THE JOY OF SUFFERING
by Dr. M. R. DeHaan silence the devil, to glorify God, to make us like Jesus, to strengthen our faith, to purify our lives, to teach us patience, and to make us sympathetic, as well as to sepa rate us from the world. In this message we want to add a few more, although we realize that the list is inex haustible, the benefits that are derived from being chas tened of the Lord are truly without number. However, there is one that must needs be mentioned in this con nection. TO MAKE US AND KEEP US HUMBLE God wants His children humble. It was pride that caused the Devil to sin, it was pride that caused our first parents to fall. God hates pride. He exalts the humble, and so one of the purposes that must never be forgotten for which God places us in the fires of tribulation and test ing is that we may learn the most important and indis pensable lesson of Christian growth, namely humility. Probably the best example of this to be found in Scrip ture is the example of the apostle Paul himself. From the writings of Paul we notice that he was afflicted with some sort of a physical malady which he called a “ thorn in the flesh.” Many have been the guesses as to the nature of this malady and this weakness. Some have supposed that Paul had “ opthalmia” as a result of the blinding vision on the day of his conversion. Others be lieve that he was a hunch-back; some believe that he had an impediment of speech; still others would point qut that Paul was afflicted with malaria. We are not going to spend time in trying to determine which one of these is correct. We are interested rather in the rea son why the Lord permitted this fruitful servant of the Lord to suffer throughout the days of his whole life with this “ thorn in the flesh.” Now turning to Paul’s own account in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 12, Paul tells us that at a certain point in his Christian experience he had been caught up into Paradise, into the third heaven, and there he had received directly from God a revelation which had not been made known unto any other. Now this was a wonderful experience, but Paul who was the last one to claim perfection, and who recognized the fact that in him, that is in his flesh, there dwelt no good thing, knew that such an experience might easily be perverted to become the basis of vain glory and fleshly pride, and so he tells us in 2nd Corinthians 12:7: “And lest 1 should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the mes senger of Satan to buffet me, lest l should be ex alted above measure. “ For this thing l besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. THE KING 'S BUSINESS
I n t a k in g u p the matter of the ministry of suffering, we are to remember one primary, basic principle which ought never to be forgotten. It is pimply this — “whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.” If we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, we may expect that He is going to take an interest in our welfare, and since His purpose is to make us like unto Himself and to bring out of every believer the very best in fruitfulness and in service. He extends much labor upon us in order that we may become that which He desires. In Romans 8:28 we read: “ And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom He did foreknow, he also did predesti nate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren.” Romans 8:28-29. I have quoted both verses 28 and 29 because I believe that they are inseparable twins. God has placed these two verses together, and what God hath joined together let not man put asunder. Most Christians are familiar with Romans 8:28. Very few indeed would be able to quote the next verse, 29. However, Romans 8:28, without the next verse, is in complete. Romans 8:28 tells us that all things work together for good to those that love God, but the follow ing verse gives us the reason why God does extend his work and labor upon us. Whom He did foreknow He predestinated to become like His Son, Jesus Christ. When we realize how unlike His Son, Jesus Christ, most of us still are, we begin to recognize the necessity of much labor and much work and much toil in order to accomplish this purpose. In another passage of Scripture God says that He will not “withhold any good thing from them that walk uprightly before Him,” and if, in the providence of God, the best thing for us is trouble and tribulation and suffering, we must believe that a loving God will not withhold even that in order to make us what we ought to be. So remember, before we take up a number of other reasons why Christians suffer, that the normal path of the believer is one of tribulation, and Paul tells us that we must “ through much tribulation enter into the kingdom,” and so we may lay it down as a rule that if we do not suffer trouble and tribulation and persecution, it is because we either do not belong to the Lord, or we are worthless from the standpoint of fruit and service. Let us never forget, “whom the Lord loveth, He chas teneth.” In our past messages we have seen some of the pur poses for which God permits or sends upon us troubles and tribulation. Some of these we mentioned were fo
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