Turn back to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. This message might be about 15
minutes long. I don't know. I changed horses
in the middle of the stream last night. I already had the message
I was going to bring and then something was on my mind. Actually, I listened to a message
that Henry had preached. Maurice Montgomery sent it to
me. And it was just one word that he said, and that old message
just jumped out at me. And so while the kids were running
around last night screaming and hollering, I put this together. So if I look down and read, shut
up, Cole, you'll know that I was in the middle of trying those
kids and writing this message at the same time. I wouldn't
suggest that you ever try to do anything with kids running
around screaming, especially something like this. But I titled
the message Afflicted. I just got one verse. Well, let's
start out with one verse. In verse 71, it is good for me
that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statute. He starts out, this is not a
novice now, this is a man who's been through the mill, so to
speak. This is a man who knows what he's talking about. And
it would do us well to listen. I like to listen, I tell you
what, I really like to listen to elderly people talk about
the past. I used to like to listen to my
grandfather talk about 1920s and 30s and back in those days
and what he went through and the things he learned. Here we have a man who knows
what he's talking about. We're not listening to a novice.
Not a novice, but a man who's been taught of God. And the first
thing that caught my attention is this, good for me. That doesn't seem natural, does
it, to say that? Good for me. He means it's beneficial. It's best. Best for me. That's what he means. And you know what our Lord said
in the Scriptures? No good thing will he withhold
from them that fear him. No good thing. And here he says,
it's good for me that I've been afflicted. So if it's good for
me, then you can be sure the Lord's going to give it because
no good thing will he withhold from me. No good thing. They are instructional. They
are instructional. Yet learn he obedience. Who's that speaking of? The Lord
Jesus Christ. Yet learned he obedience by the
things which he what? Suffered. Yet learned he obedience, speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the things which he suffered. Then he says they're good for
me. They're specially designed for me. That's what it is. It's designed for me. Tailor
made for me. Tailor made for me. No more,
no less. It's for me. It fits me. At this time, it fits me. It
is the suit that I am to wear at this time. I got up this morning. I was thinking, well, what am
I going to put on this morning? Of course, the heavier I get,
the more limited that is, and it makes the choice easy. But
what am I going to wear this morning? And I chose this suit. And this suit is for me this
morning standing here. And whatever the afflictions
are that we have, it's for us at this time. And it fits me
at this time. And what is good for me? What
is good for me? Do we really know what's good
for us? The Scripture says we don't even know what to pray
for as we ought. Do you know what to pray for?
The more I stand here, The more I find myself in a situation
where I really don't know what to pray for. I do know this. I do know this. Always pray,
thy will be done. Now, if that's all I pray, that's
enough. Thy will be done. I don't know
what about the rest of it, but I pray thy will be done. So do
we really know what's good for us? If the sun shines all the
time, and we had no rain, everything would soon die. Everything
would soon die. Would it be good for me to always
have my way? Well, just let your children
do it and see what happens. Just see how long the house has any
sanity left in it. Our Lord always prayed, not my
will, but thine be done. Thine be done. Do children know what is good
for them? Do these little children know? Do they even have an inkling
of what's good for them? I mean, do they even have an
inkling of it? No. No. It's the responsibility of
the parent to take care of the child and to give it what is
good for it. That's our responsibility. And
it is the responsibility of our Heavenly Father to give us what's
good for us, even in discipline. That's why
the Scripture says, despise not the chastening of the Lord. And
here's another reason why he afflicts us. Before I was afflicted,
he says up here in verse 67, Before I was afflicted, I went
astray. I went astray. I went after what
I wanted, which is what? The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life. That's what we go after.
If God leaves us alone, if He does not listen, if He does not
hedge us up, if He does not hedge us about with affliction, we
will, I assure you, We will go astray. Now, don't think, well,
I really don't need afflictions to stay on the right path. Well,
then you think you're wiser than God? These kids, do they need instructions?
Afflictions are the way our Father instructs us. That's the way
He instructs us. We go our own way. That's why
He said, before I was afflicted, I went astray. Lazarus, poor Lazarus, that poor
Lazarus laying at the rich man's gate, afflicted with that poverty
and the dogs licked his sore. That was sore affliction, wasn't
it? That rich man said, oh, so thou hast much good. I'm going
to seek God. I'm going to thank God. He didn't even thank God. And God said, thou fool, this
night thy soul shall be required of thee. But old Lazarus, who's
gone through those sore afflictions, laying at that rich man's gate,
is now in glory, seated at the throne of grace, worshiping the
Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody envied that rich man.
Nobody. There is not one person that
envied Lazarus. And I assure you, many passed
by and thought, what? What did you do, Lazarus? What
put you in this mess? What did you do that made you
to be so afflicted? Job's friends, when they looked
at Job, they said, Job, man, you must have sinned. You must
have really done something, Job. No, God loved him. He whom thou
lovest is sick, afflicted, afflicted. Now, what is it to be afflicted?
Listen. I looked this up. Afflicted. It's to cause severe, not an inconvenience, it's not
an inconvenience. It's to cause severe physical
or mental distress to somebody. That's what it is. It's to cause
severe physical or mental distress to somebody. Would God do that
to His children? Would God do that to His children? Yes, He would. Yes, He would. Look over in verse 75 of this
chapter. I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments
are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast severely, severely afflicted me. I know that Thou hast in faithfulness
afflicted me. And you know what I think this
has reference to? That covenant of grace that was made before
the world ever began, that God with each one of his children
designed, designed every affliction. And in faithfulness he gives
them as he appointed them. In faithfulness thou hast afflicted
me. Look what he did to Job. Paul
was given a thorn in the flesh. Paul said he was stoned. He was
stoned. He was whipped. He was left for
dead. And God did that. God sent those
on him. God allowed those things to be
on him. Our Lord, in all our afflictions, He was what? Afflicted
severely. physically, mentally distressed. Scripture says he groaned in
spirit. Now, when you and I groan in
spirit, I mean really groan, it is a real distress. But now
when he groaned in spirit, it is a distress beyond description. He was afflicted. He was wounded
and bruised for our iniquity. And why would God afflict his
children? Why would God do that? Why would
God cause severe distress to his children? Well, first of
all, to show them their own frailty. Was it David that said, teach
me how frail I am? I've never asked God to do that.
Have you? But David, wise, taught of God,
he said, teach me how frail I am that I may in wisdom number my
days. As to show us our frailty, we
naturally think that we're strong. We do, don't we? We naturally
think we're strong, that we can endure a lot of things. But when
He afflicts us, we learn, you know what we learn? That we are
made of dust. A clay pot cracks easily. or
put under the heat of the sun, or the heat of affliction. And
then he does it to teach us our dependence on him. To run to him. And then to make
us, listen, is to make us compassionate toward others. You will not. You will not be compassionate
to someone until you have literally walked in the same shoes they
walked in. You can't do it. And he sends
us those things to make us compassionate. We have a high priest. Who can be touched with the feeling
of our infirmity, for he was for he was tried, he was tempted
in all points as we are, yet without sin, without sinning,
without sin. But he can be touched. With whatever
it is, because he was tried in that point, he was tried in that
point also. So it makes us compassionate
toward others. And it's to wean us from this
world. We love it too much. We love it far more than we will
admit. We love this world and the things
of this world still, as even as believers, far more than we
would like to admit. And then to make us experience
the power of His grace. Do you want to really experience
that? Do you really want to experience the power of His grace? He said, My grace is sufficient
for thee. It's sufficient. It's enough.
It's enough. You see, most of us want grace
without the experience. We want grace without the experience,
but it doesn't work that way. If you want to experience the
power of grace, you're going to experience that power under
heavy affliction. That's how you're going to experience
it. And then it does this. It teaches to teach us true submission. True submission. We are not nearly as submitted
as we think we are. Most of us can break a finger
now and it's upsetting. But you just let God send a trial
and you find out how unsubmitted you still are. Really. But it teaches us true submission. It took Job a while. It took
some real hardship before he came to the place to say, though
he slay me, yet will I trust him. It took a lot of years. See,
Job was said to be an old man when this happened. But he finally
got to the place where, Lord, I have none but You. I have no
one but You. No hope but You. You're it. And
then it's to prepare us for glory. To conform us to the image of
Christ. No one will be in glory that
does not fit the image of Christ. Last Wednesday, I spoke from
the potter. He took that clay. The potter
takes that clay and he starts molding it and fashioning it
into an image, into something that he has in his mind and his
will and his purpose. I want to make it just like this. Our Father is molding His children
and He's going to make them, He's going to fashion them into
the image of His Son. And He's going to do it through
severe affliction, trials, mentally, physically. That's how it's going
to happen. And then to make us fit for the
Master's use. It'll really make you fit for
the master's use. It'll give you the ability to
actually give a word in season to someone that needs it. It
will. And listen to what he says here,
and I'll close. That I might learn thy statutes. You see, he said, it's good for
me that I have been afflicted, and here's the reason, that I
might learn thy statutes. Not memorize, not memorize scripture,
then stand up here and quote it, but I mean learn and digest. That I might digest what I read
in your word. That I might take your word and
literally digest it. Medicine is not any good for
you looking at it on the shelf. Vicki was giving some to Cole
yesterday, and boy, it didn't taste good. She tried to mix
it up with some different stuff, and he just like, and then we
had to give him chocolate milk, and he just went and swig it.
But I'm telling you, it's good for him. He can look at it all
day, and it's not going to help him. It's when you digest it. And that's why he says, that
I might learn, that I might digest, Your statutes, the promises of
God are meaningless until you really know that you need it.
They're meaningless to you. They're not meaningless to God.
But you can read a promise all day. You can read it year after
year until one day God puts you under an affliction and then
that promise comes alive. The only way to learn God's statutes
is by painful experience. God's word only means something
to those who have digested it through affliction. But here's our encouragement.
He said, No temptation will overtake you that he will not with the
temptation make a way out. He would not put on us any more
than we could bear. He said, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. He controls it. You know, you're going to bake
a cake or you're going to bake something in the oven. It says
preheat to a certain temperature and then crank it up to a certain
temperature and leave it there. And then for a certain period
of time, then it's done. Then you can take it out and
then you can eat it. Job said, he knoweth the way
that I take when he has when He has tried me. Now let
me read you one Scripture and I quit. I told you it wouldn't
be very long. Let me see where it's at. Over
in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Paul says in verse 16, for which
cause we think not, but though our outward man perish, decaying,
dying, yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light
affliction. What we call severe physical,
mental distress, Paul says is light. It's light. For our light affliction which
is but for a moment, there's an end to it. Isn't that good? There's an end to it. Worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. See,
that's what it's doing. It's working for us. It's not
working against us. It's working for us. While we
look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which
are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal,
these afflictions, this world, everything, they're all temporal.
But the things which are not seen, those things which are
working for us, are eternal. So set your mind, your affection
on things above, where our Lord sits at God's right hand, and
not on the things of this earth. These things are just temporal.