Patiently Enduring In The Last Days – 2A

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Today on Real Life Radio.

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Be careful about our criticism and our grumbling. Why? Because it could result in a dangerous end. The judge is at the door.

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This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible.

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Hey, Pastor Jack here. I want to give you guys a quick update on what’s going on in Southern California in wake of the devastating and forever life-altering fires that have ravaged the Southland. Things have never been like this before. And I mean that where a fire has never been seen like this before, where the sky was aflame and the winds were blowing 80, 90 miles an hour, flames and fire horizontally. has devastated homes by the tens of thousands, and there’s over 150,000 people without a home. And I say all that, my friends, to encourage you to consider this. Please, please consider giving to the Samaritan’s Purse organization. Franklin Graham, We’re working with them. We’re on the grounds here in our own neighborhood, so to speak, of Los Angeles, Malibu, the Palisades, Eaton Canyon, Altadena, areas of Pasadena. And it is overwhelmingly epic. I promise you this. Give what you can to Samaritan’s Purse. SamaritansPurse.org. SamaritansPurse.org. Go there and send support to them regarding the Southern California fires. Please do not send us any of your money. Do not send it to Real Life. Do not send it to Real Radio. Please send it direct. Your contribution is a 501c3 tax-deductible contribution to the right people. Samaritans Purse, and you can go to SamaritansPurse.org. Thank you very much.

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On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series now called The Book of James with the message titled, Patiently Enduring in the Last Days, Part 2. You know, before it became one of the books of the New Testament, James was a letter sent to the Jews who chose to follow Christ. And as new believers, James encourages them to endure and be patient in all things through Christ. You see, waiting patiently for the Lord to come is the Christian attitude we all need to have. Luxury and ease often lead to corruption, faithlessness, and grumbling. While on the other hand, hardship and dependency on God leads to faith, expectancy, and patience. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that when our hearts wait with excitement for the Lord’s return, it shows others the true nature of the gospel of Christ. Now, we may not be treated well in this life, but our reward is coming soon. Now, with his message called, Patiently Enduring in the Last Days, Part 2, here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.

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You grab your Bibles and turn to James chapter 5, verses 9 through 12. This is Part two, the message that we began last week, patiently enduring in the last days. Patiently enduring in these last days. You might wonder, well, are we really in the last days? Well, I don’t know. God said in the Old Testament that once I bring my people Israel back from all those nations of the world into her own land again a second time, she will never again be uprooted from where I have planted her. And that happened on May 14th. 1948. We are living in the days of incredible prophetic times. And we’ll have a prophecy update maybe next Sunday or the Sunday after. Too much is going on. There’s too much happening right now in the former Soviet Union. There’s too much happening right now regarding the desire of the Arab nations to destroy Israel in a great battle. There’s too much happening in the world regarding economics. that all point to the Scripture, and the Bible is already mentioned in advance. But today we’re talking about patiently enduring these last days. And we’re in James 5, beginning at verse 9. So what James says to us there, he says, 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. Indeed, we count them blessed who endured. Verse 2. Verse 3. So James this morning is teaching us what he began last week in verses 1 through 8, and that is that there’s a difference between the Christian and what he says and what he does. They’re both in harmony one with another, versus those who say they’re believers in God and yet don’t live like it. And James is saying us, as we’ve mentioned many times before, I’ll observe your life and I’ll tell you if you’re a Christian or not. That’s what James means when he’s talking about Christian works. We are not saved by our works. We are saved by putting our faith in Christ Jesus who died on the cross for us. If that be true in my life and in your life, What will justify our faith before mankind is our works. You see how they dovetail together? Before God, we’re justified by faith. We trust by looking back to what Christ has done on the cross. We’re saved. But if we truly are trusting in what Jesus has done, then our life, as it’s lived out, will show forth to all people around us that we have, in fact, met Christ, and, in fact, Christ is living his life through us in this world. So this morning, we’re going to be looking at patiently enduring in these last days. By the way, we are, you know, in these last days. That’s not open to an opinion. You might say, well, it’s tough. It’s my opinion. It can’t be your opinion. The Bible says we’re in the last days. And John, the Apostle John says… I love John. He says, we’re in the last hour. May it be true. What if we’re in the last hour right now? 2,000 years ago, the apostle John says, we’re in the last hour. In all of history, in all of the time scheme and the realm of things, John says, we’re in the last hour. James says, let’s be patient in the last days. Paul tells us that we are to be watching and looking and waiting for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus himself said that he’ll come. And to those who are watching for him, that are ready for him. He will receive unto Himself. The Christian will be the one watching. The Christian will be the one ready. But we need to be careful in these last days. James is teaching us that there’s a great difference from what we say versus what we do. Are we truly believers in Christ? And do we really conduct our lives like we believe in Him? So our text this morning is important to us because it is explaining to us how we are to be patiently enduring in these last days. Every Christian that makes a decision to stand for Christ will experience difficulty in these last days. Now listen carefully. You may be a brand new Christian. And you’re a little bit shy yet. I understand that. Or you may be an old seasoned saint. And you may have shared the Lord with thousands of people in your lifetime. It is always a spiritual event. And it takes the Holy Spirit himself. That if we’re a young believer or if we’re an old believer, he uses us to share the glorious gospel with those that are around us. He uses human tools, but so does Satan. The Bible says in the last days, Jesus warned us that just before he came back, you would be able to look across the horizon of the world and see many false prophets. I met a guy last week in England who was sitting on a park bench and he said, I don’t worship Jesus Christ, I worship and follow Sai Baba. And I don’t know if you know who Sai Baba is, but there are people proclaiming that Sai Baba has raised people from the dead. That he’s got extreme powers and that he is, in fact, the Messiah. Now, what would you do if Sai Baba landed at Ontario Airport and began raising people from the dead, but his message was different than the Bible’s message? Well, Jesus said that in the last days there will be such deception on the earth. that if it were possible, which makes it impossible, even the very elect would be deceived. We need to have our guard up, and we need to know what the Bible teaches us, and be ready. Man, we’re living in great times, exciting times, if you know the Lord. If you don’t know the Lord, then you’re probably on cocaine, Budweiser, I mean, something. I mean, I don’t know how you even got here today if you don’t know the Lord. It’s just been by His grace. What keeps you going? I don’t know. I just know that when I open up my Bible, praise God, I know that by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, I’m going to heaven. And that God has written prophecy down in advance. He’s written this thing, this wonderful His story, history, all in advance that we might know. Jesus said, in fact, when you see these things happening, you will know that I am He. Only God prophesies history. Correctly. False prophets are exactly that. They’re false. And they’ll use deceiving signs and wonders. And James is going to be talking to us about being patient in the last days. First point, jot it down if you would, if you’re note-taking. The Christian who is patiently enduring the last days, our first point is found in verse 9. We will be guarding against a critical attitude. Mark it down, will you? we will be guarding ourselves against a critical attitude. What’s a critical attitude? Well, it can be something as seemingly innocent as, how come he doesn’t have a suit on this morning? Where’s his tie anyway? It could be that. It could be as mean as, in your heart or in your mind, you’re holding an opinion about somebody and you are even in fact propagating rumors and words about someone. And an attempt to destroy, critical attitude, an attitude that is always looking for something wrong, can never say what’s right about a situation, always looking for the negative. When somebody stands up and says, we can do it, this person will always spout off eventually at some point in time, you know, I call them Eeyores. If you’ve ever watched Winnie and the Pooh, can’t happen. It’s impossible. It’ll never work. And they’re just kind of those kind of people. And James is telling us in the last days, we need to be patiently guarding our hearts against a critical attitude. And he’s going to show us an example. Look at verse 9. He says, do not grumble against one another. He must have been writing this to some other church. He’s not writing it to us, but we’ll just listen anyway. Brethren, lest you be condemned, behold, the judge is standing at the door. First thing I want you to see is that our human nature is bent on grumbling. Isn’t that funny? Our human nature is bent on grumbling. Remember when God was leading the people out from Egypt? What did they do? They grumbled and complained. How many of us have kids? Yeah, you know exactly. Grumble and complain. This is what we’re going to eat for dinner. Oh, man. No, we can’t have pizza. for the 11th time this week, you know? Oh, man! Well, the children of Israel, 2.5 plus million of them, walking through the desert, Moses said, lunch break, and it’s manna. They got manna in the morning, manna at noonday, manna at suppertime. They had manna pancakes, they had But manna bread, they had manna cottie, they had manna bologna, they had manna everything. Everything was manna. But it sustained them. They were healthy, they were becoming strong, and God was preparing them to be the people, a nomad people, that would be established as a nation unlike any other government on the face of the earth. And what did they do? They just complained about it. And I love this story. You read the book of Exodus, and it just cracks me up. You’ve heard me say it before, but they’re complaining and griping, and Moses, that’s it. Moses is like, I can’t take it anymore. And he goes and he talks to God. He says, I can’t take it. God, kill them. Kill them all. I can’t take these people anymore. Nearly three million people complaining. And God says, now, Moses, be patient. Take it easy, Moses. I’m a God merciful and slow to anger and gentle and kind. And you read, you read it carefully. The next day, the people are sinning against God. And God says, Moses, get out of the way. I’m going to kill him. I’m going to destroy him. Moses, move. I’m going to fry him. And Moses says, now, Lord, remember what you told them, that you were going to deliver them, that you were going to be a great provider for them. Besides, what would all the pagan nations say if you did that? Isn’t that hilarious? It’s a good thing that God and Moses didn’t agree on a certain day. We have a propensity to grumble. Now, on this last trip to England, we all ate together. We ate together. We’re all eating. And somebody would order something, and somebody would order the other thing, and it doesn’t matter what you order, their food always looks better. And you begin to grumble. I shouldn’t have ordered this. Why? Yours looks really good. And it doesn’t matter. Just because you don’t have it and they do, it tastes better in your mind. It just tastes better. I want what they have. Grumbling.

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You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And for now, let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.

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Grumbling against one another. The word do not grumble. The word do not in Greek is stop grumbling. Stop it. James is saying that every Christian grumbles. How’s that grab you? James says you grumble. James says that I grumble. And he says stop it. God punished the nation for grumbling and complaining. And the scripture says here that the judge, he’s standing at the door. You better not grumble. You better not grumble against one another. Well, what does it mean, Jack, that the judge is at the door? I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound good. Sounds like that’s pretty serious if you ask me concerning the church and grumbling. Don’t you think? Now, what we are so hypocritical about, we’ll turn to our kids and say, stop grumbling. I’ll pull this car over right now. I’ll give you something to grumble about. Stop grumbling. And you go, yep, I had to do that. You know, coming to church this morning, I had to do that very thing. Well, can’t God do the same thing with us? I’ll pull you over. You don’t think God can’t take us out to the woodshed and give us one? The book of Hebrews says he spanks us, those that he loves. Have you been spanked by God? Have you ever been spanked by him? One thing I’m grateful about, he doesn’t spank like this. He spanks like this. Have you noticed? He doesn’t come down on you. He scoops from behind and plants the palm of his hand right on your rear end. And he gives you a spank. And when he spanks, God always picks us up when he spanks. It’s an amazing thing. How does he do that? He spanks and the follow through is encouragement. I wish I could discipline like that, but I’m a mere human being. But the thing is, you know, we demand out of our children obedience because it’s the right thing to do. And God demands the same thing from us who are Christians this morning. He wants us to shut our mouth about grumbling. This word grumble means to state a case or to build a case against someone else. Listen, against someone else. Jot it down in your notes. To build a case against someone else. And here’s the dangerous part. We’ll come in verse 12 in a little bit. That someone else can be even God. When we grumble… We can actually be grumbling against God himself. The scripture is powerful here on this. Teaching us against one another. Do not grumble against one another. That causes division. Complaining and murmuring. Saying things you ought not to be saying about people. Chewing on one another. You can sure tell, as James writes this book, that the church is related to one another by the blood of Christ. Because the church is just like a big family, isn’t it? Sometimes it grumbles on each other. And James says, stop it. We need to realize, people, you know, these bracelets, what would Jesus do? We need to be careful. Maybe we need a new one. something that goes around our mouth, is this is what Jesus would say? Maybe we need that on our mouths. Because we better be careful. Because if I take out my tongue and I let it slap somebody around over here, and then I reel it back in and I wait for the next person, and then, oh, there it goes, boom, and it gets you. You know who I’m really doing it to? I’m doing it to Jesus himself. Be careful, too. Not only about what you say about people, but Christians have a tendency to go from church to church. And from every church, they go to another church, like Sir George’s smorgasbord. They just go, go, go. And they whine and whine and whine and complain and complain and complain all along the way. You better watch out because the church of Jesus, the world, the church, his church in the world, he died for it. Well, I’m looking for the perfect church. Well, don’t go to it. You’ll mess it up. There is no perfect church, but God loves his church. Well, I couldn’t get a parking space when I came here today. I’m sorry. There’s no perfect place. Be careful about our criticism and our grumbling. Why? Because it could result in a dangerous end. The judge is at the door. In the mind’s eye of James’ audience, there’s this picture of the rabbinical or of the lawgiver standing up and coming out of his chambers. He’s opening the door to decree the verdict. And James says, quit grumbling. The judge is standing at the door. What does that mean? It means, just like he mentioned in verses 1 through 8 last week, two times, be patient. The coming of the Lord is near. The judge is even standing up and he’s ready to come. Now those of us who have given our hearts to Christ, our sins have already what? Been judged. But we can suffer as Christians regarding our conduct in this life by what we say to one another. Jesus said every idol, our worthless word that we mention, we will have to stand before God and give an account in the day of judgment. And that’s for the Christian. That’s not for the non-Christian. That’s for the Christian, you and I. Boy, that’s going to be a long day, isn’t it? Well, Lord, where do I begin? Well, let me help you out. We need to be careful. In the last days, we need to be patiently enduring because these are going to be tough times and the temptation to get a critical attitude is going to come against us. And it is seen in the lives of those who are attacking one another In Acts chapter 9, verses 1 through 5, you know that Paul, there named Saul at the time, unconverted Saul, was on his way to Damascus to arrest and kill Christians. And Jesus interrupted his donkey ride there to Damascus, and Paul, or Saul, fell on the ground. And there Jesus said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he says, who are you, Lord? And he says, I’m Jesus, whom you persecute. Jesus spoke from heaven. Jesus was talking about the persecution that was going against the church out of the mouth of Saul. And in that moment, Paul was converted. The Lord changed his name, of course, to Paul. We need to be careful about what we say. Ephesians 4.31 says, Let all bitterness, wrath, and anger clamor. Don’t you love that word clamor? When I hear that word clamor, I think of like an old wagon going down a bumpy, dusty trail with pots and pans hanging and slamming against this old, rugged wagon. Like the Beverly Hillbilly kind of a thing, you know? Here she comes, or here he comes, clambering along the way, mouth yapping, things flying out, people’s feelings getting hurt, here he comes, and everything comes out. No, listen, Paul said to the church at Ephesus, don’t let bitterness come out of your mouth. If it’s in your heart, deal with it, give it to God. It’ll eat you up. It’ll really destroy your life. Are you angry at somebody? Did a parent offend you in your life? Did a son, did a daughter abuse you or hurt you in this life? A relative? Maybe it was a pastor or some authoritative figure? Listen, only through Jesus Christ. Are you listening? Only through Jesus Christ can you get over such things. Paul says, forget those things that are behind us and look forward to Christ. But somebody wants to walk along bringing up the old things so they can clamor about a little bit. Well, don’t you have anything better to talk about? Maybe you don’t. If you’re always complaining, maybe Jesus isn’t really in your heart and you have no new thing to talk about. Maybe your life is so dead and pathetic you have nothing to say around Christians. You just hang out around Christians because it’s just a moral, cool, kind, and gentle group to be with. Is there a difference in your life? James warns us to come out in the attitude and the actions of our tongue. We need to be careful.

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pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Patiently Enduring in the Last Days, Part 2. Thanks for being here today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Book of James. It’s a series on true Christianity and how it creates a new way of living. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. The cross. For a lot of us, it’s just a symbol that we wear around our necks, right? Display in our homes or maybe hang from the rearview mirror. But what if instead of being a decoration or accessory, the cross motivated and shaped the way we live every single day of our lives? What if it wasn’t about hiding or minimizing our sin, but actually crucifying it in order to move forward in the freedom that Christ offers? Born Crucified. It’s a book by Ellie Maxwell. In this book, you’ll discover what it truly means to live in a cross-centered life. This short but very powerful book is a classic for every Christian’s library. It reminds us that the cross isn’t just a symbol. It’s the key to victory over sin and the power to serve God effectively. Now, if you’re ready to experience the freedom and purpose found in a life centered on the cross, this book is one that you should get. Born Crucified. It’s available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. Did you know that along with the radio program, Pastor Jack also has a TV show with more of the Pastor Jack Hibbs content that you like. It’s called Real Life TV. If you enjoy Pastor Jack on the radio, you’re going to love him on TV. So check out your local listings or visit jackhibbs.com and catch the latest episodes. That’s jackhibbs.com. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.