James Session 7 (Chapter 5) - With Chuck Missler

[Music] we are studying jacob's letter to the 12 tribes it was written to the descendants of israel jacob is jacobus in the greek jacques in france in french iago and italian diego in spanish yakov in hebrew and of course we know it as the book of james and uh it is self-declaring as being written to the twelve tribes of israel the early church was of course a very jewish church and there are a number of james's in the bible but we believe for lots of reasons that i won't recap in this review that this is the lord's brother or technically you'd say his half-brother his brothers were not believers before the resurrection according to the scripture but were afterwards and james rises to the leadership in the jerusalem church and we talked a lot about that in our earlier session we of course are in the seventh session of eight total on the book of james and so i want to spend more time on reviewing all that but i will mention this is that if we we should essentially finish the book tonight in terms of we're in the fifth chapter i think we can get through 20 verses but we do have a special session next time to deal with some peripheral issues about james it may surprise you to learn that james is the subject of some very specific heresies that are i believe are re-emergent on the horizon and anyone that doesn't know their bible very well runs into the risk of being substantially derailed from their faith and we're going to deal with that next time the shroud of turin the knights templar freemasonry and what is all i've got to do with james and we'll talk about that next time uh we'll just jump in tonight to redeem the time we're in james chapter five and one of the things that's going to take up right up front is this whole business of the rich many christians are confused about money and about wealth being rich is not a sin but it does have some very severe hazards and one of the biggest hazard of being rich strangely ironically is selfishness you know you would think gee if a guy has abundance he's not going to be less selfish except life generally exceptions of course but in general life is not like that and that's one of the things that uh james is going to deal with james chapter 5 verse 1. james chapter 5 verse 1 go now go to now you rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you now you're going to discover as this all unfolds that these particular rich men had some problems it's not because just they were rich it's how they got there and what they were doing with it that will unfold in the subsequent verses but let's sort of hit some of this right up front you the bible does not discourage the acquiring of wealth the first one of the first big men of faith was abraham and he was one of the wealthiest men on the earth at that time by many scholars reckoning he was a very very wealthy man there's much evidence of that but in genesis 14 when the occasion comes there were well there were nine kings that were warring against each other and getting clobbered kings of sodom and gomorrah were clobbered by shadow lamar and the whole bunch up there and when they came down to spoil they happened to take lot with them as part of the captives he was abram's nephews so you talk about the entity rate of israel or whatever hey abraham goes after these guys up to laish the northern part of the country in fact they found a mud gate there it was which is because of very peculiar circumstances was preserved those things are not that durable but that probably uh is dated from about that time but anyway the point is abraham wins retrieves them it retrieves a lot and uh but it mentions in the passage there it mentions in genesis 14 that he raised up a trained army of 318 from among the servants that were born under his tents i mean this guy you know you talk about servants i don't know how many you have i don't have any i don't can't think of anyone that has 318. you know i mean that's but that gives you at least a glimpse of of what was going on there now also job was a wealthy man now he god used the occasion to to put him to some test but the point is david uh josiah philemon and paul writes the letter to vanessa and joseph of arimathea one of the wealthiest guys in the region he had direct access to pilate you don't just do that you know and lydia mentioned the epistle these were wealthy people the jews in canaan owned their own property worked it benefited from its produce the acquisition of private property is ordained in the scripture in many of jesus's parables he indicated his respect for personal property and private gain that's the underlying dynamic in many many of his uh parables there's nothing in the epistles that contradicts the right of ownership and profit one of the things that you need to understand and i'm not going to take the burden to try to get tutorial on this but you need to understand the rights to private property and personal freedom are inseparable you can't have one without the other and our founding fathers in this country understood that we'll move on what the bible does condemn is acquiring wealth by illegal means or for inappropriate uses and that's really what we're getting into you'll discover the writings of amos and isaiah and jeremiah thundered their me their messages against stolen wealth and the abuse of the poor by the by the rich and selfish luxury those are the themes because of those themes many christians sort of get the idea well gee wealth is bad no the misuse of wealth is bad money is neutral and it can be put to either to all kinds of appropriate or inappropriate purposes wealth is a spiritual handicap because material possessions tend to focus when thoughts on the world the problem is not in the currency it's in the heart money isn't the root of all evil it's the love of money that's the root of all kinds of evil you'll talk about that but anyway we worked our way down to verse two james continues your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth eaten verse three your gold and silver is cankered and the rest of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire you have heaped treasure together for the last days wow he's going to deal with the way they use their wealth you say wait a minute gee gold doesn't rust or corrupt what was resting their heart they were and that's in effect uh the part of the pun that's involved in here now don't get confused there's nothing sinful about saving second corinthians 12 14 first timothy 5 8 in fact just instead of just throwing these out turn to first timothy 5 8. this is one that i think needs to be emphasized in today's churches especially because of some things that are on the horizon and i think it's useful to go through the discipline of looking it up and marking it in your bible if you haven't marked it first timothy 5 8 paul says to his protege timothy if any provide not for his own but especially for those of his own house he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel [Music] that's rough language for a guy like paul a parasitical background if any provide not for his own especially for those of his own house there is a call to provision there's a call to to do some estate planning that's what it's all about but anyway uh 2nd corinthians 12 14 and matthew 25 27 also point out nothing sinful about saving you're admonished to do so however it is wrong to store up wealth if you owe money to others these guys were selfishly guarding it for their own security and pleasure gee they were hoarding wealth hoarding applies if your acquisition of it is denying its benefit to somebody else there's a lot of rumbles now people are storing up food because of y2k is their purchase of food the present markets denying anybody the food in the present market hardly hoarding is a term that's more properly used if somehow your acquisition of it is denying somebody else today that's not true now the day may come when that may be quite different but the point is setting up a store in anticipation of a need isn't hurting in any case first corinthians 4 2 says it is required of a steward to be faithful and that's what we're called to now the problem with these guys that james is going to focus on is the way they got their wealth not only the way they use their wealth but also the way they got their worth verse four behold the higher of the laborers who have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud crieth and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the lord of saboth or the lord of hosts you may recall in matthew 20 jesus talked about a parable about a guy who was hiring for his his fields and you sort of get the system that they used from that parable you can read again and again uh god is really emphasizes turn to deuteronomy 24 deuteronomy 24 verse 14 thou shalt not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy whether he be of thy brethren or of thy sojourners who are in thy land within thy gates at his day thou shalt give him his hire neither shall the sun go down upon it for he is poor and setteth his heart upon it lest he cry against thee unto the lord and be it be sin unto thee you say gee that's quite quaint stuff i don't hire anybody yes you do do you have bills to pay are there people that are expecting to be paid on time are the terms of your relationship 30 days from invoice or whatever they are payable on demand whatever they are it's discouraging to hear repeatedly to stories of practitioners doctors lawyers others who have they'll be quick to point out to you that their uncollected receivables are mostly christians there's a tragic tragic disease among us where christians somehow feel disconnected from the consequences of their actions we preached so hard about grace we preached so hard that christ died for our sins and indeed he did but somehow the words of honor integrity don't get talked about enough i don't believe from the pulpits we we aren't diligent in our obligations and if we are delinquent in paying our debts we're putting ourselves dangerously close to these people that james is talking about here my turn to leviticus 19. as long as i'm beating you up a little bit let's just uh leviticus 19. luvix 19 13 thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor neither rob him the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning now i'm not sure that applies in our particular culture it did theirs that you paid when it was due and it was done at the end of the day in our case mostly it's on the you know by the 15th of the month or whatever the arrangements are but we need to be diligent about that why because it's our witness not because we're under the law but because it's our witness proverbs 3 verses 27 to 8 jeremiah 22 13 we could obviously now by the way in the in the verse 4 where it speaks of keeping back their wages in the greek the tense implies that the laborers will never get their salaries not just delayed but the the greek tents the grammar implies the overtone is that they'll never get it now private property and the respect of private property is ordained in the ten commandments thou shalt not steal that all that not only prohibits socialism which is a form of theft it also means that we you and i need to be diligent in paying our bills because that's a form of stealing even a stall is denying the rightful use of that money to the one who has earned it and is contracted for it verse five james continues ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanted you have nourished your hearts as in the day of slaughter psalm 50 verse 10 says that all wealth belongs to the lord there's some of us that have been entrusted with more wealth than others but in any case it's a stewardship of the lord and he permits us to be stewards of that ultimately for his glory and our diligence in handling it properly is part of our witness so one of the questions you need to think about as you know if you're an investor you can invest for the short term of the long term and one of the questions you might think about is are you investing for the real long term are days as a hand breath as you recall from last time and so forth it's interesting too anyone who doesn't end any real analysis knows that luxury quickly reaches a point of diminishing returns there's a point at which there's certain if you prosper you win the lottery or something there's a few things you'd like to add but very quickly you'll discover that it's very quickly non-linear twice as much is not twice as good you know i sometimes joke my motto in life used to be that if a little bit's good a whole lot's a lot better well turns out that's not really true the quaker typically says tell me what thou dost need and i will tell the how to get along without and that's a wonderful attitude to have especially in these days because i think we are graced with a a year or two here of preparation in anticipation of what might be some very very difficult times most of us have grown up in an optimistic culture most of us have grown up with the idea that our kids are going to have it better than we did that's been the traditional american dream the 50s 60s 70s whatever i think it's becoming very very clear that that's deteriorating it's very very clear that the horizon in the next few years is going to be incredibly turbulent and not just because of the millennium changeover that's part of it there's also some other issues on the horizon in fact a large number of them any one of which can cause some major perturbations it's a great time to streamline lower one's cost of living get out of debt resolve an ability to be mobile financially as well as geographically but in any case um jesus said in luke 12 15 beware and be on your guard against every form of greed for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions life does not consist of possessions and we should be guard that's why being wealthy strangely enough um raises the greed level interestingly enough you'd think it'd be in verse but it's not luxury and self-indulgence luxury does his symptoms of self-indulgent and that does lead it has a way of corrupting character ruining character money itself is not sinful money is neutral but but having too much of it can cause one to drift into self-indulgence and ruin one's character it's interesting of the ten commandments all but one are operative that is you can tell if somebody's done it you can tell if someone's killed or stolen or other things there's one of the commandments that it's the only one that's in the heart the last one coveting and uh it's interesting it's the only commandment really deals with motivation rather than the act it's a sin of us all of them obviously are sins of the heart but they're manifest covetous is a internal thing really it's interesting abraham was a rich man but he retained his character when his nephew lot became rich it ruined his character he chose to be on the board of supervisors of sodom he sat at the gate you have to understand the ancient culture to understand what that mean psalm 62 10 says if your riches increase set not your heart upon them that's the trick you win the lottery or you get into a very favorable investment thing be careful god may bless you but also may be a test of where your heart remains focused proverbs 321 a good name rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold now riches are always accompanied by uncertainties the only certainty we have in life is what huh not death some of us may not die is judgment all of us have an appointment all of us have an appointment we don't like to talk about it we like to duck it pretend it's not there it's there we all have an appointment before the throne if you're in christ you won't be judged for your sins but you will be judged for a lot of other things in terms of rewards and whatever there's two there's two different judgments i won't start on all that you all know that but the point is that's certain death isn't a certain maybe i'm splitting hairs but if the rapture occurs there's some of us that won't die i always love to stir up trouble by pointing out the people that died a thousand years ago the people who died last month and the people that get raptured a week from tuesday all may arrive at the throne at the same instant it's outside a different time dimension so that may not be true but at least it'll get you realizing that we're in a different dimensionality anyway these guys are misusing their wealth now this is a good time to get into luke 16. it amazes me how many times i get into a theological discussion and it tracks back to this issue of the rich man and lazarus in luke 16. starting about verse 19 jesus says there was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day so here's a rich guy and there was a certain beggar named lazarus who was laid at his gate full of source now i want to understand this is not a parable parables are little object lessons parable are little stories concocted to make a point a parable is a rhetorical device in effect right in parables people don't have names there really was a rich man there really was this guy laz this is he is chronicling a real story here not a not a little uh object lesson this isn't a device this is a it's not parable it's a ax wasn't it was a guy named lazarus and designed to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table more of the dogs came and licked the source and by the way i suspect that richmond probably took a tax ride off of those crumbs but let's move on came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to abram's bosom the rich man also died and was buried and in hades he lifted up his eyes being in torment and seeth abraham afar off and lazarus in his bosom now this gets into some geometry we've got to talk about in the old testament there's the term called sheol meaning the grave or the buddha it's not just the grave in its physical sense it's the abode of the dead and you can if you do a word study it'll quickly find that out that's the sheol being the hebrew of the old testament the greek term for the new testament for essentially the same thing is hades hades is not hell it's sometimes translated hell that's clumsiness hades is the greek term for the abode of the dead and from luke 16 we get the impression that it has two compartments that are separated the good guys and the bad guys over here we got abram and abram's bosom and that's where the beggar ends up with abraham the rich man for whatever reasons is in the other place now we learn a lot about this he's conscious not annihilated he's conscious he's in torment he somehow knows or can see across this gulf between the two some people who make the little charts about this like to have that gulf between the two be the abuso it may or may not be there's also a place separate from what we've talked about called the abuso the abyss the bottomless pit as it sometimes translated we know where the bottomless pit is did you know that there's only one place it can be and to dramatize this you have to remember the little children's riddle you know some campers set up camp and they go 10 miles to the south and they see bear tracks and they follow this bear tracks 10 miles to the west where they find the bear shoot them and they drag them 10 miles north back to the camp question what color is the bear has to be white right because the only place you can go south 10 miles west and then north and back where you started is at the pole follow me that's the idea i'm giving you the short version okay [Music] where is the only place that you can have a bottomless pit where center of the earth exactly because from the center of the earth every direction is up there's no there's there's no bottom if you're at that point every direction is up isn't it right it's very interesting that hades and the ibuso are always spoken of in the scripture as being geocentric now that may be just a figure of speech and many theologians would say it's just you know is a figure of speech and maybe it is i don't think it is i think it's real the gehenna the lake of fire is in the outer darkness they're opposites geometrically and of course to fill in the blanks here so you don't get confused we believe that when jesus on the cross when he was resurrected he was the first fruits of a resurrection in matthew 27 we have a strange illusion to many other graves open and men walking so far and that was he was the first of a sheaf it had to be a sheath to fulfill the prophecy of of the first fruits but the point is at that point most of us infer that the good side of hades is cleaned out they're with him now the others are awaiting their final judgment okay we're together let's save you that's where this is the most common comes from here and some other passages verse 24 the rich man sees a lazarus and abram's wisdom in verse 24 he says he cried he said father abraham have mercy on me and send lazarus that he might dip the tip of his finger in the water and clean my tongue for i have i am tormented in this flame now i think this probably is anthropomorphic because he's no longer physical he's in a different dimensionality but still that's the analogy he's in pain and verse 25 but abram said son remember that thou in thy lifetime received thy good things and likewise lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented and besides all this between us and you there is a great gulf fix so that they who would pass me from here to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from there in other words you can't cross the skull it doesn't work maybe total different dimensionality i don't know exactly what's going on but anyway verse 27 then he said i pray thee therefore father that thou would ascend him to my father's house for i have five brethren that he may testify unto them lest they also come into this place of torment abram said to him they have moses and the prophets let them hear them you can almost hear a jewish accent there can't you and he said nay father abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent he said to him if they hear not moses and the prophets neither will they be persuaded though one even rose from the dead now you get the irony here because there was a different lazarus but lazarus was raised from the dead and what did they do about it they plotted to kill him that was a big problem have ladders walking around after after that whole thing you know for bethany and so on and they had a kid knock him off too very interesting i really wonder if the rich man knew the name of lazarus before this event i wonder when he was at the door begging if the rich man even countless to him i wonder if jesus mentions his name here to abraham it's ironic he mentions lazarus name he doesn't ever mention the rich man's name verse 6 continuing james says ye have condemned and killed the just and he doth not re and he does not resist you you know the old expression the golden rule he that has the gold rules and one of the frightening things that we see in cultures for thousands of years and we see it happening in america america was founded to avoid these traditional injustices the concept of due process the concept of having the protection of the law it's interesting that wealth and power control the due process as it's called as we look at the the trials i won't mention the specific ones you can fill in the blank i don't want to get a lot of letters there's a joke that they found finally found adolf hitler i got some good news and bad news the good news they finally caught adolf hitler the bad news is they're going to try them in los angeles [Music] the obstruction of justice in the highest office of the land deuteronomy 17 deals with that exodus 18 21 ask the judges not to be greedy leviticus 19 15 for the judges not to be partial to the rich deuteronomy 19 16-21 not to tolerate perjury and bribery was condemned by isaiah 33 15 micah in chapter three and chapter seven it goes on and on and amos condemned the judges that took bribes and fixed cases in amos chapter five on it goes it's interesting that le probably about a decade or less from the time that james wrote this epistle the roman legions under titus vespasian the son of the emperor and uh four uh the fifth 10th 12th and 15th roman legions laid siege to jerusalem and after nine months of a bloody war 1 million 350 000 people men women and children murdered that these rich ones that he was talking about lost their riches and probably their lives it's interesting that you and i live in a parallel we live in a very prosperous land where we take prosperity for granted and yet it's not very very hard to take a hard objective look at our distant horizon and realize that there may be a very painful parallel there may be turbulence and and the problems come forthcoming and if our heart is set upon things and prosperity and wealth which are ephemeral of course rather than the lord that can be discouraging and yet if you understand the scenario that's unfolding boy it's the most exciting time to be alive in human history it depends where your heart is whether your heart is on things or on the lord climaxing his promises now there's another aspect to all of this that i don't think you'll find in a bible study but i have to throw it in here as most of you know i spent three decades in deals investments um doing mergers and acquisitions what have you there is a cost that most people never derive from their accountants but the smart guys are very sensitive to it and i can remember being in a situation i was blessed with the opportunity to participate in a situation with bill simon former secretary treasury he was in private life and and he asked me to join this board of a company we were trying to turn around one of the things that always his major yardstick when we're dealing with things was what he called the opportunity cost it isn't the cost benefit of this particular possibility is okay what are the alternatives and what could they yield in other words if you go plan a you might make a million dollars but the effort and energy and time it might take in contrast to plan b where you might make ten million dollars the nine million dollar difference is the cost of going on plan a's in other words the cost of missing the other opportunity to someone who is a venture capitalist one of the things you can rarely quantify it in dollars but one thing you're very conscious of it isn't just whether a particular proposition is profitable is it as profitable as spending our energy on an alternative situation you can work you spend a year of real hard work developing a one million dollar project and it probably takes you no more work over here to build a 20 million dollar project follow me there's a there's a cost wherever you you you only have today tomorrow today's history there's an opportunity cost today you understand what i'm saying and that's another aspect here the opportunity of an alternative allocation of time effort resources whatever should be considered ephesians 5 16 speaks of redeeming the time right you always use that expression redeeming the time and it carries that idea and we must work while his day for the night is coming jesus tells us in john chapter nine verse four part of what should move us is a sense of urgency not panic or anxiety but a sense of urgency to make every day count if we have resources to allocate it's always important to create alternatives you go to the local hardware store and there's a particular tool that really would make neat for the family workshop the question isn't whether that tool is a good idea or not it's a question of making a list of alternatives is that the place you really want to spend your money on that one versus this one or something totally different part of any analysis is analysis of the alternatives and as you allocate your time or your dollars is the lord in it are the priorities that are being applied to your resources as a steward the priorities that god would prove have you entered in those situations prayerfully those are all issues i'm reminded uh how many of you have seen saw the movie schindler's list huh do you remember the touching scene near the end of the movie where it hits him for lack of a better term schindler's regret he realized the ring on his finger or the value that that could have saved another life what came home to him was the long-term implications of his near-term actions i'm sure he shed tears as he thought about the wasteful years and maybe not the naive early years where he just didn't realize what's going on but as time went on and he appreciated the predicament that he was facing and as he began to plan to try to save some of his employees and as that unfolds with a gradually increasing desperation boy can you imagine put yourself in his shoes near the end when okay what's done is done it's time to move on and he realizes that by being just a little more committed he could have saved just we sort of sit back and say wow look what you did accomplish but then again his point of view is what he might have had he been a little more focused a little more stewart's been like anyway it's good to have things that money can buy but only if you already have the things money can't buy that comes first what good is a million dollar house if you have no home what good is a million dollar diamond ring if you have no love of course one person's asked the question are we buying things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't even like [Music] what we keep we lose what we give to god we not only keep but get interest on it that's a good deal a famous preacher who is known for his long sermons was giving a charity uh you know annual charity appeal and he was asked not to speak too long for fear of losing the audience so he he read this text from proverbs 19 17 he that hath pity upon the poor lend us to the lord and that which he hath given will he pay him again and the sermon was if you like the terms then put down your money name ed that was it this whole epistle of what i like to call the pistol of yaakov to the 12 tribes of course is a epistle about spiritual maturity he's speaking to christians and they were largely jewish at the time he wrote this and the epistle is a spiritual maturity is essentially about patience he took after the the money guys here in terms of their their failure to really appreciate the true long-term perspective but now he's going to get into patience more specifically in verse 7. be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the lord behold the husband and husband waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and have long patience for it until he received the early and the latter rain he's using the farmer as an analogy the farmer understands patience he knows he's got to prepare the ground he plants the seed nothing you can do can rush the seed he knows he's just got to take care of it and ultimately and what by the way when he says the the early and latter rain remember the year start in the fall so the early rain is in the fall the latter rain is in the spring we we think see our our calendar is different than the one they're used to but he's using the agrarian model here and the farmer has patience because he knows ultimately in the spring the little the buds will come up and they'll grow and there'll be crops there'll be fruit and he knows that he can't rush the fruit he knows the fruit will be provided if he's just patient and diligent he doesn't make the fruit god does but his job is to be diligent and prepare and do his job and god will provide the increase and provide for him and so he's using that here and i think the secret to um what i call strategic patience is to keep focused on the second coming of christ to get right at it the analogy of the farmer waiting for the you know the fruit and his he has the event in his case it's scheduled he knows so many months if he's patient come and we don't know when the lord's coming could come tomorrow next week whatever that's an advantage but everything we do everything we do should have as a yardstick our blessed hope what titus calls us our blessed hope now there are two words for patience in the scripture one really means long suffering and the other one really is endurance and some scholars greek scholars believe the long suffering refers to patience with respect to people and endurance it refers to patients with respect to circumstances but you have to understand greek is probably has the largest vocabulary of any language ever on the planet earth it's got a huge vocabulary it's very precise and some of these subtleties may be appropriate it interestingly david also was troubled by the prosperity of the wicked who might turn to psalm 37 oh let's just pick up about verse 35 it says i have seen the wicked in great power spreading himself like a green bay tree yet he passed away and lo he was not yeah i sought him but could not be found it's interesting the answer to this really is verse 7 there's his rest in the lord and wait patiently for him fret not thyself because of him who prospers in his way because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass it's amazing the same habakkuk in the old testament has the same burden why did the wicked prosper and i encourage you to to deal with it if you have an eschatology that's a pre-trib point of view which is the one i happen to share and that's not a problem if there's some people here that are post-trib it's not a problem we'll explain to you on the way up it's not an issue but there is a difference in the walk barn house just a kid walter martin when he came to work oh you say the sad day sad day jesus can't come back today because he knew that water leaned to a post-trip view and and that implies there's seven years of history has to precede the second coming which is we think contrary to scripture clearly christ taught us the new testament teaches the doctrine of eminence he could come at any moment and that's why we believe there's a very big distinction between the rapture and the second coming he comes back twice once for the church once for israel but the point is the clear teaching of the new testament that he can come at any moment is one of the most galvanizing aspects of the scripture you and i have the privilege to live our lives in a moment by moment expectancy why does that make decisions easier that makes decisions easier a big danger to allow yourself to think gee it i think it's going to be a few years off for in such a day ours you think not the son of man cometh anyway the christian of course is analogous here to a farmer sensitive to the seasons sowing watering and so forth verse eight be also patience establish your hearts for the coming of the lord roth night james also points to the eminence of jesus return as a motivator for their actions and of course the secret to patience of the farmer is that the harvest he's anticipating is worth waiting for and the secret you and i have is that our harvest is also worth waiting for verse nine grudge not one against another brother unless ye be condemned behold the judge standeth before the door when you're impatient with people that betrays an impatience with god and you don't want to be impatient with god we're supposed to put our sickles in for the harvest i don't know why christians use their sickles on each other all the time but let's move on verse 10. now he's going to james going to shift to the prophets take my brother and the prophets who have spoken in the name of the lord for the example of suffering affliction out of patience jesus also used the example of the prophets as an example of victory over persecution in matthew chapter 5 verse 10 11 and 12. he deals he points to the persecution of the prophets you and i in second timothy three among other places are promised persecution the lord was obedient what did lead to him to the cross led him to the cross you go through example after example elijah announced to wiki king ahab that there would be dropped for three and a half years and he him he had to suffer that draw too now he got fed by ravens and things but the point is we'll talk a little bit more about james is going to bring this up a little later but it's interesting that the prophets also suffered not just at the hands of the unbelievers but also the believers they suffered at the hands of believers too so why are we surprised jeremiah was arrested as a traitor and thrown into an abandoned well to die and that was by his own people ezekiel and daniel also had their share of hardships but god of course delivered them the new testament presents the persecution of the prophets as proverbial and i have a list of 11 examples of this that i'll spare you but we'll just take one because it's a sample in hebrews 11. turn to the epistle to the hebrews chapter 11. grab a couple of a quick glimpse there after going through adam and noah and abraham and isaac jacob joseph moses joshua rahab he gets to verse 32. and what shall i more say for the time would fail me to tell of gideon of barack of sampson of jephthah of david and of samuel and of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms wrought righteousness obtained promises stopped the mouths of lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong famine became valiant in uh in flight turned to flight the armies of the aliens women received their dead raised to life again others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourging jay moore over bonds and imprisonment they were stoned they were sawn asunder they were tested were slain without the sword i mean with the sword they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth and these all having received witness through faith received not the promise god having provides something better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect in other words that's a whole another point there i'll go on verse 11 of james james behold we count them happy which endure ye have heard of the patience of job and have seen the end of the lord that the lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy why do people who proclaim the lord endure difficult trials well one suggestion is so their lives can back up their messages that's what god's interest in enduring counts and i think many obscure heroes will receive their rewards and his rewards he brings with them and one way we get a feeling for this is to spend more time in the bible because it's interesting how the bible in the new testament and old uses these this history these narratives as examples for our learning and it's interesting too the lord ministered to me you know job had three friends with friends like that you don't need enemies you know as i read job i keep wondering if these guys these three friends uh published newsletters or had websites you know i i really wonder and of course the friends were wrong and god took up the cause he had no cause against job and god rebuked his friends ultimately for telling that about job what job what we have that job didn't have is the perspective we are treated in chapter 1 to the dialogue between satan and god so as we watch the narrative we know what's going on job didn't have the benefit of that discussion he just trusted god boy and of course god never wastes the suffering of the saints job himself met god even in a deeper way as he describes in chapter 42. the impatient christian is a weapon in satan's hands and moses impatience robbed him of his opportunity to enter the promised land and abraham's impatience led to the birth of ishmael and look what's derived from that peter's impatience in the garden almost made him a murderer when jesus healed the ear of the high priest servant he was saving peter's life paul in the store in the flesh my grace is sufficient for me and so forth so you and i are not a robot caught in the jaws of fate we're a child of god and we're part of his profound and wonderful plan it's up to us to be to trust him that's really all he wants to do is trust us now from here james starts talking about straight talk as i think you all recognize by reading any daily paper that honesty is becoming a very rare commodity in our country perjury under solemn oath is epidemic in our courts in the solemn vows of marriage and the assertions of the highest office of the land romans 3 13 says their tongues practice deceit and we know from leviticus 1912 and numbers 32 and deuteronomy 23 21 that breaking vows is forbidden the scripture never asks you to take a vow but if you take it it expects you to keep it and that's very very clear in the torah then elsewhere verse 12 but above all things my brethren swear not neither by heaven neither by earth neither by any other oath but let your yea be yay and your nay nay lest ye fall in a condemnation the same thing that jesus said in the on the sermon on the mount when peter was pouring out his oaths that night after gethsemane matthew 26 he was giving evidence that his character was still in need of transformation i'm always reminded by this passage i was an executive getting briefed by bell labs research people on their advanced projects in those days the telephone company is very much an analog outfit and the head of the digital group which is sort of a maverick group within the organization says in a complex organization very important have a very clear mandate and the digital communication people this is way back many years ago he said our man we take our mandate from uh matthew chapter 5 verse 34 where the lord himself says let your communication be yea or nae nae whatsoever more than these is of evil that was his point it's digital not analog and of course he's being facetious but as an engineer you may not follow that but anyway i've always always i always think of that as a an amusing play on words but anyway there are however by the way some people say gee we shouldn't take odes at all in a civil proceeding you certainly can you can use the lord as his example because before caiaphas in matthew 26 he takes it off i join you by the living god tell us you know and so forth and he does paul calls god as a witness in second corinthians 1 verse 23 and also romans 1 chapter 1 verses 9 and 10. so they're permitted although not encouraged but in a court of law to take an oath is scripturally sound although you can affirm thanks to some changing regulations from here well we're going to make it we're going to make it um james turns to prayer a little while ago a few few lessons ago we noticed that james spent a lot of time on the misuse of the tongue he talked a lot about the unruly unruly member called the tongue on the negative side gossip and all that sort of thing what's the on the positive side what is the highest use of your tongue prayer well glorifying god in general but prayer specifically you betcha proclaiming his word and in prayer and seven times in the coming section he's going to mention prayer and the first thing he talks about is prayer for the suffering verse 13 is any among you afflicted let him pray is any mary let him sing psalms now afflicted actually it means suffering in difficult circumstances we know we're not supposed to grumble he mentioned that in verse 9 of this chapter and prayer can give us the grace to endure troubles and to use them to glorify god if you're in trouble what's the first thing you should do is pray to remove the trouble know that you might perform under the condition of trouble that will glorify god that's that may be why the trouble is there give you an opportunity for witness god alone can transform troubles into triumphs he can turn weakness into strength and a lot of verses i'll spray that right now but remember jesus prayed in gethsemane three times for the cup to be removed it was not so it may be in god's plan to have you go through with whatever is facing you what you should be praying for is to be equipped uh to do that to god's glory and mature christian knows that god is able to give songs in the night as it says in job 35 10. god did this for paul and silas when they were in the philippian jail if you call in acts chapter 16. might just comment a little bit about the believer's praise a believer's pray should be intelligent and not just mouthing words i often whenever i share a platform with dave hunt he often mumbles to me he's very discouraged about some some of the modern music he calls it 7-eleven music seven words repeated 11 times and uh and he loves to articulate the lyrics of some of the grand old hymns that really expressed the gospel deep spiritual truths modern music didn't bother me much since until they've made that remark now every time i listen he's right you know so in any case it should come from the heart ephesians 5 19 motivated by the holy spirit ephesians 5 18 and based of course on the word of god verse 14 praying for the sick are there any sycamine you let him call for the elders of the church let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the lord this is the only prescription for this in the scripture by the way just to give you some alternative views here there are two greek words that are translated anoint one is creole which is it's where it's anointed the religious sense it's from this that we get the anointed one christ comes from that same root the word for christo sir the anointed one it only appears five times new testament which is the anointing of christ by the father with the holy spirit the other word is uh lefo which is a greek medicinal term in matthew 6 17 it's to prepare oneself it could be translated massaging to rub with oil but in the medicinal sense and so some scholars make a big point of this to say what james is really talking about here isn't necessarily anointing in the in the ecclesiastical sense it's anointing in the medicinal sense but uh uh but here we're dealing with the sovereignty of god and scholars divided i don't want to i just want to mention that in passing but the real issue about healing it's a really cruel hoax by those that would teach that god heals in every case that's god's god's not his desires that you not be ill and that's a very that is uh denying both scripture and experience paul had to leave the trophy sick in mellitus in second timothy 4 20. epaphroditus his beloved friend was ill and almost died in philippians 2 27. paul prayed three times for his own removal of thorn in the flesh in second corinthians 12 and had to endure it until the end it is an unscriptural and also kind of experience to have it's a cruel hoax on the family and friends of someone who's sick to argue that god didn't intend them to you know that the so-called word of faith thing is tragic but let's move on and uh notice also that praying here should be plural elders whenever someone does come up to me for prayer for illness or some medical kind of thing i always get a plurality of elders why so if it the lord's will to heal that person it's clearly the lord and not some unique gift you follow what i'm saying and so we always have a body of elders to do that and sometimes god will do incredible miracles i could tell you some of those right within our own staff but there's also cases where he it's god's will to he has another purpose in the whole situation far be it from us to prejudge that what our prayer should be is that if it be his will to provide the healing and what have you comfort the family but by all means let whatever is happening magnify his name show himself strong verse 15 and the prayer of faith shall save the sick the lord will raise them up and if he has committed any sins they shall be forgiven him there is the undertone here for several reasons that the person that he's dealing with here uh is also guilty of sin that doesn't mean we can't generally apply it but you should understand if you study this exegetically very carefully there's that undertone anyway the prayer of faith he speaks of here in verse 15 is offered when we know the will of god the prayer of faith implies you are you can do that when we know the will of god this is certainly a case when when the sickness is a result of continuing in sin and that's what the greek implies here in the grammar but in any case always remember that christians borrow soap first john 1 9. we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and we can always claim that and we never sin alone it always affects others in fact any sin affects the whole church but then the prayer of the righteous it's interesting in the fourth century one of the greatest preachers in the church john of antioch became very well known because it was very careful exegesis his unrelenting application and his unmatched eloquence he was given a nickname uh christendom which means a golden mouth but here's his description of prayer i i was so impressed with i decided to just extract it the potency of prayer has subdued the strength of fire it has bridled the rage of lions it has hushed anarchy to rest it has extinguished wars appease the elements expelled demons burst the chains of death expanded the fates of heaven assuage diseases dispelled frauds rescued cities from destruction stayed the sun in its course arrested the progress of the thunderbolt there isn't it an all-sufficient panoply for a treasure undiminished a mind that has never exhausted the sky unobscured by clouds a heaven unruffled by the storm it is the root the fountain the mother of a thousand blessings fourth century writing i'm impressed anyway moving on verse 16 james continues confess your false one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much and this also tends to echo back and confirm that the case that was earlier discussed is one of someone that was under church discipline analogous to first corinthians 5. by the way yesubius in his writings called james old camel knees james was a man of prayer so much so that they called him camel knees because presumably he had calluses on his knees what a nickname huh i love the bumper sticker if you are accused of being a christian is there enough evidence to convict you anyway verse 17 elias and by the way that's simply the greek for elijah elijah was a man subject to like passions we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by a space of three years and six months and by the way i'm fascinated you may recall at first kings 17 and 18 in each time i won't take you through it the shortness of the hour has spared you i rarely miss an opportunity to recount the whole event on mount carmel and elijah's big showdown with the priests of baal dramatic stuff i don't know how demille missed that one it was a great one what's interesting of course is that elijah prophesied that it would not rain he called a drought for three and a half years at the end of that he prays and the rain comes now what's interesting about that you will not learn about that that precisely from the old testament james here talks about it and from james you discover that it was elijah that caused the drought two people new testament jesus and james make reference to the three and a half years and i think it's very interesting because it somehow got dropped out of the old testament it talks about it but you don't get the impression that elijah started and stopped it in three and a half years is clear you get that from new testament common this is one of the places where we learn something about the old testament from its recounting in the new in luke 4 25 when the when they're going to throw jesus off the the brow of the hill there's a whole thing about that that we don't have time for okay we'll move on um see in verse 18 he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit this is um a very fascinating thing because in revelation chapter 11 in verse 6 it speaks of the two witnesses and everybody wonders who the two witnesses are they're clearly people because they die and their bodies lay in the street and then after three days they on cnn the whole world watches they've got a big scoop but everybody watch who they are well if you study that passage carefully there are four specific powers that these two witnesses have two of those powers are unique to moses and two of those powers are unique to elijah so i'm among those doesn't mean i'm right but just see no i'm one of these guys that believes literally moses and elijah are the two witnesses partly because one of those powers is to shut up the rain for three and a half years and only one guy did that in the old testament that's elijah and the other one is they call down fire from heaven that's what elijah did in with the situation about carmel the other was it had to do with plagues and uh turning water into blood which of course moses did in exodus 9 10 and 11 right in that area so the point is that's wha and i also suspect that the model transfiguration was a staff meeting planning all this anyway it's a view no i'm sure yeah okay we're gonna talk about the strain the person that stray the old testament term is a backsliding but uh or a new testament overtaken with a fault galatian six one whatever verse 19 if if any of you do air from the truth and one convert him now the word heir in the greek is wander the group is palano palano which is the word from which we had planet or heavenly wanderer if peter back there because he had been praying instead of sleeping he probably wouldn't have denied the lord that night poor peter he's going to be known throughout eternity he's the guy that denied the lord see brethren if you do heir from the truth and one convert him let him know that he which converteth the sinner from error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins by the way do believers need to be converted jesus said to peter this is in luke 22 32 when thou art converted strengthen the brethren see when you're back in fellowship when you get it together then and you will because i prayed for you but you know how important it is that we seek to save to to win the saved we don't think about that very much matthew 18 15 more if thy brother shall trespass against thee go tell him his fault between thee and him alone and he shall hear thee thou has gained thy brother the word gain means one won your brother matthew 18 that's where you've got a fault brother there's a procedure for that it isn't going to run around start a lot of gossip it's to one on one get it head on and love shall cover a multitude of sins james mentioned this and peter does also in first peter 4 8 and they're simply applying the principle in proverbs 10 12 that love covers a multitude of sins and here the application is to astraying brother in christ how much more do we need to do that to someone who's lost all together that's even more seeking the lost of course is a frequent picture we see in luke 15 where jesus pictures lost sheep a lost coin lost son and so on in zechariah 3 2 and jude 23 we have a different model used where the soul winner is pictured as a fireman pulling the brand out of the fire it takes risks of love to do that one little final exam and we're through tonight just give you a few questions this is a summary of the book of james that's where the chapter is last one some questions for you to think about on your way home tonight am i becoming more and more patient in the testings of life it's a question you don't have to raise your hand do i play with temptation or resist it from the start do i find joy in obeying the word of god or do i merely study and learn it do i find joy in the obeying of the word of god or do i just study and fill notebooks whatever are there any prejudices that shackle me am i able to control my tongue am i a peacemaker or a troublemaker do people come to me for my spiritual wisdom am i a friend of god or a friend of the world can't be both do i make plans without considering the will of god am i selfish when it comes to money am i unfaithful and paying my bills do i naturally depend on prayer when i find myself in some kind of trouble or is prayer our last resort it should be our first resort am i the kind of person that others seek for prayer support and what's my attitude towards the wandering brother do i criticize and gossip or do i seek to restore him in love a little test that concludes our formal study verse by verse study of the book of james next time we're going to explore some strange heresies that are surfacing in our culture from the shroud of turin and how it relates to the knights of templar the knights templar i mean and what does that have to do with james very very strange stuff we'll do that address that next time as we conclude our study of jacob's letter to the 12 tribes let's stand for a closing word of prayer well father we thank you for this opportunity we thank you father that there are no accidents in your kingdom that we're all here together right now by your divine appointment we would ask father that through your holy spirit that you would help us to be ever more diligent in appropriating your word to our lives that we indeed might be doers of your word and not hearers only we do pray father for improved bridling of our unruly tongues but rather that they might be instruments for magnifying your name and declaring your truth and father we do ask for enlightened stewardship of those resources that you've entrusted to us that they indeed might be used for your glory that we indeed might redeem the time that remains we thank you father for bringing us together but we thank you above all father for the redemption that you've gone to such extremes to provide for us as we commit ourselves in accordance with your commandment before your throne in the name of yeshua our lord and savior jesus christ amen [Music] you

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Published: Mon Feb 15 2021