The Path Ahead of Us

1 Corinthians 13:8-13.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 21, 2021.

Next week, we will pick back up in Mark 15 and walk with Jesus to the cross and the resurrection. 

Today, I want to talk about the path ahead of us as believers and followers of Jesus in the United States of America.  One of the devil’s tactics in these last days is to tempt believers to quit loving one another.  However, the love we are to have for one another is God’s love, and not love as defined by this world.  It is the same love that Jesus had for us when he chose to go to a cross for our sake, despite the world having rejected him, and believers who were slow to believe what they did not understand about him.

The disciples could not see how Jesus letting himself be arrested and killed would be the loving thing to do.  Peter even rebuked Jesus for even thinking of such a thing.  I am sure that Peter felt that he loved Jesus and loved Israel, but the actions of Jesus did not look right, did not look like love to Peter.  He didn’t exactly say this, but it is the same idea.  “Jesus, that isn’t love.”

In the days and months ahead, we must not be obstinate in fleshly concerns, but neither can we let the world, including worldly Christians, define for us what love is and what it would do.  We must learn to make the tough decisions of love as the Holy Spirit leads us in any particular situation.

We must not stop loving

In this section of 1 Corinthians, Paul is dealing with problems among the Christians in the Greek city of Corinth.  Their great desire for spiritual gifts was overwhelming their duty to love one another.  They were more concerned with the social prestige of exercising a spiritual gift than the people that God wanted them to bless with that spiritual gift.

This is why chapter 13 functions as a sort of parenthesis within a larger teaching on spiritual gifts.  No matter what Christians may think, they need to keep loving one another as a primary focus that is replaced by nothing else.

Our minds have a tendency to focus on the wrong things.  The believers in Corinth were focusing on the spiritual gifts that they had, and how “spiritual” that made them.  It functioned in their minds more like a badge of honor that was a gift to them, instead of being a gift to their church that would operate through them.  The over-emphasis on themselves was perverting the true purpose of the gifts.  They were not helping one another.  Instead, they were stirring one another up in envy, jealousy, and strife.

Spiritual gifts are not the only thing that can sidetrack believers.  There are whole groups within Christianity that do not believe the spiritual gifts are still in operation today.  Essentially, “God doesn’t do that anymore,” is their mantra.  They are more tempted to focus on the appearance of wisdom and knowledge to the expense of loving their fellow believers.  Again, wisdom and knowledge are good things if they are given from God and we are using them to bless others.  However, if they come from man’s attempts to look wise before others then we will be led astray.  Typically, we will only “bless” those who give lip service to our “human wisdom” and speak invectives against those who do not, even though they are believers.

We should always ask ourselves the question, “Will this make me and others more like Jesus?”  Whether I am exercising a spiritual gift in the assembly, or waxing in philosophical wisdom before other believers, I must always begin with the sacrificial love of Jesus.  He is the ultimate example to us of what God has called us to do, and what it means for us to love others by God’s definition. 

It is easy to say that loving one another is a primary focus, or purpose.  However, sometimes love has to make tough calls.  It has to run the risk of the other person, or onlookers, accusing us of not loving them.  Ultimately, God is our judge.  We will have to deal with the judgments of others, but they are not our judge.  If we allow the judgment of believers and onlookers to become more important to us than God’s judgment then we are not loving them as Jesus loved us.

Even right actions done for the wrong reasons can fail this question.  If my heart is wrong, or selfish, no amount of “loving actions” can make me like Jesus because the heart of Jesus was not wrong and selfish.  Our culture is lost when it comes to the proper judgment of actions.  We believe that the end justifies the means.  As long as someone is fighting for the right cause, their methods are rarely criticized.  Yet, at the same time, our culture has become extremely judgmental.  “If you do this thing then we know that you are that bad thing.”  Even this is hypocritical because of the first maxim.  If someone is working for the end that is deemed acceptable then they can do something all day long that others will be hyper-criticized for doing.  God help us to flee from such godlessness and receive a love of the Truth that only He can give.

Paul is reminding the Corinthians that a day will come when prophecies, speaking in tongues, and knowledge (i.e., spiritual gifts) will no longer be needed among God’s people.  This is described as when the perfect has come.  This perfect is describing the place that God is bringing us to.  At the resurrection, we will be clothed in glorified bodies that are immortal and untainted by the sin nature.  We will be a finished being who looks like Jesus, and we will be united with him never to be separated again.  It is in this perfect relationship that we will not need the spiritual gifts of this age anymore. 

Keeping that in mind, Paul’s main point is that love, faith, and hope will continue into the perfect age ahead.  The Corinthians were focusing on temporary things to the expense of eternal things.  That is never good.

This brings us to the relationship between love, faith, and hope.  Paul mentions that love is the greatest of these three virtues, but he doesn’t explain why.  From a biblical point of view, we know that love is described as an eternal attribute of God.  “God is love.”  (1 John 4:8,16).  In a way, faith is an internal, rational response to God’s love for us.  We believe because He loved us and loves us now, and we believe because we love Him.  We might call faith an aspect or facet of love itself.  When there is a separation of some sort in the relationship, love demonstrates itself in faith; it still trusts.

Hope is similar.  It is partly a rational and partly an emotional response to God’s love for us in regards to the future.  Because God is love and has promised His love eternally into the future, I need not fear the uncertainties of the future.  When we are united with Christ, it is not that faith and hope cease to exist or are no longer needed, it is just that they are less obvious.  We will dwell with Him ever able to see Him.  Perhaps this is why Paul calls love the greatest of the three.  It is simply the foundation of the other two.

We are in that tension between the now and not yet.  We have God’s presence now, but not as it will be in eternity.  It is God’s love for us that enables us to walk in faith (though we cannot see Him), and to have hope (though we cannot see the end result promised).  In a sense, we see Him with the eyes of faith, and our eternal future with the eyes of hope.  By the Spirit of God and by the Word of God, the love of God fills our hearts.  We need to daily refresh ourselves in the knowledge and experience of God’s love.  Even in times of discipline, we must see it as proof of His love for us.  The enemy does not want you to live out the love of God, to live this life trusting Him, and to joyfully trust your future to Him.  If he can, he will get you to focus on something else by undermining your faith in God’s love.

We have to spiritually mature to the point where we are not driven by our circumstances.  If something difficult happens, or persecution comes our way, we cannot fall into pity, thinking God doesn’t love us.  We must trust His love for us in the now and we must walk in faith.  We must trust Him with our future in such a way that we are filled with the hope and joy that comes when you truly believe that the Creator of all things is working it to your good (Romans 8:28).

With the Apostle John, let us rise up to the challenge of our day.  Faith is the victory that overcomes the world, and all of the enemy’s attempts to pull us off course.  Let us trust God by loving one another, and having our hearts full of the joy of those who belong to Him!

The Path Audio

The Good Confession

1 Timothy 6:11-16.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 17, 2021.

For the next six weeks, we are going to put a pause on our study through the Gospel according to Mark.  We have reached chapter 15 which details the crucifixion and then chapter 16 details the resurrection of Jesus.  We will pick them up so as to ramp up to our Easter service.

Today, we will go to First Timothy.  I want to talk about making the good confession in the modern world.  We are in a spiritual battle that requires faith in Jesus, in his teachings, and his actions.  

Jesus came into the world to testify to the Truth.  All others before him could really only confess what the Holy Spirit had told them.  Jesus is unique in that he is the only one who is an eye-witness of the Truth and who actually came from heaven to give that witness to the world.  He has told us the truth about the world’s plight, about each of our sin, about the way that it can be fixed, and about the only one who can do the fixing (Jesus himself).

If the Christ had a true testimony that all Christians are to confess before the whole world (that is, speak the same testimony as he) then know this.  The antichrist system of this world has a false testimony that it pressures and forces all to confess.  It is the anti-confession in regards to Jesus, and it will find its climax in the whole world worshipping the Beast through taking a mark, a loyalty pledge that is just as much a confession as it is an economic choice.

Let’s look at our passage.

Our Pursuit

In this passage, we have an older minister, Paul, making sure that a younger minister, Timothy, has a full understanding of how to teach the believers in the churches that were under his care.  Paul was not sure when he would be able to visit Timothy again.

Thus, Timothy is not a new convert and most likely the words here are not new to Timothy either.  Paul actually addresses him as “man of God” in verse 11.  These words are the encouragements and commands of a general to those fellow solders under him in the midst of battle.  We too must understand that we are on a battlefield that has progressed for millennia.  What is the pursuit of my life?  If I am truly a man or woman of God then I will hear the commands of the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul and respond in kind.

Before Paul reminds Timothy of his pursuit, he reminds him of what he must flee.  It is hard to go after something when another thing, or things, has our hearts.  Thus, Satan has filled this world with philosophies and lies that seduce our hearts into false pursuits.  He leverages the desires of our flesh against the call of the Holy Spirit.  They are things such as: riches, power, pleasure, fame, pride, and the list goes on.  We must flee these things because our lives depend upon it, and the lives of those we influence.  It is not that these things should not be had, but that they can never be the pursuit of our life.

The anti-confession of this world draws us into these anti-pursuits.  In this passage, Paul has been warning against the teaching of those who think that godliness is a means of gain (vs. 5).  He says that they think this way because they are full of corrupt desires and their minds are destitute of the truth (vss. 4-5).  It is in this context that we are given the statement, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (vs. 10).”

Godliness is not a means of obtaining riches, it is gain in and of itself.  You cannot obtain anything greater than being more like God, like Jesus.  The Gospel is not about making us rich and powerful in this world, but rather about taking on the image of our Father in heaven.  We do not live godly in order to get salvation, or natural blessings in this life.  No, we pursue a godly life because He has already saved us, while we were yet sinners, and has blessed us beyond belief.  We just couldn’t see it before we believed in Him.  Just as we are to flee sexual immorality, so we are commanded to flee the love of riches, and those who would pervert the Gospel into a means of riches.

With our hearts free from false-pursuits, we are then enabled to pursue what is true, God Himself, His image, and His character.  In truth, we cannot accomplish this on our own.  We cannot even accomplish it with the help of well-meaning believers who come alongside of us.  Without the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we would be lost to the seduction of The Lie, the lie that we don’t need God, or Jesus, to satisfy our hearts and minds.

Paul lists righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.  These are all fruit, or evidence, of the Holy Spirit within us.  Yes, we are to pursue them, but our obtaining of them to any measure is enabled by His presence.  This world cannot obtain true righteousness because it lacks the Spirit of God.  It can only redefine righteousness to match exactly what it wants to do.  We have seen over the decades the raising up of a false-righteousness that is now being used to condemn those who cling to the righteousness of God found only in Jesus Christ.  Christian, never forget that we are not called to pursue the desires of the flesh, but rather to pursue the image of God in our life.

Our Fight

In verse 12, Paul then commands Timothy, and us, to fight the good fight.  It involves a battle in which we will face enemies and contestants that desire to defeat us.  Some of them are sentient (spirits and humans), and some of them are abstract such as our internal weaknesses.  The false pursuits are the “bad fight.”  Too many people are fighting the wrong battles, and thereby, they are being used by Satan to become useful idiots in his plan to destroy God’s people and the Truth to which they cling.

It is called in the passage, “the good fight of faith.”  Eternal life is offered to all who will fight the good fight of faith.  In fact, the fight of faith is all about “laying hold of eternal life.”  When we believe upon Jesus, eternal life takes up residence within us through the Holy Spirit.  This eternal life continues to work within us to make us fit to dwell in the direct presence of God in eternity.  However, our faith will be tested in this world.  Just like love is tested by our experiences with others, so our faith is tested by the things we face in life.  This battle, both to keep believing and to agonize over what faith should do now, does not end until we finish this life.  It is in that day of resurrection that we will once and for all lay hold of eternal life.  Each difficulty begs the question, “Will you continue to believe and follow Jesus now?”

Yes, it is a battle, but the battle is worth it.  We have been called to eternal life!  Sin has put us under a death sentence, but Jesus came that we might have eternal life, and life more abundantly.  Jesus told his disciples to take possession of their souls by faith, and in so doing, we strengthen our grip upon eternal life.  No one can take it from you, but you can surrender it by shipwrecking your faith in Jesus.  May our faith be strengthened in Jesus, and not just a redefined Jesus that the world can accept.  No.  It must be the same Jesus that this world crucified 2,000 years ago, and would crucify all over again if he appeared again.  Can the world see the true Jesus in me?

Paul reminds Timothy that he had made the good confession before many witnesses (vs. 12).  All faith is expressed and is activated through confession.  We believe in our heart and confess with our mouths (hands, and feet) that Jesus is Lord.  Paul most likely has Timothy’s initial statement of belief in Jesus.  The many witnesses were other believers who are rejoicing in his confessing the truth of Jesus.  However, life always leads us to places where we must confess before witnesses who are hostile.  Just like Jesus before Caiaphas, and Peter before the servant girl, we will be faced with the opportunity to deny or confess Jesus, and thus the Father, before all men.  We must do the spiritual work now so that we are prepared for those moments.  Otherwise, we will crash and burn just as Peter did.

In verse 13, Paul reminds Timothy and us that Jesus testified the good confession before Pilate.  Most Gospels only have the question, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Jesus then answers, “It is as you say.”  However, John 18 adds that his kingdom is not of this world, now, which implies that it will be one day.  Jesus came from heaven to testify to the Truth so that we can confess, agree with and stand by, his testimony, and thereby participate in his victory.  This sounds wonderful until you are face to face with a hostile enemy challenging you to deny Jesus.

Our Charge

Paul ends this part with a charge, a statement of strong urging, to believers.  We must hold fast to these things.  Paul reminds Timothy that he is in the presence of God and Jesus Christ.  In fact, everything that we do and hear is in the presence of God.  The Latin phrase is, coram deo.  How careful we should be of the things we flee and the things we pursue.  He who will judge all men looks upon us now.  How will we choose and how will we respond now?  The past is important, but the present is always what matters now.  Yes, I had faith yesterday.  Praise God!  But, what will I do today, now that I face this, whatever this may be?

When Jesus testified before Pilate, he was going before us blazing the way.  Jesus testified to the Truth as in a legal witness.  He knows the truth as an eye-witness because he is from heaven.  However, he knows the truth because he is Truth and one with Truth.  He went before us as a great captain of our salvation.  And, so, we must learn to follow him and agree with his testimony with our own confession before the people and powers of this world.

Ultimately, we are to keep this command to pursue the image of God and fight the good fight of faith without spot and blameless (vs. 14).  This is not about never making a mistake, but taking responsibility for our mistakes through repentance and turning back to Christ.  The daily maintenance of faith is a daily cleansing of our lives before our Lord Jesus.

We are not released from this command until Christ appears at the Second Coming.  Paul’s description of the Lord as the Potentate, or Sovereign over all things, is to encourage us.  We are on the right side when we stand with Jesus.  It may not look like it in this world, but all other sides, even those of the “new and improved Jesus,” will fail. 

What truths of Christ are being contested today and in what way?  Over and over again, we see the Scriptures being re-interpreted and obvious meanings cast aside for more modern, acceptable ones.  Will we stand with Jesus, or will we fold like an adulterous spouse?  O friend, hang on to your faith and go to work strengthening it, because you are going to need it in the days ahead!

Good Confession Audio

Jesus Teaches on Prayer

Mark 11:22-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 19, 2020.

Last week, we talked about the situation where Jesus had cursed a fig tree and within 24-hours it was dead down to the roots.  There, we talked about the symbolic importance of what Jesus did.

Today, we are going to look at what Jesus told his disciples immediately after Peter expressed amazement that the bush was so dead only one day after Jesus spoke to it.  Peter’s amazement is itself a demonstration of his ignorance at how powerful prayer truly is.  Thus, Jesus takes advantage of the opportunity to hammer home just how powerful prayer is to the person who has faith.

We should have faith

Jesus does emphasize the faith of the person praying, but even more critical is his emphasis on whom our faith is based.  My faith must be based upon God alone.  God is the foundation of our faith, and prayer is a dependence upon the power of God.

People who do not pray do not believe that they need God’s help.  It is also possible that they may think they are too spiritual to ask God for things, but the prior reason is the most typical.  Such people will attempt to gain the goal or target that they desire by their own abilities.

Here is where we should recognize that it is unbiblical not to pray, and yet just as unbiblical to sit back and do nothing while asking God to do everything.  Instead, we are to do what we can while praying for God’s help in those things we can’t.

To emphasize the critical nature of having our faith based solely on God, here are some examples in Scripture.  When Jesus tells us that it is impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, he follows it up with the statement that with God all things are possible.  Thus, he is not impressing on us that rich people cannot be saved, but that it can only happen with God’s help- this is actually true of all of us.  This is the same message that the angel Gabriel gave to Mary when she questioned how she would have a baby- she was still a virgin.  The angel tells her that with God nothing will be impossible (Luke 1:37). 

The same God who created the universe is the Heavenly Father who watches over us.  His possibilities go far beyond our impossibilities.  He did not intend us to do life without Him.  Prayer is our ultimate birthright, to cry out to our Father for help, the one to whom all things are possible (that conform to his character, of course).

In case the teaching hasn’t sunk in, Jesus gives his disciples an illustration that is much greater than praying that no one will ever eat fruit from a particular fig tree ever again.  Praying that a mountain be removed and cast into the sea represents an extreme fantastic prayer that seems impossible.  There is an added symbol to this prayer because mountains are used as metaphors for political powers and empires, such as the Roman Empire.  It is the extreme nature of the request that highlights how unable we are, and yet how able God is.  By definition, God has the power to literally cast a mountain into the sea.  Yet, why would I ever need a real mountain thrown into the sea, and who will the resulting tsunami imperil?  A literal mountain is not the “impossible thing” that we typically need removed from our way, or life.  Instead, it represents an impossibility of any nature for which we would need God’s help.  This extreme example is intended to stretch our faith to the point that we stop limiting God just because we are limited.  Did not God literally move the waters of the Red Sea aside so that millions of Israelites could escape Pharaoh’s army?  So, can He not take care of my problem?  Of course, He can!

It is here that Jesus adds the issue of doubt.  We must not doubt God’s power, but neither should we doubt His care and concern for us.  It is one thing to have enough faith to pray a prayer, but we should not doubt that God will do it.  Granted, doubt is not the only issue here, but it is a critical one.  It might be better for us to ask the question, “Why do I doubt that God would answer this prayer?”  We will come back to this, but doubt is a huge reason why many people have quit praying, or never started in the first place.  We start doubting that God will do anything about our request.  He may help others, we tell ourselves, but I doubt that He is willing to help me.

In verse 24, Jesus gives us a summation of what he is saying.  When you pray asking for something, you should believe that you are receiving it, and it will be yours.  Another way to say this is that we should believe that God is taking care of it and that we will experience His answer to our prayer.  There is a certain load and burden in life that we all need to learn to carry, but there are things that are too heavy of any of us.  Prayer is intended by God to be the place where these overly heavy burdens are moved off of our shoulders and onto God’s  O, what joy we will experience when we learn to put those things we can’t change onto the shoulders of the one who cares for us (1 Peter 5:6-7).

This is not an exhaustive summation on prayer, but we need to let it sink in on its own merits.  Once that is done, we can move on to the other lessons concerning prayer.  This summation does beg two questions.  First, what impossible things should I be praying for that actually need removed from my life?  Second, what is the source of my doubt about it?

We must deal with our sins

In verse 25, it may appear that Jesus is switching the subject, but in reality, he is still teaching on prayer.  The sentence is introduced with the connective word “and,” and it involves a particular thing that affects our prayers, sin.

Jesus brings up the heart issues of what other people have done to me.  It can be hard for me to forgive those who sin against me and this becomes a source of problems for our prayers.  It is in the heart that I am to believe without doubting.  Yet, this very heart is often full of hurts and wounds that I have received from others.  Many people stop praying because they are angry that God has allowed other people to hurt them.  Technically, these are the sins of others, but they have intersected with my life and infected my heart.  We could say that they are other people’s sins that are now stuck in my heart.  Believers must learn to deal properly with those sins.  Harboring a grudge, hurt, or anger towards another person, and refusing to forgive them, becomes an obstacle to answered prayer.  Why is this?  It may be because it affects my faith and causes doubts, leading me to doubt that God really cares about me.  However, it may be because God is not pleased and wants me to deal with my lack of forgiveness first.  Scripture does not detail the nuts and bolts behind how this affects our prayers, but that it surely does.  Jesus teaches more about this in Matthew 18:15 and the following verses.  This would be good homework for us in the area of dealing with the sins of others against me and forgiving them.

Yet, notice that Jesus does not end up on whether or not our prayer is answered.  A lack of forgiveness for those who sin against me can even become a hindrance to me having my sins forgiven by God.  This is the exact situation that Jesus describes in the parable of The Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:22-34.  The question ceases to be about answered prayer and becomes about my own salvation.  A lack of forgiveness is far more serious for the believer (note the irony in that term) than just having our prayers answered.

Jesus leaves the teaching there.  Perhaps, he felt that it was a sufficient amount for them to contemplate.  However, I want to look at two more areas that God’s Word tells us can be a problem for our prayers.

The first is when we sin against others.   Jesus taught on this in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:23.  When we approach God in prayer and worship, He may bring to our remembrance some way in which we have sinned against others.  We are told to go and make things right with them, and then come back to God.  We may be avoiding things that we don’t want to deal with, or we may be obstinately clinging to our own righteousness in the situation.  Regardless, we are called to be at peace with all people, as much as is possible with us.  Being right is not an excuse to treat someone harshly, in short, to sin against them.  Such, lack of repentance in our heart will cause our prayers to be hindered.  The Apostle Peter gives us a picture of this in 1 Peter 3:7. There, he cautions husbands to dwell in wisdom with their wives, recognizing that, though they have different constitutions and roles, they have the same inheritance as them before God.  Husbands who mistreat their wives (i.e. sin against them) will find that their prayers are hindered by God.  Such hindering is God’s way of getting our attention and challenging us to deal with our sins against others.

James also gives us some more instructions on prayer.  In the first chapter, he too focuses on praying without doubting. 

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But, let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.  For, let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;” (James 1:5-7 NKJV).

Yet, in chapter 4:1-3, James gives us more teaching about prayer.  Prayers that are focused on our desires for pleasure in this life will also be hindered.

James says that he is writing to people who are relying on clawing their way over others to get what they want instead of praying and believing God.  Their problem is that they are not asking God for help.  They are prayerless.  Yet, in the rare times that they did pray to God, there was a second problem.  Their prayers were focused on their own fleshly pleasures.  James literally says that such prayers are bad or wicked.  God is not our Golden Willy Wonka Ticket to chocolate pleasures, or any others.  A heart that is only filled with the desires and pleasures of this life will also find that its prayers are hindered by God.  Why?  We will find them hindered because we are still pursuing the flesh instead of following the Spirit to become like Jesus.  It is not that God doesn’t want us to enjoy the simple pleasures of life.  He made them.  Yet, our flesh hijacks the purpose of our life and makes it all about obtaining as much pleasure as possible.  God in His grace will not answer such prayers.  However, let me give one caution.  Scripture does say that, if we persist in seeking wickedness, God may give us what we seek as a judgment against us.  We must not be deceived.  God will not be mocked.  If you sow to your flesh then from your flesh you will reap destruction, but if you sow to the Spirit of God then you will reap everlasting life (Galatians 6:7-8).

We need to be a people of prayer for our sakes, and for the sake of the lost around us.  Yet, to do so means to be a person who deals with the sin that is in their life on a daily basis.  Then, our hearts can be clean before God and our prayers will not be hindered, but answered.  Amen!

Prayer audio

Fathers, Don't Quit

James 5:7-11.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Father’s Day, June 21, 2020.

It is always my goal to encourage moms and dads in continuing the hard work of being a parent, whether you have young kids, or adult children who have their own.  So, my message to fathers today is simply, don’t quit.  Your family needs you whether it feels like it or not, and whether it looks like it or not.  Don’t quit!

Don’t quit on the Lord

In James 5:7-11, the section serves as a conclusion to a problem described in the earlier verses of this chapter, an unjust world.  James warns the rich, who are defrauding their workers of their wages, as well as condemning and murdering those who have no power to stand against them.  He tells them, “You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.”  (NKJV). 

It would be easy to be overwhelmed in such a case.  Christians typically were not from the rich class and were quite used to dealing with injustice.  Everyone can reach a point where they feel like quitting in any endeavor.  Now, quitting a bad thing is good and conforms to the biblical message of repentance.  However, quitting on the Lord, His commands and plan, only leaves us without hope.  The world talks a good game, but it always delivers injustice.

James is reminding us that the ultimate judge is coming, the Lord Jesus.  2 Timothy 4:1 says, “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom…”  (NKJV).  Jesus came to earth, suffered and died as a human.  It is God the Father’s decree that the man Jesus is to judge all of humanity and all of the heavenly beings as well.  It is fitting that we be judge by one who has been where we have been, and by one who can identify with all that ails us as humans.  He is the perfect and righteous judge.

Don’t join the scoffers who laugh and deride the idea that Jesus will ever come back.  And, don’t join the scoffers, who mock our faith in Jesus, as a pipe dream that makes us fodder for those who aren’t restrained by God’s Word.  Yes, Jesus turned the other cheek and they killed him for it.  We are not promised justice in this life because this world is the result of the choices of humans and fallen spirits.  What we are promised is a day in which all the righteous of every generation will be vindicated and God will settle all accounts through Jesus.  This is not the time to lose your faith in Jesus.  There is no hope in this world that will actually survive the increasing chaos into which we are plummeting.  Only Jesus can help us.

James then gives us the image of a farmer.  The farmer does a lot of work in order to plant seeds, and then he must be patient.  WE don’t always see an immediate effect from our hard work.  This world is hard work:  making a living, becoming one with a spouse, raising your children, and growing old.  The encouragement is that it takes time for hard work that is good to bear fruit.

There is a proper season for all things.  When your kids are young, it is critical to plant good seeds in their life.  You can’t look at your kid in the terrible two’s and say, “I quit; it’s not working!”  I guess you can, but you really shouldn’t.  You shouldn’t look at that angry teenager and quit parenting, if you really care about them.  Yes, kids often do not listen to their parents, and it is easy for parents to become offended, perhaps retreat from the hard work.  This is called immaturity.  There is a whole world around us suffering and just one of the reasons is this.  People in their lives quit trusting the Lord and that the hard work of doing the right thing would eventually bear fruit.  There are many things that will bear fruit in this life, but ultimately, the greatest fruit of trusting the Lord will be reaped at the Second Coming of Jesus.

In verse 8, James tells us to establish, or strengthen, our hearts.  This speaks of fixing yourself internally upon a certain course.  In Luke 9:51, this same word is used of Jesus.  “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.” (NKJV).

We need to have a firm resolve and we need to maintenance that resolve.  In a way, the whole book of the Psalms is a case study in righteous people maintaining their faith in God’s ways, even though they were tired of the injustice in the world.  We strengthen our hearts when we spend time in the Word of God and praying.  We strengthen our hearts when we encourage one another.  Anytime I talk with someone who has failed in this area, they confess that they were not maintaining their faith like they should have.  God help us to fix our eyes upon the task at hand and to simultaneously see the finish line where our reward truly lies.

The devil’s design is to wear you down in this world until you just surrender to the system.  You either go along in order to get yours, or you fight against the system in your flesh.  Both choices are a choice to surrender to him instead of God.  I would rather live surrendered to the plans and purposes of Jesus than anyone else on this planet, myself included.

It is God’s intention that fathers would have good fathers themselves, role models that would be a source of strength.  In this day, it is becoming scarcer and scarcer.  In verses 10 and 11, James reminds us about the examples we have in God’s Word.  If you didn’t have a good, earthly father then know this.  You have good, fatherly examples in God’s Word because your heavenly Father knew that you would need encouragement and a model to follow.  Whether Jesus himself, or the man Job, we look up to these men because they endured great hardship.  They were faithful to God when it didn’t seem to help them.

The concept of patience is used several times in this passage.  In verse 8, “Be patient,” the word is literally to be long fused, that is not easily angered.  It is the patience of keeping ourselves from exploding in anger.  However, in verse 10, patience is a Greek synonym that means to remain under the load, that is endurance or perseverance under pressure.  Both are important to patience.  The first is the temptation of our emotions to throw everything aside and protect ourselves.  It is a temptation to do something bad rather than the good you are doing.  In the second, patience is focused on continuing to do the good work, which is a long hard work of persevering things.  We can do so more easily because God has promised us good things on the other side of the hard work. 

So, what do you do if you have failed in this area?  Quit quitting!  When Jesus found Peter fishing after the resurrection, he told him, “Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”  (NKJV).  Yes, in this world you will have trouble, but fear not, Jesus has overcome the world!  May God strengthen us to get up each day and do the hard work of being a father to those whom God has placed in our life.

Don't Quit Audio