Week 15

Please join us for Bible Study every Wednesday night at 6:00. We laugh together and we cry together and most importantly we grow spiritually together.

James 5:1-12

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. 4 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 ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

Be Patient and Persevere

7 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 received the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! 10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. 11 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.

12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.

Our Father, as we begin the fifth chapter of James, may our minds recall all that we have learned over the last 14 weeks. We ask you Lord that our hearts are being molded to become like your Son and that we are becoming more and more like Him every day. We pray that the words of our tongues are beginning to reflect your living Word.

We start off with a very profound statement that is a part of our belief system.

Even the richest man is clothed in spiritual rags before he is saved.

We will begin by backing up to verse 4:11 in order to understand chpt 5 more clearly.

It is here that James list 3 examples of what we talked about last week to be the root of all sin – and that is three examples of pride.

Remember we can boil all sin back to the sin of pride because pride is nothing other than putting ourselves first in these areas of sin that we struggle with which equate to also putting ourselves above God…

Handouts –

Pride as you can see appears quite often in the Bible.

James 4:6 quotes Proverbs 3:34 “God opposes the proud”.

If pride is your root system, then you will have fruit of slander, which we talked about last week, boasting which we also talked about last week, and hoarding…which we will talk about tonight.

Remember slander comes from the evil heart (Luke 6:45)

Psalm 109:3 says that slander arises from hatred.

Revelation 12:10 says that slander is a characteristic of the devil

James 4:12 says that the height of pride is slander. We become greater than God …we become the judge.

Handout for scriptures against boasting

4:13 talks about boasting -

4:17 Declares pride (which slander and boasting are the result of) as sin.

Sin separates us from God.

The third example of pride is hoarding – accumulate, stockpile

What displays an attitude of hoarding riches?

Let’s look at verse 5:1, 2

1 Come now you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.

Rich is defined as having more than you need to survive! Weep and howl mean crying aloud. Miseries – hardships, suffering, distress, burden.

Is the Bible saying that wealth is a sin? The sin comes with the misuse of wealth. How are we using our money.

Again, if we profess we are a Christian but it is obvious by how we spend our money that the two don’t equate, James is telling us to reevaluate what we are professing.

Just like James had us look at our tongue being slanderous and we judged our brethren, now he is asking us if money is our god?

Luke 12:13-34 Powerful parable!

Where one puts his money reveal the priorities of his heart.

Let me point out that your things are compared to moth-eaten clothing. Moths are used symbolically to mean destruction and foolishness of putting your hope in materialist things.

A moth will burrow into clothing (other than manmade material) lay their larvae which hatch and begin eating away at your clothes while they wait on the following season to roll around.

Your stuff will be eaten up by rust, moths, passed on in a will.

3 Your gold and silver 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.

Seems like we can afford to buy more in our last days, so we heap up stuff just because we can.

The last days James is referring to though are not ours but the period between Christ’s first and second coming. James rebukes the rich for living as if Jesus were never coming back.

4 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 ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

The rich had accrued wealth by ripping off the laborers which was forbidden in the OT.

Sabaoth – the One who hears the cries of the laborers, the Lord of hosts (a name for God).

5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

You have made yourself fat…fattened your hearts…rich living…luxurious spending on yourself…on everything you want.

Who do you rob to accumulate what you want?

Are you consumed with the pursuit of pleasure?

Don’t I deserve it?

Did you know that James is comparing us to sheep that will unconsciously eat (fatten themselves up for the slaughter) their way to their own doom.

Jeremiah 12:3

When we fatten our own hearts by slandering, boasting and hoarding all that stuffing will erupt through the tongue.

What can stop this sinful obesity?

Answer! Go on a sin-free diet! That’s as easy as a regular diet!

James gives us the answer!

Vs 7 Therefore be patient, (don’t be like the world indulging in everything that money can buy) 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 received the early and latter rain.

If you think about it, all we can take with us to Heaven are those who we witness to and prayed into the Kingdom.

Patience means – longsuffering – steadfastness – even keel – remember!!!!

Look at this next verse. Jesus is coming back, (Matt 24:3) That’s why we live.

8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Establish your hearts means to have a firm commitment…a firm faith. If you are about to collapsed under the weight of persecution, you need to look towards the hope of the 2nd coming.

James says, the wrongs of this earth will be made right. We don’t have to fight that battle.

Romans 13:12 says: The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lust.

9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren, les you be condemned. Behold the Judge is standing at the door.

James is saying that Christ is our judge and we need to be careful not to fall into the sin of grumbling (Phil 2:14) because of the persecution we are experiencing.

During times of pressure those involved tend to turn against each other. Husband / wife crises…family crises…It is human nature to build up anger against those we love most during times of pressure.

James is warning us to not let resentment build up. Why? Because the Judge is already at the door. We will all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ to give an account.

10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience.

Notice that the word suffering comes before the word patience. We know that we must endure the trials and testings in order to receive the patience…Steadfastness.

Romans 5:3 says that tribulation produces perseverance.

Because of their faithfulness in declaring the word of the Lord, the prophets were persecuted.

11 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.

We must honor and respect the lives of prophets because they endured major trials and sufferings…persecution and they endured them with patience and steadfastness which is what we are called to do.

The way we can also be counted as blessed is that we must endure these trials that come our way without grumbling and complaining.

Job suffered so much but never cursed God. In the end his endurance was rewarded. God has a purpose for all suffering. We may think the wicked seem to prosper but take heart.
(Psalm 17:15) It pays for the believer to be steadfast.

Job 42:10-15

the end intended by the Lord was that God gave him twice as much as he had before.

What will God reward you with for your steadfastness?

11 But above all, my brethren, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes”, and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.

Straight forward honest…plain speech.

Back up to the tongue – your speed indicates your spiritual condition. We are not to be doubleminded – double souled.

James is saying that there should be no other form of promise or oath…commitment to.. testifying to anything other than the name of the Lord.

Matthew 26:74

Speaking of Peter… Then he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!”

To better understand go to Matthew 5:34 -37

At this time, the Jews were swearing by heaven, by earth, by Jerusalem… sound familiar? When we want someone to believe us, we say…I swear on the Bible that what I just said is true.

James is saying that our speech is to be straightforward, honest and faithful to the Word of God.
We must choose our words carefully and not use needless expression. For heaven’s sake, gee, gosh, As God as my Judge.

Exodus 20:7 You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

You think about that!

Whew...