He Became a Curse!

Dr. R.C. Sproul delivered this message at Together for the Gospel 2008.  This powerful excerpt really captures the dymanic impact it had during his session.  The first time I heard it, I broke down in tears.

Wielding Psalm 119 in Affliction

Psalm 119. It seems that in affliction the Psalmist’s hope and stay was found in God’s word.  The promises of God upheld his soul.  They were his delight when the world crumbled around him.  When he was alone, God’s word was that company which strenghtened his weak knees and lifted his drooping head with sweet and tender whispers of holiness and joy.  In my recent reading of this sweet, succulent and soul-reviving chapter, I was awed when savoring this truth.  God’s word is powerfully and inextricibly linked with the sanctifying suffering of his people.  Indeed, a saint will not suffer well without it.  The world needs to know what upheld you in those times.  These words showcase the treasure of God’s elucidating truth in the darkening storm. These words from God pour forth with radiant and sonorous beauty the life-giving song of his word into our hearts which restores and sanctifies his people, even when his rod administers mercy and compassion.

Here I recount those verses which specifically use the word “affliction” and its verbal variations.  Followed after each verse, I have provided a line which like a sword the believer may prayerfully and faithfully wield to preach to himself those truths which the fickle depravity of the heart is prone to forget.  One would do well to find similar verses in the chapter which communicate the same message and thereafter to formulate their own war-making truth-lines.

Verse 50 “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.”

This is your comfort afflicted O my soul: God’s promise gives you life.

Verse 67 “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.

Before this affliction you were not as sanctified as you are now, my heart.  Now you keep God’s word.

Verse 71 “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.”

It is a good and merciful time to be afflicted by God, my soul.  You are learning to treasure God’s holy commands.

Verse 75 “I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.”

God’s rules are righteous, o my soul.  To show this, he displays his faithfulness to you and everyone when he has afflicted you.

Verse 92 “If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.”

Delight in his law even now, my soul, lest you perish in unbelief.

Verse 107  “I am severely afflicted; give me life, O LORD, according to your word!”

Cry out to the LORD! He gives life just as he said he would. Do you believe what he has said? Bring to him this promise with importunate faithfulness.

 Verse 153  “Look on my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget your law.”

He will look upon your sad state, and he will deliver you! Never forget his holy law.

His word is that lamp. Do you believe it?

Make war until you do.

Working with you “to pull the word of promise from its scabbard and wield it with holy violence,” _CH

Vince R.

The Rod of Affliction and the Instruction of God

From the sermon preached October 26, 2008 (Evening Service Colonial Baptist Church)

“He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne he sets them forever, and they are exalted.  And if they are bound in chains and caught in the cords of affliction, then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly. He opens their ears to instruction and commands that they return from iniquity.” Job 36:7-10

“He delivers the afflicted by their affliction
and opens their ear by adversity.” Job 36:15

“Take care; do not turn to iniquity, for this you have chosen rather than affliction. Behold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him?  Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’?” Job 36:21-23

There is no teacher like our God.  He teaches us to hate sin and to love him.  That is the message of Job.  Suffering does not come because of the sins of a man.  The suffering of the righteous is not punitive and wrathful, and the prosperity of the wicked is not biased and rewarding.  The very stain of sin that stains all men is reason enough for eternal suffering.  “None are righteous” and “all have sinned” (Romans 3:10,23).  It is not logical nor is it biblical to think that Job suffered because of his sin, that is, his suffering was some penal release of God’s wrath toward Job.  Job was an upright and blameless man who turned from evil and feared God (Job 1:1), and by extension, he was a saint, saved by grace through faith.

No, Job’s sin was not the reason for his calamity.  Rather, Job’s sanctification from sin was the reason for his calamity.

The rod of affliction which God did use to instruct this man of God, this godly father who offered up sacrifices for his children and prayed for the forgiveness of their sins daily (if they may have cursed God in their hearts), was stripped of all he owned and covered with rotten loathesome sores from head to foot for only one reason.

God is supremely valuable above all things.

God’s absolute sovereignty and his incomparable worthiness destroys all the arrogances of man, thwarts all his lofty inventions, crushes all his vain philosophies and heady theories.  Because God is supremely valuable, he demolishes man’s boastful claims to self-sufficiency before him.  There are no guarantees of material or relational blessings with God.  We are not guaranteed a prestigious job, a high-browed education, a beautiful family, a wealth of friends, or a healthful body.  God is sovereign, and the supremacy of his Son Jesus Christ will be known in the hearts of his people.  God ordains suffering to teach his people these lessons.  He did it with Job, and because of this, we are, by application, asked two questions in this book:

1. Do you love your God more than you love your blessings?

2. Do you really hate sin as much as God does?

The point of Job’s affliction was to instruct him so that he could say yes to those questions, both now and even into eternity.  Our affliction is coming.  It is only a matter of time.  Calamity will come, and we will have to ask ourselves these questions.  The book of Job was written for our instruction so that we can agree with confidence and brokenhearted tender affirmations with James.

“Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.” James 5:11

This is sanctification: the sifting of sin and the purifying work of a heart toward undivided full affections and obedience toward God as the only one worthy of all our admiration, reverence, and worship.

“Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is none on earth that I desire besides you.  My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:25-26

If God is supremely valuable, then it truly is compassion and mercy that God would remove those things which keep us from viewing his steadfast love as better than life (Psalm 63:3).  Why should he sift us? Why should he sanctify our hearts?  We have sinned against him, and we deserve damnation to a life of sin and an eternal perdition consumed by it.  Therefore, we do not deserve restoration from it.  Sanctification is undeserved.  We must not believe that justification alone is by grace through faith.  Sanctification is as much by grace through faith.

Crush the thoughts in me, O Lord, that want to make my sanctification by works.

As Job instructs us: This grace and compassion and mercy will slay us.  Indeed, God will kill us, and it will be by grace when he does.  “To live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

Yet we so often abandon that conviction.  What is the first thing abandoned when we are healthful, when we are prosperous, and when all is well?

The first thing that goes is a steadfast love for God.

What is the first thing that comes when we are afflicted, when we are brought low, and when all is not well?

The first thing that comes is cursing and regret.  When we do that, we are showing where our treasure truly is, and the world is watching and listening.

“For too little doth he love Thee, who loves any thing with Thee, which he loveth not for Thee.” –Augustine

It always hurts to receive instruction with a rod of affliction, but we must kiss that hand holding it, fighting for the faith and confidence in Christ that says that Satan always means our affliction for evil and God always means our affliction for good.  Most of all, remember that Satan is God’s devil, and he is on a leash. What a shameful curse on Satan, when in the end, all his energies and exertions of evil will vindicate God’s glory, the very thing he fought against.  For God is preparing in this momentary affliction a far greater weight of glory, for his name and for our joy (2 Corinthians 4:17).  Don’t ever think that God does not love you, beloved.  Do not give in to the temptation which says that God does not love me because he is doing this and ordained this to happen to me.  Behold, if you are in Christ, he does nothing else but love you.

Christ, himself, is the one who perfects our suffering, for he himself was perfected by suffering.

“For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering” (Hebrews 2:10).

He is our brother; indeed, he is not ashamed to call us brothers (Hebrews 2:11).

“Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.  For because he himself has suffered when tempted (tested), he is able to help those who are being tempted (tested).” Hebrews 2:17-18

Christ gives us the only way to suffer.  We cannot suffer rightly without him.  He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3).  So then, by grace, God has predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that I can say with Paul, weeping and bold, when I get that phone call that says that my parents have been in an accident and they’re dead:

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith–that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3:8-11

But with a heavy heart, I ask: How do you expect to suffer without Christ?  How do you expect to see your end with no savior?  For those not in Christ, there is no hope of gaining him.  There is not hope of attaining a resurrection from the dead like his.  There is no joy of knowing Jesus forever.

Cast yourself upon his cross, repent of your sins, and believe that he died to pay the penalty for your sins.  Then follow him to die.  There is no other way that we may suffer in this life or that we may know eternal life.

Praying that you would kiss his hand when he afflicts you, believing that he is nothing but merciful and compassionate towards his sons and daughters in Christ,

Vince R.