Book of James - Ch. 5, Vs. 1-20 (09/23/2001) | NOTE: Incomplete recording

The last chapter of the book of James, chapter 5. last days.

Does a rich man consider himself rich? No, because he's always looking for more.

Weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. What miseries are we talking about,

Bill? All right.

Now, can a rich man, being rich, not consider himself rich, yet be a

Christian? All right.

Can he put forth the word of God as a man should,

Dennis? All right.

Here's a rich man. He doesn't consider himself rich. Can he put forth the ministries of God as he should?

Yes. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth -eaten.

What's that talking about, David? All right.

No matter how much or how little we have, it's all compared to someone else.

And it, too, shall pass away. God will judge the big companies, labor unions, also the churches, great and small, in the way that they make their money and the way they spend it.

This verse does not impress the godless rich and very few Christians.

Your gold and silver is cankered. Bill, how can gold or silver be cankered?

What's he mean, cankered? That's right.

That's right. All right.

All right. Yes. Say all that again.

Yes. He goes into that. Wealth is to be used for good purposes, not hoarded.

For behold, the hire of your labors, 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 the Sabbath. Now, those that work for you are due a day's wages at the end of the day, but you have shortchanged them.

This is a person that is looking for every means to put money in his own pocket.

He does not open face before God.

He is not open face before God. The Lord, who is more mighty than ye are, hath heard them.

More to the point, I think he has seen what you have done.

You have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton. Is it wrong to have pleasure on this earth?

Greg, what is your pleasure? All right.

If we keep that in line, straight, then everything else falls into its proper place.

Behold, the hire of your labors, who have reaped down your fields, is of you kept back by fraud.

You found some way that rationalized in your own mind that this is legal, but the cries of them are heard by the

Lord. The Lord, who is mightier than ye are, hath heard them.

You have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton. You have nourished your hearts as a day of slaughter.

The sensual delights are only employed here in this world. The things that we delight in other than the

Lord are only in this life, only in this world, that their desires ran after these earthly pleasures only.

You have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you.

A poor man, by depriving him of his bread, take away a neighbor's living, is to murder him.

An employee of his wages is to shed blood. So never think that you get by with anything.

I think that, speaking of a fairly rich man that lived in a town east of here, we stopped by one day to look at his antiques, and he was so overjoyed because he had gotten a hold of a chair or buffet or something from a little old lady, a widow, that did not know the value of things, and he bought it for little or nothing.

And he was so proud of that. Of course, he sold it for a tremendous price and made lots of money.

Now, that kind of a person fits here. He was a deacon in a Baptist church, but he had still robbed the widow.

You have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist. They afterwards killed

James because of the writer of this epistle.

He doth not resist you, and therefore you are secure, but the Lord cometh quickly.

All these people that think they have gotten by illegal means, even if they have not gotten by illegal means, but to put money in their pocket without anybody knowing it.

Who is the one that does know it? The Lord.

There is no fooling him. There is no hiding and slipping around with him.

Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it until he receiveth the early and latter rain.

Again, referring to the orchard at home, I never saw my father try to hurry up a peach tree to rush up the fruit.

It was fruitless. It was not the thing to do. He did not even think about it, to go pick the peaches before they were ripe.

He waited patiently. Can the

Christian change the world? Then what are we to do?

We cannot change the world. What are we to do? Go to Matthew 13, 24, and Bill, will you read from 24 through 30?

And he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them, and he said to them

All right, gather the wheat in my barn. Only God can tell.

The room may be full of people that are, have hidden sin in their life, they're not saved, they act like that they've learned the vocabulary, and they know everything to say and everything to do, but God knows.

He knows how to separate. He knows when to separate. Let them both grow together.

Be also patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord. Draweth nigh.

Now this was written nearly 2 ,000 years ago. How can he say with assurance,

David, that the Lord draweth nigh?

The coming of the Lord. How can he say that 2 ,000 years ago? All right.

How old is the average man?

Fifty? Sixty? Hundred? Average.

All right. The coming of the Lord, if he tarries for that man's lifetime, is when he dies.

There is no input after he dies. There is no way to go back and change things after he dies.

Fred, you and I are, what, 79? Close to it. Seventy -nine or ninety, one or the other.

If the Lord tarries until we die, our end comes when we die.

Now, do you know when you're going to die? Then it would behoove each one of us to be ready for the coming of the

Lord. The word established in this means to be turned in one direction, fixed in one position only.

Grudge not one against the other, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door.

Do not grumble. Never end the day without your life being in order because the judge is coming.

Do not judge. Our judging is based ninety -nine percent upon circumstances.

When we find fault with someone, we're actually finding fault with who?

God, because he controls all circumstances. Is that right, Greg?

Absolutely. So let's not find fault with God.

Take my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and patience.

How many of the apostles died an unnatural death? All but one?

Who was the one? John's the only person.

Now, he had been boiled in oil but escaped. All of the rest met their end premature as far as man's concerned.

The word patience here means to endure consistently, steadfastness, preserve, forbearance, long -suffering, slowness in avenging wrongs.

Why should we be slow in avenging someone that has wronged us?

But it's not our place to defend God. But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea and your nay nay, lest you fall into condemnation.

Did you ever offer an excuse? Behold, we count them happy which endure.

Now, the endurer has never taken your eye from the goal. You have heard of the patience of Job?

How many of you have heard of the patience of Job? How many of you have read it recently and have seen the end of the

Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy? What does pitiful mean here?

All right. Is that the

Lord? All right. But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea and your nay nay, lest you fall into condemnation.

Now, did you ever offer an excuse?

What's the difference in excuse and reason? Greg? Excuse does what?

All right. Virge, what's the difference between excuse and reason?

John? That's the difference.

Excuses come within, reasons from without. Learn that. Now, did you ever offer as an excuse something like this?

I would have been there but so on and so forth.

Don't tack but on the end of it. That'd just make an excuse for the fact.

It makes someone else responsible when you put the but on the end of it.

Always say yes, yes, or no, no. Never maybe. Maybe gives you an out.

For this lies room for doubt. In other words, do not say yes when you mean no, but you had your fingers crossed so it didn't count.

Well, isn't that what he's talking about here? A way of swearing an oath that was not enforceable.

They were swearing an oath to heaven and that didn't count. They were swearing an oath to the devil. That didn't count.

But there was something that they were swearing an oath to. Only the inner circle of people, the oath they counted was.

The rest of us, we didn't know which one was real, which one wasn't.

But they weren't having it. He said,

Mary, Lawrence.

Then what? Oh, no.

Full of joy. I understand.

I forget that every once in a while. I'll try not to ask you a question that requires that.

Is any of you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any married? Let him sing psalms.

Is any sick among 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. The doctors of that day were very few medical doctors.

Luke happened to be one. So they were called elders to pray and anoint with oil.

What is the anointing with oil? What is it that they did,

David? I think that here,

I would take that to mean this.

In this day, you're to get the very best medical help you can.

Go to the best hospital you can if you have to go. But follow the directions of the doctor.

Don't ever follow the directions of the preacher. The prayer of faith shall save the sick.

And the Lord shall raise him up. And if he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Now, all of this takes place on the basis of what, Bill?

Does this mean that every person that is ill in this congregation, you call for the elder, he prays sincerely for him, he'll get well?

Then what does it mean? David?

He was praying for him, and he may be healed.

But do not, and I underline that not, verbally forgive him until he asks for it.

Our Lord did the same thing. Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

The Lord will forgive your sins, but what has to take place first?

Greg? You have to ask sincerely. The same way it is with individuals, between two individuals.

One has wronged the other. He doesn't see it. You talk to him about it. Now, it would be wrong for you to out loud forgive him.

Always forgive in your heart, but never out loud until he asks for forgiveness.

For you to forgive him and him not ask for it, fosters what?

You're forgiving Greg like he did anything to you, but he didn't do this to you.

I think we should not worry about what he asks us to show him, but our love is timeless.

We love him, and we forgive him. But they make the mistake of forgiving our

Lord and Savior. Why should we say our sins to the

Lord? You know when you have a contradiction with somebody.

You know whether they're looking for the truth, whether they're being obstinate, whether they're just bowing their neck and going on.

Don't forgive them in that situation. Oh, I know. I'm a first Christian, so I get it.

I get it. They hit me, and I didn't think of that. Seeing that, it caused me to grow more.

If they were nice by hitting someone, and they didn't know the response, they could have hit me more.

In essence, when you verbalize, I will thank you and suffer for it.

If you were to do it, I would give something to you. And you gave me, and you treated me real nice.

I think you did more than you could help. Stopped my own situation, and said, well,

I'm going to make him go over the line or come to the point before I forgive him. Ego is hurt when you forgive someone.

The outward expression, I would do it all for free. Then if you don't take it, act as if that's not true.

Brother Lewis, it's the

Lord. It's not valid.

It's not valid. I cannot say to him, that's all right, just forget it.

Because you've set up a situation for him to do it again, and again, and again, and again.

That's right. That's right. That's right.

But, at the same time, he did not ask you to forgive him.

That I was wrong. No.

No. No. It takes the place of pride.

If a person has wronged you, you can forgive him in his heart.

You can conduct yourself as though it never happened. You can go on and give him whatever he needs.

But just don't say the words, I forgive you. Debbie? Well, we each are in a different set of circumstances.

We each have to answer to God. We each have to react the way we're supposed to.

I could not forgive a person verbally, just to forgive him.

Unless he was seeking the forgiveness between men. Now, he'll have to confess to God.

That goes without saying. Maybe I will too. That goes without saying. But, for me to tell

Fred it's all right, you hit me upside the head, just forget it. I can't do that.

That's what I'm talking about. Well, we can't jump ahead of God.

That's right. We can ask somebody for forgiveness and them not give it.

That's right. So, I think that there's a sense in all of us that we need to grow, manipulate, and mold other people to bring them around to a better person.

I think that's a good nature. I think that's a real nature. Parents have to mold their children to be what they're supposed to be.

That's not how I want my children to be. That's what I believe in. We can't mold our children to be what we want them to be.

We can't mold our families to be what we want them to be. We can't mold ourselves to be what we want them to be.

So I think that the whole discussion that you're having now is that what we look at is who we want.

What I'm saying is the forgiveness. If we want our forgiveness, maybe we ought to offer it. Regardless of what he's done, you verbally forgive him, you have set him up to do it again.

That's true. He will go on and on and on and do it.

He said after he did what he did to you, ask for his money, but don't give him a house.

But it's not that I do forgive him, I don't get money. That's the whole truth.

I don't think you'll get money. Well, let's, yes, all right now.

I didn't get all of that. All right.

Let me tell you what that means. To turn the other cheek.

If someone has slapped you, hit you, done something to you, turn the other cheek.

You can't do that and run away. It means you have to expose yourself to the problem until you come to the end.

Wrestle it down until you have come to the end. By not turning the other cheek means you run away.

This means you stay there and you find out what it is. Now all of this boils down, we forgive to God, we don't forgive each other, except on a human basis.

I forgive people in my heart if they've wronged me. Try to go on as though it never happened.

But I will not to that person verbally tell him, I forgive you.

Now, I act like I have, I do things that foster

I have, and all of this. But I will not utter that phrase,

I forgive you, because it will give them an out to do it again.

All I'm trying to do is, if we do not forgive verbally, we are teaching, we are setting up the

Christ example. He will not forgive us unless we ask for it. Same way to other people.

Didn't God forgive all our sins on the cross? That's true, but why did he later say, or why did he say, well,

I lost it. What we talk about today is that you can have eternal salvation, you're saved, you're saved forever.

The story of the birth of John at one time, which would be God's relationship with his children.

We will not be able to restore fellowship without asking first. He will not restore the fellowship until we come to him that the

Christ are saved. You are still saved. Not that you're still saved, but you were diagnosed that you had to be in fellowship with your father.

And when you're talking about two individuals who for whatever reason got frustrated with each other, what you're really talking about is restoring fellowship.

That's right. So, I said to one of the folks, I'm his teacher, he's trying to give his word of wisdom.

He's not trying to quote Bible verse on it. He's just saying my experience in life is that if someone is telling you wrong, you have to forgive them verbally before they even ask.

That's what it boils down to.

Yes. That fits.

That's it. Well, let's...

Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed.

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to passion, as we are.

In other words, he was just a human. And he prayed earnestly that it might not...