UNTIL THE COMING OF THE LORD

Reference

JAMES 5:7-9

James 5:7-9 (NKJV)

Big Idea

Because the Lord is coming, believers must patiently trust God's timing, depend upon God's power, and graciously bear with one another.

Outline

I. Trust God's Timing

James 5:7-8
The farmer waits because he knows harvest is coming.
The Christian waits because he knows Christ is coming.

II. Depend Upon God's Power

Patience is a fruit of the Spirit.
Patience is not merely difficult; it is impossible apart from God.
God supplies what He commands.

III. Graciously Bear With One Another

Do not grumble against one another.
The danger of grumbling is that it puts us in the judge's seat. James reminds us that seat is already occupied.
The Judge is standing at the door.

Scripture Slides (NKJV)

Main Text

James 5:7-9

Point I

James 1:2-4

Point II

Colossians 1:11

Galatians 5:22-23

1 Corinthians 13:4

Conclusion

Romans 2:4-5

Romans 9:22-23

Quotes

Elisabeth Elliot

"He makes us wait. He keeps us on purpose in the dark. He makes us all wait when we want to run, sit when we want to walk, for He has things to do in our souls that we are not interested in."

R.C. Sproul

"When I think I'm unfairly hated, I try to remember that I'm unfairly loved."

----- Transcript----------------------

It's good to be here. No matter how bad a day or week I've had or what I've had to deal with, it's like a breath of fresh air coming in here. So I'm grateful to the Lord. Matthew 9:39 or 37:38 says, Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you are holy and righteous. You spare us from the wrath to come. You fill us with your spirit. You enrich our lives through your love and grace.
We are grateful to Lord. Thank you Lord, grant our children ears to hear this morning that they may be saved. Would you grant Jennifer Jones and all the children's workers, wisdom in leading our children. God, I ask for favor for our missionaries. I ask that you protect them as they bring your word to the lost.
Would you fill their days with seeking, with seeing the fruit of their labors? Lord, I ask that your spirit fill refuge church. I ask that you would restore hope to the hopeless, heal the broken relationships and save the lost. And Father, I ask for blessing upon Randy as he brings the message this morning. Encourage him, Lord, with peace and assurance that you will give him the words to speak and prepare our hearts to hear it.
In Jesus name, amen.
Good morning. When I found out I was going to be speaking on some verses dealing with patience, I thought, I can't wait.
Some of y' all get that later. But it's both. It's both a joke and a laugh. Some of you who know me well will get the part that it's a lie too. So let's read our text this morning.
First, let me pray.
Father, thank you for the truth of your words. Thank you. That brings light to us. It reveals things to us, it reveals you to us, and it reveals us to ourselves. So, God, what a great opportunity now for you and your spirit to be strong in my weakness.
And I pray for the power of the Holy Spirit and the presence of him, the presence of Christ to be in here in this place today in Jesus name. Amen. So let's read our text. James 5, 7, 9.
Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth. 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. There's some passages of scripture that are encouraging and comforting and challenging. And this is one that's all three. So James begins with the word therefore. And I learned long ago from wise and scholarly men that whenever you see a therefore in the Bible, you want to look at the context and see what the therefore is there for.
So the previous first six verses, James has been talking about some wealthy landowners who are ungodly people. And they were oppressing these poor believers that are scattered abroad after the persecution and trouble Jerusalem. And they were withholding their wages. They were working hard and not getting full pay and abusing people who had little power to fight back. They didn't have the means to fight back.
And so James publicly puts those. Those men on trial but they're not the ones reading his letter. He's not speaking to them. He's speaking to the believers who were suffering because of them. And his response is surprising.
He doesn't say, seek an opportunity to get even. Get your stuff back. He doesn't tell them to retaliate? No, it's kind of surprising. He says, therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.
So that's the theme of this passage, because of the Lord is coming. Believers must patiently trust God's timing, depend upon God's power, and graciously bear with one another. That might be the hardest part, patiently trusting God's timing. In the New Testament, there are two different words that in the original language are translated patience. In our English Bibles don't tune out here.
The one that, whichever is used depends on the context. So 1, 1 speaking of enduring hard circumstances, that's the word hupomone. And the other speaks of enduring hard people. That's the word macrothemia. Now, don't you feel better knowing that?
Aren't y' all edified? So the first word, hupomona. Here's how I remember this word. Picture a hippopotamus, and he's sitting on a dollar bill. Money.
But y' all got this. You'll never forget it now, will you? Because it's so absurd. You're going to remember this. Hippopotamus sitting on a dollar bill, turned sideways, and yet somehow the dollar bill is still staying there.
It's not being crushed, it's just staying there. It means to remain under. That's the first word.
Can you. You can see it, right? Okay, that's endurance. That's crushing weight. That's.
That's how you remain under something.
Steadfastness. James 1:4 uses this. James uses both words, and in the first chapter, he says this. But let patience, hupomone habits, perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. It has to do with our maturity, our stay, staying power.
Keep on. This is a. That's patients under trials, difficulties, testing hardship, hupomonae. But here in chapter five, he uses this different word. And he.
And he knew the difference in the words he was using. He uses the word macrothumia. You know, macro means long. Thumia means temper or anger. So it means long fuse.
You speak of somebody and they say, man, that guy's got a short fuse. Well, this is the opposite of having a short fuse. It's being patient, slow to retaliate, patient with people. Because the issue here in James 5 is not merely difficult circumstances. That's there.
Your faith is always being tested. The issue here is difficult people. And as we'll see as we get into of the verses, it's not just difficult people out there, it's difficult people in the church because he said. He keeps calling them brethren. He's used the word brethren 15 times in the book of James.
He's talking to us.
So he gives an illustration. A farmer. Look, is there any other occupation that so clearly, obviously, is totally dependent upon God's providence than farming? I mean, every occupation really is, ultimately. But here's one that really is clear.
The farmer knows it. He can't make it rain. He can't make the sunshine. He can't control the weather. The success of his labor rests totally in the hands of God.
Yet he's already invested something. He's already divested himself of this seed that he's put into the ground. And he doesn't lean over the fence the next day and talk to the seed and say, grow. Hurry up. You know, we're so impatient that we.
We sit in front of the microwave and say, hurry up. Are you 30 seconds? Are you kidding me?
So the farmer invests in a harvest he can't see. He doesn't. But his waiting is not passive. He doesn't just kind of sit back in his rocking chair for those six months and wait for things to happen. He's.
Maybe he's repairing the fences and maybe he's protecting his crop somehow and shooing away critters that might eat up the plants when they first come up or things like that. He's not passive about it. He's waiting upon God, but he's waiting expectantly. He expects something to come up.
But what's the. So the precious. He's waiting for the precious fruit of the earth to come forth. But what's the. By comparison?
What's the precious thing that the believers are waiting for? The precious harvest, if you will. It's the coming of Jesus. We're patiently. You're expecting it.
Well, how long do we have to wait? Well, that's the problem. Patience wouldn't be difficult if it didn't take so long to get it, you know? But how long do I need to be patient my whole life? The recipients of that letter, did the Lord come during their lifetime?
In a way, yes. But did he come back to the earth? No, that was 2,000 years ago. He still hasn't come back. So they waited their entire lives, and then maybe the Lord came for them individually at Their death.
So that's what we're doing. We're waiting until he comes their whole life. Either way, the command remains, be patient. Trust God's timing. The farmer waits because he knows the harvest is coming.
The Christian waits because we know Christ is coming. You know that waiting is one of God's favorite tools to transform us, to make us like Christ. I don't think it's one of ours. I don't think it's one of our favorites. We want movement.
We want things to happen. We want answers. We want resolution. We want relief. We want God to explain himself.
Sometimes we're interested in God changing our circumstances. God's interested in changing us. Elizabeth Elliot, if y' all don't know who Elizabeth Elliot it is, read anything you can find from her or listen to her old preserved podcast. But anyway, she once wrote, he makes us wait. He keeps us on purpose in the dark.
He makes us all wait when we want to run, to sit, when we want to walk. And here's the punchline for me. Kick my gut. He has things to do in our soul that we are not. We are not interested in, like, developing patience.
So how are we going to be patient all our lives till the coming of the Lord? If everything in life went your way, you wouldn't. You wouldn't need patience. You know, it doesn't say act patient. It says, be patient.
There's a difference. If everyone did what you wanted, when you wanted, and the way you wanted it, there would never be an opportunity to display patience. The flesh that is our old nature, apart from Christ, that still resides in us. It does not naturally respond with patience. I should get an amen or something.
The flesh protests. Doesn't go your way. You protest, you complain, you grumble. The flesh retaliates. It wants the last word.
I'll give you an example. I was at a high school basketball game recently. I could say that pretty much all the time. It was a close game, very competitive game. Last moments of the game, controversial call is made.
One side's cheering, one side's booing. And then everything kind of settles down. And then there's this one voice that kept going, terrible. That was a terrible call. That was awful.
You know, it was terrible. You just changed the game. And by this time, the players are all walk down to the other end of the court. They're getting ready to shoot foul shots. Last few seconds of the game still, there's this voice still going.
And then Jessica put her hand on my knee and said, dad, that's enough. Stop it was me.
The voice was mine. And now I laugh at it too. But maybe that's our problem. We laugh at sin. Is that too much?
What was it really? It was my flesh. It was the old man still coming out of me. Think of the layers of ungodliness in that moment. Who put the referees in charge of the game?
God.
I'm to submit to God given authority as unto Christ and for Christ's sake? Right. Were they fallible? Absolutely. So is every other God given authority in your life.
Your parents, teachers, elders, pastors, bosses, government officials. They're all fallible. Could they have made a mistake? Likely. Was it honoring to Christ for me to be condemning him publicly?
Nope. Was it a godly example that I want to set for my daughter and my son in law and my grandson who was playing in the game? No. Would I have been a very impactful witness? Must have been 500 people on the other side of the stands if I'd come up afterwards and say, hey, let me show you how Jesus has made me such a patient person.
No. I'd have zero credibility with them. 0.
So in Galatians 5:22 it includes outbursts of anger are listed among the works of the flesh. That's what that was. My instinct was not patience, it was protest. It was. I wanted to make sure everybody knew I disagreed with that.
Was it Christ like? No. Was it patient? No. Was it a work of the Spirit?
No, it was a work of the flesh. So it just all came naturally. That's exactly what I mean. Mean the works of the flesh come naturally and that's why this matters. Patience is not a small thing.
In Galatians 5:22, contrasting the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering. That's how it's translated sometimes macrothymia. Remember that Long tempered. So patience is not self improved. Patience is not personality.
It's not something that some people have and some people don't. It's a fruit. You don't summon it from within yourself and some hidden strength you have in yourself. Patience is the evidence of the work and fruit of the Spirit of God. It's the proof of the presence and power of Christ in us.
Colossians 1:11 says in his great God glorifying prayer that Paul prays for the Colossians. He says he prays that they be filled with the knowledge of God's will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. And it just begins to just ramp up that they may be walk Worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work. This is an amazing prayer. What a victory, and what a mouthful of a prayer it is.
And then. And look at what comes next. In Colossians 1:11, it says, strengthened with all might. This is sounding good. According to his glorious power.
And it says, unto or for all? Patience and long suffering. Those are two words. With joy. That's the kicker.
With joy. It's not stoic. It's not you trying to be apathetic. Like, I'm not going to let that bother me. I'm not going to let that bother me.
I'm not going to let that bother me. I'm not that kind of thing. It's like not being bothered. It's not indifference, though. So how much power, according to this verse, how much power does it take to be patient?
A little or a lot. Like the power of Almighty God. Sounds like all might according to his glorious power. So I don't mean to convey to you that patience is a difficult thing, or even a very difficult thing. I don't mean to convey that patience is a extremely difficult thing.
I mean, patience is impossible. This kind of patience, this kind of patience that Jesus had, it's impossible for me, it's impossible for you. Apart from God, the presence and power of Christ, the Holy Spirit in us. So grace is not only receiving the opposite of what we deserve. We talk about the unmerited favor of God, unmerited things that God does for us, good things.
Grace is also the unmerited ability to do what God wants us to do.
Paul says in First Corinthians, Romans 13:4, this is the love chapter. Everybody knows at least part of it. You know the very first descriptor of what divine love is like. And it's really, this is one characteristic. And I think when we read it, it sounds like two, but it's really one.
Love suffers long and is kind, comma. It doesn't say, love is patient. Love is, comma, love is kind. It says, love is long suffering and still kind.
That's different. So love is. Patience is love stretched over time. Patience is what love looks like when it's tested.
So we're to graciously bear with one another. The passage goes on. James repeats his command, you also be patient. And then he adds, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Well, now, the coming of the Lord is not like some distant thing.
He's right hand. It's right now. He's not far, he's near. So get Settled. Hang in there.
Don't quit. Don't throw in the towel. Look how far you've come. Don't give up now. Don't go back.
The Lord's near. And then he gets very specific in verse 9. Do not grumble against one another again. Brethren, brothers and sisters, family, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door.
So the teacher says, in elementary school, if y' all can think back, it's getting harder and harder for me to think back that far. But, you know, remember elementary school. The teacher says, class, I've got to step outside for just a minute, but I'm going to be right outside the door. So you all behave. She closes the door, total chaos breaks out.
Why? Because people. People act differently when they think authority is absent.
James says Christ is not absent. He says the judge is standing at the door with his hand on the doorknob. The danger of grumbling is that it puts us in the judge's seat. We judge each other. We render verdicts, and sometimes we perform executions with our time.
And James has spent a whole chapter talking about the evils that reside, that come out of your mouth, come out of our mouths. So James reminds us, hey, the judge's seat is already occupied. There's only one judge. It isn't me. It isn't you.
So before I condemn my brother, I should remember that both of us will soon stand before the same judge. And I should remember the gospel R.C. sproul said, when I think I'm unfairly hated, I try to remember that I'm unfairly loved.
That is profoundly Christian thinking, because when I'm criticized, rejected, misunderstood, ignored, mistreated, my instinct is to focus on the offense and what I think I deserve and how wrong the other person was.
But the gospel reminds me that if God gave me what I deserved, I would be under the righteous judgment of God forever. Forever. Instead, he gives me mercy. Instead, he gives me grace. Instead, he gives me forgiveness and adoption into his family and eternal life in Christ.
So I want to talk to you in my remaining minutes here about the patience of God.
You know, Jesus put up with sinners all the time. He endured, it says he endured contradiction of sinners against himself. He was patient with his slow to believe disciples, and they didn't understand. And he was constantly patient with them. And he also was the other kind of patience.
He endured a lot. Lot. Wouldn't you say? He endured the cross. It says that's the hupamoni word.
So every believer in this room is a testimony to the patience of God. Yes. How many times has he born with us? How many times has he put up with your foolish decisions? How many times has he forgiven you?
How many times has he restored you? But God's patience extends beyond belief. God, right now, this moment, is being patient. He's long fused with the entire world. You know, one time he decided to wipe out the whole world and he's going to do that again differently.
But. So he sends rain on the just and the unjust, as the scriptures say. He provides air for us to breathe. You eat food every day. You have friendships.
You laugh every day. You have the gift of life itself.
But many mistake God's patience for God's approval. They mistake his kindness for his acceptance. They mistake his delay in judgment as the absence of judgment. It's just not going to happen. I mean, I've done some terrible things.
I'm okay. And God hasn't struck me dead or anything. He must be be okay with me. They assume that because judgment has not come, everything must be fine between themselves and God. Do you think that here's the reality if you're outside of Christ, Here's.
Listen to this. This is just one of several verses like this, but this is the one that I have. Romans 2, 4 and 5. Strong language. Really.
Or do you despise. That's a strong word. Do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance and long suffering? That's his patience. Not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance, but in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself.
Wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. The longer a person lives without coming to Christ, without humbling themselves to him, the greater the wrath is. He's being patient. His goodness is not to lead you to complacency. It's not designed to lead you to presumptions that I'm okay, look at how my life is going.
You really can't tell God's attitude towards you personally by what is happening around you and to you. Because some of God's choice of servants are suffering harshly, painfully, and some of God's enemies are laughing it up and happy and have no intention of submitting themselves to Christ. No, this goodness of God is designed you to repent. The patience of God is his restraint. Only almighty God can hold back Almighty God.
Right? He's being patient with you. He's holding back his righteous wrath and final judgment upon sinners who live in his universe as rebels.
Romans 9 says that God has endured with much long suffering.
Vessels of wrath fit for destruction. Listen, who's been more opposed than God? Who's been more resisted than God? Who's been spoken evil of more than God? Who's been more rejected and more slandered than God?
And yet he continues to show patience, kindness. Not because sin doesn't matter, but because judge. Not because judgment isn't coming, but because he's loving and he's giving you opportunity to repent and trust his son. The trial has already occurred for the human race. The verdict has already been rendered.
The question is not whether mankind is guilty. The whole world is guilty before God.
The question is when is the sentence going to be executed? Jesus didn't come the first time to condemn the world. He says that I did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that through me the world might be saved.
He came into a world already condemned. He came to save sinners. And he did it by giving his life as a sin bearing substitute for all who come to him.
So you should come to him, find him today as a savior and don't mean him as judge. But the second time he comes, he will come as judge. And James reminds us, behold, the judge is standing at the door.
So if you haven't come to him, come, if you believe in him, then trust God's timing, depend upon God's power and graciously bear with one another. Because you know, as Christians we can drive each other nuts. I mean, you think about it, you know, we deal with our immaturity, we deal with the immaturity of others, ill temperedness, all of these things, Lord, you know, and if I'm that person to you that just really irritates you, then I just want to thank God right now that I'm the means of grace in your life to teach you patience, patience.
So we're to patiently, graciously bear with one another because the judge is standing at the door. I'm really, I just can't believe I've got five minutes left and nothing to say. So I'm just going to pray. Look, if you realize that you, you know, has the goodness of God actually resulted in its intended purpose in your life, has it caused you to come to God? And if it hasn't, well then today's the day you need to repent and believe the gospel.
So I'm going to close with that and say a prayer and then we'll go from there.
Well, Father, I thank you for your amazing Patience with us.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, that when you die, you knew all about all of us and you said yes. Anyway, it says that you've endured the cross despising its shame, but there was a joy that was set before you and that was the rescue of ruined sinners from the fall. To be chosen and brought to heaven with you, to be like you, Lord Jesus, Lord, that is our goal, that's the purpose of our lives, is that you're conforming us to the image of your dear son. Father and I thank you for the attentiveness of your people in Jesus name.
Man, did I love that. I know so many people that need to hear that message and I include myself certainly in that group that was so edifying to my soul. Thank you, Randy. Praise the Lord for that.
I love being a part of Great Commission Church and one of the things that I get to do is present new folks to you. And so I would like to for you to help me welcome to the stage Rosie Burke. How are you, Rosie? Here she comes.
Come right up here and stand next to me. This is 16 year old, right, Rosie Burke of the infamous Burke family. Her dad was up here earlier sharing the offering. Talk with us if you wanted to make a connection. And so, Rosie, give me just a moment.
I'm going to read the names of the members of your family. Okay, Starts with Matt and Jessica Burke, who are seated right over here. Please hold your applause until all family members are. We have KK Burke, shows his age is zero over here on my sheet. And then we have London Taylor, age 1.
Mackenzie Burke, 5. Raylan Burke, 9. Weston Burke, 14. And Rosie Burke, 16. And so, Rosie, you ended up having a meeting exploring membership here at Great Commission.
Do you remember how that came came about? I'm going to give you a hint. You marked a box on the welcome card, which I want to encourage everyone if you want to take a next step with Great Commission Church, you mark one of those boxes that you think applies to you and we're going to react to that. So you marked on there that you'd like to explore membership. So we set up a time, we got together, you interacted with part of our membership team and they said they had an absolute wonderful time interacting with you and they got to hear your testimony of your faith in Christ and that when you were around seven, you had come to faith in Christ and you were baptized.
You were at a different church at the time, but you wanted to officially be a part of Great Commission Church. You already volunteer if you checked in Any of your children this morning, you might have seen Rosie standing at one of the doors back there, welcoming your child into that side of the children's area. You're also involved in a student small group.
You're just a dream come true, Rosie, and we are so delighted to have you. So, Rosie, is it your confession in front of the membership here of Great Commission Church that you're trusting in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sins and the gift of eternal life? Is that the confession of your soul? Yes. Well, based on that church, we're going to welcome in Rosie.
If you'd like to receive her into our church family, would you raise your hand and say amen? Will you know who you are right now? You are the most recent member of Great Commission Church. Let's welcome Rosie.
Don't go anywhere. No, don't go anywhere. I can see that desire to bolt. We're going to pray for Rosie, okay? Heavenly Father, thank you for Rosie and how you brought her here, how she serves you, how she loves you.
Help us to be a church family to her so that her faith will grow and her love for you will grow. Blessed her being a part officially of this faith family, and how we thank you for her and the entire family. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen. All right, now you can go.
As we conclude our service this morning, one who read Mark, Chapter one. Mark, chapters one through six is passed through week. Okay. Look at all these hands. All right, well, your assignment this coming week is mark chapter seven through 13.
You start today and you'll finish up on Saturday. Mark 7 through 13. Just get some good Bible reading as a regular part of your Christian experience. And I wanted y' all to know that Rosie marked here on the card and how it activated things. So if you're sitting there going, going, well, how do I take a next step?
It's not a commitment and it's not an obligation. It's just a next step. So if you'd like to explore one of these areas, you mark that on the box, put your name, put your phone number on there, and we'll contact you and let you know how we can help you with that next step. Now, at this time, I'd like to ask our prayer ministry teams to come forward, if you would. As that's happening, you can stand.
Let's stand together. And I want to urge you to take advantage of our prayer ministry that we offer at the end of every service. These folks are dedicated and committed to seeking the Lord in order to pray for you. So whether it's a physical illness, an emotional struggle. Whether it's a desire that God.
God would grant you more patience. Remove some grumbling. You have lost friends or relatives. You come and let these pray for you. And if there's a line that forms, be patient and let the Lord minister to you this morning.
Okay? Thank you for being here. We are dismissed.

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