“Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith” (I. Thess. iii. 7).
YOU know, it is very natural for labourers to look for their wages; and an honest master is as pleased to give them, as he is to employ a servant. Now my Master is an honest Master; I would that all His people were as honest as He; He never withholds their wages from His sent servants. It is written expressly of Him, that “His reward is with Him, and His work before Him;” and no man ever went in to the vineyard of Jesus at His bidding to work for Him without being sure of getting his wages. And the language of my text specifies a little about the wages which God’s servants of old obtained; it was in what they witnessed of the faith of the people among whom they laboured. And I am somewhat anxious to have my wages increased in this respect, to tell you the truth; I want to witness more faith among you.
It is plain from the statement of this whole chapter, as well as from the history of the apostles, that their work was very laborious, exceedingly difficult, and brought upon them no small amount of what my text calls “affliction and distress”; and though they may not be of the same kind or of the same amount, I am bold to assert that there is not a sent servant of God upon the face of the earth who does not understand something of these difficulties in his work. We shall enter a little upon them presently. And, therefore, in the midst of very laborious work, exceedingly great difficulties, and not a few discouragements, I do not know how the servants of God would go on if they did not now and then get their wages, if they did not now and then get what Paul speaks of in my text, which I have called the wages. Says he, “We were comforted in all our affliction and distress.” Why, what could comfort them? Driven from place to place, imprisoned, scourged, threatened with death—”in deaths oft,” as the Apostle says—for no other crime in the world than preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, what could comfort them amidst all this? The hope of its ceasing? No. Large emoluments or earthly honours? No. Extensive bishoprics, mitres, or anything of that description? No. The growing faith of the churches; the growing faith of the saints of God.
In the midst of Paul’s afflictions he was more anxiously concerned for this than for any other point, even his own safety. Says he, “None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself;” he did not seem concerned at all about the matter, about personal interest or ease. But the fear lest Satan should have tempted any of his people as he had tempted him, lest his labour among them should be in vain, and their faith prove vain, and they turn out formalists after all their high profession—this distracted him. And this very apprehension and fear induced him to send Timotheus. Says he, “I could no longer forbear,”—such was my anxiety concerning you—”and sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellow labourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and to comfort you”—what about? “Concerning your faith.” For he knew that there were those who attempted to overthrow the faith in his days, and, therefore, he was the more jealous and the more zealous concerning the establishment of it. “That no man should be moved by these afflictions.” But, says he, we have been very much concerned about your faith, “lest by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labour should be in vain.” And I am sure, that very few, if any—I scarcely believe any Christians—are fully aware of the distress it costs the pastor’s mind when he witnesses the tempter getting hold of some of his flock, and hurrying them from one evil to another. “But now, when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity,”—he was upon a rock. He wanted to know whether the work was genuine; he was afraid his labour might be in vain, and he might be mistaken about them; he was afraid their faith might be what is called faith in our day, a mere carnal credence of facts; and, therefore, when Timotheus came and brought him good tidings of their faith and charity, that their faith was really a grace of the Holy Spirit, and not something of nature’s produce, that it really came from above, then, “Brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress.” Persecute us as they will, God will take care of us, and we are comforted amidst all this “by your faith.”
I felt it important to go to this length in my introduction, that we might get at the spirit and mind of the Apostle in this chapter. And now there are two things I wish to bring before you for a few minutes, viz., the afflictions to which God’s ministers are liable, and the solace to which they are entitled, and with which they are often favoured. O Holy Ghost! help me to enter a little into these things.
The Afflictions.
I shall be very brief upon the first part, because it is something like preaching about one’s self; but yet it is necessary, to do justice to our subject, and it may be for the comfort of some other ministers that may be present.
Then mark, first of all, that all God’s ministers are sure to be abused by the world and the devil. If any ministers are not, they lack every proof of being God’s ministers. What does the Apostle say upon this? Says he, “Do I even seek to please men? If I pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ.” And how did Christ send them forth? Why, says He Himself, “As sheep in the midst of wolves.” What is the difference between the Church of Christ and the world? Why, the world are the slaves of Satan, under another master, and they claim the world as their territory; and God’s servants, commissioned from on high, are going among these slaves, instrumentally to deliver souls, to make havoc of Satan’s kingdom. Do you think this can ever be borne quietly? They are going forth for the very purpose of plucking brands from the burning, “Opening blind eyes and turning men from darkness to light”—the very message and commission given to Paul; aye, and to all the sent servants of Jesus Christ. Now when a man is thus honestly engaged—sincerely, habitually and faithfully engaged in asserting all the truth of God, and insisting upon the absolute sovereignty of God, publishing all the doctrines of grace as revealed in the New Testament—”the carnal mind,” which “is enmity against God,” will be opposed to it; and all the powers of darkness will join in the opposition. You recollect how the apostles were reviled by all, except those whose hearts God melted; they opposed them constantly and habitually, and represented them as disloyal, turning the world upside down, men unfit to live, and so on; they were persecuted in all directions. And why? As the town clerk of Ephesus said on one occasion, “These men are not robbers of churches;” you can bring no charge of immorality against them; they are neither thieves, nor liars, nor swearers, nor drunkards, nor extortioners; what have they done? Oh! they have told ruined sinners that they are utterly ruined—and that offends their pride; they have told proud Pharisees that there is no other salvation for them than for publicans and harlots—and that cuts their pride down to the ground, and no wonder they are angry; and they have told the whole human race that salvation is the gift of everlasting love, treasured up in Christ, revealed in the Scripture of truth, and applied only by the sovereign operation of God the Holy Ghost—and this cuts down men’s pride. No wonder that they are abused.
And then again, the tempter must be sure to abuse them, because it is inimical to his kingdom. All the philosophy, all the astronomy, all the classical learning, all the cultivation of human intellect—we say nothing against them in their own place—but all these things put together never did so much mischief to Satan’s kingdom as old John Bunyan did. I look into my precious Bible, and I find that the servants of God were of such a description, acted under such circumstances, and so immediately employed by God, as to give Him all the glory, as to bring all the honour to His precious Name; and while they were thus employed, “weak things, and’ things that were not, to bring to nought things that were,” Satan’s territories were invaded. Thousands of slaves—no less than 3,000 under one sermon of Peter, the fisherman—were brought out of Satan’s kingdom into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ; and are we to wonder that the devil was angry with him? are we to wonder at Satan’s opposing him? These, then, are among the afflictions of the Lord’s sent servants.
I have dwelt upon these because they were peculiar to the Apostle in a very prominent way; but I pass on to another affliction, and that was, their being unsuccessful in many of their efforts. They essayed to go hither and thither to preach, and the Spirit forbade them. In some places where they went to preach, they were obliged to “shake off the dust of the city” from their feet, “seeing they put from them the word of God.” Very afflicting this, very distressing. As to the Galatians, you know, Paul says, “I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain;” and he is compelled to ask concerning many, “Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” I do not believe that any human being can form an idea how distressing this is to a Christian pastor’s mind, except the Christian pastor himself. Do you recollect that passage, upon which I have sometimes commented with peculiar feelings, in which the Apostle exhorts and enjoins the Hebrews to a holy and a circumspect walk in the diligent use of means, and then adds, “They watch for your souls, as they that must give account; grief!” Oh! is there a conscience here, that upbraids its possessor with having sent his pastor again and again in anguish of soul before God in secret, to give in his account “with grief”? Oh! is there a conscience here, that has armed itself with the barbed javelin, which has made the servant of God cry out, “Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” These are among the “afflictions and distresses” of God’s sent servants.
I cannot withhold another thought on this part of my subject; and that is, the aboundings of heresy and wickedness in the face of the servants of God. It is impossible to describe the anguish of Lot, who “vexed his righteous soul from day to day” on account of the wickedness which surrounded him. And it is equally impossible to describe the bleeding soul—if I may so speak, for I know not a fitter phrase—experienced by God’s sent servants, to whom the honour of Jesus is dear, to hear His precious Name degraded, His eternal Sonship denied, faith in Him frittered away into an infidel credence, and the very work of the Holy Spirit melted down into a little cold water. Oh, it is distressing to their minds to contemplate these things, especially as public characters.
One thing more, and then I pass on; for I want to get to the solace, I want to get away from the afflictions. There is rebellion and war going on within themselves. Jonah, what is thy spirit, when God saith, “Arise, and go to Nineveh”? “No, that I will not; I shall go my own way.” Rebellion and war within; he had no business to go to Nineveh, he thought. Jonah, what is thy spirit, when the gourd is destroyed, when the worm at the root is taking it away? He wishes to die; he says, “It is better for me to die than to live;” and could even tell God to His face, “I do well to be angry, even unto death.” Ah! my hearers, there are many of God’s children, as well as God’s sent servants, that know a little of this horrid rebellion within. And this is among the heaviest of our afflictions. We could bear all the rest, comparatively speaking, well; but when the flesh is at war with the spirit, the old nature with the new, then providences are wrong, the Bible is wrong, the closet is wrong, the people are wrong, the text is wrong, the subject is wrong, all is wrong; there is nothing but a disposition to find fault with everything. “Oh!” you say, “I did not know it was so bad as this.” I pray God to make you know it. Ah! the conflicts, the temptations, the dark hours, the Lord’s servants are made to experience and feel; the bitter roll, with Ezekiel, they are obliged to fill full of “lamentation and mourning and woe;” the “chambers of imagery,” into which they must go, as well as the sorrows and afflictions of the Lord’s people, which they must have cast upon their shoulders, in order that they may cast them upon Christ.
I have run through this part as hastily as I could, because I want to get to the other side.
(To be continued.)