#304 - The Lord of Hosts has Heard - James 5.1-6 - Part 1

Unknown Speaker (0:03): This message was recorded live at Arvin Assembly of God. What you are about to hear is a sermon preached during one of our regular church services. We pray that as you listen, the word of God strengthens your faith, deepens your understanding, and draws you closer to Jesus. Let's tune in to today's broadcast.

Pastor Brian (0:26): If you have your bibles, I want you to open to James chapter five. James chapter five. We've been in the book of James together now since the month of August. That's pretty hard to believe. And if you've been with us, you know that James has been on a mission.

Pastor Brian (0:49): From the very first chapter, he has been calling us to something. And he's been calling us to wholeness. We've said this many times, wholeness today has become a buzzword in pop psychology and in the secular world. Wholeness must be defined the way the bible defines it. It is not just a cleaned up exterior.

Pastor Brian (1:11): It's not just showing up every once in a while on a Sunday and checking a box, but it is wholeness that goes to the very core of who you are. It's a wholeness that touches your words, your tongue, your temptations, your trials, your relationships, your plans, your priorities. And we took a few weeks off and we celebrated Palm Sunday and we celebrated Easter. And we remembered that Jesus rode in on a on a donkey on that Palm Sunday. And then last week, we remembered that he not only died, but he rose again on the third day.

Pastor Brian (1:51): And now, we are back in the book of James. And he's here and he's waiting for us. Last time we were in James, we spent time in chapter four verses 11 through 17. And James was doing what James does a lot. He was getting very, very specific.

Pastor Brian (2:12): He was getting all up in our business, we could say. And he showed us what a surrendered, submitted life actually looks like. Every day when it gets up in the morning, when it puts on its shoes, when it goes to work. And he said that a surrendered and submitted life, it will show up in your words. He told us to quit talking about your brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.

Pastor Brian (2:39): Stop gossiping. Quit talking about them. Stop appointing yourself as a judge because there's only one judge and it's not you. He told us that surrender and submittal shows up in our plans. He told us to quit making one year, two year, three year, five year plans as if God doesn't exist.

Pastor Brian (3:03): He told us the reason because our life is but a vapor. It's here today and it's gone tomorrow. And a whole person, a wholehearted person will submit. They will bend the knee to king Jesus and they will say, if the Lord wills. Then James left us with this in James chapter four verse 17.

Pastor Brian (3:27): He said, therefore, to him who knows to do good and does it not, To him, it is a sin. You wanna talk about a heavy verse here. James is saying for the people of God, for arvin assembly of God that it is time to put into action everything that you have been hearing. Everything that you have been learning. Because once we receive the word of God, when we don't act on it, it becomes sin.

Pastor Brian (3:57): Now that's where we ended. That was James chapter four. Now, he turns the page into James chapter five. And this is a really heavy, sharp turn that he's making. Everything in chapter four was directed at the church to brothers and sisters, to the family of God, to people who belong to God, but maybe they found themselves drifting away from the word of God, from the fellowship of God's people.

Pastor Brian (4:31): But James does something very interesting here. He does something that the old testament prophets did from time to time. He turns and he speaks to people who are not in the room. He speaks to some wealthy landowners, to to some powerful people who have been using their position, their influence to crush people underneath them. And he speaks in a voice, as we're gonna read today, that sounds less like a pastor and more like a prophet.

Pastor Brian (5:08): And I just wanna say that for some people today, we think of a prophet. I like to call prophets reverend big bottoms because they go around a lot today in the body of Christ and they prophesy. That is not the ministry of the prophetic today. What we're gonna witness today is what a real prophet, a true prophet does, which is call out the word of the Lord to people. And it's amazing to me because God's gifts and callings upon especially James' life can interweave from pastor and teacher and into the role of a prophet.

Pastor Brian (5:49): Now before we go further, I wanna make something absolutely clear because this matters to how we hear and receive the word of the Lord this morning. These are not believers that James is rebuking. This passage is not about Christians who just happen to have money. James is speaking to a particular class of people, To wealthy, Hellenistic Jews, to land owners. People who have been shaped by a religious and cultural system that had normalized the exploitation of common working people.

Pastor Brian (6:33): Now in their eyes, they're just doing what the culture says they're supposed to do. In other words, they're not the villains in their own eyes. They're just operating the way that the system has taught them to operate. In fact, they're operating the way that the Pharisees and the Sadducees had always operated. They're using economic power and legal resources to gather and to consolidate wealth at the expense of those at the bottom.

Pastor Brian (7:08): And here is why James says what he says to them inside of James chapter five. Now there's an early church reformer and theologian by the name of John Calvin. And he said it well, and I wanna share this with you. He says that James has two purposes here. First, that believers hearing the miserable end of the rich would not envy their fortune.

Pastor Brian (7:37): And second, that knowing God would be the avenger of the wrongs done to them, they could bear those wrongs with a calm and resigned spirit. In other words, this passage is not primarily for those that had been oppressing the people of God. They are not even in the room. This is for the person that is sitting in the room who has been wronged. The person who has been cheated.

Pastor Brian (8:10): The person that's been overlooked. The person who has cried out and wondered, is God even listening? And for some of you here this morning, you need to hear this today because this was yesterday. This was last week. This was last month or last year.

Pastor Brian (8:30): Maybe that check never came in the mail that was owed to you. Maybe that wage that you were supposed to receive was held back. This is for anyone that has been wronged or has suffered at the hands of someone else. You need to hear the word of the Lord this morning. James sees you.

Pastor Brian (8:51): But more importantly, God sees you. The Lord of hosts has heard and the Lord will judge. Would you stand to your feet for the reading of God's word? We're gonna read six verses together this morning. James chapter five beginning at verse one.

Pastor Brian (9:20): He says, come now, you rich. Weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.

Pastor Brian (9:44): Indeed, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields which you kept back by fraud cry out. And the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury. You have fattened your heart as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned.

Pastor Brian (10:08): You have murdered the just. He does not resist you. Let's pray. Father, in the mighty all powerful name of Jesus Christ, Lord, reveal this word to each and to every single one of us. Lord, I ask that you would use me, that you wouldn't anoint a word that you've already anointed, but you would anoint your servant here to deliver your word.

Pastor Brian (10:38): God, thank you that you speak to us even today. We bless you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. James is gonna lay out four charges against these wealthy landowners.

Pastor Brian (11:03): And we're only gonna be able to get to two of them today. And so here's the first one. He says, you have heaped up treasure. Look with me if you will in verse number one. James says, come now you rich.

Pastor Brian (11:21): Weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. I wanna focus on that phrase that is highlighted before you come now. Because when he says come now, he is doing something that the old testament prophets did. He's using what scholars have identified as a literary device known as an apostrophe. He's turning and he's speaking to people who aren't even in the room.

Pastor Brian (11:51): These wealthy landowners are not sitting in the congregation when this is being read. But James addresses them directly, so that the people who are in the room, the ones who have been working the the fields, the ones that have been going home with empty hands, they get to hear what God thinks about what is being done to them. You know, this is exactly what the prophet Amos did. You wanna talk about a prophet who wasn't politically correct, who didn't hold back. He says in Amos forward verse one, hear this word you cows of Bashan, who are on the Mountain Of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, bring wine, let us drink.

Pastor Brian (12:46): God told Amos to speak against the wealthy oppressors so that the people of God would know that their days were numbered. Isaiah did the exact same thing. In Isaiah chapter 10 verses one and two, he says, woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, who write misfortune which they have prescribed. To rob the needy of justice and to take what is right from the poor of my people. That widows may be their prey and that they may rob the fatherless.

Pastor Brian (13:24): Now James, here's the point. He is not innovating here. He is not reinventing the wheel. He is standing in the prophetic tradition that goes all the way back to the old testament. And every time when the people of God were being exploited, God would always raise up a voice.

Pastor Brian (13:46): And James is that voice in the first century. And what's interesting to me is James didn't need the government to back his voice. He didn't need a grant. He didn't need money or information. When God raises up a voice, it will be devoid of any ties being solely to the things of this world.

Pastor Brian (14:10): And so James is this prophetic voice in this time and in this era. I want you to notice what James tells them to do. Look at verse one again with me. He tells them to weep and to howl. Weep and howl.

Pastor Brian (14:37): These two words together are doing something powerful. Weep is the word for sobbing out loud. It's the kind of grief that you would see at a funeral. It's an unrestrained, uncontrollable type of mourning. But then James adds the word howl.

Pastor Brian (14:58): And that's an interesting word. It's also can be translated as wail. The word sounds exactly like what it describes. It is a shriek. It is a scream.

Pastor Brian (15:12): It is grief that has gone beyond words into something that is raw. And so when James uses these two words, every single person sitting there that day would know exactly what he was talking about. Because they knew their old testament. They would have recognized this combination immediately. Why?

Pastor Brian (15:38): Because the prophets used this exact same language when they were announcing the day of the Lord. Isaiah thirteen six says, wail for the day of the Lord is at hand. It will come as destruction from the almighty. Amos eight three. And the songs of the temple shall be wailing in that day, says the Lord God.

Pastor Brian (16:09): Many dead bodies everywhere, they shall be thrown out in silence. Zechariah eleven two says, wail, oh Cyprus, for the cedar has fallen because the mighty trees are ruined. Well, o oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has come down. I want you to understand this morning, this is judgment language. This is the language of a day that is coming and that cannot be stopped.

Pastor Brian (16:46): I want you to notice this with me now. Back to verse number one, what James says next. He says, for your miseries that are coming upon you. So weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Now that word coming is in the present tense.

Pastor Brian (17:08): In other words, it's already set in motion. The judgment is already on its way. And the miseries are not talking about present earthly suffering, although they could encompass that. Because these landowners, they're not suffering. They're feasting.

Pastor Brian (17:28): They're comfortable. They're, from the world standards, very successful. They're influential. They have titles and positions. They have seats in every political office.

Pastor Brian (17:44): The miseries that James is talking about are eschatological. They are the condemnation that God will bring on the final day of judgment. I'm thankful that we've got a class that starts tonight called eschatology. The purpose of learning eschatology is not so you can figure out who the anti Christ is and all these facts and figures. It's so that you can be settled upon the foundation of God's word.

Pastor Brian (18:18): Because God incredibly has written history in advance. And James here is speaking eschatologically. He's speaking of the day that is coming. But as we'll find out next week, there was some more impending judgment and doom that was coming their way. For now, James is giving them their summons.

Pastor Brian (18:44): This is the opening warning. And now James is gonna do something that every good prosecutor does. He's gonna build his case and he's gonna lay out the evidence. And the first charge in the indictment is this, they've heaped up treasure. They've accumulated.

Pastor Brian (19:03): They've hoarded. They've locked away what God never intended to be locked away. Read with me verses two and three in James five. He says, your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and your silver are corroded and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire.

Pastor Brian (19:29): You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Now, here's something that I don't want you to miss. I want you to notice the following words with me. He says, your riches are corrupted, your garments are moth eaten, your gold and your silver are corroded. Now, these are all in what we would call the perfect tense verbs in the original language.

Pastor Brian (19:58): And so what that simply means is that James is not describing something that is about to happen or something that might happen someday in the future. He is describing a condition that was in existence at that very moment. In other words, it is right now. The decay has already set in. The rot is already there.

Pastor Brian (20:22): The corrosion is already happening. But here's the thing, they don't see it. Have you ever picked up a piece of fruit and it looks just fine on the outside, but when you bite into it, you know something went wrong on the inside. That's because the process started before you could even see it. And James is saying the exact same thing has happened with these rich landowners wealth.

Pastor Brian (20:55): It looks impressive from the outside. It looks like success. It looks like security. But in God's eyes, the rot has already begun. Now James describes three categories of wealth.

Pastor Brian (21:11): And I want us to walk through each one because this is where the text gets very specific. The first one is this, that it's it's riches in general. And he says, notice it in that screen, it is corrupted. A word literally means rotted, means decayed. Like food that's been stored and it's never been used.

Pastor Brian (21:39): I want you to think about this in the first century agricultural context. They're landowners. They have grain. They have produce. They have storehouses that are full of food.

Pastor Brian (21:54): And rather than releasing it into the community, rather than feeding hungry people, they stored it up. They sat on it, and it's rotten. You know, Jesus told a parable about this exact same thing. In Luke chapter 12, it says, then he spoke a parable to them saying, the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself saying, what shall I do since I have no room to store my crops?

Pastor Brian (22:29): So he said, I'll do this. I'll pull down my barns and build greater, and there I'll store all my crops and my goods. And I'll say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. Sounds like a Joel Olsteen book to me.

Pastor Brian (22:51): But God said to him, full, this night your soul will be required of you, then whose will those things be which you have provided? So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. James has the exact same people in his sights. Now, the second category is garments. And James says that they are moth eaten.

Pastor Brian (23:26): This is very interesting because in the ancient world, clothing wasn't just clothing. It was also wealth. And so a fine garment was an heirloom, and it was something that families would pass down from generation to generation. And so these wealthy landowners, they had so many garments, so many robes, and fine pieces of clothing that before they could even be worn in the rotation, moths got to them. You wanna know where James got that from?

Pastor Brian (24:00): He got it from Jesus. Matthew six nineteen through 20. Jesus said, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. See, James wasn't just a letter writer.

Pastor Brian (24:27): He had sat and heard the teachings of Jesus himself. And now, James is doing what Jesus called him to do, to teach all that he commanded him. He is discipling his people, and he is giving them the same warnings because that's what Jesus told him to do. And so these rich landowners stored up treasure on earth, and now James says the moths are here. The third category I want you to notice with me is the gold in silver.

Pastor Brian (25:07): And James says that it is corroded. And this is where it gets very interesting. Because gold does not actually rust. It is one of the most corrosion resistance metals in the natural world. So why does James say that it's corroded?

Pastor Brian (25:29): Well, first of all, James is not making a chemistry argument here. He's making a theological one. He is saying that even what the world considers to be the most precious and the most permanent, the most indestructible, the most reliable is already under the judgment of God. You see, in God's economy, there is no such thing as untouchable wealth. Ezekiel seven nineteen says, they will throw their silver into the streets and their gold will be like refuse.

Pastor Brian (26:09): Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them. In the day of the wrath of the Lord, they will not satisfy their souls nor fill their stomachs because it became their stumbling block of iniquity. What the world calls permanent, God calls temporary. What the world calls secure, God calls corrupted. And then James does this.

Pastor Brian (26:44): He says, their corrosion will be a witness against you. Now the word witness, that is legal language. It's courtroom language. James is painting a picture of a trial and on that day of judgment, on the day of the Lord, the very wealth that these people have stolen, have accumulated, the resources they refuse to release, those very things will take the stand and testify against them. The rotted grain will testify.

Pastor Brian (27:24): The moth eaten garments will testify. The corroded gold and silver will testify. And every unused resource will stand on that day and say this person had more than enough and they chose to keep it to themselves. I want you to notice with me the next phrase. He says, it will eat your flesh like fire.

Pastor Brian (27:56): This is the final judgment. Hebrews ten thirty one says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. I think the world needs to hear that verse once again. We have lost our fear and reverence of the things of God. The rust isn't gonna just testify.

Pastor Brian (28:28): It devours. And now James lands on a on a phrase that I really want us to sit on. I want us to to internalize it. I want us to feel it. He says, you have heaped up treasure in the last days.

Pastor Brian (28:46): The last days. Not just a future reference, but the last days, church, is what we are living in right now. In acts two seventeen, it says, it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. In Hebrews chapter one verse two, speaking of God, it says that he has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom he also he made the worlds. The last days began with what we celebrated last week at the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Brian (29:34): And James is saying to these wealthy landowners, you are accumulating, you are hoarding in the very season that God says he's gonna wrap this thing up. You're out here trying to further your career and further your reputation. You're trying to build bigger barns and the harvest God is saying is almost over. I've already told you, go into all the world and preach the gospel. You're over here, you're counting coins and you're pinching pennies, and the judge is standing at the door.

Pastor Brian (30:16): There are four charges that James lays against these wealthy landowners. We saw the first one. They've heaped up treasure. Here's the second one. He says, the wages you have kept back cry out.

Pastor Brian (30:37): Look at verse four with me. He says, indeed, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out. And the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the lord of Sabaoth. Now James gets very, very focused here. He gets very personal.

Pastor Brian (31:10): He's talking about a man who went out into the field just before sunrise. And he's bent his back all day long in the in the heat. And he cut grain and he and he loaded it and he worked until the sun went down. And then he walks up to the landowner at the end of the day to receive what he had earned, and he was turned away empty handed. This is exactly what is happening here.

Pastor Brian (31:43): And James wants us to feel that, to feel that sting. Now before we go any further, we've got to understand who these laborers were. And I think we do because we live here in Arvin. These were day laborers. And in the first century, agricultural economy, a day laborer had no contract.

Pastor Brian (32:11): They had no guarantee. They had no benefits. They had no savings account. They would wake up in the morning and they would stand in the marketplace and they would hope that somebody would hire them for the day. Jesus himself used this to tell a story.

Pastor Brian (32:31): He said in Matthew 20 verses one through seven, he says, for the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers in his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard and he went out about the third hour and he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And he said to them, you also go into the vineyard and whatever is right I'll give you. And so they went. And again, he went out at about the sixth and the ninth hour and did likewise.

Pastor Brian (33:07): And at about the eleventh hour, he went out and he found others standing idle. And he said to them, why have you been standing here idle all day? And they said to him, because no one hired us. And he said to them, you go also into the vineyard and whatever is right, you will receive. This was their reality.

Pastor Brian (33:30): And if you got hired for that day, you worked. And at the end of the day, you expected to be paid. Because that wage wasn't extra income. That wage was your dinner. That wage was bread on the table that night.

Pastor Brian (33:49): Not next week, tonight. And God was so serious about this that he actually put it into law. Leviticus nineteen thirteen, he says, you shall not cheat your neighbor nor rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until morning. In Deuteronomy twenty four fourteen and fifteen, says, you shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy.

Pastor Brian (34:25): Whether one of your brethren or one of your of the aliens who is in your land and within your gates. Each day, you shall give him his wages and not let the sun go down on it for he is poor and he has set his heart on it. Lest he cry out against you to the Lord and it will be sin to you. Did you catch that? God said if you withhold wages of a poor worker, he's gonna cry out to me.

Pastor Brian (35:00): And when he does, it's gonna be sin for you. Now James is not writing something new here again. He is telling them what is already being fulfilled. The worker has cried out and God has heard. Jeremiah twenty two thirteen.

Pastor Brian (35:24): Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice. Who uses his neighbor's service without wages and gives him nothing for his work. Malachi three five, God says, and I will come near you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers perjurers. Against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans.

Pastor Brian (36:02): And against those who turn away an alien because they do not fear me, says the lord of hosts. God told Malachi, I want you to write this down. I want you to tell them that I'm watching, that I'm a witness, and I will be swift when I act. Now I want you to see what James says about these withheld wages. He says that the wages cry out.

Pastor Brian (36:40): The wages themselves cry out. James is doing something really, really incredible here. He's doing what we would call the personification of money. It's as if money is a person. The wages are withheld.

Pastor Brian (36:58): They're sitting in that landowner's pocket right now. And James says they're crying out because they know they don't belong there. They know whose hands they should be in. And they're crying out because they're in the wrong pocket. This isn't the first time that the bible uses this kind of language.

Pastor Brian (37:22): In Genesis chapter four verse 10, God was speaking and he said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Abel was dead. He couldn't speak, but his blood spoke and God heard it. In Habakkuk chapter two verse 11, the very verse that Jesus spoke on Palm Sunday about the rocks crying out.

Pastor Brian (37:56): It says, for the stone will cry out from the wall and the beam from the timbers will answer it. James is drawing from the wells of the same tradition. These workers, they didn't have the the power to take their employers to court. They couldn't get a lawyer. They had no HR department.

Pastor Brian (38:24): They had no legal resources, but the wages were crying out. And there is a court that every earthly court in this world one day will answer to. And James wants them to know that court is in session. James then uses a title for God that I want us to pause on for a second. I want you to notice it with me.

Pastor Brian (38:55): He says, the lord of Sabaoth. I'm thankful the new king James leaves it that way because that's the way that it's written, and there's a purpose to evoking that name. Now some translations would say the lord of hosts or the Lord Almighty. And it's easier for us to understand the Lord of hosts. But the word Sabaoth is actually the Hebrew word for armies, for hosts.

Pastor Brian (39:22): And this isn't your regular kind of army. These are the the armies of heaven. These are the armies of navy seal angels, if you will. And this title, the lord of Sabaoth, is the title of God as the commander and chief of heavenly armies. And so you've gotta follow me on this because he uses this title deliberately and intentionally.

Pastor Brian (39:56): I want you to think about what he's saying here. These landowners, they had power. They had money. They had political seats. They had connections.

Pastor Brian (40:13): They probably had lawyers. And in the earthly system, was there was nothing that these poor day laborers could appeal to. The deck was stacked against them at every level. But James is trying to tell them that their cry, it didn't hit a dead end. Their cry went all the way to the top.

Pastor Brian (40:41): It reached the ears of the lord of Sabaoth, the commander in chief of heaven's armies, the one whose resources make every earthly resource look like child's play. Isaiah chapter five verses eight and nine says, woe. By the way, woe is judgment. Woe to those who join house to house. They add field to field till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land.

Pastor Brian (41:21): In my hearing, there's this word, the lord of hosts said, truly many houses shall be desolate, great and beautiful ones without inhabitant. This is the lord of hosts speaking over these landowners who have swallowed up all of the land and all of the resources around the people of God. And now James is here and he is evoking the same title over these Jewish men who have swallowed up the wages of their workers. I want you to feel this down deep. Notice this phrase with me.

Pastor Brian (42:13): He says that the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. A verb reached. It's in the perfect tense. And that simply means it's a done deal. It's it it it it is complete.

Pastor Brian (42:37): It is finished. It's already happened. The cry went up. God already heard it. It's not on its way.

Pastor Brian (42:45): It's not pending. It's not waiting on hold or sitting in a queue somewhere. It is already been heard. And when the lord of hosts hears the cries of his people, he doesn't file it away. He acts.

Pastor Brian (43:06): I wanna talk to some of you in this room for just a moment because some of you have been in that field. Some of you know what it's like to work and maybe not get paid. Some of you know what it's like to be promised something and have that promise broken. Some of you have been cheated. Some of you have been hurt.

Pastor Brian (43:33): Some of you have been abused. Maybe you've even cried about it. And maybe you even prayed about it. And maybe you've even wondered, is God even paying attention? James is here to tell you this morning, God is.

Pastor Brian (43:51): The Lord of hosts has heard your prayer. Proverbs 22 says, do not rob the poor because he is poor, nor oppress the afflicted at the gate. Watch this now. For the Lord will plead their cause and plunder the soul of those who plunder them. The word of the Lord to you today.

Pastor Brian (44:22): God says, I, God, myself, will plead your cause. I will be your lawyer. I will take your case, and I will make it right. There's a warning, which should also serve as a comfort to many of us. Romans twelve nineteen says, beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath.

Pastor Brian (44:58): What is he saying there? To give place to wrath. Wrath is what will come from God. So he's saying, don't avenge yourselves, but give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine.

Pastor Brian (45:12): I will repay, says the Lord. This is a promise. It's not just a warning to those that have wronged the people of God, but it is also a comfort to us who have suffered injustice. In other words, you don't have to carry the weight of what was done to you. You don't have to carry the weight of trying to make it right.

Pastor Brian (45:41): God said that is mine. Your job is to give it to me. I'll do the repaying. And you know what? When God repays, he does it the right way.

Pastor Brian (45:55): Now here's what this means practically for you. It means that whatever it is, you can release it. It means that you don't have to spend the rest of your life carrying bitterness towards the person who's wronged you. Not because what they did was acceptable or even right. It wasn't.

Pastor Brian (46:19): But James has just spent four verses calling down judgment upon their heads. But because God has heard, he's gonna act. And your job is not to be the instrument of God's justice. Your job is to trust the lord of hosts, the commander and chief of all the armies in heaven because he's got it all in his hands already. Now James is not finished.

Pastor Brian (47:00): He still has more to say about these guys. He still has two more charges that he's gonna lay on the table. And if you think what we covered today was heavy or sobering, I gotta tell you, wear a belt. Come come ready for next week. We're gonna look at charges three and four.

Pastor Brian (47:23): But let's pray. And, Nancy, would you come?