The Book of James addresses practical issues that are as current as the morning's newspaper. The faith that Christians profess must be lived out in every situation and circumstance of life--at home, in the neighborhood, in church, and at work. Trials and hardships are not obstacles to faith, but opportunities for spiritual growth. Knowing God's Word is not enough. That knowledge must be applied to our everyday life. As we study the Book of James, we will discover what it means to live for Christ in the real world.
Introduction - (James 1:1)
- Handout- 2/11/18 Lesson 1:How to Endure Trials - (James 1:2-12) - Handout - 2/18/18 Lesson 2:Whose Fault Is Our Temptation - (James 1:13-18)
- Handout - 3/4/18 Lesson 3: Responding to the Word - (James 1:19-27) - Handout - 3/25/18 Lesson 4: Partiality & Favoritism in the Church (James 2:1-13) - Handout - 4/1/18 Lesson 5: Faith and Action (James 2:14-26)
- Handout - 5/6/18 Lesson 6: Taming the Tongue (James 3:1-12)
- Handout - 5/20/18
Lesson 7: Earthly Wisdom vs. Heavenly Wisdom (James 3:13-18)
- Handout - 6/17/18 Lesson 8: The Danger in Being a Friend of the World (James 4:1-6)
- Handout - 7/1/18 Lesson 9: Drawing Near to God (James 4:7-10)
- Handout - 7/22/18 Lesson 10: Sin of Defaming Others (James 4:11-12)
- Handout - 8/5/18 Lesson 11: Responding to the Will of God (James 4:13-17)
- Handout - 8/12/18 Lesson 12: How A Living Faith Lives (James 5:1-20)
- Handout - 8/25/18
Why do New Year's resolutions rarely work? Mostly because they are things that we "want" to change or implement in our life but are not fully committed to before we begin. We are initially motivated by the "idea" of this new resolution without the full commitment of our will.
The battles for change are first won or lost in the secret places of our will in God's presence, never in full view of the world.
Last week in our study of Hebrews we talked about running the race of faith. It is a race that requires endurance. To make a positive change in your life you must not only be fully resolved in your will, but must also endure. The journey to your goal will most likely be challenged by life's many landmines and roadblocks. There will no doubt be plenty of reasons to make excuses as to why you must forego your resolution and return to your old habits.
As the year is fresh and your desires are strong, get alone with God and explore your desires for improvement and change. Ask Him to direct you in the areas that are in most need of change. Let your driving motivation to change or improve be something that will bring glory to God.
"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13)
Where The Battle Is Won or Lost - My Utmost for His Highest
The battle is lost or won in the secret places of the will before God, never first in the external world. The Spirit of God apprehends me and I am obliged to get alone with God and fight the battle out before Him. Until this is done, I lose every time. The battle may take one minute or a year, that will depend on me, not on God; but it must be wrestled out alone before God, and I must resolutely go through the hell of a renunciation before Him. Nothing has any power over the man who has fought out the battle before God and won there. If I say, “I will wait till I get into the circumstances and then put God to the test,” I shall find I cannot. I must get the thing settled between my self and God in the secret places of my soul where no stranger intermeddles, and then I can go forth with the certainty that the battle is won. Lose it there, and calamity and disaster and upset are as sure as God’s decree. The reason the battle is not won is because I try to win it in the external world first. Get alone with God, fight it out before Him, settle the matter there once and for all.
In dealing with other people, the line to take is to push them to an issue of will. That is the way abandonment begins. Every now and again, not often, but sometimes, God brings us to a point of climax. That is the Great Divide in the life; from that point we either go towards a more and more dilatory and useless type of Christian life, or we become more and more ablaze for the glory of God — “My Utmost for His Highest.”
The Scriptures often visualize the Christian life by using many illustrations and figures of speech. As we read the Bible we must do as Paul said in 2 Timothy 2:7: "Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this."
The Christian life is pictured as- Warfare; a wrestling match; boxing match; slavery; a farming operation; a marriage; a father/son relationship. (2 Timothy 2:3, 6; Ephesians 6:12; 6:10-17; 1 Corinthians 9:26; Romans 6:18; 7:25)
A Race of Faith
In this lesson we looked at how the Christian life is a "race". Paul compared the Christian life to a race on several occasions:
"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." (1 Corinthians 9:24)
"You were running a good race." (Galatians 5:7)
"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:14)
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (2 Timothy 4:7)
After completing the great chapter on faith (Chapter 11), the author of Hebrews starts Chapter 12 by referring to the Christian life as a "Race of Faith": "...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us..." (v. 1)
In the Greek, the word for "race, struggle, or contest" is agon (with a long "o"). Sound familiar? It is the root of our word "agony". Meditate on that for a minute and it should help you better understand the difficulty of living the Christian life. It is not easy. That is why it requires your total commitment.
Run Forrest, Run!!!
In the movie Forrest Gump, Forrest was required to wear leg braces after a doctor diagnosed him as having a crooked spine, although he had strong legs. In a clip from the movie, I showed Forrest being chased by bullies wanting to beat him to a pulp. As Forrest responds to Jennie's cries to "Run, Forrest!!", he awkwardly attempts to flee, hobbling down the dirt road. While straining to run, suddenly, the braces on his legs start to break off. Once they are off, he "runs like the wind", escaping the three thugs on bikes. From that point on, Forrest said, "If I was going somewhere, I was running!"
What better illustration is there for us to visualize the effort and urgency for us to RUN!!!
So what are we running from? We are running from "the sin which so easily entangles us..." (v. 1) You are running from the enemy (Satan). You are running "for your life".
What are you running to? Paul said, "But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead." (Philippians 3:12). We are running the race of faith to bring God glory. Our prize is to finish well and to finally be joined with Christ in our heavenly home.
The outline for Sunday's lesson:
1. Event – “…the race that is set before us.” (Marathon, not a sprint). It is a race of endurance. We are not to sit around, but to put forth every ounce of energy. "Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria." (Amos 6:1)
2. Encouragement – “…we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” (those mentioned in Chapter 11 who ran with faith and endurance). They are not watching us, cheering us on. They are our witnesses because they have finished the race.
3. Encumbrances – “…let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily entangle us…”
- 1 Peter 2:1: Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. The smallest of sins holds us back. We all have particular weaknesses. Those are the sins which "so easily entangle us..."
- The worst weight when running a “race of faith” is unbelief or doubt.
4. Example – “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
- Baseball player (Batter and Fielder) keeps eye on ball
- Football player (QB and Receiver) keeps eye on ball
- Track runner keeps focused on finish line not those behind him.
Philippians 3:12: "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it [the prize]. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,"
5. Exhortation – When you get weary and faint… (v. 3) “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
Who is in the race? If you are a believer, you are in the race!
We've seen in chapter 11 the author's immense attempt to show that salvation comes by faith and faith alone, and that those who belong to God walk by faith as well. It is both the faith of the sinner that initiates salvation and the faith of the saint that marks his ongoing sanctification.
After looking at What Faith Is, we turned to What Faith Does. The author used 16 people from the past to attempt to show that it has always been faith, not works, that is the basis of our salvation and sanctification. Through the lives of these people we've seen that true faith is "...the conviction of things not seen." True faith believes God without having to see proof.
An often quoted verse in Romans 8:28 says: "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose." Paul used two very defining words in this verse: "know" and "all". This is the kind of faith we must have; a faith that knows and believes all that God has said.
This past Sunday we looked at Abraham and Sarah - (vs. 8-19)
The Jews took all of their lineage back to Abraham. The author establishes that Abraham lived by faith and therefore all Jews must also live by faith.
Abraham has been used often as an illustration of faith: Acts 7 - Stephen uses Abraham as an illustration of faith; Romans 4 & Galatians 3 - Paul uses Abraham as an illustration of faith.
5 Standards (features) of Faith
1. The Pilgrimage of Faith - separation from the world.
(v. 8) “By faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after received for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing where he went [where he was going].”
2. The Patience of Faith - waiting for God to work while focused on Heaven.
(v. 9) “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;” (v. 10) “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
3. The Power of Faith - doing the impossible.
(v. 11) “Through faith [not Sarah’s faith] also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised.” (12) “Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.”
4. The Positivism of Faith - focusing on God's eternal promise and believing that it's guaranteed.
(v. 13) “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” (16) “But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”
5. The Proof of Faith - obedience and sacrifice
(vs. 17-19) By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called, concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. (see Genesis 22:1-18)
Test of Faithfulness
It is only a faithful person who truly believes that God sovereignly controls his circumstances. We take our circumstances for granted, saying God is in control, but not really believing it. We act as if the things that happen were completely controlled by people. To be faithful in every circumstance means that we have only one loyalty, or object of our faith— the Lord Jesus Christ. God may cause our circumstances to suddenly fall apart, which may bring the realization of our unfaithfulness to Him for not recognizing that He had ordained the situation. We never saw what He was trying to accomplish, and that exact event will never be repeated in our life. This is where the test of our faithfulness comes. If we will just learn to worship God even during the difficult circumstances, He will change them for the better very quickly if He so chooses.
Being faithful to Jesus Christ is the most difficult thing we try to do today. We will be faithful to our work, to serving others, or to anything else; just don’t ask us to be faithful to Jesus Christ. Many Christians become very impatient when we talk about faithfulness to Jesus. Our Lord is dethroned more deliberately by Christian workers than by the world. We treat God as if He were a machine designed only to bless us, and we think of Jesus as just another one of the workers.
The goal of faithfulness is not that we will do work for God, but that He will be free to do His work through us. God calls us to His service and places tremendous responsibilities on us. He expects no complaining on our part and offers no explanation on His part. God wants to use us as He used His own Son. (December 18 - My Utmost for His Highest)
Who do you know, respect, and possibly admire whose life exemplified endurance and perseverance in their faith and walk with Christ up until the end? For me, it was a grandmother who walked with Christ up until her last day. When I reflect on my remembrance of her I see a woman who put Christ first.
Faith endures and perseveres in obedience to the end. This is how we mark the life of a true believer. Endurance and perseverance in obedience is the common thread that connects all of the examples the author is showing us in chapter 11. This chapter is sandwiched between several verses where we see the author emphasizing the need for endurance to continue strong to the end. Not giving up! Two examples below:
"For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise." (10:36)
"...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us..." (12:1)
I mentioned three character traits that are enemies to endurance and perseverance (can be seen in any endeavor in life):
1. The Dabbler (gives up): Someone who begins with great zeal and desire but soon loses interest and quits, moving on to something new to "dabble" in.
2. The Obsessive (burns out): Someone who loses balance and pours every ounce of their lives into it for a period of time and soon burns out and quits.
3. The Hacker (gets by): Someone who reaches a certain level in their journey and stops learning and growing. Their decision to just "get by" and not keep pushing forward is a decision to fall away. We are either moving forward or falling back. In time, the hacker will lose what he has gained.
The people of faith that the author references in chapter 11 were not dabblers, obsessive, or hackers. They were persistent people who ran with endurance to the end of their lives. We see in these three verses (vs. 20-22) that their faith was strong, even in the face of death.
These three, short verses mention 3 of the 4 great patriarchs: Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Why did the author only allocate three verses for these men when the story of their lives consumed 38 chapters in Genesis (12-50)? The reason he only had to mention them briefly, beginning with "By faith...", is because his audience of Hebrews were intimately familiar with these men. The mere mention of their names was all that was needed to make the connection of their lives with the concept of faith.
In verse 13, the author connects the fact that even at the point of death, having not seen the fulfillment of God's promises to Abraham, they still had faith to believe. All these died in faith without receiving the promise.
Next week we will complete this great chapter on FAITH!
Last week we looked at "What FAITH is..." This week we started looking at "What FAITH does..."
Beginning in verse 4 of chapter 11, the author shows his Jewish audience/readers that "faith" is not something new. He goes all the way back to the time of Adam and uses sixteen people who demonstrated the kind of faith that exemplifies the definition found in verses 1: "Now faith is the substance/realization of things hoped for, the evidence/conviction of things not seen."
We began by looking at Moses. "By faith Moses..." (vs. 23-29)
Moses is a great example for the author to use because the Jews always associated Moses with the law--the great Mosaic Law. He was also the greatest of the Old Testament figures. Since the Jews lived by works not faith, seeing that Moses was a man of faith makes him a great standard. Looking at Moses we see the decisions that faith makes--what faith accepts and what it rejects.
NOTE: The record of the life of Moses covers the Old Testament from Exodus, chapter 2 to Deuteronomy, chapter 34. Almost four of the books of the Pentateuch are about Moses.
The Decisions of Faith
Faith REJECTS:
1. The world's prestige (v. 24) - "...refused to be called the son of the Pharaoh's daughter."
2. The world's pleasure (v. 25) - "Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season."
3. The world's plenty (v. 26) "Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt..."
4. The world's pressure (v.27) "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king..."
Faith ACCEPTS:
1. The Lord's plans (v. 23) - "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child [fair unto God]..."
2. The Lord's provisions (v. 28) - "Through faith he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them."
3. The Lord's promises (v. 29) - "By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians attempting to do were drowned."
Faith is very decisive, and life is made up of decisions. From the time that you wake in the morning, you begin a process of making decisions. At every juncture of your life you are either fulfilling the will of the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit, or you are fulfilling your own will and quenching the Spirit. And so you go through life making the decision to be filled or to quench the Spirit. You go through your life deciding for the will of God or against it. When you're spiritually mature, there's no more decision because both of the wills always agree.That's real maturity.
So as we come to Moses, we are zeroing in on the decisions that faith makes. When somebody really believes God; when somebody really trusts in God and believes that God honestly and truly has his best interest at heart, then he will, on the basis of that trust, make certain decisions. And those decisions become the decisions that really govern his temporal existence and his eternal existence as well.
Now, the writer of the book of Hebrews has presented, for ten chapters, the new covenant. And he's presented it to people tied to the old covenant, namely the Hebrews. And he has tried to show them that they can leave Judaism, they can leave the old covenant and they can come all the way to Jesus Christ. And then he introduces the concept of faith at the end of the 10th chapter by saying, now the only way you'll ever apprehend the new covenant is by faith. He makes it clear that "faith" isn't anything new because your own prophet Habakkuk said "the just shall live"...what?..."by faith."
So the author says the only way they will ever be able to get a grip on the new covenant in Christ... which brings a man into God's presence and forgives his sin and give him eternal life... is by faith.
Next week, we will look at another example of faith.
