All right. Turn your Bibles tonight to
Acts, Chapter one. I know that's a little bit
different maybe than what you expect when we're talking about
the book of James. We'll get there, but I want to,
I want to start here tonight and we'll see how far we get.
I've got a lot of notes. I I think probably more than
what I'm going to get through tonight, but I want to, I want
to just go back and kind of just really quickly review.
We talked about the author of the book of James and by way of
review do you remember how many we said how many James is there
are in the Bible? Three technically.
All right. And I know I listed a fourth one
I said depends on which version of the Bible you're using.
And but it obviously we believe the King James and that is the
final authority. And in Acts chapter one and
verse #13 it says and when they were come in they went up into
an upper room where abode both Peter and James and John that's
James the brother of Jesus and Andrew, Phillip and Thomas
Bartholomew and Matthew. James the son of Alpheus and
Simon Zelottis and Judas the brother of James.
So that's the James now that it's in.
In the other versions it says Judas, the son of James.
And that's where the confusion comes in.
But I wanted to make sure that I was clear on this to you.
We got home last week and my wife was saying I was still
confused. It said the son of and I said,
well, I was just putting that there because that's what it
says in a lot of the other versions and they're wrong.
It says the brother of James. In both passages where it's
mentioned, one of them is in Luke chapter six that says Judas
the brother of James. And then in Acts chapter one it
says the same thing, Judas, the brother of James.
Now I the conclusion that I came to when I was studying on.
Maybe I didn't make this clear last week when we are talking
about it, but it says James, the son of Alpheus and Simon
Zelottis, and Judas the brother of James.
My inclination is that it's just talking about James, the son of
Alpheus. Why at college him James, the
son of Alpheus, He's probably the oldest and and and Judas was
then the brother of James, probably the son of Alpheus as
well. It's not very clear.
That's the only two passages that were given where where his
name is mentioned as the brother of James.
But if you look at the context of the passage, which is
important for us to do, then it sure looks like Judas, the
brother of James would be James. The sin of Alfias.
That that's talked about it, we're not.
They're going to spend a lot of time, not going to spend anymore
time talking about the author of the Book of James.
I believe the author of the Book of James is the one that we find
all the way throughout the rest of the Scripture, pretty much.
And that's James, the brother of Jesus.
And obviously for a lot of different reasons that we talked
about. But what I want to jump into
tonight is talking about the canonicity of the book of James.
And you can, I want to look at a lot of verses.
So maybe what you want to do and and actually what I'm going to
end up doing is really just giving you a lot of these
verses. What I want to do is give a
pretty detailed overview of the book of James and then we're
going to do kind of a general study of the Book of James
basically meaning that I'm not going to go through every single
verse, I'm going to take passages in the book once we
start going through it. But I want you to get a very
good understanding of what the book of James is about.
And honestly our in that overview we're going to really
look at a lot of details and different things about the book
of James to give you an idea of what we're studying before we
actually get into the to studying the book itself.
But mostly we're going to be in the book of James tonight.
But I wanted you to start there and Acts, because we're going to
get there in in just a little bit.
But the canonicity of the book of James and canonicity refers
to the inclusion of the books in the Bible.
The the Canon are the 66 books that we find in the Old and the
New Testament. How many books are in the Old
Testament? Say it if you know it, 39.
How many books are in the New Testament?
27 All right, 39 + 27 = 66 And so that makes up the Canon of
scripture. One of the things, and we
haven't gotten to it yet, but we're going to in the in the the
Teen Sunday School class is canonicity.
How did they decide which books belong in the Bible and which
ones don't? It's pretty obvious that Paul
wrote some other letters that never made it into the Bible.
The Bible refers to other writings and things like that
that never made it into the Bible.
So how did they decide which ones were part of the cannon and
which ones were not? Part of the cannon was a very
rigorous test that it had to go through to prove or disprove
their divine inspiration. And obviously God promised that
he was going to preserve his words.
So I believe we have all 66 books that God wanted us to
have. I don't believe we're missing
any, and I don't think we have any that shouldn't be in there.
God promised that he was going to preserve his word.
He certainly could have given the the wisdom to those who were
going through that canonization process to help them figure that
out. But when it comes to the book of
James, really the the brevity being a shorter book and the
limited doctrinal emphasis of James really kept it from wide
circulation early on. There was a there was, there was
a lot of. I don't know if confusion is the
right word, but a lot of question as to who the author
was. And so by the time they actually
came to the conclusion and and came to the acceptance really by
the whole church that that this was a book that belonged in the
Canon, by that time they weren't sure who the author was.
And so it's a pretty interesting a pretty interesting little
situation there. But John Gill, he is he is one
of the older commentators. I lived in the 1800s not too
long after Matthew Henry. But John Gill said this Eusebius
and I have the quote up there with and it's.
I know it's kind of hard to see but maybe you can try to follow
along. Eusebius and a lot of these guys
are are are the early church leaders those who are who are
the leaders in the church in the 1st and 2nd and 3rd century.
Yusebius, who was who lived from about 265 to 340, indeed says
that has been accounted spurious by some, and that not many of
the ancient writers had made mention of it.
But he himself said that it was publicly read in most churches,
and certain it is that some very early writers have respect unto
it. I Renaeus manifestly referred to
it, and so does Tertullian, and it is expressly mentioned by
origin among the canonical the the Canononical Books of
Scripture. The objections against it are of
no weight, which are taken from the seeming disagreement between
the apostle Paul and the writer of this epistle concerning the
doctrine of justification, and from his calling the law the
perfect law of liberty, and the insisting so much on the
doctrine of works. All which will be seen to be
agreeable to the other parts of Scripture, and easily reconciled
with them. Nor is there anything in it
unworthy of an apostle. So John Gill and many of these
others he mentioned Eusebius, Irenaeus, Tertullian origin
others that, that that automatically and and very early
on referred to the book of James as one of the books of the Bible
and as being a book that was written by an apostle.
So the canonicity of the book of James #4 let's well you're there
in in Acts Chapter 5. We'll we'll we'll be there in
just a second but let's let's switch back over real quick to
the book of James and look at James chapter one.
I want you to see this and and the reason I had you in act is
because I want to show you a couple things that relate to the
date and the recipients here But but to give us a jumping off
spot as it as it relates to this we need to look at James chapter
one because the Bible there says and James says to the 12 tribes
which are scattered abroad greeting now that refers to the
Jewish believers in Christ. The 12 tribes that were
scattered abroad they were not gentiles.
There were no gentiles that were part of those tribes.
So we very obviously writing to Jewish believers who are
scattered abroad because of the persecution that we read about
chapter 8. And what a great thing.
I mean you nobody wants to go through persecution.
But every time we see persecution happening, the
church grows and the church grows stronger.
Because what happens when persecution hits is number one,
they can't stay in that area if they value their life.
So they leave, but they don't give up on Christianity.
They leave. And as they leave, they take
Christianity with them and it spreads.
So what James is talking about when he says to the 12 tribes
scattered abroad, he's talking about those Jewish Christians,
those who were Jewish but had accepted Jesus Christ as their
savior and then were scattered because of that persecution.
So this, the entire epistle of James has a very strong Jewish
flavor and it's very fitting for the early period in church
history when the center of Christianity was still at
Jerusalem. And you read all the way through
the book of Acts. You can see that Paul and
Barnabas were sent from Jerusalem.
Many, many other, a lot of things were centered there in
Jerusalem and spread out from there.
But James was the leader of the church there at Jerusalem.
And so it it makes very much sense that Jerusalem being not
the capital, but but basically the capital of Israel.
And actually we recognize Jerusalem as the capital of
Israel. Tel Aviv is the capital.
But you remember at one of the things that Donald Trump did
when he was the president is to recognize Jerusalem as the
capital, which is what they've been trying to do for many, many
years. And and so they, they really
have two capitals now. But there's also, there's no
reference to slavery or idolatry, which we wouldn't have
seen during that time, which would also lend itself to an
originally Jewish readership. It was Jews that would have been
reading that letter and made very obvious by the fact that it
was to the 12 tribes that were scattered abroad.
But they, the Jewish believers, were facing things that were
testing their faith, and James was concerned that they were
succumbing to that bitterness and impatience and materialism
and disunity and spiritual apostasy and a lot of other
things that were coming up. And so as a leader in the church
at Jerusalem, James no doubt had a lot of contact with Jewish
Christians from a number of the Roman provinces.
Now we talked about Judaism, and we're talking about Roman right?
Jewish is the the religion if you will and the nationality.
Roman was the government that was the one that the the Romans
were the oppressors at that time.
And so you know if you start to think about it from that
perspective and you think about all the things that happened
during the time of Jesus crucifixion and everything that
was going on during that time with the with the Jews who were
shouting crucifying, crucifying, they would have already killed
him if they had the authority to do that they had to get pilots
authority. Pilot was a Roman leader.
He was, he was the government, OK.
The Jews had had, had, had authority, if you will, in
religious matters, but you couldn't put somebody to death
for religious reasons. So they had to try to do all of
these other things to try to get Pilot to condemn Jesus to death.
And Pilot didn't necessarily condemn him, but he wiped his
hands and said he's you do with him what you want.
Basically gave them permission to have the governmental
authority to do whatever they wanted to do with Jesus at that
point. But that they that would have
given James a sense of responsibility to exhort and
encourage them in their struggles in the faith.
Now this is really interesting because James is is very
possibly the very first of the new testimony pistols.
And there's a couple reasons for that.
Number one, it appears that it's was written before or at least
around the time that Paul and Barnabas were sent out by the
church at Antioch to establish the Gentile churches.
And and it was would have definitely then have been before
all of palsy pistols. And there's a couple reasons for
that. There's no mention of any of the
Gentile Christians. And we'll see this.
And honestly, I think it would be a very helpful thing if
sometime this week you read through the book of James and
just kind of get a feel for the book.
It would literally take you probably 15 minutes to read
through the entire book, start to finish, maybe maybe 20.
It's only 5 chapters in the book of James.
And if you took three or 4 minutes per chapter, you get
through it pretty quickly. But it would give you a great
overview of what of what we're talking about here with this
book. But there's no mention of the
Gentile Christians. There's no mention of their
relationship to the Jewish Christians that we might expect
from an epistle that would that was written later.
But for a lot of years, the churches were composed almost
entirely of converted Jews and Gentile Jewish proselytes.
The mother church at Jerusalem was a Jewish church.
The 3000 that were saved on the day of Pentecost.
We're Jewish and the multitudes that were added to the Jerusalem
church later were Jews And we read that in in Acts chapter 5.
In fact go back there and and we see that in Acts chapter 5 where
we read that whole story about all the things that were
happening. But I want you to look at Acts
chapter 6 and look at verse #7 because this, I mean this makes
it very clear and and a lot of times we don't think about this
when we're reading in the book of Acts but they were Jewish and
and you have to think that it was not all that long, number
one, since since Christ had gone back to heaven.
But number two since they had done all of their sacrifices and
everything else. A lot of them were still doing
that right. They still had all the
priesthood. They still had all of those
things. And we, we read in Acts chapter
6 in verse number 7, and the word of God increased and the
number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem, which
would have been Jewish in Jerusalem greatly.
And a great company of the priests were obedient to the
faith. I mean, who's the priest?
They're not Gentiles, right? Those, they're all Jewish.
All of those people that were being added to the church were
Jews. And so, apart from the
references to the person of Christ, there's basically no
distinctive theology in the book of James, which would again
would suggest an early date when Christianity was just viewed as
as Messianic Judaism, if you will, Jews who still followed a
lot of the traditions and the laws and everything else, but
who had put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as the
Messiah. A lot of these other doctrines
hadn't started springing up yet that needed to be addressed.
It was very early on. And so the allusions to the
teachings of Christ have have such little verbal agreement
with the Gospels that they probably were that this book was
probably even written before the Gospels were written.
In other words, we don't find phrases that match up because
James was probably written before all of the synoptic
gospels were written. So when I say that James was
probably the first epistle, it was probably written before all
of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John Acts all the way through the
rest of the the New Testament. And so James and in fact, turn
over, turn back to James. Now we're going to kind of stay
there. All right, We'll move around a
little bit, but mostly we'll stay in the book of James
because this is pretty interesting and we're going to
talk about this later. I don't know if we'll get to it
tonight or not, but James uses the Greek word for synagogue and
it's actually it's the the Greek word is actually very close in
pronunciation to our word for synagogue.
Now in James chapter 2 and verse #2 it's actually translated
assembly, 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
and vile Raymond. Basically what he's talking
about in the whole passage is to not be a respecter of persons.
But he's used, he uses that term synagogue and James Chapter 2.
And James is in fact the only New Testament epistle that uses
the Greek word for synagogue, which again, it really gives us
an indication. James does use the word church
too, by the way, which we'll talk about a little bit later.
But it really indicates a very simple organization of elders
and masters or teachers, which we find a James chapter 3, James
chapter 5, but it's patterned after the early synagogue, and
that's what a synagogue was, by the way.
We have this understanding that a synagogue was a church.
A synagogue was not a a a church.
A synagogue was literally a place for assembly.
Now they would get up in the synagogues and they would read
from the scrolls. They would read the scripture in
the synagogues. But the synagogues were used for
all kinds of different things. When when the, when the Bible
talks about Paul would go into their synagogues and and teach.
Right. It was just an assembly place
that it was. It was a place that they would
get to. A lot of these little cities had
their own synagogue there. And that's where they would get
together to talk about things that need to be addressed for
their, for their city or for all kinds of different matters.
They would get together and they would read the scriptures in
those synagogues. But it was just an assembly
place. And so the fact that James is
using this word, assembly, but the Greek word for synagogue
means that that that the organization of the church
probably hadn't even really taken place very much yet.
I mean, obviously they were, they were gathering in church,
you had the church at Jerusalem and everything else.
So I'm not saying that the church was not established by
that point. It was, but it was just a very
basic organization. That's probably why James used
that word, assembly or synagogue.
But James does not mention the issue that was involved in Acts
Chapter 15. Remember we read that last week,
Acts chapter 15 was the whole issue where all of them got
together. And then James said, all right,
here's my decision. This is what we're going to go
with. This is what I believe got a
saying, but he did. That was in a D49 and he didn't
even mention that at all in his book, which again is very
possibly because it was written before that.
So he. I mean that it doesn't mean that
he had to, but he almost certainly would have addressed
that if he had written his epistle after that council had
taken place. So lots of things there to talk
to, to give us kind of an idea that number one, it was
addressed to the Jews. And of all of the books in the
New Testament, James is by far the most Jewish book.
It it references a lot of Jewish ideas and Jewish things, which
we'll talk about as we go through there.
But then also the fact that James was probably the very
first book of the New Testament that was written.
So then let's get into this, the theme of the book of James.
We're going to spend a little while in here and I want to give
you a lot of different verses and things and and some of
these, I'm just going to give you the verses.
You can write them down and go back and look at them later.
I think it'll be a very helpful study for you.
But we just don't have time to go through every single one of
these verses. But as I study the book of
James, I I think there there's quite a few concepts, but
there's really two main themes. And if I could narrow it down to
one specific theme and then one general theme, the the specific
theme of the book is active faith, not just professing
faith. And we find that really if if
we're going to wrap that up into one verse, it would be in James
chapter one and verse #22. But be doers of the word and not
hearers, only deceiving your own selves.
Verse 23 we can add in there as well, For if any be a hearer of
the word and not a doer, he's like unto a man beholding his
natural face in a glass. So then as now, there were a lot
of professing Christians whose life matched nothing with what
the profession ought to lead to. So that theme verse, I think it
with this specific theme in mind, would be James chapter one
and verse 22. But the main theme of James's
epistle is really to bring the individual believers and the
churches into spiritual maturity.
And there's a lot of concepts that James gives us to talk
about that. But the word perfect appears six
times in the book of James and and and we'll just look at one
of them, James chapter one of verse #4.
But let patients have her perfect work.
What is perfect mean? Complete, right, Mature.
And so when we're talking about the idea that James is trying to
bring them into maturity, he's not saying that they're going to
be perfect in the sense of sinless perfection or any of
those other things. What he's talking about with
perfection is maturity. And he uses that word 6 times.
James chapter one. You can write these down if you
want to, and this is what I'm saying.
I'm gonna give you some of these references.
You can go back and look at them.
But James chapter one and verse 4, verse #17, Every good gift
and every perfect gift. James.
James one. Verse 25.
James two and verse 22. And James chapter 3 and verse 2.
For in many things we offend all, if any man offend.
Not in Word the same as a perfect man and able also the
bride of the whole body. Perfect doesn't mean that he's
sinless, but he's mature and he's maturing into that complete
man and that complete Christian that God wants us to be.
So the word defined in James chapter one and verse #4 that we
read that she may be perfect an entire wanting nothing.
It literally means that it means mature or complete.
So we see the same thing in Second Timothy chapter 3, verse
#17. Now obviously that's not the
theme with our book, but that the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished until all good works.
That perfection is talking about maturity or completion.
So James is concerned that those who profess Christ go on into
spiritual maturity, and and this epistle contains a lot of
lessons on how that can be accomplished.
James wrote this epistle, the epistle really because of the
low spiritual condition of the Jewish churches of that day.
They they claim to be Christians, but their lives were
not backing up the fact that they had accepted Jesus Christ.
And what James is saying with all of that is your works ought
to prove that you're a Christian.
And so there's a lot of unholiness and worldliness and
respect the persons and bragging and self seeking and cursing and
fainting in persecution. So many of those things that
were going on. And James is calling God's
people to spiritual growth and maturity, to holiness and
separation. And he's writing to prepare
them. Ultimately, he's writing to
prepare them for the imminent return of Jesus Christ.
He said he's coming and you better be ready for his coming.
But if you're going to be ready for his coming, then you better
be holy. You better be righteous.
You better be mature. You better be complete.
So with that, fine. I want to look at the major
teachings of the Epistle of James that really are designed
to fulfill the overall theme of bringing the Brethren to
maturity. And the first one we see is
this. It's the character of God, the
character of God. James wants the believers to
turn their attention to God, to be mindful of him in their daily
lives, to know his character, to draw night to him, to submit to
him, to humble themselves before him, to be God's friend like the
Bible says Abraham was. So it's is this this epistle,
and even though it's only 5 chapters, it's just permeated
with teaching about God. I'm just going to give you a
bunch of them here. You can write these down and go
back and look at them later if you want to.
I've got a whole list of them, and without taking the time to
go all the way through it, but we're taught that God.
In fact, let's just look at a couple of them.
James, chapter one, right there in verse #1.
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now what does that tell you? James, a servant of God and of
the Lord Jesus Christ. What's that an indication of?
Yeah, number one, that Jesus is God #2.
That obviously God the Father and God the Son are equal,
Right? Gives you a great indication of
the Trinity. Right Now he doesn't mention the
Holy Spirit in there, but if there's two, then obviously
there's there's a third. And he talks about it later on.
But we're taught that that God and the Lord Jesus Christ are
two and yet one. And that refers to the Trinity,
right? James Chapter one and verse
five. If any of you like wisdom, let
him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally.
James, chapter One, verse 6. But let him ask in faith nothing
wavering. For he that wavereth is like a
wave of the sea driven with the wind and toss.
For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the
Lord. So God requires unwavering
faith. Verse 12.
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, For when he's tried,
he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath
promised to them that love him so.
God promised a crown of life, and he goes on and on and on and
on and on and on with the idea of the character of God.
I'm going to give you the list. All right.
I don't have time to go through every one of these verses,
because we'd be here for a while.
But God cannot be tempted with evil.
He does not tempt anybody with evil.
James, chapter One and verse 13. God is the author of every good
and perfect gift. James 117.
God is the Father. James 117.
James 127. James 39.
God is the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. James 117 God begets believers
by his word. In James 118 God sees and is
concerned with what men do. In James 127 God is the judge of
every man. In James chapter 2 and verse 12
there is one God, James two and verse 19.
He says in that in that verse thou believest that there is one
God thou doest. Well, the devils also believe in
tremble. That's an interesting passage.
We're going to get to that later on.
James chapter 2 and verse 23. Abraham was God's friend, which
teaches us that God will have men as his friends through
redemption. James 317 and 18 God imparts the
fruits of righteousness. God is at enmity with the world
and James 4/4. God resist the proud gives grace
into the humble and James 46. God draws knight to those who
draw knight to him. James 4/8 God will lift up those
who humble themselves before him.
James 410 God is the one lawgiver.
James 412 God is the one who was able to save and to destroy.
James 412 God is in control of man's affairs.
James 415 God is the Lord of Sabbath, who will judge sinners.
James 5 Four God is very pitiful and of tender mercy.
James 511 God hears and answers the prayers of faith.
James 515 through 18 so permeated when I say it's
permeated with the character of God.
Jane and everyone of those passages mentions God or the
Lord as we see as we see it, which obviously he establishes
very, very early on in the very first verse that God and the
Lord Jesus Christ are the same person that he's talking about.
South. The character of God permeates
this entire book. And when we come to know the
character of God, that brings us into spiritual maturity, right?
The way to spiritual maturity, the way to perfect completeness,
is to know God and to know him in an intimate way.
And to know him. I mean, we'll never get to the
point where we understand him or where we know him completely.
But the more we try and the more we study him and the more we
study his character, the more we're going to be like him and
the more that brings us into that maturity that he's talking
about. So the character of God is one
of those things that will bring the brethren to unity.
The second thing is that true faith is evidenced by good
works. Let's look at James Chapter 2.
Faith, so-called, that does not produce works, is not saving
faith. That theme is is repeated many
times in the book of James, at least several.
But in chapter one we saw that those who only hear the word of
God and don't obey it, and those who seem to be religious but
don't live that way, are deceived.
He says that very plainly in James chapter one.
And so on the authority of that teaching we can say that there
are multitudes of professing Christians today that are
deceived. He doesn't.
You can go back and look at Matthew where he says that many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in that name? And then I name cast out devils,
and then I name done many wonderful works and they'll say
to them I depart from me cursed. I never knew you right.
There's a lot. Just because you profess to be a
Christian does not mean that you are.
That's very plainly taught. And James is taught in Matthew.
But that same theme we see in in chapter 3, James says the man
who has true wisdom. In fact, go to James chapter 3
and look at verse #13, who is a wise man and to do with
knowledge among you. Let him show out of a good
conversation, his works with meekness of wisdom.
What is conversation in the Bible?
What's it's not? It's not talking about having a
conversation with somebody. When the Bible uses that word
conversation, what's it talking about?
The lifestyle, right, the way you live your life.
So what he says is let him show out of a good conversation or
out of a good lifestyle, his works with meekness of wisdom.
So he, he again addresses that same theme.
And this theme really is seen in the in the reminders that the
believer has a law to live by. And again, this is where we we
say that this is a very Jewish book in the way that he goes
about it in because we're we're saved by grace without the law,
but we're saved to keep the law, right?
And I'm not talking about the law of Moses, but the new law
that we find in Christ. In fact, this is pretty
interesting to look at. James chapter one and verse 25,
verse 25. And this is the only place in
the Bible that we see this phrase.
But who so looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and
continue with therein. He being not a forgetful here,
but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed,
but the perfect law of liberty. Look at James Shepherd two and
verse eight. He uses another phrase that is
only used in the book of James. James shepherd two and verse 8.
If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
You do well. He calls that the royal law.
We're going to look at the meaning of those terms later on
as we study through this. But the point here is that there
is a law for the Christians to follow, right?
We're not saved to sit or save to serve.
We're not save to live as we please.
We save to please the Savior. We're not saved by those works.
But there ought to be works that show that we are saved.
And that's what that's what he's talking about when his when he
says that true faith or what I'm talking about when I say that
true faith is evidenced by good works.
Another thing that James addresses that really points us
to this idea of maturity as Christians is patience.
In trials. That's the third thing,
patience. In trials, the word patience and
patient we find 7 times in the book of James, James, 13, James,
14, James 57810 and 11. He uses that word patient or
patience. So if he used it once, all
right. But when you use a word seven
times in five chapters, obviously he's trying to get
something across, right? And it's something that we ought
to pay attention to. This is some of the things that
we've been talking about in the Institute class with the men and
the boys, right? Look for those times where you
see more than one word or where you see a word used more than
once. But seven times.
He's trying to get us to understand that we need to have
patience in trials. And honestly, look at James
chapter one of verse #2. He he greets everybody and then
he jumps right into it. My brethren counted all joy.
When you fall into diverse temptations.
He goes all the way through most of that first chapter talking
about that, and then he ends the entire book the same way in
James chapter 5 and verse #10. In fact, if you want to turn
over there, take my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in
the name of the Lord for an example of suffering,
affliction, and the patience behold, we count them happy,
which endure. You have heard of the patience
of Job. They have seen the end of the
Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.
And he goes on just for a couple more verses, but patience in
temptations, patience in trials. He starts the book that way, and
he ends the ends the book that way.
By the way, we read about all the patience of Job, but we
really don't see that, that phrase anywhere else other than
in the book of James. And that's why we say that Job
is known for his patience. Well, that's where it comes
from. James very plainly says you read
about the patience of Job. That's where it comes from
there. Here's another thing that he
addresses that points us toward the idea and the overall theme
of bringing the Brethren to maturity is living by faith.
Living by faith. James mentions keeping the faith
in trials. In James, chapter one and verse
two and three, he mentioned seeking wisdom by faith.
In verse five and six of chapter one he mentions true faith,
producing works and James Shepherd two and verse 14, all
the way through verse 26 and then the prayer, Faith for the
sick and James, chapter 5, verse 15 and 16.
So living by faith as we live by faith.
And he talked about those ideas in several different passages. 3
out of the five chapters he talked, he addresses living by
faith that will bring us toward maturity as Christians.
Here's another one, the importance in the power of the
word of God. James talks about it in a few
different ways, but in James chapter one and verse #18 of his
own will beget he us with the word of truth, that we should be
a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
He talks about in James chapter one and verse 21, therefore lay
apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and
receive with meekness. The engrafted word.
Talks about the Bible in that way, talks about in James 1/22
as we already read being doers of the word, We already read in
James 125 the perfect law of Liberty.
He's talking about the importance and the power of the
word of God three times in fact. Let's look at him in James
chapter 2 and verse #8. If you fulfill the royal law
according to the scripture verse 23 of James chapter 2 and the
scripture was fulfilled with saith, and then in James chapter
4 in verse #5 do you think that the scripture sayeth in vain?
So three times James refers to the scripture.
Now here's something that's very important as well or very, very
interesting. I would say James more than I
can't say more than any other book but but mentions the Old
Testament a lot which think about it.
If James was one of the first epistles, one of the first
epistles written, what scripture did James have to go off of?
He had the Old Testament and he had the teachings of Christ,
right? The teachings of Christ would
have been written down somewhere, even though they
hadn't been written necessarily in the book of Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John yet, right? This was written after Christ
had already died. So did they have a recording of
of Jesus's words written down somewhere that they would get up
and read? I I don't know.
The Bible doesn't tell us that all we have is what's recorded
as the words of Christ in the Gospels and in a few other
passages. But James would have been
talking about the Scripture he's been referring to, most likely
the Old Testament and the words of Christ, right?
He. They would have.
They would have been. They would have had the words to
the Sermon on the Mount probably recorded.
It would have had the words to a lot of these times when Jesus
stood and taught. And I mean somebody wrote them
down somewhere because you know, Matthew didn't remember every
word that Jesus Christ said in the Beatitudes and and in the
whole Sermon on the Mount and then from memory give us Matthew
5-6 and seven, Jesus is Sermon on the Mount, right?
So. So more than likely it was
written down somewhere somehow that they would have referred
back to and he certainly would have been referring to those as
Scripture, right? So who knows, Who knows exactly
what he was talking about, But he refers to the Scripture three
times. And then all of these other
times when he's talking about the word of God, it gives us the
importance and the power of the word of God.
Then we also see that James focus on separation from the
world. That's another one of the the
themes that backs up the idea of the maturity of the Brethren,
separation from the world. He he's teaching us the
strictest principle of separation.
Which in fact look at this If you wanted to if you if, if you
think that that you know some of the things that I teach in
preach is is well, it's a little bit extreme.
That might be a little bit more separated.
Look what he says in James chapter one in verse 27, 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?
If you get a spot on your clothes, how big of a spot does
it have to be to be a spot? It can be a dot, right?
I mean, a dot is still a spot if you're looking at a spot on your
clothes or something like that. So that means any part of the
world we're supposed to keep ourselves away from.
That means that there's no room for non separation, if you will.
And so he really gives a in fact, look over at James Chapter
4. This is a little bit longer of a
passage, but he doesn't hold anything back.
James chapter 4 and verse #4. You adulterers and adulteresses,
know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God.
I mean, what when you are doing things that the world does that
goes against what we find in the word of God?
Do you consider yourself to be an adulterer or an adulteress?
Most of us would never go that far, but he he very plainly
says, You're a friend of the world, then you're an adulterer.
Whosoever, therefore will be a friend of the world, is the
enemy of God. That is really, really strong.
Language verse 5. Do you think that the scripture
sayth in vain? The spirit that dwells in us
lusteth to envy? They giveth more grace.
Wherefore God sayth? Wherefore he says, God resists
his the proud, but giveth grace under the humble.
Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Draw a night of God and he will draw a night to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts.
You double minded, Be afflicted and mourn and weep.
Let your laughter return to mourning and your joy to
happiness. Humble yourselves in the sight
of God and he shall lift you up. I mean, I haven't called you
sinners lately. I haven't called you double
minded lately. I haven't called you adulterers
and adulteresses lately, but he does, right?
That's very pointed language that says separate yourself from
the world if you want to grow in maturity, if you want to grow
into that perfection and that completeness that he wants you
to have, here's another one. Brotherly love James, Chapter 2
and verse 8. James quotes Christ's
commandment to love thy neighbor as thyself and he calls it the
royal law. James chapter 2 and verse #8.
If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
You do. Well, now by the way, that's
that's a direct quote and Jesus used that, but but it comes from
Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 19. And actually I didn't even
mention this, but in the past, as we just read there in James
chapter 4, God resisted the proud, give the grace into the
humble comes from Proverbs chapter 3.
So he's using all of these when he's referring to the Scripture.
A lot of times he's referring to things in the Old Testament, but
that just means one thing. James knew his Bible, he knew
the scriptures and he quoted them and he used it.
But he's talking about the idea of brotherly love, and he
applies that law to a lot of situations, visiting the the
fatherless and the widows in their affliction, creating a
poor brother with the same respect as a rich brother.
We talked about that a little bit in James Chapter 2, Not to
have respect to persons. He talks about it when he when
it comes to assisting the needy, not speaking evil of one
another, not holding the grudge, confessing faults, converting a
brother from error. All of those things that he
talks about, our ideas that that flow along, this idea of
brotherly love that all again points, points us and pushes us
toward that maturity. Here's another one that he talks
about that pushes his in that same direction.
Effectual Prayer James teaches about prayer, which is one of
the most important instruments, if you will, of Christian growth
and victory. He teaches about seeking wisdom
by prayer. James chapter One and verse #5.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.
He teaches about failing to obtain from God because of a
lack of prayer. In James chapter 4 and verse #2
you lost and have not. You kill and desire to have and
cannot obtain. You fight in war, yet you have
not because you ask not. He talks about asking for the
right things. He asked and received, not
because he asked him this. He talks about praying and
affliction in chapter 5 and verse #13.
Is any of you? Is any among you afflicted?
Let him pray. He talks about praying and
faith. Verse 14.
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. Verse 16.
Praying effectually with with, with fervency.
It is the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man to
fail as much. James gives the example of
Elijah. In fact, just in verse #17,
Elias was a was a man subject to like passengers we are, and he
prayed earnestly that it might not rain Now that's it, That's
it. That's a really interesting
passage and I want to get off on that.
But you know, we we think that Elijah just walked up to God and
said all right, God don't make it rain for a while and he
walked away. The Bible says and James, that
Elijah prayed earnestly that it would not rain for the space of
three years, that that then brought the rain again as an
encouragement and to teach the power of prayer.
And he he goes again. He prayed again, verse 18, And
the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
Brethren, if any of you do air from the truth, and one convert
him, let him know. But he he's he talks about the
idea of effectual prayer and over and over and over you're
not spiritually mature until you know how to pray.
So you know how to get a hold of God.
And so James is is taking this idea of effectual prayer, and he
smatters it all the way throughout the entire book to
help us again to reach that, that completion and that
maturity. 2 more things and we'll be done.
The the, the, the whatever number that is the imminent
return of Christ. We've got to understand and be
ready for the imminent return of Jesus Christ if we're going to
be brought to maturity. But James, Chapter 5 and verse
#7, He says, Be patient. Therefore, brethren, under the
coming of the Lord, behold, the husbandman waiteth for the
precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it until
he receive the early and let it rain.
Be also patient, Establish your hearts for the coming of the
Lord, Draweth, and I grudge not one against another, brethren,
unless you be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth
before the door. He's teaching that Christ is
standing before the door. That's an interesting, but I
tell you what, you read the book of James and you read it slowly
trying to grasp what he's saying.
James uses some some wonderful phrases and and that's one.
I mean you just get a picture of exactly what's going on there in
the passage. Behold the judge stand it before
the door. It's talking about Jesus Christ.
He's standing at the door waiting for God to say, all
right, go through the door and and and go right the Second
Coming. They were ready for it all the
way back then. We should how much more should
we be ready for it now? But he's teaching that this
doctrine should change how we as believers live in this present
world. It should produce that patients
in trial like he talks about in James Chapter one.
It should produce the good relationships among the
Brethren. And again, this is one place
that we find only James mentioning this.
But in James chapter one and verse #12, blessed is the man
that endureth temptation. For when he has tried, he shall
receive the crown of life which the Lord had the promise to them
that love me reminds those who are reading that of the crown of
life. He reminds them about Christ's
Kingdom. He reminds them of Christ's
judgment. All of those are pertaining to
the coming of Jesus Christ. And we're not much sure as
Christians until we're ready for the coming of Jesus Christ.
The last one that James addresses as a theme that points
us all to that maturity is the ministry of the body.
And when I say the body, I'm talking about the body of of the
Church, the Body of Christ. James addresses brethren 15 * 15
times. He uses that term.
Brethren, Again, as we talked about in our Institute class,
when you see a word mentioned more than once, but especially
multiple times, then you ought to look and see what it's what
it's there for, what it's around for.
He doesn't address Brethren as individuals, but he's addressing
us as members of a family. The pronouns ye and you are
plural, and 60 times we see ye and you.
In the book of James, and just these five level chapters, James
teaches us that believers are not to live their Christian
lives alone or to live as members of an assembly.
The church is mentioned very specifically in James chapter 5
and verse #14. Is any sick among you?
Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray
over him and over and over and over.
We're instructed to love each other, to provide for one
another, to sow peace among one another, not to speak evil of
one another, not to hold of a grudge, not to confess our
faults to one another and pray for one another to watch over
one another over and over and over and over.
We see that in the book of James.
Mostly they're in chapter 5. But in every chapter James
addresses the group as brethren, and ye and you.
The whys are plural, by the way. Ye and you, thee, and thou is
singular. Ye and you is plural, and you
know, I know it's, I know those are archaic words, if you will.
But every time you see A T H, it's singular, thee and thou.
Every time you see A why ye and you, it's plural.
And he's, he's addressing everybody.
And we see that over 60 times in the book of James that he's
addressing brethren as a whole. So I know it's a lot, it's it's
a lot there and it's just a small little book.
But let me encourage you to read through the book of James this
week, see what you can pick out of the things that we've talked
about tonight. And then we're going to.
I'm going to give you a few more things when we get back together
next week. Some of the things that that
make James unique from all the rest of the other pistols and
then we'll probably start into the first book there, first
chapter there in the book of James.
But as I mentioned, I'm, I'm, I want to give you a very detailed
overview and then a pretty general pretty general study of
the book of James. But until you understand what
the book is about, you'll never be able to get everything out of
the book that God intended for us to get when he had James
write this epistle for us. But we're finished for tonight,
so let's pray. Then we'll be dismissed.
Father, we love you. Give me thank you for your
goodness to us. Thank you for an opportunity we
have to study your Word. I pray that you'd help us to
take it seriously. God, I pray that you would help
us to to get every bit of the Word of God that we can and to
know everything that you want us to know that we can.
And God, I pray that you would just help us as we go through
this study, that we gained some wonderful things from it that
will help us in our lives to not just profess to be Christians,
but to do things that Christians ought to do, and to live the way
Christians ought to live again. We thank you for all you do for
us. In Jesus name.
Amen.