TITLE: Pass or Fail?

James 1:1
Living Word Christian Fellowship – Dumaguete

PRAY.
“1 James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the
twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings. ~ James 1

INTRODUCTION:
We have entitled today’s message Pass or Fail?

Who among us here have tried taking an exam? Who has tried passing an
exam? Who has tried failing an exam?

Our Christian walk is like an examination. James used the term “the TESTING
of your FAITH,” which makes us realize that faith must indeed be tried and
tested, not so that we will fail, but the Lord has to give these tests so that upon
testing our faith, and as prevail and come out victorious, we would meet the
standards that He has set for us His children.

And in our Faith, when examination or its testing would come, it is always a
good thing that we pass. No one wants to fail, because failing means
displeasing the Lord.

While I was away for at least a week, the Lord led me that as a church we
should start a series on the book of James. And there are a lot of reasons, a
lot of great practical applications of the Gospel that we can draw from it, so
that the book is worthy of our attention and study – why we need to do a
series on James.

Before we start with our expository study on this epistle, we need to

understand first the theme of this whole epistle so that we will be guided as to
what are its main contents.
ILLUSTRATION: Just like attending a company meeting, or a seminar or
training, the first question that we would ask is this: What is the agenda of the
meeting or what are the topics to be discussed in the seminar or lecture? In
the same way, it is apt for us to ask about what is in it for us in this epistle that
we will study. What is the purpose of James in writing the letter?

Maybe you don't understand why your life has had so much difficulty in it,
and you thought that the life of a believer was a life of blessing.

Or perhaps you think that there are these moments in life where you just
lack wisdom, and you know that your Lord is the ultimate source of
wisdom, and you don’t understand why you have these moments where
you lack wisdom. Or maybe you recognize that there is way too much
anger in your life, that you experience way too much conflict, and you
don't understand why.

Or maybe you know that God's sovereign; yet you know that you’re
supposed to plan, and you struggle with that balance between what is
your responsibility and what you can entrust to God. Or maybe you really
struggle with getting the best out of God's Word; you love the preaching
of God's Word, but when you have the Bible yourself in the privacy of
your own devotions, it just doesn't seem like the Word of God speaks to
you.

Or maybe there are moments where you feel like the most insignificant,
unrecognized member of the body of Christ, and you feel like you could
slip in and slip out, and no one would ever notice you. Or maybe there
are moments where you wonder if your prayer makes any difference at
all.

Why have I proposed these questions to you? Because these are exactly the
questions that James looks at. And these are the questions that we need to
look at as a Church and search from God’s Word for answers.

In all of its confusion, in all of its messiness, in all of the struggles, there is not
a person in this room who hasn't struggled with his faith in some way. And the
message of James is that the Gospel is so expansive and
sturdy, and the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ
is so powerful, that we need not avoid the hard issues of
life. Praise God! We can look at those issues in the face; we don't have
to run from the questions of life; there’s a real way in which James is a portrait
of a struggle, the struggle of faith in this broken and fallen world. And though
life is difficult, God gives us through James examination pointers so that we
would PASS and not FAIL in our faith.

Our faith is not only a top-of-the-head discussion that we do every Sunday.

Our faith in Christ and His Gospel is something that we can bring home to our
households, our offices, our schools, even in the privacy of our walk with God.

And James helps us see how the Gospel should come alive in our day-to-day
living. Faith is not something that must be confined in the four walls of this
room, that we leave it here after the service, and go back to it the following
Sunday. No! Our faith must be practical, must be exercised daily.

And as we study this book, we engage in life questions and find the answers,
as the epistle of James would help us.

But while the book is less theological than it is very practical, we need to view
it according to the Gospel of Jesus. It is not that James spoke of a different
teaching contrary to the Gospel.

“Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world
[to be] rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those
who love Him?” ~ James 2:5

EXPLANATION: He knows salvation is of electing grace. He knows salvation

brings imputed righteousness.

“And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED
GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS," and he
was called the friend of God.” ~ James 2:23

EXPLANATION: So James did not introduce to us a Gospel contrary to what

Paul says in Romans. He knows that salvation is a Divine Act of Sovereign
God through sovereign grace. He knows that salvation is by FAITH in Christ -
ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS
RIGHTEOUSNESS.

James did not discount the importance of sound doctrine, but rather that he
wants to see how doctrine affect the way we live. Talk is cheap; James wants
to see results.

That is why as we engage in learning from the book, we need to carefully

consider it, lest we swerve and zero in to practicality and away from the
Gospel. Unless we reflect our practices in light of the Gospel, in light of what
Jesus has ALREADY DONE, then all practical applications would fall short
both in purpose and motivation, and our tendency is to practice the commands
and principles that the book of James would present us the way Pharisees
did.

The Pharisees strictly pursued the Law of God as a means to gain the
approval of God. That is why Jesus sternly rebuked these Pharisees because
they have set such a high standard, made their own interpretations of the Law,
so that it has become burdensome to those who listened to them.

Jesus, therefore, made this invitation to the people who were wearied because
of the Pharisees teachings: 28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-
laden, and I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn
from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST
FOR YOUR SOULS. 30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Matthew 11

EXP: Jesus said, Come to Me – It is in His person, and it is only from

Him, that we can find rest for our souls. Strictly pursuing the Law apart
from the Gospel is to one man WEARISOME – he who search for truth
and for relief from a troubled conscience – and to the other HEAVILY-
LADENED – observing it when it gives no true relief. It also adds the
sorrow of life, which, apart from the comforts of a true faith, is so
crushing.

Therefore Jesus invites, Come to Me and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR
YOUR SOULS. It is only in the Gospel of Jesus where true freedom in
 our day-to-day living can be found, and not in the imperatives of the Law
of God.

"For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Notice that Jesus did
not say that there would no longer be any need for us to follow the Law of
God. But it is only after we have found the rest for our souls in Him –
because Jesus Himself has met all the righteous requirements of the Law
– can we pursue our obedience to God’s commandments EASILY and
LIGHTLY.

Therefore, let us not misconstrue it when James says, “18 But someone may
[well] say, "You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without
the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” ~ James 2

EXP: James does not teach us salvation by works, No! Rather, he

asserts and emphasizes that true faith should not be mere
PROFESSION or DECLARATION, but it must be a TRUE POSSESSION
of the believer and indeed this faith is VALIDATED and its
GENUINENESS TESTED, when it manifests into good works.

When we possess true faith in Christ, we are led to follow the imperatives
of the Gospel – its laws, commands, and precepts. The Law of God
becomes a delight already, as the psalmist would say: I delight to do
your will.

Moreover, James says: “25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law,
the [law] of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful
hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”
James 1

EXP: James refers to the perfect Law of God as the Law of Liberty. This
is contrary to how people see it during the time of the Pharisees. The
people were enslaved, felt burdened, and heavily laden of the Law of
God.

God wants us to have freedom and take delight as we obey His laws. It is
a law of liberty, to someone who has understood that the laws or God’s
commandments are no longer a means to our acceptance, but a delight
 to be pursued because we are already accepted by God in Christ. We
see God’s imperatives as a law of liberty and we joyfully pursue them in
gratitude to what Christ has already done for us.

It is therefore very important to lay this foundation and mindset because 54 out
of the 108 verses in the book, or half of the total number of verses, contain
imperative verbs.

As we study the Book of James we might be tempted to think that pursuing

these commandments is the way to salvation. James does not teach that, and
we should no think that way as well.

So the question that we should always ask as we start learning from this
epistle is this: In light of what Christ has already done for me, how should I
practically live out my faith in Him?

Let us go to our text this time:

“1 James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the

twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.

It is obvious from its opening word that the author of this letter is James. The
structure of the epistles or letters in the New Testament times as compared to
the modern day letters is quite different. We usually begin our letters today by
addressing immediately to whom we send the letter to… We say Dear so and
so.

But during the time of James, the author of a letter must identify himself
immediately in the opening. So the author as indicated here is James. There
are several men in the New Testament by the name of James. We know that
this James was not the apostle James, brother of John, the son of Zebedee,
the one who belong to the inner circle of Christ’s disciples. James, the disciple
of Christ died early and his death is chronicled in the book of Acts so we know
the author is not him.

Majority of the Bible scholars agreed that the author of this letter is James, the
half-brother of Jesus.
“Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His
brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?” ~ Matt. 13:55

EXP: Jesus has four other brothers and one of them is James. So contrary to
what some would proclaim, Mary was no longer virgin before she died,
therefore it would be wrong to still proclaim her as the Virgin Mary.

Jesus has brothers and one of them is James, the author of this epistle. The
other was Judas (not Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus); this is
also called Jude – the author of a very short yet very meaty letter, the Book of
Jude. There was no detail in the Bible about Joseph and Simon aside from the
fact that they are Jesus’ brothers.

Apparently James did not believe in Jesus as Lord until after the resurrection,
when the risen Savior appeared to him (1Cor. 15:7). He became the leader of
the church in Jerusalem in the years following the Day of Pentecost, when the
Holy Spirit came after Jesus Christ’s ascension.

James could have pulled a rank by opening the letter. He could said “James,
the son of the virgin Mary, brother of none other than Jesus Christ. I grew up
with Him! I knew Him long before He became famous!” But James (1:1) and
his brother, Jude (Jude 1:1), both opened their letters by calling themselves
bond-servants.

“1 James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the

twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.

EXPLANATION: The word means, “slaves,” and refers to those who are
the property of their masters. They had no rights. They lived to do their
masters’ will. James adds, “a bond-servant of God and of the Lord
Jesus Christ.” By mentioning God and Jesus Christ on equal terms, and
adding “Lord,” which is the Old Testament word for God, to Jesus, James
affirms the deity of Jesus Christ.

The word Bondservant was used at least 1401 times in the Bible and it
means TO BIND ( Gk. “doulos” from “deo” = to bind), so
that the word literally means “A BONDED SERVANT.” We are bonded,
connected, sticked to Christ.
A bondservant was an individual bound to another in service and
conveys the idea of the slave's close, binding ties with his master,
belonging to him, obligated to and desiring to do his will and in a
permanent relation of servitude. In sum, the will of the doulos
is consumed in the will of his master.
In using the term bondservant James is not declaring any outstanding
personal qualification other than the expression of his complete devotion
to God and preparedness to obey Him unquestioningly. In other words,
James as a bondservant is saying he was surrendered wholly to God's
will and thus devoted to God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

James recognized that as a redeemed soul, he was no longer his own

but had been bought with the price of the blood of Christ. He was now
the property of his Lord Jesus Christ.

To describe it in the words of Paul, what James meant when he said that
he is a bondservant and Christ is His Lord, His Master, is this: "I have
been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ
lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live by faith
in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” ~
Galatians 2:20

We were once slaves to sins and sinfulness, but when Christ died for us
on the Cross, we also were crucified with Him; we died to our sins. And in
the resurrection of Christ, we were also resurrected with Him to a new life
in Christ – a new life, no longer slaves to sin, but bondservants to Christ
and in His will.

The [life] which I now live in the flesh (I am still in the flesh, but I am
no longer walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit of
God) I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
Himself up for me.

EXP: In the Old testament, the Lord gave the Israelites a specific
law about the slaves:
 2“If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but
on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment.
3“If he comes alone, he shall go out alone; if he is the husband
of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him. 4“If his master
gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the
wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall
go out alone. 5“But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master,
my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’ 6then
his master shall bring him to God, then he shall bring him to
the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear
with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently. (Exodus 21)

On slide: PICTURE of an AWL – a sign of lifetime

ownership of the Master.

The motivation of the slave in remaining with the Master is his love
for the Master. Being a bondslave or servant to Christ is always a
voluntary surrender.

And why do we do that? Seeing Christ’s love for us first, we love

Him and serve Him in return. Our loving of Him is but a response to
His first loving of us. He loved us and gave Himself up for us.

“…I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
Himself up for me.”

It is Christ’s death on the Cross and all that He has done for us! That is our
overarching motivation for remaining being bound to Him. We are His
bondservants; Christ is our Master, our Lord.

James makes this truth clear to us at the start of his letter so that we will not
get the wrong impression that James is teaching a different a Gospel.

To be a bondservant for Christ is to be first saved by Christ. Unless we are

blood-bought, purchased from our sinfulness and brought into the
righteousness of Christ, we could not start pursuing a path to righteous living;
we could not become a bondservant apart from the Cross of Jesus.
Being a “Doulos” or Bondservant speaks of submission to one's master. The
doulos had no life of his own, no will of his own, no purpose of
his own and no plan of his own. All was subject to his master. The
bondservant's every thought, breath, and effort was subject to the will of his
master. In sum, the picture of a bondservant is one who is absolutely
surrendered and totally devoted to his master. What a picture of James'
relation to his Lord! What an example and challenge for all believers of every
age to emulate!

By using doulos James is saying “I am a slave to the Lord Jesus Christ. I am

absolutely sold out to His will. I am willing to do whatever He tells me to do. I
am willing to say whatever He tells me to say. I am willing to go wherever He
leads me. I am a man who has made a choice. I am going to serve Him for all
eternity."

APPLICATION: Beloved, does your attitude and actions (thoughts, words,

deeds) reflect the eternal truth that you are no longer your own, but that your
body is actually a holy temple of God and that this privilege was purchased
and made possible at infinite cost to God? Let us meditate on these profound
principles and privileges, that the Spirit might renew our minds and empower
our walk, so that we realize that it is indeed worthy to serve our Savior, that it
is indeed of such a high and holy calling to be serving the King.

The introductory statement of James, his greetings and identification as a

bondservant, is very crucial to his succeeding statements. It is even very
crucial to the entire letter itself.

Immediately this he said,

To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.

EXPLANATION: Who are these people that James addressed his letter to?
There are some Bible scholars who would say that James addressed his letter
to all the Jews outside Palestine. But immediately in the context of the letter,
he mentioned, in verse 2 “MY BRETHREN”, and in verse 9, “A BROTHER.”

So while, it may be true that James addressed the letter to the rest of the
entire nation of Israelites who were not in Palestine at the time of his writing,
he address this letter primarily to the brethren – to the Jews who know Christ,
who have relationship in Christ already… his main goal was to write this letter
to his brethren, to his brothers not just in race, but his brothers in Christ, his
co-bondservants to Jesus Christ.

You remember the time in the book of Acts when the 120 believers were
granted the gift of the Holy Spirit after Jesus ascended to heaven. The
disciples were granted the promised Holy Spirit, as Jesus told them when He
was still on earth.

But the church in Jerusalem were purely Jewish congregation at first, and they
continued to grow and grow in number as they devoted themselves to the
preaching and teaching of the word, until the persecution came. The believers
were forced to flee to Judea and Samaria and to other parts of the world
outside Jerusalem after the event of Stephen’s stoning.

As a result they were in DIASPORA. It means the idea of scattering or sowing

seed. So these are the Jews who through scattering, because of persecution,
were dispersed out everywhere. Diaspora gives us the word "dispersed."
These were Christian Jews who are dispersed because of the persecution.

Interestingly, David Guzik also commented that, certainly James’ letter is not
only limited solely to the dispersed Jews but it also applies to all Christians,
because all believers of Christ are bondservants.

James wrote his letter to encourage the Jews who were scattered abroad due
to persecution. However the scattered Christian Jews could not help it, but as
they were persecuted, all the more they did witness for Christ. So the Gentiles
who were evangelized, know Jesus Christ, and who were brought into the
common faith in Christ, may also be treated as recipients of this letter.
We need to bear in mind that James was more particular in writing to the
brethren, rather than writing to the Jews. In fact 18 times, distributed in all
chapters of the book, James mentioned and addressed his brother or his
brethren.

To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.

EXPLANATION: Greeting…Be glad, rejoice, KAIRO, be glad, a common

secular greeting used very frequently. But what James is going to give them in
his letter should gladden their hearts because it should verify the genuineness
of their salvation.

At the start of this message, we have discussed that the very goal of writing
the letter is to communicate, to establish to the Jewsih Christians and also to
us that GENUINE FAITH must result into GODLY ACTION. That is the Goal of
James – to verify the genuineness of our salvation by the way we live. James
knows that while salvation is God’s Divine Act, he also knows that divine
grace will always be verified by a transformed life. And so he offers tests to
see the validity of saving faith.

In a way, James is saying: As a BONDSERVANT of Christ like me MY

BRETHREN, be JOYFUL (GREETINGS). The way for you to survive your
Christian life, even in your diaspora, in your dispersion, is for you to be
assured of the genuineness of your faith, because at the end of the day, no
matter what happens, no matter what your circumstance would be, the tested
genuineness of your faith will keep you in Christ.

And so he offers tests to see the validity of our saving faith.

TEST #1: The Test of Endurance in Suffering

“2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,

3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect
and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all
generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts
is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the
Lord,
8 [being] a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9 But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high
position;
10 and the rich man [is to glory] in his humiliation, because like
flowering grass he will pass away.
11 For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its
flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the
rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.” ~ James 1

EXPLANATION: James is saying, don't put your salvation on the basis of your
money, whether you have it or don't have it. Don't think you have true faith if
you have wavering faith.

Verse 12 is the key, “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial.” The
trial doesn't blow away the man who has genuine faith. What would become of
him as he comes out in endurance upon his trials? “for once he has been
approved, he will receive the crown of life which [the Lord] has promised
to those who love Him.” That's the reward of true salvation for the one
whose faith is true as demonstrated by the way he endured the trial.

In the Parable of the Sower, do you remember the seed sown in the rocky
soil? When the tribulation came, when the trial came and the sun came out
and the sun of trial scorched, it dried up and died because there was no what?
no root. What happens to a person during trials in life is a test whether they
have living faith. Put someone through a test, someone through a trial, if he's
a believer he counts it all what? joy. He perseveres and he comes out strong
and victorious. But if he wavers and wanders and abandons, mark it, if he
withers and dies, not true faith. Perseverance is a sign of saving faith,
perseverance in trial.

Starting next Sunday, we are going to learn deeper into this, what we do now
is only an overview. If you have faith, the trials in life will perfect your faith. If
you don't have saving faith, it will reveal it. A person with non-saving faith, a
non-Christian will not endure when the trials come. They're gone.
TEST #2: The Test of Responsibility in Temptation

“13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God";

A man who has false faith does not want to accept the responsibility for their
sin. False faith is demonstrated by the fact that people will not accept the
responsibility for their sin. But it is wrong to say that God tempts any man…

for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt
anyone.
14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his
own lust.
15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is
accomplished, it brings forth death.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming
down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or
shifting shadow.” ~ James 1

James rebuked the one who wrongly accuse God for tempting him, “DO NOT
BE DECEIVED. Do not ever think that God can tempt because He cannot be
tempted by evil, nor He tempts anyone.

A man with a false faith does not own responsibility over his committal to sin.
He always blames someone; worst is he would blame God.

We see that in Adam. The first man blamed God after he sinned. He said to
God, "The woman You gave me." Who did he blame? Not Eve, the woman it's
not my fault, God, I woke up one morning married. You could have created
anything You wanted, why her? Don't blame me. That is the typical temptation
of false faith and it's where it reveals itself.

That is why Jesus taught us in His pattern or model of prayer, to own our sin,
to say to God: Forgive us OUR sins. A man who has relationship with Jesus,
one who has genuine faith always owns his mistake and does not blame
others.
True faith accepts the responsibility for sin. And it sees sin as the fruit or result
of lust. A child of God understands that sin doesn't come down from God, it
comes up from him and the test of blame in temptation is a good test of true
faith. You show me the true believer and I'll show you the one beating on his
breast acknowledging his own sin.

TEST #3: The Test of Response to the Word

How a person responds to the Word is an indicator of the genuineness of their

faith.

“22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who
delude themselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man
who looks at his natural face in a mirror;
24 for [once] he has looked at himself and gone away, he has
immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the [law] of liberty, and
abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer,
this man will be blessed in what he does.” ~ James 1

The person who possesses genuine faith is a doer of the Word. He is the one
who really understands. He's not forgetful, verse 25 says. He looks and he
sees and he does and he's blessed. And his religion is manifest in purity in an
undefiled way and in loving kindness to the fatherless and widows in their
affliction and he keeps himself unspotted from the world because that's what
the Bible calls him to.

APPLICATION: God is not looking for isolated acts of goodness, He's looking
for obedience as a pattern of life? The test of trials and the test of blame in
temptation and the test of response to the Word, these are how you measure
living faith.

In Chapter 2…

TEST #4: The Test of Impartial Love

“1 My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ
with [an attitude of] personal favoritism.
2 For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in
fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes,
3 and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine
clothes, and say, "You sit here in a good place," and you say to the poor
man, "You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,
4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become
judges with evil motives?
5 Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world
[to be] rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those
who love Him?” ~ James 2

If you do this, the text continues…

“6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress
you and personally drag you into court?
7 Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?
8 If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture,
"YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF," you are doing
well.
9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin [and] are convicted
by the law as transgressors.
10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one [point], he
has become guilty of all.
11 For He who said, "DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY," also said, "DO NOT
COMMIT MURDER." Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit
murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by [the] law of
liberty.”

And then in verse 13, James says, if you will not show mercy to a poor man in
your congregation, do not expect to see mercy or receive it from God either.

13“For judgment [will be] merciless to one who has shown no mercy;
mercy triumphs over judgment. ~ James 2

Wow! You know what James is saying? If you're not a merciful person, you're
not going to receive mercy from God. That's to say that how I treat other
people is a mark of my love, which is a mark of my salvation.

Now listen, you say, "Oh no, sometimes I probably fail in a test. Sometimes I
might blame God for a sin: ‘If you did not allow me to pass by that direction,
I would not see it; or if you did not allow me to meet that nagging neighbor, I
would have controlled my anger’. Sometimes I might not respond to the
Word. Sometimes I might not love as I ought to love and hold people
equal whether they're rich or poor.

Am I lost and on my way to hell?" So that we will be reminded again that

eternal life is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, what I'm
saying to you, beloved, is this is to be the direction of your life, it will not
be the perfection of it. But it will be the direction of it. Is this the
deepest truest longing of my heart? That's where the verification
of true faith takes place.

After the test of impartial love is the…

TEST #5: The Test of Righteous Deeds

“17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, [being] by itself.

18 But someone may [well] say, "You have faith and I have works; show
me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my
works.” ~ James 2

This again is the summary of what James speaks in the whole book. When we
say that we have true faith in God, our faith must go to the direction of
righteousness.

James continues with these tests. In Chapter 3,

TEST #6: The Test of the Tongue

Living faith produces self-control and self-control is revealed in the tongue.

Ugly speech comes from an ugly heart. Unloving speech comes from a heart
where the love of Christ is a stranger.
We know what the Bible speaks about it: Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. (Matt. 12:34)

James issues to us these questions in relation to the test of the tongue:

“11 Does a fountain send out from the same opening [both] fresh and
bitter [water]?
12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs?
Nor [can] salt water produce fresh.” ~ James 3

That is the test of speech. What's your speech? I don't mean what's your
speech around the church; I mean what's your speech when you're not around
the church? How do you do with the test of speech?

You say, "Sometimes I fail but the deepest desire of my heart and the direction
of my life is godly speech." That's the test.

TEST #7: The Test of Humble Wisdom

“13 Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his
good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.

16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and
every evil thing.
17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle,
reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without
hypocrisy.” ~ James 3

True wisdom is not something to be boasted about. This is the test of humble
wisdom as opposed to selfish, envying, disorder, lying. That wisdom is earthly,
sensual, from the devil. It's confusion, it's every evil work. But the wisdom that
is from God is pure and peaceable and gentle and reasonable and full of
mercy and good fruits, unwavering and without hypocrisy.

I used to work in a tutorial center that is named WORLDLY WISE TC. We do

not, as believers, want to be wise according to how the world would appraise
us. We want to be wise according to the WORD standards, and not the
WORLD standards.

What's our life like? Is it earthly? Is it sensual? Is it filled with strife and bitter
envy and self-glory and lying against the truth? You failed the test...the test of
humble wisdom. Or do you have that wisdom that can bring to a situation
peace and gentleness and mercy and good fruits and honesty and
righteousness? This is the wisdom that is peaceful and peace producing.

TEST #8: The Test of Worldly Indulgence

“4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is
hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the
world makes himself an enemy of God.” ~ James 4

We discuss about this in our study of 1 John, that the test of true abiding in
and love for Christ is evidenced in our hatred for the things of the world. The
self-love, the self-fulfillment, the self-esteem of the world at the expense of
others, the world's lustful, sinful, selfish, indulgent system is antithetical to
God. It does not mark saving faith.

That's the test of worldly indulgence. What are your pursuits? Are you
pursuing the Kingdom of God or the things of the world?

And then at the end of Chapter 4…

Test #9: The Test of Dependence

Do you really believe God is sovereign? Do you really submit your life to God?
Or do you go through life saying

“13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and
such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a
profit.” ~ James 4

But James rebuked us in verse 14…

“14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are
[just] a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
15 Instead, [you ought] to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do
this or that.”

That is the attitude of true dependence to God. That is why we say when we
plan to do something… “Lord willing…” because we understand that as the
Proverbs would put it, “Great is the plan in man’s heart, but the Lord has the
final word.”

Genuine faith depends on the Lord wholly. Living faith is dependent faith. And
if you don't live this way, verse 17 says, it's sin, it's sin. The test of
dependence. Oh what a very, very important test.

What have we seen? The test of perseverance and suffering, the test of blame
in temptation, the test of response to the Word, the test of impartial love, the
test of righteous works, the test of the tongue, the test of humble wisdom, the
test of worldly indulgence, the test of dependence, let's look at chapter 5.

Test #10: The Test of Patient Endurance

He indicts the rich in verses 1 to 6 for condemning the poor. And he says, in
effect, verse 7, "Don't react wrong to that. If you're oppressed, if you're
persecuted, be patient and just wait for what great event? the coming of the
Lord." You know what a mark of living faith is? Hey, you can persecute me,
you can hit me, you can say all manner of evil against me, I just want you to
know that I am waiting for the coming of Jesus Christ and because my heart is
filled with that hope, I really don't care what happens here. That's the essence
of it.

And then he gives the illustration of the farmer in verses 7 and 8, it has to
plant and then wait.

“7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The

farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it,
until it gets the early and late rains.
8 You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord
is near.” ~ James 5
He gives the illustration of the prophets that have to speak and then wait.
Then he gives the illustration of Job (in verse 11) who had to wait to see the
mercy of God.

Test #11: The Test of Truthfulness

“12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by

earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no,
so that you may not fall under judgment.” ~ James 5

A swearing tongue is an indication of a false faith. True believers honor the

word they say and they will fulfill it – They will say YES and they will do it; they
will say NO, and they will not do it. We honor our Word because we do not
merely say it to man, but we say it to Lord who listens to us.

God is very particular with the words we say.

36 "But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall
give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.” Matthew 12

No need for oath, just fulfill what you say – Yes is Yes and No is No.

Test #12: The Test of Prayerfulness

James 5;16 is where we get one of our favorite verses…

“16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one
another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous
man can accomplish much.”

True faith is expressed in prayer. It's our dependence to the Lord. That is the
reason why I really encourage everyone that we join our prayer gathering
once a week.

We live in a God-designed supernatural environment, where we depend on

Him at all times. Prayer is like breathing; we do it always because it is what we
do to live. It is even unnatural not to breath.
The same its true with prayer! The very presence of God exerts pressure on
our spiritual lungs and we have to pray. No one has to remind us. We should
pray more than we ought to, more than we do, we ought to pray more than we
do. But prayer is a part of our life.

These are the tests to see whether or not our professions of faith is genuine.
And James gives us these tests. So he concludes:

“19 My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns
him back,
20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will
save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

If you find somebody who doesn't pass the test, convert them and you'll save
a sinner from death and you'll bring to him forgiveness.

Now, beloved, in closing, may I say this: if

you don't pass the test
you're either not a Christian at all, or you're in a time of
disobedience in your life, somehow you've gotten off the
course. And may God help you in either case.

A poet wrote this: "We are saved by faith, yet faith is one with life like daylight
and the sun. Unless they flower in our deeds, dead, empty husks are all our
creeds." It's true. "To call Christ Lord but strive not to obey belies the words of
homage that I pay."

The question for us is this: Pass or Fail?

I pray that as we start our deeper study, next week in the Book of James, the
Lord will correct and change us so that He will save our souls in the end.

PRAY.