Sermon notes

October 20th 2024

JAMES 5

The theme of the book of James is that genuine faith works on a daily basis, by depending on the power of God. James briefly greets his audience, then instructs them about trials, the nature of true faith, the untamable tongue, heavenly wisdom, pride versus humility, warnings to the rich, and persevering patience. The New American Standard Bible, and Charles F. Stanley, The Life Principles Bible says the book teaches that faith without works cannot be called faith. Faith must work, it must produce, and it must make itself visible. Verbal faith is not enough, and mental faith is insufficient. Genuine faith inspires and empowers godly action. Throughout his letter, James in-te-grates true faith and everyday practical experience by stressing that true faith must manifest itself in works of faith. Otherwise, it is not real faith at.

I’ve read many commentaries on James chapter five; most were very good but there was nothing that I was feeling about this chapter. I asked the Lord why, why do I think what I’m thinking when I read this chapter and yet I’ve read what theologians have thought about this chapter for many years and it’s not what I see. Well, the Lord simply said to me, because this is what I have given you. Let’s look at the first six verses and see if you’re with me in what I believe the Lord has given me.
To see all that I want you to see we need to go back a little and pick up on the conversation James was having with the church. Remember it was not written broken into chapters This was done much later to help us to find what we were looking for.

James 4:13-17 New King James Version

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;

14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”

16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

James’ message was to the church for the most part, we know because we hear him say, my brethren or my beloved. But now I believe he is reaching out from the church addressing the culture around the church as well as within. Yes, there could have been some in the church that are guilty of what he is saying there’s no doubt.

James 5 New King James Version

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.

3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.

4 Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

6 You have condemned; you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

This is very hard to teach this to a church like ours. We know we’re rich; we live in America. We’re blessed to be here in one of the wealthiest nations in the world.
Many say it’s because we’re a melting pot of the best and the bravest. I found this statement online, “everyone is bending over backwards to avoid the obvious: the quality of the people that immigrated from England and the Netherlands made the critical difference - highly literate, highly educated leaders (Oxford & Cambridge), families rather than individuals with a strong common culture, strong rule of law background, and an automatic market back home for their exports. No other people could have made such a success out that wilderness”.
Although this statement is somewhat true, that’s not it. That’s not why America has been such a great nation.

My first thought about what James was trying to show us is in verse 3, he said, “in the last days”. I believe James thought he was living in the last days, that’s why he was pushing so hard for the people to repent, believe and trust God.

Just like our grandparents and parents, they thought they were living in the last days. “Jesus is coming” (that really freaked me out as a kid). I earnestly believe this is where we should be living, “patiently waiting for Christ return”.

America once believed we were one nation under God. Wanting to be pleasing in His sight. We were a nation founded under Godly principals and Biblical values. Somewhere along the way we’ve changed, America has lost her way. We will see the rich weep and howl because all that they (we) have, and it will be corrupted and corroded.
But pastor we’re not rich! Really? Am I the only one who has electricity and hot water? I can go to the store and buy what I need, because God has provided for me to be able to do so. But on the same hand I’ve become spoiled, lazy and complacent. I compline if my internet goes down for a just a few minutes.

James has shaken me up, I hope it’s shaking you up. America is in trouble and it’s up to the church in America to pray and ask God to save her. Believe me when I say this isn’t a political message, it just happens to come at a heated political time in America. I’m telling you no man or no woman can save this nation, only God. Well, pastor how do we vote? You vote for the one who stands closest to the biblical values you hold. The rest is up to God. Remember we’re not voting for the person to be our pastor, they’re a leader. We need to pray and repent, because we have become so much like the culture we live in, so much so that many can’t tell the difference between us and them. Many Christians don’t understand how to pray and repent. Let’s look briefly at how Moses pleaded with God to save his nation. God was done, He had enough of these stiff-necked people and was going to destroy them and He said He would create a new nation out of Moses:

Exodus 32:11-14 King James Version

Moses is speaking to God:

11 Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: “Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did He bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people.

Pay attrition here Moses goes on to remind God:

13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.

14 And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

Don’t tell me that God can’t change His mind. He can save a nation. Some transulations say: “So, the LORD relented from the harm …” in (v. 14). the word (evil)= harm means punishment in this context. In response to the intercession of Moses, the Lord turned away from the punishment which He otherwise would have inflicted on His people. The point is God wants to know we know His promises and it’s by our faith at work in our prayers.

Isaiah 62:6 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

6 I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, who will never hold their peace, day or night; you who [are His servants and by your prayers] put the Lord in remembrance [of His promises], keep not silence,

I believe we are the watchmen God has placed over our nation, but have we fallen asleep?
Getting back to Exodus 32:14 we know God does not need repent, because He is not a man like you and me. But His decisions can be changed by your faith in Him to hear our prayers.

Numbers 23:19 New King James Version

19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

This word repent in Hebrew means: regret, have compassion, be consoled, grieve, to change one’s mind

2 Chronicles 7:14 New King James Version

14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Your right, who ever our next president is, God can save our nation. The thing that Christians have to understand, is we must vote, God can put who He chooses in that office, but He needs our participation to get it done. By not voting is like saying we don’t care. It’s saying God will do what He’s going to do, He doesn’t need my help. That’s a Christian whose faith is without any works, I would call it dead. By faith we vote believing God will give us a leader who will help lead our nation in the way He wants it to go. We vote our consciences is our faith at work.

James 5:7

7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.

James now turns to believers who were being oppressed and encourages them to be patient. The motive for patience is the coming of the Lord.
This may refer either to the Rapture or to Christ’s coming to reign. Both are used in the NT as incentives for patient endurance.
The farmer illustrates the need for patience. He does not reap on the same day that he plants. Rather there is a long period of waiting. First there must come the early rain, causing the seed to germinate. Then at the end of the season is the latter rain, needed to bring the crop to successful fruition. Some see in this reference to early and latter rain a promise that the blessings of Pentecost at the beginning of the Church Age will be repeated before the Lord’s Return, a great revival an outpouring of the power of the Holy Spirit, this we pray. But the Bible also tells us in the last day’s will be a great falling away of believers. What do we do?
We need to be that faithful remnant of believers on fire for God and bent on world evangelization. Your world!

James 5:8

8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

If we truly believe the coming of the Lord is at hand, will that not establish our hearts? Of course it will!!

9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!

We are not promised tomorrow, you do not want to find yourself standing before God either through death or His return, saying God they hurt me, and I can’t forgive them.

10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience.

Notice suffering comes before patience. If you’re not suffering, there’s no need for patience. As explained previously, patience in the New Testament means fortitude or steadfastness. Because of their faithfulness in declaring the word of the Lord, the prophets were persecuted unmercifully. Yet “they endured as seeing Him who is invisible”

11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

Job, is a fine example of perseverance or fortitude. Few if any men in the history of the world have ever suffered so much loss in so short a time as Job. Yet he never cursed God or turned from Him. In the end, his endurance was rewarded. God revealed Himself, as He always does, to be compassionate and merciful.

James 5:12

12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.

Impatience in times of trial is also manifested by swearing. Here, it is not a question of profanity, or cursing, primarily. Neither is it a matter of taking an oath in a court of law. The practice forbidden is the thoughtless use of the Lord’s Name or some other name to attest the truthfulness of one’s speech.
The Christian should not have to swear by anyone or anything, either in heaven or on earth. Those who know Him should be able to depend on the fact that his “Yes” means “Yes” and his “No” means “No.”
This passage could also be applied to forbid such needless expressions as “For heaven’s sake,” “As God is my Judge,” or such minced oaths as “gee” (contraction for Jesus), “gosh,” and “golly” (slang for God).
James, perhaps is thinking of the third commandment: “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain”

James 13

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.

14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

To summarize, then, we believe that verses 14 and 15 apply to a case where a person is sick as a direct result of some sin. When he realizes this and repents, he should call for the elders of the assembly and make a full confession to them. They should then pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. They can pray for his recovery in faith, since God here promises to heal the man.

16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. A casual reading of this statement might give the impression that we are to tell other people all about our secret sins. Please don’t!! That is not at all the thought! Primarily James means that when we sin against someone else, we should be prompt to confess this sin to the person we have wronged.
Also, we should pray for one another. Instead of holding grudges and allowing resentments to build up, we should maintain ourselves in fellowship with others through confession and prayer.

17 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 land for three years and six months.

18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

This incident is recorded in 1 Kings 17:1—19:10. Ahab was king of Israel at the time. Through his wife Jezebel, he became a worshipper of Baal and led the people into this vile form of idolatry. “Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him” (16:33). It was a direct result of sin that drought came upon Israel for three and a half years.
Then Elijah had the famous contest with the priests of Baal on Mt. Carmel.
When the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the altar, and the water, the people were convinced, and they turned back to the Lord.
Elijah prayed again and the drought ended. The example of Elijah is given as an encouragement to us to pray for those who have sinned and wandered away from fellowship with God.
The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much or, as someone has paraphrased it: “The prayer of a man whose heart is right with God works wonders.” Lest we be tempted to think of him as belonging to a higher creation than ourselves, James reminds us that Elijah was a man with the same kind of frail flesh. He was a mere man, subject to the same weaknesses and infirmities as other men.

James 5:19-20

19 Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back,

20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

In the preceding verses we have seen the elders of the assembly being used in the restoration of a sinning saint. And we have seen Elijah being used in the restoration of a backsliding nation. Now we are exhorted to give ourselves to this far-reaching ministry.

Verse 19 describes a Christian brother who has wandered away from the truth, either in doctrine or in practice. Another brother makes this a matter of fervent, believing prayer, and thus lovingly turns him back to fellowship with God and with his brothers and sisters in Christ.

How immense is the significance of this ministry! First of all, he will save his erring brother from dying prematurely under the chastening hand of God.

Secondly, he will cover a multitude of sins. They are forgiven and forgotten by God. Also, they are forgiven by fellow believers and veiled from the gaze of the outside world.

We need this ministry today. In our zeal to evangelize the lost, perhaps we do not give sufficient attention to those sheep of Christ who have wandered from the fold.

Once again James has been prodding our consciences with regard to various areas of the Christian life. He has been asking of us:

1. Do you lay up treasures on earth?

2. Are your business methods strictly honest? (Your income tax return, for instance?)

3. Do you live luxuriously, or do you live sacrificially so that others may come to know the Savior?

When you sin against another person, are you willing to go to him and apologize?
When you become ill, whom do you contact first—the doctor or the Lord? When you see a brother fall into sin, do you criticize him or try to restore him?

And so, we come to the end of this practical, brief Epistle. In it we have seen faith on trial. We have seen faith tested by the problems of life, by unholy temptations, by obedience to the word of God.

The man who says he has faith has been challenged to exhibit it by avoiding partiality or snobbishness and to prove it by a life of good works.

The reality of faith is seen in a person’s speech; the believer learns to yield his tongue to the lordship of Christ. True faith is accompanied by true wisdom; the life of envy and strife is exchanged for that of practical godliness.
Faith avoids the feuds, struggles, and jealousies that spring from covetousness and worldly ambition.
It avoids a harsh, critical spirit.
It avoids the self-confidence which leaves God out of life’s plans. Faith stands trial by the way it earns and spends its money.
In spite of oppression, it manifests fortitude and endurance in view of the Lord’s Return.
Its speech is uniformly honest, needing no oaths(bad words) to attest it.
Faith goes to God in all the changing moods of life. In sickness, it first looks for spiritual causes first.
By confession to God and to those who have been wronged, it removes these possible causes.
10.Finally, faith goes out in love and compassion to those who have backslidden.

Your faith and mine are on trial each day. What is the Judge’s verdict?

James 5 Sermon notes: October 20th 2024