies in creating many false religions,
creating lies about how many different ways that men think
God saves sinners. There's not different ways God
saves sinners, there's one. So anytime anybody makes up some
way of salvation that's not Christ alone, they forged a lie on God. And I'll tell you what the height
of false pride is, is to think that God would bless or that
he would save a sinner because of what that sinner does. You and I are sinners. That means
everything we do is sin. Being a sinner doesn't mean why
I do some sinful things and some good things. Being a sinner means
everything that we do is sin. Well, if everything we do is
sin, what height of false pride to think God's going to bless
me for my sin. It's false pride to think that
we can do anything but sin and add to our condemnation. Anything
we do in our flesh, in ourselves, trying to earn God's favor, all
that's doing is adding to our condemnation. And even believers,
we're still in the flesh. Now we can fall into this trap.
We hear this lie so much we can fall into this trap. We'll start
to think, oh, you know, God's blessing me because I'm such
a good Christian. Look how God's blessing me. God's blessed me
because Because I pray. I start my business meetings
with prayer. I start my day every day before
I even get out of bed. I start my day every day with
prayer and reading God's Word. Boy, those doors aren't open
down there at the church house. I'm not there. God's blessing me
because I'm doing those things. God's blessing me because I'm
so nice. I'm nice to all my neighbors. I'm nice to all my co-workers.
God's blessing me for those things. Well, if that's true, it's not
true, but suppose for a minute that we think that's true. What's
going to happen to our faith when God sends a trial, when
God sends affliction? We're going to find out hoping
in our goodness was a lie. It was a lie. God sends afflictions
to his people to teach them to keep God's precepts, to keep
his commandments, to keep his word with our whole heart. Now that can only be with the
heart that God's given us in the new birth. What is the commandment
of God's word? It's not a list of the Ten Commandments.
It's not a list of the commandments of the Mosaic Law, what you can
eat, what you can't eat, where you can go, where you can't go.
The commandment of God's Word is to believe on Christ. It's
to trust Christ alone. And the Lord sends a trial. He
sends affliction. that takes the starch out of
me, that takes away my pride and makes me depend completely
on Christ, makes me depend completely on His gospel. Not to trust that
lie of false religion that God's going to bless me with all these
good stuff, you know, if I'm such a good Christian person.
But it makes me, I mean, God takes the starch out of me and
makes me depend completely on Him, to depend completely upon
His gospel. If God teaches me to do that,
the Lord's been good to me. Then sixthly, afflictions teach
God's children what true riches really are. Verse 70. Their heart
is as fat as grease, but I delight in thy law. I delight in thy
word. Now in David's time, everybody
wanted to be fat. To be fat as grease meant that you were rich.
You know, you had enough to eat so you weren't going hungry.
You know, you had plenty of fat to put in your food and make
it taste better. And hence you got a little fatter, you know. But
David observed that the wicked ones were the ones who were usually
fat. They had the best of everything.
And he said, seems like a full cup's run out to God's people.
They don't have the best of everything. They don't have enough of everything.
The ones who are rich and increased with goods, the ones who are
fat, that's the wicked. Now let me ask you, you see those
people, David wrote about it in Psalm 73. You see those people
who think they're blessed with all this richly There are no
bans in their death. Everything they want, they get.
They have their heart's desire. God just blesses them with children
and he blesses their children with good jobs and big houses. Are those the blessed people?
Are they really? That's what we think. Unless
the Lord sent us affliction to teach us. Now all of us find
comfort and happiness in earthly blessings And there's nothing
wrong with that. Enjoy the fruit of your labor.
Solomon said nothing better than that. A man go out and work,
work hard to earn his living and enjoy the fruit of his labor.
That's a good thing. The problem comes when we start wanting those
things first. We start seeking those things
first. What did our Lord tell us? He told us to seek him first.
Seek his kingdom first. Seek his grace first. And the
Lord sends affliction to his children. He teaches his children
The blessing that we want the most, the blessing that delights
our heart is God's word. The blessing that delights our
heart is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and salvation in
him. The blessing that delights our heart is one more time hearing
God's word, priest, and getting a revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ, getting a sight of him by faith. Oh, that delights the
hearts of God's children. So God's children can have delight,
even in the midst of physical suffering, because our delight
is found in Christ. Our delight is found in the word
of God. That's the strength for our soul
and the comfort for our heart, even when the rest of our flesh
is being afflicted. And all of us would like to have
plenty of money. We'd like that. But would that be best for us?
Well, that's what we think. Unless the Lord sent us affliction.
Look at verse 72. The law of thy mouth is better
unto me than thousands of gold and silver. You know, we may
have thought that money was our be all and end all. Got to have
plenty of money. Got to have plenty of money stored up. And
we felt like that gave us some protection, you know, that let
us buy the things that we needed. And then the Lord sends affliction.
Well, money. No money left to buy your protection.
You got to depend upon the Lord. Or maybe, like Cosetta Bond told
me, she's quoting Jeff Thornberry, he said, I'll tell you what,
it'd be bad, he said, if you had plenty of money, there'd
be nothing to buy. All the shelves are empty. Kind of like now,
isn't it? You go to the toilet paper aisle.
You might have the money to buy it, but again, the shelves are
empty. Money ain't doing us much good, is it? Hmm. Maybe all your money had in your
investments. is all gone. Stock market time. It's all worthless
now. But you have Christ. You're still
rich. The Lord sent us that affliction
to teach us riches found in the riches of God's mercy and grace
in Christ. And God takes away those those
things not to do those things to his children, but he does
that for his children to teach us that our real riches are found
in Christ our Savior. Whatever the Lord uses to teach
me that his word, the word of his grace, the word of salvation
in Christ, whatever the God teaches, uses to teach me his word is
more precious to me than all the tea in China was good for
me. It was good for me. See, affliction
teaches God's children the best lesson. That's God's schoolhouse,
the house of affliction. So that's why it's good for me
that I've been afflicted. Anything that draws me nearer
to God is good for me. Anything that makes me depend
more completely on Christ has been good for me. My prayer is
that when this particular affliction is over, we won't soon forget
the lesson God taught us in this time of affliction. Well, I hope
the Lord blessed that to your heart. Let's bow together in
prayer. Our Father, We do thank you for
your word. We thank you for the plain teaching
of your word. Father, I pray you give us good
understanding, good, right knowledge to understand the things of our
Savior that you've taught us from your word this evening.
Father, bless your word to the hearts of your people. Father,
in this time of affliction, we ask that we might be taught,
taught of thee, to trust Christ, I trust you more completely and
more fully. And Father, in this time, let
us see your glory. Let us see your glory and how
you save your people, how you call out your people, that your
word is not hindered, that your arm is not shortened, that it
cannot save. Your ear is not heavy, that it cannot hear our
cries. Your arm's not short, that it can't reach out and preserve
and protect and keep your people. Father, let us see your glory. In this time, we pray, teach
us to depend more fully upon Christ our Savior. It is in his
blessed name that we pray and give thanks.