Alright, let's continue to study
what Brother Aaron just read in James chapter 5. Look at that
passage with me, and I want to hopefully bring you some thoughts
concerning what the Apostle James, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
is teaching us, what the Spirit teaches us ultimately. concerning
our lives as believers in Christ and our dependence upon Him for
all things. I've entitled this message, Patience
Under Persecution. Patience Under Persecution. And the first six verses of James
chapter 5 opens with a word of judgment. And you see there in
verse 1, he speaks to rich men. Go to now, or come now, or listen
now. You rich men, he says, weep and
howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Talking about
the future, future judgment to rich men. But now, why would
James all of a sudden in this passage, and as you know, you
can sometimes, you think about these things, you know, the New
Testament, the books of the Bible were not written in chapters
and verses. They didn't have numbers in the
original text. So it would just be read as one
long epistle and so you go from what we read in chapter 4 and
then all of a sudden go to now you rich men. Why would James
all of a sudden come to that point and then deal with these
rich men who are obviously unbelievers? He's talking about unbelievers
here now. Not talking about believers. Talking about a future judgment
of condemnation to these. But why would he do that? Some
say, well, he's not directly addressing these rich men because
they don't read this. This was a letter written to
the believers that were scattered throughout the region. And it
was an encouragement. In fact, in beginning at verse
7, we see the real issue here. It's an encouragement to patience.
And that patience there is endurance. When you think of patience, we
always think about waiting. You wait patiently. And the Bible
does tell us to wait on the Lord. We are to wait on Him for His
good providence and all that. But this term patience has to
do with endurance. Think about that. That's endurance.
In fact, you may have it in your concordance in your Bible. It
may say long-suffering. Suffer long. That is endure. Persevere. That's what it's talking
about. Well, what's the connection here? Well, what James is talking
about has to do with those who are rich maybe economically,
money, or rich in power and authority, unbelievers who are persecuting
and oppressing God's people. That's what he's talking about.
Back over in James chapter 1, you might remember James began
this whole book by talking about trials and persecution. He says
in verse 3 of James chapter 1, he says, knowing this, that the
trying, the testing of your faith worketh patience, but let patience
have her perfect, or complete, full work, that ye may be perfect,
again, complete and full, and entire, wanting or lacking nothing."
And so he's talking about patience under trial there. Now, these
trials come in different ways. And we know that to God's children,
to the Church collectively, and to believers individually, these
trials, these testings, are from the Lord. And I'll tell you what,
you know, some people don't understand that, and they look at it and
they say, well, why would God send this kind of trial, because
it looks evil to me. Just for example, here in chapter
5, he's talking about unbelievers persecuting, oppressing, judging,
and condemning in courts of law, or religious courts, believers,
putting them in jail. Paul, for example, he went to
prison. He was chained up. He was beat. with whips and he was outcast
because of his ministry, because of the witness of the gospel
of Christ that men by nature hate because it exposes us for
what we really are. Sinners, depraved, without hope,
without any power or desire to come to God, without any way
to save ourselves and what we trust in, our own works, our
own experiences, our own ideas that they're no good because
God saves sinners by his grace through Christ. When that is
exposed, men come out against that. And we thank God that we
today have a Constitution that protects us with religious freedom
to worship as God guides us. But back then, these rich men,
these powerful men, and many of them religious men like the
Pharisees and the Sadducees, The Jewish Sanhedrin, the court
of Jewish law, they had the money, they had the means, they had
the influence, they had the power to go after believers and put
them in jail and even to kill them. And that's who James is
talking to. And when we see these trials,
these are trials sent to us from God to test our faith and to
prove us, and you say, well, why would God do that? God, He
tells us back over here in James chapter 1, He says that we might
be complete and entire. In other words, faith is going
to have its full work. These trials do not save us.
These trials do not make us Christians. These trials do not make us righteous. They only reveal the reality
of God's grace that has already been working. That's what it
does. And these are tests of faith,
and they're ultimately for our good. So these trials come in
many different forms. They may come in physical oppression,
they may come in persecution, whatever. Whatever thing that
comes against us, that's a trial of our faith. And it's only by
the grace of God that we get through it. But God has appointed
the means, the means of His Spirit, who indwells each and every one
of His people by the power of Christ, the life of Christ within
us. by His Spirit and His Word. He's
given us His Word that we might persevere. I talked to the Sunday
school class about that this morning. When these trials come
at us and we, in our human weaknesses, we struggle, the warfare of the
flesh and the Spirit. We doubt. We have so many misgivings. We don't know the future. We
don't know what this week's going to hold. We don't know. God does. Listen, just because I don't
know what's going to happen this week, I can tell you one thing
for sure, God's working all things after the counsel of His own.
Well, I know that, I believe that, and I'm going to tell you
something, that gives me a settled peace. Now, that doesn't take
care of all my problems in my own head here. It doesn't, because
I'm scared. I've got these misgivings, you
know, and I say, why me, God, and all that. I mean, I go through
all that right with you. I don't have an SC on my chest,
says Super Christian. I've got an SSBG, Sinners Saved
by Grace. That's what I've got on my chest
and on my head. But you see, these things are
trials. Well, here he's talking about
being oppressed and persecuted by unbelievers who have the power
and the influence to really get at you. And that's why I entitled
it Patience Under Persecution. So the first six verses here
are judgment for oppressors. Listen to what he says. Go to
you rich men. Come now, listen. He speaks of
rich men who instead of rejoicing in their riches, ought to weep
over the eternal misery that's coming. He says, weep and howl
for your miseries that shall come upon you. This is what awaits
every person who never comes to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This misery that he speaks of
here, that shall come upon you, that's the impending judgment
of God against all sin. To every person who stands before
God without Christ, without being washed in His blood and clothed
in His righteousness, This is what awaits every person who
never comes to repentance of their dead works. Like the Apostle
Paul when he says, I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge which is in Christ Jesus my Lord. This is
what awaits every person who never comes, by the grace of
God, to love Christ and His people. He's not just picking on rich
men here. You know, the Bible doesn't teach
that all rich people are damned and that all poor people are
saved. The Bible does not teach that
there's any virtue in being physically poor or physically rich. Either way, there's no instant
curse that comes upon the rich. The Bible doesn't teach that
money is the root of all evil. It says the love of money is
the root of all evil, 1 Timothy 6.10. The love, that inordinate,
sinful, selfish love of material things that would keep a person
from seeking the Lord. Keep a person from doing good
to others. And what he's saying to these
rich men is this, if you don't come to use your gifts, and that's
what these riches are, no matter how hard you've worked, or how
hard I've worked, and how much we've accumulated, I'm going
to tell you, ultimately, it is a gift. Period. You say, well, I worked hard.
Well, it's God who gave you that ability to work hard. You say,
well, I've just got a mind towards making money or whatever. Well,
it's God who gave you that mind, and He can take that mind just
like that, can't He? It's a gift. And all those things
that have been profitable, ultimately, it's a gift from God. And if
you don't use your gift for the glory of God in Christ and the
good of others, Weep and howl. Don't rejoice. Don't live it
up. Weep. Weep for yourself. Weep and howl. That's what he
said. Howl there means to sorrow. That's sorrow. That's what you
ought to be doing. So this opens with a strong condemnation
toward the rich unbeliever who was oppressing poor believers
while they themselves were living in luxury. Now again, let me
emphasize this. This in no way implies that it's
a sin to be rich or a virtue to be poor. There are many rich
believers in the Bible. Abraham was one of them. Job
was one of them. Philemon was one of them. So
that's not the issue there. What he's talking about here
is men of power and influence in government and religion who
use their power and their money to take advantage of people,
to persecute Christ's church, and indulge themselves. That's
what he's talking about here. So keep that in mind. And also,
we as believers, we need to know that even though many who persecute
us and who hate the gospel seem to prosper in this life, they'll
perish if they don't believe and repent. They'll perish if
they don't come to Christ. Let me give you a blanket statement
here that'll apply to everybody. I don't care if you're rich,
poor, sick, healthy, whatever. All people, all sinners, without
Christ, will perish eternally. Period. I don't care if you're
living in a shack or living in a mansion. If you don't have
Christ, eternally, spiritually, you don't have anything. Isn't
that right? You don't have eternal life.
You don't have salvation. You don't have righteousness
without Christ. Whatever your state, standing,
or situation is, whether you're happy, sad, whatever, if you
don't have Christ, you have nothing to recommend you unto God. You
say, well, all my riches are blessings. They can be cursed
and cursings, because without Christ, that's what we are. We're
cursed. Cursed of God. The rich may be able to pay their
bills here on earth and not worry about that, but they cannot pay
their debt to sin, to God's law and justice. It takes the cross
of Calvary to do that. Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
And the main burden that was lifted, you know, we sing that
song and sometimes we have a tendency to think about it in our minds
as just mental, emotional, psychological relief. And I believe there is
some of that. Now, let me tell you, I'm not
going to discount that altogether, but I'm not a psychologist. I'm
not a philosopher, you see, and I'm certainly not an emotional
counselor. I'm a preacher of the gospel.
I'm going to tell you something. The main burden that was lifted
at Calvary was the burden of the dead of our sins. Christ's
blood put away my sins. The law of God cannot condemn
me, for there is therefore now no condemnation to them who are
in Christ." Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.
We are righteous in Him. If I am poor here on earth, if
I know Christ, I have all the righteousness that God requires
because I have Christ. All the forgiveness. Those rich
people are moderately rich. You know, we have a tendency
to think about anybody's riches. Anybody's got more than me. But
listen to me now. Everybody out here today would
be rich to somebody. Here's the point. You may be
able to pay your bills, and that's good. And I hope you can, and
I hope you're responsible to do so. But you cannot pay your
debt to God's law and justice. That takes the grace and mercy
of God in Christ. Jesus paid it all. We're going
to sing that hymn at the end of the service today. The poor
may not be able to pay their debts, pay their bills, but I'll
tell you what, there's no way that the debt of sin can be wiped
out for the poor except by the blood of Christ. You understand?
Now, the poor can do neither one, but the Bible has special
instructions for the rich. It does tell rich people to be
careful, because it's not that the unbelieving rich are more
evil and more wicked than the unbelieving poor. All are ungodly
in the sight of God without Christ. But it's that they have more
power, more influence, and more opportunities to express their
hatred of the gospel in this way. The rich in general are
admired by the worldly and by the wicked, and so they're subject
to many temptations that way. They have the resources to carry
out the whims of their unlawful fleshly desires that poor people
don't have, and so they're more apt to act upon it, even though
they're no more evil or depraved than a lost poor person. So,
think about that. So, some believe he's referring
here to other situations, but I'm just convinced as I read
this, and based upon the last few verses here, let's look at
them. Look at verse 2. He says, he says, your riches
are corrupted. If you're trusting in riches,
you're trusting in something that's corrupted. See, that's
why you trust in the Lord. And don't lean to your own understanding.
You trust in Christ. Rest in Him, not in your riches.
Don't trust and rest in anything that's corrupted. You see, turn
over to 1 Peter 1, verse 18 there. Listen to this. This puts things
in perspective. 1 Peter 1.18, just over one page
for most of you in your Bible. He says, "...for as much as you
know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things." You
see, that's why we don't trust things that are corruptible.
We're not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers.
But you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. That's
the incorruptible blood of Christ. Did you hear that? You know what
this verse is teaching? It's teaching that His blood
cannot be corrupted. Sinless Savior. Even when He
died on the cross, Having become responsible and accountable for
the sins of his sheep, as they were imputed to him, charged
to him, he himself was incorruptible. That's why he said, when he instituted
the Lord's Supper, he said, this is my body, unleavened bread,
incorruptible, which was broken for you. This is my blood, which
was shed for you. So, but with the precious blood
of Christ as of a lamb without blemish, And without spot, who
verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times for you, the incorruptible
blood of Christ." So he says back here in James 5 and verse
2, your riches are corrupted. Your garments are moth-eaten.
You know, a lot of commentators think that he's talking about
just clothing there. That's probably part of it. The
clothes we wear and that we are so proud of and that we think
of, and I'm just like you all now. I mean, I want to, you know,
I'm not going to get on television, you know, with a tank top and
a pair of shorts or something, you know. I'm going to dress
up. But that's corruptible. I'm surprised this suit's lasted
as long as it has. Because I've worn it so much.
But it's corruptible. It's going to fade away. And
you don't want to trust anything. It's going to fade away. And
let me tell you something else that's corruptible in your garments,
your works aimed at establishing a righteousness of your own.
Paul saw that. I quoted earlier. Part of Philippians
chapter 3, that's what he's talking about. In his religious works
and efforts, he was working his way to, as it were, symbolically,
metaphorically, sew his garment of righteousness together by
his own hands. And that's what people do in
works, self-righteous religion. Working their way into God's
favor, trying to sew together a garment of righteousness that
they can stand before God and appear You remember in Zechariah
chapter 3, like Joshua the high priest, when God sees that works
garment of the human efforts of men, what does he see? He
sees filthy rags, filthy garments. You see, that's corruptible.
Don't trust in anything that's corruptible, anything that's
moth-eaten. That's what that's talking about.
Anything that's going to rot and decay and perish. Now you
may be like most of us, you've got more clothes than you can
wear, but don't just listen. Don't let your life be wrapped
up in things like that. You may have more money than
you can spend. Use it for the glory of God and the good of
others. These things are going to perish. Look at verse 3, your
gold and silver is cankered. That's like a gangrene. That kind of thing. It's cankered.
It's not going to last. It's not going to stand the test
of judgment and eternity. And he says, and the rest of
them shall be a witness against you. If what you're trusting
is fades away, corrupts, what does that say about you? That's
what he's saying there. If my trust is in my own works,
And by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified before God. What does that say about me?
It's a witness against me. It's not good enough. If my trust
is in the material things of this world, whether it be money,
clothing, whatever, possessions, what's going to happen? What
does that say about me? It says that I'm a unbeliever. I'm a sinner with no hope, because
what I'm trusting in is going to fade away. He said, and shall
eat your flesh as it were fire. In other words, that's the end
of it all. It's all going to burn up, even
you. And he says, you've heaped treasure
together for the last days. You've been heaping it together,
working hard for it. I mean, you're not lazy. You work hard
for it. But what are you doing? Look
at verse 4. He says, Behold, the higher of
the labors you've reaped down your fields, which have you kept
back by fraud and crime. Here he's probably talking about
people who've gotten money by ill-gain, abusing their employees
or the people that they work with or work from or work off
of. He says, The cries of them which you have reaped are entered
into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. When you see that term
Sabaoth, think of it this way. It's the Lord of Hosts. You've
heard that term, especially in the Old Testament, the Lord of
Hosts. What does that mean? What is a host? It's a bunch.
That's what that means. And when he says the Lord of
the Hosts, the Lord of Sabaoth, he's talking about God's sovereign
power, invincibility, the Lord of a great army, as it were.
Everything's at his disposal. He can give it, Job said it this
way, He can give it to you or He can take it away. He's the
Lord of Sabaoth. And if He gives you something,
alright, if He gives you something, He expects you to use it for
His glory and be a good steward of His grace, and if you trust
in that which will fade away incorruptible, what's going to
happen? Well, it's going to testify against
you and it will all burn up along with you. God's sovereign. Verse 5, he says, you've lived
in pleasure on the earth, you've been wanton, that means deceptive,
cheating, self-indulging, self-gratification, you've nourished your hearts.
But what is their heart? Their heart is illegal, selfish
heart. It's a heart wherein the love
of God has not been shed abroad. So you've nourished your own
desires, your own selfish wants, as in a day of slaughter, that's
where it's headed. It's like a day of slaughter.
It's kind of like eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we're
going to die. And look at verse 6. Now, this
is where it comes to. This is where the issue hits.
He says, you have condemned and killed the just, the justified,
and he doth not resist you. Who are the justified there?
If the Bible speaks of any person on earth born of Adam being just,
what's it talking about? It's talking about a sinner saved
by the grace of God. Talking about one who is justified
in Christ. One who's been born again by
the Spirit, who looks to and rests in and trusts in Christ
and His blood and righteousness alone. Talking about a believer,
one of his dear children, He says, you've condemned them.
What does that mean? It means you've brought them up before
the courts. How many times? You know, Christ told His disciples,
He said, they'll bring you up before the courts and they'll
judge you. Have you preached against Caesar?
Have you preached any other God but Caesar? Have you preached
any other way but the Jewish Old Testament way as they see
it, which is legalism? Have you preached in the name
of Jesus of Nazareth? Think about it there in the book
of Acts. I can't remember which chapters, either four, five,
or six, but you can read. Just read all three. But they
brought Peter and John up before the court because they had healed
an impotent man. And they said, we told you, or
what they said was, in whose name or by what authority did
you heal this man? Now, Peter could have given an
array of answers that were true and spoke the truth and not told
a lie. He could have said, we healed
this man in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And he would have told the truth, and they wouldn't have blinked
an eye. That's not what he said. He said, we healed this man in
the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whom you crucified. And boy,
that raised their ire. That raised their anger. And
therefore, they were condemned, they were put in jail, sentenced
to death. But God wasn't through with them.
The Lord of Sabaoth wasn't through with them. And He opened the
doors of the jail and let them out. So you see, now Peter and
James and John, when they were being taken to the court of these
rich religious men, and being oppressed and being condemned.
They didn't draw swords and say, now, you all come after me, I'm
going to cut your head off. No, they didn't do that. They
didn't raise their fist. They didn't resist. You know
why? Because they knew that God is the Lord of Sabaoth. God's
going to take care of them. Now, that doesn't mean we're
supposed to be fatalistic or anything like that. But let me
tell you something. When we're brought up to suffer for Christ's
sake, It's in the hands of the Lord. Now, you understand what
I'm saying? Our weapons are not fists and
guns and knives and swords. Our weapons are the Word of God
and the power of the Spirit. That's the way we fight. So that's
the issue here. Now, we're all responsible to
be good stewards of God's grace, God's gifts, and all things.
But He condemns these rich men, these powerful, authoritative
men. for persecuting his people. So
what does he tell his people to do? Now look at verse 7. Here's
encouragement for Christ's disciples. Now listen to this. First thing
he says is, Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of
the Lord. Now again, that word patient
means to suffer long. It means to endure. Don't quit.
Don't give up. Don't faint. This is a call for
patience in view of Christ's return. Who's he talking to here?
He says, Be patient, therefore, brethren, members of the same
family, sinners saved by the grace of God, who have the same
Heavenly Father, the God of all grace and mercy in Christ. Our
elder brother is Christ. That's what he called himself.
He's not ashamed to call us brethren. He laid down his life for our
sins. He satisfied the justice of God,
so that God can be just and justifier, and we can call Him Abba Father.
And who are the ones that call Him Abba Father according to
Romans 8? Those who suffer with Him. Suffer with Him. Our Lord suffered the persecution
of the evil, sinful, unbelieving world, lost humanity, fallen
humanity, including you and me in spirit, because that's what
we are by nature. And he didn't resist. And he
says here, be patient. Be patient. Look at what he says
in verse 7. He says, Behold the husbandman. That's a keeper of
a field, like a farmer. He waiteth for the precious fruit
of the earth, the crop, the harvest. and have long patience for it.
He does wait for it, but he endures. He doesn't just sit down. He
waters, he fertilizes, he weeds, all of that, until he received
the early and the latter rain. Now, that's an earthly illustration
of a spiritual truth. A farmer plants. He cares for
his field. He waits on the early and the
latter rain, and He endures until the time of harvest. He doesn't
feign or quit because the fruit doesn't spring up immediately.
You don't plant the seed and then just pop up. You wait. You endure. And it's the same
with us. We may not see the culmination
of all things working together for our eternal good and for
the glory of God right that moment. We may not see our vindication
before the whole universe right at that moment. But it's coming. It's coming. I believe that.
Don't you? It's coming. So just as the farmer endures
and perseveres, we're to endure and persevere. Christ is coming
again. But look on. He says in verse
8, He says, Be ye also patient. And then He says, Be established.
Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
In the book of Hebrews, chapter 13, Verse 9, let me just read
it to you. It says, be not carried about
with diverse and strange doctrines, different doctrines, foreign
doctrines. People are always coming up with
something new, some new twist on things, some new ideas that
are kind of strange to you. They just don't, you know, they
just don't sound right to you. And they don't fit with the Word
of God. Don't be carried about with that. And then he says this,
he says, it is a good thing that the heart be established with
grace. Now that's not strange and foreign.
That's not different. That's the same old story. That's
the old, old story. God's grace. Saved by grace. Kept by grace. Glorified by grace. God's grace. And where do we
find God's grace? In Christ. Nowhere else. in Christ. That's a good thing. If your heart is established,
that means firmly established in the assurance of faith in
any way but in Christ and Him crucified and risen again. It's
on shaky ground. Let your heart be established
with grace and with the Word of God. Pray unto Him, the Gospel,
its ordinances, the fellowship and encouragement of God's people.
Why? He says in verse 7, for the coming
of the Lord draweth nigh. You see that? This can have a
two-fold application. You know, when James was writing
this epistle, I don't know the exact date, and you wouldn't
believe it, but there are volumes that are written on that subject,
on when James wrote this. It's not that important, but
I know this. It was before A.D. 70. If you
know anything about Jewish history or world history, you know that
A.D. 70 was the time when the Roman
occupation, the Roman Caesar at that time, he came down and
Jerusalem and the temple, the city, was utterly wiped off the
face of the earth. And then the Jewish people were
scattered, what was left of them. And I believe that this could
apply to that. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. That temple
was going to be destroyed. Everything about that culture
and that people in that time, in that way, was going to be
destroyed. But it also has an application, I believe, to the
second coming of Christ. The coming of the Lord draweth
nigh. And so what does he say in light
of that? Now hold on to that thought. Look at verse 9. He
says, Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be
condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door. Here's
the next thing he says. Don't grudge one another. What
is he talking about there? It's a warning against unjustly
blaming those around us for the suffering we endure. It's your
fault. It's your fault. It's your fault.
And even Bradley, we have a tendency to do that. Well, if you hadn't
said this, done that, you know, we all mess up. We all mess up. We go through a trial as a group. I'll tell you what's going to
be. Not the trial, because I don't know. I'll tell you how it's
going to work out, this trial, whatever trial we go through
as a church. There are going to be some people in this congregation
who are going to just fail miserably. I may be one of them. I don't
know. I mean, you listen, you even
wonder if you're a Christian going through that trial. It's
a mess. And I've told you before, and
I mean this now, I mean it. I never come through a trial.
I never come out on the other end of a trial that the Lord
gives me and brings me through feeling good about me. I always
come out of every trial feeling good about Christ. Thanking God
for delivering me. But there are going to be some
people who are going to just fail miserably. Jude spoke of
those in our Sunday school class, you know, when we're reading
the book of Jude, those who are weak, and he said, be compassionate,
be merciful. There are going to be others
who are just going to be models of excellence. There are going
to be some of you who just, you're just going to be an example to
everybody else in your attitude, how you think, your prayers,
and then There's going to be the in-betweeners, and that's
going to be most of us. Everybody else in-between. But
you see, here's the thing about it. Either way, either way, number
one, it's the Lord who keeps us. All right? Number two, He'll
bring us through. Number three, He'll teach us
something. Number four, we'll grow in grace and knowledge of
Christ. We'll come out appreciating,
loving, trusting Him even more. And as we're going through that,
let's not turn on each other. That's what He's saying here.
Let's not blame everybody else, each other. Don't grumble or
complain or turn against one another. Don't envy one another
or secretly complain and judge one another, lest you be judged
openly by the judge of the whole earth who looks upon the heart.
You say you look at somebody and how they're acting, you don't
know what's on their heart. They don't know what's on your heart. God
does. God does. You say, well, I know some of
your shortcomings. You don't know the half of it.
And I don't know the half of yours. And so the issue here
has to do with accusing one another and unjustly blaming one another
for the trial or suffering we're going through. And when he says
here, verse 9, he says, lest you be condemned, he's not talking
about being damned for all time. He's talking about being condemned
in our conscience. And aren't we all too often condemned
in our own consciences? Wading through, as John Bunyan
said, the slew of despond. What he's talking about here
is don't judge one another. And he says in verse 9, the judge
standeth before the door. That's Christ. Christ is the
judge of all things. And don't you thank God that
He is. Even He who knows our faults
better than we know ourselves, Because it says that he's going
to judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
and that he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath
raised him from the dead. And what righteousness do I have?
Well, I did a pretty good job coming through that last trial.
If that's my righteousness, then I'm a goner. No, my righteousness
is the righteousness of Christ. that he worked out in his obedience
unto death on the cross of Calvary. And I'm going to tell you something.
I may be in the group that does miserably, fails miserably in
that trial. I may be in the group that is a model of excellence,
or I'll probably be in the in-betweeners. It doesn't matter. Christ is
my righteousness. He's Jehovah Sid Canoe for me.
He's the judge. Aren't you glad He's the judge
and not me? And not you? He's the judge. And you know
that judge, let me tell you something, I thought about that, there's
a program used to be on called JAG, Judge Advocate General. And I thought, you know, that's
what Christ is to his people. He's our judge, he's our advocate,
and he's our general. He's the Lord of Sabaoth. He's
everything. He's not only our judge, but
He's the one who stands in our place and pleads our cause on
the merits of His blood and His righteousness, and not how I
went through this trial. It's not going to be when we
get to judgment that the Lord is going to flash up on some
screen there that trial that I went through and say, now,
Lord, look here at how miserable Bill did during that time. No. No. My advocate is Jesus Christ
the righteous. And he pleads the merits of his
death on my behalf. And I stand before God complete
in him, completely without guilt, completely righteous in God's
sight. The judge stands at the door. Look at verse 10. Consider the
word of God and the saints of the past. Now, I'm going to come
back on this after I get back in the pulpit. And so don't forget
what I'm saying today. Maybe I'll give you a test. Maybe
I'll forget what I'm saying today. The Lord, in the Sermon on the
Mount, He made this statement. He said, Blessed are you, Matthew
5 and verse 10. He said, Blessed are they which
are persecuted for righteousness' sake. That is, for the gospel,
for witnessing and identifying with Christ and his people. He
said, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And he said, Blessed
are you when men shall revile you, persecute you, shall say
all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice
and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. That's
the reward of grace, not the reward of works or death. For
so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. You're
not the first one to be persecuted or tested. Think about Abel, he was a prophet. Murdered, the first murdered.
The first murder was a brother against a brother over the gospel. And then think about all the
other prophets that were persecuted. Isaiah, Jeremiah, they were all
persecuted, hated. So he says in James 5, 10, take
my brethren the prophets who have spoken in the name of the
Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience they
endured by the grace of God. And then he says in verse 11,
behold we count them happy which endure. You have heard of the
patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord. That is
the purpose of the Lord in that working with Job. That's what
I want to deal with next time. He says that the Lord is very
pitiful. What that means, he's very merciful
and compassionate towards his people. He has pity upon them. And of tender mercy. You read the book of Job sometimes.
You can't proof-text the book of Job. What I mean by that is
you can't just jerk little verses out here and there and say, that's
what this book's about. Because there are going to be times that
God's dealing with Job, you're going to say, but that just doesn't
seem tender to me, and that just doesn't seem merciful. But you know what Job said? He
said, the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. Now you consider him. Well, who
was Job? He was a sinner saved by the
grace of God, just like you. He didn't have SC on his chest
either, super Christian. He was just a man, a weak, pitiful
man, a clay pot. That's what you're looking at,
a clay pot up here. I have a treasure. But the clay
pot's not the treasure. The treasure is Christ. And the
glory of God in Christ. I've got a treasure, but I've
got it in a clay pot. Now don't look to the clay pot.
Don't trust in the clay pot. Look to Christ, the treasure.