Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. Stephen is the president of Wisdom International and he's been teaching the Bible for over four decades. We have a resource that can provide instant answers to your Bible-related questions. it can instantly search through Stephen's four decades of Bible teaching and provide you with biblically faithful answers immediately. If you have a question about the Bible or if you just want to try this out, visit wisdomonline.org slash ask.
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Now here's Stephen. You were chosen. Ephesians 1. You have been bought with a price you do not belong to yourself any longer. 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
See, here's the truth. Whether or not the world knows it, everyone is a slave to something. Sin or righteousness? Everyone serves some master, even if they say, Well, I'm free because I belong to him. I say, Well, you are your own master.
The question then is, whose slave are you? The Bible is made up of 66 God-breathed. Books. Scrolls, at least 30 of them, are short enough to read in 30 minutes or less. The book of James is that kind of book.
It's small. It's easy to read. Very little mystery to it. It's down to earth. You can read it as I have read it several times in about 20 minutes.
Or less. In fact, so many truths, though, come out of this book, they tumble over as if they are the waters of Niagara. It's hard to outline it. In fact, that's difficult for people in my position. One particular author catalogued nearly 30 different topics.
that just cascade one after another. And here's why. Much of the New Testament epistles deliver to us the precepts. of our faith. James is passionate about the practice of our faith.
He doesn't come into the living room of our lives where we've been expecting company and everything is dusted and the carpet is vacuumed. No, he goes right over and opens the door to the coat closet where we've stuffed everything until company leaves. He's going to pry into our Our private lives is going to rifle through every drawer. He's even going to have the audacity to examine our checkbooks and tell us that they reveal our true priorities in life. He's going to look at our prayer request lists and inform us of what we really want from God.
Well, James is going to take us into the divine examination room, and he's going to listen to our hearts. He's going to look into our ears. He's going to have us open our mouths and say, ah, while he examines our tongue. He's going to go deeper still and sift through our motives. and explore our thoughts.
In the little book of James, there are 54 Imperatives. Almost one every other verse. That means 54 words or phrases could end with an exclamation. Point. See, James is primarily after one thing.
Turning precept. into practice. Turning belief. into behavior. Turning acceptance.
into application. See, he's going to go beyond exegesis. and deal with the ethics. of life. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, said in the late 1800s, the problem of all problems is getting Christianity into practice.
That's why you have in this little book 54 imperatives. You'll have 54 prescriptions from Dr. James.
So, with that in mind. Take your Bibles and turn to James chapter 1. And follow along as I read at verse 1. James chapter 1, verse 1. James Start.
Now we've got a whole school year, okay? There's no need to hurry. No, actually what I want you to discover, we're going to cover just a few words. But I want you to discover in these first few words of verse 1 the key. to putting into practice the entire book of James.
I believe that my biggest problem, and perhaps yours as well, in applying the book of James is that I don't really spend enough time in verse 1. You see, until you're willing to apply the truth in verse 1, you're not ready to dare to say what he says in verse 2. You're not ready for the truth. Of chapter one and chapter two, chapter three, chapter four, and chapter five, until you're ready and willing to say what he says in verse. What?
Now as we cover most of this verse, Today I want to point out three things that you can hang your mental hats on. First of all, I want you to notice James. Signature.
Now, the problem for us here at the outset is that the New Testament mentions five different men named James. who followed Christ. Which one was the author?
Now, if you research each of these men, which I have, and I won't bore you with all of the details, I'll give you what I've come up with, and that is basically two potential candidates. And I'll give you the one I believe was the author. One of the candidates It could very well be the Apostle James, the brother of John. The sons of Zebedee. Problem with this particular James being the author, however.
Is that he will become the first of 12 apostles to be martyred in AD 44? By the order of Herod Agrippa, which rules out his potential for writing this book, which comes a little later. The centuries-old view on authorship, and even today the view of evangelical scholars, is that the James who wrote this little book was. Was the leader of the church in Jerusalem. James, the half-brother, of Jesus.
Which means Something absolutely dramatic. happened in this young man's life. to get him to that point. And I want to take some time showing you what that was.
Now Matthew's gospel informs us that as Jesus began his ministry, None of his siblings believed his claims. In fact, it was more than unbelief. The Bible tells us that they were offended by his claim. As Jesus in Matthew 13 is visiting his hometown of Nazareth and preaching, the Jews effectively said, Who is this guy? claiming to be and who does he think he is?
In fact, they go on to say, is not This one, the carpenter's son, in other words, how can he be who he claims to be? We know his dad. Joseph the carpenter, we knew him while he was living. And the text goes on further. They said, Is not his mother?
Called Mary? And his brothers? James And Joseph? And Simon And Judas or Jude? And his sisters, are they not all with us?
And they all took offense at. Him. In other words, the people who were offended by Christ's claim to be God's Son were not only the people of the village, but his own brothers, half-brothers, and sisters. They're saying, I know, we think the same thing. Who does he think he is?
They're mortified. They are In the text, offended. Like Mark's gospel tells us that When Christ's kinsmen, a word used of blood relations, his brothers and sisters and his own family, heard that he had launched his public ministry and he had actually called disciples after him to follow him, Mark 3 tells us they, his brothers, half-brothers, went out to take custody of him, for they were saying he has lost his senses. You can translate it, they thought he was out of his mind. They came to take custody of him.
They came to take him away. They thought he needed help.
Now, obviously, if you hold to the clear statements in these verses that Jesus had half brothers and sisters, that is siblings born to Mary and Joseph. after Jesus was virgin born. You've got another issue on your hands, don't you? I think you have several. The Roman Catholic Church has labored to redefine the words of Scripture in order to uphold the belief that Mary was who they claim, even to this day, that she is, the Virgin Mary, perpetually virgin, that she never had any more children.
So James could not be the half-brother of Christ. The second born to marry. the firstborn son of Joseph. And Mary. The Roman Church believes that Mary was not an ordinary housewife, not an ordinary mother.
She was unique among all human beings. In fact, in 1845, the Pope declared that Mary had never sinned. This is the papal doctrine called the Immaculate Conception, that Mary had actually been born without original sin, and she never sinned ever one time in her entire life.
So the Roman Church has offered up a couple of answers. To these problems? One answer is that James and the others weren't literally brothers and sisters of Jesus, they were cousins. They would point out The truth. That the word can be used in a generic sense of endearment, just as you might say to somebody today: hello, brother Sam, hello, brother John.
And that would be true.
So obviously the use of the word can have They can't have figurative or metaphorical usage. The problem is, the Greeks were smart enough to have a word for cousin. And they never, ever, ever one time used in the scriptures the word cousin for a biological brother or sister, always used the word adelphos, never once used to describe a cousin.
Now, there's another view. That is Promoted, and it is the view that, well, if they're not cousins, what it really was here is that Joseph had been married before. And he had six children. He was a widower when he met Mary and took her to be his wife. There's simply not any verse anywhere telling us that Joseph was a widower with six kids.
On the other hand, what we do have in Scripture is that Mary was not a perpetual virgin, but that she had more children.
Now, by the way, the reason I'm spending so much time on this issue is not so much to take on Roman Catholic tradition. I realize I'm preaching to the choir here for the most part, but to eventually get us all to the point where we understand that James' life And his first recorded words in Scripture following his conversion to Christ indicate something incredibly dramatic.
Now, in Matthew 13:55, we're given the names of Jesus Christ's half-brothers. in that text. They're given in typical biblical forms. Fashion. In the order of age, which is consistent in Scripture, which lets us know then that James, who appears first, was the second born.
Closest to Christ in age. Then comes Joseph, named after daddy, evidently. Simon Judas, or Jude, as he became known. He also wrote a little letter. We may study that one next.
Then Matthew mentions His sisters doesn't tell us how many, it's just plural. There may be more than two. Could be three or four. What you have is you have at least four brothers and two sisters. It might have been four and four, it might have been eight, might have been nine.
She could have been keeping up with Mrs. Duggar, for all we know. What you have, however, is this, and this is significant. You have that when you understand this. A single mother Raising for at least several years seven children.
If she had a child every two years, When Jesus Christ died, In his early thirties, the youngest child would have still been A teenager. Listen, my admiration for Mary. isn't lessened. By the truth. It's increased.
While we don't slip over into false doctrine, It causes me to appreciate her even more. Add to this the fact that while she believed the claims of her son, without fully understanding them. None of the other children did. John's Gospel tells us they mocked Christ. His brothers mocked him when he was.
Involved in public ministry, his brother said, You know, why are you hanging around here? What you ought to do is go make things public. Go and demonstrate your power. You only want a name, they said. You only want the world to follow you.
The implication there is, you just want. Power and popularity. What is brother? This is James. And his other brothers saying these things.
Listen, I want you to understand that this home was filled with turmoil. over the claims of Christ. It was in a moment's peace, especially as the older children grew and grew in their resentment against him. Christ knew nothing of the closest. Family members understanding him or believing in him.
He was ostracized from his own brothers and sisters. I want you to understand the fact that he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief long before the cross.
So More to the point. How do you go from Listening is as James mocks Christ. How do you go from that point to him following Christ? How do you go from him denying and refusing the claims of Christ to being sold out to the claims of Christ? How do you go from being a disbeliever, an unbeliever, to an author?
How do you go? From This point to that point. How do you go from being somebody who's not interested in Christ to somebody who dies for Christ during the seventh year of Nero's reign as a martyr?
So what happened to James? One verse. Says it all. Paul is writing to the Corinthian believers. In chapter 15, I'll read it for the sake of time.
He's telling specific events that occur related. These occurred related to the passion of Christ. He writes. In verse 3, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. And that he appeared to Cephas, that is Peter, and then to the twelve, the rest of the twelve, verse six.
And after that he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, that is, they're alive, but some have died. Verse 7, then he appeared. To James. He appeared to James. Can you imagine that meeting?
What did Jesus say? Hello? My brother? Everything I told you I was. I am.
Evidently, from what we know of James, the believer. As far as you can go back in church history, the predominant belief Was that the resurrected Lord commended his brother into ministry? And he would become the leader in the church. of Jerusalem during extremely difficult transitional times. Miss James would but go on to become the author of this book of the Bible?
We're still studying 2,000 years later. In which he encourages us all to get real with our with our faith. And by the way, one more sidebar here for those of you that wished. Maybe you've had moments, and maybe even this morning you're a little discouraged. Maybe maybe you've wished you'd come to Christ earlier.
in life. Can you imagine what James could have regretted? He could have lived his life. The rest of his life with bitter regret.
Now in his early 30s. But the truth of Christ's resurrection changed everything just as it has for you. And like James, live life with an exclamation point. His signature Symbolizes the radical transformation of a man who once laughed at Christ but now lives. For Christ.
Let me show you something else. Not just his signature. Let me show you his status. Back in James chapter 1, verse 1. One, his signature reveals for us his identity, his status reveals for us his priority.
Let me read. You follow along. We'll go a little further. James The Lord's half brother Away. Let me try again.
James The chairman of the Jerusalem Council who directed the development of the church to embrace Gentiles from every nation. No, let me try another one here. James One of the few who received a personal visit from their resurrected Lord.
Now all that's true. Every one of those statements were true. But what does he say? Look, James, a bondservant of God. and of the Lord Jesus.
Christ. James says, you want to know my highest status in life? I'm a bondservant of God.
Now, Paul in Galatians chapter 1, verse 19, will refer to. To James as the Lord's brother. But James prefers to speak of himself only as servant. In fact, the word for bondservant In this text is the word doulas, which literally can be rendered slave. It's a little rougher, isn't it, to our ears?
Now to the Greek world And certainly our world, but back then, especially, this was a term of degradation. Um There were millions of slaves during the days of Christ. To the Greeks, and certainly to any culture, freedom. And autonomy And being your own master represents the highest status of life. Success in life is not in serving, but in having people what serve you.
You see, for the genuine believer, this word says it all: doulas, slave, communicates ownership. Possession. Allegiance. Dependent. Subjection.
Loyalty. Do you know the ingredients of salvation come out of the first century slave market? You were chosen. Ephesians 1. You have been bought with a price you do not belong to yourself any longer.
1 Corinthians chapter 6. You are subject to his will and control. Philippians 2. You are called to give an account of your service. 2 Corinthians 5.
You are regularly chastened or rewarded by him according to his own pleasure, with or without an explanation. Hebrews chapter 12. And one day you are told that you can expect. And you long for the day when you will hear the words, again, doulas is the word used, well done, thou good and faithful slave. The truth is, we need to proclaim the freedom of the gospel from sin.
See, here's the truth. Whether or not the world knows it, everyone is a slave to something. Everyone is enslaved. You are either enslaved to sin or righteousness. Everyone serves some master, even if they say, Well, I'm free because I belong to myself.
Well, you are your own master. The question then is, whose slave are you? See, as you move through this book, the only thing that would ever challenge us to apply any of it. Is that we're categorically reminded in the very first verse that we are not the master of our lives, we are the slaves of God. Christians are slaves to God.
That isn't gonna sell, is it? Could that be the reason so many people in America who claim to be Christians?
So soon bail out. Because they didn't understand the true gospel. James comes along and he effectively says, Here's. Here's who I am. I am not free.
I'm a slave. And I may go through my entire life as God's slave. Ignored.
Now just who does James belonged to. We've noted his signature and his status very quickly. I want you to look at his savior. Little book begins, James. A slave of God.
And of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now I'm not going to bore you with all the grammatical details, but let me at least tell you that in the Greek New Testament, James does not include in this phrase any definite articles or indefinite articles. which makes it stunning. He simply strings together titles, which means you can read them in any order. You could literally translate this, James, the slave of Jesus Christ. God Lord.
You following me? James The servant of God, Lord Christ Jesus. What you have here is one of the strongest texts Describing the unity of the Godhead and the deity of Jesus Christ. Is called by James both Lord. Yahweh, Jehovah, and Christ.
It was Jesus. In fact, in the 4th century, when Athanasius was defending the deity of Jesus Christ against the heresy of Arius. Arius was a popular teacher who was teaching that Jesus Christ was a God. And not the manifestation of the God. Arianism has been repackaged in recent generations in Mormonism and the Jehovah's Witnesses teaching.
It was James chapter 1. Verse one that Athanasius used to topple the arguments of Arius. And in the council, win the day and deliver a blow to that false teaching. Where James says I am a slave of God, who effectively is Jesus Christ The Lord. Stunning trip.
What made it even more powerful is it was written by a man who could have said, Well, I really know who he is. I grew up with them. He's He's just a man who's enlightened. He's just a good man whom God glorified. He's just a man who made it.
He was a good teacher. The man that grew up with him said He is God. Isn't that great? I close with this. Hudson Taylor was used uniquely and mightily by our Lord in taking the gospel into the interior of China.
For 50 years, I just finished reading his biography. He loved the Lord. He risked his life over and over and over again. In fact, he made the comment one time that they never established a new mission post without experiencing a riot. How's that for church planters?
When he was an old man. He was in Australia. He was invited to speak. everywhere. One particular place he was invited to speak to a large church.
When he arrived, it was packed, standing room only. The moderator introduced Hudson Taylor. With Eloquent.
Well chosen Phrases That magnified the marvelous accomplishments of this missionary on the field. And he ended his introduction By referring to Hudson Taylor as, quote, Our illustrious Guest. The biographer wrote who was there. And Mr. Taylor stood there quietly for a moment.
and then smiled and said quietly, Dear friends. I am the servant. of an illustrious Master.
Sounds a little like James, Dundee. I hope it will sound a little more like us as we go through this divine prescription by Dr. James.
on how to translate faith. Into life. That was Stephen Davey, and this is Wisdom for the Heart, a production of Wisdom International. Learn more at wisdomonline. org
