Alright, James chapter 1. If I had to give you three words
to sum up the letter that James wrote, and what James is teaching
throughout this letter, it would be this. Trust Christ. Wait on the Lord to raise up
and ask God. That's what He's teaching us
throughout the letter. And we start here in James 1. James, a servant of God and of
the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes which are scattered
abroad, greeting. James is the writer. James is
the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he doesn't
inform us of that when he says this. Because a person's not
born of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man,
but of God. It doesn't matter who your kinship
is, fleshly speaking, even if it's the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation
is by grace. There was many kinsmen after
the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ that didn't believe Him because
they weren't His sheep. But those that were His sheep,
He called and they believed Him. James is one of those. And this
grace of God makes a person a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and
of God. And the servant of God and the
servant of the Master doesn't try to Make Himself God, or make
Himself the Master. He does what the Master teaches
Him to do. And that's what James is doing
here. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, James is writing
to brethren scattered abroad. He's writing the Word of the
Lord. He's teaching them the Word of
the Lord. And He's teaching them to depend
upon the Lord Jesus who's able to save, who's able to build
up, to keep those He's called unto the inheritance and final
glory. And He does it through the Word
of His grace. If you'll read the letter of
James, you'll find that the Word, the Word, the Word, the Word
is what's spoken of throughout. The Word. We never turn to our
own understanding, or our own wisdom of words, or our own methods,
but trust Christ, hold forth the word of life, wait on Christ,
and ask God. And this is the word of grace.
This is the word of the epistle of James. Now, he's writing to
Jewish believers, according to the flesh, Jewish brethren, believers. And so in order to understand
this, let's think about what the Jews, the brethren, were
undergoing, what they were enduring during this time. And this is
going to help us remember this as we go through the book. It's
going to help us to understand what James is teaching here.
And it's important because sinners saved by grace in our day, right
now, facing the exact same trials that these Jewish believers were
facing then. The first thing is, they were learning that Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. If
you recall in Acts 21-20, whenever Paul came to Jerusalem, James
said, he said, you see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there
are which believe and they're zealous of the law. They've been
taught the law all their lives. They've been under the law all
their lives. And so now that they're hearing
Christ is the end of the law, it says, they are informed of
thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles
to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise
their children, neither to walk after the customs. And they were
having a great deal of difficulty with this. But as God was teaching
them through the word of His grace that were delivered from
the law, they were learning that that you're no longer under the
law as a believer, but you're under grace. They were learning
that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. It's spiritual blessings
that we enjoy. And sinners saved by grace in
our day face this same problem because we come into the world
as legalists. We're taught by legalists. We
grab hold of of the law, and think we can save ourselves by
the law, and when we're confronted by sovereign grace, from the
hour God saves, He begins to teach us we're free from the
law. In Christ, He's the fulfillment of the law. He's our righteousness. Alright, secondly, they were
learning that God has an elect people, not only from among the
Jews, but also from among the Gentiles. And this goes hand-in-hand
with This problem, our legal problem, our doing problem, our
wanting to be chief problem. It goes hand in hand with it.
They thought that the nation Israel was God's elect only. And now they're learning that
God's grace has no respect of persons. They're learning that
it's not based on who mama and daddy was. It's not based on
whether the great-great-grandfather was Abraham or not. That's not
what grace is based on. Grace is solely God's prerogative
to choose whom He will and pass by whom He will. And they're
learning this. Gentile dogs is what they called
those without. And now they're learning that
God has an elect people among the Gentiles. This was one of
the problems that Peter faced in Galatians 2. And James was
the one who came with the Jewish brethren whenever Peter was there
at Antioch, and he was sitting at the table with Gentiles. Peter
was a Jew. But when he saw James come with
his Jewish brethren, he got up and went over and switched tables
and sat down at the table with them. And Paul said, I confronted
him to his face in front of everybody, because when he did that, He
was showing a respective persons. And it was the same as, it was
dissimulation. It was hypocrisy. He was saying
we're free. He was saying salvation is by
grace alone, but by getting up and going over there and showing
a respective persons. He was saying, but the Jews got
a little better leg up. And Paul said, you're compelling
them to go back under the law, and we're not justified by the
works of the law. Not by anything we do, but by
the sovereign, free grace of God in Christ Jesus, we're saved. The Lord is our salvation. The
Lord is salvation. And so, and James will address
this more specifically in the second chapter, this thing of
respect to persons. And then thirdly, because they
believed on Christ. And because they trusted Him
and they were letting go of those works of the law that they had
been under for so long, they were embracing Gentile brethren,
they were rejoicing in Christ, their kinsmen after the flesh
were persecuting them, pushing them away. Remember in Acts we
read, they were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose
from Stephen. That's what the word persecute
means. It means to push away. and they were being pushed away.
In our day, when a sinner is saved by God's grace, to behold,
he's free from the law, he's under grace. When he's made to
see that God's grace is sovereign, electing grace, God chooses whom
He will, and He redeemed a particular people, we begin to declare salvations
of the Lord. It's all of grace. And when that
happens, you're going to have your family your unbelieving
family, your unbelieving friends, your religious family, your religious
friends, push you away. They're going to persecute, they're
going to push you away. And so, they were facing these
things. And we face all these, these
things cause many trials among us, within and without. From our own flesh, from unbelieving
family and religious family, from unbelieving friends, religious
friends. But the trial that comes that
seems to be on James' mind the most here, throughout this book,
is the trial we face in waiting on God to teach us through His
Word. Waiting on God to teach us through
His Word. Now, concerning these trials,
verse 2, He says, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall
into divers temptations, trials, knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience. God works patience to trust Him
in trials. You're going to trust Him when
you've got no other choice. And God will send you a trial
so you've got no other choice. And He'll teach you When you
see how utterly helpless you are, He'll teach you that's how
utterly helpless you are all the time, continually. And that
He alone saves all the time, continually. Now, that old man
is with us. That old man of flesh is with
us. And our desire to see our brethren, to hear, to grow, to
walk in the truth of Christ, the old self-righteous man that's
within us, wants to be exalted, wants to be patted on the back,
wants to be critical, wants to condemn, wants to force obedience
in those who are out of the way. The trial here, the greatest
trial here that's being dealt with is not the one who's out
there that's in error or that's a weaker brother, it's the one
who sees that. How are you going to deal with
it? Trust the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hold forth the word of truth. Wait on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And ask God. Ask God. This entire letter is
reminding us that the cure for our own self-righteousness and
for the edification of our brethren comes by God alone through the
word of God's grace alone. James is working towards something
here in this first chapter. He's working down to verse 18.
where he says, Of his own will begat he us with the word of
truth. That's how you began in this
thing. Of God's own will with the word
of truth. He shed abroad in your hearts
His love and the love He had for you in Christ. He made you
to behold that Christ justified you. He made you to behold that
you accepted in the Beloved. And by faith in Christ You have
peace with God. By Christ you have access into
all this grace, free unmerited grace wherein you stand established,
built up, rooted, grounded on Christ the solid rock. All by
Him. How are you going to be built
up? How are you going to continue to be built up so that you continue
trusting Christ alone? Remember what Paul said in Acts
20? He said, now brethren, I commend you to God and to the Word of
His grace which is able to build you up. That's how you're going
to be built up from the first hour on. Built up that you're
not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight
of men and cunning craftiness. But speaking the truth in love
may grow up into Him, into Christ the Head. He's our foundation. He is our head and our growth
into Him is by this word of grace, by Him. How are you going to
be kept under final glory? Paul finishes that verse by saying,
God through the word of His grace is able to give you the inheritance
among the saints, among all them that are sanctified. In every
trial, in every trial, God sheds abroad the love of Christ more
and more in the inner man, in the believer's heart, causing
us to trust Him. That's what Paul said in Romans
5. We don't only enjoy what Christ accomplished for us. We don't
only enjoy that we have peace with God, that by Christ we have
access into all this free grace of His, but we also rejoice in
tribulation. Because through tribulation,
He works patience. To do what? To trust Him. To wait on Him. And experience. Faith proven is faith that God
has proven to us that He's faithful, that He'll keep us, that He's
able. Proven faith is faith where we see that God has proven to
us He's faithful, and we wait on Him, we trust Him, because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts more and more,
and we have a good hope. No matter what comes, nothing's
going to be able to separate us from the love of Christ. That
will make you be quiet, and patient, and wait, and trust, no matter
the situation. Now, he says verse 4, But let
patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire,
perfect and entire, complete, wanting nothing. Now, this is
a word to each believer individually. He's saying, wait on the Lord.
That's what he's saying. Let patience have her perfect
work. Wait on the Lord. Wait to the end, to the coming
of the Lord. Whether it's in this trial today,
that trial tomorrow, or the Lord returning. Wait on the Lord till
He comes. That's where you're going to
have your peace. He's coming. He's coming in this trial today.
He's coming in that trial tomorrow. He's coming at the end of this
whole trial of life. He's coming. Wait on Him. That's
where your peace is. Wait on Him. And if I myself
am going to get the full benefit of the trial, I'm going to get
the full benefit as I wait and through this long, patient time
of waiting, when He comes to me in His time and makes me to
see that He's the one that's keeping me and He's keeping me
because of the blood of Christ and He will not let me go, then
I behold that in Christ I'm complete, I'm entire, and I don't like
anything and I won't like anything because of Him. And this is a
word for us collectively as a church. If we're all going to be complete
and everybody's going to be together and entire wanting nothing, the
flock can only go as fast as the weakest sheep. And we wait on the Lord to teach
effectually our brethren so that the whole body He's perfect and
entire and wanting nothing. The whole body. We're taught
in this epistle that this is what it is to be a doer of the
Word and not a hearer only. All the things that we normally
associate with being a doer of the Word, you can get anybody to do those
things. Only grace can make you do this right here. You can't
do this yourself. Only grace can make you do this
right now. You remember after the Lord gave us everything He
gave us on the Sermon on the Mount. Be reconciled to your
brethren. Trust Him. Reach the completion
of the law. Be reconciled to brethren. Turn
from that sinful lust of our flesh. Don't respect persons. Show that the grace of God is
free Don't do your religious devotions before men to attract
them. Trust Him. Don't be covetous.
Don't be turning to this world's treasures. Don't fret over what
you're going to eat or wear and all those things. After he got
through all those things, he said in Matthew 7, and don't
condemn. You know why he has to warn us
of that? Because in all those things that he taught us to do,
to follow him, we fail at those things. And we fail at those
things miserably. But, because we have that old
nature within us, we don't see ourselves fail at them so much
as we do our brother fail at them. And when he fails at them,
the Lord said, don't condemn. Don't be critical. He says, you're
going to see that moat in your brother's eye. Why are you looking
at your brother? Why are you looking into his
eye anyway? You're supposed to be looking at Christ. And then
you've got to try to take it out of his eye. And in Luke 6,
he applied that by saying, how can the blind lead the blind?
Your brother's blind. He's got a splinter in his eye. And you're blind because you
are full of self-righteousness. And both of you, if you try to
do anything in that shape, both of you is going to fall in the
ditch. Not going to help anybody. But you know how he said that
you are freed from that self-exalting, blinding, self-righteous old
man of the flesh? How did he follow up that word?
He said, ask. Ask God. And it will be given. Seek and you will find. Knock
and it will be opened to you. Listen to the next word James
gives, verse 5. If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God that giveth to all liberally and upbraideth
not, and it shall be given him." That's the end of the trial.
That's the chief purpose of the trial as far as it concerns you,
is to make you realize you don't have any wisdom in yourself.
And I don't either. It's to make us, to draw us to
Christ who is our wisdom. And when He's drawn us, when
patience has had her perfect work and He's drawn us to His
feet, and made us too single-minded, steadfastly minded to trust Christ
and say, Lord, I've reached the end. I need You. I can't do anything. He makes
us to remember how sweetly, how graciously, how pure He dealt
with us when He wrought peace in our hearts the first hour.
In every hour since, in every hour since, in every trial since,
He renews the inner man day by day. So that old man of the flesh,
that rich man of the flesh is put down. And the new man is
exalted to see Christ. And what do we see? James 3 verse
17. The wisdom that is from above
is first pure, than peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated,
full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. This is how Christ, this is a
description of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is how He dealt
with us. Those that are His children,
this is how He dealt with you. And the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace. And He renews us
to behold when He does. It rattles the tongue. Throughout
this book, here's what you're going to find. You're going to
find Paul talk about patience, and he's going to talk about
turning to the lust of your flesh. You're going to hear him talk
about asking God, and you're going to hear about him in chapter
4. He's going to talk about asking
to consume it upon your lust, to be exalted, to have the glory
in it. You're going to hear him talk
about the poor man that's exalted. And you're going to hear him
talk about the rich man that's brought low because he's like
grass. What's he talking about? He's
talking about the inner man and the old man. You're going to
hear him talk about receiving the Word with meekness, being
quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. And you're going
to hear him talk of the unbridled tongue that hasn't been bridled. You're going to hear him talk
about visiting the most helpless in their affliction. And you're
going to hear him talk about the defiled religion. That unbridled
tongue will go to the most helpless and whip them. Give them a lashing. You're going to hear him talk
about respective persons. You're going to hear him say
that when you do that, you become a judge of the law. Just what
Peter's problem was that day at Antioch. You're going to hear
him say, but the law of liberty rejoices in mercy over judgment.
You're going to hear him give the illustration of saying, you
know how foolish it would be for a man to come to your door
and ask for bread, and you send him away, but you don't do it?
It's just that foolish not to wait on the Lord, to hold forth
the word of life, the great promises of what Christ has accomplished
and shall accomplish for us. This is how we visit. This is
how we rejoice in mercy. This is how we walk in the law
of liberty. This is how we look into this mirror of the Gospel
and don't forget what we've seen. This is how our tongue is bridled.
This is how we're not mini-masters. We don't go around trying to
be little judges and authorities, but we trust God. You're going
to hear him talk about how no water can come from the same
fountain. And it doesn't. If there's bitter envying and
strife, that's not coming from the new man. That's coming from
the old man. You're going to hear him go through
all of these things, and then here's where he winds up. Here's
where he winds up. Over in chapter 5. Listen. Verse 7. Be patient therefore,
brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husband
waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience
for it, until he hath received the early and latter rain." He
said when we were born of that Word of God, we were like first
fruits. I use it as an illustration of husbandry. You wait because
that Word is going to bring forth the fruit. So you wait on it
just like a farmer waits for that fruit to come forth. I don't
have any power to bring the rain. I don't even have power to bring
the sun. But I trust Him who does. That's what we do. through
this word of grace. Now watch this. He says, Be ye
also patient. Establish your hearts. Huh? Establish your hearts. How? Ask
God. What did Christ say? Hear these
sayings of mine. Plant your house on the firm
foundation. That's where it's going to be established. On Christ
the rock. Don't look anywhere else. Establish
your hearts. Why? For the coming of the Lord
draweth nigh. The end of the trial is almost
here. It's almost here. Now look, grudge not one against
another, brethren, lest you be condemned, lest you be judged.
Behold, the judge standeth before the door." That's God. He's able. And remember the prophets who
spoke in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction
of patience. He says, Job in verse 11, he
waited, but at the end, the Lord was very pitiful and tender mercy.
That's the purpose of it. Wait on the Lord. Trust the Lord. Wait on the Lord. And ask the
Lord. And he says back there in James 1.6, Ask in faith, nothing
wavering. For he that wavereth is like
a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Let not
that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Double-mindedness
is simply not being steadfastly minded. It is not trusting Christ
to do the work. It's looking to Him It's looking
as if we pray to Him, speak to Him, but all the while we've
got one trying to have one eye on Him and one eye on us. Remember
that illustration? You cross your eyes. You can't
see anything. When you try to look in two different
directions, you can't see anything. That's a double-minded man. He's
not going to be planned. He won't be established. But
what did he say? Humble yourselves in the sight
of the Lord. Look over there at James 4.10. We're going to do this a lot
because what James says in the first chapter, he gives a little
more detail on each one of these points as he goes through the
book. So we're going to have the book
interpret itself really. James 4.10, Humble yourselves
in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. That's
what we're being taught personally through this thing. Speak not
evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his
brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and
judgeth the law. But if thou judgest the law,
you are not a doer of the law, you are a judge of it. The doer
of the law is the one who trusts the Lord, waits on Christ, and
asks Him to do the work. That's the doer of the word.
You can't do that except grace abiding you, Christ abiding you.
You can't. That's the doer of the word.
There's one lawgiver. What's he able to do? He's able
to say. That's what we're learning. That's
what we're going to learn through the whole book. Trust, wait,
and ask. God alone can raise up. He alone
is able. He'll do it. He'll do it for
those he's everlastingly loved.