The Wisdom of Patience
Notes
Transcript
The Lexham English Bible Chapter 5
7 Therefore be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the soil, being patient concerning it until it receives the early and late rains. 8 You also be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the coming of the Lord is near. 9 Brothers, do not complain against one another, in order that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge stands before the doors! 10 Brothers, take as an example of perseverance and endurance the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold, we consider blessed those who have endured. You have heard about the patient endurance of Job, and you saw the outcome from the Lord, that the Lord is compassionate and merciful. 12 Now above all, my brothers, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no, no, in order that you may not fall under judgment.
As we look back at the first six verses of chapter 5, James is telling the audience of this letter to “weep and howl”, as the NASB reads, of their miseries which are coming upon them.
James calls them “rich people” and explains their riches have rotted and their garments have become moth eaten.
Their gold and silver do not have the shininess that it once did, nor does it have the value upon which they thought. He states it will serve as a testimony against them.
The ones they have shorthanded have cried out and it has reached the ears of the the LORD of armies.
They have lived for pleasure in this temporal world, they have bathed in luxuries, and condemned the righteous person.
James is calling these people to repentance as he shares with them the doom that lies ahead if they do not stop storing up their treasures here on earth and put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, laying up treasures in Heaven where thieves cannot steal and moths are not able to eat it away.
These very same lust are captivating the society of our culture but take heart, take a deep breath, “be patient” for this is only a process of sifting.
In the next 5 verses James’ teachings shift focus from a doom filled “day of slaughter” to refreshing tones of providence, righteousness, and hope.
Therefore be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the soil, being patient concerning it until it receives the early and late rains.
“Therefore be patient”, are the first three words of the exhortation from James. This is a exhortation to patience. He is encouraging them to stand fast in the Lord.
The word “patient” is used four times in these 6 verses. Not saying if a truth is only said once it is any-less important, but if we find ourselves reading the same word as we study Scripture we should probably take notice of it.
What is patience? To be patient means to endure. Suffereth long. Wait.There are also connotations of persevering that go along with patient.
1 Cor 13:4 states that love is patient. 2 Timothy 2:3 Thou therefore endure hardness as a good Soldier of Jesus Christ.
Where does our patience come from?
Galatians 5:22 states where patience comes from. It is not of you naturally. It is from the Holy Spirit as it reads: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.
As I read this the LORD revealed to me how love and patience go hand and hand. Not only those two, but all the fruit of the Spirit.
Let me tell you a story. It was 2 years ago or a little more, My wife Brittany had already come to the LORD. She was changing, transforming into the beautiful creation that the LORD was molding her into.
Me on the other hand, I was being an idiot. I was not living for the LORD. I was smoking dope, I was sleeping with prostitutes. I was doing everything I could to use the excuse that I was bi-polar and had PTSD to run for the LORD.
Little did I know that my wife was praying for me. Because she loved me. Because she was having patience with me. She was also having patience with the LORD. This was not of her but of the Holy Spirit.
And just like in verse 4 of this same chapter, the Lord heard the prayers of my wife and I began to change. Soon after, I was crushed like a bug under the blessing of conviction and I was Born again. I thank Him.
We are to be patient. And if we need help with enduring, then we are to do just like my wife did, we are to pray.
Psalm 103:8 starts out by saying “The Lord in merciful and gracious”, if we call out to Him, He will provide us with what we need.
What is James calling us to be patient for?
He is telling us to endure the heartache of this world, the evilness and unfairness that surrounds us. We are to wait on the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We love Jesus Christ with our entire being, His Spirit resides inside of us who are born again saints of His church, He is who has illuminated us.
If we have Him with preeminence in our lives, then we must faithfully stay the course of righteousness, enduring to the end, which is the day of His glorious return.
“the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the soil, being patient concerning it until it receives the early and late rains”, in the last part of verse 7.
Our Father in Heaven is patient with us!
How many times have we ran back to the world and played the harlot?
How many times have we sinned against Him, not only before we have been called for His glory, but after.
We know better and we still burn the ears of our friends about what we heard last week about Karen.
Or how many times have we as gentleman, caught ourselves being prideful, or even so letting our eyes slip to places they shouldn’t be and our imagination run us to places we ought not be?
God is patient with us. Not only is He patient with us, He provides for us, He waters us so our faith will grow.
He has placed us in His vineyard, He has grafted us into His vine, He cares for us in every way, seeing to it that what He has started in us He will finish.
We are the LORD’s fruit, we are the produce He has produced. He has gathered us in to His bosom and cared for us as the little children we are.
Let’s talk about how the LORD waters us. Does that mean we are always going to have blue skies and sunny days.
I don’t believe so. It rains more so with cloudy, dismal days, that it does on bluebird days.
What does that mean then? The LORD not only gives us times of refreshing, but also times of challenges.
Why is this? How much more greater are those times of refreshment after those times of tribulation!
Would our faith be as strong if we always had sunshine? Where would the LORD have the opportunity to show up with His strength and show you He cares for His child, He isn’t going to let you fall away. He grows are faith by those times, and he ripens us into fruit for the harvest.
During these times of temptation, heartache, struggle, or challenges, pray to your Father in Heaven to wrought in you patience, perseverance, and remind yourself that the Lord is using this for your good and the good of His purpose.
The Lexham English Bible (Chapter 5)
8 You also be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the coming of the Lord is near.
We see here the third time James has stated about being patient. The half brother of Jesus Christ is encouraging us to endure.
He goes a little further this time and directs us to strengthen our hearts.
How is it possible for us to strengthen our hearts?
By standing on the promises of truth we find in Scripture!
How do we know those truths, and how do we remind ourselves of those truths.
By diving into the well of love we know as the Holy Bible, we read God’s Word.
Another way we can strengthen our hearts, is something we have already talked about. Prayer.
Going back to verse 4, “the outcry of those” “has reached the ears of the Lord of armies”.
They cried out to the Lord in prayer, and we should do the same without ceasing!
Bless the LORD with and in your prayers and He will bless His little children.
One last way we can strengthen our hearts in by fasting.
I believe a lot of times fasting is looked at with the outlook of “I need this or I need that”. What we need is the LORD.
That is the exact thought we need to go into fasting with, “I need you LORD.”
That is the first thought we should have and realize that with all else will be taken care of by Him.
Why is James telling us to strengthen our hearts? None other than the coming of the LORD is near!
That statement alone should strengthen our hearts.
If this letter by James was written in 70AD, then 1,954 years ago He stated “the coming of the LORD is near”
That statement was true then and it is still true now. I agree with you, it is closer now that it was then, but I was also assert if He waits 2 thousand more years it is to near.
What is two thousand years when we think of eternity? It is merely a drop in a bucket.
It could be described as a grain of sand from all beaches and ocean-floor bottoms, but the ratio still would not be correct.
The old Hymn Amazing Grace so eloquently praises God as this: When we’ve been there 10,000 years, Bright shinning as the sun, We’ve no less days less days to sing God’s praise.”
We we step off into eternity, as our Champion, who has secured the victory returns, you will be thankful for you patience, you will be thankful for you perseverance, and forevermore you will be able, to face to face, thank Him for producing it in you.
The Lexham English Bible Chapter 5
9 Brothers, do not complain against one another, in order that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge stands before the doors!
James here changes his encouragement from being patient waiting of the LORD, to being patient with one another, then back to the LORD.
There is not a single one of us who are perfect. James chapter 3 clearly states that we all stumble in many ways.
In the same set of verses James warns about the tongue being a fire and set ablaze by the fire of hell.
There are a few things that we can take from this.
Why should we not complain? Why should we not gossip about the inefficiencies or shortfalls of another person.
First off, it is not Christ like. Do we anywhere in Scripture find Jesus pulling Peter, James, and John aside and telling them about all the little mistakes the other disciples are doing? No, and nor should we.
What would happen instead of complaining about someone, we exerted that energy to ask God to use us to help that person in their area of need?
Why else are we not to complain?
It simply takes our mind off of what it should be set on. Jesus Christ.
Colossians 3:1-2 reads “Therefore if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above , not on the things that are on earth.”
Thirdly, what does it do to and for our character when we gossip? How are we presently a Christ like image? Are we being ambassadors of Jesus Christ when we complain about someone else?
What does it do for our witness for Jesus Christ when we gossip, grudge or complain against one another?
When we are caught doing these things we will be judged as hypocrites. Not only is it wrong, and the LORD will deal with us, but what did we do to the other person?
The person that heard us claim to be a Christian, then heard us be a hypocrite.
There lies the possibility of turning that soul away from patience for the Lord’s return, and turning toward a eternity in perdition.
It is much more than just words when we complain against our neighbor. There are souls in the balance. And the Judge is standing at the door watching.
To end this verse James turns his attention back to the returning of the Lord.
Jame’s main point here is not to admonish his hearers with news of judgment but encourage them with the promise of deliverance.
I will do the same.
There are only two steps that must take place for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God the Father must take the first step and give Jesus the nod to gather from the ends of the earth the Saints of His church.
The second is Jesus Christ supernaturally stepping back into the natural realm and doing so.
Luke 12:32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, because your Father has chosen to give you the Kingdom.”
Be patient for the Lord, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wing, He is going to do the same you.
The Lexham English Bible (Chapter 5)
10 Brothers, take as an example of perseverance and endurance the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
I want to take notice here the two words that are used here in the Lexham English Bible.
They are the words we used earlier to describe patience. They are “perseverance” and “endurance”.
In the other translations the word “suffering” is used.
Romans 1:18 states the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory which shall be manifested in us.
A few other verses come to mind when we read this verse:
Mt 5:12 | Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Mt 23:34 | Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
Ac 7:52 | Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
We do suffer in America, being in the minority, being Christians, but what we are suffering for is so much greater than this world.
Though we do suffer in America we are not oppressed as other parts of the world, where you are not allowed to have open faith.
There are places you will loose your life for speaking the truth about Jesus, or even individually placing your faith and trust in Him.
None of us have the sufferings the prophets which the previous verses speak of. No one here in America, for the most part, is hunting us down and taking our lives for living for Jesus Christ.
This happened to our brothers, our forefathers, and what did they do?
They continued preaching the Gospel.
None of us have be persecuted the way John the Baptist was and our head served on a platter.
I’m willing to bet that no one in this room has been imprisoned for speaking and standing up for our faith.
These men died for the truth, because they knew it was true. They had experienced something that surpasses anything else this world has to offer.
They not only lived for what the were preaching, they shared what they had experienced so that others might come into the glorious light of Jesus Christ.
I saw all of that to say this, if we have experienced the same encounter with the Living God, and we are not persecuted as they were, why aren’t we sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ as vigorously as they were?
Are our sufferings as server as theirs? No. And they endured unto the end. How? By strengthening their selves with the Lord.
Through this suffering and endurance, we shall have the prize of virtue and shall be with God, for whom we suffer. This leads right into the beginning of the next verse.
The Lexham English Bible (Chapter 5)
11 Behold, we consider blessed those who have endured. You have heard about the patient endurance of Job, and you saw the outcome from the Lord, that the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
Why do we consider those who have endured blessed?
We count those who have endured blessed because they no longer have to endure this cruel world. They have been blessed with “Glorification” and they are separated from sin. Those that have finished the race of faith, have stepped into eternity and have come face to face with the one whom blessings flow from.
Old Testament example is New Testament instruction. Also, within the text of Scripture lies gems buried that must be dug out.
Case and point for both are made here with the reference to Job and his patient endurance.
James brilliantly places Job in these few verses to tie together everything that was said above.
If we turn to the book of Job there are a few verses that stick out and pertain to this teaching:
Job 1:21-22 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return thither: The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
Job was not focused on the material things of this world. He was not worried that the Lord had allowed Him suffering. Job knew the Lord was and is his blessing.
Job 2:10 | But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
Job lost everything he owned, was put through disease, family members had past own, but Job never sinned with his lips. He did not complain. He did not hold a grudge. Job knew that what the LORD had for him was best for the glory of the LORD.
And then we see things start to change for Job, and it is the strongest thing we have spoken about earlier. Job prayed.
Job 42:10 reads as this:
Job 42:10 | And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Job not only prayed, but he prayed for his friends. He was selfless. He cared more about what someone else was going through than that of himself.
There is something extremely powerful that happens when we show God that what we are going through we know He has it, and instead of focusing on us, we intercede for others.
How much more Christ like are when we realize, not my will Father, but yours, and not stopping there but interceding for others struggles instead of our own.
The one who sits at the right hand of the Father, the one who intercedes for you, as He was laying down His life for you sins, for something He did not do, prayed for those that beating Him and torturing Him.
We are to be like Christ. That is the measuring stick, that is the example that has been laid in-front us.
Christ accepted the cup that the Father had for Him, because He knew it was best. He knew that the Father was the was working all things together for those that are called and love Him.
We have not been through the trails that Job has, we have not been dealt a cup as our Savior drank, and we should follow their example of patience.
James 5:12 (LEB)
12 Now above all, my brothers, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no, no, in order that you may not fall under judgment.
If we were to read this verse with today’s understanding of the word “swear” we might look at this verse as being a little out of place.
Here, James does not have in mind to guard you against the use of foul or blasphemous language, that we now understand to be swearing.
Nor does he refer to the taking of legal oath.
James is urging us that there should be a ring of truth in all common conversations of a Christian.
How many times have you said something or heard something from someone as they tell you a secret to someone and finish it off with “I swear”.
James has instructed us not to complain about others, He has showed us that we should not complain about others with the story of Job.
And again, here he is reminding us we should not act this way.
Not only can someone else judge us as Christians as a whole, it is not Christ like, and the one who we are trying to emulate, the Judge, is standing at the door.