CONSOLATION IN THE FURNACE – Charles Spurgeon
CONSOLATION IN THE FURNACE
Introduction: The Example of Boldness and Deliverance
“He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt. And the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” Daniel 3:25.
The narrative of the glorious boldness and marvelous deliverance of the three holy children, or rather champions, is well-calculated to excite in the minds of believers firmness and steadfastness in upholding the truth of God in the face of tyranny and in the very jaws of death. Let young men, especially, since these were young men, learn from their example both in matters of faith in religion and matters of integrity in business. Never sacrifice your consciences. Lose all, rather than lose your integrity, and when all else is gone, still hold fast to a clear conscience, as the rarest jewel which can adorn the bosom of a mortal.
It would not be a waste of time for the preacher to spend several mornings in insisting again and again upon the necessity of the Christian being obedient universally and constantly to the dictates of his conscience, for this is an age requiring sturdy independence and stern adherence to the truth.
Adherence to Truth: A Call to Trust God in Loss
As to whether the most severe precision of integrity will turn out to be the best policy or not, I shall not care to dispute; I am speaking not to men guided by the will-o’-the-wisp of policy, but by the pole star of divine light, and I beseech them to follow the right at all hazards. When you see no present advantage, then, walk by faith and not by sight. I do pray you, beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ, honor God by trusting Him in matters of loss for the sake of principle. See whether He will be your debtor! See if He does not, even in this life, prove His Word, that “Godliness is great gain,” and that “they who seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, shall have all these things added unto them.”
The Reward of Integrity: God’s Promise of Comfort
Mark you, if in the providence of God, it should be the case that you are and continue to be a loser by conscience, you shall find that if the Lord does not pay you back in the silver of earthly prosperity, He will discharge His promise in the gold of spiritual joy. And I would have you remember that a man’s life consists not in the abundance of that which he possesses. To have a clear conscience, to wear a guileless spirit, and to have a heart void of offense is greater riches than the mines of Ophir could yield or the traffic of Tyre could win. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and inward contention. An ounce of heart’s ease is worth a ton of gold; and a drop of innocence is better than a sea of flattery. Burn, Christian, if it comes to that, but never turn from the right way! Die, but never deny the truth of God! Lose all to buy the truth of God, but sell it not, even though the price is the treasure and honor of the whole world, for, “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?”
The Consolation of the Furnace: A Comfort for the Afflicted Christian
But my particular design in referring to this narrative this morning was not to use the whole of it as an incentive to young Christians, though I confess I feel much inclined to do so. Instead, I have this one verse on my mind, where the astonished despot saw his late victims quietly surviving the flames, which he intended for their instant destruction. I desire to use his exclamation as a consolation to afflicted Christians everywhere. Concentrate, then, your thoughts on the words before us, and may the Holy Spirit be our instructor.
I. WHERE GOD’S PEOPLE OFTEN ARE
We will commence by gazing into the place where God’s people often are. In the text, we find three of them in a burning fiery furnace, and, singular as this may be literally, it is no extraordinary thing spiritually, for to tell the truth, it is the usual place where saints are found.
The Furnace of Affliction: A Commonplace for Christians
The ancients fabled of the salamander, that it lived in the fire; the same can be said of the Christian without any fable whatever. The ancient church, in a favorite metaphor, described itself as a ship; where would the ship be, but in the sea? Now the sea is an unstable element, frequently vexed with storms; it is a troubled sea which cannot rest. So the Christian finds this mortal life to be far from smooth and seldom settled. It is rather a wonder when a Christian is not in trial, for to wanderers in a wilderness, discomfort and need will naturally be the rule rather than the exception.
Trials as a Part of the Christian Life
It is through “much tribulation” that we inherit the kingdom of God. There is no life as joyous as that of a man bound for the Celestial City; and, on the other hand, there is no life which involves so much conflict as does the life of a pilgrim to the skies. The furnaces into which Christians are cast are of various sorts. Perhaps we may divide them into three groups.
The Furnace of Persecution: A Source of Pain
First, there is the furnace which men kindle. As if there were not enough misery in the world, men are the greatest tormentors of their fellow men. The elements in all their fury, wild beasts in all their ferocity, and famine and pestilence in all their horrors, have scarcely proved such foes to man as men themselves have been. Religious animosity is always the worst of all hatreds, and it incites to the most fiendish deeds; persecution is as unsparing as death, and as cruel as the grave. The believer in Jesus, who is one of a people everywhere spoken against, must expect to be thrown into the furnace of persecution by his fellow men.
“If the world hates you,” says our Lord, “it hated Me before it hated you.” “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” Some suppose that these words are out of date—old-fashioned words, words that refer only to apostolic times. I answer, you are out of the apostolic faith, or else you would painfully find them to be still standing in all their force.
The Furnace of Oppression and Slander
At times, the Christian feels the heat of the furnace of open persecution. What multitudes of saints have mounted to heaven like Elijah in a chariot of fire; their seraphic spirits found a safe way to heaven through the flames, for they were guarded by ministering spirits whom God has made as flames of fire. Thousands of the precious sons of Zion have been left to rot in dungeons, or have been slain upon the mountain side, or have perished in poverty and need. To this day, there are many who endure trials of cruel mocking and are made to bear the cross in various painful ways. For if any man will live godly in Christ Jesus, he must suffer persecution.
Slander: A Furnace for the Righteous
There is also the furnace of slander. The ripest of fruit will be pecked at most by the birds; those who have the most of God’s image will have the most of the world’s contempt. Expect not that the world shall speak well of you, for it never gave your Master a good word. “Shall the disciple be above his master, or the servant above his Lord?” Expect to be misunderstood—that is man’s infirmity; expect to be misrepresented—that is his willful hatred.
II. WHAT GOD’S PEOPLE LOSE IN THE FURNACE
Secondly, there is a furnace which Satan blows with three great bellows—some of you have been in it. It is hard to bear, for the prince of the power of the air has great mastery over human spirits; he knows our weak places, and can strike so as to cut us to the very quick. He fans the fire with the blast of temptation. The evil one knows our besetting sins, our infirmities of temper, and how we can be most readily provoked. He understands how to pick his bait to his fish and his trap to his bird.
The Loss of Self-Reliance: The Furnace of Temptation
At times, the most earnest Christian will be compelled to cry out, “My steps had well near gone; my feet had well near slipped.” The Savior went through this furnace in the wilderness, and was thrice tempted of the devil. And in the wilderness of this life, God’s people frequently experience temptations of the most horrible kind. Then he works the second bellows of accusation. He hisses into the ear, “Your sins have destroyed you; the Lord has quite forsaken you! Your God will be gracious no more!”
Temptation as a Furnace of Refining
He tells us that we are hypocrites, that our experience has been fancy, and that our faith is mere presumption; he tells us that our glorying has been a boast, and the very sins which, as a tempter, he himself incited us to commit, he brings against us when he assumes his favorite character of “the accuser of the brethren.” Unless we are graciously comforted under the attacks of the roaring lion, we shall be almost ready to give up all hope.
The Furnace of Affliction: Purification Through Pain
Then he will fill us with suggestions of blasphemy. For while tormenting us with insinuations, he has a way of uttering foul things against God, and then casting them into our hearts as if they were our own. He can sow the infernal seed of blasphemy in our souls and then tell us that these are the native plants of our own hearts. He lays his black offspring at our door as if they were our own home-born children.
III. WHAT SAINTS DO IN THE FURNACE
“Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire.” Walking! See those gardens so delightfully laid out with varying landscapes, rippling fountains, blushing flowers, and odoriferous herbs, with quiet arbors here and there, and soft reclining seats, where young men and maidens walk.
Walking in the Furnace: A Symbol of Peace
Now, look at this fair prospect—a blazing furnace, so fiercely heated that the eyes feel scorched just by looking at it. The fervent heat pours forth, as though old Sol had found a house on earth. Yet there are four men walking in that furnace—walking in their ease! And there is greater joy as they walk among those sulfuric flames, greater mirth in their spirits, than in those young men and maidens who walk among the flowers!
The Christian’s Pace: Walking with God in the Fire
They are walking—a symbol of joy, of ease, of peace, of rest—not flitting like unquiet ghosts, as if they were disembodied spirits traversing the flame. But they are walking with real footsteps, treading on hot coals as though they were roses, and smelling the sulfuric flames as though they yielded nothing but aromatic perfume! Enoch “walked with God.” It is the Christian’s pace, his general pace. He does sometimes run, but his general pace is walking with God, walking in the Spirit. And notice that these good men did not quicken their pace, and they did not slacken it—they continued to walk as they usually did.
Conclusion: Finding Peace in the Fire
Thus, in the midst of our trials and afflictions, we are reminded that God’s people are never abandoned. Though we may be in the furnace, we are never alone. The peace of God, the presence of Christ, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit enable us to walk through the fire with joy and confidence, knowing that He is with us, refining and purifying us for His glory.
May the Lord bless you and give you peace, no matter the trials you face.
Introduction: The Peace in the Furnace
They had the same holy calm and peace of mind, which they enjoyed elsewhere. Their walking shows not only their liberty, their ease, their pleasure, and their calm, but also their strength. Their sinews were not snapped; they were walking. Sometimes God’s people, as Jacob at the Brook Jabbok, halt or limp on their thigh, but I think it is only a small trouble for lame believers; a greater trial will set them right again. A stream of trouble may almost overturn a believer, but a flood of trials will make him rise as the ark rose, nearer to heaven. These men had no limping gait; they were walking, walking in the midst of the fire.
Now, for the explanation of all this, turn to the biographies of any of God’s saints. There is an old Scotch volume entitled Naphtali—it is the lives of those people of God who hazarded their lives unto death in the high places of the field. If you read Naphtali, you will find that the greatest joy that could have been known in this mortal life was enjoyed by Covenanters among the mosses and banks, and on the hillsides of Scotland. There is another blessed old book, which used to be chained in the churches side by side with the Bible—I mean Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Every family ought to have a copy of it, illustrated with pictures for the children to look at. If you read Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, you will see clearly that there was more joy in old Bonner’s coal-hole, and in the Lollard’s tower, than in the palaces of kings. The martyrs felt a heaven of joy while they were suffering a hell of pain. One Samuel was kept starving for weeks, having bread and water given him alternately—three or four mouthfuls of bread one day, and no water; and the next day a few spoonfuls of water, and no bread. After he had been a little time in such a state, he fell into a perfect paradise of delight; he thought he heard an angel say to him, “Samuel, you have suffered thus painfully and fasted for the sake of your Lord; you shall soon feast with Him above—meanwhile you shall feast with Him below in your soul.”
Many a child of God has had an experience manifesting as clearly the loving-kindness of the Lord. Yes, they were walking in the midst of the furnace. See Paul and Silas with their feet in the stocks, and their poor bleeding backs on the stone damp floor of the Roman dungeon at Philippi, and yet they sing, and the prisoners hear them. Why, I think I would as soon have been with Paul and Silas, as with Peter when he was on the mountain. At any rate, the three holy children might have said to the fourth, who was their comforter and companion, what Peter said to his Lord—“Lord, it is good to be here; let us build three tabernacles and dwell under the fiery roof of these boughs of flame; for it is happy to be where You are, though it is in Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace.”
IV. WHAT THEY DID NOT LOSE THERE
The text says, “And they are not hurt.” They did not lose anything there. But we may say of them first, their bodies were not hurt. The child of God loses in the furnace nothing of himself that is worth keeping. He does not lose his spiritual life—that is immortal. He does not lose his divine graces—he gets them refined and multiplied, and the glitter of them is best seen by furnace light. The gifts of God, the Holy Spirit to the Christian, are not taken away by the fiery hands of flame.
The Christian does not lose his garments there. You see their hats, and their shoes, and their coats were not singed, nor was there the smell of fire upon them; and so with the Christian—his garment is the beauteous dress which Christ Himself worked out in His life, and which He dyed in the purple of His own blood. This is wrapped about the Christian as his imperishable mantle of glory and of beauty— “This sacred robe the same endures When ruined nature sinks in years; No age can change its glorious hue, The robe of Christ is ever new.”
As it is not hurt by age, or moth, or worm, or mildew, so neither can it be touched by fire. When the saint shall come up to heaven, wearing Christ’s righteousness, and the question is asked, “Who are these?” as the spirits gather around them, there shall be no traces upon them whatever, of any of the persecution or suffering through which they have been made to pass. The Christian never loses a grain of his treasure when he passes through the furnace—in fact, to sum up in a word, he loses nothing.
The empress threatened to banish Chrysostom. “That you cannot do,” he said, “for my country is in every clime.” “But I will take away your goods.” “No,” he said, “that you cannot do, for I am a poor minister of Christ, and I have none.” “Then,” she said, “I will take away your liberty.” “That you cannot do, for iron bars cannot confine a free spirit.” “I will take away your life,” she said. “That you may do,” he said, “in one sense, but I have a life eternal which you cannot touch.”
The empress thought she had better leave the man alone—she could do him no harm. So is it better for the enemy to leave the child of God alone, for he who kicks against God’s people only kicks with naked feet against the pricks; and as the ox smitten with the goad only hurts himself when he kicks against it, so shall it be with all who touch the saints of the Living God. They are not hurt, and they never shall be.
Now, it is hard for some of you to think that this will be the case, but thus it will be with all of you who truly put your trust in Jesus Christ. My brethren, I know you dread that furnace—who would not?—but courage, courage, courage, the Lord who permits that furnace to be heated, will preserve you in it, therefore be not dismayed. You would so wish to live as to have some tale to tell when you shall mount to heaven—you would not be silent there—coming to glory without any adventure to narrate before the throne? Now, you cannot be illustrious without conflict—you cannot be a conqueror without fighting; you cannot by any possibility have anything to witness to the glory of God unless you test and try the promises and the faithfulness of the Most High; and where can you do this except in the furnace of woe? Be of good courage, then— “The flames shall not hurt you, I only design Your dross to consume, and your gold to refine.”
V. WHO WAS WITH THEM IN THE FURNACE?
The last, and perhaps the most pleasing part of the text, is who was with them in the furnace. There was a fourth and He was so bright and glorious, that even the heathen eyes of Nebuchadnezzar could discern a supernatural luster about Him. “The fourth,” he said, “is like the Son of God.”
What appearance Christ had put on, which was recognizable by that heathen monarch, I cannot tell, but I suppose that He appeared in a degree of that glory in which He showed Himself to His servant John in the apocalypse, and such was the excessive splendor and brightness, the God-like air that was about Him, the flash of His eyes, and the splendor of His gait as He walked the fire with the other three, that even Nebuchadnezzar could not help saying He was like the Son of God.
Beloved, you must go into the furnace if you would have the nearest and dearest dealings with Christ Jesus! Whenever the Lord appears, it is to His people when they are in a militant posture. Moses saw God at Horeb, but it was in a burning bush; Joshua saw Him, but it was with a drawn sword in His hand, to show that His people are still a militant people; and here, where the saints saw their Savior, it was as Himself in the furnace.
The Presence of Christ: The Brightest Joy Beneath the Stars
The richest thought that a Christian perhaps can live upon is this—Christ is in the furnace with him! When you suffer, Christ suffers. No member of the body can be pained without the head enduring its portion. And so you, a member of Christ’s body, in every pain you feel, pains the Head, Christ Jesus. As Baxter says, “Christ takes us through no darker rooms than He went through before.” And one could improve upon it and say, “He takes us through no rooms so dark but what He is, Himself, there in the darkness, and makes that darkness by His presence light, cheering and gladdening our hearts.”
I know that to the worldling this seems a very poor comfort, but then, if you have never drunk this wine you cannot judge its flavor. If the King has never taken you into His banqueting house, and His banner over you has never been love; if He has never kissed you with the kisses of His mouth; if He has never said unto you, “I am yours, and you are Mine,” why, you cannot be expected to know what you have not experienced. But he who has once drunk of the well of Bethlehem, would hazard his life that he might get a draught of it again; would be willing to go through the furnace, though it were heated seventy thousand times hotter, that he might be able once more to see that Son of God, the fourth bright One who trod the glowing coals.
The presence of Christ is the brightest joy beneath the stars. Oh, Christian, seek it; do not be content without it, and you shall have it!
The Eternal Furnace: A Warning for the Unbeliever
A very unhappy thought starts up and claims expression before we close our discourse. I do not like to close with it, and yet faithfulness requires me to utter it—what must it be to be cast into that fiery furnace without Christ in it! What must it be to dwell with everlasting burnings!
One’s heart beats high at the thought of the three poor men being thrown into that furnace of Nebuchadnezzar’s, with its flaming pitch and flames reaching upwards as though it would set the heavens on a blaze; yet that fire could not touch the three children—it was not a consuming fire. But, my hearers, be warned, there is one who is “a consuming fire,” and once let Him flame forth in anger, and none can deliver you!
“Our God,” we are told, “Our God is a consuming fire.” The day comes which shall burn as an oven, and the proud, and they who do wickedly shall be as stubble, and every soul on earth who believes not in Christ Jesus shall be cast into that furnace of fire—this is the second death. Beware, you who forget God, lest the eternal fires of Tophet kindle upon you—for their flame searches the joints and marrow, and sets the soul upon a blaze with torment!
For you, my hearers, who have often listened to the gospel, but heard it in vain, for you the furnace of divine wrath shall be heated seven times hotter, and you shall fall down bound into the midst of it, never to be loosened; and instead of having Christ then to be with you and to comfort you, you shall see Him sitting on His throne, and His glance of lightning shall perpetually make that flame burn more terrible, and yet more terrible!
If you were thrown into Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace, it would be all over in a moment, not even your bones would be found; but the soul never dies. The punishment of the wicked is of the same duration as the reward of the righteous. Justice will always exist in the divine mind, and will always have objects upon which to display itself. If the soul died, hell would not be hell, for there would then be hope; and so the most terrible element of hopelessness would be removed.
Sinner, dream not of being annihilated, but dread the fire which never can be quenched, the worm which never dies. It is written in God’s Word that He, “is able to destroy both body and soul in hell,” a destruction which amounts not to annihilation, a destruction of everything that is true life, but which leaves existence still untouched— “What? To be banished for my life, To linger in eternal pain, And yet forbid to die— And yet forever die!”
Dreadful indeed is such a doom. There is a second death which will pass on all the ungodly, but it is not annihilation; for as death does not annihilate the body, so does not the spiritual death annihilate the soul—you shall lose life but never existence! You shall linger in perpetual death!
But there stands the Savior, and as He was with His people in the furnace, so He is near you this day in mercy, to deliver you from your sins. He calls to you to leave your sins and look to Him, and then you shall never die, and neither upon you shall the flame of wrath kindle, because its power was spent on Him! He felt the furnace of divine wrath, and trod the glowing coals for every soul that believes in Him. God give His blessing for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON—Daniel 3.
Charles Spurgeon