December 8th

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Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is the 365 Bible Reading Plan. Today is December the 8th, and our chapter for today is the book of James, chapter 5. James continues his instructions about godly living. As a matter of fact, he goes from that to giving us an incentive for godly living, and that is the Lord Jesus is coming again. The Lord is coming again, and his coming is near. Now just imagine this. James, the brother of the Lord Jesus, his half brother, they had the same mother, and all of the early apostles, as you listen to them through the words of Scripture, it becomes obvious they believed that Jesus could come at any time. And if that were the case then in the last days that began with the birth of Jesus, his sinless life, his substitutionary death, his glorious resurrection, and his ascension to heaven, how much closer it is today. And so he says we need to live like the Lord could come at any time because the judge is standing at the door. Now this is interesting because when we come to Revelation chapter four, in what I believe is the description of the taking away, the rapture, the great catching away of the saints, it's interesting there that it says, And I saw a door standing open in heaven. In James chapter five, the judge is standing at the door. And he comes so quickly, it seems that in Revelation four, he's standing at the door, and then the door's open and nobody's there. That's how quickly it's going to happen. And so he says that above all in verse twelve, whether we are saying yay or nay, that's what we need to do. No swearing, no having to put your hand on the Bible or anything like that. Let your yay be yea and your nay be nay. That's in our ordinary everyday conversation. We need to say what we mean and mean what we say. Would it not be great if we just did that? And especially with one another in relation to spiritual matters. And then we come to verse thirteen through the end of the chapter dealing with a subject that for some reason is very controversial. Now I know some of the reasons, and I'm wanting you to understand that. In the commentary I wrote for this day, I spoke about my experiences as a young man. You see, I came up a heathen. I didn't go to church except for vacation Bible school, maybe two to three years in all of my time before I was nineteen years of age. I would occasionally go to church when a girl would invite me that I wanted to date or something like that, but I didn't go to church because I was seeking after God. No, thank God he was seeking after me. And the scripture says that's true of all of us. He says there is none that seeks after God, no, not even one. There's none righteous, no, not even one. None of us are running as hard as we can after God, because the Bible says when we seek him with all of our heart, we will find him. And so I didn't know anything. And so when I was saved, I was saved and started going to a church. It was a first Baptist church in the town that I came up in or around near. So I went to that church and it was very formal and was not given to even loud amens. There was certainly never a hand clapped in the church, and the singing was very much non-expressive, let's just put it that way. And so when it came to James chapter 5, then they said all of that was just symbolic. There wasn't any anointing with oil or anything like that, and that you just need to pray for people who are sick. Now you say, What are you talking about? Well, it says in James five thirteen, is any among you suffering, that is, if you're going through hardships, let that person pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let that person sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? 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 will raise him up. Now there are other verses that follow that talk about that person committing sins and having awed against someone and confessing your sins one to another. We can't forgive sins, but God can, but we can forgive each other, and that seems to be the context of all of this. When you've stepped out of bounds with someone else, we need to love one another, pray for one another, confess our faults to one another that we may be healed, because there's not only physical healing, there needs to be emotional and spiritual healing within the body of Christ as well and within our own bodies. Many times it is our sick emotions and our sick spirits, our sick minds that cause us to be sick because of stress and the burden of carrying guilt. Guilt will kill you. It will kill anyone because we are not meant to bear that. And that's why the Lord relieves us and saves us and frees us from the burden of guilt. And he doesn't want us to live guilt ridden. Now the enemy of our souls does, but not God Himself. He loves us with an everlasting love and he has a desire and a plan for our lives. But going back to verse 13, I want you to notice the natural progression of this. It's just natural. So he leads up to praying for the sick with two natural responses. And for the child of God, this makes extra sense. Is anyone among you suffering? The word is hardship. Is anyone having hard, difficult times? Well, the natural thing to do is to pray, is to make requests to God, is to take your burdens to the Lord. He said, Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing Psalms. Again, a very natural thing. Are you happy? Are you cheerful? Well, if that's the case, then sing and praise God. That's hard to do that, or at least harder when you are going through difficult straits. There is a time to weep and there's a time to laugh. Those two don't always go hand in hand. And so we need to be mindful of that. When someone's suffering, we need to suffer with them. When someone's weeping, we need to weep with them. This is why the apostle said, Weep with those who weep, rejoice with those who rejoice. Why is that? Because there's a time for both. There is a time for everything under heaven. The wisest man who ever lived, save the Lord Jesus was Solomon. And he's the one that wrote that. You can read about that in chapter three of the preacher, the book of Ecclesiastes. But it's a very natural thing. Is anyone going through hardship? Well, pray and let your request be made known unto God. Is anyone cheerful? Let them sing songs and praise God. And then we come to the third admonition and third question. Is anyone among you sick? Now this is not a headache, it doesn't seem. It is someone who is suffering. And it seems to be that they must be at home. There wasn't such a thing as hospitals as we have today. But if someone's at home and they're sick and they're suffering and they cannot get out, let him, that person, whoever it is, call for the elders, the leaders of the church, the people who have been commanded by God and assigned by God to lead the church, and let those elders come, pray over him, and look at this, anointing him with oil. Now is the prayer literal? Yes. Well then why is not the oil literal? See, when I was growing up, they would say, well now that just means you need to pray for them, and the oil is just symbolic. Well, how can one thing in the sentence be symbolic and the other thing be literal? No, if praying is literal in this sentence, then the anointing of oil has to be literal, because that is the natural interpretation. That's the natural hermeneutic. As you know, one of my basic guidelines out of the five that I have for interpreting scripture, now there's others, but ninety-five to ninety eight percent of all scriptures can be interpreted with the five guidelines that I have taught now all over America, South America, Central America, Africa, and in the Middle East and Europe. And that's this. If the plain sense makes sense, let that be the sense lest it all become nonsense. In other words, if the plain sense of the scripture is historical narrative, then take it as historical narrative. You and I don't have the authority to change it to allegory just because it doesn't fit into our theological preconceived grids. And so if you're interpreting this passage, let me give you an example. In verse 13 it says, Is anyone suffering going through hardship? Is that just spiritual? No. He's talking about if you're going through hard times, you're up against it, you're between a rock and a hard place, you are burdened, you're suffering in some way. Well then you need to pray. Why? Because that suffering is literal and you need God to relieve you. Now look at the second question. Is anyone cheerful? Is anyone happy? Is anyone going through a time when they are rejoicing? Well then sing. Why? Because that's the natural outcome of rejoicing. Well, is singing psalms literal there? Is being cheerful literal there? Is going through hard times and hard places? Is that literal? Is praying literal? Is any among you sick? Does that mean that you're not literally sick? No, it means that so you call for the literal elders of the literal church and you literally pray over them and you are literally anointing them with oil. Now it's not the oil that saves them. It's God that does. It's not the oil that heals them, it's God, but that is symbolic of the Holy Spirit, and what he's trying to do is teach us to obey him. You see, God ordains everything. Of course he does. My reformed friends, I believe, sometimes forget a major point. Maybe they don't, maybe they just ignore it. But I can tell you, God knows everything. And God ordains everything in the sense of everything that is good and godly. But I do know this. When God ordains something, he also ordains the means whereby that whatever he's ordained will come about. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, he knows who's going to be saved. And if you say, well, he knows that and he sets them apart, well, let me just tell you, he also is the one that said, without repentance and faith, without repentance and trusting in Jesus, they cannot be saved. Now what about that? Why? Because God said, Yes, I know who's going to be saved, but I also know the means whereby they're going to be saved, and nobody's going to be saved without repentance and faith. Read Charles Spurgeon. He is a reformed theologian in the area of salvation, soteriology, and he'll tell you the very same thing. And if you don't believe that, read his commentary on 2 Thessalonians about repentance and believe, because that's exactly what the Bible says. Now you see, here's where we get into trouble is when we start taking what we believe or what we've heard or what somebody says instead of the consistent, confluent teachings of the Word of God. This is why it's so important to know the Bible. You can't hit and miss in biblical interpretation. You can't take out the parts you don't like and can't say, well, this is not inspired because I just don't believe that Jesus would do that. You see, the Bible teaches that it is inspired from Genesis or Revelation. It is the Word of God. It's the very words of God, even the words are inspired, even the letters are inspired. Jesus said every jot and tittle. That means the smallest points are inspired, the smallest letters are inspired. And all of it's inspired or none of it's inspired because no one is inspired enough to spot the spots that are inspired. If it's only inspired in spots, then who pray tell who is it that is wise enough that is godly enough to inspire the spots that are inspired? No, it's either all inspired or it's not. Because you, my friend, are not that good. You are not that wise. Only God. And so we have to interpret the Bible just as God gives it. And every word of God is true. Just interpret the Bible like it's given and quit trying to put your own spin on it. I've done that in the past. I pray God will help me never do it again. And we all have our own shades and nuances of meaning, and I don't fall out with people because they don't agree with me. If you do, you need to get over it. Because let me tell you, everybody doesn't just see everything like that. And some things are not that plain. They're really not. But now this one's pretty plain. There's no argument over this. You say, well, I just don't believe you need to anoint with oil. Well, don't. But God says do it. So either obey or disobey. Well, are you telling me that if I don't anoint them with oil, I'm not going to be healed? No, because God's the one that heals. But he said, do this. So if you want to argue, don't argue with me, argue with him. I didn't say it, he did. I love you, brother. I love you, sister. But this is what God says. Let's do it. For on the way, this is Tony Chris.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Chris. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org. Then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's Questions at TonyC R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.