#306 - The Judge Is at the Door - Part 1 - James 5.7-9

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.

Speaker 1 (0:27): If you have your Bibles, I want you to open to James chapter five. For the last couple of weeks, we've walked through probably what most commentators and scholars would call the heaviest passage in the entire book of James. We took two weeks to go through James chapter five verses one through six, and we heard James speak in the voice of a Old Testament prophet. And we heard him call out the sin of the wealthy landowners who used their power to oppress and defraud workers who were working for them. They were getting rich off of their backs.

Speaker 1 (1:09): We heard James pronounce judgment and rightfully so. We heard him say that the lord of Sabaoth, the commander of heaven's armies, the lord of hosts, has heard the cry of the reapers, and the record has been made in the annals of heaven. And that's what those sermons were all about. It's the fact that God hears, that God sees, and that one day God will act. But we closed last week in verse number six, and it's a phrase that I haven't been able to get out of my heart and my mind all week.

Speaker 1 (1:47): I want you to notice it with me. We ended with he does not resist you. He does not resist you. The person that doesn't resist is the righteous one. It's the just one.

Speaker 1 (2:04): It's the worker who's been cheated. It's the poor man that's been dragged to court. It's the person that has had something, wrong happen to them in the form of injustice. And James says he doesn't resist, that he doesn't retaliate, that he doesn't fight back. Church, I've gotta be honest with you for just a moment.

Speaker 1 (2:28): That concept is not easy. That phrase is the kind of phrase that sits in your spirit for several days and begins to start asking questions. I want you to know that that is James' intention with the next set of verses. He's hopeful, and he's expecting that you would ask these kinds of questions. And so his intention is to answer them.

Speaker 1 (2:55): But I think that some of those questions need to be asked out loud because I know I'm not the only one that's in the room that wrestled with these kinds of questions. And so what does it mean that the righteous one does not resist? Does that mean that that person is weak? Does that mean that that person doesn't care? Does it mean that injustice wins and that God's people are supposed to just stand there and take it?

Speaker 1 (3:25): And the question that really, really bothers us is when we ask where's the justice? You know, we live in a world and a culture today that that has been chanted at many protests. Maybe you've heard it before. People say no justice, no peace. And it's the idea from a worldly standpoint that peace cannot be had unless your eyes see justice.

Speaker 1 (3:54): But I want you to know what God's word says this morning because James has been teaching us from the beginning that there is true peace to be had. There is true shalom, true wholeness even if you never see God's justice on this side of eternity. Yes. Even if it doesn't seem fair. Even if it seems like they're getting away with it.

Speaker 1 (4:22): Even if it seems like they're prospering more than you. Why is that? Because true and righteous justice is coming, and the judge is at the door. I want you to think about this for a moment. Justice was God's idea before it was ever a human idea.

Speaker 1 (4:46): We go back to the very beginning to the first book of the Bible, Genesis. It shouldn't surprise us that that's where all things begin. God creates and God orders and God separates light from darkness and waters from dry land, and he establishes a world that runs on his moral character and order. And when he gives his law at Sinai, he gives commandment and commandment about justice. He says things like don't move the boundary stone.

Speaker 1 (5:22): Don't cheat your neighbor. Pay the worker his wages before the sun goes down. Don't pervert justice due to the fact that someone is poor. Don't take a bribe. Don't follow the crowd in doing evil.

Speaker 1 (5:40): In other words, justice is woven into the very fabric and character of who God is. God is a just judge, and he created the world, and he made us in his image to reflect who he is. Somewhere along the line, sinful human beings got their hands on justice, and we messed it up. We've turned the courts into marketplaces. Politicians have turned into people that could be persuaded and bribed and bought, and we've turned the law into a weapon against the weak.

Speaker 1 (6:24): This is nothing new to the Bible. Amos saw it. Micah saw it. Isaiah saw it, and James saw it in his own day. These wealthy landowners, they were winning in court.

Speaker 1 (6:40): They were winning in the marketplace. They were winning with the authorities in their own cities. And the righteous, just people of God, the poor, they were losing over and over and over again. And so the question that we were left at the end of last week is the question that still hangs over us today when justice is not served here on earth, when people who are doing wrong and act and look worldly, they seem to be getting away with it, When the system is broken, when the powerful are winning, when the righteous are being ignored, what are God's people supposed to do about it? This is where this tension gets real because there is something on the inside of us and every single one of us that wants to step in.

Speaker 1 (7:42): Something in us that wants to fix it. Something in us that says if God is not moving fast enough, then I will move. If the courts won't give justice, then I'll take justice. If nobody else is gonna make this right, then I'll make it right myself. That impulse is not new.

Speaker 1 (8:05): I want you to think with me for a moment about Moses in Exodus chapter two. Moses saw some real injustice. In that story, there is a an Egyptian that was beating a Hebrew slave, one of Moses' own people, and something on the inside of Moses rose up. Something that is right. Something that is holy.

Speaker 1 (8:32): It is a longing that that God put in him to see his people delivered. And the Bible tells us that Moses struck the Egyptian down and he buried him in the sand. The impulse that Moses had was right, but his timing was wrong. And so God led Moses into the wilderness for forty years before he was ready to deliver Israel on God's terms. It's a human reflex.

Speaker 1 (9:05): When justice doesn't come the way we think that it's supposed to, when the wrong people keep winning, we're tempted to act. This is exactly what James is about to address because the sin is not in longing or desiring to see justice. The longing for justice is is a holy longing that God has put in you. The sin is this. What do we do when justice is not satisfied on our own schedule?

Speaker 1 (9:44): You see, the sin is taking matters into our own hands. The sin is crossing the line from waiting patiently into vengeance. The sin is is allowing the desire for justice to become bitterness inside of your soul or grumbling or depression or retaliation or you begin to cut corners because everybody else is getting ahead, so I might as well get ahead. Or cursing your brother because we're really upset with somebody else. And so it's at this moment that James steps in.

Speaker 1 (10:28): I want you to look at the very first word of chapter five verse seven with me. He says, therefore, that word matters based on everything that we have been learning and teaching. Therefore, that word is a door because everything that James is about to say is gonna answer the question that has been left in our hearts. Why does the righteous one not resist? What are we supposed to do instead?

Speaker 1 (11:07): How long are we supposed to wait? Today, James is gonna answer that. And praise God, it is his word. This isn't doctor Phil. This isn't Oprah.

Speaker 1 (11:21): This isn't some pop psychology book. This is God's word, and he has something to say to you this morning. I wanna ask you the question that I want you to hold in your heart today. The question is this, how long can you wait for God before you start taking matters into your own hands? How long?

Speaker 1 (11:53): Because every single one of us has a number. Every single one of us has a breaking point. And James is about to walk us through four things that God asks of his people while they wait. Four things that, by the way, will keep us faithful when the waiting gets long. Four things that'll that will keep us from taking matters in our own hands.

Speaker 1 (12:19): Would you stand for the reading of God's word? James chapter five verses seven through 12. Hear the word of the Lord. Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.

Speaker 1 (12:52): You also be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience.

Speaker 1 (13:15): Indeed, we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. But above all, brethren, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your yes be yes and your no be no, lest you fall into judgment. Let's pray.

Speaker 1 (13:43): Father, in the mighty, precious name of Jesus Christ, Lord, I ask that you would open our hearts to full capacity to be able to hear and to receive your word. Your word, Lord, is life changing. Your word breaks chains, Lord. Your word is anointed. Let us receive it this morning.

Speaker 1 (14:09): In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. So the question that we're sitting with this morning again is this, how long can you wait? How long can you wait on God before you start taking matters into your own hands? James is gonna give us the answers.

Speaker 1 (14:36): Four things that God asks of us while we wait. We're only gonna get to two of them this morning, and the other two we'll get to next week, god willing. But here's the

Speaker 2 (14:48): first one. Number one, god's word would ask us to wait with purpose. Wait with purpose. Again, I want you

Speaker 1 (15:01): to notice with me the very first word of verse seven. Therefore, we just talked about that, that that that is the door. And on the other side of the door is a single command, and it's a command. It's not a suggestion. It is something that God himself is commanding his people to do, and it's gonna shape everything that James says from here to the end of the chapter.

Speaker 1 (15:27): I want you to notice the command now with me. It's very short. He says, be patient. Now maybe this morning, if you knew that that's what we were gonna preach about, you might have stayed home because patience isn't something we like. And so we've gotta be careful on this because the word patience, it has gotten very, very soft in our culture today.

Speaker 1 (15:55): And when we hear the word patience, we think about sitting in a waiting room on a doctor or sitting on hold while you're trying to get customer service. We think about waiting to get your groceries checked out at the Walmart on the East Side. Amen? We think about traffic on the 99. In other words, we think about patience as just being passive and just staying quiet and just enduring it.

Speaker 1 (16:27): But you need to know that this is not the word that James uses. The word that James uses here, it is a compound word in the original language. One part of it means long, and the other part of it means temper or passion. And you put them together and you get something like long tempered. It's a person who while they're waiting, their passion doesn't run out.

Speaker 1 (16:57): It's a person whose fire doesn't go out even if the waiting gets long. And this isn't the kind of patience of a person who has given up. It is a patience of a person that is burning with faith, that says, thus says the Lord, even when everything says that it's not. And to make sure that we get this right, James gives us a picture. Read with me verse number seven.

Speaker 1 (17:32): He gives us a picture that every single one of us can

Speaker 2 (17:35): understand. He says, see how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the

Speaker 1 (17:44): earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.

Speaker 2 (17:53): I want you to think with me what a farmer actually does.

Unknown Speaker (17:59): I want you to think

Speaker 2 (18:00): about the farmers right here in the fields around Arvin Assembly. What does a farmer do? Does he plant his seed and then walk away? Does he plant his seed and go sit on the couch? Of course not.

Speaker 2 (18:19): He plants his seed, and

Speaker 1 (18:21): then he works. He prepares the ground. He irrigates. He pulls the weeds. He watched for pests.

Speaker 1 (18:28): He fertilizes. He prunes. He does everything within his power to give that crop a chance to come to harvest. Here's the thing. He has no power to make that crop grow.

Speaker 1 (18:46): He can't make the sunrise. He can't summon the rain. He cannot force a single carrot or potato or grape to push out of the ground or to sprout on the vine before

Speaker 2 (19:00): it is ready. So what does the farmer do? He works. He waits. He trusts.

Speaker 2 (19:11): This is the picture of patience. And I want you

Speaker 1 (19:17): to look at what James says the farmer is waiting for. He says the early and the latter rain. The early rain in Israel came in October and November at the planting, and the latter rain came in March and April right before the harvest. And every single farmer knew that without rain, there were no crops. Point blank period.

Speaker 1 (19:47): And so the whole livelihood of the farmer depended on something that was out of his hands. Let me say it like this for some of you. His life depended on something he could not control. Why do you keep trying to hold on? And why do you keep trying to control?

Speaker 1 (20:14): Your life is not your own. You must be dependent on God. He depended on the faithfulness of God who knew when to send the rain at the right time. Here's what I want you to see because the entire Old Testament begins to light up with hyperlinks under this passage. Every single time the Bible talks about the early and the latter rain.

Speaker 1 (20:53): You see, we're us as good Pentecostals, we got it wrong because we keep thinking it's talking about revival. We wanna talk about the early rain and the latter rain. That ain't what God is talking about. My God, we need to open our bibles every time that God speaks of the early rain and the latter rain. Every time he's talking about God's faithfulness.

Speaker 1 (21:26): Deuteronomy chapter 11, God says, I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather your grain, your new wine, and your oil. Hosea six three, let us know. Let us pursue. Watch this. What?

Speaker 1 (21:49): The knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning. He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and the former rain to the earth. Joel two twenty three said, be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God for he has given you the former rain faithfully. And, listen, he will cause the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month.

Speaker 1 (22:28): Zechariah ten one, ask the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain. The Lord will make flashing clouds. He will give them showers of rain, grass in the field for everyone. Church, every single one of these passages, I only shared with you some of them, is all about God keeping his word. Every one of these passages is about a God who has been faithful before, and he'll be faithful again.

Speaker 1 (23:06): And so when James tells us to wait like the farmer waits, he's not telling you to sit down and hope for the best. He's telling you to wait on a God that has shown up before. A God who brought rain last year and the year before that and every year since Genesis. A God whose track record is so long that the farmer doesn't wonder if it's gonna rain. He just wonders when it's gonna rain.

Speaker 1 (23:38): This is the kind of patient waiting that God is asking his people to do. Now back to James. Notice the pattern in verses seven and eight. Told us in verse seven, therefore, be patient. Then he gives us an illustration of what it means to be patient.

Speaker 1 (24:10): And then look at the opening verse, a part of verse eight, and then he says, you also be patient. This is a patient sandwich right here, and I hope you eat it this morning. I hope it tastes good to you this morning. James is saying, in other words, you need to be like the farmer. You need to keep on keeping on.

Speaker 1 (24:36): You need to keep on working. Keep on trusting. Keep on reading your word. Keep on praying. You need to stay diligent.

Speaker 1 (24:49): I want you to notice the next phrase with me because James goes on. Notice it with me. He says, establish your hearts. And we've gotta slow down for a second so that we can allow the glory, the weight of this phrase to sink into our hearts. Because last week, we heard James use the word for heart in a very different way.

Speaker 1 (25:27): Do you remember what he said about the heart last week? It was in James five five. He described the heart as fattened. He says, you have fattened your hearts. In other words, James was saying that these wealthy landowners had fattened their hearts as in the day of slaughter.

Speaker 1 (25:48): And that's what happens when a heart is inwardly focused, when it's all about you, when it constantly feeds on me, me, me, me, I think and what I feel. That's a fattened heart. It becomes numb. It becomes slow. It becomes unable to see or feel.

Speaker 1 (26:12): And now in the very same passage, in the very same chapter,

Speaker 2 (26:16): James uses the same body part, but it gives us a different verb behind it. Notice it again. He says, establish your heart. Strengthen your heart. It's the same heart, but it's now a different posture.

Speaker 2 (26:40): You see, a

Speaker 1 (26:40): fattened heart is the heart that has stopped waiting. A fattened heart is the heart that has decided to, let's say, I'm gonna take what I can right now because I'm not sure if there's anything better that's coming my way. A fattened heart is the heart of a person who takes matters into their own hands. But an established heart is a heart that has been rooted and grounded in God's word so that this heart knows the promises of the God who is coming. An established heart is a heart that can wait.

Speaker 1 (27:26): An established heart is the heart that doesn't have to reach for its own ways or its own solutions. Why? Because it knows that the judge is already on his way. Now James gives us the reason. I want you to look with me at this next phrase at the end of verse number eight.

Speaker 1 (27:53): He says, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. The coming of the Lord. Now that phrase is the parousia. And I know that might not mean a whole lot to you, but in the original language, it means his arrival. It means his presence.

Speaker 1 (28:17): It means the appearing of our king. In other words, we would say it like this, Jesus is coming back. And church, I want you to notice something here. And for my students in eschatology, this will really tie in with what we've been learning because James is one of the earliest books in the New Testament that's ever been written, and and this is before Paul wrote to the Romans or before John wrote his gospel and before Peter wrote his letters, James had already been putting pen to parchment. And I want you to look at what he's already baked into the very first letter to the very first church, and what James was already teaching.

Speaker 1 (29:02): He is saying that Jesus is coming back, that the judge is at the door, that his return is imminent. That means he could come back at any moment. You say, pastor, why is that important? It's because that expectation was not some later add on. It's not something that the church invented centuries later.

Speaker 1 (29:28): It was there in God's word from the very beginning. And the very first generation of Christians lived with their eyes on the sky. They expected Jesus to come back every single day. And James is writing them and he's telling them, you are right to expect him to return. And so church, what was imminent for them back then is still imminent for us today.

Speaker 1 (30:00): Two thousand years later, nothing has changed about the promise. Jesus is coming back. And so we are to live in the same way that they lived. We wait. We watch.

Speaker 1 (30:16): We stay ready. This is not a maybe. This is not an if or a perhaps. It is the Lord who hung on the cross for our sins and the Lord who walked victoriously out of that tomb on the third day. The Lord who ascended on high in front of his disciples is the same Lord that is coming back in glory.

Speaker 1 (30:43): And when he comes back, every wrong will be made right, every unpaid wage will be paid, every murdered, just and righteous one will be raised from the dead, Every fattened heart will stand before the righteous one, the judge, and every established heart will see the one that their soul has been longing for.

Speaker 2 (31:15): It is this hope that makes patience possible. You see a farmer who doesn't believe the rain is coming, he's not gonna plant. And a church that doesn't believe the Lord is coming back,

Speaker 1 (31:36): they won't wait, they won't evangelize. So hear me this morning. You're sitting here this morning or listening on Zoom and it feels as if you have been crying out to God and like your answer is never going to come. Maybe it's been a prayer that has been unanswered for years. Maybe it's a situation that hasn't changed.

Speaker 1 (32:04): Maybe it's a relationship that hasn't been healed, a wrong that hasn't been made right. I'm not here this morning to tell you to give up and stop waiting. I'm here this morning to tell you to wait with purpose, to establish your heart, to strengthen your heart, not with my words but with thus saith the Lord, with the word of God. Do you understand that the only weapon that God has given us is the sword of the spirit which is the word of God? We've got a bunch of weak kneed anemic Christians today that only have out these little mini blades because they get a little word here.

Speaker 1 (32:49): You gotta stop that. You've got to get in your word in these last days. There is no more excuses for illiterate baby Christians. You have got to get in your word. Shame on you.

Speaker 1 (33:07): Some of you have been in church so long. Some of you are still old enough, you don't even know your bible. Shame on you. It's time for you to wake up or you will not make it. You will not make it when trials and temptations and tribulation gets tough.

Speaker 2 (33:36): Establish, strengthen your hearts. Wait like the farmer.

Speaker 1 (33:46): Wait, arvin assembly, with your hands full of work,

Speaker 2 (33:53): your eyes full of hope. Wait

Speaker 1 (33:57): on a God whose track record and resume is longer than your lifetime, whose faithfulness has been confirmed in every generation of his people. Establish your heart. Don't fatten it on disappointment. Don't fatten it on cynicism. Don't fatten it on depression.

Speaker 1 (34:21): Don't fatten it on the lie that God has forsaken or forgotten you. The devil is a liar. Establish your hearts on the promise of God's word that he is coming back because he is coming.

Speaker 2 (34:41): And so a farmer doesn't quit, neither

Speaker 1 (34:45): can we. So, church, I want you to come back to this question now with me. How long can you wait? How long can you wait on God before you start taking matters into your own hands? First answer was this, wait with purpose.

Unknown Speaker (35:09): Wait like the farmer.

Speaker 2 (35:11): Establish your heart. But now James knows something about us.

Speaker 1 (35:21): He knows that even when we're trying to wait faithfully, something happens in that process of waiting that catches us off guard. Something that comes out of us that we didn't see coming. And that's the second answer. While we're waiting, we need to watch our words.

Unknown Speaker (35:48): Do you hear it? Watch your words. Look at verse nine with me.

Speaker 1 (36:01): James says, do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. I want you to feel and notice the shift that goes on here because James has been talking about waiting. He's been talking about patience, about a farmer who trusts God. And now all of a sudden, right in the middle of this teaching about patience, James just turns, and he starts talking about your mouth?

Speaker 1 (36:37): Well, for us, that shouldn't surprise us. James has been talking about our mouths and our words since chapter one. But the question is is why does he bring this up now? Why right here? Why does he interrupt this beautiful picture of a farmer waiting on the latter rain and and and warn us about how we speak to each other?

Speaker 1 (37:06): It's because James is a pastor, and a pastor knows something about people under pressure. A pastor knows what waiting does to a soul. A pastor knows that when the waiting gets long and when the prayer goes unanswered, when the situation doesn't change, that something has to give. For most of us, what gives first is our mouth. Notice with me the first part of verse nine.

Unknown Speaker (37:39): He says, don't grumble

Speaker 2 (37:42): against one another, brethren.

Speaker 1 (37:46): Now the word that James uses here for grumbling in the original is very, very interesting. It's the word for a deep groan. It's the kind of sound that a person makes when they're being crushed under something that is really heavy. It's the sound of a person that can't take it anymore. And in fact, these are the same words that were used in the Old Testament to describe what the children of Israel did while they were slaves in Egypt.

Speaker 1 (38:21): Look at it with me in Exodus chapter two. It says, now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died, then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage. And they cried out and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. They groaned because of the bondage. They cried out because the oppression was crushing them and God heard them.

Speaker 1 (38:56): Now here's where it's where it's fascinating. The groan in Exodus was a groan of the oppressed crying out to God because of the injustice of their oppressors. This groan is holy. This groan is prayer. This groan is heard.

Speaker 1 (39:19): But the groan that James is warning us about is very, very different. I want you to notice where he directs it. Look at the verse again with me.

Speaker 2 (39:32): Don't grumble against one another, Brethren, against

Speaker 1 (39:40): one another, there's the problem. You see, the groan of the oppressed is a groan that goes up to God. And the groan that James is warning us about is a cry that gets aimed sideways. It's the brother next to us. It's the sister across the aisle.

Speaker 1 (40:03): It's the person that's in your life who didn't cause your problem, but they're the closest target when the pressure finally breaks. Church, I'm gonna be honest with you for just a moment because this is one of the most common sins in the church that needs to be repented of and nobody ever wants to talk about it. Because when the waiting gets long and when we can't reach the oppressor that is above us, we take it out on the people next to us. You can't tell your boss what you really think, and so you come home and you snap at your husband or your wife. You can't tell that landowner what you're really thinking, and so you complain about that brother at church who's getting blessed maybe with the same thing that you wanted.

Speaker 1 (41:00): You get tired of waiting on God for his timing, so you start talking about the pastor

Speaker 2 (41:08): or the people who sit in your pew, the

Unknown Speaker (41:13): person who said the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Unknown Speaker (41:17): James sees it.

Unknown Speaker (41:20): James names exactly what's

Unknown Speaker (41:24): going on. You know, we

Speaker 1 (41:26): live in a culture right now that tells us to vent. It teaches us that if you don't express what you're feeling, you're being unhealthy. And teaches you that you need to let it all out. That you need to really say what you think. And that you need to really be honest about how you feel.

Speaker 1 (41:51): And I understand where that's coming from, and I understand the fear of bottled up emotion, and I understand the the pastoral concern for people that are maybe holding too much inside. But church, I gotta tell you, there's a difference between taking your burden to the Lord than taking your burden out on your brothers and sisters. There's a difference between confession before the Lord and grumbling. There's a difference between asking for prayer or spending more time in gossip. You see the oppressed people in Egypt, they groan to God and God heard them and moved heaven and earth to deliver them.

Speaker 1 (42:46): 10 plagues in total, by the way. Here, this early church, the believers that James is writing to,

Speaker 2 (43:02): they're groaning against each other. And James says, stop. Stop it. Because that kind of a groan, it has nowhere to go. That kind of groan doesn't reach God.

Speaker 2 (43:24): That groan, that grumbling, it wounds the person who just like you is trying to be faithful, who's just trying to make it, and who's just trying to wait on the Lord like you're doing. Now watch what James says next. This next phrase is heavy. He says, lest you be condemned. That's eye opening.

Unknown Speaker (44:02): That's sobering.

Speaker 1 (44:06): What is James saying? He is saying that the grumbling against one another puts you under the same judgment as the oppressors that he's been talking about for the first six verses. Think about that. He spent six verses. We covered it in two weeks.

Speaker 1 (44:29): James told us that these wealthy landowners were under the judgment of God himself. He declared and pronounced judgment upon their heads. He said that the Lord of hosts has heard. He said that the day of slaughter is coming.

Speaker 2 (44:52): Now James turns to the church and he says, if you grumble against one another, you're walking into the same judgment that you were just told was going to fall on them. This is exactly what Jesus said. Matthew seven one, Jesus

Unknown Speaker (45:17): said, judge not to be not judged.

Speaker 2 (45:21): Jesus said the same thing, that the measure with which you use will be measured to you. In other words, if you want mercy, show mercy. If you want grace,

Speaker 1 (45:37): show grace. If you want God to be patient with you, be patient with other people around you. You know, Paul said the same thing. Listen to how he says it in Philippians. He says, do all things without complaining and disputing.

Speaker 1 (45:59): This is very interesting because the second word there in the original Greek for the word all, you're gonna

Speaker 2 (46:05): be shocked at this. All literally means all.

Unknown Speaker (46:14): Not some things,

Unknown Speaker (46:17): all things.

Speaker 1 (46:21): Here's the thing. When we begin to act out under pressure, it reveals what's actually going on on the inside of our hearts. And the way that we speak to the people that are closest to us reveals whether or not we believe God is actually in control. Now here's the thing. Some of you have bought into the lie that this is just how you are, that you cannot change, that you've always been this way, or you've got some kind of condition.

Speaker 2 (47:05): I tell you, I'm reminded

Unknown Speaker (47:09): that Lady Gaga is wrong.

Speaker 2 (47:13): You weren't born that way. Right? We say that with homosexuals. You weren't born that way. God did not create you as homosexuals.

Speaker 1 (47:24): There has not been a single and by the way, if you hear this from any educated idiot, and I say it bluntly, idiot, listen closely, I d I o t, idiot. If you ever hear somebody say that, you need to tell them they are an educated idiot. There has not ever been one autopsy that has found a single strand of DNA or any kind of indication that a person is born that way. That is a false narrative from secular humanism that has crept its way and unfortunately into the church. Unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (48:04): But if a homosexual wasn't born that way, if God can deliver them and set them free, why do the people of God keep saying, well, this I'm just this way. This is how God made me. God didn't make you to worry. God didn't make you to be in control. God didn't make you to be depressed.

Speaker 1 (48:27): God said, this is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. God didn't make you that way? Quit lying to yourself. Why do we say God didn't make them that way, but yet we allow God or scribe to God that we're made that way.

Speaker 1 (48:54): I think it's time to let go of what you can't control. I think it's time to quit worrying about what isn't worth worrying about. I think it's time to make a choice to get up every day and say, bless God. His promises are yes and amen. He's coming back.

Speaker 1 (49:14): I've got some work to do. Am I preaching? I want you to notice where James goes next. Notice this next phrase. The end of verse nine, he says, behold,

Unknown Speaker (49:36): judge is standing at the door.

Unknown Speaker (49:41): Now this is this is this is how arvin assembly is so relevant. You wanna know where we get our siren titles from? Right here at God's word is the title of the siren. Try to be cute for a moment. The judge is standing at the door.

Speaker 2 (50:00): Now James is giving an

Speaker 1 (50:03): illustration in this phrase that every single one of his readers, they would have known it immediately. In the ancient world, a judge didn't just appear out of nowhere. The court was waiting on him, and the judge would be announced, and the judge would enter into the courtroom with authority. And and when the judge was about ready to enter in, that told the people, you better get ready because court is about to be in session. There were no games.

Speaker 1 (50:45): There were no playing around. The proceedings were about to begin. And James is saying that the judge isn't coming someday. The judge isn't on his way. No.

Speaker 1 (50:58): He's saying that the judge is at the door. He is standing there right now. His hand is on the handle. The proceedings are about to begin. And church, I want you to remember what he said at the beginning.

Speaker 1 (51:17): The same judge who heard the cries of the oppressed is the same judge who is now standing at the door in verse nine. James is saying he can hear how you're treating your brothers and sisters in Christ. The judge who one day will judge the oppressor is the same judge that is watching your words even as you speak. Because if the judge is at the door, you can't afford to grumble. If the judge is at the door, you can't afford to be bitter.

Speaker 1 (52:02): If he's at the door, you can't afford to take your frustration with the situation out on the people around you that didn't cause it. When the judge is out at the door, you will

Speaker 2 (52:15): watch your words. You will respect his authority. So let

Speaker 1 (52:28): me bring this home for a moment. What does it look like today to grumble against one another? Maybe it's a text message that you send to another person about a mutual friend. Maybe it looks like a a post on social media where I'm not naming names. I'm not naming anybody, but everybody knows what you're talking about.

Speaker 1 (53:01): Are you serious? It looks like a a a a grumble or complaint against your spouse every day about the person at work, and it never gets turned into prayer.

Speaker 2 (53:17): Looks like how you talk about your brother or sister out in the parking lot. You think nobody's listening. Looks

Speaker 1 (53:25): like when you go to lunch after church, you got more to say than what you heard in God's word. Here's what I want you to hear.

Speaker 2 (53:38): The judge who's standing at the door, he hears. Every

Speaker 1 (53:45): single one of those words, every text message, every post, every comment, every whisper. And this isn't because he's trying to keep some list to use against you, but it's because God loves you and he loves the people that you're talking about. And God knows that grumbling poisons the soul and and that it poisons the the person that receives it. James is trying to say there's a better way. When waiting on God might seem like it's been a long time for some of you, Don't take it out.

Speaker 1 (54:29): On others, take it to God, not to your friend, not to your spouse, not to your social media feed. Talk to God. In the Bible, that's called prayer. Groan like the Israelites groaned. Cry out to him.

Speaker 1 (54:48): Tell him everything. Tell him you can't take it anymore. Tell him how tired you are because God can handle your groan. You need to hear this this morning. Your spouse can't always handle your groan.

Speaker 1 (55:04): Your brother or sister at church can't always handle your groan. That friend on the other end of the line can't always handle your groan. We need to start telling folks besides read your bible, what's the next part? Pray. Have you been praying lately?

Speaker 1 (55:24): How's your prayer life? Have you taken this to God? Have you talked to God about your situation? Why are you all been sideways about whatever it is that's going on? Have you had a good prayer session lately?

Speaker 1 (55:40): When's the last time you got in your prayer closet? Because when you take your groan to God, it turns into something else. It stops becoming grumbling, and it turns into prayer. And that kind of a prayer reaches the ears of the Lord of hosts, the judge who's at the door. Would you stand your feet with me this morning?

Speaker 1 (56:17): When the waiting seems like it's been so long and when it seems like you're not sure how much longer you can take it, when it when it seems like you're tempted to take things into your own hands. This morning, James, from God's word, has given us two answers. He's told us to wait with purpose, to establish and to strengthen our hearts. Don't get fattened on

Speaker 2 (56:47): disappointment. Stand on the promise of God's word that he is coming back. And then he told us to watch our words. Don't let that pressure

Speaker 1 (57:03): go sideways. Don't grumble and talk about one another. Take it to God. Two answers. There are two more that are on the way.

Unknown Speaker (57:14): Would you join me in prayer?