In this riveting episode of ‘Real Life Radio’, Pastor Jack Hibbs takes us through the profound teachings of the Book of James. This epistle, though ancient, holds timeless universality for believers today, urging us to recognize that trials are a part of the Christian journey. With an emphasis on not merely hearing the Word, but becoming active doers, Pastor Jack enlightens us on the compelling commands laid before us by James, who speaks with authority and love, guiding us toward a life of authentic faith.
God will allow doubt in your life. He’ll allow doubt in your life so it drives you to the answer so that that doubt no longer comes up again. God will even use doubt. And that is a form of a trial.
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This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible. What if today was the day that Jesus returned? Well, that’s the life-changing perspective explored in One Day Nearer by Steve Miller. And it’s this month’s featured resource from Pastor Jack. Now, this inspiring book helps you focus on the hope that Jesus is returning. And this book offers practical encouragement to live each day with faith, purpose, and joy. One Day Nearer by Steve Miller, available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack begins his series now called The Book of James with a message titled, Faith Well Done. Before it came one of the books of the New Testament, James was a letter sent out to those Jews who had received the gospel and had followed Christ, but they had a limited understanding of God’s grace and how it works in the life of a believer. You see, these believers misunderstood the theology behind grace. You see, they thought that they could sin freely because grace could handle it, and that being forgiven only magnifies the grace of God. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that the book of James not only gives us a better understanding of God’s grace, but it forewarns Christians to expect trials in the years to come, trials that produce patience, that we may be perfect and complete and lacking nothing. Now in his message called, Faith Well Done, here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
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Well, why don’t you grab your Bibles this morning and turn to the book of James. And we’ll begin by doing a brief introduction. The book of James, he says, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings. 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. James, as we begin this book, is a book written that is comprised or makes up of the general epistles. The word general epistles, the word general means actually where we get the word Catholic. That word Catholic or general means universal. It is the universal epistles, James being one of them. 1 and 2 Peter. are general epistles. First, second, and third John are general epistles. The book of Jude is a general epistle, and of course James. It means by general epistle, it means the universal teaching and doctrine. That this is a writing that was to go out to all those who claim to be Christians. And that’s why even in verse 1, it says to the 12 tribes. Well, the 12 tribes weren’t existing then. They had gone through the diaspora. That is, they had been dispersed throughout the nations of the world. But James, being a very good Jewish man, who had come to faith in Christ, Jesus as Messiah, was writing to all of his people. fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who were of a Jewish background. And remember, the early church was all Jewish. We forget that, don’t we? We’ve been grafted into this wonderful salvation that God has given. We as Gentiles, God has given us this opportunity. But many of the early church were Jewish believers. And so James, being the Jewish believer that he was, writes to the tribes of Israel. Now they had again been disbanded, but they would have known, hey, this letter has come from James, one of our brothers about Christ. And we need to know that in our study because James was a guy speaking to people who knew about the commands of God. And interestingly enough, there’s 108 verses in this book. And he, that is James, makes more commands. And I’m not saying they’re suggestions. James is a fun kind of guy. James comes out from behind the rock and he’s got a Smokey the Bear kind of hat on, you know, a sergeant cap. He’s got bars on his… What do you call these things? Callers, thanks. He’s a man, he comes out there and he marches, and James, just by his very wording, are you ready for this? This is not for the weak of stomach here. James says, those of you who are Christians, this is what you’re gonna do. And he began to pace back and forth. You will do this, and you will do the other, and you will do the next thing, and you will do the other thing. And you might say, well, boy, that’s sure hard. Oh, no, he’s a perfect loving commander. He’s saying, listen, if you want to have a life that is wonderful and a Christianity that is blessed, this is what you’re going to do. So he’s like the sergeant of the apostolic boys. Peter, he’s just Peter. John, John’s deep. John’s very poetic. He’s kind of a mystic. James, he comes up and says, all right, this is what we’re going to do. Tuck in that shirt. Stick out that chest. Here we go. And our walks with God. He’s all about walking with God. In fact, James, in a couple of weeks, he’s going to tell us to keep our mouths shut. He’s just going to come out and say, put your mouth on the back burner, will you? Notice you’ve got two ears. Listen twice as much as you talk. That’s what he’s going to say to us. He’s going to really let us have it. He’s talking to the Christian. You ever been in a halftime talk? This is James. He’s got a ball cap on, whistle around his neck, and he’s talking to the church. And I love it. The church at that time was erring in some ways, and its view was, well, we’ve come to Jesus. We went forward at the crusade. We got baptized. We listened to Billy Graham or watched his programs. We’re saved. So it doesn’t really matter how we live. And James says, oh, excuse me, it doesn’t matter how you live. In fact, James is going to go on to say, excuse me, but if you do not visit the widows and the orphans, and if you do not reach out to help those that are in need, James says, don’t tell me you’re a believer. He says, your faith is in vain and your religion is pitiful. He’s going to really let it hit the house. That’s the kind of guy he is. James, this book was written between 60 and 62 AD. And it was at the end of the year 62, by the way, that James lost his life to the preaching of the gospel of Jesus. He was a martyr for Christ. This book also tells us about a faith that is well done. A faith that comes to the end of its life. experience, the end of its race, as Paul put it. And it’s a faith that really accomplishes something. It’s not a recreational faith. James is talking to those who really believe in God, who really need instruction and really need to be growing and maturing, like all of us. But he’s gonna address a lot of things that set us back from growing in Christ. One of them is a trial or the trials of life, difficulties. If you’re a Christian this morning, and even if you’re a non-Christian this morning, you experience difficulties, don’t you? But here’s the wonderful thing for the Christian this morning. Every trial that comes into your life, God has engineered and ordained in the life of the believer. And that’s what we’re gonna be talking about this morning. James is talking to us about our faith being encouraged. And by the way, faith in action. James chapter 1 verse 22 is the theme of the entire book. And you all know this verse. He says, do not be… hearers of the word only but be doers of the word. Be those who do the word of God. And I thought about this for a moment and I need you to realize something and you can even go search to see if this is true. But the greatest hospitals and the plethora or the volume of hospitals worldwide, do you know who established them? Christian and Christian organizations. Did you know that? It’s a fact. Even in very militant Muslim nations, the most prominent and High-end or best hospitals are Christian hospitals. Even if other nations disagree with the Christian view, they’ll allow these Christian hospitals to be there because of the quality of care. What about libraries? Did you know that Christians in the last 2,000 years establish libraries worldwide so people can be educated. And by the way, if you’re educated, eventually, if you use your head, you will think hard enough and long enough and you’ll be a researcher and you’ll be a scholar, all of us should be, to some extent or another, and you’ll eventually come to the knowledge of Christ. If you use your head, if you think with evidence and if you think what is true. And based upon what the world shows us through actual science, you’ll come to know God. So Christians said, hey, let’s establish libraries. What do the cults do? They want to put away libraries. They don’t want you to think. What does communism do? Take away your access to knowledge so they can control you. Christianity says, no, use your head, be educated and know. Because knowledge will eventually lead you to Christ. Also, Christian movements or organizations of the Christian faith, because it’s a faith that does, has established humanitarian relief worldwide, even to this very hour. Humanitarian relief is going out around the world by virtue of the Christian belief. What about this? Schooling. The greatest schools in the world and the greatest schools in the United States were found on Christianity. Did you know that? Maybe you’ll recognize a few of these schools. Have you ever heard of Harvard University? You ever heard of Yale, Cornell, Princeton? These schools were founded, and go back, and you can read about this. I actually had a chance to read about this. Harvard, by the way, at one time, Harvard and Yale shared the same president of the universities, and that was Dr. Jonathan Edwards. known as the greatest thinker that America has ever produced. Jonathan Edwards was an ordained pastor, a great evangelist, who supposedly preached the greatest message that’s ever been delivered in America, called the sinners in the hands of an angry God. And the miraculous events that took place in New England when he delivered that message was overwhelming to the community and to the county. It went on to be produced around the world. Jonathan Edwards sat as the head of Harvard and Yale. By the way, he was homeschooled. And this man went on to be one of the greatest Christians of all time. But each one of those schools were all founded upon the Bible, and you had to have your Bible study and your grades up to maintain your other pursuits at those universities. If you were gonna be a medical student, you had to first take Bible, and it was serious Bible. You had to take Greek and Hebrew. You had to. If you were gonna be an attorney or whatever in those universities, you had to know Bible. Even UCLA, the old logo for UCLA has an open Bible talking about how the knowledge comes from God. It’s very interesting. Why are we saying this? Because the book of James is about a Christianity that does, and that’s what we’re going to be looking at this morning. Once you look at verse 1, which is our first point, and that is there are trials in the Christian faith. Are you ready for this? There are trials in the Christian faith. How many of you are having a trial even right now? How many of you have difficulties? About 25 of us. That’s better than first service. There were three of us at first service.
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Ha!
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So for the 25 of us, we know what it’s like to be in a trial. But how do you handle one? You pass it over to the guy next to you. That’s what you do. It’s like a potato. Get it out of here. See, that’s our thinking. When hardship comes into our lives, press default. Can’t I erase this? Can’t I highlight it and drag it in the trash can? No. Why? Because they’re designed by God. Trials are going to be part of our lives. Those of you who have recently come to Christ, let me be the first to tell you, if you haven’t caught on already, there’s going to be trials in your life. Some of those trials, as you’ve just made a commitment to Christ, there’s going to be doubt. Gosh, I felt wonderful the day I gave my heart to Christ, and now I’m wondering, what am I doing? Hey, it’s normal. It’ll pass. Here’s how it passes, though. Get your doubt absolutely dealt with by getting answers. Don’t let doubt go on without being answered. God will allow doubt in your life. He’ll allow doubt in your life so it drives you to the answer so that that doubt no longer comes up again. God will even use doubt. And that is a form of a trial. What about anybody who’s gone to… church or out to dinner or somewhere and you come home and you notice all these red lights surrounding your house and there’s nothing left but a smoldering ash heap. You left the iron on or something. What’s happened? You’re in the middle of a trial, friend. You’re in the middle of a difficulty. Are you going to think, God doesn’t love me anymore? That has nothing to do with it. He loves you very, very much. The Bible says that all of us in this life, especially believers, will suffer tribulation in this world. It’s going to happen. How do we deal with it? That makes all the difference in the world.
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You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And for now, let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
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In verse 1, it says, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings. The reason why we selected or put trials of the Christian faith as the first point is because of the name James, his very name. You can, I mean, don’t do this really, but you can put your name alongside James. I mean, I was going to say cross up the name James. No, don’t do that. Put your name around his name because it can be you too. It can be John, a servant of God, of the Lord Jesus Christ. How can that be? Because listen, God knows you by name. John chapter 10 says that he knows you by name. When the Lord called to Martha, he said, Martha, Martha. When he called to Peter, he says, Simon, Simon. He called Abraham, Abraham. He knows us by name. The reason why trials come to the Christian faith and to our lives is because He knows us. God supernaturally engineers trials to come into our lives. And you say, why does He do that? To perfect our faith. Can’t He do it some other way? No. Well, I don’t like it. That’s why it’s called a trial. It’s too difficult. That’s why it’s called a fiery trial. We don’t want them. We don’t like them. But we can tell you this. When you come out on the other side of them, it’s like, all right. It’s just the pits gone through it, but it doesn’t have to be the pits. And we want to change this by the knowledge of the word of God. James says, James. I like that. He doesn’t mess around. He doesn’t say, may the grace and the Lord Jesus be with you all from the church at Corinth. He says, James, because God knows his name. God knows your name. A lot of people don’t realize this, but you know, those of us who have given our hearts to Christ, the Bible says our names are written down in heaven in the Lamb’s book of life. The Bible also teaches us that Satan can know our names. We don’t like to hear about this, but he can know our names and he knows maybe our names. So what do you mean? Well, remember Satan came to Jesus and said, I want Peter. Wouldn’t it have been great for Peter said, you know, cover his name tag. I’m not Peter. No, Satan knew Peter’s name. when the sons of Sceva were watching the casting out of demons by the apostles, they said, this is pretty cool. We can make some extra cash. Why don’t we go around and do the same thing? So they went into a house where a man was demon-possessed. And they said, in the name of Jesus, and in the name of Paul, come out of this man. And they probably looked at each other and went, let’s see what happens. And the man turned and looked at them. Can you imagine this man’s possessed? So actually his head turned a few times and looked at them and said, what? And they said, in the name of Paul and in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, come out of him. And that demon spoke to that man and said, we know who Jesus is and we know who Paul is, but who are you? And at that, it says the demon leapt out of the man’s body and onto those guys and beat them up and tore their clothes off. And the men ran out of the house naked. That is classic. Hey, when we have a prayer meeting, do the demons drive by in their little spiritual car and go, oh man, they’re praying again. Let’s get out of here. I hope so. If they know your name, what do they think? Oh, he’s just a pure potato. He doesn’t even listen. He falls asleep during half the messages. Just leave him alone. He’s doing fine for us right where he’s at. But what if you say, you know what? I want to be different. I want to follow God. You know, the halls of hell go, wait a minute. Hold it. We’ve got somebody who wants to make a commitment. Go up there and sow some doubt and wreak havoc in their lives. And God says, listen here. Nothing comes into your life unless I first filter it. Greater is he that is in you than he that’s in the world. You are my child and you’ve been bought with a price and you are 100% mine. And if trials come into your life, they’re engineered by God. Now the non-believer cannot say that. They’re kind of like out on their own. with an umbrella that’s been like charred with lightning, right? It’s just the little metal rods. And they’re standing there. God says, those of you who are believers, you’re under my umbrella. Everything from the losing of a job to a sickness to, you know, death or to cancer. Last service I had a man come up and say, I have cancer. And I want to thank you with tears in his eyes for this message. Trials of life. God is there. He is going to be working in our lives. Trials will come to the Christian faith. And this is the comforting thing about it before we move on to verse 2. James comes down, so to speak, to the rapids of the river of life. And he comes over to the shore and he’s in now still waters. He’s got his big bullhorn. And he says to those getting ready to go through the rapids, James says, you’re going to make it. You’re going to come through this. We’ve all done it. God’s going to see to it. You make it. So you just hang on. I don’t feel like I’m going to make it. He says, hang on. I’m scared. I know. Hang on. The doctor just told me I’ve got leukemia. Hang on. We’re losing our home. Hang on. The greatest thing that you possess in your life is not your home, it’s not your car, it’s not your job, it’s not your kids, it’s not your parents. It is faith in God. Your faith. When you lose faith in God, you lose hope. And then you lose your life. But faith in God. God’s view toward us right now is that our faith might be strengthened. And he says, James, God knows our name. The Bible says in the book of Revelation, he’s going to give us new names in heaven. Isn’t that good? Some of us who have kind of goofy names. I’m not alluding to my first name, Jack. It’s my middle name. Don’t even ask anybody. It’s top secret. It’s classified information. I arrested you to know my middle name. So don’t even ask. That name, thank God when it comes that day, we’re going to give you a new name. I’m going to run up front. I deserve a new name with the name I had. He’s gonna give us new names. He knows our names now. He’s for us. And it says that, He’s a servant. James is a servant of God. And I just want to point this out because it’s kind of beside the point, but it is interesting to know that in the Greek scripture, it says James of the God and Lord Jesus Christ, his servant. That just simply means that Jesus Christ is God and Lord. And there’s no other way to interpret it. Those of you who might be doubting the deity of Christ, James chapter one, verse one declares Jesus is God. So does Revelation 1, 17 and 18, and Revelation chapter 2, verses 4 through 8, and many other passages. Titus 2, 13 as well. But Jesus Christ is God. And all of a sudden that changes the position of a bondservant. See, the word in your Bible says servant. Some of your Bibles say bondservant. The word bondservant is the actual word doulos. In the Greek, it means that he is a bondservant of God. He has been selected. The word means selected by the master. Now, a lot of slaves in that culture were purchased out of the slave markets. But then, listen, after six years of servitude to that master, you were to be set free. That’s a pretty nice program, isn’t it? You weren’t a slave for life. Guess what? unless you chose to be. And how do you choose to be a slave for life and why? Because many masters were very, very good masters. And what happened during that time of slavery is that you discovered that you were in a pretty good situation. And at the end of your time, you could go to your master and say, Master, I want to become your full-time servant. I want to become your bond servant. You selected me, and now I’m responding to you. At the end of this term, my six years, which is now, I’m asking you, will you take me on? And if that master decided to take that slave on, he would place his hand on his shoulder and he would make a decree. And he would say, you are now a member of this household. Just like Caesar had his household, so a master could have his household. It was, listen to this, his wife and his children. And when that bond servant came into the ranks, he might have had a wife too and children. A place was set up for them, Pay was to be given to them. They became a hired hand, but also almost a family member, to the point that a bondservant often had jurisdiction over your own children. They made sure that they went to school. They made sure that they were taught. They made sure that they were fed. The bondservant, in fact, it’s not too foreign to us if I introduce the name Joseph. Joseph was, so to speak, a bondservant of Pharaoh. And look at all the responsibility he had. You see, all of a sudden it changes. When we’re a bondservant of God, that sounds very low, doesn’t it? Notice who you work for. You work for God. I thought I worked for IBM. No, you’re ministering at IBM. Did you know that? Well, I thought I worked for the county. No, you’re ministering at the county. That’s where God has called you to be a witness. But you work for God. And all that you do, says the Bible, due to the glory of who? God. That’s who we work for.
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pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Faith Well Done. We’re glad you could join us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Book of James. It’s a series on walking in faith by putting it into action. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. You know, keeping our eyes off of ourselves and on what would please the Lord and bring Him glory takes a special kind of determination and focus. That’s why starting the day with devotions is a great way towards a meaningful and lasting relationship with Christ. But with tight schedules and hectic lifestyles, we don’t always want to waste precious time searching for inspiring devotional material. So, Pastor Jack has written and provided them for us. Simply go to our website, jackhibbs.com, and click on the tab labeled Devotions. There’s a new one every week, along with quick and easy access to previous devotions with titles such as The Eternal Love of the Lord, Our Awesome God, and Blessings in Abundance. You can even subscribe to Pastor Jack’s devotional newsletter when you type in your email address. Again, it’s available on our website, jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. You can also have access to Pastor Jack’s devotions when you download the Real Life app for your smartphone or tablet. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
