Good morning, good to see everyone
here today to worship. Today's message is the conclusion
of a two-part series covering the first 11 verses of Hebrews
chapter 12. So if you missed that first message,
I encourage you to try to get a copy because these two messages
will be complementary to one another. Some of you will recall
the first segment was titled, The Chastening of the Lord. And
in that message we saw that the Lord's chastening, that is His
corrective measures that are brought through the providence
of God, the afflictions, the trying circumstances that are
appointed by God the Father in love for all of His children
and only for His true children, that chastening, that is the
means that God uses to produce in them what verse 11 of our
text today calls the peaceable fruit of righteousness. The peaceable
fruit of righteousness. That's the title of today's message.
This fruit is that which is produced by God in and for the benefit
of every true believer, every member of the household of faith.
And as with most things of value, this benefit comes at a cost.
This fruit of righteousness, it costs no less than the shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. His obedience unto death on the
cross, whereby he established righteousness, hence the peaceable
fruit of righteousness. Righteousness, that's that perfect
satisfaction that Christ rendered to the justice of God the Father.
He rendered it on behalf of all for whom he lived and died. And
the merit of that glorious cross accomplishment, his very righteousness,
is imputed or charged to the account of all for whom he lived
and died. And as we see in Hebrews 12,
each and every one of them shall experience the peaceful fruit
of his righteousness. Now, I mentioned in the previous
message, and again today, I want you to know I think it's helpful
to our understanding of this passage if we keep in mind God's
words through Paul to the Romans. In Romans 8, 28, where he wrote,
and we know that all things, all things, work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. And all these things which includes
the chastisements from God. They all work together for good,
for each and every one of God's adopted children in Christ, the
called according to his purpose, those in whom God the Holy Spirit
produces the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Now, in the
first segment of this series, as I read through these verses,
I made quite a few comments, and I'm not going to repeat all
of those today, at least not at that level of detail, but
It has been a few weeks, so let's do read through these verses
again beginning in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1. Wherefore seeing
we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
again he's referring back to chapter 11 to the Old Testament
saints listed there, who had endured in the faith due to God's
faithfulness to them through all their very difficult trials
and afflictions. And with those examples in mind,
he says, let us then lay aside every weight and the sin which
doth so easily beset us, unbelief or doubt, and let us run with
patience, that is, so as to endure the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who
for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame and he sat down at the right hand of the throne
of God. For consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied
and faint in your minds. Continuing in verse four, he
says, you've not yet resisted unto blood, striving against
sin. Unlike some of those in chapter
11, you haven't been martyred for your belief, And ye have
forgotten, or a better translation would be, have you forgotten
the exhortation, or the encouragement, which speaketh unto you as unto
children. And so he shares it with them,
quoting from Proverbs 3, saying, My son, despise not thou the
chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.
For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? Verse eight, but if ye be without
chastisement, whereof all are partakers, that is all of his
true children, if you're without this chastisement, then are ye
bastards and not sons. I mentioned in that first message,
it's very clear here, none of his children are exempted from
chastisement. In other words, no chastisement
means not in the family. Continuing in verse 9, he adds,
furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, our earthly fathers,
which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not
much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and
live? For they Our earthly fathers,
barely for a few days, chastened us after their own pleasure.
That doesn't mean they took pleasure in it, but rather after in their
best judgment, according to their wisdom, as fallible as it might
be. But He, now we're talking about
God, we're talking about the all-wise Heavenly Father who
cannot fail to achieve His design. He chastens us for our profit. that we might be partakers of
his holiness. So I remind you again that the
essential holiness of God is not a communicable attribute.
The attribute of holiness, that speaks to the perfection of all
his character attributes. We talk of his love as a holy
love, perfect love, a holy justice. And you see that only belongs
to deity. Rather we partake of his holiness
which is in Christ, is received out of His fullness. We partake of it or we enter
into fellowship with it in communion with God as we see our holiness
in Christ by God-given faith. See, the only holiness that believers
have is His holiness. It's based upon His righteousness
imputed or charged to our accounts. The Bible tells us that God sees
His children in Christ. as holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
believers, sinners. They're sinners just like everyone
else, but they're sinners saved by grace. And these sinners saved
by grace are described that way in Colossians 1.22, holy, unreprovable,
unblameable. And that shows how real their
oneness is with their sinless substitute and representative.
but that before the holy justice of God. And when God uses our
difficulties in His chastening to remind us of our holy standing
in Christ, we partake of His holiness. Then in verse 11, He
declares, Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous,
but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. The afflictions that believers
endure under the chastening of the Lord, they're not a matter
of joy, they're a matter of grief. This chastening, see, consists
of that which we would naturally dislike, grieve over, things
we would not choose for ourselves. Yet the very things that true
believers grieve over, the Lord's chastisements, Remember, they're
included among the all things that work together for the good
of God's children. Now, as I said in the previous
message, faith believes that and patience will have us experience
it. And we'll talk about that more
in a moment. By way of reviewing that previous message, I emphasize
the obvious conclusions that can be drawn from this passage.
specifically that this peaceable fruit of righteousness is, first
of all, one, it's produced in all the children of God. And
then secondly, it's only produced in the true children of God.
And then thirdly, it is by God's appointed means. It's by the
chastening of the Lord. And since now both believers
and unbelievers experience difficulties and afflictions within It's obvious
we cannot distinguish between them, the believer and the unbeliever,
or as the Bible puts it, judge the tree, so to speak, by the
fruit that we can only distinguish between them. We can't distinguish
based on the circumstances. We can only distinguish between
them, between the believer and the unbeliever, by observing
the fruit that is produced afterward, not the trying circumstances
themselves. As the scripture declares Christ
said in his Sermon on the Mount that God causes it to rain on
both the just and the unjust. So let's instead now talk about
that fruit, the peaceable fruit of righteousness. The passage
that Winston chose to read from, Isaiah 61, there we saw that
God's children are called trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that he might be glorified. You know, Christ said
in his Sermon on the Mount, he also said that only a good tree
can bring forth good fruit. Well, likewise, none but a tree
of righteousness can bear fruits of righteousness. In the fullness
of time, the Lord Jesus came and he established the perfect
righteousness for his people. God's children who were planted,
planted by God the Father, in him God the Son. See, in Christ,
he took into union with his deity, a sinless humanity, body and
soul, so that he is God-man, the God-man mediator, the go-between. He might see in the place of,
as a representative and a substitute for all the adopted children
that the Father chose and gave him, that he might render for
them that perfect, sinless obedience, even unto the death of the cross.
And that satisfaction to justice he made, having been put under
the law, under the same jurisdiction that all humanity is under, to
redeem them, his sheep, that satisfaction is his righteousness. And it is that which all must
have if they're going to stand acceptably before the presence
of a holy God. A holy God can't commune with
sin. Christ lived and died for these trees of righteousness
that were planted in him, made one with him to do for them what
they could not possibly do for themselves. And this all, as
we just read, so that God alone might receive all the glory,
not the sinner. It's all his doing. It's not
their doing. God doesn't save anyone because
of anything they do. He won't save you because you
believe. If you truly believe, it's because
the Lord's already saved you and given you his blood-bought
gift of faith. We see something of this design
for God to get the glory in Paul's letter to the saints at Philippi.
There he wrote to the believers in chapter 1, beginning verse
9, said, In this I pray that your love may abound yet more
and more in knowledge and in all judgment, fruits of righteousness. that you may approve things that
are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till
the day of Christ. And look at verse 11, being filled
with the fruits of righteousness, which are one, by Jesus Christ,
and two, unto the glory and praise of God. Notice that. They're
by Jesus Christ, and two, unto the glory and praise of God.
Again, the trees of righteousness, see, are manifested in that through
the God-given eyes of faith, they come to see Christ as all
their righteousness. His doing, not theirs, whereby
God receives all the glory and praise. God tells us through
his word. We see it in 2 Corinthians 5,
21, that the guilt or the demerit of all their sins, his were imputed
or charged to Christ. He was made sin for them, he
who knew no sin, so that he could bear the penalty due unto those
sins. And likewise for all these whose
sins were imputed to him, they have imputed or charged to their
accounts the very merit of his obedience unto death, his perfect
righteousness, that they might be made the righteousness of
God in him. You see, he died for sins he
had no part in producing, that they might have a righteousness
that they had no part in producing. And thereby, as we read in Ephesians
1, they're accepted. They're accepted in the Beloved,
the Beloved Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Having His righteousness,
they stand in Him complete or perfect. That's what it means
to be justified. It's to be declared righteous.
not guilty. And as we read in Romans 5-9,
sinners are justified by his blood. People, many will take
verse 1 of that same chapter and assume it's telling us that
we're justified by faith, but verse 9 clears that up. We're
justified by his blood. You know, the commas weren't
in the original translation. If you place the comma after
They were added by the translators. If you put it after justified,
it reads, it makes sense. It won't be contradictory to
verse nine where it reads, therefore being justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, the peaceable
fruit of his righteousness. So the peaceable fruit of righteousness,
it speaks collectively. of all the benefits of being
made one with Christ and the communion with God that results
for sinners who've been reconciled to God, for whom peace was made. You may have noticed there in
Philippians 111 that when he spoke of the fruits of righteousness
that the word fruit was plural, fruits. Paul expressed his desire
that they be filled with the fruits of righteousness, and
I think that's very similar to what he wrote to the Ephesians
when he said that they be filled with the Spirit. So the fruit
of righteousness would include the fruit of the Spirit. Those
fruits which are only produced in those who are made one with
Christ, declared righteous in Him before God, all His children
whom He loves and chastens. The Bible sets forth the analogy
of Christ being the vine and the true believer, his children,
as the branches. Christ said that in John 15 verse
1, I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. That
just means farmer, or in this case, vinedresser. Every branch
in me that beareth fruit, or that beareth not fruit, he taketh
away. In other words, there may be
those who profess, who presume to be of the household of faith,
but as our text put it, they're bastards, not sons. They're illegitimate,
and those who may so profess, they'll be taken away. They're
not joined to the vine, see. And every branch that beareth
fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. He
purges or prunes the branches to bring forth more fruit for
our profit. And I believe the chastening
of the Lord may well be likened to this pruning. Skipping down
to verse four, he adds, abide in me and I in you. As a branch
cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine,
no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are
the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye
can do nothing. The branch has to be made one
with the vine before it can live, before it can grow. And we must
be made one with Christ in his life and death. And so we partake
of that righteousness. We come into fellowship with
it in the same way we partake of his holiness. We see Christ's
righteousness as our only righteousness. So then the branch abiding in
Christ by the influence of God the Holy Spirit will be made
fruitful in those fruits of the Spirit which are cited in Galatians
5 verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
even faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
And consider those verses along with what Paul wrote in Ephesians
5, 9, where it says, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all
goodness and righteousness and truth. In other words, it's all
from the essence of God. It's all derived from the very
perfection of Christ, who is our goodness, our righteousness,
our truth. See, the life of faith is one
that's lived out of His fullness. So the believer then brings forth
fruit that is to the glory of God. And it's all a peaceable
fruit. First of all, it brings peace
to our minds in believing. But it's a peaceable fruit in
that it's produced in consequence of the covenant love of the triune
Godhead. First, God the Father, see, is
revealed as the God of peace. And then secondly, God the Son
is revealed as the one who made peace, the peacemaker. And thirdly,
when God the Holy Spirit breathes life into the spiritually dead
sinner and enables him or her to see how this peace was made
for them, they see that by his gift of faith whereby they believe
God's gospel and thereby he gives them, as Romans 15, 13 puts it,
joy and peace in believing. As I quoted from Romans 5.1,
being justified by faith, believers have peace with God through the
Lord Jesus Christ, peaceable fruit of righteousness. I noted
in the last message that enduring chastisements might be likened
to the believer's bearing of his cross. You know, cross is
a burden. It's not something that we would
find desirable, but rather that goes against our natural wills.
But whatever cross is sent the believer's way, he or she can
know it's sent to promote their communion with God, not hinder
it. In Hebrews 12, in our text here,
we see that believers are encouraged to not despise the chastening
of the Lord. In other words, esteem it, highly
regard it. We might not enjoy it. There's
no might not. We won't enjoy it. He's speaking
of grievous things. But we're told there to lay aside
every weight anything that would hinder us as we run with patience,
so as to endure, to persevere in the faith. We're to lay aside
anything that would hinder us or distract us from what should
be our primary focus, ever looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of the faith. And we can see various ways that
God might use our afflictions, his chastening to rid us of those
things that would hinder us or distract us from being constantly
aware of that debt of gratitude that we owe to our Lord and Savior
and God's great mercy to us in Christ. And that draws out our
hearts in praise and worship, and that's good for us, to have
our mind on the things above rather than the things of this
world. So I thought it would be helpful this morning to just
consider some practical examples of how the Lord's chastening
might produce peaceable fruit of righteousness. I think it
helps us to see, in seeing those examples, we get a better sense
of the reality. We see how it might be so. And
when I say that, I don't pretend to know at all when going through
something or when you're going through something that this is
what the Lord will teach you versus what he's going to teach
me or how he's going to make it for our prophet. Consider
these as possible examples. And we do know and we have experienced
some of those, even our church. And we know that through some
difficulties we've gone through that we've benefited in ways.
Let's consider those outward trials or difficulties that believers
endure as chastisements from the Lord. Through James, we are
told some of the benefits that befall us as fruits of his righteousness. In chapter one, he wrote, my
brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. And again, the word temptations
here, it's not just referring to being tempted to sin, it's
all our trials and testings, our difficulties. Knowing this,
that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience
have her perfect work." That's complete. Let it be completed.
That you may be perfect and entire, complete. See, complete in Him,
wanting nothing, finding all that we need in Christ and in
His fullness. So God uses our various difficulties,
our trials and our testings to wean us from our reliance on
the things of this world so as to grow our reliance upon Him
and our love for Him. So all trying times test and
prove our faith, and by them our faith grows. And with that
grows the assurance of salvation. As the believers continually,
we're always reminded, we can't find any lasting comfort, relief,
except in that righteousness, the peaceable fruit of His righteousness. We're reminded again and again
that nothing but that righteousness will do for us. And so faith
then worketh patience or endurance. Faith believes God. It believes
God's promises, even when our senses and feelings are screaming
otherwise. In fact, I think faith maybe
is shown to be at its strongest when we're faced with the most
trying of circumstances. Faith believes God. And as such,
it sees the trials and the difficulties as just what God says they are,
as a product of a loving father for his dear children. And so
patience says I'll bear it. And by patience, we actually
then come to experience God's love afterward as it yields the
peaceable fruit of righteousness. And so as James puts it, we can
see that the triangle of our faith that has us patiently waiting
upon the Lord to see all the good he has in store for us,
that can be applied to every difficulty or trial that the
believer experiences. And we experience the blessing
afterwards. And listen, whether that means
we'll see it in this lifetime, as we often do in hindsight after
the trial is over, or whether we'll see it only in the hereafter,
faith just knows it's so because faith believes God and knows
the faithful God who so promises. Well, I want you to think with
me about when things are going well for you in your life, times
of prosperity in one way or another. It may be, you know, prosperity
in whatever form, it can be a curse. Whether we're prospering financially
or rich in friendships, maybe prospering in good health or
rich in love or in family relationships, whatever. And you know there's
nothing wrong with those things. Good and prosperous circumstances
are naturally desired by all of us, and they're to be enjoyed.
You know, the Bible says we're to enjoy our portion, but always
with an appreciation and a recognition of where and from whom all our
blessings flow. We know this from the whole of
scripture, that the believers define his or her chief happiness
in that which they have as objects of God's everlasting love. As Paul wrote to the believers
at Colossians 3-1, he says, if ye then be risen with Christ,
if you're one with him, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, where the victory's
been won. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead. You're dead
to sin, to the condemning power of sin. You're dead in Christ. When he died, you died. You're
dead to this world. The Bible says our conversation,
that means our citizenship, is not of this world. We, a believer,
has an eternal life. And your life is hid, it's protected,
safe and secure with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our
life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Now there's the ultimate peaceful
fruit of righteousness. And so we should strive to be
sure we do not find our enjoyment in any temporal thing or circumstance
of this world if, and I didn't say you shouldn't do it, we should
enjoy the things of this life, but we should not find enjoyment
in them if it would distract us from focusing on and enjoying
God's love for us. And you know that distraction,
it often shows up when we allow other interests to cause us to
neglect the means that God has appointed for our spiritual growth
and nourishment, the study of his word, prayer, and the meeting
together, assembling here as we do today to worship. You know,
that's one of the primary means whereby the true children of
God were refreshed in the knowledge of what we have as objects of
God's eternal love for us. And that's cause for rejoicing.
And there should be no rival to that. But due to remaining
sin, it's difficult for us, especially when things are going well in
times of prosperity. But listen, if God providentially
brings about difficult circumstances in the life of a true believer
to get their attention, listen, We know from studying Job, there's
no indication Job ever did anything wrong. So you can't, the chastisements
aren't due to, there are no sense to be considered as punishment
for sins, in no sense. Not even for our sinful neglect
if God brings about circumstances to get the true believer's attention
to remind him of where his priorities should be. Now Christ was punished
for all the sins of all his dear children. But as our text today
teaches, this chastisement, we're being exercised by it for our
good, by the loving chastening of a heavenly Father, all done
in love, corrected for our good, for our eternal good. Well, let's
consider possible examples of how God might use difficult circumstances. First, what about poverty? What
if God strips you of your wealth, be that whatever it is? What
if you maybe lose your job or unexpected expenses arise and
you find yourself in a tough financial position, maybe even
destitute? Well, that's grievous. But you
know, if you're one of God's children, by God-given faith,
His grace, you can know that even that is for your eternal
good. It could be the Lord's mercy
in putting someone in poverty as a means of improving their
love for and reliance upon their untold spiritual riches. You
know, made poor outwardly to enrich us spiritually. To have
us rely more and more. on Him who promises that He'll
supply all our needs according to His riches and glory. So He
might use poverty to make more real our eternal reliance upon
Him for all things. Upon Him, look, in whom believers
are spiritually rich even beyond our own wildest imaginations. Think of it. We have the the
eternal inheritance of the King of Kings, that which the precious,
most infinitely valuable blood of Christ could purchase for
us. What about health? What if the believer experiences
poor health, maybe an incurable disease or continual pain? As
I've said before, if we live long enough, most of us likely
are going to see our health decline as these bodies, as the Bible
calls them bodies of sin and death, as they age. Well, maybe
the Lord will use our declining health to make us more submissive
to his sovereign will. You know, our sickness, even
our bodily death is due unto man's sin. It was ushered in
with the fall of Adam, death was. So perhaps God will use
such afflictions to humble us further and cause us to see even
clearer what we are. What we really do deserve is
totally depraved sinners apart from God's grace in Christ. And
what does that do for the believer? Oh, it makes him so glad that
he's got a Savior, a substitute to stand in his or her place. It makes you value Christ all
the more, and that's for our profit. You know, some of you
know I've mentioned earlier that I've had some constant back pain
this past year. It's begun to wear on me. I know
a lot of people have a lot worse problems than that, but the restrictions
it's placed on me being able to enjoy all the things I enjoy
most in this life, and I enjoy a lot of things, it's been a
painful but a stark reminder to me that all that this world
has to offer, whether it's now, 20 or 30 years later, All of
it's temporary at best. And so I'm painfully reminded
to find my chief comfort, the only comfort and pleasure that
will last, not in that which I enjoy by sight and by sense
in this world, but in that perfect spiritual standing I enjoy in
Christ, the peaceable fruit of his righteousness. His life and
all it has to offer is just a vapor. There's an old writer that Winston
and I happen to both be reading now. He said this, he said, happy
sickness, which promotes spiritual health. And I know some of you
and others are dealing with much more serious health issues than
mine, and I don't pretend to know God's specific purpose in
those things for any one individual, but I do know this, I know if
you're truly trusting in Christ alone for all your salvation,
Then whether in this life or in the eternal hereafter, you
know, these difficulties that are all appointed in love for
your good and for God's glory, they will afterward, without
fail, all yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. God said
it. And by his gift of faith, we believe it. Well, what about
persecution? I mentioned that in the last
message, those cloud of witnesses that The saints listed there
in Hebrews chapter 11, they endured great persecution over the faith.
And you know, the Bible teaches that all believers, at least
to some extent, suffer persecution over their identification with
God's gospel. Christ said that, didn't he,
in the Sermon on the Mount? He's describing those who will
be eternally blessed when he said, blessed are they which
are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. The doctrine of Christ, the gospel,
it often becomes a point of contention. I think in particular for a new
believer, I recall when I first learned the gospel and I was
like a bull in a china shop. I didn't have a whole lot of
wisdom out there trying to talk with family and friends about
this wonderful truth that God had revealed to me. And if it's
not God's timing, He hasn't dealt with them It creates, it's a
form of persecution. The relationship has a break
in that one area that you can't fix. Many of the believers that
are cited in Hebrews 11 and elsewhere in the Bible, they're examples
of how their persecution, though grievous, it didn't hinder their
spiritual joy. And look, we have it so much
better in our generation than many of those forefathers in
the faith. And I think it's due to the religious freedoms that
we've enjoyed. So no doubt our persecution over the gospel is
typically light compared to those who were imprisoned or even martyred
for their faith. Yet, you know, be it ever so
slight when it's you. It doesn't seem so light, I recall,
at the time. But like the Apostle Paul, believers
should count it all joy. to have been deemed worthy, to
have been made worthy, to so suffer for Christ's sake. And
the joy of that privilege, it's experienced afterward, after
we've gone through it. As I mentioned before, that's
one affliction, you know, that is unique to God's children. Only they suffer that. Now, I
know there are those who are martyred for all sorts of religions. The Islamic fundamentalist blows
himself up in an act of terror and he's a martyr for his faith.
But only the children of God suffer persecution for righteousness
sake over their identification with God's gospel of sovereign
grace wherein his righteousness is revealed, Romans 117. I know
some of you are familiar with the story of Paul and Silas. You know, they were beaten and
thrown into prison and Philippi, and apparently only there to
be made mindful of the privilege they had in being able to so
identify with Christ and to suffer for Him. You can read about that
in Acts 16. It says, after being beaten,
thrown in prison, their feet put in stocks, they were singing
praises and thanking God, praying and singing praises unto Him
at midnight. before the jail doors were open.
So God makes even persecution profitable for the good of his
children, again, if it's persecution due to their identification with
Christ and his one way of salvation through Christ based on his imputed
righteousness. What if God causes, fourthly,
for you to suffer some injustice in this life, maybe something
even authorized or orchestrated by governmental authorities?
History is replete with examples of that. And even today, if you
look at the rapid rate that our national government is growing
and seeing how rapidly we're moving more and more to a socialistic
society, who knows, but one day your property or whatever wealth
you may have saved up, whatever you may have accumulated, I'm
not talking about your income now. I'm talking about things
you already own might be more heavily taxed or even seized
for the, quote, common good. I hope not, but you know the
believers that were written to in the book of Hebrews? That
happened to them. They lost their worldly goods,
and they were confiscated or taken from them. But look in
Hebrews 10.34. We see how God used that for
their good. They were commended, being told,
you took joyfully the spoiling of your goods. That's the robbery
or confiscation of them, spoiling of them. Knowing in yourselves
that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Their
loss heightened their sense and their enjoyment of what they
had awaiting them in heaven. And that's something that lasts
forever. That's enduring, the peaceable fruit of righteousness. This life's short, isn't it?
And eternity, that's forever. You know, forever's a long, long
time. And yet our priorities, the things we focus on, they
often fail to reflect that truth. Far too much of our attention,
I fear, is on that which will be gone before you know it. And
when it is, it's at the neglect, usually, of focusing on those
things which are above, which will endure forever. Again, I
was quoting from that same old writer. He said, it is truly
profitable to part with the world for Christ, and to give up its
joys for His. Well, lastly, consider the death
of a loved one. That's grievous. You know, in
particular, if it's someone who dies before their time, at least
as we see it being before their time, you know, tragically, believers,
just like everyone else, we sometimes lose a near or dear loved one.
We've been studying the book of Job, as you know, in our 10
o'clock hour, and here's Job now. Job, as far as we can tell,
he hadn't done anything wrong that's recorded. He's an object
of God's everlasting love, and yet he lost all his children.
He lost everything he had. He even lost his health, and
that under the providential oversight of God. And as tragic as those
circumstances were, they ultimately worked together for his good.
They afterward produced in him the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
Now how do I know that? Well, if you fast forward to
the end of the chapter, you'll see some of that. But I know
it because God declares it and faith believes it. So what if
your most cherished loved ones, one of them is taken from you?
Think of the sorrow. We're not exempt from the grief
and the sorrow that accompanies such losses. But believers do
not sorrow as those without hope. They sorrow, but not as those
without hope. You know, many people think they
have hope, a false hope, but the believer's hope is that old
song, writer put it, their hope's built on nothing less than Jesus'
blood and righteousness. Now that's a solid rock. You
see, that can't fail, that's sure and certain, and so as believers,
We can know in the dimmest of times that we have a brighter
future no matter what. It's sure, it's certain in Christ. And that brighter future is with
the Lord in heaven's glory where there is no more sorrow, never
more. So by God's grace, we bow to
God's sovereignty at such times in spite of our sorrow. We know,
as we heard in the 10 o'clock hour, you know, Job, after having
everything taken away, he said, naked came I out of my mother's
womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, and the
Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And as Bill mentioned, we can only say that by God's grace.
Now, I don't pretend to know with any certainty how all these
tragic things might work together for the believer's good, but
I can see how God might use our various difficulties to remind
me anew of how nothing, see, no person, no circumstance, no
enjoyments of this life, nothing is to rival my love to God. And
as a sinner, we need reminding, don't we? God deserves to be
first, and He ultimately will be. He will allow nothing to
rival that in the hearts of His people, and that's for our good,
our eternal good. So while we may experience grief
due to our love for God, a love that's solely owing to His grace
in having first loved us, we patiently submit and acknowledge. Just like Eli did to Samuel,
some of you all know that story where God told Samuel of his
judgment upon Eli's house for Eli not having restrained his
sons. And when Samuel told him that,
Eli's simple reply was, it is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth
good. We only can bow to God's sovereignty
by his grace. That's not in us naturally. The
believer is able to do so. You see, because God's already
made true believers bow to that which none of us would by nature
apart from His saving grace. Believers bow to His sovereignty,
see, in the salvation of sinners. Having been born of the Spirit
and given faith to truly believe Him when He declares in Romans
9, 15 that He'll have mercy on whom He will have mercy. We worship
a big God who's in total control, and we bow to that, His sovereignty
in all things. Now listen, all who hear this
message, whether sons, true children, or bastards, to use the language
of our text, everyone suffers grievous afflictions and difficulties
at some point in their life. And most all folks who have even
a passing interest in religion, they look to their faith for
relief in those times of trouble. But here's the question. Is your
faith the faith of God's elect, the faith of his dear children?
You see, only then can you know that these difficulties are appointed
by God in love for your eternal good. Well, how do we know? Do you see yourself as, if you
presume to be one of his children, you believe you're accepted before
him. But on what basis? Do you look back at a time and
say, uh, I remember when I accepted Jesus as my personal savior,
I invited Christ in my life, and so on that basis, I trust
I'm his. In other words, I'm asking, is
it something you've done? Is it some decision you've made
that others wouldn't? Is that the sort of faith that
you think distinguishes a save from the loss? Or instead, is
your confidence derived from having been so convinced of sin
that nothing, nothing but the doing and the dying of a suitable
substitute in your place, the Lord Jesus Christ, will fit your
need? You see the vital necessity that the perfect righteousness
of God be put to your account. and that solely owing to his
mercy and grace. In other words, not based on,
not acquired by you because of anything done by you, in you,
or through you, the undeserving sinner. Well, that describes
the blood-bought gift of faith that distinguishes God's adopted
children in Christ, the saved from the last. Well, we're running
out of time. Just remember, the tree is known
by its fruit. Are you a tree of righteousness
planted in Christ? Well, the first recognizable,
peaceable fruit of righteousness is belief of God's gospel wherein
that righteousness is revealed. The peaceable fruit of His righteousness.