From our Journey Through James series, our Sunday service on July 2, 2023, with a short Fourth of July message on freedom in Christ and the close of James, James 5:12–20. Watch the full message: A Journey Through James 6 on YouTube.
The last few times I’ve been up here have been pretty unconventional, and I realized that if I’m unconventional three out of four weeks of the month, maybe you should just expect unconventional every week. So today we are doing two messages. I have to finish the one from last week, and since it is almost the Fourth of July, I can’t get up here the week before and not mention it. First, a short message on freedom.
A Fourth of July Message: Freedom in Christ
We have freedom to worship here every Sunday with no problem, and I pray we wouldn’t take that for granted. But the highest freedom we can ever receive was purchased on our behalf on a hill outside of Jerusalem, as Jesus freely offered Himself for us. Our shackles were broken and our chains were removed. His death became our life and His shame became our glory, and we have been set free to live, to love, and to serve. Here is what the Bible says about that freedom.
Truth and Freedom
Real freedom comes from knowing the truth. In John 8:31–32:
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
John 8:31–32
That verse is very common, and it echoes what James has been teaching in our series: if you continue in My word, you are My disciples indeed, which is what James means by being a doer of the word and not a hearer only. And when you are like that, you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
Is the truth some secret knowledge that we have and other people don’t? No. John 14:6 makes it clear what the truth is. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Truth is Jesus Christ. You shall know Jesus, and Jesus shall make you free. If you are here today and have never accepted Christ as your Savior, I’m sorry, but you can’t understand the power of that statement. We can be free in this country and still be unfree because we don’t believe in Christ. As Paul says in Philippians 3:10–11:
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Philippians 3:10–11
Freedom comes from knowing Christ. There are some things we need to believe to have it. We can’t just believe that Jesus was a good man or a good teacher. Either He was a good teacher and the Son of God, or He was a bad teacher and a liar. He can’t be both. If we don’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God and rose from the dead, we are not going to know Him and His power. If you haven’t known Jesus Christ, I encourage you to come forward today, accept Him, and receive the freedom He can give.
Christ’s Sacrifice and Our Liberty
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Galatians 5:1
Once you are saved, Christ has liberated you from your sin and from its consequences. He has forgiven us and given us a new life, and Paul encourages the Galatians to stand firm in that freedom. If we need to stand firm, it is possible not to. There is a struggle, an entanglement with the yoke of bondage, like thorns wrapping you up. Paul also uses the picture of a runner in the Olympics wearing a long robe that tangles around his legs and trips him up. Being entangled in sin trips you over and over again. Our freedom in Christ is lost when we entangle our lives in sin, and if we are living in sin we will never experience the blessings God gives us every single day.
“Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” God has given us grace and mercy, and sin won’t have power over us anymore. Before we knew Jesus we were torn left and right toward every temptation, but God has given us a Spirit that can convict us, direct us, encourage us, and lift us up. The Old Testament law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, and once it brings us to Christ it is no longer there to restrain us. Those people struggled over the regular sins we recognize today, but also over ceremonial sins of uncleanness, like touching a dead animal and having to wash. Those rules didn’t give them freedom. They restrained them. But we are under grace, and God’s salvation was not meant to give us rules to hold us back. It was to liberate us from the guilt of sin, so that we can lay it aside and let Christ and His Spirit have control instead.
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Romans 6:15–17
Paul asks whether we should continue in sin just because we are forgiven. No. God has given us something greater than forgiveness: He has given us liberty. You can choose to be a servant of sin unto death or a servant of obedience, that is, a servant of Christ, unto righteousness. One way or another, we are going to be a servant to something.
The unbelievers will say, “Why do you want to place yourself under all these rules? You think you’re better than me. You’re just a slave to what the Bible says.” They don’t realize that the sins they commit are chains on them. It is like a person in prison yelling at you, “Why do you want to be outside this cell? I get three meals a day, and you’re out there paying for your food.” That is not freedom. You might get some enjoyment from sin for a season, the high of “I got away with it,” but one day the bill will come due. You would never give up a five-star meal for a prison meal any day of the week, so why give up the freedom of Christ for slavery to sin? His sacrifice was not for us to be slaves but to be free.
The Presence of the Lord Is Freedom
Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
2 Corinthians 3:17
This country has made some backsteps in its liberty. It proclaims liberty and yet takes it away. But there is a spiritual freedom that is more powerful than anything on this earth. There are people in China under some of the most authoritarian governments who experience true freedom in Christ in a way we can’t even understand. We have been spoiled here in our freedom, but the freedom Christ gives is so much greater than anything a nation can give. David had a rough time before he was king, and yet in the Psalms we see that through the Spirit of God he found comfort and freedom even when he was on the run and at his darkest.
How do we have that communion with God’s Spirit? We study the word. But Bible study doesn’t end with reading your Bible every day. If you read it and set it down and never think about it again, it won’t do you a lot of good. I wrote down a quote one day in school while listening to a preacher: you can read your Bible and pray every day and still be a lukewarm Christian. It doesn’t matter if you read it if you don’t get anything out of it. Joshua 1:8 tells us to meditate on God’s word day and night, not just when we are reading it but throughout the day and night, everywhere we go. That is how Bible study is really supposed to be done. We pray, “God, I read this and I just don’t understand it yet. Make it clear to me what you’re trying to teach me to apply to my life.”
The Spirit of God gives us freedom from certain things and freedom for certain things. There is freedom from sin, from judgment, and from the anxiety, worry, and guilt that come with it. We usually think about that, and we can thank God for it. But there is also freedom for love, for service, for worship, and for life as God intended. We have been set at liberty to serve other people unrestrained. When Jesus was on earth He never just fed a blind man because he was hungry. He healed him, served him, and gave him the spiritual food he needed to recognize Him as Lord. He gives us the freedom to love, because we have felt a love through Christ that we never experienced, so we can share it with others. He gives us freedom to worship, which is what we are here for today, to dedicate some time to the Lord, sing to Him, and learn about Him. And He gives us freedom to live life as God intended. When we live a godly life we don’t have regrets or guilt weighing over our shoulders. It is liberating. Christ says, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
The Responsibility of Freedom
For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
1 Peter 2:15–16
We had Independence Day and the fight to free our country from the British, but the fights did not end there. There are still wars and enemies coming at this country, so we need soldiers ready to defend it at a moment’s notice. The Christian life is the same. We might be saved and free from the condemnation of hell, but there are still enemies. Satan wants us to trip up and fall back into sin. The battle is not over when we are saved, and we must daily choose to fight for our spiritual freedom. Paul says, “I die daily.” He had to humble himself every single day to make sure the flesh didn’t take over his ministry. Paul had a rough start, as an enemy of Christ, and then he turned around and spent every hour of his life serving Christ. If he had to die daily, how much more do we need to consider that there is a fight every single day?
Many foolish people say Christians are all hypocrites. Peter says that if you do good, you will silence them. They are ignorant and don’t know any better, so show them better. When they see it, they will learn that Christians aren’t just talkers but walkers, or as James says, doers of the word. And don’t use your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness. Don’t put grace on as a covering for your sins just to do more sins. Surrender that freedom to Christ to do His will.
So Christ has fought to make us free. He died on the cross for our sins, He fought the fight, finished it for us, and won us the victory. Daily we need to choose whether we will fight for that freedom in our lives and experience the true freedom Christ has to offer.
James 5:12–20: The Closing Lessons
Last week we restructured the message, and we covered the main segments of the book. Today we look at James’s concluding thoughts, but first we need to remember where we were. James, the half-brother of Jesus Christ and pastor of the Jerusalem church, wrote to a scattered people under persecution in the Roman Empire so that they could be encouraged.
Here are the lessons so far. God wants you to show love, not favoritism: it is easy to love people who look good and are doing well, but harder to love those who are struggling. God wants you to show genuine faith through your works, not just listen to the Scriptures without going out and doing them. God wants you to control your tongue, which is a fire, a world of iniquity, set on fire by hell, and a fast way to destroy your testimony and ruin your whole life. God wants you to have a wise lifestyle, so that people see someone authentic as a Christian and not a hypocrite. God wants you to be at peace with your Christian family, not coveting what others have been blessed with. God wants you to avoid condemning others: don’t make yourselves masters, because teachers receive the greater condemnation. God wants you to control your arrogance and humble yourselves. You don’t know whether what you plan will succeed, life is a vapor, so stop bragging about your plans and say, “If the Lord will.” Then last week: beware the dangers of wealth, because the rich who cheated their employees will face God’s judgment, and wait patiently for the Lord, who will make everything right. It was not easy for a church that was scattered, with unfamiliar cities and hostile markets, but you have to endure as a Christian. Today we look at the last three lessons: make your intentions clear, know the healing power of prayer, and seek to return the backslider.
Make Your Intentions Clear
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; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
James 5:12
First, “above all things” is not saying this is more important than everything else James has said. It is a Greek idiom for the conclusion of everything, like our “finally” or “in conclusion.” James is adding some lessons he didn’t want to spend a long time developing: in addition to everything we’ve talked about, I have a few things to say in a few words.
Is he saying never make a promise? No, because the Bible does say in some passages to make promises. In a commentary I read, many Jewish people in James’s time made distinctions between a binding oath and a non-binding oath. Oaths that did not include the name of God were considered non-binding, and to use them was a way of crossing your fingers behind your back while telling a lie. James condemns those oaths. “I promise I will give you the money I owe you next week” would be non-binding, with your fingers crossed behind your back. It would only be binding if you said, “I promise before God.” James says you guys are dishonest, and this common practice is not good for Christians. When you say yes it should mean yes, and when you say no it should mean no.
The modern equivalent is “I promise next week I’ll give you my money.” We know what that is when we hear it. If you have to say “I promise,” that means you’re not trustworthy. If you are trustworthy, you just say, “Next week I’ll give you the money,” and people trust you. As a Christian you shouldn’t have to give a disclaimer that you’re sincere this time. People should know you are sincere by your character. The need to swear rather than give a simple yes or no demonstrates the untrustworthiness of one’s word. So James says: Christians, let your integrity be so obvious that you don’t need to state it out loud.
Know the Healing Power of Prayer
Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 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: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
James 5:13–15
I’ve read this passage many times and skipped over how it is worded, so pay attention. Often I hear it preached in terms of the church as a whole: is any among you afflicted, let us pray for them; is anyone happy, let us sing with them. But that’s not what the verse says. It says let him. James is calling out the personal responsibility of the believer to call on his brethren to help him. If you’re afflicted, pray yourself, get time with God. If you’re happy, express that to God. This is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you’re sorrowful, tell Jesus. If you’re happy, tell Jesus. If you are sick, call your church, call Pastor Shank, call Pastor Zach, and say, “I’m sick, can you have the church pray for me?” We have a prayer list for that. It is interesting that the Bible says it is not the responsibility of the pastor but of the sick to call on the church to pray for them. That doesn’t mean we won’t pray for you if we know, but the responsibility is for you to tell us, so that we can serve you and serve Christ well.
The anointing with oil is likely medicinal. We get an example from the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:33–34:
But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
Luke 10:33–34
So the oil has a two-part meaning. One is medicine: treat the person, but give the medicine in the name of the Lord, praying God’s blessing over the medicine, the operation, and the recovery. Medicine can work, but medicine and God can work miracles, so we ought to bring God into the picture. The oil is also a picture of the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, anointing with oil showed God’s Spirit over the king or the person chosen to be used by God, so the oil pictures the Spirit of God being poured out over that person as we hand them over to God and His will. The Bible also makes clear that sometimes we are suffering because of sin and those sins need to be forgiven. If you pray for this person, God will forgive their sins through your prayers and heal them.
Confess Your Faults
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
James 5:16–18
This is something I think we struggle with as the modern church. I have only seen it come together once, and I really wish I could see it active in the church today. We are not just supposed to pray for one another but to confess our faults to one another, and for that a church needs great spiritual unity. David Guzik says, “Confession breaks the power of secret sin,” and I think that is so true. As long as we keep sin to ourselves it still has power over us, with the fear of someone discovering it and the embarrassment that comes with it. Getting it out there means it can’t control us. That openness allows people to hold us accountable and help us on our walk.
What does confession look like? First, it should be made to the one you sinned against. Say you’ve talked behind someone’s back and now feel guilty. Do you confess to the whole church? No, that would embarrass them. You go to that person and say, “I need to come clean. I’ve been saying things about you behind your back that were not right. I don’t want to hide that, I want to be honest with you, I’m sorry, and I’m changing.” When you do, that sin has no power over you anymore. You’ve set the story straight.
Sometimes confession should be made publicly, or with a group of people you trust. It shouldn’t be made to people you don’t trust, because it can be used against you. It is a vulnerable thing, but sometimes a group setting is appropriate. Gather family or friends who fear the Lord and say, “This has been going on in my life and I’ve been hiding it. It’s ruining my life, and I want you to hold me accountable and pray for me every day.” Public confession must be discreet. We don’t want to tell everybody all our problems, because Satan is still walking about seeking whom he may devour, and if you tell the wrong person it can hurt you. But fear to the point that we never confess our faults to one another is damaging to our Christian walk. The person I confess my faults to is my roommate from college. Even today I’ll talk to him through Discord, telling him what I’m struggling with and asking him to pray. You need somebody like that in your life, maybe a few people you can talk to and pray with so that you can be healed.
Why? Because “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James gives the example of Elijah, who was “a man subject to like passions as we are.” What were his passions? Not necessarily lustful ones, but he had desires and struggles like ours. We hold him in high regard, but Elijah struggled a lot. In 1 Kings 19:4:
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
1 Kings 19:4
Elijah sat under a tree and said, “God, kill me, I’ll never be as good as the people who came before me.” He worried that nobody would stand beside him in defense of God: everyone who followed you has forsaken you and fallen aside, I’m left alone, what’s the point anymore? He was defeated, and so low that he prayed for God to take his life. Yet James says he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain for three years and six months. Even someone struggling this much can have an effective prayer life. Here Elijah confessed it to God: “I’ve had enough.” He felt alone and unheard. What happened? God showed him His presence. Elijah was listening for God in the big things, the earthquake, the thunder, and the wind, but he found God in the still small voice, in the small things, and God heard Elijah and used him despite his struggle and crisis of faith. If God can use Elijah, He can use us, and if Elijah’s prayer can stop the rain, our prayers can do great things too.
So there are three kinds of prayer here. Verse 13 is a prayer for the afflicted. Verse 14 is a prayer for the physically sick. Verse 16 is a prayer for the spiritually sick or afflicted. We should pray for our afflictions, for our physical ailments, and for the spiritually sick and afflicted around us.
Return the Backslider
Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
James 5:19–20
“If any of you do err from the truth.” Doesn’t that sound familiar from our little mini message? Who is the truth? Jesus Christ. The person who falls into sin is a slave to sin, as we talked about. James is encouraging believers to seek out those among them who struggle in the areas he has talked about throughout this book: covetousness, arrogance, hiding their sins. If you can convert them, you will save a soul from death, not from hell but from a wasted life. If you get them back on track, you help them stop being hearers of the word and start being doers. If you have heard this message and you can change your life, then when you see somebody else who has gone through the same struggle, pull them aside and help them. You will save them from a death-filled lifestyle, and they will have a lot less to regret in their lives.
How do we approach that? The goal is not condemnation but restoration. We are not there to condemn our brother in sin but to restore him, with the attitude of “I’m not condemning you. I’m here to lift you up from the struggle and help you get back on track, just like I would hope you would do for me if I were in the same position.” When we do this with each other, it creates a body of unity in the church. If people are lovingly and restoringly correcting each other, confessing faults becomes easier, and when confessing faults is easier, restoration is easier. These things are cyclical, and when they are all done properly, the church functions much more efficiently and we grow closer to Christ as we grow closer together as brothers in Christ.
To Conclude
What kind of Christian do we want to be? Are we going to be hearers who sit and absorb every church service but never change, or doers who hear the teachings of Christ and make them an active part of our lives? We don’t have to be perfect every day to be a doer of the word, but we do need to be purposeful in our desire to be one. James mentioned Elijah. He wasn’t perfect, and he had very down days, extreme depression, and yet he sought to be a doer of the word and God used him. Elijah had to have patience, waiting all those years while struggling, and we too must endure in our spiritual walk.
So what did James say we can do to improve? We need to have a prayer life, praying for spiritual and physical healing. We need to be clear in our intentions with other people, so that when we say something we mean it and people know our speech is full of integrity and honesty. We need to be people who can confess our faults to one another and seek healing and restoration. And we need to find others who are struggling and go alongside them and help them in their walk.
Recent Comments