James - James 1:1-12

And now let's pray together as we open the Word of God. Gracious Father in heaven, we give thanks for Your Word. It nourishes us, it encourages and enlightens us. And we're grateful that today we have the freedom to open the Word of God and study. And now we pray, teach us by Your Spirit. May we learn far more through the Holy Spirit's ministry than what any preacher might say to us. And help us to apply it and practice it. Meet our needs today and help us to accomplish Your will. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

God allows trials to bring out the best in us. What do we do when trials are around us? We accept them by faith and turn our lives over to the Lord. James 1:1-12, the writer focuses on the four discoveries that we make in times of testing and trial. You put something into the furnace, you'll discover what it's made of. You put something under the microscope, you'll discover how it works. Well, number one: the source of our joy. You'll find out what really gives you joy when you go through trials. And that's James 1:1-2.

The strength of our character, James 1:3-4. There's something about testing that if we surrender to the Lord, it builds character. You know, character is what God is concerned about in our lives. Everything comes out of character. Life is built on character. And you can't build character in a hothouse; you have to have a furnace. Romans 5, here's what Paul wrote about character: "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that"—that's all wonderful, isn't it? Justified, peace with God, access to God's treasury, grace, rejoicing, hope, the glory of God—but the Christian life is more than that. "And not only that," says Romans 5:3, "but we also glory in tribulations, oh, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance," same thing James talked about, "and perseverance, character." Now that's a great word. Approved character is what that Greek word means. God can put His seal of approval on your faith. "And character, hope." And so we're going through the furnace, not because God punishes us, but because God perfects us. The strength of our character comes in times of testing. 

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing, the proving, of your faith produces patience, endurance, perseverance. You don't quit. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect"—that means undivided, entire, integrity—"and complete." That means you're well-rounded, you're balanced, "lacking nothing."

Now James 1:5-8 tell us that there's a third discovery we make: the stability of our faith. How strong is our faith? How stable is it? James talks about two kinds of faith: wise faith and wavering faith. "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man"—that man who's driven by the wind—"suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." 

So here we have stable faith and unstable faith, wise faith and wavering faith. Now God tests your faith—we find that in James 1:3—"knowing that the testing of your faith." God tests your faith. Why? Well, He's asking: is your faith real? Now, there are a lot of people who don't have real faith. There are many people who have made professions who have never really been saved. In John 2, you find an interesting statement about some people who said they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. John 2:23: "Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man." 

Now the word "believed" in John 2:23 and the word "commit" in John 2:24 are the same word. They said they believed in Jesus, but He didn't believe in them. Why? Their faith was not real. They had faith in a miracle worker. They had never repented, they had never really trusted Him as Savior. And so the Lord looked into their hearts and knew that their faith was not real. If they had gone through times of testing, they would have fallen, and that would have been the end of their profession. 

You'll recall in the parable of the sower, Jesus talks about that person who receives the Word of God with great joy. Ah, but there's no depth, no depth. The roots don't go down. And then when the sun comes up—and sun is good for plants, plants need the sun, and Christians need troubles and testings and persecution, helps us to grow—when the sun comes up, that plant withers and dies. Why? No root. Why? No real faith. And so the stability, the reality of our faith is tested because God wants to know: is our faith real? Wouldn't it be a terrible thing to go through life with an unreal faith, with credentials that were fake, and perhaps not even know it? 

In Matthew 7, Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of My Father who is in heaven." And people are going to be surprised at the judgment to discover their faith was not real. So God tests our faith and He asks: is your faith real? Is your faith rooted? Does it have roots? Will it grow when the persecution starts? Is it a faith that is really reaching out? 

There are two kinds of people James describes here in James 1:5-8. He describes wavering people, wavering, doubting people. You see, faith says "yes." Unbelief says "no." Doubt says "yes and no and maybe." And a lot of people are like this. Faith looks at God's promise and God's will and says "yes." Unbelief looks at God's promise and says "no." But doubt looks at God's promise and one minute says "yes" up on the mountaintop, the next minute says "no" down in the valley. It's unstable, undependable, unreliable. Why? Double-minded. James 1:8: "He is a double-minded man." 

Now connect James 1:8 with James 1:4: "Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect." That means mature. It's a word that means you're not divided. An undivided life. Jesus said nobody can serve two masters. Now you find that Christian who's double-minded: one part of him is on the world, what can he get out of the world; one part is on the things of the Lord, what can God do for me. He's not totally committed to the Lord. He's going to be double-minded, undependable, unreliable, up and down, a problem to everybody, a problem to the Lord. 

Now don't be like that. Don't be like the wave of the sea, up and down and coming and going, restless, unstable. You can't control it. And yet this man is living in a dream world. James 1:7: "Let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord." He prays, "Oh God, meet my needs, oh God, help me," and he's under the delusion that God's going to answer. James is going to talk about a lot of deluded people in his letter. People who really think God's going to do something God doesn't do. And of course, then they get bitter and come to the pastor and say, "I don't believe that God's Word is really true." Well, they haven't totally committed themselves. You see, faith means I totally commit myself to the Lord. He's a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. He cannot settle down. 

Now the wise man commits himself totally to the Lord. His faith is stable. And he tells us in James 1:5, just ask for wisdom. When you're going through times of trial, you need wisdom. Why? So you won't waste what God is doing. What a terrible thing it would be to go through that surgery and waste it—not get out of it what God has for you. What an awful experience it would be to go through difficulty and heartbreak and trial, go through the valley and come out no different from when we went in. We're wasting it. Why? We don't have the wisdom to know how to use it. Wisdom is practical insight to know what to do. He encourages us to pray for wisdom that we might be stable and use our trials wisely to the glory of God. There are a number of encouragements here for prayer. He says God commands it: "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask." Let him ask of God. God is the giving God who is constantly giving. He gives liberally, He gives lovingly, He doesn't scold you. How many times we parents have said to our children, "Look, I've told you four or five times," or "I've given this to you before." God doesn't do that. God says, "My child, you need some wisdom? I'll give it to you because I am the giving God."

[Interview:]
This is Back to the Bible, and you're listening to a study series from the book of James with Bible teacher Warren Wiersbe. Let's join Warren and Arnie Cole, CEO of Back to the Bible International.

Warren, I've heard so much about you, and one of the things you've been known for is being a pastor's pastor. Another thing you've been known for as a broadcaster and as a world-famous author. Which of these experiences have you enjoyed the most, or do they all complement one another?

I think that complementing one another is the answer to that question because I began as a pastor. I think I was only 20 years old when I started pastoring. And you learn so much from people—that's been your experience, I know—working with people, praying with people, weeping with people. You learn so much. And then when I got into broadcasting, it was just ministering to people that you couldn't see. And yet, people are people, and we're all more or less alike. And so broadcasting helped to sharpen things up. I taught homiletics at Trinity University up in the Chicago, greater Chicago area, and I used to tell my students, "I wish every one of you could be on the radio for one year to learn one thing: say it right the first time." And I found that broadcasting sharpened up my preaching. And of course, the writing—they came to me, I didn't go to them—and God has been so good. The "Be" books alone, I think over five or six million are out there now. So God's been good. I don't deserve it.

Today, we're learning that times of trial open our eyes to the truths of God. Here again is Warren Wiersbe with today's Back to the Bible study from the book of James.

Now there's a fourth discovery you make when you go through times of trial: not only the source of your joy and the strength of your character and the stability of your faith, but the security of your wealth. In James 1:9-12, he talks to the rich man and the poor man. We'll have occasion to study James 1:12 in our next lesson, but it does tie into both sections of James 1. In James 1:1-11, James is talking about testing on the outside, and then in James 1:12, he starts talking about temptations on the inside. 

"Let the lowly brother glory," exalt, boast, "in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation." Now I think both of these men are saved. He's not talking to an unsaved rich man and a saved poor man. In this church, there were both rich and poor. James is going to have a good deal to say about rich people and poor people. Now, the Bible does not glorify poverty. The Bible doesn't say that if a person can't pay his bills and meet the needs of life, he's especially blessed. No. The Bible calls us to have the true riches, which are the riches of our character, the riches of the Spirit. I fear that too often we are mistaken in our evaluation. I sometimes remember the contrast between the church in Smyrna and the church of Laodicea. You remember that? Revelation 2:9, Jesus says to the church in Smyrna: "I know your works, tribulation, and poverty, but you are rich." Isn't that interesting? You think you're poor, but you're rich. In Revelation 3:17, he says to the church of the Laodiceans: "Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked." One group thought they were rich and they were poor; another group thought they were poor and they were rich. I think that's the way it is. 

He's saying here that the poor person who lacks in the material has the spiritual. He's depending on God. The rich man who has the material sometimes lacks in the spiritual because he's depending upon that which is not going to last. "As the flower of the field he will pass away." Not his riches will pass away; he will pass away. I've noticed in life that there are people who blossom out and they're beautiful for a time, then they're gone. I can recall in my Christian ministry of seeing people who were very famous and very well-known, and now they're gone. Nobody thinks about them too much. Their name's in an almanac or an encyclopedia someplace. "For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits." That means while he's out getting money. 

Now it isn't wrong to have money. It's wrong for money to have you. Charge them that are rich in this world, Paul wrote to Timothy, that they trust not in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who gives to all men richly to enjoy. Now, the rich man needs to be poor in spirit, and the poor man needs to be rich in the Lord. God balances everything. When a slave got saved, he was a slave who was a free man. When a free man got saved, he was a free man who was the slave of God. And so when the rich man got saved, he should say, "Hallelujah! I'm a Christian, I'm born again, I have all the riches in Christ. I have these earthly riches, but that's not the important thing. I rejoice that He has humbled me and made me lowly." And the poor man should say, "Hallelujah! I'm saved, I praise God that I have been raised up and I am the richest of the rich." 

I think Mary had that idea in mind in her beautiful song in Luke 1, beginning at Luke 1:46: "My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name." Now Luke 1:52: "He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent empty away. He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy." That's what he's talking about here. He is saying: look at what you have in the light of the eternal. 

What is your security? Well, you say, "I have a good pension and I've got a little bit of money in the bank." No, says James, remember now, don't depend on those things. God knows you need them. God made things and God said things are good. God saw everything that He had made and He blessed it and He said it was good. And God knows that we need things. Your Father in heaven knows you have need of these things. And God wants us to enjoy things. 1 Timothy 6:17: "He gives to us richly all things to enjoy." But God does not want us to depend on things. It's like that rich farmer in Luke 12:13-21. Had a barn full and overflowing and said, "I'll build a new barn and I'll have my security for the future." And the Word of God says that God said to him that night, "You fool! This night your soul is required of you." You're going to die. Who's going to get these things that you were going to save for the future? 

Now again, the Bible does not magnify poverty, nor does the Bible magnify wealth. The Bible says the important thing is the condition of your heart. If the rich man is able to rejoice in that he is a sinner saved by grace—he is the poorest of the poor because he has only what he has in Christ—then riches are safe with him. The poor man looks at what he doesn't have, and then he looks up at what he does have, and he says, "I have been exalted to the highest heaven, God will meet my every need, and I am going to trust Him." 

In James 1:12, he talks about the blessedness of the one who endures testing, whether it's circumstances on the outside or temptation on the inside, because it gives you a crown. "Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been proved"—not while he's being proved, not before, but when he's been proved, when you've passed the test—"you receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." Those who love Him, those who trust Him, those who are saved. The crown of life. You reign in life, Romans 5:17, walking with the Lord and living like a king. We'll have more to say about this later. Remember, what life does to you depends upon what life finds in you.