Consolation In The Furnace
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 26, 1865, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT
THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst
of the fire and they have no hurt. And the form of the fourth is like
the Son of God." Daniel 3:25.
THE narrative of the glorious boldness and marvelous deliverance of the
three holy children, or rather champions, is well calculated to excite,
in the minds of Believers, firmness and steadfastness in upholding the
Truth of God in the teeth of tyranny and in the very jaws of death. Let
young men especially, since these were young men, learn from their
example both in matters of faith in religion and matters of integrity
in business, never to sacrifice their consciences. Lose all rather than
lose your integrity, and when all else is gone still hold fast to a
clear conscience as the rarest jewel which can adorn the bosom of a
mortal.
It were no waste of time for the preacher to spend half-a-dozen
mornings in insisting again and again upon the necessity of the
Christian being obedient universally and constantly to the dictates of
his conscience, for this is an age requiring sturdy independence and
stern adherence to the truth. As to whether the most severe precision
of integrity will turn out to be the best policy or not, I shall not
care to dispute. I am talking just now, not to men guided by the
will-o'-the-wisp of policy, but by the pole star of Divine light and I
beseech them to follow the right at all hazards. When you see no
present advantage, then walk by faith and not by sight.
I do pray you, Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, do my God the honor to
trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.
See whether He will be your debtor! See if He does not, even in this
life, prove His Word that "Godliness is great gain," and that they who
"seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, shall have all
these things added unto them." Mark you, if in the Providence of God it
should be the case that you are and continue to be a loser by
conscience, you shall find that if the Lord pays you not back in the
silver of earthly prosperity, He will discharge His promise in the gold
of spiritually! And I would have you remember that a man's life
consists not in the abundance of that which he possesses.
To have a clear conscience, to wear a guileless spirit, to have a heart
void of offense is greater riches than the mines of Ophir could yield
or the traffic of Tyre could win. Better is a dinner of herbs where
love is, than a stalled ox and inward contention. An ounce of heart's
ease is worth a ton of gold. And a drop of innocence is better than a
sea of flattery. Burn, Christian, if it comes to that–but never turn
from the right way! Die, but never deny the Truth. Lose all to buy the
Truth of God! Sell it not, even though the price were the treasure and
honor of the whole world, for "what shall it profit a man if he gain
the whole world and lose his own soul?"
But my particular design in referring to the narrative this morning was
not to use the whole of it as an incentive to young Christians by way
of earnest advice, although I confess I feel much inclined to do so.
But I have this one verse on my mind, where the astonished despot saw
his late victims quietly surviving the flames which he intended for
their instant destruction. I desire to use his exclamation as a
consolation to afflicted Christians everywhere. Concentrate, then, your
thoughts on the words before us and may the Holy Spirit be our
Instructor.
I. We will commence by gazing into the place WHERE GOD'S PEOPLE OFTEN
ARE. In the text we find three of them in a burning fiery furnace, and
singular as this may be, literally, it is no extraordinary thing
spiritually, for, to tell the truth, it is the usual place where saints
are found. The ancients fabled of the salamander, that it lived in the
fire. The same can be said of the Christian without any fable whatever!
The ancient Church, in a favorite metaphor, described itself as a ship.
Where should the ship be, but in the sea? Now the sea is an unstable
element, frequently vexed with storms. It is a troubled sea which
cannot rest. And so the Christian finds this mortal life to be far from
smooth and seldom settled. It is rather a wonder when a Christian is
not in trial, for to wanderers in a wilderness, discomfort and need
will naturally be the rule rather than the exception. It is through
"much tribulation" that we inherit the kingdom. There is no life so
joyous as that of a man bound for the Celestial City. And, on the other
hand, there is no life which involves so much conflict as does the life
of a pilgrim to the skies.
The furnaces into which Christians are cast are of various sorts.
Perhaps we may divide them into three groups. First, there is the
furnace which men kindle. As if there were not enough misery in the
world, men are the greatest tormentors of their fellow men. The
elements in all their fury, wild beasts in all their ferocity, and
famine and pestilence in all their horrors have scarcely proved such
foes to man as men themselves have been.
Religious animosity is always the worst of all hatreds and incites to
the most fiendish deeds. Persecution is as unsparing as death and as
cruel as the grave. The believer in Jesus, who is one of a people
everywhere spoken against, must expect to be thrown into the furnace of
persecution by his fellow men. "If the world hates you," says our Lord,
"it hated Me before it hated you." "If you were of the world, the world
would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I have
chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." Some
suppose that these words are out of date–old-fashioned words–words
that refer only to Apostolic times. I answer, you are out of the
Apostolic faith or else you would painfully find them to be still
standing in all their force!
At times the Christian feels the heat of the furnace of open
persecution. What multitudes of saints have mounted to Heaven like
Elijah in a chariot of fire? Their seraphic spirits found a safe way to
Heaven through the flames, for they were guarded by ministering spirits
whom God has made as flames of fire. Thousands of the precious sons of
Zion have been left to rot in dungeons, or have been slain upon the
mountain side, or have perished in penury and need. And to this day
there are many that endure trials of cruel mocking and are, in various
painful ways, made to bear the cross, for if any man will live godly in
Christ Jesus, he must suffer persecution.
Another furnace is that of oppression. In the iron furnace of Egypt the
children of Israel were made to do hard bondage in brick and in mortar.
And doubtless many of God's people are in positions where they are
little better than slaves. Oppression is far from dead–under the most
free form of government there is always a possibility for the heads of
households and the masters of establishments to practice the most
galling oppression towards those whom they dislike. And doubtless many
choice spirits are still trod down as straw is trod for the dunghill.
There is also the furnace of slander The ripest of fruit will be pecked
at most by the birds. Those who have most of God's image will have most
of the world's contempt. Expect not that the world shall speak well of
you, for it never gave your Master a good word. "Shall the disciple be
above his master, or the servant above his Lord?"
Expect to be misunderstood–that is man's infirmity. Expect to be
misrepresented–that is his willful hatred. A very strenuous effort is
being made just now to mark our denomination with the famous "S. S."
which was the old log of the Puritan "Sower of Sedition." This slander
is very ancient, for in Nehemiah's day the accusation ran, "This city
of Jerusalem of old made sedition against kings." And this is the
charge now against our missionaries and, indeed, the whole of us, that
we are accomplices with those who stir up the people to sedition. Sirs,
we shall not disclaim the fact that we are ever swift to vindicate the
liberties of all men and are little given to flatter tyrants whether in
Jamaica, or elsewhere! On the contrary, our witness is very loud and
clear that there is one Lord who will execute righteousness and
judgment for all that are oppressed.
We hate the treading down of the needy and we abhor wholesale butchery
quite as much when perpetrated by Englishmen as when laid to the door
of Turks or Russians. And however unfashionable it may be, we maintain
the opinion that liberty is the birthright of every man, not only the
liberty which permits his neck to go free from a chain, but the liberty
which allows the exercise of the rights of manhood. Suffering humanity
is to be aided even when it wears the ebony hue, and high-handed wrong
is to be impeached even when the much despised Negro is its victim! It
can never be too much lamented that the terrible passions excited by
years of wrong should have led to a riot so fierce and cruel.
But we must remember that oppression makes even wise men mad, and in
justice we must lay the onus of the outbreak not alone at the door of
those unhappy and uneducated men who were goaded to this passionate
display of wrath, but we must give the greatest measure of blame to the
men of standing, wealth and education who have laid grievous burdens
upon these people and refused to hear their earnest cries and grant
their justifiable demands. The infernal revenge taken by their enemies
almost exonerates me from even this word of apology, for it alone is
sufficient proof of the spirit which has dominated over the Black race
and compelled the unhappy victims to rise against it.
But of course it will still be insisted that the Baptists are at the
bottom of the outbreak and so God's Church will be the scapegoat for
offenders. We are the friends of liberty, but we never taught
rebellion. We endeavor to implant manly principles of independence and
freedom, but we put side-by-side the gentle precepts of the loving
Jesus! Yet scandals of every sort we expect to receive and we count
them no strange thing when they happen to us.
Secondly, there is a furnace which Satan blows with three great
bellows–some of you have been in it. It is hard to bear, for the
Prince of the power of the air has great mastery over human spirits. He
knows our weak places and can strike so as to cut us to the very quick.
He fans the fire with the blast of temptation. The Evil One knows our
besetting sins, our infirmities of temper, and how we can be most
readily provoked. He understands how to suit his bait to his fish and
his trap to his bird.
At times the most earnest Christian will be compelled to cry out, "My
steps had well near gone! My feet had well near slipped!" The Savior
went through this furnace in the wilderness and was thrice tempted of
the devil. And in the wilderness of this life God's people frequently
experience temptations of the most horrible kind. Then he works the
second bellows of accusation. He hisses into the ear, "Your sins have
destroyed you! The Lord has quite forsaken you! Your God will be
gracious no more!" He tells us that we are hypocrites, that our
experience has been fancy, that our faith is mere presumption. He tells
us that our glorying has been a boast and the very sins which, as a
tempter, he himself incited us to commit, he brings against us when he
assumes his favorite character of "the accuser of the brethren."
Unless we are graciously comforted under the attacks of the roaring
lion, we shall be almost ready to give up all hope.
Then he will beset us with suggestions of blasphemy. While tormenting
us with insinuations, he has a way of uttering foul things against God
and then casting them into our hearts as if they were our own. He can
sow the infernal seed of blasphemy in our souls and then tell us that
these are the native plants of our own hearts! He lays his black
offspring at our door as if they were our own home-born children. And
this sometimes is very hard to bear, when curses against God and His
Christ will come across our soul. And though we hate them with perfect
hatred, yet we cannot be rid of them.
And thirdly, there is a furnace which God Himself prepares for His
people. There is the furnace of physical pain. How soon is the strong
man brought low! We who rejoiced in health are in a few moments made to
mourn and moan, not in weakness merely, but in pain and anguish. He
only thinks little of pain who is a stranger to it. A furnace still
worse, perhaps, is that of bereavement. The child sickens, the wife is
gradually declining, the husband is struck down with a stroke. Friend
after friend departs as star by star grows dim. We bitterly cry with
Job, "Lover and friend have You put far from me and my acquaintance
unto darkness."
Then added to this there will crowd in upon us temporal losses and
sufferings. The business which we thought would enrich, impoverishes.
We build the house, but Providence plucks it down with both its hands.
We hoist the sail and seek to make headway but we are driven far from
the desired haven by a back wind. "Except the Lord build the house,
they labor in vain that build it." I cannot multiply the description of
these crosses which our heavenly Father, in His mysterious Providence
lays upon His beloved ones. Certain is it that like the waves of the
sea, the drops of rain, the sands of the wilderness, and the leaves of
the forest the griefs of the Lord's people are innumerable. Into the
central heat of the fire does the Lord cast His saints, and mark this,
He casts them there because they are His own beloved and dearly loved
people.
I do not see the goldsmith putting dross into the furnace–what would
be the good of it? It would be a waste of fuel and labor. But he
thrusts the crucible full of gold into the hottest part of the fire and
heaps on coals till the heat is terrible. Some of you have no
crosses–you are like Moab, "settled on your lees"–"you are not
emptied from vessel to vessel" because you are reprobate and God cares
not for you! But the pure gold is put into the furnace to make it
purer, still. As silver is purified in a furnace of earth seven times,
simply because it is silver, so are saints afflicted because of their
preciousness in the sight of the Lord. Men will not be at such pains to
purify iron as they will with silver, for when iron is brought to a
tolerable degree of purity it works well. But silver must be doubly
refined, till no dross is left.
Men do not cut common pebbles on the lapidary's wheel, but the diamond
must be vexed again and again and again with sharp cuttings and even so
must the Believer. The context reminds us that sometimes the Christian
is exposed to very peculiar trials. The furnace was heated seven times
hotter–it was hot enough when heated once–but I suppose that
Nebuchadnezzar had pitch and tar and all kinds of combustibles thrown
in to make it flame out with greater vehemence.
Truly, at times the Lord appears to deal thus with His people. It is a
peculiarly fierce heat which surrounds them and they cry out, "Surely I
am the man that has seen affliction–I may take precedence of all
others in the realm of sorrow."
This is not so, remember, for princes have sat in the king's gate with
their heads covered with ashes and the best of men who eat bread at
Jehovah's table this day, have had to say, "You have filled me with
wormwood and broken my teeth with gravel." The path of sorrow is well
frequented, beaten down and trod by hosts of the chosen ones of God who
have found that the path of sorrow, and that path, alone, leads to the
place where sorrow is unknown!
I do not want to leave this point without observing, too, that these
holy champions were helpless when thrown into the furnace. They were
cast in bound. And many of us have been cast in bound, too, so that we
could not lift hand or foot to help ourselves. They fell down, it is
said, into the midst of the furnace. And often a sort of fainting fit
overtakes the saints of God at the beginning of their trouble–the very
trouble in which afterwards they can rejoice–for the present fills
them with heaviness and they fall down bound into the midst of the
furnace.
Pretty plight to be in! Who does not shudder at it? Certainly none of
us would choose it. But we have not the choice and as we have said with
David, "You shall choose my inheritance for me." If the Lord determines
to choose it for us among the coals of fire–it is the Lord–let Him do
what seems good to Him. Where Jehovah places His saints they are safe
in reality, although exposed to destruction in appearance. That is the
first point then–where God's people often are.
II. We proceed to the second–WHAT THEY LOSE THERE. Look at the text
and it will be clear to you that they lost something. Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego lost something in the fire–not their turbans, nor their
coats, nor their shoes, nor one hair of their heads or beards–no, what
then? Why, they lost their bonds there! Observe, "Did not we cast three
men boundinto the midst of the fire? Lo, I see four men loose, walking
in the midst of the fire."
The fire did not hurt them, but it snapped their bonds. Blessed loss,
this! A true Christian's losses are gains in another shape. Now,
Beloved, observe this carefully–that many of God's servants never know
the fullness of spiritual liberty till they are cast into the midst of
the furnace. Many of them are bound and fettered till they get into the
flame and the flame consumes the bonds in which they had been willing
to be held captives. Like the pure gold which loses nothing but its
dross in the fire! Like the iron which loses nothing but its rust under
the file, so is the Christian–he loses what he is glad to lose and his
loss is blessed gain.
Shall I show you some of the bonds which God looses for His people when
they are in the fire of human hatred? Sometimes He bursts the cords of
fear of man and desire to please man. Martin Luther, I dare say, like
other men, had some respect for his own character and some reverence
for public opinion. He might have been willing to pay some deference to
the learning and authority of the age–both of which lent their aid to
the ancient system of Rome–but in a happy hour the Pope excommunicated
the German troublemaker. All is well for Luther now! His course is
clear and plain before his face! He must therefore never conciliate or
dream of peace.
Now his bonds are broken! He burns the Pope's bull and thunders out,
"The Pope of Rome excommunicates Martin Luther and I, Martin Luther,
excommunicate the Pope of Rome! The world hates me and there is no love
lost between us, for I esteem it as much as it esteems me. War to the
knife," says he! The man was never clear till the world thrust him out.
It is a splendid thing to run the gauntlet of so much contempt that the
soul is hardened to it under a strong consciousness that the right is
none the more contemptible because its friend may be despised. "Why,"
you say, "is this how I am treated for the statement of truth? I was
inclined to conciliate and yield, but after this, never! You have
loosed my bonds."
When man has done his worst, as Nebuchadnezzar did in this case, why
then Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, could say, "What more could he do?
He has thrown us into a fiery furnace heated seven times hotter. He has
done his worst and now what have we to fear?" When persecution rages,
it is wonderful what liberty it gives to the child of God! Never a more
free tongue than Luther's! Never a braver mouth than that of John Knox!
Never bolder speech than that of John Calvin! Never a braver heart than
that which throbbed beneath the ribs of Wicklife! Never a man who could
more boldly confront popery than John Bradford or Hugh Latimer! But
under God these men owed their liberty of speech and liberty of
conscience to the fact that the world thrust them outfrom all hope of
its favor and so loosed their bonds!
Again, when Satan puts us in the furnace, he is often the means of
breaking bonds. How many Christians are bound by the bonds of frames
and feelings–by the bonds of dependence upon something within–instead
of resting upon
Christ the great Sacrifice? When the devil comes with his sharp
temptations, he roars out, "You are not children of God." Why, what
then? Why, then we go straight to Christ to look at and view the
flowing of His precious blood and trust Him just as we did at first!
And now what about frames and feelings? What about emotions within?
Why, we are so satisfied with that finished work upon the Cross that we
feel the bonds of doubt and fear no more! Now we are free, because we
have come to live on Chrstand not on self!
Fierce temptations may be like waves that wash the mariner on a
rock–they may drive us nearer to Christ. It is an ill wind which blows
no one any good. But the worst wind that Satan can send blows the
Christian good because it hurries him nearer to his Lord! Temptation is
a great blessing when it looses our bonds of self-confidence and
reliance upon frames and feelings. As for the afflictions which God
sends, do they not loose our bonds? Dear Brethren, doubts and fears are
far more common to us in the midst of work and business than when laid
aside by sickness. I do not know how you have found it, but so it is,
"When I am weak, then am I strong."
Many Believers sing most sweetly when Providence clips their wings, or
puts them in a cage. They are very mute and their heart towards the
Lord is very heavy till they are involved in trouble. And then their
faith revives! Their hope returns! Their love glows and they sing God's
praises in the fire! Have not you, dear Friends, frequently experienced
trouble cuts the cords which bind us to earth? When the Lord takes away
a child, there is one tie less to fasten to the world and one band more
to draw towards Heaven. God has loosed you from the bonds of idolatry
by removing your darling. You cannot idolize your little one any more,
for it is taken away.
When money vanishes and business all goes wrong, we frequent the Prayer
Meeting more and the closet more and read the Bible more–we are driven
by all tribulation away from earth. If everything went well with us, we
should begin to say, "Soul, take your ease." But when things go amiss
with us, then we want to be gone. When the tree shakes, the bird will
not stop in the nest, but takes to its wings and mount. Happy trouble
that looses our care of earth! Give you a few days of sharp pain on a
bed of sickness and you will not love life so much as you now do! You
will begin to say, "Let me be gone."
Why, even selfishness makes you wish for that. Then you can understand
what David meant when he said his heart and his flesh cried out after
God. It is hard to make the flesh cry out after God–but if you nip it
well, turn the screw a little further, just stretch it on the rack a
little more–the dumb, earth-born flesh will begin to cry out that it
may be gone and leave the pain and sickness behind it! Thus, I think, I
have shown you, though very briefly, for time fails us, that the saints
lose something in the furnace which they are glad to lose–they are
cast in bound, but amid the glowing coals they are set at liberty!
III. In the third place, WHAT SAINTS DO THERE. "Lo, I see four men
loose, walking in the midst of the fire." Walking! See those gardens so
delightfully laid out with varying landscape? They have rippling
fountains, blushing flowers and odoriferous herbs. There are quiet
arbors here and there and soft reclining seats–and there with the
voice of glee–young men and maidens walk. See that fair prospect! Turn
here–a blazing furnace, so fiercely heated that the eyes feel as if
scorched from their sockets as they look upon it. And the fervent heat
comes pouring forth as though old Sol had found a house on earth! Yet
there are four men walking in that furnace– walkingin their ease!
And there is greater joy as they walk among those sulfuric flames,
greater mirth in their spirits than in those young men and maidens who
walk among the flowers! They are walking–a symbol of joy, of ease, of
peace, of rest–not flitting like unquiet ghosts, as if they were
disembodied spirits traversing the flame. No, they are walking with
real footsteps, treading on hot coals as though they were roses and
smelling the sulfuric flames as though they yielded nothing but
aromatic perfume! Enoch "walked with God." It is the Christian's pace,
it is his general pace–he does sometimes run–but his general pace is
walking with God, walkingin the Spirit.
And you notice that these good men did not quicken their pace and they
did not slacken it–they continued to walk as they usually did. They
had the same holy calm and peace of mind which they enjoyed elsewhere.
Their walking shows not only their liberty and their ease and their
pleasure and their calm, but it shows their strength! Their sinews were
not snapped, they were walking. Sometimes God's people, as Jacob at the
brook Jabbok, halt on their thigh–but I think it is only a small
trouble that lames Believers–a greater trial will set them right
again. A stream of trouble may almost overturn a Believer–but a flood
of trials will make him rise as the ark rose, nearer to Heaven. These
men had no limping gait–they were walking–walking in the midst of the
fire!
Now, for the explanation of all this, turn to the biographies of any of
God's saints. There is an old Scotch volume entitled "Napthali"–it is
the lives of those people of God who hazarded their lives unto death in
the high places of the field. Now, if you read "Napthali," you will
find that the greatest joy that ever could have been known in this
mortal life was enjoyed by Covenanters among the mosses and banks and
on the hillsides of Scotland. There is another blessed old book which
used to be chained in the churches side by side with the Bible–I mean
"Foxe's Book of Martyrs." Every family ought to have a copy of it,
illustrated with pictures for the children to look at. And if you read
"Foxe's Book of Martyrs," you will see clearly that there was more joy
in old Bonner's coal-hole and in the Lollard's tower, than palaces
kings have known!
The martyrs felt a Heaven of joy while they were suffering a Hell of
pain! One Samuel was kept starving for weeks, having bread and water
given him alternately–three or four mouthfuls of bread one day and no
water. And the next day a few spoonfuls of water and no bread. After he
had been a little time in such a state as that, he fell into a perfect
Elysium of delight! He thought he heard an angel say to him, "Samuel,
you have suffered thus painfully, and fasted for the sake of your Lord.
You shall soon feast with Him above–meanwhile you shall feast with Him
below in your soul." Many and many a child of God has had an experience
manifesting as clearly the loving-kindness of the Lord! Yes, they were
walking in the midst of the furnace!
See Paul and Silas with their feet in the stocks and their poor
bleeding backs on the stone damp floor of the Roman dungeon at
Philippi, and yet they sing and the prisoners hear them! Why, I think I
would as soon have been with Paul and Silas as with Peter when he was
on the mountain. At any rate, the three holy children might have said
to the fourth, who was their Comforter and Companion, what Peter said
to his Lord–"Lord, it is good to be here! Let us build three
tabernacles and dwell under the fiery roof of these boughs of flame,
for it is happy to be where You are, though it be in Nebuchadnezzar's
furnace."
IV. In the fourth place, WHAT THEY DID NOTLOSE THERE? The text says,
"And they have no hurt." They did not lose anything there. But we may
say of them, first, their bodies were not hurt. The child of God loses
in the furnace nothing of himself that is worth keeping. He does not
lose his spiritual life–that is immortal. He does not lose his Divine
Graces–he gets them refined and multiplied and the glitter of them is
best seen by furnace light. The gifts to the Christian of God the Holy
Spirit are not taken away by the fiery hands of flame. The Christian
does not lose his garments there. You see their hats and their shoes
and their coats were not singed, nor was there the smell of fire upon
them.
And so with the Christian–his garment is the beauteous dress which
Christ Himself worked out in His life and which He dyed in the purple
of His own blood. This is wrapped about the Christian as his
imperishable mantle of glory and of beauty–
"This sacred robe the same endures
When ruined nature sinks in years.
No age can change its glorious hue,
The robe of Christ is ever new."
As it is not hurt by age, nor moth, nor worm, nor mildew, so neither
can it be touched by fire. When the saint shall come up to Heaven,
wearing Christ's righteousness and the question is asked, "Who are
these?" as the spirits gather round them, there shall be no traces upon
them whatever of any of the persecution or suffering through which they
have been made to pass. The Christian never loses a grain of his
treasure when he passes through the furnace–in fact, to sum up in a
word–he loses nothing.
The empress threatened to banish Chrysostom. "That you can not do,"
said he, "for my country is in every clime." "But I will take away your
goods." "No," said he, "that you can not do, for I am a poor minister
of Christ, and I have none." "Then," said she, "I will take away your
liberty." "That you cannot do, for iron bars cannot confine a free
spirit." "I will take away your life," said she. "That you may do,"
said he, "in one sense, but I have a life eternal which you cannot
touch." The empress thought she had better leave the man alone–she
could do him no harm! So is it better for the enemy to leave the child
of God alone, for he that kicks against God's people, only kicks with
naked feet against the pricks. And as the ox smitten with the goad only
hurts himself when he kicks against it, so shall it be with all who
touch the saints of the living God. They are not hurt and they never
shall be.
Now, it is hard for some of you to think that this will be the case,
but thus it will be with all of you who truly put your trust in Jesus
Christ. My Brethren, I know you dread that furnace–who would not? But
courage, courage, courage! The Lord, who permits that furnace to be
heated, will preserve you in it, therefore be not dismayed! You would
wish so to live as to have some tale to tell when you shall mount to
Heaven–you would not be silent there! Coming to Glory without any
adventure to narrate before the throne? Now, you cannot be illustrious
without conflict–you cannot be a conqueror without fighting! You
cannot by any possibility have anything to witness to the Glory of God
unless you test and try the promises and the faithfulness of the Most
High. And where can you do this except in the furnace of woe? Be of
good courage, then–
"The flames shall not hurt you,
I only design your dross to consume And your gold to refine."
V. The last, and perhaps the most pleasing part of the text is, WHO WAS
WITH THEM IN THE FURNACE? There was a fourth and He was so bright and
glorious that even the heathen eyes of Nebuchadnezzar could discern a
supernatural luster about Him! "The fourth," he said, "is like the Son
of God." What appearance Christ had put on which was recognizable by
that heathen monarch, I cannot tell, but I suppose that He appeared in
a degree of that Glory in which He showed Himself to His servant John
in the Apocalypse. Such was the excessive splendor and brightness–the
God-like air that was about Him, the flash of His eyes and the splendor
of His gait as He walked the fire with the other three–that even
Nebuchadnezzar could not help saying He was like the Son of God!
Beloved, you must go into the furnace if you would have the nearest and
dearest dealings with Christ Jesus! Whenever the Lord appears, it is to
His people when they are in a militant posture. Moses saw God at Horeb,
but it was in a burning bush. Joshua saw Him, but it was with a drawn
sword in his hand, to show that His people are still a militant people.
And here where the saints saw their Savior, it was as Himself in the
furnace. The richest thought that a Christian, perhaps, can live upon
is this–Christ is in the furnace with him! When you suffer, Christ
suffers. No member of the body can be pained without the head enduring
its portion.
And so you, a member of Christ's body, in every pain you feel, pain the
head Christ Jesus. As Baxter says, "Christ takes us through no darker
rooms than He went through before." And one could improve upon it and
say, "He takes us through no rooms so dark but what He is, Himself,
there in the darkness and makes that darkness by His Presence light,
cheering and gladdening our hearts." I know that to the worldling this
seems a very poor comfort, but then if you have never drank this wine
you cannot judge its flavor. If the King has never taken you into His
banqueting house and His banner over you has never been love. If He has
never kissed you with the kisses of His mouth. If He has never said
unto you, "I am yours and you are Mine," why, you cannot be expected to
know what you have not experienced!
But he who has once drunk of the well of Bethlehem would hazard his
life that he might get a draught of it again! He would be willing to go
through the furnace though it were heated seventy thousand times
hotter, that he might be able once more to see that Son of God, the
fourth bright One who trod the glowing coals! The Presence of Christ is
the brightest joy beneath the stars! Oh, Christian, seek it! Do not be
content without it and you shall have it!
A very unhappy thought starts up and claims expression before we close
our discourse. I do not like to close with it and yet faithfulness
requires me to utter it–what must it be to be cast into that fiery
furnace without Christ in it! What must it be to dwell with everlasting
burnings! One's heart beats high at the thought of the three poor men
being thrown into that furnace of Nebuchadnezzar's, with its flaming
pitch and flames reaching upwards as though it would set the heavens on
a blaze! Yet that fire could not touch the three children–it was not a
consuming fire. But, my Hearers, be warned, there is One who is "a
consuming fire," and once let Him flame forth in anger and none can
deliver you!
"Our God," we are told, "our God is a consuming fire." The day comes
which shall burn as an oven and the proud and they that do wickedly
shall be as stubble and every soul on earth that believes not in Christ
Jesus shall be cast into that furnace of fire–this is the second
death. Beware, you that forget God, lest the eternal fires of Tophet
kindle upon you–for their flame searches the joints and marrow and
sets the soul upon a blaze with torment! For you, my Hearers, who have
listened to the Gospel often, but heard it in vain–for you the furnace
of Divine wrath shall be heated seven times hotter and you shall fall
down bound into the midst of it, never to be loosed.
And instead of having Christ, then, to be with you and to comfort you,
you shall see Him sitting on His Throne and His glance of lightning
shall perpetually make that flame burn more terrible and yet more
terrible! If you were thrown into Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, it would be
all over in a moment, not even your bones would be found! But the soul
never dies. The punishment of the wicked is of the same duration as the
reward of the righteous. Justice will ever exist in the Divine mind and
will ever have objects upon which to display itself. If the soul died,
Hell would not be Hell, for there would then be hope. And so the most
terrible element of hopelessness would be removed.
Sinner, dream not of being annihilated, but dread the fire which never
shall be quenched, the worm which never dies! It is written in God's
Word that He "is able to destroy both body and soul in Hell," a
destruction which amounts not to annihilation, a destruction of
everything that is true life, but which leaves existence still
untouched–
" What? To be banished for my life, To linger in eternal pain And yet
forbid to die– And yet forever die!"
Dreadful, indeed, is such a doom! There is a second death which will
pass on all the ungodly, but it is not annihilation! As death does not
annihilate the body so does not the spiritual death annihilate the
soul–you shall lose life but never existence! You shall linger in
perpetual death!
But there stands the Savior and as He was with His people in the
furnace, so He is near youthis day in mercy, to deliver you from your
sins! He calls to you to leave your sins and look to Him and then you
shall never die and neither upon you shall the flame of wrath kindle
because its power was spent on Him! He felt the furnace of Divine wrath
and trod the glowing coals for every soul that believes in Him. God
give His blessing for Jesus' sake. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Daniel 3