FAITH WORKS JOYFULLY
JAMES 1:1- 4 - PAGE 1
FAITH WORKS JOYFULLY, PM
3/24/02
FAITH WORKS #1 – STUDIES IN
JAMES
Faith works!
·
If you have faith in a chair
you sit on it.
·
If you have faith in a car
you drive it or ride in it.
·
If you have faith in a
computer you use it.
·
If you have faith in your
parents at a young age you do what they say.
·
If you have faith in a
friend you will ask for help.
·
If you have faith in a
friend you will follow advice.
·
If you have faith in God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit you will do as they say!
·
If you have faith in God you
will follow His leading.
Faith works!
There is a time to have
faith and do nothing. When we trust
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, our salvation is not based on our works but on
our faith. Romans 5:1, Ephesians 2:8-9
I could do nothing to save
myself. Salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone.
Faith is to be maintained
after salvation. Hebrews 11:6
Many people have made a
profession in Christ as their Savior.
They believed in their head that Christ died for their sins, but they
did not believe in their heart. They
didn’t grasp in their heart that Jesus was their only hope for salvation. For
when one truly comes to Christ as Savior change takes place.
2 Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore if any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold,
all things are become new.
The new creature in Christ
is a changed person.
The new creature in Christ
is working out his own salvation.
He is proving that He is
saved by his faith and his works. Philippians 2:12-13
All this brings to a very
practical book of the Bible, the Book of James.
The theme of James is “Faith Works”. The theme is best summed up in
James 2:17-18.
James 2:17-18 - Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. [18] Yea, a man may say, Thou
hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith
without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by
my works.
The Book of James is loaded
with things we should be doing by faith.
It is a book of activity, a book of works, but these works are never to
be done apart from faith.
By the second verse of his
Epistle James is telling us of works we should do by faith. In James 1:2-4 we
learn that FAITH WORKS JOYFULLY.
We’ll talk more about that
in a minute, but first, some background on the book of James.
Vs. 1 – The New Testament epistles were written on scrolls. It made sense that the name of the person
writing would appear at the top of the scroll, so one did not have to unroll
the whole thing just to see who was writing. So the first thing we see in the
Epistle is the name of the human author, James. There are a few named James in
Scripture.
There was James, the brother
of the Apostle John, one of the two sons of Zebedee. He was the first Apostle
to be martyred. He was executed by Herod.
There was James the Son of
There was James, the father
of Judas. This was not Judas Iscariot, but another one of the twelve.
Then there was James, the
Brother of our Lord, the son of Mary and Joseph. When we say he was the Lord’s
brother, of course, we mean half-brother.
Jesus, of course, was the son of Mary, but conceived by the Holy Spirit.
During the early ministry of
our Lord James was evidently not a believer.
But after the resurrection of Christ, we know that he was a believer. 1
Corinthians 15 tells us that one of the appearances of the risen Lord was to
James.
Paul called James a “pillar”
in the early church in
Evidently he was the leader
of that early church.
We believe that it was this
James, this prominent man in the early church, who had to but use his first
name to be recognized.
James goes on in his
introduction to describe himself. If you or I were writing we might say,
“James, brother of our Lord”. We might
want to rub it in a little. We might want to give ourselves a little credit. We
might want to make it so others are more willing to listen because they are
impressed with our identity.
But this is not what James
did. James calls himself a servant.
To James there was no higher
honor than being a servant to the one who purchased for him eternal life. Do
you feel this way?
The word servant was the
common Greek term for slave, or bondservant, “one who is in a permanent
servitude to another.”
Someone has said that this
term servant emphasizes “The supreme and absolute authority of the master and
the entire submission of the slave.”
Next James says that He is
the servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. We hear a lot of references to just “Jesus”
today. But when we are addressing Him, we should recognize Him for who he is:
LORD – Master
JESUS – Saviour
CHRIST – Messiah, the
anointed one, the King of Kings and
Lord of Lords.
Who is James writing to? He
is writing to “the twelve tribes scattered abroad”. Another term is the “dispersion”. There were
Jewish people living all over the
But James must have in mind
those of the twelve tribes who knew Jesus Christ as Savior. James was writing
to the Jewish Christians of His day. James was probably the first epistle to be
written.
Obviously these Jewish
believers were having troubles, probably being persecuted for their faith. If there is one thing we can count on it’s
that we are going to have troubles as well.
Job 5:7 - Yet man is born unto trouble,
as the sparks fly upward.
Trouble is unavoidable. No
matter who you are, what position you have in life, or how wealthy you are, you
will still face trouble in many ways, shapes, and forms.
Being a Christian does not
excuse us from trouble, but being a Christian means that my way of handling
trouble should be different from the way those who don’t know the Lord handle
trouble.
In James 1:2-4 James tells
us how faith works in trials or troubles.
ATTITUDE TOWARD TRIALS – Vs.
2
“My brethren” – This is a
reminder that James is talking to fellow believers. He is talking to those who
had the same faith as he, the same salvation that he had through His faith in
Christ.
James then says “Count it
all joy”.
This should be my response
to the difficulties I face.
I am to count it, or command
it joy.
Note that I will not
necessarily see my troubles as something nice, or enjoyable, but I am to coat
that trial with a joy which only the Lord can give.
And further, I am to count
it all joy.
Most of us take some things
better than others.
Perhaps you can take poverty
better than others.
Perhaps you can take family
problems better than others.
Perhaps you can take illness
better than others.
But James is saying to take
it all with joy.
Command it all joy!
The next word here is
“when”.
Unfortunately Christian, the
word is not “if”.
There is nothing uncertain
about trouble in the Christian life.
You are going to face it.
You are going to fall into
troubles. In other words, they will come to you. You won’t have to look for
them.
King James says that we are
going to fall into “diverse temptations”.
In the original language the word temptation has two meanings. The first
meaning is trials, the second meaning is to be tempted
to sin. Right here the word means
trials.
This teaches us another
lesson. Our troubles are going to be varied. There will be many different types
of trouble to face. You will get variety in your trials.
So James is saying in this
verse, “Christian Brother when you run into trouble, or trouble runs into you,
decide to command it as joy.”
OUR ASSESSMENT OF TRIALS –
Vs. 3
In order to count something
joy, we must be able to determine of assess the reason for counting it joy. The
fact that God tells us to us to count it joy should be good enough reason to do
so, but God tells us why anyway.
James says we should know
something. I think James means knowing
it in your heart and not just your head.
We are to know that the
trying or testing of our faith worketh patience.
The Christian Life is a life
of faith.
It is faith which saves us,
and it is by faith we should life. Hebrews 10:38
When a trial comes my way,
it is an opportunity to trust God through the trial.
It is my privilege to live
by faith, especially when I do not know how God is going to solve my problem.
And as my faith is tested,
this produces endurance or patience in my life.
As my faith is tested, and I
patiently endure in my faith instead of panicking, or complaining or trying to
run away, my endurance, my patience, my staying power increases.
The attitude toward trials is to be joy!
When we assess the trials to realize that they are
there to produce patience or endurance, then we can be joyful in the trial.
OUR ACTION IN TRIALS – Vs. 4
The word “Let” means to be submissive, to yield, to give our consent.
Don’t buck the trials.
Don’t gripe and moan and get the poor me’s.
But allow God to build your patience through the
trials.
Does this mean that we do nothing while being tried?
If there is nothing we can do, we do nothing, but let
God have his way.
Often during trials we can gain ground. It might mean
fighting the wind, but we can progress.
Have you ever had to go somewhere in a snowstorm?
There are times when you can’t just stay put.
You must go forward. It’s slower, it’s tougher, and
it’s riskier. But go forward you must!
We are to move forward in our trials, always allowing
God to have his way, and thus letting patience have her perfect work.
As we do we become perfect, but that doesn’t mean
sinless.
We become perfect, or mature.
We grow up to be mature believers.
We become entire, or complete.
We lack nothing spiritually because we have learned to
trust.
Trials are God’s way of bringing you to maturity.
Are you willing to let Him do that in your life?
Trials will make you bitter or better.
Which will it be?
ATTITUDE TOWARDS TRIALS
ASSESSMENT OF TRIALS
ACTION IN TRIALS
WORK JOYFULLY!
This is a much elaborated upon outline that has been
previously shared.
RETURN TO HEBREWS – PHILEMON INDEX