The case for faith that works, James 2:14-26

The theme of chapter three is that of faith.  James began by speaking about being rich in faith, as opposed to being poor in faith.  Ironically, he says the poor man is rich in faith, and the rich are poor in faith.  But it was evident that James was speaking of a kind of faith that produces love.  Love being the evidence of faith.  And love that is partial to certain people or shows favoritism is not the love which we are to have as Christians.  But we are to love like Christ loved us, which means that our faith

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Loving your neighbor, James 2:1-13

James is a teacher who is concerned with practicality.  He doesn’t spend a lot of time dealing with lofty theological principles, though he does address them in his letter.  But he spends a great deal of effort to teach us how we are to apply such principles in every day situations. As a result, James is rather blunt and to the point. If Paul is the general that deals with overall principles and strategies, James is the sergeant who brings them down to the level of the grunt soldier and gets them done. And he doesn’t waste a lot of

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Practical instructions for fruitful living, James 1:19-27

Last time we finished up with verse 18 in which James said we were brought forth by the word of truth that we might be the first fruits among His creatures. He is speaking there in the phrase “brought forth” about our new birth, our spiritual birth. We are saved by grace, through faith, given new life in Christ, a new heart, new desires, a new way of living. Then he says that we might be the first fruits among His creatures. That refers to our new life now that we are saved. He uses the analogy of a plant,

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The path of sin and the protection from it, James 1:13-18

James has been talking about trials which everyone faces in life. He calls them various trials.  That indicates that trials come in a variety of ways, in all sorts of difficulties.  James says that a trial is a test of your faith.  And we learned that God uses trials to refine our faith, to strengthen our faith, to prove our faith.  He uses trials to conform us through suffering to the image of Jesus Christ.  He uses trials to mature our faith and sanctify us. But we have a response in trials. And there are two possible responses that we

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Rich man, poor man; James 1:9-12

James started off his letter speaking about the need for enduring faith in the midst of trials. Trials are an inescapable part of life.  And James says rather than seeking immediate relief from them, we need to endure them with persevering faith, knowing that God uses trials to refine our faith, so that our faith might be complete, lacking in nothing. Then he adds to that process the need for divine wisdom, so that we might understand God’s purposes and plan for our salvation, that we might have hope and confidence in God’s plan for our lives.  Today then, as

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Seeking Wisdom, James 1:5-8

James is full of these pithy passages which some have called imperatives of the faith. And it’s tempting to take these simple imperatives at face value but somewhat superficially and usually out of context, and expect to use them sort of like a formula, whereby if we do x plus y, we will get z.  And perhaps that is possible, on occasion.  But I don’t think that is James’ intention.  I imagine that I am not alone in applying such a template to this passage before us today.  There have been a few situations in my life where I have

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The testing of faith, James 1:1-4

Today we begin our study of the book of James.  We’ve studied James before as a church, but we’ve reached the point where we have gone through the entire New Testament, and so we are now on our second round. But I think that’s a good place to be.  As we learned in Jude last week, we need to be reminded.  We need to remember.  And so I look forward to gleaning more from this harvest than we did on the first. However, perhaps due to the fact that we have studied James before, I don’t want to spend a

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Kept by God, Jude 17-25

Today we are going to finish our study of Jude.  This short letter was written by Jude who was the brother of James.  What he does not mention is that he is also the half brother of Jesus Christ.  They had the same mother -Mary, but different fathers, Joseph being the father of James and Jude, and the Holy Spirit being the father of Jesus. Jude wrote this letter to the churches, having first desired to elaborate on their common salvation, but he was urged by the Holy Spirit to write something else instead – a warning that certain ungodly

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God’s judgment on false teachers, Jude 11-16

We begin this section of scripture with Jude uttering the phrase, “Woe to them!”  It is a phrase that cannot be understood without the context of what came before it.  And so if we have not been here in the last couple of weeks, we must find out who is “them”.  Who is Jude talking about.  We find the summary answer to that question back in vs 4, “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only

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Reminders from history, Jude 5-10

I said something in our Bonfire Bible Study last Wednesday that I think bears repeating.  I said that there seems to be two basic types of theology out there.  But only one is correct theology, and the other one is wrong, even though it is the most popular.  The most common theology, the most popular theology,  has as it’s premise that God exists to serve man.  They may not say it so crassly, but nevertheless, that is the basics of it.  That God serves man, God loves man, God gives things to man, God helps man.  God is not much

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