{"id":7090,"date":"2016-08-16T23:31:04","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T04:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/affliction\/"},"modified":"2016-08-16T23:31:04","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T04:31:04","slug":"affliction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/affliction\/","title":{"rendered":"AFFLICTION"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'><b><i>See also: Adversity; Burdens; Difficulties; Hardships; Suffering; Trials<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>The Bible, Psalm 34:19<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>He was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>The Bible, Isaiah 53:7 kjv<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>The Bible, 2 Corinthians 4:17 kjv<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Be \u2026 patient in affliction \u2026<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>The Bible, Romans 12:12<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>The labors of the farm do not seem strange to the farmer; the storm at sea is not unexpected by the sailor; sweat causes no wonder to the hired laborer; and so to those who have chosen to live the life of piety the afflictions of this world are not unforeseen. Nay, to each of the aforesaid is joined a labor that is appropriate and well known to those who share it \u2013 a labor that is not chosen for its own sake, but for the enjoyment of expected blessings. For hopes, which hold and weld together man\u2019s entire life, give consolation for the hardships which fall to the lot of each of these.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Basil the Great<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Saints spring and thrive most internally, when they are most externally afflicted. Afflictions are the mother of virtue.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Thomas Brooks<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>In times of affliction we commonly meet with the sweetest experiences of the love of God.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>John Bunyan<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Blessed is he who bears affliction with thankfulness.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Abba Copres<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Through Christ\u2019s satisfaction for sin, the very nature of affliction is changed with regard to believers. As death, which was, at first, the wages of sin, is now become a bed of rest (Is. 57:2); so afflictions are not the rod of God\u2019s anger, but the gentle medicine of a tender father.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Tobias Crisp<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>God does not lead His children around hardship, but leads them straight through hardship. But He leads! And amidst the hardship, He is nearer to them than ever before.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Otto Dibelius<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>If afflictions refine some, they consume others.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Thomas Fuller<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>God\u2019s wounds cure, sin\u2019s kisses kill.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>William Gurnall<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Not to be afflicted is a sign of weakness; for, therefore God imposeth no more on me, because he sees I can bear no more.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Joseph Hall<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Strength is born in the deep silence of long-suffering hearts; not amid joy.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Felicia Hemans<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces. Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Matthew Henry<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>The sorest afflictions never appear intolerable, but when we see them in the wrong light: when we see them in the hand of God, Who dispenses them; when we know that it is our loving Father who abases and distresses us; our sufferings will lose their bitterness and become even a matter of consolation.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Brother Lawrence<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>No words can express how much the world owes to sorrow. Most of the Psalms were born in a wilderness. Most of the Epistles were written in a prison. The greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers have all passed through fire. The greatest poets have \u201clearned in suffering what they taught in song.\u201d In bonds Bunyan lived the allegory that he afterwards wrote, and we may thank Bedford Jail for the <i>Pilgrim\u2019s Progress<\/i>. Take comfort, afflicted Christian! When God is about to make pre-eminent use of a person, He puts them in the fire.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>George MacDonald<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>There is more safety with Christ in the tempest, than without Christ in the calmest waters. The brook would lose its song if you removed the stones. My soul, alas, needs these uneasinesses in outward things, to be driven to take refuge in God.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Henry Martyn<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>No affliction would trouble a child of God, if they knew God\u2019s reasons for sending it.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>G. Campbell Morgan<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>A believer may pass through much affliction, and yet secure very little blessing from it all. Abiding in Christ is the secret of securing all that the Father meant the chastisement to bring us.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Andrew Murray<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>He knows our sorrows, not merely as He knows all things, but as one who has been in our situation, and who, though without sin Himself, endured when upon earth inexpressibly more for us than He will ever lay upon us.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>John Newton<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>I asked the Lord that I might grow,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>In faith and love and every grace,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Might more of His salvation know,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>And seek more earnestly His face.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>It was He who taught me thus to pray,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>And He I trust has answered prayer.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>But it has been in such a way,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>As almost drove me to despair.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>I hoped that in some favored hour,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>At once He\u2019d answer my request.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>And by his love\u2019s constraining power,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Subdue my sins and give me rest.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Instead of this, He made me feel,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>The hidden evils of my heart.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>And let the angry powers of hell,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Assault my soul in every part.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Yes, more with His own hand, he seemed,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Intent to aggravate my woe.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cLord, why is this?\u201d I trembling cried.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cWill You pursue this worm to death?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cThis is the way,\u201d the Lord replied,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cI answer prayer for grace and strength.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>John Newton<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Chinese proverb<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>The hammer shatters glass but forges steel.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Russian proverb<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>I exhort you and beseech you in the compassion of Christ, faint not, weary not. There is a great necessity of heaven; you must have it. Think it not easy; for it is a steep ascent to eternal glory; many are lying dead by the way, that were slain with security.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Samuel Rutherford<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>A fact, which cannot be disputed is the weakening of human personality in the West while in the East it has become firmer and stronger\u2026we have been through a spiritual training far in advance of Western experience. The complex and deadly crush of life has produced stronger, deeper and more interesting personalities than those generated by standardized Western well-being.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Alexander Solzhenitsyn<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>The furnace of affliction is a good place for you, Christian; it benefits you; it helps you to become more like Christ, and it is fitting you for heaven.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>C.H. Spurgeon<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>The Lord gets His best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>C.H. Spurgeon<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>C.H. Spurgeon<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Afflictions cannot sanctify us except as they are used by Christ as His mallet and His chisel.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>C.H. Spurgeon<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>This will deliver you from clinging to the present world, and make you long for those eternal things which are so soon to be revealed to you.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>C.H. Spurgeon<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Eminent usefulness usually necessitates eminent affliction.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>C.H. Spurgeon<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>As sure as God puts His children in the furnace of affliction, He will be with them in it.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>C.H. Spurgeon<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>The jewels of a Christian are his afflictions.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>C.H. Spurgeon<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>We must believe that the only reason why God afflicts his people must be this:<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cIn love I correct you, your gold to refine<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>To make you at length in my likeness to shine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>C.H. Spurgeon<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Most of the grand truths of God have to be learned by trouble; they must be burned into us with the hot iron of affliction, otherwise we shall not truly receive them.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>C.H. Spurgeon<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Affliction may be lasting, but it is not everlasting. Affliction was a sting, but withal a wing: sorrow shall soon fly away.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Thomas Watson<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>The godly have some good in them,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>therefore the devil afflicts them;<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>and some evil in them,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>therefore God afflicts them.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Thomas Watson<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cMan is born to trouble\u201d (Job); he is heir apparent to it; he comes into the world with a cry, and goes out with a groan.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Thomas Watson<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Afflictions add to the saints\u2019 glory. The more the diamond is cut, the more it sparkles; the heavier the saints\u2019 cross is, the heavier will be their crown.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Thomas Watson<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>What if we have more of the rough file, if we have less rust! Afflictions carry away nothing but the dross of sin.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Thomas Watson<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>I am mended by my sickness, enriched by my poverty, and strengthened by my weakness. Thus was it with Manasseh, when he was in affliction, \u201cHe besought the Lord his God\u201d: even that king\u2019s iron was more precious to him than his gold, his jail a more happy lodging than his palace, Babylon a better school than Jerusalem. What fools are we, then, to frown upon our afflictions! These are our best friends. They are not, indeed, for our pleasure, but for our profit.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Abraham Wright<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>See also: Adversity; Burdens; Difficulties; Hardships; Suffering; Trials A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all. The Bible, Psalm 34:19 He was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/affliction\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;AFFLICTION&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}