Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev19990307.htm

JAMES: OVERCOMING DEAD RELIGIOSITY IN OUR BACKGROUNDS
Part I: Overcoming A False Spirituality's View Of Christian Life Trials
(James 1:1-25)
  1. Introduction
    1. Some of today's religious groups and leaders teach that if you are right with God, things go smoothly with you where trouble in life means you have sinned! It is known as the "wealth gospel".
    2. When Bildad told his upright pre-Mosaic Law friend, Job that he must have sinned to explain his trials (Job 8:1-6), Job was frustrated as he could not see what he had done that worth so much pain, Job 10:1-2!
    3. The Epistle of James paints an entirely different and revealing picture on everyday trials of post-Law Christians, and he exposes the error of a false legalistic spirituality view on the subject of trials as follows:
  2. Overcoming A False Spirituality's View Of Christian Life Trials, James 1:1-25.
    1. The author of the Epistle of James wrote to Jewish Christians who had come to faith in Christ and been transferred out of the Dispensation of the Mosaic Law, James 1:1.
    2. An essential part of their being under that Law was the provision of God to bless Israel with freedom from troubles of all sorts for being godly, cf. Deut. 28:1-6. Conversely, sin would produce a lack of such freedom from troubles for people under the Mosaic Law, Deut. 28:15-19.
    3. However, once one becomes a Christian, he is no longer under that Law's jurisdiction, for Christ died to the Law's jurisdiction (Col. 2:11-14), and the believer is to live free of its rule (Col. 2:16-17, 20-23).
    4. Well, an error arose in the Christian community as former Mosaic Law era Jews assumed the Law's provisions still applied across the board; they felt freedom from trouble meant one was RIGHTEOUS, and trouble meant he was in SIN! James addresses this error in James 1:1-25 to correct this false spirituality viewpoint with God's truths for believers today:
      1. Opposite what some thought, James told believers to count it all joy when they fell into trials, Jas. 1:2.
      2. There was wonderful maturity God produced by allowing such trials in believers' lives, James 1:3-4:
        1. God used trials as a springboard to make Christians patient, for patience is the product of having to wait for a solution to a present desire or need, something a trial forces on one. (James 1:3)
        2. James urged believers to let patience run its full course while under trial, for this would yield a maturity that would equip the believer to lack nothing for godliness in life, James 1:4.
      3. Accordingly, if a believer lacks skill in handling such trials so that he doesn't know how to be patient or to let patience run its full course in the trial, he is to ask God in prayer for wisdom to that end. God would liberally suppl y him such insight, James 1:5.
      4. However, he had to ask in a stout, single-minded attitude of faith or not receive such insight, Jas. 1:6-8.
      5. James then made particular application to believers who suffered trials of a financial sort, Jas. 1:9-11.
        1. The poor believer should rejoice if he is financially exalted, and the rich man if he is made financially impoverished, for this life is transient and its wealth of no lasting consequence in itself, Jas. 1:9-10a.
        2. James illustrates this truth by likening the brevity of man's life to that of grass; as grass grows, its flower blooms and dies relatively quickly, likewise man has a very transient earthly sojourn, 1:10-11.
        3. The immediate lesson is that we should not trust in how much wealth we enjoy in this life, but value what eternal maturity God produces in us through this short life's trials of drained, temporal riches!
      6. James then corrected the false notion that trials were so painful because God made them that way. In reality, trials were hard because of man's lusts and sins that gave him an errant value system, 1:13-18.
      7. Accordingly, we believers must face trials without jumping to false conclusions on their meanings, but be eager to see what Scripture says about them, James 1:19-20. We must bend with the trials to mature in all godliness when they co me as this is the Biblical reality of a Christian's trials, James 1:21-22.
      8. The man who heeds and adopts the ideas of the Word will experience true blessing in trials, Jas. 1:23f.
Lesson: Though in the OLD Testament, temporal blessings or hardships signaled God's corresponding blessing or judgment, God's post-Law, NEW Testament program often MODIFIES that idea where God uses this TEMPORAL life's SETBACKS as building blocks f or ETERNAL maturity.

Application: We need to face trials in life NOT with a false "wealth gospel" temporal value system, but as SCRIPTURE does to see God's INVESTMENT in such TRIALS as key to eternal RETURNS!