Steadfastness | James 1:2-4

Good morning. It's wonderful to be with you today. I would ask that you invite or you open your Bibles to the Book of James, chapter one, verses two through four. Where we will be today, we began a new journey last week as we stepped slowly into the Book of James, we read chapter one, verse one, which includes a tremendous amount of context for the letter. We learned that James was the younger brother of Jesus of Nazareth, God the Son in human flesh, the promised Savior, the rescuer, the Christ.

And though James didn't fully understand what it meant for Jesus to be the Christ as they were growing up, we know at some point around Jesus' death, burial and resurrection, James surrendered to Jesus as Lord. He became a leader of the church in Jerusalem and found himself surrounded by many who were like himself, having their worlds turned completely upside down by the gospel.

Though James and the fledgling church around him were finding joy and peace and hope through Christ, they were encountering persecution from all sides, losing jobs, relationships, security, even homes for their commitment to Jesus as the Messiah. Specifically, James' letter was written to Jewish Christians who had been part of the dispersion. Now the dispersion was a scattering of the chosen family of God, the Jews, over hundreds of years. Most recently this included those who had fled Jerusalem after Stephen became the first Christian martyr, murdered for his faith by the religious elite. So James' initial audience was not an easy one.

There were friends, family, kinsmen, who were likely wondering why following Jesus meant encountering such difficulty.

After all, couldn't God just snap his fingers, make all their troubles disappear and put the church in some kind of Christian bubble wrap to keep them safe and happy and numb until heaven?

Well, while God could do that, one thing James wants to remind his readers as he begins his letter is that when God saves a person, he does so for a reason. And that reason is not necessarily to bring them ease, but to make them useful. So we read in Ephesians 2:8-10, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast.

For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

This means, Christian, that it matters how we live.

If we claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, saved by his miraculous grace, it matters whether we are actually following his will and way by faith. Now this is not a matter of earning our salvation through good works,but displaying God's work of salvation in us. Our faith in God is to be lived. Our faith in God is to display the Gospel. Our faith in God is to be proof of resurrected life.

The reality is that just as he did in Genesis, today God is making a bold, urgent, salvific proclamation through his people to the nations about who he, the one true God, is. 2nd Corinthians 5:20 tells us we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.

Now, in a fallen and broken world steeped in sin, we will all have trials, especially as followers of Jesus, swimming against social, cultural and even religious currents in this world, we will encounter difficulty, hardships and trials.

How then, James asks, ought we as believers to prepare ourselves? Let's read James chapter one, beginning in verse two.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

So, as we said last week, the Book of James is not a grand theological, systematic, apologetic. It's not a prophetic discourse requiring vast Old Testament knowledge. The Book of James is a highly practical guide for Christian living. Now, while that doesn't make the book easy, it does make it very direct. In fact, the Book of James contains the highest frequency of imperatives or commands of any book in the New Testament.

So what is James' first and foundational imperative to his readers? Well, verse two, he says, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. So James' first imperative in his command to followers of Jesus Christ in the dispersion is that when they encounter trials of various kinds, they should receive them with joy.

Well, thanks James. That just makes everything better. Why didn't I think of that? Life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade, turn that frown upside down when your faith forces you to make that life altering decision, when your safety and your security is at risk, when that cancer diagnosis comes through, when that tragedy occurs, and when that relationship has to be broken, just be happy about it. Is that what James is saying?

Is James just delusional, completely out of touch?

Is he being overly simplistic or glib?

Is he offering some kind of clownish denial or macho indifference to the very real things in the world that hurt us, particularly those things related to our faith?

No.

James, of all people who saw his older brother murdered, who in about 15 years from this writing will also be martyred for his faith, knows the Christian life is not roses and butterflies and rainbow-colored gumdrops.

James lives in the real world.

He has seen brothers and sisters in Christ murdered and tortured for their faith. He has heard the bloodthirsty demands of the religious elite and seen the heavy-handed discipline of the Roman government. His friends, his family, his church are being scattered throughout the region, chased at the tip of a sword, to the mocking delight of those who believe they are absolutely crazy for following Jesus.

But James is not telling believers that they must enjoy their trials or that trials in and of themselves should be joyful.

James is appealing to, as Aslan the lion might say, a much deeper magic.

James is reminding believers that in Christ there is available a conscious understanding and even embrace of all things. There's an overarching context and a story that turns temporary mourning into laughter, present heartache into peace, and yes, even trials into reasons for joy. This is why James' first imperative to believers is not to have a feeling or emotion, not to be joyful, but to have a mindset, to hold a perspective, a stalwart and unwavering stance that whatever comes our way, we will count it. That's the first imperative. Count it as joy.

James' first appeal is not to the believer's heart but to their mind. James is calling believers to recognize, label, categorize and filter everything, including trials, through a certain lens. And that lens is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel equips us with a worldview that, after all is said and done, no matter what it is, it provides the believer with joy.

This joy is a settled contentment. It's a calm delight, a deep, steady trust, hope and confidence in God, knowing that he is sovereign and that he is at work through all things for his glory and for our good.

Because James knows that in this broken and fallen world we will have trials, especially as Christians, forsaking ourselves, dying to this world, turning from the demands of our sinful flesh, clinging to a God we cannot see, taking up our cross, trusting and following him by faith according to His Word. We should anticipate that doing those things will cost us something.

Trials are a part of every person's life in a fallen world. Yet they are even more certain when one surrenders to the counterintuitive, countercultural way of the Kingdom of God, as Paul said in 2nd Timothy 3:12, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

What James is saying, then, is not that trials aren't a big deal, that we won't be deeply impacted by them, or that they don't hurt.

This broken world can hurt. And it's okay when suffering comes to admit that you are suffering. The Christian life is not about denying or avoiding or ignoring the difficult things of this world, but understanding them rightly, seeing them with new eyes. This is part of the Romans 12:2 renewal of our minds, that we may understand simply that God uses everything and wastes nothing. All things will serve the Almighty God for his sovereign purposes. The holy living good God has power over even sin, death and evil.

That same Genesis 3 heel struck by the serpent's fangs, will in the end crush its head. As Joseph said in Genesis 50, verse 20, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.

Faith in God is understanding that he is sovereign not only over the ends, but also over the means.

And what is the purpose for both these ends and their means? Look at verse three, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

So what might seem like irrational joy in the face of trials becomes clearly reasonable when we recognize that even the most difficult things we face have spiritual value.

Though in many ways trials may be destructive, in the hands of God they are productive.

And how are they productive? Well, here James says, it's because trials serve to test our faith. Meaning when trials come, they are truth revealing.

They force us to ask whether we are trusting Jesus because of who he is or because of who we want him to be.

They force us to consider if we are following Jesus because of what he has done for us or for what we think we can get him to do.

They force us to evaluate, is God our greatest treasure, or is he simply a means for us to something that we perceive as being greater?

Now, these are important questions and ones that every believer must ask.

Therefore, testing in the life of the Christian is not to be regarded not only as necessary but as beneficial. Psalm 26:1, the Psalmist says, examine me, O Lord, and try me, test my mind and my heart. Psalm 139:23-24 says, search me, O God, and know my heart, try me, and know my anxious thoughts, and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. Lamentations 3:40 says, let us examine and probe our ways, and let us return to the Lord. 2nd Corinthians 13:5 says, test yourselves to see if you are in the faith.

Examine yourselves. Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail the test?

Now why is it so necessary, so beneficial, that we know whether or not our faith in Christ is real?

Well, as one pastor said, the master counterfeiter of saving faith is Satan disguising themselves as angels of light. He and his servants deceive the unwary through false systems of religion, including false forms of Christianity, thinking they are on the narrow path leading to heaven. Those who are trapped in counterfeit religion or who simply trust in their personal concept of salvation are actually on the way to eternal damnation. To be deceived about one's relationship to God is the most dangerous and frightening delusion possible.

Jesus said it this way in Matthew 7:21-23, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

Luke 8:13, Jesus said in the parable of the sower, the seeds on the rock are those who, when they hear the Word, receive it with joy. But these have no root. They believe for a while and in a time of testing, fall away.

That is what James is wanting his readers to understand, that because God loves us, he allows the reality of our faith to be revealed even through the most powerful or difficult of means.

And if our faith holds true, we gain great confidence in God and appreciation for the work of his Spirit in our lives. If it proves false, we gain understanding of our need for repentance and saving faith in Jesus Christ alone. But either way, James knows what is inside of us is most truly revealed when we are pressed.

This is the loving, uncomfortable truth that James is placing before his readers, that how a person handles trials is a great revealer of whether their professed faith in Jesus as Lord is genuine.

Now, that's the rough part. But here's the redeeming part.

The more our faith is tested, the more we persevere, the more we cling to Christ. Even when the things of this world claw to pull us away, the more we develop what James calls steadfastness. Now, steadfastness means endurance. It's a stick-to-itiveness, a fortitude, a toughness. Just as muscles grow the more they are engaged with resistance, just as love grows the more it is threatened with loss.

Just as skills and abilities grow the more they are sharpened, the more our faith grows in God, as God proves himself faithful. It is the testing of our faith, James says, that produces godly steadfastness. Verse four, and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. And church, so there is the end game.

What is God doing in you? Even as you endure various kinds of trials, God is actively working for your sanctification to make you perfect, complete, lacking in nothing. Now, let's be careful with that. This perfection of which James speaks is not a moral perfection or a sinlessness. We cannot achieve this side of heaven.

1st John 1:8 says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. James is not saying that through our endurance or steadfastness we achieve some level or status of perfection where we no longer need Christ.

James is saying that when we view trials through gospel lenses, we are drawn nearer and nearer to the only one who is fully perfect, fully complete and fully lacking in nothing.

The thirstier we get, the more we seek the fountain of living water, the more imperfect we find ourselves. The more we look to the perfection of Christ, the more we experience the brokenness and emptiness of the things of this world, the more we recognize the completeness and the fullness of Christ. This is the beauty of life in the Spirit, trusting and following God's word.

The more concern we have, the more our prayer life increases, the more we see the results of evil, the more we hunger and long for righteousness, the more this temporal home reveals itself for what it is, the more we look toward our eternal home in heaven. And the more we see that our greatest need is rescue from sin, the more we see that we have everything we need through the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Just as a tool becomes more useful as it is sharpened, as a muscle becomes more agile as it is stretched, so too our effectiveness in the kingdom of God grows as we endure through a variety of trials, which the Spirit uses to make us more holy.

And why? Because the more we trust God through trials, the more we learn God can be trusted. In trials, seeds of faith in the soil of trial grow into experience.

Experience then blooms with trust.

Trust then produces a harvest of worship.

This is a beautiful truth from God's Word, church. When God saves us, he doesn't leave us alone.

God isn't just trying to get us out of this world and into heaven. He doesn't want us to just pray a prayer and then move on with our lives, as we saw previously. Such is not true saving faith.

When God calls, redeems and rescues us in Christ, he gives us a path to follow. And what will be on that path? We don't know. It will look different for each and every one of us. What we do know is that for every one of us, that path will include trials.

And those trials will either deter us from God's path or strengthen our legs as we walk into whatever else God has for us. But either way, God does not give us trials to push us away, but to draw us near, to help us see and to make us holy.

As we encounter whatever trials God has ordained for our path, James would have us see them not as obstacles, but as opportunities.

Opportunities for our faith to be revealed, opportunities for our faith to be strengthened, and opportunities for our faith to display the Gospel.

Church, in John 16:33, Jesus said, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, or trouble, or trial. But take heart, Jesus says, I have overcome the world.

Though it doesn't mean we have to like trials, we should expect them in our jobs, in our schools, in our relationships, in our families, even in the church.

We know we cannot escape frustration, disappointment, criticism, pain, disease and brokenness, both inside and outside of us this side of heaven.

But in Christ we know what to do with those seasons when they come. We know how to categorize, how to view, how to process those trials so that in the end what comes from them, rather than death and defeat, is life and strength.

As one scholar said, faith that is reliable only when things are going well is not saving faith and is worth nothing. It is in fact worth less than nothing because it deceives those who trust in it. Not only will it fail them when they need help the most, but immeasurably worse, it will lead them to think they are headed for heaven, when in reality they are headed for hell.

Church, God is good and kind and loving to use trials to reveal our faith.

God is faithful when our faith is tested, and God is for us when the testing of our faith makes us steadfast.

Steadfastness brings us to maturity, perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, because we more clearly see God, God who is perfect, complete and lacking in nothing.

Thus when we meet trials, James says, in many ways we meet God, and God is our greatest source of joy.

Colossians 1, beginning verse 10, the apostle Paul said, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to God the Father. Let's pray.

Oh God, we thank you above all things for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we thank you for your Word, there's the light into our path. Thank you for your Spirit that guides us and leads us and so faithfully shows us that you are always with us.

We thank you that because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, we no longer have to fear our greatest enemy, that is sin and death.

Thank you that when we come to you and surrender to you as Lord and Savior and King, you receive us as a loving Father.

So, God, I know that in this room there are many who are undergoing severe trials.

And, God, I wish I could just roll out the reasons why. I wish we could just explain them all. But, God, in your sovereignty and in your wisdom, there are some things you just lead us through.

And as you do, God, I pray that you would receive the glory. I pray that you would use us for gospel proclamation, that Jesus is better, better than anything this world can throw at us.

I pray, God, that whatever is in the path that you have ordained for each and every one of us, that when we encounter it, you will bring our eyes to Christ, who for our sake endured the greatest and deepest evil, yet who triumphed over the grave, is now seated on the throne. Jesus, we love you. We thank you. We lean on you completely. It's in your name that we pray.

Amen.