All Things For Good: Chap 2 Pt. 2

So, we are still in chapter two. Last time, we didn't get real far, but we had a good conversation, good questions, and so we were talking about the worst things working for good for the godly. And so, just a quick recap.

The way we started off was that we were talking about, I'm gonna ask Ages, you were talking about how God's affliction is one of those worst things that work for the godly. And we had just gotten to the point where he was gonna take us through the different ways that they work for our affliction.

So, one of the things I really appreciated about reading Thomas Watson is just the encouragement that he brings and the way he puts things. Everything that we're reading through here is just, it's soaked, it's saturated with scripture, especially going through this part of chapter two.

You couldn't get through a page, you couldn't get through a paragraph without tripping over a verse here or there. And I mean, and that's what you want. You want your understanding of the world and the encouragement that you find and the exhortations that you find to be coming directly from the word of God.

And also our brother, Thomas Watson, his insights are just tremendous. They're wonderfully articulated. It's amazing just the way they were to communicate information back then. But it comes out of a thorough knowledge of the scripture.

And so we need to make sure that that's our goal, that as we consider things, as we encourage one another, as we teach one another, that we are firmly rooted in the word. And so just as where we left off last time was that Thomas Watson offers us 10 ways that affliction works for good.

He talks about four evils that work for the good of those who belong to Christ. And so the first one was affliction. And so we were about to get into the 10 examples of how affliction works for the good.

Okay.

All righty. So first way that affliction works for our good. Affliction works for good as it is our preacher and teacher. Hear the rod, Micah 6 .9. The voice, Luther said that he could never rightly understand some of the Psalms until he was in affliction.

Affliction teaches what sin is. In the word preached, we hear what a dreadful thing sin is, that it is both defiling and damning, but we fear it no more than a painted lion. That's a great line. Therefore, God lets loose affliction, and then we feel sin bitter in the fruit of it.

A sickbed often teaches more than a sermon. We can best see the ugly visage of sin in the looking glass of affliction. This is continuing that same thought. Affliction teaches us to know ourselves. In prosperity, we are for the most part strangers to ourselves.

God afflicts us that we may better know ourselves. We see that corruption in our hearts in the time of affliction, which we would not believe was there. Water in the glass looks clear, but set it on the fire and the scum boils up.

In prosperity, a man seems to be humble and thankful. The water looks clear, but set this man a little on the fire of affliction and the scum boils up. Much impatience and unbelief appear. Oh, says a Christian, I never thought I had such a bad heart as now I see I have.

I never thought my corruptions have been so strong and my grace is so weak. Okay. Micah 6, 9. The voice of the Lord cries to the city and it is sound wisdom to fear your name. Hear of the rod and him who appointed it.

As we mentioned before, as we mentioned last time, that when calamity comes, when evil comes, it's the Lord who sent it. It's not just coincidence. It's not just like, oh, you know, unexpected that God has no control over that.

And we talked about that last time as well. Some people will say specifically, no, God has nothing to do with evil. He didn't send that storm, you know, but they pray for God to spare them the storm. They pray that it'll revert course, but he has nothing to do with sending it.

Maybe he could work something out though and try to play catch up. Now, when evil comes, when calamity comes, it is the Lord who's bringing it. And he says, hear it and hear of the rod and him who appointed it.

And as we consider our situation today as the various afflictions that we are experiencing as a nation, we should recognize the rod and who appointed it. Luther comments about the affliction that he couldn't understand some of the Psalms until he was afflicted.

And I think that's fitting, especially if you've been in those situations where you read some things and they don't seem to really grab your heart. They're just, it's there, it's nice, but I don't get it.

And then you go through something and all of a sudden it's clear as day what the Psalmist is going through, what he's communicating, and how we ought to be viewing things and how we can find comfort and we can look to the Lord in those times.

I love that line, sin preach a time only seems like a painted lion. You can be there and you can have the most firing brimstone preacher and you'll have the heart and heart walk out, ah, unafraid, until something happens.

And he lets loose the affliction, the painting jumps to life and is chasing you. And all of a sudden you understand just how wicked sin is, just how destructive it is, and just how much damage and carnage it can do to you and to your life.

And so it is our preacher and teacher. It teaches us to know ourselves. It brings out the corruption in us that we don't always recognize in times of prosperity. He uses the example of boiling water, and I don't know how many people could still relate to that.

I think of Jerry, I remember him, because he would go on these hikes and he would do camping and he would talk about like boiling water to make sure that it was drinkable if it was coming right out of the stream or right out of the lake.

If you look at it, it looks wonderful. You start boiling it, then you'll see. But for the most part, I think we boil water for to make pasta, to make tea, to make coffee, whatever we're doing. And we don't see that stuff because we have the modern technology of filtration.

So it's already coming through in pretty good shape. Maybe some places better than others. But another analogy that I like to use a lot, I got from Paul David Tripp, and I'm not sure if it originated with him, but it's certainly the first time I heard it.

And he would take a glass of water and then he would hit the glass and water would come out.

And he would ask the question,.

Why did water come out of the glass? And they'd say, well, you hit it. He says, no. He goes, let me say it again, but with emphasis. Why did water come out of the glass? Because water is what's in the glass.

It wasn't orange juice that came out. It wasn't Coca-Cola. It wasn't wine. It was water because water was what's in there. We think sometimes people jostle us, right? They cross us and we react. You know, a curse word comes out.

Our impatience shows, you know, and we say something or do something because of how we've been treated. And we say, it was them.

They did it.

Why did that come out? Why didn't that response come out? It's because that's the corruption that's in our hearts. So whether you consider it the fire of affliction bringing up the impurities in the water or the jostling of the circumstances, the idea is the same.

It's bringing out of our heart what's already there. And so it's helping to teach us about ourselves so that we know. We get the same result. We find out that there's more corruption within us than we realized.

Any questions or comments about that?

All right.

Afflictions work for good, number two, as they are the means of making the heart more upright. In prosperity, the heart is apt to be divided, Hosea 10 .2. The heart cleaves partly to God and partly to the world.

It is like a needle between two lodestones. God draws and the world draws. Now God takes away the world that the heart may cleave more to him in sincerity. Correction is a setting of the heart right and straight as we sometimes hold a crooked rod over the fire to straighten it.

So God holds us over the fire of affliction to make us more straight and upright. Oh, how good it is when sin has bent the soul awry from God that the affliction should straighten it again. In Hosea 10, in the first couple of verses, it talks about the people being in their prosperity, that they look to their idols.

And so the Lord was going to break down that which they look to. God takes away the world. You know, the things that we look to, the things that comfort us, the things that we think we have our security in, he begins to remove it one by one, if necessary, so that we can be more upright in our heart.

He's doing it now. As we see the things going on in the world, I think it's very easy. And this is what we see even in the Old Testament. I mean, here he gets a quote from Hosea. The Lord warned the people of Israel that they were gonna enjoy houses they didn't build and vineyards they didn't plant, and they were gonna forget their God.

And that is what happened. They got comfortable. They got complacent. And they started just looking to themselves and imagining that they had gotten all this for themselves. And they forgot the Lord, and they would go after idols and go after things that were in violation of his law.

And so he had to start taking those things away so that they might see more clearly their situation and their need for him. So I see that happening today. I think we have a lot of, we're a nation that we're still blessed.

We've experienced many benefits, much prosperity. The poorest among us are far better off, usually, than when we think of the people who are starving in other places and parts of the world, and the people who, when Jesus says not to worry about what you're gonna eat or drink, what you're gonna wear, I mean, those things weren't minor issues.

This was about survival. You'd starve if you didn't eat. You would die of exposure if you didn't have clothes. So when he's telling them not to worry about those things, he understands it's about survival.

It's not about having the fifth pair of shoes or the extra dress or the extra jacket that you like to wear when you go in some place nice, right? That's how we think of things. And we're so used to that and we've kind of forgotten our Lord, and so God is tearing down the idols to help set our heart right.

He talks about the crooked rod over the fire to straighten it, and there's times where certain materials, metals and whatnot, the only way if something gets bent that you can really correct it is to heat it up and to bend it back into shape.

We had our sable was hit, and it's just the damage seemed located all in this one front corner panel, but there was a little bit of bend to the frame, and then he had to be put on a thing and heat it up and move it back.

We were fortunate that it was pretty minor in terms of the damage, but it takes a lot of heat to get those things to be able to be corrected. And so the Lord uses the heat of affliction to help bend our heart back to where it needs to be towards him.

Any questions about that?

No?

Where's Erica?

There was so much participation last night. Nothing. It's affliction is what it is. That's some pretty minor affliction. Gotta build up my tolerance. Number three, afflictions work for good as they conform us to Christ.

Afflictions, I'm reading my notes and I'm reading the thing. God's rod is a pencil to draw Christ's image more lively upon us. It is good that there should be symmetry and proportion between the head and the members.

Would we be part of Christ's mystical body and not like him? His life, as Calvin says, was a series of sufferings. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, Isaiah 53 .3. He wept and bled. Was his head crowned with thorns, and do we think to be crowned with roses?

It is good to be like Christ, though it be by suffering. Jesus drank a bitter cup, and it made him sweat drops of blood to think of it. And though he drank the poison in the cup, the wrath of God, yet there is still some wormwood in the cup left, which the saints must drink.

Only here is the difference between Christ's sufferings and ours. His were atoning, ours are only chastening. We are being conformed to the image of Christ. That is our greatest good. When it talks about all things being done for the good, working for the good of those who love him, scripture goes on to say that we are to be conformed to the image of Christ.

That is our good. That's the goal. That's what we're working towards. And that is what God is working towards in us. And so God's rod is his instrument for sculpting and or drawing that image upon us.

And if Christ was displayed before the world, we can look like him. And affliction will be part of that. Saying that it was granted to us not only to believe, but to suffer for his namesake. And of course, as Watson points out, we should not lose sight of it.

His suffering was for our atonement. Our suffering is actually for our sanctification, for our chastening, as it were. We needed to be more like him. He was already perfect. Questions or comments there?

There.

All right.

There's coffee in the back.

All right, number four. Afflictions work for good to the godly as they are destructive to sin. Sin is the mother, affliction is the daughter. The daughter helps to destroy the mother. Sin is like the tree which breeds the worm, and affliction is like the worm that eats the tree.

There is much corruption in the best heart. Affliction does by degrees work it out as the fire works out the dross from the gold. The Lord did this to purge away his sin. Isaiah, it's actually 27 .9. Get used to that.

Some of these things, the PDF didn't have it quite the way the original had it. So that's from Isaiah 27 .9. Try to look, I was like, was he talking about like mythology or something like that? It sounds like something I've read before about the daughter helps to destroy the mother.

Maybe he just had kids, I don't know. Not our kids, of course, because our kids are wonderful. They don't do stuff like that. But the mother, daughter, the tree worm, the corruption is in the heart. The sin is in the heart, and the sin brings forth affliction.

But the affliction is used by the Lord to work that sin out. So like fire moves the dross from the gold. The next part of that. What if we have more of the rough file? If we have less rust? Afflictions carry away nothing but the dross of sin.

If a physician should say to a patient, your body is distempered and full of bad humors, which must be cleared out or you will die. But I will prescribe physic, which though it may make you sick, yet it will carry away the dregs of your disease and save your life.

Would not this be for the good of the patient? Afflictions are the medicine which God uses to carry off our spiritual diseases. They cure the swelling of pride, the fever of lust, the cancer of covetousness.

Do they then not work for good? More of the rough file, that filing process, but it takes away the rust. It's not easy, it's hard work, and it can be painful if you're the one who's being filed. And yet God is using that to get rid of that sin.

And medicine at times can make us sick, but in the end saves our life. I don't know if you ever had any of your doctors in the office, I'd be sitting in the office waiting forever for the doctor to get in there and looking at the old advertisements from yesteryear and they would be advertising these tonics and these cough syrups and their marketing would be it tastes awful and it works.

So that's, our medicine tastes awful at times. The affliction is awful, but it works. It works to bring out the sin and help to put it to death. And so God gives us that affliction for our good as the good physician that he is.

Afflictions work for good as they are the means of loosening our hearts from the world. When you dig away the earth from the root of a tree, it is to loosen the tree from the earth. Just so God digs away our earthly comforts to loosen our hearts from the earth.

A thorn grows up with every flower. God would have the world hang as a loose tooth which being twitched away does not much trouble us. Is it not good to be weaned? The oldest saints need it. Why does the Lord break the conduit pipe but that we may go to him in whom all, in whom are all our fresh springs?

And that's, you have the right verse there. Psalm 87, seven. These examples that he uses, it just reminds us that we ought to be dependent upon him for everything. Who provides us with those fresh springs that that water that we need for life.

He has everything that we need and we sometimes, as an earlier example that he said, we're dependent on those things around us. We think that's where our comfort is, that becomes where our idol is, that's where we have our security and we should be dependent upon him.

And so afflictions help to show just how temporary and not good for us those things can be. So that's number five. Number six. Afflictions work for good as they make way for comfort. In the valley of Acre is a door of hope, Hosea 2 .15.

Acre signifies trouble. God sweetens outward pain with inward peace. Your sorrow shall be turned into joy, John 16 .20. Here is the water turned into wine. After a bitter pill, God gives sugar. Paul had his prison songs.

God's rod has honey at the end of it. The saints in affliction have had such sweet raptures of joy that they thought themselves in the borders of the heavenly Canaan. The valley of Acre, and that literally means the valley of trouble.

Anyone know where, what, the valley of Acre, how it got its name? Who brought trouble? Figured you read it and you knew it already, you didn't have to look it up. You're like, oh, the valley of Acre, I remember.

That's where Achan was stoned for bringing trouble on Israel. It was close to Jericho. Afterwards, he had stolen the gold and he hid it. And when they went to go fight Ai, they were beat, beat back. And when they were mourning their loss under trying to figure out what had happened, God says, what are you crying for?

Get up, you got sin in the camp. And so they drew him out by a lot and found out who was the one who had brought trouble on Israel. But God dealt with his people. They dealt with the sin in a way that they had to.

Anything that was under the band, if you took those things that were under the band, you became under the band. And so those things that were devoted for destruction, all the wealth in Jericho, because Achan had taken some, he too was to be devoted to destruction, him and everything he had.

He had brought trouble on Israel. Men died because of his sin. That's how it works in a covenant group, right? We know that we talk about federal headship and those who are in charge, those who are leaders, what they do, the sin they commit, that can have an impact on the people underneath them.

But in a covenant group, if there is sin, it hurts not only the person who is guilty of the sin, but it hurts the people around them. And so we should be aware of that. But God had the people deal with the sin and afterwards brought victory and he brought hope.

And so that's the hope that we have, that though there is trouble, there will be hope and they'll bring comfort. And so the Lord brought comfort. John 16, 20, he's talking to them and he says, your sorrow will be turned into joy.

And of course he uses all these little metaphors about the water turning to wine in prison. They're in prison, they've been beaten, but they have the songs and they're enjoying the worship of God, knowing that they're in right relationship with God.

They have done what they're called to do. And so even if there is suffering for it, they can take comfort knowing that God is being glorified. He talks about the rod with honey and those in affliction still filled with joy, seeing the glory in store.

They are at the borders of the heavenly Canaan, the promised land, right? The eternal rest. Any questions about that?

In the valley, what we don't realize.

Is that's where the most fertile and rich soil is between the two mountains,.

Because the rain comes down.

And all the soil compiles in there. And that's why, although we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, that's where the greatest growth, that's where the greatest transformation happens.

For the saints.

As you're walking through that valley, just recognize that that's where the richest soil is. That's where you're gonna get the best harvest of fruit, the fruit of the spirit. So don't be afraid to walk through the valley.

Because God's putting us through that.

To bring forth the growth of the harvest.

Amen.

Amen, excellent. Could be a pastor, this guy. Number seven, afflictions work for good as they are a magnifying of us. What is man that you should magnify him and that you should visit him every morning?

And that's Job 7 .17 and also 18a. God does by affliction magnify us in three ways. Job X, he's questioning God. He's just going off and ranting. But he says, what is man that you should magnify him, make so much of him that you should visit him every morning?

And the second part of that verse is, and test him every moment. There's three ways that God magnifies us by affliction. In the affliction, he's magnifying us. Number one, in that he will condescend so low as to take notice of us.

It is an honor that God will mine dust and ashes. It is a magnifying of us that God thinks us worthy to be smitten. God's not striking, God's not striking is a slighting. Why should you be stricken anymore?

Isaiah 1 .5, I'm always checking the verses just to make sure, it will go on. If you will go on and sin, take your course. Sin yourselves into hell. Wow, that's fascinating that we would think of that.

Most of us probably wouldn't think that way. Oh, thank you for that. It reminds us though, that we are children of God, that he would pay attention to us, that he would bother with us and not just cast us off into hell, but discipline us that we might repent.

He's, why will you be stricken, right? Why should you be stricken anymore? He's telling them, he's reasoning with them. Turn back, why be destroyed? But it's important enough that he would condescend and that actually magnifies us.

It shows us that we have value that God even would bother with us. Number two, afflictions also magnify us as they are end signs of glory, signs of sonship. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons.

Hebrews 12 .7, every print of the rod is a badge of honor. Tell that to your kids, every print of the rod. I love the Puritans. God is dealing with us as sons and what an incredible honor to be considered a child of the king, right?

When reading stories about children growing up in royalty and they have this expectation upon them and there's a high standard for them to live up to, but they're like, you're a child of the king. You need to learn these lessons.

You need to be disciplined because this is what you represent. And those were earthly kings and queens, right? We represent, we are the children of God most high, possessor of heaven and earth. He is the king of kings and Lord of lords and we are his children.

And so when he chastens us, it's because we're his children and he loves us to help grow us in discipline. Any question about that? Those two. Number three, the third way he magnifies us. Afflictions tend to the magnifying of the saints as they make them renowned in the world.

Soldiers have never been so admired for their victories as the saints have been for their sufferings. The zeal and constancy of the martyrs in their trials have rendered them famous to posterity. How eminent was Job for his patience.

God leaves his name upon record. You have heard of the patience of Job in James 5, 11. Job the sufferer was more renowned than Alexander the conqueror. Alexander didn't get his name in scripture, right?

We've heard of Fox's book of martyrs, right? And when we recount those stories and we reflect on heroes and they were just like us, ordinary people just put in a set of circumstances, a set of affliction where they honored God and yet they became heroes from wretches to heroes, right?

We've heard of the patience of Job. We think of Polycarp going to burn at the stake, calm of spirit, not willing to sacrifice to Caesar, not willing to compromise. He was steadfast. We think of Jim Elliot, you know, and the men who lost their lives there and they had rifles with them, right?

They had affliction and yet they wanted to honor God. They wanted to reach these people and they weren't going to reach them by killing them and so they were going to lay down their life that these people might live and have a chance to hear the gospel and be saved and they were.

And so we look at men like Jim Elliot and Nate Saint and then the others there and all those who have gone before and died in affliction, right? As heroes and people we look up to and so we are magnified, though we are unworthy wretches.

Questions, comments? Number eight, afflictions work for good as they are the means of making us happy. Don't you just pray and ask God for more affliction so you can be happier? Is that in your prayer requests each morning?

Lord afflict me. I wanna be happier. Happy is the man whom God corrects, Job 517. What politician or moralist ever placed happiness in affliction? Job does. Happy is the man whom God corrects. It may be said, had afflictions, afflictions make us happy.

We reply that being sanctified, they bring us nearer to God. The moon in the full is furthest off from the sun, so are many further off from God in the full moon of prosperity. Afflictions bring them nearer to God.

The magnet of mercy does not draw us so near to God as the cords of affliction. When Absalom, I love this, when Absalom set Joab's corn on fire, he came running to Absalom. He was ignoring Absalom. I'm like, I don't know if this is exactly the correct analogy I would use here, but it works.

There was affliction and it got his attention and it brought him nearer to Absalom for that time. And it's actually in chapter 14, verse 30. That'll be the thing for you to watch out for throughout this whole thing is just mark off the references.

But you won't hear afflictions making us happy from politicians or other charlatans. You won't hear from Joel Osteen and the like, his kind of ilk. They talk about having everything that's best for you now and they think that a perfect life is one where you have no sufferings and they'll do everything that they can to avoid it.

But this idea, it's mentioned, Joab talks about it. It's mentioned in Proverbs about the wise man who if you rebuke him, he will love you, right? You instruct him and he becomes wiser still. That's in the Psalms, it's in James, it's all over the place.

Being corrected is being sanctified and being sanctified is being brought closer to God. It says the pure in heart shall see God and God is removing the impurities when he is bringing affliction into our lives.

Says the magnet of mercy, sadly in our flesh, we don't often appreciate God for what he gives us in mercy. But when there's affliction, we remember him. That's when we go back to him. That's when we're praying.

That's when we're reflecting on the kindness and mercy he's shown us before that we would take comfort now and realize there's hope for the future. But it's those times of affliction that we really have our focus set right.

So when God sets our world on fire, we run to him. And that's a sad state of affairs. Obviously, when you look at Joab and Absalom, you know, you got two sinners who are just, you know, having conflict, but God who is perfect, when he does these things, it is for our good.

But how often do we ignore God? You know, Absalom was calling him, you know, come here and talk to me, and he's sending servants. Like, come here and talk to me. Joab's like, I'll get to him later on.

He goes, go set his corn on fire. I've been a while, I have a conversation then. And that's what brought him. And so we're Joab. We are at times ignoring our savior. And so he brings about affliction, sets our world on fire, and we come running back.

The prodigal son did not come to his senses until the money was gone and the famine had arrived. Oh, I jumped ahead. That's what we're gonna talk about. When God sets our worldly comforts on fire, then we run to him and make our peace with him.

When the prodigal was pinched with need, then he returned home to his father, Luke 15, 13. And when the dove could not find any rest for the sole of her foot, then she flew to the ark. When God brings a deluge of affliction upon us, then we fly to the ark, Christ.

Thus, affliction makes us happy in bringing us nearer to God. Faith can make use of the waters of affliction to swim faster to Christ. I love the way he puts things. Wonderful. Any questions or comments about that?

Yeah, the question is, when we are afflicted, we have to ask ourselves, what is it that we are running to? Sometimes in affliction, let's say you're having an issue. It's like, well, yeah, I'll get a better attorney.

Yes, yeah.

Wait a second, no, no, you need to go back to God.

So sometimes these afflictions actually reveal to us that we're not going to God, that we should be going.

Right, right, and that was the earlier example about seeing the corruption within us. He talks about it in temptation in the next section here. But how many times do we see Israel and they're under affliction?

They have an enemy nation, an enemy army bearing down on them and rather than going to the Lord the way they should, oh, let's send messengers to Egypt. Let's send them and ask them if they can help us.

We do the same thing nowadays. We think very pragmatically and rather than going to God and like Hezekiah and laying out the letter, laying out the government executive order, the mandate, right, rather than laying that on and getting on our faces before God and praying, let's find this and let's find that.

There's times to do our due diligence. I'm not knocking that, but at times all we think about is doing it the pragmatic way. Exactly, we have to understand. We say it before we say it about a lot of things, but unless the Lord builds a house, we labor in vain who build it.

So if we're trying to mount the defense against oppression and tyranny, but we're not looking to the Lord, it's just cardboard Lego box that we're just putting up there, it's a pillow fort. Now we're gonna get creamed.

God is bringing about those things for a reason. He's trying to get our attention and we're just doubling down on the fact that we're not going to God the way we ought to. But when it accomplishes its purpose, we will be happier.

And so there's that. So number nine, was there a question? Go ahead, Ashley, you gotta get your hand up there.

I had a question, but a comment. I was just trying to think of another example. So for example, Naomi, she went to Moab with her husband.

And God really afflicted her and she lost her husband. She lost her sons and that brought her back to Bethlehem. So he used that too in her life.

Yeah, really, I mean the mercy there. She says, she was afflicted by the Lord. She goes, call me Mara, call me bitter, right? But she comes back and now she's got a daughter-in-law who's faithful and God blesses and he pours out his blessings and now her daughter-in-law is in the lineage of Christ.

And her husband and sons both left Bethlehem, the house of bread, and they were being fed there, being provided for there, and they thought somewhere else was gonna be better. So let's leave because there's a famine.

They left and that's when they died.

Because God had them where he wanted them.

Right, yeah. So there they were in the midst of affliction and they went the pragmatic route, right? They went to Moab and it cost them their lives. I mean, God is merciful and he works it for good, but you're not, none of us are, we're all expendable as it were.

The Lord doesn't need any one of us except that he in his good pleasure would use us for his purposes. But we shouldn't think too highly of ourselves. Number nine, afflictions work for good as they put to silence the wicked.