Alright James for Beginners: Practical Christianity. This is lesson number 10 in this series, entitled 4 PS's From James. If the Lord is willing we will cover James chapter 5, verse 7 to the end, verse 20, in this lesson. The final lesson in this series. So I'd like to review what we have covered in this book so far, as a, kind of, an overall review. You may have missed a couple of lessons here and there, so you'll be able to pick up some of the high points. Then, after that we'll cover the final verses
where James, himself, leaves his readers with some things that
they need to remember after having read his letter.
First, let's start with the review. The Jewish Christians to whom James was writing were discouraged because of the alienation they were suffering as a result of their surroundings. That was the purpose for the letter. Some of the things that they were suffering as a culture, a Jewish culture, they were isolated because of Jewish custom and Jewish practices, which made them very different than the gentile community that surrounded them. I mean the Jews were dispersed from their homeland, from Israel, for a variety of reasons; because of persecution and other things, but also because they were traders, they were businessmen. They set up in different cities
throughout the Roman Empire. And wherever they set up, obviously, they established a synagogue, a place of prayer. And so, they were, kind of, a small little community there in various pagan cities, alone to themselves. Now, imagine, they're already a minority, Jews, in the majority gentile pagan lands, where they were. And then some of these Jews, who are already a minority, become Christians. So now they are a minority within a minority. And that was the problem,
they were feeling the pressure. So, as I say, as Christians, they were not only isolated from the gentile surroundings, but they were also alienated because of their moral code.
Their spiritual aspirations were so much higher and nobler than the pagans that they lived with. And their conversion to Christianity put them at odds with their Jewish brethren, meaning their cultural brethren. So they were isolated. In time, a lot of them began to realize that Christianity was not just some sort of doctrinal adjustment or some sort of appendage to Jewish tradition.
They realized that Christianity wasn't just another form of Judaism. It was something completely, completely different. It represented a radical change of attitude and activity in one's life. A change that was absolutely necessary if they were to survive the persecution and the isolation. Now think, here are these Jews living among gentiles, when they were Jews they had memories of being in Jerusalem - the holidays, the feasts, the magnificent temple, the priests and their garments, the parades, the worship, the sacrifice, all the pomp and ceremony of the Jewish religion. And now they had become Christians. They were meeting in homes. The most elaborate ceremony was the breaking of bread and the sharing of the cup. That was the only ceremony. There were no robes. There was no pomp. There was no ceremony. There were no parades. There was no hierarchy. They were feeling, not only am I isolated, they were starting to be culturally homesick for their old religion, because this new religion, it didn't match up with the one that they had. And so, they were thinking of maybe going back to Judaism, or thinking of letting go their Christian faith. So James writes to these people to encourage them. If we were to summarize this book, we would say that James explains the six ways that Christians are different. Six ways that Christians have changed, in order to reflect the sincerity of their faith and thus survive in a world of disbelief. You see, if there's no change, well then,
there's no survival. Two-thousand years has gone by, nothing has changed. If you don't change - if when you become a Christian, if there's no change in your life, you're not going to survive as a Christian. You'll survive as something, but not as a Christian. Six ways that Christians are different, here's how: number one, according to James, Christians rejoice when there are problems, knowing that perseverance through trials brings spiritual growth. I'm not going to read all the passages here because I'd have to read the entire book over again. We don't have time. That would be chapter 1, verses 1 to 11. In other words, people in the world may resign themselves, or they may become angry, or they may be
depressed at adversity, but the Christian responds to trials and adversity with joy, knowing that when trouble is near, so is the Lord. I used to make this mental image, when I personally was going through trials and difficulties like that. I would imagine the work cones with the yellow ribbon, to tell people, you have to go around here. There's work going on in here, men at work. I used to think, well, Jesus has put those cones around me as well, and put a ribbon. Jesus was at work here in my life. It's messy, there are holes there. There are detours. There is inconvenience. Why? Well, because the Lord is at work here. The work will be finished, and it'll be better when it's over, but in the meantime, we need to hang in there. We need to persevere. And so the first way that a Christian is different is
that he or she rejoices when there are problems, knowing that Christ is working in their lives. Number two, Christians respond to temptation by taking action against sin, not succumbing to sin or making excuses for sin. James chapter 1:12-18 and 4:1-10,
repeats this idea twice. Godly people expect temptation and they deal with it through prayer and self-control, the knowledge of God's word. Not rationalization for unrighteous behavior. Some people put so much work into the rationalization. Why don't you just admit the thing is a sin? It's going to be hard to deal with it. It's like, you watch movies, heist movies - you know what a heist movie is? A bunch of thieves planning a big casino heist or something, and all the ingenious things they are going to do to foil the security system and break into the safe and the whole movie is about how they do that. Sometimes they get caught, sometimes they don't, but the thing you're thinking, boy, these guys have spent so much time and money and effort and energy and everything, If they just did that into a legitimate enterprise, they'd be successful, right? Well, in the same way, if we put as much energy in dealing with temptation as we do in making excuses for ourselves, we'd have more success. And that's what James is saying here. Number three, Christians not only hear the word, they do what the word teaches them to do. Again, chapter 1:19-27 and then 2:14-26. Now, where much of the New Testament focuses on explaining what Christians believe, James zeroes in on what Christians ought to do in order to demonstrate that they really do believe. He's very short on doctrine. He's very long on, how do you get things done? According to James, the sincerity of your faith is seen in your walk and not in your talk. Plenty of talkers, plenty of talkers. Number four, Christians are not prejudice. Chapter 2:1-13, chapter 4: 11 and 12. Unlike the world around them, disciples of Jesus are exclusive in matters of faith, but they are inclusive in matters of love. I don't accept everything that other people believe because I test what other people believe against God's word. But as a Christian, I ought to accept everyone, regardless of their beliefs or their colors or whatever, in love. Unfortunately, in the world they don't always see that. They accuse us of being narrow-minded and racist because we question people's beliefs. We're not afraid to say, I don't believe that this religion is legitimate, or here's the hole in that argument, or this is the fallacy with this philosophy. We're allowed to do that. We're allowed to judge the thinking, the philosophy, the religion of other people, and compare it to God's word. But just because they may be in error according to God's word, doesn't justify us not loving them. In other words, we believe that
only Christians are saved. But Christians themselves ought to love everyone regardless of their social, cultural, or religious background. In this day and age, I mean, obviously with Islam and the terrorism that's going on around the world, taking, of course, all the -sucking up all the oxygen in the room, as far as the news is concerned and editorial comments, in the end however,
how will we win over? There's a military component to it, but eventually, the final victory only comes through Christ. That's the only final victory. After 9-11 I remember writing a brief article that said that Islam is now, it's dead. It's the end of Islam. And in the article my point was, because of what they've just done,
this religion will now be spotlighted in the world. People are going to talk about it. It's going to be debated. And the point is, until this religion was actually spotlighted and studied and debated, it could hide in these countries here. But once it came out into the view, once it could be studied and examined and criticized. Muslims are not allowed to criticize it. And they say we're not allowed to criticize it, but we can criticize it. We can examine it. We can hold it up to truth. It won't stand the test of time. The Quran could never stand the onslaught of criticism, for example, that the Bible has withstood for two millennia. Every philosopher, every thinker,
how many ways has the Bible, have people attempted to destroy the scriptures, to eliminate them. It just keeps going and going and going. Why? Because of the innate quality of the scriptures. But the Quran could never suffer such criticism. That's why I said, it's the end. Now, maybe not in our life times, but give their ideas and give their holy books a hundred years of true academic scrutiny. They're not going to make it. The only reason that they use the violence is because they can't use persuasion. You can't be persuaded to become a Muslim. When you are invited to actually examine the doctrines and what it says and how you should live, no. No. Somebody said
something very interesting the other day, "Islam is a philosophy masquerading as a religion." Yeah, absolutely. But as far as we're concerned, the only way to win over, if you have a muslim neighbor, out love them. Out love them. We call, sometimes, Muslims, we call them on the idea. They say they're the religion of peace, but it seems that all the wars going on have been started by or continued by people of this religion. Well, we say, we don't say, we're the religion of peace, we say, we're the religion of love. Let's not allow anyone to make the same
accusation against us that we make against them. If we're the religion of love, than we really have to love. That's how we'll win. Number five, Christians have control over their tongues. Chapter 3, verses 1 to 18, If faith is evidenced by works then no works bare greater testimony to our faith than those generated by our speech. James says that the control of the tongue is the key to controlling the whole person, mind, body, and soul. If you can control your tongue, it's a signal that you can control the other parts of your body as well. And if you can't control your own tongue, it's usually a tip-off that you're having trouble with self-control issues in other parts of your life as well. As far as churches are concerned, in my experience, more churches are destroyed by slander than false doctrine. There are more - very few church-splits over, do I believe that Jesus is the son of God? Very few churches have split over that, but churches have split over gossip and false - slander, that type of thing. Then number six, Christians consider God first in all their affairs, especially their financial affairs. Chapter four, verse 13 to chapter five, verse 6. Let's face it, nothing is dearer to us than our pocketbooks. Therefore, to honor God with our pocketbooks, is to honor Him indeed. So finally James finishes his letter with a couple of post scripts in order to remind these brethren what they need to do in order to finish as Christians, finish their lives. They need to change to stay in the race and then they need the following things to finish the race. And that's where we begin. Chapter five, verse 7, the four PS's. You know, PS at the end of the letter. PS I love you. Four PS's from James. The first PS: patience. Patience, verse 7 and 8. He says, "Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the
coming of the Lord is near." So the Lord is coming and when He does, He will reward those who have done good. And judge those who have done evil. He gives a farmer example. The farmer doesn't worry about the harvest. He knows that there's a period in between the planting and the reaping, and he's ready to wait. So don't be discouraged, if once you become a Christian, your growth is not as fast as you would like. The day I was baptized in November, 1977, it would be really nice if in December I would have been exactly like Jesus. It didn't work that way. It was a - it's been a long road and still a long way to go. Others who are doing wrong seem to be escaping punishment. Why is that? Sometimes that's pretty discouraging. Perhaps you're suffering and there's no end in sight. All those prayer requests. How many times has poor Mary had pneumonia? Boy, oh boy. And Dave, our brother Dave. How many surgeries has he had? How much trouble? We're not talking months. We're talking years. We're talking a decade. And you wonder, there's a good man, loves his family, loves the church. Why him? Why shouldn't some of these other rascals here, who have never done a good thing in their life, why are they doing okay? Be patient, he says. The Lord is near here. This is not an eschatological statement, like, the Lord is near, He's coming. He'll be here. The Lord will return on April 12th. That's not, the Lord is near. It's a practical encouragement. The Lord is near, meaning, He hears, He sees. He'll come to your help. He's near you. In verse 9 to 11, he says, "Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold the Judge is standing right at the door. As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. So if this be so, he says, in other words, the Lord is near. He hear's you. He knows what's going on. If that's true, James says, then don't complain about each other. God is watching what you do. If you're complaining about a brother, he says, stop. Don't do that. Let God be the judge. Your job is to love the brother, not to judge the brother. A lot of times the problem is, with this brother or with this sister, it looks like the degree of difficulty to love this person has just gone up considerably. That's the attitude. It's not uh oh, well, I've got a lot to say about this person. Wow man, let me tell you about this person. That's not the attitude. He's saying, don't do that. He's saying, if you do that, God will judge you for it. We can judge sin, not people. No one suffered like Job, and yet, Job was patient and God blessed him double, right? Job 42. Why? Because he waited on the Lord. He remained a good man, a holy man, and he waited. So be patient. First PS, be patient. Second PS, purity of heart. Purity of heart. Verse 14 he says, "But above all my brethren, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no. So that you may not fall under judgment." Same exhortation that Jesus gives in Matthew 5:37. Sincerity in what they say.
Their heart matches their mouths. Some say yes to Jesus with their mouths, but they say no to Him with their actions, A lot of Christians, they're yes/no Christians. Yes to Christ when it suits them. No to Christ when He interferes. He interferes with their comfort, their routine, their traditions, their money, their pleasure, their friends, their whatever. The Lord tends to interfere with us. In Revelation chapter three, verse 14, what does he say, "To the angel of the church at Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God says this: "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold I will spit you out of My mouth." This is straight from Jesus. We need to take this into consideration. Why does He say, I wish you were hot or cold? I wish you were extra zealous for me or against me. At least you believe in something, you're all in on something. Like Saul. Saul was hot. He was hot. He was against Jesus. I can work with that guy. I can work with him. Or cold, I don't know anything about religion, and I can't be convinced. I'm cold. I have no opinion. I'm dead to it. Well, I can work with that guy, too. That guy, I can show him things. Maybe light a fire under him. But He says the lukewarm one, you can't do anything with that guy. He knows the talk. He knows the routine. She knows the routine, but never gets really hot for the Lord. So real Christians, he says, they say yes with their heart, yes with their lips and yes with their action. How do you know? Can I give you a tip on how to get there? I'm not saying that I'm there yet, but I've figure out, at least, the road that kind of gets you there, this business here. Try to be completely honest with yourself. Try to be completed - I mean,
make an experiment out of it. Try to, at least, tell yourself the truth. Something happens, a situation, whatever, that's gone a little squirrelly, and you're reviewing it and if you were dishonest, tell yourself that. I mean, say it to yourself. I'm reviewing everything and when I said this, that just wasn't true what I just said. It wasn't true. It sounded true, and it was close to the truth, but it wasn't true. I lied. That's where you get - that's how you get to hot. You start telling yourself the truth. That's what breaks down the facade and it strips you down to who you are so that God can work with you. But imagine if you lie to yourself. Who can get to you, if you're lying to yourself? PS number three, prayer. Prayer. Let's read verse 13 and 14. He says, "Is anyone among you suffering, then he must pray." Notice he doesn't say, then it would be nice if he prayed, it would be okay. Maybe he should pray. No. He said, he must pray. Must. "Is anyone Cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he was called for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." In the world when people are happy, what do they do? They celebrate. They eat, they drink, they fornicate. It's what they do. Let's celebrate. Party. And when they're sad, they cry,
they're depressed, they pout. Nothing good ever happens to me. Or they're stoic. When they're sick, they cry, they take medicine,
they pout. Because they can't celebrate. But in Christ, Christians react differently. When they're happy, they praise God in prayer and song. I don't mean we can't, let's celebrate. But our go-to position is prayer. God, thank you. When we're sad, what do we do? We pray to God for comfort, for wisdom. And when we're sick, what do we do? We pray to God to help us. To give us strength, to bear under, to be restored. Why is that? Because prayer has power. Power. That's not just a saying on a poster, "prayer has power." In verse 15 to 18 he gives an example of this, he says, "and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man
can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit." So God answers prayer in healing, because every healing is God's work. Whether man recognizes it or not. And God answers prayer in forgiving sin. Christians who sin ask for forgiveness, how? In prayer. Non-Christians ask how? Through baptism. First Peter 3:21. Now baptism, what is it? Appeal to God for a clear conscience. God answers prayers for all the physical needs. I mean, Elijah asked for rain. James could have listed a whole bunch of examples, but he picked one that would be familiar to Jews. The point I'm getting to is that the life of a Christian is a life of prayer. When we're happy, we pray. When we're sad, we pray. When we're sick, we pray. When we're in need, we pray. Is there something missing in your life? Pray for it. I go back to Islam again. I'm not on a harangue for Islam. That wasn't part of this thing here, but they always make this show of a great spirituality because they are forced to pray five times a day. They make a big show out of it because even in prison they have to mark in the prison cell which way is east, which way is Mecca. And they make bones about in schools, we have to have our prayer room because we have to pray five times a day. And sometimes I hear Christians say, well, that's a pretty spiritual people. And I'm not saying that they're not sincere in doing this, I'm just saying, wait a minute, you think five times a day is, like, a lot? You think five times a day is a lot? Not that much. I don't know about you, but the first thing that happens in my day, the alarm clock goes off 10 a.m. No, I'm just kidding. But the alarm clock goes off and I turn the alarm off and when I swing out of bed, and your feet hit - you sit on the side of the bed for a moment just to get your bearings there, that's my first prayer of the day. Right there. First prayer of the day. And the first prayer of the day, you know what it's for? It's for you. Every day I pray for one of you. Every day. That's just the first one. And then my time I get to breakfast, what happens before we eat? Lise and I have a prayer. And then throughout the day, same thing that happens. Another prayer. And then I received good news, Julia, the kids, they're moving back. Oh well, put the phone down, Lord, thank you. I didn't get down on my knees with the prayer carpet facing Jerusalem. I just put the phone down for a moment and just in my mind, God, oh You're so wonderful. Thank you. Finally. How many are we up to now, before lunch even? You get the idea. And then I hear that brother so and so at the hospital, or dear sister Copeland. Celestia: Hey, Mike, guess what's happened? Sister Carlene has just passed away suddenly. Another prayer. And then lunch, another prayer. And then the afternoon, another prayer. Then there's my prayer time with my Bible
and prayer time. And then there's prayer before supper, and there's a prayer before going to bed. I mean, we've blown past the five times here. And it has not even been a heavy prayer day. Not even been a church day. You see what I'm saying. Prayer isn't like, the sun's up and then when the sun is there you have to pray. Not the life of a Christian. Prayer is an ongoing part of my and your life, because it's the substance of my relationship with God. He's there. I'm here. I'm awake. I'm conscious of Him, and He's conscious of me, and so all day long I'm going back and forth. And then finally the last one, pause for serious reflection. Verse 19, he says, "My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back," so it is possible to be saved here and to be in Christ, and then be lost again, because that's what he says here, "if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back," How does this happen? We lose our way. We lose our way when after having made a mistake, instead of going back, we make it worse by doubling down on our mistake. That's how you really get lost. You know, when you're driving and you make a wrong turn and another turn and your wife says to you, well, let's, maybe look at the map. Nah, I will just keep going until we find our way. We do that in life sometimes. We make a mistake. We say something stupid. We lie. We get too close to a temptation. All of a sudden, it's got a grip on us and instead of saying, I'm in trouble. I need to go back. We say, well, I can handle it. And we just, like quicksand, we go down, down, down, down. So a good way to tell how far away from God you are is to examine how near you are to His word and to His will and to His people. How far am I away from God? Well, how close am I to His word and doing His will and close to His people? Because if I'm far from His word and His will and His people, then I'm far from Him. And so, in verse 20 he says, "Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death." Anybody who thinks you can never be lost has not read James 5:20. He's saying, if a brother is straying away, and someone goes out to get him and brings him back, what has he done? He saved this brother from death. From being lost. Save his soul from death,
and will cover a multitude of sins. We don't have a lot of time. Just just a few things. If you see your brother, if you're in that situation, if you're the one reaching out to bring that brother or sister back, a few things to remember. If you see your brother letting go, help him, gently,
to return. If you neglect to do so, who will go and get you when and if you begin to fall? And don't be angry or defensive if you're the one drifting and somebody goes out there and gets you. Don't go away mad at the preacher or the brother or the church if you're corrected in some error or in some fault. Because as Christians, we all make mistakes. So we need to expect that someday, somehow, somebody, will have to correct you. It's happened to me.
I've been corrected. I've had brethren come to my house and say, brother, what you did, this was wrong. They did it gently. They did it in love. But they did it, and I wasn't happy at the moment. When I sat there and thought about it for a while, talk to myself, tell myself the truth, they were right and I was wrong. And then, of course, be happy and humble yourself if you're in the wrong, realizing that your soul is being saved from death and that you're being preserved from going further into sin and darkness. Be thankful. So James closes his letter with four PS's that are applicable to our situation, as well, today. Number one, persevere. The Lord is near you, whatever the hardship, the low, the discouragement, don't give up following Him and obeying Him. Remember I've said it before, the crown of life is for the one who finishes faithfully. It's not for the starters. You don't get the crown at the beginning. You get the crown at the end. Anybody can start. Anybody can start. It's finishing that is difficult. And it doesn't matter how fast you run in this race. What's important is if you finish or not. Secondly, pure in heart. Be firm in your commitment. Be a "yes" Christian. Even when it costs you something. After all, it cost Jesus His life, in order for you to be a Christian in the first place. Why do we complain if being His disciple costs us something from time to time? Number three, pray. If Elijah asked for it to stop raining and God answered his prayer, can He not find you a job? Can He not help you to be happy? Can He not find you a solution to your problem? Pray with faith and then wait. Lise and I, we waited seven years. We prayed with faith. We knew if God wanted, He could open the door for a job for our son-in-law here in Oklahoma, like that. He could do it. We had no doubt that He could do it. We didn't understand, where's the problem here? We're all going to be together. We're all faithful. We're all going to be in this congregation. We're all going to love each other There's no downside to them being there - to them being here. Seven years, but that prayer got answered. So pray, and then wait on the Lord. And then, finally, pause. Be careful.
You could lose your way. It's happened to other people. And if you do, thank God for the person who has the love and the courage to correct you
and bring you back again. I add a fifth one just to close up my lesson
and the series, put the lessons into action. Don't just hear and understand the lessons that I've taught in the last 10 weeks. They will profit you only if you do them. And we finish with one scripture, Matthew Chapter 7, Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who do practice lawlessness.' Let's not just be "yes" Christians. Let's be "yes and do" Christians. All right, that's the end of - We can say a lot more about the book of James. Start it over again, find a lot more good stuff, but for now, those are the lessons. I appreciate everybody being faithful to the Wednesday night class. We'll see you next quarter.
