Family Devotion and Sermon Notes for James 2:1-6

Big Idea:  Showing mercy is a test of your heart not anyone else’s.

James 2:1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

·    Partiality is when you like one person more than another person for reasons like their appearance or how many things they own.  Why do you think James does not want us to show partiality?
·    If Jesus is the Lord of Glory, He is the only one who should be glorified.  How does showing partiality give someone else glory?

2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

·    Why are we tempted to show favoritism to people who are dressed nicely?
·    Why would that be a sin?
·    What might this sin look like in our church today?

5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

·    If God has chosen the poor in Spirit to receive the kingdom, how should we reflect that in dealing with people who are poor in wealth?
·    How can Sovereign King obey this verse?

We have all done it.  We have stopped at the stop light and right outside of our window is guy asking for money.  If we didn’t lock the doors already, we stealthfully locked them and then either judge the dude or assume he is making more money begging than we are working.  Let me move away from the stereotypical example.  You have been at work, at school, at dance class, at soccer, somewhere, maybe even right here at church, and you hear about someone in need.  Their life is mess.  They are making every bad decision in the world and are suffering from it.  You politely decline in your heart to get involved.

But maybe you meet someone who looks like you.  You’re white and they are white.  You’re whatever and they are whatever.  You like computers or sports and they do to.  Basically, they are bright shiny people just like all of us.  And you find out that they are in need.  In fact, a couple of bad things have happened, but it is not too messy, so you decide to get involved.  You offer them advice, maybe offer to meet their family, maybe you invite them to worship at SK.

You know what happened in both examples?  Your heart was revealed.  Showing mercy is a test of your heart, not anyone else’s.  When you see need, need that you by God’s grace and gifting you can help with, what  you do in response, says more about you than it does about the other person.  If you are more inclined to help your suburban neighbor than you are the guy on the street, you learned more about yourself didn’t you?  God, I’ll take some risks, but let’s make it safe why don’t we?

Well, last week, we heard James describe what the worship of God should look like.  Surprisingly, it didn’t involve many of the things that are traditionally considered religious like how much you study or how much you pray or what your Sabbath looks like.  No, James described showing mercy to those in need and doing in the midst of a sinful world.  Extending mercy without comprising Biblical convictions.  So this week, James continues to explain to us what our religion should like.  So let’s pursue this Big Idea:  Showing mercy is a test of your heart not anyone else’s.

James 2:1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

James doesn’t pull any punches does he?  Let’s take this verse by verse and see what we can find.  Verse 1 makes an interesting connection.  James says

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

The way in which we hold to our faith, the way in which we persevere in giving glory to Jesus is by not showing partiality.  Now partiality can also be translated “favoritism” and the word literally means “to receive one’s face” which gives the idea of making judgments about people based on appearances.  James is saying we aren’t to show partiality or favoritism and the reason for this is demonstrated for us in the titles that James gives to Jesus.

He calls Jesus three different things.  He calls Jesus, his half-brother btw:  Lord, Christ, and Lord of Glory.  Jesus as Lord has every right to demand of us how to live and what to do.  He is Lord in title and Lord in practice.  Believers in Jesus submit to His Lordship.  His command is our will and our desire.  It is intended to be, and if it is not, then we are to repent of our will and of our desire to submit to His.

In addition, Jesus is Christ or another way of saying that is Jesus is Messiah.  Since every human being fails sinfully at following Jesus’ lordship, we stand in need of a Savior.  Jesus is Messiah in that He is the God-appointed, God-sent, obedient son who offers Himself as the sacrifice for our sin, and His resurrection assures new life and forgiveness and goodness for all who have faith in Him.

And this Lord Christ is also the Lord of Glory.  Now in the Greek there is some debate as to whether this should be translated “Lord Jesus Christ the Glory” or “Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory”  Either way, each puts forth the same idea.  The Greek word for “Glory” means weight, substance, maybe even gravitas.

Jesus deserves the weight of glory and that is the same as the glory of God the Father.  John 1: And (Jesus) the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  Jesus took on human flesh yet retained all the glory of God.  One theologian (RC Sproul) described it in this way.  He said that God’s glory is the manifestation of all His holiness, beauty, and goodness.  So, “As we think on the Lord’s glory, let us be concerned to reflect His beauty and goodness in all that we do and say.”

So only Jesus is to receive glory.  When we show partiality, we are giving someone other than Jesus glory.  So Jesus as Lord, as Savior, and as the manifestation of God’s glory, commands us to show no partiality as we hold to our faith in Him.  Now, why?  Haven’t we said the commands of God reflect the character of God?  And if they do, how does this command reflect God’s character?   Romans 2 explains that for us.

Romans 2:11 For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

God approaches each human being in light of the fact that we are sinners.  Our sin is rebellion against the nature and character of God, so God doesn’t see anyone as better than another because everyone has sinned against the law of God.  Everyone.  So God is not impressed with anyone’s supposed obedience.  So when God shows mercy, He is doing it not impressed with some who think they have obeyed well and not more upset with others.  All of us have sinned all the time against an all-knowing God.  That is who we are when God pours out His mercy.

What James is recommending to us here is that we should approach everyone without partiality.  God didn’t forgive us because we were obedient and good.  God poured His mercy out on no matter our status.  That is the way we are to approach others – we should pour our mercy out on everyone and not be impressed by anything.  Now, you might say, “Gordon, no one impresses me.  I would never do that.  What is James talking about?”  Fortunately, he tells us in verse 2.

2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5

James presents a scenario where a church is gathering for worship just like this one and two men show up as visitors.  One of them is dressed nicely and has expensive jewelry.  The other is a poor man dressed in shabby clothes.  Now, what happens next is folks are quick to greet the well-dressed man.  You give the tour of the place.  Show him where the bulletins and the good and the restrooms are.  You welcome him to find a nice sit.  But to the poor man, notice what it says.  “If you pay attention to him.”  A lot of folks won’t.  He smells.  Who is that guy, you ask.  But if you do speak to him, you don’t even give him a seat.

James say you have made a distinctions based on worldly things.  Your thoughts are worldly.  You are a judge with an evil thought.  Essentially, James is saying that this is a real temptation and therefore a real threat to the worship of God and the exercising of your faith.

Each and everyone one of you, myself included, is going to be tempted show partiality to the wealthy and to judge the poor.  Even if we just think more of the folks that are in similar socio-economic levels as ourselves and thus judge those below us we fall into this sin.  In light of our politics, our views on welfare, our views on taxing, in light of those political convictions, we often get our biblical convictions mashed up and confused.  James isn’t concerned at all about your view of welfare and taxes.  Here, he doesn’t care who you voted for and he is definitely not impressed with how hard you work or how you can take great joy in earning your income.  James just hates bigotry and can’t stand judgmental, self-righteousness.

James just calls it a sin whenever you make distinctions between yourself and others and between the rich and the poor.  Your favoritism of anyone because of their status or what they have earned belies a misunderstanding of the Gospel.  If you favor bright shiny people over dirty, shabby people, then you have forgotten that God poured His grace out on you while you were yet a shabby sinner.

The two thoughts, how you see yourself receiving God’s grace and how you perceive others are inextricably related.  The Lord Jesus Christ wasn’t impressed with anyone and neither should you be.  As you hold onto faith in Him, reflect His character and show mercy and grace without favoritism or partiality.  Tim Keller, perhaps the wisest voice in our day on this subject speaks well of this in his book “Generous Justice” – he says.

Our compassion for the poor, our desire to see justice done, our drive to reconcile the world to Him, our feeding of the hungry, clothing of the poor, comforting of the sick, welcoming of the foreigner, and visiting of those in prison is a profound response to all that we have received from God. Even when they are dirty and broken, deserving of their state, seemingly to “blame”, unloveable, undeserving and ungrateful – because that is exactly how we were when God LAVISHED his love on us. Our response then is a right and fitting response to the grace we have received. Our lack of response is indicative of a lack of understanding of the grace we have received. A full understanding of God’s grace COMPELS us to respond in kind to those around us. Not doing so demonstrates that we have not fully grasped God’s grace towards us.

We show mercy as a response to the mercy we have received in Jesus Christ.  Even if the people that we bump into are dirty and broken and at fault for their condition, we show mercy to them.  Why?  Because we were dirty and broken and at fault for our condition before God.  And God lavished His love on us.

You will be merciful to those in need to the extent that you understand how in need you were when Jesus was merciful to you.  A full understanding of those two things:  our desperate need and God’s incredible grace will compel us to be merciful to even the most faulty, needy person.  Not demonstrating mercy demonstrates that we do not fully grasp God’s grace.

We come to a transition in this section of James though.  Tell me this.  Have you ever been in a discussion with someone, and they responded to your words by saying, “Now listen”?  How does that normally go for you?  Makes you angry doesn’t it?  I think the reason it makes us angry is that we feel like we are being corrected or that the other person doesn’t respect our viewpoint.  Well, James is correcting us and he doesn’t respect your viewpoint.  He says

Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

What kind of poor man are we talking about here?  Spiritually poor or earthly poor?   The answer is “yes” or “both”  God has elected that the poor in spirit in this world will be rich in faith and an heir of His kingdom which he promised to those who love Him.  This of course echoes Jesus’ comment, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  Matthew 5:3

God chose people who have absolutely nothing by which to recommend themselves.  There weren’t any really good folks, and there weren’t any folks who were rich in good works.  God chose His children out of those who had nothing, had not hope to be loved or forgiven or transformed.

Now, we are to take that spiritual reality and reflect in an earthly reality.  The living out of our faith, the pure undefiled religion that God accepts is this.  Do not dishonor those who are poor and honor the rich.  It is not poor people who oppress you; it is the rich.  They have the power to take you into court and to sue you.  They blaspheme the name of Jesus as they trust in themselves and not God.

Now, you might hear this and begin to feel uncomfortable.  If you weren’t with us a few weeks ago, remember rich is only rich by comparison.  A family of four in America at what is considered the poverty line is still richer than 98% of the rest of the world.  It is probably wise for us to consider ourselves rich here.

You might ask, “Isn’t it better to be rich than to be poor?”  Well, remember, no one recommends themselves to God and God shows no partiality.   But wealth is an idol in and of itself.  Like Jesus said in Matthew 19:23 “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 24  Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

No, James is saying, “Listen, apart from the grace of God, the rich are going to oppress and the poor are going to be oppressed.”  Yes, maybe the rich man was smarter and yes, maybe the poor man was irresponsible, but that doesn’t matter because you are not to show favoritism, even if people make good, smart decisions.  View every single person as one made in the image and likeness of God just as James commands us in chapter 3.  Any inherent worth that a human being has does not come from their wealth or their accomplishments or their beauty of their appearance.  It comes from the fact that they are created in the image of God.   That image is marred by sin, but in the likeness of God nonetheless.

James is imploring the church and therefore imploring us to care for the poor.  And if we aren’t actively seeking out and showing mercy to those in need, we are therefore inherently showing favoritism to those whose needs are as apparent, or the rich as he calls them.  I have told this story before, so if you have heard it, please bear with me as it bears telling again.

When I quit my job at the eye doctors office to go to seminary full-time and prepare for ministry, my family endured a lot of changes.  We went from 2 cares to 1.  We went from $50,000 a year to less than $20,000.  We went from great insurance to really, barely pay anything insurance.  Then we discovered that Amy was pregnant with Landry.  Then Amy’s sister had to move in to help us pay the bills.

And Christmas rolled around.   In fact, it was mid December, and we had an artificial Christmas tree but we didn’t have any presents.  And then came a knock at our door.  Standing there was my buddy Trevor who worked with the Marines.  He had three giant bags of toys and he said he was there representing toys with tots.  I said, “Cool, who in the neighborhood are you giving them to?”  And his answer to my surprise was, “You.”  My heart of hearts wanted to fight it, but the reality was, we were poor.  We were poor as dirt and the only way we would give our kids presents was by these guys grace.

Their mercy demonstrated to us the great mercy of Jesus, and that moment we will never forget.  But James is going even further in his commands.  Yes, we should be meeting the needs of those in our community, both SK and surrounding.  Yes, we should be finding out who is in need and meet that need.

But we should do more as well.  We should be seeking justice in the lives of those who are poor and oppressed by the rich.  Let me help reset this for us.  Last week, James asked, “What is pure and undefiled religion that God accepts?”  His answer was to show mercy to show mercy to widows and orphans and keep yourself unblemished in a sinful world.  Essentially, we are to show extend mercy to those in need and to those who oppressed and take advantage of because of their poverty.  We then looked at Isaiah 1 when this truth was demonstrated.

When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?  13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me.  New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.  14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts  my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.  15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers,     I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.

The people of Isaiah’s day were just like us right now.  They were coming to worship God in their assemblies just like we are right now.  They were observing the Sabbath just like many of you are observing the Lord’s Day today.  They were praying just like we have been praying.

And God detested their worship.  Why?  Because their’s was restricted to their community and themselves.  Their worship hemmed in in every area by the size of their own life.  It was personal, family, community worship, and God rejected it because their worship did not extend to showing mercy to those in need.  They were looking to do justice in the lives of the needy.

That my friends means they were showing partiality to the wealthy, those without need, to those who were doing just fine.  Neglect of caring for those in need is partiality and favoritism to the beauty and the wealthy and it is a continuation of the injustice and neglect that those in need suffer from.  So God didn’t bless the worship of the people in Isaiah, even though they were obedient to the Sabbath and the festivals and the offerings.  Why?  Because their worship was determined by the sphere of their life and not by extension of worship in service to those in need.

Can we be guilty of that same sin?  I don’t how to make it any more clear than by saying, “Yes.”  Again, Keller helps in this understanding.

“The logic is clear. If a person has grasped the meaning of God’s grace in his heart, he will do justice. If he doesn’t live justly, then he may say with his lips that he is grateful for God’s grace, but in his heart he is far from him. If he doesn’t care about the poor, it reveals that at best he doesn’t understand the grace he has experienced, and at worst he has not really encountered the saving mercy of God. Grace should make you just.” (Generous Justice, p. 94)

If this community doesn’t actively meet the needs of the poor and actively seek to make their lives better from the injustices of those who oppress them, not only do we not understand our great need and how it was met by God’s grace, then we may very well be offering worship to God that is unacceptable.

We can observe the Sabbath without fail.  We can have the most orthodox theology the world has ever known.  We can offer sweet prayers and have incredible Bible studies.  The question is, “Can our worship of God be described as showing mercy and doing justice to those in need?”

If not, we are called to the exact same repentance that the people of Isaiah were called to in.

Isaiah 1:16  Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s case.

Repent and cease to do evil.  Learn to do good.  Seek justice for those who are being taken advantage of.  Correct oppression when you see it.  Bring justice to millions of kids today that grow up without fathers.  Plead the case of the woman whose husband has died and how she can’t pay the bills.

You say, “Gordon, I don’t know any of those folks,” and I will say that precisely the point.  We must quit favoring the rich and only associating ourselves with our tight knit group of friends who look like us, make money like us, believe like us, quit showing favoritism.  I’m asking, no the passage is exhorting, you and I in this way.  Quit being oppressive by ignoring those who are being oppressed.  Quit isolating yourself into wonderful Christian safe environments that look Godly in religious observance but lack the depth of religious worship that is extending mercy to those in need.

Again, this is not the SK plan to grow.  Actively seeking out mercy to meet, to be extended, seeking out oppression to be lifted is worship.  It is the necessary other portion of what we do here, and our worship we only be as rich and as deep as can be when we do both things:  worship here and worship out there.

Micah 6: “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?  Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  7  Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?  Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

How shall we worship our God?  Big huge acts of praise and incredibly acts of discipline?

8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Gang, I’m for Bible Instruction.  I’m for prayer.  I’m for Lord’s Day Observance and family devotions.  I’m completely for our church’s doctrine and form of government.  But what if demonstrated we knew the Gospel first by acts of mercy instead of acts of personal piety?  What if we showed our children the essence of the gospel by serving those in need?  What if the burden that we had for each other was not how many people we could serve in corporate worship but how many we could serve in our community?

Family Devotion and Sermon Notes for James 1:26-27

Big Picture Question:  What is True Religion?

Big Idea:  Worship is never about just you and God

James 1:26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.

• Not matter what we think, Christianity is a religion.  Do you consider yourself religious?  If so, how and why?
• What does James say must happen if you consider yourself religious?
• Why is the bridling of the tongue necessary for being religious?
• Why does the lack of bridling the tongue make one’s religion worthless?

27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

 What is the pure and undefiled religion that God accepts?

• Why would God value visiting orphans and widows?
• What do those acts of mercy have to do with keeping oneself unstained from the world?
• Are there people in great need like orphans and widows that you know that you could specifically serve?
• If you did, how would you have to keep yourself unstained from the world?

There is almost no more offensive word in the English language than religion.  Even among Christian circles, you’ll hear people avoid the word or distancing themselves from it.  They’ll say, “I have a relationship, not a religion.”  One of the reasons the word religion is hated is because it brings to mind either terrible images of misuse and abuse or it brings to mind dead, stoic worship.  Religion brings to mind things like terrorism, the Crusades, and concentration camps.  While at the same time causing many of us to think about things like cold, damp cathedrals full of statues and dudes in dresses.  At what I think is the absolute worst, the word religion brings to mind memories of harsh judgementalism and even abuse at the hand of supposed Godly men and women.

As Tim Keller wisely says in his book “The Reason for God” – “So many people’s problem with Christianity has far more to do with the church than with Jesus.”  But make no mistake; every single human being is religious in some way.  In some way, most people are living out a life that says, “God, help me find you.”   The difference in faith in Jesus as opposed to every other faith, we can cry, “God, come find me,” and have a hope that God will do just that.

So this week, we are going to look at what James calls “true religion” and I bet many of us are going to be surprised by the answer – even if we have heard it before.  So towards that end, let me offer this idea and this question to guide our way.  Big Picture Question:  What is True Religion?  Coupled with this Big Idea:  Worship is never about just you and God

James 1:26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

As always, we need to place the commands of James within its proper context.   Last week, we saw James make things incredibly plain for all of us who claim to be Christians.  He said, “Don’t be deceived:  Be a doer of God’s word and not a hearer only.  James goes on to explain that when we look into the scriptures what we see is our true self.  We understand our need because of sin.  We understand how our need is met through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  We understand how to be forgiven.  And we understand how to live in light of all of those things.

But if we read the scriptures and don’t put all of those into practice through obedience then what we are really doing is looking into a mirror, seeing ourselves, and then walking away and forgetting what we looked like.  We concluded last week by talking about how the Spirit of God enables His children to obey.  Romans 8 explains that the very Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead enables us now to obey.  And Ephesians 4 explains that what the Sprit does is He enables us to put off our old self of sin, put on the new self of Jesus and to display our renewed self to the world by telling our neighbor about these truths.

So with all of that, James moves into some pretty heavy, weighty, and controversial areas.  If we are going to obey the scriptures, what is that going to look like?  What is the religion of following Jesus, called Christianity, going to look like?  We begin to see that in verse 26.

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.

James is going to explain to us what it looks like to be a Christian.  Remember, he is not explaining what you do to become a Christian.  He is explaining what it looks like once you become a Christian.  And he swings for the fences.  One of the evidences to your heart and the world that you have faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins is that you know how to bridle your tongue.  If you don’t bridle your tongue, your religion is worthless and you are deceived.   So, if this is going to be this important, then we need to know what it means to bridle our tongue.

Well a bridle guides the animal, restrains the animal, and controls the animal.  Part of the bridle is the bit.  The bit goes into the horse’s mouth, and interestingly enough, the bit always sits on top of the tongue.  From my reading this week and according to some horse enthusiasts here, a bit under the tongue does no good at all.  You have to control the tongue to control the horse.  A gentle nudge to the left, and the horse goes left.  A gentle nudge to the right, and the horse goes right.  Pull back and the horse pulls up.

That is exactly the type of control you and I as professed followers of Jesus Christ are supposed to have on our tongue.  And if you are a non-believer sitting in the crowd and you hear this and think, “Christians don’t control their tongue,” I would say, “Yep, you’re right.  We rarely do.  If we don’t control our tongue, according to James, then we are deceived and our religious expression of worship of Jesus is worthless.  Oh, boy we are in trouble, aren’t’ we?

You are to exert the same manner of self-control over your tongue that a bridle and rider exerts over a horse.  Why?  Why is the tongue that important?   Why should the exercise of that be so important?  Well James answers that for us.  Later on in the book of James, he will tell us this:

James 3: 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

James says that whatever is in your heart is what is going to come out.  Guys, I once worked a Christian bookstore.  It made me pretty jaded about the entire “Christian” industry.  Putting “Jesus loves you” stickers on yo-yos will do that for you.  I guess those yo-yo’s were more safe for kids to play with since they proclaimed Jesus – insert sarcasm here.  But what really was a struggle for me at the Christian bookstore was the temper and anger and language of my boss.  If I made a mistake, he would yell at me.  He would call me stupid.  His mother worked at store as the bookkeeper and he would yell at her and call her names that I cannot and will not repeat here.  One day, he got so mad, that while he was yelling at all of us, he put his fist through a class display case, shattering it to a million pieces.  As a young Christian, I thought, “Is this what we are called to?”

But fortunately, I also had the privilege of working with a staff worker at Intervarsity at ECU who was a very calm and Godly man.  And even though he and I disagreed a lot, he measured his words carefully, even when he was frustrated with me.  If I walked away mad, it wasn’t because of hurtful or guilt-inducing words.  I didn’t always like what he had to say but I wasn’t mad at the way he said it.  And notice, this passage is not say don’t speak.  Not speaking is a type of Godly self-control, but it is not the end game of controlling your speech.  This is speaking of a God given control of one’s speech where we do speak but we do with words of wisdom and grace.

Right now, we all need to reckon our words well because according to his passage, out of all of the communities in which we are involved, this group here at SK, should have the greatest amount of speech self-control.  And if we don’t we are deceived and our religion is worthless.  Honestly, take a look at your habits of speech right now.  Parents, children, siblings, coworkers, Christians.  Your words should be truthful, sprinkled with grace, devoid of anger, devoid of selfishness.  And as we saw a few weeks ago, our interactions with others should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.  And for some you, the problem is you don’t speak.  You don’t say anything.

You think Grandma’s advice is biblical, “Well if you can’t say something nice then don’t say nothing at all.”  That’s not biblical.  That is not a bridled tongue.  That horse is still in the barn.  Just being quiet instead of speaking with a gracious controlled tongue is uncaring and displays a lack of faith.  Some of us need to speak less and a bunch of us need to speak more.  Either way, how you speak is evidence of whether your religion is worthless or not.

Now, what I hope is that we hear this and because we know Christ as our Savior, we respond with a desire not for a worthless religion but an exercise of faith that has great value, worth something.  And thankfully, James tells us.  He doesn’t just say, not bridling the tongue makes your faith worthless, he displays for us what a faith looks like that is not worthless.  And if you thought bridling the tongue was hard, wait till you get a look at what he says in verse 27.

27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

A pure reflection of heart worship to God is described by James in 3 ways:  Visiting orphans Visiting widows in their affliction And keeping oneself unstained from the world.  What?  Why these three?  I bet you could come up with at least 2 that are different than these?  Right?

What would the Presbyterian list look like?  My guess would be Subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith, Have family devotions every night, Don’t go out to eat on Sunday

What would the Baptist list look like?  Only baptisms after profession of faith.  Immersion only, baptize means immerse.

The hymn lovers would be Hymns only, no guitars, no drums.

The public school proponents would be Love your neighbor in the school system.

The homeschoolers list would be “Don’t send your kid to public school.”

The teetotalers would be “Never drink alcohol, never, ever.

The drinkers would be “Never drink bad alcohol, never, ever.

And you know?  For the Presbyterians, the Baptists, the hymn lovers, the public school proponents, the homeschoolers, the teetotalers, the drinkers, all of those convictions are fine and good.  But the authoritative James command says, “Pure, undefiled religion, the one that God accepts is visiting orphans, widows in their affliction, and keeping oneself unstained from the world.”  Let’s dig into that and make sure we understand it because apparently whether or not we obey this verse is going to demonstrate whether we are living out a life of faith that is acceptable to God or not.

Why do you think James mentions caring for orphans and widows while keeping oneself unstained from the world?  And I guess secondly, we should ask, “If I don’t know any widows and orphans, what should I do then?”  Essentially, James is telling us that a religion that is pure and undefiled before God is one where you actively live out a life of mercy to those in need, doing it in the context of a sinful world, and doing it without compromising Biblical convictions and commandments.  You see, visiting orphans and caring for widows was a commandment of the law and served as a euphemism for meeting the needs of anyone who was oppressed and standing in need.  This extension of mercy to those in need in the midst of a sinful world reflected the character of the heart of God.

Deuteronomy 10:17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him.

In Deuteronomy, we find God re-presenting the Law to the people of God.  In that, God is describing His character.  He executes justice for the fatherless, the widow, and the alien sojourner.  And as a direct consequence, God’s people were to reflect the character of God by caring for those in need in the exact same way.  In Jeremiah 7, we see God speaking of mercy to widows and orphans as an expression of His character and as something the people were to do as worship and honoring to that character.

Jeremiah 7:4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’ 5 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, 6 if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm,

God was saying, “Don’t call this place a temple of worship just because you show up and offer sacrifices here.  This is a place of worship acceptable to God if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, the widow, do not shed innocent blood, and don’t worship other Gods.  You see, the heart of God, there is a direct connection between what happens in these moments of worship here and what we do when we are not in these moments here.  Our worship of God is acceptable and pure here if we are actively caring for those who are oppressed and in need out there, all the while doing it without compromising Biblical convictions.

Let me show this one more time and this from the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah 1:12 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?  13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me.  New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.  14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me;    I am weary of bearing them.

Now, hear what is going on in Isaiah.  The people are obeying in their acts of worship.  They are bringing offerings to God.  They are burning incense in their prayers.  They are observing both the New Moon festivals and resting on the Sabbath.  This is good biblical worship.  This is like us getting together and singing and praying and preaching and giving, doing the things that we see as Biblically instructed worship.  And then God says, “I can’t stand any of that stuff.”

In fact, the language of Isaiah from God is this.  You are trampling my courts.  Your offerings are in vain.  Your incense is an abomination which is the same word that God used when someone offered their child in sacrifice to some pagan deity.  God, “I hate your assemblies.”  I hate it when you guys get together and “worship”  God says His very soul hates their observing of their festivals and their feasts.  In fact, God says that their prayers are burdensome to Him.  “Those people, again?”  And God goes on in verse 15 to tell them what He was going to do in responses.

15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen;

As a result of God hating the worship that they were offering, God promised to hide his eyes from them.  God was not going to listen to the prayers they offered.  God tells them that they will do all the Biblical commands of worship, and when they get done, God will reject their worship and not hear their prayers.  Why?  Why is it that God hated it when His people were doing what God had commanded them to do?  Verses 15-17 tell us.

Your hands are full of blood.  16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless,  plead the widow’s cause.

God accuses the people of God of having bloody hands that need cleaning.  Were the people actively killing others and then coming to worship like they were not sinning?  No, their hands were full of blood because they didn’t seek justice and correct oppression by showing mercy to the fatherless and the widow.

Essentially, not being merciful to those in need, in God’s economy, is the same as the shedding of blood and that leads to unacceptable worship.  Not being merciful to those in need is oppressive and because they were not doing works of mercy and justice, God didn’t accept their worship.  Their worship was defiled, impure, and unacceptable before God.  In verse 18, we see God call them to repentance.

18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.  19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; 20 but if you refuse and rebel,    you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

God says, “Listen, these sins of oppression and neglect are red before me.”  But in verse 18, we see that God Himself is going to make their sins white as snow and white as wool.  If the people repented and demonstrated the fruits of repentance by caring for those in need, then God was going to bless them.  If they refused to repent and refused to care for those in need around them, then God was going to punishment them.

These truths are the basis for James telling you and me that true worship that God accepts is caring for widows and orphans and doing it in such a way so as not to be stained by the sins of this world.  Now, you might hear this and think, “But Gordon, Isaiah and Jeremiah were OT.  I mean James is saying we should do acts of mercy, but that OT stuff is kind of harsh isn’t it?  Doesn’t Jesus change all of that?  Well let’s see.

Matthew 25: 31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Okay we will start here.  When Jesus returns in His glory, He will sit on His glorious throne and every nation will be gathered before Him.  And He will divide every nation onto either onto His left and onto His right.  The left will be the goats, and the right will be the sheep.  To the sheep on the right, Jesus will say, “Come into the kingdom that God the Father has prepared for you from the very foundation of the world.”  And what characterizes these sheep who get to enter into the kingdom of God?  They served the king.  They served Jesus.  When Jesus was hungry, they gave Him food.  When Jesus was thirsty, they gave Him water.  When Jesus was a stranger they welcomed Him.  When Jesus was sick and in prison, they visited Him.  The sheep on the right wondered, “When did we do that?”  And the King responds with, “Whenever you served the least in this world, you served me.”  Whenever the sheep showed mercy in the midst of this sinful world, Jesus counted it as worship of Jesus.  You serve them, you are serving me, Jesus says.  To the goats on the left, the exact opposite happened.

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Jesus throws the goats on the left into eternal fire because Jesus was hungry and thirsty and a stranger and sick and in prison and they did not serve Him.  And just like the sheep, they ask, “When did all of this happen?  When did we neglect you?”  And Jesus responds, when you didn’t show mercy to those in need, you didn’t worship me.  Go to hell.  Pure undefiled religion that God accepts is caring for widows and orphans and doing it without being stained from this world.  Unfortunately, so much of the church today wants to hide from active involvement in the world so as to be unstained but they do it the neglect of showing mercy to those in need.  If we ask ourselves how we are doing here at SK, we might make the mistake of patting ourselves on the back.

I am thankful that any time we have thrown out the option to serve the EMS, the Police, and Hayes Place, you guys have responded.  But I don’t think we live these verses out every day as we should.  Yes, as a collective, we have been blessed with the privilege of serving those families in need, but are you actively going into this world, and serving those in need?  If not, your worship may very well be defiled and impure.

But ask yourself, “When was the last time you actively loved and served someone who could never repay the favor as an act of worship to God?”  How is that 100 yards from this building is an apartment complex where children are left alone, kids need tutoring, parents neglect their kids, folks are hungry, people can’t pay their bills, and we are not an active part of that mercy yet?  We should walk incredibly humbly before God right now.  We should think long and hard about what we are doing right now if we are given over to going into this world, protecting our hearts and yet serving those in need.

I don’t know, I’m no prophet, but maybe we haven’t grown as a church, maybe we haven’t seen God’s blessing in terms of new people coming to know Christ and being  able to pay our bills and other areas because our religion hasn’t been pure and undefiled.  I don’t know the mind of God in that area, but I do know that we should hear these verses from James and beg that God would make them true at SK.  True not only corporately when we undertake efforts of mercy but true for each and every one of you.  That attitude of worship is detailed for us in 2 Corinthians 1
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

God shows us mercy through Jesus Christ when we get this horribly wrong.  Without God’s mercy, we have no hope whatsoever to even attempt worship or mercy.  But we go to God in our need and God meets our need with His comfort.  And as we struggle and are afflicted in every single way, God comforts us then too.

But that comfort is not intended to stop merely in the meeting of your need.  Verse 4 tells us then that the redeemable purpose of your affliction, whatever it may be, is that you then take the comfort that you have received from God and offer it to others who are in need.  You worship God by extended mercy and comfort to others in this sinful world and you can do that because God has extended mercy and comfort to you in the midst of this sinful and hurtful world.

Some of you may wonder, “God, when is this miserable life of mine going to change,” and the answer might very well be, “You’ll see your life differently when you go begin to comfort others who are in need just like you.”

Family Devotion and Sermon Notes for James 1:22-25

Big Idea:  Hearing the word of God comes with a responsibility…but also with a hope.

James 1: 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

·    How does James describe a person who hears the word of God but does not do the word of God?
·    Do you enter into worship aware of this responsibility?
·    How might your family better prepare for hearing the word and then doing the word?

23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

·    How does James describe the hearers of the word who do not obey it?
·    What does a mirror reveal?  What do you learn by looking in the mirror?
·    How does those answer help you understand why we are deceived if we don’t obey the word of God?

25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

·    How is the law described?  What makes it so?
·    Why is obedience to the word described as persevering?
·    What are the blessings of obeying the word of God?

I don’t have any idea how many sermons that I have heard in my life.  My guess is that I have been alive for a little over 2,100 Sundays in my life.  That means that I have probably been in 2,000 Sunday sermons and that doesn’t include Sunday nights, Wednesday nights, all the revival sermons my dad peached, sermons I heard in seminary or sermons that I have listened to on tape, cd, or online.  I don’t know.  I guess I have heard 3-4,000 sermons in my life.

And you know what?  That is nothing to brag about.  I don’t get to be self-righteous because I have heard so many sermons.  In fact, I should be a bit fearful.  I am accountable for every single word of scripture that I have ever heard, studied, or preached.  And here is the thing…so are you.

What we are doing here is not a self-help seminar.  This is not information to fill your mental Wikipedia page.  It is not stuff for you to choose pick and choose from.  The sermon is not merely intended to inspire you.  God holds us accountable for each and every word that we hear here.  We are either being transformed closer to the image of Jesus in these moments or our hearts are being hardened.  Either way, we are accountable.

I have a friend, you know how this works, who used to worship and attend worship regularly.  Whether or not he is a believer, I don’t think even he knows, but he was faithful for a period of time.  But after a while of struggling and wrestling, he just opted out.  He no longer wanted to sit and hear the preaching of the scriptures Sunday in and Sunday out.  He admitted that they gave him mixed feelings.    He would be convicted of sin at one moment and angry at the next.  Wondering what life with Christ might be like while battling his doubts.  So he just chose not to sit under the preaching of the word anymore.  He reckoned that if these words weren’t true, he was wasting his time.  But if they were, he might very well be in trouble.  He didn’t want to take that chance anymore, so he opted out.

So as we, you and me, have this opportunity to hear the wonderful words of life proclaimed yet again, let’s take a moment and pray that God would break the hard ground of hearts and transform us in the hearing of His scriptures so that we might produce a harvest of the fruit of worship and obedience.

Big Idea:  Hearing the word of God comes with a responsibility…but also with a hope.

James 1: 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

As always, let’s take a second and set the context for these words from James.  Last week, we heard the daunting command of James that told us that in our interaction with each other and the world we should always be doing three things.  We should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.  James then went onto explain that one of the reasons for these commands is that our anger does not produce righteousness or goodness.  Our anger is typically selfish, self-motived, and self-serving and for that reason, our anger is sin.
However, James offers us the promise that God has implanted His word within us, and that word will change us and bring us more into the image of God Himself.  In fact, it was the word of God that originally brought us to faith in Jesus, and that word continues to work.  So having heard the promises of what God will do with the word, James now speaks about what we are supposed to do with the word of God.  With that, we get the command of verse 22

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

If you don’t remember, and even if you do, it is a good reminder, that James just a few verses ago reminded us to be careful not to be deceived.  Back in verse 16, James encouraged us not to be deceived into thinking that good and perfect come from our own hands, our own effort, or from any thing other than God Himself.

Now deception or being deceived means that we believe, speak, and act as if something is true when actually it is not.  And it appears that James is concerned that we all might be deceived yet again.  None of us like to think that way.  We all think we are smart enough not to be deceived, but apparently the scriptures think we are prone to deception so therefore we should keep more of a heads-up.

The deception that James is warning us of here is this:  we will be deceived if we hear the words of God and we don’t obey and put the words of God into practice.  Right now, in these few moments, in the mornings when you study your Bible, if you listen to a sermon on your phone or on the radio, any moment in which you take in the word of God, if you don’t put those words into practice and if you don’t begin to change, then you are deceived.  You want to know why so often we don’t live lives dependent upon the truths of the scriptures?

You want to know why we don’t study our Bibles regularly?  It not merely that we are lazy or that we aren’t avid readers or that we are undisciplined.  All those things play a part.  But the real reason we avoid the scriptures is that our hearts know that the Bible speaks authoritatively to us.  These words, the very words of life, demand that we walk in faith, obedience, and repentance.  They do not allow for you to remain unchanged.   And since we like our sin or we don’t want to change or we don’t want to submit to God’s authority, we just don’t read the Bible.  Well, verses 23-24 explain the deception that comes from ignoring what the scriptures are telling us.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

Now the scriptures don’t make parables and illustrations and use similes for random.  They are specific to the topic and the way the scriptures describe people and circumstances actually give us a greater depth and understanding than mere illustrations that we might come up with.  For example when Jesus says that you are the salt of the earth, it is no merely an illustration.  Your knowing Jesus Christ literally preserves this world and enriches it and gives it more flavor.  So this picture in James is pretty amazing for lots of reasons.

James says that if you hear the scriptures then you are like a person who into a mirror and sees his natural face.  That means you look into a mirror and you don’t over estimate your appearance or underestimate it.  Let’s face it; we have a hard time seeing our natural face.  If you are cocky and arrogant and vain, you look at yourself and think you are God’s gift to women or men or you think I’m took good looking for my own good.  If you are insecure and self-loathing, you look at yourself and think you are horrendous looking finding flaw where there is none and exaggerating every small imperfection.

James is saying that when you read the scriptures, you see your true self.  Not what you think you are or what you think you aren’t.  The scriptures lay you, your heart, your mind, your convictions; those things are laid bare before the scriptures.  That’s why Psalm 119:104 says, “Through your precepts I get understanding.”  Another reason why many of us don’t read the Bible.  We are afraid to find out what it has to say.

But every moment we neglect the scriptures is a moment in which you lose an opportunity to understand your God and your self better.  In fact, one of the evidences of growing in Godliness is not how well you can check off the Godliness checklist.  One of the evidences of growing in Godliness is how well and how deep you understand yourself in light of who God is.  Give me a person who has a grander sense of their sin in light of the Gospel over someone who wants to flaunt their supposed Godliness any day.

But if you keep reading you see that James is saying that merely looking into the mirror of scripture is not enough.  If you and I do not put these things that we hear each Sunday and what we learn each day in the scripture, if we don’t put those things into place, then James says we are deceiving ourselves.  In fact verse 24 says that we are not only deceived but we are

24    For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

Neglecting to relentlessly pursue the scriptures in both understanding and obedience is like a person who looks in the mirror, sees what he looks like, and then walks away and completely forgets what they look like.  The scriptures reveal the character of God, the great need of our sin, the beautiful complete work of Jesus Christ, and we only rightly understand ourselves in light of those truths.  And just as the Psalmist in 119 said, We are to hide these words in our heart so that we wouldn’t sin against God.

Let me give you an example.  How many of you have ever specifically sought out the help of the scriptures with a particular struggle against some sin?  Let me use two common examples:  anger and lust.  You know yourself well.  You know that there are specific situations and specific people that when you interact with them, you find yourself tempted to be angry and say things you shouldn’t or you are specifically tempted to lust and fantasize about them.  A lot of times you don’t have any choice about your interaction with them.  They are at your work, school, grocery story, maybe even this church.  So, God has moved in your heart to not only study the scriptures but to memorize them so that you can fight the sin in your heart that the temptation brings out.

But the course of time comes, you get busy, and you begin to neglect the regular pattern of studying the scriptures.  As a result you aren’t being regularly transformed or encouraged or strengthen by one of the primary means that God has given to you for strength.  And you show up here each Sunday but by 4pm on Sunday afternoon, you have already fuzzy about what we talked about and completely forgotten it a week later.  We forget sermons from a week ago like we conveniently forget to pray for people that we have promised to pray for.  Well, you bump into that person or you get in that circumstance that you knew was coming, and without a hesitation, you respond either in lust or in anger.  There is not an ounce of fight within you.  But oh wow, the moment passes and you immediately are reminded of the scriptures both against those sins and the scriptures that promise to help you.  We realize that we have completely neglected the means by which God has promised to work in us.

In essence in that moment of sin, we forgot who we are.  We forget that Jesus Christ has completely bought us out of that sin so that we can have hope.  We forget that through Jesus Christ, we are no longer dead to sin but alive to righteousness.  And as we begin to walk in the guilt of our sin, we forget that through Jesus Christ, we are completely loved in an unchanging never ending way by God the Father.

The scriptures are intended to remind you of these things…remind you of who you are now in Jesus Christ.  If you do not know Jesus Christ, they are an invitation to know Him and know yourself.  Thankfully, James doesn’t only use negative examples or give pictures of when we get it wrong.  We also see what it looks like for us to interact with the scriptures in real, powerful, responsible, obedient fashion.  Listen to verse 25.

25    But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

The one who looks into the perfect law of liberty, perseveres in doing it.  You don’t just hear the word but you obey it as well and therefore blessed in whatever you do.  Oh there is so much here, so let’s take it piece by piece.  The scriptures here are described as the perfect law and the law of liberty.  Why is that?  You see the law of God is a perfect expression of God’s character.  We are commanded not to lie because God is the God of all truth and does not lie.  We are commanded to faithfulness in marriage because God is faithful within the Trinity and Jesus is faithful to His bride, the church.  We are commanded not to lust because we are to be content with all that we have as God has a Holy contentment among the Trinity and Christ demonstrated what contentment was to us.

The law of God and all the commands of God are not merely the to dos and the to don’ts.  They are an expression of who God is.  That is why disobeying the scriptures are not merely breaking a rule or mixup.  Sin is cosmic treason where we declare we will be our own gods and we will sit on the throne.  So apart from knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior and knowing His forgiveness and the transformation that comes with faith, the law is death.

Romans 7.10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Romans tells us that the commandments of God are pictures of the life of God but they prove to be death to you and me.  The sin in our hearts, apart from the work of Jesus, when it hears the law of God, springs forth.  The commands of God inflame the desires of a sinful heart.  The law itself is holy, righteous, and good of course but the law incites a spiritual riot, a spiritual rebellion in our heart against God.  That is why Galatians 2:16 says, “No one is justified by the works of the law.”  No heart can choose enough or obey enough to be justified by obedience because one, we already have sin for which we are guilty and secondly, we don’t obey the law apart from God’s regenerating work in our hearts.

So having said that, how can James call what we are doing here as looking at the perfect law of liberty?  How can the same law that inflames sin in our hearts also be the law that gives us liberty and set us free?  Romans 8 explains that for us.

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

There are a lifetime of sermons in just these four verses but let’s see what we can do.  James can call your looking into the scriptures and obeying them looking into the perfect law of liberty for this reason:  If you have faith in Jesus, you are no longer condemned for your disobedience.  Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

How?  Well, since you couldn’t do it, your weakened flesh could not obey the law, God sent His son Jesus in human flesh just like ours, to obey for us.  Jesus’ obedience condemned the judgment of sin on your life and fulfilled the good and righteous demand that God has for the law to be obeyed and fulfilled.  When you respond to God in faith, you are walking not according the flesh and sin any longer but you are walking according to the Spirit.

If you have faith in Jesus Christ and in the Spirit, you should hear that and rightfully rejoice.  But then you might ask, “Well how do I know if I’m in the flesh or in the spirit?  How do I know if my condemnation has been removed?  Look at verse 5.

5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

After reading those verse, ask yourself, “Well, has God given me a transformed thought life?”  Not a perfect one, but a transformed one?  Is your mind set on sin and what you want or is it set upon what the Spirit wants as taught to you through the scriptures?  There is a big difference between the two here and we have to get it.  Everything depends on it.  The mind set on sin is set on death.  The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.  The mind set on sin is hostile towards God.

The way you know whether your mind is hostile towards God or not is whether your mind regularly submits to the scriptures in reading, understanding and obeying.  If you do not have a transformed heart and mind that desires to read, study, understand and obey the commands of scripture, you may very well have your heart set on sin and therefore you are hostile to God.  Look at verse 9

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

If you have faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, then you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit.  If you do not have the Spirit of God transforming you, teaching you, moving you, enabling you, then you do not belong to Jesus.  But if Christ is in you, the promises are amazing.  Even though you live in a sinful, dying body, the Spirit gives you life and righteousness.

The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.  And that same Spirit gives you life, a life that is now able to thankfully obey and enjoy God’s grace.  Through Christ you look into the perfect law of freedom, response in obedience and experience every spiritual blessing in God.  To begin to pull of these things together, think of it this way.

Basic:  when you look in the scriptures, it shows you your real self.  Who you are and who Jesus is.  If you know Jesus Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit dwells in you and enables you to see these words as the very perfect words of life and liberty and you take joy in obeying them.  If you don’t know Jesus, these words condemn your heart, and you stay away.

Reminder:  Your obedience or disobedience is evidence of whether you know Christ not the means to knowing Christ.  If you know Christ, you look at the scriptures and obey joyfully.  You find yourself walking back to the scriptures as thirsty man crawls to drink water.  If you do not know Christ, you ignore the scriptures, neglect the scriptures, and even if you do hear them, you deceive yourself by not putting them into practice.

Hope:  The hope here though is that through Jesus Christ, you are no longer a slave to sin.  You have real hope.  Gang, some of us have given up the fight, maybe some of us have never started the fight.  We have given up the hope that real change can happen in our lives.  We can’t even imagine what it would like any more.  That is not the life to which you have been called as a child of God.

Let’s daydream for a minute.  Yes, you and I according to the book of James are absolutely responsible for every word of scriptures spoken here.  Whether I and the elders did a good job communicating it to you almost doesn’t matter.  We prayerfully try to communicate the scriptures in a clear way and then we pray that God would bless these humble words with the power of the Holy Spirit.  But we sit right now with these truth and hopefully your antenna is up, your heart is receptive.

Fortunately and by God’s grace, just as with everything else that God commands and promises, He enables you to live out the responsibility to put these words into practice.  What did we just read from the book of Romans?  11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

The very Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, the Spirit that was present at creation, the Spirit that God promised to every single person who has faith in Jesus, that Spirit gives life to your mortal body.  Begin praying and hoping that God will move you from disobedience to glorious thankful obedience.  Begin praying and hoping that God is going to do the same in the life of your family and this church  and know that does not know Jesus.

Imagine how transformed we would be right here at SK.  We no longer passively resign ourselves to the fact that we haven’t grown.  We believe that the Holy Spirit is alive and working in our hearts so that we can obey the scriptures personally.  We believe that the Holy Spirit is alive and working among us to bring others to know Jesus and grow this church and change our community.

Ephesians 4 explains what happens when we trust and strive with the Holy Spirit to cause us to obey the scriptures.  21 Assuming that you have heard about Christ and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.  25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor.

Do you see the connection?  You trust Jesus Christ and the work of the Spirit to enable you to put off your old sef and obey being renewed in your spirit and minds putting on the new self and imitating the likeness of God that is now in you.  And what happens when we do that?  All of a sudden you begin to share that truth with your neighbor.  The work of Jesus in your heart has no choice but to overflow into the lives of other people so that they can experience the truths of scripture and the transforming work of Jesus through the Spirit.

I’m completely unimpressed with anyone’s growth in Godliness and holiness unless it looks like this.  Growth in personal obedience must turn into a grown and desire to share Jesus with others.  When this work here among us doesn’t grow, we aren’t to stoically say, “Oh well, we didn’t grow” or “why should we expect to grow this year” or “well we’ve tried that already.”  Those are faithless words.  They should be uttered in tears and morning and sack clothes and ashes for the lack of our obedience.

We beg God to enable us to obey the scriptures knowing that that prayer God answers.  I promise you it to God’s will for you to obey.  So let’s pray in this moment, “God give us the full range of obedience that you command.  Enable us to put off the old self.  Renew our minds.  Enable us to walk in the new self.  Create your likeness in us.  Move us to share the Gospel with yoru neighbor.

I don’t any of this, “Well we are working on the personal obedience and then we as a church can share Jesus.  Junk theology.  Junk thinking.  We don’t do that with our kids, we don’t do that at work.  We don’t say, “Let’s work on obeying at home and then maybe when we get that down we’ll worry about obeying at school and church.”  We don’t say, “Well I need to focus on obeying at home and then I’ll worry about obeying at work.”

Junk.  We can’t think that way with our kids, our careers, or this church.  If we do, we have forgotten what we look like.  No, the Spirit of God dwells within you.  The Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead.  So the defeatist mentality about personal sin, the reconciliation of relationships and the growth of this church ends now.   Let’s pray.

Family Devotion and Sermon Notes from James 1:19-21

Big Idea:  The Word of God has real power for real change in your life.

James 1:19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

• How do these characteristics show another person that you care for them?
• Can you think of examples of when Jesus’ demonstrated these characteristics?
• Are there certain people that when you are with them you find it difficult to obey these verses?
• Are there people that you need to ask to forgive you because you have not obeyed these verses?

20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

• Jesus was angry in the Bible.  How was it that Jesus could be angry and not sin?
• If your anger produces sin, ask yourself, “When am I sinfully angry?
• Are there people that I need to ask to forgive me because of these verses?

21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

• What has God given us to help us repent of sin and grow in obedience?
• Can you think of specific examples when you were trying to overcome sin and you sought out help from the Bible?

Some of you are incredibly disciplined, self-controlled folks.  You might say, “Gordon I’m not disciplined in anything.  I just sit around and watch TV or play on the computer all the time,” and I would say, “Yep there is your discipline.”  But, some of you have homes that are almost always clean.  Or you leave for work at the exact same time every day.  Maybe you read your bible every single day.  Some of you always have your kids’ home school lessons ready every week.  I love to go running 4-5 days a week.  We all have some measure of discipline and self-control.

But there is a temptation within discipline and self-control.  Even though self-control is a promised work of the Spirit in your life, there still remains a temptation.  No matter how great and Godly your discipline and self-control are, they are not the power of change in your life.  Just exerting will power in your life will not change you.  God can use your will power but your will power has no power in and of itself.

Let me give you an example.  Maybe you are faithful in your bible study.  You hit it every morning before you begin your day.  You have learned much and have grown much through that discipline of studying the word.  This is an awesome, beneficial, and Godly discipline.   But your discipline will not change you.

The word of God is what has great power to change you.  1 Thessalonians 2: 13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus.  The word of God when accepted with a God-gifted faith found in you and me is at work for real change in your life.  Its work enables you to see real change and cause you to become imitator of Godliness that Jesus gifts His church.  Let’s see that played out in this week’s passage in James with this Big Idea.

Big Idea:  The Word of God has real power for real change.

James 1:19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

Now before we jump in, let me make an honest confession as your pastor.  In my preaching, I am always given to protect my heart and your heart from legalism.   Legalism is the sickness of the human condition.  Legalism is attempting to earn your way before God.  Ever since the day Adam chose to earn his way before God instead of leaving in the light of God’s love, every human being feels the need to earn and work and strive to prove themselves.  We are legalistic when thinking about ourselves, we are legalistic when it comes to our relationships with others, and we are legalistic when it comes to our relationship with God.  We feel like others have to earn their value, and we think we have to earn our value.

Now, earning your way is consistent with the nature of sin but it is contrary to the nature of grace.  Because of our sin, we can’t earn anything before God.  But grace is God loving us like we have never sinned.  As the lyrics of one great song said, “It falls down on me, it falls down on you: grace falls free, the proud feel the need to work the loom, yet grace falls free.” LSU  So because of that, I always want to present the commands of scripture as the very words of God to apply to our lies but always highlighted with, tinged with, colored in, and bathed with the Gospel that says, “Follow this command out of love and out of fidelity but don’t do it to earn anything.  The love that God has for you, His affection for you is not dependent upon how good you are.  Praise Jesus.”

So the confession on my part is that sometimes it is hard for me teach the straightforward commands of God.  Sometimes the Bible just says, “Do or don’t do,” and I have a hard time figuring out how to preach it in light of the Gospel.  But then I must remind my heart and yours that obedience to the commands of God are intended to be warm acts of affection from you to God.  So, this is one of those weeks.  These commands are straightforward and simple and Godly.

So here is how I want us to approach this scripture today.  I want us to desperately approach the scriptures looking for the very words of life, and I’ll tell you why that is not legalism.  (John Piper)  When you approach the scriptures looking for the very words of life…You are pleading as a helpless child for the desire you long to have. Legalists don’t cry like that. They strut.  When you approach the scriptures looking for the very words of life…You are reading out of desperation for the effects of this heavenly medicine. Bible-reading is not a cure for a bad conscience; it’s chemo for your cancer. Legalists feel better because the box is checked. Saints feel better when their blindness lifts, and they see Jesus in the word. Let’s get real. We are desperately sick with worldliness, and only the Holy Spirit, by the word of God, can cure this terminal disease.  And finally when you approach the scriptures looking for the very words of life…It is not legalism because only justified people can see the preciousness and power of the Word of God. Legalists trudge with their Bibles on the path toward justification. Saints sit down in the shade of the cross and plead for the blood-bought pleasures.  John Piper.

So having said that, let’s jump into this week’s passage.  Any time a verse begins with the words “Know this,” we can imply two things.  Something has come before to help build this thought.  And something directly applicable is going to follow.

Last week, we saw James emphasize to us that every good and perfect gift that we have comes down from the Father of lights.  Part of the intention in that passage was to either establish or re-establish in our hearts and minds that whatever we are presently enduring is intended to be used by God for good in our lives.  Top of the world or struggling to survive, if you have faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins then every single thing that God is ordaining for you to go through is for your good because the purpose of those things is to equip and to make you more like Christ.  James then reminded us that God’s character as the Father of Lights is unchanging and as we learn to trust that unchanging nature, we are not consumed my our circumstances.  Ultimately, out of that, we are God’s firstfruits where He calls us His own and we are the first of a great harvest where God promises to use us to bring many people to come know Him.

So with that, we move into the most practical, almost proverb-like, teaching in the book of James.  He tells us 3 things:  He tells us as beloved brothers that we should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.  These are 3 separate commands but they are connected in a way that should never be separated.  Essentially, this is the 3 legged stool that we sit on in our relationships.  James wants us to know how to listen to others, how to speak to others, and how to control our temper.  Again, all three of these go together, but for our sake and to understand them completely, we need to look at them one at a time.  So, having said that, what does it mean to be quick to hear or as some translations have it, quick to listen.  Well, our best understanding of obedience is always found in Jesus.

If we want to understand how to listen, let’s see how Jesus demonstrated and valued listening.  We see his example when He listened to the woman at the well in John 4.  She was so shocked that Jesus would even speak to her much less listen to her.  He listened to the Rich Young Ruler and his arrogance in Mark 10.  He listened to the Pharisee when the Pharisee rebuked Jesus in John 10.  Despite being omniscient and all-knowing, Jesus took time to listen to people when He interacted with them.

But Jesus also valued listening by command.  He said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” when teaching about John the Baptist – Mt 11:15.  He said the same thing around the parable of the sower – Mt 13:9  And around the explanation of the parable of the tares – Mt 13:43  The commands around the churches in Revelation from Jesus in chapter 2 all say, “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear.”

Having taken in Jesus’ example and command, what does it mean to be quick to listen?   Essentially, it means that we first seek people out in order to understand what they think and feel.  A lot of times in the Christian world, we don’t even seek out people with whom we disagree because we don’t care to know what they think.  We think we know it already, so why listen to them again.  We do this with issues of religion, politics, sexuality, basically any other area in which we feel smug.  We are guilt of just not listening to folks.  Secondly, it means patiently listening to folks while they speak.  Not dying for a break in the action so that you can tell them why they are wrong.  Not ignoring what they have to say because your opinion has been formed prior to or apart from their conversation.  No, patiently listening to what folks have to say.  Not quick to speak but quick to listen.

This is the basis of so many fights in marriages and other relationships.  One party is talking and the other party is off doing something completely other in their head.   You know this moment; it’s when one person says to the other, “You can’t tell me what I just said, can you?”  And the other says, “Yeah, I can,” and then they fumble through some mishmash of words that they barely heard, or after hearing a list you can only recall the first thing your spouse said.  And then the fight breaks out.

But the bottom line is that listening is caring.  Listening is loving.  Even if you know what the person is going to say word for word, listening to them is caring for them.  Jesus knew what people were going to say before they said it, yet He listened.  He even knew what people were thinking before they said it:  Matthew 9:4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? Jesus knew what people were really thinking in their hearts.  You don’t.

Quite simply, SK, stop playing God and listen to people.  Ask them what they think and ask them what they care about.  Ask them to clarify when you don’t understand.  Tell people, “Hey I want to make sure I heard you,” and then tell them back what they said.  Let’s reflect that we have been heard by God and be a people that hears and listens.

Be quick to listen.  And if you are quick to listen then you are going to be slow to speak.  These two things go together.  Proverbs 17:27 Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.  28 Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise;    when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.

Honestly, being slow to speak is not a valued characteristic:  not in the world and not in the church.  But according to the scriptures, the restraint of words is the evidence of knowledge.  This doesn’t mean that you get to be purposefully quiet to keep people in the dark.  It means listening well in order to respond well.  Heck, Proverbs even says that restraining the words gives you a cool spirit.  If I could learn to restrain my words it would be the first time I would have been cool in my entire life.

But verse 28 is the kicker.  Even fools appear wise and intelligent when they are silent.  Gang, I have rarely been in these circles.  When I was a teacher, it was how smart you were or how well you could influence people.  When I was in sales, it was definitely about being deft with words.  As a manager, I never could figure out how to manage quietly, but that was the first time I learned to listen to people.  Seminary is the place where they teach you to speak and only encourage you to listen.  As a pastor, I used to jump into every theological battle out there leaving friends and family as wreckage along the way.

Now, when I read these verses, and I’m told to be quick to listen and slow to speak.  I so desperately want to see that grow in me and grow in this church.  What a great testimony SK would have if in our neighborhoods and community we weren’t known as the church that constantly picks a fight, but the one that listens and is wise in response.  Now, before we move on to being slow in anger, let me offer this one caveat.   You might say that you rarely get into fights over Christianity and that you are slow to speak, so what’s the big deal?  Great, let me ask one question:  Do you even care enough to be involved in the lives of others?

Because you and I need to know that indifference towards others is not being quick to listen and slow to speech.  Judging others silently is not being quick to listen and slow to speech.  Not caring whether someone in this church is hurting or not isn’t those things.  Not caring whether someone is growing in Christ in this church is not those things.  Not caring whether someone knows Jesus Christ is not those things.

And you know why we just don’t care sometimes?   Some one or some thing has disappointed us, and we are angry and that anger has become indifference.  That’s why James says, “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”  If you are caringly listening to people, being wise in how you respond with your words, then you will be less likely to get angry.  But, if you are angry, you will be tempted to just not interact with folks whether in the church or out.  Ever written someone off?  If so, that is not wisdom.  It’s anger.  The recipe for depth and communicating love in a relationship is being quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

Gang, the reason the commands to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger aren’t merely legalistic commands is because when we obey these verses we are being compassionate and imitating Christ.  We are imitating Christ.  We are imitating His incarnation.  Let me explain that.  Incarnating or the incarnation was Jesus taking on human flesh sympathetically to endure what we grow through so He secure righteousness and salvation for us.  When you are quick to listen, you are incarnating; you are trying to understand the other person.  When you are slow to speak, you are incarnating; you are making sure that you give the other person time to express themselves.  When you are slow to anger, you are incarnating; you are making sure that the other person feels safe around you to be honest without being attacked.

Now, you might say, Gordon, I just don’t know if I can do that.  The people who make me angry, I just avoid them.  Isn’t that better?  It might be better for you, but it doesn’t demonstrate the Gospel, it doesn’t reflect Christ, and it is not obedient.  In effect you are saying, “I don’t want to be like Jesus.  I don’t mind being like Jesus to that person, but I don’t want to be like Jesus in response to that person.”  This verse doesn’t prohibit you from talking or even being angry.  It tells you to be quick and first and slow the second.  Here is why.  Verse 20 tells us for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.  If your anger doesn’t produce righteousness then what it produces is sin.  Now when you hear that, don’t you want to justify your anger just a bit?

Don’t you want to tell me that Jesus got angry that one time and flipped over all the tables of the merchants who were hawking their goods at the temple?  And I say, “Yes, Jesus did get angry.  But His anger was a Godly, righteous anger.  His anger was described a zeal for the house of God.  Jesus didn’t sin in His anger.

That is not our anger.  The anger described as sin here is the anger of man, and the anger of man does not produce righteousness.  Folks, let me bottom line it for you.  Our sinful nature wants us to be slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to anger.  We do this because our sinful tells us that we are right, others are wrong, and no one can convince us otherwise.  We need an infusion of what is true from God and we need the Holy Spirit to mend those truths into our heart so that we can begin to think, act, interact, and even worship rightly.

I remember getting all of this completely wrong when I was in seminary.  I was arguing theology with a good friend over instant messenger, so you can already see how this was a bad idea.  My friend was working on his doctorate and I was working on my theology, and we were at two completely opposite sides on an issue.  I arrogantly made a joke over instant messenger and it hurt our friendship.  I couldn’t understand how my friend came to the conclusion that he had so I quoted Seinfeld and said, “Daniel, my friend, you are an enigma wrapped in a twinkie.”

I wasn’t being quick to listen, slow to speak, or slow to anger.  It two years to repair that friendship.  My interaction with my friend was arrogant, prideful, and wicked.  When we don’t listen carefully and are given to anger, we are walking in arrogance, pride, and wickedness.  Instead, we need to walk and talk meekly.  We need to listen, speak slowly and control our anger.  Fortunately, verse 21 tells us how we can do that.

21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.  Failure to be quick to listen, failure to be slow to speak, failure to be slow to anger is described in verse 21 as filthiness and rampant wickedness.  We will be filthy and angry and sinful unless we walk before the scriptures in humility and meekness.  I read a great quote this week from a pastor buddy of mine.  He say, “The patience of God means He has power over His own wrath; He is able to righteously restrain His anger.”  So the God ordained means by which you can gain such control and power over your listening, speaking, and your anger is to bathe your heart and mind in the scriptures and when we do that God promises interact with you by the power of His Holy Spirit.  The hope we have is for the word of God to be implanted in your heart so that you will be meek and your soul be saved.

Let’s take those things one at a time.  First, receiving the implanted word with meekness.  You want to know why most Christians struggle with reading their bible regularly?  Because most of us think we don’t need it.  We think the Holy Spirit is like a Genie in the Bottle and is going to just tell us whatever we need to know.  And no doubt, the Spirit can do whatever the Spirit wants, but that’s just it.  The Holy does as the Spirit will.  And the command and promise of God is that the Holy Spirit is going to work in conjunction with the Bible to help you put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness.  Romans 8 explains the interaction between you, the word of God and the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:10 If Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

The Holy Spirit is in you as you have faith in Jesus.  The Spirit gives you a life that enables you to obey.  The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will give you this new life of obedience.  I Corinthians 2 explains how that works.

1 Corinthians 2: 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual

The Spirit of God enables you to understand the scriptures.  And the scriptures are the word of God and they enable you to live out that which God has commanded.  Gang, do not neglect this incredibly great gift.  It is life for your bones and energy for your heart.  Second, how does the word of God save your soul?

Romans 10: 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

If you have faith in Jesus Christ, if you have called out to him for forgiveness and salvation, it is because you know and believe the Jesus that is presented in the scriptures.  You couldn’t have called out unless you believe, you couldn’t have believed unless you heard the truths of scriptures, and you couldn’t have heard those scriptures unless someone proclaimed them to you, and someone sent that person to tell you the truths of scriptures.  Your faith in Jesus came from hearing the word of God and the word of God came from Jesus Christ.

Gang, the church here is not just a civic organization or something that you go to once a week or a couple of times a month.  This worship service, the existence of SK is part of God’s designed plan to bring people to know Jesus and then see those people grow and change in real Godliness.  You know that pattern that we just read:  faith in Jesus, believing the scriptures, hearing the Bible, preaching the scriptures sending the preacher?  Let’s take that in reverse and make it SK’s story and the make it your story.

Redeemer Church and Eastern Caroline Presbytery sent me to Garner to Plant Sovereign King.  So Amy and I move here in 2005.  By God’s grace, we gather some folks in and I start preaching.  Folks, hear the preach word and are changed.  Some come to faith for the first time while others grows in their knowledge of the scriptures and the bible.  That faith grow into belief and that belief grows into obedience.

That is what is going on here and each of you play a part.  You don’t have to be an ordained preacher to play a part in this.  You hear these words, grow in belief and faith, God changes you, and then God intends for you to share the truths of scriptures with others.  SK sends you out.  This is your commissioning.  Go, play a part in what God has designed.  Proclaim Jesus and the truths of scripture to those who need to heart it, your family, your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers, and then trust the Spirit’s work in their lives just as you trust it in yours.

And when you do that, God will enable you to obey these verses.  You can proclaim Jesus to me and the rest world and do it while being quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.  Real change folks, real promises of God, real glory to Jesus, God really using you and SK Church

Family Devotion and Sermon Notes from James 1:16-18

James 1:16-18 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.  18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Big Idea:  Anything good that you have in your life is there by God’s grace.

 

James 1: 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,

·    How can we be deceived according to James?
·    What does God gift?
·    How do we know how to define “good and perfect gift”?  See Eccl 7:14, Rom 8:28
·    How should this verse help us understand the things that happen in our life?

coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

·    How is it comforting that God does not change?
·    What does Malachi 3:6 tell us about God’s unchanging nature?

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth,

·    What is the word of truth?
·    What does it mean that God brought us forth by the word of truth?
·    What else did God bring about by His word of truth?
·    How should this help you worship God more greatly and deeply?

that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

·    What is a firstfruit?
·    What does it mean that we can be a firstfruit of God’s creatures?
·    How can does your understanding of God enable you to be a firstfruit?

 

When you have a job, you work a certain number of hours and you expect to get paid in a manner worth your effort.  My first job was barning tobacco which is nasty, sweaty, back-breaking work.  My pay for a 4 hour slot was a mountain dew, a pack of nabs, and $12 – which was a king’s ransom at age 14.

I remember graduating from ECU and getting my first teaching job.  Four and half years of college, $7,000 in college loans, and my first year’s pay was $17,000.  That was really the first time in my life that I thought:  Wait a minute.  17 grand for this job?  I loved teaching, but really?

Since we have the privilege of living in a society where you can work where you want and there are laws surrounding things like fair pay and minimum wage, we are all hard wired with the kind of thinking that says, “I deserve this for that.”  It not unique to being American by any means, but we are wired with the thought that we deserve a certain amount of money and a certain amount of privilege for our efforts.  If we work hard, give us more.  Even if we don’t work hard, we still expect to get paid.  We just own our rights really, really deeply.

Now, this kind of drive can start businesses, build buildings, and even change the world.   But this kind of thinking is poison when it comes to one’s relationship with God.   The temptation of every person’s heart is to think, “Well, I’m not perfect, but I try really hard and I am better (or work harder) than at least that person, so in the end God is going to like me, love me, and let me into heaven.”

This kind of thinking goes absolutely contrary to verses like Romans 3:10, “There are none that are righteous (or good); no not one.”  Because of this many folks never recognize their need for forgiveness or their need of Jesus Christ.

Now you may hear that and say, “Well, we don’t have that problem here SK.  We talk about sin, and forgiveness and grace and the Gospel.”  And I will say, “Yes, I am thankful that God has engendered into the DNA of Sovereign King that we are in desperate need of a Savior and that we can do nothing to recommend ourselves to God.  We desperately need and depend up on Jesus for our salvation.”

But that wonderful reality here at SK, does not mean that we are completely immune to some other areas in which we think where God owes us something.  BTW, it is not just us.  No one is immune to this condition.  Let me give you an example, take your lifestyle, how comfortably you want to live.  We are all tempted to struggle.  Ask yourself, is your money yours?  A quick measure to find out.  How much of your money goes to your house, your home, your debts, your…you?  98%?  I mean you earned it right.  You worked hard.  You are not mooching off anybody.   That money is yours right?  Your home is yours, and oh yeah, your time is yours too, right?  Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Gang, this passage in James is going to be revolutionary.  Let’s see if God will meet us well and help us tackle this Big Idea:  Anything good that you have in your life is there by God’s grace.

James 1: 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Now, before we jump into these passages, verse by verse, let’s make sure we approach it in the manner that James intended.   If we don’t get this verse, meaning if we don’t believe, become convicted by it, and then apply it, James is telling us that we are deceived.  No one wants to be deceived, and it is hard to admit when you are deceived.  When you are deceived, you have been duped.  Someone or something has convinced you of something that is not true.  And it is so very hard to admit that we have been deceived because we are admitting a weakness.   We are saying, “I just wasn’t smart enough to see it coming,” and really, often we are too proud to actually say something like that.

I’ve been deceived before, all of us have, but it is hard for us to admit.   I remember when I was in sales.  Things were going well, but when you are in sales, there is a tendency to always be looking for the next thing, at least I was.  So as I was walking out of an office one day, I struck up a conversation with one of the guys that I had seen there before.  He asked me about the nature of my sales work and then told me about a business that he was starting.  He told me the vaguest of details, but enough for me to be interested.  We set up a lunch appointment to talk about in a few days.  In my mind, I was excited about getting started on the ground with this company that would make me a lot of money and feed my greedy soul.  When we met, I discovered that it was nice little pyramid scam or a triangle or a delta scheme, whatever you wanted to call it.  I knew I wanted nothing to do with it, but I was deceived to begin with.  I thought it was thing and discovered it was completely something else.  My desires caused to believe this guy was offering one thing when I should have known better.

Well, the deception that James is speaking about here is like that but worse.  James is warning us of the thinking that what we have from God, the good and wonderful blessings in our life, James wants to warn us into thinking that we got them in any other way than God’s grace.  We didn’t get them because we were so good that God was impressed with us.  We didn’t get them because we were better than the people we know who are doing as well as us.  We just receive our good gifts because of God’s grace.

And notice, the kind of thinking that thinks we have earned all of these blessings is called a deception – believing and acting on something that is not true.  And James uses the most affectionate of terms.  Beloved brothers, don’t be deceived.   Every good and perfect gift is from above.

These good and perfect gifts come from nowhere else.  They don’t come from the sweat of your brow.  They don’t come from your hard work.  You don’t make your own destiny.  Good and perfect gifts come from above.

Now, to understand this fully, we have to ask, “What is a good and perfect gift?”  First thought seems to be all those things that we want, right?  Love, comfort, warmth, a nice house, puppies, or cats for you cat lovers.  For me, it would be time with Amy and the girls, a good long run on a Saturday morning, a good cup of coffee.   Maybe you define good and perfect gifts spiritually.  A church growing in their understanding of Jesus and His grace.  People coming to a relationship with Christ for the first time.  Joyful worship.

Those things may be seen as good gifts, but in the context of what we have seen from James, we have to broaden our definition a bit.  Quite simply and honestly, a good and perfect gift is unequivocally, anything, and I mean anything, that God has put in your life.  That’s why James says to take joy in trials, God placed those trials in your life to grow you and equip you and make you more like Jesus.  Poor?  James says take joy.  Rich?  James says take joy.

For every single person who has faith in Jesus, we should know these things.  Ecclesiastes 7:14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other.  And how can the day of adversity be considered good?  Romans 8:28 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.   So right now, if you are going through something that seems awful, painful, maybe even excruciating, if you are going through difficult financial, physical, or relational troubles, God intends for you to see those things as good and perfect gifts.  Why?  Because God is doing good in your life.  And again, just to make sure, how do we define good gifts?  Ephesians 4 tells us.

Ephesians 4:1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says,    “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”

The good gifts that God gives here are completely contrary to what the world calls good.  The good gifts that God gives are:  humility, patience, bearing each other’s burdens in love, the gifts of faith that we share, and all of these things are secured for us and given to us by Jesus Christ.  So if you are going through a tough time or a great time, it is a good and perfect gift from God because He intends to create in you those characteristics I just mentioned.  God wants humility, patience, and the bearing of burdens for you much more than all the other junk the world promises like wealth, beauty, and money.  Gang, I’m so tired of churches telling people junk that sound Godly but isn’t”

·    Well, wait on your miracle.
·    God is going to bless you in ways that you can’t imagine.
·    And when you do everything you can do, that’s when God will step in and do what you can’t do.
·    Stop talking to God about how big your mountains are, and start talking to your mountains about how big your God is!”

All of those examples are garbage and far from what James says is good.  And all the while what they really mean is that God is going to bless you with what this world calls good: health, money, power, and position.  You may gain those things in this world by God’s providence and design, but they are not promised to every believer. Remember, James is writing to a persecuted church that has nothing and can count on nothing but the mercy of God.  Many of the folks who read James letter when it was originally written died soon after reading it.  James is not promising them or us anything except that where you are right now is God’s good and perfect gift.  Pray for change as you will and then trust God to design and implement a life that He calls good and perfect.

James makes these promises telling us that God the Father who does all of these things is in vs 17 “the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”  What does it mean for God to be the Father of Lights who does not change?  Well James wants to make a contrast between the changing nature of…nature and the unchanging character of God.

“As the earth, sun, moon, and stars move in their ordained courses, we observe the interplay of light and darkness, day and night, the longest and shortest day of the year, the waning and waxing of the moon, eclipses, and the movement of the planets.  Nature is subject to variation and change.  Not so with God!  He is the Father of the heavenly lights, who is always light and does not change.  He has an abiding interest in His children.”  Simon Kistemaker

If God’s character is unchangeable, we need to understand that character well so that we might worship God rightly.  If we don’t understand the character of God rightly, we are going to be disappointed, disillusioned and perhaps even walk away.  I had a conversation just the other day with a young man.  He asked me, “God is good, right?”  And I of course said, “Yes, God is good.”  He asked, “Well if God is good, why am I miserable?  Shouldn’t He make me happy?  And then he went on to explain some horribly painful and difficult things in his life.  Now I do not want to diminish the pain that this young man is going through or diminish any of the pain that many of you are going through.  I understand pain and have my own share.   In that we are all a fellowship.  Nobody lives a pain free life; not in this world.  But this young man’s question was tinged with an assumption:  if God is good and I am supposed to believe in Him, then God better do some work.  He better take away what hurts in my life.  He better make my life easy.  And if He doesn’t do that, then I’m not going to believe in Him or worship Him.

You and I are not immune from this type of thinking.  Much of our disappointment with God comes about because God hasn’t met our expectations.  And those expectations are based upon what we think the character of God is and not the character of God in scripture.

What we are seeing from James is that God’s character never changes.  He ordains what we call the good and what we call the bad.  He does those things so that we might be equipped to what He has commanded to do and He does that for His glory.  The good in your life that God is working is just that:  for His glory, your becoming more like Jesus Christ.

Practically, that unchanging nature of God does this for us.  Malachi 3.6 “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.  God’s unchanging nature, His steadfastness in who He is, is intended to keep you from being consumed.  So as God ordains for you to endure and persevere through difficult times, the unchanging nature of God will protect you from being overwhelmed in the midst of trials and pain.

You might say, “Gordon, this sure doesn’t sound like a very attractive description of God or the Christian life.”  And if you say that, I have probably come pretty close to getting it right.  I am not promising anyone that hard times are going way, no matter how much faith you have and no matter how much every other short pastor in the country promises it to you.

I will promise you this from verse 18 in James. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.  In light of James calling God the Father of lights, it makes sense that He carries that picture further to explain to the idea of giving birth.  The language of bringing us forth can also be translated, “He gave us birth”  James is speaking specifically to Christians here.  He is saying, “Listen if you have faith in Jesus,
God brought you forth by the word of truth.”

Now the word of truth is the way in which God creates.  He brought forth creation from nothing by the word of truth.  And God brought forth your faith from nothing by the word of His truth.  Before we had faith in Jesus, our hearts were hostile towards God, and according to Ephesians 2.8-9 that faith was a gift from God.  He spoke life into you where only death exited prior.  You heard the word of truth, the gospel, the declaration of sweet forgiveness and mercy through Jesus Christ and God used that word just He did in creation to bring forth life in you where death only presided before.  And the full intention of His speaking life into you by the word of His truth is to make all of His children the firstfruits of His creatures.  What does that mean?  Well the firstfruits were an OT concept.  Exodus 23, Exodus 34, Leviticus 19, and other places commanded the people in their giving to God to give of the firstfruits.

What that meant was when they had a harvest, you took the very first of it and offered to God in worship and sacrifice.  In fact, God said, “Those firstfruits are holy and they belong to me.  You don’t have the freedom to do with them as you want.”  You took the firstborn of your animals for sacrifice.  You took the first of your fruit, your harvest, your whatever.  Basically, you took the first of your income.

That principle by the way is how encourage all of you as you look for some guide as to how you should give in offering to the church.  No matter what percentage you use whether it be 12, 10, 8 or some other percentage.  Give in worship to God first and then determine the values you have on other items afterwards.  If you pay all your bills first and then figure out how to give, God gets what is leftover.  We and no one else should tell you what % to use.  Our guide would be determine your giving first then go after your budget.

Well, understanding that concept, God has promised that when He made you a child of His, His purpose was to make you the firstfruits of His creatures.  Being gifted with faith and life through Jesus Christ, how can you and I be the firstfruits of God’s creatures?  Well we see that explained for us in both Romans and 1 Corinthians.  Romans 16: 5 Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia.  1 Corinthians 16: 15 Now I urge you, brothers—you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints—

In both of those passages, the term first convert is the exact same Greek word translated for first fruit.  What God is doing in you, He intends to use to bring more and more people to know Him.  That is part of His intended purpose for whatever it is that you are going through.  Now this is incredibly exciting, so let me walk us towards our applications, so I can give these thoughts a thorough apply to all of us.  So without delay, here are 3 takeaways from James 1:13-15

All the good gifts you have are there by God’s grace.  When you are doing well by our typical standards – good health, nice house, good job, money in the bank, you have those things by God’s grace.  Yes, you worked hard, went to school, made better choices than other folks, but you don’t get to take credit, and that should give you a thankful heart to God and a compassionate heart to anyone who is struggling.  Now you might say, “Wait a minute, Gordon.  I get up and go to work every day and work hard.  I earned my stripes at college or at work, I’m not like those lazy bums just looking to sponge off of others.  I earned what I have.”  Now, yes we are blessed with some wonderfully talented and hard working folks.  Many of you have proven yourselves to be resourceful and many of you have provided an incredibly nice life for yourselves.  Remember, like we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, even the folks living on the poverty line in America are wealthier than 98% of the rest of the world.

But the moment you take credit for your accomplishments and forget to thank God for every single thing in which you have, James says you are deceived.  Right now, whether your life circumstances are what is called rich or poor, you are to have an attitude of thanking God as one is undeserving of such blessings.  I’ve said it before and I will say it again.  We are not a big church, but we have plenty of wealth in this church.  The fact that we sometimes struggle to pay our bills is more indicative at times of our thinking we should be holding to more of the money “we made” instead of living as those who owe everything to God.

Any other attitude is deception.  We have enough wealth in this church to pay our bills, do mercy work, change the lives of those who are without, plant churches, and send off foreign missionaries.  If you have it, you have it by God’s good grace.  The good and even the things that we think are bad are there by God’s design to grow us into maturity and that maturity looks like us becoming more like Jesus.

Second, God’s unchangeable nature is intended to protect you and strengthen you.  Right now, if you are struggling with something that God has placed in your life, use it as a time to pursue the unchanging nature of God.  If you are confused, if I am confused by something that’s going on, it is because we have misunderstood the character of God.  He remains faithful first and foremost to Himself.  He does all things for His glory first.  We are graciously part of His purposes to bring Himself glory, and our proper response is to worship Him for who He is:  the unchanging God who loves us.

Again, Malachi wants that unchanging, immutable nature of God to protect us, to keep us from being consumed.  Anytime we do not understand God or understand what God is doing, it is not an opportunity for us to change what we know of God to fit our situation.  It is a time to pursue who God says He is in scripture so that our hearts are what is changed.  That will keep you from being consumed because wrong ideas about who God is will consume you.  False gods make false promises and never deliver.  Never.  It is okay to be confused by God.  Conform your heart around who He reveals Himself to be instead of conforming who you think God ought to be.

Understanding and living out these first 2 applications leads us to living out our final and 3rd application:  God intendeds for you to be the firstfruits of His creation.  As you understand that God is ordaining everything in your life for His glory and your good, as He defines glory and good, then you will live a confident, faithful life trusting that God does not change.  That kind of living in this painful world will enable you and this church to be the firstfruit of many people coming to know Christ.

We have a modern term for that:  revival.  Revival is the bringing to life that which is dead.  It is either the Christian who has grown cold and unfaithful revived or it is the dead heart made alive to Christ.  Gang, every church should either be praying for revival or praying that God sustains revival among us.  Nobody prays for it to end.  And this passage shows us how it comes about.

If we truly want to see God do a great work among us, if we want to see Him glorified and see His Kingdom and not ours grow, this is how it happens.  We recognize that everything in our lives, and I mean every circumstance from trial to supposed blessing is there by God’s design and He calls that a good and perfect gift to us.  God has placed those things there for us to walk through them with joy so that we would be further equipped to obey Him and give Him glory.

As we struggle in the midst of our circumstances, we have to be honest about the fact that it is us who changes constantly, but God never does.  His unchanging nature is our comfort, our port in the storm.  Trusting and know Him as He has presented Himself in the scripture and in the person of Jesus Christ will protect us from being consumed even in the most difficult of situations.

And finally, as we recognize and live out these truths,  God will use you and me and us to be the first fruits of many people coming to know Jesus Christ as their Savior.  It is not that you will become some super Christian who has the super power to endure any circumstance.  No, the testimony that you have to those who do not know yet is that you are presenting to them a true picture of the character of God.  Reveal God to others as He has revealed Himself to us in the scripture and in the person of Jesus, and that revelation in our life as we persevere through whatever God wants for us will be a sweet testimony to who God is.  And by God’s sovereign will and plan, He will use that to bring many and many more people to know Him.

2 Corinthians 3: Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God

SK Brunch on February 5th

In the past year and half since the launch of SK’s Sunday School program, we have seen incremental growth each month.  However, since the beginning of the New Year, involvement has been higher, and quite honestly, the quality of teaching only continues to get better and better.

To highlight our goals for this New Year’s Sunday School program, SK will be hosting a brunch on February 5th at 930am.  In addition to great food and coffee, the youth and adults will gather in our worship space to hear about some of the things that we will be studying as well as outlining teachers and plans for class expansion.  Specifically encouraging is the new Youth Class led by Ben Thomas.  All of our children’s classes will continue as usual throughout that morning.

If you would like to help with food, contact Vanessa, but do not tie attendance to bringing something.  If you are able to help out, that’s great.  But the most important thing is gathering in as many folks as possible to hear about the exciting things coming up in the New Year.

Family Devotion and Sermon Notes for James 1:13-15

Big Idea:  Cheer up.  You are worse off than you know, but God is more gracious than you can imagine.

James 1: ¹³ Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

• Who does the Bible say is the tempter?
• What warnings does the Bible give us about the tempter?
• If God is not the tempter, how should that give us help and hope?
• What was Jesus’ interaction with temptation (Matthew 4)?

¹⁴ But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

• What causes us to be tempted by certain things?
• How does this verse make us more responsible for our sin?
• Where was desire before temptation came along?

 1⁵ Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

•  What is the result of sin according to these verses?

• How was Jesus like Adam and how was Jesus different than Adam when facing sin (Romans 5)?
• What hope do we have when facing temptation (Matthew 4, I Corinthians 10)?

What is a sin?  I can go old school for a minute and tell you that sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.  And though that is an incredibly helpful explanation of sin, its old English leads us to scratching our heads a bit.  So before we begin to define these things, let’s talk about what sin is not.  And don’t worry.  At SK, though we do talk of sin, we exalt the grace of God, but the grace of God found in Jesus Christ the good news is only good if it counters our sin problem.  So we must understand sin to fully understand Jesus.

So having said that, “What is sin?  Well sin is not a hurt, a habit, or a hang up.”  Yes sometimes we fall into sin because we are hurt.  This is awful when that happens.  Sexual abuse can, not always, but can lead to sexual promiscuity.  Abusive parents can create abusive adults.  Negligent parents can create adults who are negligent.  But sin is not just something we do because we saw others do it.  But sin is not just something we emulate.  It is that but not just that.

Sin is not bad habit.  Oh, we have sinful habits that we repeat every day, but sin in and of itself is not a bad habit.  Sin is not like biting your nails, picking your nose, or leaving your underwear on the floor.  Don’t get me wrong, we can fall into sinful patterns just like we do habits, but sin is much more than a habit.

Sin is not a hang up that we can get rid of by keeping New Year’s resolutions.  It is not an annoying something that you do every now and then.  Sin is much more pervasive than that.

So what is sin?  Sin is cosmic treason and to treat it as anything less than that is like letting a child play with a gun or to keep poison in your refrigerator.  When we sin, what our hearts are really saying is, “God, I will sit on your throne.  I will be God.  I will decide what is right and wrong.  You cannot tell me what to do, how to live, and you especially cannot tell me what I shouldn’t do.  We may not have that conscious thought each time, but that’s thing, we don’t have to.

The laws and commands of God are not a to do or a to don’t list.  They are expressions of His character.  To lie is not a small thing.  It violates the character of the God of all truth.  To gossip or to say things about a person that you would never say about them to their face is no small thing either.  It violates the character of the God who has revealed Himself and made Himself known.  To lust is no small thing.  Lust violates the sacrificial nature of Jesus and goes against the faithfulness and fidelity of the nature of God.  Any sin that we commit, whether it be a sin of the heart, a sin of speech, a sin of action or a sin of inaction, violates the law of God and thus violates His character.

When we face that truth, which James is going to make very clear this morning, we have no other option but to face this week’s Big Idea.
Big Idea:  Cheer up.  You are worse off than you know, but God is more gracious than you can imagine.

James 1: 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

For the sake of context, let me remind all of us of the context of these 3 absolutely huge and impactful verses.  James has told us that we are take great joy in trials because in the working through of trials, God produces a steadfastness in our lives that equips us for whatever God is doing.  When we struggle in those trials, we can ask God for wisdom by faith, and God will give us that wisdom.  The examples that James uses is taking great joy if God is placed us in a humble financial position because God will ultimately live us up where we will be blessed, not necessarily financially but lifted up and blessed nonetheless.  And his other example was that if we trust in our riches instead of in God, then God will humble us.  Ultimately though, God produces a steadfastness in us through these trials that give us a great hope of enjoying eternity with Him in heaven.

So as we move onto a connected, but new thought in James, we find that what he wants us to do is to realize what part we play in bringing about trials, conflicts, and difficulties in our lives.  He wants us to understand how our hearts are motivated by and given in to sin.  He also wants us to understand the character of God in all of these things.  A proper understanding of both, our hearts and God’s character, will drive us to our one hope in Jesus Christ.  Whew, weighty stuff, so let’s give it a shot.

In verse 13, James tells us we are all going to be tempted to sin.  But he wants us to understand the nature of that temptation and how it works with our hearts and where it comes from.  When you are tempted to sin, you cannot blame God for that temptation.  Why not?  If we are a church that claims that God is sovereign in all that He does, why can’t we blame Him for our temptations?  When you are tempted to look at porn or to fantasize about an attractive women or a handsome man, you don’t get to blame God for your lust.  When you are tempted to wreck your body by overeating or even starving yourself, you don’t get to blame God for your self-image issues or blame Him for what you hide in when you are stressed.  When you are tempted to act like a Polly Perfect or a Ricky Righteous to the rest world, you don’t get to blame God for your worship of other people’s opinions.

Why not?  The answer is because God Himself cannot be tempted and therefore tempts no man.  Yes, God ordains all circumstances, there is nothing beyond His direction and design, but those things are not His tempting us.  Ecclesiastes 7:14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

But God’s ordaining of a circumstance is not a temptation for you to sin.  James explains this when he says, 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  What the events that God ordains does is they reveal a desire in your heart.  To explain that, James uses the fishing language of a lure.  He says, Sin works this way:  some circumstance presents itself to you.  It is like a fishing lure.  A fish sees it and says, “Oh that would be good to eat.”  So what does the fish do?  It takes a bite because that thing is what it wants.  You can’t blame the eating of the worm on the hook.  The worm on the hook just shows the desire of the fish’s heart.

That is the way sin and temptations work in all of our hearts.  Some event, some word spoken, some circumstance rises, some visual comes to your eye, some smell comes to you, whatever, and once your heart interacts with those things, a desire in your heart that was already there is some nature, is revealed and aroused.   We are then tempted to sin and gratify that desire.  And quite often we give in to disobedience and sin.  God has not done this to us.  Our sinful desires were just brought to light by a particular circumstance.

For example, let’s say you struggle with gossip.  You love talking poorly about other people.  It makes you feel better about yourself and the choices you have made.  You also know, that when you are around certain people, you wind up gossiping with them.  “Oh, did you hear?  Oh, that’s so sad.”  You know the drill whether you are willing to admit or not.  So when you are around these certain people, they say certain things or ask you certain questions that just entice your heart to start talking about people.  You can’t blame them.  They just created an opportunity for your sin to take flight and take bloom.

Let’s say you struggle with lust.  Images and other people entice your heart towards sinful fantasy and mental adultery.   Whether it be a picture online, a video, or another person.  You cannot blame them for your sin of lust.  They are merely the worm on a lure.  They just brought your sinful desires to light and caused you to sin.  Jesus tells us this in Matt 15 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”  Gang, we cannot take the nature of sin in our hearts lightly.  And James lets us know that this sin is not merely a hurt, habit, or hangup.

Verse 15 tells us “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.  Temptation reveals the desires in our heart that are sinful, and when we act on those desires they are sinful desires that lead to death.  This was the promised judgment for sin that God explain to Adam and Eve.  When God told them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He said, Genesis 2:27 On the day you eat, you shall surely die.  And Paul reiterates that message when he says in Romans 3.23 – The wages of sin is death.

So when you are tempted and that desire in your heart is inflamed, and when you act on that desire, it gives birth to sin.  And that sin brings forth the judgment of death.  Now in hearing that you might say, “Let me get this straight.”  When I’m tempted, it is not God tempting me.  All the temptation does is shows me what sin already residing in my heart.  If I act on that desire, it gives birth to sin, and that sin gives birth to death?

I would say, “Yep, and you would say,” and you might say, “How depressing.”  But James and I would offer this to our weak hearts.  James is explaining this so that as you have faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sin, you would also have faith in Him to grow in obedience.  Not an obedience that saves you but an obedience that is evidence that you are saved.

Let me see if we can explore the nature of this a bit more from scripture so that we will understand temptation and nature correctly so then we can grow in a manner that God through James wants for us.  Buckle up for some diving into deep waters, but I trust you guys can grasp things well, and I pray God enables me to explain to all of us clearly.  So here are a couple of principles that will help us as we become more aware of temptation and seek to battle the desires in our heart so that we might obey to the glory of God.

First, James is completely right when He says God is not the tempter.  God is not, but Satan is.  We saw this first in the Garden of Eden.  Genesis 3: Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.  He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”  Then we saw this again when Satan tempted Jesus in the Garden.  Matt 4.3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”  And Peter when he wrote one of the very last letters in the Bible, he said 1 Peter 5.8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Now, we know from James that we don’t get to blame Satan for our sin, but we do have a tempter and an accuser who desires to see us fall into sin and walk away from faith.  Again, the church falls into extremes.  We think every sin we commit came about because Satan himself sat on our shoulder and told us what to do or we completely ignore the fact that Peter tells us that we have an enemy that wants to destroy us.  In between that, we need to do just what Peter commands us to do:  be sober-minded which mean realize how weak we really are and be watchful.  Diligently pray that God would protect you from Satan, temptation and your weak flesh.

Second, Jesus overcame temptation where Adam did not.  This is one of our greatest hopes.  Romans 5 explains this for us in this way.  Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.  15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.

Give me a moment to explain this because truly is our great hope.  God makes relationships with His people in covenants which is an agreement with conditions.  And in each covenant, there is a head or one who represents all that come after Him.  So for all of humanity, Adam was our covenantal head.  He was tempted to sin by Satan and his willing choice to disobey God’s command plunged humanity into the cursed nature of sin.  Because of that, the nature of sin is given to every one of us, and therefore, the judgment of death is given to every one of us.

What was needed was a new covenantal head who would be obedient and take on that curse of death.  That’s what Jesus did.  Born without sin as the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, Jesus was our second chance.  So in Matthew 4, when Satan tempts Jesus, everything is on the line.  Your salvation, your forgivenss, your hope of overcoming sin, and your hope for overcoming temptation is on the line.  And Jesus obeys.  So Romans tells us, we all die in the sinful trespasses of Adam, but the grace of God and the free gift of salvation comes through Jesus’ obedience.

That leads us to our final thought, and  I promise to make this the last theological point and then we’ll move to application. We have hope to overcome temptation because of God’s mercy.  1 Corinthians 10: No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Without Christ, no one has any innate ability to withstand temptation because the heart that has not been made alive in Christ doesn’t want to obey God for His glory.  But the heart that has been forgiven and transformed by Jesus’ obedience in life, death, and resurrection, can withstand temptation.

The gospel works like the temptation of sin but in a redemptive way.  When you hear the sweet promises of Christ overcoming temptation of sin on your behalf, then when you are tempted to sin, your new redeemed transform heart given to you by God resonates with hope.  And the Gospel when conceived gives birth to obedience and when obedience is fully grown it gives birth to life.  You will be tempted, but God resides within your heart so that there is now hope in the midst of temptation.   No matter the depth of temptation a certain sin has for your heart, God can enable you to obey.  How? And this is crucial point for us.  Well that leads us to our takeaway application.  In fact, there are 3.

First, God provides a way of escape for you when you are tempted to sin.  The way of escape is both spiritual and practical.  Spiritually, Jesus’ obedience in the face of temptation empowers you to obey in the face of temptation, but the other thing God provides for us is a new heart that practically recognizes that we need a way of escape.  Let me give you an example.  The other day my sweet girl Landry disobeyed to the point that we needed to take something away from her.   Lately, Landry has loved to play with chipmunk toys.  She and Emma will makeup plays about the chipmunks for hours.  So Landry, with great sadness, wasn’t allowed to play with her Chipmunks for a day.  During her rest time that day, she called me into her room and asked me to take the Chipmunks out.  She said, if they stay in here, I will be tempted to play with them.

That’s it, gang.  Landry got it.  She may not have known this verse, but she got it.  God now provides a way of escape in sin.  Playing with Chipmunks when she wasn’t supposed to would have been disobeying.  God provided in Landry’s heart a desire to obey and a knowledge of her own weakness. She needed a way of escape and took it.  That’s the spiritual and the practical brought together to produce obedience in the face of temptation.

Knowing that your heart is weak and not strong enough to fight temptation is God’s gift to those you as you have faith in Jesus.  Be honest about the pull of sin.  Overestimate the power of temptation and underestimate your ability to fight it.  Doing that helps you to cry out to God and He provides a way of escape.  Sometimes, you just have to remove yourself or protect yourself so that if faced with a certain temptation, you don’t give in and sin.  That is wise and that is glorifying to God.

Second, a way of escape give the heart time to heal but they do not change the heart.  God does that.  Let me explain, let me give you a list of things that people struggle with when they are alone:  pornography, overeating, self-mutilation, depression, judgmentalism.  These and a host of other sins creep up in temptation when we are alone.  You are up late at night, and you are tempted to indulge whatever sin it is that you are given to.  You know you need a way of escape so you ask someone to keep you accountable.  You say, “Hey if you know I’m going to be up late or if you know that on Tuesday mornings I’m often alone, will you call me and just help me so that I don’t give in to temptation?”

That is awesome; you are providing an accountability and a way of escape so that you won’t fall into sin.  Your heart is protected by seeking out a way of escape, and your heart has time to heal a bit so that you aren’t constantly giving into sin.  You begin to establish new patterns of life, thought, speech, and action.  Obedience grows and the power of temptation diminishes.   However, remember only God is the one who changes your heart’s desires.  That’s why David prayed in Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,    and renew a right spirit within me.  Don’t fool yourself into thinking, “Oh, I’ve got this thing licked,” because as soon as you do, you are going to be tempted to fall into sin so quickly, you won’t  know what happened.

And one final note on the way of escape to overcome temptation:  we have to protect our hearts from making our way of escape a new law or legalism.  Protection and your way of escape can easily be seen as legalism and be forced upon others if we are not careful.  Take alcohol for example.  Many people are tempted to take alcohol to excess.  Not only is drunkenness a huge problem, but alcoholism runs rampant.  Scripture is very clear in that alcohol in and of itself is not a sin.  Alcohol was part of the Lord’s Supper and on more than one occasion alcohol is actually recommended.  But scripture tells us in Ephesians 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit

Okay, so just like our speech and our eating, God tells us that those things are okay in and of themselves, but to talk too much, eat too much, and drink too much is a sin.  Wisely, folks who are given to drunkenness and alcoholism place things in their life to provide for themselves a way of escape.  People who struggle with this sin don’t allow alcohol in their homes.  They often don’t go to events where alcohol is provided freely.  They avoid circumstances that tempt them to drink.  This is incredibly wise.

But, the way of escape becomes legalism when those same folks say began to impose those things on other Christians, “Well, all drinking is a sin and you are sinning if you are drinking.  A person may wisely say that they just can’t have any alcohol because it is too tempting, but to impose a conviction that is not found in scripture on others is legalism – it is a law that God has not established.  So we have to be careful even as we protect ourselves from sin.

You may hear all of this and go, “Goodness, Gordon, this is a mess.  Can it be easier?”  Well, trusting Jesus by faith for overcoming is in and of itself is an easy idea, but the power of sin, even that power of sin that remains in the heart of one who has faith in Jesus, is strong.  We must constantly be weighing our hearts against the truths of scripture, and we don’t walk into a brand new sin of legalism as walk away from some other sin that we are struggling with.

God help us.  And that is exactly what we need to remind ourselves as we return to our Big Idea:  Cheer up.  You are much worse off that you ever knew, but God is more gracious than you could ever imagine.
Romans 8:12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

As you have faith in Christ, you are now not obliged to sin or live according to the flesh.  You are now called and enabled to live by the Spirit of God.  And that indwelling Spirit in your life will enable to kill that which once killed you.  You can put to death the deeds of sin in your own life.  If you have faith in Christ, you are now a child of God no longer an enemy of God.  And God has gifted you with a renewed spirit, and that spirit is not one that is a slave to sin.  It is not a spirit given to fear.  God has given each of you a new spirit that recognizes and relishes the truth that you have been adopted into the family of God, and that heart cries out Abba Father, it cries out Daddy, I love you.

The very spirit of God bears witness with your spirit to tell you, “Hey you no longer have to be a slave to your sin.”  You are now a child of God and that makes you an heir with Christ.  As He suffered and is now glorified.  And we too will suffer, sometimes from our own sinful consequences and sometimes because of this sinful world’s.  But by the grace of God, will we endure and persevere, and ultimately be glorified with Jesus.   Insane promises.

So, gang, your sin problem is much worse you ever imagined.  However, God’s grace should blow your mind.  Do not give up in your fight against sin.  Jesus has obeyed for you and empowers your obedience now.  You will suffer and you will at times disobey, but do not fear.  You have a new spirit, one that reminds you that you are now God’s child, and reminds you a glorious home in heaven awaits.

Family Devotion and Sermon Notes for James 1:12

Family Devotion:

Big Picture Question:  How are trials, temptations, and blessings connected?

James 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:  Greetings.  2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

·    What brings about blessing in the midst of trials?
·    Reread verses 1-8 and discuss the promises surrounding steadfastness and trials.
·    Read http://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/crown-life/ and consider the questions under the section entitled “coram deo”.

Sermon Notes

Kids, youth, and anyone else, still living at home:  when you live at home with your Mom and Dad, it is easy to forget how many things they do for you.  Hopefully, and I mean hopefully, you wake up with the electricity on, food to eat, clean clothes to wear, and a host of other things.  Even the best of parents are sinful, get mad, are impatient, and sometimes they even raise their voice.  But hopefully, again I will say hopefully, even the worst of parents take care of their kids.

But this isn’t the case for everyone.  Now according both to the police and the Community of Hope organization, this church resides in a neighborhood where loving and caring parents cannot always be assumed.  There are many kids, just a ¼ mile from our door, for which I think we are accountable for btw, who don’t have the kind of dependability that I have been talking about.

But when you live in a home where those kinds of thing are provided for you (heat, food, a roof), your parents do this because they work hard to provide these things.  They provide them for you because they love you.  Even if you have a hard day at school or even if you are upset about something, most of you can probably count on going home and resting because your Mom and Dad love you and take care of you.

A parent’s love for their child should mirror God’s love for His children.  God provides for us because He loves us.  He sent Jesus to live and die and rise again so that we could be forgiven.  And just like when you have bad day and you can count on your parents, you can have a bad day and count on God and love, care, and protection.  In fact, you can count on God’s love in an even greater manner than your parents.

Well, the Book of James tells us that when you count on God in hard times and that you will ultimately be blessed.  That doesn’t mean that all your problems will go away.  But it does mean that God promises to use all of your difficulties for your own good and for His own glory.  When you count on God to take care of you over a long period of time, the Bible calls that steadfastness.  And when you count on God your entire life, you will one day go to Heaven and God will give you a Crown of Life.

We have all of these blessings because Jesus loved us, died for us, and forgives us.  As you grow in believing in Him, you will be able to go through hard times and still have lots of joy because you know Jesus is helping you.  As you get older, the only way in which you are going to understand how good times and bad times fit together, is to trust God loves and cares for you.

For all of us adults in the crowd, this is a good lesson as well.  Knowing you heard all of that, remind yourself, that God alone is the one who can speak to how trials, temptations, and even blessings are connected.  God speaks to the hows and the whys, but never ever are those understandings apart from faith which requires a dependency and a trust other than what you have in own head and heart.  So this week as we approach James, let’s see what God says about the meaning attached to tough times, curious times, trials, and even blessings.  With that in mind, let’s attempt to answer this

Big Picture Question:  How are trials, temptations, and blessings connected?

Again, for the sake of context, let’s read the first 12 verses of the book of James.

James 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:  Greetings.  2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

We’ve been in James for a whopping three weeks so far, and James hasn’t disappointed.  So far James has told us to take joy in trials because God uses them to produce greater faith and steadfastness in our hearts.  James has told us that if we need wisdom, ask for it by faith and God will give it.  We’ve been told that if we are poor and lowly, then thank God and boast in that state of life because God is going to lift us up.  And James also said if we are trusting in riches, then God is going to humble us.  So all of a sudden, we begin to get a larger sense for God’s connectivity between trials, temptations, and blessings.

That alone is enough to shake us to the core.  But it also enough to lead us into a revived spirit of worship that causes us the thank God in all thinks and grow in new levels sacrifice and service.  It is enough to help us realize that God is at work in events that this thinks are evidence of His abandonment.  These verses are enough to change our view of what is going on and move our hearts to a great hope of revival. With all of those things in mind, let’s jump into verse 12 of James and see where all of these lines of thoughts take us next.

James 1:12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

This is James’ bookend thought on trials that began a few verses ago.  In verse 2, he told us to take great joy in trials because by enduring them faithfully, we grow in steadfastness and God uses them to equip us for whatever it is that He wants for us.  Now, in verse 12, James tells us that to remain steadfast in trials is to be blessed.  Don’t worry, I know you are just dying for me to keep talking about hard times.  So if you just can’t enough of this hard times talk, James, will have much more to say about them later on in the book.  But for the moment, James wants to bring this section of teaching on trials to a nice conclusion.
He again explains in a way that is quite counter-intuitive for most of us that we are in a state of blessing from God as we remain steadfast during trials.  Why?  Because James says, you steadfastness in trials, ultimately will lead you to receiving the crown of life.  Now, we need to spend some time talking about this crown of life, but really before that, we need to make sure that we understand assuredly what is meant here by steadfastness in trials, especially if it leads to such a wonderful blessing.

Well, steadfastness can be the momentary conviction and trust of God in a specific circumstance, but it is larger than that.  Steadfastness is like wisdom.  It is born out over a long period of time.  Enduring one trial well is steadfast to an extent.  But remaining hopeful and joyful in the midst of trials enduring, that is the larger sense of steadfastness.  What I want each of you to know in the midst of that is if you feel you are presently failing in a circumstance it doesn’t mean you aren’t or haven’t been or won’t be steadfast.  We are fallible, sinful human beings and we do fail in certain trials.  But steadfastness is God’s work in your heart over a long period of time

So right now, if you are enduring a specific trial.  Perhaps your disappointment has caused you to be a terrible gossip (all masked under spiritual concern of course).  Perhaps your lust has caused you to begin to desire another and lose pursuit of your spouse.  Perhaps the frustration of raising children has caused you to lose your temper more times than you can count.  Perhaps you are secretly friendly to folks you disagree with but privately you are bitter and divisive.  The question becomes, Have you not been steadfastly faithful?

Well, here is the wonderful thing.  Steadfast begins as you cry out to God for help.  And you know what happens when you do?  When you go from trust of self to crying out to God, you know what happens?  Psalm 18:6 In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help.  From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

This is hard for the human heart to grasp.  Trials are difficult enough to understand much less how we can be steadfast in them.  And as I mentioned last week, we sinfully go to the extremes, even when it comes to steadfastness.  Let me explain the extremes associated with steadfastness and this really is important because steadfastness is connected to the receiving of the crown of life.

One extreme in thinking about steadfastness is the Christian who refuses to admit that trials and circumstances are difficult, painful, and hurtful.  You see, admitting how hard something is and admitting one’s weakness is not sinful, weak or faithless.  Admitting the difficulty of trials is being faithful.  Yes, complaining is a sin, but being honest about one’s emotions is not.  Big difference.  You know why?  If you can’t admit weakness before God, then you don’t need a Savior.  And if even if you do admit your weaknesses before God but you are unwilling to do it before others then you are a hypocrite. Saying, “Oh yeah this is hard but God is doing some wonderful things” with a Pollyanna smile or He-man grimace is not steadfastness.  Often it is denial, self-righteousness, masked anger or a lack of understanding the Gospel.  Control is not peace or steadfastness.  It is control.

As a good friend of mine counseled me the other day, “It is sinful for me pretend to be joyful when I am sad.”  You see honesty before God is worship.  Please hear this.  Ecclesiastes 7:  14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other.  Being honest with a broken heart, living that out in integrity and offering it to God IS worship and is steadfastness.  Trying to deny that trials are trying for the sake of some pseudo-spiritually is to deny the promises of James and the necessity of the work of Jesus Christ.  Count the trial joy.  It doesn’t say count death or taxes or pain joy.  It is says count the trial that God is ordaining for you joy.

I know a guy who has been through the worst of circumstances this year, but will never admit the toll it is taking on his heart.  Everyone else sees it but he doesn’t.  He says he never gets mad, and you know what, he never yells or raise his voice, but you know what?  It looks like control.  He looks and presents himself as perhaps the angriest person I know.  And those around him see the anger and the pain, but he won’t admit it.

Admitting the difficulty of a circumstance and admitting how desperately dependent you are on in God in its midst is not wrong and it is not sinful.  Admitting difficulty and admitting your dependency on God is the pathway to steadfastness.  It is worship.  Let’s be a church that evidences and encourages just and honest expressions of trials and encouraging each other to find joy in the fact that God is working in our lives.  We can be a people who are joyful in trials but let’s just not be a people who are appear to be full of denial.  If you present your self as one who always downplays the difficulty of what’s going on and plasters on a fake Jesus smile, not only are you not being honest before God, then you are also presenting yourself as a person who is not safe for others to share their difficulties with.

Now, the other extreme is to see every trial and circumstance as the end of the world.  This is a world of sin and pain.  It is a world of difficulty, betrayal, and hurt.  That is why in John 16:33 we hear from Jesus, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”  The extreme that falls apart at every circumstance either thinks that God has promised roses and sunshine or their faith is weak not thinking that God can instill them the steadfastness to persevere.  Faith and steadfastness says, “God is at work, not to put white paint on moldy walls but God is at work making all things to my benefit and to His glory.”

Gang, this hope of steadfastness that James speaks of is really a faith in God’s work, the mercy of Jesus, and the application of that work by the Holy Spirit over a long period of time.  Yes, there are moments where you endure trials amazingly well.  And there are trials that overwhelm and paralyze us.  You will take up your cross and follow Jesus.

But we serve a triumphal Savior who assured every promise of God in your life by His triumphant resurrection over the dead.  Steadfastness is admitting how desperately needy we are before God, realizing the challenges of trials, and then living out an honest, faithful trust that God is working.  Don’t deny how tough things are.  Admit that you are human and weak.  Lift up the hope you have.  Don’t try to be superhuman or super spiritual.  Grow in a thankfulness for Christ and a thankfulness for what He is doing in your life through trials.

Now, as we continue to understand this steadfastness in the midst of trials, remember it is speaking both to your enduring the present circumstance that you are going through and you enduring until the end.  This is speaking to that wonderful theological point called “perseverance of the saints’ which is similar to another term called “eternal security” but a little deeper.  Please bear with me as I explain these terms because in their understanding you will find great hope and greater understanding to this passage in James.

Eternal security, also known as once saved always saved, is the belief that once you have faith in Jesus Christ, you can never lose it.  If you have been forgiven and the condemnation of death in hell as been removed from you, God will never remove it from you.  This is 100% true.  There are a host of verses that support this but for the sake of time, I’ll just settle on this one.  And this is an area when I put the notes on the website for family devotion, you’ll more verses.  Jude 24, 2 Corinthians 5:17-19

I Peter 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

God is the one who causes us to be born again.  We should bless God and give Him glory.  Why?  Jesus’ resurrection is the hope that God will cause us to born again.  We will go from death to life.  Dead in sin to alive in Christ.  Dead in hell to alive in heaven.

That gives us an inheritance, something we wait for, which is imperishable; it cannot die.  And your salvation, that inheritance, that ultimate being with God, is kept for you in heaven, not by your power but by God’s.  That’s the hope here.  God is the one who protects your salvation.  Therefore you cannot lose it.  That is why Jesus says in John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

Now that in a nutshell is eternal security.  Now taking that thought a bit further is the doctrine of perseverance of the saints which is really what this passage in James is speaking of.  We find that in many places, but for the sake of time, let’s look at Romans 8

Romans 8: 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”  37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God gave us His son Jesus for our salvation.  That is security enough but verse 37 tells us the hope of that salvation – it is an enduring salvation.  God’s children, His elect, cannot and will not be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus because God’s love has made us more than conquerors.  Nothing in all of creation, get that, nothing in all of creation, including you yourself can separate from the expression of God’s love.

Think about the language being used here.  We have no idea a conqueror is.  But Israel did.  They understood Herod and Pilates and all the other conquerors who came in and took over their land.  Paul is saying, We are more powerful than all of them because of what God has done for us in  Christ Jesus.  If you have faith in Jesus, it is a persevering faith that will remain until the end.  Through Christ, you and I, we, are more than conquerors.  No one and no thing can separate you from the love of God that you have in Christ Jesus.  You will persevere until the end, sometimes greatly and sometimes weakly, but always trusting in Jesus Christ.  Philippians 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

So, having said all of that, when James says that the man who remains steadfast will receive the crown of life, he is speaking of people who have faith in Jesus.  If you truly have faith in Jesus, a transformative faith that knows forgiveness and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, you will endure and persevere as a Christian.  That doesn’t mean you’ll be perfect.   That doesn’t mean you won’t have struggles, but you will continue to have a transformative faith in Jesus and because of that indwelling persevering faith that God has given you, when you die you will receive the crown of life.

What is that?  Oh, there are libraries on that topic.  So with time that is left, let me provide you with some background.  John also mentions the crown of life in Revelation 2.10 when he says, “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.”  So we know the crown has to do with enduring faithfulness which is consistent with what James says here.  The crown of life was a well known idiom in James’ day.  It was of joy, gladness, and glory more than royalty.  It is the crowning gift that culminates in heaven where the undoing of the curse of sin is realized.  You see the judgment for sin was the curse of death promised all the way back in Genesis 3 – on the day you eat, you shall surely die.  So the gift of salvation realized in heaven is the crown of life.  But we will ultimately walk into the realization of that crown of life after enduring faithfully the difficult trials of this world.

Phil Ryken quoting John Calvin says, “All whom the Lord has chosen and received into the society of his saints, ought to prepare themselves for a life that is hard, difficult, laborious, and full of countless griefs.  This is because the Christian life is patterned after the life of Christ.  As it was for Christ, so it is for the Christian:  through suffering into glory.  First humiliation then exaltation – the cross before the crown.”

So with all of those things, let’s make just a few applications about how God connects our trials, temptations, and blessings.  First, the steadfastness in trials that God calls us to is not a denial of the difficulty of this world, our sin, or the pain that we are experiencing.  Psalm 51 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.  Honest worship is being who we are before who God is.  We are weak and sinful ever dependent upon God.   He desires in us a broken and contrite heart that cries out in dependence.  That is steadfastness.

Second, the steadfastness in trials that God calls us to is not a helplessness that crushes us.  2 Corinthians 4: We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.  Yes, we will be afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, struck down, and we will carry in our body the death of Jesus. But we live an abundant life that Christ has given to us.

All of these things that God does in our hearts ultimately will enable us to persevere, endure, and be steadfastness so that ultimately, when we die, we will sit with Christ in the heavenlies and we will receive the crown of life that will be the fulfillment of Christ reversing the punishment and curse of death that is due to sin.  Gang, let’s be a people that are patient when other suffer.  Let’s offer each other and the community around us a safe place to be broken and hurting.  Let’s be honest about this painful world.  Let’s not be overwhelmed and crushed.  Let’s offer the real, tangible hope of Christ that doesn’t deny the hardships that he promised but actually lifts Him up in an honest way that is believable.

That’s the hard part isn’t it?  How in the world is our hope real, credible, and believable?  Well, if it is, it will transform you.  And ultimately, the only way your trials will transform you is if you seek the glory of God before you seek the ease of circumstances

Family Devotion and Sermon Notes from James 1:9-11

Family Devotion

Big Idea:  How do we participate in the upside down nature of God’s Kingdom?

 

James 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:  Greetings.  2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

 

 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

 

• Reread verses 1-8 and discuss the promises surrounding steadfastness and trials.
• How does God promise to help His children in the midst of trials (vs 5)?

 

9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation

 

• How are both lowly and rich conditions related to James’ discussion of trials?
• Read Matthew 19:16-30 and Proverbs 30:7-9.  How do this verses help you understand the teachings of verse 9-10.

 

Because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

 

• Verse 11 speaks of a rich man pursuing riches for riches sake.  Why is this contrary to God’s will?
• How should these verses inform your giving, your generosity, and your general approach to wealth?
• How does Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6:19-24 help us understand these verses?

 Sermon Notes

Christianity in the hands of sinful men and women always goes to extremes.  It is not that Christianity is lived somewhere in the middle or lived in one of my least favorite phrases “in balance” because it is not.  The extremes of Christianity require very little faith and trying to find a balance often means “hey I’m just going to drop my commitments and God’s commandments for a while”.  Balance is not really something scripture speaks about.  Christianity is lived by faith, yet extremes are often where we go anyway.  Let me give you a few examples of what I’m talking about.

Romans 1 tells us that the righteous will live by faith alone in Jesus and James 2 will tell us in a few weeks that though we are saved by faith, if that faith isn’t accompanied by works, then that faith is dead and nonexistent.  Those two truths often produce extremes.  There are a host of folks who will say “Since I am saved by faith, I am going to sin it up and live it up, no law of God matters.”  That type of teaching is called antinomianism which means no law.  This teaching forgets that the new heart giving to you by Jesus changes and transforms your desires.  So you will not be saved by what you do but you will want to obey.  The other extreme says, “Well God forgives me, but if I want to experience any love and affection from God, I’m going have to earn by how hard I work.”  Some even have gone so far as to punish themselves or flagellate themselves because they feel like there is still punishment for their sins.  This is of course legalism or as a good friend of mine here calls that, “the lostpel”. Neither of those extremes are true.  We are saved by faith and faith alone.  But that faith is transformational and we will obey because God has given us a new heart that is able to obey Him.

Let me give you another example.  In Matthew 19 Jesus says, ²⁴ Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”  But 3 John 2 says, and I’ll use the KJV for effect  ²Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.  Because of these teachings, two extremes are produced.  There have been entire movements in Christianity where earning money, making money, even owning possessions were deemed as a lesser form of faith.  And you don’t have to travel back in time to find these monastic movements.  I know of one in Durham, even read the guys’ book.  They will say that ownership and capitalism are counter to the Kingdom.  Now on the other hand, there are a host of teachers today that would say, “Nope, God wants you to be rich, take back the riches of Egyptians” as they would say.  If you have enough faith, God will pour out all the treasure of heaven in earthy blessings.

How then do we live?  Well, our first step should be always to live these hard truths by faith asking ourselves, “What does dependence in all things look like?”  Our dependence on God for our health and our money and other truths should mimic our dependence upon God for salvation.  These things are His work.  I do know this:  the nature of God’s Kingdom, of which all Christians belong whether it be salvation or finances or whatever else, is upside down and contrary to the world.  Up is down and down is up.  What the world exalts, God casts down.  That doesn’t mean that in Kingdom of God that 2 plus 3 equals 6, but it does mean that the living out of faith and living in the Kingdom of God is going to be informed by the scriptures and lived out by faith.  A person with no faith in Christ does not depend on either of those things:  faith in God or the word of God.  Faith in Jesus means live is just going to be drastically different than not having faith in Jesus.

So with that in mind, let’s approach, let’s again approach the book of James and ask this:  Big Picture Question:  How do we participate in the upside down nature of God’s Kingdom?  For the sake of our memory and for understanding today’s passage in its proper context, I’m going to read the passage that we look at last week as well as the scripture for this week.

James 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:  Greetings.  2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.  11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

If you weren’t with us last week or even if you were, let me remind all of us where the first 8 verses of James took us.  James begins with perhaps one of the most preposterous commands in all of the scriptures. James commands us, he doesn’t suggest to us, but actually commands us that whenever we face trials, any kind of trial, whether it be health, relationship, financial, whatever, that for the believer in Jesus Christ, when we face that trial we should consider it pure joy.  This doesn’t mean that we can’t ask God to give us relief from our trials, we can.  What we know God intends for His children is that no matter the trial they have great joy.

Why you might ask?  Well, God wants us to have joy in our trials because the testing of our faith produces steadfastness and steadfastness prepares us for whatever it is that God calls us to do.  Essentially, our trials are God’s equipping ground.  If you want to be used by God, then you will go through trials in preparation.  And the reason that we often just cry out for God to take away our trials instead of asking for joy and steadfastness in their midst is because we often worship ease and comfort more than we worship God.

The American church’s inability and lack of willingness to embrace trials as part of God’s will is, at least in my humble opinion, part of the reason why the American church is weak, cold, and at times appears to be on life support.  And embracing of God’s grand design to use trials to make us more like Jesus would transform us and the church.  And if we just don’t know how to do that, verses 7-8 tell us that if we ask God for wisdom, He will give it to us so that we will know how to live in the midst of trials.  Just like in everything else, we are commanded to ask for that wisdom by faith and God promises to give it to us.

Now having said, as if those commands were not radical enough having reminded us all that we should live with joy in trials and asking God for wisdom, James decides to throw us for another loop.  In verse 9, he says.

9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation,

Where in the world does this come from?  How in the world could this be connected to teaching on trials and wisdom?  Let’s see.  What we have here is a command for two different folks to boast in something.  The lowly brother is commanded to boast in his exaltation and the rich person is commanded to boast in his humiliation.  So before we understand why they should boast, we need to understand why the lowly brother is exalted the rich brother is humiliated.

Well, that question is directly related to James discussion of trials.  The lowly brother or the brother who is poor and without many worldy riches and the rich person are both in extreme trials and difficult circumstances.  And because of those circumstances, James is telling them both to enjoy what God is doing in their lives.

God often uses the loss of wordly riches and the financial struggle of individuals and yes even churches to bring people to Himself.  Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord and what will happen?  God promises to life you up.  So when we don’t humble ourselves, God has a tendency to do that for us.  Now that doesn’t mean that financial struggles or any circumstance that would qualify one to be called lowly is evidence of being disciplined.  Perhaps but not necessarily.  But it does mean that the intention of any lowly circumstance is for one to take great joy and even boast in it because they know that God is going to lift them up.  Error is seeking lowliness and destituteness with foolish and irresponsible decisions.

No but the lowly brother who claims faith in Christ should thank God that God is actively at work on their behalf and if we do that, you and I and this church, will be lifted up.  That doesn’t mean that lowliness equals the gateway to winning the lotto.  But it does mean that God promises to buffet and support and encourage those who are presently struggling in lowly situations.

So right now, the conditions in your life and the conditions within this church that are causing us to feel lowly, whether those conditions are financial or physical or good folks  moving away, whatever, boast in it, be thankful for it, take joy it, because God is going to exalt you, lift you up, equip, and support you.  The difference in the lowly brother’s life, the difference in your life is how you view these conditions.

As Simon Kistemaker says, “Before the poor brother can boast of an honorable position, he must first learn to appreciate the significance of his status.  That is, he should look not at material possessions, but at spiritual treasures.  He must have an entirely different outlook on life.  He views life not from the aspect of materialism but rather in relation to spiritual values.”

Faith and perspective make every difference.  Now for the rich, James commands them also to boast because God is going to humble them.  That sounds no fun.  Listen being rich in this world is wonderful.  You can do whatever you want.  You can do great things. You can gold plated toilets on your personal jet.  You rims can spin and you can have a grotto in our backyard.

But being rich ain’t easy.  In fact, in the story of the Rich Young Ruler, Jesus tells us in Matthew 19 that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Thankfully though, Jesus also tells us that with God, all things are possible.  I can’t tell you how many people have told me, “Yeah, I know the Bible says that being rich is a difficult life, but I sure would like to give it a try.

But James is telling even the richest of people and the riches of churches, “Your riches are a trial and ultimately, in one way or another, God is going to humble you.”  That doesn’t necessarily mean that every rich person is going to lose all their riches, but it does mean that God is going to cast down anyone who has a trust in their riches.  Watch any VH1 reality show and see the absolute misery that the Mob wives, the Basketball wives, the wives of New Jersey, the behind the music specials whatever, God will cast down those who trust in anything but themselves.

Now you might hear that and think, “Well, I’m not rich.  I don’t drive a Bentley, have 800 thread count sheets or have a maid and a nanny.”  But Gang, c’mon, you don’t have to have those things to be rich.  Let me give you some insight into our riches because rich is only rich by way of comparison.

The average household income in America is 49,445.  Now, America is not all that big compared to the rest of the world, so if you make $49,445 as a household, you are richer than 99.02% of rest of the world.  Let’s say you make $100,000 a year as a household.  You are richer than 99.33% of the rest of the world.  Let’s go in the other direction.  Let’s say your household income is what America calls “below the poverty level”.  We arrogant Americans describe the poverty level as a household of 4 making less than $22,314.  If you make $22,314, then you are richer than 98.33% of the rest of the world.

By any definition, we are rich folks, so even if we struggle to make ends meet, the world would kill for our financial problems.  I don’t mean to be insensitive to any one’s financial struggles, but when the vast majority of us look at this verse, we should see ourselves as the rich who boast in the fact that we are going to be humbled by God in some way.  And God calls our hearts to call these trials good and joyful because the trials we face are intended to equip us to love Jesus greater and serve Him more faithfully.

So what should our attitude be?  Well, there is plenty of sermon left to go, so for the moment, I’ll just offer Proverbs 30 to us as a beginning application.  Proverbs 30:8 give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, ⁹ lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”  The extremes are always a dangerous place and the author of Proverbs knew it.  He said, “Hey God, I don’t want to be rich because I will quickly deny you if I don’t have to depend on you.”  “And please don’t make me poor because I have such a hard time trusting you for your provision that I will ultimately steal if I have to.”  As Francis Schaeffer once asked, “How should we then we live, Gang?”

We have to ask that because this teaching in James is so upside down that apart from God’s help, it just doesn’t even seem true.  The rich among us are going to quickly say, “I’m not rich,” and the poor among us are not going to admit how rich we are either.  More than likely, all of us want just a bit more.  Folks, quick litmus test.  If your generosity doesn’t hurt or pinch a bit, then you are probably living  like you want a little bit more.  We need more help, and James gives is to us by explaining the fleeting nature of trusting in wealth as opposed to trusting God in the second half of verse 10 through verse 11.

because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.  11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

Flowers pass away.  The sun rises and scorches the grass, especially in my yard during the summer.  The beauty of a flower is just for a season and will eventually perish as a flower withers to the ground and dies.  As poetic as that is, what does that have to do with anything?

Well, pursuing wealth, ease, and subsequent security through riches is a dead end game.  Seeking security in riches means that ultimately you are going to fade away just like the scorched grass and the withering flower in the summer heat.  Notice, the promise here is not that the riches are going to fade away.   The rich man is going to fade away.  You might keep every dollar you have ever earned but if your trust is in your income, then you will fade away like a dead flower.

So how then does the Christian live in this upside down kingdom of our God’s?  What do we do?  Do we take the two extremes offered in our introduction?  Do we seek poverty and askew any property ownership, wealth, and income?  Or do we assume that God is talking about the wealth of the ungodly and seek God’s making us rich financially.  Again, the extremes are the error and balance is not the goal either.  Faith is the goal.  So, let’s seek further wisdom from the scriptures about what that faith looks like to help us understand James.

First and foremost, we are to be guided by Jesus’ empowering example from Philippians 2.  ⁴ Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus left the treasures and glories of Heaven, not holding onto them, but willingly and joyfully emptied Himself to serve you.  And God humbled Him and He became obedient to everything God commanded and obedient in receiving the punishment that your sin merited.  Paul tells us that the mind of Jesus that motivated Him to such selflessness is now our mind as we are in Christ Jesus.  So when it comes to your possessions that you have worked so hard for and when it comes to the money that you have worked so hard for and when it comes to the tiny little kingdom that you are building, Paul tells us that as you are in Christ Jesus.  What that means that you are now able to look after other people’s interest just as well as you are able to look after your own.

That folks is a radical approach to wealth and riches, much more radical than seeking poverty or seeking wealth.  There should be no unmet needs among this congregation because we look at each other and say, “Their interest is my interest.”  This should have a radical effect on our love for and service to the Garner community and the neighborhoods in which we live.

Gang, let me give you both encouraging and discouraging examples of this teaching from right here at SK.  I’ve seen you guys provide meals for folks who were sick.  The mercy fund has paid rent and light bills.  You’ve provided Christmas presents for each other.  My family and other families have greatly enjoyed a hospitality and a sacrificial spirit among you guys and so have the ladies of Hayes place and the officers with the GPD.

But one area in which we have not lived this out is our love for the community in which the church resides.  Less than a quarter of a mile from this doorstep is an apartment complex that has incredible need:  Poverty, absentee parents, children who need tutoring, parents who need mentoring.  I know of one mission that tries to love them and they so desperately need help and the police echo that need.  If we ever leave this space and that community does not have a thankful spirit for the mercy that we have extended there, then we have fallen short of our calling and our responsibility.  Pray with me every time you drive by that complex:  Dear God, make their interests my interests and enable me and SK Church to empty ourselves in love to them just as Christ emptied Himself for me.

Second, the treasures that we are to seek are treasures in heaven.  Matthew 6: ¹⁹ “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  The key to this passage is in the laying up.  We all have to work as our working is a reflection of the image of God.  For every able bodied person in this room, 2 Thessalonians 3:10 tells you, “Hey, if you aren’t working you shouldn’t be eating.”  Why?  Because if you are able to work and you don’t, then you are mooching off the ones who are working.  Quick takeaway:  able bodied men and women, go get a job.

So working is good.  Laying up treasures on earth however aren’t worth squat.  Jesus tells a parable around this teaching about a man who had so much money that he tore down his barns to build bigger ones.  And the night he executed that plan, he died.  So is the Bible anti-savings account?  Does Dave Ramsey and his “have 6 months of overhead in the bank” wrong?”

Again, we take the whole scriptures into account.  Our efforts of loving the Lord God with all our heart, soul, and mind and our efforts of loving our neighbors as we love ourselves should surpass our efforts of making money and storing up money.  So, if you are blessed with a good income or even a huge income, your efforts in loving God and loving others should surpass your efforts to make money.  Whichever one you seek the most will be your treasure.  If you have a savings account, great.  Your generosity should out pace your savings.  For every one of us, this teaching should shake us to the core.  I get it, we all have to work hard to pay our bills.  We have rent, utilities, cable, cell phones, on and on.  Some of us spend every month on our cell phones the same amount of money it takes to build a mobile health clinic for a village in Uganda.

Listen, I’m with you.  God has used my house greatly for ministry, but I have buyers regret.  I want to simplify my life so that my efforts of storing treasures in heaven exceeds my efforts to pay my bills.  For us to begin to apply this teaching, I think would revolutionize this church and this community.  SK would pay her bills, meet the needs of this congregation, love Garner, the apartment complex next to us, the communities in which we live, plant a church, and launch foreign missionaries.  There is enough wealth in this congregation for that but for us to realize that is probably going to take a radical shift in our life and priorities financially.  I’m praying for that for me and for you, so look out.

And finally, there are no greater riches that the riches of God’s grace in Jesus.  Ephesians 2: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

The biggest transition that has to happen in our hearts as we approach our finances, our wealth, the storing up of treasures, and loving and serving other is realizing that there are no greater riches than the riches of God’s grace towards us in Christ Jesus.  Ephesians 2 encourages us in this way.  True riches look like this.  Apart from the work of Christ and the outpouring of grace, every human being is dead in their trespasses and sin.  This death is both the condition of our heart and the sentence passed down by God for our sins.  But by God’s grace, His love and favor given to those who don’t deserve it, He makes us alive with Jesus Christ.  He makes our heart alive to Him and removes the right and just judgment of death under which we live as we have faith in Him.  We go from being dead in sin unable to obey God awaiting judgment in hell to being alive in Christ, able to obey God and our ultimate hope and home is being seated with Jesus Christ in heaven.

That is God’s pouring out of the immeasurable riches of His grace to us through Jesus Christ.  If you have faith in Christ, you have immeasurable riches, so don’t be fooled into seeking the riches of this world for the sake of riches in this world.  Seek humility, be empowered by Jesus’ example, seek treasures in heaven above treasures on earth and live out of the riches of God’s grace in Jesus.  This will transform us folks.  Just like last week’s teachings on trials.  If we can find joy in trials instead of constantly wishing them away, we might very well experience a revival here that books would be written about.  And if we would seek the interests of others more than our own interests and seek heavenly treasures more than earthly one, if we would boast in our poverty, if we would move away from a “I earned my money” mentality and move towards a “I’m God’s steward and my money is His” great things would happen.

Some of us, probably all of us are being called to and live out a radical change in their lives.  We will care for and bless other individuals in need.  SK would be transformed.  That community next to us would be transformed.  Your neighborhood would be transformed.  The world would be transformed.

All in all, in each of your decisions concerning your riches and treasures, you would see that the riches of God’s grace poured out to us in Jesus, you would see that as far more valuable than any dollar bill, piece of land, home, or anything else this world calls valuable.

Family Devotion and Sermon Notes for James 1:1-8

Family Devotional for James 1:1-8

Big Picture Question:  During difficult times, what might God really be doing in our lives?  

James 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:

·    What do we learn about James’ faith if he can call Jesus (his half-brother) “Lord”?
·    The “twelve tribes in the dispersion” was a term the early church used for Christians scattered all over the world.  Do you find encouragement knowing this book was written with you in mind just as much as the Christians in other parts of the world and in different times?

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

·    Why should we count trials joy?
·    If God is ordaining trials in our lives for these reasons, why do we do wish them away so quickly?
·    Is there a trial in your life right now that you should ask God to give you joy in rather than asking Him to take it away?

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

·    Think of a situation right now in your life where you need lots of wisdom.  Have you asked God to give you wisdom concerning it?  Do you believe He will give it to you?
·    Pray to God to help you not be double-minded.

Sermon Notes for James 1:1-8

I cannot believe we are here ready to take on a study of the Book of James.  And I’ll be honest:  this is a daunting task.  James packs a punch for such a small book of the Bible.  Now I know that several of you here in your life have memorized the entire book of James word for word.  And hard as that is and as commendable as that may be, attempting to take these words in your heart may be even harder.  James is flat out an amazing book of the Bible.  And James is not without controversy.

Here are a few things to help us understand the daunting and controversial nature of the book.  First of all, it is written by James, the half-brother of Jesus.  So, we should think, “Oh, this guy knows Jesus so well,” and I’m sure he did.  But an odd thing happens along the way.  James talks about the Lord a lot in his book, but he rarely gets around to actually mentioning Jesus’ name.  In fact, he speaks Jesus by name a whopping two times.  That seems odd, doesn’t it?

Years and years after James was written, some 1500 or so years later in fact, Martin Luther wondered if the book should even be in the Bible.  You see, Luther fought so hard, facing death in fact, to defend that we are forgiven and made right before God by faith in Jesus alone.  Luther knew that there was nothing we could do to recommend ourselves or make ourselves right before God.  We are forgiven by our faith in Jesus and even that faith is a gift.

So when James said things like “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” James 2:14 Luther wondered if James was preaching another Gospel than the one Jesus did.  Luther got so mad, he called James “the Epistle of Straw” and in his frustration, as legend has it, he either threw a copy of it into a river or threw a copy of it in a stove.  Either way, Luther struggled with the book of James and because he was honest with his heart as he read it, he eventually saw the Godly wisdom lying in the book.  On a side note, as students of scripture, which is what we need to be, students of scriptures, let’s be honest and wrestle with scripture and tell God our frustrations.  He ultimately said in referring to James, ‘Faith, is a living, restless thing. It cannot be inoperative. We are not saved by works; but if there be no works, there must be something amiss with faith’.

I could preach an entire sermon just on the width and depth of this small book, but I would like to venture into a few verses this morning just so we can get a sense of where we are going for the next few months.  So with that, let’s take on this simple, yet daunting thought as we approach the book of James.  Let’s try to answer this Big Picture Question:  During difficult time, what might God really be doing in our lives?  How is that for a Big Picture Question?  Let’s jump in.

James 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:  2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Now the temptation with any book of the Bible is to just skate over the introductions and salutations, but there is a lot of going on in verse 1 of the book of James.  So let me make two quick observations about James’ introduction.  James grew up with Jesus.  Jesus was his older half-brother.  And remember Jesus didn’t make an outward declaration of His ministry until His early 30’s.  And James struggled to see Jesus go from brother to Savior.  In fact, when Jesus did assert His divinity and began His public ministry by gathering 12 disciples, James and the rest of the family thought He was insane.  Mark 3: 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

Yet, despite James’ early fears and concerns, he resolutely now states that Jesus is His Lord.  So the first thing we should take away from this salutation is that James has a firm, dedicated, and resolute faith in Jesus as Savior.  James didn’t come to faith in Him easily, but now, He has no doubt.  He could say:  My half-brother Jesus is my Lord and Savior.  For all of us:  reckon well who Jesus is.  Pursue Him relentlessly in the scriptures and claim Him well.

Second from our salutation:  James addresses the 12 Tribes in Dispersion.  The Dispersion was the name given in the OT when the Jewish people were scattered out of their homeland Israel.  For example, during the Babylonian Captivity, God had the Babylonians come in, take the Jewish people from their home, and they were enslaved in Babylon as a judgment for their sin.  James does something interesting.  He takes that Dispersion title but applies it to Christians.  The message of Christ was spreading across the world, in addressing the book to the 12 Tribes in the Dispersion, he saying, The People of God, the Church who claims Jesus as their Savior, they are the Dispersion.  And being dispersed, you long for home, but now that longing for home is a heavenly home, not an earthly one.  Our takeaway from this salutation is to realize that this book is for us – the church in captivity.  We are to hear it as God’s gracious provision for us informing us how to live as we wait for Jesus’ return.  Our home is heaven and not and so our desires should be pointed more towards heaven than here.  Gang, the Book of James is incredibly relevant for us.  So having said that, let’s jump into what James has for us.  Let’s see just how we are to live.

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

The commands of verse 2-4 are so revolutionary, so counter-intuitive, and so loosely held by Christians today, that in hearing what James tell us, we are almost tempted to discard it or assume he means something other than what he is saying.  James tells us this.  Whenever you face a trial, a trial of any sort, our initial and ongoing response should be to count it joy.  So, if you are struggling with health issues or someone you love is struggling with health issues, count it all joy.  Some translations read it as, “Count it pure joy.”  If you are struggling with a relationship.  You are at great odds with someone you love or you are in a confliction with work or your children are disobeying or rebelling or pulling away from you, count it all joy.  If you think your parents are crazy sometimes and you are constantly fighting them, count it all joy.  If you are having a hard time paying your bills or you just don’t see any end to the massive credit card debt that you are in, count it all joy.

Right now, reckon well what trial you are enduring, and then be joyful that you are going through whatever it is that you are going through.  Now, why would God tell us this?  Why is God, through James, commanding us, not suggesting, but commanding us to count our trials as joy?  Is it that God is a sadist and He likes toying with us like a little boy who burns an ant with in the sun with a magnifying glass?  Is this like some twisted, perverse characteristic of God that He just likes to punish His creation?  Did He create us just to toy with us?

Well, fortunately, the answer to those questions is “No” and James explains to us why we should count all of our trials as all joy or pure joy.  The reason is that by enduring all types of trials, this testing of our faith, God gifts us with steadfastness.  What in the world is steadfastness?  Well, steadfastness is a firm, immovability that endures through any type of circumstance.  Now we need to get this because steadfastness is a major theme in the book of James coming up over and over again.  Why do we need to be steadfast?  What good is it for Christians to immovable in any circumstance?  Why is this characteristic so important that God ordains we go through difficult and painful times just to get it?

Paul speaks of steadfastness and explains that for us in 1 Corinthians 15.  He says in verse 58 that steadfastness enables the Christian to abound in their work and worship of God and steadfastness enables the Christian to not labor in vain.  Maybe you want a better explanation than that but James, and God, don’t give you one.  Trials produce steadfastness that enables you to serve God more faithfully.

Spurgeon calls this the most practical of teaching from the scriptures.  He describes it this way.  He says some teachers are like a builder who cuts down trees and then prepares all the wood in such a way as to build a house.  The builder does all this work, laying all the wood and materials out, but never builds the house.  How impractical is that?  Spurgeon says this kind of teaching is not like that.  Instead this kind of teaching cuts the wood, prepares everything for building, and then builds the house.  This kind of teaching is the most practical teaching in all of  world.  It is a direct, how do I live as a follower of Christ

Verse 4 tells us that once we learn to endure trials with joy, then steadfastness is produced and then we become perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  This is not a holiness perfect but the word for perfect used for being thoroughly complete.  If you want to be used by God, if you want to give Him glory, if you want to not be tossed about by the waves, if you want to be used to advance God’s kingdom and see the name of Jesus lifted high, then enduring trials, and enduring them with joy is how you are going to get there.

What that means is that as the followers of Jesus, His church, we have to want faith in God more than we want an ease to our circumstances.  If we want don’t want that, if want ease of circumstances more than being used by God to give glory to God, then we see a competing desire in our hearts.  If we want ease of circumstances more than we want faith in God, if we want anything more than we want faith in God, then that wanting by definition is an idol, an opposing object of worship in our heart.  And God will root out all of our idols.  God will cast down any and everything that exalts itself against the glory of God.  God will not share His glory with anyone or anything.  If you want ease and the removal of all trials more than you want to give glory to God, then God is going to root that desire out of your heart.  Guess how God often does that…by giving your more trials making you more dependent on Him.

Our desire to avoid trials and suffering often just leads us into more trials and suffering because our desire to avoid trials is contrary to the will of God.  There is a host of bad teaching right now that says faith in God means the removal of all trials and great faith in God means the pouring out of great earthly blessings.  That teaching stinks of hell according to the book of James.

Now, this really seems crazy, doesn’t it?  I mean this is how James begins his book…telling us to be joyful that we are going through trials.  Let me share a quick story here and I don’t share this personal story as one who has arrived.  I share it as one who struggles along with you.

In the last, I don’t know, 13 years of my 15 years of being married to Amy, I bet she has felt good maybe a half dozen days.  She struggles with an out of balance thyroid, an auto-immune deficiency, and polycystic ovarian syndrome to just name a few conditions.  Because of these things, day to day life can be a struggle and any plan we ever make is subject to change depending upon how much energy she has.  And we have seen every doctor under the sun and have pleaded to God to remove these conditions and to heal them, but at present, it is the will of God for Amy and me to endure these things together.

Now, how in the world might these conditions produced steadfastness and greater faith in us?  Well for me, I can tell you several things, in fact, I’ve thought a lot about this.  But for the sake of time, I’ll share just one simple application of steadfastness and faith that God has produced in my heart or is presently producing in my heart through these trials.  Because I am gifted with a lot of energy, and because I love the work of being a pastor, and I love you folks and I love working hard, I could easily be a man who spent every waking moment working on and thinking about the church.  I could be gone every day and night for the sake of the church.  And there are some weeks where I feel like the number of hours I work is equal to the number of hours I am awake.

But one of the gifts that God has given us is Amy’s prolonged health conditions.  It has taught me to keep close to home.  It has taught me to run commitments by Amy before making them.  It has taught me that building the church is not worth doing if it comes at the expense of Amy’s health or time with my kids.  I have buddies who have planted churches and pastored churches and their marriages and their relationships with their kids have eroded or even come to an end.  That is not God’s intention for His people or for this pastor.  The trials that God has ordained for my family have the purpose of teaching us to give God greater glory and to each us dependency on Him.  To produce a steadfastness and readiness for the Gospel.

I encourage all of you right now to consider this command of James.  I truly think the weakness of the American church is that we worship ease and we assume the blessing of God means that we have no difficulties or trials.  And we can definitely ask God to remove difficult circumstances and to change our lives when we are struggling.  But we rarely view our trials as the means by which we are going to give greater glory to God.  We just want them to go away and go away quickly.

Right now, what is it in your life that you just want to go away?  Are there trials that you are not concerned with giving God glory in but are much more concerned with having them pass?  They might pass.  God might graciously make your trial disappear.  He might also graciously make your trial or difficulty or pain or physical condition or whatever, He might graciously make those things stay around for the rest of your life.

And James, “Consider it pure joy because the testing of your faith will produce a steadfastness in you that will make your more complete and ready for the tasks that God calls you to.  One of the reasons the American church is so weak is that we do not get this.  We assume we can’t be used by God because our trials are so great.  We are so consumed with trying to pursue a life of ease and one free of trials that we miss out on what God is calling us to.  Your trial is God’s blessing poured out on your life.  Your trial is intended by God to cause you to have greater faith and that faith well enable you to ready and complete for whatever mission you are called to.

You do not have to have conquered every trial to be used by God.  We should ask God to equip you with greater faith and make you perfect and complete in that trial yes, but you don’t have to have conquered your trial to be used by God.  Right now, some of you are essentially on the sidelines not actively serving God or attempting to advance His kingdom because you just want your difficulties to go away.  Instead, we should see our difficulties as the thing that God has placed in our live to prepare us for greater ministry.  We are to declare a dependency on God to the world, not a life free from being dependent.

Now at this point in time, we probably are incredibly confused.  Maybe some of us have oriented our entire life to attempt to be free from trial and if James is correct which I’m offering He is, then some of almost don’t know how to live anymore.  What does it mean to live joyfully amid trials instead of constantly wishing the way?  Verse 5 explains that for us.

You see, our enduring trials with great joy is going to look a little different for everybody because we all experience different types of trials.  How do we know how to do this?  Verse 5 tells us.  Ask God for wisdom.

You see, in our weakness, we are tempted when facing difficult times, to just pray them away.  “Dear God, just take this away from me.”  And you can pray that prayer.  But how many of us in light of a difficult trial ask, “God give me wisdom in this circumstance.  Please show me how to live?”  I’m afraid many, many of us never get to that point because we are just asking God to take away what is difficult.  And because that is our tendency, the church is weak.

I believe this church, this community, and Christians worldwide, would experience a revival that would wind up in the history books if we began to pray for joy in our circumstances instead of being so resolutely focused on making how hard times go way.  Ask yourselves this:  If trials produce greater faith and steadfastness, if trials prepare us and make us complete for the work of God, why don’t we pray for God to give us great joy and wisdom in the midst of those trial?  Again, I think it is because we worship ease and comfort more than God sometimes.  Can we pray now that prayer?  Ask God, “What do you want me to do with this circumstance, right now?   It is fair to wonder how are we going to resolve this in our hearts and minds and move forward?

Now if you caught any of my 1 Samuel sermons over the past year and a half, you may have noticed a little trick up my sleeve.  Any time in the OT, any time something really difficult would happen either by some ones actions that didn’t’ make sense or God did or something or said something that was difficult to understand, did you ever notice what I did?  I would say, “Well, let’s look at the NT and see what Jesus did or what Jesus has to say about that.

Uh oh.  We are in the NT.  James is writing this after Jesus has lived, died, and risen again.  There is nowhere to go.  This is what God wants for your life in light of what Jesus has done.  That doesn’t mean that the work of Jesus no longer has any say in these things, because in a minute, we will definitively see that He does.  What it does mean is that we need to look at these verses and think and say, “There is no wiggle room.  This is exactly what God wants for me.”

Now, we couldn’t say that about the OT either.  There is no wiggle room there either.  What happened in the OT was just as much what God wanted for us as what is commanded in the NT.  But the OT was a dim picture that awaited the full illumination of the work of Jesus.  The NT is the full illumination.

So let’s see how Jesus enables us to apply this illuminated command to consider trials great and pure joy.  Ask yourself this question:  What hope do you want from Jesus?  Do you want His help, His support, His aid or do you just want to take all your problems away?  I’m afraid our problems aren’t going way.  Jesus said so Himself

John 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Our trials are not going away.  Oh, we might have relief from a specific circumstance, but while we live on this earth, we are going to face trials and tribulations.  And we will live transformed lives if we realize that Jesus has not come to take all of those away.  Instead, He has come to help over this world of sin and pain.  Hebrews 2 tells us that Jesus lived, suffered, died and rose again to overcome death and Satan.

Hebrews 2:14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.

And Hebrews 4 gives us the big answer to our big picture question:  What is God doing during our trials and suffering?  14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Jesus Christ suffered alongside of us so that we have a Savior who understands our weaknesses.  Jesus Christ suffered alongside of us so that our High Priest, the one who stands before God on our behalf, sympathizes with our weaknesses.  Because of the work of Jesus Christ, we can take joy in our trials and circumstances.  Our trials increase our faith.  Our trials cause us to be steadfast.  Our trials cause us to be made ready and complete for whatever God calls us to do in His name.

And we are not alone in our trials.  Jesus, our Savior, sympathizes with weaknesses.  He was tempted just like we are tempted, in every way.  But our hope is that Jesus endured these trials and circumstances with great joy and even more importantly, He endured them without sinning.

And because of all these things, because of Jesus’ enduring trials sinlessly on our part, when we endure trials we get to do what verse 16 of Hebrews 4 promises.  We get to with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  Because of Jesus, when you and I struggle in our trials and circumstances, when we struggle to find joy and all we can hope for the hard times to just go away, we can go to verse 16.  Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

We can walk before the Throne of God, and because we are forgiven and transformed through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, that throne of God is a throne of grace.  We walk before God in need both for our sins and for our trials, and those sins and needs are met with what we do not deserve:  the love and affection of God.  So in your time of need, right now, whether that time of need be physical sickness, relationship problems, financial problems, whatever.  In your time of need, walk before the Throne of God and feel His love and grace poured out – forgiving you, transforming you and enabling you to do whatever it is that God has called you to do.

If we do that now, we might very well see God work a revival in our hearts and lives like we have never seen before in our lifetime.