“PATIENTLY WAITING ON GOD”

James 5:7-11 Part 1

INTRODUCTION How many of you have prayed the famous American prayer, “Lord give me patience, now!” A young man, a Christian, went to an older believer to ask for prayer. "Will you please pray that I may be more patient?" he asked. The aged saint agreed. They knelt together and the man began to pray, "Lord, send this young man tribulation in the morning; send this young man tribulation in the afternoon; send this young man...." At that point the young Christian blurted out, "No, no, I didn’t ask you to pray for tribulation. I wanted you to pray for patience." "Ah," responded the wise Christian, "it’s through tribulation that we learn patience."
James is writing to Christians that are going through tribulation and he wants to make sure that they too are learning patience. To James patience is critical in facing whatever God sends our way such as when Circumstances are uncontrollable, when People are unchangeable; and when Problems are unexplainable. We need patience to hang in there when things are going downhill and God’s timing is not the timing that we want. James writes to people who need patience. Be patient is the challenge for us this morning to stay on course and to persevere for the sake of Christ. It is the call to obey the whole counsel of God and to accept the sovereign Lordship of Christ, no matter what comes our way.

I. GENERAL 0BSERVATIONS Before we look at these verses, let's make some observation about James 5:7-11 that will give us some perspective. First: The passage is addressed to the believer. The word brothers is mentioned three times in this passage (verses 7, 9, 10). Brother is a word of sympathy and identification. In turning to the Christians suffering under the tyranny of their ungodly oppressors, James writes with tenderness and affection. He feels personally involved in all their afflictions and to stand with them, comfort them, encourage them. He feels their anguish as if it were his own. Second: These five verses are directly related to the previous six. As we saw last time, wealthy landowners were oppressing the righteous, and their treacherous acts extending all the way to murder (verse 6). Just as he finishes exposing their crimes, James turns a corner (verse 7) and begins giving the Christian victims advice on how to live in this, intolerable situation. Third: James' advice is found in four imperative commands-three positive (verses 7, 8) and one negative (verse 9). The first three are given in the aorist tense that essentially says^- "Do this right now." The last one, being negative, is in the indicative tense saying, "Don', even start that habit" or "Stop doing this!" Fourth: Woven into these verses are three vivid illustrations that shed light on each command (verses 7, 10, 11; the farmer, the prophets, and Job). Perhaps more than any other writer of Scripture, James is the most vivid illustrator. He opens the shades on the windows of our understanding to let the light pierce through giving us no reason to miss his meaning.

II. THE COMMAND: BE PATIENT! (Verses 7a, 8) As James did as he began this letter in chapter 1:2-4, now James ends this letter again calling us four times to patience (verses 7,8,and 10) and two times to steadfast endurance (verses 10,11). The words patience and steadfastness or perseverance in normal English are almost synonymous. The Greek equivalents are a little more precise in their meanings. We saw in chapter 1 that the word steadfastness or perseverance or endurance hupomone means a stick-to-itiveness, a keep on keeping on-the determination to see a thing through no matter what the obstacles. The word “patience” makrothumos is actually a combination of two words: makro, meaning "a long way, far," and thumos, meaning "passion, heat, rage, or anger." Hence, it means we are to be long-suffering, to have a prolonged restraint of anger or irritation. It is an attitude of being willing to await events rather than trying to force things.

Three things are particularly impressive about this quality of patience. First, it is an attribute of God Himself, who is slow to anger (Numbers 14:18; Psalm 86:5; 103:8) Secondly, being an attribute of God, it is divine love's first response. I Corinthians 13:4, "Love is patient" or "love suffers long." Love will motivate a person to overlook the offense, to delay the anger, to suffer long. Thirdly, patience a fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22), it is the character quality of God that He wants reproduced in your life by the indwelling Holy Spirit; the outward manifestation of the inner life of the Spirit of God working within your soul. Patience is needed in every form of suffering, trial, and difficulty that we face as God’s people. Patience quite simply, means being prepared in faith to wait upon the Lord. It involves being ready to wait for God to act and intervene in his timing and in His way. It has a specific focus: “until the coming of the Lord” and in verse 8 reminds us that this coming is also imminent “is at hand or near.” The Christians “blessed hope” is the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus (Titus 2:14). The biblical word Parousia refers to more than just coming; it includes the idea of “presence.” Perhaps the best English translation would be “arrival.” the church’s great hope is the arrival of Jesus. That truth appears in more than 500 verses throughout scripture. When the Bible uses the word “hope” it speaks of something we are absolutely certain of but have not yet experienced. God means for you, as a believer in Jesus Christ, to find great comfort and practical encouragement in the promise of Christ’s return. To the person who suffers in this life, Christianity offers the only true hope. And that hope rests in the return of Christ and God’s promise of a new heaven and a new earth, a place where there will no longer be pain or suffering or injustice. The truth is that the return of Christ is meant by God to undergird you and strengthen your faith, especially during times of adversity and hardship. The great theologian, G. C. Berkouwer, once wrote, “Pain can be seen as the great ‘not yet’ of eternity. It reminds us of where we are, and fans in us a thirst for where we will someday be.” But I believe that James here not only refers to Christ’s ultimate coming but also to his immediate coming-His invasion of your circumstances to deliver you through, (though not necessarily from) your trials with sustaining, delivering, empowering, faith giving, God glorifying, healing, transforming, refreshing, grace, and new growth.

III. AN ILLUSTRATION OF PATIENCE (verse 7b) What does this quality look like in everyday life? James gives us a great illustration from everyday first century life that helps us understand patience. The kind of patient waiting we are to do is like the farmer. A farmer does what he must do. He works hard. He tills the soil, he plants the seeds, but he also has to wait. He waits for the precious fruit of the earth to yield its valuable crop. He knows what he has to wait for is valuable-even as we wait for the Lord’s coming. He knows that it is worth waiting for with patience. Good things come to those who wait! Secondly, he waits for the early and late rains. In ancient Israel, there were two rainy seasons. The first occurred shortly after planting in October and November. These early rains were crucial for the sprouting of the seed and the early growth of the plant. Then the latter rains occurred in March and April shortly before the harvest, and they were crucial for in the grain as it ripened for harvest. The farmer knew that there are things that are out of his control like rain and solely in the hands of and dependence upon divine providence. So every farmer knows that the time for harvest just cannot be hurried. He knows that he must be work, be patient, and wait. There are natural laws in the physical world to which he must be in submission. So the good farmer is not anxious and he does not fight the sometimes painful process required of him. Instead he draws strength in his present sufferings by always keeping the big picture in mind, by looking ahead to the coming rains and that final harvest day. God has his own times and seasons regarding His Savior’s return as Jesus said to his disciples (Acts 1:8). After telling them that, He sent them out to be his witnesses-in other words, to be like farmers who carried on their work in anticipation of the great harvest day (Isaiah 53:11). So the followers of Jesus, just like the farmer, must work and wait.

IV.PATIENTLY WORKING DURING TRIALS Let’s talk about patient working during trials. Psalm 126:5-6 says, those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.” The Psalmist teaches us that there is work to be done even when times are tough and whether I am emotionally up for it or not, and that it is good for me to do it. Suppose you were a farmer in a season of heartache and discouragement, and it is time to plant your seeds. Do you say, “I can’t do that because I am brokenhearted or discouraged”? If the farmer does that, he will starve. But what if the farmer goes to his field and weeps and is discouraged and feels broken yet plants his seeds all the while crying. If you do that, the Psalm promises that you will reap with shouts of joy. You will come home with shouts of joy bringing your sheaves with you, not because the tears of sowing produce the joy of reaping, but because the sowing produces the reaping. So here is the first lesson on patience from the farmer: when God has given you things to do in this life, when times are tough, and you are full of sadness and tears, go ahead and do what God has called you to do with tears. Talk to your tears, “Tears, I feel you. You make me want to quite life but there is a field to be sown, a task to be completed that God has given me, I have work to do and tears you will just have to go with me. I intend to take that bag of seeds and I intend to sow. If you come along, you will just have to wet the rows.” But you will also be able to say, “Tears, you will not stay forever. If I do my work (tears and all) there will be some day a harvest of blessing. God has promised, I trust Him, and even if I cry now, someday He tells me I will laugh again.”

V. PATIENTLY WAITING DURING TRIALS Patience is a form of faith. Impatience is a form of unbelief. It's what we begin to feel when we start to doubt the wisdom of God's timing or the goodness of his guidance. It springs up in our hearts when the road to success gets muddy or strewn with boulders or blocked by some fallen tree. The battle with impatience can be a little skirmish over a long wait in a check out lane. Or it can be a major combat over a handicap or disease or circumstance that knocks out your dreams. The opposite of impatience is not a glib, superficial denial of frustration. The opposite of impatience is patience. It is a deepening, ripening, peaceful willingness “wait and endure” without murmuring and disillusionment- a willingness to wait for God where you are in the place of obedience, or to persevere at the pace he allows on the road of obedience—to wait in his place, or to go at his pace. To wait for God in the unplanned place, and to endure the unplanned place- to wait in God’s place, and to go at God’s pace. Waiting for the Lord is the opposite of running ahead of the Lord and it's the opposite of bailing out on the Lord. Is staying at your appointed place while he says stay, or it's going at his appointed pace while he says go. It's not impetuous and it’s not despairing. When the way you planned to run your day, or the way you planned to live your life is cut off or slowed down, the unbelief of impatience tempts you in two directions: On the one side, it tempts you to give up, bail out. If there's going to be frustration and opposition and difficulty, then I'll just forget it. I won't keep this job, or take this challenge, rear this child, or stay in this marriage, or live this life. That's one way the unbelief of impatience tempts you. Give up. On the other side, impatience tempts you to make rash counter moves against the obstacles in your way. It tempts you to be impetuous or hasty or impulsive or reckless. If you don't turn your car around and go home, you rush into some ill-advised detour to try to beat the system. Which ever way you have to battle impatience the main point today is that it's a battle against unbelief. It's the issue of whether you live by faith and whether you inherit the promises of eternal life. Listen to these verses to sense how vital this battle is: Luke 21:19 "By your endurance (patience) you will gain your lives." Romans 2:7 "To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, God will give eternal life." Hebrews 6:12 "Do not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." Patience in doing the will of God no matter what is not an optional virtue in the Christian life. And the reason it's not is because faith is not an optional virtue. Patience in well-doing is the fruit of faith. And impatience is the fruit of unbelief. And so the battle against impatience is a battle against unbelief. And so the chief weapon is the word of God, especially his promises of His coming. Psalm 130:5, "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I hope." The strength that sustains you in patience is hope, and the source of hope is the Word of God. And hope is just faith in the future tense. Hebrews says, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for."

If you are tempted not to wait peacefully for God, to let Him give you your next move—if you are tempted to give up on Him or go ahead without Him—please realize that this is a moment for great spiritual warfare. Take the sword of the Spirit, the word of God (Eph. 6:17) and wield some wonderful promise against the enemy of impatience. Isaiah 49:23, those who wait for me shall not be put to shame. And then Isaiah 64:4, No eye has seen a God besides thee, who works for those who wait for him. So you face your trials by using the promises of God to persuade your heart that God's timing and God's guidance and God's sovereignty are going to take this frustrated, boxed in, unproductive situation and make something eternally valuable out of it. There will come a blessing, strength, a vindication, a mounting up with wings like eagles.

CLOSING THOUGHTS Let me close with an illustration of a man who lived and died in successful warfare against the unbelief of impatience. (This section was taken from John Piper). His name was Charles Simeon. He was a pastor in the Church of England from 1782 to 1836 at Trinity Church in Cambridge. He was appointed to his church by a bishop against the will of the people. They opposed him not because he was a bad preacher but because he was an evangelical—he believed the Bible and called for conversion and holiness and world missions. For 12 years the people refused to let him give the afternoon Sunday sermon. And during that time they boycotted the Sunday morning service and locked their pews so that no one could sit in them. He preached to people in the aisles for 12 years! How did he last? In this state of things I saw no remedy but faith and patience. The passage of Scripture which subdued and controlled my mind was this, "The servant of the Lord must not strive." It was painful indeed to see the church, with the exception of the aisles, almost forsaken; but I thought that if God would only give a double blessing to the congregation that did attend, there would on the whole be as much good done as if the congregation were doubled and the blessing limited to only half the amount. This comforted me many, many times, when without such a reflection, I should have sunk under my burthen.

Where did he get the assurance that if he followed the way of patience there would be a blessing on his work that would make up for frustrations of having all the pews locked? He got it, no doubt, from texts like Isaiah 30:18, "Blessed are all those wait for the Lord." The word conquered unbelief and belief conquered impatience. Fifty four years later he was dying. It was October, 1836. The weeks drug on. On October 21 those by his bed heard him say these words slowly and with long pauses: Infinite wisdom has arranged the whole with infinite love; and infinite power enables me—to rest upon that love. I am in a dear Father's hands—all is secure. When I look to Him, I see nothing but faithfulness—and immutability—and truth; and I have the sweetest peace—I cannot have more peace. The reason Simeon could die like that is because he had trained himself for 54 years to go to Scripture and to take hold of the infinite wisdom and love and power of God and use them to conquer the unbelief of impatience. May we learn to wait upon the Lord in the unplanned place of obedience and to walk with Him in the unplanned pace of obedience sowing seeds with or without tears in anticipation of great joy. AMEN.