James - James 5:7-12

Now if somebody has abused you, defrauded you, exploited you, if you look around at circumstances and find that they're really unbearable, then James gives to you three very wonderful promises to encourage you to be patient in times of trial.

And now let's pray together. Father, we open the word of God. It admonishes us. Sometimes what it says hurts us, but it always helps us. Thank you, Father, for the convicting work of the Spirit of God through the word. Forgive us our impatience, our grumbling, and our complaining, and help us to be obedient and help us to be able to rejoice even in the midst of difficulties and to trust you even in the midst of trials. I pray this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

What is a Christian supposed to do when he's been defrauded, when people have abused him? They might even have taken him to court and abused him. What is he supposed to do? In James 5:1-6, James admonished the rich and warned them that judgment was coming, warned them that all of their riches were getting corroded and corrupted. And then in verse 7, he has a word of encouragement for God's people. And to summarize 7 through 12, he simply says, "Don't grumble, don't complain, don't fight, be patient. Be patient." 

Now he encourages them in the patience and the endurance of the saints. Let's read James 5 beginning at verse 7: "Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No,' lest you fall into judgment."

Notice the emphasis on patience and endurance. In verse 7, twice he talks about patience. Verse 8, verse 10. In verse 11, he talks about enduring and about perseverance. Now, the word patience means to have a long temper. It means to be patient with circumstances and with the things that are going on around us and within us. Down in verse 11, it's a different word, perseverance. It means endurance, being able to hold out under the stresses of life. 

God is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish. God has long-suffering. God does not need patience in the same sense that we do because God is perfect. Be patient. And he gives us three promises to encourage us to be patient. Now if you're going through some difficult time, if somebody has abused you, somebody has defrauded you, exploited you, if you look around at circumstances and find that they're really unbearable, then here is what you need. 

James gives to you three very wonderful promises to encourage you to be patient in times of trial. By the way, that is one of the marks of a mature Christian: patience and prayerful in trial. First he says the Lord is coming. Then he says the harvest is coming. And finally he says the blessing is coming. In other words, James is saying when the outlook is difficult, try the up-look. When you look back and have regrets and look around and have discouragements, try looking ahead. The Lord is coming, the harvest is coming, and the blessing is coming. 

"Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord." The Lord is coming. Now he emphasizes that again in verse 8: "You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand." Verse 9: "Do not grumble"—that means to groan and moan and complain—"against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned, lest you be judged. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!" 

Now here are three references to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider this marvelous event. The Lord is coming. It is a certain event, not a speculation. No "ifs" about it. He doesn't say, "Now it's possible that someday maybe the Lord will return." No, he says, "the coming of the Lord," "the coming of the Lord," "the Judge is standing at the door." This is a certain event. 

Now Paul writes about this event in 1 Thessalonians 4:13: "I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep"—that means they've died—"lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus," or those who have been put to sleep through Jesus. That's a beautiful thought, isn't it? That when a Christian dies, he goes to sleep and Jesus is there to put him to sleep and of course he awakens in the new world in the presence of the Lord. 

"For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort, encourage one another with these words." 

It is a certain event. But James goes on to say it is an imminent event. It is at hand. Verse 8: "the Lord is at hand," "the coming of the Lord is at hand." The coming of the Lord has drawn near. Now we don't have to wait for any signs to take place. No marvels have to occur. Jesus can come back at any time. He is in control of the future. 

Someone says, "Well we've been waiting a long time." Well Peter wrote about this in 2 Peter 3:3: "knowing this first... that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.'" And then James goes on to explain that God's calendar is not like ours. A thousand years is as one day to him, and one day is a thousand years. And God will keep his promises and he is going to send his Son. 

However, the reason our Lord is waiting is to give people a chance to be saved. He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. The coming of the Lord is a certain event, it's an imminent, impending event, it's a serious event. The Judge is at the door. Now there are many aspects of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ that are so beautiful and so exciting, to see the Bridegroom and to see our loved ones and to have a new body and all the things we sing about when we sing about the coming of the Lord. But don't forget when he comes, he also comes as the Judge. We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The Lord is coming.

The Lord is coming. Now what should this do for us? Well, it should make us patient. We know where we are going. He is in control. We should establish our hearts. Verse 8: "You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand." That means don't be double-minded. Don't be vacillating. James wrote about that in James 1:8, a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. Let's be patient. Let's not be double-minded. Let's establish our hearts on the word of God. 

Some of the saints are forever running, buying this new book and going to that new seminar to learn all the mysteries of the future. Nobody knows when the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come back. And therefore we must be ready today. The Judge is at the door. 

Also, I think that James is telling us that we should quit complaining and start loving. "Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned." How can we grumble when we have such a beautiful thing happening to us? Jesus is going to come. You know when you have something very happy and wonderful planned for your life or for your family, it makes the atmosphere in the home so different. When the children know they're going on vacation or there's going to be a birthday party or Christmas or some happy event, my, they want to do the dishes and they clean up their room and there's just an atmosphere of joy and anticipation. 

Well, why don't we have that in our churches, in our lives? Why are we complaining? What is there to complain about? Stop complaining, he says. Establish your heart. Be patient. The Lord Jesus is coming. And he warns them in verse 12, don't swear. He's talking about unnecessary oaths here. Don't swear. Just have the kind of character where your "Yes" is "Yes," your "No" is "No." You don't have to bolster your words with all kinds of ammunition to get people to believe you. Just live a holy godly life and watch your speech. 

The Lord is coming. Now that should encourage us to endure. I don't know what you're having to endure today, but just remember Jesus is coming. "In my Father's house are many mansions... I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself." 

The Lord is coming. Now in verse 7 of James 5, he says the harvest is coming. "See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain." In the Holy Land the early rain came about October-November, the latter rain about April-May. They depended on that for their crops. If that rain didn't come, that was it. They were just unable to grow their crops. 

Now the Lord is saying a farmer cannot control circumstances. A farmer cannot control the weather, he cannot control the bugs. He tries, he puts all kinds of chemicals down, but here he's talking about waiting for the harvest. Now in the Bible, the harvest is a repeated image that pictures many things. 

The harvest is a picture of death, for example. Job 5:26: "You shall come to the grave at a full age, as a sheaf of grain ripens in its season." In other words, when the sheaf of grain gets to the point of harvest, then the reaper comes in. That's where the idea of the Grim Reaper comes from. Death is pictured as a harvest. 

Judgment is pictured as a harvest. Joel 3:12: "Let the nations be wakened and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe." God looks at that final judgment as a harvest. 

The winning of souls is pictured by the harvest. The Lord Jesus Christ said that the harvest was plentiful, but the laborers were few. Matthew 9:37. In John 4:35: "Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are already white for harvest!" 

But here James is talking about the harvest of our lives. I think he's referring to the same idea that Paul wrote about in Galatians 6:7-9: "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we do not faint," if we do not lose heart. 

Here were these poor Christians who were being exploited. They were being defrauded. They were not being paid their salary. And yet they were living godly lives and James said, "You keep on sowing the seeds of godliness." He talked about that back in verse 18 of James 3: "Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." The Lord is coming and the harvest is coming. Now be patient. You've been sowing the seeds. You've been sowing the word of God. You've been sowing the precious seed. Now be patient. God is going to give you the harvest. 

There may be some pastor, some missionary, some Sunday school teacher listening right now and it seems as though there is no harvest. Here you are faithfully studying and praying and working and it seems like the harder you work the more difficult things become and the Lord says to you, "The harvest is coming." Don't be weary in well doing. "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." 

There's a third future promise though. The Lord is coming and the harvest is coming and verses 10, 11, and 12 tell us the blessing is coming. What blessing? The blessing of changed character. He says now look at the prophets what God did for them. Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel. Look at Job what God did for him. The most important thing about difficulty is not that we get out of it but what we get out of it. 

Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it. And what life does to you pretty much depends upon what life finds in you. Now God has his purposes. God had his purpose for the prophets. God had his purpose for Job. Notice what it says in verse 11: "You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful." 

Now it may not look like that. You see Job sitting in the ash heap. His wife has turned against him, he's lost his family, his business has failed, his friends are criticizing him. Looks like God has forsaken him. You say that's the mercy and compassion of the Lord? Yes, because God wasn't through with him yet. Job's latter end was far greater than the former. And God worked in the prophets and in Job. 

God works out his purposes. He wants to build character. You see here are these poor people who are being exploited by the rich and they are saying, "Oh if we only had money we could take them to court." And James says that wouldn't solve any problems. "Oh if we only had more power we could dethrone them." Oh, James is saying the most important thing is that the blessing come to our lives. Not pie in the sky by and by, but right here and now the blessing of God that builds Christian character. 

Hebrews 12 talks about this, verse 9: "Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they," our human fathers, "indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present"—Job would say amen to that—"but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained," or exercised, "by it." 

The writer is simply saying this: exercise your faith. Do the will of God. Don't grumble. Don't complain. Don't go around shooting off your mouth in some obnoxious fashion. Remember God has a purpose in all of this and the way of the Lord is the right way. The Psalmist really said it beautifully in Psalm 103:8: "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy." He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. 

Sometimes the believer will say, "Well I wish God would give me what I deserve," meaning I've been a good boy, I need a reward. If God gave us what we deserve, we would be in hell. Let's be thankful for the grace of God. The blessing is coming. I don't know what you're going through today. There's some difficulty in every life, but there's going to be a day when you're going to thank God and you've discovered that the Lord is compassionate and merciful. When you get impatient, remember the Lord is coming, the harvest is coming—that seed will bear fruit—the blessing is coming. Establish your heart.

[Interview:]

Up next, Warren joins Arnie Cole, CEO of Back to the Bible International.

Warren, what have you been busy with since you were last at Back to the Bible? 

Well, we were in conference ministry quite a bit, and that was a joy. We've been in pastors' conferences, I've preached in many churches, but about six or seven years ago, four doctors ganged up on me. And they said, "You're no longer in the air and you're no longer on the highway, stay home." So for the last six or seven years, Betty and I have been home. I've enjoyed it. Our family comes to us and we don't have to go to them. And good friends here in Lincoln have been so wonderful to us. And so what I've been doing is writing, primarily.