Be Miserable (James 4:9-12) [2026-1-11]

Good morning. Once again, church family.

If you have your Bibles, if you would turned to James chapter 4

James 4 · chapter mention

or type in your devices, James chapter 4.

James 4 · chapter mention

And this morning we're going to be in verses 9 to 12.

The past two weeks we've only been doing 2 verses at a time

because they've been pretty dense passages and this morning

we're going to double that. We're going to get the four

verses. James 49 to 12:00.

Let me read the text, open us in a word of prayer, and then we'll

jump into the sermon this morning.

James chapter 4, beginning in verse 9.

James 4 · chapter mention

Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to

mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the

Lord, and He will exalt you. Do not speak evil against one

another, brothers. The one who speaks against the

brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and

judges the law. But if you judge the law, you

are not a doer of the law, but a judge.

There is only one law giver and judge, he who was able to save

and to destroy. But who are you to judge your

neighbor? Let's pray for this morning as

we get to a text that deals with the topic of contrition and

deals with the topic of of judging one another.

Lord, I pray that you would give us a broken and contrite heart

this morning, Lord, That you would help us to see what a gift

of grace it is when we are able to be broken over our sin.

That it is not meant to be foreign to us.

That we are not to be a stranger to brokenness.

That we are to feel comfortable in this place, not that we

should stay there. Lord, help us to to be a people

who receive and freely receive the forgiveness and the love

that are so abundant at your feet.

But on the path to getting there, God, would you help us to

not be strangers to the road of contrition.

I pray this in Jesus name, Amen. I wonder if a counselor has ever

told their client, or if a parent has ever told their

child, or if a pastor has ever told his congregation.

Be miserable. You should be miserable.

We live in a society where feelings are everything, aren't

they? That's the society we live in.

Feelings are everything. They even supersede truth in our

society. We go to counseling, we take

medication, we seek out friends, we perhaps go to church, we

listen to music, we watch TV. We do all these things to

console our emotions and the effort that we would feel good.

We seek out things that will make us feel better, feel happy.

So what do we do when we come to the apostle James and he tells

us be miserable, be wretched? I wonder if James is the type of

friend we would call when we need some affirmation.

Maybe not. So what is James saying here?

What is he getting at? That's what I hope to clarify

this morning. So as we look at the text this

morning, I, I, I have woven together the exposition and the

application together. So they will, we won't have

separate sections for them. They'll be woven together.

And let's look at this section by section.

Let's start in verse 9A where James writes to us, Be wretched

and mourn and weep. Now last week we had looked at 5

imperatives that James gives and two verses.

And this morning we're going to look at six more imperatives

that he gives in the first 3 verses of our passes.

This morning, three of those six imperatives all occur in verse

9A, that here they are #1 be wretched #2 mourn #3 weep.

Let's look at those individually #1 be wretched.

This is the only time this verb is used in the New Testament.

Here's a Greek definition of it. To experience distress, to

endure sorrow, to be miserable. Now I want you to think about

this. This is a command.

This is in the imperative mood. It's not every day that somebody

commands you be miserable. Now, why would James tell them

to do this? Why would he command the church

to do this? We'll see in just a minute.

The second imperative is this morn.

This verb is used 10 times in the New Testament.

The Greek verb is defined as this to experience sadness as a

result of some condition or circumstance.

And the third imperative this morning is weep.

This Greek verb is actually used 40 times in the New Testament

and it simply means to cry. Now here's the question that I

had, and maybe you have this morning.

James had previously said to us in James chapter one, verse 2,

to count it all joy. My brothers, when you meet

trials of various kinds, count it all joy.

So why did the man who exhorted the Church to count everything

as joy, just a few chapters later, command them to feel

miserable, to mourn, and to weep?

Why would he do that? And I think that the reason is

actually given to us through the wisdom of the author of

Ecclesiastes. If you remember in Ecclesiastes,

he said there is a time to weep and a time to laugh.

There's a time to mourn and a time to dance.

And James is basically saying to the church, church body, this is

not or churches, this is not the time to laugh and to dance.

This is the time to weep and to mourn.

This is a time to weep and mourn.

Weep and mourn over what? Why is he commanding them to

weep and to mourn? They are to weep and mourn over

their sin, over the sin. If you remember, we've been

looking at that. There are some in the church who

have become friends with the world.

They have grown comfortable with the world.

They have propped their feet up on the coffee table of the

world. James calls them sinners.

He calls them double minded. And he's exhorting these people,

these people, these particular people to feel miserable, to

weep and to mourn over their sin.

Now, this does raise a few questions, doesn't it?

I had four and we're looking at 4 questions.

You may have more, but I wrote down 4 questions that I that I

thought of when I was thinking about this.

Number one, is there any other biblical precedent for doing

this? Is there any other biblical

precedent for this? The reason I asked this question

is because we all know that people can have different

personalities. We all know that people can have

different dispositions, right? Some of us are serious people.

Some of us are more playful people.

Some of us like sad music. Some of us only like happy

music, right? I'll give you one example.

Like I every week I kind of, I come up with a list of sermon

titles and I'll go to Lauren. I'll ask her like, which one's

your favorite, right? And I gave her a list and one of

them was be miserable. She reads and she goes.

She looks at me seriously. Safe to say she didn't pick that

title. I picked that title.

Is James just a melancholy type of guy?

You know, is he just one of those guys who just likes he's

like very serious and just you know, he's always wearing black,

maybe has eyeliner and eyeshadow on and it's just or you know,

like is that, is that who James is?

Is there any other biblical precedent for this?

Yes. I'll give you 2 examples.

A Matthew 54, Jesus says blessed are those who mourn, for they

shall be comforted. Now certainly Jesus may be

referring to those who mourn over death and loss.

I think that's true. But many scholars believe that

when Jesus says blessed are those who mourn, he may

specifically intend to hear blessed are those who mourn over

their sin, for they shall be comforted.

Trust family. It is a great blessing of the

Lord to be able to feel broken over your sin.

It is a blessing. B Here's another example, First

Corinthians 52, the apostle Paul says, and you are arrogant.

Ought you not rather to mourn? Do you remember the context

there In First Corinthians 52, there is a man in the Church of

Corinth that had his father's wife, whether it's his

stepmother or is, you know, we don't know the situation, but he

has his father's wife. And the church is happy about

this. Why?

Because they think it's a symbol of their freedom in Christ.

It had been reported to him. And and they're arrogant.

Like look at us. Look at how free we are in

Christ that we even we even accept a brother in our church

who has his father's wife. And Paul says you should be

mourning over this. Paul is rebuking the church that

instead of privately boasting it of freedom in Christ, they

should be mourning over this man's sin.

So yes, there is biblical precedent.

This is not just a James thing. This is a Bible thing.

That's the first question #2 should we feel bad for our sin?

You know, like we all can maybe agree we should confess our sin.

But should I feel bad for my sin?

Should I feel bad? I asked this question because I

have been around Christians. I've been around many

Christians, including pastors, who have said in so many terms

that we shouldn't feel bad for our sin.

I have heard Christians give counsel.

I've listened to Christians where one person came, they were

in sin or they maybe done something.

They went and got counsel from somebody and the other person

said to them, hey, don't, don't feel bad.

Don't feel bad. You shouldn't feel bad.

And the the premise of their counsel is that God loves us, He

forgives us, He has mercy on us, His favor is upon us.

And brothers and sisters, those are all wonderfully true.

Praise God, those are all wonderfully true.

And they are not mutually exclusive with what James is

commanding the church to do. They're not mutually exclusive.

Last year I did a series on repentance, and I said that

repentance has three components. I literated them so we can

remember them. Confession, contrition and

change. Repentance needs to have

confession, contrition and change.

And here James is highlighting the contrition component of

repentance, contrition. And this contrition is so

important in repentance because confession of sin absent of

contrition is simply an acknowledgement of reality.

If we confess our sin without contrition of our sin, all we've

done is acknowledge reality, nothing more.

Contrition must prick the emotions or otherwise it's not

contrition. It's not enough to say I

acknowledged that I sinned. We must also feel remorse.

We must also feel guilt. We must also feel regret.

We must also feel shame. We must also feel sorrow.

We must feel these things #3 Question three.

Can we feel too bad for our sin? Can we feel too bad for our sin?

When James gives these commands, is it possible to be too

wretched, to be too mournful, to weep too much?

Yes, yes, we must remember that contrition is a road.

It is not the destination. It's a Rd.

Prolonged contrition, you say? What's wrong with that?

Prolonged contrition robs the cross of its glory, you say,

What's the destination then? Joy in the Lord.

Joy in the Lord is the destination.

That's always the destination. Contrition is the road to get

there. And #4 are we to feel this

question for? Are we to feel this way for

every sin? Are we to Should I feel

miserable for every sin that I commit?

No, no, he say. Well, what?

What do you mean? What?

What? What?

Listen, we sin every day, if not every hour, if not every minute.

If we felt this way for everything, we would never get

anything done. We cannot feel miserable like in

this sense for everything we do. But the pattern that we see in

Scripture is that when there is egregious sin, when there is

ongoing sin, when there is unrepentant sin, there is

mourning and there is weeping. Ezra and Nehemiah wept at the

thought of Israel marrying foreign women.

They both wept at it. The sinful woman, when she came

to Jesus, she wept at His feet. Peter, after denying Christ,

went out and wept bitterly. So those are four questions.

One last thing I want to mention to you, this is very important

and I, and I say this is very important because I know this

doesn't apply to everybody. Some of us are more emotional

than others. But if I'm painting with a very

broad stroke, if I'm painting with a very broad stroke, we are

not the most emotional church, including myself.

Be careful that your emotions don't develop calluses.

Be careful that your emotions don't develop calluses.

It is a terrifying thing to be able to send frequently and to

not feel bad for it. It is terrifying when you can

send over when a husband can be unkind to his wife over and over

and over again and not feel bad for it.

When a woman can be idolize material things over and over

and over again and not feel bad for it.

When a man can look at pornography over and over and

over again and not feel bad for When a woman or a mother can be

unkind to her children over and over and over again and not feel

bad for it. It is a terrifying thing if we

can sin over and over again and not feel bad for it.

Every time we do that, those calluses, they get thicker.

They do. They get thicker and it becomes

more difficult to feel. Look at verse 9B.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

The next imperative that James gives is found in this verb

turned turned. It's the only time this Greek

word is used in the New Testament.

It's defined as this to cause a change of state with emphasis

upon the difference and the resulting state.

So the people are experiencing laughter and joy.

That's, that's that's a good thing, right?

I mean, when you're around your friends, we all experience

laughter and joy. That's that's why they're our

friends, because they make us happy.

They bring laughter into our life.

And James is commanding them. Let your laughter be turned to

mourning. Let your joy be turned to gloom,

which that word gloom can also be translated as despair,

dejection, or depression. Now what exactly is James saying

here? Why would he command the church

to let their laughter be turned to mourning, to let their joy be

turned to good? Why would he do that?

Let me give an illustration. Suppose my wife found out that I

was having an affair. I claim to her, I claim to all

of you, that I love my wife with all my heart.

But I've been having an affair for the past two years and she

finds out. And suppose the day that she

finds out, she expects that I would be broken.

I would be remorseful, I would be sad.

But instead I just went on as though nothing was wrong.

I was cracking jokes around her. I was excited to go to the NBA

game on Saturday night. I was talking about how the

market is up right now, and later that night I had a big

bowl of ice cream with a smile on my face.

Would there be something wrong with that?

Do we not all instinctively look at that and say something's

wrong? Something's very, very wrong

with that? Shouldn't she expect me to be

mourning? Shouldn't she expect me to be

distraught and dejected? You see, the same is true with

these professing Christians who have prostituted themselves out

with the world. That's what's going on right

now. There are some of the church who

have prostituted themselves out with the world.

They are enjoying themselves, perhaps they are, they are

laughing and and and feel joyful that their new found success.

I would imagine that part of the reason they have made themselves

friends with the world is because it has brought them

prosperity. We all know that if you start a

business in, in 1st century Israel, you're trying to sell

basket weaving and you realize, man, you've got to go rub elbows

with the world to get these baskets out.

I've got to go wine and dine with them.

I've got to learn their language and I've got to be friends with

them. And, and I won't be successful

in my business unless I do that. And they, they feel good about

it. They don't feel broken about it.

They have gained a small piece of the world, but they are not

broken over the possibility of forfeiting their soul.

I see this all the time at the church where people, college

students, young professionals, you may be happy, but is your

happiness a righteous happiness? And and and don't even like

guys. It's not just the party scene

moms. You can become friends with

other lost moms and adopt their ways and not realize you're in

sin. James commands them.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Now one thing I want to point out is that the three

imperatives and 9A, they're all active, but the imperative and

9B is passive. The three imperatives and 9A are

all active, but the imperative and 9B is passive.

That's why it's translated as let your laughter be turned.

Let your laughter be turned. This reminds us that contrition

is something we are commanded to feel, but contrition is not

something we can manufacture on our own.

I mean, how many times do we mentally know that we should be

broken over something, but emotionally we just don't feel

it. Everybody in this room, that is

true of everybody in this room where we know, it's like, I know

that I should feel bad for doing this or saying this or thinking

this or feeling this or not doing this or not saying this or

not feeling this. We know that we should feel bad

for. But the reality is, if we're

honest with ourselves, we say, I just, I don't feel bad for it.

Brothers and sisters, contrition is a gift.

It is a wonderful gift of grace. Sometimes we have to come before

the Lord and we have to confess to him.

Help me, Lord, I recognize I don't feel what I should.

Help me to mourn over my sin. Help me to mourn over my

brothers and sisters sin. Don't let me grow calloused over

this. Lord, you ever prayed that you

ever started to feel you were growing calloused over something

in your life. Alarm bells should be ringing

and going off saying I man, I feel it.

I know my disciples been challenging me to put the

controller down, but and we want to tune it out and and it's like

in that moment, you got to stop and beg the Lord.

Don't let me grow callous to this verse 10 A humble

yourselves before the Lord. Humble yourselves before the

Lord. The 5th impaired that James

gives us this humble yourselves before the Lord.

There are three points that I want to mention about this

command. Number one, it is a command.

It is a command. Now, I point this out because we

must remember that humility is not a personality trait.

It's not it's not a personality like funny or extroverted,

right? Humility is obedience.

The reason why we must not categorize as personality traits

because I can say all day, all day long, you know what?

You know, guys, I've just never really been a funny person or

I've never been an extroverted person.

And if you're not a funny person, OK, fine, it's not your

personality. If you're not an extraverted

person, fine, it's not your personality.

People are different, but we must not categorize humility as

a personality trait. Humility is obedience #2 The

verb here is a passive verb with a reflexive meaning.

It's a passive verb with a reflexive meaning.

What does that mean? If we translated this verb as

passive, it would read like this.

Be humbled before the Lord. Be humbled before the Lord.

But almost no major translation translates it that way.

Why? Why do they translate it as

active? I think the reason is is because

it appears that James doesn't intend for his readers to just

idly sit by waiting for God to humble them.

James gives a passive verb, but with a reflexive meaning.

This is why the translator is translated as humble yourselves.

Again, this brings out the divine causation and human

responsibility to this command. Divine causation, human

responsibility. I've told the story before, but

I'll tell it again. I can distinctively remember a

conversation with my former worship leader.

This is many years ago. Like like almost maybe 2 decades

ago, I remember I was sitting in my living room at seminary in

New Orleans and we were talking about our spiritual walks and

how we were doing. And I remember telling him how

difficult humility was. I told him I was like, man,

brother, like I've been praying for it and praying for it.

And honestly, it just seems like God doesn't want to give it to

me. And I remember him kind of

looking at me and then quoting this passage saying, you know,

Matt, the Bible charges us to humble ourselves.

The Bible charges us to be responsible to humble ourselves.

Now here's the question, which is it?

Are we to pray for humility or are we to take the

responsibility to humble ourselves?

Both. Both.

Not only does God give grace to the humble, God gives grace to

be humble. We must pray for humility, but

we can't just idly sit by and say he didn't give it.

We have our responsibility to humble ourselves.

Number three, Third Point I want to point out, we are to humble

ourselves before the Lord. Don't miss that phrase.

Don't overlook that phrase. We are to humble ourselves

before the Lord. These phrases are so important

in the New Testament. We are not just to rejoice.

The command of Scripture is not to just rejoice.

We are to rejoice in what? Say it in the Lord, Rejoice in

the Lord. We are not just to humble

ourselves, we are to humble ourselves before the Lord.

Now why is that important? Because this command on paper,

it's rather easy to do. Isn't it the command to humble

ourselves? On paper it's rather easy to do.

You don't need a high IQ to do it.

No one needs a high IQ to humble themselves.

You don't need to be rich to buy it.

Nobody needs to be rich to buy humility.

You don't need specialized training to understand it.

Nobody needs to go to a class called Humility in order to know

how to do this. You don't need years of

experience to carry it out. This command on paper is rather

easy to do. And yet we all know how

difficult it is to humble ourselves in the moment somebody

offends you. Ever had somebody offend you in

that moment? Is it difficult to humble

yourself? Someone is prideful towards us,

you know, it's like if you're humble to me, it's very easy for

me to be humble to you. But when you are prideful to me,

it's very difficult to humble myself.

When someone corrects us in front of others.

You ever had somebody correct you in front of others?

When we fail in front of others? You ever failed in front of

others? Often when I tell people that,

you know, like, would you like to give your testimony or give,

you know, are we not, is it not fear of failure when we're faced

with our own limitations and weaknesses, right?

Do we, do we do we not? Is not going to bed a means of

humbling ourselves? I am not a robot.

If I don't go to bed at this time, I will be tired and I will

not be able to listen very well. When someone unjustly criticizes

us. It is one thing when they

criticize us, and it's fair. But when somebody unjustly

criticizes us, When someone hurts you and they're not sorry

for it, or when someone is praised above you when you know

that you did a better job than them or you can't do a better

job than them and someone else is praised above you.

In these moments, doesn't it feel impossible to humble

ourselves? That just feel impossible to

humble ourselves. How did we do it?

And the answer lies in this last phrase.

Humble yourselves before the Lord.

We are not called to humble ourselves before man.

We are called to humble ourselves before the Lord.

It is only when we have our eyes turned upward and we see God the

Father as holy and righteous. And it is only when we turn our

eyes downward and we see our Savior washing our feet.

It is only then that we are able to humble ourselves.

But if you turn your eyes this way at others, I'll never be

able to humble myself before you.

I'll look at you and I'll see your sin.

I'll see your pride and I'll match it or supersede it.

It's only when my eyes are on the Lord that I'm able to do

this. 10B. Humble yourselves before the

Lord, and He will exalt you. Now, if we are looking for a

prize for humility, our eyes will grow weary because it often

doesn't come. If we think that in humbling

ourselves, people will value that humility, they will prize

it. Actually, in fact, quite the

opposite. In fact, humbling ourselves will

often come with more ridicule. It will come with more

criticism, it'll come with more being taken advantage of.

I think one of the most difficult parts of humbling

ourselves is that often we feel unjustified, right?

If I humble myself right now, I'm just going to feel

unjustified. We'll feel misunderstood, We'll

feel invisible. We'll feel undervalued.

We'll feel underappreciated. We'll feel powerless.

We'll feel exposed, We'll feel embarrassed, We'll feel foolish,

We'll feel lonely. And we think humility won't

solve this problem. There's a problem right now.

And if I humble myself, it's not like humility is going to solve

this problem. You know, after almost every

conflict in my marriage, not every, but almost every conflict

in my marriage through the years, over the past 18 years,

7/17/18 years, I have this lingering thought in my head

afterward. Why didn't I just humble myself

there? Like, why didn't I just humble

myself so often? The reason is that in the

moment, in real time, I fear being misunderstood is that if I

humble myself, I'm going to be misunderstood, or if I humble

myself, a foolish decision is going to get made, or if I

humble myself, I will be unjustified right now.

So we don't want to humble ourselves.

Now here's the question, How do we get over these reservations

to humility? How do we get over these

reservations to humility? By remembering this verse.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and here it is, and He

will exalt you. These are words from our Lord

Jesus Christ. Whoever exalts himself will be

humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

I don't have to seek my exaltation.

I don't have to seek my justification.

I don't have to seek my validation.

I don't have to seek my own understanding.

I don't have to seek these things because I already have

them. Remember in elementary school

when we would? Maybe this, maybe not true for

you, so if the story doesn't apply to you, I apologize.

But for those it does apply to, remember in elementary school

when we would play kickball at PE or gym class?

It was a great honor to be picked first, and it was a great

shame to be picked last. Isn't so much of life this exact

same paradigm? School, work, relationships,

families, We're all trying to figure out where we are in the

pecking order. This even happens in the church.

Do people see me as spiritually mature?

Why do they say this person? I'm pretty sure I'm more

spiritually mature than they are.

And yet in all these situations, we can't humble ourselves.

Why? Because God picked us first.

If you're in Christ, God picked you first.

And that means He will exalt you at the right time.

And if the right time is not in this life, it will come in the

next life. He will exalt you.

He will validate you. He will make it right.

Whatever was wrong in this life, he'll make it right.

People will know. I have to think about this in

the moment. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no. I can't humble myself right now

because they won't know. They won't know they're wrong.

They will. You just need to wait for it.

He will exalt you at the right time.

Look at verse 11. A Do not speak evil against one

other brothers. Do not speak evil against one

another brothers. After calling them adulterous

people, sinners and double minded, James now returns to

calling them brothers. He gives them a command.

The 6th and final impaired this morning is this.

Do not speak evil against one other brothers.

What does this mean? The verb that's used here is

only used five times in the New Testament.

Three of them in this verse is defined as this to speak evil

of, to speak degradingly of, to defame or to slander.

Now, what's interesting is that the two other times that this

word is used, it's in the context of the lost world

slandering Christians. And so it's almost as if James

is saying that when we speak evil of one another against our

brothers, we become like the lost world because that's what

the lost world does. They slander Christians.

Now, what would this include for us?

This would include everything from spreading rumors to

gossiping about one another's sin, to tearing down a brother

or sister behind their back or in front of their face, jumping

to conclusions about their motives, unnecessarily shaming

someone, publicly criticizing someone in front of others self

righteously elevating ourselves and putting others down.

These are things that characterize the world and they

must not characterize Christians.

And yet, sometimes we do see this in the church.

We do see this among Christians. Do you know what's made this

very easy to do in our day and age?

It's made it too easy. Social media.

Social media I have seen Christians who are public

figures, even respectable public figures, tearing down fellow

Christians online, a Christian they may not even met.

There is a difference between speaking the truth and speaking

evil, and even when we speak the truth, we are to speak it with

grace and truth. Look at verse 11.

B. The one who speaks against a

brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and

judges the law. Now what does James mean by the

statement? A few points are in order before

explaining this number one. James here introduces a second

category of judging a brother. He has a second category.

So James is not prohibiting our need to judge actions in the

church. We must judge actions.

James is prohibiting the type of judgement that pronounces

condemnation on one another. That's the first point.

The second point here is that the law here is most likely

referring to the Old Testament law.

All right, so with those two points being said, in what sense

is speaking evil against a brother or judging a brother?

In what sense is that tantamount to speaking evil against the law

and judging the law? What does he mean by that?

Well, if you remember, the law gave us the second greatest

commandment. Love your neighbor as yourself,

which would include our brothers and sisters.

Love your brothers and sisters as yourself.

But to speak evil against our brothers and to judge them is

not to love them as ourselves. And So what James is saying is

that when we do this, when we speak evil against one another

or we pronounce judgment over one another, we have basically

decided which portion of the law we're going to obey and which

portion we're not. We've essentially said to God,

God, I don't think this law applies to me.

I don't think this law needs to be followed, which is to speak

evil about the law and it's to judge the law.

That's the argument that James is making.

The verse 11 C. But if you judge the law, you

are not a doer of the law, but a judge.

James says that if we judge the law, by definition we are not a

doer of the law. We're just a judge of the law.

How so? Let me give an example.

Growing up, I was a rebellious kid.

I wasn't the most the most rebellious kid, but I was, I was

a rebellious kid. Part of the reason that I was

rebellious is because I was a self appointed judge of the

rules. I didn't think this as a kid,

but looking back in my wisdom now in my older years, I look

back and I'm like, that's what I was.

I was a self appointed judge of the rules.

So the teacher, for example, teacher would say no talking in

class. And I would think that's a silly

rule. You can talk if you talk

quietly. The speed limit say 35, That's

ridiculous. You can clearly go 55 and still

be safe. Sometimes we do this with God.

God said to be pure in your thought and your deeds.

That's impossible, God. You can't expect men to do that.

You gave us this desire. You can't really expect us to do

this. Anytime we think this way, we

have become a judge of the law. We have placed ourselves above

God's law and said God, I will determine what makes sense to me

and what doesn't. And by doing so we have

effectively become self appointed judges.

But remember what James said earlier.

We are to be doers of the law, doers of the word, church

family. Be careful that we don't

subconsciously create a bifurcated list of God's law.

These are the commands that make sense to me, and I will obey

them. And these are the ones that I

kind of find rather silly or outdated or not relevant or too

difficult or arbitrary or up for debate.

Be careful you don't create this bifurcated list.

Verse 12. Last verse, there is only one

law giver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy, but

who are you to judge your neighbor?

James reminds the churches. There is only one law giver,

there is only one judge and that is God.

Now some might think, what gives God the right to give the law?

What gives God the right to be the sole judge?

Because he holds the keys to life and death.

He alone has the keys to life and death.

I was reading an article about retail theft in Washington

state. It it said that Washington state

is number one in the country and retail theft.

I believe it. Just go to Walmart in Renton and

you this will be proven true to you.

There is one exception to this, Issaquah.

That's what the article was saying.

Issaquah, Why? They have their own jail system

in Issaquah. And so when people are caught

stealing, they are immediately booked into jail.

The officers were saying that when they arrest people, they

are absolutely stunned that they're going to jail.

They just assumed that like, because everywhere else they

don't, they don't do anything about it.

They're stunned at it, but they happen to steal from a Issaquah

business. They're actually going to go to

jail. Often when they get arrested,

they will say, what gives you the right?

This badge gives me the right. There is only one lawgiver and

judge and his name tag says God. And because he is God, he alone

has the power to save and to destroy.

Sometimes I can be guilty of thinking that I know what people

deserve. I go out in society, I'm like, I

know what this person deserves. This person deserves punishment.

This person deserves hell. Who am I to make such a

judgment? If God wanted to save Adolf

Hitler and condemn Mother Teresa, who am I to say

otherwise? James asked the church.

Who are you to judge your neighbor?

We must not be like the Pharisees who could not accept

the salvation of a blind man, a tax collector, an adulterous

woman and a Samaritan. They just couldn't.

I would imagine that when we get to heaven, we will be very

surprised at who was there and who is not there.

I want to close with a short quote that I read this week in

our small group book. It's just one line, but we're

reading through a book in small group right now and I want to

close with what we read this past week.

Here's what she wrote. She wrote.

Who else knows that the sin that will undo me is my own, not my

neighbors, no matter how big my neighbors send may appear?

Let's pray.