Truth for Life: Book of James

Please turn with me to the letter of James and to chapter 1.

And this is how we're going to outline it.

There are five chapters, and the translators of the NIV, the New International Version,

have given headings to certain sections.

So I'm going to take their headings, which are not, of course, part of God's Word,

but they're helpful in dividing the material up.

So we're going to take their headings as the subheadings of the five points of this presentation this morning.

So here we go without any further delay.

Chapter 1, and the first heading is Trials and Temptations.

And I'll give you, as well as the heading, one key verse in that section.

So now you know exactly what we're going to do.

So in this first section, I'm going to take verses 2 and 3 as the key statement.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.

Now let me interrupt James for a moment and say, that already sounds strange.

Count it joy when you face trials of many kinds.

But James doesn't leave us hanging in the air.

He gives a reason for it.

Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Now here are two truths for the price of one.

Firstly, trials are not to be seen as evil originating with Satan.

Let me give you this and write it at least in the notebook of your mind, although I guess you'll be able to read it afterwards in the book.

Trials, excuse me, temptations are sent by Satan to make us fall.

Trials are sent by God to make us stand.

But God is in complete control of all of the temptations and all of the trials.

In other words, God is sovereign over everything that comes into your life.

Paul tells the Ephesians, God works everything according to the counsel of His will.

And we so often focus on the secondary cause of things that come into our life.

So difficulty, a problem, a trial, a pain, a pressure comes into our lives and we focus on whoever brought it in or the circumstances that brought it into our lives there and then.

But that's only the secondary issue.

The primary issue is that God, sovereign over all, allowed that thing to happen.

And instead of focusing on who or what brought it to us at that moment, our focus should be on who sent it or allowed it in the first place.

The simplest illustration I know of how to demonstrate that is that when in the mail you find something deeply disturbing or hurtful or painful or sorrowful or in a phrase that is bad news,

you don't find the mailman and kick him.

It has nothing to do with him.

He's simply the messenger.

And when something is in the mail that's really a big surprise and hugely joyful, indeed a miracle like a rebate from the IRS,

you don't go chasing the mailman and kiss him.

And if he was my mailman, you certainly wouldn't want to do that.

In other words, our focus always needs to be, look, God is in control of whatever comes into my life.

And I must learn to respond primarily to God and to his wisdom in allowing this thing to happen.

And this is something, incidentally, that is totally overlooked by one of the greatest religious plagues you have in this country,

which is those who preach a prosperity gospel.

That as long as you believe certain things, God intends you to be healthy and wealthy and all of those things and never to have problems and pressures,

then why did he let Jesus down?

If that's how God intends us all to be, to be for our lives to be without any trials, without any pressures, without any temptations,

and to be healthy and wealthy throughout our lives, why did he let Jesus down?

But this is how we should approach it.

The second thing, we're going to have to move on.

I know you want this to be developed.

You can read it how it is afterwards.

But we need to get to the second section, which is listening and doing.

And the key verse here is verse 22.

Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves.

Do what it says.

Look back to verse 29 where James says everyone should be quick to listen.

We really should be eager to listen to God when he speaks to us.

Whether it's at home in our own private Bible study,

whether it's in a Sunday school class, a Bible study group,

and especially when we come to church and listen to the preaching of God's word.

We should be eager to hear what God is saying to us.

I find it a very interesting thing that in our church circles and my church circles culturally

are very much the same as here at First Baptist Pickens.

Our emphasis is on the preacher.

So here you have, I'll take a chance here,

here you have a visiting preacher this morning.

If you meet someone from another church during the week and you say to them,

oh, we had a visiting preacher on Sunday,

and they say, what was the service like?

You will ignore everything that happened in the service,

including this really wonderful singing that you have Sunday by Sunday

with this man leading it,

and you talk about me.

I think you're making a mistake.

The preacher is not really important at all.

In our circles, we're always focusing on the preacher.

I'll go to that conference, that meeting, because of that preacher.

In the Bible, the emphasis is not on the preacher,

it's on the listener,

and how the listener responds to the ministry of God's word.

So the most important thing when you've heard someone preach is,

what was he like?

Didn't like his voice very much.

Couldn't understand his accent.

Well, I'm not going to be taught lessons about accent

from a country where they park their cars on the driveway

and drive them on the parkway,

but that's neither here nor there.

Well, I don't like the way he did this,

or he missed out on that,

or why didn't he emphasize that?

Listen, the point is,

what did God say to me in this part of his word?

Remember John Stott,

one of the most revered preachers of our day,

saying to me once that people would come to him sometimes

at the end of a service and say,

Dr. Stott, that was a wonderful sermon.

Thank you for that.

Stott's response was,

what are you going to do with it?

It's an interesting thing to say.

I think it's a very appropriate thing to say

at the end of a service.

Somebody goes up to the preacher and says,

that was a wonderful sermon.

Thank you.

Now, what do you say

when somebody says,

that was a wonderful sermon?

I know that experience.

I've had it twice in 55 years.

What do you say?

John Stott said,

this is what I say.

What are you going to do with it?

So my question to you this morning,

when we reach the end of the service,

is not,

well, what did you think of the preacher?

I wouldn't dare ask you that.

What are you going to do

with whatever it is that God is saying to you?

And he may not have said,

at this moment in our service,

the big thing that he's going to say to you

before we end.

So forget the preacher.

Make sure that the sermon

gets into your bloodstream,

God's word,

and into your DNA,

and not just into your notebook.

Well, now on to chapter 2,

and the first section is called

Favoritism Forbidden,

and the key is right there in verse 1.

My brothers,

as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ,

don't show favoritism.

Now, James, as you'll discover

when you read the book later,

is a great illustrator.

He gives you a truth,

and then he illustrates it

and nowhere more clearly than this.

Let me read the following verses.

They hardly need a comment.

His point is this.

Don't show favoritism.

Don't treat people

on the basis of how wealthy they are

is the point that he's making.

Look at this.

Suppose a man comes into your meeting

wearing a gold ring

and fine clothes.

Interestingly, in the Greek,

the original phrase could be translated,

he is gold-fingered.

He's got a nugget at every knuckle

and a gem at every joint.

I mean, he's loaded.

I don't know what the Greek for loaded is,

but that's what James means here.

He comes into your meeting

wearing a gold ring and fine clothes.

Oh, and a poor man.

Shabby clothes also comes in.

If you show special attention

to the man wearing fine clothes

and say,

here's a good seat for you,

but you say to the poor man,

you can stand there.

You can sit on the floor if you like.

If you do that, James says,

have you not discriminated among yourselves

and become judges with evil thoughts?

And the word is dialogismus,

from which we get the word dialogue.

He said, if you treat people like that,

a wealthy visitor comes to your church

and you're all over him

and the poor man comes in

and you say, sit on the floor if you like,

aren't there evil thoughts going on in your head?

And what you are saying is,

we better treat this rich man well

because he could be worth

a few thousand dollars to our church.

But there's no point in treating the poor man well

because there's nothing he can contribute

to what is going on here in the church.

Well, James says, don't do that.

And the best example of all he gives us,

of course, is Jesus,

who never treated anybody

on the basis of their position

or their possessions.

Then the second section in verse,

excuse me, in chapter two,

is called faith and deeds.

And the keys here are two verses.

Verse 14 first,

What good is it, my brothers,

if a man claims to have faith

but has no deeds?

Can such faith,

notice the word such,

can such faith save him?

Then go over to verse 24

and read this.

You see,

he gives an example of Abraham,

we don't have time to develop that.

You see that a person is justified

by what he does

and not by faith alone.

Now, I can imagine

a newish or relatively untaught Christian

reading through the letter of James

and he comes

and this man has truly been born again.

He is a new Christian

and he reads James saying

these particular words.

And he can hardly believe

what he is reading.

That James should say this,

a person is justified

by what he does

and not by faith alone.

And I can just imagine

a young Christian saying,

but wait a minute.

Now that I've become a Christian,

I can see that I am justified

not by what I've done

but by faith in what Jesus has done

for me.

And maybe the words of Paul

in Ephesians 2

are resonating in his mind.

By grace you've been saved,

through faith.

And that not of yourselves,

it's the gift of God.

And then specifically,

not of works,

so nobody can boast.

So he turns up Ephesians 2

and reads that,

turns back to James 2

and says,

well, something's wrong here.

Paul says,

we are not saved by works,

we're saved by faith.

James says,

well, you can see

that you're not saved

just by faith,

but by works.

Now, what is going wrong here?

If they are disagreeing,

we can throw away

the whole of the New Testament

as being unreliable.

It may be one of the reasons

why Martin Luther

initially treated

the letter of James

with a bit of disdain

or certainly with a lot of reserve,

and he called it

a right straw epistle.

It's an epistle of straw.

There's no real substance to it,

but he understood better later,

and we should understand better

this morning.

Here's the best way

I can put it across to you.

James and Paul

are not facing each other,

fighting each other.

They are back to back,

fighting two different enemies.

Paul is facing the person

who says,

I am saved,

I can become a Christian

by what I do,

by my own good deeds.

I'm better than a lot of people

I can think of.

Surely God grades on a curve,

that's a fair thing to do,

and I go to church,

and I read my Bible,

well, a bit,

and I pray a bit,

and I give a bit,

and I try to be good

and decent in my life,

and I pay my taxes,

I'm trying to be a good citizen,

and surely God will reward me

as the result of what I have done.

And Paul says,

no.

All our righteousnesses,

he says,

quoting Isaiah,

all our righteousnesses

are like filthy rags.

If you believe that God

grades on a curve,

and you may be here

in First Baptist Pickens

this morning thinking,

you know,

if I try to be good enough,

oh, I hear a lot of teaching

about becoming a Christian

and how important it is,

but if I behave well enough,

I'll reach that point,

I'll have crossed the line,

and be safely in the kingdom of God

on the basis of how well I have done,

how well I have lived.

Paul says,

if you're going down that route,

you're in serious trouble

because God requires perfection.

So Paul is fighting the person

who says,

I can get right with God

under my own steam.

James is fighting the person

who says,

look,

it doesn't really matter

what kind of life I lead.

I believe all the right things.

I believe there's one true God.

I believe that Jesus

is the eternal Son of God.

I believe that He was born

of the Virgin Mary,

that He lived a perfect life,

that He died on the cross

in the place of sinners,

that He rose from the dead,

that He's seated

at the right hand of God,

that He's coming back again

in glory.

I believe all those things.

I've ticked every one

of those boxes,

and that makes me right with God.

And the quality of life I have,

the things I do,

the way I treat my family

and my business associates

and my friends,

that's immaterial.

James says,

you are totally wrong

because it's when you have true faith

that your life changes.

Go back again to verse 14.

What good is it, my brothers,

if a man claims to have faith

but has no deeds,

in other words,

there's nothing in his life

to back it up.

Notice why I asked you

to notice the word such earlier.

Can such faith save him?

And he says,

no, it can't.

Faith that is all words

will save nobody.

There have got to be the deeds

to back it up,

which is why Paul writes

in 2 Corinthians 5,

if any man is in Christ,

he is a new creation.

The old has gone,

the new has come.

Paul is not saying

that when you become a Christian,

you become perfect,

but he does mean

that when you become a Christian,

you become different.

Then we move on to,

I should say then

that this is the heartbeat

of the entire epistle.

These verses, 14 through 24.

If you grasp what James

is saying here,

then you've grasped

what the whole of the epistle

is all about.

On then quickly to chapter 3.

And the first section

is taming the tongue.

And the key is verse 10.

Out of the same mouth

come praise and cursing.

My brothers,

this should not be.

Now James is dealing

with a very slippery customer.

Look at verses 3 and 4.

When we put bits

into the mouths of horses

to make them obey us,

we can turn the whole animal

or take ships as an example.

Though they are so large

and are driven by strong winds,

they are steered

by a very small rudder,

wherever the pilot wants to go.

Likewise, the tongue

is a very small part

of the body,

but it makes great boasts.

And then on to verse 7.

All kinds of animals,

birds, reptiles,

and creatures of the sea

are being tamed

and have been tamed by man,

but no man can tame the tongue.

It's a restless evil.

I recall leading a Bible study group

in Norway on one occasion.

We were on a day trip

down one of those lovely fjords.

Huge mountains rising up

on either side

and covered in snow

in the winter, of course.

And I happened to say

to the guide,

when the spring comes

and the snow begins to melt,

surely the properties

and the people

living near the bottom

of those mountains

are going to be

in great danger.

He said, yes,

and there have been.

There's been great damage

and sometimes great fatalities, too.

And then he said this,

words I will never,

ever forget.

He said,

sometimes an avalanche

can be caused

by the sound

of a single voice,

by the sound

of a human voice.

Just enough,

it's the last thing

that triggers off

a fall of snow

with catastrophe

to follow.

And none of us

is capable

of quantifying

the catastrophes

that have been caused

by the sounds

of human voices

and by our voices

at times.

Our tongues

are weapons

of mass destruction.

We can destroy

a person's reputation.

We can destroy

a person's home life.

We can destroy

their family.

We can destroy

their church

by saying things

that are untrue,

unnecessary,

unwise,

and ungodly.

Sometimes when you

go to a physician,

he will say

in the course

of an examination,

show me your tongue.

It wasn't an interesting

thing to do.

He used to see

the same doctor

every year

and he'd say,

show me your tongue

and then give me

a running commentary

on what was going on

in several other parts

of my body

because of what he could

see in my tongue.

And it's out of the heart

that the mouth speaks

and the tongue

so often gives us away.

Allow me to say this

and I hope you won't

find it too critical.

I just hope you'll find it

deeply searching.

Most of us talk too much.

Most of us talk too much.

There are many occasions

when we'd be better

to keep our mouths shut

and people would think

we were fools

than open them

and remove all possible

doubt on the subject.

I've found this person

as I studied James

a very great challenge.

Yes, there have been

many times in my life

when I kept my mouth shut

and I should have opened it.

I've missed the chance

to witness,

to say something,

to make a positive contribution.

I plead guilty

to doing that

more times

than I could ever count.

For every time

when I have

kept my mouth closed

when I should have opened it,

there have been

ten occasions

when I've opened it

and I should have

kept it closed.

And only afterwards

I've got home

and I've just felt

deeply ashamed.

Why did you say that?

Why did you add

that extra word?

Why did you feel

you just needed

to contribute

to that situation?

So James says,

hold your time.

Tame it.

Is what you're about

to say true?

Is it honest?

Is it fair?

Is it helpful?

And is it necessary?

And then very quickly

in two kinds of wisdom

is the next section

and the key is verse 13.

Who is wise

and understanding among you?

Let him show it

by his good life,

by deeds done

in the humility

that comes from wisdom.

The one thing

very quickly

that I want to say

about this

because we really do

need to pass on

is this.

We all of us

would like to think

that we are wise.

Most of us,

I guess,

would like to think

we're also very smart.

But we're not all

intellectuals.

We don't all

have a great education.

We're not all.

There are so many things

I know nothing about.

But we like to think

that we are wise.

I think you use

the word smart

in America.

I'm not sure

that's the right word,

but I'll forgive you.

But, you know,

we're just wise.

Notice what James says

is a mark of wisdom

that you act

in humility.

I find that deeply

searching and telling.

The height of wisdom,

here it is,

deeds done in the humility

that comes from wisdom.

Let him show it,

James.

Actions do speak

louder than words.

Well,

quickly on to chapter 4.

And the first section

is called

Submit Yourselves to God.

And the key is

verse 7.

Submit yourselves

then to God,

resist the devil,

and he will flee

from you.

And we should add,

come near to God,

and he will come

near to you.

But the point here

is about submission.

One of the great

open secrets

of what used to be called,

maybe still is in some circles,

the victorious Christian life,

what I would prefer to call

the normal Christian life,

is this.

Firstly,

to submit.

Submit yourselves,

therefore,

to God.

That's in direct contrast

to the spirit

of the age

in which we live,

which is always assert.

Make your own presence felt.

Show them that you're number one,

that you're in charge.

Instead,

we should make

knowing and doing God's will

the overriding determination

of our lives.

And look at verse 6.

God opposes the proud.

We just mustn't miss

what is being said there.

Those four words,

God opposes the proud.

That word,

opposes,

is a military word.

I want you to imagine

in the days of

pre-nuclear warfare,

here is a,

we'll call the podium

a huge valley

for the time being,

and here's a big mountain range,

and an army is set up

on this side of the valley.

On the other side,

here is another army.

And the intelligence

from this army discovers

that the enemy

is about to attack

on this wing

and has moved his forces,

most of them along here.

The defender now moves

his strongest forces there.

He is matching

the position

of the attacking army.

Then the attacking general

changes his mind

and moves most of his army

this way.

So the defender,

who's got intelligence

of what is happening,

moves his army this way.

So he's ready to defend it.

Are you following me carefully?

The proud person

asserts himself here.

Guess what?

God moves his armies

to oppose him.

Antitaso is the word.

It's an extraordinarily

powerful and direct

and immediate word.

And when you think

that God's army

is the Lord of,

is the hosts of heaven,

everything in the universe

is at God's disposal.

And if you set yourself up

to be proud,

God will oppose you.

God hates pride.

It may well be,

without going into detail,

it was pride

that caused Satan

to fall in the first place.

Pride dethrones God

and puts man

on the throne instead.

And so James warns us

in the strongest of language,

God opposes the proud.

And he adds,

and resist the devil.

Have you noticed

that nowhere in the Bible

are we told

to attack the devil?

Nowhere.

There's no need

to pick a fight

with the devil.

And the other thing

is this,

the more we submit to God,

the more fights

the devil will pick with us.

And if you are here

this morning

and you're saying,

well,

the devil is attacking me

so fiercely at the moment,

and maybe directly

I'm just being tempted

so severely,

and sadly in the same area

where I've known

so much temptation

in the past,

I feel that somehow

there must be something

wrong with me

because I'm being tempted

so much

and so badly

and so frequently.

Hear me carefully.

Temptation

is not

a sin.

Constant,

fierce,

relentless,

repeated

temptation

is not

necessarily

a sign

that there's

something

specifically wrong

with you.

After all,

Jesus was tempted

in all ways,

just as we are,

but he was

without sin.

And the promise

of James

is this,

resist the devil

and he will

flee from you.

But,

it doesn't say

he'll flee from you

permanently

when Jesus

had wiped

the floor

with the devil

in that

fantastic

confrontation

in the wilderness.

Luke

says this,

when the devil

had finished

all this tempting,

the devil

left him

until

an opportune

time.

So,

there were

more temptations

to follow.

When you think

that you've

successfully

beaten off

the devil

in a certain

situation,

he'll be back.

The story is told

of a young lady

who was struggling

with becoming

a Christian

and eventually

did become one

and someone

fairly soon

afterwards

suggested that

she should be

baptized.

And she said,

well,

no,

I'd sooner

just wait a little

bit and feel

secure and

settled in my

faith,

which was a

great thing

to do,

rather than

be baptized

prematurely

and then for

that not

to go

as it should.

But a few

months later,

she came to

the pastor

and said,

I feel I'm

really making

some good

progress in

the Christian

life.

I really

would like

to be

baptized.

Well,

there was

great rejoicing

and she

was baptized.

And six

months later,

she came to

the pastor

and said,

look,

I really

need some

help.

I'm just

having a big

struggle in my

Christian life.

Things are not

the way they

used to be.

In fact,

I feel less

of a Christian,

less effective

as a Christian

and making

less progress

than I used

to before.

And to make

matters worse,

I thought my

baptism would put

an end to all

of that.

And the pastor

said,

no,

I didn't hold

you under

long enough.

So if you

as a Christian

are looking

for a

post-conversion

experience that

will put an

end to

temptation and

have you

living triumphantly

and gloriously

forever,

there is a

post-conversion

experience that

you can have.

And here it

is.

Die.

That'll do

it.

Just die.

All you have

to do is die

and your

temptations are

over.

And I

suspect that

most of us

would like to

postpone that.

So he will

flee from you,

but it's not

permanently.

So Peter tells

us in 1 Peter 5,

be self-controlled

and alert.

And then very,

very briefly,

the next section,

boasting about

tomorrow and

the key verses,

verses 13 and

14.

And addressed

to businessmen,

of course,

today or tomorrow,

we will go to

this or that city,

spend a year there,

carry on business,

make money.

Why?

You don't even

know what will

happen tomorrow.

What is your

life?

You're a mist

that appears

for a little while

and then vanishes.

Some of us,

now not least,

are in the kind

of work and

ministry where

a lot of

long-term

planning needs

to be done.

In the few

days before

Pam and I

left home,

just about

three days ago

to come here,

I had to do

so much

forward planning

to do with

a big tour

in Scotland

and another

in Northern Ireland

and all of it

had to be done

before this trip

because after

we get back

from this trip,

I do a Bible

conference in the

middle of England

and 48 hours later

I'm in Portugal

and it just would

get all snarled up

so I had to do

all of that

ahead of time.

But James says,

don't boast about it.

Do what is sensible,

of course,

and proper,

but don't count

your days,

just make sure

that every day

counts.

That's the all-important

thing.

Pam and I pray

every morning

at the beginning

of every day.

We just pray

that that day

will count.

We don't know

what that day

is going to bring forth.

We have those days

when there are big events

in it and we cover

those in prayer,

but there are other times

when we say,

well, today's,

it's all bits and pieces

as far as we can see.

No big appointment

that I have to meet,

no meeting I have to speak at.

It's all kind of,

you know what I'm saying,

it's bits and pieces.

But we cover them

before the Lord

and we try to make

that day count for Him.

And then we get

to chapter 5

and there are three

headings here

so we'll deal with them

very, very quickly.

The first is

warnings to rich oppressors

and the key is verse 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

all-powerful

and you say,

well,

and serves them right

to be told.

They need to be told that.

Here are employers

and they're underpaying people.

They need to be told

God knows what you are doing.

And you would say,

well,

I don't employ anybody

so this doesn't apply to me.

Yes,

it does.

The principle

which applies

is this.

Everything you say

enters the ears

of the Lord Almighty.

Everything you do,

He sees and knows.

And there was a monk

centuries ago

who came up with the phrase

practicing the presence of God.

And that's the way

we should live

our lives.

And then secondly,

patience and suffering

and the key is verse 8

where the word patient

means long-tempered

which is the opposite

of being short-tempered.

In Psalm 86,

the Bible says,

God is slow to anger.

And my friends,

if God is slow

to anger with us,

how slow we should be

to anger,

get angry with other people.

If somebody says of you,

boy,

they've got a short fuse,

they're not paying you

a compliment.

Thomas Jefferson used to say,

if you get angry,

count to 10.

And if you're very angry,

count to 100.

That's not bad advice.

Look,

God is slow

to get angry.

And if we are quick

to get angry,

we're missing the boat

somewhere.

We're not acting

as God would have us act

or as He has acted

towards us.

And then finally,

the prayer of faith

and the key is verse 16.

And the end of verse 16,

the prayer of a righteous man

is powerful

and effective.

But just before dealing with it

in a moment as we close,

just go back to verse 13

which tells us

when we should pray.

At what point in our lives

should we be coming

to God in prayer?

How much of our lives

is related to our relationship

with God?

Look,

here it is.

Is anyone of you in trouble?

He should pray.

Is anyone happy?

Let him sing songs of praise.

So there is never a time

when approaching God

and consciously bringing Him

into our lives

is irrelevant.

In Charles Dickens' great book,

The Tale of Two Cities,

it begins with this phrase,

it was the best of times,

it was the worst of times.

And my friends,

you and I,

we have the best of times

and we have the worst of times.

And what James is saying,

whether it's the best of times

or the worst of times,

take it to God in prayer.

Thank Him

and praise Him

and seek to worship Him.

Martin Luther,

when he heard bad news,

used to say,

let's sing a psalm

and spite the devil.

There is no part of our lives

that is irrelevant

as far as God is concerned,

no experience in our life

when we can't come to God

in praise

and in prayer.

Now,

as you were looking

at the end of this chapter,

I imagine some of you

were saying,

now this will be important.

I wonder if the key verses

are going to be

verses 14 and 15.

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

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.

And you may be saying,

well now,

what are you going to say

about that?

Now,

those are verses

that really

at times

would have a serious impact

on our lives.

So,

what will you say

about that

this morning?

The answer is

nothing.

But,

in the book

Truth for Life,

I've spent,

I cannot tell you

how many hours

I've spent

studying that

and writing,

I think it's chapter 39.

I even went at one stage,

it was a coincidence,

to Greece

and spoke with Greek pastors

there about the sense

and the tense

of the language

that's being used here

and what it really meant.

And I believe

I was greatly helped

in being able

to flesh out

in great detail

what James is meaning

from this.

And the same applies

to the rest

of what has been written

because the book

would contain

about 50 times

the amount of teaching

that you've had

this morning.

But notice what follows

in verse 17.

Elijah was a man

just like us.

And many of you

will know the story

of Elijah

and the incident

to which James

is particularly referring.

He prayed,

and as Elijah

prayed earnestly,

that it would not rain.

And it didn't rain

on the land

for three and a half years.

And again he prayed,

and the heavens gave rain,

and the earth

produced its crops.

And we can stand back

from that and say,

whoa,

now that's the kind

of person

I would like to be.

That's the kind

of prayer

I would like to be.

That when the place

was flooded

and drenched,

he prayed

and there wasn't rain

for years.

And then when

there was a drought

and rain was needed,

he prayed,

and the rain came.

Boy, if I could be

that kind of Christian,

that kind of prayer,

what a difference

that would make.

And James

hits us straight

between the eyes

and says,

Elijah was a man

just like us.

He was no different

from us.

He had his strengths

and his weaknesses,

his faults

and his failures,

his flaws.

The passage

is not about

the power of Elijah.

It's the power

of Elijah's God.

And the point

James is making

is Elijah's God

is our God.

So we should

never set any limit

on what God

may do

in our lives

or in our church.

John Newton

in one of his

lovely hymns says,

you are coming

to a king.

Large petitions

with you bring

for his grace

and power

are such,

none can ever

ask too much.

The epistle of James

is what I've called

as a title

to the book

Truth for Life.

And I pray

that as you

reflect on what

you've heard

and as you reflect

on what

later you will read,

you will discover

what James says

is truth

not just for

other people

but is truth

for your

life.

Let's pray together.

Our gracious God

and Father,

we thank you

for your

infallible,

inerrant,

perfect,

up-to-date,

and applicable

and relevant word.

Help us to

understand

this portion

of it

and give us

the greater grace

of obedience

to it.

and we ask

it in Jesus'

name.

Amen.