16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.” (2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 (ESV)
A SERMON DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON ON THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 15, 1888.
THE Thessalonians had been a good deal fluttered by certain persons who had said that the coming of the Lord was immediately at hand. Paul therefore bade them be steadfast, and not be worried and perplexed by any such teaching, and then he presented this prayer to God for them, that they might have these two things, comfort and constancy, that God would comfort their hearts, and establish them “in every good word and work.” It is a very blessed and comprehensive prayer, and while we are thinking of it, let us be praying it for ourselves, and for one another, that the Lord may comfort our hearts, and establish us “in every good word and work.”
The first inquiry to be answered is this, WHY IS THERE THE CONJUNCTION OF THESE TWO THINGS IN THIS REMARKABLE PRAYER? Why is it put thus, “Our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father…comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work”? I answer, first, the two things, comfort and constancy, are put together because comfort by itself is not enough.
We do not desire first and above all things that Christians should have comfort. It is a very great privilege to be comforted, especially by the Comforter, for such comfort is sound, and safe, and holy, but at the same time, they err who think that the first and chief reason for knowing God is that you may feel comforted and happy. I fear that there are many who are under that notion. They expect every sermon to comfort them, otherwise they think it is a wasted opportunity. Even when they are alone in prayer, their chief thought is that they want to be comforted by their own devotion.
But sometimes, rebuke is better than comfort, and spiritual quickening, and especially true sanctification, are more greatly to be valued than any measure of comfort whatsoever. If we were to confine ourselves to prayer for the Lord only to comfort His people, we should have a very imperfect form of intercession. No, it needs that we should not only be comforted by our religion, but that we should be led by it into holy activity, so as to abound in every good word and work, and be established therein.
I give another answer to the question. Why is there this conjunction between comfort and constancy? Because establishment in every good word and work is not enough if it is alone. We need to be comforted as well as to serve the Lord.
Our God is not like Pharaoh, who would not give to the children of Israel even a day in which they might have rest, and worship God. Pharaoh said, “Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let (or hinder) the people from their works? Get you unto your burdens,” but God does not speak so to us. The service which His children render to Him is quite compatible with rest. We are like certain birds that are said to rest on the wing, we never have a better rest than when every faculty is occupied in the service of our Lord. But work by itself, establishment in every good word and work alone, might tend to weariness, we might be jaded, if God did not minister to us divine consolation while we served Him.
Moreover, I am sure that we should never do the work well if God did not comfort us, for unhappy workers, those who do not love their work, and are not at home in it, those who feel no comfort of religion themselves, are generally very poor and unsuccessful workers.
The second blessing mentioned in our text is certainly a very necessary one, this establishing in every good word and work, but you also need the first one, that God may, “comfort your hearts.” When you get the two together, when you are up to your necks in holy service, and up to your hearts in divine comfort, then these two things cause you not to be barren or unfruitful, and at the same time they help you not to be weary in well-doing. You are made to be “steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,” because you are comforted with the belief that “your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” I see those two reasons for the conjunction of comfort and constancy in the text, first, because comfort alone is not sufficient, and secondly, because constancy without comfort will not suffice us.
And next, dear friends, it is because the comfort of the heart aids in the establishment of the soul in service. They are put together because the one helps the other. May the Lord “comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work!” He that is happy in the Lord will persevere in the service of the Lord. He that derives real support and comfort from his religion is the man who will not backslide from it.
I notice that it is usually thus with those who decline, they first of all lose the comfort and joy of religion, they have not the brightness and delight that they once had in the things of God, and then, of course, they drop first this particular service, and then the other, they begin to absent themselves from the means of grace, prayer meetings, and so forth, because they miss what is so material a stay to the establishment of their minds, that is, the comfort, and joy, and peace that true religion used to bring them.
Whenever you are not happy in the Lord, I urge you not to rest until you become so. It is no small evil to get out of the sunlight of God’s countenance. A dear child will not say, “If my father is angry with me, it does not matter, he will not kill me, I shall always be his child.” No, just in proportion as he enjoys his father’s love, it will be painful to him to come in the least degree under his father’s displeasure, and he will cry out to be fully restored, and to have again from those dear lips the kiss of forgiveness that will put away all his offenses.
So, dear friends, do believe that your lack of comfort is an evil thing, which may lead to your loss of industry and perseverance in the cause of your Lord. If your heart be not comforted of God, you are not likely to be “stablished in every good word and work.”
More to come. May the Lord’s truth and grace be found here. Have a blessed day in the Lord.
Soli deo Gloria!
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