In the previous sermon, we learned that trials are not a punishment from an angry God but a means through which God disciplines his legitimate (adopted) Children. We saw how trials are meant for our Joy and how this is not a conceptional thing but rather an experiential journey. No one should assume that being joyful in trials is a means of knowledge acquired in any means other than personal experience. God expects us to come to Him and ask for wisdom. This is what the Spirit of God gives, wisdom. No one should assume that this wisdom is based on mental fortitude. This is based on a realisation that you are not strong enough, not wise enough on your own means. This is what trials does. It pushes people to be God dependent. This is what God desires us to do. To be reliant on Him. James as we looked earlier points to Proverbs and the Old testament as much as possible as His primary audience is the Jewish Christians.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones. (Proverbs 3:5-8)
Today we will continue on the same section and read how we ought o live our lives. We will start with verse 9.
Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in humiliation ... This is often taught to point that richness is not mark of a Christian, but the verse does not say that per say. It say, let the rich person rejoice when he is brought down, let the poor person rejoice when he is brought up. Being rich and having influence in the society has its disadvantages. It is not the richness that would bring a rich man down but the nature that he would have developed to rely on his richness - that would bring someone down. You see, when trials comes, the poor man has no sleep, the rich man has no sleep, both stay sleepless in their beds. However after a while, the poor man begins to cry, the rich man turns Netflix on and writes an email to a person who he believes owes him something and goes to rest. Who sought God at the dead of night? This is why the Bible says that the rich man should be happy when he feels helpless as these are the precious moments that teach him to rely on God. Else he is carried away in his pursuit. This is the point here brothers. Trials are meant to point us to God. It has two purposes - 1. prove our faith, 2. strengthen our faith. Brothers do not lose this opportunity. They should not be seen as things to fear god but as mercy drops from God as he draws you closer.
Trials show us what the great writers say as "Perseverance of faith" - this is a hard statement for most to understand. We must realise that the words means that there will be delay in achieving the goal of faith - that is sanctification - being Holy in front of God. We who say that there is God who will keep us from falling must realise that Trials are the ones that grow us.
Romans 16:25, “Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel.” Second Timothy 1:12, “For the which cause I also suffer these things; nevertheless I’m not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed to Him against that day.” You remember that one? He’s able to keep what I’ve committed to Him. And what have I committed to Him? My soul. Second Timothy 4:18, “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work” – listen to this – “and will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen.” First Peter 1:5 says, “We are kept by the power of God.” Jude 1, “We are preserved in Jesus Christ,” and Jude 24, “Now to Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” – aren’t those wonderful scriptures?
But the Bible talks more on the same topic
Matthew 24:13, “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”
You say, “Well, what happens when someone doesn’t endure?” Very simple; 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us because they never were” – what – “of us.” They failed the test of genuine faith.
They are like the seeds that fell among the thrones. They died as they had no root.
Whenever trials come into your life or mine, they prove the genuineness of our faith by giving us opportunity to persevere, and having persevered, look back and say, “Yes, I know I belong to the Lord.”
This is why we rejoice and are commanded to rejoice in the times of Trials.
See the 12th verse, the purpose of trials as we saw last week has two purposes. We have to develop a joyful attitude, based on the knowledge of God, waiting on God to help us in the situation. This is the place we wait for Gods wisdom
1 Corinthians 10:13
“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”
Today we continue from there. vs 13
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
There are lessons that we need to learn from here. The word for trials, tests, and temptation is the same. We read them in English differently. This is a strange thing. We know and pray "lead us not into temptation". Does this mean that God would lead us into temptation? The verse clearly answers it. It says God does not lead us into temptation. God is not the devil. The devil is called the tempter. He is the one who deceives, he is the one who dresses as the angel of light and creates confusion for a believer. This is important my dear brothers to understand what this verse means.
For many years I would pray my fears only in mind as I was scared that the devil would use it against me. This later I realised was childish. Devil is not God, he is not everywhere. He is like a hunter laying his traps every where, and hoping to let good men fall. This is why we pray deliver us from the evil one. I know i am going on a tangent here, but it is necessary. The modern christian "likes" pictures that show "Jesus vs Devil arm wrestle" ... we believe that our sins and our temptations show who wins, and the moment we are tempted devil and Jesus are waiting to see who we love and when we fall Jesus lost the arm wrestle. Therefore we click "like if you want Jesus to win". On the other side there are Christians who don't believe there is work of devil. The balance is knowing this truth.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8
Brothers, we are not here to fight the battle that Christ has one over, but rather live a life dependant on His victory. Lets go back to the verse. We will see how this plays out.
The Bible says that let no one say that they are being tempted by God. This is a natural human behaviour. Little children often say "i not do this" ... the big politicians when caught in the act say "it was not on purpose ... the woman came to me, I am innocent" With the recent scandals that caught the Christian mainline across the board we have people saying that they are innocent and were put in dangerous situations.
There is a reason why this happens but that is not a primary concern for this meeting. Simply said, there is lack of discipleship at Churches. With people having a number of options esp with zoom, people are attending a number of Churches and having the feel of holiness and being in "ministry" without having to bear the pain for it. I understand it clearly, I was under two men at a certain point in my life. When one would discipline me and order me to make my ways straight, i would go to the other one. Brothers, you are not called to a ministry or a type of ministry but rather to Christ. You are called to one person only, your ministry and your service are extensions of you being part of the family. Would you not set a chair down if someone came to your house? Would you call that your ministry? This is a mistake many make. Leaders in churches, no leaders in churches need to be part of a single church and be able to be accountable in them. Its is why churches exists.
Look at Adam, he said "the woman you gave", Eve said "the serpent you made", and if the serpent was also like Adam and Eve "innocent" it would have said "this tree you made". This is what James tell us - it is our desires that cause us to sin. John MacArthur says it more clearly, that we should not say God is neither the direct tempter nor the indirect tempter. God is not responsible for the sin. God id Holy, and in him there is no evil. Can God then do evil or cause sin? No he cannot.
Are desires bad? Should we not desire anything? Look at the story of the first temptation
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Gen 3:6
There was the desire in the woman to be wise. There was the place the woman wanted to be able to be like God (Gen 3:5), they wanted to be wise.
Proverbs 3:7 Be not wise in your own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
1 Corinthians 3:18-20 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise...
The issue with Eve was not that she desired, but the desire was brooding in her. I am not sure that this was a spur of moment thing, but a much calculated action. Eve knew it was wrong to go it and she ate it knowing it was sinful, Adam seeing his wife sin wanted to take pleasure in the sin. He too knew it was wrong to sin and that is why he was guilty later.
James warns us not to be foolish by pretending that we are wise. Let me tell you some examples of fools, there were so many sins that I was hiding in my heart and by not being rooted and wanting others to know these sins I dwelt deeper in my sins. This caused sins to be stronger and stronger and then harder to be broken. We all know simple stories that say that creepers not cut at the right time will grow into a hard thing. But you and I are scared to expose our lives because we want to remain wise in our own eyes and others. So we run, run to many people as much as possible so that no one knows everything about us and everyone knows something about us just enough to fake it.
Look at David, David was going into battle, and He desired victory, he dwelt too much on the strategy wanting to win the battle. So (2 Sam 24:1-17) David took a census of all men who were going to fight. There was nothing wrong in desiring the victory, but David wanted to ensure that it was his amazing strategy that caused the win. So he sinned on purpose, by taking the census of God's army. Was David not aware of Gideon? Yes he was, how many people defeated 10000? 300. What was wrong with David's desire?
And David said to the Lord, l“I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.” (2 Sam 24:10)
David too considered that the battle was something that He had to win with his cleaver tactics.
See the verse we are looking today. Its our desires -- the devil just puts a trap and waits ... we desiring evil more than good steps into it. Then we blame God or the devil. No it is your desire. This desire is bad because it was placed on your heart above everything else. In Romans 7, Paul says I do not do what I want to do and do the thing what i hate to do. I am such a fool and a wretch, I am unable to bring my body into order.
Our desire that is not rooted in God becomes our deception. We like Eve want to be wise, but not wait for God (remember we just finished talking last week about patience), and therefore she was able to convince herself that this is just a one time thing and if the circumstances were another, she would not sin. Adam too thought one fruit cannot hurt. The story from the past has not changed. You and I are none the wiser. We see something good and shiny, we begin to justify the act even before we sin.
Let me give an example, lets assume that there is a chocolate cake in my fridge, and i am awake late at night. I can go back to sleep, drink water or open the fridge. I open the fridge after convincing myself 10 minutes that I am a strong and brave person who loves his diet. And then close the door drink water and go back to bed. I close my eyes and then think, there was a corner of the cake where there was too much cream. I must at once wipe it off and shape the cake. At 2 am I open the fridge and set the cake and then realise i can lick the spoon, you know where i am going with this. In the end, my wife finds the fridge empty of cake and a fatter husband. This has happened too often for me. The idea was to make the cake look pretty, but in my mind by the time i open the fridge the entire idea of eating the cake was conceived.
This is what James is saying, we desire a good thing perhaps, help a poor believer - I had a bad experience where one woman called me for mental support and prayer at 11 pm. I had just come to faith and I realised that her questions had been too private and it was the wrong person and at the wrong hour of the day. I enjoyed sharing and praying together, but the second day God's Spirit convinced me of my path. I called an elder woman at the church, got her number and forwarded it to this woman who called me. I am weak. I will sin with this woman and then I would blame God for giving me a pastoral heart.
Sin too is like that, we desire a good thing, but then this desire is wrapped in our wisdom and we love ourselves more than God. This desire will be fed by my lust for power, or fame or acceptance or what not. See the verse, it says lured - like how we fish, a tiny worm in the midst of the sea is enough for the biggest of fishes. This desire becomes trapped in our pride, our knowledge of things, our wisdom we hold on to and then James say impregnates us. We then carry this sin for a while in our heart, not wanting others to know our failures getting it big and big - yet there is no action of sin. We have not committed the sin. The sin is still within us. This then bears its fruit. The action of sin. We are shamed. We cannot face the public. But then no one knows. That is good right? In many cases the first time someone sins, no one knows.
Then this sin grows up, we feed it more, we raise this sin under a blanket of pride. We build a wall around our sin. We call it our private life. We hide the sin with anger, or find it offensive that others ask about it. We tell things like "how dare you assume" or "if you were in my situation you would have also " ... brothers the issue is same, this sin will kill you. It is a monster that you are raising and it will kill you one day. This is what James says this monster will bring death.
“Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.”
― John Owen, The Mortification of Sin
Mortify : means to subdue
James will later say (4:7)
“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.
Why does God help the humble? The reason is simple. Only the humble will seek for wisdom.
This is why it is said in Romans 8:13 - For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Remember the weapon to kill death - it it human will? no it is not - human will is still in the flesh. This is why Paul says in the last chapter (7), I am unable to kill sin in flesh. This is why you need to pray for the Holy Spirit. It is the wisdom that the Holy Spirit gives you that will save you.
This is the perfect gift that God gives you. Seek and ask for this wisdom.
Comments