Okay, this morning I thought we would take a brief look at the life of Adoniram Judson. This year, 2012, is the bicentennial anniversary of the events, the occasion when he and his young wife Anne Judson set sail from these shores to head for India and then for Burma. That was 1812. They didn't actually arrive until 1813. So 200 years ago, right now, they would be sort of part way there. And of course, it was a hugely significant event in the history of the church. Judson and his wife were the first American overseas missionaries. And their journey marked what was really the beginning of the American missionary movement. So, this is an event well worth remembering. In fact, this year, there came out a publication entitled, Adoniram Judson, you can see up on the screen there, Adoniram Judson, A Bicentennial Appreciation of the Pioneer American Missionary. It's a compilation of papers written by Christian historians and scholars and preachers. And it's a book I've been looking at this week, along also with a paper by Errol Hulse that he wrote on the missionary call a few years ago. And also this book by John Piper, Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ, The Cost of Bringing the Gospel to the Nations in the Lives of Tyndale, Judson and Patton. So I'm drawing on all three of those resources and I want us to take a quick look this morning at the life of Judson and his wives who accompanied him at various stages in his life's work and just to draw out some lessons as well at the end. Let's begin firstly then with his birth. Adoniram Judson was born August 9, 1788 in Malden, Massachusetts. He was the son of a congregational minister and from him he inherited a brilliant mind. At the tender age of three his mother taught him to read. In a week in order to surprise his father when he got home, which he did. From then on, he never really looked back. When he was 16 years of age, he was entered into Brown University in Rhode Island as a sophomore. He graduated at the top of his class three years later. the time was profitable to him academically but not spiritually because it was while he was studying at Brown that he came into contact with a number of freethinkers and atheists, most notably a powerful personality by the name of Jacob Eames. Eames was a deist who derided the Christian faith. He delighted to pour scorn on the evangelical gospel, and it was through contact with Eames and his friends that Judson really lost whatever attachment he had to the faith of his parents. Much of this was unbeknown to them. He never revealed it to them until his 20th birthday, August 9, 1808, when he announced that he no longer shared their Christian faith, that he planned to move to New York where he was going to become a writer for theater and for plays. His parents were obviously heartbroken at the news, but they didn't cease to pray for him. Their son really had become quite literally a prodigal. He rode off from home on a horse that his father had given him already as part of his inheritance. Thankfully, in the kind providence of God, those prayers were answered in a most striking and unusual way. City life didn't turn out to be all that Judson had expected. He attached himself to a group of the acting community, and he described his life as a reckless vagabond life, finding lodgings where he could and bilking the landlord where he found opportunity. Eventually he had enough of city life, he decided he would head for home. He would go via the home of his uncle who lived in Sheffield. Well he set off and realizing he wasn't gonna make it, he arrived at an inn late one night and discovered that there was only one room available. A room which the innkeeper warned him was next door to a man who was critically ill, could be in for an unpleasant and a disrupted night. Which is just how it turned out, because through the night Adonai could hear the groanings and the gaspings, the agonizings of the dying man next door. And so through his own mind were passing many thoughts. This man is on the verge of death. This man is about to enter eternity. What if he's not ready? Where's he going? Is his soul prepared? So Judson did indeed have a wretched night. And in the morning he inquired of the innkeeper as to the man's condition. He's dead, came the reply. Dead? said Judson. Yes, poor fellow, he's gone, the doctor said. The doctor said he probably wouldn't survive the night. He didn't. Did you know his name? Oh yes, a young man from Providence College. Fine fellow by all accounts. His name was Eames, Jacob Eames. Those words hit him like a thunderbolt. Jacob Eames, his mentor and his friend, he was dead. Judson's whole world turned upside down. The ground now was shaking beneath his feet. He stayed there for some hours just pondering those words and the death of his friend. If Eames and his rationalism was right, then this was just another meaningless event. How could it be? All of these events conspiring together in that way. There must be something more to this. One biographer put it this way, that hell should open in that country in and snatch Jacob Eames, his dearest friend and guide, from the next bed. This could not, simply could not be pure coincidence. The Holy Spirit was pursuing Adoniram Judson just as he had done Saul of Tarsus all those years before. Work of conviction was being begun in his heart. And it was something that would take a number of months. Eventually, returning home, he enrolled himself at Andover Seminary in 1808. On December 2, he made a solemn dedication of his life to Jesus Christ. With that commitment, there came early on a burning desire to serve God and to spread the gospel. Now this time there were no American missionaries serving overseas. Some had gone to the North American frontier tribes but no one had yet ventured across the seas to places like Africa or to Asia. But that desire began to take hold of Judson and much like William Carey before him, he began to read anything he could get his hands on regarding India or China or especially what was known then as the Golden Kingdom of Burma. Now by February 1810 his mind was made up. He had resolved to become a missionary. Later that year he and three other young fellows presented themselves to the Congregational General Association as applicants for missionary service in the East. The meeting took place in the home of a man called the Deacon, a man called Mr. Hasseltine. And at the meeting, or in the home, was his daughter Anne, 21 at the time. Adenheim was introduced to her and was immediately smitten. A month later, he wrote to Anne asking if they could begin a courtship. She told him that he would have to write to her father for permission. Judson wasted no time. He wrote to her father. Towards the end of the letter, he said this, I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring to see her no more in this world, whether you can consent to her departure and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life, whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the climate of India, to every kind of want and distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all of this for the sake of him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you? for the sake of perishing immortal souls, for the sake of Zion and the glory of God." It's quite a letter. Friends who heard of this thought it was insane. One of their friends, the family friend, said that if Anne was his daughter, he would chain her to the bedpost rather than let her go off on such a scheme as that. Anne's parents were more cautious. They said that they would leave it to her to decide. She, for her part, had already made up her mind. She would commit her life to Christ and to His servant, Adoniram Judson, and she would leave all that she knew behind and venture into the unknown. This is a quote from her journal. Jesus is faithful. His promises are precious. Were it not for these considerations, I should, with my present prospects, sink down in despair, especially as no female has, to my knowledge, ever left the shores of America to spend her life among the heathen, nor do I yet know that I shall have a single female companion. But God is my witness that I have not dared to decline the offer that has been made me, though so many are ready to call it a wild romantic undertaking. Well, half a year later, Anne and Adonai were married. This is February 5, 1812. And just 12 days after that, they set sail for India, along with two other couples and two single young men. These really were pioneer missionaries. They were setting off on a course which no one had ever taken before. They were saying goodbye to their families, fully expecting that they would never see them again. They had no return ticket. This was a voyage from which they never expected to return. internet, no Skype, no tweets, no texts, no steamships in those days. So even a letter could take many, many months to arrive, if it even arrived at all. So this was a tremendous lifelong sacrifice that they were now undertaking. The journey itself was a five-month sea voyage, and it turned out for the Judsons to be a very significant one, because during that time Judson, who was a Congregationalist and a Peter Baptist by profession, he gave himself to an in-depth study of the whole issue of baptism. The reason being his concern for possible converts in Burma. What would he do with them? What mode of baptism would he use? He was also concerned to prepare himself for defending his doctrine when he came into contact with the British Baptists, William Ward and William Carey, who he would meet with in Serampore in India. If the subject came up for debate, he had to be able to defend his position. And so then, for much of the voyage, he spent his time below deck studying the issue of baptism from both sides. His wife, meanwhile, resolutely declared that no matter what conclusion her husband came to, she would stand by her paedo-baptist profession. Well, in the end, it turned out they both changed their mind. Both came to embrace the Baptist position, which was a pretty monumental decision for congregationalists, having been sent out by a congregational missionary society. This would jeopardize their funding. They had no guarantee that the Baptists would support them. Anne wrote to her parents, a renunciation of our former sentiments has caused us more pain than anything which ever happened to us through our lives. Nevertheless, they both followed through with their convictions and both of them were baptized by William Ward when they arrived in India. William Carey wrote to a friend, since their arrival in Bengal, brother and sister Judson have been baptized. Judson preached the best sermon on baptism I ever heard. We intend to print. So that's quite a striking thing, how God used even the journey itself to shape and to fashion and to prepare his man for the work that he would do. Always make sure you've got some good literature with you when you go on a journey. Redeem the time in that way, you never know how God may bless you and instruct you on the way. Well, the Judsons remained in India for six months until they eventually set sail for Burma. They arrived in Rangoon, this is July 13, 1813, to face 108 degree heat in sanitary conditions as well as the continual lurking threat of cholera, malaria and dysentery. Felix Carey, he's the son of William, he was also working in Burma at the time, he described the conditions to his father. This is Rangoon, he said, the houses were miserably built, the streets were filthy with vermin, the rents wickedly oppressive, taxes absurdly high, and the punishments imposed by the government were barbarous. So this was not an easy place to be a missionary. Today I suppose we would liken it to a closed nation. That's what we would call it, a closed nation like North Korea or Iraq or Iran, something like that. The government was oppressive, brutally intolerant, no deviation from Buddhism was allowed, most missionaries had left, There were one or two Catholic priests still there ministering to a few foreigners. The only Burmese man who'd ever dared to profess conversion to the Catholic faith had been beaten to within an inch of his life. And he was only spared when a foreigner intervened claiming that the man was insane. So this is the kind of situation they come into when they arrive in Burma in 1813. Now, what were their priorities when they first arrived? What was it that they gave themselves to, first of all? Well, they set about, in the beginning, with language acquisition. Judson's intention, right from the outset, was to have a whole Bible translated into Burmese. he would later also work on a textbook for Burmese grammar, which was so good it became a standard text for students of the Burmese language, and he also completed a Burmese-English dictionary as well. So even though this is a very, very difficult language to master, it's very circular, there are no breaks, no punctuations even between sentences, very difficult even by Oriental standards, nevertheless Judson with his brilliant mind and his exceptional linguistic skill, he was able to grasp it and attain quite a level of excellence in the Burmese language, which greatly contributed to his success in the long term. So that was his priority, language. The next step was to evangelize. And the principal method that he used was the Zahat. I've got a picture of, that's quite a large Zahat. But a Zahat was simply a wooden hut. Usually it would be raised four feet above the ground on posts. It would have a 30-foot veranda along the front. And this would be used by Buddhist gurus who would sit on the veranda and they would invite people to come and sit with them and debate and they would share their Buddhist teachings. Well, Judson then, applying the same principle, adopting a contextual approach, he would dress himself in a similar way to the Buddhist teacher, would sit on his veranda and he would say, Ho! Everyone that thirsts for knowledge, come. And he would invite people to come sit down and debate with him and discuss religion and the Christian faith. It was the JP's Bible study of the day. So, it was a very innovative method. It was untried by previous missionaries, but seeing how effective it was, many missionaries then followed suit. His wife, Anne, on the other hand, she focused in on private conversations with the women, and she would hold a weekly prayer meeting for any women that were interested. And also, 1823, they relocated to the city of Ava, where she helped to run a small school for Burmese children. That also became a pattern for missionary wives who would follow in their train. Now Ava, that we just mentioned, that was the capital of Burma at the time, is about 300 miles inland, much further up the Irrawaddy River. And in 1823 the Judsons decide that they would relocate. This is a very risky venture to be so close to the Burmese Emperor, the Imperial Palace. He was no friend to the Christian faith. It was a very risky venture that they were undertaking. And by May of the following year, 1824, their fears were realized when the British begin to bomb the harbour in Rangoon. And immediately all Westerners were viewed as spies. Now the Judsons obviously weren't British, they were American. But Judson had some money transferred to a bank. It was a British bank in India, which was the normal process in those days. But the authorities, when they discovered this, they immediately thought he must be in cahoots with the British He must be a spy and he was thrown into prison. His feet were fettered and at night they had a long horizontal bamboo pole that was lowered and it was put between the feet of the prisoners and they were raised so only their head and shoulders were still touching the ground. They'd be left like that through the night for hours and hours. The pain apparently was absolutely excruciating. There was barely any food. Disease was rampant. It was often thought that Judson himself would die in this place. Death prison, it was known as. In fact, the reason why he survived was really due to the care and attention of his wife, who spent her days visiting him, bringing him food, caring for his medical needs, and also trying to help the other prisoners as well. She herself was pregnant at the time with their second child, a daughter called Maria. You can actually see her on that picture there. who was born while Adoniram was in prison. So she's got the care of a husband, a newborn baby. She was also caring for two adopted children as well. She was a tremendously courageous and resourceful woman. By the spring of the following year, 1825, a man called Pak Kun Woon had become the general of the Burmese army and military governor of Burma. He was a vicious and brutal man who hated Westerners and was eager to execute as many as he could, including Adoniram Judson. At his command in the summer of 1825, all the prisoners, including Adoniram, were transferred from the prison to another prison. They had to march all the way. The march was a grueling one. One prisoner died of exhaustion on the way and it was thought that Judson himself would have died had it not been for the care shown to him by a fellow prisoner who bound up his wounded feet and helped him walk. Eventually they arrived at their new prison and to their surprise they found it was actually more spacious and they had slightly more liberty than they had before. Anne relocated to Ung Pen La, the town where the prison was situated, and rented a room there. Her own health, however, by this time was beginning to fail, so much so she could no longer nurse little baby Maria. what she had to do was to go into the prison and she had to bribe the guards to allow them to release her husband so he could take the baby around the town and beg milk from any nursing mothers that he could find there in the town. That's how desperate their situation was. Deliverance at last came in November 1825 when quite out of the blue Adoniram was suddenly released from prison and summoned to the capital. The British army were closing in on the Burmese, and the Emperor, fearing the worst, wanted to try and establish terms of peace. He needed a translator. So, they called for Judson, and he was brought out. His 17-month ordeal was over. By the grace of God, he had survived. It was his strong constitution physically which enabled him. He built this up over many months and years, and that enabled him to withstand conditions which probably would have killed lesser men. His wife Anne, however, did not fare so well. The lack of food, the terrible conditions, the incredible stress of having to care for a husband as well as a newborn baby, it pushed her body to the limit. And the result of this was her own health was broken, and some 11 months after his release, she died. Judson was in the capital, Ava, at the time when he heard the news. He received what was known as a black seal envelope, which was a way of denoting that what you had in there was the notes of bereavement. He knew that his own little daughter, Maria, had been very poorly for a number of months, and he feared the worst, that this was news that his daughter had died. But nothing could have prepared him for the shock that he was to receive when he opened up and found actually it was his wife. and who had died. This was an overwhelming blow. One writer says, more than any other trial that he suffered, this did most to undo him mentally and emotionally. And the effects of this hung over him for months and for years. In fact, not long after that, six months after that, he suffered another terrible blow when their only remaining child, Maria, she died also. So his whole world really had fallen in. The first child was stillborn. on the way to Burma. Their second child, Roger, he lived for only eight months and then six months after his wife died, little Maria died too. So all remaining members of his family now had gone. This whole world had fallen in. He wrote to Anne's mother. My little Maria lies by the side of her fond mother. The complaint to which she was subject several months proved incurable. She had the best medical advice and the kind care of Mrs. Wade could not have been in any respect exceeded by that of her own mother. But all our efforts and prayers and tears could not propitiate the cruel disease. The work of death went forward, and after the usual process, excruciating to a parent's heart, she ceased to breathe on the 24th instant at 3 o'clock p.m., aged two years and three months. We then closed her faded eyes and bound up her discolored lips, where the dark touch of death first appeared, and folded her little hands on her cold breast. The next morning we made her last bed in the small enclosure that surrounds her mother's lonely grave. Together they rest in hope under the hope tree which stands at the head of the graves, and together I trust their spirits are rejoicing after a short separation of precisely six months. And I am left alone in the world. My own dear family I have buried, one in Rangoon and two in Amherst. What remains for me but to hold myself in readiness to follow the dear departed to that blessed world. So as you can see by the tone of the letter, the psychological, emotional effects of these losses were immense. And Judson himself began spiraling downwards into a vortex of despair and self-doubt. He began to wonder why he had become a missionary. What were his motives? Was it for fame and ambition rather than self-denying love? He was plagued with guilt And with doubt, he became a recluse. He shut himself away for long hours reading the Catholic mystics, Fenelon and Thomas Akempes. He dropped his translation work and he retreated more and more from people. Anything that might conceivably support pride all promotes his pleasure. So this is the downward spiral that he was on. Perhaps the strangest thing of all that he did, October 1828, he's still in the grip of this fervent asceticism. He built a small hut deep in the jungle, quite away from his missionary base. And it was actually in the jungle, it was infested with tigers. And the local people were absolutely convinced that he would be eaten alive. Well, in fact, a faithful deacon, Kodwa, was so concerned about him that he actually followed him out into the jungle and secretly built a little seat in the hut so that he could watch out for him. Well, miraculously, Judson survived and came back unscathed 40 days later, much to the astonishment of the locals, who apparently thought this must be a repeat of the miracle of Daniel. The way he'd been protected from the lions, this man had been protected from tigers. Well, a turning point came in the life of Judson in May 1829. Strange as this may sound, he received news of his brother's death. Now, he was thinking that that would only serve to depress him even further. But what it turned out, when he left America all those years before, his brother was an unbeliever and Adonai was firmly convinced that he would remain that way. But during the time of his absence, his brother had been converted and he died in full assurance of faith. And so for Judson, this news was really the turning point. Suddenly there's an array of light breaking through. And in 1830, gradually, he begins to climb out of the darkness. A brighter frame returned, renewed zeal was kindled again, and he took up his translation work with greater fervor. It was also around this time that the work of the Gospel in Burma really begins to go forward. Great interest throughout the land in the Gospel. Judson experienced this in the town where he was ministering, a place called Moulmein, where he and fellow missionaries Mr. and Mrs. Ward and George and Sarah Boardman had labored. Here Judson built a number of zahats in the town and he used those again for evangelism. He was having more and more inquirers coming to him, many of whom were professing faith. In the city of Rangoon also there was good news. The small church of 18 members, which had been disbanded during the war years, they came back together and one of them, a man called Ta'i was eventually ordained as the pastor. The first ever native Burmese pastor there of the church in Rangoon. So these were good years from 1831 onward. These were years of progress and great encouragement. Judson wrote a letter to some of his supporters. He said, "...the most prominent feature in the mission at present is the surprising spirit of inquiry that is spreading everywhere through the whole length and breadth of the land. I sometimes feel alarmed like a person who sees a mighty engine beginning to move, over which he knows he has no control. Our house is frequently crowded with company, but I'm obliged to leave them to Moon Eng, one of my best assistants, in order to get time for translation." So this is a picture of one of the converts. March 4, 1831, he also wrote a letter to a fellow missionary, Cephas Bennett, who was a printer, asking if he could furnish him with 15,000 to 20,000 tracts. He said, the spirit of inquiry is spreading everywhere through the whole length and breadth of the land. We have distributed nearly 10,000 tracts, giving to none but those who ask. I presume there have been 6,000 applications at the house. Some come two or three months journey from the borders of Siam and China. Sir, they say, we hear that there is an eternal hell. We are afraid of it. do give us a writing that will tell us how to escape it." Others from the frontiers of Cathay, a hundred miles north of Ava, say, Sir, we have seen a writing that tells about an eternal God. Are you the man that gives away such writings? If so, pray, give us one, for we want to know the truth before we die. Others from the interior of the country, where the name of Jesus Christ is little known, say, Are you Jesus Christ's man? Give us a writing that tells us about Jesus Christ. So that gives you a little insight into the way the work was really going forward at a pace in Burma. Some figures here just to show the number of baptisms. So 1819 to 1822, just 18 baptized. Then you've got those war years, 1822 to 1826, there were no baptisms. 1826 to 1827, four. 1828 to 1831, 353. And then you look at 1836, 1144. So there's real expansion going on after 1831. This is years when he comes out of that pit of deep depression. Suddenly he begins to see that there is this great growth in the work. Also from 1834 onwards he's much taken up with his work on the Old Testament translation and by 1840 he's completed the whole Bible into Burmese, a work that later missionaries would say was one of the best translations of all the Bibles in the East, which is some feat because he's going up against the likes of William Carey and his translation. He was one of the greatest oriental linguists ever. So clearly Judson himself is no mean translator. These are some of his accomplishments. Now what about his personal life? Let's think about this before we move on to some lessons. There were to be two more ladies in his life after the death of Anne Judson. April 10, 1834, this is eight years after the death of Anne. He marries again a lady called Sarah Boardman. She was herself a missionary widow. They had eight children, five of whom survived childhood. She was a gifted woman who knew the Burmese language almost as well as Judson himself did. They had 11 years of very happy and fruitful marriage together. Then she too became very ill and was advised by doctors that she should return to America for the sake of her health. They did so with their three oldest children. This would be the first sign that Judson had been back for 33 years. He was only going back for the sake of his wife's health. Sadly, she didn't make it as they rounded the tip of Africa. 1845, her health failed once more and she died. The ship dropped anchor at the island of St. Helena. They dug a grave and buried her there. Judson was in a dilemma. Should he now carry on to America? Should he go back? His heart was in Burma. He had the children with him, he decided he would carry on and go back to America. While he was there, to everyone's amazement, he fell in love again. This time to a young lady, a picture here, Emily Chubbuck. She was actually a famous writer. She was 29, he was 57. and she decided that she would leave her fame as a writer and that she would accompany Judson back to Burma. They arrived in November 1846 and they were to enjoy their four of the happiest years of their lives. On the first anniversary she wrote, it has been far the happiest year of my life. And what is in my eyes still more important, my husband says it has been among the happiest of his. I never met with any man who could talk so well, day after day, on every subject, religious, literary, scientific, political, and nice baby talk." I think she's referring to the, they had one child as well, so I think that's what she means there. Well, Judson, now into his 60s, he doesn't have the same strength of constitution that he had when he was a younger man, and the old diseases begin to return, his body is ravaged with pain. The doctor advises that he needs a sea journey, only sea air may help his condition. So they carry him aboard a ship bound for the Isle of France. He has just one friend with him. The pain was terrible throughout the journey. And at 4.15pm, April 12, 1850, Adoniram Judson, the great pioneer missionary to Burma, he dies. Thousands of miles away from his friends, the church there in Burma. It's quite a sad end in many ways. There he is alone. He's buried at sea. But it's also a perfect end in other ways because his life was done, the Burmese Bible was finished, the dictionary was finished, and he left behind him hundreds, thousands of Burmese converts who are now leading the Burmese church. Okay, let's then think about some lessons from the life of Jud. Has anyone got any questions or comments, thoughts on what we've said so far? Emily Chubbuck, I'm not sure, I didn't, the books that I read, there was no mention of her after that, I don't know. Is anyone else familiar with his life? I believe they actually came back to America, two of them, and actually went on a speaking tour throughout, and she was quite influential in communicating what his ministry was like off in the Far East. At the time that he went overseas, the United States and England were hostile to him. There was a war in 1812, particularly with the European war. Does he ever mention any problems with the British forces in any way? I didn't come across that. The books I read were... it wasn't a book like To the Golden Shore, which is an in-depth biography. These are more sort of survey views of his life, so there's no real treatment of that issue. I know he worked alongside the British missionaries there. There wasn't really any problem with working alongside Kerry and Ward and people like that, but I don't know if he had any trouble with the British forces as such. I don't know. Brits are always causing trouble wherever they go, aren't they? Okay, let's move on to some lessons. There are many lessons that you could take from the life of Judson. The books I read, they had many relating to his doctrine, his commitment to the Gospel of Salvation, the Word of God, his commitment to translating the whole Word of God into the Burmese language, prayer, emphasis on prayer, these kind of things. What I want us to focus on for a few minutes is the whole issue of suffering. This, particularly for me, as I read through this this week, this really strikes you, the sufferings that this man went through. I want to relate this to the sovereignty of God, how he was able to cope with the sufferings. I mean, his sufferings were immense. Forty years overseas, he lost his first two wives, he lost most of his children, he has a constant battle with sickness, chronic ailments because of the conditions in which they lived, he's in prison for almost two years, in the most miserable, abject conditions that you can imagine, fearful sufferings that he and his family went through, and yet throughout it all he maintains his commitment. He maintains this steadfast commitment to the work that the Lord has called him to. How did he keep going? How did he keep pressing on? Why didn't he just give up? Why didn't he just turn back and go back home? Well, the sovereignty of God. He has this deep, unshakable confidence in the sovereignty of God. This is what sustained him in the midst of all the calamity, all of his sufferings. There is a love that never fails. This is what he said when he came out of the jungle, out of that tiger-infested jungle. He said, there is a love that never fails. If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings. This was a confidence that was shared by his three wives, Anne, Sarah, and Emily. All of them as well had this rock-solid confidence in the sovereignty of God. His first wife, Anne, who sailed with him that first time when she was 21 years of age, something like that. Their first child was stillborn. Little Roger died, I think, eight months, nine months old. She, too, drew strength from the sovereignty of God. She wrote home, we do not feel a disposition to murmur or inquire of our sovereign why he has done this. We wish rather to sit down submissively under the rod and bear the smart till the end for which the affliction was sent shall be accomplished. Our hearts were bound up with this child. We felt he was our earthly all, our only source of innocent recreation in this heathen land. But God saw it was necessary to remind us of our error and to strip us of our only little all. O may it not be in vain that he has done it. May we so improve it that he will stay his hand and say it is enough." So that's what sustained them. Him and the three women that accompanied him. This rock-solid confidence in the sovereignty of God. That God is on the throne. That God rules. That God is good. And everything that we receive comes from his hand and is for our good. That was their confidence. That's our confidence. If I can speak personally, that was our confidence. You know, we had to bury a little one over a year ago. What was it that kept us going? What kept our head above water? It was that confidence in the sovereignty of God. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's what we had put on the gravestone. And that's what helped us to keep going. This is the same thing that kept Judson going. So that's an important theme in his life, suffering and the sovereignty of God. Another big theme is that of fruitfulness, the connection between suffering and fruitfulness. And this is where John Piper's book is very helpful. Just going to give you a brief quote. He says, more and more I am persuaded from scripture and from the history of missions that God's design for the evangelization of the world and the consummation of his purposes includes the sufferings of his ministers and missionaries. To put it more plainly and specifically, God designs that the suffering of his ministers and missionaries is one essential means in the joyful triumphant spread of the gospel among all the peoples of the world. So Piper then sees a connection, especially in the life of Judson, between those years of suffering and pain and the subsequent years of great fruitfulness and gospel expansion that he merged into. And this is a principle that Piper says you can see commonly at work in the lives of God's people, especially those who wholeheartedly give themselves to the cause of Christ. Those who are willing basically just to lay it all on the line. to commit themselves, no matter what the pain, no matter what the sufferings or the sacrifice, to commit themselves no holds barred to whatever it is that Christ is calling them to, that kind of commitment, and the suffering that will often attend that kind of commitment, Piper says, in the economy of God will lead to great measures of fruitfulness and success in kingdom works. John chapter 12, verse 24, is one of his proof texts. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit. Another text is Colossians 1, verse 24. Paul's words, I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. This is an interesting text, isn't it? What does that mean? filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. Is he saying there's something lacking or deficient in the sufferings of Christ? Well, not in any redemptive sense, of course not. Jesus completed a full, sufficient work of atonement. There's nothing lacking in it whatsoever. Now what is lacking is that Piper says the value and the worth of those sufferings is not fully known in the world. What they are and what they mean is still largely uncomprehended by many peoples throughout the world. But the plan of God and the intention of God is that they should know. And this is where God's people fit in. This is where God's people become part of the plan. We, as His people, says Piper, are to complete or fill up what is lacking by making those sufferings known to the world. Now, he casts further light on this by use of Philippians 2, verse 30. the way that Paul speaks about Epaphroditus. Do you remember Epaphroditus? He was the brother that was sent by the church in Philippi to assist Paul, to take that love offering to Paul in Rome. And Paul said of him that he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking, same word, in your service to me." So in the original language those two verses are very similar. Complete what was lacking in your service to me is almost identical to filling up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. Almost identical those. So what does it mean? It means that what was lacking in the Philippian offering, the love offering they sent to Paul, the only thing that was lacking was simply their physical presence. Their physical presentation of that to Paul. So Epaphroditus made that journey in order to make up that He took it to him in person. That's how Epaphroditus made up for what was lacking, by coming to them and presenting it to him in person. And this Piper says is what Paul means in Colossians 1.24. Christ has prepared an offering, a love offering for the peoples of the world. It's full, it's complete, it's lacking in nothing, only in one thing. That is the presentation of that to the nations of the world. And that's where we fit in. That's where we must play our part, because it's as we go forward taking the gospel to the people and enduring and embracing any sufferings that will come with that, that we begin to fill up what is lacking in those sufferings. As we present the gospel to them, we are presenting the sufferings of Christ. This is probably what Paul means when he says, I bear in my own body the marks of Jesus. Let me quote Piper again. He says, This means then that Paul exhibits the sufferings of Christ by suffering himself for those he is trying to win. In his sufferings they see Christ's sufferings. Here is the astounding upshot. God intends for the afflictions of Christ to be presented to the world through the afflictions of his people. God really means for the body of Christ, the church, to experience some of the suffering he experienced so that when we proclaim the cross as the way to life, people will see the marks of the cross in us and feel the love of the cross from us. Our calling is to make the afflictions of Christ real for people by the afflictions we experience in bringing them the message of salvation. So that's very convicting, isn't it? It's very challenging. It means that there are still some sufferings for us in this life for the sake of Christ and the gospel. And that was certainly the case for Judson over 40 years. What sufferings he endured, what pains he bore in his own body for the sake of Christ. And yet with it, what fruitfulness as well, what progress, what expansion there was for the gospel. And Piper says this is the principle that you see in the life of Patton, in the life of Carey, and particularly in the life of Adoniram Judson as well. The sufferings they went through and endured became, in the providence of God, a prelude to a time of great spiritual blessing." So that presents to us a challenge and a comfort. The challenge is, are we ready for that? Are we so desirous to see the gospel go forward that we are willing to embrace any sufferings that may come with it? That's the challenge, but there's great comfort in it too. Are you going through suffering right now? Are you passing through great depths of suffering? Do you wonder to yourself, why is all of this happening? Lord, why am I going through this right now? Lord, this doesn't make sense. Why, Lord? Why all of this? Well, maybe this might be the reason. Perhaps the Lord is using your sufferings and the Christ-like way you endure those sufferings to communicate the life and power of the Gospel to others. That's the way it tends to be. That's a principle that you find in Scripture. You find it at work in the lives of God's people, even today. It's as we suffer, and we do so in a Christ-like way, that the power of the gospel is communicated to those around us. Just one short example. The church I used to go to in London, there was a family there, a young family, and the mother, in her mid-thirties, developed cancer, terminal cancer. And she went through the agonizing process of having to say goodbye to her husband and her young family. At one point she had her daughter, a young daughter, she was maybe 10 or 11, came to her bedside and she had to explain to her what was happening. She said to her, I want you to love the Lord Jesus. I can only speak well of the Lord Jesus. He has only ever done me good. Give your life to the Lord Jesus. Well, some years later the girl was baptized. It wasn't our church, it was another church. I wasn't able to go, but somebody told me she gave her testimony and she told those in the church, that she had come to faith through seeing her mother suffer in that way, seeing Christ in her sufferings as she passed through that terrible time in her life, seeing the power of Christ in her mother's life that brought her to faith. And I think that's what Piper is talking about, that's what Paul is talking about there in Colossians. Elsewhere he says, it's death working in us, but it's life working in them. That's certainly what Judson experienced. He died a thousand deaths out there in Burma. Oh, what fruitfulness. What fruitfulness there was. By the end of his life, 7,000 people baptized, 63 congregations, 163 missionaries and native pastors. Today, apparently the Myanmar Baptist Convention has more than 600,000 members in 3,513 churches. Except a grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying abides alone. And if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. Let's finish.