In the fifth chapter of James,
James continues his epistle with these words, 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 moff-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. Behold, the hire
of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of
you, kept back by fraud, crieth. And the cries of them which have
reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have
lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton. Ye have nourished
your hearts as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed
the just, and he doth not resist you. Go to now, ye rich men,
weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. You rich men. Are you rich? Do you seek riches? Do you love
riches? Do you desire them? All sorts of riches. The riches
of this world. Wealth, goods, money. The pleasures of this world.
The acclaim of this world. The esteem of this world. The
position of this world. The knowledge and the wisdom
of this world. Riches. Where is your heart's desire?
For what do you live? For what do you strive? As James asked earlier, what is
your life? What is your life? What people call life and what
they fill their lives with It's but death. Oh, this is living, they say.
This is the life. They enrich themselves with what
they can in this world. They grab what they can. They
seek what they can. And they think they're living. But it's but for a moment. And then it's gone. What is your
life? It is even a vapor that appeareth
for a little time and then vanisheth away. It's but for a moment and
then it's gone. And even in that moment, even
when we're rich with what we gain in this world, in whatever
realm, even at our greatest point, in our strongest hour, When we're
mighty in our own eyes and perhaps in the eyes of others, even when
we're esteemed, even when we're on the mountaintop, what we call
life is simply death. Our physical death is but moments
away. but spiritually we are dead throughout. By nature we are born and we
live as those who are dead in trespasses and sins. We're blind, we're in the darkness,
we know not God, we don't know what life is. We call this natural
realm and what we have in it and what we do in it and what
we think and say, we call that life but it fleeting, it's but
for a moment, it's a mirage, it's death. We may have many
riches in this world. We may have all the wealth we
can gain. All the power, all the esteem,
all the applause of men. But it's all gone in a moment. We come into the world with nothing
and we go out with nothing. It's all gone in a moment. Soon,
the young man is middle-aged. Soon, the middle-aged is old. Soon, we lie in the grave. And
all that we've grasped at, all that we've built up, all that we've attained to, all
that we've done, gone in a moment. It's all gone in the end. We
cannot take it beyond the grave. We've grasped at it and it passes
through our fingers. Oh the foolishness of man. that he grasps so strongly, so
insatiably at all that he can get in this world when his life
is fleeting, his life is flying past him, time races by and eternity
awaits and he thinks not what is beyond the grave, he thinks
not of eternity, he thinks not of the riches to come. How short-sighted
we are. As Christ asks, the Gospels. What is a man profited if he
shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What does it profit you if you
gain the whole world and lose your own soul? You can see this so often in
history. So many men emperors of mighty
nations, kings, leaders, leaders of great companies, industrial
empires, now gone. How their latter days were spent
in misery as disease and age overcame them. All that they
have, all that they were, all that they gained is gone. what happened for those in the
past happens for those today and will happen to you and I
if that's all that we seek after. 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 rest 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 and then it's gone what is your life and what are
your riches the believer in christ meanwhile
under whom james writes may be poor in the eyes of this world He may or may not have the riches
materially that the world around him has. And whether he has those
or not, the world will look upon him or her as poor in their eyes,
as nothing. The believer does not seek after
that which the world seeks after. He does not desire the things
the world desires. Whatever the Lord may give him,
whether his pathway may be great or small, whether he may be in
a high position or a low position, whether he may be granted riches
or not riches, the believer does not seek them, he does not love
them, he does not care for them, his eyes have been opened to
that which is eternal. His eyes have been opened to
those true riches that God gives his people in Christ. and his pathway very often in
this world will not be one of great riches and will not be
one of great pleasure in the world's eyes or great esteem. He may lose much, he may suffer
much, but he has all things in Christ
Jesus his Savior. You may be going through great
trial. You may go through great trial. The Lord may take away all that
you have. As Job knew, he lost his house,
he lost his riches, he lost his family, he lost his children,
he lost his health. Everything he had in this world
was taken away. But he had Christ. And in Christ alone, he had all
things, all riches, not for this world, but for eternity. Yes, the believer may lose much,
he may suffer much, he may know what poverty is in so many realms
but all the events of his life, all things that come to pass
work together for his good because the Lord has called him, chosen
him, brought him to salvation and in Christ he has all, all
the riches of the Godhead dwell in Christ and all is the believers
in Him. What is your life? Is it this
fleeting moment in which you live and breathe in this world,
in which you seek to enrich yourself and bring yourself great knowledge
and wisdom and the acclaim of man? Is it that, that which is
gone in a moment? Or is it that which is eternal,
which God has shown you and given you freely by grace in His Son,
Jesus Christ? Where is your heart? 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 together treasure
for the last days. Go to now, you rich man, you
rich man, so many. Seek insatiably after riches. What are you living for? What
are you striving for? Ultimately in this world by nature
we're all striving for riches of some sort or another. Whether they are physical material
riches, whether they are the riches of family and friends,
whether they are the riches of acclaim and position and the
applause of men, whether they are the riches of wisdom and
knowledge and power and influence, whether they are the riches of
our own self-righteousness. which we build up, which we seek
after to further our own ends and our own glory. It's all seeking
riches. All of which shall be taken away. All of which corrupt and become
corrupted. All of which become Moffeaton. All of which are cankered and
rust and as it were are burnt up by fire in the end. Go to
now ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall
come upon you. If that's where your heart lies
to seek riches in one sense or another in this world then the
message that will come to you in the end will be howl and weep
for the miseries that shall come upon you. You can't keep these
things. They're passing. They're fleeting. They're nothing. There may be rich men in this
world. You may be rich in this world.
But where is your soul? And where will your soul remain
in eternity? Where are you heading? What do
you really know? You may be rich in your own eyes,
rich in your knowledge, your understanding, your intellect. You may be rich in your wisdom,
rich in your self-righteousness. You may think you're good and
honorable and to be applauded. You may view yourself before
God as upright and deserving of his merit. You may think of
yourself as moral. You may say, well, I don't seek
after the world's riches. I'm quite happy with a humble
existence. but you seek to do good for others.
And your esteem comes from thinking that you have done great good
for your fellow man, for which you should be applauded. Before
God, you feel like God should honor you for that which you've
done, the sacrifices you've made, the works you've done. You're
rich in your own eyes. Rich in your knowledge, your
wisdom, your righteousness, your holiness. But in God's eyes,
every one of these things is nothing. Less than nothing. They are but filthy rags. filthy rags of self-righteousness
which bring glory and honor to you and rob God of his glory
and rob God of his honor and rob God of his praise for all
that you have and all that you are he has given you all the
strength you have he's given you, all the ability you have
he's given you, all the wisdom and understanding and knowledge
you have he has given you, and you give him no honour, you give
him no thanks, you give him no praise, you rob him of his glory,
you rob him of his honour. and you bring that praise and
glory and honor that is rightfully his unto yourself and say look
what I've done, look what I am, I deserve this. When you are
nothing but what he has made you to be. and you deserve nothing
but his condemnation and wrath for your self-seeking and your
self-glorying and your enriching yourself at the expense of others,
especially God. Yes, all these riches that we
trust in, all these riches of our wisdom and our knowledge
and our righteousness and our holiness, it's all filthy rags. It's all corrupt, it stinks,
it's foul in God's eyes. That which we think is wonderful,
stinks in God's eyes. And it all fades away, yes, just
as material riches, rust, become corrupted and become moth-eaten
and canker just as they all fade away with time and they go back
to the dust from whence they were made. So too do all the
other riches in which we trust. Our wisdom fades away. Our knowledge becomes out of
date. and we forget and it leaves us. Our self-righteousness becomes
swallowed up by our iniquity and our pride. We think we've
done some good and in pride we stand up looking for some applause
and we overdo any good with the iniquity of our pride and our
self-righteousness. It all rusts, it all cankers,
it's all muff-eaten, it's all good for nothing. Oh yes, we
may have woven ourselves some garments, some garments of self-righteousness. We may have clothed ourselves
in a certain way to be seen of others in a certain way. Oh,
aren't they upright? Aren't they honorable? Aren't
they kind? Aren't they loving? Haven't they done this? We've
woven some garments, but those garments soon become off-eaten,
soon become riddled with the holes that pride eats in them. Go to now ye rich men, weep and
howl for your miseries that are 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. It's all nothing. It's all foul in the nostrils
of God. A great stench of iniquity. in
which we trust for salvation. Yes, these riches are those that
religious men seek after. They come into the meeting places,
they come into the temples and the churches and they do this
and they do that and they utter their prayers and they read the
scriptures and they do their good works and they think that
they are honorable in God's sight. but they keep them from God.
These riches are a hindrance to us knowing God. Such riches
kept the scribes and the Pharisees in Christ's day away from God
when Christ came unto them, when God came unto them, when God
visited his people and came in the midst of Israel. the rich
in Israel, the wise, the knowledgeable, those with great spiritual understandings,
they fought, rejected the Saviour, they rejected the Gospel, they
rejected Christ and His salvation, they rejected the righteousness
of God, for they were weaving their own righteousness, they
had their own garments, however moth-eaten, Yes such riches are a hindrance
to us, they keep us from knowing God, they keep us from his salvation,
they keep us trusting in ourselves and not trusting in Christ alone. Why do we need a saviour if there
is something in ourselves in which we can trust? If we have
the ability, if we have the wisdom, the knowledge, if we have the
righteousness ourselves, why do we need a saviour? As Christ
warned, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. A rich
man, not a rich man in this world materially, but a rich man in
his own eyes, a rich man spiritually, a rich man in terms of his own
righteousness. He's fine, he doesn't need a
savior. His riches of knowledge, his
riches of prayers and good works and Bible study and position
in the church. His riches in religion keep him
from God, keep him from Christ, keep him from seeing because
he's not broken. He's not being brought to see
what he is. He's not being brought to see
what a sinner he is. He's not being brought to see
his need. Is this you? Have you come to
Christ? Have you come down before him
as nothing, as a wretch, as a sinful wretch that's got one plea, save
me else I die. If you haven't, then there's
one thing keeping you, your riches. A young man came to Christ one
day, a ruler in Israel, and said unto him, Lord, I've done, I've
kept the law from my youth. I've done this and that, what
more should I do to be saved? And Christ said unto him, one
thing ye lack, go sell all that ye have and then follow me. And
he went away sorrowful because he had so much in his own eyes. He had his own righteousness.
He had his own law keeping. He had his own garments. And
he didn't want to part with them and come unto Christ naked and
say, yes, Lord, I'm nothing. I'm dead in my trespasses and
sins. I know nothing. I have no wisdom. I have no strength. There is nothing in me that anyone
should applaud. I'm vile, I'm wretched. Lord,
have mercy upon me, the sinner. It's his riches in his mind. It's his riches of religion. It's his riches of self-righteousness
that kept them away. And you won't come unto Christ
because you still think that there's something in you. that
is worthy of praise. You still think that your knowledge
is greater than his, that your wisdom is worth something, that
your righteousness will get you by. You've not been brought to
see it's all nothing. The world laughs and scoffs at
Christ and his gospel, because the world in its knowledge and
wisdom thinks it knows better. And if that's your heart that
says there is no God, there is no eternity, life ends at the
grave, I'm going to live my life for all that I can get, I'm going
to enjoy myself in the few days that I'm here because this is
all there is. If that's your attitude, then
your wisdom and your knowledge are keeping you from God. Oh
you have a few riches of knowledge and a few riches of your wisdom
but they've made you blind to reality that there is eternity
beyond the grave, that God made you, that God keeps you alive
this day, that you're in his hands. Indeed it is easier for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man like
you and I, so full of our own understanding, so confident in
our own knowledge and wisdom. It's easier for the camel to
go through the eye of a needle than for one like you and I to
enter into the kingdom of God. because we need to be brought
to nothing, where we have nothing, and where we're brought to cry
out for God and His mercy. Yes, these riches keep us Christ. They kept the scribes and the
Pharisees from Christ. Indeed not only did they keep
them from his salvation but their riches turned them against him. Their riches turned them against
him. Behold the hire of the laborers
of the laborers who have reaped down your fields which is of
you kept back by fraud cryeth. You've oppressed others, you've
had others serve you. And you put them down. And the
cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of
the Lord of Sabaoth. The Lord hears those that you've
oppressed, who you've mocked, who you have derided. He hears
the cries of His children who've declared unto you and served
unto you, who've said unto you, this is the way. Look unto Christ,
believe in Him. And you've trodden them underfoot. You who are so rich in your wisdom
and your understanding, you've trodden them underfoot. You've
crushed them, you've turned your ears away. You've said, go away,
I will not listen. Well, he hears them. You've lived in pleasure on the
earth and been wanton. You've nourished your hearts
as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed
the just and he doth not resist you. Yes, in our wisdom and in
our knowledge, every one of us at some point, has turned from
Christ, turned from his gospel, turned from his people, trodden
them underfoot, trodden him underfoot. We have condemned and killed
the just. The Pharisees not only did not
believe, Not only did their knowledge and their wisdom, not only did
the riches of their religion keep them from Christ and his
salvation, but they set them against Christ and his salvation. They took him and they slew him. and your riches, whatever they
may be, the riches you have in this world materially, your hearts,
desire, your lusts, the riches of your wisdom, the riches of
your so-called knowledge, the riches of your self-righteousness,
whatever riches you have and trust in, will set you against
Christ, his gospel and his people. They lead us by nature to condemn
and kill the just. To condemn and kill Christ and
all his witnesses, all his people. We have condemned and killed
the just. Yes, the rich of this world. The rich of this world slew him. And you too. in your heart by nature, reject
the just, condemn and kill him. They rejected Christ, they rejected
his people. And so do we by nature. The deceitfulness
of riches, the love of money, chokes the word of God in our
hearts. We cannot hear it, we cannot
understand it, we cannot believe it. Christ when he speaks of
the sower, sowing the seed, preaching the gospel and the seed landing
on the different ground. Some came and lied on good ground
and took root, but for others, the ground that it came upon,
like the ground of your heart and my heart by nature, would
not. receive it. The cares of this
world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other
things entering in choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. You can hear the gospel. You
can know the gospel. But as long as your heart still
clings on to the riches of this world, the deceitfulness of this
world, as long as your heart is still clinging on to your
knowledge, your wisdom, your righteousness, something you
desire and have in this world, it will cause you to reject,
to shut your ear to the truth, to push Christ away, to slay
him. To slay him. and to slay every one of his
people in him. For just as the world, the rich,
put Christ to death, they put his people to death. We will
not believe. We will not hear. Believer, you
who are in Christ, you who are in the just, You who are just
and righteous because He is just and righteous, you who have been
delivered from your sin, from your riches, from your love of
riches, to love Christ and the riches of His grace, you who
are in Him, do you know what it is to be opposed by the rich
of this world, the rich in religion? Do you know their condemnation? Do you know their hatred? Do
you know what it is to be condemned because of your faith in Christ,
to be killed with Him. We may be, we will be, we will
be hated, we will be rejected, we will be slain, we will be
killed, but we are alive, alive in Christ. Christ the just was
rejected by all. By all, by the rich of this world,
by the rich in religion, by you, by me. He was rejected by all. All of us who are rich in our
own eyes. We condemned him. We rejected
him. We killed him. And he did not
resist. He hath condemned and killed
the just, and he doth not resist you. When the world cried out,
Crucify Him, Crucify Him. When you and I cried out, Crucify
Him, Crucify Him. He answered not a word. He did
not resist. He did not fight back. He did
not answer back. He did not justify himself. He was silent as a sheep before
its slaughterers is silent. He was meek. He was quiet. He let sinful men lead him away
to be crucified. He took upon his own self the
sins of his people. He took upon himself their hatred
and rejection of him. He took upon himself their iniquity,
their unbelief, their depravity, their self-righteousness, all
their vileness. He took it upon himself. And
quietly, he was led as a lamb to the slaughter. Quietly he
went to the cross. They took him. They nailed him. They lifted him up. They sat
and watched him. And he hung there and suffered
for his people. He suffered in the light. He
suffered in the darkness. He suffered the rejection, the
scorn, the spitting, the mockery, the beating, the bruising of
men. He suffered the outpouring of
God's wrath in the darkness of the three hours. In that eternity
upon the cross, as he went into the abyss of God's judgment,
God's vengeance against sin. He suffered in the darkness as
one who had nothing, as one who had nothing but the sin and the
guilt of all the elect, all his people for at all time. He had
none of the riches of this world, he never had had. He had nowhere
to lay his head. When he was born, he was born
in a filthy stable because there was no room in the inn for him.
The world had no room in its heart for him. This world had
no room for him. The world spat upon him and rejected
him and cast him out. It had no room for him. He had
nothing of this world. But he took his people's sin,
their guilt, their hatred, their vileness. Believer, he took your
sin, your guilt, your hatred, your unbelief, all that that
you saw as your riches, all those riches that set you against him,
all that lust and desire that turned you against him, he bore
it. He owned it as his in order that
he should save you from it, in order that he should deliver
you from it, in order that he should wash you clean. Yes the
just was condemned and killed by us all. Why? Because he loved us. He loved
His people, He loved His own and He loved them to the end.
He would suffer all things, He suffered the loss of all things.
He came from heaven's glory as the Son of God, as Almighty God. He came down into the darkness
and depravity of this world. He gave up all things that He
should save His people from their sins, that He should give them
the riches of His grace, the riches of His glory eternally. Go to now ye rich men, weep and
howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. If all the riches
you've got are the riches of this world, they will be taken
from you and you will spend eternity with nothing. But if God in His
gospel has come unto you, And as you crucified and killed the
just Christ upon the throne, as you slew Him there, if God
has come unto you and sat you down to see Him suffering there
for you as your Saviour, if He's shown you that you've got nothing
and are nothing, then in Him He will show you that in Christ
You have eternally got all riches, all the riches of the Godhead
in His Son. What are true riches? What are
true everlasting riches? They are those riches which are
found in Christ and only in Christ. true and everlasting, never to
be taken away, riches beyond measure, beyond understanding,
beyond comprehension. The world and its rich men, religious
or otherwise, want nothing of this Saviour, they want nothing
of these riches. They reject him and they reject
his people and they reject his gospel and they reject the riches
of his kingdom but they're left with nothing in the end. All
that they've sought after, all that they've clung on to, rusts
and is moth-eaten and is taken away and destroyed by fire in
hell to come. If that's all you've got you'll
end up with nothing in an eternity of wrath. in outer darkness. But if you're brought to Christ,
if you're brought to hear Him, if you're brought as nothing,
nothing but a lost sinner to the foot of the cross and the
Spirit of God opens your eyes to see your Saviour suffering
for you, if you're brought to hear His cry from the cross,
looking unto you, Father forgive them. They know not what they
do. If you're brought there to have
your eyes opened to see Him as the Saviour of sinners, as your
Saviour, as your righteousness, as your life, then you'll be
brought to know all the riches of God in Him. This people who
are brought there, in this world, may well be those who have nothing. They may well be poor in the
eyes of the world. They may well be poor in their
own eyes. They have nothing in the world's
eyes. They're a poor and a wretched people. They're a broken people.
But they have all riches in Christ Jesus. All riches in Christ Jesus. Consider the riches they have. The righteousness of God in Jesus
Christ. perfection. Without spot and
without blemish all their sins are washed away, every last one. All their hatred, all their wicked
desires, all their lusting after the riches and the glory of this
world, all their sin, all that caused them in their hearts to
put Christ to death is blotted out and washed away, cleansed
by His blood. Those who are wretched sinners,
the sinner in God's eyes, are now in Christ, the very righteousness
of God. Oh what riches this righteousness
is, beyond understanding. They have the riches of salvation,
eternal everlasting salvation, never to be taken away. The riches
of eternal life, a life without beginning and without end. They
are in Christ, one with Christ, having His life forevermore. The riches of faith, His faith,
given unto them to believe in Him and believe on the Father.
His faith that He showed and exhibited at the cross, when
in the darkness He hung upon the Father, He looked unto Him,
even though the Father rejected Him as the sinner, even though
He was cast out and under the Father's wrath, still Christ
believed. Though He slay me, yet I will
trust in Him. That faith that brought him through
the darkness, that brought him through the cross, is the very
faith the believer is given. a faith that can sustain him
through the greatest of trials, the worst of trials, no matter
how dark things may get for you believer, no matter how hard
it may become, no matter how deep you may fall, the world
may cast you out, your friends, your family may cast you out,
you may be alone in the world with nothing, your health may
be taken away like Job's was, And all you can see is your own
sin and you feel you've brought it upon yourself and deserve
it. And yet if God has given you
faith in Jesus Christ, you will look up beyond it all and look
up to He who is on the right hand of the Father as your advocate
and know that you are heard by the Father because of Christ.
You have the riches of his faith, the riches of his life, the riches
of peace with God, peace through the blood of the cross, peace
through Christ's blood shed for you that washed you clean. You
have the forgiveness of your sins. Oh the riches of knowing
that they're all forgiven. Never to be remembered again.
Never to be brought up against you again. There's no accusation
that can be brought. Who is he that condemneth? It
is God that justifieth. It's Christ that died. You're
at one with God. There's now no, there's no condemnation. For the law has been answered.
You're dead to the law. You've been crucified by the
law. The law's penalty has come down upon you. It can't come
to you again. It can find no fault in you.
You're perfect and righteous before God. You have the riches
of an inheritance to come. Because you're righteous, because
you're in Christ, He will bring you into eternity. It's sure
and it's certain. You have the riches of unity,
united to Christ, united to his people, one with God, never to
be separated in an eternal union, an eternal marriage with Christ. You have the riches of justification,
you're just with God. How shall man be just with God? Freely by God's grace through
Jesus Christ and his blood, shed upon the cross for sinners. You're
sanctified, set apart under God, holy before God. You have the
riches of sanctification, the riches of holiness, the riches
of the wisdom of God that delivered you from the wisdom of man. The
wisdom of God in Jesus Christ. In Christ we have all riches. It's beyond understanding, beyond
comprehension that God should take sinners that killed his
own son, whose own riches of their own wisdom and understanding
brought them to hate him and reject him and slay him. And
yet he died for them as they put him to death to make them
rich in him. O have you heard? Or do you despise thou the riches
of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? O the riches
of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, may he forbear
and be longsuffering in his goodness with us that though we hear and
though we reject and though we hear again and though we reject
and though we hear again and though we reject that in the
end through his long-suffering and goodness he will bring us
to that day when we have nothing and when we're brought to cry
out for mercy and he will show us mercy and give us his riches
of grace eternally. that he might make known the
riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared
to glory. Are you a vessel of mercy? Has
he set his grace upon you? If you are, you'll cry out with
Paul, O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God! How unsearchable are His judgments
and His ways past finding out. Oh, the riches of His wisdom
and knowledge that leads us to repentance, that leads us to
salvation, that should do this for sinners, that should give
His Son a sacrifice for sinners. That Son in whom we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. Do you know the riches of His
grace? Those riches that causes Him
to come unto wretched sinners and meet with them above the
mercy seat. That grace that sent His Son
to the cross to shed His own blood. and to go into the Holy
of Holies on the part of his people and sprinkle his blood
upon the mercy seat and then lead that people there where
he shows them grace. Oh do you know the riches of
his grace. Elsewhere Paul writes that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give
unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of him. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his
calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power
to us would who believe according to the working of his mighty
power. Oh that God should work mightily
by his gospel and open our eyes that we might know the riches
of the glory of his inheritance. Oh what an inheritance the saints
have that they shall live and reign with Christ forevermore.
An inheritance given unto wretched sinners like Paul who went about
persecuting the church, putting believers to death, who says
unto me who am the least of all saints is this grace given, that
I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. This is what we preach unto you
this day, the unsearchable riches of Christ. There's no riches
in this world that you can keep. But if you're brought to know
Christ by this gospel, if God opens your ears to hear it, you'll
know the unsearchable riches of Christ. And you may say, but
I'm too far off. I've rejected too many times.
My heart is too hard. How can he show this grace to
me? He showed it under Paul. Unto
me, Paul says, who am the least of all saints. He persecuted
the church. He gave him grace. Then he can
give grace unto you. That you with the church, with
the saints, might have your hearts comforted, knit together in love
and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to
the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and
of Christ. How will we understand? By God
opening our eyes in grace through which he'll give us the riches
of the full assurance of understanding. Oh where are your riches? Where are they? Where is your
heart? What do you know? Where's your
wisdom? What righteousness have you got? Where is your hope of salvation? Where are you looking? Has God
given you the faith that he gave unto Moses? Unto Moses, of whom
we read, by faith, Moses, when he was come to yours, refused
to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to
suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater
riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto
the recompense of the reward. He esteemed the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. Do you? There are no riches, no riches,
comparable to the riches of God's grace in Jesus Christ. None at all. None at all. Go to now, ye rich men, weep
and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches
are corrupted, 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. Is that the
riches that you're seeking after? The riches of this world, moth-eaten,
rusted, cankered? Nothing. or has God opened your
eyes to the riches of his grace in Jesus Christ? May he do so. May he do so. May he not leave
us to ourselves and our own understanding and our own wisdom, but may he
empower, lead us to the point where we see we have nothing,
we are nothing, and we need his mercy. and to the point where
He answers our cry and gives us mercy, and gives us grace,
and gives us grace, and gives us grace, and gives us the riches
of God's grace in Christ Jesus. All riches, all riches, in Christ,
eternally, forevermore. I will praise His name. Amen.