Ascension Presbyterian Lord's Day Worship

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Grace and peace to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to the corporate worship of our great
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God. Please stand. The Lord reigns.
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Let the earth rejoice. Let the multitude of isles be glad.
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Clouds and darkness surround him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
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A fire goes before him and burns up his enemies round about.
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His lightnings light the world. The earth sees and trembles.
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The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the
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Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare his righteousness and all the peoples see his glory.
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But all be put to shame who serve carved images, who boast of idols.
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Worship him, all you gods. Zion hears and is glad when the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments,
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O Lord. For you, Lord, are most high above all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods.
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You who love the Lord hate evil. He preserves the souls of his saints.
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He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart.
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Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holy name.
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Come now and let us worship him. Please pray with me. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we joyfully come into your presence knowing that you have secured our estate, our place here, that you have called us into your presence through the perfect mediation of your son.
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And because of this, we have bold access. We have the liberty and freedom of the children of God.
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And O Lord, we give thanks for this. We pray that our worship would be pleasing and acceptable in your sight.
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And we ask all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Please kneel for the corporate confession of sin.
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Let us join together confessing our sins. Eternal Father, you are good beyond all thought, but we are vile, wretched, miserable, blind.
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Our lips are ready to confess, but our hearts are slow to feel, and our ways are left into a hand.
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We bring our souls to thee, break them, wound them, bend them, fold them, while unmasking us in the deformity that we may be in, abhor it, flee from it.
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Give us grace to mourn our apathy and poverty. Grant us to know that the way of transgression is smart, that equal paths are wretched paths, that as far from thee is to lose all good.
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All these sins we mourn, lament, and for them cry pardon. Work in us more profound and abiding repentance, and grant that through the years of repentance we may see more clearly the brightness and glories of the saving cross of Christ.
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Amen. Please stand. We mourn over sin, but we joy over redemption and salvation in Christ.
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Receive now this blessed assurance of pardon. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
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This is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
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If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
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But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.
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O people of God, take heart today. If you be in Christ, your sins are forgiven. Amen?
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Amen. Amen. Let us take up the hymnal and turn to number 529.
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Love divine, all loves excelling. What a great title, what a great hymn.
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Love divine, all loves excelling. Let us begin. Please take up the bulletin insert and find
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Psalm 61a. This is to the tune of O Worship the
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King, which is very familiar to us. The tune is O Worship the King. Let us begin.
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O God. Please remain standing for the reading of the word from Revelation chapter 14.
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Revelation chapter 14. Then I looked, and behold, a lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144 ,000, having his father's name written on their foreheads.
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And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters and like the voice of loud thunder.
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And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders.
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And no one can learn that song except the 144 ,000 who were redeemed from the earth.
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These are the ones who are not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the lamb wherever he goes.
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These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.
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Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, fear
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God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.
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And another angel followed saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
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Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation.
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He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb.
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And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever. They have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name.
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Here is the patience of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
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Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, right, blessed are the dead who die in the
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Lord from now on. Yes, says the spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them.
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Then I looked and behold a white cloud and on the cloud sat one like the son of man having on his head a golden crown and in his hand a sharp sickle.
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And another angel came out of the temple crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud.
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Thrust in your sickle and reap for the time has come for you to reap for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
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So he who sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth and the earth was reaped.
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Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
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And another angel came out from the altar who had power over fire and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle saying, thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth for her grapes are fully ripe.
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So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
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And the winepress was trampled outside the city and blood came out of the winepress up to the horse's bridles for 1 ,600 furlongs.
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This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us now confess our ancient apostolic faith in the singing of the
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Apostles' Creed. Let's begin. ♪ I believe in God the
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Father is only begotten
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Son of Lord ♪ ♪ Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪
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For us we descended into the
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Holy Spirit Church ♪
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Please turn your attention now to the hymnal and number 261, what wondrous love is this?
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I think it's appropriate to read the scripture verse today that is the tagline. How great is the love the
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Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God.
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What a great verse of scripture. What wondrous love is this, number 261.
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Let us begin. Please prepare now for the prayers of the people.
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You can kneel if you're able. We have the 10 commandments today, so man,
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I'm asking you to maybe possibly pull double duty if there's a big pause. Please take up the next one for us.
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Let us now pray together in unison. Oh God, from whom come all holy desires, all just works.
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Give to us your servants that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey your commandments and also that we being defended from the fear of our enemies may live in peace and quietness through the merits of Jesus Christ our
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Savior who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit. The Lord says,
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I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me.
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First, you shall not ask to keep this to a law. You brought us out of the land of bondage, out of Egypt.
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Father, you are a one God who reigns above all, the King of kings, Lord of lords, and God of gods.
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Father, I ask that you would allow us to put you first in our own hearts, in the hearts of our families, in our communities, and Father, that we would be known as the people who serve the one true living
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God. In Christ's name we pray. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
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Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this to a law. You shall not take the name of the
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Lord your God in vain. Have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this to a law.
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Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. It's your law,
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God, the seventh day, the Sabbath day that is holy unto the Lord. Lord, I pray that we would honor this day and respect it.
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Lord God, that we would give this occasion to you. And Father, that we would not set any other priorities before you, especially on this day.
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Lord God, that we would rest in your truth and in your promises, and that we would be refreshed for a new week of glory.
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In Christ's name we pray. Honor your father and your mother.
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Lord, have mercy on us. Keep this to a law. Honor our father and our mother.
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Honor those who have been put in authority over us. Lord, cause all of us as parents to model this for our children, that we respect our parents, their grandparents.
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We pray, God, that our children would honor their father and their mother, that they may live long in the land that you've given them.
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Lord, help us to do this for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. You shall not kill.
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Incline our hearts to keep this to a law. You shall not commit adultery.
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Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this to a law. You shall not steal.
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You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
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Pleasing to you, that would be truthful, that would be uplifting, and we pray all of this in Jesus' name.
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You shall not covet. Have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this to a law.
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Keep beyond the gifts that you have given us. We know that all of the material blessings you have given us are indeed blessings.
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Let us be content with that. You shall love the
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Lord your God with all your heart and soul, mind and strength.
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Lord, have mercy on us. Amen. Please stand and take up the bulletin.
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Psalm of the month for February, Psalm 56. This is the last occasion that we sing this as our
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Psalm of the month. I hope it's been a blessing to you and your family. Let us sing it heartily unto the
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Lord. Psalm 56. Please remain standing and turn in your
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Bibles to the epistle of James in chapter five.
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I'm going to begin reading in verse 13 of chapter four.
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We enter the last chapter in the study of James, going to be sad to leave it, but we can always turn to the last chapter.
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Turn back and read it again. It's so wonderful about the word of God, isn't it? James chapter four, beginning at verse 13.
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Come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit.
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Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow for what is your life?
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It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
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Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or do that.
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But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
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Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
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Come now you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you.
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Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth eaten.
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Your gold and silver are corroded and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire.
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You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields which you had kept backed by fraud, cry out and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the
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Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury.
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You have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just.
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He does not resist you. This is God's holy and infallible word and may we be instructed by it.
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May the Holy Spirit provide illumination and unction. Please pray with me now.
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Oh Lord, we thank you for your word and we thank you for texts of scripture that are ordinary and familiar but pack such a punch.
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Oh Lord, I hope you are blessed by our engagement with your word.
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I pray that you would have everyone be attentive to this your word and that they would be strengthened thereby, we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.
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Please be seated. Today, we come to chapter five in our study in James and the title of the message is the
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Lord of Sabaoth hears their cries and of course, that's taken from verse four of our section.
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We will consider verses one through six today, Lord willing. For those of you who have need of some direction for an outline,
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I'll give you two very simple words to line up your own thoughts.
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First is the peril of the wicked wealthy, the peril of the wicked wealthy and second would be the protection and vindication of the righteous.
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The protection and vindication of the righteous. Well, let us begin.
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James has talked about the rich in many ways and you can follow along with this, it'll be very brief but it'll be helpful to help us see that James has already broached the subject of the idea of wealth and its proper use and the proper accumulation of it.
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In chapter one, James has said, let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation but the rich in his humiliation.
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And why is he humiliated? Because as a flower of the field, he will pass away.
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For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers its grass, its flower falls and its beautiful appearance perishes.
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And verse 11 says, so the rich man will also fade away in his pursuits.
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The wealthiest people in the world, we know them, they're famous to us, there's going to be a day where their pursuits of wealth will end and at their death, there'll be no carrying their wealth with them into the life to come.
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There is a very temporal nature to material wealth and James warns us against that.
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In chapter two, we are warned against another element of this in relation to wealth.
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In chapter two, verses one through five say this. My brethren do not hold the faith of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings and fine apparel and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, you sit here in a good place and to the poor man, you stand there or sit here at my footstool.
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Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
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I think I should point out this idea is not just archaic and from antiquity.
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We still fight this and battle this that we want to give men honor based on their wealth.
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And this is contrary to our oneness and union with Christ as fellow believers.
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In verse five says this of chapter two, listen, my beloved brethren, has
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God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him?
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And I believe this verse has a lot of bearing on our text, but you have dishonored the poor man.
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Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?
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Now, I'm going to point out something to you here that might be helpful. I may not get to it later, so I'm going to say it now.
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There is a dysfunction in our legal system presently and it's been this way throughout the world for a long time.
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The wealthy have an unfair advantage in our legal process. Justice is not blind and I'll give you one example.
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When a wealthy company wants to put out a small town business, what they do is they file lots of motions and they do a lot of things legally in order to tie up the small company and small guy in business in court.
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They effectively put them out of business by litigating them. They're causing them to spend lots of money and they end up having to sell maybe their business at a discount.
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This is a very common practice. In the business world. Rich men's children get away with crimes in a way that poor men's children don't.
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The statistics are obvious. Good representation, good lawyers, good strategy, good moves.
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Paid for with wealth, get people off. This is a reality of the world we live in and as Christians, we should want a better form of justice.
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We should want a justice that's rooted in God's principles and that is equitable to all in the sense that it treats everyone equally in the sight of the law.
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This is something that we should strive for and move forward with. James 2 continues and this is in relation to wealth,
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I believe, because the attitude of James's hearers is not proper when it comes to those in need.
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We could say this is not necessarily a rich man or poor man, but I think there's a connection and interrelation conceptually within James and this is included.
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Look down at verse 15 of chapter two. If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?
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This is the context of that famous statement from James, thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
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Skipping over to chapter four, thank you for your patience. Again, trying to set the context of James and his interaction with the idea of the rich and his epistle.
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Begin at verse one, chapter four. Where do wars and fights come from among you?
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Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
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You lust and do not have. Again, this particular part is not connected so much to rich or poor, but you'll see that there is a connection to this idea of wealth and the proper accumulation and use of it.
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You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask.
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You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, and here it is, children pay close attention, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
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God has not given you a billion dollars in part because you may be tempted to spend it on all of your pleasures.
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And I think there's a strong connection between friendship with the world and our view of wealth and possessions verse four says, adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
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And whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
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Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously, but he gives more grace.
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Therefore he says, God resists the proud. It's a particular sin that all men struggle against, fight against, hopefully are warring against in Christ, but it's particularly hard for the rich man to be humble.
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God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And finally, we read the text today, a lack of a view of providence, a lack of appreciation of God's superintendents in ordering of all things.
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We are going to go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit.
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There's a lot of presumption in what the future will hold. And the rich man thinks that his wealth and his business savvy are going to secure the future.
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And God himself is the one who holds the future in his hands.
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Without turning there, there is a parable. It's very important along these lines,
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I believe. And it's the parable of the rich fool. And it's found in Luke chapter 12. It's going to read a very brief portion, this in Matthew 19 and said, good teacher, what good things shall
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I do that I may have eternal life? And Jesus's response to him was to keep the commandments.
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And he asked the questions, which ones? We prayed through them. The second table of the law, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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And the young man says to him, all these things I have kept from my youth, what do
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I still lack? Jesus said, if you want to be perfect, go sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.
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Those commandments, I want you to think about this. Those commandments were in some measure easy for the rich young man.
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He believes, and I don't know how well he did it, but he believes he is honored and kept the commandments of God in the second table and his duty to his fellow man.
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And Jesus, so often as he did, he touches the most sensitive part of the situation and he finds the weak spot.
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Sell everything that you have, give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.
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Can you imagine the invitation that's given to the rich young man is one of absolute bliss and joy and delight to go and walk with the master, to spend time with him, to be maybe part of the outer band of that next level of people close to him in the kingdom.
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Not an apostle, but maybe like the Marys and Lazarus. But what does the young man do?
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Verse 22, it says, but when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions.
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And at the end of that section, Jesus says in Matthew 19, assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
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And again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
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The eye of the needle in Jerusalem, you may or may not know this, was a very narrow gate.
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Very narrow. And a camel could get through it, but it had to shed all of its goods and its riders.
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And it had to duck down in this little crevice and turn and be kind of forced through the eye of the needle as they called it there.
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And this camel could not be heavy laden with its goods or its riders. And so Jesus uses this illustration of a very common local thing that everyone would know about this narrow gate into Jerusalem through the wall that the camel would have a hard time getting through it.
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A lot would have to happen. The camel would have to squat down and be kind of pushed and work through to get it.
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And Jesus says, makes this analogy, that's the difficulty that it would take for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
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I've made the case many times, and this has been proven to be true, even more so than I originally thought, that James seems to have a strong connection to the
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Sermon on the Mount. Matthew chapter six, see if this sounds familiar to our text, verses 19 and following, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
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For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
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Now let's look again at our text. In chapter one, in chapter five, verse one, excuse me,
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James calls the unrighteous rich among them to weep and to howl for the miseries that are coming upon them.
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Now, what's hard about this is it's hard to imagine Jesus writing to a group of believers and saying that this is something that could happen to them.
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We learned in Sunday school last week and the week prior, I believe, that the idea of wheat and tares coming up in the same place is very possible.
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There are rich men coming into the assembly, apparently, we've got it in our text. No doubt, the
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Jewish rich were oppressing the righteous poor of the
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Jewish converts to Christianity. They were kicking them out of the guilds. They were not able to have an occupation in many cases.
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They were starting over from scratch. But James says, you who have put your stock in your wealth, you who have found all of your comfort in this, calamity is coming upon you.
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You should weep and howl for your miseries.
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I don't know if you've ever gone to a black funeral where someone unexpectedly has died.
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One of my friends in high school was a football player and he died a senior year.
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He had a scholarship to play. I can't remember where to play football, but he's running track and collapsed and died.
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He died on the track, a large heart, a genetical defect. And I went to the funeral and it's the first time
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I'd ever been to a funeral that was largely occupied with black people and this man's mother and aunts and grandmothers and friends, they howled and they wept and they convulsed and I think they grieve better than the
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European originating people do, but they let it out.
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That spirit, that language is here. This is terror and calamity falling upon the rich and they've been so comfortable, they've had it so good, but calamity and misery is coming upon them because they're idolatrous and they don't love their brother.
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They don't love their fellow man. There are some visible signs of wealth in the ancient world and some of those are given here.
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Look at it, it says, your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth -eaten.
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We know from inducing from the language of scripture that many men only had one change of clothes and maybe another tunic and outer garment to wear when it was cold.
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Paul, it seems, even had that kind of wardrobe. So the rich man, he has fine linen and he has more than one change of clothes.
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Can you imagine how many clothes are in your closet? But they've got these wealthy garments.
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It's probably interlaced with jewels and gems and gold and silver and this thing that they put their confidence in, they have got moth -eaten garments now.
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The fleeting nature of wealth, you can buy an expensive garment, but the moth can come in and eat it.
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Look at verse three, your gold and silver are corroded. Gold and silver are precious metals.
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Their value is in the fact that they are pure gold and pure silver. James speaks of, imagine a man putting confidence in his gold bars or coins and then going and examining them and realizing these are imperfect.
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Maybe I've been swindled. I'm a swindler, but maybe I've been swindled. Maybe I've gotten some gold with some dross in it.
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I put my confidence in my gold and my silver and they find it to be corrupted and corroded.
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And James says, these are going to be a witness against you. It's going to eat your flesh like fire.
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Now, what I didn't say to you purposely is the rich people described in the passages that we read are not described as having gotten their riches any other way, but honorably.
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Maybe that's not true, but there's no discussion of their dishonorable practices. So those warnings are given against rich people who may be going about it the right way.
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But in our text, we have another element. It's very critical. Let's look at it. It says you have heaped up treasure in the last days.
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Indeed, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out.
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And the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
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Wealthy garments, gold and silver. The third element has to be connected to farming and animal husbandry.
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That's how people were wealthy in former times. Abraham had the wealth equivalent or surpassing the other nations himself.
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Cattle and herds and those kinds of things. Nabal had 3 ,000 sheep and 1 ,000 goats.
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It's astounding how much wealth some of these men had.
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But here's the picture. The wealthy who have wealth by definition, they own fields and they produce crops.
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They have silos full of grain, let's imagine. And they have sent the day laborers out to mow their fields to reap the harvest.
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And they haven't paid them, which you may not know is that the average laborer worked for daily pay.
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His belly was probably growling at the end of the day. His wife and his little ones are at home.
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Their bellies are growling. He needs that coin or whatever it is so that he can maybe get some food on the way home to feed his family.
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It's that precarious. And the rich man, he can withhold the money for a couple of days.
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The rich man can decide not to pay them at all. And these who have worked honorably have done what was required of them.
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They cry out to God. What has to be for us terrifying words in scripture and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the
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Lord of Sabaoth. Now, I don't know if you have this in your
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Bible. There's a little number or some kind of letter or something next to Sabaoth.
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And it might say hosts. But I think the best translation is armies. It's a cosmology brother, cosmology here.
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The rich man can dispute the laborers wages in court.
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You'll probably have curry favor with the judge as he can bribe him. The laborer has no recourse.
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In the society of a poor man, he has no recourse it would appear. The rich man has gotten richer on the back of not paying his workers daily bread for sustenance in his family.
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And this has increased his wealth. But here, the righteous laborers,
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I believe, cry out to God, and they have reached the ears of the
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Lord of armies. Riches are connected to enmity with God, the right improper use of them.
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They're not the right use of them. The improper accumulation of them and use of them is connected in our book of the epistle of James to worldliness, which is hostility and enmity with God.
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And now you have it. They're crying out under the burden of this fraud and the
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Lord hears their prayers. He's the Lord of the armies. That's why the rich can weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon them.
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I have to pause here and give some clarification. Many righteous people in the
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Bible have great wealth. Wealth is not the problem. It's how we go about it.
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Poor men can be very covetous, as our brother prayed. Poor men can be very covetous.
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Poor men can be lazy. But here we have wicked men mistreating
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God's people and our God hears their cries.
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Isn't that comforting to us, the church? We may get taken advantage of in the culture.
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We may not do well in our court proceedings, but our God who has the armies hears our cries and he acts, he moves.
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What a terrifying thing to be a rich man defrauding poor people to increase his wealth.
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It's important also to know that social gospel and socialism and communism is not the teaching of scripture, nor is it of this passage.
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This is getting paid for an honest day's work and being defrauded. It's not the redistribution of wealth, stealing your wealth and giving it to another.
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That's not what this is. This could be used in that way. If you go to a divinity school and learn about hermeneutics, liberation theology will come in and they'll teach you that this is about, all about the gospel is about oppression and the rich and the poor.
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So it's not true. But we do have to think rightly and biblically about these things.
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Verse five says to the rich, you have lived on the earth in pleasure and in luxury.
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You have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just.
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He does not resist you. I didn't find any support for this in my study, but I feel that this text of scripture really is helpful to this.
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And I'm gonna ask you to turn really quickly to first Kings in chapter 21. This popped into my head and I couldn't shake it when
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I was studying and thinking about this principally. And it's gonna tell us where the wrong view of wealth and power, where it takes us and how we can see how it even can lead to the death of someone when we covet their goods and we seek to enlarge our wealth by fraud.
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It's gonna be helpful to that in first Kings in chapter 21.
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It came to pass after these things that Naboth the
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Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel next to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.
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So Ahab spoke to Naboth saying, give me your vineyard that I may have it for a vegetable garden because it is near next to my house.
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And for it I will give you a vineyard better than it. Or if it seems good to you,
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I will give you its worth in money. This is just, this right now is above board.
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King Ahab wants to buy this property that's very desirable to him. It's next to his palace and he's going about it to this point, it seems in an honorable way.
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I'm gonna trade you another vineyard for it or I'm gonna pay you money for the value of it. Legitimate commerce.
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But it takes a different turn here. But Naboth said to Ahab, the
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Lord forbid that I should give the inheritance of my father's to you. Naboth has a vineyard in a garden on ancestral lands.
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This has been handed down to him generationally and we've lost a sense of that, haven't we?
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My own family farm in Pennsylvania, how many times was that sold off? Those pieces, all those different people, no one held onto it.
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Naboth treasured these covenant promises that God had given him a land and it was producing, it was valuable to him, not only in the present economy, but it meant something from history and it would mean something into the future.
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We need to recover this. The idea that us giving an inheritance to our grandchildren is now lost on our culture because we wanna consume it.
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And if we do it well, our children will consume it before the grandchildren will get it.
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We've lost this proper view of wealth and inheritance. Things take a dark turn.
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So Ahab went into his house sullen and displeased because the word which
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Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him. For he had said,
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I will not give you the inheritance of my father's. And he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food.
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But Jezebel, his wife came to him and said to him, why is your spirit so sullen that you eat no food?
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He said to her, because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, give me your vineyard for money or else if it pleases you,
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I will give you another vineyard. And he answered, I will not give you my vineyard. Then Jezebel, his wife said to him, you now exercise authority over Israel.
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What's so haunting about this is we need righteous kings. We need righteous men and positions of power because if we don't have righteous men, we have things like this.
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Arise, his wife says, eat food. Let your heart be cheerful.
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I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. And she wrote letters in Ahab's name, treachery, fraudulent, lying, conspiracy, sealed them with his seal and sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who were dwelling in the city with Naboth.
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She wrote in the letter saying, proclaim a fast and seek Naboth with high honor among the people.
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And see two men, scoundrels, before him to bear witness against him saying, you have blasphemed
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God and the king, then take him out and stone him that he may die.
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See what happens for the rich man is he's not satisfied with his wealth. He starts, in this case, his wife starts resorting to other tactics.
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The rich man in our text owns a field and he decides I'm gonna have more money if I don't pay the workers who harvest the crops.
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This is the danger that comes with wealth. So the men of his city, the elders and nobles who are the inhabitants of the city did as Jezebel had sent to them.
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And it was written in the letters which she had sent to them.
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They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth with high honor among the people and two men, scoundrels, came and sat before him.
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And the scoundrels witnessed against him, against Naboth and the presence of his people saying,
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Naboth has blasphemed God and the king. And they took him outside the city and stoned him with stone so that he died.
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And they sent to Jezebel saying, Naboth has been stoned. And is dead.
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And it came to pass when Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead that Jezebel said to Ahab, arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth, the
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Jezreelite. Which he refused to give you for money for Naboth is not alive, but dead.
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So it was when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead that Ahab got up and went down to take possession of the vineyard.
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The cries of his blood reach heavenward.
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The prophet of God comes to pay him a visit. Listen to what he says. Then the word of the
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Lord came to Elijah, the Tishbite saying, arise, go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel who lives in Samaria.
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There he is in the vineyard of Naboth where he has gone down to take possession of it.
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You shall speak to him saying, thus says the Lord, have you murdered and also taken possession?
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You shall speak to him saying, thus says the Lord, in the place where dogs lick the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood, even yours.
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So Ahab said to Elijah, this is quite a greeting. Have you found me, O my enemy?
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And he answered, I have found you because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the
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Lord. Behold, I will bring calamity on you. I will take away your posterity and will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both bond and free.
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I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and like the house of Basha, the son of Ahijah, because of the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger and made
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Israel sin. Concerning Jezebel, the
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Lord also spoke saying, the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.
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The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Ahab and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field.
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But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do the wickedness in the sight of the
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Lord because Jezebel, his wife, stirred him up, and he behaved very abominably in following idols, according to all that the
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Amorites had done, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. So it was when
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Ahab heard those words, surprising the story, by the way, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about mourning.
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And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying, see how
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Ahab has humbled himself before me, because he has humbled himself before me,
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I will not bring calamity in his days. This is even worse to me, in the days of his son,
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I will bring the calamity on his house. Ahab's gonna die in battle, his son's gonna die, the dogs are gonna eat his blood, and his wife is going to be treated very shamefully and she's going to die and the dogs are gonna lick up her blood, that goes into second
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Kings. We have to be mindful of the way we use our possessions, the way we accumulate wealth, and we must not ever forget that the
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Lord hears the cries of his righteous ones, his people. Now let's go back to our text.
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We'll reach a conclusion here. That serves as an introduction into verse six, you have condemned, you have murdered the just, he does not resist you.
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The rich man defrauding the poor, it's a death sentence in many cases.
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And we know that people do treacherous thing like Ahab did, in relation to Naboth's vineyard.
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But I find it interesting that this language, I do not believe this is primarily about Christ, I wish
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I was, but I cannot help but think of how significant this connection is here.
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I think this really falls contextually with our section. But look at the language of verse six.
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You have condemned, you have murdered the just, he does not resist you.
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It sounds like what happened to Jesus. And interestingly, I don't think it's prophetic.
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If this James is James the just as he was known, he would be martyred, he would be condemned, he would be murdered by unjust men and not resist them.
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The poor going to court, going to the gallows, they don't feel like there's a court of appeal, they humbly accept their fate, there's no one who pleads their cause.
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But the people of God cry out, and our cries reach the ears of the
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Lord of the armies. And he hears their cries and it's gonna be some years, but Jezebel is going to experience judgment.
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This son who was raised by these wicked parents, he's going to be dethroned and he's gonna be killed.
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It seems that unrighteous, unjust men would put someone like Jesus to death.
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And God and his great wisdom would exact perfect divine justice upon Christ.
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And the irony is that our salvation comes through the sinful acts of men in some measure.
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And maybe when we struggle with this problem of evil, maybe this world where all these bad things happen, and maybe we see in the end, all of these things have turned out for the good of God's people and the glory of his name.
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A lot of things I don't like about this world, crimes against children, all those things. Someday maybe we'll learn and we'll figure out that all these things have ultimately a purpose that's redeemed in Christ.
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The wealthy are withholding their money, leading to the starvation potentially of their workers.
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They even may resort to the killing of their adversaries.
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And we've learned a couple of times in James, what you have not done for the least of these, you have not done to me.
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We've also learned that in the history of Israel, the unjust, unrighteous people of God and his covenant have been known for killing the prophets.
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Better take heart, take warning of our own sinful tendencies and our own love of the world often is manifested in the love for money, which is a root of all kinds of evil.
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Couple words of application here and we'll close. Very simply, you cannot serve two masters.
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Whether you be rich or poor, you have to ask the question, who are you serving?
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If you look at your life and cataloged and documented your life, I think you will find that your biggest service is performed for yourself.
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We need to repent to that. We treasure and cherish and take care of our flesh.
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And a lot of our world is about taking care of ourselves. Money looks like the problem, but the idolatry is personal and internal.
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You cannot love God and money. To do it is to be idolatrous, to violate the first table of God's law as we pray through and to continue to love it is to violate the second table, to be unloving at best of our neighbor and to be treacherous at worse.
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Our text is a pronouncement of judgment upon the wicked rich who do not repent, both within the church and without.
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It's also, isn't it a comfort to the faithful? Do not envy the wicked rich.
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Rejoice and delight in your possession of the true riches in Christ. It seems like Abraham in Genesis 15,
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God is both our shield and our exceedingly great reward. It's here in our text, the
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Lord of the armies. He's their God, they're his people. He loves them, people of God.
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The great treasure trove of the glory of heaven is yours in Christ. The Lord of the armies hears your cry.
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Oh, that should boost our joy and our thanksgiving and our contentment with this life.
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Fourth, genuine Christian faith is incompatible with the accumulation of wealth through ill gotten gain.
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James has already noted in our text that we have not because we ask not and we don't receive because we ask amiss that we might spend it on our pleasures.
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That's why we have a wrong view of wealth and maybe even more importantly, we're unwilling to use our wealth to help our brother in need or to visit the widows and orphans in their affliction.
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So being wealthy is not the issue, it's how do you view money and your duty to serve
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God and to serve him alone. But let us rejoice today, the
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Lord of the armies hears our cries and the just man has been murdered and condemned, made to be sin in our place.
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He has become the poorest of the poor that we might be rich. Oh, come now, let us feast in the bounty of his table.
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Let's pray together. Oh Lord, we thank you for ordinary
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Sundays and ordinary sermons. We thank you for your provision for us, your people.
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I pray, oh Lord, that we take great comfort knowing that you hear the cries of your people.
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Oh Lord, I pray that the rich would no longer defraud the poor and that we would be people who would seek after true justice.
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Oh Lord, I pray that we would be those who would not be tempted to chase after riches, that we see the peril and the folly of pursuing that kind of wealth.
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And oh Lord, I pray that your people would be encouraged and strengthened today because they have you,
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Lord Jesus, as their savior and their friend. Oh Lord, thank you for this great gift.
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We give thanks in Jesus' name. Let us continue our worship to the presentation of our tithes and offerings.
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Please stand and let us pray.
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Our gracious God and father, we do thank you, oh Lord, for all that you have given us.
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We heard in our prayers of the people here today that you have bestowed many great things upon us and that we should be thankful and not covet, but part of our thanksgiving isn't just an inward feeling, but that of giving.
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We pray, father, that as we have come to this time in our worship to give, that we have given freely and without any kind of trepidation or under -compunction.
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We pray, Lord, that we have been cheerful givers. We ask you, oh Lord, that the funds which we have given would be used to the outreach of your church here in Longwood and for the care of this individual congregation and beyond.
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We ask these things in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. Let us give glory to our great
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God through the singing of the Gloria Patri. ♪ Glory be to the
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Father and to the Son ♪ ♪
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As it was in the beginning, is now, world without end.
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♪ The Lord be with you. And also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the
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Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord. It is right and a good and joyful thing that we should at all times and all places give thanks to you, oh
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Holy Lord, Father Almighty, everlasting God, because you sent your beloved
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Son to redeem us from sin and death and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life, that when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may, without shame or fear, rejoice to behold his appearing.
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Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we praise and magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and singing.
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♪ Holy, holy, holy
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Lord Jesus Christ. ♪
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Amen. Please be seated and let us pray.
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Almighty God, you are the creator and Lord of all things. You are the sovereign majesty whom we have offended.
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You are our most loving and merciful Father who has given us your Son to reconcile us to yourself, who has ratified the
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New Testament in covenant of grace with his most precious blood, and has instituted this holy sacrament to be celebrated in remembrance of him till his coming.
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Sanctify these creatures of bread and wine, which according to your institution and command we set apart to this holy use, that they may be sacramentally the body and blood of the
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Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. And the night in which he was betrayed, our
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Lord took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you.
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Likewise, after supper, he took the cup. When he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink this all of you.
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This is the new covenant in my blood. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the
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Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, we proclaim the faith. Let us prepare to approach the table by praying together.
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We do not presume to come to this your table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your manifold and great mercies.
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We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table, but you are the same
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Lord who always shows mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear son,
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Jesus Christ, and the drink of his blood, that our sinful bodies may be cleaned by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us.
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Amen. Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. The gifts of God for the people of God.
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As we have been fed spiritually through the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and by his preached word, let us make this commitment together.
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Almighty and ever -living God, we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of your son, our savior,
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Jesus Christ, and for assuring us of these holy mysteries that we are living members of the body of your son and heirs of your eternal kingdom.
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Lord, grant us this other benefit, that you will never allow us to forget these things, but having them imprinted in our hearts, they grow and increase daily in faith, which is at work in every good deed.
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And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our
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Lord. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory now and forever.
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Amen. Please stand. ♪ Praise God, all blessings flow ♪ ♪
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Praise him, all creatures, praise him, heavenly host ♪
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Receive now the blessing. May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our
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Lord. Amen. It is now.