Until the Coming of the Lord - a podcast by Rev. W. Reid Hankins

Sermon preached on James 5:7-12 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 05/23/2021 in Novato, CA.















Sermon Manuscript







As the saying goes, patience is a virtue. It is also a command. As Christians we recognize that we need God’s grace to cultivate patience in our lives, even as we seek to pursue putting it on. There are many reasons one needs patience. Sometimes patience is needed for relatively trivial things – like waiting for the pot to boil on the stove. Other times patience is needed for more significant things, like for realizing big life goals that are only met after years of hard work toward them. But sometimes, patience is needed when things are just hard and difficult and you just want to give up. That’s along the lines of what James brings to our attention today. Let us consider then what James has to say about patience here and why he says it is important for us to have this patience.







Let us begin then looking at verses 7-8 where James twice commands us to “be patient”. Notice verse 7 begins with the word “therefore”. What is that therefore there for? Well, most immediately it draws our attention back to the previous passage where James declared judgment on the wicked rich who persecute the righteous Christians. So, he wants us to think about patience in light of being persecuted and afflicted by those with power and influence in this world. By extension, we can also see how this word “therefore” also signals that James is concluding his whole letter because the themes he brings up in this passage return to what he introduced in chapter 1. There, he began the letter with the call for Christians to remain steadfast under trial, and, if we do, we will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him, James 1:12. Here he reiterates that call from chapter 1, urging us to be patient under trial and affliction and the various tests of our faith.







So then while that is the context for why there is a need for patience, let us observe what James says we are to be patiently waiting for. He says we are to be waiting for the coming of the Lord. That too he says twice in verses 7-8. That’s why we should have patience amidst the afflictions and troubles of this life. Because Jesus is coming again and we he comes he will vindicate us. His coming will be to be the terrible wrath of the Lord upon the wicked of this world who hate us. It will be for us a day of salvation when we finally find relief from our enemies who have tried to put us down. And this relief will be permanent and everlasting. This is key to patience. If someone was in a horrible situation and it was never going to get better, then you wouldn’t tell them to have patience. If someone’s situation was so bad that there was no hope for it ever to get better, you wouldn’t tell them to be hopeful. But James tells us that we should have patience because our hardships and trials will go away – when Christ returns.







James gives us an analogy about this patient waiting for Christ to come back and save us. The analogy is there in verse 7 – the analogy of a farmer waiting for his crops. A farmer has to do a lot of waiting. Yes, there’s work along the way. He needs to sow the seed in the right time, typically after tilling the soil. Depending what you are growing, there may be weeding or pruning or other care that needs to happen throughout the growing season. But there is a lot of waiting. And you see it mentions that part of the waiting is even for the rain throughout the season – the “early and late rains” it mentions. That’s a waiting for things that are outside of the farmer’s control. But ultimately the farmer’s patient waiting is for the crop to finally come up so he can harvest it and enjoy it.

Further episodes of Reformed Sermons and Sunday Schools at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Petaluma, CA

Further podcasts by Rev. W. Reid Hankins

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