How firm a foundation, ye saints of the
Lord, Is laid for your faith in His
excellent Word!
But more can He say than to you
He hath said, To you who for refuge
to Jesus hath fled.
Fear not, I am with thee, O God.
President Lyndon Johnson, during his 1964 State of
the Union address, said, This administration today, here
and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in
America.
Well, after 40 years, the poor are still
with us, perhaps with a few more government
handouts, but with little improvement in poverty levels,
and a rapid decline in educational standards, morals,
and ethics.
For some, the war on poverty has been
a war on the rich, as the government
seeks to redistribute the wealth of this nation.
Man's plans to fight poverty have failed.
But God has a plan that works, because
He changes lives from the inside out.
Today, our Bible teacher, Dr. J.
Vernon McGee, takes us to James 2 and
outlines for us God's war on poverty and
riches.
Dr. McGee first gave this sermon in 1965
as part of a series of messages on
the book of James.
At that time, Dr. McGee was serving as
the pastor of the historic Church of the
Open Door in downtown Los Angeles.
He ministered to God's people there for over
21 years.
Now, let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Heavenly Father, may our eyes be opened to
understand the Word, and to see the message
that You have for us in the book
of James.
Bless Your Word as it goes out.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Now tonight, we want to read just a
few verses from the second chapter of the
epistle of James.
My brethren, have not the faith of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with
respect of persons.
For if there come unto your assembly a
man with a gold ring and goodly apparel,
and there come in also a poor man
in vile raiment, and ye have respect to
him that weareth the gay clothing, and say
unto him, Sit thou here in a good
place, and say to the poor, Stand thou
there, or sit here under my footstool?
Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and
are become judges of evil thoughts?
Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen
the poor of this world, rich in faith,
and heirs of the kingdom which he hath
promised to them that love him?
Now I have never, in my experience in
attending services, I have never heard a message
from this passage of scripture.
And for sure, I have never myself preached
upon this particular passage of scripture.
Our subject this evening is God's war on
poverty and riches.
Not just on poverty, but on riches.
And perhaps I suggested this morning we could
have a second subject, is LBJ's Great Society,
the fulfillment of prophecy concerning the millennium that's
mentioned in the word of God.
Now both poverty and riches can be a
curse.
And it's due to the curse of sin
that is upon this earth that's brought about
the imbalance of the wealth of the world.
So that tonight the wealth of the world
is in the hands of the few, while
the bulk of the population of this world
tonight can be classified as the poor.
The fact of the matter is you and
I today do not know what real poverty
is.
If you and I were in India, or
if we were in some other place, probably
in the Orient or in Africa, we would
be able to meet people and see people
who have never known what it is to
have a full stomach.
They've never known what it is to sit
down and eat a meal when they were
completely satisfied.
They've always had to leave before they received
all that they would like to have.
So that tonight you and I are living
in a world that has upon it the
curse of sin.
And that curse is evidenced in the fact
of both poverty and of riches.
Have you ever noticed that the Lord Jesus
Christ was born in poverty?
He went over to the side of the
majority, where most people are.
He went over to that side because he
came down here to bear the curse of
sin.
That was part of the curse.
He was born in a borrowed stable.
He even borrowed sandwiches from a little lad
to feed the multitude.
He spoke from a borrowed boat.
He never had a place to lay his
head.
He could say, the foxes have holes, the
birds of the air have nests, but the
Son of Man hath not where to lay
his head.
Never owned one foot of real estate, and
yet he's the creator of this universe.
He borrowed a coin on one occasion to
illustrate a truth.
And he did it, I think, for several
reasons, and I think the basic reason, the
fundamental reason was he didn't have one himself.
He borrowed a coin to even illustrate a
parable.
And then he borrowed a little donkey to
ride in Jerusalem to present himself as the
Messiah and the King.
He borrowed a room to celebrate the Passover
and actually he died on a borrowed cross.
That cross was constructed for Barabbas, but Barabbas
did not go to a cross, and they
expected, Pilate did, to free Jesus.
And the way that the circumstances turned out,
Jesus even died on somebody else's cross.
Not only Barabbas's, but your cross and mine,
if you please, because it was your sin
and mine that put him there.
And then he was actually put in a
borrowed tomb so that the Lord Jesus Christ
came down to this earth and he knew
what poverty really was.
It's part of the curse that he bore.
I've never been able to accept the axiom
that goes abroad that poverty is a blessing.
When I was in college, and I want
to tell you, in my day there was
no handouts for college students.
In fact, the matter is there were very
few scholarships available in those days, and we
had coming to the school for what was
known as Religious Emphasis Week, and it was
not religious nor very much emphasis either, but
the man who came was a leading liberal
from Chicago, and his theme that week was
the blessings of poverty.
I heard that he was a pastor who
made $20,000 a year, and that was
way back before the Depression.
That was a great deal of money, and
I want to tell you I was having
a hard time getting through school.
Fact of the matter is I never knew
from one semester to the other whether I'd
be able to pay my board, my tuition,
and go.
I had to work, and I want to
tell you it was difficult, and that man
had no message for me whatsoever.
When he talked about the blessings of poverty,
for $20,000 a year you can enjoy
the blessings of poverty, but when you're working
your way through school, my friend, especially in
those days, there were no great blessings of
poverty, and so poverty is part of the
curse of the sin that our Lord bore,
and it can be a curse.
There have been times when men, great men,
have overcome this matter of poverty, and I'm
not sure but what a great many have
too much today that's given to them, and
that leads me to say that riches likewise
can be a curse.
The Scripture says the love of money is
a root of all evil, and you will
always find in everything that is evil and
wrong in this world today that money somehow
or another is involved some way.
The love of money, and not only the
accumulation of money and not only the getting
of it is wrong, but the spending of
money for the wrong items.
It's possible to deposit it in the wrong
bank, and I do not mean that bank
in San Francisco that went to the wall
the other day, but what our Lord said,
he said, gather not up for yourselves riches
on earth where moth and rust doth corrupt
and where thieves break through and steal, because
even they can get in a Brinks truck
these days and get your money, so that
today the place to put your money, he
says, is in the bank of heaven.
Gather up for yourselves treasures in heaven, and
I take that literally, and I'm a literalist
as far as the Bible is concerned, and
I actually believe that you can take money
and so use it down here that it's
put in the bank of heaven up yonder
for you, my beloved.
I believe that it's put into the legal
tender of heaven.
When our Lord saw that poor widow who
brought a few little mites and dropped them
in, and those few little mites if you
add them up corresponding to the wealth of
that temple of Herod didn't amount to that.
Whether she gave or whether she didn't give
did not help or hurt the work of
that temple at all.
It amounted to practically nothing.
But our Lord took her few little old
dull coppers and He kissed them into the
coin of heaven and made them a rich
treasure in heaven.
He transferred them there immediately, and I believe
literally down here that wealth can be used
for the glory of God, and it's not
the amount of it, if you please, but
it is the way that it is used
for God and the percentage, I would say,
that we use.
It's very interesting that James has a great
many harsh things to say to rich people,
and I'm not sure but that is something
that still would hold good.
I'm of the opinion that if communism comes
to the United States and it's coming fast
it will not be because of poverty but
it will be because of the action of
the rich today.
I'm of the opinion that they're affecting this
more than any other group, my beloved.
And the Word of God has a great
deal to say to them.
But ye have despised the poor.
Do not rich man oppress you and draw
you before the judgment seats.
And then he takes the entire fifth chapter
to deal with the rich.
Just listen to this sentiment he expresses.
Go to now ye rich man, weep and
howl for your miseries that shall come upon
you.
Your riches are corrupted and your garments are
moth-eaten.
Your gold and silver is cankered and the
rest of them shall be a witness against
you, et cetera, et cetera.
It's harsh language that he uses concerning the
rich.
And he's speaking about those who've made their
life's endeavor just to accumulate money down here
for no other purpose than just to accumulate
it and not to use it for the
glory of God.
I overheard two men talking the other day
and he's a Christian man and they were
talking about a third man who is a
Christian.
And their comment was quite interesting.
One of them said, you know the way
that he is after money, you'd think that
he's intending to take it with him.
And I'm afraid that there are a great
many Christians today that are so involved, and
there's nothing wrong in making it, but the
thing is they're so involved in that that
that has become their entire goal in life.
Now Solomon, who knew something about riches, says
in the 30th chapter of the book of
Proverbs, verse 8, he wanted to follow the
middle of the road.
He says, give me neither poverty nor riches.
And I've always prayed that God would not
let me go to either extreme.
That since I got out of the one
class that I can stay in the middle
of the road.
That is the preferred place certainly to go
through life.
Now God's solution to the problem of poverty
is actually not to rob the rich, to
take care of the indigent, the lazy, the
indolent, the drones, the loafers, the sluggards, and
the laggards.
God has no program like that at all.
Heard the story of the Sunday school teacher
that said to a little boy in her
class, she said, Johnny, which of the parables
do you like best?
And he says, the one where somebody loafs
and fishes.
And by the way, God doesn't have a
parable like that, where somebody loafs and fishes,
because God has never approved of that at
all.
And a great deal is said in scripture
about that class of individual who is a
lazy loafer and a laggard as far as
this life is concerned.
Now on the other hand, God never destroys
the dignity and the self-respect and the
integrity and the honor of the poor by
placing them on charity or make them some
sort of an object less than before the
world.
I think it was entirely wrong when Mr.
Johnson went yonder into the Appalachian area and
these television cameras poked into the poverty-stricken
home of those mountain people.
That's not right, my beloved, to humiliate people
like that.
Because actually, the people who are closer to
those who did come over on the Mayflower
and the early settlers live in the mountains
of East Tennessee and North Carolina and South
Carolina and West Virginia.
And they are caught today in a very
difficult situation back there.
But God never would permit His people to
be made any kind of an object of
display to reveal their poverty-stricken condition.
Now God's war on poverty and riches does
not march under the banner of the dollar.
He does not appropriate millions for relief.
God is not aiming at the head or
the stomach primarily, but God is aiming primarily
for the heart of both the rich and
the poor.
And it's a war actually against class distinction,
a class distinction in the church, if you
please.
These distinctions and divisions that mar the body
of Christ today.
Now, I want to come to our Scripture
tonight.
And again this evening, I'm turning to the
Amplified translation.
I found out that they do a better
job than I do in translating James.
And so as long as they'll do better
than I do, why, I'm going to read
from the Amplified.
Now will you follow your text?
You may want to do that.
He says, My brethren, pay no servile regard
to people.
Show no prejudice, no partiality.
Do not hold and practice the faith of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory,
together with snobbery.
And I like that translation.
What he's saying is simply this.
Don't profess faith in Christ and at the
same time be a spiritual snob.
Don't form cliques in your church.
That's what he's saying.
Very practical, is he not?
He says here, carrying out again what Paul
elaborates on, All believers are brethren.
They're in the body of Christ.
They're in a different position in the body,
to be sure.
And there is a fellowship, though, of believers.
And friendship is the banner that should be
over all of them.
I was thrilled this morning with this message
in mind.
Tonight, after the service, I like to go
out and shake hands with the folk.
And this morning, there were people here, not
only from all over this country, but all
over the world.
A fine young fellow came up to me,
and he was, my, he was a fine
-looking young fellow, very cultured and refined.
He said, Dr. McGee, I'm from Indonesia.
Right after him came another young man.
He says, Dr. McGee, I'm from Korea.
And another young man came up, and he
says, I'm from Africa, Ghana, he said.
Fine young man.
All of these young fellows, apparently in this
country, to be educated, and we had them
here.
There was one from Germany.
There were others from other countries in Europe
here this morning.
And I thought, what a wonderful thing it
is.
All of these were believers.
And my beloved, we're all in the body
of Christ.
And nationality, and color, and class, and rich
and poor have nothing to do with it.
When you're in Christ, you're one in Christ.
We need to emphasize that in these days.
And I'm talking now about the body of
believers, not talking about unbelievers.
Because the greatest division there is today in
the world is between an unbeliever and a
believer.
Now James here is addressing the total community
of believers.
And in his day, it was a cosmopolitan
group.
There was the rich, the poor, the influential,
the common people, the high, the low, the
bond and free, the Jew and the Gentile,
the Greek and the barbarian, the male and
female.
Now he says, when you come together as
believers to worship, let's remember one thing.
When you come together as believers, you're all
one in Christ.
And there should not be any class distinction
or clique distinction at all.
And that's one of the greatest sins, I
think today, in the local church.
All one in Christ.
All one great brotherhood, a body of believers.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the common denominator.
And friendship and fellowship is the legal tender.
Someone has put it in this lovely way,
concerning friendship.
Gold cannot buy it.
Poverty try it.
Thrift may not cheapen it.
Sorrow must deepen it.
Joy cannot lose it.
Malice abuse it.
Wilt cannot choke it.
Wit cannot choke it.
Folly provoke it.
Age can but strengthen it.
Time only lengthen it.
Death cannot sever.
Friendship forever.
Heaven's the true place of it.
God is the grace of it.
What a beautiful thing.
Now, in the Old Testament, God taught Israel
not to regard the person of the rich
or of the poor.
I wonder if you've ever noticed how he
has developed that in the Old Testament.
Those of you who follow our high noon
broadcast know that in teaching Leviticus, that I
spent a great deal of time in the
19th chapter on these very unusual things that
God gave to his people.
And one of the things is this.
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment.
Thou shalt not respect the person of the
poor, nor honor the person of the mighty.
But in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.
What a wonderful thing.
God taught his people that they were not
to make a distinction between the rich and
the poor at all.
And then again, over in Deuteronomy, the very
first chapter, let me turn there to the
17th verse.
Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, but
ye shall hear the small as well as
the great.
Ye shall not be afraid of the face
of man.
That's the thing so many people, causes them
to move like that.
Now that, I think, is in the background
of the thinking of Simon Peter who knew
the Old Testament.
When he went to Cornelius, he didn't want
to go, you'll recall.
He was a Gentile.
And he very frankly said when he got
there, this is my first trip to the
home of a Gentile.
He got to the place, he wouldn't go.
And the thing that amazed him was not
the coming of the Holy Spirit.
The thing that amazed him was the fact
that Gentiles could be saved.
And he made this statement.
He says, of a truth I perceive that
God is no respecter of persons.
Not a wonderful thing.
At the very beginning of the church, the
man who preached the first sermon, he says,
I am beginning to see something that as
a Jew I'd lost sight of.
That is, that God was no respecter of
persons.
And it doesn't make any difference who the
individual is, that when you come to Christ,
class distinction is broken down.
Now, with that in mind, let's go on
to verses 2 and 3 that James deals
with here.
And he always gives an illustration.
You remember this morning we saw again?
We saw it last Sunday?
Here he comes again.
James is very practical and very much down
to earth.
The fact of the matter is, I think
I know why I've never preached on James.
I know of no epistle that pinches me
like the epistle of James.
He pinches, he hurts you because he gets
right down where we are living today, probably
I should say where we are not living
today.
Now listen to him.
For if a person come into your congregation
whose hands are adorned with gold rings and
who is wearing splendid apparel and also a
poor man in shabby clothes comes in and
you pay special attention to the one who
wears the splendid clothes and say to him,
sit there on this preferable seat while you
tell the poor man stand there or sit
there on the floor at my feet.
Now here comes in to the church a
rich man.
And the way that James describes him is
quite interesting.
And the reason I've used this translation it's
very close to the original.
He doesn't say he has a gold ring
on and that's caused a great many saints
to misunderstand this and they're actually saints that
won't even wear a gold ring because they
say Christians shouldn't wear a gold ring.
That's nonsense.
He's not saying that at all.
Actually it's gold rings or the literal is
rather this.
There comes into your assembly a gold ringed
man and you have to put yourself back
in the first century in that day.
And the men in that day that were
the rich that moved in the upper echelons
to distinguish them from the common people in
the mob they wore rings.
The common people wore no rings at all.
And the more rings the better by the
way.
There is a story told that comes out
of the first century of one man who
wore six rings on each finger.
And when he'd take a bath he wouldn't
even take them off.
The gold ringed man some of them were
very valuable the rings that they wore.
And the minute that man stepped in and
flashed that hand around immediately you know the
usher said my here's a very rich man
we better give him the best seat we
got in the place.
We give him a back seat in church
of course.
But nevertheless we want to give him the
best seat that we got in the house.
And I think maybe back in the first
century they brought him down front.
Now the other thing was he had our
translation says goodly apparel.
The literal is bright and shining clothes.
And his wife wore mink.
It's not in the literal I put that
in.
But that's the way he came in.
He's really ostentatious.
He's overdressed.
He's pretentious.
There is a dash and a splash and
a flash about him.
It's with pomp and pomposity he enters the
church.
There's a glitter and a gaudy about him
and the vulgar and the vain if you
please.
And he made his entrance with his flags
flying fanfare of trumpets parade and pageant strutting
like a peacock when he came to church.
And the usher immediately began to kowtow to
him and said my we'll find the best
place for you brother.
And they gave him the best place.
And I think James saw that in some
church.
I think he's giving us an illustration from
life in that day and he didn't like
it at all.
Therefore he remarks about it.
Our Lord talked along the same line.
He gave what we call a parable.
Not a parable a true story about a
rich man and a man by the name
of Lazarus.
Rich man.
Lazarus a poor man.
And it says concerning the rich man and
my sometimes our authorized version in its wonderful
translation.
Don't misunderstand me.
But it loses the punch line.
And believe me there's a lot of that
in the word of God.
Our translation says he fared sumptuously.
Actually the word has in it he was
in purple.
And that means he was in clover.
Using our expression today.
I'd like to put it like this.
The poor man the dogs licked his sores.
But the rich man he put on the
dog.
I tell you by how he strutted you
see.
And that was the picture that's given of
him here.
Now the rich man comes in and there
is given a preferential treatment to him.
Now a poor man enters.
Hatted and torn.
Hatches in poverty.
He's not a bum.
He's just a poor man.
He's shabby and shoddy.
He's dilapidated and deteriorated.
He's seen better days.
He didn't even have Sunday clothes.
I heard the story years ago in the
middle west of a man who in a
certain city back there came to church.
Very spiritual man.
And he always wore frayed garments.
His coat frayed.
And people began to criticize him.
And especially one lady who criticized him went
over to see and found out that he
had a paralyzed wife.
He was spending all of his money taking
care of her.
And may I say to you that woman
quit criticizing him.
We do not know why certain people dress
a certain way.
We have no business criticizing them because of
that either.
By the way.
And for that reason here comes in the
poor man.
Now the usher he says to him you
better take the back seat here.
Or better still you just sit here under
me.
And that gave him the usher of course
a sense in that day there were no
ushers.
But it gave the man that asked him
do you sit here by my seat.
It gave him a high position to be
elevated above this poor man that had come
in.
Now James puts these two men in contrast.
These men are at the extreme end of
the social ladder.
May I say that in this country today
in an affluent society we don't see too
much of that right now.
I notice that in my ministry when I
first began always in every congregation that I
ever served or where I ever preached there
were the extreme.
There were the well-dressed people.
Then there were those that you could tell
were poor people not well-dressed.
But you don't see that much.
Actually tonight here at the Church of the
Open Door all of you look like you're
doing pretty well.
And we don't have that distinction that we
did have.
But there were people in those days I
know when I visited as a pastor in
those days I would meet people and say
well Dr. McGee we'd like to come to
church but we don't have clothes.
Have you ever met folk like that?
I can remember and some of you people
may be able to remember back to days
like that.
And I can remember as a boy that
I used to complain to my dad I
didn't want to go to Sunday school because
I didn't like to go with patches.
And I had patches on my pants and
I didn't want to wear them on Sunday
and I didn't want to go to Sunday
school.
But he just warmed up those patches and
sent me on and I went.
Let me tell you.
But I didn't want to do it.
But you don't see that sort of thing
today.
But wait just a moment.
What today about race?
Don't misunderstand me tonight.
I'm a southerner.
But I want to say this to you.
When a man is a believer in Christ
he's my brother.
And I don't care what his color is
or where he's from.
You know this morning I just put my
arm around that little fellow from Indonesia because
I know how Indonesia is today going into
the communist camp.
He was a wonderful fellow.
Wonderful Christian.
He's my brother.
And the one from Korea he's my brother
also.
And that little fellow from Africa from Ghana
he's my brother also.
Now don't talk to me tonight about integration
or segregation.
There's no such thing when you're a believer
of believers.
I'm not talking about the outside world.
You can't bring together the sinners.
But you can bring together believers.
And that's the thing that he's talking about.
Now will you notice what he's saying here
and I must read this again.
I want to read verses 3 and 4
together.
And you pay special attention to the one
who wears the splendid clothes and say to
him sit here in this preferable seat while
you tell the poor man stand there or
sit there on the floor at my feet.
Are you not discriminating among your own and
becoming critics and judges with wrong motives.
Now today we have ushers to seat people.
And our ushers have a real problem at
times.
Sometimes that they have somebody to seat and
they say to a certain party would you
mind moving over.
And this party says no this is my
seat.
Well I have news for you.
You don't own any seat in the church
of the open door.
Everybody here is on the same par.
We have no section reserved for the rich
or no seats reserved for anybody.
All are welcome that want to come in
here and sometimes when the usher has two
people and you're sitting in a spot where
there's a seat on either side of you
move over.
That's the courteous thing to do.
I can give you an experience.
Before I became pastor here there was an
evangelist holding meetings and I invited a friend
from Pasadena and he and I came down
here one night and I sat right back
down there and there was a lady sitting
in the second seat.
And I don't know why she picked the
second seat but there she sat.
And there was a seat the outward seat
and a seat on the other side.
And I just thought took it for granted
that everybody in the church of the open
door was not only a fundamentalist but was
a lovely Christian.
And I said to her would you mind
moving over so my friend and I can
sit here.
Do you know that woman didn't quit talking
to me during the entire service and I
think she called me everything that was imaginable.
I just asked her to move over.
So this friend who's an unsaved man I
got him in and a little farther down
and a seat next to him.
I do not think he heard one word
the evangelist said that night because every now
and then I'd see him he'd look around
look at that woman.
I do not think this unsaved man could
believe that there was anybody who's a Christian
would act like that.
And I'm of the opinion that he didn't
want to be a Christian after he saw
that kind of conduct.
Oh my friend may I say to you
that believers are in a brotherhood.
They're in the body of Christ.
And that's the thing that James is talking
about.
And it's a real joy to me to
sit here as it was this morning.
And sometimes I get a little provoked at
my ushers but I love them and they
do a good job.
And I love to sit here and watch
them seat people of a morning especially.
And I have never yet seen an usher
look a person over and say boy he's
rich I'll have to get him a good
seat.
What he does is sometimes they actually just
don't pay much attention to the individual.
They start looking for a vacant seat and
they don't care where it is when there's
a vacant seat they want to put them
there.
May I say to you that's what James
is talking about.
James says let's not have this class distinction.
This click business in the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ because you drive the unsaved
away if you please.
Now I want to read verse 5 and
I'm through.
I think I better stick with the amplified
for verse 5.
Now listen my beloved brethren has not God
chosen those who are poor in the eyes
of the world to be rich in faith
and in their position as believers and to
inherit the kingdom which he's promised to those
who love him.
Now he says something there quite wonderful and
I wonder today if we appreciate that.
God has chosen the poor who are rich
in faith.
They're rich in faith today.
Not rich in money or rich in position.
I've had occasion recently to be in two
groups where actually the leading conservative believers of
Southern California were gathered.
This is on two occasions been recently and
I won't tell you where they were or
what it was.
But on both of these I was not
involved and so I could sit in the
background which I enjoy doing when I can
and it was amusing to me to watch
certain individuals.
It reminded me of the parable that the
law untold.
You remember about the men that Pharisees that
went to a dinner and each tried to
get to the first place get the best
place that was there.
Well the very interesting thing was that in
these groups I watched them.
There's certain laymen if I call their name
tonight you'd know them.
Several preachers there if I call their name
you'd know them.
To sit back and watch these brethren juggling
for the first seats.
And I want to tell you it was
amusing because when the time came to sit
down there wasn't enough room down front for
those that had juggled their way down front
to sit down and it was amazing the
most prominent people there the ones who should
have been honored had to actually move to
the background because these had moved down front
and taken all the places.
James says a believer a real believer is
not to do that.
That there is no such thing as class
distinction among believers.
And that God has really chosen the poor
of this world.
He became poor you remember.
It was Lincoln who said God must love
poor people because he made so many of
them.
And there seems to be more of them
than any other group.
And God has a concern for the poor.
I brought together here a great many scriptures
and I was amazed at it and I've
only got just a very small segment.
But notice the concern that God has for
the poor.
I'm reading now just excerpts from the scripture.
First Job 5, 15 He saveth the poor
from the sword and from the mouth and
from the hand of the mighty.
So the poor hath hope and iniquity stoppeth
her mouth.
Job 36, 15 He delivereth the poor in
his affliction and openeth their ears in oppression.
Psalm 9, 18 The needy shall not always
be forgotten.
The expectation of the poor shall not perish
forever.
Psalm 68, 10 Thou O God hast prepared
of thy goodness for the poor.
Psalm 69, 33 The Lord heareth the poor.
He shall deliver the needy when he crieth
the poor also.
And him that hath no helper he shall
spare the poor and needy and shall save
the souls of the needy.
Psalm 72, 12, 13 And if you went
all the way through the scripture you'd find
that Jeremiah 20, 13 Sing unto the Lord
praise ye the Lord for he hath delivered
the soul of the poor from the hand
of the evil doer.
And one of the most wonderful things our
Lord said was when the disciples of John
came to him and said John has sent
us.
He sent us to ask you are you
the Messiah?
John was in prison and he had reason
to ask the question.
The Lord Jesus said you go back and
tell him this the blind receive their sight
and the lame walk the lepers are cleansed
and the deaf hear the dead are raised
up.
All of that was prophesied of the Messiah.
But he crowned it all with this and
the poor have the gospel preached unto them.
The most wonderful thing in this age had
you ever stopped to think about it?
That today literally millions of rich people in
this country went to church and they haven't
heard the gospel until tonight.
Oh they heard a sermon but they never
heard the gospel.
They've never heard it.
Let me close with this story.
It's a story I love.
The story of Mr. and Mrs. Quittemoha.
Very wealthy people in New York City.
Members of the most fashionable church.
One evening they were entertaining guests and they
were trying to think of something new to
do to entertain their guests.
They decided that they would go slumming and
so after a very sumptuous supper they went
slumming.
They went down through the slums of New
York City east side, west side.
Then they concluded by going to the Bowery
and you couldn't go slumming in that day
without going to the Bowery Mission where Jerry
McCauley the converted drunkard was holding forth.
And they went that night.
Mr. Quittemoha wearing a high silk hat evening
clothes.
Mrs. Quittemoha had on her ermine and the
guests sat with them.
They also were rich.
They sat in the back and they were
enjoying it all looking at these bums, these
drunks that came in.
And old Jerry McCauley came out and his
manner of preaching it was direct.
But he preached the gospel.
And did you know that Mr. and Mrs.
William Quittemoha who had been members of the
church since they were young people they had
never heard the gospel.
The Lord says the poor have the gospel
preached unto them.
Never said the rich and they had never
heard it until that night.
And then Jerry McCauley gave the invitation.
The bums came their hallways came.
Some were real some were not.
But that night Mr. and Mrs. Quittemoha came.
And down there with the bums with the
smell of sweat and liquor the high silk
hat and the ermine knelt down and came
as sinners to the Lord Jesus Christ.
My beloved God has rubbed out all class
distinction at the cross.
And he says to the rich you come
as a beggar to me.
You have nothing to offer.
And if you are poor you can come
without money and without price.
Because at the cross I have waged a
successful war against poverty and against riching.
I can save you.
And that's the most wonderful thing I can
do for you.
Would you tonight like to come to this
wonderful Savior?
It doesn't matter to God whether you're rich
or poor.
And by the way he's not partial toward
the middle class either.
So if you recognize that you need a
Savior we trust that you'll take a step
forward in faith today.
As Dr. McGee has said the Lord Jesus
Christ paid the penalty for your sins and
mine.
And when you believe in him you'll receive
new life.
So come to Christ in simple faith and
let him save you.
If you'd like to know more about God's
plan of salvation for your life then we'd
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Dr. McGee's sermon today was titled God's War
on Poverty and Riches.
If you'd like a copy it's available in
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First, it's available for purchase as an individual
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Second, it's also part of a 12-sermon
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Or if you'd like it in print it's
a chapter in Dr. McGee's hardback book on
James called Living by Faith.
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