James: Practical Faith
James 1:9-18
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
09-15-2024
Happily?
When I lived in Mississippi, I ran a counseling center for a large psychiatric hospital. One of the ways we promoted the hospital’s programs was a series of in-services I would do for doctors, nurses, and teachers.
I would teach on anxiety or depression and then take questions. I would be able to pass my cards out and they would get continuing education credits. It was a win win.
After one of these presentations, my marketing representative, a fellow Christian named Mike, walked over to where I was talking to a group, grabbed me by the arm and said, “Time to go.”
I nodded and kept talking but then he dragged me away from the group and out the door. He shoved me in the car and took off.
I asked him what in the world was going on. He told me that after I had finished speaking, a young, very attractive woman approached him and started asking all kinds of questions about me.
It was one particular question, and her follow up response, that caused him to go into full rescue mode.
She asked Mike, “Is Jeff married?” To which he replied, “Yes he is.” He said she smiled and whispered, “Happily?”
At that, he knew there was danger in the room. He said, “You would have done the same thing for me.”
And he was right. When temptation rears its ugly head, the only sane thing to do is run!
Review
I’m so excited that we have started on the journey to study the book of James!
Last week, we learned that James, the younger half brother of Jesus, was the author. He didn’t believe Jesus was the Messiah until He appeared to James after the resurrection. After that incredible encounter, James became the pastor and leader of the church in Jerusalem.
He was martyred in AD 62 when he was thrown off the top of the Temple. The fall didn’t kill him so they beat him to death.
James begins his letter with a strong command:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
He begins the body of the letter with a command that, on the surface, seems completely irrational.
What is James commanding?
Is he saying that you should break out dancing with joy when you get the bad diagnosis?
Or when you have a flat tire on a busy highway?
Or who your daughter gets arrested?
Or when you lose your job?
Is James nuts? Is he being mean? Is he advocating "Don't Worry, Be Happy" theology? No. James isn't crazy, and this isn't cruel. He is giving us a secret of Christian growth.
He is writing about the posture of the heart that says, "No matter what happens to me, I'm going to be okay because God is working behind the scenes for my good and His glory."
Notice also that it says "whenever." James doesn't write, "if you face trials." Trials are a normal part of living in a fallen world.
It's been said that you are either going into a trial, currently in one, or coming out of one.
James then gives a purpose to our pain.
Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
This is how we can greet every trial as a friend and have joy amid chaos.
The word testing comes from the world of pottery. A finished piece would have a mark on the bottom indicating it had gone through the fire without cracking.
God designs these tests to stretch our faith and grow us spiritually.
What do these trials produce? Perseverance. In your version, it may say, "Patience." The word means "to abide under."
It's the idea of staying power, fortitude, and heroic endurance.
What’s our part in this process?
Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
We are to allow perseverance to do its job of making us more and more like Jesus.
What's the result? We will be "mature and complete, not lacking in anything."
God uses trials for our maturation, our correction, and our direction.
In order to “greet trials as a friend,” we need wisdom from above:
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
Wisdom is not something we naturally have, but it is available.
James says all we have to do is admit that we lack it and then ask for it! The Greek says, "Let him ask the giving God."
When we present that request to God, we can expect Him to respond generously and without finding fault.
However, James does put some conditions in place to receive this wisdom.
But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
The doubt he says will derail your requests for wisdom during trials is a question of God's character.
Not "how will He do it?" But "I'm not sure He is good or cares."
That kind of person has no anchor for the soul and is tossed like the ocean's constant, surging, restless waves.
James invented a word to describe this kind of person—double-minded. It literally means "double-souled." ?
It's like trying to keep one foot in one boat and another in another. Eventually, you will have to choose which boat you will stand in.
That brings us to our verses today.
Please turn with me to James chapter 1. We will start in verse 9.
Prayer
Rich Man / Poor Man
“Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position.”
James is now going to give two examples of trials that most of his listeners were facing.
He first addresses the “brother in humble circumstances.” This would describe most of his audience. These were Jewish Christians who were very low on the socio-economic scale.
They were poor and powerless. These believers lost jobs and social standing because of their faith in Christ. On top of that, there was a famine and food could be scarce.
James encourages them to “take pride.” This word means “to boast.” In the Bible, this word is almost always used negatively.
But here, James wants to provoke them to “boast in their high position.”
Again, James is inspiring them to have a bigger perspective.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus began the Beatitudes with:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:3)
When Jesus taught in his hometown synagogue, He opened the scroll of Isaiah and read:
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:8)
They might have been poor in the world’s eyes, but they were rich spiritually:
Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Rom 8:17)
They had received the assurance of eternal life and could store up treasures there.
If you have ever been in a third world country, you know the crushing poverty that many people experience.
But the Christians in that culture are some of the most joyous, generous, sweetest people you will ever encounter. Why?
Because they know they are spiritually rich and after this short life they will live forever with Jesus.
James then contrasts the poor with those who were wealthy:
But the rich should take pride in their humiliation - since they will pass away like a flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers then plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.
To be wealthy in that time was rare. Most people were very poor. But the wealthy believers faced the same trials that their poor neighbors did.
Many of them lost their riches and were ostracized because of their faith in Christ.
James encourages them to “take pride in their humiliation.”
Let’s pause here and let me make a point. It is not a sin to be wealthy. Money is not the root of all evil:
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (I Tim 6:10)
It’s not how much money you have but how much power does your money have over you? Money is a fantastic servant but a harsh master.
The rich, young ruler in Mark 10 was told to sell everything and follow Jesus. He went away sad because his riches owned him.
James gives them the reason why they should take pride in their lowered estate.
Life is short and he who dies with the most toys still dies.
“Do not be overawed when others grow rich, when the splendor of their houses increases; for they will take nothing with them when they die, their splendor will not descend with them.” (Psalm 49:16-17)
The comedian Jim Carrey has said,
“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of, so they can see that it's not the answer.”
James reminds them that they will “pass away like a wildflower.”
In the Middle East, in spring, the hills are covered by flowers but they don’t last long. The east wind and the sun “withers the plant and its blossoms fall.”
The Greek says of the flower, “the beauty of its face is destroyed.”
This is another allusion to an Old Testament text, Isaiah 40:
“All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” (Isaiah 40:6-8)
David writes nearly the same thing:
The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. (Psalm 103:15)
Humans are like the Mayfly. The life of a mayfly lasts only a day.
Later in his letter, James reminds his readers that life is a “mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” (James 4:14)
James warns “the rich will fade away even as they go about their business.”
Here he is alluding to a parable that Jesus told:
“The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21)
James is making the case that both poverty and wealth can create trials and the ground is level at the foot of the cross.
Bookend
James ends this section with a bookend statement from verse two:
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
Those who understand trials are for our good and God’s glory, who “stand under he trial” will be “blessed.”
This alludes back to Psalm 1. Those who persevere under trials will experience happiness of soul, a deep-seated joy in believing the Gospel.
And James promises a “crown of life to those who love Him.”
Paul wrote these words to young Timothy:
“Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Tim 4:8)
To the church in Smyrna, John records Jesus’s words:
“Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.” (Rev 2:10)
William Barclay lists four different meanings that wearing this kind of crown would have:
Crowns of flowers would worn during times of great joy
Wearing a crown was a mark of royalty.
A crown would be give to one who won in the games
Wearing a crown was a sign of honor and dignity.
He writes:
“We do not need to choose between these meanings. They are all included. The Christian has a joy that no other man can ever have. Life for him is like being forever at a feast. He has a royalty that other men have never realized for, however humble his earthly circumstances, he is the child of God. He has a victory which others cannot win, for he meets life and all its demands in the conquering power of the presence of Jesus Christ. He has a new dignity for he is ever conscious that God thought him worth the life and death of Jesus Christ.
James says that if the Christian meets the testings of life in the steadfast constancy which Christ can give, life becomes infinitely more splendid than ever it was before. The struggle is the way to glory, and the very struggle itself is a glory.”
And what will we do with these crowns? With immense joy and gratitude, we will lay these crowns at the feet of the only One who deserves to wear a crown, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. (See Revelation 4:10-11)
Then James does a sharp transition into a different, but related, subject - temptations.
Temptation Island
James uses the same word for trials and temptations. How can we tell the difference?
Skip Heitzig helps to clarify this :
* Trials come from God to develop us.
* Temptations come from the world, the flesh and the devil to deceive us.
* But God can use both to mature us.
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.
Notice that he writes, “when tempted,” not if?
Temptation is an ever-present reality. But it’s been that way from the beginning.
James begins by highlighting something that humans are experts at - the blame game.
The Greek is strong, “Never say that God is tempting you. He’s not. He doesn’t work that way.”
Solomon wrote:
“A person’s own folly leads to their ruin, yet their heart rages against the Lord.” (Prov 19:3)
But this game goes all the way back to the garden. When God asked Adam:
“Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (Gen 3:11)
Adam’s response betrays his motives -
“The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” (Gen 3:12)
Adam doesn’t even say her name but he blames Eve, then Eve blames the snake, and satan sneers with delight.
Flip Wilson, a comedian of yesteryear, was famous for saying, “The Devil made me do it!”
But James is clear that the main culprit in temptation is “our own evil desires.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:
“In our members there is a slumbering inclination toward desire, which is both sudden and fierce. With irresistible power, desire seizes mastery of the flesh. All at once a secret, smoldering fire is kindled. The flesh burns and is in flames. It makes no difference whether it is a sexual desire, or ambition, or vanity, or desire for revenge, our love of fame and power, or greed for money…At this moment God is quite unreal to us. He loses all reality, and only desire for the creature is real.”
James pictures temptation not as a one time action but as a process:
Desire leads to deception - we are dragged away and enticed.
The phrase “dragged away” is a hunting term for setting a net to catch an animal. [Think a mouse trap]
The word “enticed” is a fishing term. It means to set the bait.
Those of you who fish are deceivers, do you know that? The poor little fish thinks he’s about to eat lunch but then he becomes lunch.
Satan has been at this for a long time and he knows what kind of bait humans like.
[Fishing pool with lure]
I could wave this in front of you and it wouldn’t tempt you in the least.
It would be like trying to tempt me with beats. I’m allergic to beats. I wouldn’t look twice. But oatmeal butterscotch cookies? That would present quite a temptation.
And satan knows what your flesh desires.
After the deception, we are faced with a decision.
While working at the psychiatric hospital, I used to do group therapy with teenagers. I was running a group with another therapist when one of the clients mentioned that she had slept with her boyfriend I the back seat of his car. She said, “It just happened. It’s like I didn’t have a choice.”
The other therapist went to the board and for the next 45 minutes she wrote down different points when she could have made a different decision. By the end of the group, it was clear that it didn’t just happen. There were at least sixteen different decision points when she could have said no.
King David stood on the roof of the palace. It was the time that kings went off to war. He should have been with the troops but he was at home and bored.
He noticed a young woman bathing on her roof, where she thought she had privacy.
Noticing her beauty is not a sin. Men are designed to visually be exhilarated by the female form.
But the innocent glance led to a lustful stare. At that point, David could have chosen to go take a cold shower but instead he had a servant go and get her and bring her to the palace.
The decision led to to delivery:
Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
David slept with Bathsheba and she became pregnant. Literally and figuratively his decision ends up giving birth to sin.
But it doesn’t stay a baby. When sin is full-grown, it leads to death.
David’s decision to sleep with Bathsheba would put into place a series of events where he would pay a huge price - the loss of his family, the death of two of his sons, and the loss of his kingdom.
Max Lucado writes:
“Guilt creeps in on cat’s paws and steals whatever joy might have flickered in our eyes. Confidence is replaced by doubt, and honesty is elbowed out by rationalization. Exit peace. Enter turmoil. Just as the pleasure of indulgence ceases, the hunger for relief begins. Our vision is shortsighted and our life now has one purpose - to find release for our guilt. Or has Paul questioned for all of us, ‘What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24)
He Gets it!
Oscar Wilde famously said that he can “resist anything but temptation.”
Mark Antony’s tutor once lamented, “O Marcus! “O colossal child! Able to conquer the world but unable to resist temptation.”
Cleopatra floated down the nile into his life and he ended up losing his marriage, kingdom, and his life.
I heard a story of a man who was on a diet and was trying to avoid his favorite donut shop. He knew he had to drive by it on a certain day so he prayed, “Lord, if you don’t want me to have a donut, please let all the parking spaces be filled.
Well, on the seventh trip around the block, a space opened up and he knew that the Lord had given him permission to have just one donut.
Is it a sin to be tempted? Well, it’s obvious that being tempted is not a sin because Jesus was tempted, but did not sin.
More than that, the fact that Jesus was tempted, is actually really good news for us.
When we are tempted to shake our fist at heaven and yell, “You don’t know how it feels!” we can turn to the words from Hebrews that prove otherwise:
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)
Jesus knows how you feel when you are tempted. He’s been there, done that. But He didn’t succumb to the temptation. He won the victory and through Him, we can as well.
We All Have Our Own Skittles
Let’s look at some practical steps of dealing with temptation.
Turn with me to I Corinthians 10:13.
Paul is writing to a church that is plagued with problems. Chapter ten begins with a recap of some of the worst events in Israel’s history – stories of idolatry and rejection of God.
Paul said that these things happened as examples and were written down as warnings to us. He then gives them a warning against self-deception:
“So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.” (I Cor 10:12)
Let’s look carefully at the next verse:
“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind…”
Let’s stop there and dig in. Remember the word temptation means a “test.” Satan can use it as a temptation but God always uses such situations to test our resolve to follow Him.
Paul says that no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.
In other words, there’s nothing new under the sun!
To be tempted is to be human.
I remember talking to a young person who told me that he thought he wasn’t a “real” Christian because he keeps being tempted by the same things over and over again.
I just reminded him of the word, “sanctification,” which means that God is working in us to make us more like Jesus. He, and you and I, are all “in process” and will not be free from temptation until we die.
There is a very real temptation, (hey, another temptation!), to think that our temptations are different and are unique. When we think that way, then we can say that our temptations are harder to avoid.
But, Paul deflates that argument. We all experience the same areas of temptations. I may not be tempted by what you are tempted by and you may not be tempted by what I’m tempted by but we are all tempted by basically the same things.
As a friend of mine once said, “We all love our skittles. You may like the red kind and I like the blue kind, but it’s still all Skittles.
This is good news! Guess what? You are not as weird as you thought you were. Others have experienced what you are tempted by. You are not the only one.
Let’s look a the next phrase:
“And God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear.”
Paul now deflates the lie that some temptations are just impossible to resist. God is faithful; you can trust Him. He knows your limits. He knows what you can take.
“But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”
Paul says that God will provide you a “way out.” This word literally means “escape hatch.” God will provide you with an exit strategy.
The church father Origen actually had himself castrated so he wouldn’t be tempted to sin sexually.
Benedict would throw himself into a thorn bush every time he had a sinful thought.
Neither of these approaches to sin are very effective. Saying no to temptation is hard.
[Marshmallow Test].
Saying no to sin is best done by focusing on the goodness of God shown to us in Christ and having an accountability partner.
Warren Wiersbe encourages us when temptation comes:
Look back and recall God’s faithfulness to you in the past
Look ahead and remember the wages of sin is death
Look around and think of all the people who might be affected
Look up and ask God for the strength to endure
God Doesn’t Change
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Satan wants us to blame God and rage against the night when trials and temptations come. But James issues another command. Don’t be deceived. God is for us and wants our good.
He gives good gifts. He can be trusted. He is the creator of the universe.
In James’ time, Jewish families would say the Shema together. But before they would recite the Shema, they would say:
“Blessed are You, O Lord, King of the world, who formed the light and created the darkness…who in mercy, gives light to the earth and to those will dwell upon it,…Blessed be the Lord our God for the glory of His handiwork and for the light-giving lights which He had for his praise.”
And even though the sun, moon, and stars’ light fluctuate in the heavens, God doesn’t change.
He’s constant. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. And He can be trusted in our trials.
As the hymn writer Thomas Chisholm wrote:
Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
The Best Gift
James then highlights the best gift that the Father can give:
He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
God’s greatest gift is the new birth available through the Word of Truth, which is the Gospel.
I’m often surprised when someone says to me, “I don’t know if I’m a Christian.”
I wonder how is that possible? When we are born again, we go from
dead to alive in Christ
From darkness to light
From old nature to new creation
From caterpillar to butterfly.
When the harvest was in, people would bring some of the crops and a priest would wave it before the Lord as a sign of thankfulness.
His readers were the spiritual first-fruits of a great harvest, that includes you and me!
Last Saturday, Maxine and I participated in the State Farm Million Meals Packing Event. Over 5,000 volunteers packed just over a million meals in less than eleven hours.
Just imagine if every believer in Mcclain County shared the Gospel with one other person and led them to Christ. What a harvest that would be.
Because our sin separates us from a Holy God, and we can’t be good enough on our own to earn heaven.
I was saddened to read that Dave Grohl, drummer for Nirvana and lead singer of the rock band, Foo Fighters, had fathered a child outside of his marriage. He is known in the rock star community as a “good guy” and he has talked about how much he adores his wife and three kids.
He released a statement that read:
“I plan to be a loving and supportive parent to her. I love my wife and my children, and I am doing everything I can to regain their trust and earn their forgiveness.”
When I read that last part, my heart hurt. You can’t earn forgiveness. Forgiveness has to be a decision powered by grace.
We can’t earn forgiveness. We can’t do enough good deeds to get into heaven. We can never hop high enough for God’s holiness.
We are helpless, hopeless, and hell bound. But God had a plan:
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly… But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:6,8)
Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. But that’s only half the deal.
If you owed the bank 10 million dollars and you could not pay it back, you would feel pretty helpless. But what if they forgave all of your debt? Wouldn’t that be amazing? But the problem is the forgiving your debt only brings you back to zero.
And zero doesn’t get you into heaven. You need to be righteous to stand before a holy God and even our best deeds are like filthy rags.
But “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21)
Jesus exchanged His robe of righteousness for our rags of sin. Now when God looks at us, He sees us covered in the righteousness of His Son.
Paul, quoting Isaiah, makes it clear:
“For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor 6:2)
