Bob Lloyd - James - Unspotted from the World - Class 5 - Patience Amidst Conflict

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   This is Winfield Bible Camp 1998, day five. Our general theme is Next year in Jerusalem. Our speaker for this class is Brother Bob Lloyd. His topic Unspotted from the world, His subtopic Patience amid conflict. Sorry about Brother Bob.

2. 0:27

   Well, good morning, my beloved brothers and sisters. Of the Lord Jesus Christ, That was a little slow. I guess we’re all ready to go, aren’t we? It’s our it’s our last class together, the last class of the 1998 Winfield Bible School. And so we come here with relief as well as sadness. Been wonderful to have been with all of you this week. It’s great to have seen those we know and love from the past and to have made good contact love for those which we’ve only met for the first time.

3. 1:14

   I have a little problem this morning. I got way more stuff than I can ever get in. I’ve been going through trying to hear what I can leave out, but I’ll try not to abuse the time very much.

4. 1:27

   Will Rogers was a homespun cowboy philosopher, and he liked to talk about his dog. He called his dog a Christian dog. He was like, well. Why do you call your mutt a Christian dog? He says. Well, because he loves his enemies and he bites his friends.

5. 1:51

   Now Will Rogers was gently poking fun at those who call themselves Christians, who seem to love their enemies and mistreat their friends. Of course, our brother James was not familiar with Will Rogers. He lived 2000 years before he did. But James is really saying the same thing to us as we look into his lovely little letter he’s writing to those who were loving to show respect for the rich.

6. 2:21

   James reminds them that it was the rich who oppressed them and draw them before the judgment seat. It was the rich who were blaspheming that worthy name by which we are called. So in a sense, those he was writing to, they were loving their enemies, the rich, and then they were biting their four brothers and sisters, those living in poverty for whom Christ died.

7. 2:49

   We all believe that prejudice is wrong, and yet we all, if we’re honest, have to admit that we have some prejudices. Mark Twain has said prejudice is the ink with which all history is written. Now there’s a dogmatic statement I’m just going to make. I’m going to, I have to, I’m going to have to insert a word. And when you make it about yourself, you can insert a word, whatever you want.

8. 3:13

   But since I was born in Texas, I’m going to put in Texas. I, I can poke fun at Texas because I, I are, I are one, This fellow says there’s two things in this world that I hate and will not accept. One is prejudice and the other are Texans. And so I think we’re all like this. There’s, there’s an inconsistency in US. It’s ridiculous to think that you could be against prejudice and then be against Texans.

9. 3:44

   That’s especially being a Texan. I think that’s the height of being ridiculous. But we all have some prejudices and we’re not to have, and James is going to tell us not to. Now prejudice is not new, but the Chris has been showing us in Class One how the the world has been prejudice against the Jews for eons. Of course the Jews you want to be be honest, they’re prejudice against us too.

10. 4:15

    I went to a convention once and I was the only Gentile there and they made me very uncomfortable. I mean they weren’t mean to me, they didn’t persecute me, but they let me know that I wasn’t one of them. Jonah was prejudice against the inhabitants of Nineveh. Peter had to be taught in a vision that what God had cleansed that he was not to call common. Peter opened his mouth and said ever truth. I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him.

11. 4:50

    Now the way to solve our prejudices is to come in at James chapter 2, and we’ll look to come in at James two and verse 8, because it’s the royal law as Paul, as James tells it. If he fulfill the royal law, according to the Scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well.

12. 5:10

    But if you have respected persons, you commit sin and are convinced of the law, as transgressors, we’re not at liberty to pick who we want to show kindness to and and who we want to ignore. We we have to love the unlovely. Even James 2 verse 10 For whomsoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend at one point he’s guilty of all.

13. 5:37

    For he that said, do not commit adultery said also do not kill. Now, if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou become a transgressor of the law. Now I think again, if we’re honest, we’re we don’t put all sins in the same category. You have a grade A sins and grade B sins and grade C sins, some not as bad as others. Personally, I would rate murder worse than adultery, and I would say adultery is worse than lying. And I would think that anything is not quite as bad as lying. And yet all of these, all of them are going to keep us out of the Kingdom.

14. 6:22

    It’s not that. It’s just what James said. You don’t. We don’t kill, but we can. We do not kill now. We commit no adultery yet if we do one, we do the other. They’re all. If we break the law, the law is broke by us, whatever commandment we broke. Verses you’re familiar with in Galatians 5. I know you know these words, but it’s the, the works of the flesh.

15. 6:48

    And James, Paul tells us what they are. He says they’re adultery and fornication and uncleanness and lewdness and idolatry and sorcery and hatred and contentions and jealousies. Outbursts of wrath. Oh, wait a minute, outbursts of wrath, right in there with adultery and uncleanness. I’m sure I get angry, but of course everybody gets angry. Well, he, he’s putting it all in the same category, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelers and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I tell you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom.

16. 7:31

    So we have to realize that sin is sin is sin is sin, and we are all sinners. We may not have done some of the more horrendous sins, but we have all been guilty of sins that are serious enough to keep us out of the Kingdom. But the good news is we can be forgiven for those sins, and that’s what it’s all about. So let’s make sure that we get down on our knees at night and ask God to wipe our sins that we’ve committed that day out and cast them behind His back.

17. 8:08

    Any promises He will. We need to be very strict with ourselves in trying to uphold the commandments, but at the same time we need to be merciful with others who may not be living up to what we think they should be doing. James 2 verse 13. For judgement is without mercy. To the one who has shown no mercy, Mercy triumphs over judgement. Another version, the man who makes no allowance for others will find none made for him, so there will be no mercy to those who have shown no mercy.

18. 8:48

    So the mercy of God is really very limited. That that may sound, it may sound like heresy. Say that the mercy of God is limited. And you would argue with me, and I imagine you would take me to Psalm one, O 3. That’s where I would take you if I was arguing with you on the subject.

19. 9:03

    And God says in Psalm One, O 3, the Lord is merciful and gracious, and slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward us who fear Him. For as far as the east is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

20. 9:25

    And aren’t you glad that God, who inspired David to write this, knew the earth was round because everybody then thought it was flat. But you see, if, if if God had said as far as the north is from the South, so far has he removed our transgressions from us? There is a limit.

21. 9:46

    You start at the North Pole and you just keep going South and pretty soon you’re out of South, you’re going north, You keep going north and you run out of north and you’re going South again, there is a limit. But when God said this, he said as far as the east is from the West, and you can start east and go forever and you’ll never run in the West.

22. 10:05

    Go West forever, you’ll never run into E. That’s how far he’s removed our transgressions from us. And yet, in spite of that, the man who makes no allowance for others, says James, will find none made for him. For there will be no mercy to those who have shown no mercy. And that’s frightening when we sometimes see Christadelphians so harsh in dealing with other Christadelphians and saying this is the way it is and you’re out. And I fear for them because we need to be showing mercy, doesn’t we water down the truth.

23. 10:54

    We stand up for the truth. We don’t we don’t condone sin. We’re very forgiving of sinners. Now, everything that were to do hinges on this royal law that James is talking about. The first time we hear about the royal law, it wasn’t called the royal law back in Leviticus, but God said you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

24. 11:23

    I am the Lord. Jesus then takes that same thought and he he turns it into the second commandment. In Matthew 22 Jesus said to him and Matthew 22 and verse 37 you, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment and the 2nd is likened to it.

25. 11:52

    You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Now Paul begins to build on this in Romans 13 verse eight. Oh, no man anything except to love one another, For he who loves another has fulfilled the law, and he’s back down to the sins. For the commandment, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet.

26. 12:27

    If there be any of the commandment, all are summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. You couldn’t do these things to somebody you love. You couldn’t steal. You couldn’t lie about them, you couldn’t bear false witness against them.

27. 12:49

    Love does no harm. So when we are being harmful in our dealings with one another, it’s because there’s not enough love there. Some of those people want to accuse people who believe in love. If you don’t believe in love, you don’t believe in the Bible because God is love. And yet they’ll, they, they, they, some of these very harsh, austere, stern people, if you talk about love, they accuse you of being wishy washy.

28. 13:21

    And I’m more wishy than I am washy. I wish we could get more love in that kind of person. So back to James 2, verse 8. If you really fulfill the royal law, according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself and you do well. But if you show. Partiality. You commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, you’re guilty of all.

29. 13:59

    For he who said do not commit adultery, I said also do not murder. Now if you commit, do not commit adultery, but you do murder you. You’re transcripts of the whole law, so speak, and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgement is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.

30. 14:17

    Mercy triumphs over judgement. Now the world has all this back to front. We hear a lot of lip service given to loving our neighbor, but very much, very little is said about loving God. And the first commandment is to love the Lord our God with every fiber of our being. And that’s more important than the 2nd commandment.

31. 14:39

    Although they on these two commandments said Jesus hang all the law and the prophets, but the second commandment is we are to love our neighbor as our self.

32. 14:57

    And it’s a well known fact that a great many people have no respect for themselves. They are not living right. They know this and subconsciously they hate themselves for it. Although they certainly don’t show it on the outside. This kind of person finds it impossible to respect others when they have absolutely no respect for themselves. This is a this is a delicate point that’s being made here. We’re we don’t want to be misunderstood. We are not to be proud and we’re not to be puffed up. We did not make ourselves.

33. 15:35

    God made us and God has never made a mistake. So you, you got to be careful what you say about yourself. Because when you talk down, you dumb idiot, you stupid jerk, what a kind of a Nutter. You you’re talking about somebody God made. You don’t really have the liberty to speak ill and degrade yourself because you’re God’s creation. We we when when you say those things, you know who hears it, you hear it.

34. 16:07

    Now Psalm 100 verse three says know that the Lord he is God. It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves. You’re not a self-made person. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Now you’re in in a group this morning with a that a special group in the world of called out ones. God has chosen all of us.

35. 16:32

    It means we’ve got to get along with each other because God picked the rest of us. And I can be totally honest with you and saying I have some people that I know in business that I wish God had called and obviously he didn’t. We’ve talked the truth to them. We’re blue in the face and they won’t come. But yet they’re fine people as the world goes. They’re good living, moral people. But they haven’t been called, evidently, or else they’ve been called and said no.

36. 17:00

    We don’t know that. But this group has been called. Now, if I have to be honest with you, I would have to tell you that some of the people God called, I wouldn’t have.

37. 17:15

    But God didn’t make a mistake and he’s called us and that tells us something. That means you and I, we’ve got to get along with each other. We don’t, we don’t all we do sometimes have personalities that clash that we got to work at that we got to work through that because that person you’re working with is a called out one from handpicked by God.

38. 17:39

    And even if they’re abrasive to you, God loves them, and you better love the ones God loves. That’s his point. And God is not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance. And so we need to work at fulfilling this royal law of loving each other as much as we love ourselves. So we better be careful what we say about God’s creation. In first Corinthians 316, Paul says, do you not know this? No, you’re not that.

39. 18:19

    You’re the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy. Which temple you are? You see, we’re not our own. We’re not free people. We, we were slaves to sin. Everybody’s born. Everyone’s a slave to something. We were born into slavery to sin. We couldn’t help it.

40. 18:43

    It wasn’t our fault, but it was our misfortune. And Christ came and gave his life for us, and we were baptized into Christ. And so as much as you’ve been baptized into Christ, you’ve put on Christ. And we, we, we, we are now the slave of Christ instead of the slave of sin. But we’ve been bought with a price. The price was the blood of the Lord Jesus and that’s what Paul says.

41. 19:13

    But you were bought at a price. Wherefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are gods. So we need to have a, a proper attitude toward our self as well as toward each other. And this is not pride. We’re we’re not to be puffed up anything man thinks he knoweth anything. He doesn’t know anything like he ought to know, but it’s an it’s a healthy respect for God’s good judgement in having seen in us something to call.

42. 19:49

    So be careful that you don’t always knock yourself down. Certainly don’t go knocking other people down. If you can’t say something good, don’t say anything even about yourself. The Jews that James was writing to felt secure in their faith. They.

43. 20:12

    They, like us, realize that Paul was telling the truth when he said without faith it’s impossible to please God. So if James says what does it profit? If someone says he has faith and does not have work, can faith save him? And the answer is no. Now it’s easy to deceive ourselves. James wants to make sure that we don’t.

44. 20:33

    As Christopher, we do place a great weight on right doctrine and it’s just as it should be. But one of the problems of the Jews of their his day was they thought they had a lock on salvation because they were the natural seed of Abraham. Well, we take comfort that we are the spiritual seed of Abraham, and this is comforting. But being baptized into Christ Jesus is no guarantee of our salvation, any more than being born a Jew was a guarantee of salvation.

45. 21:11

    The plain truth is we cannot be saved by our works, but we also cannot be saved without them. So a verse which we’ve read many times be doers of the word and not hearers only because he said you can actually deceive yourself. What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith and does not have words? Can faith save him?

46. 21:40

    And the answer is no, it can’t. So we must have faith. Without faith it’s impossible to please God. And yet what? I don’t want you to make a list of your words. I, I went to a home once in Texas and the sister I had on her wall, a framed picture wasn’t a picture and she had listed on all the people she had taught the truth to was she was marvelous teacher of the truth.

47. 22:07

    And so she she had this on her wall. Now, I don’t, I don’t recommend that, but but the point is when we leave Bible school, we have to make sure that we’re going to leave different than we came and that we’re going to resolve in our own minds that we’re we’re going to change.

48. 22:30

    You see, we came here a week ago almost. We’ve sat through three classes a day, and if we go home just the same kind of person that came, then Chris and Peter and I have failed you. But if we as gods, just his servants have opened up scriptures to cause you to say, I’m going to do better now than I did before.

49. 23:06

    I am going to make a list of things that I want to do. I am going to be more faithful in doing my Bible readings. Now, if you never miss ever, ever, ever, you can’t be more faithful than that. Well, yes you can, as you can read the chapter before the chapter after you.

50. 23:25

    Sometimes you can get so involved in in, in your reading that you don’t stop at the day’s reading it just you get caught up in it and you can read some more. And then when you close the book up, you don’t forget what you don’t like the mirror. You look yourself in the mirror, you walk away, you forget what you look like.

51. 23:40

    All that we’re doing is going to have an effect on us and we’re we’re going to resolve, God willing, that we will be sure that we have some good works for the Lord to remember. Remember Me, Oh my God for good was the saying of Nehemiah over and over again. And so let’s make sure that we plan to do things and and pure religion undefiled before God and the Father exists was to visit fatherless and widows in their affliction and keeping ourselves unspotted from the world. So we we’ve got things to do.

52. 24:23

    We just heard the news now of Michelle’s father not in the truth and she’s suffering obviously, young girl having come in from outside surrounded by her worldly family. No doubt they’re they’re all going to tell her, well, your daddy’s going straight to heaven and they’ll she will know better than that. So just being surrounded by people who don’t share our hope as her situation is is is hard for her. And then Matthew being almost robbed on or was he robbed? You don’t even know the details.

53. 24:55

    I heard that what you heard. But see, we’re all just a a moment from death. We’ve all had to stop and buy gasoline quite a few times. Well, maybe some of you only have to do it once to get here. But you pull up your gas station, you don’t expect that it’s being robbed at the time, do you? So we’re we’re going to go home with a better attitude because of our studies in Luke, which I didn’t hear. I got, I have not got a thing out of Peter’s classes all week, but I know the rest of you have and I’m looking forward to driving through the Rockies with Peter King. Our tapes will be ready when we leave this afternoon, God willing.

54. 25:41

    And we’re going to drive along the beautiful scenery and Peter is going to talk to us all the way. People from Missouri say show me. They call it the show me stage and James is going to say show me almost like I dare you. How can you prove that you have faith if you’re not doing anything?

55. 26:08

    Ask James. James 2 verse 18. Someone will say you have faith. I have works. Show me. Show me your faith without your works. I’ll show you my faith by my works. And it almost seems that the person next to James says, well, I don’t believe in the Trinity. It’s strange how it pops out here and he well, he said, I’m glad you don’t believe in the Trinity.

56. 26:31

    There’s only one God you believe in. There’s God, one God that’s you do. Well, even the even crazy people believe that. But don’t change the subject on me. Almost. James is saying he he’s talking along about works and faith, and somebody brings up the point. Well, I don’t believe in the Trinity. Well, that’s good. You don’t because that’s false.

57. 26:50

    But in spite of all our, our correct doctrines, we have to be doers of the word. Do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? So now James is going to give us some spiritual examples. He’s going to cite two people. I want if I were to say to you and you hadn’t had read, read the book of James, give me two examples in Scripture of people who had real faith.

58. 27:22

    And you, you know this, you can pick all kinds. Interesting who James picked. He picked Abraham. Well, you might have picked him too, but he picked Rahab and you might not have picked Rahab. These are the two that James is going to direct our attention to as examples of faith. James Chapter 2. Verse 21 Now we know that Abraham was a friend of God. He was the father of the faithful, the one to whom the promises were made that his seed was to be Christ who would inherit all things.

59. 28:00

    And so I don’t think being him picking Abraham surprises. US. Picking Rahab, a prostitute, a Gentile prostitute was a quite a contrast, but these are the two that James is going to use to prove his point to us. James chapter 2, verse 21. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you not see that faith was working together with his works and by works faith was made perfect and the Scripture was fulfilled, which says Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God.

60. 28:41

    You see then, that a man is justified by works and not by faith. Only Abraham was justified by works. He was declared by God a right and good man, because he did something. You see, that faith was working. His faith was at work. His faith was important, but at one point it was untried.

61. 29:07

    But it was his faith that caused him to, and he was asked to do something which made no sense to him. He could not understand. After waiting all those years for a promised son, then to go and kill him when he was when he was, he’s had no seed. Everything was bound up in this boy Isaac. God really does ask for blind faith. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

62. 29:35

    So we do have evidence for our faith. But if you don’t see the evidence and you know what you’re supposed to do, then do it anyway, because we do see through a glass darkly. There’s a day coming when the things which we do not now understand will all make sense to us, and the things that we couldn’t explain that happened, seeming to us for no reason at all.

63. 30:02

    And yet from God’s viewpoint, He has a plan and it’s a perfect plan and it’s all going according to His plan. And so if we don’t understand it, we just have to say, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him? That’s what Job said. Abraham’s faith was incomplete so long as it only existed in his mind by works.

64. 30:27

    His faith was made perfect. So the conclusion is inescapable. Faith is essential yes, but it’s not a real living faith unless it’s a a do something faith.

65. 30:43

    Now you don’t want to think put your names of the people you taught the truth on the wall. I think I I don’t like that idea, but if you can’t think of what you’ve done in the last 30 days simply because you love the Lord and you didn’t want to do it do it and you did it anyway. I’m not doing asking you to think of this, to pat yourself on the back.

66. 31:08

    Just Remember Me. Oh my God, for good. What, what if you can’t think of anything? There’s a message in that because if you can’t think of anything, you think the Lord can. So, so when we leave here, we’re going to resolve to go out and, and, and give God lots of things to remember us for, for good.

67. 31:32

    We’re, we’re going to make this in the world. If you want to be successful, you, you plan, you work and you work your plan. And the people who have no plan just drift through life. And that’s what happens to a lot of retired people. They, they worked hard during their life and they retire and they, they don’t have anything to do. And so the, the, the, the time expands to fit the work, you know, and you, you, you get up in the morning and you, you, it’s noon already.

68. 32:00

    You haven’t done anything just and then well, what we do is it’s bedtime and you’re tired. I don’t I don’t why I’m so tired. But you can’t think of what you’ve done for that. So let’s make a list of things. You know, I think it’s a good idea to put it on paper.

69. 32:15

    I think I’ll tell you a little story about that. This is I threw out a little story that’s worth well, it’s worth $25,000 is what it’s worth. The man who who got this message paid $25,000 for it back in the early 30s, what, 25,000 was worth a quarter of a million or more today. But an efficiency expert went to Charles Schwab and he said to Charles Schwab, I’d like to help your company, US Steel, to be more efficient.

70. 32:42

    And I have ideas that can help you make, make your company run smoother. And Charlie Schwab said to this efficiency expert, he says, Sir, he’s, I’ve got so much to do that I don’t have time to do. I don’t need you to tell me what to do. I already know I don’t have time to do what I want to know to do. So the man leaned across the table to Miss Schwab. He says, OK, well, I’ll give you one idea. You try it for 30 days just yourself. And if it works, I give it to your top vice presidents for another 30 days.

71. 33:17

    And if you think it’s worthwhile, at the end of 60 days, send me a check for whatever you think the idea was worth. You don’t like the idea, you owe me nothing, he says. You’re on. So the fishing expert says get out a piece of paper and a pencil. No ballpoint pens in those days.

72. 33:34

    So he gets out a piece of paper and a pencil and he says OK, just start writing down. You said you had lots of things, Start writing down. Just just one line of all the things you want to get done today. Just write it aside. Don’t worry about the order, just write them down as fast as you can.

73. 33:45

    Oh boy, he was right like that. He says OK, done. He says, Yep, is. Now go back and go down to the list and pick out which is number one. One that you think is the moment. Put a one by. It may not be the first one you thought of. The next most important, put a 2. He says go all the way down your list so they’re all numbered. Now he’s going to start with the number one on that list and don’t let anything get in your way until it’s done. And then cross it off and then go to number 2 and do it and cross it off and go.

74. 34:18

    He says you may not get everything on your list done, but you will get more done with a list like that than if you didn’t have one. And Charlie Schwab says, well, thanks a lot. The man left 60 days later. This man got a check in the mail for $25,000. This is a true story. Now, if we want God to have some good things to remember about us, let’s make a list of good things we think we ought to be doing.

75. 34:44

    Let’s go visit so and so. Write a card to so and so, telephone so and so. Put your Bible readings on your list every day. Make sure you have prayer time on your list. If you have time to pray, God has time to listen. Can you imagine being too busy to pray? God is waiting for you to pray and you don’t have time to pray. Of course, Solomon’s told us if you don’t bother doing your readings, don’t bother to pray.

76. 35:13

    We looked at that the other day. It’s quite a quite a little revelation if you haven’t seen it before. So we are going to have our Bible readings on that list. We’re going to have prayer on that list, but but we need to organize our time. Retired or unretired? I’m retired, New word. But make sure your day has things for you to do for the Lord.

77. 35:43

    And if you get to the end of the day and you haven’t done anything that you wouldn’t have done if you hadn’t been to Christianity and things just would have been the same, that’s a message, very loud message to you. To time to change and so verse 25 James two likewise was Rahad the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way.

78. 36:17

    This woman who became one of the grandmothers of the Lord Jesus Christ changed, Totally changed. And that’s the good news, that God will forget our past. And there’s hardly a more checkered past you can can dream up than that of a prostitute. A gentile prostitute in a heathen city that did not know God and she was different than everyone else.

79. 36:44

    And The thing is, we have to be different than everyone else around us. Now come to verse 26 of James two, because James is going to sight a corpse to prove his point. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. Also, there are people walking around who are dead.

80. 37:07

    And they don’t know it. Jesus wrote to the Ecclesia and Sardis in Revelation 3. He says to the Angel of the Ecclesia and Sardis right these things, says he who has the seven spirits, It is the spirits of God and the seven, seven stars. I know your works. You have a name that you’re alive, but you’re dead.

81. 37:38

    Now do we believe? We have faith, but we’re not doing anything. We’re dead, dead and don’t know it. Now we believe in resurrection. We believe in resurrection from the dead for those who have fallen asleep in Christ, but we believe that it’s possible to be raised from being spiritually dead and not knowing it back to being spiritually alive and well.

82. 38:07

    And that’s what we hope Bible School have done for us, that we will be resurrected to be filled with good works so that our faith is not dead and that we. Are not dead and so continuing in revelations 3, Jesus says be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die.

83. 38:33

    For I have not found your works perfect before gone. Their works were not the right kind of. Works, or they didn’t have any. Remember therefore, how you have received and heard. Hold fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief. You will not know one hour I come upon you now. The good news is, in Sardis there are even a few who have not defiled their garments.

84. 39:01

    They shall walk with me in white. For they are worthy. So even in this ecclesia that was dead and didn’t know it, not everybody was dead. So when you get back to your ecclesia, make sure you’re one of those that is not dead in your ecclesia. And then what you can do, you can infect the others with this, this zeal. It’s catching.

85. 39:26

    Enthusiasm is catching, but it isn’t catching if you don’t have any of it. The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek in Theos. It means to have God in you. And if God is in US, other people all know it. And, and let your people, in your opinion, see the difference in you when you come back from Bible school that you’re glowing from having been here, and try to get them infected and try to get your Eclesia going so that the Eclesia that you belong to will not be dead and not even know it.

86. 40:01

    So let’s decide that as Bible school comes to an end, that we’re going to be watchful and strengthen the things which remain. We’re going to hold fast and we’re going to repent. Let’s get up and get moving. Even in Sardis there was some who had not defiled their garments. Now James is going to ask a different question, and both questions have the same answer.

87. 40:30

    James 214, what does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? The answer was no. Now James 313, who is a wise man and a dude with knowledge among you, let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. Who is wise and dude with knowledge. Does that show too?

88. 40:50

    We’d better be showing our knowledge should have given. We should be given wisdom, and the wisdom should be causing us to have works. Now we’ve been looking at the book of James, and we haven’t come to chapter 5 yet, so we’re going to jump ahead to the fifth chapter and make our last thought. His exhortation on patience, James chapter 5, and we’re going at verse 7.

89. 41:29

    Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, unless you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and of patience. Indeed, we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance and the patience of Job.

90. 42:14

    You’ve seen the end intended by the Lord that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. Now James is is making an analogy here and we want to want to dissect it and look at the various parts. The the the husbandman is God.

91. 42:33

    Jesus said I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman. Now the precious fruit is the obedient St. of his own will, says James in chapter one verse 18. He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So God is a husbandman. The fruit is us.

92. 42:59

    The rain is the word of God. And we get that from Isaiah 55, as far as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and does not return, but waters the earth makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I send it.

93. 43:31

    So the early rain raining on us is the blessing of the Word, and the latter rain would be the divine nature given to the Saints at the setting up of His Kingdom. The lesson that God wants to exercise great patience with us as we receive this Word, the early rain, and slowly reproduce the fruits of obedience. Despite our weaknesses and our doubts and our failures, He continues to wait with long patience until we are fit to be among the precious fruit of His harvest. And then we received the blessing of immortality, which is the latter rain.

94. 44:18

    God is patient with us. We need to be patient with each other and with ourselves. One of the little things you’re going to be given today is, is a handout. And it’s, it’s, it has, Please be patient with me. God has not finished with me yet. And I think this is a nice thing to say to other people if they’re angry with you because we’ve all failed somebody.

95. 44:42

    Please be patient with me. God’s not finished with me yet. I’m still trying to do better. And then if, if the rest of it, you can read it, I realize I have to change. If you don’t think you need to change, well, then we’ve failed you this week. That’s for sure. Because Jesus wants to change our vile body when he comes.

96. 45:03

    He doesn’t say our vile mind. You’re supposed to be changing your mind now by having studies in in Luke and in James and the history of Jerusalem. These things should be changing our vile mind, breaking us realize the good things that are going to come. We want to be part of that new Jerusalem that Chris has talked about.

97. 45:23

    We want to be there. And if we aren’t changing our mind now, then he won’t change our body then, and we shall be like him. For this is a promise that he has promised me even eternal life. And so I’m asking you to, to sign a promise. I promise to try every day to be conformed to the image of his Son. And I hope you will sign that.

98. 45:48

    Because we need to be patient with each other and with ourselves that we are. We are working at changing. We’re trying to do better. We’re gonna resolved to have more works for God to remember when Jesus comes and right in the middle of this exhortation that we’re reading was was was was verse nine. And don’t grumble against each other, brothers, right, right in the middle of all this about being patient with each other. He’s saying don’t grumble.

99. 46:26

    The judges standing at the door do do we grumble? Jesus said, murmur not among yourselves, He said, stop grumbling among yourself. These are words of Jesus in John 843 John 643 John several places. The children of Israel were classic examples of of grumbling. They were always complaining, weren’t they? And that you know that the persecution they brought on themselves because of that he promised them in Exodus 16 and 7:00 in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, for he hears your complaints against the Lord. For what are we that you complain against us? How long shall I bear with this evil congregation? Said God, who complained against me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel made against me.

100. 47:31

     They were fed angels food and complained about it. We’ve been well fed this week, both naturally and spiritually. Let’s hope that we’ve not allowed ourselves to complain about the food after we’ve given thanks for it and do the same thing at home. Let’s stop complaining about so many things. Remember when Miriam and Aaron complained against Moses and they they said, has the Lord spoken only through Moses? He’s spoken through us too, you know. And God was very angry.

101. 48:10

     So remember the story of Corodathan and a Byron. And they rose up and they said we’re all holy. Who do you think you are? So many people who were are sinning exalt themselves in God’s they to themselves. They exalt themselves in God’s eyes doesn’t work God don’t doesn’t see them exalted. But you take too much upon yourselves. They said of Moses.

102. 48:36

     The whole congregation is holy. All of us are holy. Why then do you exalt yourself against the the Assembly of God grumbling. It blows me away. What happened then when, when Moses prayed that if a new thing happened and the earth opened up and swallowed them up, then God would be with Moses. And that’s exactly what happened. And the next day they said, you’ve killed the Lords of the people.

103. 49:03

     As if Moses could have done that without God’s help. I, I, we have to be careful. We have a heart that can be hard. Jeremiah says it’s desperately wicked, and who can know it? So the whole point of James’s expectation is don’t squabble amongst ourselves because the judge stands at the door. This means we’ve got to get along with each other in our homes.

104. 49:27

     We need to, we need to have a, a happy home. The 12 words will help. We, we need to show love in that home because a home should be a, a, a, a, a type of, of Christ and his bride. And there are a lot of homes which look happy on the outside. But if you were in there, you’d know different. But when we go home, we can be different, we can change, we can be a resurrection of us from being spiritually dead to be spiritually live, but we have to do something different than we have been doing or nothing will happen. That’s good.

105. 50:08

     And so let’s be patient with each other. Let’s realize that Jesus is almost here. We we need to hang on until he comes. Occupy. Let’s be ready. Let’s don’t throw away salvation at the 11th hour. We can do that by by not being the kind of person we should be in our own home or with our own children and with our own workmates or wherever we are. The study of James should have helped us to prepare for the coming of the Lord.

106. 50:50

     We hope it has. We hope it will help us to be more patient to establish our hearts for truly the coming of the Lord is drawing nigh. So let’s remember, if we possibly can, the practical lessons that James has taught us to be doers of the word and not hearers only be doers of the word and not hearers only. Deceiving yourselves.

107. 51:13

     For if anyone is a hear of the word and not a doer, he’s like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, goes away, and he immediately forgets what kind of a man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful here, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. If any one of you thinks he is religious does not bridle his tongue, but he sees his own heart. That man’s religion is vain.

108. 51:43

     So if we’re talking. In the wrong way doesn’t make a difference what our faith is pure religion, undefiled before God and the Father exists to visit the orphans and the widows in their affliction and keep himself unspotted from the world. Confess your trespasses. 1 to another, said James. Pray for one another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man available. So your second hand out this morning is a is a prayer list. It’s a list of just 12 spots for you to fill in. But, but do you have a prayer list? When you hear of someone that’s suffering, do you add them to your list?

109. 52:28

     Sometimes I have to take a person off my list because they have died. I prayed so fervently for some people to live that God’s will was for them to fall asleep. Don’t believe in praying for the dead. We know that once you’re dead, that’s, that’s your, your record is sealed. And I don’t think it’s right to pray for people who have died. We pray for the the mourners and those who are are are suffering and missing the loved one.

110. 52:56

     But we don’t pray for someone dead. But so put them on your list now, because if you don’t and prayer changes things, confess your faults 1 to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And so this little prayer is our Father in heaven.

111. 53:18

     Hallowed be thy name I come to thee in prayer for. And we’ve got a place for 12 names. You turn on the back and put as many as you want. But make a list of people to pray for. Certainly pray for your families. Certainly pray for those that you know are suffering. And pray for your enemies. If you have an enemy, someone that’s hurt you, someone that has has affected your faith even, pray for them. Ask God to help you forgive them, ask God to help you love them.

112. 53:53

     Some people think they have an enemy that’s so bad it would be wrong to pray for them, and that can’t be right. Jesus prayed for those who crucified him. Stephen prayed for those who stoned him. So if you have an enemy, put them on your list and pray for them until you no longer feel I’ll toward that person.

113. 54:13

     If anyone of you wonders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a Sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall cover a multitude of sins. So we need to go out now and look for people that we can help teach the truth to, to bring back people who may have wandered away.

114. 54:34

     Remember the story of, of the, the, the 99 sheep, the one sheep was the one that, that Jesus went after. People like that need to be prayed for. I think it’s OK to let people know you’re praying for them because just the fact that a lot of people are praying for someone changes things. It helps helps them bear their problems and sometimes it helps them to solve their problem.

115. 55:03

     So we’ve come to the end of our classes. It’s been great. So we commend you to God and to the word of His grace, who is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified.