Untitled Sermon

James Week 3: James 1:12-18

PRAY!!

Welcome back to our Wednesday Night Equip Study

This may come as a surprise to some of you but:

· None of us are monks living out lives of solitude on the side of an unknown mountain somewhere.

o Instead, we as Christians, spend our day to day lives in a very much fallen and sinful world…

§ Surrounded by other sinful people/including ourselves, and the influences of a fallen and sinful society…

· The world is like a pressure box, trying to force you into its mold/squeeze you into conforming to its ideals….

o Peer pressure to sin, pressures to cheat

o A world of movies/TV/advertisements promoting worldly living

o Social Media influencing our thoughts

o Young people relentlessly taught and expected to conform to worldly ideas

o Bosses that want you to do something you know is wrong

o Business meetings where all that matters is the bottom line

o Gossip: have you heard about so and so? Did you hear what they said/did?

· Maybe we as Christians could withdraw from the world?

o Setup a kind of Christian fortress?

o Build a mote and a drawbridge, asking what is the password to all who would enter? – Jesus saves!

§ Perhaps that would be worth a try but…

§ In the hours before our Lord’s betrayal and arrest and crucifixion:

· Jesus in what is known as the High Priestly prayer,

o prayed to the Father on our behalf and in his prayer the Eternal Son asks our Heavenly Father:

· John 17:15 (Jesus said) I am not asking that You (father) take them (Christians) out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one.

o If he wanted to take us out of this world, he certainly could at any moment, but he doesn’t… there must be a reason, there must be a purpose in enduring, in suffering, in the trials and tribulations and even the joys and simple pleasures of this life…

§ You see, instead of stepping back and withdrawing from the world, we instead must struggle /we must battle to resist its influence

§ Or as the old saying goes “We must be in the world but not of the world.”

o Besides, the problem is only partially the world…. The Christian has actually 3 enemies:

§ the world is one, the devil is another, and the 3rd (where our passage lands today) is the flesh –its our own hearts

· the first 2 (the world and the devil) are outside, but the biggest problem we have is our own sinful desires/our sin nature/ our natural tendencies to rebellion against God

o This is a constant/continual problem of our own sins flowing out from corrupt/fallen hearts

§ Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV) [9] The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

§ John Calvin The human heart is an idol factory

§ Albert Einstein It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil from the spirit of man.

-----READ James 1:12-18-----

James 1:12 (ESV)

[12] Blessed is the man…

First we might ask, what does it mean to be “blessed”?

· And our first instinct might be, health or material things, or family, or a good job or any number of things that our hearts desire

· Blessed – makarios – defined as the privileged recipient of divine favor

· One who receives the goodness and favor and presence of God.

· Blessed is the man is the opening line of Psalm 1, perhaps James was thinking of the Psalms as he wrote

o Psalm 1:1–2 (ESV) [1] Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; [2] but his delightis in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

§ The blessed man does not listen to the counsel of the world/the words/the teachings/the ideologies of the wicked/this corrupted world system with its schemes

· The blessed man does not walk in their ways

§ But instead he hears the counsel of God in his Word, the Bible is his guide, his daily meditation, his bread/his meat

· Its his hearts desire, his delight is in the wisdom/the word/the counsel of God

§ Psalm 1:6also tells us that The LORD knows the way of the righteous (the blessed)

· This word to “know” is the same in Psalm 1 as it is in Genesis 4 and describes the most intimate of relationships

o Genesis 4:1 (ESV) Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived

o Genesis 4:17 Cain knew his wife, and she conceived

· The LORD knows the way of the blessed man in an intimate and close and complete way

o If you are a blessed child of God, he is not far off/removed/distant from you

o If you are blessed then God is with you, God is for you, God is helping you/guiding you/caring for you…

§ He knows everything about you, he knows the hurts/the pains/the trials/the temptations/the fears/the joys/the hopes/ the burdens….

· He knows all of it, he has not forgotten one single detail

· And the blessed one is also on the narrow road – but that’s where the promised trials and tribulation are there….

o the rewards are not necessarily for right now

o But instead God is leading his blessed children through this life to a greater reward…

§ to one day spend all of eternity with him

James says:

[12] Blessed is the man who WHAT? remains steadfast (Who doesn’t faulter/Who endures/who stands strong/who perseveres) WHEN? under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life

· The word here for trial in v12 is also the same word as test “when he has stood the test”

o The same word appears again in v13 translated as temptation

· This is a continuation of the trials in V2 that Brian spoke to us about last week where James challenges us:

o James 1:2 (ESV) [2] Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

· James is continuing the discussion here saying that you are not only to count the trials of life a joy but that you are blessed by God when you remain steadfast while enduring the trials of this life

o You can think of a trial in life as a test:

§ To illustrate: its like an automotive company testing for defects

§ At the factory, they will put auto parts through difficult or extreme conditions to see where the failure points are

· They don’t do this out of a malicious desire to just break things,

o Like in that movie “Office Space” where the guys are so frustrated by the office printer they take it out back and smash it with baseball bats

· No! but instead in the testing, they take the results back to the engineers to make a better car

o To make a more resilient part so that the product will perform better/last longer/more reliably

§ Serve its purpose… better that it could have without the testing

o Now thinking God’s work in our lives:

§ In the Old Testament, Malachi wrote that the Messiah is coming and Malachi 3:2 he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.

· Using the imagery of soap – Jesus washes us clean from our sins

· But its in the refiner’s fire that we find the purpose in the promised trialsand tribulations

§ The refiner purifies metal by a process of smelting – this process was well known in Bible times

· The metal worker takes a piece of say – raw silver ore for example….

o The ore is mostly silver but is shot through with impurities like lead/carbon/other metals that are undesirable and cause the silver to be impure

§ Things that you do not want in your silver are all mixed in and how do you get that out of there?

o So the refiner heats up the silver ore until it is molten hot

· The impurities/the dross naturally rise to the surface and the refiner can simply scrape them away

o When the metal cools, what is left is purified

o This process is repeated again and even in ancient days the refiner could reach over 99% pure silver

§ We understand from this that God will sometimes heat things up in our life also, the test comes/the trial enters your life…

o Jesus said (Matthew 5)

§ “Blessed are the poor in spirit”

§ “Blessed are those who mourn”

§ “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”

§ “Blessed are you when others revile and persecute you”

· You see… its not necessarily when times are easy that we grow in Christ

o But when times get difficult, and the stress level increases, and its when your faith is tested.

o And as the heat gets turned up in your life the old hidden impurities that still remain shot right through your heart

· The anger, the greed, the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life

o They begin to rise to the top/they make themselves known/they show themselves in the light…

o What was invisible becomes visible…

§ and then the Holy Spirit can point these out to you in your life and call you to repentance

· To turn away from them

· He can, in a way like the picture of the refiner… scrape these impurities off the top of your heart

§ Call you to be cleansed/to grow in sanctification to be increasingly molded and shaped into Christ-likeness

· Spurgeon I’ve learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the rock of ages.

· God’s desire for you (and we SO OFTEN MISS THIS/and get it wrong) is not comfort… is to be conformed into the image of his Son

o And sometimes stubborn/hardened material…. like us… must be heated up before it can be reshaped

But V13

[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.

Yes… God will allow the test/the trial to enter your life but God will not tempt you to do evil…

· God is Holy and Pure and undefiled by evil, he does not tempt anyone to sin

o In the Garden of Eden, God tested Adam – right?

§ Genesis 2:16–17 (ESV) [16] And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every treeof the garden, [17] but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

§ God said in effect: “Look Adam, all is open to you, you can have of any type of food that grows in the garden”

· Except this one…. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil

o For the day that you eat of it you shall surely die

o God knows what is best for his creation…. It was not good for Adam, God told him the truth that in eating, his innocence would be lost

§ By ignoring the command of the LORD

· He and the entire human race after him would receive a spiritual death in the separation from God and a physical death through the corruption of the body

§ God was not tempting Adam to sin, but he was testing him in allowing him the opportunity to remain steadfast, to be obedient, to be loyal, to believe God, to take him at his word and obey…

· It was the Devil who tempted, and Adam and Eve who doubted and sinned against God

§ You remember what happened when God came to confront Adam with his sin

· Genesis 3:11–12 (ESV)[11] GODsaid, “…Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” [12] The man said, WHAT?“The woman whom you gave to be with me, shegave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

o Look God its your fault… I would have never sinned against you but you know…

§ It was her, I didn’t ask for a wife

· I just went to sleep one night and woke up married!….

§ You see God… its YOUR fault!

§ If you hadent given me this wife, then I would have never sinned!

o James says [13] Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,”

§ That is a sin, that is self-justification, that is lie

· God said, It’s not Good for man to be alone,

o But its us!

§ we take the blessings of God and twist them in our own hearts to sinful ends

James tells us the unvarnished hard truth here… Brothers… Listen to what James is saying when he tells us this!

· BECAUSE

o We don’t like it,

o we don’t want to hear it….

o We want to blame God or the Devil, or our wife, or our children

o or our terrible upbringing…

o or our Dad who didn’t say nice things to us

§ or our Mom who didn’t give us some thing we think we needed

o or that bully at school that had it out for us…

o or our background or our race or our

o or our boss or our dog

· We want to blame anyone/everyone/anything except ourselves

o We are naturally self-righteous

§ We are born with the desire to self-justify

o It is in our nature to blame shift and point the finger to anyone and everyone but us

§ It is a hard truth for us to hear from James

· But when you point the finger at another you have 3 more pointing right back at you

James tells us in V14 [14] But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

· Its not God’s fault! Its not anyone else’s fault

o Theproblem is in us

· It is out of our own hearts from which our warped desires tempt us into sin

· Adrian Rogers There’s one thing that God will never accept for sin and that is an alibi.

I heard a story…. ----FUNNY ILLUSTRATION ---

A businessman had been ill and he went to see the doctor. The doc told him that he was in the early stages of diabetes and needed to control his diet and stay away from sugary foods.

· But the next morning he had a strong craving for donuts.

· He knew he shouldn’t but he drove past the donut shop anyway…

o Maybe just the smell of a warm donut would satisfy him…

· When he arrived, he breathed a sigh of relief because all the parking spaces were full and he wouldn’t be able to go inside.

o He prayed to God, “Lord, I know you don’t want me to eat donuts. That its not your will for me now…”

§ “But to be sure, I’m going to drive around the block and if no parking spaces open up, then I’ll know without doubt that its not your will for me today.”

o After making the block 8 times… A spot became available and the businessman went inside…

· Can he blame God? No!

· But as James says, he was “lured and enticed by his owndesire”…

o His choice/his destructive desire was his alone

James says V15

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

Think of David’s great failure with Bathsheba

· 2 Samuel 11 tells us it was the time when kings would go out to war

o But David stays behind and sends Joab to fight the Lord’s battles that year

o In his idleness he is walking on the roof of his house and sees her

§ A beautiful woman bathing

§ Instead of turning his eyes and going back into his house

§ His glance becomes a lingering gaze, and an excitement at her exposed flesh leaps in his heart

· The gazebecomes the leering stareof lustful desire

· The man after God’s own heart, in a moment of temptation becomes just a dirty minded old man

o That lust in his heart leads to coveting in his mind

o The sinful desire leads to the conception of a plan to have herand sends his men to go and get her for him

§ The warnings that she was the wife or Uriah made no impact on David’s lust filled mind

o His conceived plan executed and she is before him and he takes her and commits adultery

o Proverbs 6:27–29 (ESV) [27] Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? [28] Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? [29] So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; none who touches her will go unpunished.

o This temptation sprung from David’s own heart

§ he allowed it to grow into conception of a plan

· he following through with his sinful desire…

§ David’s sin, fully grown brought forth pain and death into his life.

· His actions led to the death of Uriah, the death of the child born from the affair, the rape of David’s daughter Tamar and the deaths of David’s sons Absalom and Amnon

o Like the knocking down of a line of dominoes,

§ The consequence of this sin

· Brought forth death and misery that rolls through the remainder of David’s life as the echoing effects of his failure

James warns us….

[16] Do not be deceived (don’t be misled, don’t be fooled by a heart bent on wicked desires), my beloved brothers.

· Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

· Do not allow yourself to be fooled by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life!

o Instead, as Paul tells us in Colossians 3, that since we, brothers, are in Christ

§ We are not to be led by earthly fallen things

§ But instead looking to the things that are above/heavenly things

§ He tell us in Colossians 3:2–3 (ESV)[2] Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. [3] For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

James says v17

[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.

· Our hearts will deceive us, our desires when left unchecked will drive us into sin

· We strive for pleasures of this earth, we look and we chase after and we search

o All in vain, we can never be satisfied there, but we were never meant to be!

· But instead we look to Jesus, he is the good gift, he is the perfect life giving gift from above

o For God so loved, He sent his son for us

o Jesus came down from the Father, and in Him there is no variation or shadow of sin

§ Although we fail, we sin, we rebel

§ He did not

§ Where we are weak, he is strong for our sake

· And the great news of the Gospel is that Jesus has come, and gave the perfect give of his life on that cross so that by faith we can be counted as righteous

o Redeemed, restored, made new…

o Our sins forgiven and washed away.

· You see HE wore a crown of thorns…..

o So that he could one day give us the crown of life

§ This is the Good and Perfect gift

Now watch this:

· James says in v15…

o In our fallen nature with our natural sinful desires, in our own will we conceive evil and bring forth/give birth to sin

But God, James says v18

[18] Of his own will he brought us forth (this is the new birth in Christ/He gave us new life, HOW?) by the word of truth (faith comes by hearing the Word of God), that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Where we, in our fallen nature bring forth death, God in his goodness brings forth life/salvation/restoration

Isnt that a beautiful picture of the children of God….

The Israelite in the Old Testament was to bring forth the first part of harvest, the very first of the fruits of the soil, the labor of his hands and the provision of God

· He was to bring this first fruit offering to be a wave offering at the Temple

o Raised high in rejoicing/thanksgiving for the abundance and provision from the hand of our great and glorious God

· James said to those early Christians and to us today that we are part of a great Spiritual harvest,

o God is reaping a harvest of a redeemed people to eternal life

§ We, as part of that harvest are to come and recognize what the Lord has done

§ That we should raise a shout of rejoicing and thanksgiving as we realize the abundant grace and goodness of our God to us

Application: I’ve just got 1 point and we will be done…

Brothers… Are you standing firm in the faith?

Are you enduring the trials of life?

Are you walking steadfast with the LORD?

· Examine yourselves brothers and see in your own life

o Are you moving forward into a deeper/stronger faith

§ Or are you sliding backwards….

· Have you taken a few arrows in the side by the trials of this life and are now careening off course?

Paul says 2 Timothy 4:7–8 (ESV) [7] I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. [8] Henceforth there is laid up 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 loved his appearing.

· Brothers.. IS THERE? a crown of righteousness, is there a crown of life with your name on it in heaven…

o Is this prize, the greatest goal in your life? It should be!

§ When you cross into the eternal promised land, what will you hear when the Lord Jesus speaks to you?

· Will you hear the Savior say “well done, good and faithful servant”?

o Or the terrible sound of the words “depart from me, I never knew you?”

§ Have you determined now, today, in this very moment… to keep your eyes fixed on the eternal prize?

o Have you set your mind on Christ?

§ Or is this world dazzling and distracting you…

Jonathan Edwards A true and faithful Christian does not make holy living an accidental thing. It is his great concern. As the business of the soldier is to fight, so the business of the Christian is to be like Christ.

Hebrews 12:1–2 (ESV) [1] … let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, [2] looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…

Rev 2:10 “Be faithful to death and I will give you the crown of life”

Revelation 3:10 our Lord says “I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown”

Brothers, LETS PRAY!