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Well, as becoming a little bit
of a tradition tonight, when I get the privilege to stand
before you and open up the word of God, we go through portions
of scripture quickly. Tonight, we're going to fly by
the book of James. Now, as you're turning there,
it's between Hebrews and 1 Peter, and page 838 in your The Black
Bible's there. But as you're turning there,
ponder this with me to set the context a little bit. It is self-evident. We know this
by experience. We know this by knowledge that
human beings are complex creatures, right? Even if we begin to try
to distinguish the parts, especially the immaterial parts, even if
we try to leave our bodies out of it. What's left is a mixed
bag of emotions, and intentions, and desires, and spirit, and
soul. And distinguishing these parts,
these immaterial parts, is nearly impossible. I'll give you an
example of this in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 5. Well, verse 4, it's the Shema
that most of you will be familiar with. Moses says, Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Now listen to this. You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, and with all your strength. Here are three immaterial
parts. In the Septuagint translation
of this verse, that's the third-ish century BC Greek translation
of this text, the Greek words are mind and soul and strength. Now this is just one example
of the difficulty of, and whether or not these texts are even meant
to give you the whole picture, divide a human beings image. Leave that all aside. This is
a difficult task. We haven't even mentioned the
will or the spirit, how the soul is distinguished from the spirit.
These are difficult parts of us. that it's difficult to distinguish
and to divide out. In the Gospels even, we get examples
of this. When Jesus quotes the Shema,
the Deuteronomy verse I just read, Matthew records that he
says something like, a heart, a soul, and a mind. Of course,
we don't necessarily have to assume that Mark and Luke are
talking about the exact same time that Jesus mentions this
verse, but Mark records Jesus as saying heart, soul, mind,
and strength. Now there's four parts, and Luke
says the same parts as Mark, but he puts them in a different
order. So again, it is very complex. It's very difficult to get our
arms around who we are as immaterial or the immaterial parts of us,
right? Now, we know from Jeremiah, and
I would bet that your personal experience corroborates this
like mine does, Jeremiah says our hearts are deceitfully wicked. We know that not only are there
wicked men ruled by wicked desires that come from their wicked hearts,
we know that even in our own hearts, our new covenant hearts
that have been made new with new desires even in those hearts
wickedness springs up like weeds and if they are deceitful we're
usually the last to realize it right when wickedness comes out
of our hearts through our mouths and into the world Paul says
in Romans chapter 12 verse 2 that part of what the Lord is doing
in us as a people is renewing our minds and you'll probably
also remember this verse Romans chapter 7 verse 18 Paul says
for I know that in me that is in my flesh nothing good dwells
for to will is present with me but how to perform what is good
I do not find for the good that I will or want to do I do not
do but the evil I will not to do or I don't want to do that
I practice now I If I do what I will not to do, it is no longer
I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law that
evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For
I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, but I see
another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my
members. Oh, wretched man that I am. who will deliver me from
this body of death. Now, of course, Paul's adding
back into the equation, the body, which makes it even more complex,
but you get the point, right? And you will remember the New
Testament teaching is clear. Jesus' teaching is clear, that
the blessed one is the unconflicted in heart. Blessed is the pure
in heart. And Matthew 22, all your hearts, all your mind, all your soul. Now, this purity is in distinction
or opposed to the conflicted heart, the double-hearted or
the double-minded. It's this ability for our desires,
the heart or the desires of our heart, the intentions in our
minds. It's this ability that we can have conflicting desires
and tensions within us. It's this thing that James starts
out with in the first chapter. Look there in James chapter 1
verse 2. Where, as you might remember, he tells us to do something
that might not at first seem to make a whole lot of sense.
He commands us to enjoy or to rejoice in trials. And he gives us the reason because
God is using those trials to produce patience. Look there,
chapter 1 verse 2. He says, my brethren, count it
all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing
of your faith produces patience. But let patience, or and, let
patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking nothing. So rejoice that God is producing
patience within you. Verse two, we see the command,
rejoice. Verse three, we see the reason.
Why? Because a tested faith produces
patience. Again, in verse four, I would
read the and there instead of the but. It's a commensurate
idea. He says, he goes on to say, if
you don't know what to do, as you are patiently enduring a
trial that is, if you don't know, ask God for wisdom and he will
grant it. On the other hand, there in verse
six, The one who requests without faith should not expect a response. Now here's the point. Why? Why is the faithless request
the one that doesn't get answered? And James says right there in
verse 8, because he is a double-minded man. This is the impure heart,
the conflicting motives, the conflicting desires, the double-mindedness. This man wants two conflicting
things, or maybe he says he wants one thing, but really he wants
something else. His affections are mixed, his
intentions are not pure. Now, James makes this accusation
against the double-minded man, but here's his evidence. the doubt. Doubt equals double-mindedness. And so that we don't miss the
gravity of this kind of doubt, think about it. On the one hand,
this man's prayer suggests that he trusts the Lord for his help. On the other hand, he doubts
that the Lord really doing something worth his own benefit in that
trial so maybe he wants to find joy another way maybe you've
done this one Lord I want patience but could you give it to me now
kind of prayer or maybe his mind is set on something else entirely
whatever the other intention is He doubts, he asks because
he knows it's the right thing to do, but he doubts that the
Lord will answer because he is double minded. And again, don't
miss the gravity here. This is hypocritical mutiny. This is not just hypocrisy saying
one thing, but doing another. This is really a matter of who's
in charge. Who is the king? Who is in control? Is it the God who actually does
and can control all of the circumstances of life? Or am I the captain
of my soul? Am I the one who steers the ship
according to my desires? Am I the rider saddled up on
the powerful animal of my own intentions? This kind of doubting,
this kind of faithless request is mutiny against the Lord who
created us and who will save us. And here's where we gotta
stop. And I want you to go with me
on this. About every commentator I could
find, not just about, every commentator I could find on the letter of
James says something like this. James is a New Testament version
of the wisdom kind of literature that you see in the book of Proverbs
and to some extent I agree. Many of them will say this is
because what you get in the book of James is short pithy little
sections of wisdom that are just kind of not all the way connected,
not really thematically organized, but just kind of wisdom bam,
wisdom bam, wisdom bam. And you'll see some of that as
we go through here, but I don't think James ever lets go of this
idea of double-mindedness. I think you're going to see in
the next few minutes, that this double-mindedness is all throughout. Now it especially or explicitly
comes out again in chapter 4 verse 8 where James will say, and we'll
get there, cleanse your hands you sinners, purify your hearts
you double-minded. But this mixed bag of desires
and intentions and affections is under the surface of all of
the wisdom that James is going to give. Look there in chapter
1 verse 9 where we see what I would say what double mindedness looks
like with respect to wealth. The double-minded are prone to
see wealth as perhaps the only valuable gift from God, perhaps
as the best gift from God, or perhaps as a way to assess God's
favor. On the other hand, a sound mind,
a pure heart, sees that any exaltation in the category of wealth is
caused to glorify God. A sound mind sees that any humiliation
in wealth is a cause to do the same because God goes about his
purposes in more than one way, in more than one circumstance.
The sound mind sees that the relationship between God and
man and money, he sees that relationship rightly, he understands it. Moving
on to verse 12 there, James describes how double-mindedness is exposed
And as he does so, he kind of unearths the root cause of it.
Look there in verse 12. He says, blessed is the man who
endures temptation, for when he has been approved or tested,
he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised
to those who love him. Now this is a different kind
of temptation, right? It says it very explicitly there
in verse 13. This is not the same kind of
testing or trial that we just talked about previously. The
blessing here comes from proving that one's desires are sounds.
Look at how this works, or we see how it works here in verse
14. He says, but each one is tempted
when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then,
when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin,
when it is full grown, brings forth death. So, we are drawn
away by our own desires, our own desires entice us. Then mother
desire grows sin in her womb. She gives birth to that sin and
that same grows into adulthood and it brings about death. Carrying
on here in verse 16, do not be deceived my beloved brethren.
Every good gift, every perfect gift is from above and it comes
down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation
or shadow of turning. Of his own will, he brought us
forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first roots
for or of his creatures. In other words, double-mindedness
is the problem. God's gifts are given to us in
the context of our trust in both his ends, his purposes, and how
he expects to get from his gifts to his purposes. While we can
be double-minded, he cannot. There is no variation or changing
in him. We are to enjoy his gifts, including
those trials, remember, while we trust how he declares we ought
to steward those gifts. Pursuing our own desires, even
natural or God-given desires, in a way contrary to His law
is deception, and we should not let our own desires make God's
law into an enemy of His goals or purposes. And then when we
get to verse 19 here, You'll remember chapter 3 is the tongue
chapter, and we'll get there in just a moment, but verse 19
here of chapter 1 is a preview. He says, So then, my beloved
brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow
to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness
of God. The double-minded says that he
trusts the Lord's plan to bring about righteousness, but then
uses his own words to do that, to condemn. The pure in heart
knows that the Lord has reserved judgment to himself and so he
is reserved and patient and obedient. Now as we continue here, you're
gonna start to see even more and more the pithy nature and
the moving quickly from topic to topic. But remember here,
this double mindedness, it's going to keep recurring. It's
gonna continue to be underneath the surface of all this wisdom. Look down there in verse 26. I'm not going to read
it to you here, but we can use our tongue to deceive ourselves,
particularly in how religious or unspotted we say we are. In fact, a good way to judge
if our religion has taken seat in our hearts In other words,
do we really have a settled single-minded religion? If we do, it'll work
itself out in practical religious acts. As we move on to chapter
2, we see partiality exposes double-mindedness. Again, James
here in the first few verses makes a subtle accusation again.
In other words, why not? Why not partiality? I mean, other
than because God said so, why is it bad to be partial? He goes
on to say, you will show your hypocrisy by saying that you
trust God and then being partial. You're choosing between, here
we are, God's way and your way, right? Again, you show the hypocrisy
by saying you trust God, but then being partial, so speak
and so do, don't be a hypocrite. In that partiality, Lord, I trust
that you will take care of me, that you will build your kingdom.
But, I'm going to use my kind words and my better treatment
of this man. I'm not going to let go of the
opportunity to get some of his stuff to build my own little
kingdom here while the opportunity presents itself. As we move on
to the end of chapter two, this is one part I'm going to go over
fairly quickly. Chapter 2, verse 14 through 27, this faith and
works relationship, this is hugely important, of course. This is
a large part of what came out of the Protestant Reformation,
is understanding this relationship correctly. Now, usually we go
to this section, and we go there a little bit out of context.
Thinking about it in this context, faith without works, or a dead
faith, again, exposes double-mindedness. God's way is works that come
from faith. The hypocrite says, I trust the
Lord and I offer my proclamation as proof. And then, of course,
the hypocrisy shows up when the subsequent works don't follow. And then we get to chapter three,
how the tongue operates in this double-minded economy. Again,
this is a pretty familiar passage. The pictures here are unforgettable,
and if you've forgotten them, then I'll tell them to you again
so that they will be unforgettable. But the idea here is that your
tongue, our tongues, give force to the mind's intentions. Our
tongue is the connection between the driver and his vehicle. It's
like the bit that the rider uses to cause the horse to obey. and
it's like the rudder that the pilot uses to cause his ship
to follow. It is powerful. It is something
that can start a large fire, as the picture in chapter three
goes. But notice here, the tongue can speak a lie, but
the tongue does not lie. It is true to the heart that
it serves. A lie from the tongue exposes
the lying heart, and so it exposes the purity of the mind that it
expresses. And as we close out chapter 3
here, we see that double-mindedness is envious. It is self-seeking
in the midst of a proclamation that God's wisdom is primary. Look there in chapter 3, verse
13. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good
conduct that his works are done in meekness of wisdom. But if
you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast
and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend
from above, but it is earthly, sensual, and demonic. For where
envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing
are there. But the wisdom that is from above
is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full
of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace by those who make peace. And here we arrive at chapter
four, which I think is fairly obvious that it's the pinnacle
or the peak of the letter. And as we've climbed up this
mountain, as we've ascended, we've gathered some truths, right?
A sound mind sees the right relationship between God and his gifts and
his bond servants. The double-minded conceives of
the gift without regard or with little regard for the giver.
The double-minded has a religious proclamation that doesn't work
itself out in a real action. He separates God's ends from
God's means. His tongue reveals the true nature
of him as the driver. He doubts the purposes of God.
His security rests elsewhere and somewhere else other than
in the king of creation. And again, these are not benign
mistakes. They are hypocritical acts of mutiny. One part of the
mind says, I follow the Lord. But the true Lord is the servant
of King Me when it comes to the double-minded. And look here
in chapter 4 at the result there in verse 1. Where do wars and
fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires
for pleasure that war in your members? You lust, you do not
have. You murder and covet and you
cannot obtain. You fight and you bore, yet you
do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive
because you ask amiss that you can spend it on your pleasures.
Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship
with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants
to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do
you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit who
dwells in us yearns jealously, but he gives us more grace. Therefore,
he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will
flee from you. Draw near to God and he will
draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners.
Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let
your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble
yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. Now, if we've begun to think,
what should I do? Here come a couple of answers
in rapid fire fashion. Verse 11, do not condemn a brother. Leave justice to the Lord. Verse
13, do not boast about future plans. Steward the things you
have in the circumstances of today. And then we arrive at
chapter 5. We see that payday is coming
someday. Payday is coming to those who
have taken the Lord's gifts and used those gifts to build a kingdom
for themselves. And on the other hand, here's
what we should do. Like a farmer, steward everything. Trials, sickness, the privilege
of prayer, the truth of God, the word of God itself, and one
another. Chapter 5, verse 7, patiently
wait for your real inherited kingdom. Now, being a Christian congregation
in a Christian church, reading the Christian scriptures before
the Lord Christ himself, we ought to ask, where's Christ
in this? He shows up a couple places explicitly. Chapter 2, verse 1, James said,
My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory, with partiality. In other words, as we've said,
don't say that you follow Christ and then go on to build your
prosperity and your status by man-pleasing those who are rich
and despising those who don't have anything to help you build
your own little kingdom. That's the explicit. But as you
would expect, and as most of you know, Christ is everywhere
in this. He is not just under the surface,
but he is the foundation of all of this. Remember what he said
was the basis of the Great Commission? Why are Christ's disciples supposed
to go and make disciples of all the earth and baptize them in
the triune name? Because all authority had been
given to Jesus Christ in heaven and on earth. Why can we have joy in trials? Because Jesus Christ is Lord
over the circumstances and the purposes of those trials. Why
can we glorify him whether rich or poor? Because he is the master
and we are the steward. Why can we forego our own methods
of kingdom building? Because he is the king and he
has said he will build his kingdom. His kingdom will stand forever
and all of our personal little kingdoms will fade away. Why
can we leave justice to the Lord? Because he will bring justice
to its full and final and perfect end. Why should we align our
minds and our hearts and our souls and our strength with our
tongues and with our hands, why should they all be lined up?
Because the Lord of Glory sent the Son of Man to reconcile His
creation to His purposes by the power of His Spirit. But there's one more place, and
this is where we'll stop, that Jesus shows up in this letter,
and it's actually the second explicit place. Have you put
your thumb on it yet? It's actually the very first
verse. James, a bondservant of God and
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's some argumentation
that this James is not James, the younger brother of Jesus. But tradition is pretty convincing
that we are speaking of Jesus' younger brother now. little bit of imagination here
but trust me we won't wander too far into imaginary. I think
it'll be pretty clear to you. Just imagine how James, the younger
brother of Jesus, would have viewed this idea of double-mindedness
as he watched Jesus grow. Now we don't really know how
much older Jesus was but Certainly there were times when Jesus'
righteousness must have felt like the CIA spotlight, interrogation
spotlight on James' unrighteousness, right? You put unrighteousness
next to righteousness and the unrighteousness is obvious. That
never happens in our household. times where Jesus, surely there
were times where Jesus sound mind and his pure heart highlighted
the faults and James desires, right? And James intentions.
We know Mary and Joseph understood who Jesus was and is, but we
don't really have any evidence that James trusted his older
brother until a section of the scripture like Acts chapter 15
and then this letter. So at some point as, James became
an adult, he was converted. He turned his heart, he repented
and put his faith in his older brother. So just think of how
James would have viewed the older brother who spent hours off praying
by himself, and yet every time he came into contact with the
Jewish religious leaders, he seemed to be butting heads. This
doesn't seem to line up, right? Maybe this is double-mindedness,
James might think. What about when Jesus appeared
to be, you know, taking the Sabbath so lightly? The Sabbath is a
big deal. How can you claim to be sent
by God and be disregarding the Sabbath? What about when Jesus
would say such exclusive things like, no one comes to the Father
except through me? How can this older brother be
the Jewish Messiah and yet seem to scoff so frequently at the
Jewish leaders? How stubborn does my older brother
have to be to stick to his story that he is the king of the forever
kingdom, all the while being prosecuted and put to death on
a Roman cross? How foolish does my older brother
have to be to say that he is the savior of his people And
he can't even save himself. Just think about the day that
James realized what he had been missing all along. And he saw the Son of Man and
the Son of God for who he really is. And he had been looking at
Him all his life, but missing something. He, James, was the
double-minded one the whole time. James was the one who was pursuing
the King of Creation, all the while ignoring the King of Creation. Now, as we all have had, that
day, James is reordering his desires, right? realigning his
intentions and understanding the way that reality actually
is. This is, especially those of
us who come to the Lord at later in life, this is part of our
conversion experience. This is what the Lord does when
he gives a new covenant heart with new covenant desires to
his new covenant people. We realize that our old desires
and our old intentions are contrary to the creator of the universe,
and we want to align our hearts and our minds with the Lord of
Glory. Now, in our day, but really in
every day, there's nothing new under the sun. False religions
love to play with these ideas, right? False religions love to
play with ideas like right and wrong, righteousness, atonement,
forgiveness, justice, mercy. And you certainly can, and people
certainly have, made false religions out of these ideas. But this
double-mindedness, this is the thing that is common among them
all. You cannot make a true sound-minded
pure-hearted, coherent religion out of these ideas without Jesus
the Messiah of Nazareth. So the book of James may be frequently
relegated to the category of practical religion, but now having
heard it you won't forget where Jesus is, where the theology
is in this book. A creator who will allow you
to suffer for your own benefit like a father, only because in
Christ. Sorry, this is where Jesus is
in this book. The creator who will allow you
to suffer for your benefit like a father. This can only be because
in Christ you are a child of God. An inheritance that frees
you to be a steward of whatever you have or don't have. This
is only possible because you are a co-heir with Christ. You have the freedom to do justice
and yet walk humbly without the duty to condemn and dispense
wrath. And this is only because Christ
has satisfied the wrath of the Father. We have the freedom to
work because we have been brought to life rather than in order
to be brought to life. And this is only because Christ
has lived the perfect life on your behalf. And we have the
freedom to live and to work for the betterment of a kingdom that
will never rot, never ruin, and never fade away. And this is
only because we are subjects of the forever king and citizens
of his forever kingdom. Jesus Christ is everywhere in
the book of James. Let's pray. Lord, there's really only one
thing left to do, and that is ask you to continue to give us
hearts and minds that are purely devoted to you, purely dependent
upon you, and purely trusting in your son who came to die for
sinners. It is in his name that we praise
and glory and pray. Amen.
Christ for the Doubleminded
| Sermon ID | 228212051110 |
| Duration | 36:04 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | James |
| Language | English |
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