Trials as a Means of Grace (4)

Introduction: The Manifesto Series and Means of Grace

0:03 in Montville, New Jersey.

0:07 Now will you follow, please, in your own Bibles as I read several very familiar verses, but verses which we will be considering in our ongoing study of the Word of God this morning. Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 through 3. Hebrews chapter 12, just the first three verses. O seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight

0:50 and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame. And hath sat down on the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against himself, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls.

1:32 Now let us again seek the face of God and ask the help of the Holy Spirit, the author of this blessed book, that he may instruct us with power and encouragement. Climb our hearts into the way of faith and obedience in the light of that Word. Let us pray. We would take our stance with the publican, conscious that were you to deal with us in strict justice, every one of us would be consumed by your righteous wrath.

2:11 That our sins cry to heaven for judgment. That we thank you that we are bold to draw near and to address you as our Father, because you have saved us. We thank you that you have sent your beloved Son to be the sin-bearer, and we thank you that coming in his name, trusting only in the virtue of his perfect life, and his death upon the cross, in which he swallowed up your wrath and cried, it is finished. O Lord, in the virtue of his perfect work, we do dare to approach you with liberty and with joy and with expectation.

2:53 That you will hear and answer our prayers. We thank you that the one who died for us even now intercedes, and we pray that for his namesake, you would indeed come and bless the ministry of the Word, grant us spiritual illumination, grant us grace to receive with faith and obedience all that you will say to us from your own Holy Word. Hear us. As together we plead these mercies, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

3:29 This morning will be another installment in a series of studies which I have chosen to entitle, A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church, in the Hotelos meeting, which is the gathering of the academy students for a spoof yearbook to be presented, and is always a time of great delight and fellowship. Innocent humor, this series was called the Megafesto, rather than the Manifesto, but I

4:09 stick by the original title, and we do continue in another installment of the Manifesto. The series began in March of 1991, as we were approaching 25 years of life together as a congregation. It was begun and has continued with a view to salvation. Our family, as well as our pine tree brothers, fight for our faith, for the cause of the church, and for the betterment of the church.

4:37 In our home, a man is put to death for his sin. He is tormented and was должен to die. He lives in pain. He was born naked.

4:42 He is exalted. He is exalted. He is a male. He is a virgin.

4:46 He is a virgin. He has died. His body has been torn. He's survived his death.

4:50 He has been raised from the grave, and he is a man. There is a purpose to doing all man, to the death of the others who have died. It is my purpose that the man be made flesh and the soul of the earth. It is my purpose that the man be made flesh which may have been the body of the earth or the soul of the earth.

4:55 those of you who have been a part of this work, if not for the entire 26 years now, but a good bit of that time, would be, in the language of Peter, stirred up by way of remembrance, that you would be confirmed in these perspectives and convictions, and that others of you who have picked up little bits and pieces along the way would be indoctrinated in the things that your spiritual viscera feel comfortable with, but things which you have never clearly perceived with the understanding with your Bibles in your laps.

5:35 And that two-fold purpose of confirmation and indoctrination are indeed the continuous driving motivation as we carry on this series. We began with the first affirmation in the Manifesto that we are determined. That Jesus Christ shall have his rightful place in his church. His rightful place as foundation of that church, the sole source of its spiritual life, and the supreme Lord and ruler among us.

6:11 And from that initial affirmation, we have come to the point where we are now considering the ninth affirmation in which we are expressing this determination. To maintain a balanced New Testament perspective, both in our teaching and expectations concerning conversion, the Christian life, and the mission of the church. Our present focus is upon the issue of a balanced New Testament perspective on the Christian life. And in dealing with that subject, I am stating some crucial principles.

6:54 And, then, opening up some of the pivotal passages in the Word of God which warrant those principles. The principle of the Christian life that we are presently examining is this. That there are no effective substitutes for the God-appointed means of grace in living the Christian life. And as we've considered the private or individual means of grace, we have done so in terms of considering a means of grace.

Biblical Response to Trials: Review of First Three Strands

7:25 means of grace as a God-ordained discipline, activity, or relationship in which God purposes to nurture in his people the life he has imparted to them. And as we have considered these private or individual means of grace, we have seen that they are basically three. Number one, the maintenance of the habit and spirit of secret prayer. Secondly, the mental and spiritual assimilation of the contents of our Bibles. And then thirdly, the effectual working of

8:06 trials, tribulations, affliction, and divine chastisement. Now in addressing this third means of grace, we have seen from the scriptures that trials, afflictions, tribulation, and divine chastisement are indeed designed by God as a means of grace. We have further seen from the scriptures that they do not function automatically as a means of grace, but they become that only when the believer in the grace of Christ responds to these things

8:44 in a manner determined by the word of Christ. As someone has said, if we do not receive the right to our trials, all we have for our trials is the memory of their pain. And we are none the better unless we respond to them in a biblical manner. And so I have been addressing for two Lord's Days now the question, what is involved in a biblical response to trials, tribulations, afflictions, and divine chastisement that will result in their

9:22 truly being a means of grace to us? How do we respond to these pinching providences in such a way that the life of God within us is nurtured and strengthened as a result of God's paternal chastisement? Well, we looked at three parts of the answer last Lord's Day. And from the scriptures we saw that we must view these things with a well-informed biblical realism. James tells us we're to count it all joy when we fall into

10:01 diverse or manifold trials, knowing. And our ability to count it all joy rests upon a well-informed biblical realism that can look at manifold trials and understand the divine intention in them. Or in the language of Hebrews, 12, 5 through 11, we must both remember and understand the purposes of God in his chastisements of us. You have forgotten, the writer to the Hebrews says, and then he goes on after reminding

10:41 them of the purposes of God in affliction as validating the sonship of his own that he also intends through those afflictions to make us a better people. And so I have been addressing this question for a long time. And I think it's important for us to look at it in a different way. And I think it's important for us to look at it in a different way. And I think it's important

10:55 for us to look at it in a different way. But then we saw, secondly, that we must not only view these things with a well-informed biblical realism, but that we must submit afresh to our sovereign God and loving Father who brings these things upon us. And that is the focused emphasis of Hebrews 12 and verse 9. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? And I was careful to emphasize that in choosing the words submit

11:32 afresh to our sovereign God and loving Father, we were not simply playing with words. I didn't say submit to the sovereignty of God. That's a theological concept. That is at best an attribute of God. But we are called upon to submit to our sovereign God. And that is a

11:53 God and loving Father who brings these things upon us. Margaret Clarkson, whose book Grace Grows Best in Winter is one of the finest treatises on the purposes and ways of God with his children in sustained affliction, herself has written a poem in which she captured the very essence of what I attempted to open up to you under that second heading last week. It is called, In Darkness. In faithfulness hast thou afflicted me. O sovereign love, I will not fear but look in

12:34 faith to thee enthroned above. You see what she's saying? I'm looking to a sovereign God, not to an abstraction, the sovereignty of God, but she says, I will not fear but look in faith to thee enthroned above. And know my Father's heart of grace has planned is not moved.

13:07 may fall in sorrows hour upon thy faithfulness I cast my all and claim thy power to work eternal wealth of holy gain from this heat of loneliness and pain. In faithfulness hast How faithfulness may I accept from thee this thou hast done, for thou thy gifts of darkness dost impart, but to disclose the fullness of thy heart.

13:45 When I said to trials and afflictions and tribulations, divine chastisement, demand, fresh submission to our sovereign God and loving Father, it is this that Margaret Clarkson has so beautifully captured in her poem that I was attempting to set before you. And then we saw, thirdly, that we must plead with God that the peculiar purposes of God in these things may be accomplished in us. They do not come to pass automatically. And we are to pray, James 5.13, is any among you afflicted? Let him pray.

14:30 And in the light of a well-informed judgment, when we fall into manifold trials, knowing they are sent of God for the proving of our faith, for the strengthening of other graces, we are to pray and let the very teaching of the word of God on these issues cut the channel. For our prayers, let God concerning his purpose become the very thing that frames our petitions. And when we cannot perceive the purposes of God, then, as James encourages us in James 1 in verse 5,

Fourth Strand: Constantly Fix Our Gaze Upon Our Lord Jesus

15:08 we can come to God and ask that we may be able as much as it pleases him to disclose his purpose that he would do so for our sanctification. Now, today, we take up, God willing, the fourth and fifth strands of a biblical response,

15:31 which make them effectual as a means of grace. Things seem that we must view them with a well-informed biblical realism, submit afresh to our sovereign God and loving Father in the midst of them, plead with God that his purposes in them will be accomplished,

15:55 and thus constantly fix our gaze. But our Lord Jesus must constantly fix our gaze upon our Lord Jesus. Perfect pattern of response. We take second place to no one in affirming that our foundational relationship to God in Christ is one of looking to Christ as our substitutionary sin-bearer,

16:35 our representative curse-bearer's lamb who bears away the sin. The father is the one who bears away the sin. The father is the one who bears away the sin. The foundation of our relationship to God, the tenacity to the truth that in the superstructure of the Christian life, Christ is not only our life and our strength,

17:12 as you considered several weeks ago in the adult class, states this explicitly. John 2 and verse 6. He abideth in what Hugh Martin calls the galleries of the king, the four gospel records. Of our blessed Lord.

17:51 Perfect.

17:55 Right as he did to the Corinthians and say in 1 Corinthians 11 1, be followers of me or imitators of me.

18:10 The imitation of Christ when grounded upon a relationship to God in Christ that has a right foundation in the nakedness of his need, resting only in the perfect work of Christ on his behalf, the imitation of Christ built upon that foundation is indeed a clearly revealed. It is in a peculiar way that he is second and affliction that we could ever use of our Lord.

18:54 The word eternal or divine chastisement. He did come under the curse of God's judicial under the general discipline of God. It is a fluctuation to becoming a perfect savior. Chastisement or training in that sense.

19:19 Then it is appropriate to even see our Lord as the model and pattern of respect. Divine tutelage. For in Hebrews there was an aversion in his holy soul expressed in Gethsemane. Our Lord there manifested the of an obedient.

19:55 Missive side said nevertheless not my will. It is in this passage in Hebrews that I direct your attention. In which I direct your attention that we see our Lord particularly as the perfect pattern for the child of God in the face of these pinching providences. These trials and afflictions and tribulations that come upon us.

Jesus as the Pattern in Hebrews 12:1-3

20:27 Hebrews chapter twelve. In the opening words there is the familiar call to persevering faith under the extended imagery of running a marathon. This call to the long race. It is a call to persevering faith under the extended imagery of running a long distance race.

20:48 Encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. And lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. And let us run with patience steadfastness endurance the race persevere unto the end. But from the race persevering unto the end.

21:17 The image of God lies with the world. imagery is that of a race. The reality is the encouragement, the exhortation to persevering from kind of nebulous, mystical, undefined relationship to Christ as the soul run the races. But according to verse 2, we are to look that was set before him, endured the

21:57 cross, despising shame, and have sat down on the right hand of the throne. And endurance or steadfastness, we are to fix the eyes of our souls upon Jesus, and we are to do things about him. He is the author, and complete self is the pattern. Persevering faith will

22:35 follow. We are to look unto Jesus, the author, and perfect. We're not to ourselves. We're not to look into the grandstands. We're to fix our eyes upon him, who, if he has

22:51 brought us into the way of faith, will perfect. He has begun. We look unto Jesus. We must look unto him, fix the eyes of the soul upon him, not only as the one who has gotten us into the race, and will see us, who is the great pattern in his own life, who, for the

23:32 joy set before him, endured just a little inconvenience, eggs and burning lungs in the race, a little bit of thirst and dehydration. In the race, the author and perfecter of faith himself is the great pattern for us, of one who persevered in the way and will of God, in dependence upon his Father, for the grace and strength to accomplish the work given him to do, who, for the joy that was set before

24:11 him, endured the cross, despising shame, and have sat down on the right hand of the throne of God. But then notice in verse 3, We are now commanded in that climate and context of commitment to the race, stripped down from every unnecessary encumbrance, the eyes of the soul fixed upon Christ as the author and the completer of faith, as the one who himself endured even the cross and has attained the crown. He has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God in the midst of that.

24:52 We are also now commanded to consider him. And the word consider is found only here in this sense of usage. There's one other usage that does not help us to understand it. Analogizomai.

25:11 And it means to give thoughtful consideration to someone or something. So as we are committed to run the race. With the eyes of the soul fixed upon Christ, who having placed us in the race, will see us safely through, who himself has run his race and has received the reward, we are to give sober, thoughtful consideration of him that endured such gainsayers against himself. We are to give frequent, repeat.

25:54 We are to give full reflection of Christ in the time ofaces and all the years of Qin and all the years of Kaias. We are to give full reflection of Jesus Christ and God, the Most High, through all the intercession and all the new ways of the praise given to Christ, the new way of knowing Jesus Christ,

26:37 the new and the old, the new and the old. For the first time in history, we are to give an excellent reflection of Christ. For that very reason, let us be Ricard. It is our great example, and we are to fix and contemplate our Lord Jesus, with what he faithfully accomplished the work given him to do.

27:14 As we gaze, strength will be poured into our souls. We will not become weary and faint in our souls. Press on.

Jesus as the Pattern in 1 Peter 2:18-25

27:43 Pastorsmen constantly fix our gaze upon the Lord Jesus as the perfect pattern of response. In verse 18, here he addresses, sold upon to be in subjection to their masters all fear,

28:25 not only to the good and gentle, but also forward. We don't use the word forward. It means unreasonable and harsh. And so he says to these servants, you must manifest the disposition of embracing your role and station in life, action to your masters with all fear, not the fear of the master, but the fear of God.

28:52 Not only to the good and gentle, but to the unreasonable and to the harsh. For this is acceptable if for conscience toward God, a man endures grief, suffering wrong. When you sin and are buffeted for it, you take it patiently. But if when you do well and suffer, you shall take it patiently this.

29:18 When you've been a scoundrel and lazy, and you haven't done what the servant was expected to do, and your master gives you a tongue lashing, or has one of his own, wanderlings take you out in the back shed and lay a few stripes on your back, and you take it without cussing him out and kicking and screaming, what's the big deal? You had it coming to you. If when you do evil and are punished for it and take it patiently, no big deal. But if you've served with all your heart, done all that was asked of you, and even gone beyond that to demonstrate as a Christian that I'm committed to do more than others, as Jesus said, what do ye more than others?

30:01 And by an aside, let me say, I don't understand professing Christians whose mentality is always coming up to the minimum. Our goal is, what can I do more than others to make it evident in the workplace, in the home, in the shop, in the school, wherever I may be, that I am motivated by something far beyond the motives of this present world. I do more than others. So Peter, writing to these, says, if you take patiently, when you've been a scoundrel and you're treated like a scoundrel, what's the big deal?

30:36 What glory is it? But if when you do well, you've gone the second mile, you've done the extra task, you've put in the overtime and haven't bragged about it, haven't expected anything in return, and in spite of that your master treats you churlishly, he treats you with a sneer and he doesn't commend you and reinforce your good behavior with any commendation, and you take this, patiently, this is acceptable with God. Well, why is it acceptable with God? Verse 21, For, here unto were you called, because Christ also suffered for you,

31:17 leaving you an example that you should follow his steps. And here the sufferings of Christ are explicitly designated by Peter as exemplary, as exemplary, for the people of God. Now that's not the foundational purpose of the sufferings of Christ, because later on in this very paragraph, verse 24, he addresses the foundational significance, who his own self bear our sins in his body up to the tree. Or chapter 3 and verse 18, Christ suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.

31:59 And earlier in chapter 2, he speaks of our being redeemed, not with corruptible, things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. The foundational significance of the sufferings of Christ are never lost sight of by the apostolic writers. It is always vicarious curse bearing, substitutionary wrath bearing, the only ground of the sinner's hope. However, with that foundation firmly in place, Peter is not at all reluctant to say to these servants, the course of action, I've mapped out for you, is pleasing with God, because it is consistent with your calling.

32:40 You have been called to follow in the steps of Christ. And in the context, not to follow in his steps generically, but specifically, in opposition and affliction that come in the path of the maintenance of the good conscience, seeking to walk with integrity before God. And in that path, suffering comes. Whether from unreasonable men, whether from circumstances that are ordered by God's providence

33:20 in a very direct way without the means of men intervening, whether it comes in that which could come under the general rubric of God's own chastisement. Whenever we are in that situation, we are called upon to remember the pattern of our Lord Jesus. And what did he do in that situation? Verse 22, He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, threatened not, but committed himself or his cause, now notice, not to an abstract notion,

34:04 but to him, a person, who judges righteously. In the midst of all of the talks, all of the false accusations, you remember, even the heathen ruler upon his throne marveled at the silence of Jesus because he knew that all the charges were trumped up. It says he knew that for envy the chief priest had delivered him. So when they're coming up with all of these accusations, he's not this, he's not this, he's doing this, he's doing that, he saw through the whole business and he marveled that in the face of all of those groundless, base accusations, the Son of God was utterly silent.

34:42 He did not meet tip for toe, or be tapped, reviling with reviling. No, he did no sin in that whole crucible of suffering. No guile was found in his mouth that either precipitated that suffering or was precipitated by the suffering. When he was reviled, he reviled not again.

35:05 When he suffered, he did not threaten, and he did not go around and try to vindicate himself. He committed himself or his cause to him who judges righteously. He was willing to die with all the appearance of being what they said he was, blasphemer. He sure doesn't look like an incarnate deity with his face caked with blood and spit.

35:41 He has no appearance of incarnate deity when he bows his head and dies soaked with his own blood. Under a Palestinian sky. Having committed his cause to him who judges righteously, Easter morning came. Easter morning came.

36:06 And according to Romans chapter 1, he was declared or constituted Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. And from that place of vindication, forty days later he went back to the right hand of the Majesty on high, whereas the Messianic God was the King. He sovereignly dispensed the Holy Spirit there upon the hundred and twenty in the upper room. And in the words of Paul Harvey, and now you know the rest of the story, here we sit this morning, one little strand of the multi-strand rope of God's continuous vindication of his Son.

36:51 We sit here as the fruit of the righteous sufferer's own suffering on our behalf. And he is to be our pattern, a willingness to sit silently while people may hurl unjust accusations, while we may be in the crucible of suffering in the way of righteousness. We are to constantly fix our gaze upon the Lord Jesus. We are to follow his.

Christ's Varied Sufferings and Our Imitation

37:25 And though the focus in Peter's paragraph here is upon those events that surrounded more directly the cross of Christ, we know by the analogy of Scripture he has designated a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He knew the sorrow of having his half-brothers taunt him because they didn't believe he was who he claimed to be. Eventually, some, if not all of them, came to faith. But in John 7 you have the record how they taunted him in saying, Hey, if you're out to get a following, the crowd's at Jerusalem.

38:04 What you doing staying back home? Go on up, brother. Stretch your stuff, big brother. For it says they did not yet believe on him.

38:13 He knew the pain of the sword that he himself said he came to bring upon households. I came not to send peace, literally. I came not to cast peace upon the earth, but to cast a sword. And he felt the very sword he had cast he felt it in his own family.

38:35 He knew the trials of poverty. Birds of the air had nests. Foxes had holes. Son of man have not where to lay his head.

38:47 There wasn't one square meter of ground in Palestine that had a deed of title made over to Jesus of Nazareth. Now we know again in terms of the dignity of who he is as God and the reward of his sufferings in obedience to his Father as the suffering servant of Jehovah. The whole world is his. Yes, I know that.

39:12 But while he was among us in the period of humiliation, there wasn't a place he could point to and say, that's mine. Not a pallet. Not a little three-quarters, crib-sized bed that you give to halfway between a crib and a full-sized single bed that you give to your eight or nine year old that he could point to and say, that's mine. He knew the affliction of weariness, so weary that he sits down by a well at noonday, falls sound asleep in a ship in a turbulent storm.

39:46 He knew the inward pain of deep sorrow. There's the untranslatable word when he comes to the graveside of Lazarus or to the tomb where Lazarus is entombed and he is deeply groaned and agitated within himself. B.B. Warfield, the great theologian

40:06 and exegete spends several pages trying to work around some effort to translate what went on in the soul of our Lord Jesus. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And yet in all of those things he walked with steady step in the direction of the will of his Father. And we are called to follow his.

The Dual Impact of Contemplating Christ: Imitation and Transformation

40:32 We are to soberly, intelligently consider him. And as we do, what happens? Well, as far as I understand the word of God, two things happen. One is a conscious activity of purposeful imitation and the other is an unconscious activity of powerful transformation.

40:55 We see how the Lord Jesus acted and we say, Lord, I'm in a similar set of circumstances. Help me to do as you did. Lord, give me strength. And we consciously seek to put our feet where he put his feet.

41:09 Just as we've done as kids when we would go to the beach as children and someone had walked before us and left their footprints and we sought to place our feet in the prints that they left. Peter says we're to follow of imitation done in dependence upon the Spirit of God. But according to 2 Corinthians 3.18 there is a marvelous, mysterious, unconscious activity of powerful transformation as we contemplate Christ.

41:40 For in 2 Corinthians 3.18 we read that we all with open face unveiled, holding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed. While we behold, we are transformed. Beholding, we are transformed into the same image from one stage of glory to another even as from the Lord the Spirit.

42:12 In a way that I said I cannot fully explain but it seems clearly to be taught in this passage. As we look off unto Jesus and consider him soberly reflect upon his reaction to trials, to tribulation, to affliction and to the pinching providences that marked his steps from his very infancy God the Holy Spirit does a marvelous work internally in which our constitution our whole internal being is undergoing a transforming work that will, thank God,

42:57 be consummated at the second coming or at our death when we join the spirits of just men made perfect. And there is an actual transformation begun in our conversion right on in progressive sanctification and culminated in our glorification whether we get it in one or two stages. And this is what God does as we contemplate Christ. And then, fifthly and finally if our souls are to be a means of grace I don't think I should.

Fifth Strand (Briefly Introduced) and Application to Believers

43:40 No, it's too late to get into this. Let me tell you what it is and we'll take it up in our next time together. We must see each one of these things as a signpost pointing us to the glory of the age to come. And our pivotal passages will be 2 Corinthians 4, 16 to 18 Romans 8, 16 and Matthew 5, 11 and 12.

44:05 But let me in seeking to bring the message into a focused conclusion this morning lay out before you the people of God this very simple question. When you come into the crucible of manifold trials when you come into that which the scripture describes as afflictions and tribulations when you are under the chastening rod of God are you looking upon these things with a well-informed Biblical realism? Knowing what James says you should know and Paul in Romans 5, 3 says you should know

44:47 and the writer to Hebrews says you should understand and remember there is no substitute for that well-informed Biblical realism. And that's why we must go back again and again and again and read through and meditate upon and pray in those passages. Are you submitting afresh to the sovereign God and loving Father who sends them? Can you say, O Lord whatever you purpose to work I know that nothing touches me unless it comes through the grid of the protection the intercession of my great high priest at the right hand of the Father.

45:29 Peter could not fall into a momentary lapse of denial without the permission of Christ. Satan has desired you to sit you this week but I prayed for you that your faith fail not. Had he said I pray for you that your courage fail not he never would have denied them. But he said I'm praying that your faith fail not.

45:52 And when you are turned again strengthen your brethren. Do we really believe? You see the sovereignty of God is an abstraction to us so often but a sovereign God is no abstraction. The one upon the throne is the one who is our Father.

46:09 He is our Father. And as our Father he is concerned as we heard in the previous hour that we reflect the family likeness. And he is far more committed to make us holy than happy, happy, happy all the time, time, time. He is more committed to make us conformable to Christ than comfortable in our circumstances.

46:32 He is committed to that. And fighting God is losing business. And grumbling against God is putting your foot in the high road to apostasy. When things come crashing in upon you you take the posture of Job where you can't figure anything out.

46:51 But you fall on your face as he did in worship and say the Lord has given. The Lord takes. The Lord has brought. The Lord could have prevented.

47:01 Oh my sovereign through this trial, these trials all that is purposed according to what you've revealed in your word. And oh Lord anything else that's locked up in your own heart and known only to you do that as well and someday exegete it for me when I'm in your presence. I tell you my friends. There's nothing that can hurt you when you take that posture.

47:36 The thing can only hurt you when you're fighting it. Because you're fighting him. Are you praying that the purposes of God in these things be accomplished? Don't just think they will automatically come to pass.

47:49 Then I urge you to fix the gaze of your soul upon Christ as your perfect pattern. As I was meditating upon this I thought again of the mysterious words upon the cross. My God have you forsaken me. He clings to his covenant relationship and says my God that all sense of filial exchange of affection and heart and support were stripped away.

48:25 Left me in this state of dereliction. The very thing with which they taunted him saying he's the son of God and God is pleased with him. Let's see if he'll now cry to God and God will come and take him down. And God didn't.

48:46 And the Lord was willing to have them confirmed in their most blasphemous prejudices that he was indeed a blasphemer who deserved to die the death of the criminal. And then when they heard him call out my God my God why have you forsaken me. Can't you just see them nudging one another saying See we were right. He's admitting that the Father was pleased with him and he spoke the words of his Father and did the will of his Father.

49:16 Listen to him now. My God my God why have you forsaken me. He was willing for his enemies to think that they had had the last word that Easter morning was coming. Easter was coming.

49:33 And the Lord knew it. And he was willing to wait for God's vindication. He was willing to wait for God's vindication. Oh dear child of God fix the gaze of your soul upon this Christ.

Application to Unbelievers: The Seriousness of Sin and Need for Christ

49:50 What about those of you who sit here who have no saving relationship to God in Christ. You've never reckoned with that foundational aspect of the death of Christ. You've not really taken seriously what that death says about your sin. If sin is of such an ugly nature in the sight of God that nothing less than the violent bloodletting of his own beloved son can satisfy him as an atonement as a means of putting away sin.

50:21 Why are you trifling with that ugly venomous thing that will damn your soul? You need to look to Christ not as example but as vicarious curse-bearer and sin-bearer and see in the immolated form of the Son of God and the heavens shrouded in blackness and the cry of dereliction. You need to see how ugly is your sin of self-will and self-centeredness and pride and lust and avarice and gossip and all the other sins. My friend, God takes sin seriously and the cross is his eternal witness to that fact.

51:04 It's about time you started to take your sin seriously. God may be insulating you from the trials that he even brings upon his people so much so that you actually sort of pride yourself. Well, I must be a pretty good guy. I must not be so bad a woman.

51:21 My friend, will you please after you leave here today read Psalm 73? And see what it teaches. It teaches that sometimes the way God puts people on the skids into hell is by insulating them from trouble and they slip into hell thinking all is well. My friend, the fact that you are free of trials and afflictions and tribulations in any great measure is no proof God's pleased with you.

51:48 It may be the evidence that he's ripening you for a horrible judgment. The only ground on which God will be pleased with you is if he sees you in his Son. When his Son was here upon earth he said, this is my Son, my beloved. In him I am well pleased.

52:04 And it's only when we are in Christ that we are accepted, as Paul says, in the beloved one. Oh, my unconverted friend, young or old, don't think that God is smiling as you try to read his heart through his providential dealings with you. Read God's heart in terms of your relationship to Jesus Christ. And the scripture says, He that believeth not, the wrath of God abides upon him.

52:30 If you sit here impenitent and in unbelieving, God's wrath is upon you here, now, in this place. The only way to get out from under the canopy of his wrath is to get into Christ who took that wrath for every sinner who will flee to him. And in him there is a refuge. And faith is likened to the sinner running to one of those cities of refuge.

52:57 The man who had been guilty of man's sin and slaughter unwittingly killed someone. And the avenger of blood is at his heels. And he runs and he runs until he's safely through the gate of the city of refuge and he's protected. That imagery is used in the book of Hebrews that we have fled for refuge to Jesus Christ.

53:17 Oh, dear children, teenagers, older men and women, I beg of you this morning, though we've been contemplating what a child of God does with his trials, his afflictions, his tribulations and his chastisements from God, your great concern should be how can I be rightly related to that God? And the answer of scripture is only through repenting and believing the gospel. May God grant that even this day you will repent and flee to Christ and then join his trouble-tossed, afflicted saints whom God is disciplining to make like himself as he takes them to heaven

Prayer and Benediction

54:02 where the work will be completed and we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. Let us pray. We thank you for your holy word. We thank you for what it sets before us of the person and work of your beloved Son.

54:28 And we thank you that he is not only our sole sin-bearer, our only advocate and redeemer, but we thank you that he is also our perfect example. And we pray that as we behold him in the pages of scripture, manfully pursuing your will in spite of the grief, the sorrow, the wrenching of his own heart by the unbelief of his own half-brothers and sisters, the unbelief of a wicked generation, at times the nearsightedness and spiritual dullness of his own disciples,

55:11 as we see him wrestling in the garden, we see him abandoned upon the cross. Oh, our Father, we are ashamed that we are ready to run and even to contemplate is it worth it all, the first little pinch we feel upon our flesh. Have mercy, have mercy upon us, we pray. And so bring us into fellowship with your Son that we may count it our privilege to know him, not only in the power of his resurrection, but in the fellowship of his sufferings.

55:48 Seal your word to the hearts of your dear people. For those who may be under a peculiar season of manifold trials, Lord, go where no preacher can go and minister to their hearts. And for those who sit among us, strangers to your grace, oh, God, may something said this morning fasten itself upon us, upon their consciences, giving them no rest until they too have found refuge in the Lord Jesus. Seal your word.

56:23 May the blessings of your grace and presence rest upon us as we leave this place to sanctify the remainder of this day to your praise and to our prophet. Amen.