A couple of points to prepare us for Saturday morning:
1. PERSPECTIVE OF THE TRIALS OF TEMPTATION & THE BENEFIT OF ENDURING IN RESISTING THEM.
James 1:12 - A blessing for those who endure temptation:
Blessed [is] the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Temptation is one of the trials we face.
A “crown of life” has an implication of something of great value, greater than anything of this world.
The exhortation of James is that it is worth it!
Ultimately, this is a promise of God to us--"to those who love Him”!
And the more we endure to the resistance of temptation, the more we see clearly and really understand the meaning and the depths of how much Jesus Christ, our Savior and God, first loved us, which translates into our ability to love Him back!
The love of God is really the basis for how we can endure temptation or any other trial.
Sin is very pleasurable to the flesh, making it immensely attractive. The only way to overcome that desire is the replace it with a greater passion. That greater passion is the love of Christ;
For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15
2. WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU REALLY BOWED BEFORE GOD AND ASKED HIM FOR WISDOM?
James 1:5-8 - Receive the wisdom you need from God.
“If any of you lacks wisdom”
God's wisdom enables us to recognize the benefits of trials. One of the benefits of trials, is that they give us a necessary season by which we’re reminded that we are not capable of surviving eternity without God.
They may come as a result of our complacency, or our growing cold or comfortable, or we might be becoming self-sufficient and forgetting God in our everyday lives.
It happened to Israel time and again—look at the book of Judges—some 14 cycles of forgetting God, being oppressed, turning back to God, and Him rescuing them!
Why ask for wisdom instead of knowledge?
Knowledge is just information, but wisdom knows how to apply that knowledge or information properly!
“Let him ask of God”
Remember who wrote this Book—James penned the Word of God, but it is God's Word!!!
God is telling you and me: “if you lack wisdom, then ask Me, and I will give wisdom to you, generously!”
(liberally = generously)
And in case anyone might be afraid that God would be angry for their asking for wisdom, he tells us we can ask without reproach!
Apart from the promise of salvation and the fulfillment of that promise in the finished work of Christ, this is one of the most tender promises of God, I think!
The implication is that our heavenly Father not only wants us to come to Him, but He wants us to come often!
But we’re to “ask in faith”, with an implication of humility.
“let him ask in faith”.
Don’t come with presumption, don’t demand, don’t try to purchase it, just ask in faith, the same way we accept the faith of Jesus Christ by faith, ask in faith!
“With no doubting”
This is not “name it and claim it”;
This is simply having our expectation of God’s sovereign will to be that He will give us anything and everything that He knows we need, and as often as we need it.
Any other attitude in asking, whether in doubt or having a presumptuous expectation of Him to do something, is an indication of instability.
-----------------------------------------------------
What an amazing God we serve; what an amazing Father He is! How blessed are we to even just get to exist. How patient is He to continue to shape us, mold us, and so gently guide us into this understanding of our place before Him, which is good and pure, with the promise of continuing in His glorious presence!
And it is a glorious presence, not one of lacking, but one of everlasting fellowship, without any of the fleshly and carnal obstacles that we experience in the trials of this world!
Men! DON'T GIVE UP!
It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus; Life’s trials will seem so small, when we see Christ!
One look at His dear face, all sorrows will erase; So bravely run the race, till we see Christ!
1. PERSPECTIVE OF THE TRIALS OF TEMPTATION & THE BENEFIT OF ENDURING IN RESISTING THEM.
James 1:12 - A blessing for those who endure temptation:
Blessed [is] the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Temptation is one of the trials we face.
A “crown of life” has an implication of something of great value, greater than anything of this world.
The exhortation of James is that it is worth it!
Ultimately, this is a promise of God to us--"to those who love Him”!
And the more we endure to the resistance of temptation, the more we see clearly and really understand the meaning and the depths of how much Jesus Christ, our Savior and God, first loved us, which translates into our ability to love Him back!
The love of God is really the basis for how we can endure temptation or any other trial.
Sin is very pleasurable to the flesh, making it immensely attractive. The only way to overcome that desire is the replace it with a greater passion. That greater passion is the love of Christ;
For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15
2. WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU REALLY BOWED BEFORE GOD AND ASKED HIM FOR WISDOM?
James 1:5-8 - Receive the wisdom you need from God.
“If any of you lacks wisdom”
God's wisdom enables us to recognize the benefits of trials. One of the benefits of trials, is that they give us a necessary season by which we’re reminded that we are not capable of surviving eternity without God.
They may come as a result of our complacency, or our growing cold or comfortable, or we might be becoming self-sufficient and forgetting God in our everyday lives.
It happened to Israel time and again—look at the book of Judges—some 14 cycles of forgetting God, being oppressed, turning back to God, and Him rescuing them!
Why ask for wisdom instead of knowledge?
Knowledge is just information, but wisdom knows how to apply that knowledge or information properly!
“Let him ask of God”
- Where do we go for help in trials?
- Do we go to books?
- Do we run to men, doctors, psychiatrists, etc?
- Do we go to the occult?
Remember who wrote this Book—James penned the Word of God, but it is God's Word!!!
God is telling you and me: “if you lack wisdom, then ask Me, and I will give wisdom to you, generously!”
(liberally = generously)
And in case anyone might be afraid that God would be angry for their asking for wisdom, he tells us we can ask without reproach!
Apart from the promise of salvation and the fulfillment of that promise in the finished work of Christ, this is one of the most tender promises of God, I think!
The implication is that our heavenly Father not only wants us to come to Him, but He wants us to come often!
But we’re to “ask in faith”, with an implication of humility.
“let him ask in faith”.
Don’t come with presumption, don’t demand, don’t try to purchase it, just ask in faith, the same way we accept the faith of Jesus Christ by faith, ask in faith!
“With no doubting”
This is not “name it and claim it”;
This is simply having our expectation of God’s sovereign will to be that He will give us anything and everything that He knows we need, and as often as we need it.
Any other attitude in asking, whether in doubt or having a presumptuous expectation of Him to do something, is an indication of instability.
-----------------------------------------------------
What an amazing God we serve; what an amazing Father He is! How blessed are we to even just get to exist. How patient is He to continue to shape us, mold us, and so gently guide us into this understanding of our place before Him, which is good and pure, with the promise of continuing in His glorious presence!
And it is a glorious presence, not one of lacking, but one of everlasting fellowship, without any of the fleshly and carnal obstacles that we experience in the trials of this world!
Men! DON'T GIVE UP!
It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus; Life’s trials will seem so small, when we see Christ!
One look at His dear face, all sorrows will erase; So bravely run the race, till we see Christ!