Greetings and Intro to testing of your Faith
James 1:1-4 · Andrew Molloy · Jan 22, 2023
James, No. 02
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261929593717

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

Okay, James 1, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4 is what we're on. Greetings is the first part of this lesson, and then introduction to the testing of your faith. So here's the verses. I'll read them quickly. James, a bondservant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the 12 tribes who are dispersed abroad, greetings. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect results, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

And I highlighted verse one there, because I'm not going to cover too much of it. Bob did such a wonderful job last week of introducing the book and so and FW Grant among a couple other guys said that you know James is all exhortation all all doctrine and he starts you know like 12 words in here with considered all joy and it's We need to look at this application and those three verses that are really important to set it up for next week, too. So I'm just gonna gloss over verse one. We learn that James, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, wrote the book probably early in the maybe early 40s or mid-40s. And these 12 tribes of Israel The Jews, of course, that they were in Jerusalem, and many of them became believers. And I think they still identified with their tribe. Now they're in Christ, but they still identified with their heritage. And the Romans kicked them out.

And I've been reading a lot about all what's happened to the Jews all throughout history, even before this, they've always been dispersed. always been scattered and always been... I thought that the Holocaust was the worst thing that happened to them. But in fact, there are so many smaller holocausts that occurred to the Jews over history that it adds up. It's just incredible. I was reading an article about that. So they're dispersed.

And James just goes right in to addressing these Jewish believers about the trials they're having in these foreign lands and things like that, and among their persecution. But what we're going to do today is kind of bring it forward to modern times with us, and we're going to do a lot of application of these verses for us in the here and now, if that's okay. Because we have trials too, not as much as those Jews had, but nonetheless, here we go. So he says, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.

The first thought I had is it's an oxymoronic statement. It's how can trials bring you bring us joy, right? Those two things don't match. The word consider is hegemon. To think of it this way, think of these when you encounter various trials that it should bring you joy. Think of it joy or deem it to be joy when you encounter various trials.

Interesting that he that it can say I said it would be low kid so my Which is reckoned to be true, but it's not it's a different word. It's not a look. It's a my it's a head Joe my a GGE o m a I maybe a softer word of consider here so consider all joy joy is the mindset that we are commanded to have and And the word there is C-H-A-R-A, kara, means an occasion for gladness, well-being. The same use happens in Matthew 25, 21, where Christ says, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. So anyone recognize what that kara word is related to?

Grace? Grace? Right, right, good. It's a close cousin of Charis. Grace. And if you listen to those Macaulay, those four series of Macaulay's sessions on Grace, you know, he really, in that first session, session one on Grace, he really outlines it really well and clear. So grace is something that affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness, grace of speech. You know, my colleague does a really good job of laying that out. When people were following Christ, they were amazed at his charis. He was charismatic, not like a charismatic figure of today, but his words were so loaded with sweetness and beauty that people would follow. So that's what that means. So joy is closely related to that, and that's what we're to have when we encounter various trials.

The word encounter is peripeto. It's a subjunctive mood. So you may or may not encounter various trials. It's the same word that describes the man who got overtaken by robbers on the way to Jericho, and then he got surrounded and then beat up by robbers, and then a good Samaritan took him in, right? Same word, peripetito. It means to fall into and encompassed. Various. Various trials. Various is poikilos. And Strong's has that as all sorts and all colors of trials. Poikilos. So trials is perosmos. That's that. There's two words for trials. That word for trials in verse two is perosmos.

So when you encounter all shapes and sizes of cross-mass events coming at you at every given time. And I thought of baseball pitches, curveballs, encounter sliders, fastballs, change-ups, knuckleballs. And our trials, they're ubiquitous. Ubiquitous? Ubiquitous, ubiquitous, yeah. They happen all the time from the moment you get up, right? it's just things aches and pains and yeah come at you and uh you know you didn't go away to dishes last night and you get in trouble with your wife and so these are trials um yeah stuff happens yes yes that's right that's right that that word parashmash does that mean with a view towards failure yes Yeah, good, good.

Good, Mike, you're putting your head there. But we'll look at that. Perosmos. So the two words together are poikilosperosmos. And I said it sounds fun, but it's not. And I just, that's, I thought of Vern when I wrote that. Vern would, kind of like that. So here it is, Mike was giving this, but here's perosmos.

There's a bad sense and a good sense. The bad sense. And there's three types of bad sense Piras Mas trials. It's an internal or external temptation to sin, which is what we know. That's what we think of Piras Mas trials. Or B, it's adversity, general affliction or trouble. And then Wiest has this third kind of Parosmos trial, a test with the hope that the one put to the test breaks down under the test, fails the test. So just as Mike said there. It's not a friendly test. Right. Yeah. And it doesn't have to be, I guess it doesn't have to be too bad. It's just they're looking for it to fail.

So that's proosmos. In a good sense then, and I didn't know this fully until I studied this and read the Wiest paper on these two trials, but there's a good sense to proosmos and that is to try or test intentionally with the purpose of discovering what is good or evil or what if there's power or weakness in a person or thing is what Wiest says. And that's how it's used back in the ancient Greek. And Jesus Christ used it himself. He gave a Piros Mastral to, well, we'll look at this in a minute, to Philip.

We'll look at that. I have a question. Yeah. Well, I guess it's not a question. I go back to the word joy. And to me, It means the testing that our faith means. We are going out and we're presenting the word to the world. We have a close relationship with Christ. This joy is, through this testing, we become closer to God. We're more mature Yeah, it's the things that we want to do we want to please God So I think that's why you can say it's a joy Because you know the result is going to be good Yeah Excellent point excellent point, but keep that point in mind until like the 10th slide or so and then I think Yeah, that's an excellent point. So, see if this agrees with what you just said here in a bit. So, the Purazzo trial can be in a good sense.

So, God never sends that bad sense. He never sends a temptation to sin. He never invites you to sin. But what he can do is let adversity, you see up there in B, adversity, affliction, trouble, he can let that come through to you. And for his purposes.

So in Luke chapter six, verses five and six, Jesus looked up and he saw a large crowd coming. So he turned to Philip and said, Philip, where are we to buy bread that these may eat? And it says that he said this because he was testing, he was testing Philip, not with a view to sin, but he was just trying to find where Philip's weakness was. Because Philip looked to his human nature and looked to human viewpoint and said, well, we have about 50 bucks. I don't think that's enough to feed all these people. Or the Piggly Wiggly was in the last town. Now it's too far away to go and buy food. But Christ himself knew in advance what he was going to do. And he just wanted to let Philip know that he was, depending on his human viewpoint there, So that was a Pirosmos trial coming from Christ himself, which is kind of interesting. Let me get my computer here working.

Okay, so knowing. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Knowing is Gnosko. And that's knowledge that you come into knowledge by experience, right? Or learning as a poista oida, which is intuitive knowledge. So the fact that a Pirazo trial should be looked at in a joyous mind frame is definitely not intuitive to our mind. So thereby, why the word knowing there's Gnosko instead of Oida.

Andrew, that's something like, may I jump ahead, but that's something the Lord wants to teach us, right? Right, yeah. Yes, this is all a teaching process. Knowing is growing, I guess you could say, right? As you know more about how God uses trials, you'll grow spiritual. But we'll see that, too, coming up. It's counterintuitive, and it's come through walking with the Lord and learning it moment by moment, year by year, and perhaps failing at some point, especially maybe when you don't know it yet as a young Christian.

And then James, it's interesting, he, if you fail, under these trials which are supposed to be a view towards approval, and we'll get to that, James addresses sin. You know, he goes into that when you're tempted, and he goes through the sin process. He even addresses that, so James is very thorough with all this. It's very interesting.

So the testing of your faith, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. So testing in verse 3 is a dokimion or a dokimazo is the verb. So different word for trial or testing. So you get a trial which is prosmas and then God uses that as a in a dokimazo sense. Dokimazo is to discern, to prove, to try, to examine with a view towards approval. approval under the test and most often use of God's testing and this is a that's from least and this is the real purpose of the trial that you'd be proved out and that's how God is using these Piros Mas trials that are coming at you.

Documento is used in first Corinthians 3 13 and 14 for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire. That is your works. And the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built upon remains, he will receive a reward.

So that's the word there. Andrew? Yeah. It's as if Daki Matsuo has two actions. It's trying, but it's also, after the trying, there's approval. Is that true? Yeah, yeah. There's a trial. I looked at it, and it's a little tricky, but I looked at it, and I think this is correct.

A trial comes at you. these verses has your response in mind. Starting with verse three, that knowing, that gnosko word is sort of like a switch or a junction right there. So the trial comes at you and then your response, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. So there's two words for trials, but one is coming to you and the testing or the dokimatsu, is your response to the trial is how I kind of think of it. So the, and the, the main thing is, are you going to respond in your human nature or by divine nature? So that's, that's what it's getting at there.

But yeah, you're correct. There's tours for trials. And, um, that's a good point, Jimmy. Well, Andrew, sometimes we'll say with Dhakyamata, it's with a view to approval, because the Lord wants to approve. He wants to show you that you... His desire is that you pass the test. Right, yes. He's not trying to make you fail. He wants you to pass. No, He always wants you... And walk by faith. Right. The other one, Parasmas, which is not from God, is the one that the world the flesh and the devil are about, and that wants to bring you down. Yes, the world, the flesh and the devil send the invitations to sin, the solicitations to sin.

And that's why I was thinking of it as pitches, you know, fastballs, curveballs. So you could say that the starting pitcher is the world. The relief pitcher is The flesh, the flesh comes up and pitches. Then the closer, a really good closer is the devil. I thought of that, I don't know if it's good or not. He's a really good closing pitcher, better than Mariano Rivera. But I don't know if that analogy kind of holds up under scrutiny. Yeah, one of the things that's...

Can you hear good? Yeah, I can hear you really well. Okay, the teaching that your dad gave in his series on faith here was really good in that this is the method that God chooses to use so that when we come to believe something, when we are coming to know something and say, yep, that's true, I believe it, then from God there's this test for approval. Oh, you believe that? Okay, let's see if you believe it. And he doesn't want you to fail, he wants you to pass, but he puts you through that with some kind of a test in your life, so that what you believe becomes fixed, permanent, good, you know, becomes part of you, who you are.

Right, yeah, yeah, and the trials are, I read in those notes too that they're specifically designed, right, for people like us. He designed our menu of our life's trials exactly how they're supposed to be. And the bottom line is we become like Christ. Yeah, right, right. That's, yeah, Christ-likeness, yeah. Yeah, really, really great stuff. So, oh, here's the point that Roy was making. God's documents of testing are specifically designed for us. This is what I was talking about.

His guiding hand and care are in each one. That's from 1 Corinthians 10, 13. God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also that you may be able to endure it. And there's our word endure, right? Perpicto. So purpose in the trial, there's always purpose in these trials. Even these prosmos trials. We're supposed to pass the prosmos trials though, right? We're not supposed to sin. We're supposed to hold up under the trial. So, Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, so produces that, there's the Greek word, katsomai, katsomai. It's a compound word, kata, and then katsomai, right, Roy? A-G-A-Z-O-M-A-I. So it's a compound word.

It means to carry out, or working out, or doing something, or accomplishing something. Paul uses it a lot in regards to the working of sin, karakasamai. I put production plant, maybe, is a good analogy. It's a production plant word, or factory. So this testing, this dakimatsu testing, has a goal in mind, and that's endurance. One of the things that comes to mind, if I could share it there, is that what He has begun in us, His work, will reach its goal. It will produce what He has begun in us, producing Christ in us. Yeah, and that's good. And that's the word katakatsamaya, that produce. Yeah. So, my dad says in one of his notes here, God is doing the working out in order to fully form his patience or endurance in us.

Passive voice. God is doing the production or the working out here. Now, that word produces or katakotsumai is I didn't find it, it doesn't say it's in the passive voice, it says in the present active, I think indicative. But maybe he had some, maybe somehow in the Greek it's a passive voice. But it certainly is a passive thing. We're not doing the producing or the working or the doing here, are we?

This is God's work in us. The form is middle or passive, that they're the same form. Okay, right. It's a middle. It did say middle voice. You're right. So that middle or passive it could be either one Okay, that's why he said, okay good. I was a little confused about that. But yeah, so the middle or passive So and middle voice means that we have an interest in it. It kind of benefits us.

It's personally So endurance the word for producing endurance, this testing produces endurance, is hupomone. That's the noun. And the verb is, the verb is hupomeno. And meno means abiding, hupo means under. So underabiding, underabiding is how it really is.

So it's to bear bravely, steadfastly, preserve, persevere, I'm sorry, in the tribulation with fortitude. And I thought maybe a good analogy, I don't know if my analogies are good, is a tornado going down in a storm cellar. And you lift up that big door and you go down your steps and under your house and you wade out of the storm, you hunker down in the storm.

Hoopoe minnow or hoopoe money. is that we're supposed to endure these trials, abide under these trials. So trials grow patience, not our patience, but God's patience. And then patience is a fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5 and verse 22. So He's growing His patience in us as one of the You can't say fruits of the spirit, one of the fruit of the spirit, because they're singular, aren't they? Right, correct. So Wiest has the translation for this in endurance, or hupomone, produces a patience which bears up and doesn't lose heart or courage under trials. And I have a note here saying that, however, this bearing up under the trial with fortitude does not come from our resources and our strength, but from what resources Christ gives us as we are fortified under the trial with his infinite love, his strength, his mercy, his power.

So basically, his essential essence is one of those essence Part of who and what he is, right? Okay, on to verse four. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. You'll notice that there's two types of perfect here, or two goals.

So, I tried to sum up here and From verse three, testing of our faith accomplishes or produces endurance. And that is the ability to live up and bear under the trial. And then this resulting endurance that we have, abiding in Christ under the trial, results in perfectness.

But not perfectness as into a flawlessness, but the word telios is the word perfect. And that is the final product, which is being made, which is being produced. The final product being produced here is kind of a double meaning of teleos. The final product is us being perfect, or teleos. It's spiritually finished out, spiritually mature in Christ.

And complete, complete, lacking in nothing. Complete is Hokleros. There's no part unsound. We will be entire, we'll be whole. And James really, he uses, he uses telios, he uses this Hokleros. Then he says he backs all that up with, you'll be lacking in nothing.

So it's kind of a triple, a triple way to say that these trials lead to a goal, just as Roy was saying. So after this next week, verse five, in context, James gives the caveat here, but we'll look at this next week. And if it is the case that any of you undergoing these trials is deficient in God's wisdom, in the trial, let's ask God for wisdom, right? So that's next week's lesson. So think of all the resources that God gives here. So he puts us under trial with view towards approval, and so that we grow in grace and knowledge of Christ.

And then if we lack wisdom, we can ask, simply ask. So let's look at a bit of the application for these two verses. Actually, I should have that James chapter 1, 2 through 4. I'll change that when I submit it for the website here. So we are to consider it all rejoicing. And it's an imperative. It's a command. We are to do it.

We are to deem it as a fact that falling into variegated trials brings us joy. Why is it joy? Well, suffering is a grace gift and a real and purposeful part of the Christian life. Philippians 129. We are appointed to trials and suffering as ambassadors for Christ, 1 Thessalonians 3.3 and 1 Thessalonians 2, 14, and 15.

So we represent our sovereign, which is God. We represent our country, which is heaven. Suffering under trial or encountering these trials is an intrinsic element of our union with Christ. First, as we suffer with him and we are partakers of his sufferings, it is proof that we are his children. And if we are his children, we will share in his glorification.

That's Romans 8, 16 through 18. We share in Christ's sufferings from 1 Peter 4, 13, so that the revelation of his glory, that at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation. And there's our word of joy or rejoice again. So when he comes and we see him face to face at the revelation of his glory, all these trials that we've suffered with him and for him, all are there and bring us joy at the end of it all. Point four, this is my dad's list here.

Point four, God's purpose in suffering under trial is to reveal himself. and his very nature and essence to us. First, God's greatest manifestation of this glory, the greatest manifestation of God's glory was at the cross and the resurrection and the power shown through that. Then, two, likewise, God's greatest manifestation of his glory in us, in the believer, is shown through our identification with that cross. identification truths as we reckon ourselves dead to the sin nature and alive with Christ in his resurrected life.

Andrew? Yeah. Well, we lost about the last three or four minutes. Could you... Oh, you did? Any chance you could back up to maybe point two or so? Oh, okay. Sorry. Did you get here? Why is it joy? That'd be perfect. Start there. Why is it joy? This is a... My dad's, I think, five-point list. Okay. Suffering is a grace gift and a real and purposeful part of the Christian life.

Philippians 1.29. Did you catch that? Okay. Yeah. You're good.

Okay, so that last time was the rehearsal. This is the final performance, I guess. Point two is we are appointed to trials and sufferings as ambassadors for Christ. 1 Thessalonians 3, 3, 2, 14, and 15. You still with me? Yes. Yes, we're still here. It's fine.

3, it is an intrinsic element of our union with Christ. So as we suffer with him, we are partakers of his sufferings. And it is the proof we are as children and we will someday share in this glorification. Did you, when I did this, did you see that the bullet points come through? Okay, we lost it right here at this point. Oh, you lost it right here. Okay, great.

So this point four, God's purpose in suffering under the trial is to reveal himself and his very nature in essence. God's greatest, the greatest manifestation of God's, His glory was in the cross. Christ's death and resurrection on the cross. Then likewise, God's greatest manifestation of His glory in us, the believer, are you with me still? Yeah, we're still. Okay, great. It is showing through our identification with that cross. as we reckon ourselves dead to the same nature in life with Christ, in his resurrected life, and not caving under these trials.

And caving, I have some examples, or failing a prayer asthma trial would be pleading for deliverance, seeking solace in self, going to self-help books, calling up a psychiatrist, you know, Instead of going to his resources, which is casting our cares upon him and as the father of mercies and the God of all comfort and Hoopoe moaning with him Abiding with him under the trial You still with me yes, okay, all right Can I make a quick point? Yes, I As I mentioned to you, I'm digging back into the Holly Hills archives, 2004 on trials and sufferings, and your dad was given a class. I think I could hear Roger's voice in there. It was awesome.

And one thing that was really cool for me is in trials, he was saying, because as Christians, sometimes it's like we look to ourselves and why us? And like, am I being punished? And one of the things that was really cool that your dad brought out is that the trials, not only are they helping us grow, but they reveal His glory, and He has a purpose, a specific purpose with each trial, and He is showing this trial to the spiritual kingdom, to angels, to principalities and powers to show Christ in us. And so when you look at God's greater purpose in a trial, it's like, oh man, it's very comforting to me. I don't know if I said all that right, but that's kind of what I got out of that early. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Yeah.

And so it's tough this morning because these verses are so packed. And he did that over, what, a course of a year? So yeah, there's so much good stuff. So I hope I have a little scintilla of all that. So if you want the whole full story on that, Like Jimmy, go to the Holly Hills Bible Chips archives and go to that 2004 study on trials and suffering. There's so much there. It's really amazing. So point four under why is it joy or what is the purpose in these trials is besides relying in faith on the God of all comfort and the Father of mercies, we have a high priest and an advocate who can sympathize with our weakness, our weaknesses, as one who has been tempted, paratso, in all things.

Christ was tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin, Hebrews 4.15. And further, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.

Hebrews 4.16 there. He always uses this term secret sauce, which I like. And you'll get this in these trials. So here's just a summary of from one of his slides from that 2004 study.

You know, what possible good can come from these temptations and trials from James 1.3 and 4.

His desire is for us to count it all joy. He has a purpose. He wants us to know, completely understand that purpose. God will use the temptation, which is pirasmas, a view towards failure, as a test, a view towards approval, a dakinmas, a dakinmas of our faith. He expects us and desires us to abide by faith in his truth. He then produces patience in us, And his patience then matures us spiritually. His patience stabilizes us and supplies all our needs in our temptations or our future trials and temptations.

And then it all wraps up with Romans 8, 28, and 29. God working together all things for the good, for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. He predestined us to become conformed to the image of his son, and that's probably the ultimate purpose. And then the ultimate purpose is for us to be glorified with him. So that wraps it up.

My final thought here is this hymn, which really has some nice thoughts about trials and suffering. He giveth more grace. His love has no limits. His grace has no measure. It talks about his essence there, and it really gets him. So read through that when you get a chance. He giveth more grace. So there it is. Let's break.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this short time in studying your manifold wisdom and your provision and your purposes in trials and suffering. And we just pray that we'll take away this, that we may go through trials under your care this week and throughout all of our lives. And we pray these things in Jesus name, amen.