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[0:00] Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Be back in the book of James. Again, James chapter five. Yes. Last week we went through the first six verses.

[0:15] We began, we've done the first six verses of chapter five. And it's kind of a rebuke of rich people.

[0:27] And last week we talked about how this isn't the only time that James brought up the rich in the book of James. However, this is a stark rebuke of the rich because of the way that they were treating the poor and the way they were treating their own laborers.

[0:47] The way they were treating those that were, as we would call it nowadays, working for a living. And they were working for the rich. They were holding back their wages. They were doing it intentionally.

[0:58] And they were doing it basically perpetually is what James indicated here in the scriptures. Which went explicitly against the laws that God had set forth in the Torah and the books of Moses.

[1:14] So we discussed that last week. And I said we went through the first six verses last week. So this week we're going to be picking up verse seven.

[1:25] Now remember, though, the context here, while the subject matter does change, and it does, but the context is still referring back to what we talked about last week.

[1:37] We're referring toward, I shouldn't say to, but we're referring toward the rich and what James has been writing to believers in Jesus Christ about the rich.

[1:51] That is within their churches, within their congregations. Remember this wasn't written to just one congregation. It was written to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad. And we find that in the first verse of James chapter one.

[2:05] So James chapter five, verse seven says, Be patient, therefore, brethren, under the coming of the Lord, behold the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he received the early and latter rain. Be patient, establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord, draweth nigh.

[2:28] So back and back up to verse seven. Be patient, therefore, therefore does exactly what I said just a few seconds ago. It backs us up to the verses that led up to this, which is James referring to, or referring toward the rich people that are out there, that are withholding these wages, that are treating the poor and treating the laborers badly.

[2:54] But he's saying, he's saying, be patient, therefore, who's he telling to be patient? He's not telling the rich to be patient. He's telling the oppressed, the poor, these laborers that he was bringing up in the verses preceding this.

[3:09] He says, be patient, therefore, brethren, those of you that truly believe, those of you that are my brothers and sisters and Christ, you all be patient. And folks, that's something that us, me, you all, all of us who are born again believers, all of us that claim the name of Jesus Christ, all of us need to work on patience.

[3:33] All of us need to work on that. I'm a lot more patient than what I used to be, but I still ain't perfect in patience. I haven't mastered it. And I have a wife that will testify to that.

[3:45] And I got two boys, two adult boys that will testify to that. I'm not the most patient individual on the planet, but I'm a whole lot better than what I used to be.

[3:56] And I credit that to Almighty God. That's not my doing. Before I was saved, you know, I'd snap at people, I'd, you know, just, I'd fly off the handle per se at just small, little insignificant things.

[4:13] And thank God, I don't quite do that anymore. But I said, I ain't mastered it, but patience is something that we need to work on ourselves.

[4:23] Because we read in James chapter one, that the trying of your faith work of patience. I don't want my faith tried. If God sees that it needs tried, try and let God do what God's going to do.

[4:37] But I'm not going to invite it into my life. None of us invite trial, none of us invite, you know, persecutions or, or anything along those lines. None of us want that in our lives.

[4:49] But if God deems it fit, let God be God and let God do what he's going to do with it. If he sees that I need patience, you let him do that. But do not invite, do not invite those trials.

[5:01] The trying of your faith work of patience. But then that continues there in James chapter one says, Let patience have her perfect work that he may be perfect in entire wanting nothing. Let patience have her perfect work.

[5:14] I don't pray for patience and I don't recommend that anyone does so. Because if you do, you're, you're praying for a trial to come in your life. And that's not my interpretation of this book.

[5:25] That's what this book says. That the trying of your faith work of patience. But he's telling, he's telling the brethren here, be patient. Therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord, he tells, he's telling them, not only to be patient, but what to be patient for.

[5:41] Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. In other words, wait, just wait. It's just like the Lord, the Lord said over in the gospels, he said, watch and pray.

[5:54] Wait, wait on the Lord. How many times in the Psalms do we read that phrase to wait upon the Lord? Wait upon God. How many times do we read that in the Old Testament? My goodness, we, the Book of Isaiah is full of waiting on the Lord.

[6:09] Full of being patient. Wait on the Lord. And he's telling the brethren here, he says, be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. In other words, the Lord is going to come and the Lord is going to set these things right.

[6:22] I know you've been oppressed. I know you've been held back. I know you've been held down. I know that these rich men are holding your wages back. And I know that it's hurting your family.

[6:33] It's hurting your life. It's hurting everything about you. But you be patient under the coming of the Lord because when the Lord comes, he will set these things right.

[6:44] Folks, we need to be patient in the same manner. And basically for the same reason, all of us have got family or friends or coworkers or neighbors or somebody that seems to be constantly coming against us because of our faith.

[7:00] And because we live a life for God, because we do what we know that we're supposed to be doing. We don't do it perfectly by any means, but we try.

[7:11] We strive. We strive under perfection. And we try to live a life that this book instructs us to do. And we've constantly got people on our heels or bickering with us or wanting to argue or making fun of us or whatever you want to call it.

[7:27] The cause of that. And we don't need to snap back at them. We need to be patient in those things. Why? Because God will straighten those things out to Him Himself in His own time. As the coming of the Lord, when God comes, when God sets up His kingdom, everything is going to be set right.

[7:45] Everything will be set right. There will be nothing wrong. There will be nothing negative. There will be nothing along those lines from there on out when God sets it right.

[7:56] We just got to be patient for that. That's what James is encouraging the readers here to do, is be patient in their tribulations. Be patient in their trials. Be patient unto the coming of the Lord because He will set it right.

[8:10] And not 10 times rather God set it right as me set it right. If I do a chance, He's our own God won't mess it up. God will not mess it up. Be patient to the coming of the Lord.

[8:21] Behold, the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth and had long patience for it until he received the early and the latter rain. He gives the example here.

[8:32] James gives an example of the people that he's writing to here, something that they can relate to. Remember, we're talking about that therefore shoves us up into the previous six verses.

[8:46] So we're talking about laborers that are gathering in crops, are gathering in the yield of these rich men's fields. And he says the husbandman, he waited patiently. He was patiently on the fruit that's going to come from his work.

[8:59] And we can relate to that now, but not nearly as much so as the people that James was writing to. You ever hung out on the farm for any amount of time or you ever worked on a farm?

[9:10] You know that you don't just plant stuff out there in the field and go out the next day and you've got corn stalks six feet tall. Or beans or whatever the case is that are ready for picking.

[9:21] You've got to wait on those things, but not only do you have to wait on those things to grow, you've got to work while it's going on. You've got to cultivate around those crops.

[9:32] You might have to spray around them, you might have to do any number of things to make sure that those crops are going to do what you want them to do, what you plant them in the ground to do. You've got to wait on the rain, you've got to wait on the sun, you've got to wait on all these things.

[9:47] He's saying be patient just like the husbandman does, just like the one that looks after the crops. Be patient like him because over time it ain't going to happen overnight, it won't happen over a week.

[9:58] But over time there will be fruit produced, there will be proof that you put a seed in the ground. And you'll be able to yield a crop, you'll be able to yield fruit from that seed that you planted.

[10:10] Be patient for these things. So he gives this example because it was something that they could very much relate to. The people that he was writing to and referring to here, he says the husband waited for the precious fruit of the earth and had long patience for it.

[10:26] This kind of puts me back to Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 12 where we're reminded to lay aside the sin that so easily besets us.

[10:37] It says I'm run with patience the race that is set before us. We leave that word patience out. I couldn't tell you how many times I've heard that quoted from Hebrews 12. People say run the race that's been set before you.

[10:49] I run with patience the race that's been set before you. That means if you're on a five mile run, you don't take off full steam at Mach 4 trying to finish it off.

[11:00] You run it with patience. You start out at a job, you keep that job going. You remember once these people in the Olympics, whenever they're on a 400 meter run or a 1000 meter run or whatever, you don't see them bolting around the track right at the very beginning.

[11:16] You don't see that till the very end. Other than that, they're running with patience around that track. It's toward the end of it where they get excited and they start running. But the rest of the time it's with patience.

[11:27] We've got to run with patience. We've got to wait on fruit. We've got to wait on a yield of the crop with patience. We've got to wait on the promises of God with patience. God's got all kinds of promises in this book for us.

[11:39] They haven't all been fulfilled just yet that God has promised them. And that tells me it will come to pass. I just have to be patient. I have to wait on them.

[11:51] I have to watch and wait on the Lord. It has long patience for it until he receives the early and the latter rain. There's a little bit of debate on this early and latter rain. This scripture has been twisted by the charismatic movement to mean something that absolutely does not mean.

[12:07] Saying that God has done poor to His Spirit out on the world. And He's going to do it again in the future. Most God poured His Spirit out and the Spirit is God, therefore the Spirit is only present.

[12:19] It's already here. It's everywhere. They don't need another pouring out. So when you hear these charismatic folks saying that this is talking about a second outpouring of the Spirit, no, that is not what it's talking about.

[12:32] He's using this as an example that these people would understand. When He says that He receives the early and the latter rain, we see it different here in the West, in America, in the Western part of the world.

[12:49] The early rains, James would have been talking about, actually occurred in the fall, where he was riding from, over in the Middle East, in the Far East, in the Near East.

[13:00] In those areas, the early rain happened in the fall. The latter rain happens in the spring. But he's saying, if you wait patiently, you will receive those things.

[13:11] You may suffer a drought. You may actually suffer a flood. You look at farmers around here, you never see tractors in the field plow on the ground when the ground is wet.

[13:22] Why is that? Because if they do that, they're just going to plow up clumps. They want it to come up as powdery as they can so that they can get the seed down on the ground. These farmers over here, they didn't get out and hoe the fields.

[13:34] They didn't get out and dig up the fields and cultivate the ground while it was wet. But there wasn't a whole lot they could do when it was dry. And if their crop was already up, it might just dry up.

[13:45] But you be patient. You wait on the former rain, you wait on the latter rain. And James was saying, and they will come to pass. They will come. And it was something that was set like clockwork over there.

[13:57] That rain was almost, not quite, but almost guaranteed to come. They're in the fall and they're in the spring. That's what James was getting at when he wrote that.

[14:08] A lot of times, like I said, people, especially those in the charismatic movement, they'll take scripture and they'll make something extremely spiritual out of something that wasn't meant to be spiritual at all.

[14:21] James was using this as a physical explanation or a physical example of something. Now we can take it and apply it spiritually to our lives. Yes. He was using it as an example so these people would understand what he was trying to say.

[14:36] Be also patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord, draw with nine. So he just left verse seven and he comes in the verse eight saying, be also patient. Be also patient. How so? Just like those husbandmen.

[14:51] He's making a comparison there. He's saying, be patient just like they are. And he says, establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord, draw with nine. He's done giving them one reason to be patient.

[15:02] Verse seven, he says, be patient. Therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. And verse eight, he says, be also patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord, draw with nine. Be patient unto the coming of the Lord. Be patient because the coming of the Lord, draw with nine.

[15:17] Two different things here that he's talking about, but he's saying it's drawing near. And folks, I mean, and we may have said it, I know I've said it and I've caught myself saying it.

[15:28] We'll say we're closer now than we've ever been. Well, if I've lived another a second since the last time I said that, how can that not be true? If I've lived a day, if I said we're closer now than we've ever been to the coming of the Lord, if I said it yesterday and said it today, I mean, my goodness.

[15:44] That's just logical that we'd be closer now. But he's encouraging his readers here. He's saying the coming of the Lord, draw with nine. Say, be patient on this coming of the Lord because like he said in verse six, when the Lord comes back, he will set these things aright.

[16:02] He will set them straight. I hate to say we need not do anything because we are the Word. I said these farmers, he's talking about here in the Scripture, they worked while they waited, while they were patient for their crop.

[16:18] And we need to be at work in the Father's business. We need to be doing the things of God, not to be saved, not in hopes of being saved, but we need to because the Scripture tells us to do these things.

[16:32] The Scripture says to go over and over, we read the Scripture, go, go, go. He says, go into all the world and teach the gospel, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Ghost.

[16:44] He says, go into the world and present the gospel, go to the people, go out into the highways, go to the edges, go to the byways, compel them to come in. We're to be about the Father's business. We're not just to sit back and simply wait. We're to be doing the things of God.

[17:02] That was one of the things that the church at Thessalonica was guilty of. People was quitting their jobs and quitting everything. They were saying, well, the coming of the Lord is supposed to be soon. Why do I need to do anything else?

[17:14] And Paul rebuked them for that, or Paul corrected them on that. I should say, he said, no, you need to keep doing what you're supposed to be doing, or what you have been doing. He says, the coming of the Lord will come in its own good time. He that shall come will come and will not tarry.

[17:30] God will not tarry in his coming. I can't stand to hear a preacher say that the Lord don't tarry when the Bible claimly says, he that shall come will come and will not tarry. He won't tarry. He will come in his own good time. He will come in the time that's appointed when he's supposed to come, not a second before, not a second after.

[17:52] He will not tarry. And James is telling them here, to establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord, draweth nigh. Grudge not against one another.

[18:04] Grudge not against one another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door. Grudge not against one another, brethren, speaking to the church, speaking to the believers.

[18:16] Grudge not against one another. Folks, there is no place in the local assembly. There is no place in the worldwide church, capital C church, the bride of Christ.

[18:29] There is no place for brothers and sisters grudging against one another. There is no place for us to hold a grudge against one another. No place for us bickering. No place for us fighting.

[18:40] It shouldn't be. It shouldn't be. This goes back to James chapter 3, when James says that out of the same fountain flows bitter water and sweet water. These things ought not so to be. And they shouldn't be. There is no place for such things in the lives of believers.

[18:57] But we know that he is addressing the believers here because he calls them brethren. He says not to do these things, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door.

[19:09] This kind of tells me the begrudging that he was talking about may have just fell within certain realms or certain parameters.

[19:22] I guess we should say because he ends this with behold, the judge standeth at the door. We don't need to hold grudges against one another. We don't need to point fingers at one another and say, I'm right about this theology and you're wrong. Now listen, if it's blatant heresy, yeah, by all means call it out.

[19:41] Call it out. But if it's something that's just silly, something that don't need to be argued about, something that don't affect salvation, who cares if you're pre-milled or post-milled? Who cares if you believe in a rapture? Those things don't affect salvation.

[19:59] I have my opinions on those things and I have scripture to base my opinions on those things. But there's a lot of fighting that goes on within churches and there's a lot of church splits that go on and happen because of silly things that do not affect salvation.

[20:15] Now, I said I've got my opinions on a lot of things and your opinion and mine may differ, but is it really worth arguing over? Is it really worth fighting over? You believe Jesus is coming back on a white horse?

[20:27] I do because the scripture blatantly says he's coming back on a white horse. One of the greatest things I ever heard a preacher say is that I don't care if he comes back on Puff the Magic Dragon as long as he comes back.

[20:40] And that's exactly how I see him come back riding on the tricycle. I don't care as long as he comes back. As long as he comes back, but the scripture says that he'll come from heaven on a white horse and the armies of heaven will follow on their horses as well.

[20:56] So I believe what the scripture says. The whole thousand year reign of Jesus Christ. That's one of the most debated things in this area for some reason and certain conferences or associations in this area.

[21:11] Is a thousand year reign of Christ. I don't care if it's 10 years, I don't care if it's a thousand, I don't care if it's 100,000 years. I believe it to be a thousand years, because that's what the scripture says.

[21:23] But there's people out there that will bicker and fight and argue and they're literally ready to throw people against the wall and slap them around if they believe in the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.

[21:35] It doesn't affect salvation. Not one eye over it. It doesn't affect salvation. I can't go to anybody and preach that Jesus Christ absolutely will reign 1000 years and they get saved.

[21:51] Why is that? One, I haven't brought up their own sin to them. I haven't showed them in the scriptures where all of sin comes toward the glory of God. I haven't showed them where the scriptures concluded all under sin.

[22:04] I haven't showed them that. If people don't realize they're a sinner, they'll never get saved. I can preach all kinds of these silly little things that people bicker about all day long and nobody's going to get saved because of that.

[22:19] We preach the gospel to get people saved. We preach the gospel and we rely upon the Holy Spirit, not ourselves, to guide them in the Word of God to reveal things to them out of the Word of God.

[22:31] To reveal God to them out of the Word of God. We rely on the Holy Ghost to do that. They come to us with questions that's fine, that's great and that's well. But we rely upon the Holy Ghost of God to show them and to show us what does say at the Word of God.

[22:48] So he says that the judge stands before the door. He says the judge is right there. He's already said, be patient therefore into the coming of the Lord.

[23:01] He's already said the coming of the Lord brought now. Now he's taking it a step further. He says the judge stands at the door. Who is the judge? It's God.

[23:12] God is the judge and he's right there at the door. Right there at the door. Just wait. Take my brethren the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction and of patience.

[23:25] Behold, we count them happy which endure. He have heard the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.

[23:36] Above all things my brethren swear not neither by heaven, neither by earth, neither by any other oath, but let your ye be ye and your nay nay lest ye fall into condemnation.

[23:48] So we'll back back up to 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. Here's some more examples for you. And remember he's writing to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad. The twelve Jewish tribes which were scattered.

[24:09] He's writing to the diaspora. So they would have been very familiar with the prophets that he was speaking of. They would have been familiar with the accounts in the Old Testament of suffering of many of the prophets.

[24:25] And those, I have to call them stories, but I keep wanting to do that. But those accounts, they flowed right on up into the New Testament times. But he said these were people that spoke in the name of the Lord. These were people that spoke of God.

[24:41] He said take into account their accounts and their history, what happened to them, and see how patient they were. And then he says, you have heard the patience of Job. We've all heard that terminology.

[24:58] I remember people talking, or saying when I was a young man you got the patience of Job, not to me, but they said another meeting. And I didn't understand that. When I was a young man I understand it now what they were saying.

[25:12] Job was a man of patience. He had to have had patience. You look at a man in the account of Job over in the Old Testament, he lost all of his income, lost all of his animals, lost his children, lost seven sons and three daughters.

[25:32] He lost everything. Everything. It seems like within just a few hours, within a day or so at the most.

[25:43] But he lost all this stuff. But he is the very one that we quote so often. He said, the Lord gave and the Lord had taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

[25:55] He is the very one that said that. His own wife told him to curse God and die. She was fed up with the situation. She was fed up with Job being so patient. I mean you wives out there get fed up with your wives or with your husbands being patient. That's just silly talk.

[26:12] She was fed up with the whole thing. She said, curse God and die. And I believe it was Job 13 you find where Job told him so far. He said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him?

[26:26] There are all these things that have happened. I've got sorrows from the soul of my feet to the crown of my head. I've lost my family. I've lost my living. I've lost everything.

[26:39] Though he slay me, he being God, though he slay me, yet will I trust him? Do we have that kind of patience? I don't. I ain't a lot of y'all. I don't.

[26:52] I'd be all kind of upset if all that happened to me. I'd like to think I'd handle it better than I once did and I think that I could. But do I have the patience of Job? No. I don't have that kind of patience.

[27:08] But it says, you've heard the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord. That's something else that James threw in here to encourage these people. What is the end of the Lord? Well, he just brought up Job. If you ever read the last chapter of Job, you'll see that Job received twice as much as what he lost.

[27:27] As far as the oxen goes, as far as the she-asses go, as far as everything that he lost there was double. He said, you've heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord.

[27:42] That's the end of the Lord. That's what we get impatiently waiting on God. I ain't saying that he's going to double everything or triple everything or quadruple everything in your life or anything like that.

[27:55] But folks, the rewards that we will get one day after a while, they far outweigh any kind of tribulation, any kind of trial, any kind of persecution, any kind of negativity that is in your life right now.

[28:08] The reward that God promises in his book to those who believe, to those who are saved, to those that have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

[28:19] That reward far outweighs anything that's left and never thrown at us. We need to keep that in mind in our patience and in our waiting. And too often, Christians, and so many born again believers, we let that get on the back burner in our mind.

[28:36] We get that off of our mind and we focus on the problem at hand and not that we need to be patient and wait upon the Lord. We need to be patient because the coming of the Lord draws nigh.

[28:50] We need to be patient because the end of the Lord promises that's beyond our comprehension here with our finite minds. That the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.

[29:05] He's very pitiful and of tender mercy. Now, we see when someone says, well, how pitiful? But, you know, nowadays we think we need to feel sorry for whatever that is, whether it's a critter, whether it's a person, or if it says it, we'll say, well, how pitiful?

[29:23] That's not what this is talking about here. What this meaning was 400 years ago when King James Bible was translated and what it means now is slightly different.

[29:34] It's not saying we need to pity the Lord is what I'm getting at. God doesn't need to be pity, God doesn't want to be pity, God is God and He is all-powerful. He doesn't need our pity.

[29:46] Let's talk about His pity towards man. The Lord is pitiful. He's big-hearted in other words and He is. And I thank God for that. He's long-suffering and He is patient and He is kind.

[29:59] And everything that you read in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 about charity, those are attributes of Almighty God. He is all of those things and so much more.

[30:12] But when it says that the Lord is very pitiful in a tender mercy, he's talking about His pity towards man. He's talking about His, and I say that as we would say nowadays, His big-heartedness towards man.

[30:24] And He is. And I thank God that He's that way. But above all things, my brethren, swear or not, neither by heaven, neither by earth, neither by any other road. But let your yay be yay in your nay-nay, lest you fall in a condemnation.

[30:39] Now, there's a little bit of debate about this verse in the fifth chapter of James verse 12. As far as what James is referring to here when he says above all things, my brethren, swear or not.

[30:55] And he goes into it, neither by heaven, neither by earth, neither by any other road. What is James talking about here? Is he saying not to make any of this?

[31:06] I don't think that's what he's getting at at all. And there's a few reasons that I think that one, because God Himself makes holes.

[31:17] And James is telling the brethren here not to make any of this. In fact, do you read that God swore by His own name because He could swear by no higher, no higher name, nothing higher than the name of God.

[31:34] So I don't think that's what he's getting at. Not to mention Exodus 22, B.C.O.'s with God. And God can give any review for that. Numbers chapter 30, my goodness, it's full of those to God.

[31:47] I don't think that's what James is getting at, not to make any of this. What's he talking about? Well, in the most practical way of looking at this, the most practical way of looking at this, above all things, my brethren swear not neither by heaven, neither by earth, neither by any other road.

[32:05] He's not necessarily talking about cursing or swearing, what we would say now. But if you go back to where he was talking about not having any grudges against the brethren, not grudging against the brethren, and you take that into consideration, and you take into consideration several of the things that he brought up here in chapter 5, remember, we got to go back to the first six verses where he's talking about the treatment of the rich toward the poor, or toward their laborers, we've got to keep that context when we're looking at this.

[32:41] Above all things, my brethren swear not neither by heaven, neither by earth, neither by any other road. I think he's talking about swearing against people.

[32:52] Now, whether that be foul language, I don't know if they had the same words, I don't know if they certainly didn't in the English, but I don't know if they had the same words, same slang, or anything like that.

[33:04] Back in these days, I'm sure there were certain things like that, but who was he specifically talking about that? There's a lot of people that say that that's exactly what he's talking about.

[33:16] I don't think it is. I think he's just talking about swearing against them. And that may have involved cursing. I don't know. I said I wasn't there when James was writing this, but he's talking about swearing against them, and not to swear against them by anything, by heaven, or by earth, or by any other road.

[33:36] I said if we keep it in the context of verses one through six, it's a little bit easier to see that here in verse 12. But above all things, my brethren swear not neither by heaven, neither by earth, neither by any other road.

[33:48] But let your yabea and your nay-nay. In other words, don't let people come up with a reason to speak against you. Don't let people come up with a reason to swear against you.

[34:00] Let your yabea and let your nay-nay. In other words, say as little as possible to get your point across. If your answer is yes, leave it a yes.

[34:11] If your answer is no, leave it a no. I know people right now that will answer a simple yes or no question with a five minute repertoire of why they think it's yes, or why they think it's no.

[34:25] I mean y'all, that very thing got you in trouble when you were kids. It did me. I would answer yes or no to something and then I would give a reason why.

[34:38] And then more often than not, that reason why would usually tell on me about something or another. The less we say, the better off we are.

[34:49] Because the more we say, the more somebody can take our words that we have spoken, the more they can twist them. It may not even be anything negative that we have done or anything negative that we've implied or indicated.

[35:02] But the more we say, the more that people can take what we've said, turn it into something that we haven't said, and then they can swear against us. Then they can come against us.

[35:14] Whereas if we leave our yay at yay and our nay at nay, that's all they've got. I asked Spencer if he was bald, he said yes.

[35:26] Who can argue that? So James is saying here, say at least the most possible, and I say keeping it in context with how the rich were treating the poor and treating their laborers.

[35:39] He's saying you keep it at a minimum, that way they have no reason. Remember in James chapter 2, he was talking about the rich dragging the poor before the judgements. He's saying these are the very ones that draw you before the judgements.

[35:51] These are the ones that rail against you. They're the ones that make these accusations against you. The least that we say, the fewer accusations we can have brought against us. This is a very practical advice that James has given here, and it applies just as much, if not more so to us now in 2022, than to these people.

[36:13] Back when James was writing this, lest you fall into condemnation. You're not talking about falling into the condemnation of God here.

[36:24] You're not talking about somebody, he is writing to the brethren here. We've got to keep that in mind. But he said lest you fall into condemnation, condemnation of who?

[36:35] Ob these people, keep your yey yey and keep your nay nay, and they cannot condemn you for anything. But the more you say, the more they can take what you said and use what you said, twist it around and condemn you with it.

[36:51] Lest you fall into condemnation. Remember that very practical advice that James gives there. Keep your yey yey and your nay nay. I need to follow that advice as well.