Big Picture Theology - [James 1]

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. We start a new series this morning,

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Big Picture Theology, I've called it, and that is we're going to start going through a few books of the

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Bible, not verse by verse, but chapter by chapter. It's a wonderful thing to take a

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Bible and study it like we did in Hebrews with 129 messages, and just wring out every bit of gospel nutrition, that's a good thing to do.

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It's also good to stand back a little bit and see a survey, and watch the progression of salvation through books, and get kind of a big picture idea, and that's what we're going to do today.

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So if you take your Bibles and turn it to the book of James, the letter of James, the epistle of James, we're going to do a chapter every

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Sunday for five weeks to get kind of an overview. And I think what you'll probably end up doing is you'll say, you know what, you briefly went over a part of that, and I think

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I'd like to study it on my own to try to find a little bit more about that in the book of James.

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So that's a good thing. I encourage you to get a commentary or two on the book of James to dive as deep as you'd like to dive.

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Big picture theology, chapter by chapter, James chapter one today.

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You might be asking yourself the question, I wonder if he could actually do it. I want you to know that I did it at the first service.

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Remember years ago we did this with the book of Romans. We did 16 chapters, 16 weeks, to give you again the idea of an overview so that you might say, you know, what's the big picture here as God, the divine author, has progressed to his revelation.

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We start off even back in Genesis chapter three with this initial flicker of the hope of the gospel, and we see the great consummation in Revelation chapter 22.

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And where does James fit? What is he saying? Why is it important? James is a great book.

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You probably have turned to it regularly. It's punchy, right? He's very direct, and you would expect the leader of the

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Jerusalem church, the pastor, to be very direct. It is very persuasive.

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It's very convicting, and it just reads quickly because it's probably a sermon that was preached or several sermon extracts put together to be delivered in a very public fashion, in kind of a preaching fashion.

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And that's why when you read it, it feels like you're listening to a sermon. It seems like it. To use a biblical metaphor, one man said,

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James is quick and powerful, sharper than any two -edged sword. That's exactly how you'll see the book of James.

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Just a little bit of background, since it's in our first verse, James, a servant of God and of the

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Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes in the dispersion, greetings.

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Now, if you do your studying, you'll find out that different books in the New Testament were written at different times, and this was probably the earliest

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New Testament book written, probably in the mid -40s or something. It's the very first book, like in the

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Old Testament, probably Job was the first book written. Here we have James written. And this preacher, you can tell he's got kind of a way of preaching that he expects to be heard.

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He expects to be obeyed because he's declaring not his own words, not his own wisdom, but the very words of God himself.

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When you come to this book, you're going to feel like, you're going to sense, I'd like to have a nice outline, because after all, it's an epistle, it's a letter.

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And Paul, very easy to outline. Peter, pretty easy to outline. Hebrews, easy to outline.

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But with James, since he's preaching, do you see the text, to the 12 tribes in the dispersion, to Jews, he's going to have kind of a

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Jewish way to go about things. And a Jewish outline isn't really A, B, C, D. It's not kind of math stuff.

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It's a word that's literally a string of pearls. And so the way he preaches is one pearl after another.

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It's all in the same chain. They're related. They're not separate pearls, but it's one necklace, a bunch of pearls, all related as he's kind of telling this story.

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So if you understand the way he puts this together, it'll be easier for you because our tendency is to want to kind of do a

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Pauline outline. Some don't like James.

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Some will say, you know what? It doesn't seem to make sense to me because of chapter two.

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And we'll get into that a little bit later. Who is James? How many Jameses are there in the Bible? Well, quite a few.

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The word means Jacob. Why is he named James here? Or maybe he could have been named Jake for that matter.

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We don't really know. Could it be that King James desired to see his name in English? I'm not sure.

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But that is one of the ideas. Well, you say there's lots of Jameses in the Bible. Is this James, son of Zebedee?

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The one that was killed by Herod Agrippa? No. This was James, the half -brother of Jesus.

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Of course, Jesus was the firstborn, right? And he had Mary as his mother and Joseph with his stepfather.

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But now Joseph and Mary come together. They have a son. His name is James. And it's fascinating because when

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James was younger, he thought Jesus was out of his mind. You say, well, that's a little exaggeration.

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I think James was in Mark 3 when his family heard about this. They went to take charge of him.

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They had to make an intervention for Jesus. For they said, his family said, he's out of his mind.

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Who is this? John chapter 7, even his own brothers did not believe in him. Yet after Jesus dies on Calvary, is raised from the dead, he appears, it actually says in 1

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Corinthians 15, then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. So now we have

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James the just, the half -brother of Jesus, going to write an epistle for us.

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And what does he call himself? Notice the text. I'm the leader of the Jerusalem church.

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I'm a pillar of the church. I'm an apostle. I'm the Lord's brother. I was in the same womb as Jesus.

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Does he say that? No, but very much like his older brother, who made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, and found an appearance of a man, he humbled himself.

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James too, the half -brother of Jesus, simply calls himself a what? I'm a servant.

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I'm a servant of God. And of, look at the terms of deity and humanity here when we talk about Jesus.

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Lord Jesus Christ. He's the king of kings. He's truly human.

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And he's truly divine. He is the Messiah. And he writes to a bunch of people who are getting persecuted, who are going through trials.

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What happens when people get persecuted? They scatter, right? So you take a fruit, and you take your fist, and slam your hand down on that fruit, and everything just goes different directions, right?

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If it was a watermelon, you smash it, all the seeds fly. Do they still have seeds in watermelon?

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Okay, pomegranates, and they're dispersed. And so what do you tell these people who are suffering?

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James knew a lot about suffering. We'll talk about how he, his life ended maybe next week.

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So we come to the book of James. Very simple introduction. He says, greetings are joy, literally.

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And now before we dive into the rest of the chapter, I want to remind you of two simple things that if you get these things, you'll understand

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James. If you don't understand these two simple things, you might approach it from a legalistic fashion.

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You might approach it from a kind of a works fashion. Here's what I want you to understand about James. Very simple.

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The first thing I want you to understand is about law. And the second thing I want you to understand is canon.

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Law and canon. When you come to this book, you have to get your arms around law.

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Why? Because in 108 verses, there are 54 commands. Did you get that?

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108 verses, 54 commands. Every other verse essentially is a command. So how you perceive law is important because James is a book of law.

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Now, the reformers helped us and they had three functions of the law. The first function of the law was an unbeliever sees the law of God, which reflects the holy nature of God, his righteousness, his justice, his purity.

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And when you see the law as an unbeliever, and God requires in that law to love him, to love neighbor, you realize

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I'm undone. That mirror shows you I could never live up to the law. It shows you

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I'm a sinner and I need a savior. Augustine said the law bids us as we try to fulfill its requirements and become wearied in our weakness under it to know how to ask the help of grace.

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The first view of the law is to show you your sin. But James isn't using the law here to show unbelievers their sin.

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What's he doing? He's using the law and what we call the third use of the law to guide

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Christians. Remember, God for you, dear Christian, and the recipients of this letter is not a lawgiver and a judge in a courtroom where you're going to have your eternal destiny decided.

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No, no, that's already happened. Jesus has died for you. He's lived for you. He's been raised from you. You're a child of God.

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And so now you stand before God, not under the first use of the law, judge, do this perfectly or you're going to go to hell.

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No, now you stand underneath God's law that reflects his nature as a guide, as direction.

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Here's how a Christian lives. A Christian lives this way. That's how you understand the book of James when it comes to law.

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We don't have to obey this to say, say saved. We don't obey it to get saved.

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But because out of gratitude and honor, we obey. So that's the first thing I want you to be reminded of, because if you take this book and say, well, you know, these are all the tests.

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Do you measure up? That's the first use of the law. No, no. This is a dad who says to his children, this is what we did with our children when they went to Los Angeles.

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We have two simple rules for you when you go to college. Number one, we want you to go to Grace Church.

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Number two, no dating as a freshman. Why did I say that? Because I was a mean dad.

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No, I love them. Why did Kim and I say that? Because we knew what was best. And what if they would have went to another church on a

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Sunday? We would have kicked them out. Certainly out of the family. Yes. No, that would be the first use of the law.

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The third uses. This is a guide. We love you. We've always loved you. We're trying to help you. We know what's best.

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And so here's how you're guided. That's how you understand the book of James.

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Secondly, if you understand canon, law and canon. Okay, get this.

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This is, this is, I just, Steve knows. I love talking about this and, and regularly do. First book of the

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Bible in the New Testament written was James. Let's just say 45 AD. What happened earlier in 30

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AD? What happened in 33 AD? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, their accounts have happened.

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They haven't been written yet. They will be written, but they have occurred. Jesus has been on the earth and he has healed lepers.

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He's talked to centurions. He's made blind people see he's cast out demons.

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He's made bread for 10 ,000 people. He's walked on water. He's hushed the seas.

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He's raised Lazarus from the dead. He's washed disciples feet. He's died for sin sinners.

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He's been raised from the dead and all that's happened. The gospel of Jesus, the good news of Jesus, according to Matthew, the gospel of Jesus, according to Mark, Luke, and John, that's all happened.

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All the good news has happened. So now you can tell Christians are probably thinking to themselves. So how do

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I live in light of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus? That's the book of James. So the first book written helps

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Christians to learn how to live in light of Jesus, the Savior. That will help you because otherwise you come to the book of James and you go, no death of Jesus, no burial of Jesus, no resurrection of Jesus.

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Yes, he's called Lord here. Yes, he's called the glory in chapter two. God's called compassionate.

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Jesus is called the judge in five. But how do I live in light of my salvation? That's the book of James.

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So every one of these imperatives needs to be read in the shadow of the cross, in the shadow of the father who out of love for his son and love for his chosen bride sends the son to go and redeem them.

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This is how redeemed people live. You don't do this because you have to do it to stay in.

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You do it because you're in. So if you remember law, it's a guide. And you remember canon chronologically, where does it take place?

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Everything's open up. You'll never say like Luther did. This is a straw epistle. It just doesn't seem to make sense because there's no

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Jesus in it. Yes, Jesus is in it in the sense because you're living in light of that shadow.

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Does that make sense? Law and canon. So when we come to all these imperatives, you dear

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Christian should come and say to yourself, for every one of these things that I've ever disobeyed, Jesus has paid those in his body on the cross.

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He has borne the curse that I deserve at Calvary. No more satisfaction for my sins needs to be made.

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Jesus, the only way my sins can be taken care of. Jesus did that. He died for me.

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My old man with Jesus was crucified, slain, buried, dead. And now I'm raised in newness of life with the

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Lord Jesus Christ. I don't have to worry about anguish and torment in hell forever.

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I get to go to heaven. Jesus has earned that for me. His resurrection is my pledge of my resurrection.

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The judgment of God has been removed. The pleasure of God is now upon me because I'm in Christ Jesus. He's my advocate in heaven, interceding for me.

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And now I come to these laws and I'm free because I'm assured. Show me a

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Christian that's doubting their assurance and I'll show you somebody that's very tepid in their obedience. Show me somebody that knows for certain, while though I'm still sinful,

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I'm justified and I can obey God because I'm sure of my salvation. That's how you should look at the book of James.

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How do we outline chapter one homiletically for today?

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Super simple. We're going to talk about trials and tests in verses 2 through 18.

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And we're going to talk about how do we respond to the word verses 19 through 27.

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When Christians walk in light of the cross by faith, what's it look like? What do you tell suffering people?

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What do you tell Christians that are going through trials? James is going to say, this is how you're going to deal with the trials 2 to 18.

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This is how you're going to deal with the word 19 to 27. Both of these are in light of who

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Jesus is. How do my trials seem in light of the cross? And Jesus, the incarnate word talks,

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I would listen. How do I listen to the written word? That's the book of James.

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So let's take a look at how Christians face trials and temptations versus 2 through 18.

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If you are under the persuasion that 2 to 18 is a bunch of random proverbs not connected, don't forget about that pearl of wisdom, a string of pearls idea.

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And also you won't see this in your Bibles, but there's a lot of connecting words at the beginning of verses, putting all these words, all these verses rather together.

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So this whole section 2 to 18 has to do with trials, both external and then internal.

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And we call those internal trials temptations. Well, the first way Christians face trials found in verses 2 through 4, count it all joy.

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Since trials are inevitable, trials are inescapable. How should a

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Christian, a son or a daughter in Christ in light of the cross, how should he or she deal with them?

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And he says right away, count it all joy, my brother. I mean, out of the gate, you're kind of like, oh, you just gave your greeting.

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And then now this, count it all joy. It's like a bugle call right from the very beginning.

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In light of who Jesus is and what he's done for you, how can I assess a trial? Well, this is a different way than I used to do it before I was a

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Christian. Here he says, count it all joy. He says, I want you to use your mind, assess, think logically, think mathematically.

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Start using your mind and don't just say, well, I don't feel joy. I don't enjoy. No, no, you count it all joy with a deliberate evaluation, careful judgment.

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And you're knowing in light of who Jesus is. If the cross, the worst thing that could ever happen, the most heinous thing that could ever happen, a sinless person getting condemned.

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If you could take sin and make something good come out of it, that is our salvation. Then any trial, the same thing could happen.

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He doesn't say, well, I'm going to be a stoic person. I'll just be resigned to whatever happens.

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No, no, you're going to be surrounded by trials. You're going to be encountering trials.

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Just like with the good Samaritan. He fell into the hands of robbers.

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You're living your life. One day seems going well, all the things happening, everything's lining up.

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And out of nowhere, you're like, I didn't even get myself into this. It just came upon me like surrounded, like in a wagon train or something.

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All of a sudden there's enemies everywhere. I look, this could be persecution. This could be suffering.

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This could be afflictions. This could be accidents, death, criticism.

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It could be all kinds of trials, health finances. And he said, living in light of who

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Jesus is. You say to yourself, you know, I'm going to count this all joy. Why verse three, the

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Lord's doing something in you. He starts to work. He keeps working, knowing that the testing of your faith produces what?

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Endurance or steadfastness. He tests you for a reason, not to break you, but because he loves you.

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And he's working on your steadfastness and your maturity and your endurance. If God didn't spare his son, won't he freely give us all things with Christ Jesus, including he wants the saints to be mature.

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You have children and you want them to grow, don't you? You want them to mature, don't you? Of course.

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Many times the way they do it is through handling troubles and trials. God, in fact, does cause all things to work together for what?

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For good. This is part of that mental calculation to those who love him and those who are called according to his purpose.

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I've already got faith. Now he's strengthening faith. It's not a matter of, well, every time

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I, I, I admit a trial, I don't kind of all joy. How could I call myself a Christian? That's not it at all.

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God wants you to have a spiritual stamina and staying power. Like Job's perseverance in chapter five, second

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Corinthians four says for momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.

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Like, I just want to get out of this. I do too, but God's working verse four. Let endurance have its perfect result.

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Or let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.

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The idea is God's perfecting, maturing, growing, helping you to endure.

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And it's not just, well, you know, it's a three second deal on that'll work. Even athletes know it takes a lot of training to build up to something.

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And you sit down and you want to try to bench press, you know, 400 pounds. You don't start by just putting a bunch of, you know, you know, uh,

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I, I, I used to lift. I don't even know what to call it anymore. A bunch of 45s up there, 20 kgs and just line up like eight wheels on both sides.

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That's what I was looking for wheels. Cause I want you to, I want you to think I know what I'm talking about. You don't just start with 400 pounds.

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You start off, you know, and you've got like, you know, 25 pounds on each side. And it's, you know, you're trying to lift the weight and all of a sudden you learn and you grow.

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He doesn't want us to be infantile when it comes to our growth. He actually, that look at the text.

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He doesn't want us to lack in anything. When it comes to that, what good father would similarly because of that, he now says, besides count it joy, here's how

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Christians face trials and temptations. They also pray for wisdom. The context is trials.

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What do you do in a trial? God, get me out of it. No, you ask for wisdom.

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If any of you likes wisdom, that's a nice way of saying you lack wisdom. I lack wisdom and notice even the way he does it.

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Verse four, lacking in nothing. Now, if you lack wisdom, he's tying everything together.

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It's all related. We're in a trial. We don't know how to handle it. We're supposed to have joy. We know he's working in us.

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What do I do? God, I need wisdom. It's a present tense. I keep needing wisdom. Help me learn from this trial by giving me wisdom.

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Lord, I'm going through this ordained trial. I should pray.

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You know, when things are going great, you don't pray. But when you're in a trial, what happens? You pray more. What do you pray for?

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Like Solomon, he could have asked for anything, but it honored the Lord when he asked for discretion and wisdom.

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We need wisdom. It's important. I with you,

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I'm certain to all too often. We say we'll handle it on our own. We'll just get through it on our own.

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We won't cast our burdens on the Lord. We'll just do it ourselves. We have resources. We have credit cards.

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Yet wisdom is better than strength. Ecclesiastes. It's better than the weapons of war. Proverbs is more profitable than silver, more precious than rubies.

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Lord, I need wisdom. And what do you think God does? Well, you earn it.

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No, the text. He should ask God who gives generously.

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To all without approach, and it will be given to him. Can you imagine? You ask the

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Lord and he just gives. Everything's in light of who Jesus is and what he's done in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

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That's the God you're dealing with who didn't even hold his son. He, he sent his son and the son who didn't say, you know what?

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I don't know if I want to go do that. Gladly, freely went. One writer said in the physical realm,

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God never charges for anything. The sun, heat, nor the rain. He really is the giver of everything we eat and wear by disease or operation.

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We may lose a lung or a kidney or half of our liver and live with little apparent ill effect. Other organs such as gallbladder appendix tonsils may be still entirely moved and we get along.

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We may lose an eye and still see or an ear and still hear half of our teeth and still chew. This is true of most everything in nature.

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Half the blossoms on a tree may freeze and the tree will still bear a good crop of fruit.

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And that's just common grace that God gives and gives and gives. How about to his children that ask?

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Daddy, I need bread. Here's a stone. Remember that in Matthew chapter seven?

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No, that's not how God gives. He's good. Therefore, he gives generously freely.

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The word generously means simply out of generosity.

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No duplicity. Psalm 81, open your mouth and I will fill it, says the

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Lord God. God doesn't say, well, you know what? You asked me for wisdom in a trial like I ask.

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And you know what? I'm going to snub you. I'm going to humiliate you. I'm going to put my nose up and not answer your questions.

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I'm going to make sure I prayed all your sins in front of you again. And we're going to just really grind you to the ground.

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No, the Lord wants to help. He stands ready. Ask for wisdom. What a thrilling promise.

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Ask and it will be what? Given freely. You don't need to know

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Latin. You don't need to have incense. You don't need to go to the pastor. You freely go. You have an intermediary, the

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Lord Jesus Christ for six. Let him ask in faith without doubting. No doubting for the one who doubts is like the wave of a sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

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What language? You get that idea back and forth to and fro. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the

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Lord. He's a double -minded man, unstable in all his ways. As the surf and the waves and the sea of a storm are just all unstable, washing back and forth, fomenting, raging.

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The person that says, you know what? I'm going to ask the Lord for wisdom, but I don't really think he's going to give it to me.

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No, that's not how we do things. A father would teach a son. This is not what we do. The Lord doesn't give to that kind of person.

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Double -minded God wants single mindedness. And we need a proper perspective to, we counted all joy in trials.

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We pray for wisdom in trials and we keep a proper perspective in trials. This is not just randomly put here.

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Verses nine through 11 are in the context of trials. And you can imagine if you've got things and you're getting persecuted, you're going to lose them.

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And if you're rich now, you're poor. And if you're poor, you're even more poor. How do I analyze life if I'm losing things?

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You have a right perspective. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation. Think about his spiritual blessings.

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Even the poorest person on earth is rich in the heavenly places, is rich in heaven, is rich with all the graces in Christ Jesus and the rich in his humiliation.

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Don't trust your riches, rich person. Because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away.

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For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers with the grass. Its flower falls and its beauty perishes.

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So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuit. When there's humbling circumstances, you have to think the right way.

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And it's not about my resources on earth, whether I have a lot or I have a little. I have to think properly and in a heavenly perspective.

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And he gives you this great promise there, does he not? In verse 12, this great encouragement, blessing, the payoff, the promises of God are true.

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Blessed is the man. Certainly it's true for ladies as well and boys and girls who perseveres under trial.

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Of course, I think about the Lord Jesus immediately, but it's true for us as well. For once he's been approved, tested, he will receive the crown of life, which the

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Lord has promised to those who love him. The temporal blessings are yours.

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The eternal blessings are yours. Blessed, we've earned curses.

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We get blessings because we're God's children. In the old days, you got a crown for lots of reasons.

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When you were super full of joy, you got a crown when you were a king. You got a crown when you won the

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Olympic games and you got a crown when you had dignity and honor. And here, this is not a literal crown.

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It's the crown of what? Life, eternal life, eternal security. No matter what goes on in your life, you will persevere.

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You'll make it to the end and God gives you the crown of life. Even Jesus said in Revelation 2, be faithful even to the point of death and I will give you the crown of life.

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But I have internal temptations, not just external trials. What do I do with those? Well, I'll tell you what to do.

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Verses 13 through 18, never blame God for anything. Never blame

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God for anything. Verses 13 through 16, let no one say nobody.

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That's the idea. Firm. Don't you ever, ever say when you're tempted,

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I'm being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil.

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He himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desire.

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Then desire, when it's conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it's fully grown, brings forth death.

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And it's easy to be deceived. Therefore, he writes in verse 16, do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

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God, I'm in this temptation and I've fallen. And you could have kept me out of this.

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You could have given me enough strength to obey. You could have given me different parents. You could have given me a different spouse. You could have prevented me from marrying her.

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You could have given me more kids. You could have given me different kids. You could have given... And the list goes on and on and on.

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Blaming God for failure. And James says, in light of the cross, in light of who

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God is, in light of his kindness and mercy to you and full forgiveness, freely, you're going to blame

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God? Some people do it directly. Adam said, the woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit.

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I ate it. If you didn't give me that woman, I wouldn't have done it. But there's an indirect way of blaming

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God too. You know what? God's sovereign over all these things. And in his sovereignty,

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I'm going to somehow blame God. Don't do that. Look at his character.

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He cannot be tempted by evil. Remember, he's holy. He's good. He's the Lord. He doesn't tempt people.

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He's not baiting them to try to go and disobey. God is holy. He's just.

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He cannot tolerate wrong. His eyes are too pure to look on evil, Habakkuk 1 .13.

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Don't run around saying, you know what? You know what? I just don't feel good. I go, what if I had better health?

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What if I had this? What if I had that? What if I wasn't born with this kind of hereditary that makes me have this kind of temper?

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All these other things. I was going to say my Italian temper. But you can't talk that way anymore because you get canceled, right? We've all got tempers.

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Well, then who's to blame then when I'm in temptation and I fall? Answer verse 14.

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To quote my old professor, you made you do it. He was a professor of theology, not

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English. You made you do it. But each one is tempted when by his own evil desire. Unlike who

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God is, is dragged away and enticed. Amazing language by James. Dragged away like a lioness in her prey and enticed like bait.

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And you take a treble hook and you put some bait on it and you throw it out. And the fish sees the bait.

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It sees something good and tasty and it bites. And then after it bites that thing that looks visibly good and smells good.

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There's the hook to catch. That's the idea when it comes to sin. We don't blame other people.

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We take the blame. Yeah, but what about the Twinkie defense? And what about the environment? And what about I didn't feel good?

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And what about this? And what about that? I just can't take it anymore. I'm only human. Jesus said from within out of men's hearts come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.

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All of these evils come from God. May it never be from inside and make a man on the world hates personal responsibility and ownership.

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And therefore, we as Christians, in light of who Jesus is. And while we're getting persecuted, we might have a lot of blame on things.

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You know, Lord, I did that. I confess it. I acknowledge it. Confession means I agree with you,

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God. And then Proverbs 28 says for those people that forsake and confess, there's mercy to be found.

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I think it is fair to say at this point, every thing that glitters isn't gold.

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So be careful when you're tempted. Just because you're tempted, you've got a desire and you've got an opportunity.

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That's not sin. But when you act on that desire and opportunity, that's sin. And by the way, when you do, you think about conception and babies and all that.

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This births, but it births a death. Verse 15, after this kind of desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.

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What gross language. And when sin is fully grown, it brings forth death. Or as NES says, it gives birth to death.

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The wages of sin is death. So dear friends, don't be deceived. It's easy to be misled.

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Don't be duped. Make no mistake about the evil origin of sin.

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And by the way, if you think of God, what's he do? Is God associated with sin in any way, shape or form?

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I'll tell you what God does. Verses 17 to 18. Glad you asked. What does God do? Every good gift and perfect gift is from above.

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God gives good things, perfect things, not sullied things, evil things, sinful things coming down from the father of lights.

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We're talking about purity and holiness. Immutability. He never changes with whom there's no variation.

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He's not going to just be really good for a while and give you Jesus. And then later say, well, you know what? I'm going to change it up now.

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No variation shadow due to change. None of that. You want to know how good God is out of his own will, his own free will.

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What does God do on his own free will? He brought us forth. He makes us born again.

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The language of first Peter chapter one. He makes us, he causes us to be born again. You don't bury yourself.

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It's done to you. And here he says, I bear you forth. How? How do people get born again? By the word of truth.

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That we should be kind of the first fruits of his creatures. Generally, God's good.

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Don't blame him. Verse 17. Specifically, God's good. Don't blame him. He saves people. Every good giving and every perfect gift is from above.

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Comprehensive, inclusive, everything in between. God creates things and it's good. Perfect.

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Complete. Thomas Madden said he's originally good. Good of himself.

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Which nothing else is. For all creatures are good only by participation. But God is essentially good.

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Not only good, but goodness himself. The creature's good is super added in God. It is his essence.

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He is infinitely good. He is eternally good. He's immutably good. For he cannot be good.

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For he cannot be less good than he is. You're in a temptation. You might change, but God doesn't change.

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People think verses 17 and 18 might be a hymn. And if it's not, it probably should be. When we think about trials and temptations, let's make sure we have a right view of God, where he of his own works saves us with compassion and care.

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And he redemptively saves. Why would we blame him for sin?

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That's not of his character. The greatest gift we get is salvation. Not by participation.

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Not by cooperation. Not by dual giving. But God made us alive. No contribution from us except sin.

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Through the preached word. So the events of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that they've recorded about Jesus on earth have happened.

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From his birth to his ascension. Now these people scattered all around are getting persecuted.

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And they want to live in light of that. They want to live by faith. What do I do? Well, I need to handle trials rightly. Now found in verses 19 through 27.

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I need to respond to the word rightly. How do I deal with the word? Jesus handled temptations a certain way.

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I'd like to live in light of that. Now I would receive Jesus and his word from himself like James in fact did when he saw him raised from the dead.

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And Jesus appeared to James. Should Christians receive the word of God less than the word of Christ?

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No. So we want to see what James tells the brethren in verses 19 through 27.

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And it's simple. Receive the word and do the word. Receive the word and do the word.

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Verses 19 through 21. And by the way, if you read this whole section 19 through 27, you'll see the word, word, w -o -r -d, mentioned in verse 18, 21, 22, 23, and 25.

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That will help you with your interpretation because it's all about the word. And just like that string of pearls, he's using the word word for this entire section.

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Because if you don't know that, you'll come to this first section in verse 19, this first verse.

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Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear. Yep, that's right. Proverbs says, make sure you listen.

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True. But the context here about the word is make sure you listen to the word.

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When the word is preached, you listen to it. By the way, this congregation excels in this.

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A love for the word. Quick to listen. The context is to the word. Slow to speak.

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The context is with the word. He will say in James 3, will he not? Not everybody of you should be what?

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Teachers, right? Just don't get up and start teaching people without being trained. The context here in this section is all about the word.

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So he says, be quick to hear the word. Slow to speak the word. And slow to anger.

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What's he mean by slow to anger? Well, I don't know about you, but you ever heard a preacher preaching and you get mad?

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In the old days, I kind of liked what that one guy said. He'd say, if you preach a sermon and you're standing by there to greet people and they say,

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I really love that sermon. You were supposed to say to that person, oh, another sermon lost.

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But I've changed a little bit because, yes, I want you to feel the conviction. I'd like to respond better with trials.

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Lord, forgive me. That's the way I want to do it. And I want to respond better to the word. There's nothing wrong with conviction as long as afterwards you give them the balm of who you are in Christ Jesus.

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Don't become angry when it comes to the word. What should happen when the word is preached?

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I'm mad. No, no, because that doesn't produce, verse 20, the righteousness of God.

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So what do I do instead? Well, I need to deal with my sins so I can receive

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God's word. This is language similar to 1 Peter 2. Therefore, put away all filthiness, rampant wickedness, or I think,

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Bob, it says superfluity of naughtiness in the King James, does it not? If you ever want to know what superfluity of naughtiness is, it just means rampant wickedness.

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Just get rid of that and receive. Here's the key. Accept or receive with meekness the implanted word.

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You would receive the word from Jesus, would you not? So receive his word as well, which is able to save your souls, not only save eternally, but save sanctifyingly and save in a glorifying fashion.

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This is the word of God. It does its work. And therefore, when it comes to God's word, we want to receive it properly.

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But not only that, we don't want to just learn. I studied John Owen for lots of reasons because A, he promotes the glory of Jesus, and B, he wants to take intellectual

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Calvinism and intellectual high view of God and turn it into personal piety and not just say we learn all these high doctrines and it doesn't affect life.

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Same here. Receive the word. Learn the word. Accept the word. And now he says in verse 22, what?

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Do the word. Be doers of the word, not merely hearers only. And the rest of the whole chapter is talking about doing the word.

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Not just receiving, accepting, learning, but doing.

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He is not saying if you don't do the word, you're going to hell. Jesus did the word in your place.

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But he is saying as a Christian, this is what's good for you to do the word. To obey.

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Make sure you go to Grace Church and no dating when you're a freshman. Because I know what

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I'm talking about. I've lived life. And if I can give that wisdom as a 60 -year -old, frail, sinful man, what about the

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God of ages, the ancient of days? Does he not know how creatures should act? Of course.

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So he says, be doers of the word because you don't want to fall into the second category.

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And not hearers only deceiving yourself. It is fair to say, if you could care less about handling trials in a godly way, if you could care less about the

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Bible, less about Jesus, if you don't care about receiving God's word, doing God's word, then you ought to ask yourself the question, am

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I really a Christian? Because at the heart of it, you're just a hearer, an auditor deceiving yourself.

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You don't audit God's word. Because that's deception. And then he gives two illustrations.

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A negative one, a positive one. Here's the negative one. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, okay, we can tell that's the bad illustration.

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He's like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.

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So just imagine, man, you sneak over to your wife's mirror. It's this, it's like a 10 times magnification.

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And around the outside is that super intense halogen beam light that's there. Or maybe you own your own.

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And you look. And now my eyes are so bad, by the way, I have to use those kind of mirrors to say,

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I shave and I forget spots. I have to look and see. And you look and you see pockmarks and you see blemishes and you see smudges and you see sleep in your eye and you see all that stuff.

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You just look in and it's all bright and you're just checking yourself out. And then you take care of it, right?

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No, no, what's the check say? The word of God, you look at, you read, you examine, you study.

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And this guy, the wrong guy, the wrong way, he looks at himself and what? Goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

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Just this kind of cursory thing. I look at the Bible and I don't really care what it says. I know I probably should read it, but I just, no, no, that's just not the way we should do this.

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How should we do it? But the one who looks, look at what it says, into the perfect law, because it reflects

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God's perfect character. The law of liberty. What an amazing term for the law.

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What kind of law is liberty? The liberty that says, come unto me, all who are weary and heavy laden,

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I'll give you what? Rest and perseveres, being no here, but forgets, but a doer who acts, he'll be blessed in his doing.

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And then he ends the chapter with some practical doing. And he talks about the tongue.

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He talks about helping the needy. And he talks about the resistance of worldliness.

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All related to the word. Verse 26, if anyone thinks he's religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

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So it should affect the way we talk. And by the way, if you want to fall into the catchphrase world,

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I don't have a religion as a Christian. I have a relationship. I know what you mean, but you're not very accurate because it is in fact a relationship, but it's technically religion.

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And the Bible even speaks of it here. Not only should we watch out what we say, and we'll talk more about that in two weeks in chapter three.

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We minister to people religion that is pure and undefiled before God, not in front of other people, but before God himself, the father is this.

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And this is what many of you do. And I think about moving ministries. And I think about going to see Carol Jemison and other folks at the church.

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Think about what you did during COVID and caroling and a lot of other things to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.

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And then the last part of doing God's word that he gives in the midst of a bunch of people who are persecuted on the run.

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Can you imagine you're on the run? You're getting persecuted. Make sure you talk properly. Make sure you take care of other people, not just worried about yourself.

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And also something else could creep in. It could creep in to all of our worlds and regularly does.

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And keep oneself, look at the language, the world stains. So it says, keep oneself unstained from the world.

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That's what the world does is stain. And what the word does is help us to run from our abstain.

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James writes a letter and he says, I know who Jesus is because Jesus has made me alive again in Christ Jesus.

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And he has made me a believer in Christ Jesus. And God has commissioned

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James to then say, then how do Christians live? Not to get in, not to stay in, but because they're in, how do

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I live a life of gratitude to God? I live a life of gratitude to God by looking at trials and temptations the right way.

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And by looking at the word of God the right way. That's James chapter one. Let's look at chapter two next week.

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Bow with me if you would, please. Thank you, father, for your word. I'm thankful that we have this true mirror, this true perfect law, this true law of Liberty.

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We're just thankful that you want to be honored and blessed. And we want to do that as well.

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So would you give us power by your Holy spirit to deal with trials properly and to see your word like it should be seen.

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In Jesus name we pray. No Compromise Radio with pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.