A Jet Tour Through James (Part 3)

What do you call this, kids?

The Bible.

What are some other names for the Bible? God's Word, good. The Gospel. The words of Jesus, nice. Maybe if I just said the Scriptures. How many books are in the Bible? It's a book, but it has other books in it.

How many books in the Bible? 66, good. The Bible is divided into two sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. How many books in the Old Testament?

Can I get a 45? Close.

The Old Testament is 39. And so 66 minus 39, how many in the New Testament? Somebody said earlier?

Yep.

27, nice. And they all, 27 in the New and 29 in the Old, talk about one thing. They have one subject. What's the subject of that book called the Bible?

What does it teach us about?

OK, Jesus, perfect. Even the book of Esther, that doesn't even have the word God in it, teaches us about God. One of the things you can do, parents, that I think it's a good exercise, is when you're studying a book of the Bible, have the children write down everything they learn about God from that book.

So if you're in 1 John and you learn something about God, you write that down. And pretty soon you start to think, I've learned a lot about who God is in this one particular book. I did that lesson myself, and I'm not even a kid.

I learned in one book that Jesus is God. Jesus is Lord. God is generous. God answers prayer. God rewards. God cannot be tempted by evil. God gives perfect gifts. God is a father. God is light. God never changes.

God is sovereign. God regenerates. God is righteous. God is glorious. God chooses. God is one. God justifies. The Holy Spirit is jealous. God is gracious. God is opposed to the proud. God draws near. God exalts.

God is the lawgiver. God is the judge. God alone saves. God alone destroys. God is the Lord of hosts. Jesus will return. Jesus is near. The Lord is full of compassion. The Lord is merciful. The Lord heals.

And finally, number 33, the 33rd thing I learned from the book of James about God is that the Lord forgives sin. Isn't that amazing? In the book of James that is almost top-heavy with commands and laws to guide us, there's all these things we can learn about God.

And that's really the function of the preacher is to teach you and remind you what can we learn about God today, and how can we live in light of that. So if you have a Bible, turn to the book of James.

That's shorthand for the epistle, our letter to James. And so the Spirit of God is using James, Jesus's half-brother, to write to churches, not just back then, but for today, because God's word is powerful.

It's God's breath, as it were. It's breathe this out. And so it's important for not just people in the old days, but for us as well. Transcendent truth from the Bible. What does the Bible teach us? And so we're in the book of James, kind of coming from a long series on Luke.

And we'll get back to Luke. But James is a book written to help you live the Christian life. Remember last week I talked about a code. It's the family code. When you're in the family of God, by faith alone, trusting in Jesus, there's a certain way you should live.

And when you live that way, it's good for you, it's good for your neighbor, and it honors God. It doesn't mean you live this way to get salvation because you'd have to be perfect to get to salvation because Jesus is the only perfect one.

And it doesn't mean you stay in the family by being good or obeying the law. But since you're in the family, it's like conduct befitting an officer. An officer should have certain conduct that befits him or her.

And so James is the first book in the New Testament that was written while the events of Christ's life and death and burial and resurrection have happened. Heard me say this the last two Sundays that we've met, and that is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus has happened.

But those books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John have not yet been written. They're written later. And so in God's providence, in his sovereignty, the first book that he has written for the New Testament church is James.

We know all about Jesus. There's some people who are still alive that have just seen him 10 years ago. So how do I live now that I'm a Christian? Do I have to have a bunch of Israelite laws of ceremonies and civil things?

How do I really live? Jesus has suffered a death for my sins. He never sinned. He was literally buried, showing that he died and that he was raised from the dead. And now he's ascended into heaven and he prays for me.

He prays for you. He's your advocate. He's your mediator. That in fact, God has worked everything together for good, even the death of Jesus, the beloved son. And in light of that, how do I live? I'd say to my children regularly, you're an Ebendroth.

So live like one. This is what the Ebendroths do. This is what Christians do by the grace of God. They do what James is directing them to do. Now, the greatest book I think that's ever been written on sanctification or holy living outside of the Bible is a book by Walter Marshall.

And he said, to live a holy life, you've got to know these things. Here's some things you have to know. You have to know that you're forgiven and reconciled to God, forgiven by God and to be reconciled by God.

Because if you're not, you'll just strive to be right in God's eyes. So to live a holy life, you have to rest assured that you're saved by grace and that you're a child of God. He also said to live a holy life, you have to know you have an eternal future with the Lord.

You've got a happy, eternal future with the Lord. So you can live now full bore. You can live all out full throttle now because heaven awaits. And he also says to live a holy life, you have to know that you have strength to do what the Bible says you're to do.

And so we know that because Jesus, when he left the disciples, he gave them the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit might dwell in them and might dwell in us, yes, by faith. So we actually have the power to obey now.

And here in this book of James,.

It's fast.

I almost said it's furious, but it's not. It's pace is furious. It reminds me of, it's about ready for springtime in my mind. And so I don't know how many people like roller coasters. This is like a kid's sermon.

People like my age, we don't like roller coasters anymore. I always wondered why grandpa, when I was a kid, grandpa never went on roller coasters or spinny rides. For four days, I'd be going like that.

Here's the book of James. It's like when you first get in the roller coaster and you're going up the roller coaster. And so you can hear that clicking sound. Do you remember it? Click, click, click. It's just pulling you up.

And you're getting up to the top, anticipating this swoosh down and around. And you're just so excited. And you might raise your hands and you know that perfect spot where it's going to take a picture of you so you make the funny face.

They didn't have those when I was a kid. The anticipation of who we are in Christ reaches the crescendo. And James, starting in verse three, downhill he goes in the roller coaster. And it's just one rapid fire thing after another.

It's direct, it's authoritative, and it's good for us. And James starts saying, you know, if you were a Christian, here's how I want you to live. For your good, for your neighbor's good, and for God's glory.

I want you to count it all joy when you're in a trial. Remember that when he says in chapter one? He goes on to say, I'd like you to make sure you never say God tempted me to do something. Because God doesn't tempt, He only gives good gifts.

Think about your salvation. Think about your regeneration. I want you to be a doer of God's word. God's word isn't just to be analyzed, it's to be obeyed. That's chapter one, verse 22. You're flying down this roller coaster and you're thinking, how do I live my life?

Especially when I'm in troubled times. And he says in chapter two, verse one, remember, don't be partial. All these things are easy for us to disobey and they don't come naturally or else why would God give us a command?

Count it all joy doesn't come naturally. Blaming other people comes naturally. Being lazy comes naturally. Showing partiality comes naturally, but God doesn't want us to do any of those because we're children of the king.

We have a different father. We're not ruled by Satan any longer. He goes on in chapter two, verses 14 and following saying, for Christians, there's going to be fruit. The spirit of God produces fruit in your life.

And we saw last week, I think I was very convicted. I think probably you were as well, that the tongue needs to be tamed, not by us, but by God. That we have to be careful what we say because the tongue is very destructive on the negative side and it's very uplifting on the positive side.

To repeat, here's what I want you to remember about every New Testament command and law. It's not a law that's floating out there in the ether abstractly. Here's a law, love your neighbor as yourself.

Laws and the lawgiver have to be thought of together. One of the keys in holy living is simply this. The law is given by the lawgiver. The father's given me the law. It's not just some law that's out there floating around in space.

It's from the hand of the father. Hand of the father. And fathers on earth, sinful fathers, mothers on earth, sinful mothers, give their children rules to help them, to guide them, to protect them. They're not rules to say, you know what, if you do these, you're my kid, you're my child.

No, no, they're rules to say, you know, it'll go well with you if you do these things. Here's the easy life. Here's the right life. Here's the righteous life. So when it comes to James, we're seeing that there are laws given, amen, but they're from the hand of the father.

Never disassociate laws and the lawgiver, the father and the one who gives the law. Okay, we're ready to go? How many books in the Bible, kids?

Okay.

I didn't say this, I don't think, last week. James is written almost you could think of like a sermon. It's written for public reading. It's like James had a bunch of sermons and he just took the extracts of the best of James and put them together and it's called the Epistle of James.

And it sounds just like Jesus because James would know what Jesus taught on the Sermon on the Mount, the Mount of Olives and others. Very, very fast-paced book, wonderful book. I think it was the first book of the Bible I ever taught.

I hope it's not my last.

Remember the, is it the Winchester House in California? Remember the gun magnet? And she, as long as she builds onto her house, she thought she would stay alive. Remember that? Weird people live in California, I want you to know.

The sane ones hunker down in New England and the free birds move to California. What does it have to do with anything? I don't know, but I think I'm going to be preaching Luke for the next five to 10 years.

As long as I preach through Luke, we stay alive. I said before, I think, that there were 14 main groupings of direction and laws from the lawgiver in James and I've just reviewed the first six. And so now we're going to work on number seven and it's found in chapter three, verses 13 through 18.

And every one of these, of course, is going to remind us of Jesus because Jesus counted all joy. Jesus never blamed the father in trials. Jesus was a doer of God's word. Jesus was not partial, he loved people.

Jesus' faith had evidence. Jesus guarded his tongue. And now number seven out of 14, knowing that the resurrection is true, how do we live? James says, I want you to be wise. And I'll ask the question, are you wise?

Is wisdom just reading Plato and Socrates and Aristotle?

What's wisdom?

Let's find out. This is vintage James. Who is wise? Chapter three, verse 13. And understanding among you, by his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. Now, sometimes the Greeks would be thinking it's philosophy and mental things that go on, that's going to be wisdom.

But the Jewish mind, the Hebrew mind, would think about logic and philosophy, that's true, but it had to have street application. It had to have shoes on the ground. It wasn't just theoretical, it was very practical.

And so if you want to show that you're wise, James doesn't say, just talk a lot about philosophy and metaphysics. No, you're going to show it by your life. By his good conduct, there it is in verse 13 again, they let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

And now he gives kind of an illustration of bad wisdom first. If these things are in our lives, then we can tell we're not being wise. I'd like to be wise, you want to be wise. Chapter one, verse five.

When we're not wise, we're to pray to God for wisdom, and he gives us wisdom. This bad wisdom fruit is found in verse 14. You can say you're wise, but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

That's going to show that I'm not really that wise after all even though I know classical Greek, that I know Aristotle. Verse 15, you can hear, this is like a pastor preaching. This is Pastor James. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.

So you see what he is doing. When you see the fruit of something, you can tell what kind of tree that fruit comes from. And if the fruit is jealousy and rivalry and envy and bitterness, well, that's not from above.

God's not going to give that. That comes from a different realm. That comes from an earthly realm, an unspiritual realm, a demonic realm. I want to run from that, I'm sure you do. When I read that, I think what churches in the New Testament sounded like that?

Corinth, certainly. I don't want wisdom that's pertaining to demons. Verse 16, for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there's basically going to be chaos. Look at it again, where jealousy, verse 16, and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.

You see, because once there's wisdom from above given, but then not accepted or acted upon, anything and everything goes. If I'm not going to be controlled by God's wisdom, I must be controlled by my own wisdom, the world's wisdom, demon's wisdom, and every evil thing comes about.

But James has got the right answer as well. If the wisdom that doesn't come from above is earthly and demonic and unspiritual, when God gives wisdom and there's fruit, what's the fruit of that wisdom?

Verse 17, this is really good. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

That's what I want. That's what God wants for you. That's what you want. Now, we live in a world where it's almost peace at all costs. This is the verse, by the way, that if anyone comes to you and says, we need to get rid of doctrine in order to be ecumenical, because the Lord's church is one and it's peace at all costs, this is the verse you go to.

This is the verse that in your mind, you should be thinking, peace is good, but I can't say doctrine doesn't matter to get the peace. Now, some doctrines are tertiary, that is, they're not even secondary.

They're lower on the list and we can have fellowship with infant Baptist or Believer's Baptist or, did somebody just say amen? No, I was just looking at Brawley. I'll pay you a dollar later. But it's first pure, then peaceable.

So doctrine matters. Truths matter. We don't just say, you know what, the wisdom from above is first peaceable, then pure. No, it's first pure, then it's peaceable. And so if you're a wise person, go back to verse 13 again, who's wise in understanding among you?

If I ask the question with James in verse 13, who's the wise one at church? The elders, the wise one, because they're in leadership or the gray haired one, are they wise because they have gray hair? Where's the wisdom found in the church?

You look for people that are like this, they're pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. By the way, when you see those people at BBC, glom onto them.

That's Nebraska talk for grab hold, don't let go. Listen to them, watch them, learn from them.

Wisdom, was Jesus wise?

What if I asked the question of Jesus, are you wise in understanding? I'd never ask the question. Peter might ask the question, but I wouldn't. Listen to some of these verses about the wisdom of God, because remember, everything that James is calling you to be and to do, you can see in the life of the Lord Jesus.

He's essentially saying, be like Christ. You're in him, be like him. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. First Corinthians one, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Colossians two, three, in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Was Jesus pure, peaceable, gentle? And the list goes on. We know the answer to that question. Well, if you think that one's convicting, let's go to number eight, worldliness, found in verses one through 10 of the next chapter.

James chapter four, jet tour through James. What's the Christian code? How are Christians to live knowing that they've been forgiven, justified and one day glorified? Number eight, avoid worldliness. For your good, for your neighbor's good and for God's glory.

A warning against worldliness. I think some preachers say, this is the toughest part of James. The most convicting part of James.

What does he say?

Asking more questions like he did in 313. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this that your passions are at war within you? You desire you don't have, so you murder. You covet and can't obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

I mean, it's just like machine gun rapid. You don't have because you don't ask. You don't ask, you don't receive because you wrongly ask to spend it on your passions. And then ouch, verse four, you adulterers.

The family code of Christians is to not be worldly, to not be hedonists. I read an article the other day on how to be miserable. You can get anything on the internet. How to be miserable. Here's the answer.

Think about yourself. Talk about yourself. Use I as often as possible. Mirror yourself continually in the opinion of others. Listen greedily to what people say about you. Expect to be appreciated. Be suspicious.

Be envious. Be sensitive to slights. Never forgive a criticism. Trust nobody but yourself. Insist on respect. Demand agreement with all your views on everything. Sulk if people are not grateful to you.

Never forget a service you have rendered. Shirk your duties if you can. Do as little as possible for others. Who's wise in understanding chapter three? Let's see the fruit.

Now this is bad fruit.

What causes quarrels and fights among you? It's hedonism. If you look at verse one and two, sometimes count how many times you see the word you. Y-O-U are your. Fights among you. Is it not this that your passions are at war within you?

You desire, don't have.

You murder.

You covet. You fight. You don't have.

You don't ask.

Talking about miserable. And by the way, it's within a church. What's it say at the end of the first question? What causes quarrels and fights among you? I think of Philippians chapter four. Remember, Paul had to urge Syntyche and Juodias to live in harmony with the Lord.

It's like that old classic story. The dad sees the kids fighting in the backyard, and he calls the kids in.

What are you doing?

Playing church. Sometimes when you shake hands before the service to greet people, in the old days they would call that what? It wasn't called greeting. It wasn't called spreading COVID. But they call it when you'd greet people.

Before the service.

Bright hand of fellowship.

Bright hand of fellowship? That's not bad. Passing the peace.

You pass the peace.

And you'd meet people before the service, and you'd say, peace be with you. And especially if you weren't getting along with somebody, you'd find them and just say, peace be with you. We're just going to cover that.

We're not going to deal with it. Peace be with you. I read about a church where the pastor tried to get that done and to just say, you know what? Let's just have the passing of the peace.

And before the service, everybody.

Says, peace be with you. And the church could not stand it, so they fired the guy. Now, I don't know if that's just anecdotal, but it brings the point in. This kind of thinking must not be in our families, must not be in our neighborhoods, but it can't be in the church either.

This is the Lord's church. Galatians 5, if you bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another. And so to get our attention, he's in verse 4. Were you adulterous people? Don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Now, it's almost bicycle riding time again. And what I like about spring bicycle riding outside is there's not too many bugs, not too many wasps, not too many other things.

I used to ride a motorcycle a lot, so you could taste certain bugs. And many bugs taste like celery. And you just hit your teeth, and you chew them, and you're like, that tastes like celery to me. And I don't know if it's on the keto diet or not, but it doesn't really matter.

I've also had on bicycle wasps fly in my mouth and sting my mouth repeatedly on the inside because I'm in such a shock they're stinging my mouth. If I wasn't in shock, I'd instantly crush them with my molars and just spit them out.

Like Bruce Lee.

I was trying to think of Chuck Norris, but I couldn't remember his name.

This stings.

This hurts.

I don't think anyone, and I look around at a lot of godly people, I don't think all of us are prone to deal with worldliness, and hedonism, and self, and pleasure, and everything terminates on us. That doesn't sound like Jesus.

That doesn't sound like love God and love neighbor. You say, but the third great commandment is love yourself. I have to learn to love myself in order to love others. You must love your neighbor as yourself.

Friends, that's such a lie. It's the perfect lie. No, when the Bible says love your neighbor as yourself, it means you already love yourself. We love ourselves. And to the degree we love ourselves, we should be loving other people.

Using language of Israel's unfaithfulness to God, he says to people in the church, don't be adulterers. No, he says, you're adulterous people, because the world is slipping in. Remember, Demas having loved this present world,.

He deserted.

Do these verses resonate? Do not love the world nor the things in the world, for if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but it's from the world.

The world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2, verses 15 through 17. Instead of being a friend of God like Abraham, people that live for self or desire hedonism, enemies of God.

Verse five, or do you suppose it's to no purpose? I mean, it is for a purpose that the scripture, he's not quoting a verse here, but the scripture generally says in the Old Testament, it teaches this theological truth, he yearns jealously over the spirit that he's made to dwell in us.

Is there any hope for us, we that struggle with worldliness? Yes and amen, verse six, but he gives more grace. More grace than what? Than my desire to be worldly, my desire for lust, the pride of life, he gives more grace.

Somebody should write a song, grace greater than all our sin, yes. Therefore it says God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And so when we struggle with hedonism, and me-ism, and the unholy trinity, me, myself, and I, verses seven through 10, help us.

And I could summarize this with one word,.

And that's repentance.

10 commands here, but they all summarize, they could all be summarized with one word, to repent. Submit yourselves to God, resist the devil, he'll flee from you. Draw near to God, he'll draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched, mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he'll exalt you.

I wonder how many of us this morning just say, Lord, we're just too focused on self, and the world, please forgive me. Number nine, found in verses 11 and 12, James circles back, and now he's talking about judging other people.

All right, we're going through the book of James, jet tour, hitting the highlights, 54 imperatives, 108 verses, learning a lot about God. And now we come to this grouping here, this ninth grouping out of 14, found in verses 11 and 12.

And you're gonna see the word brother and judge a lot. And you're gonna see the word law a lot. Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother, judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law.

But if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge. There's only one lawgiver and judge, it is he who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? See how many questions in chapter three, verse 13, in chapter four, verse one, and here, good questions.

That's why it sounds almost like a sermon. Here he says, I don't want you to speak down against one another. And he uses a word that's pretty harsh and it's all inclusive. Any negative word about someone else, that's the idea.

In church, Christians in church, it might be true about the person, but it's done in such a way that the person receiving that down speaking has a different view about that person now. It's the kind of language that you're talking to somebody else in church and you're trying to get them to negatively think about the person you're talking about.

He's like, we're in the same family, we can't do that. I'm not asking for an answer, but just more rhetorical. I wonder why it's easier to jump to negative conclusions about people than to assume the best.

And that probably has to do with the Roman sin still dwelling in us. Needless repetition of faults, exaggeration of faults that are real, criticism, accusations, judgmental attitudes, minimizing others' virtues.

Now, when I was younger, we had a comedian and the comedians did not have to be politically correct like many of them have to be now. I'm surprised there's any comedy in the world. But when I grew up, we used to go watch a guy named Don Rickles.

How many people know Don Rickles? All the geriatric people raise their hand. I went to Las Vegas once and they sat me in the front center row of Donald Rickles and I thought, he's gonna call me up on stage and just obliterate me.

So the whole time I just sat there like that. And Don Rickles was smart, but he would bulldoze people with his words and people would laugh. Arkin Hughes said, most people think it's okay to convey negative information if it's true.

We understand that lying is immoral, but is passing along damaging truth immoral? It almost seems like a moral responsibility to do so. I don't think I, and if I don't do it, probably many of you don't do it as well.

I don't think speaking negatively about people is very serious of a sin. I now know in light of this, it's a very serious sin. We're just talking about someone. I mean, the royal law back in chapter two was love your neighbor as yourself.

And when we talk about people in this negative sinful way, and we're not talking about church discipline and we're not talking about dealing with sin or something like that, but it means we don't care what God says and we're above God's law.

That's what James is saying here. God has a law, love your neighbor as yourself, don't speak down against people. Well, I don't care what God says because I'll do what I want. I'm now a judge of the law.

I never gave the 10 commandments to anybody. They were given to me. They were given to you. If I could give the commandments on Sinai, then maybe I could say some things. And lastly for today, number 10.

And this one, it's not that I've been waiting for this one, but this is, I mean, it's hard enough to be repentant when it comes to worldliness, to be gentle when it comes to right wisdom. But this one here, it strikes.

But it's for our good.

Think about it in verses 13 through 17. The Christian family code is this number 10, to think rightly about the future. To think rightly about the future. There's no crazy sexual sin in this section. There's no crazy blasphemy in this section.

There's no crazy division of a church in this section. This section here is simple. And it's essentially forgetting God, planning like there's no God, living like there's going to be no God even when we're Christians.

Come now. It's softer, can't you see? Instead of you're an adulterer, here, okay, come now. Let's reason together. You can hear Isaiah almost. Come now, you who say. And we all say it. By the way, what are you gonna do tomorrow?

What are your plans tomorrow? Today or tomorrow, we'll go to such and such a town, spend a year there, trade, make a profit. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? Answer, you're a mist that appears for a little time.

And then vanishes.

Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do, plan with the Lord in mind and fails to do it, for him it's sin.