Threshing and Declaring

"Oh, my threshing and the grain of my floor! That which I have heard from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you."

Isaiah 21:10

There is a good application from this verse for all who preach the Word of God.  The role of a teaching pastor is much like that of a chef, in that the preparation of a sermon is similar to preparing a meal.  Quality ingredients are prepared, mixed in the right proportion, and cooked or baked to make nutritious, hopefully delicious dishes.  The audience is considered, even as a chef would adapt his fare to appeal to children or a gourmet critic.  A preacher would be wise not to approach a class of year-three children the same way he would a lecture in seminary.  The truth of the message must not be changed, but the presentation should be altered slightly to communicate the truth of scripture in a way it can be easily understood and received by the listeners.  Appropriate illustrations and applications tailored by the Holy Spirit shed light to illuminate profound spiritual truths in simple ways.

After wheat or other grains are harvested, they must be threshed before they can be eaten or ground into meal.  Threshing is the violent process of separating the inedible husk and stalk from the wholesome grain.  If you are interested for an amazing transcript of a sermon on the subject of threshing by C.H. Spurgeon, follow this link!  A preacher's job is not to read the Bible and thresh the good from the inedible, for all of God's Word is spiritually wholesome, nutritious, and good.  A preacher's own thoughts, motive, and words, however, must be thoroughly threshed.  There are plenty of inedible, coarse, and empty words naturally found in me which must be threshed from my discourses.  We must carefully weigh our interpretations and applications of the text according to the leading of the Spirit to cull our own opinions so we might faithfully hold forth the wholesome Word.  A bushel of chaff is not as valuable as a few kernels of good grain.

May all preachers of the Word be able to say, "That which I have heard from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you."  We are to preach the Word, not ourselves.  My opinions and words of my crafting are chaff, but the Word of the LORD will endure forever.  God's Word is good seed which has the potential to transform, cleanse, grow in the hearts of willing hearers, and be fruitful.  Preachers must allow God's Word to thresh us of errors so we might faithfully preach as the scripture exhorts in 2 Timothy 4:1-4:  "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: ² preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. ³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; ⁴ and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables."

Let us declare faithfully the truths of God's Word, and also strive to be doers of the Word.  We cannot expect our sermons to have any lasting effect on anyone if we ourselves are not transformed.  God designed men with two ears and two eyes, and there is little value in a preacher who is all mouth.  We must hear from the LORD and submit to God's truth before we have anything of value to say.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear.  Praise the LORD for the effectual life in His Word, and those who hear it and obey will be established and fruitful for God's glory!

Know Your Motive

We can never be sure of the motives of others, but God sees the heart.  Motive is the difference between a word of encouragement and flattery, from manslaughter and first-degree murder.  Motive is the difference between a gift and a bribe, the difference between being genuine or manipulative.  When Samuel looked upon Eliab the son of Jesse with approval, God spoke of the importance of the heart in 1 Samuel 16:6-7:  "So it was, when they came, that he [Samuel] looked at Eliab and said, "Surely the LORD'S anointed is before Him." ⁷ But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."  Appearance may convince men, but God is not fooled.

It occurred to me sometimes we can fool ourselves - despite the conscience God has sovereignly placed within us.  How gracious He is to send the Holy Spirit to convict, help, comfort, and guide us into all truth.  As we read God's Word, the Holy Spirit applies it to our hearts.  One verse can be a healing balm, another a sword which pierces us through.  Hebrews 4:12 says, "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."  Even a seared conscience is revealed as tender inside when the sharp sword from Christ's mouth slices like a razor through the thickened exterior.  He does not cut with His Word to injure, but to promote repentance, healing, and wholeness.

We should think before we speak, and our motive ought to be carefully considered.  Words have the power to build up or throw down, to strengthen or undermine.  Proverbs 20:9-10 says, "Who can say, "I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin"? ¹⁰ Diverse weights and diverse measures, they are both alike, an abomination to the LORD."  The use of diverse weights and diverse measures implies an effort to deceive.  Unethical traders would tamper with their weights to affect business transactions in their favour, receiving too much money for too few goods.  It is important our words are carefully weighted with God's truth.  We are responsible to ensure our lifestyle matches our words, we do not show partiality, or act differently around certain people we hope to impress.  So much in the life of a Christian boils down to motive.  May we be transparent and teachable before God as it is written in Psalm 139:23-24, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; ²⁴ and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Sin's Wages

I live in Australia, a country which has abolished the death penalty.  Because of looming executions of high-profile Australians in Indonesia, capital punishment has been the subject of discussion frequently of late on television, radio programs, schools, and cafes.  Opinions and views abound.  The implications of what has largely become a politicised issue effects everyone personally, no matter what country a person lives in.  God said through the prophet in Ezekiel 18:20:  "The soul who sins shall die."  The wages of sin is death.

When God created Adam and breathed into him a living soul, He gave Adam freedom to eat from any tree in the Garden of Eden except the one in the centre.  God warned in Genesis 2:17, "...of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."  Death was assured to be the certain consequence should Adam rebel against the command of a holy, righteous God.  Of course it is all history:  Adam sinned in eating the fruit, was cut off from fellowship with God, was cast out of the Garden with Eve his wife, and was prevented from ever entering Eden again.  Adam's body continued to live, but he slowly began to die.  He eventually died, and the sentence of death has been passed down to all since.

Everyone born on this planet is under the curse and sentence of death.  We all experience the effects of Adam's sin before our bodies perish:  sickness, sadness, pain, suffering, disease, and crying.  Men have toiled over the ground which produced thorns, and women have experienced intense pain in childbirth.  These too are results of the fall.  God has allowed these things to be reminders of the reality of sin's existence and the ultimate destruction which await all who have sinned.  From high-rise flats in developed metropolitan areas to remote solitary huts, people find themselves (for the most part) unwittingly on death row.  Ban capital punishment if you want, but it won't keep people from dying.  A doctor may give a person weeks or months to live, but no one knows precisely the day or means of their death.  Experience in this world tells us we will all surely die, just as God said.

It was through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross which God demonstrated His love for all people.  He is not willing any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.  Our bodies will die as a result of sin, but our souls can live eternally in a glorified body God has prepared for all who repent and trust in Jesus.  This truth is so monumental!  Here is how the Bible describes what God has provided through Jesus in Romans 5:6-21:  "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. ¹⁰ For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. ¹¹ And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. ¹² Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned-- ¹³ (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. ¹⁴ Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. ¹⁵ But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. ¹⁶ And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. ¹⁷ For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) ¹⁸ Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. ¹⁹ For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous. ²⁰ Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, ²¹ so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

We can be born again through faith in Christ and experience eternal life through Him.  A day is coming when our bodies will perish and we will all go the way of the earth.  But no man needs to die spiritually, for Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life.  Justice is satisfied by the atoning, substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross for all sinners who trust in Him.  Friend, do you know Jesus?  Have you received His forgiveness?  Is your soul at rest, knowing you have received the free gift of salvation provided through Christ's death and resurrection?  Today is the day of salvation, and all fear of death can be swallowed up in the victory of Jesus.  The chains which hold us fearfully awaiting judgment can be shattered, for God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness when we confess our sin, repent, and believe the Gospel.  Whether Christians stand before a firing squad or contract a terminal disease, we can know our passing only speeds us along to heavenly glory.  In receiving our wages we cash in on Christ's sacrifice and enter eternal glory to live with Him forever.  We can say joyfully before and after, "Death, where is your sting?  Grave, where is your victory?  Thanks be to God who always gives us the victory!"

Eternity in Our Hearts

Man is unlike all other created beings.  Sometimes humans are touted as the "top of the evolutionary ladder," but it does not take a PhD to see the the distance between the rungs of primates and humans is an impossible jump.  Man is a world apart in complexity, thinking, morality, philosophy, technology, and especially spiritually.  Human beings are more than beasts, even if we choose to act like them or are deceived to think somehow, someway, we share ancestry with them.

The Bible says God made man in His own image and breathed into Adam a living soul.  He was formed out of the dust of the ground, not from some lesser species.  The distance between the rungs of man and beast is an eternal expanse, impossible to navigate through the sheer force of natural selection.  Solomon wrote of God and men in Ecclesiastes 3:11:  "He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end."  God has put eternity in the hearts of men, an awareness of time and eternity no other created animal has.  We realise our time on earth is limited.  Our eyes have been opened to consider the implications of space and time.  We wonder what will happen after we die.  Animals do not "think" or have such longings for knowledge of the future, nor do animals care to enshrine the past.

My son is spending a week at Macquarie University working in the museum with antiquities.  He has been learning how to handle these valued  treasures carefully to preserve our connection with the ancient world.  Apes, elephants, cats, snakes, or chickens have no appreciation nor concept of history or the distant future.  We view many animals as "smart," and some are very clever - as far as animals go.  But in comparison to human beings there is an infinite difference.  There are no chimpanzee philosophers, musicians, historians, or lab technicians.  Apes cannot study music theory, biology, theology, chemistry, or even participate in physical education with small children.  But to only look what apes can and cannot in relation to mankind would be an extremely narrow approach.  The most critical difference between animals and people is how God created us.  There is a spiritual aspect - a soul - God has put inside every human being.  He has given us a conscience, a sense of right and wrong which agrees with the truth of God's Word.  God has put eternity in our hearts and a complexity of thought, the capacity for artistic expression, and knowledge of time like no other created beings on this earth.

A dog's life is governed by breakfast time and dinner time, but humans realise we only have twenty-four hours in every day, seven days in every week, and fifty-two weeks in every year.  People agree with the statement in the Steve Miller Band song "Fly Like an Eagle" which says, "Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin', into the future."  The older people grow, the faster time seems to go.  This reality concerns humans deeply, but animals pay it no mind.  There is no growing sense of urgency in the life of a dog or cat as their years go on to accomplish something more significant than existence.  The Bible which tells us of God creating man reveals all people will stand before God and be judged after our lives on earth.  Animals will not face this judgment, for they do not have in them a soul with the capacity to understand, think, feel, and know as man does.  The scriptures say the wages of sin is death, and the soul that sins will surely die.  Should we die in our sins, humans will face eternity in hell separated from God forever.  Yet because of God's great love for us, He made a way all can be saved through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.  This is called the Gospel, the Good News.  People are able to enter into the joy of the LORD and everlasting life when they believe God's Word and rely upon Jesus for salvation.

To say Jesus was only a man is like saying man is just another primate.  Jesus has been revealed from heaven as the Son of God, Immanuel - God with us.  The one true God put on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ to reveal the way of salvation to all who would believe and receive Him.  Matthew 16:24-26 reads, "Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ²⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. ²⁶ For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"  Jesus laid down His life on Calvary's cross, then rose three days later proving His power over sin and death.  The human soul provides an awareness, a startling knowledge that there is something beyond this life.  Instead of worrying about the future or ignoring those feelings, trying to convince yourself that heaven and hell are not real, look to Jesus Christ as your LORD and Saviour.  Open a Bible and read His words for yourself.  You are more than a monkey, and Jesus is more than a man.  Trust in Him today!