James 1:1-12

So we're in James, jumping into it, and I sent out a link to some of the people about an audio that guy from the Bible school that I went through.

! I did the whole book of James in song, James Version, word for word.

It's pretty cool. Super cool.

You play this enough around your kids, your kids will memorize the book of James. Super cool opportunity. I've been working for years, and I'm a little less mind-elasticity than kids, but I'm getting it.

A lot of fun. So that was in the New King James. He also did Psalm 119, which is pretty awesome.

The longest chapter of the Bible. It's longer than a lot of books of the Bible.

So those are two awesome resources for you guys.

I'm going to read through the whole passage in the New King James, just because that's what I'm working with today, specifically with James.

And then we're going to go through verse by verse.

James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

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 suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation.

Because as a flower of the field, he will pass away.

For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass.

Its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes.

So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.

Blessed is the man who endures temptation.

For when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

Okay.

I think Chris is going to take up with verse 13 next week.

So that's James 1, 1 through 12.

So he starts off, James, a bondservant of God.

And so the word for bondservant is doulos.

And it typically depends on who's translating it and when they're translating it.

It means slave.

And it's a little different in Bible times.

Slavery was a little different in Bible times than it was in America's slavery.

There was a Sabbath year.

Flames would get free every seven years.

And then the 50th year, sevens, they'd be freed every 50th year as well.

The year of Jubilee.

And it wasn't, it was more of an indentured servitude like they had in Kingsland among some of the lower classes back in feudal, feudal times.

And there were lots of rules about how to worry about that.

Okay.

Welcome to the remote.

So James identifies himself as the slave of Christ.

And as I was doing my research this week, I saw a book that was titled, Christ's slave, a New Testament metaphor for total devotion to Christ.

That's pretty cool.

I didn't read the book, but I read the title.

It was in one of the references, one of the footnotes.

But yeah, just this idea of a single devotion, single minded devotion to Christ and what he says goes.

And there's no self autonomy to it.

It's his will, his way or the highway.

You don't get to decide how to, you don't get to pick and choose what commands you like, what words you like, what dispositions you like about.

The master who owns you, who controls you.

And James called himself a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And you could have said, James, the brother of Jesus.

You know, you got to tell him some quick street cred that way.

Paul in Galatians calls James, and it's almost certainly the same James.

He said, I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.

Paul talking about the leader, the head, chief elder of Jerusalem at the time that Paul was living.

And he called him James, the Lord's brother.

And you know that Jesus had brothers who didn't believe in him during his lifetime.

But once he got resurrected, that does something to change your mind about your brother.

And James became a leader in the New Testament church.

So, James, instead of identifying himself with this honorific that he could have used to get himself some street cred to bolster,

maybe the power, seeing the power of his words.

James, the brother of Jesus, listen to me.

Or even the exalted apostle, you know.

Or head of the church in Jerusalem.

He says, James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thought that was pretty cool.

He values that bond as a servant of Christ, as a slave of God, as more valuable than whatever else people might put their emphasis on.

Okay.

I got a little note about servanthood, slavery in the Old Testament times, too.

It said, in the ancient world, slaves often wielded the authority of their masters and were considered part of their family.

So that could happen back then.

And sometimes when that year of Jubilee came or the Sabbath year came, they would say, where am I going to go?

Like, I want to stay here.

Like, oh, we're family.

And they would stay in there in a special way that they could mark themselves.

They'd taken all sharp, pointing things, they'd took their beard to the doorpost, tying them to the house.

Symbolically and literally.

As a symbol.

I'm sure they took it out pretty quickly.

But yeah, it was, it's not like we think of when we think of slavery, typically in America.

All right.

James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, he's calling Jesus Lord here.

And Lord was the Old Testament way of talking about Yahweh, God, his name.

So when he's talking about Jesus, he's describing to his half-brother by marriage.

Obviously, Joseph, James didn't have God himself as the Father, as the incarnate Son.

So we call him a half-brother when we're being specific about it.

But, elsewhere in the Bible, like, we see the divinity of Christ explicitly.

So John 20, verse 28.

John 20:28

It says, My Lord and my God to Jesus.

And then in 1 Corinthians 8, 6.

There's one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things.

This idea of Jesus, the instrument through which the world was created.

2 Peter 1, 1.

By the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Okay.

So James, the bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is counting up.

I shouldn't be counting up.

I better fix that.

Hmm.

I can't figure that out.

Does somebody want to give you a hint of that?

It'll be in about 40 minutes.

Yep.

Wait.

Okay.

To the 12 tribes.

So James is writing, To the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad.

Greetings.

So, whose sons were the 12 tribes?

Any kids know?

Who is the father of the 12 tribes?

The tribes of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Yep.

Jacob is later called Israel.

And it's the tribe of Israel.

And we're going to be learning about them because they're all going to get born here.

And we're going through Genesis.

Probably, depends if we take a break for Christmas.

But in the next couple of readings in Genesis, we're going to hear about all the children of Israel.

And there were certain.

What did I call them?

I didn't call them conditions of the covenant.

There were stipulations of the covenant.

So, the covenant wasn't conditional in the sense that they could ever get out of the covenant.

They're in the covenant.

But either they, as the people of Israel, would receive the blessings of the covenant.

Or they would receive the curses of the covenant.

So, there was blessings for obedience.

And God was very explicit about this.

He spelled it out over and over again.

We see it in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 are probably the two most condensed versions of them.

You can see it all throughout the prophets too.

When they obey, they get blessings.

And none can stand before them.

And their enemies, when they rise up against them, God helps them just slay them.

Scatter them seven ways.

And they have an everlasting inheritance in their own land that God gave to their forefathers as long as they're obedient.

And they're not obedient, by and large.

And they haven't been.

They're like you and me.

They're a fraudulently wayward people.

And they're kind of the macrocosm of the human heart, writ large as a nation, that God deals with like he deals with us.

But they were scattered.

To the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings.

And so, there's promises about them being scattered.

And they did get scattered.

The northern tribes got scattered in the 700s BC.

And then Judah and the southern tribes got scattered about 200 years later in the 500s.

And they were still in dispersion.

Or they call it diaspora.

They're spread abroad throughout the nations as one of the curses of the covenant.

But those scatterings promised as a stipulation of the covenant had it so that in James' day,

the tribes weren't all assembled.

And he was preaching.

He preached to Thessalonica.

And not him.

But the church.

There was a circular letter.

It made its rounds throughout the churches.

And that's how it came.

Got into our Bible.

And Paul would preach to the different churches in Philippine.

And they were in the greater Mediterranean.

And some in Egypt and some in Rome.

They were scattered.

They weren't all living in their promised land, Canaan.

And James is greeting them as the head of the church in Jerusalem.

He says,

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.

This is verse 2.

James 1-2.

Count it all joy when you fall into various trials.

And I don't think we should think about this joy as kind of an effervescence,

bubbliness, you know, happy-go-lucky, skippity-doo.

It's something that we can be sorrowful, Paul says, but always rejoicing.

There's a depth to it.

There's an anchor balanced to it that makes it unshakable.

And you're not, I mean, certainly we can be effervescent.

You know, with love and joy.

But it's not always evident right there.

A lot of times, like John 1620, talks about sorrow turned to joy.

And even like, you know, sorrow of birth, like women, when you have a baby, it's painful.

But if you keep your eye on what you're getting out of it, it's a no brainer.

Like, it's worth it.

Like, you get a baby at the end.

I mean, a new human, you know, part of your family, something of you that you get to hold at the end.

So also, you have sorrow now.

And then there's promises that no one will be able to take your joy there in John 16.

1 Corinthians 4.1 talks about in all of our afflictions, I'm overflowing with joy.

So Paul links these two because it's kind of counterintuitive.

It doesn't make sense.

Like we would naturally, the natural mind would think about sufferings as opposed to joy.

Or despite joy.

But I think James here is wanting us to cue in on the linkage that if we're mindful of that linkage between sorrow and joy, between trials and temptations and maturity and eternal reward, it makes it not only bearable, but we could say like Judas, when he was facing his greatest trial on earth,

said for the joy set before him, he was facing his shame.

But there was a joy because he was purchasing something for the father that he was going to get to inherit and get to enjoy eternally.

So there's a light momentary affliction or even heavy momentary affliction.

Time wise, it's light because it's momentary.

But that contrasts with an eternal weight of eternal glory that you get on the other side.

On the other side, and if we can bend our brains and our hearts and our minds to that.

It just changes the whole experience of the trials that we, that we face. And when you're in the midst of a trial, it's not always.

That helpful to have somebody come in.

Effervescence.

Tell you to keep stiff upper lip.

No.

I don't know.

Put on a heavy face.

Put on your church, your church face.

But when we're not suffering, I think that's the time to drill down and get these truths to our hearts.

The value of the trials and what God's wanting to produce.

The kind of gold that he's wanting to produce in our hearts.

In the hardest things that can make us see the outcome of those things, which we'll get to.

What verses?

Okay.

Hebrews 10, 34 says,

You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

So, even if we lost all of our stuff, our house, our goods, our car, if you knew that you had a better possession than that and an abiding one that you couldn't lose, it puts it into perspective.

It allows you to weather the storms with grace and dignity and hope and faith.

And without a doubt.

So, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.

That fall into various trials, it's the same word that they used in Luke 10, 30, the parable of the Samaritans.

It's on the road to Jericho and fell among Roberts.

Okay?

So, something's coming at you, you know?

And it's not you just bringing cause and effect things on yourself that he's talking about here.

It's, we live in a world with an enemy.

Yeah.

And he loves to undo us.

When he threatens to undo us, we can be thankful that God has willed his truth to triumph through us.

And the, how did all joy?

So, in my mind, before looking into it, I thought it was consider all things joy.

And it has a little different emphasis in the Greek.

So, the all is attached to joy.

So, consider it pure joy.

Consider it complete, unalloyed, unmixed joy.

Only joy will be trials.

So, like, there's other things we could consider.

And there's the natural thing that we will consider it, but he's asking us, commanding us, to count it all joy.

Consider it all joy.

Reckon it all joy.

And it's a mental shift that you've got to do.

Like, it's not going to do, it's not going to happen for you.

You've got to ask God for help.

And it takes the spirit to do that, but it's an act of the volition.

It's an act of the will to be counting it joy.

And when we put down these stones of remembrance in times when we're not going through it, when it's not, the waves aren't crashing, and we're not on life support, that's the time to be setting up these Ebenezer stones to look back on and point back to them.

You know what I felt when I set that up, and I trust it.

And it's the same God the day that it was then.

And he doesn't change, though I change, though my circumstances change, though storms come and beat, the rock doesn't change.

So set up those reminders in your own heart.

We've got a little poem from William Cooper.

I love this guy.

I might have another one at the end.

I'm sure there's not going to be time, so don't worry about that.

It's called the Welcome Cross.

And it is framing things in this counting things joy because of what we get out of them.

The Welcome Cross.

Tis my happiness below, not to live without the cross, but the Savior's power to know, sanctifying every loss.

This is happiness to me.

God in Israel sows the seeds of affliction, pain, and toil.

These spring up and choke the weeds which would else or spread the soil.

Trials make the promise sweet.

Trials give new life to prayer.

Trials bring me to his feet.

Lay me low and keep me there.

Trials.

Did I meet no trials here?

No chastisement, by the way?

Might I not, with reason and fear, I should prove and cast away?

If we face no trials.

Bastards may escape the rod, sunk in earthly, vain light, but the trueborn child of God must not, would not, even if he might.

So, like, there's a rod of discipline that shows that you're a son.

And you can embrace the rod of chastisement if you have that internalized.

And it just changes the whole orientation, the whole framing.

Framing is so huge.

The way you frame things can educate the way you feel about them.

And he's giving us some really good framing inventions here.

Okay, so why can we count it all joy?

Like, think of some of your own trials.

Like, Katie, you're going through it.

Like, the winds are beating.

Like, the waves are crashing.

And how can we count that all joy?

Like, it's hard.

It's not automatic.

We're tempted when we face trials.

We've all faced trials.

Things that would drown a person naturally.

And, but how can we count it all joy?

Verse 3 says, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

Hebrews 12, 11.

Let's turn there real quick.

For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.

But later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Okay?

So there's a training to be had in painful discipline or trials.

And if we will be trained by it, there's a fruitful harvest to be reaped from that.

And we can miss out on it if you're not, if you won't be trained by it.

If you won't let it have its perfect, perfect way in you.

We'll do that in verse 4.

So knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

There's a kind of patience.

There's a couple of different words used in the Bible that translates to our English patience.

And this is not the one about unhurried tranquility while waiting.

Just, oh, he's very patient.

Like, he can resist that marshmallow, marshmallow test.

He's good at waiting rooms.

There's another kind of patience that has more of a connotation of ability to bear up under difficulty.

Or endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, perseverance, patience endurance.

And that's the one that's being used here.

So knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

And endurance, one commentator said, is faith stretched out.

So, love that language.

But stretched out for all to see.

Like faith externalized.

Making its way outside.

Not kept under wraps.

Closeted.

But stretched out for all to see.

Making its way externally.

Outside of the heart and mind.

Providing positive proof about what was inside.

Faith does certain things.

And James is really good about this.

He's got a lot of different categories of faith.

Most of which aren't faith.

He talks about dead faith later.

He talks about demon faith.

Like demons believe.

They shudder.

They don't love the truth that they know is true.

Like that doesn't help.

That kind of faith doesn't help anybody.

So it's not just a mental ascent.

Demons can do that.

But there's a kind of faith that works.

Faith actually does work.

Or else it's a non-working faith.

Like it should be obvious.

But faith works.

And we're not talking about the faith and works as a different conversation.

But faith actually does work.

And there's no question about that.

And that's James's point.

Is the proof.

Proving of faith.

Knowing that the proving of your faith.

The testing of your faith.

You test a metal.

To prove that it's.

That it's pure.

You burn away the dross.

And what you come out with.

Is more fines.

It's a refined.

Product.

After going through the refining fire.

And that's what we're talking about here.

Is that kind of endurance.

That kind of a testing.

So.

Revelation 13.10.

Here's a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

Hebrews 12.1.

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

That's this word that they're using.

In the Greek.

Romans 5.3-4.

It says not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings.

Knowing that suffering produces endurance.

And endurance produces character.

And hope does not put us to shame.

Because God's love has been poured into our hearts.

Through the whole of our hearts.

And ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending

this word that they're using in Greek.

Romans 5, 3 to 4 says,

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings,

knowing that suffering produces endurance,

and endurance produces character,

and character produces hope.

And hope does not put us to shame,

because God's love has been poured into our hearts

through the Holy Spirit who he has given to us.

And then just one verse to kind of overarch

everything we're talking about.

God works all things together for good,

for those who love him.

He's been called according to his purposes.

So Romans 8, 28, I think.

Just have that as a backdrop here.

All right, let's look at verse 4.

But, so we saw,

knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience,

but let patience have its perfect work,

that you may be perfect and complete,

lacking nothing.

So James describes this work,

there's a Blomberg quote, he's a commentator.

James describes this work as perfect or complete,

and the word for that, for perfect here, is teleon.

So the telos is a Greek word,

and it's a really weighty word

in both Greek philosophy and in Christian theology.

It does a lot of work.

And it fundamentally means end,

or completion, or goal, or purpose,

orientation towards the end.

So think of a, we're talking about telos,

think of a telescope, okay?

What does that help you do?

It helps you to see the end.

Like we can see as far as,

even with your human eye unaided by a telescope,

I read something in an astronomer,

where it said,

we have an infinite field of vision.

I was like, what?

And just, there's no natural limit

to how far we can see.

If there's a light strong enough to make it here,

or like a galaxy big enough,

like it doesn't matter how far away it is,

we can see it.

Which is just mind-blowing.

Because like, when you look at the Milky Way,

each, it looks like a bunch of pixels,

you know?

Like, you can't even distinguish them apart

because they're so not close together.

They're so far away

that they're making

an unpixelated

cream of milky,

milky light in the sky.

And each one of those,

which is a star,

probably as big as our star,

is the sun.

And probably as far away

from the next star

as our sun is

to the next galaxy,

the next solar system.

It's mind-blowing

that we can see that far away

that the stars

are undifferentiated

like the pixels in our iPhone screen.

That's wild.

Okay?

Anyway,

a telescope helps us to see

that far.

helps us to see the end

all the way

to the completion,

to the end.

So telos can also mean

something about a termination

or conclusion.

So when God's doing things,

he has a teleological,

he has a telos,

he has an end in mind for us.

When all his work is done,

we're going to bear the image

of his son

for all those who are in Christ.

We're going to look more like Jesus

and we're going to be,

in him.

We're going to be with him

in glory.

That's the telos

of the Christian.

And that's perfect.

So when we think about perfect,

what comes to my mind first

is Christian perfection.

And it's just this thing

that I just,

that ate my lunch

for years growing up.

and this idea that I had to be perfect,

like,

or else,

like,

I'm going to hell.

And it's true.

You do have to be perfect,

but you can't be perfect.

But Christ was perfect.

And so if I'm in Christ,

I get his perfection,

credited to my account.

And so,

but let patience have its perfect work,

that you may be perfect and complete.

So this perfect doesn't have

the Christian perfection

connotation to it.

It has more of a,

that you may be

in concert with your

created order,

your end.

And that's,

that's a perfect,

that's a type of perfection,

but it's not the sinless perfection

that,

that we think of in this verse.

But let patience have its perfect work,

that you may be perfect and complete,

lacking nothing.

And then he goes on to,

ask the guys around the fire,

who asked them,

two minutes ago.

Um,

oh wow.

Like,

does it,

any of you guys not lack wisdom?

There's somebody that doesn't lack wisdom,

Michael,

played along.

Like,

no,

I'm good,

you know.

Like,

just acting the hope,

you know,

like,

like,

you don't need to ask for wisdom,

that you don't lack wisdom,

like,

how thick would you have to be?

How dull would you have to be

to think you didn't need wisdom,

to think you didn't lack wisdom?

He was joking.

So everybody,

he made it obvious that he was joking.

But this idea that,

um,

we could be perfect and complete,

lacking nothing.

So there's a lacking nothing.

Um,

in second Peter one,

three,

it talks about us having everything we need.

So his divine power has granted to us

all things that pertain to life and godliness.

We're not lacking anything.

He's granted to us all that we need

for life and godliness.

Through the knowledge of him who comes,

who called us to his own glory and excellence.

So there is a sense in which we're lacking nothing,

but still,

we're lacking wisdom.

We're lacking the end,

the final perfection of wisdom

that we're going for.

Um,

the telos of wisdom.

We're lacking that at least.

Uh,

we haven't arrived there yet.

Um,

so if any of you and all of you do,

um,

lack wisdom,

let him ask of God who gives to all liberally

and without reproach,

and it will be given to him.

This God who gives,

let him ask of God.

Then I have a comma in my translation,

who gives to all liberally without reproach.

But the words in the Greek is,

did on toss,

they do is the giving God.

Ask the giving God.

Which I thought was just a cool way of framing it.

You know,

like ask,

if you lack,

you could ask the giving God.

And he loves to give.

And how does he love to give?

He gives liberally,

generously,

lavishly,

and without reproach.

He's not annoyed at us,

that we don't already have it,

that we have to keep asking,

that we have to always keep asking.

Um,

he didn't create us.

Like even Adam had to grow in wisdom.

Um,

and he didn't.

And so,

here we are.

And we needed a second Adam.

Um,

but it's not a sin to be finite.

It's not a sin to be created.

It's not subpar that we're human,

and that we're not God himself.

Um,

and that we have to be asking for wisdom.

Um,

but he loves to give when he asks for wisdom.

And even when we are lacking nothing,

even when we have everything we need for life and godliness,

we still need it for wisdom.

Um,

and he loves,

and he loves,

loves,

loves to give it.

And he loves to give it,

not stingily,

not begrudgingly.

Um,

he loves to give liberally,

generously,

and without reproach.

He's not annoying.

He's not annoyed at us.

We're not,

we're not feeling put out,

that we have to keep asking,

from his supply.

It's him.

It's God.

It's infinite.

He's,

he has the supply.

Where we have the need,

he has the supply.

And he loves to give.

Um,

and he has a trustworthy disposition to give generously.

Christian perfection,

and the man who has no need to ask for wisdom.

Yeah,

so,

that Christian perfectionism,

if any of you lacks wisdom,

I just,

I just can't imagine the person arriving,

this time,

we did.

Don't lack wisdom,

or he would be as big of an oaf,

as my most,

for taking a feeling.

Nah,

dude,

I'm good.

You know,

like,

it's,

it's just idiocy.

It's pure idiocy,

that somebody would think,

that they'd arrive at a point,

where we don't need to ask for wisdom.

Um,

the more you know about yourself,

the more you know about God,

and how holy he is,

how perfect perfection is.

Um,

when Isaiah went into,

the throne room of God,

and beheld him in his glory,

and saw just the train of his road,

building the temple,

what did he say?

He said,

woe is me.

I'm undone.

I'm a man of unclean lips.

I dwell among a people of unclean lips.

Um,

it,

it unraveled him,

but it almost disintegrated.

It almost fragmented him in a thousand pieces.

Almost came apart at the seams.

So,

if any of you lacks wisdom,

let him ask the giving God,

who gives to all liberally and without reproach,

and it will be given to him.

But,

there's a certain way we gotta ask.

It's not asking willy-nilly.

It's not asking in a double-minded way.

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.

So,

there was something that happened in our,

in my generation,

growing up.

Um,

I think it was a reaction against

some of the earlier fundamentalism,

where

youths were encouraged to doubt.

We're encouraged to feed our doubt.

And like,

hey,

how can you handle it?

You know,

like,

you,

you go doubt,

and when you come out of it,

your faith is gonna be stronger.

Doubt is a faith maker.

And it's just not the way that the Bible talks about doubt.

Like,

doubt is your enemy.

It's,

it's a killer,

it's poison.

And you don't drink poison,

just so you appreciate health afterwards.

It will not work for most people.

Like,

just because you can survive,

just because God did save some,

from that,

it wasn't because of their doubt.

Despite,

um,

them feeding in their,

here.

Hebrews 3,

2,

12 says it.

Take care,

brothers,

lest there be in any of you,

take care,

lest there be in any of you,

an evil,

unbelieving heart.

Leading you to fall away from the living God.

Well,

unbelief is dangerous.

It's,

it's a heinous arrogance against your creator.

Um,

yeah,

as though a bird should curse the air,

you know,

or,

uh,

it's a little hyper poem.

Not gonna remember it.

Um,

or fish compare the ocean to a grave.

The mighty,

the ant lifting his mighty voice and ranking against the earth with pride obsessed.

Infants rail against the breast.

this idea of a creature casting aspersions on its creator it's an offense against the holy god

and it's not safe it's not wise it's not humble and i think it was kind of framed it was framed

as humility because we've gotten the attack from the ascended atheists who say oh this christianity

it's so exclusive it's so it's so presumptuous like who are you to presume that your love's right

all the thousands of gods you know that yours is right and we go oh let's let's use reason now

we kind of reverted to to reason and doubt is in the realm

okay asking while doubting if we'll ask in 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

so asking while doubting it's a subtle smear against god we don't think about that we think of it as

maybe intellectual honesty that's how i framed it college years you know like if i really believe

it it could probably stand up to the script you know and it can't um but there's a way of holding

ourselves above god to um assess him and putting god in the dock as the witness us being the judge

that god resists the proud and he only gives grace to the humble he doesn't give grace to the one

pointing their bony finger of accusation at him doesn't work not how he dispenses grace

um and asking while doubting is this two-minded idea um it's a subtle smear against god it's an

accusation that either he's not generous or that he's not capable maybe even that he doesn't exist so

um it's not intellectual honesty it's not this um liberal

um idea of no partiality in the marketplace of ideas so i remember like parents being told that

don't push christianity on your kid christian parents being told not to push christianity for kids because

it would like they have to they have to get it for themselves and and the way that

families work and that cultures work and that faith works is faith comes by hearing and hearing by

the word and yeah if they're not hearing it's not going to work so yeah this idea of

asking while doubting this two-minded this two-minded reality as being a smear like it's it's saying

lies about god it's believing lies about god and it's acting as though god is not trustworthy and

capable and willing to be good to his children but let not that man suppose that he will receive

anything from the lord yeah god hates that kind of pride uh he opposes the proud gives grace to the

humble james 4 6 we'll see that in a few weeks so god opposes the prophet gives grace to the humble

submit yourselves therefore to god resist the devil he will flee from you so there's two masters and

when we are double-minded we are playing with both masters and that does not work

you cannot serve two masters no man can serve two masters here you will love the one and meet the

other and be devoted to one despite the lord you can't serve god and money you can't serve god and

um the devil obviously okay let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the lord

he is a double-minded man this is a thought this double-mindedness shows up again and again through

james it's a really helpful category to have um the greek word for double-minded is di suko so cite me

two souls two minded so suke can mean soul life self mind heart interbeing it's a divided self it's a divided

mind it's a two two to face it and two minded about things and that's an unstable way to be

um one foot on reality and one foot on air is it's gonna move you from that foot on reality

um that instability will be like it'll be driven and tossed by the winds

so deep suko is a divided spirit or divided mind double-minded and contrast that with a single

minded devotion that james was um talking about as a servant of christ like he has one master and

he lives to do his will and there's a single unified devotion to christ and there's no division there's no

two-facedness or two-mindedness about it so let not that man suppose that he will receive anything

from the lord he's a double-minded man unstable in all his ways yeah matthew 6 24 says no one can serve

two masters luke 9 54 to 55 and when the disciples james and john saw it they said lord do you want us to

tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them um people were not accepting jesus and samaria i think it

was and then some manuscripts add that jesus said you do not know what manner of spirit you are of

so these were his disciples but they had another spirit that they were of um and that possible

remember um oh here this is cool i never saw this connection here so revelation 13 13 it's talking about

the beast and then there's a second beast that comes i forget if he's the false prophet or the antichrist

what but the second beast performs great signs in revelation 13 13 even making fire down from heaven

to earth so to consume people um in front of people and by the signs that he is allowed to work

in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth so there's there's something about

the enemy like there's an enemy power at work in james and john these are two of the inner circles jesus

three dominants and they were of another spirit you know um at that moment and so that kind of

double-mindedness can unstabilize a person and jesus was kind enough to call it out he he rebuked them

he's a double-minded man unstable in all his ways we're going to see this in a couple different spots

here as we go okay now we get to a section about uh the let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation

and the rich in his humiliation so we see a going down and a coming up um and it's thinking about it in

gospel terms

the lowly brother can glory in his exaltation and he's encouraged like don't identify yourself as poor

do you have christ um then you are rich indeed uh don't divide yourself that way as the you and then

the you without christ the you in christ and you without christ you can't divide yourself two ways

like that you're either in christ and it's a you in christ or it's a you without christ there's no two

news anymore you're a new man when you're in christ and there is no old man um as your core identity we

still drag them around we still got flesh we still live in the world um but we're that's not who we are

at our at our deepest and we we have this dyed suitcase that was double-minded um schizophrenia that we

fall into and we forget every morning we forget and we got to put that thing to death we need to

we need to consider ourselves alive to god and dead to self and uh it doesn't happen automatically it

takes a reckoning it takes the act of the will to put that thing to death don't identify yourself as

poor do you have christ don't divide yourself that way you without christ does not exist anymore you are

seated with christ in the heavenly places do you know who you are child of god like let the lowly brother

glory in his exaltation there's a way in which we're all lowly i mean that's that's how most people

probably self-devent about if you ask somebody if they're rich like few even rich people i'll say

yeah right no like but then on the other hand like zoom out any amount of time in world world history

with the richest people you've ever met like you just have two cars

um count the number of television in your house like television and see what things so far tell us

sorry um

the we are rich ephesians 2 4 through 9 but god being rich in mercy because of the great love with which

he loved us even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with christ by grace you have

been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in christ jesus

we're in christ we're with him where he is that's father's right hand we're in him like what jesus gets

we get we're if we're in him like there's there's no when he looks at us he doesn't see adam without

christ that person doesn't exist anymore it's adam in christ and he looks at christ and he imputes all

of christ's righteousness to me takes all of my sin says paid by my son's blood you're in him

you're flowing through his veins i don't know if that's right strike that maybe um metaphorically

possible so verse 7 ephesians 2 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches

of his grace in kindness towards us in christ there's an us in christ and if you look carefully

it's always an us in christ if there's any good for by grace you have been saved through faith this is

not your own doing it is the gift of god not a result of works so that no one may boast okay and

god really really hates boasting and james really hates boasting and paul really hates boasting everybody

who has the mind of christ should hate boasting um so we got this idea of the poor glory in his

exaltation but there's also a flip side to that but the rich in his humiliation because as a flower of the

field he's going to pass away like like we're a vapor um james 4 14 um what is your life it's a vapor

that appears for a little time and it vanishes away so don't even say um today or tomorrow we will go to

such and such a city for a year there buy sell make profit you don't even know what tomorrow

what could happen tomorrow what's your life you're a vapor you're a vapor zoom out at all in history

with the lord a thousand years it's like a game it's like it's it's nothing like our lives

in retrospect from eternity looking at us it's a vapor it vanishes it's a breath

how fast does the breath despertage on a cold day your vapor

for no sooner has the sun risen with its burning heat than it withers the grass flower falls and

it's a beautiful appearance perishes so the rich man also will fade away in his pursuit

so i think as a flip side to the poor exalting in his exaltation or glorying in his exaltation the

rich man's also allowed to glory in his humiliation um oh great you're rich are you poor in spirit

like is your richness keeping you from realizing how poor you really are um and you might miss out

on the true riches of the kingdom of god an eternal richness that you can enjoy forever richer than

anything you've imagined um matthew 5 3 the beatitude um blessed are the poor in

spirit for theirs is the kingdom of god what else could we have what else could you ask for like

the kingdom of god god's kingdom it's yours it's yours in christ

that's riches don't let your riches keep you from that and that's what the rich man is told to glory

it's humiliation there's a going down so the poor can't lift their eyes up to see what is theirs in

christ like that that's the that's the poor man's challenge that's their temptation that they can't even

lift up their eyes to see what's theirs in christ so they want to bring christ down to their level

um and the rich can't see themselves debased to need the kind of grace that would send them down

into an ignoble grave the grave of the slain savior and be united with him in a death like his like

that's that's the rich man's temptation to not go down as far as we need to go down and james was saying

you up there christ be in christ be buried with him in death go down he's saying to the poor man who feels

down do you come up into christ it's christ it's not you um

let's see romans 10 6 through 8. oh this is this was interesting i don't know that i have a ton of

time to get into it but i'm gonna try do you not know oh but the righteousness based on faith says

do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven that is to bring christ down i think that's

that's the poor man's temptation is to say what can i go up to heaven like can i be as perfect as

christ can i be as rich as christ and then so there's a temptation to bring christ down and the

righteousness based on faith says do not say that in your heart or also don't say who descended in the

abyss and i think that's the rich man's temptation that is to keep christ out of the grave um from out of

going down into death with christ in him being buried with him um that's just a thought so

and so romans 6 verses 3 to 11. let's look at that

Romans 6:3–11

okay all right well then i'm just gonna wrap up um

um yeah this two minds this idea of two-mindedness you'll see it over and over you see it in james and

john when they're trying to fall down fire on their enemies during christ's years of mystery when he's

with them they ask if they can do that i'm like no no um and then like uh peter he's trying to keep

christ from going to the cross he's got a natural mind about it he's got doesn't have the line of christ

and jesus says get behind me say do not know what makes what they say you know what makes for peace

hey set your mind on the interest in there rather than which god and he didn't see what was going on

didn't have the mind of christ about even christ and this crucifixion so he had a better idea and he

said no so there's two minds that work often and you get in trouble when that happens it's a psychosis

it's a deep soup the divided mind divided heart divided soul um that we gotta wage war against and

let's go to the very end here verse 12 blessed is the man who endures temptation so this kind of

wraps it all up for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which the lord has

promised to those who love him so you're blessed this is a beatitude so not only matthew not only

jesus does it and in matthew but here we have a beatitude happy are you blessed are you um blessed

is the man who endures temptation for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which

the lord has promised to those who love him and we get that by counting it all joy face trials various

kinds knowing knowing that the testing of our faith produces patience and letting patience have its

perfect work its intended end its telos its appropriate consummation goal that we may be perfect and

complete lacking nothing having everything we need but when we lack wisdom if anybody lacks wisdom we can ask

boldly of god knowing that he gives to all liberally without reproach and it will be given to him because

he's the giving god but we got to ask in faith and nothing room for doubting and put that to death um it

it tells lies about god and it slanders his his good his good character um for you doubts it's like a wave of

the sea driven and tossed by women and we can't afford to eat your lunch um let not that man suppose that

he will receive anything from the lord he is a double-minded man divided soul unstable in all his ways

and then let everybody rich and poor find themselves in christ that will have a exalting work and a

lower work in each of us because we can each we can each identify with each of those and we need both of

those works to happen in us same time