Now the epistle of James begins
with an encouragement to be patient during trials. To be patient
during trials. What kind of trials? What kind
of trials? Notice how the letter ends. Look
at James chapter 5 verse 19 with me once more. Brethren, if any
of you do err from the truth, and one convert him. Let him
know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of
his ways shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude
of sins." From the beginning of this epistle to the end, James
points out what it is to err from the truth. And it's not
what the carnal mind thinks is erring from the truth. It's not
what the carnally religious man thinks is an error from the truth. And he instructs us in the only
way that brethren are to be turned from error. And this is not how
the carnally religious man thinks a brother is turned from his
error. Back in James 1.18, he said, Verse 17, Every good gift and
every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father
of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of
His own will, He gives an example of what He means. Of His own
will, of the Father's will, begat He us with the Word of truth.
That's how we were born of God, with the Word of truth. That
we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. And
through James, the Spirit of God says, Wherefore, my beloved
brethren, Let every man be swift to hear, and slow to speak, and
slow to wrath. The brother who errs from the
truth is like the fatherless and like the widow. He needs
to be restored with the sure mercies of David. The sure mercies
of the Word of God. That's what he needs to be restored
with. In James 1, 27, he said, Pure religion and undefiled before
God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows
in their affliction and keep yourself unspotted from the carnal,
religious, yoking spots of this world. What do we visit erring
brethren with? We visit with the word of truth,
the gospel of the unsearchable riches of Christ Jesus the Lord. The same gospel with which God
quickens and makes alive and creates a sinner anew in righteousness
and true holiness is the gospel that we proclaim to each other
by which God will turn an erring brother from his error back to
Christ. Not by unbridling the tongue.
James dealt with that. Not by showing a respect of persons. Not by taking a magisterial air
as if you were his master, being many masters. Not by blessing
God and condemning with the same tongue. That is, speaking many
truths about the Gospel of God, but doing it as you're condemning
your brother. That's blessing God and cursing
men with the same tongue at the same time. James dealt with that. Not by praying for the Father
to allow us to consume these lusts upon our flesh. And these
are the lusts he's speaking of. Not by speaking evil one of another,
condemning one another, grudging one another. That's not how we
do it. These are the things that James is dealing with throughout
this whole letter. These are the very lusts of the
flesh which flare up when we're tried, when we come into trial
confronted with an erring brother or sister. These are the trials. No matter how much of a trial
it presents to you, no matter how much of a trial you fall
into, an erring brother is turned from his error to Christ by the
one lawgiver. The one lawgiver. who's able
to save him and to destroy that which would destroy him by writing
the effectual Word of God's grace in his heart. And he does it
in the first hour through the Word of Truth, and he does it
in every hour through the Word of Truth, and in every trial
through the Word of Truth, and that's the only way he does it,
and he alone does it. Now, look at James 3.13 with
me. Who is a wise man and endued
with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation
his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying
and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth.
This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual,
and devilish. That's what you see in free will,
self-righteous, work-mongering congregations. is a bunch of
biting and devour and envying and sensual and devilish yoking
and binding. For where envying and strife
is, there's confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that's
from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be
entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality
and without hypocrisy. You see, all of these things
have to do with your contact with a brother or a sister. It
has to do with your interaction with somebody else. All of these
things do. Easily entreated, full of mercy, gentle, good work,
good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. And the fruit
of righteousness. A brother turned from the error,
the lie, to Christ our righteousness, the fruit of righteousness to
be restored in his heart. That fruit is sown. The seed
is sown in peace. of them that make peace, of them
that God uses to effectually make this peace in the heart.
Look at James 4.1, From whence come wars and fighting among
you? Come they not hence even of your lust at war in your members?
Those lusts of the flesh that wants to be the master, that
wants to use these gospel pearls to sling at somebody, that's
the lust of the flesh. To try to yoke them and bind
them, that's the lust of the flesh. What's the answer? Verse
7. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Flee the devil. That's the devil's way. You know
what he does? He accuses the brethren. He wants a man to be
self-righteous. He wants a man to be under the
law. He wants a man to try to gain his own righteousness apart
from God. That's what the devil wants.
And that's what James is warning us to flee from and to submit
to God. Walking in the perfect law of
liberty. being a doer of the Word and
not a hearer only, is to submit to God, as did Abraham, fully
convinced that God is able to raise up your erring brother,
even from the dead. That's the fruit of righteousness. That's the spirit. That's the
works. whereby a man's faith is justified
as genuine works. These fellows around here and
these frolicking hoes all around here that are binding men and
yoking men and using progressive sanctification as a loophole
to get sinners under the law and to bind them and yoke them,
they're doing it because they're not convinced God is able to
raise up. They won't preach the gospel
alone. Won't do it. Now, chapter 5 begins
with these words. This is our text. That was my
introduction. Chapter 5 begins with these words. Go to now,
ye rich men. Weep and howl for your miseries
that shall come upon you. James is addressing those who
would use that type of method. Those methods. Now, I began looking
at this passage with only an eye towards rich, wicked men.
But as I got down to verses 10 and 11, I did what the verse says to
do. Look at verse 10. Take, my brethren, the prophets
who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering
affliction and patience. Behold, we count them happy which
endure. You've heard of the patience
of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is
very pitiful and of tender mercy. The prophets suffered affliction
because they spoke in the name of the Lord. They preached the
gospel. They didn't turn from this one
method of grace. They didn't turn to the lust
of their flesh. They didn't walk after the imagination of their
heart. They didn't combine anything with the Word of God. They spoke
the Gospel of Christ. They did not turn from that one
method of grace. And they preached the unsearchable
riches of Christ. And they patiently endured. They
were afflicted for doing it, but they patiently endured. Now
James points us to consider Job. To think of Job. Our text here
begins speaking of rich men. James throws men. He throws men. When he was talking
about faith being justified by works, men use that to say we
ought to go back to the law. But the examples James gave was
of two Gentiles, Abraham and Rahab, who didn't have the Law
of Moses. And here the example that James points us to to consider
what he's teaching us is one of the richest men there was
in his day and time, Job. Isn't that odd? Don't you find
that odd that he would pick out the richest man to use as an
example? God said of Job, there's none
like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth
God and escheweth evil. Job's a picture of Christ. Job's
a picture of Christ, Christ who was rich in glory and was stripped
of all, the one whom God said to Satan, have you considered
my servant? who was allowed to inflict all the wounds of hell
upon him. That's who Job's a picture of.
What did Job suffer? What did he endure? He endured
the loss of all things, his children and his possessions. He did.
He endured bodily affliction. He did endure that. But he endured
something else that James has been speaking of throughout this
whole epistle. and that he's teaching us right
here. He endured something else. Job endured the condemning tongues
of three men who were rich in their own conceit. That's what
he endured. Now, they spoke of Job, to Job,
as if they were masters over Job. James said, be not many
masters. And in much, they offended all
by what they did to Job. They used their tongues to bless
God. They said a lot of true things
about God, but they did it condemning, cursing Job, blaming Job. Their prayers were not for God's
glory, not for Christ to be exalted, but for them to be right before
Job and to appear wise. That's the lust of the flesh
that James tells us not to pray, that we can consume those lusts. Their force upon Job was a boasting
in their own will. As we saw last time, James said,
your will is the most fickle, foolish vapor of anything you
possess. Your will. And that's what they
did. They were rich in their own estimation
of themselves. And yet the Lord says of Job,
he spoke that which was right. He spoke that which was right
to them. Now, here's what I'm proposing to you in this passage
this morning. It may be, and I'll say it that
way for sake of not being dogmatic about this, but I'm convinced
of this, but it may be that James is staying with the same subject
he's been dealing with through this whole letter up to this
point. He may be comparing that masterly, condemning, haughty
spirit, the kind we see in Job's three friends, with that of the
carnally rich, wicked men of this earth." James walked around
with our Lord quite a bit, and our Lord, when He would speak,
He would say, now I'm about to tell you a parable, and He'd
give you a parable. James appears to go in and out
of parables in this letter, but He don't tell us, now I'm about
to give you a parable. We've got to figure it out for ourselves
by the Spirit of God. Now, let's go through these Scriptures
with that in mind. James 5.1, Go to now, ye rich
men. Weep and howl for your miseries
that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and
your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered,
and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall
eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together
for the last days. Now the Lord defined a rich man
as he that layeth up treasures for himself and is not rich toward
God. That's how the Lord Jesus defined
a rich man. He that layeth up treasures for
himself and is not rich toward God. God gives earthly possessions,
temporal possessions for us to provide for the needy, for those
that are in need. That's why He gives them, to
provide for us and for our needy brethren. Rich men like to heap
up these treasures for themselves rather than giving them. All
of the word here is of riches that have been hoarded up, heaped
up, out of circulation, not used, the possessions are corrupted,
the garments have become moth-eaten, the silver and the gold is rusted
and cankered. Well, the Lord God, He gives
also to us the riches of Christ Jesus for the same purpose. not
to hoard these riches up, not to keep these riches to ourselves,
not to hold back anything. Paul said, I kept back nothing
from you that was profitable. But to give these riches, to
bestow these riches upon those, our brethren in need. The Lord
spoke of haughty, self-righteous men who lay up treasures of religious
deeds for themselves and keep back the gospel and don't declare
the truth. He compared them to rich men
that lay up treasures. He said, many will say to me
in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name?
We went under a cloak of coming in your name. What the Lord says
of it. Didn't we do many wonderful works?
Didn't we cast out devils? That's exactly what all of these
tribunals in churches today where men bring you before the Sanhedrin
and condemn you and yoke you and put you on church watch and
all these, that's exactly what it is, men trying to cast out
devils. Paul said, they constrain you
that they might glory in your flesh. They want to come to God
and say, Lord, look what we made them do. I hear men speak of
what Paul said when he said, I desire to present you a chaste
virgin to Christ. I hear preachers speak of that
as if... Man's going to get glory for doing that. As if Paul was
saying, I want to be glorified for presenting you. Paul's one
goal was that men would behold Christ. That Christ would have
that which He had purchased with His own blood. That they would
see Christ high and lifted up, exalted. And that was his only
desire, his chief desire. Not that Paul would receive glory.
And a man that wants to receive some kind of glory, some kind
of reward for preaching the gospel, for witnessing to people, I guarantee
you his witness is a false witness. Because he don't want Christ
to have the glory. He says, you've heaped treasures
together for the last days. Now you see that phrase? You've
heaped treasures, you've heaped treasure together for the last
days. Turn over to Romans 2, real quick. Romans chapter 2.
Paul uses a very similar phrase and he's dealing with the same
haughty, self-righteous men that James is speaking of. Look now
at Romans chapter 2 and catch how these words he uses, riches
and treasures. Watch how he uses these words.
Romans chapter 2. Verse 3, "...thinkest thou this,
O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the
same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God." He's talking
to the Jews who thought they could come to God in the law,
who thought they could come in their own righteousness by their
law keeping. And he says, do you think you
condemn others for these things and you're guilty of all of them?
You won't preach that there's none righteous, no, not one.
You won't tell men that a man that has begun in the Spirit
is not perfected by the works of the flesh, he's not sanctified
by the works of the flesh, but by the Spirit of God alone. Christ
Jesus is our sanctifier. You will not tell men that. You
think you're going to escape the judgment of God? Look at
verse 4, "...or despisest thou the riches?" the true riches,
the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering,
not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. That's how men are led to repentance.
Preach the goodness of God in the face of Christ Jesus. That's
how men are going to be led to repentance. But what do you do
instead? But after thy hardness and impenitent
heart, you treasure up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath
and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. That's exactly
what James said. These rich men are heaping up
treasures for the last days. Think they're heaping up treasures
that are going to be their security and their salvation in the last
days, but really it's just like heaping up and piling up God's
wrath against men. You give a needy brother your
coat if he's cold, and you clothe the erring brother with the gospel
of the garment of Christ's righteousness. Don't store that garment away.
You clothe him with that garment. The goodness of God leads men
to repentance. And the goodness of God is found
in the Good One, Christ Jesus the Lord. Verse 4, back in our
text. Behold the hire of the laborers
who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by
fraud. The Lord says it, James says
it cries. and the cries of them which have
reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." Rich
men often get richer by keeping the wages of their laborers from
them. Sometimes they don't pay them
on time, or they change what they promised to pay, or they
don't pay in proportion to the labor that was performed. In
Deuteronomy 24.15, let me read this to you. The Lord said in
the law, that is the day of the laborer, thou shalt give him
his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it. He said you
don't wait till tomorrow to pay him, you pay him today for the
work he did today. Now you want to come to God in
the law, that's one that broke right there, right off the bat.
You pay him today for the work he did today. For he is poor,
And he sets his heart upon it. He sets his heart upon it. And
you do it lest he cry against thee unto the Lord and it be
sin unto thee. The Lord's laborers are his faithful
witnesses. Matthew 9.37. I'll get you to
turn there. Matthew 9.37. This is what the Lord said. Then saith he unto his disciples,
The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers few. Pray ye,
therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers
into his harvest. Now, brethren, believers are
not hirelings any more than our Lord Jesus Christ was a hireling.
He came forth willingly. He was made a servant willingly. And He served His Father willingly. And those who are born of the
Spirit of God have been taken to the doorposts like the willing
bondservant, and they've had their ear bored through with
an awl. They've been marked as the Lord's willing bondservant. And they do what they do willingly
before the Lord. And the one thing that they have
their hearts set on, they plant in another waters. They plant
in another waters. God our husbandman gives the
increase. And the one thing that they have
their hearts set on is Christ Jesus the Lord. The pearl of
great price. That's the one thing they have
their hearts set on. Those friends that came to Job.
He was God's laborer, Job was. They came to him and they held
back the word of comfort. They held back the word of comfort
from Job which Job's heart was set upon, which he needed. They
held that back. I see in Isaiah the Lord says,
Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him. Isaiah
is a prophet that James tells us to consider and he went forth
and to those who were trusting the Lord no matter what the error
was no matter His word to them was it shall be well with the
righteous The Lord said comfort ye comfort ye my people tell
them their warfare is accomplished I've rewarded them double for
all their iniquities I've purged them of their sins. I've robed
them in my righteousness. I've made them complete, perfect
to be accepted of God, and there's nothing to add to it. It shall
be well with the righteous. The cries of them which have
reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." I think
this has the name here he uses. It means the Lord of Hosts. And
you know James was a minister to the Jews in Jerusalem, and
he's writing to the twelve tribes scattered abroad. Now he's writing
to Jewish brethren and Gentile brethren, but the Jewish brethren
had a tendency, the weaker brethren, to want to yoke Man, they wanted
to yoke because they had been under the law all this time.
They were wanting to yoke, man. And James uses a word here that
the Jewish brethren are going to know. The Lord of Sabaoth
was used in the Old Testament when the people of God were in
a desperate situation, in need of the Lord to take up their
cause, to protect them, to guide them, to cover them, to protect
them. He's the Lord of hosts. He's
the commander-in-chief of all creatures. all angels, all men,
all thunder and lightning, all beasts of the field, even all
diseases and plagues. It's insanity for somebody to
contend with God who can command his legions at any moment. It's insanity. The Lord heard
and He spoke to those three friends who came to Job. Let me show
you that, Job 42. I'll show you what He said to
them. He heard Job. And he spoke to
those men. Here's what he said. And it was
so, James 42 verse 7, And it was so that after the Lord had
spoken these words unto Job, The Lord said to Eliphaz the
Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee and against thy
two friends, for you have not spoken of me the thing that is
right, as my servant Job has. Believer, this is the Lord who
will contend for you against your oppressors. If somebody
hears this Word that's sitting under one of these yoking masters,
one of these Pharisees that sit in Moses' seat, I pray to God
the Lord of hosts would deliver them from that oppressor. I pray
He'd bring them out from among them. But remember this too,
brethren. This is the Lord who is able
to make the Gospel we preach effectual in the hearts of each
one of you sitting right here. That's why we don't whip and
bind and yoke one another, but we remind one another, we restore
one another with the precious truths of this Gospel. It shall
be well for the righteous. Verse 5, You have lived in pleasure
on the earth and been wanton. You have nourished your hearts
as in a day of slaughter. You lived in pleasure. Wanton
means luxury. You nourished your hearts as
if every day was a feast day, he said. Like it's Thanksgiving. You know, between Thanksgiving
and Christmas, it just don't do any good to go on a diet.
You get invited to all kinds of parties. It's a feast day
every day. That's what he said. You've lived as if every day
was a feast day. He doesn't forbid us to use pleasures,
but he forbids us to live in pleasures. It's one thing to
take delights, but it's another thing when delights take us.
That's what he's saying. But many who claim to preach
Christ, many who claim to be witnesses of Christ do the same
thing in religion, and they are hirelings. This is what Paul
said, many walk of whom I've told you often and now tell you
even weeping that they're the enemies of the cross of Christ. whose end is destruction, whose
God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly
things. Sometime when you read Romans
chapter 8 and you hear Paul say, those that are born of the Spirit
of God have been made free from the law of sin and death, for
what the law couldn't do and that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending forth His Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. He turns right
around and he says, To be spiritually minded is to mind these things.
To be carnally minded is to mind the things of the flesh. And
he says right there, the carnal mind's enmity against God, it
can't submit to the law of God. But that's what it mines. It
mines the law of God. It mines touch not, taste not,
handle not. It mines this do, don't do that.
It mines using that law as a yoke, as a chain to bind men. That's carnally minded. He's
not talking about fornication and harlotry and things. He's
talking about turning from Christ back to the letter of the law. That's what he's talking about.
And Paul's not weeping for those whose God is their belly. He
told the Philippians right before this, he said, I would that they
were cut off. That's what he told the Galatians.
I would that they were cut off. They're concision. They're dogs.
That's what James started out saying here. Just like rich men
that bite and devour one another, these self-righteous, joking
masters bite and devour one another. He said, How? Like a dog for
your miseries that's coming upon you. How? Verse 6, You've condemned
and killed the just, and he does not resist you. Rich men like
to sue, they like to prosecute men before the law. They kill
by taking the good names of people, by withholding the fruit of their
labor from them. Instead of saying to Job, it
shall be well with him, let me tell you what his friends said. You can read Job for yourself,
I'd encourage you. This is what his friends were
saying to him. This is the sum and substance of what his friends
were saying to him, and this is religion in a nutshell right
here. Their conclusion to Job was, God deals with men in this
life according to their outward behavior. That's what they said. They said, God doesn't afflict
good men in the manner that you've been afflicted, Job. Wicked men
are punished like this, so Job, you've done something that made
you deserve this. That's what they said. Job told
them what James is saying right here. Wicked men enjoy great
prosperity in this life. Wicked men enjoy the riches of
this life and great prosperity in this life, and God's saints
don't. He told them that men's characters
are not judged by the outward afflictions that they suffer.
You see some brother fall into a trial, into a great suffering
and affliction, it does not mean they have done something wicked
against God. Job had done nothing. God said
he's a just man and not a man on earth like him, perfect and
upright. God said to Satan, see, try. You'll see. See exactly
what I'm telling you. And the Lord said that what Job
spoke was right. What he spoke was right. Now,
here's the application. The whole rest of James chapter
5 is an application. But we're going to just look
at a few of these. We'll take the rest next time. Verse 7. James 5.7. Be patient, therefore, brethren. This is the first word of application. Be patient, therefore, brethren.
Until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth
for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience
for it until he receiveth the early and latter rain." Now,
if you're oppressed, whether it's by rich men of this world
or whether it's by religious men of this world, self-righteous
men, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The Lord
is near. Be patient. Not necessarily till
the Lord returns. He will restore all things when
He returns. But in every hour of trial, He's
coming. Just wait. He's coming. That's
how James started the book. Be patient. Let patience have
a perfect work, brethren. Wait till the end of the trial.
But there's something else here that needs to be said. To you
who are laboring to restore an erring brother or sister, or
who are bearing witness of Christ. Don't be like the rich men of
this world, the rich men of self-righteousness who keep back the precious riches
of Christ, who defraud men of their wages. Don't hold that
back. Don't hold that back. But speak the word of truth and
be patient and wait until the coming of the Lord. They may
throw it back in your face like they did Job, but wait to the
coming of the Lord. Now you consider the illustration
he gives here about the farmer. The farmer, what does he do?
He plants the seed. Sow the word. Sow the word. The farmer waits on the Lord
to give the increase to make the word effectual. That's what
he's telling us to do. Wait on the Lord to send the
early and the latter rain to make the word effectual. Be ye
also patient. Be like the farmer. Establish
your hearts like Abraham who said, God's able to raise up. Isn't that what James said back
up here when he was talking of not speaking evil of your brother,
not condemning him? Look at James 4.10. Humble yourselves
in the sight of the Lord. He shall lift you up. He'll lift
you up. He'll restore you. He's able. And here's the next thing. Don't
grudge one another. Verse 9. Grudge not one against
another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Now you see this word
grudge and condemned go together. This word grudge means murmur.
It's what James has been speaking of all along. Don't unbrowl your
tongue on one another. Don't speak evil of your brother. Don't go up to him and speak
these words of the gospel when in your heart what you're really
doing is saying, boy, I put him in his place. Don't use the pearls
as a whip. Gently place them on the neck
of your brethren to adorn the bride of Christ. They're not
used as means of bondage. Don't speak evil one of another.
Don't grumble. Don't murmur. Behold, the judge
standeth at the door. Remember, there's one lawgiver.
Remember, he alone is able. Remember, he can write the Word.
He can send the rain into the heart and plant that seed in
the heart and cause that fruit of righteousness to be produced.
You can't do it. I can't do it. But he can. Note
something else here. Job's friends stood before the
door. The judge stood before the door. They stood and put
themselves in the place of the judges, condemning Job. And you
know what they did? They blocked the door of Christ,
who is the door. They didn't open the door of
Christ to Job. They stood in the way. The Lord said, Woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut up the kingdom of heaven
against men, for ye neither go in, and you suffer them that
are entering to go in. You won't let them go in. You
stand in the door and block the door. I think there's two meanings
to that there. Now, verse 10. Take, my brethren,
the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an
example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. And the key
there is, who have spoken in the name of the Lord. That's
the key through this whole book. Speak the word of truth. Today,
when you get a chance, on the back of today's bulletin, that
article by Pastor Paul Mahan, Bearing the cross of Christ,
brethren, it's not just suffering. Everybody suffers in this world.
Bearing the cross of Christ is preaching in the name of the
Lord, declaring Him. You're going to suffer affliction
for that. But be patient. Don't take the law into your
own hands. Trust the lawgiver. Now, here's
verse 11. Behold, we count them happy which
endure. Those are the happy ones. You
know why? Because to preach the Word, to preach Christ, you're
going to have to study the Word. You're going to have to be in
the Word. You're going to have to be asking God for wisdom. You're
going to have to be submitting yourself unto Him. And by doing
that, you're going to be blessed and be a blessing. And you'll
endure and you'll be happy to endure because He makes it effectual
in your own heart. You've heard of the patience
of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is
very pitiful and of tender mercy. Now let's go back to Job. I want
to see the end. Let's see the end. What did Job
do? What did the Lord do? We always think of this as being,
well, the Lord restored him twice as much as he had before. The
Lord did something else before he did that. Now watch this. Look over there. Job 42. Verse
8, now he just got through talking to those friends and told them
that his wrath was kindled against them. Now look what he tells
them to do. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven
rams and go to my servant Job and offer up for yourselves a
burnt offering. If you're going to go, Job's
a picture of Christ right here. If you're going to go to God,
you're going to have to come in Christ the Lamb. That's what
he's telling them. You can't go to my servant. You can't go to my righteous
one without a lamb. You've got to have the Lamb of
God to approach the Father. Look, and my servant Job, he'll
make intercession for you. He'll intercede for you. Christ is seated at the right
hand of God and he ever liveth to make intercession. If you
want to come to one of God's children, you've got to come
with Christ the Lamb. And you've got to come praying
Christ to intercede for you, to make that word effectual in
the heart. We're going to see that later
in our second hour this morning. And he says, you do this because
for him, Joe, I will accept. The Lord will accept Christ.
He'll accept the lamb. He'll accept the mediator. He'll
accept the intercessor. The one lawgiver He will accept.
Now look at the next word. Lest I deal with you after your
folly. In that you have not spoken of
me the thing which is right like my servant Job. And so they did
it. They did what He told them to
do. And look at verse 10. And the Lord also accepted Job.
He prayed for him. He interceded for him. And the
Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.
He turned the captivity of him when he made intercession for
his friends. There's so many lessons here, in and out of this,
brethren. But here's the thing. If you're going to go to an erring
brother, you've got to go with Christ the Lamb. You've got to
go asking the Spirit of God, Christ Jesus our Lord, to intercede
and to bless it and make it effectual in the heart. God will accept
him. He won't accept our folly. And if he intercedes, if Christ
intercedes and makes that word effectual, the Lord will turn
the erring brother from his folly. He'll turn him from his folly
and God will accept him and restore him twice as much as he had before.
That's what he did for Joe. Look now, verse 11. And you behold
in this too, Christ that's risen. Job's a picture of Christ all
throughout this book. Christ is risen. He's the Lamb
of God. He intercedes for His people. Now look what happened
to Job. Then came there unto Him all
His brethren, and all His sisters, and all they that had been of
His acquaintance before, and did eat bread with Him in His
house. and they bemoaned Him and comforted
Him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon Him. Every
man also gave Him a piece of money and everyone an earring
of gold. And so the Lord blessed the latter
end of Job more than His beginning. Christ our Lord left everything
and He humbled Himself and became a servant and came to where we
are. And He laid down His life for sinners and redeemed His
people from the curse of the law. His righteousness is imputed
to them when the Gospel comes and they hear the Word of God.
Their eyes are opened. They're given faith to believe
and they realize, I've been made the righteousness of God in Him.
He's my sanctification. I'm holy in Him. But they err
sometimes. And when they err, you go to
them with Christ the Lord, not in our folly, with Christ the
Lord, with the glorious good news of Christ, just like they
were born the first hour. And you ask God for wisdom. You pray He would intercede for
them. And you disperse these riches to them. You clothe them
in the garments of this righteousness. And as you sow that seed, you
wait for Him to give the early and the latter rain. You wait
for Him to give the increase. You keep nothing back. Don't
defraud them. Keep nothing back. Give them the truth of the Gospel.
And when God restores them, the brethren and the sisters will
come to His house, and they'll eat bread in His house, and they'll
praise Him for everything He suffered on their behalf in making
them righteous and bringing them to His feet, to His throne of
grace. And that's how God saves sinners. And that's how He keeps sinners.
That's how He edifies His people. That's how He grows His people.
And He will do so from the first hour until the day we enter into
His house and eat bread with Him in glory. That's how He does
it. Amen.