Books of James & Jude - Chapter 5 review

Well today, here's sort of the plan right here. We're doing Chapter 5 today, and then we're going to have one more shot at James. We're going to do a special topic, and Jim's going to do that. And then we're going to start an overview to Jude on the 27th of October, and then we'll finish the rest of the year in Jude. Jude's a very interesting book, so I've been starting to look at it a little bit. So it's really going to be interesting. Short, but interesting.

And so, okay, with that said, we'll just go ahead and start looking at, so I just kind of went through the topics that we've covered. So the first thing we covered was the condemnation of materialism. And there was a strong, strong words for the rich, we'll see that. And basically, your wealth is a witness against you.

And then that's the first six verses there. And we'll see that now that seems to be focused It's actually one of the interesting places in Scripture. It doesn't talk about believers in that section, those six verses, which is kind of interesting. We'll talk more about that. It's sort of like that James is talking about the world system and how the world system is cruel and unfair.

And then he switches, starting in verse 7 we're going to see, about being patient and endurance. Be patient until the Lord comes. Do not complain. God is the judge. Blessed are those who endure. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. And then from there, after the godly patience section, we kind of transition into suffering and prayer. And those are kind of linked together, suffering and prayer. Pray if you're suffering. Sing praises if you're cheerful. Call for the elders if sick. And we'll look about, we've talked about this before, what kind of sickness is that? that prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

And then the last couple words, last two verses we covered last week, straying from the truth and turning back to the truth. So that's just kind of a short overview there. So basically what I did is, I've done this before. Actually, I think it helps me. We look at a set of verses that we covered, and I just kind of create some questions about those verses. So could someone read these six verses? You can read them from the overhead if you like.

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted, and your garments have become mothy. Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their rust will be a witness against you, and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure. Behold, the pay of the laborers who mow your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you. And the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man. He does not resist you. So those are pretty strong words.

So actually, let's just compare these set of verses here before I get into the questions. Let's turn to Isaiah. And what people have said is, you look at this, it sounds like an Old Testament prophet. So let's look at what Isaiah says. Isaiah 10, verses 1 through 3. So I'm going to read Isaiah 10, verses 1 through 3.

Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that right grievousness which they have prescribed, to turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless. And what will ye do in the day of visitation and in the desolation which shall come from afar? To whom will ye flee for help, and where will ye leave your glory?

So, if someone has that flavor, you know, talking about, you know, you're rich, you know, weep and howl for your misery is coming, doesn't really sound like he's talking to believers here, right? I mean, you think, I mean, not that the believers can't be wealthy, but weep and howl for your miseries are coming. I mean, that's just totally, you know, so most people have, you know, from what you can see, it looks like he presents sort of the worldly conditions in the time of James with the Jewish believers who were in exile.

And then he's going to start in verse 7 and he's going to talk about, he actually kind of alludes to it in verse 6. You've condemned and put to death the righteous man. So we're going to talk about that in a second. But it seems like this section really is talking about the world system that the people, the Jewish believers were encountering at that time. So the first question is, who are the rich in verse one? It seems like they're the unbelieving countrymen. And this is a judgment that James is kind of proclaiming on them. Weep and howl for your miseries are coming. Your riches have rotted your garments.

And then one of the questions is, here I have, what does rotted and moth-eaten imply in verse two? So if something is sitting and being rotten and moth-eaten, what does that imply? Somebody has pointed out that in that time, a lot of times commodities were wealth. Like oil, olive oil, that was very costly. Also garments were very costly as well. So the idea that things are kind of sitting and they're rotting and moth-eaten. So what does that imply about the person and his wealth?

It doesn't last forever. Anything else you can think of? I'm trying to focus on a point here. Basically, they have so much that people that have a lot, after a while it just sits here and it goes to nothing. They're not using what they have. It's sitting there rotting. Have all this stuff and it's rotting and they're not using it. I was thinking like our basement. I agree, that can happen. So it seems like this is implying that your riches have rotted and your garments are becoming moth-eaten. They got so much, they just can't keep track of it all. It's not being used.

And then the next one is, this is interesting. What does your gold and silver rusting imply? If you've got gold and silver and it's rusting, does that imply something? You may have extra gold and silver. Someone has said that implies hoarding. You've got so much. I've got so much stuff here. I've got so much wealth. Actually, gold doesn't rust. They tarnish. There's probably a better view of that. It tarnishes. So these people, these rich people, they have so much, they're not using what they have, and their gold and silver is... they're hoarding, they've got too much stuff.

What does it mean that the Christ have reached the Lord of Sabbath? And actually, before we answer that question, it actually could be translated the Lord of Hosts or the Lord of Armies. It kind of means the all-powerful God, the Lord Almighty is sometimes rendered. So Christ have reached the Lord Almighty.

So what do you think that implies in all this? So you have all these rich people and all this stuff. Actually, in the context it says, behold the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields and which you have withheld by your cries out against you. and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord, almighty of the Lord of hosts.

It means that he'll make it right. What? The prize. Right. Basically, God is hearing this. There's actually handouts. Sir, I don't know your name. I apologize. I'm sorry, James. Hi, James. There's some handouts in the back there. Okay. I think in this case, it's implying that that God is conscious. He knows what's going on. He knows these bad things are happening. So he hears these cries. I think that's what it's implying. He's aware of that. He's aware of this mistreatment of the laborers among the field. So that's a witness against you. And there's a similar passage. Let's look in Genesis. James is much about, since it was written very early, much about, looks back to the Old Testament a lot. So there's a case where, let's look at Genesis 18. Well, let's just read verse 20. Does someone read verse 20?

And the Lord said, The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grievous, that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know. And then it goes on. So this is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. So a very similar thing. Sodom and Gomorrah was so bad, there was an outcry in a sense, and God heard that. So I think it's a very similar kind of, very Old Testament-like, that this not paying the laborers and the harvesters is reaching the Lord Almighty, the Lord of Hosts.

What does the Day of Slaughter imply? Down here it says, verse 5, You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure. You fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. Doesn't that kind of imply, you know, there's, and once again, it's very Old Testament like, it's like judgment is coming upon you. And, you know, and you're unaware of it, you know, you're, you're living up, living a good, you know, in the gospels, it talks about that, you know, today your life will be required of you. Judgment is coming and you're totally oblivious to it. You're having a great old time and leading a life of wanton pleasure and fattening your hearts and the day of judgment, the day of slaughter is coming.

The last one is what does the righteous man represent here do you think? He says you have condemned and put to death the righteous man and he does not resist you. So he's kind of described it seems like all the conditions of the around the Jewish believers and he says, at the very end, you have condemned and put to death a righteous man. He does not resist you.

Who do you think that person might be? In the context of what we've been reading. Remember, James is about these exiled, if you start at the very first of James, chapter one, it's about these exiled believers who are out there. I kind of took this being one of those believers that's represented by being being put to death or condemned.

And he's not fighting back in a sense. God is aware of that. So we're going to see a sharp change. These six verses talk about the conditions that they were encountering. And he's going to give them some instruction here. He's going to say, gather your arms up. Go out there and fight them. Beat them up. He's not.

So here's the response, I believe. The next three verses kind of talk about, based upon those six verses, therefore, what's the therefore, therefore? I think what's gone before. So his instruction is, be patient, brethren. And here we go. So this is what kind of keys you that the first six verses are talking about the world around those Jewish believers. Therefore, be patient, brethren. And does he say, be patient for a day or two? He says, be patient until the coming of the Lord. And then he kind of gives an illustration here.

The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until it gets the early and late rains. And that's describing a little bit of history about Israel or that part of the world. There were early rains and late rains. I guess the early rains were in the fall and there were late rains I guess in the spring they called it so you know you had to be patient for those rains to come. You too be patient and strengthen your heart for the coming of the Lord is near. So he actually mentions that twice. Do not complain brethren against one another so that yourselves may not be judged. Behold the judge is standing right at the door.

Okay, so here's my questions. First one, what changes when we start verse seven? I've already kind of given you, do you see anything else that strikes you, the contrast between the first six verses and these three verses? Did you say the first six were to be unbelieving?

That seems to be the case. Because it addresses him as brethren. And typically when you see brethren or brothers, brothers of mine, that's speaking of those believers, those Jewish believers. So I think this is addressing the change here we see. So the change we see is he's now addressing the brethren. He's giving them instructions.

So the question is, what does it mean to be patient? Actually, I'll give you the definition from the Greek text. It's to bear with, to be long-tempered, to possess the ability not to retaliate. So how does a believer be patient? Focusing on the Lord and not on your circumstances. Do you write patient a thousand times? I'll be patient. I'll be patient. I'll be patient. I'm going to be patient.

And you would see, looking back at those first six verses, things weren't all that great. Things were very difficult. So that's good. Why is it important to remember the coming of the Lord is near? I would overthink this. These are my questions and so I have mine. Just to encourage you. Exactly. Scripturally speaking, how near is the Lord's coming? Kind of a trick question. Could be anywhere. Exactly.

What's interesting is, James has written a few years ago, right? This isn't yesterday. He told them, The coming of the Lord was near in his time and is still near in our time. You kind of scratch your head and think, wait a minute, look at all that time that's passed. How can that be? How can it be near?

But it's eminent. After the Lord returned, after he ascended to heaven, from that time forward, his return has been near. That's one of those interesting things in scripture, that we have that view that even though Thousands of years may pass. It's his eminent return. That's the next event we're waiting for. Kind of a long look. Patients, a long look. Go ahead, you had a question. If I could bring a personal illustration to that. I was thinking recently on verse 7.

As the farmer waits for the produce, I planted some grass seed this fall and trying to restore the yard. And I put it down and it says of course on the bag 7 to 10 days germination period. So I expect it. It's coming near to when that's going to be produced.

But I put it on the ground and I water it and I fertilize it. And that's actually the verse that came to mind. I have to wait for the precious seed of the earth, the soil. And it doesn't do any good if I go out there and I stir it up more, I put more fertilizer on it, that's just going to kill it. If I try to do all these things to worry about the seed coming up, I have to trust that I put it down and God's going to bring the harvest. But I know I have an expectation that it's going to happen here in the near future.

And I thought about that for the endurance of a Christian. You know it's going to happen, it's coming in the near future, but if I go out there and I continue to try to work towards this germination, I'm just going to make it worse. Think of personal things that happen in your life.

At some point you say, okay Lord, I've done everything. If it's an illness, you've taken your loved one to the hospital, you've gotten the doctors. You've gotten everything, you've given them all the medications, but at some point, Lord, I've done everything. I can't, that's it. I've done it all. I'm waiting, and that's the patient part. That's the hard part. Not grass, by the way. I agree. Mostly. Good. And that's the hardest part.

That part after you've done everything you can do. And I think many times the Lord wants us to go to that point to realize that we've done everything we can. There's nothing more we can do. And some situations you realize from the beginning we can't do anymore. I've said my piece, whatever it might be.

He's teaching us patience. Alright, so here's an interesting one. Let's see, the verse is, verse 9, Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing right at the door. Okay, so what does complain here mean? This is kind of key. What does complain mean? I think Jim may have taught this. We've gone through these verses before. This is a review. And we have four teachers in this class.

I didn't actually listen to exactly what he said. I looked at his notes a little bit. So what do you think complain means? If you looked in a biblical dictionary or actually in the Greek dictionary, what would you see, do you think? Mine says grumble, don't grumble against each other. Okay, that's good. Well, I'll just give you, if you look at them like Zodiates or maybe Vine, it says to groan or sigh. So it's actually, it's more, it's not so much being a loud mouth.

He's always a complainer. You hear him all the time. Wayne was kidding me. Roger, you complained about these tables and we got you new tables now. He was pulling my leg here a little bit. Actually, it's not so much that. It's more an inward thing. On this word, I want to give you a A positive kind of groaning and a negative. It's used both ways. So let's look at the positive first. Accentuate the positive. Romans chapter 8. And this is a very familiar one. And I think we would probably agree this is probably good groaning. Romans chapter 8, verse 23.

Someone read that. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." So this is a growing within ourselves, waiting for adoption. So we're saying in a way, how long, you know, Lord is back to patience again almost. So that's what And you might be able to say that might be a little negative, but I think for the most part, I'd say it's a positive. Now, here's a negative one, I believe. And you can disagree if you like. Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews 13 and verse 17. Hebrews 13 verse 17. 1317. Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you. It's a little hard to see in your translation. I have in mind, it says, let them do this with joy and not with Mine has grief or groaning, is literally what that is. So what do you have in yours, Doris? Answer's been that they may do it with joy and not with grief.

Okay, grief. Grief is, yeah, grief. So it actually could be, it's the same word, it could be groaning. So here's a case where the leaders, you know, the under shepherds, the elders or whatever, they're keeping watch over the flock. And they're doing it with joy and not with a complaining, a groaning spirit. So that seems like that's a negative. If the elder is always groaning about, well there's so-and-so this and so-and-so that. The Lord doesn't want us to be groaning about that. He wants us to be trusting Him.

Not to say there aren't difficulties for the leaders, not at all, but it just says that's with joy and not with grief or groaning. So how does that fit into what I'm saying? It says, do not complain, brethren, against one another. So it seems like this is a more personal thing like a brother or sister, and you're not kind of under your breath saying, oh no, there's sister so-and-so, and she's doing that again.

It's not that you're actually necessarily, from this context, from what that word means, I think it's more an internal thing going on there. It seems to me to be a desire to do something different. The one is, I desire to be in heaven. That's the groaning that I want to be something different, in a good way. Man, I wish I were rich like that person. If I were...

And that internal... And we all are there. I mean, I think we're all there. And sometimes I might not be talking and I'll say... That's why I can sing that so well. But I catch myself saying, you know... So there was something that... And we'll kind of groan about a person. And I realized, no, that's probably not what I should be doing.

I should be focusing on, OK, Lord, they're here. And the difficulties I'm having with that person, to grow me, to be more compassionate, to be more understanding, and not to get upset over that, to accept that as that's the person that you brought in this context of the Hebrew passage, that you brought here for me to the counselor. Easier said than done, many times. Tying it into patience, and that patience is not just external, because everybody else can look at me and say, well, that person's just handling it so well, but inside I'm going...

I agree. Okay. OK, and I think we kind of already answered this. Why should we not complain against him, especially a brother? Because you've both been saved by grace. You both have an eternal blessing. That's going contrary. Basically, in a sense, you're taking on a position. The very last part of the verse, Jeremy, the handouts are over there now. You kind of moved things around a little bit. You've kind of taken the place of the judge, right?

Because if you're complaining against your brother, Every believer's judge is the Lord, right? We can't be the judge. So basically, you shouldn't complain against your brother for one of the best reasons is you're not to judge him. That's not to say that if there's sin, there's a process for that in the church, for sin. And that's to be the leadership and the elders and that kind of thing. But this is just saying against your brother, the judge is right there. He's immediately available, so to speak, and so you shouldn't be complaining against your brother.

Is this helpful? I'm saying that's the Lord's beloved, too. I mean, you're complaining about something that is in union with Christ. Right. And the Lord died for him. Anyway, so there's all those good reasons for not complaining against your brother. And remember, complaining is this inward self. That's why focusing on the Lord and trusting him for your situation is just so key to living the Christian life. Otherwise, you're going to get all wrapped around that. OK. All right. OK. So that's those verses. Those are my questions. There's a lot more we could do. But we'll just kind of move on here. OK. The next part. Could someone read these verses? Sure, as an example, brethren of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count to those blessed who endured.

You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth, or with any other oath, but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment. OK, so my first question is, why do suffering and patience go together for the believer? That's mentioned together, right? As an example, brethren, suffering and patience take the profit. So he's looking at the prophets, but he's talking about suffering and patience go together. I mean, we kind of already alluded to this already. I was going to say suffering requires patience.

Let's go back to chapter 1 in James. Chapter 1 in verse 2. So he starts after he has the greeting there in verse 1. He says, Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. And basically trials is, you know, a trial typically is suffering, trials and suffering. So he sets the stage in this whole book that suffering and patience are companions.

Okay. Well, I mean, those verses you read, it's through suffering that God teaches us faith. God allows it so that we might learn patience or that we might learn to trust in Him and the result of patience is endurance. Right. That's one of the benefits of that, one of the outcomes. If I remember, I think that specific word for patience can also be translated endurance. Yes. I forget if that's the one, but I know I mean, obviously, in verse 11, he talks about endurance, but that word patience is very closely related to the idea of endurance.

Right. There's a couple of different words. I think you're right. And actually, I didn't... Actually, the word for endurance I have down, that's hupomone, hupomone, to abide under. Right. This word, I didn't actually... I probably should have anyway, but... No, they're very much connected.

This is all about patiently enduring, and that's going to be... the benefit that you're going to be growing, growing in him. And that's his process. He allows the sufferings, he allows the trials for a purpose. And that's why in verse 2 there, you can be considered all joy.

I still remember our brother Hal. I couldn't do it for my kids. You guys can do it with your kids. He had three sons and a daughter, right? Is that right? He would tell us, he would say it many times in this room, he'd get so excited when his kids would call him with a problem. He'd say, oh, Vince, a car broke down, whatever it might be.

Well, that's an opportunity for you to trust the Lord. He can do that. I have a hard time doing that. I try to get into where my kids' issues are. Oh, you've got a broken down car. We can fix that. We'll get another car. We'll do this. We'll do that. Here, take this car. We'll go to this mechanic. I want to fix it. But how would he get back off and look at it and say, well, wait a minute. This is an opportunity. And I think that's what this is all about. So this is kind of rhetorical.

Who were the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord? Actually, if you look at, I think Macaulay says, all the prophets. In fact, they all said it. In fact, that was the characteristic of a prophet. A prophet, if he didn't speak in the name of the Lord, in fact, actually, if he didn't prophesize absolutely 100% correct, he was toast. I mean, he had to be, a prophet was from the Lord and he was given the mind of the Lord. So the prophet in the Old Testament had a pretty incredible ministry. And they certainly suffered.

Let's just see, I have one about that. Jeremiah is one. If you go through Jeremiah's life. Jeremiah was put in stocks. He was thrown in prison. He was thrown in a dungeon. He was thrown into this well one time. This is kind of yucky. The well was dry, but it had this mud at the bottom. He started sinking down into the mud. Eventually he was rescued. He kept telling them. He would tell them what's going to happen. It reminds me of our political system. People say, this is going to happen, but nobody wants to listen to that. Nobody wants the bad news. Nobody wants to know, well, we're going to run out of money. Sorry to get political here. Anyway, nobody wants to hear the end result.

So that was Jeremiah's time. So what does endurance mean? This is the word to abide under. This is kind of a cool word. to abide under, it's the ability to carry a load is literally the, actually I have a verse, blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, or the same word, endures under trial. How do we endure? Kind of another rhetorical question, how do we endure? They're very similar to how do we have patience?

It can't be our endurance. It can't be our patience. It has to be His patience and His endurance. We're going to run out of endurance pretty quickly within ourselves. But God promises through Him, through living His life through us, we can have endurance. We can endure the trials and tribulations of life.

That's why he says you have heard of the endurance of Job and seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings. The thing I pointed out was it's not just... I think I gave the example of the civil rights movement. In the 60s, a lot of the leaders were pastors of churches.

And it was, we can stick with it, we shall overcome. But it was just kind of a... confidence, I guess, in human nature. There wasn't anything specific to point to. They couldn't point to anything specific and say, if we just stick with this and are peaceful in our protest, we're going to endure it. It was kind of an ambiguous thing.

We, though, can look at the Lord's dealings. We can hear about Job. We have the record there. We can see what God has done. We have a definite example that we can look back to, and that's what our faith is in. It's not just, you know, trust me, I'm going to... and we have no idea whether or not he's trustworthy. We know God is trustworthy because we can look at his dealings and see all these different prophets. We can see Job. We can see that in the end, God brought them to the place he wanted to. God worked it out for his ultimate plan. And so, that's what our faith lies in. That's why we can have faith and confidence. That's good.

So if you look at, the next question is, how did Job endure? If you look at the ones, let's just turn to Job quickly here. Let me just read the first one, then I'll just talk about the rest of it before I find Job. So Job chapter one. verses 20 and 21.

It kind of starts off, this is right after everything has been taken from him. I've always liked this passage. I thought many times if I lose something, I don't mean something really big, he lost everything, plus his family he lost. 121 says, And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return.

The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Through all this Job did not sin, nor did he blame God. And his focus was on God. His focus was on the Lord. He didn't focus on the situation. If he focused on the situation, he'd say, I've lost all my children. I'm not sure where this is. I actually didn't read that far in the back. But anyway, he lost everything that he had, except for his wife. And of course, his wife didn't help things out.

She told him to curse God and die. And then toward the end, in Job 13, he talks about, though he slay me, I will hope in him. Anyway, Job was, you know, a lot to learn about endurance from Job. Okay, and this is interesting, and Jeremy covered this too.

This is interesting about what does it mean not to swear? Or if you look at the word swear, what does that mean in this context? What does it say here? It says, what is my choice here? Okay, verse 12. But above all, my brethren, do not swear either by heaven or by earth. with an oath, but yet let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall into judgment."

So I think it really helps out if you see, and Jerry pointed this out when he taught, look back to where that verse comes from. It comes from the Gospels. If you look at Matthew chapter 5, you'll see that it's almost like a paraphrase or a summary. Matthew chapter 5. and 34 through 37. How about 33? Could someone read 33 through 37 in chapter 5?

Again, ye have heard that it has been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but thou shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black, but let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

Right, okay, thank you. So, you know, it seems like here we're talking that swearing is to make an oath, So what he's saying here, he's saying, you know, it seems like what was happening with people, it's sort of like, people are going to trust me more if I say, I swear by God, or I swear by whatever. That's going to give my claim about anything, some interaction between, like I tell Ingrid, Ingrid, I'm going to get you a really special chair. And I use the word's name, to back up how sincere I am. Rather than saying, trust me Ingrid, you know in the past, you know who I am. If you need a new chair, I'll get you a new chair and we'll do that.

But I use the Lord's name or His authority and what's being said here is don't do that. Don't bring the Lord into that. That's not, you know, Do not swear by heaven or by earth. You can try to add in all this backup, so to speak, and that's sinful, basically, is the bottom line. Just be honest and straightforward. Don't add anything to it.

There's something else, Jeremy, that when you talked about, I've forgotten. Another question, what kind of oath? Some people have taken this, if they go into a court of law, Christians, they'll refuse to take an oath because they think that it violates this passage of scripture. What I looked at, I didn't think that really applied because that's a different situation. You haven't made a promise.

This is about, I'm going to do something and you're backing it up with something. That's just saying, I'm going to tell the truth in front of this group of people in this courtroom situation. I didn't think that really applied and that's why I was kind of driving out there. I think this is more a situation where you're trying to improve your credibility, so to speak. I'll bring in the Lord here just to make this look really good. I'll use his name. Just say yes, yes, and no, no. Just be straight and truthful. Stand by your word. and do it. Go ahead.

I think also in the context, and by the historical context, when somebody gave an oath or they swore, it was with a penalty involved, you know, if I don't. And in the context of suffering, you know, by God Almighty, I will endure this suffering or may I be cursed, you know, however it may be. And God says, well, now you're taking that empowerment that God gives and putting it back on yourself rather than simply saying, yes, I will wait on the Lord. By the patience of Job, I'm going to endure this. Job has nothing to do with it. It's simply a matter of you deciding day by day, I'm going to trust in God and let Him give me the strength to bear this burden.

Okay, time is marching on here. There's a lot more. This is a summary. All right, so now we're going to get into something interesting about suffering here. Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone among you cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is any among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church. And they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. And the Lord will raise him up.

And if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven. So this passage is an interesting passage. So the first question is, the first two are easy. What is God's instructions for suffering? He must pray. The first one's easy. What's his instructions for cheerfulness? Same phrases. So the first two are easy. The first little part is straightforward. Now, this is one of the key points.

So what kind of sickness is being spoken of here? And maybe we'll just delay that question for a second, and we'll just go on. Because I think as we go through here, we'll answer that question. So I'm going to put that question aside for right now. But that's a key question, I think, in this. And it may actually have multiple answers, conceivably. But let's just put that question aside.

What kind of sickness is spoken of here? So in the context here in verse 14, who calls to the elders in here? Who's calling for the elders? A sick person? Right, right. Do we see anything about some kind of the elders having a service, so to speak, a healing service? Is that in view here, do you think? No. So this seems a more personal kind of thing.

The person who's sick, actually, and what's interesting is here, where it says must call, there's actually two verbs here, must call, and they are to pray. It's hard to see. Must call is one verb. They are to pray is the other verb. So they're kind of a compound verb. So the person who is sick, he's commanded to call for the elders.

So right off the bat, we have Dr. Echol, who's a doctor. He said it's interesting to him that it didn't say call for the doctor. When I was thinking about that, I said, well, in this time, do they have doctors in this time period? I don't know. I'm not sure I know. Anyway, it doesn't say call for somebody to heal you. It doesn't call for a healer. It just says call for the elders. So that makes you think, well, OK, is this maybe a spiritual issue here? So kind of keep that in mind. So you must call for the elders.

That's the first instruction. And the next one. What is the primary help that is given to the person who's sick? It says, the next part of this, he must call for the elders, and there's the and, so here's the rest of the verse here, and they are to pray over him.

One key point is here, you actually could put a comma, anointing him with oil, you could put a comma right after that, so actually, the main idea is, they are to pray over him in the name of the Lord, and oh by the way, you could anoint him with oil. That's a secondary idea. The main thrust here is to pray over him in the name of the Lord.

So people have taken this verse and they've made a whole thing out of it, especially the anointing with oil. And that's actually, if you look carefully at that, that's actually more a massaging. In fact, some translations, at least has it like a massaging with oil. And it seems like the main thrust here, the person comes who's sick. He calls the elders. They come to him, so it's like a private meeting. They pray over him in the name of the Lord. And with oil, it's kind of a secondary idea there. And there's a lot of different ideas about what that is. I'll skim over that for the moment here. Let's just see, what's the next question? What is the purpose of the oil? I've kind of already answered my thoughts on that. It's a secondary item, possibly just for comfort.

The real healing, and it tells you what's going to do the healing. Verse 15 says, and the prayer offer in faith will restore the one who is sick. So it already tells you. What's going to help the person? Is the oil going to do that? Or is it the prayer? And the main idea here is that it's the prayer in the name of the Lord that's going to make the difference.

Maybe the massage with oil would just make them more comfortable. That's what I saw. Now some have taken this and they've said that oil is representative. It's not really a literal oil and it represents faith. I don't know. I had a hard time. That took some faith too. Anyway, I don't know. It seemed more, just take it for what it says. Okay, there's some oil there, but the thrust and the grammar seems to fit.

Pray over him in the name of the Lord. And then it says, and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. I think that's just, and the elders are the people that are the right people. It's not a healer. healer hasn't been asked, isn't in view here. Some also have said, okay, back to the question about the sickness, maybe he has a spiritual issue, and maybe that's caused a physical issue. We're not told any of that, but I think it's just trying to rightly divide the word and see what is what. So prayer is in view here. Prayer in the name of the Lord, and prayer offered in faith where we restore the one who is sick. I answered that question already, seven. And then eight, this is kind of a trick question in a way.

What is the basis of forgiveness? Think globally here, right? Christ's death on the cross is the only basis of forgiveness, right? Also what's interesting here is that if you look at where James is, and it's kind of Old Testament-like, that many times people in the Old Testament times, in the Gospels especially, if they had an illness, they were thought to have committed a sin.

Remember the man? Was he born blind? They asked the Lord, they asked Christ, they said, has this man sinned? Or his parents. And the Lord says, no. It was neither because of his sin or his parents' sin. This has been done for my glory. He has this illness from my glory and he healed it, basically. So sin and illness or sickness were connected.

And it seems like that's kind of some of the flavor here in this passage. I'm not sure I've answered. I put every question in here. So hopefully that's helpful. Be real careful. People create services. Over verse 13, annoying people with oil. And that's going to cure them. Well, no, it's a prayer that's in view here.

You mentioned something about being sick, but there's actually two words for sick in the Greek. The first one, if any of you are sick, that's actually sickness. You've got a disease or whatever else. And the prayer of faithful heal the sick, that's one who is bearing under the load or who is afflicted under toil.

You may be physically sick, but the healing is actually coming to your endurance or toiling under the load, rather than a healing for your physical sickness. It's related, then, continuing on through the forgiveness of sins, through the spiritual aspect there. mentioning, connecting the physical and the spiritual, the one who improperly takes to the Lord's Supper, says, for this cause, many of you are sick, and someone died, or among you, a person who is perhaps improperly enduring affliction, is either under the physical, emotional stress of that, physically sick, or under the punishment of God, physically sick, and then saying, there's a spiritual issue here that has resulted in your sickness, come to the elders and seek forgiveness from God, seeking wisdom from them in prayer. And if you have committed sins, they will be forgiven you. But that healing then comes, the raising up is a spiritual restoration rather than immediately tied to the physical aspect of it. It seems like, since the elders were called, the sickness certainly has a spiritual aspect. You can't disconnect that from that. And if there may be a physical one, then that's good. Well, let's just go on real quick here, if you don't mind.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. And it talks about Elijah as an example. So actually, another thing, if you look here, it seems like the first part of this verse is somewhat connected with verse 15 because it says, so here's something, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another.

So one of the questions is that a global thing for the body or is this more connected with the previous verse talking about the fact that a sick man came to him and in that process he does have a sin and that one another, according to Macaulay, and my Greek is weak, he claims that's something called a reciprocal pronoun.

And it only applies between, the one another is between the one who is sick and the elders. I can't necessarily dispute that because I don't know enough about the Greek to understand that. But that's interesting. His claim is that this 16a up to healed really is referring back to the previous verses.

And that confessing your sins to one another really only applies between the elders and the person who is sick. He's not talking about a general, I'm going to go out and I'm going to say, do you want to hear about my sins? And I'm going to tell you. I'm not to go out and open myself up. That's not the point here.

And healing is involved in there too, so that seems to make sense to me. And then he goes on, the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. And then he gives the example of Elijah and his prayer. He prayed for, he has a nature like ours. There's questions I ask about that. I'm answering some of these questions already. What kind of healing is spoken of? Verse 16. Yeah, spiritual.

So what do you think, in Elijah's life, he prayed for rain, what do you think are some of the things about his life that, because it says, the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. It gives the example of Elijah, how does that help us to understand about our prayers and that kind of thing. Or does it? No, but he wasn't a superman or something. He trusted in the Lord. Right, because it says Elijah was a man with our nature. So he wasn't a superman, right?

It says he prayed earnestly. Prayed earnestly is interesting. It's a noun and verb together. It means prayed with prayer, which sounds kind of redundant. He prayed with prayer. So he was a person that prayed. He basically prayed that it would not rain and that it would rain. And what's interesting was he prayed. He knew God's will. So he prayed within the will of God.

And that's kind of key about our prayers. We need to pray within the will of God. Sometimes we say, well, I don't know the will of God in this case. And that's true in some cases. We don't. But many times we do. If it's for salvation, if it's for some of those things, we know what God's will is there. So anyway. So maybe I'll just stop there. It's 10 o'clock. OK.

Well, thanks for the whiz through this. And the last verses are interesting, too. They're really cool, too. I didn't have a chance to cover that. OK. Let's close. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have. We thank you that we can trust you in all things. We pray just for the service ahead, pray for Vern, so he brings a message. In Christ's name, amen.