A HARVEST OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

STEPHEN RICHIE

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained in it." Hebrews 12:11.

Those of us who have children have had them misbehave at one time or another.  Has anyone been fortunate to have one child that was always obedient?  Christianity has always been a discipline that is founded in love for the Holy Father God and now it is also founded in love for Jesus, God's Son, Who has come and died and ascended into heaven after a glorious resurrection three days after His death.  In Acts we find the beginning of the Church of Jesus Christ.  It grew rapidly and continues to grow to this day.  We as children must accept the discipline of The LORD.

This discipline begins with living as He did.  Endeavoring to live a perfect life so that we will be pleasing to Him.  The ten commandments are God's laws that we live by, but when Jesus came He changed all of that with His death, resurrection, and ascension into Heaven.  He gave us grace to live for Him and do as He commanded to go, teach, and tell of the wonderful Savior that we have in our lives. (Matthew 28:19, 20)  Grace is sufficient for us but we must live a discipline that is from love of the Father and His Son.  Patience, kindness and longsuffering help lead to this perfect life.  They are not easy to achieve and are not given but learned through discipline.  Many who accept Him as their Savior must learn patience and become disciplined to understand that the world that we live in is not going to be gracious to us, but cruel and distasteful almost all the time.

What can we do to achieve patience?  We see in I Corinthians 13:4 that love is a characteristic of being a Christian and that if we follow this requirement we will lose our imperfectness. (I Cor. 13:9)  Imperfectness disappears as we practice and we become more like Jesus in our daily walk with Him.  This is the result of the fruit of the Spirit.  The love of others as well as the love of Jesus comes to those that practice patience.  It is truly painful to learn though. (Heb. 12:11)  Our patience is a "fruit of the Spirit" thus meaning that we become patient by loving Jesus and what He did for us on the cross.  We know the ten commandments but by learning the virtue of patience we learn that there is no law.  We begin to live above the law and walk in the Spirit. (Gal. 5:22, 23)

Imagine that you are coming to a railroad crossing and the gates are down and lights are flashing and the train is slowly moving to the intersection.  You may think that you can make it through the gates and on to the other side, but what will you do?  Trust you car's engine?  Wait on the train to pass.  That is the law and you should obey it.  Obedience is the issue here that goes along with patience.  You do not live in the Spirit if you challenge the slowness of the train and circumnavigate the gates.  Christianity alone doesn't put you above that law.  The civil laws of the nation are being amended every year, but you are under a higher law of grace from our LORD and Savior, God's grace.  You are above the law because you know The LORD Jesus and you know that you should automatically stop for the train because you have learned patience in the LORD.  You know that you will be safe by waiting and that your patience will be rewarded by heeding the danger of the train.  You will get to the other side.  Now let us explore spiritual things that requires patience.

Witnessing to others requires patience.  You are praying that they will be consumed by the Spirit and accept the LORD Jesus Christ as their Saviour.  This is a reverence for the LORD that our efforts will not be in vain.  Our witness is enhanced by the patience of the Spirit.  We give the knowledge of the gospel but the LORD gives the Spirit and grace to the person or persons to whom we are witnessing.

The presentation may be quick or long especially if the person has questions about The LORD and what He is doing for you.  Patience will lead to understanding.  Patience will lead to acceptance.  Knowledge of the gospel and what Jesus did will display the fruit of the Spirit to the person(s) that you are witnessing to.  This is one reason for spiritual patience but are there others?  Patience with strangers and the people that you meet in your daily walk is crucial to the witness that you have for Christ.

The strangers may never see you again but they will recognize something different in you if you present yourself as patient and kind.  Your example will also be evident.  Sharing the gospel with someone you meet is a powerful witness that many are not willing to assume the responsibility.  It is our duty to witness to the lost.  Prayer will help.  Ask Jesus to give you the courage and the tools to present the gospel to someone.  Read Acts chapter 2 and see how Peter presented his witness.  He spoke of what he had seen.  Emulate, or copy, the example of what he spoke in his sermon.  This is witnessing......telling others about Jesus with patience to encourage them to accept Jesus as their Savior.  Be kind to those to whom you witness.

Kindness is as important as patience.  It teaches you to accept others where they are in their sinful life and bring them to Jesus.  Kind words, actions, and pleasing facial expressions will help the Holy Spirit  bring the lost to Jesus.  Jesus was kind to everyone that He met.  He was especially kind to the woman at the well. (John 4).  Here was a woman that was living in sin, but Jesus brought her to a saving grace in Him.

Albert Schweitzer said, "Constant kindness can accomplish much.  As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate."

Goethe said, "Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together."

When Jesus approached the woman at the well, He treated her with kindness.  He probably spoke kindly to her and caused her to "melt" her mistrust away as Jesus spoke to her.  Jesus was in Samaria, an adverse country for any Jewish person to be in at that time.

Jesus brought her to a saving grace in God. (John 4:21- 25)  Will you take up the work of Jesus and feed His sheep?  Feed them with the kindness of the Holy Spirit and Jesus? (John 4:34- 35)  His kindness certainly melted her negative feelings of mistrust, misunderstanding, and hostility.  She went back to the village and asked others to come and meet Jesus.  She knew that He was the Messiah!

There were others that Jesus treated with kindness.  It spilled over into forgiveness. (Matt. 18:21- 22)   Forgiveness is a result of kindness.  It also develops into the last point of longsuffering.  Longsuffering is the patience of forgiveness.  We see later on in Matthew 18:32- 35 that the master threw one of his servants into jail to be tortured because he had no patience with his servant. (Matt. 18:28- 30)  The master did not display longsuffering as it was because the evil servant would not wait for the servant to pay his debt and thus the evil servant paid severely for his impatience.  He was tortured by the jailer!  Jesus passed on His knowledge of longsuffering to His disciples and to those that would hear Him.  He developed quite a following and it is sure that He had to have lonsuffering with them as well as with His disciples.  What of modern days?  Is longsuffering present in the twenty-first century?  We can go back to the nineteenth century for a start and learn about a French general Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleon was born in 1769 and was schooled well.  He was a dreamer and wanted to become a great general.  He succeeded and by 1803 had won 14 battles and 70 combats all over Europe.  He had visions of becoming the next Alexander the Great.  In another sermon we will see the results of being what you are not (as with Josiah) but here let's continue to explore Napoleon.

In July 1799 his army defeated 10,000 Turks at Aboukir and by 1812 almost all of Europe was under Napoleon's control.  Napoleon had no control over his men in Moscow as they pillaged Moscow in October 1812.  The Muscovites returned and burned Moscow right under the noses of Napoleon's troops thus nullifying their victory.  It was a great victory but nullified by the lack of longsuffering.  Napoleon's troops would not stand in place and guard the city.

Napoleon could have gained control of all of Prussia had his men been disciplined and guarded the city, but they were not and they lost it all.  The victory was consumed by fire!

Napoleon had to return to France and in April 1814 he lost control of Paris and subsequently the throne of France because he had no longsuffering in his spirit.  Napoleon was religious.  He was a Roman Catholic, but due to his deficit he was exiled and ultimately defeated by the British at an insignificant place known as Waterloo.

Hitler took on God in 1941 calling for Himmler to eradicate all the Jews and less desirables from Europe.  Under Himmler's direction six million Jews and six million less desirables were gassed or shot by the SS of Germany.  Hitler had no patience.  He was an evil this world will never forget.  No longsuffering for him and no religion either.

The advantage of trusting God is plainly seen in these two examples.  One was a despot and the other a dreamer.  Neither knew The LORD Jesus nor did they depend on The LORD Jesus for their strength and suffered bitterly for it just as we saw in Matt. 18:32- 35.  Example is a good teacher and here we see that life in Jesus is a blessing!  It is an eternal decision that leads us to better lives and understanding of others through Christ-like love.

Jesus may be calling you today.  Believe in Jesus and avoid the pride and arrogance that surely will cause a fall into slavery and defeat.  Jesus is pure.  Jesus is forgiving, and Jesus will be your eternal Savior and Friend if you ask Him.  Believe on The LORD Jesus Christ!  Be saved!

If you have been saved and see your life in one of the three previous examples, ask Jesus to forgive you and begin to learn God's love through patience, kindness, and longsuffering. (Rom. 2:4-6)  God will truly give you rewards for what you will do for His Kingdom.  Cleanse yourself and become one of God's children today . (II Tim. 2:21)  Be His instrument for noble purposes.

Father God, I pray that many will grow to understand the purposes of Your love and that they will grow in Your wisom and faith.  Teach them not to turn away, but to cleave unto You, Oh Holy Father God.  Amen.

11/08/2006