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James Session Eight 7.31.19 · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  We're going to cover tonight James 5, 7-12, if I can get this adjusted, so you can turn there. This section in your Bibles, you'll notice, is entitled Patience and Suffering. I'll start out by reading the section and then we'll get into it from there. James 5, 7-12 says, Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. You see how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth?
• 0:38
  being patient about it until it receives the early and late rains, you also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast.
• 1:09
  You've heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you've seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. Pray with me, please, before we get started.
• 1:38
  This is an evening that I pray your blessing especially. This passage of scripture, Lord, touches on Tom's story. It touches on all of our stories, Lord. It touches us where we live in the heart. Father, I pray that you'll speak through me, that we might...
• 2:06
  that we might open up this passage and learn from you. Because I'm asking, please, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. When I was asked to teach this particular passage in James, I felt exceedingly blessed by it. And I strongly, well, I know, I'm sure that Nathan picked it specifically because he knows that I bring something to the table this evening. I have a little bit of experience in this.
• 2:38
  But I'm far from being alone in the room tonight on this subject, my small contribution on the subject of suffering, because I know for certain that there are many here tonight that have experienced suffering in all its various forms, some, I'm sure, to a much greater degree than I have. I'm looking around. I don't see Butch here tonight. Butch is a man, a blessed brother.
• 3:10
  I've known for many, many years who has been through such an amazing amount of suffering and just absolutely refuses to give up no matter what. He's solid as a rock. He loves the Lord. He puts one foot in front of the other, and when that doesn't work, he hobbles with the help of his 80-year-old wife. Butch is a man that's strong because of his suffering. His hero is another man in our church named Gary Buss.
• 3:38
  Some of you know Gary. If you don't, you should get to know Gary. Gary just had a knee replacement a couple of weeks ago. Gary has been through the war. Gary is supposed to have died of cancer and a couple of heart attacks. Gary just refuses to quit because Gary is strong in the Lord. We have other men here with us this evening. I know we've got war veterans here.
• 4:09
  have a different kind of suffering. It comes in many, many different forms. It always manifests itself through physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual pain. Of course, nothing's outside the control of our great God, who is, in fact, a great physician, and we're exceedingly blessed to be living in a time right now when he's allowed mankind unique understanding of the normal operation of his physical laws, what we refer to as medical science.
• 4:40
  While God's certainly not bound by his own laws, they're generally governed by the regulation of the delicate balance of chemicals, which influence the way we experience physical, emotional, and mental pain. Of course, as Christians, we understand that we have to navigate a world that's primarily in the control of the enemy, and we need to use godly wisdom and the advice and counsel of those we trust in making decisions regarding our own health and those that we love.
• 5:09
  However, in spite of all of these things that medical science has thrown at us, we also know as men that there is a certain kind of suffering that simply must be endured. Throughout my teaching of this passage this evening, I want you to keep at the forefront of your minds the following great and wonderful promise that we have from our gracious Heavenly Father. This is recorded in Romans 8.28. Many of you have that memorized. If you don't, you should.
• 5:42
  Paul says, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose. I used to get really hung up on this verse. I thought, well, Lord, am I called according to your purpose? Am I included in that category? And while I've done a lot of soul searching about this, and I have decided, by golly, yes. Yes, I am. And I truly believe that all of the men in this room,
• 6:13
  are also called according to the Lord's purpose. So we can be certain that everything is working together for our good, but things still get pretty confusing. In this passage, James begins verse 7 with the words, Be patient. These are extremely important words. He begins his letter back in chapter 1 and verses 2 to 4 with, Count it all joy, my brothers.
• 6:37
  When you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. There's no other area of our lives where trials and testing come more emphatically than through suffering. James is going to use three illustrations in this passage to explain the importance of patience. My beautiful wife.
• 7:08
  Help me out this afternoon. As I read this to her, she made some notes, and she's the one that produced that outline that you guys have. She felt that it might be helpful to kind of keep things a little more cohesive. If that helps you, feel free to use that. Jot down notes if you want to. If it doesn't help you, just toss it. The three illustrations that he uses in this passage are the farmer, the prophets, and, of course, Job.
• 7:37
  the ultimate example of patience and suffering. He begins with the farmer and the patience required of him to produce a crop. Jewish farmers, when James writes this book in the first century, were entirely dependent on rain, still are. In Israel, I learned recently, we had the opportunity to actually be over there and learn some things firsthand, which was kind of neat. Most crops are planted in what is for us the autumn and winter months.
• 8:08
  The farmer is completely at the mercy of the weather, which means, of course, that he is completely at the mercy of Almighty God. Back when this was written, there was no such thing as other countries coming to your aid if you had difficulty with producing your crop. You were totally dependent on the Lord for all of this. The early rain in autumn is counted on to make the soil soft enough so that they can plow up the earth and get the seed in the ground. The latter rains come in February and March.
• 8:36
  And they mature the harvest. Anything can happen, of course. Too much rain and the crops just rot in the ground. Too little, they burn up in the fields. The patience required and the dependence on the one who controls the weather are an absolute given. You have to be patient. Why? Why is the farmer patient? Because the crop is precious. Without it...
• 9:05
  And most especially, as I pointed out during this first century A.D., people starved to death. James says that we are to be patient just like the farmer. In our case, we're patiently waiting for the seed of God's word to sprout in the soil of our hearts. Remember Luke chapter 8? If you don't, it's where Jesus explains the parable of the sower to his disciples. You can turn there now or later. Verse 11.
• 9:34
  He says, now the parable is this, and he explains it. The seed, the seed is the word of God. Skip down there to verse 15. It says, as for that and the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience. Patience, patience, the subject of this evening's passage. James 5.8 says, you also be patient.
• 10:07
  For the coming of the Lord is at hand. Of course, we know that when Jesus returns, everything will be made right. No more pain and suffering. But what about right now? What about today? Well, right now, God is preparing our harvest, our souls, our hearts, I'm sorry, for a harvest in our own lives. Warren Wiersbe in his commentary on these verses points out that there are seasons in our spiritual life just as there are seasons in the soil.
• 10:36
  He says sometimes our hearts become cold and wintry and the Lord has to plow them up before he can plant seed. Now can't you guys see the application of that in your own life? I absolutely can in mine. I've been through periods of time in my life that my heart was so cold and unyielding that God had to intervene with trial and suffering so severe that just like the Apostle Paul, I despaired of life.
• 11:07
  2 Corinthians, Paul recounts his experience. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we'd received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead.
• 11:37
  He delivered us from such a deadly peril and He'll deliver us. On Him we've set our hope that He will deliver us again. I've got brothers right here in this room who can absolutely relate to these verses. If you're not one of them tonight, I can assure you that before your life is done, you absolutely will be. Absolutely will be. God wants us to be relying solely on Him.
• 12:06
  And He loves us so much, He'll absolutely allow anything to happen to ensure that we do. If we're enduring trials and testing through suffering, we can be sure that God loves us and that He's establishing our hearts to be totally dependent on Him. Verse 9 has this command. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. What's this doing in here? I read commentators.
• 12:43
  Other commentaries, I should say, about these particular verses. To be honest, in context, I wasn't sure how to interpret it. And then it came to me. When I think about grumbling in this particular context of suffering, I think about my own experience and what I've observed in other believers around me in the midst of suffering. And there have been many. Let me interject here. Dina has a pet name for me. I don't usually share it because it's silly. It's one of those.
• 13:13
  It's one of those pet names. She calls me Honey Bear. This is as opposed to Turkey. She calls me Turkey. I know that things are getting pretty serious because the Lord Jesus knows Dina's heart. And when she says Turkey, she really means south end of Northbound Donkey. That's putting it politely. Well, in that same context, I know for a fact that when I've suffered in the past, I'm not Honey Bear. I just became just a plain bear.
• 13:49
  In the midst of suffering, we close down and we become entirely self-centered. And my experience with chronic pain was that pain was sometimes all I could think about. How about you, Mike? Mike just had his hip replaced last week. My demeanor became much like a wounded animal. Anger and frustration had filled. I'd lash out. Unfortunately, poor Dina was most often on the receiving end of all that.
• 14:19
  James is saying here, don't grumble against one another in the midst of suffering, but face it with patience and endurance so as not to be judged. Well, brothers, I'm not here to tell you it's easy. I'm just here to point out what the Spirit is saying through James. What I have to say to this is that in my past, I've failed miserably at this. I've not been a man to suffer with patient endurance, and I have deeply hurt those around me, most especially my wife.
• 14:51
  And I, just like I'm sure some of you, I stand condemned. I stand condemned. This is sin, but it's not sin that can't be forgiven and repented of. One of my favorite verses applies here, and I use this quite a bit. 1 John 3, 19 and 20 says, By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him. For whenever our heart condemns us,
• 15:22
  God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. This exhortation regarding grumbling can also be applied, I guess, to the Lord's servants that are working together under trying circumstances as well. But what I draw from this is try not to complain. Remember, you're not the only one suffering because of your circumstances. Your friends and loved ones are hurting as well. Well, I need to get on with it. Enough about the farmer.
• 16:01
  The Old Testament prophets, James points out, gives us wonderful examples of men who went through great trials and sufferings and endured them with patience. Jesus addresses them in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, 10 through 12, I'm going to read from. If you guys have that in front of you, I'm going to put those references down for you or not. Jesus says, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness.
• 16:33
  For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Persecution is persecution precisely because it affects us in all the ways I've previously described. Now we don't suffer a lot of persecution these days in the United States.
• 17:03
  I'm sure it's only a matter of time. We certainly see it throughout the globe as it affects other Christians who don't have the protection of our particular laws. Still, when and if it comes, and I believe it's a matter of when and not if, it will be a full-on assault on our minds, our spirits, and our physical senses. Suffering comes in many forms. We can be absolutely certain that we will, the Bible tells us, continue to endure it until Christ.
• 17:35
  Rejoicing in persecution takes knowledge of the truth. So fix in your mind the truth is that he who is within us is absolutely greater than he who is in the world. But brothers, buckle up because the he who is in the world can cause a whole world of hurt and suffering in this life. This leads me to my final example of perseverance and suffering. Job.
• 18:06
  I almost tried to cram the entire book of Job into a 30-minute connector of blessing. Those of you who were there know it was an absurd attempt. However, there's a few salient points I'd like to address. James says in his letter, in the latter half of verse 11, you have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you've seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. I hope you've all read the book of Job. If you've experienced much suffering in your life, I can...
• 18:38
  I can count on the fact that you certainly have. That's the first place we turn when we're in the middle of it. The lessons it teaches are many, but I'd like to emphasize these four. I think Dean has enumerated them there. First is Job's response to overwhelming grief and loss. He's just lost everything, everything. His possessions, the least of which.
• 19:07
  7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 donkeys. Many, many, many servants. And now try to imagine this, dads. He lost all ten of his children. All ten. And what's his response? Here are three of the most astounding verses in the entire Bible, I think, from Job chapter 1, recounting Job's response to his tragedy. In verse 20,
• 19:36
  It says, and I quote then, Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshipped. He worshipped. And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return. The Lord gave. The Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. Second,
• 20:13
  He endured false accusation and totally undeserved criticism from those closest to him. And yet he steadfastly refused to cave in. They all, by that I mean his so-called friends, beat up on him pretty bad. But I chose just one example in the interest of brevity because the story of Job is a long story. I picked on Zophar. Zophar makes things even worse. He speaks in chapters 11 and 20 in the book.
• 20:45
  He tells Job he deserves even worse. In chapter 11 of verse 6, he says, Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves. Of Job's three friends, this guy is the most brutal. He sees Job's obvious misery and suffering. He knows he's lost everything he has, that his children are all dead. His mental and emotional and physical suffering defy description. And this guy, he tells him he deserves worse.
• 21:17
  Third, and I find this extremely astounding, Job throughout the entire book is never told why. And his life, according to the scriptures we have, is never told why any of this happened. We get the perspective. We understand the conversation between Satan and the Lord in heaven. But Job, he doesn't know. Well, everyone knows how this ends. God blesses Job more in the latter days of his life than he had before. All was taken from him.
• 21:50
  But God does not explain why. Guys, God is not obligated to explain his ways to us. We are his creation and he is our creator. Nevertheless, Job was steadfast. So what's the end of the story? The end of the story in Job is that the Lord is compassionate and merciful. Job is restored. I've written down here twice and I...
• 22:27
  I made big letters and I made it in dark print. The Lord is compassionate and merciful. The Lord is compassionate and merciful. Now I promise I'm not going to bore you with the whole thing, but most of you know that I've got a story just like you do. Although my story continues and I have absolutely no idea how much longer it continues. I can be certain of this. The Lord is compassionate and merciful. I first started experiencing my...
• 22:59
  My particular problem, my back pain, in the mid-1990s, when I had a succession of jobs which involved a lot of physical exertion, for a long time I assumed it was just normal. Then it got so bad I had to seek medical advice. I remember the first visit when Steve, my family doc, was running his fingers down my spine, and he gets down to the lower part where all the pain is coming from, and he says, that's not good.
• 23:27
  I just continued to work and take over-the-counter meds. My favorite over-the-counter med, in case you need an over-the-counter med, was scotch. Within a couple years after that, I could no longer work. Couldn't work physical jobs, became more and more dependent on scotch. In 2003, we had a heavy snow, took down some big limbs from the pine tree in my front yard, so I got out there with a chainsaw and was hacking at them.
• 23:58
  Went to stand up after some interval of time, and I couldn't. Excruciating pain. And the excruciating pain wouldn't quit. Yeah, this is why, a lot of this is why Bob is the way Bob is. I found myself in intense pain. It was so bad it forced me to an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. After x-rays and an MRI, I got told that I had...
• 24:29
  something they called degenerative disc disease. They love to slap names on stuff. It doesn't really mean anything other than it's something the insurance company can grab onto. I was told there was about a 50% chance that if I had surgery, it would cause paralysis. And what they were talking about was they meant wheelchair paralysis, not just some partial thing. I was pretty messed up down there. So I went to a neurosurgeon thinking I'd get a different response. No, same story. Lots of damage in there.
• 24:58
  Surgery, a last resort, pain meds. Things progressed over the next four and a half years. Constant chronic pain. Injections, a pain management specialist. I was taking the maximum amount of pain medication allowable without risk of respiratory failure. They wouldn't give me any more, so I drank on top of that. And I drank a lot on top of that.
• 25:24
  Finally, in 2007, after four and a half years of chronic 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week pain, I didn't care anymore about any risk. Nine hours of surgery helped with the pain in my legs, but the story continues. More pain, more surgery, physical pain, emotional pain, mental pain. This chapter in my life didn't end until I was finally hospitalized in June of 2009, dying of alcoholic pancreatitis. Why, God?
• 25:57
  Why pain? Why suffering? Like all of you here this evening, I don't have the answers to all the whys any more than Joe did. What I do know is that God has reasons for everything he does. And I've also seen by way of example in my own life how God can use my personal experience with suffering to encourage and comfort others that are in similar situations.
• 26:32
  James is exhorting us to be patient in suffering in whatever form it takes. And please don't fall for making the assumption that somehow your suffering has something to do with the Lord's discipline. I'm not saying that that's not possible. I'm just saying, you know, one of Satan's greatest lies to a faithful disciple of Christ Jesus is that his suffering is because of sin or unfaithfulness. But yet Timothy assures us,
• 27:04
  2 Timothy 3.12, Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. This means that the plain fact is that suffering may well be because we are being faithful. We live in Satan's world. Let me return to Job because there's a couple more things I want to dig out there. What he says in chapter 39. In chapter 39, Job's...
• 27:35
  He's got to the point where he's complaining because there's no arbiter between him and God. Job feels he's got a case and that he's not being heard. He says, beginning in verse 32, he says, For he's not a man as I am that I might answer him, that we should come to a trial together. There's no arbiter between us who might lay his hand on us both. Let him take his rod away from me and let not the dread of him terrify me. Then I would speak without fear of him.
• 28:05
  For I'm not so in myself. Ask yourself, who's the arbiter that Job is asking for here? Because Job didn't know. But we know. Christ, the eternal Son of God, in whom the fullness of God dwells, has lived on earth as a human being and has endured hunger, thirst, temptation.
• 28:33
  shame, persecution, nakedness, bereavement, betrayal, mockery, injustice, and death, and now sits at the right hand of God the Father. He's in the position of arbiter. He fulfills the request of Job. Now finally, I want to address briefly verse 12. James 5.12 says, But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth,
• 29:02
  or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. Where have we heard this before? Does anybody recognize this? Jesus said it in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, 33-37 Jesus speaking, Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all.
• 29:33
  Either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it's the city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than that comes from evil. Where I see clear application in the context of patient suffering.
• 30:03
  There's a temptation to make rash promises to the Father if only he will remove or change circumstances in our lives. Rather than just trusting him completely for the circumstances that you're in. I think we really should instead follow Christ's example in Gethsemane. Matthew 26, 39. Matthew telling the story and going a little farther. He fell on his face and he prayed saying, My Father.
• 30:36
  If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. We cannot know God's purposes in all circumstances, but we can lean entirely on His promises. He loves us and He knows what's best for us and He has, as only He can, an eternal perspective.
• 31:05
  The Apostle Paul says this in the book of Romans, chapter 5 and verses 1 through 5. And with this, I'm going to close tonight. Therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we've also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing...
• 31:35
  That suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's been given to us. In the end, we learn that we may never know the specific reason for our suffering, but we must trust in our sovereign God.
• 32:07
  I'm absolutely certain, guys, that is the real answer to suffering. The trust in our sovereign God. Father, I pray this evening that we will stand up and be men and that we will endure what we must because we know that you have designed us to be worshippers of you in any circumstance that may come our way. Lord, as men, we...
• 32:42
  We necessarily need to dig deep sometimes and become warriors in this world in which we live. Let us know, Lord, without doubt, that we can call upon you in the day of trial and that you absolutely will give us the grace we need to withstand whatever suffering comes our way. Give us, Lord, I pray, endurance that we might run this race knowing that in the end we face...
• 33:10
  The most amazing price we could ever hope for. To be with you, Jesus. We love you. I ask your blessing on every man here tonight. I thank you, Lord, for the love you've given me for them. And it's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.