TRIBULATION CONQUERED - Christmas Evans
SERMON XV.
TRIBULATION CONQUERED.
“These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”—John xvi. 33.
The last sayings of those we love are not soon forgotten. These words form the conclusion of our Lord’s valedictory to his disciples. They did not yet understand that the redemption of man was to be obtained by the death of their Master. When Christ was put to death, he descended to the lower parts of the earth, in order to raise up sinners; but their faith could not follow him into the deep. Nicholas Pisces sunk into the sea to raise a golden cup, but neither he nor the cup ever came up again. A man clothed in glass went down to prepare for raising the Royal George; the man came up, but the ship remains in the bottom. But our blessed Redeemer, clothed in humanity, descended to the deeps of death, and raised the church from the pit of perdition, and founded her upon a rock, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.
We would notice, first, the peace that is in Christ, in opposition to the tribulation that is in the world; and secondly, the victory of Christ over the world, as the source of comfort and joy to believers.
I. “These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. I know what you will have in the world—mountains of tribulation—nothing but tribulation. I will put my peace in the other end of the scale.”
Peace in Christ is “the peace of God which passeth all understanding”—an ocean sufficiently deep and large to swallow up millions of fiery mountains. See the awakened sinner, overwhelmed with the terrors of God. His inflexible justice and spotless holiness p. 217seem to him like a mountain of flame, which he cannot approach without being consumed. But the Holy Spirit shows him the reconciling blood of the cross. He sees the crucified God-man rising from the grave, and ascending on high, “to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins.” Instantly the terrible mountain sinks and is lost in the sea of his Redeemer’s merit. His faith has conquered his fears. His burden of guilt is gone. He is a new creature in Christ Jesus, and in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. The deluge of tribulation may swell and roar around him, but he is securely enclosed in the ark.
A man in a trance saw himself locked up in a house of steel, through the walls of which, as through walls of glass, he could see his enemies assailing him with swords, spears, and bayonets; but his life was safe, for his fortress was locked within. So is the Christian secure amid the assaults of the world. His “life is hid with Christ in God.”
The psalmist prayed—“When my heart is overwhelmed within me, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.” Imagine a man seated on a lofty rock in the midst of the sea, where he has every thing necessary for his support, shelter, safety, and comfort. The billows heave and break beneath him, and the hungry monsters of the deep wait to devour him; but he is on high, above the rage of the former, and the reach of the latter. Such is the security of faith.
But why need I mention the rock and the steel house? for the peace that is in Christ is a tower ten thousand times stronger, and a refuge ten thousand times safer. Behold the disciples of Jesus exposed to famine, nakedness, peril, and sword—incarcerated in dungeons; thrown to wild beasts; consumed in the fire; sawn asunder; cruelly mocked and scourged; driven from friends and home, to wander among the mountains, and lodge in dens and caves of the earth; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; sorrowful, but always rejoicing; cast down, but not destroyed; an ocean of peace within, which swallows up all their sufferings.
“Neither death,” with all its terrors; “nor life,” with all its allurements; “nor things present,” with all their pleasure; “nor things to come,” with all their promise; “nor height” of prosperity; “nor depth” of adversity; “nor angels” of evil; “nor principalities” of darkness; “shall be able to separate us from the p. 218love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.” “God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea—though the waters thereof roar and be troubled—though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.” This is the language of strong faith in the peace of Christ. How is it with you amid such turmoil and commotion? Is all peaceful within? Do you feel secure in the name of the Lord, as in a strong fortress—as in a city well supplied and defended?
“There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most high. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved. God shall help her, and that right early.” “Unto the upright, there ariseth light in the darkness.” The bright and morning star, shining upon their pathway, cheers them in their journey home to their Father’s house. And when they come to pass over Jordan, the Sun of Righteousness shall have risen upon them, with healing in his wings. Already they see the tops of the mountains of immortality, gilded with his beams, beyond the valley of the shadow of death. Behold, yonder, old Simeon hoisting his sails, and saying—“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” Such is the peace of Jesus, sealed to all them that believe, by the blood of his cross.
When we walk through the field of battle, slippery with blood, and strewn with the bodies of the slain—when we hear the shrieks and the groans of the wounded and the dying—when we see the country wasted, cities burned, houses pillaged, widows and orphans wailing in the track of the victorious army, we cannot help exclaiming—O, what a blessing is peace! When we are obliged to witness family turmoils and strifes—when we see parents and children, brothers and sisters, masters and servants, husbands and wives, contending with each other like tigers—we retire as from a smoky house, and exclaim as we go—O, what a blessing is peace! When duty calls us into that church, where envy and malice prevail, and the spirit of harmony is supplanted by discord and contention—when we see brethren, who ought to be bound together in love, full of pride, hatred, confusion, and every evil work—we quit the unhallowed scene with painful feelings of repulsion, repeating the exclamation—O, what a blessing is peace!
p. 219But how much more precious in the case of the awakened sinner! See him standing, terror-stricken, before mount Sinai. Thunders roll above him—lightnings flash around him—the earth trembles beneath him, as if ready to open her mouth and swallow him up. The sound of the trumpet rings through his soul—“Guilty! guilty! guilty!” Pale and trembling, he looks eagerly around him, and sees nothing but revelations of wrath. Overwhelmed with fear and dismay, he cries out—“O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me! What shall I do?” A voice reaches his ear—penetrates his heart—“Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!” He turns his eyes to Calvary. Wonderous vision! Emmanuel expiring upon the cross! the sinner’s Substitute satisfying the demand of the law against the sinner! Now all his fears are hushed, and rivers of peace flow into his soul. This is the peace of Christ.
How precious is this peace, amid all the dark vicissitudes of life! How invaluable this jewel, through all the dangers of the wilderness! How cheering to know that Jesus, who hath loved us even unto death, is the pilot of our perilous voyage; that he rules the winds and the waves, and can hush them to silence at his will, and bring the frailest bark of faith to the desired haven! Trusting where he cannot trace his Master’s footsteps, the disciple is joyful amid the darkest dispensations of Divine Providence; turning all his sorrows into songs, and all his tribulations into triumphs. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.”
II. The victory of Christ over the world, the source of comfort and joy to believers. “In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
The world is the great castle of Belial, containing three temples; “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life;” in one or another of which every unconverted soul is a worshipper. But Jesus has demolished that castle, and abolished the service of its several temples.
The world has two modes of warfare. Sometimes it puts on the apparent mildness of a lamb, and allures to destruction with the song of a siren. Again it leaps upon its prey like an angry lion, or pursues its victim like an exasperated dragon. Its frown has destroyed thousands; its smile, tens of thousands.
p. 220A certain man has laid it down as a rule, that all must take the world as it is. But all general rules have their exceptions. Christ is the exception here. Christ conquered the world. The Prince of this world met him in the wilderness, when he was alone, in poverty and distress—weary, hungry, and thirsty—and offered him all the kingdoms of the world, for which have been fought so many battles. But Jesus refused the offer; choosing rather to be poor, that we might be made rich. He detected the lion in his affectation of the lamb, and stripped from the angel of darkness his garment of light.
Then the enemy assumed another aspect—assailed him with the rage of a wild beast, and the malice of a fiend. No sooner had he preached his first sermon, than there was an attempt to hurl him down the precipice. “The archers sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him.” Judea became to him a mountain of leopards, and humanity seemed infernalized. He was stigmatized as a hypocrite—an impostor—a demoniac. He was falsely accused before rulers, and insult was added to perjury. “But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.” “He was tempted in all things like as we are, yet without sin.” “He did no iniquity, neither was guile found in his mouth.” He went through the wilderness without contracting any of its defilement.
But this was comparatively a small part of his victory. A more glorious conquest of the world was achieved by his death upon the cross, and his resurrection from the grave. It is here we behold him “glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength,” trampling the hosts of hell, till his raiment is red with blood. It is here we behold him “spoiling principalities and powers, and making a show of them openly—triumphing over them” in his atonement. It is here we behold the Prince of this world cast out and judged. The Prince of Peace has broken his sceptre, demolished his throne, and established upon the ruins of his empire an everlasting kingdom of grace.
Caiaphas rejoiced that Christ was under the king’s seal in the grave; but his unholy joy was brief as “the crackling of thorns under a pot.” At the dawning of the third day, Cæsar’s seal is broken, the stone rolled away, the tomb deserted of its occupant, Caiaphas’ feast of joy turned to lamentation and mourning, and the p. 221eternal power and Godhead of him whom they crucified engraved for ever on the rent rocks of Calvary.
Alexander conquered the world, but did not live to enjoy the fruits of his victory. But the Captain of our salvation, though he was dead, is alive for evermore. He shall prosecute his conquests, and put all enemies under his feet, and retain his dominion for ever. “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied.” He lives to confer upon his people the riches which he procured for them by his death. He lives to defend his redeemed, and draw all men unto himself. He lives to perpetuate in the church the peace which he bequeathed to her in his last will and testament.
A servant of Julian the Apostate asked one of the martyrs—“What is thy God, the carpenter, doing now in heaven?” He answered—“Making a coffin for thy master!” Julian was soon afterward mortally wounded by an arrow from one of the Scythians. When he was expiring, he waved his hand sorrowfully, and exclaimed—“O Galilean, thou hast conquered!”
“Be of good cheer,” therefore, ye trembling disciples! Christ has vanquished all your enemies. Ye are more than conquerors, through him that loved you, and gave himself for you. “In those things wherein they were proud, he was above them.” When Pharaoh exulted to overtake Israel, shut in between Pi-hahiroth and Baal-zephon, with the sea before them, Jehovah was higher than the Egyptian. His sight was clearer—his arm was stronger—his purpose was firmer. He said to his people—“Stand still! you are not able to raise this rampart. I must do it for you. I will divide the sea, and lead you through on dry land, and drown those who have drowned so many of your infants. Every one of them shall perish, from the king to the last footman.” Thus the Prince of Peace has triumphed over your foes, and you may conquer through faith in his conquest. “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”
John in the Apocalypse saw the army of the victors—a great multitude, out of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues—standing before the throne, and before the Lamb; clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and crying with a loud voice—“Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb!” And one of the elders asked him—“Who are p. 222these, and whence came they?” But so wonderfully were they changed, since he saw them on earth—in exile, in prison, in torture and death—that he confessed he knew them not. Then answered the elder—“These are they that came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
Thus, ye saints, shall you “overcome by the blood of the Lamb;” “for greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world;” and your sorrows shall be lost in unspeakable joy, and your disgrace in eternal glory!
Christmas Evans