James 5

Transcript

James 5 Commentary

Welcome to World Events And The Bible. I’m Brandon T. Ward. We’re going to finish the book of James today, we are going to finish the book of James. James chapter five, before we do let’s recap a little bit on chapter four. Okay.

We saw that you ask and you have not because you ask amiss. You know, you’re asking out of sinful intent, out of lusts. You want these lusts and desires of the world, instead of asking for things that will benefit God and that will truly benefit you.

So we’re waging war within ourself. Our spirit and our flesh kind of fighting against each other. You kinda got to harmonize it just a little bit. And we learned, if you draw near to God, then he will draw near to you. If you resist temptation, the devil will flee from you because he realizes he’s not gaining any ground with you. All right.

And it doesn’t literally need to be the devil. It could be bad crowds you run with. You know, they want to come run with you and you want to go get into some trouble or you know that they’re going to get into trouble and you start turning them down. All man, you know, I appreciate it. No, I can’t go. I’m not going to go.

Soon they’re not going to ask you anymore. They’re going to flee, because you’re no fun to them. You know, you’re not going to go get in trouble with them. So just kinda think about these things, apply all these words to your life. And your own specific situation and you’re going to get a lot more out of it. Okay.

So James chapter five, let’s say a prayer first heavenly Father. We ask you for wisdom and understanding of your word in Jesus name. Amen. All right.

Warning To Those Who Are Rich From Theft

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Five verse one. Go to now you rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your miseries are coming.

Now these are the rich men. These are the oppressors we learned about in James chapter two, verse six. Remember how we were talking about rich men and poor. And I said it had nothing to do with someone who was rich because they actually earned it honestly. No, these rich men are con artists. They’re thieves, they’re scum truly.

Verse two. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth eaten.

Verse three. Your gold and silver is cankered. It’s corroded, it’s oxidized. And the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped together treasure for the last days.

The last days, the days we live in right now. So think about this. James is talking about what was going on back in his day, but he’s given you some prophecy now here.

He is saying the rich men in your time, they’re going to be these con artists that are ripping people off and their wealth is actually going to be a witness against them.

How could someone’s wealth be a witness against them?

Pretty easy. The amount of wealth that they have, where that paper trail came, shows who they ripped off and who they didn’t rip off.

That’s how it’s used against them. We’re going to get an example here in just a moment. And what were we told in second Timothy chapter three?

Hey, in the last days, men will be boasters, proud disobedient to parents. Some of the stuff that we’ve been learning about here, right in the book of James. Don’t just when you read this think, oh rich men, like it’s some imaginary person he’s talking.

God’s word is talking about the people who run our world today. Some of those people who give you lip service, the double minded people. People who say one thing and they may even claim to be a Christian, but then they don’t do his work. It falls way short of it. Career politicians, politicians that just step on the scene that were already rich, man.

Verse four. Behold, the hire of labors, behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields. The ones that were working for you. Listen to this, which is of you kept back by fraud, you cheated them. They crieth, and the cries of them which have reaped, are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.

This Sabbath means, it’s the Lord of hosts. It’s used in the New Testament. So these are the oppressors, again that we learned about in James two, six. They’re ripping off the laborers in the field. And don’t say, well, I don’t, I don’t labor in the field, Brandon, so it’s not talking about me. Sure. It is.

Yeah, we don’t labor in the field. We have all kinds of other things. Some people are engineers. Some people dig ditches. Some people are doctors, whatever it is that you do, whatever your job is, it’s saying in the world, there’s people that have ripped you off or other people off. Ripped them off. The people put in their day’s wage, but they didn’t get their day’s pay.

And this doesn’t need to necessarily be that they literally didn’t get their pay. How about over taxation? How about taxing people for things that we never actually get. Misappropriating, misspending tax money on things which governments do all the time. So don’t think this has to be some individual, it’s the controlling powers of the world.

Have you ever read Ephesians chapter six? Spiritual wickedness in high places. All these things go hand in hand. God’s word is really complete here. Okay.

Verse five. You’ve lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton. That means you lived in luxury boy. You have nourished your hearts as in the day of slaughter. Or you’ve nourished your hearts until the day of slaughter.

The day of slaughter is like when Jesus comes back. I mean, he’s going to set everything, right. This is prophecy from the Old Testament that’s kind of be cited right here. But these people, they lived in pleasure and luxury on the earth at other people’s expense. And that’s not good when you start taking from everybody else, so you can have, that’s not the Christian way to do it all.

And you want to mark those people, people that do those things are un-Christian and they’re truly our enemy, they’re God’s enemy. Don’t have business dealings with people like that.

Verse six. You’ve condemned and killed the just. And he doth not resist you.

This happens every day, all day. Christians in foreign nations are killed all the time because they’re Christian, and either some radicals don’t like that or their government doesn’t like that. And look what happened in the United States of America. We have this inclusion and inclusiveness and equality and all this stuff, but it doesn’t include Jesus Christ.

It doesn’t include the word of God. It’s not very inclusive. Thank goodness we’re not being killed. Right. But, I mean, they’re trying to destroy our faith. They’re killing our faith in that guard and we don’t do it much justice either.

Patience in Suffering

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Verse seven. Be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord.

Just hold fast, hold fast. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he received the early and latter rain. You know, this reminds me of Joel chapter two, verse 23. In the Last Days, God’s going to pour out the latter rain on his saints and says, if you read the verse there, that when God pours out his spirit, some people are going to prophesy.

Some are going to dream dreams. This stuff’s going to go down during the tribulation. I mean, it’s a guarantee and James is tying into it here. He’s tying in and he’s saying, be patient though, wait for the Lord Jesus Christ. I know the world is a messed up place, but we are going to endure anyway. And you’re going to endure with a smile on your face because we’re going to try to save some souls along the way for the Lord.

Verse eight. Be also patient, just hang tough. Stablish your heart. For the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. It draws near day by day. It gets closer and closer it comes.

Verse nine. Grudge not one another brethren. Lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth it before the door. And God is the judge. And this grudge means don’t murmur or groan. Don’t murmur or groan, don’t murmur or grown about going to work.

Definitely don’t murmur groan about going to church. You know, just be patient, live your life. Be happy, study God’s word a little bit along the way. Everything will be okay.

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

I mean, we could just look back on the prophets of old and think about what they all went through. What they endured. So we could have this word in our hand right now. So, I mean, that’s what I was getting at in some of the prior chapters, is if you’re sharing the word of God with somebody, take it seriously.

I mean, men have died for this word. You know, God sent his only Son in the world to perish on the cross for our sins. And this word tells that whole story. So take it very seriously. Take it very seriously.

Something else it talks about here is, take example of their suffering. And if we do that, you know, James chapter one verse 12 told us we will inherit a crown of life.

Revelation tells us the same thing. So that crown of life is eternal life even.

Verse 11. Behold, we count them happy, count them, blessed, which endure. You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end or the purpose of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. Hey, this blessed means endowed with divine favor and protection even, and God puts that on those who love him.

He blesses those who love him. He blesses those who endure as Jesus told us endure until the end and you’ll receive a crown of life. That’s what we’re talking about the Bible is all tied together.

And no matter how bad the days are, how bad things go, you know, from this day to the next day, what is going on, being peddled for truth, you can stay focused on this word. It’s not going to change. And whatever’s written in here. It will come to pass.

These rich men who are thieves, would be better said, they ripped everybody off. Their money is not going to be any good for them. It’s even going to be a witness against their thievery and their corruption.

And think of this today. This is not something that happened a long time ago. I mean, it did, it’s happened throughout history, but it’s happening today. It’s some of our leaders, some of these powerful companies even that are restricting Christianity. They’re restricting our freedom of speech even, in this country and around the world.

If you say something that doesn’t go with the new modern version of morality, than Hey, you get exed out, that’s it. So, you know what Christians don’t have anything to do with that. Otherwise you, in a way you kind of become partakers of their evil deeds. When you participate with these companies, that means you’re funding them.

You’re helping the sin. If you use, how do I want to say this? If you participate in some online platforms, then you’re helping those companies grow their advertising revenue. Whether you realize it or not, nothing’s free in this world. You sign up for a free account for something, your information is being sold.

That’s been documented over and over. And so these companies are persecuting Christians or our beliefs, and you don’t want to help that out. That’s not helping doing God’s. That’s helping doing someone else’s work, but it’s certainly not God’s.

Verse 12. But above all things my brethren, swear not neither by heaven. It means making oaths. Neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yay be yay, and your nay be nay lest you fall into condemnation.

You know, it’s talking about making oaths making promises. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Certainly don’t make one to God, because maybe something will happen and you can’t keep it and you made a promise to Him.

Why do that?

Just let your yay be yay, and your nay be nay. If you’re going to do it, just do it. If you’re not going to do it, then don’t do it, but don’t start yet promises under the sun. Oh, I’ll do it. I promise. I swear on a stack of Bibles. Don’t be doing all that crazy stuff. It doesn’t serve any purpose, but it could offend God. All right.

The Prayer Of Faith

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Verse 13. Is any among you afflicted, let him pray. Pray when you’re afflicted, pray when you’re going through trials and tribulations or when a family member is. Or church members or anything like that. Is any merry, is any happy. Let him sing psalms. Enjoy that happiness. We should be happy.

And you know what, James chapter one we learned in there, it says count it all joy because it builds faith when you have those trials and those tribulations count it joy because it builds faith. Remember it builds your endurance. So it’s important to remember that one.

Verse 14. Is any sick among you. This could be physical illness. It could be even spiritual illness. I feel, it says, let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him. Pray over the ones that are sick. Anointing, which means the word means to oil, anointing him with oil, which is olive oil, in the name of the Lord, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you don’t have a church or there’s no elders at your church, some little Bible study group or something maybe. Then some of you just get together and do what God instructed. Go pray over him. Anoint him with olive oil, take a little bit of oil on the side. Put it in a little vile or whatever, whatever works for you.

And just say a prayer, heavenly Father, please bless this for healing, spiritual healing, the healing of our flesh, this individual’s flesh. And then take some of it and put it on him, put it on their forehead, on their skin, anywhere. You know, there’s been times where I’ll anoint our home. We buy a new home or maybe something, there was some questionable circumstance and maybe I’ll just anoint it.

I’ve anointed our vehicle. And I’ve probably done it a handful of times in my life, maybe two handfuls in my life. Because once I asked God to bless my home, and if I haven’t moved from my home, then I, then I kind of expect that he’s going to bless, honor what I had asked him, I’m following what he said. And I lived my life according to the book.

Now, I suppose maybe this would change. If you invited someone in your house that maybe was an unscrupulous character, maybe they had some kind of evil spirit climbed on their back or some negative influence that came into your house. And Hey, maybe do what we’re being told here to do. All right. You can anoint for spiritual or fleshly illness. I feel. All right.

Verse 15. And the prayer of faith, the prayer of faith shall save the sick. This one who’s ill, and the Lord shall raise him up. He’ll heal him. And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Boy, isn’t that something, you know what that’s talking about?

Intercessory, prayer, right?

And the faith saves right?

The olive oil. I should point out it doesn’t do a darn thing. It’s great for cooking. I use it for cooking all the time, but God said, use the olive oil. It’s just your obedience to do what he asked you to do. Just like in the Old Testament, when they had sacrificed the lamb, they put the Lamb’s blood over the door, that blood didn’t save them.

It was their obedience to do what God asked them to do. It’s always that way. All right.

You know, I have a note here. I want to read first Timothy chapter two, verse one. So first Timothy chapter two, verse one. Let’s do that real quick.

All right, here it is. I exhort, therefore, the first of all supplications, prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men. So he is talking about intercessory prayer. You know, praying for someone else, praying for someone else on their behalf. I’ve had loved ones before where they were, they were sick and they were out of it. And there was no way they were going to be able to pray.

And so we pray for them. You know, and we even anointed them. And so it’s a beautiful thing to pray for other people and everything and, and God blessed it and healed this person and everything. So you, and when he does that, when he answers your prayer. Never forget to go

back and thank him for answering your prayer.

Hey, thank you father. Thank you, father. All right.

I think we’re at 16 now. Yes. Confess your faults one to another. This is how the church is supposed to act. And the church doesn’t mean a building. It means, that members of the same belief, Christians. If I had five or six of y’all in here right now, we’d be having church.

Doesn’t matter where here is. Just like what we’re doing right now. We’re having church. We’re all combined together doing the same thing of one spirit, but confess your faults one to another. That’s how, it helps each other. We all go through trials and tribulations in life, and sometimes we just need to get things off our chest and having someone to talk to about it.

It helps it truly does. And pray for one another. That’s why we went to Timothy. That you may be healed. That is the effectual, which is efficient, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Hey, if you’re a righteous person and you’re saying a prayer for somebody else, God looks highly on that. He really does because you’re trying to do things right his way.

And you know what, he wants to help increase your faith. What better to increase your faith than answering one of your prayers. Right? Tell you what. All right.

We’re on verse 17 now. Let’s cover that one. Elias. This is Elijah. He was a man subject to like passions as we are. He was a flesh man like we are.

He had enticements and the things that the world told him was cool, just like we do. And he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. Now it didn’t stop raining all over the entire earth. Okay. Look up the word earth if you want to.

But it was just the general region and there’s a good reason for it. You can go read first Kings chapter 16, start reading about verse 29 all the way through 18. It’s going to tell you this whole story. It’s really good. Ahab, one of the kings of Israel, he was way wicked more than any of the kings before him.

And so Elijah is like, that’s enough of this craziness. It’s not going on. It’s going to destroy God’s people, certainly destroying the kingdom. So he prayed for the rain to stop. And it did for three and a half years as we just read. And then if you keep on reading there, it talks about how Elijah he’s like the only one standing against these 450 Baal priests.

These heathen priests, they’re not priests of God. They are priests of the devil, basically. Okay. And so he’s going to make this fire on the altar, and they this big whole altar go around. And these heathen Baal priests, they’re over there trying to get this fire to start, you know, and they’re crying out to their god.

And I love it because actually Elijah is mocking them at this point. And he’s the only dude standing there for God. So what does Elijah do step out of the way, boys? Let me show you how you get it done. He has them pour water all over this wood that’s on the altar and everything has it poured all over it. It’s all water logged and everything.

Says a prayer to God and wooof, the Lord lights it up boy. And they were just all so amazed. And, you know, that’s God’s power, that’s God’s power. And Elijah always gave proper credit where credit was due. It certainly wasn’t Elijah making it catch on fire. It was God in heaven, but Elijah happened to be the soul on earth that was working that God was working through.

Verse 18. And he prayed again and the earth gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit. The trial was over and Hey, things went back to normal, but only because God let it go back to normal, you know, but this is the prayer of faith and God blessed Elijah by granting his prayer by requesting his prayer, by making it a reality. All right.

Verse 19. Brethren if any of you do err from the truth, if any, among you err from the truth. And one convert him. If you convert somebody.

Let’s read verse 20. Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sin.

So very important. First Peter chapter four, verse eight, it says, love covers a multitude of sin, love and compassion. That’s what this whole book of James has been about. But if you save one sinner, God does the saving, but he needs someone on earth to work through. He doesn’t need, that’s just how God operates. Okay.

Just like Elijah, just like all the prophets in the past. It’s no different, God could do anything that he wanted to do, but he wants people to do it for him here. And you know, when you do things for God, you know what he’s going to do for you in the eternity, he’s going to build you up. He knows he can trust you.

Remember the parable of the talents. One was given 10. One was given five. One was given one. God knows who he can and cannot trust by giving them responsibilities and things to do and seeing what they do with it. What’s God given to you? Make sure that you use it to the best ability for yourself and him. Okay.

And remember that if you do convert, you help to convert some sinner, it covers a multitude of your own sins. I mean, this is amazing. This is great stuff. This is great stuff. And you know what? That concludes the book of James right there. So I’ve had a good time sharing this with you.

I really hope you enjoy it. And just remember, these are not words on pages. These are not things that just happened long ago, that don’t apply. You apply all these things, all these examples to your life. It’s going to help make you a better person, better Christian, and help other people along your walk through life.

Thank you so much for joining us.