Open your Bibles, if you would,
to the Book of James. We'll continue our study in this
wonderful epistle. We're nearing the end. We've
got three or four more messages left. I just want to take my
time in these finishing words because there's a lot in here.
This week's message is called The Return of the King. Next week, And we'll touch a
little bit on it this week. We'll be looking at patience.
Patience, which is long-suffering in the Greek. Yeah, I know. That's
why it's the fruit of the Spirit, right? long sufferings are free
of the spirit, and that's what patience is in the Greek. So
that shows us, we already know it, we can't be patient, can
we, on our own? The Lord's got to work that in
us, and we see that today. It's wonderful, it's absolutely
wonderful. Our great King, beloved, is coming
again. He's coming again. The scriptures declare that He
is coming again. He's coming again. We do not
know the hour of the day. If any man says they know the
hour of the day, they're lying. And I like what Milton Howard
said one time is if anyone ever puts a date on it, you can be
sure the Lord's not coming back that day. You'd be 100% sure
he's not coming back that day. No man knows the hour of the
day, except the father. But we are told in the scriptures
that our great king is coming again. He's coming again. And oh, what a day that'll be.
Today, we'll be looking at two verses in the book of James,
chapter 5, which follow the passage we studied last week. And that
passage ended with the persecution of the people of God from rich
false professors within the body. Now look at James, chapter 5,
verse 6. That was the last verse of that
section that says, you have condemned and killed the just, and he doth
not resist you. So God's people, when they're
persecuted, we don't resist the providence of God. We don't render
evil for evil. We just quietly wait upon the
Lord. Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord, I will repay, and there will be a great day of reckoning.
You can be sure there'll be a great day of reckoning. We actually
hope and pray the person gets saved, don't we? That the Lord
saves them. Not gets saved, but that the
Lord saves them. That's our hope, isn't it? Lord,
please save him. When people are persecuting us
who do not know him, we pray, Lord, save him. Oh, my. Now let's read verses
7 to 12, and our text will be found in verses 7 and 8, but
I want to read all the way to 12 to read the context here. Be patient, therefore, brethren,
unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth
for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience
for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient. Establish
your hearts for the coming of the Lord. Draweth nigh. So we
see twice in these verses, once in verse 7 and once in verse
8. that James, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is bringing
up the certainty of the Lord's coming, the Lord's return. He's
coming again. He is. People scoff. They've
been scoffing for years, and they die in their sins and go
to hell if the Lord doesn't save them, right? Again, our prayer
is, Lord, please save them. Please save them. Grudge not one against another,
brethren, lest ye be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before
the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets
who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering,
affliction, and of patience. We'll look at that more next
week. The saints of old have suffered so much. So much. We suffer, too, under persecution.
Some people don't even know it. There's people within the body
here that are being persecuted. It could come from a job site.
It could come from family. It could come from friends. It
could come from just mere acquaintances. Persecution comes in all different
forms, doesn't it, though? But it's always about Christ. Oh my, and marvel not if the
world hates you, the Lord said, because it hates him first. And
you know who the worst persecutors are? Religious people. They're the worst. They really
are. But pray for them. Lift them
up. Ask the Lord to save them. Ask
the Lord to save them. I had one guy one time, two years after I'd been here,
I was talking to him. And he said, oh, you Calvinists,
like this. And I said, yeah, I believe in
the doctrines of grace. I don't follow everything Calvin
believed, but I believe in the doctrines of grace that's set
forth in the scriptures. And all Calvin did was bring
forth those doctrines that are already in the scriptures. And
he got that from Augustine. who got it from the scriptures.
Both of them got it from the scriptures. And he said, you
know what this man said to me? This town would be better off
without that church across the road. You know what I've been doing ever
since? Praying for him. He's warmed up a lot to me now.
He doesn't feel the same way. He actually came back about two
weeks later and apologized for saying that. But then not long
ago after that, He said, well, you're going to be judged. I
said, no, I'll never be judged. You're going to be judged for
what you preach over there. And I said, no, I'll never be
judged. He says, well, why not? I says, because all my sins were
judged at Calvary in Christ. I said, I'll never be judged.
See, what we have is so wonderful. And again, just take them back
to the scriptures, right? Well, how can we say that as
believers that we'll never be judged? Well, there's therefore
now no condemnation in the Greek. That's judgment. for those in
Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.
Who can bring any charge against God's elect? It's God who justifies. See? So we can confidently say
that to people. Rail on, rail on all you want. God's church is going forward,
isn't it? God's gospel's going forward. And here, do with it
whatever he pleases. we rejoice because we're here
we're here gathered together as a group of believers we're
here for the furtherance of the gospel and don't think it's just
me preaching we're all in this together we're all in this together I
can't do what I do without you guys and and and the Lord the
Lord provides for the church through through us right through
the believer and the gospel goes out into the world I remember
hearing about a Navy SEAL one time, and he said, he said, he
got the Medal of Honor. And people were bragging on him,
you know, and he said, no, don't brag on me. Brag on the mechanics
that worked on the helicopter to get me up. Brag on the night
stalkers, which is a group of helicopter pilots that drop the
SEALs off in different places. He says, those are the guys,
I can't do my job without them. And it's the same for a preacher.
We can't do anything unless the Lord enables us to do it. He
enables us by gathering us together as a body of believers. And what
are we waiting for? What are we waiting for now as
believers? We're waiting for the king, aren't we? We're waiting
for the return of the king. Now he's either gonna come at
our death and we'll be ushered up into glory or we'll see him
when we're alive if he comes back when we're alive. But we're
still waiting for him, aren't we? Eagerly. Are you homesick
for heaven? Yeah. We are, aren't we? We sure are. Oh, my. So don't be surprised when you
suffer persecution. Don't be surprised when people
come at you for what you believe. Don't be surprised about that.
Pray for them. Lift them up. Ask the Lord to
save them if they don't know Him. And ask the Lord to give
them grace if they're one of His people. My. It says, here, behold, we count
them happy, which endure. Ye have heard of the patience
of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is
very pitiful and of tender mercy. And he sure is. We've tasted
that mercy, haven't we, as God's people? We've tasted that the
Lord is gracious, haven't we? Oh, he's so gracious. But above
all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither
by earth, neither by any oath, but let your yea be yea, and
your nay, nay. lest you fall into condemnation.
And that condemnation there isn't judgment, because our sins have
already been judged at Calvary's Cross. We'll look into that more,
too, in a few messages down the road. Lord willing. So the words
which we have just written, or the words which we have just
read, are written to God's people. They're written to God's born-again,
blood-washed saints. And they've been persecuted by
rich men that James mentioned in the first six verses, whether
they be professing religious men or whether they be men of
the world, they've been persecuted by them. And that which has been done
to these brethren that James is writing to has been evil.
It's been evil, evil acts. They've defrauded them, but they
have a great hope. And James sets forth after he
speaks about Them being persecuted, He sets forth the great hope.
The Lord draweth nigh. He's coming. He's coming. And what a hope that is for us.
What a hope. It raised their hearts back then,
just as it raises our hearts right now. And don't forget,
they're going through similar things as we are. There's nothing
new under the sun in the scriptures. When you start to study history,
you just see cycles of the same thing going on. And you know
what Satan does with religions and stuff? He just puts a new
name on it. He just puts a new name on it.
The Greeks had their false gods. The Romans had their false gods.
Now people, the New Age stuff is all false gods. It's just
got a different label on it, but it's all the same thing.
It's all the same thing. So we're facing the same evil
that they faced. But they never reeled or spoke
evil of those who were persecuting them. Now that's hard to do.
I'll admit that, that's hard to do. That takes grace, doesn't
it? I'll be the first to say that,
you know, what's our first reaction? You know, the cackles go up,
right? And we're just ready to go. But we ought not to be that
way, eh? You know, I've learned personally
that when someone comes to me with something, I will ask them
for two, two, two, three days, sometimes even a week, just for
me to think about it and to pray about it before I move forward. Because I don't never want to
be, I used to be very reactionary. I don't want to be that way anymore.
I don't want to be that way, especially in leadership. I want
to be able to, you know, because, you know, I'm just as susceptible
to be wrong as someone else. Now, preaching, I know I'm not
wrong when I preach, but there's some things I do sometimes that
I could do different ways. I value your opinion. I value
your opinion with the things going on in the church. I love
it, because this is what keeps us going. And I've been amazed
in the last year of how much everybody's just come together
and people are doing things, and it's just amazing to watch. It's just absolutely, and there's
a peace, isn't there? There's a unity that we have,
which is just wonderful, absolutely wonderful. So James here sets
forth before the brethren the great hope of the second coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn if you would to Romans chapter
seven, or Romans chapter eight, I'm sorry, Romans chapter eight. And we'll see how this passage
that we're gonna read over here is very similar to what we just
read in James. Look at this. Romans chapter
8, starting in verse 17 to 25. We'll read a little bit lengthy
passage here, but I think it's pertinent to what we're reading
here. Paul writes, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, verse
17, in joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be glorified together. Now I remember someone
saying, this next verse is the southern part of the Bible. I
just had to say that. For I reckon, right? for I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time, now look at these, let these
words just sink into us, because we're going through a pretty
turbulent time, times that we've never seen before, right? In
our nation and in the world. Things that we've never experienced.
And think of this, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time, all that's going on, any suffering we're going through,
are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us. Look at that. For the earnest
expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the
sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not
willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in
hope. Because the creature itself also she delivered from the bondage
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travails in pain
together until now. And not only they, but ourselves,
right? We groan, don't we, within our
bodies. Do you know the only suffering that we'll go through
is here on this earth, as believers? The only trials that we'll go
through is here on this earth. The only tears that we cry is
here on this earth. God's gonna wipe away all our
tears, beloved. Isn't that amazing? We won't cry in sorrow ever in
heaven. Now, I don't know if we're going
to cry for joy, because I know we're going to with our voices. But there will be no more tears
of sorrow. None. No tears from trials or temptations
which come our way. My. For we know the whole creation
groaneth and prevails in pain together until now. And not only
they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption
to wit, the redemption of our body." Oh, my. When we get our new glorified
body, a body that will never sin, no pain. Can you imagine? I'm not going to have hip pain
and back pain anymore. We're not going to have anything
like that. Again, all the suffering that we go through is here on
earth. We'll have a new body that'll
be sinless. And when we see each other in
heaven, and I believe we're gonna know each other, but when we
see each other in heaven, it'll be absolutely sinless. We'll
be sinless beings. We can't even grasp that, can
we? We can't even grasp that. And not only they, but ourselves
also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves
grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the
redemption of our body. For we are saved by what? Hope. Who's your hope in? Who's your hope in? Amen. He's the only one. He's the only
true hope. He's the only hope for sinners. Are you a sinner? Well, whether
you believe it or not, you're a sinner. Christ is the only
hope for sinners. What a hope we have. What a hope
we have. The Lord Jesus Christ, God saved
us. God himself saved us. The Word
of God saved us. What a hope we have. He's our hope, for we are saved
by hope. Our hope's in Him. It's not in
anything we've done. It's all in what Christ has done
for us. He bled and died on Calvary's
cross as our substitute. He satisfied the law of God in
our room and place. He satisfied the justice of God. He cried, it is finished. We
weren't there, were we? People think that they somehow
are the ones who save themselves. No, no, nothing. We bring nothing
to the table. We bring nothing at all. We come
with nothing in our hands before the Lord Jesus Christ. And we
cry, oh, I love that passage. We cry with the public. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Did you ever feel that way before
the Lord saved you? Now, we would have cried, we'd
have said, no, I don't want to have nothing to do with religion,
nothing to do with Christ. And now we cry, Lord, have mercy
on me, please, Lord, have mercy. What a work, what a marvelous
work the Holy Spirit of God's done in us. My, now we love the
gospel when once we despised it. It's incredible, absolutely
incredible. For we are saved by hope, but
hope, now look at this, hope that is seen is not hope. So
if you can see that what you hope for, it's no longer hope
because you see it. We hope and wait for the Lord's
return, don't we? We've never seen the one who
saved us, have we? We've never laid eyes on, you
ever think of that? We've never laid eyes on Christ
and yet he's all our hope. Isn't that amazing? We used to
hope in the things that we could see. I used to try to keep up with
my brothers. Both my brothers had business, I had my own business,
so we all kind of were in competition with each other. Foolishness. It was foolishness. Just foolishness. Used to like to collect wildlife
art prints. So I'd go to my brother's house,
he got a new one, well I'd have to go get a new one. It was awful. But that was my
treasure then. That was my, you know what I
mean? That was the things that I was like, oh, look. What a fruitless hope. What a
vain hope. And the things that I have accumulated,
what a vain hope. I can't take anything with me.
But now, I, like you who are born again, we hope in someone
we've never seen. No wonder people go, they're
a strange bunch. But it's by faith. God's given
us faith, and we do see him by faith, don't we? We see him by
faith, we look to him. And what a day that'll be, what
a day. When we breathe our last breath,
and we open our eyes, and we see our King. So our loved ones who went on,
who knew Christ, they opened their eyes and beheld the one
they hoped in for the first time. And now they're still looking
at him, praising and worshiping his mighty name. And we're hoping
for his return, aren't we? Oh my, what a hope we have, beloved.
What a hope we have in Christ. Look at this, but if we hope
for that we see not, then we do with patience, wait for it.
Long suffering, we patiently wait for the Lord's return. We've
never seen him, but we've seen him by the eyes of faith. And
that's God-given faith too, remember that too. That's God-given faith. That's why it keeps on keeping
on. That's why we keep looking to him, because it's faith from
God. It's a gift from God, not of works, lest any man should
boast. Why do people walk away? Why
do some people walk away from the gospel? You know, through
the years, I've met people who've made a profession and then just
walked away. And people say, well, they're just backslidden.
Well, that could be true. They could be backslidden. I
don't know, I'm not God. I don't know the status of their
heart. But when you see someone continuing
that lifestyle of just being in the world, then you have to
wonder, like Paul said, Demuth has forsaken me for the love
of the world. Never was saved. Now the only
one who can make our election calling sure is ourselves, right?
So the only one we can be sure of who's saved is ourselves,
right? But we've all seen people make
professions and walk away. But see, it wasn't God-given
faith. God-given faith perseveres because
it's God-given. He's the one who keeps us. We're
kept by him, kept by the power of God. Now let's read verse
seven. Boy, I'm gonna run out of time
again. Let's read verse seven. It says, be patient, therefore,
brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husband-man
waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience
for it until he receive the early and latter rain. So we see here
that James exhorts the believers to be patient. And again, the
underlying Greek word there means long-suffering. So we're to be
long-suffering. which is a fruit of the spirit.
Do you know that? Long-suffering is a fruit of
the spirit. My oh my. So that which God tells us to
do, he provides. He provides it. And this means
long-suffering with a sense of strong passion. And God's people
have a strong passion for the Lord, don't we? We do. even more
than anger. And it says it brings forth a
lively welling up the whole spirit. Oh my. You ever listen to a message
or sing a song and you feel like you can get plucked off the ceiling?
My. Worshipping with your whole spirit,
eh? It's wonderful, isn't it? I remember being out of preachers
conference a long, long time ago. And there must have been
500 preachers in this place. And they started singing, holy,
holy, holy. Oh my gosh. It was unbelievable. I had never
experienced anything like it. It was amazing. It was amazing. And the preacher who was with
me leaned over and said, little taste of heaven, Wayne. But we've had some times even
here where we've sang, and boy, I'll tell you what, I'm hitting
the roof. Just you feel that freedom and that liberty from
the Holy Spirit of God. It's just wonderful, isn't it?
It's absolutely wonderful. My. And it also means great restraint. So great restraint is bought
forth in long suffering. So again, that's something that's
not natural for us. But the Holy Spirit works that
in us. So don't look at yourself and go, well, I don't have much
restraint, because I don't have much restraint either. I don't have much patience
either. If we look at ourselves, we know.
We don't have to look at anyone else, do we? So remember, this
is something that the Holy Spirit will work in us. It's the fruit
of the Spirit. It's not the fruit of Wayne or
the fruit of anybody else. Put your name in there. It's
the fruit of the Spirit. God must work that in us. See,
that's the difference between religion and grace. Religion,
you've got the, oh, I gotta be more long-suffering. I gotta
be more patient. I remember being like that. I
gotta be more kind. Oh, I wish I wasn't getting so
angry all the time. Well, yeah, those are good things. I hope
we don't get like that. But when it depends upon you, I'm telling
you, you're going to fail all the time. Pray, ask God, Lord,
give me more grace. Scripture says he give us more
grace. He does. He gives more grace. So great
restraint is also bought forth in long suffering. Patient under
trial. long-prolonged restraint of the
soul from yielding to anger, which is easy for us to do, right?
Or resisting wrath. And again, this can only come
by the power of the Holy Spirit of God working in us. And He
works that in us. You might not see yourself as
growing in grace, but other people do. They see it. Because if we look at ourselves,
we think, My, same thing all over again, all the time, just
such a failure. But the Lord's, you know, remember,
the Lord doesn't look at us and say, well, Wayne, you're a failure.
We feel that way sometimes about ourselves, don't we? No, he's
chipping away at us. He's molding us into what he
wants to make us. We're being conformed to the
image of the sons. We're being stones made ready. to be placed in that heavenly
temple. Oh my. He's working in us. Now look at here and go back,
actually turn back if you would to chapter one. God gives us grace
as is needed. And he imparts patience to his
people. He imparts long suffering to his people. In verse 7, again,
this is written to born-again, blood-washed believers, divinely
loved ones. Let that sink in. You're a divinely
loved one if you're one of the Lord's. And Christ has redeemed
you on Calvary's cross. And we're to be patient, verse
7 says, unto the coming of the Lord. And again, as we looked
at in Romans 8, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared. So when suffering's with that
which will be revealed in glory. So when suffering comes our way,
we're again to be long-suffering, patient, patiently wait upon
the Lord, because his will is being worked out, right? For
our good and for his glory, even if we can't see it. Look at here in chapter one,
in verses one to four, James even opens the book up in the
fact that these saints that he's writing to are going through
trials, going through persecutions. Look at this. James, a servant
of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ of the 12 tribes, which
are scattered abroad, greeting. And then here we see James writing
to those who are having their faith tested by trials. He writes
this. My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into diverse temptations. See the word temptations there?
Now right away we think, oh, temptations. It's trials in the
Greek. It's trials. Count it joyful
when you fall into trials. That's the total opposite of
how we react, isn't it? If we're honest with ourselves.
But the scripture here tells us to count it all joyful when
you fall into diverse, I'm gonna say trials, because that's what
it is in the Greek, knowing this, that the trying of your faith
worketh patience. You see, again, it's the Holy
Spirit working in us. What do trials cause us to do? Flee to Christ, right? They bring
us to the feet of Christ every single time. It may take a little
while for us to get there, but we will. We end up there, don't
we? We end up there, and God's gracious
with us, isn't He? He knows we're but dust, beloved.
He knows how frail we are. He knows every, you know, He
knows us so intimately that the very hairs of our head are numbered.
That's an intimate knowledge. That's incredible. That's how
intimately God knows us. He knows us better than ourselves. And He knows each one of us,
and don't think, don't think that's just a broad base. He
knows every single one of His sheep like that. If you're a believer, He knows
you like that. And me as a believer, He knows me like that. Isn't
that amazing? How can someone keep that much
intimate knowledge about people? People who number a number that
no man can number because He's God. And he knows, get this, he knows
every single one of his sheep that he gave to the Lord Jesus
Christ in eternity. And Christ knows every single
one of those sheep. And you know what? The Holy Spirit
will fetch every single one of those sheep. When Shondon shows an interest
in the gospel, you know what I do? I'll tell him about Christ. I'll tell them the great things
Christ has done for me, and I'll leave them alone. Because it's God that has to
give the increase, right? See, in religion, they're always
trying to get you to pray a prayer. Now, I will continue to say,
now is the day. Today is the day. We do not know
if we have tomorrow. Today is the accepted time. Today
is the day to flee to Christ. but salvation is a work of God
in us without us moving a muscle when when he when he regenerated
us when we were born again of the Spirit that was an operation
of God and how did we react when we're given that faith we ran
to Christ didn't we We ran to him. Oh, Lord, save me or I die. That's our hope, isn't it? That's
what we pray for as believers. We pray that the Lord will take
the message and as it goes, either either here and in our midst
or as it goes all around the world, Lord, please take it,
take it and use it for your glory and honor and praise. Use it
to draw on your lost sheep. Use it to build up your saints
as they go through this world of trials and tribulations. Again,
because we're here for the furtherance of the gospel, beloved. That's
what we're here for. God has established a church
in Almonte, Michigan, out of all the towns around us. God
has established a work of grace in Almonte, Michigan. Isn't that
incredible? And here we are, each one of us, by the grace
of God in Christ. And he continues to keep this
work, and here continues to keep this work as long as he wants
it here. Isn't that amazing? God is faithful
to us, isn't he? A preacher told me one time when
I was coming out here, Norm, it was actually Norm Wells, he
said, you know why you're going to Elmont? He says, because there's sheep
there. Isn't that wonderful? God sends his preachers where
there's sheep. And I can say, because I'm a
sheep too, right? Right? So when Dottie and them
come, I'm just feasting along with y'all. I'm feasting to my
study, too. Right? Right? But it's wonderful, isn't it,
to know that we're here on purpose and to know that we all have
the same hope. I didn't touch much on it. I'm
going to have to continue again, because I went way off my notes. But we all have that same hope, don't
we? Which is Christ. And we patiently wait for him
right now, don't we? We know he's coming back. Scripture
says he's coming back. We're going to look at that more next
week because I didn't get that far with it. But we know that he's
coming back. And again, we've never seen him.
Think of that. We've never seen Christ, and
yet we hope in him. And and again, if you see something,
then you're not going to hope in it. But I'll tell you what. Sure, as the sun comes up, and
sets every day, he's coming back. He's coming back. People scoff.
Let them say what they want. There's been scoffers for thousands
of years, and you know what happened to them? They died in their sins
and went to a Christless eternity. My oh my, unless the Lord saved
them. And don't ever think the Lord
can't save someone. He saved me. And that song we
all love to sing, we're going to sing today, Amazing Grace,
I'm going to close with the words of John Newton. He said, somebody
came in and said, the Lord saved this notorious drunkard in town.
What do you think of that? And he goes, I'm not surprised
at all. And he says, well, what do you
mean, John? He says, Lord saved me. He can save anyone he chooses
to save. Is that not true? Anything too
hard for the Lord? He'll get his people, won't he?
He'll get his people. Oh my. Glory be to God.