The Constant Cry of the Rod
The rod of affliction is a call to spiritual life, urging us to be dead to worldly things and alive to a living Jesus.
Thomas Brooks emphasizes that the rod of affliction serves as a powerful teacher, urging believers to detach their affections from worldly comforts and to recognize their ultimate emptiness and vanity. He explains that true contentment and fulfillment can only be found in a living relationship with Jesus, as worldly pleasures and honors are fleeting and unreliable. The sermon calls for a deep spiritual mortification of desires that distract from a focus on Christ.
Text
One lesson that you are to learn by the rod of affliction,
is to get more weaned and more mortified affections to
all worldly comforts, contentments, and enjoyments.
A man never comes to experience so much of . . .
the emptiness,
the nothingness,
the uselessness,
the vanity,
the mutability,
the impotency,
the insufficiency,
the uncertainty
of all worldly comforts and enjoyments--as when he falls
under the rod of affliction. The constant cry of the rod
is, "Be dead to the profits, pleasures, honors, and applauses
of the world! Be dead to everything below a living Jesus!"
Sermon Outline
- The Purpose of Affliction
- The Effect of Affliction
- The Call to Spiritual Life
- Be dead to worldly things
- Be alive to a living Jesus
Key Quotes
“A man never comes to experience so much of the emptiness, the nothingness, the uselessness, the vanity, the mutability, the impotency, the insufficiency, the uncertainty of all worldly comforts and enjoyments--as when he falls under the rod of affliction.” — Thomas Brooks
Application Points
- We should respond to affliction by getting more weaned and mortified affections to worldly comforts.
- We should seek to be alive to a living Jesus, rather than being dead to worldly things.
- Affliction is an opportunity to experience the emptiness and uncertainty of worldly things.