Not Always Threshing (2)

Rev. W.C. Lamain (1900-1984)

The active ministration of Christ in the heart of His people causes them to bow humbly in dust and in ashes before Him daily with a broken heart since Christ is not only given for justification but also for sanctification. His entire life here upon earth was a shattering and an annihilation in order that the Church should be shattered and annihilated in self, that the old man with all his lusts and covetousness may be subdued, that the new man would become more and more like Him, and that a people which in themselves are constantly broken because of the stain of sin may by faith have constant recourse to Him—to Him of whom the poet sang in Psalter 402:1b:

He builds the walls of Zion,
He seeks her wandering sons,
He binds their wounds and comforts
The brokenhearted ones.

Oh, could we find words to depict to you the glory of Christ in the perfection of His person and the fullness of His ministration. Alas, we know only a fragment of it because here below everything is only in part. They are mysteries and secrets which God’s dear Spirit must reveal to us in our lifetime, but He must also apply them to the comfort of our heart and soul and according to the measure revealed to us cause us to admire God and love Christ.

Now the Lord comes to thresh His people to their profit. Everything which is of self must go. That threshing did not pass Christ by; He has consciously experienced it. It is for this reason that He cried, “Is there any sorrow like unto My sorrow? Behold, all ye who pass by.” His sorrow, however, never descended into a carnal sympathy. That was impossible for Christ because He was the Son of God, the spotless Divine who, because of His divine nature was not receptive to the least sin or diversion. It was His meat to do the will of His Father, and to that end He has voluntarily submitted Himself to confer back to God His honor and to the Church its salvation.

The Church is also threshed here so that more and more their longing for that bruised Christ will be increased to become one with Him in His death and also be one with Him in His resurrection. The divine purpose of all the oppressions and trials is to make us partakers of His holiness. Because of our blindness, inexperience, and ignorance, we cannot always have that goal in view; neither do we always wish to see it because we are such lovers of self. When we must drink the bitter waters of Mara, then it becomes manifest what we have become in Adam our covenant head. We will become more and more disappointed with ourselves. Paul declares unto us that in us, that is, in our flesh, no good dwelleth. Our old nature wants nothing to do with those ways in which we must be bruised, for “Whoever hated his own flesh?”

Oh, what more shall I add to it? Our foolishness, rebelliousness, enmity, and misery are uncovered more and more. We must continually be taught how miserable and poor we are in and of ourselves. Christ is placed before us as a lamb led to the slaughter, one who before His shearers was dumb. How often it is different with us. Our nature does not want to be converted, and we do not want what God wants. We always want to be something and to become something, but God’s way is for us to be nothing and to become nothing. The wheels of the cart and the hooves of the horses go over it continuously, and more and more we must be placed between the millstones. Our flesh is not spared. Everything, yea, everything must be done away with, to be more and more crushed, so that we will only do God’s will.

How deep is the way in which God at times leads His people. Aaron had to lose his two sons, and David had to flee before Absalom. Later, David had to experience that his son was killed by Joab. How many different types of persecution those people are often exposed to, and how heavy that internal strife can also be here upon earth. The Lord says, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My good pleasure.” Sometimes the ways are so deep that His people think they will succumb to them and that the enemy will declare the victory, but

The poor and needy He shall spare,
And save their souls from fear;
He shall redeem them from all wrong,
Their life to Him is dear.

— Psalter 194:5

Christ was placed between the millstones of God’s vengeance-demanding justice, but He was not destroyed. Also for His people it is true, “He will not ever be threshing.” If the Lord should continue, then nothing would remain. Here below, at times, the Lord gives His people some reprieve in the strife, and they may rest in God. “He will not suffer His people to be tempted above what they are able but will with the temptation also give a way of escape.” He never lays too much upon His people even though, at times, they think it is too much. Often, they call out, “Doth God know, and is there knowledge with the most High?” Here they can lie so long under the firebrands and among the pots. How much can be said to those people for which they have no answer. Yea, they know of those mockers who say, “Where is now the God in whom ye trusted?” So many times everything is closed because of their sins, and they are unable to come forth, but the Lord will not always chastise His people.

They are threshed so that Christ may receive stature in them and that they may be rooted and grounded in love. It is all done so that they shall glory in nothing but only in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and, in this manner, be prepared for eternal glory. The trials and oppressions of God’s Church will one day end, and then God will exchange their sorrow for eternal bliss. He delivers them out of the strife and places them above it where they will sing forever about the ways of the Lord. Ruth, when drawn out of Moab, first came to the field of Boaz. Afterwards, she was led to the threshing floor, then to the gate of the city, and finally, as the lawful wife of Boaz who had redeemed her and married her. God’s people will one day come from the threshing floor and be led into the banquet hall where eternal joy shall be upon their head, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away forever. There, there shall be no more riddles and problems, no more grief, sorrow, rebellion, or resistance.

Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God. There the full light shall rise upon all of God’s counsel and dealings and upon all His ways to the eternal admiration of His people who have been bruised, but also to the adoration of the Triune God who is to be praised to all eternity. What a joyful day it will be when all the shadows have flown away and there shall be no more night. No afflicted Heman or dumb Zacharias shall be found there. What will it be to be delivered from all sin and pain to perfectly praise Him eternally? That is the future of the true people of God who were included in Christ from eternity.

My unconverted fellow traveler, you who are a stranger to all of this and who have never become aware of God’s virtues, how deplorable is your condition. In Adam we have willingly and voluntarily torn ourselves away from God, and this has created a debt which we will never be able to repay. The debt, however, does lie for our account, and one day God will bring it to our remembrance. In addition to this, we have corrupted ourselves to such an extent that we can do nothing else but that which is evil in the eyes of a holy and righteous God. The poor man, even now, living under the light of the gospel which preaches unto him that Christ has descended as the Bread from heaven which gives life to the world, by nature, does not concern himself to receive a crumb from that table of grace. Man has lost his right knowledge in Paradise, and he does not realize his debt, nor does God’s justice press him. With his heaven-high guilt he sets himself against the Lord, not willing that Christ would be King over him. Man has become an enemy of God, and his whole life testifies of it.

Oh, consider that, by and by, death will overtake us; how terrible it will be if in this life we have never bowed before Him. Instead of falling before God as broken ones, the unconverted in this life have bruised God’s people and oppressed His heritage. When, by and by, Christ shall appear upon the clouds of heaven to judge the poor of the people and to deliver the children of the needy, He shall break the oppressors (Psalter 194:5). Then there shall never more be an opportunity to be healed or restored.

Some people have, at times, hid themselves among the stuff as Saul, the first king of Israel, did, but they have never humbled themselves in truth before God and have never been broken by God’s virtues. Those who have never been broken by God’s virtues will never be in contact with a bruised Christ. By and by, you will be threshed in eternal misery which shall never end. The smoke of your torment shall arise to all eternity. Oh, that by the irresistible ministration of the Holy Spirit you might yet be humbled before God and as a poor, guilty, hell-worthy sinner fall down before Him. God is still the Mighty One to bring you to the feet of the Lord Jesus like the sinner in Luke 7. She was so broken beneath the virtues of God that she did not dare to say a word or raise a petition to Jesus but just lay there weeping about her sin and guilt. Oh, what sorrow filled her soul. How bitter is sin! On the other hand, she lay there as one drawn by the Father, worked upon by the Holy Spirit, to take refuge by that blessed Mediator between God and man. It turned out better for that woman than she had expected. She was not cast away but lifted up and received forgiveness for her sins.

May that yet become the portion of all those who are still strangers of this. We must be threshed; the chaff must be removed and be burned. Our souls must be bruised under the justice of God. God’s people are threshed because they have been chosen by God in Christ from all eternity. Only the Holy Spirit can bruise us. He is the Spirit of judgment and burning. May that which is ours fall away so that we may appear before God as poor and naked ones to there undersign our sentence and to be put into the liberty and glory of the children of God. Then, Christ becomes our only foundation and our only hope.

Oppressed people, may it yet please God to work onward and solve your problems. That is a one-sided work, through Christ. What a joyful day it would be. The sun would also arise upon you when you must pass through that Peniel, but people, you will go through halting upon your thigh, not to complain about it but to acknowledge the Lord for it. If you are still being threshed by Satan, the world, and sin, it is for your benefit. We carry so much chaff, and we have so many teraphims whereupon we are sitting, which we would so gladly hide. We must lose everything; we must be bruised so that we may be purified and more and more have a need of Christ and for Christ. May God give us much of that true bruising of soul which will bind us closer to Christ, will have us glory in His Person and work, and will enliven the hope in the grace which shall be applied to us in the revelation of Christ. Soon that purifying will no longer be necessary. Then we will be delivered of self, and we shall be satisfied when we awaken with God’s likeness. May God grant that to you for Christ’s sake.

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen