I continue to remember Dr. Golightly. He is not doing well. Unresponsive yesterday morning, but this morning he was alert there. So you remember those two. Turn with me, if you would, this morning to the fifth chapter of James. James, the fifth chapter, I'll just read verse 7 for the sake of time this morning. It would be good if you go back and read down to verse 7. But I want to speak to you on the early and latter rain. For we begin, though, let us seek the Lord in His dear face. Our Father, I know that we all are guilty of our minds being on things around us. on activities that must be done, tasks accomplished today, and those for tomorrow crowd out our minds today. We don't stop and get quiet long enough to have our ward to speak to us. Getting quiet is a difficult task. We can cut off everything that would make the least noise around us, and yet in our minds things keep running. And it's just hard to get quiet. But we'll never adore thee, love thee, know thee as we ought. Until, Lord, each of us can say, it was just the Lord and me. My father, there's so much in this day, and so many useful devices that help us in life. But they seemingly have become a curse to us, robbed us, cheated us, and brought up distance us in life. But they seemingly have become a curse to us, robbed us, cheated us, and brought up distance us in life. But they seemingly have become a curse to us, robbed us to a right dividing of truth, right utterance, and an exaltation of Christ our Lord. Come, meet with us. Have mercy, have mercy, Lord, on so many around us. They've taken thy name, but life says differently. And for the many out there that are longing for a sweet visit of the living Lord. Those many out there that continue to seek and have no place to go. Help them, my Father, and help us that we not take carelessly the insight that you've given us. Father, in your kindness and your mercy, And in your love for your children here, help us in declaring all things rightly. I pray in Christ's name, I ask all this for His exaltation, and I ask that his children might be drawn close now. In his name we pray. James said in verse number seven, be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waited." There are a lot of people, preachers in pulpits today that will have nothing to do with spiritualizing Scripture. They want everybody to be more textual, to break down the verse and the passage and get into the original language and into the penman here, and just stick strictly to the letter. But it's always delightful to see one that God has inspired to write. do that for us. Behold, the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth. I want you to think about the farmer, one growing the fruit. Consider them, for in that man there is something for you to learn as he patiently waits for the precious fruit of the earth. James is speaking about the fruit of the Spirit, but he's helping us to understand by showing us something that all of us can relate. A farmer, a gardener, waiting for rain, being patient unto it, for it, for the completion, the finishing out of its crop. He hath long patience for it until he receive the early and latter rain. Again, an inspired writer took that, that everybody knows something about rain. He said, when you see the rain falling or the lack thereof, there is a message in that for you. Everything you do, Everything in life has a message from God, if we had eyes to see. And those that want to stick straight, stick straightly with the letter. I don't know how they will deal with James here, But then there are those in the pulpits, and these are the majority of preachers, that on occasions they might quote a verse. If they're having a good day, there might be two or three verses that they would mention. They don't deal with the Scriptures. Their main focus is on man. They're preaching to their people. They want them to leave feeling good about themselves. Don't want to bring up anything that might concern them in the future. Meeting God, a right heart, right living, no. Just let them leave happy. and give them a word that will encourage them. I'm certainly not against you encouraging anybody that might be down and out, discouraged. That's one of our purposes when we see someone in need. But in my declaring truth, I never want to harm a struggling lamb. One that is bruised. And usually what happens if you begin dealing at large, that struggling lamb, that bruised sheep is going to walk out more so. I never have any intentions of doing that because of very sensitive sheep that are around. But I told you some years ago about Brother Avery that went over to the eastern country there, to Israel, and spent many months living with a shepherd. He wanted to know He wanted to see what it was, find out what God's talking about, what the Lord Jesus is talking about when he talks about the sheep and the shepherd. And he said occasionally, it was a rare sight, but occasionally he would have a sheep that wanted to stray from the flock. and he'd get it back or send his sheepdogs after the sheep and get it back in the fold and they would go on and it wouldn't be long before he'd have to do that again. He said about after the third time that shepherd very carefully would break that sheep's leg and then he would wrap it up split it so that it would heal back correctly and carry that one on his shoulders until it was able to walk again. And he had no more trouble after that with that one. So occasionally God must break a leg. Sometimes He does not come immediately to bandage it up, but He will leave you limping, struggling. So you begin to sincerely seek Him, and then He'll come mend your broken leg. To us it might be a broken heart, It might be bruised feelings. Someone did something or somebody said something. But I don't want to be that kind of shepherd to you. I want to be patient, waiting for the precious fruit that James speaks about here. Long patience has the husband waiting on the fruit. He said, you be patient, brethren. You labor faithfully until you receive that rain that will finish off the maturing of the fruit. God told Israel, Deuteronomy 11, the land wherein you go to possess, it's a land of hills and valleys, and it drinketh of the rain of heaven, drinketh water. They were used to living in Egypt, and down there they had that river running through, large river. But God has brought him out and he's carrying him to that land. He said, now there for your crops and for your herds, for your household needs, you'll have to wait for the rain. But it's a good land as long as you do right and stay obedient, walk humbly, Loving the Lord, he said, I'll see that you have rain. I'll give you the former, and then in between needed showers until it's time for that latter rain. There were two major rains Israel depended on. One of them was the former. A little after the farmer or the gardener had put his seed in the ground, God would send them that rain, moisten the ground, enabling the seed to germinate. Can anybody explain what takes place when you put something that is dead in the ground and it comes back to life? And after the planting, then the former rain from heaven, God would send to provide sufficiently for the seed that had been planted. And then the latter rain, that was that good, long, choking rain from above. right before it was time for them to go and harvest. My dad was always looking. The corn was up, the stalks were grown, the ears were beginning to put out on the stalk. He's always looking and hoping for that one good, penetrating, soaking rain. He said if we get it, when that corn is in the ear like that, then we'll gather a good crop. Every kernel in there will be, it will be well developed. Now as to that for us, somewhere out in front of you there will be a ladder rain. It will mature those little grains of the seed. of the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. That light of rain will bring all those to ripe, a ripe stage in full maturity, and we wait. of what God appointed. He told them, as long as the earth remains, as long as I've got people here, there'll be seed time and there'll be harvest time, these shall not fail. The world will not end until God says for it to. And these running around the country and all over the world, that they had to change their date when in the late 90s, and at the turn of the century, the world had not been destroyed. So now they got these that are crowing on their little perch that by 26 or 30 the world will be destroyed because of the burning of fossil fuels. They don't want you driving a gas-burning vehicle. Yet the Hollywood stars with their yachts will sail burning up fuel that would run thousands upon thousands of cars. And our great climate czar in his private jet leaves a carbon footprint just on one trip overseas. Again, the thousands of cars will not make here in the United States. Don't listen to them. They have gotten filthy wealthy. I'm telling you the world's going to end. It'll end when God says time shall be no more. And as long as Israel was obedient and pleasing to the Lord, their land had productive rain, the former and the latter. But now you get to Jeremiah chapter 3, and it says, the showers have been withholding from you. Reason, you've polluted the land with thy wickedness and thy whoredom. Neither do you say in your heart, let us now fear the Lord, but giveth the former and let her reign in his season. The only thing that the church in America needs is God, the living God. The Lord, once again, raised to great height in our land. That'll solve all our problems. But it will never be. And yet his church, somewhere down the road in the future, they will have one last pouring out of the latter rain. Some dispensationalists like to say that Pentecost was the former rain. They can have that. I wouldn't argue with them. If they'll let the Old Testament saints be in the church also. And then as coming the latter rain. You just have to, now don't spend your time trying to find out what all they say. When God has a faithful and obedient people, Isaiah 58, the Lord shall guide you continually and he'll satisfy your soul in drought. We are in that place today, children. You shall be like a watered garden. I'll say to it. And you'll have springs of water that fail not. Isaiah 58, 11. In Hosea 6.3, then shall we know if we follow on to know. His going forth is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain. Our Lord did not leave us without scriptural evidence of what rain is. in the life of his church or people, individual person. My doctrine shall drop as rain, and my speech shall distill as dew, as small rain upon tender herbs. That's my watering your plants and your garden. And the tender plants in God's garden, he's very merciful. Herbs, one of the tenderest of all plants. But he's careful that his speech distill, like dew not destroying the plant. My soul shall be as a watered garden. Children, do you know that? Just stop now and get honest with yourself and with God. Use your soul as a watered garden. And you're receiving the little showers from time to time. The former rain, if you just want to take it as an individual Christian, Well, that was in the beginning of your walk. As to God's care and tenderness, do you know that one inch of rain on an acre, one inch, weighs 113 tons? But Job said, he maketh small the drops of water. If God dropped all that out immediately, that land probably would never bear anything else. It would destroy everything. But you as a Christian, you had the former reign of God's word distilling as dew in your heart, but this was only after The fiery work of the law of God bringing condemnation and guilt. God's never saved one until they became guilty and condemned. That rain, that rain before that, before that, small drops. It was like a torrential downpour destroying everything, everything within. The weight of that causing a guilty sinner to seek safety and refuge. And he ended up finding it only in Christ. And between the former and the latter, God will bring forth, or send forth, many little showers in your life. Now how long has that been? Since there was a budding forth again of love or joy or peace or goodness How long, how far back would you have to go to mark that time when these things were so? If you'll turn with me to Mark 4. This possibly will be the only place I'll ask you to turn today. Mark chapter 4, beginning with verse 26. Mark 4, 26. And he said, so is the kingdom of God. as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear, then the ear, After that, the full corn in the ear. And when that's done, when the fruit's brought, immediately he put it in the sickle because the harvest is come. It is the ear that is on the stalk having matured to that point, needful of the latter rain. And there's nothing that will prepare a Christian to step into the immediate presence of God. You're going, your souls, don't know how long, But it is a meeting in God's time. And if you are a Christian today, and you're quite certain of that, it's going to take that latter rain between the seed coming up and the stalk growing and the ear fully developed. where every fruit of the Spirit is now grown and very active. The king's countenance is as a cloud. Proverbs 16, 15. The farmer Got dry land on his crops and he sees that sky beginning to darken. And a large cloud begins forming and moving his way. And hope within springs that his crop will come to maturity and ripen with the grains full. But we're talking about you. and I'm talking about me. Elijah would not leave that mountaintop until his servant said, well, after the seventh trip he came back and he said, I see a little cloud rising. It's no more than about the size of a man's hand. But Elijah knew that's rain. And he told the king and everybody there, you better get off this mountain. There are many, many little clouds that will arise in a believer's heart. With each cloud, we get a little glimpse of the king's countenance. And that's as rain. scattered off as they are. We cannot go on, except we see the king's countenance. And that's that little cloud rising. It's as a cloud, Solomon said, the true children scattered as they are across this land. They sit in these steeple houses and in these houses of idols, or what's called Jesus, but they sit there longing for a word from that distant land. But I'm wondering if maybe it's not us at times, Or do we come in with that longing heart, that dry ground, barren ground within? As cold water to a thirsty soul, Proverbs 25, 25. So is good news from the Lord. Judah mourns, and Jerusalem cries. All those have gone up. They're in drought, Jeremiah 14, and the nobles sent their little ones to the waters. And they came to the pits and they found no water and they all returned home with their vessels empty. A dry, dry land. All because of their walking away from Him. God withheld the rain. Now let me give you, let me tell you about two that I've never met because of their walking away from Him. God withheld the rain. Now let me give you, let me tell you about two that I've never met. Because of their walking away from Him, God withheld the rain. The last month, if He is not exalted in the minds of the people, there is no place to look for salvation. He is not mentioned in many churches anymore. At least those I attend, no one seems to blush about their condition. And the second one this week, here I sit. at the age of 84 looking for a church that gives our Lord preeminence among men. It seems I'm forced to sit under a pastor that aggravates my spirit. Sitting there listening to one pandering to confused, unstable, unlearned men has produced a critical spirit in me. Well, do I know that, dear sister? Mourning has become my portion, and I'm forced to be silent. I abhor my feelings not towards persons, but the focus of the ministry. I've tried to encourage the women here for us to get together for a weekly Bible study or devotional. or just simply read and pray?" She said, there was not one response. They prefer ice cream socials and craft days. Where in the world does this fit in with the gospel? She said, pray for me for I have a critical spirit. How long does God want me to sit here in silence? I'm too old to be tossed around, not by every wind of doctrine, but as a sheep looking for a place where our Lord feeds His sheep. There are others just like those two. Come back home. hungry. The fruit didn't mature. Something happened to the preachers and the grounds chapped over because of no rain. We've been laboring nigh on three quarters of a century, yet the only showers we hear about now are in individual hearts. So little success, though sound doctrine goes forth in a lot of places. But apart from heaven's moisture, it doesn't matter if you do have the truth. It accomplishes nothing. So you know what the fruit of the Spirit is, Galatians 5.22. But the question is, how is it doing in your heart? How are these things growing there? I know that the house of God, 1 Timothy said, or Paul to Timothy, is the church of the living God. It is the pillar and ground of truth. I know that. But apart from the former and latter reign, all doctrine, be it correct, accomplishes nothing. The churches have been propping themselves up for years. What bothers me is that this is taking place among some of the Lord's children. The churches have been propping themselves up with any and everything imaginable that they could find. They found out preaching and praying and the singing of God honoring Christ exalting hymns would not bring out anybody, wouldn't keep the ones they had. So they got away from 50 to 60 minute exposition of scripture and they began to come up with their 15 minute little sermonettes that they substituted for biblical preaching. And the old hymns were thrown out and contemporary hymns were brought in because the young people liked that better. And that awe, awe, silence, reverent atmosphere, somber place where you walked in. It was discarded for coffee shops in the church and games. And the old biblical way, preach, pray, it was given up. And the music on the walls, they had this large screen with music that you'd repeat the lines five to ten times with a little bouncing ball going over every word that you were supposed to be singing. Reverence is gone. A circus atmosphere has filled the building, buildings like all those birds that would light in the tree there in Daniel. Now, the goers are left or leave with an excited old nature as if they left the ball game. Wasn't God good to us today? We had such a time clapping our hands and shouting. Maybe I've made this a little more personal than I should. I don't know. Many years ago, I preached down in a large church in Jacksonville, Florida. This caught me off guard. I knew the pastor. We'd been together. We'd preached together at different conferences. And he was a good preacher. But it caught me off guard with the appearance of a bearded lady and the world's tallest woman. and other attractions had been advertised so that the pastor could fill up that large building. Not only there, even I in my early years, we, running 10 to 12 buses, some of them up to 50, running buses all over the city. Now this did not take place, this stopped when I got there. Prizes were taped under different seats, a $20 bill, a $10 bill, a five, sometimes just a one, sometimes good gift card certificates. Bicycles were given away to the one that would bring the most visitors. seen advertised preacher from the top of his building up there hanging on to the steeple right beside it preaching. Ever how many hundred got there that he asked. Churches begin specialized marketing like a corporation, family, friend days. Grandparents' days. Grandchildren, so we'd get the grandparents out. We'll take a Sunday and we'll dress up in clothes that were worn 50 years ago. We'll have an old-fashioned day at the church. Senior Citizens' Day. vans where they would leave or they were always counted in church. It didn't matter where they might be on their tour. They were counted there in church. Do you see just the very filth of all this and the ungodliness here? Programs created pertaining directly to the youth. In my early days, mom and dads were glad to send their children to church. They'd be rid of them for a couple of hours. But let me, in closing, Let me pose the same question to you that the great apostle saw in the church at Galatia, a declension in their faith. He saw them departing from the purity of And he writes, who hindered you? Who stopped you that you quit obeying truth? You started out good, but you've all grown careless. Now you're lax, where I, at one time, I saw a vigorous, healthy, active soul in you. Now I look at you and you no longer have heaven's moisture. Heaven's mourning you, falling on your heart. What's happened to you? Could that be to us? Is that to you now? Or at one time you were a faithful hearer, but now your heart is never challenged. Seems as though your love for the Lord Jesus has grown lukewarm. Does that apply to you? Before Christ, was that prize pearl to you? But now things have crowded him out. You're trying to raise a family, Children, it's difficult in this day. I know work, so demanding. But as Christ crowded out of your heart, what has the world held out before you? that prize. What's the devil offered you? Well, it didn't seem like the devil, but your race has stopped. And now if ever there was divine life in your soul, we said, all I can see right now is a little flickering like an old lamp running low on oil and the wick has not been trimmed in some time. Children, do you have the Spirit of God guiding you? Do you have that soul burning within the life of Christ, making you aglow? or that conscience that was once tender and easily pricked, now even a very sharp sword could not even pierce, couldn't scratch the surface. The cross that you bore and the cross that you came to oft in Scripture and in prayer, it was such a delightful sight for you. There you'd pause and you'd linger, And you think about the price that he paid for you. But no longer does it hold an attraction. Ask yourself, and I greatly appreciate your faithfulness here. The Lord knows I appreciate it. But how long has it been since gathering was such a great delight to you? Has gathering become what I'm supposed to do because I call myself a Christian? Ask yourself now, how long has it been since gathering? And you've been faithful over many years. But you walked in with that anticipation, delight, looking a great, great attraction of your heart. Will he meet with us in our devotion? Can I hear his voice as we sing the old hymns? Is my heart aglow? Is it raised? Is it lifted up? As those words fall from my lips? The word that at one time was so invigorating. There your spirit soared into the heavenlies. But right now, life within is at a low ebb. Have you been watching The Foolish Virgin? And you're comparing yourself to them. They are a Christian, I am a Christian. They do this, therefore I'm free to do that. No, folks, this is personal. That Paul had such a discerning heart. I know where you are. I see and now I want to know what's happened, what came about that has hindered your growth. And now there's no moisture in the words declared. What about, what about Asaph? He got to looking, he got to looking at the wicked. He said, well, everything they do, they prosper. They don't have any trouble, even in their death, there's no bands. And they go on and God seems to be keeping them very happy and content. He said, I got just like them by watching them, seeing. It didn't matter how they lived, they were happy. They had everything heart could want. And he said, one day I walked into the house of God. He might have been going all the time. But that day it was different. Oh, how foolish I was when I got to the house of God. His complaint to the Lord was, Lord, I've been just like a beast before you. You know that a beast lives only for itself. What it can eat, what it can drink. And the great Psalm writer, said, I'd become just like a wild beast, foolish, ignorant, having departed from thee, O Lord. And then he comes in with that great, that great statement, nevertheless, I am still with thee. Don't linger too long. Don't live without a throbbing, active, seeking and don't live without him through the week. Former rain will germinate the seed. Little showers, the countenance of my God is like a little cloud, refreshing. Little showers in between when the seed came up that day, you were converted, all were planted within. If you go out of this world right with God, there'll be that light of rain. You may be all by yourself, but there's going to be that light of rain in your soul where everything the Spirit of God has planted within, it blossoms. Oh, the fragrance flowing from your heart. to the Lamb of God. I thank Him for what He gives us here, that you could have better preaching if you had a hungrier heart. You could have better preaching if the heart had been prepared Before you came in, break up your filogram. The preaching would have been a lot better today for you. But children, he's done so much. Let's don't live around the outer cord. Let's get back longing for heaven showers to moisten our old dried up hearts. and how refreshing those showers will be.