Living A Lifestyle Of Trust

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All right, it's good to be with you again tonight. Why don't you turn your Bibles to James Chapter 5.
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James Chapter 5. In addition to the
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PTI ministry, we've had the opportunity to work in some church planning ministries ourselves in Puna.
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Sammy, myself, and Tom Schuck have been able to go to the northern part of the city of Puna where the
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PTI is in the southern part. We go to the northern part of Puna and we're working there to plan a church. And by God's grace, it's growing.
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I heard a good report that during our furlough, the church has grown to about 25 or 30 people.
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So I thank the Lord for that. Not sure how that corresponds with our furlough, but, you know,
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God is sovereign. And so we're happy to see that church growing. Just recently, we as a team taught through the book of James, and it's a wonderful book.
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I don't know how many of you have been able to do a study through the book of James, but it is intensely practical.
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It speaks to issues we deal with day in and day out. And I thought tonight, as we come together to look at God's word once more, we could look at just one of those jewels, one of those wonderful practical passages that tell us how to live life.
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God's word teaches us how to live life. This is the manual, isn't it? For living both this life and eternal life.
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And so we thank the Lord for that. So why don't we pray before we get into God's word and ask his blessing on this time.
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Father, we thank you again for this opportunity to come and to study your word. It is rich, it is full, it is deep.
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And so I ask, Lord, that as I talk about it, as these people here, Lord, that you would bless this time, help us to understand, help us to be clear.
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Most of all, Lord, help us to be honest with ourselves and with you about our lives and about what your word is saying to it.
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So Lord, help us now by your spirit. We pray in Jesus name. One thing that you almost immediately notice when you move to India, when you hit the ground, get off the plane in Bombay, get out of the airport and start driving the three hours that it takes to get to Pune, is the traffic.
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The traffic in India is crazy. I think anyone who's been to India, Mike, others, can attest to the same fact.
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It's one of the most scary experiences of your life to go anywhere in a city in India.
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I mean, the traffic is just masses of cars driving here and there and weaving. Am I not right,
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Pradeep? It's a harrowing experience. Well, the same is true in our city of Pune. And I want to tell you a story of a traffic incident that happened to us when we were there.
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One day, the whole family and I were driving down the road, down one of the busier streets of Pune, and we came to one major intersection in the city where several,
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I think it's five major roads from the city all come together. And there are cars everywhere.
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And we, as you normally do, driving in traffic, we were just kind of weaving our way through the traffic.
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It was our turn to go, but of course, cars are still going in front. So you just go ahead and you begin making your way through the intersection.
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We were doing that, going along. We had cars on both sides, and we're moving ahead.
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And all of a sudden, in my view, straight ahead, I see this man standing with a bicycle.
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Cars all around, but he was trying to go his own way through this particular intersection on his bicycle.
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And so I'm coming up to him, and I'm trying to slow down, and I'm thinking, well, how am I going to get around this guy?
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And for some reason, he gets very, very upset. And he feels as though I am threatening him,
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I suppose, to run him over. So what does he do? But he takes his bicycle, and as I'm passing just next to him, he takes his bicycle and he slams it into the side of my car.
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In the right front quarter panel, I can still picture the dent that is there to this day.
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And he slams it into the side of my car, and I keep going. I didn't know, you know, I didn't want to do anything, but what do you imagine was going on in my heart?
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You know, I mean, the blood starts to boil, and I'm thinking, there's no call for that. That is wrong.
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You know, I'm getting angry. How could he do that? And I was getting angry and angrier.
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And you know, sometimes those kind of things happen to us, right? In the heat of the moment, someone does something to us, and we get angry, and it can ruin our entire day, right?
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You say, that was wrong, and you get out, and you look at the dent, and it's huge, and oh, man, you just get frustrated and angry.
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You know, it's hard to respond rightly in those kinds of situations, isn't it? Have you ever had an experience like that?
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Maybe recently, and you know what's wrong to get angry. Maybe you yelled. Maybe you lashed out violently.
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Maybe you were frustrated. Maybe you carried a grudge for a week or longer because someone had abused you.
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You know, a dent in the side of the car may seem like something small, but in our lives, we experience all kinds of wrongdoing and abuse, right?
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Maybe someone lied to you. Maybe somebody in work slandered you so that they could get ahead.
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Maybe someone used you. Maybe someone cheated you financially. These kind of things happen in the wicked world in which we live, and the
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Lord's desire for us is to respond in a humble, godly, peaceful way.
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Is that possible? Is it possible to respond rightly in those kinds of situations?
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Think about Joseph, the story of Joseph, just for a minute. He was wrong during his life, right?
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I mean, think of all the things that happened to him. He was hated by his brothers, thrown into the pit, sold into slavery.
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His brothers lied about him to their father. He went to the house of Potiphar, right?
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He was working hard. He was doing a good job. And what happened? Potiphar's wife tried to seduce him, lied about it, and got
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Joseph thrown into prison. What did Joseph do? He said, that's it. That was the last straw. God doesn't know what he's doing.
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This shouldn't be happening. I've been wronged. I'm going to throw in the towel. Is that what Joseph did?
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No, he kept being obedient. He kept trusting the Lord. He responded rightly in that situation.
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And eventually, God did what? He exalted him. And you remember what Joseph said at the end of the book of Genesis?
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As his brothers come and now they're trembling before him? What was his attitude? What did he say?
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He said, you meant it as evil to me, but God meant it for good.
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How could Joseph say that? When he had been wronged so terribly, when he had been abused and mistreated, his whole life, really, up to that point.
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How could he say that? It's because Joseph had developed in his life, in his walk with the
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Lord, a lifestyle of trust. It was a lifestyle to him.
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Trust was not just something, faith was not just something intellectual. It became a day in and a day out habit in Joseph's life.
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And you know, that's the way the Lord wants you and I to live. When we're abused, when the bicycles of life get slammed into our cars, right?
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How does the Lord want us to respond when we're mistreated? When it's unjust? When it's wicked?
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He wants us to respond like Joseph. And by God's grace, we can. And the passage we're looking at in the book of James helps us to have that lifestyle of trust in God.
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A kind of trust in him that isn't just nine to five, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
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But it's all the time. It's constant. It's a constant, rock solid assurance that God is in control and he knows what he's doing and Jesus is coming back and it's going to be okay.
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And that's, I believe, what James is teaching us by the spirit of God in this chapter five of James, verses seven through 11.
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How do we develop a lifestyle of trust in God? And I want to look at these verses with three commands.
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There are three commands in this passage and I want us to see these. They're really the keys to developing that lifestyle of trust.
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Three commands and we can express them this way. I'll just give it to you right now. The first command is don't blow up.
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Don't blow up. The second command, which we'll see in verse nine, is don't get fed up.
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You might want to write these down. Don't blow up. Don't get fed up. And the third command we see in verses 10 and 11 is don't give up.
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Don't blow up. Don't get fed up and don't give up above all else. Let's read the text and look how it applies to our lives.
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James 5, verses 7 through 11. Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the
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Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until it gets the early and late rains.
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You too be patient, strengthen your hearts for the coming of the
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Lord is near. Do not complain, brethren, against one another so that you yourselves may not be judged.
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Behold, the judge is standing right at the door. As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the
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Lord. We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the
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Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. You know, as James is coming up to this passage in this letter to these persecuted saints, he's dealing with their response to all kinds of worldly sinful things.
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James realized that the world we live in, the world that believers live in, is wicked.
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There is sin. There are people who will use you, who will abuse you.
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And in order for God to be glorified in our lives, we have to know how to respond to those things.
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So starting all the way back in chapter 4, and you can just glance there, he starts talking about all kinds of worldly sins.
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If you look there in verse 1, he talks about quarrels and fighting. Verse 2, he talks about lusts and sinful desires as the basis of that fighting.
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He talks about selfish motives, pride, impurity, gossip, selfish ambitions.
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All of that is found in chapter 4. And James is saying, all throughout that, this is how you respond.
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Draw near to God. Seek purity and holiness. Draw near to Him.
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Love Him. Repent of your sin. Be humble. He's telling believers, telling us, how to respond to each of these sinful, worldly things that we come in contact with.
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Whether it's people doing it to us, or temptations that are coming against us, how do you respond?
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And so in that vein, as he comes to chapter 5, he's working in those same lines of thought. How do you respond to sinfulness in this world?
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Chapter 5, he takes up particularly the evils of materialism, of loving money, of loving riches.
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And down in verse 6, he begins to talk about how wicked, sinful, rich people can even abuse poor people.
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And you believers may be some of those poor people. So how are you going to respond when you are used and abused?
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That's the context in which James is talking here. When people are used and abused, particularly in financial settings.
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And he says, you can respond rightly, even when you are mistreated unjustly by this worldly, wicked world in which you live.
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And so he describes here, coming up to verse 7, how the saints are to act when they're abused.
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And the answer to that comes in applied theology. I'm sure Pastor Mike has taught you that theology matters, right?
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Theology, truth about God, truth about his word, truth about man. Theology in all of its areas becomes the foundation for living.
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And James is saying that. He says, applied theology is the key to responding rightly in these difficult circumstances.
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And in this case, the area of theology that needs to be applied is eschatology.
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What is eschatology? The theology of end times, the coming of Christ. And he says that fact that Christ is coming back must make a difference in your life.
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And that's what he uses in each of these points to show us that we need to respond rightly when abused.
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Let me just illustrate it this way, and then we'll get into the text. If you knew for sure that Jesus was coming back tonight at 830, how would that change your life?
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How would that change the hurt that you felt when someone ignored you during the potluck?
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All right. Or when somebody said a bad comment behind your back about how bad the spaghetti was.
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There was no spaghetti, right? I picked something in there, right?
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See, it wouldn't matter. Why? Because Jesus is coming back. He's coming soon.
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He's coming again. And that kind of trust, that kind of faith in the coming of our
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Lord and the goodness of God and the blessings that we'll experience when he returns, those are to be the attitudes.
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Those are to be the thoughts that govern our actions right now. Do you understand what
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I'm saying? That's what James is saying. He's saying, look, guys, Jesus is coming back.
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He can come back tonight. And aren't you going to feel foolish if you were having bad attitudes and getting angry at the guy that slammed his bike into your car?
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Because you know what? The car doesn't matter because the
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Lord is coming back soon and it's not going to make any difference. That's what James is saying.
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So he gives us these three commands in light of the soon coming of our Lord. Don't blow up.
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Don't get fed up. And by all means, whatever you do, don't give up.
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Don't throw in the towel. Let's look in detail how he teaches us this. Let's look first command in verse seven.
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Don't blow up. Verse seven says, therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the
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Lord. Now, James, in these two verses, verse seven and eight, gives us two descriptions, two perspectives, if you will, on this particular command of patience.
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The first one is a passive idea. It's something you just need to sit back and do.
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The second command or the second aspect of this command in verse eight is something that you can do actively.
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Let's look at the first one. The passive idea comes first there in verse seven. Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the
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Lord. Now, let me just point your attention, first of all, to the emphasis that James gives here. Notice that three times he says in these verses, be patient, be patient, be patient.
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That is a wonderful word, patience in English. I think it's an even more wonderful word in Greek, because literally the word means long suffering.
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It's a word that is very much a personal word, an interrelation word. It's used in context where it means that you can take a lot of abuse, that someone can hurt you and hurt you and hurt you again before you blow up.
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Literally, it has the idea of having a long fuse. All right. What is it going to take to make you explode?
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That's the idea that James is saying here. He's saying, be patient, have a long fuse, be a person who can endure abuse without losing it, disintegrating, blowing up.
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It really refers to a hard attitude of a person who will not retaliate quickly.
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You know, what's interesting, this particular quality is a characteristic that is used of God frequently.
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Let me just read to you Psalm 86 verse 5. It says, but you, O Lord are a
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God merciful and gracious, slow to anger. It's the same basic word and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
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You know, the fact is the Lord puts up with a lot, doesn't he? From you and I, unfortunately, from his children, he is long suffering.
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We use his grace and our
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Lord himself is patient with us. And James is calling us here to the same kind of patients to not get angry quickly, to not explode, not to lash out, but to absorb and to endure that kind of abuse.
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It's a characteristic of our Lord. But now we look at the key factor. He says, endure, be patient until the coming of the
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Lord. How long do I have to endure? It's almost like Peter saying to Jesus, right? How many times do
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I need to forgive Lord? Seven times. Wow. That's really something. But Jesus said, no,
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Peter, you forgive 70 times. Seven. Same idea here. Long suffering.
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How long until Jesus returns again and again and again, be patient, endure.
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Remember, the Lord Jesus is coming back for you. Now, James helps us to understand this.
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He knew it's difficult. He knew it's hard. So he gives us an illustration. He gives us an illustration, as you see there in the text of who?
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A farmer. Let's look at the text. It says, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until it gets the early and the late rains.
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You know, a farmer is a perfect illustration of what James is saying here. Think about it for a minute.
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There's at least three reasons I could think of why a farmer is the perfect illustration of what
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James is commanding us to do here. First of all, is because a farmer has to wait. Notice what he says here.
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The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soul.
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Literally, that word means to await with eagerness, anticipation to look forward to, to long for.
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And so a farmer, he has to wait. There's nothing he can do. It's out of his hands. So he has to look forward to he's a man of hope.
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He's a man of trust. Second reason why a farmer is a good illustration here is because he has a lot at stake.
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He has a lot at stake. Do you see what the text says? He waits for what kind of produce?
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The precious produce of the soil. You know, the farmer, he works hard. He puts a lot of effort, investment, time and money and sweat.
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He buys the seed. He has to protect the new plants that are growing up from disease and weeds.
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He invests, invests, invests, invests. He has a lot at stake, just like you and I.
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We're not fooling ourselves. We're not saying that when someone slanders you to get ahead in his job, that doesn't hurt.
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There's value there. That's livelihood. That's life, right? We're not just saying, oh, you know, we're, we
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Christians, we're happy. We're joyful. You know, we don't understand the difficulties of life and what's really at stake.
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No, these are life issues, right? God understands that we understand that it's tough.
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It's hard. It's difficult. And the farmer, he sweats, he works.
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He's got a lot invested and James is saying, but you know what? He waits. And then the third point, why a farmer is so good as illustration of this is because his control is very limited.
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Look at the end of that verse. He waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until it gets the early and late rains.
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Farmers are at the mercy of the weather. Do you imagine a farmer?
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What if a, what if a farmer got frustrated every time it didn't rain for a few days? What kind of life would he lead?
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You know, if he, if he got, you know, struggled and fighting in his soul because he was worrying about, well, you know, is there going to be a frost?
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Is there going to be enough rain? He'd be a wreck. What does he gain from worrying about the weather?
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The best he could hope for would be a headache, right? And that's what James is saying.
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The farmer is a man who is out of control of the very essence of his life. And then isn't that who we are?
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Isn't that where we stand ultimately in our lives? As we understand the sovereignty of God, he, our
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Lord sits in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. We are at his mercy.
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He is powerful. He is in control. And we must wait.
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Our lives are out of our control, but they are in the hand of almighty God.
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So James is saying, be like the farmer, work hard, invest, understand the issues at stake, but wait and trust in him.
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Don't get a headache every time something goes wrong that you don't understand. Because God is in control of even the weather storms of your life.
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Do you believe that? Isn't it true? Do you have control over the words, the actions, the feelings, the responses of other people?
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Absolutely not. You and I have no control over what they do and what they say.
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But you know what? Our heavenly father does. And he is working all things together for good for those who love
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God, who are called according to his purpose. You know, James moves on to the same idea in verse eight, but from a different perspective.
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As we said in verse seven, it's the passive perspective. You need to be patient. You need to wait like the farmer.
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But there's something you can do while you're waiting. And that's what he says in verse eight. Look at it. He says, you to be patient, strengthen your hearts for the coming of the
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Lord is near. What is James saying here? He's saying, while you're waiting, while you're patient, don't do nothing, but be active in strengthening your hearts.
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Literally fortify your heart, build yourself up. You know, if we look in the
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Bible, most of the time this word is used, it's referring to God strengthening you, God fortifying your heart.
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But here, James puts the responsibility squarely on our shoulders.
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He says, you, while you're waiting on the Lord, while you're trusting in him, strengthen your heart, build it up with the truth of God, with theology, with the facts about who
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God is that are found in his word. The one that James particularly focuses our attention on is what?
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Fortify your hearts, strengthen your hearts for the coming of the Lord is near.
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Jesus is coming back. He could come back tonight. And all of the worry and all of the grudges and all of the frustration will be foolish, right?
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So James is saying, remember, the Lord is coming back. So strengthen your hearts with that truth.
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You know, I just want to mention briefly, and we can't get into this in depth, but Jesus Christ is coming back soon.
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Time after time in the word of God, we see the scriptures telling us that Jesus's return is near.
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Let me just give you a few verses to that effect. And you can look them up later. Philippians 4 verse 5 says the
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Lord is near. And Paul says, be aware of that. Let that change your thinking.
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First Peter 4 verse 7 refers to the soon coming of the
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Lord. First John chapter 2 verse 18 says the same thing.
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In fact, Jesus himself taught us that his coming is going to be soon, unexpected, imminent.
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It could be at any time. We see that in Mark 13 verses 32 to 37.
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The scripture teaches that Jesus's return could come any time when we're not expecting it.
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And we need to be ready in our hearts and our attitudes and allow that truth and our trust in that fact to govern our lives and our responses in our everyday life.
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So I ask you, before we move on to the second command, does the fact of Jesus's soon return make any difference in your daily life?
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Do you think about that fact? Let me suggest just a couple of ways how that truth should impact our lives.
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First way is don't hang on to things so tightly, right? We get so, our hands get so tight hanging on to things, right?
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And when those things are ripped out of our grip, we feel the pain of it, right? Oh, I, you know,
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I lost my job. I lost this or someone broke in and someone stole the car, whatever the case may be.
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We hang on to things so much. That's one way Jesus's soon return should make a difference in our lives.
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Secondly, when someone slanders you, remember that the same was done to our
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Lord and he, and God still managed to use it for his good purposes.
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Jesus, when he died on the cross, it was murder, but God caused that to work for good.
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So that's just a few examples of how we should apply this truth to our life. First command we see in this passage is don't blow up.
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Why? Because Jesus is coming back. Trust in his goodness, trust in his soon return.
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Now the first command we see in this text is probably the most basic, the most foundational command on how to respond when we are treated, mistreated.
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But the second command we see is added to it because of the sins, which the pressures of those, that kind of suffering tempts us to do.
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When we're put in places we're abused, we are tempted to sin in certain ways.
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And James realizes that. And so he leads us to the second command. Second command we'll see in verse nine.
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We can say it this way. Don't get fed up. Don't get fed up.
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Now, let me give you an illustration before we get into this text. Imagine yourself having a bad day at work.
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Does that ever happen? I'm sure it does. You're having a bad day at work. Maybe the boss yelled at you because you missed your deadline.
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You lost the bid with a very important customer, perhaps. You drop the coffee on your keyboard just as you're about to go home.
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Traffic was heavy, right? And you get home and what happens? You yell at your wife, right?
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You're short with your kids. I don't know. Maybe you kick the dog, right? That happens.
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You know, things are going wrong. We're mistreated. We're cut off in traffic. And we respond and we let that frustration, that anger, because we're not responding to it rightly.
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We're not being patient. It boils and it simmers and it sits there. And that's what
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James wants to address. When we do respond wrongly in those situations, when we're not patient like the farmer.
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Look what he says in verse nine. He says, do not complain.
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Brethren, against one another so that you yourselves may not be judged.
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Behold, the judge is standing right at the door. Now, what is this complaining he's talking about?
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Literally, the word can mean to sigh or to groan. It'd be something like this in human terms.
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All right. I'm angry. I'm not going to let it out, you know, to people I respect. It's just boiling.
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It's simmering. I'm frustrated. I'm upset. I'm not happy about how things are going.
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It's complaining, but it's complaining in the heart. It's an internal negative emotion.
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That's what that word means, which boils, which simmers, which can lead to a bitterness, a resentment, feelings of criticism against another person.
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And that's why it's translated to complain. It's to complain really in the heart about the abuses of that person.
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He did that to me, and I'm not going to let it go. I'm going to carry a grudge.
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And even though I may not get physical, I may not even say something, but I have this anger in my heart.
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That's what James is addressing in the second command. He says, don't do that. Don't complain about another.
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Don't let that anger ferment in your heart. Now, why does he say we should not do that?
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Notice what he says. He says, brethren, don't do that. Don't complain against one another.
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Why? So that you yourself may not be judged. Do you see that as interesting?
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He says, don't complain here so that you may not also be judged.
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What's the implication? The implication that James is saying here is that that kind of complaining, that kind of attitude towards another person, maybe a brother in Christ even, is a form of judging.
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Right? Now, we like to say to one another, you know, you shouldn't be judgmental, right?
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You shouldn't judge. You shouldn't be judgmental. But I think what James is saying here is that kind of judging and pointing out the faults of others, it begins where?
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In the heart. It's my discontent. It's my anger. It's my frustration of that person because he keeps doing that thing that really irritates me.
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And it's wrong. He shouldn't do it. When is he ever going to get a clue?
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Right? And these kind of thoughts can go through our minds. The feelings can roam around in our hearts.
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And James is saying, don't do that. Don't complain against one another so that you will not be judged.
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The Lord can see those issues of our hearts and he himself will judge. And that's what he brings us to at the end of verse 9.
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He says, don't complain against one another so you yourselves may not be judged.
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Why? Behold, look, don't you see it? The judge is standing right at the door.
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Judge, big J, right? The judge, Jesus Christ, the judge is coming back.
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You know, very often when we're harboring these kinds of attitudes in our hearts against one another, we're thinking, oh man, he's going to get it.
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You know, I wish pastor would preach on that topic once in a while because he really needs to hear that, right?
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And the Lord is saying, you know, that's not your job to have those kinds of thoughts against one another.
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Jesus Christ, the judge, he is coming. And when he comes, he will make all the injustices right.
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He will deal with his own. Maybe you've been mistreated by an unbeliever. When the
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Lord comes back, he will set those things right. Do you see how that takes faith and trust in the coming of the
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Lord and the goodness of God? If I am not to judge another, if I'm not to complain about him,
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I have to trust that God, even when it's a righteous truth thought in my mind,
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I have to trust that Christ will make it right, that he will do right. He will make just decisions in these situations.
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That takes trust. That takes faith. Think about Joseph when he was lied about by Potiphar's wife and sent into the prison.
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It took faith. He had to trust that God is good and he will make things right in his time, in his way.
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And that's what James is saying here. Look, the judge is coming. In fact, he's standing right at the door.
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And you don't want to be judging your brother in your heart when the real judge comes. To do his job.
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It's kind of like if you've ever been speaking something negative about a person and you didn't think they were around.
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Have you ever done that? Maybe you haven't. I'm sure nobody here has ever done anything like that.
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But saying something, you know, kind of behind the back, and then you turn around and there they are. Right?
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I remember one time I was in band in middle school, played the trumpet.
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And we were at a band recital. And they had a few solos.
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And one of the students got up and played their piece. And it had its problems, you know.
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And we were sitting there in the audience. And after the person finished, my parents and I are kind of talking.
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And I was saying, you know, wow, you know, he's a little off tune. And I was a little shaky. And, you know, he did okay.
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And then we realized, we turned around and his parents. Are sitting right behind us.
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And you can imagine the sinking feeling that I had in my heart, right?
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I think that's what James is saying here. He's saying, you know, you judge, you feel like you can righteously say, oh, that person's wrong.
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That really irritates me. And I'm complaining about this and complaining about that. You know what?
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The Lord of the church is coming back. The true judge. And you don't want to be caught. He's right outside the door.
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He's coming soon. So let's not judge. Let's not get fed up.
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Let's not get in to those kinds of. Selfish, proud, complaining attitudes towards one another.
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James calls us to look at the bigger picture. To say, yes, there are wrongs in the world that are done to me that are done to you.
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But God is on the throne. He is righteous. He will set all things right.
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The judge is coming. Wait for his judgments. Don't you take the responsibility upon yourselves.
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Don't get fed up. But trust in the Lord. The third command we see comes in verses 10 and 11.
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And it's really a fitting conclusion, I think, to everything that James has told us so far.
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First, he says, don't blow up, but patiently wait for the Lord. Don't get fed up, but patiently wait for the justice.
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Of the Lord. And finally, he says, don't give up. When you decide to wait patiently, when you decide to trust in the
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Lord's righteous dealings and then don't stop doing those things. That's what
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James is saying. Look at verse 10 as an example, brethren of suffering and patience. Take the prophets who spoke in the name of the
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Lord. We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the
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Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.
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The emphasis in these two illustrations that James gives us is an example of endurance.
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Don't give up. You know, it's easy for us to have endurance, to kind of be patient, have a long fuse, trust the
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Lord on the short term. Right. Okay, I'm going to give him a week.
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You know, he's going to get his act together. And I'm going to be nice to him. And I'm going to love him.
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I give him a week. And when that doesn't happen, and when it gets a little further down the road, that's it.
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I throw in the towel. All right. And by my actions, I say, God is no longer in control.
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And James is saying, don't do that. Don't make that mistake. Don't give up. Now, the command he gives here is to take an example.
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Don't you think that's interesting? I think that's interesting. In verse 10, he says, as an example, brethren of suffering and patience, take, take it.
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James was writing to people here who knew the Old Testament. He's writing to Jews, probably people who are similar to us.
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We know quite a bit about the Bible. You folks are pretty well taught. You know about the prophets, you know about Job.
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Right. And so James is saying to them and to us, you know, you need to lay hold of those examples.
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You know what the prophets were like, how they endured patiently being faithful to the Lord. You know about Job and what he went through and how he didn't give up on God.
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And he gave up his faith in God. He's saying, so lay hold of it. It's one thing to know it and to see it.
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It's a whole nother thing to make it mine. And so that's James concern for us as he teaches us this final command.
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He says, take it, think about it. Make that your own conviction and your own purpose in life to be like these men.
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Now let's look at the examples he gave us. He says, first of all, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the
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Lord. You know, the prophets had a hard job, didn't they? They had a tough job. I loved it going teaching through the prophets.
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I'd never done that before. And still, I, till I started teaching in PTI, but I had was assigned one class there that was on the second half of the old
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Testament, the poetic books and the prophetic books. I loved it because going through prophet after prophet, seeing how they preached faithfully to a nation of Israel and Judah that were largely deaf to their message, but they kept on preaching.
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They kept on being faithful to the Lord. It's a wonderful example for us. I love most of all
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Jeremiah. That's not because his name is most like mine. I don't think that's part of it, but I love him because he ministered during a time in the life of Judah, the
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Southern kingdom of Israel. When they were going down, they were in a tailspin spiritually.
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And God said to Jeremiah, you go preach to them. You tell them the truth. You tell them that I love them, but that I hate their sin.
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And they're going to be judged if they don't turn right now. And as you can imagine, that was not a very popular message.
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In fact, it, it caused all kinds of heartache and pain and abuse in Jeremiah's life.
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Did you know that, that in Jeremiah 11, it says that Jeremiah's own hometown created a plot to kill him.
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They came up with a plan. When Jeremiah comes to town, we're going to kill him because he's making so much, so many problems in our nation.
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He had death threats. Jeremiah 26 verses eight and 11. He was mocked by fellow prophets.
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Jeremiah 28 verse 10. He was imprisoned in chapter 32. His prophecies were publicly ripped up and burned.
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His publications in chapter 36, we see that he was imprisoned a second time in chapter 37.
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And then he was finally put into a well full of mud. In Jeremiah chapter 38, verse six, it says that people abuse him.
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He was mistreated. And what for, for obeying God, for preaching the gospel, for preaching salvation and the way to have a right relationship with God.
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And this was his reward. But what did Jeremiah do? Did he stop? Did he say,
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I give up? No, absolutely not. He kept on being faithful through thick, through thin.
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Was it easy for Jeremiah? Absolutely not. Read Jeremiah 20 verses seven to 13.
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He says, God, you tricked me. You made me a preacher and then made the whole nation not listen to me.
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He said, you fooled me. You deceived me, he says. He says, I'm in agony. People are chasing me.
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They want to kill me. You know, at the end of that passage, he says, but God, you are good.
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You are right in everything you do. Man, that is a lifestyle of trust, isn't it?
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It's such a rock solid conviction that God is in control, that it can endure, that it can withstand any abuse.
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And that's what James is begging us to have. He says, brothers and sisters,
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Jesus is coming back. He is a righteous judge. Trust him. He will make things right.
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This is only for a short time. Trust in his goodness. Wasn't easy for Jeremiah, but he never gave up.
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It's a great example of endurance. Let's look at the last example there. And this is the example of Job.
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Look at verse 11. You heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the
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Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. You know, if you read through the book of Job, you see that Job probably didn't always have the right attitude in the midst of his suffering.
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Think about what he went through, right? All of his children were killed. His house was destroyed.
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All of his flocks were destroyed, which was his main source of income, his riches.
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That would be equivalent to his bank account and IRA totally went away. And then he was left with his wife who was encouraging him to curse
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God and die, right? He endured all kinds of suffering and he questioned
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God. He said, God, why is this happening? I wish I'd never been born. But you notice that Job is not commended for his long suffering and his right attitudes.
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He's commended for what? The fact that he never gave up.
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He endured. He never quit. He came back and he was confirmed, strengthened in the power of God.
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Remember those chapters at the end of the book of Job? God comes to him and says, Job, he asks him all kinds of questions, right?
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Were you there when I created the world? When I formed the seas and the heavens and the winds and the...
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Were you there? And God convinced Job of his power. He never explained to Job why.
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You realize that? Never. Job never understood why this had happened to him as far as we know.
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But God convinced him of his power, of his sovereignty, of his goodness, of his love.
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And Job staked his claim on that. At the end of his life, as James tells us, you remember the outcome, right?
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That's the point of Job's life that James wants to point out. You remember the end. He endured to the end.
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And you remember what happened? We see that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.
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You remember what God did for Job after he had brought him through all of those things for his own glory? He doubled his flocks.
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He gave him a new family. He blessed him immensely. Was God less good when the affliction was going on than he was when the blessings came?
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No. But God was good all the time. And he blessed him in his will until the end.
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And what would have happened if Job had thrown in the towel halfway through? That's it. I'm going to take my wife's advice.
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Curse God and die. He would never have been brought to that point of realizing that God is good.
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He is gracious. He is loving and compassionate. And not only was Job blessed with physical riches, he was blessed with a closer walk with God.
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I love that verse in Job where it says, I heard of God with the ear, but now
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I have seen God with my eyes. What was Job saying? He's saying,
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I came into a relationship with him that is intimate. It's like listening to the radio as opposed to watching a big screen television.
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All right. It's a wonderful, intimate, close, wide eye open relationship with God.
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And that's what God is doing for you and I. So James says, endure.
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Take these examples of the prophets of Job. Take them. Make them your own.
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Say, I will be like the prophets by God's grace. I will not give up.
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I will endure. I will be faithful for the glory of God and for my joy in him.
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Isn't that what you want? And James is saying, make that commitment clean to his goodness, to his sovereignty.
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When someone abuses you and he mistreats you, when he slams the bike into your car, pray, don't get angry, don't blow up, don't get fed up, don't hold the grudge, but say,
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I'm in this for the long haul. I know Jesus is coming back at any moment and these things aren't going to matter a whip.
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So I'm going to trust in a sovereign God who is good, who is compassionate, who is kind.
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That is living a life of trust. Isn't it? And by God's grace, as we follow these commands, we can also develop like Joseph, like Job, like the prophets.
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We can live in the lifestyle of trust. Let me ask you, let's, as we close, let's consider this.
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What hardships are you going through now? Think about it for yourself. It's common. So I think everyone can probably pick at least one.
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Maybe it's not right. Maybe you've been mistreated. You know, it's wrong.
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How was your response to that? Remember, the Lord Jesus is coming back.
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He will set that right. And you know what? He is powerful enough. He has a plan and he will bring good from that situation in the end.
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Ultimately, when he returns, even if you don't see it in your life right now, like Job didn't, he will make it right.
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He will bless you because he is compassionate and he is merciful. Amen. So don't blow up.
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Don't get fed up. And by all means, don't give up. Have you ever heard the story of Horatio Spafford?
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Anybody know who Horatio Spafford is? He was a fellow who wrote one of my favorite hymns.
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I didn't know this was favorite hymn night, but I guess it's appropriate. He wrote one of my favorite hymns.
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It is well with my soul. It's an expression, really, I believe of what this text is teaching us to have tonight.
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So as part of our commitment to obey the Lord and to apply these things to our lives, why don't you turn in your hymnals to page 293?
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I guess I should tell you the story of Horatio Spafford since I told you there was a story. Horatio was a man who was on his way.
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He was coming on a ship trek from Europe over to the United States. And he was coming with his family, his wife, and I believe he had a few daughters, two to three daughters.
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And he was coming back, or I'm sorry, he was in the U .S. and his wife and daughters were coming across the
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Atlantic Ocean to the U .S. to join with him. That's how it was. And as they were coming across, there was a great storm.
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And in that storm, the ship went down and he lost his family and they died.
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And as Horatio Spafford was coming back the next time, as he was coming back across the ocean back to Europe, he was crossing that spot.
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And he asked the people on the ship, where was the spot where that particular ship went down? And he found out the spot and he went out and he penned these words.
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He didn't understand why, he didn't know the plan of God, but he was committed to live a lifestyle of trust and say, it is well with my soul.
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And just notice how the truth of this hymn reflects the truths we've seen today.