The Test of Patience

In James chapter 5, beginning in verse 1, Scripture says:

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

James 5:1–6

And then our text this morning, in verse 7.

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

James 5:7–12

This is the word of the Lord. Would you pray with me and for me as we look to God’s word this morning?

Father, we again ask you that your Spirit would be at work. Help me to say your words, not my own, to not give my opinion or my preference here, but to be a herald of Christ and an ambassador of him who only speaks your words for us this morning, through the power of your word and the power of the Holy Spirit. We pray these things in Christ’s name. Amen.

It was the year 320 AD when the Roman Emperor Licinius ordered all of the people to worship him as God. To refuse such an order was seen as treason. It would be seen as actual sedition from the Roman government, which, as we know, was punishable by death. When the orders came down to the Roman 12th Legion, there were 40 of its members who refused to comply. And so instead of bowing the knee and worshiping this emperor as God, they marched forward boldly to their commanding officer to turn themselves in.

These Christians told their commander that under no circumstances at all, riches, wealth, you name it, even under the torture and penalty of death, would they recant Christ. They would not bow the knee and worship a false god. These men were some of the bravest and toughest soldiers in the entire Roman army. In fact, it is said that Marcus Aurelius himself nicknamed them the Lightning Infantry for their bravery and heroicness in battle. When these 40 men could not be convinced otherwise, it was then commanded that they be torn by whips, that their sides be ripped with iron hooks, hoping to dissuade them from refusing to worship the emperor. But yet still they refused. They refused to worship the emperor, and their courage and resolve only infuriated the governor all the more, so much more that he devised an extraordinary kind of death for them, which would be extremely slow, extremely painful, and severe.

Now he wasn’t hoping to actually kill them. He hoped that this torturous death would get them to recant, to bow the knee to Caesar and not Christ, to worship the Roman Emperor. He marched these men out without clothing to a frozen pond so that they would suffer severe and painful frostbite and eventually freeze to death if they refused to recant Christ. He even trolled them a little bit. He set up a nice warm bath nearby and said, hey, look, right over there. It’s waiting for you. It’s warm. It’s ready. It’s like a spa, if you would only recant Christ. But these devout men refused. And so there upon that frozen lake, these righteous men laid down their lives for their Savior, their Savior who had laid his life down for them not so long before.

When these men were discussing what they would do together, when they were deciding how they should respond, one of the men said this to the other 39: “Let us exchange all of eternity for the pains of one night. How many soldiers have died in battle remaining faithful to a mortal king? And we, for the sake of remaining faithful to the true king, shall we not sacrifice this life? We are going to die anyway. Let us die so that we may live.” They understood well the warning of Jesus, who said that if you deny me before men, I too will deny you before my Father in heaven. They understood that the reverse of that was true: that confessing and clinging to Christ in faith would mean that he would cling to us one day when we stand before the judge, the righteous judge of all the earth.

And so these 40 men experienced hardship, cruelty, and persecution at the hand of their enemies. And they did not grumble. They did not become impatient. They remained steadfast. Why? Because they were fully convinced in the second coming of Jesus Christ. That’s why. They believed it. They believed his rule and reign was coming. They were so convinced by this that there was nothing that their enemies could do to them. Not really. What’s the worst thing they could do? Kill us? Good luck with that. I’m coming back to life when Christ returns, is how they thought. And so they were patient, they did not grumble, and these men remained steadfast.

Church, in James chapter 5, James is calling us to this kind of faith: to not be impatient, to remain steadfast. And the reason that James gives us for doing so, as we know, is the second coming of Christ. That’s our motive. That’s our glorious hope. In Revelation 22:12, it tells us when this is happening. Christ says, “Behold, I am coming.” When? Soon. “I am coming soon.” And what is happening when he comes? “Bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.” And as we know, that’s good and evil. And because Christ is coming back soon, those of us with real faith are called to live with patience, to remain steadfast as we wait for Christ’s return.

As we’re well aware of by now, the book of James, it’s all about real faith. It’s helping us see through a series of tests whether or not our faith is genuine or not. It doesn’t give us faith if we pass these tests. No, it reveals what’s already there or not there. And so that’s how we’ve been approaching the book of James. And as we saw last week when we looked at verses 1 through 6 of chapter 5, we saw with the test of riches how money talks. We saw how the way we spend our money, our credit card bills, we saw how that’s an indicator of what kind of faith we have. We saw that when it comes to real faith, we saw three things. Four things, actually. We saw that real faith doesn’t hoard money. Real faith doesn’t steal it. It doesn’t indulge in it, nor does it murder for it.

But as James told us, the ungodly rich, they do those things for money. They’ll do about anything for it. And so he tells them, because of their sin, because of their faithlessness in Christ, their days are numbered. The judgment is surely coming. In fact, he said they’re fattening themselves for the slaughter, just like a cow who’s grazing before the slaughter comes. They abuse God’s people. And make no mistake, James says, God’s wrath is coming for them, and it’s coming at the return of Jesus Christ. While James brings this up to serve as a warning to the ungodly rich, there’s also application for us as believers, is there not? And we saw that last week. James uses this to bring hope and patience to us, to help us remember that the ungodly will not have the last word. Christ will when he comes. And so, with that said, there’s your review.

Let’s jump into our text this morning. In our text this morning, we’re going to see four ways that patient faith is manifested. How does real faith overcome the test of patience? First, process, people, persecution, and providence. Real faith is patient with process, people, persecution, and providence.

Verse 7 says, “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and late rains.” We live in a culture of instant gratification. We want what we want and we want it now. We’ve got microwave instant popcorn, microwave dinners, same-day delivery if you want to pay a little extra and you can’t wait the full two days from Amazon Prime shipping, right? Like, we want what we want and we want it now. In our culture, we probably live in the most impatient culture in all of human history. And so what we do, if we’re not careful, is we take this mentality of having to have things now and we impose it upon God, upon the Scriptures, upon his timeline. We say, “God, your clock needs to run how mine does.” God says, no, it’s not how it runs.

Do you ever look around this world and get frustrated? How about like every day? I know that’s kind of hard to imagine in such a just wonderful year like 2020, but do you ever get frustrated and find yourself wishing like, Christ, would you just come back? Like, what are you waiting for? Like, I don’t know if you’ve looked around, Lord, but this is not great. We could use you right now. And there’s nothing wrong with longing for Christ’s return. However, we must not become impatient about it. We must not become frustrated with this world to the point where we give up hope and we start grumbling and complaining. We must wait in hope for the glorious return of Christ, and we must wait with patience.

How does James say we should wait? Well, the illustration he gives us is like a farmer. All right? And if you know anything about farming, you know it’s not like throwing the TV dinner in the microwave and you get your food 60 seconds later. This is a process. Some of you have gardens. You know what I’m talking about. Seeds don’t work that way. They are not instant. Not even the GMO ones. Not yet at least. They don’t function instantly. You have to plant them. You have to water them. You have to weed around them so that they get sunlight. Only then, after a long period of time, then, will the plant grow, the fruit or vegetables or whatever comes out of it, and you can harvest it and then you can eat it. James is saying that’s the kind of patience that we should have. That’s what real faith looks like. That’s what patience looks like for us.

See, in Israel, they had two rainy seasons. The rainy season would come at two points in the year: the early rains in October to November, after the crop was first planted, and the second rain would come in March or April. And when that second rain would come, the farmers knew the harvest was just around the corner. But between this time, the farmers had to wait patiently. They couldn’t sit there and try to find ways to make it grow faster. There’s nothing they could do about it. Now, what would it help if the farmer sat there and got all stressed out and got all grumpy about the fact that he planted the food a week ago and it wasn’t ready yet? What would that do? Well, it’d just make him a miserable wretch. He’d be miserable himself and he’d be miserable to others.

Well, the farmer had to pull weeds. There was nothing that the farmer could do to accelerate that process. He had to wait patiently. He had to wait for the rains to come. And when those rains come, he knew that the harvest was just around the corner. Church, that’s how we’re supposed to wait, with confidence that the harvest is coming. The seeds have been sown, and we’re doing that now. And the growth is happening through the Spirit of the Lord and the preaching of his word. But one day, when Christ returns, the harvest will happen.

Well, the farmers knew roughly when the rains and the harvest would come every year. As God’s people, as we just looked at, all we know is that the Lord’s return is what? Soon. And it’s been soon for 2,000 years. That’s a long soon, Lord. Do you ever catch yourself thinking this way, starting to wonder, like, okay, you said you’re coming back soon. It’s been 2,000 years. Are you really coming? Hello? Are you there? We can start thinking that way. And when do we normally catch ourselves thinking that way? When things are going great? And we’re excited and happy and we’re just, this is awesome. No. In years like 2020, that’s when we catch ourselves thinking that way more. We find ourselves getting frustrated and struggling to have patience.

If that’s you, look with me this morning at 2 Peter 3, and we’re going to look at all 14 verses here. Here’s what Peter says about this very issue. I’ll start in verse 1. He says:

Now this is the second letter I’m writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of a reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires, they will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be? You ought to live lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to his promise, we are waiting for the new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace.

2 Peter 3:1–14

That “at peace” is another way of saying with patience, is it not? We’re supposed to wait for this with patience. Church, Christ is coming back. Amen, right? And when he does, our labors will be done, the harvest will be collected, and we’re going to be with the Lord forever, never to be separated from him again. As Galatians 6:9–10 says:

Let us not become weary in doing good, then, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Galatians 6:9–10

Similarly, in 2 Corinthians 9:6, it reads:

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

2 Corinthians 9:6

In verse 7, because of that, here’s what he says:

Each one of us must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

2 Corinthians 9:7

We are supposed to work and give and labor cheerfully, abundantly, doing what we can to redeem the time, knowing that the harvest is coming and what we have sown, we will reap. Right? And for those with real faith who sow in faith by the power of God, what will we reap? Blessings, rewards, Christ himself. In this life, difficult times of drought can and will come. But nevertheless, we are to remain patient, knowing that the Lord is faithful, that the rain and the harvest is surely coming.

Do you believe Christ is coming back? Is your life evidenced by the fact that you believe this? Does it affect the way that you think, the way that you live, the way you plan your calendar? Do you ever catch yourself doing this where you’re planning maybe a family vacation and you think, wouldn’t it be great if the Lord came back and we didn’t even have that? We’d have an even better vacation. You ever catch yourself thinking that way? Do you ever start off going to work in the morning and think, this could be the last morning? Christ could return over my lunch break. Christ could return on my drive home. You catch yourself thinking that there might only be years left, months left, weeks left, days, hours, or even minutes.

I was talking to Pastor Bob on the phone last night, and we were talking about the long-term plans for this church. As you know, that appears at this point to potentially be a building project. And I liked the way he said it to me. He said, “You know, if the Lord tarries, we’re going to need a new building.” Now, I just thought to myself, oh, you don’t know what I’m preaching on tomorrow. That fits perfectly. Because that’s the way we’re supposed to think about these things. Praise God if Jesus comes back and we don’t have to mess with any of that. Amen? But if he doesn’t, we need to be sowing. We need to be laboring faithfully. We need to live our lives as if we truly believed Christ was going to come back five minutes from now. And if he doesn’t, and he tarries, we’ll remain faithful, expecting at any moment he might.

Real faith is patient with process, like the farmers, and real faith is patient with people. Not only does real faith not get frustrated over the long process, over God’s timing, real faith doesn’t get frustrated with people. Oops. Who did that in the last ten minutes? Verse 8 says, “You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” Verse 9, “Do not grumble against one another, brothers.” Why? “That you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door.” Unlike the first several verses of this passage, James is primarily addressing believers here. He’s not talking about unbelievers. All right?

Again, in verse 8, James warns us to be patient. Why? Because the coming of the Lord is at hand. That’s the theme throughout these verses. Do this because Christ is coming back. And then in verse 9, he tells us to be patient with each other and not to grumble against each other. Tell me, when you get stressed out and impatient, who in your life is the first person you will easily take that out upon? Truth. Our family members. Those closest to us, right? Those we love the most are those that we find ourselves being impatient with the most. Maybe we had a terrible day at work. Maybe we had to put up with a boss or coworkers who are jerks. And then when we come home, we’re frustrated, and the slightest thing brings out our impatience and frustration. And so we start grumbling at our family members.

Here, James is saying the same exact thing that happens in our local family, our household family, can happen in the household of faith. We can do that with one another. We can start getting frustrated by unbelievers. Who’s ever been frustrated by what unbelievers do? Especially in a political season? Absolutely. Very frustrating to see what they do. And if we’re not careful, we can start grumbling at each other. We can start taking our frustration and our impatience out on one another. And James says not to do that.

In fact, when we become impatient and grumble against our brothers, sisters in Christ, not only are we expressing our impatience with God, but as James points out to us in chapter 4, and we saw this a few weeks back, we’re actually trying to take the place of God as judge. In James, let’s look at this. In verse 11 of chapter 4, and you remember this, James said:

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law and are not a doer of the law, but a judge, there is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

James 4:11–12

When we grumble against one another, what it actually is in our heart of hearts is rebellion against God. We’re trying to take God’s place upon the throne, James tells us. What does it mean to grumble? Well, if you remember from that sermon way back then, we said that grumbling means to roll your eyes with your speech. That’s what it is. And if that wasn’t bad enough, sometimes Christians roll their actual eyes at one another before they proceed to roll their eyes with their speech. And James says we ought not do that. If you remember back to the test of the tongue, this is no small potatoes. This is massively important. For as Jesus says in Matthew 12:36:

I tell you this, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.

Matthew 12:36

To be a perpetual grumbler, to be an opinionated dissenter in God’s family is a very, very deadly and serious sin. It’s an awful thing. We’re relying on Pastor Bob again one more time for an illustration, but he has a great illustration of this. And you all know this, so I’ll just remind you of it quickly, but he has a great illustration how even just one grumbling person can wreak devastation to a church. If you have two teams lined up to play tug of war, all right, team A over here and team B is over here, and team A starts winning, what can throw that off? One person pulling sideways. That’s it. They don’t even have to be pushing forward. You could deal with that, right? You could counter that out. Unless they’re super massive and strong. But you could counter that out. But if they start pulling sideways, every single person on that team is going with them. It’s done. They’re over with.

Titus 3, and this is a very serious warning. Titus 3:10 says this, and this is instructions from Paul to Titus, a young pastor. And he says, Titus, here’s how you do church. All right? Here’s how you deal with divisive, grumbling people. He says, warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. And after that, it’s a three strikes you’re out system, have nothing to do with them. Very serious. If we have a grumbler in our church, are we willing to follow this as a church? If we don’t and just put up with it, we must realize a little leaven leavens the whole dough. We need to watch out for this. We need to watch over each other. Point out grumbling. Help each other not fall into this terrible and divisive sin.

At its core, grumbling, you know what it really is? Well, I know what it is. It’s dissatisfaction with you. Look at you. You’re terrible. Look how irritating you can be. No. At its core, grumbling is dissatisfaction with God. That’s what it is. And it masks itself with dissatisfaction with others. It’s the mentality that says, you know what? I know how things should go. I shouldn’t be having to put up with all your guys’ mess. Can’t you just get it together? Grumble, grumble, grumble. And it’s really saying, God, I shouldn’t have to put up with this mess. You should have done something about this.

I once heard a story about a father who was a chronic grumbler. And one day, him and his family, they were sitting in the living room and they had a friend over. And they were sitting around, they were talking about food. It’s funny how that works. You come together, you eat food, and then you talk about food the whole time. And they were doing that. And he had a little girl who was going around telling their guests what all the family members’ favorite foods were. And as she was doing that, the father kind of chuckled and he said, “Honey, what’s my favorite food?” She kind of looked down, looked up, and she replied, “Well, Dad,” she went on to slowly say, “you like almost anything we haven’t got.” He was a grumbler. He was a complainer. And she noticed that.

When we grumble, we’re like the Israelites in the wilderness. Lord, would you just give us something to eat? Food shows up on the ground a little bit later. This is terrible. Can’t you give us some meat? You know, like, grumble, grumble. We’re just like that. The Israelites in the wilderness were constantly complaining, constantly dissatisfied, constantly groaning, and constantly at war with one another, grumbling against one another and God. Because really, their grumbling was, though it would sometimes manifest against Moses and each other, it was really at God. That’s what it was. A grumbler. You ever notice this? Even when a grumbler gets what they want, something they grumbled about, when they get it, what do they do a little bit later? Find a way to grumble about that. Well, it wasn’t quite what I hoped it would be. I’ve noticed some of the flaws and imperfections, and now grumble, grumble, grumble. No, we shouldn’t do that.

There’s a lot of application to this right now, is there not? Especially in a culture right now that’s putting up with COVID, and we have tons and tons of multiple opinions all over the place on this issue. In Romans 14, Paul says this:

Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall, and they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”

Romans 14:4, 10–11

So then each of us will give an account of himself to each other. Wait, no, that’s not what it says, is it? Who? God. So then, therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer. I’m not your judge. You are not the judge. And so we must stop grumbling and wrongfully judging one another. We’re not talking about righteous rebuke. There is a place for that. But that must, too, never be done with a haughty or grumbling attitude.

What’s the reason James warns us not to do this? Well, look at verse 9. Because the judge is already standing at the door. In a courtroom, picture this. In the courtroom, the people are all sitting around waiting for what? For court to begin. And when does the court begin? When the judge walks through the doors from his chambers, that’s when they say, What? All rise. For court is then in session. That’s the picture that James is giving us. He’s saying, Don’t grumble at each other. Don’t be impatient. The judge is at the door. He can hear you. He’s coming in, and judgment is going to be met out. And so he’s saying, Don’t grumble, because the judge is here, and court is about to be in session. And so, church, we’ve got to live with this mentality. Not in fear, but in joy as we work and labor for the judge who is our king.

Real faith is patient with process. Real faith is patient with people. And third, real patience is patient with persecution. There’s a lot of P words there.

As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast.

James 5:10–11

Instead of taking up arms against the ungodly rich and getting a big band of warriors to go take them out, who does James say that we should be patient like? Prophets. The prophet’s job was to do one thing in two ways, right? The prophet’s job was to tell the word of God to the people in two ways. One, by forthtelling God’s thoughts on a given matter, and secondly, by foretelling what God is going to do about that matter. Two things. Which often meant forthtelling the people of their sin. Here’s what you’ve done. You’ve broken the commandments. You’ve broken the laws of God. And then they would foretell, and therefore God says, I will do X. And one of those things was, as we know, the Babylonian exile.

And so that was the prophet’s job. And as you can imagine, this tended to not win friends and influence people very well. All right? It was not a popular message. This was not seeker stuff. All right? This was dangerous at times. These prophets had to sometimes confront kings. And if the kings didn’t like what they said, they could have their heads taken off. James was likely in this passage thinking of the prophet Jeremiah, who was beaten, who was thrown into stocks, imprisoned by the king, threatened with death, and then even thrown into a cistern. Yet throughout all of this, Jeremiah remained faithful. He kept speaking the word of God. He kept demonstrating great patience. And the point is that we look back at these people and we have great admiration for them. We look at them and admire their steadfastness and their faith in Christ. They were not moved.

In Matthew 5, we find Jesus, who is the ultimate example of steadfastness and patience. And here’s what Christ says:

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Matthew 5:11

Not on your own account. If you’re a jerk and you’re not doing things for Christ and you get persecuted because of that, that doesn’t count. It’s only when you are persecuted on Christ’s account. And he says in verse 12:

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 5:12

This is hard stuff for Americans. In our country, we don’t really suffer severe persecution, but that doesn’t make the lesser persecution we face any easier, does it? No. I don’t like being called or thought of as a bigot for refusing to celebrate sin in a culture that does. I don’t think you do either. I don’t like being called narrow-minded and ignorant for believing that Genesis chapters 1 and 2 are the account of creation. It doesn’t feel good. I see those scoffing eyes like, oh, you silly fool. You don’t understand. It doesn’t feel good. We don’t enjoy that. Nevertheless, as James tells us, we are to be patient in our suffering, remembering that blessed are those who are reviled and persecuted for Christ. And even if we don’t experience that blessing in this life fully or ultimately, we know it’s coming. And it’s coming with the second coming of Christ. And that should give us great patience, give us steadfastness, and a glorious hope that can’t be taken away.

Lastly, real faith is patient with providence.

As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, you have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

James 5:10–11

James’s second example here of patience is the suffering of Job. And if you know anything about Job, you know Job had it bad. Job had it really bad. The book of Job begins with a cosmic bet between God and Satan. And who starts that? God does. Satan doesn’t. Satan comes and God says to him, Hey, Satan, have you seen my servant Job? And Satan takes the bait. He says, Oh, yeah, Lord. Big whoop, big deal. Okay? Job only follows you because of what you give him. He doesn’t love you. He loves the stuff you give him. Of course. He’s basically saying Job’s a gold digger is what he was really saying. And God says, no, he’s not. And I’ll prove it to you. Satan, you have permission to take everything from him but his life.

Job loses his wealth. He loses his health even. He loses his children. He leaves his wife. And his wife is sitting there so heartbroken that she tells him, Job, would you just curse God and die? That’s encouraging advice. And we can kind of understand that she had lost all of her children. She had lost everything. But nevertheless, Job says, no, I won’t. And then Job’s friends show up, and they’ve got all sorts of terrible theology. And they’re telling him what to do. Telling him, you know what, Job, actually, this is your fault. You did this to yourself. That’s sin in your life. Don’t you know God blesses those who live righteously? Must not be righteous. God’s punishing you. In fact, Job, you deserve worse than you’re getting right now. Not good advice. Wasn’t true at all.

And then, if that wasn’t bad enough, when Job cries out for an answer from God, what does he hear back from heaven? Radio silence. Nothing. Though Job wavered, he ultimately endured. And he has been looked at throughout all of the ages as an example of a servant of God who suffered with patience. Yes, God showed up and spoke, but he never told him why any of that happened. He didn’t. As we’re going to see in a moment, he didn’t need to. Sometimes our suffering is due to our sin. There’s no questions about that. That does happen. We make stupid choices, and the consequences of that are bad on us. But not all suffering is due to unfaithfulness in our lives. Sometimes, as with Job, our suffering is actually due to our faithfulness. That’s massive.

Now think about it. Why would God do that? Well, when you have surgery, what do they have to do to fix you? They have to hurt you, usually with a scalpel. They have to cut you with a scalpel and harm your body in ways that don’t feel good, that are going to leave you sore typically afterwards for a while, in order to bring about healing. That’s why the surgeon does that. Now, with this picture in mind, I want you to think back to James chapter 1. This was back in, I don’t know, late January. And here’s what James says in chapter 1, verse 2.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:2–4

This life, with all of its momentary afflictions, what is it doing for us? It’s bringing about healing, just like the surgeon’s scalpel. It’s chiseling away at our imperfections, just like the sculptor’s chisel. Yes, at times it hurts. Yes, at times it doesn’t feel good. But as Romans 8:28 tells us, all things, even the uncomfortable, painful things, work together for good for those who love God. And does pain and suffering fit under all things? Absolutely it does. Yes, it hurts. Yes, we don’t like it. However, we must never forget that what this is is divine sandpaper upon our souls that is in the hand of a loving God that is smoothing out our rough edges. That’s what it is. 2 Timothy 3:12 says this:

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

2 Timothy 3:12

And while the Scripture promises us this, it also promises us an end to this: the glorious hope of the second coming of Christ. One more time, back in James chapter 1, verse 12, look what he says:

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, because having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

James 1:12

The crown of life we are given isn’t just any old everlasting life, is it? No. It’s everlasting life with him, with Christ, the standard and perfection of beauty itself, and we will be with him forever. Right now we experience the labor pains of this world, but in a very, very short time, our labor will end, and the pain that goes with it will subdue, leading to everlasting joy.

When the 40 Roman soldiers committed together to die for their faith in Christ, they kept praying this over and over to the Lord, saying, “Forty have we entered, and may forty of us receive the crown of martyrdom.” As they stood out there on the frozen lake, they kept praying that. And even before they went out to the lake, they didn’t have to be driven. They didn’t have to be stripped by the guards. In fact, they took their clothes off themselves and walked out there boldly and with courage. However, when the agonizing pain and fear set in, one of their number recanted Christ. He saw the warm bath water and turned to go towards it. However, this deserter, when he came to the warm bath, he plunged into it, but going to such extreme temperatures caused his body to go into instant shock and kill him near instantly.

Upon seeing this and that their prayer was not answered, great sorrow came upon these other 39. But then, standing nearby was a guard who, upon seeing the great testimony of their faith in Christ, was himself moved to faith in Christ. And so then he stepped forward and declared with a loud voice, “I too am a Christian,” shed his clothes and walked out to the lake to join the other 39 as they praised God for being faithful and answering their prayer. Admirable, is it not? Why did they refuse to recant? Well, it was because they believed in Christ. They believed that his coming was soon, it was imminent. And so they were patient and steadfast.

Real faith is patient with God’s process, doesn’t get frustrated because of how long it takes. Real faith is patient with God’s people. Real faith is patient with persecution. And real faith is patient even when we don’t understand the plans and providence of God. But ultimately, real faith is patient because it loves and longs for the return of Christ. That’s James’s main point. Real faith is patient because it loves and longs for Christ’s return, our Savior’s return, the return of our Redeemer and friend, the one who is steadfast as he died for us so that we might live too and live eternally when he returns at his second coming.

I end this morning with the words of Job, who trusted in this same Redeemer, so much so that in the midst of his terrible suffering, he could say this:

I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end, he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes, I and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

Job 19:25–27

Church, does your heart yearn within you for Christ? I trust and I hope that it does. And God’s people said. Let’s pray.

Father, we pray for the patience that only you can give. We pray for patience with the process that you’ve laid out. Though it is slow, we know that a day for you is but nothing, is as a thousand years for us. And so, Father, help us to trust that your timing is perfect. Lord, we ask that we would have patience with one another. We ask that we wouldn’t grumble, that we wouldn’t turn on each other, but that we would be a close and intimate, caring church family. One that reaches out to our enemies to love them, those around us who do not know Christ. We ask that we would be patient with persecution.

And Father, we know that we don’t face anything like what these 40 men faced. But we know that there are those around the world who do, those who have. And we admire their faith and we praise you for being the one who gave it to them. And so, Father, though we don’t face persecution now, we ask that you would prepare us for that persecution if and when it would come. That we would stand boldly, realizing that it is worth it to suffer momentary affliction for an eternity of being with you. Help us to be ready for Christ’s return. Help us to long for his coming, to live every day thinking that this might be our last before Christ comes back. And help us to do this for the glory of your great name. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.