You are listening to Key Life Fellowships Pulpit Ministry
podcast. We thank you for tuning in as we
learn from God's Word together. For more information about Key
Life Fellowship, visit us on the web at keylifefellow-ship.com.
Amen. I'm thankful for the reminder of
the hope, the steadfast hope that we do have in Christ, that
sure. And that firm foundation.
How many of you are thankful for Christ this morning?
And being that in our lives? You have your Bibles.
If you would go ahead and turn your attention to the 119th
Psalm where I'm sure you knew I was going to turn today.
And I do apologize ahead of time that I'm not bringing you some
type of canned Father's Day sermon, but I would encourage
all of the fathers to pay attention to the message that
the Lord has for us today. And all of you men, be the men
of God that he has willed you to be in Christ.
And so I pray that for each of you, I ask that you would
continue to pray that for me. But we will be continuing our
study entitled Living Life in the Light of God's Word.
And again, if you want a Father's Day message, Dad, live
your life in light of God's Word.
Let it truly be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path
and everything that you do and everything that you say.
But today we're specifically going to look at Psalm 119 for
another reason. In our lesson this morning,
we'll be learning about one of the greatest teachers in our
Christian life. This teacher that we will be
discussing is like many of the coaches, many of the teachers
that I know in my life personally, I experienced and I
found this, that the really good teachers, the really good
coaches, the really good professors, the really good
mentors, the ones who really made the biggest impact on my
life and, and, and who were used by God to mold me and to craft
me into the man that I am today were not at the time usually my
favorite people. They were those who were the
most difficult on me. The lessons that they taught
were trying. The lessons that they taught
were at times hard and required a lot of self-discipline in
order to learn these lessons. It turned out later on that I
looked back and all of those teachers and mentors and
instructors, professors who were hard on me at the time, I look
back and I say thank you God for those people because in
difficult times I learned the most.
And we, we know that's true in life, right?
It is in those adverse moments that we really dig in and we
really focus on learning what is being taught here by this
lesson. And today the psalmist is going
to teach us about one of these teachers that we find in our
Christian lives. That is professor Affliction.
Professor affliction, the fact that the greatest teacher, one
of the greatest teachers that God uses in our lives is
affliction. I know that everyone is excited
about learning about this, right?
Please teach us how affliction is good.
We're going to see that the psalmist gets that lesson, that
affliction is a great teacher. In fact, one of the most
important, one of the most impactful teachers of your
Christian life, and God has willed in his Providence that
affliction be just that, a professor in our lives, That
affliction be the thing that teaches us, that shapes us, that
molds us into who he desires for us to be.
In fact, when we see the word affliction, that word affliction
in Scripture, when we see it here, that word means to be made
low in the Hebrew, to be humbled.
And so we understand this, that affliction is what God uses to
cause us to be humble or to be made low, to be brought low.
And isn't that where we all need to be as believers in that
position of low and humble? Why is it that God can be
exalted and anytime that we attempt to exalt ourselves, we
can know this, that affliction is headed our way.
God's desire is to make us and to keep us humble.
And lo, and he does this and always has done this in the
lives of His people through the great teacher of affliction.
In fact, in Isaiah, Isaiah says this in the 48th chapter, in the
10th verse, as he is being prompted by the Spirit to speak
for God, He says, see, I have refined you, though not as
silver. I have tested you in the furnace
of affliction, and it is in that furnace of affliction when when
God allows the fire in our life to be turned up per SE, where we
learn the most. In fact, Thomas Boston in in a
book entitled The Crook in the Lot, one of my favorite all time
books because it deals with God's sovereignty in regard to
our affliction and how just as the apostle Paul faced
affliction. Remember Paul said I I've asked
three times that this thorn be removed from me, but he came to
the conclusion that it's God's will and that God's grace is
sufficient even though he has the thorn in his flesh.
Thomas Boston in his book The Crook in the Lot, says this.
Though the crook in the lot may seem harsh, he's talking about
affliction. That's what our crook is.
Whatever affliction is at that time in our life may maybe
that's pain, maybe that's disease, maybe that's suffering,
maybe that's persecution, as we will see today.
But he says this about the crook.
Though the crook in the lot may seem harsh and painful, it is
ultimately for our. Good.
To refine us and conform us to the image of Christ.
And is that not God's will that we be conformed to the image of
Christ? In fact, we know what scripture
says. Those he foreknew he did also
predestined to conform to the image of Christ.
And if we are going to be conformed to the image of
Christ, we are going to be conformed through affliction.
Christ was not without affliction, and neither will we
who are being conformed to his image be without affliction.
So we need to pay attention to that as we read this text today
and as the psalmist gives us a lesson on this great professor,
that so many times we are taught these lessons by this professor
over and over and over again, and we pay no attention to what
it is. That God is trying to teach us.
May that cease today, may today. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
May today if you were going through a season of affliction,
may you examine your life and ask yourself this question.
What is God teaching me through this affliction?
And learn what the psalmist experienced here in Psalm 119,
verse 65. Read it with me.
It is under the heading TET, which is the next Hebrew letter
in the Hebrew alphabet that we come to, and it'll cover these
next 8 verses, just as we have seen throughout the entirety of
the 119th Psalm, he says. This in verse 65, Do good to
your servant according to your word.
O Lord, teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I believe in
your commands. Before I was afflicted I went
astray, but now I obey your word.
You are good, and what you do is good.
Teach me your decrees. Though the arrogant have smeared
me with lies, I keep your precepts with all my heart.
Their hearts are callous and unfeeling, but I delight in your
law. It was good for me to be
afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.
The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of
pieces of silver. And gold, let's pray together.
Father, in the name of Jesus, we come to you now thanking you for
your Word, thanking You for the lessons that Your Word contains.
Thank You that we can look at Your Word and we can know.
Just because we simply suffer affliction in this life, it is
for a purpose. And we need not be frustrated by
that, Lord, that we would trust in Your Word all the more in our
times and seasons of affliction. Knowing that You have put this
teacher into our life, 'cause us to focus or to refocus on You
and Your commands and Your Word. To focus and refocus on Your
will for our lives and what it is that we are to be doing while
we were. We are here as Your children.
And Lord, that we are to do these things not for our own
glory, but to bring You glory with our lives that You have
given us. God, I pray for the soul who's
here today who does not know Christ.
I pray that You would deal with them by Your mercy and by Your
grace this morning, and you would open their eyes to see the
truth that they need a Savior, and that you would draw them out
of the darkness of sin and draw them into the marvelous light of
Jesus Christ. Lord, we depend upon you for
that, Lord, as we look at Your word.
He calls us to believe and to trust in it even more so than we
ever have. And we find hope in our
affliction, and we find joy in our affliction.
Maybe rejoice in the fact that you have given us this Teacher
so that we can truly be conformed into the image of
Christ. We pray and we ask all these
things in your name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
So we see the psalmist here obviously dealing with some type
of affliction in his life, and we can come to a pretty quick
conclusion that he's dealing with affliction because he has
been dabbling in sin. Now we have to, before we get to
the purpose of affliction, what God uses it as, we have to ask
ourselves a couple of questions. Where does affliction come from?
I want to make this very clear because people don't understand
this in today's modern church culture where where if anything
bad comes in your life, it obviously can't be from God.
It must be from somewhere else and that's the farthest thing
from the truth. I want us to understand that
though people teach false heresy and false doctrine that says
these types of things that God is only going to bring or to
allow good things into your life and bad things will never come
from God. That is not biblical.
That is man made, that is that is culture made.
That is American church ideology at its best because we're going
to see that the psalmist understands this in the first
few verses that affliction is from God.
I want you to write that down. We we we first see affliction
from God here. Look in verse 65.
He says do good to your servant according to your word, O Lord,
teach me knowledge and good judgement, for I believe in your
commands. And he says in verse 67, before
I was afflicted. I went astray.
But now I obey your word. You are good, and what you do is
good. Teach me your decrees.
What we have here is the psalmist crying out to God,
asking for his mercy. Do good to me.
Give me mercy. Give mercy to Your servant
according to Your Word. Free me from this agony that I
have in the form of affliction. Teach me knowledge and good
judgment because I haven't used knowledge and good judgment.
I used bad knowledge and bad judgment because it came from
within me. I did not glean from Your wisdom
in Your Word, He says. Teach me through your Word what
I am to do, because before I was afflicted, I went astray.
I was doing whatever in the world that I wanted to do, he
said. But now I obey your word.
I want us to understand something here.
What's going on? The psalmist is seeing
affliction for what it could be, and that could be discipline
from a holy God in the lives of his children.
What appropriate time on Father's Day to talk about how a
loving Father will always discipline his children.
In fact, we know that Scripture teaches us that if we withhold
discipline from our children, we hate them.
It also teaches us that if we spare the rod of discipline,
we'll spoil our child. We will literally ruin our
children. Look around you, American
church. There is a generation that is
ruined because of a lack of discipline from their fathers.
That being true and that being so, there is also a generation
of church people who have been ruined because they don't
understand that our Heavenly Father disciplines us with
affliction. Many of you have endured it for
years and you have neglected to see the lesson that is involved.
And so you are continually going to go through the same cycle.
You are truly in Christ and He is not going to let you live
like you were anything other than someone who is in Christ.
And he will bring affliction upon your life.
When will he do this? No one, Number one.
We see here the psalmist defining it for us when we
reject God's Word. Obviously here the psalmist
rejecting wisdom from God's Word, knowledge from God's Word,
discernment from God's Word. What was he doing?
He was doing what we do so many times.
He was attempting to do life on his own, depending on his human
wisdom, depending on his human philosophy, depending on his
upbringing, the things that man has taught him, not depending
upon God wandering away from the truth.
Jeremiah speaks of these type of people in Jeremiah chapter 8
verse 9, he says the wise will be put to shame.
They will be dismayed and trapped since they have rejected
the word of the Lord. What kind of wisdom do they have
when we reject God's word? Please know this.
As children of God, if you were in Christ, when you reject His
Word, you were rejecting all wisdom, all knowledge, and all
discernment that you have from God.
He is not going to speak to you in some audible voice outside of
Scripture. Stop listening for that.
The author of Hebrew said in times past he spoke through the
prophets and he spoke in various ways, but in these last days he
has spoken through His Son Logos the Word, and we have His word
here at our disposal. The Psalm is understanding this.
When I reject God's word, what I am doing is I am inviting God's
discipline in the form of affliction into my life.
We. Have to be very careful when we
reject the truth of the Word of God, because rejecting the truth
of the Word of God is what identifies A reprobate as a
reprobate and we. Sure, as professing believers
don't want to bear the characteristics of a reprobate,
you know a reprobate does. According to Romans chapter 1.
It's not that they don't know the truth, it's not that they
don't hear the truth. It's that they suppress the
truth. And that's exactly what Paul
says about the reprobate in Romans chapter 1.
That they because of their wickedness.
They suppress the truth because since what may be known Romans
8/1/19 excuse me, about God is plain to them because God has
made it plain to them. For since the creation of the
world, God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and
divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what
has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For although they. For although they knew God, they
neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to Him.
But their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts
were darkened. Although they claimed to be
wise, they became. Fools, just as those that
Jeremiah spoke of a moment ago in Jeremiah chapter 8, trying to
do it in their own wisdom and in trying to do it in their own
wisdom and in their own reasoning, humanistic reasoning.
What did they do? They rejected God's word.
The sad thing is, is that many people who claim to know Christ
bear the characteristics of a reprobate.
They bear the characteristics of those in Jeremiah who are
wandering away from the truth, trying to do it their own way,
rejecting the wisdom that God has given them.
And I would say this to you, examine your life.
This may be an indicator that you really don't know Christ at
all. But if you do know Christ.
Know this, when you reject His Word, you, you know the truth of
the Word of God, and you and your mind say, I'm going to do
it my way anyhow. You're inviting your Heavenly
Father to discipline you and to bring affliction into your life.
Why? Because He's not going to let a
true child of God live that way. He's not going to let a true
child of God blatantly disregard His Word.
He will bring you Plumb line right back to where you need to
be. And I don't know about all of
you, but I'm so thankful for that because it is God's
affliction, His discipline, that is proven to me time and time
again that I belong to Him. He is not going to let Kirk Hall
look like Kirk Hall any longer. He has already determined that
Kirk Hall will be conformed to the image of Christ.
And if Kirk Hall needs affliction in his life and
suffering so that he will look more like Jesus, that is exactly
what he is going to bring. Into my life.
And it's it's exactly what he's going to bring into the lives of
all those who are truly in Christ.
We can't live a life that rejects God's Word while
professing Christ and expect not to receive God's discipline and
his judgment in our lives. The psalmist here, knowing what
it's like to rely on the natural, his own fleshly
judgment, his own fleshly insight, and to miss out on
wisdom and knowledge from God, is through the Holy Spirit
revealed in His Word. And so when we reject God's
Word, we invite infliction into our lives.
We invite this infliction because God is going to make
sure that our focus is on Him, that we are living a life that
brings Him glory. That's what we have been
purchased in Christ to do. This is the crushing that David
refers to in Psalm 51 where he says that my bones were crushed.
Why were his bones crushed? Because he belonged to God.
He was a man after God's own heart.
And he willfully rejected the word of God.
And in willfully rejecting the word of God, you say, well, how
did he do that? He knew God's word said don't
commit adultery. He knew God's word said don't
covet your neighbor's wife. He knew God's word said don't
murder. And he did all three of those
things, blatantly rejecting the word of God.
And in doing so, God brought great affliction into his life.
And God literally crushed him so that he would be brought low.
Watch this for his own good. It's not like God is being mean
or awful or he likes to inflict pain in your life.
That is not what scripture says at all.
God would that you walk the line.
God would that you stay focused, that you live according to His
Word, and He would that to the degree that when you veer from
that, if you belong to Him purchased by the precious blood
of His only begotten Son, He will not tolerate you leaving
how you want to live and ignoring His word.
He'll bring you back. I'm so thankful that He.
Always brings me back. Sometimes I come back with a
limp, like Jacob did. Sometimes I come back sore,
attempting to wrestle with God. He always wins, but He always
brings me back, and I'm thankful for that.
He will not let me continue to reject His Word because when I
do, it causes affliction to come into my life.
What grace He shows us in bringing that affliction.
What lessons? He does teach us so we see that
affliction comes from God when we reject God's word, but also
when we rebel against God. That's when we choose to waver
in convictions due to our evil inclinations of our flesh.
We just say, you know what, I'm going to do what I want to do,
and I really don't care what. Conscience said, I'm going to do
what my flesh wants, what I desire.
Oh, the Lord speaks about his rebellious people in Jeremiah
1410. It says this.
This is what the Lord says about this.
People talking about Israel rebelling against them, they
greatly love to wonder. They do not restrain their feet,
so the Lord does not accept them, and He will now remember
their wickedness and punish them for their sins.
That's for all the people who think that God's not going to
punish you and afflict. Suffering in your life when you
rebel against Him. If He did it to those in the Old
Testament who belonged to him, the apple of His eye, He will do
that to His Church. In fact, judgment begins in the
House of God. This is where it ought to
happen. It ought to happen here.
When we come back to conviction, we come back to our senses.
We run to His throne of grace and our time of need, begging
for His mercy, begging for His forgiveness, knowing full well
that He will give it. As he has promised.
The psalmist here making very clear that he had somehow
rebelled against God, He'd somehow sinned.
I don't know particularly what does the sin was in this
instant, but I know that it was some sin of some degree.
It was rebellion against God. And isn't that a description of
all of our sin, rebellion against God?
We as humans always want to put it in the categories big sin,
little sin. If the Word of God forbids it,
it's sin. It doesn't matter how big you
think it is or how small you think it is.
When you pick it up, you are actively choosing to rebel
against God and against His Word.
So the psalmist had done choosing to waver, choosing to
rebel. But isn't this our natural
inclination, the inclination of our flesh?
That's why we have to be aware of the constant war that is
being waged in our life. And I know what many of you
would say, yeah, that's that war of Satan attacking us.
And yes, Satan does attack you. And I told the men on Thursday
night, you know what Satan is not?
He's not omnipresent. He can't attack all of us at
once. But did you know this?
Your fleshly desires can attack all of us at once.
I've seen churches destroyed because the whole congregation
got in the flesh and chose sides and fought over silly things.
And so we have to be aware of this, that there's a battle
that's going on inside of us. Paul describes it.
For us in Galatians chapter 5. He says in verse 17, he says for
the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit and
the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.
They are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what
you want. And it's the same thing that he
echoes in Romans Chapter 7. The things that I want to do, I
don't do things that I don't want to do, that's what I find
myself doing. So there's this constant battle
between my, my, my sinful desires and the word of God and
God's will for my life. We have to be aware of that.
Why? Because when we lose that
battle, we invite affliction from God into our life.
Why? God is always going to win in
the lives of his children for his glory.
He's always going to make sure that you were exactly where you
need to be. The psalmist, you're saying I
went astray. What was he saying?
I carelessly. Wandered away from the truth.
I don't believe for one second that there's any Christian in
this room today who says I'm going to just wander away from
the truth. And I've made-up my mind to do
that. You know, what happens is you
become careless in your life and before you know it, you
carelessly wander away from the truth.
You carelessly rebel against God and your flesh craves that, and
your flesh enjoys that, and you continue to feed your flesh.
And here's the thing, if you believe the word of God, you
know this. You're a new creation now, and
God is not going to let you live like you're still the old
creation created in in sin. You are recreated in Christ and
He's going to make sure through his discipline that you are
acting like Christ, that you are not continually wandering away
from the truth and rebelling against God in your life.
Now please know we're all prone to wonder.
That's why this message is so applicable to all of us, because
we can all be at the door of God's hand of discipline on our
life right now. And we know this because Isaiah
53 tells us this in verse 6. We all, like sheep, have gone
astray. Isn't that true?
We're prone to that. We're prone to going astray,
especially when we're walking in the flesh and not walking in the
Spirit. We have to give great care to
that. Stop carelessly wandering
through this life. And to take the Word of God and
to walk according to what He has commanded.
God's not going to tolerate us rejecting His Word.
He's not going to tolerate blatant rebellion from his
children. When you do this, hardships
coming. Discipline's coming.
God is going to make sure that he gets your attention.
Hebrews chapter 12 Our our Bible reading today is so important in
in regard to this particular topic.
It says this in verse 7. There are 12 in their hardship
as discipline. God is treating you as sons to
many of you. You read that and you find no
comfort in that. I find great comfort in that, to
know that he calls me his son and part of his love for his
children is this. He disciplines those that he
loves. He goes on and he says for what?
What son is not disciplined by his father?
Of course, this is assuming that we're back in the day where it
was norm for fathers to discipline their children.
I think we ought to all get T-shirts, bring discipline back,
wear them every single day. You know what I'm talking about.
We've all been to Walmart. We see the unruly kids.
I can't get over it. An adult negotiating with the
toddler. We do not negotiate with
terrorists. No discipline that toddler.
You've already told them four times to not get that candy off
that shelf. Discipline them right there in
Walmart. It's still legal in the state of
Texas. Put it in the right place.
It's no coincidence. I know I'm going to get in
trouble for this, but I don't care.
It's no coincidence that you just have this big massive
muscle in your rear end with no vital organs anywhere close.
It's because God's Word says if you spare the rod, you spoil the
child, that they are to be disciplined and you are to
inflict pain in their lives. It's for all the liberals.
They're not afraid I'm going to hurt them, you are going to hurt
them. That's the point our earthly
fathers heard us to make a point.
They, they, they caused us to suffer pain and affliction.
That's what he's saying here. These people understood this.
We have a hard time understanding it in our day, he
says. If you're not disciplined and
everyone undergoes discipline. He says then you're illegitimate
children are not true sons. What is he saying there?
Pay attention to this church if you can live any way that you
want to live and call yourself a Christian.
And God's discipline doesn't come into your life in the form
of some kind of affliction. You're not truly saved.
You don't belong to Him. He's making this very clear
because if you did belong to him, he would step in and he
would inflict pain and He would inflict suffering into your life
to get your attention. He's not trying to get the
attention of the lost world that way.
They don't belong to him. They're not children of God.
They're children of sin and Satan.
And you know what they're doing? They are storing up for
themselves wrath for the day of judgment.
He's not going to discipline them in this lifetime, making
them holy because He's holy. That's what he does for his
children. He's sanctifying us.
He's not sanctifying the unjustified.
What he's doing is he's ignoring their sin for the time being.
And one day they will suffer under the full fury of the wrath
of God in hell. And so please understand that as
believers, when you see discipline come into your life,
don't be mad at God about it. You brought it on yourself.
You knew what your Heavenly Father expected of you, and you
rebelled against that. You knew His commands.
You knew His who He is and what He has.
Dictated in his word, and you said I'm going to do what I want
to do anyways, just like a spoiled brat, and what's going
to happen? You're going to get a spoiled
brat's reward, he says. If you're without discipline,
you're legitimate, not true sons, He says.
Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us, and
we respected them for it. How much more should we submit
to the Father of our spirits and live?
He said You respected your earthly fathers because they
disciplined you. Watch what he says about it.
Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought
best, but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in
His Holiness. He speaks common sense here.
No discipline seems pleasant at the time.
No it doesn't. He says, but painful.
That's for all of you people who say God wouldn't inflict pain.
He's saying this God is going to inflict pain in the lives of his
children who rebel against him, but he's teaching you something.
This pain is the. Professor that we're talking
about, he says later on, however, it produces a harvest
of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by,
he's saying your earthly fathers, they discipline you,
they inflict pain on you, and it's for your own good.
How much more is the perfect God's discipline in the lives of
His children? How much more?
I want to think about it from time to time.
My my children are grown now and I'm very pleased at what the
Lord has done in their lives. But I can remember back to their
childhood because I was a disciplinarian.
Why? Because God is a disciplinarian
and I didn't know how to be a father.
And so when I found out that I. Was going to have children.
I said, Lord, show me how to be a good father like you're a good
father. You know what I learned about
God? Equal parts love and discipline.
Mix those together and you'll be a godly parent.
You love your kids when they need love and you discipline
them when they need discipline. And you never waver in either of
the two. And So what I learned there is,
is from this text here. Hey, you know what I had people
telling me all the time. Don't you think you're being a
little too hard on those kids? To which I would reply, usually
under my breath. Don't you think you need to mind
your own business? I see that God's given you
children to raise. Why don't you go raise yours and
let me raise mine? Because my intent was to do
nothing less than to point my children to.
Christ to point my children to the scriptures and I would be
doing them an injustice if I taught them about a father who
did not discipline, because then they might think that our
heavenly Father doesn't discipline when that's the.
Farthest thing from the truth. Those he loves, he disciplines.
But. It brings a harvest of
righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by
it. Or we learn to be thankful for
discipline. Not at the time it hurts.
We learn later. So the psalmist very clearly
understanding here that affliction comes from God in the
form of discipline. But before I was afflicted, I
went astray. I guess you did.
And when you went astray, he got your attention and now you're
coming back and you're saying, do good to your servant
according to your word. Do what you promised.
I'm going to walk in the way that I need to walk because I
got the message loud and clear. The problem with some of the
so-called Christians in the American church, you don't get
the message loud and clear. You keep going through the same
affliction over and over and over and over again.
You're like that rebellious child, right?
You're like my daughter. The day that I got a call when
she was very young, I got a call at the office at the church that
I pastored and her mom says I don't know what to do with your
daughter. Of course, she was my daughter
at the time. I said what are you talking
about? I got work to do.
She said she's not minding. I said spank her rear end.
She said I already have 7 times. I said make it a nice round 8,
see if that doesn't work. But eventually, through that
pain, through that suffering, through that affliction, she
learned this. My father, my parents, they are
not going to waver. They have said this is the way
it is, this is the way it's going to be, and it's going to
be easier for me if I just obey what they say.
And our good and gracious Heavenly Father is the same way.
People, be thankful when He afflicts you.
The moment that it happens, thank Him that He loves you
enough that He didn't just leave you to your sin.
You brought discipline on your life to bring you back out of.
Of that sin so loving, God will bring affliction into the lives
of His people when they refuse to obey His word and when they
stray. Secondly, we see in regard to
affliction that not only does affliction come from God by His
own sovereign hand, affliction also comes from man.
I want you to see that. Because I don't want you to
think that the only affliction that God allows into our life
comes from His hand, because that's not always the case.
God sovereignly decrees, and He also allows demand to bring
affliction into our lives. And so know this as God's
children, as those who are professors of Christ, that we're
subject to affliction not only when we disobey God, we're
subject to affliction. That comes from unbelieving men,
from those who are lost in our culture, from those who are lost
in our society, from those who hate God and hate His word.
We're going to receive affliction from these people, so
know that it's just going to be a part of our life.
In fact, Paul told Timothy that if we seek to live godly lives,
we will face persecution. At the end of the day, all of
us, if you're living for Christ, are going to be afflicted by
unbelieving people. What happens?
This affliction comes to us, resulting in unjust defamation.
Look what the psalmist says there in 69, He says, though the
arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep your precepts with
all my heart, he says. I'm holding on to your word.
Even though they're lying about me, they're saying false things
about me. He understands the reason why in
verse 70, their hearts are calloused and unfeeling.
They're just lost, he said. But I delight in your law, he's
saying. I'm not going to be sideswiped
and be discouraged because of the critics.
I'm going to see them for what they are.
They are lost, unbelieving people who do not have a
relationship with God, therefore they hate people who do.
Who have no regard to holiness, therefore they they hate people
who do. And he says I'm not going to let
them sideswipe me. I'm going to delight in God's
law. I'm going to stay focused on
your word. So affliction comes to us and it
results in that unjust defamation that none of us like
right? Nobody likes for someone to lie
about you, to say mean things about you, to make up ugly.
Stories about you. Anybody here like that?
You ought to try being a pastor. It's a common thing, right?
They love to say things about pastors, and that's fine.
I don't care. God's going to handle you.
What I have learned is that when I face this, God is trying to
teach me something through it or he wouldn't have allowed it in
my life. He's trying to teach me
something. Maybe He's trying to humble me.
Maybe he's trying to teach me how to pray for others who are,
as the psalmist said, callous and unfeeling, to bring me to a
point where I'll actually lower myself and to pray for those who
persecute me. You know, like Jesus, when he
looked down and he said to those who just hung him on a cross,
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
Perhaps he's teaching me that lesson through the affliction
that I'm facing. But nevertheless Jesus said it
was going to be this way but. We have great.
Comfort, don't we? In the words of Christ, he said
in Matthew chapter 5 verse 11, blessed are you when when people
insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil
against you because of me. Make sure that because of me is
a part of this. He says rejoice and be glad
because great is your reward in heaven.
From the same way they persecuted the prophets who were
before you. He's saying you're in good
company. They persecuted the prophets for
doing exactly what God wanted them to do.
And God allowed this affliction. You guys remember Elijah and yet
there he is whining. I'm all by myself and everybody
else is falling bail. And God said stop.
I saved the remnants. Stop whining.
I brought this affliction into your life so that you can look
to me. I'm.
Going to see that lesson so clearly in just a moment.
But let us learn to rejoice when people verbally persecute us and
they afflict us with lies and false words.
Psalmist here having to endure this.
But also, what about? Physical affliction, physical
persecution. I know in the American church
that's the farthest thing from our mind.
But I want to just break it to all of you so you understand
this. We're not the only country in
the world. In fact, there are many other
countries who they don't get to freely come in and worship as
we're doing right now. And in fact, if they did, they
would be tortured and even killed for their faith in Jesus
Christ. And it's a sad day when we don't
think about those who are undergoing physical affliction.
They're actually being persecuted.
And you know what they that you find out about these people who
are being physically persecuted, it strengthens them.
It teaches them to trust God. Matthew chapter 24, verse 9.
Jesus let us know it would be this way.
He said then you will be handed. Over to be persecuted and put to
death and you will be hated by all nations because of me who
wants to come to Jesus. You see why the American church
has watered down the gospel so much, Because when you tell
them, you're going to be hated, you're going to be handed over
and be persecuted, you're going to even be put to death.
Now come on, who wants to follow?
The sad thing is the American church has to change the gospel,
which is no gospel at all. They've changed it into, hey,
ask Jesus in your heart, and everything's going to be.
Peachy. It's not the truth.
The truth is, if you live for Christ, you're going to be
persecuted. You're going to be blasted
verbally and afflicted by those who make lies up about you.
And at some point in time you could be physically persecuted,
physically afflicted with pain and even death.
This affliction is allowed by God.
It is a part of His plan. And did you know this?
It's been a part of His plan all throughout Orthodox
Christianity, throughout history.
It's only in the last few 100 years with this great nation
that we live in and we haven't had to suffer that kind of
persecution as the church. Many would ask why?
I have my thoughts on it. You don't know what they.
Are I think because God knows that the American church
couldn't handle it. The American church couldn't
handle it. We're free to live for Christ
and we don't do it. Now let me just give you a
little common sense thought here.
You're never going to die for something that you won't first
live for. Or in this case someone.
We spend most of our time in the American church trying to
convince people to live for Christ.
That ought to be second nature. That ought to be our new nature.
Just living for Christ, obeying his word, desiring to be holy,
desiring to be sanctified and set apart from the world, that
ought to be our nature. I believe that God won't allow
and hasn't allowed yet. The persecution to come upon the
American church physically because we're just not ready
for. It you know what, I pray, I pray
that we would get ready for it because we're not in control of
that. In the moment that God wills it,
it's going to happen. You know what you're going to
find out. You're going to find out just
what we found out during COVID. There's a lot of people who talk
a big game, but when their life's at stake, Oh no way.
You've heard me often times talk about this.
I remember our elder meeting in regard to COVID.
We came together and we said, what are we going to do, right?
Because when we heard it, the whole world was going to die,
right? What are we going to do?
And the eldest and the most unhealthy of all of our elders
said this. Let's meet.
Together and let's worship the Lord because that's what we've
been commanded to do. And.
If one soul saved and it cost me my life, then so be it.
That's a person who's not only willing to live for Christ,
that's a person who's willing to die for Christ.
And there is a huge difference. There's so many in the American
church that Christ is only just their free ticket to heaven.
When the fire of affliction is turned up from unbelieving
mankind, they reject even knowing Christ and walk away
from Him. As if he's a bad habit that
should be dumped. And so there are those who will
unjustly defame us. See them for what they are.
They're the world and the world hates us and we're not to be a
part of the world and the reason that we don't face.
This persecution in our country is because we have made close
friends with the world. The world has become the ally to
the church. I hear pastors say this all the
time. You could lose your 5O1C3
status. So I could continue to preach
the gospel no matter what you want to define me as.
I'm not going to be allies with the world.
Then I break the news to them. We're not 5O1C3 anyways because
we don't want the government involved in our affairs.
Because we serve one true King, King Jesus, the one true and
living God. And so we see that the lost
world unjustly defames us. Because they hate us.
And if they're not talking bad about us?
It's because they like us and if they like.
You, you have become a friend of the world.
Now here's what James says about this.
You can get mad at him if you want to, but please don't get
mad at me. And if you do get mad at me, I'm
not really going to care. I'm just going to say I didn't
say it. James did.
James says this and James 4/4. You adulterous people, Don't you
know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?
Yikes, he says. Anyone who chooses to be a
friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
You know why the Christian Church in America is not being
afflicted by the pagans in our. Society like we should be,
because we're not living for Christ like we have been
commanded to live. So it, when we do, results in
unjust defamation. If you're not being defamed by
the lost world, you're not living loudly enough for Christ.
This affliction that man brings results in unjust defamation of
the believer, but also it's resulting from utter disrespect.
Please see these people for what they are.
I don't want to be friends with the world, and here's why.
I don't want to be friends with the world, and here's why You
shouldn't be friends with the world.
You say, well, what do I mean friends with the world?
If you go to the places the world goes, you do the things
that the world does. You speak the language that the
world speaks. You partake of the substances
that the world partakes of. You know what I'm talking about.
If you do these things, you're of the world.
You're not separate from them and you need to be aware of
this. They bring affliction to the
believer because they have an utter disrespect #1 for God.
They disrespect God Himself. In fact, in John 15 verse 18,
the Lord says this. He says if the world hates you,
keep in mind that it hated me first.
If you belong to the world, it would love you as its own.
That's for all of you who you can get along with the world,
you can party with the world, and you can still walk into the
church on a Sunday morning and not have a second thought about
it. God's Word is telling you this
morning, you're not of the church, you're of the world.
See that? If the world hates you, keep in
mind that it hated me first. If you belong.
To the world, it would love you as its own.
As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you
out of the world. That's why the world hates us.
This God has sovereignly chosen, chosen us out of our sin, out of
the darkness, brought us into His marvelous light.
This is what I've chosen you out of the world.
That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to
you. No servant is greater than his
master. If they persecuted me, they will
persecute you also. Did you get that church?
They persecuted Christ, did they not?
And if you were reflecting Christ, he says you're going to
get the same treatment, affliction from man.
So that they obeyed my teaching. They would if they obeyed my
teaching, they will obey yours also.
They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do
not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to
them, they would not be guilty of sin.
Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.
He who hates me hates my Father as well.
He's saying they hate me, they hate the Father.
He says in verse 24, if I had not done among them what no one
else did, they would not be guilty of sin.
But now they have seen these miracles and yet they they have
hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is
written in their law. They hated me without reason.
Why did I read all that to you? I read all that to show you that
they hated Jesus without reason too.
And if you're living for Christ, they're going to hate you
without reason. They don't know it, just as they
didn't know it in the case of Jesus.
They hated their Creator, They hate His Holiness, they hate His
attributes, they hate His word, and it comes out in the form of
hating His people. Now let me just help you all.
If the world still likes you, you have a spiritual problem,
and that problem could be that you're not truly born again,
because when a person is born again, they are brought out of
the darkness into the light and their light, just as Christ
light did. It exposes the wicked deeds of
darkness. They see your holy life and they
hate the work that God has done in you, because they hate God.
They utterly disrespect him. They utterly disrespect his
word. They hate the truth.
Is that not what John says in John chapter 3 when he says
this? Everyone who does evil hates the
light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds
will be exposed. Exposed by what?
Watch. But whoever lives by the truth
comes into the light exposed by the truth.
What is the truth? We are all sinners and we have
all offended a holy God, and we all need redemption.
And apart from Jesus Christ there is no chance of that
redemption, He says. But what?
Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it is.
It may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done
through God, He says, a person who is.
Truly in the light lives by the truth.
And that truth explains to them and everyone else that God has
done a work in them. Now let me just help you.
If you're not living life in light of the truth of Scripture
and have no desire to do that, God's not yet done a work in
you. You've not yet been born again.
So what does this have to do with me being born again?
John Chapter 3, that's where he talks about being born again at
the beginning of that chapter. And he ends with this.
If you have no desire for truth and you have no desire to live
in the light and God's not done a work in your life, I don't say
that to upset you. I say that because I care about
you. I care about your soul.
I care about your eternal condition.
I'm not going to not tell you the truth as you take step after
step closer to perishing for all eternity.
I care too much about you. And God cares too much about
you, and He's revealed it in His Word that you would hear today.
So they have utter disrespect for God, for God's Word, and
then for God's people. That would be us.
The unbelievers again will hate you because you reflect Christ.
It's that they hate Christ. God's Word makes that very
clear. Matthew chapter 10, verse 22.
All men will hate you because of me.
But he who stands firm to the end will be saved.
Again, the doctrine of perseverance.
There are true believers going to stand firm to the end, even
though they're being afflicted by men who hate them.
And we've seen that through the course of history.
Men of God, women of God, who stood firm when they were tested
in their faith, when they were afflicted by men, and they held
on to Christ. And I can tell you this, their
last breath on this side of eternity was their first breath
in the presence of God. Why?
Because God is faithful to everything that He has promised,
and though men hated them, and though men afflicted them on
this earth, it will share in the portion of Jesus Christ for all
eternity. Matthew 24/9 He said.
Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death,
and you'll be hated by all nations.
Because of me, That's for all the people who are trying to get
everyone to like you. I love that messed up thinking
in the missionary's mind, right? I go to this country and I try
to get all these people to like me so that I can then share with
them the gospel. They're not going to like you
until they get saved. They're going to hate you.
So you might as well just start at point a the gospel.
Because I know this, I've been all around the world and I can
tell you this. You know what man has in common
all around the world. It's not the color of their
skin. It's not the color of their
eyes, not the language that they speak.
You know what man has in common all around the world.
They're all sinners and they're all lost apart from Jesus
Christ. So I've got common ground day
one, right? I don't have to learn their
culture. Their culture is a culture of
sin apart from Christ. So I go into their culture and I
preach the gospel just like I preach the gospel in this lost
culture that unless you repent, you will likewise perish.
They hate God's people and they learn that you're God's people.
Just watch the news, right? When they learn that someone's a
Christian, don't they just berate those people and just
come at them with tooth and claw, I mean immediately, and
try to devour them? It's a part of our Christian
life. God has allowed this to happen.
Every affliction that you face, whether it's affliction from God
or whether it's affliction from man, no, this a sovereign God is
in complete control of that. He's not out of control.
Going Oh no, they're being so mean to old Curt down there.
No, you know what I believe? I believe the Holy Spirit's
praying for me, just like the Scripture says.
He's interceding for me. You know what he's doing?
He's praying. Let him see what I'm trying to
teach him. Open his eyes.
Let him submit. Let him walk in the truth of
Scripture. Let him see what I'm trying to
do here. What a loving and faithful God
that we have. Luke 2117.
All men will hate you because of me.
Again, we we can't preach that gospel in our culture.
Come follow Jesus, be killed for him and know that everyone's
going to hate you. But.
Is that not what the Word of God says?
But let me tell you this for the true believer, it's worth it if
every person in this world hates you and wants you to die, so
long as you are loved by God because He's all that really
matters. So the utterly disrespect God,
his Word, those who follow God's word.
And so know this, being a child of God certainly will not
exclude you from affliction that comes from other people, right?
I know there's some false doctrines and ideologies that
get thrown around that if you're living for Christ, you have
favor with all men. You will never have favor.
With this world, this world hates you.
And just as they wanted Christ to die, they want you to die.
They couldn't care less. No, that's part of our Christian
life. It's a part of our Christian
life that if we learn the lessons that were being taught
in the midst of it, it can help us a great deal.
So let's do that. We've seen affliction from God.
We've seen affliction from man. And I know you've all been
waiting. Apply this to my life.
Here it is. Affliction's purpose.
Psalmist doesn't leave us without application.
Affliction's Purpose 71 it was. Good for me to be afflicted.
What? It was good for me to be
afflicted so that I might. Learn your decrees.
The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of
pieces of silver and gold. He's as though I was afflicted
potentially by God. Though I was afflicted
potentially by man. I was afflicted nonetheless, and
my affliction was good for me. What a great teacher.
Affliction teaching him that in every situation he can trust
God's word, that's what. The purpose is first is that
affliction teaches us to trust God's Word.
It's in his affliction that he says, so that I might learn your
decrees. God allows us to be brought low
so that we'll run through His Word.
I've seen this time and time and time again, again in my pastoral
ministry where someone goes to a time of heartache and
affliction, and what do they do? They run to me, Kirk.
What do I do? And I give them all of my
infinite wisdom. No, I have no infinite wisdom.
I'm finite in every fiber of my being.
But I do give them infinite wisdom.
I turn them to the word of God. And I say.
Let's look and let's see what the Word of God says about this.
And they cling to the Word of God.
Why? Because then they're in the
middle of affliction. They're in the middle of pain,
and in the Word brings comfort. Just as the psalmist realizes
here in the midst of my affliction, I turn to your Word.
I desire to learn your decrees. Why?
That's the only comfort that I had in this world.
Christians, that's the only comfort that we have in this
world. But you know what the sad thing
is? Many times, as soon as that
affliction passes and God is merciful to them, they stopped
clinging to His Word, only to travel down the road just a
little bit farther to face affliction again.
Why? Because God desires that they
stay focused on His Word and His will for their life, and He's
not going to let them do anything else.
So affliction has a purpose. It teaches us to trust God's
Word. The trust in God's revealed
goodness that we find in Scripture, that's what Romans
828 that you all misquote is all about Romans 828.
We know it, and we know that in all things God works for the
good of those who love Him who have been called according to
His purpose. He didn't say we know that in
all things for God's people they're good.
No, He's working all things for the good.
So what does that tell you? They must be bad because if they
were already good, he wouldn't have to work them to.
Good and affliction hurts. It's painful.
And he's saying this, that even in our affliction, even in our
difficulties, even in our trials, even in our sufferings,
know this. The Word of God teaches us that
we can trust God in the midst of whatever darkness that we face.
That we can know that his promises are true, that that he
will never leave us and he will never forsake us.
Yeah. That we walk through the valley
of the shadow of death. He is with us.
His rod and his staff comforts us.
Don't just quote that at a funeral because it's the thing
to do. Know what it's all about.
Psalm 23 is about affliction, and there in the valley of
affliction, what did he do? God has never forsaken me.
How did He know this? He knew it because of God's
Word, because of His promises. So even when we face affliction,
let's learn those lessons from Scripture.
Let's go back to Daniel chapter 3 and let's visit three young
Hebrew boys, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Let's look at their lives as they are potentially about to be
thrown into the fiery furnace, heated 7 times hotter than
normal. And they said our God will
deliver. US.
But even if he doesn't. We're not going to bow.
Why? Because they trusted the word of
God in their affliction. They knew what the word of God
had already stated. Don't have any other gods before
me. Don't make for yourself any
graven images, and bow down and worship them.
And those three Hebrew boys said, no, we are not going to
bow. They focused on the Word of God.
Isn't that what affliction does? You said well.
They were relieved from their affliction.
We all are. That's a comfort that He is
eventually going to relieve us from any affliction.
They were thrown into the fire and God did a work.
We we still tell the story today of how amazing and how wonderful
it is that God was their deliverer.
Same God, same Deliverer in our lives.
Afflictions come into our lives. So we'll trust in His word.
They were brought to this point. They were already in captivity
to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians.
They were already in captivity. They had already been separated
from their families. They'd already suffered
affliction. And you know what?
In their affliction, instead of whining and moaning and
groaning, what they did is they focused on the Word of God.
And then when the fire was heated up, when things were
turned up, they persevered in their faith because they trusted
in the Word of God. Isn't that what affliction is
for? Isn't that the purpose?
So we can trust. What God says not what we see or
not what we feel. Thomas Manton said this.
He said this good is not to be determined by present feeling,
but by the judgement of faith. Affliction for the present is
not pleasant to natural sense, nor for the present is the fruit
evident to spiritual. Sense.
But it is good because in the issue it turneth to good.
What is he saying? Your affliction is not good in
and of itself. Which is painful, it's stark,
it's hurtful, he says. But you know this because of the
word of God. You know that it's being turned
to the good that God in all things works, and He works for
the good to those who love him, who have been a called
effectually according to his purpose.
What comfort we receive from the Word of God in the midst of our
affliction. How many times have we as
Christians had to hold on to Romans 828 when affliction comes
to us? But some of you, when affliction
comes, you ignore the Word of God.
Oh, don't miss this lesson today.
Affliction comes so that you can cling to the Word of God, so
that you can know the promises of Scripture, so that you can
know that God teaches us in His Word that though we face
affliction and sometimes that affliction is horrible to us and
it does not make us feel good, He is still a good God and He is
still working this situation for the good of those who love Him.
Trust in His goodness. Trust in His goodness that has
been revealed in Scripture. When you know the scripture
enough, you will know how good He is.
You will know that He still remains good even in your
darkest hour, in your worst time.
He's still good when you get that phone call from the
hospital you didn't want. He's still good when you get
that phone call from the policeman that you didn't want.
Those afflictions come into your life to teach you to cling to
His word in those difficult. Times he knows best.
Trust in God's revealed promises.
Hebrews chapter 10. The author of Hebrews says this
in verse 23. Let us hold unswervingly to the
hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Take him to the bank on that. He's faithful.
He's faithful to accomplish every single promise that he has
made to his children. Even in the darkest times of
affliction. We can trust and we can cling if
the promises found in Scripture, and I would encourage you to do
that, perhaps you're going through affliction right now,
whether that's affliction from God or that's affliction from
man clinging to the Scriptures. If it's affliction from God
because you have been disobedient, know what Scripture
says that if you confess your sin, He's faithful and just to
forgive you your sin and to cleanse you from all
unrighteousness. And today, confess that sin and
have that discipline removed from your life, because he is a
merciful and He's a good God. Cry out to him.
Perhaps it is that discipline from men, from sinful men, from
unbelieving men. They're making your life a
literal hell on earth. Rejoice that this is not the
extent of your life, that this is just light and momentary and
one day you were sharing the. Glory of Christ.
It'll all be worth it clinging to the promises that are found
in Scripture because He is faithful to every single one of
them, just as He has promised. Joshua 2314 says every promise
has been fulfilled, not one has failed.
Every single promise, the good promises of God that He makes,
every single promise has been fulfilled, not one has failed.
O child of God, rejoice in that. When in the midst of your
difficulty you think that somehow God has failed.
God does not fail, and His Word teaches us that the whole
purpose of your affliction is so that you will turn your eyes,
and you will turn your heart back to His word and find hope
and find peace there. Numbers 2319.
Moses says this. God is not man that he should
lie, nor son of man that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and did not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
I don't you love that that our Heavenly Father is not like man.
He didn't make empty promises. He didn't say things that he's
not capable of doing. No, when He makes a promise, it
sticks. When He makes a promise, it's as
good as done. We have to trust Him in this.
Affliction's purpose is to teach us to trust God's Word.
Not only that, it's to teach us to value God's Word.
Look at the psalmist in the last verse here and I'll wrap it up.
He said the law. From your mouth is more precious
to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.
He says it was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn
your decrees, but it was also good for him to be afflicted so
that he would value God's Word. You know what's wrong with the
American church? We don't value God's word.
You know what we want in church? We want more of everything
except preaching and teaching of God's Word.
Make that short and sweet and let us get out of here
motivated. This is not about motivation.
This is about transformation. And transformation comes when we
look at the entirety of the truth.
And so we look at this, the psalmist, you're learning to
value God's Word. He says the law from your mouth
is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver
and gold. Isn't it true that it's in our
afflictions that we really learned the value of God's Word?
We really learned to testify? It was a difficult time and I
didn't know what to do. But I trusted and what the
Scriptures say, and God brought me through it just as He
promised. I challenge someone.
I challenge. Someone today, let's just do
this you stand and show me one time where God throughout
history has not been faithful to everything that he has promised
in his word. There will not be a person who
stands, and if you stand, you will stand in vain because.
He's not man, He's God, and He cannot lie.
And everything that He promises comes to pass.
And we are to value that. We are to value His word.
Afflictions teach us to do that. Afflictions teach us to do just
that, to value His word in every situation.
When things are going good, things are going bad.
When things are going super bad. We learned to value His Word in
the midst of our afflictions, in the midst of suffering, in the
midst of loss. His promises are more valuable
to us than anything that this world could ever take from us or
should be. Shouldn't it?
His Word literally a light in our darkness, as the psalmist
said, Psalm 1/19, 1:05 That it is a lamp unto our feet, and
light unto our path. Psalm 19 verse 8.
The Psalmist saying this, the precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are
radiant, giving light to the eyes.
They are literal light in our darkness and affliction.
Value the Scriptures for what they are.
Value the Scriptures as the Psalmist did in Psalm 19, verse
9, where he says the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.
The ordinance of the Lord is sure and, and, and all together
righteous. They're more precious than gold
than much pure gold. They are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the comb. He says in 1/19/14, as you
remember, he said, I rejoice in following your statues as one
rejoices in great riches. Why he values the Word of God
and where did he learn to value the word of God in the midst of
his affliction? Now I just simply believe this,
that the American church is never really going to truly
value the Word of God until we face that affliction, until we
efface it biblically. Psalm One 19127 Because I love
your commands more than gold, more than pure gold.
The psalmist here seemed value in the word of God.
You value the word of God. Perhaps you don't value the word
of God, and the reason that you are suffering affliction is
because God is trying to teach you to value the word of God.
Begin to value the Word of God. Open the pages of Scripture.
Inundate yourself with it. Meditate upon its truths.
And see if God is not faithful to all that he says in his Word.
Just as a psalmist in our lives, it's often after affliction that
the Saint values the Word of God the most.
We go back and we say, you know what?
Just as He promised, He delivered that.
It causes us to fall on our face again and to say, God, I praise
you because you are a God who is beyond anything we can even
imagine doing, immeasurably more than we could ever ask or
imagine in Christ Jesus. According to your word, You
won't obey the Word until you place the proper value on it.
That's the lesson from the psalmist here.
Affliction's purpose. Teach us to trust God's Word.
Teach us to value God's Word. We live in a country where we
have multiple copies of it. Do you know we deliver, we
deliver scripture to third world countries.
And they were will literally run as far as they have to run to
get to the truck where they're passing out Bibles and New
Testaments and Romans tracts and gospels of John.
They were literally run because they value truth, because they
have not. And we so often in our culture
take it for granted. May we not take it for granted.
And may we understand God's not going to allow us to take it for
granted. He will bring affliction into
our lives so that we can and so that we will value the Word of
God. So the believer will learn to
trust God and His Word when facing affliction one way or the
other, whether those afflictions come from man or whether those
afflictions come directly from God in the form of discipline.
God desires that we turn our hearts to His Word that we
value. His Word is the greatest
treasure that we have on this earth.
So let me wrap this up, believer.
Are you seeing affliction for what it really is?
Are you seeing affliction biblically?
Are you mad at God because He let bad things happen to you?
Maybe He let a bad thing happen to you so that better things can
happen to you. He let bad things happen to you
so you can go back to His Word. You can cling to Him.
You can cling to His. Promises.
See them for what they are. Are afflictions in your life
teachers and not terrors? Oh, we dread them.
Oh no, don't bring those. When will we?
Pray Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Lord, if it be Your will to bring that into my life, teach
me the lesson that You desire to teach me, 'cause me to focus on
Your Word and to walk in the truth.
Are you counting affliction as good?
That's what the psalmist said. I count it as good.
Are you resisting the lessons that God is desiring to teach
you? Let me help you.
If you're a Christian, He's going to keep teaching you this
lesson until you get it. I have seen people time and time
again suffer the same affliction over and over and over.
Just this endless cycle because they kick against God and they
refuse to trust Him and His Word and to receive the lesson that
this teacher is trying to bring into their life.
So to the believer, I say this, see affliction biblically,
rejoice in it. Rejoice in the fact that God
loves you so much that He will bring things into your life.
The difficult in your feelings. These things teach you great
lessons that you can learn no other way to the unbeliever.
I say this to you as we prepare to depart this morning.
Your concern need not be earthly affliction because a lot of
times the lost man has smooth sailing in this life.
He has a good life while the Christians suffer.
But let me warn you of this one more time before we depart this
morning. If you do not surrender to Jesus
Christ as your Lord and Savior, believing in Him and Him alone,
trusting in Him to wash you and to cleanse you from all of your
sin and all of your unrighteousness while you live
this life, you will face eternal affliction in hell.
The full fury of the wrath of God will be poured out eternally
upon you. I encourage you this morning.
Flee from the wrath and the judgment that is to come.
Flee just as Noah and his family fled to the ark when God told
them to go and God move them in there and he shut the door and
he sealed it behind them. Flee to the ark of Jesus Christ
this morning, because judgment and wrath is going to come upon
all unbelieving sinners, and they will be afflicted with this
judgment forever in hell. Thus saith the Lord.
Not my old, outdated, old fashioned opinion.
Thus saith the Scriptures. So enter into the ark of Christ
today, flee your sin, flee your wickedness, and cry out to Jesus
Christ to have mercy on your soul this morning.
He is a merciful and a forgiving God.
Let's pray together. Father, in the name of Jesus, we
come to you. Thanking you so much for Your
Word, Lord, even thanking you for the truths that we see
concerning affliction. That great professor that is
constantly there to teach us to look to You, to look to Your
Word, to trust in You, to trust in Your Word, to make us holy,
is your desire for us to be holy.
God, we thank you for the lessons that we have learned,
but I pray for the soul who does not know Christ again, that You
would show them mercy today so that they don't have to face
your judgement in wrath. Spare them through Christ, save
them. Give them faith to believe,
regenerate their wicked heart, give them a new heart, a trust
in you and you alone. We ask and we pray these things
in Jesus name, Amen. You have been listening to Key
Life Fellowships Pulpit Ministry podcast.
Join us each week for more teaching from God's Word.
If you would like to speak with one of our pastors, please visit
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Thank you again for joining us today.