Prayer Meeting 13/6/2023

The Servant In Battle - Part 3

Hebrews 11:24-25

Well we started on another work by the puritan Jeremiah Burroughs two prayer and devotion meetings ago, in which we will have four parts to. This time from his extensive exposition is from one verse in Hebrews 11, Burroughs’ work is utterly compelling, challenging, as well as equipping. The man just has a gift of delving into the human condition. To date he is only second to Johnathan Edwards. 

The work is written in a seven hundred page book. The book is called ‘Moses’ choice’. Of course we can’t cover all the book in four weeks. But I have picked out certain parts so as to give us at least a broad overview.

Let me read the previous verse also:

Hebrews 11:24-25

²⁴By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,”

Before we go into the verse again, for the third time let’s start, as always, with a puritan prayer. We don’t usually do this, as I said, but I’m going to share the same prayer throughout this four part series, from the ‘Valley Of Vision’, it’s on page 328 of the little leather version, and page 181 of the paperback. As I said last time, it is one of the best prayers I’ve ever read, and so fitting for the subject at hand, that you could have a good argument that Burroughs wrote it:

O Lord, I bless thee that the issue of the battle between thyself and Satan has never been uncertain, and will end in victory. Calvary broke the dragon's head, and I contend with a vanquished foe, who with all his subtlety and strength has already been overcome. When I feel the serpent at my heel may I remember him whose heel was bruised, but who, when bruised, broke the devil's head. My soul with inward joy extols the mighty conqueror. Heal me of any wounds received in the great conflict; if I have gathered defilement, if my faith has suffered damage, if my hope is less than bright, if my love is not fervent, if some creature-comfort occupies my heart, if my soul sinks under pressure of the fight. O thou whose every promise balm, every touch Life, draw near to thy weary warrior, refresh me, that I may rise again to wage the strife, and never tire until my enemy is trodden down. Give me such fellowship with thee that may defy Satan, unbelief, the flesh, the world, with delight that comes not from a creature, and which a creature cannot mar. Give me a draught of the eternal fountain that lieth in thy immutable, everlasting love and decree. Then shall my hand never weaken, my feet never stumble, my sword never rest, my shield never rust, my helmet never shatter, breastplate never fall, as my strength rests in the power of thy might.

Burroughs points out from the first chapter of 58 chapters that Moses never chose sin absolutely but ‘rather than the pleasure of sin, afflictions are to be chosen’.

Okay, rather than go over the last two meeting’s material, which we all have access to via our website, where you have a direct link to the notes from the sermon. As its 53 chapters, we simply can’t cover it all. The first week we had a whistle stop walk through the first five chapters. Then last time we dwelt on chapters 10-11. Therefore let me move forward to another chapter, where Burroughs shares about how we can endure affliction.

In chapter 25 to 27 Burroughs shares with the reader how we can endure affliction. I will cover only some content from chapter 25, which Burroughs has entitled ‘Whatever Is But For A Season Cannot Satisfy A Gracious Heart’. By a ‘gracious heart’, Burroughs is referring to a heart that was made for God i.e. a predestined heart; a saved soul. Burroughs puts it another way:

Nothing but that which is eternal can satisfy a gracious heart.

How true is this? Nothing that is current, that is ‘present’, as Burroughs calls it, satisfies our soul. The soul of people cannot ever find any satisfaction. Alistair Begg, in quoting the Rolling Stones song: ‘and I tried, and I tried, and I tried, but I can’t get no satisfaction.’ So many fight pain and affliction by trying to hold onto and be satisfied by temporary things.

The woman at the well was in a perpetual cycle of looking for satisfaction in temporal things in order to combat her loneliness and inadequacy. The drug addict needs something temporal to alleviate the pain of dealing with life without an anaesthetic. The co-dependant needs their dependant to be happy and okay. 

Yet we see a perfect picture of Christ on the cross enduring such pain, and refusing the pain aiding gall, because He had His mind on the prize. 

Burroughs writes:

But when it comes to know the things of eternity, the heart is greatened, and all temporal things are but small to the soul.

Over the years I’ve seen countless people look to man as a means of satisfaction. They just can’t stop yearning for love and acceptance from man. Yet when that same person, when they come to believe, when they then do set their mind on the things above, they need not man, but they begin to serve man from a heart of freedom.

Looking at the woman at the well again:

John 4:25-27

25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” 27 And at this point His disciples came, and they marvelled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”

This is the shift here in the nest verses. She has instantly moved from the temporal to eternal:

John 4:28-30

28 The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 Then they went out of the city and came to Him.

She no longer needs to find satisfaction from man, but is driven to lead these men to Jesus. She now has, as Burroughs says:

An eternal principle within it that works the heart beyond things for a season.

Her heart is no longer satisfied in the temporal but in the eternal. And when the heart needs, nor looks not to the temporal, then we shift from needing to giving. There is no greater time in the life of people, when they are at their most needy, than when they are starving for the temporal things that the world and man can give them.

When the Israelites where in the wilderness, God provided in a way, temporal things, yes - it was manna, but it was but only to sustain them in their walk to the promised land. Yet what did they do? They camped there, demanding better temporal things.

So often I see believers camping in the temporal, waiting on more love, more satisfaction, more pain relief, while truly if they just kept walking towards the promised land i.e. set their mind on God’s promises and eternity, they would not be so starved of spiritual nourishment.

Listen, if you’re not getting satisfaction from man, or the world it’s not time to double down on trying to get it, it’s time to double down on the things above.

Burroughs goes on in chapter 25 and says something that needs a little unpacking. He says:

Now a gracious heart, makes an end of all things that are but for a season to be really present. If graces enables a man to make the things of God, and eternal things to be present, much more will grace in the heart make the end of all worldly things to be really present.

Okay, a bit of riddle it may read at first but it is truly profound. Burroughs is saying that if we make God present, then we will truly see how present and truly hopeless are the carnal things we think will satisfy and last forever.

The problem with the things of the world that we seek, is that we don’t get a true picture of the outcome, because we only measure them to our need, and not our spirit, which is in Christ. Therefore we see not the folly of them as we pursue them, else we would stop seeking them.

Its only when God is truly present and we are in communion with Him, that we see clearly that which is utterly temporal.

You may ask: why do I keep ‘returning to the vomit’ (Proverbs 26:11)? It’s because you have not, and are not tasting and seeing that God is good, that you somehow can’t see its going to make you sick once more.

It’s when present with God we see, as Burroughs says:

The vanity of them, and cry out of them, and say they will not satisfy.

He adds:

Yes we will not only see the vanity of them, but in some respect see the greater misery of them.

Burroughs last point in chapter 25 ‘Whatever is but for a season cannot satisfy a gracious heart’. This talks of the special ingredient that temporal things lack, in order to satisfy us.

Burroughs writes:

That special ingredient unto satisfaction is security.

Augustine says:

The soul cannot enjoy anything freely with satisfaction unless it can enjoy it with security.

There is but no security in seeking carnal things, there is but little to hold onto that makes us secure. In fact, it makes us way more insecure, because it is so fleeting and can’t be sustained. That in itself is what causes such tension. That in itself is what makes it so futile, that in itself is what makes people’s obsessions become unmanageable, because it leads not to more security at all.

Burroughs concludes with a question to the reader:

What are you?... …Temporal or eternal?

If you’re saved by grace, then your answer has to be ‘eternal’. And if its eternal Burroughs writes:

My happiness is not here. I must look higher. 

And if you do not have Christ as Lord of your life, Burroughs has this to say to all who are not saved:

I am lost forever if I do not look higher than these things.

So our cry to all who are lost must be: please look higher than the things you seek, lest you be unsatisfied, and lost forever. The things of the world will not sustain you. Nor will they satisfy you. Yet you will not see that clearly without the presence of God.

Sometimes we tell people who are lost how lost they are, rather than show them who they need to find - who will lead them to, as the woman at the well said, ‘to all truth’.

Okay, well we must close with the next four consolations, or blessings. If there were not any promises for what we endure, or suffer for righteousness sake it would be utterly unsatisfactory. However, Burroughs in chapter 35 tells us 16 consolations, promises. It would not be the heart of God if we suffered in vain.

And as the title says in chapter 35, that ‘our sufferings are Christs sufferings’, which tells us from the offset that deeper communion with Christ is for sure going to be a result of true affliction.

Before Burroughs starts the list he wrote:

If the reproaches and sufferings are the reproaches of Christ, Christ is engaged in them more than you. 

I have shared consolations 1-8 over the first two parts of this series. Tonight, as I close, I will share the next four. And as we close this series next time I will share the final four.

The 9th consolation to suffering is:

Ninth:

It may be comforting that your names shall be vindicated. Your names are as dear to Christ as his own. 

When we suffer for righteousness sake, there will come a time when Christ Himself will defend you, as if He was defending Himself. What a thought, what a promise. However, if you’re like me when I read that, my thought was this: ‘if Christ was to vindicate me as if His name was mine, then oh my, surely I must make it my devotion to walk worthy of His name, in order to merit His vindication’.

Ask yourself this: is there anything you do that you are utterly ashamed of Christ defending you as if it was Him? He has already done that, on the cross, let’s not keep nailing our sins on Him, as if we are innocent and Him guilty. Surely it calls for us to crucify our own flesh, and wait on the promise.

Yet even so in the tenth consolation Christ just keeps giving…

Tenth:

If our reproaches are Christ’s reproaches, and Christ is content to own our reproaches, surely he will not leave us to take our sins upon ourselves.

Even in our weakness and failings Christ comes alongside and still carries them. He doesn’t just take our sufferings but also our sins.

Eleventh:

If Christ will own our reproaches, then he will own our service.

Burroughs says:

Christ will own our active obedience as well as our passive obedience.

Oh my goodness, He even works on our behalf in passiveness. Therefore we must not fear when we cry out: ‘Lord Jesus, help me in my weakness, please Lord take it as Yours I cannot do this on my own’. 

Yes, you can cry that prayer out, and as Burroughs wonderfully says:

Though we may stain the work of God’s grace by our sin, yet Christ who is so indulgent to take our reproaches, will surely own our service.

Lastly…

Twelfth:

That we can be assured there will come good of them… …there is blessing in our sufferings.

Thomas Watson, in his wonderful book ‘All Things For Good’ writes:

God is our everlasting father. He was our father from eternity; before we were children, God was our father, and he will be our father for eternity. A father provides for his children while he lives; but the father dies and then that child may be exposed to injury. But God never ceases to be a father. You who are a believer, have a father that never dies; And if God be your father, you can never be undone. All things therefore must work for your good.

If we perish, Christ perishes with us, if we struggle it is His struggle, and as Luther says in writing to Philip Melanchthon:

If we fall Christ falls.

Because in our affliction, our battles, our pains, our sorrows, our struggles, our weakness, His promise is to never leave us nor forsake us. Let us therefore in all things look up, look to Him. He is willing and able, and it will surely satisfy.

In the midst of loss and hopelessness, and weakness and temptation - just like the woman at the well, Jesus says to us “I am He”, your search is over. 

Amen.