In this episode, we delve into the profound lessons from the epistle of James, with a focus on the balance between riches and spiritual wealth. Discover what it truly means to be patient in faith, the power of prayer, and how the teachings of Elijah are still pertinent today. We invite you to reflect on these timeless truths and explore the importance of supporting the journey of faith through your prayers and actions.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
SPEAKER 04 :
Have you ever heard about the patience of Job? What about the prayers of Elijah? Well, to some, these are names they remember vaguely from Sunday school. But hopefully, for those of us riding the Bible bus, they bring to mind stories of great people of the Bible. People whose stories teach us about what it means to have confidence in God. This time on Through the Bible, our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, provides us with examples of how we can personally apply what we learn from the lives of people like Job and Elijah. I’m Steve Schwartz, and as you find your place in James 5, Greg Harris and I have a little time to talk about our World Prayer team.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I am so grateful that we have this time because let’s talk a little bit about the history of this amazing team of people. A little more than 10 years ago, we had an idea that was… We knew people were always praying for through the Bible. That was always critical. But we said, what if we get people focused on a different country every day, get them motivated? And all we wanted was for them to uphold the ministry. We didn’t realize that the world prayer today was going to change their lives.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. Yeah. The impact that it’s had on individuals has just been I think the majority of the feedback we get, the testimonies that we read in the U.S. are members of the prayer team. And, you know, it’s a relatively small number, 17,000 people. You think of we’ve talked about, you know, is the number a million or more that listen on a weekly basis. But 17,000 people that are committed every day to getting that email Monday through Friday. And so many people have incorporated it into their prayer lives. And we know that that’s making a difference in the ministry of through the Bible. So we want to say thank you for that, as well as we’re glad that you’re being ministered to by being a part of the team.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and it’s so like our Heavenly Father that when we give, Jesus said it’s more blessed to give than to receive. But we do receive, pressed down, shaken, a good measure. So let’s hear some of the results of our World Prayer Team members engaging. And by the way, if you’re not on the World Prayer Team, Steve, how can people do that?
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, my friend, just go to ttb.org forward slash ttb. Pray. Pray. I wanted to say give. Forward slash pray. Sign up today. We’re not going to sell you a bunch of stuff. We’re not going to send it out to a bunch of other ministries. You will get a daily email Monday through Friday that will lead you through prayer and a testimony around the world. And you will be praying effectively and fervently with 17,000 other members. So with that said, Greg, why don’t you read this first testimony?
SPEAKER 03 :
I believe Ila from Iowa who says, Greetings. I listen by app. And Steve and I say, Yay! We love that. Yeah. And the letter goes on, and Steve and Greg frequently ask us to share what we’re learning from Dr. McGee’s studies and what we appreciate about the World Prayer Team. My husband and I have been listening for many, many years. One thing that always amazes me is that as many times as we’ve heard Dr. McGee teach through a book, the lesson is always fresh. Sometimes I do say to my husband, we’ve heard that story before, usually a personal story Dr. McGee is sharing, but the teaching of God’s word is always new. I really appreciate it when a prayer is included for the country or person that is the subject of the daily email. I struggle with prayer. I try and follow various tips on how to pray, but I usually feel that our Lord must be yawning while I’m praying. Thus, I really appreciate it when you lead us.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, Isla, thank you so much for your openness. I know that at one time or another, all of us have struggled with prayer. You know, are we boring the Lord or are we just being redundant? But I would encourage you to continue on in prayer. And as we give that encouragement to you, Greg, why don’t you go ahead and lead us in prayer.
SPEAKER 03 :
And the thing is, it’s just talking to your heavenly father. Right. That’s what it is. So let’s talk to our father now. Father, we do love you. We are so grateful that you constantly condescend to our weaknesses, and you embrace us through Christ, and we don’t have anything to fear when we enter your presence. And so now we ask that you’ll bless today’s study and bless us as we open your word. In Jesus’ name, amen.
SPEAKER 04 :
Let’s turn to James 5 as we make our way through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, we are reluctant to leave the little epistle of James. I’ve spent all this time with it because we allotted it to it. We’d never spent this much time before, and it has been a neglected epistle. In fact, a great many felt like it’s not even worth considering. But I trust that we that have been together now for these several weeks, that we all agree that this is a part of God’s Word and a very important part of God’s Word. In fact, there’s no part of it that’s not important. Now, last time in this fifth chapter, we saw what we term the riches are a care of to the rich, and the rich are warned here. And we label, actually, the entire chapter, the vexation of the rich and the value of the imminent coming of Christ. But really, there’s more in this chapter than that. Now, there are two things about the rich that God condemns. He does not condemn riches as such. That if they make their riches by stepping on the hands of those beneath them, on the ladder of riches, and hurting them, then God will judge that. And that is a word of warning to, I think, rich men, great corporations, and great labor unions, and great church organizations also. Now, not only the way they make it, but the way that they spend it. He says in verse 5, “…ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton. Ye have nourished your hearts as in the day of slaughter.” And today, I would say that the great problem in the world is not actually racial. I don’t think it’s that at all. In fact, I’ve never felt that. The color of a man’s skin and his race just doesn’t divide the human family. We’re all members of the human family, and it’s a pretty bad family. The whole kit and caboodle of us are, regardless of that. We’re in sin. We’ve been conceived in sin. Sin is in our heart. We have an old nature and that hasn’t anything in the world to do with race at all. But there is a tremendous division today and it’s not political division. The great division today and it’s getting wider is rich and poor. and the power of the rich. Now, the very interesting thing that God says here in verse 6 is, “…ye have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you.” Now, I don’t know this. I’m not on the end by any means. But when we look about us today at the governments of the world, and our own particular government, it hasn’t anything to do with a party. because the two parties are as much alike as two black-eyed peas. They’re just not different, that’s all. But it would look as if there is a power structure above that manipulates government today, manipulates the economy. And we hear a great deal about the freedom of the press, and their freedom is to brainwash people, and they’re supposed to be freedom of speech. and freedom of religion. But you try to get this program on your most powerful radio station in any city in the country during the week and see how far you get. You find out it wouldn’t make any difference how much money you had. You just couldn’t buy time to teach the word of God. We only get on certain stations and thank God for them. But may I say to you that the important thing to note here is he doth not resist you. Now, the rich are getting by with it today and the sinners getting by with it. And that disturbed David at first. And David said, why, they spread themselves like a green bay tree. And not only that, he says, they have no changes. David says, I do something wrong and I get punished for it. God takes me to the woodshed and believe me, I have a lot of changes. But the king of Babylon, he just keeps right on going. Nothing stops him. And that is actually God’s judgment on them. He’s not judging now. But if you’ll notice the end of which they come, it’s tremendous today. And riches have never really brought happiness. to mankind at all. And that’s the important thing that he’s talking about here. And the point then is, God’s not resisting them. Then what can believers do? What can we do today? Should we join some organization? Should we go all out for good government? Well, I think that certainly we ought to be for good government. And we ought to be interested, I think, today in trying to elect the best man, if the word best can be applied to politicians anymore. You wonder today, what can we do? Well, now listen to God. He’s speaking now to his own children. Verse 7, Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Now, the Word of God has a great deal to say. And when we were in the prophets, I called attention to it. God has a great deal to say about The fact that when Christ comes and sets up his kingdom, the poor are going to get a good deal and a right deal, an honest deal for the first time in the history of the world. And that is the thing that all of the prophets mentioned, by the way, and the thing that they emphasized. But with righteousness shall he judge the poor. And that’s in Isaiah 11, 4. And believe me, the poor haven’t had a good deal yet. And if you think changing a party is going to somehow or another give the poor a good deal, and I don’t mean to be a pessimist, but friends, you’re just not going to look to mankind. That is, men that are grasping for power and money. I know what they say, but they’re not going to take care of them. Our only hope is in Jesus Christ. And if there’s any group of people, That ought to be interested in the Lord Jesus Christ. It ought to be the poor people of this world because he’s going to give them the right kind of a deal when he establishes his kingdom here upon the earth. Be patient, therefore, brethren, under the coming of the Lord. This is a tremendous statement you see here. The coming of Christ will correct the wrongs of the world. And we could multiply these scriptures again and again, all of the prophets. And even when he came, he made it clear that the poor under his reign read the Sermon on the Mount. And that will be the law of the kingdom. And you’ll find out that he intends to give the poor a square deal. Read Matthew 6, 19 through 24. I’ll not take time to turn there at all. He says, “…now behold, the farmer waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.” And we’ll be talking about that when we get back to the book of Joel, by the way. And that’s where we go next time. When we finish James today, next time we go back to the little prophecy of Joel. And he has something to say about the early and latter rain. I’ll talk about it there. In other words, the farmer, when he plants his grain, doesn’t go out the next morning to see if it’s time to harvest it. Be patient. The harvest is coming. And I would like to say this very carefully. We share a great deal today that what we do when we go out in evangelism and give out the word of God that we’re harvesting. Now, I disagree with that figure of speech. The Lord Jesus was at the end of the age when he said, and he was sending out, you remember, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That was not worldwide. He says, the harvest is great, the labor is of few. They were at the end of the age of law. And every age that’s ended has ended in judgment. This age will end in a judgment from God. That will be the harvest. You remember in the 13th chapter of Matthew, he said that he’ll send his angels and they’ll do the gathering in for the harvest. He is the one that separates the tares and the wheat. You see, now what are we doing? Well, he’s also a sower, and today he’s sowing seed. And I consider that my business. I’m on radio, and I can’t ask you to put up your hand, and I don’t see any value putting your hand on the radio either. There’s nothing in the world I can do but just sit right here, friends, and attempt to teach the Word of God. I’m just sowing seed, and some falls on good ground. Hallelujah for that. Maybe not too much of it, but it falls on good ground. Our business is sowing seed. Now, will you notice, verse 8, “…be ye also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth near.” We should live in the light. That’s the teaching all the way through Scripture of the coming of Christ. Now, he says, “‘Murmur not one against another, brethren, lest ye be judged. Behold, the judge standeth before the door.'” You know, it’s going to be very embarrassing if the Lord should come while you are sitting in judgment on somebody else, and you find yourself in his presence, and he’s judging you. That would be very embarrassing. And what he’s really saying here is, “‘Set your house in order.'” Get your affairs straightened out before he comes, because he’s going to straighten them out if you don’t. And that’s very important for believers. Verse 10, take my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. Remember the prophets are an example to us. They suffered and they were patient. And now he gives us here an example. Verse 11, behold, we count them happy who endure. You’ve heard of the patience of Job. And that’s about all that I know about Job’s patience. I’ve heard of it. I feel Job was very impatient as you go through the book of Job. But actually, he learned patience. He was an impatient man, but he learned patience. You’ve heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. You have to go to the end of this man’s trial. And you find out he learned a great lesson. Now he says, “…but above all things, my brethren, swear not neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea, your nay nay, lest ye fall into condemnation.” In other words, my friend, when you say something that you’re going to do, it ought to be on the same plane as if you were in a courtroom and had taken an oath and you were under oath to tell the truth. Your conversation ought to be like that. And I remember my dad went to the bank to borrow money one year to get the cotton gin started. And the banker was busy and he told him, he says, go ahead. Well, he says, I haven’t signed the note and I never shall. What the banker said to my dad, he says, if you say you’ll do it, that’s just as good as if you signed it. So come in later and sign up. May I say to you, a man’s word ought to be just that good. And some people, even when they take an oath on a stack of Bibles, you have a little trouble with them. Verse 13, “…is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms.” Now, the afflicted are to pray, and the merry are to sing psalms. And that ought to answer the question, whether a song leader has a right to get up in a service and say to everybody, and everybody sit up and smile. And I used to have a song leader like that years ago, and I got rid of him. I told him, don’t you know that here on Thursday night, that there are people that come in. And I said, as I look out there, I see one man, he’s a doctor, and he’s been busy all day with patients, sick people. And there’s a buyer for a department store. I see her sitting out there. She’s weary. She’s tired. And you tell her that she’s got to sit up and smile. No, you don’t have to sit up and smile. The afflicted are to pray. The merry are to sing songs. Don’t put on a front. Some people go to church and then try to work up some sort of an enthusiasm. May I say to you, we ought to have that great passion and enthusiasm before we go there. But we don’t have to sit up and smile for some song leader. And chances are he’s been loafing all day. Verse 14, is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. Now, I have a great many wonderful Pentecostal folks. And it may be that you want to just tune me out at this particular time because I want to say something here that I feel is very important. There’s a tragic story that happened in a little town near Los Angeles where a man threw away the insulin that his little son was supposed to take because he said God was going to heal him. And the little fellow died. And then the man must be very fanatic. He said, the Lord is going to raise him up because he had been anointed. Now, the leaders of the denomination that he belongs to said that he was never told anything like that. And I believe it because I have had the privilege of meeting on several occasions in the past with the man who taught theology in one of the outstanding Pentecostal schools. And he told this to me. He said, Dr. McGee, I want you to know I agree with you when you were healed of cancer that just anybody can be healed. It has to be the will of God. And when they say that, I’m right with them because I stand in that category. Now, the question arises, is it God’s will for every Christian who gets sick that he should be healed? And if your answer is yes, and you follow that line of thinking to the logical conclusion, you must agree that that person, that Christian will never die. And he’ll be healed of every disease that causes death. And may I say that’s ridiculous because if you do get healed today, I’ve been healed of cancer, but I expect to die if the Lord doesn’t come in the meantime. May I say I feel it’s a cruel hoax. One of the most cruel. And it’s been perpetrated on many simple believers that it’s God’s will for all to be healed. Well, what he’s saying here is something quite interesting. It says, and he makes it very clear. Now, I want to read it. And it’s not actually a question here. Someone is sick among you. Not a question. Someone’s sick among you. What do you do? Let him call for the elders of the church. Let them pray over him. All right, let the elders come and pray. That’s one thing. And the thing that is separate, let him be anointed with oil in the name of the Lord. Now, this word anoint, there are two words that are translated anoint. And one of them is used in a religious sense. And that word in the Greek is cryo. And we get from that our word Christos. Christ was the anointed one. And it means to anoint with some scented ungent or oil. And it’s only used five times in the New Testament. And it refers to the anointing of Christ by God the Father with the Holy Spirit. Now, there’s another word, and that’s the word that’s used here. It’s alepho, and you find that used many times. I think that I have one reference here, and that’s all I’ll give you. In Matthew 6, verse 17, the Lord Jesus said, But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face. Now, all that means is to just put a little Bryl cream, Vitalis, on your hair so that you’ll look all right. Now, may I say this very carefully? Alepho is the mundane and profane, according to Trench. And the other word, krio, means it’s a sacred and religious word. Here, it is alepho, and all it means to rub with oil. You remember that when Hezekiah was sick, they put something on that boil that he had an oil on it. And actually, what James is saying in a very practical way is, Call for the eldest to pray and go to the best doctor that you can get. That’s exactly what he’s saying. You are to use medicine. And this idea that you think it’s a religious ceremony to put a little oil out of a bottle on somebody’s head as if that has some merit, has no merit whatsoever. And James is just too practical to use that. But he’s practical enough and he was a man of prayer. He says, call for the eldest to pray. And that’s the reason. When I got sick, I put it out on the radio. I believe in the priesthood of believers. And I believe before God as he makes it clear here about Elijah. And I’m going to drop down to that now. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick. And I believe. that you’re to call on God’s people to pray for you. And the Lord shall raise him up, and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. But confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that you may be healed. Now, I don’t have time to talk about that. You confess your sins to God, but faults one to another. If I’ve injured you, then I ought to confess that to you. But I’m not confessing my sin to you, and I don’t want you confessing your sin to me. You confess that to the Lord. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just. I can’t forgive sins. Now, will you notice? He goes on. The effectual, fervent power of a righteous man availeth much. Now, James was a great man of prayer. He was called Old Camel Knees. And there’s another great man of prayer. Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we And he prayed earnestly that it might not rain. It rained not on the earth space of three years, six months. Can you imagine that? Elijah was a weatherman for three years and held back the rain. Didn’t come till he prayed. You are the same kind of a person today. Elijah wasn’t a superman, man alike passions, but a man that prayed with passion. And that’s the kind of praying we need today. And he says, brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, one convert him, let him know that he who converted the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, shall hide a multitude of sins, not in the one who leads him to Christ, but of the one that has come to Christ. His sins now are forgiven him. Well, that finishes the epistle of James. We meet you next time in the prophecy of Job. Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 04 :
And like Greg and I shared earlier, if you’re not already on our World Prayer Team, it’s super easy to sign up. Just go to ttb.org forward slash pray. Now next time, the Bible bus is going to be heading to the Old Testament book of Joel. So I hope that you’ll hop aboard as we begin another great adventure in God’s amazing word. See you then.
SPEAKER 02 :
All to him I owe. Sin had left the prince unsaved. He washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 04 :
Through the Bible exists to take God’s whole word to the whole world. And we invite you to stand with us with your faithful prayer and financial support. Where will God’s word go today?
