The Patience of Job (Blessed Is The Man - Part 3)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. If you've fallen short in the past, okay, confess that and turn away from that and start over. Start setting that positive example today.

Sound Faith, Love, and Patience in Titus 2

You know, God is a God of second chances. You know, Titus is ministering to the Cretans. He's dealing with this stuff. And he doesn't throw them away. He doesn't say, you rotten people. No, he loves these people and he wants what's best for them.

That's Paul's heart. That's Titus's heart. That's our heart. Then self-control, being temperate, also speaks of self-control. You know, having self-control is one of the fruits of the spirit, isn't it?

The next one is men need to be sound in faith. To get a little better idea of what is meant by that, go back to Titus chapter one for a moment. You see that same statement, Titus 1 verse 12. Paul writes, one of them, a prophet of their own said that Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.

And he says, this testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be what? Sound in the faith. Not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth. So based on this, if someone is sound in faith, it means they're, well, first of all, they're not known as a liar.

They're not known as a lazy person. Hopefully they're not known as an evil beast. Someone who's kind of a vicious person, vindictive. So older men are to be sound in the faith. He also says sound in charity.

It's another term for love. A Christian man is to have a healthy amount of love. This is something that's really lacking in our culture today. People just don't have that love for one another. Everyone's angry at each other.

Everyone's trying to tear down one another. We should have a healthy amount of love. The Greek word, and I'm sure you know it, is agape. Agape speaks of really a divine love. God has this love for his people.

We should have that same love for others. So treat other people well. Treat them the way you would want to be treated. Jesus spoke of this and we call it the golden rule. God, he had goodwill towards men, so should we.

We should demonstrate that same thing. Also, he says sound in patience. We all know what it means to be patient and what it looks like being impatient. Who's known, what category of people are known as being impatient?

Little kids, right? Little kids are known to be impatient. It's been said that patience is a virtue. That's true. But little kids, they want what they want and they want it now and they're just not going to wait and you know how that is.

Some of you know really well right now the way that is. That shouldn't be the way we act, though. When you grow up and you're mature, and especially if you're an older man, you shouldn't be like that.

That's the way little kids are. So we need to mature and we should be patient. It's not easy, but we should display that. So loyalty to the faith, loyalty to the Lord, serving the Lord, serving one another, being kind to one another, being patient with one another.

This is the example that is to be set. When you think of patience in the Bible, typically you think of Job. This man has the patience of Job. Who's heard that expression? Job experienced suffering and trial like no one else.

His friends, when they came, they said, Job, it must be your fault. Of course, that wasn't true. Job's wife said, just get it over with. Curse God and die. That wasn't helpful. But a lot of men would.

They would just assume curse God and die. And I want to be careful about this, but more and more people today we're living in a world that doesn't have hope. When people go through really hard times and suffering, they start thinking about taking the easy way out.

The Christian man is to have patience. Endurance. God never said it would be easy. Again, Job suffered like no other man. Except maybe Jesus. Jesus suffered like no other man. But God's grace is sufficient.

God will give his people the grace to endure. So don't ever consider taking the quote easy way out. And I don't think it is the easy way out. So when you face hardship and difficulty, the temptation oftentimes is to get angry or get bitter.

Sometimes it's to question God. Sometimes it's to get angry at God. To blame God for all your problems. I don't know about you, but the majority of my problems are my fault. Not all of them, but a lot of them are my fault.

How can I blame God? What did Job say? Shall we indeed accept good from God? And shall we not accept adversity also? Job said, the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's the attitude the Christian man and the Christian woman should have.

So be sound in love, sound in the faith, sound in patience. And then we have some examples in scripture. We could look at all sorts of different things. There's people to look up to, people who did set a good example.

There's some bad examples, of course. But we see in scripture who paints the saints, warts and all. We see their strengths. We see their weaknesses, things to emulate, things to avoid. You know, it's all written for our instruction.

That's why it's there. You know why David's sins are recorded in scripture? You think it's to make David look bad? You think that's what God decided to include? That's not why it's there. It's so that you will avoid the same thing.

Reverent Behavior and Avoiding Slander

So we have examples in scripture. All right, let's look at Titus 2, verse 3. God gives us his word for a reason. He writes, the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior. We've already seen that word.

It's another Greek word, actually, in the King James Version. It translates it this way, as becometh holiness. As becometh holiness. So women, the older women, be holy. Display holiness in your life. And then he says, not slanderers.

Don't be a slanderer. In other words, don't be a false accuser. The Greek word there is diabolos. Some of you can probably guess what that means, right?

Diabolos.

That's the word for the devil.

Why does it say that?

Because the devil is a false accuser. He's the accuser of the brethren. So don't be like the devil. Don't be a false accuser. Now, if somebody actually does something wrong, you know, there's a process for that.

What you don't want to do is just have a dislike. This is how it often works. You have a dislike for somebody. You just can't stand the way that guy looks. I just can't stand the way he talks. He just grates on me, right?

People, they think that way. Well, and then you assume that he must be a bad person. I mean, if I don't like him, he must be doing this and doing that. And then all of a sudden you're creating things in your mind that he's not even guilty of.

And then you, you know, share that with other people. And then it spreads. And, you know, that causes all sorts of problems in churches. And don't act like you know exactly what I'm talking about. Anyone who's ever been part of a church where there's been constant turmoil, that's usually what drives it, that kind of a thing.

God's people, we want to be that blessed man. We want to be that blessed woman. So we need to avoid those things. This is what we do want. Ephesians 4, verse 3. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

That's something we should strive for. A blessed life is a life where love is found. And where peace reigns. Slander, sowing seeds of discord, selfish ambition. It should not even be named among us. The blessings of God are poured out on those who love God.

They're seeking God. Who have a pattern of good works. Who love one another and seek to serve and be kind to one another. Paul says in Galatians 6, he talks about having a spirit of gentleness. Where we bear one another's burdens.

And in doing that, we so fulfill the law of Christ. If you're paying attention, today, sometime this week, you're going to come across somebody who needs help. There's going to be somebody you know who needs prayer.

You can show kindness to them. Maybe there's somebody you need to forgive. When you do those things, you're blessed. Blessings come when we obey God in these ways. My dad mentioned in his sermon from last week, the difference between sympathy and compassion.

It's good to have sympathy. We probably all have sympathy for someone. But compassion is a little different. It takes it a step further. In the scripture, when it mentions Jesus, this is what he pointed out.

I've never noticed this before. But I think it's true. In scripture, when it talks about Jesus having compassion, it's always followed up by action. He always did something about it. You can have sympathy and not do anything about it.

Having compassion, there's action behind it. So the blessed Christian, the blessed man or the blessed woman is a man or woman of action. Do what is right. Avoid what is harmful. Help other people. Worship and serve the living God.

Live a pattern of life that God has called you to live. Ecclesiastes was written by what the Bible calls the wisest man who ever lived.

Who is that?

Solomon.

Somebody asked me that question. Who is the wisest man who ever lived? I said, it's Jesus, isn't it? But at least up until this point, it was Solomon. You know what the wisest man who ever lived said?

Ecclesiastes 12 verse 13. He says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is man's all. That's pretty easy to understand. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is man's all.

You know, that's true wisdom. You want to live the blessed life. We're seeing how to do it right here in scripture. But the difference between maybe having knowledge and having wisdom, you might know the right thing to do.

Wisdom is when you actually do it, though. Wisdom is when you take that knowledge and you apply it. Titus 2 and all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works.

That's wise.

You know the wisdom of this world. What is the wisdom of this world? Look out for number one. He who dies with the most toys wins. That's a little nugget of wisdom from this world. The wisdom of this world says the way to be blessed is to live for yourself.

If it feels good, do it. That's the whole philosophy of this world. If it feels good, do what you want to do. That's the worst advice you could ever give somebody. Do what you want to do.

Wrong.

Do what the Lord wants you to do. Delight yourself in the Lord, the scripture says.

In what?

He shall give you the desires of your heart. So when your heart is tuned to God, then what you want to do is what God wants you to do. And that's the way to be truly blessed.

Amen?

Prayer and Closing Exhortation

All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this wisdom that's found in Psalm 1, in Titus 2, and in so many other places. Father, I just pray for each and every person here, for the one who's been doing it and living it, that they would keep on keeping on, and that your spirit would continue to empower them to live the blessed Christian life.

But Father, if there's some here who, they know in their heart that that's not the way I've been living. I just pray that this message, that your word and that your spirit would make a difference in their heart today.

And that they would seek you in their life, to obey you, to live for you, to glorify you in all things. And that they would show in themselves a pattern of good works. I pray it all in Christ's name.

Amen.

Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Coronet Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscoronetchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, with the grace of God be with you.