Let's turn to James chapter 3.
James, first of all, warns against a desire
to teach the Word of God that would
stem or emanate just from your own desire
to be in front of people or whatever.
My brethren, he said, be not many masters
or teachers.
The idea of master there is a teacher.
Knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
Teaching the Word of God is an awesome
responsibility.
Because when I stand here to teach God's
Word, then I am responsible to be teaching
the Word of God correctly.
For if I do not teach the Word
of God correctly, then those people that I
may be leading astray will be people for
whom I will have to bear a responsibility.
It's a heavy obligation to be a teacher
of God's Word.
Now, you can teach any other subject.
Doesn't matter if you are teaching something that
will later on be proved to be wrong.
But if you're teaching the Word of God,
the consequences of the false teaching are so
vast that as the teacher you will be
held responsible.
So, don't be many masters knowing that we
will receive the greater condemnation.
That is why I seek to be so
careful in teaching the Word of God to
keep as much as possible my own opinion
out of it and speculation out of it
completely.
A lot of times people want you to
speculate on a subject.
And to me that's extremely dangerous.
There is a danger always in approaching the
Scriptures with a certain mind set.
I have a particular doctrine that I have
embraced, I adhere to.
And though there are Scriptures that would seemingly
contradict the position that I believe in, I
then feel a necessity of somehow explaining away
those Scriptures.
That's dangerous.
I don't think that we should meddle or
tamper with the Word of God.
I think that we should keep it just
as pure as possible as we seek to
teach the Word.
And so James warns that if we take
upon ourselves that position of teacher, just know
that along with that position goes that awesome
responsibility and that one day we will have
to give an account before God of how
straightforward we were in handling His Word.
Now, the Bible warns of those who handle
the Word of God deceitfully and I have
met so many people that handle the Word
of God deceitfully.
Now James is going to talk to us
about something of which we all have a
problem now or then and that's our tongues.
For in many things, he said, we offend
all.
And if any man offends not in word,
the same is a perfect man and is
able also to bridle the whole body.
Behold, we put bits in the horse's mouth
that they may obey us and we turn
about their whole body with that bit.
Behold also the ships, which though they be
so great and are driven by fierce winds,
yet are they turned about with a very
small helm, whithersoever the governor desires.
Even so the tongue is a little member,
but it boasts great things.
Behold how great a matter just a little
fire can kindle.
So in talking about the tongue, it's a
very small part of our anatomy, but yet
what trouble it can get us into.
What fires it can spark.
The tongue is something that has a capacity
for great blessing or for great evil.
We can use our tongues to bless people,
to build them up, to encourage them or
we can use our tongues to destroy them.
And he likens the tongue, though it's such
a small part of the body and yet
able to do such great damage, move so
many things, like the bridle in a horse's
mouth.
Small, but yet you can move that big
horse around with just a little bridle in
its mouth.
The rudder on a ship.
Small part of a ship, but yet it
turns the ship.
A huge ship turned by just a little
rudder.
So our tongues can really control, in a
sense, our whole lives.
And especially if we don't seek to control
the tongue.
The tongue is a fire, a world of
iniquity.
So is the tongue among our members.
It is capable of defiling the whole body.
It sets on fire the course of nature.
And it is set on fire of Gehenna.
Now, every kind of beast and bird and
serpent, things in the sea is tamed and
has been tamed by man.
It is interesting how that man has been
able to tame all kinds of creatures.
You can tame lions, and we've seen the
lion tamers, and we've watched them in the
circus.
Birds can be trained to talk and to
say phrases.
Even serpents can be trained.
And you see in India, the guy with
his flute, and the boa constrictor, you know,
doing its thing.
And, of course, you can go down to
Sea World or over to marine land and
see how they've trained the fish.
Man has learned how to train and to
bring into control all of these wild things
in nature.
One thing man hasn't been able to tame,
his own tongue.
But the tongue can no man tame.
It is an unruly evil and full of
deadly poison.
Jesus one day said something that is worth
considering at this point.
He said, It's not really that which goes
into a man that defiles a man, but
that which comes out of a man that
defiles him.
For out of the mouth comes blasphemies, evil
speaking.
And then he said, It is out of
the abundance of the heart that the mouth
speaks.
That doesn't speak too good for our hearts,
does it?
The mouth is the voice piece of the
heart of man.
A man reveals what's inside of him by
his tongue.
And sometimes that frightens me.
With the tongue we bless God, even the
Father.
And isn't that the highest capacity of my
tongue is when I use it to praise
the Lord.
We were singing tonight, the praises unto God.
And that's the highest capacity for which I
can use my tongue is use it to
declare praises unto God.
With our tongue we bless God, even the
Father.
But with the same tongue we curse men
who are made after the similitude or the
likeness of God.
Out of the same mouth there proceeds blessings
and cursings.
Now this ought not to be, James said.
There's an inconsistency here.
Does a fountain send forth at the same
place sweet water and bitter?
Can the fig tree bear olive berries?
Can a vine bear figs?
So can no fountain both yield salt, water,
and fresh.
And so there's a paradox in our tongue.
It's different from anything else.
From the same mouth there can come glorious
praises unto God and horrible curses unto man.
The tongue.
God help us that we might be so
yielded to the Spirit that He would do
for us what we can't do for ourselves
and that is bring our tongue under control.
I've said so many things that I wish
I had not have said.
Said in a moment of anger.
How I wish I could have taken them
back.
And there are a lot of things that
I wish I had said that I didn't.
Word of encouragement.
A word of forgiveness.
A word of comfort.
You know sometimes we just don't want to
give the person that consolation of saying well
that's alright.
I understand.
Oh if I'd only said it though.
I could have saved them so much mental
anguish and turmoil.
I could have let them know that it
really didn't matter.
Now he goes on to another subject and
that is of true wisdom.
Who is a wise man and endued with
knowledge among you?
Let him demonstrate it by his manner of
life.
By his works with a meekness of wisdom.
But if you have bitter envying and strife
in your hearts, that's not wise.
Don't glory in it.
And lie not against the truth.
That is a lie against the truth.
The bitterness and striving and enviness within your
hearts.
For this kind of wisdom descends not from
above.
It's not godly wisdom.
It's earthly.
It's sensual.
It's devilish.
For where envying and strife is, there is
confusion and every evil work.
But the wisdom that is from above is
first pure.
Then it is peaceable.
It is gentle.
It is easy to be entreated.
It is full of mercy and good fruits.
It's without partiality and without hypocrisy.
Oh what a difference.
That wisdom that is earthly, sensual, devilish, envying,
striving, bitterness.
Now what marks your life?
What kind of wisdom comes forth from you?
He says that you should show forth the
wisdom by your manner of living.
Demonstrate the wisdom.
In reality, our manner of life does demonstrate
the source of our wisdom.
And if I am constantly in strife, constantly
in turmoil, constantly stirred up, constantly, you know,
bad-mouthing this person, that person, this thing,
that thing, then that wisdom that I have
is not of God.
For the wisdom that comes from God has
such marvelous characteristics.
It's pure.
It's peaceable.
It's gentle.
Easily entreated.
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in
peace of them that make peace.
So this is just good, practical advice for
getting along with people.
This chapter could be entitled, How to Win
Friends and Influence People.
Guard your tongue.
Bring your tongue under control.
Use it for good.
Use it to encourage.
Use it to build up.
Don't use it to tear down, to destroy,
to cut, to hurt.
Your wisdom, let it be godly wisdom.
Let it be demonstrated in your manner of
life.
That is, your life, let it be pure.
Let your life be peaceable, merciful.
Now this fruit of righteousness that we desire
is actually so peace and that fruit of
righteousness will come.
It's sown in peace of them that make
peace.
And so seek to live in peace with
each other.
Fruit of righteousness will come forth.
But in contrast to the peace, where do
the wars come from?
The fighting among you.
The strife.
Do they not come from your own lust
that is warring in your members?
You lust and you have not.
You kill and desire to have and cannot
obtain.
You fight and war, yet you have not.
Here James is declaring that most of the
problems of man comes basically from man's greed.
And I would have to concur with this.
I think that this is the failure of
our society.
I think that this is the failure of
government.
Man's greed sooner or later gets in and
corrupts.
And how corrupting is the greed of man?
How it corrupts government?
It's a horrible thing of greed and it's
behind the wars.
It's behind the fighting.
It's behind the strivings.
That desire to have what belongs to someone
else.
The fighting, the wars among you.
And yet, we have not, he said, because
we ask not.
You know, a lot of these things that
we desire, if we would just really ask
the Lord about them.
And if it is right, God will give
it to us.
If it's not right, He won't.
Because you can ask and receive not, because
you ask and miss just to consume it
on your own lusts.
You see, people misunderstand the purpose of prayer.
The purpose of prayer is never to get
your will done upon the earth.
And yet, how often we think of prayer
as just that.
The agency by which I can get my
whims and wishes accomplished.
Now Lord, I want you to do this
and I want you to do that and
I've got this list here, Lord, of things
I want you to do before Friday.
And we think of prayer as a marvelous
agency by which I can get all of
my wishes and all of my desires accomplished.
I thought of prayer in this light for
years.
I was always trying to make deals with
God.
Now you do this and I'll do this,
you know.
How can you lose?
Trying to strike a bargain with the Lord.
And I used prayer or sought to use
prayer as a means by which I could
fulfill my desires.
I know a lot about this verse.
You ask and receive not, because you ask
and miss to consume it upon your own
lusts.
I prayed for some of those beautiful custom
cars that used to drive around Santa Ana
when I was in high school.
Man, how I prayed for some of those
cars.
Well, they were for sale.
But believe me, I was wanting it to
consume it on my own lusts.
Oh, I tried to strike a deal with
God.
I told him I'd pick up kids and
take them to Sunday school.
You know, Lord, we'll give you the use
of it a couple of hours a week
after all.
But boy, did my mind have plans for
the rest of the way.
Cruising down Newport Beach.
So many of our prayers have selfish motivation
behind them.
And many times the selfish motivation is actually
hid from us.
But if I really begin to probe, I
find that behind the prayer there's a very
strong selfish motivation.
Here's my son.
He's going astray a little bit.
He's doing things that I don't approve of.
I wish he weren't doing these things.
I'm becoming concerned.
He's coming in too late at night.
He's running with bad companions.
Oh God, turn my son around.
Bring him to a real commitment to Jesus
Christ.
In the deep, deeps of my heart I'm
thinking, what if he should get in trouble?
Be arrested?
Boy, what kind of headlines would that make?
Pastor's son arrested.
It would be a disgrace to the family.
We'd have to go through the embarrassment of
him being in jail.
Oh Lord, save him, you know, bring him
around.
But what am I really thinking, you see?
Here's the husband, not walking with the Lord.
Oh God, save my husband.
Lord, help him to really make a commitment
to Jesus Christ.
In my heart I'm thinking, oh it would
be so nice if he were saved.
I think he would treat me nicer.
He'd probably say grace before the meals, and
I think it's so wonderful when a family
says grace before the meals.
And he'd even go to church with me,
and oh, I wish he were sitting by
me in church.
Oh Lord, save my husband.
You see, it's not that he's a rebel
against God, and he's going to be destroyed
if he's not changed.
It's not really for him, it's for the
conveniences that it might bring to me.
Prayer is not an agency by which my
will is to be accomplished upon the earth.
The purpose of prayer is to get God's
will accomplished upon the earth.
And so many times we ask and receive
not, because the motive behind our asking is
really that of accomplishing my will rather than
God's will.
And if my will is in conflict with
God's will, God is not going to change
His will to accommodate me, for God is
not subservient to me.
I am subservient to Him.
And the purpose of prayer is never to
change the mind of God, to see things
my way.
It isn't to persuade a reluctant God to
do things my way.
The real thrust and purpose of prayer is
to get God's will done.
That's why many times we ask and receive
not, because we ask amiss.
Our own desires are too much entwined into
it.
Now, speaking in a spiritual sense, he said,
you adulterers and adulteresses.
This is talking in a spiritual sense, not
physical in this particular passage.
There are other passages that speak about it
in a physical sense, but this happens to
be spiritual, because it is dealing with the
love that is in your heart.
The love for the world and the worldly
things.
You have been joined to Christ as His
bride.
Your chief love is to be directed towards
Him.
He is the one to whom you have
been joined in marriage.
And if you begin to love something other
than Him, more than Him, then you have
committed spiritual adultery in your heart.
As God in the Old Testament was constantly
accusing the people of Israel of adultery when
they began to worship the other gods.
So, God speaks here against your love for
the world.
Know ye not that the friendship of the
world is enmity with God?
And whosoever therefore would be a friend of
the world is the enemy of God.
Do you think that the Scriptures speak in
vain?
The question mark should be there.
And probably the second should also be in
question.
Does the Spirit that dwells in you lust
to envy?
Now, surely the Spirit of God doesn't lead
us to envy.
It doesn't desire to envy.
The Scriptures do not speak in vain.
The love of the world, the things of
the world, is spiritual adultery.
Love not the world, neither the things that
are in the world.
For he that hath the love of the
world in his heart hath not the love
of the Father.
For all that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eye, the pride of life, are of the
world and are not of God.
Coupled, know ye not that friendship with the
world is enmity with God?
If you're going to be a friend of
the world, if you're going to be doing
the worldly things, engrossed in worldly things, caught
up in worldly things, your heart is in
the worldly things, you're putting yourself in the
position of being an enemy of God.
But God gives more grace.
Wherefore, he saith, God resists the proud, but
he gives grace to the humble.
Therefore, submit yourselves to God.
And resist the devil.
Now, it is the devil that seeks to
entice us to find fulfillment in the world
by lying to us and telling us that
we can find all of the contentment and
joy and happiness that we desire if we
will just turn from God's path and walk
after our own desire and flesh.
Satan's appeal is so strong because he appeals
to that which I am interested in, my
flesh, the desires of my flesh.
And he basically is saying, Hey, go for
it.
You'll find the fulfillment.
You'll find the excitement.
You'll find what you're looking for.
Just go for it.
Go for the flesh.
And God is saying, No, that's death.
If you really want life, spiritual life, then
seek after the Spirit and the things that
are of the Spirit.
Walk after the Spirit.
There is a warfare between your flesh and
your spirit.
And Satan is there to encourage you to
go after the Spirit.
And the Lord is there to encourage...
I mean, he's there to encourage you to
go after the flesh.
The Lord is there to encourage you to
go after the Spirit.
So submit yourselves to God and resist the
devil and he will flee from you.
I like that.
I think that many times our problem is
just that we aren't really standing up for
right.
We're not really resisting as we should the
devil.
I think that there are important keys in
life and in this spiritual life and in
this warfare that we're in.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood
but against these principalities and powers.
And I think the first thing is the
recognition that they do exist.
And I think that we need to recognize
the source of the attack against us.
Many times we can't really deal with it
because we don't recognize that this is a
spiritual battle and I'm really involved in a
battle against this force of evil, this spirit
of evil, Satan himself or one of his
emissaries.
Once I recognize the source of my problem
then I can begin to deal with it.
But so many times we just are prone
to sort of pass it off.
Well, I'm just irritable today.
I just feel miserable.
I'm just ready to chew up anybody that
gets in my way.
Out of sorts.
I didn't get enough sleep last night or
something.
And we don't recognize that, hey, this is
a real spiritual conflict.
This whole thing that I feel, this heaviness
and all, is actually a satanic force, a
power that's trying to defeat me.
Now if I fail to recognize it I
can just go on in this miserable way
all day long.
But if I recognize, hey, this isn't of
God.
This isn't of God's Spirit.
This isn't how God would have me to
be.
This is an attack of Satan against me.
Recognizing it, then I deal with it by
resisting it.
Resisting the devil and he will flee.
And then the third R is rejoicing.
So recognize, resist, and then rejoice in the
victory that we have in Jesus Christ over
every principality and power that might come against
us.
I don't have to be irritable.
I don't have to be cranky.
I can resist the devil, that mood, that
spirit that he's trying to bring me under.
And I can rejoice for I have full
victory in Jesus Christ.
And it's amazing how it can change the
whole atmosphere around you.
Now the second part of this is draw
nigh to God and He will draw nigh
to you.
You see, here I am.
I'm in this midst of the battle here.
Resist the devil, he'll flee, but on the
other hand, draw nigh to God, He will
draw nigh to you.
I love that.
All I have to do is just start
drawing near to the Lord.
It's so important.
It's how we program our minds.
It's so important what we're feeding into our
minds.
And God help us in this corrupt age
in which we are living with all of
the technology that has brought into our homes
such filth.
Television has been a purveyor of such evil.
It can be good.
Television itself, I mean, it's a thing.
It's not evil in itself, but it has
the capacity of bringing evil into your mind,
into your life, and it also has the
capacity of bringing good, but it's how you
control it, where your dial is turned.
But I think of the evil that we
will program into our minds as we sit
there and watch the TV.
And it's terrible.
No wonder we're having all of these marital
problems and immorality just flooding our nation.
It's being planted into the minds of people
day after day as they watch TV.
Murders, thievery, adultery, the whole thing, it's all
there.
And Paul, when he made the list there
in Romans of these horrible things that people
were doing, he said, not only do they
do them, but they take pleasure in those
that do.
And how is it that a person takes
pleasure in watching someone snuff someone out?
On TV, in movies.
People pay to see that kind of filth.
Pay to pollute your mind.
And then we get caught up with the
law of nature.
Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also
reap.
I'm sowing to the flesh.
I begin to reap of the flesh.
Envy, striving, seditions, murder.
How well if we would just get good,
inspiring music and play it in our homes.
What a difference it makes.
What a difference it creates within the atmosphere.
You see, we're sowing now to the Spirit.
If in the morning, as your children are
getting ready for school, they come in for
breakfast, there's praise music on or maybe one
of the kids' albums on.
You're planting into their minds and into their
hearts the things of the Spirit.
God knows when they get to school, they're
going to get all kinds of crud thrown
at them.
We need to counterbalance it within the home
rather than allowing them to listen to a
lot of this junk music with filthy lyrics.
That we would actively encourage them by ourselves,
playing and listening to inspiring music.
Again, Whatsoever man sows, that shall he also
reap.
And if you have that kind of an
atmosphere sowing to the Spirit, you're going to
reap of the Spirit.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners.
Purify your hearts, you double-minded.
You know, that's the problem.
David said, Lord, unite my heart to serve
Thee.
The divided heart.
That's the problem with so many people.
Yes, I want to serve the Lord.
Yes, I want to follow Him.
Yes, I want to spend eternity with Him.
And yet, another side of me wants to
go after the flesh and indulge the flesh.
Be afflicted and mourn.
Weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning, your
joy to heaviness.
Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord
and He shall lift you up.
Speak not evil one of another, brethren.
He that speaks evil of his brethren and
judges his brethren, speaks evil of the law
and judges the law.
But if you are a judge of the
law, then you're not a doer of the
law, but a judge.
And there is one lawgiver who is able
to save and to destroy.
And who are you to judge another?
So, forego that condemnation or judgment on another.
You're not a judge of the law.
We're to be the doers of the law,
obedient to the law.
Go to now ye that say today or
tomorrow we will go into such a city
and continue there a year and buy and
sell and get gain.
Because you don't know what's going to happen
tomorrow.
For what is your life?
It's only a vapor that appears for a
little time and then vanishes away.
Therefore, you ought to say if the Lord
wills.
And if we live, we will do this
or that.
So, that exhortation by James to us to
take into consideration God's will in all of
our planning.
To make that a contingency to every plan.
It isn't that you shouldn't plan the future,
but you should always have the contingency the
Lord's will, if it's the Lord's will.
Because I don't know what tomorrow holds.
I don't know whether or not I will
even be here tomorrow.
But if the Lord wills, this is what
I desire or this is what I plan
to do.
If the Lord doesn't will it, then I
don't want to do it.
But that should always be a contingency to
any plan that I make.
I need to realize that my life is
short.
It's just a vapor that appears for a
moment and then vanishes.
I'm here for just a short time.
That I need to spend the time that
I'm here in something that is worthwhile.
Something that will last eternally.
Too much of our life, too much of
our effort, too much of our time is
spent in things that are not eternal.
Things that are going to pass away.
Too many people spend their life eating cotton
candy.
It may be sweet, but there's no substance.
It dissolves.
It's gone.
So many things that you do, things of
the flesh, things for the flesh, they're dissolved,
they're gone, they're wasted.
I have so many times come to the
end of a day and thought, what a
wasted day.
Usually it's New Year's Day after I've watched
all the football games.
And you finally get to the Rose Bowl
and the Big Ten won.
Oh, what a wasted day.
You know, used up a lot of emotion
and everything else, but all I did was
just sit around all day long, eat and
watch the games.
And there was a lot of things that
needed to be done out in the yard.
I could have spent the time more profitably.
We waste too much time.
We need to spend our time more profitably
in things that profit for eternity.
But now you rejoice, he said, in your
boastings, but all such rejoicing is evil.
Therefore, to him who knows to do good
and doesn't do it, to him it is
sin.
In other words, sin isn't just something that
I do that I shouldn't.
Sin is also something that I don't do
that I should.
Oh, I know I ought to do it.
Oh, I know I ought to go over
there and help him out.
But I don't.
To him that knows to do good and
doesn't do it, that's sin.
The sin of omission.
The failure to do that which I ought
to do.
Now in chapter 5, he first of all
takes on the rich.
So this doesn't apply to many of us.
Go to now, ye rich men, weep and
howl for your miseries that shall come upon
you.
Your riches are corrupted, your garments are moth
-eaten, 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, for you have heaped up
treasure together for the last days.
So, he speaks of the rich and heaping
up treasure for the last days, talking of
their gold and silver.
And to me, it's extremely fascinating how that
the rich people have to worry about the
security of their money.
What is safe?
What is a safe investment?
How safe are the banks?
What if Mexico and Argentina default on their
loans?
What's that going to do to the whole
banking community?
Is it going to bring it down like
a row of dominoes?
Oh, but it's guaranteed by an agency of
the federal government.
Read the fine print.
You know, the whole banking system goes down.
There's not enough in that agency to bail
out American savings and loans.
So, where can I put my money that
it will really be safe?
How safe are T-bills?
How solvent is the government?
Man, it's the greatest debtor of anything in
the world, I guess.
300 billion dollars?
Well, buy gold.
Buy silver.
A lot of people bought gold and silver
and they bought gold and silver for 900
dollars, you know, gold for 900 dollars an
ounce.
Now they can get 349 dollars an ounce.
But that's all an artificial value.
I mean, what can you do with gold?
Except to say, well, I've got so many
cougar ants.
It's all an artificial value.
Diamonds.
Well, buy diamonds.
Invest in diamonds, you know.
It's all artificial value.
It's just a stone.
Hey, when things get really bad, you can't
eat it.
You know, and when things are really bad,
that's what you think about.
What am I going to eat?
And the Bible tells us that there's coming
a time when it'll take a bag of
gold to buy a loaf of bread.
So, when it really gets down to it
and you need something to eat, you're going
to have to get rid of that gold
and who knows what value will be placed
upon it at that time.
I mean, you know, I like a gold
ring.
That's not really gold.
Watch gold plate.
Cheap.
But as far as true value, where is
true value?
The true value is only in spiritual things.
That's the only true value that we can
really know.
In spiritual things, not in the earthly material
things.
That value is all artificial.
It's like one fellow said, it's only worth
what you can get for it.
Somebody says, well, I have a house that's
worth $500,000.
Well, how much can you sell it for?
Well, I've had it on the market, you
know, for three years for $350,000.
It hasn't sold yet, but it's worth $500
,000.
No, it's not.
It's only worth what you can get for
it.
Artificial values.
And those who have placed their whole thing
into gold, those that have bought up gold
and silver for these last days, how disappointed
they're going to be.
Weep and howl, James says, for the miseries
that are coming upon you.
Because you've tried to set yourself up for
these last days.
You've tried to hedge against inflation by getting
into gold or getting into silver.
But now they're worthless.
Behold the hire of the laborers who have
reaped your fields, which you kept back from
them through fraud.
They cry and the cries of them which
have reaped are entered to the ears of
the Lord of Sabaoth.
You've lived in pleasure on the earth.
You've been wanton.
You've nourished your hearts as in the day
of slaughter.
You've condemned and killed the just one and
He did not resist you.
So, James speaks out against the oppression of
the poor, the oppression of the labor by
management.
Cries for inequity.
Verse 7, he changes and now he is
exhorting us to be patient to the coming
of the Lord.
For behold, the husbandman waits for the precious
fruit of the earth and has long patience
for it until he receives the early and
the latter rain.
Be ye also patient.
Establish your hearts for the coming of the
Lord is drawing nigh.
Now, it is interesting to me that so
many places in the Scripture we are exhorted
towards patience as far as the return of
Jesus Christ is concerned.
Peter exhorts towards patience for much the same
reason that the long suffering of God is
the salvation of lost.
Here, exhortation to patience because the Lord is
waiting for the precious fruit of harvest.
If the Lord had come ten years ago,
where would a lot of you have been
tonight?
Five years ago, where would a lot of
you have been, you see?
So, the Lord is waiting for the latter
rain, that is the final harvest of souls.
And I do believe that we are beginning
to see a tremendous harvest of souls throughout
the world that I do believe is the
foreshadowing the return of Jesus Christ.
I think that the Lord is giving the
final opportunity to man.
We've come just about to the end of
the rope and God has thrown out for
the final time the opportunity of people to
get right with God and I think that
it will soon be over.
But have patience.
Establish your hearts.
The Lord, the husbandman, is waiting for the
precious fruit of harvest.
Grudge not against another, brethren, unless you be
condemned because the judge is standing at the
door.
Take the prophets who have spoken in the
name of the Lord as an example of
suffering, affliction and of patience.
So, look what they endured.
The prophets.
Look what Jeremiah endured.
Look what Isaiah endured and others of the
prophets.
Elijah, Elisha.
The things that they suffered because of their
stand for God.
They're an example for us of suffering, affliction
and of patience.
Behold, we count them happy which endure.
You've heard of the patience of Job and
you've seen the end of the Lord that
the Lord is very full of pity and
He's of tender mercy.
God's full of pity.
In Psalm 103, the Lord is full of
pity for He knows our frame that we
are but dust.
God, when He looks at you, doesn't expect
to see a superman or a super saint.
He says, well, they're just dust anyhow.
That's why He's so merciful because He knows
your frame.
That's why we're not so merciful many times
on ourselves because we think that we're more
than dust.
We think that we're a rock.
I'm strong.
I'm able.
I can do it.
And then we get fractured and we get
discouraged and disappointed and we think that God
is all upset with us.
No, no, no.
He's not upset.
He's merciful.
He knew all the time we were but
dust.
It was you that made the mistake.
You that overestimated your capacities and abilities, not
God.
You didn't disappoint Him.
He knew all the time.
It was important that you know what He
knows.
And so He lets you fall in your
face.
The Lord is full of pity and tender
mercy.
But above all things, my brothers, swear not,
neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither
by any other oath, but let your yes
be yes, let your no be no, lest
you fall into condemnation.
Now, a man oftentimes, if he is a
liar, is constantly swearing that he's telling the
truth.
And that's why I'm often suspicious of the
person who is constantly affirming, oh, this is
God's honest truth, man, you know.
I become very suspicious when they are constantly
affirming that what they tell you is true.
If it's true, you don't need to constantly
affirm it.
And James is actually saying, don't swear.
I'll do it.
I promise I'll do it, you know.
Swear by heaven I'll be there.
No, no, no, no.
Just let your yes be a yes and
let your no be a no.
Jesus said the same thing in the Sermon
on the Mount.
Be a man or a person of your
word.
If you say yes, mean yes.
If you say no, mean no.
And don't be the kind of a person
that you have to swear to cause someone
to believe that you're telling the truth.
Now, is any among you afflicted?
Let him pray.
Are you happy?
Sing psalms.
Is there any sick among you?
Then 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.
And the prayer of faith will save the
sick and the Lord will raise them up.
Now, it is interesting a distinction is made
here between afflictions and sickness.
And I don't know that we can always
discern the difference between is this an affliction
or is this a sickness.
But it would seem that afflictions are used
by God for the purposes of correction.
That when afflictions come, then I need to
pray.
I need to find out from God what
He's trying to teach me, what He's trying
to tell me.
You see, our problem is that we are
not often sensitive to the things of the
Spirit.
There seems to be a spiritual dullness that
is quite prevalent among the church.
It's like Romaine said, you've got to beat
you over the head with a 2x4 to
get your attention before I can talk to
you.
And if God's beating you over the head
with a 2x4, you're afflicted, then you better
pray and find out what God's trying to
say.
And so, if you're afflicted, it said let
him pray.
That is, God is probably trying to get
your attention in some area of your life
and He sometimes has to use rather harsh
or painful means.
In Psalm 32, as the Lord speaks to
the psalmist, He said, look, I want to
guide you with my eye.
Don't be like a mule who you have
to put a bit in its mouth to
lead it around.
Now the bit is very painful and the
reason why the mule will turn when you
pull on the rein is because it pulls
the bit up against his mouth.
It hurts.
So he'll turn his head because it hurts.
Now God is saying to you, don't be
so stubborn like a mule that I have
to use painful processes to get you to
turn.
I would guide you with my eye.
I want you to be sensitive to my
will and my plan and I'll be glad
to just guide you with my eye.
God doesn't want to guide us with painful
processes, but He loves us so much that
He will because it is that important that
I be guided by the Spirit of God
and He knows it's for my best welfare
that I walk in this path and if
I start to go astray and if I
won't listen, He'll use the bit or the
bridle.
He'll pull me back into position.
Maybe a painful experience.
Oh Lord, what's happening?
Well, off track.
I wasn't listening.
I was headstrong.
I was going to do it.
Paul the Apostle.
The Lord used the bit and bridle with
Paul because he was so headstrong and so
many times.
But if you're afflicted, pray.
If you're merry, sing psalms.
Rejoice.
If you're sick, then call for the elders
of the church.
The elders of the church meet here on
Saturday nights to pray for the sick.
The prayer of faith will save the sick.
The Lord shall raise them up.
And if they have committed sins, they shall
be forgiven.
It's interesting that there seems to be a
correlation here between sickness and sin.
At least in the deliverance of sickness and
in the forgiveness of sins.
And it is interesting how many sicknesses can
be related to sin in a very direct
way.
But yet, on the other hand, let me
say that I think that it is a
very dangerous error to try to relate all
sickness to sin.
And you're then putting yourself in the position
of a judge and you're judging wrongly many
times.
Well, you know, they've got it coming to
them.
And I think that that's cruel and dangerous
to say that all sickness is the result
of sin in a person's life.
Not at all.
Now, confess your faults one to another and
pray one for another that you might be
healed.
That is of your faults.
I think that...
Notice it doesn't say confess your sins.
It's confessing your faults one to another.
We confess our sins to God.
He's faithful and just to forgive us.
But I may have a weakness in my
life.
And, of course, I'm very often confessing my
faults to you.
Not for you to just laugh at me,
which you often do when I tell you
my problem's on the freeways.
Hey, but freeway's coming along and improving.
On the way to church this morning, two
cars pulled out in front of me.
And I counted it all joy.
I passed the test today, but that doesn't
guarantee tomorrow.
But pray for me.
Confess your faults one to another and pray
one for another.
We, each of us, have our faults, our
failures.
Those areas in our lives where we need
to yield more to the Spirit of God
and find His strength and find His help.
And it's good to have a prayer partner
that you can just open up to and
say, hey, I'm having a problem in this
particular area.
Pray for me, will you?
Confess your faults one to another.
Pray one for another that you may be
healed.
For the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much.
Our son-in-law was getting after our
little three-year-old granddaughter because her prayers
seemed to be developing sort of a rote.
And he said, now, Kristen, when you pray,
you should pray not just quick little prayers
and the same prayer every time, but really
start praying from your heart and really mean
your prayers.
Think about them and really mean your prayers
when you talk to God.
Because she was usually just praying, God bless
our food, strengthen our body, in Jesus' name,
Amen.
And then start eating.
So, dinner time came and they called on
her to pray and she said, Lord, bless
our food.
I mean really bless our food, Lord.
The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man
avails much.
And this is the thing that I always
get a charge out of.
Elijah was a man subject to the same
things that we are.
He was just like you.
A man of like passions, just like us.
We usually read of these people in the
Bible, Elijah, Elisha, and Joshua, and Moses, and
Paul, and Peter.
We usually think of them in a category
that's sort of up here and I'm down
here.
And we sort of think of the things
that they did as completely unattainable by the
common ordinary person.
But Elijah was a man of like passions,
just like you.
No different from you.
And yet, he prayed earnestly that it might
not rain, and it did not rain on
the earth for the space of three years
and six months.
Now can you imagine that?
A man just like you praying earnestly and
saying, God don't let it rain.
Let these people learn through a drought to
call upon your name and all, and cut
off the rain.
A man of like passions, just like you.
And yet he prayed again, and the heaven
gave rain, and the earth brought forth her
fruit.
Here was a man controlling the weather with
his prayers.
A man just like you.
That amazes me.
We had a, years ago, when a lot
of hippies were around here, we had a,
the hippies are still here, but they've disguised
themselves now.
They shave.
But we had a summer camp up at
Idyllwild.
In fact, I think there's still a picture
in the office of the summer camp that
we had up there.
And this one afternoon, at dinner time, it
started pouring rain.
Just pouring down.
And we had a tin roof, and it
seemed to magnify even the intensity of the
rain.
But you know how the mountain summer rains
are.
The thunderhead, I mean, just really pouring.
So at dinner time, in the announcements, I
announced that we would have the outside victory
circle meeting.
And the kids said, we can't have it,
it's pouring rain.
I said, no, I've asked the Lord to
stop the rain at six o'clock so
that we can have our victory circle.
So we're going to have victory circle at
six o'clock outside.
Five minutes to six, the rain stopped.
We had victory circle.
At five minutes to seven, I said, okay,
you better get into the fellowship hall pretty
quick because I asked the Lord to hold
off the rain until the evening service.
So we got into the evening service, and
five minutes after seven, it started pouring again.
And they said, oh, you said seven o
'clock.
You told the Lord it's five after seven.
I said, well, He knew better than I
did that you needed more time to get
into this place.
All during the service, it poured rain.
And so I said after the service, okay,
you can go up to the snack bar
for a half hour, but be in your
cabins by 1030.
It quit raining.
They went up, had their snacks, and those
that didn't get in by 1030 got soaked.
It started raining again.
Hey, I'll tell you, after that, those kids
sort of left a distance between themselves and
me for a while, you know.
But if Elijah was a man of like
passion and he prayed and it rained and
he prayed again and he prayed it rained
not and prayed again and it rained.
You know, we so many times are guilty,
I think, as the children of Israel, of
limiting that which God would do just by
our unbelief.
Now, if any of you err from the
truth and one convert him, let him know
that he which converts the sinner from the
error of his way shall save a soul
from death and shall hide a multitude of
sins.
Now, if one errs from the way and
you convert him, you don't convert him by
confirming him that everything is all right.
Oh, go ahead.
God is merciful.
God is gracious.
Doesn't really matter.
But you convert him by bringing him away
from that sin, not giving him assurance in
his sin.
I don't think that we should ever assure
anybody in sin.
I don't know that the Bible assures anybody
who is in sin.
It assures those who are in Christ.
And all of the Scriptures that speak of
assurance are to those that are in Christ.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those
that are in Christ.
But if you're not in Christ, there is
condemnation.
So, if a person errs, seek to turn
them back to the walk of faith in
Christ.
For you will save their soul from death
and you will hide a multitude of sins.
Next week we get into Peter's epistles which
are fascinating and rich.
And so we'll do the first two chapters
of 1 Peter next Sunday evening.
And now Father, even as James has exhorted
us, help us that we might be doers
of the Word and not hearers only.
And as we have heard these exhortations from
Your Word tonight, and as we were listening,
Your Holy Spirit spoke to our heart about
different areas.
To some of us about our tongues.
To others about envying and strife.
To others about the lust.
To others about the friendship with the world
and the desire for worldly things.
Lord, even as Your Spirit has spoken to
our hearts tonight, let us give heed to
the Word and be doers of the Word.
Help us, Lord, that we might indeed love
one another, pray one for another, encourage and
strengthen one another.
Use our tongues to bless and to strengthen
each other and to encourage each other that
we might indeed be the children of God
and bring forth fruit unto eternal life.
In Jesus' name, Amen.