No Escaping Affliction Part 3

Driving home: Oh, how many have been carried to hell in the chariots of earthly pleasures, while others have been whipped to heaven by the rod of affliction.

Martin quotes Flavel: 'Oh, how many have been carried to hell in the chariots of earthly pleasures, while others have been whipped to heaven by the rod of affliction.' This illustrates the counter-intuitive benefit of affliction in leading to salvation and glory, contrasting it with the danger of ease.

And in concluding our review, I want to read a statement that I wrote down from Flavel many years ago. Oh, how many have been carried to hell in the chariots of earthly pleasures, while others have been whipped to heaven by the rod of affliction. How many have been carried to hell in the chariots of earthly pleasures, while others have been whipped to heaven by the rod of affliction. Well, I'd rather be whipped to heaven than carried to hell in chariots of ease.

7:16 - 7:53 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But in reality, there are some passages that only affliction will exegete. You simply do not penetrate their meaning until you enter the crucible of affliction.

Affliction is described as an 'intensified classroom' where God teaches lessons from His Word that cannot be learned theoretically, but only through the 'crucible of affliction.' This metaphor emphasizes the unique and profound learning experience suffering provides.

Okay. All right, could we call it an intensified classroom to receive deeper insights to the Word of God? All right. An intensified classroom.

11:02 - 11:13 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It's been there all the time and it took the pressure of affliction to make it pop to the surface.

The analogy of a 'cauldron of affliction' is used to describe how intense suffering brings blasphemous thoughts and hard thoughts of God to the surface, revealing the desperate wickedness of the human heart that was previously hidden. This illustrates how affliction exposes indwelling sin.

But then let God put us into a real cauldron of affliction, and we begin to find blasphemous thoughts rising up out of our hearts and then we begin to know how desperately wicked this heart really is and we begin to find hard thoughts of God and we begin with Job to curse the day of our birth and we say, is this in me? Yes, it is in you. You say, where did this come from? It's been there all the time and it took the pressure of affliction to make it pop to the surface.

14:31 - 14:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not think hard thoughts about God when afflicted, but recognize affliction as a revelation of His love to prevent self-destruction from backsliding.

Martin recounts a Scottish preacher's interaction with Jonah, highlighting how Jonah misinterpreted favorable circumstances (a ready ship, money) as God's providence for disobedience. The preacher's dialogue with Jonah about the squall and being thrown overboard powerfully illustrates that providence should not be used to determine God's will against His explicit Word.

If anyone could have proved from, quote, providence that it was the will of God for him to go in the opposite direction the word of God told him to go, Jonah could. So don't you determine the will of God by providence. An old Scottish preacher has a marvelous, marvelous section on the life of Jonah dealing with that. And it's as though he's talking to Jonah.

20:18 - 20:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not think hard thoughts about God when afflicted, but recognize affliction as a revelation of His love to prevent self-destruction from backsliding.

God's use of affliction is compared to a parent who, after gentle verbal warnings fail, uses a 'wooden spoon or paddle' to get a disobedient child's attention and call them back from a harmful path. This analogy explains that God's affliction is not out of irritation but out of loving commitment to His children's holiness and obedience.

It's like a parent who's saying to a child, don't do that. And the child, the child suddenly has a problem of thickened eardrums. He doesn't hear. Son, don't do that.

21:44 - 21:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Stop itching for a wonderful situation where God only marks out a path of ease; expect jagged stones and thorns in the Christian life.

Gethsemane is presented as the 'epitome' of learning godly obedience through suffering. Christ's prayer, 'Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done,' in the face of immense suffering, illustrates the principle of obeying God regardless of personal consequences.

I may be simply walking that path because it's sweet to me, it's pleasant to me, it's satisfying to all of my mind, and it's the way that God is, senses, in all of my desires. But now when the path cuts through a deep valley of suffering, now we're put to the test. Am I walking on the principle of godly obedience, determined to obey God no matter what the negative consequences to me may be? That's Gethsemane. That's Gethsemane.

25:49 - 26:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Stop itching for a wonderful situation where God only marks out a path of ease; expect jagged stones and thorns in the Christian life.

The Christian life path is described as not always being 'rose petals and nice, soft, velvety carpet,' but often containing 'jagged stones and cut glass and thorns and prickers.' This metaphor challenges the expectation of an easy life and prepares believers for inevitable suffering, while also encouraging gratitude for periods of ease.

Though he was a son, verse 8, yet learned the obedience by the things which he suffered, and having been made perfect, having been made a Savior perfectly suited to our needs, he became unto all them that obey him, the author of eternal salvation. So that the salvation which he procured and is received by faith is the salvation which secures the soul of God, and secures the obedience of all those to whom it comes, and we will learn the principles of Godly obedience the same way our Savior did. Now if you think you're above learning them the way he did, then you see what you're saying? You're s...

28:02 - 29:11 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Afflictions serve as a 'display case of grace and omnipotence,' demonstrating God's power and the genuineness of believers' faith and love for Him, even apart from His gifts, as…

Job's entire experience is presented as an illustration of affliction forming a 'display case of the grace of God.' His suffering, despite his blamelessness, proved that he served God for who He is, not just for His gifts, thus displaying God's grace to Satan and to others.

And wasn't this part of the rationale for Job's whole experience? Why does Job serve God? Well, look at the way God treats him. Anybody would serve a God who treats you like that.

39:07 - 39:17 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Afflictions serve as a 'display case of grace and omnipotence,' demonstrating God's power and the genuineness of believers' faith and love for Him, even apart from His gifts, as…

The scenario of a believer's life changing from ease to affliction is used as an example of God displaying His grace to an unconverted work associate. This illustrates how suffering can demonstrate that a believer serves God for who He is, not just for what He gives, potentially impacting others' perceptions of God.

Not everybody reads his Bible. And you may be working next to someone who says, Oh, yeah, you know, he's religious and he's one of those Jesus people and the rest. But look at that. He's got a sweet wife.

40:06 - 40:16 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Further discussion reinforces that affliction prunes graces like trust and submission. Martin also addresses Colossians 1:24, explaining that the suffering of believers in…

Martin recommends Margaret Clarkson's book 'Grace Grows Best in Winter,' whose title (from Rutherford) itself is a metaphor for how spiritual graces are cultivated and strengthened most effectively during periods of intense and long suffering. This reinforces the idea of affliction as a means of spiritual growth.

The same one as the author of the little book many of us have used in teaching our children the birds and the bees called Susie's Babies published by Erdman's. Margaret Clarkson was a Christian school teacher, a very godly woman who herself knew and knows the unusual discipline of intense physical suffering and affliction. And she's written the book So You're Single, another excellent book. But this one taken, the title taken from the words of Rutherford, Grace Grows Best in Winter.

42:19 - 42:51 Read in full sermon

The point: View whatever affliction becomes the instrument of your death as God's sovereignly constructed door to usher you out of this life and into His presence.

Martin shares about a letter from Mrs. Denning, whose husband was dying of inoperable cancer. Her perspective, viewing his fatal illness as 'God's door to take her husband into a better place,' illustrates how believers can embrace affliction, even death, with faith and triumph, rather than worldly dread.

By some door, God's going to take you into his presence. If it's not the return of his Christ, the return of his son, and if it's not a car crash or an airplane crash or some other kind of sudden, tragic death of that nature, it's going to be by the illness that becomes fatal. Whether a general degenerative process in which ultimately your heart just finally gives out, or whether it's going to be by some dread disease, cancer, or something else, we ought as believers to think of whatever affliction becomes the instrument of my death as God's sovereignly constructed door by which to usher me ou...

48:40 - 50:09 Read in full sermon