Fruit of the Spirit is patience. Today I'll be preaching on that subject of patience and using James 5 to guide our thoughts. James 5 verses 7 through 12, you can find that on page 1389. Listen to God's word. Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed, we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord. The Lord is very compassionate and merciful. But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no, no, lest you fall into judgment. You might have heard it said, be careful what you pray for. When you pray for patience, God will teach you patience, By leading you through things that try your patience. I see a lot of, I may have heard an amen out there. Careful what you pray for, especially when you pray for patience. We do laugh at that, don't we? Because I think we've all experienced something along those lines. We pray for the fruit of the spirit, we pray for patience, and the Lord grants that. often through very difficult circumstances. Patience is hard to get, but it is a fruit of the Spirit. And because the Spirit is at work, you can be sure that the Lord will grant these things. Because with the Spirit working in you, it is inevitable that the fruit of the Spirit is going to grow. It may seem that it is gradual and indiscernible, but especially with patience, if you wait, you will see in time that the Lord is indeed granting growth in grace and granting patience. By way of introduction, let me give just a brief definition of patience. I'm just gonna define it this way, that patience is waiting on God in the context of our pilgrim journey. Patience is waiting on God in the context of our pilgrim journey. We've already sung and we've read verses that are along these lines, but I remind you of what we just sang in Psalm 27. It closes, wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. There are many texts that will help us, and I'll draw from several, but I'm going to especially concentrate on James chapter five, which is directly about this subject of patience. To begin with, each of the points that I'm going to make today are going to complete this sentence as it's begun, to grow in the Christian discipline of patience, dot, dot, dot. And the first thing that James brings up, to grow in the Christian discipline of patience, learn to wait on God for the future. To wait on God for the future. The people of God has always been a waiting people. God has always called us to practice patience for the future that he promises. You can see it especially in the Old Testament where there is an overflowing of promises about the future coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. And so if you've never read the Old Testament this way, I would urge you to go back and read the Old Testament as anticipating the promise of the coming of Jesus. And if you read it that way, you will find a great depth and fullness to the Old Testament that maybe you've missed before. Maybe you've dismissed it as just something that was from a different era and is no longer of any use to us at all. That's not the case at all. Because it is telling that great story of God saving sinners. And it focuses on the coming of Jesus Christ. His birth, his life, his ministry, his death on the cross, his resurrection, his ascension. And the people of God throughout the Old Testament are longing for that. They want the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It comes up right at the very beginning. When Adam and Eve were cursed because of sin, God promised that he would send a savior, one who would crush the head of the serpent. And it would come as one of the children of Adam and Eve. And when Adam and Eve had their first baby, Eve says, I've got a man. As if to say, Lord, is this the one that you have promised? Right from the very beginning, she's longing for that promised Messiah. We know that Cain was not that man. And neither was Noah, or Abraham, or David, or Isaiah. All of this great and grand Old Testament history that is longing for the coming of the Messiah. And it's captured in words that we often read at this time of the year when we think about the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It's captured by an old man named Simeon, who met the baby Jesus. He was there in the temple, praying and waiting for the consolation of Israel, it says. Go and read Luke chapter two, and you'll see that that's the phrase that's descriptive of Simeon. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel. He's waiting for the Messiah. And when he sees Jesus, the Holy Spirit tells him, this is the one that you are waiting for. He has this beautiful praise that he gives to the Lord, a prayer, Lord, now you may let your servant depart in peace, for I've seen the promised Savior. He's waiting for the consolation of Israel. He wasn't the only one, that very same visit to the temple, Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus were seen by the prophetess Anna. And she too was waiting and was led by the spirit that day to meet Jesus. And she describes him as the one revealed to all who are waiting for the redemption of Israel. You get that eager longing and patient waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope you can feel the sense of that urgency and longing of the people of God for the coming of Jesus Christ. Would it surprise you then to hear me say that The people of God today are also a waiting people. You and I are also waiting for the Messiah in a different way than before the incarnation, but we are waiting indeed. We live on this side of the incarnation of Jesus. the first coming of Jesus. Now when I say it that way, I've maybe clued you in to what we are waiting for now. If there was a first coming of Jesus Christ, there is also a second coming of Jesus Christ. A promised future that we are waiting for even now today. And James uses that James uses that second coming of Jesus Christ as a way to teach us, the people of God today, to wait patiently on the Lord for his future promises. Where there will be a second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the end of the age, Jesus will come again. the sound of the trumpet, and with a mighty heavenly host of angels, the Lord Jesus Christ will descend on the clouds, and the dead will be raised, and they, along with the living all men and women throughout all of history, will appear before the Lord Jesus Christ, who will sit on a great white throne in judgment on all mankind. And to those who have been waiting for him in belief and in faith and in trust in Jesus as their Savior, he will reward. Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into your reward, Jesus will say to you, believing in Jesus. But he will say to those who have rejected him, depart from me into outer darkness. where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. James speaks about patience in this context. Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. What's he speaking about there? That's the second coming of Jesus. That's the longing, the waiting that is part of our lives right now. To help us understand that, he goes on to give an example of a farmer looking forward to the harvest. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruits of the earth, waiting patiently for what will be given at the harvest. So think about the future promises that farmers embrace. Think about how ludicrous it is to take a tiny seed and to dump it on the ground, to bury it in the dirt, and to expect anything to happen. But it does, doesn't it? This is the way God has designed it. Put a seed in the ground, there's water. Come out and you weed it, and you wait. And you wait, and you wait. Slowly but surely, those plants do grow, and they grow at their own pace, it seems like. And the farmer can't make that go any faster than God designs it. I still remember a children's story. Do you know Frog and Toad? Read the Frog and Toad stories, they're really wonderful. There's one where Frog and Toad plant a garden and Toad goes out the very next day to look to see if the seeds have planted and they haven't. And he goes out the next day and still not yet and a week later there's these little tiny plants coming up and one day he goes out and he stands in the middle of his field and Toad goes, grow faster. That's right, grow faster. Well, seeds don't grow any faster because Toad implored them to grow faster. But a farmer waits patiently the promise of the future. The promise here is a harvest. But James is using this for a spiritual purpose, isn't he? What is the spiritual harvest that he has in mind? He does have in mind that coming of Jesus Christ, coming with the reward of heaven and eternal life. And Jesus gives that to us, and James reiterates it here. He gives us that goal so that our hope can rest on the sure foundation of his promises. What he says about the future will surely happen. Just as surely as he has designed seeds to grow and to bear fruit, and to do so in their own time, it will surely come. Christ will surely come. He will come with healing for the nations. He will come with life everlasting to you who are trusting in him. He will come to wipe away every tear in your eye and do away with every disease and illness and sickness and death itself. And you can count on it because Jesus has promised that. This promise then inspires you to press on to persevere in the race that is ahead of you because of that great and awesome day of the Lord that will surely come. And that comes through in that idea of the harvest. You work long, you work hard, preparing the grounds, weeding it, all of the watering that takes place, praying for it, and finally, finally, gathering in the harvest. It's a day of reward. So verse eight, James says, you also be patient. Establish your hearts for the day of the Lord is at hand. James here sounds a little bit like Eve back in the Garden of Eden. The day of the Lord is at hand. There's that eager anticipation that it is immediately upon us. And James is saying this so that you would live your lives with that future promise of the Lord. It may indeed be another millennium until Jesus comes again, but we live based on the sure promises of God of that future. We live as the day of the Lord is indeed at hand. So as a Christian, you live now based on what Christ has done on the cross, what he's accomplished in his first coming. But you also live in anticipation, anticipation of that great reward that will fully and finally be revealed at Christ's second coming. And you wait patiently. Here, waiting doesn't mean inactivity. The Sunday school class today, I asked Max about things he's waiting for, and he described it as eagerly waiting for Christmas, eagerly waiting for opportunities to get together with his friend Jason, and he just sits and does nothing. That's not a Christian's way of waiting, though. And it isn't a farmer's way of waiting. Farmer's busy at work that God has given him to do, but waiting patiently for what God has promised. And so by God's grace, you will grow in patience. The plants will grow, that's what plants do. By God's grace, you will grow in patience. Look then to that reward and trust in those promises for the future that God has for you. Well, James doesn't stop there. He applies patience to this pilgrim journey that we are on. Because the Holy Spirit dwells in us and is with us every step of the way on this pilgrim journey. So the second, thing that James brings out is to grow in the discipline of patience, learn to wait on God who has a purpose in suffering. Wait on God who has a purpose in suffering. In verses 10 and 11, James calls you in the context of suffering. Listen to this, my brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed, we count them blessed to endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. This is the place where you might remember, be careful what you pray for. It's a place where you might be saying, I'm not sure I want to hear about suffering. But not hearing about it is not going to make it go away. And James, by the Spirit, brings that to you so that you would be steadfast in the midst of your suffering, to know that God has a purpose. It comes up here in the way that James talks about, he talks about Job and the end intended by the Lord. And that word end has a lot of different meanings and it's not to say that it's a stopping point. The word that is translated end here for us has the idea of purpose. And it's been adopted by some even, it's the word telos. And you might hear that sometimes in business or in churches where they say, why are we here? What are we doing this for? What is our telos? What is our purpose? And that's what What God has in mind here through James's words, that there is a purpose in our suffering. Even it reveals what it is. That we might know that the Lord is compassionate and merciful. In your suffering, God has a purpose. And a fundamental purpose is to help you to understand the compassion of the Lord, that he is merciful towards you. And if you don't believe me, James says, you've heard of the perseverance of Job. Now perhaps you've heard the Bible trivia question, who's the most patient man in the Bible? Hands down, people will answer, well, it's Job. It's Job, because of the monumental trials that he went through. And I'll just remind you a little bit of that. I'm not gonna rehearse all of the things that happened to him. But he saw his entire life crumble before his very eyes. In the same day, he lost his flocks, and his herds, and his servants, and his children. But Job is commended for suffering patiently. It doesn't mean he did it perfectly. He did question God. He did complain and grumble, but he was genuinely entrusting himself to the Lord in all of this. And he is commended for persevering. And in the midst of that suffering, you hear him say, I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that I will see my Redeemer. With my own eyes, I will see him. He had no idea how that would come about. He had no idea how much further the extent of his loss would go. We believe that the Lord had revealed to him these things that he confessed. And he clung to them in the midst of his sufferings so that he would say, I trust in the Lord who is compassionate and merciful. Pray for patience, realizing That when you pray for patience, the Lord will grant it to you. Sometimes, oftentimes, by giving you things that try your patience, purify it. Learn patience by meditating on God's purpose in the midst of that suffering. Thirdly, then, to grow in the Christian discipline of patience. Apply patience to your interpersonal relationships. Did you notice James brought in how we relate to one another? Look at verse nine and then verse 12. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. In verse 12, but above all, my brethren, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no, no, lest you fall into judgment. You might be saying, so what does this have to do with patience? Well, take note that James is applying the fruit of patience to interpersonal relationships. Ah, now I begin to understand why James is talking about patience. When I brought up the subject of patience, I referred to God trying your patience, and I have a hunch, and my hunch is that many of you thought of certain people that are in your life that try your patience. Maybe you thought of yourself trying other people's patience. Here again, James gives the example of prophets, those who spoke in the name of the Lord and who are cited as examples of suffering and patience. Here, let me just give another example. James talks about Job and a little bit later about suffering, but I'll give you the example of Moses. He had lots of things that he suffered, but stop and remember how often Moses suffered because of his leadership responsibility over the children of Israel. Read through the book of Exodus and just count how many times the children of Israel complained against Moses. And against Aaron, they rebelled against him. They whined about the food that God was giving. They worried about their well-being. They even said, we're gonna leave you, Moses, and go back to Egypt. Moses ministered to a stiff-necked people. Like Job, Moses didn't do this perfectly, but he stands as an example of applying patience to interpersonal relationships. Which brings us back to what James says, and he gives two very practical applications of this. Do not grumble. Grumbling is a complaint. usually originates as a complaint against that brother or sister. And did you notice that it is right within the family of God that this is happening? James is talking about brethren. That's his word for believers. Do not grumble. That's a complaint against a brother or sister, an attack on them for one reason or another. I didn't get my way is what it often comes back to. Ultimately, it's a complaint against God, isn't it? Why me? Why now? Why can't my prayer be answered in the way I would like it to be answered? Why do I have to wait? I don't like manna. I don't like suffering. I don't like to wait for a job. I don't like to wait for a wife. I don't like to wait to see my sins cleansed, to be sanctified. Why do I still struggle with this? Grumbling is a sin against patience, sin against our brothers and sisters and against God. And swearing is too. Swearing is an attempt to manipulate, to get your way. Instead of resting on God's providence, instead of trusting the Lord, your worry bubbles up and then spills out of your mouth. I found that people try to manipulate a situation by speaking firmly or even by swearing. You don't believe me? I swear it's true. You ever heard that? By all in heaven, by God, I swear it's true. If you wait on God, you don't need to grumble. You don't need to manipulate. An answer with a simple yes or no, you can leave it at that. Looking forward, To the Lord's reward, remembering his past kindness, producing the fruit of the spirit, fruit of patience. In this light, the author Christopher Wright defines patience in very nitty gritty ways. He says, the patience is the ability to endure for a long time whatever opposition or suffering may come. Patience is to show perseverance without wanting retaliation or revenge. Patience is the ability to put up with the weaknesses and foibles of others, including other believers, and to show forbearance towards them. Patience is waiting upon the Lord in the light of others' difficulties with you without getting quickly irritated or angry enough to want to fight back. Learn patience, practice patience in your relationships with other, waiting on God. The point is that we are indeed a waiting people. learning and growing the fruit of patience. We wait for Christ. We long for growth in our lives. We endure in the midst of suffering. We persevere in relationships. And to be honest, these things are very hard, aren't they? That's why it's one of the Spirit's fruit. He calls you to it. He causes it to grow in your life. The farmer knows the practice of patience. He is helpless to control the weather, the growth of the plants, the amount of sunshine. He doesn't know the struggles he might face. And neither do you. Neither do you. So James encourages you to be patient and to stand firm. Let the coming day of the Lord be a warning against those sins of grumbling. The judge is at the door. Did you hear that? But let it also be that invitation to hope and to trust eagerly the coming of Jesus Christ. The Lord has said, I'm coming. I'm coming quickly. Surely our response is, even so, Lord, come quickly. We wait for you. Amen. Let's pray. Oh, Lord God, we are not very good at waiting. We are an impatient people. Lord, you have called us to be a waiting people, though. The already aspects of our redemption are glorious. The not yet aspects of our lives are infuriating. We pray, O God, that you would teach us patience in the midst of our suffering. Much like Job, we are surrounded with loss and pain. O God, we pray that Each one of us, in whatever suffering that we are carrying today, that we might know that you have a purpose, that we might be reminded that you are compassionate and merciful. In our suffering, help us to know that and cling to that. And Lord, which one of us is free from interpersonal conflict? Lord, teach us patience as we deal with brothers and sisters, Help us to show grace ourselves, being quick to repent, quick to seek forgiveness, quick to extend that forgiveness to those who have sinned against us. Lord, you have said you are coming. And we say even so, Lord, come quickly. In Jesus' name, amen. Psalm 96 speaks with eager anticipation about the coming of Jesus. I close this message on patience by reminding you that Jesus Christ did indeed come, born of a virgin in Bethlehem, suffered and died under the hands of Pontius Pilate, was raised and is ascended on high. And He will come again to judge the living and the dead. Let's stand and sing Psalm 96, Selection B.