Introduction to the Book of James

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.

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

James 2 · chapter mention

#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

James 3 · chapter mention

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

James 4 · chapter mention

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

James 5 · chapter mention

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.

James 3 · chapter mention

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,

James 4 · chapter mention

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

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

#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

James 2 · chapter mention

directly quotes Leviticus 19. Verse 18 in fact that there you

go. James chapter 2 and verse 11

James 2 · chapter mention

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.