Last time we started season three on Zion’s trouble (being concerned about the church under persecution). We saw that, regardless of what the church is going through, God is in control. Because of this, hope and victory are on our side. The church will persevere despite what the world throws at her. We too must persevere in love for one another, being encouraged by this hope we have in Christ. In life God is to be glorified in us, and in death is God also to be glorified. God uses the world and our enemies to purify us and for His great purpose. Any persecution is as a blessing for all in Christ, over which the church will persevere. History is on the side of the true church, because God, of whom history is a mere witness, is on our side. This truth takes us to help number two:
2.) Ponder this heart-supporting truth: how many troubles soever are upon Zion, yet her King is in her. What! hath the Lord forsaken his churches? has he sold them into the enemy’s hands? Does he not regard what evil befalls them, that our hearts sink thus? Is it not shamefully undervaluing the great God, and too much magnifying poor impotent man, to fear and tremble at creatures while God is in the midst of us? The church’s enemies are many and mighty: let that be granted, yet that argument with which Caleb and Joshua strove to raise their own hearts, is of as much force now as it was then: “The Lord is with us, fear them not.” A historian tells us, that when Antigonus overheard his soldiers reckoning how many their enemies were, and so discouraging one another, he suddenly stepped in among them with this question, “And how many do you reckon me for?” Discouraged souls, how many do you reckon the Lord for? Is he not an overmatch for all his enemies? Is not one Almighty more than many mighties? “If God be for us, who can be against us?” What think you was the reason of that great examination Gideon made? He questions, he desires a sign, and after that, another: and what was the end of all this, but that he might be sure the Lord was with him, and that he might but write this motto upon his ensign: The sword of the Lord and of Gideon, So if you can be well assured the Lord is with his people, you will thereby rise above all your discouragements: and that he is so, you need not require a sign from heaven; lo, you have a sign before you, even their marvellous preservation amidst all their enemies. If God be not with his people, how is it that they are not swallowed up quickly? Do their enemies lack malice, power, or opportunity? No, but there is an invisible hand upon them. Let then his presence give us rest; and though the mountains be hurled into the sea, though heaven and earth mingle together, fear not; God is in the midst of Zion, she shall not be moved.
If God was not on the side of the true church, then it would have been swallowed up long ago. Does not the world hate with all its fibers the message of the gospel? Everything that we stand for is an offense to the world, even Christ; and yet, here we are. For such a thing to be so hated of all the world and yet it perseveres, can this be anything other than by the hand of God? Nothing is more hated by a wicked person than what exposes their evil and calls them to repent. God is our protector, which renders all who oppose Him to be mere tools in the hands of the Master. Against God, they are inert. Rather, in a strange sense, the world becomes our allies because God is the One who, by the great might of His power and the infinite wisdom of His counsel uses their own wickedness for the furtherance and benefit of the church! What a powerful King! He not only subdues our enemies, but uses them as His tools for our benefit! This is surely beyond any conceivable human power, possible only by divine omnipotence. I cannot think of a greater encouragement to the church than who God is. He is not a man who falters or changes, but the unchanging and steadfast God who carries out all that is on His heart. Thus, the presence of our King for us lends absolute assurance of our victory. No labor for Christ is in vain.
3.) Consider the great advantages attending the people of God in an afflicted condition. If a low and an afflicted state in the world be really best for the church, then your dejection is not only irrational, but ungrateful. Indeed if you estimate the happiness of the church by its worldly ease, splendor and prosperity, then such times of affliction will appear to be unfavorable; but if you reckon its glory to consist in its humility, faith, and heavenly- mindedness, no condition so much abounds with advantages for these as an afflicted condition. It was not persecutions and prisons, but worldliness and wantonness that poisoned the church: neither was it the earthly glory of its professors, but the blood of its martyrs that was the seed of the church. The power of godliness did never thrive better than in affliction, and was never less thriving than in times of greatest prosperity: when “we are left a poor and an afflicted people, then we learn to trust in the name of the Lord.” It is indeed for the saints’ advantage to be weaned from love of, and delight in, ensnaring earthly vanities; to be quickened and urged forward with more haste to heaven; to have clearer discoveries of their own hearts; to be taught to pray more fervently, frequently, spiritually; to look and long for the rest to come more ardently. If these be for their advantage, experience teaches us that no condition is ordinarily blessed with such fruits as these, like an afflicted condition. Is it well then to repine and droop, because your Father consults the advantage of your soul rather than the gratification of your humors? because he will bring you to heaven by a nearer way than you are willing to go? Is this a due requital of his love, who is pleased so much to concern himself in your welfare—who does more for you than he will do for thousands in the world, upon whom he will not lay a rod, dispense an affliction to them for their good? But alas! we judge by sense, and reckon things good or evil, according to our present taste.
Just as one in a season of prosperity has much temptation, so the church. And just as affliction can greatly benefit one, so the church. Holiness and Christlikeness are the fruit that God desires from His church, and hardship and persecution are effective means. So, rather than seeing God’s hand as actively opposing or as negligent in times of difficulty for the church, know that He is, far from those things, bringing about the exact opposite: making His own fit for their heavenly inheritance. Thus we can say that the earth, in its present form, is not the end to which God is operating in the world, but is used as a means. In other words, the dominion of the earth and temporal prosperity are not God’s goal at this point in His plan of redemption. If it were, then the gospel and biblical message would be very different than what it currently is. In fact, Jesus promised that all who follow Him will have suffering in this world:
If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours (John 15:18-20).
Suffering is expected for the church. Paul, knowing that God’s plan is for the church to suffer, saw its purpose. He saw it as, while unpleasant and hard, good for the church:
For as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so through Christ our comfort also overflows. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is experienced in your endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will share in the comfort (2 Cor. 1:5-7 HCSB).
Suffering is part of the program of the church! It is not something odd or to be hated. Rather, it must be received as from the loving hand of God Himself for our good.
4.) Take heed that you overlook not the many precious mercies which the people of God enjoy amidst all their trouble. It is a pity that our tears on account of our troubles should so blind our eyes that we should not see our mercies. I will not insist upon the mercy of having your life given you for a prey; nor upon the many outward comforts which you enjoy, even above what were enjoyed by Christ and his precious servants, of whom the world was not worthy. But what say you to pardon of sin; interest in Christ; the covenant of promise; and an eternity of happiness in the presence of God, after a few days are over? O that a people entitled to such mercies as these should droop under any temporal affliction, or be so much concerned for the frowns of men and the loss of trifles. You have not the smiles of great men, but you have the favor of the great God; you are perhaps diminished in temporal, but you are thereby increased in spiritual and eternal goods. You cannot live; so plentifully as before; but you may live as heavenly as ever. Will you grieve so much for these circumstances as to forget your substance? Shall light troubles make you forget weighty mercies? Remember the true riches of the church are laid out of the reach of all enemies. What though God do not in his outward dispensations distinguish between his own and others? Yea, what though his judgments single out the best, and spare the worst? What though an Abel be killed in love, and a Cain survive in hatred; a bloody Dionysius die in his bed, and a good Josiah fall in battle? What though the belly of the wicked be filled with hidden treasures, and the teeth of the saints with gravel-stones? Still there is much matter of praise; for electing love has distinguished, though common providence has not: and while prosperity and impunity slay the wicked, even slaying and adversity shall benefit and save the righteous.
Special grace is reserved for the church, beyond what the rest of the world will ever experience. These graces are the fruit of God’s favour upon us, which are not temporary or limited as those general graces given to all men. When we come to realize what this special grace is when compared with the fleeting grace given to unbelievers, then any felt lack would pale. Why strive for mercies that last but a few days and then we perish? Why not put up with suffering the loss of some of these temporary things to have an everlasting and far grander grace? And this special grace that we have now, does it really pale in comparison to God’s common grace? By no means! In fact, the grace for the Christian is beyond the imagination of any nonbeliever. Who, today, would not give up anything to have a sure hope? So much of the world lives in constant despair and futility. Without Yahveh, the refrain of the world is as Solomon, the wisest man, who said, “Meaningless! Meaningless! . . . Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless” (Eccl. 1:2). Life becomes an exercise of vanity and futility. Can you imagine what sort of life it is thinking that the pursuit of pleasure is the highest end? How much pleasure? Does temporal pleasure ever satisfy? No, the pursuit of pleasure can only lead to despair, and despair is what describes the world without Christ. We, who have been saved, are a new creation. Everything about us is new, and we are growing in Christ, fulfilling what we were designed for. Such grace can hardly be described, but it can be experienced. Yet, we seldom know how different we are, because our change is gradual. Despair and futility would strike us severely if we ever could experience the loss of God’s special grace. We are preserved from such continued experience. So, as we head into suffering (a suffering which will not last), we do so from a position of great strength when compared with other sufferers. Yes, we are well-weathered for this storm. It cannot destroy us. It can only increase the strength of Christ’s church.
Next week we will be looking at three more helps for the suffering church.