Lessons From James: Part 1

Transcription

1 Lessons From James: Part 1 Valley Center Seventh- day Adventist Church Written By: Pastor John T. Anderson Delivered On March 1, 2014 This Sermon is available in audio format for listening or downloading on our Audio Sermons web page. Today we re going to read from the book of James. Actually we ll take two studies to go through all of its five chapters. I thought originally that we could cover the book in one session, but that s not possible. It s just too rich. Did you know, for example, that in the book of James there are some 30 references, allusions or direct quotations from the Sermon on the Mount? Between the sermon this Sabbath and the next time we re together, we ll have read the entire book. Along the way, we ll make a few comments as we go. Much of the book needs no explanation. Are you ready? The book of James is found toward the end of the New Testament, just after the book of Hebrews. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, Greetings. Who was James who wrote this book? (By the way, James is the New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament name Jacob. ) There are several who bore this name mentioned in the Bible. There was James the son of Zebedee and brother of John, but it is highly unlikely that he wrote it, since he was martyred very early, recorded in Acts 12. There s been a lot of research and discussion whether he is James the Less, James the son of Alphaeus or James the Lord s brother, mentioned in Matthew and Galatians 1:19. Without going into a lengthy discussion, we ll just say that there s no biblical proof to pinpoint any of these as being the author, but I ve always favored the thought that it was James the (step- )brother of our Lord. This epistle is sometimes called catholic, meaning universal, since was it not addressed to any particular church or person, but to the twelve tribes, speaking no doubt of Jewish Christians. It s possible that he s addressing spiritual Israel, but it seems more likely that he s talking to Jews who had become Christians. By that time they had been scattered because of persecution which was so prevalent during the infancy of the church, which is the point that he addresses next in his letter, which in my Bible has the caption Profiting from Trials. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he 1

2 who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double- minded man unstable in all his ways. James presents Christianity as providing a different perspective on life, different than the way the world looks at things. It s almost backwards, or upside down. He says, Be joyful when you have trials, and in the next section, exult in your poverty. That s not the way the world looks at things! Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits. Put not your trust in earthly treasure, for as Proverbs tells us, riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away like an eagle toward heaven. Proverbs 23:5. Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. The crown that James talks about is the stephanos, the victor s crown. Unlike the perishable chaplet of apple leaves awarded to the Olympic winners of his day, the crown God will place on the Christian s brow will never fade. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God ; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. If it s impossible for God to be tempted, then how was it that Jesus, Who is God, came to this earth, lived like us and was tempted in all points as we are? Hebrews 4:15. It s because through a miracle He came here as the God- Man. He still had a divine nature (which cannot be tempted), for a divine sacrifice was required in that a divine law was broken. This divine nature was hidden during His earthly life. But He also had a human nature, which could indeed be tempted. Jesus life here was not a sham. It wasn t make- believe. It was real. He (and God s throne) was made vulnerable and could have sinned. Yet He resisted evil by the Spirit s power and won the victory! He now is going to use a natural experience, that of child- birth, in two ways. One is an illustration of how sin comes about and the other a figure of how God is saving us through the Gospel. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. James uses an analogy from the natural world to teach a spiritual truth. The bringing together of external temptation and internal attraction to evil in the context of an evil deceiver who encourages disobedience results in the birth of sin. And sin ends in death. Through the Gospel and the mighty power of the Spirit this chain reaction can be halted, and the unwanted offspring of sin can be aborted. 2

3 James analogy actually presents a wonderful promise, if you see it this way. He says that sin happens when the desires of sinful flesh are unified with a physical inducement. But, thank God, we can be overcomers now through His grace even when we re still in sinful flesh, and more than that, when Jesus comes we ll be forever free of the sinful nature that leans toward evil, and there will be no external temptations or tempter to harass. For that reason, we can be confident that the Scripture will be fulfilled that affliction will not rise the second time. Nahum 1:9. All internal pull toward iniquity will vanish; all external inducements will be removed, and there will no longer be an evil schemer to prod and encourage us to disobey our loving Lord. Praise God for that! Notice now how James turns the figure of birth in a second way, not as an example of evil, but as an illustration of how God is saving us. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. This birth, the new birth, is what God is trying to accomplish in our lives. We can be firstfruits, or examples of His grace. Jesus is the Firstfruits, but we can be a kind of firstfruits, reflecting His character. Therefore, my beloved, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. As we read the book of James, count the number of times he addresses the way we speak; the power of the tongue. This is the first of many; let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak. As someone noted, God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. He continues. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. Here he compares God s moral Law, the Ten Commandments, to a mirror. It shows us our character defects. It can t cleanse us, but has an important role in showing us our needs. He calls it the perfect law of liberty because true freedom is found in obedience, not lawlessness. Satan has said that freedom comes without law. He is an anarchist, who began his attempts to overthrow God s perfect law of love while still in heaven. God says that freedom comes within compliance to His perfect law, which for us can happen only through His grace. Which is it? Government by law or without law? Upon this issue the Great Controversy is waged. 3

4 Notice now the second time he touches on the importance of the things that we say. If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one s religion is useless. You might have heard the saying, Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Not true! Words are daggers, arrows that penetrate deeply. It s important to guard our words and have the law of kindness on our tongue. Proverbs 31:26. Here s what practical Christianity looks like, according to James: Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this; to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Following God makes one helpful, kind, attentive and generous. He goes on to give a warning against personal favoritism in the next section. My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, You sit here in a good place, and say to the poor man, You stand there, or, Sit here at my footstool, have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. His main point is that to show partiality, to make judgments as to the value of a person based on outward appearances is sin, and we should by no means neglect to recognize the truth of that principle. At the same time there are other rich treasures in words that he shares. Notice that he equates the principle of love your neighbor (in chapter 2:8) with the Ten Commandments (which are referred to just three verses later, in chapter 2:11). Love your neighbor is the summary of the last of the six Commandments. Some people may say that the Ten Commandments were done away with at the cross and we re only obliged to follow the law of love, but James doesn t support that concept. Love is just the summary of the law; it doesn t do away with it! A summary doesn t do away with the specific, it s just another way of expressing it. 4

5 Another important point he makes is that the violation of one of the Commandments makes one a transgressor of the whole. Oh, the devil would like to deceive people into thinking that obeying 9 of the 10 Commandments is good enough and by doing so we can please God, but that is a fatal deception! The Bible cannot say it more emphatically. If we stumble in one point we are guilty of all. Now, Seventh- day Adventists are fond of quoting this passage to uphold the Sabbath Commandment, and rightly so. But do not overlook the fact that the specific context of this statement is not about the Sabbath, but about showing partiality based on outward tokens of value. A third most important point follows. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. God s moral law, the Ten Commandments, will be the standard in the final judgment. No, it wasn t nailed to the cross; it wasn t discarded when Jesus died. It remains the faithful representation of God s character and the Statute against which all lives will be compared on that Day. It is the law of liberty which defines what true freedom is. One of the main themes that James presents is the importance of merciful treatment of the less fortunate. You ll see that that idea comes up often in this short book. Do you wish to be treated mercifully in the great judgment? You would do well to show mercy now to those who have less of this world s goods. Now James gets into a discussion of the relationship between faith and works. Some have read his book and comparing it with what Paul wrote, mistakenly thought that the two were in conflict one with another. Some believe that Paul teaches salvation by grace but that James teaches salvation by works. Not true! Oh, I suppose that if you read only a few texts from both authors and pitted one against the other you might come to that conclusion. But a careful reading of both presents a perfectly balanced view of salvation. Paul and James, as well as all Bible authors (because all Scripture is really authored by One, the Holy Spirit) reveal that we re saved by grace through faith which works by love. That phrase is actually a combination two Bible texts; Ephesians 2:8 and Galatians 5:6, both written by Paul. But that formula, applied to the book of James, is just as accurate. If you have your eyes open to it, you ll find that there s a great deal of emphasis on works as the fruit of faith in the writings of Paul. And, if you read it fairly, you ll see that there s grace in the book of James. We ll come upon the verses that bring that concept to the forefront a little later in our study. We must read it with the entirety of the context in our minds, and not pick and choose just one phrase here or there and try to build our theology on a few statements. That strategy will lead to disastrous results. No, there s perfect balance if we read the Scriptures correctly. James and Paul are not at war with each other. Keep in mind as we read the next section that works 5

6 are the fruit of genuine faith. They demonstrate that our faith is genuine, and in that sense and that sense only are we justified by them. When he speaks about not being saved by faith alone, he s talking about someone who says he has faith, but it s not genuine saving faith, for it is devoid of the fruitage of the Spirit that would be there if it was the true product. Back in their day it was observed that a certain tree looked like a fig tree. But upon closer examination, it was determined that it didn t bear real figs; figs that you could eat and enjoy. Now, the word for fig in their language is seke ( seekee ). But this other tree looked like a fig and had fruit that might fool the undiscerning eye. So it was called a fool s fig, a sekemore (with more meaning fool, as in sophomore a wise fool or the word moron ). A fools fig, or sekemore; or as we d say sycamore. A true Christian will always bear the fruits of his or her faith. On this point Paul and the Apostle of love, John, also agree. What did John say? Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. Notice the repetition of the phrase by this in that passage. It is through the evidence of godly works that genuine faith is demonstrated. What did our Lord say? Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, (in other words, not everyone who says they are a Christian; not everyone who says they have faith ) shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness! Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them (didn t we just read in James a statement similar to this?), I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. Matthew 7: James perfectly reflected the teachings of Jesus when he wrote about the importance of not merely saying, but also doing. Genuine faith, the real thing, will always be accompanied by works of righteousness. It cannot be otherwise. Even the thief on the cross, who found Jesus hours before his death, revealed his faith by works of righteousness. We re not saved by our works, but our works testify that God is indeed working in us. Paul said, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12, 13. 6

7 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. May it be that the Spirit will write in our hearts the principles of His Law, the royal law, the law that gives liberty, so that our lives will reflect the character of the Savior, that our works will give testimony that His power is at work in our lives. We ll continue our study of the wonderful book of James next time. 7