James Fires The Scuds

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Avendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, I'm Mike Avendroth, and it is a

Saturday, it's almost noon in real time, and I sound like I'm stuffy,

I can hear myself in my own headphones here. And I think it's because these are about the first words

I've uttered all day. My wife left early to go surfing, my daughter, the one daughter that still lives at home, she went out with a friend for a coffee,

I said goodbye, that's about all I said, I love you, goodbye, and that's it. So these are the first words pretty much out of my mouth, that's why

I sound like what I sound like. If you've got questions or comments, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

You can see us a little bit on Facebook, I guess, Twitter some. Not much activity on Facebook, a little on Twitter these days, not as much there either.

And I haven't filmed any new videos on No Compromise YouTube channel, but you never know.

Conference coming up end of October, early November, Community Bible Church in Ohio on sanctification -slash -law -gospel, excited to be with my friend

John Tucker there, Pastor John. And that's about all the information I have now for you.

Today I'd like to talk a little bit more about James, and since I come in on Saturdays, I like to review my sermons.

You're the guinea pig, as you know, and then I talk about him in ways that are not preachy, but more noco radio.

So I have probably a seminary style, I have a noco style, I have a preaching style, and I have a fashion style.

Already today though, I want you to know, Saturday before noon, I have my clothes out for tomorrow.

I put my preaching glasses out, and my watch, and the rings, because I'm not wearing rings these days, like wedding rings and stuff,

I don't get out much. On Sundays, I wear them if I'm going out of town,

I wear it, I say them because I got those nylon ones or whatever.

But I have my sports coat, my tie, my shirt, shoes, all that stuff, it's all out, ready to go.

I want that all done. That comes from the, you got four little kids in the house, and Sunday morning, total nightmare, you can't find a kid's sock, and there's not any breakfast.

And then there's just pressure, like if anything could go wrong, then, you know, it does, and then there's just, you know, it doesn't make a good

Sunday. So anyway, if you have a Bible, and you want to turn to James chapter five, that's what we're going to be talking about today.

Many folks think that James, while full of imperatives, doesn't talk a whole lot about the

Lord. Now, it does not mention our Lord's atoning work, or resurrection, although you can sniff, if you will, some of the benefits to that, and, you know, there are things like chapter one, verse 18, and causes to be born again type of language, it's, you know, born again by His will.

Actually, I should just, since it's not popping into my mind, I do know the verse, but somehow

I'm just not thinking about it right now, of His own will, He brought us forth by the word of truth, that's

ESV, that's not the one in my mind, coming down from the Father of lights, the earlier verse, with whom there's no variation or shadow.

So, but if you look at the section in James chapter five, verses seven through 11,

Lord in verse seven, Lord in verse eight, Judge, would be equivalent to our capital

J, Judge, in verse nine, Lord, verse 10, Lord, verse 11, and Lord, verse 11.

It's interesting, because it talks a lot about who Jesus is.

It will talk about His return, it will talk about, and that's going to have to imply

His resurrection, it's going to talk about the purpose of God, His compassionate nature, His mercy, all in that section, the

Lord is compassionate and merciful, He's got a purpose, so I think

James five is much more, or James overall, is much more God -centered,

Christ -centered when you think of kurios, Lord, than sometimes people think it might be.

Anyway, so today we want to talk about the Lord God, and here in James five, which is very apropos for today, how do you deal with stress that's put upon you from the world, from the government, from other people,

I mean, it could even be down to your spouse and your employer or your educator, or, you know, you just, what do you do?

What's the Christian response? How do we, in light of our salvation, in light of our, in light of the indwelling

Holy Spirit, in light of the double benefit of Jesus, not only pardon, but also power to obey, how do we live when there's a lot of pressure?

And of course, I just think to myself, as I look at my gray hair, sometimes I don't deal with it so well, so I'd like to deal with it better, so that I might, out of gratitude, honor the

Lord, and of course, you'll hear it here on No Compromise Radio over and over and over and over, that we want to respond to our salvation with gratitude, and so we want to obey in light of that, right?

We want to be thankful, and so we want to obey, and I haven't been called an antinomian for quite some time, but if I see people adding works to the gospel, adding obedience to the gospel, adding love to the gospel, that is the response to the gospel of faith only, you start adding anything to faith, then

I'm going to jump down your proverbial throat, hopefully in a way that might get your attention.

But that's not to say I don't believe that we shouldn't obey and love and keep

God's commandments. It's just the right order. So today, on No Compromise Radio, we're going to look at at least the beginning section there of James, chapter 5, verses 1 and following, about patience.

Let's go down to verse 12, even. I don't think I can get it in this first show, but 1 to 12 really talks about being patient, knowing that the

Lord Jesus is going to come back. And so what he does first in verses 1 to 6, we talked about this last show, which was yesterday in my mind, literally.

Why is he excoriating these rich people in chapter 5, verses 1 through 6?

And the reason he's doing that is he's trying to encourage believers. He's trying to encourage you.

If you think the rich oppress, the powerful oppress, the government oppresses, the government persecutes, people with positions of authority get after the

Christians, and of course these Christians here are being persecuted and dispersed,

James 1. So how do you respond? James encourages the Christians in verse 7, be patient, therefore, and what he's saying is, listen, the rich will be judged.

The persecutors will be judged. Those that are oppressing people,

Christians, and making you scatter, they're going to get their own judgment. So just be encouraged.

You're waiting for the Lord, and this is what's going to happen. When the

Lord comes back for you, it will be a wonderful thing. For them, it's going to be really bad.

And you need to know and receive comfort and encouragement that God knows.

God knows what's going on. And he wants you, when you're taken advantage of by courts and law and the system and the man, as it were, he knows.

And here's what they're going to get, justice will be served. That's the point. Verse 1, come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.

These are going to be final judgment miseries. Did I say mysteries? I hope

I didn't say mysteries. These are miseries, a misery, plural, miseries.

These are coming upon these rich people. And of course, it's important to say that riches don't damn people, but it's hard to be rich and be saved because you're dependent on your own riches.

There are rich people in the Bible, there are instructions in the epistles on how rich people should act, has nothing to do with riches.

It's good to have rich Christians, but they are the exception usually and not the rule.

These particular rich people, he doesn't even call them brothers, does he? He says, come now, you rich.

This is like an Old Testament prophet, a denunciation of the rich language.

And he is really after them and trying to get with sharp attention.

You better listen, you rich. These are the ones that are persecuting the Christians.

And these are the ones that are not acting properly. He says, do you notice there in verse one, weep.

I mean, I want you to just really cry out loud and howl. This language here is amazing.

Very intense grief. This is, according to some commentators, a despair howl like wolves at night.

And it's always in the context of judgment. This is what you say. This is how you respond when judgment day.

It's a weeping. It's a howling. It is certainly misery. And of course, we don't really like to talk this way, do we?

And you think to yourself, I don't even know if I want the rich judged that way, but this is in fact what

God will do because he will judge every sin, right? Either that sin will be judged on the Lord Jesus or it'll be judged on you or people who don't believe.

And James is trying to tell people that the vengeance of God is going to be horrific.

And they will then respond with this kind of weeping and wailing. It sounds just like Joel 1, weep and wail all you wine drinkers on account of the sweet wine that is cut off from your mouth.

That's what it sounds like, audible sobbing, wretched conditions coming upon you.

Well, you know what? But my dad believes, my mom believes, my friends believe. No, no. If you aren't a believer, in this particular case,

James is wanting to know, letting the believers know, rich people, they're going to have their day in court as it were, and it's not going to go well for them.

Verse 2, your riches, he says, of these rich unbelieving persecutors, maybe a few are in the church, but most likely he's just addressing people that are not even there.

Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire.

You have laid up treasure in the last days. This is the kind of language that's given by James to make me, and should make you think, these people who are receiving this aren't

Christians. These people are unbelievers. There's no hope of repentance.

There's no be sorrowful and turn and draw near to God and he'll draw near to you.

This is, you know, you're going to lay up treasures in heaven that are just money.

They're not really getting laid up in heaven now, are they? You're going to lay up treasures in the last days.

That's amazing language right there. You have laid up treasure in the last days.

Oh, verse three. You know, it's like the exact opposite of what

Jesus says, where you should lay up treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Wow. The Lord's going to come back and there's going to be a day of accounting.

And of course we just learned in chapter four, life is short and so better be ready, better be careful.

People are going to have to face judgment and James in a very prophetic style, in a condemnation style, says, you know what, there are going to be witnesses called to this judgment, to this bar of justice, and it's going to be riches that you could have used for all kinds of things.

Of course, I didn't say you have to give everything away if you're rich and you have to be like plat radical.

I don't, we've already talked about that in the last shows. And he, James, just really, he really just goes after him and he just basically could be summarized by Proverbs 11, riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

Verse four, behold, the wages of the labors who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud are crying out against you and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the

Lord of hosts. See there's all kinds of language here about the Lord. This is not one of these epistles that doesn't talk about who

God is. He, James, now with language of vivid clarity, uses this type of figures, these types of figures of speech and you're just like, oh, crying out against you and God hears.

You're supposed to pay people. If it's a day labor, you're supposed to pay people that day, right?

Or if they don't get paid, they don't eat. Their family doesn't eat.

These poor laborers and dealing with the unscrupulous rich. No wonder

Isaiah says about these kinds of people, woe, right? Woe to those who deprive the needy of justice.

Well, my name is Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio. We're going through James 5 a little bit and just seeing how seriously

God takes this. It says this injustice reaches the

Lord of the Sabbath. No, the Sabaoth. If you look at the text, it says the

Lord of hosts and you could translate it Sabaoth, our host. And of course, this is a title of God and he's the almighty and he has power and he has omnipotence and therefore he's not going to just let injustice go, right?

He's going to do something. He's got a host of armies that are going to take care of these people who didn't pay the wages of people who actually worked and that's what's going on here in James 4.

It says in verse 5, you have lived on the earth in luxury and in self -indulgence. You have fattened your heart in a day of slaughter.

And this is all for the believers to hear so that they might realize God knows, God cares, it's

God's timeframe, therefore I have to be patient until the coming of the

Lord. These rich people are fattening their hearts in the day of slaughter.

You fatten up a cow and then you slaughter it. And so the same kind of language here.

It is picturesque. It is the idea of a cow you want to just gorge, you want to have the cow gorge itself on all kinds of nutritious things so it's nice and fat so then when you kill it you've got yourself a nice steak.

Pretty amazing. I read where scientists have put some kind of sensor on a cow when it goes into the slaughterhouse and they don't even know what's going on.

Their blood pressure doesn't go up, their heart rate doesn't go up. Sad when that happens.

God has written eternity in our hearts and we should be thinking about judgment and that day, that terrible day.

It says you have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you. Why doesn't he resist you? Because he can't.

He can't resist you. He doesn't have the power, he doesn't have the money, he doesn't have the connections and so he can't resist you and therefore you rich people do all this.

So, what's the point of 5, 1 to 6? A lot of people argue about this and it just, in my mind, and many commentators will just use

Calvin. You ought to read Calvin, it's free online and if you're ever teaching anything from the Bible, very succinct, insightful, you would have a benefit if you read

Calvin and his commentaries. He, along with other guys, would say, you know, this is not for believers that are rich in the church.

There's no hope of repentance. These words are given primarily so that believers can hear this and realize the oppressors will not get away with it, right?

The Lord understands and I think that's the real issue here. What's the response to all this?

A social revolution? Is that the response? No, no, it's going to be patience in suffering.

So we now move to chapter 5, verse 7 and that's really what was going on here.

Be patient, therefore, brothers. How can you be patient? Well, it's not going to be an eternal persecution, a persecution from the rich and from those in government positions and those who have power and authority and money and wealth and connections.

It's not going to be forever. The Lord is going to come back. Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the

Lord. This section here in 5, 7 to 11 and even down into verse 12, it really resonates with me because I've always loved

Psalm 37 and Psalm 37, at least a few verses, reads like this.

Verse 1, fret not yourself because of evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.

Verse 5, commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday.

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourselves over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices.

And then down in verse 10, in just a little while, the wicked will be no more. Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.

I think that's what's happening here, don't you? That's what's going on. Don't fret, right?

You just need to wait patiently before the Lord. Be still before Yahweh. And that's what you're going to see in this section, in 7 to 11.

You're going to see patience mentioned four times, are the root, patiently, you know, are patient.

You're going to see steadfastness or endurance a couple times, and you're going to see the second coming either directly stated or the allusions to the second coming,

I believe, three times. You can be patient because Jesus is coming back, knowing that Christ will return.

How do we live? Since we're Christians, we long for the return of Christ, not as our judge, but as our ultimate

Savior. And how do we live? That's what's going on. Whenever I say the word, how do we live?

I just always think of Francis Schaeffer, how then shall we live, right? Wasn't that a movie of his and he was walking along in those, what do you call those socks that go up real high?

He was wearing that funky kind of Austrian getup. I don't know.

I don't think he wore some clogs, and I know they weren't Crocs because Crocs weren't invented yet. Lederhosen.

Is that it? I think so. Schmodehosen. I got sidetracked.

I was supposed to be going to Germany in January to teach a preaching class. For a master's degree program, and most of the classes there are in German, some in Russian at European Bible Training Center, EBTC.

But the master's class is in English, and that's a lot better. The whole translator thing,

I thought I might get better at it. It's hard. It's hard to have a cadence and talking and building up to a point and using your words to talk slowly, fast, fastly.

Talk faster. Anyway, when I said Lederhosen, then

I thought about Schmodehosen, smarty pants, even though Schmode is, I don't think, a German word.

Okay. I'm supposed to be patient. With whom am

I supposed to be patient? Well, we're going to see that in a second. Be patient therefore, brothers, now he's talking to Christians, until the coming of the

Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and late rains.

You also be patient. What do you think he's trying to say?

Jesus is going to right all wrongs. I want you to be comforted.

I want you to be patient. I know it's hard to wait.

Before bearing and to use the biblical words that we probably never use outside of the

Bible, a Bible environment is be long suffering. It means to hold out during a trial.

It means to, as Vincent said, a long protracted restraint of the soul from yielding to passion, especially the passion of anger.

Be long tempered. Wait with patient expectation.

It's present tense, keep on waiting. It's an imperative. Be willing to endure difficult things, hardship.

Keep your spirit in check. Restrain yourself. Don't let all this persecution by these people in power make you bitter and make you despair and make you act like you don't even recognize that there's a

Lord who's coming back. That's the idea. It doesn't mean stoicism. Here it's talking about long suffering.

Well, I just looked at the time and talk about long suffering. My name's Mike Ebendroth. It's No Compromise Radio. We're at 24 minutes and 20 seconds.

I still try to keep it at 2430 because we're on a radio station in Alaska. By the way, if you're listening from Alaska, why don't you write me and say,

I listened, so I'd like to know. Thanks. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.