The Priority of the Bible During Seasons of Affliction

Father, we're glad that it's the Lord's day. We're thankful to be here. Thankful for new morning mercies.

Thankful that we can sing that prayer from our hearts that you would speak to us. Surely that's what we need today is not to hear the words of men only, but through them with your word by the Holy Spirit, hear the voice of Christ, that would transform us and shape us more into the image of your Son. So bless your word this morning.

Plant it deep in us and let us benefit from it. Give us eyes to see, ears to hear. Give us undistracted minds.

Give us new hunger and thirst for righteousness, for truth, for Christ. Thank you, Father, for this time. In Christ's name, we pray, amen.

Well, Brother Allen is sick and I am pinch hitting for him and I'm happy to be available for that. You know, Jeff did such a marvelous, if you were here to hear it, and I hope if you weren't, that you'll go back and hear it. He has surveyed for us recently, I guess last Sunday, right, Jeff? Psalm 119.

Now that's a task to survey all, how many verses, somebody tell me? 176? To survey that masterfully is a great blessing and that's what he did. Well, I'm gonna go back to the middle of the psalm, almost the middle verse, to Psalm 119, verse 71. I'm doing this by memory, so if I have the right verse when I start quoting it, Michael, just give me a thumbs up.

Psalm 119, 71. It was good that I was afflicted. It was good that I was afflicted in order that I might learn your statutes.

Now let's just pause, think about that. Affliction, learning God's statutes. God joins those together.

So I want you to note this. When you come into a time of hardship, stress, pain, grief, affliction, God's purpose is that you would learn more deeply his statutes. That's the purpose.

Primary purpose. There are secondary purposes, but that's certainly one. You know, God is speaking all the time through his word, all the time.

When we read it, hopefully daily, when we read it, he's speaking. When we hear it read, he is speaking. When it's taught and preached, he's speaking through it.

The Bible is God's voice in the sense that what it says is God speaking. Whatever it says is true. Whatever it means, God is speaking in his word.

Because the scriptures are the very words of God. Plural, words. The scriptures are the very words of God.

This is what the Christian knows is true. This is what the Christian comes to learn and realize that we have in the Bible the perfect revelation of God and his purposes, his ways, his laws, his character, his attributes, and the full and final revelation of the gospel and how things are gonna end up in time into eternity. It's all in the scriptures.

So God is always speaking in the Bible, but there are times and seasons that God uniquely, specially, will speak to the Christian. For instance, when the gospel or the word of God is preached by man, that day who's full of the Holy Spirit and the word of God is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, God will speak more through that sermon than some other sermons. When it is preached in the power of the Spirit, God uniquely speaks.

Number two, in times and seasons of revival and spiritual awakening in countries or in places, when God pours out his spirit and he awakens his people and he revives his work, in those times, God especially powerfully is choosing to speak. But number three, and this is what we're gonna focus on this morning, God especially will speak in times of personal trials and affliction. So the reason I've chosen this verse this morning, verse 71, is because it has been good for me, personally, that I've been afflicted.

Tomorrow, I think, will mark the day 80, number 80, that my situation started. And when I realized I was gonna be down and out for who knows how long, you can either, when a trial starts, you can either say, why me? Or you can say, what now, Lord? What do you have now? What do you want to do in me now? What do you have for me for this season? Be it eight days, be it 80, be it longer. We have these deep, unexpected seasons that come when God turns our world upside down, the loss and bereavement of a loved one, or a time of sickness.

God wants to shout to us through his word. So, you know, as I was preaching down near San Antonio, May the 12th, and I left there May 14th, and May the 17th, really maybe the morning of the 18th in the middle of the night, my back pain hits me. And I can hardly get out of bed.

And I sure couldn't sit in a chair. And it begins for Linda and I a journey of me having to, I'm a captive to my circumstances, can't escape them, cannot change them. So what am I going to do? Suck my thumb, feel sorry for myself, and have a big pity party? No, God enabled me to realize I'm with him here on the bed, walking around the house, not sitting down, but here I am.

I'm going to get into his word consistently more during this season. So what I did was one of my daughters on Father's Day gave me a journal. She had bought it not knowing that I was gonna be using it in this time.

So I was reading systematically through the Bible as I always do. I was in the Minor Prophets. I was in the Psalms, Proverbs.

I was in Matthew, and I was in First Thessalonians. So reading through, those were the places I was always going to daily. And so I wanna share with you some of the journaling that I did, and I want you to track with me because you can, you know, I might be doing it at 3 a.m. when I can't sleep.

It might be 8 a.m., it might be 11 a.m., it might be 7 p.m., but I'm there in our room on the bed with the journal, and God's word opened to me. Now, I gotta tell on somebody here. The deacons came to see me one day, and Ian Leiter observes.

He said, how do you read? And I said, well, I prop a book up on my bed or the Bible, and I'm looking at it, or if I get tired with my neck, I'll hold it up a while. And he said, man, you need something that'll help you read. Let me think about this.

So that night, Ian and Leslie ordered me this, what I call a reading robot. You strap a book or the Bible on it, and it comes out over your bed, and I'm laying there reading it, not straining my neck. It's the greatest practical gift I've ever received in my life, besides my wedding band.

And that thing has been a lifesaver and a life giver, and so I would be journaling. God would make a passage come alive, and I would note it, and I'd journal it. And he began to feed me in the night seasons, in the morning season, fresh words in my normal reading that came alive that were words for me from Jesus in the moment.

And those I prayed, and those brought me encouragement and strength and life and hope and food for the journey, because I didn't know it was going to be 80 days. And I yet don't know. The back surgery is Tuesday.

Who knows? God knows. But what I do know is this, in our hardest times, it is his word that will be a fountain of life to us if we learn to say, Lord, not why me, but what do you have now? All right, so I'm going to let you read my journal. It is good that I was afflicted, that I might learn by statues.

Before I began to give the specific words that God gave me, it came to my mind one day that the Bible is not just for our information. It is information, isn't it? It's definitely information. But if we think that's the end of our journey in our Bible reading, we are sadly mistaken.

The Bible is not just for information. It is for regeneration. By that, I mean not just initial regeneration, but the reproducing of life in us continually by the Holy Spirit.

The Bible is for regeneration and transformation and illumination and sanctification, ultimately all that for our glorification. The Bible is supernatural, and the Holy Spirit wants to make it, in our hard times, a supernatural book to us. Because one thing will benefit us the most in a time of distress, in time of real problems, and that is not the support of friends or people as important and valuable as that is.

If you and I look to people to give us the comfort and meet our need when we're down, we will be disappointed. We will be hurt, because we'll think, why am I not hearing from them? If we look to man, we will be disappointed. But if we look to him, we will never be disappointed.

And then we trust him, then he'll send people when we need them, and they'll be a blessing to us. I've had so many visits these 80 days. A lot of perks come with being flat on your back, friends, lunches, coffee, reading robot, a lot of perks.

And I'm telling you, the greatest need we have is God himself speaking words of life to us in the Bible. And your circumstances or your feelings have nothing to do with it in getting the voice of Christ to you in your affliction. So here's the things.

One morning, I was reading Proverbs 16, and this verse came alive. In the light of the king's face is life. And it hit me, and I paused.

I said, Lord Jesus, you're my king. I wanna see your face in my heart, and life will come. I began to pray it.

And it became a life first, and I journaled it. And it gave me strength for the day. It produced faith in my heart for the day.

And then I was beginning at the Psalms back in May. And so the Psalm of the morning, one of them was Psalm 3. And I came to verse 3, where the Psalmist said, Lord, you are a shield for me. And it came alive.

I said, I'll take that one, and I journaled it. And I prayed it. Now the journal, I would, at nighttime, I would feel worse.

Seven o'clock, eight o'clock, I'd feel more pain. And I began to dread going to sleep. And I said, Lord, you can help me.

I'm trusting you. And I began to read my journal entries and pray them about 9 p.m. And just pause. Lord, you said this in your word.

And I hear I'm going into the night season. I need you. Lord, you said you'll be a shield for me.

So shield me tonight. You said in Psalm 3 that I can lay down and sleep and awake because you'll sustain me. Be my sustainer.

Psalm 4 said about sleep, I'll lay down in peace and sleep. For you alone cause me to dwell in safety. I had these in my journal.

And as I was facing sleep where I was dreading not being able to sleep, I prayed them. And my heart settled down. And peace came.

Linda would pray with me. And I would lay down. And God began to give me sleep through the night.

And then I came a few days later to Psalm 17. And here was the verse. Now, catch the timing of this.

14 Psalms earlier, there's two verses that promise sleep. And in Psalm 17, I come to this. And this verse jumped out.

You have visited me in the night. And I said, Lord, you did that. You've been giving me sleep.

You've been visiting me in the night. You maintain me. You sustain me.

Do you know the Bible says that God even ministers to us in our sleep? And he did that. And these verses, this became life-giving verses, these 80 days, and I continue to reuse them because God spoke to me through them in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening. Psalm 16, five, you maintain my life because you are my portion.

And I took that. And I said, Lord Jesus, you are my portion. And you are literally maintaining my life.

Thank you. And in Psalm 18, you are my rock and my fortress and my strength and my deliverer. That's what Christ is to us in good days and in hard days.

Our rock, he keeps us stable when all seems unstable. Our fortress, our protection, our strength when we're weak, our deliverer from hard situations. Christ is that.

And to pray that to him and to feel him near was sweet communion. Later in the Psalm 18, it says he is a shield to all who trust in him. And I said, Lord, I'm trusting you.

You know I am. I'm weak, but you're strong. I'm needy, but you're the one who meets every need we have.

Lord, you are my shield and I'm trusting in you. And then it was on May, I think, 18th, when I would read the proverb of the chapter of the day of the month, Proverbs 18. The name of the Lord is a strong tower.

The righteous run into it and they are safe. And with the uncertainties of the future, with the feelings of feeling bad and good, changing, the Lord said to me through that, you're safe, I'm with you, I've got you, I'm carrying you. And peace came.

Psalm 27, wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart. And I said, okay, Lord, I'm gonna wait. I don't have direction yet, I don't have clarity.

X-rays, MRIs, ultrasounds, all kinds of tests, no news yet. Wait on the Lord. That morning, that Psalm came alive.

It was just the right morning for it. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart, and he did. Psalm 28, blessed be the Lord because he has heard my voice.

Psalm 29 came, the Lord will bless his people with strength. And you know, sometimes it's just directly by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes it would be when one of my elders would come, deacons would come, others in the church would come, sit down in the room, would have an hour, would have 30 minutes, and in that visit, strength flowed into my heart.

And they left, and I was strengthened. The Lord will bless his people with strength. And it's often through his people, when you need it, that he will give strength.

Psalm 30, oh Lord, I cried out to you and you healed me. And I prayed that, Lord, I'm just trusting you for all the healing I need. You know what I need, and I'm trusting you.

I'm crying out to you as the psalmist did. Psalm 31, deliver me speedily. Nothing wrong with praying that.

Be my rock of refuge. Deliver me speedily. And then later in Psalm 31, this one was so wonderful.

And I grabbed the journal and I wrote it down. How great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you. Great goodness.

How great is your goodness that you have stored up for those who fear you. So I paused and I said, Lord, you know that I fear you. I know I often don't fear you the way I should, but you know I fear you.

So here's a promise for one who fears you. You've stored up goodness for me, so just bring it. Just bring it.

You plead the promises of God, and Christ will make those life-giving nourishment to you. But if you neglect them, you won't get it. You will not get the help that the promises of God bring.

Psalm 31 also says, be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart. He who trusts in the Lord, mercy will surround him. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears.

Some evenings, 9.30 at night, fear would try to come. I would feel afraid. I would feel like, Lord, what if I can't go to sleep? What if I feel the insomnia? What if this, what if that? And fear would try to come, and I would trust him.

I would say, Lord, you know, you know, and the fear would leave. He who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him, and he delivers from all their fears. And then the last two, there were many others that I journaled, but I'm giving you some of the special ones.

Psalm 34, blessed is the one who trusts in you. It's hard to trust the Lord in seasons where you can't do anything else. You can't work, you can't have your normal life, and you're reduced to Christ and your spouse, and you have to trust him.

Blessed is the one who has to do that. And then the last one that I wrote down in the journal, you give them drink, you give them drink from the river of your pleasures. So God has a river from his presence by the Spirit, and it's a river of pleasure, pleasure in Christ, satisfaction in him, joy and contentment and sweetness.

You give them drink from the river of your pleasures, for with you is the fountain of life. The Lord Jesus Christ is the fountain of life. And this word is the conduit, it's the channel, it's the means, it's the pipeline to us to receive everything we need for the hardest times in life.

William Cooper wrote this about God's word, what it does in the hardest of times. Quote, the Lord can clear the darkest skies, can give us day for night, make drops of sacred sorrow rise to rivers of delight. The Spirit of God can take the darkest skies, clear them, take the sorrows that become sacred and turn them into rivers of delight, William Cooper wrote.

And I read last night, these words from William Jay, when he wrote about just the reality of what God's word, God's law does for us. Listen to what he said, in relation to the word of God, the Christian has tried it and tested it in every condition. It has often relieved his fears, refreshed his weary spirit, revived him in the midst of trouble.

And the Christian can say to the praise of God's glory, unless your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. Brethren, I don't know, God knows what seasons of sorrow you have in your future. They are there and you and I are heading toward them.

Be it 80 days, be it like some saints we know that are going on 30 years of deepest, affliction much worse, much inconceivably worse than my 80 days. I tell you what, if we don't learn in our dark times to make God's word our primary refuge and we yield to his providence and rather than saying, why me? We say, what now, Lord? I know what now, your word is what you're gonna use to instruct me and cause me to learn your statutes. Make me a captive, Lord, to your word and then I will be free.

What I've experienced in this season, I just tried to write down a summary of it. The words of our father for the afflicted, they are the pillow for our head, the medicine for our pain, the light for our darkness, the comfort for our sorrow, the lifting up of our head and our heart, the light for our path and the revealer of Christ to our needy soul. Christ has become, since May 18th, more precious, more real and more wonderful and I'm dreading times of ease and being pain-free but I've asked the Lord, Lord, don't let it stop.

I want this with you in sickness or in health, in good times or in hard times. It was good that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. So I'll close with this question for you this morning.

To what or to whom do you turn and depend on? To what or to whom do you turn to and depend on when your season comes? What are you gonna do? Look to man or look to Christ in his word? If those who look to him are radiant, they get life and they get help all the way and they come out so thankful for the journey of affliction. Let's pray. Lord, you alone can teach us these things.

We can't read it in a book, we can read about it. We can't get it from a class or a seminar. We can't get it from a Bible study.

We get it when you choose to allow these times in our life where it becomes you and us. Lord, I pray for all of us today that the seasons of trials, whatever they be, whatever the nature of them, we pray you'd teach us to press in, to look to Christ first and primarily and be dependent on you, Lord, and not on man. Give us the grace of patience and wisdom and waiting to receive all that you have for us.

Lord, help us. Give us this grace of sanctification that your word would become more and more precious every day of our lives. In Christ's name we pray, amen.

Well, that was a briefer, so we have a longer break. So we'll have a break until we have a call to worship.