James chapter three is a passage has a passage it's great fun to work on but it would be kind of a Sunday school or a sarmonic kind of approach so let's just let's talk in a different mode try to help you hone your analytical skills from James chapter three James chapter three and rhetorical analysis what I like to call this segment now the thesis is that understanding the conventions of rhetoric in the ancient world helps us understand the message of James passage by passage and as a whole now you remember that commentators used to an analyst and critics used to fault James for being just a bunch of ideas thrown together chaotically so it seems he must one person said have been a good pious man it took a few sayings from his disciples and disciples of the apostles and tossed them off on paper another person said his exhortation is mere pearl springing putting distinctive thoughts together just by means of using catch words another person said the book of James is agglutinative which means this kind of glued a bunch of things together agglutinative two geez in that like the spell where words so so James but what I want to say to you is that James has a clear and they tight structure and it and the book encourages deep analysis careful analysis so we just know how to look about look at it James 3 1 to 4 6 has all kinds of indications of careful work for example in 3 1 it begins with a warning about speech it is that but it's also continuing to develop the nature of true religion because true religion controls the tongue but now he's going to tell us the no one can control the tongue what is he going to do with that and true religion is unpolluted by the world but in chapter 4 verses one following he's going to tell us or tell his congregation that we are polluted by the world and we're friends of the world and what are we supposed to do with that when he says these are the signs of true religion and he says we don't fulfill them he's setting up a paradox in us and he's going to give us put us in a position of tension and then he's going to resolve or relieve that tension toward the end of the section so important also to realize that we might put it this way that James chapter 3 and 4 doesn't just warn against sin it diagnoses us it doesn't just say don't do this and that although it does it also makes us face the question why do you do those things the book of James follows patterns from the ancient world that were commended by rhetoricians people like Cicero and people like Clintillian who doesn't get as much press as Cicero does who had developed to a very high level of science the skill of persuading of arguing a case and so forth so as to sell things women politics get people to do what's right the pattern that was used in Greco-Roman rhetoric was fivefold first of all when you want to try to get people to do something see a right course of action you set out your proposition what needs to be proved your thesis and you give one main reason for that thesis then you confirm that thesis by additional arguments and 4th you embellish embellishment includes all sorts of things illustrations and similes and analogies references to things from the distant past or common facts everybody knows an appeal to emotion entertaining objections and trying to answer them then finally what was called sometimes the resume or the conclusion where everything's brought together that was the pattern in the ancient world of rhetoric some people might say well wait a minute I thought James was writing for Jews from Palestine why would he use rhetoric more than half the people who lived in Palestine during the life of Jesus by most estimates more than half were Greek or Roman less than half were Jews so if you lived in Palestine it was impossible or almost impossible unless you lived in a very small isolated village to completely avoid the influences of your culture the analogy I would use with you would be this everybody in this room knows a fair amount about marketing right even if you never took one course and never planned to take a course you know the way things are marketed you know the most interesting aspect of most super balls is the commercials and you know why because you've got to keep people watching the TV for your commercials so they have to be very very interesting right and you know if you look around you you understand the way in which people manipulate you try to get you to buy things you don't have to be told you're going to go to class in a similar way people knew the conventions of rhetoric in the ancient world they didn't have to be told it was everywhere you don't have to be educated rhetoric was unavoidable the way marketing strategies are unavoidable if you live today so even though James is a as a Jew writing for primarily Christian Jews he could still very plausible use the categories of rhetoric because they were everywhere everyone who was educated formally studied rhetoric and everybody who bumped into people who are educated formally bumped into people who knew rhetoric it was the one subject you studied every last year that you were in school rhetoric so that we should expect we shouldn't be surprised that James uses it but just show you how it works in James chapter two verses one to thirteen from our last class I'm just gonna go through these very very rapidly in James chapter two the thesis or the proposition is show no partiality or show no favoritism my brothers the reason is if you the reason is it's inconsistent with faith in Christ but he puts it this way because if you treat rich men as if they're superior you are usurping God's role as judge that's the main reason the confirmation verses five to seven it's a third point is that God has chosen the poor but the rich mistreat you those refer to the reasons to not favor the rich he embellishes on this argument by citing previous authorities the Old Testament law by repeating the proposition found in chapter two and by amplifying the idea that if you even break this one seemingly trivial law you've actually opposed God himself he doesn't really bring it he doesn't slavishly follow the conventions doesn't bring it to a resume he simply ends by saying mercy triumphs over judgment chapter two verses fourteen to twenty six are very similar the proposition in the way they follow the reasoning of rhetoric the proposition is faith without works does not profit faith without works is dead he advances this thesis through some some rhetorical techniques repetition he says several times the faith without works is dead or useless or vain he also uses rhetorical questions and keeps on using a keyword what is the advantage the key phrase what is the advantage he gives a reason the reason is you can see plain that the faith without works is useless because it's like someone who tells his friend I hope things work out for you and that's useless if you don't actually do anything the confirmation comes when he anticipates the objection you have faith I have deeds or you have deeds I have faith is not the way it goes he clears that objection he embellishes through examples from life of Abraham and Ray have he brings it all to conclusion in chapter two verse twenty six and when he says again so you see faith without works is dead chapter three does the same thing it gives a thesis not many of you should be teachers that's the proposition the reason is because teachers will be judged more strictly you see that not many of you should be teachers because will be judged more strictly the confirmation is don't think that you will fail to fall in your tongue you will if you talk as much as some teachers do it is certain that eventually you will say something that is wrong or false or demeaning or belittling or proud or something goes on to say then he says we all stumble in many ways if anyone has never fallen what he says he's a perfect man able to keep his whole body in check well is anybody so perfect no we all stumble the embellishment comes next where he adds a series of things to enrich the argument first of all uses a similarly he says or couple of similar he says the tongue is a little thing that accomplishes a great deal it's like a bit in the mouth of mouth of a horse how much is a bit way say they know just a bit maybe three or four ounces how much is a horse way maybe fourteen hundred fifteen hundred pounds but a bit controls the horse how much does a rudder way well not much compared to the whole ship on guarantee you but the rudder determines the direction of the ship and so a tongue small thing has great impact he's using an embellishment he's giving an analogy he also aroused his emotions is a tongue is a fire it's a world of evil it sets the whole it stains the whole body and sits the whole world on fire and is itself set on fire by hell he corroborates he says you know the tongue is such a strange instrument with a tongue we bless God and then we curse our fellow man who's made in God's image what an absurd thing to do but the truth is the many of us do use our tongues to if not curse at least to demean our fellow man and yet we praise God so be careful and use of your tongue it doesn't come to a classic conclusion in this matter but in fact what he does is lead into the next section chapter three verse thirteen who is wise and understanding among you that would be then you know your teachers should be wise and understanding he says really if you're wise and understanding you need to show it by your good life including the way to use your tongue our tongue can I give you just one quotation about this is from a man who wrote a commentary on James and I will tell you that he himself is a truly great teacher spelled by a masterful teacher this is what he said teachers particularly are vulnerable to failures in speech not only because they're profession demands that they speak more than others and they must do so in public and before very frequently a captive audience such as you because such a setting provides temptations to virtually every form of evil speech arrogance and domination over students anger and pettiness at every form of contradiction and inattention slander and meanness toward absent opponents flattery of students for the sake of vain glory so true so true and if any teacher could refrain from all of those sins of the tongue he would be a perfect man but of course we're not nonetheless lacking perfection on the chapter three verses thirteen through five six even though we lack perfection it is still incumbent upon us to live a good life to live a wise life to live an excellent life now here again we have to believe we have to believe the James is skilled we have to assume that James is more than just a series of bits of advice about how to live as a Christian I believe that there is a strong logic and the float of James he's very craftsman like in his work and it is here in this passage as much as anywhere that it's crucial that we be willing to to believe this and follow it through a one more time there are a couple of themes in the book that are introduced in the first chapter that we trace throughout the book one is that the trial the trials test the genuineness of our faith that trials either cause sin or they cause us to come to maturity and the word of God is God's gift to us implanted in us I'm in chapter one around verse 20 now in the midst of the trial it's implanted in us it recreates us and saves us otherwise our trials will lead us by virtue of our desires into sin and ultimately toward death our trials will determine which way we go but if we listen to the word that God has given us chapter one verse 20 and following and receive that word and gaze into it intently and it does give us this new birth and we see ourselves as we are then we will be proven to have true religion those three signs one more time those three signs have been working our way through in chapter two and three what's the first sign again you'll get at least three points right in the test what is the first sign is controlling your tongue we just finished that chapter three second sign is caring for the poor and the and the needy the widow in the orphan that was chapter two right verses one to 26 is all about showing deeds to the poor like the person who comes in the church or like your your brother who doesn't have clothes and so on okay now there's one left right being unstained by the world and now we're going to come to that now he's going to develop the third rate test of the faith now how does he do it he doesn't first of all by leading us into discussion of true wisdom true wisdom is described in chapter three now it's going to be set up in contrast to false wisdom or world it was them and by looking at true wisdom and false wisdom he's going to get at the question of being stained or being unstained by the world so here goes chapter three verse thirteen who is wise and understanding among you he asks a question who is wise and understanding among you but him show it by his good life by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom we're tying into chapter three verses one to twelve because teachers should be wise we're also sending up the next thing that is a life that's free from pollution by the world chapter three verses thirteen to seventeen talk about the two wisdoms especially the antithesis between envy just crucial to the wisdom of the world mentioned a couple of times and the wisdom that produces humility and peace and then he's going to look in chapter four verses one to four at the way in which desires rage the way which we handle those desires okay here we go chapter three verses thirteen I read you one verse let me read a couple more um but if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition your hearts don't boast about it or deny the truth such wisdom that we're talking about the world here such wisdom does not come down from heaven but is earthly unspiritual and of the devil where you have envy and selfish ambition you have disorder in every evil practice but the wisdom that comes from heaven is pure peace loving consider it's submissive full of mercy and good food impartial and sincere the first mark of worldly wisdom then is envy a longing for what another has envy as as uh as a sort of a a cancer the knowing sorrow that you can't be happy because somebody else has what you have it comes this is essential to worldliness because it comes from the idea the world the idea that our identity and our worth come from our possession the idea would be I've got to anyone just one second I want to make sure I know where I'm in my notes um I've got to prove my life is is uh is valid and good and real by having the right things envy is in fact we could say uh one of the clearest marks of an unbelieving a lifestyle an unbelieving mentality the mentality of envy goes like this this is not by the way right now in your notes okay I'm adding something to your notes the mentality of envy goes like this
this my life is to be true and fulfilled and happy I have to have the right things I have to find them for myself I have to look out from my interests if I don't look out from my interests no one else will I have to make sure that I get what I deserve and if I don't get what I deserve then my life is not valid I look around and I see other people getting more than I have I see other people who are no more talented no more hardworking than I am it's logical for the worldly person the person who's deeply stained by the world to find that insufferable and I think I've got to get it for myself because they don't know that their identity and their worth and their value comes from God they don't know that they're significant whether they've accumulated rank and possessions or not and they've got to strive for that and grasp for that it's and it's going to eat them up because they don't believe that God will give them what they deserve they've got to get it for themselves it is essential is logical the worldly mind that it be filled with envy on the other hand it is logical for the Christian for the so we say the way of truth the righteous to show their wisdom by an excellent life you have verse 13 if anyone is wise and understanding let them show it by his good life I'm going to tell you that the that the Greek there doesn't just mean a good life in the sense of morally good but the word that's used there for good is beautiful but it's show it by his beautiful life and the word for life could actually be translated more aptly lifestyle and as I say wisdom shows itself all throughout your life your entire lifestyle demonstrates that you have wisdom from God and one of the crucial things of that wisdom is that it is it is the opposite of envy and selfish ambition but instead it shows humility now that word for humility in verse 13 is not the ordinary word for humility meaning you know sort of not boasting and so on but it's actually ordinarily translated gentle or gentleness one of the greats or one of the central marks of the believer as if he is gentle this is he doesn't have to the believer doesn't have to is not like the unbeliever who has to assert himself to gain whatever he can but the believer is content and peaceful and therefore gentle not ambitious gentle meaning not running around asserting oneself and demanding oneself or demanding one's own rights now I put it to you this way this gentleness we don't really carefully understand gentleness and humility not as as meekness or weakness or mildness or being a pushover because I want to tell you it takes real strength to be gentle it takes real strength not to grasp for oneself it takes real strength to be able to wait for God to vindicate you it was just about a year ago that a major league baseball celebrated the integration of baseball remember the story of Jackie Robinson who came into the majors in 1997 1947 year ago was 1997 1940 70 came in and he I think along with one of his teammates epitomized this gentleness of the beautiful lifestyle not asserting oneself let me tell you story just a couple aspects of the story some of you may know that baseball might have been Robinson's third best sport is most people think he was better at both track and football than he was at baseball now track was was more like more or less like today not very consequential not attended to a whole lot you could make a good living football he was probably better but it was already integrated and he was he was interested in the integration of sports and so baseball was not integrated and so some people were looking for the right person help integrate baseball and they chose Robinson now you may also know that Robinson was a very fiery man a man of strong opinions strongly expressed and really was he was kind of unpredictable not in anybody's corners of where he said what he thought and he expressed himself forcefully and people knew that he knew that a lot of strength of character and a lot of convictions but the deal was when you come in the majorly baseball you can't talk for two years that was the agreement they made no matter what anybody says no matter what epithets and abuse they hurl at you you've got to take it in silence now for a man with a lot of opinions and an articulate man which he was as well that is not an easy thing to do especially when there was the harshest and cruelest and vileest of language they had to hear time after time it took strength to be gentle to not answer fire with fire he also happened to have a room a teammate he played second base his teammate was P.E. Reese some of you might possibly remember the name P.E. Reese who was a many time all-star shortstop also for the Dodgers and Reese I forget what state but he was from one of the southern you know deep south states like southern Alabama and you know he took some grief too for being on the same team as Robinson and sometimes was accused in not very nice language of you know being able to close with Robinson on one day the epithets reached you know fever pitch of abuse and as always Robinson stayed quiet this particular day Reese went over you know how they throw grounders to each other during the break between innings he went over and instead of throwing grounders said Rick you want to do it with me just stand up for a second instead of throwing grounders with each other P.E. Reese just went over and kind of not like this they just kind of P.E. Reese just kind of looked at the other side and just kind of put his arm around Jackie and they just stood there and kind of hugged like men for a while and the men on the other team were so astonished by this that they were shame to silence and the the accounts that I've read that indicate that you know that on that day when the abuse of Robinson reached the fever and he said nothing and Reese said gently you know you can scream at me too because we're brothers we're teammates and we're brothers and you know they just couldn't stomach it I want to tell you that was gentleness and that was strength that was not asserting oneself the essence of worldliness is shown in things like envy and ambition I'm still in verses 13 and 14 envy and ambition and self assertion because the unbeliever says I need to assert for myself I need to get for myself I don't get it for myself it will not come because there is no God if I don't get it for myself it's not coming my way but the Christian is in the core of his being gentle that is to say not self asserting because we know that God will assert for us that God will give us what we need that's the core of godly wisdom now not only is that so but as he moves on in chapter 4 verses 1 and following he's next going to talk about another mark of of godlessness and another mark of true religion in this section he says in chapter 4 verse 1 what causes fights and quarrels among you we're back to the loudness of the world they nest and so forth he asks the question don't they come from the desires that battle within you now he's speaking here to Christians or at least ostensible Christians he says you want something but you don't get it you kill and covet but you cannot have what you want you quarrel and fight you do not have because you do not ask God now that's odd did you hear that he's talking to Christians and he says you're killing you're quarreling you're coveting and you don't have because you don't even ask God now that's strange when I read something strange like that I have to ask why is that there why would James say to Christians you don't even ask God well the answer has to be that you don't ask God because you're ashamed to ask God because if you went ahead and set it out loud before God in prayer you could no longer deny that it was in you year so year and a half ago it became undeniable that our family car was dying it had terminal cancer and there was no alternative but to get another car in our second car but my father-in-law calls a puddle jumper which is basically just car that runs around gets 40 miles per gallon it looks terrible but nobody cares because it runs good as the ad say but we had to get another car one that would hold everybody and as I looked around for a car and when I found it was difficult to pray for a car because what I really wanted was Alexis brand new for $7,000 or maybe a Mercedes brand new loaded $9,000 that's what I really want but to say that to God to say Lord please give me you know that'll be a hard thing to do or you know when you go looking for another you know a big ticket item like maybe an education Lord what I really want is an Ivy League education for community college prices that's what I really want or a house you know what I really want is a 12 room house at four room house prices and we have a hard time praying about some of these things if you know what I'm talking about there's some things that we want or we need and we find it very difficult to pray about them we'd almost rather ask somebody else to pray about them for us because we know that we can't get it right when we go to ask God we know that we're gonna ask selfishly so that's what I think that's what James is driving at in chapter 4 verse 2 you you do not have because you don't even ask and he says well in fact the truth is some of you do ask but you don't get it because you ask with wrong motives to spend it on your own pleasures okay that's maybe we might say easy enough to understand but then he raises the stakes and he says you adulterous people where you now likenes the church to is people who are married to God but now they're committing adultery you adulterous people they're going now we're actually linked this back to the prophets who who complain about Israel or who indict Israel for for going after other gods when they're married to Yahweh the Lord of Israel you adulterous people don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God you can't love the world and love God simultaneously you can't live for possessions influence material wealth and new experiences and your ease and your pleasure and also live for God you can't do both now I want to be very careful I'm not saying that's able to have power possessions I'm saying it's evil to live for them if power and possessions come to you if you inherit it or if you just do a good job year after year and the result is that they say you know do a good job you've got these rewards these financial rewards and they simply they chase you as it were there's nothing evil in it if it comes your way of a friend I'm thinking of one friend as I say this who became wealthy and not fabulous you wealthy but pretty wealthy and the chief operating officer of a small but not tiny company and he found it amazing he was 60 years old when he had this conversation he found it amazing and how wealthy he'd become he said you know they just hired me and I did my job and this is what happened and he was adept at giving it away and no one knew you know when he would give money away he would insist he would sometimes he would give it just to me not even the church treasure just me and other people like to say listen I want no one only the person holds a deposit slip only the person who actually takes the check that's the only person who should know because they understand it they have it but they don't move for it one of the best ways of proving it don't live for it is they give it away so there's nothing wrong with having possessions and power and ease but there's everything wrong with living for them saying that's the purpose of my life and if in fact if you say I've got to have them that's adultery it's spiritual adultery friendship with the world is hatred toward God because of course the world admires these things material possessions and ease and comfort and you know the right experiences and status and influence and all the rest anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God he says and now of course we see unmistakably that we have moved to that third point the third sign of true religion true religion is unstained by the world but some Christians are stained by envy and ambition and by desires for things that are so questionable they were unwilling even to mention them before God now if there's anybody here who's feeling a little bit guilty right now and saying man you know I don't help people who are needy and I don't control my tongue and I'm stained by the world then James would probably right now be saying good that's what I wanted because the thing about James is that it's possible to read James the certain sort of Christian heroism these are the things these are the signs of true religion I'll go out and do them and then I'll be right with God and I'll prove my faith is real and that would be a radical misconstruel of James real faith works but he is taking us he is breaking us down to realize we can't achieve these three if we want us to say you know yeah I've got true religion then he's he's forcing us to recognize that this kind of thing of desires that we hide even from God is in probably every last one of us and a tongue that's guilty of various sins is in every last one of us and she now really in a way he's come to climax we might say the evangelistic climax of the book in the next verse we are there of the difficulty with the next verses it is excruciatingly difficult to translate and I will tell you candidly that I think that the NIV has not gotten it right chapter four and then the last maybe I have to start with the NIV I'll read it to you simply from the NIV well maybe I shouldn't maybe I won't what I think I'll do is simply tell you what the two possible two possible translations of it are after getting through all this thing about friendship of the world and being an enemy of God he then asks in this question do you think that the scripture speaks in vain when it says something now maybe don't look at your NIV now okay I don't I it would take me a long time to explain why it has has to do with all kinds of rules of read grammar but I'll tell you just this much if you have a Bible translation with notes at the bottom on translations you will see at the bottom that there are about three different ways of translating this you see that I'm going to have that I'm going to have a Bible with little notes okay if you have it you will see this various options so I'm going to tell you what I think the option is option number one do you think scripture speaks in vain when it says that the spirit which God caused to dwell in us in these intensely that's a very literal translation of it I'm going to read it to you again so you can say it write it down if you want do you think the scripture speaks in vain when it says that the spirit that is the human spirit not the Holy Spirit but the spirit which God caused to dwell in us in these intensely what James will be saying then is this God has put a spirit in us an eternal spirit we have a sense of God a sense of eternity of purpose in life he caused that spirit to dwell in us and the scripture speaks and it does not speak in vain do you think the Bible says is in vain it does not the Bible does not speak in vain when it says that right now apart from God's grace the spirit which God caused to dwell in us is marked by intense envy in fact that is the testimony of the whole of scripture that apart from the grace of God that this business of striving after the world being a friend of the world and envy and those sorts of things is actually the truth about human nature it starts your life can't enable doesn't it the so soon after the fall we have one brother in being the status of another before God and Jacob and Esau striving over the blessing and Joseph and his brothers in being each other as to who had the favor in God's sight we could even say without much exaggeration that the history of the human race is a history of in being and striving after what other people have so many wars are fought over wanting what somebody else has and that's that I think actually is is the main way or or probably the best way to take this passive there's one other way to say it another way to read it and it goes like this do you think that the Bible speaks in vain when it's when it says this do you think that the spirit which God caused a dwell in us craves for the sake of envy put a two different way if you look at the desires that we have in our hearts which we undoubtedly have we have cravings we have we have passions why do you think God put them there the God giving your desires so you could spend them on your lusts and your envies is that why God gave you the energy that you have is that why he gave you the passions the concerns in life the goals the aspirations you have is that what they're there for to spend them on envy is that what you think don't think that no the energies that God has given you should not be spent on envying after what other people have and and the ambitious to gain what they have instead we should understand that God has given us these things for a very different reason and he has given them for up to us and for us graciously he gives us more grace his purpose behind these desires is to drive us to himself and in fact we could say that when we see the envy and ambition it that also drives us to himself he gives us grace when we see that the passions we have in us are so easily misdirected that is a say I believe that this is we might say the gospel of James the gospel of introspection and repentance take a good hard look at yourselves look at the temptation of the world in us look at the envy the desires are in you look at look at your tongue look how easy it is for you to misdirect yourself even even the best traits in yourself the energy of your life when you see that turn to God and realize that he would give you verse six says more grace than in fact God's way is to oppose the proud those who grasp for themselves but give grace to the humble to those who see that they can't pass those three tests of true religion submit to God he says humbly submit to God I'm now in verse seven and then resist the devil and he'll flee from you when you fail those evil in those three tests and show the wickedness in you once you come to him humbly confessing that then you'll be able to resist the devil and he'll flee come near to God he'll come near to you wash your hands you sinners purify your hearts you double-minded grieve mourn and wail wail over these sins that he's been indicting you of in the last while change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up that's the word of grace that's the gospel of James there are the tests strive for them and recognize that you fail take your failure to God grieve over it mourn over it wail over it he'll lift you up that of course is a quotation from the Psalms and what he's trying to say again is this this thesis of his is indeed a testimony that the entire scriptures would give to us there's more to be said about this theme but let me just stop I'm gonna guess this is not quite the way you've usually had the book of James explained to you and one or two of you may have a question I'm I'm trying to if I can just step out and show you the bones of what I'm doing what I'm trying to do is get us out of reading James in a sense my whole purpose in these two weeks on James is to get out of reading James as a series of aphorisms these are the things a good Christian does those that way reading James is not absolutely wrong to read it as just a lot of guidance for Christians but it's it's not deep enough to go deep enough as to realize that James is not just the proverbs of the New Testament a bunch of nice little things we have to do but it is deeply structured by rhetoric it is structured by themes that have come up in chapter one or being constantly reworked throughout and if they are reaching their apex in two places probably in chapter two the discussion of true faith versus 1426 which you looked at earlier and now here and they're kind of bookends the positive and the negative true faith shows itself this way but wait we aren't capable of manifesting true faith therefore humble yourselves before the Lord he'll lift you up so the word of salvation is not mentioned in James the way it's mentioned in Paul by talking about the propitious to worry sacrifice and the blood of Christ and the cross it is instead working not looking to the external work of Christ but looking to the internal work of the Holy Spirit convicting of us of sin and drawing us to humility before the God of grace I'm mindful of our time and the need to to convey the information that you'll require so let's let me let me continue on and look at how this theme is developed in the remainder of chapter four and five and here I will move more rapidly and sketch for you instead of working line by line there are I believe certain challenges to the way of wisdom that are outlined in chapter four versus eleven through chapter five or six now these challenges are to to live in ways that are contrary to the way of humility now he sets these up this little segment four eleven to five six has some stylistic unity it has a series of kind of rough and deflating questions who are you what is your life is the rough summons come now you rich and so on certain sort of a rough rebuking character to chapter four eleven through five six and what he rebukes is all in one way or another a sin of arrogance or pride sins against the humility that he just urged on his readers so chapter four versus eleven is a warning against slander a brothers don't slander one another anyone who speaks against his brother judges him speaks against the law and judges it so slander I'll read me the rest this later but slander involves judging another and a private decision you have the right to judge their motives and that you have a superior position to them and you can judge them and condemn them and tell other people how bad they are so those would be that would be a sign of the opposite of humility when you judge and slander your brother versus eleven and twelve and then verses thirteen is sixteen are very boastful and presumptuous versus thirteen is sixteen or seventeen talk about the ambition of wealth or the quest for wealth in the intent of getting wealthy which reveals an envy of spirit versus thirteen or falling some now listen you say today or tomorrow we'll go to this city that city spend a year there here on business and make money we're going to go make money I want to get rich and in fact in the in the ancient world I think I mentioned this last week in Palestine the way to get rich was by trading so the idea is I want to get rich I'm living for money the way I'm going to get rich is by trading and he thinks this hypothetical person thinks that they can control their destiny this is foolish because we can't really control the future our life is really just a mist he says it's the mist on a lake that's gone by ten in the morning as mist on the lake always are your life is fleeting and ephemeral third is the sin of oppression this is very clearly a sin of the rich who chapter five verse one and six should weep and wail because their wealth is rotting what have they done wrong verse four the wages you failed to pay the workman who mowed your fields are crying out against you see the corruption of the rich who are envious of even the daily wages of a common laborer are so envious and grasping that even though they're rich that when it comes time to give the poor just a minimum wage they won't even give them that they say come work for me and they say well I'm not going to give you any money after all so these are three sins of pride and arrogance and envy and in each one there is a a call to realize why we should be humble notice in the first one he asked the question with regard to the slander who are you to judge who gave you that post what gives you that rank do you really think you're so noble and then the second when he asks who are you chapter four who are you what is your life you don't even know what's going to happen tomorrow do you really have so much control over history you're you're just a mist your life is just a mist on a lake a puff of smoke a puff of a cloud and then to the rich he says do you really think you can guarantee that you're going to stay rich by defrauding your laborers in fact not at all because the more you defraud them the more they cry out and when they cry out to God God will surely vindicate and in fact the golden silver that you have hoarded up is going to corrode he goes on and says worse than that it will just corrode it's going to be like burning metal eating your flesh like fire and you who have gathered so much for yourself will turn out to be like like beasts like dumb cattle who have fattened themselves for the day of slaughter you thought you were going to guarantee yourself well forever but in fact you're guaranteeing your condemnation and in each one while there's a pointing out of the frailty of a human who can't really call himself a judge or control his future secure as well as a reference to God God is the one who judges chapter 4 verse 12 not you God and God is the one will determine the effect of your plans and the length of your days that's why he says instead of planning what you can do tomorrow verse 4 15 if you plan you should say if it is the Lord's will who will do this and that and God the Lord of hosts is the one who will determine who gets the riches and who doesn't he hears the cries of the harvesters and he'll judge those who have oppressed them so in each turn there is a call to godly humility and then in the last section he positively points out what we should do instead of there's a sort of a structure goes there's a sort of a one two three three two one structure I'm going to turn to the next page of notes now I think I'm moving on to chapter 5 of verse 7 to 20 chapter 4 verses 11 to 12 said don't use the word to slander your brother the last few verses of chapter 5 are going to tell us how we should use the word not to judge our brother but chapter 5 verse 19 to 20 we should use the word to win a brother who wanders away from the truth to win him back to turn a sinner sinner from the era of his ways when you see a brother sinning don't slander him winning back 411 has a sort of a partner in 519 to 20 and then chapter 4 verse 13 to 17 instead of boasting and bragging about your plans to get wealthy and forgetting God's sovereignty instead of that we should take every joy and sorrow to God verses 13 to 18 and instead of chapter 5 verses 1 to 6 hoarding and abusing your wealth and using the power to condemn righteous men we should be patient chapter 5 verses 7 to 12 and realize that the Lord the judge is coming not ignore him as the rich do but be patient and wait for him as he will surely come so there are bookends here the last section of the book is then in 5 7 to 20 giving as I just outlined for you certain antidotes to the way of of him of pride so the humble instead of being proud and boastful you know we use the word to win others and take all of our cares to God and we're patient and so on now that's one structure of the last part of the book there's another structure the last part of the book the other structure is a description of the life of prayer and the person the believer the humble believer appropriately instead of grasping for oneself takes their needs and their concerns the God so here goes chapter 5 verse 13 is any one of you in trouble you should pray you see the structural similarity is anyone happy see that is anyone thing repeated is anyone happy let him sing songs of praise verse 14 is anyone of you sick he should call the elders the church to pray over him and annoy him with oil in the name of the Lord this little this little if anyone actually appears not just those three times but a fourth time the structure then is this is there anybody among you who is going through these situations in life of course the answer is yes in fact we could say of course he's covered he just covered everybody because in verse 13 he said is anyone in trouble than he asked if anyone was happy I mean I guess you could say we're all either in trouble or happy maybe we're both you know if what he's saying is are you in trouble is your life difficult here's how to handle that is your life happy here's how to handle that so he's going to tell us to take every mood every life situation to God to hollow every pleasure to sanctify every pain that is going to be his theme here he does it through some statements is anyone again suffering hardship let him pray if anyone is in good spirits let him praise if anyone is sick let him call the elders in if someone calls the elders then let them pray another way of looking at it is instead of all these is anyone is to look at four groups at prayer there's the individual prayer for their joys of their sorrows there is the elder or the elder is at prayer over sickness and there's a person or there are friends at prayer over sins committed verse 16 and finally there's the prophet at prayer Elijah was an example of the efficacy of prayer in the time of need so here's the basic advice basic counsel if you're in trouble pray if you're happy praise that's generic that'll cover just about everything but having done that he wants to focus a little bit more on trials one more time we've really left behind by now then the or mostly left behind the theme of the signs or marks of true faith we're now back to the early part of the book you might call it I use the word inclusio with you before maybe a giant inclusio the book started with trials right now it's going to end with trials the trial sickness so what's he going to say about the trial sickness let's just read through it a little bit he says if you're sick you should call if anyone sick call the elders of the church to pray over him annoyed him with oil the name of the Lord and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well what do you think of that what if I told you that the language there will make the sick person well was actually will save him it is and the Lord will raise him up what does that raise him up the Lord will raise him up what does that sound like that's kind of like resurrection language doesn't it Lord will raise him up if he has sin to be forgiven therefore confess your sins to each other pray for each other so that you may be healed the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective now there are a couple questions people have about this passage but one is should be expect things like this to still happen today should we still do this sort of thing today or is this something from the age of the possible the age of miracles what do you think look at the passage what are the indications is this for today this seem to be for today what's the indication that this is for today who's he who's he talking about praying he's talking about apostles prophets perhaps who's he talking about he's talking about elders we still have elders around yeah we still have people who are sick around yes do people who are sick still need to call for their spiritual leaders to help them is it still appropriate when you're sick to examine yourself to see if there be any sin in you is there all things that seem to be appropriate is prayer for healing appropriate certainly the answer is yes so this is not something from simply antiquity it's something it's ancient that still holds today because he's talking about elders and friends gathering a prayer then there's a bunch of other questions we can almost work through the passage by answering the questions how sick does one have to be does any sick this count how does it work do we have to use oil we have to use oil with use olive oil does it have to come from the promised land you have to come from Israel could it be canola oil corn oil from Canada what does this we have against the oil anyway why why oil and how does this fit with other healings and for that matter other people not being healed in the New Testament a paffer died as you know almost died Paul didn't heal a paffer died as he got better Paul tells Timothy take a little wine for your stomach and pline that Paul did not want to or see that it was the right thing to use his miraculous powers on healing Timothy how does that work who gets healed and who doesn't those are all questions we have the main idea is pretty clear though if you're suffering any illness or trouble of any kind you should pray take that to God a scene a scene is not too difficult to understand if you're sick you call the elders why them there's a say call those who have the gift of healing notice just call the elders why the elders because they're righteous that's the number one qualification for being an elder not incidentally the number one qualification is not having a nice corner office and being a person of rank and influence number one requirement is righteousness and the prayers of a righteous man are effective prayers for healing not for a miracle and the use of oil means that we use spiritual means because oil is a bucket of the Holy Spirit in the Bible but also medicinal means because oil was used therapeutically in biblical times as well the illness appears to be major says if any of you are sick but it also adds in the next use of the word sick again this is from the Greek the first use is an ordinary garden variety word for sick or literally weak weakened by illness the next word is worn out if anyone is worn out so it doesn't mean if you have a sniff or a cold it means you're in bad shape it may incidentally also cover what we call depression today somebody who's spiritually worn out weakened in their spirit I don't think there's any reason to exclude taking these things to God but it should be something major there's also the idea that they have to call the elders to them and the elders lay their hands over them maybe the person is envisioned as being bedridden unable to go to the elders that's not really quite clear it is clear that the sick person takes the initiative if anyone is sick let him call the elders that is to say you don't just pop in on people saying hi we're here to heal you there should be a desire for this in them what shall we say about about the expectation here there's an expectation here that there's a spiritual dimension to the illness you're supposed to examine yourself see if you've sinned it anyway confess your sins is is are we supposed to assume that everybody you get sick has committed a sin no no there may not be a sin involved here but you should examine and see if there is a sin the disciples were wrong when they said about the man who's born blind who's sinned this man or his parents the trouble is today we sometimes de-spiritualize illness if we could say the disciples wanted to over-spiritualize and say every illness was due to a sin today we want to say it's all microbes it's all bacteria it's all viruses now the Bible does connect sin and illness sometimes the Bible does say for example deuteronomy 28 that if the people are false to the covenant they'll receive diseases there's actually quite a quite a group of them here but for example in Jesus heals a paralytic he says your sins are forgiven which implies that sin is connected to a illness so what we should do is examine ourselves and see if there might be some sin involved in this and then then call the elders and pray in faith notice what says the prayer of faith verse 15 will make the sick person well the Lord will raise him up that is to say this won't work as magic if you just say hey let's call the elders and he'll get better you can't do it in a callous or calculating or skeptical way i have i'll tell you about one of the minute but i've been in on this about 20 times okay i i didn't used to believe in it i used to believe this in the past then i studied it i said no i think it's for the present and and you know a couple dozen times i've been in services where elders came and prayed over people and i want to tell you that for a western person with so we say overly developed critical faculties which you know and that's what professors are you know they get a little bit too rational sometimes it's very very easy to stand there and think this isn't gonna work you know what what you know all i've done is raise this poor person's hopes why did i do that you know very easy to skeptical but this is clear there can't be pure skepticism and nothing but skepticism if you out of obedience say i want to do this and you bring the elders together yourself or even you're an elder you don't have to have perfect faith it's not like the prayer of faith the quality of your faith will make the person well that's not the issue the issue is you can't all be gathers a bunch of unbelievers trying to get something from god if your faith is imperfect but real that's good enough now one reason why i tell you that is because there is no such thing as perfect faith another reason is because i am a skeptic but i've laid my hands on people and they've gotten better not just me but a bunch of us on a number of occasions i know it wasn't the quality of my faith the faith of the other people there because i talked to them too and they said yeah i was down to man but i you know it was in the bible so i think we better do it i guess you know there is that you know kind of like i believe helped me in my unbelief as the father says so the prayer of faith the prayer of faith the Lord will raise them up every last person well yeah every last person the last day every last person will be raised up or will raise everyone up you may choose to raise some up now strikingly surprisingly others much later in other words for some this raising up in this saving this healing may only be in the resurrection now if some of you wonder about this if it seems like a little bit too much you you get a little encouragement from him in verse 17 and 18 he says Elijah you know look at Elijah look what happened he prayed now we may say Elijah that doesn't encourage me at all look at Elijah what a great prophet he was you know he performed miracles you're gonna say Elijah's success in prayers and encouragement it discourages me but wait look at the way he describes Elijah he doesn't call Elijah a prophet or a great prophet what he says is his introduction of Elijah is Elijah was a man just like us another translation would be Elijah had the same passions as we do that is to say the same variations and fluctuations and boys at the truth of Elijah one minute he is you know standing down 450 bail prophets and calling fire down from heaven the next day he's saying oh man this Joseph Bell scares me half the death I've got to get out of here and he goes and runs and he's hiding and he's saying Lord just kill me I can't stand anymore I'm all by myself that's us heroic one minute quivering the next Elijah was a man just like us but he prayed earnestly he's also a man of great faith he prayed it wouldn't rain and you know it didn't and three and a half years later he prayed again this time he prayed did it would rain you know what in rain Elijah was a man of the same passions as we are he's more like us than he is unlike us he had power great faith great position but he also had great weakness
and that's the way it is with us I'm going to tell you that you know the way through these trials really is by faith you know this is bookends and and this faith and trial it takes us to to completion and maturity and it's so tempting this thing that James's after is so needed by us to intellectualize the faith that's a story against myself has to do with my kids again after I had laid my hands with a group of other elders you know kind of got it you know David a push in my church which didn't do such things and we're Presbyterians after all you know is there a motto we don't want to miracles around here we're Presbyterians so you know gently urging for months in my church is number of years ago and I'm exaggerating it's a great church but they had never done it gently urging you know let's do this this is biblical but some people who are really sick in our church and one of them which I tell about another course now one of them was spectacularly healed I mean thunderbolts from heaven you know diseases disappearing doctors saying I don't know what happened I mean the whole thing and another couple people were were healed very quietly and I had enormous spiritual blessing another people nothing happened I'll tell you very candidly there was there was one spectacular healing two quiet healings three maybe two sort of you know we could see that anything happened it was any benefit anybody while this was going on I'm laying my hands on other people sort of there'd been kind of a backlog of people waiting for this in this church you know it wasn't a big church everybody been sick for a while says yeah you know let me get in on this so we're laying our hands of people and and it's been a real blessing to some people in the church my angus daughter who is who's now nine had really severe allergies she still has quite a few but had really bad allergies a little child and she had she had a severe rash from head to toe now you say a rash you know how bad can a rash be I mean it was bad it was so bad that in all summer long we had to literally keep her covered from head to toe because the second you would take off her clothes to give her a bath or play she would just tear her skin which it's so much she would tear the skin so much she had a little hundreds you know kids have you'll start fingernails she had hundreds and hundreds of tiny cuts all over her body from just just tearing it her skin and and you know she'd just scream and cry out and we give her a bath just wailing and we'd change her clothes to the itching her skin but just cause her shriek just nonstop and we'd pray over her and so on but the truth was although I'd done for others I found it hard to call the elders what I'd done for others I found it hard to do in my own family and well I think one reason was that I could tolerate the disappointment of other people but to have you know my own child not be healed and I'm thinking well you know besides my wife and I can do it but you know we laid hands after hesitating for a while we laid hands on her and prayed over her in fact once I decided to do it I decided to go the whole way and I gathered two groups of elders one was on Wednesday and the other was on Thursday it was all arranged you know I had one group of the school where I was teaching and I get we they gathered in the elders of the church and I was you know I was just filled with doubt and wondering and wondering why I didn't have any more enthusiasm myself for it and really felt low nothing nothing had seemed to happen at all but about oh I don't know four hours later around maybe right before summertime I heard crying coming from upstairs in our house very soft crying it caught my attention because you know not you know wailing or or anybody really upset but a very odd soft weeping and I walked up the stairs to see what it might be and it was my wife who was crying as she was bathing our child 11 months old crying and her word was simply this she's playing in her bathtub for the first time in her life she's playing in her bathtub and there she was I mean just that day she'd always scream and that day she sat in her bathtub and was just kind of patting the water the way babies are supposed to do but she hadn't been able and you know it it just it took I don't know why it took us so long but it's it's so easy sometimes again this is what James is after to say you know this faith and this doctrine is for you and then intellectualize it ourselves and not claim it for ourselves that's that's what the Lord wants us to do whether you know there's the healing or not we take every sorrow and every pleasure to God and the result of it all is that the whole community shall be healed you see this last segment reminds us that all this living out of the faith is not something that happens in isolation as individuals but rather my brothers he concludes if any of you should wander it should be all of us are interested in bringing bring him back to the faith but returns a sinner from the arabic way will save him from death and cover a multitude of sins that's what the Christian community should do individually living out our our faith in the face of trials but also being there to reclaim the brother when they're not able to turn back themselves