Alright, thank you Brother Greg. James chapter 1. James chapter 1. Begins here in verse 1, he says, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. And he's writing to believers who were born Jews after the flesh, but now by the Spirit of God they were true Jews, they were spiritual Jews of the twelve tribes scattered about. These were early Jewish believers. Because they were called out and had been so long under the old covenant, there was various trials that they faced. They were no longer under the law, but under grace. That's what they were learning. They were being taught that not all Israel were the elect of God, that God had a remnant among Israel. And they're being taught that they have Gentile brethren. that are the elect of God. These were some new things that God was revealing, that mystery that Paul keeps speaking about. And now every subject in this letter could stand on its own. You could preach each section on its own independently. But I want to show you something here in the very last few verses of this epistle. Go to James chapter 5 and look here There's one theme here to which everything in this epistle can be applied. And it's right here in verse 19. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, any true believer, and one convert him, let him know that he which converted the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins. He's talking about true brethren. If they err, he's talking about converting them. Now, we know Christ is the head of the church. The only one who converts is Christ. He's working in each of his people. I read that from Colossians 2, that he's the head ministering to nourishment. Brother Greg read from Ephesians 4 that Christ is effectually working in each member in his church, and he's doing so through the gospel. And he uses his preacher and faithful brethren to speak the word and to preach the word. And this shows us throughout this epistle, we see some works of faith that Christ will teach each child of God who he uses to minister to one of our brethren. You get what I'm saying? This is what he's showing us in this epistle. James gave examples of works of faith, and he gave Abraham and Rahab as examples in chapter 2. Now, in the work that they each did, the one thing that made that work a work of faith And it justified their faith as being the genuine gift of God. There was one thing. They did what they did believing God is able. That He's able. That's what they both had in common. That's why these were works of faith. Abraham offered up his son Isaac on the altar. Hebrews 11, 19 says, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from once he received him in a figure. Abraham believed God was able to do what Abraham couldn't do. And then Rahab received the spies and the king's men came to her asking where the spies were and she said they already fled another way. And she had them hid on the top of the house, and she sent them out another way. When the king's men went after the way that she said they'd fled, she sent them out the other way. That was a work of faith. She could have been killed right there. She believed God was able to protect her. That's why she did what she did. And then she believed that what they told her, that if she stayed in that house, that she would be saved and all in her house would be saved when God cursed Jericho. And she believed God. She believed he was able to save her when he cursed all Jericho. And she had that scarlet line in that window. She could go over there and look at that scarlet line and it would remind her that God is able. and you and I can look to Christ and His precious blood and knowing He's already justified us freely by His grace, we can see if He did that, Christ is able. Whatever it is, whatever it is we need, He's able. He's able. Now one way I think that the Lord taught James this epistle and the things in this epistle is when he erred whenever Paul came up to Jerusalem and he talked Paul into taking a legal vow, come under a legal vow so that he could try to persuade his Jewish brethren that Paul was not against the law. And that was to fleshly, that was of James and of Paul, and it was Christ who made them stand. It was Christ who delivered them, converted them from that. And so both of them experienced Christ is able to make his people stand. And that's what James is teaching here in this epistle. That's what Paul teaches in all his epistles. And it'll be by the gospel, by his spirit, not by the power and might and carnal reasoning of man. Look at James 4.12. He says, there's one lawgiver who's able to say, that's Christ. and to destroy. Who art thou that judgeth another?" Remember Paul learned it too. He said, he said, Who art thou that judgeth another man's servant to his own master? He standeth or falleth, yea, he shall be held up for God is able to make him stand. See these works of faith involve believing God is able. That's what they all have in common. I just want to show you some of these works of faith throughout the epistle. I'm not gonna preach every verse, I just wanna show you a few sections and kinda survey the epistle of James. The first work of faith is to wait on the Lord. This is a work of faith that will manifest that the faith God's given us is genuine. Wait on the Lord. He said, James 1 verse 2, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into different temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, but let patience have her perfect work. that you may be perfect and entire and wanting nothing. When he talks about temptation, he's talking about trials and afflictions and persecutions for the sake of the gospel. And this applies to every kind of trial, but especially when it's a trial of faith when a brother is aired. That's a real trial. That's a real trial. But the Lord commands us to count it all joy when you fall into different trials. How can it be joy when it causes us sorrow? When a trial brings you to weep, how can it be joy? One way is because the Lord's always working good for us. He's always working good for His saints when He's trying our faith. He's working patience and endurance. Steadfastness, that's what it means. And when you behold the Lord's faithfulness to make a stand in the trial, and behold His faithfulness to give you the grace to go through the trial, and to keep you looking to Him, and keep you trusting Him, when you experience His faithfulness in making you to stand, He grows you in patience. He grows you in patience and endurance. to trust Him in the trial and wait on Him in the trial. And so that's one reason it's joy. It's joy because the Lord shows us our need for Christ to be our wisdom. You're in a trial and you need Christ to be your wisdom. You don't know what to do. And it says that He draws you to ask wisdom of Him. He says here in verse 5, If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all liberally, and uprighteth not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. He's saying that in the trial He's going to bring you to ask the Lord for wisdom. And He says, and ask in faith, if we're asking for wisdom, partly looking to the Lord's wisdom and partly wanting to lean to our own understanding, we'll be tossed. And he's saying, but if we're asking God's will be done and we really want his will to be done, not our own, if we want our will to be done and we're praying for God's will to be done, we'll be tossed because we won't be single-minded. But the Lord's going to bring us to the end of ourselves so that we ask in faith and really ask in faith. And of God is Christ made unto us wisdom. That's what He always shows us, Christ is our wisdom. And He brings us to trust the Lord as the head of the church from whom all nourishment is ministered to deal with our brethren and to help one another and to teach one another and that He does it through this gospel. That's what He's teaching us, brethren. And we count it joy because He gives us each what we need. He says in verse 9, let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he's exalted, but the rich in that he's made low because as the flower of the grass, he shall pass away. The Lord's teaching us in these trials that our flesh profits nothing. So if we're too low, He exalts you up. If you're too high, He brings you down. He keeps you right where you need to be looking to Christ and not looking to this flesh. That's why we count the trial joy. That's what He's doing in it. And then at the end, He's gonna make you see His glory in it. He says there in verse 12, blessed as he is the man that endureth temptation, for when he's tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Christ is that crown of life. Even right now, when we go through a trial, when that trial ends, Christ is always making you see him a little better. He's always growing you in grace and knowledge of him. every time and everything we go through, making us see He's our righteousness for whose sake the Lord forgives us and keeps us. He's showing us this in everything that He does for us, and He's that crown of rejoicing, that He brought us through it and did it. And it's gonna be so at the end of our life. He's gonna be the crown of life for eternity. But catch this word right here. James 1.4, but let patience have her perfect work, that she may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. You know, like, we like to get out of the trial, and we like to try to get our brother out of the trial. And the Lord is saying, wait on the Lord, that each brother and sister get the benefit of the trial. That's what he's saying. Each one get the benefit of the trial. And when I read that, I thought, you know, what if we don't wait on the Lord? What if we don't wait on Him? Well, look over at Isaiah 30 and verse 15. Isaiah 30, verse 15. Thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest shall you be saved in quietness, and in confidence shall be your strength. This is what He told Israel. He said, Resting in Christ, in quietness, without being disturbed and anxious, having your confidence in Christ, Christ shall be your strength, and you'll be saved by the Lord Jesus. And he said, and you would not. He said, but you said no, for we'll flee upon horses. Look at verse 18. Therefore will the Lord wait. Now get that, he said we wouldn't wait, and it says therefore will the Lord wait. That he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you. For the Lord's a God of judgment. He'll wait till he brings us to the end of ourselves. He just does this in every little trial. It could be big or small, but He'll bring you to the end of yourself in whatever it is, big or small. And He does it so that you'll cry out unto Him and He'll be gracious to you. You'll see Him as exalted. You get that? You get what he's saying? Because he's going to have all his people to dwell in Zion and Jerusalem. And he says, when you cry to him, thou shalt weep no more. He'll be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry. When he shall hear it, he will answer thee. So that's the work of faith James is talking about, to patiently endure the trial, waiting on the Lord to work in the heart with quietness and assurance and confidence in Christ alone, that he's able. And this is what he'll make his children do. This is what he'll make his children do. The second work of faith here is, is use only the gospel of Christ. Use only the preaching of the gospel. Now that's what James is doing right here. He's urging his brethren to hear the word, to hear the gospel, and do these works of faith. And he says here in verse 18, he reminds us of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, that means everything that's of us, everything that's sinful. And he says, and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save you so. He's saying, Remember, we were dead in sins and the Spirit of God regenerated us, and what did He use to regenerate us? He used the message of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He used the message that declared that Christ Jesus, the Son of God, came and obeyed the law perfectly in place of His people. And that He went to the cross and bore the sins of His people and underwent the fierce fury of God's wrath. And He shows you that. He shows you that through the Gospel. And He brings you just to cast all your care on Him. Brings you just to cast all your care upon Him. And He's saying, well that same Gospel by which we were begotten, that's the word to speak to one another. Remind one another what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. That's exactly what he's telling us to do, brethren. Here's a third word. It's to be no respecter of persons. Now watch, look what this means. Now James chapter 2. Verse 1, My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come into your assembly a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment, and you have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place. And say to the poor, You stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool. Are you not then partial in yourselves, and have become judges of evil thoughts? Now, of course we shouldn't do this to literally rich and poor folks, but he's teaching us here, brethren, that when any one of us are prone to err, and when any one of us err, we're really prone to look at that brother or sister and say, stand there, or sit here under the footstool. That's the Spirit. It's easy to have. Very easy to have that Spirit. But God's chosen the poor. That's what He said. He chose sinners. He chose me and you who are bankrupt. He chose me and you who are in utter poverty. That's who He chose. And He made us rich, giving us faith in the Lord Jesus. He gave us the unsearchable riches of Christ. And He's saying, and seeing what He's made us heirs of, He says, now we're going to be judged by the law of liberty. That's how we'll be judged, by the law of liberty. The gospel of Christ is the law of liberty. He says, verse 12, So speak ye and so do as they that should be judged by the law of liberty. The law of liberty teaches us this, that the Lord Jesus Christ bore the judgment of all His people. That's what this law of liberty is. It's the gospel that teaches us Christ bore the judgment of all His people, including my erring brother, including my erring sister. He made each of His people the righteousness of God in Him, so we'll be judged by the gospel of liberty. What does that mean? There is therefore now no condemnation of them who are in Christ. to them that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." That's the law of liberty that made me free the gospel. And then he teaches you this down in verse 33, Romans 8.33, he says, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that God and Rose again is at the right hand of God making intercession for us. That's the law of liberty. That's when you begin to love mercy with God. You love that everything God does in salvation is mercy from the beginning to the end. And that Christ performed the mercy. He's the one performing the mercy. And so He says, verse 13, He shall have judgment without mercy that has showed no mercy, and mercy rejoices against judgment. When He brings you to see the mercy He's had on you, that makes you rejoice to have mercy against judgment. That's the gift and work of faith that manifests our faith is in the Lord. We trust He's able. We trust He's able. And we trust that He'll make us hear this Word, and He'll make us believe Him, and He'll turn us to Him. We trust Him. Here's the fourth thing He says. It's not to be masters over one another, especially brethren who err. Over in James 3, He says, My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation for many things we offend all. Reminding us that if God marked iniquity in one of us, there's not one of us that could stand. Not one of us that could stand. We offend in many things. We offend in word. And he's teaching us there's forgiveness with God that he might be feared so that we might reverence him and rejoice in mercy rather than judgment. Rejoice in mercy rather than judgment. If Christ is our wisdom that makes us wise, and when he makes us wise, he'll make us meek because we know it's all of him. Everything is of him. And God's free forgiveness is in him. Who is a wise man? Look at James 3.13. Who is a wise man and a dude with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. That's what the Lord does by his free forgiveness. When he makes you see everything's of him, he just makes you meek. He just makes you meek. And then he tells us this wisdom from above. Look down at James 3.17. The wisdom that's from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. That's exactly how Christ, our wisdom, deals with you and me. Right there. The wisdom that's from above. This is how he deals with us. It's pure, it's peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy, good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy, the fruit of righteousness. He sows it in peace and he makes peace. And he's teaching you and me to do the same. He's teaching you to use that one gospel, that one gospel. And so He's teaching us in every bit of this, brethren, to just submit it all to the Lord and trust He's able to make our brethren stand. That's what He's always showing us all through everything we go through in this life. He says to us in James 4 and verse 7, Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, he'll flee from you. Draw nigh to God, he'll draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. The only way to do that is he sets our mind on Christ. He sets our affection on Christ, and you come to God, confessing your sin, and He cleanses you, He forgives you, and He keeps you looking to Christ. He brings you to fall at Christ's feet and trust Him that He's the one lawgiver able to save. That He's fulfilled all righteousness for you, all righteousness for your brother, your sister, and you know He's able to save. He's able to get you through every single trial. And so you speak the gospel to one another, trusting Christ alone, being patient, waiting on the Lord, And so then the last work then is in James 5. Why don't you see there, James 5. And it's praying for Christ to do the work. He's done all this for you. He showed you all this as he's taking you through the trial. And then he ends with this in James 5.15, in the prayer of faith, that's trusting Christ alone, the prayer of faith, looking to Christ, trusting Christ, shall save the sick. How so? The Lord shall raise him up, and if he's committed sin, they shall be forgiven him. This is exactly what the Lord's teaching us constantly. He's teaching us, brethren, When a brother's fallen, that's the sickness we're talking about. It's physical sickness, too. But he's talking about, too, if a brother's fallen, you commit it to Christ and you pray to him. Now, he's shown you. He's shown you be patient in the trial. He's shown you to use only the gospel. He's shown you to be rejoicing mercy rather than judgment, to not be masters, And He's shown you to humble yourself and trust the Lord Jesus. And He says, and now, and pray to Him and ask Him to bless that gospel. That's just what He told Ezekiel in the Valley of Tribones. He told him, preach the Word. He told him, pray to Me to send forth the Spirit. And He said, and wait on Me. And when I've done the work, you'll give Me the glory. That's exactly what he said, and that's what he's teaching us, what he's doing. Teaching us to trust him in the trial, to speak the gospel of Christ, to be no respecter, to rejoice in mercy, to pray for Christ, to pour out the rain of grace on one another. That's the works of faith that manifests. Our faith is genuine because everything in that He's looking to Christ and trusting Christ alone, and trusting he's able. Using his gospel, speaking to each other of what Christ has done, being merciful, forgiving, and overlooking one another's faults, and being merciful, and preaching Christ to one another. And that's how he'll keep growing us. That's what he's teaching us, brother. I pray that's a blessing to you.