James 5:6-7 (Part 16) The Importance of Patience (Part 2)

Sequence

• Judgment is coming for the unjust, v. 1

• God is slow in executing justice

• Is living right really worth it?

Psalm 73—rests on a spiritual condition

• The wicked often prosper, v. 3

• The godly often suffer, v. 14

• Conclusion—living right is not worth it, v. 13

Three parts to Psalm 73

• Wrestles with the wicked prosper and godly suffer, vv. 1-14 (conflict/struggle)

o Encounter with truth (v. 1)

o Impersonal conviction (going to work his way to personal, v. 28)

o Truth never becomes personal w/out conflict

o Close to a fall—need to distinguish transitional (v. 13) and final attitude (v. 28)

• A turning to God, vv. 15-20

o His silence, v. 15

o His solution, vv. 16-17

• Brand-new growth, vv. 21-28

o New perspective (v. 21); new honesty (v. 22)

o New assurances (vv. 23-24)—about . . .

 Permanent relationship (v. 23a), faithfulness of God (v. 23b), guidance of God (v. 24)

o New devotion (vv. 27-28)—gets personal

 The key is getting an eternal perspective

Facts of life Asaph observed

• The thing the wicked are exempt from, vv. 4-5

• The excesses of the wicked, v. 4b

• The egotism of the wicked, vv. 6, 8, 9