The value in the testing of your faith. pt 1
James 1:9-12 · Andrew Molloy · Feb 12, 2023
James, No. 05
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261930122565

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So we're in James chapter 1, verses 9 through 12. Let me read the first eight verses of what we've covered so far in James. James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the 12 tribes who are dispersed abroad, greetings. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind."

Verse 7. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all of his ways. So let's review what we've covered so far from Bob and Roger. You know, Bob's class last week, he dealt with wisdom and Roger was the week before that.

So James commands that diverse trials are thought to, are to be thought as joyous. Merriman calls these diverse trials, these diverse pirosmos trials is stressors of life. Life stressors are just things that happen and they're external and they come at you. Macaulay said they're like, it's like bees kind of swarming around your head or maybe ants, you know, these little stressors of life. For the reason that God is using it, we're supposed to have joy for the reason that God is using these stresses as tests, stress tests, if you will. came up with that, I think it'll hold water. Stress test of your faith, the dokimas, is approval of your faith. But he's trying to make your faith stronger in these trials. They're specifically designed by him to bring out about a goal, which is the Greek word telios. The goal is completeness in Christ, maturity.

The ability to view all the incoming Prosmas trials from divine viewpoint. And last week, Bob covered that point really well. He had a section in there. Constable from last week said that God will help us take his view of the trials if we ask him to do so. The testing. brings us along in being able to endure the trials, endure under them. Merriman describes that hubomone as positive steadfastness in holding up under the trial. I like that, positive steadfastness.

Then if we lack wisdom, and Bob covered this a lot last week, if we lack wisdom, which is the ability to apply what we know of God's purposes in the trial, we simply pray for it and he will give it to us. And he promises to give it to us simply without reservation, without reproach, without reviling us. And simply means by just asking and we receive instead of being given a litany of fine print, like, you know, terms and conditions. If you sign up for insurance or a health plan or something, you get all these fine print conditions and restrictions. Well, God gives wisdom simply, just very simply without any reproach.

And reproach or reviling is when, and this is a good example. When you ever talk to someone and you say, you question them about You don't know something and they say, you don't know that? Oh, I can't believe you don't know that. And they kind of revile you for that or reproach you. And so that's in the human, we get that all the time here in the office. But yeah, it's just simply, and without that reproach, God doesn't do that. Even though you should know it, he lets that pass and he just gives it. But ask in simple faith, not vacillating.

And you're going to vacillate between human and divine viewpoint, the old man way of thinking versus the new man way of thinking. And you're vacillating like swells on the ocean, right? Tides on the ocean. Don't ask. being double-minded or vacillating, or he will withhold the wisdom. Macaulay and Bob also covered this last week, but double-minded is two-souled, or doupsikos, I think it's the Greek word, two-souled.

Okay, here's our verses for today, nine through 12. But let the brother of humble circumstances, but the brother, of humble circumstances, is to glory in his high position. And the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass, and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed. So too the rich man, in the midst of his pursuits, will fade away. Verse 12.

Blessed is a man who preserves under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Okay, so verse nine, the brother is to glory in his humble circumstances, in his high position. Well, he has, let me state, he has, he's of humble circumstances, he's poor in life on this earth, But he's to glory in his high position.

And this is a command. It's an imperative command in the present tense. You know, do it now. It's in the middle voice. So we are to take action in this glorying in our high position. We're the agent of that glorying. And I have the word glory is doxa. It's estimating the magnificence of something, the value. So we are, this poor man is to recognize the magnificence of the value of his heavenly position.

And that's the high position. What is the high position? The word is cupsos, H-U-P-S-O-S. It's the same word as in Ephesians 3, 18 and 19, where Paul says that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. So there you have the answer. The high position is his surpassing position in Christ Jesus.

He has meager means here on earth, but he is to glory in that high position. Some more from Ephesians from two other verses, 2 7 and 3 8 are, so that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. And 3 8. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles, the unfathomable riches of Christ. And we have, who was that? Schaeffer, right? Who did the 33 things, the riches of Christ. So that's what this brother of humble circumstances is glorying in. We go on to verse 10, and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass, he will pass away.

So there's two trials going on here, and we're still in trials in these two verses. One is the life trials that being poor brings you. That's poor and wanting, that's a trial. To be, you know, living paycheck to paycheck or, you know, not being able to afford things, basic necessities of life. And then it's also a trial. Handling riches is a trial. Handling wealth is a trial. The rich man is to glory in his humiliation because just as being poor or lacking resources is a trial. So is having riches.

And here's a verse that really brings that up. 1 Timothy 6, 9 and 10. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation, and that temptation word is perosmos, and a snare, and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. And some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Yeah, Andrew, that's, boy, you look in our world today, people that gain riches quickly, boy, it never works out well, it seems like. Right, right. You know, Merriman had this statement, he said, boy, being rich I would like the Lord to give me that trial. It does seem very attractive. It does seem very attractive. You're right. But it is a trial.

I know some people here who, you know, 15, 20, 15 years ago, they were less rich than they were now. And their burdens seem to be lighter. They seem to be happier and happy go lucky. But now, Now they've got multiple houses and they fly privately. It's just, they have this sort of worry about them and this sort of, they're not as happy. I can notice it. It's like, wow. So that I think the burden of that kind of weighs maybe upon them, but it could not be that. It could be that their boys are growing up and now out of the house and They're kind of sad about that. Who knows? But you can kind of see it that people aren't always happy. They're sometimes miserable. And then as the verse says it, you can't take it with you, right? Right. Also, Vanya was reminding me about Paul.

No, Solomon. Was it Solomon? Solomon. Solomon also said that about, Lord, I don't want too rich. Both extremes, right? Was that Saul or Solomon? Yeah, Paul. No, but Solomon, remember he's up all night or whatever, worrying about this and that, and all his servants are asleep. There's some verses about that. They're all sleeping away. But he's up wandering in his palace, no sleep. He has too much to worry about.

And also Paul said, I don't want to be one extreme or the other extreme. Oh yeah, where did he say that? Yeah, I was trying to think of that too. Paul or Psalm? Yeah, he says, Lord, I don't want to be poor because I'll curse you. I don't want to be rich because I'll forget about you. Something like that. Oh, a psalm, you said. Well, is it a psalm or is it Paul? I think that's Paul. I thought it was Paul. Oh, is it Paul?

OK. OK. Well, we'll think of it. It'll come to us. Yeah, the Holy Spirit will. I thought I was going to say that. Whether you're rich or whether Uh, you want to be rich. I think one of the things is it takes your eyes off our Lord. And so you should get occupied with, I can spend that way all my life. I've been, I'm a workaholic. I'm ambitious. I've, you know, I've always wanted to make money.

So recently, I think, I mean, I want to follow the Lord more than anything now, but I, I look back on my life and it's that even when you're not rich, but you want to be rich, you're just, your eyes are on Man, they're not on the Lord. Yeah, right. Your eyes are on earthly circumstances And it's not that pursuing Rich and it's isn't it's not it's not a bad thing, but it just have your focus on on the Lord, it's because he uses ambition right in people to to create wealth and then they they can support other people. He has a lot of uses for people. Yeah.

And, and I just think, you know, from my own experience, it's like, well, you have to define rich, you know, if you always want, you know, if you think you want to be rich, well, then when do you, when are you rich? You know, you get, you can get in your trap of just always wanting, you know, and, and then you're never satisfied. You're never content and you just are always chasing Something. Yeah. Yeah.

And it says that in the verse, you know, that, that desire, um, it, it, it's the root of all sorts of evil, um, and that longing for it. And, um, you wander away from the faith just as that verse says. It just, yeah, it's a, and it's a, it's a trial. Let's wake my computer up here. Um, so, oh yeah, this point, um, as you can see this in verse 10, it said, uh, this, uh, and where is that? For the rich man is to glory in his humiliation because like flowering grass, he will pass away. Um, So the rich man is pursuing riches in verse 10 and the Timothy passage is wanting to get rich. It's the same lure, the same temptation there. And I don't think that my statement there is very clear. I'll have to look at that. It made sense at the time. But maybe I had more coffee when I read it, when I wrote that. So I'll look at that.

Here's a quote. from Adamson, and this was from in Constable's commentary, speaking of his friend, a poor Christian was the friend, a wealthy unbeliever remarked, when I die, I shall leave my riches. When he dies, he will go to his. And that wealthy It's wealthy unbeliever, but that could also be a believer, right? Who says, when I die, I shall leave my riches. When he dies, he will go to his, but hopefully that wealthy believer knows that he will go to his unfathomable riches in Christ, his inheritance, as Peter says, too, when he dies.

So I had these two, 10 and 11. got into these Old Testament passages, imagery, right? James goes into this proverbial language here in these two verses. And I thought, well, he kind of takes a, he kind of takes a path and goes down a little rabbit trail here. But then I thought about it and then I looked up the source of it and I don't think he, he is. So that's the question I had. Why does he use proverbial language here? And I came up with a few things.

First, as we remember, he's exhorting new Jewish believers and they've scattered from Jerusalem. And James was a leader of the assembly there in Jerusalem. And now that they're Jewish and they've scattered and they were so fresh from Judaism. into Christianity, that they knew what tribe they belonged to. You know, everyone, I'm a Levite. I'm from the tribe of Judah. I'm from the tribe of Ephraim. They all knew it.

And this was before the destruction of the temple in 70 AD where all those records got destroyed. So they were tribal people at this point. And I think this, it makes sense that James was written Maybe in the forties. So, you know, Christ had just died within the last decade or decade and a half.

So these, the Jews haven't moved away. You know, we don't have the doctrine of Paul who's, who have, who clarified a lot of things and that said that, you know, your, your time in Judaism is done and now you're a new creation to Christ. You know, and that's the mystery. He hasn't developed that mystery yet of Jews and Gentiles together in one body.

And so that's, I think, why James uses this language because they know, they instantly identify with this poetic language. And they would, and I'm making a guess here, but I think it's a good guess. They would recognize his words there as being Isaiah 40. I bet they had that memorized, because they heard it in, before they came to Christianity, they heard it in synagogue all the time. And many of them had scripture mnemorized. So this way of exhorting these Jewish believers, it sinks down into their soul.

And they're different peers than what Paul addressed, the Greeks, right? Jews like this imagery, they like, and Vern, Vern always brought this out, you know, the poetic language, the Hebrew poetry pattern creates these images in your mind and you're not to think of what it looks like, but what it means. He always said that about revelation. So I'm going to put up here. Isaiah 40, these are where this quote comes from. And you can see there in Isaiah 46, a voice calls out. Then he answered, what shall I call out?

All flesh is grass and its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. When the breath of the Lord blows upon it, surely people are grass. The grass withers and the flower flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever."

So he begins the Isaiah 40 as, comfort ye my people, says, our God speak kindly to Jerusalem and call out to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice is calling, clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness, make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up. And this is the millennial kingdom when he comes back to rule and reign on earth. Every mountain shall be made low and let the rough ground become plain and rugged territory or rugged terrain become a broad valley.

So I wrote down in the margins who says a lot of things about God. He's a comforter. His righteousness is talked about. His majesty, about how he's a king and you're supposed to make the road straight for the king when the king visits your town. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. Verse five. So glory revealed, and then he's eternal.

And I thought of Isaiah 40 when I was a lot, and it's this like, it's God's portfolio or his dossier. The whole chapter is just things that he's done and his wisdom and his power and his majesty, and it's just all in there. And it's in, this is, we're only going to look at 12 verses, but there's, I think, 31 verses. So a third of it, and he just goes, it's just a litany of things of his, of his power and his might.

So in the next page, in the following verses, we're going to look, that he calculates the dust of the earth by measure. So he knows the number of dust of the earth. We'll look at that. But so if you think about that, if he knows that number, does he know your trial? Does he have his mind on your things? And I think the answer is yes. You know, he goes on in verse nine here.

Get yourself up on high mountain, O Zion. Say to the cities of Judah, I'm kind of skipping around here. Behold your God. Behold, the Lord God will come with might. And so I wrote off in the margin there. He has all power with his arm ruling for him, his sovereignty. Behold, his reward is with him. He's a rewarder. and his recompense before him. And then verse 11 here in Isaiah 40, look at this. Like a shepherd, he will tend his flock. In his arms, he will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead the nursing ewes. So he's tenderhearted. He's a tenderhearted shepherd. He's a caregiver.

And that's parallel to Psalm 23, isn't it? So the Holy Spirit telling Isaiah the same thing that David had. And here is his creator who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand. And I took that to mean like the Pacific ocean, he can, from his viewpoint, it can be in the hollow of his hand. And he's marked off the heavens by the span and calculated the dust of the earth by measure. and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales.

So you see that it's just, and it, as I say, it goes, it goes on for another, uh, 20 verses. And so he, he plans all things. He engineers all things. He builds all things. So when James puts this in, uh, in verses nine and 10, I think he knew that those Jewish believers would go to that and then be comforted by Isaiah 40.

You know what I'm saying? So I hope I'm making that point kind of clear. Yeah. Well, that's great. Yeah. So this, all of our issues, it's just, he's got the, and there's that simple song, he's got the whole world in his hands, but that's kind of, You know, that's a nice little song, but Isaiah 40 gives you this detailed picture of everything he does. It's really amazing. So, so there you go.

Verses 9 and 10 in Isaiah 40. So on to verse 12 now, James 1, 12. Blessed is a man who preserves under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Oh, and I'd encourage everyone to read the whole Isaiah 40. And I'm gonna look for more of that because that's just, it's wonderful stuff.

So we have, blessed is the man who, and that is reminiscent, is it not, of the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter five. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth or the kingdom of God. And this is more of James lifting up these themes of Old Testament references. And in this case, a millennial kingdom reference into the minds of his Jewish audience. Because they're going to really identify with these things.

And the word blessed is makarios, is to make happy, or we says it's to make spiritually prosperous. And I added spiritually satisfied, perhaps, if that makes sense. So that man will be spiritually satisfied or a woman if, who preserves under trial and preserves it. And this is review for us is our word, cupomeno, being at home under a trial. And that trial is Parasmas. Or to maintain positive steadfastness, being under a trial, you'll be blessed.

For once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life. So that phrase for once he has been approved is Hoti Kinomai. And that translates out to because once he has been made, Ginnomai has been made, once he has been made documast, and the word for approved is documast, in faithfully abiding under the Parasmas trial, then what happens? This is the value of the documast testing, the approval process. And that is a real crown of life. And that's a, Our topic today said, you know, what is the value of testing? The value of testing. Here it is. It ends up as a crown of life. Is that current or future in Greek? It sounds in English like it's current. Yeah. Yeah. And I didn't look that as to what, if it's past, present, or even aorist, that's a good, you know, That's a good question.

I would say it's in the – you'll be approved after you respond in faith. You'd be approved right there. But that's a good question. I'll look that up. Well, I know we can think. You know, positionally, we're already approved, right? Yeah, right. That's true. So I believe our position is already approved. So we got to think about that. I'm not sure I have a great, you know, succinct answer here. Yeah, right. No, um, cause you wouldn't have to wait till you're with him in heaven. Right.

And you will be approved there, obviously, but down here, this, this approval process happens down here as well. Um, and has been approved. That's, um, uh, what in English, that's, uh, the perfect, isn't it? It could be perfect. That's, but that's a question.

I did not look that up. And we usually do that here in this class, don't we? It's okay, Andrew, don't worry about it. Well, I'll come back with the answer next week. Okay. Did you have a comment, Carolyn? Carolyn's here. Is she? Okay. I thought I heard her pipe in. So this crown of life comes from, is promised in Revelation. Where was that? Revelation two, right?

And this is Jesus Christ talking and to the angel of the church of Smyrna write, the first and the last who was dead and now has come to life says this, I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich. And the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested. That's our word per perazzo. You will be tested and you will have tribulation for 10 days. Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death. That's Revelation 2, 8 through 11.

So there's our crown of life. This crown of life is related to suffering and persecution. And this is something we'll receive. when we see him. It's probably one of the crowns that come through the Bema Seat Judgment. Would you say that, Roger? I'm sorry, I was thinking about the verb tense. Sorry, I got off track here. This is one of the crowns that will be casting before the throne in the eternity future, which is a neat thing.

But look at this Revelation 2, look at the sort of parallel to this verse in James 1.12. I know your tribulation and your poverty, like this man who was in verse nine, I'm sorry, verse nine of James chapter one. I know your poverty. But he said, but you are rich. And what do you think that is?

That's probably the same riches in Christ, right? That these people who Jesus talks to in Smyrna, they're very poor. They're probably scattered, but they have riches in Christ. And so it's very parallel to James 1. Nine are our poor men that we've been talking to. And I thought that was kind of an interesting parallel there. So let's look at the question.

What is this crown of life? Eternal life. Any thoughts to that? Or what is it? Well, this is a connection with trials. I mean, these are believers, so they already have eternal life because they're a believer, right? So, I don't know. Yeah, because when I read it, I always thought of it as eternal, like, if you're faithful until death, I will give you the crown of life. And your mind immediately goes to, well, a crown of eternal life. And that's a great crown. because it has life in there, you always think, right.

Or sometimes it's called the martyr's crown is another word for it. It's a martyr's crown is what I've seen it being referenced as. But there's some commentators brought out some, some good points. And the answer is no, it's, it's not, it's not, it's a reward. It's a Stephanos. It's a, One of those crowns that you give to a victorious athlete after the Olympic games or something. Stephanos is the word.

So here's a question. Eternal life is a blank. Anyone want to fill in that blank? It's a gift. Yes. Yeah, Kathy, you're correct that eternal life is a gift, something that you just get for believing. Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

And then of course we know about John 3.16, whosoever believes in him shall have eternal life. I was done right there anyway. Okay, so just summarize Crown of Life again for us. Oh, where did I leave you off?

So it's a Stefana. You're thinking it's basically a reward, right? Yeah. So it's a Stefanos. That's a crown re-awarded to a victorious athlete in Greek dreams at a bima ceremony that they had. And then I asked, eternal life is a blank. And Kathy came up with, it's a gift. Absolutely.

Amen. Right. So yeah, you don't get... We don't work for eternal life. Right. Yeah. It's just, I always think of it as like the consolation prize. Yeah. Well, stay tuned. Stay tuned to the main service. We're going to be talking about that a lot. Okay, good.

Yeah. And then I had Romans 6, 23, you know, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. And then we ended, but we lost, and my internet went, it switched to another network. Well, that worked out well then. Yeah. Let me, uh, how are you doing on time? We're done. Well, we're just about done. So yeah, we'll pray for you. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this lesson in James and trials and tribulation and suffering and being approved by you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.