ENCOURAGEMENT

2 Corinthians 1: 3-7

Romans 15: 4, 5

Hebrews 3: 12, 13

1 Thessalonians 4: 15-18; 5: 10, 11

It will be obvious from these scriptures that the idea of encouragement is in mind. It is something which we always need—to be encouraged, encouraged of God. It says He is “the God of all encouragement”. How able He is to do it! Paul speaks elsewhere about the God who encourages those who are brought low. He has His own way of doing that. He does not encourage us in our ambitions in the flesh; Paul says He encourages those who are brought low (see 2 Cor 7: 6)—brought low, but never too low. God is always ready with encouragement; even from the outset when He met Adam after the fall. He did not say only, Where art thou? He did not only speak to his conscience but He also made coats of skin. When He spoke to Cain He said a sin-offering lies at the door, God would never leave a soul in despair, never. He would never leave a soul overwhelmed by its state, He is the God of all encouragement.

I would like to speak of it in the different ways in which it comes into these scriptures. Here in the first scripture it is Paul speaking of his sufferings. As you read this passage, he almost says that the sufferings were worthwhile because of the encouragement that God brought in; that is virtually what he says. I do not know that many of us could speak like that, but that is how Paul is speaking. In chapter 4 he speaks about some of these sufferings: in one of them he says “persecuted, but not abandoned; cast down, but not destroyed”, v 9. There is always encouragement, our way not entirely shut up. What sufferings there were, and Paul was going on from this scripture to be a prisoner, I suppose; but here he is speaking about these times that he had passed through, and he says what a result there was: the “God of all encouragement; who encourages us in all our tribulation”—“in all our tribulation”. What times we are in, times of reduction! I think times of reduction are particularly meant to make way for God to encourage us, to encourage us in Himself. God is very ready to do it. You think of Gideon—he was brought low, he was in the midst of the breakdown, and he says, Where are all these things our fathers spoke about? Where are all the big meetings? It is the same God. Gideon could hardly take it in. When God speaks to him, Gideon says, There is the fleece; if the fleece is wet, I will be encouraged, and he began to doubt again and said if the fleece is dry, I will be encouraged. Well, God comes down to all these matters. He is ready to encourage us. He came down to Abraham’s way of thinking; it says, having no greater to swear by He swore by Himself. He is ready to encourage the believer in the path of faith. Doubts there may be in your heart, exercises and questions about matters; God would seek to beget your confidence through encouraging you, encouraging you to trust in Him, to have faith in Him.

So the tribulations did not overwhelm Paul. Paul and Silas were in prison. What a great encouragement that earthquake was, the doors of the prison opened! I suppose the greatest encouragement was in the jailor, a man and his house saved for the testimony. Think of God working through these tribulations of Paul, what power it gave to his ministry! He speaks about it here: “through the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged of God”. None of us could, I suppose, speak about it like Paul, but he is speaking about it himself and he would seem to be encouraging the Corinthians into what he is saying, that, “even as the sufferings of the Christ abound towards us”—that was particularly the apostle, I suppose—“so through the Christ does our encouragement also abound”. They were commensurate, indeed the encouragement was greater. We may think of the tribulations being greater, but Paul is saying that the encouragement also abounds, it is greater than the sufferings. What encouragement God is giving to His saints! While there is tribulation, it is all to affect us in bonds of sympathy, to affect us that we may be able to encourage one another. But in the sufferings, may we be helped, dear brethren, to look for the encouragement. The clouds, how heavy they may be, what clouds may come in and press upon us, but they are balanced—balanced. You look at these clouds up there, some days it looks all clouds, but they are balanced. It speaks about that in the Scriptures: He who balances the clouds, see Job 37: 16. The whole thing is balanced; there is encouragement. The clouds were a great encouragement to one man, he saw a cloud the size of a man’s hand and he says, Well, God is going to come in in a great time of rain, see 1 Kings 18: 44. So let us look for encouragement, dear brethren. May we be strengthened. Paul was never without looking for it. It speaks of a door of hope being opened to him; and in these sufferings that abounded in the apostle’s case it says, “so through the Christ does our encouragement also abound”. There is a blessed, glorious Man who has met every matter, met it in His death, met it in the way He has gone in His sufferings. He has taken the power out of the enemy’s hand; the enemy is ever ready to discourage, but Christ, in the way He has gone, has taken the power out of the enemy’s hand. Think of the ark in Dagon’s house, see 1 Sam 5. In the morning, what was there? The stump. They put it back up thinking there had been an accident, I suppose; next morning the whole thing has crashed again—the God of all encouragement.

What encouragement it must have been to these saints, as it was to Gideon in his exercises, that God is greater; God is greater than the surroundings, He is greater than the pressure. But then He may be in the pressure, He may be in the sufferings to give us to prove the encouragement, “encouragement of God”—“through the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged of God”. And it abounds through Christ, that blessed glorious Man, the triumphant One. May our hearts be strengthened in Him in His priestly grace, but encouraged in the place that He fills, the place that He fills under God’s eye, the One as to whom it says, “For whatever promises of God there are, in him is the yea, and in him the amen” (2 Cor 1: 20)—whatever the promises of God. Men say, Where is the promise of His coming? Where is the promise? These thoughts may not be outside our own hearts— Where is the promise? Well, it says, they are all in Him, He is the yea and the amen, the assurance of them all is in Christ, Christ in glory. But then that is to be in my heart, as the apostle says, it is to be for your encouragement. What an encouragement he must have been! Think of a man bound with a chain, somebody going to visit him would come away encouraged. Paul says that he was encouraged. I think that those who visited Paul in prison were encouraged. You say, What encouragement was that? The great vessel of the testimony was in prison not able to visit all these localities which he loved; bound with a chain, restricted, and yet he says he had been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. He said that from the prison; beautiful things you would have heard from Paul in prison, we have some of them in the Scriptures. So he was able to encourage, encourage those who would visit him. May we be helped, dear brethren, in some measure, as having proved the encouragement that flows from Christ, to be an encouragement to one another. It is something that is open to everyone. Christ is available to encourage you, as He would, as He does about our exercises, and He would have it that you may be an encouragement. Would that that desire was in all our hearts, the very youngest, to be an encouragement to the brethren. Some people have been discouraged, and we would have to feel a sense of shame that we may have discouraged some. I do not say that to lighten their responsibility because they each have their responsibility to be encouraged as we have spoken about, but there have been matters that have discouraged some; we should feel the shame of that. Paul would never be a discouragement to anybody. He wrote the first epistle but he did not discourage them and he told them what had to be told. He spoke to them about what they had done wrong, but he did not discourage them: interwoven through these corrective epistles there is the glory of Christ. Think of Paul writing to the Corinthians from that point of view, that Christ “has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption”, 1 Cor 1: 3. He closes the epistle by speaking about the grace of Christ—“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen”, 1 Cor 16: 24. Paul had confidence in the work of God, and that is what we want to encourage, dear brethren, the work of God in one another. Paul’s assurance here was that the work of God would prevail in the saints. There may be other matters, those that need to be attended to, but in it all there is to be the encouragement of the work of God. We are not all in the same depths of sufferings at one time, the clouds are balanced—matchless grace! And there is encouragement abounding from Christ, through the saints, for the encouragement of the saints.

Well, in Romans it speaks about the “encouragement of the scriptures”. The Scriptures themselves are a great encouragement. No book has been more maligned, no book more set against by the devil than the Holy Scriptures, and here they are in their blessed purity in our hands today— “encouragement of the scriptures”. God has seen to it that they are available to be read for our encouragement. To get the encouragement of the Scriptures you would have to read them. It says, “For as many things as have been written before have been written for our instruction, that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope”. I commend it to you, dear brethren; it is a very real matter. Many have proved in the midst of pressures that the Scriptures have their own encouragement. “And when ye turn to the right hand or when ye turn to the left, thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it” (Isa 30: 21)—just a verse of scripture brings its own encouragement. The encouragement of the Scriptures is even greater than reading ministry, but, as I say, you have to make way for them, read them, read them often, read them copiously, because a great deal of the encouragement of scripture comes through the setting in which it is. So that we do not just read a verse but read them copiously and see what God is saying. Daniel was a captive, a young man, who proved the encouragement of the Scriptures. It says in the midst of one of his great exercises that he understood by the books. There he was, shut away far from Jerusalem; I suppose he wondered if he would ever see it. He felt the breakdown but he was reading—I suppose it would be the Scriptures—and it says, “I Daniel understood by the books that the number of the years ... was seventy years”, Dan 9: 2. What a ray of hope came into his soul: things are not going to be always like this; there is the encouragement of the Scriptures! He understood by what he read, and the Spirit of God giving His own touch to the Scriptures, that God had everything in hand. The book of Daniel finishes: “But do thou go thy way until the end; and thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days”, chap 12: 13. I think he is a very striking example to us of the encouragement of the Scriptures. There are other prophets too. They did not have much in the captivity to guide them, but there was the encouragement of God’s word. May we, dear brethren, prove it, that through endurance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope, that we might see that the Scriptures are all leading us on to another day, from the very outset of Genesis they are leading on to Christ and the saints in glory. So you need to read them through, not just one verse, but you need to see the bearing of Scripture, that it is leading on to finality. As you read Scripture more you see how God has everything in hand. Man’s days are measured; what arrogance and pride mark him! But God has it all in hand—“through encouragement of the scriptures” we can see that, though man will have his day, the end will be Christ’s day and the saints with Him. It says, “we might have hope”. “Now the God of endurance and of encouragement give you to be like-minded one toward another”. There is a great deal that crops up and hinders through dissatisfaction; it spreads very quickly. That would perhaps come more into Hebrews; dissatisfaction and complaining gives room to the devil. We need to encourage ourselves, dear brethren, not only depend on one another. The psalmist says, “Why art thou cast down, my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?” Ps 42: 11. Do you ever say that to yourself? Why are you cast down? Why? What is the reason for it? Dissatisfaction leads to a great deal of murmuring, discontent, sorrow. This chapter speaks about it, the discontent that marked the people. The writer of this chapter says, “see, brethren, lest there be in any one of you a wicked heart of unbelief ... But encourage yourselves each day”. We need to have faith. God would encourage and stimulate faith in the believer so that you are able to encourage yourselves. Just look at your history: is there not a great deal to be encouraged about? The God who took you up, His own sovereign choice, God moving of Himself in His own sovereign ways in selecting you; He is not going to let you down. He is not going to give up. He called us in His grace. Oh, what there is to encourage ourselves about, dear brethren! “But encourage yourselves each day”—something you have to keep at. Dissatisfaction spreads very quickly, it is like a weed, it grows very quickly—“encourage yourselves each day, as long as it is called To-day”. Do not go to bed without being encouraged, finish the day with Christ, encourage yourselves each day, “as long as it is called To day”—To-day. It is measured, you see—twenty-four hours measures the day—but do not finish it without encouraging yourself; you will sleep better and you will wake up a great deal better too—encourage yourselves. There are a great many ways of doing it; read the ministry and go to the Scriptures, you will find something; God is ready to give you a touch of encouragement. Encourage yourself; you make way for it, you make time for God to bring in His encouragement, maybe through a letter, maybe through the word of another, but encourage yourself; do not let the day close without seeing that you have been with God about matters. God has a great deal to encourage you about. So encourage yourself each day so that you do not get hardened. If you go on in discouragement, the next day it builds up a great deal more; you become a discontent, a complainer, and these things give the enemy great advantage. So it says, “that none of you be hardened”. It is very easy, dear brethren, in pressure and in suffering to be hardened. The enemy is ever active to bring in hardness; encourage yourselves to-day “that none of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin”. Well, what a wealth there is Just to touch and prove the encouragement that comes from God!

Thessalonians speaks of the great hope that the saints have, speaking of the Lord’s soon return in this parenthesis. It says, “the Lord himself”: what an encouragement that is! Who else could do it? That same blessed Man who has annulled death has broken the power of it, “the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God”—what a Personage, but what a power is going to accompany Him! You think of the powers of evil that are working against the coming of Christ; think of Him meeting them all—“the Lord himself ... assembling shout ... archangel’s voice ... trump of God”—What majesty! The whole power of man, of the devil, sin, will have to give way. What is it all for? It is to raise the saints to be with Christ. The archangel’s voice, the trump of God: think of these things invading death; think of the assembling shout and archangel’s voice penetrating the realm of death and the tomb. Then “the dead in Christ shall rise first”; no power shall hold them, they are His, dear brethren, He is going to claim us all to be eternally with Himself, the dead in Christ all belong to Him and He knows them all. What a company they are, the dead in Christ! He will have them all, no power will hold them when the time comes; “the Lord himself”. Where then the discouragement, dear brethren? These things of time—pains, sorrow, sufferings—are all measured. There will be a time when we will be for ever with Him; it says, “to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall be always with the Lord”—

For ever with the Lord,

For ever like Him then,

We’ll see His face …              (Hymn No 12)

Oh, what an encouragement! Then it says, “So encourage one another with these words”. How much do you speak about it? Do you ever speak about it to persons who are in tribulation? What a thing to encourage yourself with and be able to encourage the brethren about, that we will soon be for ever, for ever, with the Lord. Before that it says that we shall meet Him in the air. You look up sometimes and you think about that, we will rise to meet the Lord in the air. What a distance He is coming; He is coming far further than we will travel when we meet Him; He is coming to meet us in the air, and He will take us to His own abode, to the place where He is supreme. We will have bodies of glory, it says; what a comfort to us in these bodies that we will have bodies of glory. What will they be like? We will be like Him—when we see Him we shall be like Him—“So encourage one another with these words”.

In the next chapter it says, “Wherefore encourage one another, and build up each one the other”. Paul, in the confidence he has in the work of God and in the saints, says these words, and I would close with them—“encourage one another ... even as also ye do”. May we do it more for His Name’s sake.

CROYDON

7^th May 1988