Introduction

James 1:2-4 ESV  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,  (3)  for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  (4)  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

• Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds… for the testing of your faith produces steadfastness…

• The title of todays message is “Shut The Enemy Up”.
  • And if you are wondering what James 1:2-4 has to do with Shutting the Enemy Up, then I am excited for you! Because you get to go on the same journey I went on…
    • You see I read these verses and I was like “This is a lay-up! It is easy to preach on trials and tribulations! It is easy to preach on How God grows us through the testing of our faith”.
    • But as I started thinking those thoughts, the Holy Spirit started warning me… started convicting me… started leading me to something else.
  • I knew something was off about the way I was thinking about these verses.
• You see my thinking was, and many other peoples think is, that sometimes God gives us trials in order to test us and to grow us.
  • Sometimes, so the thinking goes, God brings us through hardship in order to make us stronger.
• But as I was thinking those things, the Holy Spirit was convicting me…
  • So I began reading commentaries on this verse, and they all said something along the same line, to varying degrees…
• And I was about to say “Maybe I am hearing wrong… these verse must be about God putting us through trials so we can grow stronger… that’s what everyone seems to think…”
  • But then I went to the King James… and ol’ King Jimmy translates this verse very differently.
• Let me read verse two again in the ESV and then again in the King James:

James 1:2 ESV  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

• Pretty straight forward, be joyful when you face many different kinds of tests and trials… Here is the same verse in the KJV

James 1:2 KJV  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

• WAIT WAIT WAIT… DIVERSE TEMPTATIONS?! I thought we were talking about trials of different kinds… not temptations of different kinds…
  • And this is a big deal, this translation difference… because we know that God can and does test people… He tested Abraham’s faith, for example, by asking him to bring Isaac up as a sacrifice.
  • Yes, God can test people, but God can not TEMPT people.
• In the same paragraph, in the same chapter, of the same letter, by the same author… James writes this:

James 1:13 ESV  Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

• Now here is the trick… if we go to the Greek, because James was written in Greek, if we go back to the original Greek we find that the word in verse two, that the ESV translates as trials, and the KJV translates as temptations… that word is πειρασμός (pi-ras-mos)

Show slide “Pirasmos”

• Now fair enough, pi-ras-mos can mean trials or temptation… either is a correct translation… so what’s the issue?
  • The issue is that just 9 verse latter James says that God can not pi-ras-mos…

Show slide “Pirasmos 2”

• Now here is the issue… according to Hebrews 11, God absolutely can pi-ras-mos, but in that context it means “test”, not “afflict”, not “cause pain and use that pain to see how strong your faith is” and certainly not “tempt”.
  • God pi-ros-mos Abraham, when He told Abraham to bring Isaac up the mountain.
    • That was a test, not a temptation, not an affliction.
• On the other hand, it is the ENEMY… Satan, his demons, our flesh, the world, sin… it is the ENEMY who pi-ros-mos us with pain, affliction, and temptation.
  • God tests by saying “Go and do this” and we say yes or we say no and deal with the consequences.
  • The enemy tests by causing us so much pain and grief that we are tempted to abandon God.
  • The enemy tests by flaunting sin in our face and daring us to partake.
  • The enemy tests by lying, manipulating, and playing to our most sinful fleshly desires.
  • GOD DOES NOT TEST LIKE THE ENEMY TESTS.
• Yes God can pi-ras-mos by telling us to get out of the boat.
  • But no God can not pi-ros-mos by tempting us to sin, by tempting us to abandon Him… but hurting us so much that we are tempted to blaspheme His holy name.
• And that is an important distinction to make as we look at James 1:2-4 because it tells us who is the one doing the pi-ras-mos. I think the KJV got it right and the ESV got it wrong in this case… because the context of verse 2 is the same context as verse 13.

Show slide “Pirasmos 3”

• Now I don’t think it particularly matters if you translate it here as tempt or trials… what matters is that you use the SAME translation for both verse 2 as verse 13 because it is important to know that this is the same CONTEXT. The same Parismos that God can not do is the same Parismos that we should count as joy.

James 1:2 ESV  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet  trials [pi-ras-mos] of various kinds,

James 1:13 ESV  Let no one say when he is tempted [pi-ras-mos] , “I am being tempted [pi-ras-mos]  by God,” for God cannot be tempted [pi-ras-mos]  with evil, and he himself tempts [pi-ras-mos]  no one.

• Now we know who James is talking about in verse 2… He is not talking about God testing you, he is talking about THE ENEMY testing you.
  • Testing you with pain, with lust, with affliction, with temptation.
  • That’s why we named this sermon “Shut the enemy up” because James is talking about the ENEMY and our response to the his schemes!

Show Title Slide

• SHUT THE ENEMY UP!

Point One – When the Enemy Sends You Pain, Receive it as Joy

James 1:2 ESV  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

·         You see, there are two ways you can shut someone up.

• You can overpower them, dominate them, beat the tar of them… you can kick their tail so they are too weak or too terrified to keep talking.
  • And that is how we are going to shut up the enemy at the battle of Armageddon. We are going to beat the ever living tar out of him.
  • And again, after the 1000 year reign, Jesus is going to shut up the enemy once and for all with fire from heaven.
  • But you can also shut up someone by making them feel so absolutely stupid that they have nothing left to say.
• This is how Jesus shut up the pharisees when he forgave a paralyzed man’s sin:

Matthew 9:2-8 ESV  And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”  (3)  And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.”  (4)  But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?  (5)  For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?  (6)  But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”  (7)  And he rose and went home.  (8)  When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

• Do you see what Jesus did there?
  • The pharisees said “you can’t say his sins are forgiven, that is blasphemy!”
  • And Jesus said to them “Which is easier to say ‘your sins are forgiven, or rise up and walk… but just so you know who I am… you paralyzed man, RISE UP AND WALK”
  • And the dude got up… and the pharisees where shut up! They had nothing more to say except, if anything, to glorify God!
• This is the same thing that God did to Job.
  • Job was questioning God, and challenging Him.
  • God responded with such power and authority and Wisdom to Job’s questions that Job responded to God like this:

Job 40:3-5 ESV  Then Job answered the LORD and said:  (4)  “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.  (5)  I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.”

• Job said “I have spoken too much, who am I compared to you, I shouldn’t have said anything, I put my hand over my mouth, I am done!”
  • God shut up Job, Jesus shut up the Pharisees, and you and I can shut up the enemy.
• And one way we do that is by taking what the enemy thinks is going to crush us, and we turn it into Joy.
  • When the enemy says “I am going to crucify you, you little maggot…”
    • What if we responded “Sweet! That’s how Jesus died, it would be an honor to die like Jesus died!”
  • When the enemy says “I am going to take everything you have”
    • What if we responded “Cool beans, bro, most of that stuff is just distracting me from Jesus any way”.
  • literally people in Seattle would threaten my life when I would do street evangelism… and I would reply “Bro, you would be doing me a favor! If  you kill me I am going to go be with Jesus… your threat means nothing! I ACTUALLY BELIEVE WHAT I AM PREACHING!”
  • /s Oh no your going to send me to heaven… so scarry…/s”
• Listen, I suffer from migraines… and I don’t know why Jesus has not delivered me from them… but I know that He has not sent them…
  • My attitude needs to not be “Oh God why have you forsaken my” my attitude needs to be “Thank you Jesus, for making me a man that the enemy takes notice of. He don’t like me, Jesus, and that’s kind of awesome. I trust you, even through these evil migraines, that you will get me through and give me strength”.
    • That needs to be my attitude, that needs to be YOUR attitude when you are facing trials and tribulations.
    • When your flesh is weak.
    • When the enemy is raging.
    • When the world is persecuting you.
  • LORD THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME DIFFERENT FOR THOSE WHO PERSECUTE ME.
    • LORD THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME THE POWER TO FRUSTRATE THE ENEMY.
      • Lord thank you that no matter what he does I am just going to shut him up and make him look stupid, because I am just going to take it as joy.

1 Peter 4:12-13 ESV  Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  (13)  But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

• Consider the story of David and Saul.
  • King Saul was evil, the grace of God had left him and demonic spirits had entered him.
  • Saul was being used by evil to try to afflict David.
  • And at one point David is in the throne room with Saul and Saul tries to kill him.

1 Samuel 18:11-12 ESV  And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David evaded him twice.  (12)  Saul was afraid of David because the LORD was with him but had departed from Saul.

• Saul tried to kill David… the enemy tried to kill David… but David avoided the spears. And Saul was left afraid.
  • LET THE ENEMY BE LEFT AFRAID OF YOU.
  • When the enemy throughs spears at your life, Avoid them with JOY and watch as the enemy get’s shut up.
    • Your flesh… shut it up.
    • The world… shut it up.
    • Sin… shut it up.
    • Demons… shut them up.
    • The devil… shut him up!
• Don’t bemoan in misery acting like God doesn’t love you…
  • Instead take affliction and persecution with joy!
  • Do a little dance as you dodge those spears.
• You know what I find really interesting about all of this is that when I looked at modern commentators, many of them seemed to infer that God tests us with trials and tribulations…
  • And it is true that God will USE what the enemy meant for evil for good… but that is different then God being the one to send the affliction…
  • So many modern commentaries on James infer that God causes pain and suffering to grow us…
  • But older theologians who did not have the ESV or the NIV or the NASB, older theologians who mainly used the KJV did not have this problem… look how Spurgeon commentates on these verses from James.

Show Slide “Spurgeon Javs”

• Spurgeon says “Faith is as vital to salvation as the heart is to the body. Therefore, the javelins of the enemy are mainly aimed at this essential grace. Your faith is thus peculiarly obnoxious to Satan and to the world”.
  • What is Spurgeon saying? He is saying that it drives Satan crazy when his attacks don’t bring down your faith!
  • The enemy throughs javelins at your faith, you just do a little dance as you avoid them!
• And that brings me to point two… let the enemies attacks make you stronger!

Point Two – Let the Attacks of the Enemy Make You Stronger

James 1:3-4 ESV  for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  (4)  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

• You see the enemy means to discourage you with these trials and temptations…
  • And you can shut him up by instead being encouraged and joy filled by them.
• In the same way the enemy intends to weaken you… to weaken your spirit… to weaken your flesh… even to weaken your body…
  • You can shut the enemy up by instead of being weakened by his attacks, being strengthened by his attacks.
• “Whatever doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger”
  • NO NO NO!
    • EVEN IF IT KILLS ME IT IS GOIN TO MAKE ME STRONGER.
    • YOU GOT NOTHING ON ME DEVIL!
    • YOU GOT NOTHING ON ME SIN!
    • YOU GOT NOTHING ON ME WORLD!
    • YOU GOT NOTHING ON ME FLESH!
      • YOU AIN’T MY MASTER, YOU AIN’T MY KING! YOU ARE MY ENEMY! AND WHATEVER YOU THROW AT ME IS JUST GOING TO MAKE ME STRONGER!

Romans 5:3-5 ESV More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

• When Ezra was born the enemy was hard at work.
  • Ezra was born with some major acid reflux… on top of that he has Laryngomalacia which means his larynx, his through is soft.
  • So anytime that he would be laid on his back acid would flow into his through which would make him cough, and because his larynx is soft that cough would turn into a terrible and painful cough.
    • As a result Ezra was not able to be laid on his back for long for the first few months of his life.
    • He would only sleep when being held upright by me or Amanda.
    • So for the first few months of Ezra’s life I stayed up with him from bed time till 2 AM, then Amanda would stay up with him from 2-8 am…
      • Y’all I have never been so tired in my life.
  • And I remember talking to Amanda about it… I told her, honey… let’s use this to make us stronger… lets allow God to use this to make us stronger.
    • Think about the endurance we are learning… if we can get through this we can get through ANYTHING.
    • And that endurance produced Character in me.
      • Are y’all glade to have a pastor with Character?!
        • It’s true though, I get horrible migraines most Wednesdays, ever since we started youth group.
        • It’s an attack on the enemy…
        • But jokes on him! I push through and make it here… because my character is such that I am not going to give up on these youth just because of a migraine…
          • God used the attack on Ezra for our good, God used Satan’s attack on me and Amanda, God used our suffering, to produce character in us.
        • And not just Character, but hope! I know that God delivered Ezra from acid reflux, He is going to deliver me from these migraines too!
      • I AM NOT GETTING PUT TO SHAME, WEAKLINGS GET PUT TO SHAME.
        • I AM NOT WEAK! WHY?! BECAUSE I LET THE ENEMIES ATTACKS MAKE ME STRONGER.
      • So when I am stomping in the devils face at the battle of Armageddon he has no one to blame but himself.

James 4:7 ESV  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

1 Peter 5:8-10 ESV  Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  (9)  Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.  (10)  And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

• YOU GOT NOTHING ON ME SATAN!
  • Do your worst! GOD IS GOING TO GET ME THROUGH THIS AND HE IS GOING TO GET ME THROUGH THIS STRONGER!
  • I am not afraid of you any more!
    • I am not afraid of the pain, or the sorrow, or the suffering!
    • I AM GETTING THROUGH THIS
    • AND I WILL BE STRONGER!
• Church I don’t know what you are going through today, but SHUT THE ENEMY UP!
  • Resist the devil and he will flee from you!
  • Resist the devil and GOD WILL STRENGTHEN YOU
  • Resist the devil, in the pain, in the sorrow, in the mourning, in the suffering…
    • RESIST THE DEVIL
    • RESIST HIS LIES
      • Lies that tell you God caused this pain.
      • Lies that say God doesn’t love you.
    • RESIST HIS TEMPTATIONS
      • Temptation to find comfort in sin instead of in Christ.
      • Temptation to forsake God.
      • Temptation to curse God.
    • RESIST HIS ATTACKS
      • Attacks on your health
      • Attacks on your finances
      • Attacks on your mental state
    • RESIST THE DEVIL AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU
    • RESIST THE DEVIL AND GOD WILL MAKE YOU STRONGER AFTER IT ALL
    • RESIST THE DEVIL, RESIST SIN, RESIST THE WORLD, RESIST YOUR FLESH…
    • RESIST THE ENEMY WITH JOY AND BE STRENGTHENED! BE MADE COMPLETE! HAVE ENDURANCE! LACK NOTHING!
    • RESIT THE ENEMY AND SHUT THAT ENEMY UP!

James 1:2-4 ESV  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,  (3)  for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  (4)  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Conclusion

Let me end by reading how Paul describes the saints of his ministry, I encourage you to be believers like this:

2 Corinthians 6:4-10 ESV  but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities,  (5)  beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;  (6)  by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love;  (7)  by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;  (8)  through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true;  (9)  as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed;  (10)  as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

• Now none of these matters if you are not saved.
  • There is no promise of endurance and joy for the unsaved.
  • There is no hope in death for the unsaved.
  • Those who don’t know Jesus as savior do not know what joy is, let alone can count trials and tribulations as joy.
    • If your not saved then you are stuck with the pain and the sorrow that the enemy throws your way.
    • BUT IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY. You can chose to be born again today, you can chose to be saved!

Gospel Call