Hurry Up and Wait!

The speaker discusses the need for patience and determination as Christians await the coming of the Lord. They highlight the challenges and injustices in the world, emphasizing the importance of staying focused on the future and not becoming discouraged. The speaker references the book of James and encourages listeners to control their temperaments and not allow mistreatment to drive them to anger. They also mention the example of Jesus remaining patient and not speaking out during his crucifixion. The overall message is to endure and stay faithful in the midst of difficulties while waiting for the Lord's return. this week, and I started looking at prophecy and future things on Wednesday nights this summer. And how many of you are just thrilled with all of the way our world is today? Everything fair and just and righteous and all that, right? It's not that way. And life is horrible. Life is terrible. It seems like everyone is wicked and everyone does what's in their right eyes. I noticed this week, you know, people asking on Facebook for somebody that they could trust to come give them an estimate, you know, because so many people have been burned and taken advantage of and everything else. And that's kind of where we're at with James chapter 5. James chapter 5, he starts in verse 1 and he says, Go to now, you rich man, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you, your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. There are so many in the world that are trying to take advantage of us. And when you think about that, why do we study prophecy? Why did God give us prophecy and give us a glimpse into the future? And I think our text today is going to be James chapter 5, verse 7 to 11, and it did not divide them like it's supposed to, to one verse, so it's all crammed. But in verse 7, he says, Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth and had long patience for it until he received the early and the latter rain. Be you also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Judge not one against another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience. And I just want to look at that phrase. I've entitled the message tonight, Hurry Up and Wait. Have you ever heard that phrase before? My dad was notorious, and I think that kind of hereditary got in, and if Daniel's probably heard it once, he's heard it a thousand times. Would you hurry up, but do a good job? Hurry up, but be precise. Hurry up, but wait, right? And it seems like our entire life is hurry up. And when you look at prophecy and stuff, and I mentioned this Wednesday night in a verse that just keeps staying on my mind in Peter, is it says, In the last days there will be scoffers, there will be those that come saying, Where in the world is this coming of the Lord? Jesus Christ, when He was here, told His disciples to be ready, to watch, be ready, be prepared, right? And all of this is hurry up, get things right, keep things right, look for Jesus Christ, look for the author and finisher of our faith. And just verse after verse after verse tells us to be ready. It's about to hear. But then there's a lot of scripture that says, guess what? We got to wait. We got to wait. And, you know, I think about looking at Revelation and John writing in the book of Revelation and after seeing, you remember now, he's writing from the Isle of Patmos. How did he end up on the Isle of Patmos? Because they tried to kill him for the gospel sake. History records that they actually put him in a vat of oil and tried to boil him to death. But he survived. What do you do with an individual that you cannot kill? The only thing you can do is isolate them. And so they send them out here to this Isle of Patmos just hoping that he would never escape but would eventually die. And while he was there, he got this revelation and this vision from God. And it shows what's going to happen in the end days. And you think, you know, I can just imagine, I was telling my Sunday school class, part of Bible study, it is looking into things and trying to imagine where the author and stuff would be. What would be some of the thoughts that would be going through your mind if you was put on a deserted island after you've been trying to be killed and you're just thrown out there basically to die? I wouldn't be thinking good of the Roman government. I probably wouldn't be thinking wonderful thoughts. I would probably be upset, you know. I would probably be angry and frustrated. And yet he writes that whole entire thing. And the last thing that he sees, he gets a vision of heaven. And then he writes, even so, Lord, come quickly. Hurry up, but I know that you are longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And that's where we live as Christians. That's where we just kind of seem to be in this bubble. And so tonight, that's what he says in verse 7 and 8. He says, Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it until he receives the early and latter rain. Be you also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. And he just dealt with the fact that James is a very practical book. If you want to just know how to be a Christian, and I've seen several different titles. My mind just went blank on who to give credit to it. But one of them has written a commentary and called it Shoe Leather Christianity. I've seen others that have called it Where the Rubber Meets the Road. It's just the simplicity and basic. I think the very first book of the Bible I ever preached through was the book of James because of its simplicity. There wasn't a whole lot that a young Christian... He's right to the point. You don't have to sit there like in some of Paul's writings in Romans and Corinth and all that and say, What was he trying to say? What was he thinking about? What was going on? James is pretty straightforward and blunt. And in the first six verses there, he's talking about these rich people that think that they are doing great. Think that because they have manipulated people, because they have done people wrong or whatever reason that they have now gained this wealth and so they are in control of their lives. They are there. Everything is going to be hunky-dory. But the Christians wasn't going through that. The Christians wasn't being experienced in that. As a matter of fact, if you go back to Bible days, when the time that James wrote this, the church was under tremendous persecution. They were being thrust out of their homes. They were losing their jobs. They were being killed for Christianity. It wasn't a real good situation. And yet, have you ever looked at people and say, How in the world do they prosper and keep getting... God just seems like they just bless them and bless them and bless them. And here I am trying to serve God and it just seems like everything messes up. Everything seems to work out right. And that's what James is dealing with here. And so he goes into this verse 7 and 8 and he says, Our focus is not on this world. Our focus is on what's to come. And so hurry up, as John said, even so, Lord, come quickly. However, here's what we've got to do because Jesus Christ has already carried this coming 2,000 years. He may wait another 2,000 years. We don't know. But notice what James tells us to focus on. First of all, there is this patient determination. He tells us in verse 7 and 8, he says, Be patient, therefore, brethren. That word patient, he says, Be patient for the coming of the Lord. And that word patient is a neat word. It doesn't mean here the patience that we don't pray for, right? Don't pray for patience because why? The only way that we gain patience is through trials and tribulations, right? And so we don't pray for patience because we don't want trials and tribulations. So this is not what it's talking about. This word patient actually means holding your spirit in check. In other words, controlling your own temperament, not allowing people to drive you to rage. And that's the context. These rich people were taking advantage of these Christians and they were getting mad, and thankfully so. They were getting angry. You know, I do not like to be mistreated. You respect me, I'll respect you, and we'll be all happy and live together. I don't like to be disrespected. I don't like to be mistreated. I don't like to be lied to. I don't like to be manipulated. And so that's what he's talking about here, this patience. Keep your spirit in check. And as I look at Christianity today and I look at churches, I look into my own life. We have a lot of Christians today that are discouraged. We have a lot of Christians today that spirits have just dropped. You know, we've allowed the world and the things, and guess what? It's easy for us to say it's not going to get any better. Right? I've read the end of the book. It's going to get worse before it gets better. There's a whole lot of death, a whole lot of destruction, a whole lot of turmoil and wrath that's going to happen before it gets better. And so notice he says here, but be patient for the coming of the Lord. And then he gives us an example. When he talks about this patience that is there, it literally means if you basically translated the word, it would actually be long-tempered. In other words, not having a short fuse. When you're mistreated, when things don't go your way, don't fire off, don't get easily angry, but be patient. That's what he's talking about. Hang in there. Keep your spirit intact. It's the same word that Solomon used in Proverbs 14.29. He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding. You know, sometimes blowing off of a handle doesn't fix things. Sometimes our temper actually makes things worse. And so James is saying, be determined, be patiently determined, knowing that Christ is going to come. Keep your spirit in check. Another one says that in Proverbs, he says, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. A fool uttereth all his mind. How in the world did Jesus Christ go to the cross and never once say anything? That's not my temperament. You know, by the time I've got to the cross, they're going to know what I feel and what I think about it, right? But that's not the attitude of Christ. And that's what James is saying. It's this patient determination that was there in that process. He says in verse 7, and then he gives us an example. He says, Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman. What is the husbandman? In Arkansas language, it's a farmer. It's someone that farms. What is the thing that has to do with the farmer? Me and Van was talking at lunch today, and we was talking about all of this rain. And it's easy to complain that we've had a lot of rain, right? But he said, you know, it's just going to be about six to eight weeks from now and what people are going to start wanting. Man, I wish it would rain, right? I wish some rain would cool things off. And that's the example that James gives. He says, The husbandman, or the farmer, waited for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience. There's that word again for it. Until he receives the early and the latter rain. When it comes to farming, two things are very critical. Number one is the early rains. You've got to have, you know, you hear the thing about April showers bring what? May flowers. Where did we get that saying from? Because the early rains soften the ground, it thaws out the ground from a hard winter, which we don't usually have problems with that in Arkansas, but it softens the dirt, it softens things up in order that you might be able to plant, in order that you might be able to work the dirt, work what you do. And then what happens? You get it all worked, you get it all planted, you get your grain sowed, and then what do you have to do? Go out there the next day and just pick all the vegetables that you want? It don't work that way, does it? No, you've got to wait. You've got to wait. And so the farmer, what does he do? The farmer's life is controlled by the weather. You know, they can't control the weather. They've got to have rain to plant, they've got to have rain to water their plants, they've got to have rain in order to harvest. If you don't have water, you're not going to have a harvest. And so they spend their whole life doing what? Waiting on something they cannot control. As Christians, what do we do our entire life? We're hurrying up waiting on something that we can't control. None of us can control the return of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ Himself said, no man knows, I don't even know the day or hour. I'm waiting just like you are. And so He gives this example that is there, and then He sums it up in verse 8. He says, but be you also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. This verb that He uses here has the idea of making something secure. This is the determination. This is the deliberately fixing our hearts on the Lord's coming. Quit focusing on the earth. You can only plant, you can only reap when the land and the world allows you to do it, right? And so what do you do? The farmer is not focused on the rain. He's not focused on the crop. What is he focused on? He's focused on the harvest at the end. Because if he does what he's supposed to do, and God does what He can do, then guess what? The harvest is going to be great. So that's the word that He is using here, is making this secure. This focus, of focusing on the coming of Jesus Christ, is what gives us stability in the world. It's what allows us to face bad situations, bad circumstances, and even good circumstances that's there. But not only is there this patient determination, but there's also this positive disposition. In James 5, verse 9, he says, "...grudge not one against another." And then he reminds us again, Brethren, why are we brothers? Why are we brothers and sisters? Why are we, he uses a family term. We were all brought into the family the same way, right? None of us was born into the family of God. Do you realize that? Every single one of us was adopted by God. You know, that's an amazing thing. We met for Defenders Conference the other day, and we were talking about hot topics that we could try to explain. And a couple of the topics, I said, praise God, you know, they've got here to Arkansas, but they have not got here in Kentucky Baptist Church. Because what some of these pastors are dealing with, I didn't even realize that it had already made it to Arkansas. But one of them that I'm using here that just came to mind, and he says, "...grudge not one against another." Brethren, unless you condemn, behold, the judge standing before the door. What was I just talking? I just all of a sudden just totally lost my thoughts when I went back to that meeting. And now I don't remember what part of the meeting I was going to talk about. Adoption. Yes, thank you. Adoption. And we're seeing it in the world today that they're fighting in the courts right now. And one of the questions was, what about in vitro fertilization? And some of these different things like that, you know, how does, as a Christian, and how does the Bible, how does that stuff play in? And it was talking about, you know, abortion and the fact of, you know, most states are now taking abortion out, but then a lot of them are still leaving except in the case of what? Rape or incest. And when you start looking at that, you start thinking about that, that the question becomes to mind is, is what does it matter? And when you start looking at adoption, you know, most people are looked down upon for adoption. The call has been doing a lot of advertising here lately and dealing with pastors, and I've been getting a lot of information from them, and they're just looking for people that are willing to foster, willing to adopt because the system in Arkansas is getting so overrun. Um, you know, I didn't get to pick my kids, but I think like Brother Wheel the other night, you remember Wheel that came and spoke, that's going to Little Rock in Missionary? And he got to pick three of his kids. One of them was given to him, but the other three he picked. He got to choose to be their parents. And every time I read that word brother, and I'm reminded that guess what? I wasn't born a saint. I wasn't born in the family of God. He adopted me. He chose me. And so it's this Christianity that brings us together. And so he says, grudge not. And that's the word that literally means grumbling and complaining. Grumbling and complaining. These are two very common human traits. It's very easy to get to grumbling and complaining. And what I've seen in life is you can take a pretty positive person, a pretty optimistic person, and put them with two or three grumblers or complainers, and that optimistic person will start grumbling and complaining. You don't ever hardly see the optimistic people pull the grumbler and complainer. It's just a natural tendency for us to grumble and complain. Israel, no matter what God did for them or what they provided, the word that they used in the Old Testament for Israel was they murmured. And what does murmuring mean? They really wasn't saying anything clear. They were just grumbling and complaining, you know. You could hear the rumble throughout the crowds that was there. That's this idea of this word. It's this groaning. It don't really make sense, but you know that it's not a pleasant sound. You know it's not something that is positive. And the implication is more internal than external. And so if you phrase it a little bit differently, it's possible to grumble against another person without saying anything. You ever grumbled against somebody without ever saying anything? Young people? Daniel? Your body language sometimes grumbles against people without saying anything, don't it? You ever had someone you knew by their body language they wasn't happy? That's this idea. It's this idea of grumbling. You don't have to say nothing. You know that they're complaining and they're upset. James warns that this grumbling against others is a reflection of a spirit of judging and condemnation. And you remember I mentioned this morning that Jesus Christ said He did not come to condemn. He came to save. James actually deals with this condemnation in chapter 4, verse 11. You go back to chapter 4, verse 11, and He says, Speak not... this is a command. This is a statement. This is not a question. This is not an option. Speak not evil one of another. And there He goes again. Brethren, brethren, He that speaketh evil of his brother and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law and judgeth the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy, who art thou that judgest another. And so James says God has already condemned judging and condemning people. That's not our job. We're not the judge. There's only one judge. And who's that? Jesus Christ. And at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is King. That He is Lord. He is the faithful and righteous. And so notice then He goes into the next two verses, verse 10 and 11. And there's this persevering dependence. Notice He says, Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord. And the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. And so He says He gives us two examples. He said if you want to know how to hurry up and wait, how to not focus on the world, how not to judge and how not to condemn, He said go back and look first of all at the prophets, and then go back and look at Job. Well, as we think about that, notice the prophets. And I'm not going to go through every one of them, but I'm going to pick probably one of the prophets that experienced the worst. You remember the prophet Jeremiah? Jeremiah, the things that God told him to do and made him do, was nothing of it was ever pleasantful. As a matter of fact, when you read Jeremiah, when God called him as a young teenager in a very small town, he preached his very first sermon to his family, and his family turns and attacks him for preaching the message that God gave him. So he leaves from his family and then he goes to Jerusalem, okay? His family don't want nothing to do with the message, so let's go to Jerusalem. And there, the religious establishment began to persecute him because of his message. That was his first and second sermon. And guess what? It didn't get any better from that point on. But what happened at the end? What happened at the end? God was faithful. And all through Jeremiah's suffering, he was faithful. He was obedient. And God took care of and God blessed Jeremiah. In Romans 15, verse 4, he says, "...for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our..." What? Learning. Learning that we through patience, again, there's that word, and comfort of the Scripture might have hope. If the prophets suffered, but God was tender and merciful to them, and they were better off at the end for being faithful and obedient to God, then what should we do? We should quit looking at the world and look for God. He is the rewarder of them that is just in faith. And then he gives Job. We all know the story of Job. Job suffered mentally. I mean, his wife told him, why don't you just rebuke God? You talk about mental abuse? Job had it. His three friends said, what kind of sin have you committed, right? What have you done wrong that God has done all of this? Can you imagine the mental pressure and anguish that was on Job? We talk a lot about his material stuff, but in a world of society today that are dealing with a lot of mental issues, can you imagine what Job went through? Not only mentally, but we mentioned the material, but also emotionally, also physically, and he also suffered spiritually. But what happened to Job? He persevered. Job is one of them, when it comes to reading through the Bible in a year, Job, they try to break it down. I can't break down Job. When I start Job, I want to finish Job. I want to get to that last chapter. Kind of the same thing with Ecclesiastes, right? I've read it so many times. I want to get rid of Solomon's past and I want to get to the future. Here's what I tell you now. From a wise old man that has already done all of these things, here's the point of the whole thing. Fear God and keep His commandment. And Job is kind of that way. At the end of Job, the last chapter of God, takes Job who has persevered in all of these areas, who's been persecuted, and he rises him up and he restores him. Sevenfold. He has more wealth than he started with. He's a lot better mentally at the end than what he was. He's better spiritually. He's better physically. He has more kids. He has a better family. Everything God did was better. Why? Because God does not abandon our faith. If we're faithful, God is going to be there. In Job 19 and verse 15, Job said this, "...though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." This world is not good and it's not going to get any better. But I want you to understand tonight, not all suffering is because of sin. And we like to do that, don't we? Well, they're finally getting what they deserve. It may not be what they deserve. It may just be what God is giving them, right? You know, I think about the blind man in the Gospels. When they come up to them and they say, Who sinned? This guy or his parents that he was born blind? And Jesus Christ said it wasn't because of his sins or his parents' sins. He was born blind in order for this hour that I might be glorified. And so suffering is not always because of sin. Sometimes suffering is caused by doing right. Sometimes you can live a godly life and guess what? Your vehicle can have a flat tire. Sometimes you can be on your way to church and your vehicle have a flat tire. Not all things are because of sin. But what are we called to do? Persevere and be faithful. Be faithful. There is so much injustice in this world today, but the Bible tells us that God will not settle all wrongdoings in this world until Christ fully comes. But here's what we're promised. We are promised in God's Word that when He comes, all wrongs will be made right. Let me close with a passage of Scripture that we read all the time, but I want you to really just summarize what James is trying to say. Psalms 23, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Man, if it just stopped there, everything would be great, wouldn't it? And there's nothing more that I love than green pastures and still waters, right? I mean, that's just wonderful. But then look what he says. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of what? Mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell where? In the house of the Lord forever. See, one of these days, God's going to make everything right. He doesn't promise to do it right now. He doesn't promise to do it tomorrow. But one of these days, He promises it will be done. The question is, is are we going to persevere and be faithful? Are we going to persevere and be faithful? You know, we're watching people today that, and I just went through Hebrews and everything, and the book of Hebrews tells us, you know, about this apostasy and this falling away, and we're seeing it today. We are seeing Christians that are losing hope on Jesus Christ. And I think that the reason that we're doing that is because people are focused on this world and not focused on Jesus Christ. And so, you know, one of my favorite hymns is, Turn your eyes upon Jesus. And what happens to this world? It slowly begins to disappear and do away with. And I think there's a lot of Christians in our world today that just simply need to get back to Jesus. And now, guess what? He's coming again. He's coming again. And so hurry up, get ready, get prepared, because He could come back tonight, right? He could come back right now. But if He don't, then let's get ready to wait. Let's go ahead and stay determined. Let's go ahead and stay disciplined. Let's go ahead and remember what the prophets did and how God took care of them, because He's going to do that for us. As we sing, let Him. He will stay in.