your bibles if you would to the
book of James and today we'll start our study in the book of
James as I said before I've been looking forward to this study
I've never studied this book out I've read it many times but
never studied it it's been on my heart for quite a while and
our dear sister Carolyn one time her and I talked about the book
after she had read it and just before her and I talked about
that Zayna told me he was looking in it too and then I got several
commentaries from different grace preachers sent to me, and so
I thought, well, Lord, I guess you want me to preach on the
book of James. So here we are. Praise his mighty name. And today's
message will be an introduction to the book written by James.
Let's read the first eight verses of this chapter. Just to get
the context, we'll only be looking at the first verse today, but
this will give us the context of that verse. James, a servant
of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes
which are scattered abroad, greeting. Now next in there, there's our
salutation from James, very short. Next we see James writing to
the saints about the testing of their faith. Remember, these
words are timeless. These words transcend time and
they transcend culture, don't they? Because here we are, we're
going to study this book in the next few months, and it's relevant
for us. Isn't that amazing about the
scripture? It's timeless. It's timeless. Here this book
is written to the saints that are scattered abroad, all over,
and we're going to read this book, and I believe the Lord
will bless us. as we read this here give us because he always
does when we study and read his word he always gives us something
done he comforts our soul and so i pray that god the holy spirit
would illuminate the scriptures and teach us the things of christ
so he continues writing here about the testing of their faith
my brethren so who's he writing to you right away he's writing
to the brethren he's writing to god's born-again blood-washed
saints my brethren count it all joy when you fall into divers
temptations that's hard to do That's a hard thing to do. Count
it joy when we're going through things. But that's what the scripture
says. Knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect
work, that she 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 abrideth not, and it shall be given him.
let him ask in faith nothing wavering for he that wavered
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 again this book
is timeless this book is timeless for all occasions of the Christian
walk to from the beginning of our walk with the Lord to the
end of our walk with the It's timeless. And it'll deal with
one issue in many ways. And the issue is the believer's
response to diverse trials and temptations that attendeth our
faith. It'll deal with that issue, coming
at it from different ways. Or you could say, believing on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Because when we believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, things are going to come our way. And it
will not stop until the day we breathe our last breath. We expect
that, don't we? And as we've learned before,
there's nothing new under the sun, is there? So the same things
that the saints that James is writing to, the same things that
they're going through are same things that we're going to go
through. Even though we have more technology now, men doesn't change, do they?
We're the same. We're the same. Nothing new under
the sun. That's why Solomon wrote that.
Nothing new under the sun. And we are journeying through
this life, beloved, and we will see the same things that the
saints were beset with, we are beset with. The saints that James
is writing to, we're beset with those things too. And all through
this book, the principle of faith is prominent. It's bought before
us in this book, but it's viewed in light of response to the truth. Think of this. There's no place
where justification or righteousness is put forth as a result of faith.
That could never be. Our justification before God
and our righteousness before God only comes to us in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a result of our faith.
We are justified and made righteous in Christ, and we are granted
faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. See, people twist
these words and say, see, you gotta have faith to be justified.
Well, they go hand in hand, don't they? But in no way does faith
justify us before God. Who is our justification before
God? Christ, him alone. But those who are justified,
those who are made righteous, will have faith. justification
again our righteousness all comes as a result of what the Lord
Jesus Christ did for us on Calvary's cross when he died on that cross
in our room in place and you know what he did when he died
on that cross he completely satisfied God's law and justice against
us and then you know what else he did he extinguished the wrath
of God that was against us He extinguished it, beloved. It's
gone. We have true liberty in Christ. See, God won't punish us twice,
will He? He punished our sins in our substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. And He
won't punish us, because those sins are bought and paid for
now. It's amazing. Oh my. And the issue is that
faith produces in the believer works. We'll see that. True faith
does produce works, but those are works that God's ordained
for us to do. And as we've seen before in our studies in the
scriptures, God's people don't even know when they do them.
Remember when the folks say, Lord, we've done all these things
for you in Matthew 7, and then when you read over the latter
part of Matthew in the Great White Judgment Throne, the Lord's
people are saying, when did we do these things? When do we do
these things? And the Lord says, well, when
you gave a cup of water or when you went and visited someone.
Well, why do we do those things? Because we love the Lord, right?
We love God's people. It's just natural, isn't it?
It's just natural. Why do you pick up the phone
and encourage one of your dear brothers and sisters in Christ? Because it's just a natural thing
to do, isn't it? You want to let them know you love them.
You want to let them know you're praying for them. And it's just
natural for us to do those things, isn't it, as drinking water or
praying for them. When the Lord lays somebody on your heart and
you just start praying for them, it's just natural for you to
do that, isn't it, as a believer? What a great change God's done,
right? Because it wasn't natural before I saved us, was it? No,
we never even thought of that stuff. We'd say, oh, I'm praying
for you. but never pray now as believers
when when someone tells you they're praying for you they're praying
for you it's incredible turn if you would to Colossians chapter
1 again the issue is that faith produces in the believer works
what do these works that faith produce heaven design to glorify
God right to glorify God seeing religion and religion man wants
to be glory but in grace everything we do is to glorify God you know
even our jobs were to do to glorify God used to think that when I
was on the construction site I thought well I'm here to glorify
you Lord I don't know how doing it but I'm here to glorify you
and thank you for giving me a job I can go to and make some money
provide for my family glory to you give them all the glory Give
them all the glory. Oh my. The works that come about
as a result of faith in no way justify us before God. In no
way. They are a result of the work
that the Lord's done in us. Now look at this in Colossians.
Look at this in light of that. And remember, we're regenerated
by the almighty power of God. Look at this, Colossians 1, verses
25 to 29. Where have I made a minister
according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you to fulfill the word of God? See, Paul's saying, I'm in the
ministry because God put me in the ministry. That's what all
we grace preachers say. God put us in the ministry. We
didn't put ourselves in. God put us in, and we're here
to glorify God. We're just vessels that the Lord
uses, and we're vessels with holes. Oh my, look at it, he
goes on. Even the mystery which hath been
hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his
saints. Now think of this, look at that.
This verse is extraordinary. Even the mystery which has been
hid from ages and from generations. Think of all the people in this
world who perished with no knowledge of Christ. Generations passed,
and now the mystery is revealed to us. Isn't that amazing? Think
of the Egyptians. There was generations of Egyptians
that just perished in their sins in idol worship. And yet there
was some in Israel, a remnant, who looked to the Messiah for
his coming. Generations, people perishing
all around us. And yet here we are, born again
of the Holy Spirit of God, looking to Christ. And that mystery that
was hid is revealed to us. Think of it. When you did not
know Christ, We were lost as a white goose in a snowstorm,
weren't we? Just wandering around, groping. And now we know Him,
because He's revealed Himself to us. He's manifest Himself
to us. Now Paul goes on, to whom God
would make known what is the riches of His glory, of this
mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you. The hope of
glory. Christ is our only hope. Whom
we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all
wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
Now look at this, look at this verse. Now this is what I was
talking about, where faith produces works, but notice who produces
the works in us. It's very clear in this verse,
verse 29. Where unto I also labor? So Paul's
laboring in the gospel, right? Striving according to what? His
working. Look at that. His working. Which
what? Which worketh in me mightily.
Look at that. His working. This is a work of
God. It's not our doing. Why do we
love God? Why do we love Christ? Because
there's a work of God done in us. Isn't that amazing? Why do
we love the gospel? Because there's a work of God
done in us. Why do we love God's people? Because there's a work
of God done in us. Why do we love the Word of God?
Because there's a work of God done in us. He works in us mightily
because He's the Almighty God. See, it strips us of everything,
doesn't it? It strips us of any merit. Look at that. And then
he says, whereunto I labor, striving according to his work, in which
worketh in me mightily. My, oh my. My, oh my. God gets
all the glory. He gets all the glory, he gets
all the honor, and he gets all the praise. Now these works revealed
come in two basic categories. One is face response to the believer
in need, and the other is face response to the abuse of the
world. We'll see that through our study
in the book of James. Now the book of James over the
years has been a subject of much debate. Martin Luther thought
the book should not even be in the Bible because he felt like
James was saying the believer was justified by works. And since
the thrust of the Reformation was justification by faith, and
that was the source of many martyrs having died at that time, any
suggestion that a man was justified otherwise was anathema. So we
can understand why he said that. Because he thought the book was
bringing forth works. You were justified by your works.
But that's not the case. And we'll see that in our study.
That's not the case. James was not putting forth any
such doctrine. But again, extreme situations
often bring extreme responses. And Luther was fighting tooth
and nail to reform the Catholic Church of its practices of selling
indulgences. He used to sell indulgences,
which they had piece of the cross supposedly, they had Roman spikes,
they had many other trinkets that they sold. And they sold
these things for the purpose to justify their dearly departed
in releasing them from purgatory. This happened, this is history.
And people even today are still paying, paying that church money
to try to get their relatives out of an imaginary place that
does not even exist. Purgatory is not even mentioned
in the Bible. And these indulgences, according to Catholic dogma,
were a means of justifying the living people. And one could
purchase one, and they thought that they would be sure of heaven.
But if they purchased many, that would increase their chances.
What manipulation? And see, we're wired for works,
aren't we, in our natural state. So natural man just eats that
stuff up. Just eats it up. And we were there. I was there.
I was in that church. Praise God, he delivered me from
it. Oh, hallelujah. And through the years, many have
argued about which James wrote this letter. See, this is stuff
that just, you know, some person here says, well, this shouldn't
be in the Bible, and this some person says, well, this should
be in the Bible. And they argue, well, this James
wrote this book, and this James, I'm just gonna read the book.
It's in the Bible. God's the real author of it.
I'm just gonna read it. And we're just gonna study the
book and see what it says. That's all we're going to do.
We're going to see what we're not going to get caught up in all
these things. We're just going to read the book and see what
it says. I'm sure by the end of it, we'll be praising God
for it. I'm sure we will. And we'll discuss each thing
that comes up in this book as we read it. Each thing that comes
before us, we'll look at it. And I encourage you to read it
at home, too. Read just the first chapter as
we're going through the first chapter. And then when we go
through the second chapter, just read the second chapter. You
know, even a couple times a week, just to prepare your hearts and
minds for what we're going to look at. So let's look here. Let's look at what we see here
in the book of James. James brings forth that he's
a servant. He brings forth that he's a servant. And James will
bring forth many issues in this book which we struggle with.
And remember that all these things that are written in this book
is written for our learning. To guard us and to help us in
our pilgrimage on this earth. If one trusts in temporal things,
well, they're going to have no hope and no peace, are they?
Because temporal things come and then they're gone. They change. But if we trust in Christ and
Christ alone, He never changes. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. And may God give us strength to do that. I got
a little ahead of myself there. We'll go back to James chapter
1 in a few minutes. All the things we look at in
this world are just temporal. And those things are going to
be addressed in this book. It's written to the brethren,
as we saw. It's not written to the whole world. It's written
to God's born-again, blood-washed saints. And we can therefore
conclude, again, that the warnings and exhortations that we see
in this book are for us. They're for us. So when James
speaks of the tongue, he's speaking to me. He's speaking to me. When
he tells us that the tongue's the most dangerous member in
our body, he's speaking to me. He's not speaking about the gossiper
who lives down the street. He's speaking to me as a believer. My oh my. And if we approach
the study of this wonderful book that way, I believe it'll prove
to be a great blessing to us. I really do. I think as we approach
scripture that way in general. It'll turn out to be a great
blessing to us, because the Holy Spirit had these men pen these
words for us as believers. They're not just some words that
were written down thousands of years ago. This book, again,
transcends time and culture, because we're taken out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, aren't we? So with these thoughts
in our minds, let us look at the salutation here, found in
verse 1, where we see the writer declares himself as James. is
the Greek rendering of the Hebrew name Jacob. This book dates around
AD 62. So around 62 years after our
Lord's death, this book was written. And James is sometimes called
the brother of our Lord. He wrote this epistle. He spoke
of the defense of Simon Peter when the Jews were pressing Paul
to circumcise the Gentile believers in Acts 15 verses 1 to 8. And in Galatians chapter 1, he's
spoken of it. It says, but other the apostles
saw I none save James, the Lord's brother. And Paul wrote that
in Galatians of the time he went up to Jerusalem and spent 15
days with Peter. So he had no other communication
with anyone other than Peter and James, the Lord's brother.
Some historical writers referred to him as James the Just. Well,
always remember that the only way we're just is in Christ.
So that's not a bad title, is it? And we could say that of
all of us. We're the just ones. We're the just ones in Christ.
Now you've heard me say that God uses men of different personalities,
right? We've talked about that before.
But we all have the same message. We all have the same message.
And we're gonna see here how different James' salutation is
from Paul or Peter's. James' greeting does not speak
of the sweet words of grace, mercy, and peace. Let's look
at verse one. It says, James, a servant of God, and of the
Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes, which are scattered abroad,
greeting." James here does not begin or end his epistle like
the other writers of the epistles, and yet they all have the same
message. We'll see that he has the same message as Paul. He's
just coming at it from a different place. Same message, though.
The message of salvation in and through the Lord Jesus Christ
alone, by the sin-atoning complete work of the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. Notice here, too. Notice here in our introduction
that James does not vault himself up. He could have said, James
the Apostle, right? Like modern-day folks in religion
like to let everybody know who they are. You ever see these
folks walk around with collars on? That's to let you know that
they think they're more holy than you are. That's exactly
what that's all about. That's exactly what that's all
about. Or when we're gonna come into
that season where everybody's gonna be wearing that black ash on
their forehead, right? That's just to show you that
they're more holy than you are. No, they're not. We don't have
to do things like that, do we? Because we're holy in Christ,
Jesus our Lord. And look at how, look how, this
is James the Apostle, look how he identifies himself. James,
a servant of God. He's not vaulting himself up
over the other believers, is he? Even the believers he's writing
to, he's not vaulting himself up. He just says, James is a
servant of God. I'm just a servant of God. He doesn't vault himself
over those he writes to. And here he describes himself
as a servant of God, a bond slave in the Greek, a bond slave of
God, a willing servant. When was he made willing? In
the day of God's power. You see how it all ties in? You
see how the scriptures all tie in together? He was an unwilling
person at one time, and now he's a willing bondservant to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my, it's incredible. What
a miracle of grace. And we see here in this salutation,
he says, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
he's bringing forth, here in this salutation, he refers to
both the Father, who is God, and the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is brought forth to assure we who are believers in
Christ that one may not be served without the other. One cannot
be served without the other. you serve God the Father you
will serve the Lord Jesus Christ if you serve the Lord Jesus Christ
you will serve God the Father and the Holy Spirit two way because
the three are one we love them all we love our great triune
God And we see then, as we looked at a few weeks ago, that Christ
Jesus our Lord is the chosen faithful servant of God. Because
again, you can't serve one without the other. And yet he is God. Yet he is God. He's a submissive
servant to God the Father while he's on this earth. So we see
here that James, as every believer proclaims, describes himself
as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. And James brings forth
that he's a servant of God and a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He writes in this manner again, putting himself on the same footing
as every single believer. Isn't that wonderful? That's
how it should be. I'm no better than any of you.
I'm worse. I need Christ just as much as you do, if not more!
My goodness! I know my own sinfulness. And
you know your own sinfulness, right? But praise be to God,
all our sins are forgiven in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah, hallelujah. That just means praise be to
God, right? Don't let people steal these
wonderful words. Oh, praise God. Now the word servant again in
the Greek means bond slave, or one who has willingly given himself
to a lifelong service of his master, whom he loves, all because
he's again made willing in the day of God's power. And this
is true of every born-again blood-washed believer. Let's read verse 1
again. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greet him. So not only
is he a servant of God the Father by creation, right, because we're
all servants of God, even though people don't acknowledge it,
right? He owns us. He created us. But he is a servant
by an effectual calling as well. He's a servant by the regenerating
power of God the Holy Spirit. He's a will and bond slave. He's
a will and bond slave. He's one who now preaches the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. And yet he
brings himself to the same level. This apostle brings himself to
the same level as every other believer. What's that tell me
as a preacher? I'm on the same level as everybody
else. Grounded for the cross is level, Scott used to say.
There it is. Right there in our text. Right
there. What Brother Scott Richardson
used to say is right there. Isn't that wonderful? Absolutely
wonderful. And we see this letter is written
to the 12 tribes of Israel. There's a two-fold meaning here.
First it means It includes those believers among the Jews who
are born again by the Holy Spirit of God. And secondly, it speaks
to the entirety of the Israel of God, which is who? The elect
of God. The elect of God. We're scattered
all over, aren't we? All over. Turn if you would to
Galatians chapter 3, and we'll read verses 26 to 29. And then we're going to go back
and look at one word quick and finish it. Look at this in Galatians
chapter 3, verses 26 to 29. For ye are all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew
nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male
nor female, for ye are all one in who? In Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ and ye are
Abraham's seed and heirs, according to the promise, the Israel of
God is God's alone. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my,
let's go back quickly to James chapter one. We'll look at one
word and then we're close. Look at this, James chapter one,
I think it's important for us to look at this word. James,
a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes
which are scattered abroad, greeting. Now, we think that means, hello,
how are you, right? And some people have said, well,
that's not much of a greeting. That's not much of a salutation.
But you know what that means in the Greek? It means to rejoice,
be glad. So let's read it that way. James,
a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes
which are scattered abroad, rejoice. and be glad. Well, that changes
it, doesn't it? It's a wonderful salutation.
Oh, my. What a wonderful one-word greeting.
James tells the tried, born-again, blood-washed believers that he's
going to write to here to rejoice and to be glad. And who can we
only rejoice in? Christ. We can only rejoice in
Christ. So what a message for us today
as we go through this worldwide pandemic, this global pandemic,
and on top of that, the storms and trials of our lives. Rejoice
and be glad. Rejoice and be glad. Rejoice
and be glad. This one word is the tenor for
this whole book, beloved. May God be glorified through
the preaching of his word.