So thankful for the Ohms family and we're gonna be welcoming some other
families over the coming rest of this month and next month which is exciting.
But James starts us last week talking about joy and trials and had a lot of
conversations with you about this how we do that. Had a lot of conversations about
if God loved me why would he bring trials into my life? That was one of my
favorites because I thought that too like why would a good God allow for
trials in this life and it's not comforting at all but say well there's
sin in the world so we're going to go through those things. It doesn't always
feel like a warm blanket. It doesn't always bring comfort but the fact that
James implores us to find joy even in trials though that doesn't mean when
trials come or bad things come in life that we go hey can I have another thank
you? I don't I'm not like that I don't expect any of you to be. But now he's
gonna finish chapter one with really the the reason why we can have joy in trials.
It's because of faith. This understanding of true faith and I know we've looked at
Lord's Day 7 we'll get there in a little bit we're gonna look at a bunch of
different things in the height of our catechism today which is a catechism we
use in the Reformed faith to help guide us to truths in Scripture. We do not hold
that equal with Scripture by any means. Without Scripture we wouldn't have a
catechism or a Belgian confession or a Canaan's Adorner if you're Lutheran the
Luther, small or big catechism or the Westminster catechism. All of that is
founded on Scripture, little side note. But how do we walk out faith in the
midst of trials? How do we walk out faith just in our everyday life? That every day
you wake up to have faith in God, have faith in the the things of God, God's
promises in your life. From the minute you wake up and you go through all sorts
of emotions, I'm not gonna take this personally, but how many people could
have slept after their alarm went off, could have slept in? Yeah
exactly. Jason's hand first went up. I won't take that personally at all. But
understand you have choices to make just like in faith you have choices to make
and how we walk through those, James is gonna round us out today in the end of
chapter 1. And what he's gonna do, he's going to bring about an understanding of
how the world actually sees a person of faith by what they do. Because the world
can tell about who you believe in or let's liken it to, I mean people can tell
who you root for when it comes to sports because of maybe the things you say,
things you wear, you know maybe you you made sure everybody was home on Friday
to watch the Bulls right and go we're gonna make the playoffs this year. Nope
nope we didn't. Same thing as last year but I made sure I wanted to watch that.
We wanted to endure that I guess as a family. But we, people know especially
Cubs fans right. I mean all the garb, all the flags and all of that stuff I know
they're Cubs fans right. I knew it when I threw the egg. I get it right that they
are Cubs fans. But I wonder if the same goes through for people of Munster
Church about their faith in God, not Munster Church. So yeah in the future we
may have shirts and all that kind of stuff. Be careful and I've said this
before about like that magnet that we have in the back, like having that on
your bumper or maybe on your car. Like you should probably think of how you're
gonna drive. I have yet to get in six years calls from anybody be like oh
those are the kind of people you have at Munster Church. That so-and-so cut me off
on 80-94. I don't know how many people would actually like look into Munster
Church and probably you're driving fast enough where they thought it was Faith
Munster that's fine. Let them get the call. Charlie can deal with it. But
understand when we wear Jesus the world expects certain things of us and some
people expect to get hypocrisy and that's hard. Oh you're a Christian. Oh
that must mean you're gonna judge me. You're gonna hate on me. You're gonna
this that or the other thing. Because in a lot of ways we've we've built a little
bit of a bad name for ourselves. But what does it look like to actually walk out
faith? Walking out Jesus, your relationship with Jesus, your
understanding of Jesus, the truths of God's Word. So James is gonna start
breaking this down. My first point is that faith can be seen. A dynamic of true
faith is being, and we're gonna start with conviction right off the bat. I'm
okay if you're audibly grown so did I. That point one is that you're quick to hear,
slow to speak, slow to anger.
Just gonna let that sit. Slow that we are quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to
anger. James 1 19 says know this my beloved brothers. Let every person be
quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. For the anger of man does not
produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and
rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted Word which is
able to save your souls. So right off the bat he's gonna go right here. I warned
us two weeks ago, this is exactly what James does, that part of walking out
faith is that we're quick to listen, slow to speak, and I'm also going to say type
or post, okay, and slow to anger. I think it's funny kind of the rhythm of that.
That what gets us in trouble is when we don't listen and we're quick to speak
and we go from 0 to 10 when it comes to anger. Well some people are like, oh yeah,
they just have a bad temper. That's not an excuse. That for a believer, for a
person of faith, that we are to be slow to anger and James doubles down on it
when he says for the anger of man. So that's different than the righteous
anger of God. So are we allowed to be angry? If we're going to be angry at the
level of righteous anger of God which is against enslavement, which is against
hypocrisy, which is against darkness, which is against saying one thing, living
another, it's saying one thing or thinking another, those are the thing.
Divisive spirits, Proverbs talks about that, is one of the only thing the Lord
hates or abhors is a divisive spirit. So if you are being divisive in a situation
in your life, guess what? In that moment, God hates what you're doing and if you
are a person of faith, you should probably stop. But he's not talking about
God's anger. He's talking about man's anger and if we kind of find what the
root of man's anger, who thinks they know what it is? What is the root cause of
man, humanity's anger? Ego. What else? You're almost there. Pride. Who said pride?
Alright, give Avya a high five. Good. Pride. Well pastor, there's a lot more
things that I'm angry about. Yeah, but the root of that is you. The root of that is
me. Again, we're not talking about righteous anger. We are not. We're talking
about man's anger. We're talking about sinful anger. Why do you think the first
four commandments given from God to the Israelites had everything to do with
man's ability to try and replace God? Because he knew we would. Given of
ourselves we won't, we wouldn't need God because we'd want to be God's ourselves.
How did they know that that was even a possibility? They were in Egypt. Pharaoh
was God. Or a God, lowercase g, always lowercase g, but that's what he thought
about himself. I'm here to tell you, as a position of
authority in an organization, the minute I think that way, it's over for me. The
minute that ego and that pride, that thinking, thus saith Jim, no. And I have
ten elders that will keep me honest to that. And a wife that very much will keep
me honest to that. But understand that that's what he's talking about. He's
talking about those things. When I, in my mind, in my thoughts, in my speech, in my
post, place myself over somebody else taking a God-like position. Now I know
some of you are saying, but I defend the goodness and the righteousness of
God. I get it. I get it. But at some point, or a lot of the points, we don't make it
about that. We make it about winning and losing. We make it about TKO, a total
knockout in a conversation. Whether you're in the boardroom, whether you're
in the family room, whether you're in the sanctuary or whatever it is, when we get
into fights, when we get angry, we want to beat that person. All I know is Jesus
could have done that all the time. We could go through, go to Luke chapter 4,
the first time he was the attempt to hit on his life. Some of you may not even
realize that, that they tried to kill him in Luke chapter 4 for saying that the
scriptures are being fulfilled in him. They wanted to stone him, meaning either
stones come at you or you get thrown two stones, meaning off a cliff. And what does
Luke say? He passed right through him for it was not the right time. But at any
time, right? Woman caught in the act of adultery. At any time, he could have been
like, and you're all dead. He could have, but he didn't because we're to learn how
to work through these situations, these ideas of judgment. Now, it's totally...the
Bible is used to be held accountable, to hold people accountable, to rebuke them
when they are doing something evil. Absolutely. We are called to do that, but
this anger is not the righteous anger of God. It is the sinful anger of man. This
understanding of being quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger is that for
a believer, our practices should be humility and patience because that is
mirroring the heart of true faith. That in trials, in affliction, in conflict, we
are to have true faith. That this faith is a gift from God, granted to those who
he calls. So we will get to Lord's Day 7, but we're going to go to Lord's Day...we're
going to go to question and answer 20 first. And then we'll get to question
21, what is true faith? The first, are all people then saved through Jesus Christ
as they were lost through Adam? The answer, no, only those are saved who,
through true faith, was grafted into Christ and accept all his benefits. That
the world, someone who is not of the elect, someone who does not claim Jesus
as Lord, right, this isn't an us versus them, this is those being called of faith
has been given this gift of true faith. How does that sit with us this morning?
That true faith is a gift. Does any of us have a reaction to that? That what? Peace.
Interesting. Anyone else? When you hear that true faith is a gift that we are
given, what goes through your mind or your emotions when you hear that?
Thankful. Anyone else? Comfort? Sure. Hope. These are all positive. I'm going to be a
little more realistic. I go, oh no. That I've been given the gift of true faith
and how badly I've stepped in it when it comes to that. That when I'm walking out
in anger towards my spouse, my kids, my church, whoever, the person in front of
me, that I'm denying the gift of true faith. Though it's hopeful and comforting
in all of those things, like, ooh, that's a responsibility. So what is this true
faith? True faith is question and answer 21 of Lord's Day 7. We know this, we've
learned it, I'm just going over it because it calls for this. True faith is
not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true that all God has revealed to us
in Scripture, it is a wholehearted trust which the Holy Spirit creates in me by
the gospel that God has freely granted not only to others but also to me.
Forgiveness of sins, eternal righteousness, and salvation. These are
gifts of sheer grace granted solely by Christ's merit. So if I'm doing the
transitive property, whether I know that definition right or not, that if true
faith, the gifts of faith means listening, not being quick to speak, and not being
angry, then there is a responsibility I have to the gift of true faith. And the
thing about gifts is God gives them, we are to receive them and use them. I'm
sure some of you in time have gotten a gift that you kind of had to paste a
weird smile on because you thought to yourself, I don't see a receipt, I have no
idea what to do with this, and it's been sitting somewhere in your house,
crawl space, or closet, or whatever, and you will never use it. That is not what
we're talking about today. That to strive knowing that James is how we not work
out our salvation but because of our salvation get to work, that part of that
work is showing the world a true faith. Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to
anger. But pastor, I have a worker that just doesn't come on time and it drives
me insane. We've talked about, like I get so angry. Okay, what is God saying to you
in that moment? I'm not saying you have to let them off the hook. I am not all
about a world of participation trophies that you break a rule, you're gonna get
in trouble. The Bible makes that very clear. But the anger side of it, do we
leave that with the Lord? Do you ask, Lord, give me patience as I deal with this
employee? Give me patience as I deal with whatever it is? Or do we just want to
hammer it? We just want to get it done because we want it our way. I think
that's the crux. That's where I think we stray from this understanding of true
faith, this understanding of the gifts that James is telling us we get, that we
because of being people of faith we have been given, now I know it's kind of cheesy
but two ears one mouth. As a talker I get that a lot. Thanks mom. But understand,
it's true. Checking my anger or for some of us anger slash rage, checking that at
the door. I don't know anyone that says, you know what, I really came to know the
Lord because I was at a church full of rage and I felt completely judged and
completely hated on when I got there. I don't know anybody that goes, ooh I want
that Jesus. No. I'm not saying we need to be wimps either but we are to love, we
are to listen, we are to speak truth and life and we are to be patient not only
in our own afflictions but also in the afflictions other people cause us and
guess what? Patient in their afflictions as well. Why? Because we are not called
just to sit with this little light by ourselves in our room or on a Sunday
just all of us here together. No, we're supposed to take it out. What does that
mean? James tells us in verse 22. He tells us, but be doers of the word not
hearers only deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a
doer he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he
looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he looks like. But the
one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty and perseveres being no
hearer who forgets but a doer who acts he will be blessed in his doing. Keep that
up there. I think it's a great understanding. I'm not gonna ask how many
people spend a lot of time in the mirror, right? Because I don't want to out anybody, I
don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable but for a lot of us it's
something we do we don't even think about it, right? Whether we have to get
things just right or whether it's just like okay I'm brushing my teeth looking
in the mirror I'm done. It's the person that looks intently in a mirror. Maybe
it's to notice all the blemishes, maybe it's the dark circles under the eye or
maybe it's like I'm 52 how do I have acne still I don't care what it is but
then you turn away and go what was I looking at? What was I seeing? It's the
same thing with faith. Friends, this has been very clear, hasn't changed, of how
we're supposed to walk out lives of faith. How we're supposed to walk in
truth and in love. It even says in liberty, in perseverance. But how many
of us may go wow Jim made a good point today and then by four o'clock this
afternoon you go what did we do? What did he say? And believe me for a preacher if
you understand one thing from what I said by noon today I count it as a win.
But understand what the Bible is saying is for all of us people of faith we know
what we're looking at, we know how to walk it out, we know how to be doers of
the word but the minute we stop reading we forget or the minute life gets real
hard we choose to forget or when all of a sudden I'm being attacked I forget
that I'm supposed to be a person of faith and I go to become a person of
wrath because I have to defend myself. I'm not gonna let anyone put me down I'm
gonna defend myself I'm gonna punch back. Well let's if we model our faith after
the faith of Jesus we can go he didn't do that now he called out those that
need to be called out he corrected what need to be corrected absolutely he did
but did Jesus need to defend himself because he was right with the Father do
we need to defend ourselves if we're right with the Father and I know some of
you're saying but the world's attacking right the world's gonna make it hard
yeah the Bible's made that very clear that should not be a shock to you the
world doesn't like me because I'm a believer friends that's not a new idea
that goes all the way back to the first century we read that Easter Sunday the
cover-up the money the power the authority the darkness has been there
since guess what the darkness has remained now there's a time limit on the
darkness it has an expiration date it will be all put to death at one point
but we're not there yet but what the Lord's calling each and every one of us
is to remember the faith that has been instilled in us for good works for being
doers what are good works Lord's Day 33 question answer 91 what are good works
only those which are done out of true faith can form to God's law and are done
for God's glory and not those based on your own opinion or human tradition
remember that umbrella grace we prayed for it this Lord's Day cuts right there
that the world is not done given your interpretation of the scripture it is
the scripture alone what the scripture says we should do now we get caught up
in interpretations oh we get caught up in interpretations that's a whole nother
sermon series but understand that you can take any interpretation and bring it
back to the original you can the original Greek the original Hebrew and
how many of you know how to do that exactly and so understanding that if
you go okay is what I'm reading really true go back to the simplest
understanding of the law that all the law and the prophets hang on these two
things love for God which means holding up his commandments and loving people
it's that peace though if we think about it that peace is the one that we can and
we can have dividing lines as many rows as we have in this church of what is it
mean to love what does it mean to come alongside because we are called to
correct and rebuke we are called to do all these things we're supposed to do
those things the law in Christ tells us to but we are to do it in love that
doesn't mean there isn't consequences one thing I know about faith is there
are gonna be some people that don't get it the Bible makes that very clear
but I called out to you Lord Lord and the Lord said I never knew you but there
are people in the world today that they think they have this down they think
they've got Jesus all figured out almost to the point where they don't need him
and guess what that's the missing piece we can do all of these good things but
the good works that Christ is seen in us with that are being done through the
Father conform to God's law are done for God's glory and there's the dividing
line we do a lot of things in faith for our own glory oh man I really love doing
the soup kitchen this week it made me feel so good well if that's what you're
chasing yeah not a bad thing but are you doing it because your life is submitted
to Christ guess what it flows top-down elders and deacons for the joy of
serving are you doing it for by God's law for God's glory and not based on
your own opinion awkward the council rooms full of opinions but it's what is
God word God's Word says I've said this over the last couple weeks because we're
getting ready to cast lots we'll talk about that in May and in June and we have
three-year terms here at Munster and it's it is it's a lot of fun it is it
working with all different people all different skill sets but the three-year
term thing gets hard as the only constant in the room Lord willing you
know it's kind of the joke you know pastors we get to joke too about all of
you there's whether or not we tell from a sermon but understand that it's kind
of like one the first year you're learning you're picking it up great
second year you're like oh now we're in stride there you're like I can't wait to
be done what as pastors we feel a little bit of that whiplash not gonna lie I'm
just gonna throw that out there because at the end of the day getting unity
takes time now if we know as a church where we're going and I believe as
Munster Church we're working in that space it's a lot easier but what are our
good works the good works of your counsel should be based on these as well
done for by God's law for God's glory and not based on our own opinion or
human tradition what does that mean that the one sentence that I can't stand as a
pastor is well this is the that is heresy maybe not quite heresy but
understand that goes against a lot of this well this is the way we've always
done it and I know some of you and you can double down that it's actually a
good thing right it's a good thing that we preach the gospel every Sunday
totally buy into that right totally but we can throw that on all these different
things that if it follows God's Word and it's giving God the glory and what does
that mean oh this is gonna hurt and it hurts me first that means it may cause
us to be uncomfortable just because we're doing it in a church and we're
comfortable about it doesn't mean that it's for God's glory or maybe even by
God's Word no it's for our comfortability friend if the Christian
faith was derived and guided by Jim's comfortability or your comfortability
this church wouldn't exist because we all know it's not about us or at least
we should and that's what James is saying true faith is not about you true
faith is about Christ in you the hope of glory true faith is dynamic it's
manifesting not only our beliefs but also our actions we are engaged in God's
Word to be transformed doers of his Word rather than passive spectators that's
why if someone says you know what pastor Jim I serve for years and years and
years I'm gonna take a break now until I'm dead and you're 45 I know now
you're in the 90s club you do whatever you want pastorally fat phenomenal you're
playing with house money but understand that for a lot of us we go so hard for
the church and for being honest we burn out and we get scared to do it again
well guess what if we're in a system where burnout doesn't necessarily
happen it's okay to take a season a season off that's totally fine but we
all are still to be doers of the word we never get to hang up our faith coat and
go oh not this season of life you know what I'm in my 50s now I don't need to
be doer I've been a doer of the word since I made my profession of faith so
you're in your 50s now so you get to hang faith up no nothing in here says
that that though it may be hard and though we may need to ask for that
double that double portion of energy and spirit God still got this but the right
mindset comes with that too that the kingdom of God is not dependent on
whether or not you're a doer of faith that's another thing we have to
understand about ourselves because it's not for our glory it's for God's glory
the hardware catechism then doubles down on this truth in Lord's Day 32
question answer 86 since we have been delivered from our misery by grace
through Christ without any merit of our own we didn't do anything Christ did at
all why then should we do good works just leave that up there don't go go
back then why should we do good works what a selfish question God's done all
the work he I have salvation because of Jesus and it would be great if I didn't
have to do anything with it well I'd work catechism helps us here because
Christ having redeemed us by his blood is also restoring us by his spirit into
his image so that with our whole lives we may show that we are thankful to God
for his benefits so that he may be praised through us so that we may be
assured through our faith by its fruits and so that by our godly living our
neighbors may be won over for Christ what the Heidelberg catechisms missional
yes it is Dan Ardsmath it totally is that understand that by working good
works our neighbors may be won over Wow this is us making the conversation
connect that the way we live out our faith as the opportunity for others to
see it to be won over gonna land the plane with this question is the way you
are being a doer of the word something that can win somebody over for Jesus I
get it that's a hard question that's almost not fair and understand I asked
myself the same that the way I live out my faith every day of the week not just
the hour and a half on Sundays not just every other Wednesday at gems or cadets
or whatever we're involved in is my faith me doing can someone be won over
by that because I think that's the real question am I living out my truth am I
living out true faith in a way that people are gonna look at that and go
man I know we're different but they love me and they won't stop asking me to
church maybe I should go with the way that we live out our faith meaning in
trials this is what happens when we go through every verse and that family just
went through all that and they're not fighting there they're not bickering they
didn't get divorced but like they love each other through it and I've seen a
bunch of people drop off food so much so that they even brought stuff over to our
house other people I don't need your food at our house they just bring it
over to other people like you see the differences there you see the difference
in the way it the way we act wait they found joy in trials they said that
through this God's teaching me something that God is producing something in me
they have a peace in the midst of wherever the world would have anxiety
what is that that they might be won over for the sake of Jesus as redeemed
children of God we are called to reflect his holiness and his righteousness in
every single aspect of life true faith compels us to flee from sin to pursue
purity and integrity with our thoughts our words and our deeds so Munster
Church gems gems leaders former Calvinets all of us let us strive to
keep ourselves unstained from the world shining as beacons of light in a dark
world that desperately needs to be won over