Crowned with Happiness

if God’s people would once again
take their Bibles and turn back to the epistle of James, James
chapter one, where we resume just where we left off two weeks
ago, James chapter one. And this particular verse, chapter
one, verse 12, is where we pick up. This verse really dovetails
and completes, caps if you will, the paragraph that began back
in verse 2. Back in verse 2, James there
began to talk of trials that had a purpose. They weren’t just
general difficulties that come into our life. They were there
designed by God that we literally fall into and that as such they
are part of God’s plan for our life. They serve a God-given
purpose in that they test us for the purpose of proving us.
And so this verse, verse 12, goes all the way back into verse
2 and puts a cap on it, if you will, a bookend on this whole
discussion that James initiates back in the beginning there.
Well, as James is wrapping up, He essentially tells believers
that the privilege that we have of walking on this earth and
gleaning the wisdom from God in the course of our trials really
has an end in itself for us. There is a purpose to these,
as we’ve already seen, but there is a blessing as well. And so James, as he gives this
very appropriate conclusion to this discussion lands on the
fruit, if you will, of that testing, the perseverance through that
testing that he spoke of in verse two, that that testing as it
is endured with God’s grace, it bears fruit, it produces.
And it leads ultimately to blessedness. leads to a blessing. We’ll talk
more about the nature of that blessing as we continue this
morning. If you would, I want to go back
all the way to verse 2. We’ll take a running start at
it this morning, could we? Verse 2, and we’ll course down
through verse 12, where James says, consider it all joy, my
brethren, when you encounter various trials. We saw that they
are of multitudinous different kinds. They come in all different
shapes and sizes. They are variegated, if you will. Consider it all joy, my brethren,
when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your
faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect
results so that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. 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. 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. For that man ought
not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being
a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. But the brother
of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position. And
the rich man is to glory in his humiliation because like the
flowering grass, he will pass away. 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 to the rich
man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. is a man who perseveres under
trial for once he has been approved he will receive the crown of
life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. James puts a cap on it. He introduced the idea of trials
there in verse 2 and he pointed out that it is a process of testing
They are there for a divine purpose that of proving our faith We
are not out to prove our faith to God or to anyone God is about
proving testing trying and perfecting our faith through this process
of trials Which he introduces in his sovereign appointment
into our lives They’re all ultimately for the purpose of making us
happy. That’s right. That’s essentially
what James says. Consider it all joy, which was
a challenging way to start. We don’t like it when somebody
quotes this verse to us, especially if we’re in the midst of the
fire of trial. We don’t like it when somebody
says to us, consider it all joy. But ultimately, the very purpose
of these trials is to make us happy. As Americans, perhaps even going
back to our seventh grade civics class, we’re reminded of the
Declaration of Independence, where it has that very dramatic
statement, we hold these truths to be self-evident. that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. Life is one of those blessings
that we are gifted by our Creator to have and to enjoy. And as
believers especially, we count it such a privilege to be alive. It is one of the gifts of God.
Life and breath and all things are what Paul declared are part
of the basic gift package of God. Liberty, which is always
in a state of ebb and flow. We are always in a state of either
gaining new liberties or losing liberties that we possess. We
know that as Americans as well. But it’s the pursuit of happiness
that I want to focus on for just a moment. We hold these truths
to be self-evident that all men are created equal, endowed by
their creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It’s a divine right. And as a
divine right, we make it a national pastime to find new ways to make
ourselves happy, or to pursue happiness, because after all,
it is our right as Americans, it is what God has given me,
I have the right to pursue happiness. And we set about to find almost
any way possible to pursue this so-called happiness. We start
perhaps with relationships. Relationships will certainly
make us happy. Or do they? Relationships become soon a challenge. I remember when I began preaching
Romans chapter 15, that passage that deals with our interface
with other people. And I suggested to you that we
would be the most godly Christians that the world has ever known.
if it weren’t for people. Because as soon as we begin to
interface with people, it brings out the worst in them and it
brings out the worst in us. Relationships quickly go south.
Relationships quickly bring to light things in our lives that
bring us anything but happiness. World travels. Perhaps if I can’t
find happiness in relationships, perhaps I can throw myself into
traveling the globe, or at least in delving so deeply into the
local offerings. So many people spend their last
dollar in pursuit of world travels, thinking that that will bring
them happiness. Just travel itself for me. I long since lost the zeal for
sleeping in the dirt. Travels don’t necessarily bring
happiness, do they? Riches. A lot of people set out
thinking that if they only had more money that they would be
happy. And Paul himself says that many
have tried that and pierced themselves with many a pang. Riches don’t
necessarily bring happiness. Fun, at least initially, brings
happiness, but it’s fleeting. In our lifestyle, where partying
and drug and alcohol abuse ultimately lead to nothing but heartache
and misery and death, we try ourselves with abundance,
with leisure, with diversity, And all of those things test
me on this. All of those things essentially
become an excuse for sin. And it goes something like this.
I’m gonna do this because after all, God wants me to be happy. And so we begin to pursue those
things in the pursuit of our happiness. And our happiness is fleeting. We’re not the first ones to try
this approach. If you can find it quickly, turn
if you would to Ecclesiastes chapter two. In Ecclesiastes
chapter two, Solomon, Solomon himself tried to find happiness
in all manner of worldly delights. And in the
end, it was found to be completely empty. It’s not where we find
happiness. We don’t find happiness in our
travel. We don’t find happiness in our
partying. We don’t find happiness even
necessarily in our relationships. Solomon said it like this, look
at verse one. I said to myself, come now, I
will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself. Behold it
too is futility. I said of laughter. It is madness
and of pleasure. What does it accomplish? I Explored
with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine while my mind
was guiding me wisely And how to take hold of folly until I
could see what good there is For the sons of men to do under
heaven the few years of their lives doesn’t this sound? dismal I enlarged my works. I built
houses for myself. How many men set themselves to
their career with reckless abandon? They throw themselves completely
into that thinking that that will bring them happiness. Solomon
discovered it didn’t. I enlarged my works. I built
houses for myself. I planted vineyards for myself.
I made gardens and parks for myself. I planted In them all
kinds of fruit trees I made ponds of water for myself from which
to irrigate a forest of growing trees.” I mean this is some gardener,
right? Makes mine just look pitiful.
I bought male and female slaves and I had home-born slaves. I
possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. I also collected for myself silver
and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I provided
for myself male and female singers and the pleasures of men, many
concubines. Then I became great and increased
more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also
stood by me. All that my eyes desired, I did
not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from
any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor,
and this was the reward of all my labor. And at the start, Solomon says
he was happy. But I would suggest to you that’s
happy with a small h and it is disappearing ink. Look at verse
11, thus I considered all my activities which my hands had
done and the labor which I had exerted and behold all was vanity
and striving after the wind and there was no profit under the
sun. In other words, it did not bring true and lasting happiness. And it isn’t just the national
pastime for Americans, it is what every person born in the
earth is inclined to do, is to find happiness. And so when we come to this passage,
and James is so graciously willing to tell us how to find true and
lasting, enduring, perpetual, forever kind of happiness. Well,
that is something that should make every person, not just Americans,
sit up and take notice. James wants to tell us how we
can find happiness. And he wants to talk about the
Christians’ pursuit of happiness. Look again at verse 12. where first of all, I wanna show
you three identifiers of a person who is truly happy. Three identifiers
of a person who is truly happy, and a truly happy person is a
person who is blessed. That’s literally what the word
means. It’s the biblical word for happiness, and it could be
translated happy, or oh, how very happy, how fortunate, how
blissful, It speaks of someone who is positively in a positive
state. It isn’t a word that I use that
often, but it’s a state of bliss. Absolute happiness. Couldn’t
get any better. And so this word could be translated
happy or fortunate, and it implies this, there’s a, almost a congratulatory
aspect to it. that a person has reached a place
where they’re at the pinnacle of experiencing what life’s happiness
can possibly bring. In the scriptures, it is frequently
used. And it’s frequently used of a
kind of happiness, a kind of bliss that isn’t dependent on
outward circumstances. In fact, that’s what makes Christian
happiness so remarkable, is that people look at us and we should
be glum, we should be dour, we should be depressed, and yet
we persevere in joy. We are truly and genuinely happy because we know that our sin
is forgiven. It is well with my soul. And
if we can sing that, we are truly and genuinely happy. And that
is the nature of the happiness that is extolled throughout the
scriptures, especially in the Psalms. Psalm 1, right? How blessed is the man. Oh, how very happy is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. He doesn’t listen
to the advice of fools, the advice of the godless, nor sit in the
seat of scoffers, nor stand in the path of sinners, but his
delight is in the law of the Lord. He wants to do God’s will,
and in that he is truly happy. Psalm 32. How blessed is the
man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity. How very happy
is the person whose sins are forgiven. And when a person comes
to know Christ, when a Christian knows that his sins are forgiven,
that is a state that cannot possibly be removed from them. That is
a happiness that does not fade away. Psalm 34. Oh, taste. and see that the Lord is good.
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. There is no hope,
there is no help in anyone else. And to be found in the Lord’s
care, to have His hands covering you, as we read in our psalm
on Wednesday night. Psalm 40. How blessed is the
man who has made the Lord his trust, and has not turned to
the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood. Psalm 84. Psalm 84, how blessed is the
man whose strength is in you. The very course of discovering
happiness in this life is learning not to trust ourselves, to learning
not to trust in our own resources, to learning how to throw ourselves
completely on the Lord and to trust in His provision. Proverbs likewise echoes the
thoughts of the Psalms how blessed is the man who fears always we
have a such a warped view of The fear of God we we consider
it to be someone who cowers in the corner at the very thought
of God That isn’t the fear of God The fear of God is a is a
heart of reverence It’s a heart of respect It’s a heart of gratitude
and and one that knows that he is called into the presence of
God. He’s not fearful to be near God? One Puritan pastor said
it this way, this is not a pious wish. When he said, blessed is
a man who perseveres under trial, it’s not a pious wish, or is
it even a description of the people? It is a verdict that
James is passing on an entire group of individuals. He’s making
a judgment on the quality of their lives. In other words,
when James looks to the discovery of true happiness, it is something
not that the child of God gathers for himself, but something that
God lavishes upon the child of God. Jesus spoke of this kind
of blessedness, didn’t he? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
spoke of it over and over again. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who
mourn, they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
they should be called sons of God. Blessed are they who have
been persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Blessed are
you when men cast insults at you. It is the state into which
God has lavished upon them in His grace. And so, just like in those Beatitudes,
there’s no verb in there, you might notice, and neither is
there one in James. It isn’t a prayer that James
utters, it’s an observation. It’s a verdict that James pronounces. That if these things are true,
you are truly happy. You are truly blessed. Look at
the passage. And much of this, much of this
is really review from verses two and four, two through four. Blessed is a man who perseveres
under trial, James had already spoken of it. He’d already set
forth the course that we are to take as believers in this
world, that we shouldn’t be surprised that we literally fall into these
trials. And then we discover that they
were placed there by God for our good. So James just draws
this conclusion. Blessed is a man who perseveres
under trial. He had already called us to endurance. In verse four, He spoke of perseverance,
and we spent no little time looking at the root of that word that
speaks of a patience, just an enduring patience, worked into
us by the grace of God. A lot of people would go about
life thinking, man, if I could just avoid some trials, I’m gonna
just fly low below the radar, I’m not gonna rock the boat,
I’m not gonna stir the pot anywhere I go. I’m just gonna, you know,
that’s how people conduct their lives because they really see
if I could just do this and not get myself into any trial, I’m
gonna be good. And that isn’t the way it works,
is it? It’s the perseverance through
trials. We can’t avoid trials. The trials
are going to come. God will find a way to work the
trials into our lives and when they come, It isn’t even experiencing
the trials that brings blessedness. It isn’t attending the class
that gets you the degree, right? It’s not the fact that you were
in class, it’s the fact that you went into the class, you
paid for the class, you took the test, you took the quizzes,
you showed up, you did the assignments, you did the readings, you got
a grade, and if it was a passing grade then, then that class goes
towards your degree. But it isn’t just going through
a trial that earns us anything. It’s the perseverance of that
trial. It’s the brave steadfastness
that we learn in the midst of that trial. The very purpose
of that trial was to cultivate our endurance. Thomas Manton
said, a wicked man suffers. Wicked men go through difficulties
of their own. But he does not endure. A lot
of times a wicked man will gnash his teeth and shake his fist
at Almighty God. That’s when he believes in God,
when he has someone to blame. He suffers, but he suffers, Manton
says, unwillingly, but with murmuring and blasphemy. That is precisely
the temptation that we acknowledged in the course of our own trials.
We don’t want to mock God. We don’t want to second-guess
God. We don’t want to question Him or challenge Him. The godly
man endures trials by God’s grace. He draws on God’s grace. He perseveres
by God’s grace. And Manton says, bears the affliction
with patience and constancy. He doesn’t give up. He doesn’t
quit. He doesn’t complain. accuse God
or second-guess God. This sounds much like a repetition
of verses 2 through 4, doesn’t it? But it’s not just a repetition. There are some elements that
are included here, trials and perseverance, proving But it’s the endurance that James
fixes on here. It’s the endurance that brings
the blessedness. Trials sometimes will make us to be critical, make
us to second guess even God. Maybe they even bring us to depression
or despair. But if we allow them to have
God’s way, if we allow them to fit God’s design for our life,
if we draw through prayer God’s grace to pursue this trial and
persevere through this trial, then we know, then we will know
in the end God’s purpose. Then it will have God’s way in
our life, trusting in Him, obeying him, following hard after God,
even in the difficult seasons. Paul said it in 1 Corinthians
10. We touched on this verse several
weeks ago. No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is
common to man. And God is faithful, who will
not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the
temptation will provide a way of escape also that you will
be able to endure it. God will grant you the grace.
God will grant you the means to endure the trial or even the
temptation. You see, it isn’t the testing
itself that makes people gnash their teeth at God. It’s the
reaction to it. One of the best biblical examples
I think of in this is Habakkuk, right? Habakkuk who had the audacity
to stand before God and question Him. Question Him because of,
I mean, you talk about a contemporary example. We might question, what
on earth are you doing? Why are you letting our world
spin so completely out of control? Why are you letting the Colorado
legislature do these ridiculous things? Why are you letting federal
government do these things? Why are you letting the world
go completely out of control, completely haywire at almost
every corner? Habakkuk stood. He maybe didn’t
shake his fist at God, but he questioned God. And God said,
let me tell you Habakkuk, I am doing something. I’m not idle. I haven’t forgotten. I haven’t
changed. And Habakkuk stands at the end
after hearing God and says this. When he heard what God was going
to do, Habakkuk said, I heard and my inward parts trembled.
At the sound, my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones. And in
my place, I tremble because I must wait quietly for the day of distress.
for the people who arise who will invade us, though the fig
tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines,
though the yield of the olive should fail, and the fields produce
no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and
there be no cattle in the stalls. This is a pretty bleak outlook,
isn’t it? It’s the outlook of judgment,
and God said, I’m going to bring judgment. Though all these things be true,
Habakkuk stood before God, head bowed, and said, yet I will exalt
in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of
my salvation. The child of God doesn’t give
up on God. The child of God doesn’t second
guess God. The child of God perseveres through
trial. Blessed is a man. who perseveres
under trial. But there’s a second identifier
of a truly happy person. The Christian in the pursuit
of happiness is different from all the rest. He doesn’t look
for it in any place other than what God directs to him. The first identifier of a person
who is blessed is that that is an individual who is resolute.
He knows that trials are coming and he draws on the grace of
God to persevere through the trial, not around it. Secondly,
a blessed individual is proven. This too is an echo of verse
two through four. A blessed individual is a person
who is proven. Look at the verse again. Blessed
is a man who perseveres under trial for once he has been approved. See, that’s the issue. That’s
exactly what the passage pointed to. Look at verse 2. Consider
it all joy, my brother. When you encounter various trials,
that stands at the outset of the difficulty into which the
child of God has fallen, knowing that the testing, that word there,
speaks of the process that God puts the child of God through
for the purpose of proving his faith, knowing that the testing
of your faith produces endurance. In other words, it will bear
fruit. It serves a purpose. And what this points to is the
idea of something being preserved, that through the course of God’s
action in the believer’s life, something is being done to extract
that which is good and to weed out that which is bad. You’ve
seen it before. We’ve looked at it. It’s essentially
pointing to the whole process of testing of metal. And in our
lives, friends, the trial is not completed until God says it’s completed. The trial is there for the purpose
of cultivating endurance in us, cultivating a perfection in us. But as I said, it’s not the mere
taking of the class. It’s not the mere not even the
mere attending the class, but it’s the completion of it. These little words, when he’s
tried, when he’s approved, once he has stood the trial, in all
the places where it occurs throughout the New Testament, it speaks
of an approval. You have the verse in Isaiah
chapter 28, 16, Behold, I lay in Zion a tried stone. Speaking there of Christ. God
wasn’t just trying with Jesus. He sent the real thing. He sent what He knew without
any doubt would accomplish the end for which it was designed.
It was an approved stone. It was a tested stone. the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so this metaphor, so frequently,
and we looked at it so fully there in verses two through four,
speaks of being refined, metal being refined, producing the
purest kind of metal, gold, silver, and the like. For 1 Peter, we
looked at it, and I would just read this, just to echo in your
minds the purpose of this Statement first Peter one in this you greatly
rejoice even though now for a little while if necessary You have been
distressed by various trials Peter says almost exactly the
same thing that James does Why why have why should the child
of God be distressed by various trials? Peter tells us in chapter
1 verse 7 that the proof of your faith is that God working out
this process, proving, verifying your faith, being more precious
than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may
be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation
of Jesus Christ. God has his purpose. But that
really is a quick summary to bring us to point three. A quick
summary of verses two through four, which James sews up here
with this cap to talk about how the Christian is to pursue happiness,
how the Christian can really, truly find, and only the Christian,
I would suggest to you, can really and truly find happiness. I told you there were three identifiers.
Not only is a person who is truly happy resolute, a blessed individual
is proven. They are found to have endured
by God’s grace in the end of the trial. But thirdly, a blessed
individual is adorned. And this is frankly astounding. Blessed is a man who perseveres
under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive
the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who
love him. The imagery of the crown was
familiar in Jewish literature, and frequently it symbolized
a great honor. Psalm 21 three. You meet him
with the blessing of good things. You set a crown of fine gold
on his head. That isn’t talking about a literal
crown. It’s just talking about the blessings
that God pours out. Proverbs 12. An excellent wife
is the crown of her husband. I don’t know the last time I
saw a husband walking around with his wife on his head. It’s
a metaphor. That’s how it’s playing out.
Proverbs 16. A gray head is a crown of glory. It’s a metaphor of the blessedness
of old age and the wisdom that can come with it. One brother who studied this through
identified four different kinds of crowns in scripture. There
was the crown that was the wreath that was given to the victor
of the Olympic Games, the original Olympic Games. It was the victory
wreath. It was a wreath that was given
as the reward of a conquest. It was set before them. They
would present this wreath to all who were about to run the
race as the prize for which they were running. This is exactly
the metaphor that Paul uses in 1st Corinthians 9. Do you not
know that all who run in a race, but only one receives the prize,
run in such a way that you may win? Everyone who competes in
the games exercises self-control in all things. They do it to
receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable wreath.
And so he uses this idea of a crown, a victory crown, if you will,
But it was also used in scripture as a kind of festive ornament. Proverbs 1, hear my son your
father’s instruction, do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head as ornaments about
your neck. And so there he uses this metaphor
again just to speak of wisdom and guidance and the principles
of scripture that guide a young person. It was also used to give
to someone as a public honor or for some distinguished service.
Often they would be given a crown or a garland. Often priests or
royalty were given a crown, as you well know. One person identified
it this way. He said, the crown is the emblem
of spiritual success. Did you get that? Because that’s
exactly how James is using it. The crown here is the emblem
of spiritual success. In other words, the child of
God has gone through the trial. He’s persevered through the trial.
He’s been approved having persevered through the trial. And as such,
he receives the crown. It’s given by the king of kings.
It’s given to the faithful child of God by God himself. 2 Timothy
speaks of it in these terms. Paul, speaking there to Timothy,
sets it forth as something that is in the future. If anyone competes
as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes
according to the rules. So in other words, the crown
is something that we’re setting our sights on long-term. This crown, James uses this image
to remind us that perseverance, endurance, that there is an honor
in it. That it will be rewarded by God
himself. And that in receiving this crown,
the idea of a crown was something that was finished, completed. and that it only comes, you only
get the crown. They would show the crown to
those before the race, but they wouldn’t receive the crown until
after the race, until they had won the race. We don’t ever receive
a crown without striving. We don’t ever receive the crown
without going through the trials, without enduring the race, without
going through the difficulty and persevering to the end. One pastor clarified with these
terms, He said James does not say that the one who successfully
endures trials thereby earns eternal life. We don’t earn eternal
life. Eternal life isn’t earned through
human effort, through achievement. It’s received as a gift through
faith in Jesus Christ. But eternal life is the end result. It’s the consummation of our
time here, as he’ll point out in a moment. Our life will be
one of difficulty and challenge. The psalmist speaks of it as
the valley of the shadow of death, doesn’t he? And we are called
to endure many trials, all for the hope of a crown. We’ll talk
about what kind of a crown in a moment. It’s spoken of in various
terms in scripture. Paul says it’s a crown of righteousness. Peter says it’s a crown of glory,
1 Peter 5, 4. Isaiah says it’s a crown of glory
and a diadem of beauty. Jesus Christ likewise, as does
James, calls it a crown of life. It’s eternal life. We are going
to endure trials. Persevering by God’s grace, enduring
by God’s grace, will earn us a crown. It will earn us not
a literal crown, not a bejeweled crown. It will earn us life eternal. It will gain us life eternal. It is given as the proof that
God has worked into our life. not that we have earned. Look
at the passage once again. Blessed is a man who perseveres
under trial, for once he has been approved by God, he will
receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. James speaks of a promise and
yet throughout all of scripture we never find any precise promise. He alludes to this and what he
really points to is the general drift of scripture points to
the reception of eternal life as the culmination of our perseverance
through life’s difficulties. Second Timothy 4 8 in the future
there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. as Paul would
say. 1 John 2.25, this is the promise
which he himself has made to us, eternal life. 1 Peter 5.4,
when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading
crown of glory. So this promise is not any one
specific promise written down or cited from Jesus in his life
on earth. It is gleaned from the totality
of Scripture that that is the promise. The promise is eternal
life through a life of endurance and obedience and faith. But it’s not for everybody. It’s
just not. Look at the passage, blessed
is the man who perseveres under trial. For once he’s been approved,
he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Throughout scripture, that little
phrase is used to identify and describe the people of God. It
was that way in the New and the Old Testament. was said to be the sum of the
whole law. It was the hinge, as Paul says
in Romans 12, on which all the commandments turn. The love for
God is an indication of our great interest in Jesus Christ. It was a well-known designation
for all the people of God, old and new. This little clause speaks
of The natural affection. We know what love is. We know
what family love is. A child for a parent. A parent for a child. Husband
and wife. Parents for their children. But
in like manner, it illustrates the affection that the child
of God has towards his heavenly Father. These words have a rich a fullness
to it gleaned from the completeness of scripture. It isn’t just a
feeling. As Martin Lloyd-Jones said, some
people think they love God because they may be aware of certain
emotional feelings. You get a lot of people that
say they love God because they have a feeling as a course of
some worship service. That’s not love. Love includes
emotion, Lloyd-Jones says, but it’s much greater than emotion,
much deeper than emotion. You can experience emotion and
believe that you are loving God and yet show later you do not
love God at all. So what is this love? Consider this phrase, to those who love Him. Love toward God is, At the end
of the day, it’s a very biblical concept, isn’t it? Very thorough
from cover to cover, the concept of developing, cultivating, maintaining,
expressing the highest affection toward God. That’s a sustained
theme throughout the scriptures, isn’t it? It’s a command. We see it as
an expectation, a stated expectation that the child will love his
God. It’s an expression. Sometimes
the psalmist will just express his love for God. It’s a command. Taken from the Shema. Deuteronomy
6, 4, and 5. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your
might. It’s a command. The child of God. Learns to love
God with everything in his being. Learns to trust him with his
whole heart. He knows that God has for him
his ultimate good. Joshua 23. Take diligent heed
to yourselves to love the Lord your God. It’s a command. But
it’s attended with expectations. It’s one thing to say that you
love God, but the scriptures paint the picture of living out
this love of God, proving this love of God. Deuteronomy 10,
now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you? But
to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and love
him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul. Deuteronomy 11 you shall therefore
love the Lord your God and always keep his charge his statutes
his ordinances. Obedience is a mark of our love
to God. Joshua 22 keep his commandments
hold fast to him serve him with all your heart with all your
soul. That’s what loving God looks like. J.C. Ryle said here love is the grand
secret of true obedience to God. When we feel towards him as children
feel toward a dear father, we shall delight to do his will.
We shall not find his commandments grievous or work for him like
slaves under fear of a whip. None work so well as they who
work for love. They fear punishment. The fear
of punishment, the desire of reward are principles of far
less power. They do the will of God best
who do it from the heart. And so there is not only this
command to love, it is attended with the expectations, and I
already told you that it is often verbally expressed, this love
to God, Psalm 18.1, I love you, O Lord, my strength, Psalm 116
verse 1, I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my supplications. It is not only commanded of us,
we see it played out by the child of God, lived out in his life
and verbally expressed to God. But the one I want to point to,
the element, the aspect of it that I want to close with today
is that the love of God is the source of blessing. You want
to be happy? Love God. Exodus 20, God is the one showing loving
kindness to thousands to those who love me. Deuteronomy 11,
to love the Lord your God, serve him with all your heart and soul,
he will give the rain, he will give the grass. It’s the blessings
that flow from our love to God. Deuteronomy 11 verse 22, to love
the Lord your God, the Lord will drive out all the nations before
you, you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. Deuteronomy 30 verse 19 as well,
Psalm 145, Psalm 145, the Lord keeps all who love him, verse 20. We
know it from The New Testament as well, Romans
8.28, we know that God causes all things to work together for
good to those who love God, to those who are called according
to his purpose. See, unspeakable blessings await
those who love God. To know and be known by God is
a blessing. It’s a source of ultimate happiness.
And that’s what James is saying when he says, blessed is a man
who perseveres under a trial for once he has been approved,
he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised
to those who love him. The crown of life, the enjoyment,
the perpetual enjoyment of eternal glory is the blessing that awaits
those who love God. One pastor said, the love of
God is the outcome of their faith in Him, which produces endurance
for Him. Love is the essence of true faith,
the noble love, the understanding and purpose which prompts the
believer to aspire to implicit obedience to God’s commandments.
The child of God wants to obey God. Peter said it so simply in his
opening chapter, you love Him. Obtaining as the outcome of your
faith the salvation of your souls. If you’re a Christian, you know
well, this doesn’t come naturally.
You didn’t love God naturally. You didn’t just happen to wake
up one morning loving God more than all of your neighbors. Truth be told, you are no different
than the rest of the heathen. As Paul described in Romans 1,
greedy, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit. Remember that
grocery list of despicable features, gossips,
slanderers, haters of God. That describes those who are
outside of Christ. In that very similar list of
the catalog of vice, I would call it, in 2 Timothy 3, Paul
just says that they are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers
of God. That is the natural man. That
is every person who’s born on the face of the earth if they
are outside of Christ. They love pleasure more than
they love God. So when James speaks here of
those who love him, he’s saying something absolutely astounding.
He’s saying that something absolutely incredible, remarkable, something
miraculous has taken place. Because God, it seems, has taken
a person who previously hated God, who was at enmity with God,
as Paul would say, and has taken that child and turned his heart
into a heart of love, a heart of love for God. It’s a miracle. It’s a miracle of God’s grace
where God has, God has done the work of regeneration. God has
brought them to faith and to repentance. And God has made
a heart of love, a heart of love for God out of a heart of hatred
and enmity. And only then, only then can
a person be truly happy. Only then can a person be said
to be truly blessed. Let’s examine our hearts before
Him. Our merciful God, we who are Christians know full
well We don’t love you more or better. It wasn’t in us to love
you. In fact, we remember very vividly
those seasons of our life in our natural condition before
we knew Christ where we did not love God. We hated you with everything
in us. We didn’t like your rules and
laws. We didn’t love your people. We
didn’t like your book. You Seized hold of our heart
and you brought us to repentance for our sin. You brought us to
a hatred of it Because those things that we used to cherish
the most we realized sent our Savior to the cross That Jesus
Christ would have gone to the cross for us alone Lord we thank
you and praise you for doing that work in our lives that now
it truly can be said of us that we are are children of God, we
love God. Lord God, we know that that is
the only way of happiness. To look up and to trust God,
to walk with Him, to trust Him even in the midst of our trials,
to know that even if life is nothing but difficulty, our sins
have been paid for And we have eternity with Christ. Lord God,
we thank you and praise you for this reminder. We thank you for
showing us how to truly be happy. Lord, for any who do not know
Christ. For any who are still groping
about, searching and trying to find anything, something to make
them happy. May they see from this passage
that it is only those who look to Christ, who find forgiveness
in Christ and find grace, energy, strength to persevere through
trial. It’s only this person who can
ever be said to be truly happy. Lord, we pray that you would
make people happy even today. We plead with you in Jesus’ name,
Amen.