The General Epistle of James
The General Epistle of James
By Richard St.James
Bible 1611.Com / Old Paths Baptist Mission © 2024
Chapter one:
Verse one:
“James, a servant of God
and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to the twelve tribes which
are scattered abroad, greeting.”
James, the son of
Zebedee was among the first of the
apostles to follow Jesus Christ:
The Gospel according
to Matthew shows us this in chapter ten, verse
two:
“Now the names of the
twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is
called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the
son of Zebedee, and John his brother;”
[Matthew 10:2]
Simon, or Peter, Andrew,
James, and John were all fishermen!
James
began his career as a fisherman, but in the
end, he became a servant. He became a
servant of God!
Now, James was one of the sons of Zebedee. John was his brother.
We see a call to follow Jesus Christ:
Jesus called both
James, and John, to follow HIM.
Question: Will they go? Let us see.
We will begin our
commentary of the General Epistle of James
by first reading in the Gospel according
to Mark, in chapter three, verses sixteen and
seventeen. Are you ready to begin?
Now here, we are
introduced to the three very ordinary
uneducated men who would comprise the very
inner circle of the disciples that were
to follow our LORD, and Savior Jesus Christ
while HE was here on this earth the first time,
being now nearly two thousand years ago. We
read:
“And Simon he surnamed
Peter;
And James the son of
Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he
surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of
thunder:” [Mark 3:16-17].
In this very same
Gospel [the Gospel according to Mark],
in chapter one, verse nineteen, we have this
scene placed before us by the Holy Ghost:
Jesus Christ is walking along the shore of the Sea
of Galilee and sees some men working in a boat on
the shore:
“And when he had gone
a little further thence, he saw James the son of
Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the
ship mending their nets.”
In a parallel
account, in the Gospel according to Matthew,
in chapter four, verses twenty-one, and twenty-two,
we will pick up and continue in this same
scene:
Verse twenty-one: “And
going on from thence, he saw other two brethren,
James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a
ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets;
and he called them.”
Note: A disciple
of Jesus Christ is a follower of Jesus
Christ!
Verse twenty-two: “And
they immediately left the ship and their father, and
followed him.”
Introducing the Sons of Thunder:
Now, the LORD has inside
information on all of us. The LORD knew
what was in both James and John. Notice what the
Scripture says about man in general.
John 2:25: “And needed
not that any should testify of man: for he knew what
was in man.”
This is why he
surnamed both, James, and John, as Boanerges,
which is interpreted: The sons of THUNDER!
The zeal within
these two fishermen [James and John Zebedee]
is seen a little later displayed in the
Gospel according to Luke, in chapter nine, verse
fifty-four. We will read there:
“And when his
disciples James and John saw this, they said,
Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down
from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?”
[Luke 9:54]
The Achilles Heel is revealed in both
James and John:
And something else, this
same zeal promoted within them a desire for a
certain preeminence over all their brethren in the
future Kingdom of Heaven. For this, we
will need to see what is recorded in the
Gospel of Mark, chapter ten, verses thirty-five
through verse thirty-nine:
“And James and John,
the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master,
we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we
shall desire.
And he said unto them,
What would ye that I should do for you?
They said unto him,
Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right
hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory.
But Jesus said unto
them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the
cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the
baptism that I am baptized with?
And they said unto
him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall
indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with
the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be
baptized:”
The existence of an inner circle to
Jesus Christ:
In the Gospel
according to Mark, we will see the formation of
an inner circle of those who are called to be
the disciples of Jesus Christ.
There is a beginning of a pattern that is
being shown here:
Mark 1:29: “And
forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue,
they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew,
with James and John.”
Jesus has a very special
relationship with three of his disciples, i.e.,
Peter, James, and John. You will see this
with your very own eyes in chapter five of this very
same gospel:
“And he suffered no
man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John
the brother of James.” [Mark 5:37]
The Gospel according
to Luke, in chapter eight, verse fifty-one, will
confirm the reality of this inner circle of
three of the disciples:
“And when he came into
the house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter,
and James, and John, and the father and the mother
of the maiden.” [Luke 8:51]
Thus, we have here what
has been known as an inner circle of
disciples to Jesus Christ:
See Matthew 17:1: “And
after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John
his brother, and bringeth them up into an high
mountain apart,”
Conclusion: James
is a member of the inner circle of the
disciples of Jesus Christ, the Son of God:
- Mark 9:2: “And
after six days Jesus taketh with him
Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up
into an high mountain apart by themselves: and
he was transfigured before them.”
- Luke 9:28: “And
it came to pass about an eight days after these
sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and
went up into a mountain to pray.”
- Mark 13:3: “And
as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against
the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew
asked him privately,”
- Mark 14:33: “And
he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and
began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;”
Thus, we have here, in
this inner circle of three of the apostles,
the men who wrote most of the books of the
New Testament [not including those fourteen books
written by Paul, the Apostle].
1. The Gospel
according to John,
2. The First Epistle
of John,
3. The Second Epistle
of John,
4. The Third Epistle
of John,
5. The Revelation of
Jesus Christ,
6. The First Epistle
of Peter,
7. The Second Epistle
of Peter,
8. The General Epistle
of James,
The martyrdom of a servant of the LORD:
James, a
servant of God, and of the Lord
Jesus Christ, was martyred in the year
circa 37 A.D.
This is documented
in the word of God, the BIBLE, in the Acts of
the Apostles, in chapter twelve, verse two:
“And he killed James
the brother of John with the sword.”
[Acts 12:2]
Observation: James
Zebedee wrote this general epistle
within three- and one-half years of the
ascension of our LORD, and SAVIOR, Jesus Christ
[circa 37 A.D.]
Thus, the General
Epistle of James, and the Epistle of Paul the
Apostle to the Hebrews, are the earliest
of the books in the New Testament.
Now, for the second
part of verse one:
Verse one:
“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus
Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered
abroad, greeting.”
Now, notice, these
tribes were scattered abroad in all
the other nations of the earth. They were
scattered throughout the Gentile nations
of Asia, Europe, Mesopotamia, and North Africa.
We can see this verified in the book of the
Acts of the Apostles, in chapter two, verses
nine through eleven:
“Parthians, and Medes,
and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and
in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Phrygia, and
Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about
Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.” [Acts 2:9-11]
These twelve tribes
are the twelve tribes of Israel as found
listed in the fourth book of Moses,
called Numbers, chapter one:
1. Reuben,
2. Simeon,
3. Judah,
4. Issachar,
5. Zebulun,
6. Joseph,
7. Benjamin,
8. Dan,
9. Asher,
10. Gad,
11. Naphtali,
12. Levi
These twelve
literal, physical tribes of Israel will be set
up in a literal, physical, KINGDOM on this earth.
More than any other
subject in the Bible, this subject of the
KINGDOM keeps coming up! In fact, this
subject of the Kingdom far out numbers the
references in the Bible to Heaven, or to Hell,
or to the first coming, or Advent of Jesus Christ.
Moreover, the
references in the Bible that point to
the Kingdom of Heaven, which is a future
millennial kingdom, number over five hundred
instances.
This future PHYSICAL
and LITERAL KINGDOM will be established at the end
of the times of the Gentiles exactly as
defined in the book of Daniel.
This kingdom
will also be a POLITICAL KINGDOM! The
Scripture here shall be fulfilled!
Further, this KING of the twelve tribes of
Israel will govern over all the other nations
of this earth! Amen!
“O clap your hands,
all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of
triumph. For the LORD most high is terrible;
he is a great King over all the earth.
He shall subdue the
people under us, and the nations under our feet.
He shall choose our
inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he
loved. Selah. God is gone up with a shout, the LORD
with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to
God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing
praises.
For God is the King
of all the earth: sing ye praises with
understanding.
God reigneth over
the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his
holiness.
The princes of the
people are gathered together, even the people of the
God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong
unto God: he is greatly exalted.
Great is the LORD,
and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in
the mountain of his holiness.
Beautiful for
situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount
Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the
great King.
God is known in her
palaces for a refuge.
For, lo, the kings
were assembled, they passed by together.
They saw it, and so
they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away.
Fear took hold upon
them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail.
Thou breakest the
ships of Tarshish with an east wind.
As we have heard,
so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in
the city of our God: God will establish it for ever.
Selah.” [Psalm 47, 48:1-8]
This literal,
physical, political, millennial, “Kingdom of
Heaven”, will be established by God here on this
earth, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, will reign
over all men!
“Wherefore God also
hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which
is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in
earth, and things under the earth; And that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father.”
Notice: The Scripture
in the epistle to the Philippians, chapter
two, is not a reference to the age, which
we now live in, but rather points to a
future age, to a Millennium, or one-thousand-year
age, which shall be a Sabbath of REST for this
earth after having six thousand years of a
succession of failed human governments.
“For we know that
the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now.” [Romans
8:22]
Verse two:
“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into
divers temptations;”
Please note:
“My brethren” is a reference to the
Hebrew Christians that were scattered
abroad. These are James’s fellow
brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ that he is
addressing in this epistle.
James by the Holy
Ghost is building up the saints for the
road ahead. He is preparing them to
withstand all the troubles coming to the
Christian that are found here in life.
Diverse temptations:
Well, what is this
thing called temptation?
The standard
answer is goes something like this: A temptation
is an allurement for a man to do evil.
Now, every man,
and every woman, on the face of this earth is
subject to being tempted to do evil.
There is no escaping this fact of life.
The Apostle Paul by
the Holy Spirit wrote this, concerning
temptation, in his first epistle to the
Corinthian church, in chapter ten, verse thirteen:
“There hath no
temptation taken you but such as is common to man:
but God is faithful, who will not suffer you
to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with
the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye
may be able to bear it.” [1
Corinthians 10:13]
Do you see what I
see? This universal malady
of temptation is common to all men!
We all have this besetting problem [all
because we are sinners]. Now,
I beseech you to check me out on this matter in the
BOOK!
[Please note: The BOOK
I am referring to is the King James Authorized
Bible of 1611.]
The Promise of God:
Now, temptations
most certainly will come to the believer in
Jesus Christ while he is sojourning here in this
world. But we have here this promise of God to
us, [the believer in Jesus Christ] to either, be
able to escape these temptations, or to be
able to endure these temptations.
The Root of Temptation:
First: We have the
commandments of God given to Israel, and in
deed, to all mankind. The first commandment
is found in the first book of Moses called
Genesis, in chapter two, verse sixteen and
seventeen:
“And the LORD God
commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the
garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat
of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die.” [Genesis
2:16-17]
The Authority in all the Universe:
Second: A
temptation has always involved questioning
God’s authority.
“Yea, hath God
said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”
[Genesis 3:1b]
The Tempter comes:
Next, we find that
this first temptation to man involved a
tempter.
The tempter
here is the serpent, which is Satan, or the
Devil.
Now, we have the rest of the story:
Genesis 3:2-6:
“And the woman said
unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the
trees of the garden:
But of the fruit of
the tree which is in the midst of the garden,
God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall
ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent
said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know
that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall
be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil.
And when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, and that
it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be
desired to make one wise, she took of the
fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her
husband with her; and he did eat.”
Now, friend, please
note the following: With all the things that have
been freely given to you of God, you are free to do
with these things as you will please.
But
there are things that God has chosen to disallow
you, or withhold from you, or has
commanded you to do, for your own good.
These things that are disallowed, or
withheld, or commanded, are given out of
the goodness of God, even to
protect you. Like what?
Well, like:
1.
Like not taking the
name of the LORD thy God in vain. [Exodus
20:7]
2.
Like taking one day off in
seven from work to provide a rest to the
mind, the body, and the soul. [Exodus 20:8-11]
3.
Like honoring your
mother and father. [Exodus 20:12]
4.
Like not taking the
life of a man: not murdering one or another.
[Exodus 20:13]
5.
Like not committing
adultery. [Exodus 20:14]
6.
Like not stealing from others.
[Exodus 20:15]
7.
Like not lying to others.
[Exodus 20:16]
8.
Like not coveting another man’s wife.
[Exodus 20:17]
Thou shalt have no
other gods before me.
Next, temptation
involves a lot more than just an allurement for a
man to do evil. It also involves the
temptation for a man to curse God when
things go wrong in the person’s life.
Fact:
Cursing God is placing yourself
before God!
Now, in this matter
of cursing God, there is a need for us to
consider the testimony of Job.
Hear this: When a man
has everything going well in his life, he will face
very little temptation to curse God.
Now, take things away
from him, [his riches, his position, his loved ones,
and his health] through troubles, then the
temptation to curse God will come.
It is what he, or she does, when
temptation comes that will show the presence,
or the absence of integrity inside of that
person.
Now, turn to the
oldest book in the Bible, the book of Job, chapter
one. We will see here what Satan, the tempter,
did to Job.
Job 1:9-11:
“Then Satan answered
the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Hast not thou made an
hedge about him, and about his house, and about all
that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the
work of his hands, and his substance is increased in
the land.
But put forth thine
hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will
curse thee to thy face.”
Here is the victory:
Job resisted the temptation in the
midst of all his troubles!
Job 2:9-10:
“Then said his wife
unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity?
curse God, and die.
But he said unto her,
Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.
What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”
The Troubles will come:
Now, in general, it is
true that in life, everyone, who plies this old
world that is filled with sin, will have
trouble.
You will therefore,
find this out for yourself that life is a bale
full of troubles.
Now, what follows is a
universal truth:
“Man that is born
of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He
cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he
fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not." [Job
14:1]
This is even true for
the believers in Jesus Christ.
Please read the
Scripture! Turn to the epistle of Paul
to the Philippians, chapter one, verse twenty-nine,
and thirty. We will read there:
“For unto you it is
given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe
on him, but also to suffer for his sake;
Having the same
conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be
in me.” [Philippians 1:29-30]
Fact: The life
of the Christian will be no bed of roses.
The believer
must enter into the fray of spiritual warfare,
not only in the fight against his flesh, the
world and the Devil, but he must even
contend with his loved ones, and yes, they of his
own household.
[You can see the
verity of all of this for yourself so plainly in
the Gospel according to Luke, in chapter
twelve, verses fifty-one through fifty-three.]
Then what should we
do?
Count it all joy!
My brethren,
count it all joy when ye fall into divers’
temptations!
Now, here is the
question for you. Do you have joy?
This is the true
test for the believer in Jesus Christ?
The Christian has joy!
The word joy
[in its various forms] appears in 156 verses of the
Bible.
Now, when a person
falls into diverse temptations, he is
presented with an opportunity to see God in
the midst of all his troubles, and count
it all joy!
Recall Paul’s and
Silas’s situation, in the book of the Acts of the
Apostles, in chapter sixteen: verse twenty-three
through twenty-six:
“And when they had
laid many stripes upon them, they cast them
into prison, charging the jailor to keep them
safely:
Who, having
received such a charge, thrust them into the inner
prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
And at midnight
Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God:
and the prisoners heard them.
And suddenly there
was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of
the prison were shaken: and immediately all the
doors were opened, and every one's bands were
loosed.” [Acts 16:23-26]
Can you visualize the
scene? They have just taken a horrible beating
to their bodies, and they were in
excruciating pain, then, on top of it all, they
are thrown into the darkness of night in a cold,
dank prison with their feet all shackled together.
They were done! They were going nowhere
according to all-natural law.
The temptation
for Paul and Silas was to murmur, to cry,
and to complain within themselves
in the middle of all
their troubles. The temptation
now, was to curse God!
But no, no, they
turned to God in the midst of all their hurts,
and in the midst of all their troubles, and
instead prayed to the One that they loved.
Rather than crying, and moaning: Woe is me,
they sang spiritual songs.
Paul and Silas
instead, praised God, rather than cursing
God. The LORD was their strength and
salvation.
Turn now, to the book
of Isaiah:
Isaiah 12:2:
“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not
be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and
my song; he also is become my salvation.”
Explanation: What
happened that night in that jail was entirely an
inexplicable event in the minds of all the
unregenerate souls of this world?
Why?
Well, the event was a
supernatural event. God’s response to
the prayers, and to the singing of
his saints brought the earthquake, and it
literally shook the foundation of the
prison, and caused all the prisoners to be
set free.
Note:
These men were not mere natural men.
They were men filled with the Holy Ghost.
They had the joy of the LORD in their hearts.
They counted what happened to them
with all joy! This is what happens when
the Christian resists temptations. God
intervenes, and then, miracles happen.
Paul and Silas drew
supernatural water out the wells of salvation:
Isaiah 12:3:
“Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the
wells of salvation.”
The presence of
joy in the Christian in the midst of
diverse temptations is a fruit of the
Spirit of God according to the epistle to the
Galatians:
Galatians 5:22:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,”
Joy,
and rejoicing, in the LORD is a mark
of a true Christian. We can see this
truth play out in the following passages of the
Scripture:
- John 15:11:
“These things have I spoken unto you, that my
joy might remain in you, and that your joy might
be full.”
- Romans 14:17:
“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink;
but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the
Holy Ghost.”
- 1 Thessalonians
2:19-20: “For what is our hope, or joy, or
crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the
presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his
coming? For ye are our glory and joy.”
- Jude 1:24: “Now
unto him that is able to keep you from falling,
and to present you faultless before the
presence of his glory with exceeding joy,”
Patience and Passion in
Pilgrim's Progress
Next: Meet
Patience,
Or The Bear Went Over
the Mountain
Your faith worketh
patience.
The bear went over the
mountain.
The bear went over the
mountain,
The bear went over the
mountain,
To see what he could
see.
This is a nonsensical
little song, and is sung only to serve as an
illustration, so as, to catch your attention to
something that is spiritual in nature.
Please, bear with me.
Now, the mountain
in the song represents a barrier, and the
bear in the song represents us, those who
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The bear is shown
to be not content with the things of this
world, and thirsts for something that is better.
So, the bear went
over the mountain to see something that is
seen only by faith.
This is what happened
to Peter, Andrew, James, and John!
Matthew 4:19: “And he
saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you
fishers of men.”
Those bears went over the mountain:
Luke 18:28-30: “Then
Peter said, Lo, we have left all, and followed
thee.”
And these four bears received
everlasting life:
Read the next two verses:
Verse twenty-nine through thirty:
“And he said unto
them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that
hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife,
or children, for the kingdom of God's sake,
Who shall not receive
manifold more in this present time, and in the world
to come life everlasting.”
By faith, they
went over the mountain, and followed
Jesus Christ.
Verse three:
“Knowing this, that the
trying of your faith worketh patience.”
Something else!
Temptations are there to try
our faith. These diverse temptations
that come into our lives are there to prove
us, or to test our resolve to love the
LORD, thy God. God sees everyone
and everything all at once. From heaven above
He tries the children of men on the earth
beneath:
Psalm 11:4: “The LORD
is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne
is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try,
the children of men.”
Now, remember what
the Scripture saith concerning the trial
of our faith in Jesus Christ in the first
epistle of Peter, chapter one, verse seven:
“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:” [1 Peter 1:7].
A trial of faith.
The Martyrdom of John
Huss
“Seek the truth.
Listen to the truth. Teach the truth. Love the
truth. Abide by the truth. And defend the truth unto
death.” - John Huss.
In the year of 1415 A.D.
John Huss, a true believer in Jesus Christ
faced the trial of his faith. He
was tempted to recant his faith
in Jesus Christ in order to save himself from the
fire. When he refused this opportunity to save
himself from the fire, he was taken to the church,
and was stripped, and led to the church’s courtyard.
Once there, he was tied to a stake, and was
given one last opportunity to renounce his
faith in Jesus Christ.
John Huss, who was
tried, and found to be true, responded:
“Lord Jesus, it is
for thee that I patiently endure this cruel death. I
pray thee to have mercy on my enemies.”
After this was said, it
was heard of witnesses that John Huss sang Psalms
while he was engulfed by flames.
Your faith worketh
patience.
Your faith will do
a work. It will produce
something beautiful.
Verse four:
“But let patience have her perfect work, that
ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
A long time ago in a book
called The Pilgrim’s Progress, which was
written by John Bunyan, we will find in a
similitude of a dream two little children
called Passion and Patience.
{77} “I saw, moreover,
in my dream, that the Interpreter took him by the
hand, and had him into a little room, where sat two
little children, each one in his chair. The name of
the eldest was Passion, and the name of the other
Patience.
Passion seemed to be
much discontented; but Patience was very quiet.
Then, Christian asked,
What is the reason of the discontent of Passion?
The Interpreter answered, The Governor of them would
have him stay for his best things till the beginning
of the next year; but he will have all now: but
Patience is willing to wait.
Then I saw that one
came to Passion, and brought him a bag of treasure,
and poured it down at his feet, the which he took up
and rejoiced therein, and withal laughed Patience to
scorn. But I beheld but a while, and he had lavished
all away, and had nothing left him but rags.
{78} CHR. Then said
Christian to the Interpreter, Expound this matter
more fully to me.
INTER. So he said,
These two lads are figures: Passion, of the men of
this world; and Patience, of the men of that which
is to come; for as here thou seest, Passion will
have all now this year, that is to say, in this
world; so are the men of this world, they must have
all their good things now, they cannot stay till
next year, that is until the next world, for their
portion of good. That proverb, `A bird in the hand
is worth two in the bush', is of more authority with
them than are all the Divine testimonies of the good
of the world to come. But as thou sawest that he had
quickly lavished all away, and had presently left
him nothing but rags; so will it be with all such
men at the end of this world.
CHR. Then said
Christian, Now I see that Patience has the best
wisdom, and that upon many accounts. First, because
he stays for the best things. Second, and also
because he will have the glory of his, when the
other has nothing but rags.
{79} INTER. Nay, you
may add another, to wit, the glory of the next world
will never wear out; but these are suddenly gone.
Therefore, Passion had not so much reason to laugh
at Patience, because he had his good things first,
as Patience will have to laugh at Passion, because
he had his best things last; for first must give
place to last, because last must have his time to
come; but last gives place to nothing; for there is
not another to succeed. He, therefore, that hath his
portion first, must needs have a time to spend it;
but he that hath his portion last, must have it
lastingly; therefore, it is said of Dives, "Thou in
thy life-time receivedst thy good things, and
likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is
comforted, and thou art tormented." [Luke 16:25]
CHR. Then I perceive
it is not best to covet things that are now, but to
wait for things to come.
INTER. You say the
truth: "For the things which are seen are temporal;
but the things which are not seen are eternal." [2
Cor. 4:18] But though this be so, yet since things
present and our fleshly appetite are such near
neighbours one to another; and again, because things
to come, and carnal sense, are such strangers one to
another; therefore, it is, that the first of these
so suddenly fall into amity, and that distance is so
continued between the second.”
Now, the word patient
appears nine times in your Bible. The
word patiently appears five times in
your Bible.
However, the word
patience, only found in the New Testament,
appears thirty-three times.
Patience places us
into the long game!
Patience
involves increasing our long-run capacity,
which is built within us, allowing us to wait
for something that is vitally good for us.
Good things from the LORD come to those
who are patient!
Romans 8:24-25: “For
we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not
hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope
for? But if we hope for that we see not,
then do we with patience wait for it.”
Patience is added to
the new man in Christ to strengthen the new man in
Christ.
Colossians 1:11:
“Strengthened with all might, according to his
glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering
with joyfulness.”
In the second epistle of Peter, we will find seven things that need to be added by the believer to his faith. One of which is to add to our faith is patience.
Patience is one
of the necessary ingredients for one to grow
spiritually in Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:6: “And to
knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience;
and to patience godliness.”
The patience seen in
you - benefits others to life eternal.
1 Thessalonians 1:3:
“Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and
labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;”
Therefore, the
presence in your spirit of patience nurtures a hope
in others to life eternal.
The beautiful
end-result of the patience of the saints is
to cause others to glory, all to their rich
enjoyment.
2 Thessalonians 1:4:
“So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches
of God for your patience and faith in all your
persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:”
Patience is brother,
and sister, to righteousness, godliness, faith,
love, and meekness.
1 Timothy 6:11: “But
thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow
after righteousness, godliness, faith, love,
patience, meekness.”
Patience ought to be
part of your testimony, so as to be seen by all
others around you.
2 Timothy 3:10: “But
thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life,
purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,”
The spirit-filled
man is herein described:
Titus 2:2: “That the
aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith,
in charity, in patience.”
Faith and patience
will take you to the promised things that will last
forever [for life eternal].
Hebrews 6:12: “That ye
be not slothful, but followers of them who through
faith and patience inherit the promises.”
The promises are
obtained through patient waiting.
Hebrews 10:36: “For ye
have need of patience, that, after ye have done the
will of God, ye might receive the promise.”
So, brethren: Run your
race with patience!
Hebrews 12:1:
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with
so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside
every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset
us, and let us run with patience the race
that is set before us,”
Patience is the key,
for God is in control.
Psalm 37:7: “Rest in
the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret
not thyself because of him who prospereth in his
way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices
to pass.”
Patience on your part
draws the LORD towards you … to comfort you!
Psalm 40:1: “To the
chief Musician, A Psalm of David. I waited
patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me,
and heard my cry.”
Abraham was
ninety-nine years old when he begot his son
of promise:
Romans 9:9: “For this
is the word of promise, At this time will I
come, and Sara shall have a son.”
Hebrews 6:15: “And so,
after he had patiently endured, he obtained
the promise.”
The one who is
wronged, yet takes it ever so sweetly is clothed
with the beautiful garment of patience.
1 Peter 2:20: “For
what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for
your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but
if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye
take it patiently, this is acceptable
with God.”
Patience begets
meekness. Humility therefore, becomes the
identifying mark of patience.
Ecclesiastes 7:8:
“Better is the end of a thing than the
beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit
is better than the proud in spirit.”
Patience causes one to
continue, or to persist, in the sight of something
that is a far off.
Romans 2:7: “To them
who by patient continuance in well doing seek for
glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:”
Patience causes one to rejoice always, when one is always bathed in prayer.
Romans 12:12:
“Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation;
continuing instant in prayer;”
Here is an exhortation
for us all. We need to fish for the souls
of men with fervent patience, for many of
the lost souls of this world are seemingly
opposed to their own selves [see for this,
Acts 18:6].
1 Thessalonians 5:14:
“Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are
unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak,
be patient toward all men.”
Also, 2 Timothy
2:24-25: “And the servant of the Lord must not
strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to
teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that
oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.”
Here is the ultimate
desire for the believer in Jesus Christ … to
see our LORD, and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Therefore, focus on
the patient waiting for HIM!
2 Thessalonians 3:5:
“And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of
God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.”
Next, consider the
elders in the church. The bishop,
or elder, needs the patience of Job in order
to shepherd the church of God.
1 Timothy 3:3: “Not
given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy
lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;”
Finally: It is
praiseworthy to be fixed in awe in the
view of the patience of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ has a long plan built on his powerful
attribute of patience. Notice the
patience of Jesus Christ as seen in the book of
the Revelation of Jesus Christ, chapter one, verse
nine:
“I John, who also am
your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in
the kingdom and patience
of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is
called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the
testimony of Jesus Christ.”
[Revelation 1:9]
Patience is willing
to wait!
Patience is quiet.
Patience is drawn
to that which will come.
Patience is
embodied in wisdom.
Patience waits for
the best things!
Patience brings
joy.
Patience has the
last laugh!
The bear went over the
mountain.
The bear went over the
mountain,
To see what he could
see,
To see what he could
see.
The bear went over the
mountain,
To see something that is
only seen by faith.
Verse five:
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that
giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and
it shall be given him.”
Wisdom
is what is needed.
Now, there are two
types of wisdom.
1.
There is a worldly wisdom.
2.
There is the wisdom of
God.
In the first
epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, in chapter one,
verse twenty-one, we see these two types of
wisdom:
“For after that in
the wisdom of God the world by wisdom
knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe.” [1
Corinthians 1:21]
Again, in the same
epistle in chapter two, verse thirteen we see
man’s wisdom in contrast to the wisdom the
Holy Ghost teacheth:
“Which things also we
speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing
spiritual things with spiritual.”
[1 Corinthians 2:13]
The world’s wisdom
will lead to destruction. God’s
wisdom leads to life. Which way
will you go?
Ask of God:
We need the wisdom
that comes from God. It is this wisdom
that we see in the book of Proverbs, chapter four.
We will read from verse five through nine:
“Get wisdom, get
understanding: forget it not; neither decline
from the words of my mouth.
Forsake her not, and
she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall
keep thee.
Wisdom is the
principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and
with all thy getting get understanding.
Exalt her, and she
shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour,
when thou dost embrace her.
She shall give to
thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory
shall she deliver to thee.”
[Proverbs 4:5-9]
Verse six:
“But let him ask in faith,
nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a
wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”
This is like a sailor
lost at sea!
Wavering signifies trouble:
A person who
wavers back, and forth, is unstable.
This was said of Reuben,
the eldest of the twelve patriarchs of the tribes
of Israel, in the first book of Moses,
called Genesis, in chapter forty-nine, verse four:
“Unstable as water,
thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy
father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went
up to my couch.” [Genesis 49:4]
Thus, an unbiased
observer of an unstable person might say: He
is off his rocker! This man cannot be
counted on. He will fail you!
He is like Reuben,
UNSTABLE AS WATER!
Ask for wisdom in faith …
What is faith?
Get in the BOOK! The answer will be
incisively staring at you right in the face!
It is in the BOOK:
“Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen.” [Hebrews 11:1]
Furthermore, it is a
substance. This substance
allows one to see things that are not seen.
There are things out there that are not seen
with the natural senses. Faith enables
a supernatural sense to the things that are
invisible. The measure of
faith one has determines the clarity of this
supernatural vision.
To repeat it!
Faith, according to the BOOK, is a
substance. Has this sunk in now?
And this substance is something hoped for.
Faith is the evidence of things that are
invisible to the human eye, and cannot ever
be perceived by any of the human senses.
Faith is key!
Warning: If a
person is to please God he must have faith!
“But without faith
it is impossible to please him: for he
that cometh to God must believe that he is, and
that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him.” [Hebrews 11:6]
Abraham believed God by faith.
Romans 4:17-21:
“(As it is written, I
have made thee a father of many nations,) before him
whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth
the dead, and calleth those things which be not as
though they were.
Who against hope
believed in hope, that he might become the father of
many nations; according to that which was spoken, So
shall thy seed be.
And being not weak in
faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when
he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the
deadness of Sara's womb:
He staggered not at
the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong
in faith, giving glory to God;
And being fully
persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able
also to perform.”
Now, here is what
faith does. Faith allows one to
see things that are far off through vast
distances, or time. They are the things that are
only comprehended through faith, which things
are beyond the human senses and the reasoning of
men. A person who has
faith [as Abraham had faith] is
supernaturally transported through
time, and space, to see the invisible
things, along with all the visible things.
Note: We can see
those “invisible” things, in the epistle
to the Colossians, chapter one, verses fifteen, and
sixteen. These are things that no one can
see without faith in JESUS CHRIST:
“Who is the image of
the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
For by him were all
things created, that are in heaven, and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:
all things were created by him, and for him:”
[Colossians 1:15-16].
Summation:
Faith looks up to God!
Faith looks up to
Heaven.
Faith allows one to see the invisible things!
The Kingdom of Heaven is
coming to Planet Earth
The coming Sea Change:
For six millennia
of time men have had to approach God through
faith if they were to be saved from the wrath
of God, and from Hell’s fire.
When Jesus Christ came
nearly two thousand years ago, He came as a
servant, and was rejected of men. They did
not recognize HIM:
Isaiah 53:2-3: “For
he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and
as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor
comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is
no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and
rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted
with grief: and we hid as it were our faces
from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
Notice: Jesus Christ took
the form of a man. HE
looked like any other man! Read about this!
Philippians 2:6-8:
“Who, being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God: But made himself of no reputation, and took
upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a
man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross.”
Salvation will be by sight in the
Kingdom of Heaven.
However, in the last
millennium, which is the Kingdom of Heaven,
it will be all by sight [not by faith].
The natural eyes
of men will finally see God as HE is
revealed in the Revelation of
Jesus Christ, chapter one. For the
invisible things will become visible in the seventh
millennium.
The nations in the
millennial Kingdom of Heaven will “come
up” to Jerusalem. They will “come
up” to “the top of the mountain” – a
literal mountain.
“This is the law of
the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole
limit thereof round about shall be most holy.
Behold, this is the law of the house.”
[Ezekiel 43:12]
This is “Zion,” on
top of the mountains will be the mountain
[Zion] of the “Lord's house” [the Temple].
Men will see:
1.
THE KING
2.
THE TEMPLE
The prophet Isaiah
prophesied, in Isaiah chapter two, verse two,
and three:
“And it shall come to
pass in the last days, that the mountain of the
Lord's house shall be established in the top of the
mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and
all nations shall flow unto it.
And many people shall
go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of
Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will
walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth
the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”
[Isaiah 2:2-3]
Verse seven:
“For let not that man think that he shall receive
any thing of the Lord.”
How
can one receive wisdom from God, if he
doubts God? One that wavers is a
doubter. A doubter is one who does
not mix faith into his hearing of the word
of God:
Hebrews 4:2: “For unto
us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them:
but the word preached did not profit them, not being
mixed with faith in them that heard it.”
This
man cannot receive the wisdom
of God because of the unbelief in his heart.
Conclusion:
Not every person in this world has
faith!
Not all men have faith!
The BOOK clearly tells us this in the Apostle
Paul’s second epistle to the Thessalonians in
chapter three, verse two:
“And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.” [2 Thessalonians 3:2]
Doubt in God’s words is not believing
God’s words.
It is a given.
Not all men believe the BOOK. This
is apparent to anyone who spends a little time
reading the BOOK of God, which is the Bible.
Here is a case to make the point.
See what the Scripture says concerning
the Jews in Judea in the epistle to the
Romans, chapter fifteen, verse thirty-one:
“That I may be
delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea;
and that my service which I have for
Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints;”
[Romans 15:31].
They did not believe.
They doubted. Here is what will happen
to them, who waver, and do not believe God.
For those who do not believe God’s words,
they will be left to grope in the darkness.
This thing is said of them in the book of
Job:
“They grope in the
dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger
like a drunken man.”
[Job 12:25]
The people of this world
walk by sight. The Christian walks by
faith.
2 Corinthians 5:7:
“(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)”
Verse eight:
“A double minded man is
unstable in all his ways.”
A person who is
unstable is shown to have a divided
heart.
Hosea 10: 2: “Their
heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he
shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their
images.”
Observation: The thing
that is divided is no longer whole.
The thing divided can no longer focus on
the target.
Bottom-line: The
divided heart will cause failure.
Note: As the person
with a divided heart will fall, so will a
kingdom, or a house, fall, according
to no less than Jesus Christ according to the
Gospel of Mark, chapter three, verses
twenty-four and twenty-five:
“And if a kingdom be
divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
And if a house be
divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”
Now notice: The
divided heart produces a double-minded man.
He is divided against
himself. The word of God says, He
will not stand! He will fall!
Next, the Spirit of God
through the Apostle James defines a person
who is double minded as being unstable
in all his ways:
Verse eight, once again:
“A double minded man is
unstable in all his ways.”
His mind has two
states. One mind has Mammon
[as his master] in charge of him.
What is mammon?
Now, mammon is constituted by the riches
and the things of this world.
His other mind has
God as his master in charge of him.
Thus, this person tries
for a time to fence-straddle between these
two masters. Take heed: You cannot stay on
the fence very long. And why not?
Because Jesus Christ himself said so, when he was
here the first time in the flesh
nearly two thousand years ago.
Now,
here is what he said then:
“No servant can serve
two masters: for either he will hate the one, and
love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and
despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
[Luke 16:13]
Remember Demas?
Well, Demas tried to do it. Demas tried
to straddle the fence, but he could not do it
very long. He finally got off the fence on the
side to have this world be his master.
Observation: He got a
mouthful of mammon, and he choked to death.
Read for this the
second epistle of Timothy, chapter four, verse
ten:
“For Demas hath
forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is
departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia,
Titus unto Dalmatia.” [2 Timothy
4:10]
There is a lesson to be
learned from Demas. Do not straddle the
fence! Be a Steady Eddy for
Jesus Christ. A steady man is a
stable man!
The stable man
with a singular heart, a whole heart,
in his right mind will have the LORD as his
Master.
Verse nine:
“Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is
exalted:”
Notice: This verse here
concerns one’s lot in life.
Some men are poor
in this world’s goods, and some men are rich
in this world’s goods. You
might say, the brother of low degree
is poor in this world’s goods. He has
either inherited a low estate in life, or he
has fallen by misfortune, or by neglect to the state
of poverty.
Now here is what God
says concerning this matter of poverty [in the
book of the Proverbs, in chapter twenty-two:
“The rich and poor
meet together: the LORD is the maker of them
all.” [Proverbs 22:2]
Do you see the nugget
here? God made them both!
There is something else!
The poor will always be with us in this old
world, according to the BOOK:
Matthew 26:11: “For ye
have the poor always with you; but me ye have not
always.”
Do not worry! Fear not,
my friend. There will come a day
when the poor in this life will be
lifted to become a brother of high
degree.
The BOOK says this
much in the Gospel according to Luke,
chapter one, verse fifty-two:
“He hath put down the
mighty from their seats, and exalted them of
low degree.” [Luke 1:52]
Friend, be patient,
things will get flipped around. Just
watch, and see!
Verse ten:
“But the rich, in that he is made low: because as
the flower of the grass he shall pass away.”
The rich will have
his riches but only for a little time.
His life will soon be extinguished, and his
riches will soon pass on to someone else.
The wisest man who ever lived came to this
following conclusion:
“Yea, I hated all my
labour which I had taken under the sun: because I
should leave it unto the man that shall be after
me.” [Ecclesiastes 2:18]
All the riches of the
rich, will soon prove to be only vanity.
Ecclesiastes 12:8:
“Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is
vanity.”
Verse eleven:
“For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat,
but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof
falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it
perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in
his ways.”
Here is the
bottom-line. Riches are at best transient.
They flee away!
Now, what can we
learn from all of this? It is this
thing: We need to focus on the things that really
matter in life.
Verse twelve:
“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation:
for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of
life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love
him.”
Every man will endure
temptation. How will you do?
This all hearkens back to what we said
earlier in verse two concerning temptation.
The temptations in
life serve to test us. This
testing is for the purpose of revealing what
we are on the inside - in our heart.
The big question is: Do we love God?
So, we are tried!
And when we are
tried, we can escape, or endure,
those temptations, that are found in life, by
trying the word of God, by
believing in the word of God, by trusting
in the word of God. God, therefore, becomes
the buckler to all those who trust in Him.
Trying = Believing = Trusting
2 Samuel 22:31: “As
for God, his way is perfect; the word of
the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to
all them that trust in him.”
Now, if we endure
temptations, if we pass the tests, or the
trials, in life, then we will receive the crown
of life.
He shall receive the crown of life.
The crown is
the top of one’s head. This is shown in
the first mention of this word in the first book of
Moses called Genesis, chapter forty-nine,
verse twenty-six:
“The blessings of thy
father have prevailed above the blessings of my
progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting
hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on
the crown of the head of him that was separate from
his brethren.” [Genesis 49:26]
Head = Crown
Observation: A crown
of one’s head separates him from all his fellows.
Notice the hoary head in the book of
Proverbs:
Proverbs 16:31:
“The hoary head is a crown of glory, if
it be found in the way of righteousness.”
Take note of the use of
the “if” statement here in this verse.
Having a crown of glory given to him is
conditional. But if a
man is not found in the way of righteousness,
he may end up having a crown of pride as the
Spirit of God has determined of him in the book of
Isaiah:
Isaiah 28:1: “Woe to
the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim,
whose glorious beauty is a fading flower,
which are on the head of the fat valleys of
them that are overcome with wine!”
In addition to the
top of the head being a crown, there is also
a physical crown, which is worn on the
crown of the head.
The figurative
crown of pride can become a literal
crown of pride. This is the crown
we find on the head of the rider of
the white horse who is seen in the book of the
Revelation of Jesus Christ in chapter six:
Revelation
6:2: “And I saw, and behold a white
horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown
was given unto him: and he went forth conquering,
and to conquer.”
Also, in the book of the
Revelation of Jesus Christ is another crown:
A crown of twelve stars is seen on a woman’s
head.
Revelation: 12:1: “And
there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman
clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet,
and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:”
Again, seen in the book
of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, is still yet
another crown. This crown will be
seen on none other but Jesus Christ:
Revelation 14:14: “And
I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the
cloud one sat like unto the Son of man,
having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a
sharp sickle.”
The crown signifies an important
person.
There is another
mention of the word crown in the Bible
that indicates an elevation of a person above
other persons, and is found in the first
book of Moses called Genesis, chapter
forty-nine, verse twenty-six:
“The blessings of thy
father have prevailed above the blessings of my
progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting
hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on
the crown of the head of him that was separate from
his brethren.” [Genesis 49:26]
A crown on one’s
head separates one from his brethren.
What is a crown? Well, according to Webster’s [1828] dictionary:
“A crown is an
ornament worn on the head by kings and sovereign
princes, as a badge of imperial or regal power and
dignity. Figuratively, regal power; royalty; kingly
government, or executive authority.”
Therefore, a king
wears a crown. The presence of a
crown indicates the presence of someone
who is reigning over a kingdom.
Now, take this thing in.
A crown is also given to all who will
reign in the millennium.
The dominating theme in the Bible:
In the book of the
Revelation of Jesus Christ there is
prophesied a KING and a KINGDOM.
Now,
according to the prophet Isaiah,
this kingdom is coming very soon, and the
KING of the KINGDOM will be a crown of glory
to the people of Israel, and Israel will be a
crown of glory to the LORD:
·
Isaiah 28:5: “In that day
shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and
for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his
people,”
·
Isaiah 62:3: “Thou shalt
also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD,
and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.”
Then, in the book of
Ezekiel, it can be seen there, that the LORD will
put a beautiful crown on Israel’s head:
Ezekiel
16:12: “And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and
earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon
thine head.”
Let us continue this theme of the kingdom. In this KINGDOM, there will also, be kings and priests that will co-reign with God - WHO is Jesus Christ.
If you reign, you will sit
on a throne!
Now, see chapter one,
verse six, to view a tremendous and beautiful
promise to the saved in this age [the believers
in Jesus Christ]:
“And hath made us
kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him
be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”
[Revelation 1:6]
Now, to see this thing
affirmed, go to chapter five, verse ten:
“And hast made us unto
our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the
earth.” [Revelation 5:10]
We will wear crowns!
This crown will be of pure gold, similar
to what the Levitical priest wore in the Old
Testament. See for this the second book
of Moses called Exodus:
Exodus 25:24: “And
thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make
thereto a crown of gold round about.
And thou shalt make
unto it a border of an hand breadth round about, and
thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof
round about.” [Exodus 25:24-25]
There are rewards for the Christian!
There are crowns
that will be distributed through the ministration
of the Spirit to the believers in the
Church, which is the body of Christ.
The first crown is
called an “incorruptible crown.” This
crown is found in the first epistle to
the Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 9:25:
“And every man that striveth for
the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they
do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an
incorruptible.”
The second crown
is called “my crown.” This crown
is located in the epistle to the
Philippians:
Philippians 4:1:
“Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed
for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord,
my dearly beloved.”
The third crown is
called the “crown of rejoicing.”
This crown is seen in the first
epistle to the Thessalonians:
1 Thessalonians 2:19:
“For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of
rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of
our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?”
The fourth crown
is called the “crown of righteousness.”
This crown is found in the epistle
to Titus:
Titus 4:8: “Henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me
at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them
also that love his appearing.”
The fifth crown is
the “crown of glory.” See for
this crown in the first epistle
of Peter:
1 Peter 5:4: “And when
the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a
crown of glory that fadeth not away.”
The sixth crown is
here in our verse [verse twelve]. It is called
“the crown of life”:
“Blessed is the
man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried,
he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord
hath promised to them that love him.”
Here is the test.
Do we love Jesus Christ?
Now note: This same
crown has a reference in the book of the
Revelation of Jesus Christ [in chapter two, verse
ten, and eleven. This is a crown that
can be lost by the believer. Look with me in
these two verses:
Revelation 2:10: “Fear
none of those things which thou shalt suffer:
behold, the devil shall cast some of you into
prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have
tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death,
and I will give thee a crown of life.
Behold, I come
quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man
take thy crown.” [Revelation
3:10-11]
John is now warning
the believer [by the Spirit]: Let no man take thy
crown!
Here is in review a list
of the crowns for the Christian. There
is:
1.
The crown of life – James 1:12
2.
The incorruptible crown – 1 Corinthians
9:25
3.
My crown - Philippians 4:1
4.
The crown of rejoicing – 1 Thessalonians
2:19
5.
The crown of righteousness – 2 Timothy 4:8
6.
The crown of glory - 1 Peter 5:4
Verse thirteen:
“Let no man say when he is
tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be
tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:”
Now, God tempts no
man! This is an obvious truth. God does
not tempt a man to do wrong, or to do
evil. We do evil, because
our hearts are evil. The
imagination of man’s heart is only evil as
shown here in the first book of Moses
called Genesis:
Genesis 8:21: “And the
LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in
his heart, I will not again curse the ground any
more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's
heart is evil from his youth; neither will I
again smite any more every thing living, as I have
done.”
The problem is within
us!
Verse fourteen:
“But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of
his own lust, and enticed.
Is this thing clear to
you? Man cannot blame anyone, but himself.
The progression is an exorable downward
process because of our sin.
Look at the next verse.
Verse fifteen:
“Then when lust hath
conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it
is finished, bringeth forth death.”
This is what is in
this world:
“For all that is
in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the
Father, but is of the world.” [1
John 2:16]
1.
The temptation comes.
2.
We are enticed and
drawn.
3.
The lust of the flesh,
of the eyes, and our pride enslaves
us.
4.
We sin, and our sin
will kill.
5.
Last, we
die.
There is a remedy
to the lust that is within our flesh.
It is this that is found in the epistle to
the Galatians:
Galatians 5:16: “This
I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfil the lust of the flesh.”
Verse sixteen:
“Do not err, my beloved brethren.”
James is saying
through the Spirit to his fellow brothers and
sisters in Christ: Do not make a mistake about
what I am saying to you [in verse seventeen].
Verse seventeen:
“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.”
Every good gift
one receives in life is a gift of God.
The good that a man receives for his labor is
a gift of God:
Ecclesiastes 3:13:
“And also that every man should eat and drink, and
enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the
gift of God.”
When a person receives
the unspeakable gift, he receives Jesus
Christ [Ephesians 2:8]:
2 Corinthians 9:15:
“Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift.”
Verse eighteen:
“Of his own will begat he us
with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of
firstfruits of his creatures.”
When Jesus rose from the
grave, HE became the firstfruits.
Then after HE became the firstfruits,
then whosoever believes in HIM is begotten of
HIM:
1 Corinthians 15:23:
“But every man in his own order: Christ the
firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his
coming.”
1 John 5:1: “Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God:
and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him
also that is begotten of him.”
The believers in the
body of Christ, which is the church, are
a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Verse nineteen:
“Wherefore, my beloved
brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to
speak, slow to wrath:”
A spiritual man is
temperate in all things. He is in
control of his tongue.
He is
swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath!
1 Corinthians 9:25a:
“And every man that striveth for the mastery is
temperate in all things.”
Galatians 5:22-23:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance:
against such there is no law.”
Verse twenty:
“For the wrath of man worketh
not the righteousness of God.”
An angry man on
reflex seeks for vengeance.
However, the true
Christian will turn to the LORD for HIS
intervention. Our instruction in
such moments in our wrath is for us to
give place to our wrath, and let the LORD
take care of the matter.
To see this command
[the command to give place to our wrath]
please turn to the epistle to the Romans, in
chapter twelve, verse nineteen:
“Dearly beloved,
avenge not yourselves, but rather give place
unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is
mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”
[Romans 12:19]
The forcing
of our own vengeance will only accomplish
bringing forth more strife:
Proverbs 30:33:
“Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter,
and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood:
so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.”
Rule: Vengeance
belongs to God:
Hebrews 10:30: “For we
know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth
unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And
again, The Lord shall judge his people.”
Psalm 94:1: “O LORD
God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom
vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.”
BACK OFF
and LET GOD!
Verse twenty-one:
“Wherefore lay apart all
filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and
receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is
able to save your souls.”
Notice in verse
twenty-one, the phrase: the engrafted word.
Engrafted means to graft in the word
of God into you … into your heart.
Psalm 119:11: “Thy
word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin
against thee.”
We are to graft
the words of God to our heart.
This grafting operation was what
translated us into the kingdom of God.
Colossians 1:13: “Who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and
hath translated us into the kingdom of his
dear Son:”
When we receive
[John 1:12] the engrafted word, we are
born of the Spirit, and are saved.
Thus, the engrafted
word saves our soul! With our
salvation in Jesus Christ, we leave
the filthiness of the sin of our former life as
shown in the epistle to the Ephesians,
chapter two, verse one through three:
“And you hath he
quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Wherein in time past
ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience:
Among whom also we all
had our conversation in times past in the lusts of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind; and were by nature the children of
wrath, even as others.”
Conclusion:
The engrafted word both, saves us, and cleans us!
Verse twenty-two:
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving your own selves.
Idiom: The proof is in the pudding!
The true hearing
of God’s words always results in the doing of God’s
words.
We see this truth clearly
in the first epistle of John, chapter
two, verse three through six:
“And hereby we do know
that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
He that saith, I know
him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar,
and the truth is not in him.
But whoso keepeth his
word, in him verily is the love of God perfected:
hereby know we that we are in him.
He that saith he
abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even
as he walked.”
Hearing
produces the doing of it!
Verse twenty-three:
“For if any be a hearer of
the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man
beholding his natural face in a glass:”
But what happens
to a person, who says he hears the word of
God [concerning Jesus Christ], and says he
believes in Jesus Christ, but there is nothing
that ever comes of it in his life? There has
been no change - NONE. He remains the
same! He remains a natural man.
So, why does this
phenomena happen to so many people? The
answer to this question is in the epistle
to the Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 2:14: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Verse twenty-four:
“For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and
straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.”
Jesus Christ in the
parable of the sower explains the diverse
effects of the word of God [which is the
Gospel of Jesus Christ] upon those that hear
the word of God. For this
truth we turn to the Gospel according to
Luke, chapter eight, verses nine through fifteen:
“And his disciples
asked him, saying, What might this parable be?
And he said, Unto you
it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of
God: but to others in parables; that seeing they
might not see, and hearing they might not
understand.
Now the parable is
this: The seed is the word of God.
Those by the way side
are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and
taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they
should believe and be saved.
They on the rock
are they, which, when they hear, receive the
word with joy; and these have no root, which for a
while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.
And that which fell
among thorns are they, which, when they have heard,
go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and
pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to
perfection.
But that on the good
ground are they, which in an honest and good heart,
having heard the word, keep it, and bring
forth fruit with patience.”
The effect of the seed lost:
1.
Some have had the Devil
steal the word from out of their heart.
2.
Some have had no root
established in their heart.
3.
Some get choked to
death.
In the end these people
walk away from Jesus Christ unchanged, and
remain natural men. This is sad.
Fact: Repentance
came up missing in the 20th century!
If you start wrong,
you will end up wrong!
If you get it right,
you will end up right!
The most critical
test to be performed in the life of any person
living on the face of this earth … is an acid
test for the presence of one attribute.
The flip side of the coin!
This [particular]
attribute which is to be tested for … is the
presence of an inner repentance and
faith in Jesus Christ. See for this
“repentance” and “faith” in the
book of Acts, chapter twenty, verse twenty-one:
“Testifying both to
the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward
God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”
[Acts 20:21]
Confession!
Further, this inward
repentance and faith [in Jesus Christ]
is made known on the outside through
the confession of a sinner of a PERSON
[Jesus Christ]:
“Hereby know ye the
Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
And every spirit that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the
flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit
of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should
come; and even now already is it in the world.”
[1 John 4:2-3]
Further than that,
confession serves as an acknowledgement
of the TRUTH.
To amplify this even
further, confession is an outward,
public statement [a deed, or an act]
made by a person who is testifying to others so
that they may hear, and see, what he
already has believed inwardly [or privately]
to be true.
Now, confession
takes guts to make in this old world, and can
often have consequences to the very hurt of the
person who makes this confession of faith in
Jesus Christ.
“My little children,
let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in
deed and in truth.” [1 John 3:18]
Now, if a person
publicly acknowledges, or confesses, to
others that “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,”
then that person is “of God.” It
is this same person who has become a true
believer! He, or she, is the true
Christian.
Contrariwise, if a person
will not publicly acknowledge, or confess,
to others that “Jesus Christ is come in the
flesh,” then he is not “of
God.”
Therefore, this person is
not a true believer. He, or she, has
“that spirit of antichrist.”
“For many deceivers
are entered into the world, who confess not that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a
deceiver and an antichrist.” [2
John 1:7]
The bottom line is
… we are either for Jesus Christ, or
we are against Jesus Christ.
There is no middle ground at all in this matter of
Jesus Christ. Any attempt to fence
straddle here will only fail you, my friend.
What is the nature of true salvation in this present age?
David Brainerd - Saved by
Grace through Faith
Faith Alone:
The following is quoted
from the book: The Life of David
Brainerd by Brainerd, David pp.
17-26. In this narrative a spiritual struggle
is shown. With what follows, please enter into
the inward struggles concerning true
salvation:
David Brainerd:
“Being sensible of the necessity of deep humiliation
in order to a saving close with Christ, I used to
set myself to produce in my own heart the
convictions requisite in such a humiliation: as, a
conviction that God would be just, if he cast me off
for ever; that if ever God should bestow mercy on
me, it would be mere grace, though I should be in
distress many years first, and be never so much
engaged in duty; and that God was not in the least
obliged to pity me the more for all past duties,
cries, and tears. I strove to my utmost to bring
myself to a firm belief of these things and a hearty
assent to them; and hoped that now I was brought off
from myself, truly humbled, and that I bowed to the
divine sovereignty.”
My
comment: What we
are seeing here in this testimony
is David Brainerd is pursuing
salvation through the strength of
the will of his flesh.
This will always be a futile exercise, and
will only wear the person out, all to no avail:
John 1:13: “Which were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God.”
We now will proceed on
with his testimony:
David Brainerd:
“I was wont to tell God in my prayers, that now I
had those very dispositions of soul which he
required, and on which he showed mercy to others,
and thereupon to beg and plead for mercy to me. But
when I found no relief, and was still oppressed with
guilt and fears of wrath, my soul was in a tumult,
and my heart rose against God, as dealing hardly
with me. Yet then my conscience flew in my face,
putting me in mind of my late confession to God of
his justice in my condemnation. This, giving me a
sight of the badness of my heart, threw me again
into distress; and I wished that I had watched my
heart more narrowly, to keep it from breaking out
against God’s dealings with me. I even wished that I
had not pleaded for mercy on account of my
humiliation; because thereby I had lost all my
seeming goodness.”
My comment: The Spirit of
God here is seen actively working in David’s
heart.
Now, this is the very
Person of the Holy Spirit WHO is reproving
David of sin, and of righteousness, and of
judgment:
John 16:8: “And when
he is come, he will reprove the world
of sin, and of
righteousness, and of judgment:”
We return now to David’s testimony:
David Brainerd:
“Thus, scores of times I vainly imagined myself
humbled and prepared for saving mercy. While I was
in this distressed, bewildered, and tumultuous state
of mind, the corruption of my heart was especially
irritated with the following things.
1.
“The strictness of the divine law. For I
found it was impossible for me, after my utmost
pains, to answer its demands. I often made new
resolutions, and as often broke them. I imputed the
whole to carelessness, and the want of being more
watchful, and used to call myself a fool for my
negligence. But when, upon a stronger resolution,
and greater endeavors, and close application to
fasting and prayer, I found all attempts to fail;
then I quarreled with the law of God, as
unreasonably rigid. I thought, if it extended only
to my outward actions and behavior, that I could
bear with it; but I found that it condemned me for
my evil thoughts, and sins of my heart, which I
could not possibly prevent. I was extremely loth to
own my utter helplessness in this matter: but after
repeated disappointments, thought that rather than
perish I could do a little more still; especially if
such and such circumstances might but attend my
endeavors and strivings. I hoped that I should
strive more earnestly than ever, if the matter came
to extremity, though I never could find the time to
do my utmost in the manner I intended. This hope of
future more favorable circumstances, and of doing
something great hereafter, kept me from utter
despair in myself, and from seeing myself fallen
into the hands of a sovereign God, and dependent on
nothing but free and boundless grace.”
We will pause here to
make my following comment: A sense of
helplessness is now moving into David’s life.
Lesson: All attempts
to reform oneself in the strength of the
flesh always comes up dry. The
arm of flesh will fail you! The
prophet Jeremiah has said as much:
Jeremiah 17:5: “Thus
saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that
trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose
heart departeth from the LORD.”
Conclusion: Here is a
must: All trust must be placed in God only!
Having stated this, we must
now continue with David’s testimony:
2.
“Another point that irritated
me was, that faith alone was the condition of
salvation; that God would not come down to lower
terms; and that he would not promise life and
salvation upon my sincere and hearty prayers and
endeavors. That word, Mark 16:16, ‘He that believeth
not shall be damned,’ cut off all hope there. I
found that faith was the sovereign gift of God; that
I could not get it as of myself; and could not
oblige God to bestow it upon me by any of my
performances Ephesians 2:1, 8. ‘This,’ I was ready
to say, ‘is a hard saying, who can hear it?’ I could
not bear that all I had done should stand for mere
nothing; as I had been very conscientious in duty,
had been very religious a great while, and had, as I
thought, done much more than many others who had
obtained mercy. I confessed indeed the vileness of
my duties; but then what made them at that time seem
vile, was my wandering thoughts in them, rather than
because I was all over defiled like a devil, and the
principle corrupt from whence they flowed, so that I
could not possibly do anything that was good. Hence,
I called what I did by the name of honest faithful
endeavors; and could not bear it, that God had made
no promises of salvation to them.”
My
comment:
David is nearing
the end of the road that
he must trod.
He has now almost come to
the end of himself.
Strange, but a true saying: Sorrow is a
friend!
Enter
sorrow: There is now a presence
of great sorrow [called godly
sorrow] that is moving David Brainerd’s heart to
true salvation in Jesus Christ:
2
Corinthians 7:10: “For godly sorrow worketh
repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but
the sorrow of the world worketh death.”
We must now return
to David’s testimony:
3.
“I could not find out what
faith was; or what it was to believe and come to
Christ. I read the calls of Christ to the weary and
heavy laden; but could find no way in which he
directed them to come. I thought I would gladly
come, if I knew how; though the path of duty were
never so difficult. I read Stoddard’s Guide to
Christ, (which I trust was, in the hand of God, the
happy means of my conversion,) and my heart rose
against the author; for though he told me my very
heart all along under convictions, and seemed to be
very beneficial to me in his directions; yet here he
seemed to me to fail: he did not tell me anything I
could do that would bring me to Christ, but left me
as it were with a great gulch between me and Christ,
without any direction how to get through. For I was
not yet effectually and experimentally taught, that
there could be no way prescribed, whereby a natural
man could, of his own strength, obtain that which is
supernatural, and which the highest angel cannot
give.”
My
comment: Fact:
There is nothing concerning
salvation that can be done by David
Brainerd himself.
Therefore, David’s question is this:
How can I [as a sinner]
appropriate the unspeakable gift?
2
Corinthians 9:15 “Thanks be unto God for
his unspeakable gift.”
Now,
Jesus Christ is that unspeakable gift WHO
gives the lost sinner eternal life:
1 John
1:2: “(For the life was manifested, and we have
seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you
that eternal life, which was with the Father, and
was manifested unto us;)”
Let us
now return to David’s testimony:
4.
“Another point was the
sovereignty of God. I could not bear that it should
be wholly at God’s pleasure, to save or damn me,
just as he would. That passage, Romans 9:11-23, was
a constant vexation to me, especially verse 21.
Reading or meditating on this, always destroyed my
seeming good frames; for when I thought I was almost
humbled, and almost resigned, this passage would
make my enmity against God appear. When I came to
reflect on the inward enmity and blasphemy which
arose on this occasion, I was the more afraid of
God, and driven further from any hopes of
reconciliation with him. It gave me a dreadful view
of myself; I dreaded more than ever to see myself in
God’s hands, and it made me more opposite than ever
to submit to his sovereignty; for I thought He
designed my damnation. “All this time the Spirit of
God was powerfully at work with me; and I was
inwardly pressed to relinquish all self-confidence,
all hope of ever helping myself by any means
whatsoever. The conviction of my lost estate was
sometimes so clear and manifest before my eyes that
it was as if it had been declared to me in so many
words, ‘It is done, it is done, it is forever
impossible to deliver yourself.’ For about three or
four days my soul was thus greatly distressed. At
some turns, for a few moments, I seemed to myself
lost and undone; but then would shrink back
immediately from the sight, because I dared not
venture myself into the hands of God, as wholly
helpless, and at the disposal of his sovereign
pleasure. I dared not see that important truth
concerning myself that I was ‘dead in trespasses and
sins.’ But when I had, as it were, thrust away these
views of myself at any time, I felt distressed to
have the same discoveries of myself; for I greatly
feared being given over of God to final stupidity.
When I thought of putting it off to a more
‘convenient season,’ the conviction was so close and
powerful, that the present time was the best, and
probably the only time, that I dared not put if
off.”
My
comment:
David is now wrestling
with God very much in
similitude to Jacob’s
wrestling with God, which
is recorded for us in the first
book of Moses called Genesis:
Genesis 32:24-28: “And
Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with
him until the breaking of the day.
And when he saw that
he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow
of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was
out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
And he said, Let me
go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not
let thee go, except thou bless me.
And he said unto him,
What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
And he said, Thy name
shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a
prince hast thou power with God and with men, and
hast prevailed.”
David
Brainerd continues his testimony:
“It was the sight of
truth concerning myself, truth respecting my state,
as a creature fallen and alienated from God, and
that consequently could make no demands on God for
mercy, but was at his absolute disposal, from which
my soul shrank away, and which I trembled to think
of beholding. Thus, he that doeth evil, as all
unregenerate men continually do, hates the light of
truth, neither cares to come to it, because it will
reprove his deeds, and show him his just deserts.
John 3:20. Sometime before, I had taken much pains,
as I thought, to submit to the sovereignty of God;
yet I mistook the thing, and did not once imagine,
that seeing and being made experimentally sensible
of this truth, which my soul now so much dreaded and
trembled at, was the frame of soul which I had so
earnestly desired. I had ever hoped that when I had
attained to that humiliation which I supposed
necessary to precede faith, then it would not be
fair for God to cast me off; but now I saw it was so
far from any goodness in me, to own myself
spiritually dead and destitute of all goodness, that
on the contrary, my mouth would be forever stopped
by it; and it looked as dreadful to me, to see
myself, and the relation I stood in to God – I a
sinner and criminal, and he a great Judge and
Sovereign – as it would be to a poor trembling
creature to venture off some high precipice. Hence,
I put it off for a minute or two, and tried for
better circumstances to do it in: either I must read
a passage or two, or pray first, or something of the
like nature; or else put off my submission to God
with an objection that I did not know how to submit.
But the truth was, I could see no safety in owning
myself in the hands of a sovereign God, and could
lay no claim to anything better than damnation.
“After a considerable
time spent in similar exercises and distress, one
morning, while I was walking in a solitary place, as
usual, I at once saw that all my contrivances and
projects to effect or procure deliverance and
salvation for myself were utterly in vain; I was
brought quite to a stand, as finding myself totally
lost. I had thought many times before, that the
difficulties in my way were very great; but now I
saw, in another and very different light, that it
was forever impossible for me to do anything toward
helping or delivering myself. I then thought of
blaming myself, that I had not done more, and been
more engaged, while I had opportunity – for it
seemed now as if the season was forever over and
gone – but I instantly saw, that let me have done
what I would, it would no more have tended to my
helping myself, than what I had done; that I had
made all the pleas I ever could have made to all
eternity; and that all my pleas were vain. The
tumult that had been before in my mind was now
quieted; and I was somewhat eased of that distress
which I felt while struggling against a sight of
myself, and of the divine sovereignty. I had the
greatest certainty that my state was forever
miserable, for all that I could do; and wondered
that I had never been sensible of it before.
“While I remained in
this state my notions respecting my duties were
quite different from what I had ever entertained in
times past. Before this, the more I did in duty, the
more hard I thought it would before God to cast me
off; though at the same time I confessed, and
thought I saw, that there was no goodness or merit
in my duties; but now, the more I did in prayer or
any other duty, the more I saw that I was indebted
to God for allowing me to ask for mercy; for I saw
that self-interest had led me to pray, and that I
had never once prayed from any respect to the glory
of God.
Now I saw that there
was no necessary connection between my prayers and
the bestowment of divine mercy; that they laid not
the least obligation upon God to bestow his grace
upon me; and that there was no more virtue or
goodness in them than there would be in my paddling
with my hand in the water, (which was the comparison
I had then in my mind;) and this because they were
not performed from any love or regard to God. I saw
that I had been heaping up my devotions before God,
fasting, praying, &c. pretending, and indeed really
thinking sometimes, that I was aiming at the glory
of God; whereas I never once truly intended it, but
only my own happiness. I saw that as I had never
done anything for God, I had no claim on anything
from him, but perdition, on account of my hypocrisy
and mockery. Oh, how different did my duties now
appear from what they used to do! I used to charge
them with sin and imperfection; but this was only on
account of the wandering and vain thoughts attending
them, and not because I had no regard to God in
them; for this I thought I had. But when I saw
evidently that I had had regard to nothing but
self-interest; then they appeared a vile mockery of
God, self-worship, and a continued course of lies. I
saw that something worse had attended my duties than
barely a few wanderings; for the whole was nothing
but self-worship, and a horrid abuse of God.”
My
comment:
David has now arrived! He discovers
that true salvation
is justification by faith only:
David continues:
“I continued, as I
remember, in this state of mind from Friday morning
till the Sabbath evening following, (July 12, 1739,)
when I was walking again in the same solitary place
where I was brought to see myself lost and helpless,
as before mentioned. Here, in a mournful melancholy
state, I was attempting to pray, but found no heart
to engage in prayer or any other duty. My former
concern, exercise, and religious affections were now
gone. I thought that the Spirit of God had quite
left me; but still was not distressed; yet
disconsolate, as if there was nothing in heaven or
earth could make me happy. Having been thus
endeavoring to pray – though, as I thought, very
stupid and senseless – for near half an hour; then,
as I was walking in a dark thick grove, unspeakable
glory seemed to open to the view and apprehension of
my soul. I do not mean any external brightness, for
I saw no such thing; nor do I intend any imagination
of a body of light, somewhere in the third heavens,
or anything of that nature; but it was a new inward
apprehension or view that I had of God, such as I
never had before, nor any thing which had the least
resemblance of it. I stood still, wondered, and
admired! I knew that I never had seen before
anything comparable to it for excellency and beauty;
it was widely different from all the conceptions
that ever I had of God, or things divine. I had no
apprehension of any one person in the Trinity,
either the Father, the Son, or the Holy Ghost; but
it appeared to be Divine glory that I then beheld.
My soul rejoiced with joy unspeakable, to see such a
God, such a glorious divine Being; and I was
inwardly pleased and satisfied, that he should be
God over all for ever and ever. My soul was so
captivated and delighted with the excellency,
loveliness, greatness, and other perfections of God,
that I was even swallowed up in him; at least to
that degree that I had no thought, as I remember, at
first, about my own salvation, and scarce reflected
that there was such a creature as myself.”
My
comment: David Brainerd is now
saved by grace through faith!
Ephesians 2:9: “Not of works, lest any man should
boast.”
Saved by Grace
through faith!
“Thus God, I trust,
brought me to a hearty disposition to exalt him, and
set him on the throne, and principally and
ultimately to aim at his honor and glory, as King of
the universe. I continued in this state of inward
joy, peace, and astonishment, till near dark,
without any sensible abatement; and then began to
think and examine what I had seen; and felt sweetly
composed in my mind all the evening following. I
felt myself in a new world, and everything about me
appeared with a different aspect from what it was
wont to do.
“At this time the way
of salvation opened to me with such infinite wisdom,
suitableness, and excellency, that I wondered I
should ever think of any other way of salvation; I
was amazed that I had not dropped my own
contrivances and complied with this lovely, blessed,
and excellent way before. If I could have been saved
by my own duties, or any other way I had formerly
contrived, my whole soul would now have refused. I
wondered that all the world did not see and comply
with this way of salvation, entirely by the
righteousness of Christ.
“The sweet relish of
what I then felt continued with me for several days,
almost constantly, in a greater or less degree. I
could not but sweetly rejoice in God, lying down and
rising up. The next Lord’s Day I felt something of
the same kind, though not so powerful as before. But
not long after, I was again involved in darkness,
and in great distress; yet not of the same kind with
my distress under convictions. I was guilty, afraid,
and ashamed to come before God; and exceedingly
pressed with a sense of guilt; but it was not long
before I felt, I trust, true repentance and joy in
God.
“In the beginning of
September, I went to Yale College, and entered
there; but with some degree of reluctance, lest I
should not be able to lead a life of strict religion
in the midst of so many temptations. After this, in
the vacation, before I went to tarry at college, it
pleased God to visit my soul with clearer
manifestations of himself and his grace. I was
spending some time in prayer and self-examination,
when the Lord, by his grace, so shined into my
heart, that I enjoyed full assurance of his favor,
for that time; and my soul was unspeakably refreshed
with divine and heavenly enjoyments. At this time
especially, as well as some others, sundry passages
of God’s word opened to my soul with divine
clearness, power, and sweetness, so as to appear
exceeding precious, and with clear and certain
evidence of its being the word of God. I enjoyed
considerable sweetness in religion all the winter
following.”1
-
1.
The Life of David Brainerd by
Brainerd, David pp. 17-26
Now, after reading this!
What is
your confession?
Verse twenty-five:
“But whoso looketh into the
perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein,
he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the
work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
Liberty for the prisoners!
The prophet Isaiah
prophesied of a day when the prisoners in
the center of the earth would be set free, a day
when liberty would be proclaimed to all those
that were held captive for such a long, long
time.
Isaiah 61:1: “The
Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because
the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings
unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are
bound;”
This liberty that
was proclaimed to the captives [those that were
bruised] was to be fulfilled by Jesus
Christ, as shown in the Gospel according to Luke:
Luke 4:18:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to
preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that
are bruised,”
The Victory:
The day came when
the Son of God, Jesus Christ, conquered death,
and ascended on high, and led captivity captive,
and all according to what was already prophesied
centuries earlier:
Psalm 68:18: “Thou
hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity
captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea,
for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might
dwell among them.”
Ephesians 4:8:
“Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he
led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”
The Great Wait!
All the Old Testament
saints in Abraham’s Bosom had to wait for
this day of liberty!
Verse twenty-five again:
“But whoso looketh into the
perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein,
he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer
of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
Now, do you see something
here that is very different than what is
found to be the whole tenor of the epistles given to
the Romans, to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, to
the Ephesians, to the Philippians, and to the
Colossians? Here it is!
Two things different are not the same.
There is someone
here [in this verse] that needs to continue
looking into the perfect law of liberty [by
doing the work], or he loses his blessing.
Verse twenty-six:
“If any man among you seem to
be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but
deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is
vain.”
Now, what a person
does with his tongue may break his figurative
back. Let me expand on this.
What a religious man does may
nullify his religion. In other words,
it can be all done in vain!
Verse twenty-seven:
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the
Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows
in their affliction, and to keep himself
unspotted from the world.”
Pure
religion consists of both of the following; from
doing certain things, and from not doing
certain things!
The person who
continues to do right is the same person who is
the one who endures. One who has
endured is the same one who has continued
to the very end. The one who
continues to the very end is the one who is saved.
This matches with what Jesus had already said in the
Gospel according to Matthew:
Matthew 24:13: “But he
that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be
saved.”
In order to be better
prepared to move ahead in this commentary in the
book of James, we will need to prayerfully
review the revelation of the seven key
mysteries revealed in the New Testament.
The seven mysteries are as follows:
The Seven Mysteries!
- The mystery of
the Kingdom of God, in the
Gospel according to Mark, chapter four, verse
eleven: “And he said unto them,
Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the
kingdom of God: but unto them that are without,
all these things are done in parables:”
- The mystery of
the seven stars: Revelation
1:20: “The mystery of the seven
stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and
the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars
are the angels of the seven churches: and the
seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the
seven churches.”
- The present
blindness of Israel, the
epistle to the Romans, chapter eleven,
verse twenty-five: For: “I would
not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of
this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own
conceits; that blindness in part is happened to
Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be
come in.”
- The mystery of
iniquity: 2
Thessalonians 2:7, Revelation 17:5, 7: “For
the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only
he who now letteth will let, until he be
taken out of the way.”
- The mystery of
Christ: Romans 16:25, 1
Corinthians 2:7, Ephesians 1:9, 3:3, 4, 9, 5:32,
Colossians 2:2, 4:3, 1 Timothy 3:9, Revelation
10:7.
- The mystery of
the translation of the church:
1 Corinthians 15:51: “Behold, I shew you
a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall
all be changed,”
- The mystery of
Christ in you: Colossians
1:26, 27: “Even the mystery which hath
been hid from ages and from generations, but now
is made manifest to his saints: To whom God
would make known what is the riches of
the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles;
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:”
The last five of
these mysteries were revealed exclusively
first to the Apostle Paul, and they are the
key mysteries to enable one to have a proper
understanding as to the true nature of salvation in
Jesus Christ in the church age.
The Godhead:
John 17:5: “And now, O
Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was.”
This is something we see
over, and over, in all four of the gospels:
The Father, and the Son, in fellowship
together.
Jesus, in this verse, is
fondly remembering the glory HE had with the Father
before the creation week that is recorded in
the book of Moses called Genesis.
This relationship
of the Godhead [Colossians 2:9] of the three
persons in one is called a mystery.
The Apostle Paul called it the mystery of CHRIST
in Ephesians, chapter three:
“Whereby, when ye
read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery
of Christ” [Ephesians 3:4].
Now, in verse nine:
“And to make all men see what is the fellowship of
the mystery, which from the beginning of the world
hath been hid in God, who created all things by
Jesus Christ:” [Ephesians 3:9].
This verse [verse nine]
clearly states WHO made the heaven and the
earth: “In the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth.” [Genesis 1:1]
Now, it is clear as
the nose on your face! Jesus Christ is
God! Amen!
We need both to
understand, and to acknowledge this
mystery [as Christians].
“That their hearts
might be comforted, being 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;”
[Colossians 2:2]
Therefore, these
believers in Jesus Christ must have Christ INSIDE
of them [“Christ in you”] which is
explained by a MYSTERY.
The Mystery of Christ:
“But Jesus answered
them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”
Question: Who is Jesus
Christ’s Father? And who is Jesus
Christ? And what does Jesus mean
when he says: “My Father worketh hitherto,
and I work”?
Now, men are quite
resolute in their determination to unravel the
meaning of a mystery. It is in their
GENES as we would say. It is in the
human nature, especially among the Gentiles
[or the GREEKS], to solve a riddle.
When Paul visited Athens,
the Greeks were trying to figure it all out,
that is, to know the meaning of Paul’s
doctrine.
Acts 17:20: “For thou
bringest certain strange things to our ears: we
would know therefore what these things mean.”
Again, and I repeat, in
the New Testament there are several mysteries.
Some of these mysteries have to do with the
very nature of GOD.
Question: What is a
mystery?
Answer: A mystery
consists of that which is beyond human comprehension
until it is explained.
In the epistle to
the Colossians, chapter two, verse two, we have:
- The mystery
of God,
- The mystery
of the Father,
- The mystery
of Christ,
“That their hearts
might be comforted, being 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.”
In the epistle to
the Colossians, chapter four, verse three, we have,
again: The mystery of Christ:
“Withal praying also
for us, that God would open unto us a door of
utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which
I am also in bonds.”
Let me develop this.
In the first epistle to Timothy, chapter
three, verse sixteen, we have: The mystery of
godliness:
“And without
controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God
was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit,
seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed
on in the world, received up into glory.”
But as much as men want
to figure things out in their own wisdom,
they will never be able to figure out the mystery
of Christ UNAIDED. Men have been
figuratively busting their guts for the
last six thousand years trying to figure out this
mystery of Christ. Let me say this: Men
have miserably failed this course, and have gotten a
grade of “F.”
Grace and Truth came by Jesus
Christ.
John 1:16-17: “And of
his fulness have all we received, and grace for
grace.
For the law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
Now, how can this thing
be true? Did not Noah find grace?
Yes, Noah found grace!
Genesis 6:8: “But Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
And did not Lot find
grace, also? [Genesis 19:19]
Yes, Lot found grace!
What about Moses?
[Exodus 33:12] Yes, Moses found grace!
Yes, they all found
grace, “but grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ.”
Note: The dispensation
of this present age is characterized
in a very special way by GRACE.
Romans 5:20-21:
“Moreover the law entered, that the offence might
abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
When Jesus rose from the
dead, it caused an explosion of the
manifold grace of God [1 Peter 4:10] which
grace broke the death grip, of a
person called: DEATH [1 Corinthians
15:26]!
The dispensation of the grace of
God.
The dispensation of
the grace of God was first
revealed to the Apostle Paul by the Holy
Ghost. The revelation of the mystery of
Christ was thus, given to Paul in this
dispensation of grace.
Ephesians 3:2-9: “If
ye have heard of the
dispensation of the grace of God
which is given me to you-ward:
How that by revelation
he made known unto me the
mystery; [as I wrote afore in few
words,
Whereby, when ye read,
ye may understand my knowledge
in the mystery of Christ]
Which in other ages
was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is
now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by
the Spirit;
That the Gentiles
should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and
partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
Whereof I was made a
minister, according to the gift
of the grace of God given unto me by the
effectual working of his power.
Unto me, who am less
than the least of all saints, is this grace given,
that I should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ;
And to make all men
see what is the fellowship of
the mystery,
which from the beginning of the world hath been hid
in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:”
These mysteries
were not revealed by the Holy Spirit to
Peter, James, and John. The meaning of
these mysteries was revealed to Paul, not to
the inner three apostles of the circumcision.
Remember this one fact.
It will help you. The Acts of the Apostles
is a record of the transition [over
many years, even a generation] from God’s dealing
with Israel as a nation to God’s plan to bring the
Gentiles into the body of Christ [the Bride
of Christ, the Church].
The key to understanding what happened after Peter preached: “Repent, and be baptized” is to acknowledge the interruption which was caused by the change in the ministration of the Spirit by the ministry of Paul, the Apostle, to the Gentiles. [Romans 9-11]
The Apostle Peter came aboard the
mystery of Christ.
The Apostle Peter learned
of the mystery of Christ given to Paul
through the Holy Ghost:
[1 Peter 1:10-12] “Of
which salvation the prophets have inquired and
searched diligently, who prophesied of the
grace that should come unto you:
Searching what, or
what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was
in them did signify, when it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should
follow.
Unto whom it was
revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they
did minister the things, which are now reported unto
you by them that have preached the gospel unto you
with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which
things the angels desire to look into.”
Thus, this present age of
GRACE is the opportunity for the GENTILES
[all the nations of the earth] to come to
Jesus Christ. [Romans 11]
Christ in you:
The mysteries of
God the Father, and The Son … Jesus Christ, can only
be discerned by those who are in Christ.
In First Corinthians the Spirit of God says it this
way about the NATURAL man:
“But the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for
they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
[1 Corinthians 2:14]
In this world, those who
are spiritual, are the same as those who are
in Christ. They that are in Christ are
known as Christians.
Note: It was their
enemies who first started calling them CHRISTIANS.
Turn to the book of Acts,
chapter eleven, verse twenty-six, and you will see
this thing for yourself:
“And the disciples
were called Christians first in Antioch.”
Now to repeat: The term
“Christian” means: a person WHO IS
IN CHRIST. This itself was a
mystery according to the Bible.
This was a mystery to all men everywhere
until after 33 A.D.
In fact, this mystery,
which was revealed to Paul, was explained for
the first time in the epistle to the
Colossians, chapter one, verse twenty-six and seven.
It is here we will now
read:
“Even the mystery
which hath been hid from ages and from generations,
but now is made manifest to his saints: To
whom God would make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is
Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
This is what “Christ
in you” means. Are you ready for this?
It means WE ARE ONE!
Now, who are the “WE”?
Well, it is, according
to this Authorized Version of the Bible, [The 1611
King James Bible, or any edition of it], THE
FATHER, THE SON, and all of US who
BELIEVE in Jesus Christ are ONE.
Now, please do not
believe me concerning this! You need to
check this thing out for yourself!
Be like those of Berea!
Acts 17:11: They:
“searched the scriptures daily, whether those things
were so.”
“Search”
the Scripture, my friend!
Now, turn to the Gospel
according to John, chapter seventeen, and see
the thing for yourself, that THE FATHER, THE
SON, and WE [the believers in Jesus Christ] ARE ONE.
John 17:21-23: “That
they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the
world may believe that thou hast sent me.
And the glory which
thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be
one, even as we are one:
I in them, and thou in
me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that
the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast
loved them, as thou hast loved me.”
Maybe now, by the
grace of God, when we read Philippians chapter
one, verse twenty-one, it will have a new meaning to
you:
“For to me to live is
Christ, and to die is gain.”
In the Song of Solomon,
the Spirit of God has given to us a foreshadowing
of the actual things that were to come in the New
Testament. This foreshadow is nothing
less than a picture of Jesus Christ the Son of God,
and His bride, the Church.
Let me read from there in
chapter six, verse eleven, and we will see this
“true vine,” and its branches, [which is
us], bearing the pomegranates [which is our fruit]:
“I went down into the
garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and
to see whether the vine flourished and the
pomegranates budded.” [Song of
Solomon 6:11]
Warning: The failure of
you NOT SEEING your need of being born
again, or being IN Christ, in a
RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ will be FATAL
to you.
My friend, you need
“the wisdom of God” to OPEN this mystery
of SALVATION to you:
1 Corinthians 2:7:
“But we speak the wisdom of God in
a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God
ordained before the world unto our glory.”
Now, the BRANCH is
in a relationship with THE TRUE VINE.
Furthermore, this
relationship is a PERSONAL
relationship. Note: This thing is
[absolutely] critical for you to understand, as
to what happens to a person after they are
born of the Spirit. THEY WALK NOW WITH
GOD!
To be a CHRISTIAN means to have a walk every day with the LORD Jesus Christ in an abiding relationship. This “every day relationship” is of the branch in the vine is called: ABIDING in the TRUE VINE:
The Vine and the Branches
John 15: 8: “Herein is
my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so
shall ye be my disciples.”
Warning: Keep these
mysteries in your mind as we go forward
in this commentary. You will need to
recall these mysteries in order to understand
chapter two.
We are now ready to continue in chapter two of the book of the General Epistle of James:
King James Bible Study - The General Epistle of JamesNext - James Chapter Two
Friend
If you
know the Bible Is True,
And you
never received
Jesus
Christ as your personal Lord and Savior...
And you
want to come to Him for Salvation now ... Then:
1. Admit
... To God that you are a Sinner...
Deserving Hell Fire...
2. Believe ... that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God...
Who died on the Cross for
You! ...
3. Repent! ... Ask
Him to Forgive You of Your Sin...
4. Receive Him... By
Asking Him to come into Your Heart...
And You
Will Receive the Gift of Eternal Life!
Born of God! You
Are in The Narrow Way ... To HEAVEN!