Respond With Hope

Take your Bibles, take a Bible. If you don't have your Bible, you can pick one out of the pew and it's yours and you can take it home and it's your Bible. But turn with me to James chapter 5, if you would. James chapter 5, as we finish this little section between verses 7 and 12, dealing with the response of the believer in hope. The response of the believer in hope.

James chapter 5, beginning with verse 7, just listen if you're still turning. James writes,

Don't grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged, for the judge is standing at the door. Brothers, as an example of our patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about.

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. Above all, my brothers, do not swear, not by heaven, nor by earth, nor by anything else. Let your yes be yes and your no, no, or you will be condemned. We are looking at this study in the area of the Christian's response, the believer's response to the things in this life, to the pressures that come upon us in life.

If I am truly a believer, if God is truly working out of me that faith that I claim to have, then when good things seem to go bad or times seem to be rough and filled with pressure, I am learning to respond in hope. I'm learning to respond in hope. And we're looking in verses 7 through 12. At the first thing that we have to hope in, to respond in hope for or towards, and that's the soon coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Three times in these verses, James talks about the return of Christ being near. The judge is at the door. The Lord's coming is soon. The Lord is coming. So respond in hope. Respond in hope. The apostle Paul, I think it's Paul, writes in the book of Hebrews in chapter 12 that Jesus endured the cross. Same word. Jesus endured the cross. He endured the cross, despising its shame for the hope that was set before him.

He endured the pain of the cross, the pressure of the cross. He persevered, despising its shame, despising what all the cross caused him, ultimately in separation for a season from his Father. But he endured it because of the hope that was set before him, because of what he saw ahead as a result of that. And that's the idea that James is trying to get across to us here.

And I try to think of an illustration that helps us grab onto that. And I couldn't think of one until this week. I heard. On Dr. Dobson's program, there were some individuals that were on that were talking about establishing a family hour, a family time, a family night. And they were sharing different ideas about it and how it had gone for them. And one in particular shared something that really stuck with me because it pertained to what we're studying here in James on persevering, enduring, being patient.

And one of the fathers shared that he wanted his family time, his family evening, to be more than just a fun time together with family. He wanted it to be that. He didn't want it to be dry. He wanted it to be fun. But he wanted to communicate some spiritual truth, some scriptural truth to his family, to his kids especially. And they were talking at this particular time about the perseverance of the saints and about that verse in Hebrews about how Jesus endured the cross.

He persevered, despising its shame for the hope, for the joy that was set before him. And he thought, how can I communicate that to my kids? He had like a teenager that was, I think, 13. And he had a 10-year-old. He had a 5-year-old. And then he had a 2-year-old little girl. And so he said it was the middle of winter. And he had him. He brought him into the living room.

And he had them all sit there on chairs in a row and take off their shoes and socks. And he went and got a bucket and filled it with as cold a water as he could fill it with. And went outside and got some snow and put in there. And then he put some marbles down on the bottom of the pan, of the pail. And he set the bucket in front of his 10-year-old first. And he said that he would pay him 50 cents for every marble he could pull out of there with his toes.

And he said his 10-year-old stuck his foot hesitantly into the water. And it was so cold. And he got down there. And he got a marble. And he pulled it out and set it down. And he said, oh, Dad, it's so cold. It's too cold. I can't handle that. And so he put the bucket in front of his 5-year-old. And the 5-year-old looked at the 10-year-old and looked back and kind of put his foot over the water and just set it and his foot in the water.

And he just pulled it right back out. And he said, oh, Dad, it's too cold. It's too cold. I can't do it. And so he put it in front of his 2-year-old little girl. And his 2-year-old little girl just shook her head and said, uh-uh. I'm not going to do that. And so then he set the bucket in front of his 13-year-old son. And his son said, 50 cents for every marble, huh?

And his dad said, yeah. And he said, is there a time limit? And he said, you've got five minutes. And he said, his son dove in there with that foot and started pulling marbles out as fast as he could pull them out. And he said, he ended up in five minutes pulling out 14 marbles. And the 10-year-old looked at him and he said, 14 marbles? Dad, that's $7. And his dad said, yeah.

He said, set that back over here. I want to try it again. And the 10-year-old stuck his foot in. And he said, I never told him they could switch feet. He just used that one foot and went in there and he pulled 10 marbles out. Well, then the 5-year-old says, Dad, can I have another try? I want to have another try at that. And he went in and he got 12 marbles out.

Well, then the 2-year-old wanted to try. And she got in there and she got a number of marbles pulled out of there. And he said, the dad said then, what made you guys want to go back and try and do this? And he said, because of the money. They got money for getting those marbles out of there. And he said, so you were able to endure the pain of the coldness in order to reap the goal of the finances.

And they said, yeah, that's what Jesus did, isn't it? That's what Jesus was meant when it said that Jesus endured the pain of the cross for the joy that was set before him. And the dad said, yeah, that's right. They saw that. They were able to endure the pain. They could see that when you have that joy set before you, when you have that goal and understand the hope that's set before you, you can endure the pain.

Listen, if you don't have hope this morning, if you're simply enduring pain, you'll be crushed. It's just a matter of time. You'll be crushed. But God has given us hope in Christ and in the soon coming of our Lord. And he calls us to respond to these situations that are upon us and that will be coming upon us. If you're not in the middle of one yet, you will be guaranteed.

And the only way that you'll make it through is to respond with hope and to patiently endure. And then James has given us three examples, three pictures that we can hook that hope on, that we can see how we're to be patient, how we're to endure through this time. In verses seven through nine, he tells us about the farmer that we should consider the farmer. Then patiently endures the farmer waits for the autumn and the spring rain.

And we saw last time that the farmer, and this is what I want you to get with the farmer, is that the farmer works while he waits for the fruit of the harvest. As we look at the farmer, as we consider the farmer and his patient enduring, we see that he works while he waits for the fruit of the harvest. We mentioned last time that he doesn't just sow the seed into the ground and then go on about something else. He's constantly working.

He has to till the ground before he can sow the seed. He has to come back and keep it broken up so that it will receive water. He has to weed it or fertilize it or weed it with a spray that keeps it weeded. He has to come and sometimes, depending on the nature of the crop, he has to cover it if there's a chance of freeze, depending on what kind of a crop it is.

He has to work on his machinery. He gets ready to fertilize and the tractor goes down or the fertilizer things are broken and he has to replace those. There's constantly work to be done. And the farmer, while he's waiting for the fruit of the harvest, is working. The things that are necessary to work before the harvest comes in. But he's waiting for that fruit of the harvest.

And we saw last time that that's what God wants us to do as we patiently wait for the harvest. For God to bring forth that in our own lives that he's promised us that he's going to. As we wait for that, we work about his business. We have things in our own lives that we need to lay before him that need to be taken and either reshaped or removed. We are around others who need to hear about.

Jesus, we are around brothers and sisters who need comfort and encouragement and help. And we're to help one another as the farmers helped each other, not grumbling against each other. It says in verse nine, not grudging. If you're reading King James, not grudging against each other, not constantly picking out one another's fault, but seeking to help one another.

As the farmers come to each other's aid when one is down or machinery is down and he needs to have work done, the farmers gather together and help one another. That's how we're to endure. That's the first example of how we're to endure. The second. Example, he tells us in verse 10, is that we are to be patient like the prophets, like the prophets. Brothers, verse 10, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Brothers, take the prophets. Consider the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. One thing I want to just kind of parenthetically bring to your attention here is he's talking about the prophets of old. We have recorded in our word and he says they spoke. He's not saying who are speaking. In the name of the Lord. The apostles and the prophets are past tense.

Now, I know the word apostle in the Greek means one sent forth. I know that. And we are sent forth, Matthew 28. We're sent forth to proclaim the word, to make disciples. I know that. And that is the ministry of the apostolos, I guess you could say. And so we could say, well, we're modern day apostles. Well, we're sent out. Yeah, we're sent ones, but we are not the apostles through whom God spoke his word to establish as written canon.

The word that's to be revealed, that this is new revelation and this is now scripture to be heeded. There aren't any of those. Revelation, when John sees the thrones, he sees that they are the names of the prophets and the apostles, the patriarchs and the apostles. There's only 12 thrones. So though we are sent out to proclaim the word of God, we're not the apostles on this level, on this, with this authority to bring out new revelation from God.

In the same way, they're not prophets today. That are like the prophets that we have written in the word who are bringing forth new revelation. There's not Jeremiah's or Daniel's today. Paul says that there is a gift of prophecy in that. There is the prophet of today or the prophecy today is that of proclaiming the word, foretelling the word, not foretelling the future, foretelling the word of God, bringing the word of God out so that it's understandable and understood.

And Paul says that I rather than everybody speaking in tongues. I would rather. That you prophecy. I would rather that you be able to make the word of God intelligible and intelligent and understandable to somebody else than that you speak in an unknown tongue that nobody knows. Nobody understand. So, yes, there is prophecy today, the forth telling the bringing forth the word of God.

But there are not prophets today in the sense of the prophets who are receiving new revelation and speaking it forth as the word of God. There are those today who will tell you they are prophets and apostles. And that you're not to question their prophecies or their apostolic leadership. You are to submit unto those. And if you question them, you are testing God and God will bring judgment upon you.

Beware. Take heed where that's concerned. Paul commended the Bereans in the book of Acts. It was they were he came to Berea and he proclaimed the gospel and he commended the Bereans because they did not just immediately receive what he said as being the truth. But they went home and they measured what he said. He said against the word of God and then they believed and Paul commended them for that.

He didn't say, well, I'm the apostle to the Gentiles commissioned by God. You can't question me. He said, you blessed are the Bereans. John, the apostle, says in first John, chapter four, to test the spirits for not every spirit that comes in the name of Jesus Christ is a spirit of God. But test them for the apostles and prophets who claim to be apostles and prophets today condemn you for that.

And then that's a violation of the word of God if they condemn you. So just be aware of that. Be aware of that. Because that is going to become more and more prominent. You'll hear more and more of that as the days go on. And you can know now the prophets spoke back then. We have recorded what they spoke. And I can prophesy. I can speak forth the name of God and the word of God.

But the prophets spoke beforehand. James says we're to follow their example. We are to be patient like the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. And just like the farmer. The thing I want you to remember about the farmer is they worked while they waited for the fruit of the harvest. The prophets witnessed while they waited for their vindication. If you're taking notes.

The prophets witnessed while they waited for their vindication. The prophets who spoke, he says here, in the name of the Lord. They spoke the word of God. And the prophets, when you look back in the Old Testament, spoke the word of God. Most of them under adverse conditions. Most of them were not received. Most of the prophets, when God called them, did not want to go.

Because they knew that people wouldn't believe them. And so when they went and spoke, they went ahead and witnessed. And they knew that the people wouldn't receive what they said. They knew that they would be persecuted. But they waited for God to vindicate them. They waited for God to bring out the truth of what they were saying. That's what the word vindicate means.

I speak in the name of the Lord. I share these things from his word. And that's what we're supposed to do with each other and those around us. And our families and our sphere of living, whether it's school or work. And many will not receive what you say. We're not supposed to speak at condemning. Or in the right. We're not supposed to speak the truth of God.

But we're supposed to speak the truth in love. It's supposed to be gentle, firm, but loving. Love is what the people are supposed to see. Now they may not believe it. They may not receive it. They may think you're cracked. But it's not yours to prove otherwise. The more you seek to prove otherwise, the more you simply justify their initial feeling. That you're cracked.

So you let the Lord vindicate you. You trust the Lord to vindicate you. You go ahead and witness. You go ahead and be light and be salt. And even though you're condemned, you trust God to vindicate you. The prophets spoke God's word. Under these adverse conditions. Joseph was in prison for 10 years. Cast into prison. Wrongfully accused. As far as we know, we don't have any record of him arguing about that.

We don't have any record of him. I imagine he did when Potiphar confronted him. I imagine he did speak the truth and told him what happened. But when he was thrown into prison, it doesn't say that he argued about it. You know, we don't have any record of that. And he was in prison for probably up to 10 years. Wrongfully accused. But he trusted God to vindicate him.

And God did. Jeremiah was called by God to speak God's warnings and impending judgment upon the nation of Israel. And God told him up front. Now, I've chosen you. I've called you. I've ordained you from your mother's womb that you should be a prophet unto me. But one thing I need to tell you. Ain't nobody going to listen to you. You're going to go out and speak and speak in the name of God.

And nobody's going to listen. Exciting charge. I want that job, Lord. Daniel. He was in Babylonian captivity. And he was thrown to the lions. And he was wrongfully charged because of his faith. Because he was going to pray no matter what the government said he was going to pray. And he trusted God to vindicate him. If he had gone to the lions, that's fine. And the lions would have eaten him.

That was fine with him. But God vindicated him. God brought him out of that particular situation. Isaiah. Now, Isaiah was sawn in half. From what we understand, between the altar in the temple court and the entrance to the temple itself. Sawn in half. Literally cut in two for his testimony. For the word of God that he saw. Spoke for. So the prophets witnessed.

They spoke the word of God. They spoke in the name of the Lord while they waited to be vindicated. While they waited for God to vindicate them. And you go, well, wait a minute. Isaiah was cut in half. I mean, at least Daniel got out of the lions then. You're in, James. Go back to your left. Just a few pages. You'll be in the book of Hebrews. Go to chapter 11 in Hebrews.

Hebrews chapter 11. And look with me beginning at verse 32 of Hebrews 11. Listen while you're still turning. He says in verse 32. What shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and David and Samuel and the prophets. Now, this is who James wants us to consider. Who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised.

Who shut the mouths of lions. There's Daniel. At least Daniel. Quenched the fire, the fury of the flames and escaped the edge of the sword. Whose weakness was turned to strength. There's Jonah. And who became powerful in battle and routed forth. Foreign armies. There's David. Women received back their dead. Raised to life again. Okay, there's those that were vindicated seemingly now in this life.

And often we quit there. And we're under this persecution. And we're seeking to be godly before people. And we're persecuted for that. We're condemned for that. And we're waiting for God to vindicate us. And he hasn't vindicated us yet. And it seems like it's real easy to give up hope because he hasn't vindicated us yet. Go on with this verse. The middle of verse 35.

Others. I'd rather be a part of the first group than the others. Others were tortured and refused to be released so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned. They were sawed in two. They were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated.

The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves. And holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith. Yet none of them received what had been promised. I mean, at least the first group had the dead raised back. And women received their husbands and their kids back and all that stuff. At least they had some vindication now for what they'd said.

But these others, I mean, they died. And they weren't vindicated. And then it says none of them received the promise. None of them were able to see the promise fulfilled. In other words, All of them trusted God by faith. Many of them saw God respond and they were vindicated. But many of them didn't. Many of them died. But still none of them saw the physical, visible coming of the Messiah.

They didn't see the promise of God like we have. But they still trusted Him by faith. They still witnessed by faith. They still went on trusting Him to vindicate them. And the writer of Hebrews says in verse 40, God had planned something better for us so that only together with us, would they be made perfect. And so God says there's a time coming. There's a time coming when the believer who has seen the Lord.

Now, we still haven't seen Jesus. We've just seen His effects in the lives of others. And that's what brought us to Him. Probably most of us in this room have never seen a physical appearance of the Lord. But we've seen His activity in the lives of others. And we've seen His word. And that has drawn us to faith in Him. And God is choosing to now vindicate us for our faith in Him at a time,

sometime yet future. With the believers from the Old Testament. With the prophets who suffered this kind of persecution. God's going to vindicate us before the world when Jesus comes again. And we hope towards that, you see. That's what the prophets did. But it says that they waited for God to ultimately vindicate them. They waited. And some received that vindication in this life.

And some haven't. You may be living for the Lord in your home or in your school or in your workplace. Walking by faith, trusting Him. And you're being persecuted. For that. Mocked. Condemned for that. And God's calling you to be patient like the prophets. And don't seek to vindicate yourself. You've not been called to vindicate yourself. You've not been called to proclaim the glory for yourself.

You've not been called to make yourself right in the eyes of anybody. You've not been called to go and seek to talk to somebody until they understand your point of view. That's not what we've been called to do. We've been called to go tell people about Jesus. Period. To tell people about the love of God. Period. Period. Period. Period. That before them. Period.

We're not called to go convince anybody. We're called to go and make disciples. How do you do that? You tell them about Jesus. Some respond. Some don't. The ones that respond, you teach them.

Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Show them how to impart that faith to others. But we're not out to convince anybody. That's the Lord's job. The Lord does that through the power of the Holy Spirit. And He will vindicate us. You only get into an arguing match, into a shouting match that causes division. You just live it before Him.

You share that. You share that love. You share the truth of God's Word. We are to speak that truth. We are to live that truth and trust the Lord to vindicate us. Trust the Lord to take care of it. And He'll do that. He promised to do that. We will be made perfect together with them. People will see eventually. We've been living the truth. We've been walking in the truth.

Paul reminded Timothy and he reminds us in 2 Timothy 3, verse 12, that those who seek to live godly, those who seek to walk godly will suffer persecution. Those who seek to walk after the life of God, the life of Jesus Christ, we are going to be persecuted. Matter of fact, you're in Hebrews here. Go back to your left just a little bit more. And you go through Philemon and Titus and into 2 Timothy.

Go to 2 Timothy chapter 3. I want you to see where this verse is couched, where this text is located. 2 Timothy chapter 3, I just read verse 12, or I just paraphrased verse 12. It says, in fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Go back up to verse 10. Paul has just told Timothy about these last days and the marks of the last days

and how things are going to go from bad. The worst and people are going to become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And he says to Timothy, verse 10, You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love. Here's the word, my endurance, my persecutions, my sufferings. Timothy, you not only know the things I've told you, you've seen those things in my life.

You've seen me endure. You've seen the persecutions that I've gone through. Then he highlights a few. He says, what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. Now those were not, those, you know, if I were going to highlight some places that I'd been to plant a church, I would want to highlight those that have a growing, you know. Yes, I went there and planted the church and they have a thousand people there now.

Yes, and I'm probably over here planting another church and they're growing well too. I wouldn't want to tell them about the place that I went and they ran me out of town. And I wouldn't want to go and tell them about the place that I went proclaiming the truth and they hung me up on a stake and flogged me. And I definitely wouldn't want to tell them about the place that I went to preach and they took me outside of town and stoned me and left me for dead.

I mean, those to me are not success. Stories, you know, those are the ones that don't sell people on your pastoral ability. But that's what Paul told Timothy. Remember those three especially because those are places that I went and I proclaimed the truth of God and they refused it. And they ran me out of town and they flogged me and cast me into prison wrongfully

and they even stoned me and left me for dead. But you remember that, Timothy. And remember that I endured through that and I trusted God to vindicate me. And then's when he says, yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Jesus, in Christ Jesus, will be persecuted while evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse.

It's going to get worse. It's going to get rougher on believers. You're going to get persecuted. You won't convince everybody. You're not called to convince everybody. You're just called like the prophets to go speak the word of God and trust God to vindicate you and to be patient while he does that. And we have to realize, one of the things that you and I have to realize is that,

and this is contrary to some of the teachers today, that obedience does not necessarily produce the blessings that you and I think of it producing. Obedience will not always result in our just getting a field full of roses and just this fragrant, wonderful feeling while I rest because I finally become obedient to you in this area and I'm an overcomer now, Lord, and I'm able to rest. It doesn't happen that way. Jesus was obedient unto death.

His obedience led to the cross. And we're to let this mind be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus, who didn't think it was robbery to be considered equal with God. But laid aside that glory and came and was found in the form of a man, in the form of human flesh, and was obedient. Part of that section in chapter 2 of Philippians. Was obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.

So obedience will not always produce the kind of blessings that we think it should produce. It will not immediately produce the ease and the pleasure that we would love for it to produce. But ultimately, it will, ultimately it will. And so we are obedient and we proclaim God's word. But the idea that he's going to vindicate us and our goal is down there. The joy is set before us.

And it may not happen in this life. Now, the prophets were cared for by God. And that's something God wants us to understand as we consider the prophets too. God cared for his prophets as they were proclaiming his word, as they were witnessing while they were waiting for him to vindicate them. He cared for them. You don't need to turn there. But in Jeremiah, I referred to Jeremiah several times.

In Jeremiah chapter 1, you can note this and turn to it later. God tells Jeremiah, verse 4, he says, The word of the Lord came to me saying, Before I formed you in the womb, which is an excellent verse to use as far as pro-life is concerned. Before you were formed in the womb, God said to Jeremiah, not when you were in embryonic state, a little fleshy mass of tissue, but before I formed you, before you were ever formed, before the sperm ever hit the egg, I knew you and I called you. I set you apart and I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

And Jeremiah, I don't know what to speak. I'm only a youth. He's only about somewhere between 14 and 17 when God called him. But the Lord said to me, Do not say I'm only a child. You must go to everyone that I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them for I am with you and will rescue you, declares the Lord. God's with us. And as we share, he's with us and he cares for us.

And we need to realize that he did that with his prophets. He'll care for us as well. Joseph found favor. I referred to Joseph. He found favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. He was in prison. God caused his guard to find Joseph to find favor in the eyes of his guard, then to find favor in the eyes of Pharaoh. God raised him up out of that particular circumstance.

God cared for Joseph. Daniel, I mentioned the angel closed the lion's mouths. God cared for Daniel in the midst of that. The three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, God protected them and cared for them in the midst of that. In that situation, someone has said that the will of God will not send you where the grace of God cannot keep you. And I believe that's true.

The will of God will not send you. In other words, you won't end up in a particular circumstance outside of God's will where his grace cannot keep you. If you're trusting the Lord, seeking to walk in his ways. Now, if you foolishly walk off and do things on your own, you're going to, God's going to, we talked about that before. He removes his hand of grace.

He removes his blessing, removes his protection off the enemy and your dog meat. But God will not send us where his grace will not keep us. It doesn't matter. What he's called us to do. I told you about David Allen last week and asked you to pray. He's a missionary to Thailand. And he apparently contracted some kind of a parasite that was really destroying his digestive system.

Doctors only gave him a couple of months to live. And so they sent out an email and asked that there just be a blanket of prayer by the Christian communities around the world for him. We don't know what mission agency he's with, what organization he's with or anything. They're still trying to track that down. This week, we received another response and just a thank you,

a heartfelt thank you. And a, and an, asking that we continue in prayer for him. He is in Houston in the hospital, undergoing treatment and all. The doctors have not been able to find any parasites now. He is able to retain food. He's gaining weight. They say it'll be several weeks, possibly months of rehabilitation before he's able to really be a hundred percent again.

He is planning on going back to Thailand, back to the mission field. He's going to spend some time with family. I guess home is between Dallas and Fort Worth. So just continue to pray. But God cares. You see? God cares for us as we walk in his ways, as we proclaim his word. Now, it doesn't always mean it's going to end up. Well, we're just, you know, back to normal and, and all of that.

Maybe, maybe some of us are going to die. Maybe some of us are going to, uh, be suffer that persecution and move into that area of, of death as Hebrews chapter 11 talks about, but God will care for us all the way to that particular point. God cares for us. God will not take you. God will not send you where his grace does not keep you. Another thing is we look at the prophet.

We need to realize that they suffered not only at the hands of unbelievers, but they also suffered at the hands of those who called themselves believers or called themselves God's people or called themselves part of the church. Jeremiah, we mentioned was arrested. He was arrested and actually imprisoned in a cistern that was thought to be dry, but when they lowered him down into it, it was mud up to his knees. And you can imagine something old that had had water standing in it for years.

The smell, the feeling of the musty mildewy smell as he was lowered down in there and what little creatures must be roaming around in there. He was placed there by his own people because of speaking forth the word of God. Joseph was despised and, and beaten and sold for the caravan going to Egypt by his own family, by his own brothers, John the Baptist, John the Baptist was condemned by his fellow religious leaders. Now, if you know the story of John the Baptist, John the Baptist was born to Zacharias, the son of Zacharias, who was a priest in the temple.

John was born after the priestly order. He had a. An inherited right to be able to serve in the temple as he grew older, didn't God called him to be a prophet and it was his own peers, it was his own Pharisees and Sadducees, those priests in the temple that condemned him. So the condemnation, the suffering will not necessarily just come from those who don't call themselves believers.

They will come from those who do call themselves believers, but we are to continue trusting the Lord, continue trusting God, continue reaching for those marbles, man, diving into the pot. Pulling out those marbles out of the pan, realizing the blessing, the glory that's set before us, the hope that we have in the soon coming of the Lord that I've talked about God caring for us. I've talked about the fact that even in the midst of that, we may have to die. I've talked about the fact that we may suffer persecution, condemnation from even those that call themselves believers, as well as those that are nonbelievers.

There may be a time for you and I, when we have to die in obscurity, when we have to give our lives without others knowing it. This past week, this past Wednesday. June the 4th was the anniversary of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, where hundreds of thousands of students and others stood and protested in communist China for a democratic society. The most vivid picture that anyone remembers of that is the one lone individual standing in front of that line of tanks as the tanks came into Tiananmen Square and he stood there with his sport coat in his hand, refusing to move and as the tanks would turn to go around him, he'd step over in front of those tanks.

The soldiers ended up firing on the people and hundreds, if not thousands of people were killed. Because it was communist China, they don't like to release those kinds of statistics and so we can only estimate from eyewitnesses who were there. Several hundred people died, possibly several thousand people were killed. One of the things that's not released to the general media either, or by the general media, is the fact that many of those were believers, were Christians.

And they weren't so much interested in the political democracy as in the opportunity to have church in the open, to have the opportunity to worship Christ freely and openly. Just this past week we received more information that you haven't heard. It's trying to pop out and some reporters, investigative reporters for some of the major newspapers and all, are finally bringing it out. But this past week there were several home church leaders in China, leaders of big home churches, and the home churches there are huge.

Several of those pastors were executed this past week by the government of China seeking to squelch any other possible demonstrations or rebellion in the light of the anniversary of Tiananmen Square. Pray for the people in China, pray for the church in China, pray for the church in Hong Kong as we come close to July 1st, when July 1st Hong Kong is given back to communist China by England. There are several strong churches there and already facing the threat of what happened to the home church pastors this past week. So pray.

Many of those, we don't know who they were, died in obscurity. Newsweek wasn't there, Time wasn't there, Ted Koppel wasn't there. And you may be called upon to suffer and to die in obscurity. A lot of times we think, well if I'm going to die for the Lord, if I have to die and suffer through this whatever it is I'm having to suffer for Christ's sake, for His reasons and purposes, then at least I want people to know about that.

And they may not. It may just be you and the Lord. You can know that someday they will. You can know that someday God will vindicate you. God promises that they will be complete. As we saw in Hebrews chapter 11. Not just complete in the fact that they're going to have a glorified body and we're going to be with Christ forever in the kingdom, but complete in the fact that it's going to

be known who are the Lord's, who belong to the Lord, and what was suffered and all as a result of that service, that sacrifice of the Lord. God notices. God knows. God takes account. God will vindicate. Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of one of His saints and God will vindicate you before the world. Now. I want us in His word to refresh ourselves with those that have gone through that.

Those prophets that have endured that. Those prophets that have trusted the Lord and spoken His word and trusted God to vindicate Him. It encourages us as we do that because God calls us to be like the prophets and to witness, to speak in His name while we wait for Him to vindicate us. Thirdly, back to James chapter 5. Thirdly and finally, He wants us to have patience like the farmer, to patiently endure, to work

while we're waiting for the fullness of the harvest. He wants us to wait patiently. Patiently. Patiently endure like the prophets. To witness while we're waiting for God to vindicate us. Thirdly, He wants us to wait and to persevere like Job. Oh boy. Verse 11. As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about.

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. We must patiently endure like Job. Well, let me tell you. The farmer worked while he waited for the fruit of the harvest. The prophet witnessed while he waited for God to vindicate him. Job worshiped while he waited for God to fulfill his purpose in Job. Job worshiped. He worshiped God while he waited for God to fulfill whatever purpose he had in Job's life.

Blessed are you, he says, verse 11, who have persevered. Who have persevered. Now, let me tell you something. Maybe you haven't thought about this. Maybe you have. You cannot persevere unless you're in a trial. Okay? You're in the midst of plenty and you've got money in the bank and gas in the car and food in the pantry and everybody's healthy and fine. What's to persevere?

See? It's when we're in the midst of trial that we're called to persevere, that we're called to endure, that we're called to be patient and wait upon a Lord like Job. The word persevere, we talked about that before, or endure means to bear up under, to stand in the midst of resistance, in spite of resistance, and in the midst of that resistance is where God's blessing is usually revealed. It's when God's glory is usually revealed.

It's in the midst of the storm that the power of God was revealed on the boat with Jesus and his disciples. It's in the midst of death that Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave. Daniel, the power of God was revealed to him in the lion's den. He knew it. I mean, he knew it was there, but God chose to reveal his power in the midst of the lion's den. The three Hebrew children, it was in the midst of the fiery furnace.

They trusted the Lord. They knew that God was there and they told the king. If we perish, we perish. That's fine. If we burn up, that's fine. We're still not going to serve your idol. The power of God's there and he can keep us. He can keep us from the fire and if he doesn't, I don't care. It makes no difference. Joseph, the power of God revealed to him in prison.

David, King David, the power of God was revealed not necessarily specifically while he was on the throne. It was before the throne when Saul was pursuing him to kill him. It was when he was removed from the throne by his son Absalom, when Absalom pursued him to kill him. The power of God was there. It sustained him through that particular trial. Now look at, I want you to look at three things.

Verse 11, three parts of verse 11. The first part we just looked at. We look at Job and persevere as he persevered and then it says, you have seen what the Lord finally brought about. You've seen what the Lord finally brought about. You see Job, the blessing that ultimately God wants us to consider is what happened finally at the end of the book. I encourage you to read Job, to read the book of Job.

Don't read it with this superstitious idea because it is a superstitious idea that says, I don't want to read Job because I don't want to experience all of the, all of the suffering that Job suffered. That's superstitious. That's superstition. God gave us the book of Job to be an encouragement to us so that when we're going through those times that are crunchers, we can respond as Job responded and have hope as what happened to Job will finally happen to us.

It will. And it's such an encouraging book. It's a long one. You start off and you realize, first of all, that Job didn't realize what was going on behind the scenes. Job did not have the benefit of chapter one. You know, he was just living it. He had things seemingly going well. God had blessed him. He was already living in the blessings of God. He had finances and wealth and health and a good family and lots of stuff.

And then in one day, all of it's taken away. Everything's gone. His kids are killed in a tornado that hits the house. Thieves come and steal his cattle and his sheep and all of his possessions. He is all of a sudden smitten with boils. Everything taken away. And then his wife tells him, well, your breath stinks. Why don't you just curse God and die? And then his friends tell him, well, that's just because of sin in your life, Job.

If you just confess that sin and get rid of it, you'd be okay. Plus the boils. And we don't like to think of boils, but I want you to think of boils because this was physical pain. I don't know how many of you have ever had a boil. I had this past couple of weeks, I've had these boil type pimples on my back. Couple of them. Gross, I know. I've been able to barely, barely, barely kind of sympathize with Job where that's concerned

because they're painful. You don't want to lay out. You can't lay on your back there. You can't put a shirt on because it just hurts. And they hurt so bad that Job had to take pieces of broken pottery and scrape them puppies open, you know, to get the pressure out and pop that open and let it ooze so that the pressure would, pain would be relieved. And he evidently no sooner got them done than here they come again.

So he had some physical pain as well as this emotional stress and pain. And you think, well, why do I want to read that? Because many of you are there right now. Many of you are in physical pain. You feel the press. It's a hopeless press. Many of you are in emotional struggles right now. Rejection by family, rejection by friends. You feel like you're in this thing alone and nobody cares.

Nobody understands where you're at. Job understands exactly where you're at. Get into the book of Job and let God minister the power of his word and his understanding to you. Because finally, the idea here is in verse 11 is you have seen what the Lord finally brought about. You see, you read up to chapter 37 and you're going, man, this is hopeless. But then you get to chapter 38 and 38 through 42 is when God finally appears to Job.

When God finally restores and removes the pain and removes the cursing friends and finally he restores blessing unto Job and restores a family unto Job and restores possessions unto Job. Finally. And that's what the, that's what James is wanting us to consider right here. You have seen what the Lord finally brought about. Job persevered. It seemed like there was no one on earth that suffered like he did other than our Lord.

But God finally brought the blessing to Job. Yet in the midst of that suffering, see Job chapter 13, Job says in verse 15, though he slay me, yet will I hope in him. So in other words, whatever he has, whatever it is, I mean, the boils are bad and the wife not liking me and friends blaming me. This is bad. But whatever he has. I'm still gonna hope in him. I'll still trust him because finally he's going to accomplish whatever purpose it is

he has for allowing me to go through this. And you see, God has a purpose for each of our life. And finally he's going to fulfill that. Finally he'll bring that to pass. You're in James. Look at the last part of verse 11. He says, you have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. See God was full of that towards Job.

He was withholding Satan this far, no further, this far, no further. You can't do, you can't go any further Satan than this. God was full of mercy and full of compassion. And as he was with Job, so he is with us as much as it seems like you are having to endure. God is full of mercy and full of compassion. He is still withholding more from you and he wants you to understand and know that mercy

and know that compassion in the midst of what you are suffering. He wants you to know that his grace is indeed. Now verse 12 here, we look at verse 12 and it seems totally out of place. I mean he's been talking about the farmer and the prophets and Job and then he says, my brothers do not swear, not by heaven or by earth or by anything else, let your yes be yes and your no be no, or you'll be condemned.

And you sit there and you look at that and you go, well, why did you throw that in there James? And it would seem distorted without in our English, the equivalent of what is in the Greek in the first two words here in verse 12, above all my brothers, you see in that he ties this together with these previous verses. He's been talking about the farmer. And the prophets and Job and now above all above with all of this in mind, above all the final line down here is don't swear.

He's not saying don't go, ah, blankety blank. He's saying, don't make an oath. Don't make a pledge. Don't make a promise by heaven or by earth. And you're thinking, well, what does that have to do with this? I don't understand what that has to do with this. Let me tell you what that has to do with this. Let me tell you what he's saying. He's saying, when you get into these circumstances and the pressures seem great, endure like

the farmer. Keep busy. Do the things. That's what God wants you to do in the midst of this while you're waiting for the fullness of the harvest. Go ahead and speak in the name of the Lord, share his word. Be a witness while you're waiting for God to vindicate you and worship him as Job worshiped while he's waiting for God to fulfill his purpose. Don't seek to bargain with God.

Don't swear by, by heaven or by the earth. In other words, above all in the midst of this, in the midst of persecution, don't seek to make a deal with God and see if you read Kubler-Ross or any of the other death writers, that's what they talk about as supposedly one of the stages that we go through in the dying process. It's first of all, we get mad at God and then we seek to bargain with God. God, now if you just knock this stuff off and that's, you don't have to be dying to go through that.

You can be in the midst of financial pressure, pressure. You can be in the midst of a marital conflict. You can be in the midst of a relational conflict and you can say, God, now if you just let this work out, I'll become a missionary to China, you know, I'll, I'll give my life to you. I'll walk in your ways and we seek to bargain with God to get God to somehow acquiesce to our kind of thinking, to our line of what we'd like to have happen.

And James is saying, don't do that, don't do that. Be like the farmer, patiently endure.