Reading: Hebrews 11:32-40, 2 Corinthians 11:23-33;
Colossians 1:24; 2 Timothy 2:3
It is a remarkable
combination which we find in those first people of God -
the combination of suffering and joy. It is not easy for
us to put ourselves into the atmosphere and conditions in
Jerusalem in those first days, but there is no doubt
about it that it was a perilous time. The crucifying of
the Lord Jesus had by no means satiated the lust of His
enemies. We know quite well from the story of Saul a
little later that everyone who was of "THE WAY"
was an object of that blood lust, and there was a mighty
hostility raging in the hearts of those enemies of
Christ. We know that His followers had to meet sometimes
behind closed and
barred doors. And yet we find that the word 'praise'
abounded in their midst. "With gladness and
singleness of heart, praising God" (Acts 2:46,47) is
the phrase. Yes, even when they had been haled before the
magistrates, threatened and made to understand very
clearly what the consequences would be for them if they
persisted in their course, they rejoiced, it says,
"that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour
for the Name" (Acts 5:41); a great mingling of joy
with suffering.
The night in which the
Lord was betrayed was a night of solemnity and heaviness,
and there were deep shadows in that upper room; yet there
was One Who could take the cup, knowing all that the cup
meant, and give thanks, and, as a last thing before they
went out, suggest that they should sing a hymn. So you
pass through the New Testament and you come on such
wonderful passages as those we have just read. Here is
Paul recounting his sufferings, most of which we know
nothing about so far as a detailed record is concerned -
a long list of intense sufferings; but making it clear
that he gloried, rejoiced, in his sufferings. And that
eleventh chapter of Hebrews, too, does not conclude with
a dirge, but in triumph; and you cannot fail to feel as
you read through verse after verse that here is strength,
here is triumph, here is ascendancy, there is nothing
mournful here.
What does all this say
to us? It is all gathered into the Table of the Lord. To
His disciples He said, "Are ye able to drink the cup
that I am about to drink?" (Matt. 20:22,23); and
that for them was the cup of passion, the cup of
suffering. It was the filling up of that which was
lacking in the sufferings of Christ, given to His Church
(Col. 1:24); and suffering it was. They were drinking the
cup even unto death.
But take up whichever
you like of those men. If there was one man in all the
circle who ought never to have sung or rejoiced again,
never to have gone about the world with his head lifted
up again, who ought to have had the most melancholy voice
and look, always trying to let people know what a
miserable mess he had made of things, it was Peter. But
listen to Peter - "Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:3). (The word
'blessed' there is the word which means 'praised.'). "Praised
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who
according to His great mercy (Peter knew what he was
taking about) begat us again (Unto the most awful
despair? No!) unto a lively hope" (not
"a living hope"; the word is much more emphatic
than that. You can be living without being lively. There
are quite a lot of people who are living, but are not a
bit lively) - "unto a lively hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
There is something of tremendous hopefulness, and
optimism in that. And it was the same with the other
Apostles.
Accepting
The Fellowship Of His Sufferings
Now, what is the point
again: Well, first of all, we must face the fact and we
must seek help from God always to bear in mind that we
are going to have a path of suffering if we are in
fellowship with the Lord Jesus. That is one side. Perhaps
it is because we have not at the outset calculated with
that that we have such a long-drawn-out period of
joylessness and defeat. There has to come a point when we
sit down and do some calculating and come to a definite
conclusion on this matter - that, although very often we
may not be able to see that our suffering is because of
our relationship to Him (the sufferings are so manifold
and diverse, and very often they look as though they have
no relationship at all with our Christian life) at the
same time, whether we can discern it or not; the fact
remains that the pathway of the child of God, of the
fellow of Jesus Christ, is the pathway of suffering. I
say, postponement or delay in settling that matter keeps
us all the time in that state of hoping and waiting for
it to be different, and, because the difference does not
come, getting downcast and feeling that all is wrong and
that the Lord is against us and all that sort of thing,
thus giving all the ground that the enemy wants for
destroying our testimony. The very first thing to
remember when we take this cup is that while we are
taking it as the cup of salvation, while we are
remembering the atonement which is in the Blood, and all
the wonderful redemption which is ours because of that
Blood, the cup does also speak to us of fellowship with
His suffering. It is His cup, it is filling up
that which is lacking - the remainder - of the
afflictions of Christ for His Body's sake which is the
Church. We are not able to see the values of that in
ourselves - we are kept far too occupied with the cost,
the suffering and the trial - but oh, some looking on are
able to see a marvellous spiritual growth, a wonderful
refinement of spirit, the beautifying of the life. Yes,
there is something which is going up to His praise and
glory as Christ is being formed through the fires of
adversity and suffering. It is fellowship with Him in His
sufferings, after all, if it is bringing about more
Christlikeness. So our first thing is to reckon with this
and get it settled.
What are you expecting,
what are you waiting for, what are you concerned about,
what are you pleading and praying for? If you are praying
for full and final deliverance from adversity and
suffering and difficulty and all that sort of thing, let
me tell you your prayer will never be answered. Forms of
suffering may change, but in some form or another we are
going on to the end in a way of adversity. Satan is not
going to become our friend while we are friends of Jesus
Christ. The kingdom of Satan is not going to rally to our
support while we belong to the kingdom which is opposed
to his. Let us settle that. It will get us free, perhaps,
from this entanglement.
Deliverance
Without Deliverance
And the next thing is
that there is deliverance while there is no deliverance.
There is a passage of Scripture which probably has often
puzzled you. It seems to be something that recoils upon
itself and says that it is not true. "God is
faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above
that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also
the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it"
(1 Cor. 10:13). What do you make of that - 'escape by
enduring it'? That is not getting away from it, that is
getting on top of it. Paul pleaded about that thorn in
his flesh, that it might be removed; thrice he sought the
Lord concerning this thing, but the Lord said, "My
grace is sufficient for thee: for My power is made
perfect in weakness." And Paul's reaction was -
"Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my
weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me...
for when I am weak, then am I strong" (2 Cor.
12:8-10). Paul was not delivered from that
"messenger of Satan." That is the bald way of
describing his trial. It may be taken to cover your
particular trial - that difficult person with whom you
have to live, or whatever else it may be. Let us come
right to the point, and say, 'It is something that the
devil wants to use for my undoing, for the ruination of
my testimony, and the Lord has definitely and
deliberately permitted that.' Paul was not delivered from
that stake in the flesh, that messenger of Satan that
constantly buffeted him; and yet he was delivered!
"Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my
weaknesses"; like that old warrior in the Old
Testament, who said, "Give me this mountain"
(Joshua 14:12); 'do not remove this mountain, do not get
it out of the way; give it to me, give me a chance to
master it, to bring it under, to gain ascendancy!'
Now, this is no easy,
glib talk. It is the outcome of a good deal of personal
exercise. God knows how we have cried and sought for
deliverances which have not come. Forgive this personal
word to back home what I have been saying. During this
past week or two I have been praying very much about that
thorn in the flesh, that messenger of Satan, and I did
not see the Lord answering in any way at all. And during
the same time I have been reading some books. I have been
reading again the life of Wesley, and of Whitfield, and
the story of the Scottish Covenanters; and then I found
myself reading 2 Corinthians 11; and suddenly pieced the
whole thing together. Oh, those terrible sufferings of
John Wesley! Up and down the country, often laid
prostrate with physical weakness and suffering; in every
town persecuted, mocked, stoned, or dragged by the hair;
what a time that man had! And his brother Charles shared
it. The Scottish Covenanters - why, one is made to blush
with shame in reading the awful sufferings, the
martyrdoms, the tortures of those people; hunted, without
food, without homes, having to live on the open hillside,
in caves, anywhere. And here is Paul giving us his list.
Oh, should we all the time be stipulating that our lot
ought to be very much easier? And yet they triumphed.
What a triumph was Wesley's! We sing, 'Oh, for a thousand
tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise.' Do you know
that Wesley did not mean what we usually think he meant
when he wrote those words? We think he meant, 'Oh, that I
had a thousand tongues!' He and his brother had been into
a town for some meetings. Only a few people came and they
poured out their hearts to the Lord. Then they went out
and saw a great mob in the street, coming from a sports
event, and John Wesley said to his brother, 'Oh, for a
thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise.' It
is the same thing in effect. 'Oh, for thousands of
tongues that are out there to sing my great Redeemer's
praise!' Those were their sentiments. That is triumph!
The Lord's Table is a
blending of joy with suffering, but I do not believe that
the Lord is going to make any changes in our
circumstances until we have got on top of them. Whatever
change of situation and conditions may be in His will,
actual deliverance will wait until we are delivered in
this inward way from our spirit of stipulating that we
cannot go on unless the Lord provides better conditions
for us. Such a spirit is a denial of grace, that is a
denial of His sufficiency. "My grace is sufficient
for thee... Most gladly therefore..." No, the way
out is up; the way of victory is over, not from. So
before ever anything changes, we have somehow got to find
the grace that will result in our being filled with joy.
Sometimes, with Peter, we are "put to grief in
manifold trials"; sometimes, with Paul, we are
"smitten down"; but if we will give the grace
of God a chance there is the old joy back again! Give it
a chance! It is there, it is not quenched, it is not
dead. The point is, what is the normal? Is the normal -
misery, depression, melancholy? Or do these mark us only
for the time being, sometimes? Is the normal - Joy,
hopefulness, optimism? Some people, I am afraid, have the
idea that they are going to give something away if they
smile. It will not do. There must be about us, after all,
something bubbling up which is not just ourselves. It is
the Lord.
So we come to the
Lord's Table. As we take the cup, we shall, on the one
side, have that reckoning - 'I know what this means: the
fellowship of His sufferings: to take my share of
hardness with the apostles and the prophets; by the grace
of God, I take the cup.' But there is also the other side
- rejoicing to be counted worthy to suffer for His name
and realizing that through His Blood there is the
begetting again to a living hope by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead.
May we have grace to
seek the Lord with this resolve, that by His grace we are
not going to capitulate but to triumph, even in the time
of trial and suffering, and find our deliverance in that
way. "God... will make... the way of escape, that ye
may be able to endure it."
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Nov-Dec 1949, Vol 27-6