Latest / Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self / 17.1 - James 1:1-4 - Your Trials And Temptations Are Good

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17.1 - James 1:1-4 - Your Trials And Temptations Are Good · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  We hope that this podcast will help you to know Christ, grow in
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  his word, and show his love to others.
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  Let's dive right in. Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk.
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  Today we are in the book of James, and James is a book that
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  I love very, very much. I've actually memorized the
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  entire book of James on It was either two or three different
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  occasions. One was back I think in middle
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  school, and I had memorized it for some Bible quizzing that was
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  done at our church. It was kind of like a sport of
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  sorts. I don't know if I've mentioned
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  it much on Tabernacle Talk before, but so memorized the
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  book for that. And I did not understand nearly
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  as much of it then as I have been privileged to know it
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  today. But it was it was great.
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  And then the other times were at various like Bible camps during
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  my teen years. And because I'd already
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  memorized it previously and when I was at camp, like you just had
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  to be able to say, I forget if it was a chapter at a time or
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  something like that. And then you could, if you will
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  kind of forget it after that. You didn't have to say the whole
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  thing as one piece. And so I was able to, you know,
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  just kind of go through and I could memorize the phrases, but
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  certainly it did not make nearly as much of an impact as several
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  years ago when I was a pastor at Moses Lake Baptist Church in
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  Moses Lake, WA. We went through this book
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  together on Sunday nights as a church family and I got to
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  preach a couple of of the messages in there.
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  Several of my friends, Dennis Fountain, the main pastor there,
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  as well as Robert, Robert Elliott, the youth pastor, and
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  Carlos Farias, our children's pastor, all got to preach some
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  different messages within this series.
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  And James and man, it was such a great encouragement and I know
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  it'll be an encouragement to us here on Tabernacle Talk.
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  And so we, once I do this, we'll have done everything from
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  Philippians through Jude, all of the books in a row from there to
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  there in the New Testament. And it's the one that I have not
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  done yet from the general epistles is what it's called.
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  That is books not written by Paul and and also not a gospel
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  and not John's Revelation, which we will definitely get to at
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  some point. I don't know exactly when yet,
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  but I'm going to get us started off with who wrote the book of
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  James and some things that we'll be looking for over the next
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  several episodes as we learn together.
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  I'm going to read verse #1 because it gives us kind of the
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  baseline. He says James, a servant of God
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  and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes dispersed abroad.
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  Greetings. All right, here we have James.
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  He says he's a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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  This word servant would also be the word.
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  I'm just going to make sure I've got this correct.
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  It should be the word do loss. Yes, that's correct.
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  It's the word slave. And this would be someone that
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  worked in someone else's household for them and they were
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  at their beck and call. Whatever the master said, that's
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  what they did. And James says I am just a slave
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  of Jesus and of God. And that's my claim to fame.
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  Now, those that would be receiving this letter here, the
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  12 tribes dispersed abroad. So we know James is writing to a
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  Jewish audience. And even as he starts off the
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  letter saying that he's a servant of the Lord Jesus
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  Christ, he's writing to a a Jewish audience that had
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  accepted Jesus as the Messiah. And we would know from church
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  history this would be James the brother, or I should say half
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  brother of Jesus. That is, he would be a son of
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  Mary and of Joseph. And so he had a kind of that
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  half relation to the Lord Jesus who was born of Mary and of the
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  Holy Spirit. And so Jesus would have grown up
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  with James. Now one very random aside that I
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  want to throw in here just because it's interesting to me
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  and probably not another person on earth, the name here, James,
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  is actually kind of an English thing that's happening.
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  It may also have some roots to Latin as well.
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  I haven't looked that far yet. The, the name here is the name
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  Iakob in Greek, which we would know in English as Jacob for
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  some reason when the Bible came into English and this very much
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  by several centuries predates the King James translation.
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  So it has nothing to do with him.
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  But for some reason when we brought the name Iacob Jacob
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  into our New Testament English Bibles, it got translated as
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  James. And I don't know the why of
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  that. And I'm I'm sure some of you
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  will want to look that up later. Feel free to do so.
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  Just know it's not some conspiracy by King James in the
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  1600s. It predates him by a couple 100
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  years. But so this person, James, the
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  half brother of Jesus, one that grew up with the Messiah and one
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  that did not believe on him until after Jesus had risen from
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  the dead and then showed himself to his disciples, to his his
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  brothers, to his half brothers, and then to many other people.
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  Even as we would read in First Corinthians 15, James went on to
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  become a dominant force in the early church in a good way that
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  he because of his proximity to Jesus and because of the fact
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  that he became a Christian as a result of seeing the resurrected
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  Christ and having interacted with him.
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  James was on fire for the Lord. And he was actually one of the
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  elders, one of the pastors at the church that was in
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  Jerusalem. So you've got all of the
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  disciples, all of the apostles that were there in Jerusalem,
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  especially at the start of the book of Acts.
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  And as we were going through, we interacted with James in Acts 15
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  at the Jerusalem Council, which was when there had been some
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  people that had gone out from the church at Jerusalem and they
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  were basically tailing. They were following Paul on his
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  missionary journeys and they were telling the churches along
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  the way that they needed to not just believe and Jesus, but they
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  needed to follow all of these Old Testament laws as well.
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  And so when Paul came back through and he was like, no,
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  that is anti gospel. That is false.
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  When he got back to the church at Antioch, which would be kind
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  of in in Syria ish, how we would know it today, he, he really
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  disagreed with these people from the church at Jerusalem.
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  And so they went back to the church at Jerusalem and they
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  were talking to, if you will, the church that these men were
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  members of. And Paul and then Peter and
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  James giving the final word on, do these new Gentile believers,
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  do they have to follow the Old Testament law in order to be
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  right with God? To which the resounding answer
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  was, no, absolutely not. Like they should still stay away
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  from worshipping idols and from fornicating and those things
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  like those things transcend just the Old Testament law.
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  And James is the one that gives kind of this final declaration.
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  And he has a a letter that's sent out to the church is
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  basically to say what these guys said was untrue and it was
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  wrong. And we did not send them out to
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  say this here. Here's what we do think you
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  should do, but you don't have to follow what these men were
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  saying. So James was the pastor.
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  Some would view his position in that church as like what we
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  would know today is the senior pastor or the lead pastor of
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  that church. And so that's the person is the
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  pastor of the church at Jerusalem.
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  And there were these tribes that were spread out.
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  The book of James is often considered to be one of the very
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  first portions of the New Testament that would have been
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  written. And so James very much has the
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  Sermon on the Mount on his mind. And as we go through over the
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  next several episodes, we're going to see this together.
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  Like, OK, how does James think about Jesus's teaching and how
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  it applies to these Jewish believers that are now scattered
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  all across the Roman Empire, in part due to some of the
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  persecution from the religious leaders They are in Israel and
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  in Judea, some of the things that Paul even would have
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  started. And Paul would be part of the
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  reason why some of these people were dispersed abroad.
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  And so James is writing to these believers.
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  He's writing to them for a couple of reasons #1 he wants to
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  encourage them in their faith and very practically in their
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  faith. This book is often mentioned as
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  like the the Proverbs of the New Testament because there are so
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  many down to earth. Here's exactly what you need to
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  be doing kinds of verses as opposed to some of Paul's
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  writings are very like, hey, here's who Jesus is and here's
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  all of these tie insurance with Old Testament prophecy.
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  And with what this writer said, James is just very down to earth
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  and very practical. And so a lot of people love this
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  book for that reason. He is also writing because there
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  are some rich people that came into these churches, these
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  congregations, and because they were rich and because they were
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  very like charismatic and could teach.
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  They were placed in positions of authority that they should not
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  have been and they were abusing people as a result of their
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  positions that they had. They did not have a care and a
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  love for God's people. They were not avoiding sin.
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  They, if you will, did religious things, but they did it in an
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  ungodly way. And so James is writing to warn
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  these believers about allowing these people to continue in in
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  the path that they were leading some of these churches in that
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  way. It's very much like some of what
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  we would read in second Peter and in first, second, and third
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  John and in Jude. So we're going to go through
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  just a couple of verses today now that you kind of have the
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  basis of who's writing, who's he writing to, what's going on?
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  And I think we're going to get through verse, just verse #7
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  today. So we're going to read verses 2
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  through 7 and we'll be done. Verse #2 Consider it a great
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  joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various
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  trials, because you know that the testing of your faith
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  produces endurance, and let endurance have its full effect,
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  so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
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  Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to
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  all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to Him.
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  But let him ask in faith without doubting.
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  For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed
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  by the wind. That person should not expect to
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  receive anything from the Lord, being double minded and unstable
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  in all his ways. All right, so we have two kind
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  of commands here. One, consider it joy when you're
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  going through trials and #2 ask God for wisdom in faith.
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  So let's look at that first section here in verse #2 through
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  4 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever
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  you experience various trials, this word, consider it.
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  It's a accounting term. It is to reckon you are to count
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  it all joy. Whenever you experience various
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  trials, when you have that relational difficulty, you
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  should count it as a win. It is an asset.
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  It is income into your spiritual life.
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  When you are going through relational trials, when you are
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  needy financially, when you are struggling with temptation
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  versus sin, you need to view these as good things in your
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  life. Now that goes completely
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  contrary to how we would think. We'd say no, that's a that's a
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  bad thing if I'm going through a trial, but God says no, it's
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  good. And here's why it's good when
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  you go through various trials in your life, he says, because you
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  know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
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  That when our faith, when our belief in God and our following
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  of him, our acknowledgement of him as Lord, when that is
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  tested, when we are given the option to give up on God and to
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  give into despair, to give into temptation, to give into
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  atheism. When we are confronted with
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  those and we say no, I'm going to stick with God that produces
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  endurance in our life. I'm going to look at this word
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  endurance here. This is the capacity to hold out
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  or to bear up in the face of difficulty.
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  This would be elsewhere translated as patient or having
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  fortitude, steadfastness, perseverance.
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  God wants to grow perseverance in your life so that in one
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  sense you show the devil that he is wrong, he is evil, he is
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  condemned when you do not give up on God.
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  This is what we see in the life of Job and where God continually
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  there. There's two times in Job one and
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  two tells Satan, Hey, have you considered my servant Job how
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  there's no one like him in the earth, A mature, a complete and
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  an upright man and and Satan goes, Oh well, if only you
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  would, you know, do this or this, then then he would no
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  longer love you or serve you. In this way.
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  We get to spit in the face of Satan.
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  When we don't give up on our God and we become persevering
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  people. We become stronger as a result
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  of the trials and the temptations that we go through.
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  I'll just speak for me. That is a God mindset that I
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  have to choose to adopt. That's not natural to me.
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  When I'm going through trials, I'm like, hey, God, I'd really
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  like to give up. I don't.
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  I don't want to keep on doing this.
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  This is bad. God.
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  Get Me Out of this situation. But God loves me too much to
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  leave me just the way I am. He wants to make me more like
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  Jesus. And the way I become more like
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  Jesus is I go through trials like Jesus went through trials.
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  He was rejected by his earthly family.
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  He was scorned and ridiculed by people and by the religious
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  leaders. He went through temptations by
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  Satan and and by some of his best friends enticed him to sin.
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  But as he continually turned to God and did not give up on the
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  Lord, it, it just proved over and over again the righteousness
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  of Jesus and in your life and in mine.
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  When we say no to sin and to trials and temptations, we get
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  to look more and more like Jesus, that Jesus has more and
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  more glorified in us that people would go, man, there's no way
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  that Brian's getting through this on his own.
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  Like he's got to have some supernatural help in order to go
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  through all of this. And so we know the testing of
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  our faith produces endurance and perseverance that resounds to
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  the glory of Christ. Verse #4 Let endurance have its
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  full effect so that you may be mature and complete, lacking
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  nothing. The more that we allow trials to
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  impact us in the way that God wants them to, which is to draw
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  us to Him, that we would be closer and closer in
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  relationship with Him, we'd be talking with Him, we'd be
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  worshipping Him. That happens as a result of the
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  trials and we continually yield to Jesus as a Lord as a result
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  of our trials that we say, Jesus, I know you have something
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  for me to learn. So I'm going to learn something
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  about my character. I'm going to learn something
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  about your goodness. I'm going to learn something
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  about your provision in times of my need as all of these things
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  shape us and it shapes our mind on what we expect to receive
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  from God. Do I expect that there will be
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  trials? Do I expect just a clear Rd.
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  with nothing ever going wrong? As we allow trials to have their
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  full effect, then we become more and more mature and complete in
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  our Christian faith. Lacking nothing.
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  I think of one person, Joni Erickson Tata.
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  So Joni Joni and then Tata TADA. Joni Erickson Tata is a
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  quadriplegic who has a wonderful testimony of faith and she is a
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  mature, she is a mature believer as a result of the hardships
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  that she has gone through. And in my life, the people that
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  have made some of the most impact are the people that have
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  walked through the deepest trials in life.
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  I've mentioned here before Fountain Senior, my, my pastor's
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  dad that he went through 10 years of four different cancers
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  and, and strokes. And he was one of the godliest
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  men that I knew. But that was born out of trials
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  in his life that made him the person that he ended up being.
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  All right, I'm going to do this. I don't often do this, but I'm
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  going to back out of verses 5 through 8 today.
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  I'm just going to stop at verses 2 through 4.
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  Next episode we'll look at verses 5 through 8 at least, and
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  we'll look at asking God for wisdom and how to do it, how not
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  to do it. And I hope it'll be an
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  encouragement to you Today. Our thought is, are you
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  grateful? Do you consider it a win when
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  you are going through trials and temptations knowing that God
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  wants to shape and mold you and make you look more like Jesus?
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  That you would have a closer walk with Him, and that you
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  would be able to tell others about your God as a result of
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  what you are going through? Are you allowing the trial to
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  shape you to love God more and to seek His mind more and and to
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  manage your expectations more or to change your character?
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  Are you allowing that to happen when you are going through
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  difficult times? I hope that'd be a challenge and
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  an encouragement to you. I know it is even to my heart.
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  And I will pick up tomorrow in verse #5 thanks for being here.