Here Comes the Judge - Part 10

Transitions

Love in Action’s new outreaches: We were hoping to release today but it did not work. We will be releasing soon a new vision for this dept.

Vision Partners: We have a group of new VPs that we want to present to the congregation in the next couple of weeks.

Starting next week, Pre-Service Prayer will be in the sanctuary every week starting at 5:40-6:20.

Offering and bulletins: We will change how the offerings are received and the bulletins are distributed.

Juan and Stacie P. are stepping down from Youth Department at the end of July, due to a full-time job position they have taken at a church in Portland. Pastor Sarah Alvarez will be stepping into interim leadership over the Youth Group.

Peter and Traci W. are transitioning at the end of July from leadership over Worship Dept. to a new department which will be announced at a later time. Matt and Katy R. will are being appointed as the new leaders of this Department starting in August.

Recap from Last Time

Faith that Works Part 9: Playing God - James 4:11-17

1) Katalaleo = Speak evil

To speak degradingly, defame, or slander

A. Don’t be judgy

2) Evil speech is incompatible with being a disciple - Lev 19:16

3) It’s more than libel, it includes gossip, rumors, sarcasm, and critical speech

4) Judging a fellow believer = judging the law = judging God, the giver of the law

5) When we speak evil of another we are not seeing them as an image bearer of God

James 4:11 “Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and CONDEMNS his brother, speaks evil of the law and CONDEMNS the law. But if you CONDEMN the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.”

6) How do we Discern/Judge Rightly?

1. We understand that we don’t have the right to condemn anyone

2. Judging righteously requires gathering all the evidence, hearing a matter out, and then making a righteous judgment

3. It should be done without hypocrisy, meaning that we don’t call out the behavior we have not dealt with first

7) We all make judgments, let’s make sure that they are the right ones!

8) People acquired wealth in the Roman world by being:

a. Landowners

b. Merchants

B. Don’t assume you have tomorrow

9) A presumptuous attitude: thinking you are in control

Are you following God’s will or your own?

Dressing our own will in religious clothing

10) If life is like a vapor, how much vapor do you have left?

11) Hebel in the Psalms: Ps 39:5, Ps. 39:11, Ps 62:9, Ps 144:4

12) God gives us the start and He holds the end but we get the privilege to fill in the in-between

13) This is more than saying “if the Lord wills” after every plan you make. It is about an attitude of the heart

14) What are three areas of life you need to bring God into the center of? List three

C. Don’t neglect to do good

15) The presence of knowledge + the absence of obedience = sin

Your heavenly Father does not want you to conform to this world, but He does want you to conform to the image of His son.

Application

1. Speaking critically about or to a fellow believer is to transgress God and His law.

2. Speaking against another believer is to sit in judgment of God and His law and to usurp His authority.

3. Life is unpredictable and not under our control, therefore we need to stop playing God.

4. We need to acknowledge God’s sovereignty by humbly bringing our desires, plans, and will to Him and allowing Him to realign things for us.

5. Knowing truth is not enough, we must conform our lives to the truth we have received.

Let’s open to James 4:13

Faith that Works Part 10: Here Comes the Judge - James 5:1-11

James 4:13–17

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

The last time we were in James, we talked about the proud attitude that the merchants exhibited. An arrogant attitude that presumes to be in control, instead of relying on God, it relies on self.

We talked about wealth in the Roman Empire.

1) Wealth in the Roman world was acquired mainly by:

a. Merchants

b. Landowners

James now turns to wealthy landowners, who are oppressing and taking advantage of their workers:

James 5:1–2

1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.

Listen, James is not talking against wealth or the wealthy. He is speaking to a specific group of people that have acquired their wealth by taking advantage and exploiting the poor for gain. There are plenty of examples of godly rich/wealthy people in the Bible.

Clark County Median Income 37,704 USD (2020) You are in the richest 2.9% of the global population. Your income is more than 13.4 times the global median.

Graph from the Global Wealth Calculator. What’s the point? You live in the richest country in the history of the world, and according to statistics you are in the 5% of the world.

2) The problem is not with wealth, but with how it is gained, and where our heart allegiance is

James reminds us of Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 6:19–21

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

3) There are two questions when it comes to material wealth:

a. How was it gained? Through honest work or exploitation of others?

b. Are you trusting in riches, more than in the living God?

If honesty, integrity, and trust in God as the provider, are the source of your wealth, then your riches are not corrupted but are a tool for you to further the Kingdom.

4) We need to always remember that material wealth is temporal

5) What is temporal wealth?

a. Anything that can devalue over time or disappear from one moment to the next

Note: In order to make heavenly treasure you have to have earthly treasure. Feeding the poor, giving to the needy, funding the Kingdom, etc. If you are not giving, you are only hoarding for yourself.

6) God has a way of tipping the balances, taking what man has hoarded and giving it to His faithful people

James 5:3

3 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.

The Epistle of James (2. The Test by the Wealthy 5:1–6) - NIGTC Commentary

The rust or tarnish of precious metals was proverbial and the proverbial sense indicated not only temporality, but also uselessness.

The “last days” broke in with the Lord’s first coming.

7) The Parable of the Rich Fool - Luke 12:15-21

Luke 12:15–18

15 And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” 16 Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17 And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 18 So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.

Luke 12:19–21

19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ 21 “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

8) Rich toward God is our ultimate goal

James 5:4

4 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.

9) Paying in a timely fashion - Deut. 24:14-15, Lev. 19:13

In the ancient world, people worked for a daily wage. Since people subsisted from day to day, it was very important that they received their wages in a timely fashion. Verse 4 makes it clear that these wealthy landowners were blackmailing their workers by not paying them on time. The Torah has something to say about this. James is referencing this Scripture in his teaching to wealthy landowners.

Deuteronomy 24:14–15

14 “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates. 15 Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be sin to you.

Leviticus 19:13

13 ‘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.

What is the practical application for us? If you are a worker, it is perfectly normal to expect your pay at the agreed upon time. If you are an employer, be a person of your word (and barring any unforeseen circumstances) pay your people on time.

10) The cry of the righteous

1. The murder of Abel - Genesis 4:10

Genesis 4:10

10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.

2. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah - Genesis 19:13

Genesis 19:13

13 For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”

3. Deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt - Exodus 2:23

Exodus 2:23

23 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.

11) God cares about injustice

Have you ever thought that no one cares?

Psalm 12:5

5 “Because of the violence done to the oppressed, because of the painful cries of the needy, I will spring into action,” says the Lord. “I will provide the safety they so desperately desire.”

The Lord Sabaoth

12) Sabaoth is a transliteration of the Hebrew Tzevaot = Hosts or Armies

a. The LORD of Heaven’s Armies

James 5:5

5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

13) The idea of fattening the calf speaks to the amassing or hoarding of wealth

James 5:6

6 You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

The Letter of James 7.2.4.2. Violence (5:6)

The language is from the courtroom; it describes abuse of power against the powerless with the intent to increase wealth and power.

James Warning to the Rich / 5:1–6

These innocent men are believers, the poor workmen and harvesters mentioned in 5:4. This murder probably was both active and passive. Inconvenient people may indeed have been murdered; but more likely, the poor people who could not pay their debts were thrown in prison or forced to sell all their possessions. With no means of support and no opportunity even to work off their debts, these poor people and their families often died of starvation. God also considered this murder. Either way, in the unjust system, it was legal. The poor were defenseless ( were not opposing you). Their only recourse against the evil rich was to cry out to God.

14) Some landowners had developed killing gangs in order to deal with “problematic” tenants

The killing was both literal and figurative. Figuratively, they were taking the poor to the courts, making false accusations, and taking all they had as in James 2:6.

15) Acquiring wealth in an unjust manner becomes an all consuming obsession

Have you seen what happens in families over inheritances?

Ecclesiastes 5:10

10 The one who loves money will never be satisfied with money, he who loves wealth will never be satisfied with his income. This also is futile.

James 5:7–8

7 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. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

16) How should we deal with difficult situations? Wait on the Lord

17) The Greek word for Patience is MACROTHYMEO and it means to be long-tempered or ready for the long haul

Macro = Long, Thymeo = Tempered

Macro speaks to having the “big picture”.

This walk is not a sprint, it is a marathon. We need to stop trying to be the microwave and be the crock pot. Nice and slow, wins the game.

James 1:4

4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

18) The farmer is an excellent example of hard work and great reward

We are not waiting for nothing, the Lord will reward our wait.

19) Great things happen to those who hang on

James 5:9

9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!

20) “While you wait, don’t grumble and complain...” Paraphrase of James 5:9

What do people do when they stand in a line waiting for a long time? Complain

21) The easiest thing to do when we are waiting is to complain

Complaining does nothing to make a situation better, it actually makes things worse!

It doesn’t take skill, grace, or a special anointing. But refraining does require skill, grace, and a special anointing.

22) Complaining is what we do outwardly, but grumbling is what we do internally

23) Instead, of complaining/grumbling we should be grateful (internal) and thankful (external)

What do you say when someone gives you a gift? Thank you!

You can only be grateful for what you have. By definition, you cannot be grateful for something you don’t have.

James 5:10

10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience.

The prophets as an example of steadfastness:

Matthew 5:12

12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

James 5:11

11 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.

24) James singles out one specific example, Job

a. Job was accused by satan of loving God only because of the provision and protection He provided - Job 1:9–11

b. Job worshipped God in the midst of his circumstances, and God met him there - Job 2:9–10

c. God restored to Job all and double what he had before - Job 42:10

Application

1. The problem is not with wealth but with how it is gained, and where our heart allegiance is at. Our devotion needs to be first and foremost to the Lord.

2. God will rectify injustice and oppression. He will vindicate you!

3. Let’s learn to be patient, long-tempered, and ready for the long haul. This faith walk is not a sprint but a marathon.

4. We need to do our part and then let God do the rest.

5. Instead of grumbling (internal) and complaining (external), let’s be grateful (internal) and thankful (external).

6. The Judge is coming to make all things right. Let’s live like court is now in session.

AMEN!