 Okay, welcome, good morning everyone. Thank you for connecting to our study on the book of Hebrews, James, 1st and 2nd Peter, Jude. So today we will complete the rest of the portion from the book of James. Let's pray and get started. I want to request one of us from the class to please lead in prayer. Okay, yes brother success, please go ahead you can pray please. In the mighty name of Jesus. Interarch of Egypt once just wanted to say thank you this morning because you are faithful God beyond about faithfulness. You are a really faithful God. Thank you for keeping us to date. Thank you for the beginning of this semester. Thank you for all our pastors, thank you for all our students, my colleague, my post-student. We give you a blessing in the name of Jesus. Father we begin this second lecture. Please speak with us in the name of Jesus and use your daughter for us this morning. Mightly in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen, amen. Thank you. Thank you brother success. Let's continue. We'll go to James chapter 4 and we will read through the entire passage following which I will highlight some of the key thoughts that the passage the chapter carries and then move on to chapter 5. Hoping to do this in about 40 minutes but let's see how this goes. So could someone please read the entire chapter? James chapter 4. James chapter 4. Yes. Where was and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask a miss that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adult trust and adult trust. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God or do you think or do you think that the scripture says in vain the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealousy but he gives more grace therefore he says God resist the proud but gives grace to the humble therefore submit to God resist the devil and he will sleep from you drawn near to God and he will draw near to you cleanse your hands use sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded lament and mourn and be let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up do not speak evil of one another do not speak evil of one another brethren he who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law but if you judge the law you are not a doer of the law but a judge there is one law giver who is able to save and to destroy who are you to judge another come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city spend a year there buy and sell and make a profit whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow for what is what is your life it is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away instead you ought to say if the Lord wills we shall live and do this or that but now you boast in your arrogance all such boasting is evil therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it to him it is sin amen thank you Rosalind let's now look at the meaning of the verses that we read in this chapter we start with James talking about wars and fights so he says wars and fights come from among you where do where does it come from among you do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members so the underlying thought here is that when there are wars and fights or let's say conflicts, strife, quarrel, divisions many things that we are competing about dissensions so he says that the origin of this is to do with our own pleasures or you know whatever we desire and because of that we start to kind of fight with one another while you know so we need to understand that it's actually originating from there so it's not like you know God is causing us to fight with one another and so the right motives in our hearts and the right desires are so very important and he talks about the right desires he says that we ask God but we don't receive because we are asking Amis or in other words he's saying that we have a desire for things it can even be good things like I may want to grow in the ministry or I want spiritual gifts from the Lord but then the motive matters I may ask for the sake of my agendas and that is not pleasing in God's sight and we see a reference to this in the book of Timothy when Paul writes to Timothy about who should be an overseer or who should be a spiritual leader and over there you know he talks about having a pure motive it's a good thing to be a spiritual leader but when it comes from a place of competition when it comes from a place of you know wanting to be there because of certain wrong motivations then that is not correct so the evil desires you know may drive us to ask God even for good things but ultimately the motivation is important and one needs to look into that and then he talks about how we must be devoted to God and have an intimate walk with the Lord in such a way that we cut off our friendship from the world we can talk a lot about this because scriptures say that we are born of God as he was so we are in this world so there is a part for us to play in the world as salt as light and representatives of Christ but at the same time though we are in the world we are not off the world so that's where you know James is trying to put the focus and he's saying don't don't you know that friendship with the world makes is enmity with God so we are in the world but we cannot become friends of the world or we cannot have worldliness overtake our lives or worldliness cannot have any place in our hearts and look at the strong words that he's using in fact he's saying adulterers and adulteresses that's so strong as a rebuke to the people the believers but his point is that when we say that we love God and we are living worldly it is like making a commitment to one but going away with another which is what adultery is all about and that is not pleasing in God's sight and so for believers to be carnal and to be worldly is not acceptable in God's sight so you know he's he's addressing wrong motivation wrong desires he's addressing worldliness and you know he says that the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously meaning God wants us to be holy his and not be given into the things of the world so these are some things for us to remember now let's move on to the next section here where he talks about humility and this is a portion that in several courses we have discussed and we've said that God gives more grace to the humble but he resists the proud so pride is something that God hates whereas God is is pleased with humility which which is again an attitude of the heart and when we carry humility the ability to serve him increases which is what grace is all about grace is the empowering of God so when we humble ourselves there is a greater empowering to serve the Lord and therefore one must be all you know need to understand the importance of humility and pride on the other hand we know the consequences of pride and a hearty spirit we know that Satan or Lucifer is a grand example of pride and what it led to his downfall and you know the loss of every good thing that was given to him the corruption of every good thing which God put inside of him and so pride is a very scary thing and James is reminding us that one must walk in humility and stay away from pride and he also teaches us the importance of submitting to God and resisting the devil so in this that is the focus on a believer's authority as a believer we can resist the devil isn't it we can overcome the devil he may try to do many things against the believer but we can resist the devil and he will flee from us but to always remember that submission to God comes first so when there is a life of obedience unto the Lord then Satan does not even have access so you know it's a very powerful life that one scripture there is sort of believer's authority in a very powerful way is expressed in that one scripture verse seven because it teaches us the right order submit to God resist the devil and he will flee from you reminds us of the words of Jesus in the book of John when he said that the ruler of this world has come and he has nothing in me and that is what you know we must live our lives as with nothing of Satan in us no grip that Satan has in our hearts and James is encouraging us to draw near to God and he tells us that there is a promise of the Lord himself drawing near to us so it's so important to prioritize intimacy with God to prioritize holiness he says cleanse your hands you sinners purify your hearts you double-minded so there is an importance to holiness in the life of a believer faith in in the life of a believer because he's rebuking double-mindedness believer who is walking by faith and has a focus will obviously shun double-mindedness double-mindedness is not good we've talked James spoke about that earlier in James chapter one as well so we must be focused have faith and have a walk in holiness walk intimately with the Lord and when we walk in this manner when we repent of our sins verse nine he says let your laughter be turned the more or join to gloom humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up so when we repent what happens the verse nine is about repentance so that's what it is like lament mourn and weep it's talking about repentance then what happens verse 10 is what will happen so when we come to the Lord with a repentant heart he will lift us up when we humble ourselves and we walk in intimacy you know holiness and faith there will come a time when the Lord will lift us up so this is the position that one needs to take now in the following scriptures verses 11 and 12 there is an instruction from James where he says that we must not speak evil of one another because he who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law but if you judge the law you are not a doer of the law but a judge okay and then he asks the question there is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy who are you to judge another so here he is talking about living in right relationships around us and to not judge people like you could say out of turn or not judge people unrighteously or you know not judge people unnecessarily now having read these these lines it also asks the question whether it's okay to critically assess right ones behavior let's say you know somebody is not not doing the right thing around us even as a believer is it okay for us to judge them okay is it okay for us to conclude that what the person is saying or doing is ungodly well we don't think James is stopping us from making the right judgment in that sense because there is a requirement for us to be honest about a particular person if they are being ungodly if they are being unrighteous and if there is some wrong in in that person then that issue has to be addressed but then how should it be addressed who should address it and we know what God's word says about speaking the truth in love you know how with what kind of a heart should it be addressed is another question that we have to ask so in what James is stating he's not saying that we must absolutely you know kind of let go of a person who is doing wrong and say okay do whatever you want you're not supposed to judge you that's not how it works but there is a right way of bringing in correction and instruction now if we take up let's say the workplace scenario then there will be a need for the person who is in authority to provide proper feedback or correction let's say there is a faulty faulty fault in s in the way in which the work is being done or if the work is not being done as a manager one would need to be very balanced in the way they assess the situation just because believer is working for us it does not mean that oh you cannot judge a brother at all but when it comes to a workplace situation there is a need to address matters in a just way in a right way and in a loving way now the opposite of this becomes flattery which means that you know having read these verses some believers could say that okay don't at all say anything don't point out anyone's mistake we should only say good things about people but that is what is known as flattery where we are giving people a feel good you know feel good comments about them whether or not it's true that again is not godly flattery is not godly we must speak the hard truth at the right time in the right way and you know the right person the people who are in authority over that individual would would be in a better position to actually address the matter so these are some related thoughts that one must also bear in mind now moving on to the last section here where he says you know if if we say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city spend a year there buy and sell and make a profit and then he says see we don't know what will happen tomorrow and life is not in our control so one must save god wills then we will live we will do this or that okay so he is teaching dependence on god in this section so he's saying not to be very self-reliant so it is possible that some of us are very self-reliant as in we depend on our talents on our gifts on our skills and we feel like okay we can do it we can make it happen but dependence on god just the way he spoke about humility submit to god earlier there is a need to depend on god for all things and that is the right attitude so that's what he's talking about now he's not talking about a lack of planning because sometimes it can get misinterpreted like that as in where we say okay don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will take care of itself you know even jesus said that but does that mean that one should not be mindful about their lives because who knows what can happen tomorrow well yes uncertainty is a part of life however the bible also teaches us to ponder the path of your life like we need to think of what we are going to do so when we think about our lives what we are going to do for the future it's not an ungodly thing our planning is not ungodly because it's the same scripture that encourages us to think through our future have foresight and you know there is the example of the ant in the book of Proverbs where we are told you know learn from the ant how the ant gathers in a season of plenty and it makes provision for itself for the season of lack so planning having foresight these are all good things that the same bible teaches us about and therefore passages like this should not be interpreted that okay god is saying we don't have any assurance anything can happen anytime so just kind of live for now don't give your word for anything right so that's not what it means however when we do plan we must depend on god so dependence on god is the key takeaway from this section so I have shared quite briefly on the meaning of you know the verses here but if there is anything more that you want explanation for please let me know if there isn't anything to ask we will go straight away to chapter five yes suppose it was quite straightforward or any questions just about verse 12 where it says there is one law giver who's able to save and to destroy so this law giver is also when it says if you judge someone you judge the law what what is it actually yeah thank you jeffina for that question so it's saying there is one law giver who is able to save and to destroy so that again is referring to god himself because the law came from god even if you go back to the old testament first it came through moses isn't it the law came through moses and we know now we are under grace we're not under law but then jesus taught us he said i've not come to destroy the law but i've come to uphold it so there are standards by which we still have to live but the point here is law giver who's that god and then it also says who's able to save and to destroy so ultimately it's the person in authority who's made the rules who is either able to give grace or he judges and he says no there's no grace available so that is in god's hands that grace and judgment is in god's hands and we know that the lord jesus will come back he will return and he will judge over the earth so again the lord jesus is the saviour and he is also the one who's going to judge so that is pointing to god that's quite clear who are you to judge another so he what we can understand from that is see basically he's saying if it is not aligning to the standard of god or god's word our judgment does not have any validity right if it's just my own thing about someone i'm just judging then it does not become valid unless it is aligned to scripture you got it so let's say it's unrighteous or sinful what someone is doing then who are you to judge another he's asking as long as you know one has the authority let's say that person is a leader over that other person he has the authority to speak into that person's life and he's judging according to the scriptures it's okay it's all right but that's what i said when we judge out of turn meaning it's not even our right to judge or it's not even the way to judge then this question applies he's saying how can you even judge who are you to judge another so it's like that yeah okay thank you any other questions there okay so we are not being told that you know if we are Christians just bear everything and don't at all have a voice that's not what it means we must always assess scripture in context and also look at the entirety of scripture so obviously the same bible talks about righteous judgment and a place for correction so then it's not saying not to assess one right just leave okay all right so let's now move on let's move on to chapter five we'll do the same thing we will read through the entire passage and then we will look at the key themes yes yes john sorry but that is a mistake oh is it okay no one yeah no problem okay so let's read through chapter five this again this can't somewhat long but who will be the brave volunteer change chapter five verse one come now you rich reap and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you your riches are corrupted and your garments are not eaten your gold and silver are corroded and the corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire you have heat up pressure in the large space indeed the wages of the laborers who who who mowed who mowed your fields which you kept back by fraud cry out and the cries of the reapers have reached the years of the lord of sabbath you have lived on the earth in pleasure and love you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter you have condemned you have murdered the just he does not resist you therefore be patient brethren until the coming of the lord see how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and later in you also be patient establish your hearts for the coming of the lord is at hand do not grumble against one another brethren lest you be condemned behold the judges standing at the door my brethren take the prophets who spoke in the name of the lord as an example of suffering and patience indeed we count them blessed who endure you have heard of the perseverance of job and seen the end intended by the lord that the lord is very compassionate and merciful but above all my brethren do not swear either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath but let your yes the yes and your no no lest you fall into judgment is anyone among you suffering let him pray is anyone cheerful let him sing psalms is anyone among you sick let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the lord and the prayer of faith will save the sick and the lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins he will be forgiven confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much Elijah was a man with the nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land of on the land for three years and six months and he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit brethren if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins amen amen thank you Rosalind thank you so much I know you've read out so many passages for us through the course I really appreciate your enthusiasm coming to James chapter five here again there is a talk about the rich person and it's as if you know James is not supportive of the rich and that's not the case because we know that riches also come from the Lord so again see context is very important and the rest of scripture is required in interpreting the text that we have so just because James speaks words like your riches are corrupted and your garments are more eaten your gold and your silver are corroded and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire you have heaped up treasure in the last days you know it doesn't mean that he's against the rich but what is the theme that he's addressing in this passage it's exploitation it's oppression remember we studied Isaiah 58 when we speak about fasting and even when we speak about fasting God is so clear he says don't make a noise about your spiritual devotion to me while your relationships are not right while your work you know your relationship in the workplace with those who are working under you is not correct so God watches all these matters and he is unhappy when there is oppression and exploitation so that is the theme of what James is trying to say here he's not saying that you know the rich will God doesn't support the rich or God hates rich people that's not what he is saying so and also one more point side note that we can get from this is that you know our life here on earth is but temporary and the riches of this world are temporary so we must not rely so much on them notice how he says you know your riches will turn to nothing garments are more eaten or garments can become tatters or gold and silver are corroded see it's impossible to we know these are all precious metals it would never be destroyed but we know at the end of all all things when the Lord recreates you know the the earth he's going to destroy what exists now so things that are so-called precious and impossible to be destroyed also at some point will be destroyed so our dependence should not be on these things while all of this is helpful for our earthly life now in the context of exploitation he you know says or rich people don't be so dependent on these these things in verse 4 he says indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields which you kept back by fraud cry out and the cries of the reapers have reached the years of the Lord of suburb so it's we can know God's heart you know God cannot bear exploitation even when we read about the Israelites in Egypt how the Bible says that cries went to the Lord which is why he sent a deliverer and Moses was that chosen man of God who led the people out of Egypt so when the cries of the people go into the years of the Lord you know God's heart is moved and God wants to do something and James is reminding us that when poor people get exploited or when you know people who are laborers who have worked hard mowed your fields meaning they have worked hard they have done their best but what has happened they have been cheated he says you kept back by fraud they have been cheated and their cries have reached the years of the Lord and it's very interesting that he calls God at as the Lord of suburb the Lord suburb the Lord of suburb means he's a lot of hosts or the Lord of angel armies so the picture of God when we say the Lord of suburb it's like vengeance you know the God of armies he's the God of compassion we know that all those pictures of the Lord but for a reason James is pointing out that he's the Lord of suburb which means he's the ruler the commander in chief of the armies like we need to fear the Lord we don't want him to come against us and so exploitation of the poor worker is something God hates and it's so clear over here and James is saying never do that never exploit you know like a poor person who is working hard now he again speaks to the rich he says you've lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury you're fat in your hearts as in a day of slaughter you've condemned you've murdered the just he does does not resist you so because you see why is the rich person able to do this or an un ungodly rich person able to do this because the poor are very weak by themselves and he may think that hey they don't have a voice but they have the voice of the Lord the Lord himself cares for the oppressed and the scriptures teaches that he's the God who cares for the oppressed now let's move on to the next section here and now he turns the attention to those who are oppressed and he's asking them to be patient now why is he speaking both the sides to the audience because in the church family it's possible that somewhere rich somewhere not you know somewhere poor somewhere the exploiters somewhere the exploited so he's addressing both types of people and to the oppressed he's saying be patient brethren until the coming of the Lord and to explain the meaning of patience he's talking about the farmer okay what a beautiful example because a farmer sows the seed and then what does he have to do do all his work and be patient because he has to wait till the seed germinates and grows and you know at the right time you have the harvest so a farmer is one who understands the meaning of patience and that's why he's using the example of a farmer and he says look we need to be patient when we are going through exploitation we are going through exploitation but don't worry God will come through for us just be patient for some time okay and at the right time the Lord will recompense like he will take care of us he will bring us out of these challenges so verse eight he says you also be patient establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand meaning when the Lord comes these matters will be settled for us now he also addresses the oppressed and says there can be wrong attitudes on the side of the oppressed as well what are these wrong attitudes he says do not grumble against one another brethren let's to be condemned behold the judge is standing at the door so the wrong way to respond to oppression is to start grumbling because that also shows that we are we're not trusting God on the one hand we say I know God will come through for me but on the other hand we are grumbling about people hey look at this person how what they did how they did and so uh grumbling is kind of you know it's revealing that we've still not fully relied on the Lord and that's not the right response so do not grumble he says to the oppressed and then he helps us understand this further first he talked about patience using the example of a farmer and now he's saying consider the prophets consider also Job as one of the good examples that we have right now why the perseverance of Job is important because we see that in the case of Job you know how did God work in his life God gave him double for all the losses that he had now one issue with this verse 11 is in the English it says okay let me read it out indeed we count them blessed to endure you have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful so the end intended by the Lord may mean that you know it's like God intended for Job to suffer and then for Job to receive a double for all the losses but that's not the case so when we look look at the translation of this book of Job and you go back to the original text it is quite clear that this word intended was added by the translators so it was not there in the original text so then we must not rely on that intended by the Lord there because suffering that Job experienced the Bible is very clear who caused the suffering Satan Satan caused the suffering so it was not like God wanted Job to suffer and then give him double it was not like that the evil that came through Satan God turned it around for Job's good so the same thing happens even in our lives and if someone was oppressed in the church he says look God is not intending to put you through all this but if you are going through something God will help you God will bless you double and keep your mind fix your mind on good examples in scripture the prophets who wait on the Lord and also Job who's a good person whose life gives us hope that if he can be so blessed by God and overcome all the difficulties he went through so much more you know that we too can experience and later on he just reminds the believers our word to the Lord is enough this teaching even Jesus brought he said let your yes be yes let your no be no there's no need to make an oath or there's no need to go ahead and swear in the name of God so apparently tradition has it that the Jews of that day used to swear so they used to swear like and you know they would kind of say I swear by this I swear by that and some religious you know like I big things they would associate those religious objects things institutions and say I swear by so and so and all so God is just reminding through James that you don't even have to do all that you can simply have your word keep your word speak your word and keep your word it's as simple as that now moving on to the last section here where he is asking the believers he's saying is anyone among you suffering what should that person do they must pray because prayer is so powerful what happens when we pray when we are in some form of suffering and we pray we know the results we will be strengthened it helps us unburden our hearts it helps us hear God better it gives us the we know that through prayer we exercise our spiritual authority so we can overcome many challenges by prayer it can truly affect the spiritual realm so these are all the characteristics of prayer and that is why he says if we find ourselves in a place of struggle if you are suffering pray if anyone is cheerful he says sing psalms okay so if you find yourself joyful pick up the guitar play some songs and just glorify the Lord so he says just be cheerful just be rejoicing in the Lord if he if you carry joy in your heart and he says if anyone is sick what should they do they should look for a prayer of faith okay look for a prayer of faith and here he is requesting them to call the elders of the church who can anoint with oil and pray that prayer of faith and there is the assurance in what James is saying he's saying the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins he will be forgiven so there is the assurance of healing as well as the forgiveness of sins when one prays prayer of faith and that is something that we can rely on so if somebody is sick what do they need they need the prayer of faith and we can understand in the early church you know they were very clear about these matters okay if someone is sick let's go the elders will pray because we want to pray a prayer of faith over that person and that person will be healed then he talks about right relationships in verse 16 he says confess your trespasses one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man awares much so how do we set our relationships right he says we can confess if there is a mistake that we've made in our relationships right we can always repent of that wrongdoing and pray for each other bless each other and that will restore that will heal the relationships so confessing to one another confessing our sins to one another has its context now again one needs to be wise you know if we go around confessing or our sins to everybody that may not be the wisest thing to do but there is a place and a time to do this confess to one another and receive healing for our relationships and then his theme shifts to prayer he says the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much you know we who are in Christ we've been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and our prayers he says and he also says effective fervent prayers fervent prayer simply means continuous continuous there are matters that we are praying about regularly regularly and he says don't give up if there are such matters you are a child of God you are the righteousness of Christ you pray and you will see results and to make that statement stronger he uses the example of Elijah and he says look Elijah was just a man but he prayed right how did he pray continuous we know seven times he prayed and the rain came right so at his word and through his prayer the rain came the rain uh you know the yeah so the emphasis is that he was just a man but he was a praying man and he was a believing man and so if he could see results so can you and I every believer can see results because we too are but you know human beings or people who are washed by the blood of Jesus who are now believers and finally he is encouraging us to care for someone who has wandered away wandered away simply means somebody who knew the truth of God but now they don't believe anymore but he says if one goes and turns them away from their you know their waywardness then we would have saved a soul from death so it's a precious thing to help someone who has gone away from the Lord and our perspective should always be redemption yes they've gone away they've wandered away but we can still bring them back and we don't want them to face the fire of hell we don't want they've gone far enough but we can draw them back and they can still come back into the fold of our Lord Jesus Christ so it's just a reminder and an encouragement to not give up on those who have you know like left the faith who have gone away from what they once used to hold on to so these are some themes that are running through chapter 4 and chapter 5 if there are any questions or thoughts please feel free we can talk about it all right thank you everyone it's great that we've been able to touch upon two books so far we still have three to go and we will be able to complete it well in time so for today we could pray and close off I want to request one of us on the call to please lead in prayer Father God in heaven thank you Lord thank you for this wonderful session that we had Lord Father God this session was really enriching to our souls was for the God and we asked you daddy to help us to be long suffering for those who have gone to be patient with those who have gone away from faith and Lord may we through our prayers bring them back to Lord and God we thank you and we praise and bless you Lord God for this teachings that we had from the book of James Lord help us not to be your hearers of the word of God but be the doers of the word of God God thank you for hearing us we've been glory to your name in Jesus mighty name with Amen thank you Rosalind and thank you everyone it's really good that you know you could all join