James Session 1 (Chapter 1:1-12) - With Chuck Missler

welcome to the study of the epistle of yaakov or as we know more commonly the epistle of james this is an interesting epistle it's widely misunderstood and it's not in contrast to paul revisionism has caused a lot of confusion here he james is an interesting guy a half brother of the lord and he's the one that presided over the council of jerusalem interesting guy for many reasons and he was not in contrast to paul they really just saw things from a slightly different perspective paul focused on our justification before god and james are justification before men faith is not believing in spite of the evidence faith is believing in spite of the consequences interesting book very very practical and one that really deserves our careful attention [Music] take a new book tonight the book of yakov book of jacob his epistle to the descendants of israel does that sound like the old testament no no that's in the new testament uh the word yaakov in hebrew is jacobus in greek jacques in french iago and italian diego in spanish and james in the new version so you know what is the book of james but it uh hebrew it's jacob jacob means supplanter or heel catcher or tripper up and that's not you might turn to hosea chapter 12 verse 3 makes reference that he caught his brother by his heel remember when they were born and all that and so he was named heel catcher yakov and in the english it seems very distant to say james you don't get that connection now it's kind of interesting that there are possibly as many as four james's in the new testament the first one of course you know james the son of zebedee he is the brother of john the beloved disciple james and john peter james and john were the insiders there were many events that they the three of them were favored the transfiguration for example there were also three that are a little more inner circle at gethsemane and so forth you can check that all out and of course james and john became very early followers mark chapter 1 verse 19. james though this the brother of john was slain by herod very very close right after the pentecost acts 2. and so he's not the one that wrote the book there's also james the son of alpheus the brother of judas but not the judas iscariot another judas and he's only in some lists mark 15 40 called james the younger or the lesser and sometimes just james in parallel passages but then we have of course another james james the father of judas again not iscariot john 14 22 he's identified one of the 12 and luke 6 16 and acts 1 13 he's probably the same as thaddeus in matthew 10 3 and mark 3 18 but there's some uncertainty but then we come to a james that was not at the foot of the cross during the crucifixion he was not a believer in jesus christ until after the resurrection namely his brother there were two such brothers of jesus christ born to mary after jesus he was a virgin when jesus was born but had children after that and both jude in the new testament and the book and james the epistle we're going to study shortly are actually brothers of the lord who took didn't take them seriously until after the resurrection now they are sons of jesus and by the way these these views were held by the early church you'll find it in jerome and augustine and others but i think it's important enough that we take a look at this because obviously as you can gather these are very controversial views let's make sure we're rooted in the scripture turn to matthew 12 verses 46 and 47 12 46 while he yet talked to the people behold his mother and his brethren stood without desiring to speak with them and one said to him behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee and he answered and said unto him and told him who is my mother who are my brethren he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples and said behold my mother and my brethren make the point that that's really his family but the point he's contrasting that to what his natural family not only his mother but his brethren and you look at matthew 13 the next chapter verse 55 jesus in matthew 13 gives them the famous seven parables the seven kingdom parables he did many works and so forth and they're all impressed in verse 54 and verse 55 they say is not this the carpenter's son is not this his mother called mary and his brethren james and joseph and simon and judas there you have the names at least of some of his brothers he may have had sisters for all we know but in case in the scripture at least here they're listed now it's not like me to have a bible study without having something to offend somebody the presumption from this verse is that jesus was a carpenter's son but the greek word there some recent evidence has unearthed doesn't mean what you and i think of as a carpenter he was a builder possibly an architect and that's there's some new manuscripts from the dead sea scrolls that within the first uh decade or two of matthew but anyway if you read the jesus papyrus it's a worthwhile book to read very interesting but you learn a lot of other interesting things and one of the points they make is that we always visualize a carpenter as a guy with a plane and a hammer and a saw and whatever maybe that joseph his father that he picked up the trade from would be an architect or a builder the word actually means builder when he was a youth they were building the capital of galilee cephalus right about six seven miles away from nazareth so who knows those are all speculations but it's fun to stir it up you'll also find similar passages in mark 3 and also luke 8 but we're going to just turn to first corinthians 9. paul in his first letter to corinthians and chapter 9 verse 5 he says have we not the power to lead about a sister a wife as well as other apostles and as the brethren of the lord and cephas and the word in the greek there means a natural brother it's not used generically or idiomatically it's used as a brother a delphi and he's making another point but he says don't we have the right to travel with the sister or wife as well as the other apostles as the brethren of the lord in other words james and jude who were by then apostles apparently traveled with their wives but again she's making an illusion among the apostles of the brethren of the lord so that's kind of interesting now if we turn to john 7 verse 5 it says but for neither did his brethren believe in him so in other words during his ministry now by the way if the word brethren just meant his believing following it sort of contradicts itself you follow me see his brethren didn't believe him if the word means his brothers his natural brothers he had brothers you had a list of them yet four of them there in matthew two of them ultimate least we know came to belief and became prominent in the early church after the resurrection that must have rattled them i'm guessing but they probably tolerated his this strange obsession he had as a as he grew up and he's this rather uh assertive minister doing see strange things or at least i mean they must have had some kind of rationale until when when he rose from the dead they realized he was who he said he was that must have been quite an adjustment for them now you might be interested in something else as you probably know we've been studying bible codes various cosmic codes and you also know there's been all this controversy about the equidistant letter sequences codes that seem to be tucked away by equidistant intervals in the text and perhaps none more prominent than isaiah 53 where within 15 sentences you have a list of 40 people that were at the foot of the cross on that fateful day you have a list of all the disciples what's interesting about this is you have john you have jesus you have three mary's you have all the disciples you have james there twice not three times twice because the third james didn't become an apostle until after the resurrection and i think that's kind of interesting what's also interesting are the people not mentioned the third james is in effect not mentioned and judas is not mentioned in the text they say well these things are just statistical out of these well you can it's amazing statistics that is all the disciples except the ones that weren't disciples and the ones that betrayed him so that's an amazing statistic as the rabbis say coincidence is not a kosher word but we'll move on now the lord first appears i shouldn't say first because that's not quite correct but early he appeared to james turn to first corinthians 15. um first corinthians the resurrection chapter it speaks of how he was seen of cephas in the 12 and verse 5. and then verse 6 tells how he was seen of 500 brethren at once as evidence to believe that some of these were present in the congregation in corinth yeah in fact he says of whom the greater part remain unto this present but some are fallen asleep after that he was seen of james and then of all the apostles so there again is james singled out and we also find him mentioned in galatians chapter 1 verse 19. paul is defending his ministry in verse 18 he says after three years i went up to jerusalem to see peter and abode with him 15 days other of the apostles saw i none save james the lord's brother what could be more clear so there again we have james identified specifically as a brother of the lord also one that paul was close to now one of the most pivotal events in the new testament probably merits our review and that occurs in acts 15. in acts chapter 15 we have a very you remember in acts 10 is where the door is open to the gentiles cornelius peter has the vision of the sheet and so forth which is was god's way of instructing him that the door is open to the gentiles corneliuses well uh it's interesting how the door is opened by peter so the lord opens the door through peter but then peter becomes a minister to the jews but paul becomes a minister to the gentiles and paul's energy commitment effectiveness fruit bearing starting the early church of course was very much very dramatic and indeed speaks for itself but in acts 15 we have a big controversy was raging among see my mind most of the early church were jewish there were jewish people that accepted jesus the messiah so the early church was very very jewish we need to remember that we have joined a jewish church with jewish leaders in the jewish bible and in the centuries that followed the church became very anti-semitic and went its own way and that's very tragic for the jews because the jews have been persecuted for thousands of years under the banner of christ all kinds of crimes have been committed against the jewish people in the name of christianity but it was also tragic for the church because we've lost our jewish roots but in any case during those early days there was great controversy among the jews because up till then before in the old testament period if you were a gentile and you wanted to join if you wanted to approach the god of the hebrews you became a proselyte you converted to judaism and you could not go into the court of the israelites but you could go to the court of the court of the gentiles were not for unsaved gentiles it was for gentiles or apostolics that's that was the original concept that's really what was intended to be but the point is when christ came and and rose and the church started the natural jewish mentality was for some that wanted to become a christian is they became a jew and then accepted christ that was their understandable modality here and it was a big big controversy because the early jewish church wanted to lay on the new christian converts all the other trappings and burdens of judaism keeping the laws and all that stuff and paul fought that paul says not so so this controversy was a a big deal oh let's just pick it up about verse 5. but there rose up certain of the sect of pharisees which believes saying that it was needful to circumcise them and command them to keep the law of moses he's speaking now of christians that were joining the the group that they should be circumcised and the apostles and elders came together for to consider this matter and when there had been much disputing peter rose up and said to them men and brethren ye know how that a good while ago god made a choice among us that the gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe and god which knoweth the hearts bear them witness giving them the holy ghost even as he did unto us and put no difference between us and them purifying their hearts by faith now therefore why tempt you god to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear see peter's logic but love verse 11 but we believe that through great through the grace of our lord jesus christ we shall be saved even as they you notice the reversal there he doesn't say that by god's grace they'll be saved just like we are that's what he says the other way around by the grace of god we'll be saved just like them he's setting them as an example because indeed god was doing great things then verse 12 but then all the multitude kept silence and gave audience to barnabas and paul declaring what miracles and wonders god had wrought among the gentiles by them and after they had held their peace james answered james appears to be very prominent in the early church there's a number of other hints too some people even say he was the bishop of the church in jerusalem there's no evidence of that that's a that's somewhat contrived in some respects but the point is he clearly was a major prominent leader in the church in jerusalem and we need to understand that in order to stand to understand his letter but understand he's very very jewish you'll see that come through the letter james speaks then at this council in jerusalem he says men and brethren hearken unto me simeon or simon had declared how god at the first did visit the gentiles to take out of them a people for his name and to this agree the words of the prophets as it is written after this i will return now he's quoting from amos chapter nine but anyway after this i will return and we'll build again the tabernacle of david after this after what the taking out of the people from the gentiles james is quoting to them old testament prophecy how that after the gentiles be pulled out then he'll return it's a prophecy of the second coming by the way do you know where the first prophecy of the second coming of christ appears in the bible it's in the book of jude but it's uttered by enoch before the flood of noah before the flood of noah enoch as a prophet prophesies the second coming of jesus christ you'll find it quoted in jude verses 14 and 15. but anyway let's move on here um james is saying after this i'll return and we'll build again the tabernacle of david which has fallen down and i will build again the ruins thereof and i will set it up that the residue of men might seek after the lord and all the gentiles upon whom my name is called saith the lord who do with all these things known unto god are all his works from the beginning of the world so then james goes on to give his announcement here wherefore my sentence is that we trouble not them which from among the gentiles are turned to god but that we write unto them that they may abstain from the pollutions of idols and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood now there's a few basic things but what he's really saying is don't require them get circumcised don't put him under the laws of that were given to israel verse 20 for moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him being read in the synagogues every sabbath day then pleased that the apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to antioch with paul and barnabas namely judas surname barnabas and silas chief men among the brethren and they wrote letters by them after this manner the apostles and the elders and the brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the gentiles and antioch and syria and cilicia for as much as we have heard that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words subverting your soul saying he must be circumcised to keep the law to whom we gave no such commandment it seemed good unto us being assembled with one accord to send chosen man unto you with our beloved barnabas and paul men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our lord jesus christ we have sent therefore judas and silas who shall also tell you the same things by mouth for seem good to the holy ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things that you abstain from meats offered idols and from blood and from things strangled and from the fornication from which if ye keep yourselves ye shall do well very ye well and so it goes now one of the things by the way that's not obvious until you study chapter 15 more carefully the obvious question was does a christian have to be circumcised that was the main issue there is a lurking second problem that you can tell only because james answers it because the other problem is if god doesn't require them to be circumcised the question in the back of the jewish mind is what's to become of israel and that's why james hits that one first by quoting from amos 9 that god is not through with israel after he calls out a people of the gentiles he will once again return re build the tabernacle of david et cetera et cetera so the point is what james is pointing out there is a future prophetic future for israel paul will develop that in great detail in his definitive statement of christian doctrine called the book of romans he'll spend three chapters chapters 9 10 and 11 hammering away that god is not finished with israel they're set aside for a time but they have a manifest destiny and he goes into that now by the way it's interesting that paul in galatians two we'll look it up in verse 12 of galatians two he speaks of those converts that came from jerusalem the jerusalem church but the way he puts it is that came from james see james because he becomes idiomatic for the jerusalem church and essentially in verse nine of that james among three people is listed first and if you study genesis 14 and other biblical lists you know that the bible generally lists people not certainly in chronological order but in some kind of preeminence and so james is favored in that so uh anyway now another question that the other dispute that comes up is when was james's letter written and to get a feeling for the times well we know it could not have been written later than 62 a.d definitely before the fall of jerusalem and all of that following the reign of festus which ended in 6280 there was a brief law in roman authority uh before claudius albinis took full control in that period a conspiracy led by anas the younger the son of anus the high priest illegally arranged for the execution of james in a.d 62. this is in the sibius and it's also in josephus there's it's in it's in the records and so he was martyred if you will in 1862. so his letter was obviously written prior to that there's many scholastic views as to when it was written there are some scholars that one of the problems that we're going to run into as we get into the letter there seems on the face of it to be a very different perspective by james in contrast to the one presented by paul superficially when you first read the letter it sounds almost like a rebuttal of paul and it's not that's an important point we're going to try to get across but it certainly expresses things quite differently than paul does and so there's two possibilities frankly one is that it was written before the pauline letters one of the scholastic views is that it might have been written fairly early right after pentecost in acts chapter eight there is a major persecution by the jews of the christians i remember when saul and stephen martin know it there's a persecution many of the christians were scattered by jewish persecution the roman persecutions come later and so some suspect that james because in the letter he makes no reference as to where he is or exactly to whom it there's a certain uh low-profileness of the letter which could which suggests that it was written under times of persecution so that's one view another view that's also very reasonable is it may have been written by james later to counteract misunderstandings brought about by paul's emphasis on grace not that paul was wrong but many people misunderstood paul's message bordering antinomianism a freedom that borders on lucentiousness and the rest and so it could be that james's letter was deliberately written in to bring that back into balance and we you can draw your own conclusions as we we go if it was written in the later times when paul was imprisoned in caesarea it would explain why james does not mention paul specifically in the letter because that's almost very strange because they were very close and yet uh he may not have done that because it might have put his dynamic friend in even greater jeopardy if he was in prison in caesarea if that was written at that time so that's another conjecture among the scholars take your pick paul really talks about faith as the means by which we're justified before god and i think we i'm assuming we've all had enough traffic with paul's epistles to understand paul's major arguments in all of his letters but james takes a little different tack not at variance with paul but with a different emphasis and primarily speaks of faith as our justification before men by being visible reflecting itself in deeds so james will emphasize deeds now the next question that comes up and as we first jump into j into the book of yakov the book of james let's read verse one it's a great way to start james a servant of god and of the lord jesus christ how interesting he takes his posture here not as his brother his being a brother was after the flesh and the lord has risen in his and he now realizes he's as his lord and he puts his name in juxtaposition with god the father and but he's so he's james the servant of god and of the lord jesus christ but who is he writing to to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad greeting now i have to tell you when i travel it's amazing to me how often i run into people who are all tangled up in various contrivances that derive from a myth there are all kinds of people that hold views that derive from this notion that there are ten lost tribes that is a very popular theme in literature it is based on a mis reading of the text the the bible knows nothing of ten lost tribes so before we jump into james itself i'd like to nail this a little bit because i keep running into people that are in one deviation or another that's all hung up by the so-called 10 lost tribes they're not 10 lost tribes that are missing the 12 tribes that james is writing to are the same that paul speaks of in his address before agrippa in acts 26 verse 7 paul is before king agrippa and he makes reference to the twelve tribes if they're lost paul didn't know that okay you have to go back and understand a little bit of history even before the assyrians captured the northern kingdom many from the northern kingdom migrated southward you and i presume that when we speak of the tribe of ephraim we mean people it is also used as a term of geography because each of the 12 tribes had territory allocated to it so if you go up to ephraim it was a city it was also what you and i would consider like a county the people who lived there were originally for mines however after when the civil war started between rehoboam and jeroboam rehoboam the south stayed faithful to the temple services jeroboam the north introduced the golden calves and the idolatry and all this stuff because he you know politically it was not politically correct to worship the traditional god of the torah in the northern kingdom so if you were a faithful jew you were uncomfortable there you were not politically correct so what did the smart ones do they packed up and went south where it was still fashionable to stay faithful to the torah and the prophets if you were in the south and you sort of felt like idol worshipping you are not politically correct in the southern kingdom ever well there were a few exceptions they went bad too but the point is what did you do you packed up went north where that was fashionable so what you find recorded in 1st kings 12 and in 2nd chronicles 11 it mentions this let's just take one of these so you get the flavor of what i'm talking about turn to second chronicles 11. as you can probably gather i've got dozens of these and i'll spare you the long version but i think it's worth making this part of our presentation and part of the notes and i will put in the notes some more references for those that really want to you know spend some time digging into this because it's worth your while putting a little energy in this to get it behind you because you will sooner or later run into it let's just paint about verse 13 just get the tone of it here and the priests and the levites that were in all israel resorted to him out of all their coasts uh and for the levites left their suburbs and their possession came to judah and jerusalem bear in mind the levites were scattered on 48 cities the cities of the levites scattered throughout the east and west of jordan and up north and whatever and so they packed up and came back to jerusalem and uh for jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priests office in other words the king up north and his sons disenfranchised the levites of course because they're entitled worship they don't want any that so the levites where they do they smart ones they pack up and go down south verse 15 and he ordained him priests for the high places that is the idols and for the devils or demons and for the calves which he had made speaking of trouble verse 16 and after them very important praise here after them out of all the tribes of israel such as set their hearts to seek the lord god of israel came to jerusalem the sacrifice unto the lord the god of their fathers and so they strengthened the kingdom of judah and made rehoboam the son of solomon strong three years for three years they walked in the way of david salmon so the point is you get the pictures of migration from all 12 tribes down to the south for the obvious political reasons and this goes on i got dozens i'll spare you all that later on king asa when he reigned in the south another great company migrated from the north that's second chronicles 15. and later on calls from hezekiah and also later on josiah to all israel including manasseh and ephraim came to worship in the temple and so and god addresses all the 12 tribes in second chronicles 11 3 and elsewhere so you know the northern kingdom ultimately falls to the assyrians 722 the southern kingdom goes from bad to worse and about a century later it falls to nebuchadnezzar when the babylonians conquer the assyrians they conquer their slaves so whoever was taken gets commingled with the ones that are taken from jerusalem anyway follow me so they're co-mingled again but in any case it's interesting that after the babylonian captivity the northern kingdom gets to by the assyrians a century later the babylon rises to power conquers them but also captures the southern kingdom so they're co-mingled that lasts 70 years and then the persians conquer and the persians released them all to go home under ezra nehemiah after the babylon babylon captivity the terms jew and israelite are used interchangeably some people try to make a thing of that they're wrong ezra calls the returning remnant jews eight times and israel 40 times nehemiah calls them jews 11 times and israel 22 times he speaks of all israel being back in the land in nehemiah chapter 12 47. the remnant who return from babylon are represented as the entire nation the book of malachi opens up with that very statement now in the new testament there are other tribes than judah some people say jew means judah no means israel other tribes just you mentioned being land matthew 4 13 50 luke 2 36 i will take you through all these step by step we'll be out all night and of course the 12 tribes are lieutenant acts 26 remember anna the prophet she knew her identity as a tribe of asher and that's in luke 2. peter in acts chapter 2 says he cries out ye men of judea and then a few verses later says ye men of israel see their synonyms as far as he's concerned and then in a few verses later he says all the house of israel that's who he's talking to paul knew he was of the tribe of benjamin and he calls himself a jew and an israelite in romans chapter 11 first verse and the new testament speaks of israel 75 times in 73 verses and uses the word jew 174 times so there's more to it we did a whole study of this that's the eighth tape of the eight tape set on the 12 tribes of israel that's an appendix if you will to our commentary in the book of joshua so if you want to dig into this ever you can just dig into that i hope that we've nailed that because not that it's that important except that there are people that try to make these false discriminations and then build doctrine on them and they lead you into all kinds of strange views and uh they're just the point i'm trying to make is they're not biblical and it's a myth in literature that unfortunately has a strange fruit so enough of that the book of yaakov to the twelve tribes is it's a living faith he's gonna be preoccupied with a living faith as evidenced by a righteous living and godly behavior now this happens to be what i believe is our most serious need in the body of christ we tend as christians contemporary evangelical christians to put our focus on leading people the lord jesus christ evangelism leading people to the lord we have crusades every head bowed every eye closed raise your hand you know the routine you've all been something that really was invented so to speak by charles finney you won't find that in the book of acts i don't think and i don't mean to knock it there is a a fallacy we inherently inherit from all this we tend to presume that when somebody in our midst makes a decision to receive jesus christ that that's the climax of what we're about and that's wrong i believe that should not be a climax it should be a beginning how many of you are saved let me show of hands praise god now my next question you don't have to raise your hands what have you done with it you see that's just a beginning and that's and that's what james is going to hammer at he's not going to quarrel that you're not saved by faith if you're saved how can i tell you'll notice in the scripture we are not called to be gift inspectors think about that what gift have you got oh you don't have that gift then oh my goodness well we'll pray for you no no we are not called to be gifted we're called to be fruit inspectors it's interesting to me that this little book that has 60 imperatives in 109 verses is going to hammer away at where you and i are hurting the most we've talked a lot we've been through a lot of books together through a lot of pistols together and they're wonderful i'm certainly not mocking them and yet there is in my opinion as especially as i travel as i mix with i've taught the bible for well more than three decades as a layman doing it full time the last seven years but as i've done it full time and really done it as my calling i am disturbed because as i move among the christian body i come to a very disturbing conclusion and this is just a one person's poll but when i traveled on wall street when i was doing deals in the secular community as i traveled among boards of directors of major corporations i found more character more sanctity of a commitment in the secular world than i have observed within the christian body i ran into people that were crooks and thieves i ran into officers on a few occasions not many but a few occasions that breached their fiduciary duty by undisclosed conflicts of interest or defrauding the corporation that had trusted them not many but a few i won't tell you how frequently that has happened within the christian body and one of the things that disturbs me as i try to get my we're all constantly working at trying to get perspective comparing scripture with scripture and trying to get balance that's the precious thing is balance as you try to do that what disturbs me is where is the call to integrity and character well it's all over the place we just don't focus on it jesus spoke more about these things that he did about eschatology oh we love to get into pre-trib post-trib this that and the other thing and jesus did indeed focus on that and for every prophecy that was fulfilled his first coming there are more than seven yet to be and so i'm not knocking the area but he spoke less about that than he did about our walk and that's what james is going to really focus on he's going to talk about our living our faith evidencing our faith by righteous living and godly behavior so we're going to find in james we're not going to find any big deep doctrinal insights we're going to though get the hammered about practical christian ethics i'll give you one example of what i mean if you're an employee of an employer you owe him 60 minutes for every hour you get paid period it's an arm's length relationship really unless you're a manager if you're just employee you just owe him an honest run for the dollar he's paying you but if you are a manager or a director of the corporation you are before the law required to be the fiduciary of the employer you are required by the law to look out for his interests ahead of your own the relationship of fiduciary in the law is that relationship that you expect between a doctor and his patient between the lawyer and his client or the accountant and his client the term fiduciary that's different than arm's length a buy sell relationship is arm's length you get all the facts you look at it you make your decision when you've done it you've done it that's the basic idea it's called an arm's length that's the way businesses generally run on arm's length basis but there are some exceptions the ones i've mentioned being the most conspicuous of a fiduciary relationship now the interesting thing is that paul in ephesians chapter 6 verses 6 to 10 6-9 points out that a christian owes his employer singleness of mind he owes him a fiduciary relationship if you're a secular employee you don't owe your employer that but if you're a christian you owe your employer a fiduciary accountability to protect his customer list to protect his secrets to protect his interests and the day may come when you sever fine you do but you still you don't you don't you you owe him the same relationship as if he was your patient you were a doctor in other words you owe him your best efforts ahead of your own so in other words what i'm saying is the christian standard is higher than the secular one it should be i should say it isn't a lot of the reason it isn't is due to poor training because we don't get that from the pulpits we don't get that from from our teaching and many of the abuses i've suffered from christians are not because they're malicious because they're untrained there's the concept of a sanctity of a commitment in our society it's essential it's essential for our marriages it's essential for our dealings when i was a manager at ford and we got a break from kelsey hayes and if i had if i sat down with ed hayes or kelsey hayes and he said he's going to do something i could count on it he may not have been a moral person he might have guilty of all kinds of sins for all i know but i could count on his word why because marketing costs are too high to find other customers next year we'd be across that same table negotiating next year's breaks the point is my word is my bond is an operative a concept at the top levels of corporations at the top levels of wall street and unfortunately in our society today it's deteriorating just like our concept of sanctity of marriage and so forth but anyway before getting back to the main theme here a christian is called to a higher standard of integrity a higher standard of character than the secular world and yet candidly bluntly at least in my own perceptions i don't see it so shame on us those of us that are on platforms those who are in pulpits that we have done such a poor job at communicating god's word because clearly that's what god would have now we're going to go through five chapters in the book of yaakov book of james first chapter will be about victoria's faith what makes faith victorious second chapter be about manifested faith third chapter be about controlling and energizing your faith and fourth will be submissive faith and then the fifth patient and expected faith it's going to deal with the nature of faith which in turn is going to deal with the nature and character of god boy that's a disturbing thing when you manifest your faith to your neighbors your workplace you are making a comment a public comment on the character of god because they're going to draw inferences by your conduct that's scary responsibility and then of course james is going to focus on our day-to-day behaviors christians and there's going to be more connection between this epistle and the sermon on the mount than anywhere else in the new testament 60 imperatives they're going to emerge out of 108 verses faith will be the starting point for the christian which should manifest itself in deeds which should reflect the life of wholehearted obedience to jesus christ precisely because we have faith in jesus as illustrated and as we'll see in chapter two and then the ultimate you have the faith which leads the deeds and the ultimate goal is maturity of character the perfection the wholeness of the christian character well let's jump in chapter 1 verse 1 james the servant of god of our lord jesus christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad greeting how refreshing paul goes on for about three chapters his sentences goes on for about three chapters james is short punchy you'll find it certainly a relief from paul's greek but anyway a servant he knew christ in the flesh no more he was he honors him as lord and messiah he links his name with that of the father whatever doubts he might have had clearly are gone now and to the 12 tribes here's a jew writing two jews we'll see that all through here but let's not forget it's a message from us just as paul's letters written to gentile christians were also for jews james's letter to jews is also for us verse two my brethren count it all joy when ye fall into diver's temptations now that's silly you fall into deep trials and you're supposed to count it all joy is that a call to hypocrisy oh man my card just got totaled isn't that wonderful i just filed bankruptcy isn't that great you know earthquake just wiped out a home of our dreams let's count it all joy that sound a little flaky what's he saying what he's saying is it'll develop here that when god's people are called upon to pass through trials it is first of all not evidence of god's displeasure one of the first traps we fall into when things really go against us is to assume that somehow boy does my father have it in for me that's a hard feeling to avoid but it's a lie and by the way the book of job is the thing i remember job he had one thing after i mean just the whole concatenation of events you know his wealth his family his health i mean step by step he has stripped right and many people most books you pick up about comments commentaries the book of job usually say well job is the book that why do the innocent suffer well if that's what the book of job is all about that never gets answered that's not what the book of job is all about exactly job has all these problems then he's got these three friends that quote scripture man they written to shreds with friends like jobs you don't need enemies until the fourth guy comes along and some people think that's an old testament appearance of jesus christ but that's speculative but the point is what the real issue of the book of job is see you and i as readers the book of job are treated to a conversation job didn't know about right up front this deal is this contest if i can call it that between god and satan and job didn't know that was going on didn't matter why because the issue was did he trust god the real issue could job somehow maintain the divine viewpoint could job trust god enough to know that somehow there's purpose in all this and that's god's business so it's not so much why the innocents suffer as much as is maintaining the divine viewpoint and that's part of what james is starting to develop here the word temptations here by the way doesn't refer being tempted to sin but rather the testing of faith it's an unfortunate translation in that sense and then james goes on to explain why we count this for joy he says knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience remember that you're suffering if you're in jesus christ nothing can happen to you i'm not saying if you're not in christ all bets are off that's a whole different theology i won't even get into that i won't speculate about that one way or the other but if you're in christ everything that happens to you is father filter it's done by his will permissive will or direct the will i won't get all that right here so part of the issue is i'm going to suggest in other ways my line is this every day god finds another way to ask you do you trust me and there's lots of ways he asked that question but your whole life's walk is your response to his asking that question in different ways do you really trust him all things work together for good to them that love god to them who are the called according to his purpose you might want to put a tab on romans 8 28 and check it every day make it still make sure it's still there every day god asks you do you trust me what's the purpose of your suffering it's to prepare you for ministry if you've had a particularly unique setback one of the possibilities not necessarily for sure but one of the possibilities is maybe god is having you weather that storm so that you can minister to people who are going through that storm a cancer threat a medical setback a bankruptcy whatever fill in the blank it might be to prepare you to to minister to somebody that's going to need your ministry in that area now if you profess the lord jesus christ you can count on that profession being tested he promises you that there's lots of verses you know when you're persecuted meant to revile you and so forth in our case we were teaching the bible we were christians for more than 20 years 30 years whatever reading bible studies with some regularity the lord plunged us into uh a miserable miserable bankruptcy not just where we lost everything but i had put most of the money in the company but it was a public company and there were other public investors and it went to bankruptcy chapters not just chapter 11 chapter 7. i personally had guaranteed in addition to my own investments guaranteed loans and things and that wiped us out and that was i was suicidal and it was uh i stripped everything i'd worked for for years my dream home lost everything and you say and and i can remember driving from big bear i'd go down several times a week down the hour hour and a half down drive down the mountainside i had a 5 million policy on my life still effective strangely enough every oncoming car was an opportunity and i hope i never forget that feeling because i died not physically but as far as all my dreams all my ambitions all the things i'd built spent 30 years as executive building crumbled why to show me something better and praise god the the one thing that kept me from doing something stupid was he's either in control or he isn't i hope i never forget those days because um that was essential preparation when i had a very large balance sheet i taught the bible but i was arrogant comfortable six seven eight figures behind your net worth you don't really sweat a lot of things you can't relate to a lot of other issues it was in the way so god did some wonderful things nan and i have never been poor never been happier never worked harder but all that was preparation it's interesting as we look back on those days we often do the bankruptcy wasn't the only thing we then moved to another house and it was the epicenter of an earthquake that took care of whatever else was left but that wasn't the part that hurt the worst the finances wasn't the toughest part because when you're in the deal field you can always bounce back if that's what you want to do it was the for being forsaken by our christian friends that was an interesting experience there were a few exceptions but very few anyway uh that's god's preparation according to james verse four but let patients have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing praise god for that i do recommend you don't pray for patience because the way you get patients is to put you through tribulation see not the great tribulation don't misunderstand you and i are naturally if you're a type a type or a driver you're naturally fretful and impatient and we always want to rebel against god's way god's timing and and we somehow can't get it through him how quick things need to be done and we are always in a hurry but we need to learn to be submissive to whatever god permits because that glorifies him who if we order our things according to his his will david said his soul had quiet itself as a weaned child see when you wean a child you start shifting him to solid food he's petful he doesn't accept it at first but gradually accepts it there's a weaning process that goes on and david relates that in psalm 131 which is a psalm of only three verses you want to memorize a psalm that's a good candidate there's only three verses right so and there's this weaning idea that's here and of course the goal is maturity and the development of a strong christian character the whole idea is that becoming mature and whole and before god we're no longer craving for god for what god sees fit to withhold we know that if god's withholding it then he has withholding it for good reason and this is the real victory but for this kind of victory it requires something it requires supernatural wisdom how many have supernatural wisdom here can i see your shrines good for you okay for those of you that didn't have your head up because verse 5 tells you how to get it if any of you lack wisdom the kind of wisdom he's talking about is a supernatural kind let him ask of god that giveth to all men liberally and abreath not and it shall be given them we all lack wisdom knowing our need is the first step in receiving what we need the first step at filling a hole is to recognize as a whole right and so but he gives then he creates some conditions here in verse six but let him ask in faith nothing wavering for he that wavereth is like a like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed see if we make a formal request of god without the implicit confidence in his readiness to answer we dishonor him if you go before the throne of grace asking for something without the complete confidence that he has a readiness to respond you're dishonoring him verse 7 for let not that man think he shall receive anything of the lord see to ask in faith requires us to know that it's in accordance with his will and then james goes on a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways if you ever if you're ever in the mood for a non-biblical example of that read hamlet a classic play by shakespeare but what's the real theme of hamlet setting aside the elegant dialogue and all the other things it could make up his mind and boy did that end up into being a mess what a mess shakespeare's own way raises that issue there the man of god in any case is not given to change proverbs 24 21 suggests that continuously veering from one course to another constantly changing your mind is a demonstration that you are not under divine control if you're under divine control you are following a program god is not the author of confusion it's interesting how many times you see some christian says gee the lord a head is by a man oh really that's interesting a few weeks later the lord had to sell our van oh really changed his mind a lot i mean you'll see i mean there's and and i'm not trying to you know pick on i'm just picking a rhetorical example but god's program is directed he knows what he's doing this persuasibleness cometh not of him that calleth you and uh changeableness is evidence of an unsubdued will and perhaps an inflated ego this again gets this gets in my mind part of this is the sanctity of commitment one of the most disturbing things in a christian context is to have a meeting and agree to something and you make an agreement great great great so you go out and start writing checks and making commitments and then you run into your conference a little later in the week well i've been praying about it and the lord has led me to withdraw from this deal oh really you know there's a there's moving on verse nine the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted the meek will guide judgment to meek will teach his way you know what the greatest thing to rejoice in is you and i are in the hands of him who makes no mistakes once you really really buy that boy does that remove a lot of uncertainty a lot of anxiety a lot of double mindedness if you will but then james goes on but the rich and that he is made low because of the flower of the grass he shall pass away and this led me to psalm 39 5. you might want to turn with me to psalm 39 5 and 6. because this is a part of this perspective building aspect of chapter one of james psalm 39 5 says behold thou hast made my days as a hand breath and mine age is as nothing before thee verily every man at his best state is all together vanity now you wives knew that all along i understand that but i do think this is mr and mrs man but we'll go ahead verse six can now by the way you notice there's a word at the end of verse five what does it say salah now some of you probably taught that's a musical term and i should defer to my musical expert down here but uh that is not what i understand it is the salah means to pause or lift up and it is a thought connector it is a thought link it's sometimes synthetic adding a developmental insight sometimes it's antithetic highlighting a contrast it occurs 74 times in the old testament 71 times in the psalms and three times in habakkuk 3. and you'll notice the following verse see the salah connects it with something it means stop it's a thought pause not a musical pause verse 39 6 says surely every man walketh in a vain show surely they are disquieted in vain he he put up riches knowing not who shall gather them for the sun is no longer risen with a burning heat but it withereth the grass and the flower thereof falleth and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways at this point you can write one in your notes but psalm 90 verse 12 so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom this life that we live through is a hand breath psalm 39 says a wisp a breeze a friend of mine pointed out to me that you don't grow old you wake up one day and discover you are you know it slips by i can remember what i used to do uh years ago i often used to ask a group how many how many weekends do you have left now if i if you say gee i'm you know let's see let's just pick a number let's assume you're 50. say three score and ten the scripture says so your life expectancy is nominally 70 i want coral actuarial tables here so you've got roughly 20 years well if i say 20 years that's an abs or if some of you it's 30 years or whatever it is that's an abstraction let me use it let me use some of this 40 as a better example you have what nominally theoretically 30 years left you could be hit by a car tomorrow of course whatever you could also live to 100 but the point is actually statistically you'd live till 70. so you got 30 years 30 years is abstract do some arithmetic you got 1500 weekends you know that doesn't that sort of rattles when you shake it i mean that's you know what i'm saying i was traveling on wall street with a very prominent jewish financier and i was working him over there's a bernie you got what you've got maybe a thousand weekends left what well do your own arithmetic you know you're roughly 50 you got you live to 70 theoretically statistically so you got 20 years multiply by 50 to make the arithmetic simple you got thousand weekends give or take i saw him many years and seven federal prosecutions later literally and he still remembered that he says chuck what is it 900 now whatever you know i said who's counting well let's get through verse 12 then we'll have major problem blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the lord hath promised to them that love him that is not eternal life it may sound like it sounds like it feels like uh-uh not quite it's the martyr's crown you find it in revelation chapter 2 verse 10 to the church at smyrna the lord says fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tried and ye shall have tribulation 10 days and be thou faithful unto death and i will give thee a crown of life not the gift of eternal life that's a free gift of god you can't earn that this is something else eternal life cannot be forfeited or it isn't eternal john 10 verse 25-29 you go on from that the question i have whatever this is it's crown of life it's a label there are five crowns by the way in fact let me just let's just go through them quickly and yeah the second one is the crown of rejoicing first thessalonians 2 19 says for what is our hope or our joy our crown of rejoicing are not even ye in the presence of the lord jesus christ that is coming so the crown of rejoicing come to those that rejoice at his coming okay third one is a crown of righteousness second timothy 4 8 henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which he the lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love is appearing crown of righteousness another one is the crown of glory first peter 5 4 when the chief shepherd shall appear he shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away and then find the incorruptible crown first corinthians 9 24-27 know ye not paul talking know ye not that they which run a race run all but only one receives the prize so run that ye may obtain now he's not saying that there's only one prize but he's saying they run with the seriousness of winning are you running with the seriousness of winning he continues every man that striveth for the mastery is tempered in all things now they do it to obtain a corruptable crown a little laurel wreath that lasted a few days at the victor's booth of whatever they weren't bronze gold or silver they were perishable they do it for corrupt crown but we are incorruptable i therefore so run not as uncertainly so fight i not as one that beateth the air but i keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means paul talking when i preach to others that i myself should be a castaway what is he talking about this is paul held three jobs worked day and night preaching and leading and planning church he was a type a if you ever saw one i thought he's under grace why'd you just kick back and you know go with the flow i don't know that paul ever went with the flow i'm always amused by acts 15 we opened that earlier the council of jerusalem and you always see it presented like they approved his doctrine right well that's great but if they hadn't it wouldn't have slowed him down he wasn't about to change what he was doing he was on his way you know what i mean if you know anything about paul can we lose our crowns gee we're saved you know lord has saved us he praise god for that can we lose our crown revelation chapter 3 verse 11 jesus says behold i come quickly hold that fast that thou hast that no man take thy crown what's he talking about can you lose your salvation i don't believe so what can you lose your rewards there's that word we don't hear that in christian preaching and yet it's all through the scripture the whole point is to run the race for the lord to win a prize well i don't preach on rewards because i think our congregation doesn't does what they do because they love the lord that's great but paul didn't i mean he loved the lord he ran the race because he ran loved the lord they didn't do it casually he did it with an intensity in fact i'll even use the word desperation and we're going to talk a lot more about that by the way there are five classic crowns we went through those but i don't believe there's five i believe there's more these just happen to be named philippians 4 1 says therefore my brethren dearly beloved and long for my joy and my crown in other words paul spoke of his churches he planted as his crown stand fast in the lord and my daily beloved remember second corinthians 5 10 for we must all you and i have an appointment saved or not you well if you're saved you have an appointment before the bema seat this isn't the great white throne judgment this isn't whether you know the loser dragged off to eternal perdition no no no this is the bema seat but some of us may show up stark naked we must all appear before the judgment seat the bema seat of christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad you have an appointment you have a final exam as christians before the lord at which time you're going to be measured if you've accomplished zip no problem you're saved but as by fire is what paul says in first corinthians 3 and this whole idea of profit or loss you can win or you can lose is foreign to our general perspective of the christian walk and jesus spoke more about this than he did about eschatology or the last second coming the last the days and all that and revelation closes revelation chapter 22 verse 12 jesus says behold i come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be you and i are saved by the lord's work praise god but don't stop there why to bear fruit how by our walk by running out and soul winning yes but that's not all by our walk is it honest is it free of hypocrisy do we mean what we say and say what we mean are we examples to the secular world that are positive even in secular terms where are the heroes for our children where are the role models well anyway this is the warm-up on the epistle by yakov to the 12 tribes that we'll pick up next tuesday let's stand for a closing word of prayer father we come before your throne this evening asking your forgiveness forgive us father for our sins of presumption our sins of arrogance our sins of complacency we who have received so much from you you have gone to such extremes to provide for our salvation and our redemption oh father forgive us for not being more responsive to the whole counsel of god we thank you father for your word we thank you especially for the epistle of yakov that we've looked at tonight we pray father that through your holy spirit you will reawaken us to your calling a calling of stewardship a calling to be witnesses not to witness but to be witnesses in our walk in our talk in our lives that they might glorify you that our lives might magnify your name not by our wisdom but by your spirit father not by power nor by might but by your spirit father we pray that you would reignite in each of us a hunger for your word draw us more deeply into your word and through our resolve father and through the ministry of your holy spirit father let your word manifest itself moment by moment day by day in our walk that we indeed might be called by your name and that we indeed might reflect your heart and magnify your name as we commit ourselves this night into your hands in the name of yeshua our lord and savior jesus christ amen [Music] you

Channel: Koinonia House

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Length: 69min 44sec (4184 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 04 2021