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Now we've been working with James
five and before we look at versus seven through nine. I want to
clarify a few things about versus one through six. And the first
thing I want to say I did not intend and I hope that you did
not get the impression that you should cheat on your income taxes
or anything like that. Just because the federal government
withholds and although that is stealing does not mean that we
are there to police the federal government. As Christians, we're
called to obey the laws of our country unless they contradict
the law of God. So they are stealing. Federal
withholding is a crime and you can fight whether it should be
legal or not in our court system. But until something has changed,
we just have to suffer under the injustice. And that's sort
of what James gets to next in verses 7 through 11 about how
to endure suffering. Second thing, I've come down
pretty hard on chasing after wealth. in verses one through
six. And I don't want to leave you
with the impression that wealth is wrong. Wealth is not wrong. Investing
is not wrong. Saving is not wrong. Enjoying
wealth is not wrong. Having a nice home. Having a
nice meal. Going on trips. None of this.
There's nothing wrong with any of that. We can and should enjoy
all that God has provided. The thing that is wrong is when
we have the wrong perspective on wealth. And that perspective
is thinking that wealth can provide true inner happiness. and can
solve our problems. That's where we go wrong. Well
can't do those things. The only thing that can provide
inner happiness and solve your problems is Bible doctrine. So
that's what James is getting at. He says you may you may be
suffering but don't think that money can solve it. Obviously
if this passage is in James 5 1 through 6 is a portrait of the future
tribulation and the destruction of all human wealth. Having all
that human wealth in the latter days isn't going to help anybody
get out of the destruction that's going to happen. So wealth cannot
solve our problems. The problem of man, we would
say, can't be reduced to economic factors. Think about it. That's what communism does. Communism
says that basically man's problem is an economic one. And if we
get everyone on the same economic plane, then man's problems will
go away and we'll have a happier world. The 20th century was a
pretty good reputation of that argument. But man's problem is
not economic. It's sin. It's rebellion against
God. And yet communism shows us that
they know there's a problem, but in trying to find a solution,
but they want to reject God's answer. So they come up with
something else. And this is what Marx did. And this didn't solve
the problem. Human gimmicks never solve man's problem. The only
solution you have for your problems is the Word of God. And if we
reject the Word of God, then we're saying God hasn't given
us enough. He hasn't given us what is sufficient
for every thing that we need. And quite frankly, when we depart
from the Word of God as the only solution, what we're saying is
that we don't want a solution. We're running from the only possible
option that will help us. So there aren't hundreds of solutions
out there. There's only one solution and
there's about 10,503 gimmicks that pawn themselves off as solutions.
But the answer is not economic. The answer is not psychological.
The answer is the word of God. The answer is Bible doctrine.
Now, let me say a few more things about Chapter five versus one
through six. This is a hard section. OK, this is a very difficult
section of Scripture and particularly because it begins this way. Come
now, you rich. And if you've been reading these
words, throughout James, you and your these pronouns. Obviously,
up to this point, they've been referring to believers. And what
I did is I said, well, I think now he's jumping and doing something
different. And when he says, come now, you
rich, he's referring to these people who live in the latter
days during the tribulation period of time and they're unbelievers.
And that's an oddity to make that jump from my side. Why did
come now, you who say in verse 13 of chapter four, refer to
believers and now you say in chapter five verse one come now
you rich refers to unbelievers. Well it's difficult because as
you read verses one through six in chapter five you read all
this very harsh tribulation toned words and it gets very difficult
to see how that could be referring to believers. Verse three talks
about the consuming of your flesh like fire. It talks about the
last days, talks about the Lord of Armies or Lord of Samael.
It talks about weeping and howling for the miseries which are coming
upon you. And the only other alternative to going the way
I did and saying, no, this is tribulation on. He's using it
as an apologetic device that we should not walk like the world.
The only other way to go is to say that this is written to believers.
And these are these are phrases of divine discipline. And I've
listened to a pastor teacher approach the text that way is
a divine discipline text written directly to us. But when he got
to verses four and four or five and six, he kind of when he talked
about a day of slaughter, he didn't say anything about that.
So I don't know what that would refer to these terms, how they
could possibly refer to divine discipline, because I don't know
what the day of slaughter would be for a Christian. I don't know what why he would
call himself the Lord of Armies. I don't know why he'd say that
the weeping and the howling, which again are tribulational
terms. So it's very hard for me to buy into the idea that
this is for the present age, for church age believers. I mean,
it's for us, but it's not to us. To me, he's presenting an
argument like an Old Testament prophet would, and he's saying
now, if Israel was getting in idolatry and all this, then he
may start talking about Babylon or Assyria and saying, here's
what happens when you go after other gods. And obviously, I'm
very displeased with Babylon and Assyria, so you ought not
to do the same things they do. And that tends to be the kind
of tone that he brings in the chapter five verses one through
six. That if he's so displeased with the world's wealth, they
have got this perspective that it can solve all their problems
and it can provide inner happiness and all this. If he's so displeased
with that, that he's going to destroy them all, then why should
we as believers do what they're doing? And that seems to be the
force of his his argument. Now, as he shifts gears here
in chapter five versus seven through nine, he gives another
apologetic. And here he's talking about the return of the Lord.
Now, this is another apologetic for godly living. Not only should
we not follow the world, we're going to be destroyed down in
the end of the tribulation and all the wealth and all that. But
because Christ's coming can happen at any moment, we ought to live
in light of that. So let's pick up in verse seven.
Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.
The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient
about it until it gets the early and late rains. You to be patient,
strengthen your hearts for the coming of the Lord is near. Do
not complain, brethren, against one another so that you yourselves
may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing
right at the door. And in verses ten and eleven,
which we'll look at next week, he gives two examples of suffering
and enduring such suffering. So let's pick up with the word
that therefore, in verse seven, it's a key word. It's the word
it's in what we call an inferential conjunction. Now, there's been
only one other inferential conjunction in all of James. And what I'm
going to point out here is very important. If you look at James
one twenty one. You'll see the first inferential
conjunction, and it's also translated, therefore, And if you're really
keen, you'll be noticing where this takes place in the text
of James James one twenty one. Therefore, putting aside all
filthiness and all that remains above above above. Verse twenty
one is the very first verse in the body of the letter, isn't
it? We've looked at the outline of James now and we'll look at
this in a second. Chapter five or seven is the
is he's done with the body. He's just concluded the body.
So he brings in another inferential conjunction. In other words,
these two inferential conjunctions bracket. Let me get this up here. They bracket the body of the
letter. If the body starts in 121 and
goes to five, six, and then we have another one at the beginning
of the epilogue, so it just brackets that body there. This is pretty
remarkable, because what it's showing you is that the way I've
outlined the letter for you just like this is exactly what James
intended. His use of this inferential conjunction shows us that that
I haven't imposed, in other words, an outline on the text. I'm just
showing you exactly what the text is saying, because there's
been like hundreds of different outlines of James and nobody
can agree. So I'm trying to show you an evidence for why we've
outlined it this way. So we begin with the prologue
in chapter one, verses one through 20. At the end of that prologue
we have the thematic statement in verses 19 and 20. Then we
move into the body of letter where it expands on that thematic
statement in James 1 21 through 5 6. We should cultivate divine
viewpoint responses to trials by being first quick to hear
slow to speak slow to anger. And now we have an epilogue which
we start today where we continue with the theme of persevering
in trials to the very end. So by now, you ought to be able
to write this outline in your sleep if you've been here consistently
and you've been applying yourself. So the word, therefore, signals
an inference or a conclusion to the letter, which began in
one twenty one and the body ends in five six. So now we're going
to put into practice what we've learned is what he's saying.
We're going to put into practice being quick to hear, being slow
to speak and slow to anger. The main application of it to
this. is when you face trials and sufferings, you are to be
patient and you are to endure. Hang in there, trusting the Lord,
trusting that he has a plan. He has a purpose and he's working
this out for the good. So there's no reason to blow
up. There's no reason to get angry at everybody and go on
a rampage when we get in a jam. God knows exactly what he's doing,
whether you know what you're doing or not. God never said
when we became Christians that life was going to be peachy.
And we wouldn't have any problems that it's just going to be a
piece of cake. Jesus is not aspirin, although a lot of people present
him like aspirin. You take all your blues away or something
like that. He never said that. What he says is this, that you're
my children and I want you to grow up from childhood to adulthood
in the Christian life. And I don't want all these baby
believers running around naively. I want spiritually mature adults.
And to get you there, he says, I've given you everything that
you need for a life of godliness to advance spiritually. I've
given you my Holy Spirit. I've given you my word. I've
given you prayer. I've given you a mind to think.
I've given you pastor teachers to teach you. I've given you
everything you need to grow spiritually. So there's no excuses, period.
No excuses. Sometimes I hear. Oh, it's just
it's too hard, all the details, I just can't get it all. I'm
just a simple minded Christian and. Really. That to say that
you're simple minded, I think, is to deprecate God and I think
it's to mock him. He created us as the only creatures
in this world made his image and to drag him down and say,
I'm simple minded and not a very complex creature made in his
image with given a mind. to think his thoughts after him.
I think to say that we're simple minded is to deprecate not only
us but him. We are not simple minded at all.
That is more of an excuse of laziness to put in the time and
effort that God wants us to put in to come to know him and what
he's up to. So further it doesn't have anything
to do with our own intellectual prowess. It has to do with a
person who genuinely wants to know truth. If someone wants
to know the truth, he will give them the truth. He will show
them if, for example, we want more. We think that we have a
church that teaches the truth and which we think that we do
here. We think that we're a light to this community. We think that
if we weren't here, there wouldn't be a lot of Bible teaching going
on. If people want to hear the truth. They'll come. OK, God will direct them here. So that may give you a perspective
that you may not like when you think about other people and
whether they want the truth or not. But quite frankly, I've
been in a lot of these churches. I've been in Pentecostal churches.
I've been in charismatic churches. I've been in Baptist churches.
I've been in all sorts of churches. And until I really wanted the
truth. I wasn't going to go anywhere, I said, just church up to all
these different kinds of churches, and that was the bottom line.
When I finally started realizing what the truth was and wanting
it before you knew it, I was into it. It was not hard to make
a decision what church to go to. It was simple. All I had
to do was go to one where the teacher just taught line by line,
verse by verse. And he was serious about the word of God. He wasn't
bringing all this tradition and relics and everything else into
the equation. It was just what does God have to say? And let's
find out. And if a person wants that, God
will take them to where they can get that. Otherwise, the
bottom line is, before that, I didn't want it. And everybody
else out there, they don't want it either. Okay? And that's the
truth. That is the truth. Because if
a person wants truth, God will bring them to a place that teaches
truth. Even if they have to move their family and their home 2,000
miles to find it. God can do that. He is sovereign.
He is providential to ruin the universe. So, there's none of
this stuff about, you know, You know, I just can't understand
all this. The bottom line is people are lazy. And if I had
a nickel for every lazy Christian in this world, I'd be one of
the wealthiest people in the world. And that's the bottom line. That's
why books are being written right now about Christians throwing
their mind out the window in today's society, because they
don't want to think they don't want to put the time in. But
it does take work. It does take time. We're not
simple minded. We're called to study the word
of God. What did Paul say in Acts 1711? These were more noble
minded, searching the scriptures to see whether these things were
so. It is a mental activity. And you say, well, I've got all
these other things I've got to get done. Well, I'm sorry, that's
just an excuse until you say this is number one and I'm going
to do this, then I'm sorry, you're going to have sufferings and
trials and you're going to get frustrated and you're going to go crazy because you
think you know better than God. And you don't know better than God.
I don't know better than God. We have to come to his word and
submit to what he has said. If we want to enjoy inner happiness
and be victorious over the trials and be able to solve problems,
the divine viewpoint way, which is the only way. So none of these
excuses are going to work at the judgment seat of Christ.
And don't say I didn't warn you. OK, because when you get there,
he's going to say, OK, I gave you every opportunity. I gave
you a mind. I created you to think, and you
didn't want to, and you threw it out the window. So, sorry.
And you'll just be a baby all your life as a Christian. So,
when we talk about James and we talk about the trials that
we will face, the sufferings that we will face, one of the
key elements to understanding this is this idea. You learn
doctrine, then a trial comes. What matters is what you do with
that trial, how you face it. If you apply the doctrine, then
that means you step forward in the Christian life. You advance
spiritually. This is a lot like sports and
sports. You can learn a skill, but when
you begin to execute the skill in a game, then you've taken
your game up a level. You understand? We all know that. That is the same way in the Christian
life. You don't really advance and take that step until you
take what you learn the doctrine and apply it in the circumstance.
And we have two beautiful examples of that in James. So far, Rahab
and Abraham, both of these people got in tremendous jams. And when
the heat was on, they applied the doctrine and they lived.
They enjoyed life. They stepped forward. They advanced
in Christian in the Christian life. of their life, which wasn't
Christian, but their their their relationship with God. So therefore,
here in verse seven is conclude a conclusion of the letter. And
he's saying now it's time to put into practice all that we
learned. So the first thing is a command. Be patient. Therefore,
be patient. It's an aorist active imperative. The aorist tense denotes an urgency. In other words, don't put it
off this being patient thing, but put it on right now. Start
being patient when you face trials. So the idea is to remain tranquil
while waiting to be long suffering toward these things. You know,
it's very difficult when we get in a jam to be patient. That
is the last thing on our mind is to be patient. We want this
thing to be solved immediately. And but we have to be patient
because it could take hours. It could take days. It could
take weeks, months, years. And if you're if you're not patient,
you're just going to be frustrated. And what he's calling us here
to do is to be patient, to trust the Lord that he knows what he's
doing and not get all frazzled about this thing. And it's directed
here toward brethren, of course. Be patient, brethren. The brethren
in James's letter always refer to believers beginning in chapter
one, verse two. So he's not giving a test here
to see whether a person's a believer or not, but giving a test to
believers to see whether they will apply doctrine or not, whether
they will trust the Lord and be patient. How long are we to
be patient or to remain patient, according to verse seven, it
says, until the coming of the Lord. This is the Parousia. There's no time that a Christian
should be impatient, period. Just have a relaxed mental attitude
that we probably will get impatient, but there's no time when we have
an excuse to do so. That's what the text is saying.
We should have a relaxed mental attitude because God works all
things for the good. Hmm. Easier said than done. Obviously, true. Now, when is
the coming of the Lord? The coming, the parousia, this
is what we call the parousia from the Greek word for coming,
the word that means the presence or arrival of a king or something
like that. It can refer either to the second
coming of Christ or it can refer to the rapture, which I see as
two distinct events. Here, it is the pre-tribulational
rapture. because it's presented in verses
eight and nine as being imminent. His coming is at hand. He is
near standing right at the door. OK, those are expressions of
a doctrine called imminency, which we'll talk about in a second.
But I see the rapture. And the revelation or second
coming of Christ as two distinct events. So here's the cross of
Christ, let's say, in 33 A.D., and everything in this box is
what's occurring on Earth. Once we go up here, this is what
occurs in heaven. And this is what occurs under the earth in
Sheol, Hades, which we're not talking about this today. But
here we are. Christ died on the cross and
began to build his church. Now, you, if you're a believer
in Christ, are part of that church, having been baptized by the spirit
into the body of Christ. That is the church, Paul said.
And we are somewhere along this line. Now, at some unknown time,
the church will be removed from the world. And we call that the
rapture. It's a Latin word from Raptura.
But it comes from the Greek word harpozzo, which means to snatch,
to take away. And so we, for example, Philip
on the road to Azotus and in the book of Acts, he was harpozzo.
He was taken out as he was witnessing to the guy on the chariot and
he was taken to another city. That's an example of a rapture. But
here the rapture is not to Azotus or anything, but it's to heaven
where we go to the judgment seat of Christ. And while we're here
at the judgment seat of Christ, On Earth, there will be the tribulation
period of time. You've often heard about that,
the end time scenario, the seven years of tribulation from Daniel
9, 24 to 27. And then after that, then there
will be the revelation, what we sometimes call the second
coming of Christ. But it's properly known in the
Bible as the Revelation, thus the book of Revelation. First
word, Apocalypse. OK, so then we'll return to Earth
and God's plan. The 75 days of setting up the
kingdom and everything, and then he will have a thousand year
kingdom on Earth. So this text is talking about when it talks
about the coming of the Lord, I believe it's talking about
the rapture of the church. This is what we call an imminent
event. It means that means it can occur
at any moment. The doctrine of imminency has
two aspects, certainty and uncertainty. You say, wait, hold on, how can
something both be certain and uncertain? Well, the rapture
is certain in that it will occur. It's uncertain as to when it
will occur. Certain to occur uncertain when.
And another element of this eminence is the fact that no prophesied
events must happen before the rapture. No prophesied events
must happen. I didn't say they. OK, so that
means some prophesied events could happen before the rapture,
but they don't have to. There are certain events that
we're not totally a hundred percent sure when they will take place
in the prophetic scheme. And one of those that scholars
point out a lot is what's called the Battle of Gog and Magog from
Ezekiel thirty eight and thirty nine. This is where you have
a group probably from the north mainly the Russian area or at
least they settled in those regions and they will come down and attack
Israel from the north. And some scholars think that
that could have could happen before the rapture. But it doesn't
have to. And that's the point about imminency
is that nothing has to happen before this takes place. It could happen today. It could
happen in the next five minutes. It could happen in this minute.
OK. It is an imminent event. It's
like hanging over our head and it could fall at any moment,
so to speak. So. The tribulation, the rapture
is pre-tribulational, it's imminent, and that means it's different
from the second coming. The second coming is not an imminent
event. It cannot happen at any moment.
It's certain to occur, but we know that it will occur after
other prophesied events take place. In other words, the Antichrist
has to come and he has to sign a deal with Israel and all this
has to all happen before the second coming can happen. So
it's not an imminent event. Only the rapture is an imminent
event. And if you place the rapture anywhere else than before the
tribulation, then you get into a problem with passages that
teach eminence. Because once you do that and you put it in
the tribulation at the midpoint or at the end or anything like
that, then you don't have eminence in any anymore, because certain
events must happen before that can happen. So we could sit there
and say, well, you know, the Lord can't come today because
the Antichrist hasn't signed a pact with Israel. And until
he does that, we don't have to worry about the rapture happening.
But that's not what scriptures teach, the scriptures teach that
it can happen at any moment, and we have two of those expressions
in the next two verses. But let's look at The illustration
of patience with the farmer in verse eight or seven behold the
farmer in here were given in this illustration a proper what
I call a twofold perspective of the rapture. Two things that
we ought to be constantly keeping in balance. And that is this
the proper perspective on the rapture is a patient expectancy
patience and expectancy. This is the farmer. OK. This
is what the who the farmer is like, and he gives us a great
example of this. We are to be patiently waiting
for the Lord, but also to expect the Lord just as the farmer waits
expectantly for the precious fruit of the earth. Now, the
word for wait here, Ekdekamai, means to look for something,
to wait for something. It's this idea that the farmer
has planted his seed and he's looking forward to the precious
produce, the fruit that comes from the ground. So the fruit
is called precious here because it has exceptional value. It
sustains our physical life. Most of us rely on food three
or more times a day. And without it, we would die
physically. So it's a precious thing to me
on a very precious item. And despite its high value, the
farmer is patient about it because he knows that when I plant a
seed in the soil, there are certain things that have to take place.
There's a process of that seed getting established. growing
into a plant that is mature and can produce fruit. So we have
right here a parallel to the word of God in the believer's
heart is what we have. If you go back to James 1 21
the therefore there. No it says putting aside all
filthiness and all that remains of wickedness and humility receive
the word implanted which is able to save your souls. Now the word
has already been implanted. OK, when a person has faith in
Christ, the word, so to speak, is implanted within them. The
question is, then, will it grow to produce fruit or not? Now,
that's a portrait of of what we should all be looking at as
Christians. Yes, I have trusted Christ and yes, his word has
been implanted in my heart. Now, is the word going to grow
to dominate my life so that I can mature and bear fruit or not? That's the parallel. So the farming
illustration may hint at the normal spiritual birth, spiritual
growth and spiritual fruit of a believer. But let's stick to
the illustration. There are two vital things here
that have to happen in the land of Israel to get the precious
fruit. Remember, this was written by James in the land of Israel
to Jews living outside of the land of Israel. So they'd be
very familiar with the agricultural norms in the land of Israel.
And he says there's two things that have to happen to get this
precious fruit. First, you gotta have the early rain and then
you gotta have the late rain. In Israel, the growing season
is actually during the winter. That is when they receive their
rain. So what you do is you plant in October, early October, and
you pray for an early rain, an October-November rain. Okay? And that rain is essential to
getting the seed established in the soil. Then you have the
main rains, and the main rains occur during the winter season.
And then you pray for a ladder rain, because it's the ladder
rain that makes that plant hit its final stages into maturity
where it can bear fruit. So all of these are important,
but the first and the last, the early and the late, are very,
very important. Turn to Deuteronomy 11, 14. These were the two rains that
they always were looking for. Deuteronomy 11, 14. Incidentally, you know, this
phrase, as I said, is pointing to the fact that this is very
Jewish in its orientation. This is Jewish agricultural in
the land of Israel. Deuteronomy 11, 14. That he will
give you the rain for your land and its season, the early and
the late rain that you may gather in your grain and your new wine
and your oil. What the text is hinting at here
is the importance of that early and late rain. It was very critical
to get the early and the late rain because without the early
your seeds never got established and they just sat there and never
made anything without the light. You never got the fruit. So they
were critical. And we find as we read the Old
Testament of Israel disobeyed God then rains were withheld
and we'll get to a rain passage in James 5 when we talk about
Elijah praying for rain and then praying not for rain and how
being a righteous man God responded to those prayers. But if Israel
obeyed they would get the rain if they disobeyed they would
not get rain. So in the land of Israel and the nation of Israel
if they were spiritually obedient that would result in physical
blessing for them. Also turn over to Hosea 6 verse
3. Now that will be hard to find.
It's near the end of your Old Testament in those 12 little
bitty tiny books. We call the book of the twelve,
some people call the minor prophets, Hosea six, verse three. It's after Daniel. OK, just after Daniel. So let us know, let us press
on to know the Lord, to know Yahweh, his going forth is as
certain as the dawn. And he will come to us like the
rain, like the spring rain watering the earth. I just I just wanted
to show you this verse, because what it does is it draws a connection
between the agriculture and the Lord's coming, just like in James. It just shows the familiarity
that a Jew like James had with the Old Testament. So the believer
is to patiently expect the rapture, like a farmer patiently expects
the precious fruit from the earth. So let's go back to James five
verse eight. He says, you to be patient, that is, just as
the farmer is patient, patient, you be patient. This is a good
the farmer is a great example to follow here. Anytime you get
in a jam, just think of the farmer. He's got to wait. He's got to
wait. He's got to wait here. Another command. Be patient.
And again, it's another heiress denoting urgency. Patience does
not need to be put off. Now, in the meantime, as we are
waiting for the Lord, what should we be doing? The New American
Standard says we should be strengthening your hearts, strengthen your
hearts. It's the Greek word for strengthens. There is, though,
it's another arist tense denoting urgency, something not to be
put off, but to now be put into effect by believers. We should
not put it off. What does it mean to strengthen?
It means to establish, to cause, to be inwardly firm. So what
he means is to get established in doctrine. While we wait for
the Lord, we get firm in doctrine, we grow spiritually, we advance
to maturity. We don't sit there and do nothing.
So the analogy with the farmer is that the word of God is planted
within the believer, a regeneration. And as he waits for the Lord
to come, he studies doctrine and applies what he's learning.
There's a planting, there's a growing and there is a harvesting. It's
not just planting. It's not just I just go to heaven
and that's it. OK. You don't get saved just
to go to heaven. God doesn't save children so
that they are infants so they can remain infants. He saves
us so that we'll grow into spiritual adulthood. When you plant, you
don't plant so you can just stick it in the ground and hope nothing
happens. You plant it hoping that you're going to get a product
out of it. And that's why God plants the word of God in our
hearts at regeneration, hoping that he'll get a product out
of us as we follow him as we walk by faith. That's what God wants from believers.
He wants us to be firmly rooted in God's word so that we can
grow and advance to spiritual maturity and fruit bearing. Every
believer will be evaluated at the judgment seat of Christ and
every believer will be either rewarded or they will suffer
loss. It's very important that we grow from little bitty seedlings
to fruit bearing plants because it will affect our position of
authority in the millennial kingdom and our eternal position before
God in the new heaven and new earth. Some people say that they
don't care about that very much. I'm just going to be glad to
be there. And honestly, that's a sad thing, because God wants
us to be faithful now so that he can reward us later. Many
people fail also to recognize that the rewards are not there
totally for your benefit in the new heaven and new earth or millennium.
They're not totally there for your benefit. Whatever rewards
you receive will be like an abundance out of which you can bring more
glory to God there. So it's not just about, well,
I'm going to get to have all this stuff. That's not rewards. That's not the sole emphasis
of rewards. The emphasis is also on the fact
that they will then be used to bring more glory to him. So while
we patiently expect the Lord, we should be learning Bible doctrine
and we should be applying Bible doctrine, as James says. For
the coming of the Lord is near. In other words, this is why we
ought to be patient and strengthen our hearts now, because he is
coming is near. Now, the verb is near, and it's
a perfect tense. A lot of people read this and
I think, well, if this was written in about 40 A.D. and James said
the coming of the Lord is near, it's been 2000 years. What do
you mean it was near? How can 2000 years be near? But
the word means not so much nearness in time as nearness in the sense
that it could happen at any moment. We don't know when, but it will.
It's this eminence idea. Now, it's also in the perfect
tense, and this is a very perfect, very important tense. The perfect
tense means this, that you completed an action or something in the
past, and it has ongoing results. We don't get that a lot, unfortunately,
because when we clean up the garage two days later, it's all
messed up. But this would be the idea that
I clean my garage and it stayed clean for the rest of your life.
That'd be great. Now, the idea here is that the Lord is near. That is, he came to be near with
the effect that he remains near until he's here. OK, until he
returns. So the way you diagram this grammatically
is you draw a point and that he came near. With the effect
of a line coming out of that, he remains near all along the
corridors of time until it happens. So this is pointing to eminence.
Eminence is a doctrine that we said that relates to the rapture,
that says that Jesus Christ can come at any moment. And Jesus,
or James, is saying to his readers in about 40, 42 A.D., that this
has been true for you, he's saying to his readers, and it remains
true for you. Jesus Christ died on the cross,
we would say, in 33 A.D. OK? Go back to this diagram.
And then he was resurrected three days later. And after several
more days, he ascended to heaven and sat down at the right hand
of the Father. Right? Then he sent the Spirit on the
day of Pentecost in Acts 2 and started the church. From that
day forward, Christ could have come at any moment. That's what
the perfect tense is saying in James. He has come near. He is drawn near with the effect
that he remains near so that no you can't put a date on the
rapture. I don't care if you're Hal Lindsey.
You can't put a date on it. OK. All that stuff got started
with the millennialists back in the 1800s. We can put a date
and they got out on a hill and they stood there and waited you
know and nothing happened. And you can't date the rapture.
OK, nobody can. It happens at any moment, no
human being can possibly know when it could happen. This was
just as true in 42 A.D. James and his readers, as it
is for us living today in 2007. So we could translate it this
way for the coming of the Lord has drawn near and it remains
near. And that's what we mean by eminence. The second coming,
on the other hand, is not imminent. There are definite prophecies
that must happen before the second coming can take place. But that
is not true with the rapture. There are no prophesied events
that must take place before the rapture takes place. But what
I want you to see is that this is the reason given for why we
should strengthen our hearts. This is the reason given why
we should undergo doctrinal training. We should do that because the
Lord can return at any moment. And if he can return at any moment,
then we need to be prepared for that coming. And the only way
to be prepared for that day is to be in the fruit bearing stage
of Christianity. That is, to advance to spiritual
maturity, to advance into what I call true discipleship. Well,
Jesus said it, too. He said, if you are truly my
disciples, if you obey my word, he didn't say you're truly believers,
if you obey my word, he said truly disciples. In that context,
disciple is something more than being just a believer. It's being
a dedicated Christian who dedicates his mind and body to following
the Lord wherever he goes. But getting a relationship with
God is just faith alone in Christ. So Jesus said his true disciples
would bear much fruit. He said some 30, some 60, some
100 fold. Remember those passages? Those
are talking about fruit bearing. That's not talking about whether
you're really a believer or not. That's talking about moving into
a fruit bearing stage of Christianity as you advance to maturity and
put it into work. You know, loving others and using
your spiritual gifts to encourage and exhort and give and minister
to others. So there's a stage of Christianity
that I call the fruit bearing stage, and that's when a believer
reaches doctrinal maturity and uses it in his life. He lives
that way. Now, this fits, of course, very well with the agricultural
metaphor that we've been looking at, because we all know that
unless a plant reaches maturity, you don't get any fruit, do you?
Or you don't get much. Last year we had a real dry year
and I didn't get any, I don't think I got a single pecan last
year and I have four big pecan trees. Well this year I got a
tremendous amount of rain and so much that some of the fruit
was, you know, spoiled. You know, fungus and things like
that. But I've got a million pecans in my yard. So it's very
important to advance to maturity so we can bear fruit. Verse nine
James five nine do not complain. Now where it is better something
like grumble or mutter under one's breath. You know this is
when I sit around and I've got to talk about every other believer.
I've got to move you know what do they think they're doing here.
They're not good enough to be here. What gives them the right to
sit in that pew over there. And we've all done this. You
know I looked out because we know something that person has
done or is doing and we're sitting there going well what gives them
the right. And here James says look don't complain. Don't mutter
about other believers under your breath. This is just another
sin of the tongue where we whisper about everybody else. Now we're
not called to complain against one another. We're called as
Christians to love one another. This is the L.A. loan doctrine
or the one another doctrine. The first and greatest commandment
is love God and the second is like it to love one another.
Following these two commands cover a multitude of sins loving
God and loving others. John 1334. Listen to what Jesus
said. I knew a new commandment. I give
to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that
you also love one another. Verse 35. By this, all men will
know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another.
In other words, nobody can detect if you are a genuine disciple
of Christ. If you're not loving other people,
how could they ever detect it? And there again, the cycle is
something more than a genuine believer. Verse 12, this is my
commandment that you love one another just as I have loved
you. Chapter 15, verse 17, this I command you that you love one
another. Romans 12, 10, be devoted to one another and brotherly
love. Give preference to one another in honor. First Thessalonians
3, 12. And may the Lord cause you to
increase and abound in love for one another and for all people,
just as we also do for you. First Thessalonians 4, 9. Now,
as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to
write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one
another. First Peter one twenty two. Since
you have an obedience to the truth, purified your souls for
a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from
the heart. First Peter four eight. Above all, keep fervent in your
love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins.
First John three eleven. First John could well be known
as the love epistle. For this is the message which
you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another.
First John three twenty three. This is his commandment that
we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one
another just as he commanded us. First John four seven beloved. Let us love one another for love
is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows
God. First John four eleven beloved. If God so loved us we also ought
to love one another. First John four twelve. No one
has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides
in us and his love is perfected in us. And Second John, verse
five. Now, I ask you, lady, not as
though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one
which you have had from the beginning that we love one another. We
are not called to complain against one another. We are called to
love one another and to do it fervently from the heart. The
New Testament overwhelmingly commands this over and over and
over and over and over and over and over as if it takes a while
to get in our thick skulls. I think God knew what he was
doing here. It does take a while because
we're so selfish. We're so bitter. We look out
at everybody else and we just want to play the comparison game.
And that means we're not going to love anybody comparing ourselves
with everybody else. So how many times do we love
each other versus how many times do we grumble and complain about
somebody? Well, what does James tell us about why we should not
grumble against them? He says you shouldn't do it so
that you yourself may not be judged. In other words, there's
a judgment coming for the Christian. This isn't this is not a temporal
judgment now in time. This is the judgment seat of
Christ, as we see clearly from the next. Phrase. Behold, in other words, pay serious
attention here. Every time the Greek uses that
word to do it means, hey, you need to perk up right here and
really pay attention. That's the emphasis. He says
the judge is standing right at the door. But you say, well,
I thought Jesus was sitting at the father's right hand, how
can it be standing right at the door? Well, he is. This is a
metaphor of eminence again. In other words, he's right there
waiting to come. This can happen at any moment.
When Jesus returns at the rapture of the church, the next event
is the judgment seat of Christ. The judge is obviously Jesus
Christ, because John 522 and John 527 say it says the father
judges no one but has given all judgment to the son. So Jesus
Christ is the judge. He's the one who all stand before
as believers. He's standing right at the door.
That verb standing to stand at the door is, again, a perfect
voice, remarkably, and the perfect voice means he's been standing
there and remain standing there in the sense that this is an
imminent event. The moment Christ ascended and established the
church on Earth and Pentecost and Acts two, he was standing
right at the door. And the next thing he's been
standing there ever since. And the next thing that's going
to happen in his calendar is I'm coming to get the church.
And we're going to the judgment seat. It could happen any moment,
it could happen in James Day, it could happen today, this afternoon. And this is a sobering moment
because we'll all go to the judgment seat of Christ and we'll all
have to have our deeds evaluated. So in light of all that we have
learned about how to handle trials and sufferings, we are now called
to patiently expect the Lord's coming as the farmer patiently
expects the fruit of the earth. In the meantime, we are to be
strengthening our hearts by studying and applying Bible doctrine in
the growth process, because the coming of the Lord is near, at
which point we will directly go to the judgment seat of Christ
to have our fruit evaluated. Finally, then we should not complain
against one another, but rather love one another so that when
we reach the judgment seat of Christ, we will not be judged
for grumbling against them. Behold, this is an imminent event. He says it can happen at any
moment. It has been imminent since the Lord Jesus ascended
to heaven and started the church. So so we should be continually
readying ourselves by studying the scriptures, studying the
Bible doctrine that he has for us. It means this means facing
trials that come into all of our lives, facing trouble, troubles,
facing sufferings, pain, strife, all that with doctrine. With
doctrinal orientation, with grace orientation, Demonstrating that
we trust God in all the details of our lives. That's what James
is calling us to. Now, so that is the story about
the conclusion of this letter and how it begins. Next week,
we'll look at these two examples, the prophets and Job, men who
endured suffering to the end. And the conclusion was that God
was compassionate and merciful and that there was a meaning
and purpose for all the suffering we have here. So let's close
with a word of prayer, and then I want to ask the deacons to
come forward so we can partake of the supper together where
we remember that this is all based on what Christ has done.
James 5:7-11, Be Patient While Suffering
Series James
| Sermon ID | 1018212114375628 |
| Duration | 47:34 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | James 5:7-11 |
| Language | English |
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