All right, good morning, everyone. I'm your substitute for the day since Mr. Early is gone. We're going to do the Book of James today. We're going to try to cover as much of it as we can. Let's open in prayer together as we start. Any prayer requests just before I pray? Anyone specific we should pray for? Yes. Very good. All right. We'll pray for that. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you so much for the great privilege of coming together with your people to worship you, to learn from your word, to enjoy a fellowship with you, the living God, and with each other as your people. We pray that you bless us by your word. Lord, we pray that you would help us to grow by it. We pray that you'd bless the worship that took place this morning and that will take place again and again tonight. Lord, we pray that you would strengthen us and cause us to grow in knowing you and loving you. We do pray for the Ridgehaven trip. Lord, we pray that you would bless all the young men and women who are headed out there. Lord, we pray that it would be a good week, a good time in your word, a great time of fellowship, that you would protect and keep them. Lord, we pray as well for the Browns, for Buck and his wife and children, as this is their last Sunday with us. Lord, we pray that you would richly bless them. Help him as he preaches tonight, to preach a word with faithfulness, with love, and we pray that you would be with them as they move to New York, and bless their ministry there. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so returning to the book of James, we will read just the Opening a few verses, verses one through... We'll stop at verse 11 for now, so just verses one through 11, I'll read that. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes in the dispersion, greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and steadfastness has its full, and let steadfastness have its full effect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass. Its flower falls and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. We're gonna look at these verses, but also look more widely at the whole book together this morning, And as we do, we want to start by talking about who is the author of this book. Well, it's the epistle of James, so we obviously know his name is James. But as we think about any of these epistles, of course, they are Christ's work. We always need to think there's a human author, yes. And we talk about Paul, we talk about John, we talk about Peter, we talk about James. but it's the Holy Spirit who inspired these men, gave them the words to pen and to write down, safeguarded their writing so they did not write error, though they were sinful men like us, saved by the grace of God. And this word, through the work of the Holy Spirit, is Jesus' word. So as we read any epistle, as we think about these books of the Bible, always keep in mind, as James says here at the beginning, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, it's a risen and ascended Jesus who is giving his word by the work of the Holy Spirit through James to us. While the human writer identifies himself as James in verse one, says he's a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, Well, there are several different Jameses in the New Testament. The most likely James to have written this epistle, according to commentators, those who have studied it, the history of the early church, is that this is James, who was the Apostle James, who was the brother of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so he is the one who pens this. And the opening words really show humility, as he does. He doesn't say, James, the brother of Jesus. Instead he says, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think of James. James was one of the sons of Mary. There were other siblings as well. They're described in the Gospels. So Matthew chapter 13, Mark chapter six. We know when Jesus began ministering, there were points in time where both his mother and his brothers were critical of him. So there was a point where James was not yet converted, he was not yet believing in Christ, but we know he's transformed by the gospel. James comes to trust in Christ, to see and to know that Jesus is Lord and God, the Savior of sinners, And he becomes an eyewitness. He's one of the eyewitnesses of the resurrection of Christ. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 15. He lists various people who saw Jesus after his resurrection and James is in that group. We know he was a leader in the Jerusalem church. Acts chapter 15, he's the one who serves sort of as what we would call the moderator or the chairman of the Jerusalem council. He's a leader at that church council, which deals with some issues that are relevant to the content of this book. Early church writers, so after the end of the New Testament, we have some really early writers, like historians and pastors in the early church, the Roman Empire. They make some mention of James as well. They refer to him as James the Just. He was known for his godliness, his zeal for holiness, and it's said in one of these writers that James was known for having calloused knees because he spent so much time in prayer, kneeling in prayer, praying for the churches, for the work of the gospel. Some have tried to argue that James had sort of a legalistic, bent in his ministry, and that may have been something that he struggled with early on. And he would be in the same company here, it seems, early on, perhaps like Peter. Remember, Paul had to rebuke Peter because he was under the influence of people who said, If you want to be saved, you need to be circumcised if you're a Gentile man coming into the church. And that was counter to the gospel. Christ did not institute that or continue that. That was finished through his great work on the cross. There was to be no more bloody symbols or sacrifices because Christ had fully completed the work of atonement. No more pointers in that kind of a way. And we know that Peter kind of gave in to some Jewish background believers who came into the church, and Paul challenges that. And it's described in Galatians 2 that these men came from James. And so perhaps James was caught in that, but it's not clear. And that was prior to the Jerusalem Council. By the time we get to Acts 15, it's very clear if you read Acts 15, James, as they've met together, they've looked at the scriptures, how do we deal with this biblically? And James leads in saying, this is not something that Gentile believers are required to do, nor are Jewish background Christians bound to do such a thing as part of their Christian walk of life. We don't know much more about James' life and ministry. Aside from that, we know he stayed in Jerusalem until he died, and he died as a martyr. Year 62 AD, Eusebius, an early church historian, says that the Jews were, there was a wave of persecution against the church from the Jews who rejected Jesus, and he was grabbed by a mob, beaten to death, but he was beaten to death actually after having been thrown off a high porch of the temple from a high point and then beaten down to death down below. When was this official written? Well, sometime between 44 AD and probably the year 62 at the latest, which is the year of James' death. So somewhere between there. So between probably about a decade after Jesus' resurrection to the time period of the Jerusalem Council. It might have been written later, we don't know for sure, than the Jerusalem Council, which is in 49, but of course not later than his death. When you look at the book of James, its content, if you read through it, and I'd encourage you all, either this week, maybe read a chapter a day, five chapters, Monday through Friday, or if you have some quiet time this afternoon, read through it, pray through it, think about it, think about what we talked about. You look at this epistle, and there is just so much rich and beautiful teaching here from God's Word for us, deeply applicable to us, of course, as His Word. The style of it is, in some ways, some have said it's like a sermon, Others note that it has similarities to Proverbs, to the Psalms, to wisdom literature. Parts of the Sermon on the Mount, there are clear echoes. You can see that James was there at the time of Jesus' ministry. He's well aware, he makes references and allusions to things that Jesus has said. There are references to Peter's epistles in the book of James. and as well, many references to the Old Testament, connections to the Old Testament. Well, let's walk through together the book itself. Chapter one. I think if you look at the theme of chapter one, it's really, a lot of it is about perseverance. And so keeping on trusting in God through the Christian life. James opens with his greeting. What does he say? He says, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. And there's that Opening section, it continues on. If you've got an ESV, you look at the headings, the testing of your faith, goes down to verse 18, and he looks at those themes of hardships in the Christian life. He very clearly shows these are appointed by God. Why do hard things come into our lives? griefs, trials, things that upset us, things that are hard to walk through. Well, for believers, we can know that God is appointing these things so that our faith would be shown, that's what it means by tested, really displayed and shown to be the real thing. That it is a trust in the Lord, that has by his grace a steadfastness because God is sustaining it at the same time. And James tells us that as we walk through trials, resting and looking to the Lord in this, we can know that persevering through that is actually going to shape us and change us. As we look to Christ in it, it's going to cause us to grow to greater godliness, to greater completion in Christian life. and that God is going to bring us through these things in a way that we will not lack what we need in His perfect wisdom. Well, James talks about what if you lack wisdom as you're going through a trial? And of course, this is any part of life. Well, ask God. And we see James as he's inspired by the Spirit. Of course, he sees and knows God. He is delighted to speak of God's goodness and generosity. God's graciousness. We can ask God, and God gives generously, and he gives without reproach. We come as sinners, coming in and through Christ, confessing our sin, looking to him for help, for strength, battles against sin to grow in his ways, and we can come with confidence. God is generous, way more generous than any of us are. He is perfectly so. He is good and holy in his generosity. And then the apostle challenges us, but ask in faith. Now, don't doubt. Doubting is really spiritual instability. Now, of course, we can also ask for help with our doubt because we do doubt at times, but the apostle here challenges us to look in faith and trust the Lord. and he warns against having a doubting spirit and the danger of that. Well, that theme then carries through this chapter. He does deal with a few other things. He talks about the importance. You could say this is almost a theme that will work out in the rest of the book as well. Verse 22, be doers of the word and not hearers only. That's a very important theme of James. It's easy to hear the word, especially if you grow up in the covenant community, you sit under the preacher's word, we all hear it. Do we take it in? How do we become doers of the word? When we hear the call of the gospel, the call to come to Jesus, to come to God, confessing our sin, trusting in him, do we actually do that? We just hear it and let it float by. It's coming in one ear and out the other. James exhorts us, and he's really, in this epistle, one of the great themes is, what is a real Christian? What does it look like? It's not only hearing, deceiving ourselves, just saying, well, yeah, I'm a Christian, but I never, I'm never in the Word, I'm not praying. Well, it just doesn't fit. It's just like there's no signs of spiritual life if we're not ever, we're not following God's word, we're not doing what he calls us to. James uses this illustration, if anyone's a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror and he looks at himself and he goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts will be blessed in his doing. So the book of James, there is a lot in here about sanctification, about living the Christian life out. He talks about this, the law of liberty, the goodness of God's law, the beauty of it. God's law has different roles in our lives. One of them is to show us God's holiness, his character. And in doing so, and what he desires of us, what he's created us for, it convicts us of sin. God's law is the mirror that exposes our sin. It also points us to Jesus, who fulfilled the law perfectly, in all righteousness. And then, for the Christian, There is a sense, yes, that we are caught by the law, we're convicted by the law in our own sin. At times we might be irritated by the law, but as God works in us, we start seeing what the law is good, because the law is also God's guide for our sanctification, for good life, for happiness and holiness. So the psalmist would say, oh, how I love your law. It's my meditation all the day. Well, as we think about this, now we jump into chapter two by keeping an eye on our time here. In chapter two, we run into what, for some people, can be a great challenge in reading the book of James. And this comes as we read Verses 21 and 24. So if you jump down, it's James chapter two. Verse 21, he says, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? Verse 24, you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, wasn't also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? And so, we see this challenge that comes to us. James is saying, you see a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Well, you read the book of Galatians and what does Galatians say? In Galatians, the Apostle Paul says, we are justified by faith in Christ, Galatians 2, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law, no one will be justified. The Apostle Paul is saying, by works of the law, no one is going to be justified. And here, James says to us, you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. If you take those two statements, do they look contradictory? If you just take them as two statements, they do. So we face two challenges. You could have somebody who's a critic of the Bible and says, well, look, it's contradictory. Now you also have the challenge of Roman Catholics who would say, look, the way people are saved and made right before God is not just by faith. You have to be a good person. That's how your sins are forgiven. By doing good. So, how do we answer that? Just throw it out there. How would you... Someone comes to you and says, well look, there's a contradiction here. Good works are a fruit of having good faith. Okay. Good works are a fruit of having good faith, that's true, but doesn't James say that a person is justified by works? Only God can see our hearts to the world through good works. It's justified to man. Okay. So you're saying justified is used differently here? Yes. Yes. Okay, good. Good. So, when somebody throws something like this out, or maybe you end up having a Roman Catholic friend at work or something like that, and you start having conversations and they raise this, one of the first things we need to do, if somebody picks just an isolated verse like this and tries to say a contradiction, often the answer is right there in the context. Read these verses in their context. What is he talking about? And then, of course, the context more widely is scripture. What has James been talking about? He's been talking about sanctification, about the importance of the fact that a Christian is not somebody who just says, hey, I'm a Christian, I trust in Jesus, and then their lives are entirely self-centered and just living for sin. James is saying that's a contradiction. And that's what he's been walking through. saying we can't just be hearers of the word but doers of it. And so that helps us as we come here. James has been saying, as James mentioned, you have faith and I have works, someone will say, show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works. So that's a big part of the answer right there. Another part of the answer is what we also just mentioned, the fact that the word justified can be used in different ways. We have words in the English language that we use in various ways that can have a range of meaning. And this is true for the word justified. When we look at this word, it's the same Greek word that's used in Galatians 2, that's true. where Paul says that we're justified by faith alone, exactly the same word that's used here. But is that same word used more widely in the New Testament? Do we see it used in other ways? And the answer is yes, we do. Luke chapter seven, the same Greek root word is used here in Luke seven, and it says, when all the people heard Jesus' description of John the Baptist, They declared God just. You could say they declared God justified. Well, does God need to be justified in terms of what we call justification by faith? Well, no, of course not. What they're declaring is that God is proved right. God is vindicated in what he said. And so we take into How is the word used throughout the Bible? Suddenly we find out, yes, justified can be used in a wider way than what we just think of as justification by faith alone. It can also mean vindicated or proved right. And that's what we see. Then here, God is the one who's inspired all of this word. And when we read this, and especially we see it in the context of sanctification, suddenly, yes, it makes sense. And it's not a problem for us. Instead, it's a marvelous encouragement. It's an echo of what Jesus says in the Gospels. You will recognize Christians by their fruits. Every healthy tree bears good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. so you will recognize them by their fruits. Even the weakest Christian who has struggled with sin and at times been overcome by sin and failed miserably, the weakest Christian will have fruit. There will be repentance, looking to Jesus, asking for forgiveness. There will be a desire that that sin would be gone out of their lives. as they battle against it. There will be a wanting to grow in holiness and a love for God. All right, so that's chapter two. Move on to chapter three. In chapter three, James really gets into a very practical application of living out sanctification, growing in the Christian life, and this is our speech. This is the well-known chapter on the tongue, the first part, verses one through 12. And James here warns us, and this is a good thing to remember, it is a great thing to be, I would encourage all of you young men, think and pray about whether God would call you someday to become a pastor, an elder, or a deacon in the church, or a missionary. It is a great way to serve the Lord. It is a marvelous way. Or perhaps teaching. Becoming a Bible teacher somewhere. It is a marvelous way to serve God. Certainly not the only way, but it is a great way. But James, as he opens up here, says it is also a weighty service to God. Because it comes with What James says, we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. And so there's a weightiness there to bearing the holy word of God. Again, that can only be done looking to Jesus for strength and for help. But James moves from that opening comment about teaching to focusing on all of us. He says, we all stumble in many ways. If anyone doesn't stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man. If you never sin in your speech, you must be in heaven because it just happens. As long as we're living in this life, sin in our hearts is going to come out in our speech. And James really digs into that in our heart, challenges us, gives different illustrations about a horse with a bridle, ships with rudders. And then he talks about how much trouble a few words can cause. A few angry words, a few slanderous words, unkind words, we know it, right? We've all done this in various ways. We've seen it happen in our families. The brokenness caused by sinful words. James says, how great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire. The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. He says, with the same mouth we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God's image. And by that, you know, we speak demeaningly of a sibling or we down talk or we mutter something as we're walking to our bedroom because our parents rebuked us for something or whatever it may be. The heart behind that is a heart of cursing someone else. And James says, how can this be? This doesn't fit. And what he's saying is, oh, let's pray to the Lord, let's look to Christ, let's pursue our hearts being changed more and more so that instead of from our mouth coming blessing and cursing, we would bear good fruit. We would be like a spring that yields fresh water. And Then in the latter part of this chapter, chapter three, he moves into wisdom that comes from above, and this ties in with speech. You know, it's so great to have friends who are wise, isn't it? Are kind, they're marked by holiness. They love God, they love us. Parents who do, older saints who do. It is so sweet and happy and peaceful to be in the company of people who love God and are being transformed by his word and because of that have a growing wisdom. It brings blessing, it brings safety. And James says he desires that to work out in our lives. Verse 14, he warns us against bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. And so there's lots here that is great to pray through and to read through and to ask God to help us in. He says, the fruit of righteousness, the harvest of righteousness, sorry, is sown in peace by those who make peace. And so a beautiful emphasis there on wisdom and peace that comes with true wisdom. And we know that both by experience it and both by when we experience the opposite. The contrast. And that's what James gets into now in chapter four. He unfolds some more of that. The source of quarrels. Where do fights come from? When we get into arguments, quarrels and fights. And he says, well, isn't it this? Your passions are at war within you. You desire and you don't have what you desire. And so you murder, so you're hateful. You covet, you cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. No, you don't have because you don't ask. You're not looking to the Lord and asking Him, and you haven't been receiving because your spirit has been self-centered. And James says, you adulterous people, don't you know friendship with the world is enmity with God? So he gets a challenge there, and he calls us, he says, God gives more grace, verse six. Therefore, it says, God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Again, there is rich grace. Those who try to say James was influenced by legalism or somehow this is a legalistic book, they really are not reading what the word of God says here. I draw near to God, he will draw near to you, verse eight. Again, beautiful call for all of us. You come close to God, you know, at night in your bedroom, you're reading your Bible, you quietly pray by yourself, you are drawing near to God, God is drawing near to you. God of all glory who created the universe, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he delights when weak little sinners like us come into his presence and he delights to draw near to us. He welcomes us to come into his presence. Then James goes on, there's more woven in here. Again, it's like wisdom literature, kind of like the Proverbs or some of the wisdom Psalms, parts of the Sermon on the Mount. He again goes to the speech that we carry out the way we talk. Don't speak evil against each other. Be doers of the law. Don't be judging in a selfish or proud or unbiblical way. Think of the one who's able to save and to destroy. Be compassionate to others. On the last chapter, it looks like we'll be able to just make it to the end here. Chapter five. James, actually the last verse is chapter four, I just want to mention this. Look to the last verse of chapter four with me for a second. And verse 15. James begins at verse 13. We all make plans. We've got plans, perhaps for college. We've got hopes and dreams for life. Ideals of what maybe we'll do even just in the next couple of weeks. We've got our plans. What does James remind us? You don't know what tomorrow will bring. Sometimes we've been reminded of that in God's providence. Suddenly things change in life. You're a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes, and so you should say, if the Lord wills, we will live to do this or that. It's interesting that back in church history, time of the Reformation, People used to write letters to each other. They would often sort of make their plans, and they'd state, like Calvin writing to some other guy or whatever, or two women writing to each other, they would have some plans, and then they would sort of sign off saying, you know, with love in Christ, and they would say, you know, the Lord willing will do this. And it was just their way of trying to remember this verse and really put it into practice. It's good for us to remember we are in God's will and we can rest in Him in that and as well be humble even as we need to make plans for life. Chapter five, he gets into really some warning against those who are rich and selfish. And this must have been addressed to some of the people who were in the church who were not walking in God's ways and really mistreating their employers. So if you ever become a boss, James 5, make sure you've got that in your, the way you treat your workers as you think about these things. And of course, that could filter down in little ways. You've got a little sibling who's sort of under your authority because you're babysitting or something like that and you're telling them what to do. Think about how you treat them, how you do that. You're doing it graciously or with this kind of a spirit. And finally, James comes back again to the theme of suffering and of trials in verse seven of chapter five. It says, be patient until the coming of the Lord. Establish your hearts. The coming of the Lord is at hand. Don't grumble. God will judge all things. He is going to sort it all out. Wherever there has been wrong that has not been made right, God will. In the day of judgment, all of it is going to be sorted out perfectly. And there's comfort for that for believers. Those who suffered with patience, look at their example. The prophets, other believers who's gone before us. Maybe people we knew in our own lives, grandparents. Maybe who died of disease and went through a lot of suffering, but were trusting in Jesus. What an example of patience. He says, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. He talks about the steadfastness of Job and how the Lord showed himself so compassionate and merciful. Well, final section, we don't have much time, so we need to close in prayer here. There's a little section there on prayer, and I'll just make a brief comment here. It's a section about the prayer of faith and anointing with oil when somebody is sick. I looked up, I dug into this, what is this about? Two views in a reformed world, one view is that anointing with oil is just something that was done in the days of the apostles, kind of tied to what, that sometimes people could be healed miraculously as the apostles prayed for that. The other view is simply that this is something that's right to do, it's just a picture of the Lord's blessing that when someone is sick, they can't go to church, they're in bed, calling for the elders to come and pray for them, they're seriously ill, that as they pray for them, they anoint them with some oil. And there are some Reformed believers and teachers who teach that today. Just looking at Alistair Begg. Ligonier had an article where they argued that this was a legitimate thing to do. That if somebody was sick, they could call for this. It's two different views there. Clearly, it's not a sacrament. It is mentioned here once in the scriptures as something that someone may do. as they are praying to the Lord for help. Let's close there and pray. Lord our God, we thank you for this time we've been able to go through this book. There is so much here that you've given us in your word. We pray that you would bless it to us. Be with us, those of us who go to worship now and with those of us who head home. Bless our day, our afternoon, and Lord, help us to grow in not just being hearers, but being doers of your word, transformed by your grace. In Jesus' name, amen.