Post by Char on Oct 24, 2008 17:26:58 GMT -6
TRUE BLESSEDNESS HERE AND HEREAFTER
JAMES 1:12.."Blessed is the man that endures temptation."
The test is a beatitude. It begins with blessed.
It begins the Psalms of David (Psalm 1:1-3); there is sweetest poetry in it.
"Blessed is the man that walks not in the council of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sit’s in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law he meditates day and night.. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither ; and what so ever he does shall prosper."
It begins the sermon of the Son of David; it is the end of all holly teaching.
Happiness, is the earthly word; Blessedness, is the heavenly one.
There are such persons as blessed men, or the eminently practical James would not have written concerning them.
It is true the curse has fallen on the world, and man is born to endure, toil and suffering in tilling a thorn-bearing earth, and earning his bread with the sweat of his face. Do not look in gold mines for blessedness, for it gleams not among the nuggets. It cannot gotten for all the treasures of the miser, or the wealth of nations.
Not the high but the holy are blessed; not those who sit with the great, but those who serve with the good are marked out of the Lord as blessed.
I should think that no mortal that ever lived had finer opportunities than Solomon.
You cannot find blessedness on a throne nor in making many books, nor in seeking out many inventions, nor in enjoying all luxuries.
If you want blessedness, hear him speak who knows. That is, hear the Holy Ghost speak by the mouth of His servant James. "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation."
It does seem very startling at first sight that the blessed man should be described in this way. That is to say, the man who bears up under it, survives it, is not led aside by it, but endures the fire,
You are blessed if you have a religion which God gives, which God tries, which God sustains, which God accepts.
As an uncultivated garden is not garden, so untried Godliness is no Godliness.
A faith that will not bear strain and test is no faith.
A love that cannot endure temptation is not love to God at all.
AND they are blessed among other things for this reason; because they endured temptation through their love to God.
To cease from evil ways because the Lord Jesus Christ has loved you and given himself for you, and you have been led to put all your trust in the merit of His precious blood– this is a genuine work of grace.
Then there arise out of the endurance of temptation a sense of God’s acceptance. Not so much when he is tried, but when he has been tried. When he has been put into the fining pot. And has come out warranted to be real pure gold; when he is proved, and therefore approved, then he shall receive the crown of life.
THERE comes over the back of this a number of things to help to make such a man blessed; for he has great thank-fulness in his soul.
You remember Bunion’s description of the feelings of Christian when he had passed through the valley of the shadow of death, and was able to look by the morning light. The road was haunted with spirits and hobgoblins, and beset with traps and gins (by shortening and alter) and snares beyond all count; and yet he had actually come through that way in safety.
When he saw what he had escaped, what could he do but down on his knees and bless God with all his heart that he had been protected through so great a peril?
It helps to make a man blessed when his mind is filled with holy gratitude to God who has preserved him.
BESIDES, another feeling comes over him– that of deep humility.
I shall to-morrow perish and fall unless the Lord Himself be still my helper. Putting his trust in God, that sense of his own nothingness, accompanied with a sense of his perfect security in God, makes him feel exceedingly happy.
AND, once more, he enjoys a fearlessness of heart.
The forked tongue of slander has no power with him. He has an antidote against the venom of malice. He stands like a rock in the midst of the raging billows, for God has given him steadfastness of soul; and is not that blessedness?
II. WHAT THE BLESSED MAN IS TO BE BY AND BY.
HE shall receive a crown.
That crown which is promised us is not for talk, nor thought, nor vow, but it records something done. It was something appreciated– appreciated by Him that gave the crown.
It is our blessedness both now and for-ever to be accepted in Christ Jesus.
A crown meant reward. The child of God, like Moses, has "respect unto the recompense of the reward". He does not run to win a crown by his own merit, but he runs knowing that there will be a crown given to him according to the love and goodness of the God of grace.
NOW go and inch farther in the text. A CROWN OF LIFE.
To live means to be in health, to be in force, in joy, in fit condition, to have one’s whole self in order, and to enjoy all that surrounds you with all that is within you. God will give to all His people by and by such a crown of life
There shall be no sickness, no weakness, no dulness, no emptiness, no sense of depletion, not of want; we shall be for ever filled with all the fulness of God.
There shall be no pain, no misery, but a plenitude of enjoyment at his right hand where there are pleasures for evermore. We shall possess and enjoy all that manhood can desire. All your life shall be crowned; and all the crown shall be life.
The crown they gave in the Olympic games soon fade. When he dies, you know what a poor dried up bulb he seems to those who lay him in his coffin.
Yet even here, when God gives spiritual life, what a beautiful thing the Christian is.
I pray you follow me therein, I mean to go and see what this crown of life is like.
We do not know what we shall be, but we have heard a soft whisper say, "When He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is"
JAMES 1:12.."Blessed is the man that endures temptation."
The test is a beatitude. It begins with blessed.
It begins the Psalms of David (Psalm 1:1-3); there is sweetest poetry in it.
"Blessed is the man that walks not in the council of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sit’s in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law he meditates day and night.. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither ; and what so ever he does shall prosper."
It begins the sermon of the Son of David; it is the end of all holly teaching.
Happiness, is the earthly word; Blessedness, is the heavenly one.
There are such persons as blessed men, or the eminently practical James would not have written concerning them.
It is true the curse has fallen on the world, and man is born to endure, toil and suffering in tilling a thorn-bearing earth, and earning his bread with the sweat of his face. Do not look in gold mines for blessedness, for it gleams not among the nuggets. It cannot gotten for all the treasures of the miser, or the wealth of nations.
Not the high but the holy are blessed; not those who sit with the great, but those who serve with the good are marked out of the Lord as blessed.
I should think that no mortal that ever lived had finer opportunities than Solomon.
You cannot find blessedness on a throne nor in making many books, nor in seeking out many inventions, nor in enjoying all luxuries.
If you want blessedness, hear him speak who knows. That is, hear the Holy Ghost speak by the mouth of His servant James. "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation."
It does seem very startling at first sight that the blessed man should be described in this way. That is to say, the man who bears up under it, survives it, is not led aside by it, but endures the fire,
You are blessed if you have a religion which God gives, which God tries, which God sustains, which God accepts.
As an uncultivated garden is not garden, so untried Godliness is no Godliness.
A faith that will not bear strain and test is no faith.
A love that cannot endure temptation is not love to God at all.
AND they are blessed among other things for this reason; because they endured temptation through their love to God.
To cease from evil ways because the Lord Jesus Christ has loved you and given himself for you, and you have been led to put all your trust in the merit of His precious blood– this is a genuine work of grace.
Then there arise out of the endurance of temptation a sense of God’s acceptance. Not so much when he is tried, but when he has been tried. When he has been put into the fining pot. And has come out warranted to be real pure gold; when he is proved, and therefore approved, then he shall receive the crown of life.
THERE comes over the back of this a number of things to help to make such a man blessed; for he has great thank-fulness in his soul.
You remember Bunion’s description of the feelings of Christian when he had passed through the valley of the shadow of death, and was able to look by the morning light. The road was haunted with spirits and hobgoblins, and beset with traps and gins (by shortening and alter) and snares beyond all count; and yet he had actually come through that way in safety.
When he saw what he had escaped, what could he do but down on his knees and bless God with all his heart that he had been protected through so great a peril?
It helps to make a man blessed when his mind is filled with holy gratitude to God who has preserved him.
BESIDES, another feeling comes over him– that of deep humility.
I shall to-morrow perish and fall unless the Lord Himself be still my helper. Putting his trust in God, that sense of his own nothingness, accompanied with a sense of his perfect security in God, makes him feel exceedingly happy.
AND, once more, he enjoys a fearlessness of heart.
The forked tongue of slander has no power with him. He has an antidote against the venom of malice. He stands like a rock in the midst of the raging billows, for God has given him steadfastness of soul; and is not that blessedness?
II. WHAT THE BLESSED MAN IS TO BE BY AND BY.
HE shall receive a crown.
That crown which is promised us is not for talk, nor thought, nor vow, but it records something done. It was something appreciated– appreciated by Him that gave the crown.
It is our blessedness both now and for-ever to be accepted in Christ Jesus.
A crown meant reward. The child of God, like Moses, has "respect unto the recompense of the reward". He does not run to win a crown by his own merit, but he runs knowing that there will be a crown given to him according to the love and goodness of the God of grace.
NOW go and inch farther in the text. A CROWN OF LIFE.
To live means to be in health, to be in force, in joy, in fit condition, to have one’s whole self in order, and to enjoy all that surrounds you with all that is within you. God will give to all His people by and by such a crown of life
There shall be no sickness, no weakness, no dulness, no emptiness, no sense of depletion, not of want; we shall be for ever filled with all the fulness of God.
There shall be no pain, no misery, but a plenitude of enjoyment at his right hand where there are pleasures for evermore. We shall possess and enjoy all that manhood can desire. All your life shall be crowned; and all the crown shall be life.
The crown they gave in the Olympic games soon fade. When he dies, you know what a poor dried up bulb he seems to those who lay him in his coffin.
Yet even here, when God gives spiritual life, what a beautiful thing the Christian is.
I pray you follow me therein, I mean to go and see what this crown of life is like.
We do not know what we shall be, but we have heard a soft whisper say, "When He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is"
