Blue Jean Theology Part 1

Tom Shrader begins a practical study of James, emphasizing that Christians must be both hearers and doers of God's Word. He explains how James, the half-brother of Jesus and leader of the early church, wrote to scattered Jewish Christians facing persecution and trials. The teaching establishes that every believer will encounter trials, and these difficulties produce perseverance and spiritual maturity when met with faith.

“There is nothing more exhilarating than when the Spirit of God applies the Word of God to the heart of a man or woman of God.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Blue Jean Theology (2011)

Recorded: 1996

Duration: 43 min

Themes: trials, perseverance, faith, maturity, persecution, obedience, scripture, growth, facing persecution, new believer, struggling with trials, scattered believers, seeking spiritual growth, learning scripture study, experiencing hardship, young christian

Scripture: James 1:1-8, James 1:22, Matthew 13, 1 Corinthians 2:14, Galatians 2:9, Acts 15, Matthew 1:21, John 4

Theological Themes: spiritual maturity, sanctification, biblical authority, holy spirit, word of god, spiritual discernment, christian living, progressive sanctification

Full Transcript

We start something today that's a bit different, or will be for some of you. We're going to take the next few weeks and look at a specific book in the Bible. Every once in a while as I talk to some of you, it becomes clear to me that you think everyone in this study is just like you—that everyone has the same thoughts, the same backgrounds, the same traditions, the same exposure to scripture, all that kind of stuff. That simply isn't the case, and there are many people who are in this study today and in the other studies that we have who have never been through just a verse by verse study of the scripture.

We do this for a couple of reasons. One is to introduce you to the importance of this. My desire is as you begin this study and as you start to work through this, all of a sudden you will say, "Hey, this is really something I can do." I know many of you—that's one of the interesting things—I know many of you think, "Gee, I don't know I could do what Tom does." You couldn't, but it's neat that you think that, and I want to encourage you in that. One of the things you can do, I think, is to do what I do, which is to get in and really work and have this thing come alive for you.

When God's Word Opens Up

I will never forget—almost immediately after I became a Christian, one of the first things I noticed is that I could pick up this book, and in some cases as I read on my own, certainly as I listened to others, as I listened to Larry and other teachers, and as I began to work through concordances and commentaries, all of a sudden God took the Word, His Word, and just opened it up to me.

Here's why this is so important: if you are a Christian, there is nothing more exhilarating than when the Spirit of God applies the Word of God to the heart of a man or woman of God. If you're not a Christian, it will be very difficult—in fact, I would suggest to you impossible—for you to hang in there with us. You may get some interesting ideas. You'll be able to go to breakfast and say, "Hmm, interesting," but you're never going to get it. You're never going to understand it.

How do I know that? First Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14—Paul says a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Here's the powerful statement: he cannot understand them. It's impossible for them to understand because only the Christian can understand. Spiritual things can only be understood by a spiritual mind.

The Spiritual Decoder

It's as though when you became a Christian, God slips in this chip, this decoder. It's really the person of the Holy Spirit who then opens up your eyes, and all of a sudden you look at this and you go, "Wow!" And that process never ends. It's as though God's Word is a prism, and as you study it, He turns it just a little bit and lets the light reflect in there just a little more. You look at a verse that you've read over and over and over again, that you've taught and taught and taught, and all of a sudden you go, "I never saw that. That wasn't in there before."

That's our desire—that you would get hooked on this process and not only hooked on it, that you would begin to motivate yourself. All of a sudden you would have the desire to go in and mine the jewels that God has for you in His Word, and you can do that. You don't need to be a genius. You don't need to be a scholar. It's dangerous to be sure, and it's important that you're right, but you don't need to understand Greek and you don't need to understand Hebrew and you don't need to go to seminary. All those things are good—those aren't criticisms of those things, you understand that—but the reality is you're not going to do it. That doesn't mean you're banished from the study. In fact, I would say just the opposite.

Every Christian Is a Theologian

Every man or woman who's a Christian is a theologian. You have a theology, and you must handle the Word of God. It's your charge to take care of it. So that's what we want to do—kind of a big task. That's what we want to motivate you to do, and one of the best ways to do that, I think, is to just take a book and work through it.

Here's what we've done: we've selected the book of James, and we'll spend however long it takes for us to get through there. We won't necessarily stop at every verse, but we will get most of them as we work our way through.

Bring Your Bible and Get to Work

Here's what I want to do also: I want to encourage you to bring a Bible with you. For some of you that just doesn't work. When I say bring a Bible, I'm saying you bring one from home. Now if the only one you have is that one that it takes four of you to lift off the coffee table, leave that there and run down to the Christian bookstore. Get yourself a real good study Bible.

When you go into the Christian bookstore, you ask for the owner or the manager—that drives them nuts, but you need to do that. Ask for the owner or the manager or the Bible expert, and you have them get you a Bible that fits you like a glove, that does for you what this does—just like getting a golf club fitted. That person needs to understand what you're looking for, what you know, what you don't know. Then you got that Bible, then you bring it in here. You bring a pen, you bring a yellow marker, and just go to town.

If you'll wear that one out, you can get another one. I don't think we're going to have that problem, but boy, would that be a great problem to have. In fact, you wear that one out, we'll buy you another one. If you don't have a Bible or don't bring one, I still want you to not

The Authority of Scripture

Say, "Well, gee, I don't need to be there. We will have the verses on the overhead." Something powerful, I think, about seeing them there. I think there's also something powerful about having them in front of you, plus you can check up on me to see if I'm telling you the truth or not.

Let me just tell you this right now: if I say something that is contrary to what God's Word says, I'm telling you up front I'm lying to you. If I say something and God says no, it's this way, I'm telling you ahead of time I'm a liar. I'm not telling you the truth because this is infallible and this does not err.

Reading the Text

Here's the first eight verses as we work our way through it:

"James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are scattered abroad: Greetings. Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect (that word means mature) and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let Him ask of God, who gives generously without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let Him ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

I've added some parenthetical inserts. The text is the New American Standard; the parentheses are words or additions translations from either the King James, New King James, or maybe the NIV. They're there simply because they may help you capture the real meaning of that word.

Understanding Biblical Letters

We go back and start at the very beginning, verse 1, and it's an important verse. We get an awful lot of information out of this verse. When we talk about a book of the Bible, what we're really talking about is a letter that was written. All of these are letters. As you work your way through and flip through, you'll see that Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus or the church at Philippi, or he writes to Corinth in response to a problem there—really almost a sacred Dear Abby in a sense.

This is a letter, and we find at the very beginning who wrote it: James. And who received it: the twelve tribes. A little bit of discussion about who the twelve tribes are, but I believe that what we're dealing with here are Christians who were Jewish. So he's writing a letter—unlike the letter to Philippi or Ephesus or Corinth—it's a general letter. It's for general distribution, and the audience, at least the target audience at this point, were Jewish Christians. Very important to remember that that first church was virtually all Jewish.

Who Was James?

Here's the guy that's writing, and His name is James. There are several Jameses that are mentioned in Scripture, but we know very quickly some things about this James that really sets Him apart from everyone else. This James that wrote this book is the half-brother of Jesus Christ.

Now some of you are so ingrained to your life and your theology and your background that you don't understand that a nuclear bomb just went off in this room for some people. You don't understand that you just had an explosion to the person across the table from you, for they've been trained that Jesus didn't have any brothers.

The Truth About Jesus' Family

In fact, here's what they believe and they've been taught this from birth: that Mary was a virgin—no question about that—and that she had Jesus, and that after she had Jesus, Joseph and Mary remained in a celibate state all their life, with her an everlasting virgin. They've been taught that, as I was taught that from the time I was a kid. That is a fabulous story to me, especially as a married guy—not much of a role model for a wife. That does explain a lot of things at the same time.

While that may be interesting, the problem with it is it ain't biblical. Here's the problem: the Scripture says in Matthew 13 that Jesus had brothers, and they're named. One of them was James, and sisters.

The Importance of Biblical Authority

See, it takes me right back to the point I was making at the very beginning. If all of a sudden you've got someone—somebody who's got enough money or polar resources or can raise enough money to have a study in a bar, or someone who can stand in a church, or someone who can wear a robe or a collar, a suit, or a vest—just because they're there, that doesn't make them right.

I don't mean that you become disrespectful of those people at all. You need to honor those people. They're in a position of authority and power, and you need to understand that and submit to that, until all of a sudden now they're teaching you something that's extra-biblical.

What do I do when I'm in a situation where my pastor teaches this and the Bible teaches this? See, that's where you live. That's real tension. "I've been in this church all my life." I would suggest to you: you need to run. You need to go and you need to say, "What do you think about that?" and you need to talk it through, and you need to go, because it's false teaching. That isn't the truth.

James' Role in the Early Church

Now when we say that James was the half-brother of Jesus, what we mean is this: they shared a common mother, but Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit. James' father is Joseph the carpenter.

Let me tell you some other things about James. After Christ dies and rises from the dead, among people that He singularly appears to, one of them is James. In Galatians chapter 2, verse 9, the church is talked about, and as it's spoken of, there are leaders who are described. There are three who are called the pillars of the church: they are James and John and Peter.

But the leader of the early church was not John and was not Peter—it was James. In Acts 15, when there's a controversy in the church, it's a controversy that boils down...

James was at the very guts of the gospel as many of these Jews were saying, "Okay, I understand I've got this faith issue and Jesus issue. But I got to tell you I also got to keep my Jewish tradition and I've got to do these things." They had to deal with this issue, and James is the one who issued the final decree that said no, we are saved literally by faith and faith alone.

He had a nickname. His nickname was "Old Camel Knees." Apparently he had really skinny legs with these big—as Haley would say—these big old honking knees, big old honking bubbly bumpy kind of almost grotesque knees that tradition says he got from spending hours and hours and hours in prayer. He was martyred in 62 AD.

Interestingly enough—kind of a parenthesis—he was martyred by Jewish leaders. That really is ironic in the context of this book. For those of you that like this kind of stuff, to me it's kind of interesting: if you take the New Testament, it's not like we go, "Here we go, Matthew. Oh, that's the first one written." Not at all. James is the earliest dated book chronologically in the New Testament.

The Theme: Blue Jean Theology

The reason we have chosen this book for this time and for you is because of the theme of the book. It's right there. It deals with the practical aspects of Christianity. That's why we've called this series "Blue Jean Theology." It's rough. It's ready. It's practical. It's daily.

Here's the verse that becomes the key verse: "Be ye doers of the word, not merely hearers, deceiving yourself." This is very important. James is not saying this—please don't read that and go, "Oh, I'm supposed to do and do and do and hearing's not significant." That's not what he's saying. Some of you need to hear "Be ye hearers of the word, not merely doers."

What he's saying is hearing and doing cannot be separated. Hearing and doing are linked together, and that linkage cannot be broken. Then he adds the phrase "Don't kid yourself either, pal."

The Problem of Imbalanced Christians

People tend to run around in one of those two areas. They run around and they're doers. They're churning. There's dust flying all over. They're feeding the poor, they're clothing the naked, they're visiting the imprisoned—all those terrific things. They're helping one another, they're nailing down things at the church, they're putting on the roof, they're doing this thing, they're teaching Sunday school.

They're doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing. They're elders in the churches, they're deacons in the churches. But let me tell you, a lot of those people don't know anything.

Sadly, in many churches, if your financial statement is such and you are 98.6 and willing, you're an elder. You're a deacon. You're a leader. You got real potential. Dun and Bradstreet, I mean, God tells us we see you as a leader. I don't mean to be cynical, but I guess that's because I—it's kind of cynical. The whole basis of us in choosing leaders in the church is that spiritual condition—the hearer part.

True Hearing Means Study

Here doesn't mean just listen. It means study. So here's what he's saying: I want you to know what God says, but I want you to do it. I want you to take it in and understand it. And when God says do it, you're one of those people that says, "Doggone it, I'm going to do it." And when He says don't do it, you're going to say, "That's it, I won't do it," and for you the issue is settled.

That doesn't mean you don't struggle, because there's still this incredible battle going on. I'm doing the things I don't want to do. I'm not doing the things I want to do. And here's what's interesting: the closer I grow to the Lord, the more sinful I begin to see myself, because now I see things as sin that I never even wrestled with before.

So now I'm thinking I'm growing, I'm growing and growing. Here's what all of a sudden—as I see Him—when I talk about spiritual growth, what I'm talking about is all of a sudden I see God more accurately than ever before. Unfortunately, the flip side of that is I see myself more accurately, and I begin to understand how stinking rotten pond scum I really am and how I love to cheat and love to lie and love to steal. It's my first instinct. The first thing I want to do is "I didn't do it."

Our Natural Tendency to Lie

We look at the kids and we come in and we understand that. "Did you write on that wall?" "No." Blue crayon all over their mouth, blue crayon in their hand, blue crayon on the wall. "Did you write on—" I remember coming in one day to Sarah and she's standing there and she's got blue crayon. She had blue crayon on her face, on her eyes, in her teeth. She had blue crayon everywhere, blue crayon all over the wall. I walked in and I said, "Did you do it? Did you write on the wall?" "No." Then she got Johnny Cochran and all these guys together. "I didn't." Just teasing.

We look at that and we go, "Oh, that's evil enough." But listen to you. "Hello? Really? Hey, I was just getting ready to call you." "No, no, no, I think that went out in the mail. Yeah, yeah I did. I think it's going out in the mail." I mean, all I do is lie. It's my first instinct.

Is it not your first instinct to lie? Why? Because you're a liar. That's why. This stuff isn't that hard.

James's Humble Introduction

That's the whole picture of the book. Now I want to go back and I want you to look at this first verse and see if this doesn't strike you as a bit odd. I'll confess to you my weaknesses. If I'm James and I'm writing this and now I have to describe myself, I have to do a little autobiographical one-line shot here, I think it would be something like "James—yeah, I might know my brother Jesus. You remember Him? It's been a while since I saw Him. Last time I saw Him was in that risen form when He appeared to me."

"And why wouldn't He? Because I was one of the pillars of the church. I don't know if that word's gotten there yet. I'm the guy that was a leader. And oh, have you seen my—and I know it sounds arrogant, I don't mean it that way—but have you seen my knees? I'm a praying kind of guy."

Isn't that the way we are? And we even enhance that. "I, yeah, yeah."

February is a very busy month with lots of speaking engagements, and everybody wants you to fax them a bio. When you go to hear a guy speak, do you understand that he or his secretary or his PR guy has written that bio? I was at a Christian event not long ago, and they introduced this guy knowing that obviously he wrote it. I could throw up listening to this guy talk about what a terrific guy he is. I find it just the opposite. I find it embarrassing to write that stuff—not because I'm a humble little guy. I'm a proud, arrogant guy, and there's nothing I love more than hearing that over the loudspeaker. But that's the battle that you fight.

James doesn't identify himself as Jesus' half-brother and all this other stuff. He said, "I'm James. I'm a bond servant." Now "bond servant" is really too nice for the word. It really says "bond slave." I've been bought with a price. The bond slave is one who was purchased, and that purchase, that acquisition, is irreversible and lifelong. There's even a physical mark on that slave, much like you'd put a brand on cattle that would identify that slave with his or her master.

James: A Marked Slave

James is saying, "I've been marked." Paul said it this way: "I've been bought with a price. You've been bought with a price." He says, "I've been marked and I'm enslaved." Who is he enslaved to? He uses God, and then he mentions the Lord Jesus Christ. Very important to understand—we do not believe, we are not polytheists. We do not believe in many gods. We believe in one God who manifests Himself in three personalities: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

James identifies himself with God and specifically, as he speaks to these Jews—because they would have gotten the God part, remember he's writing to Jews—he said, "I really identify and link myself with the Lord Jesus Christ." The full title: Lord, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the slave holder in this equation. And Jesus.

The Name of Jesus

It's interesting that sometimes I think we think Jesus is His first name and Christ is His last name, and that's kind of how it goes. That's not it at all. Jesus was His earthly name. How did He get that name? I remember when Susan and I decided it was time to have kids, we made a bunch of decisions all at once. One, that we didn't want any boys. That's why many people say, "Gosh, you guys are good with kids and you got great kids and you really should have more kids." Well, here's what happened: I was afraid we'd have a boy, and I am one, and I know what they're like. I really don't want one and I don't want them around. I don't like them even now when they come over—they're just kind of goofy and gangly and all of this stuff.

So knowing that we would have a girl because God would want us to have a girl, we had a girl's name: Sarah. So then we had Sarah. Then Susan got pregnant again. We're going again. We know it's going to be a girl, but we don't have a name. We were having a hard time getting a name. So here's what we did. Susan's really pushing me on this. She's saying, "Tom, this is an any-day deal. We've got to get a name. I don't want to go in there and try to figure out some name like 'Baby Doe' or something. I want to have a name."

I said, "Okay, let's do it the right way." She got a legal pad and I got a legal pad, and we wrote down a first name and passed them back and forth until we wrote the same name down. Then we had to get to a middle name—that's when you want to bring in some great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather and all this kind of weird stuff. So now we go back and forth, and after a period of hard negotiation, we ended up with Haley Elizabeth—a great name. I like it.

The Angel's Visit to Joseph

Well, how did Jesus get His name? I don't know if you're aware of this—if you were able to hang in there and stay awake through most of the Christmas service, you heard this read to you, but let me help you out here because it may be a refresher. Here's what happened: Joseph is visited by an angel in Matthew chapter 1, and here's what the angel says: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit."

There is a tendency for us to sit here 2,000 years later and to read these stories and somehow miss the humanity of this, miss the drama of this, and miss the impact of this. Very important for you to understand: these were not robots. These were real people. Granted, they knew God was working in their life, but that doesn't remove from them the tension.

Imagine this: you're engaged, you're ready to be married, you're kind of fired up about this thing. There's probably been an arrangement for you, but you're excited. This is the person—this is going to be the person you spend the rest of your life with. All of a sudden you find out that she's pregnant, and you've never slept with her. You say to her, "What? Who's the dad?" And she says, "The Holy Spirit." I don't know if the guys are going to buy this or not, Mary. Stretch for me here as I pray this.

That's exactly what's going on. You don't think that's tough to deal with? Even if you bought it, and if the other person bought it, you think you could sell that to the rest of the world? You think everybody's going to come up to speed on buying that? Joseph gets this word from an angel of God. He knows it's true. He's not wrestling with it, but even believing it, you don't think there were slurs and humiliations?

How do you get the name? Here it is, Matthew chapter 1 verse 21: "And she will bear a son. You don't have to buy pink—buy blue, because it's going to be a son. And you shall call Him"—here's the name—"Jesus. Why? For He shall save His people from their sins." There's something totally different and unique.

Jesus Christ than of the other five point zillion people that have ever walked the face of the earth, and here's the distinction. He was fully God and fully man. How'd that work? I don't know, that's mystery. He gave up none of His deity to come to be Jesus Christ. And He became man like us in every way save our sin nature.

See that's why this virgin birth—I'm not at all trying to say to you the virgin birth isn't important. When I was in college, we had this Dutch theologian that would visit campus and we had a small room about as big, maybe twice the size of this little area here, and we'd get in there and we would talk about all these hard things. These guys smoked cigarettes, this theologian ate, but these other guys would just smoke these cigarettes like mad and I cannot to this day stand cigarette smoke, but I like cigar smoke.

Now what's interesting is they didn't like cigar smoke. So I'd go in and they'd have their cigarettes and I'd have my cigar. I remember one time saying, "You know, I'm wrestling trying to put this all together. How's this virgin birth thing fit in there?" And I will never forget this guy. He didn't even look up and he would just eat. He held his hands exactly like that and he would talk and he would walk and he'd say, "That's a very interesting question." And then he'd take another bite and then he said this: "But here's what I want you to think about. What's important, that she was a virgin or the product of the birth?" And I found myself going, "Oh, wow. That's heavy, man." That's right. It's Jesus.

The Virgin Birth: Essential, Not Optional

No, she must be a virgin or He could not be the Son of God. This is an essential component of the Christian faith. You cannot throw that away. It's not just imagery. It's not just a picture. It's a fact. If His father is a human being, then He has a gene for sin just like you and me, and His nature is filled with sin. But His father is the Holy Spirit. That's why the virgin birth is so important. It is critical.

When Jesus came, He got the name Jesus because He's going to go and die for our sins. If He is not God, that death isn't worth a lick. Let me help you out, and I don't mean this to be flip, but if He's not God, if His mother is not a virgin, then you might as well have gone and died for my sins. The only way this works is if He lived a perfect life and if He's the Son of God, and only then is His death acceptable.

Was His death acceptable? We know that it was. How do we know that? Up from the ground He arose! And what a Savior He comes springing out of that. That's why Easter is significant. Now we know that God has said, "Yes, He's My Son."

The Significance of "Christ"

Well, all of this is put together in the very first part of that verse. I'm a slave to the Lord Jesus, and then he adds the word Christ. Again, to you and I it doesn't mean that much, even if I say to you it means anointed one or Messiah. Even then it loses its zing. But understand he's writing to these Jews. These Jews didn't have to flip back and read Isaiah and Ezekiel to talk about the Messiah. They knew it right here. It was in the heart. They were memorized. They're waiting for this Messiah.

They've been waiting for years and years and years and years and years, and Orthodox Jews are still waiting for the Messiah. They're waiting for him, and all of a sudden James says, "There He is." It's just like the lady at the well, a Samaritan woman in John 4, when she says, "Well, I know that one day the Messiah is coming." Every one of these people knew the Messiah was coming, and Jesus is saying, "Not only is He coming, it's Me."

It's when He walks into the synagogue and He begins to read these mighty prophecies of the Messiah, and He closes the book and He sits down, the position of teaching, and He says, "Today these prophecies are fulfilled." You and I are going, "Whatever, get on to the other thing. Who do you think will win the Super Bowl?" And they're saying, "No, here, this is it. This is big stuff." And these words, these words just reverberate in these people's minds: Lord Jesus Christ.

The Scattered Church

Then James tells us that he is writing to the Jewish Christians who are scattered abroad. That's interesting. It seems like they're all over. They've gotten out of Jerusalem. Why would that be? Well, let me suggest a couple of reasons. Number one, some may have taken seriously the call to go and make disciples of all nations, and they're taking the word to these areas and they're leaving that message in some cases or living it in others.

I want to suggest to you also, some of them are scattered because when a Jew became a Christian in that economy, that was the end of their relationships. Their family would gather together and they would have literally a funeral for that person, for that person was considered dead. Not only were they dead with family, they were also dead with friends. The friends would have nothing to do with them.

What do you think that did to their business? All of the family structure and the business connections were all intertwined, and the minute the word hit the street—"Hey, so-and-so is a Christian"—his business goes to zero. Beyond all of that, once the word hit the street, they were subject to constant ridicule and persecution, even stoning and even martyring. So some scattered.

James Jumps Straight to Trials

Now I believe that that capturing of that word "scattered" helps me understand why James jumps right into this issue. Isn't it interesting? He just says, "Okay, you know, it's dear, you know, dear tribes. I'm James, greetings." And then he doesn't say, "How you doing? What's going on?" He says, "Consider it all joy, my brother, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance or perseverance, and endurance will have its perfect or complete result"—not perfect without flaws, but this process of maturing—"and you will have everything you need."

Isn't that interesting? He goes right

in to these people and the topic of the first talk in the very first verse of content is trials. Let me give you a little equation like we would do in school: two plus two is four. Here's what James says, and next week we will break this apart. We will slice it and dice it and we will spend a lot of time helping you understand some very practical truths for your life.

James says faith plus trials equals perseverance. James says listen, just because I'm a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ and you're a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, don't think for a second that your path is going to be smooth and easy. Because it's not going to be that.

In fact, there's a very alarming word there in verse 2. What is it? What's a word that you just kind of read out where you go, "Oh, not really, what is it?" When. I think that's it. Trials. If you take out when: "Consider it all joy my brothers if you encounter various trials." Well, all of a sudden you're going to go, "Oh perfect. He's not writing to me. He's writing over here to Morris. You're not writing to me. He's writing over here."

But when he says when and I'm reading it, then I've got to say, "Oh, oh." Here's what it says: "Dear Tom, be happy when trials come." That is way different than "Dear Morris, if trials come to you, hang in there."

James Understands Real Life

See, here's what James is doing. And this is why we're spending time on this book. He's saying I understand life. I get this.

Every once in a while, "Well, how does it feel now that you're full-time in ministry? Do you miss," and it's usually couched in this term, "Do you miss business?" And it's more in the "you know, what's it like not being in the real world?" Let me help you out here. I see more of the real world in a week than you see in a month.

I give you the real world: Daughters who've been molested by their fathers. Spouses who are watching the ones they love and they've given their whole life to rot away with cancer right in front of them. Kids who have said... Businesses that have gone south for no reason. We always think, "Ah, what a stupid guy, get control of expenses." It wasn't even that. There's just working along and they're doing the best they can, and all of a sudden somebody makes a better widget. Or all of a sudden they change the tax law. Or all of a sudden there's just this little blip. It's not a big deal. It's just a little price increase and you don't notice it, except now it's in your product. And that's the margin that makes you less than competitive in the market, but you didn't do anything. All you did is wake up.

Life is Difficult for Christians

Life is very, very, very, very difficult for the Christian. It's even more difficult than the regular old guy because you have all the wear and tear of life plus the persecution that comes with being a Christian.

And I have a lot of friends and I've watched them. They'll say, "Hey, I know that being a Christian doesn't mean that my path is going to be strewn with roses." But then the hardship comes and I watch them and they begin to crumble. They can't believe it's happening to them and all of a sudden we start with, "But God, haven't I? God, didn't I do? Have you seen? I just got it in the mail. Have you seen this financial? Did you see the giving I did, God? And somehow did you miss something? You understand I told you I was going to read this book every day and I've done it. And God, I've had this quiet time. Good grief, it seemed like a big deal to you. So I did it and I've been doing it and doing it and doing it. What the heck is going on, God? Why am I having these problems?"

Next week we're going to look at this. We're going to talk about what is the normal Christian life? How should this really be? What should I expect? How does this manifest itself? We pick this book because it's practical, and we're going to give you some terrific practical advice.

Are You Really a Christian?

But I need to start with this: unless your autobiographical description of yourself is the same as James, then the rest of this is of no value to you. Are you a Christian? Would you identify yourself as a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's what a Christian is.

We got a lot of different... in a room like this, we got a thousand different ideas of what a Christian is. Here's what a Christian is: A Christian is a man or woman who's come to the recognition that they are sinful and lost, separated from God by their sin, and the only way to be reunited with God is through the death of His son Jesus Christ.

That when Christ died on the cross something truly took place there. That there was a moment when He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And when that moment happened, what was happening is Christ, the perfect sinless Lamb of God, was being immersed somehow in this sacred transaction, being immersed in the sin of His people. And in anguish He suffers.

The Real Agony of the Cross

You've heard all that about the agony of the death on the cross. I've got a really interesting article years ago from the American Journal of American Medicine on the physical aspects of the crucifixion of Christ. It was a fascinating article that this physician had done by analyzing all the physical elements of what went into this, and it is excruciating. In fact, I brought it in and read it in one study, and halfway through it I had several people say, "Please just don't read anymore. Stop. I don't want to hear it anymore."

That isn't the agony. Thousands, millions of people have died more physically anguishing deaths than Christ. He only hung there for three hours. Many... and crucifixion was designed for you to hang there for days. They could keep you alive as long as they wanted, and frequently the people who were crucified died not from the crucifixion but from the birds that would literally come and begin to eat them and begin to eat their eyes as they would begin to pass away and become weak and weak and weak. And ultimately, that's why they break their legs, because ultimately the death on crucifixion was really suffocating. That's what would happen: my weight would drop down, my lungs would collapse, and I couldn't...

The agony of Christ on the cross is not just physical suffering. It's the sinless, perfect, holy God taking on the sin of His people. When He is done, He says "It is finished."

What does that mean? It means this: He paid the price for the sin of His people. It also means there's no other way. There's no other option.

Remember the night before He died, He even said, "Hey God, if there's a plan B, let's look at it. Let's examine it. If there's another way to do this, let's do it." But there is no other way.

The Central Issue of Faith

If you are here and you believe anything other than that, you are in all likelihood not a Christian. If you think you're a Christian because you go to church or because you're religious, that's not enough.

I can tell within 30 seconds and a cup of coffee. It's like when I play golf - I had dinner last night with a couple of the golfers and one of the first things you want to do is throw out something that makes them think you know something. It's like when we have coffee - it's interesting. I don't have to say anything. You just want to throw up something theological and I can tell right away.

"My father was a pastor," they'll say. That doesn't mean a lick. That's good for him. That doesn't help you at all. "I sing in the choir." I don't know that even the guys at church are happy about that.

Do you know the Lord? That's the issue. I'm telling you, we're going to give you some practical stuff and it is only going to change your life if you know Christ. That becomes the dominant issue in this first session.

Let's pray. We'll get you on your way.

Father, thank You for the things that You've given us. Thank You for the truth of Your word. We pray that You would take these truths and touch our heart with them. Make them real to us, God. Let us be men and women who are hearers of the word. Let us know the truth, hear the truth, understand the truth as Your Spirit enlightens us. And then God, give us the guts to do it. Give us the courage to live a life that brings honor and glory to You. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

See you next week.