Trials vs Temptations (James 1:1-18)

Introduction

Have you ever considered what are some major stumbling blocks for people as they wrestle with the idea of God and faith? Two common ones in my encounters with those who once professed belief and now deny any claim of faith are the topics of suffering and hypocrisy.

Suffering is hard, but many people struggle with the idea of if there is a good God out there, why does suffering exist, why does he allow it? On the other side, many of those who struggle with faith, struggle with those who claim to be Christian, yet are full of hypocrisy. So what do we do with these? And more importantly, how do we, who are Christian, guard ourselves from falling into these same traps? Well, we are in good luck, the Bible speaks on this topic in one of the General Epistles, that is letters. In saying general, I mean a letter not written by the Apostle Paul.

This morning we begin a 7 week study through the letter of James. This letter is found in the New Testament, you can find it in the Bible in the Pew in front of you on page #_____. This is a letter written by James, the half-brother of Jesus. For they share the same mother, Mary, but not the same father. For James’ father is that of Joseph, but Jesus’ is the Lord our God in heaven. The letter is estimated to have been written as early as the mid 40’s. In the opening verse of the letter, James 1:1, we read….

In this introductory verse, we are informed that the original audience of this letter is the Jews who have been scattered in the dispersion due to the persecution of Christians in Jerusalem by the Jews. This dispersion we read about in Acts 8:1-3. It says:

And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

This is the context for the letter of James. And while this letter has a very real and historical context and setting, it still speaks to us today right where we are in 2023. For in this letter we are challenged to examine our behavior and speech and ensure they exhibit Christlikeness, that our faith is not just in word, but in deeds. The letter too focuses on the purpose of both trials and temptations, how one is from God and one is not, which is where we turn this morning. Therefore let us hear the word of the Lord from James 1:1-18….

Main Idea: ​​In his sovereignty, the Father uses trials as a good gift to lead us to life. But it is the evil of our own hearts that leads us to temptation and sin and death. We are going to unfold this in three points: (1) Trials and Life, (2) Temptations and Death, and (3) God and Goodness

Trials and Life

Verse 2….

We have an imperative command here as Christians to count it all joy when trials of various kinds meet us. Before considering the command to count these various trials as all joy, we should first consider what is meant by trials of various kinds.

In saying this, James alludes to the reality that some of us know all too well; that life is filled with many trials, and they all look different. Some of you are in the midst of trials right now. Trials of sickness and disease, trials of conflict and difficult relationships, trials of loss, and trials of crippling anxiety and depression. These are just some of the various trials that we will meet in life. It is also likely that we will not meet just one of these, but many of these throughout life. For this is part of living, even as Christians, in a fallen and broken world.

However, these trials are not to take away our joy, instead they are to be counted as all joy. This is the instruction, the command we receive as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. To say count it all joy is not telling us as we meet these trials that we put on a smiling and happy face. No, we can count it all joy in the midst of trials and still be grieved and saddened. Joy and sorrow can go together. In telling us to count it all joy, we are being instructed that part of being Christian is to understand the end goal of our various trials, and to count that as joy, even in the midst of our very present and real trials.

For our trials are not without purpose. In fact, our trials serve a big purpose, and it's for this reason we count it all joy when we meet them. Verses 3-4….

The trials of our life are a means of God’s testing our faith. Not of tempting our faith to disbelief, but of testing it as a blacksmith tests the endurance of a sword as he puts it through the flame and refines it to make it stronger. The testing of God is much like the many safety tests prototypes of your car goes through before it is released. Testing the make and model of the car in how it handles collisions and other incidents to ensure we are safe.

These are how the Sovereign Lord uses our trials, to test our faith and produce the steadfastness of faith in us. Because the goal of our faith is not to believe for a little while and fall away after some hard incident as many have. The goal of our faith is to be made perfect and complete. A faith that endures until the very end where that faith becomes sight.

Biblical and saving faith is a faith that is to endure until the end. And our trials test us to ensure that our faith is truly resting in the Lord alone, and not the things of this world with a little bit of Jesus as a side dish.

Therefore, when we see and hear that trials are for producing this steadfastness, bringing our faith to be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, it is for this reason we count it all joy when we meet these trials. Because we know that the Sovereign Lord truly is working for our ultimate good through the trials. That he is not just some mean bully God who forgets us and allows suffering to come upon us.

Instead, beloved, let us see that every trial of its various kinds that we meet should be seen as a means of gain for us. For the idols of this world are removed from our hearts, as our hope in God and his goodness to us in Jesus becomes bigger as we are carried through the trials of this present world, anticipating the next when all suffering is finally overturned. Where sickness and sorrow and pain and death are felt and feared no more.

But maybe you still struggle to understand this. Maybe you struggle with how your present or previous trials have been for producing perfection and completion in you, for helping you endure in the strengthening of your faith. Beloved brothers and sisters, we have a God who is gracious to meet us with our struggles here. He only requires that we ask him; that we ask him by faith to give us an understanding of these things. Verse 5….

See the generous grace and kindness of our Heavenly Father. Without reproach, that is without any disappointment or criticism, we can ask God for wisdom to understand the various trials that come our way and how they work towards our ultimate good. We can ask, and he will give it to us. But we must ask in faith. Verses 6-8….

It is one thing to lack wisdom and ask for it, it is another to ask for wisdom, but with doubts. The doubter is compared to the waves of the sea as they are being driven and tossed by the wind. For with the waves, they are affected by the wind, and the same as one who doubts, they are not steady for they fail to rest in the solid rock of Jesus. The doubter here fails to trust God’s trustworthiness and goodness. And because they doubt God’s goodness, though they ask, they will not receive anything. To make a request to God is to be rooted in one’s trust in God to provide, to answer.

The one who sinks in the pond of despair, crying out to God, yet not trusting him for his ability to help is like that of a double-minded man. A man unstable in his ways. For this person seeks relief from their trials, but truly doesn’t trust and therefore will not receive that help. It is as the man who seeks counsel, but then refuses to take that counsel, this is the unstable one. Let the hearer hear.

Our various trials work to overturn the things of this world, and that is why our faith must be tested, helping us learn to love that which is truly good instead of that which is not. The Christian life then is a slow overturning of this world and all that it deems as meaningful and good. We see James make this point as he encourages the early dispersed Christians to boast in their poverty and the rich in their humiliation. Verses 9-11….

Our hope as Christians rests not in the riches and treasures of this world. It rests in Jesus and our being exalted with him. The treasures and riches of this world will soon fade, they will burn up. Therefore the pursuit of such riches proves to be a worthless pursuit in the end. But our exaltation, our being raised to high glory in Jesus, will not fade. Our eyes need to be set on the end goal, the Promised Land. As Trials come, let us then cast a wishful eye to Cananaan’s fair and happy land where our possessions lie. A Promised Land where all our trials, all our sorrows, all our pain, and all death are no more. This is the land we are being prepared for if we endure in faith. Therefore let us see where the true beauty is, it is not in the riches of this world, but is to come at the end of our steadfast hope. Verse 12….

True beauty comes in the receiving the crown of life. For this is promised by God to all who love him. And those who love him are those who remain steadfast under trial, continuing to hope in God and his promises through it all.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our trials are not easy, in fact they are often painful. But know that our good and Sovereign God is using these to strengthen our faith, to see whether we truly love him as he strips the things of this world away from us. Whether that be the striping of ease and comfort in this life, the feeling of control, or something completely different. God is using these to bring us to life itself where the curse of sin and death are felt no more.

But maybe you are here this morning. And you have no understanding about this crown of life and faith. Maybe you think we as Christians are even a bit odd and crazy for talking about this subject of counting it all joy when we meet various trials. Well friend, while we certainly are odd in comparison to the world, we count it all joy in meeting these trials in part because we remember that the crown of life is only possible because our Savior, Jesus, came to this world to live and suffer and die in our place. Jesus, the Son of God himself came down from heaven to take on our human flesh, and to live a life where he suffered. He suffered hunger and thirst, just as we do. He suffered as he was counted an outcast by many or thought crazy. He suffered as he was deemed guilty, though he was innocent and led to a hill called Calvary. And there he had nails driven through his feet and hands onto a cross of wood. He was lifted up onto that cross as it was put into the ground and suffered and died so that he could defeat death. It was because of his suffering that we could come to life. And so, we suffer now in this present world, knowing that life is promised, because Jesus did not remain dead, but rose on the third day. He defeated death in his rising from the grave. And we have the hope that we will too one day be raised by him. Friend, this is the hope we have, and the hope that we extend to you this morning if you will turn from your sin and believe in the Lord Jesus. Come and find rest and hope even in the midst of the trials you are currently suffering. I’ll be in the back following the service if you would like to talk more about this.

But now we must shift gears a bit, along with James. We have been told that God sovereignly uses trials for our good, but then is God the author of temptation and evil in that same sovereignty? The answer? That comes now with our second point this morning.

Temptations and Death

Verse 13….

God himself is good, and he is not tempted by evil. And because God is good, he does not tempt anyone towards evil. For if so, he would then be the author of evil, which he is not. The root of temptation comes not from God, but from within ourselves. For while trials are an external conflict pressing against us for testing, temptation is an internal pressure, boiling within us from our own evil desires. Verse 14….

That temptation towards outbursts of anger, partiality, adultery, hate, jealousy, selfish ambition, quarrels, and self-indulgence are all from within ourselves, along with many other sin issues. These are just the ones brought up throughout the letter of James that we will be looking at in our time in the letter of James. We are tempted towards these, because we desire them. We desire to be right, so we are driven to anger. We are bent towards a desire for self-focus, and so we are tempted towards jealousy and quarrels and self-indulgence. These creep up within us and tempt us to curse our neighbors.

Temptations though they start quietly within, starting out from our own desires, they are not something to be ignored. For these temptations will grow and be born, much like a baby in a mother’s womb, the baby doesn’t stay in the womb forever, 9 months and the baby comes out. And though ladies, I’m certain it feels like an eternity in those 9 months, but the point is, the baby eventually, God willing, is born. And this same thing is true of our inward desires, they eventually give birth to sin. And that sin will grow, just as a child. And when it is fully grown, the end is…..death. Verse 15….

The world tells us to follow the desires of our hearts, but our desires make a poor and foolish guide. Our desires when left unchecked will lead us to death. Death that is not just of our mortal bodies, but eternal death. Death that leads to a real place of hell, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. A place of eternal torment. This is the end for all who follow the desires of their own hearts. This is the end for all who fail to fight against the desires of their hearts and put them to death. It is for this reason that the Puritan, John Owen, said, “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.” We must labor to kill temptation as it builds within us, even before it gives birth, and certainly before it grows. Or it will kill us.

We as Christians must labor to kill temptation and evil desires within our own hearts and minds by renewing them, by being transformed by the word of God and the Spirit of God. Young people, kids and teenagers, this means you need to work hard to become self-controlled now. Because the more you daily with the sin and temptations of your heart, the more they will squeeze you like that of a boa constrictor, slowly squeezing the life out of you. Kill the desires of sin as quickly as possible. Kill the desires of envy, jealousy, and pride. Kill the desires of all sexual immorality, and anger and hate. Kill the desires for the things of this world before these desires give birth to sin and kill you.

And this goes for us who are older too. We must labor to kill these desires of our heart now, or they will eventually kill us. And though killing these will not happen overnight, our duty as disciples, as followers of Jesus is to labor daily to put these to death as we turn our focus from our desires and put them on the goodness of God. This is where we turn with our third and final point this morning.

God and Goodness

Verses 16-18….

As we should not be tempted to think that God is the cause of temptations, we must not be deceived about who God is. Our God is a good and gracious God. He never changes in that. He has from the moment of the fall in the garden of Eden been at work to restore a people to himself. He first chose Israel as his people, and now he has chosen a new people, a people united to his beloved Son, Jesus. And on this people, he has poured out every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 2). And this will never, ever change. God does not change, for if he did, he would cease to be God.

God calls us to himself by the word of truth so that we could become a kind of firstfruits. That is, that we who have already come to faith are an early anticipation of even more fruit to come from the hope of Christ. This was written by James, the ½ brother of Jesus in the 40 AD, that is nearly 2,000 years ago. And guess what, the church has been being built and advanced these last 2,000 years as the testimonies of others have held fast in the midst of trials, as people have continued to look to the goodness and grace of the Lord, our God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, may we continue to be an example and a light of God’s goodness by remembering his goodness and holding to it as we endure trials. That God is the Father of lights who is advancing his light even now, both in our own hearts and those around us, those watching us in how we continue to hold to the hope of Jesus even in the midst of these trials and count them as all joy.

Let’s pray….