Psalm (Quality: Poor)

[0:00] May it please the Lord to enow you to me and make a suitable remark on the word you will find in Psalm 34, the verse is 19.

[0:18] Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of the hole.

[0:33] Psalm 34, verse 19. I've been the subject of considerable tossing through and fro concerning taking this subject, fearing lest it is only because I am concerned by the prevalence at the present time of so much affliction among their friends and the servants of God.

[1:08] But if it is indeed of the Lord, I'm tempted to be in order to make a few remarks which I hope may finally prove to be to his worship and honour and for our encouragement, or, if the Lord sees we need it, our instruction.

[1:29] Many are the afflictions of the righteous. This is equally true of the unrighteous.

[1:42] Their afflictions are many too. But if help, I shall have to try to bring before you the fact that the many afflictions of the righteous include some to which the world is a complete stranger.

[2:02] I want to notice too that the effects of affliction in the people of God are very varied.

[2:17] All while they are left alone, they complain like other people. And they are often given the question, now why this?

[2:29] Especially this so severe affliction, why should it come to me and shut it out? This is nature. And I believe I have with me friends who know that in affliction, when we're left to a complaining spirit and to our own mind in the matter and our own nature, it sadly brings out all that is the evil production of the fall within us, the disparity of our hearts.

[3:02] But this is sometimes also being used in the case of the righteous for their instruction to show them their exceeding and excessive need of the salvation wrought out by the Son of God.

[3:23] We have to be, especially some of us, thoroughly convinced before we seek for that mercy and pardon which all the children of God will presently be brought to seek to God for in the person and name of Jesus Christ and through his marriage.

[3:48] But we must come into need of salvation before we sincerely appeal to or reply to it.

[4:00] The case must be real. And so the Lord has brought many of his people into deep affliction for their instruction.

[4:10] And it is the case that many of his servants have learned some very hard lessons in times of affliction.

[4:22] And unless they are brought in their measure to walk in these paths, how can they from any practical experience have gracious sense of these wedges, seek to console and comfort, or instruct those who are similarly afflicted, or afflicted in any way?

[4:44] Many are the afflictions of the righteous, and they are very varied, and they are used for many different purposes in the hand of God.

[5:00] In some cases, it is a cause to chase. I cannot be blind to this because it has been my experience. There are times when one knows that that which is come upon one is because of what one has done or said.

[5:21] And this will be a very bitter affliction. It will be sharp, keen, very painful, very humiliating, because God is determined in his wisdom and by his power to bring this rebellious sinner, this hard-hearted sinner, broken-hearted and contrite before him in prayer.

[5:52] We don't want to go this evening into too much of this person. And yet we are told frequently that the servants of God should frequently speak of that which they are tightly handed and tired.

[6:11] And I do know this from practical and personal experience that if you step before God what you will do and what you will not, trouble is coming.

[6:23] Maybe affliction, the affliction in the spiritual sense of temptation covers a very wide field. The Lord has various ways of bringing these wandering sheep and rebellious people, hard-hearted people, whom he has designed to show mercy upon, various are the ways in which he brings them to his mercy seat.

[6:53] One of them is to lay very heavy affliction upon them and deprive them of all ability to labor and so that they are found cast upon the mercy of God.

[7:07] And I can tell you that in that case it's a very bitter experience because you feel totally unworthy. Indeed, indeed the very worst of sinners, you wonder whether you dare venture before a holy God and ask for mercy when you are suddenly shown how grievous to you have offended him.

[7:33] And that again, very often, in spite of a certain amount of life and knowledge, self-will, self-will, determination to have one's own way, if one is a child of God, is a forerunner of sharp feelings.

[7:56] And yet you will prove, as I believe many have proved, and I have proved in my measure, that love and terror by the harsh feelings of a righteous God, may do the pardon, although they work alone.

[8:14] I believe in the final, in spite of the chastening, unless that chastening is specially sanctified, it will be mercy flowing into the heart of that rebellious, self-willed sinner that finally brings that sinner to submit to the will of God.

[8:39] Oh, but how far it is when before this can really be affected, and the stubborn sinner brought to that state of essential contrition and confession, repentance and minkment and submission to God, which is sometimes necessary for the chastening to be repeated thrice.

[9:13] Well, I won't go any further in that direction, except to just tell you this as I have done before. I listened on one occasion to a servant of God, a balanced cross who is now in heaven, not the pastor, not the late pastor, but a supplying servant who read for his text, Jesus said unto him the third time, oh, how that went home to me.

[9:44] I had just come through the third chastening, the third time of being very close to the doors of death. I had expected that my end was near and I had asked to be taken home and thought it wouldn't be long before I was.

[10:06] But now, evidently, there was something to come out of the afflictions which at that time was hidden from me.

[10:21] But I did. I believe I was brought to this as the result of that third time. Lord, what would thou have me to do?

[10:34] many of the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord revealed very many things to his people and I believe to those he has chosen to serve him in affliction.

[10:54] Although I am in hell and engaged in many things, it has to be admitted that time for meditation, consideration, pondering over the word of God is strictly limited, isn't it?

[11:12] I don't know that there is such a thing as finding that even in the severe afflictions through which so many of the righteous pass, there is that coming aside and resting a while of which you read in the word of God the Savior provided for his disciples for what we should call over breaks from the tension and the overcrowding things which were pressing upon them so that I believe it would have been right to say at that time they were pressed out of mental and beyond strength and the Lord knew this.

[11:52] And the Lord knows all things. If he's a wise God, he knows exactly why he appoints these things, what the purpose is, what the end will be.

[12:06] Many are the afflictions of the righteous but in the case of the righteous there is something to be done, mostly in these afflictions. Sometimes it is to give a very sweet portion to drop into their hearts a word which wherever long they live after they never forget.

[12:29] And although the sweetness of it passes frequently under a variety of other concerns and experiences in life, when the Spirit shines again upon that word it's still sweet, it's still powerful, it's still effective.

[12:46] And by these means you know that though you've forgotten it frequently, when the Spirit shines upon it and brings the same sweet feeling in your heart, you do know it came from God and you will prize it, you will value it and you will say with one goal, good to me that I have been afflicted.

[13:07] It was good that I was then. The Lord spoke to my heart and it was a word of comfort. God has had it to say when, later on in life and in probably another necessity perhaps another child, perhaps another affliction, because now he said, remember the word and to thy servant upon which thou hast called me to help.

[13:36] This has been my comfort in my affliction. So you see, it was affliction that this word dropped into its heart at that time.

[13:47] And it was such a comfort to it, quickly, maybe lively. How much some of us feel to need this. And the affliction is the way by which the Lord will confer another blessing I believe we should feel willing to bear the affliction.

[14:10] In Psalm 119 there are frequent references to this. We read, before I was afflicted, I went astride.

[14:22] to this story. Well, my friend, I don't know whether you have been interested in this particular scripture. It isn't for me to apply it, but there it is, it's the word of God.

[14:37] And speaking again personally, I have to say, yes, and so did I. yes so did I if it hadn't been for the mercy of God I should have still been straying I think it's a wonderful thing when in the afflictions that God sees fit to bring upon one you can see the litmus for good for your good I mean look at this is why the Lord put the affliction upon you because he intended it to have a good result for you well you feel that when afflictions are sanctified that you bring us into that state of willingness to submit to the wisdom of God and it is a great mercy when affliction even if it's long even if it's extremely painful even if it results in much humiliation isn't it a sweet thing if it finally brings you into that state of seeing that this has occurred to you because you are a child of God and it is all being in love and not in anger

[15:57] I know that while this is on while it's occurring extremely difficult to believe that the Lord is dealing in kindness and yet I believe it's possible after these afflictions have been really sanctified to say it is in thy wisdom and in thy love and in thy mercy toward me and for purposes of grace that this affliction has been laid upon me the word I was wanting to come to and which is returned now to mind is this it's such a mercy when afflictions bring you to this point what thy wisdom see most it must be surely best for me I know nature won't accept this in the middle of an eve affliction and I want to just touch on this since it has suddenly come to mind that all the afflictions of God's people are personal in themselves and I know it can be a most trying if they were in someone near and dear to you they're afflicted and you can do nothing for them

[17:15] I want you to try to pray and you can see that in spite of all your hopes and your prayers that this dear one is seeking the affliction seems to be getting worse and worse oh my dear friends you'll find that this affliction possible in such cases on marriages that thou always have the afflicted mate instead of this dear one ah but you'll need permission to the Lord in this just as much as in your own it's hard to see near and dear one suffering isn't it and this can be a great source of trials and exercise I am testing and there are times if you were left you'll prove without already hitting how much depravity there is in the heart when you feel rebellious against the Lord's being against this dear one oh dear one oh my friends we come to this finally

[18:25] I have I believe you will agree with me in this if I ever my four soul be saved it's Christ to feed away you will feel at times that you are almost beyond hope it doesn't go together what you've said no it doesn't go together what you've done but the dreadful thoughts that pass through the mind and the Lord knows me that's the thing that lies so heavy upon a tender conscience the thought that we have against these feelings I might just think before him at the throne of grace at the bedside sometimes and try to ask him that there might be just enough mercy left to cover all my things there's this thought which are so terrible it's a mercy that I learned after it is all one can say that we've been preserved from giving voice to the things that have passed through the mind and yet you see there have been times when the Lord's time came that that wish to quote what I recently dealt with proved correct even in this is man this is infalcible but not with God and the dear one to your surprise and there's been well as I got you don't feel very big then I can assure you it will be a face of creeping before him and mowing at his mercy and at the one where he has wrote which you'll join the song if I believe it's one of the ways the Lord brought forth praise from unworthy sinners you'll be saying

[20:24] I will bless the Lord at all times and particularly this time his praise shall continually be in my mouth he's a wonder working God he hears prayer unworthy prayers prayers from a heart that was full of disbelief as could possibly be and yet still trying to pray but you'll come to this I will magnify the Lord with me and let it exalt his name together I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears many of the afflictions of the righteous but if they tend presently to the worship of God by ending and dying we'd need something as I've often told you to cause us to really worship so much of what we think he's worshiped is daily for him listen to him what a wonderful mercy to spend as much as three minutes really worshiping God

[21:30] I don't believe us poor sinners will ever go to hell and have his little time of that worshiping God great mercy to offer praise to God he glorifies and his word says so I believe there's a few here this evening who have done this and I know the time too much some of us are very willing to admit this but we can put our hand on the place in time when we bow before God and so to bless his name like the psalmist did wonderful mercy wonderful privilege can only hope that if affliction comes there again and it is a time of affliction and there's no exemption from it in the word of God we expect to suffer affliction just like anyone else oh might it be that the end and result of the affliction is another little time of blessing God for restoring mercy and his wondrous wondrous patience with poor, fretful, unworthy and rebellious sinners many of the afflictions of the righteous but they've got one that pains them

[22:56] I believe more often or quite as often as any other I told you I should have to try to speak of some that the worldly knows nothing of or at least they're not troubled by it it isn't an affliction and this one is unbelief oh I believe some of you know what it is to suffer keenly from this affliction unbelief it has so many symptoms so many side effects if one might put it in that way it leads to hardness of heart prayerlessness peevishness self-pity this particular symptom isn't a very powerful rebellion but once we're suffering from this symptom self-pity it seems to be done a step to the next worst one rebelling against the dealings of

[23:58] God as already hinted at all this grievous affliction one poor soul said and recorded in the word of God and some others have joined in only that we put in another word because we had to Lord I would believe help pardon my unbelief you been there all my friends if that is the case I do believe that this affliction will have one result you'll be found at the throne of grace seeking the intervention and the cure which can only come from that good physician I haven't been thinking as much today on this word as I can have but among the faults that I have had it has been this if we're suffering or when we're suffering from this grievous affliction unbelief what is the use of going to any earthly position oh but look at the other side is the question of what a mercy it is that there is a position one can go to with it and you can say oh Lord

[25:14] I am a threat and thou knowest it undertake for me the cure is in thy hands faith is the gift of God and it's bestowed through the merits and mercy of Jesus and his grace and so that's where you will go that's where you will take this affliction and a good clinician will understand it all this order yes and there is that word affliction still that fearless condition where you can't even pray I mean that's even worse because to lose contact with God well that's worse than feeling the affliction of unbelief because if you feel that you are not in that dead state so when you can't pray even oh what a deadly effect it has been the spirit and you seem shut off from your hazard don't you and yet in the midst of all these serious afflictions and in this sad case what can you do

[26:31] I believe it's possible in these cases to find out what the hip writer meant when he said this or wrote this whichever it was where the burden of its side the falling of a tear the upward glancing of an eye when none but grow his mirror my friends what a wonderful thing it is that this great God who knows the afflictions of his people and is waiting for their response because he knows they must come to him and yet he will note that which I just referred to and accept the unexpressed prayer which proved it I believe some of my friends have too the Lord does notice every motion and movement toward him when you're afraid to speak or unable to have a great

[27:40] God we read of him as such in the word of God who is so great a God as our God my dear friends you have to prove the scriptures to be true and it's a wonderful mercy to have done so it's a great privilege to have proved his greatness that you will prove your own smallness and poverty and affliction improving the greatness of his love and the greatness of his mercy many are the afflictions of the righteous yes they know what it is to have a higher power they understand some of them knew what it was the constrained one to raise all things of feeling show some sign but they found feeling heart of mind if you know that modern anomaly isn't it it wasn't totally without feeling because he was aware of it mercy in that and so

[28:58] I'm beginning to see that if we're conscious of the affliction this is a privilege it's a wonderful thing to know that we're in a sick condition in this state of affliction this will enable us to proceed the more willingly and readily and with earnestness and urgency in our plea to the good position any of the afflictions of the writers are subject to that affliction which is called fear one of the most weakening things that I know is fear how it detrives us of so much that we have previously relied upon and thought we were strongly settled in when

[29:58] Satan succeeds in injecting doubt into the mind fear is sure to follow then we are the victims of weakness we become faint hearted and fearful and full of doubt and questionings begin and then we assume the subject of that bitter enemy who first does his very best to weaken the child of God then attacks I have a scripture for this never a poor child of God brought to a state of weakness and impotency more than Job by the permitted will of God but the power of Satan look what he did to the poor man by way of trial and deprivation of property one thing after another he swept away from poor Job and then afflicted his body with the Lord's permission the only reservation being spare his life oh consider the afflictions of that poor man but you see the Lord sustained him the Lord prevented him and preserved him from doing what Satan said he would in affliction while I wouldn't pretend that

[31:38] I know anything about the severity of Job's affliction I know what it is to be very thankful that the Lord hasn't permitted me to say what has passed through the mind as I hinted through this thing it's such a wonderful thing when you can see that even in the depths of your weakness when your fears were so present and when your doubts were so strong and the pain was at its highest and Satan at its fiercest still the Lord upheld then you will see how it is that the Lord delivers out of them all but you will be prepared to say to me I believe the feelings also rise up in my own mind and heart there are occasions when the affliction is light on when it is appointed to bring the child of

[32:40] God concerned to his or her end and how can this apply that the Lord delivereth him out of them all and in this sense put the song in his mouth of praise to God and the desire to make me by God God well I can only say this in this case the Lord has appointed this affliction to bring this particular child of God to the very best possible kind of deliverance because that is the final deliverance from all affliction whether it be of the mind whether it be of the body whether it be of the soul whether it be of the afflictions which everyone has to endure sometimes mostly or whether those particular afflictions which only trouble the children of God when the affliction has done its work and when the Lord finally delivers would you be among those who would say the Lord has not fulfilled this word the Lord delivers things out of them all dear friends

[34:09] I believe that many are poor child of God greedlessly afflicted and I have in mind one of whom I have recently been reading I guess those kind of you have too and really while I read it I thought well however much more can a poor human being endure and yet the Lord blessed that person the Lord comforted that person with spiritual blessings although she was most grievously afflicted time after time finally of course the last affliction did result in the spirit's release from the afflicted body nor did it ever hurt and the redeemed spirit now if this is possible is singing the song of the redeemed around the throne of

[35:11] God in a way that can't be done here however much we may feel the desire within to bless the name of God and praise him for restoring mercies and support during affliction we shall never attain to the song of the redeemed in heaven until we get there and so my desire today is that in this time of affliction if the next one to receive the affliction is you or I may we be found patient may we consider him who endured such contradiction as sinners against himself lest we be weird and faint in our minds so on one occasion in Psalm 119 said

[36:12] I am afflicted very much quicken me O Lord according unto thy word keep thy work alive within me let it be the uppermost in my thoughts the fear of God to still be operative within me whether I do not become utterly depressed or in distress in this affliction in another place in the same Psalm there is this plea which is so close to the general trend of the verse I have read consider my affliction and deliver me well I believe the child of God will presently discover that there is so much to be delivered from as I briefly hinted beside the affliction the things which distress the soul seem to separate from God and of course there is yet one thing which I feel I must just touch on as I may be held which will cause you perhaps more sorrow than the actual affliction you are now in this is

[37:39] Job he said oh that I knew where I might find him he indicated he had looked on the left hand and on the right but he couldn't perceive it he highlighted himself if you'll find that this affliction is so hard to bear when you feel that that divine help upon whom you have relied and in whom you would trust and to whom you have committed your present case in affliction they were pinned on you you know then what it is to enter into the depth of affliction which concerns the soul and therefore is what I'm going to call that which is so much within you much of affliction is external but some of the afflictions of the child is very much internal and they affect in a particular way the heart not in a way of all the affliction but in that which causes such anxious longing urgent pleading that the Lord would appear and again take up your case and again calls that the light of his countenance should shine upon you you will then understand what was constrained the psalmist at another time to write be my silence unto me lest if thou be silent

[39:34] I become like them that go down into the pit a silent God seemingly so is among the heaviest affliction the child of God is called upon to endure and many times will he say when wilt they return unto me and cause that I return unto thee it is it is thy present I desire the comfort of thy nearness be not far from me oh I believe you will take up the language of Psalm 27 sudden very frequently thou hast been my help Lord lead me not neither forsake me oh God of my salvation be with me still in the darkest hour I can endure if thou are nigh now

[40:34] I come to the words of the hymn writer and understand I hope a little of what he meant in thy presence I am happy in my presence I am secure in thy presence all affliction I can easily endure this is one of the ways in which the Lord delivers you from the immediate pain this is the way in which he if I not use such a word injects strength into his suffering people and draws near and whispers to them and when they they thou passing through the fire how will they know that will deliver you from your fear that will deliver you from your foul distresses this will deliver you from all your doubts you will be able to say then the

[41:40] Lord is mine he's with me still even in this sad and sorrowful path that I'm passing through now and while he remains and while he is near I can trust in him and hope that still whatever his will is it will presently prove to work for good it's never so easy to repeat the scripture in the 8th of the Romans and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are called according to his purpose to make them so easy to say that so it is to go with that message to somebody who is afflicted when you are not when you are not in that pathway it's very easy to quote oh my dear friend it's a wonderful mercy when the reconciling influence of the Holy Spirit coupled with sweet submission given to his holy will brings you to see that it really all that this righteous, wise God in his purposes sees fit we shall endure, will presently work for good because he's the appointed of it and all that he does is ever good and ever will be

[43:05] I hope we may be unable to trust him to this extent in the next affliction because there will be recurring affliction one of the main marginal references in some of the Bible I've been looking to take me in each case to the Gospel according to John chapter 16, the last verse these things have I said unto you that in me you might have peace in the world you shall have tribulation put me a good cheer I've overcome the world and consequently all these afflictions are in the hand of the good condition and when they have wrote his purpose whatever it is whether it is that you shall recover and bless his name and tell the sinners around what a great sight where you have found that will be one purpose the Lord help you to do it if that's his will and however it is that he shall cause you to bless and try his name for the wondrous mercy you have had to you who have been so complaining under affliction and yet he has restored you the Lord help you to bless him very sincerely when he makes it clear that this has been in love if it is of course that he is going to deliver you altogether from the afflictions of this life and take the spirit back to himself who gave it why you live to prove there that he has done all things well and it is a reason matter the Lord pardon all that has been in this amen and for peace and queない is to hold in and again and again thank you as a you and they well and last time and

[45:08] I became by I the and that I claimed to have some and well