Guided Bible Studies for Hungry Christians

James - The Pillar of Working Faithful Lesson 9

The Faith of Patience

Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ, BE PATIENT unto the coming of our Lord! Just as the farmer waits for his crops with patience, and waits on the rains to nourish their growth in His Time, be just as patient in your wait for that glorious Day!. Prepare your hearts and establish them with stable resolution to endure these times with perseverance of faith, for His coming is drawing closer.

Do not hold grudges against each other! You do not want to be caught fighting among each other. Be as the prophets of our Lord who suffered great affliction and endured with confident anticipation!

Uphold one another in faithful and strong fellowship. If we allow even one of our brothers or sisters in Jesus Christ to be entangled in the affairs of the world, and disregard the teachings of the Word of God, then we are watching the certain death and damnation of one that we love.

We must stop being our worst enemies, and begin to form strong Christian fellowships that protect each other from the forces that desire our destruction. We have got to prepare for the coming hard times by focusing on the Word of God and each other. The loss of one of our brothers or sisters in Christ is unacceptable! Be patiently faithful to Him and watchful of the times to come!

“1 ¶ Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. 3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.” (James 5:1-3 AV)

104. As a rich man is surrounded with his riches of today, he should mourn and cry with grief, for in the last days it will be of no use and unable to save him.

105. The riches of the world are corrupted, and the outward appearances of worldly success are moth eaten. The gold and silver heaped together for treasure is covered with the rust, and that rust will be a witness against the rich man in the last days.

106. In that Day of Judgment, when the rich man faces our King Jesus Christ, he will have to answer why his riches were not used to advance the Word and Will of the LORD GOD, and why his hoarded riches were allowed to rust, rather than use them to uplift the poor, the orphans and widows, and the hungry. The rich man who hoards his worldly wealth will be damned on the Day of Judgment as he brings the hoarded evidence against him, right up to the Judgment Seat of Jesus Christ.

“4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. 5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. 6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.” (James 5:4-6 AV)

107. The workers cries of lamenting will reach the Jesus Christ's ears, as the rich man who defrauds the laborers out of their wages as they work in his worldly fields.

108. The rich man lives in luxurious pleasure on the earth, and is self focused on his life alone. He has nourished his heart with everything he dreamed, and fattened himself up with his riches of desire.

109. He has condemned and killed the righteous people of the LORD GOD, and they do not resist his oppression.

“7 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 receive the early and latter rain. 8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” (James 5:7-8 AV)

110. Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ, BE PATIENT unto the coming our Lord! Just as the farmer waits for his crops with patience, and waits on the rains to nourish their growth with patience, be just as patient in your wait for the glorious Day of our Lord!

111. Prepare your hearts and establish them with stable resolution to endure these times with patience, for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is drawing closer.

“Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.” (James 5:9 AV)

113. Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ, do not hold grudges against each other! Jesus Christ is coming very soon, and you do not want to be caught fighting among each other.

“Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.” (James 5:10 AV)

114. Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ, be as the prophets of our Lord who suffered great affliction and endured with patience!

“Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” (James 5:11 AV)

115. Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ, it is the endurance to the end, with the patience of Job, that will bring the greatest of happiness to you.

116. The LORD GOD is very compassionate and tender in his mercy, and will comfort you for the pains you endure today.

“But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.” (James 5:12 AV)

117. Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ, do not swear to anything by oath. When you are confronted, answer “yes” or “no”, and nothing more. If you try to offer explanation, you risk falling into condemnation with the LORD GOD.

It is the LORD GOD that hears your oaths, and it is the LORD GOD who will punish you severely if you swear and then break your oath. In these Last Days, you will be placed in positions to try to force you to commit transgression against your LORD GOD. The breaking of an oath is a severe transgression to Him! Avoid making oaths, and avoid long explanations when you are swearing to the truth! You risk condemnation, if you are not careful with your words.

“13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James 5:13-16 AV)

118. If your brothers or sisters in Jesus Christ are enduring hardship or suffering serious troubles, encourage them to pray.

119. If your brothers or sisters in Jesus Christ are happy, encourage them to sing songs of faith and praise to uplift you all.

120. If one of your brothers or sisters in Jesus Christ are sick, call the elders of your congregation and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of Jesus Christ. Their prayers of faith will save him, and Jesus Christ will raise him up. If he was sick as a result of sins, Jesus will forgive him.

121. Confess your faults to each other, and pray for each other, so that you may all be healed.

122. The focused and impassioned prayers of a righteous man have much power.

“17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.” (James 5:17-18 AV)

123. Eliajah was a man with the same passions as we have. When he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, it did not rain for three and a half years. When he prayed again, the LORD GOD sent the rain, and the earth prospered once again. The focused and impassioned prayers of a righteous man have great power!

“19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; 20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.” (James 5:19-20 AV)

124. Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ, if one among you is sinning against the Truth in the Word of God, turn him toward the LORD GOD once again!

125. When you bring a sinning brother or sister in Jesus Christ back to Him, you are saving his soul from death, and are hiding many sins through his redemption.

If a sinning brother or sister faces Jesus Christ in judgment, those sins remain visible to Him. If, however, repentance has been offered, and forgiveness granted through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, then a multitude of sins is covered, and hidden from His Judgment.

In the End, that’s what James is talking about, and that is what we should be talking about among each other. We are Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ, and we are all we have. The world is getting tougher to participate in, and the oppressions and persecutions among the faithful are becoming more common.

The enemy forces are preparing for battle against the righteous and their King. One of the effective weapons in their arsenal is the temptations and pleasures of this world that they can present to the weak in faith, in hopes to turn them away from their LORD GOD.

If evil can cause one of our brothers and sisters to keep the faith tucked deep inside, and fail to accomplish any works with that faith, then their faith will die, and evil will have won!

If we allow even one of our brothers or sisters in Jesus Christ to be entangled in the affairs of the world, and disregard the teachings of the Word of God, then we are watching the certain death and damnation of one that we love.

We must stop being our worst enemies, and began to form strong Christian fellowships that protect each other from the forces that desire their destruction. We have got to prepare for the coming hard times by focusing on the Word of God and each other. The loss of one of our brothers or sisters in Christ is unacceptable. There are so few Christians as it is, and loss of one soul should grieve and deeply trouble each of us.

James was faced with the same dilemmas in his time. He watched as faithful and strong Christians returned to the lawless world to receive the pleasures of their lust. If the Apostle Peter, the Rock of Jesus Christ and the man who actually walked with our precious Savior, was able to be tempted to go to the world to satisfy his lusts for pleasure, how much easier is it for one of us to be overcome by the same temptations!

James wrote this Epistle to rally his brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ together to form protective barriers that shielded them from the temptations and transgressions of the world. His message focused on faith working in the Will and Way of the LORD GOD, and not dying in the will and the way of the world; a powerful message that is relevant today, and establishes the Way we are to endure and survive these Last Days!

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Cite Article Source

MLA Style Citation:
McFarland, Kathy L. "The Faith of Patience." James - The Pillar of Working Faithful Jan 2006. <http://guidedbiblestudies.com/sermon/james8.htm>.

APA Style Citation:
McFarland, Kathy L. (2006, January) "The Faith of Patience." James - The Pillar of Working Faithful Retrieved from http://guidedbiblestudies.com/james8.htm

Chicago Style Citation:
McFarland, Kathy L. (2006) "The Faith of Patience." James - The Pillar of Working Faithful (January), http://guidedbiblestudies.com/james8.htm (accessed )

About the Author

Kathy L. McFarland is a Becker Bible Studies Teacher and Author of Guided Bible Studies for Hungry Christians. She is a Religious Studies student of Liberty University, Hebrew language student attending Israeli taught Ulpan and a Homeschool parent teaching the things of God. She is also well-known as a child advocate of innocent children tortured and suffering from the abuse of sexual perversion, out-of-control violence, and pathetic neglect by a carnal world gone mad.

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