Untitled Sermon

five we'll pick up today with verse seven we look at the second half jane says in verse seven be patient then brothers until the lord coming see how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and the spring rain you too be patient and stand firm because the lord coming is near don't grumble against each other brothers or you will be judged the judge is standing at the door brothers as an example of patience and the fates of suffering take the profit you spoke in the name of the lord as you know we consider blessed those who have persevered you have heard of job's perseverance and have seen what the lord finally brought about

the lord is full of compassion and mercy and above all my brothers do not swear not by heaven nor by earth nor by anything else let your yes be yeah and your no no or you will be condemned before we go on today i wanted to kind of take a short quiz and you don't need a pencil but just a quiz to hopefully help us keep before us where we've been through the book of jane i don't want us to just go through these studies and and find some neat stuff and then forget what we've done i want us to be able to remember when we've left this area of god's word what james was all about that god can speak to our heart after we've left this particular book and that's hopefully our goal

each time we study through a particular book of the bible so just in review remember what the overall umbrella title is for this section that we've been looking through in the book of james we've been looking at james under one particular heading and then tying everything else in under that it has to do with what happens as a result of our being born again as a result of our coming to christ and surrendering our life you remember what the heading is this is called the what it begins workings of faith remember that this is what james is writing this book about the workings of faith when you and i receive jesus christ as our personal lord and savior he works a work in us he doesn't leave us the way that he found us thank god but he's working in

us he's making us new we have been given his spirit we are born again our spirit is new we are a new creation paul tells us the old is gone the new has come but we don't recognize that in our physical presence yet until the time that we're transformed until we stand in the lord's presence but we should be seeing the outworkings of that thing it should be manifesting itself in our life james does not preach a works oriented gospel he is saying if your faith is real it will be evident by the works in your life he says you say you have faith well i'll show you my faith by my work there will be evidences in my life of the new life of christ working in me or i'm not born again i'm not born again i'm not born again i'm not born again i'm not

saved my faith is in vain i've never really made a commitment now he starts in chapter one and he says that the workings of faith are expressed in certain ways and in chapter one we've studied that the workings of faith are what you remember revealed by trials revealed by trials blessed are you count it all joy when you fall into different kinds of trial realizing that the testing of your faith work at patience the squeezing when you and i are squeezed by the trials that come in our lives it squeezes out of us the work of faith and the work of faith that's what's in here hopefully jesus oozes out all over hopefully our trust in him our our faith in him our reliance upon him comes out but more often than not we're in process and what comes

out is still some of the old that's in here still some of the flesh that's in there now our spirit's been transformed it's new the old is gone but we still have the flesh and the flesh can still influence and we still have tendencies to respond the way we used to respond bc before jesus came into our lives and so god uses the trials to work out to work those things out to cause us to trust in him to cause us to believe in him to believe in him to believe in him to believe in him to believe in those things of the old man that are still there and lay him on the altar and let him take them so we don't respond that way anymore the workings of faith are revealed by trial then we came to

chapter two and in chapter two we learned that the workings of faith are what you can look at your notes that's fine i hope you make notes make notes in your bible write in your bible it's not unholy to write in your words you can write on the back of the bulletin we leave you a little bit of room to do that take notes just stick it in your bible as you take them and you'll you'll be amazed how the lord uses it you'll be sitting somewhere and you've got your bible and you know we're around the fellowship but you're sitting there and you're going through a bummer and you just kind of grab your bible and you open it up and there's your notes but man god will just use that and just put your heart

again oh yeah thank the lord i encourage you to write to write in your bible to make little notes in your bible to take notes of the different things chapter three the works of faith are what very good reflected in our relationship you and i are parts of the body of christ as new believers we interact we have to because we're a body paul says that the hand can't say to the eye i have no need of you get out of here you know i don't have to hang around with you i don't like eyes but it's the work with the rest of the body for the building up of the body for the nurturing of the body and if we're born again that'll be reflected in our relationship with others with especially with each other in

the body of christ walls of division will come down there's no longer those people over there and us over here it's a we we're part of one another there are things we're not going to like about each other we think in various degrees various areas we're unrefined we're there's prejudices and areas of bias in our lives and god is working that out of us and so the fact of his working in us for that concern is that we're not going to like each other we're not going to like each other because we're not going to like each other and we're not going to like each other prejudices will be put away the world will be broken down there'll be a compassion a desire to to see others grow a desire to see others ministered to a desire to reach out and share our

faith with others and that's an evidence in our lives that we're not born again we're just playing a game we're just sitting here hoping it just racks up points of god it'll be reflected in our relationships with others chapter three we find that the workings of faith are what what happens with the workings of faith chapter three okay resonate through the tongue They're reflected in our speech. They reverberate through our mouth. It comes out through what we say. It's evidence of who we love by what we say and how we say it.

We're either going to be seeking words of encouragement or we're going to be using our tongues to tear down. We have the opportunity to build up and to strengthen and encourage and do something beautiful in the lives of others or the opportunity to rip them apart, to just tear down. God's given us that power. And one or the other will be evident always. And if we're really saved, if we're really seeking the Lord,

the workings of faith will be evident through our tongues. We cannot say these things anymore. We're convicted when we do. We ask for forgiveness and we repent of that. It's like when we say things that are against the Lord, it's like a clanging gong or a crashing cymbal. It hurts. Well, the first thing, the night that I accepted Christ, I just did it. I've been studying with a guy and I was kind of reluctant at that.

I just knew that he had something that I didn't. He wanted to tell me about Jesus. And I was kind of reluctant for that because I'd been raised in a church. But after several weeks of studying the Bible and I had all the questions, you know, what about? People in Borneo that have never heard, you know, Bora Bora. And how can there really be a God if he lets them go to hell?

And all that kind of stuff. I was asking all those questions. And one night after Bible study, I just said, Lord, I don't know what it is, but I want that. And I felt that. I felt the Spirit come over me. Not that that's a big deal. Not that you have to feel that. But I felt something. And the next morning I woke up remembering that. And I said, Lord, you know, I know I am.

And I'm just really anxious to see if you came into my life. And I went to work. And it's like I worked with a crew. And the language that they used was the same language they'd always use. But, man, it just hurt my ears. It was so bad. I noticed that change immediately. And if we're truly the Lord, the workings of faith will reveal that in our speech. We can no longer condemn others, say those things against the Lord and against his people.

It's just evident. And if that's not evident, if we leave here and go out and just, you know, complain and gossip and run people down and all that, then the evidence of the faith is not there. Chapter 4. We came into Chapter 4 after the workings. The workings of faith reverberating or resonating through our speech. And in the Chapter 4, we've seen that the workings of faith caused us to do something.

What do they cause us to do? Say it again. Okay. Release our hold on the world. Let go of the things of the world. If Jesus is truly living in us, then we know that this place is not our home. We're passing through. We don't live in our city. We reside here temporarily. We don't live in Cali County. We're just passing through. We're just here for a short time until the Lord calls us somewhere else.

We're called to find our home. This place is not our home. The attitudes and actions and activities of the world are not our home. They're not what we're designed to be a part of. And so we are learning to release our hold on the things of this world and hold on to the things of God. And he empowers us. We've seen in the second and Chapter 4, he empowers us to do that.

He doesn't just tell us this is what needs to happen. He gives us the strength to do it, the power to do it, to the Holy Spirit. We've seen a warning to those who are rich in the first six verses of Chapter 5. And that is all of us. Everybody here in this country has more than most of the people in the rest of the world. And there's a warning to us to not trust in the richest,

to let those things go because they are short. They are short-lived and they are detained. And they'll tend to pull our focus away from the things of the Lord. They'll corrupt our character. We hang on to those. So as we release our hold on the world, we release our hold on the things of this world, which are the riches that seek to divert us away from the things of God.

Now we come into Chapter 5. Very good, by the way. Remember those things. Remember those things. They definitely will come in handy later. And as you seek to remember those, you'll be amazed at how the Spirit of God will draw those to your remembrance, even when you don't have your words in front of you. So we come to Chapter 5 and James is summing up. He's wrapping up.

And he wants to leave us with, a final working that he sees of faith in our lives. And that is that we are learning to not only release our hold on the world, Chapter 4, but now we are learning to respond with hope. The workings of faith cause us to respond with hope. And in verses 7 through 12, we'll see that the first thing that we hope in is the same coming of the Lord.

At Christens, that's one of the foundations that we hang on to. And then finally, verse 13 through the end of the chapter is because of prayer. We have hope because of the power of prayer. We need to have hope. And maybe you're sitting here this morning, and you feel hope-less. You feel like the situation that you're in, that the pressures of this life are just overwhelming.

And you just don't want to go on anymore. And James is speaking to you this morning in particular. You need to respond to the situation that you're in with hope. And trust the Lord. I read about a woman who telephoned a friend and asked how she was feeling. Terrible came the reply from the other end of the phone. My head's splitting. My back and legs are killing me.

The house is a mess. And the kids are simply driving me crazy. Very sympathetically, the caller responded, Listen. Go lie down. And I'll come over right away. And I'll cook lunch for you. I'll clean up your house. And I'll take care of the children while you get some rest. By the way, how's Sam? Sam? The complaining housewife said. I have no husband named Sam.

My heavens, exclaimed the first woman. I must have dialed the wrong number. It was a long pause. Are you still coming over, you harried woman?

See, we have to have hope. It's been said that we can live for 40 days without food. We can survive about three days without water. And we can live about eight minutes without air. But we can only live about one second without hope. Back in 1994, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. She had liver cancer and pretty well throughout her abdominal region. The doctors said she had probably about two or three months left to live.

When the diagnosis came out, my mom lost total hope. And she died within nine days of the diagnosis. I had the opportunity the night that she died, that evening, to pray with her to receive Jesus as her Lord saved her. But it was amazing to me to watch how quickly our lives go when we leave hope. We have to have hope. And we of all people, the Christian, the believer of all people,

has a reason for hope. We have the best reason for hope. And James wants to instill that in us as we finish his letter, as we finish this book. We have to respond to the situations that we face with hope. And so he says in verse 7, Be patient then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. Be patient then until the Lord's coming. This is a call from James to a patient hope in the soon coming of the Lord.

Now here is another excellent example in Scripture of the fact that the early church believed in the imminent coming of Jesus Christ. They didn't think it was way up there. They didn't think it was way up there. They didn't think it was going to be off somewhere. They didn't, they weren't waiting. They weren't thinking it's, well, we've got to wait for, you know, a long time before the Lord comes.

They were anticipating His coming immediately. They were expecting Him at any moment. It didn't just happen with Darby in the 1800s that the rapture idea came about. The early church expected it. They anticipated. Three times here in verse 7, verse 7, 8, 9, James reminds us of the Lord's coming. Be patient then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. Verse 7. Verse 8.

Be patient and stand firm because the Lord's coming is near. Verse 9. Down at the end of the verse. The judge is standing at the door. James believes very strongly that Jesus was coming soon and he encourages us as readers to hang on to that, to trust that, to be patient in the coming of the Lord. And James emphasizes here something else too. He's trying to get across to us, I believe, that everything is not going to be right or made right until Jesus comes back.

There's no exhortation here to go out now and make everything right and seek to change the Roman government and the way things are being done. He's just calling us to stand firm, to hang on to the faith that we have. Now, this is important and I want you to hang on to this and remember it in the light of what's going on and what's called the counterfeit revival that's happening. And again, we have that book in the bookstore when it's open next week.

I encourage you, if you can, to pick up on the counterfeit revival by Hank Hanegraaff. It'll give you a lot of information about some of the things that are happening that maybe you're just beginning now to hear bits and pieces of but you have no real background on. The counterfeit revival is emphasizing that the church, is going to finally take over the world. The church is going to finally come in and take over all the areas of government, all the areas that are against God.

The church is going to finally move in and there's going to be such an outpouring of the Spirit of God that they're saying it's going to make the day of Pentecost and the book of Acts pale in comparison. They say that there are modern-day apostles and modern-day prophets that are going to do work that are greater than Paul and all of the other apostles. And they're saying that we're going to actually take over the government of the world and bring about a restoration of things as they were when God created them and how they were intended to be. Now that's totally contrary to Scripture.

Romans chapter 8 tells us that creation itself groans. It's agonizing under the weight of the sin, our sin, as it patiently waits for the revelation, for the revealing of the Son of God. The creation that we see around us is not the creation that reflects the glory of God the way God initially created it. It's been marred because of sin. As wonderful as it is, we went over to the Blisses yesterday

and just were sitting up there. We were sitting on their porch. You've got to get over there and see what God's really done. We were sitting on their front porch and all the neat birds, there were hummers that were coming right in and feeding right above our heads. And blue birds, real blue birds, gorgeous blue colors sitting there. And you see all of that beauty and it's awesome to see God's creation.

And even in its fallen state, the Bible tells us that it still declares His glory. It's able to communicate to us the fact of the Creator, that we might seek Him. But still, it's not in the fullness of the way that God initially created it. Nor will it be. Until Jesus comes again. And He restores it. He re-does it and puts it back the way that He initially intended it when He created it.

We're not going to do it. And so as we respond to the situations around us and the pressures around us with hope and the soon coming of the Lord, it's not that we're going to all of a sudden get out here and go reform the government. It's going to not be reformable until Jesus comes back. Now we stand in the gap. We seek to stand as light and salt and as ambassadors of the righteousness of Christ.

But we've been sent out to make decisions. Disciple and baptize those who become disciples. We've not been sent out to reform governments or nations. And the reason I'm emphasizing this is because there's such a radical polarization that's happening as a result of the counterfeit revival that they are literally saying in their and it's documented in the book.

They are literally saying in their meetings that there is to be this polarization because of this newness, this new move of the Spirit, that there will ultimately be a civil war among Christians. And those that are calling this revival wrong or counterfeit, we're at the bad extreme and we're eventually going to be done away with, dealt with, and some even by bloodshed, they think. So it's not something we can overlook. You have to know what you believe and you better know what you believe and be able to find it in here and not listen to the cunning crappiness of the words of men.

You better be able to stand on the foundation of Scripture and know what you believe based upon Scripture because it's going to be challenged in the days ahead. And if you take a stand for truth, you'll be persecuted, accepted, anticipated. It's coming. But we can respond with hope in the midst of that because we believe in the soon coming of the Lord. Now James begins and ends this epistle emphasizing patience.

He says in verse 7, Be patient then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. In chapter 1 he tells us that the trying of our faith works patience. God wants to work patience into us so that he can bring patience out of us. So he calls us here to be patient. Patiently endure. Patiently expect the soon coming of the Lord. Now James uses two different words here in the Greek in these verses

for the word that's translated patience or perseverance in NIV. If you're reading King James, I think they use patience throughout verses 7 through 11. But in verses 7, 8, and 10 he uses a word for patience that literally means long-suffering. Verse 7 he says, Be patient then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. Verse 8, You too be patient and stand firm. Verse 10, Brothers, as an example of patience.

That word in the Greek literally means long-suffering or long-tempered. Then in verse 11 in NIV he uses the word perseverance. And we have the English word perseverance for a different word that's used for patience. And it's a word that means to bear up under or to endure under stress, to remain under stress. And many scholars think the first word that's used in verses 7, 8, and 10

has to do with a long-suffering or a long-temperedness in dealing with people, relationships with people. And that the perseverance or the patience of verse 11, the remaining under stress has to do with the circumstances that we're involved in, the conditions that surround us, and the situations or circumstances that we find ourselves in. We are called to be patient and to be long-suffering, long-tempered with individuals. With one another as we wait for the coming of the Lord.

Those that you're dealing with may be family members, may be friends, may be people in the body of Christ that you just haven't spent a whole dime with. Maybe it's a family member who's not saved and you're going, I'm never going to come to Christ. You know, they're never going to be saved. You're just ready to give up. He's saying be patient, just be long-suffering.

Be long-tempered with them, realizing that your patience is not in vain. God is not finished with them. God, it's His will that none should perish. So God hasn't given up. He's still working. Be patient as you wait for the coming of the Lord. But then also endure under stress. Persevere in the midst of the circumstance that you're in. Maybe you're under some financial thing and you just feel like it's never going to end.

You just get from one month and now you're in a new month and that's all there. And you just find it hard to think that that's going to pass. He's saying persevere, bear up under that stress. Be patient as you're waiting for the coming of the Lord. It is going to pass. It'll eventually be dealt with. The pressure will eventually be relieved. So be patient and persevere.

Now, we think in pictures. I don't know if you've ever thought about that before. We picture things when we think about or in conversation, when we're talking to one another. Usually as we talk to each other about family, we picture the other family. And that's why we have family that just came and visited us that live out in Oregon. They had never been here.

And we talked to them about where we live and the surroundings and the church and all that. Well, they'd never been here. And they came and they took pictures and videos and everything. And one of the things they wrote back in that card was they're really glad that they came because now they can picture us when we talk to them about what's going on. They can picture us in our environment.

We do that. We think in pictures. Jesus, when he talked to the people, he related biblical truth. He related theology to the people in pictures. Consider the lilies of the field. And they could see them. I mean, they would be standing right there if they're on the area over by.