Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2993
“And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that king Ahaz.” 2 Chronicles 28:22.
IT is absolutely certain, dear Friends, that whatever our personal characters may be, we shall have to know, by practical experience, the meaning of the word, “trouble.” Saint or sinner, “man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.” The road to Heaven is rough and the path to Hell is not always smooth. There are some tribulations which belong especially to the people of God, yet it is also true that “many sorrows shall be to the wicked.” If a man, trying to escape from sorrow, should take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, he would find that sorrow was even there upon the sea! Should he go to the frozen regions of the North, he would find sorrow there, for there have some of the fondest human hopes been wrecked. Let him journey to the sultry South and trouble shall pursue him there, for plagues, fevers and disease haunt that region and the gates of death are near. Until we mount to Heaven, we shall never be able to escape from sorrow and sighing—only there shall we obtain joy and gladness, when our somber companions shall have fled away forever.
Since, dear Friends, the stream of sorrow is here, and we cannot make it flow in any other direction, what shall we do with it? Let us try to put it to profitable uses! Let us lift up our heart in prayer to God that all our sorrows may be sanctified—that, with all other things, they may work together for our lasting good—and that we, who are the children of God, may be perfected in the image of Christ according to the Divine Purpose. Let us remember, however, that sorrow will not of itself be beneficial to us. It is possible to endure afflictions on earth and afterwards to endure eternal damnation in Hell. Sinners may go from beds of languishing to beds of flame, from toil and poverty here, to torment and all despair hereafter. There is nothing at all in sorrow that can burn out sin—there is no power in human suffering to remove the wrath of God!
I. I shall commence my discourse with this very simple remark—IN THEIR TIMES OF DISTRESS, GOD’S PEOPLE HAVE OFTEN FOUND VERY GREAT PROFIT.
Suffering is one of the things which is written in the Covenant of Grace as a blessing. The rod was promised to us when we became the children of God and we cannot escape it. And I think the poet Cowper was right when he said that “the trueborn child of God” would not escape it if he might. The distress of Believers, when it is sanctified to them, loosens their hold upon this world. Trials cut the ropes which fasten our souls to earthly things and so enable us to mount. They file the chains which, as on the eagle’s foot, will not let her spread her wings and soar upward toward the sun. Trouble, like a sharp spade, digs up the earth that is about our roots and then we bring forth more fruit. Were it not for the thorns in our nest, we would be so content with its soft lining that we would sit in it till we died. But the sharp thorns prick our breasts and then we turn our eyes aloft and learn to try our wings, ready for the time when they shall have fully grown and we shall mount to joys above!
Afflictions, also, are often to the benefit of Believers in leading them to search for sin. Our trials should be search warrants, sent to us from God that we may search and find out the secret evil that is within us—the offense that we have hidden, the lie that is in our right hand. You know, Beloved, that it is not an easy thing to bring us to self-examination. We are afraid of it—we are too apt to take things as they seem to be, without testing and trying them to see what they really are. But when the consolations of God grow small with us, then we say, “Is there any secret sin within us?” A rough wind blows through the forest and the rotten branches creak, and are torn from the oak, where otherwise they
would have become a nest for all sorts of destructive insects and a center of decay for the whole tree. So, our afflictions often drive away some besetting sins, some darling propensities which otherwise we might have carried in our bosom till they had done us grievous damage.
Do you not also know, dear Friends, how trials give new life to prayefi Do we ever pray as well as when we feel the pricks of our Father’s sword? He never wounds us so severely as to kill us, but He does, sometimes, just gently probe us to wake us up from our lethargy. Oh, what fervent prayers we offer when in the furnace! And I may add, oh, what grateful songs we sing when we come out! There is more life, I think, in one’s piety in times of sorrow than at any other season. I do not wish to be laid aside from pulpit labor, but I must confess that I have often felt unusual spiritual power when coming up to preach to you after a season of sickness. And there have been times when I have heard some of you say, “Our minister speaks more sweetly, now, than he did before he was laid aside.” Yes, the olives must go into the press if the oil is to be squeezed out of them—and the grapes must be trod upon with loving feet before the wine flows forth from them. The file must be used upon us to bring out the true quality of the metal. There is no hope that we shall ever be made into much fine gold unless we are often put into the crucible—and unless that crucible is put into the midst of the glowing coals! So I say that we get much good from our trials.
Have you not also found, dear Friends, that trials make your faith grow stronger We who are but striplings in the Lord’s army, enlist very readily. We put the colors in our cap and we think that we are going to do great things—to stir up the Church and to rout the world, the flesh and the devil! But we soon find that we have to be drilled by the black sergeant, Affliction, and afterwards we have to march out to the battle of the warrior, “with confused noise and garments rolled in blood.” And, by-and-by, after many a conflict, we become hardened veterans and we who might have turned our backs before, if it had not been for trial, become bold as lions for the Lord our God! Brothers and Sisters, there is no teaching, no ministry, even of the best-taught servant of God, that can do you such good as sanctified experience! You must learn for yourselves—under that blessed schoolmaster, Mr. Affliction—you must study the sacred science of Divinity! It is good to go to his school, for the lessons to be learned there are so beneficial. One of his scholars wrote, “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Your Word.”
We also get our sweetest comforts in the time of trouble. Do not mothers often give their children, in their seasons of sickness, tokens of love that they never give them when in health? I know that there are kisses of Jesus’ lips for His tried children that He gives not to those who are without trial. “He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom.” Then I would love to be a lamb, to ride so near to His heart—“and shall gently lead those that are with young,” and it is well for us, sometimes, to fake those pains and weaknesses that we may have more of the gentle leadings of the tender Shepherd! I think it was Rutherford who said that when Christ put him down in the cellar of affliction, he knew that He kept His wine there, and he groped about until he found the bottles—and then he drank and was revived! Ah, there is rich wine of comfort in the lowest cellars of affliction when Christ puts us down there! Even the joys of Heaven will be all the sweeter because of our experiences of trial here, where we often sing—
“Sweet affliction Thus to bring my Savior near.” Christ is superlatively sweet to us and the next sweetest thing in all the world is Christ’s dear Cross. He is, Himself, most precious, but next to the kisses of His lips are the blows—the love pats—of His pierced hands!
II. Now I advance another step and remind you that VERY OFTEN, THROUGH THE GRACE OF GOD,