Necessarily, but we're going to cover portions of it at a time.
We're not going to go through necessarily 100% verse by verse.
That's why I'm taking a little bit more time to go through the
the pretty detailed overview. But the book of James is really
unique and so let's let's review a little bit who wrote the book
of James. Obviously it was James, but
which one? James, the brother of Jesus,
right. So then last week and I'm going
to this is where I'm going to pick up with our review.
I talked about the theme of the book of James and I told you I
find a specific theme and then a general theme.
Do you remember what I said the specific theme of the book would
be James 122, if that will jog your memory.
Riley. Oh, I thought you raised your
hand, Andrew. Active faith.
Very good.
Not just a professing faith. That's the specific theme of the
book. And then I gave you the main
theme, and I covered a lot of things that fit under this main
theme. But do you remember what the
main theme of the book is? You really could sum it up into
into one word, I guess. Bringing Christians into what?
Maturity. Somebody, somebody whispered it
back there. Christians into maturity, right?
And so individual believers and churches into spiritual maturity
and and that word perfect is the one that we focused on last
week. That word perfect we find 6
times in the book of James. Perfect doesn't mean sinless or
without fault, it means what? Complete or mature, right.
So that's what that's what the whole book is about.
So just just to review real quick and Brother Josh, if you
could jump through these pretty quickly with me, but but there's
a lot of different themes, if you can call them themes, but a
lot of different themes that fit under this theme of bringing us
as Christians into maturity as believers.
And so we talked about the character of God, and we we saw
references in the book of James that deal with the character of
God. The more you are in tune, if you
will, with the character of God, the more you're going to be
mature as a Christian, The more you understand who God really
is, right? The more you understand who God
is, the more you're going to understand who you really are.
And the more we understand that, the more we're going to see the
the majesty and the holiness and the righteousness of God.
Right. But if we could see ourselves
for what we really are, and if we could see God for who he
really is, it would change our perspective on a whole lot of
things that we do in our Christian life and that would
bring us into that maturity. So we we saw the character of
God, very much a focus in the book of James.
But then also that true faith is evidenced by good work.
Saw that in James Shepherd we saw patience in trials that
bring maturity, living by faith that brings us toward maturity.
The importance in the power of the word of God that brings us
to maturity, separation from the world that brings us toward that
maturity. Brotherly love, effectual
prayer, the imminent return of Jesus Christ, the ministry of
the body, the church, right. All of those things bring us
individually and as a church into spiritual maturity or that
that perfection as James says, or that completeness.
So what I want to what I want to give you tonight, I this is just
kind of I wouldn't say leftovers, but this is this is
some things that don't necessarily deal with the theme
but some things that we find in the book of James that really is
unique to the book of James. So I just want to give you some
characteristics here of the book and maybe what you can kind of
do if you have a habit of underlining in your Bible.
I think this will help you. I hope you'll focus on the book
of James as as we go through this over the next couple weeks
and maybe even next couple months probably will be a couple
months by the time we get all the way through the end of the
book. And so I I hope you'll, you'll
kind of study through some of these things at home on your own
as well. But a couple of things that I'll
point out and then there are some things in the book of
James, lots of things in the book of James that we don't find
anywhere else in the Bible, let alone in the rest of the New
Testament. But the first thing I'll point
out as a characteristic of the book of James is that the
epistle of James is is kind but it's very plainspoken and it's
reproof and its exhortation and we kind of kind of spoke a
little bit about that before. But James's doctrine is very
practical and that's why we mentioned the canonicity of the
book. There's a lot of a lot of the
the a lot of different people, I guess you could say questioned
whether the book of James belonged in the Canon early on
because it didn't have a lot of doctrine in.
It's very practical in its doctrine and of course we're
talking we talked a lot about that and we will talk a lot
about that when it comes to are showing our faith by our works,
right. Works is not necessarily a
doctrine that we would focus on but we see a lot of that.
And so the term my beloved brethren, we see that twice in
James chapter one and verse 16 and a James chapter 2 and verse
#5. He says in verse 16, do not air
my beloved brethren, chapter 2 and verse #5, Harkin, my beloved
brethren, somebody that cares about the people that he's
writing to, right. So he's kind in the way that he
approaches it, but he doesn't pull any punches with what he
says. In fact, look at a few examples.
His proof is very direct to turn out.
Look at, look at and just just cover these quickly with me, all
right. Try to try to be quick and
you're turning. And I know it's not necessarily
easy for you to write and turn and look at all these things at
the same time. If I, if I slowed down to be
able to do that, then it would be here all night.
So maybe if you want to go back and listen to this later on,
that would be helpful for you as well.
But he warns about double mindedness.
We see that in James chapter one in verse #8, a double minded man
is unstable in all his ways. Now remember what we're talking
about is a directory proof. James is he's not beating around
the Bush, he's getting directly to the point.
You're double minded and you're unstable.
He also talks about in verse #23, hearing the word but not
doing it. For if any man be a hear of the
word, not a doer, he's liking to a man be holding his natural
face in a glass verse 26 seeming to be religious, but then not
bridling your tongue, right. If any man among you seem to be
religious, and bridal is not his tongue, but to see with his own
heart this man's religion is vain.
Chapter 2, verse one through 3 and verse #9.
And for the sake of time I'm not going to read it, but he talked
about them being a respecter of persons, and he he reproves
them. Don't be a respecter person.
Doesn't matter who they are, if they're poor or or rich, don't
be a respecter of persons. He talks about blessings and
cursings coming out of the same mouth in James chapter 3 and
verse #10. Out of the same mouth preceded
blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought
not to be so bitter. Envying and strife in verse #14
of chapter 3. If you have bitter envying and
strife in your hearts, glory not line out against the truth.
James chapter 4 and verse #3 talks about adulterers and
adulteresses being a friend of the world and how that isn't as
being enmity with God. To be a friend of the world is
to be the enemy of God. That's pointed, That's direct
speaking evil of one another. He talks about in chapter 4 and
verse #11 boasting about tomorrow, he talks about that in
verse #13, keeping back the hire of laborers, even something as
simple as that. But James, chapter 5, verse
three and four, he talks about living in a wanton pleasure.
The way that he says you have lived in pleasure on the earth
and been wanton, you have nourished your hearts as in a
day of slaughter. That's in chapter 5 and verse
#5, holding a grudge against others.
He talks about that in chapter 5, verse #9, but but then he
uses a lot of different. I mentioned a few of these
already, but a lot of different, very pointed terms that if
somebody called you that today, you would know, how can you say
that about me, right? But that's what James does.
Look, he calls in in chapter 2 and verse #20 he says, oh, vain
man calls them vain. Chapter four.
We just mentioned verse #4. You adulterers and adulteresses.
No, you're not the friendship of the world, but he calls them
adulterers and adulteresses. In chapter 4 and verse #8, draw
an eye to God and he will draw an eye to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts.
Ye double minded verse #16 of chapter 4.
But now you rejoice in your boastings.
All such rejoicing is evil. So he's he's getting straight to
the point. And I think you'll agree with me
that when I listen to a message, I want somebody to get straight
to the point, right? Don't beat it on the Bush.
Get specific about things, right?
Those things. That's what's helpful for us.
If somebody's not specific in the way that they preach a
message, then what happens is everybody is thinking of
everything else that everybody else is doing instead of
thinking about their own sin, right?
And we need the message to be pointed.
And that's exactly what James does here.
So, James, The epistle of James is kind, but it's plain, spoken
in every proof and then its exhortation.
The second thing, as a characteristic of the book of
James, is that James presents a dogmatic Christianity with firm
leadership. In James, we don't see the
believers sitting around sharing various opinions about what they
think is right, or what they think is not right, or what they
think you know they ought to be doing or what they ought not to
be doing right. James teaches that there's one
body of doctrinal truth that was delivered by the apostles, and
this is it. There is no middle ground.
There's either right or wrong. There's no Gray area when it
comes to Christianity. And and and you know, I think
about the, the emerging church as it's called, and, you know, a
lot of these contemporary churches that are out there
today are, are, are are making no bones about the fact that
they're trying to be the middle of the road.
They don't want to offend anybody, so they don't preach
the truth. In fact, here's a description of
the emerging church this comes from.
It's a magazine called Christianity Today.
The article was called 5 Streams of Emerging Church and and this
is what what one of the guys said in there, we don't believe
anyone. Theology gets it absolutely
right. No systematic theology can be
final. It turns its chasing to
epistemology against itself, saying this is what I believe,
but I could be wrong. What do you think?
Let's talk that's that that that sounds like somebody that's
double minded, sounds like somebody that's moved by every
wind of doctrine, right? That's not what James said.
James says this is right. This is the way that it is.
This is what you need to do, right?
And when you're waiting for the next wave of doctrine to come
around so you can see what you should be believing, then you're
not trusting in the word of God. You're trusting in this emerging
church. You're trusting in whatever the
next, you know, theological point is to come around.
And James James is correcting that error.
Here's another one. This is called a book called A
Generous Orthodoxy. Brian McLaren says the emerging
church he's talking about himself doesn't claim too much.
It admits that it walks with a limp, he said.
To be a Christian in a generously orthodox way is not
to claim to have the truth captured, stuffed and mounted on
the wall. Then what do you believe?
Right. If you don't have the truth
captured, stuffed and mounted on the wall, then you're going to
be moved by any other wind of doctrine that comes around.
And that's exactly what James is doing.
He's presenting A dogmatic Christianity with firm
leadership. This is what the Bible says.
This is what we're going to do. And that's that's the way that
it needs to be. Now here's, here's a pretty
interesting thing. I love this, and I want you to
look at as many of these passages in the book of James
with me as you can. Because the third thing about
James is that his epistle is filled with a lot of metaphors
and similes. And I know those, you know those
words, but it's in the fact that he is is doing a lot of his
teaching, if you will, but even preaching in metaphors and
similes, he's very much like the Old Testament and he's very much
like Jesus Christ. In other words, James really
teaches in a in a Hebrew language style rather than a
Greek language style. Now almost all of the rest of
the books and even and even the book of James was written in
Greek, but the style that he's and remember we said that James
was very much Jewish and he was writing to a very Jewish
audience. He was the pastor of the church
in Jerusalem. So.
So you would naturally think, especially being that it was
written early on in the early church that it would have the
flavor of everything that they that we read in the Old
Testament. And so James's style is very
much in the style of the Old Testament.
But just look at some of these things.
Because of that style, it makes his teaching very dynamic and
energetic and very vivid. And maybe you've never thought
about this as you've gone through it before, but in Jet,
in James chapter one, in verse number six, he says.
But let him ask in faith. Nothing, nothing wavering.
For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the
wind and tossed. Now, we don't find phrases like
this or similes like this in most of the rest of the New
Testament. Every once in a while, Paul did
it right, a runner in a race. Some of the different things
like that. Matthew talks about being the
salt of the earth, things like that.
But he's, I mean, he gives you an idea.
He's like a wave of the sea that's just tossed back and
forth. Right now.
You're up now you're down. Now you're on this side and now
you're on that side. It's just just a very vivid
picture that he gives us. Here's another one.
Look at verse #10. He does this a lot, but the rich
in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he
shall pass away. But the sun is no soon arisen
with a burning heat. But it wither the grass and the
flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it
perishes. So also shall the rich man fade
away in his ways. I mean, it's a very vivid
picture, right? Never seen a flower get scorched
in the sun and wilt and die. That's what he's saying, is
exactly what happens with the rich man.
Here's another one. Let's look at verse 23 for if he
be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man like him
to a man be holding his natural face in a glass looking in a
mirror, right? For he beholded himself and go
with his way and straight way. Forget it.
What man or a man he was, so he's he, he he likens these.
Essentially the individual that hears the word and doesn't do it
to somebody who is a man holding his natural face in the glass.
Here's another one, chapter 3 and verse #2.
For in many ways think for many things we offend all, if any man
offend not in Word the same as a perfect man, and able also to
bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the
horse's mouths, and they that they must obey us, or that they
may obey us, and we turn about their whole body.
Behold also the ships which, though they be so great, are
driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very
small helm, whethersoever the governor listed.
So you think about that idea, right?
How easy it is for a little, a little bridal to to turn a whole
horse or a little rudder to turn a whole ship.
And the same is true with your little tongue that can turn a
whole body right? And he uses that as a very, very
descriptive metaphor. Same thing in version 6.
The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.
So is the tongue among our members that it defiles the
whole body. I mean, what does a fire do?
And set it on fire? The course of nature and it's
set on fire of hell, right? I mean a fire that's burning out
of control. And a tongue that control does
the exact same thing. It just causes a lot of
destruction. What a great metaphor.
What a great picture that we see there of the tongue.
Here's another one. Verse #10 of chapter 3.
Out of the same mouth Proceed as blessing and cursing, my
brethren. These things ought not to be.
So doth a fountain send forth at the same place Sweetwater and
bitter? Can the muff.
Can the fig tree my brethren bear olive berries either A vine
figs. So can no fountain.
Both yield salt water and fresh. So he's giving you that picture.
You're not going to see a fountain that has both.
So as a Christian then he's saying, can can can the same
mouth from a Christian give out blessings and cursings, right.
It's a it's another great metaphor that he uses.
Now here's another thing. He uses very vivid narrative, if
you will, to illustrate his points.
Let's go back to chapter two. Look at verse #2.
For if they're come unto your assembly, a man with a gold ring
and goodly apparel, and they're come in also a poor man in vile
raiment, and you have respect to him that wears the gay clothing.
And say unto him, sit down here in a good place and say to the
poor, stand out there or sit here under my footstool.
Are you not then partial in yourselves?
And I become judges of evil thoughts.
But he describes a rich man. You can see this rich man coming
in and you can just picture him right?
Then you can picture this poor man coming in.
It's a great picture. Here's another one.
Verse #13 of chapter 4, he's describing A boaster.
Go to now you that say today or tomorrow.
We'll go such a city and continue there a year and buy
and sell and get gain, right. What a what a great description
of somebody who is a boaster and talking about the things that
they're going to do. James Shepherd 5 verse #1.
Go to now you rich men weep and howl for your miseries that
shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and
your garments are mothy and yours.
Your gold and silver is cankered.
The rest of them shall be a witness against you and shall
eat your flesh as it were. Fire.
You have heaped treasures together for the last days.
You hold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down
your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud crieth, and
the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears
of the Lord of Sabbath. You have lived in pleasure on
the earth and been a wanton. You have nourished your hearts
as in a day of slaughter, have condemned and killed the just,
and he does not resist you. What a great description, right?
And he uses others in there as well.
Chapter 5, verse #7. Be patient.
Therefore, brethren, under the coming of the Lord, behold, the
husband then waited for the precious fruit of the earth.
Now here's, here's pretty interesting.
And this is where if you if you do underline this, be a great
little section to underline here in your Bible because James is
actually filled with with unique words and phrases that we don't
find anywhere else in the Bible. And there's a whole pile of of
these that James actually uses that nobody else does.
But let's go back to chapter one and verse #8.
We also see it in chapter 4. In verse #8, the same word, but
he says a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Double minded is not used anywhere else in the Bible.
Here's another one in verse #17 underlying these if you want to.
As we go through this, every good gift and every perfect gift
is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights.
That's another phrase that's not used anywhere else in the Bible.
Father of lights, Here's one that you can probably
automatically guess is not used anywhere else in the Bible.
Verse 21, wherefore lay apart all filthiness.
And here it is superfluity of naughtiness.
Boy, I guess it wouldn't be anywhere else in the Bible.
Nobody else knew how to say it right?
Or nobody else knew what it meant?
No. What is superfluity, by the way,
Does anybody know? Well, naughtiness is, But what
about superfluity? Excess.
Yeah, like an excess. A lot of it, right?
Superfluity is like an like an abundance of naughtiness or an
excess of naughtiness. But yeah, that's definitely one.
And here's another one in the same same verse and receive with
meekness the engrafted word. That's another phrase that we
don't find anywhere else in the Bible.
The engrafted word. Here's one in verse #12.
I jumped in verse #12 of chapter one.
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he has
tried, he shall receive Here it is a crown of life.
Is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible other than here in
the book of James, verse 27 of James chapter one.
Pure religion. That's another one that's not
mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, Pure religion and
undefiled before God and the Father.
Is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their infliction
and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
To chapter 2, verse #8. If you fulfill the royal law,
that royal law is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible.
Verse 12. So speak ye and and so do as
they that shall be judged by that.
Here's another one. The law of liberty, that's not
mentioned anywhere else in the Bible.
Interesting, interesting phrases and we'll we'll discuss these as
we get through this. Here's another one of verse #26.
This is more of a phrase than a than a word or two, but you see
then how that by works. A man is justified and not by
faith only. But faith without works is dead
in verse #26. For as the body without the
spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.
Also that phrase faith without works is dead is not found
anywhere else in the Bible. Here's another one.
James chapter 3 and verse number six.
And the tongue is a fire. That's a phrase that's not found
anywhere. Else, verse 17 of chapter 3.
The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable,
gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,
without partiality and without hypocrisy.
But wisdom that is from above is a phrase that's not found
anywhere else. James chapter 4 and verse #4,
The adulterers and adulteresses know you not that here it is the
friendship of the world. That's a phrase that's not found
anywhere else. Verse 7.
Submit yourselves, therefore to God.
Here it is. Resist the devil and he will
flee from you. That's a phrase that's not found
anywhere else. Verse 8.
Draw a night to God and he will draw a night to you.
We don't see that anywhere else. Verse 14 For what is your life?
It is even a vapor. That's a phrase that we don't
find anywhere else. We find that also in chapter 4
and verse 17. Therefore to him that knows to
do good and do with it, not to him it is sin.
That's a phrase. That's that Nothing even like
that is found anywhere else in the rest of the Bible.
Couple more in verse in chapter 5 and verse #11.
Behold, we count them happy which endure.
You have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen here
it is the end of the Lord. That phrase is not found
anywhere else. Verse 15 of chapter 5 The prayer
and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord
shall raise him up. And if you and if he have
committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
But the prayer of faith is not mentioned anywhere else in the
Bible. And then verse 16, Confess your
faults 1 to another and pray one for another that you may be
healed. Effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth. Much effectual fervent prayer is
not found anywhere else in the Bible.
So let's let's just take a minute then.
And and as we conclude here with talking about these things, why,
why do we need this epistle today, right.
The book James was written to a Jewish audience, to a bunch of
Jewish Christians if you will, that lived in Jerusalem, that
were very Old Testament in their ideology and everything else
James was, was written in the early days of the church, but
it's needed more now than it ever has been.
And there's a few reasons for that #1.
Persecution and affliction is widespread among Christians in
these last days. Persecution and affliction,
believe it or not, As much as we've read books like Fox's Book
of Martyrs and, you know, heard about all the apostles that were
killed and everything else, do you know that more Christians
were killed in the 20th century? That at any point, any point in
history? And more Christians are being
killed today at a greater rate than any at any point in our
history. Not just American history, the
world. And most of the persecution is
taking place in in other places, not in American per se, but
this, this affliction, from living in a wicked world and
being opposed by the devil. But there's persecution of
Christians all over the place, from from cultists, from
Muslims, from Hindus, from communists, from the homosexual
activists, from atheists, from evolutionists all all over the
place. And James addresses this matter
of persecution in his theme of patience in trials.
Right. Why does he?
I mean, obviously they needed it then.
They were being persecuted then. But this very relevant to today,
especially when we see our persecution, is not necessarily
physical persecution that we have the same way that it was,
you know, when you get burned at the stake.
But there's a lot of persecution going on in America today
against Christianity. And how do you handle that?
You handle it with patience. The second reason is because
spiritual immaturity is rampant among professing Christians
today. There's a there's a lot of
people who profess Christ, but they they just they their babies
in their knowledge of Christ, their babies in their knowledge
of the scriptures, and in their knowledge of of spiritual
maturity. But James James addressed that
in this epistle. They they they doubt God during
trials. They're not strong in God's
word. They have carnal divisions and
carnal strife. They they love the world.
They they only pray to satisfy their own lust.
That's that's the that's a that's a hallmark of a
spiritually immature Christian. But most Christians today, if
they're even Christians, live their lives that way.
They never get to a level spiritually above a baby.
Right? And we and we see this
throughout the rest of the New Testament.
He's Paul said, I I want to I want to give you meat.
But you're so weak and so immature that all I can do is
give you milk. And it's fine for a baby to
drink milk, but it's not fine for a a Christian that's been a
Christian for 10/15/20 years to still be drinking milk, right.
It's not it's not cute anymore. It's weird, right?
It's cute for a baby to drink milk.
It's not cute for a 10 year old to do it right, and that's what
Paul is saying. I want to give you the meat you
need to be to the point where you can handle the meat, but all
you can handle is milk. And that's James addresses that
when he talks about going on to spiritual perfection.
Here's another reason why this epistle of James is very
relevant today. It's because easy belivism is
rampant today. And I I prefer to call it quick
prayerism because the gospel is easy to believe a child and the
gospel and be saved. Right.
But this is the evangelistic methodology that's that's it's
just very quick to get people to receive the gospel, pray this
prayer, you know and and all right, you're saved.
You're going to heaven when you die and they have no idea what
they just did. They repeated a prayer after
somebody because, hey, do you want to go to heaven?
Oh, yeah, I want to go to heaven.
All right, well, what you got to do is pray this prayer and
accept Jesus Christ as your savior.
OK, I'll pray that prayer. I want to go to heaven.
I have no idea what they just did.
That's the idea of easy belivism.
It's what it's called. But I don't like the term
because it is easy to believe, but it's quick prayerism.
Hey, say this prayer. Which is why you could have, you
know, I'm not going to mention any names, but I get a I get a
prayer letter. I have no idea how I got in this
guy's prayer letter list, but he sends me a prayer letter every
month and every. I don't know why I keep reading
it, but he's a missionary in Mexico.
And every time, literally 345-6000 people saved every
month. Oh, we did a meeting and we had
this, you know, this big meeting in the center of big city.
And 5000 people came out and we gave the gospel and the majority
of them raised their hand to say they were accepting Christ.
At the end of the service, 5000 people got saved.
Then why isn't the whole country of Mexico Christian, right?
If if you're leading 6810 thousand people to Christ every
month by yourself and then everybody else is doing that
same thing, then the whole country ought to be saved by
now, right? It's because it's this idea of
quick prayerism. All right, pray this prayer
after me. If you pray that prayer, raise
your hand. Oh wow, We had 95% of the people
in the service today accepted Christ, and there had to have
been at least 5000 people there, right?
I mean, that's why when 3000 people got saved at Pentecost,
it was an amazing thing. So I got mentioned it because
3000 people getting saved is a rarity, right?
And it's sad in our world today that that's the case, but that's
the way that it is, right? And this idea of quick prayerism
James addresses that. Your works ought to back up the
fact that you've been saved. There ought to be fruit in your
life. There ought to be an evidence of
the fact that you've been saved. So he addresses that idea with
the theme that we already talked about.
The true faith is evidenced by good works.
Here's another reason why it's still relevant.
Biblical ignorance and shallowness is widespread among
Christians professing Christians today and and honestly even in.
And This is why I'm putting so much of an emphasis on having a
Bible institute and teaching you on Wednesday nights and trying
to teach on Sunday nights and and then having the preaching at
other times during the week and everything else even in.
Even in some of the strongest quote UN quote strongest Bible
believing churches the average church member knows very little
about the Bible knows very little about about what the
scripture has to say and they don't have an effectual
consistent daily Bible time with the Lord and and and I'll be
honest with the average Christian knows more about
sports and video games and pop songs and Hollywood and this
actor and that actor then they know about the Bible.
You know, it's sad that that that I can guarantee you that
that in the average church, and I hope it's not that way in in
this church. But, you know, you read a you
read a book of Bible trivia questions and see how many
people get those answers right. And then you start reading pop
culture questions. And I guarantee a lot more
people can answer those questions than they can answer
the questions about the Bible. And that not at all not to be
right. That means we're more focused on
the world than we are focused on Christ.
So James addresses that by emphasizing the power and the
necessity of God's word. Here's another reason it's
relevant. Worldliness is widespread among
professing Christians today, right?
Christians rock out like the world.
They dress immodestly like the world.
They have the same love of of professional sports and other
vanities as the world. They're addicted to Hollywood,
like the world is. I mean and and listen, you know,
don't don't take this the wrong way, but if you've seen any of
these movies that have come out recently because you went to the
movie theater and saw him, then I hope you're spending the same
amount of time focusing on the Bible as you are focusing on all
these other things. Right.
All these popular movies that are going around out there
today, It's junk. It's, it's Hollywood junk and
it's all propaganda to try to get you to to change from what
you believe now or or continue believing in a certain
direction, right. Everything that Hollywood is
producing, it's not, especially today is not being produced for
entertainment purposes only. Now there might be a little
entertainment value in it if if that's what your idea of
entertainment is. But they're they they are on a
propaganda mission to try to get you to to turn away from
everything that the Bible says is good and to make you think
that what you believe that's good is bad and what's bad is
good. And the Bible says that that's
exactly what's going to happen, right?
They're going to call evil good and good evil.
And that's what that's what these Hollywood propaganda
movies are doing. And that's exactly what it is.
And if you're if you're no, no, it's just a good story, it's a
great you missed the point and you're one of the you.
You're one of the ones that's being duped by those things, and
James addresses that by emphasizing the fact that
worldliness is a great sin. Here's another one, the judge
not philosophy. That's widespread today.
You can't judge me, right? It's corrected by James's
clarity and the and the dogmatism and the authoritative
stance that he takes on all of that stuff.
You have to be a judge. How can you?
How can you decide what what a false teacher is if you're not
judging what that false teacher is teaching?
How can you? How can you decide what's good
and what's evil if you're not judging what's good and what's
evil? So what the Bible is talking
about is don't be a hypocrite in the way that you judge.
Don't be pulling the Moat out of somebody else's eye when you got
a beam in your own. But you better judge, and that's
what James tells us. You better judge what's good and
what's right. You better judge what's bad and
what's wrong. Go toward the good.
Stay away from the bad, all right, Here's another one.
Unwholesome speech is rampant among profession Christians in
our day, boy. And you want to talk about
unwholesome speech that Christianity Today?
This magazine that I mentioned is.
They wrote an article a little while back about the way that
Christians use curse words, right?
And there's a lot of curse words that Christians use that may not
necessarily be considered curse words, but a lot of contemporary
Christian musicians use those same kind of words.
Mark Driscoll, I don't even heard of his name or not, but
he's in Seattle. He was called the cussing
pastor. You know, it was a book called
Blue like jazz. But a lot of a lot of Christians
today even use God's name in vain.
You know, they they they. Well, Lordy, Can you believe
that that's using the Lord's name in vain.
Right. Oh, God, would you look at that?
My God, I can't believe that. Jesus.
That's amazing. Lord have mercy.
Isn't that something? Those are all ways that we I say
we I don't, But that Christians use God's name in vain, right?
It's Christian curse words that we use, right?
People say OMG, what are you saying when you're saying that,
right? Even if you're not saying the
whole phrase, you're taking the Lord's name in vain because of
what it means. We've got to be very careful
about the words that we use, and James addresses that.
And almost a whole chapter of of chapter 3 in the book of James
about bridling your tongue, right?
Matthew talks about the fact in Matthew, chapter 12 and verse
#26 that we're going to give account to God for every idol
word that we speak. At the very least, whether you
can argue that those are curse words or not, at the very least,
they're idol words that we're going to give account for when
we stand before God. There's another reason why it's
relevant today. It's because Christians today
are caught up in too much in the business of this present life.
They're wrapped up in making money, wrapped up in seeking
comfort, wrapped up in being enraptured by entertainment and
and we need to lift up our eyes and get into the spiritual
battle in a whole lot more earnest way than most Christians
are today. Be fruitful for Christ and be
ready for his return. We, the Bible tells us that we
should be living as pilgrims in a foreign land, right?
If you go to visit a country for a year, you can't wait to get
back home, right? And that's exactly the way
Christians ought to live in this world, not to settle down.
I mean, if you, if you were going to live in China for a
year, would you go buy a house and buy a car and and and settle
down and have a retirement home and all those other things?
Are you saying, you know what, I'm just going to get an
apartment? I'm just going to be here for a
little while and I'm going back home, right.
That's what you would do. And that's exactly how we are
expected to live in this world. I'm just passing through.
I'm not going to be here for very long.
I'm not going to get settled in. I'm not going to make this world
my home. I've got a different place that
I'm going. And James addresses that by the
fact that was we talked about last week that the the that
Christ return is imminent. He's coming back.
I don't have time to get into all of these so I'm not going
to, but I will mention this that there's a lot of references to
the Old Testament in James and you can write these references
down if you want to. James chapter 2 and verse 8
directly quotes Leviticus 19. Verse 18 in fact that there you
go. James chapter 2 and verse 11
directly quotes Exodus 2013 and 14.
James 223 directly quotes Genesis 15-6 and Isaiah 41
eight. James 4/6 and Proverbs 34 quotes
directly from the Old Testament. And not just the fact that he
quotes directly from the Old Testament.
But there are at least 54 other references to Old Testament
passages that James mentions in his book in five chapters, 54
references to the Old Testament. Four of them direct quotations.
But but 54 other references. You know what that tells me?
It tells me that the mind of James was so saturated with the
Scriptures that he couldn't help in that it couldn't help it
coming out in the way that he wrote and in the things that he
wrote. And of course it was so
completely saturated in that that everything just came out.
Graham Scroggy wrote a book called The Unfolding Drama of
Redemption, but he's written other books and study helps and
things like that. He said this.
His references are traceable to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Deuteronomy, Joshua First, Kings, First Chronicles, Second
Chronicles, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Zechariah.
And there may be references to other Old Testament books.
That's a that's a guy that knew his Bible, he knew the
Scriptures, and it came out in the way that he did it.
Now, let me mention this and we're done.
A couple statements about the epistle of James and I'm just
going to read these to you and we're going to be done because I
think this is very interesting. Graham Scroggy, as I mentioned,
wrote the unfolding drama of redemption.
But he said this. It might be described as the
Christian book of Proverbs. It is strikingly fresh and
vivid. The writer is rich in
illustration, which are always appropriate and impressive.
A vein of poetry pervades it so that it may almost be considered
as a prose poem. Here's another one.
This is this comes from the Bible Knowledge commentary.
It's well known that Martin Luther had problems with this
book. He called it a right strawy
epistle, but it's only strawy to the degree it's Stickley.
There are enough needles in this haystack to prick the conscience
of every dole defeated and a degenerated Christian in the
world. Here's a right stirring epistle
designed to exhort and encourage, to challenge and
convict, to rebuke and revive, to describe practical holiness
and Dr. Believers toward the goal of a faith that works.
James is severely ethical and refreshingly practical.
This comes from J Vernon McGee. Due to its practical nature,
this epistle has been compared to the Book of Proverbs as well
as to the Sermon on the Mount. James argues that justification
by faith is demonstrated by works.
It must be poured into the test tube of works, of words, of
worldliness, and of a warning to the rich.
And the last one we find in the Believers Bible commentary,
which I think is very what he says is very, very good.
In some ways, the letter of James is the most authoritarian
in the New Testament. That is, James issues
instructions more profusely than any of the other writers.
In the short space of 108 verses, there are 54 commands.
And as we talked about, that's in the imperative form.
And imperative form is a command.
You do this and you continue to do this. 54 in 108 verses,
that's somebody who's pointed about this is truth and this is
what you need to do to live it, right.
So next week we're going to get into James, chapter one and
start talking about what James has to talk about.
And like I said this, this has been a lot more detailed because
I want to give you a really good detailed overview of it.
And then we'll start looking at the individual passages and what
do they mean as a whole rather than just individual phrases or
words or something like that. So hopefully it's a help.
You might have to go back and listen to some of this again in
order to get it and kind of write some more things down and
and help you as you go through the study of that.
But it's a great study, great study in the book of James.
And very practical, but very helpful for exactly what we need
today. All right.
Let's pray and then we'll go move a shed.
Father, we love you. Give me.
Thank you so much for your goodness to us.
So thank you for an opportunity we have to study that your word.
God, I pray that you'd help us to take it seriously.
I pray that you'd help us to love your word.
I pray that you'd help us to to to to want to get as much from
it and and know as much of it as we possibly can.
And God, that we might love the author of it even more.
Thank you for all that you do for us in Jesus name.
Amen, yes.