Let us turn to God's Word in
the Epistle of James. James chapter 5 and verse 11. James 5, 11. 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. Behold, we count them happy which
endure. Ye have heard of the patience
or the endurance of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord,
that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy." We've considered
something of Job's experience earlier today and We just read
the opening and the closing chapters of the book of Job. And remember
what we read there at the end of that first chapter, where
we have the account of how Job had lost everything, all his
possessions, even his beloved children. And yet in all this,
Job said not, we're told, nor charged God foolishly. the endurance of Job and that's
the the subject that I want to take up the endurance of Job and also
the end of the Lord as it's mentioned here in the text now in the context
you will see that a great deal is said about patience And they
are two distinct words that we have here. Verse 7, be patient. For as Imogen said, long patience. We'll suffer with long patience,
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 you receive the early and
latter rain. Be ye also patient. Establish
your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Take, my brethren, the prophets
who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering,
affliction, and of patience. And then we come to the words
of the text here in verse 11. Now, in those previous verses,
we repeatedly have mention of that patience, which does mean
long patience and waiting. And how it's encouraged, how
believers are to wait patiently, we see there, for the coming
of the Lord, the beginning of verse 7. And then again, at the
end of verse 8, the coming of the Lord brought us nigh there,
is to be that patient, waiting, looking, and watching for the
coming of the Lord. He that shall come, we're told,
will come, and will not tarry. But our believers are to wait
for that blessed day, the consummation, of all things, when according
to his promise Christ will return in power and great glory." That
patience then is being encouraged here. And also, of course, James
is writing to those who are believers, those who have known the grace
of God, and Peter speaks of believers as those who are partakers of
the divine nature. And there are in God those attributes
that the believer can know something of. And amongst those attributes
surely is that of patience. Paul speaks of Him as the God
of patience. And believers, if they are partakers
of that nature, they will know something of patience. Partakers of the divine nature. Though it is to be evidenced
in the lives of the people of God, we read in verse 9, grudge
not, or as the margin says, groan not or grieve not one against
another, lest ye be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before
the door. Believers are to be patient and
not to indulge in self-pity Jeremiah could cry out that there was
no sorrow like unto his sorrow Job also was almost driven to
despair we were looking this morning at that at that seventh
chapter in the book of Job there we see him complaining of the
bitterness of his life how long will thou not depart from me
nor let me alone he says Shall I swallow down my spittle? For
he confesses his sinnership. I have sinned, what shall I do?
Unto thee, O thou preserver of men. Why hast thou set me as
a mark against them, so that I am a burden to myself? He felt
that he was a mark. God was, as it were, using him
and aiming at him as a target, when we think of a man, as it
were, doing his practice and aiming at a certain target with
his arrows. How he cries out in the previous
sixth chapter, the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the
poison whereof drinketh up my spirit, the terrors of God do
set themselves in array against me. How this man needs patience. that long patience, that readiness
to wait. But then, it's a different word
that we have when we come to this 11th verse. It's not the
word patient that we have in the previous verses. Behold, ye count them happy,
says James which endure. You have heard of the patience,
it's the same word really, it's endurance, the endurance of Job,
and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful
and of tender mercy. Well, we need to be those who
would understand something of what this Endurance is. He that shall endure unto the
end, says the Lord Jesus, the same shall be saved. Now, believers are going to experience
many trials and troubles. Remember that 11th chapter of
the epistle to the Hebrews and what we come to there at the
end of that particular chapter. Oh, poor spirits of those who
had trial of cruel mockings and scourging, Jame wore over of
bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sworn
asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered
about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. This is believers of whom the
world was not worthy, he says. They wandered in deserts and
in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. Oh, this
was the lot of God's elect, that strange, strange path that believers
have to travel. And we're to be followers of
these. We were looking last Lord's Day at those words in Hebrews
6, that we be not slothful, but followers. followers of them
who through faith and patience inherit the promises. And so, in a sense, continuing
in that same theme, I want us to consider what he said here
in this particular verse in James 5, 11. 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." What is this end of the Lord?
Well, God will have his people to be marked out as a blessed
people, as a happy people. We count them happy, it says,
which endure. And In many ways, that opening sentence
in the verse is a considered statement. It opens, does the
text, with that word, behold, and you know the force of the
word. Here is something to be considered. Here is a matter
that we need to look at with some intensity, to fix our eye
upon, and to ponder over. And the we, the pronoun is of
course referring to believers. We might say believers in contrast
to the worldly. Behold, we, that is believers,
count them happy which endure. All men have their problems,
their difficulties, their troubles that they have to endure. Again,
it's in the book of Job that we read of these things. Man
that is born of woman, it says, is of few days and full of trouble. Now, that is a general statement.
All men who are born into this fallen world, this sinful world,
in a sense, all men are born unto trouble. Again, look at the language of
Job 5, 7. Man is born unto trouble, it
says, as the sparks fly upwards. There's a certain inevitability
about these things. But here is the mark of those
who know God, those with whom the Lord God has His dealings. Again, remember that chapter
that we were considering this morning. And that question in verse 17,
what is man? Man that thou shouldest magnify
him. And then verse 18, that thou shouldest visit him every
morning and try him every moment. This is how God magnifies man
when he has dealings with him. And this is why the child of
God, that paradoxical person, is happy in the midst of his
trials. and we sang it just now in the
hymn though our cup seems filled with gall there's something secret
sweetens all, it's the Lord and it's the ways of the Lord, it's
the dealings of the Lord it's only the believer who can speak
of being happy and blessed in the midst of those things that
seem to be so contrary to his happiness and again remember
the language that we have previously here at the beginning of the
book the very opening words in chapter
1 verse 2 my brethren says James count it all joy count it all
joy when ye fall into diverse temptations knowing this that
the trying of your faith worketh patience but let patience have
her perfect work that she may be perfect and entire wanting
nothing. Now, I know it says diverse temptations,
but the same words in the scripture that is on occasions rendered
temptations, on other occasions is rendered trial. And really
there in those verses at the beginning of James 1, it's the
trial. Later he says in verse 13, Let
no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God
cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man,
but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust
and enticed. God doesn't tempt, but God tries. And we should count it all joy,
because there's a purpose in it, a gracious purpose. What
does it do? The trying of faith. it works
patience, and patience must have that perfect work, there's something
that God is seeking to do, something that God is seeking to accomplish
in the lives of his people when he brings them into those difficult
and trying circumstances. Again we think of the language
of Paul, there in Romans 5, he says, not only so but with
glory in tribulations also, knowing the tribulation work as patience
and patience experience and experience hope and hope make us not ashamed
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us. Oh God you see even in the midst
of trials He's doing such a work and so strangely the believer
is that one who is happy even in the midst of His trial. We count them happy. We count
them happy which enjoy walk by faith and not by sight. How Moses was that one who enjoyed
seeing Him who is invisible. Moses walked by faith. That is
how all the godly must walk We look not at those things that
are seen, but those things that are unseen. And particularly
we look to that One who is the unseen God. Oh, it's the life
of God that's there in the souls of believers. Again, think of
the language of Joseph Hart, true faith's the life of God.
Deep in the heart it lies, it lives. It labors under low, though
damped, It never died. And think of the testimony of
men in scripture. We think of that godly king,
good King Hezekiah. in the midst of all those things
that came upon him with the Assyrians there around the walls of Jerusalem
and all the walled cities throughout his kingdom had already fallen
to those Assyrians and now there they are, they're taunting the
men upon the wall and then the message comes to him that his
life is going to be taken, he's not going to live but die And
how that man, he lays matters before the Lord, he turns his
face to the Lord, he cries to his God, and what does he say?
All by these things men live. In all these things is the life
of my Spirit. And this is what makes that man
who has an enduring faith such a happy man. Behold, we count
them happy which endure, but there is a greater happiness.
Surely there is a greater happiness than that that we might feel
strangely in the midst of God's trials and testings. Is it not more blessed to be
delivered out of our troubles? And what does it say here in
the text? You have heard of the patience or the endurance of
Job and seen the end of the Lord. There is also that, the end of
the Lord. God will yet deliver His people.
And Job is told there in his book, Job 8, 7, though thy beginning
was small, yet thy latter end shall greatly increase. There
was a beginning, yes, and what troubles that we read there at
the beginning, but there's an end also. And Job thy end thy
end shall greatly increase and how Job how he is brought to
acknowledge it how he utters those remarkable words he knoweth
the way that I take when he hath tried me I shall come forth as
God all Job was persuaded of that what he's got doing is dealing
with Job in this strange, this mysterious way to rid him of
all the draughts. As I said this morning, he was
an upright man, he was a righteous man, he was a justified sinner,
he was righteous in Christ, but there must have been something
of self-righteousness there, and the Lord's dealing with him.
And dealing with him for his good. Oh, there is that that
is profitable after the trial, that that makes a man truly happy.
Why, after the trial, what will come? The glories. The glories
of heaven. You go and look at what James
says in the opening chapter, verse 12, Blessed is the man
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. All after the trial There is
that, the glories of heaven itself. Heaven, that holy happy place,
where sin no more defiles, where God unveils his blissful face
and looks and loves and smiles. That's the believer's great hope. Paul says, I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not to be compared with the
glory that shall be revealed in us. Oh, it's in us. And so what are we to do? We're
to endure. Oh, there's happiness in the midst of the enduring,
in the midst of the trial, but there's a greater happiness yet,
you see, there's deliverance, there's the coming out of the
trial. We're to be those for getting the things that are behind
and reaching forth unto those things that are before and pressing
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus. What He's got doing with us when
He brings us into these strange trials and troubles? When He
seems to cross us and go so contrary to us? He's making us to realize
that these temporal things all around us, what are they? Oh,
we look not at the things which are seen, says Paul, but the
things which are not seen. The things which are seen are
temporal. The unseen things are the eternal things. The unseen
things, the unseen God. And God will also grant to His
children some anticipation, some foretaste of that heaven. That
is the ultimate end, you see. that God has in mind for his
children, heaven itself, but even here upon the earth, will
not God at times favour his people and give him some anticipation
of heaven? In a sense, doesn't God do it
in that he has ordained this one day in seven as the Sabbath
day, the Lord's day? And what do we expect on these
days? Or do we not want the Lord's Day to be, as it were, the anticipation
of Heaven? Heaven, that blessed abode where
congregations never break up, where Sabbaths have no end. It's one eternal Sabbath in that
place. It's a glorious rest forever.
And God has given us this day, this day of rest. We can turn
aside from even the legitimate things of life and we can give
ourselves over to the consideration of God. We can read his word,
we can meditate in his words. We can gather together with his
people, we're not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
Or it is, or it should be to us that heaven here upon earth. God says to his children in the
days of the Prophet Jeremiah. And remember that he's ministering
at the time of the Babylonian exile. And God is going to bring
them into a great trial. He's going to take them out of
that land of promise. They're going to see Jerusalem
utterly destroyed by the Babylonians. And they're going to have to
go into Babylon and they're going to be there in exile for 70 years.
But what does God say? I know the thoughts that I think
towards you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you
an expected end. And what is that expected end?
It will be restoration. And so it is here, you see. The
end of the Lord. You have seen the end of the
Lord. The Lord is very pitiful. and of tender mercy. Oh, better is the end of a thing
than the beginning thereof. That's the language of the preacher
in Ecclesiastes. Better is the end of a thing.
Or there's happiness in the trial because God is taking account
of us. God is dealing with us. He's not left us to ourselves
and our own folly and our own devices when He comes and chastens
and corrects us. That's good. That's evidence
that He has an interest in us. There's blessing there. But there's
greater blessing when we're brought out of those chastenings and
corrections. and trial, no, chastening for
the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward,
you see, there's an afterward afterward it yieldeth the peaceable
fruits of righteousness, it says to them who are exercised therein,
are we exercised friends? are we really exercised in these
things? a religion more than just a head
knowledge of these things. We want to have an experience
of that grace of God. We want to know it and feel it
in our souls. Remember again that verse that
we were looking at only last week. Not slothful, it says. Not slothful. Exercised. Not slothful but followers of
them who through faith and patience or faith and endurance inherit
the promises. Job, poor man, he lost everything. We read it, you don't need me
to read those verses again. You can read them, you can remember
them. There at the end of that opening chapter he lost everything,
all his possessions. The greatest man in the East
and he lost all his possessions. and then on top of that he lost
all his children, his seven sons, his three daughters and then still satan is not satisfied,
he comes again if we'd have read the second chapter he's not permitted
there in the first chapter to touch Job in his person but then he comes and God in
the second chapter permits him to touch him now in his own person
but he cannot take his life And how Job is so sorely afflicted. How his body, you see, is covered
with these putrefying sores, these boils, whatever it was.
Some have suggested maybe it was a form of leprosy. He's unclean. He goes and sits amongst the
ashes and he's scraping himself, lamenting his sad state. And
again, remember, It wasn't just his physical condition. Even
when he comes to find some release, when he takes to his bed and
rests, when I lay down, he says, I say when shall I arise and
night be gone and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the
dawning of the day my flesh is clothed with worms and clods
of dust my skin is broken and become loathsome and again he
says when I say my bed shall comfort me my couch shall ease
my complaint then they scare us me with dreams and terrify
us me through visions of all that this man Job had to endure,
ye have heard of the patience of Job, and seen the end of the
Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." Oh, the
Lord is in these things, and there's good in these things. William Cooper says, trials make
the promise sweet. trials give new life to prayer
trials bring me to his feet lay me low and keep me there and
isn't that a blessed spot when the Lord brings us to his feet
when he teaches us our complete and utter dependence upon him
but how the Lord did indeed bless poor Job at the end the Lord it says turned the captivity
of Job when he prayed for his friends.
Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. And
you can compare the chapters that we read, the first and the
last chapter of the book, and his possessions were all doubled
at the end. And again he is favoured with
his seven sons and his three daughters. He has children again
and his daughters. Why? They are the fairest women
in all the land. And how is it that the Lord turned
the captivity of Job? How is it that the Lord blessed
the latter end of Job more than his beginning? It was, it says,
when he prayed for his friends. And what friends they were? Or were they really friends?
He says to them, poor comforters, are ye all? And yet he prays
for them. He prays for them. or we are
to pray. Pray for those which despitefully
use you and persecute you, says the Lord Jesus. They say all
manner of evil against you, but pray for them. Pray for them. That's the calling of the Christian,
you see. What is the believer to do is to turn the other face.
Or what do we know of the grace of God? These are the lessons
that God teaches, this is the lesson that God taught to Job
in the midst of all his trials, all his troubles all those terrible
afflictions that came upon the man yes, there's happiness even
when we're enduring in the midst of the trial but there's more
happiness when we know the end of the Lord and that blessed
deliverance But then, what is the greatest happiness of all? What's the best happiness? Well,
it's that that we have at the end of the verse. It's what we
learn, you see, of the character of God. That the Lord is very
pitiful and of tender mercy. Oh, that's the best thing, you
see. We come to know the Lord Himself. or to know the Lord Himself.
It is life eternal, says the Lord Jesus, to know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I have come that they might have
life, He says, and that they might have it more abundantly. Or the Lord Jesus, God can only
be known in the Lord Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. Or what
do we know of the Lord Jesus? What do we know of the person? Do we desire to look into these
things? To meditate in these things?
Why, He is the image of the invisible God. Would you know God? Would
you know God? You can only know God in the
person of His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus. And that's the
greatest of all happiness. Or we sang in our opening praise
that lovely hymn of Augustus Toplady, Happiness, O Lovely
Night. Where's thy seat, O tell me where? Object of my first desire. Jesus crucified for me. is the
happiness of those who are the people of God remember the words
of that great church father Augustine thou hast made us for thyself
our souls are restless till they rest in thee God made man in
his image God created man after his likeness why man is made
for God man is made to know God isn't that such a significant
dreadful part really of the the sufferings of the damned in how
they're cut off from God and they're cut off forever and forever
never ending they know not God, God is not in that place it's
awful man made for God, man made to know God Again, the language
of the Shorter Catechism, man's chief end is to glorify God and
to enjoy Him forever. I like that. Oh, that's a great
statement by those Puritans. It's not only that man's end
is God's glory, but man's end is the enjoyment of God. The
enjoyment of God. There we have the greatest happiness
of all. to know the Lord, the Lord is
very pitiful and of tender mercy Thomas Manson in his great commentary
on this epistle of James makes a simple remark it was Job's
happiness that he had to do with a pitiful and a merciful God
in the midst of all those terrible dreadful things that came upon
him he had to do with a merciful and a pitiful God and what does
he say? when we come to the end of the
book I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now
mine eye seeth thee wherefore I have all myself and repent
in dust and ashes Job is nothing and God is everything to that
man that's what he's brought to that's what he's brought to What does it say here in the
text? You have heard of the patience or the endurance of Job and have
seen the end of the Lord. Oh, to see that! To see that
with the eye of faith. What is that true faith? It's
that faith that endures on to the end. He that shall endure
to the end the same shall be saved." It's that knowledge of
God, that daily knowledge of God. Happy is he that hath the
God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the name of the Lord,
says the Psalmist. What with those who know the
gods of Scripture, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the
God of Jacob, Oh, the God of all those patriarchs and prophets,
the God of all the apostles, the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Is this God our God? Is this
the God who has dealings with us? Oh, we love to meditate upon
this God, to read His Word, to ponder His Words, but not only
to come to Holy Scripture, but to reflect upon the way in which
the Lord is dealing with us. and to compare spiritual things
with spiritual, to bring the experiences of our lives and
our souls to the touchstone of God's Word. Remember, whoso is
wise and observes these things, even they understand the loving
kindness of the Lord, we're told at the end of Psalm 107. When
we rightly understand God's dealings, God's providences, when we meditate in these things,
when we are exercised in the midst of all those chastenings,
those testings that God brings upon us. Oh, thank God that we
find left on record here in Holy Scripture such a book as that
remarkable book, the book of Job, how it teaches
us so much of what real faith is and reveals to us so much
of the mystery of the ways of God and yet there we also see
what is spoken of here in the New Testament. Here is the key
you see as I said so many times how do we understand and interpret
those dark passages in the Old Testament we have to come to
the to the New Testament we have to interpret all in the in the
light of that fuller revelation that we have now in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We bring to bear them what we
read here at the end of James upon that book of Job. And what
does he tell us? Behold, we count them happy which
endure. You have heard of the patience,
the endurance of Job. and have seen the end of the
Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful." Oh, that means the Lord is full
of pity and of tender mercy. Oh, that
we might know then the dealings of such a God, a kind, compassionate,
and gracious God in all His dealings. Oh, the Lord be pleased to deal
with us in according to His mercy. and that we might learn much
from the experience of Job. May the Lord bless his work.
Amen.