Book of James, Part 5

Chapter 5 here actually is a very interesting chapter, because it talks about a number of topics, but what we find is, again, they all relate to one another. It talks about the rich and the rich abusing the poor, taking advantage of them, taking from them. And then we are exhorted to be patient, not to try to retaliate, not to try to get back. That Jesus Christ is coming, and when He comes, that He will deal with those who have mistreated His people. And it goes on to show that there are certain needs that we all have, one of them being sickness. And then we go through that, through that particular example, and we find that there are those who might leave the church and come back to the church, and how important it is for us to be a good example and to welcome them back. So let's start out with the first section here, which talks about abuses from the rich. Verse 1, Come now, you rich, weep, and how for your miseries that are coming upon you. Now, it's very unlikely that the people being addressed here are church members. I think He's addressing here members, or excuse me, the general population. And again, through this first section here, they're not called brethren. They're called upon to repent. So again, parts of this letter are written to the general public. Parts are written to the church. It's more like the utterance of the prophets in the Old Testament, where they called upon the nation to repent, and the people to repent. Sometimes it would be sent to the king, and to those in authority, and asking them to repent. It says, weep and how for your miseries that are coming upon you. They may take advantage of the poor, but there's going to come a time when they will be judged likewise.

Miseries imply a calamity. You know, you can stop and you can think about this. Is there anything wrong with being rich? I hope not, because there's been a lot of servants of God, very rich, down through the years. Nothing wrong with being rich. Being self-sufficient here, and not relying on God, is one of the problems. And what you find here is, these people are described as becoming rich by taking advantage of those who work for them, mistreating them, abusing them, and holding back their wages. So, what we find, there's nothing wrong with being rich.

I would like to see every one of us go out and get a wonderful job and make a million dollars. That would be great. It would certainly help the work of God, and it would help us here locally.

But, these were people who were focusing on money, making it their God, and forgetting God. Now, you and I need to realize that we likewise can fall into this trap. We're not the rich. Not many rich, not many mighty are called, the Bible says. But, if we're not careful, in this age, we can begin to focus on money, forget God, we can focus on our job to the point that it becomes our priority and we neglect prayer and we neglect study and develop or maintain a proper relationship with God.

Now, I do believe that Satan has set up society today in such a way that our times are just absorbed. And, if we're not careful, we allow that to dominate. So, he goes on to say, your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth eaten, your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you.

And, we'll eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasures in the last days. Now, you have to remember that back at this time, wealth was both in money as well as commodities. Things such as grain, oil, costly garments, and James is not condemning wealth, he's condemning the hoarding of money.

The wealthy people were hoarding their money to the extent that much of it had rotted. So, here you've got foodstuff, grains, that you've got stored away, and instead of sharing it, giving it to other people, or selling it, or whatever, they've hoarded it and it rots. As it says here, your riches are corrupted. And, they may have rotted in that sense. Other clothes have been destroyed by moss before they could use it.

And, the problem again is oppressing the poor. So, James is saying that the wealthy are relying upon themselves, and that those physical things will be meaningless in the day of trouble. When the day of trouble really comes, that's not going to help you. Now, I think there are a number of spiritual applications that we can apply from this. Anything that we physically rely upon other than God will fail.

The rich, who often rely on their own ingenuity, their own talents, money, this type of thing. The physical, as we know, will eventually be dissolved and failed. Only God and what is spiritual will last. The problem here that he's describing is that the real God of these individuals was money. What is most important to you in your life becomes your God. Now, God has to be uno number one in our lives.

He has to be first. God will not play second fiddle to anyone. He has to be number one. So, as he says here, your gold and silver are corroded, meaning tarnished. That's an indication of how long they had hoarded it, had laid there, hadn't been used, idle, but boy, they had this big pile of money over here. It says it witnesses against you. It witnessed against them to their greed, to their selfishness, of what they did to deprive workers of the rightful wages. And he says here, you've heaped up treasures in the last day. It shows the folly of hoarding like they were doing, because it's subject to decay, subject to theft, subject to fire, and other forms of loss.

Now, it's not saying don't save money. That's not what we're talking about. People who are greedy and selfish, who are hoarders, who do not have love and compassion for other people, and consequently, they just sit on what they have. Now, you and I are told in Matthew 6, 19 through 21, if you'll remember, Matthew 6, 19, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroys and where thieves break in and steal.

A direct reference here. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy, where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So where our treasure is, that's where our heart is going to be. I think Adam Clark, let me just read a paragraph out of his commentary, had a very good commentary on this section. Instead of helping the poor and thus honoring God with their substance, they had, through the principle of covetousness, kept all of it.

Their putrefied stores, their moth-eaten garments, their tarnished coins, are all many proofs that it was not the one of property, that reason why they didn't assist the poor, wasn't because they didn't have the means or the method, but through a principle of avarice. Loving money, not for the sake of it, would procure, but for its own sake, which is the genuine principle of the miser. Not wanting to make money, not wanting to have a business employ employees, spread the wealth around, be able to help other people, but just wanting money for the sake of money so you can hoard it and see how big your bank account can be.

This is what Christ would call lovers of money. And you might remember back in the book of Luke, he talks about that. So this is what is being condemned here. And notice, verse 4 begins to focus on part of what the problem was. Indeed, verse 4, the wages of the laborer who mowed your fields, which you held back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabath.

Now, many scriptures make it very clear that it was wrong to hold back wages, or the daily wages of laborers. Now, this isn't talking about if you've got a job and you go work somewhere, and you get paid every week or every other week.

It's not talking about that situation. It's talking more about day laborers. Let's notice the scripture in Leviticus 19.13, where this is a violation of. Leviticus 19, verse 13, says, "'You shall not defraud your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of him who was hired shall not remain with you all night until the morning.' If you hired him to do a job and it's done, don't sit there and keep it back and earn more interest or whatever.

Give him his rightful pay." Deuteronomy 24, and verse 14, Deuteronomy 24, and verse 14, "'You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy.'" So again, it's talking about those who are poor and those who are needy. "'Whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates, each day you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his heart on it.' "'Lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be a sin to you.'" Now, Proverbs 3, 27 through 28 mentions the same thing.

Proverbs 3, 27 through 28. So we find here, it's talking about when you know that somebody is poor and they're needy, and they needed that money, they worked for you, they could take that money and go home and buy some food or buy what they needed, and you hold it back, and you keep it from him. Now, back here in chapter 5 again, you'll notice here, it says here in verse 4, that the wages, in a sense, cry out to God.

Here, James vividly pictures the unpaid wages still in possession of the unscrupulous rich farmer accusing them of being dishonest, that it's a testimony or witness against them. And then it goes on to say, and these come up to the years of the Lord of Sabbath. The word here means Lord of Host. The word Host refers to a huge army or company of soldiers. And so you'll find that God has a large company of angels, that he's over and he can intervene at any time.

He can send out a dozen angels to take care of a situation if he wants to. And so it's saying, you know, that when people are oppressed, they are abused and they cry out to God that he hears. Now, what you find here, this is a principle of fraud taking place, robbing or holding back part of their wages for their workers, for their own greed. So the point here is that the wealthy have acquired their wealth unjustly. Not talking about those who've done it in a legitimate way, but who have done it in a wrong way.

Then he goes on to talk about how they've used that money. Verse 5, you've lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury. Pleasure here means soft living, luxury, enjoying every pleasure that money can buy. So, you know, some can have anything their hearts desire on the physical level. They have the money, they can go buy it, they can satiate every desire.

Luxury means wasteful self-indulgence. So here they've lived on the earth in pleasure and they've had luxury. You have fattened your heart as in the day of slaughter. Okay, this is an interesting expression here because it's talking about taking a calf and fattening it before you slaughter it. You know, a lot of farmers will take and maybe grain, excuse me, field graze their cattle, have them out here grazing. And then the last week or two before they slaughter them, they will give them grain and they'll pin them up and they'll fatten them.

And what they're trying to do is to marble the meat, then they'll slaughter them. So God is talking here about those who then are like the fattened calf, that they have fattened themselves up, they can eat anything and everything that they want to, unaware of the impending danger. See, here's the cow and it's thinking, wow, I haven't had corn before. I've eaten his grass out here. I've had alfalfa and laspadiza and this old straw out here. But now look at what I get to eat.

I've got all these grains. And he doesn't realize as the days drop by or go by, and one day the axe is going to fall and he's had it. Well, the same thing is true here. God is talking about these wicked. They don't realize that there is a day of slaughter coming, that they will be held accountable for their actions.

No one gets away with anything and there will be a time of judgment. Now, when you look at America today, everyone talks about the American dream. And, you know, I'm not against everybody living a good life. We all enjoy living a good life. But how many people are out here seeking just physical pleasure, luxury, what money can buy, and don't realize the spiritual and moral state of the nation, and that destruction is right around the corner?

We are a nation of people who are being fattened for the slaughter, and we don't realize it. Just like he uses the analogy here. Well, going on to verse 6, you have condemned, you have murdered the just, and he does not resist you. So, what you find here is those who are defenseless, those who are weak, those who don't have the means to fight back, are being taken advantage of, and so he is showing that. Therefore, the word therefore ties what is about to be said. Therefore, means consequently are in consideration of all that's gone before, because of this, here you are in the church, and maybe you're poor.

God is not called the great and the mighty, but the poor, basically, of the world. Therefore, what are we told to do? Get your shotgun out and go shoot them, burn his crops down, torch his barn, run his tractor off the road. Is that what we're supposed to do? Therefore, be patient. Now, people don't want to hear that. Be patient. You mean, I've got to be patient? Well, be patient, brethren. Now, what you find, he's addressing the members.

See, now, you need to be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. So, we need to be patient, realizing that Christ will rectify all of this. But has it happened yet? Has Christ come back? And the answer is no.

He has not. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruits of the earth, waiting patiently for it until he receives the early and the latter rain? We have to patiently wait for Christ's return today, don't we? Think of all the generations of Christians from the first century on who have died one after another, waiting for the return of Christ. And he did not come in their lifetime. But he will come. And God will begin to deal with the nations. The word patience here means long suffering. It's an attitude of self-restraint, not trying to get even for wrongs that have been done to you.

It means a patient holding out under a trial, a long-standing trial. It's exercised towards a person. There are two Greek words that are translated patience. And the word here is a word that means being patient in dealing with other people. Now, how often in the church have we had our patience sorely trying? And we maybe become impatient with each other. Well, this is what it's talking about here.

You see here it gives the example of the farmer. He has to wait for the farmer in the latter rains. There's nothing physically that a farmer can do to ensure that the rain will come at the proper time. He can plant his crop. And what does he have to do? He has to wait. Now, he might do a rain dance. He can jump up and down. He can... whatever. But the rains will come. He has to have faith that if he plants the crop, if he does what he should do, the rains are going to come, the sun will shine, and the crop will grow. The early rains are the fall rains in October, November, even into December. The latter rains are those that come in March and April. So that the rains will come at the proper time to allow the crop to grow. When I lived on the farm, we used to plant winter wheat or oats. You'd plant that in the fall. It would take hold and be there during the winter, and then as soon as it warmed up, boom! It would really take off, but you needed the rain. You needed the rain back here for it to seed and to germinate and to grow and take hold. Because what you were wanting to do during the winter is for it to put roots down. And then, once it got warmer and the latter rains would come, then it would take off and really grow. So he's using this as an example to us. Verse 8, you also be patient. So you and I are to be patient just as the farmer has to be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. So what is the source of strength that you and I have? It is a clear belief that Jesus Christ is going to return to this earth. That all wrongs will be righted, and that God will give us eternal life, and we will be in His kingdom. And that we will have an opportunity to turn around and to help these people, and to help them to understand. Now, what source of strength do people in the world have who deny God and who deny the eminent return of Jesus Christ? They don't have anything. They have the physical to rely upon. And that will fail them. The word establish here, it says establish your hearts, means to stand firm. It means to be able to stand in that no trial, no trouble will move you. You will be the unmovable object that you will be able to hold on. Then we're told, do not grumble, because we could then begin to grumble against one another. Do not grumble against another, brethren. Lest you be condemned, behold, the judge is standing at the door. So we're not to murmurs what the word grumble means. It refers to inner feelings of grudges against another person. Somebody's done something, and you hold a grudge. It's an inner distress, an inner conflict that you begin to have, that it becomes an open complaint then. You begin to grumble or murmur. It can lead to a feeling of bitterness and resentment. But it says, look, the judge is standing at the door. Who's the judge? Well, Jesus Christ is pictured at the judge. Standing there, knocking, and the door is ready to be opened, and he's ready to enter in. And it's picturing the time that we live in today, that the judge is there. And he is ready to return to this earth. The door will be opened here in the future, and Jesus Christ, in a sense, will step through it. And he will return to this earth and begin to deal with mankind. So, judgment is coming, and it's closer to us than it's been to any other generation.

In verse 10, he says, take the prophets, my brethren again, he's talking to the church. Take the prophets, who have spoken the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering, patience. So, they are an example. You go back and read what Daniel went through, what Jeremiah went through. None of us have been thrown in a pit with muck up to our bottom lip. We haven't been thrown in lion's dens, furnaces of fire. You go back and you read all of the things that God required his prophets to do. And you find that they had to have patience. So, they are examples to us of suffering and patience. What it means that if somebody like a prophet, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, chosen servants of God, given a specific responsibility and duty, we're allowed to go through all of these trials. Do we think we will be exempt? We have trials to go through, too. We have tests that we go through. We're faced with sufferings, likewise. The word suffering means afflictions. One of the things that we realize is that even though they went through all of this, they continued to do the job God gave them, did they not? They continued to do the work. The farmer has to continue to work, waiting for the rain to come. He doesn't stop working. He has to have faith. And you and I have to have faith that God has called us, that he's put us in his church. We're here for a reason. We're here for a purpose. And part of that purpose is to do a work. And part of that work is to preach the gospel. Through our tithes, our offerings, our prayers, our own personal involvement, that that takes place. What you find is that God will complete what he wants to do on his time schedule. He knows what the schedule is. You and I haven't seen the total schedule yet. We know that it's going to happen. We know the train is supposed to come, but we're not quite sure when it's going to arrive. But God will work it out when he wants it. So we find, indeed, we count them blessed to endure.

You have heard of the perseverance of Job, seeing the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. Now, it's interesting that the New King James Version translates this a little differently than the King James. King James translates it this way, "'Behold, we count them happy who endure.' You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord." Well, obviously, the Lord has not died. So that's not what it means. And the translation here that you have seen the end intended by the Lord is a much better translation. But the word patience is used here. The patience of Job actually should be the perseverance of Job. It means steadfast endurance. If you go back and read the story of Job, he wasn't too patient. He had perseverance. While he persevered under his trial, he passionately resented what was put upon him. He questioned God. He questioned his friends. He agonized in his mind over all of this. But he persevered. And that's what God wants us to do. We may go through a trial, we may wonder about it, we may mull it over. We may not always have the exact patience that we should have. But here you find that he persevered going through this trial. And what was the intent of the Lord? Well, the intent was, as it says here, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. So what we find is that God is merciful. God is compassionate. God will help us. He will intervene on our behalf. So above all then, brethren, we're told, do not swear. Now, why it says above all, not exactly sure, but it means this is something of primary importance. Don't swear, either by heaven or by the earth or with any other oath. But let your yes be yes and your no-no lest you fall into judgment.

Now, it's interesting, rather than employing an oath to convince people that you're telling the truth, a Christian should be honest in his speech. And when he makes an affirmation when he says, I affirm, or this is right, it should be unquestionable that he's not a liar. He tells the truth. The best guarantee that a statement is correct is not an oath that somebody takes. How many times do people get on the stand and say, well, I swear, tell truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, and turn right around and lie. You know they're lying. You know, we could mention certain trials that have gone on where people have murdered others, and you know, we've gotten up and lied through their teeth about what they did. Character is what you and I are supposed to have.

You and I are to develop the type of character that we always tell the truth. You see, taking an oath, why God says we shouldn't take an oath, actually divides speech into two levels. Some statements are true. Why? Well, because you swore to them. So those are true. While others are just normal statements, they may not be true, because you didn't swear to them. So can you trust them? So what he is saying is that you should be able to take somebody at his word, and as far as a Christian is concerned, that's the way it should be. Everybody should be able to trust our word. If we're not always truthful, our words then will be judged, constantly judged, as to whether they're truthful or not. People will always have a question mark in the back of their minds.

Then going on, he says, is there anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. So if you're suffering, God says, pray. The word means to be afflicted. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing. You and I should be singing. There are times when you're just so happy that you can't help but sing. There are times I go down the road in the car singing. You'll hear a song on the radio, and it's so snappy, and you sing. I'm sure people go by wondering, I wonder what happened again.

There are times I go down the road doing tongue twisters, and I try to get my voice limbered up to speak. And I'm sure people wonder what's going on, too. And then sometimes we just see people talking to themselves. A lot of people talk on phones today, but this is talking about when you're happy, sing.

Then it says, 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. So what we find is that if you're sick, you are to call for the elders. This is talking about the ministry in the church. It's not talking about every elderly person in the church, but the elders, a class of men in the church. Let them anoint him. Now, one of the things you'll find, I've studied a number of commentaries on this, and they will tell you that this scripture is talking about medication. They're talking about taking oils, aeromic oils, and you lay hands on them, so you rub these oils in the body and people get well. That's not what this is talking about at all. It's talking about praying for the sick. You lay hands on the head. You anoint them with oil, which is the symbol of God's Holy Spirit. Now, many illnesses we know would not benefit as a result of trying to rub oil on a person. A cancer isn't going to be healed because you rub oil on somebody's head or his feet. What you find is this is talking about healing. Notice here it says, in the name of the Lord. It's talking about something being done by the authority of God. This isn't what we find some of them want to say. Verse 15, it says, the prayer of faith will save the sick. It is the prayer of faith that will help a person to get well and to restore their health. It's talking about physical healing. Now, notice it says the prayer of faith. It doesn't say just because you anoint with oil or because you lay hands on or because of anything physical. Those are all commanded to do. But it is God who gets the credit. It's the prayer of faith that is praying to God and who does the healing. Well, God is the healer. And then it goes on to say, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. So the word, if, shows that all sickness is not the result of your own personal sins. It could be the result of somebody else's sin, of an accident, of any number of things that might take place. So if it is due to your own sins, negligence, then you need to repent of it. Confess your trespasses to one another. Pray for one another that you may be healed.

Now, we are to confess our faults. I've had people come to me and say, well, I'm sick and I know I probably have this because. And they'll tell me that I haven't been eating right, I haven't been staying up too late, haven't been sleeping, I've done this or I've done that. So it's talking about here how we are to confess. And it's not talking about if you have some horrendous sin, you should go around the church saying, well, you know, I'm an adulterer. Or, you know, I'm a fornicator. I'm a hater of people. I hate you. It's not talking about going around doing those type of things. That would be very unwise for a person to do. But there are times that you might go to a person and say, I need more wisdom. Or, I find that I'm short on patience. Please pray for me. And so you ask people to pray for you in some of the areas where you know that you lack.

So it's a principle that should be used with wisdom.

Then it says here, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. So what we find is if we are righteous and we pray to God that God will hear. Effective describes the outcome here.

It's talking about not just the prayer itself, but the fact that a man would pray to God and that God would hear. Our prayers, when we pray, should be passionate prayers. They should be full of power and enthusiasm. But God is the one again who answers. So we need to make sure we're doing what's right. We go before God and not half asleep, and we pray to God and He will hear our prayers. Now we find that Elijah cited as an example of someone who did this. He was a man with a nature like us, so he was human like us. He didn't have supernatural strength. He wasn't Superman, Batman, or anyone else. He was just a human being. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain and did not rain on the land for three years and six months. He prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

Here you'll find that God changed the whole course of what was going on in Israel. He stopped it for raining for three and a half years by the prayer of one man, and that affected thousands of people. Three and a half years later, he prayed again, and Elijah did, and it started raining, and that rain affected thousands of people. So we find that our prayers can move mountains, our prayers. We should not just look at prayer as something that's just routine. Two characteristics of Elijah. He was a righteous man. He prayed earnestly. You and I can have both of these characteristics. We should be righteous, and we can pray with fervency and effectiveness earnestly. Verse 19, Brethren, if anyone among you wonder from the truth, and someone turn him back, you'll find that people wonder away from the truth. This apparently shows that there can be those who are converted who sometimes wonder from the truth. They're not being totally rebellious or deliberately, willfully sinning, but they drift away. They get discouraged, laxness, whatever the reason might be. So they drift away from the truth, and they come back. We have those who come back to the truth. This is what we hope for many of those that we've known in the past. That they will come back. That they will truly repent. Verse 20 says, Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way, from what he was doing wrong, will save a soul from death. That's eternal death. And cover a multitude of sin. Not that he personally is covering it, but the fact that a person comes back, repents of his sin. Then what you find is that God will cover. So there are those who go stray doctrinally, stray from the truth. They get into an errant lifestyle, and if they come back, God says, then they can be in his kingdom. So we end James, the book of James. And the book of James has so much in it, as we have seen. Next Bible study we will pick up with 1 Peter, and we'll continue right on through 1 Peter, 1 Peter, 1 Peter, John, and Jude. So I appreciate everyone's attention, and we'll turn the services back over to Ray.