Preparing For The Day Of Calamity Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. To trust in riches is to trust in a vapor that passes away. James talks a great deal about economic justice for the poor, telling us that one day our gold and silver will not buy anything. Today, some stark lessons for a future that may be just around the corner.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, one thing's sure, as hard as life may get for us, for someone else it may be a lot harder. Maybe we need to invest time and resources in alleviating the suffering of others. You know, Dave, just listening to your question reminds me of something that Rebecca and I saw on television recently.

It was pictures of people who are suffering in other countries, really beyond our imagination, beyond our ability to describe, and our hearts broke. And I think every single believer should be involved in ministries that give people the gospel, but also there are many fine ministries that do other things as well, giving the poor resources, and we can all do something. And you know, the Day of Calamity, which is the title of this sermon, is about to come. We're not sure when, but calamity ultimately will come to us, and the final calamity for many people is death. So let's listen carefully to this message, and then let us ask ourselves whether or not we are indeed ready for the Day of Calamity. John MacArthur says, blind to heaven, deaf to warnings of hell, insensitive to the impending day of slaughter and judgment, the unrepentant, selfish, indulgent hoarders stumble blindly to their doom. That's why I entitled this message the Day of Calamity, that Day of Calamity.

Not a day of calamity for those of us who know Christ, I'll mention that in a moment, but there is a final warning. And by the way, notice what James says, verse 6, you have condemned, you have murdered the righteous person, he does not resist you. The Greek word condemned actually is a word that was used for the law courts. James is saying that, you know, you use the courts against the poor. That's not a new idea, is it, especially in this very litigious society. We're constantly, we're in lawsuits, everybody wants their own thing, I'll sue you because of this and this and this. And so what you're doing is you're using the courts to continue to oppress the poor.

And he says, they do not resist you. And the reason is, how can they? Now we read this through 21st century eyes and we ask ourselves, why wasn't James telling them what to do? They should organize, they should go to court, they should have unions. And if they unionized, and unions have done a lot of good in terms of helping people to get what is their due. We may argue whether or not they've overstepped their boundaries, but basically a good concept. In those days, there wasn't anything like that. All that you had was crops, all that you had was day workers during the harvest time, during the planting, and oftentimes after those things were over, there wasn't much to do.

They had no recourse at all. And James says, they're not resisting you and you're taking advantage of them. And James appears to be very angry at what is happening because he knows how desperately wrong that is. There is a final danger and that danger is, of course, the danger of eternal judgment.

James warns about it, but I can't help but think of a picture in the book of Revelation. When you read this, it ought to take your breath away. This is the day when there are no more dollars, there are no more dimes, no more money, no more gold, no more silver, nothing else matters.

It's the day when all the pieces get put back into the box. Listen carefully. This is the destruction of Babylon. Now there are two Babylons. There's the religious Babylon and then there's the political slash economic Babylon.

This is what it says. Come out of her, my people, lest you partake in her sins, lest you share in her plagues. For her sins are heaped high as heaven and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back as she herself has paid back others. As she glorified herself and loved in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment.

She says, I sit like a queen. I am no widow and mourning I shall never see. For this reason, God says, her plagues will come in a single day and the kings of the earth who committed immorality with her and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning.

They will stand far off. Alas, alas, you great city, you mighty city Babylon, for in a single hour your judgment has come. And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her since no one buys their cargo anymore. Cargos of gold and silver and jewels and pearls and fine linen, purple cloth, scarlet, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, costly wood, bronze, and it goes on, wine, oil, flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, chariots, slaves, that is human souls.

And then the Bible says the merchants of these wares who gained wealth from her will stand afar off in fear, fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud, alas for the great city that was clothed in fine linen and purple scarlet and adorned with gold with jewels and pearls. For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste. Wow. You say, well how can it happen in a single hour? We don't know how it'll happen in a single hour but we could take it literally and today with technology we can understand that very clearly.

Cyber attack. Imagine all of the satellites being destroyed. Imagine an attack against our electronic world. Every computer, every cell phone, every means of communication suddenly destroyed totally.

Everything would stop in its tracks. Why? God says the day of judgment has come. The day of calamity is here. You say, well Pastor Lutzer, I was hoping for something a little bit more optimistic and hopeful when I came to church today. Well I know you were and that's why James has you in mind and so do I. James now is talking to believers in the midst of in the midst of this situation. He's talking to those who have been wronged by others and the wrong continues and will continue until they die and James goes on to say these words. Be patient, verse seven, therefore brothers until the coming of the Lord see how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth being patient about it until it receives the early and the latter rains. You also be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another brothers so that you may not be judged.

Behold the judge is standing at the door. James says be faithful and patient until the coming of the Lord. You say, well yeah that was sure a good message to give to those poor people. The Lord didn't even come. No he didn't and he still hasn't but the advice of James is embedded in biblical texts and it is a very important piece of advice for us. The early church was wrong in thinking that Jesus would come in that era but they were not wrong in expecting the possibility of his coming. Furthermore at this point it really doesn't matter to the early church because someday Jesus Christ will come and when he does all of these wrongs are going to be made right and vindication shall at last take place on planet earth.

Wow. I believe that God's judgment is going to be so meticulously tuned that throughout all of eternity we will say just and true are thy works thou king of saints. We'll look back and we'll say every justice and injustice on this planet has been adequately and completely addressed.

Now those folks who died in the first century they haven't yet received that justice but be patient the Lord is going to come and how sure are we that the Lord is going to come as sure as we are that he came once in Bethlehem and died on the cross and was raised because remember those events were at one time prophecy and now they're history and someday the someday the coming of the Lord will be history. Imagine what James is saying. Imagine a courtroom everybody's there and they begin to talk and this person has this complaint and this person says this they're murmuring against each other and they're upset with their employers and their employees and all of the murmuring and the complaining that goes on this is what James is saying. He's saying don't do that because a man has stepped forward. Imagine a man stepping forward suddenly in the midst of this and saying ladies and gentlemen your attention please the judge and just like that in mid-conversation people stop talking because the judge is at the door and James says don't murmur with one another.

The word of God has promised the judge is coming and he is at the door and for those who do not know Christ as savior who've not come under the protection of his grace who have not received the gift of eternal life that Jesus purchased for those who believe on him for those people it will be a day of calamity the likes of which we could not imagine but for all those who have had their bill of justice paid by Jesus through faith in him it will be a day of vindication it will be a day of blessing it is a day to which all of us should be patient and look forward to the coming of the Lord. Notice what James didn't say. He didn't say now be patient my brothers until you get a raise. Well you can be patient until you do but you might have to be patient. Forever the raise might not come.

He didn't say now you be patient until the value of your house exceeds the value of your mortgage. Well that would be a real nice thing to happen to many people and we don't know whether or not it will all those are uncertainties but there is one certainty and that is this the judge is coming and James says he's standing at the door. James also goes on then and uses Job as this wonderful illustration. He says you've heard of the steadfastness of Job. Of course Job had his doubts and there's nothing wrong with doubts in the Christian life. If you tell me that you have never doubted I know then that you might also lie to me about other things because we all have our doubts and Job did too at one point but notice it says you've heard of the steadfastness of Job and you have seen the purpose of the Lord how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. That's verse 11.

You have heard of the steadfastness of Job. The reason that that's so appropriate is because you know we always say oh I know God owns everything. God owns all my bank accounts all of my retirement funds all of my investments. I know it all belongs to God and then after we've said that what do we do we leave the church and act as if it is our own.

That's generally the way in which we approach that. Did you know that the Bible says that Job had a great deal of wealth 7,000 sheep 3,000 camels 500 yoke of oxen 500 donkeys and was the richest man on the earth and then if you remember the story in Job chapter one because of fire because of the coming of the Sabeans and the fire by the way is lightning because of that a servant comes and says Job all of your animals are dead the 7,000 sheep the camels the oxen the donkeys they're all gone and by the way your servants were killed also by the Sabeans. Job learned something that day if you say that it all belongs to God if you really really mean that you have to accept the implication God has a right to take it whenever he wants and you can't tell me that your wealth and your money or my money belongs to God to God until we give him permission to take it if he wants it. So this is a real test for Job it's an economic test and then as if that wasn't enough oh wow the very same day in fact it says that one servant was running and then the other came and says oh by the way Job a wind blew down the house it fell on all of your 10 children and they are all dead. Calamity but not an ultimate calamity. Job your member whose theology was more impeccable in some ways than ours understood that the children were gods his wealth was gods and at the end of the day he says this the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. He came through that calamity very well because it wasn't the ultimate one the ultimate calamity is of course standing before God with all of your achievements which go up in smoke and finding no reason at all for God to accept you because you've never transferred your trust to Christ that is the ultimate calamity. And you know when the Bible says be patient until the coming of the Lord there's no better way for us to be reminded of the coming of the Lord than to go back to the words of Jesus when he was saying goodbye to his disciples and the night before in which he was betrayed and he gave them the cup and he gave them bread and he said to them this bread represents my body which was broken for you this cup represents my blood and then he said this do in remembrance of me and Paul says when we participate we remember the Lord's death until he comes. So let me look into your eyes today maybe you can see mine be patient my dear sister be patient my dear brother until the coming of the Lord and like a farmer who plants seed and that seed germinates later your faith is going to germinate and you will be rewarded by Christ and at the end of the day we will all say everything including the loss of my job the injustice that I endured the exploitation that I was a victim of it was all worth it because when Jesus comes I promise you he's going to set it all right be patient therefore till the coming of the Lord let us pray father we want to thank you today for your faithfulness in our lives but we know that life is hard this message fell on two different sets of ears those who do not know you as savior who perhaps love their money more than they love you and then those who know Christ and yet life is hard for them would you birth in us today father a deep appreciation for the fact that Jesus is coming we can stop our murmuring because the judge is at the door we love you more than our silver and our gold thank you Jesus amen well this is pastor luther and of course my friend I did not mean to imply that we should not work together for fairness we should do what we can to right many of the wrongs that happen in this world but we can't do everything and that's why I am so comforted personally by the fact that eventually the judge of all the earth is going to weigh in on everything that has taken place in planet earth and you know my friend if you have been dealt injustice do what you can to rectify it but if you can't rectify it trust God to do that the judge is at the door I believe so deeply in these messages famines deserts and other hard places would you like to have them permanently as yours so that you can listen to them again and again maybe you miss some on running to win and you want to hear all of them you want to share them with your friends for a gift of any amount they can be yours here's what you do go to rtwoffer.com that's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 I'm going to be giving you that contact info again but I need to tell you that we are living in very perilous times and we do all that we possibly can but we also know that it is the gospel of Jesus Christ and that's of course our commitment here on running to win it is the gospel that brings about eternal transformation we believe it very deeply thousands upon thousands of people are helped as a result so thanks in advance for helping us here's what you do go to rtwoffer.com of course rtwoffer is all one word rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 ask for the sermon series famines deserts and other hard places it's time now for another chance for you to ask pastor lutzer a question about the bible or the christian life what kind of christian life pleases god sergei lives in willowbrook illinois and listens to us on wmbi he writes pastor lutzer could you please give a clear definition of what being a legalistic christian in our day is and what doesn't god like about it doesn't he teach in effect that the stricter we are toward ourselves the better we are as christians sergei you have asked a very interesting question so let me try to be concise and clear legalism is a wrong use of laws or rules it's not wrong to have laws and rules i hope that you have some i have some but if we keep them for the wrong reasons we are legalistic you take for example the jews during the time of jesus it was not wrong that they keep the old testament law the problem was keeping the old testament law was a substitute for really godliness and for hearts that were pure walking before god that was the problem there's another kind of legalism and that is where we add to the scriptures and so we tell people how they should dress and how they should look and we think that that is a part of christianity when in point of fact it might not be now you say well the stricter we are with ourselves the better christians we are maybe and maybe not if you're strict with yourself and you have the right motive namely you recognize that godliness does not come through your strictness but you have those strict rules that keep you from sin that's good but all the rules in the world will not produce a holy life that's the problem with legalism we have a section here not too far from the church actually just north of here that may be as much as a half mile square where nobody smokes nobody drinks nobody goes to dances it's a huge section here in the city of chicago several of them i'm speaking of course of the cemeteries of chicago in other words it's possible you see to keep the rules and not have spiritual life so that's where the balance comes yes we can be strict for ourselves that's good but you'd better have the right motivation because if you think that godliness comes that way you're wrong it only comes by walking in the spirit walking in fellowship and without the fruit of the spirit love joy peace long suffering etc we are not really walking with god no matter how many rules we keep thank you dr lutzer and thank you sergei if you'd like to hear one of your questions answered go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on ask pastor lutzer or call us at 1-888-218-9337 that's 1-888-218-9337 you can write to us at running to win 1635 north la salle boulevard chicago illinois 60614 what would it take for you to deny jesus like peter did what kind of crisis would take your faith to the edge next time we begin a compelling three-day analysis of faith at the breaking point thanks for listening this is this is dave mccallister running to win is sponsored by the moody church