Bible Study June 10, 2020

I guess no one does, so why don't we go over to the book of James then, and look in that.

We got through the first eight verses of chapter five last time, and you'll remember that we were talking about the oppression of the ridge, how the ridge handled life, the pride that goes with it, and how some people have so much that they don't even know they have it, and went through some of the parables that were that. And at the end of all that, as God tells those of us who have been oppressed, downtrodden, or maybe look at it and say, well, why does everything work out so well for them? They're evil. James brings us to the conclusion in verse seven when he says, be patient. Be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.

And of course, patience is one thing we always have to learn, and we go through a lot in life. And, you know, for as long as the longest person here that's been in the church that's online tonight would say they've been waiting for Jesus Christ to return for decades, decades, you know, 50, 60 years.

I don't know who would be the longest one who's been on here, but we just have to keep believing, keep looking forward, keep our eyes on God, and be patient.

He knows when he's coming back, and we all learn a lot from the time that we spend being patient. So James finishes the first half of the chapter there, talking about being patient until the coming of the Lord, and then he repeats it in verse eight when he says, you also be patient, establish your hearts, you know, get yourselves ready, purpose in your mind that you're going to endure to the end. Then as we get into the second half of chapter five, you know, we'll see, you know, that concept of enduring to the end come around, as well as some other things that we've visited in earlier chapters of James.

You know, as we go through, you know, I don't know if it was just me or chapter five of James, every single verse could almost be a sermon or a sermon in itself when you go into it. So we're gonna take some time going through the verses, because, you know, as James makes comments, and he tells us things, for instance, in verse nine, don't grumble against one another, you know, it's just one little verse of the Bible, one little sentence that's there that we're going to read here in a minute.

Two little sentences, I guess, in that verse. But there's a world of instruction behind that, and there's a world of background to what he says. And as we think about these verses tonight, and as we go back into some of the Old Testament verses, some of the New Testament verses, we see these are things throughout the Bible that James is reminding us about, and things that we need to do. And as we've talked about, you know, several times, as he writes to us, you know, he's writing to a group of Christians who want to live God's way.

And some of us may think we're really religious, as we'll read here and again in chapter one and verse 26 of James, but reminding us there can be a lot more that we may be missing, and we have to maybe look deeper into ourselves and really begin to examine ourselves, right? And see, are these things so? Is there work that we have to do? Are we really growing toward the measure and stature of Jesus Christ? So let's look at verse 9 here.

And it goes back to a theme that we've talked about a few times already in the book of James. He says in verse 9, you know, don't grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. So he's going back to the topic we talked about a couple weeks ago in chapter three, where we spent an entire Bible study on the tongue and how evil the tongue is and how wicked it is, and that no one can tame it.

And without God's Holy Spirit guiding us and directing us and us yielding ourselves to God to help us and, you know, sometimes even pray, guard or direct every word I speak. You know, we get, you know, Jesus Christ said he doesn't speak anything unless the Father says, tells him. And that's quite a measure to measure up to, you know. But he says here, and he's specifically talking about grumbling in this verse. And grumbling, we know, isn't a good thing for any of us to do.

God doesn't want us to be talking about each other negatively. He doesn't want us to be tearing each other down. You know, we talked about some of those things. But let's go back to James 1 and just look at a couple of verses here besides chapter 3 to just again show the themes that James has running by here. And as he comes back to these same themes over and over again, it's probably a good idea and a good warning for us. We may want to look at these things that he's talking about.

James 1, 26. I kind of think this is one of the key verses, you know, every single verse in James. But he says, if anyone among you thinks he's religious and doesn't bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. And so, you know, right at the beginning of the book, in the first chapter, he tells us, you got to watch what your words say, right? We can undo an entire lifetime of good by words that we say. And in this day and age that we live in, you know, where there's cameras around and, you know, we've all watched the news and seen where people have had their words caught on camera and all of a sudden they're on the national news and they're losing their jobs and their reputations because they say something out of anger because they say something not thinking or just revealing themselves and not realizing the world is watching some of those words, right?

And they lose a lot. All the work and everything they've done is kind of shot by some of the words they said in a weak moment or whatever moment.

And the same thing could happen to us, you know? We portray ourselves as religious and the world around us looks at what we do and we go to church every Sabbath and we're nice and helpful in the neighborhood and helping and then we, I don't know, do something. I couldn't even really describe what it would be. We could undo a lot of it just by the words we say. So James is saying, you know, we better be we better learn how to bridle our tongue so that, you know, talking the talk is really talking the talk the truth but also talking the talk of a Christian as well as walking the walk.

And then over here in chapter 4 of James, in verse 11, you know, after we've gone through chapter 3, he reminds us in chapter 4, he says, don't speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you're not a doer but a judge. So again, he takes it, you know, to even another level. Don't speak evil with one another. Let your speech be edifying. Build up one another. Let your speech be edifying. Build up one another. Doesn't mean it's always a pat on the back or a cup.

But it does mean to say, you know, it needs to be... Okay. I'll mute everyone. You'll be able to unmute here in a minute if you want to say something. So I hope I didn't interrupt someone.

But if I did, tune back in or click back in. So, you know, so he reminds us, and here we are in chapter 5, and he's coming back to this again. So does someone want to say something and I interrupt them? Savior? Okay. What happened was my my good cast froze, and I was like, did I lose everyone?

And I didn't notice that it was my internet that dropped. Okay, okay. After I did it, I looked at it. Oh, my God, I wanted to say something. I just cut you off. I didn't mean to do that. So... No, no, Michael, not yours. Okay, so we're in chapter 5. I mean, you know, here, let's look at a few verses, you know, because this is a common theme or a recurring theme in James. Don't grumble against one another. Let's go back and look at a couple verses, because again, as James will talk about one thing, you know, as people would have read his letter back at the time he wrote it, remember the Jews, a lot of them had the Old Testament memorized. So when they would hear something about grumbling or talking about one another, probably a lot of verses would come to their mind and it would tie the Bible together and be like, oh, he's talking about that. James would just have to say a few words, you know, there, but they are meaningful words and we should recount some of those things and how many times in the Bible we're admonished the same thing. So let's go back to Romans, you know, and look at one of the verses here. We read this in services just... might have been just this last week. So Romans 1 and verse 29 talks about people, you know, the people that don't like to retain God in their knowledge and God is talking about what the world without him and their knowledge would be like. And sometimes, you know, if we kind of just let God stay by the side and we're not close to God, some of these things can happen to us and begin to define us too. Maybe not so much the...

what's here early in verse 29, at least I hope not, but he goes, these people are filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. And that's awful stuff. And then semicolon, they are whispers.

They are backbiters. Then if you look at the word whispers, you know, it's like it's talking about people who have little secrets that they're telling someone behind someone else's back.

And those little secrets that we might tell each other about, you know, so-and-so did this, or did you know that this person did that, or I saw someone doing this? That's kind of what whispers are.

You know, God would say, if you see something you have a question, go to the person in the spirit of Matthew 18, 15, and discuss it, right? I mean, there's a lot of things we can see each other do, and they may be very innocent, very innocent things that we do that someone could misinterpret.

But we have, you know, right here is as part of an age apart from God, we have whispers, backbiters.

Again, there's words that are coming out, and people are using their words not to build up, not to bind, not to unite, but to tear apart, to tear apart and to divide, you know, friends, as we'll see in a couple of chapters here, a couple verses, and proverbs, and things like that. So it's a sign of the end time. And again, as we look at the world today, you know, we see a lot of this going on. You know, I think all it's all been through mankind, maybe even more heightened here in the last several years. Let's go back and look at some of the some chapters or some verses in the Old Testament. Let's go back to Psalm, Psalm 101. And I've certainly got, by any means, going to go through all the verses. That would take more than one Bible study to go through all the verses that would talk about these things. But let's just hit a few of them to show that this is something through the Bible that God wants us to be aware of. Psalm 105, Psalm 101, verse 5 said, whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy. Pretty straightforward. Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy. You know, God won't have any of that in his kingdom.

He won't have the, you know, he said, she said, or I don't like the way that went. And, you know, they could have done that better. And what were they thinking? You know, and sometimes we do say what are the, what are we thinking? But the type of stuff that we have all engaged in in our lives, at least sometimes and probably several times in our lives, maybe with losses that we've had that, you know, we thought, oh, we can do better than them and whatever. But God's not going to have any of that. And that's a very telling verse, the first part of 101, verse 5 there. Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy. The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, him I will not endure. And sometimes when we have this type of speaking that goes on that James is talking about, it really comes from pride, doesn't it? It's because we think that we have a better idea. We could do things better than the ones above us or the ones we see with a position in church or a responsibility somewhere or whatever it would be, you know, whatever it would be. It really comes from pride. We could do better. We could do better and we're looking to elevate ourselves as opposed to, you know, supporting what's going on. So that's one verse. Let's go to Proverbs. Proverbs has a lot to say about it. Proverbs 17. 17 and verse 9, he who covers a transgression seeks love.

And that hits on a theme that, you know, the last couple verses in James there, James 5, you know, talks about covering transgression. See who covers a transgression seeks love. We'll talk about that later. But he who repeats a matter separates friends. So the talking, you know, the talking, the whispering, the gossiping, it's going to separate friends. I'm going to guess that we've all been part of something where we've said something that did separate friends, probably felt it on the other hand, where something's been spread about us, maybe something that we said that someone repeated to someone else and boom, that friendship blows up. And you learn from your lessons, boy, I just need to keep my mouth shut and keep my opinion to myself, especially if it has to do with someone. You don't talk about other people and whatever. It's sometimes very hard lessons to learn. But, you know, the proverb tells us there if we would pay attention to what it says one chapter over in chapter 18 in verse seven, it says, a fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul. The words of a tale-bearer are like tasty trifles, and they go down into the inmost body. Boy, it's awfully, it can be awfully enticing to just kind of talk and, you know, sometimes I say the slicing and dicing of each other, you know, that it can be kind of fun to do that and whatever, but we got to watch what we're doing and not fall into those temptations because that's not the type of thing that comes from God. That's something that's a natural carnal tendency, but not something of God. Verse 21, same chapter, Proverbs 18, 21, death and life are the power of the tongue. I think we've read this before, probably in chapter three, death and life are the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Well, you know, James in in 5.9, you know, says the judge is standing at the door, you know, God is watching what is going on in this. And let's last one over here in Proverbs. Let's do 26.

Proverbs 26 and verse 20. So where there is no wood, the fire goes out. Now where there is no tail bearer, strife ceases. Isn't that often the case? You know, James makes the comment in chapter three, the tongue can set the world on fire. Where the terror of bearer is, or there isn't one, strife ceases. As charcoal is to burning coals and wood the fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. The words of a tail bearer like tasty trifles, he repeats what we read in Proverbs 18, I guess it was, and they go out into the million-most body. So, you know, we could go, as I said, through countless verses, and you probably have others that stick in your mind of of those type things of how the speech that we have and how we conduct ourselves with with each other and the type of things that we we talk about. Let's go over to 1 Timothy, and let me let me read through a series of verses we don't often, you know, read through where Paul instructing Timothy in administration of the church, and he's specifically talking about, you know, church assistants here for people who are needy and, you know, widows and orphans, as we're all charged to do to look out for one another. And we know the church provides assistance today for those who are in need and things like that. But here in 1 Timothy 5, Paul sets some standards for the church that, you know, as you read through some of those, those of us who are older in years and kind of know where social security is, you can see some of the things where social security gets some of the ages that they that they use in their administration. 1 Timothy 5 verse 9 says, Don't let a widow under 60 years old be taken into the number, and not unless she's been the wife of one man, well reported for good works, if she has brought up children, if she has lied strangers, if she has washed the same seat, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work. So he's saying, you know, take care, but, you know, but be watching out for the household of God, those who have really lived their lives, righteously trying to do the things, serving in the church. Those are the ones, those are the ones to provide the assistance for, if we want to put it in the modern-day nomenclature. But look what he says in verse 11. He says, But refuse the younger widows, for when they have begun to grow once and against Christ, they desire to marry, having condemnation, because they cast off their first faith.

And besides, they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not. Now, you know, that's some pretty, those are some pretty direct words that Paul has written here that God has given us. And, you know, I don't want any of the women there to feel offended by anything he's written, because you know what? Men can be just as big as gossips, and we have just as big a problem with controlling our mouths as any woman. But, you know, as he says these things, you know, he points out a problem there that James is talking about. And as they looked at the Jewish society there that they were working with, they probably saw this tendency over and over and over again. When people are idle, they tend to talk about each other. And that's not, you know, those things ought not to be so, is what he's saying. So, you know, we can look at those things and learn from the things in the Bible, because again we're supposed to be living by every word of God. And some of them, you know, some of them apply, all the words apply to us today, just things that we need to be aware of.

Let's finish this section here in Titus 3, one book forward in Titus 3. And in Titus 3 verse 2, we find the goal that all of us would have where our speaking is concerned and the way we talk about each other, you know, and everything, even if it is that we have to speak in correcting someone.

Titus 3 verse 2 says, speak evil of no one, be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.

And that's a high standard to adhere to, but one that we must, you know, one that we must and continually strive and work for. So let me pause there like I like to do sometimes and see if there's any comments, questions, observations, anything that anyone would like to say before we go back over to James, James 5. Okay, well then let's go back over to James 5 here.

You know, we were in verse 9 and the last sentence there of verse 9 says, behold the judge is standing at the door with an exclamation point after that thing.

So, you know, James, you know, here is saying, you know, watch what you're doing.

God is watching what you're doing and we've read the verses about how we'll be held accountable for every idle word we speak, you know, and, you know, one book forward here in 1 Peter 4, it talks about judgment is now at the house of God. So these words apply to us that, you know, God knows we're not perfect. None of us are perfect. We're all going to slip up and whatever. But when we do, we need to repent and we need to, you know, begin establishing our minds with God's Holy Spirit. We're not going to do that anymore, no matter how appealing it might be. And, you know, we might get lured into conversations and have those things, but we've got to watch what we are doing. So, okay, that's verse 9. Let's look at verse 10.

You know, verse 10 is another sermon edited in itself as well. The very first sentence there, well, it's the only one sentence in verse 10, but the very first line, he says, My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. Now, you know, just a few verses before, and last week we talked about the patience we need to endure to the end. And here he's coming back to the end. He says, you know, brethren, look at the prophets. Look at the prophets of old. They're an example of patience and suffering. And, you know, we've read those verses. We can think of the verses and the words that Jesus Christ said where he told the Jews, you know, over and over again, every prophet that I sent you, you killed, down through the ages, you killed all the prophets, the people that I would send to you. There's a parable in Matthew 21 where it talks about the vineyard owner, and it's time for him to reap the fruit. He would send his, he would send a servant, and then the people would kill him. He'd send another servant, and they'd kill him, and finally he says, I'll send my son.

And they, they kill him as well. And so Jesus Christ shows, you know, what you do, I send people to warn you to bring you back to God, to preach a gospel to my people of repentance, to repeat, preach a gospel of them to turn from what you're doing and turn back to God. That's the only way to the promised land in the Old Testament. It's the only way to the kingdom. And the prophets all did that. You know, let's look, if we think about the prophets for a moment, and think about what their lives were like, you know, we talked about people like Jeremiah, you know, Jeremiah, his life was difficult. None of us would want to live Jeremiah's life. People hated him. You know, they were always looking to humiliate him, hurt him. He was outcast. He was alone. They wanted, they wanted to kill him. You look at people like Elijah, you know, I mean, here he is. He, he comes to Israel, and we remember the story where he, you know, showed who the true God of Israel was and killed those 400 prophets of Baal. And I'm sure, you know, as all of us would have been, he was excited when all that happened. God, now that the people will truly see who, who is God, and they will follow him. And yet he got hit in the face, right, with reality with Jezebel saying, I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna kill you, Elijah. You know, he was hated for what he had said.

Same thing with the other ones, you know, Isaiah's a prophet. You know, we read in Hebrews 11 about the people who have been sawn in two, and legend has it that Isaiah was sawn in two. People wanted to put him to death. And so when James, again, when he says, you know, look at the prophets, or take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord, and you and I are to be speaking in the name of the Lord.

We belong, you know, to his church today, and his church is to be preaching the gospel to the whole world as a witness to all nations. A gospel of repentance, the gospel of the kingdom is at hand.

Turn and go back to God, the same message that the prophets had, same message that Jesus Christ had, same message that John the Baptist had, and yet they all were killed. So let's go back and look at some of those things here. As James, you know, he glosses over something, but it's good for us to look at every word and live by every word of the Bible and see what that is. So let's go back and just look at a couple verses here in the Old Testament that speaks of those things, because again, as the people, and when James first wrote that letter, they would have gone back and thought about all those things, and it would have done something in their minds. It would have inspired them to stand strong. It would have inspired them to stand with God and to realize and prepare our hearts for what's ahead. So let's look at a couple of those words. Let's go back to 1 Kings.

1 Kings 18.

1 Kings 18 and verse 4.

1 Kings 18 verse 4.

So, for so it was, while Jezebel massacred the prophets of the eternal, notice that word massacred, massacred the prophets of the eternal, that Obadiah had taken 100 prophets and hidden them, 50 to a cave, and it fed them with bread and water. So, you know, here's unnamed prophets, right? Not just the big names, just not Elisha and Elijah and Ezekiel and Jeremiah and them, 100 prophets. And there have been others who have been massacred during that time that Obadiah hid these other 100 and protected them from the powers that be. Now, if we look over in one chapter, chapter 19 verse 2, we have the situation that I was talking about with Elijah in Jezebel. He's just come back from, he's just come back from the the veil thing. And in verse 2, it's just as Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, so let the gods do to me. And more also, if I don't make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time, I want to kill you, Elijah. I mean, none of us have had that said about us, right? I want to kill you because of what you say. I want to kill you because of what you believe. I want to kill you because of what what you have said.

Over in in 2 Kings, 2 Kings 6, verse 31.

You know, we talked about Elijah. Here's Elisha, you know, the successor of the will of the one of the major prophets of Israel. Verse 31 says that he said, God do so to me. And more also, if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat, remains on him today. Every single prophet, every single one that God sent to warn them and to have them come back and return to him, they hated and wanted to kill.

In Nehemiah, Nehemiah 9, when they're recounting the history, recounting the history of Israel.

Nehemiah and mine and verse 26, as part of the history here, it says, nevertheless, they were disobedient and they rebelled against you. They cast your law behind their backs, and they killed your prophets who testified amongst them, who testified against them, to turn them to yourself. And they worked great provocations. Every time you sent someone to testify against them and tell them and have them turn back to you, every single time they turned against those people, and they wanted to kill them. They just wanted to put that out of their minds. Well, there's other places and other examples, too, but let's go to Romans. Romans 11.

Romans 11.

And verse 3, you know, Paul, as he's writing to the Romans there and recounting some of that history as well and reminding the people, you know, that we're being called from the Gentiles as well as the Jews in that Roman church, you know, they're not going to like what you say. You know, Jesus Christ said, if they hated me, they're going to hate you.

Verse 3, he recounts the verse from the Old Testament here, Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars. This is Elijah, and I'm alone. I alone am left, and they seek my life. Well, you know, God says, well, you're not alone. But in this context of James 5, continue, be patient, you know, take the persecution, take the tribulation, keep your eyes on God and endure. Remember, you know, remember the prophets. Remember the prophets, or take the prophecies as an example, he says. Let me close on this section here in Matthew 23.

You know, I mentioned one of the verses in the Bible I think is so touching is Matthew 23 verse 37, where Christ talks about Jerusalem and how he just wanted to gather them as a hen would gather his chicks. But let's read the verses leading up to that. You know, Matthew 23, of course, he's taking to task all the Pharisees and pretty much lays them bare, if you will, with what the things they've been doing in verse 34. Leading up to verse 37, the conclusion of his words here in this section says, therefore, indeed, verse 34, I send you prophets, wise men and scribes, some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge into synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous able to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barakiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

But shortly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.

How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.

But you weren't willing. You didn't want to listen. And so even to his own people that thought they were obeying God. And we are in really the same situation today, right? We preach the gospel, we preach the gospel of repentance, we teach the truth of God. With every passing week, it seems, you can see that our message is one the world wants to forget even more and more and more.

And we live in a world, we live in a nation that still today would call itself primarily Christian, even though it's becoming less so with each passing year. So to people that know the Bible, or say they know God, the message, the true message from God is not going to be met with any kind of good reception, just like it wasn't for the prophets. And it was the same back in James's time. You know, he was writing, you know, most scholars say sometimes somewhere around 60 AD, and ahead of them was the, you know, the Emperor Nero, who was going to persecute Christians, and it was going to, you know, put them to death, and the people had to flee Jerusalem at that time.

So as he's writing here, he says, my brother, take the prophets. Remember those prophets. Remember what happened to them, right? Who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience? They endured to the end. Many of their names are in Hebrews 11. They're waiting for the first resurrection when they'll inherit what, you know, the promises that Christ had given them. But he says, take them in as example of suffering as well. You know, they were following God. They were preaching God's word, but suffering marked their lives. Suffering, you know, it's not that they never had a good day, not that they never had a happy day, but suffering would mark their lives when you read through that, when you read through their lives and the Bible's accounts of those things. And suffering, you know, we'll talk a little bit about suffering as we get into, you know, verse 13 a little bit too, but James introduces the word here. And, you know, as we look at suffering, you know, sometimes we can look at suffering.

We look at verse 13, we think of suffering as sick. Oh, I'm sick. I've got a headache. I've got fever. I ache all over whatever it is. But suffering can be any number of things, right?

It can be persecution. It can be, it can come from depression. It can come from having marital problems. It can come from having financial problems. It can have the, you know, problems in the at work, problems at neighborhood. We can suffer any number of ways, you know, and the prophets did do that. They just weren't sick. In fact, we don't read of them being sick, but we do read of their suffering. And he says, take that as an example. Look at what they are. And it's a picture, you know, of who we are because we're in the same boat that they are. So let me pause there and for any any comments that anyone has or anything. So.

Okay, then let's, let's go on. So as an example of suffering patients, I'm back in James 5 here, James 5. So he draws our attention to those prophets and he says, indeed, we count them blessed who endure. Well, of course, I mean, none of us would look at Elijah and say, what'd you do that for Elijah? We look at him and say, good for you, Elijah, good for having the faith, good for continuing to the end, good for you, Elijah, good for you, Isaiah, good for you, you know, Peter, Paul, the apostles, good for you, Jesus Christ, thank you for enduring to the end and not giving in to the suffering and giving up or saying, I'm not going to do this anymore. Good for you, thank you, we count them blessed who endure to the end. In fact, Jesus Christ says, blessed, you know, Matthew 24 13, he who endures to the end will be saved. You know, blessed are those who endure to the end. God looks at that and he knows what we're going through. Remember, in the early part of James he says, he knows the trials we go through. He knows what we're having to do through and through those trials. He strengthens us and he helps us to become much stronger as a result of having gone through them. So he says, you know, we count them blessed who endure. James talks about endurance. Let's go back and look at Matthew 5 here and price words because it probably reminded you of something that he said here back in Matthew 5 right after the beatitudes.

Matthew 5 and verse 11, he says, blessed, blessed are you when they revile and persecute you.

That's kind of a, that's kind of a dichotomy of emotions there. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Well, they'll do whatever it takes to discredit you. They'll do whatever they can to get you out of whatever you are and to even kill you as the Bible says. Blessed are you when these things happen. You know what? You're in the same boat as the prophets. You're in the same boat as Jesus Christ. The same thing happened to them. Rejoice, he says, rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You know, it's hard sometimes to think about those things and hard, you know, when they're in the middle of it to say, I'm going to be exceedingly glad. You know, this is but it's a comfort when we remember those things in the midst of those that this is what they did to God. This is the life that I said I was committed to.

This is the life I lead and I'm doing it in accordance with God's will. You know, I want to go ahead and read verses 13, 14, down to 16 here as well. In the light of everything we said, maybe it's just me, but these words that are so familiar to us kind of took on a new meaning to me or an enhanced meeting, if you will. When you look at what God says and how he looks at those who suffer and how he looked at the prophets and how they did his will and those of us today who, you know, we haven't been persecuted yet. We have lived in a very pampered society. You know, we've lived in a unique time in history where we've had a land where there's been freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly. We haven't had to deal with all any of those things.

So it's going to be it's going to be difficult when those freedoms are taken away and we find ourselves operating in an environment much like the apostles of old and the prophets of old with an autocratic and a tyrannical king who once things done exactly his way and only his God or himself worshiped. It's going to be difficult, but we're going to learn. We're going to relearn and we're going to remember maybe James's words, you know, take those prophets of old. Now we're living and walking in the same type steps they are, but as we look at this and how God looks at the lives we go through and how pleased he is when we go through these trials and we endure them and we come out stronger as a result of them. In verse 13 he says, you're the salt of the earth.

You know, I look down at the earth and there's a whole world that isn't following my way, but there are these people who I have called, these people who have responded, these people who have repented and baptized and have my Holy Spirit. I look at them, they're the salt of the earth, they give the earth flavor. When I look at it, it's pleasing to me. You're the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? If the salt no longer is salt, if they give up, if they become looking like the world, if they allow all the ways of the world to just infiltrate their lives and eventually just go back to being like the flavorless dead earth that they world that they live in, what's going to happen? There's a flavor to them. There's a spice. There's an attractiveness in the earth because they're there. But if they, if the salt loses its flavor, how shall they be seasoned? It's then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. So God says, endure. In the same way, he looks down at the world and he sees lights in you, you know, as he looks at his people and he sees you working, following, you know, being led by his Holy Spirit, working and overcoming, learning to apply the things that we read about in the books of the Bible. And he looks at that. Those are the lights in the world that have the light, you know, that Jesus Christ brought, and they follow him. He says, you are the light of the earth. You're the light of the world. A city that sit on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. So let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. So in the whole context of blessing, being blessed when we're persecuted, being blessed when we're reviled, God, you know, he doesn't want to see us suffer, but he knows through our suffering we become strong, and he knows that, you know, as we repent and live that life, we're becoming the people that he wants us to become. So let me pause there again if anyone has anything they'd like to say. Okay, okay, let's go back to James 5 then.

James 5. We were okay. We're in the first sentence of verse 11. Indeed, we count them blessed to endure.

Okay, you have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. So here he reminds us about the prophets, calls our attention to that, so he's take the time and think, yeah, the prophets, this is what they did, and then he throws in Job. He kind of gives his summary of the book of Job there.

He says you've heard of the perseverance of Job and you see the end intended by God, that he's compassionate and merciful. When we think about Job's life, and we may come to several conclusions as we think about the book of Job, and we see what, you know, what he endured, and we see the tremendous suffering that he went through, the tremendous loss that he went through.

And through it all, he endured. He is a tremendous example of endurance. You know, he made some mistakes along the way. He let his words get away from himself. He had to learn, to watch his words, and of course there was the self-righteousness that was revealed in him. But as he would look back on that trial, he might say, you know what, that trial was tough. That trial was agonizing.

I lost children. I lost home. You know, even my wife was encouraging me to turn against God, but I endured at the end, but you know what? I saw a sin in me that needed to be weeded out.

I had to have that taken away, and God revealed that to me, and that's the only way that could have been revealed so that it was repented of. And in the end, God was compassionate. God was merciful, and he gave him everything back and more than he had before. But it's interesting that, to me anyway, that Job is brought up here as another example of patience and enduring. So I scoured the commentaries to see what they said about that verse, and I thought, Barnes, you know, Barnes, you know, had a pretty good, a pretty good take on it, I guess, if you want to say that.

He says, he says this about this comment about the book of Job in James 5.11. He says, the book of Job was written, among other reasons, to show that true religion and the righteous would bear any form of trial to which it could be subjected.

And that's exactly what Job did. I mean, he was right, he was blameless. He was close to God.

Satan's whole intent for accusing him was if you curse Job, or yeah, if you curse Job, if you take things away from him, he'll curse you. Job didn't. Job didn't. He stayed right till the end. He never departed from God. He never cursed God. And it's a lesson for us as we go through pain and loss that we might not understand why or we think is unjustified in our minds.

You know, we can think back to that in James 5.11. We count them blessed to endure.

Look what Job did. Look what Job did. Now look what he endured to the very end.

Okay, well that ends the thought. Again, anyone can pop in anytime they want. So if I don't hear anyone talk, I'm going to keep talking. Okay, let's go to verse 6.

I'll try to be quick with this. Just reading through these verses, thinking of some of the other the earlier verses in James, such as at the beginning where we're told, we counted all joy only enter into trials. I also find myself thinking of Christ as he was being crucified. And one of his last pleas to the Father was, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. It seems one of the tests of any trial is not just enduring the trial, but to keep Avery's talks about that root of bitterness that warns against that. And it becomes very easy, especially the more severe a trial. You think about what Job went through, for example.

That was the point where God had to correct him, is where Job started to become bitter and angry and kind of get full of himself. And we started to think, you know, this isn't fair, we don't deserve this, etc. And even if we come through the trial, we may say we don't blame God, and maybe we don't. But if we're still looking back and we just were angry about it and we don't get past it and we let that anger take root, then over time that ends up beating us alive. And going with the salt of the earth first, we end up losing our flavor. That's all I've got. No, very good. And that would be one thing, right? If we let our minds, as you said, get away with us, we could become bitter.

And Hebrews 12-15 tells us what the end result of bitterness is. So yeah, very good.

Brother Shabi, to continue that thought, when you go back to the beginning of the verse, I think it's in verse 7, where it talks about, no, verse 9, complaining. The word there has, it denotes feelings which are internal and unexpressed. So it goes back to a root that you're suppressing. It wants to come out and you have not forgiven. You have not spoken to the person and it just becomes something and eventually it comes out of the heart, out of the mouth.

And usually it comes out in a very bad way, an evil way. Very good. And that's a very good observation, because we can have these things just kind of well up in us, right? And we don't really deal with it. We just become, and then all of a sudden it just is like a damn burst. So the words will come out and whatever, we'll just kind of let someone have it or let someone else other than the person who is directed to have it. Yeah, very good. So we all do these things and we all kind of relate. Okay, let me see. So we were in verse 11 here and you can see then, you know, you look at the magnitude of things that we talked about in James 5. I mean, there has been a lot.

There has been a lot of this chapter, just succinct little verses, but each one of them has so much meaning as we look at ourselves and we can all identify with everything that he's saying here, and then he goes in verse 12 and he says, but above all, you know, hey, the tongue is bad, the tongue is bad, enduring to the end, you got to do that. All of these things we talked about, you know, in chapter 5, as he's beginning to then wrap up his letter, he says, above all, my brethren, don't swear either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. Let your yes be yes and your no-no lest you fall into judgment. And there he brings God back into it again. It's like, and again, you know, yes, our yes, or yes, our yes is yes, and our no is no, the words that we speak and the things that come out of our mouth. And again, he brings God like God is watching, you know, God is watching what you're doing. He's watching when you grumble against each other. The judge is there. The judge is there when these words that we use. And, you know, we should be people. We should be people who our word is as good as gold. If we say we're going to do something, we simply do it.

You know, and I don't remember offhand, I didn't write down with a proverb, you know, that says, if we swear to do something, do it even to your hurt. Even if it's not convenient for you, even if it's not, you know, profitable for you, if you said do it, do it. Let your yes be yes and your no-no.

So, you know, and I'm sure what you're all thinking of is Christ's word. So let's go back, let's go back and read what he said in Matthew 5, because in Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount, you know, in chapter 5, he talks about the commandments, that he didn't come, he didn't come to do away with the commandments. He came to fill them up, if you will, and so that they're no longer just physical commandments, you know, but also spiritual commandments. So it's no longer okay just to not kill someone physically, but don't even hate them or wish them dead. Not okay to just, it's not okay to just not physically commit adultery, but don't even lust after another person in your heart. And it goes through the commandments that says those things, but here in chapter 5 in verse 33, you know, let's look at, let's look at Christ's words, because he, he kind of, and this, I'm sure, is where James is thinking when he writes, when he writes what he does as admonitions to true Christians who think they are religious. Verse 33, again you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord. But I say to you, don't swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, nor shall you swear by your head, because you can't make one here white or black.

But let your yes be yes, and your no, no. And then he finishes it with this, for whatever is more than these is from the evil one. Just simply say yes, or simply say no, for anything more than these is from the evil one. Now, we can go back and, you know, and certainly any thoughts people have on this, but you know, we can go back and look at what Jesus Christ said. And, you know, when he said words, he was talking, you know, he's talking to a people of that day and talking to a people of our day as well. But when he makes comments like, you know, verse 34, don't swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne. Don't swear by the earth, for it is his footstool. Don't swear by Jerusalem or the temple or anything. You know, as he walked around Jerusalem and Judah, Judea, and you know, various places he went, he likely heard people using those very expressions, you know, whatever, however they said, you know, I swear to you by the temple in Jerusalem, I'm going to do this. Or, yes, I swear to you by heaven above that this is the, this is a genuine article. It's exactly what it is that I said it is and whatever. And he would watch this and thought, you know, look at these people are doing they don't trust each other. Their words belie themselves.

Right. And so he would say, you don't need to swear it. If you say you're going to do it, do it. If you say no, no, I suppose if you change your mind and you can do it later, then you come back and explain the situation. But just stick to what you say. You don't have to embellish it.

You don't have to have all these sayings that you do to kind of make people believe you're really, really, really serious about things that are that you're doing. So he talks about those things. And, you know, he may say things, you know, we might not swear by Jerusalem or swear by, you know, these things. I have to chuckle when I read Burnage 36 that you shall not swear by your head because it makes me think of, you know, the old nursery rhyme when with the free pigs, you know, I swear by the hair on my chinny chin chin, right? And it's like we teach our children these things.

I swear by the hair on my chinny chin chin. And he's not telling the truth there, of course, but, you know, there's something that's that way. So, you know, we can look and we hear this all around us as we go through our lives. You know, maybe some of us still do some of those things. Maybe we say some of those empty sayings that we should probably pay attention to and maybe weed out of our lives because they're empty words. And, you know, we don't want to be guilty of swearing by heaven, swearing by earth, you know, swearing by anything, you know. It's just simply let our yes be us and our no-no. And we could give some examples for, you know, some of the things that we could say that would fall into this context that Jesus Christ is talking about. But we shouldn't forget that last sentence there, whatever is more than these is from the evil one. And spend some time thinking about that. So, let me pause there for a moment and let you think about that.

You know, Mr. Shaby? Yes. I was thinking, as you were just saying, that it reminds me, you know, how there's so much repetition that James uses in the whole book, you know. And so then think about that. And, you know, your yes be yes, your no be no, and don't swear. That goes also back to, you know, what James was talking about with the use of the tongue, you know. And to me, it goes back to, you know, what's in your heart and what's in your mind, you know. And are you going to be speaking out of vanity? Or are you going to be, you know, like you said, over-inflating your promise? Or are you going to be, you know, a real person? Or are you just going to, you know, let the tongue? Because, you know, if you make a promise, you can't keep it. That could start a fire as well, because then you, you know, you find yourself saying something and you can't, you know, you can't, you can't fulfill it. You can't do what you said you're going to do. You can cause problems there with brethren as well. So I think that's just one thing to consider about that. Yep. There's a lot.

There's like we keep learning, there's an awful lot with the tongue that we have to be paying attention to and the things we say, right? And Christ is, of course, you know, getting back to the Third Commandment. You should not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. So we could talk about euphemisms. We could talk about, well, any number of any number of things, common sayings that we might hear people say that we might even hear each other say, you know, as I walk around church and probably you walk around church, you probably hear things and think, you know, that maybe that isn't the kind that isn't that isn't the saying or a way you would want to express yourself, you know, in that way.

So, and maybe we should be good about telling each other that, you know, privately or whatever, reminding each other because, you know, I think that, you know, it is something, especially as we talk about this book and we look and see the things, you know, to help each other along. Now, you know, as you look at the words there, you know, I will, you know, every once in a while and I won't, you know, I will often comment that even when as I watch TV, it's widespread, as widespread as the use of God's name and taking it in vain by people that we work with in the neighborhood, you know, and watching it on TV.

No one, I never hear it without it cutting up my heart a little bit. I just jolt. I mean, even though I've heard it, you know, who knows how many times? A million times in my life, but it still does that. Another one that cuts at me is when I hear someone say, I swear, you know, I swear I'm going to do this. I, you know, I'll have to say decades ago, I, you know, I cut the word swear out of my vocabulary, except when I'm reading it in the Bible or explaining it to something, you know, we shouldn't be people who run around and say, I swear this or I swear that.

You know, that's, I think that goes against what the words of Christ are here in this Bible and in these words. And we should look what we're, you know, what we're, what we're doing in the language we look at. Look at those words and are they the words that Jesus Christ, you know, would say in those type situations? Do we see Paul?

Do we see Peter? Do we see, you know, those, we just need to be cautious of it. You know, this afternoon I'll, you know, someone brought up bowing, which had I had that come to me, we could have talked about taking vows, you know, because if we bow something, the Bible says take that very seriously.

If you bow before God to do something, your job is simply to do it. Your job is to do it, right? And then, and there's no excuse. If you say to do, you're going to do it, do it. Jephthah, you know, the example was given this afternoon. Look at Jephthah. I mean, he said, God, whatever the first thing I see, when I come out of my house, I'm going to give to you.

Expected it to be an animal, but it was his daughter that he saw come out of the house and he needed to offer that to God. And we know the whole story of that. I'm not going to recount that and anything, but we have to take our vows, you know, and very seriously, when we say it, our words, our words count. You know, we, when we, when we get married in the church, there are marriage vows we give to each other.

You know, we give our bow to stay with our spouse and to love them through good times and bad times, through sickness and health for the rest of our lives. That's a vow we're making to God. We should be taking that very seriously and not like the people in the world do and think that we should easily cast it away.

And as I say that, there are times when divorce is permitted in the church and I'm not saying that no divorce is ever permitted or anything like that, but we should take it very seriously if, you know, very seriously and do our best to live up to those things. So let me pause there because I've spoken enough on this subject. So if anyone else has anything they want to say. Okay.

Yeah.

Brother Shebe, in verse 37 of chapter 5, I know some translations may have it as evil.

And some might say evil one and it should be evil one because the the grammardier is masculine, singular. And when I saw this, it reminded me of Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 6 through 7.

Okay. Let's go back and look at that. Ecclesiastes 5, 6, and 7. You want to read it, Savior?

Yeah, and then that also agreed with what Brother Pramar just said about the heart and the mouth being connected. Do not allow your mouth to cause your flesh to sin, and do not save before the angel that it was an error. For why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? We'll stop at verse 6. Okay. Very good. Yep. Very good. You know, remember the evil one? What did Christ say about the evil one? You know, following up on what Zagar said, he's the father of lives. And sometimes when we are trying to exaggerate or embellish our, embellish what we're saying by those extra words, you know, that would be the type of thing that Satan would do. We want to just let our SBS, our no be no, and speak truth. So.

Rick? Yes. I've got Barkley's commentary open on this verse. Okay. It sheds an interesting light. Do you mind if I read a few excerpts? I'm going to go right ahead. He makes a comment that at this time there was a distinction, especially in the Jewish world, between oaths which were binding and oaths that were not binding.

An oath in which the name of God was directly used was considered to be definitely binding.

But any oath in which direct mention of the name of God was not made was told not to be binding.

The idea was that once God's name was definitely used, he became an active partner in the transaction. But he did not become a partner unless his name was introduced in this way.

The result of this was that it became a matter of skill and sharp practice to find an oath which was not binding, and this made a mockery of the whole practice of confirming anything by an oath.

There was at this time an extraordinary amount of oath taking. This in itself was quite wrong. For one thing, the value of an oath depends to a large extent on the fact of it being very seldom to take one. When oaths become commonplace, which the implication was they were commonplace at this time, they ceased to be respected as they ought to be. And the practice of taking frequent oaths was nothing other than proof that lying and cheating was widespread. To bring that to modern times, think about how many times somebody will flippantly say, I swear to God, or I swear on the souls of my children, or my, you know, in many cases people who probably would consider themselves atheists, but they're suddenly invoking God's name to try to make themselves seem more trustworthy because they don't tell the truth. Yep, yep, very good. Yeah, anytime we make something of God commonplace, yeah, that's kind of what the world does, and taking God's name in vain, too. Yeah, very good.

Okay, well, let's move on here in James.

So he says, above all else, you know, let your yes be us and your no be no.

And then he goes into verses, you know, verses 13 to the rest of the chapter. And I, you know, we spoke about this a couple weeks ago, a few weeks back at Savage Services. I'm going to talk about these verses a little bit, but I'm going to engage any questions or conversations. I had intended to kind of move through them very quickly, but I think that maybe we don't study some of these things in detail enough. We just maybe assume we know it also. Let me let let's just go through verses 13 to 18. We'll move through it as quickly as you want, but certainly any questions, comments, or anything from anyone are welcome here. Verse 13, he says, is anyone among you suffering? So we go back to this word suffering that we talked about, you know, back against when we're talking about the prophets in verse 10. I remember suffering isn't just sickness, but it can be anything that we're having, you know, problems with. They've upset in our lives. We talked about persecution problems, financial problems, sadness, depression, things that just don't go right in our lives. Is any of you suffering? Is it causing you distress? Is it causing you, you know, pain would be included in that? And James gives a very simple answer.

Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Let him pray. You know, it doesn't say, sit down and wipe out a plan to get yourself out of suffering. If you're suffering, take it to God. Let him pray. You know, Jesus Christ, do you remember his words well? He said, cast all your cares and concerns, all your cares and burdens on me. Cast them all on me. Any of you suffering? Let him pray. Take it to God, and he leaves it at there. And sometimes there's simplicity in the words that we read, right? And it's like, James says, take it to God. He knows.

He knows. He's very well aware of what you are going through and what you are doing and what's happening in your life. Let him pray. Contact God. Also, is anyone cheerful? Is anyone cheerful?

Let him sing songs. Let him sing songs. You know, here, look, before I go there, let me just turn to Psalm 107. Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Let's look at Psalm 107.

Because the attitudes, as we would expect in the words of James, mirror some of the things that we see David writing about in the Psalms. And of course they should, because they were both led by the same Spirit, God's Spirit. And in Psalm 107, in verse 6, it says this. It says, Then they cried out to the eternal in their trouble. They cried out to the eternal in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. You know, James says, Are you suffering?

Take it to God. They cried out to God, and that's what they did. And notably in this one chapter, the same thing is repeated three times. So if we flip over to verse 13, we see it repeated again.

They cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He did.

Now, they didn't do anything else. They didn't run out to do this or that. They'd take matters into their own hands and say, I've got to have an action plan. I've got to run here, run here, do this, do this, take it to God. And then again, in verse 28, same chapter, Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brings them out of their distresses.

Three times in one chapter, you know, we're told the same thing that James said. And in Psalm, I've got Psalm 34.4. Let's look at Psalm 34.4. I think it says the same thing there as well, but since I wrote it down, let's see what it says. Psalm 34 and verse 4.

Oh, I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and he delivered me from all my fears. Psalm of David.

So now, same sentiment that David expressed that James is expressing. Again, as people would read that back in the time James wrote this, they would probably think of those verses and think, I'm suffering, take it to God. And by the same token, if you're cheerful, if you're having a really good day, if everything seems to be falling into place, you know, God, everything going in the right direction and whatever, you know, he could have just as he could have said, let him pray then too, right? But he says, let him sing songs. You know, praise God. Praise God. When you're in your happiness and in your joy, sing to him. Sing the Psalms to him. Don't forget God in your times of suffering or in your times, in your good times, when things are going right. And I can't, I couldn't help but think of Ephesians 5 when I read that verse. So let's go back to Ephesians 5. And, you know, we know in Ephesians 4 Paul is talking to the church about the oneness of spirit and one body, one spirit, one God. And he gives the outline of the body of Christ in verse 4. But down in verse 15 of Ephesians 5, and I want to read, I think let's read beginning in verse 15, even though it's later on in the chapter that I want, you know, to get to the verses that pertain to this. But sometimes I think it's really good if we back up and see what the apostles are writing and then as we as we read them. Verse 15 of Ephesians 5 it says, see them that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. You know, we've talked about wisdom in the book of James.

He says, watch what you're doing. Walk as wise people. Redeem the time because the days are evil.

And they were evil, you know, back then at the time Paul wrote this, even more so in the days that we live now, we can look around and say, yes, the days are evil. We don't have time to be wasting days and months and years and decades. It's time for us to get to work. It's time for us to be getting serious about our calling if we're not already and even more intensely following God and seeking His will and seeking, you know, seeking Him and making the choices to to let Him transform the way we think to His way. Therefore, verse 17, don't be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. We pray every day, thy will be done. Don't be unwise, but understand it, you know. Ask God. And His Holy Spirit is more and more our minds will understand His will because we'll have that mind of Jesus Christ in us, and that will help us to see what His will is so that we will begin praying for the same things that God would have us pray for.

Don't be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and don't be drunk with wine in which is dissipation. Be filled with the Spirit. Let that be the thing that motivates you.

Be filled with the Spirit and live your life for that. Speaking to one another, and this is verse I want to speak, to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. We're happy. The joy overflows from us, you know, because we're happy, because we're walking the way God wants, because we called us, and even if we're at a tough time in our life, we're still very, very happy and joyous to be among God, among His people, and part of His family. Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 21, submitting to one another in the fear of God. Always remembering, you know, that thing where, you know, we work together and we're called to one body, you know, to serve one another. So let's go back to James 5 here, and that's James 5, 13.

You know, is anyone among you suffering? Not just sick. Let him pray. Anyone cheerful. Let him sing songs or sing songs. Then we'll move into verse 14. You know, everyone's heard this verse. Is anyone among you sick? Now we talked a little bit, or I did it that day, about sick. You know, sick means disease. You have a disease, you have an ailment, you have something serious, you know, that's there.

Maybe not just a passing one, you know, minor little thing, but someone is among you sick, and we know when we're sick, when we know when we're sick, and there's something serious with us. He says, is anyone among you sick? And he gives a very simple answer. What's the first thing you should do if you're sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him. You know, he doesn't say, well, go to the doctor, get the diagnosis, have your blood tests run, do everything the doctor says, and then when you get back home, call the elders of the church and ask them to pray over you. That's not what he says at all. They had doctors back in that day when James says, is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him. It's a matter of putting God first. You know, where do our minds go first? When we're sick, when we have an accident, when we have an injury, when this, what's the first thing we do?

Well, what the first thing we do in those situations tells God a lot about us, you know, and James says, when we have those things, let him call for the elders of the church and let him pray over him. You know, the first commandment is, no other gods before me. You know, putting God first, we talk about that often. It's in our lingo. It's in our culture. We talk about putting God first, and James is drawing that home here even when we're sick. God first. That's the first place we go to. And so we can kind of look at ourselves and we can kind of look around and, you know, look around, but look at ourselves and say, is that where I go first? And I just, you know, I'm going to open it up for a little bit of discussion here, but I want to just say a couple things here, because, you know, I know we have some who have been in the church a long time, and I know there's, you know, we may look at anointing in different ways, but you know, it is in the Word of God, and we live by every word of God, and we learn by every word of God. And, you know, I would encourage us all when we do have those periods of sickness to call an elder first, okay? Call an elder first. Train ourselves. I'm looking to God first. It's not that you're looking to the elder first. You're doing what God said to do first. Now, you know, I sometimes I'm not calling anyone out and whatever. I've heard it from a number of people. I don't have any specific person in mind, but you know, sometimes, you know, people will say, you know, I don't have a diagnosis yet.

I don't have a diagnosis yet, but I would like to be anointed. And my usual response, I think, is God doesn't need a diagnosis to heal you. He knows exactly what's going on with you. You don't have to have the blood tests run. You don't have to have all those things done. God knows. No, nothing wrong with having those tests run, and after you're anointed, you know, it's not awful. It's not a sin to go to the doctor and get a test run and see what it is, because sometimes when we learn what it is going on in our bodies, we can make some changes in our lives, too. You know, we can, you know, cut out certain foods and do other things, take some things that are there that God has provided for healing, because we know healing comes from, you know, as it tells us in Revelation 22, the leaves of the trees and stuff like that. But ministers don't need a diagnosis. God doesn't need a diagnosis. We don't have to go down, you know, down the list and say, you know, we do. Someone says, I've got, I don't know, you name it, I've got this or that, and if you know you have it, there's nothing wrong with saying it either, you know, and we ask God to heal this and heal that. Often, I will say anything, all the ailments in the person's body, even things that we don't know about or they don't know about, to provide complete healing and open our eyes. So we don't need a diagnosis. Don't think that before you can call me or another elder of the church, when we have more elders in the church, that you have to have a diagnosis. That you don't need. You just need to ask. And it has to be your responsibility, right? The, you know, notice it says, you know, let him call for the elders of the church. You know, sometimes, sometimes I find myself not knowing what to do. I'll hear, I'll hear that someone has been sick for a week and I think, oh, okay, they're sick for a week. I haven't heard from them. And I'll call or I'll email and say, you know, I've heard you haven't been feeling well and how's everything going? And I find myself thinking, well, should I offer to an anoint? And I go back to the words to say, you know, let him call. It's a matter of faith, right? That that's what God said to do. Let him call. It's your job to let the elder know you're sick. It's your job to let him know and ask for an anointing. You know, just as Jesus Christ said in Matthew 7, I guess it is where he says, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open to you. It has to be in our hearts. We have to ask and there's nothing wrong. Don't ever think that a minister is too busy, too busy to take your call for anointing or to take the time to come over and anoint you. Don't think he's too busy in church if you're there and you need to be anointed for something that he doesn't want to do it at that time. He does. We do anointed cloths and in Acts 19 it talks about anointed cloth. Sometimes, you know, we live our distances apart and someone can't do it. Yes, that's a biblical standard. And so no one's too busy ever to send an anointed cloth if you need one. If we can't get there, if it's a very serious thing, you may well find, you know, me in a car and three or four hours later at your hospital bed and the days when we can visit in hospitals again and things like that. But don't ever think that a minister is too busy, you know, and that you don't qualify or you shouldn't be asking for anointing.

No, no, no. God says do it. And part of what an elder's shot is, is to be anointing and to doing those things and to pray. Pray with you and over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord as the Bible says there. So that's kind of my diatribe on that right now. I'll open it up if there's any questions or confusion over that or anything like that. And again, don't let anything I said said that I don't want anyone going saying, you know, Rick said never go to a doctor. No, I didn't say that. I said come to God first. Train our minds to go to God first. And God is also looking to see where is our trust during this process, you know, go to God first and have faith in Him. You know, there we have the examples of faith. I'm getting ahead of myself, but in verse 15 it says the prayer of faith will save the sick, right? The prayer of faith. And remember, you know, one of the one of the things when we think about faith, we might think of Peter walking on the water when Jesus Christ, when he saw Christ walking on the water and and he said, Lord, let let me do that.

And Peter had faith and he kept his eyes on God. He kept his eyes on Jesus Christ. And as long as he did that, he didn't sing. But as soon as he looked around at the world around him and looked at the waves and thought about this, his faith was gone and he began to sing. And Jesus Christ said, oh, you have little faith. So sometimes, you know, when we we ask God for healing, what are we showing in our faith? Are we, are we have we keep our eyes on him for a minute?

Are we keeping our eyes on him through the entire process of our sickness, expecting and asking God to heal us? Even if we're doing other little things, where is our faith? Where is our trust?

Because part of our growth as Christians is we grow in trust, we grow in reliance, we grow in faith, and God wants us to learn to depend on him for literally everything.

Do things for ourselves, but when we have these problems, you know, look look to him. So let me let me let me pause there and if I got any if there's any questions, comments, we can you know we can talk about those a little bit here. So okay, well I probably scared you and I didn't mean to scare you. I just and please don't ever be afraid to don't ever be afraid. Don't ever be afraid of me, right?

Anything you ask any at any time and I know sometimes, you know, I know in Bible studies, when when I wasn't giving Bible studies, there would be questions that would come back later that would come to me later and I think, I wish I wish someone would have asked that or I wish, you know, someone would or I wish I would have had the nerve to ask it.

Yeah, if you have questions or comments later, you know, you can email me, you can call me, we can talk about it the next Bible study. It's okay. Anything you want to say is fine. It's you know, we're all here. We're all here to learn what God's will is. So, okay, well, we're, you know, we do that in verse 15. It says, the prayer of faith will save the sick.

It's an interesting choice of words that God uses there. Instead of saying the prayer of faith will heal the sick, he says the prayer of faith will save the sick, right? Well, of course, saving the sick would be, you know, could include healing. But the next phrase is, and the Lord will raise him up. We know the Lord will raise him up. You know, we could go back to and think about some of the healings that Jesus Christ said, and he would say, take up your bed and walk. No, Christ would raise him up. So, he even said the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up.

You know, we have to remember that at some time in our lives, you know, if sometime in our lives, we're going to ask to be anointed for sickness or may well ask for a sickness and we're going to die.

You know, it's given to all men to die once. God doesn't promise he's going to heal us every single time we're sick and he doesn't promise we're going to live forever in these physical bodies. So, there will be some time in our life, if our life ends on an illness and not by accident or very quickly, that we would ask for an anointing and we would die. Doesn't mean that we, you know, doesn't mean we shouldn't, that we or anyone around us would have a lack of faith in God because we know we know we're going to die. But we also know that if we have had the faith and if we have endured to the end, if we have done these things we've been talking about in James and the Bible talks about, if we have been patient, if we have kept around and we have learned and if we have grown and we've produced fruit and we have yielded ourselves to God, yes, he's going to save us.

In the other sense of the say, when Jesus Christ returns, we'll be resurrected and we will be healed at that time. There won't be the illness or whatever the problem we had at that time.

And it will be at that time he raises us up. So I don't know that James, you know, when he was going from sickness into anointing, you know, and again anointing, let me, let me, I didn't address one thing too. You know, all of us would like to be anointed and the very next second we're healed, right? And often I will ask God, you know, if it is your will, heal immediately. But if not, let us have faith and continue to look to you in faith for the healing. Because God doesn't heal, we all know immediately. But it is an exercise for us in order, you know, to learn the patience and the endurance and to keep looking to him and not give up and not to kind of start looking someplace else and think God isn't hearing. You know, so I thought someone into this morning had a good point in this or this afternoon and they said, you know, or sometimes we think that they go on so long that God wants us to take matters into our own hands and he wants us to start going to point A, point B, point C, point D, and we forget about him. No, he's not interested in that. He's looking to see do we have the patient endurance or are we still continuing to look at him for the healing and the saving that he gives and the salvation that he gives and the raising up that he will give us physically and spiritually at the last day, right? And in verse 15 he says, and if he has committed sins, there's that big little word, if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. And we know that, you know, Christ, as he heals sometimes, he would say, you know, be well, your sins are forgiven.

He didn't say that to everyone. So some of the illnesses and some of the maladies and some of the crippling situations that people had back then, it was a result of sin. And sometimes some of the illnesses and situations we find ourselves in is the cause of sin. And it's not inappropriate, you know, to search ourselves and see, you know, maybe if there is sin that God would be getting our attention through sickness, you know, and it's not inappropriate to ask him if there's something he wants to draw our attention to, that our minds are open and we're not going to shut the door and on him, but be open-minded about it and and have him lead it into that. But none of us, when someone is sick, we should never be judging other people too and say, well, if they've got that, this must be the problem that they they endured. If he has committed sins, sometimes sickness comes upon us just as a trial, just as God sends it to us like any other trial, to see how we respond, to see that we will continue to look to him and that we will endure it, and we will have that patient endurance, you know, that we've spoken about here for a while.

Okay. Comments? Comments on that? We're not going to... I didn't get through the entire chapter here this afternoon either, so we're going to probably end up stopping at about the same time, same place we did this morning. But any comments, questions on any of that? If this is something, you know, you might want to just contemplate and meditate on and kind of look at those words that God has written and order our lives in the order and with the steps of the Bible gives us. So, yeah, Mr. Shavey. Yes, sir. Yeah, just thinking in that whole context of, you know, calling the elders and being healed. I mean, it's not something new. God always required us to do something a little bit extra. And you can see even like in Mark when the disciples went out to be, you know, they went out and anointed and healed. But you go all the way back to Naaman. You know, whenever Naaman came and he wanted to be healed of leprosy, God had something for him to do.

And, you know, there was something to do first. He had to go and bathe in a particular river. Why?

I think part of it is just because there's an obedience aspect to receiving the benefits of God's blessings, as Naaman learned there. And I think when we, God says, go to the elders of the church, just like with Naaman having to go and bathe in the Jordan, there's a little aspect of humility there. Are you willing to submit yourself to me and my servants? Let me see, you know, what are you willing to do if you want to be healed? So I think it's kind of interesting that he gives us that little extra step when in fact we know he doesn't have to, but he does.

But he does. Yep. No. Excellent points. In verse 13 he says, if you're suffering, let pray, right? But in this one, go to the elders. Go to someone else and have them pray to you. Yes.

It's just very good.

I was thinking about when Paul was anointed three times for the same ailment.

When would you do that? I guess knock and you shall receive. Keep knocking, I suppose.

Yep. Yeah, that question came up this afternoon too. I, you know, I haven't, I think that I don't think it's wrong to go back and ask God the second time. It's not that we don't have faith that he didn't hear, but following that same example you said you had, I think it's in Luke 18 where the widow came back to the judge over and over and over again and he listened, you know, it's just showing us that we're continuing to look to God and if we need to anoint, if someone has to be anointed a second or third time for an ailment that keeps lingering or going on, I don't think, I don't see any biblical prohibition against that. That's not a lack of faith at all. That's just coming back and showing God we're still waiting for him and looking to him for healing. You know, Mr. Pabey? Yes, sir. I was going to say, you know, you just said about how, you know, going back and asking again to be anointed again and again, you know, it's interesting because when Christ says, ask, it shall be given, knock, and you shall find, seek.

Those words are actually in the present imperative, which means a continued and repeated action. So, it's not, you don't just ask one time. God's okay with you continually. You can continue to ask for something more than one time instead of, okay, well, I'm asking this one time, boom. It's not like showing a lack of faith because God does want us to continue to beseech him and ask him for things.

So, I think that kind of goes along with what you're saying with, you know, if you want to get, you need to get anointed again, I don't think it's a lack of faith or anything. It's, no, no. And you need to ask God for healing. Yeah. And it's, you know, and again, it's keep asking. God wants to know whatever's serious about it, right? Sometimes we'll ask one time and never mention it again, kind of like our kids mentioned something to us one time. You think, okay, they never mentioned it again. You think, don't have to buy that, don't have to go there.

Maybe God looks at it the same way. If they're serious about it, if they're really looking, you know, they'll continue to ask me for the, for what they need. So. Rick? Yes. I was just thinking as we were talking about, there are multiple asks. We do have examples of God kind of reversing that, too, where he repeats certain promises. So, specifically, the example that comes in my mind is throughout Abraham's life. God reiterates the covenant that he makes with Abraham multiple times. It's not because God was forgetful or that God was necessarily not going to keep the, because of course he kept his word, but more as a reminder to Abraham, you know, look, this is going to take a while, but I haven't forgotten my promise to you. Stick with me and I'll stick with you. Okay. Good point. He was, he was reminding Abraham. I hadn't forgotten. It's still there, right? So, yeah. Yeah, very good. And then through God's word, he repeats his promises to us. So, very good. Okay, well, we're up to, we're up to verse 16, and I'm looking at 832. So, I'm going to wrap this up here, but in verse 16, I mean, now you can read verse 16 there, and there, you know, as one of us has read ahead of this, and sent me kind of, sent me some thoughts on that. We're going to, we're going to have a sermon on Sabbath that is going to be given on verse 16. So, this may be a good place for us to stop here, but you might want to look at verse 16, and we'll talk about that, or you'll have a sermon at, we'll have a sermon on Sabbath on the webcast about that. And then, maybe as we come back next week, we can talk about, you know, we can talk about that, any questions and observations, because that's, that's an interesting verse, right? You can do a whole Bible study on chapter 6, or verse 16 alone. You can do a whole Bible study on verses 19 and 20 alone as well, you know, verses that we read several times in the Bible. So, we'll conclude there. I do want to talk about, I'm not, I'm not going to take the time to talk about a little bit about intercessory prayer tonight. I did this afternoon, but I'll make a note that in the evening session next week, we'll, we'll begin with intercessory prayer and any comments on, on the other verses here. I won't talk about 17 and 18 again. We talked about that in church a few weeks ago. But be looking at verses 19 and 20, and your thoughts on that, and what, you know, what is God saying there? What does he mean? What does he mean by those things? And we'll have a discussion about that at the beginning of next week's Bible study on Wednesday. And I don't, that's not going to take the whole Bible study, but I'll have something else ready for next week.

You know, we're going to go to the book of Revelation and talk about that. But before we get that, I wanted to do something kind of as a, as a lead-in to the book of Revelation. So, we'll do that next week as well. I haven't put it all together yet, but I'll just kind of wet your appetite and we'll, we'll, we'll talk about that. And then we'll be going into the book of Revelation after that. But we'll finish up these last couple verses of James. So, let me end the there for tonight. Any other comments that anyone has, though, are absolutely welcome. We can stay on and talk as long as anyone wants here. I have no place to go. I don't have to hop in a car. I'm right where I am going to end up, as you are. So, I do want to thank you all for, for, for being here tonight. Remember, we're going to have our Sabbath webcast on YouTube at 11 30, Sabbath morning, as our, our custom has been, you know, for the last three months here, 11 30 Sabbath. And we'll be back with the Bible studies the afternoon one at one o'clock next week. The evening one at seven o'clock. So, okay, so let me end there. And any other questions or anything that anyone wants to talk about?