Shalom, everyone. I want you to open your Bibles today. We are going to read the text from the book of James, the book of Yaakov. And if you remember, he was the half-brother of our Lord Jesus, of Yeshua the Messiah. He was the one before Yeshua's death, if you remember. His own brethren did not believe that he was the promised Messiah of Israel. And so later on, after his death and burial and resurrection, somehow the Lord had revealed himself to Yaakov, to James. And James had accepted him as the Messiah and became a pillar in a local assembly in the city of Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago.

This is so wonderful. And James, Yaakov, gave us the whole letter here that we have before us, dealing with very practical things for the believers in Jesus and Yeshua the Messiah. So, I'm reading from verse 7 to verse 11. "Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and is long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye 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 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." And I'm going to stop here with the reading of these verses here. Yaakov, chapter 5, from verse 7 to 11. And I would like in this ministry meeting, beloved brothers and sisters, to kind of deal a little bit with things that are very practical to every one of us in our own lives as believers in Yeshua. I presume, if I'm here looking at you all, that there is not one of us here today, whether you are young here, some of our older brothers and sisters that are here, there is not one of us that can say that we haven't had challenges and trials and problems in our lives.

If we are honest before the Lord, we can definitely say that every one of us have been experiencing some problems and challenges in our lives. We just heard of the loss of a baby by a mother who just gave birth to the baby. We hear about other things, we have an accident that just happened to our family members. And we can tell you many, many things that each one of us can share with each other about some trials and problems in the life of the believer. And so when Yaakov wrote his letter to his early Jewish brethren some 2,000 years ago, he understood the trials that they have experienced in their lives.

See, many of them, because they became believers in Jesus the Messiah, many of them lost their family members, they have been chastened out of the temple or the synagogue, and they have been, in a sense, scattered abroad. We read in chapter 1 of the book of James, he says, "James, Yaakov, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus the Messiah, 12 tribes which have been scattered abroad, greetings." This is how the book has began. He is writing to his own Jewish brethren who have been scattered, those believers from among the 12 tribes that have been scattered abroad, away from their homeland and their families. And because they believed that Yeshua was the Messiah, they have been persecuted.

And they have failed to experience what persecution is all about. And so now he is about to close the letter to his Hebrew brethren to whom he wrote to, and now he is just giving them a word of encouragement. And I would like this to apply to us today, those of us especially that are going through trials today, we need to be encouraged. And really, if there is anyone that can encourage us, it is no one else except our Lord Jesus the Messiah who suffered, who have experienced trials like none of us have ever experienced. You remember what we read in 1 Peter 2, who, when he was reviled, he reviled not again, and he threatened not, but committed himself unto him the judge righteously.

He committed himself to God, and he continued on in following that which his own father had given him to do. So tribulations and trials is part of life for the believers in Yeshua, in Jesus the Messiah. When Yeshua was in the upper room in the city of Jerusalem, just before he left on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, he said to his own disciples that were with him in the upper room, and walked with him on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, he said to them in verse 33 of John chapter 16, he said, These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have shalom, you might have peace.

In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Now you know he knew very well that he is just about to go to the cross, he is going to give his life as the Messiah, as the Redeemer, he is going to lay down his life as the Lamb of God, but the disciples will remain without him, you might say, alone. But he is saying to them, Listen, I want to tell you, I am leaving soon. But I want you to know that in this world, you will have tribulation, I want you to have my peace, my shalom in this world, in spite of the tribulation, because he is saying to them, I have overcome the world.

There is a hope beyond the grave. There is a hope in the person of Jesus the Messiah, beyond the grave for those who belong to him, those who have trusted in him. So back to Yaakov, James chapter 5, and look what James does. James teaching those brothers and sisters of the early first century, Jewish believers in Jesus the Messiah, the need for patience until the Lord will come. Now this is important, beloved brothers and sisters, because we have to say that most of us can say, honestly, we don't have much patience. You know, patience is really a gift that God gives us, always allows us to possess patience through tribulations.

We don't receive from God a certain measurement of patience that he just sent us and all of a sudden we become very patient. No. But he sent to us trials. He allows us to experience problems in our lives in order to mature us, to develop us spiritually. So as we walk with him in this world, we become more like our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. He formed in us the person of his son as we live for him here in this world with all the trials that we are going through here in this world. He's mentioning to them. Notice three times he used the word in connection with the coming of the Lord.

Notice this. Chapter 5 and verse 7. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Verse 8. He said, Be also patient. Reblish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. And then verse 9. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing before the door. In other words, brothers and sisters, what Yaakov is saying, that the Messiah, Yeshua, is coming very soon. He promised he's coming and he's going to come very soon. Now mind you, James wrote, you know, most Bible teachers believe that he wrote between 45 and 50 A.D. He must have been the first letter written in Scripture in the New Testament, the Brit HaChadasha.

It was given by Yaakov, by James. He's writing already, now we might say, 2,000 years ago from our point of time. And he's already telling those early believers, he says, Yeshua is coming. The Lord is coming. He's coming very soon because he promised his return. Now if he, Yaakov, taught that Jesus the Messiah is coming some 2,000 years ago, can you imagine in your time and mine? The Lord might be coming at any day. In fact, we might not finish the meeting today. And the Lord might come and take those of us that belong to him to be with him in glory. And I hope all of us here already at this meeting room have accepted Yeshua, Jesus as your Lord and Savior in your own heart.

And that you know that if the Lord is coming today, you are going to be with him. This is the gospel message that the Lord wants us all to experience in our lives. So, in these verses, he gives us three examples of patience that one ought to have until the coming of the Lord. And James is now applying this to you and I, and I would like you to apply this to your own self today. The first example of patience is verses 7, 8, and 9. And this example of patience is an example that in connection with a farmer. In New York he began with verse 7, he says the farmer is patiently waiting because soon after his labor, the precious fruit will come after he have waited patiently, sowed the seed, and the fruit is going to come in the coming days.

So, he says in verse 7, Be patient. Therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord, behold, the husbandman waiting for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he received the early and the latter rain. So, he began by telling us about the farmer. You know, a farmer, those of us who are impatient, better don't even try to be a farmer. Because if you don't have much patience, you cannot go and work the ground and expect for the fruit to come immediately. It takes time. It takes a lot of labor. I know that from experience, because in Israel, both of my brother and my sister were working in a kibbutz.

And in a kibbutz, the community, whether it is outside of the city of Jerusalem or elsewhere in Israel, and those who work the farm need a lot of patience. The sowing of the seed. The plowing of the ground. And the watering of the ground. And then finally, later on, there is the growth of the fruit that is coming. Whether it is fruit trees or whether it is flowers or whatever they were raising in that kibbutz in the land of Israel. But it takes a lot of labor. It takes a lot of patience. It doesn't come right away. You don't just sow the seed. And immediately, the fruit comes.

And so he is saying, first of all, he is presenting before us the farmer. And this is important, brothers and sisters, because the farmer patiently, waiting while he is sowing the seed, watering the ground, plowing the ground. He is waiting for the fruit to come. And then what a blessing it is when the fruit is coming. And he can use that for the blessings of the people in the kibbutz or wherever the farmer is working. But you want you to notice what he says here in verse 7. He is waiting patiently in verse 7b for it until, notice the word until, until what? Until he received the early and the latter rain.

Now that is very important because if you are not Jewish, you don't understand how important it is for Israel, the early rain and the latter rain. In Hebrew, we call it the yoreh and the malkosh. You see, God had promised our people of all the people of Israel that he will bless the land. But he will be the one who will provide for the rain to come in its due season. And when Israel disobeyed God, you remember like in the time of Malachi, where God shut the windows of heaven. And there was no rain coming down upon the ground. And therefore, there was no fruit that grew up.

And therefore, the people were hungry and the famine was in the land. Even remember in the time of Ruth, the Moabite, you remember the book of Ruth. And it was Naomi and her husband who had left the city of Beit Lechem and they went all the way to Moab. Why? Because there was no rain in the land. God had shut the windows of heaven. And there was a famine in the land. By the way, the city from which Naomi and Elimelech left the city was the city of Beit Lechem. And it is the Hebrew word bayit, house, lechem, bread. There was no bread in the house of bread.

And therefore, they left the land and they went to Moab and they lived there for 10 years until God visited our people of all the people of Israel again. And by the time that Naomi came back, she had lost her husband. She had lost her two sons, Machlon and Kilayon. And she came back with this woman by the name of Ruth, who said to Naomi, "Your God shall be my God. Your people shall be my people. Where you go, I will follow. And where you die, there will I die also." Ruth understood the truth concerning the God of Israel. And therefore, beloved brothers and sisters, here we have the promise of the farmer who wait to receive the Yoreh, that is the early, and the Malkosh.

This is the latter rain. And I want to show you this. If you don't mind, go to the book of Deuteronomy for a moment, to chapter 11. Just go back all the way to the Tanakh, to the Old Testament. And go to Deuteronomy chapter 11. I want to show you. I want to point to these verses there. Deuteronomy 11 verse 10. Here is what God said to Israel, just before our people of old Israel have entered into the promised land. He said to them in verse 10. For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowest thy seed, and waterest with thy foot as the garden of herbs.

But the land, whither you goest in to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and it drinketh water of the rain of heaven. And then he continued in verse 12. And then he continued in verse 12. A land which the Lord thy God care for. The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year. And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments, which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

And here is the verse, beloved brothers and sisters, verse 14. That I will give you the rain of your land in due season. The first rain, this is the yore in Hebrew, and the latter rain, this is the malkosh. That thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. You see, beloved brothers and sisters, God made a promise to our people of old Israel, that if they're going to follow him, and they will obey him, that he will pour down the rain from heaven. And that rain will meet their need, and it will be the early rain and the latter rain. By the way, the early rain is about September, October.

In fact, right now, we are at the end of October, we begin November. Just recently, the rain, the yore, just fell upon the city of Jerusalem and the land of Israel just a couple of days ago. This is what you call the yore, the early rain, which prepared the ground for the next season. And then the malkosh, the latter rain, coming about March and April. It is the rain, the last rain, you might say, the malkosh, the latter rain. And then the farmer can begin to anticipate the growing of the fruit. The corn, in this case, that we have in Deuteronomy chapter 11. So, beloved brothers and sisters, you see the apostle, or Yaakov James, He is encouraging the suffering Hebrew Christians of first century.

And He is encouraging you and I today, those of us who are going through trials, even as we are here today. He is encouraging us to simply be patient, to trust the Lord, to be patient, and to realize that He has a blessing for us. And He is intending to bring us all what He had promised us. And we are just simply to trust Him and to wait on Him because the Lord is coming soon. And when He is going to come, we are going to be with Him never anymore to go through the trials that exist here in this world in which we are here today.

So, verse 7 is the farmer patiently willing to wait because the fruit is precious. And ultimately, he will receive the early rain, the latter rain, and the fruit will come in due time. Now again, if you are going through an experience today in your life, the loss of a loved one, the trials, maybe all sort of friction and trials that we go through, just like the farmer had waited for the rain to come and the fruit will come up, you and I need to say to the Lord, "Lord, help me to wait on you doing those trials, to trust you, and to commit my life to you to wait patiently until you are going to bring the fruit that you desire to see in my life." So, he continues now, notice that, immediately in verse 8, James 5, now verse 8, he is now applying this to the believer.

And he is saying to them, to these brethren, he says, "Be ye also patient. Establish your hearts." Again, using the word, "For the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." So, he is telling them now, in verse 8, he is telling them, "First of all, you, beloved brothers and sisters, you, just like the farmer, you be patient." Now, what do you do in the meanwhile? What do you think the farmer was doing in the meanwhile, while he is waiting for the rain to come and the fruit to rise up? He was not sitting idle. He was not doing nothing, just sitting idle. You know, he was keeping himself busy, occupied with all the needs that the farm, that the land needed to attend to.

And so, in order to do so, it kept him linked with the coming fruit in the future day. Well, what do we need to do as believers? What these early Jewish believers had to do, until the Lord is going to come, and the fruit of the promises of God will be theirs? Well, notice what he is saying to them in verse 8, "Establish your hearts." This is very, very important. You know, it is so said, when a person becomes a believer in Jesus the Messiah, He accepted the Lord as his Lord or her Lord and Savior, but never grows spiritually. It is like a baby, you know, like a baby who doesn't grow.

A baby that doesn't grow, doesn't establish himself or herself in her walk or his walk with the Lord. It is very sad when a person is not maturing and growing spiritually. You know, you wouldn't want to just simply accept the Lord as your Savior, get the ticket, you might say, to go to heaven. But the rest of our life, to live for the world, to live for the enemy, to live for the flesh, and not living for the Lord. That is not healthy. And so, in the meanwhile, Yaakov is saying to his beloved Jewish believers, Jewish brethren, and he's saying it to us today. He says that in the meanwhile, in verse 8, while you are waiting for the coming of the Lord and the fruit to rise up, to come into your life, you make sure that you establish your hearts.

In other words, get settled in the things of the Lord. You know, you want to see a person that is focused on the future day where the Lord is going to come. I'm going to show you a mature believer, whether it is a brother or whether it is a sister, who are like a pillar carrying on. Trials coming, it doesn't change their view of the Lord. Problems arising in their life, it only makes them determined to turn closer, to be more dependent upon the Lord in their lives. This is what you call establishing your souls in the things of the Lord. Growing and maturing, becoming a vessel for the Lord.

For the Lord. You know what we can do while we wait for the coming of the Lord? We can share the message of the Gospel. We can use our gifts, whether it is in singing, or playing music, or whether it is in sharing the message. Doing something for the Lord and establishing our hearts and our souls spiritually. Growing. Because the Lord is going to come. And we are going to have to stand before Him. And He will ask us, how did you spend your life as a believer? I have loved you. I have given my life for you. I have shed my blood for you on a tree.

I was punished on your behalf. How did you live your life as a believer? Did you live for Yeshua, the Messiah? Did you share the Gospel? Did you serve among the people of God? Brothers and sisters, you know, every one of us who is a believer have a gift. A brother have a gift. And a sister have a gift. Are we going to use our gifts for the Lord? Or are we going to keep it for ourselves? You see what He is saying? Establish your souls. Well, how do we establish our souls? It is as we serve the Lord. Trusting Him. Ministering to the people of God.

While waiting for His return. Let me show you a couple of verses in connection with establishing the souls. Turn to the book of Romans, chapter 1, please. Look what Shaul, Paul, wanted the Roman believers to enjoy in their lives. He says in verse 11, I long to see you. Why, Paul? Why do you want to see so badly the brothers and sisters in the local assembly at Rome? Here is the reason. That I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end that ye may be established. Why do we need gifts for? The gifts that God had given the believer is to be used. So you and I can use our gifts in order to establish ourselves and build up the body of Christ, the body of Messiah.

That's the reason why the gifts were given. So Paul is saying, you know what? I'm longing to see you, brethren. I haven't come to you, you brothers and sisters, at Rome as yet. I'm going to come to you. I'm longing to come to you. And the purpose of this is that I will be used by the Lord to see which gift the Lord had given to you so that you will be established in your most holy faith. That's what he's really saying. Because he wanted the brothers and sisters in the local assembly at Rome to grow and to be established in their walk with the Lord.

Look at another verse in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. Paul again, Shaul again. His Hebrew name is Shaul. His diaspora name is Paul. And notice what he says here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. Look at this. Again, using the word establish. 1 Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 1. Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone. And we sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of the Messiah, the gospel of Christ, to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith. You see this? If you go down a little bit further, verse 13, to the end, that he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, and the coming of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah with all his saints.

You see, beloved brothers and sisters, you see, when Jacob James was writing to the first century early believers, he wanted them to realize that even though they're going through tribulation in their lives, they are to patiently wait for the coming of the Lord. But in the meanwhile, they are not to sit idle. They are to use their gifts. They are to minister to the saints. They are to share the gospel. They are to establish their souls, their hearts in the things of the Lord. And it's so beautiful to see that. A younger brother, a younger sister who says, I have decided to follow Jesus. I'm going to follow the Lord Jesus the Messiah.

I'm going to serve him. I'm going to live for him. And therefore, I will be established. I will grow. And I will use the gifts that the Lord has given me for the glory and the honor of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. So here in verse 8, talking about the farmer, just like the farmer, you too, beloved brothers and sisters, be patient. But in the meanwhile, be established in the things of the Lord. Now notice in verse 9, we are moving now in James chapter 5 and verse 9 in connection with patience of the farmer. Just like the farmer of all, the believer also is to have patience. And now in verse 9, the believers are not to grumble, not to complain.

Now, I don't know about you, beloved brothers and sisters. We are so good in grumbling and complaining. I don't have to tell you. You know your own hearts. Don't lift up your hand to tell me I'm grumbling, Lord. But you know very well how many times we are grumbling and complaining. Yesterday in our Bible class, we just studied Numbers chapter 13 and 14. In our own people Israel, when the 12 spies enter into the promised land to spy the land. They all came back after spying the land. Two of them gave a good report. And 10 of them gave a pretty bad report. And they said, we are not able to enter into the land.

God is not going to be able to take us in. The giants are in the land. The Anakim are there. And the land eat its own inhabitants. And you know what they have done? They have stirred up the rest of the nation to begin to grumble and to murmur against the Lord. Against the God of our fathers. The God of Israel. The God who loved our people of old and brought them all the way from Egypt. And ready to give them the promised land. They began to grumble and they said, no, we are not going to go into the land. And they said, let us make a captain.

And let us turn back into Egypt. They forgot how things were in Egypt. They forgot that there were slaves in Egypt. They forgot that they didn't have anything, any liberty in Egypt. They forgot that they cried to God for deliverance. And He came and delivered them. And you know how we are just the same. We are just the same. When we have problems, we begin to grumble. And we begin to murmur. We murmur against God. We murmur a time against our blessed Lord, Yeshua, Jesus, the Messiah. We murmur against each other. This brother is like this. This sister is like this. If he didn't do it, I wouldn't have this problem.

If she didn't do it, I wouldn't have this problem. And unfortunately, what we do, we become exactly what God do not want to see in the life of the believer. Grumbling people are people who are unhappy. We cannot grow spiritually, cannot be established in the things of the Lord. And let's not look at each other. We know it is in our own hearts. I know it in my own heart. And so He is saying to them in verse 9 of James chapter 5. He says, Now this is the third time he is speaking about the person of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. He is speaking about the person of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah.

In the first two times, He speaks about Him as He is going to come to take us to be with Him in glory. But now He is taking another aspect of the coming of the Lord. Because the Lord Jesus is a judge. He is not only the Lamb that took upon Himself the sin question, but He is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah. As a lamb, He bore our sin on the tree in order that you and I will have a forgiveness of sin. But He is coming again, beloved brothers and sisters, to be the judge. Now, I want you to notice and don't make a mistake.

There is a judgment that the believers will have to go through. And there is a judgment that the unbelievers are going to go through. Here, because they were His own brethren, He doesn't talk about the judgment of the unbelievers. He is talking about the judgment that every one of us who believe in our Lord Yeshua, the Messiah, have to go through. And it is called in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 10, it's called the judgment seat of Christ. Or we would say the judgment seat of the Messiah, of the Mashiach. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of the Messiah, that everyone's work may be manifested before the Lord.

And so the judge is coming for the believer. He is our judge. He is not going to judge our soul because our soul is redeemed eternally. But He is going to evaluate what kind of life we lived as believers from the day that we accepted the Messiah until the day that we have gone to be with Him. How did we live our lives? And so He is saying to them, brethren, and by the way, it's so beautiful, the Hebrew word is Achim. He is calling his Jewish believing brethren, Achim. And of course, it's meant for every believer, but the context He is writing to Hebrew Christians, Hebrew believers.

And He says, grudge not, brethren, one against the other, lest ye be condemned. Why? Because the judge is standing at the door and He is going to come very soon. It's like here, the door that we have here. He may come at any time to evaluate the lives of every believer in Jesus the Messiah. Now, I want to pause here for a moment and just say that there is another judgment that we read of in Revelation chapter 20. And there it's called the great white throne judgment. In fact, there is a difference in timings between those two judgments. The judgment seat of the Messiah, the judgment seat of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:10, will be only for believers and only the works of the believers will be evaluated.

And that's going to happen after the rapture of the church. The judgment that is called the great white throne judgment is going to happen at least 1,000 years later at the end of the messianic kingdom. And there only unbelievers will appear before the judge. So there is over 1,000 years, 1,007 years you might say, between the judgment seat of the Messiah, which only for believers, and the great white throne judgment, which is only for unbelievers. But the judge is the same. This Yeshua, the Messiah, all judgment were committed unto Him. God gave His beloved Son to be the judge of all things. And He is going to be the judge who will evaluate how did we live our lives as believers in Yeshua, the Messiah.

So He is saying to the brethren, He says, brethren, do not grudge one against the other. And you know what a shame it is, I want to say that, that most of the divisions among the people of God are not because of theology, though theology is very important, but most of the grudging and the divisions among the people of God happen because of our own flesh. Our own flesh and our own sinful nature that we don't judge and we don't put it low where it belongs. Pride rises up. Pride rises up. Pride rises up. And we begin to grumble against one another. And we begin to cause frictions among the people of God.

And we cause divisions among the people of God. And the sheep are scattered. All saved. All belong to the Lord. But everyone cannot be together with the other. Because why? Because we are grudging or in other words saying grumbling one against the other and causing divisions among the people of God. And that is not of God. God will have to judge us when we are doing such a thing as this bringing divisions among the people of God. We are to unite the believers. We are to seek to serve as ministers, you might say, of shalom, making peace among the people of God, bridging between one another instead of grumbling and complaining and scattering the people of God.

But one day the Lord is going to come. And He is going to deal with the way we speak against one another. And ultimately He will have to judge us. And what does that mean, beloved brothers and sisters? I want us to read, if you don't mind, to turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, just to show you one or two verses there. In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, where Paul, again, it is Shaul who spoke about the judgment seat of the Messiah. Listen to this, brothers and sisters. Listen, I am reading from verse 11 of 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Paul, Shaul, is saying to the brothers and sisters in verse 11, Now, if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble.

And listen to verse 13. Verse 13. Every man's work shall be made manifest. For the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sought it is. If any man's work abide, which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. Verse 15. Verse 15. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. But he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. What he is really saying, what Shaul Paul is saying here in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, he is saying, listen, every man's work is going to be made manifest one day. And how careful we need to be, with the Lord's help of course, not to build with wood and hay and stubble.

It looks big, but just put a little bit of fire underneath and it's all consumed in a moment. It's far better to build with that which is valuable, as we have in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 12, gold, silver, precious stone. That which has value. Now, of course, he doesn't talk about physical things. He's talking about spiritually. Our attitude, our conduct, our heart's desire had to be for us to build with that which is giving an eternal value and a blessing for the people of God. So, behold, he's saying to them, the judge is standing at the door. And this time, he's calling the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, as the judge.

In Hebrew, we call him Shophet or Dayan. He's going to be the one who will evaluate everything. You know, sometimes, when I think about it, how many times in our own life we really dishonor the Lord and he knows that. And we're going to stand before him and we're going to be sad when we know that we dishonored him. And this kind of works, we have to be burnt and set aside. Only that which was done for Yeshua, Jesus, the Messiah, will last. Everything that was done not for his honor will end up to be burnt up and destroyed. But thank God, our eternal relationship with him will remain because of who he is and because of what he has done for us.

He paid the price to redeem us, to be part of the family of God. Well, brothers and sisters, this is verses 7, 8 and 9. The first example that James, Yaakov, giving to his brethren about the need of having patience. Now, you continue on here. And the second thing that he does, in verse 10 now, he gives us another illustration to help us to seek to have patience in our lives as we serve the Lord. Notice the second example is the example of the Hebrew prophets. In Hebrew, we call them the Nevi'im. The Nevi'im, God raised prophets to our people of all the people of Israel. And he's saying there, notice that in verse 10, the prophets have been an example of victory over the persecution that they have experienced in their lives.

Look at the prophets, and that's why he says in verse 10, take my brethren, Achim, take my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. See, now he directs them away, you might say, from the farmer, from the one who worked the farm, to the Old Testament Hebrew prophets of Israel. And you see, when Yaakov wrote, he didn't have the New Testament in his hands. The only thing he had in his hand is the Hebrew scripture, the Tanakh, the Old Testament. Amen. From Genesis to Malachi, to Malachi. He had all the Tanakh, the Old Testament, and he could speak to his own Jewish brethren, who believe in Jesus the Messiah, in Yeshua the Messiah, about the Hebrew prophets.

And every Jewish person who knows his Hebrew scripture knows very well the Bible story, the stories that we were taught from little kids. All the stories of our forefathers. You can begin with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. You can even go back even before that, but the stories that we have read and experienced and learned from the scriptures about our forefathers. Think about even Joseph. Look at Joseph. Yosef, we call him in Hebrew. His own brethren sold him. Put him in a pit, first of all. Then took him out, sold him to the Midianites and to the Ishmaelites and they went down to Egypt and he became a slave in Egypt.

His own brethren. And then his own brethren went to their father and said that an animal killed him. In other words, they caused a grief to their own brother, Yosef. And they caused an aggravation to their own father by telling him that his very son had been killed by an animal. And I imagine, and Yosef, and I love the story, and I'm sure you love the story of Yosef. Yosef could have done so much when the time had come and he could punish his own brethren for what they have done to him. And you remember how his heart was so yearning just to speak with them.

And he wanted so much to see them. He wanted to express his love. He said to them, you meant it for evil, but the Lord meant it for good. And all the experience that Yosef had to go through, God had a purpose. He laid down, he brought Yaakov and all the family down to Egypt. And for 430 years, our Hebrews have lived in the land of Egypt. And at the end of these 430 years, they came out from Egypt into the promised land. But Yosef is an example. What a type of Yeshua, Jesus, the Messiah, he was. What an example. He was in prison. He was a slave.

He was mistreated. And yet at the end, God had blessed him and restored him far more than what he ever had before. And placed him to be second to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. In type, he's a type of our Lord Yeshua, the Messiah, whom God had lifted up and placed him in the pinnacle of the universe. And one day he's going to be king of kings and Lord of lords here in this world that reject him. So Yosef, and what about others? You know, we can have a list of the persecution that the Hebrew prophets have experienced in their life. And yet they have trusted God and waited patiently for him.

Go to Matthew chapter 5 for a moment, please. The prophets have been an example of victory over persecution. Look what Yeshua, the Messiah said in chapter 5, verses 9 to 12, when he was speaking there on the Sermon on the Mount there. Blessed are the peacemakers. In Hebrew, Osei Shalom, those that make peace. For they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for there is the kingdom of heaven. Verse 11 and 12. Verse 11 and 12. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. And then finally he said, rejoice, and be exceeding glad.

For great is your reward in heaven. For so persecute they the prophets which were before you. You see, when he was speaking to these Galileans, the people who gathered there, and his disciples of course as well. He was telling them, you know, you are going to learn to experience in your life what your own brethren have experienced many, many years before. They, the prophets who were before you, they have been persecuted, and yet they move forward. And they continue to trust God in spite of the persecution that they have experienced in their life. And you know, brothers and sisters, this is the only way to learn patience.

When you go through trials, when you go through misunderstanding, when you go through persecution, somehow the Lord is establishing us and causing us to become more mature and more useful in the things of the Lord. So the prophets have been an example of victory over persecution. It brought about a godly character in the life of these believers in Yeshua the Messiah. Now there's other verses that I want to read. Second Timothy chapter 3 and verse 12. Look at this. Talking about persecution. Second Timothy chapter 3 and verse 12. Paul said to Timothy, "Yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, in the Messiah Yeshua, shall suffer persecution." Amazing, isn't it?

We don't like persecution. Persecution is something we don't enjoy at all. But think about many of the believers who have been persecuted in many countries. Think about what's going on today in Syria, in Iraq, in Egypt. Believers are being persecuted there as well. And look about what's going on in the Middle East. Those that believe that Jesus, that Yeshua is the Messiah, and they follow after him, they experience persecution. What about the former Soviet Union? Prior to the time where the doors of the Iron Curtains have been opened, many believers have experienced persecution in these countries. And those persecutions only help them to become more mature, and more useful, and have more patience, in order that they could serve the Lord, even though they have gone through tremendous sufferings and affliction in their lives.

So, patience comes through tribulations, as we have this in Romans chapter 5 as well. Well, okay. We are moving on. Let's move on to the last example that we have. So, we have the farmer, verses 7, 8, and 9 of Yaakov chapter 5. There we have the prophets, is James 5 and verse 10. And here, finally, James gives us the clearer lesson from a life of a man by the name of Job. Actually, his Hebrew name is Iov. And Iov was living, perhaps, in the time of Abram. And look what we read about Job. Very interesting. Look at the endurance that this man had to go through. Verse 11 says this, "Behold, we count them happy which endure.

Ye have heard of the patience of Job, of Iov, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy." He now directs them to one single man by the name of Iov. We just read earlier in Job chapter 2. And we read the story of the life of Job. But what was interesting in Job's situation is that even though, look what we read about him, that even though Job did not sin nor charge God foolishly. We read this more than once here. His wife came to him. And we read in verse 9. His wife said to Job, to Iov, he says, and after all what God has allowed him to experience, all the affliction that Satan afflicted him with, his wife said to him, Job, Job, does thou still retain thine integrity?

And then she said to him, curse God and die. Now it is very important because in the Hebrew it doesn't say curse God. It says bless God. Barech Elohim. Not kalel Elohim. But barech Elohim. Now, why was she saying him? She was actually mocking him. She was saying, you believe in this God of yours? Look at your life. You have lost all your possession. You have lost all your health. You have lost all your families. You lost everything. She said, in a sense she was kind of mocking. Barech God. Bless God. Well, here it is. This is the kind of God you have. Well, bless him and then die.

She was actually mocking him. Of course, the writer, the writer, the word is actually not kalel but barech. I know we take it, in other words, to say you curse God and die. In other words, God have done all this to you. Well, she really is saying to him, if this is the kind of God you have, well, so you continue to bless him and then you're anyway going to die. In other words, she was kind of mocking Job because he took that stand of not sinning against God, not charging God at all. What an example Job, Iov have been to all of those that follow the Lord Jesus the Messiah, that follow the God of the Bible.

Now, who can be like Job? Who can say that? Who can experience and go through what Job had to go through? Can you imagine? If we have a little problem in our lives, we can't take it anymore. If we lose friends or we lose a job, we cannot take it anymore. We immediately kind of give up and say, God, what kind of a God you are. If you love me so much, why do I have all these problems? But Job had been an example to which James, Yaakov, directing now to the patience of Job. And he's saying to the brothers and sisters, Behold, we count happy, which endure.

Ye have heard of the patience of Job. He endured. It doesn't seem to be that Job was very patient because we see him constantly back and forth answering his three friends, you remember, who came supposedly to comfort him and he had the deliberation with those friends. And then, yet, we find out that Job never actually cursed God. He committed himself to the Lord, never cursed him, and have allowed God to have his own way. In all these, Job sinned, not charged God foolishly. He just committed himself to God. And go to the book of Job for a moment. I want you to just notice some of the things about Job that we read here in the book of Job.

Listen to those words that we read about Job. First of all, Job 1 and verse 12, we read this about Job. Then the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he is is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. And now turn the page to chapter 2 and verse 6, where we read these. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life. And now if you just turn to chapter 23 of the book of Job, and notice what it says in verse 10. Job 23 and verse 10. But he knows the way that I take, Job said.

When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. In other words, after God have allowed Satan to do what he did to his servant Job. Job at the end, you might say, even here in the middle of the deliberation, he says, he knoweth the way that I take. God knows all our ways. When he tested me, I will come forth as gold. In other words, all the testing, and all the purpose of the trials in the believer's life, is to bring out that which is of the Messiah, of Christ, of Yeshua, in our lives. God does not cause us to have trials in our lives because he doesn't love us or doesn't care for us.

He doesn't find any pleasure in the suffering of his own people. But through those testing, he allows us to become more conformed to the image of his Son, of the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah. So we, as it says here, I shall come forth as gold. I will become more like Yeshua, like Jesus, the Messiah. That's the reason that those testing come upon the people of God. And so in the life of Job, we have a great example that teaches us of the beauty that can be found in a believer who followed the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. So, brothers and sisters, now, in closing, in conclusion of this message for today.

It says here, in the very same verse 11, it says, Ye have heard of the patient of Job, and have seen, and notice this last remark here, the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of a tender mercy. When I read this passage, and I was asking the question, why doesn't it say, you have seen the end of Job? Or the end of the life of Job? But what does it say here? You have seen the end of the Lord. In other words, really, what we learn here, from this thought here, is that God has a plan and a purpose in the life of everyone.

It is the end of the purposes of the Lord in the life of His people, of His servants. What is the purpose? The purpose is ultimately that blessings will come through the trials that the believers are going through. The end of the Lord, why? Because the Lord is very pitiful. And the Lord is of tender mercy. He cares for His own people. He loves His own people. And therefore, His intention, that all those trials and suffering that His people are going through, will bring out from their life that which is for their own blessings, for their own future, and to form them the person of our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah.

Let me read the end of the Lord in the last verses of the book of Job, and we're going to close. Job chapter 42, verses 10 on. Look at the end. What are the results of all the experiences that Job had to go through in his life? Look at the end result. Did God leave him like this? No, look what it says. And the Lord turned the captivity of Job. When he prayed for his friends, also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came there unto him all his brethren and all his sisters. Notice his family now coming to Job, to Eob, and they are seeing the evidence of the change of his life.

His brethren and his sisters. And all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house. And they embalmed him. And then he says, And comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. Every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold. And the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. Now, I don't know if I would survive such a thing after losing your 10 children. Losing all your farm, all your land, all your health, everything you lost. And at the end of it, to get another 10 children?

How can one do that? Well, it's the miracle. It's the Lord that has given him all these. He blessed the end of the latter days of Job more than even the beginning of the life of Job. And so what's the lesson, brothers and sisters? And I'm going to close. If you go through trials today, just wait on the Lord. Don't be discouraged. Look to the Lord and see how much he loves you, and he cares for you. And he wants the best for you. And you know, the best is yet to come. Because soon, Yeshua is coming. And everyone that belongs to him are going to be with him never to suffer anymore.

You know, in heaven, there is no longer suffering. It's the land of no more. No more tears. No more sorrows. No more pain. No more death. When we are going to be with Yeshua the Messiah in heaven in glory, we are going to be with him in the land of no more. So, let's encourage one another. And let's support one another. And wait patiently until the coming of the Lord. For the coming of the Lord is drawing nigh. May the Lord help us to wait for him patiently and follow after him until he is going to come to take us. To take us. To take us.

To take us.