quite a fitting hymn as we think
on that which Christ has done. Because if we look at what Christ
has done, we're made to ask the question, why did he do it? And that's a question that cannot
really be answered in the reason of men because there is no reason
in our thinking why he should have did what he did when we were enemies of God in
our minds by wicked works. Yet God was not our enemy. In other words, he did not set
out to be our enemy, we set out to be his. And yet God, in his
great mercy and kindness, has told us what we are by nature. And if he has not, then we cannot
at all begin to appreciate or have any understanding of what
it is that Christ did. But as we are brought to know
ourselves to be sinners without any hope, see, that's the place a man has to
be brought in order for him to have faith
in Christ. Because as long as he thinks
himself to be something, or to have some power with God, or
to have some natural ability to approach unto God, as long
as he has that notion, even though he may say that he believes the
gospel, he does not. Because the first thing that
the Lord teaches a man, when he brings him to faith in Christ,
is that he has no other alternative. No other place. I mean, see,
there was one of the thieves on the cross was brought to that
place. He knew he had no hope. He knew that he had no argument. He had nothing to say. He knew
that he was guilty. He knew that he was worthy of
death. But the only thing that he could do in that hour was
cry out to God for mercy. And by grace, the Lord gave him
faith to believe. that Jesus Christ was indeed
the king coming into his kingdom, even though he hung on a cross,
dying right beside him. Now that's ever an amazing thing,
but the grace of God knows no bounds. There's no limitations
upon it. And you know, which among us
can know how far the Lord will go with a man. Certainly if you
had surveyed the crowd that day, the last person probably in your
mind that would be ushered into the kingdom of God would have
been this thief on the cross. But see, the Lord knew him from
the beginning. Before he ever committed any
crime that brought him to the place where he was hanging on
that cross, the Lord knew him. And the Lord brought him to that
place at that time that he might demonstrate his grace in bringing
one of his sheep. You know, I think of sometimes
when I think on that day, I think about that hymn, there
were ninety and nine that safely lay in the shelter of the fold. But
one was out on the hill's way, far off from the gates of gold. When the Lord left the 99, they
might gain that one. What a picture of his mercy.
But I tell you that Not a one of God's sheep have
ever been brought into the kingdom of God or any less sought out
by Him than that one was. The Lord brings us by a way that
we knew not, but He knows the way. He knows every step we take. And He has ordered the path of
our life to bring us to that place where He would have us
to be. And it's a glorious thing to
consider that he will never leave nor forsake
his people. But he's faithful to the end.
I love that verse in John 13 says, having loved his own which
were in the world, he loved them to the end. And such is the love
of our Savior for his people. We're gonna be looking, I've
been thinking about where we need to go and I can't find any
other reason that we should not continue in the order of the
books that we've been looking at. We're gonna look at the book
of James, The book of James. Now the book
of James has been considered by some as not even worthy of
being put in the scripture. In fact, I think I would have
to double check this, but I'm pretty sure that Martin Luther
thought that the book of James was probably, should be outside
of that, the realm of that. And it's a difficult book in
many ways. As you look at it and you understand the grace of God,
the complete work of Christ in our behalf, And we often preach
and often say, and we definitely mean, there's not a thing that
a man can do to bring himself into the presence of God, the
pleasure of God. You can't bring yourself into
the pleasure of God. You can't make yourself pleasing
in the sight of God. It is a work of grace whenever
a man walks in obedience to the Lord. But we're exhorted to walk
in obedience to the Lord. We have, we're accountable to
walk in obedience to the Lord. We must walk in obedience to
the Lord. We tell one another walk in obedience
to the Lord. And so the book of James is written
from, the book of James is certainly not in contrast in my estimation
to the gospel of the grace of God in any fashion. It's just,
James is emphasizing some things that need to be emphasized. And we must never think that exhorting
the sons of God to obedience is something a little off-putting
with that, or that we shouldn't take much time to do that. I
know there's one fella that I know, he made comment that in their
church they didn't believe in exhortations. They didn't believe
in exhorting men to do things. And some men take the grace of
God and the preaching of grace to that extent. that they believe
there is no place for exhortation, that God's people gonna do God's
will and that's it. Well, I wouldn't argue with them
that that is true, but I would certainly say that it is evident
that the scripture teaches that God's people are ordained unto
good works. I mean, the Lord ordained us
unto good works. That's the purpose for which
he brought us out of darkness and into the light. He didn't
just bring us out of the darkness so we'd just walk along. He brought
us out that we might be lights in the world. City that sat on
a hill can't be hid. And so there is a work of God
in the people of God as well as a work of God in the behalf
of the people of God. And we must never think that
one supersedes the other. They go hand in hand. Where God
does a work in the behalf of somebody, he also does a work
in somebody. And that measure of faith that
he gives to men is different. The Lord gives to every man the
measure of faith as it pleases Him. Not all men have the same
faith. Now, all men have the same faith
in that all men believe Christ. But not all men, there are some
who are weaker in faith, is what Scripture says. I mean, Paul
said, you are strong in faith. You know, you need to exhort
those that are weaker in the faith. And so it is. And so the
book of James is given to us as a reminder, I believe, of
that to which we're called. And we must never war against
it or think that if somebody comes along and says, walk in
obedience, that they're telling us the wrong thing because they're
telling us the right thing. Do what God said. Would we ever tell people, well,
don't matter if you do what God says or not. I mean, how foolish
is that? You know, we exhort one another
to do the will of God. And so it is, that's what the
book of James is. Now, who wrote the book of James? There's actually three prominent
men in the scripture called James. One was James, the brother of
John, who were the sons of Zebedee. who were some of the original
ones that were called. Then there was James, the son
of Alphaeus. We don't know a whole lot about
him. He was evidently a tax collector along with Matthew. And then there was James, the
brother of the Lord. James, the son of Zebedee, was
the first person that we have record of who was martyred for
the cause of Christ. as we read even it's recorded
for us in the scripture, that he was slain by Herod. And so
it is that he could not be the author of this book because this
was written after. that period of time. And James,
the son of Alphaeus, we don't know a whole lot about him, possibly
could be him, but it's generally considered that James, the brother
of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm talking about the fifth, of course
he would be a half-brother, of course, to the Lord Jesus Christ,
was the one who wrote this book. It doesn't really make any difference.
We do know that it is a book written by James, whoever he
was. So let's read it. The first chapter. A servant of God and of the Lord
Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into divers temptations, knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect
work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to
all men liberally, and upbraideth 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. For let
not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother
of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, but the rich in
that he is made low. Because as the flower of the
grass, he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen
with the burning heat, but it withereth the grass and the flower
thereof falleth. faileth, and the grace of the
fashion of it perisheth, so also shall the rich man fade away
in his ways. Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation, for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of
life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no
man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot
be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every
man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. And when lust hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth
forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren,
every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh
down from the Father of lights, with whom is no fearableness,
neither shadow of turning. Of his own will began he us with
the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits 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, and receive with meekness the
engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye
doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the
word and not a doer, he is likened to a man beholding his natural
face in a glass or in a mirror. For he beholdeth himself and
goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man
he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect
law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful
hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in
his deed. If any man among you seem to
be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his
own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled
before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless
and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted
from the world. So we read James a servant of
God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's quite an introduction. I would point out that Of course,
some people would make a distinction there between being a servant
of God and a servant of Jesus Christ. I don't think he's making
a distinction there. I think he's teaching us a very
vital lesson. Now, the Lord said that a man
can't have two masters or else he will serve the one and neglect
the other. And so what he's saying here
is he is pointing out the fact that Jesus Christ is indeed one
with the Father, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. That to be a servant of one is
to be the servant of the other. You can't separate the deity
of Christ from his manhood. You can look at it and you can
see him as a man, you can see him as God, but he's always the
God-man. He's not separated in any wise
in that way. And so he, as Isaiah said, he
shall be called the mighty God, the everlasting Father. He said
to Philip, Philip, have I been so long time with you and you've
not known me? He said, if you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. And so James says here that he's
a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that men might
know that to be a servant of one is to serve the other. You
cannot be a servant of God and not be a servant of Jesus Christ.
And you can't be a servant of Jesus Christ and not be a servant
of God. Those two things go hand in hand.
They just, there's no separation between them. And so when men
come, speaking about the, these different faiths that men
have. Well, they have their faith,
and they're serving their God, and these are serving their God,
and all this. Look, it's not our place to be
going around determining what other men are doing. But it is
our place, and it is, we must be clear on this, that there
is one God. There's not a pantheon of God. There's not a God in different
perspectives. There's one God. God who at hundred
times and in diverse manner spake in times past to the fathers
by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son. Now, no man hath seen God at
any time The only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, has declared Him. He has manifested Him. So the
only way that a man can ever know God is to know Jesus Christ. Only way. A man can't say, well, I prayed
to God, but I didn't do it in Jesus' name. Well, he didn't
do it. Because there's no way to approach unto God except in
the name, the authority of Jesus Christ. See, when we pray, a
lot of times, I see this, and it used to be pretty common when
men would pray in public places, those who claim to be the followers
of Christ, that they would say in the name of Jesus or in the
name of Jesus Christ. They prayed amen in the name
of Jesus Christ. Now it's pretty common to see
men just pray and just end their prayer, you know, in your name
or they won't mention the name of Jesus Christ. Now why is that
important? I believe it's very important
because it opens the door to the concept that men have that
men can pray to God. in some other name and authority
than the name of Christ. You can't do it. Now I know that
you don't have to say certain words in order to pray. You don't have to say anything
as far as that goes. You don't have to close your
prayer in a certain way. I'm saying that it is important that
we understand that whether we speak those words or not, that
we understand you cannot approach unto God except through one name. It's a name which is above every
name. It's a name before whom every
knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. It is the name
of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, the one who's come into
the world to declare unto us who God is. And so when James
speaks here, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
he's making that plain that he is that one whom he will serve. And he addresses this to the
12 tribes, which are scattered abroad. Of course, he's speaking
to the Jews, just like Paul, as I believe was the author of
Hebrews, was speaking to the Hebrews. Now, we must understand
that the vast majority of the early believers were Jews. Now, the Gentiles were indeed
gathered in. And so the predominant number
of believers in the present day are Gentiles, but because, you
know, that's according to the purpose of God, but the Lord
gave the gospel to the Jews, did he not? Paul said, for I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the salvation
of the Gentiles. to the Jew first and also to
the Gentiles. So the Lord has brought the gospel
to the Jews. Now, unfortunately, by and large,
the Jews have rejected it. Now, I remember some time back
there was a controversy, I believe it was in the Southern Baptist
Convention, I forget which one of the guys said, that a man
couldn't pray, he said, a Jew cannot pray properly. And some other prominent guy
rose up and said, oh, yes, they can, you know, and all this stuff. Well, I believe the first guy
was right. You can't approach unto the Father except through
the Son. You know, I mean, that's what he said. The Lord said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the
Father but by me. So you take that for what it's
worth, and men can have all the controversies they want, but
there is one avenue, there's one person by which men can come
to know the true and living God, and it is in Jesus Christ our
Lord. on the avenues, on the way, he's
the way. He is that one who has come to
bring life and immortality to light in sending forth his gospel
in the earth that we might exalt and honor him. And so, He addresses this to
the 12 tribes that are scattered abroad because he, being a Jew
himself, has an affinity to his people. And of course, that's
natural. All this business that they try
to make race and all this stuff to be this great dividing line,
look, it's obvious that there are different races of people.
If you go to China and you look at those people, you know good
and well you're in China. If you go to Africa and you look
at those people, you know you're in Africa. You go to Europe,
you know you're in Europe. I mean, what's the deal? God
made all people. Now where the problem comes in
is when we try to make these things to be more than they are. But I mean, it's just natural
that a man would have an affinity to his race. I mean, there's
nothing wrong with that. You know, that doesn't mean we
hate any other race. We shouldn't hate, we're not
given leave to hate anybody on the basis of anything, much less
the race into which we're born into this world. The Lord has
a people out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue in the world,
but he said there's different kindreds, tribes, and tongues
in the world. So why is it made such a big
deal? You know, it is because men would use it for their own
ends, to promote their own agenda or whatever. But it certainly,
as we look in the scripture, it has no bearing whatsoever
on these things. And James is not, because he
addresses this letter to the 12 tribes, he didn't mean they're
the only ones that this is for, but he says, I'm giving it to
my people. because he loved his people,
just like a man loves his family. I mean, we love our families.
I hope we love other men's families, too, but there's no way you can
love another man's family as much as you love your own, can
you? It's just not naturally the way it is. That's because
the Lord has taught us that love is a particular thing. See, all this business, people
say, oh, we just love everybody. You know, somebody just loves
everybody, don't love anybody. Because you can't just love everybody. Everybody's not lovable. I mean, that's just like, you
can have a dog. Some dogs are lovable. And of
course, if it's your dog, you love him in spite of all the
things. But some dog, I've had some men
around some dogs, I ain't got nothing to love about that dog.
I mean, you know, there was no redeeming factor about him. And
so that's true even among human beings. There's some people that
just, in spite of whatever, you can't really honestly say that
you love them, so don't be saying you love everybody, because nobody
loves everybody. And true love is particular.
It always is. And the Lord would teach us that
in the word of God, that love is particular. Without particularness,
love doesn't have any meaning. They're scattered abroad. How'd
they get scattered? Well, they went, they were persecuted
primarily. And that was according to the
Lord's purpose, was it not? I mean, that's a terrible thing.
I mean, just like Brother Al was teaching us there this morning
with this deal that the Lord told Saul to do. That was a terrible
thing as far as men are concerned. I mean, just think about being
given the order to go and kill the men, the women, the children,
little babies, snatch them from their mother's arm and slay them. I mean, that'd be a terrible
thing, would it not? I mean, that would give anybody
qualms of conscience, no doubt. But, you know, if the Lord says
to do something, then we need to do it. And so, they were scattered abroad. My
point was, I got kind of off on my train of thought there.
The point was, they were scattered because the Lord ordered the
conflict to arise between the preaching of the gospel and the
things that men believed. And is that not what he said?
He said, think not that I am come into the world to bring
peace. Now, yet he was the most peaceful
man that ever lived and has given peace to countless thousands
of people. And yet he said, I didn't come
to bring peace. He said, I come to bring a sword. He said, I
come to set the fathers against the sons, and the sons against
the fathers. How did he do it? Through the
gospel. Because you see, the gospel,
the preaching of the cross of Christ is offensive to this world. You'd think everybody would be
glad to hear that. But they're not, because you
see, the preaching of the cross Doesn't give men alternatives.
It's not you can choose this or you can choose that. It's
this or nothing. I mean, this is it. Jesus Christ,
the way, the truth, and the life. He is the way. Men don't want
to hear that, by and large. I mean, they want their own way.
They like their own path. They like to think that they
can reason with God. Well, surely they can. I mean,
they've been talking to Him since they was little kids. You know,
and they know that he hears them, because I mean, he's everywhere.
Surely he does. I mean, that's just the natural
thinking of man, is it not? But yet, it's not the truth.
God dwells in the light to which no man can approach, the scripture
says. He's immortal, he's invisible.
How can a man talk to that which is invisible? In natural reason,
he cannot. But by the grace of God, he is
pleased to come to his people, to draw them to himself. And
so they were scattered by his design, because he sent the gospel
into the world as a means of conflict. Now, why did
he do that? Well, he did that in order that
those things that could be shaken would be, and those that couldn't,
wouldn't be. That's what he said. So he sent
these conflicts into the world in order that men might be driven
out from their comfortable lifestyles and move off to other places,
and guess what? As they went, They told others
about this, and some got mad, and some got glad, and you know,
the rest is history. But that's how the Lord sent
his gospel into the world, by scattering men, by causing them
to have to flee. And so we wouldn't think of that
as being a good thing. I mean, if you had to uproot
your family and go to somewhere else, you'd probably be upset
about it, wouldn't you? You wouldn't like it. But see,
the Lord overrules all things for good to those that love Him,
who are the call according to His purpose. He causes these
things to work together to that end. And so they were scattered
abroad for the purpose of bringing the gospel to places where it
would not have gone, humanly speaking. Now the Lord can raise
up stones to praise him. He can surely cause men to hear
the gospel anytime he gets ready, but it pleases him to send the
gospel. through men. And he does that
sometimes in this fashion by causing migrations. He did at
least in that time. My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into divers temptations. We might think about this word
temptations because it's used several different ways in this
passage of scripture. And so when he's talking about
divers temptations, the word temptations simply means trials. It means troubles. It means testings. It can mean enticing. Now, When the scripture says
that the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted in all points like as
we are, it's speaking about the testing and the trying because
it was impossible that he should be enticed. See, we're enticed
by the very reason that Paul or James writes about over here.
He says, but every man is tempted or enticed when he is drawn away
in his own lust and enticed. See, that's the way of men. We're
bent towards sin. We're leaning towards it. See,
when a building, I remember back when we were doing some remodeling
work on our house out there that we live in now, there was an
old chimney that was up beside the house. And, of course, it
was rotten, as brickwork, especially that that was done back in those
days was. And I could tell that it was leaning away from the
house a little bit. And I knew it was going to ultimately,
there was no salvaging it, and I just pushed on it just with
my hand like that, and the whole thing fell over. Now why did
it fall over? I didn't have to do a lot to
get it to go. Why? Because it was already enticed. See, it was already leaning that
way. It was already going that way. And so when he's speaking
about the temptation here, he's not talking about temptation
of enticement, but he's talking about the temptations of trials. Now he will talk about that later
on when he's talking about those led away of their own lust, that
is indeed those, that temptation which is enticement. Is that
clock right? Yes. Golly, I must have went to sleep
or something. Time stood still, I guess, huh? And the script says there will
be time no more, but unfortunately we're not in that realm, are
we? So due to time constraints, we'll
stop there. But he said, let me finish this
thought. My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into divers' temptations, trials. Now he said, count it
all joy, because it's not always joyous. In fact, if it's a trial,
it's hardly ever anything that you would enjoy, or anything
you would welcome. But what did he say to do? He
said, count it. That is, look at it and realize
that it is a joyful thing because through it, God was going to
teach us something. And that's by the grace of God
as he teaches us along the way and leads us to understand that
all of the troubles that come into our life are meant for our
good. And we don't like them. And we
don't even think of them as being good when they're occurring maybe,
but as we look at them and we examine them, we know that whatever
sorrow or heartache that comes into our life is for our benefit
and that we might give Him praise.