02 | James | James 1:2-8 | Joy in Trials

INTRODUCTION

As we turn to the letter of James for 10 weeks this Fall …

… we will find the practical wisdom of our Lord Jesus Christ

… gathered into this one short and pithy letter

James holds out to us the way of life that is the fruit of faith.

This is faith that leads to life …

… and faith for all of life.

In this passage, faith for life looks like joy in trials.

PRAY

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In the great commission, after telling his disciples to go and make disciples …

… Jesus tells them to teach all that he has commanded them.

The letter of James is a fulfillment of Jesus’ command.

It is a well digested and thorough compendium, a gathering together, of the teachings of Jesus as the way of life in the kingdom of God.

It is the wisdom of our Lord for life in his kingdom.

Consider just these two passages from the ministry of Jesus.

When you hear the message of James this morning, do you not hear what James is telling us here?

Matthew 5:12 ESV

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Mark 13:13 ESV

And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

What we have in our passage this morning is a clear call to persevere in every season …

… and especially in the season of trouble.

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Read v2.

COUNT IT

Consider, regard, deem or be of the opinion

Come to this conclusion as a result of your consideration.

This ought to be your accounting of the situation—all joy!

Manton Spiritual things are worthy in themselves, other things depend upon our opinion and valuation of them.

Another way to say it is that …

… when we weigh the value of our circumstances

… our conclusion depends up on both our perspective and use of them.

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For example: I loved the gentle rain on my back porch late this last week.

Whereas, another might have been planning a trip to the beach that got rained out.

So, the value of the circumstance, depends on our relative perceptive on the circumstance.

Now, what remains, then, is our use of that circumstance.

I found myself thankful to the Lord for gentle rain, as I used the mood of the rain and clouds for an evening of reflective journaling.

The one who was headed to the beach, might give thanks for the opportunity to turn aside for some ice cream with his kids.

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But what of a hardship and trial?

We had an example of this just the other day when Sam preached on Jesus’ resurrection of Lazarus

There is no objective goodness to the death of Jesus’ friend Lazarus.

The circumstance is objectively loss.

For this reason, we are told that when Jesus came to the tomb he was deeply moved and troubled in spirit

But, Jesus was also unwavering in faith and steadfast in hope.

Standing on this solid ground, he was able not only to consider the object reality of the circumstance …

… but also consider the use of the trial for the purpose of joy.

John 11:14–15 ESV

Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

No matter the circumstance, where are the eyes of Jesus fixed?

The glory of God.

This is the joy that is the ground of our steadfastness in every circumstance.

No matter the tragedy, trial or temptation …

… there is one transcendent reality that rises above to pull together our joy in ever circumstance.

It is the glory of God in all things.

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APPLY

Surely, on many of our minds this morning is the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Though each person here may have a different perspective on the life of Charlie Kirk, there is nothing objectively good about his horrific death.

So, what remains for us?

Is the Lord yet sovereign in this circumstance.

Is he still a Rock for steadfastness in trials of this kind?

Will we who trust in the Lord our Rock, in the face of even such a tragedy as a public assassination, remain steadfast in faith so that we may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing?

And, in this moment, there are many who are asking if there is any truth to the Christian gospel which Charlie Kirk professed?

The death of Charlie Kirk is objectively evil.

But the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of men and women this week who are for the first time reading the scripture, going to church and encountering the gospel of Jesus Christ is joy! All joy!

I can think of no greater joy in the face of my own death …

… than that someone might ask if I was right to hope in the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sin and life forevermore.

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Thomas Manton

Do not judge by sense.

Judge by supernatural light.

Judge by supernatural grounds.

time

Read v2 again.

ALL JOY

note: my brothers

James talks to the brothers, that is, the near relations, the family in Christ throughout the letter.

What does he call the family of God to?

All joy!

As is demonstrated elsewhere in scripture.

2 Corinthians 7:4 ESV

In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.

Romans 5:3–5 ESV

… we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

This is the same chain of trials, steadfastness and completeness.

To rejoice in suffering or to have joy in trials is to take one’s stand in the love of God which he has given to us at all times.

What of evil? (Manton helpful here)

We do not count the circumstance itself good, nor do we account the evil action that brought about a trial itself righteous.

Rather, we account ourselves joyful when we face such a moment of trial, even a circumstance of evil.

The joy is not in the evil cause nor the difficult circumstance itself, but in how we agree with the Lord in his use of this moment for our own joy in steadfastness and our hope in how God will use all things for his great good.

testing — steadfastness — perfect and complete

The message of perseverance is in no way conditional.

.This is a theme.

It is the way of life.

It is the undivided life.

We’ll come back to that in a moment.

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Read v5

ASK GOD

How does the verse begin?

If any of you lacks wisdom …

Why say that? Why now?

Because you do! You do lack wisdom.

It’s not a matter of maybe.

It’s not, “In the unlikely event that you find yourself in that rare circumstance of lacking wisdom …”

Who here in a season of trail finds it nearly impossible to navigate the path of joy?

Who here, rather than praying:

“Lord, how good it is to be fashioned like clay by your hard hand pressing upon me in this circumstance so that you would bring me to maturity and completeness.”

Rather: “God, just make it stop! Who cares about steadfastness, just make it go away!”

Ah! So, what is needed so that we would not be blown and tossed by trials of many kinds?

We need wisdom! We need the truth of God to be worked into our soul as a gift from his hand.

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And, how does the Lord give?

God, who gives generously

The word here is simply or single-mindedly.

God is not divided or in two minds about whether or not to give to those who ask him.

He gives generously, because there is nothing divided in him that is holding him back.

And this is the central theme that runs through the whole of this letter.

It is the absolute principle of the way of the kingdom of our Lord …

… and the holy perfection of our Lord himself.

The Lord is wholly, simply and utterly …

… yes, single-minded and undivided in his perfection.

This is the holy glory of God.

There is nothing changing in him.

And there is nothing wavering in what he does.

Let me suggest that tucked into this one word, which we translate generously …

… which is more strictly translated simply, or undivided

… is the thread that pulls together the varied fabrics and gathered teachings of Jesus in the letter of James.

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The Lord is whole-hearted.

So, when we ask him for wisdom, which he has promised, we know what we are going to get.

When he promises the crown of life to those who love him, life is what we will receive.

We can bank the whole of our lives on that.

… the whole of the way we live our lives by faith.

If the whole-hearted, single-minded and undivided Lord is the ground of our faith …

… we have found a sure foundation upon which walk in life.

The Lord is the unchanging object our faith that fashions an unshakable life in every circumstance.

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Read v6 — But let him ask in faith, with no doubting

Why is doubt such a problem here?

Don’t we all have doubts?

Again, that’s the whole point.

Doubts leave us driven and tossed by the wind.

Doubts are evidence of a double-minded instability.

Doubt says, I’ll put one foot out to stand upon the Lord, but I’ll keep the other foot somewhere in the world just in case.

Doubt hedges your bets against God.

That’s not faith, it’s literally anti-faith.

And it is no way to live!

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This passage can feel like a wound to a person like myself.

It can cause me to hide in shame for my doubt.

Or it cause me to pretend like I don’t have any doubts or fears.

But that isn’t the idea at all!

How did it begin?

If any of you lacks … ask!

The one who asks the Lord for wisdom says,

“I have no joy here. I have no sense of blessing in this trial.”

I lack!

I’m standing with one foot in the world, and the circumstances of the world are shaking me to the core.

But you, Lord are one! You are generous and whole, undivided and steady.

Give me the wisdom that I lack to stand upon your wisdom and to walk in your way.

I am double-minded, but you are whole.

Show me how to walk, how to take practical and functional steps in this circumstance of joyless suffering …

… to see the joy set before me.

Help me, so that in this test of faith I would gain expectant joy that I too will be steadfast …

… undivided and whole.

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APPLY

Man, I need that!

I lack!

Today, I lack. This week I have lacked.

There isn’t a Sunday that I do not agree in our weekly prayer of confession:

You, Lord, are holy, and I am not.

You, Lord, are devoted to the goodness, truth and beauty of your own divine glory …

… and I have wandered off after much folly.

I lack. And you do not.

Give, generously, not begrudgingly.

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TWO EXAMPLES

Read v9-11 — The poor and the rich

We’re going to come back to this again as the main subject for a message on the beginning of chapter 5.

But for now, James makes the same point in two ways:

For the poor man, who believes

He has been elevated from the low place of poverty to the high place of inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:3 ESV

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Brother, no matter your prior lowly estate.

That is merely a circumstance of this world that is nothing more or less than a trial of various kinds.

Count it joy! You have been raised to the station of child of God and brother of the King!

What of the rich man?

In the world, he was king!

By his riches he was the exalted ruler of his own destiny.

But the rich man who believes, is brought down from his pride and humbled before his Lord.

Matthew 5:5 ESV

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Brother, no matter your riches, in this world you are but grass.

Were you to remained tethered to the riches of this world, you would pass away with it.

But you have become untethered.

You have gained access that same, single-minded, simple generosity of the Lord who has humbled you.

Rejoice in your humiliation! Become humble and live.

Bob Dylan | Satisfied Mind

once I was wadding in fortune and fame Everything that I dreamed of to get a start in lifes game But suddenly it happened I lost every dime But I'm richer by far with a satisfied mind.

Apply:

You can see that poverty and riches are but trials of various kinds.

But to stand firm in the Lord is all joy.

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Read v12, 14-15 — The trial of temptation

Though James begins with a call to joy in trials of various kinds …

… here he moves to a trial of a particular kind.

It is the trial of one’s own sinful desires.

How blessed and filled with joy is he who gives up his double-minded and worldly desires …

… to live a steadfast, single-minded life.

He has his eyes set upon the crown of life.

He lays down the lusts of the flesh and the lure and enticement of his own desires …

… by which he is pulled this way and that.

He sees that as long as he is tethered to his wayward heart …

… he will be dragged down into sin and death.

39:00

Set your desires on the love of God and the wisdom of his way.

When you remain steadfast in the face of temptations brought about by your own desires …

… you take hold of the joy of steadfastness

… and you are becoming mature and complete, not lacking anything.

That’s the whole thing with desire, is it says …

… you lack something, and it is being withheld from you by God’s stingy, restrictive commands.

But the one who perseveres, sees the generosity of God’s command and the wisdom of his way.

It is not the one who gives into his desires, but the one who denies them who lacks nothing.

40:30

APPLY

Read v17b — the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

It is grace that the good gift of wisdom rains down for us in the great trials of life.

So that he who is perfect and unchanging …

… might make us also steadfast and complete.

41:00

APPLY

Look back at our passage and you will find something amazing. You will find grace.

The Lord has set his single-minded glory upon grace.

He has whole-heartedly and with simple, unequivocating generosity chosen to give to those who lack.

For the fool who lacks wisdom.

For the poor and the rich.

For the one tempted by his own wayward desires.

What a glorious mercy that he has guaranteed grace for all who ask for it.

The message of letter of James is the same message that we find throughout the whole of the scriptures.

Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV

… let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Do you see it?

The joy of the Lord, in the circumstance of his suffering, was to endure the cross.

And what is the cross?

It is the place that the only righteous, unwavering man suffered …

… in the place of foolish and double-minded men, wrecked by our own descent into sin and death.

Brothers and sisters.

You need Jesus!

I do not want to be uncaring or aloof.

If you are in a season trial, your pursuit of joy in that trial does not make it not a trial.

And, oh, do trials come as various kinds, and with great sorrow.

But, friends, you don’t need relief, not mere relief from the circumstances of the trials in this world.

You need the wisdom of God to stand in hope of the glory of God.

You need to hear James’ call to believe and not doubt.

Next Week: 03 | Hearing and Doing | James 1:19-27

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