Somebody Loves You

Guest (Male): There’s a lot of churches, a lot of people, they will come hear a sermon but they won’t obey the sermon. You see, they’re hearers but not doers of God’s word.

And if you’re only a hearer of the word of God and not a doer, then you can’t really be a Christian. You have to be obedient to the word of God. And this is what James is going to push.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. Well, it is good to have you with us today for our continued introduction to the book of James.

Pointing to one of the key themes of this letter, Raul will urge you to daily live out your faith, not merely settling for church attendance on Sundays, but infusing your love for God into everything that you say and do. Stay with us for this challenge to order your life in such a way that your devotion to God is noticeable to everyone. Let’s listen as Raul Ries begins in the book of James.

Raul Ries: Listen to what he says in James chapter one, beginning with verse one. He says, “James, a bondservant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered...” Notice, not lost, scattered. God knows where they are. “...abroad: Greetings. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.” And the letter begins there.

And then in 1 Peter chapter one, verse one, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the dispersion...” speaking of these twelve tribes scattered, Peter writes too. He says, “To the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” These are the areas where they were scattered when the persecution came against the church in Jerusalem, when they were killing Christians, Christian Jews.

Imagine that, they took the gospel and they fled with the gospel of Jesus Christ to other places to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s how God got the gospel out completely. And then these Jews would maintain a separate community. They separated themselves and continued their way of life in foreign lands. So here they had the same problem, they had been scattered out all over the world. It was to the Christian Jews that were scattered, because of the Roman Empire, that James addresses this letter, the persecution.

This letter was written probably around AD 40 or 50, we believe. And yet there are strong parallels in the epistle between James and the Sermon on the Mount. There are little parallels, which was Christ’s spiritual explanation of the law of God in the Sermon on the Mount. He remember he says, “You have heard it said by Moses, but I say unto you,” and he explains it, not what he thinks about what they said, and actually bringing freedom in the kingdom of God.

There are also parallels between James and 1 Peter, which was written also to the Jewish dispersion. And then these Christian Jews were true believers. They had been born again of the Holy Spirit, but they still maintained their Jewish ways and their Jewish communities. They would not intermarry and they would keep to themselves, because God had told them to do that back in the book of Ezra and back in the book of Nehemiah.

When they had married foreign women and they had foreign children, when Nehemiah came to them he got so mad at them and he came to the place where they divorced those wives and those children and sent them back because they were breaking the law of God. When you read the scriptures, God has told them that they are his people, the Jews are God’s people. And yet they were born again and expected the coming of the Lord just like us today.

And there are Christian Jews today all over the world, including in Jerusalem. It’s so amazing, Messianic Jews all over. In James 1:18 it says, “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” What does that mean? It means that we, or those people like us, they had to be born again of the Holy Spirit. That’s the only way you could enter in.

In chapter 5:7 he said, “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and the latter rain.” Speaking of the coming of the Lord. So we’ll find the second coming in the book of James. He warns us that Jesus is going to come.

And then at the same time, we will not find in this epistle the well-doctrines of the church that we find in Paul’s letters. Paul wrote fourteen letters and he spoke about the doctrine of the church. You won’t find that in the book of James. It’s more like an exhorting book, that he’s going to exhort the body of Christ, the Jews and the Christians.

The temple was still standing. Many Jewish synagogues were Christian synagogues. And the full understanding of the one body had not yet dawned upon all believers. Remember that’s the problem that Paul had, that once you became a Christian you didn’t have to be circumcised anymore. That was according to the law, you see.

And so it’s really beautiful how God sets up his word and the letters that we have before us as God speaks to us. Now the basic theme in the book of James is persecution from the outside within the fellowship of believers. This is the theme. There is no conflict between James and Paul on the matter of justification by faith. They both believed the same thing. A lot of scholars say that Paul and James were not in agreement. Oh yes they were. They both believed the just shall live by faith.

And yet James says if you really have true faith, then you have true works. You see, and if you don’t have true faith you have no works. That’s what’s beautiful about that, that if we’re really Christians then we need to be productive in the kingdom of God. “You shall know them,” Jesus said by what? “Their fruits,” their works. We’re not saved by works. That would be a salvation of works. We’re not saved by works.

We’re saved by faith in Jesus Christ. And when we are born again of the Holy Spirit and we have been not only renewed by the Holy Spirit, then as Christians, believers, we don’t just want to sit, but as we start reading, praying, fellowshipping, then God puts a call in our hearts. And what do we want to do? We want to get involved and we want to do something for Jesus. That’s what’s beautiful about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There are some characteristics in the epistle of James that we need to look at tonight. That even although James is one of the shortest books in the New Testament, yet there’s 108 verses in the epistle of James with many characteristics when you look at the epistle of James. Number one, the epistle has a clear authoritative tone speaking to the church. From beginning to end in this epistle, the author is expecting you to be taken seriously. The book is to be taken very seriously.

It’s a book of exhortation. And listen, one scholar has calculated the presence of over fifty imperatives or commands in the short letter of James. Imagine that, in five chapters. And at the same time, this indicates a person who knows that he’s speaking with great authority and who also demonstrates to us a great deal of pastoral concern. He writes because he cares for the sheep, the body of Christ, the church. Otherwise why would you exhort and rebuke somebody?

It’s like when people come to the studies here, we go through the Bible, and as I’m teaching the Bible, the word of God, what does the word of God do through the power of the Holy Spirit? It brings conviction. And it gives people an opportunity to repent or to reject it, or to remain the same person you were before. But really nobody can ever leave the presence of the Lord when there’s true teaching of the word of God and the Holy Spirit is really truly speaking to your heart.

And the anointing of the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart about the things that you’re doing that are not right. What do we call that? Conviction. When you’re being convicted by the Bible through the power and the work of the Holy Spirit. You can do two things: you can repent or you can continue to live in that sin and be miserable and eventually be damned and be lost eternally. Or you can repent and you can come to Jesus Christ and you can receive his love and his grace and his mercy.

But God hates sin, God will not put up with sin. There are a lot of people, I’ve shared before this, that they think that they’re actually snowing God. They say, “Oh God doesn’t see what I do.” Oh yes he does. He never sleeps, he never slumbers. You can hide, I don’t care what part of the world, or how deep that cave may be, or how dark it may be. God sees every person’s attitude and God sees everything they say and they do.

God sees it. That’s why it’s so beautiful how the Holy Spirit brings conviction to the hearts of people. I’ve had many times people come up to me and say, “Did my wife talk to you, or my husband talk to you? How did you know so much about me?” I don’t even know you. It’s the word of God, it’s the Holy Spirit ministering the word of God. He knows all things, and that’s how people get convicted.

So beautiful how God works through the power of his word. And so in James, I don’t think we’re going to be comfortable. There’s going to be great conviction in the book of James. Great, great conviction as we look at the book of James. Number two, in the epistle of James it is noteworthy for the absence of Christian doctrine. It is not a doctrinal book, not a doctrinal book. Paul’s letters are doctrinal, fourteen epistles concerning the doctrine of the church.

Yet this is what troubled Luther. Luther was one of the reformers, he was a Catholic monk. And before he came to Christ, he used to beat himself and he was really uptight because he was trying to do salvation by works until he came to Romans chapter one, verse sixteen and seventeen, “The just shall live by faith.” Then he got totally converted and he wrote a thesis and went and hung it in a cathedral to the Roman Catholic Church, and he was set free by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And here Luther literally did not believe in his own way that the actual epistle of James was for the church. But he was a man just like any one of us. But at the same time, Luther was troubled, with other figures of history too. For example, there is nothing in this epistle about death, the death of Christ or his resurrection, no mention at all in the epistle. James is exceptionally practical in his approach to the epistle too.

This is what he does that is pretty cool. Practical religion is what James himself is best known for among Christians. He seems to be disinterested in the actual theatrical aspects of religion, but he is passionate about what works and notice, about what is genuine in the church, especially believers. Faith in Jesus Christ. James wants to present the faith to his readers as a good way to live.

By faith we trust, we believe in Jesus Christ. Otherwise we couldn’t be Christians. This is why James also emphasizes the importance of obedience, and this is what’s lacking today in the church. Obedience of being a doer of the word of God, not just a hearer of God’s word. He’s going to talk to us about that. There are a lot of churches, a lot of people, they will come hear a sermon but they won’t obey the sermon.

You see, they’re hearers but not doers of God’s word. And if you’re only a hearer of the word of God and not a doer, then you can’t really be a Christian. You have to obey, you have to be obedient to the word of God. And this is what James is going to push. If you’re really sitting in the church, you call yourself a Christian or a believer, then why in the world are you not being obedient to the word of God?

When he says those that hear it should obey it, but yet there are those that come and they hear but they never obey God’s word. They don’t obey God’s word. The epistle of James is notably impersonal. There are no personal names used in the letter, no indication given that would help to identify the original readers in any way. And yet in the letter, the author knows these people well enough to call them brothers, Jewish Christians, brothers all the way throughout the letter.

To reveal himself simply as James, can you imagine if I was writing the letter I would say, “Raul Ries, the brother of Jesus Christ.” He doesn’t do that. He says, “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Total humble, humility in the life of James. He could have boasted that Jesus is my step-brother. “I got an in with him.” He didn’t do that. No respect for persons.

He was a godly man. When he came to conversion it totally changed his whole life and he writes as a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. James here also illustrates, gives illustrations from the outside, weather, being a farmer, the ocean, and natural settings. And as a result the epistle of James is often linked with the wisdom literature of the Old Testament like the book of Proverbs when you read it.

The teachings of James bear a marked similarity to the teachings of Jesus too, where? In the Sermon on the Mount. The exhortations that Jesus gives, the same as James. Not doctrine, but what is the Sermon on the Mount? Teaching us how to be children of his kingdom, how to live as children of the kingdom. This is what James will do. James’ writing bears marked similarities again to the Proverbs and to the Sermon on the Mount.

James also shares certain characteristics with the Old Testament books like Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. You can see the same mark because they are actually poetry books as we read them. And these common characteristics will be discussed in more detail as we go through the book of James. But then again, the epistle when you read it was written in the Greek language in a style represented by some of the highest quality in the Greek, the Koine Greek was the highest that has been written when you read it in its original language in the Greek.

It’s the best. This has caused many people to doubt the authorship of James because they thought that he was not a great educator or he had never been educated in a seminary or in a synagogue. So they tried to discredit the letter of James because they said he’s no Greek scholar, and yet it is written in the best of Greek, the best of Greek, amazing.

The epistle and its times. Times were tough for the Christian community in that time when he wrote this epistle because of the Jewish believers in the church. The reality was that life seemed to be running kind of in a popular religious ideal, promised blessings. People were coming, they thought well if I go to the synagogue, God will bless me. But why do we go to church? We come to church because we want to fellowship with God.

We want to be convicted, we want the Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts so that we can live our lives righteously before God by faith in Jesus Christ, so that we can obey his commands, we can obey his word. But these people were coming because they were thinking if I go to church, God’s going to prosper me financially. And that’s not true, that’s not true. That’s not true all the time, that doesn’t happen that way. You see, obedience is the key.

And beyond the trials of everyday life, there was a great broad-based shallowness in many of the Christians’ lives. They were not rooted and grounded in God’s word, so they never knew how to take and handle the word of God when they were having problems. They did not know how to use the word of God because they were not studying God’s word, they were not in submission to Jesus Christ. So James writes this.

Profession of faith was very common at this time, but conscientious obedience to the word of God was becoming alarmingly rare. There were a lot of people in the church, but very few people were obedient to the word of God. Sounds like today. Sounds like today, that’s why I’m looking forward to this epistle. It’s amazing. People putting other things of more importance than the word of God and attending church and living for Christ.

I remember when I was in seminary one of the professors said, “If you really want to find out your condition spiritually, this is the best way to do it. And you can do it when you go home. Take seven pieces of paper, blank paper, and start when you get up early in the morning, whatever time you get up, write down when you got up, and then every half hour until you go to bed that very day, mark down everything you do every half hour.

Do that for seven days and then see what’s important and what’s not important, and where is God in that piece of paper.” You’ll know your condition spiritually, what you’re doing most than anybody else. I found out when I wrote those papers, and I was ashamed that I was giving more time to this and this and this, and where was the Lord? And the most important thing in our life, remember Matthew 6:33, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” That’s what the Bible teaches.

That’s what God’s word says. And yet that’s not what people do. “My children are more important.” No they’re not, I’m sorry. No they’re not. “My wife is more...” no she’s not. “My husband...” no. “My job...” no. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. God, your family, your job, and then play time. But everybody has play time more important, and God is at the bottom of the line.

That’s why churches are dying and that’s why people don’t come to church, because their priorities are totally messed up and they call themselves Christians. James says that’s what’s happening in his time and it’s happening today. And it happened in Great Britain and it happened in Wales and it happened in Ireland and it’s going to happen here if we’re not careful. If we don’t take the word of God for what it is.

It’s just like our days. When you read the epistle of James and you look at everything that James is saying. Religious faith was degenerating into a more social conversation rather than a transforming way of life, living out, fleshing out the word of God in my life. As we saw in the hippie movement when people were getting saved by the hundreds and thousands and no church could be empty, it was jam-packed with kids and people. Why? Because the priority was what? God, God, God, Jesus.

That’s not happening today. We’re going down the tubes if we don’t do something about it, if we don’t return to our first love. Something’s going to happen, especially you parents have a great responsibility to your children. That if you don’t teach them that it’s important for your children to be in Sunday school on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, Wednesday nights so they can learn three times a week, two hours, that’s six hours out of all your twenty-four hours. He’s only asking you three days to be in church and that’s only six hours out of all your busy schedules. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Return to your first love. If not I will cast you away, he says, I will spew you out of my mouth. Jesus said that. It’s really important that we understand that.

Guest (Male): It’s easy to get so caught up in life’s demands that your relationship with God gets pushed to the side. But when you’re intentional about keeping the Lord central, you’ll experience the rich abundance only he can give. You’re listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Today’s program is available in its unedited form for a donation of $5 or more. To get your copy, just call us at 800-634-9165.

Now to support you in your pursuit of a deeper communion with God, we’d like to tell you about an eight-part series from Raul titled Traits of a Christian. This life-shaping study is available on both CD and flash drive. You’ll discover more ways to put hands and feet to your faith as you develop habits of godliness and prioritize personal time in the word and in prayer.

To order Raul’s eight-message series Traits of a Christian, visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165. We’ll send you the thumb drive for just $12, or the CD set for $22. That’s 800-634-9165. Or write to Somebody Loves You Radio, Post Office Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California, 91765.

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Thank you for the tax-deductible gifts that enable us to keep sharing the wisdom, hope, and truth of God’s word. Join us next time as we return to the book of James for a look at the power of personal testimony. You’ll see that while every believer has a story that centers on Jesus, your spiritual journey is unique and can draw others to the gospel in a special way as you commit to living out your faith. That’s next time on Somebody Loves You Radio.