Trials and Joy (James 1:1-11)

James 1:1-11

Trials and Joy

Sunday, July 31, 2022

Pastoral Prayer

Nations: Gospel work in India as they celebrate their freedom tomorrow

Government: President Biden

Sister Church: Emmanuel Baptist Church (Doug Williams)

Our Church: Various illnesses; gospel clarity; gospel unity; endurance of faith

Rec of the Word:

Introduction

This may come as a shock to most of you here this morning, but my early childhood revolved around something more than football. Wrestling consumed more of my time, energy, and attention. No, I’m not talking about the WCW or WWF. I’m talking about real wrestling. As a wrestler, from the time I started at five years old, two sayings were drilled into my head: go hard or go home; no pain, no gain. As one coach put it, we were some of the toughest sons of guns out there. And that was expected of us. We were the kids club program for one of the state’s top wrestling programs. And we had a reputation to uphold, a reputation of winning. And in wrestling, winning means having to endure through the match. That’s why running and tomahawk chops were a regular part of the practice. Tomahawk chops are where you are in an athletic position on the balls of your feet bouncing up and down while working your thighs for minutes at a time. All of this was to help us when in that third round of the match we were tired and sore, we knew how to push forward and finish. And all the pain was worth it when our hands were raised at the end of a match or a tournament. The pain of training, of testing, served its purpose. And if that pain serves a purpose, how much more does the pain of various trials serve a purpose? That’s what we are going to look at this morning as we open up to James 1:1-11.

James is a book that has caused some controversy within church history, namely that of Martin Luther, the well-known Protestant Reformer. Luther once stated, “St. James’s epistle is really a right strawy epistle, compared to these others [Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, 1 Peter, and 1 John], for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it.”

Luther, like many thought that the book of James lacked consistency, a steady flow, and any gospel. And while it may seem as if Luther is right if we quickly glance at the Epistle, the Letter of James, a much slower, deeper study reveals a deeper cohesiveness to the letter. For while the gospel might not be explicit in the letter of James, it is very much implicit and underlies the whole of the letter. The letter as a whole aims to point the hearts of its hearers to what true gospel faith is. This is given in James’ thesis statement of the letter in James 1:27 which says, “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.” We will unfold this more in 2 weeks when we get to this verse in our study in James, but for now, we need to see the call of James’ letter is to a pure and undefiled religion. A faith that is unstained from worldliness. The call of the gospel is to be born again to a living hope, to be made new. Therefore the implications of the gospel are a true and pure faith in that hope. So the letter of James is not some strawy epistle. It is an epistle, a letter saturated with practical application of what it looks like to walk as a Christian who has been transformed by the power of the gospel.

At the same time, the letter is a call for us to remember our only hope in the gospel, King Jesus himself. It is a sobering letter that forces us to recall our hope found in him, for only once our eyes are set on Jesus, can we begin to carry these truths out in the power of the Spirit. If we read the Epistle of James and expect to muster these things up within ourselves, we will not find the strength or the ability to carry these out. Only through the transforming power of the Spirit that comes from a true faith will bring these things about.

So who is this James that writes to us, giving such bold and pointed statements? We see that he identifies himself as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, we know from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, that James is the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, being born of Joseph and Mary. Yet, his authority in writing does not come from his biological relationship to Jesus, it comes from his faith in Jesus, hence his use of the word servant to identify himself. This is also the same James that Paul says in Galatians 2:9 was a pillar of the church along with Cephas (that is Peter) and John. This is the same James that spoke in Acts 15 at the Jerusalem Council.

It is no ordinary servant who writes this letter. It is a servant who most likely was there in the earliest days of Jesus and his ministry. One who was in close proximity to Jesus; one who would have known if there were flaws and hypocrisy within Jesus. And though he wasn’t one of his twelve, he was an early church leader. And we see this in the way that James writes his letter. Much of his letter has a very similar tone and emphasis as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7.

It is this James who writes this letter to point his audience, both those who would have originally read the letter to us here today to a pure religion that is unstained from worldliness. With that said, let’s hear from the word of the LORD in James 1:1-11…

Main Idea: Trials are counted as joy for the Christian as they work to produce completeness in our faith; we seek this joy by asking God for wisdom and realizing our only boast is Christ. And we are going to look at this in three points that flow from that main idea:

Trials and their purpose

Trials and the needed wisdom

Trials and a right boast

Trials and their purpose

Trials are a reality in this world because this world is broken. We live in a disease-ridden world, so the sickness will come. We live in a world where we too are broken and messy people. So it is no wonder that relational drama comes as we deal with other messy people. But then we also have to battle physical and mental struggles, depression, and anxiety being up there as common ones. Maybe for someone here even this morning, though they may not dare admit it to others, it feels as if the waters are covering them and pressing them deeper and deeper under the sea, entrapping them from coming up. These are the various kinds of trials that come upon mankind. These are the various trials that come against us. And we all will sooner or later will face one, if not many, of these types of trials. Again, this is part of living in a fallen and broken world. And if this is true for all living in this world, how much more so for those who are living in exile? Return with me to the second half of verse 1. It says, “To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.”

The twelve tribes’ language draws the reader’s attention to the twelve tribes of Israel. More importantly, it is being used as a means of encouragement to who true Israel is, those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who have trusted him even as they are cast out of their homeland by persecution. We learn from Acts 8:1 that the early believers were scattered away from Jerusalem as non-believing Jews persecuted them. We read there in Acts 8:1, “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.”

These young Christians are being run out by persecution from their homes, their families, and their cultures to strange and foreign lands. They are now dispersed in surrounding cities outside of Jerusalem. The trials they are facing are certainly increasing more and more as hostility grows and as new challenges arise given their exile.

And it is to these exiled, persecuted Christians that James, the servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ writes without beating around the bush, count it all joy, my brothers (and sisters), when you meet trials of various kinds. You here being plural, when y’all meet trials of various kinds. These dispersed Christians are being called to count or consider the various trials they are meeting as all joy or pure joy as the NIV puts it. The call to count or consider it pure joy is shocking.

It’s utterly shocking because the command for these brothers and sisters in the faith is not just mature and be done with trials. The command is not simply just bear with the trials, blessing is on the other side of this trial. Those types of statements are out of the mouth of Satan and of a false gospel. No, the command to count it pure joy as they meet various trials is shocking, because what marks these brothers and sisters as distinct from the world is found in the way they are commanded, instructed to respond to the trials of life!

The way their identity as the twelve tribes of Israel is going to be made visible to the world is that they respond differently to trials. That they consider them pure joy. But in calling them to count these as pure joy, James isn’t dismissing their trials. James knows that their trials are real. Many of these beloved brothers and sisters, are weary and uncertain about what to do. He knows the pressure of the trials seems almost unbearable at moments. He knows that some are going to weep through these trials and grieve for long periods of time through them. He understands that these trials are going to take their toll on the Christian. At the same time, he gives a breath of life in the midst of it. For, he takes our eyes and puts them back on the Sovereignty of God and how he is over trials and is using them for a purpose, a purpose to work for their ultimate good; not in this life, but in the life to come. This is what James is getting at as he writes verses 3-4 which read….

The testing of our faith produces steadfastness, that is it produces endurance. The weight of the testing strengthens the muscles to be able to last, to sustain them throughout the Christian life. Trials do what pre-season training does for the athlete, it prepares them to be able to play for 60 minutes on the football field or 40 minutes on the basketball court, or 90 minutes on the soccer field. Without the training and strengthening, there would be no gain. As the old saying from the intro this morning goes, “no pain, no gain”.

The various trials we meet are working to strengthen us, to make us strong and limber to finish the race of our faith. Because the Christian life is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

Think for a minute with me how many have supposedly begun the race of faith, but have quickly fallen away. There is currently a rising trendy phrase called de-conversion stories. Stories tell of how those who claimed to have made a profession of faith no longer hold to their faith. One prominent person in that camp is Joshua Harris. Joshua Harris is known for his book that would have been in almost every youth group in the 90s, Kiss Dating Goodbye. Harris has since denied the faith and no longer claims to be a Christian.

The problem however is that those who claim to now de-convert never were really of us. John makes this clear when he writes in 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.”

Likewise, Jesus’ parable of the soils that is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s gospel accounts echoes this reality. For it matters not how we start the race. If the seed of the gospel does not take good, deep roots in the soil it matters not. If the gospel bears fruit for a short time, but then the cares of the world choke it out, that supposed faith was no faith at all. And certainly the warning of the seed that fell along the rocky ground and sprang up but did not endure tribulation, that is trials, applies here. The perfect and true faith is a faith that endures until the end. A faith that isn’t plucked away by the birds of the air or choked out by the cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches or doesn’t wither away as tribulations come. True faith lasts, it perseveres through it all. True faith is therefore helped by these various trials in bringing us to the finish where we are made complete and perfect.

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, hear how James is aiming to help strengthen our hearts in the midst of these various trials. He is seeking to help us take our eyes away from our present trials of their various kinds to help us focus on the end where Jesus is. The finish line, where we will be fully transformed into the image of Christ. Where our hearts no longer are divided between a love of God and the love of this present world. Where our minds and affections are no longer divided. It is this complete work that the testing of our faith is leading us to. And this is the reason that we are commanded to count our trials as pure joy. Not because the trials themselves are pleasant and joyful, but because the end result is that we are made complete and perfect as we enter the presence of the LORD our God for all eternity.

So whatever trials you are currently facing or will soon face Christian, count these trials as pure joy as they work to make you more complete in Christ. As they work to strengthen your faith and dependence in your salvation in Jesus until that faith becomes sight.

A day is coming in which we will stand across Jordan’s Stormy Banks, looking to Canaan’s fair and happy land where all our possessions lie. A place where sorrow, sickness, pain, and death are felt and feared no more. And we will cross over that river into the Promised Land where we will receive the crown of life. This is the hope we have in Jesus. But until then, we must continue to greet various trials as pure joy as they work to strengthen us to reach that day. And as we wait, we are not left to wait without grace. For the LORD has provided us with grace in the midst of the trials. That grace being the gift of wisdom, we but need ask for it. And that is where we turn in our second point this morning…

Trials and the needed wisdom

It is one thing to be told to count these various trials as pure joy, but it is another to understand how to live out the call to pure joy. This is where we see the gracious invitation of the LORD. In verse 5 we are told, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

The God who created the heavens and the earth, the God who is sovereign over every trial, the God whose love is poured out on us in the sending of his only Son, Jesus, invites and welcomes us to approach him and ask for wisdom when we lack it to help us endure these various trials and to know how to count them as pure joy.

Now, the wisdom we are invited to ask for is not simply knowledge. The wisdom of God is much different than the wisdom of the world. The wisdom of God begins with a fear of God. Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Therefore we are not asking for wisdom in simply knowing what to do in the midst of trials. We are not coming to ask God, alright LORD, tell me what to do here. In fact, the wisdom being called for here is more to do with wisdom to fear God and find our joy more than we fear our trials and the joys of this world. Notice what follows the gracious invitation of God to ask for wisdom. James says there in verses 6-8…

The concern for a pure and undefiled religion, a pure faith, is that in our hearts we are doubters. That we are double-minded, and unstable. The doubting here is unfortunately missed though. James isn’t rebuking those of us who struggle with those occasional doubts of how in the world are you going to do this LORD. Christian, if you struggle with the occasional doubt, you can rest with confidence that as you go to the LORD and ask for wisdom, your struggling doubts aren’t going to hinder you.

Think about Thomas and his doubts about King Jesus being raised from the dead with a physical body. He doubted, hence his nickname, doubting Thomas. Abraham, the father of faith had doubts along the way. He doubted and struggled to grasp a son being born to him, he questioned God in it. And yet, is Abraham not in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11?

James isn’t calling us to not have those momentary doubts along the way. The doubts being addressed here is a doubting of where one’s allegiance lies. Or we could say that we are being called to ask in faith without disputing with ourselves. The one who disputes with themselves is one who tries to keep one foot in the LORD and one foot in the world. The heart torn between the two.

Doug Moo in his commentary states, “So the one who doubts, not possessing an ‘anchor for the soul’ (Heb 6:19), does not pray to God with a consistency and sincerity of purpose. Prey to the shifting winds of motive and desire, the doubter wants wisdom from God one day and the wisdom of the world the next.”

Asking in this kind of manner that is tossed to and fro by the moment’s circumstances is no faith at all. Therefore one may go through the motion of asking for wisdom but seeks not the wisdom of God. This person is unstable in their way; they are double-minded. They find as much or more joy in the world and the wisdom within it than they do the wisdom of the LORD and joy in him. Their thoughts, speech, and actions contradict their claims to belong to God.

Pure faith has its occasional doubts along the way, but it trusts in the goodness and sovereignty of the LORD through the thick and thin, the calm and raging, the peaceful and the chaos. Whereas the double-minded and unstable person tries to have one foot on the land of this world while having one foot in the boat with the LORD. And then is left wondering while they are doing the splits as the two are going in opposite directions.

The wisdom of God and the wisdom of the world are at odds with one another. We read in 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”

The wisdom of the world simply wants to know what to do in the situation but cares not for the heart. This is why the double-minded and unstable person can pray to ask for wisdom from God, while their trust rests more in the treasures of this world than God. This is why they can ask for wisdom from God while living in deliberate and unrepentant sin. Or how they can ask for wisdom from the LORD while rejecting his clear commands found in the pages of the Bible. Such as them asking for wisdom while living in sexual immorality; asking for wisdom while holding onto idols; asking for wisdom while their tongues are filled with the deadly poison of gossip and slander. These are the ways of the double-minded. And these who are double-minded should not expect to receive anything from the LORD in their asking. For they know not the wisdom of the LORD nor seek it.

Instead the gracious invitation of the LORD is inviting us to ask of him for the wisdom to fear him and to see how he is Sovereignly ruling over everything, including that of our trials as he works them for our good (Romans 8:28). In Romans 8:35 we read, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” We need this wisdom to see, understand, and ground our hopes in this reality.

Think how vital this kind of wisdom is for those who are living in the midst of exile, who have been dispersed from their homes and cultures. Their families. They need the wisdom to recall and understand that just because they are suffering doesn’t mean they are forgotten or rejected by the LORD.

This is glorious news also for those who are battling disease and sickness. As this trial is upon you, the LORD is watching over you because you are his child, you are a saint in Christ. Likewise, it is good news for the one who is battling the crashing and drowning waves of anxiety and depression. The LORD is watching over you. Once more, the King of glory, King Jesus himself experienced such sorrow at Gethsemane. The anguish of his sorrow was so great that he sweated drops of blood. Dear brother or sister, this is the wisdom and hope in knowing you are not alone, that you have a Savior who has endured as you have and he is watching over you and interceding for you even now. And you who are in the midst of family drama, see that wisdom gives us the insight to see that God is looking over your ways. Ask for wisdom and he will give you the words to say in the moment. For King Jesus, himself promised that there is no need to be anxious about what to speak as we are delivered over to courts for the defense we should give. How much less anxious should we be about what we should speak into family drama and tough family situations? In all of these, we need wisdom. And all we need to do is ask for it. To ask for wisdom to know how to rightly apply God’s word into the moment and to live that word out.

This is the wisdom that we need. And we simply need to but ask for it and God will graciously give it to us. He will not withhold it if we ask for it by faith. Faith that is anchored in our only boast, Jesus. And that is where we turn in our third and final point this morning…

Trials and a right boast

Trials work to lead us to persevere until its had its full effect or full work on us in making us perfect and complete. We navigate the trials by asking for wisdom from the LORD. But we also need to see that Christ is the great equalizer in trials. That whether we are rich or poor, in Christ we are all put on equal playing ground. For once we come to faith in Jesus, then our standing lies with him. And that’s what we see in verses 9-11 this morning. It says…

The lowly or the poor boasts in his exaltation. That is, they have been made rich in Christ. They are rescued from their poverty and inherit the treasures of the King. Yet, those who are rich are humbled, for their earthly riches will soon fade. Their only standing lies with a man who was made low, beaten and then crucified on a cross. The one who was rich inherits life not through treasure, but through identifying with Jesus by taking up their own crosses and following the Man of Sorrows (Isaiah 53:3).

Trials are used to give us the right perspective on where our hope is to rest. And it rests with the one who says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt 11:28-30).

Trials are weighty and hard, but Jesus comes to bear them with us and helps us to endure by putting our hope in him. Trials are not used to burden us, but to make us realize our own weakness and frailty and lean all the more onto the arms of our dear savior.

And friend, maybe you have sat here this morning and wondered about these trials and how the Christian is to count or consider them pure joy. You think it impossible. My dear friend, it is impossible as long as you sit hard-heartened and neglect the joy of the Savior. See that these trials are aiming even now to break you of your own foolishness and pride, aiming to throw you on your face in humility and to see even in your humiliation, the LORD is graciously inviting you to call upon him and be saved. All you need to do is to turn from your allegiance to sin and turn and bow your knee in allegiance as a servant to Jesus, casting your hope on him alone. Will you not believe this today? Make today the day of salvation.

Conclusion

Trials have come and will keep coming for us. But brothers and sisters in Christ, embrace them like that of an old friend as they work to strengthen us within our faith and make us complete and perfect. Count them as pure joy when we meet these various trials. For they are making us strong and fit with endurance to finish the race and receive the crown of life. And that crown of life comes through our faith in Jesus. Let us continue to hold to that faith until the end.

Let’s pray…