GROWING UP IS HARD TO DO!
A STUDY OF THE
BOOK OF JAMES
BY PASTOR-TEACHER DAVID PEARSON
FOR THE SAINTS AT
WEST SIDEBAPTISTCHURCH
THE FREE GRACE BIBLE INSITITUTE
Before you begin……
If you do not know for sure about where you will spend eternity, the first issue for you is to place your faith alone in Christ alone and receive eternal life.
John 6:47 (NKJV) Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.
John 5:24 (NKJV) "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
John 3:36 (NKJV) He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NASB) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
To believe is simply this: to be convinced that it is true. To believe in Jesus is to be convinced that it is true that He alone is the only one who can give you the gift of eternal life. Eternal life, first and foremost, means that one lives with God forever after this life is ended. Jesus Christ, who is God come in human flesh, died on the cross as our substitute bearing the penalty for our sin. When a person knows they cannot qualify for eternal life through the good works of self-effort or the rituals of any church or religion, and when a person knows that eternal life comes from believing in Jesus alone for that life, at that moment they receive eternal life absolutely free. This life can never be lost for any reason.
If you have received the gift of eternal life through faith alone in Christ alone, then before you begin any Bible study you must be sure you in fellowship with God and filled with the Holy Spirit. The method for this is to simply follow 1 John 1:9:
1 John 1:9 (NASB) If we confess our [known] sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our [known] sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [any other sins we fail to recognize as sin or have forgotten about].
Failure to be open and honest in naming and citing our sins means we cannot be transformed by Bible Doctrine and advance in the faith to spiritual maturity.
John 4:24 (NASB) "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
Romans 12:1-2 (NASB) 1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Enjoy your time in God’s Word!
spiritual maturity
salvation_ spirituality (filling)
When spirituality is broken there is no forward movement in spiritual growth and momentum into maturity ceases
1 John 1:9 maintains the directing influence of the Holy Spirit so that He can carry out His work in applying Bible Doctrine that one has learned and accepted to the details of life (spiritual metabolism) – advancement to spiritual maturity (transformation) is the result
James 2:17 (NASB) Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
The book of James teaches us about a vital, living Christian faith that wonderfully works in every detail of life. The Holy Spirit through James teaches us that the stress of life does not have to become internal distress that will make life miserable; rather, we can go through all manner of both negative stress and positive stress and be victorious. This study will teach you how to decompress distress!
James 1:2 (NASB) Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
God desires to take everything in your life and turn it into good for you here in this life and to give you rewards in the life to come. James will tell you how this can become a reality for you!
- Why the book of James was written and who wrote it.
- What the difference is between stress and distress.
- The process of learning and growing into spiritual maturity
- The Ten Biblical Strategies to Decompress Distress
- Momentum testing
- The Plan of God includes two different forms of testing
- The cause of mental and emotional instability
- The sin nature,temptation, sin,and the believer
- Psychology and the Bible
- The Bible’s teaching on discrimination and favoritism
- The Royal Family of God
- The Law of Love
- What to do so that your anger and your tongue don’t destroy others
- The three meanings of the word “salvation”
- Law verses grace
- The interaction between works and salvation
- What is “dead faith”?
- Are good works inevitable if one is truly born again?
- What is Lordship Salvation and is it true?
- The two life-changing choices for every believer
- How to avoid destroying interpersonal relationships
- The believer and eternal rewards
- Worldliness verses spiritual-mindedness
- The inner war with external results
- Church and family unity
- The devil and the believer
- God’s will about your job and your finances
- Prosperity is not the answer to everything
- The Second Coming of Christ
- The believer and sickness
- Prayer, faith, and healing
- Loving involvement in the lives of others
The above items are not in any particular order and other topics will be studied. We have an exciting time in front of us, beloved students!
It will take a strong level of commitment to complete this study. Satan does not want you to learn what the book of James will teach us. You need to decide NOW to be consistent in your attendance at Bible Class. You will be glad you did.
Required text for FGBI credit: The Epistle of James, by Zane Hodges
GROWING UP IS HARD TO DO
A STUDY OF JAMES
BYPASTOR-TEACHER DAVID PEARSON For the saints at
WEST SIDEBAPTISTCHURCHTHE FREE GRACE BIBLE INSTITUTE
Welcome to an exciting study of one of the most important books in the New Testament for the believer’s steadiness in the faith, advancement to spiritual maturity,and arriving home in Heaven as a winner believer. If learned and applied these critical lessons will bring a spiritual strength that will sustain the believer even in the most difficult challenges in life.Furthermore, the personal advancement that will come to the individual will overflow into interpersonal unity and peace. Five times over James will tie his admonitions to the Second Coming of Christ and the subsequent Judgment Seat of Christ (1:12; 3;1, 5:7, 8, 9).This reminds us early in our study of this critical statement:
“It’s not about here and now, it’s about there and then.”
James 1:1-8
STRESS
As we study the book of James, we will discover much about dealing with the stress of life. Every person on the face of the earth has external pressure of one kind or the other. People can respond to stress in various ways, some positive and some negative from a social and personal point of view. The goal of “stress-relief” or “stress management” is toachieve a mental statepeople would call “happiness.”
Believers are not immune from these external pressures and,indeed, they may face a new level of such pressure as a result of the Angelic Conflict. However, we will learn that the way one is to handle stress is to be vastly different for a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ than it is for an unbeliever who follows the world’s system.
Definitions
In common usage, the word “stress” is used for any emotional and / or mental strain felt as a result of external situations experienced as pressure. The emphasis is on what is felt on the inside of the person as a response to that which is external to the person.
I like to think of it differently and will use it differently in this study. Stress is pure and simple anything external to the individual (including physical issues – the real you is not your body) that could be called “pressure.” It could be something past or present, “positive” or “negative.”James, as we will discover, refers to stress as “testing” or what we could call “trials.” It is also called temptation.
Distress is the inner unbiblical reaction or response to external stress-pressure. It is an inner pressure of the mind that we do to ourselves! Distress happens when we respond out of our sin nature; distress happens when we respond out of Human Viewpoint Thinking (HVP); distress is when we let feelings (emotions) dominate our thinking instead of thinking dominating our feelings (emotions); distress is a result of looking for “happiness”and solutions to life’s issues in the people, circumstances, things, or events found in the details of life; distress is choosing to give in to emotional and thinking sins thus allowing the sin nature to gain control.
Distress is often felt as a negative. However, distress may not always be felt as negative: we may experience it as a positive. What makes it distress is our unbiblical response to the stress. Distress affects us emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
For example: I have a need for an increased income. I am offered a promotion in another place that will seem to solve my financial need. I may feel this as distress-relief by changing my circumstances. However, there is not a sound doctrinal teaching church in the new location so the move will affect my spiritual life in a negative manner. I have a place of learning and service in the church I am now in, the place where the Lord placed me (1 Corinthians 12:18). Therefore, the move will increase my spiritual distress!From human viewpoint it is positive and others would applaud your decision to “take action” and solve the financial problems. But, the job promotion is not an answer to prayer: it is a Human Viewpoint response and, in reality, an attack of Satan. We are failing to seriously consider the spiritual issues involved.
James 4:13-15 (NASB) 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." 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."
This person never thought about the will of God in this situation. They simply saw this move in purely economic terms and never considered the will of the Lord!
We could apply this thinking to marriage: this person will make me happy and I know God wants me to be happy! “Of course, the person is not a believer, but I still will marry them and then I’ll win them to Christ!” (Yea, right. You’re marring them for evangelistic reasons!).
How about winning the “lotto”: we see it as a positive, yet not only are there the issues of gambling, but now comes the issue of solving problems through finances. God has warned us of “the deceitfulness of riches” and “the desire for other things.” (Mark 4:19). The book of James will also discuss the issues of spiritual testing through prosperity.
Though this study will focus mostly on the negative distressful responses, we will maintain a balance just as does James.
The inner response of the real you to stress (the pressure external to the real you) can be either distress or, as the Holy Spirit will show us, total joy! The opposite of joy is distress. The world’s systems, like psychological counseling and mind-altering drugs, try to manage distress:this is man’s methods attempt to cope with distress independent of God. God does not teach us to “cope” or “manage” stress: He solves the problem of distress. The believer can eliminate distress and instead experience joy, inner peace, and satisfaction.It is a matter of the application of what the Bible teaches.
Stress is inevitable; distress is a choice.We have to learn the mechanics of making right decisionsin order to experience right responses and these lead to positive outcomes. Growing up is hard to do!Because of free will and our new life in Christ the believer can choose either the distress-free response or the distress-loaded response.
- How do you respond right now, before we start this study, to the statement: “Stress is inevitable; distress is a choice”?
Sometimes the distress response to stress can make you feel like you’re stretched to the limit!
Can I get a witness?
Distress can result in many different responses. Let’s name a few: anger, depression, bitterness, withdrawal, loss of concentration, complaining, worry, increased activity (busyness – work more hours at the job, have the best yard in the state), irritability, loss of sleep, spending (“When the going gets tough the tough go shopping”),alcohol abuse, mind-altering drug use (both legal and illegal), suicide, self-pity (the “poor me” game), verbal attacks, gossip, feelings of victimization, worry, over-eating (comfort food to the excess!), playing the “blame-game,” marriage, divorce, refusing to listen to others, disruption in interpersonal relationships, blaming God, feeling “God just doesn’t love me” or “I guess God is punishing me,” becoming legalistic and self-righteous,stubbornness, attempts to become “moral,” getting involved in “do-good-ism” and social crusades, being critical of others, focus on distracting entertainment and pleasure-seeking, working to win the approval of others, sex outside of marriage, partying, causing division in the church, missing Bible class, moving from place to place, changing jobs, lack of trust in God’s promises, extreme self-confidence, emotional mood-swings, violence, criminal activity, increased attempts to control or manipulate others, various expressions of emotional turmoil, lying, turning to psychological counseling and using thinking-effecting drugs, earn more money, etc.
- What are some of the people, circumstances, things, or events (stress) to which you have responded (or ARE responding) in distress (see above)?
- What are the ways you tend to choose to respond in distress to stress?
1 Peter 5:8 (NASB) Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
A “sober spirit” simply means “to be stable in your thinking,” or “to think clearly about reality.” It is the opposite of drunken thinking that is emotionally unstable andmentally fuzzy.Such thinking often results in behavioral bad decisions. “Sober” means to have one’s life and thinking controlled by the Holy Spirit through His application of the Word of God to one’s life. Since the Bible defines reality, a person of “sober spirit” learns to see all the details of life from the Divine Viewpoint or true reality. In other words, we respond to the pressures of life by the means of Bible Doctrine (the Divine Viewpoint Thinking) rather than the typical way of responding to pressure that is dominated by emotional responses and Human Viewpoint Thinking.All of the above “distress responses” to pressure are from Human Viewpoint. They indicate the believer has not yet developed a “sober spirit.” The believer is, in the terms of 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, a man “of flesh” who is operating just as an unbeliever would operate in life. The King James translation (and NKJV) refers to this believer as “carnal.”
According to the 1 Peter verse, such responses clearly indicate that a believer is being devoured by “the devil” who is “your adversary.” To use a common American expression, he is “eating you alive” though the internal distress responses to pressure. The enemy has lured you into his feeding grounds because you have not applied the biblically mandated principles for handling life’s many pressures.
John 8:44 (NASB) "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
At the core of Satan’s plan of attack against both believer and unbeliever alike is a “redefinition of reality” (Robert Dean). The Bible tells us what reality is and the Bible is Truth (John 17:17). If we think that the above distress responses are inevitable, unavoidable, and really have nothing to do with spiritual issues, then we are not living in reality. But remember: Satan is a liar. As we can see from verse eight of our text, a person living in Satan’s lie is a person living life divorced from reality. He is living in the sphere of lies not Truth. The result is that he is a person who is unstable in everything.
James 1:8 (NASB) being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
The “doubled-minded” (literally: two-souled”) believer is one who thinks in some ways biblically but in other ways they think from Human Viewpoint (“doubting”). This is real mental instability. One could say this is a “bipolar” believer: they swing from the Divine Viewpoint to the Human Viewpoint. It is a “mind-disorder” of the worst kind for the spiritual, mental, and emotional life of the believer.They are praising God on Sunday and depressed on Monday! They “pray about it” and then they “worry about it.” They say “God is first” and make their job or family first! They areon an emotional rollercoaster!