Ways In Which God Comforts His People

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In this episode, Lance shares with the saints at Halford House in England about the necessity of setting our hope on eternity. If our hope is placed in things that are temporary, we will inevitably feel insecure when those things are shaken, because our hope is tied to our circumstances. But when our hope is in the Lord, we can learn to overcome every circumstance, knowing that He has already won the victory. Let’s listen to Ways in Which God Comforts His People. If you would turn to the second letter to the Thessalonians 2:16-17. II Thessalonians 2:16-17. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. Shall we just pray? O Father, we want to thank thee that thou hast granted to us so much provision in this matter of speaking thy word and hearing thy word. There is no excuse, Lord, for me not to speak thy word, and no excuse for us not to hear thy word when thou hast made such provision. And, O Lord, we want to avail ourselves of it in all our weakness and unworthiness. In the name of our Lord Jesus, we want to avail ourselves of this provision. Wilt thou grant, Lord, that we may meet with thee in Thy word this morning? Wilt thou speak a word into our hearts, Lord, however simple? That will, Lord, be a means of much sustenance and support and strength, correction and help. O Father, we want to thank thee once more for thy goodness toward us all. Wilt thou be with those who this day are in great need? Wilt thou be round about them, Lord, and meet their need, whether it be physical, mental or spiritual? Meet every member of this part of thy family in need, we pray, dear Lord, and so we give thee thanks and praise in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. What wonderful words those are of the apostle Paul. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts. The Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who gave us eternal comfort and hope, good hope through grace, comfort your hearts. I thought a little bit this last week about the things that comfort me. I don't know what you are like, but of course everything depends on what you see spiritually as to what comforts you. If you haven't got much vision, then you will undoubtedly be able to be comforted by things that are transient of time and of sense. But if you've seen through the time things of time and sense, then it is only those eternal things that are really going to comfort you. And I've been thinking just a little, what are the things that really the Lord Jesus and God our Father comfort us with? What a lovely word that is. I fear that some Christians don't know anything about the comforting of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here we are told that both the Son and the Father have given us eternal comfort and comfort our hearts and establish them in every good work and word. And we know that the Holy Spirit is called in the Authorized Version translation, the comforter. What a wonderful aspect this is of the Godhead. And what does this really mean, to be comforted? Well, it means, of course, to be encouraged, to be strengthened, to be sustained, to be corrected. It is really very wonderful. And because we have little time, I just want to underline just one or two things that, for me anyway, constitute this comfort of God. And the first I find so tremendous is this. And you will find it in Romans 5:1. Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a wonderful comfort. What a wonderful comfort. God doesn't justify us partly. God doesn't justify just us up to the time that we were saved. God's work of justification is a complete and absolute work. We have been justified. And so many of the neuroses, many of the breakdowns among believers stem from the simple fact that they have a terrible conscience of evil. They have never ever… we have never ever seen what our justification really is. Justification. King David, in Psalm 32, put it like, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. How wonderful it is to know that we are justified, that our sins and iniquities have been laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and he has carried them into oblivion. You will remember, on that day of atonement, there was one goat that was brought into the temple. And then the elders of Israel put their hand upon its head, and then it was slain. And those words were uttered, see your sins die. And as that poor creature died, so it was as if the sins of the nation died with its death. And then the other goat was taken out to a point just east of the city and let out into the wilderness of Judea with the word, see your sins go into oblivion. And as the goat went over the brow of the hill and into the wilderness, and the people could see it no more, it was to them a sign. Your sins are not only forgiven, they are forgotten, justified fully. Who has borne your iniquities? Who has paid the penalty of your sin? The Lord Jesus. Oh, what a wonderful comfort then this is. When the accuser roars, when he comes to us with every kind of vile and evil accusation, when he brings up the past, when he brings up all the things we did before we were saved, the things we've done since we were saved. When all kinds of small things and large things, somehow he brings before our view. What a wonderful thing it is to know that someone else has paid the penalty of our sin and borne it. And because of that I am clothed in the garments of God's salvation. I wish that this could really come right into all our hearts. What a wonderful release it would be. What a deliverance. In the prophecy of Zechariah in chapter three, this is all put in the most wonderful way. I will read it to you. And the Lord showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. And the Lord said unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. Yea, the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Dear child of God, are you a brand plucked out of the fire? Do you sometimes feel as if Satan stands on one side and on the other the angel of the Lord? As if somehow or other you hear certain things coming from one side and certain things coming from the other side? Listen to what it goes on to say. Now, Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and was standing before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, take the filthy garments from off him. And unto him he said, behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with rich apparel. And I said, let them set a clean mitre upon his head. So they set a clean mitre upon his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. Oh, that's what has happened to every true believer. Those filthy, defiled, spotted, blemished garments have been put upon our Lord Jesus Christ, and the spotless robe of his righteousness and holiness has been placed upon you and me if we have put our trust in him. No wonder then the apostle says some tremendous things in Romans 8. He says in these so well known words, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea, rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Now, don't you feel that so often we entertain these accusations? From whatever quarter they come, sometimes they're in our own mind. Sometimes we make a terrible mistake and think it is the Holy Spirit who is accusing us. But the Holy Spirit never accuses. He always, when sin is exposed and he puts his finger upon something in your life which is unclean, he immediately turns you to the Lord Jesus Christ. You always see the Lord Jesus Christ. You can always tell the work of the enemy in this matter of accusation because it leaves you alienated from God. It leaves you in an empty, miserable, damned state. It makes you feel as if somehow or other everything's not working as it ought to work. That is the work of the enemy, never the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's work is always to glorify the Lord Jesus. Always to take of the things of Christ and declare them to us. And when we see the Lord, sometimes we fall down as if dead. That's a very different kind of experience. Quite different to this other torment, this other awful sense of darkness, this sense of being alienated. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? If God has justified you, if he has declared you righteous, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It goes on to say, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And then it goes to a whole list of things. And you know when you go through that list, there's every single thing that could be in your life or circumstances included. The things we tend to think that might separate us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life… There may be many things in your life you feel are separating you from the Lord, things about your circumstances, things about relationships or friends or this or that that are separating you from the Lord. But it says neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities. So if there is the work of evil spirits, if there's something else like that in the invisible trying to do it, it still cannot separate us. Nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. What a comfort. I find that eternal comfort. That's not transient. Where do you put your comfort in? Here's someone who likes you. So now you feel, oh, wonderful. So and so likes me. I'm popular with so and so. And then suddenly you lose your popularity. You feel that so and so doesn't like you. You don't feel the least bit comforted. Your comfort comes from things that are changing. Go up and down but, oh, how wonderful it is when we find that we have the love of God, when nothing can separate us from the love of God. It is not moody. Doesn't change from day to day or season to season or year to year, but it is the same. Wonderful. I find that so tremendous, this ground for comfort. We all ought to spend more time there. Now, I am not saying that we can just sin and then get away with it. Of course I am not meaning that. We have to confess our sin. We have to be honest with the Lord. But what I am saying is that when our sin was laid on the Lord Jesus Christ, it was our sin in its entirety, not in part. He bore it all. And God has declared you and me righteous. I always find it amazing in that wonderful story of the Song of Solomon that the Lord says to his bride, thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee. Quite honestly, when you read through the story, I would have thought there were a number of spots. And yet such is the power of his love that he says, thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee. Only God could have done that for you and me. Why, I think that every time God gazes at me, I think of all the kind of things that must grieve him or must concern him, or must cause him, as it were, to draw back. But the wonder of it all is that he finds nothing because the Lord Jesus bore it all. What a relief. What a wonderful deliverance. What a cause for praise. What a basis for comfort in days when there's so much against us. There are many other things, too, about this comfort. There is something else here that I noted down. It is simply this that God has given us the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and in him has given us everything. There are many scriptures for this. We've read one here already. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not also, with him, with him freely give us all things? Or I think, of course, of that wonderful word in Colossians 2, 9, 10. For in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form, and in him you are made complete. God has given us everything in Christ. He has held nothing back. Everything is given to us in Christ. Every single thing that you and I require. To be saved. To be changed from sinner to saint. To be conformed to the image of his Son. To serve God in a way that is totally acceptable to Him. To fulfill the charge that's been given to us. Every single thing we require for the building of the house of God. In spite of satanic antagonism and working and power, every single thing required has been given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a comfort. You think that God has saved you and now tipped you out into a hostile world and said, now get on with it. I've saved you, but now you've got to somehow or other make your own way. When you're in trouble, I'll come to you. But you just make… No, no, no. God has given us every single thing we require. Oh, we could stay here for the whole morning. Indeed, for the whole day. Just on this one point. Here's a basis for eternal comfort. I have the Lord Jesus in my heart. Think, think he is there. He is in your heart. And in him God has given us everything. So you have difficult circumstances. You think God has been taken by surprise? Your difficult circumstances. Shall I tell you something? God has provided a special grace for special circumstances. Have you found it? Here is comfort. You say, “Well, you see, I'm not like the rest here. I have a very difficult family background and I have inherited all the unfortunate traits in both sides of the family. I find it extremely difficult. All very well for the rest of them here. I see them all singing and praising the Lord and worshiping him. But I have so many problems.” Listen, when God saved you, he was not taken by surprise, but made an especial provision of grace in the light of your family background. Someone who comes from one of those sweet families where there are no such traits doesn't have the same provision of grace. Did you realize that? You know, there was enough manna for every family and everyone had to gather just what they needed for the day. And on the sixth day, enough for two days, no more, it went bad. God never gives grace as a kind of storehouse because, if I may put it rather rudely and vulgarly, it goes bad. God has made a provision of grace for you so that if your circumstances are bad, there is grace for you in those circumstances. Now here's something else. Some of us have inherited unfortunate problems from family. Others of us may be facing unusual circumstances this week. So then we think, oh, dear, dear, dear. Oh, I just haven't got it. Thank God you haven't got it. But the Lord Jesus has got it all. And if you will only turn away from yourself to him, you will find that there is a provision of grace for these difficult circumstances. What is the problem this week? Now, I know there's so many you know, we all go by our levels, don't we? I mean, what it is, I mean, some person, it's going to the dentist. It is amazing how some people get into a complete state about just a simple matter of going to the dentist. For two days beforehand, they work themselves up. But there is a provision of grace. Some people have got an interview. Such a small thing. And yet, do you know, the enemy comes in on it and destroys them. They can't praise the Lord. They get into a terrible state. Sometimes something's gone wrong at work and you're being blamed for it. And, oh, that's sometimes very difficult. That's more serious. And you're carrying, you're being the scapegoat for the whole lot. You feel somehow or other it's impossible. But I want to tell you something, God has made a provision of grace. This is eternal comfort. There is not a single thing about your life or circumstances that takes God by surprise. He has made provision. There is not a single thing about our way as a company of God's children that takes God by surprise. He has made provision for us. I find it so wonderful. It says in those wonderful words we so often use in a gospel service. And the witness is this that God gave unto us eternal life and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not the life. Life is a marvelous thing. Once there is something alive, it is amazing what it can overcome, providing the law of its life is obeyed. Oh, what we have in the Lord Jesus. We have grace. We have power. We have treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We have every blessing we have… What more do you want to hear? We find it's all in Christ. Now, why do we look at the waves and hear the wind and not see the Lord? If only we kept our eyes on him. He is the key to everything. So now, supposing you're going to have a difficult week. Well, why don't you praise the Lord and say, here is a great opportunity to experience his grace. This week is going to be a discovery of the Lord. Think, it would do something, my dear child, it would do such a thing for you psychologically. You know, everyone runs off to psychiatrists and psychologists and so on, mind doctors to twiddle around and somehow help them. The greatest psychologist is the Lord. If only when we faced a week, we could say, now this week is going to be a discovery of the Lord. There are going to be some dreadful things. I don't know how he's going to do it, but it's going to be a discovery of the Lord. It's going to be a discovery. What a different attitude to the whole week. Now I'm walking by faith, not by sight. Now I'm not at the mercy of the enemy. I'm in the mercy of the Lord, tasting the mercy of the Lord. Eternal comfort. It is never easy. At least someone appreciates the ministry this morning. It is never easy to face things that are difficult. But isn't it wonderful when we come through, having experienced the Lord? Now, all of you, just take a moment to think. Think back this last year. Think back perhaps this last week, this last month. There have been things that have worried you no end. For those of you who turned to the Lord instead of just letting it get on top of you, wasn't it wonderful when you came through? You got something in that situation that will never be taken away from you. You'll never get it through ministry or through Bible study or through reading books or going to conferences or any other way. You got that yourself, in your own experience. It is yours and yours forever. From now on you can say, I was in such and such a situation, and I proved the Lord. It's yours. Such is the way we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It has to be your own experience. What comfort then, to know that God is not taken by surprise. So here comes something into your life, and immediately you say, this is the enemy. This is the enemy. Oh, it's terrible. But supposing it is the enemy, God uses the enemy more than anything else, and he uses the enemy to work his own purpose. And again and again in our lives, it is the work of the enemy which God turns into glory. Don't be afraid. Provision has been made for you. Oh, there are so many other things. Here's another source of comfort for me anyway: if we will, victory is ours. It says in 1 Corinthians 15:57: but thanks be to God who giveth us the victory in our Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, or in our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, isn't this a source of comfort? Do you know that in the end, if the Lord tarries and we die and our bodies are put into the earth and they become dust, even then the victory belongs to our Lord. That's exactly the context of this verse. The apostle is saying, even when we have put the body of a redeemed saint into the earth and it's become dust, thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. There'll come a day, by the word of God, when every atom of that body, physical body, is restored. Not a hair of their head shall perish. Such is the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once preached a famous sermon on not a hoof nor a horn shall be left in Egypt. Well, what did he mean? He meant simply this, that not a hair of your head will be left to the devil. They may martyr you, they may destroy you physically, but the victory belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there is more to it than just this. For if we read Revelation 12:11 we are told, They overcame Satan because of the blood of the Lamb, because of the word of their testimony, and they loved not their life even unto the death. In other words, you and I can either be defeated or victorious. It's a very strange battle, this, because the victory is already won. Either we can realize it in our circumstances or not. I believe God has so much to teach us about this matter. There are things of course, which are going to… Anyway, the victory belongs to God, whether you and I are in it or not. The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of God and of his Son, the Lord Jesus whether I'm in it or not. The house of God is going to be built and completed whether I cooperate or not. The purpose of God concerning the nations is going to be fulfilled whether I cooperate or not. The purpose of God concerning Israel will be fulfilled whether I cooperate or not. But in my own circumstances, in our circumstances, as a company of God's people, there are all kinds of things that God says, “Now look, you can either know victory or not. You can either realize the victory which is yours in Christ or not. If you will not, I will not.” And someone may say, well, why does the Lord do that? Because he doesn't want a whole family of babies, that's why. Some of you tell me that sometimes you find, well, you find things a bit boring. You say, oh dear, things get so boring, you know, just meeting after meeting and week after week and month after month and so on. I wonder what it will be like in heaven if the whole kingdom of heaven is filled with little babies. Personally, not that I have anything against babies, but I would personally find after a while a little boring if all those spiritual beings saved by the grace of God can do is utter a babbana dadana, a few other little words like that. But we have to face the fact that most saints are babies. We are babies. We have not grown. You can't put a baby in charge of Father's business. He may be a son, but he's only a baby. He's got to grow up. Then he can take over Father's business. He can become a joint heir. He can become an heir that can inherit the whole thing and administer it properly. You can't put babies on golden thrones, judging the whole universe, controlling everything in the kingdom of God. It would be a terrible mess. God has to get people that are trained. Now, dear child of God, when, when and where does he train us? Here. Precisely here, in your life, in your circumstances, in our life as a company of God's children. So we come back to the point. God says in these things, “Now, if you will, you can know my victory. I can teach you how to get on top. I can teach you the principles of triumph. I can teach you how to rule and how to reign. I can teach you how to really bring in the kingdom of God touching things on this earth here and now. And so you will learn lessons in being kings and priests. You will learn lessons on really sitting together with Christ in heavenly places. Well, our time has gone. There are so many things that constitute comfort. I find this a tremendous comfort that God has already won the victory. What will I do with it? It doesn't matter on what level the problem is. Is it a personal level? Your personal problem? The Lord Jesus has already won the victory. There is nothing he has to do about it. He has done it. He sat down at the right hand of God till his enemies be made the footstool of his feet. But if you want to know it realized in your life, you've got to cooperate. Oh, for an experience of the Holy Spirit that will empower us and fill us and renew us. You see, dear child of God, you can know all the theory, know all the doctrine and all the truth. But until the Holy Spirit really renews us and quickens us and empowers us, it remains static. It remains literature. It remains truth, objective truth. But when the Holy Spirit renews us and quickens us in that moment, suddenly we are given the power to stand up, to withstand, to declare the word of God, whatever it may be, over any given situation. Has the Lord taught you to do that? About your personal problem? Or perhaps the problems we face as a company of God's children? Victory is ours in our Lord Jesus Christ. How wonderful then. What comfort. We are awaiting a kingdom wherefore receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Let us have grace whereby we may offer service to God in reverence and awe. Well, we're seeing everything slowly but surely dropping to pieces. And even if a great iron like system were to emerge, as it will in the end, and span the whole world, it will still be for us believers a horror. And therefore you and I have a comfort that what our Lord has said will come to pass, will surely come to pass. But our comfort is that we are awaiting a kingdom that will never be shaken. And when God's time has come, that kingdom will be manifested in power and glory. What a comfort, then, it is for us to see our Lord Jesus crowned with glory and honor. May you learn to overcome every circumstance the Lord allows.
May your hope be fully set on the salvation to be revealed in the last time.
May you know the deep, deep love of Jesus.