FBC Adult Bible Study

Faith Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

02:13

All right, well one aspect of our growth in holiness, we've been talking about holiness for the last several weeks, one aspect in our growth in holiness has to do with how we handle affliction, and I think that aspect is overlooked.

02:29

Do we often think about that, that there is a connection between our sanctification or holiness and affliction, the experience of it, and the handling of it?

02:44

I don't think we do. I don't think we do in the middle of it. Maybe in a setting like this, when we're not particularly going through any affliction, we might at least intellectually acknowledge that there is a connection, but I don't think we really think about it very much, and the result is that it's often easy for us to view affliction as the world views affliction.

03:11

How does the world view affliction? The people you know that aren't converted, they don't know

03:16

Christ, they don't have a Christian world view. How do most people view affliction?

03:24

Some might look at it as something to be avoided at all costs.

03:29

I mean, nobody wants to, nobody asks for it and says, oh, bring affliction on me, you know, and if affliction comes, there may be reasonable ways of trying to avoid it.

03:41

We understand that, but the idea of avoiding affliction at all costs, see, is one way that the world looks at it, and another is that affliction is just simply the cruel hand of fate and gives no idea or no place whatsoever for there to be anything more than fate.

04:05

That affliction is the fault of someone or something else, and I am just the victim.

04:13

It doesn't have anything to do, I mean, it's no fault of my own that I am experiencing any kind of affliction, and because it's easy to, and there are many other ways,

04:23

I'm sure, that the world would view affliction, and then it's also easy for us to fall into the trap of handling affliction in a sinful manner.

04:32

How are some sinful ways, for example, of handling affliction? We can handle it with anger.

04:39

We may handle affliction with lashing out at someone or somebody.

04:45

How many times have you experienced the tongue lashing or being the victim of somebody else's anger because they're going through a time of affliction?

04:58

How many times have you expressed that kind of thing? Even violence.

05:04

People can respond to affliction with violence. You can respond to it with self -pity, with a victim mentality, or with pride, a sort of stoicism that says, well,

05:17

I can handle this, you know, bring it on, you know, that kind of an attitude. But part of growing in Christlikeness, I believe, involves the ability to handle affliction in a

05:30

Christlike way, to handle it Christianly. Now, I would not for a minute suggest that's an easy thing to do.

05:39

In fact, Barrett and Beakey, in our book that we're using as a basis for this series, they've mentioned this.

05:46

They say, to prepare ourselves to respond rightly to affliction before it comes is hard.

05:54

To look back on it gratefully after affliction is over is harder still.

06:01

But to live Christianly in affliction is certainly the hardest.

06:07

And I think that is true. So how can we live through affliction in a way that is more like Christ?

06:16

How can we grow in grace while we are suffering affliction? Well, the focus of today's lesson is simply this, that the most effective means for living

06:27

Christianly in affliction is to consider Christ. It's to consider

06:33

Christ. Jesus Christ is the fountainhead of all vital

06:38

Christianity. And there are a couple of verses in Hebrews that point us in this direction. Hebrews 3 .1

06:43

says, Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession,

06:51

Christ Jesus. And Hebrews 12 .3 says, For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself.

07:01

All right? Isn't that telling us the very theme of our lesson today, the focus of our lesson?

07:07

Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls, i .e.,

07:18

when you're going through times of affliction. So what we want to do in the minutes today is to unfold some various ways of coping with affliction by considering Jesus, considering Christ who has borne our pain, who gives more grace, and he knows our ways.

07:38

So let's first of all look at him and consider him who has borne our pain. And I want us to consider, first of all, the passion of Christ, the passion of Christ, that is, the pain of his affliction.

07:53

Again, Dr. Barrett mentions, he says, Frequent meditation on the sufferings of the

07:58

Lord Jesus is the greatest source of strength for living through and profiting from affliction.

08:06

So we can ask ourselves a question when we're going through a time of affliction. And again, I'm not suggesting that this is an easy thing to do, to so corral our thinking and so arrest our thinking to do this.

08:20

But what we can do in that time of affliction is to ask ourselves a question something like, what are my afflictions compared to his?

08:31

Now that is not a question that we ask to minimize our afflictions as if they don't matter, as if they're nothing, because they are very real and they are very painful and they hurt and they cause us great difficulty.

08:46

But what can help us to cope with that difficulty and that pain and that anguish is to ask this question, what are my afflictions compared to his?

08:55

So it's not to minimize my afflictions, but it is to maximize his and to put our afflictions in perspective, thinking about the depth of his pain and then to realize that he suffered while being wholly innocent, completely innocent, and I suffer while I'm anything but.

09:20

You see, I think one of the difficulties that we have in one of the challenges that we have when we're going through a time of affliction is some of us are very, some of us are more sensitive to other than others.

09:32

And so some of us, we will immediately jump to the conclusion that some sin,

09:40

I must have committed some sin that has caused this affliction. What sin have I done that is the cause of this affliction?

09:48

I'm being punished, chastened for some sin. And we can be very quick to jump to that conclusion and that may not be the case.

09:57

Others of us need to go there more often. We need to consider, we need to consider the very possibility that I am suffering affliction because of some sin.

10:13

And it may be, it may be specific, you know, that I have committed some sin, some transgression, and I am being chastened directly for that sin.

10:26

Or it may simply be that this is because of the big picture of sin.

10:34

I live in a fallen world and live in a fallen, broken humanity.

10:41

It is nevertheless because of sin at the very root of it, all the way back to the garden, if you will.

10:46

Now that is not true of Christ's affliction. Christ, in his passion, in his suffering, suffered while he was completely innocent.

10:55

That is not true of me. And he has another, another thought to keep in mind in his suffering is that he has endured affliction and in his endurance of affliction, he has endured, in essence, my affliction.

11:15

So we're going to look at several verses in the book of Hebrews. So you might want to turn to that book here.

11:20

We'll look at some other verses along the way. But Hebrews 4 .15 says that we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

11:36

And what that simply means is that Jesus endured, in essence, you know, every facet of the challenges and difficulties of life that we face.

11:47

So again, let me quote Barrett. He says, Jesus not only knows our affliction, but he has identified himself with it.

11:55

He has borne it, he will sanctify it, and he will grant you grace to bear it.

12:02

And then, the more we look by faith to Christ crucified, the more strength we will discover within ourselves to sustain all the trials our heavenly father is pleased to place upon us.

12:14

So as we go through afflictions, one of the things we want to do is to consider the passion of Christ, the pain of his suffering, the pain of his affliction.

12:26

And then secondly, as we consider him who has borne our pain, we want to consider the power of Christ to endure afflictions.

12:36

Now on earth, when Christ was on earth, he is, of course, the unique God -man, and as such, he received power to bear infinite suffering in our behalf.

12:51

He had that power to bear infinite suffering for us.

12:57

Now he's in heaven, and exalted at the right hand of the father, he lives to intercede for us, and he now has royal power to rule and to strengthen us in our affliction.

13:11

Jesus said, remember one of the last things he said to his disciples in Matthew 28, he said, all power or all authority is given to me.

13:20

That is all authority, authority over everything. That means, think about this now, if Jesus has authority over everything, then he, in his authority, in his power, in his sovereign authority, he tailors my afflictions to me.

13:42

He tailors them to me, to fit my shoulders, if you will.

13:48

So think, for example, of 1 Corinthians 10, 13, there is no temptation or testing that has taken you, but such as is common to man.

13:57

But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted or tested above that you are able, but he will, with that temptation, with that testing, make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it.

14:15

Now, again, I'm not suggesting that that thought is going to minimize the pain, but again, perspective.

14:29

See, that's what we're after, we're after perspective here. What is the perspective on my affliction?

14:34

One of the perspectives I need to have on my affliction is that my Lord, if I'm a follower of Christ, my

14:41

Lord, my Master, my Savior, has, in his authority, tailored this affliction to me personally, so that it is not something beyond my ability to bear it.

14:57

Now, by way of application, then, what I need to do in such a time as that is to look to him to strengthen me in my weakness.

15:07

Just as, remember how Paul, in 1 Corinthians 12, dealt with this thorn in the flesh?

15:14

We don't know what that was. Isn't that good? Aren't you glad you don't know what that is? Why is it good that we don't know what that thorn in the flesh is?

15:25

Because it could be yours. It could be mine. I mean, we don't know, and that's a good thing, because then what that tells me is, whatever my thorn in the flesh is,

15:36

I can deal with it like Paul dealt with it, and Christ will deal with it like Christ dealt with Paul's.

15:42

What did Paul do? He went to the Lord and said, Lord, would you please take away this thorn in my flesh? Silence.

15:48

You know, silence. Lord, please. I mean, this thorn in the flesh, it really hurts.

15:54

It stings. It's hard. It's difficult. Would you please take this thorn out of my flesh? Silence.

16:00

Third time. Lord, please. I'm really asking. I'm beseeching you. Take this thorn out of my flesh.

16:07

And then the Lord says, I'm not going to do that. Instead, what I'm going to do is give you the strength in your weakness to handle it.

16:15

And so Paul responds to that. Okay. I will, therefore, glory in my weakness that the strength of Christ may be manifest in me.

16:26

Jesus tells Paul, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

16:34

So, therefore, again, by way of application, I need to look to Jesus. I must go to him and say,

16:41

Lord, I can't handle this thorn in the flesh. I'm too weak to handle it. Strengthen me in my affliction.

16:48

I can do that because of the power of Christ. And then thirdly, consider the patience and the perseverance of Christ in his afflictions.

17:00

Think of the patience and perseverance of Christ in his afflictions. You know, the severity of our affliction is often found in its duration, isn't it?

17:12

Isn't that so? Haven't you found that to be the case? I mean, you know, if you get a headache for a couple hours, okay, you know, you can handle that.

17:21

If you get a severe migraine that lasts for nine, ten hours that is followed by, you know, 24 hours of a fog, that's significantly more difficult to bear, isn't it?

17:36

And we can go from there. I was reminded of this the other day. I was visiting a guy in the hospital and while I'm talking with him and just beginning to share the gospel with him, they had this little, an

17:51

IV alarm. He had an IV and all of a sudden the alarm on the IV went off, started to go off.

17:58

And just an incessant beep, beep, beep, beep, like that.

18:04

I shared this Wednesday night with people and it went on for a minute or so and I'm still,

18:11

I'm trying to talk over this beep right next to the bed, you know, and finally

18:16

I said, you know, man, that's kind of annoying, isn't it? I said, how long does this go on? He says, oh, he says, the other night it went off and it lasted for an hour before the nurse got in here.

18:27

And what he was communicating in that thing is just how much more difficult and challenging the affliction of that beep was the longer it went on.

18:38

I think we understand that. Well, think about the afflictions of Christ and his patience and perseverance in enduring it.

18:47

He endured suffering throughout his life. How many of you were born in a stable, you know, in a manger?

18:54

And how many of you, shortly after you were born, were scuttled off to, you know, some foreign country, fearing for your life as, you know, someone was out to get you.

19:09

I mean, from his birth to the flight to Egypt, we don't know much about his growing up years other than that incident when he was 12.

19:18

But then you get to the public ministry of Jesus and he himself said, you know, I don't even have, the son of man doesn't even have a place to lay his head.

19:25

In other words, I don't have a permanent place to stay. And then, of course, you come to the end of his life.

19:35

He endured suffering throughout his life. And then when you get to the end of his life, the intensity of the suffering only increased immensely.

19:44

At Gethsemane, he endured the affliction of the cup. And at that time of prayer, where he prayed so intensely that he sweat drops of blood.

19:57

At Gabbatha, he endured the affliction of the so -called trial.

20:03

His pilot interrogated him. And then, of course, at Golgotha, he endured the affliction of the cross.

20:11

And the thing is, in each place, in each place, he confirmed that having loved his own, he loved them to the end.

20:22

Blood drop by blood drop, he poured out his life and he never flinched, writes

20:28

Barrett. And Jesus has done too much. He has persevered too long.

20:35

And he is still persevering for us in intercession, right? He has persevered too long to let us slip through his fingers.

20:43

He promised in John 10, 28, no man is going to pluck you out of his hands.

20:50

So he endured suffering intensely at the end of his life, throughout his life.

20:58

And therefore, our suffering, our long afflictions likewise need to be endured.

21:07

Understanding that just as in the afflictions of Jesus, God has a purpose for it all.

21:15

Listen to what Thomas Brooks said. He said, it is one of God's great designs and ends in afflicting of his people to make them more conformable to his son.

21:28

And God will not lose his own in the end. The longer they are afflicted, the more they are made conformable to Christ in meekness, lowliness, spiritualness, heavenliness, in faith, love, self -denial, pity, compassion, and so on.

21:50

Nothing makes a man more conformable to Christ than afflictions.

21:56

That's what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, verses 17 and 18. He said, our light affliction, and he's speaking perspective again.

22:03

Remember perspective. In comparison to the afflictions of Christ, our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

22:19

While we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen, our afflictions, are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

22:31

God is using them, these afflictions, working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

22:42

And then lastly, in considering the passion of Christ, consider the prayers of Christ for us in affliction.

22:51

Jesus is continually praying for his bride, the church.

22:56

He ever lives to make intercession for us. And because of that, we can appeal to him.

23:05

We can go to him with our needs, with our anxieties, with our fears, with our pain, whatever the form of the affliction is.

23:13

Sometimes the affliction is physical, very real physical affliction. Sometimes it's emotional.

23:22

Sometimes it's mental. Whatever the form of the affliction is, sometimes it's spiritual.

23:29

We can take it to the Lord and appeal to him. Barrett writes this, he says, a prayerless, listen to this,

23:36

I think this is good. A prayerless affliction, an affliction is like an open sore, right?

23:42

So he says, a prayerless affliction is like an open sore, ripe for infection.

23:48

But a prayerful affliction is like an open sore, ripe for the balm of Gilead, the healing ointment of Jesus' blood.

23:59

So pray without ceasing. So consider him who has borne our pain.

24:05

Secondly, consider him who gives more grace for handling affliction.

24:12

One of the Puritan writers, Thomas Goodwin, he said this, he says, although now Jesus is in heaven, his heart remains as graciously inclined to sinners that come to him as ever on earth.

24:25

And Richard Sibbes, he says, God knows that we have nothing of ourselves. Therefore, in the covenant of grace, he requires no more than he gives.

24:36

Get this, in the covenant of grace, God requires no more than he gives, but he gives what he requires and then accepts what he gives.

24:49

What does he give? What does he give as he gives more grace? He gives help to the tempted.

24:56

He gives help to the tempted. In Hebrews 2 .18, it speaks of Christ who, our high priest, is able to help those who are tempted, having suffered himself, having endured himself.

25:09

He gives help to the tempted. We're exhorted to come to the throne of grace that we may receive grace to help in time of need.

25:18

What does he give? He gives mercy, mercy as our mediator.

25:24

1 Timothy 2 .5 speaks of that. James 4 .6, what does he give? He gives grace upon grace, grace upon grace, superabundant grace.

25:34

James 4 .6, what does he give? Christ gives himself.

25:40

He gives himself. The grace that Christ gives is

25:45

Christ himself. So in thinking of this grace that he gives, which is

25:52

Christ himself, let's consider his preciousness, his preciousness.

25:58

And here we're thinking about his blood. In 1 Peter 1, look with me, 1

26:05

Peter 1, verses 18 and 19, Peter writes, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

26:32

The blood of Jesus, Peter says, is precious. Consider the preciousness of the blood of Jesus.

26:40

Why is it precious? What makes the blood of Jesus precious? It's precious because of its centrality in the

26:47

Bible. Blood is central in the Bible, Old Testament through the

26:54

New Testament. Blood is spoken of in the Bible more than 400 times, and that is significant.

27:03

It tells us, the scriptures tell us that blood is precious because it is absolutely essential for life.

27:11

The life of the flesh is in the blood. Look with me at Hebrews chapter 9.

27:19

Hebrews 9 emphasizes that blood, a blood sacrifice, is essential to sacrifice to God.

27:29

Hebrews 9 verse 7 says, into the second part, the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance.

27:41

In verse 18, therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood.

27:47

And then verse 22, according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission.

27:58

Again, quoting from the book of Leviticus, blood is vital for sacrifice to God.

28:06

So Barrett writes this, he says, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, from the closing of the gates of Eden to the opening of the gates of the heavenly

28:15

Zion, blood runs through scripture, uniting it all. Through his blood, the blood of Jesus, through his blood, the second

28:27

Adam undid what the first Adam did, thereby reconciling sinners to God.

28:35

This is a precious blood of our Savior. His blood is precious because of its centrality in scripture.

28:43

It's also precious because of its capability, what the blood can do, what the blood of Christ can do.

28:49

What can it do? Romans 5 verse 9, it tells us that the blood of Christ redeems or justifies us.

28:59

Romans 5 verse 9 says, much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

29:10

You cannot be justified or redeemed by anything else. Isn't that what Peter tells us? You are not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold, money.

29:20

You cannot do it. Only the blood of Christ can redeem your soul.

29:26

It sanctifies us, the blood of Christ does. The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin.

29:33

This whole series, we're talking about sanctification and holiness, and we cannot make one iota of advancement in holiness and sanctification apart from the blood of Christ.

29:48

It sanctifies us. Look at Revelation, a couple of verses in Revelation.

29:53

Revelation chapter 12, Revelation 12 and verse 11.

30:05

The blood of Christ not only redeems us and sanctifies us, it preserves us, it assures us, and verse 11 of chapter

30:13

Revelation 12 tells us it gives us victory. They overcame him by the blood of the

30:20

Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

30:25

Here are people going through severe affliction, right? Martyred for their faith. What enables a person to die for his faith in Christ?

30:36

The blood of Christ, the grace of Christ, Christ himself. They overcome him by, overcome them by his blood.

30:47

So preservation, and then back in chapter 1, Revelation 1, look at verses 5 and 6.

30:57

It says, grace to you, in verse 4, from Jesus Christ, verse 5, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth, to him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests to his

31:16

God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. What Jesus did in his blood, in shedding his blood, was he opened heaven for us.

31:28

He opened heaven for us. Apart from the blood of Christ, we would not be fit for heaven.

31:35

We could not be there. He opened heaven's gates for us.

31:41

So his blood is precious. Consider the preciousness of Christ, and then consider his plenitude, or we use that word for the sake of alliteration, you know, you had preciousness, you got to have plenitude, which means sufficiency.

32:01

Consider the sufficiency of Christ, and the sufficiency of Christ is seen in his three -fold office.

32:07

What is that? What is his three -fold office? He is prophet, priest, king.

32:15

He's the prophet, the priest, and the king. And as the prophet, he teaches us in and through our afflictions.

32:23

He's teaching us stuff in those afflictions. As our priest, he has sacrificed for us, he prays for us, he blesses us, he saves us, he keeps us by his amazing grace.

32:40

As priest and as king, he guides us, he rules over us, he defends us in ways that we may never know until eternity.

32:56

Isn't that an amazing thing to think of? There's some here this morning who are going through some kind of affliction.

33:03

You haven't told anybody about it, you haven't shared it, and you won't. It's just personal, and you're dealing with it.

33:12

But whatever affliction you are going through or have gone through, or will, the amazing thing is that our

33:22

Lord Jesus, as our gracious king, has defended us in ways in our lives that we don't even know about.

33:32

We don't even know. And we may never know until we get to eternity, and then he may not see fit to tell us.

33:42

And that's an amazing thing. But that's his role as the king, as our king, guiding, ruling, and defending us.

33:49

So consider his plenitude or sufficiency, and then consider his presence.

33:55

Turn with me quickly back to Psalm 139. Psalm 139, some might think of this portion of the

34:06

Psalm in a negative way. It's not the way you should read it. Psalm 139, verses 7 -12.

34:17

Psalmist asks, David asks, Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can

34:24

I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in hell or in the grave, behold, you are there.

34:32

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me.

34:39

That verse gives you some sense that David's not trying to get away from God. He's saying, no matter where I go, you are there.

34:48

You are there. If I say in verse 11, surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me.

34:55

Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day.

35:01

The darkness and the light are both alike to you. Consider his presence.

35:08

Our writer says, You can draw much comfort from the fact that in all of our dark afflictions, our high priest retains us in his high priestly eye.

35:21

He preserves us in his high priestly heart. He bears us on his high priestly shoulders.

35:30

He removes us not from the engravings of his high priestly hand, and he never ceases to remember us in his high priestly intercessions.

35:43

He is always here, wherever that is.

35:49

So consider him. Then thirdly, consider him who knows our way in and through affliction.

35:58

He knows our way in and through affliction. Consider the purposes of Christ for our affliction.

36:07

We don't always know, do we? We do know, the psalmist says in Psalm 119, before I was afflicted,

36:16

I went astray. And the psalmist is talking about some ways he understood why he was afflicted.

36:23

But we don't always necessarily know. But our King, the

36:28

Lord Jesus, may have one of a number of goals in mind for our afflictions that the scripture tells us about.

36:35

Look at Deuteronomy chapter 8. There's a couple of them here that are brought out in Deuteronomy 8.

36:45

Moses is sharing this revelation with God's people as they're not long from entering into the promised land.

36:53

They've gone through the whole wilderness experience and all that God has done for them. But he says in Deuteronomy 8 verse 2, and here are two possible goals that God or Christ might have for us in our affliction.

37:07

He says, Moses says in verse 2, you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness.

37:16

All right, think about that experience and what that was like. Think about, you know, just very quickly in your mind, bullet point some of the experiences of affliction that the

37:29

Israelites faced in the wilderness. So he led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness.

37:36

Why? Two reasons he gives here. One, to humble you, to humble you.

37:44

Sometimes the Lord brings afflictions into our lives to humble us. We get a little proud.

37:51

We get to thinking a little too highly of ourselves and we need to be brought down a peg or two. The Lord may bring affliction for that purpose.

38:00

Or he goes on to say, and to test you to know what is in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

38:09

How do you handle affliction? One of the things that affliction does is it brings out what's in the heart.

38:17

If I'm going through a time of difficulty and I and I lash out at God and I complain to God and I and others and everybody else, you know, what is that showing about what's really in my heart?

38:28

What is the depth of my faith? What is the depth of my faith?

38:34

Is my faith something that is only good when the sailing is smooth and life is fine and there are no difficulties?

38:44

You think about this couple yesterday and that, you know, in those wedding vows, you know,

38:50

I promise to stay with you in sickness and in health, right?

39:00

In poverty and in wealth. And I look across the room here this morning and there's several people who've been married for a number of years.

39:11

And what all of you could testify is that there have been a lot of times in our marriage where we have experienced poverty rather than wealth.

39:21

We've dealt with sickness rather than health, right? Well, how do you deal with those?

39:28

How do you handle it? What do you do in those times of sickness and in poverty and so on and so forth?

39:37

The Lord tests us. Another thing he does, and I don't have time to elaborate on this and look it all up, but he teaches us what sin is.

39:45

If you're writing these things down, Zephaniah 1 .12. It may be on your handout there,

39:51

I can't remember. And then in Hosea 5, he motivates us. He uses affliction to motivate us to seek

39:57

God. When the sailing is smooth, we can tend to forget him, can't we?

40:05

But when things get difficult, it motivates us to cry out to him, to turn to him.

40:12

And then he may have as a purpose for our affliction to keep us in close communion, to keep us in close communion with him.

40:23

Again, in Hebrews, this time chapter 12, verses 10 and 11.

40:29

I'll bring that out. Hebrews 12, verses 10 and 11. It says,

40:35

For they indeed, that is our earthly fathers, for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them.

40:40

But he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. He sends affliction along our ways so that we may become more holy, partakers of his holiness.

40:50

Now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward, he yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who've been trained by it, drawing us closer and closer to him.

41:03

Consider the purposes of Christ. And then secondly, consider the plan of Christ for that affliction.

41:12

He has an ultimate plan, even for affliction. And the ultimate plan for that affliction is eternal glory, both

41:22

Christ and his brides. Ephesians five brings that out, that Christ gave himself for the church to sanctify it, that he might present the bride, his bride to himself as a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

41:40

That's his ultimate plan. And second Corinthians 4 .17 brings that out as well.

41:46

That verse says this, and we read it earlier, our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us and exceeding an eternal weight of glory.

41:54

So there's this ultimate plan in all of our affliction to bring about this ultimate eternal weight of glory.

42:03

But there are immediate processes along the way.

42:11

And of course, the most significant immediate process along the way is the final affliction, which is death.

42:20

But remember what Paul said in Philippians 1 .21. He said, for me to live is

42:28

Christ, but to die, that final affliction is gain.

42:36

It is gain. How so? How is that final affliction gain?

42:43

It's gain because of what we leave behind when we pass through that last, that last leg of the journey of affliction.

42:53

We are leaving behind all affliction, all sorrow, all loss, but it's also gain because of what we receive in death.

43:06

What do we receive in this affliction of death?

43:11

We receive communion with Christ's suffering. We experience finally, at last, what he experienced at the last, the giving up of the spirit.

43:27

We experience, we receive at that final affliction, the experience of Christ's all -sufficient grace.

43:35

We experience it in measure through the course of life. Some of you can give testimony to afflictions that you've gone through, and God, in his grace, our

43:44

Savior, in his grace, has brought you through it, and you can look back and you can rejoice. But there is going to be something about this, this journey through the last corridor of affliction that results in, results in our being in the very presence of Christ.

44:05

When we realize that, that sufficient grace that has brought us through death's door into his very presence, we receive, at that moment, final transformation into Christ's image, when we see him as he is.

44:24

We receive at that, at that point of affliction, a final opportunity to witness, to witness for Christ's glory.

44:34

It's been my privilege a few occasions to be with some saints when they've entered into glory, and the, the final days and hours before they breathe their last breath was often a great testimony to God's grace in their lives.

44:54

And then, we are, at that moment, ushered into the very presence of Christ.

45:01

That is what we receive, that is great gain. So, as we grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ, as we are slowly, gradually conformed to his image, let's facilitate the process by keeping our eyes on him, even on him, even while enduring great affliction.