2 Minute opening question: What did you want to be when your grew up?  Is it what you’re currently in training/actually doing?

As students and young workers you are at a time in life when you are making pretty significant decisions about what you will do with some of the best years of your life.  A question a lot of people ask me is: how can I know God’s will for my life?

I too would love to have the answers to that question.  Sometimes I dream of having a Tardis, so that I could go forward in time and see what the future holds, and then I could then plan accordingly today.

Our passage tonight puts us into the shoes of a Christian business person, who is making plans for their future.

BOOK: BIBLE STUDY

• What (or who) is missing from the perspective expressed in v.13?

This is “Practical Atheism” – making our plans for life without taking thought of God.  It is living for the moment with no thought of eternity.

• In v.14 how does this business-person have a wrong view of…

… the future?

… themselves?

Why does James call these wrong views “boasting in arrogance” (v.16)?

This fails to consider that humans are not God, that to us the future is unforeseeable and the brevity of our lives.  Our futures are outside of our control.  As we think about our futures we often over-estimate our importance, failing to see that we will be easily and quickly forgotten (just as we know little about our great-grandparents).  Our lives and plans “appear” and then “vanish” – only God and His plan endure forever. Humans have a way of putting themselves in Gods’ place with an over-inflated sense of their own importance.

• What is the right attitude we should have as we think about the future according to v.15?

We are to have an attitude that recognises that God is sovereign over our lives and history

• How can we avoid the twin problems of ARROGANCE and ANXIETY about the future (see: Matthew 6:25-34, Proverbs 3:5-6)?

*Rather than asking "What is God's wonderful plan for my life?" we should ask "What does it mean for my life to be a part of God's wonderful plan?"  We are to seek Him and His purposes, and trust Him to bring our lives into alignment with His much greater kingdom purposes (Matthew 6) – set forth in Ephesians 1:9-10 as the plan to bring heaven and earth back together in harmony under the rule of King Jesus.

*We are to entrust ourselves to His sovereign, fatherly providence in our lives, allowing Him to direct our paths (Proverbs 3)

*We are to make all our plans provisionally allowing God to over-rule in our lives (Proverbs 3)

• Discuss how you might answer someone who came to you asking: “How can I know what God’s will is for me at this time of my life?”

*Two extreme views:

- Determinism: We have no real choice; God chooses and determines everything according to His plan.

- Libertarianism: Everything depends on our choices; God needs us to make the right choices for His plans to succeed.

*The Biblical View: The Bible teaches two complementary truths: God chooses and we choose (God is sovereign and Humans are responsible).  [How you put these things together leads to the views of Calvinism, Arimianism and Mollenism]  We are free to choose what we desire, but at the same time God also has a sovereign overruling plan to bring about what pleases Him.  Our choices do matter and make a difference to our experiences (of blessing, usefulness, rewards, etc.) but cannot thwart God’s plans.  “The mind of man plans his course, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Proverbs 14:6). 

Illustration of the railway tracks.  If you stood on the railway line looking at the line as it goes towards the horizon, then you’ll see two parallel tracks which you know will never meet in this world.  Each track represents divine sovereignty and human responsibility, respectively.  However, as you look to the horizon and imagine beyond the horizon, in the heavenly world, it looks like the two tracks will converge and meet in the mind of God.

BOOK: TEACHING

Our choices matter and do make a real difference.  The question then is what are the right choices that God wants me to make?  How do we know what God’s will is?

There is often a lot of mystery and confusion around this subject.  One book’s subtitle sums up a lot of the ways people approach this question: “How to make a decision without dreams, visions, fleeces, impressions, open doors, random bible verses ,casting lots, liver shivers, writing in the sky, etc.” (see Kevin DeYoung: “Just Do Something”).  I know many people who are afraid that God’s will is like a target they have to hit, or else they will be going on the wrong path in life and missing out on God’s best for them – that puts on a lot of pressure to find Gods’ will before you make any decision.

I want to help you get real answers to this question and think biblically about God’s will.  Someone who has helped me is Dr John MacArthur: who points out that there are just five instances where the Bible talks about something being Gods’ will:

• GOD’S WILL IS YOU BE SAVED (1 Timothy 2:3-4)

“This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour, who wills all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”

To know God’s will we need to be first reconciled to God through Christ.

• GOD’S WILL IS YOU BE SPIRIT-FILLED (Ephesians 5:17-18 cf. Colossians 3:16-17)

“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord: do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit” … “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…”

Being Spirit-filled is about being controlled by the influence of God’s Holy Spirit – the comparison is between being filled with the Spirit and being filled with wine, one controlling influence leads to good things… the other controlling influence leads to negative things.  How does the Holy Spirit have control in our lives: by filling our minds and hearts with the Spirit-given Word of God (as the parallel passages both have the same results).  To know God’s will we need to be saturating ourselves in the Bible.

• GOD’S WILL IS YOU BE SANCTIFIED (1 Thessalonians 4:3-7)

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honour”

God’s will for us is always that we would be separate from sin.

• GOD’S WILL IS YOU BE SUBMISSIVE (1 Peter 2:13-15)

“Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution… for this is the will of God”

God’s will for us is that we would be humble, accepting the authority of governments, family, church leaders to speak authoritatively into our lives – rather than to insist on our own way.

• GOD’S WILL IS YOU BE WILLING TO SUFFER (1 Peter 3:17, 4:19)

“For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil… Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good”

God’s will won’t always be for our comfort.  As Paul discovered, when he struggled with his “thorn in the flesh” and prayed for its removal, God’s reply was “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness” (2 Corinthians 10)

If these 5 S’s are true of your live, then “do whatever you want, because guess who is controlling your wants?”  As you walk closely with God, He is “planting His desires in your heart” for you to follow.  This is the meaning of Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart” – not necessarily your natural desires, but the new desires that He has planted in your heart that reflect His good, pleasing and perfect will.

This way of understanding God’s will is terribly freeing.  It allows you to “just do something” as you walk closely with Him.

LOOK: APPLICATION

• “You are not your own, for you were brought with a price, so glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20): How can this truth give you a new perspective on how you use/plan your 24/7 time?

“The 24 hours in the day are not mine to use as I please.  God has given them to me, and I am to use them as He would want me to.  The plans I form need to reflect this” (Sam Alberry)

• What are examples of the “right things” (v.17) that God has called us to prioritise in our lives? How are you incorporating these things into your schedule/plans?
• To love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength
• To love our neighbours as ourselves

TOOK: CONCLUSION

SONG: “Jesus All For Jesus, All I am and have and ever hope to be.  All of my ambitions, hopes and plans, I surrender these into your hands – for it’s only in your will that I am free”

TEACHING THEME: James challenges us not to settle for an invisible intellectual Christianity, but rather to pursue an active, living faith in Christ that visibly overflows in good works bringing Him glory in our lives.

APPLICATION AIMS: To challenge us to put our faith into action in our lives.  To clarify wrong views of the relationship of faith and works in salvation.  To give reassurance for those who are conscious of their failures.

INTRODUCTION

We come this afternoon to the heart of the book of James.  Everything builds up to it, and everything else follows on from it.  Also what it says has sometimes been controversial and misunderstood – so much so that some Christians have argued that James should not be included in the Bible, because they fear it undermines the gospel. 

BIBLE STUDY

• Summarise the ‘big idea’ of this passage, after highlighting James’ repeated statements about “faith”.
  • “Faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead… is useless”
  • “Can that faith save him?” – this is not genuine Christian faith
  • “Faith that has no impact on behaviour is not authentic Christian faith. Real faith acts.  Real loves does” (Alberry)

• How does each of James’ examples develop the ‘big idea’ of this passage?
• The beggar (v.15-17)
  • It does no good to speak words only and not help with practical needs – an empty profession of faith, or mental acceptance of Christian orthodoxy, without practical expression, is nothing. It’s just hot air!
• The demons (v.19-20)
  • “Hell is full of good theology” (Alberry). An intellectual understanding of the truth is not genuine Christianity.  If it is not mixed with trust, commitment and love to God!
• The corpse (v.26)
  • Faith without action is like a body without a spirit – it’s dead. Notice an unexpected twist: faith = body, works = spirit – emphasising the practical nature of true faith, as members of a body.

• James says “a person is justified by works and not by faith” (v.24). Paul says “one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28 cf. Ephesians 2:8-9 “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and not by works”).
  • How can we resolve this apparent contradiction, by looking the examples of the Patriarch (v.21-24) and the Prostitute (v.25)? (Notice in v.22 “you see”)
• James isn’t talking about how someone is saved (faith) but how we can “see” that someone is truly saved (works – the fruit of faith). We see the reality of Abraham’s faith and relationship with God, by how he trusts and obeys God when tested.  We see the reality of Rahab’s faith by her actions towards the spies.  She has changed allegiance from the Canaanites to the Israelites.
• Martin Luther is especially helpful here: “We are saved by faith alone [Paul’s emphasis], but true saving faith never remains alone [James’ point: it will lead to good works]”.
• Paul himself teaches same point this when he talks about “the obedience that comes from faith” (Romans 1:5) and “If I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2)

• How does Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7:15-20 and 12:33-38 illuminate James’ point?

• John Stott - echoing the words of Jesus about “trees” and “you shall know them by their fruit” - describes faith as the “root” of salvation and good works as the “fruit” of salvation.
• When someone professes in words to be a Christian, but there is no evidence of a changed life, then that raises questions. It is possible to be deceived.  There is also an equal and opposite danger: to be living an outwardly Christian life, but to not have trusted in Jesus for salvation, instead trying to achieve own salvation by works.

• Why is this equation wrong: FAITH + WORKS = SALVATION? What negative effects can it cause to our lives?
  • FAITH = SALVATION -> WORKS
  • It undermines the work of Christ for us, which has done everything necessary to save us and make us right before God
  • It denies the reality of our sinfulness, that we cannot contribute anything to our salvation, because we can do nothing to merit our salvation
  • It leads to uncertainty: how much is enough to be saved? (Situation in Islam)
  • It leads to failure and condemnation: the problem of our continuing sinfulness

TEACHING CLARIFICATION ON SALVATION

It’s important that we are clear: how to be saved… how to be made right with God… how to be rescued from eternal judgement and hell, for eternal life and heaven.  It’s a crucial question.

We say “you are saved by faith” – but what is faith? 

Our society misunderstands faith.  It says there are many faiths (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.), because it divides things into: facts / values… scientific truth / religious faith.  This tries to make Christianity just our personal subjective opinions/beliefs, rather than objective truth for everyone.

However, when Christians talk about faith we’re talking about: TRUST.  When you sit down on a chair, you are TRUSTING it to support your weight.  Your trust doesn’t do the hard work – the object with four legs does it.  Likewise, it is not our faith that saves us, but rather the object of our faith: the Lord Jesus Christ!  We just our trust in God’s promise that if we receive Jesus then we will be saved.

Think of it this way: If we were to get the tram to Edinburgh airport and there was a plane about to leave for New York, then what kind of relationship do we need to have with the plane if we are to get to New York?   It won’t work to be outside the plane, it won’t work to run after it either.  We need to get inside the plane and trust it to carry us to our destination.  Now if Jesus is the plane, and heaven is the destination – then our faith is simply us trusting and committing ourselves to Jesus’ promise that He can take us there.  Whether your faith is big or small, strong or weak, what gets you there is Jesus.  Our salvation depends completely on the work of Jesus for us – His perfect obedient life, His sin-bearing death for us, His life-bringing resurrection, His gracious gift of salvation for anyone who trusts in Him.

And take one more step: If you have trusted in Jesus, then He’s taking you somewhere, there is going to be changes in your life, as He takes prepares you for your destination, your new home.

Discussion For Application

• How could you use this passage to help the people in these scenarios:
  • John is a professing Christian but after leaving home for university is getting carried along by the crowd into sinful behaviours. He says: “I’m just having a bit of fun.  God will forgive me!”
  • Caroline is a non-Christian flatmate, who thinks it’s lovely you are a Christian “That must mean you do lots of good things for poor and hurting people – I’m also a humanitarian”
  • Someone who always has all the right answers in a Bible Study, but is arrogant and harsh in how they relate to others.

• In what ways does your faith in Jesus make itself visible to the people around you already? When/where could it be moreso – and specifically how?

CONCLUSION: Clarification For Assurance

I don’t want you to leave this session feeling like a failure and feeling uncertain about your salvation.  Some of us are particularly conscious of our sins, failures, missed opportunities.  Martin Luther was someone like that, whose struggle with sin and his own weaknesses made him doubt his salvation often.  He warns us not to excessively LOOK WITHIN OURSELVES to see if we’re really Christians.  He says when you look within you’ll see your sin, your unbelief, your doubts, etc.  Instead, he tell us to LOOK OUT TO CHRIST, in whom we find forgiveness, a perfect righteousness before God, grace, help, life and hope.  That act of looking out to Christ is faith – and we are saved by faith and go on in the Christian life by faith too.  So keep looking to Jesus, keep trusting in Him.

At the same time, I want you to leave here feeling James’ challenge to not settle for an intellectual faith, but to have a faith that moves, that acts, that abounds in good works, that shows and tells the good news of Jesus to those around you! 

On Reality TV there’s no end of programmes that let you see the dysfunctionality of different families, like “Keeping Up With the Kardashians”.  I think these programmes are so popular because they help us feel better about our families: none are perfect, or normal!  A fascinating Reality TV programme would have been “Keeping Up With Jesus”.

Jesus was part of a family while on earth: “Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James, Joseph, Jude, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” (Mark 6:3).

Have you ever imagined what it must have been like to grow up with Jesus, as your older brother?  He was never the one who got in trouble with Joseph and Mary, because He didn’t do anything wrong – and He showed up just how bad you were in contrast.  It must have been so frustrating, indeed perhaps there was some dislike and jealousy.  Maybe that’s why the gospels candidly tell us: “For even his own brothers did not believe in him” (John 7:5).  At one point we’re told: “And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, ‘He is out of his mind’,” (Mark 3:21).

The James who wrote this letter is almost certainly one of these unbelieving half-brothers of Jesus.  James’ conversion came after the resurrection of Jesus, when he received a personal visit from his half-brother: “Then he appeared to James” (1 Corinthians 15:7).  Later, we are told that James is one of the key leaders of the church in Jerusalem (Galatians 1:19, 2:9; Acts 15:13-21).

His letter is probably one of the very first writings in the whole New Testament.  And James’ writes with one aim in mind, to challenge us “to follow more wholeheartedly, James’ brother – the Lord Jesus” (Alberry).  To put our faith (in our heads) into action (in our lives) ... “James urges disciples to let what they have learned to move like leaven throughout their whole person – mind, heart, speech, action” (DeSilva).

Particularly, James is going to explore the realities of being a Christian – the different challenges that come on the inside and on the outside against our faith in Christ.  These are opportunities to become more whole-heartedly a follower of Jesus!

BIBLE STUDY

What does this passage teach us about:

↑ God: His Person, His Character, His Works?

• 1: James says he’s jointly a servant of “God” and the “Lord Jesus” – affirming the deity of Jesus
• 5: God wants us to ask His help to navigate the trials of this life wisely. He will do so gladly, because He’s “generous” (No Scrooge) and shows “no reproach” (No Oliver Twist workhouse master)

→ Life in this World: Hardships, Trials?

• 3 there are “various trials”: light and heavy… personal and circumstantial, sudden and unexpected, gradual and impending, pain, anxiety, failure, disappointment
• 3-4: Trials and hardships aren’t destructive, they can be productive: they “produce steadfastness” with the end of “full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”. God doesn’t waste these things in our lives. “James’ plea to us, whatever our situation, is not to let such times finish us as Christians.  In fact, just a few verses later, he offers us the prospect not just of scraping through trials, but of actually growing as Christians in our trials” (Alberry)…
• “pure joy” “perfect” - Picture of the refiner’s fire for purifying silver. The silversmith has to heat up the silver ore to a high temperature, in order to scrape off the top the impurities and dross, repeating this process multiple times.  He knows his work is complete when he can see his reflection in the molten silver – so it is with how our heavenly Father refines and purifies us!
• 5: We aren’t expected to cope on our own, instead we’re invited to ask for wisdom, because trials are complex and confusing! “We should not pray so much for the removal of affliction, as for wisdom to make a right use of it” (Henry)

↓ Us: How we can respond in Thoughts, Feelings, Actions?

• Thinking: we’re to have faith and not to doubt God. We’re not to be two-souled, or divided in heart.  James says that only leads to instability – like being tossed around like a wave in a storm – and inability to receive answers to our prayers.
• Feeling: we’re to pursue joy, not despair or dejection in trials. “Miseries can be bitter or sweet depending on how we choose to look at it” (Manton).  We’re to “count” or “consider” (think about it contrary to how it feels) as “all joy” because God tells us that He has a purpose for the trials of life.  Illustration of Joni Eriksen Tada: when someone asks to pray for her healing, she graciously accepts, but specifically asks them to pray for God to be healing her of her bad attitude, etc.  She sees her quadriplegic condition in the light of eternity and in the light of God’s work in her life today, fitting her for that future life.
• Choosing: we’re to pray and ask God for wisdom and help

 ҉  Any new insights you have discovered?

• How much the words of Jesus stand behind James’ thinking:
  • 2 joy under trial: Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven”
  • 3 goal of perfection: Matthew 5:48 “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
  • 5 asking and receiving from God: Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you”
  • 6 asking and not doubting: Matthew 21:21-22 “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
  • 8 on the double minded man: Matthew 9:25-27 “I believe, help my unbelief”. “This father was not oscillating between belief and unbelief. He desired to believe—and even asserted his belief—but because he felt keenly the inadequacy of his faith, he asked for help in believing. He was not facing both directions at the same time like the “double-minded man” of Jas 1:8. In spite of his conscious weakness, he had set his heart to believe”

DISCUSSION AND RESPONSE

The Christian life is marked by trials, which are meant to drive us to God.

AS YOU ENCOUNTER CHALLENGES AS A CHRISTIAN:

(1) Remember God is going to use this! (Read 1 Peter 1:3-7, Romans 8:18)

Think about times when you’ve done something very difficult or experienced a very hard situation – share how you saw growth or how you saw God bring good out of it?

(2) Pray for wisdom! (Read Colossians 2:2-3, Proverbs 3:5-6)

As you enter into a new season of study or work, in what ways do you need wisdom and help from God?

Pray together at tables

Trials marked the life of the Lord Jesus, He has walked this road before us, and we His servants must follow in His footsteps, knowing that this is the road that leads to glory. We’re to ask for Him to graciously strengthen, sustain, guide, and protect us.