1. James 5 verse 1. Go to now ye rich men 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 rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is off you, kept back by fraud, crieth, and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of the Sabaoth. You have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you. Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and has longed patience for it until he received the early and the latter rain. Be ye also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take my brethren the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure, You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. We end the reading at the end of the verse number 11. May the Lord bless the reading of his precious and holy word. The verses I draw your attention to this evening are the verses 7 through to 11 of James chapter 5. In those five verses, you'll find two closely connected words repeated over and over again. The words being patient and patience. Now you will know that impatience is one of the marks of infancy. It is the mark of being a child, to be in patience. It is a mark of someone who remains immature. Immature in age and immature even in intellect. You know there are times in our own home that I have to remind a certain person that she just needs to have a little bit of patience especially if we're having a conversation and she wants to interrupt or maybe there's something that we're doing and she just needs something to be done immediately and I have to say to Andrew, no I mean to Abigail, I have to say to Abigail you need to be patient, you need to show a little bit of patience and as we get older we are forced in to learning this art of patience. We are forced to learn the art of patience as we find ourselves on many occasions waiting in queues, whether it is to the bank or in queues of traffic waiting for the right one to come along with regard to the marriage partner in life or With regard to marriage material, we have to wait with regard to that. Some have to wait in order to get behind the wheel, in order to start driving. And these are but some incidences that help us to nurture and to cultivate this virtue of patience in our lives. Well, James here in this portion of chapter five issues a call to patient waiting in these particular verses and we want to consider that particular call this evening before we go to God in prayer. Now you'll record from our previous studies in the book of James that patience is a virtue that is most graciously and greatly exercised in our lives, not whenever things are going well. But whenever things are not going well in our lives, faith and patience is greatly exercised when faith is being tested. If you turn back to the opening chapter, if you can remember a way back to there, And we'll read the verses 2 through to 4. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations or trials, knowing this, that the trine of your faith worketh patience. Let patience have her perfect work, or her maturing work, that ye may be perfect, mature and entire, wanting nothing. And you'll remember that I said back then, that life's trials are not only sent to approve us, In other words, to prove that our faith in Christ is an authentic, that it is a genuine faith. Our trials are not only sent to approve us, but life's trials are also sent to improve us. To improve us. As we patiently bear the trial, the end result according to James 1 verse 4 is that the believer becomes perfect, mature, and entire. Wanting nothing. Nice trials. cause us to mature in our Christian lives. We become those well-balanced and those well-rounded Christians that God would have us to be Christ-like believers as we endure the trials of life. And now James, as we have often found, returns to, and this subject matter, again, he returns to prayer on a number of occasions, he returns to wisdom on a number of occasions, Now he's turning again his attention to this virtue, this Christian grace of patience to reinforce this need, the need for us to exhibit and to exercise patience when called upon by God to wait. Now I want us to firstly note from the verses, the call to patient waiting issued. That's our first point, the call to patient waiting issued twice. In these five verses, James calls the brethren to exhibit great patience in their waiting on God. Look there at the verse seven. Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. And then again in the verse eight, he repeats it again. Be ye also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. He is And impatience marks too often our behavior when it comes to how we respond to God's delays in our lives. We want to make haste, we want to push ahead when God delays us. with regard to certain things in our lives. We live in a society where everybody wants things yesterday and waiting is most certainly not cultivated in the society in which we live. Waiting is something that none of us like to do? Well James commands us here that we are to be patient. Now what are we to be patient about? There are many things that we are to be patient about, but we must look at this command, this call within the context in which it is found. And what is the context? Well the context is with regard to our afflictions and to our trials. Patience is required when we're passing through the trial and when we're passing through the affliction. You'll recall last week that we were thinking about these believers who were facing affliction, facing oppression at the hands of rich men who knew nothing of the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The natural reaction to such unjust oppression would have been to seek revenge or to seek redress for the wrongs that had been done to them. Remember, they weren't being paid for the work that they had done. They had went into the harvest field, but these rich men had hoarded their riches, kept their riches to themselves, and had refused to pay the wages of these individuals. And James is saying here, be patient. In light of this, in light of those oppressions, in light of those afflictions that you're facing in your life, instead of seeking immediate revenge and seeking immediate redress for such wrongs, James encourages them to exercise patience and to wait for the coming of the Lord. Why? Because when He comes, He will inflict judgment upon the unjust and he will vindicate and he will relieve the just. James' argument is very simple. At the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ, all wrongs will be righted. And so patiently wait for that day, the day of vindication. Maybe I'm speaking to someone and you've been wronged in recent times. Maybe you're the target of unjustifiable cruelty or harassment at the hands of someone in your school or college, someone in your workplace, maybe it's a family member, maybe it's a work Colleague well God's counsel to you tonight is to be patient to wait the day of vindication when Christ Appears you see the teaching of James 5 in the verse 6 is that the righteous are not to resist They're not to retaliate They're not to fight back out of vengeance when they suffer affliction at the hands of others He doth not resist you ye have condemned and killed the just and he doth not Resist you here were individuals and they patiently endured on to death on to death the affliction of being a child of God the Christian is to meekly suffer for Christ Leaving vengeance to God vengeance is mine It's not ours vengeance is mine saith the Lord I will And so, brethren and sisters, resist lashing out at others when afflicted by them. Patiently endure. And when you do so, you follow Christ. For Christ patiently endured. And he was reviled. We're told that he reviled, not again. Too often when placed in the crucible of affliction, oppression, of suffering, we're impossible to live with. And yet God calls us to patiently endure life's trials because he knows what he's doing. And when he brings us forth, then thank God we shall come forth as gold. I've already mentioned, but James alerts us in these verses to the best thing that we can do that will help us to patiently endure life's trials and troubles. What's the best thing that we can do? The best thing that we can do is to recall to our minds the much forgotten truth that Jesus Christ is coming again. Jesus Christ brethren and sisters, is coming again. He's coming again in glory, and he's coming again in majesty. He speaks of this in verse seven, be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Verse eight, be also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth near. 9. And then in verse number 9, Behold, the Judge, who is the Judge, the Judge of all the earth, is none other than Jesus Christ. Behold, the Judge standeth at the door. In other words, He's about to come through. He's about to break through. He's about to come to the relief of His children. He's about to come to the rescue of his children. And so in the midst of our trials, in the midst of our troubles, as we consider what we're going through, we're also to remember that Jesus Christ is coming again. How does that help us? in the midst of the trial. How does that help us, this tremendous truth of the coming again of Jesus Christ? How does this carry us and bear us along when we're in the valley, when we're suffering affliction and oppression by others? Well, this is how it helps us, brethren and sisters. It reminds us that it's not always going to be this way for the child of God, for the unbeliever. You often hear an unbeliever saying that And I've said this before, that their good days are now behind them, but not for the child of God. Our good days are still in front of us, brethren and sisters. Jesus Christ is coming again, and he's coming in glory, and it's not always going to be this way. Life's troubles and trials are soon going to end for us all when Christ bursts forth through the eastern skies, and He comes to put every wrong right. And so, brethren, sisters, let's wait, let's wait patiently for Him, and let us patiently endure, anticipating the Savior's Soon return. Lift up your heads. Don't be downcast or discouraged. Your redemption draws nigh. Christ is coming again. Thank God he's coming to vindicate us. Most of all to vindicate himself. for all the wrongs that he has suffered. And so we think here about this call to patiently wait that is issued by James. But let's think secondly of the illustration that argues for this patient waiting. Now we have found in our studies of James that James likes a good illustration. James loves a good illustration while he's writing down this epistle. In Bible College, the Reverend Eliot, who's now with Christ in glory, he called that illustration in the sermon a window, a little window, lets a little light into the subject matter. and it gives a little bit of relief to those who are listening to you as you preach. So sermons or illustrations are little windows. Now you shouldn't have all windows as you know in a house if you have all windows well that's no good you need a better wall, you need a good foundation. to your subject matter. So any young budding preachers, don't fill your sermons full of illustrations completely. Get a bit of substance, a bit of foundation to the word that you're preaching. And then throw in, as it were, put in a little illustration. Well, James does it here. Takes an example. He gives an example. He uses a great illustration. It's taken from the field of agriculture, or farming, excuse the pun, but it's taken from the field of agriculture. Look there at the words of verse seven. Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Then he gives the illustration of what that patience is to be like. Behold, the husband man, or the word is farmer. It's just another word for farmer. It's the old, it's the old AV term for farmer. Behold, the husband man waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and the latter rain. How simple yet how instructive. This illustration is in verse seven. We know it well. The farmer goes out, prepares the ground. He then sows the seed into the ground, but he has to exercise tremendous patience before he can gather the harvest produced by the seed. So now we were given in the school some sunflower seeds. Oh, you love to see them coming home from school. Sunflower seeds. Well, I planted some sunflower seeds. I got a couple of batches. Got a couple from the school, started to sow them, plant it out. Then I started to see one of the sunflowers growing, and then the next one growing, and then another one. Nothing happened. Still watering it, nothing's happened. So I dug it up one day, and I found a little tiny little growth that's coming. So I put it back in the soil again, hoping that it'll eventually grow for Abigail's sake. But I wasn't patient. I should have waited, probably have destroyed the growth of it. But here we have this illustration. Maybe I should have read James 5 and the verse number 7. Long patience for it until he received the early and the latter rains. Now the early and latter rains, they came in our autumn and in the spring in Israel. They had to first descend. and then the grain would swell and grow, would break the ground and then eventually shoot upwards in the sun. It would then ripen and then the grain swell to maturity, ready for the scythe to be thrust in and the harvest brought home with rejoicing. Farmers know what it is, what it means to wait. And as Christians, we are to exhibit that kind of patience, just the same way as a farmer waits. So we are to wait. When it comes to every part of our Christian lives, yes, when we work and labor for God, maybe in the Sunday school, or youth work, or in the children's meeting, or maybe out in the gospel open air, and there seems to be very little fruit ever forthcoming from our labors, we are to be patient. When we suffer wrongfully and time elapses, with no vindication of our names or our testimony, we are to be patient. When we long to be more like Christ in our lives, and this work of sanctification seems to be going so slowly, we are to be patient. When we look to God for direction in our lives, And none seems to be ever forthcoming. We are to be patient when we pray for the salvation of our loved ones. And there seems to be no softening of their hearts. In actual fact, it seems to be that there's a hardening of their hearts with regard to spiritual matters. Brethren and sisters, we are to exhibit this patience, the patience that a farmer exhibits. We are to exhibit ourselves. And so the next time You find yourself being impatient in some area of your Christian life. Just remember James's illustration of the farmer. He sows the seed in hope, in hope of a future harvest, but he must patiently wait. He does his part, God does his part, and the harvest is brought forth. During the time of sowing and raping, patience is exercised and patience must be exercised by us. As we await the unfolding and the perfecting of all things in our lives, we're maybe in the midst of a trial presently. Maybe you are, and you're wondering, why? Why is this happening? I don't understand what God is doing in my life, and in my situation, and in my home, and in my family, and in my workplace, and in my ministry, and yet God would have us to wait, patiently wait, Harvest has not yet come forth from the trial. It has not yet reached its perfect work, its entire work in your life. And so press on by faith. We live by faith. We go at God's last command. And until he gives us a different direction in life, we continue to follow his orders and patiently await for God. to do that which he is purposed to do in our lives. And then James gives us examples of individuals. And so that's our third point. And our final point, the examples of those who exemplified patient waiting in their lives. And he gives us two case examples. So he gives us this command. He gives us the command to be patient, And then he gives us the reason, because the coming of the Lord, it draweth nigh. And then he gives us a good illustration of what this kind of patience is like. And then he brings it all to a conclusion by giving us some examples. Why? To encourage us, to encourage us that others have had to do this in their lives. And why then should we not? have to patiently wait in our lives. And so he gives, as I've said, two case examples. First of all, the prophets. Verse 10, take my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience. Now you don't need to tell me, or sorry, you don't need me to tell you that as a group of men, the prophets, they exhibited great patience in their lives, even when they found themselves suffering affliction at the hands of their fellow countrymen and women. I suppose the most obvious person that at least springs to my mind is the prophet Jeremiah. God called him from the womb. and sent him to a people and they would not listen. Not only would they not listen, but they arrested him and they put him into the stocks and they made him a public spectacle. They placed him at the very gate where his own family members would walk into the temple precincts and into the city of Jerusalem to make Jeremiah a public laughingstock in the stocks. And yet, he patiently endured. Now, there was a time that he almost quit. Time when he almost threw in the towel. He said, his word is in my heart. Like as a burning fire shut up my bones. I was weary with forbearing that I could not stay. And so he remained faithful, holding fast to his calling, continuing to exercise the duties of his office as a prophet. And then we think of men like Ezekiel and Daniel and Isaiah, had their share of hardships, their times of testing, and yet they patiently endured. And then we think of the last, the last Old Testament prophet, of the Old Testament economy or the Old Testament era, not Malachi, but John the Baptist. John the Baptist, the last Old Testament prophet, and we think of his patient endurance, bold in his denunciation of sin, rejected by many, in prison for his faith, dying a martyr's death by having his head chopped off his shoulders at the command of Herod, and yet he patiently endured. We learn from the lives of the prophets that as much as God honored and loved them, they were not exempt from life's afflictions. They were maligned and persecuted by men, and so we are not to expect anything else or less in our lives. Christ will use this example of the prophets to speak of those persecuted saints of God And how they endured, Matthew 11, or five verse 11, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they, the prophets, which were before you. Though they were persecuted, they patiently endured. Patience. Patience was the essence of their calling. And it is the essence of ours too. knowing that in heaven we will have great reward. Great reward laid up for those who persist and remain faithful to the Lord. I cannot but read these words in James 5 in the verse 10. Take my brethren the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction and of patience. I cannot but think of the Lord Jesus Christ. Was he not the great prophet? of Jehovah, and he patiently endured. He not only spoke in the name of the Lord, he spoke as God. He spoke as the Lord. And when we consider him, we consider him, then we do not become faint in our minds. He endured great affliction. He endured scoffing and mockery. He endured oppression, and yet through it all, he patiently endured. He provides us that perfect model. He provides us that perfect example of someone who patiently endures to the end. Well, may God help us to patiently endure our afflictions. And then James gives us a second example. He now hones in to one individual, This time Job, verse 11. Behold, we count them happy which endure. You've heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. We're all aware of the great upheaval that came into the life of Job the day when his whole world, think of it, his whole world caved in around him. And the day Job On that day, Job's earthly possessions were swept away. Worse still, his sons and the daughters were killed when the house they were meeting in collapsed on them. His own health broke down, smitten with a painful, disfiguring, incurable disease. And when you think things couldn't have got any worse, his wife turned against him, advised him to curse God and then to take his own life. Curse God and die. Here's God and take your life, Job. Commit suicide. This man went through the most incredible trial. The death of all of his children, the loss of all of his possessions, down to nothing. His body reduced to a mere covering of boils and yet he could say this, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. through all of his afflictions, Job patiently endured. Why? Because he knew that God had an end purpose. God had an end goal to all that he was passing through. John Calvin said this, afflictions ought ever to be estimated by their end. Afflictions ought ever to be estimated by their end. And what is their end? The end purpose to our afflictions is the praise of God and the perfecting of the saint. You notice with me that through all that Job suffered, he found out something about his God. What did he find out about his God? He found out this. He found out that the Lord was very pitiful and of tender mercy. That's what happens in our times of trial and trouble. In our afflictions, we get to see what our Lord and what our Savior is really like. And we find that he's not some kind of hard-hearted tyrant. Rather, he is one who is very pitiful and of tender mercy. Beloved, in your afflictions, don't lose sight of God's pity. and don't lose sight of his tender mercy. Remember that he is very pitiful, and he is of tender mercy. When we're under God's afflicting hand, we can so quickly entertain hard thoughts about our God, but James tells us here that we're to ponder God's pity and tender mercy in such times. Those thoughts, they will help us to endure but not only just to endure, but to endure happily, to endure happily. Maybe you have come into this meeting tonight, bowed down under some burden. Remember, brother, sister, your Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. Maybe this week hasn't been going well for you, Maybe you feel the Lord miserably and terribly in the last 24 hours. Well, brother, sister, you remember that your Lord, your Lord, He is very pitiful and He is of tender mercy. And maybe you feel that nobody cares or nobody understands what you're going through. Remember your Lord is very pitiful. and he is of tender mercy. Child of God, there's one in glory who is tender-hearted. There's one who's willing to bear your infirmities, one who's willing to carry your sorrows, cast in your care, cast in your burden upon him just now, because your Lord is very pitiful. and of tender mercy. This is our God. This is our God. Happy is the Christian who endures their trials without repining, complaining, or rebelling against God, who meets their trials like a Christian, with humility, faith, fortitude, and patience. We find ourselves in the midst of life's next trial or trouble. Let's exhibit the Christian grace of long-suffering, the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, this patience. For, brethren and sisters, that will do two things. It will honor God as we patiently endure, and it will leave an example for others to follow. when we are dead and gone. Just as the prophets left the example for us, and Job left the example for us, as they patiently endured their trials, so when we are dead and gone, and our families look back over our lives, that they will say, mom, dad, uncle, aunt, brother, sister, they patiently endured. and now they have won the well done of God and they've won the well fought day. May God help us then to exhibit this patience even in our Christian lives for Christ's sake. Amen and amen. Let's bow in prayer. Our loving father, we pray that thou wilt help us to learn from the examples before us in Scripture. We pray, O God, for patient endurance. We think of many a prophet who really did not succeed in earthly terms with regard to their ministries, and yet in heavenly terms, they were the most successful, for they faithfully discharged their office They faithfully preached the word and lied the rest to God and left it to him. And so help us, Lord, though we crave, O God, for days of heaven and earth. We pray, Lord, until that day that we'll patiently endure, we'll wrestle, we'll fight, and we'll pray. grant dear God us in coming days to see a mighty revival sweeping this way and sir prayer we offer these petitions in Jesus precious and holy name amen amen well just to remind you of