Room for Improvement (Part C)

Have you ever been in the midst of some awful stuff and you've felt the temptation to start making promises to God? If you get me through this, if I get you through this what? If I get you through this, you're probably going to be the same person you were when you started this. So it is a good idea to watch what we say. Super yeses! They undermine our trustworthiness.

Why can't a person just say, okay, I'll do it or no, I won't do it? This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Rick is currently teaching through the book of James.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick as he continues teaching through James chapter 5 and his message called Room for Improvement. When I get to heaven my prayers are preserved. In the book of Revelation we see the angel with the incense representing the prayers of the saints. In other words, they're in heaven and they're preserved. They're remembered by God. I remember you were talking to me. You kept talking to me, looking for me, trusting me, even though you did not hear from me outside of my scripture, outside of encouragements. I don't want to be condemned.

I want to avoid sin and I do not want to. It's so easy to just be a grumbler. Anybody, any doofus on the planet can be good at being a grumbler. You go to the front of the class. You out grumble the rest of your brethren.

All right. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. Why does he bring that up? He wants to say, listen, if Christ was outside the door right now, would you behave this way?

No. Well, he is. He's outside the door. That word judge, that gets my attention because it hauls in the possibility of penalty executed. And I don't want execution of penalty on me.

And so may we live like we sense his presence. You say, I try, but certain things come my way. I fold up. I crumble. Yes, but while you're crumbling, do you not still believe that God has the capacity to forgive you and still work with you? So long as you hate the things that make you crumble.

I know I do. I would leave the faith if I thought God wouldn't forgive me. That's it. I'm done. I cannot do it. I'm done.

But I never get to that point. Because we're sin abounded, grace did much more. There now is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

And I'm staying in Christ Jesus. Verse 10, my brethren take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. Well, patience and suffering, to me, they go together. Impatience is a form of suffering.

Patience, you know, you can get better at it as the years go by. And you say, look at this. I am riding this wave. I'm actually doing this. Now, don't get big headed. Don't mess it up.

You can go backwards very quickly. But the prophets, they were unpopular. They were unpopular because they preached to the consciences of people, their own countrymen. And so Jesus said, Jerusalem, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one, the one that kills the prophets, stones those who are sent to. You talk about righteousness and the faith, but yet you're killing the very people God sends to you. Acts chapter 7, Stephen, as they were murdering him, he says, well, right before, which is what triggered everything, which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one. Them's big words.

Powerful words. It also has the deity of Christ in that, the coming of the just one. That's an Old Testament title that was exclusive to Yahweh, and yet he assigns it to Christ. God's servants face mean people. Unfortunately, in this country right now, I think we face more mean people in churches than outside of churches. In other countries, it's just not the case. They face more mean people outside the church.

So you can be any either way. Just don't you be one of them. God's servants, they suffer heartache. Any of you ever had heartache?

I'm sure you have, especially you older saints. Things that just hurt your heart. Things that make the moment sickening.

There's just nothing you can do about it. A lost loved one, for example. That's heartache.

A backstabber. That's not backache. That's heartache. It hurts.

It doesn't hurt my back. It hurts my heart. And many other such experiences. The prophets had to deal with these things. The prophets, they spent their lives in war for truth against lies, and we are supposed to do the same. But we have to learn how to do this, lest we become...well, you've heard of a loose cannon. How about a loose sword?

The sword's just flying around. How many Christians are like, oh man, I know you're zealous for the kingdom, but you've not been around long enough to learn how to use that thing in situations like this or that? So serious is truth that people have killed many people for daring to tell the truth.

We get that. Acts chapter 21, this is Paul's response to that fact of life. For I am ready not only to be bound but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. Is that not a beautiful phrase?

A beautiful word. I am ready not only to be bound and whatever that brings, the torture, the beatings, the shame, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. The prophets thought that truth was more important than their own lives. I hope on my drive home that my drive home is dominated by that thought.

I hope I think of that more often in my life. That doesn't mean that I become, as a prophet of God, as one who speaks, for every believer is one who speaks the truth of God in this context that I'm using it. It doesn't mean we're reckless with the truth we have, quite the opposite.

We're very careful. We're led by the Spirit of God Himself. He is our leader, our Lord, our master. Satan injects lies into everything about God because of his great hatred for God, for God's truth. Jesus said, and we all know this verse, blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My name's sake.

Have any of you ever had anyone say things about you that were mean and nasty because of your faith? It hurts. You feel it. It's not like, oh, that was wonderful.

I wish I could find five other people who would do this to me. Jesus said, rejoice. You go, huh?

Sorry, that sounded like I have had, like I've been there. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward, not here in heaven. That's what He says, in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You belong to an exclusive club of believers.

And so when He says, My brethren, take the prophets, for example, consider the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. Well, I like to read about that. I just don't want to go through any of it. I don't want to be steeped in getting stoned or preaching a really good sermon. Don't worry about that, Rick.

You won't ever have that problem. Okay, enough laughing. That's enough. Well, as an example of suffering. Well, patience, again, self-restraint, we understand that. It's self-restraint for the moment, but endurance is long-term self-restraint. That's when we get to find out if your patience is really from the Lord. Or is it just this, and that was it, to endure.

It means to withstand the intensity that accompanies prolonged strife, pressure, constant pressure, long-term pressure. So if you put the two together, patience and endurance, you end up with long-suffering. That's what we do with each other.

We are supposed to. In Colossians chapter 1, strengthen with all might, according to his glorious power, for all patience and long-suffering with joy. That doesn't fit well.

There seems to be a contradiction there. Long-suffering, not short-suffering, with joy. Well, you better be spiritual if you're going to pull this one off.

You better be looking to walk with Christ if you're going to have any success with this, because if you're trying your own strength, you're going to fail. 1 Corinthians 13, love suffers long and it is still kind. It says love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy, does not parade itself, is not puffed up. That's pride, self-serving pride. To puff up. Knowledge will puff up.

Some of you younger Christians, as you're learning in life, you're learning about things maybe your parents have forgotten, and you start puffing up, because you mention it and mom or dad might say, hmm, I don't have a clue. I'm glad you got it, though. And you feel like, hey, I'm smarter than you.

No, you're not. Perish the thought. You just, you have to watch out.

You don't puff up. It destroys. It does not edify. What are you going to do with the things you learn? Do you want to become a know-it-all? Someone, everybody, a voice, here they come, quick, out the window.

But we're on the 15th floor, it's worth it, jump. 1 Corinthians 13, 4, love suffers long and is kind. And verse 7 of 1 Corinthians 13, bears all things. I failed there. Believes all things.

I succeed there, it seems. It doesn't mean gullibility. It believes the things of the Lord.

Hopes all things, endures all things. Those who suffer for God's truth are conquerors. Those who suffer for God's truth are the conquerors.

They were in the will of God for preaching in the name of God. That's why they suffered, preaching his message. But Satan will come along and say to a faithful Christian that you're suffering because of your unfaithfulness, because of your sin. Well, the prophets suffered because of their faithfulness. So suffering is not by itself an indication that you are being judged by God or you've brought something upon yourself.

One of the easy ways to begin to deal with that is to look around and say, wait a minute, if I'm suffering for my sins, and this was what Job's argument was, then you guys should be laid out on the floor dead long time ago. And so we must never think that obedience automatically produces pleasure. It will produce the joy of pleasing the Lord, but it may not bring pleasant circumstances our way. Obedience led Christ to the cross. Verse 11, indeed we count them blessed who endured.

You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate. Well, yeah, we admire those who have the ability to withstand hardship. We read their biographies and their autobiographies. We admire them.

We just don't want to have to do it. However, I think we admire them because we are hoping that should it be our turn to face such things as they face, that we will perform as they did. And that is a noble ambition. If lack of opportunity and lack of ability have slain its thousands, then failing to endure has slain ten thousands. If we don't stay the course in spite of opposition, resistance, hardships, arrows, whatever it is, then we just join the number of the majority who have succumbed to such things, but we are supposed to be different.

And this is why the writers of the Bible warn against fainting time and time and time again, over and over in Scripture. We're being encouraged to be strong, encouraged to move forward. God's Word is given to us to produce a robust quality of faith in our Christian character.

It is to make improvement, which again, there's always room for. Romans 15, 4, whatever things were written before were written for our learning that we, through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. One of the first places we run to when we're struggling with a long-term hope is the book of Job.

We find strength and comfort there. So James says, you have heard of the perseverance of Job. He waited for God. He did not stop believing. Oh, he expressed himself. He came very close, very close to a blasphemy, but he never crossed that line. He just told it like it was. I'm not going to lie to God.

That was Job's position. This is how I feel. I feel like he set me up as a target.

Jeremiah, in his lamentation, does the same thing. He tells it like it is. I'm going to play games with God. This is what I'm going through. He knows that.

I have to tell him. An unbeliever won't do that. And so this Job, he was suffering without abandoning God. James giving us a brief commentary on Job.

You say, well, where's this patience of Job? Job 19, 25, I know my redeemer lives, and he shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another, and how my heart yearns within me. The misery the man was going through. Unbeknownst to him, he was the battlefield of God for others.

Job 14, 14, all the days of my hard service I will wait till my change comes. There are grounds for James to make such a claim about Job that he was patient. Just because he voices himself doesn't mean he was impatient. What did he do in the midst of the circumstances? Ultimately, he stood his ground in his faith. James continues, verse 11, and seeing the end intended by the Lord. The intended end was that the lying devil would be defeated. What was the devil's lie? Job, he just serves you because it's skin for skin with that guy.

But put some pain on him and he'll stop serving you. And Satan was defeated in the midst of Job's suffering. Job defeated the devil. Man's faith defeated the enemy's determination to destroy him. And we learn from this.

We are encouraged by this. That the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. We've seen the end intended by the Lord. That the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. God was not cruel in this contest using Job. What Christian, again, has not benefited from the story. God saw beyond the suffering of Job, just like he saw beyond the suffering of his son on the cross. God was using this to strengthen countless multitudes over the ages.

Psalm 85, verse 5, for you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive and abundant mercy to all those who call upon you. Because we see beyond this life, many a Christian have gone to their grave, at the hand of an early grave, at the hand of some violent, evil person, still singing praises to the Lord, believing in the Lord because of their faith. So you may read this part of James and just think, well, he's just summing up the letter. He's just concluding things. He's not. He is laying out what the Christian life is all about with every word. Nothing he is saying is trivial to him. If it were, he would have edited out.

Any pastor that steps into the pulpit has edited out countless thoughts that he has in preparation. Because he's asking God, does this stay in? Does this not? Should I say this?

Should I not? I see this is what you're showing me. Well, the writers of the New Testament, that is precisely what was going on with them, doesn't take much at all for the Holy Spirit to say, don't do that. Or do that.

Or how about this? I believe born-again Christians experience this from time to time, which makes it very difficult when we're suffering and all of a sudden we're not picking up any signals from heaven. Someone is jamming the line.

No, there's no one jamming the line. We are right where God has us. And that's, again, the story of Job. God said, this is where you are.

You have to deal with this. And he did. That the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. Verse 12, But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no no, lest you fall into judgment. What he says, but above all, it's distinct. It's a distinction he's making. Is he saying, over everything else I've said in this letter, or is he just talking about the preceding section? It's difficult to tell. It really doesn't matter, because he goes real deep with this. He's getting down into the heart, and that's why it doesn't matter, because it covers it all. He's quoting his Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew's Gospel 5, the Sermon on the Mount. Let your yes be yes and your no no, for whatever is more than these is from the evil one. It's also a good thing for parenting.

If you tell your kid no, stick by it and don't keep reversing it. But anyway, I know sometimes, but as a rule, that is a wonderful guideline. This exhortation, it may seem out of place. You may say, what?

This is random. He's talking about Job and persevering. Then he says, don't swear.

Huh? Well, have you ever been in the midst of some awful stuff, and you've felt the temptation to start making promises to God? If you get me through this, if I get you through this, what? If I get you through this, you're probably going to be the same person you were when you started this. So it is a good idea to watch what we say.

Super yeses. They undermine our trustworthiness. Why can't a person just say, okay, I'll do it, or no, I won't do it? Why?

No, I really, really, really will. Oh, okay, you did four. How many reallys was that? Because each one bumps up your trustworthiness five percent. Suggesting that there are varying degrees of dependability to your word, because you've sworn it. And this was a big problem with the Jews. That's why Jesus dealt with it, and James is still dealing with it.

This was a problem in their culture. I don't believe Christians should walk around, I swear. I promise. Why can't you just say yes, I'll do it?

It's good enough. We believers are to be so much a person of our word that oaths are not necessary, and that's the word here that he's using for swear. It's oaths, an expression of one's feelings, and those who are dishonest, those who tend to exaggerate, they won't find that insisting that they're telling the truth this time causes others to trust in them. And so don't do it, Christian. You don't have to.

Just say yes or just say no. There are oaths that are acceptable. Serious occasions. Marriage vows. In court. If you are summoned to court and you have to say you are going on record that what you say is exactly what you saw, for example.

I'll close with this. Jesus was put under oath in court, and he answered the question. He didn't say, I don't take oaths.

He answered the question. There are other examples in the New Testament, but we'll just stay with this one. Matthew 26, verse 23. Jesus kept silent, and the high priest answered and said to him, I put you under oath by the living God.

Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said to him, it is as you said, punk. No, he didn't say that, but he should have said it.

He didn't say it, just in case. CrossReferenceRadio.com. If you've been blessed by this program, we'd love to hear from you. When you visit the website, simply click on the contact us link at the top of the page and leave us a message. That website again is CrossReferenceRadio.com. Please join us again next time as we continue our study through the book of James right here on CrossReferenceRadio.