Let's turn in our Bibles to Luke
chapter one. Luke chapter one. And let's go
to the Lord and ask his blessing. Our God and our Father, we trust
that it's by your sovereign hand that you have assembled each
person here this morning. And we pray that your dear son,
our prophet, priest and king, that he would be the teacher,
the preacher here this morning, that by your spirit, Lord, you
would bless us and make this word effectual in our hearts.
We pray we would seek our Lord Jesus as all and in all, and
that we might worship him. Lord, help clear our minds and
Help us to focus on Your Word. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. All right, brethren. We're going
to look at two verses here. Luke 1, verse 24 and 25. This will be a continuation of
our study in Luke. Luke 1, verses 24 and 25. After the angel appeared to Zacharias
and told him that Elizabeth would have a child, it says in verse
24, And after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived and
hid herself five months saying, thus hath the Lord dealt with
me in the days wherein he looked on me to take away my reproach
among men. Our subject is delivered from
reproach, delivered from reproach. Elizabeth had been barren. And
due to that, men and women reproached her. Men and women reproach. Reproach can be done to one's
face, but generally it's done behind somebody's back. But reproach
means to scorn, it means to shame, to disgrace, to mock, to taunt,
to deride, to insult, to humiliate. Men usually reproach by imputing
things that they surmise, things that they suppose. to be so,
but aren't really factual. That's generally what men reproach
with, they impute things that aren't so. Thankfully, men can't
make anything so by imputing it to you. I could preach a whole
message on that. And that's, I have many times,
you know, when God imputes, it's factual. Adam made a sin, and
therefore God imputed sin to us. Christ made his people righteous. Therefore, when you believe Christ,
he gives, he imputes righteousness to you. I was reading recently
about bonds, bonds, government bonds and city bonds and what
have you. And in the description of these
bonds, it said it had the term imputed interest. Now you could
be sure the bondholder that issued that, I mean the bond issuer
and the bondholder You can be sure they're both going to have
very accurate records to make sure that whatever interest is
imputed is exactly the interest owed. How come when it comes
to money and other things like that, court of law in this country
and in our lives, we understand what imputation means, but then
we come to God and we want to say he imputes things that aren't
really actual true? No, he imputes what's fact. He
imputes what's fact. But they imputed, that's how
men usually reproach, they impute things that are not so. They
did that to Job, remember? Worse, they did it to our Lord
Jesus, to the Lord Jesus himself. Now the first mention of the
word reproach in the Bible is Rachel saying the same thing
Elizabeth said. This is the first mention. It
said in Genesis 30, 22, God remembered Rachel. God hearkened to her
and opened her womb And she conceived and bare a son and said, God
hath taken away my reproach. And she called his name Joseph.
Now the same as the Lord took away Elizabeth's reproach and
took away Rachel's reproach, same as he took away Elizabeth's
reproach. He looked upon her, he provided
for her, he took away her reproach. The same as the Lord did that
for her physically, the Lord does this for his people spiritually.
He does this for his people spiritually. Now, here's the first thing I
want you to consider. Elizabeth's physical condition
is the spiritual condition of all God's people by nature. She
was barren. She could not produce fruit.
That's the case with all of us as we come into this world. We
come into this world guilty sinners by Adam, by what Adam did. He made us guilty because he
was our head. He made us guilty. We conceived
of him. Sin in our mother's womb, we
come forth dead in trespasses and sin, spiritually dead. We
cannot produce fruit, we can't produce life, we can't produce
fruit. One of the greatest evidences of depravity is for one sinner
to reproach another sinner for sin. That's just blatant evidence
of human depravity. For one sinner to reproach another
sinner for sin because the sinner doing the reproaching is as much
a sinner as the one he's reproaching. That's so. Penina, you take Penina. She had children, but Hannah
had no children. And scripture says of Penina,
she was the adversary. She was Hannah's adversary. It
said her adversary provoked her sore for to make her fret because
the Lord had shut up her womb. You think, well, that's cruel
to reproach a woman because she's barren, because you got children
and she can't have children, you're going to reproach her
for that. Men and women do this concerning sin and falls and
the problems that believers have. Men and women do this every day
to other sinners. And it's no different. It is
no different. When one sinner reproaches another
sinner, it's no different than that Pharisee that our Lord gave
in his parable, that Pharisee who stood in the temple and prayed
within himself and said, God, I thank Thee, I'm not as other
men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in a week, I give
tithes of all I possess. When one sinner approaches another
sinner, that's what we're saying, I'm not like them, I'm so much
better than them. Rather, none of us are better
than any other, we're sinners. Before God, in the sight of God,
apart from Christ and outside of Christ, we have nothing to
boast in whatsoever. Look at Romans chapter two, Romans
chapter two, and look at verse one. Paul had given that long
list of sins in chapter one, and he's making a point, he's
getting to a point in chapter three where he's saying we're
all without excuse, we're all sinners. But the Spirit moved
him to make such a good argument here. He lists all that list
of sins in the Gentiles, and you can just hear the Pharisees
amongst the children of Israel, you can hear them saying, uh-huh,
thankful we're not like they are. And here's what the Lord
said through Paul, verse one, Romans 2.1, therefore thou art
inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art, whoever it is doing
it, You're inexcusable that judgest, for wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same
things. But we're sure that the judgment
of God is according to truth against them which commit such
thing. When God imputes sin to somebody,
it's true. He wouldn't impute it unless
it was true. And so we, you and me, brethren, if you'll just
stop and take inventory, when it comes into your heart to think
of judging another and condemning them for their sin or thinking
less of them for their sin, if you'll just stop and think, you'll
discover you're guilty of the same thing they're doing. And
so in every situation, if you hadn't done it outwardly physically,
you're guilty of it in your heart. And the truth is, somebody might
say, well, I'm not guilty of that specific sin. Yeah, but
if you're guilty of one sin, the scripture says you're guilty
of all. You've broken the whole law. That shuts us up, doesn't
it? That's where Paul's going in
Romans. He's going to Romans three where he says, there is
none righteous, no not one. Now that's so of me, you, and
all of us. We're gonna have to be brought
to that point if we're gonna ever hear what God has to say.
about salvation, we have to be made to see that. So like Elizabeth,
brethren, we're all incapable of producing spiritual fruit
by nature. Now that's true before God saves
us and that's true after he saves you. Before he saved us, Paul
said, what fruit had you then in those things where of you
now shame? For the end of those things is death. And he's not
just talking about immoral sin, though he is, he's talking about
our best deeds too. It was all fruit unto death.
All spiritual fruit is produced by our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore,
my brethren, you are become dead to the law by the body of Christ,
that you might be married to another, even to him who's raised
from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. What
does a husband produce in his wife? Fruit. What does Christ
produce in his bride? Fruit. Fruit. Because when we
were in our flesh, The motions of sins which were by the law
did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. That's
all we produced of ourselves. Our fruit's all from Christ.
Scripture says, Philippians 111 says, we're filled with the fruits
of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the praise
and glory of God. We don't have any reason to boast,
even if you do. If you do have spiritual fruit,
love and faith and joy and temperance If you do, it's of the Lord. We don't have any reason to boast
whatsoever. But since Elizabeth was barren,
others reproached her. And you know, she was already
heartbroken over this. You know this had broken her
heart that she couldn't bear a child. And she was up in years
now. For all her life, she had suffered
this reproach from men. And she's heartbroken over this.
And you know, when God's child, If you sin, if you really have
sin, and that's why men are reproaching, when God chastens you, your heart's
already broken. It's broken. Because you know
it's against your Lord, who you love. And for others to reproach,
it's like them stabbing you in the heart. Look at Psalm 42.
Look at Psalm 42. And you know the place in Psalm,
we're going to look at several passages back here. But Psalm
42, look at verse 10. As with a sword in my bones,
mine enemies reproach me. You see, it's really like being
stabbed. It's as a sword in my bones,
mine enemies reproach me. While they say daily unto me,
where is thy God? But if you're reproached, brethren,
you do what the psalmist did right here. Verse 11, why art
thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God. For I shall yet praise Him who
is the health of my countenance and my God. You see, for those
that God our Father everlastingly loved in Christ, for those that
Christ made perfect and righteous by His obedience unto the death
of the cross, for those that He's given a heart to trust,
He is all your salvation. He is the health of our souls,
the Lord is. He's the health, he's the life
of our new man. He's the health of our souls.
And he will restore you inwardly so that your countenance will
be that of joy. You'll have joy in your demeanor
again. Though men reproach us, the Lord's
gonna bless. Even if men reproach you, remember
this, they can't do anything except by the sovereign hand
of God. If men reproach me, I have to
remember, The Lord's doing this. Listen, listen, is God that sovereign? Scripture says, the wrath of
man shall praise God, and the remainder thereof he shall restrain. In other words, if it comes to
pass, God's ruling it for his glory. And there's a whole lot
more that could come to pass if he took his hand off this
world, but he won't. If he's not using it to bring
glory to his name, he'll restrain it. So if somebody reproached
me, I have to remember, the Lord wouldn't permit this unless he
was doing it for my good and his glory. Now that's hard to
remember when you're being reproached, but try to remember that. When
God's saints in Israel, when they began to think they were
self-sufficient, we're talking about saints now, believe God,
trust to God by his grace, by his spirit. When they started
thinking they were self-sufficient, the Lord used whole nations to
correct his true people in Israel. He used whole nations to do it.
And for you and me, he can use individuals to do it for you
personally. And that's what he did for them
personally. He applied it to their heart. This is what he's
gonna bring you to see. When you're reproached, you can't
defend yourself, and there's nobody else, you know, when you
see that nobody around you to plead your cause. The Lord puts
you in that place for a reason. Listen, Jeremiah 30, verse 13.
The Lord taught them this, there's none to plead thy cause, that
thou mayest be bound up. Thou hast no healing medicines.
All thy lovers have forgotten thee, they seek thee not. And
the Lord said to them, I've done this because you've sinned, you've
sinned. And he was correcting them, using
whole nations. But this is what he promised
in Jeremiah 30, 17. He said, I will restore health
unto thee. I will heal thee of thy wounds,
saith the Lord, because they called thee an outcast, saying,
this is Zion whom no man seeketh after. Isn't that what men did
to our Lord Jesus? The man who's perfect, God-man,
came down and men found fault with him? Do you think they're
gonna find fault with you and me? Jeremiah 33, six, the Lord
said, he said, behold, I will bring I will bring you health
and cure and I will cure them and reveal unto them the abundance
of peace and truth. You know who that abundance of
peace and truth is? It's a person, it's the Lord
Jesus. And he said, verse eight, and I will cleanse them from
all their iniquity whereby they sinned against me and I will
pardon all their iniquities whereby they've sinned and whereby they've
transgressed against me. And it shall be to me a name
of joy and a praise and honor before all the nations of the
earth, which shall hear all the good that I do to them. And they
shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity
that I procure unto it. You see, the world that he was
using, all the enemy nations he used to chase Israel, they
had no idea what God was doing. They were just after whatever
personal gain they could get at that moment. And they were
approaching God's people. But the Lord had a purpose in
it. He was teaching his people I'm your savior. I'm the only
one that can heal you. I'm the only one that can plead
your cause before God. And that's what he's doing for
you and me. If you're suffering reproach from somebody, whether
you've sinned or it's a false accusation, whatever it is, the
Lord's teaching you this same lesson. He's your only health.
He's the only physician. He's the only one that pleads
the cause before his people. And he will make you know that
and he will cause you to give him the glory and the praise
and you'll you'll submit to him and trust him. He never fails
to accomplish that. Now secondly, go with me to Psalm
22. I want to show you this. The Lord alone heals us and he
saves his people from reproach. And he renews us to remember
this, that the way he saved us and the way he continues to save
us, he renews us to remember he suffered reproach like Nobody
ever suffered reproach. That's what it took to redeem
his people. He had to suffer that to redeem us. And for the
sake of his people, the Son of God, holy, perfect God, came
down and took flesh to represent all his people to make peace
with God for us and to make us righteous before God. And so
in the process of doing that, he bore the reproach of sinful
men. more than anybody. Look here
in Psalm 22. You know this is the Lord speaking because this
is the Psalm that begins with him crying to God, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? And look what he says down in
verse three. He says, but thou art holy, O
thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. That's why he was
being nailed to that cross and suffering the justice of God.
He took the place of his people. He bore our sin, he's bearing
the justice we deserved. That's why, because God's holy,
he won't clear the guilty. We had to die in Christ. But
look what he says in verse six. But I am a worm and no man. That's what the Savior, this
whole psalm, you cannot deny if you read this whole psalm
and compare scripture to scripture, this is Christ speaking. And
this is what he said, bearing the sin of his people. He said
to God, he confessed to God, I'm a worm and no man. a reproach
of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me
to scorn." That's what reproach is, scorn. They laugh me to scorn.
They shoot out the lip. They shake the head. They say,
he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver
him, seeing he delighted in him. Oh, brethren, if you ever, the
next time you have a notion to speak reproachfully of somebody
else, Remember this, when we speak scornfully of somebody,
we're putting ourselves right in the place of those people
that scorned our Lord Jesus Christ. We're putting ourselves squarely
in their camp. We see what our Lord, boy, we
don't wanna do that to anybody, to anybody. We're gonna look
at Psalm 69 in verse six. Psalm 69, verse six. Psalm 69,
verse six. This is the Lord speaking. Now,
while he bore all that, and while he's being reproached and shamed
before the world, he prayed for his people. Look, verse six,
let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed
for my sake. Let not those that seek thee
be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel, because for thy sake
I have borne reproach. Shame hath covered my face. We're
gonna see, at the end of this message, we're gonna see, Paul
quotes that in Romans 15, that that's Christ speaking. For your
sake, Father, I've borne reproach. Shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my
brethren and an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal
of thine house hath eaten me up and the reproaches of them
that reproach thee are falling on me. Get that now. Their reproach
toward the Lord Jesus, they claim to be glorifying God. They claim
to be doing it to glorify God. They claim to be God's house
doing this to glorify God. But they were reproaching God
in human flesh. Can we be wrong? Can we misjudge? And that's what Christ was bearing
to put away our sin. Look down at verse 10, Psalm
69, 10. And this is what I want you to
see here. If they reproach the Lord Jesus and they reproach
Him for everything He did, they're going to reproach you, child
of God. You just mark it down. Now, you don't want to bring
reproach on the gospel or on yourself or on the Lord for sin,
but they're going to reproach you even if you don't sin before
the world because they reproach Christ who was perfect. Look
here, verse 10. When I wept and chastened my
soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. I made sackcloth
also my garment, and I became a proverb to them. They that
sit in the gate speak against me, and I was the song of the
drunkards. But as for me, my prayer is unto
thee, O Lord. In an acceptable time, O God,
in the multitude of thy mercy, hear me in the truth of thy salvation. Why did they reproach our Lord
so? If you want to look to Luke 4, here's why. Because he preached
the gospel. Our Lord is the prophet. He came
preaching the gospel. He's that gospel. He's the only
man who could preach himself and it'd be a true message. We
can't preach ourselves and it'd be true. He preached himself.
He preached the truth of God, because he is God in human flesh,
the fullness of the Godhead, and he's the one God's provided
to be the salvation of his people. And the first message he, one
of the first sermons he preached was on the doctrine of election.
And they clearly heard him. Look here in Luke 4, 25. He said,
I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel. They all thought, we're all the
elect because we're of that country of Israel. He said there was
a lot of widows in Israel in the days of Elias. When the heaven
was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was
throughout all the land, but unto none of them was Elias sent,
save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon. unto a woman that was
a widow. He's saying, God didn't send
all those widows in Israel. God didn't send Elias to them.
He sent Elias to a Gentile widow woman, to one Gentile widow woman. And then he says, and there were
many lepers in Israel in the time of Elias the prophet, and
none of them was cleansed, save Nahum and the Syrian. Again,
God passed by all these people in Israel that were lepers, and
he went to a Gentile leper, cleansed the Gentile leper. Did they understand
what he was saying? He was saying God chooses whom
he will and passes by whom he will. He's saying just because
you're of the nation of Israel doesn't mean you're children
of God. God's children are those God chose, those that God freely
chose by grace and chose in Christ and Christ's redeeming. That's
who God's people are. The scriptures are so clear on
that, so clear on that. And they understood him, look
here, verse 28. Think they gonna reproach you if you stand for
the gospel? Listen, and all they in the synagogue, when they heard
these things, were filled with wrath and rose up and thrust
him out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill whereon
their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
But he passed through the mist and went his way. That's why
they reproached him. That's why he preached the grace of God,
the electing grace of God. He preached all sinners are blind
by nature. Remember when he healed that
blind man? And the Pharisees brought him before them, and
they want to know who healed him. And he said, the Lord did.
This man called Jesus did. His parents wouldn't even take
up for him. They said, he's old enough. Let him speak for himself.
And they cast him out. And the Lord came to him. And
the Lord said, he said, Lord, who are you that I might believe?
And he said, I am he. And he said, because that man confessed he
was the sinner, that he was blind, that he could not save himself.
He manifests the Lord had saved him, the Lord had given him sight,
the Lord had made him trust Christ. And when the Pharisees heard
that, you know what they said? Are we blind also? Are you saying
we're blind? They reproached him for saying
it takes God to give you sight. It takes God to make you confess
you're the sinner that needs grace. He preached that he's
God. In John chapter 10, they came
to him in Solomon's porch and they said, and this is what men
always do, men that do not believe or men that claim to believe
that depart from the gospel, this is what they always do,
they blame the preacher. And what did the Pharisees do?
They came to him and they said to Christ himself, the perfect
preacher, who's also the Savior, they came to him and said, why
do you make us to doubt? Tell us plainly. If you're the
Christ, tell us plainly. It's your fault we're not believing
you. You just hadn't spoken plainly. And he told them, he said, I've
told you plainly. He said, the reason you don't believe me is
you're not my sheep. He said, I come to my sheep and
I give my sheep life and they know me and they follow me and
they won't follow a stranger. And he said, no man's gonna pluck
them out of my hand. No man's gonna pluck them out
of my father's hand. I and my father are one. And
here's what they said to that. They said, they took up stones
to stone him, John 10, 31. And Jesus asked them, many good
works have I showed you from my father. For which of those
works do you stone me? Listen to me. Our Lord Jesus
just told them, I've done a bunch of good works in the midst of
you. That's not sin to remind people what you've done for them. Paul did it to the Corinthians.
Our Lord did it to them. And here's what they said. We're
not stoning you for a good work. We'll stone you for good work.
If you preach good works, nobody will reject you. But if you preach
the gospel, they will. And they said, for a good work
we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, because that thou, being a man,
makest thyself God. You think they're gonna reproach
you? If you preach Christ, in truth they will. They reproached
him. Look at Isaiah 54. Isaiah 54. Here's that chapter after that
great chapter of Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 declares how he's our
substitute bore the sin of his people, put all our sin away.
I'm saying to you, he bore the reproach and took the reproach
off his people. So even though men may reproach
you in the sight of God, we saw Thursday night in Christ, you're
holy, unblameable, unapprovable in his sight. Because he took
the reproach off. Listen to what he says here.
After Isaiah 53, he says to his elect people, his bride, he says,
sing, O barren, That's what Elizabeth was. You see the picture in Elizabeth.
She was barren. She couldn't bring forth a child.
But now, he took her reproach away. That's what he's done for
his people, for you that believe. Listen, sing, O barren, thou
that didst not bear. Break forth into singing and
cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child. For more
are the children of the desolate than the children of the married
wife, saith the Lord. Look at verse four. Fear not,
thou shalt not be ashamed, neither be thou confounded, for thou
shalt not be put to shame, for thou shalt forget the shame of
thy youth and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood
anymore. Why? How's this gonna be so?
For thy maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is his name,
and thy redeemer, the only one of Israel, the God of the whole
earth shall he be called. He took our reproach away. He's
gonna produce fruit in you that are his child, individually,
and through us preaching this gospel, he produces fruit, he
produces saved sinners that he called and produced through his
Bride of the Church preaching. He does that. Now, lastly, seeing
that our Savior did this for his people, that he's taken,
he saved us from our sin, he made his people, everyone he
died for, we saw this Thursday, He hath made peace by the blood
of his cross. You didn't make your peace with
God. He did. And he did it back there when
he laid down his life on the cross. And he said, it's finished.
That's what he accomplished. Men are telling sinners in this
world, Christ has done all he can do. Now it's up to you. Nobody
gets angry at that message because it puts it all in your hand.
Nobody gets mad at that message. That's not the gospel. Christ
accomplished the salvation of his people. and He accomplished
it so thoroughly He even has to come now. You that were enemies
in your mind, alienated from the life of God, He comes and
creates life in you, gives you faith, produce that fruit in
you, repentance He produces in you, joy, love in the Holy Spirit. He calls you to look to Him and
trust Him. He does it all and He gets all
the glory. He gets all the glory. Now knowing
He's done this, knowing He's done this, And seeing Him, when
He was reproached, we saw how He committed it all to the Father.
Now you do the same thing. You commit it to Him. If you're
reproached by men, you commit it to Christ. Look here, Psalm
69, back there in Psalm 69, verse 14. Here's what Christ said when
He was reproached. He said, deliver me out of the
mire and let me not sink. Psalm 69, 14. Deliver me out
of the mire and let me not sink. Let me be delivered from them
that hate. and out of the deep waters. Look
down at verse 18 now. You see he's trusting the Father.
He said, draw nigh unto my soul and redeem it. Deliver me because
of mine enemies. Thou hast known my reproach,
and my shame, and my dishonor. Mine adversaries are all before
thee. Reproach hath broken my heart,
and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity,
but there was none. and for comforters, but I found
none. They gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst
they gave me vinegar to drink." But you see what he's doing?
He realizes, I don't have anybody to plead my cause among men.
So what's he doing? He's giving it all to the Father
and saying, Father, when you're pleased in accepted time, when
justice is satisfied and you're satisfied with having poured
out your justice on me, Lord, raise me, redeem me. That's what
he prayed. He promises, that's what he'll
do for you. I'm just gonna give you this in Zephaniah 3, 17.
He says, the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty and
he will save. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing.
I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly who were
of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden. He's saying,
you that believe me, who were reproached and burdened for trusting
me, he's saying, I'm gonna gather you, I'm gonna deliver you, I'm
gonna make you joyful. He said, I will undo all that
afflict thee. I will, he said, I'll undo all
that afflict thee. I'll save her that halteth. I'll
gather her that was driven out. I'll get them praise and fame
in every land where they've been put to shame, saith the Lord.
What should me and you do? What should we do? First of all,
don't load their gun for them. Don't give them any reason to
reproach you. Nehemiah said, ought you not
to walk in the fear of God because of the reproach of the heathen,
our enemies. They'll reproach you. If they
find anything to reproach you about, they'll reproach you.
So don't give them anything to reproach you about. But when
they do, and they will, even if you don't give them a reason
to, they will, go to Christ. and trust him to plead your call. He has pled it with God. He will
plead your, we saw the other night how he works judgment in
the midst of his people, or the other day, I think it was. He's
gonna plead your cause in the midst of men, too, and deliver
you. Listen, this is what scripture
said. Our Lord, that he might sanctify the people with his
own blood, suffered without the gate, Let us go forth, therefore,
unto him without the count, bearing his reproach. For here we have
no continuing city. We look for one to come. By him,
therefore, let us offer up the sacrifice of praise to God continually,
the calves of our lips, thanking God. Moses, he could have been
the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Pharaoh was the richest, most
powerful man in the world, and he was raised up as the son of
his daughter. taking advantage of that, and
it said, by faith, God gave him faith, and he chose to suffer
affliction with the people of God, rather than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season, for he esteemed the reproach
of Christ greater riches than all the treasures in Egypt. So, happy are you if you're reproached
for the name of Christ. That's what Peter said. The spirit
of glory and of God rests upon you. If you can endure that and
still trust Christ, it's because God's working in you to keep
you, you're happy. But don't give them a reason
to reproach you. Don't give them a reason to reproach
you. So turn with me to Romans 15. Here's the final point. Listen, never reproach anybody. Don't you reproach them. You
just don't know even if that person appears to be just an
ungodly wretch with no desire to know God, you don't know that
that might be God's child. You were that bad before he saved
you. So don't reproach anybody, and especially don't reproach
your brethren. Another brother or sister for whom Christ died,
don't speak doubtfully of them, don't speak shamefully of them,
because what you're saying about them, you're saying about Christ.
That's what he said. What you do to them, you do to
me. And don't even give an ear to it from others. Don't listen
to others do it. Instead, do this right here.
Go to the Lord. You want to speak about Him?
Go to the Lord and ask the Lord to help them. He's the only one
that can. Go to Him and ask Him to help
them. And then, go to their side and help them stand by declaring
and reminding them what Christ has done for His people. That's
right, that's what Paul said. He takes that Psalm that we just
looked at. Here's what he says, Romans 15.1.
We then that are strong are to bear the infirmities of the weak. That word infirmities means their
sins, when they fall and they just made a mess of everything
in all their weakness. And now don't do it to please
ourselves. Don't do it to bring glory to
ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good
to edification, for even Christ please not himself, but as it's
written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me. What things were written before
were written for our learning, that we through patience and
comfort of the scriptures might have hope. And the God of patience,
the God of consolation, he'll grant his people to be like-minded
one to another according to Christ Jesus, that's you with one mind,
In one mouth, may glorify God, even the Father, and our Lord
Jesus Christ. You commit it to him, may commit
that brother to him, and help them stand, bear their burden,
just like Christ bore yours. All right, let's go to him. Father,
we thank you. Thank you for your son. Thank
you for this free salvation. and how it cost our Savior dearly.
Lord, make us obey your word. Make us see what sinners we are.
Make us shut our mouths to glory and not boast of anything in
us. Make us commit our cause to Christ,
and Lord, use us to be a help to our brethren. Thank you for
these promises we have in Christ. We ask it in his name. Amen. All right, brethren, we're going
to take about a 10-minute break, and then we'll come back at 11
for the full service.