Now let's open God's Word to
the second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 4. And I'll begin reading
with verse 1 of Paul's letter, second letter to the Corinthians,
chapter 4. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness,
nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by a manifestation
of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. For we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. We are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. We which live are always delivered
unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh
in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of
faith, according as it is written, I believe and therefore have
I spoken, we also believe and therefore speak. knowing that
he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus
and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes,
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many
redound to the glory of God, of which cause we faint not. For though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory, 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, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. May the Lord bless the reading
of his holy word to every heart. Shall we bow again in prayer? Now, Father, again we enter into
thy courts with praise and thanksgiving. And we thank thee for the privilege
of reading this portion of thy holy word, and we thank thee
for granting us again the delight and joy of thy presence as we
worship together We would beseech thee to take away our dullness,
disinterestedness, and darkness, and whatever else might be here
to prevent the true worship of God in spirit and in truth. May
our hearts be warmed and strengthened. and given wisdom, advanced in
righteousness and in grace. Bless each one before thee, and
all that meet in every place. We pray again for them today,
and for thy people who suffer, need, and who are in distress.
And those, of course, who are appointed to die today, those
who are bereaved, those who have been persecuted for righteousness'
sake. who bear the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ joyfully in glory and tribulation. We pray for
them as well as for ourselves that we might be to thy worthy
praise and glory. For in the name of Christ our
Lord we pray. Amen. Now I want us to go to
our text that we started this morning in verse 28 of the 8th
chapter of the Book of Romans. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
cause according to his purpose. I spoke to you this morning on
the glorious privilege of the Saints of God. All things work
together for good, and the certainty of that privilege we know. And then we went into this matter. of all things working together
in the category of the best things, taking the attributes of God
first of all, God's power, God's promise, God's wisdom, all working
for the children of God or the saints of God. And then, of course,
God's mercy the graces of the Holy Spirit, the fellowship of
the saints, and communion of believers, the intercession of
our Lord Jesus Christ, how he's praying for us now as he ever
has been praying since he entered into glory. And I close with
that point on the intercession of Christ, but perhaps I should
have said finally under that heading, that the rule, the present
reign of the Lord Jesus Christ is also working for our good,
because he has the rule to head over all things in all creation,
the whole universe, to the Church. He's not only head of the Church,
but he's head over all things, and made so by virtue of his
cross work. And, of course, that would come
under the heading of our first point, where we said the power
of God. is working for our good. But this evening I want to take
this second heading and talk about the worst things that can
possibly happen to a child of God. Those things are also working
for the good of the people of God. It's easy to believe that
the best things are working for our good, But it's sort of a
challenge to our faith when we look at the worst things. I don't
know what you've been thinking about, but maybe you've thought
about some terrible things and wondered how all of those things
that we can mark down and make a list of and say, these things
are working for our good. So we really need to know, and
I won't take up after this, I will not get to it tonight, I'm pretty
sure, but in the next message I hope to speak on why all things
are working together for good of God's people. And that's a
rich message in itself, and I hope we can get to it. But the theme
is so large, as you see, I hope to get further this morning,
but that was an impossibility. Now, when I say the worst things
that can happen to a child of God happen for his good, for
the good of all the saints of God, I do not mean to say that
those bad things, by their very nature in themselves, work for
good. That certainly is true, because
these things that we will mention that are the worst things are
the curses that are caused by sin, man's sin, here in the earth. But by the overruling power of
our sovereign, almighty and all-wise and all-holy God, these things
are made to work together for good to the people of God. I
won't cite two things this evening, but under the heading of these
two things, there are many things. I could think of just hundreds
of bad things hundreds of terrible things, and we could just stay
here all night long and mention them. But I have listed here
two categories under which I believe we could bring everything that
we could possibly imagine that are bad or the worst things that
would ever happen to a child of God. that they would fit everyone
under this one or the other of the headings that I shall bring.
So the first thing I want us to observe this evening under
this subject is one of the worst things that I can think of is
affliction. And the point is, the truth here
is that the evil of affliction works to gather for the good
of the people of God. And I trust it is to you that
we realize that in all our afflictions, God has a special hand in them. In every affliction that comes
to the child of God, God has a particular, a special hand
in it. I'll give you one verse and quote
it from Ruth 1, verse 21, where Naomi said this, You remember the story. Naomi
said, "'The Almighty hath afflicted me.'" She didn't say the devil
did it. She didn't say men did it. But
she said, "'The Almighty God hath afflicted me.'" Now, of
course, there were instruments that entered in that God did
use that brought the affliction to Naomi. But I've noticed this. that the instruments that are
used to afflict the people of God cannot move until God Almighty
gives them a command to move. They cannot any more move than
an axe can move of itself and chop down a tree without somebody
taking hold of it and wielding it against that tree. And that's
a wonderful thought, dear friends, and will quiet our hearts. You think of Job's affliction? You know, Job didn't say that
the Lord gave and the devil took away. He didn't say that. No, he said the Lord gave and
the Lord took away, didn't he? I was talking to a fellow just
recently of another denomination about Job, and he said, you know,
Job knew that in everything that happened to him God didn't have
anything to do with it. He said that, and he'd studied
the book of Job or was in the study of it at that time. I was
amazed. So the point here, dear friends,
is that whoever or whatever brings the affliction to us, it is God
that sends it. Do you believe that? Whoever
brings that affliction, God sends it. Another thing designed to quiet
our hearts is this, the consideration that afflictions work for our
good. This is a beautiful thing. I
want you to look at a passage in Jeremiah, chapter 24, verse
5, because here the Lord chastening his people in the
24th chapter of Jeremiah, and verse 5. We'll take verse 4 also. Again, the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Like
these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive
of Judah. whom I have sent out of this
place into the land of the Chaldeans for," what? Their good. How about that? Now, that was
a terrible captivity when the Chaldeans captured the people
of God, Judah. Now, they were the instruments
God used, but God said, I have sent them out of this place into
the land of the Chaldeans for their good." Brother, that's
wonderful, isn't it? And I believe Psalm 119, verse
71, David said something about affliction. I think he acknowledged
that it was good that he was afflicted. Psalm 119, verse 71. It is good for me that I have
been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. See that? You learn something when God
afflicts you, dear friends, and therefore afflictions are needful. One other scripture I think I'll
have you to turn to, and that's 1 Peter 1, verse 6, and see the
good that afflictions do us. These terrible things that we
call afflictions, and they certainly are, God calls them afflictions,
but in verse In 1 Peter 1 and verse 6, it is said, wherein
ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need
be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the
trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that
perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto
praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."
Here, then, we see why we are tried, do we not? Why we are
afflicted. It is a necessity, such a necessity,
dear friends, that God speaks of it here in reference to gold
that is tried in the fire. You may have some gold ornaments.
or a gold vase, or a vessel, a box, or something, where you
can't have anything made of gold that hasn't been through the
fire. That gold has been through the fire before ever you make
a vessel of it. And before God will ever make
a vessel fit for his use in a child of God, he put right in the furnace
of fire. And that's what Peter says, isn't
it? In a sense, he says, the trial of your faith being much
more precious than of gold that perishes. Though it be tried
with fire, you felt that, as every child of God is made to
feel it, tried with fire might be found unto praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. He's going to make
a delightful vessel. out of every one of his people,
and this is the way he does it. So these afflicted providences
of God are necessary, and they are beneficial, they are good
for us. Let's take a few examples here,
we won't turn to them in the scripture, because they are familiar
things to you. For instance, Joseph, you remember? His brother brethren caught him,
put him in a pit, little fellow, and then drew him out, sold him
to the Midianites. into Egypt, into Potiphar's house,
and into the jail. Look at all that affliction.
And yet, dear friends, Joseph came to be the 2nd man on the
throne in the kingdom of Egypt. And his brethren, you remember,
came to him at last after their father died. They thought, well,
Joseph is going to really get his revenge now. But they came
to him to talk to him, and Joseph said to them this beautiful thing. He said, You thought evil against
me, but God meant it for good. Wasn't
that a gracious thing? So there you see, affliction
was good for Joseph, the child of God, and blessed his brethren,
his family, and blessing us all down through the ages. Well,
you take Jacob, the illustration of Jacob. You remember how Jacob,
the angel of God, wrestled with him, wrestled with him until
the break of day, and Jacob cleaved unto that angel and would not
let him go? And the angel touched his thigh,
so it went out of a joint, so that Jacob came out of that valley,
hobbling his thigh. The hollow of his thigh was put
out of joint. for his good, because God said
to him, Thy name is Jacob, but he changed it to a prince in
Israel. He called his name Israel. And
he received the blessing. He said, I have seen God face
to face. I think a lot of us would be
glad to have a broken leg if we could just see God face to
face, get a glimpse of him. That broken leg or hip out of
joint was for his good. Then we read in 2 Chronicles
33 about King Manasseh. who had power and authority and
rule and reign. But you remember how God sent
an instrument, I believe this was the Chaldeans too, that took
Manasseh off in chains and whipped him with thorns. But all of it
was for his good, because when that happened to King Manasseh,
he humbled himself before the Lord and God saved him. So his
crown actually was a curse to him and inspired him to pride,
but that chain was much better for him than the crown, because
that humbled him and became a lead into the salvation of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Then you take the sad sight of
Job. Job, dear friends, sitting out
there in his misery on a trash pile, with swords, lost everything,
lost his children, his property, his health, and everything now. And there is that man sitting
there in his misery. Was that for his good or was
that for his pain? Well, you know, it was all for
Job's good, because Job's grace was proved. And it was not only
proved, but it was improved, and God gave him more at the
last than he at the first, and blessed him, and God himself
witnessed and testified to the integrity of his servant Job. Now, take one other illustration
here, and these could be multiplied. Paul, you remember, Saul of Tarsus,
breathing out threatening slaughters against the people of God on
the road to Damascus. The Lord blinded his eyes. Was
that for his good? Indeed it was, wasn't it? Because
when the Lord Jesus Christ blinded his eyes, he made way for the
light of the glory of God in the face of Christ to shine in. So we see in every illustration
where the people of God have been afflicted, that the evils
of affliction produce good to everyone who is a child of God,
everyone who loves our Lord. Now, somebody asked the question,
how can these things be? Well, in several ways afflictions
can be made for good. First of all, afflictions preach
to us. They instruct us in certain things. Do you believe that? Well, Micah
6, 9 says, God said, hear the rod, hear the rod and the one
who is using it. Now, somebody said he could not
rightly understand some of the wonderful psalms of David until
he was afflicted. And I can believe that. When
you go into the experience of affliction, the scriptures open
up to you. In fact, David said he was glad
that it was good for him to be afflicted, because when he was
afflicted he learned the statutes of God. And then affliction teaches
us what sin is. what sin is. People don't think
much of sin. It's just a little evil, and
they don't feel that they need much repentance. But you let
the afflicting hand of God lay heavily upon them. And they somehow
or another discover the damning, defiling influence of sin in
all its horror. So often in affliction, we are
made to feel the bitter fruit of sin. Because God doesn't afflict
for nothing. God doesn't afflict us willingly,
he says. It will teach us what sin is.
And then it also teaches us to know ourselves better. I think
people who don't know affliction, who've never been sick, who've
never experienced pain and trouble and sorrow, somehow haven't come
to really know themselves. Because in prosperity, in health,
a person may be a stranger to himself. He may think, well,
he's all right before God. He may think that really he's
a humble person. He may feel that he loves God
and depends upon the Lord, but you let affliction come to a
person in prosperity like that, and he'll discover whether he
has a humble heart or not. Because just as surely as he's
hiding pride, When that afflicting hand of God falls upon him, brother,
he'll grind his teeth against God, he'll murmur, he'll complain,
he'll whine, he'll kick like a wild bull in the net. So then,
prosperity, while we certainly desire it and we think it's a
great and good thing, it may not be the best thing for us,
because affliction And poverty sometimes will reveal to us really
who we are and what we are. Somebody who is afflicted said,
I never thought I had such a bad heart as I now have. And one
said, I never thought that my corruptions were so strong, so
strong. One time there was a lady in
a certain home, and she was a Christian lady, but she had studied this
business of perfection, she was trying to reach it, and everybody
thought she was about the most perfect human being they ever
saw. And one particular fellow who was in that building, had
some position there, mentioned to her one day, and he was Christian
too, that he just hadn't reached perfection and he had to confess
his sins. And she was thinking that he
had no sin. And then she revealed the fact
to him how that while she gave forth a beautiful radiance, Christian
radiance, yet she confessed to this person how rebellious her
heart often was against God for her affliction. And she needed
so much to repent of a wicked heart, sin, Well, so much for
that. But you see, afflictions not
only teach us these things, but it works for our good as they're
used many times to make the heart upright, bring us to this very
thing. And it was so in the case of
that woman with a rebellious heart. Her afflictions made her
to realize how wicked her heart was. So in prosperity the heart
may be divided. in part with the world, in part
with God. That's the danger of it, isn't
it? Making a god of your riches, your possessions, or position,
or whatever, and holding to the true and the living God, and
being a divided person. But when a child of God is doing
that, you know what the God does in a case like that? He afflicts
that child in an affliction. He takes the world away. And
that Christian doesn't have anyone left or anything left but God
to depend on. And then he says, how rich I
am. He comes to discover that. God
will kill our idols. He's told us that very clearly.
So it's dangerous for a child of God to cling to them. And
then we can say this, afflictions are good for a child of God because
they work. to conform him to the image of
the Lord Jesus Christ. These afflictions, dear friends,
shape us. They are used as an instrument
in God's hand to shape us into the blessed image of the Son
of God. They are like saws and hammers
and files and sandpaper to just smooth us out and chisel us down
and get the kinks out and to make us into that image. And
I've seen it so many times, an afflicted child of God just giving
forth the praises of the Lord Jesus Christ and revealing his
image, disclosing his person. And then let's hurry on, too,
because a fourth thing here I'd like to say about afflictions
is this, that those afflictions are good for us because they
magnify us, Job 7. I spoke upon this passage, Job
7, some time ago, brought a couple of messages on it. Let's see, verse 17, Job said, "'What is man, that
thou shouldest magnify him, and that thou shouldest set thine
heart upon him?' and that thou shouldest visit him every morning
and try him every moment." Well, Job here speaks of God
magnifying a man. Well, it's true that God magnified
Job, is it not, in visiting him with affliction. Wasn't Job magnified? Indeed he was. And so he speaks
of it here, and I say this, that God magnifies a Christian by
afflicting him. First of all, in that God condescends
so low, stoops so low to take notice of that Christian that
he would deal with him and afflict him. To be smitten of God by
the hand of God in chasing, dear friends, as Job was, and these
other children of God, means God is going to magnify you.
He took notice of you. Think the glorious God would
take notice of dust and ashes and worms of the dust like we
are? And that's all Job claimed to be? It's a magnification of
one. that God smites. You remember
he said in Isaiah, the first chapter to those people, he said,
What's the use of me smiting you anymore? That you should
be smitten again, that you still revolt, you still will not get
right, you would still rebel? There is no use of God touching
those people with a rod, but not so with the children of God.
When God lays the rod upon a son of God, dear friends, he magnifies
that person in doing it and brings him to himself. So it's a glory
to a child of God. It's really a sign that he is
a child of God, because Hebrews 2 says that if you endure God
dealeth with you as sons. But if not, then he says, you're
bastards. So that's a wonderful thing.
You find out through God's dealing with you and chastening. God
whips you because you are a child of God and lets the devil's crown
go. And then we can say too, not
only that, God magnifies a person when he afflicts him, brings
affliction to him as a child of God in that he makes him renowned
in the world. Now you look at this. The world
takes notice of a suffering child of God. They cannot help but
notice that. And Job became more imminent
through his sufferings than he ever was before. So the word
of God tells us to remember the patience of Job. and tells us
how happy are those who suffer affliction. Well, so this next point is that
these afflictions are a means of making us happy. Now you may
disagree with this, but I'll give you scripture on this. that
when God affects his dear people, he does it to make them happy,
not sad. Now let's look at that because
we have a scripture in Job 5 and verse 17, if you'll just turn
over to chapter 5. Job said, Behold, happy is the
man whom God corrected. Therefore despise not thou the
chastening of the Almighty. You would think that happy people
today on this earth are those who never have any affliction,
God never whips them, he never spanks them or does anything
for them in that nature. But the Word of God says they
are the happy ones, and indeed they are. Brother Coltrane heard
this brother, dear brother Freeman, preach here some time ago below
Sharpsburg, and he was confessing some of the whippings that God
had given him, and he just openly confessed. He said, I need a
thrashing every once in a while from God. He don't just whip
me, he thrashes me. And so he does his dear people.
Happy is the man whom God corrected. Oh, beloved. Did you ever see
somebody that God didn't correct? I've seen people whom God just
let go, and I ashamed to say it. There were times when I wanted
God to just let me go like they were going, and I thought they
were the happy ones. But God said, No, I'm going to
have you, I'm going to hem you up, I'm going to put a hedge
around you, and I'm going to let you go with that crowd and
go to hell. And he laid the rod. And brother, I know what it is
to have the happiness of God's upon me. God's mercy, God's love
is revealed in this." So this is not just a politician talking. This is not a moralist talking,
dear friends. This is God Almighty. He is the
one who says, "'Happy is the man whom the Lord corrected.'"
The politician speaks out of the side of his mouth. thinks
that the happy people are those who get everything they want
and everything goes their way and smooth and all of that. So he makes all kinds of promises. So if God, dear friends, takes
our worldly comforts away and just burns them up in the fire,
you know what happens when he does that? We go running to him,
do we not? We go running to him. In prosperity
we may feel no need of God, but just as soon as God knocks that
prosperity for a cock-hat and it's gone, brother, here we go
running with God, wanting to make peace with him and get reconciled
to him. That's wonderful, then. Affliction
does that. And then, I'll tell you this,
affliction silences the wicked. Silence is the wicked. Now you
might say, how does it do that? Well, I'll show you right here
in the case of Job. You remember God said to the
devil, have you considered my servant Job a perfect man, one
who eschews evil and so forth? Job said, why? You think he's
serving you for nothing? You put a hedge about him. You
prospered him and done all of this for him. Now you just afflict
him, touch his body and his property, and you'll see the curse get
to his face. Well, what happened? There was
the devil witnessing against Job and charging Job to God,
murmuring, complaining against him. God said, go and afflict
him. And you know, the affliction as we've gone over, and you've
read it many times, but you know that what happened when God took
away all of his prosperity, took away all of his riches and so
forth, even his children, what did Job say? Job said, though
he slay me, yet I will trust him. Though he slay me, I'll
trust him. And so that put the devil to
silence. You know, Job silenced the devil by his suffering. Why, he served God right on when
God took away everything that belonged to him. And you can
silence the wicked by suffering. The afflicting hand of God upon
a child of God. or silence the devil and silence
the wicked. And then the affliction of the
Saints make way for glory. I believe I'll close with this
point and not get to the other one this evening. The 4th chapter
of 2 Corinthians, verse 17, look at this, the affliction of the
Saints of God, God's dear people, make way for glory." And here
we have it. Paul says, let's take verse 16,
"...for which cause we faint not. But though our outward man
perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Don't you see that?
Working. He says affliction, he calls
it light affliction, and it is light affliction, brother, when
you compare that with the affliction you and I ought to get from God.
When hell should have been our home, should we got justice like
the wicked will get, this light affliction which is but for a
moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight. of glory, not that there is any
merit in affliction, not that there is any worth in affliction
to make us worthy of heaven, not that at all. But affliction
is a preparation, our being prepared for heaven, as God is fitting
us by that affliction, as we said, sizzling us down and hammering
us, breaking off here and sawing off here and filing and sandpapering
and smoothing out into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what he's going to have. Well, maybe I've given you enough
to chew on tonight. This thing is just so wonderful
and so big, I better not try to take any more this evening.
And our time is about up too. Let's think about this. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
cause according to his purpose. In all our afflictions, they
are working together for our good. Let's thank God for our
afflictions then. Got a headache? You ever thank
God for it? Backache, stomachache, or whatever
kind of ache, sickness or disease or accident, or whatever comes,
can we not thank God for it, knowing that he sent it? He sent
these afflictions. He may have used some devil,
some demon, some person, some wicked person. He might have
used even some good person to do that. But God sent it, and
we can rejoice in it from his good hand. So I'm glad, brethren,
that I'm a Christian, because, bless your heart, there's nothing
in God's will or in hell below or in heaven above that can be
bad and harmful to a child of God. Or if we could just take it in,
we'd be different people walking out that door, wouldn't we? May
the Lord bless it to our hearts. May we be able, by grace, to
grasp it and say amen to it. And we'll try to take up some
more of this later on. Now, I'll ask you to turn to
hymn 447. I think we've sung this hymn,
Jesus, I, my cross have taken.