We'll read this morning from James chapter 5 beginning in verse 7 and reading through verse 12. James 5, 7 through 12. Hear the Word of the Lord. 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 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. 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. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. You may be seated. Be careful when asking the Lord for patience, because he might just give it to you. We've probably all heard or even said this at some point before. Patience is not something we find a great deal of joy in developing. And that's because it's difficult. Patience means that you are enduring something that you do not enjoy, that you do not find ideal. It might mean enduring another person, perhaps listening to them when you are not interested in what they're talking about. Or it may mean bearing with some personality trait that you find frustrating or annoying, not necessarily sinful. Patients might mean tolerating delays or problems and complications when you're trying to complete a task of some sort. And I confess this is one aspect of patients that I personally struggle with. I can get very frustrated when things don't go the way I expect them to go when I'm trying to do something. especially when equipment doesn't work the way it's supposed to. That just frustrates me. It's supposed to work this way. Why is it not doing what I expected it to do? Or I found the other day I was carrying too many things and I couldn't hold on to them and I was dropping things and I was getting frustrated as if these things I was carrying were actively working against me in some way. They're obviously not. It was my own fault for trying to carry too many things. but I didn't have the patience to deal with it." So don't pray for patience or God will send you frustrations like this in order to build patience in you. At least that's the thought, right? But James has told us from the beginning of his letter that we are to let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. That's from chapter 1, verse 4. James assumes that we will all be in situations, perhaps often in situations, that will test our patience. And he instructs us to let patience have its way with us. It's as if James is speaking the way your father or your grandfather probably spoke to you. It builds character. Patience will bring you to completion, to Christian maturity. So it's not something to be avoided, but embraced. Circumstances that test our patience are actually a gift from God. because he uses those circumstances to grow us to Christian maturity. And after all, if we think about it, patience is a fruit of the Spirit. So it's something we should desire to have in our lives. In the text that we examined last week, we saw James give an indictment against the wicked oppressors of God's people, and that indictment gave us hope because it reminded us that the Lord of hosts, Lord Sabaoth His name, He hears our cries. He hears us when we are under duress, when we're suffering and when we're feeling oppressed. And that day is coming in which He will judge and set things right. Now, building on that hope, James begins our text this morning this way, Therefore, because of what I've just said, therefore be patient Brethren, until the coming of the Lord, because of what he has just reminded us of in the previous paragraph concerning Christ as the Lord of the heavenly hosts. He has heard our cries. Therefore, be patient." Now, if we were to examine our text this morning, verses 7 through 12, you would notice two key words that are repeated multiple times. The word brethren and variations of the word patient or patience. What do these repeated words tell us? Well, last week we noted that in the previous six verses, they were addressed to unbelievers, to the wicked, to the oppressors. The words were not spoken for the benefit of the oppressors, but for the benefit of the readers of James's letter. But in this section, James makes it clear that he's now addressing believers once more. He uses the term brethren four times in six verses. But it's more than simply telling us who he's speaking to. It's an encouragement in and of itself. As we endure suffering and trials and oppression in this life, We who trust in Christ for our salvation are brethren, we're kinsmen with the Lord's own brother, who was a leading elder in the early church. He's speaking to us, not in the harsh, condemning way that he spoke to the oppressors last week, but he's speaking to us in brotherly love. So even when he instructs us, even when he corrects us in this passage, he's doing so for our good. So be encouraged, brethren. We are all partakers together of this grace, even with the Lord Jesus himself. The second repeated word is patient, and it's related words. Four times the word patient is used, twice the word wait, once the word endure, and once perseverance. And these are all related to the same concept or idea of long stamina, of strength or staying power under poor conditions. In this case, persecution and oppression. We often hear the word patient or patience, I need to develop patience, and what we think of is inactivity. We think of passivity, right, of just letting things happen to me, but that's not the biblical idea of patience. Being patient as a Christian doesn't mean that you sit idly by and just let things happen to you. Rather, it's the idea of bearing up under those things with strength, with joy, taking the long view of history, looking forward to the day of Christ's return, and soldiering through, as it were, continuing to do that to which you have been called as a believer. This is not inaction, but rather it is maintaining the right kind of action under duress. In 2 Timothy 2, verse 3, Paul writes and says, therefore, you must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. If you think about Roman soldiers in Paul's day, they would be far from home, far away from their families. They would often march long distances, carrying heavy packs through harsh weather with little sleep, limited food and water. And when they finally arrived at their destination, they would be expected to fight a hard and perhaps extracted campaign. They endured a good bit of hardship. And as Christ followers, we are pilgrims and exiles in this world, and we must likewise endure hardship. We must have this sort of staying power. to bear up until the end. Thankfully, this power to endure, to continue plodding forward under the weight of oppression and persecution and suffering is not a power that is dependent upon our own strength. If it were, we would fail miserably. Rather, we persevere because Christ holds us in His loving hand. He keeps us by His Spirit so that we will endure by the grace of God at work in us. And this is why the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Ephesus and says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. And then he continues from there to describe the Christians' armor and the idea of spiritual warfare. We don't stand against the devil in our own strength, but in the power of God's might. And similarly, we do not endure suffering or oppression in our own strength, but in the strength of the Lord at work in us. Now, last week, as we looked at verses one through six, we asked the question, how long, O Lord? How long must we endure this sort of suffering? James answers the question for us this morning. Therefore, be patient, brethren, until, so this is how long, until the coming of the Lord, until the end, until Christ returns. The coming of the Lord is the great parousia. You may have heard this Greek word before. It's the phrase, the presence, that means the coming presence, the glorious presence or the advent of Christ. This is the promise of his return in glory and in power to conquer his enemies and to establish the everlasting kingdom. We are to patiently endure until that time. The hope of Christ's triumphant return is that which enables us to bear up under suffering with perseverance and patience. And as we live for Christ in this world, suffering, affliction, oppression, persecution, trials of various sorts, James told us in chapter one, It should be the goal of every Christian not to suffer for sin and not to sin while suffering. Those are our two goals. Don't suffer because of sin and don't sin when you're suffering. And to that end, James now proceeds to give us three examples of how we ought to suffer and exercise this Christian virtue of patience. And with each example, he gives us a matching command or admonition. The first example he gives is that of a farmer. He says there beginning in the middle of verse seven, see how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. Now, this is an example that we're all of us familiar with. We live in farm country, and whether you are actually a farmer or just have a garden in the backyard, you know that once you plant the seed, it's out of your hands, right? You can't make that seed grow. You can water it, you can fertilize it, you can cultivate it, you can pull the weeds, but ultimately, God is the one who causes that plant to grow and produce a crop. You have to wait. But does the farmer put the seeds in the ground and then just go sit in the rocking chair on the front porch? No. We know that's not the case. Farmers are busy. They're working hard all year round. There's a lot of work to be done. There are stones to be picked. There are weeds to be pulled. Fences to be mend. barns to be repaired, there's work to be done. The farmer is busy while he waits for the crop to grow. He must wait patiently for God to give the rain and cause that seed to grow and produce a harvest, but he's working the whole time. The patience that James exhorts us to here is not a passive idleness, but an active, engaged, laborious endurance. There's an element of humility here as well. With all the work that the farmer has to do, he cannot do the most important thing. He can't make the crop grow. He can't make it produce a harvest. That's God's work. And so the farmer has to humble himself and admit, I can do all of these other things, things that need to be done, but ultimately, whether that plant grows and produces a harvest is not my job. That's God's job. And so as we patiently endure suffering and hardship and oppression in this world, we must recognize that we can't exact justice on the wicked. We can't set right all of the wrongs in this world. It's not our job. That's God's work. Our work is to labor in our calling until God brings in a crop of justice. But we get impatient, don't we? We want to see it happen now. We want justice now. We want the wicked, the oppressor, to suffer the consequences of his actions now. But God doesn't always work like that. God has instructed us to wait patiently on his justice, his settling of accounts, just as the farmer must wait patiently on the rain and the growth of the crop. But like the farmer, we're not to wait in idleness. James continues in verse 8 and says, you also be patient like the farmer. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. He's already told us in a previous passage, we don't know what tomorrow holds. The Lord might return tomorrow. And so what are we to do in the meantime? We are to establish our hearts. What does that mean, to establish our hearts? I think the best way to understand this would be to look at another passage where this same Greek word is used. It says of Christ in Luke chapter nine, Now it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up, just talking about his crucifixion, it's time for him to suffer and to die. When that time had come to pass, it says that he steadfastly set, that's the same Greek word, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. So what did Jesus do when faced with oppression, when faced with suffering? Knowing that the time of his crucifixion was near, he hardened his resolve, he clenched his fists, he turned his face toward Jerusalem and he put one foot in front of the other and went where he was supposed to go and he didn't look back. He steadfastly set His face to do what had to be done. Hebrews says that He, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross. He endured the cross because He was looking past it. to the joy that waited on the other side. That's what it means to establish your heart. It means to determine to put one foot in front of the other despite the hardship and to look past the suffering, past the oppression, past the trial to the joy of the coming day of redemption when Christ returns. It means to tough it out until then. This is in contrast to the double-minded man that James has spoken of in chapter one. He's unstable in all of his ways, but here we are to establish our hearts, make it stable, firm, set it in the direction that it's supposed to go without change. He spoke in chapter three of the unruly, untamed nature of the tongue. It both blesses God and curses our fellow man. We're not to be tossed around like the double-minded man. We are to settle our hearts. In fact, this is how the Tyndale and Geneva Bibles both translate verse 8. Settle your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Our hearts are to be steadied, keep them fixed or settled, focused on Christ and the hope of His return. Don't focus on the hardship, on the suffering and the oppression, rather focus on the joy of Christ coming for His own. So when you are faced with oppression and hardship in this life, think about the farmer. Know your role. It's not your job to exact justice or to see that every wrong is righted. That's God's job. Leave that to Him. Set your face to endure with joy. Do the work of cultivating godliness and patience in your life, even when there is no justice in sight in this world. But know that that justice will come. as surely as God brings the spring rains and causes the crops to grow. The hope of Christ's triumphant return enables us to endure suffering with perseverance and patience, knowing that He will exact justice on that day. The second example that James gives us is found in verses 9 and 10. And in this case, the admonition comes first and then the example. He says in verse 9, do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. Now again, we can see that James has returned to his recurring theme here of sins of the tongue. Notice that he didn't say not to grumble against or about the oppression, but not to grumble against one another. The word grumble means to complain in an ill-tempered, growly sort of way. It can also mean a habitual complaining or blaming of others. To grumble in this sort of way against one another implies that it's not just that we're complaining about our oppression. We are to do that in prayer to God. But we're not to grumble against one another. We're not to complain against one another, criticize one another in the church. What James is saying here is that when you are suffering, when you're oppressed, and your spirit is down and you're frustrated, don't take it out on each other. or to patiently endure suffering and not become ill-tempered with each other in the church. And this is a temptation that we're all susceptible to, isn't it? When we're tired and we're grumpy, what happens? We take it out on those that are nearest, on our spouse, on our children, on the dog, right? We get grumpy and we just take it out on others, whoever happens to be handy. What we ought to do is endure with patience and joy, not grumbling, complaining, and criticizing one another. When we do that in the church to one another, we're not building each other up, we're tearing each other down. And in fact, in James's situation here, as he's writing to the church, it's quite obvious that it's not one member of the congregation that is suffering, but a significant number of them are suffering. And if they turn on each other and are taking out their frustration and their grumpiness with each other, at the very moment when they need to be encouraging one another, they're tearing each other down. So don't do this. Don't be critical and habitually complaining against each other. Bridle your tongue. And there's a warning here. If we grumble and we criticize and complain against each other, We need to remember that there is a much harsher complaint that could be made against me for my sins against the holy God. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. Don't grumble and be found guilty before Christ. You're looking for justice to be done because of the oppression. You want the wicked to be punished, and yet you're behaving in a way in which you need to be chastened by Christ. James reminds us of the nature of our relationship to one another in the church. Do not grumble against one another. Brethren, show brotherly love and peace, not criticism and complaining. As I said earlier, it should be our goal not to suffer for sin and not to sin while suffering. The alternative to this misuse of our tongues is to learn from the example of the prophets. He tells us in verse 10, my brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. Well, in what way do the prophets serve as an example to us? Well, the prophets suffered a great deal. They suffered a great deal of persecution at the hands of wicked kings and unreceptive people. Jesus told the parable of the vineyard in Luke 20. You may remember this. Then he began to tell the people this parable. A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vinedressers, and went into a far country for a long time. Now at vintage time, he sent a servant to the vinedressers that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the vinedressers beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent another servant, and they beat him also, and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent a third, and they wounded him also, and cast him out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, What shall I do? I shall send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when they see him. But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, Certainly not. Now, why do you think the Pharisees and the scribes said, Certainly not? Verse 19 tells us why they said that. For they knew he had spoken this parable against them. They knew that they and their predecessors were the vinedressers in the parable, that God was the owner of the vineyard, and that the servants who were beaten and cast out were the prophets and the son who was about to be killed as the Christ. So this is how the prophets were treated by their own people, by the own nation of Israel. The very people that they were sent to minister the Word of God to mistreated them, abused them, oppressed them. Jeremiah is the consummate picture of a suffering prophet. I skimmed through the book of Jeremiah the other day, and this is what I found. He was mocked by his fellow brethren there in Jerusalem in chapter 20, verse 7. He was ridiculed. His life was threatened in chapter 26. He was imprisoned in chapter 32, beaten and imprisoned a second time in chapter 37, thrown in a pit. as a dungeon in chapter 38, and then finally carried off to exile against his will by his own people in chapter 43. What did Jeremiah do during all of this? As he's suffering, as he's being oppressed by the very people he's been sent to minister to, did he grumble against the people of Israel? No. He tried hard not to offend them. In fact, he tried to keep his mouth shut. And he writes in chapter 20 and says, but his word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones. I was weary of holding it back and I could not. So while he did his best not to grumble and speak against the people of Israel, his brethren, he was compelled to speak the word of God. This is what James says in verse 10. My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example. Instead of grumbling, instead of criticizing and complaining against one another, we ought to follow the example of the prophets and speak in the name of the Lord. Speak words that are profitable to one another for repentance, for growth in our Christian maturity and sanctification. encouraging one another. Now, how could the prophets do this when they were suffering, when they were being persecuted and oppressed by people? In what strength could they do this? Jeremiah did it by recognizing that the Lord of hosts hears the cries of the oppressed. and by trusting in his deliverance, in his justice, and in his timing. Jeremiah wrote in chapter 20, verse 11, and said, but the Lord is with me as a mighty one, an awesome one. Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail. They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper. Their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten. Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has delivered the life of the poor from the hand of evildoers. Jeremiah worshiped, he praised the Lord and sang to Him in the midst of oppression. was the hope, the hope of Christ's triumphant return, righting those wrongs of oppression that enabled Jeremiah to endure that suffering with patience. So to speak like the prophets in the name of the Lord, rather than grumbling and criticizing and complaining against one another, we must have a vision of the hope of Christ's return. James' final example to us of patience and endurance is the great example of suffering in the Old Testament, the story of Job. He says in verse 11, indeed we count them blessed who 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. I want us to notice this first sentence, indeed we count them blessed who endure. What does it mean to count someone as blessed? The idea of blessed in the Bible refers to the bliss of heavenly joy, that which is to be enjoyed by those who have found favor with God. the Beatitudes or that section of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount where he names those who are suffering in particular ways in this life or conducting themselves with godliness in this life who are looking forward to that beatific vision, that heavenly felicity or joy. And he calls them blessed. He says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And he goes on. But can you notice the forward-looking aspect of this blessedness? For they shall, they shall inherit the earth. They shall be comforted. Their blessing is in the future. It's the joy that they will enjoy, the bliss that they will have in heaven. And so James says, indeed, we count them blessed who endure. And so as we look at these examples, including the one he's about to share with us, this man Job in the Old Testament, we consider them blessed now in heaven, though they suffered greatly in this life. And this is how we look at what we call heroes of the faith. We love stories about heroes of the faith. Biblical accounts of those men like Job who suffered, or biographies of missionaries, pastors, martyrs. We consider them blessed. They suffered in this life. They endured to the end. They persevered until their race was complete. The question is, do we simply admire them from a distance or are we willing to follow their example? Are we willing to endure as they endured with grace and godliness? That's James point. We make heroes of men and women from the past, but are we willing to emulate our heroes, or are we like the Pharisees of Jesus' day? Jesus said to them, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, if we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Therefore, Jesus says, you are witness against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your father's guilt, serpents, brood of vipers. How can you escape the condemnation of hell? That's a pretty stinging rebuke from the words of Christ. Don't adorn monuments to the martyrs, to the heroes of the faith, and pretend to revere them. If they were speaking to you, calling you to repentance, would you have martyred them the way your fathers did? Don't do that, it makes you a hypocrite. Instead, emulate them, obey the gospel, suffer for it with patient endurance, looking beyond this life to that which is to come. But remember also that we can't take comfort in this promise of heavenly blessedness if you suffer for wrongdoing. Puritan Thomas Manton reminds us, he says, although suffering is creditable, we must know that the persecuted cause is not always the best. Sarah was a type of the true church and Hagar of the false. And Sarah corrected Hagar. He's referring back to Abraham's wives, Sarah and Hagar. Sarah represents the true church and Hagar the false church, and yet Hagar was persecuted by Sarah. She wasn't persecuted, representing the false church for having done right, but for having done wrong. He continues and says, there are people who, when they suffer anything, call it persecution, when it is only just punishment. Many people claim persecution in martyr's blood in this way, when they are being corrected and restrained by the Lord. So don't suffer for wrongdoing and then claim that you're suffering for the sake of Christ. Peter tells us in his first letter, let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or a busybody in other people's matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. If you must suffer, make sure that you are suffering as one obedient to the gospel and not as a sinner. If you suffer as a sinner, don't think that you're suffering for righteousness' sake. Use right judgment. And now James gives us the example of one who suffered not for his own sins, but for righteousness' sake. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord. What was Job's situation and the end of his suffering? Job 1.1, there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. Now this isn't to say that Job was sinless, but he was a good man. He feared God, he shunned evil, he pursued righteousness. He had ten children, seven sons and three daughters. And he had great wealth, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a large household staff of servants to care for all of this. So that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East, it says in Job 1.3. Now that's interesting in itself. James is talking to those who are being oppressed by wealthy unbelievers and he gives them the example of the richest man in the ancient Near East. Wealth itself is not the issue here. The issue is how do you respond to oppression and suffering. But we see that Job suffered at the hands of Satan for no other reason than the glory of God. God draws Satan's attention to Job. He gives him permission to oppress him. So Satan takes great pleasure in taking away all of Job's wealth and killing all 10 of his children. And how does Job respond? Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He mourned. He fell to the ground and worshiped like Jeremiah. And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And scripture tells us that in all this, Job did not sin, nor charge God with wrong. Next, God gave Satan permission to torment Job's own body. So Satan struck him with painful boils from his head to his feet. His own wife told him that he ought to curse God and die. And Job responded and said, shall we indeed accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity? In all this, Job did not sin with his lips. And then Job's three friends came to counsel him by trying to get him to admit to some sin or fault for which he was suffering. And Job responded to them with innocence and truth. But he does, over the course of the book, begin to ask the question, how long, O Lord? And finally, God speaks. And what's interesting is, God doesn't explain to Job what happened. He doesn't tell Job why he's suffering. In fact, he humbles Job. He points out Job's ignorance, his lack of omniscience. What does Job do? He accepts the rebuke. He humbles himself before God. He repents. And then God blessed Job, and he gave him twice as much wealth as before, 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, 1,000 female donkeys, and 10 more children. Now that's interesting as well. He gave him twice as much as he had before, but the same number of children. James Montgomery Boyce points out that this implies that the first 10 children were not entirely lost as the animals had been, for their souls perhaps were saved and were with God. So by giving him another 10 children, he had in fact doubled the number of children Job had. Job lived another 140 years and saw his grandchildren to the fourth generation. He endured great loss and personal suffering for the sake of righteousness. And he endured to the end of his trial without cursing God, without speaking sinfully with his mouth. And he was willing to humble himself before God, to learn his own frailty before an all-knowing and all-powerful creator. What an example of godly perseverance and patience. And there's something that Job said in the midst of his trial that ties directly to our theme here in James. He said this, for I know that my Redeemer lives. and he shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me. It was the hope of Christ's triumphant return that enabled Job to suffer with perseverance and patience. And so it is with us as well if we follow his example. James ends this passage with his final admonition in verse 12, but above all, This is important. This is not some extra thing added to the end. This is the culmination of his argument. Above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no, no, lest you should fall into judgment. Don't make a vow so rash and unrealistic that you obviously can't keep it, and then try to convince people that you will by swearing on all the gold in the temple or whatever it is. Speak with integrity so that people will know that if you promise something, you will do it. Now, he's likely saying this because the poor in this situation, having been oppressed, are possibly making vows to creditors in order to obtain loans that they will not be able to pay back. James says don't do that. The word for judgment here at the end of verse 12 is everywhere else translated hypocrisy. The meaning is don't make a vow you can't keep and be judged to be a hypocrite. So with these three examples, James has shown us that patience under trials and oppression, under suffering, is not a passive and an inactive thing. Rather, it is actively waiting on the Lord to bring justice and to right the wrongs of this world. Like the farmer, doing the work to which we have been called while trusting in the Lord for the end result. Like the prophets, not grumbling and complaining, but speaking the word of the Lord as a blessing to others. And like Job, not complaining or cursing in our pain and suffering, but instead worshiping, praising the Lord, humbling ourselves before his eternal wisdom, and looking to that blessed hope of the coming of our Redeemer who will heal our wounds and grant us an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom. saying with Job, for I know that my Redeemer lives, and he shall stand at last on the earth. And after that my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another, how my heart yearns within me. Brethren, let the hope of Christ's triumphant return enable you to endure suffering with perseverance, with patience, and with a heart that yearns for the coming presence of your Redeemer. Let's pray.