James No.13 The Patience of Hope

Revelation chapter 7 and from the ninth verse. After this I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands and cried with a loud voice saying salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb and all the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts and fell before the throne on their faces and worship God saying amen blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever amen and one of the elders answered saying unto me what are these which are arrayed in white robes and whence came they and I said unto him sir thou knowest and he said to me these are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb therefore are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them they shall hunger no more neither thirst anymore neither shall the Sun light on them nor any heat for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters and God shall wipe all tears from their eyes amen now let's turn to the epistle of James and I'm reading to you from the fifth chapter the seventh through to the twelfth verses inclusive James chapter 5 and we're thinking about the subject of patience the patience of hope be patient then brothers until the Lord's coming see how the farmer waits for the lamb to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains you to be patient and stand firm because the Lord's coming is near don't grumble against each other brothers or you will be judged the judges standing at the door brothers as an example of patience in the face of suffering take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as you know we consider blessed those who have persevered you have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about the Lord is full of compassion and mercy above all my brothers do not swear not by heaven or by earth or by anything else let your yes be yes and your no no or you will be condemned one of my favorite definitions of the preacher which I've quoted before is that his task is to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed now that may not be an adequate definition covering every aspect of the responsibilities of a minister but if you admit to the fact that those two goals are important and basic to his task then you will agree that pastor James who ministered from the pulpit at Jerusalem was a very successful preacher indeed last week when we were gathered together we were considering the first six verses of this chapter and here James reels round and he turns his sights upon rich insensitive businessmen and he speaks to them in the most disturbing fashion imaginable these were men probably of Jewish background who'd amassed a great deal of gold they got many shekels in the bank but the way that they lived their lives indicated that spiritually they were insensitive to God's requirements and humanly they had no concern for the well-being of ordinary people whose lots spiraled downwards because they exploited the poor so James turns on them he reels on them and he speaks about their grain which gave them so much money and he says as for your grain verse 2 it will rot as for your garments they'll become moth-eaten as for your gold will become moth-eaten and ragged as for your gold it will rust and then in language that really resembles that of Amos the Old Testament prophet he makes reference to human beings in terms of cows verse 5 who just fattened themselves in a very stupid way lacking any foresight not realizing that the the day of slaughter is coming you remember how Amos who obviously hadn't read the book how to win friends and influence people refers to some Jewish women in northern Israel and he calls them the cows of Bashan because they're rich and they encourage their husbands to treat the poor in such a terrible terrible fashion well here I say is Pastor James and he's reproducing the language of Amos here is a man who is disturbing those who are comfortable and he threatens them with the day of slaughter with the return of Jesus Christ Paul reminds us in Thessalonians that when Jesus comes he shall come with ten thousands of his holy angels to execute judgment upon the earth so here is James I say securing that first goal of the preacher he is disturbing those who are comfortable he's disturbing those who are complacent but he's got someone else to talk to and he turns to them in the seventh verse and addresses them right down to the twelfth verse these are people who are in need these are people who require to be comforted these are people who James recognizes to be his own spiritual kinsmen and so he starts to talk to them and the interesting thing is that he uses exactly the same platform for his teaching as he had employed for the rich but this time it brings comfort and not disturbance you say what do you mean well Pastor James had been referring to the coming of Jesus and he terrified the rich people at the thought of judgment go to now ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you but now he fastens onto the return of Jesus and he employs the doctrine in a very different way why well you see his concern is to comfort those who are disturbed and there were Jewish Christians who were going through a great deal of difficulties in the Roman Empire they were the butt of the Roman police they were the butt of the Jewish authorities it's to these people that James has been writing in the first few verses of his epistle when he says my brothers count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations he recognizes that these men these women are really going through great difficulty and so he gives them an inducement to be patient look at the seventh verse and also the eighth verse be patient therefore brothers unto the coming of the Lord he repeats it I say again in the eighth you to be patient and stand firm here is Pastor James concerned to deal with the needs of folks who require more than anything else to be comforted and look how he refers to these people in the seventh verse he calls them brothers he does the same also in the ninth verse grumble not against one another brothers he does exactly the same in the tenth verse brothers as an example of patience in the face of suffering and so forth and in the twelfth verse above all my brothers do not swear not by heaven or by earth you see he's not talking to those rich merchantmen he's talking to Christian people who are going through great difficulty he wants to induce them induce them to what well induce them to patience and he speaks to them as though he feels for them as any true pastor should feel for his flock well James how are you going to bring this this great experience of patience to bear in the flock over which you have some responsibility well he does so by three things he first of all reminds them and this was what he had said to the merchantmen you remember but handle the doctrine differently he reminds them of the soon return of Jesus and then later on he refers to the perseverance of Saints who have suffered in times gone by verse 10 take my brother the prophets as your example and then later on he speaks about the very character of God remember this that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy verse 11 let's just try and summarize those things and put them in easily remembered headings he induces patience by speaking about the coming of Jesus and also the coping of the prophets and finally the caring of God the coming of Jesus the coping of the prophets and the caring of God and I want to say to anybody here who's going through great difficulties in their lives that one of the way in which patience shall be cultivated is by staying your mind on these three very very important subjects Jesus is coming again other people have coped with problems the character of God remains the same well let's look at this first piece of argumentation here the coming of Jesus there are three references to this in our passage look at the seventh verse be patient then brothers until the Lord's coming and then in the eighth verse you to be patient and stand firm because the Lord's coming is near and then by implication in the ninth verse don't grumble against each other brothers or you will be judged the judge is standing at the door and in that last comment we've got resemblance of John on the Isle of Patmos writing his book the revelation and he sees Jesus standing at the door and knocking but those three observations they all come to one particular point Jesus is going to come back and that's taught throughout the whole of Scripture in certain circles and there's biblical warrant for so doing this is referred to as the hope and the word blessed is really an old-fashioned word it means happiness happy are those who have this hope well here are these poor exploited Christians who can't understand their circumstances in days gone by here are bemused bewildered people in the 20th century Christians albeit and they're somewhat perplexed they find that patience is something that is very very difficult to sustain pastor James points us to the coming of Jesus and he says that's going to be something that will help you to grow more and more patience let's just imagine for a moment that Jesus Christ is not coming back to this world let's think of the second coming has been an illusion a piece of opium a drug that the Christians have been injected into their system if Christ is not coming back to this world again then what well I argue the whole of life is really to be explained in terms of being purely meaningless we're back in the experience of the Psalmist in the 73rd Psalm you remember he didn't understand the various things that have happened to him he saw the rich people prosper he saw evil people get very good reward indeed and by the time he gets down to the 15th and the 16th verses of that Psalm he's in a terrible state life is meaningless it has absolutely no point at all and I admit to his conclusion if God is not involved in this world if the second person of the Trinity is not going to return to this earth in the same way as the disciples centuries ago him leave then there is no rhyme there is no reason at all if justice is never going to be seen to be done in this world if the balances are never going to be evened out if there is no explanation going to be granted to some of those great profound problems in life then what's the point of it all Jean-Paul Sartre the philosopher from the Sorbonne in Paris is dead right when he says that the whole of life is meaningless and the most sensible thing to do is to opt out he's right if there's no God if there is no return of our Lord Jesus Christ but you see we do not have to contemplate such meaningless existence because we know that the whole of life has a purpose indeed the Lord Jesus Christ shall return this is what James is saying be patient therefore brothers until the coming of the Lord he repeats it again be patient verse 8 and establish your hearts ah but James we find it so very difficult here we are as Christian people in the first century we've got the hostility of Caesar we've got the hostility of the Sanhedrin James it seems such a long time where is he and James says well despite the fact that he's not back you can get some indication of his soon return by even reproducing the faith of the farmer what do you mean by the faith of the farmer James well he tells us in the seventh verse and of course when he gives the illustration he's thinking in terms of the seasons out there in the Far East which are different from our own says the pastor James when the farmer sows his seed he has to wait for the early rains and for the latter rains he has to wait for the autumn rains and for the spring rains when he sows his seed he can't a few days later be unearthing the seed and having a look to see if they've germinated he waits for the rain to come and when the rain comes it causes the seed to burst and eventually there's life but he daren't send his reapers into the harvest fields too early he's got to wait for those spring rains so that the corn that's grown shall have full ear as it's swollen by the by the water now says James that's exactly the same for you people be like the farmer this is precisely his language in the eighth verse you to be patient and stand firm he's come once he's going to come again it may seem a long time off as far as you're concerned but says James really speaking in terms of God's chronology it's very very imminent if I were to go on a journey with one of our Sunday school lads say a little boy he's just four years of age we start out towards something and we're walking up the main road we get to Broadwater and to him something seems a long way off and he says is it much further and I say no it's not much further as far as I'm concerned it's only two or three paces away not very far to something when you're a tall relatively mature person physically but for a little boy it's a long way away now this is James is thinking as far as God is concerned the coming of Jesus Christ is quite soon but for immature Christians at times the answers that that coming will bring seem very very distant so James says be patient brothers be as patient as a farmer who having experienced the autumn rains waits for the latter rain for the spring rain be also patient verse 8 and establish your hearts you've got to sink your mind into this you've got to feed your convictions on this or else you'll go insane at times because there are certain things that happen in our lives that cannot be explained in terms of what we now know but there will be a time blessed be God when that which is obscure and a puzzle becomes plain and acceptable if you want to cultivate patience stay your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ and recognize that his coming is near and it is as sure as winter following autumn and which is in turn followed by the spring so one inducement to patience is the coming of Jesus but there's another inducement it's the coping of the prophets now let's again have a look at the tenth verse here says James brothers as an example of patience in the face of suffering take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord the early hours of this morning I got up and started to read a book called in his time it's written by a lady Eileen Gordon Smith it's a strange book in many ways a beautiful book I hasten to say but rather unusual in as much as the author is the mother of the subject Ian Gordon Smith was a medical doctor well qualified a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and he died in 1978 along with his wife and his little family of two they were four of twelve missionaries who had a terrible accident out in Thailand some three or four years ago and as I was reading this book early on this morning I thank God for this woman for this mother who was able to write so helpfully about her son and the loss of her daughter-in-law and her grandchildren and I came to a realization afresh that one of the great stimuli to my own faith is to be able to read the experience of someone who has gone through a harrowing experience and can still testify to the greatness of God and to the ultimate sense in all that happened even though your boy and your daughter-in-law and your grandchildren bodies have been run over by some crazily driven truck in the obscure land of the Thais now it's exactly that that James is referring to here he's speaking though of the prophets take them as an example these are men who were coping during their ministries with great difficulty now the readers of James they knew what he was referring to you see they're Jews Christian Jews by all means but they've often been in a synagogue and the rabbi the person who is equivalent to the pastor of the synagogue he would read from the scrolls from the Old Testament scriptures and they'd listen to the stories of Moses and of David of Ezekiel of Jeremiah and they would think what wonderful men and indeed they were thank God for the testimonies of these men congratulations to these fellows who fulfilled God's purposes but who are you congratulating my friend well as Alec Mortier points out very very forcefully we are congratulating sufferers we're congratulating sufferers here's Moses who would swap Moses's life for their own perhaps we've got some visiting creatures here do you ever have trouble with your congregation I had to cast it like that to be diplomatic look at Moses again saying and a disobedient people not just a hundred or five hundred but thousands of them and he had to cope all his life at times they got so disenchanted with him with him they wanted to kill him not many pastors of that sort of experience what about David a great man led by God there were times when David didn't understand what God was about times when he says I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou didst it I know O Lord that thy judgment thy judgments are right what about Ezekiel Ezekiel who managed to cope with bereavement what about Jeremiah who became literally a laughing stock what about Elijah who knew the hostility of the state when Stephen in the Acts of the Apostles the seventh chapter and towards the end speaks about the prophets he says to the Sanhedrin which one of the prophets never suffered which one did you leave on his own without doling out a generous dollop of persecution now James says take my brethren the prophets take them as your example and let this induce you to patience Jesus is coming the prophets have been coping they spoke in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience I and says James you know that sterling character you have heard of Job he says in the 11th verse many a time the preachers in your synagogue they've referred to Job you've heard of the patience of Job and seen the end of the Lord what was Job's experience well he lost all his property he lost his children he lost his servants he lost the respect of his wife he lost his health everyone everything seemed to be counterproductive to ensure the happiness of Job and in his misery he flops down on a rubbish tip outside of his city and it seems that there is no man who has ever been plagued like Job has been and yet the amazing thing was Job coped with the circumstances and he becomes the acme the height of the patient man and this is what our writer says you've heard of Job who said though thou slay me yet will I trust thee how do you breed patience you feed your mind on the coming of Christ on the coping of the saints but finally on the caring of God on the caring of God look again at that 11th verse and there is a very distinct statement made as to the character of the Lord right at the end you have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy let me give it you in the NIV the Lord is full of compassion and mercy the epistle of James is not recognized by some who know very little about it as being a doctrinal book it is actually quite on the contrary full of doctrine and one of the great statements of the doctrine of the faithfulness of God is to be discovered in the epistle of James for it's James who says you remember in the beautiful language of the authorized version regarding the Lord God that he does not change he remains always and ever the same the Lord God when whom there is no variableness nor shadow caused nor shadow of turning God remains faithful says James in Eileen Gordon's book in which she speaks of her son Ian she goes on to quote the words of dr. Michael Griffiths at the memorial service in All Saints London and Griffiths concluded his address by saying with God there are mysteries but there are no mistakes with God there are mysteries but there are no mistakes you see because the fact remains that the Lord is very pitiful he is of tender mercy and that is one of the most inspirational thoughts that anyone can take out of this service whatever evidence to the contrary in your puny reasoning as you assess events in your life this one things remains static God is pitiful God is of tender mercy God would never do anything that you yourself would not do or allow if you were God now I know that's a very hard thing to accept I've wet my heart before now before that statement of Scripture when I've considered tragedy in my own family circle but I believe with all my being that the way patience is produced within the heart is by thinking of the coming of Jesus and the coping of the Saints and the caring of the Lord was the Scots preacher Robert Johnson who said in his commentary on James it is the way of God to move slowly it is the way of God to move slowly I he moved slowly in the experience of Job but James says you saw the end of the Lord what does that mean it means you saw how things turned out when Peter followed the high priests and those who'd arrested Jesus as recorded in Matthew 26 and 58 he went into the courtyard to see the end but but the Greek there doesn't indicate that Peter thought it was the end of everything he went there to see how things would turn out and that's what God asks us to do with the patience of the farmer to wait to suspend judgment to see how things will turn out deep in unfathomable minds of never failing skill he treasures up his bright designs and works his sovereign will ye fearful Saints fresh courage take the clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head judge not the Lord by feeble sense but praise him for his grace behind a frowning Providence he hides a smiling face his purposes will ripen fast unfolding every hour the bud may have a bitter taste but sweet will be the flower that's what James is teaching here and so he has to drop in one or two more instructions and then he's through and so am I he says brothers in response to circumstances that you don't understand let not the pressure be fuel for your tongue so that you give vent to words that ultimately you would regret the ninth and the twelfth verse indicates what he's talking about when you're under pressure you're very often speak hastily about your circumstances and towards those who are close with you grudge not once at one against another says the old-fashioned language of the AV don't grumble against one another allow yourself to realize that you're going through great difficulties don't quickly come to judgment in the 12th verse don't swear don't swear by heaven neither by earth just let your yes be yes and your no be no and what you can't understand and suspend you remember how it's the psalmist who didn't act in that way and at one stage he was filled with indignation he said in the psalm that bring bears his particular testimony I said in my haste all men are liars that's it you say it in your haste and many of us say things in a hasty fashion we're under pressure we speak in a hurtful way to our brothers and sisters in the Christian family we speak in a hate in a hurtful way to the Lord but we're not to be hasty we're to suspend judgment we're to feed that seed of patience feed it so it goes strong strong in the hope in the threefold hope of the coming of Jesus of the coping of the saints of the caring of the Sovereign that is what James speaks to us and dare I be so bold as to say this that is what I believe from the depths of my heart God wants to say and has said to us this morning the coming of Jesus the coping of the saints the caring of the Sovereign these things nourish patience may it be so in your lives amen