WAIT PATIENTLY FOR THE LORD! PART II
Wait patiently for the Lord “Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the Lord, and He shall save thee.”Prov. 20:22.
The Lord is the Great Savior of His people. Christ is promised in Isaiah 59:20 as that Redeemer Who would come to Zion, namely for those who would turn from transgression in Jacob. Through our deep fall in Adam we have come under God’s curse and wrath, and under the dominion of Satan and sin. Wilfully and voluntarily we have plunged ourselves into an abyss from whence we can never deliver ourselves. And moreover, none of them can redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him, Psalm 49:7. On man’s side, that has been cut off once and for all. The redemption of a lost sinner is a onesided work of God. No angel and no man can ever bring that about, but there is help laid upon One that is mighty and can deliver. And that is Christ Jesus Who is true God, but Who is also true and righteous man. He brought about the reconciliation by His passive and active obedience. He satisified God’s justice, He quenched God’s wrath, and pacified God’s anger. He has bruised satan’s head and disarmed the law of its curse. He swallowed up death into victory and has done all that was necessary to magnify and glorify the offended virtues of God, but also to redeem all those whom the Father had given Him in the Council of Peace.
Zion is redeemed with judgment, and it is all to the praise and honor and glory of a Triune God. Israel was a people redeemed by the Lord, and all those who belong to that seed sanctified by God shall be delivered by Him. Blessed are those people who are enabled to declare with the poet of Psalm 116:4, Psalter 426:4:
“Come thou my soul, relieved from agitation,
Turn to thy rest the Lord has favored thee.”
Although we are saved by God as to our state, and that because of the obtained and imputed righteousness of Christ through the Holy Spirit, yet as to our condition we must be saved time and again. Here in this life, time and again, God’s people get into out and inward bonds and into prison. And therefore in the condition of our life, we must experience that there is no might against that great multitude which constantly distress them and press them hard. Yet, even though we have no strength, we are constantly busy to exert all our strength to defend ourselves against our enemies. It is so deeply rooted in us to help ourselves without God, and God does not always intervene immediately. God’s people may be oppressed for a long time. Consider the number of years that Israel had to groan in Egypt. David had to flee before Saul for many years. Thus it also happens that the Lord suffers His people to roam and wander for a long time in their own ways. We may endeavor for a long time to vindicate ourselves, although we will never achieve any good but rather sink into deeper misery. Also in this matter it becomes manifest that the Lord Himself must bring us to the end of all our working and our labors.
We would never yield and allow neither place nor time for the Lord to work, even though our work is constantly broken down. God must put us aside and cause us to perish with everything of ourselves in order that He shall deliver His people. He alone is able to do it. Christ has said, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” His hand has great power. He is the King of kings, and the Lord of lords.
Before He died, the enemies fell backward to the earth, and they would never have risen again if He had not permitted it. And in the morning of the resurrection, when as Conquerer He arose from the grave, the watchers became as dead men, and they fled into the city.
Oh, when the appointed time is there, then He arises for the deliverance of His people. He shall save thee. No, it is not a perhaps, but it is sure and certain. He will not allow His people to remain in endless sorrow, and will not suffer the righteous to be moved. He has loved His people with an everlasting love, and that love cannot be severed.
Christ has purchased those people with the price of His own precious blood. He has redeemed them out of the power of satan, of sin, and of hell, and would He then deliver them into the power of their enemies?
Those people are kept in the power of God, through faith, for the salvation which is prepared for them in the last time. He shall save them in the hour of death, and will destroy the last enemy, viz. death for them. But also in this life, while they are still in the enemy’s country, He shall save them. Pharaoh drowns, Ahithophel puts an end to his life, Haman is hanged, and Belshazzar is slain. We are not called to deal with the enemies, but the Lord, the Righteous Judge, does it in His own time.
God Himself settles the matter, and no one in the whole world is able to do it as He does it. He is just in all His actions. Now it is remarkable that we do not read that God will avenge, but that He shall save you. That saving here extends much farther than avenging. Although the word save includes avenging, yet that which is here promised, extends much farther. God shall save the honor of His people because His own honor is involved in it, and is in the closest connection with it. When the wicked or pious world touch God’s people, then they touch God Himself. God has promised His people that He shall give them grace and glory. The Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rest upon them, I Peter 4:14, What a great evil, and what a dangerous piece of work it is, to touch God’s people. The Lord Himself says, “He who touches my people touches the apple of My eye.” And now those people may be slandered and scorned so much at times, that their soul pines away because of it. Deadly weapons are often formed against those people, and arrows are often shot at them which are as deathblows in their bones. God’s work may often be mocked, yea, even cursed by both outward and inward enemies. Those who have experience of that know into what depth the soul may come.
At times everything trembles because of the slanders which are poured out upon them. And now if it only concerned themselves, Ah, then there are moments that they can say with David, “Let them curse.” God’s people may be so humble at times that they do not mind it. Then they can lie down upon the ground and give their back as a bridge to walk upon. Of course, it is not always thus but only then when we lie in our unworthiness before God and the big “I” has nothing to say. Then it is practiced, “Although I am nothing.”
We have more in our profession and in our mouth than what is true within our heart.
We would be better off if we were dead more often. The poet of Psalm 38 knew something of that when he cried out:
“Darkness gathers, foes assail me,
But I answer not a word,
All my friends desert and fail me,
Only Thou my cry hast heard.”
And what a great grace it is if we not only have to keep silence, but are also willing to keep silence, and that we may keep silence. Oh, it is all the fruit of the Mediatorial work of the Lord Jesus Christ through the operations of the Holy Spirit.
As long as we want to deliver ourselves, we do not come to that spot, but as soon as we may lose out before God and man, and surrender everything to God, then He arises with favorable intentions, for then it is His time. Never too early, and never too late. If the Lord came too early, then He would not receive all the honor, and if He came too late, they would have perished. The enemies have said:
“That Thou O God no more
Canst help me as before
Or come to my salvation.”
Oh, how that distressed the man after God’s heart. And it is the same to all those oppressed and harassed people of God. Formerly, yea so often, they were delivered by God, but now — now it will not happen.
The enemies are mightier, more undaunted, than before — and then a silent God Who does not answer any of the entreaties of His people. Oh, what a bitter pathway. Oh, what a deep abyss that is along which they are led. And when they look at themselves, then there is no reason, no ground, and no cause, why the Lord should deliver them. It would be just if He should never come back again and should deliver them to be devoured by the wild beasts. But ah, beloved, those arrows have also pierced the heart of that Surety, and hence it is no strange thing that befalls them.
At the foot of the cross the enemies cried out, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save, and He trusted in God, let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him,” for He said, “I am the Son of God,” but when Christ had fulfilled all things then He bowed the head and gave up the ghost. On the cross Christ has triumphed over all principalities and power and all mouths were stopped.
The Father has delivered the Surety and put a new song into His mouth. But thus the Surety also saves His people. It is always through impossible paths and ways which they have not known. God’s wisdom, His goodness, His faithfulness, but also His justice become manifest. And it is a deliverance which is entirely outside of themselves. It is a deliverance whereby the enemies are put to shame and are disgraced; a deliverance whereby God obtains His honor, and Christ is exalted; a deliverance which shall be conducive to the joy of His people and in which they shall delight themselves. Of course, here it is always only in part and a deliverance which is necessary again and again. Here the conflict continues. They must through much tribulations enter into the Kingdom of God. Here strife and victory, light and darkness, prosperity and adversity alternate.
We read of the Lord Jesus after the temptation in the wilderness, “And the devil departed from Him for a season,” and that is to say he came back. He came back to Christ until his head was bruised; and thus it is with God’s children. The devil comes back, and the enemies try time and again to snatch the crown from their head. God deems it necessary that they should travel such pathways so that they become conformed to Christ in the course of His humiliation, but at the approach of death God will grant complete deliverance.
Here we must remain close to the ground, have a thorn in the flesh, so that we would not exalt ourselves. We are such conceited and proud creatures who constantly make an attempt to usurp God’s throne and crown. We need oppression and cross in order that we may be exercised thereby. We constantly need a counter balance so that we may fear sin and become weaned from the world. Many ways are necessary for us to learn to walk prudently and circumspectly in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Here we must pray constantly, “Lead us not into temptation,” but we must experience continually that we bring ourselves into it. Our flesh does not subject itself to the law of God, and neither can it. The greatest traitor dwells within us, and life is so thoughtless and unobservant, but one day the deliverance shall be complete. The grave of the old man of sin is located at the gate of heaven. And once in that great day in which Christ shall return to judge the quick and the dead, then He shall cast all His and my enemies into everlasting condemnation, but shall translate me with all His chosen ones to Himself into heavenly joy and glory.
Blessed is the people which may have a hope upon that, but still greater, when we may believe it and be assured by the Holy Ghost of our interest in God and in Christ. Those people which have been saved in principle shall then be saved perfectly and be perfectly saved. Oh, what a prospect! Here it is a tribulation of only ten days, and soon God shall turn their sorrow into gladness on the morrow.
Then there shall be no more curse against anyone, and then it shall be perfectly clear to them from what, whereof, and through whom they are saved, and that shall be the ground to glorify their Redeemer eternally without interference and without trend. People of God, there you shall be forever above the waters of despondency, and there the fire of enmity shall no longer burn. There all the sorrows shall be forgotten, and there you shall honor your God and King forever. With Paul, we have ground and reason to cry out to you while you are in this Meshech: “Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulations; continuing instant in prayer.” But also in this, our lack is greater than our possession.
In this respect we must complain more than boast. How often faith is weak, and how often faith sinks very low, and how often we live on as if there were no God in Israel. But He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. He shall save you out of all your bonds, strife, and troubles perfectly and completely.
But what shall it be for you who are enemies of God and of His people? Here you open your mouth against heaven, and your tongue is a world of iniquities. Here it is your delight and your life to trouble God’s people, but know that God is no idle spectator. It is not God’s usual way to punish the deed immediately, but yet it may happen that God intervenes at once to shut the mouth.
“And this shall be confessed,
On earth the God of justice reigns,
And righteousness is blessed.”
The worst judgment for a person here upon earth is that He hardens us in sin, and that the Lord allows man to walk in his own ways. When that happens, then man should fear and tremble so much the more. When the Lord, the Righteous Judge, at the time of death shall settle accounts with us, then it shall be terrible to fall into the hands of the living God. May the Lord grant you yet repentence, may He stop you in your mad career. As long as you are still alive, you may yet from a persecuter become a supporter, from an enemy a friend; but when death comes, then it is forever too late.
Here you have shot so many arrows already at that poor people of God, but may you yet receive an arrow in your heart out of that quiver out of which Christ shoots into the heart of His elect.
Then you would be wounded, and receive a wound which can be healed by no one and by nothing else than by Christ, and by His precious blood. It is yet the day of grace, the acceptable time, and the day of salvation. In the wounds of Christ there is healing for wounded souls. Blessed are they who in this life may lay down the weapons before God and deliver them up. When we surrender, then we win. People of God, you have experienced that, and Christ is the Helper of those people who have no helper. Let this be your comfort amidst all your scorn, insults, and slanders both out and inwardly. “Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and He shall strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord.” AMEN.
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Bekijk de hele uitgave van zaterdag 1 juli 1972
The Banner of Truth | 1 Pagina's
Bekijk de hele uitgave van zaterdag 1 juli 1972
The Banner of Truth | 1 Pagina's