Last time we finished up with verse 18 in which James said we were brought forth by the word of truth that we might be the first fruits among His creatures. He is speaking there in the phrase “brought forth” about our new birth, our spiritual birth. We are saved by grace, through faith, given new life in Christ, a new heart, new desires, a new way of living.

Then he says that we might be the first fruits among His creatures. That refers to our new life now that we are saved. He uses the analogy of a plant, which springs up in life, and then bears fruit in kind. And as we are now sons and daughters of God, our lives are to bear fruit which is like God. If we are born of God, then we are to bear the likeness of God, we are to live godly lives.

Godly lives is the produce of our new life in Christ. That’s what theologians call sanctification. We are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And as we walk by the Spirit, we produce the fruit of the Spirit. And Galatians 5:22 tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Now that fruit of our spiritual life is what James now turns to. He gives us several instructions for how we are to live and act, which are the fruit of a godly life. He moves from principles to practices. And I must say that sanctification is something that comes through practice. Sanctification is another way of expressing spiritual maturity. And Hebrew 5:14 tells us that maturity comes through practice. It says, “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

So James begins these practical instructions for daily life with instructions concerning our speech. He says in vs 19, “[This] you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak [and] slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”

There is some debate among Bible scholars as to whether that opening phrase belongs to the previous verse, or this verse. I think it’s best translated this way, “My dear brothers, take note of this; everyone should be quick to listen…” In other words, James wants to emphasize that this is something important. Listen up, take note of this.

James thinks that the tongue, or our speech, is important. He will go on to say in chapter 3:8-10 “But no one can tame the tongue; [it is] a restless evil [and] full of deadly poison. With it we bless [our] Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come [both] blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.”

James says the tongue is full of poison. And we know that is true. Who among us have not been severely wounded by something that was said. You know, I still remember a few teachers from when I was in high school that said something that left a scar for decades afterwards. I remember in my junior year of high school, I was the junior class president. This one teacher was one of two advisors for our class. I worked with these teachers on class meetings and activities throughout the year. But this one teacher was a piece of work. She was just a mean woman, and she liked being mean. She waited to the last day of the school year, when I came to get something signed by her, to tell me that I was the worst President that they had ever had. She may have been right, I don’t know. I didn’t do a whole lot other than make a few remarks once a month at our class meetings. But why not tell me something when I could have made improvements? She did it obviously to hurt me. And 40 years later it still stings.

But all of you I’m sure can think of things that have been said in the past to hurt you. I’m sure if you’re like me, you remember three hurtful things for every one good thing that was said about you. So I’m sure we can agree that the tongue is a restless evil and full of poison. But maybe what we haven’t thought of too much is that what we say is important to God.

Notice then what James says. First he says, be quick to listen. I think he actually is talking about listening to the word of God. That’s who we are to take our cues from. I’m constantly being approached by people who want to teach. Who want to speak. But God is saying it’s more important to listen than it is to speak.

But also in practical social situations, we should be quick to listen. Many of our conversations with other people end up being contests in oneupmanship. As you are telling something that is on your heart, the one listening is nodding his head, but actually is thinking of what he wants to say in response. And many times, they end up interrupting you to tell you something that is even more exciting, or amazing, or terrible or whatever, than what you were saying.

If we really practice loving our neighbor, our brothers and sisters in the Lord, then we should be quick to hear, quick to listen, to lend a sympathetic ear. More good can be accomplished in counseling by listening, than by speaking. If you go see a good therapist or psychiatrist you will find that out. They are trained to listen, to prompt their client to speak. And in speaking, the client finds relief many times from his troubles. In the church, the same might be true. James says “confess your sins one to another that you might be healed.” There is great comfort in confession. But confession needs a listener. God wants us to be listeners.

Secondly James says we should be slow to speak. Slow to speak means that you hold your tongue. You don’t respond quickly, but you think about it first. Sometimes, it may mean it’s better not to speak at all. I remember hearing as a kid that you should count to three before responding. Then later I heard you should count to ten when you get angry. I don’t know how long you should wait to speak, but I will say that the longer the better.

And by the way, speaking includes comments on facebook and instagram and other social media platforms. There is a grave danger in those mediums in that what you have written ends up getting passed around to the wrong person. Or some deeper meaning you intended is lost in translation. Things you quickly respond to on social media have a tendency to blow up in your face later on. But what you have written you have written. You can’t take it back.

The same is true of hurtful things you say. You may apologize for it later, and they may say “that’s ok,” but I can assure you that 99 times out of a hundred it’s not ok. They will remember what you said for a long, long time. Be slow to speak. Let me also say this; if you don’t have much to say, people think you are smart. Proverbs 17:28 says, “it is wise for learned men to be silent, and much more for fools.” The quiet person in class always seemed to be the smartest person in class. Or at least we thought so. You seem smart when you’re silent, but when you open your mouth, you reveal your ignorance.

Third thing James says is be slow to anger. Let’s be honest. Anger feels good. We say we let some steam off. That means we had this boiling over in us, and it feels good to let it out and burn someone’s hair off. But James says man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

God is often spoken of in terms like the wrath of God. We sometimes hear about righteous anger. And maybe there is such a thing. I said last week that we must learn to hate what God hates. So there may be a place for righteous anger. But when James speaks of man’s anger, he is saying it’s not righteous anger. It’s anger that comes from impatience, or jealousy, or frustration, from hatred and other sinful desires. Anger is the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit. Rather than our actions, our words being guided by the Holy Spirit, we find ourselves guided by anger, which ends up hurting others. And people don’t respond well to anger. Our goal as Christians is to edify, to share the gospel, to bear testimony of God’s mercies. But if we share our anger instead, even if we think it is well deserved, it doesn’t achieve a good purpose in those people. They are turned off. Proverbs 15:1 says, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.”

Therefore since anger does not achieve righteousness, James says, “putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.” Now understand that James isn’t introducing a new command here, but he is building on the previous commands. He is talking about speech, angry, abusive speech, filthy speech, ungodly speech, wicked speech. Put it away. Do away with it.

I know that foul language is a pretty common problem among Christians. I have often been shocked by what I thought were sound, mature Christians,, and yet under certain circumstances they cuss like a sailor. But James says, such things ought not to be. Look again at chapter 3, vs.10, he says, “from the same mouth come [both] blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.” Christians cannot speak cursing and blessing at the same time. Even the unsaved people know that a Christian should not speak that way. They may curse along with you, but inwardly they take note of it, and as such they have an excuse why they think that the Christian life is fake, or for show, or hypocritical.

I will promise you this. If you sincerely pray and ask God to help you overcome that sort of speech, I believe the Lord will help you. I believe a Christian can have victory over his speech. And furthermore, God commands that we clean up our speech. And He will not command us to do something that He will not enable us to do.

Now I think as Christians we are to put away all kinds of filthiness, and wickedness, in all forms. But I think specifically James is still talking about speech here. Because he then gives the antidote, which is to receive God’s speech, God’s word, which He says is able to save your souls. Notice though he prefaces that implanting by saying that it must be received with humility. Humility is brokenness. The ground that is broken up is able to receive the word implanted.

Jesus talked about the different kinds of soils in the parable of the sower. He said the seed is the word of God. It’s cast by the preacher over the field, which is the world. Some seed fell on rocky soil, some fell on the by way. Some fell on thin soil and it sprung up but then the thorns choked the life from it so it did not bear fruit. But some fell on good soil. And it found root there, and grew up, and bore fruit. I suggest that the good soil is the soil that was broken up, that had been tilled. That is a picture of humility. Not a proud heart, that must be first, that must say what they think, that must stand up for their rights, that must be independent. But in humility, in brokenness, the word of God can find root, and then when it grows, it bears fruit.

Now we are not saved by our works. Eph. 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” But how do we have faith? Paul says in Romans 10:17 “So faith [comes] from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” So the word of Christ is heard, is believed, is received, and it washes us, it transforms us, it saves us. That’s yet another example of how hearing is better than speaking. We need to hear the word of God. We need to read it, we need to listen to it, and we need to heed it.

I heard about a couple that came to church and the woman had been in the nursery or something, and she asked her husband who was leaving the building, “‘What, is the sermon all done?’ ‘No,’ said the man, ‘it is all said, but it is not begun to be done yet.’” It starts with hearing, then receiving, and then applying what you have heard.

To that point, about applying what you have heard, James says in vs 22 “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” James will go on to extrapolate from this principle that faith without works is dead. Faith is not just an intellectual exercise. Faith is trust, believing, to the point of doing. Believing doesn’t mean just intellectual assent. But it means acting on what you believe to be true.

The Bible speaks of Abraham as the father of faith. Again and again the Bible says, “Abraham believed God, and He counted it to him as righteousness.” But Abraham didn’t just believe intellectually. He didn’t just give intellectual assent to the idea of God. But Hebrews 11 says that “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.”

If Abraham just gave intellectual assent to God but stayed in Ur of Chaldees, then he wouldn’t have had saving faith. Abraham had faith because he obeyed, he went out of Ur, he packed up and moved out to the place God told him to go. Faith is trusting God enough to act on His word. God does’t just give us His word to inform us, but to transform us.

James then turns to an analogy to help explain this principle. He says in vs 23-24 “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for [once] he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.”

We’re all familiar with looking in the mirror, aren’t we? Some of us like looking in the mirror more than others. I personally don’t like to look in the mirror very much. And consequently, my kids are always pointing out that I missed a spot shaving, or I have hairs growing where hair shouldn’t be, or I am losing my hair. I always think of that country music song by Waylon Jennings, where he said, “I look in the mirror with total surprise, at the hair on my shoulders, and the age in my eyes.” I think he was talking about having long hair, but I tend to see the hair that’s fallen out and laying on my shoulders. So anyway, we look in the mirror and we see our face, our body, and usually we try to improve it, to put makeup on, or pluck our nose hairs, or make an attempt to do a comb over to hide our bald spot.

But when James speaks of the mirror, he is likening the word of God to a mirror in which we see not our physical bodies, but we see our soul in the mirror of God’s word. And when we see the imperfections of our soul, when we see our shortcomings, our sinfulness, we should immediately deal with it. But instead James says, too often we just turn and walk away, and forget what kind of person that we really are as revealed in the word.

The antidote for that, James says, is to look intently at the law of liberty and abide by that law. Vs 25 “But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the [law] of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”

Don’t be confused by the phrase law of liberty, as if James is giving us the license to live as we please. The law of liberty is simply a synonym for the word of God. In Psalm 19 David says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The statues of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. By them is your servant warned, in keeping them there is great reward.”

God’s law is perfect. His word is perfect. And God’s perfect law gives liberty from the bondage to sin. As we live within the boundaries of God’s law we are free, we enjoy the liberties which God provides in that environment. But when we cross His boundaries, we find ourselves once again a slave to sin. The analogy could be made with the freedom we have in living in America. We are a free people. We celebrate our liberty. But we live in an environment of laws. If we go outside those laws, then we lose our liberty.

James says that there is something even better for us though. He says that when we abide in God’s law, not just hearing it but doing it, then we will be blessed in what we do. God blesses those who obey Him. There is a reward for those who keep the statues of the Lord, David said. Sometimes that reward may come immediately as a consequence of doing right, other times it may be in the future, when God will reward those according to their deeds at the judgement. But God promises a reward for obedience.

Now in keeping the law of God, the perfect law of liberty, we can call that being religious. We are living godly, seeking to live for God, which is the definition of religion. But James says if you don’t control the tongue, control your speech, then your religion is worthless. Vs. 26 “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his [own] heart, this man’s religion is worthless.”

It’s a terrible thing to be deceived. We talked about Eve’s deception last week. But what’s worse than that is to be self deceived. Because when you are self deceived, you don’t know that you are deceived. James says if you don’t bridle your tongue, or control your tongue, you have deceived yourself in thinking you are religious through what you think are religious duties, like going to church, or singing songs, or any number of other things you do which you think will please God. But according to God, if you don’t have control over your tongue, your temper, then everything else you do accomplishes nothing.

But James doesn’t want to end this section with a negative, so he concludes with the positive thing you can do, which is pure and undefiled religion. We should be religious, but to practice pure religion, and not defiled, not corrupted by personal pride or personal agenda, then James says we must do the following. Vs.27 “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of [our] God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, [and] to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

So there are actually two things we must do to have pure and undefiled religion. One is to visit orphans and widows in their distress. James is addressing here the social circumstances and conditions of his day which were epitomized by orphans and widows. These were people in that society that had no guardian or breadwinner in the family. They had no social services from the government that provided for them. In many cases they were destitute, unable to work, unable to provide for themselves. We don’t really have the same situation in our society, at least in America. But we do have the poor. Jesus said the poor you have always with you. There are many people who are destitute in our society. And there are even people in our church that have needs that they cannot meet, that are beyond their means. We may have to look a little harder, but we can find people that are in need of a person who will help them. It may not just be financial, it may be other ways.

My sister is a widow. She lost her husband about 5 years ago. They had been missionaries for about 30 years, and then he came down with a deadly respiratory disease. About three years later after he died, she lost her son to ALS. He was the son who lived closest to her. Now she is not destitute by any means. She has a job teaching piano. But there is a man in the church who has repeatedly given his service to her around her house to fix anything that she needs fixing. He does all the things a husband might have done. He takes her car to the shop when needed. He hangs pictures, fixes the toilet, changes out the washing machine. He tries to serve as a substitute husband for her. I don’t know that that is reproducible for everyone of us. But maybe if we thought about it, we could find someone who could use our help in some way. But in general, I think this command to visit widows and orphans is simply a specific example of the command to love your neighbor as yourself. Loving your neighbor is pure and undefiled religion.

The other part to pure and undefiled religion is to keep oneself unpolluted by the world. Our relationship with the Lord is likened in the Bible to a marriage. But when we gravitate back to the things of the world, the lusts of the world, the wickedness of the world, it’s as if we are cheating on our Lord to whom we owe our complete devotion to. When we are attracted by the world, and we give in to the lusts of the world, then we have in effect committed adultery against the Lord.

I don’t have time to give you a laundry list of all the ways you can sin against God, and follow after the world. I bet you could give me a pretty long list yourselves if you thought about it for a minute. But if I were to just pick the one area that James had in mind, I would bet you that he was thinking about our speech, talking like the world, speaking in anger, speaking rashly, speaking wickedness. That type of speech is a stain on our souls and a blemish on our testimony. And as James said at the beginning, we need to put that away from us, and practice slow speech, quick hearing, and be doers of the word, applying the perfect law of liberty to our lives in practical ways, every day. Let us be doers of the word, that we might receive blessing from the Lord.

James started off his letter speaking about the need for enduring faith in the midst of trials. Trials are an inescapable part of life.  And James says rather than seeking immediate relief from them, we need to endure them with persevering faith, knowing that God uses trials to refine our faith, so that our faith might be complete, lacking in nothing. Then he adds to that process the need for divine wisdom, so that we might understand God’s purposes and plan for our salvation, that we might have hope and confidence in God’s plan for our lives. 

Today then, as we take up this study in verse 9, we notice it  begins with a conjunction, which ties it to the preceding verse.  The conjunction “but” indicates a contrast to what has come directly before it.  And what came directly before was the statement about double mindedness, which is the description of the man who doesn’t have the wisdom of God, who doesn’t have unwavering faith.  We said last time, such a man is very likely unsaved.  He holds onto the world and tries to have Jesus at the same time, but really doesn’t believe the word of Jesus, or believe that God’s word is truly wisdom.  And so when trials come, he opts out of faith in God, and turns to human wisdom.  He most likely never had saving faith to begin with.

But in contrast to that person, James introduces another kind of trial that believers must endure, and he gives us the wisdom of God concerning this kind of trial, that we may be able to persevere through it.  And the trial that he introduces here is the lack of money, or the trial of being poor.

It’s very certain that the Christians who James is writing to are for the most part very poor in material goods.  It appears that James writes primarily to converted Jews that had been dispersed across Asia as a result of persecution, who were poor because they had to leave everything – their homes and jobs, and escaped with only what they could carry. But whether his immediate audience were Jews or Gentiles, they were predominately poor.  Being wealthy in those days was something that you had to inherit, or it came from a prominent political position.  But being a Christian was almost a certain guarantee that you were ostracized from society, whether Jewish or Gentile, and as a result you were poor.

The apostle Paul, speaking to the Corinthian church, said it was generally true that Chrisitians were poor in comparison to the world.  He said in 1Cor. 1:26-28 “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;  but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,  and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are.”  I suppose that was the general rule for all the churches in Asia.  Many Christians were even slaves or indentured servants. 

I believe that in James day, there were primarily only two classes of people.  The rich and the poor.  There was not so much of what we think of today as a middle class.  And I believe that we are seeing the elimination of the middle class in our society as well.  But in any event, I think that even the poor in our society would be considered rich in comparison to many other places in the world, and especially in comparison to the way most people lived in James day.  We take for granted many things that they would have considered the utmost luxury.

Nevertheless, for the purposes of this message, I think we can agree with James who divides society into two social divisions, rich or poor.  And in the context of his message about enduring trials with joy, he brings up the trial of being poor.  Notice also that he addresses those people who are poor as brothers.  So he’s speaking to Christians who are poor.  You don’t have to be poor to be a Christian, but I would have to say it helps.  Whereas, being rich is a hindrance to being saved.

You will remember that Jesus said in Luke 18:25 “For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”  If you have ever seen and smelled a camel, then you know that is an impossibility, isn’t it?  I know some commentators and clever pastors have tried to say that the eye of the needle is the name of a very narrow pass through a canyon somewhere in Israel, and a camel had to get on it’s knees to crawl through it.  I happen to think that is not what Jesus is referring to.  He is looking at the rich young ruler who had just turned away from salvation because of his great riches, and he is probably riding away on a camel, which was like the Cadillac of that day. And this young man, who is very rich, probably had a fleet of them in his entourage.

The disciples certainly understood Jesus to not just be speaking of a difficulty, but an impossibility.  They asked, “then who can be saved?”  And Jesus answered, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.”  So being rich does not absolutely exclude you from the kingdom of God, but Jesus did say it is practically impossible.  But thankfully, that which seems impossible to men is not impossible with God. 

But by and large, James indicates that the church is primarily made up of poor people.  And they consider being poor a trial.  He contrasts this Christian brother who is suffering the trial of being poor  to that of the double minded man who loves the world in the previous verse.  James says “But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position.”

James isn’t deliberately speaking in riddles.  But he’s speaking in a manner of teaching that was common to the Hebrews, which is often seen in the Psalms and Proverbs.  It’s a method where he uses contrast and parallelism to teach a subject.  

He says the brother is in humble circumstances.  That’s a nice way of saying that they were poor.  There is nothing more humbling than being poor.  I can tell you from experience many stories from my past when I experienced humbling circumstances.  God took me from a position of wealth, or at least thinking I was wealthy, to a position of extreme poverty.  And during that time I had to do some pretty humbling things in order to keep food on the table.  I put my wife and kids through many humbling circumstances.  It was a time that left scars which we still deal with even today to some extent.

It was kind of like the experiences that I heard my dad speak of having come through the Great Depression.  People that came through that had a different perspective on money for decades afterwards.  They were often afraid of spending money because they never wanted to go through such times again.

So being poor was a trial that a lot of the Christians were going through.  But James says the man in humble circumstances, or a low economic position,  should glory in his high position.  That phrase “high position” is a reference to his standing with God.  We that are saved have a high position with God.  Peter says we are a royal priesthood.  Paul says in Romans 8:17 that we are the children of God.  “And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.]  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

So our suffering in poverty is producing for us a weight of glory beyond our comprehension.  Paul says in 2Cor. 4:17-18 “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,  while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”  We that are poor in this world have our eyes fixed, our hope fixed, on the next world, on that which is eternal. We have a high position with God, though for the time being, we suffer a low position on earth. And in that sure hope we can glory, we can rejoice.

So Peter says in 1Peter 5:6 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.”  That’s what James is talking about when he says let the brother of humble circumstances glory in his high position.  We endure the humbling circumstances now, because we know that God will make all things new in the consummation of the kingdom.  We are like princes in exile, but one day the King is coming back in power and glory, and in that day He will set His sons and daughters on thrones to reign with Him in His kingdom.

James says in chapter 2 vs 5, “Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world [to be] rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?”  Then let us glory in our high position and endure with patience the suffering of being poor, in humbling circumstances.

But the rich man, he is now contrasted with the brother of humble circumstances.  His end is not the same, nor is it better than the poor man.  His faith has been in his possessions.  His dependence is not on God, but on his own resources.  James says in vs 10 “and the rich man [is to glory] in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.”

First let’s recognize who this person is who is rich.  Notice that James called the poor man “brother” but omits this term when he introduces the rich man.  It’s possible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus said, but only because God is able to make what is impossible for men, a possibility with God.  But I think in a general manner of speaking, James is likely presenting the rich man in a similar light as the double minded man of the previous passage.  It’s very likely that the rich man is not a true believer.  He has a double minded faith which considers the riches of this world too great to let go of for the sake of the kingdom.

Remember the rich, young ruler? He believed in God.  He was very religious, very moral.  But Jesus said one thing you still lack – sell all you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow Me.”  And he didn’t do it, because he was so rich.  Now was that man saved or unsaved?  I suggest he left unsaved. And so we might also assume that the rich man James speaks of here is not saved. He might be religious, he might be moral, he might believe in God, but his faith falls short because he depends on his wealth.

Notice also that James says about this rich man that he will pass away.  The poor glory in their future in eternity, but the rich man glories in the present.  But James says something here which is difficult for us to understand, perhaps because it’s somewhat confusing in it’s translation.  He says the rich man should glory in his humiliation.  What I think James is referring to is that he needs to recognize his low spiritual condition.  He needs to realize that his wealth is temporary, and instead lay up treasure in heaven.  

James, you remember is Jesus’s half brother.  And he is obviously familiar with what Jesus taught in Matt. 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The rich man needs to see that though he is rich in the world’s goods, he is poor in heaven. 

Jesus said in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  What that speaks of is recognizing your spiritual bankruptcy.  When you realize you are spiritually bankrupt, then you are able to receive the gift of God, which is the righteousness of Jesus Christ applied to your account. So if the rich man is to glory, then let him glory in his humiliation, in the fact of his spiritual bankruptcy. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and He will exalt you. And when  he has repented, he may receive mercy, that he may at the last day enter into glory.

I suppose another perspective on this is you can also think of riches as a trial.  I know we are conditioned to think of riches as a blessing.  We say things like “God blessed me with a  financial windfall,” or “God blessed me with a well paying job.”  Whatever the cause may be, we think financial well being is a sign of God’s blessing.  But maybe it’s not.  Maybe it’s a test.  It’s a trial.

So though it may be hard to believe, being rich can be a trial. So many Christians think having money is a blessing.  When in fact it can be a terrible temptation to live independently from God, to not love your neighbor, to be greedy, to be an unfaithful steward, and a host of other ways you can sin against God by putting your trust in this world’s goods. Jesus said, you cannot serve God and wealth. You cannot serve two masters.

1Tim. 6:7-10 tells us that if being rich is not directly a trial, it is at least a temptation.  “For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either.  If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.  But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

There’s that idea of being a double minded man again, and not persevering in faith, but abandoning faith in God and instead trying to hold onto the wisdom of the world.  And the wisdom of the world is that he who dies with the most toys wins.  That money is the means of happiness and contentment and status.  But the Bible tells us the opposite.  Because real contentment comes from spiritual riches, and an eternal perspective. Real status comes from our position in heaven. And the riches of the world cannot obtain those things. 

James then gives an analogy of the way that those who pursue riches will end up destitute. He says in vs11, “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.”

James gives us a picture of the flowering grass, which springs up after a rain, but when the sun rises and the hot winds blow across the landscape, the grass quickly withers and the flower falls away.  It’s a picture of the rich man who in the midst of pursuing money will suddenly fade away.  

But notice that James doesn’t say that riches will fade away.  Sometimes that happens as a result of a crash in the stock market, or housing market, or any number of other possibilities. But he isn’t talking here about riches fading away.  He says the rich man will fade away.  Death comes without warning, without keeping schedule.  And death eventually comes to everyone, rich or poor.  And what you spent your life in pursuit of, is left to your descendants to fight over, while you go to meet your Maker. Jesus said, “what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”

Jesus gave a parable about such a rich man.  In Luke 12:15-21 we read, “Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not [even] when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”  And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive.  “And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years [to come;] take your ease, eat, drink [and] be merry.”‘  “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This [very] night your soul is required of you; and [now] who will own what you have prepared?’  “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

So the poor man, though he is of humble circumstances, is rich towards God.  But the rich man, who is wealthy in the world’s goods, is poor towards God.  He is spiritually bankrupt. He needs to recognize that, to repent and have faith in God, that he may be rich in the kingdom of heaven.

And so James concludes this section about trials with the following pronouncement of blessing in vs 12, “Blessed is a man who perseveres 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.”

Trials are a test of our faith, given to prove our faith, that we might exercise our faith by enduring, persevering in our faith towards God.  Our faith is not a wrench by which we manipulate God into giving us health, wealth and prosperity, but it’s a wrench by which God transforms us into the image of Jesus Christ as we share in His suffering. Suffering is a means by which God transforms us from trusting in the world, and in the world’s wisdom, the world’s goods, to trusting totally and completely in Him. 

And once our faith has been approved, we receive the crown of life which the Lord promised to those who love Him.  When James says, “our faith has been approved” he isn’t speaking of earning our salvation through works.  But he is saying that once God has ended the period of testing which He designed to refine our faith, then we will receive the crown of life.  The crown of life I think speaks of our glorification, when we shall be with the Lord at the consummation of the kingdom.  What James is urging us to do is to endure to the end of this life.  We don’t get the promise that somehow God is going to make everything work out here as we go through this trial, so that we can end this trial in a quick fashion and enjoy the rest of our life living in prosperity and good health.  But what he is saying is that we endure these trials to the end. Revelation 2:10 says, “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

 God tests our faith as we persevere, looking forward to what He has promised, which is eternal life, the crown of life, that we receive in full once the trial of this life is over.  This whole life we live now is a trial. And our trials will be over when our physical life is over.  Then we will receive the promise of the crown of life, the abundant life, eternal life, that God has promised to those who love Him.  Who love Him more than we love this world, love Him more than wealth, more than fame, more than all the material possessions that this life appears to offer. 

If you love the Lord, then you will gladly give up this world in order to have Him. Jesus said in Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

I trust that each of you have enduring faith, that will persevere through the trials of this life, whether rich or poor, in sickness or in health, until death one day separates you from this life and you receive the crown of life. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Today we begin our study of the book of James.  We’ve studied James before as a church, but we’ve reached the point where we have gone through the entire New Testament, and so we are now on our second round. But I think that’s a good place to be.  As we learned in Jude last week, we need to be reminded.  We need to remember.  And so I look forward to gleaning more from this harvest than we did on the first.

However, perhaps due to the fact that we have studied James before, I don’t want to spend a lot of time introducing the epistle, nor on it’s human author, who is James.  James doesn’t spend a lot of time introducing himself, for that matter.  He doesn’t mention much about himself.  But we know from our previous study of Jude that James and Jude were brothers.  We should also know by now that James and Jude were half brothers of Jesus. They had the same birth mother, but Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit, whereas James and Jude were born of Joseph.

It would have made sense from a human standpoint for James to have mentioned that he was related to Jesus.  That would be a pretty strong argument for his letter being taken seriously by the first century church.  But, just as in the case of Jude, James doesn’t emphasize his physical relationship with Jesus, but instead emphasizes his spiritual relationship. And that is very striking, and it speaks volumes in doctrinal terms about his view of Christology.

James says that he is a bond servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.  That’s a tremendous statement, given the fact that they grew up together in the same household. He knew Jesus as his older brother since his birth.  He saw Him in every kind of circumstance.  However, it’s noteworthy that John chapter 7 tells us that Jesus’s brothers did not believe in Him, initially. It was only after the resurrection that they came to believe in Jesus as Christ the Lord.

But notice James puts Jesus Christ and God on the same plane, and he a servant to both. He says in vs 1, “James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s a tremendous statement of the deity of Jesus Christ, from someone who had every reason not to believe.

The author then is James, the brother of Jude and the half brother of Jesus Christ.  He is not an apostle in the strict sense of the word, as he was not one of the 12. Scholars tell us that James wrote this book about 44 AD.  That would make it the first book written in the New Testament.  James was martyred about AD 62.  The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that he was thrown off the rooftop of the temple, and then stoned and beaten until dead.  Other historic traditions say that James was called Old Camel Knees, because he spent so much time on his knees praying that he developed very obvious callouses on his knees.

James addresses this letter not to one specific church, but to the 12 tribes dispersed abroad.  That would have encompassed the entire church, and it could be argued that it included Gentile believers as well. But in any case, the Jews had been dispersed from Jerusalem into many different regions and cities across the Roman Empire, and they had been dispersed because of persecution against the church.  It’s believed that after the stoning of Stephen that persecution became more prominent and the church in Jerusalem were scattered.

So as James writes to these scattered, persecuted Christians living in predominately Gentile, pagan cities, in a culture hostile to Christianity, his first concern is about dealing with the persecution, bearing with the trials and tribulations that they were experiencing.  That was perhaps the most pressing issue for the church scattered abroad.  Their faith was under attack, as they are being persecuted for their faith.  Their faith is being tried, as they are forced to reconcile what they believed to be true, with the reality of what they are experiencing in living the Christian life. 

But James’s concern is that they become spiritually mature.  His concern is that they live sanctified lives as they grow in the faith. His concern is that their belief brings about behavior that is fitting of a child of God.  And so rather than the Christian life being a sort of all expenses paid pleasure cruise where everything just works out great, he wants to show that God uses the crucible of trials to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ.

To deal with this seeming contradiction in the life of faith, James says in vs 2, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.”  That statement is itself is an oxymoron, if you think about it.  We just finished studying Job in our Wednesday night services.  And we know that Job encountered tremendous trials as a devout believer in God.  He was the most righteous man that was living in his day.  And yet he was beset with one calamity after another.  

It would have seemed totally heartless and calloused if his friends would have said to him, “hey Job, you should consider these trials as all joy.”  We sometimes hear well meaning Christians give that kind of response when they hear of some tragic thing going on in your life.  As if since we are Christians, we should not feel pain or grief and instead be happy over our circumstances, however terrible they may appear.

I don’t think that is what James is advocating here though.  For one, I don’t think happiness and joy are the same thing.  I think happiness is usually a fleeting emotion, whereas joy is a sense of settled contentment.  But maybe we should not be looking at joy as an immediate response to trial.  I think a good way to understand this principle is to consider what Hebrews says about the suffering of Jesus on the cross.  We all realize that the cross is a terrible method of killing someone.  It’s cruel and unusual punishment that is almost unfathomable.  And we know that as Jesus suffered and died on the cross He was not singing “O Happy Day.” I don’t mean to be sacrilegious about His death.  But we know that it was no laughing matter.  At one point, the suffering was so intense, that he cried out, “My God! Why have You forsaken Me?”  There should be no doubt that Jesus suffered during His trial on the cross. Jesus did not exhibit a happy, carefree attitude about the ordeal He was to undergo.  In fact, in anticipation of it, He sweated drops of blood. 

And yet consider what Hebrews says in chapter 12 vs 2 “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  Here is the supreme example of how we are to endure trials.  It says, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross.  The joy was not immediate.  As He was suffering in the present, the joy was in the future.  He was willing to suffer in the immediate, looking forward to joy in the eternal.

I think the KJV rendering of the word translated “consider” might be helpful.  In the KJV it is “count”.  Count it all joy.  As in you are counting as actual something that has not yet been realized. But you count it now.  The Spirit is not telling us that we are to go through tragedy or hardship or trails with a smile glued on our face and yelling out “praise the Lord!” as if the situation does not hurt us or make us sad.  But to endure the pain, looking forward to the joy set before us as we come through the situation. Whether we come through the trial and realize joy in this life, or we transpire in the trial are translated to the next life,  death does not prevent that future joy, but only hastens it.

I think this verse in Hebrews helps so much in our understanding of this text in James. Notice the parallel in words, In Hebrews -perfecter, faith, joy, endured.  In James – joy, vs 2, faith, vs 3, endurance, vs 3, perfect, vs 4. That’s a good example of interpreting scripture with scripture.  We can better understand the principle of enduring trials that James is talking about, by examining the illustration of Christ’s suffering as described in Hebrews.

So count it as all joy when you encounter various trials.  That phrase various trials opens up the possibilities to include just about anything.  All kinds of trials.  Every kind of trial. Think of what Job endured, death of loved ones, loss of wealth, loss of health, loss of friendships, criticism. So all kinds of trials are included in this statement.

But wait a minute – I left out an important word in that first part of the sentence.  James says “my brethren.”  That’s a reference to fellow Christians.  We are brothers and sisters in the Lord.  James is addressing fellow Christians.  That’s another false premise of a lot of health, wealth, and prosperity doctrine folks out there who want to claim that as a Christian you should never have any problems.  God will eliminate all your problems.  That was more or less the claim of Job’s friends, wasn’t it? They said Job had problems because he was not much of a man of God.  If he had enough faith, or the right kind of faith, then he wouldn’t have problems like he was having.  Yet that is not what we learned in Job, is it?  Job was righteous, and yet he suffered. He was a faithful servant of God, and yet he suffered tremendous trials.  He had problems counting his trials as all joy.  But in the end he experienced joy because he endured the trials without turning his back on God.

This principle that James proposes also has the support of the apostle Paul and Peter.  Paul says in Romans 5:3, “And not only this, but we also rejoice in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance. and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;  and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”  

And Peter says in 1 Peter 1:6, “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,  so that the proof of your faith, [being] more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 

Both of those apostles tell us that trials produces perseverance, and perseverance proven character, or what Peter calls the proof of your faith. It’s the same idea that James conveys in vs 3, “knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”  It’s important to know the truth.  Job wanted to know the truth about God in the midst of his trials.  And it’s important for us to have the right knowledge as we go through trials.  As I have said before many times, our faith is founded on the truth of God’s word, on His promises.  

And so we need to know the purpose of God in the trials of our life.  They are not by chance.  There are no accidents with God. Ultimately everything that happens to us comes by the purpose of God.  So James says that we need to know that God sends these trials to us to test our faith, which produces endurance, or another word, maybe better, is perseverance.  

But what does he mean to test our faith? Is God trying to get us to fail?  I used to think that about some of the teachers I had in high school.  They would give us a test over stuff I didn’t think we had ever covered.  And so I thought they were trying to make us fail the test.  But that’s not what James has in mind here when he says “test.”  What that means is “prove”.

Let’s look again at 1 Peter 1:6 which we saw a few minutes ago, and hopefully get some more insight into what James is talking about.  Peter says, “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,  so that the proof of your faith, [being] more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  

In precious metal refining, you take a lot of gold which may be 14k or 18k, which means that it is 517 parts gold per 1000, or 750 parts gold per 1000.  The other parts are non precious metals like brass or copper or something else. So when you send it to the refinery, the gold is melted down in a fire which burns away the dross, and separates that which is base metals from the precious metal.  So what comes out of the refiner’s fire is pure gold without any impurities.  That’s what Peter meant by the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire.

The hymn we sing, How Firm a Foundation, has the line in it which speaks of this.  “When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.”

And that is what James is speaking of when he says the testing of our faith.  We go through a fiery trial which God uses to prove our faith, or better, to improve our faith.  It takes out the impurities.  The test reveals the evidence of our faith, and purifies our faith.  

And James says that evidence is endurance, or perseverance.  The Greek word for endurance or perseverance is hypomone. It means to bear up under.  Christians very often have the mindset that when trials come, that they want to get out of it as soon as possible.  All their prayer requests are for the Lord to get rid of this trial immediately.  But the fact is that the Lord’s purposes are not always to take us quickly out of the trial but to use it to produce something in us.  So we are to endure the trial.  

That quality of perseverance was illustrated by Job.  However, James isn’t suggesting an attitude of resignation. He’s not advocating an attitude of whatever will be will be. Of fatalism. But he is suggesting perseverance. Resignation is passive, perseverance is active.  Resignation results in defeat, perseverance results in triumph.  Perseverance says as Job said, “though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him.”  It’s not turning away from God in trial, but turning to God, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Endurance is a character trait that God wants to build in us.  And He uses trials to do it.  James says in chapter 5:11, “ We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and [is] merciful.”

And James says we endure not just for endurance’s sake, but because it brings spiritual maturity.  Look at vs 4, “And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” We need to clarify our terms to truly understand what James is talking about here.  The word perfect can almost always be better interpreted as complete.  He’s not talking about somehow reaching spiritual perfection, but spiritual completion.  What does that mean?  Simply speaking, spiritual maturity. 

James says let endurance or perseverance have it’s complete result. “Don’t take the cake out of the oven before the toothpick comes out clean.”  That’s what Susie always tells me when she has to leave the house and I’m home studying, and she has a cake in the oven.  My job when the timer goes off is to stick a toothpick in it and see if it comes out clean.  Simple job.  But if I take the cake out just because the timer goes off and it hasn’t been in long enough then the cake is ruined. 

That’s a bad analogy of what James says is needed in perseverance.  You need to stay in the fire until God’s work is complete in you.  Spiritual maturity takes time, and it takes enduring in tribulation until God has completed His purpose in you.  Three times Paul pleaded with God to take away a thorn in his flesh, which he said was a messenger of Satan to torment him. Whatever the trial was, it wasn’t fun.  But God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect, ( or complete) in weakness. (2Cor. 12:8)  There it is again, the idea that enduring trials completes your faith.

James says, let patience have it’s complete result or work. Don’t immediately run around in circles crying to God to get this monkey off your back.  Realize that God is working in the trial to complete your faith.

The word translated “perfect,” in the Greek is “teleion.” It’s a word that was used in secular sources of animals that are full grown.  Here it is used to refer to Christians that are full grown.  Endurance makes a full-grown Christian.  So the Lord is giving you endurance, to put you through a greater test, to make you a stronger Christian, a more mature Christian. 

James says in chapter 3 vs 2, “For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.”  He uses the concept of perfect there to indicate the concept of wholeness.  That is, not lagging behind in any point of their spiritual growth.

That phrase “not lacking in anything is synonymous with the term complete, which expresses the idea that all parts are functioning as they should.  If we endure the trials and the training which God uses to make us complete, then we lack nothing in our faith, so that we might be able to persevere in faith until the end.

Jesus promised that in this world we would have tribulations.  That is going to be part of the Christian experience here on earth.  But if we endure, if we persevere in our faith as we go through the tribulations without doubting God, then we will have a refined faith that will come forth like gold, and that results in bringing glory to Christ, and our glorification.

Paul speaks of that process in Romans 8:16-18 “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.]  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Let’s conclude this study about God’s purpose in trials this morning with the statement  given by Peter in 1 Peter 1:6 which we referenced earlier.  I think it is a good summary of this doctrine.  “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,  so that the proof of your faith, [being] more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;  and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,  obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.”

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,  to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, [be] glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

I said something in our Bonfire Bible Study last Wednesday that I think bears repeating.  I said that there seems to be two basic types of theology out there.  But only one is correct theology, and the other one is wrong, even though it is the most popular.  The most common theology, the most popular theology,  has as it’s premise that God exists to serve man.  They may not say it so crassly, but nevertheless, that is the basics of it.  That God serves man, God loves man, God gives things to man, God helps man.  God is not much more than a miracle working genie who exists to serve man. And so, of course, God cannot judge man, He can’t punish man, because He loves us too much. The other theology, the correct one, has as it’s premise, that man exists to serve God. Man was made for God, to love Him, to serve Him, to do His will, and to live for Him. He is Lord and Master, and we are subject to Him. 

And all of our attempts at understanding of God we try to fit into one of those templates. You might even go so far as to say that all of religion is man’s efforts to control God.  Most of our preaching and teaching falls into that same error.  We try to interpret the Bible to fit our paradigm.  We try to create a message that fits our ideas of what is acceptable, what seems right to us.  If we can develop enough knowledge about God, then we can control God and control the outcome of our dealings with God.

And it is obvious that God allows us to have a go at it.  God doesn’t shut up fools.  God doesn’t always stoop to answer man’s wisdom.  God doesn’t always immediately respond to our foolishness with judgment.  But as Jude shows us in this section of scripture, God promises to judge man’s disobedience, whether it is immediate or in the future. But God will judge rebellion against the truth.

Jude started off his letter by saying that he planned to write concerning their common salvation.  He was planning on writing about the truth they held in common in salvation.  There is truth that leads to salvation, and there is no salvation without holding to those truths. But at the urging of the Holy Spirit, Jude felt the necessity to write about the need to contend for the faith. Because, as we will learn, the faith, the truth that leads to salvation, was under attack.  

Certain persons had crept into the church and sown seeds of bad theology, which served to give license to those who disobeyed the Lord and lived according to their lustful desires.  Particularly the lusts of a sexual nature, and the lusts for money.  Such people, Jude said, were already marked for condemnation because they turned the grace of our God into licentiousness and denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

To turn the grace of God into licentiousness means that they disregarded the law of God, especially in the realm of promiscuity or immorality.  They said that they weren’t under law any more but under grace, and therefore what they did in the body does not really matter.  That’s the bad theology; God loves me, God forgives me, and God won’t punish or condemn me. 

The other thing Jude said they did was deny our Master and Lord Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean that they denied His existence. But they denied His lordship.  They denied His right to reign in our lives.  Again, they had the theology that God exists to serve me, not the other way around.  I don’t have to serve the Lord with my life, my actions, my behavior.  I am captain of my ship.  I can exercise my freedom, my independence, in pursuit of my happiness, and the Lord is going to be ok with that because He just wants me to be happy.

Well, Jude disputes that type of theology.  He says we need to contend for the faith, that is, we need to fight for the true theology.  And furthermore, he says that those who have adopted the bad theology will be judged, and will receive condemnation from God, sooner or later.  Now to support that he is going to give three examples of those that rebelled against God’s truth, and ended up being condemned and punished by God.

In bringing up these history lessons from the past, Jude says that we need to be reminded of them, even though we already know them.  Vs 5, “Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all…”  The point being that as Christians, who know the truth, we nevertheless need to be reminded of the truth again and again, to keep the truth fresh before us. It is far too easy to become complacent about doctrines that once established our faith and now are taken for granted.  It’s like the doctrine of salvation; though we are saved by knowledge of the truth of the gospel, by believing it, yet it is necessary to never let the glories of the cross fade from our view.  In reminding ourselves, whether by song or by scripture, we are brought further along in our sanctification.

Such remembrance also serves to undergird us in the faith, and ensure that we do not make the same mistakes as those before us.  As Winston Churchill once wrote, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

The first lesson from history that Jude reminds us of is that of the danger of apostasy. He says in vs 5, “Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.”

He is, of course, reminding us of the story of Israel, who was delivered from captivity in Egypt by many miracles of God.  God exhibited His power to them again and again.  He gave them His word, His promises, His law.  God dwelt among them.  But nevertheless, they did not believe His word. They were faithless again and again.  They rebelled against Moses. And ultimately, they did not believe that He was able to bring them into the Promised Land, and at the point of entry they rebelled and would not go into the land.

And so God pronounced condemnation upon them, that they would all be destroyed.  We find the record of God’s condemnation in Numbers14: 32, “But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer [for] your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness. According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, [even] forty years, and you will know My opposition. I, the LORD, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die.”

This event is also remembered in the Psalms, in Psalm 95 it says, “Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, 9 “When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. For forty years I loathed [that] generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.” And the author of Hebrews, quoting that passage, adds, “they did not enter because of unbelief.”

In that passage, we see that disobedience and unbelief are related.  One happens because of the other.  That’s why we must remember that Jesus correlated belief and obedience.  He said if you love Me you will keep my commandments.  Again and again Jesus urged His hearers not only to believe in Him, but to follow Him.  Belief must be tied to obedience.  As John told us in his epistles, you can’t say you have fellowship with God and yet walk in darkness.  You can’t say you believe in Christ and yet disobey Him. You can’t say you believe and yet rebel against His word. And the lesson we are reminded of in this example is that God punished Israel for their unbelief and disobedience.

The second illustration from history of those that received condemnation because of unbelief is found in vs 6.  “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.”  Jude is renowned for bringing up obscure facts in this little letter.  And this particular reference is such a one.

Jude is speaking of an incident regarding fallen angels which is mentioned in Genesis chapter 6. In that passage we read, “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them,  that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.  Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”  The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore [children] to them. Those were the mighty men who [were] of old, men of renown.”

There are a lot that of questions that have arisen in regards to these verses which many have offered conjecture.  But I think we can safely say that the sons of God refers to angels, which in this case are fallen angels, part of the demons in Satan’s realm, and they took on the form of man so that they could have sexual relations with the daughters of men.  This act was not only rebellion against God, but it also was an attack by Satan upon the object of God’s love, which was the human race, made in His likeness and made in His image.  Satan orchestrated this to destroy the human race. Many theologians believe that this unholy union caused a half human half demonic offspring that was unredeemable and thus God was forced to destroy the human race in the flood. 

Jude goes on to say that those angels who left their proper place, God has kept in eternal bonds or chains under darkness for the judgement of the great day.  The apostle Peter also references this event in 2Peter 2:4-5 saying, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;  and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.”  Because of the way Peter ties the sin of the angels to the flood is evidence that he is speaking of the same event as Jude.

And by the way, I’ve heard people use the Genesis passage to say that man was limited to live 120 years because of that reference God made that His Spirit would not strive with man forever, but man’s days shall be 120 years.  But that’s not actually a reference to man’s lifespan, but a reference to the time left before the total destruction of the flood, which happened 120 years later.

Now there are a lot of rabbit trails that we could go down on this topic.  But let’s not forget what Jude is trying to convey through this example.  The reminder is that of the sin of autonomy, of denying the lordship of Jesus Christ.  To disobey, to rebel is to deny the Lord’s position of authority, to set ourselves up as the god of our own life, to decide what we think is right, or what we think should be ok, and in so doing, to set ourselves in rebellion against God and due for condemnation at the judgement.  If God did not spare angels when they sinned, neither will He spare us.  God put those angels that left their proper abode in eternal chains, in bondage, some believe that refers to a special section of hell, awaiting the final judgement.

In speaking of the angels sin, Jude segue’s into another form of rebellion, which is similar to that of the angels.  And he speaks of that in vs 7, “just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.” 

Notice than in referencing the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah Jude correlates it to the sin of the angels by saying, “just as.”  “In the same way as these…”  He is saying that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was like the sin of the angels, in the same way they were immoral and went after strange flesh.

I won’t take the time to read the account from Genesis 18 and 19 as I’m sure you are all familiar with the story.  But as Jude says, we need to be reminded.  The account says that the report of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah had reached the point where God was going to destroy the city.  He sent two angels in the bodies of men to speak to Lot and his family and take them out of the city, lest they be destroyed with them.  But that night the men of the city congregated at the door of Lot’s house, demanding that he let them come out that they might have sexual relations with them.

Jude say that they pursued unnatural desires.  The Bible teaches that homosexual desire is unnatural desire.  It is rejecting the authority and design of God.  It is rejecting the command of God. God said in Leviticus 18:22 ‘You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.”  It is a crime against God and man.

Peter spoke of this same event in the same passage we referenced while ago, 2Peter 2:6 “and [if] He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing [them] to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly [lives] thereafter.”   The point both Jude and Peter make is that God condemned the sin of those people, and brought about destruction upon them, as an example for those that come after them.  That we must not rebel against the command of God, lest we suffer the same condemnation.

Jude says they “are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.” God brought fire and brimstone down upon the city and destroyed every living thing.  But in the final judgement, the fire is eternal, it never goes out, and the soul must endure that punishment forever.

After offering these Biblical  examples of the sins of apostasy, autonomy and immorality, Jude says in vs8,  “Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties.”  “ These men” refers back  those of his day, the objects of his letter, the certain persons who had crept in unnoticed into the church, and used the grace of God as a cover for licentiousness and denied the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He says these men are guilty of the same sins as those of the Israelites who refused to believe, as the angels before the flood, and as the men of Sodom and Gomorrah.  He says these men also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties.  

I’m not sure what he means by his statement that they were dreaming.  I suppose it’s a reference to so called prophets who took their stand on visions that they had supposedly seen, which undermined, or over rode the scriptures.  That’s the danger of extra biblical revelation.  It’s not that God did not use visions at times in the past to reveal truth to His prophets.  But the problem is that today dreams and visions are rarely subjected to scripture for authentication.  Let me say this, if your dream is not supported by scripture, then it’s not of God.  Dreams and visions will never go against the scriptures.  But far too often today people claim a dream that they had to supply validation for something that they want to do, which is not aligned with scripture.  In Colossians 2:18 Paul warns against those that take their stand on visions that they have seen, and as such, defraud you of your prize.

Jude says they not only sin by dreaming, but they defile the flesh.  Defiling the flesh is probably a reference to immorality, which covers the gamut of sexual sins.  False doctrine is often used as a covering for immoral behavior.   Jude adds to that they reject authority.  Rejecting authority is tied directly to immoral behavior. But it goes further than just that.  It is rejecting the authority of the scriptures, it rejects the authority even of Jesus Christ, and sets itself up as it’s own authority.  

I can’t help but relate this to many of the mainstream denominations that claim to be Christian but for all intents and purposes have become apostate. They began by denying the authority and inspiration of all the scriptures.  They began to say that some things were simply cultural and we live in a different culture, and so there is no compulsion for us to keep certain restrictions and morals that Paul or other writers spoke of.  And so on that basis they made the decision to allow women as pastors in the church, because that was just a  cultural thing and we’ve gotten so far beyond that today.

And then they took it another step further and said that a homosexual lifestyle is not a sin, and that you can have full fellowship in the church irregardless of your sexual preferences. Then they took it a little further than that and said that since there was nothing wrong with homosexuality then there should be no restraint against ministers who are homosexual. That too should be allowed because we live in a different culture and a different time, and love is love, and God is love, and any scriptures saying otherwise are not to be taken literally.

The problem is that they have rejected the authority of the scriptures.  They have rejected the authority of Jesus Christ; it is His church, and He placed certain restrictions upon it.  And to reject His authority is to sin with the same terrible expectation of judgement that fell upon the Israelites, the angels, and Sodom and Gomorrah.  And if you are still in one of those churches, then I would suggest that you get out like Lot got out of Sodom, lest you end up being condemned along with them.

The third thing Jude says is a characteristic of these false prophets, is that they revile angelic majesties.  I can only assume that he is referencing the account of the angelic messengers who were sought after in the house of Lot by the men of Sodom and Gomorrah.  To revile is to insult.  

Jude says that these men revile angelic majesties.  However, in this case, Jude makes no distinction whether they be holy angels or fallen ones. But he gives us an illustration of reviling an angel, though in this case it is a fallen angel. In vs 9, Jude once again speaks of an event that is nowhere else mentioned in the scriptures.  He says, “But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

Its very interesting that Jude says that Michael is an archangel. An archangel, from what little we know of such things, is the highest order of angels in the entire hosts of heaven. The Bible indicates there is a hierarchy of angels. I wish we could spend some time talking about angels and their positions, and look at the other references in scripture to Michael.  I don’t have the time to do that today, however.  But if you’re interested in further research you can look at Daniel 10:13, and 1 Thess. 4:16.  

Our purpose here today, and the purpose of Jude, is not to give a dissertation on angels, but to make the point that certain men in the churches were reviling angelic majesties of which they had no business doing, and did so to their own destruction.

As you probably know, Moses was not allowed to go into the Promised Land, however, God took him up on a high mountain that he might see it from a distance.  And then Moses died and the scripture says that God buried Moses in a place that no one knew.  We can read about that in Deut. 34:5-6 “So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.  And He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows his burial place to this day.”  The indication from Jude, however, is that the devil attempted to claim the body of Moses.  We are not told why, but we might guess that he intended to use it to cause Israel to worship the body of Moses.

The point though that Jude wants to make, is even though Michael is an archangel of God, and has the full authority of that position and incredible power, yet he did not dare pronounce against the devil a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Michael relied upon the Lord’s authority, and not his own. 

Jude has told us that we are to contend, or fight for the faith. It is a spiritual battle.  And the manner of Michael’s fight is a model for spiritual warfare. First, we see that Michael was in a battle, such as we are when we contend for the faith. Secondly, we see that he battled in the Lord’s authority.  

Michael did not mock or accuse the devil. God hasn’t called us to judge the devil, to condemn the devil, to mock him or accuse him, but to battle against him in the name of the Lord. That doesn’t mean we go around claiming the blood of Jesus over every thing and every body. But that we contend by the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In His name comprises all the truth of Christ.

But in contrast to the example of Michael, who would not pronounce a railing judgement upon the devil, these certain men Judes speaks of spoke evil, especially when they rejected authority and reviled angelic majesties. Jude says in vs 10, “But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.”

I am reminded by this passage of the seven sons of Sceva, who were casting out demons by the name of Paul.  These were men that were in effect false prophets, who were trying to cash in on what they saw Paul doing, but which they had no authority to do.  And it says in Acts 19:13-16 “But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, ‘I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.’ Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.  And the evil spirit answered and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”

Jude says these certain men revile things they don’t understand, and by those things they are destroyed.  I find it telling that so many false prophets claim to have authority to cast out demons and they love to proclaim judgements that make them seem like a great man of God, with great power over the spiritual realm, when in fact they are often being duped and even controlled by the very powers that they purport to have authority over.

Well, in this last illustration, Jude has given us an example of whom we are to emulate.  We certainly don’t want to emulate the examples of the rebellious Israelites, nor the fallen angels, nor the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, but the example given we should emulate is that of Michael the archangel.  We are to recognize and bow to the ultimate authority who is Jesus Christ the Lord.  We are to contend for the faith which is His gospel.  We are to obey HIs commands.  We are to fight in the strength that He supplies and rebuke sin and licentiousness in the name of the Lord.  And in that way of following Michael’s example, we will ensure that we do not fall into the same condemnation as those who rebelled and did not believe.