Someone once said, "The Christian life is a bed of roses-- thorns and all!" He was right. This morning I am going to talk to you about the thorns. This afternoon, the Lord willing I will talk to you about the roses.

Read Isaiah 43:1- Here is a people created and formed by God, a people redeemed, called, and owned by the Lord God as his people, a people who belong to God, his peculiar people. Surely, we might reasonably assume that these people will be exempt from the tragedies and sorrows of life. These people will never know trial and suffering. But that is not the case.

Read verse 2- If I read that verse correctly, it means, If I am to walk with God I must walk through deep waters of trouble, flooding rivers of opposition and adversity, and raging fires of trial and persecution. We have no regard for the apocrypha, but one of the apocryphal writers quotes the Lord Jesus as saying, "He that is near me is near the fire." Whether our Lord said that or not I do not know; but I do know that he taught it. In John 16:33, he said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation."

Proposition: God’s saints in this world are an afflicted, troubled, tried, and suffering people- It is written, "that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).

Divisions: The title of my message this morning is found in verse 2 of our text- "When Thou Passest Through The Waters…" I want to show you seven simple, but helpful facts about the afflictions of God’s people in this world.

1. You and I must pass through many troubles in this world.
2. The things we suffer in this world must be kept in proper perspective.
3. Our trials in this world come from many directions.
4. Whatever your trial is, it is according to the will and purpose of God, you Father.
5. When we pass through the deep waters, the flooding rivers, and the raging fires, the Lord God is with you.
6. Whatever your trouble is now, you will pass through it.
7. Our afflictions are for our benefit.

I. You and I must pass through many troubles in this world.

My pastor, many years ago, Bro. Ernest Parks, used to say, "God had one Son without sin, but he has no sons without sorrow." I accepted that as a matter of fact; but I did not know what he was talking about. I knew the Bible taught it; but I didn’t understand it. I hadn’t experienced much sorrow. Now, I understand.

Notice verse two of our text- It is not written as a hypothetical supposition, or a remote possibility, but a matter of absolute certainty. The Lord does not say, "If", but "when thou passes through the waters." We must pass through many troubles in this world.

"There are no crown- wearers in heaven that were not cross-bearers here below." C. H. Spurgeon.

Martin Luther said, "Every Christian is a cross-bearer." Is that all God’s children? Yes, without exception. If you live for God, if you walk with Christ in this world, you must pass through many troubled waters (Phil. 1:29). God says, "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction" (Isa. 48:10). (I Tim. 2:12; 3:12).

II. The Things we suffer in this world must be kept in proper perspective. (II Cor. 4:17).

We all have a tendency to think that our particular trouble is the worst trouble there is, that there is no sorrow like our sorrow, and that the burden we carry is the heaviest load in the world. But Paul had learned to see things differently. After describing his many great afflictions for the gospel’s sake, which he had suffered since the day God saved him, Paul writes, "Our light affliction, which is by far a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

If you and I can learn to keep the things we suffer in proper perspective we will also view them as "our light affliction." Perhaps you are thinking, "Bro. Don, you don’t know what I am going through. This is not "light affliction!" Listen to me for a minute..

1. Our afflictions are light, compared with what we deserve.
2. Our afflictions are very light, compared with what our Lord has suffered for us (Lam. 1:12; Ps. 22).
3. Our afflictions are light, feather weight troubles, compared with what many of our brothers and sisters in Christ have suffered in the past.
4. Our afflictions are so very, very light, compared with what many of our friends are suffering now.
5. And, Oh, how light our afflictions are, when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8:17; II Cor. 4:17, James 1:12; I Pet. 1:7).

If we can learn to look upon our troubles in the light of these things, we will find them easier to bear. Truly, our temporary, earthly troubles are "our light affliction."

III. Our text implies that our trials in this world come from many directions and take many forms- (v. 2).

Some of our trials come as troubled waters. Others come as flooding rivers. Others come as a raging fire. Sometimes God’s saints have great trials of inward, spiritual trouble. Sometimes our trials are matters of outward temptation, or adversity. Sometimes the people of God face trials of persecution. Sometimes all these troubles come at once!

To be an heir of heaven is to be an heir of trial and tribulation-

• Abraham (Gen. 22:1).
• Job (Job 1).
• Peter (John 21:18-19).
• Paul (Acts 9:16)- (II Cor. 12:9).
• David

If you are one of God’s children, while you live in this world, you must pass through many deep waters, flooding rivers and raging fires. Faith must be tried and proved.

• Sickness!
• Bereavement!
• Banishment from the House of God!
• Domestic, Family trouble!
• Economic Hardship!
• Slander, Persecution!
• Spiritual, Soul Trouble!
• Prosperity and Success!

IV. Whatever your trial is, it is according to the will and purpose of Our Great God, Our Heavenly Father (I Thess. 5:18; Rom. 8:28).

The very hairs of your head are all numbered. That means, God looks often and orders every detail of your life. He leaves nothing to chance, or blind fate.

Illus: David and Shemei (II Sam. 16:5-1).

V. Not only is your trouble ordered of God, when you pass through the deep waters, the flooding rivers, and the raging fires, the Lord God is with you- "I will be with thee!" (Ps. 31:20; Dan. 3:25; Ps. 23:4)- (Heb. 13:5).

Blessed is that trouble that brings me into the enjoyment of God’s manifest presence! Not only is it true that our troubles do not separate us from the love of God, often our troubles are the means by which we are made to realize God’s great love, mercy and grace to us in Christ!

• If God puts you in the furnace, he sits as the Reformer.
• If the Lord’s vineyard must be pruned, he will do the pruning.
• When his children need correcting, the rod is in our Father’s hands.

VI. Whatever your trouble is, you will soon pass through it- "When thou passest Through the waters…"

The Puritan, Thomas Watson, wrote "Affliction may be lasting but it is not everlasting." It is but for a moment!

If a man was on his way to be crowned and to take his place in the King’s palace, he would not cry because it was a rainy day! Our days may be rainy; but we are headed to the King’s Palace, where we shall be crowned. Why should we weep?

VII. Our afflictions, whatever they are, are for our benefit- (Ps. 119:65,71).

The floods that destroyed the world in Noah’s day carried the ark to a place of safety; and those same trials which destroy other men and women are instruments of much good to God’s saints. There is a "needs be" for every trial. Trials make some people bitter. The make God’s people better.

"Grace grows best in winter."- Samuel Rutherford.

Spurgeon said, "Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the top of a mountain."

Here are 5 things God teaches in troubling waters, flooding rivers and the raging furnace.

1. The Evil of our own Hearts!
2. The Vanity of All Earthly Things!
3. The Efficacy of God’s Grace!
4. The Brevity of Life!
5. The Blessedness of Christ!

1. You will pass through many troubles.
2. Keep things perspective.
3. Our troubles come from many directions, but
4. They come according to God’s will and purpose.
5. In all your trials, the Lord is with you.
6. Your trouble will soon be over.

• When the believer leaves this world, his sorrow ends.
• When you who believe not leave this world, your sorrow begins!

1. All our afflictions are for our benefit.