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James 1:9-18
9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass1 he will pass away. 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.
12 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. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 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.2 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you would, I invite you to open your Bibles to James chapter 1. James chapter 1. We've been going. We just started a series in the book of James last week. And since I've talked a little bit about worship.
Jeffrey Heine:As you're turning there, let me just say a couple of things about preaching. Years ago, somebody came up to me, and this is when I was doing college ministry and said, Hey, Joel, I hope you don't take offense. I don't mean this isn't for you to take this offensive, but you're They said, You know, every week you just you just kind of get up and you just kind of tell us what the Bible means. And I did take that as a compliment actually. Because I think that's what preaching should be.
Jeffrey Heine:It's one of the reasons why we're going through a book like James, and we've gone through, you know, books like Luke, gone through Acts, gone through Genesis, gone through Exodus. A good definition of preaching, comes from Nehemiah 8 verse 8. Says in Ezra, the scribes stood sorry. That's not it. I thought it was oh, I was I was wrong verse.
Jeffrey Heine:88. It is 88. They read from the book, from the law of God clearly. And then they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. It's talking about what the scribes did.
Jeffrey Heine:It says that they read from the book from the law clearly, and then they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. That's what preaching is. Preaching should simply be reading from God's word and then helping people to understand it. It shouldn't be storytelling. It should not be entertainment.
Jeffrey Heine:It should be a confidence that the word of God is enough to enthrall you. That God speaks through his word. And so if you present it clearly, he draws people to him himself. It's one of the reasons we do expositional preaching, in which we'll go through a whole book of the Bible. Because that also lets God set the topics, instead of us letting the you know, setting the topics and then trying to find the verses to fit.
Jeffrey Heine:And so we're gonna find this as we go through James. James is somewhat hard to preach through. I've realized this after I committed to preach through it, and I've been studying. I was like, it's kind of hard because thematically, it doesn't flow the best. But I've also, in my study, seen myself or at least felt myself being changed in ways I wouldn't have been changed unless I was forced to walk through this.
Jeffrey Heine:And so I'm really looking forward to this series together as we walk through this. We'll begin reading chapter 1 verse 9. 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 fails and its beauty perishes.
Jeffrey Heine: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. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am 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.
Jeffrey Heine:Then desire, when as conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good and perfect every good 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.
Jeffrey Heine:Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth That we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Pray with me. God, in this moment, I pray that you would send your spirit to open up our hearts and our minds that we might see clearly your word. And may your word enthrall us. May it not be dead words on ancient pages, But it may be living.
Jeffrey Heine:May it cut us to the quick. Reach deep down in our soul and change us. Lord, my words are death. Your words are life. We need life.
Jeffrey Heine:So I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain. May they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:For those who don't know me, I've got 3 little girls, which means whenever we're traveling in the car, we have to listen to pop music. My 6 year old knows every song that is on 1037 The Q, all 5. And and and will occasionally listen to some worship music. I I try to get them to occasionally listen to worship music, but there's not much good stuff out there that's fast. You know, most music is just kind of slow and they don't like that.
Jeffrey Heine:And most of the fast songs are heretical. And so normally I'm saying, that's 3, 4 heresies we just sang, right, at this moment. And so I can't do that. And now I'm finding even songs that are good, my children create their own heresies. And so, my my kids were singing Mighty to Save, which is a great song.
Jeffrey Heine:One of the lines is forever author of salvation. You're mighty to save. And my kids were saying, forever conqueror of salvation. I was like, he's conquering your salvation? And now he goes, destroying?
Jeffrey Heine:I was like, no. He's not destroying salvation. He's the author. What does that mean? And so we're going through this, but that that is my life.
Jeffrey Heine:And currently, right now, the song they love to sing is Kelly Clarkson's What doesn't kill me makes me stronger. I'm not going to go through all the lyrics. They're pretty lame, bitter, upbeat, bitter song. But I thought as I was listening to this on 1037 the queue, that some people might have listened to the message last week and thought that's what I was talking about. That when I talk about how Christians go through trials and temptations, and we are to be steadfast, and we're to persevere, that that what I was saying is, hey, Christians, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Jeffrey Heine:And God's gonna use those trials. That is not what I am saying. That is not what James is saying. Because I have known many people who have gone through trials and come out a lot worse. Who've come out with serious depression or cynicism.
Jeffrey Heine:Who've come out with a with a great deal of bitterness. Hate. And so, although it didn't kill them, it made them a lot worse for the wearer. And so the key is not to just try to get through a trial, but it's to get through a trial trusting in the Lord Jesus. And I just want to be crystal clear about that.
Jeffrey Heine:It's not just to get through it, but if you trust Jesus, then he will use that trial to shape you, and to change you, to deepen your passion for him. To change you to become more like him. But it doesn't just happen. You have to trust. And the text that we just read, James is going to pick right back up on that theme of trials and testing.
Jeffrey Heine:Verse 12, he says this. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life. Notice once again he says, for when he has stood the test. Trials are coming.
Jeffrey Heine:Just like he said before, it's not an if. There's going to be a test. It's coming. So when trials come our way, if we persevere, if we trust the Lord, we're promised a crown of life afterwards. If we don't, we're gonna see it's nothing but death.
Jeffrey Heine:Now in verse 9, right before this, seems, at least when he first read it, like James is leaving the topic of persevering under trial, but he's not. He's just talked about perseverance before. He talks about perseverance right afterwards. This is sandwiched in between, and what he's using is here here's an example. Actually, two examples of a test or of a trial.
Jeffrey Heine:Right here. He says, let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation. And let the rich and his humiliation. Because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away. What James is doing here, he's saying, here's two trials.
Jeffrey Heine:There is a trial of poverty, and how you should respond is by exaltation. And then there's a trial of riches, in which you should respond with humility. But both are trials. Poverty and wealth are both forms of trials. If you lose everything, that's a trial.
Jeffrey Heine:If you gain everything, that's a trial. If you have some business venture and it fails horribly, trial. If you have a business venture and it takes off and is wildly successful, trial. They both are. I I guess you could put it this way.
Jeffrey Heine:Every time you move up, or every time you move down in life, it's a trial. And every trial is going to change you. Don't ever think you're just going to remain the same. Every trial changes you. And it's either gonna make you a better person, stronger in your faith, lead to a crown of life, or it's going to lead to death.
Jeffrey Heine:Those are your 2 options. Let's look closely at these two trials. James first says that the lowly brother should boast in his exaltation. Now a number of years ago, I went to an African American church for my preaching class I took at Beeson. I went to New City Church downtown, but it's no longer there.
Jeffrey Heine:It's had to close its doors to write a paper about it. And as I went there, I noticed just a couple of things that really stood out to me. One was the celebration. I mean, these people celebrated. And and the reason they celebrate is because these people were poor.
Jeffrey Heine:During the week, if they had a job it was likely a dead end job or a maybe a very low wage job. And now they could come in though, and they could be reminded of where their wealth really was. They could be reminded that even though many times the city of Birmingham has let them down, that ultimately their citizenship is in heaven. And that they would come and they would celebrate. And the second thing that I noticed when I went there is, everybody had titles.
Jeffrey Heine:Everyone was given a title. If you were a Sunday school teacher, and I remember writing this down. The Sunday school teacher was called, and she was introduced as, here is our board member for the board of Biblical Education. Alright. She was a Sunday school teacher, but she was a board member for the board of Biblical Education.
Jeffrey Heine:If you greeted people, you were the director for internal hospitality. If you took up the offering, you were a deacon. If you counted the money, you were the chief financial officer. And these titles were given. I loved it.
Jeffrey Heine:And I went and I talked to my professor afterwards, who he was a large African American man. I was like, you gotta educate me. I'm I'm obviously, never grew up in a black church. Alright? I'm as white as they come.
Jeffrey Heine:Educate me. That was what's going on. And he said, what's happening is James 1. And he pointed me here. Said they're exalting in their status as children of the king.
Jeffrey Heine:And then when they go out those doors, the world does not see them as having any importance. They know when they gather together, they know their true importance. They're exalting in their citizenship of heaven, and they're celebrating that. And I just remember taking that way just thinking, Gosh. I wish I would celebrate more like that way.
Jeffrey Heine:And one of the reasons you, a lot of times you have the white affluent churches in the suburbs who don't celebrate break that way, It's because all week is a celebration like that. All week. And when they come in, what they need to be reminded of is, you're sinners. You know, you need to be reminded that the world is not great. The world is fallen.
Jeffrey Heine:And so we need that full message, actually rich and poor together. This is what James is talking about. The the second trial here is the trial of riches. Let me say this is a much much harder trial. It's one of the reasons it's so much harder is people don't see it as a trial.
Jeffrey Heine:You see, there's what you try to attain to. It's not a trial, it's what you try to achieve. We just conveniently forget things like Jesus saying, Hey, let me tell you, it's easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven. We try to, you know, finagle that verse and to make it mean what it doesn't really mean, but it means, it's really hard to get to heaven if you're rich. And the reason it's hard is because you have so many other things that you can trust in.
Jeffrey Heine:Whereas, the poor cries out to the Lord for everything. So it's harder when you're rich. We need to broaden our definition of rich here. A rich person is a successful person. A powerful person.
Jeffrey Heine:A person who who has the respect of his peers. So if you are in a profession and you're moving up the ladder of your profession, you're a rich person. Years ago, I heard a, Tim Keller mentioned this in a lecture. And he could just kind of said it in passing. And I'll always remember this.
Jeffrey Heine:He said his biggest, I guess, temptation he has had in ministry, his biggest trial, has come through his success. Not before. And he began to explain why and as he explained why, I just remember thinking, that's that's me. Probably most of you don't know this, but years ago, I used to do a college ministry. I started a college ministry called University Christian Fellowship, UCF.
Jeffrey Heine:We started with just 5, 6 people. Within a few years, the Lord had grown this bible study to, at times over a1000. We became one of the largest, if not the largest college ministry in the country. And what that did was it made me a religious authority. All of a sudden, I'm now a religious authority.
Jeffrey Heine:And that's kind of carried over to this day. So where if I sit down and ask somebody, hey, how are you doing? You know, we go for lunch. It's a lot different than if you do. If you ask somebody, hey, how are you doing?
Jeffrey Heine:They're like, hey, I'm doing great. Whatever. I ask, how are you doing? They're like, how am I doing? I mean, how am I doing?
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, what spiritual direction am I going? And they open up their entire story. I bet you don't have people sit down with you and just say, let me tell you my whole life story. But that's what I get all the time. Because they want to they want to hear something from the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:They they see me as that religious authority and I've realized that my words have a lot of weight, and and sometimes I could say something and people will redirect their entire lives based on something I said. And with that, now being a religious authority, came and still is huge temptation. Tempted for to look at other ministries, I guess. When I was back at UCF, and to think, well, the reason UCF is doing so well is because I'm smarter. I'm more gifted.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm more able than these other ministers. Or perhaps it's because I pray more, or because I love the Lord more. And so I'm tempted to throw those things on me and say, this is why we've succeeded. Or because I maybe I'll work harder. Or, this is the really big temptation, is to think that somehow I've gained God's blessing and God's favor simply because I'm larger.
Jeffrey Heine:And that carries on into anything. Now all my words are authoritative. Now I can speak truth into everything. Listen to me, wife. You know, I am pastor of a mega ministry.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, just I'm the religious authority, and and you can you can really just kinda beef yourself up. And then possibly the largest temptation was the one that nobody sees. Hypocrisy. Because I know my job as the religious authority is to get up and tell people about the sovereignty and the supremacy of Jesus over all things. Basically, to say, God is good.
Jeffrey Heine:He's great. And I'm just I'm just share that. But I confess, there are mornings when I was in UCF, and there are still mornings I get up and I don't believe that. I get up and I don't feel it in my bones. I just, I don't feel it.
Jeffrey Heine:And yet I know I've got to proclaim it. So so you know, you know, Sunday's coming. I've got to come I've got to proclaim God is good. God is great. I don't feel this.
Jeffrey Heine:You could go a couple different ways here. I can either just say, well, I'm just gonna say it. I'm gonna get up there and I and I tell people, God is great even though I'm not feeling it, I don't believe it. I'm gonna tell them what to do even though I'm not doing it. Hypocrisy.
Jeffrey Heine:Or it could drive me to my knees. And I could say, God make me believe this. God change me. God, I have a cold heart. Warm it.
Jeffrey Heine:Until he does. But because I was now rich in ministry, I couldn't remain the same. I was either going to grow closer to the Lord, more passionate for the Lord, or I was going to become a cold hypocrite. Those paths were set. One of those two ways, but I was not gonna be able to stay still.
Jeffrey Heine:You could carry that over to any profession. Any area of life that you're rich in, you're not going to stay the same. You're either going to go towards life or you're going to go towards death. Some of you have felt that who have become wealthy. Maybe you've gotten a promotion.
Jeffrey Heine:Maybe you're you're now in your job, you're making a lot more money. You're now being tempted in ways you never were tempted 5 years ago. Grab hold of the crown of life. Look at verse 13. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by god.
Jeffrey Heine: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 is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, gives brings forth death. James now is moving on from trials to temptations. Just so you know, I'm gonna limit myself tonight to 2 word studies.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright? Just 2. I think I gave you 5 last week. 2. And one of them is this one right here.
Jeffrey Heine:The word tempt or temptation is the exact same word as trial that you've had earlier. Identical in Greek. Peresamos. Peresamos. It's the same word, but it has 2 different nuances.
Jeffrey Heine:It it can be used to describe an outward something or an inward something. And what James is saying is, the the outward parastos, the outward trial is caused by God. He puts you in a circumstance. He puts you in a situation in order to test you, but the inward temptation does not come from him. Alright?
Jeffrey Heine:So he does the outward, but he is not responsible for what's going on in your heart. And so you cannot blame God for your sin. Which of course, is what, you know, Adam did in the garden. When Adam sinned, God called him out on it. First thing he said, alright, I'm busted.
Jeffrey Heine:But God, the woman you gave me, gave me the fruit and I ate it, and so I sinned. So ultimately God, you gave me the woman who gave me the apple or the fruit. And he was blaming God for it. And we do that all of the time. We blame him for our sin, but this is utter foolishness.
Jeffrey Heine:Because when God puts in us in a test, it doesn't cause us to sin. It simply reveals the sin. Maybe maybe this will make it clear. When we had Caroline, who's there, who's now 9, but when she was a little little girl, we thought possibly original sin had passed her by. You know, possibly her her little soul was unstained and that she was just this perfect little child.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, she really obedient first thing all the time. She did what she was told. It was amazing. And then we had the the trial of Natalie who came. And what Natalie would do is, you know, Caroline, she could spend all this time and build this beautiful block castle.
Jeffrey Heine:And Natalie would come and knock it down. Whatever Caroline built, Natalie would come and knock it down. And Caroline, now awesome, anger. Yelling at her little sister, just occasionally. Or, you know, would get jealous because now she's having to divide her time with with her parents.
Jeffrey Heine:And she would get angry and upset about that. Now what was happening was, not that Natalie was causing her to sin. It was the test, it was the trial, and it was merely exposing what was already there. And now, it would come out so much more freely. And for some of you, it's marriage.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, when you were single, you thought, man, I'm the most selfless patient guy there is. I mean, I'm always just helping, doing helping others, doing all this. I never get angry. And then maybe you get married, and all of a sudden you find yourself really angry at times. Really angry.
Jeffrey Heine:And you're tempted to be to say, it's your fault. No. Your wife might be the test. She might be the trial, but don't blame her for your sin. She's merely bringing out the sin that was always there.
Jeffrey Heine:In many ways, that's why marriage is the great sanctifier. Because it exposes sins that you've been able to keep control over, keep hidden for so long, but no more. And so we can't blame God. We can't blame others. If you're single, you can't blame God for all your sexual temptations thinking, if if you would just give me a spouse, I'd be fine.
Jeffrey Heine:No. We can't point our finger at him. We have to point our finger right here at us, which is what James unpacks next. He explains all of this using sexual imagery. Look at verse 14.
Jeffrey Heine:Says, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Those words, lured and enticed, they're the words that describe the adulteress woman in Proverbs 8. What she does, she goes and she lures and she entices the man on the streets to come in to her home. And book of Proverbs says, there's only death there. Don't go.
Jeffrey Heine:It is like going to the slaughterhouse. Don't go. Same words. There are graphic words that are used to describe when someone is forcefully A lot of times these are have the connotation being dragged, of forcefully being dragged away by an intense attraction to something. It's also used to describe fishing.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, you put the lure on, you bite the lure, and now you're being dragged. Dragged. And it's going to lead to your death. And so, James tells us here that we're being lured, and we're being enticed, not by Satan, not by our spouse, not by our children, Not by God, but we are being lured and we're being enticed by our own desire. He says, when you sleep with your desire, you're go you're going to get pregnant.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright? You're going to get pregnant and you're going to have a child named Sin. That child's going to grow up, get pregnant, and have a child named death. So you will be the grandparents of death. That's the imagery that James uses.
Jeffrey Heine:So what does he mean when he says that we are lured and enticed by our own desire? Time for the second word study. Epithemias. Epithemias Is the word there that's translated desire? Some of your bibles might be translated lust.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a it's a combination of 2 different words. Epee, which means on or standing or resting. Like epicenter, like the epicenter of an earthquake. That's like the very center. That's the very heart.
Jeffrey Heine:That's the the dead center resting point of the earthquake. The most powerful point. Then they have themios, which means desire or passion. And so, epithymias is not just desire, but it's standing or it's resting right there in the middle. The the the hottest part of that passion and that desire.
Jeffrey Heine:Right there. The strongest point of desire. That's the word that's being used there. And it is the word, perhaps you've heard other pastors talk about it because it's used throughout the New Testament to describe temptation. This word translated desire.
Jeffrey Heine:And hear me, this word does not have to be used to describe pursuing bad things. Not at all. Matter of fact, I've heard it described this way several times. This is not wanting bad things. This is wanting things badly.
Jeffrey Heine:Okay. This is not wanting bad things. This is wanting things badly. Anything, even good things, can become this epi desire for us. Good things can become this.
Jeffrey Heine:So it's things like, wanting to be married, wanting to have children, are good things. But they can become an epic desire. It could be the place where you want to rest. The place where you want to stand. The place you want to be at.
Jeffrey Heine:And you place all of your hopes in that. I'm gonna be a mom, and I'm gonna have kids. Or I'm gonna I'm gonna find the perfect wife, and we're gonna have a family. And you're you're resting on that. That's an epi desire.
Jeffrey Heine:Wanting to do well in your job is a good desire, but it can become an epi desire. If it's where you go to find your worth, it's where you go to, what what consumes all of your thoughts, consumes all of your energies, it's what you daydream about. It's an EPI desire. For some of you, it could be it could be weight. If I just hit my target weight, you know it?
Jeffrey Heine:And you become consumed with this thought, I've just got to drop £3. If I just dropped £3. It becomes this consuming thought, this epi desire. Once you reach that goal, you're going to be happy. So it's not that you want bad things, it's that you want things badly.
Jeffrey Heine:Listen, I don't know of anybody, and I might be wrong in this, maybe you know some people. I don't know anybody who's, when they're sinning, they're thinking, God, I know this is against you, and I'm doing this because I hate you. Therefore, I'm gonna sin. I'm gonna be greedy, or or I'm gonna lash out in anger, or I'm gonna do all these things. I don't know if anybody who does that, who's thinking about God and then saying, God it's out of pure hate that I'm doing this.
Jeffrey Heine:Most of the time, if I were to ask a person, why did he get so angry? Why did he lash out? Why did were you so greedy? They would say, well, I didn't mean to. I wasn't even thinking about God at all when I did it.
Jeffrey Heine:It's like, exactly. That's what sin is. Because at that point, God didn't have the epi desire of your heart. He wasn't even in your thoughts. It's what led David to commit adultery with Bathsheba.
Jeffrey Heine:At that point, David isn't thinking, I want to really hurt God and disobey him. So I'm gonna have an affair with that woman right there. God wasn't even registering. He wasn't even thinking about God. A matter of fact, when he was committing adultery, he probably just felt like a lover, not a sinner.
Jeffrey Heine:But later when he was called out on it, he said, God against you and you alone have I sinned. I left your arms for her arms. You were my epi desire, and I put you away, and she became my epi desire. Where I had to rest, and I had to have her. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said this.
Jeffrey Heine:He says, Satan does not fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness. So in that moment that you're tempted, you're not filled with, okay, I just hate God. I'm gonna sin. You just don't even think about him because he doesn't have the desire of your heart. James tells us that this will lead to sin, and it's going to start off as this little embryo, but it's going to grow and it's going to grow and grow, and finally, it becomes full fledged sin.
Jeffrey Heine:That sin is gonna grow and grow and grow and lead to death. So you have 2 options, crown of life, death. And the choice is this, who holds your affections? The wise man clings to the one that will never fade. The fool clings to the things that like the flower and the grass and everything under the sun will one day pass away.
Jeffrey Heine:And when we look at the cross, I hope you see that you were the epidesire of Jesus. In Hebrews, it says, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. All here in James is talking about enduring, enduring, enduring. Here we said for the joys that Jesus endured for the joy set before Him. And part, if not all of that joy right there is just knowing that He would secure his bride, the church to be his own.
Jeffrey Heine:And what we need to do is pray that the Lord would warm our hearts to where he is all we desire as well. Pray with me. Lord, we are forgetful people. That's why over and over and over throughout your word, you say, remember. Lest you forget, remember.
Jeffrey Heine:God, we confess that when we sin against you, we're not even thinking about you. So god, I pray now through your spirit, you would reclaim the affections of our heart that are rightfully yours. Restore to us that joy and our satisfaction in you. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.