The General Epistles - Part 6

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to tonight's study. We want to, first of all, review what we learned from the first of four or the first of 12 verses of chapter four. We learned in James 4, 1, that wars, and that word wars is polemos, p-o-l-e-m-o-s, and it can be translated as wars, disputes, fights, battles, strife, quarrels, and mainly I think it means, in this particular case, strife, battles, quarrels among brethren. And the reason for these, it says that it's because of your lust, you desire, you covet. You remember that covet is also labeled as idolatry in the Bible, and it says, you have not because you ask not. Remember, we gave several 15 or more keys to effective prayer, and so prayer is one of the most wonderful things we have that we can go before the throne of God at any time. When you ask, pray, it says in James 4, you ask amiss. In other words, you ask for things that satisfy you, and you consume it upon your own lust. So we hope that we are not guilty of the same thing. One of the key things that I do in prayer is to thank God for all the blessings that He has given us, and the Psalm-Counture blessings is one that you should listen to from time to time. We learned that love of the world is equated with spiritual adultery, both for men and women, and adulteresses for women, adultery for men. Furthermore, love of the world makes you an enemy of God. We learned that love of the world is summarized by 1 John 2 16, which says, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

We learned that we are born with a carnal nature and a fleshly mind, and we learned that this is enmity toward God and to His will. Neither indeed can be, but we can be led by the Spirit and word and overcome the carnal nature of the Spirit that lusts to envy. We learned that we are to resist the proud and humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and in due season He will exalt us. We have emphasized throughout the study of the general epistles that we are to humble ourselves, and God hates those who He results Himself. He hates, He doesn't hate the person per se, but He hates the action. We learned that we must submit ourselves to God and resist the devil when we resist Him, when we don't give in to Him He flees from us. Remember that Christ resisted Satan by rebuking Him with Scripture, and we can say at any time, the Lord rebuke you, Satan, get you behind me, Satan. Get away from here. We learned that we must draw near to God and He will draw near to us. We learned that we can draw near to God through prayer, fasting, study, meditation, surrender, submission, serving, and obeying God. We learned that the Bible equates afflicting ourselves with fasting in many passages. You shall afflict your soul from sundown to sundown on the day of atonement, and you fast on the day of atonement. We learned that we are to cleanse ourselves from all unrighteousness and turn to God with our whole heart.

We learned that we must not slander one another, and we must judge righteous judgment. We learned that there is one Lawgiver that is able to save and destroy.

I hope you remember Matthew 10, 28, which says, fear not Him that is able to kill the body, but fear Him who is able to destroy both the body and the soul. And from time to time, I tell you the soul, when it really is sundown to it, means your life essence.

If God destroys you and get in a fire, of course, that is the second death from which there is no resurrection. We learned that there is the ultimate judge of who receives the gift of eternal life or destruction in the lake of fire, which is the second death. And of course, we talked about several other things, but that is a brief review of the first of 12 verses of chapter 4. And now we are going to pick it up in James 4.13. James 4.13. And one of the things that you need to... I'm going to say this up front so you will know it as we go along. James 4 and James 5 talks about swearing. But it's not swearing in the sense that the world, or maybe we think of swearing, it is not cursing. It is saying that you're going to do such and such regardless of who opposes or whatever, that you're going to do such and such. We'll read the verses in just a moment. The Bible is full of people who swear that is, that they will do something such and such. I'm going to read now from Genesis 50. You can write this down and look it up later. Genesis 50 verses 5 and 6. Genesis 50 verses 5 and 6. My father made me swear, this is Joseph speaking, remember that he wound up in Egypt second under Pharaoh, saying, Lo, I die in my grief, which I have did for me in the land of Canaan. There shall you bury me. So when Joseph left Canaan, he took the bones.

They took the bones of his father and they took Joseph's bones also. So he said that he did not want to be buried in Egypt. Therefore, let me go. I pray you and bury my father, and I will come again. And Pharaoh said, Go up and bury your father according as he made you swear. So several times in the Bible you will find where it says that God swears. One of the God himself swears in the book of Hebrews. In the book of Hebrews he says that you can swear by none greater than he is, and he is sworn by himself. So if you look at Hebrews 6, that reference is not the one I'm looking for, but it says in the book of Hebrews that God could swear by no greater than himself, and he swore by an oath that he would do such and such. One of the things he promised the land of the Middle East from river to river, from the Great River Euphrates to the Great River in Egypt, the Nile to the children of Israel and in the millennium, they are going to inherit that. So there's a difference between swearing as it is used in the Bible and what the world might say is cursing. We are not to let any corrupt communication proceed from our lips. Look at Ephesians 4 and verse 29. I hope I copied this down directly.

Ephesians 4 and verse 29.

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. Now that's that is cursing and using God's name in vain. That kind of thing. Corrupt communication. Swearing in the Bible is a different matter as we shall see. We should not swear, but we should say the Lord will as we'll read in the third verse that we'll read here tonight. So now let's go back to James and we'll start reading verse by verse in 13. Go to now you that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain. So in this city you go buy and sell and get gain. You may go to the bank, you may buy groceries, you may do whatever, but the Bible says in verse 14, whereas you know not what shall be on tomorrow for what your life is. It is even a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. For that you ought to say if the Lord will. And oftentimes we will say, God willing I'm going to do such and such, God willing I'm going to do this or that.

So we ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that. But now you rejoice in your boasting. All of such rejoicing is evil and we don't want to be evil in any sense of the word. The only thing that we can glory in or boast in is that we know God. There are two verses I want you to write down Jeremiah 9, 23 through 24. 9, Jeremiah chapter 9 verses 23 and 24, which the main thing I want you to remember if you're going to boast, you only boast in one thing and that is you know God. You boast in one thing that you know God. So any boasting is evil in the sight of God. Save that one thing. If you're going to boast, boast and say, well, I know God. Now we come to verse 17. Therefore to him that knows to do good and doesn't not, to him it is sin. So basically we sin in two different ways. We sin the sin of commission and generally we focus on commission. We focus on the Ten Commandments. Thou shall not and the Ten Great Commandments. But there are probably more you shall do such and such than they are you shall not. I haven't actually counted in my rent from one source that there are more you shall do such and such as opposed to you shall not do such and such. Therefore to him that knows to do good, and one of the things that I often talk about, I talked about it in the sermon this past weekend, that is it wasn't this past weekend, weekend before, to him that knows to do good. We have far more knowledge than that which we do in practice. We need to close the gap between what we know and what we do. It says in the first chapter of James, be you doers of the word and not hearers only. Verse 17 in its entirety, therefore to him that knows to do good and does not, to him it's sin. And we are far more guilty of the sin of omission where we fail to do what we know to do. I believe we're far more guilty of that than we are of the sin of commission. So those two sins we need to be aware of.

The sin of commission, you're breaking God's law, trespassing the law, and then the sin of omission, violating the knowing of what we know within us.

Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. So there is the sin of unbelief.

And in the book of Hebrews, it talks about one of the great sins of Israel was the sin of unbelief. They entered not into the promised land in the time in which they were supposed to. They had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, and they did not actually receive all the blessings that God intended for them to receive because of the sin of unbelief. So the sin of unbelief, let's turn to Hebrews chapter 4 for just a minute. Hebrews chapter 4.

Hebrews chapter 4. In Hebrews 4 verse 15, we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with our feelings, our impermanence, but was in all points like as we are yet without sin. So Christ was tempted in every way as we are, yet he did what he knew he needed to do. So we need to close the gap between what we say and what we do. That is one of the main things that we need to do in the church of God. Close the gap between what we do and what we know. So whatsoever is not of faith is sin, and there are many things that we know to do oftentimes that we don't do. Remember what the first article of faith is? The first article of faith is to believe that God exists and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So that is the starting point of faith, to believe that God exists. In Hebrews 3.12, I ask you to turn there. Let's look at Hebrews 3 and verse 12. So take heed, brethren, lest there be any among you with an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.

When we pray, we are to believe with all our might that God is going to answer our prayers. Remember, it says in James 1 that if any lack wisdom, let him come before God and ask, but nothing wavering because a double-minded person is not going to receive anything before God. But exhort one another daily while it is called today. Lest any of you be heartened through the deceitfulness of sin, and sin is deceitful.

For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast in the beginning to the end. So the sin of unbelief is one of the great sins. It was the sin that Christ had to deal with time to time in his ministry. It was the sin that the apostles had to deal with. It is the sin that we commit today that of unbelief. And we can't work up belief and just say, I believe, I believe, I believe. But belief is worked up through meditating on the Word of God, studying the Word of God, obeying the Word of God, knowing God, so that we can come before Him with boldness and with confidence each time knowing that He will hear and answer us. So we don't want to be heartened through the deceitfulness of sin, and sin is deceitful.

Now we come to chapter 5 of James. Chapter 5 of James, go to now you rich men. These first seven or eight verses here, and maybe even the first ten or so, are verses that are upon us right now. They are being fulfilled before our eyes. Of course, they've been fulfilled to some degree through the ages, but right now we can see it, we can hear it, we know about it. Go to now rich men, we've been howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Coming upon the rich of the world, those who are trying to save themselves by digging underground bunkers, by changing their cash into gold. It's not to say that we should not plan. We should plan, we should invest wisely, we should save wisely. We should never get the idea that riches of any kind are going to save us.

That is not what is going to save us. It is the power of God, our relationship with God. That is what will save us. Your riches are corrupted. Remember in Revelation chapter 6, when the day of the Lord comes, the rich men are going to try to hide themselves in the rocks and caves and throw their silver and gold into the streets. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten using the metaphor of riches, silver, gold, precious gems, jewels, diamonds, rubies, whatever, hopals, and your garments are moth-eaten. You may have a fine as clothes, but it won't do you any good. Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rest of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heat together treasure for the last days. Once again, we should plan for the future. We should carefully consider what God has given us. Remember the parable of the talents that God gave one person five and two others less talents, and the one that was given only one talent went and buried his because he knew that God was a hard man and would be required of him at the end. But God wants us to take what he has given us and use it to his glory and in helping others counter the knowledge of the truth. Behold the hire of the laborers. We have this going on today, and it's going on unlawfully at times, the hire of the laborers, which is a view kept back by fraud. In today's world, the protests are more of the political nature than they are the nature of riches and the workers rising up but eventually the workers are going to rise up as it says here. Behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by the fraud, cries and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sibyllant. So, God is hearing and answering the prayers. One of the things that we hear today that over half of the people in the United States live from paycheck to paycheck.

There are a large number of people who live on welfare and charity. There are a large number of people sleeping in the streets and have nothing that goes of people today. And of course, we can say that it's their fault and to some degree it is, but on the other hand, are we using our goods, our talents, our gifts, our whatever means that we have to help others and to lessen the cries that comes up into the ears of our Eternal God, the Father, the Lord of Sibyllant. You have lived in pleasure on the earth and have been wanting. In other words, you have done whatever you wanted to do. Wanting means voluptuous. You have lived in pleasure. You have lived in wantoness. You have not wanted for anything. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. It's like you have the finest of everything from the house you live in, to the transportation that you possess, to the clothes that you wear, to the food that you eat, and on and on it goes. You have condemned and killed the just, and he does not resist you. Now, God does not want us to resist the unjust treatment we have received in a wrong way. And exactly what the right way is, is that we realize, come to realize, that God is the one who is ultimately going to deliver, as it says here in verse 8.

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

And going back to the days of the apostles, to the present day, and we're about 2,000 years down the road since the apostles, that we hear that the coming of the Lord draws nigh. We hear it now. The coming of the Lord draws nigh. I've given sermons on the countdown that's going to occur before the coming of the Lord. The placing, the abomination, desolation is given in Matthew chapter 24 verses 15 through 24 is good to read. Matthew 15 verses, Matthew 24 verses 15 through 24. And then we want to read from Daniel. Daniel after, or just before the minor prophets, was it? Daniel just before Hosea. In Daniel chapter 12, we see that that countdown begins after the placing of the abomination that makes desolation.

In Daniel chapter 12, and at that time shall Michael stand up. Michael is one of the archangels and the protector of Israel, the great prince which stands for the children of your people. And of course, your people, Daniel writing, would be Israel. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was an ancient even to this same time, similar to the language in Matthew 24 verse 20, 21, 22, long and there. And at that time, the people shall be delivered everyone that shall be found, written in the book. The book is the book of life. And we want to make sure that our book, our name is in the book of life, and that our name is never blotted out of the book of life. The book of life, you can be blotted out of the book of life. You may be in there today, but you can fall away. And we noted already in Hebrews chapter 6 that if you fall away once you have received the good gift of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible to renew such a one. And I've used the analogy of how far you can drift away from God or the rubber band. You can stretch a rubber band so far, but at some point it will break and there's no way back.

The same way with one who, I guess I would call it, who dares God to deal with him according to the truth, who flirts with the truth, who goes as far away from God as he thinks he can go, at some point the band breaks and if it does, there's no way back.

And many of them that are in the dust of the earth shall awake the resurrection of the dead.

Some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

The everlasting contempt is a second death, but everyone gets an opportunity.

And when you look at verse 21 in the previous chapter, I mean 31, in the previous chapter where one places the abomination and makes the desolate.

Let's read Daniel 11.31. We have the same thing in Matthew 24.

And arms shall stand. This is Daniel 11.31. Daniel 11.31. And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary in strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that makes desolate. It's also spoken out in Matthew 24. So later on, Daniel is asked, how long will it be that the Great Tribulation will last?

Daniel in verse 4 says, Daniel shut up the words and sealed the book, even to the time of the end, and many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. And now we have artificial intelligence, which is going to change the whole world, whether we like it or not. I don't like it. I wish we didn't have to deal with it, but artificial intelligence is upon us, and whether we like it or not, it will be forced upon us. Already, Google and the various search engines are forcing artificial intelligence upon us, and artificial intelligence is itching to quote, help us do anything from research something to write something. It's just amazing what artificial intelligence can do, and will do, and how it will affect our lives.

Then I looked, and behold, there stood the other two on one side of the bank of the river, the other side on the bank of the river, and one said to the man clothed in the linen, which is upon the waters of the river, how long shall it be to the end of the wonders?

And he gets an answer. And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven and swear by him, that it lives for ever and ever, that it shall be for a time's time and half a time, and when he shall have accomplished the power of the holy people, all things shall be finished. And I heard, but I understood not, and said, O Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he says, Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed to the time of the end. Many shall be purified and made white and tried, but the wicked shall do wickedly, and none shall understand.

But he that, but the wise, shall understand from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away. And we read Daniel 11.31, he shall take away the daily sacrifice. It's also in Matthew 24, and the abomination that makes desolate is set up. There shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that comes to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days. So Christ said, No man knows the day nor the hour, but a blessing is pronounced on those that come. And then the answer to the question of how long shall it be? And the answer is blessed is he that comes to the hundred thirteen hundred and thirty-five days. So verse seven again, James 5,7, Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husband waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it until he receive the early and latter rain. Be you also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draws nigh. And we know after the abomination of desolation begins, a countdown and countdown belongs. That doesn't necessarily mean that Christ is going to come at the end of thirteen hundred and thirty-five days, but the response to the question, how long, oh Lord, how long is blessed is he that comes to the thirteen hundred and thirty-five days.

Now verse nine, grudge not one against another, similar to Verra, to chapter four that we talked about, or having a grudge and slandering one another, one of the key points that we talked about tonight in the review of chapter four. So grudge not one against another, brethren, lest you be condemned. That word condemned in the Greek is catacrine, you be condemned. Catacrine, crine is the word just for condemned.

It means judgment. Lest you be judged behold, and is confirmed by the next clause, the judge stands by the door. I don't know why the King James didn't translate lest you be judged behold the judge stands before at the door, or behold the judge stands before the door. Take my brethren the prophets. Now Christ said in Matthew 23 that Israel killed the prophets who were sent to them. Take my prophets, take my brethren the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering afflicting. And so many of them were killed, and the people would not listen to them. God sent prophet after prophet, warning them unless they returned to him and repeated of their sins. They went after other gods, and they made idols and worship Baal and other pagan gods and left the true God. So take the prophets for an example of suffering affliction and patience. Behold, we count them happy, which endure. You have heard of the patience and joy, and you have seen the end of the Lord. That word end almost every time in the New Testament when you see the word end, you need to see what the Greek word is. The Greek word is telos. It is pronounced the way it is spelled. Telos.

E has an A sound in most other languages. E has an A sound and an U sound in English. Sometimes it is a plain E sound in English. You have heard of the patience of Job. I have seen the outcome of the Lord. The Lord is pitiful. That word pitiful is polosplan...splanith...nose. Polosplanith nose. It means extremely compassionate. Extremely compassionate. Now the word pitiful in today's language has a different meaning. To some degree, you say he's a pitiful looking person and means he looks down and out and that kind of thing. But pitiful here means extremely compassionate and is also proven by its companion and parallel phrase and of tender mercy. So the Lord is extremely compassionate and of tender mercy. And that word mercy is well old termion, old termion, or old tremion, and of tender mercy. But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath. So once again swearing it comes up.

And it doesn't mean, as I have pointed out, it doesn't mean what we say today. Cursing. Cursing is corrupt communication. Swearing even God swore himself by no greater oath could he swear than by himself and saying that he would do such and such. He would give the land to Israel. His purpose would be accomplished.

Now God's will will not be performed in everything. It says that God is not willing that any should perish in 1 Peter chapter 5. Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance such as 1 Peter 5 and Peter 9, I believe. But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth. So don't swear. Don't say, I'm going to do such and such, or give any other oath. But let your yes be yes, and your no be no, lest you fall into judgment. Condemnation is, once again, crino.

The Greek word there is fupocrisis. It means lest you fall into hypocrisy or dissimulation. It has a different meaning than the word condemnation in the previous verse that I talked about where God is extremely compassionate. This word here, lest you fall into condemnation, means it pertains to the Lord will not hold you guiltless that takes his name in vain. So it has to do also with corrupt communication. And it's a different word than the word that's used where God is extremely compassionate. Now we come to the prayer of faith and divine healing.

Divine healing has taken on a life all of its own in the Church of God. In the early days, especially, one of the ones that was the assigned nurse, and not many people know this, the assigned nurse to Mrs. Armstrong knew that when Dick Armstrong had the automobile accident near Santa Barbara, California, and eventually was taken to the hospital in the Los Angeles area, maybe it was Pasadena area, that Mr. Armstrong and the evangelist tried to raise him from the dead.

But of course they were unsuccessful in raising him from the dead. So early on in the Church, people who stayed away from doctors would not go to doctors. And then we came to better understanding of what it meant. And now it seems that going to doctors has replaced anointing.

And people take anointing far too routinely. Just, well, I'll get anointed and I'll go to the doctor. I'll go with this or that. It is not wrong, per se, to go to the doctor. But the ultimate healer is God. God is the one who heals us from all our imperatives. He is the one that makes us whole, that makes us well. And the word that is used oftentimes for healing is e-i-o-m-a-i.

It means to make whole. God makes us whole. We can be whole spiritually and yet be sick as a dog, as they say. You can be very sick and be made whole spiritually. So in the healing prayer, ministers oftentimes will mention to raise them up and restore them in every sense of the word, both physically and spiritually.

Does any sick among you let him call for the elders of the church? Now one of the things that that does is if you do it, if you obey it, it places you in contact with the ministry. And oftentimes there is discussion. There is, and sometimes counseling before the anointing. So it places you in contact with the ministry and oftentimes with counseling before the anointing.

And so don't shortchange anointing. Don't treat it as a routine matter and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil. And we know that the anointing, it talks about when Aaron was anointed, the oil ran down to his beard. It talks about Joshua being anointed to take Moses' place, the anointing him with oil, symbolic of the Holy Spirit in the name of the Lord. So it places you also under the name of the Lord, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. Now most ministers think it has to be a long, eloquent prayer.

It doesn't have to be a long, eloquent prayer. I heard one minister talking about, he was anointing Mr. Armstrong one time, and he said, okay, get down to the point. And so it doesn't have to be a long, eloquent prayer, but it has to be of faith. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick. Now that word sick in the Greek is kamner, k-a-m-n-o, kamner, and it means faint, sick, and wearied.

So it doesn't have to be sick in the sense of having a disease. It can be for weariness, for troubled mind. Not many people get anointed for a troubled mind. I've had a few that did, and a few that had demon problems, or thought they had demon problems, and sometimes they did. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, kamner, k-a-m-n-o, and the Lord shall raise him up. It's from the participle akin to the base of the idea of the reflective pronoun cell. It's used in the third person as a personal pronoun.

I will raise him up, and it says, and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Now we come to what causes sickness in the first place. One of the things with regard to taking the Passover, and we go to 1 Corinthians 11. Paul was given specific passover instructions with regard to how to keep the Passover, and it's contained in, it's given to us in 1 Corinthians 11.

Verse 23, For I received of the Lord, that which I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the night in which he was betrayed, which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, be broken, and said, Take ye, this is my body, which is broken for you, and do this in remembrance of me. So Passover is really a memorial service. It is putting into remembrance what Christ has done for each one of us. He died. He was our petitiation. He went in our place.

After the same manner also, he took the cup. When he had stopped saying, Take ye, this is the New Testament of my blood.

And as often as you drink of it, do it in remembrance of me. So it is a memorial service. For as often as you eat of this bread and drink of this cup, you do so the Lord's dead till he come. So we say it's the most solemn ceremony of the year because you remember what Christ has done for you. He gave his life for you, both body and blood. It is a complete and total sacrifice. We do not teach a divided sacrifice, one part for physical healing and one part for spiritual healing. We teach it is a whole, complete sacrifice. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do so the Lord's dead till he come. Wherefore whosoever eats this bread and drinks this cup unworthily, I have finally gotten most of the ministry to understand the word unworthily. The word unworthily in the Greek is anaxios, a-n-a-x-i-o-u-s, anaxios, which means take, which doesn't mean unworthily in a sense that we say it does. It means that we discern the Lord's body correctly. We do not take it divisively in a divided state. The Corinthians were taking it in a divided state of mind. They would bring a... it wasn't a potluck. They would bring their own food, some fair and sumptuously, and fair. Basically, they didn't have anything, so they were divided on how they took a Passover.

So, it is unworthily means that you haven't properly discerned the Lord's body and blood. His body consists of the Church. And when you disobey and take food boldly and your brother goes without, you are taking it unworthily. You're taking it in a position that it shouldn't be. You're taking it and dividing the body. Because when you take the Passover, you're saying that we are one that we are one bread and one body. There's a song to that effect. One bread, one body.

One bread, one body. One blood, one body.

You shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself and then drink of that cup where he that eats and drinks unworthily eats, eats, having trouble seeing when they bifocals, eats and drinks damnation or judgment to himself, not disturbing the Lord's body. There is the physical body that Christ gave, and it is a memorial service. There's also the body, the Church, the Christ we are baptized into one body, whether we be bond or free. That's in 1 Corinthians 12, that we are not divided.

When we criticize the body, the Church, we are in essence criticizing ourselves because we are a part of the body. So, unworthily does not mean, oh, I'm not worthy to take a pass over. None of us are worthy in the sense that it's used today. We're not worthy to take it in the sense that people use the term today worthy. Unworthy is an axios, and it means to take it in a divisive, divided, unexamined way. Each person should examine themselves and then take the pass over.

Now verse 15, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick. Can't know. We talked about that. And the Lord shall raise him up. That is, to make him whole. And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. God trims every vine that he loves. And so sin is one cause of sickness, but it's not always because we may God chastens every son that he loves. And we are too we are to realize that he chastens every son that he loves. If he is sick, as the Neo weak exhausted, as I talked about, you can pray for that when you anoint someone. And can know literally means the exhausted one. Now let's continue here. The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.

And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. You may have a weakness due to inheriting. The sins of the fathers are passed on to the third and fourth generation. There is time and chance. It says in the Old Testament that time and chance happens to us all. So we may be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now verse 16, confess your faults one to another and pray one for another. Now the word faults, I see what the greeting is. It is paratoma, p-a-r-a-t-o-m-a, paratoma.

It means offense, sin, trespass. In other words, be reconciled to your brother. It doesn't necessarily mean, oh, do you want to know my most deadly illness? Do you want to know that I am cancer? Perhaps you're waiting for a period of time to make you public, whatever it is.

It's mainly talking about being at one, being reconciled to God and Christ and each member of the body of Christ. Remember in Matthew 5, if you bring your gift to the altar, and prayer is a sacrifice, counted as a spiritual sacrifice to God, to offer up spiritual sacrifices with which God is well pleased, as we'll read about in 1 Peter 2. Confess your faults one to another, pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervor prayer of a righteous man avails much. So you pray and you pray in faith, nothing wavering. Elijah was a man subject to life passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain. And it rained not on the earth but the space of three years and a half, three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Of course, Elijah did something wrong. He heard that Jezebel was after him, so he went and hid away, saying, I am the only righteous person left on earth. And God said, I have vowed, I have reserved to myself seven thousand that have not vowed their need to bail. Brethren, if any of you err from the truth, and one can burn him. Now, this is a very important word. Convert him is the Greek word epistrepho. It is E-P-I-S-T-R-E-P-H-O. And one convert him. We don't convert, but we turn about. If we see our brother in the wrong, we go to him, realizing ourselves that we could be in the same boat, and failure to do that is the same. It's equated with murder in 1 John chapter 5, which we'll talk about when we get to 1 John chapter 5. So if one turns him about, if you're talking to him, causes him to turn about and stop sinning, let him know. You will know that the he which converts or turns about the center from the error of his way shall save a life essence from death, that is the second death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. See, when we go into that watery grave of baptism, you say, I'm crucified with Christ. I'm burying the old man. I'm going to be raised to do this of life and serve God in spirit and in truth, and keep the old man under the water. So we'll take up with 1 Peter chapter 1 next time. Of course, we will do a bit of an over-viewing introduction to Peter and review some of the main points that we have covered tonight. So do we have any questions or comments from any of you? Hey, Dr. Ward? Yes, please. Hey, I was just going to say that now that we're through the book of James, it's just so jam-packed with so many different thoughts, principles, Christian living principles. It reminds me a lot of Proverbs, where it's just full of different wisdom and principles and short things that are not expounded on a whole lot.

There's certainly the basis for a lot of good studies and messages. Yes, there is. You know, I had an email from a person in another country, not in the USA or in Canada, but overseas, as they say. When I said the general epistles is really the meat of the word, Paul brings us through conversion, and I know a lot of other things. Paul's writings are more technical and difficult to understand in a way. But James especially, he just lays it all out for you. I mean, you are basically without excuse after you read the book of James and you realize what he's saying. He was one of the first epistles written in the New Testament, too, one of the earliest ones, maybe the earliest. It would still probably have been a lot of brethren around that would have benefited from it. Yes, and he's writing basically two Christians scattered abroad to the 12 tribes scattered abroad. He's speaking to the Jews where, you know, like it says in Romans 3, the Jews had an advantage in every way, that's what it says in Romans chapter 3, in that under them were committed the oracles of God. They had the duty and the responsibility of preserving the scriptures, and yet they turned away from the words of life. And to this day, much of the Jewish population is looking for a Messiah, an earthly kind of Messiah, to come on the scene and liberate them and then become the model nation on earth. Oh yes, the Jews have in mind are becoming the model nation on earth. In fact, the temple they're talking about building will be called a house of prayer for all nations. Now, I don't know if that'll happen or not, but I know that is what they have talked about. Any other comment or question? Thank you, Jim. We have two elders, at least I don't know if there are other elders. Paul Moody, Jim Moody, I think they're brothers even. At times, they claim each other. Any other question or comment? Yes, sir, Dr. Ward. I will claim my brother specifically at this time. I liked his comment and agree the fact that James is full of so much. I was kind of eyeing verse seven and eight of James chapter five where he talks about being patient and he equates it to the farmer who waits for the precious fruit of the earth waiting patiently until it receives the early and the latter rain. The point is we also are patient for the coming of the Lord. It's interesting to think for those that understand the farmer's life, they don't just go out and drill the seed in the ground and then go take a nap until its harvest time. It's like that patience is an active, busy doing. They're still tending the crop and weeding the crop, thinning, doing the various things that need to be done to help that come about. It reminds us that for us as God's people, being patient until the coming of the Lord, it's an attitude we're to have, but we're to be busy, we're to be active, we're to be about our Father's business and found so doing when He comes. So as then verse eight said, be patient, establish your hearts. The coming of the Lord is at hand. So that patience is just full of a lot of activity while we are long suffering and weeding first coming. Even in chapter one, it talks about being patient. Paul talks about being patient. And by the way, I heard you're a good sermon at the feast. Didn't you speak on that?

Might have had a little bit in there.

Anybody else?

Well, I appreciate your attendance. We're holding steady at 24.

And we have two people that drop off quickly each time. I don't know who they are, but thank you for attending. We'll see you again in two weeks!