CanTherebeUnity
Christian without its reality will fail. Surely you will suffer like Ananias and Sapphira who pretended to give something to God and yet kept back their heart. It all fails in the end. Your joy will last for only a moment. Your hopes will be no better than a dream. Oh, tremble, tremble: tremble and repent! 3. Let me show, in the third place, the inheritance that Christ's people will receive when He comes to purge His threshing floor. The text at the beginning of this paper tells us, with words of comfort, that Christ will "gather His wheat into the barn." When the Lord Jesus comes the second time, He will gather His believing people into a place of safety. He will send His angels and gather them from the four winds. The sea will give up the dead that are in it, and the graves the dead that are in them, and those who are alive will be changed. Not one poor sinner of mankind, who has ever believed in Jesus Christ by faith, will be missing from that company. Not one single grain of wheat will be missing and left outside, when judgments fall upon a wicked world. There will be a barn for the wheat of the earth and into that barn all the wheat will be brought. It is a sweet and comfortable thought, that "the LORD takes delight in His people" and "cares for those who trust in Him." (Psalm 149:4; Nahum 1:7) But I fear that little is known, and only dimly seen, of exactly how much the Lord cares for them. Beyond question, believers have a great many trials. The flesh is weak. The world is full of snares. The cross is heavy. The way is narrow. The companions are few. But still they have great consolations, if only their eyes were open to see them. Like Hagar, they have a well of water near them, even in the wilderness, though often they do not see it. Like Mary, they have Jesus standing by their side, though often they are not aware of it because of their very tears. (Genesis 21:19; John 20:14) Bear with me while I try to tell you something about Christ's care for poor sinners that believe in Him. We live in a day of weak and feeble preaching. The danger of the natural state of man is feebly exposed. The privileges of the state of grace are feebly set forth. Faltering souls are not encouraged. Disciples are not established and confirmed. The man without Christ is not properly alarmed. The man in Christ is not properly built up. The one sleeps on and seldom has his conscience pricked. The other creeps and crawls all his days and never thoroughly understands the riches of his inheritance. Truly this is a painful disease, and one that I would gladly help to cure. Truly it is a sad thing that the people of God never go up to mount Pisgah and, therefore, never know the length and breadth of their possessions. To be brethren of Christ and sons of God by adoption—to have full and perfect forgiveness and the renewing of the Holy Spirit—to have a place in the book of life and a name on the breastplate of the Great High Priest in heaven—all these are truly glorious things. But still they are not everything that the believer will receive. (a) The Lord takes pleasure in His believing people. Though stained and spotted in their own eyes, they are beautiful and honourable in His. They are all lovely. He sees "no flaw" in them. (Song of Solomon 4:7) Their weaknesses and shortcomings do not break off the union between Him and them. He chose them, knowing everything in their hearts. He took them for His own, with a perfect understanding of all their debts, liabilities, and weaknesses, and He will never break His covenant and cast them off. When they fall, He will raise them up again. When they wander, He will bring them back. Their prayers are pleasant to Him. As a father loves the first stammering efforts of his child to speak, so the Lord loves the poor feeble petitions of His people. He endorses them with His own mighty intercession and gives them power on high. Their acts of serviceare pleasant to Him. As a father delights in the first daisy that his child picks and brings him, even so the Lord is pleased with the weak attempts of His people to serve Him. Not a single cup of cold water will ever lose its reward. Not a word spoken in love will ever be forgotten. The Holy Spirit inspired the writer of Hebrews to tell of
Noah's faith, but not of his drunkenness—of Rahab's faith, but not of her lie. It is a blessed thing to be God's wheat! (b) The Lord cares for His believing people in their lives. Their dwelling-place is well known. The street called "Straight" where Judas lived, and Paul lodged—the house by the seaside where Peter prayed, were all familiar to their Lord. No one has such attendants as they have: angels rejoice when they are born again; angels minister to them; and angels encamp around them. No one has such food—their bread is given them and their water is sure, and they have meat to eat of which the world knows nothing about. No one has such company as they have: the Holy Spirit lives within them; the Father and the Son come to them and make their home with them. (John 14:23) Their steps are all ordered from grace to glory: they that persecute them persecute Christ Himself, and they that hurt them hurt the apple of the Lord's eye. A wise Physician measures out all their trials and temptations: not a grain of bitterness is ever mingled in their cup that is not good for the health of their souls. Their temptations, like Job's, are all under God's control. Satan cannot touch a hair of their head without their Lord's permission, nor even tempt them above that which they will be able to bear. "As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him." "He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to them." (Psalm 103:13; Lamentations 3:33) He leads them down the right path. He withholds nothing that would be for their good. Come what may, any pain they receive will always be necessary. When they are placed in the furnace, it is that they may be purified. When they are chastened, it is so that they may become more holy. When they are pruned, it is to make them more fruitful. When they are transplanted from place to place, it is that they may bloom more brightly. All things are continually working together for their good. Like the bee, they extract sweetness even out of the bitterest flowers. (c) The Lord cares for His believing people in their deaths.
Their times are all in the Lord's hand. The hairs of their heads are all numbered and not one can ever fall to the ground without their Father's permission. They are kept on earth until they are ripe and ready for glory and not one moment longer. When they have had enough sun and rain, enough wind and storm, enough cold and heat —when the fruit is ripe—then, and not until then, they are harvested. They are all immortal until their work is done. There is not a disease that can take their lives until the Lord gives the word. A thousand may fall at their right hand, but there is not a plague that can touch them till the Lord sees fit. There is not a physician that can keep them alive when the Lord gives the word to bring them home. When they come to their deathbed, the everlasting arms are wrapped around them. When they die, they die like Moses, "as the LORD had said," and at the right time, and in the right way. (Deuteronomy 34:5) And when they breathe their last, they fall asleep in Christ and are immediately carried, like Lazarus, to Abraham's bosom. Yes! It is a blessed thing to be Christ's wheat! When the sun of other men is setting, the sun of the believer is rising. When other men are laying aside their honours, he is putting his on. Death locks the door on the unbeliever and shuts him out from hope; but death opens the door to the believer and lets him into paradise. (d) The Lord will care for His believing people in the dreadful day of His appearing. The flaming fire will not come near them. The voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God will not proclaim any terrors to their ears. Sleeping or waking, alive or dead, decomposing in the coffin, or going about their daily duties—believers will be secure and immovable. They will lift up their heads with joy when they see redemption drawing near. They will be changed and will put on their beautiful heavenly robes in the twinkling of an eye. They will be caught up "to meet the Lord in the air." (1 Thessalonians 4:17) Jesus will do nothing to a sin-laden world till all His people are safe. There was an ark for Noah when the flood began. There was the town of
Zoar for Lot to flee to when the fire fell on Sodom. There was a place of refuge for early Christians when Jerusalem was besieged. There was a Zurich for English reformers when Mary, a supporter of Roman Catholicism, came to the throne. And there will be a safe and secure barn for all the wheat of the earth in the last day. Yes! It is a blessed thing to be Christ's wheat! I often wonder at the miserable faithlessness of those among us who are believers. Next to the hardness of the unconverted heart, I call it one of the greatest wonders in the world. I am amazed that with such mighty reasons for confidence that we can still be so full of doubts. I marvel, above all things, how any can deny the doctrine that Christ's people persevere to the end, and can imagine that He who loved them so much, that He died for them upon the cross, will ever abandon them. I do not think it possible. I do not believe the Lord Jesus will ever lose one of His flock. He will not let Satan pluck away from Him so much as one sick lamb. He will not allow one bone of His mystical body to be broken. He will not allow one jewel to fall from His crown. He and His bride have been joined into an everlasting covenant and they will never, never be put asunder. The trophies won by earthly conquerors have often been wrested from them and carried off; but this will never be said of the trophies of Him who triumphed for us on the cross. "My sheep," He says, "will never perish." (John 10:28) I take my stand on that text. I do not know how it can be evaded. If words have any meaning then for sure, the perseverance of Christ's people is there. I do not believe that when David had rescued the lamb from the paws of the lion, that he left it weak and wounded to perish in the wilderness. I cannot believe that when the Lord Jesus has delivered a soul from the snare of the devil that He will ever leave that soul to take his chances and wrestle on in his own feebleness, against sin, the devil, and the world. I am absolutely positive that if you were present at a shipwreck and saw some helpless child tossing on the waves, that you would plunge into the sea and save him at the risk of your own life. I am absolutely positive that you would not be content with merely bringing that child safely to shore. You would not lay him down when you had reached the land, and say, "I will do no more. He is weak—he is unconscious—he is cold: it does not matter. I have done enough—I have delivered him from the waters: he is not drowned." You would not do it. You would not say these things. You would not treat that child in such a manner. You would lift him in your arms; you would carry him to the nearest house; you would use every means to restore his health and vigor: you would never leave him until his recovery was certain. Now, can you suppose the Lord Jesus Christ is less merciful and less compassionate? Can you think He would suffer on the cross and die and yet leave it uncertain whether believers in Him would be saved? Can you think He would wrestle with death and hell and go down to the grave for our sakes, and yet allow our eternal life to hang on such a thread as our poor miserable endeavours. Oh, no! He does not do it that way! He is a perfect and complete Saviour. Those whom He loves, He loves to the end. Those whom He washes in His blood, He never leaves nor forsakes. He puts His fear into their hearts so that they will not depart from Him. Where He begins a work, there He also finishes. All whom He plants in His garden on earth, He transplants sooner or later into paradise. All whom He revives by His Spirit, He will also bring with Him when He enters His kingdom. There is a barn for every grain of the wheat. All will appear before God in Zion. Man may fall from false grace. I never doubted this. I see proof of it continually. Men never fall from true grace. They never did, and they never will. If they commit sin, like Peter, they will repent and rise up again. If they stray from the right path, like David, they will be brought back. It is not by any strength or power of their own that keeps them from apostasy. They are kept secure because of the power and love, and promises of the Trinity. The election of God the
Father will not be fruitless; the intercession of God the Son will not be ineffectual; the love of God the Holy Spirit will not labor in vain. The Lord "will guard the feet of His saints." (1 Samuel 2:9) They will all be more than conquerors through Him that loved them. They all will conquer, and none will die eternally. "Blessed forever and ever is that mother's child whose faith has made him the child of God. The earth may shake, the pillars of the world may tremble under us, the countenance of the heaven may be horrified, the sun may lose its light, the moon its beauty, the stars their glory: but concerning the man that trusts in God—what is there in the world that will change his heart, overthrow his faith, alter his affection towards God, or the affection of God to him?" Richard Hooker, 1585. If you have not yet taken up the cross and become Christ's disciple, then you know little what privileges you are missing. Peace with God now and glory in the future—the everlasting arms to guide and protect you on your way to heaven and the shelter of safety in the end —all these are freely offered to you without money and without cost. You may say that Christians have trials—you forget that they also have comforts. You may say they have unique sorrows—you forget they also have unique joys. You only see half of the Christian life. You do not see everything. You see the warfare but not the daily sustenance and the rewards. You see the struggles and conflicts of the outward part of Christianity but you do not see the hidden treasures that lie deep within. Like Elisha's servant you see the enemies of God's children but you do not, like Elisha, see the chariots and horses of fire which protect them. Oh, do not judge by outward appearances! Be sure that the smallest drop of the "water of life" is better than all the rivers of the world. Remember the place of shelter and the crown. Be wise as you live on this earth. If you feel that you are a weak disciple, then do not think that weakness shuts you out from any of the privileges of which I have been speaking about. Weak faith is true faith, and weak grace is true