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.