Sermon
#117 Series: Isaiah
Title: "When Thou
Passest Through The Waters…"
Text: Isaiah 43:1-2
Scripture Reading: Psalm 121:1-8
Subject: Affliction
Date: Sunday Morning - May 31, 1992
Introduction:
Someone
once said, “The Christian life is a bed of roses-- thorns and all!” He was right. This morning I am going to talk to you about the thorns. This afternoon, the Lord willing I will talk
to you about the roses.
Read Isaiah 43:1- Here is a people created and
formed by God, a people redeemed, called, and owned by the Lord God as his
people, a people who belong to God, his peculiar people. Surely, we might reasonably assume that
these people will be exempt from the tragedies and sorrows of life. These people will never know trial and
suffering. But that is not the case.
Read verse 2- If I read that verse correctly, it means, If I am to
walk with God I must walk through deep waters of trouble, flooding rivers of
opposition and adversity, and raging fires of trial and persecution. We have no regard for the apocrypha, but one
of the apocryphal writers quotes the Lord Jesus as saying, “He that is near me
is near the fire.” Whether our Lord said
that or not I do not know; but I do know that he taught it. In John 16:33, he said, “In the world ye
shall have tribulation.”
Proposition: God’s saints in this world are an afflicted, troubled, tried, and suffering people- It is written, “that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
Divisions: The title of my message this morning is found in
verse 2 of our text- “When Thou Passest Through The
Waters…” I want to show you seven
simple, but helpful facts about the afflictions of God’s people in this world.
I. You and I must pass through
many troubles in this world.
My pastor, many years ago, Bro. Ernest Parks, used to say, “God had one Son without sin, but he has no sons without sorrow.” I accepted that as a matter of fact; but I did not know what he was talking about. I knew the Bible taught it; but I didn’t understand it. I hadn’t experienced much sorrow. Now, I understand.
Notice
verse two of our text- It is not written as a hypothetical supposition, or a
remote possibility, but a matter of absolute certainty. The Lord does not say, “If”, but “when thou
passes through the waters.” We must
pass through many troubles in this world.
“There are no crown- wearers in heaven that
were not cross-bearers here below.” C. H. Spurgeon.
Martin Luther said, “Every Christian is a
cross-bearer.” Is that all God’s
children? Yes, without exception. If you live for God, if you walk with Christ
in this world, you must pass through many troubled waters (Phil. 1:29).
God says, “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction” (Isa.
48:10). (I Tim. 2:12; 3:12).
II. The Things we suffer in this
world must be kept in proper perspective.
(II
Cor. 4:17).
We
all have a tendency to think that our particular trouble is the worst trouble
there is, that there is no sorrow like our sorrow, and that the burden we carry
is the heaviest load in the world. But
Paul had learned to see things differently.
After describing his many great afflictions for the gospel’s sake, which
he had suffered since the day God saved him, Paul writes, “Our light
affliction, which is by far a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory.”
If
you and I can learn to keep the things we suffer in proper perspective we will
also view them as “our light affliction.”
Perhaps you are thinking, “Bro. Don, you don’t know what I am going
through. This is not “light
affliction!” Listen to me for a
minute..
A.
Our
afflictions are light, compared with what we deserve.
B.
Our
afflictions are very light, compared with what our Lord has suffered for us
(Lam. 1:12; Ps. 22).
C.
Our
afflictions are light, feather weight troubles, compared with what many of our
brothers and sisters in Christ have suffered in the past.
D.
Our
afflictions are so very, very light, compared with what many of our friends are
suffering now.
E.
And,
Oh, how light our afflictions are, when compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us (Rom. 8:17; II Cor. 4:17, James 1:12; I Pet. 1:7).
A. W. Pink said, “One breath of paradise will
extinguish all the adverse winds of earth!”
If we can learn to look upon our troubles in the light of these things, we will find them easier to bear. Truly, our temporary, earthly troubles are “our light affliction.”
III. Our text implies that our
trials in this world come from many directions and take many forms- (v. 2).
Some
of our trials come as troubled waters. Others come as flooding rivers.
Others come as a raging fire.
Sometimes God’s saints have great trials of inward, spiritual trouble. Sometimes our trials are matters of outward
temptation, or adversity. Sometimes the
people of God face trials of persecution.
Sometimes all these troubles come at once!
To be an heir of heaven is to be an
heir of trial and tribulation-
·
Abraham
(Gen. 22:1).
·
Job
(Job 1).
·
Peter
(John 21:18-19).
·
Paul
(Acts 9:16)- (II Cor. 12:9).
·
David
If
you are one of God’s children, while you live in this world, you must pass
through many deep waters, flooding rivers and raging fires. Faith must be tried and proved.
·
Sickness!
·
Bereavement!
·
Banishment
from the House of God!
·
Domestic,
Family trouble!
·
Economic
Hardship!
·
Slander,
Persecution!
·
Spiritual,
Soul Trouble!
·
Prosperity
and Success!
IV. Whatever your trial is, it is
according to the will and purpose of Our Great God, Our Heavenly Father (I Thess. 5:18; Rom. 8:28).
The very hairs of your head are all numbered. That means, God looks often and orders every detail of your life. He leaves nothing to chance, or blind fate.
Illus: David and Shemei (II Sam. 16:5-1).
V. Not only is your trouble
ordered of God, when you pass through the deep waters, the flooding rivers, and
the raging fires, the Lord God is with you-
“I
will be with thee!” (Ps. 31:20; Dan. 3:25; Ps. 23:4)- (Heb. 13:5).
Blessed
is that trouble that brings me into the enjoyment of God’s manifest
presence! Not only is it true that our
troubles do not separate us from the love of God, often our troubles are the
means by which we are made to realize God’s great love, mercy and grace to us
in Christ!
·
If
God puts you in the furnace, he sits as the Reformer.
·
If
the Lord’s vineyard must be pruned, he will do the pruning.
·
When
his children need correcting, the rod is in our Father’s hands.
VI. Whatever your trouble is, you
will soon pass through it- “When thou passest Through the waters…”
The
Puritan, Thomas Watson, wrote “Affliction may be lasting but it is not
everlasting.” It is but for a moment!
If a
man was on his way to be crowned and to take his place in the King’s palace, he
would not cry because it was a rainy day!
Our days may be rainy; but we are headed to the King’s Palace, where we
shall be crowned. Why should we weep?
VII. Our afflictions, whatever they
are, are for our benefit- (Ps. 119:65,71).
The
floods that destroyed the world in Noah’s day carried the ark to a place of
safety; and those same trials which destroy other men and women are instruments
of much good to God’s saints. There is
a “needs be” for every trial. Trials
make some people bitter. The make God’s
people better.
“Grace grows best in winter.”- Samuel Rutherford.
Spurgeon said, “Stars may be seen from
the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the top of a
mountain.”
Here
are 5 things God teaches in troubling waters, flooding rivers and the raging
furnace.
Application:
1. You will pass through many troubles.
2.
Keep
things perspective.
3.
Our
troubles come from many directions, but
4.
They
come according to God’s will and purpose.
5.
In
all your trials, the Lord is with you.
6.
Your
trouble will soon be over.
·
When
the believer leaves this world, his sorrow ends.
·
When
you who believe not leave this world, your sorrow begins!
1.
All
our afflictions are for our benefit.
When you are in the cellar of affliction, look for the
Lord’s choice wines!
“Tis my happiness below
Not to live without the cross,
But my Savior’s power to know
Sanctifying every loss:
Trials must and will befall;
But, with humble faith to see
Love inscribed upon them all,
This is happiness to me.
God in Israel sows the seeds
Of affliction, pain, and toil;
These spring up and choke the weeds
Which would else o’rspread the soil;
Trials make the promise sweet;
Trials give new life to prayer;
Trials bring me to his feet,
Lay me low and keep me there.
Did I meet no trials here,
No chastisements by the way,
Might I not with reason fear
I should prove a castaway?
Others may escape the rod,
Sunk in earthly, vain delight,
But the true born child of God
Must not, would not, if he might. -Cowper