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Today we come to our last message from the Book of James. I was going to split it in two but prayerfully decided to look at the whole of chapter 5. Today we have four main points that I have titled, “James’ final warning and encouragements”.

As I have shared with you, James has been a big encouragement to me over the years. It has practically showed me how to live as a Christian man. It has showed me what I am doing well and it has also showed me where I need to improve. This time has been the same. Even though I have been preaching through it, it has been speaking to me again. I hope it has been encouraging you too.

Bible Reading – James 5:1-20  

1 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you.  2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.  3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.  4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.  5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.  6 You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you.  7 Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.  8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.  9 Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!  10 Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.  11 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.  12 Above all, my brothers, do not swear–not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” no, or you will be condemned.  13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.  14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.  15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.  16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.  17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.  18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.  19 My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

Message Points

1. A warning to the wicked rich

My first point for today comes from verses 1-6. When we read this first six verses which are pretty heavy, we have to remember that James is writing to a new community of believers who were made up of all types of people. There would have been devout Jews who came to Christ, moral people who came to faith, but also people whose lives were previously wicked and self-centred.

In these six verses James first declares the fact of coming judgment (v.1) and then lists the crimes against which this judgment will be meted out: hoarded wealth (v2-3); unpaid wages (v4); living in luxury and self-indulgence (v5); and the murder of innocent people (v6).

The warning to the rich is about mistreating those who work for them. The main charge was holding back wages that were due and cheating people of their rightful pay and keeping the money for themselves. We have all probably heard and seen examples on the current affairs shows of people mistreating their workers where they hold back money and live lavish lifestyles. There was one just recently of workers being paid the right amount and then their bosses standing over them demanding cash back on payday. This was so the books looked right and it looked like they were doing the “right” thing. To us as Christians this is obviously not the right thing to do.

Verse 5 says that the rich people have lived in luxury and satisfied every desire and the treasure accumulated will stand as evidence against them on the day of judgment in verse 3. So, their ill-gotten gains from wrong treatment of others will catch up with them in time.

For me as a Christian man, it comes back to treating people well by loving our neighbour as ourselves as it says in Mark 12:31. Matthew 6:19-21 also comes to mind when it tells us not to build up earthly wealth only for ourselves and the importance of building up heavenly treasures. We know that are gained by focussing on God and doing His will and treating people well.

I am not an employer of others, but if I ever do become one, I will keep this warning and the verses from James in mind. Also, the reminders from Mark and Matthew.

2. A call to patience and endurance as we wait for the Lord

My next point from today comes from verses 7-12 and touches of the idea of “Patience and Endurance”.

The first part of verse 7 says, “Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return…”

One of the great truths of the Bible is that Jesus is coming back. Jesus Himself said, “When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am” (John 14:3).

That is a great promise for those who follow Jesus. That He will come back and take us to be with Himself and His Father for all eternity. It is a living hope we all share if we have put our faith in Christ.

In the end of verse 7 and in to verse 8 it tells us while this will happen, we need to be patient waiting like farmers waiting for their crops.

“Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen. You, too, must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near”.

Moving to a farming area has taught me a lot about farming and patience. Each year the farmers prepare and wait for the first rains, then they seed for weeks. Then they wait patiently for more rain and in time the harvest which is months away.

Just as there is a gap between seeding and harvest, there is a gap between Jesus first and second coming. In the meantime, we wait patiently and we do the things He asks us to do.

So today as we patiently wait for Jesus return let us remember His words… “When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am”.

3. The power of prayer

“The Power of Prayer” is the next main section that James talks about. We see this in verses 13-18.

Verse 13 reminds us to pray when it says, “Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises”.

It reminds us to pray when things are going bad and to praise when things are going well. Whether good or bad is happening to us we should be connected to God in constant communion.

The passage gives us two examples of how powerful prayer is. The first is healing for when we are sick. It tells us to call the Elders of the church to anoint a person with oil and to pray. I heard a story once of a church who did not really pray for healing and then they studied this passage. The Elders thought that because it says it in the Bible, we should do it. They got some oil, prayed over it and then anointed the sick, and guess what, people started to get healed or their illnesses significantly improved.

I stand here today as someone who has been touched by God with my Rheumatoid Arthritis. I shouldn’t be able to the lift weights I do, I should be able to cycle and run after being diagnosed with RA at 12. But more than 40 years later I can because of God’s intervention as a result of the prayers of others lifting me up to God. If I was at home and crippled in a wheelchair today, I wouldn’t be able to preach this message! It is all because of God’s intervention.

The second is when Elijah prayed for the rain to stop and the rain to start again three and a half years later. The text tells us that Elijah was as human as we are in verse 17. His prayers were powerful, so are ours.

I have experienced many amazing things as a result of a prayer of faith in God. When I trusted God’s ability to intervene or bring change, He has acted mightily.

Let us remember today the power of prayer. Prayer can be our most powerful tool as a Christian, or it can be one of our most underutilised resources. Verse 16b reminds us, “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results”. Never forget the power of prayer.

4. A call to go after wandering believers

In the last section of James, he looks at the idea of “Restoring wandering believers”. It comes from verses 19-20. It says…

“My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins”.

These two verses tell us the importance of going out after people who have wandered away from the faith.

Over the years I have seen a number of people wander away from the faith. Some of the reasons I have seen are…

• People have been hurt by the church or by people in the church
• A breakdown of an important family relationship and they withdraw from life in general
• A long-term illness that they can’t make sense of God allowing
• Some have had no solid foundation of discipleship when they came to faith
• Some don’t regularly pray, read the Bible and keep connected with God, so when the storms come, they fall away.
• For some the decision to follow Christ was a quick alter call decision with no real thought involved.
• They feel their needs were not met by the church or they felt they didn’t fit in to the church culture.
• They love the world or someone in the world too much to fully commit to God.

It is not easy to approach people who we think have wandered away from God. It can be confronting and most of us would probably not do it if we are honest. But I think it is important to keep the lines of communication open.

Jesus reminds us of the importance of this in the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15:1-7. In verse 4 He says, “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?”

Jesus goes on to say in verse 7, “There is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away”!

As I was preparing this week I wondered if there are people in my life who have wandered away from God who need a shepherd to go and bring them back into the fold? How about your life? Are there any people you know? Maybe you could be the one that causes heaven to party because of your efforts to bring someone back into the fold.

Closing summary

Today we finish our look at the Book of James. It has been a practical reminder that shows us what James, Jesus’ half-brother, thinks are important about living the Christian life.

Our four points from today were…

1. A warning to the rich to treat their workers well.
2. A call to patience and endurance as we wait for the Lord’s return.
3. The power of prayer.
4. A call to restore wandering believers.

Amen.

This week we are up to James chapter 4. So far, we have had five messages in our series from James. And again, today is very practical. James points out some things that will help us to keep on track on our journey with God and he gives us some things to help us keep our focus right.

The title of my message today is “Keeping the focus right for today and the future”. I want to look at four things that jumped out at me as I read the text.

Bible Reading 

James 4:1-17

1 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?

2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.

3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong–you want only what will give you pleasure.

4 You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.

5 What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the spirit God has placed within us is filled with envy?

6 But He gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but favors the humble.”

7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up in honor.

11 Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you.

12 God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?

13 Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.”

14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog–it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.

15 What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”

16 Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.

17 Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.

Main Points

Today I have four main points I want to bring out. They flow from the main chapter headings in the text.

1. The two causes of troubles and strife

In this first section, it talks about trouble and strife and the two reasons for it.

Verses 1-2 says, “What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.”

The first reason it gives for trouble and strife is the evil desires that are at war within us. We all know and have experienced this battle that goes on within us at times. We desire wholeheartedly to follow God, but the world at times is so alluring. It calls out to us and tries to shift our focus from God to the things of this world and wanting what others have.

The Apostle Paul understood this battle. In Romans 7:15 he said, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do.”

Paul knew the battle that often rages within us. The desire to follow God and do His will in the face of a world that calls out to us to go follow the crowd. This is why Paul told us to live by the Spirit in Romans 8. Jesus also said to take up our cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23). It is a daily choice in the face of the world.

The second reason is found in Verse 4. It says, “You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.”

This is pretty heavy, calling followers of God adulterers and enemies of God. James is reminding us here how important it is to be faithful to God in all we do.

As I was thinking about this I was reminded of the struggles the believers had in the Old Testament. They constantly had a battle against the world and the other nations. They would turn away from God and follow the false gods of the nations around them. In His relentless pursuit of them, God would send prophets to call them back. He even went so far as to tell Hosea to marry a prostitute to show them how unfaithful they were. Even though she was married to Hosea, she would stray. So, from this, we can see why James would use words like adulterers and enemies of God when He talked about His people. Like it is for us today, the key is God kept on pursuing them.

So, the first section paints an honest picture. It tells us that trouble and strife come because the evil desires that are at war within us and because we are too friendly with the world. However, the next section James gives us some help.

2. Drawing close to God

The next section in James is verses 7-10. In some Bible translations, it has a heading titled, “Drawing close to God”. In verse 7 we get some clues about what to do.

Verse 7 says, “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”. This verse shows us that humility and resisting the devil are keys of drawing close to God.

What does humbling yourself before God look like? For me it is about knowing my place before God. He is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, I am not. He is all knowing and all powerful, I am not. He knows the beginning from the end, I do not. Nothing in all creation compares to Him. He holds eternity in His hands. He alone is worthy of praise, honour and glory. When I come to God in humble surrender and know my place before Him, resisting the devil is easy. When my attention and focus is on God and His Kingdom, the things of this world lose their allure.

Verse 8 goes on to say, “Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world”.

We see in verse 8 that living right by rejecting the worlds ways are also important. We need to stop doing the things we know are wrong and seek God’s ways. We need to purify our hearts and not be divided in our loyalties.

In Matthew 6:19-24 Matthew tells us we can’t serve two masters in the context of God, money and our treasures in heaven. It says we will love one and despise the other.

Verse 9 of today’s text tells us that for some genuine repentance is needed. “Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy”.

If we want to draw close to God we must come to Him in humility, be genuinely repentant and stop living by the worlds ways. We must also not be divided in our loyalties and we must choose God and His ways only.

3. A warning about judging each other

The third main section is this chapter is verses 11-12.  The title is a “Warning against judging each other”.

Verse 11 of this short section says, “Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you”.

Judging and criticising each other is not what God wants for us. Our job is to mind our own business, be obedient and do the work God has called us to do. We should also build each other up and encourage each other.

When I judge others, I am not only going against what God says, but I am doing it my limited vantage point. Rarely do I know what is fully going on in others’ lives. Only God knows that.

Jesus touched on judging others in Matthew 7:1-5. Verse 1-2 says, “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged”.

Jesus went on to say in Matthew 7 that we often have a plank in our own eye and we judge the speck in others. Jesus reminds us that we often miss our own faults and easily see the “faults” in others.

James 4:12 of the passage today puts it plainly. “God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So, what right do you have to judge your neighbour?”

All of us will stand before the judgement seat of Christ. He is the only one who is qualified to judge.

4. Boasting about future success

The next point comes from verses 13-17. In the NLT it is titled, “Warning about self-confidence”. In the NIV it is “Boasting about tomorrow”.

Verses 13 and 14 say, “Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone”.

These verses are a sober reminder that while we may make plans, ultimately our lives are in God’s hands. He alone decides when we are born and He alone decides when we die.

As I was preparing this week I was reminded of Luke 12:16-21. It is commonly titled, “The parable of the rich fool”. In it a rich business man makes plans to build bigger barns to store his wealth so he can sit back and relax. The story changes when God tells him his life will be over that day.

These passages are not telling us to have no plans or make no goals at all. What they are telling us is that it is pointless to make plans and goals that do not included God. As Proverbs reminds us, “We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps” (Proverbs 16:9).

As the Creator and Sustainer of life, God needs to be woven into all of our plans. In fact, He needs to be the One doing the weaving! When we allow God to weave our plans, they take on an eternal perspective. They are not just for the here and now.

So today let us remember that we are created by God, for God. Let us remember to seek God for His plans for our lives and allow Him to give us a vision that is for the here and now that is birthed in eternity.

Closing summary

Today we have looked at another practical message from James. It was straight forward and to the point in a way that James in known for. Just to refresh the four main points.

1. Trouble and strife come from the evil desire that war within us and being too friendly with the world.
2. We overcome the world by drawing close to God and putting Him in His right place.
3. James reminds us how important it is to not judge each other – that is God’s job.
4. We should not boast about the future because our future is held in God’s hands.

If we do these four things it will help us to keep our focus right for now and the future!

Amen