This morning, we'll look at the first five verses of the book of James. And I would encourage you in your own Bible reading to just read through James, especially if you can do it in one sitting the way it was meant to. It helps to be thinking of these things. James 1, 1 through 5, this is God's word. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes in the dispersion. Greetings. Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you for this privilege to embark upon the Book of James. May the rich treasures of your word find good soil in our hearts that we may be more knowledgeable and more ready to obey your word and be pleasing to you. Give us strength to work together unto that end. In Christ's name, Amen. Well, there are a number of people in the church when you ask them, what is your favorite book? Often you'll hear it's the book of James. And that can be good news or bad news. It is often good news because James is one of those books filled with memorable phrases and sayings that have touched Christians for 2,000 years or so. I mean, who has not heard, be doers of the Word and not hearers. Or every good and perfect gift is from God above. Or faith without works is dead. You see, everybody knows those. Or this is pure and undefiled religion. Here's another one I bet you know. The tongue is like a fire. That whole section on the tongue. Or draw near to God and He will draw near. to you. There are all kinds of sayings in James that are very memorable and they find a deep place. And so often that's the book people choose. But sometimes people when they say James is my favorite, it's a sign of trouble. And that is because in their minds, Paul is too soft. Paul is always talking about the gospel and justification, how we're saved by faith and not by works. And I want somebody who really gives us the law, somebody who's rough and just tells us what to do. And so in James, they think they've found a hardcore Christianity, not this soft pedal stuff by Paul. And some of you may know in church history, Martin Luther, when he first was a believer, He read the book of James and he called it an epistle of straw. And what he saw, and he later retracted this, that's not often talked about, but what he saw is this is so law-centered, there's no gospel here. He's so different than Paul. And of course, that isn't true at all, as we shall see as we study the book. James fits in perfectly with the rest of Scripture and its themes. James just has a particular concern and a particular way to phrase things that stands out. Now, James, it was the brother of Jesus. One of the older brothers of Christ, excuse me, the younger brothers of Christ. That doesn't make sense. James, like his other brothers, did not believe in Christ while he was alive. But after he rose again, the Bible says the Lord appeared to James. So like Christ appeared to Paul, Christ also, after he was resurrected, appeared to James, and James believed the gospel, and it wasn't long before he became a leader in the church in Jerusalem. So in the book of Acts, he's one of the leaders of the church. Notice though, in verse 1, how he identifies himself, not as a leader, but as a servant. That teaches us something about Christian leadership, doesn't it? When he wants to identify himself, he just wants to identify himself as a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. The name James sort of disappears somewhere in the middle of the book of Acts. We're not quite sure what happened. The Bible doesn't tell us, but you may have heard of the Jewish historian Josephus. And Josephus reports that James was stoned by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious leaders. Josephus is usually very reliable as a historian. And here's an unbeliever simply recounting what was known at the time. Now James writes this book if you look to the 12 tribes of the dispersion or in the dispersion. That word dispersion is an Old Testament term referring to all the Jews that lived outside Palestine. If you didn't live right there in Israel, you were of the dispersion. You had been dispersed in Old Testament days with the hope that of coming home one day back to Israel. Now some have thought that because James says this, that he is writing only to Jews, at least only to Jewish Christians. The problem with that, and there are many, one of them is that there really were not 12 tribes at this time. Most of the tribes were already gone. And so it wouldn't really, literally it's not true that he could write to 12 tribes anymore. Plus, this book really was disseminated in Palestine. really didn't go at first much farther. He was writing to all the churches locally. So even that wouldn't make sense if he took this literally. Thirdly, when Peter writes his first epistle, which is clearly to mostly Gentile Christians, because he addresses all the Gentiles, he also begins by saying, to those of the dispersion, you who are exiles, and yet he's speaking not to Jews, but to mostly Gentiles. And so the point is, Christians are true Jews. Christians in the New Testament are the true Israel. And we are not home, are we, yet. We are called exiles and strangers throughout the New Testament on our way to our heavenly home. And so it's another way of saying to all of you believers in Christ, Jew and Gentile, who are not yet home, You're still living in this world struggling in life. This book is to you. Does that include you? Yes. And so James was written to you also. Now the occasion of the book, James as a leader in Jerusalem, was receiving many reports, either written or oral, about what was happening in the church. The church was experiencing rapid growth in this time, especially throughout Palestine. There were many, many churches being planted. But reports would come back to James of what these churches were like, and they were not very good reports. And so James has to deal with what is going on in these churches. And what he was hearing about was that people who are professing Christ were acting like unbelievers. And he deals with all these problems in the church, the way they were acting. Remember, in chapter two, we have them showing partiality to the rich who entered their church. We have a problem with the love of money and making money. We have a lot of fighting going on in the churches. So chapter four is addressing all these conflicts and not getting along and disliking one another in the church. All kinds of issues. James understood, and this always happens when the church grows, that unbelievers infiltrate the church. They profess Christ without being true believers. And so James has to address this. And in chapter two, that's the famous saying, faith without works is dead. That's why he has to address this, because there are a lot of people who were saying they were Christians that had no works to demonstrate this reality. Now, James also knew that sometimes Christians can act like non-Christians, right? And so he has to deal with that also. Now the theme of James is found both here in Verse two, as well as verse 12. Verse two, he begins, consider it all joy when you encounter various trials. And then, really, verse 12 is the theme verse that we read before. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. The theme is how you respond to trials. And the question is, what is the connection between all the problems going on in these churches and trials? Well, the connection is that James understood that the distinction between a true Christian and a fake Christian is how they respond to difficulty. How they respond to trials will then demonstrate the reality of their faith. Do they persevere? Do they humble themselves when they have a conflict and admit their sin? and confess it to one another? James 5. Do they love the brethren or just talk about it? Remember James 2. If someone comes to you and they need to be fed and clothed, do you just say, fine, go your way, God loves you? Or do you respond out of a renewed heart from the Gospel? Do you grow as a Christian? through your trials, or you just simply complain. How you respond to trials is the distinction, it's the evidence of a true believer and a non-believer. And so the opening paragraph, James instructs true believers to respond to difficulties or trials in a way that pleases the Lord. And he begins, count it all joy when you encounter various difficulties. Now, we need to stop there, don't we? Do we count it all joy? Now, this is not natural, is it? When something bad happens, we don't usually rejoice right away, do we? And the idea here is not that you are to be happy when bad things happen. You shouldn't be at a friend or family member's funeral. I'm just happy. Because I'm counted all joy." No, that's not what James means. Something's wrong with you. If somebody breaks into your house and steals everything, you don't usually walk home and say, praise God, I'm happy God sent a trial. Okay, what's wrong with you again? In the Psalms, when something bad happens, what do God's people do? They cry out. there's something wrong, they express their grief. What James is getting at is to consider when you encounter difficulties in life to remember as a Christian that these ultimately are from God's hand and therefore you're good. So even as you struggle through them and express your grief, You can still be thankful to God of what he's doing in your life. That is the Christian perspective. James goes on to explain that the testing of your faith, it stretches your faith to go through difficulties. It produces something good in you called steadfastness. They simply make you a stronger Christian when you go through difficulties and you come out of them still trusting the Lord and believing in Him. Trials make you learn to rely on Him. If you didn't have difficulties, you would never have to rely on the Lord. Everything would be easy. And if you didn't have regular problems, you would really not ever long for heaven. You would think this life is heaven. Think of it, if you never had any relational problems, family or kids or work or friends, you would never long to be with Christ, because heaven has arrived here. And so God always sends enough displeasure, enough problems, to keep your mind and heart looking ahead, that you wouldn't try to think this is it, this is the goal. And so every time you go through something, God is doing something good in your life. Only a Christian can see that. And James says, you are to think that when you go through a difficulty, that God is doing something good for you. And also, as you grow stronger through problems, you're able to help others. Think about it, when you are struggling and you want help, who do you usually go to? Don't you go to somebody who's been through the battles? Isn't that instinctively who you want help from? You don't want to help someone who's never struggled with things or appears never to struggle. You don't go to those people. You go to the people who've been through the fire and they're still there. They're the ones you can go to and say, you I can talk to, you understand. And so when you go through difficulties, God is not only making you a stronger Christian, you become the one that can help others more in the church. Paul, excuse me, James goes on in verse four to say, then you become perfect. That's a poor translation in English. There weren't many words. It's really another word for mature. You become a mature, solid Christian when you live through all kinds of difficulties and you're still serving the Lord. You just become solid. You're not blown here and there by every problem that happens. You don't panic and turn from the Lord when a difficult difficulty arise. So only genuine Christians can have this perspective. A non-Christian would simply not be able to think this way, that problems are actually good in God's plan. They're helpful. Now, because it's not natural for us, even as Christians, to look at life this way, to have a thankfulness when God brings difficulties, James invites us to ask God for wisdom. Verse 5, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously. Now, this verse has had some strange interpretations over the years. If you were around in the 80s, you may remember the plethora of books that were written on discovering God's will. Anyone remember those? And the idea was, James says here that when we need to make a decision and we need wisdom, we can ask God and he'll reveal the answer. So if I want to know if I should go to UNM or New Mexico State, I can't decide. I need wisdom. I can ask of God and he'll reveal which college. That was the understanding of this verse and so many books were written. How will God reveal to you what the wisdom you need? And there are some people that said God will use direct revelation. Ask a question and listen for a voice, a still small voice or a loud voice. And you will hear. And so what happened, ladies, some of you may remember this if you were around. It was a time where men would come up to ladies and say, God told me that you're the one because I needed wisdom to know who to marry. And I prayed and God told me it was you. Well, that was my advice. Ladies, if that ever happens to you, my advice is to run and don't look back. There's an old-fashioned word for that. It's called manipulation, is what it is. Now, some suggested if you need wisdom for a decision, no, God will not speak the still small voice, but you can use what's called the golden fleece method. Do you remember that? You say to God, if this and this happens, then I will know your will. And so if UNM calls me first, that will be the test, God. And so you make that happen to show me which one to choose. And so if the phone rings and it's UNM, all right, now I know God's will. He answered. And I even remember people saying, if a boy calls me to ask me out, if it rings three times, God, that'll be yes. If it keeps ringing more than that, that will be God you telling me no. Not a very wise way to live. But those golden fleece tests, one where, you remember the golden fleece that was Gideon saying to God, if there's dew on the fleece, I will know to go into battle. Now the third way to understand this was people said, OK, God won't speak directly and you shouldn't use tests like that. But if all the signs line up that God usually gives, then you'll know how to make the decision. You'll have wisdom. So in the case of UNM versus New Mexico State, I'm assuming most of you would say UNM here, but in the case, did you get counsel and did someone tell you UNM is a good idea? Do you feel at peace about it? Check the peace you feel. Is the door open to one? You have to line up all the signs. Now that's ultimately very subjective too. Just because you feel at peace about something doesn't make it right. I think life shows you that. The point is that the Bible never teaches this. The Bible does not teach that if you need an answer to something in the future, God will reveal it. We are to live by faith and not by sight. And I've taught you this before, I'm going to say it again. What is the key to understanding every verse? The three keys. Anyone remember? The three keys to understanding any verse of the Bible. Context, context, and context. If you can remember those three keys, You will understand the Bible. The context of this verse is James saying you need God's perspective on trials. When you go through a difficulty, you need to think of the Christian or God's perspective. And then in verse five, he says, and if you need that type of wisdom, ask God. And so the idea here, the context perspective is just a good enough word like wisdom. If you need to think of your trials from God's point of view, ask Him for perspective. Let me give you an example. You lose your job. You're laid off. Your natural inclination is to panic or be discouraged, but you need God's perspective. You need what the Bible says about trials to hit your heart. Maybe this is an opportunity for God to provide in a new way, open new doors. Doesn't God promise this, that he will always provide what we need? You have a new opportunity to trust him. It's easy to trust him when you have the job. Now you have to trust him without the job. Now you have an opportunity for your faith to be strengthened, as James says here. Maybe you have an opportunity to find out why you were fired and it was your fault. Now you have an opportunity for God to reveal your own faults. And now the firing is shining a light on the weakness in your character. And if you deal with that because of this firing, think how much a better Christian you are that you've dealt with it. And so James is saying that when a trial hits you, Ask God for wisdom to see how to think about it from a more biblical perspective. The same, let's say a spouse dies or you go through a grievous divorce. Our natural reaction is only anger and discouragement. Now we pray for wisdom. How can I become a better Christian from this situation? How can this make me stronger? How can this terrible situation help me to repent if it was my fault, or help me to rely more on you? How can I help others, be a stronger Christian to help others now that I've gone through this? You see, now you're thinking more biblically, you're thinking more Christ-like instead of simply responding to the situation. This is the type of wisdom James is saying, pray for. And God will give it to you. You will begin to think more biblically, and people will say things that will help you. Now, to encourage us even more, look how he ends verse 5. He adds a description of God, who gives generously to all without reproach. You know what that means, without reproach? That means that God would chide you for coming to Him for the same thing again. You see, if every time we go through a problem, we always begin to panic and we begin to be angry. Now we have to go to God again. James is trying to tell you, don't worry, God isn't going to say, you're doing this again? You just went through a trial last week and you prayed for wisdom. Now you haven't learned you need wisdom again? That's reproaching you or chiding you. And so James is saying, God loves to answer this prayer. He knows that every time a difficulty hits, you're going to struggle again. And so you're going to need to come to him again and say, God, I need perspective again. I'm worrying and I'm angry and I need to have a more Christian wisdom and perspective on this trial. I need help again. James is saying, if you have to pray that prayer every day, God is ready to answer without chiding you for having to pray. He understands that we need Him on a regular basis in this way. So let me close this morning. I'm going to read this section again. And remember, to count it all joy in this way is not natural. You need to have the Holy Spirit to give you the strength. You need to trust in Christ for salvation to forgive you of your sin and to cleanse you. Or else this is going to seem crazy. Who counts it all joy when they go through a crisis? Who is thankful when they lose a loved one? Who can have this type of eternal perspective? Well, you can with the Holy Spirit in you as you know the Lord. And so let me read it one more time. Think about it again. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet various kinds of trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. And if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. Amen.