03 Who is Better Off: The Rich or The Poor? (James 1:9-18)

Speaker 1: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word with Krisan Marotta. This is the third lesson in a series on the book of James. The poor believer will be exalted and the rich believer will be humiliated. The gospel will change our perspective as we understand it better. Today we'll join Krisan as she looks at James 1, verses 9 through 18. Krisan Marotta: I was listening to a Broadway musical, and the lyrics of one of the songs struck me. The song is called Island, and it's from the musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Which is a great title, but not a great musical, at least for my taste. I don't rush out and see it. But these are the lyrics that struck me. I thought we had just what we needed, a life you could hold in your hand. But now that the waves have receded, I see it was all a reflection on salt water. I built a house on the sand, gathered all my hopes, and put them inside. So drunk with the view, I forgot to watch out for the tide. Well, here comes the tide. Where does it go? I thought I saw it here yesterday. Did you just watch it all disappear? Almost within reach but vanishing away. You can find so much, you can lose so much in a single day. Where did it go? And that song goes on and talks about the futility of putting your hopes and dreams in something that's not gonna last. And that's the idea of our passage today. That idea of counting on something that's not gonna last, something temporal, whether the in the eternal, is the theme of our passage. So let me just review a little bit to remember where we've come from in chapter one. And I thought, by way of review, I'd give you a paraphrase of what I think the first eight verses are saying. So this is my loose paraphrase of verses one through eight. And then we'll go on and we'll look at James 1, 9 through 18 today. I know that you've been going through many hardships, but I urge you to remember that these hardships test your faith, which is something to value and rejoice in. Because the process of proving your faith results in persevering in faith. And persevering in faith under trial is the most valuable thing in this life. The process of persevering in faith under trial has a maturing result in your life so that your faith might be strong and complete and lacking and nothing that a mature believer should have. What should you do if you realize you lack the wisdom that comes from mature faith? You should ask God. He is generous and will not hold your foolishness against you. He can and will bring you to wisdom and maturity. But do not be deceived. You must commit yourself to believing in God and that he will answer your prayer. If your foolishness comes from a lack of belief, don't expect to receive anything from God. So that's what he's just been saying. Rejoice in your trials, they mature your faith, and that is the most valuable thing you can have. And now we get this section on the rich and the poor, and the first question we have to ask is how in the world does this fit in the context? Why would he suddenly start talking about it? So I'm going to take this in chunks, and we're going to first look at James 1, 9 through 12. Let me read that for us. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass, its flower falls and its beauty perishes, so also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. Now, it is possible that James is like a New Testament book of Proverbs, where you have scattered and seemingly unorganized, wise, and pithy sayings put side by side. And so what we have is a random collection of good ideas, and there are quite a few scholars and sincere believers who understand James like that. I am not one of them. I think this book is coherent, I think it's focused, and I think it has a very thematic structure, but then I also think Proverbs has a thematic and coherent structure. So I'm gonna argue that James does, in fact, have a point that this is directly related to what he's just said, and that as we go through the book, each section is tied in thought and theme to the one that came before it. So this is not a collection of proverbial sayings. Now you may disagree with me, that's fine. There are, as I said, there are a lot of mature believers who take James that way. I'm gonna endeavor to make my case. Hopefully, I'll persuade you, but hopefully at least I'll give you something to think about. So the biggest clue to me that this is a coherent thought is verse 12. Because when he comes back in verse 12 to blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life. He's clearly circling back to the theme of the first eight verses. And I would expect with a book in like that that what's coming in the middle is on the theme, that he doesn't just suddenly, you know, digress into duck hunting in East Jerusalem or something, but that there is a there's a reason that he comes back to it. So the question is how? How does this relate? And the thing that unlocked it for me is asking another question, which is when he's are both types of people in view here believers? So when he says lowly brother in verse 9, that sounds like a believer because quite frequently in the New Testament we use the term brother to mean a believer. But then when he talks about the rich in verse 10, is that also a believer? Is that implied a rich brother? So there are people who take it with this way, that they are both believers. So James 9 would be let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich brother implied in his humiliation. And in that interpretation, his point would be whether you have wealth or lack wealth, you should see your life circumstances in view of the gospel. So the goal is maturity, not financial wealth, and whether you're rich or poor, you should boast in the gospel. And both the rich brother and the poor brother must learn to say, I'm rich in the things that truly matter. And that is a perfectly plausible interpretation. It's not the one I'm going to argue for. But it is plausible, and there are a lot of scholars I respect that take it that way. The more interesting question to me is what if he's talking about poor believers and rich non-believers? What does that give us to the passage? What ideas would that bring? And there are clues in the rest of the letter that maybe the rich are not believers. So, for instance, look at James 2, 5 through 7. Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man, and then describing the rich, are not the rich the ones who oppress you, the ones who drag you into court, are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? So in chapter 2, the very next section, he's going to talk about the rich, and there they are clearly not believers. They are pressing the poor, they're blaspheming the name of Christ, they're dragging them into court. So we've got some evidence that he thinks of the rich as non-believers. And again, he's asking the question, who's truly richer? Who is the one to be envied? He brings up the rich again in chapter 5, and notice again they are not believers. Look at chapter 5, verses 1 through 6. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted, your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Host of Hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence, you have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter, you have condemned and murdered the righteous person, he does not resist you. So again in chapter 5, he brings up the rich again, and they are there. They are unjust, they're pursuing pleasure with no regard for what's right, they're investing in the wealth of this world, and they are not believers. And again, the key issue is how does it turn out in the end? The riches are going to rot, they're going to be eaten by moth, their lifestyle will testify against them. So that suggests to me what if the rich in chapter one are also not believers, that he is counting on that. And how would that then play into the context? So I think that makes the most sense. So let me explain why, what I think he's saying. So he's been talking about trials and how facing them is a maturing, has a maturing effect on our faith. And one of the trials is how the rich are treating the poor of this world. So we can see that in chapter 2, and we see that in chapter 5, that you have these rich unbelievers oppressing them and making their life difficult. So I think in 1 9, he's bringing up one of those situations that has been a trial for his readers. So he said, I've just encouraged you to consider it joy when you encounter trials, to remain steadfast in your faith. And here's one place where you can live this out. Here's one of those situations where you may be acting foolishly, you're lacking the wisdom that comes from maturity, and here's how I think you should act differently. Here's the perspective you ought to have. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. So I think he's contrasting the poor believer with the rich non-believer. And he's saying, Um, what's going what is real wisdom? Who is truly to be envied? The rich unbeliever or the poor believer? Who's truly better off? So the humble, lowly believer will be exalted, even though it looks like he's lowly and has nothing now. The rich believer who is so high and mighty now, or seems high and mighty, he's going to be humiliated. So when you look at your circumstances, it looks like the other way around. But if you understand the gospel, who is truly better off? And what perspective should you have? So he's saying this is the perspective that the one who is truly better off is the one who trusts in the kingdom of God. Why? Because verse 11, for the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass, its flower falls, and its beauty perishes, so also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. So he gives us one of his many metaphors in the book. He says, Think of the beauty of a field of wildflowers. It's true. They are beautiful, they are stunning, but if you wait long enough, they're gonna be gone. It will wither and fade. And I I saw this firsthand this month. There, right across from my husband's office, there's this field of snow glories, and they come up every year, usually in the first or second week of February, and they are stunning. There are thousands of them. They're on 250 near the uh observatory, and if you can ever drive that by there, you can see them. And if we have a really sunny day, they open in full bloom, and you'll see like 15 photographers out there taking pictures. But they last about three days. They're there and then they're gone. And they are beautiful, but they are gone. And that's what he's saying. Riches are like that. They are truly attractive. They are beautiful, they look like they have all the answers, but they don't last. As the 1920s actress Sophie Tucker said, in my life I've been rich and I've been poor. Rich is better. It's attractive. Money can solve a lot of problems in this life, but it's not gonna last. So the fact is the rich unbeliever has thrown away that which will last for something that is uh going to pass away, and he will be reduced to humiliation on the day of judgment. And if you embrace the gospel, there's nothing to envy about him. So by contrast, that's the destiny of the unbeliever. What's the destiny of believer? Verse 12. Uh blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. So those who persevere in their faith, those who remain steadfast under trial, they're gonna inherit everything. So who is truly fortunate? Who should I want to be like? Who's the one to be envied? Well, the one who remains steadfast under trial, because ultimately what determines how blessed we are is our eternal destiny. And the ones who will be truly blessed are those who are going to inherit the kingdom of God. Who is it that's gonna inherit the kingdom of God? Those who have faith. Those whose faith has been tested and shown through the test to be the real deal. So, who has chosen well? The rich unbeliever who gloried in his riches, or the poor believer who stood firm in his faith? And he's saying, that's the perspective you ought to have on these trials. So I understand the crown of life in verse 12 to be a synonym for life in the kingdom of God. What makes you blessed is having faith, a place in the kingdom of God, and if your faith has been tested and shown to be the real deal, then you're truly blessed. So the one who inherits is not just the one who claims to believe, but the one who actually believes, the one who's been put to the test and come out with their faith intact. So trials are this God-given opportunity to live out our faith. The trial makes our faith strong and real and gives us tangible evidence that we are in fact believers, so that when we're assailed with those doubts of what if I'm fooling myself, what if I'm gonna pat fall away, we can look back and say, I went through that. I went through that and I'm still here. So we rejoice because our faith has been shown to be genuine and we stand to inherit the only thing worth having. And dealing with rich oppressors is one of those God-given opportunities where your faith can make a difference in your attitude and your actions. And you have an opportunity to live what you believe. So James is saying, okay, here's the perspective you ought to have. The rich believer may look impressive, but he's going to be humiliated because he's counting on something that will not last. The poor believer may look lowly, of no consequence, someone I shouldn't even pay attention to, but he is going to be exalted and blessed because he is counting on something that it's eternal. Now, just jump into a little application for a minute. What is that, what per how should that change our perspective on other trials? And I think the biggest thing it suggests to me is instead of asking the question, which what's the first question we want to ask when a trial hits us, is when is this going to end? You know, how much longer? And instead, it seems the question we ought to ask is, where is this taking me? What am I supposed to learn from this? How am I supposed to grow in this? That's the real important crucial question of a trial. So by analogy, if you're dying of arsenic poisoning, pain is a bad thing because the pain is not taking you anywhere good. But if you're in labor, the pain is a good thing because at the end of that process, there is a new life and a new baby. And James, I think, is saying the trials you go through may feel like arsenic poisoning. They are more like labor pains. Yes, they hurt, yes, they're difficult, yes, they're hard to endure and get through, but look where they're taking you. Look at the results. Labor pains lead to the blessing of a new birth and a new life. Similarly, trials lead to a mature, tested faith and new life in the kingdom of God. So understanding my hope and where God is taking me makes a difference in my attitude now. Because if I give up on the pain of childbirth and in the process I throw out the child, I've made a stupid trade. Like the rich man, we've traded something for truly something truly valuable for something worthless, something we've traded the eternal for the temporal. And I think this is why James says rejoice in the trial, because he's saying, look at where it's taking you. Look at the end result. In our short-sightedness, we would rather be like a woman sunbathing on a beach than a woman in labor. But James's perspective is the struggle in labor is better because look at where you're going to end up. Sunbathing on the beach, you're going to get wrinkles and skin cancer. Labor, you get new life. So there's something bigger at stake than the pressure that I feel right now. So how I live my life is of crucial importance because my job is to believe in the promises. And my question ought to be, am I believing? What am I learning? How am I growing? Now I don't think James is saying that riches are in and of themselves evil. I don't, if you asked him, could there be a rich believer, he would say, absolutely, I think. But in their historical circumstances, the people he's writing to, remember, these are refugees. These are Jews who fled Jerusalem after the persecution of Stephen. And when they fled, they'd leave behind their homes, their jobs, their livelihood, and they would be refugees in another city. And that would lead to poverty. We can assume they would be have left much of their wealth behind. So as refugees in a new city, they would be in a position where primarily rich non-believer Gentiles would be open to oppressing and enslaving and taking advantage of them. And I think he's choosing this example because that's the situation they were facing. He's not condemning wealth. We see lots of examples of rich believers in the Bible who were godly wise stewards of their money. For instance, Abraham was one of the richest people of his day. Of course, King David, King Solomon, Mary of Bethany, Lydia from Acts. There are a lot of rich believers in the Bible, and they are not condemned because they're rich, just because they're rich. So everyone's called to be a wise steward of the resources God gives us, no matter how great or how small. So James's point, I think, is money seems to offer a lot of blessings here and now because it can solve a lot of problems in this world. And it's tempting then to start trusting it. But wealth in itself is not necessarily the issue. I think he chose rich believers or rich unbelievers oppressing poor believers because as refugees, that's a situation they would have been facing. But he could have chosen, you know, being single or being married, having children or not having children, having a thrilling career or a repetitive day job or being unemployed, being healthy or struggling with illness, you know, friend be having lots of friends or being lonely, being happily married or miserably married. I mean, any one of life's contrasts where you have relative fullness or relative lack, he could have picked on. And his point is not so much poverty versus wealth as what is your attitude toward this? Where are you seeking blessing? What are you counting on? What is truly valuable? So trials confront us with the question of where is blessing to be found? Do I trust the promises of God that He is the source of blessing? Or am I looking to money or romance or health or career or prestige or social status? Because the trials put my faith on the line and say, um, what am I counting on? Who do I think offers true life? And James is saying, you're fools if you think you're going to find blessing in wealth. Wealth is going to pass away like grass. Okay, so let's move on then to the next section. Now I think he's going to answer a theoretical critic. And he's saying, if you look at your life and you go, wait, that's not my perspective on trials, what's wrong with my understanding? James is going to give two answers. This is how I outline it. In 13 through 15, he says, either you don't understand yourself rightly, or in 16 through 18, you don't understand God rightly. So if this is not your perspective, here's two ways you may be going wrong. In 13 through 15, I don't understand myself rightly, or in 16 through 18, I don't understand God rightly. So let's look at uh 13 through 15 first. Let no one say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown, brings forth death. So as you probably found in your study, tempted in verse 13 is the same word group we've been looking at as trial and test in the rest of the chapter. And the idea is still being put to the test, putting pressure on something to see what it's made of. And I think he's answering the objection that someone might say, Well, James, if what you're saying is right, then God is standing against me. You've made God to be kind of an evil, diabolical God. He's trying to get me to sin. He's putting this stuff in my life to trap me. And of course I could never succeed. And what kind of God is that? So, James, you must, what you're saying, it must be totally wrong. And I think James is speaking to that objecting and saying, no, God tests us, but he does not tempt us. He puts us in situations where we must choose to obey him or not, where our willingness to believe in his promises is displayed, but he is not tempting us. And I'm going to explain a little more what he what I mean by that. So, for instance, God tested Abraham when he asked him to sacrifice Isaac. He tested Israel by surrounding them with pagan nations and foreign gods. He tested David by giving him the opportunity twice to kill Saul and seize the throne. Those are situations where they had to act, and the way they acted revealed who they were trusting. And he's saying, God may put you in those situations, but the desire you feel to sin, that comes from you. So that inner desire, that inner pull of towards sin, you have that because you're a sinful person. It's the pull of your own heart. It's a fantasy to think I'm an innocent being here who would otherwise have no inclination to sin except God has put me up to it. That's the mistake. I'm a sinful person who left to myself would blindly, joyfully run headlong into sin. When I resist, that's the gift from God. So God may place you in situations that strengthen and stretch your faith, but He is not seeking to destroy you, and He is not seeking to induce sin or break your faith. So I think the point of 13 and 14 is God is not tempting me. If I think that I have a faulty understanding of myself. God is not the problem, I'm the problem. I am tempted because I am sinful. See the difference? I mean, that's the think about it, when we're tempted, what's the first thing we do? We we immediately have an excuse. Not my fault. I was tired, you made me do it. You know, we always have a reason. It looked good, I didn't know it would be like that. And we instinctively start throwing the blame out far and wide. You know, it was bad luck, bad education, inadequate parenting, uh, you know, I didn't get enough sleep, I misunderstood, I had perfect motives. You know, we always have an excuse, and ultimately we blame God. You know, we think, well, God, you you made me do it, you know, like Adam in the garden. The woman you gave me, you know, it's ultimately it's your fault. And that's our natural bent because we're sinful is to blame someone or someone else, or something else or someone. But if we understand the gospel, we should believe we are sinful and the blame is on me because I am sinful. As long as I avoid the responsibility of my choices and their consequences, I'm not going to seek a savior. I have to come to that understanding of the problem is in me. I am tempted because I am broken. I am tempted because I am a sinful person, and sin looks attractive to me because I am broken. And the way out is for God to change me. So moral failure is our fault. It's not God's. That's the first mistake. We don't see ourselves. I think the second act of foolishness he hits in these verses after blaming God is to imagine that I can get out of this on my own resources. So I think that's what's going on in 14 and 15. He talks about our desires, our appetites. They're too much for us. We are lured and dragged into them and knocked off balance, so enticed like a fish is enticed to take the uh bait on a hook, and then the will is engaged and desire is conceived, and it gives birth to sin, and sin results in death. And I love his ironic phrasing he chooses about sin giving birth to death. And I think he uses this imagery of conception in 15 to indicate there's a time lag here. Some choices and consequences are separated in time, and we can fool ourselves to think that I'm gonna get away with it. You know, lies can be kept hidden for a season, but they come out, or less can be indulged in in secret, but it will eventually be known. And a part of his point is there are always consequences to sin, and they will not be put off forever. Eventually it will give birth to death. So in 15, all my evil desires conceive and give birth to is sin, which leads to death. The point is the source of death in my life comes not from God, but from me and my sinful desires, my choices that are leading to the wrong things. Now notice the contrasting sequence between last week or whatever week it was we were here and this week. Last week we saw this testing produces endurance, which produces maturity, and this week we have evil desires produce sin, which produce death. Take your choice. Those are your options. You can be perfect and complete and lacking in nothing a believer should have if you seek God and His promises, or you can have full-blown death and destruction. Those are the options. Testing produces endurance, which produces maturity. Our sinful desires produce sin, which produces death. And this downward spiral of temptation is the opposite of the pattern we saw last week. And just like conception leads to gestation, which leads to birth, so giving in to desires will eventually lead to death. Once you set that process in motion, there's no stopping it. The end of the process is implicit in the beginning. It's interesting to me, we see God forgiving sin over and over and over in the Bible, but there's never a case where sin did not have consequences. If you find one, let me know. But I have yet to see a case where someone sinned and there was no consequence whatsoever. There's always a consequence. There is forgiveness, but there's always a consequence, and there is also redemption. God can take even the worst sin and turn it into something wonderful, but there is always a consequence. So I think that's part of James's point. Don't be deceived into thinking that you're not the problem. It's your sin that's the problem, and you are not going to get out of it on your own resources. You can no more escape the consequences of your sin than you can escape giving birth after going into labor. That process will come to an end. So his first thing in 13 through 15 is if you don't have this perspective I've just been talking about, consider yourself. You don't understand yourself rightly and the depth of your sin. And then the second one is you may you don't understand God rightly. Let's look at that in 16 through 18. He's saying, No one should claim that God is the tempter, rather, he is the father of lights. Let me read that. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. So I just to sum up, if I sum this in one sentence, I think he's saying, Don't be deceived. It's not just that every gift God gives is good, but that every good gift comes from God. See the difference? It's not just that his gifts are good, but if you want good gifts, he is the only place to find them. All the good gifts come from him. There is only one source of blessings, and that is from God. So where else can you turn from blessing in life? It's not in wealth, it's not in anything of this world. There's only one person to turn to, the Father of lights, in whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. I love that metaphor. He's essentially saying God is the one who puts light in the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, of course, light and dark being a metaphor for good and evil. He puts light in the darkness, he brings goodness to an evil world. He's not an evil God tempting people. He is the one who gives us light and goodness. But the lights of the world come and go. The stars rotate, the moon phases in and out, the sun rises and sets and casts various shadows. But God is the Father of life, his goodness has no variation. It is totally light with no darkness. There is no waxing and waning, there is no coming and going, there's no fickleness to it, there's no come and go or season to it. It's all goodness all the time, unlike the lights which come and go. So he's saying, He's not the one who entices us into evil, it's just the opposite. He's the one who saves us from our evil selves. So in this exercise of his will, he chose to save us. He planned it. He wasn't reluctant, he wasn't talked into it, he wasn't tricked into it, it wasn't an afterthought. He did it of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, or he gave us birth using again the same language from 15. He's giving us this new life, new birth by the word of truth, the gospel. I think Ali means there is the word about Jesus, that life is to be found in him, that there is forgiveness through the cross. And then going on that we should be the kind of first fruits of his creatures. First fruits being that which you give to God as the first of your harvest. So it's the first chronologically and it's the best. So it's the idea of you don't wait until you make sure you have enough, and then you give something because now you know you have enough and there's something left over. But as an act of trust and recognition that all good gifts come from God, we give to him first, and the first and the best. And it's this idea that he's the one who cares for every hair on our head, we give to him first and chronologically. So the thing we offer to God is now God's, it's the first fruits are uniquely dedicated to God and they belong to him. And I think that's kind of the sense he's getting at is among all the creatures we're his first fruits. We are dedicated to him. We are part of him. So the redeemed, the saved, the elect are adopted into his family. And the point being, God is not the one out to get you, he's the one who saved you, he's the one who adopted you, he's the one who redeemed you, he's the one who did for you what you could never do for yourself. So if you're looking at your life and thinking, God's tempting me, no, he's the one who's saving you. Apart from him, you wouldn't even want the good gifts of his offering. That he has to take us while we are still sinful and rebellious and give us the faith that saves us. Okay, so let me just kind of wrap it up with um kind of put it all all the pieces together. I think the main takeaways from this passage are the real problem in my life is me. No, that's not a new thought. Um, but what he's adding to this discussion is that this idea of denying my guilt while trying to blame God instead. That's the kind of the new thought he's added. And I think that ought to hit home. All of us, I think, wrestle with times where we're angry with God or we're bitter toward God, or we look at him and we say, Why are you letting this happen to me? Why, or we don't understand what he's doing or why he's doing it. And of course, our first question is, why me? How can he let this happen to me? How can he withhold that good thing that I want, or how can he take away that wonderful thing that I had? And in our bitterness and our confusion, we feel justified in saying, you know, God, I'm right here, and you shouldn't be doing this. And I think that's the idea James would correct. Because when we slip into that bitterness and that anger, we've lost sight of our sinfulness. And the the point he's saying, if not for the grace of God, I would have totally destroyed myself by now. So when we start down that path of anger, at some level, we're saying, okay, let's just forget about my sin. Let's just ignore how much you've done for me, let's just forget about what I truly need to be saved from, because right now I'm angry, I'm not getting what I want. And James is saying, wait, all that stuff you want to sweep under the rug, that's the problem. Face into that. If you embrace the gospel, the gospel tells you, apart from the grace of God, I cannot save myself. I'm a sinner in need of his grace. So that kind of anger and bitterness we start on involves to some extent a willful refusal to see ourselves as we truly are. And we're ignoring what the Bible says. So I think James' first advice is when you start feeling angry and bitter and asking why me, think, wait a minute, I know why me. I'm a sinful person in a sinful world. I am a sinner in need of grace. There's God does not owe me anything apart from the blood of Jesus Christ. I would have nothing from him. I come to him only because of that, not because of anything in me. So that's kind of the negative, but then he gives us the flip side, I think, and that is God is the only source of good and perfect gifts. And it's not even a close call. So it's not like, you know, we're we got this balance and we're going, the world God, the world God, oh, I don't know which one's gonna win. He's saying that's not a close call. God wins. There is no other path. If you want the good things in this life, there's only one place to find them. Now, all of us probably believe that in our theology, but it's really hard to live it out. Because when you're in the world and you're looking at things, other paths look pretty good. You know, the approval of men looks pretty good at times. Wanting to be popular looks pretty attractive. Wanting more money, wanting health, wanting an easy life, all of that is very attractive. And it's easily to think, ooh, those other paths, they're shining kind of bright. That that might be a good place to go. And James is saying, the only source of good gifts is God. All that other stuff is a shiny idol. Stay away from it. So every time we beseech God for the easy way out or a particular path and answer, we may be saying at some level, God, you don't know what you're doing, I know what I'm doing. This idea of mine, this is better than yours. And I think James would say, you have to get to the point where, like Jesus in the garden, you can say, not my will, but your will. This way looks right to me, but I trust you, whatever you're doing. Um, so all the good gifts come from God. All the blessings are from his hand. You won't find them any place else. And all those things I think that I have to have to be blessed, and God is not giving me, or all the problems that I think he must make go away in order for me to be happy, and he's not ending them. That the temptation there is to think God does not know what he's doing. And that's what James would correct. God knows what he's doing. The good gifts are from his hand. And if we don't receive the gifts he wants to give us, there is nothing else worth having. Now that's often very hard to see when you're in the midst of a trial. I and I don't mean to make light on it. I it's easy to say as theology, it's much harder to live out, and that's where I think we have to go back to what he said last week of when I see myself and I go, that's not my perspective, that's not who I am, what should I do? I ask. I ask God who gives generously without reproach. Because remember, all of this is in the context of trials and persevering under trials, and these are trials. They are hard and difficult, and they seem emotionally overwhelming and physically exhausting and mentally confusing, but the reality is I and my sin are the problem, and God is the answer, and all the good gifts come from him. And blessings come from those who persevere through trials. Let me close by showing you the same idea in another passage of scripture. I want to look at Psalm 23 in light of what we've just been talking about. Now, Psalm 23 is perhaps the most familiar portion of scripture. Even people who aren't believers seem to know this thought, Psalm. So it's probably very familiar to you. But I want you to think about in terms of what we've just said, talking about God is the only source of good gifts. Let's look at Psalm 23. He says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I shall not want. Want does not mean desire, it means I shall not lack anything. I won't miss out on what is best for me. No real requirement in my life will go unsupplied. At the end of my journey, I'm gonna thank God because He has given me everything I need. He has met all of my truly deepest needs. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I think he's saying, This is the perspective you should have on life and trials, or James would say, I shall not want. At the end of my journey, I will look back and say, I did not miss out on any good thing. I have everything. Now, how can anyone say that? We all go through trials, and I think that's what we talked about earlier. Look at where they're taking you. Look at the end of the journey, not what's happening right now. So we can look and say, all the blessings, the so-called blessings of this world are nothing in comparison to what we've been promised in the gospel. So I don't have to have that frenzied lifestyle of, you know, if my kids don't get into pre the right preschool, their lives will be ruined forever, you know, or I don't have to, if I don't have the latest, greatest career or opportunity, or gain some skill. We we live with this enormous frenzy to make things happen the right way and to do things right. And I think James would say, the Lord is your shepherd. You're not gonna want, you're not gonna miss out. This is a long story, and at the end of it, you're gonna see every good thing you require will be given to you. You will not lack. All good gifts come from God. So the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He is my loving shepherd, my life is in his care, and I can trust him. Just skipping down him for a minute, look at verse 4. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. I think fear no evil could we can extrapolate into trials and hard circumstances, rod and in staff are God's disciplines. The trials, the hard stuff of life, comfort me because I know where they're taking me. I know they are shaping and maturing my faith. And at the end of my journey of faith, I will not want. I will not lack any good thing. Or as James said, you will be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing that God intends for you. So even when we go through these really hard, awful, difficult trials, we don't go through them alone and we don't go through them without purpose. So I want to close by reading Psalm 23 as our closing prayer. And as I read this, I want you to think about the themes from James 1. Particularly, blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who loved him. So these are probably very familiar words, but think about these ideas of what is the real problem? It's me and my sin. What is the only solution? God and his faith, and where are good gifts to be found in him? So let me just read this as our prayer. Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He leads me beside still waters. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen. Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word. For notes and study questions related to this message, please visit our website, wednesdayintheword.com. We hope you'll join us again, and may God richly bless you.