Spurgeon: August PM
* 08/11/PM
"Everlasting consolation."
--2 Thessalonians 2:16
"Consolation." There is music in the word: like David's harp,
it charms away the evil spirit of melancholy. It was a
distinguished honour to Barnabas to be called "the son of
consolation"; nay, it is one of the illustrious names of a
greater than Barnabas, for the Lord Jesus is "the consolation of
Israel." " Everlasting consolation"--here is the cream of all,
for the eternity of comfort is the crown and glory of it. What
is this "everlasting consolation"? It includes a sense of
pardoned sin. A Christian man has received in his heart the
witness of the Spirit that his iniquities are put away like a
cloud, and his transgressions like a thick cloud. If sin be
pardoned, is not that an everlasting consolation? Next, the Lord
gives His people an abiding sense of acceptance in Christ. The
Christian knows that God looks upon him as standing in union
with Jesus. Union to the risen Lord is a consolation of the most
abiding order; it is, in fact, everlasting. Let sickness
prostrate us, have we not seen hundreds of believers as happy in
the weakness of disease as they would have been in the strength
of hale and blooming health? Let death's arrows pierce us to
the heart, our comfort dies not, for have not our ears full
often heard the songs of saints as they have rejoiced because
the living love of God was shed abroad in their hearts in dying
moments? Yes, a sense of acceptance in the Beloved is an
everlasting consolation. Moreover, the Christian has a
conviction of his security. God has promised to save those who
trust in Christ: the Christian does trust in Christ, and he
believes that God will be as good as His word, and will save
him. He feels that he is safe by virtue of his being bound up
with the person and work of Jesus.