to the letter of James chapter
1. James chapter 1 verse 1, James
a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes
which are scattered abroad greeting My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into divers' temptations, knowing that the trying of your
faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect
work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God that giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth
not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith nothing
wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven
with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that
he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man
is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree
rejoice in that he is exalted, but the rich in that he is made
low, because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth
the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the
fashion of it perisheth. So also shall the rich man fade
away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation, for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of
life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. We read these verses last week
and noted the human author of this letter, James, who refers
to himself as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
an apostle of the Lord. I said the human author because
we know that all scripture has two authors. It has the human
author and it has the divine author. That is, all scripture
is given by inspiration of God. And we also notice that last
time that this was originally written to Jewish believers,
to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad. The subject of these
12 verses is clearly temptations. If you notice in verse two, count
it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. And also
in verse 12, blessed is the man that endureth temptation. And we must recognize as we think
about this that the temptations here in this passage of scripture
are not, and I emphasize that, are not temptations to evil. But they are rather what most
of us would refer to as trials and afflictions. And the apostle
would have us know that afflictions, trials, difficulties, may be
expected, may be expected by everyone who enters in at the
straight gate and walks in the narrow way may be expected. The Apostle Peter wrote his first
letter also to Jewish Christians, and he wrote, Beloved, think
it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try
you as though some strange thing happened unto you. And Luke tells
us in the book of Acts concerning the mission of Paul and Barnabas
at one time that they went forth confirming the souls of the disciples
and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must
through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. And of course, our Lord Jesus
Christ told his disciples, his apostles, the night before he
went to the cross, in the world you shall have tribulation. I'm glad he didn't put a period
there, aren't you? In the world you shall have tribulation,
comma, but I have overcome the world. And because he has overcome
the world, We, his people, are also overcomers. Now, what I
want to do today, I want us to look at these verses again, but
this time we're going to look at five, the five Christian graces
that the Apostle James names in these verses. And I trust
the Lord will bless this word to each one of us here today,
but he names five Christian graces. of every child of God. First,
we have joy in verse number two. My brethren, count it all joy. Joy is one of these Christian
graces that God gives his people. And I would remind us of this,
this truth about joy. And it is a truth that is given
unto us in the Old Testament, in the book of Nehemiah. The
joy of the Lord is your strength. Now think about that. That truth
is given unto us in a book, the book of Nehemiah, in which the
Israelites had returned out of captivity and they were back
to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and they were surrounded by enemies. They were surrounded by enemies
and God would have them to know The strength that they needed,
the joy of the Lord is your strength. As God's children today, we too
are in a world and we are surrounded by enemies. We have three enemies
which are always here, and that is Satan, who goeth about as
a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. The world, with
all of its temptations, And of course, our flesh, that old man
that still lives within us. We always have these enemies. And the joy of the Lord shall
be your strength. You know, because we have enemies,
the Apostle Paul tells us that we must put on the armor of God. That's a command. That's an exhortation. That's something we are to do
for ourselves. Put on, the apostle said. Finally,
my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his
might. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the wiles, the tricks,
the deceits of the devil. And he has many. He's had at
least 6,000 years practicing to deceive God's people. And we must put on the whole
armor of God, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness.
We must have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel.
We must take the sword of the Spirit. We must put these on
because of the enemies which we as God's people have in this
world, but never forget this grace, this fruit of the Spirit,
joy, joy. Rejoice in the Lord always, the
apostle wrote in Philippians. Two times in that one letter,
that short letter, he told believers, God's people, We have every cause,
every reason at all times to rejoice in the Lord because He
changes not. If you look down in this passage
here in James to verse nine and verse 10, He encourages the poor
to rejoice and He encourages the rich in this world to rejoice. Notice in verse 9, he says, let
the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted. Now, Matthew Poole, in his commentary,
he said that this Greek word that is here translated low degree
signifies both lowliness of mind and lowliness of condition. But
in this place, it has to be understood as lowliness of condition because
the next verse speaks about the rich in this world. So those
who are poor in this world, I'm talking about poor in the things
of this world, and many of God's people are Many of God's people
have been down through the ages, the poor of this world, but we
are to rejoice. If we're poor in the things of
this world, we're not to envy the rich. No, we are to rejoice
in that we are exalted. Look at that verse. Let the brother
of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted. Yes, you may be
poor in the things of this world, but consider this, you are a
child of the King. You are an heir of God, a joint
heir with the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the Apostle Paul says,
all things are yours. All things. And then he names
a number of those things, doesn't he? All things are yours. And
you are Christ, and Christ is God. But then notice the next
verse, he says, unto those who are wealthy, those who are rich
in the things of this world, they are to rejoice that the
rich man, that the rich, and that he is made low. He's made low. That doesn't mean
he's lost all of his money. That's not the way he's made
low, no. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
If a man is rich, and God saves rich people, that man in Luke
chapter 16 that our Lord spoke of who went to hell, he said
he was a rich man, dressed in fine linen, purple, and feasted
every day, had everything that money could buy in this world,
lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torments. He didn't go to
hell because he was rich. went to hell because he was a
sinner, because his sins had never been forgiven him. You
look at the wealth of Abraham. Abraham was a wealthy man and
he's the father of every believer, the father of the faithful. But
the rich man here is to rejoice in that he is made low. That
is, that God has taught him, the Holy Spirit has taught him
the poverty of spirit. Because most, and this is true
and it's sad, but most wealthy men are proud, are haughty, are
lifted up because of their condition in this world. A man like that
has no reason to rejoice, but if God, the Holy Spirit, works
upon his heart and causes him to realize he's like every other
man in this world, he's a sinner. He comes into this world an enemy
of God, enmity with God, and he needs a savior. Let the rich
man rejoice in that he is made poor, that he's made to feel
and to know his spiritual poverty, that he needs a savior. And then notice what James says
about the rich. He is like the flower of the
grass. You know, the apostle Peter,
he tells us all flesh is grass. Poor flesh, he's talking about
poor people, rich people, makes no difference, all in between,
all of us. This flesh is just like grass. What does it mean by that? It
means that we have a short time in this world, just like the
grass in the field. It comes up, it flourishes, and
then the heat dries it out and it's gone. Now the rich are here
compared to the flower of the grass, but the same thing happens
to them. For the sun is no sooner risen
with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof
falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth. So also
shall the rich man fade away in his ways. You know, later
in this letter, James will remind us that our life in this world
is like a vapor. It's like a vapor showing the
brevity of life. You know, if you live a long
time, you live a long life, and God grants some people to live
long lives. But hardly anyone lives over
100 years, do they? Every once in a while, you'll
read the oldest person in the world passed away. And they're
just maybe 100, 105, 110. And that's old, no doubt about
it. But in comparison to eternity,
in comparison to eternity, our life in this world is like a
vapor. You see it in the morning there
in the valley. And then by noon, it's gone. It vanishes away. Now the vapor
ceases to exist, but man doesn't cease to exist because all men
are immortal. We all have an immortal soul
in the sense that we will live somewhere. We will exist somewhere
throughout the ages of eternity. The second, notice back in our
text, now the second grace that we notice is faith. In verse
number three, knowing this at the trying of your faith, the
grace of faith. You know this, but let me remind
you, faith is a receiving grace. Keep that in mind. Faith is a
receiving grace. I want you to look back to John
chapter one. John chapter one and verse 11. He came unto his own and his
own received him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Do you notice there in verse
12, as many as received him is the same as even to them that
believe on his name. Faith is a receiving grace. And this scripture here says,
to as many as received him. Received him. The emphasis must
be there on him, received him. It's not agreeing to a plan.
Someone said, well, I agreed to the plan of salvation. Well,
that's not salvation. Salvation is receiving Him. Receiving Him. It's knowing Him. Believing in Him. It's not accepting
some proposition. No, no. Salvation is receiving Him. And receiving Him as He is revealed
to us in the Word of God. How is He revealed to us in the
Word of God? We receive Him as that promised
seed of the woman who destroyed the works of Satan. We receive
Him as the eternal Son of God who was made flesh and came into
this world. We receive Him as Lord and Savior. And you know this is so. In every
verse of Scripture, where you have these two titles together,
it is always Lord first. Many people want to receive Christ
as Savior, as some kind of fire escape out of hell. No one wants
to go to hell. But no, we must receive Him as
our Lord. He comes into our life, He sets
up His throne in our heart, and now He rules, He reigns. We're not our own, we've been
bought with a price, and that price is His precious blood.
To as many as received Him, gave He power to become the sons of
God, even to them which believe on His name, which were born,
not of the will of the flesh, How many people are being told,
it's your decision. A man has a free will and it's
your decision. Man made his decision in the
garden. He decided to disobey God, to
rebel against God. And from that time on, every
one of his descendants come into this world as fallen creatures. fallen creatures. That means
we are enmity with God. And we need God to do something
for us, which are born not according to the will of the flesh, not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man. Every preacher It's not
according to the will of man. Every preacher that's worth his
salt, if we could, we would have every person we ever preached
to, to be born again, to receive Christ. But we have no power. We have no ability to cause anyone
to trust in Christ. We preach the gospel. We preached
Christ and Him crucified, and as the Apostle Paul said, to
as many as called. But we have no power in ourselves. And every father, every mother
who loves their children, and we all do, and we'd do everything
we could to see that our children are converted, that they are
born of the Spirit of God. But it's not of the will of man. It's with the will of God. We
recognize our need, don't we? But faith is a receiving grace. And there's three things about
this faith that I would mention to us before I move on. This
faith purifies the heart, the scripture says and acts. The
faith of God's elect, it purifies the heart. In other words, it
brings us to Christ. It brings us to the fountain
The blood of Jesus Christ, and our hearts are sprinkled with
that blood. We're cleansed by that blood. And another thing
about this faith, it works by love. Galatians, it works by
love. A lot of people have a head knowledge
of Christ, but they don't serve Christ, have no desire to serve
Christ, have no will to serve Christ. But I tell you, when
a person has this saving faith that receives Christ, it is a
faith that sets a man to serve Christ, to live for Christ. And a third thing about this
faith, it overcomes the world, according to 1 John. Now go back
with me to James. I want to look at these other
three graces hurriedly. The third grace that we see here
is patience. In verse three, knowing this,
that the trine of your faith worketh patience. Now, James
is not saying that the trial itself will work patience, but
he is saying that God is able, God is able to make this trial,
to use this trial, this affliction, whatever it is, to produce patience
in us. Do you remember in Pilgrim's
Progress, one of the things that we read is that the interpreter
took Pilgrim into that house and he showed him two young boys. And one was named Passion, and
one was named Patience. And Passion, he had to have all
of his good things right now, today, right now. Passionate. And patience was able to wait. And Pilgrim told the interpreter
this. He understood what that parable
meant. He said, I see these two things.
Number one, because patience waits, he stays for the best
things. And number two, because patience
will have the glory of his When the other, that is passion, has
nothing but rags. And the interpreter told Christian,
you can add a third thing to that. The glory of the next world
will never wear out. Patience. Abraham told that rich
man in hell, he said, you had your good things In this world,
Lazarus now has his good things in the world to come. Patience. Patience, my brother. Patience,
my sister. Whatever trial, whatever affliction
you're going through, it'll pass. This too will pass. The fourth grace that we see
here is wisdom in verse five. Wisdom. If any of you lack wisdom. Now in the scriptures, we know
that godly wisdom is presented in two ways. First of all, wisdom
is sometimes personified. Christ is the wisdom of God. You see that especially in Proverbs
chapter 8. You can read there later, but
about wisdom as a person. And that wisdom is Christ. He's
both the power of God and the wisdom of God. And every child
of God, every believer has that wisdom because Christ in you,
the hope of glory. But then there's this other wisdom,
which means the right use of knowledge, the right use of knowledge. And that's the wisdom that James
is talking about here. If any man lack wisdom, that
is, if he lacks the right use of the knowledge which he has,
he knows that God is sovereign. He knows that all things work
together to good for him. But we need wisdom to realize
these things, and to accept these things, and to rejoice in these
things, whatever they may be. We need wisdom to realize whatever
this is. And I've tried to learn this,
and I know you probably have too, but we all have things happen
in our life, daily almost, that just Just fly in the face. We have our plans, and then something
just seems to just come out of nowhere. But that's the thing. We remind ourselves it didn't
come out of nowhere. It's part of the old things that
God has ordained to work together for our good. Whatever it is,
it doesn't surprise God. whatever the affliction is. And
that's what we see, especially in Job. You know, when you read
the first chapter of Job, I mean, some people took this animal,
the camel, some took the asses, some, but he didn't, he didn't
lay the blame, the guilt on on any of those. He didn't blame
the storm that took his, the tornado that took his children. He didn't blame any of those
second causes. No, he was able to say, the Lord
gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. We need wisdom in trials and
afflictions. And we have this wonderful promise
here. It's just such an amazing promise. If you lack wisdom, ask of God
who giveth liberally. And he doesn't upbraid. He doesn't
say, well, didn't you ask yesterday? Didn't you ask for wisdom two
weeks ago? And here you are again. He upbraideth
not. No. Let him ask. You see, to ask,
to pray, to pray in faith, you must have
a word from God. You must have a promise. Now
you can pray, you can call it prayer, and you can just speak
into the air. But let me tell you something,
if you really pray, You must pray in faith, for without faith
it is impossible to please God. And the only way you can have
faith is to have a word from God. God, this is your word.
You said it. I believe it. I plead it. And here we have such a wonderful
promise. It's an unconditional promise,
isn't it? If any man lack wisdom, You lack
wisdom? Ask of God. Who giveth? It doesn't say he may give, or
perhaps he will give, or perchance he will give. No! He giveth to
all men liberally. And I think of that verse, and
we saw this just recently in a message on Wednesday night.
But when the Lord was speaking about prayer, He told those,
He said, if you being evil know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give good
things to them that ask Him? Ask, and you shall receive. Knock, and it shall be opened. Seek, and you shall find. But
again, we must have a promise, we must have a word from God,
and here we have it. Now the last grace is the grace
of love. If you notice in verse 12, James chapter one in verse 12,
blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he has tried,
he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised
to them that love him. God's people love him. God's people, God's children. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 16,
the Apostle Paul almost ended that letter to the church at
Corinth, and he said, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ,
let him be anathema, anathema, maranatha. God speak. We love him because
he first loved us. We're subjects, all of God's
children. We are subjects to his everlasting
love. Now this crown of life is not
a literal crown. He's not telling these believers
that they're going to have a special crown in heaven. The crown is
everlasting life. That is the crown. It is eternal
happiness. It is to be with God, both body
and soul and spirit, to be with God and to be like God throughout
all eternity. Bless it. Don't you like the
beatitudes of the Lord? Those that are listed there in
Matthew chapter five. But you know there's some more
beatitudes. Here's one here. Blessed, happy, happy is the
man that endureth temptation, endureth the affliction, the
trial. For when he has tried, he shall
receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them. that love him. I pray that the
Lord would bless these words and thoughts to all of us here
this morning.