Comfort for the Tempted
(No. 2603)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 1, 1899.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 27, 1883.
"There hats no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but
God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you
are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape,
that you may be able to bear it" 1 Corinthians 10:13.
THE children of God are all subject to temptation–some of them are
tempted more than others, but I an persuaded that there is not one,
except those who are too young to be conscious of evil, who will enter
Heaven without having endured some temptation. If anyone could have
escaped, surely it would have been "the First-Born among many
brethren," but you will remember how He was led of the Spirit, straight
from the waters of His Baptism, into the wilderness to be tempted of
the devil. And the Apostle Paul informs us that He "was in all points
tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Truly, the Lord Jesus might
say to us who are His followers, "If I, your Master and Lord, have been
tempted, you must not expect to escape temptation, for the disciple is
not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord."
The fact that we are tempted ought to humble us, for it is sad evidence
that there is sin still remaining in us. I am old enough to remember
the times when we used to strike with a flint upon the steel in order
to get a light in the morning, and I recollect that I always left off
trying to produce a spark when I found that there was no tinder in the
box. I believe that the devil is no fool and that if there is a man who
has no tinder in the box–that is, no corruption in his nature– depend
upon it, Satan will not long continue to tempt him! He does not waste
his time in such a useless exercise. The man who believes that he is
perfect can never pray the Lord's Prayer–he must offer one of his own
making, for he will never be willing to say, "Lead us not into
temptation." But, Beloved, because the devil thinks it worth his while
to tempt us, we may conclude that there is something in us that is
temptable–that sin still dwells there, notwithstanding that the Grace
of God has renewed our hearts.
The fact that we are tempted ought also to remind us of our weakness. I
referred just now to the model prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
contains the sentence, "Lead us not into temptation." The reason for
presenting that petition must be because we are so weak and frail. We
ask that we may not be burdened, for our back is not strong, and we
plead that we may not have sin put before us in any of its enticing
forms, for, oftentimes, the flesh borrows strength from the world and
even from the devil! And these allied powers will be too much for us
unless the Omnipotence of God shall be exerted on our behalf to hold us
up lest we fall.
Some children of God, whom I know of, are very greatly troubled because
they are tempted. They think they could bear trial if it were trial
dissociated from sin, though I do not see how we can, as a general
rule, separate trial from temptation, for every trial that comes to us
has in it some kind of temptation or other, either to unbelief, or to
murmuring, or to the use of wrong means to escape from the trial. We
are tempted by our mercies and we are tempted by our miseries– that
is, tempted in the sense of being tried by them–but, to the child of
God, the most grievous thing is that, sometimes, he is tempted to do or
say things which he utterly hates. He has set before him, in a pleasant
aspect, sins which are perfectly abhorrent to him. He cannot bear the
very name of them! Yet Satan comes and holds before the child of God
the unclean meats which he will never touch. And I have known the devil
to tempt the people of God by injecting into their mind blasphemous
thoughts, hurling them into their ears as with a hurricane. Yes, even
when you are in prayer it may happen to you that thoughts the very
opposite of devotional, will come flocking into your brain. A little
noise in the street will draw you off from communion with God and,
almost before you are aware of it, your thoughts, like wild horses,
will have gone galloping over hill and dale–and you hardly know how
you shall ever catch them.
Now, such temptations as these are dreadfully painful to a child of
God. He cannot bear the poisoned breath of sin and when he finds that
sin stands knocking at his door, shouting under his window, pestering
him day and night, as it has occurred with some–I hope not with
many–then he is sorely beset and is grievously troubled. It may help
such a person if I remind him that there is no sin in being tempted.
The sin is that of the tempter, not of the tempted. If you resist the
temptation, there is something praiseworthy about your action. There is
nothing praiseworthy about the temptation–that is evil and only evil,
but you did not tempt yourself–he or she that tempted you must bear
the blame of the temptation. You are evidently not blameworthy for
thoughts that grieve you–they may prove that there is sin still
remaining in you, but there is no sin in your being tempted. The sin is
in your yieldingto the temptation, but blessed shall you be if you can
stand up against it. If you can overcome it, if your spirit does not
yield to it, you shall even be blessed through it! "Blessed is the man
that endures temptation." There is a blessedness even in the temptation
and though for the present it seems not to be joyous, but grievous,
nevertheless, afterward, it yields blessed fruit to those who are
exercised thereby.
Moreover, there are worse things in this world than being tempted with
painful temptations. It is much worse to be tempted with a pleasant
temptation–to be gently sucked down into the destroyer's mouth–to be
carried along the smooth current, afterwards to be hurled over the
cataract. This is dreadful, but to fight against temptation–this is
good. I say again that there are many worse things than to be tried
with a temptation that arouses all the indignation of your spirit. An
old divine used to say that he was more afraid of a sleeping devil than
he was of a roaring one, and there is much truth in that observation,
for, when you are left quite alone and no temptation assails you, you
are apt to get carnally secure and to boastfully say, "I shall never be
moved." I think no man is in such imminent danger as the man who thinks
that there is no danger likely to befall him, so that anything that
keeps us on the watchtower, even though it is, in itself, evil, is, so
far, overruled for good. The most dangerous part of the road to Heaven
is not the Valley of the Shadow of Death–we do not find that Christian
went to sleep there when the hobgoblins were all about him and when he
found it hard to feel the path and stay on it–but when he and Hopeful
came to the Enchanted Ground, "whose air naturally tended to make one
drowsy." Then were the pilgrims in great peril until Christian reminded
his fellow traveler that they were warned by the shepherds not to sleep
when they came to that treacherous part of the way.
I think, then, that to be tempted with painful temptations–those that
goad the spirit almost to madness. Bad as that trial is–grievous as it
is to be borne–may be, spiritually, not the worst thing that can
possibly happen to us. Of all evils that beset you, always choose that
which is less than another and, as this is less than something else
might be, do not be utterly driven to despair if it falls to your lot
to be tempted as many before you have been.
This will suffice by way of preface to a little talk about temptation
with a view of comforting any who are sorely tempted of Satan. I know
that I am speaking to many such and I would repeat to them the words of
my text–"There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to
man: but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond
what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of
escape, that you may be able to bear it." Remember, dear tried Friend,
that you must not sit down in despair and say, "I am greatly tempted,
now, and I am afraid that I shall be tempted worse and worse until my
feet shall slide, and I shall fall and utterly perish." Do not say as
David did when he had been hunted like a partridge upon the mountains,
"I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul," but believe that the
Lord, who permitsyou to be tempted, will deliver you in His own good
time!
I. Here is your first comfort. THERE HAS BEEN A LIMIT IN ALL YOUR
FORMER TRIALS. "There has no temptation taken you but such as is common
to man."
Temptation has sometimes laid hold of you, like a murderer takes a man
by the throat, all of a sudden. It has seized you–perhaps that is as
correct a word as I can use–temptation has seized you, unawares,
pinioned you and seemed to grip you tightly. And yet, up till now, the
temptations you have had to endure have only been such as are common to
man!
First, they are such as have been endured by your fellow Christians. I
know that you are tempted to think that you are a lone traveler on a
road that nobody has ever traversed before you, but if you carefully
examine the track, you can discover the footprints of some of the best
of God's servants who have passed along that wearisome way. It is a
very dark lane, you say–one that might truly be called, "Cut-Throat
Lane." Ah, but you will find that Apostles have been along that way,
confessors have been that way, martyrs have been that way–and the best
of God's saints have been tempted just as you now are. "Oh, but," says
one, "I am tempted, as you said a little while ago, with blasphemous
and horrible thoughts." So was Master John Bunyan. Read his Grace
Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and see what he had to pass through.
Many others have had a similar experience and among them are some of us
who are alive to tell you that we know all about this special form of
temptation, yet the Lord delivered us out of it.
"Oh, but," says another tried soul, "I have been even tempted to
self-destruction!" That, also, has not been an unusual temptation, even
to God's dearest saints and, though He has preserved them and kept them
alive, yet they have often felt like Job when he said, "My soul chooses
strangling and death rather than my life." "Ah," cries another, "I am
tempted to the very worst sins, the foulest sins. I would not dare to
even mention to you the abominations Satan tempts me to commit!" You
need not tell me and I trust that you will be kept from them by the
almighty power of God's Holy Spirit, but I can assure you that even the
saints in Heaven, if they could speak to you at this moment, would tell
you that some of them were hard beset–even some of the bravest of them
who walked nearest to God were hard beset by temptations which they
would not have told to their fellow men, so troubled were they by them.
Perhaps yet another friend says, "I have been actually tempted to
self-righteousness, which is as great a temptation as can befall a man
whose whole confidence is in Christ." Well, so was Master John Knox,
that grand preacher of justification by faith. When he lay dying, he
was tempted to glory in his own bravery for Christ–but he fought
against that evil thought and overcame it– and so may you!
You think that when a man is very patient, he is not tempted to
impatience? Brother, the Spirit of God says, by the pen of the Apostle
James, "You have heard of the patience of Job." I suggest to you this
question–Have you not heard of the impatienceof Job? You have heard,
no doubt, of the strong faith of Peter. Have you never heard of Peter's
unbelief? God's people usually fail in the very point for which they
are most famous–and the man who has the greatest renown for any work
of the Spirit of God in him, so far as the Bible biographies are
concerned, has usually been the man who has made a failure at just the
place where he thought he was strongest! "I have been reading the life
of a good man," you say, "and I am not like he." Shall I tell you why?
Because the whole of his life was not written! But when the Holy Spirit
writes a man's life, He tells it all. When biographers write the lives
of good men, of course they do not put down their inward struggles and
fears, unless the subject happens to be a man like Martin Luther, whose
life seemed to be all an inward struggle and who, while he was brave on
the outside, was often a trembler within! When they write my life, they
will tell you that I had strong faith, but they will not tell you all
about the other side of it. And then you will, perhaps, get to
thinking, "Oh, I cannot reach even to such a height as Mr. Spurgeon
attained!" That all comes of your not knowing the inside of us, for if
you knew the inside and the outside of the man who walks nearest to
God–if he is a sincere, true-hearted man, he will tell you that the
temptations you have to endure are just such temptations as he has had
and, as he expects to have again and again and that, as the Apostle
says, "there has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man."
Then, again, no temptation has assailed you but such as fit for men to
be tried with while they are in this state of trial This is not the
time for the final victory, Brothers and Sisters, this is the hour of
battle! And the weapons that are used against us are only such as have
been employed against the armies of the faithful in all ages. You and I
never were tempted as were the angels who kept their first estate and
overcame the temptation. I cannot tell you how the Prince of Darkness
was tempted, or how he went about tempting his fellow servants from
their loyalty to the great King. But of this I am sure–you were never
tried with a temptation suitable to an angel! Your temptation has only
been such as is suitable to a man, and which as other men, like
yourself, have overcome. Others have fought valiantly against similar
temptations as yours and you must do the same, yes, and you shall do
the same by the power of God's Spirit resting upon you!
It is said, in the affairs of common life, that what man has done, man
can do, and that is true with regard to the spiritual life. Temptations
that have been grappled with by other men, can be grappled with by you
if you seek the same source of strength and seek it in the same name as
they did. The strength to overcome temptation comes from God, alone,
and the conquering name is the name of Jesus Christ! Therefore, go
forward in that strength and in that name against all your temptations.
Up and at them, for they have been routed long before, and you shall
rout them again! Tremble not to go from fight to fight and from victory
to victory, even as did the others who have gone before you and who
have now entered into their rest–
"Once they were mourning here below, And wet their couch with tears.
They wrestled hard, as we do now, With sins, and doubts, and fears."
If you ask them from where their victory came, they ascribe it to the
resources which are as open to you as they were to them–even to the
mighty working of God the Holy Spirit and the blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ! There has no temptation happened to you but
such as human beings can grapple with and overcome by the help of God!
Again, there has no temptation ever happened to you but such as is
common to man in this sense–that Christ has endured it. That great
Head of manhood, that representative Man has suffered from the very
temptation which is now pestering you. "In all their affliction–that
is, the affliction of His people in the wilderness, which is just the
same as yours if you are in the wilderness–"in all their affliction He
was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them." He was
compassed with infirmity, "a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief."
To repeat the text I have already quoted, and which is so suitable
here, He "was, in all points, tempted like as we are." "In all things
it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a
merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make
reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He, Himself, has
suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted." He
knows all about the case of each one of us and He knows how to deal
with it, and how to bear us up and bear us through.
So you see, dear Friends, there has no temptation happened to you but
such as is common to man in the sense of having been endured by men
like yourselves, having been overcome by men such as you are and having
been endured and vanquished by your blessed Representative, our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ.
Come, then, Beloved, let all mystery with regard to your temptations be
banished! Mystery puts an edge upon the sword of trial. Perhaps the
hand that wrote upon the wall would not have frightened Belshazzar if
he could have seen the body to which that hand belonged. There is no
mystery, after all, about your trouble! Though you did write it down as
being bigger than any that ever happened to a human being, that is not
the truth–you are not an emperor in the realm of misery! You cannot
truly say, "I am the man that has seen affliction above all others,"
for your Lord endured far more than you have ever done–and many of His
saints, who passed from the stake to the crown, must have suffered much
more than you have been called to undergo thus far.
II. Now let us turn to the second comfort revealed in our text. That
is, THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD–"There has no temptation taken you but
such as is common to man: but God is faithful."
Oh, what a blessed word is this, "God is faithful"! Therefore, He is
true to His promise. Even Balaam said, "God is not a man, that He
should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: has He said,
and shall He not do it ? Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it
good?" One of God's promises is, "I will never leave you, nor forsake
you." "God is faithful," so He will fulfill that promise! Here is one
of the promises of Christ, and Christ is God–"My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life;
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My
hand." "God is faithful," so that promise shall be fulfilled! You have
often heard this promise, "As your days, so shall your strength be." Do
you believe it, or will you make God a liar? If you believe it, then
banish from your mind all dark forebodings with this blessed little
sentence, "God is faithful."
Notice, next, that not only is God faithful, but He is master of the
situation, so that He can keep His promise. Note what the text says.
"Who will not suffer you to be tempted beyond what you are able to
bear." Then you could not have been tempted if God had not allowed it
to happen to you. God is far mightier than Satan. The devil could not
touch Job except by Divine permission, neither can he try and tempt you
except as God allows him. He must have a permit from the King of Kings
before he can tempt a single saint! Why, Satan is not allowed to keep
the key of his own house, for the keys of death and of Hell hang at the
belt of Christ! And without God's permission, the dog of Hell cannot
even open his mouth to bark at a child of God, much less can he come
and worry any of the sheep whom the Lord has called by His Grace into
His fold! So, then, Beloved, you have great cause for comfort from the
fact that the temptation that tries you is still under the control of
the faithful Creator, "who will not suffer you to be tempted beyond
what you are able."
That is a second reason for comfort–roll it under your tongue as a
sweet morsel.
III. The third comfort lies in THE RESTRAINT WHICH GOD PUTS UPON
TEMPTATION. He "will not suffer you to be tempted beyond what you are
able." The tide of trial shall rise to high-water mark and then God
shall say, "Hitherto shall you come, but no further: and here shall
your proud waves be stayed."
He "will not suffer you to be tempted beyond what you are able." That
may apply, sometimes, to the period when the temptation comes. I have
carefully watched how God times the trials of His people. If
such-and-such a trial had come to one of His children when he was
young, I believe he could not have borne it. Or if he had lost some
dear friend while he was, himself, sick, the double trouble would have
crushed him. But God sends our trials at the right time and if He puts
an extra burden on in one way, He takes something off in another. "He
stays His rough wind in the day of the East wind." It is a very simple
thing to say, but it is true–if the wind blows from the North, it does
not, at the same time, blow from the South. And if one set of troubles
comes to a Christian, another set of troubles generally departs from
him. John Bradford, the famous martyr, was often subject to rheumatism
and depression of spirit–in which I can greatly sympathize with
him–but when he was laid by the heels in a foul damp dungeon and knew
that he would never come out except to die, he wrote, "It is an amazing
thing that ever since I have been in this prison and have had other
trials to bear, I have had no touch of my rheumatism or my depression
of spirit." Was not that a very blessed thing? And you will usually
find that it is so–you shall not be tempted above what you are able to
bear because God will permit the trial to come at a time when you are
best able to stand up under it.
There is also great kindness on God's part in the continuance of a
trial. If some of our trials lasted much longer, they would be too
heavy for us to bear. Concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, our Lord
said, "Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be
saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." And I
have no doubt that, oftentimes, God makes quick work of His children's
trials because if they were continued longer, they would have not a
good, but an evil effect upon us. If a child must be whipped, let not
the punishment last as if he were a criminal who must be sentenced for
a long period–let him have his chastisement and have done with it. So
is it often in the discipline of God's house, yet there are other
trials which are protracted year after year because trial is an
ingredient in their efficacy and they might not be blessed to us if
they were shortened. In every case there is Infinite Wisdom which makes
our troubles to be just as long as they are and no longer.
So there is in the number of the trials. Blessed be God–
"If He ordains the number ten, They never can be eleven."
If He intends His servants to pass through the fire and not through the
water, Satan himself cannot make them go through the water! God counts
the drops of bitter tonic that He administers to His ailing saints and
not one drop more shall they possibly have than He measures out to
them. So, dear tried children of God, you shall not be tempted above
what you are able so far as the number of your temptations and trials
is concerned.
It is the same, also, in the stress with which the temptation comes.
Have you ever seen a great tree in the full blast of a tremendous
tempest? It sways to and fro and seems scarcely able to recover itself
from the powerful blows of the storm, yet the roots hold it. But now
comes another tornado and it seems as if the tree must be torn up out
of the earth, but the strain ceases just in time for the old oak to
rock back into its place, again. But if there were a pound or two more
force in that tremendous blast, the tree would be laid prone upon the
grass! But God, in His people's case, at any rate, stops just at the
right point. You may be tried till you have not an ounce of strength
left. Sometimes, the Lord tests His people till it seems as if one more
breath from Him would assuredly cause them to sink. Then it is that He
puts under them the everlasting arms and no further trial is laid upon
them. This is a blessed thing, for all of you have troubles of one sort
or another, and you who are the people of God may take this text and
rely implicitly upon it–"God is faithful, who will not suffer you to
be tempted beyond what you are able."
As for you who are not His people, I am very sorry for you. I am
holding up these precious things, but they are not for you. God's Word
declares, "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked." If you have not God to
flee to, what will you do when the storms beat upon your boat? To whom
or where can you flee? As for the Christian, he can sing–
"Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Your bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high!
Hide me, O my Savior, hide, Till the storm of life is past Safe into
the haven guide. Oh receive my soul at last!
But, poor dear souls who love not Christ, where can you find comfort in
your seasons of sorrow and trial? You who have lost wife and
children–you who are pinched with poverty–you who are racked with
sickness and yet have no Savior, what can you do? Poor houseless people
in a snowstorm–what can they do without even a bush to shelter them?
That is your state and I grieve for you, and plead with you not to
remain in such a pitiful condition a moment longer!–
"Come, guilty souls, and flee away
Like doves to Jesus' wounds.
This is the welcome Gospel-day,
Wherein free Grace abounds!
Oh, that your sense of need might drive you to accept Christ as your
Savior this very hour! As for His believing people, there is this solid
comfort for them–they shall never be tempted above what they are able.
IV. The next comfort we gather from our text relates to THE PROVISION
WHICH THE LORD MAKES FOR THE TEMPTED "God is faithful, who…will with
the temptation also make a way to escape."
The Greek has it, "who will with the temptation also make the way to
escape," for there is a proper way to escape from a temptation. There
are 20 improper ways and woe to the man who makes use of any of them!
But there is only one proper way out of a trial and that is the
straight way, the way that God has made for His people to travel. God
has made through all trials the way by which His servants may rightly
come out of them. When the brave young Jews were tried by
Nebuchadnezzar, there was one way by which they might have kept out of
the burning fiery furnace. They had only to bow their knees before the
great image when the flute, harp, sackbut and psaltery sounded. That
way of escape would never have answered, for it was not the right one!
The way for them was to be thrown into the furnace and there to have
the Son of God walking with them in the midst of the fire that could
not hurt them! In like manner, whenever you are exposed to any trial,
mind that you do not try to escape from it in a wrong way.
Notice especially that the right way is always of God's making and,
therefore, any of you who are now exposed to temptation or trial have
not to make your own way of escape out of it. God, and God alone, has
to make it for you, so do not attempt to make it for yourselves. I knew
a man who was in trouble because he was short of money–and the way he
made for himself was to use somebody else's money with which he had
been entrusted. That was not God's way of escape for him, so he only
plunged himself into a worse trial than he was in before! I have known
a man of business in great trouble and things were going wrong with
him, so he speculated, gambled and ruined both his business and his
personal character. That was not God's way for him to escape from his
troubles! Sometimes the best thing a man in trouble can do is to do
nothing at all–but to leave all in the hands of God. "Stand still, and
see the salvation of the Lord."
When the Israelites came out of Egypt, God led them in a way at which
men might well have quibbled. There was nothing before them but the sea
and behind them came Pharaoh in all his rage, crying, "I will pursue, I
will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon
them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them." Now, then,
what was God's way of escape for them? Right through the Red Sea! And
on the other side they sang, when the Egyptians were drowned, "Sing you
to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider
has He thrown into the sea." It would have been a great pity if they
had tried to escape by any way of their own, or had attempted to turn
around and fight Pharaoh–that would not have done at all–but the Lord
made for His people the very best way of escape that could possibly
have been devised.
Notice, also, that the Lord makes the way of escape "with the
temptation." He suffered the trial to come and, at the same time He
made the way of escape from it. God has planned it all, my Brothers and
Sisters, how you, His champion, shall go forth and fight valiantly in
His strength–and how He will be your shield and your exceedingly great
reward. He will lead you into the dangerous situation, but He can see
the way out of it as well as the way into it, and He will take you
safely through. Did not the Psalmist sing, "To Him which led His people
through the wilderness: for His mercy endures forever"? He not only led
them into the wilderness, but He led them through it, blessed be His
holy name! And if He has brought you into the wilderness of trouble and
affliction, He made the way out of it at the same time that He made the
trouble. "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shall you dwell in the
land, and verily you shall be fed. Delight yourself, also, in the Lord;
and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way unto
the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. And He
shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as
the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him: fret not
yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who
brings wicked devices to pass." "Seek you first the Kingdom of God and
His righteousness," and all else that you need shall be added unto you.
Keep clear of the sin of the temptation and you need not fear the
sorrow of the temptation. If the trials do not drive you to your own
devices, but drive you to your knees, they will, after all, be
blessings to you.
That is the fourth comfort, that God has made the way of escape for His
people out of their trials. "Well, then," says someone, "I shall escape
from this trial." Wait a moment, my Friend, and listen to the closing
words of the text, with which I will conclude my discourse.
V. This is the last point of comfort, THE SUPPORT WHICH GOD SUPPLIES IN
THE TRIAL–"that you may be able to bear it."
God's way of escape from trial is not for His people to avoid it, so as
not to pass through it, but such an escape as leads them through the
trouble and out at the other end–not an escape from the Red Sea, but
an escape through the Red Sea from a still greater trial! If you,
Beloved, are exposed to trial or temptation, you are to be made able to
bear it. Now, pray, before you leave this building, that this last
word, upon which I have not time to enlarge, may be fulfilled in your
experience–"that you may be able to bear it."
Suppose you are to be poor. Well, if God has so appointed it, you
willbe poor, therefore pray that you may be able to bear it. With
honest industry and stern integrity, struggle to attain to a better
position, but, if all your efforts fail, then say to the Lord,
"Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." Perhaps your dear child
is dying, or your wife is sickening. You dread the thought of losing
them and you would willingly give your life, if you could, for them.
Well, do all you can for their recovery, for life is precious, and any
money spent to save it will be well spent. But, if health is not to be
granted to them, pray that you may be able to bear even that heavy
trial. It is wonderful how God helps His people to bear troubles which
they thought would crush them. I have seen poor feeble women that I
thought would die under their bereavement, become brave and strong! And
I have seen men who were faint-hearted in the prospect of trouble,
nevertheless bless the Lord for it when the blow has actually fallen!
And you may do the same.
Suppose you are to be sick. Well, that is a sore trial and I know that,
personally, I would do anything I could to escape from the affliction
that often besets me, but if it must not be, then I must change my note
and pray that I may be able to bear it. I had a letter from a man of
God, this morning, which sustained me very much. He said, "My dear
Brother, I was sorry to hear that you were again in pain and depressed
in spirit, and so forth, but, as I remembered how God had blessed you
in so many ways, I thought to myself, 'Perhaps Mr. Spurgeon would not
have kept to preaching the Doctrines of Grace, and would not have been
so able to comfort God's poor people if he did not get these smart
touches sometimes.' So," he said, "I congratulate you upon these
trials!" And I accepted the congratulations. Will not you do the same,
my afflicted Brother or Sister? Pray, "Lord, if it is possible, let
this cup pass from me," but, if it must not, then here comes that other
form of comfort, "that I may be able to bear it."
And remember, dear Friends, while I tell you to make this passage into
a prayer, it is really a promise, and there is no prayer like a promise
that is turned, as it were, roundabout, and cut prayer-wise! God
Himself has said, by His inspired Apostle, that He "will not suffer you
to be tempted beyond what you are able; but will with the temptation
also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it." Up with
the banners, then! Forward, whatever obstructs the way! Let us sing,
with good old John Ryland–
"Through floods and flames, if Jesus leads, I'll follow where He goes!
'Hinder me not, 'shall be my cry, Though earth and Hell oppose!" The
immortal life within us can never be destroyed! The Divine Nature,
which God, the Holy Spirit, has implanted, shall never be trodden under
foot! "Rejoice not against me, O my enemy. When I fall, I shall arise.
When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me."
But, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry am I, from the bottom of my soul,
for you who know not the Lord, for this comfort is not for you! Seek
Him, I pray you! Seek Him as your Savior. Look to Him and trust in
Him–and then all the blessings of the Everlasting Covenant shall be
yours, for the Father has given Him to be a Leader and Commander unto
the people, and they that look to Him, and follow Him, shall live
forever and ever! God bless you, for Christ's sake! Amen.