The Great Separation # 4

The Great Separation # 4

3. Let me show you, in the third place, the portion which Christ's people shall receive, when He comes to purge His threshing floor.

The verse at the beginning of this paper tells us this in good and comfortable words. It tells us that Christ shall "gather His wheat into His barn."

When the Lord Jesus comes the second time, He shall collect His believing people into a place of safety. He will send His angels, and gather them from every quarter. The sea shall give up the dead, and the graves the dead that are in them - and the living shall be changed. Those who have laid hold on Christ by faith- none of them shall be overlooked in that company. Not one single grain of wheat shall be missing - when judgments fall upon a wicked world. 

Ah, it is a sweet and comfortable thought, that "the Lord cares for the righteous." But how much the Lord cares for them, I fear is little known, and dimly seen. They have their trials, beyond question - and these both many and great. 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 strong consolations - if their eyes were but open to see them. 

Bear with me, while I try to tell you something about Christ's care for poor sinners who believe in Him. We live in a day of weak and feeble statements. The danger of the state of nature is feebly exposed. The privileges of the state of grace are feebly set forth. Hesitating souls are not encouraged. Disciples are not established and confirmed. The man outside of Christ is not rightly alarmed. The man in Christ is not rightly built up. Truly this is a sore disease, and one that I would gladly help to cure.

The Lord takes pleasure in His believing people. though filthy in their own eyes - they are lovely and honorable in His! They are altogether beautiful - He sees no spot in them. Their weaknesses and shortcomings do not break off the union between Him and them. He chose them, knowing all their hearts. He took them for His own, with a perfect understanding of all their debts, liabilities, and infirmities - and He will never break His covenant and cast them off. When they fall, He will raise them again. When they wander, He will bring them back.

Their prayers are pleasant to Him. Their services are pleasant to Him. The Lord is pleased with the weak attempts of His people! Oh, reader, it is a blessed thing to be God's wheat! The Lord cares for all His people throughout their entire lives.

The Lord cares for His believing people in their deaths. Their times are all in His hands. The hairs of their heads are all numbered. They are kept on earth until they are ready for glory - and not one moment longer. When they die like Moses - according to the word of the Lord - at the right time and in the right way. And when they breathe their last, they fall asleep in Christ, and at once carried into paradise.

And the Lord will care for His believing people in the dreadful day of His appearing. The flaming fire shall not come near them. Sleeping or waking, living or dead, or standing at the post of daily duty - believers shall be secure and unmoved. They shall lift up their heads with joy, when they see redemption drawing near. They shall be changed, and put on their beautiful garments, in the twinkling of an eye. They shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Jesus will do nothing to a sin-laden world - until all His people are safe. Ah, reader, 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. Christ and His bride have been once joined in an everlasting covenant, and they shall never, never be put asunder!

Can you suppose the Lord Jesus Christ is less merciful, or less compassionate to not save His flock? Can you think He would suffer on the Cross and die for you, and yet leave it uncertain whether you 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 endeavors?

Oh, no! He does not do so. 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. Where He begins a work - there also He finishes. All whom He quickens 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 shall appear in Heaven with God.

If you have not taken up the cross and become Christ's disciple, you little know what privileges you are missing. Peace with God now - and glory hereafter; the Everlasting arms to keep you along the way - and the barn of safety in the end; all these are freely offered to you. You may say that Christians have tribulations - you forget that they have also consolations. You may say they have peculiar sorrows - you forget they have also peculiar joys. You see the outward part of Christianity - you see not the hidden treasures which lie deep within. Oh, judge not by outward appearances! Remember the barn and the crown! Are you wheat or are you chaff?

~J. C. Ryle~

(continued with # 5)