The Patience of the Farmer | James 5:7-12 | Faith That Works

Watch This Sermon on James 5:7-12.

We’ve all heard the phrase "a watched pot never boils." While we know the physics of the stove don't change based on our attention, the cliché rings true: when we dwell on our expectations, time seems to stand still.

In his sermon on James 5:7–12, our pastor explores the biblical call to a different kind of waiting—the "patience of the farmer." This isn't just about passing time; it's about establishing our hearts. Just as a farmer doesn't just stare at the dirt but actively removes weeds and fertilizes the soil, we are called to actively cultivate our spiritual lives while we wait for the Lord’s return.

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Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon from First Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. Each week, we dig into God's word, trusting that the Holy spirit will continue the good work of sanctification in us. We're all familiar with that cliché, a watched pot never boils. Now, we know that isn't true. You don't have some weird superpower to keep water from reaching 212 degrees by staring at your stove. But yet we know the point of that cliché rings true with us. When we dwell on something, whether it's something we're expecting or something that we're doing, time seems to stand still. And generally speaking, we as humans are not patient. We can be content to wait at times, but it's hard. And we know that if we dwell on it, it only gets harder. And whether that's staring at a pot of water, hoping it will start to boil, or watching the driveway hoping a loved one will soon turn into it. The anticipation, mixed with fixing our attention on a specific coming event, makes patience a very hard thing. But yet we know another cliché. I'm guessing all of our mothers told us this cliché.

Patience is a virtue. Learning that virtue is often thrust upon us without our consent. We usually don't go looking for opportunities saying, I want something hard to happen so I can learn patience. But it happens. We're given those opportunities. In the providence of God, we are persistently put in situations that provide us the opportunity to grow in this area of patience. It's hard. But yet we are called by the word of God to exhibit this virtue. And as we come to the middle of this final chapter of James today, we see him calling his readers to be patient. And when we consider the context that's leading to this passage, we see that this patience that James is calling for here is not a patience with the time it takes to cook something, or the patience it takes to wait for a loved one to arrive, or the patience that we should have in something going on in our lives. He is calling his readers who are experiencing severe persecution to be patient as they wait for those who are oppressing them to be judged. So as we turn to James 5: 7 this morning, and we think about this specific context of this verse, it is really an interesting concept for us to think about.

This week, as I was mentally processing through this passage, I honestly really struggled with it quite a bit. The reason for this was because of the illustration that he uses in telling us to be faithful as we wait for the coming of the Lord. Now, he tells them to be patient. Like I've said, this is a common concept. All of us have either said to ourselves or to someone else, at some point in our lives, we've said, be patient. We've all uttered those words. We have also likely desired to be patient because it is a good and holy thing to be patient. We understand the imagery that James is using here very well. Seed is put in the ground, and then you have to patiently wait for it to bear fruit that you might harvest it. Harvest is a blessing that provides for the farmer and for those that he sells the fruit and the grain to. It nurtures. It provides life. It provides sustenance. Well, the reason that I struggle as I dwelled on this passage this week is because the harvest that comes from this patience that we're to have is judgment. Think about that.

It's retribution for those who are persecuting believers. Now, mentally, I imagine here as I read this passage, a farmer waiting for the harvest, being diligent to pray, to trust God for the rain. Then as it grows and it flowers and fruit comes from it, and then the resulting harvest is a beautiful bounty, and it's a blessing, and it results in a feast because of these blessings from God. My mind really struggles to see this as a farmer planting the seed, trusting for the rain, and then the fruit that comes from it is wrath. I struggle with that. That the result of this patience that the harvest is retribution against the enemies of God. It's not that I have a problem with the idea of God God judging his enemies. That's a very scriptural thing. That's not my roadblock at all here. It's that I think that we are all prone to see the judgment of God as a negative consequence to those who are in rebellion and not a positive thing like a harvest. This illustration is helpful, though, because it reminds us of a great truth. God comes in judgment, and it reveals his glory.

Even though the harvest of judgment is negative for those who are outside of Christ, it is positive for those who have been united to Christ by faith. For us, the judgment has been poured out on Jesus, and we have been set apart in righteousness, not because of anything that we've done, but because of his saving work that was accomplished for us in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. God is most glorified in the salvation of his people. As believers are persecuted for the cause of Christ, it can be hard for us to understand how is persecution bringing glory to God. But when we look to to the end of history. We can understand how this is possible, because even though the people of God suffer at the hands of the enemies of God, God is not overwhelmed. God is not unable to act. God is not mocked, and his people will be vindicated. The harvest that James calls us to look to is not simply retribution or satisfying our need to know that the bad people are going to get what's coming to them. That's not what he's saying. It's about the glory of God.

As we move to verses 8 and 9, James implores his readers to be patient like the farmer. The illustration that he uses is one that implies that they will need to be patient for a while because a farmer doesn't put seed into the ground and then come back a few minutes later to harvest. It isn't even later that week. Farming is a slow process. It is also a process that endures substantial ups and downs. There are periods where the concern of the farmer is that there won't be enough rain, and then soon it can be followed by worries that there's been too much rain. How many years do you remember thinking, You know the amount of moisture that we've had has been just right. It's not very often. Then you add in the uneasiness of the temperatures. Will the plant come up? Then there's a cold spell that will kill it. Then the worries of the heat, followed by worrying that the cold will come again too soon because the plants haven't properly matured for harvest. And so what James is telling them here, the substantial thing that he wants them to do is to establish their hearts.

They need to be ready to endure suffering. And as you've heard me say many times before, this is really hard for you and I to understand. We are 21st century people. We live like kings compared to what the first century would have been like. We also live in a country with freedoms that even people in other parts of the world in our modern times don't have. But regardless of our inability to wrap our minds around this, We, too, are called by James here to establish our hearts, because at some point suffering is going to come. It's inevitable. Whether it is illness, disease, or the loss of a loved one, you are going to suffer. That is just a fact. It may even come as persecution. We don't know. So we need to establish our hearts. We do this by worshiping God, by hiding his word in our hearts, by seeking him in prayer. And establishing our hearts is of great value, not just to prepare for suffering, but prepare for every area of our lives. When we are established, we are able to take whatever comes at us. We all know there is a big difference between being run into when you aren't expecting it and being run into when you've actually set your feet, right?

So if someone comes up to you on the side and bumps you, it doesn't need to be terribly hard, and you likely will move. You may even end up on the ground. But if you know it's coming, you can brace yourself, and it's a different story altogether. You might get moved a little, but you're not going to be knocked down. In this life, we need to set our feet. There's great wisdom in setting our feet on the word of God, in trusting in him. It doesn't guarantee that life will be easy. But when you are established in him, you are prepared, you are ready to stand strong instead of easily being knocked off course. And now, in this patience and establishing, there's an implication here from James being established and farming. The implication is that we're playing the long game here, right? The people of God need to be able to endure. But then James makes a statement that mentions the short game. Actually, if you read this slowly and you chew on the words a little bit, this is a jarring moment in the text as we come this idea. We're to be patient like the farmer.

We are to establish our hearts, and then suddenly it changes to the Lord is at hand. We need to come to this with an understanding of what the judgment of God means here. Now, when we hear of the coming of the Lord, we automatically think to the end of history when Christ comes to deliver his kingdom to his Father. But throughout scripture, the idea of God coming in judgment was God sovereignly ordaining judgment upon people through nations and armies, through human agents. I've been reading through the Old Testament prophets, and the judgment of God is described there as God coming in judgment on Israel for their idolatry and their unbelief. And then what happens? God removes his protection and income these armies to judge them and take the people into exile. That's how coming in judgment is described in the Old Testament. Looking at history, and as we think this passage, we know that judgment did come upon those who were persecuting the early Christians when James wrote this book. The Roman armies came in and sacked Jerusalem. They destroyed the temple. God came in judgment. But it's also important that we understand that it is an important idea of judgment, that it is always at the door.

God is merciful. God restrains the time of judgment, but it can happen in any moment. Whether that is personal judgment or national judgment, or his coming at the end of history, the moment to repent, the moment to return to the Lord our God is always now. Today is always the day of salvation because the judge is always at the door. At any moment, God would be good, right, and just to judge. And while the first century audience of James is looking to relief from the persecution that they are facing, notice that James doesn't just let them think that judgment only comes on those people out there who are wronging you, those who are doing the things that you don't like. James implores them to stop their grumbling because judgment can come on them as well. Now, not a judgment of eternal damnation, but a temporal judgment for the sin that the grumbling that they are doing against each other. As we move to verses 10 and 11, we see in this part of our passage a clear example of the patience of the farmer. He's shown us this illustration of the farmer, and now he's going to show us a picture of it.

He points to the Old Testament prophets. As I said, I've been reading the Old Testament prophetic books lately, and this theme that we've been looking at is overwhelmingly present in those books. While seemingly everyone around them is turning to idolatry and false worship, the prophets remain faithful, and not just as a private matter. They are allowed the convenience of sitting quietly at home and worshiping God on their own while the culture around them forsakes God and goes to the high places to worship the Bales. God uses them to speak words of coming judgment to priests and to kings. Reading the prophets and the history sections of the Old Testament is really a humbling thing because it's pretty easy and very comfortable for me to come up here every week and broadly proclaim the word of God. This is an easy thing for me to do. I can't imagine going to a king who is entrenched in idolatry and pagan worship and tell him to repent or the judgment of God is coming. That is not an easy job. In fact, that seems like a really good formula to lose your head or to be run through with a sword.

But still, we are told here of the steadfastness of these prophets, and James calls us to the same patience in waiting for the deliverance of God. And James also calls us back to the example of the steadfastness of Job here as well. Remember the suffering of Job? He loses everything, but he remains faithful to God. None of us, not a one of us, wants to experience what Job went through, because that is hardship we cannot imagine. But I believe we would desire to be faithful like Job, that if we had that hardship, we would remain faithful to God, and we know What James says at the end of verse 11 here is true. We know that the Lord is compassionate and merciful. Even when the world shakes, we can be confident in the faithfulness of our God, and we can be confident that he will remain faithful even to the point of death. God is with us through the fires and through the storms, and James continues to call us to faithfulness as This passage closes up with verse 12 here today. He tells us to not swear oaths by heaven or earth. In other words, he says, Let the words of your mouth be sincere.

In scripture, the idea being expressed here is that you don't trust anyone to be a witness to what you say other than God himself. You should only trust God as a witness to what you're saying, that you are desiring to speak truthfully. James is telling us that when we speak, we should always speak in truth, knowing that God judges what we say. We know that speech is important because two of the Ten Commandments express the importance of speech to us, right? We're told to speak correctly about God in the third commandment and lying is expressly forbidden in the ninth. And this admonition feels a little out place here. Why is he saying this? Why is he bringing up O's here just after this idea of judgment in the farmer? But actually, there's a deep connection with what we've seen in this passage. What is usually the first thing to happen when we're impatient? What is the first thing we do? Our mouths start to move. We are tempted to speak poorly of others or to use words to try and get ourselves out of hard situations. James wants us to be faithful no matter what, in the place where unfaithfulness might seem the least significant to us is in what we say.

Because words come and go so quickly and easily. But James calls us to faithfulness in all things, even our words. Go back to that example of Job. What was the temptation persistently brought to him by his wife and friends? They brought this to him over and over. They would say, Just curse God and die, Job. But Job was faithful in his speech. Here, James shows us that we are to do the same thing. As we close up and we consider application, I want to bring us back to the idea of patience. The type of patience that James is pushing us toward is something that we can easily struggle with, whether it is problems we face ourselves or issues we see in the larger world. The question, how long, O Lord, is a question that we frequently have come to mind. The big point that we need to take away from this passage is that as sure as harvest will come, even more surely will God judge and do what is right. This is certain. In this passage, James calls us to establish our hearts in steadfastness. When the farmer puts the seed into the ground, he knows that it is going to grow, and he knows that a harvest will come.

A lot happens in between, but he does not simply stare at the plant and obsess over it. Instead, he actively cultivates it. Weeds are removed. Fertilizer is put on at the right times for growth. Many other types of care happen over the life of the plant. Instead of worrying about when judgment will come, we need to remove the weeds from our lives, and we need to fertilize our lives with the word of God. We need to be established and know that the harvest will come in times. If we see difficulties that we face and obsess over them, the release will seem all the more far off. There's no point in watching a pot boil because it's going to boil. It will happen. As long as your stove works correctly, the water will reach 212 degrees and it will start to boil. There's no reason to watch it. It's going to happen. So what's the best thing to do? Prepare the rest of the steps in making the meal. The boiling is inevitable. Do what's best with your time so that you're ready when the water boils. The call then for us today is to establish ourselves in the things of God while we're waiting.

Worship. Hide God's word in your hearts and seek him in prayer. There is no better way to have the patience of the farmer and to prepare for harvest than to establish our hearts in him. Amen. Let us pray. Great and merciful God, we thank you that you are merciful. We thank you that you hold back your judgment in order to be merciful, but we know that it is inevitable because you are a Holy God. And so we pray, oh God, that we would be patient, that we would be diligent in establishing our hearts. We pray that we would seek to proclaim your gospel, that others might hear and believe, that we would establish ourselves in your word, that we would seek you in prayer, that we would worship you, that we would share this gospel, that others might hear and have the confidence that we have that the judgment that we deserve for our sin was poured on in Christ. May we relish this great truth as we taste and see that you are good today. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon.

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