Let us turn again to the Word
of God in the general epistle of James chapter 5 and turn into
that portion we were considering last Lord's Day morning James
chapter 5 and I'll read from verse 7 James 5,7 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. Be ye
also patient. Establish your hearts, for the
coming of the Lord draweth nigh. 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. Behold, we count them happy which
endure. They 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. Well, we were looking at this
portion or the first part of it last Lord's Day morning and
this morning I want really to center your attention on the
words that we have here in verses 10 and 11 where the Apostle directs us
to the patience of the prophets and of Job, the patience of the
prophets and in particular of Job take my brethren the prophets
who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering
affliction and of patience behold we count them happy which endure
you 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
Last time, as I said, we were looking at those previous verses. In particular, I took those words
at the beginning of verse 7 as a text, Be patient therefore,
brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Christian patience
was the theme that we sought to address and to say something
about and the word that we have there in verse 7 in particular
is emphasizing the long-suffering the forbearance that goes along
with patience but it's a different words When we come to verse 11,
for example, you have heard of the patience of Job. The word here would emphasize
somewhat more the idea of enduring. The words in some ways, I suppose,
have to be recognized as synonyms, they're very similar, but they're
not quite the same in our authorized version. Each of these words
is translated by patience, but we have different words in the
original, emphasizing those different aspects of patience, long-suffering,
and then endurance. Now last time, we thought in
particular about that patience that does bear long, and considered
how that patience is encouraged here in this portion of Scripture. And it's encouraged with regards
to that blessed prospect that the Lord is coming. Be patient therefore brethren,
it says, unto the coming of the Lord. And how that coming, James
indicates, is something that is drawing ever nearer and nearer. The end of verse 8 he speaks
of the coming of the Lord that draweth nigh. And then at the
end of verse 9 he says, Behold the judge standeth before the
door. Salvation then is nearer than
when we first believed. And that should encourage us
then in this blessed grace of patience, looking, watching,
and waiting for the appearance of the Lord. And we referred
to that long-suffering of God that's
spoken of by Peter when he writes there in the third chapter, the
last chapter of his second epistle. Speaking of the promise of God,
he says at verse 9, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise
as some men count slackness, but his long-suffering. to Oswald,
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night, in the which the heaven shall
pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat, and the earth also and the works that are therein
shall be burned up." or the Lord is long-suffering. Many abuse
what he said there in verse 9 as if God is desiring really to
save all. He wants to save all but he cannot
because men will not allow him to save them. That's an abuse
really of what's being said because clearly the long-suffering Peter
says is to Oswald and the Oswald is those to whom he is addressing
these epistles. He addresses him to those who
have obtained like precious faith with us. There in the opening
verse of that second epistle and again in the first general
epistle of Peter he addresses himself to those who are the
elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. And so God's
forbearance, God's long-suffering, God's patience has to do with
his people. He is patient. with us and He
will fulfill His great purpose and He will save as many as He
has appointed to that great salvation in the eternal covenant. But
now the grace of patience, long suffering is very much encouraged
and encouraged when we consider the Lord and the ways of the
Lord, His promise. and how he will never forgo that
promise but fulfill it in his own time and in his own way but
then also we saw how that patience is established in the souls of
the people of God what our believers are partakers of the divine nature
that's what Peter says there in the opening chapter of that
second epistle partakers of the divine nature. And Paul exhorts
believers to put on the new man, he says, which is renewed in
knowledge after the image of him that created him. Renewed
in knowledge after God's image. And God is that one who is the
God of patience. Patience is one of God's attributes. And it's one of those communicable
attributes. There are those attributes in
God, of course, that cannot be communicated to his people. God
himself is the infinite one, the eternal one. But there are
those other graces. Amongst them, of course, the
love of God. But also the patience of God. Believers are partakers
of the divine nature. They are to be established then
in this grace of patience as we see here in verse 8. Be ye also patient, he says. Establish your hearts for the
coming of the Lord draweth nigh. And as that patience is something
encouraged, by the promises of God and God's long-suffering,
and as it is that that is established by the gracious ministry of the
Spirit in the souls of the Lord's people, so it is that that will
be evidenced in the way in which they live and conduct themselves.
Verse 9, Grosvenor, one against another, brethren, he says, lest
ye be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before
the door. or they're not to grow, they're
not to groan, they're not to grieve, that's the way in which
the word is rendered here in the margin, grieve not. All believers at times will feel
aggrieved, they may grumble, they may complain, in some way
we see how Job, who in many ways was such a remarkable man, yet
in some ways he did indulge in such a spirit within the first
two chapters. But if we'd have gone on into
chapter 3, what does he say there? He opens his mouth and curses
his dad. Let the day perish wherein I
was born, and the night in which it was said there is a man-child
conceived. Let that day be darkness. Let
not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon
it. Let darkness and the shadow of death stay it. Let a cloud
dwell upon it. Let the blackness of the day
terrify it. Is he not there aggrieved? Is he not grudging? Is he not
really desiring that he might never have been born? And we
see something of the same spirit even in a prophet such as Jeremiah
in his lamentations. He says, there's no sorrow like
my sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day
of his wrath. How he is complaining. All believers,
believers might be prone to these things, to grudge, to groan,
to grieve. But we have the exhortation grudge
not, one against another brethren, lest ye be condemned. Believers are to desire then
that they might know that blessed grace of patience and long-suffering
and forbearance and endurance." And then here, and this is why
I wanted to come back to this portion this morning, he does
go on in verses 10 and 11 to set before us the pattern of
those believers who have gone before the prophets and in particular
the patriarch Job. Take, my brethren, the prophets
who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering,
affliction and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which
endure. You 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 so I want, with the Lord's
help, to say something with regards to what we have in these verses,
verses 10 and 11. And dividing the subject matter
into three parts. First of all, to look at the
example of the prophets. Secondly, the endurance of Job,
And then finally, the end of the Lord. The end of the Lord.
The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. Now it all leads
up to the discovery of Him who is the God of patience and the
God of all grace. But first of all, the example
of the prophets. I referred to Jeremiah just now
how in the lamentations he does lament, he does bemoan, he does
grieve all that has come upon him. But that's an exception
really. The prophets are here set before
us as a remarkable example of suffering affliction and of patience,
suffering that affliction with endurance and perseverance. And how we read of these prophets
time and again, the Lord Jesus Christ himself reminds us, doesn't
he? In his preaching there in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 5 and verses
11 and particularly verse 12, Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad,
for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. And how those prophets did have
to endure, and had to endure great persecutions. in the days
of the kings, in those days running up to the Babylonian captivity,
when we come to the end of the second book of Chronicles. And there, of course, God's judgment
has clearly fallen upon Judah. But what do we read in the second
Chronicles? And there in chapter 36, verses 16 and 17, they mocked
the messengers of God, it says, and despised His words and misused
His prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against His
people till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them
the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the
sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young
man or maiden, old man or him that soupeth for age. He gave
them all into his hand. Oh, the judge standeth at the
door, you see. God's judgment will come upon
those who despise his prophets. Not just his prophets, why do
we not read in the epistle of the Hebrews concerning all that
the godly had to endure, that great 11th chapter that we're
so familiar with, that catalogue of the men, the women of faith
there in the Old Testament. Paul says others had trial of
cruel mockings and scourging, shame wore over of bonds and
imprisonment. They were stolen, they were sawn
asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered
about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented,
of whom the world was not worth it. They wandered in deserts
and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. or these
are those of whom we read there in the Old Testament Scriptures
the ministry of those men of God those prophets that the Lord
raised up who were so despised and rejected and we read of the
ministry of a man like Jeremiah how that the people didn't want
his message they wanted to hear the preachings of those false
prophets who spoke of peace when there was no peace but God would
in due time vindicate his true and his faithful servants and
they're an example of suffering affliction and of patience, of
perseverance, of endurance and doesn't Paul give that exhortation
also when he writes there in the epistle to the Hebrews that
we're not to be slothful but followers of them who through
faith and patience inherit the promises." That's what those
men did. They believed the message that
they proclaimed and they would in due time through faith and
patience inherit the promise of God. They are a great example
then to us of the need for us to be a people who are a long-suffering
people, an enduring people, who continue in the face of all opposition. even in such a day as we're living
in when so much seems to be against the people of God and against
the truth of God and we feel ourselves to be such an insignificant
company of people all God lives in the midst of poor afflicted
people a very little remnant as we read there in the opening
chapter of Isaiah but the example of the prophets in general we
might say but then He speaks very specifically with regards
to the experience of Job. You have heard of the patience
of Job, he says. Well, let us turn for a while
to Job more particularly. We read those opening two chapters
of the book where the scene is set concerning all that was behind
the great troubles that came upon Job, he lost all. As we see there at verse 13,
following in chapter 1, and then again in the second chapter,
he lost all, he lost all his possessions, he lost all his
children, seven sons and three daughters, everything gone. and yet he refuses to curse God
and then in the second chapter Satan is permitted to go somewhat
further initially he could not touch Job in his own person he
could touch him in his possessions and he did that of course but
then in the second chapter he is allowed to touch him in his
person but he cannot take his life There's a mystery, of course,
in what we're reading in those chapters. But we certainly see
some very basic truth. We see that God is sovereign
over all things, that Satan, in that sense, is no free agent.
The mystery is, to us, that God is not the author of sin. The
origin of sin is a great mystery. We know how sin has entered into
this creation through the temptation of the devil in the serpent there
in the Garden of Eden, but how it was that sin could enter into
the hearts of angels, that's a mystery. But we know
that there were those angels that fell, that sinned against
God. And Satan there at the head of those fallen angels. and he
comes and he appears with the other angels, how could that
be? Those angels who are in the very
presence of God, those cherubim and those seraphim, they cannot
bear the sight, we read there in Isaiah 6 of the angels, they
veil their faces and they veil their feet and they cry, holy,
holy, holy. How could a fallen angel be in
the company of such angels and in the presence of God? I don't
pretend to have any explanation. But I'm sure of this, that God
is an absolute sovereign. And Satan can only go as far
as he is permitted. And poor Job, in chapter 2, is
afflicted in his own person. what he was we don't know he's
covered from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head
with with sores boils he goes and sits amongst the ashes and
he takes the shirt of a pot and he scrapes himself scrapes his
body oh what a trial is this man in
and yet One thinks of the line in William Cooper's hymn, trials
make the promise sweet. How strange it is. The end of
the law, trials make the promise sweet, says William Cooper, the
poet. Again, think of the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel. He says, in your patience
possess you your soul. in your patience, in your endurance,
possess ye your souls." There's some good for the soul in the
midst of those troubles, those trials. And again, the language
of the apostle when he speaks of patience, and he sets it in
a sort of context there in the opening part of Romans chapter
5. He says at verse 3, We glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
and patience experience, and experience hope. And don't make
us not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. All the Lord
is overruling in all of these things, all these bitter experiences,
tribulation, and the patience that must go with that, the enduring
of the trials and the troubles he experienced and yet how all
this leads to hope, hope in God, his love shed abroad in the hearts
of his people but how strange, how mysterious are the ways of
the Lord with Job and yet at the end, with the opening chapters
when we come to the end, you remember the great last chapter
of that book Now the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he
prayed for his friends and also gave him twice as much as he
had before. The Lord is no man's debtor.
The Lord blessed the latter end of Job, we are told, more than
the beginning. He endures, and ultimately there
is some profit in his endurance, in his perseverance, in his patience.
What is the key? What is the key that opens it
up? It's praying. The Lord turned His captivity
when He prayed. And who did he pray for? He prayed
for his friends who, on an occasion, he says they are but poor comforters. They didn't understand his plight.
They were of little help to him. He completely misunderstood.
They were ready to make accusations against him. And yet, when this
man prays, he doesn't pray in vain. here is the key whereby
all his troubles are opened up and he is brought
ultimately to find some profit in what the Lord brought him
through early on in the book Job 8.7 we have that word though
thy beginning was small yet thy latter end shall greatly increase
and so it was all the patience of this man, the endurance of
this man We 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 so coming in the third place
to this end of the law that we have, we have the example of
the prophets, how they suffer, they suffer
affliction, and they have to persevere with patience, they
have to endure all that persecution that comes as their message,
their ministry is rejected by Israel and then we have Job and
that strange way in which the Lord dealt with this man that
he should put him into the hands of Satan and yet even at the
beginning we have to recognize that Job Job was a a man of God,
a child of God. There was a man in the land of
Oz whose name was Job. We're told that man was perfect
and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil. How was
he perfect? How was he upright? He was only
upright in the righteousness of Christ as anyone is. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. He was a justified sinner. and
in the midst of his trials he speaks of his Redeemer I know
that my Redeemer liveth he says and he shall stand in the latter
day upon the earth what faith that man has and yet how that
faith was so sorely tried but coming ultimately to what we
have here in the end of verse 11 and have
seen the end of the Lord. The Lord is very pitiful and
of tender mercy. Oh, the trial, the trouble is
not without some profit. Verse 11, we count them happy
which endure, it says. We count them happy. and we have that word behold
before it. It is something to be considered,
something to be not only looked at but looked into, examined. That's the force, isn't it, of
that word behold. How we are to be careful then in the
way in which we examine these things and the conclusions that
we come to. and notice here the pronoun w'rth
who are the w'rth? well he's speaking of himself
he's giant but not only of himself he's speaking of the people of
God he's speaking to believers remember
how he addresses the epistle at the beginning speak to the
twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. Now why the
twelve tribes? Well, he's referring to Israel
in a sense, the Old Testament, the twelve tribes, the twelve
sons of Jacob, the twelve tribes of Israel. But he's not addressing
the unbelieving Jews. He's addressing himself to the
true Israel of God. just as Peter in that first epistle
addresses himself to the side but he calls them strangers scattered
just as those who are the recipients of James general epistle are
scattered abroad so Peter you see strangers scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father and so although it's a
general epistle, it's not addressed to the world, it's not addressed
to the unbelieving Jews it's addressed to the true Israel
of God it's addressed to Christian believers and so let us be careful
as to how we interpret such a pronoun we that is James and those others
who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and he's making
a contrast then with the attitude of those who are not the people
of God we believers count them happy which endure now troubles are common to all people
it's not just the Lord's people, it's not just believers who have
troubles in this world And we see that, don't we, in some of
the statements that we find in the book of Job. Job 5, 7. Man is born unto trouble as the
sparks fly upwards. That's a truism. All men, all sorts of men, believing
men, unbelieving men, they will know something of troubles. Again,
there in the opening words of Job 14, man that is born of a
woman is a few days and full of trouble. Many people have their troubles, but it's only the people of God,
it's only those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who
can truly speak of happiness in the midst of their trials
behold we count them happy that endure we read here at the beginning
of this 11th verse and again I remind you of what we read
just now in Romans 5 tribulation working experience and experience
working patience and patience working hope and hope making
not afraid because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
that clearly is the experience of those that know God and know
that all things are under God's sovereign hand all believers
are those who look to a God who is sovereign it's so basic really,
I mean if God is not sovereign he is no God at all and the believer
is one who confesses God and faith in God and walks by faith
we walk by faith not by sight and we have the example of Moses
he endured as seeing him who is invisible in the midst of
all that came upon that man throughout his life, 120 years, and there
are those three periods, aren't there? 40 years, he's 40 years
in Egypt, he's 40 years in the wilderness, before he's called
at the burning bush and then the final 40 years as the children
of Israel are brought out of that bondage and then they are
wandering in the wilderness all the troubles that came upon that
man in each of those periods of 40 years What troubles time
and time and time and time again. But he endures. How does he endure?
He sees the invisible God. He walks by faith and not by
sight. And it's because of that faith
in God that he can suck some sweetness even out of his trials. We sing those lines often times
of Joseph Hart, though our cup seems filled with gall, there's
something secret sweetens all. What is it that sweetens the
bitter cup of gall? It's faith in God. It's that confidence that God
will yet appear and show himself. and he will ultimately favor
his people with that assurance of his grace. The end of the Lord. What is
the end of the Lord? The Lord is very pitiful and
of tender mercy. He delivers his people. And doesn't
the Apostle speak of that there in the opening chapter of that
second epistle to the Corinthians? Well, Paul reminds them of the
God who hath delivered us from so great a trouble and doth deliver
and will yet deliver. Deliverance in the past, deliverance
in the present, deliverance in the future. That's the assurance
that the Apostle will give to those Corinthians. He is the
God of deliverances. He has granted that great deliverance
from sin by and in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And what will
God withhold from those whom He has so blessed in Him who
is the Saviour? Above all things do we not have
that pattern? The pattern of the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. And again, isn't it Peter that
reminds us of that? there in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 20 following it says what
glory is it if when you be buffeted for your faults you shall take
it patiently but if when you do well and suffer for it you
take it patiently this is acceptable with God for even here unto where
you call because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an
example that you should follow his steps who did no sin neither
was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled
not again when he suffered he threatened not but committed
himself to him that judges right righteously ultimately this is
the great pattern that he said before the people of God even
the Lord Christ himself how it's one thing to suffer when we feel
we deserve the suffering but when the trial comes and there
seems to be no reason for it or in it how difficult it is
but how the Lord you see suffered and he was altogether the innocent
one well there is the pattern then that is set before the people
of God even the Lord Jesus Christ himself there is deliverance in Christ
and as there is deliverance there so there will be deliverance
in every eventuality God will increasingly manifest himself
and reveal himself go back to the opening chapter there at
verse 12 blessed is the man says James that endureth temptation
for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which
the Lord hath promised to them that love him." What are these
present sufferings, the difficulties, the troubles, the tribulations? Paul says, I reckon that the
suffering of this present time is not to be compared to that
glory that shall be revealed in us that's the life of faith
forgetting those things that are behind reaching forth unto
those things that are before pressing toward the mark of the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus it's a life
of faith that we have to live in the midst of so many things
that we cannot understand we find ourselves at times brought
to the very end of our tether brought to our very wits end
but we have to look to the Lord and we have to pray to the Lord
we have to forget the things behind, we have to press forward
looking not at the things that are seen but the things that
are not seen the things that are seen we're told are temporal
the unseen things are the eternal things there's the end of the
Lord or have we seen that? the end of the Lord I know the thoughts that I think
towards you it says thoughts of peace and not of evil to give
you an expected end Those are the words that he speaks, of
course, to those who were being transported, taken into exile,
70 years they'd be there in Babylon. But there was an end, the end
of the Lord. And also there is, in the midst
of all these things, that blessed foretaste of heaven, even in
this world. It's them who, through faith
and patience, inherit the promises. Oh, if we inherit the promises,
what do we have there in the grace of God? What is grace? Well, it's been said, I think
it's Thomas Boston, isn't it, who says of grace that it is
its glory in the body. And what is heaven, what is glory? It's that full grace now come
to the full flower. so even now in the midst of all
those troubles that call for forbearance and long-suffering
and perseverance and endurance even here and now there is some
foretaste of that that shall yet be even heaven itself that
better end or better is the end of a thing than the beginning
thereof says the says the wise man there in Ecclesiastes. Behold,
we count them happy which endure. There's cause in to rejoice because
the Lord makes himself real in the midst of all these things.
I like this remark by the Puritan Thomas Manton as he expounds
the words of verse 11. He says this, it was Job's happiness
that he had to do with a God who is pitiful and merciful. That was his happiness, he had
to do with God. God's pitiful, God's merciful. Happy is that man that hath the
God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. says the Psalmist. How true it
is. There's our happiness. It's only
found in the Lord and He will wean us from the things of this
world, the things of time and of sense. He will establish us
in our hearts in the ways of patience and endurance and He
will ultimately bring His people to Himself and to all the fullness
of that glory that has been laid up in the person and work of
the Lord Jesus Christ and He's given us the Scriptures and all
these things that we have in the Old Testament as you know
they're written for our learning that we through patience and
comfort of the Scriptures might have hope all that we read of
Job all that we read of these prophets all that we read of
those men and women of faith why are they written? it's not
just history is it? What does God's word set before
us? It sets before us something of the mystery, of the ways of
God. And yet, there is that blessed
end. You 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. Oh, the
Lord be pleased then to show Himself, to reveal Himself, even
as we come to consider such as these prophets who spoke in the
name of the Lord, an example, we're told, of suffering, affliction,
and of patience. Behold, we count them happy,
which endure. Well, the Lord bless to us His
Word. Amen.