April 9, 2017 James 1: 2-12 The Faithful Pass On To Patience
James 1:1-4 & 12
1James, a Servanta of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: 2Count it all joy, my brothers,b when you meet trials of various kinds, 3for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1: 12 (is the capstone verse for this message).
12Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
Message map: James 1: 2-4 The faithful Pass on to patience
- Works of faith are to occur during trials
- The Trouble With Trials
- The types of Tests and what’s God Tries
- The faithful pass on to patience
The James Who wrote James – James 1: 1
The writer of “James” is the “Lord’s half-BROTHER, whom Paul identifies in 1 Cor 15:7 and Gal 1:19, as both became apostles after Christ’s resurrection.
In Acts 15, James is the chief pastor or bishop who presides over the Council at Jerusalem that determined Gentile converts do not have to be circumcised, and are saved by Grace.
The letter is God’s direction to the Dispersion of the Hebrew believers from Israel’s twelve tribes who fled the persecution that began in Acts 8:1, following the stoning of Stephen. As they dispersed and relocated throughout the ancient Roman Empire, they spread the Gospel of Christ wherever they went.
The threefold theme of James is:
- Salvation is of faith in Christ
- Saving faith produces works of faith
- Faith without appropriate behaviors called “works” is dead! The evidence of the Failure of Faith is there are no works/behaviors that are consistent with one who says, “I believe.” If God is working what He wants in us our works would reflect it. No works = a failure of faith.
James 1:22 Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.
James 2:20 faith without works is dead/useless?
James 2:26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
James 2:22 …faith was completed by his (Abraham’s) works;
Matt 9: 29 “According to your faith be it done to you.”
Works of faith are To be produced during trials…
James 1:2 2 A Trial is a 2test of the performance and quALITY, or suitability of our walk in Christ.
Which of these diverse & various reasons can cause trials? (Not In Notes Handout)
- My sinful behavior or poor choices ………….. Yes/No
- God directing my life ………….. Yes/No
(Job 1:8, Jud. 9:23, 1Chron. 21:15.)
- Making or taking a Biblical Stand (1 Pet 3:14)… Yes/No
- Other people’s bad, evil, sinful choices ……. Yes/No
- Bad circumstances, like an auto accident ….. Yes/No
- Satan’s activity in my life ………….. Yes/No
Are all Trials within God’s permissive will? …. Yes/No
Joy in trials are a byproduct of assessing and valuing What God Values
Regardless of the type of trial we are in per James 1:2 we are to 2count/consider/esteem/reckon it all/pure joy, (a great pleasure and gladness, born of God’s grace and favor) my brothers,b when you meet/encounter or fall into trials of various kinds.
To Count It All Joy means – to assess your situation from God’s perspective and make a values judgement that the trouble you are experiencing is a cause for joy – because faith informs us that God is in it!
If you only see/seek yourself, your wants, your irritation, your pride and self-righteousness, you find yourself constantly irritated, negative, whining, bitter, complaining. The challenge with our hardships is they often are caused by rebellion or neglect of daily doing what God has called us to do. If we are in rebellion, then we are without God’s anointing grace to go through the situation God’s way. We do not get the anointing that Stephen experienced when he displayed miracles, great wisdom and how he was treated to the glorious vision of Jesus as he was leaving his earthly tent/body in Acts 6-7.
- Is to recognize that God is in them. We don’t believe our version of sugar daddy God would put or allow any hardship in our lives or allow for us to be inconvenienced.
- Trials are painful to our flesh and pain can make us focus on ourselves, blotting out our view of God.
- Trials attack our pride and we worry how our hardship will appear to others, to whom we try to appear as people who have it all together. We won’t acknowledge our vulnerability and hurts, so we suffer in silence and miss the assistance that could come our way if we opened up to the right Godly people.
- We are in rebellion against God and the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives to conform us to Christ.
God’s Purpose In Testing with Trials is To Test Our Faith
James 1: 3 – 3for you know that the testing of your faith produces patience/steadfastness.
James 1:3 tells us that God tests our…
- patience/steadfastness
- ability to withstand temptation (James 1:13)
(God does not tempt us with evil James 1:13. That is what Satan does.)
- faith
- perfection
Ans. is “C” because God tests us to see what is genuine about our faith!
The faithful pass on to patience – No Faith = No patience – faith is demonstrated in patience – No patience = no maturity
James 1: 4 4And let endurance, steadfastness, patient waiting have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, (which means “mature”) lacking in nothing.
The full effect of the Holy Spirit’s work in us is demonstrated by how we allow God to enable us to remain faithful and endure under the challenges He allots in our lives.
Only the Faithful pass on to patience
James 1:4 4And let endurance, steadfastness, patient waiting have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (God tries Faith to produce patience)
- Gal 5:22-24 – patience is a fruit of the Spirit
- Patience and all the other fruit of the Spirit are evidence that our flesh has been crucified.
- When patience has its full effect we have “fully come to age and maturity and completeness in our Christian character.
The Process To Perfection: Galatians 5: 22: 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and
- God tries our faith through trials / God uses trials to try our faith.
- We pass the tests of trials through the crucification of our flesh
- Crucified flesh lives in patience/steadfastness, consistently demonstrating the Fruit of the Spirit!
The key to counting Trials as joy
- Recognize God is in them. Not all trials are Heb 12 disciplinary sessions. Some are God purifying us like gold is purified through fire.
- Ron what God is trying to work in our lives through the painful experience, which we only can learn by being obedient through the trial. Failing the trial = failing to grow.
- Repent by letting go of pride, and confessing bad attitudes, wrong thinking etc.… that has led to the failure of faith to produce Godly works in this area of your life. Make the most Holy Spirit filled response in the middle of less than perfect or even bad circumstances. Keep in mind it’s never is too late to repent and get back on God’s learning curve.
- Reconcile to God by letting go of pride and submitting through the pain the trial is causing our flesh. Make the most Holy Spirit filled response in the middle of less than perfect or even bad circumstances. Keep in mind it never is too late to repent before God and get back on track to learning from Him.
The faithful Cooperate with god’s goal to grow patience, which = Endurance as in Isaiah 40: 31: but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
1) To Be eagerly expectant of Yahweh’s provision; 2) To Be hopefully patient trusting God will come thru, and 3) To put our hope and confidence in God.
Waiting on God in faith means to actively apply – what we know about God in each situation. The opposite of this is to be neglectful and go through each situation relying upon our own understanding, using our own faulty carnal reasoning in each situation.
Evidence of waiting on God properly is the renewed strength to walk in the Spirit. The Fruit of the Spirit that replaces our carnal, dower, sour attitude that is born of a faithless outlook on life. (Seek self = find self = depressed, bitter outlook limited by self.
To mount up means to “ascend” on the wings of resurrection and daily walk in the strength the unwearied God gives to wearied man faith – overcoming the gravitational pull of the flesh. They overcome their carnal weariness and exasperation
Matthew Henry Commentary –James 1:12-18 It is not every man who suffers, that is blessed; but he who with patience and constancy goes through all difficulties in the way of duty. Afflictions cannot make us miserable, if it be not our own fault. The tried Christian shall be a crowned one. The crown of life is promised to all who have the love of God reigning in their hearts. Every soul that truly loves God, shall have its trials in this world fully recompensed in that world above, where love is made perfect. The commands of God, and the dealings of his providence, try men’s hearts, and show the dispositions which prevail in them. But nothing sinful in the heart or conduct can be ascribed to God. He is not the author of the dross, though his fiery trial exposes it. Those who lay the blame of sin, either upon their constitution, or upon their condition in the world, or pretend they cannot keep from sinning, wrong God as if he were the author of sin.
Afflictions, as sent by God, are designed to draw out our graces, but not our corruptions. The origin of evil and temptation is in our own hearts
God tries faith to see if when under pressure our works conform to it. Suffering in senseless and Going through trials In Our Flesh -leaning on our now understanding is completely missing God and failing to learn during trials the evidence of which is complaining and blame shifting and self-justification of why I’m complaining and fault-finding. Fault finding can be a way of saying “I feel justified in violating God’s Word because I feel this way or feel that way.
Vulnerability and hurts, so we suffer in silence and miss the assistance that could come our way if we opened up to the right Godly people.
God can come along side us to support us in our trials.
CLOSING Prayer – LET’S PRAY & present ourselves to god to grow us in patience
To view the recorded message, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF-m0zYvSQE