But interestingly, I suspect it's probably going to be quite a few people listening to this online. I know that quite a few people wouldn't want to be able to be here, but they couldn't. So, ah, very good. So this is really, I've been quite a long time since I've been able, since I spoke, and where I was going back to the topic, obviously, we were doing it, Ecclesiastes, but I don't know even how long it's been, I was going to check, and I just didn't.
But so I'm going to do this very, very quick recap of what happened previously. But today, I mean, so we are going to be doing the book of James, and the cool thing about it is this is really a practical guide to how to live a Christian life. So often, you know, we become a Christian, if you're a new Christian or not, or even people who have been Christian a long time, it's so easy to kind of, not realize that there's some practical things. And so, when I first started the study, we really looked at the idea of being a bond servant, and what that entailed.
And there's some really neat things that we looked at, such as, you know, we should be thankful that God actually cares enough to put us through trials to refine us, because that's how we can learn. And at the time, as I said, we broke up, I broke up, we'll see in a minute here. I put that here so you guys can remember, because perhaps, you know, you might remember the slides from before if you get to see some of the funnier pictures that we had. So the last time I did speak, the last thing I said was, we were obviously talking about the troubled tongue, you know what I mean?
So what we said was, in public, we need to watch our tongue. And when we're home, we need to watch a temper, and when we're alone, we need to watch our thoughts. So, like I said, I'm just trying to give us a very, very quick recap of what we had talked about. So this is kind of like I said, a breakdown.
You see chapter one, and today we're trying four, and I'm going so hard to try to do chapter five, two. I like to try to fit both in. And, but yeah, as you can see here in chapter one, like I've talked about being a bond servant, our response is two trials and temptations. In chapter two, we talked about how there's, we have to be swift to hear, and not hear, it's only but doers.
And of course, we also talked about how when you're a Christian, we should always be seeing faith in the works. You're not saved by works, but a healthy Christian, you should see works in their life. There should be evidence. And of course, in slow to speak, we look at the troubled tongue, and the key to controlling it.
And the key to controlling your tongue is really heavenly wisdom. Now today, obviously, we're going to be going into chapter four and hopefully five, and this is slow to wrath. And so we're looking at how there's two natures. And it's just amazing how God works this morning, as you know, Warren had spoke on the nature, basically how there's a new creature.
Well, I'm going to be talking about that as well, but really from the idea that even though we are a new creature, that old man can sneak up. So we're looking at that, we're going to be looking at pride, and really that is the focus of chapter four. And then of course, in chapter five, we'll be looking at, well, we will see, I want to move on, but we'll be basically looking at where it's to look to is coming. So as you can see, the first second Corinthians five verse 17, that is exactly where we start this morning.
And so that's where we're going to start today. And verse five, 17, it says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. And true, there is absolutely, we are a new creature, and the Holy Spirit, when he does his work, is just phenomenal to see that transformation.
But what you don't want to come into the impression of it is that, Christian, when you become saved, that there's no more sin. And we may be forgiven, but we still sin, right? That's the difference. And Christians, as Warren said, we sin less, but it's not gone completely.
And just to kind of give a quick reason why that is, I mean, ultimately, when it came to Adam and Eve, and Adam's sinned, there was a fall. And when that fell happened, it became just like when you're born, you have features of your parents, you might look like them. Well, it's the same idea. We inherited.
That is something that we now have. So we now inherit that. And it's like we have features. And that is a feature, unfortunately.
Now, interestingly, God did have a plan. He didn't leave it where we were just going to fall in and cut off. And this is amazing. So I want to talk about this for a moment.
And that is, we'll look in Romans here. And that is Romans 6, 4, through 5. And it says, therefore, we are buried with him, and by baptism into death. That as Christ was raised up from the dead by glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also the likeness of his resurrection. And then if we go to Romans 5, 1, 3, 1, and 2, it says, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access, by faith, into this grace, where we stand, and rejoice in the hope of glory of God. I just want to say that when it comes to God's salvation, he has been able to, when he died on the cross, it was something that he paid that price for us. And we can come into that.
And it's so simple. I mean, God never made anything complicated. And so you can see in Romans 10, 9, how? And if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus shall, sorry, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus.
And shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. It's just amazing. And so I just want to encourage that if anyone has not realized that God has died for them and paid the price, that you need to believe. And trusting him is like you trust, even when you sit in a chair, you just kind of flop in it.
You're trusting that's going to hold you up. It's a very practical thing. This is not anything mystical or anything like that. It's so practical.
And we just have to believe that what the Bible says is true. So let's get into James chapter 4. From whence come wars and fighting among you come thine not hints, even of your lust, that war in your members? You lust and have not.
You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight wars. So what we're looking at here is basically, it is possible that when it comes to believers, that when you look at another person, you might say, well, it's a great job. Maybe they have a high position in the company.
They earn money. They have a beautiful family. I mean, there's so many things. These are all wonderful things.
There's nothing wrong with that. But it's possible that if you felt that you didn't have that, that you might find yourself that might stir in you feelings. And you might kind of be jealous and kind of, well, if they don't have it, look what they have. And why don't I have that?
And you might even put it at the point where you start blaming God and say, well, why should he get it or not me? I mean, there's all kinds of feelings that can come out of something like that. But that's pride. And when it comes to pride, it seems to be the same old trick that Satan seems to use.
That's literally, I call it what he says, the sin of sin. Because that is the sin that got Satan kicked out of heaven. When Satan had fell, he fell because of pride. Because he thought he was better than God.
And it's also the same sin that when he went to Eve. He said, in fact, I can read this little thing. When it comes to praise, I'll just read this as a quick little, I don't say an article, but it was something I found. And it says, it was the sin of pride which first led Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit.
In Genesis we read, then the serpent said unto the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that if the, sorry, that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened. And you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree desirable to make one wise, she took of the fruit and ate.
And she also gave her husband with her and he ate. And who do you think the serpent was? The old serpent was? Of old who first introduced Eve to the sin of pride?
It was none other than the devil himself. Eager to share his common day, you know what I'm trying to say, with others. The sin of pride is a preoccupation with self. It's the me, myself, and I.
And you see that here, I, is the center of pride. And so we need to be able to guard ourselves against this. Because this is such a, it's so severe. It's toxic and poisonous and it creeps in so subtly.
So you need to always be on that lookout for it. But it's kind of neat because right in the middle of this, so we were just reading about the situation about how you could have a pride amongst believers and how one might look at it and think that, you know, maybe there would be a jealousy that would be stirring. But God kind of says, hold on here. It's kind of what I call the pause or, by the way.
And it says, yet you have not because you ask not. I mean, it's just, I think you know that about that. If only, like as a Christian, if only we would ask. If you had that faith and we asked for something, that he would provide.
But here's the thing, that's not a guarantee if your, if what you're asking for is selfish or wrong. And he says that here, you ask and receive not because you ask a miss, that you may consume it upon your lust. In other words, you're not going to get, even if you ask in this case, you're not going to get it because your motives were sinful. So God is not wishing well.
He's not someone who's going to grant you something that is not right or wrong or has bad motives. Perhaps though, if you thought, you mean you wanted to have, there was something you could have a resource that would allow you to minister to other people or maybe it would give you something that you could then honor God with. And I think if you ask for something that he would provide it. But if you say, I would like to have this because he has it and I don't like the fact that he has it, I don't.
Well, that's just there to satisfy your own lust desires and really sinful needs. And James 4, 6, it says, you, adulters and adultes, is no you not, that the friendship of the world is an enmity of God. Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is an enmity or an enemy of God. Do you think that the scripture says in vain, that the spirit that dwelleth in us lust to envy?
But he gives us more grace. Wherefore he says God resists the proud, but give us grace to the humble. I'm going to read also a couple, two more references here to help clarify. So this is first drawn to 15 and 17.
And it says, love not the world. And neither the things that are in the world, if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away and the lust thereof.
But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. And 1519 you see, it says here, if he were of the world, the world would love his own. But because he are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. So it's really important that when it comes to pride and being proud that we want to, well, it was about this way.
The proud would refuse God's help and grace, where the humble would realize they need him. And in fact, one little point here I'll mention before, is when I first started to read this, I was kind of skimming it over and I said, do you think the scripture says in vain, the spirit that dwells in us lusteth to envy? And without even thinking, my brain feels in blanks. I'm feeling, oh, that must be the Holy Spirit.
And then I looked at it again and I'm like, oh, no, no, no, that's not the Holy Spirit. That is the old spirit. That is the old man that was around because, and that's just when he rears his ugly head. I see what else he was going to say.
That's probably this good right there, actually. So in James 4, 7, and 8, we have some instructions that says, submit yourselves there for to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw a knight to God and he will draw a knight to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. So here we basically have two commands. One of them is to make yourself to God. In other words, you're abandoning pride.
You need to leave that behind. That's something you need to get rid of. And it takes work. And of course, I would suggest that you want, that is the process.
The more you become Christ, and the more you have an attitude of becoming a servant. And you don't even, they don't mix. Pride and being a servant, being humble. Those things don't work.
So it makes sense, really. And so you submit yourself to God and abandon your pride. But then you also have to resist the temptations of Satan. And trust me, when he sees Christians, he's lost that battle.
But he certainly can affect your testimony. He can try to trip you up and make things go wrong. And basically bring it to the point where perhaps you're not living for the Lord anymore, and not being able to take the opportunities that God would have for you. And the next verse here, verse 9, I have to say was pretty interesting.
Because when I first read it, I think there's probably people who do this. But it almost sounded like, oh, you're not allowed to be happy. No, none of that. Not here we wouldn't.
It says, be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter turn to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. But I can tell you, this is interesting.
This is not telling us not to be happy or joyful or be mourning and ramful all the time. That's ridiculous. What this is saying is, if one is, I'll say, is attitude. If you know that sin is in your life, like, or you could sin, or you want to sin, or you are sinning, you should have the attitude of, I hate to sin.
I don't want to sin. I shouldn't celebrate sin. You shouldn't be happy about sin. You should be mournful.
You should be, you should weep. And basically, your laughter should be turning to mourning because sin is not something you want to be, take lightly. And of course, the other side of it is, this should be responses sin. If you are in sin, you will be able to always spirit in ourselves.
We should not be, again, we shouldn't be celebrating. We shouldn't be taking sin lightly. So this is an attitude and it's a response to sin. There's nothing to do with it about, you know, the situation is not being happy.
I should say that, you know, in case, speak not evil one of another, brethren. Be that speaketh evil of his brother and judges his brother speaketh evil and judge the law, the art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one law giver who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou?
Justice another. Oh, it's so important that we don't allow pride to enter our lives because when it comes to us as Christians, if when pride enters in is guaranteed that you're probably going to look at another and you're going to be judging, you're going to say, you know, look, who is he think he is? You know, what? Here he goes, trot all around, you know, drawing off whatever.
And I mean, you, or he says something or something and you, the first thing you do is you judge every moment of that person. I mean, that's just so wrong. Under no circumstances are we to drive because that is sin ourselves, not only because it's wrong and judging, but it's that's pride sneaking in. So I just be warned about that.
So when it comes to tomorrow, we have no clue what's going on. We can't make any guarantees. This is, this is like, says loading is if you know anything about, if you ever hear about computers, you know, you just imagine, you mean, you open up an application and the screen is going to load and then it just stops loading. You have no idea is it going to load.
You don't know. And there, that's tomorrow. Tomorrow is that which we have no idea about. We don't know if it's going to load or not.
So so when it comes to tomorrow, don't be, don't be so foolish. Go to now, you that say the day to go now, you that say today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and continue their year and buy and sell and get gained. Whereas you know that not what shall be the moral for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanish away for that you ought to say, this is the key if.
So that's if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. And as servants of God, that we don't, we need to keep him as our master. We need to be doing what he wants us to do, not what we want to do. You mean?
And so not only is it the proper attitude as a servant, but it's also, like I said, we don't know tomorrow and how can we guarantee anything? We don't have control over anything. So it's always if it was in the Lord's will. The last bit here is, but now he rejoices in your postings, all such rejoicing is evil.
Therefore, to him that knoweth, to do good and doeth not, to him, it is sin. And we actually talked about this quite a bit in chapter, I believe it was chapter two, chapter two, I believe it was. And this is where we said not to be a doer, or hear only but to be a doer. If we see that there's a need, whether it's, whether it be someone on the street, whether it be with another brother or sister, if you see that there's something that you could do, then it is, and you know that's the right thing to do, it's a sin for you not to do it.
So when I read this, I'll just say right or wrong, it just gave me a very interesting image. Good grief, this is like if it was written today. I mean, it just sounds like this is literally, we're in the middle of this right now. And it says, I'm not going to make many comments about this, but go to now, you rich men weep and how, for your miseries that shall come upon you, your riches are corrupted and your garments are mothin, your gold and your silver is cankered and the rust of them shall be a witness against you.
And shall eat your flash as it were fire, you have heaps treasure together for the last days. Behold the higher of the labors who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cryeth, and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath. By the way, the Lord of Sabbath is not going to say the Lord of armies, the defender. This is not a weak God.
This is someone who is very powerful, very, very, I'll say, defend, well, it says the right of me is just a good defender. You have lived in pleasure on the earth and in wanton. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed the just, he doth not resist you.
That sounds like, there are groups of people out there, I call them here, I said, a group of Satan's cronies, if you want to put it in such a way. And every era has them, from the time that this was written probably up to today, there's always these people who seems to win and claw their way to the top on the backs of others. But this really, I said, this really sounds like this today. And of course, we're talking about boasting tomorrow.
And then, and we seem to be every, as we kind of progress through this, it seems to be having a very future look to it. So as Christians, we have, we're running a marathon, we're not doing a sprint. And really, what is it that we're doing? Obviously we want to do the Lord's work.
And but we need to always be keeping our eyes on him. We need to be looking for his return. And my goodness, I can, I just feel as close. It's very close.
We might not even be here next week for the Lord's not quite possible. We'll be meeting up to heaven. Hopefully that's the case. A part of the part of the running the marathon, as I said, is to make sure that we are, not allowing pride to get in the way, not judging.
Let's do some more reading here. Be patient, therefore, brother, and unto the coming of the Lord, be whole, the husband, and wadeth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it until he receives the early and the latter reign. Be also patient, establish your hearts. And I take this as we're, as of course, we're waiting for the Lord and as the church we're waiting.
And when he comes, I think that's perhaps the church that's coming after. I can tell you, perhaps, I mean, if anybody has any other ideas, I'm glad to hear it. But I was thinking here when it comes to the, when it says the early, I'm thinking that's the church that's raptured, and of course, the latter could be the tribulation saying, it's not sure. But I just know that, I mean, the message doesn't get lost.
It's, I mean, we need to be patient looking for him and waiting for his return. So it says, be also patient, establish your hearts. For the coming of the Lord draws nigh, grudge not one against another, brethren, lest he be condemned, behold, the judge stands before the door. Take my brethren, the prophet, who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and patience, behold, we count them happy, which endure.
And have heard of the patience of Job and have seen at the end of the, seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is a very pitiful and very, and of tender mercy. And of course, I, we can read Psalm and Psalm 103 eight, it says, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenty of sin mercy. So when we say the Lord is pitiful and tender mercy, we're, this is what we're talking about gracious and merciful, slow to anger and plenty of sin mercy. But above all, things might brethren swear not neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yay be yay and your nay be, nay, lest he fall into condemnation.
So we're almost, we're actually running pretty good on time actually. And it says here, so we're going to talk about his prayer and prayers, one of those things are so amazing, it's powerful, it's real. It says, is any among you afflicted, let him pray? Is any Mary?
Let him sing Psalms. And I think part of this is, you know, you have kind of a, I don't say negative, but you have, you know, where it says, is anyone you afflicted or let him pray? If there's any Mary, let him sing? Does it tell us that we need to be praying all the time for all things?
This is not limited just to the times when you want something. It's all the times we want to give thanks for everything we have. So we need to always continue, so in all situations we want to be able to keep in prayer. Is any sick among you?
Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over you, pray over him, and anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And healing is a real thing. You know, you don't pray and expect him, oh well, you know, hopefully he gets better and by, I mean, real faith, it can happen. I mean, it's obviously it's in the Lord of the will, it's in the Lord's will.
The Lord has other plans. Well, good luck. But, you know, when it comes to the Lord, it's, I think he thinks it can even change and you'll see that in a moment that, I mean, we going down one path and perhaps things could happen one way, but if you were to make a 360, things could change again. And you'll see what I mean in just a moment.
So when it comes to like, when it comes to verse 14 and calling upon the others, I think that's cool information. Because that's something you can do. That's, that's, I take that as something that actually is a responsibility of elders. Anyway, that's what it says to me.
So, you know, one more task for them to do, you just add that under to-do list. And the prayer of the faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults, one to another and pray and pray one for another.
That he may be healed, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man, a valeth much. See, this is right here. When it comes to, when it comes to saints praying and someone who's living a life that would be honoring to God, when they pray, things happen. A lie is supposed to man's subject to like passions as we are.
He prayed earnestly that it might not reign and it reign not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. Good grief. That is a big prayer. But it was answered.
You see that? And he prayed again and the heaven gave reign and the earth brought forth fruit. Well, let's just sum that up as a prayer works. So this last one is, I think it's a good lesson for all of us, or just a good reminder.
So it says, brethren, if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him, let him know that he which converts the sinner from the air of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins. So those few things we need to mention here. So first thing we're talking about is sin. So we're not talking about justice.
If somebody read the Bible and got the wrong message and is like, no, we're going to convert you. We're going to take, no, we're going to take specifically about sin here. And it says here, this verse, like verse 20 here is perhaps there's different groups out there who might suggest that this could be maybe you lose your salvation, perhaps they might suggest something. That's absolutely rubbish.
It's just not true whatsoever. But people look at it might say the soul and death. OK, that must mean that you're talking about second death. Let me explain here.
So death is a physical death here. So sin is one of those things that has a practical consequence or just an everyday consequence that consequences and ultimately sin leads to death. And there's many verses I'm sure we could go to look at where it tells us that sin basically leads to death. I mean, if you just think about some of them, if it could be drugs, it could be overdosed.
I mean, that could lead to death. It could be that you might start small and start lying and then going bigger and bigger and then you find yourself in situations that are serious consequences. So I think this is a physical death we're talking about. I mean, it says a soul.
In certain days, I mean, let's just think of a captain of a ship in the ocean. And perhaps, at least I believe it's common. They would say things like, well, maybe before they take off somewhere, they say to the captain, how many souls are on board and the captain, or how many people on board and captain would say, let's say 25 souls. So I take this if we're talking about just a person.
And we're just referring to that person as a soul. And so this is not a spiritual death or a social life. So because that would imply a lot of things. No, we're talking about a soul like a person and of course a physical death.
So I think this is saying that is our duty as Christians, if we see that there's someone who is in sin or there may be vulnerable or whatever, we need to be able to come alongside them. We need to be able to say this is and be a guide to them. Not judging. Remember, we just talked about pride and judging a brother.
And so we need to under that as I purposely put I think before here, because it's saying before it comes to the idea of correcting a brother, we need to get straight, you shouldn't be judging him. So remembering that virtue to keep pride down and not judge, we should come alongside someone and help correct them. Show them the way, the way that God would want them. And I'm sure there's many practical ways of doing that.
But when that happens, you can avoid them all to do the sin. So if they continue then the path, then there would be I think certain consequences. But if somebody could come and intervene somehow and show them a way or how to get out, it changes. And there's another way.
They can avoid a multitude of sins and their life could be very, very different. So I think it's really important that we do take that seriously and understand it's even if it's things for a moment, it's proper that we come alongside. As long as I said, we had the right attitude. So stay the course and sin not.
And again, this is where we started. This is where we will end. And it says, this means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. And then we can relate, like I said, for 2 Corinthians 5, 17.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. We're done.
So let's close in prayer. Gracious God and Father, it's such a privilege and honor to be able to be in that presence and to look at your word and to have you reveal things to us. Oh Lord, when it comes to our attitudes and sin, I pray that we would all desire to be more like you, more like your son, and to become a servant, willing to serve and take all the opportunities, Lord. I pray that no one would be deceived and fall for the tricks and of sin and that we would resist and flee the other way, Lord.
There's so many temptations and I pray that we would be able to see them and recognize it and shut it down. Lord, we also pray that if we know people around us that have not heard a gospel...