“Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from Him cometh my salvation” [Psalm 62:1].
Blessed posture! Waiting truly and only upon the LORD. Be this our condition all this day and every day. Waiting His leisure, waiting in His service, waiting in joyful expectation, waiting in prayer, and content. When the very soul thus waits, it is in the best and truest condition of a creature before his Creator, a servant before his Master, a child before his Father. We allow no dictation to God, nor complaining of Him; we will permit no petulance and no distrust. At the same time, we practice no running before the cloud and no seeking to others for aid: neither of these would be waiting upon God. God, and God alone, is the expectation of our hearts.
Blessed assurance! From Him salvation is coming; it is on the road. It will come from Him and from no one else. He shall have all the glory of it, for He alone can and will perform it. And He will perform it most surely in His own time and manner. He will save from doubt, and suffering, and slander, and distress.
Though we see no sign of it as yet, we are satisfied to bide the LORD’s will, for we have no suspicion of His love and faithfulness. He will make sure work of it before long, and we will praise Him at once for the coming mercy.
A SEAT IN HEAVEN IS NOW THINE, BUT A CHAIN IN HELL WOULD HAVE BEEN THINE HAD NOT GOD’S SOVEREIGN GRACE MADE THE DIFFERENCE
C.H. Spurgeon
Look upon this, believer.
“What was there in thee to merit esteem, Or give the Creator delight?”
Yea, look upon thyself as thou art now. Doth not thy conscience reproach thee? Do not thy thousand wanderings stand before thee, and tell thee that thou art unworthy to be called his son? Does not the weakness of thy mental power, the frailty of thy moral power, thy continual unbelief, and thy perpetual backsliding from God, tell thee that thou art less than the least of all saints? And if He hath made thee any thing, art thou not thereby taught that it is grace, free, sovereign grace, which hath made thee to differ?
Should any here, supposing themselves to be the children of God, imagine that there is some reason in them why they should have been chosen, let them know, that as yet they are in the dark concerning the first principles of grace, and have not yet learned the gospel. If ever they had known the gospel, they would, on the other hand, confess that they were less than the least—the offscouring of all things—unworthy, ill-deserving, undeserving, and hell-deserving, and ascribe it all to distinguishing grace, which has made them to differ; and to discriminating love, which has chosen them out from the rest of the world.
Great Christian, thou wouldst have been a great sinner if God had not made thee to differ. O! thou who art valiant for truth, thou wouldst have been as valiant for the devil if grace had not laid hold of thee. A seat in heaven shall one day be thine; but a chain in hell would have been thine if grace had not changed thee. Thou canst now sing his love; but a licentious song might have been on thy lips, if grace had not washed thee in the blood of Jesus. Thou art now sanctified, thou art quickened, thou art justified; but what wouldst thou have been to-day if it had not been for the interposition of the divine hand?
There is not a crime thou mightest not have committed; there is not a folly into which thou mightest not have run. Even murder itself thou mightest have committed if grace had not kept thee. Thou shalt be like the angels; but thou wouldst have been like the devil if thou hadst not been changed by grace. Therefore, never be proud; all thy garments thou hast from above; rags were thine only heritage. Be not proud, though thou hast a large estate, a wide domain of grace; thou hadst once not a single thing to call thine own, except thy sin and misery. Thou art now wrapped up in the golden righteousness of the Saviour, and accepted in the garments of the beloved; but thou wouldst have been buried under the black mountain of sin, and clothed with the filthy rags of unrighteousness, if He had not changed thee.
“And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, What is the vine tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest?” [Eze 15:1,2]
And art thou proud? Dost thou exalt thyself? O! strange mystery, that thou, who hast borrowed every thing, should exalt thyself; that thou, who hast nothing of thine own, but hast still to draw upon grace, shouldst be proud; a poor dependent pensioner upon the bounty of thy Saviour, and yet proud; one who hath a life which can only live by fresh streams of life from Jesus, and yet proud! Go, hang thy pride upon the gallows, as high as Haman; hang it there to rot, and stand thou beneath, and execrate it to all eternity; for sure of all things most to be cursed and despised is the pride of a Christian. He, of all men, has ten thousand times more reason than any other to be humble, and walk lowly with his God, and kindly and humbly toward his fellow-creatures. Let this, then, humble thee, Christian, that the vine-tree is nothing more than any other tree, save only for the fruitfulness which God has given it.
“By the grace of God I am what I am!” [1Cor 15:10]
“What a consolation it is that our God never changes! What he was yesterday he is today. What we find him today we shall find him for ever. Are you struggling against sin? Don’t struggle in your own strength: it is God who performeth all things for you…In the hand of Jesus all his people are, and in that hand they shall be for ever and ever. ‘None shall pluck them out of my hand,’ saith He. Their preservation shall be perfected. So, too, their sanctification.
Every child of God is set apart by Christ, and in Christ, and the work of the Spirit has commenced which shall subdue sin, and extirpate the very roots of corruption; and this work shall be perfected; nay, is being perfected at this very moment… He is perfecting us in all things for himself. He has promised to bring us to glory. We have the earnest of that great glory in us now. The new life is there; all the elements of heaven are within us. Now He will perfect all these. He will not suffer one good thing that He has planted within us to die. It is a living and incorruptible seed, which liveth and abideth for ever. He will perfect all things for us. There is nothing that makes the saints complete but what God will give to us. There shall be lacking us no one trait of loveliness that is needful for the courtiers of the skies; no one virtue that is necessary in us.
What a marvellous thing is a Christian! How mean; how noble! How abject;how august! How near to hell; how close to heaven! How fallen, yet lifted up! Able to do nothing; yet doing all things! Doing nothing; yet accomplishing all things; because herein it is that, in the man, and with the man, there is God, and He performeth all things for us. God, give us grace to look away entirely, evermore, from ourselves, and to depend entirely upon Him.”
“And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire A STILL SMALL VOICE.” [1kings 19:12]
The lightning flamed over the whole Heaven, attended by peals of thunder such as the man of God had never heard before. From crag to crag leaped the live lightning till the whole firmament blazed with the fire of God! Yet we do not find that the Prophet was in the least cowed or dismayed. His was a brave spirit—calm amid the storm. As the eagle mounts in the centre of the lightning and rises on the wings of the storm, so did it seem with Elijah’s spirit—he was awakened by the fury of the elements, but he was not afraid. And now the thunder ceased and the lightning was gone. The earth was still, the wind was hushed and there was a dead calm.
And out of the midst of the still air there came what the Hebrew calls, “A VOICE OF GENTLE SILENCE,” as if silence had become audible! There is nothing more amazing than an awful stillness after a dread uproar. Even the noise of the wind and of the storm which could not cow Elijah were not so terrible as the still small voice by which Jehovah called His servant near. Then the Prophet covered his face and went to the mouth of the cave and stood to listen, for the still small voice had won the solemn attention of his soul. It had done for him what all the rest could not do—for this reason that the Lord was not in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire—but the Lord was in the still small voice and Elijah knew it and was awed and prepared himself to hear what God, the Lord, would speak.
What is the lesson of this? May God the Holy Spirit help us this morning to learn it and to teach it.
First, I call your attention to THE CHOSEN AGENCY.
Notice at the outset what it was not. It was not the terrible, it was not the tremendous, it was not the overwhelming, but something the reverse of all these. It was not a grand display of power, for God was in none of those great things which Elijah saw and heard. That which conquered Elijah’s brave heart was not whirlwind, was not earthquake, was not fire—it was the still small voice! That which effectually wins human hearts to God and to His Christ is not an extraordinary display of power. Men can be made to tremble when God sends pestilence, famine, fire and others of His terrible judgments—but these things usually end in the hardening of men’s hearts, not in the winning of them.
The still small voice succeeds where “terrible things in righteousness” are of no avail. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord.” [Zech 4:6] Crash after crash the orator’s passages succeed each other! What a tremendous passage! The hearers must surely be impressed. Wind! And the Lord is not in it! And now everything seems to shake, while, like a second John the Baptist, the minister proclaims woe and terror and pronounces the curse of God upon a generation of vipers! Will not this break hard hearts? No! Nothing is accomplished. It is an earthquake, but the Lord is not in the earthquake. Another form of force remains. Here comes one who pleads with vehemence! All on fire, he flashes and flames! Look at the brightness of his sensational metaphors and anecdotes! Yes, fire! Might we not say fireworks? And yet the Lord does not work by such fire. The Lord is not in the fire!
The furious energy of unbridled fanaticism, the Lord does not use. He may employ great and terrible things as preliminaries to His soul-saving work, but they are only preliminaries—the work, itself, is done in the secret silence of the heart. As they were in Elijah’s case, so are these things in the cases of others—they startle and arouse, but they cannot convince and convert. That which is to quicken, enlighten, sanctify and really bless is the still small voice of gentle silence! This sounds like a paradox, but the sense is clear to him who knows the Truth of God by experience. The voice which is not heard outside is Omnipotent within.
We have sufficiently shown the negative side of it—God’s work stands not in the power of the creature. What, then, does God use to touch the heart? Our heavenly Father generally uses that which is soft, tender, gentle, quiet, calm, peaceful—A STILL SMALL VOICE. In the work of real conversion—of bringing the soul to decision and complete obedience to God—the calling voice is often so gentle that it is quite unperceived by others except in its results. Yes, frequently so gentle that it is almost unperceived by the man who is the subject of it! He may not even be able to tell exactly when the voice came and when it went. The gentle zephyr refreshes the fevered brow, but the sufferer scarcely knows that it has passed through the sick chamber and is gone, so soft is its Heaven-given breath.
In reconciliation there are no blows, nor beats of drums, nor bolts of tempests—love is the captain of this bloodless war! There is little display of physical or mental force and yet there is more real power than if force had been used! We observe that where there was a display of power, as in wind, earthquake and fire, we read afterwards, “God was not in it,” but here, in this still small voice in which there was no display of power, God was at work! Here, then, we see THE WEAKNESS OF POWER, but we learn also THE POWER OF WEAKNESS and how God often makes that which seems most resistible to be irresistible—and that which we would suppose to be easily waved away, weaves about a man fetters from which he never can escape!
Softly and gently works the Holy Spirit, even as the breath of spring which dissolves the iceberg and melts the glacier. When frost has taken every rivulet by its throat and held it fast, spring sets all free. No noise of hammer or of file is heard at the loosening of the fetters, but the soft south wind blows and all is life and liberty. So is it with the work of the Spirit of God in the soul when He actually comes to set the sinner free! He works effectually, but no voice is heard.
Now, whatever the soft and gentle instrumentality may be, it is, in every case, if it saves the soul, worked by the Holy Spirit’s Presence. And the Holy Spirit, though He can be “a rushing, mighty wind” when He wills for He comes ac-cording to His own Sovereign pleasure. Yet, usually, when He comes to bring to man the peace of God, descends as the dove, or as the dew from Heaven—all peace, gentleness and quiet. Satan can set the soul on fire with agony! Doubts and fears and terrors rend it like an awful earthquake! The whole man is in trouble and confusion, as the whirlwind of the Law sweeps through his soul! But the Spirit comes in tender love, revealing Christ, the Gentle One, setting up the Cross of the Savior before the sinner’s tearful eyes and speaking peace, pardon and salvation.
Brothers and Sisters, this is what we need—the work of the Spirit of God in His own manner of living love! I have said that He works usually to the salvation of the soul by revealing the love of Christ and it is so, not only at our first conversion, but afterwards. All along, His operations are after the same quiet and effectual kind. As we grow in sanctification, it is by tender revelations of the Father’s love. What has such influence over any of us as the infinite, overflowing Grace of God in our Lord Jesus Christ?
Thus, like the silent morning light, Grace works upon the man. Its processes are carried on by love. There is not a touch of terror or bondage in the great reconciling deed within. The Gospel, with its glad tidings, leaps out of the heart of God and enters into the heart of men—and rest and sacred gratitude follow. God may devour His enemies with lions, but His friends He wins with love! Those that are obdurate He will break as with a rod of iron, dashing them in pieces like potters’ vessels—but for His own—when He comes to save them, He touches them with the silver sceptre of mercy! Grace works with the oiled feather. Love is the chariot of Omnipotence when it comes into the world of mind. This, my dear Friends (to close this first head), coming quietly home to us, to each one of us individually, without animal excitement—this it is which unites us to Jesus by faith!
Elijah was calm and quiet when he heard that still small voice of God! He neither fell down in horror, nor danced for joy, yet his whole nature was touched, his inmost heart was convulsed. The silence which God had caused to be heard within him, thawed his soul. THIS is how conversions are worked. When the Truth of God comes right home to the heart; when the man perceives that the message of Grace belongs to him—when he grips and grapples with that Truth and that Truth with him—then without help from the outside, he seeks and finds eternal life! The still small voice within the conscience is God’s chosen instrumentality to effectually convert and comfort the souls of men!
The Kingdom of God comes not with observation (Lk 17:20)—but in the secret chamber, man is brought near to God.
Notice THE CHOICE EFFECTS of this chosen mode of working. The first effect of it upon Elijah was that the man was subdued. I have gone over this before. He who could confront the raging wind. He who was not terrified by the lightning, nor made to tremble at the earthquake the moment he was in that in that stillness and heard that gentle voice—wrapped his face in his sheepskin robe and went outside the cave like a child obedient to the call of his heavenly Father. And when the Spirit of God comes in His gentle power upon any of you, then you will resist no longer—you will be subdued and conquered by His soft and tender touch.
The first thing Elijah did, I said, was to wrap his face in his mantle, therein imitating the angels who cannot stand unveiled in that awful Presence. He did his best to hide his face, like one ashamed—ashamed of having doubted his God, of having played the coward—ashamed of being found away from the place of his service. When the Holy Spirit deals with men and women, this is an early effect upon their minds—shamefacedness and humiliation cover their faces— They cannot speak in the same bold tones as they were known to do! All boasting is excluded. For some time, at any rate, they have to learn how to behave themselves in the Divine Presence—for walking in the Light as God is in the Light is not easy for newly-converted sinners—their eyes are weak and tender and, therefore, they have to cover them from the blaze of the eternal light. Love is the triumphant power! Where mere power and thunder fail, it leads the heart in glad captivity.
Those who hear the voice of the Lord are sure to cry, “Lord, show me what you would have me to do.” When that voice wins the willing ear, it creates a ready foot to go where God bids us. Our desire is to know the Lord’s will and promptly to fulfil it, for the heavenly whisper has for its burden—“Follow Me.” And now that Elijah has come out into the clear air, the next effect upon him is that he has personal dealings with God. The voice says to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” It is a home enquiry, made to himself, alone. He knows that God is speaking with him and, there-fore, he feels the force of every word which searches him. Then he pours out the bitterness of his grief and tells the Lord what ails him.
The Spirit is surely at work with you when your converse is with the Lord alone. When you want nobody to hear what you have to say, but are glad to enter into your closet and shut the door and pray to your Father, who sees in secret, this is real work, the work of God! When you feel every line of the Word of God as you read it as if it were written for you, and you, alone—when you think that nobody else in the world can enter so fully into it, in your judgment, as you now do, for the sentences seem shaped for you and there are little words dropped into the threat and the promise exactly adapted for you—then it is that the still small voice is executing its sacred office! This is a main point, this contact of the soul with God—this breaking down of the barriers of things visible, this closing in with God, the Unseen.
Oh, it is a sight such as angels delight to behold when a man bows before the Most High and listens to his great Father’s voice and then tells out to Him all his heart without attempting to hide anything from Him! This is never produced by whirlwind, fire, or earthquake—it is the effect of the voice of gentle silence, for God is in it! Vain are eloquence, argument, music and sensationalism—the Spirit works all holy things and He, alone—and this He works in the solemn silence of a soul subdued by love!
His mercies are new EVERY MORNING and fresh EVERY EVENING!
WHO can know the number of His benefits, or recount the list of His bounties? Every sand which drops from the glass of time is but the tardy follower of a myriad of mercies. The wings of our hours are covered with the silver of His kindness, and with the yellow gold of His affection. The river of time bears from the mountains of eternity the golden sands of His favour. The countless stars are but as the standard bearers of a more innumerable host of blessings.
WHO can count the dust of the benefits which He bestows on Jacob, or tell the number of the fourth part of His mercies towards Israel? How shall my soul extol Him who daily loadeth us with benefits, and who crowneth us with loving-kindness? O that my praise could be as ceaseless as His bounty! O miserable tongue, how canst thou be silent?! Wake up, I pray thee, lest I call thee no more my glory, but my shame. “Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake right early.”
Salvation is the work of God. It is HE ALONE who quickens the soul “dead in trespasses and sins,” and it is He also who MAINTAINS THE SOUL in its spiritual life. He is both “Alpha and Omega.” “Salvation is OF THE LORD.” If I am prayerful, GOD makes me prayerful; if I have graces, they are God’s gifts to me; if I hold on in a consistent life, it is because HE upholds me with His hand.
I DO NOTHING WHATEVER TOWARDS MY OWN PRESERVATION, EXCEPT WHAT GOD HIMSELF FIRST DOES IN ME.
WHATEVER I have, all my goodness is of the Lord alone. Wherein I sin, THAT IS MY OWN; but wherein I act rightly, THAT is of God, wholly and completely. If I have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the Lord’s strength nerved my arm. Do I live before men a consecrated life? It is not I, but CHRIST who liveth in me.
Am I sanctified? I did not cleanse myself: God’s Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Am I weaned from the world? I am weaned by God’s chastisements sanctified to my good. Do I grow in knowledge? The great Instructor teaches me. All my jewels were fashioned by heavenly art. I find in God all that I want; but I FIND IN MYSELF NOTHING BUT SIN AND MISERY. “He only is my rock and my salvation.”
Do I feed on the Word? That Word would be no food for me unless the Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that manna but Jesus Christ himself incarnate, whose body and whose blood I eat and drink? Am I continually receiving fresh increase of strength? Where do I gather my might? My help cometh from heaven’s hills: WITHOUT JESUS I CAN DO NOTHING.
As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I, except I abide in Him. What Jonah learned in the great deep, let me learn this morning in my closet:
“They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion.” The emphasis lies upon the OBJECT of their trust, namely, Jehovah the Lord. What a privilege to be allowed to repose in God! How condescending is Jehovah to become the confidence of His people! To trust elsewhere is vanity; and the more implicit such misplaced trust becomes the more bitter will be the ensuing disappointment; but to trust in the living God is sanctified common sense which needs no excuse, its result shall be its best vindication. There is no conceivable reason why we should not trust in Jehovah, and there is every possible argument for so doing; but, apart from all argument, the end will prove the wisdom of the confidence.
The result of faith is not occasional and accidental; its blessing comes, not to some who trust, but to ALL who trust in the Lord. Trusters in Jehovah shall be as fixed, firm, and stable as the mount where David dwelt; and where the ark abode. To move mount Zion was impossible, the mere supposition was absurd.
“Which cannot be removed, but abideth forever.” Zion was the image of eternal steadfastness—this hill which, according to the Hebrew, “sits to eternity,” neither bowing down nor moving to and fro. Thus does the trusting worshiper of Jehovah enjoy a restfulness which is the mirror of tranquility; and this not without cause, for his hope is sure, and of his confidence he can never be ashamed.
As the Lord sits King forever, so do His people sit enthroned in perfect peace when their trust in Him is firm. This is, and is to be our portion; we are, we have been, we shall be as steadfast as the hill of God. Zion cannot be removed, and does not remove; so, the people of God can neither be moved passively nor actively, by force from without or fickleness from within. Faith in God is a settling and establishing virtue; He who by His strength sets fast the mountains, by that same power stays the hearts of them that trust in Him. This steadfastness will endure “forever,” and we may be assured therefore that no true believer shall perish either in life or in death, in time or in eternity. We trust in an eternal God, and our safety shall be eternal.
“As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from hence forth even forever.” [Ps 125:2] The hill of Zion is the type of the believer’s constancy, and the surrounding mountains are made emblems of the all-surrounding presence of the Lord. The mountains around the holy city, though they do not make a circular wall, are, nevertheless, set like sentinels to guard her gates. God does not enclose His people within ramparts and bulwarks, making their city to be a prison; but yet He so orders the arrangements of His providence that His saints are as safe as if they dwelt behind the strongest fortifications.
What a double security are verses 1-2 of Psalm 125! First, we are ESTABLISHED, and then ENTRENCHED: SETTLED, and then SENTINELED: made like a mount, and then PROTECTED as if by mountains. This is no matter of poetry, it is so in fact; and it is no matter of temporary privilege, but it shall be so FOREVER!
Date when we please, “from henceforth” Jehovah encircles His people: look on us as far as we please, the protection extends “even forever.”
Note, it is not said that Jehovah’s power or wisdom defends believers, but HE HIMSELF is round about them: they have His person for their protection, His Godhead for their guard. We are here taught that the Lord’s people are those who trust Him, for they are thus described in the first verses: the line of faith is the line of grace, those who trust in the Lord are chosen of the Lord. Verses 1-2 together prove the eternal safety of the saints: they must abide where God has placed them, and God must forever protect them from all evil. It would be difficult to imagine greater safety than is here set forth. Amen!
KNOWING CHRIST IN THE HEAD AND KNOWING HIM IN THE HEART – THERE’S A DIFFERENCE
C.H. Spurgeon
“I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” [Phil 3:8]
Spiritual knowledge of Christ will be a personal knowledge. I cannot know Jesus through another person’s acquaintance with Him. No, I must know Him myself; I must know Him on my own account. It will be an intelligent knowledge – I must know Him, not as the visionary dreams of Him, but as the Word reveals Him.
I must know His natures, divine and human. I must know His offices – His attributes – His works – His shame – His glory. I must meditate upon Him until I “comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.”
It will be an affectionate knowledge of Him; indeed, if I know Him at all, I must love Him.
An ounce of heart knowledge is worth a ton of head learning!
Our knowledge of Him will be a satisfying knowledge. When I know my Saviour, my mind will be full to the brim – I shall feel that I have that which my spirit panted after. “This is that bread whereof if a man eat he shall never hunger.” At the same time it will be an exciting knowledge; the more I know of my Beloved, the more I shall want to know. The higher I climb the loftier will be the summits which invite my eager footsteps. I shall want the more as I get the more. Like the miser’s treasure, my gold will make me covet more.
To conclude; this knowledge of Christ Jesus will be a most happy one; in fact, so elevating, that sometimes it will completely bear me up above all trials, and doubts, and sorrows; and it will, while I enjoy it, make me something more than “Man that is born of woman, who is of few days, and full of trouble”; for it will fling about me the immortality of the ever living Saviour, and gird me with the golden girdle of his eternal joy. Come, my soul, sit at Jesus’s feet and learn of him all this day. Amen!
“I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes – that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit as well as the sun in the heavens – that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses.
The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence – the fall of sere leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche. He that believes in a God must believe this truth.”
If God’s eye is on that tiny insect and seemingly insignificant bird, then we know He’s watching over us too. Hallelujah!
O LORD, Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. . . . . [{Psalm 139:1-10]
NOT A SINGLE ELECT SOUL WHOM THE FATHER ENTRUSTED TO THE SON SHALL BE LOST
C.H. Spurgeon
Every individual believer is precious in the sight of the Lord, a shepherd would not lose one sheep, nor a jeweller one diamond, nor a mother one child, nor a man one limb of his body, nor will the Lord lose one of His redeemed people!
However little we may be, if we are the Lord’s, we may rejoice that we are preserved in Christ Jesus.
“For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.” [Amos 9:9]
Every sifting comes by divine command and permission. Satan must ask leave before he can lay a finger upon Job. Nay, more, in some sense our siftings are directly the work of heaven, for the text says, “I will sift the house of Israel.” Satan, like a drudge, may hold the sieve, hoping to destroy the corn; but the overruling hand of the Master is accomplishing the purity of the grain by the very process which the enemy intended to be destructive. Precious, but much sifted corn of the Lord’s floor, be comforted by the blessed fact that the Lord directeth both flail and sieve to his own glory, and to thine eternal profit.
The Lord Jesus will surely use the fan which is in His hand, and will divide the precious from the vile. All are not Israel that are of Israel; the heap on the barn floor is not clean provender, and hence the winnowing process must be performed. In the sieve true weight alone has power. Husks and chaff being devoid of substance must fly before the wind, and only solid corn will remain.
Observe the complete safety of the Lord’s wheat; even the least grain has a promise of preservation. God himself sifts, and therefore it is stern and terrible work; he sifts them in all places, “among all nations”; he sifts them in the most effectual manner, “like as corn is sifted in a sieve”; and yet for all this, not the smallest, lightest, or most shrivelled grain, is permitted to fall to the ground.
“That the saying might be fulfilled, which He spake, Of them which Thou gavest me have I lost none.” [Jn 18:9]
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