Thank you, Rupert. I don't know
if you've ever been known for asking a stupid question, but
I have, and I asked your pastor one this afternoon. I think it
made him real nervous about what might happen tonight. We were
sitting on the porch over there, and I said, well, what time do
we need to leave here to get to services on time? I'm used to having to drive to
church somewhere, you know, I'm looking at the building. And
he looked at me like, and you're going to priest tonight? Thank you for allowing me to
be here and I'm very much encouraged to be with you all tonight. If you'd like to turn with me
in your Bibles to James chapter 1, James chapter 1, my hope tonight for you and for me is
that the Lord will cause us to ask him for wisdom. James says, if any of you lack
wisdom, let him ask it of God who giveth to all men liberally
and upbraideth it not. It's sort of an unfortunate way
of translating the words in that verse. You see that verse that
I just quoted in verse five. In fact, the literal translation
is, but whosoever lacks wisdom, let him ask it of God. It's not,
you know, perhaps there may be one or two of you that need wisdom.
The truth is that we're all in need of wisdom. And if the Lord's
pleased to give us the spirit of Solomon, then we will ask
him for that wisdom. In first Kings chapter three,
God gave King Solomon a blank check. Can you imagine? I mean, if God, if God gave you
a blank check, a blank check from God, I mean, you talk about
the sky's the limit. There's no limit to it. When
God says, ask whatsoever you will, and I'll give it to you.
And Solomon said, I am but a little child. I know not how to go out
nor to come in. I need wisdom. I need for you
to give to me a discerning spirit and an understanding heart. and
the thing pleased the Lord. And he gave him wisdom. Oh, how
needful we are. We like Solomon are but little
children. We don't know how to go out. We don't know how to come in.
And if the Lord brings us to that place, then we will be brought
to that place of asking him, Oh Lord, I can't understand my
circumstances without your wisdom. I don't know who Christ is without
your wisdom. I have no real understanding
of myself unless you bless me with your wisdom. I can't understand
how it is you save sinners lest you open the eyes of my understanding
and give me wisdom. This world in which I live, I
don't understand it. I don't know how to go out. I
don't know how to come in. It's, it's a mass of confusion
to me. I need you to bless me with wisdom. And what does he say? If any
man or better yet, but whosoever lacks wisdom, let him ask it
of God. And how's the rest of that verse
say? He will give it to you liberally. Liberally. He has a supply of
wisdom. He's so much more willing to
bless us with his grace than we are to ask for it, isn't he?
He just really is. That we could believe that. He's
touched with the feelings of our infirmities. The resources
that he has to supply us with grace and mercy are infinite. And yet, we're so slow of heart
to believe, aren't we? We're so prone to not ask when
we ought to ask. And when we do ask, as James
goes on to say in James chapter four, we often ask amiss that
we might consume it upon our own lust. We say, well, Lord,
this is what I need. And really what we're praying
for is more for our own comforts, our own pleasures, our own happiness
in this world rather than to have true wisdom. Wisdom is seeing
things as God sees them and believing that it is so. Now that's, that's
what I want. I want to see things as God sees
them because that's the way they are. And he says, if you ask
me, I'll give it to you liberally. I'll bless you with the mind
of Christ. I'll enable you to see things as they really are. And don't you love the rest of
that verse? I upbraid if it not. How many times have you had someone
in your life ask you for something and after a while you just say,
you know, I'm tired of this. You know, you just keep coming
to me asking me for forgiveness. And I, I, I, I fear that you're
not sincere or our children continue to ask for things. And we finally
just roll our eyes and say, you know, this is enough. That's
just the opposite of what I upbraid if it not means. Lord, we're
slow to ask for wisdom. Why? Because we've squandered
what He's given to us so oftentimes in the past, haven't we? And
we're afraid to come to Him again. And what does He say? I upbraideth
it not. There's no shadow of turning
with me. I never roll my eyes toward you. I delight in showing
my children mercy and my resources are limitless. Come! Come, ask
again. I know you squandered what I
gave you before. I know you didn't appreciate
it as you should have. I know you didn't understand
what I did for you, and you turned away again. And that's why you
need to come again, don't you? To whom? Coming. Truth is, every
child of God is always in need of coming to God for wisdom.
I'm talking about coming right now. I'm not coming an hour from
now and tomorrow and the next day. We never seek. We never lose our need. Of the Lord to bless us with
his wisdom. Would you go back with me to
verse one in this? In this chapter? James. A servant of God. Now that word
servant means a bond slave. And what's so significant about
that is that this James was the pastor of the First Grace Church
of Jerusalem. The largest church in the world. He was the pastor of that church.
But he doesn't present himself as even Pastor James. You know, the term pastor's never
used in the Bible as a title. Never. It, pastor defines the
role that a man that God's called has in the church, but he's never
used as a title. And James doesn't use it here.
He doesn't call himself the elder James. He doesn't call himself
the half brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't stand
with authority and say, I know the Lord better than you do.
I lived with Him for 30 years. And if you'll listen to me, I'll
straighten you out. He doesn't say any of that, does
he? He says, James, a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the 12 tribes, the church. That's who the Word of God's
written to. It's not written to anyone else. There's no need
to post the Ten Commandments on the walls of our public schools. There's no need to go around
and try to get involved in politics and get unbelievers to look like
Christians. The Word of God's not written
to the world. It's written to God's people.
They're the only ones that are going to hear it. They're the
only ones that are going to believe it. No one else is going to.
The world's going to do what the world's going to do. James,
a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes, which
are scattered. Every nation, every tribe, every
tongue, every people. God has a people and they're
scattered all over. They're just, they're just sojourners. They're strangers. They're, they're
pilgrims in a foreign land. You ever feel that way? That's
the way we are. If the Lord saved us and he's
made us, to cry out for wisdom, then we see ourselves for what
we are, pilgrims, strangers in a foreign land, foreigners. We're
just foreigners. We don't speak the language of
this world. We don't have the values of this world. Why? Because the Lord has brought
us to that place to where we like Solomon have said, Lord,
I am but a little child. I know not how to go out. I know
not how to come in. I can't save myself. I can't
understand things. I don't see things as you see
them. I need an understanding spirit. I need a discerning heart. I need you to bless me with your
wisdom. My brethren, We're all in this together. That's
what the word brethren means. Birthed from the same womb. That's the literal translation
of this word brethren. And that's what we are. We're
birthed into the family of God through the same gospel, by the
power of the same spirit, in the person of the same Christ.
Christ is not divided. We don't have different views
of the Lord Jesus Christ. not among the brethren. We all
believe the same thing. We all believe that God chose
a people in the covenant of grace before time ever began. We all believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ is that lamb of God that was slain before the
foundation of the world and that God established that covenant
as a sure place for his people. We all believe that when the
Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, He didn't come to live
out a righteousness for everyone. He didn't come to make an offering
of salvation to everyone. He came to accomplish and ratify
the covenant that was established before the world ever began.
And that's what he did. We all believe that he finished
the work when he bowed his mighty head on Calvary's cross. and
said, it is finished. He had done everything necessary
to secure the salvation of his people. It wasn't an offer of
salvation. It was an accomplished work.
And God's people believe that. Why? Because they're birthed
in the same way. They're birthed into the same
family. I have a brother. And we just
talked on the phone about we care for our elderly mother.
And we're both in agreement about who she is. I don't tell him
that she's one person. And he said, no. Why? Because
we're birthed from her. She's our mother. We know her.
We're saying this. We speak the same thing about
her. And so it is with the children of God. We say the same things
about Christ. We've been taught by the same
spirit, the same gospel. These are the ones who call out
for God's wisdom. We all believe that we're dead
in our trespasses and sins, that we're in need of a miracle of
regeneration for the Spirit of God to birth us into the family
of God. He's got to do it. He's got to
do it. So James is writing to all these
brethren. And what does he say? Count it
all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Now, typically,
when we use the word temptation, we think of being enticed to
sin. That's normally how we think
of temptation and that's often how the word is used. James is going to use it in that
context in this very chapter when he says, let no man say
when he's tempted, he's tempted of God. There he's talking about
being enticed to sin. But here it's just the opposite.
It's just the opposite. This is the same meaning that
the Lord gives us in Genesis chapter 22, when God tempted
Abraham by telling him, Abraham, take thy son, thine only son
and make for him, make of him to me a burnt offering. And the
scripture says that God tempted Abraham. He tried him. He proved him. This is not an
enticement to sin. This is a this is a work of grace
that God the Father does in the lives of his children. And that's
why he says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into
divers trials and temptations. Why? Because the trying of your
faith under the hand of God who loves you will work patience, it will cause
you to do what? It'll cause you to wait on Him.
That's what it'll cause you to do. It'll cause you to wait on
Him. Lord, it'll cause you to see
more of your need for more grace, more of your need for more of
Christ, who is our wisdom. God has made him to be our wisdom,
our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. He's the
personification of wisdom, isn't he? We can't have wisdom without
having Christ. And so asking for wisdom is asking
for more of Christ. Lord, I need to have the mind
of Christ. You've put me in this trial and I don't know how to
go out or how to come in. I need for the Lord Jesus Christ. to bless me. And the Lord says,
OK, wait. They that wait upon the Lord,
I'll renew their strength. They'll mount up with wings as
eagles. They'll run and not be weary. They'll walk and not faint.
You just sit and be still and know that I am God. My brethren,
count it all joy. Thank God, in other words. I had someone tell me just the
other day They've been suffering with cancer for 16 years. And
they said, I thank God for my cancer. And she's a brand new
believer for 16 years. She, she'd been angry at God for her cancer.
And now as a child of God, she says to me, I thank God for my
cancer. Count it all joy, my brethren,
when you fall into diverse temptations. You know, the truth is that if
you and I had the power of God, if we had the power of God, we
would change pretty much everything in our lives. We would. We would tweak everything, wouldn't
we? We'd have something to adjust
in every area of our life. You know, with our children,
with our spouse, with our jobs, with ourselves, with our circumstances,
we'd tweak everything. If we had the wisdom of God,
we would change nothing. Nothing. And that's what James is saying. I'm a bond servant. I've been
bound in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm speaking to my brethren.
And he says, brethren, count it all joy. When God puts you
through trials. When the servants of Job came
to him and he said, the Chaldeans have come and they've taken away
your cattle. And while that servant was still
speaking, another servant came and said, the Sabians have come.
and they've destroyed your property. And another servant, while he
still speaks, comes and says, a great fire has come and destroyed
your home and the wind is blown and your children are all dead. What did Job say? What did Job
say? Did he curse God? Did he say
those damned Sabaeans? Did he say that wind, that fire,
that was the cause of my problems? No, Job said, the Lord gives
and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Eli forced Samuel to tell him
what God had told Samuel. Samuel didn't want to tell him
because the message that God had given Samuel was a judgment
against Eli's family. And Eli told him, he said, if
you don't tell me whatever God said to you is going to come
back on you. And Samuel told him. He told him, God's going
to kill both your sons. And Eli said, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. Everything in your life and in
my life, it's the Lord. It is. Let me help you with a little
word that you probably already know this, but. The word providence. The word providence. We. I hear people say, well, if God
doesn't providentially hinder or this happened providentially
or that happened providentially. The word providence means pro
before and video. Pro video. That's what it means. Now that means that the movie
of this world was already in the can before time ever started. I'm always intrigued when I listen
to these scientists talk about parallel universes. And of course
they're trying to discover the parallel universe through a microscope.
Truth is, there is a parallel universe. It's called the eternal. And everything that happens in
time has already happened in eternity. And what you and I are experiencing
in time is what God purposed in eternity. It's got to be that
way. He said, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. If God was fickled, if God changed
our circumstances based on whatever, then we would not have a God
who was the same yesterday, eternity past, today, and tomorrow, eternity
future. He hasn't changed. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the Lamb that was slain when? Before the foundation of
the world. The covenant of grace was established
by God before time ever began. Ephesians chapter one, before
the foundation of the world, he chose a people in Christ.
What's happening in our experience of time is what God has already
accomplished in that parallel universe we call eternity. And
this experience that we're having in this world, It's just God
fulfilling his purpose. Well, he hath done whatsoever
he wills. No man can stay his hand or saying
to him, what doest thou? He's God. The nations are a drop
in the bucket to him. There as a speck of dust on the
balance scale. And God goes, the nations. Oh Lord, I need wisdom. I get
so, I get so myopic in my vision. All I can see is my current circumstances. All I can see is my life and
my world. And I need the eyes of faith
to look through that black hole in the universe and to see that
there is an eternity out there where you live and where you
operate, where you serve, where you function. There's my life. My life is hidden in Christ. He's seated at the right hand
of God. That's not in this life. It's not in this world. It's
in God's world. When he gives to his people eternal
life, he's giving us his life. Eternal life is not a life that
begins when we make a decision or even when we are regenerated
by the grace of God. Eternal life is not something
that happens in time and then last forever. Eternal life is
God's life. That means it never had a beginning.
When the Lord's pleased to open the eyes of our understanding
and show us what we are and give us the gift of wisdom, all we're
doing is discovering what's already been purposed by God. That's
why none of his sheep can be lost. Not one of them. Every one of them will be saved.
Why? Because he chose them in Christ. He knows them by name. Well,
that's the wisdom I need. I need to see things, God, like
you see it, and I need to believe that that's the way it is. And if God gives us that wisdom,
what does he say? Knowing this, that the trying
of your faith, work at patience and let patience have her perfect
work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. In lack of nothing. What did
David say in Psalm 23? The Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not what? Want. I shall not want, but I'm
always wanting. I'm always complaining. I'm always,
I'm always questioning things as they are. And I, and I never
can see the truth for lack wisdom. You lack wisdom. Yeah, we do. Don't we ask it
of God, ask it of God. He'll give it to you liberally.
and he'll upbraideth it not. You fall. You see the verse in
verse two where he says, count it all joy when you fall into
diverse temptations. You know why we're needing to
be tried and proved and tested by God that we could Why our
faith needs perfecting? Why our faith is so weak? Because we're falling. We're
falling. There's only two other places
in the New Testament where this word fall is used. I'm going
to tell you where one of them is. Luke chapter 10. There was
a certain man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. And
he fell among some thieves. Story of the Good Samaritan.
And most people, when they hear the story of the Good Samaritan,
they think, well, I need to be a Good Samaritan. And you do. But that's not primarily what
that story's about. You're not the good Samaritan.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the good Samaritan. You're the guy
that was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho that fell among the
thieves and is left for dead in the ditch. And the priest
came by. who represents the ceremony of
religion, and he couldn't help him, and he had to pass on the
other side of the road. And the Levite came by, who represents
the law, and the law can't save you. All the law can do is judge
you, condemn you, declare you to be guilty. And so the law
had to pass by. And then the good Samaritan took
that man that had fallen among thieves. We have fallen in our
father Adam. And Adam's greatest sin is he
tried to rob from God his glory. And that's what we do, isn't
it? That's what we do. We try to rob from God his glory.
We try to set ourselves up on the throne of God. We spend our
whole lives as recovering idolaters, looking away from Christ and
trying to find our hope and our comfort somewhere else other
than in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. or we're
enticed by the law, or we think, well, maybe we can keep part
of the law. And then the good Samaritan came.
And he had compassion on the one who had fallen among thieves.
And he bound his wounds with oil and with wine, which is a
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ blessing his fallen children
with his Holy Spirit. And what did he do? He put him
on his own ass and he carried him where? To the inn. And he
put him in the inn. That's where we're at right now.
And he said to the innkeeper, take care of this, take care
of this and whatever you have to do, you provide for him. And
when I return, I'll repay you. That's us, isn't it? We're the guy that's fallen. We're in need of the Lord Jesus
Christ to bind our wounds. We're in need for him to take
us to the inn and say to the innkeeper, preach the gospel
to them, care for their souls, feed them with the truth, the
man of life. Tell them about Christ and their
need for him and remind them of their need to cry out for
wisdom. They can't see it if God doesn't
give it to them. If he doesn't open their eyes,
they won't see. Nicodemus, you can't perceive
the kingdom of God unless you're born again. How am I going to
be born again? Nicodemus was just looking at
things from the natural point of view, wasn't he? He didn't
know there was a parallel universe. He didn't know there was a spiritual
reality of life outside of what he could touch and see and experience.
And so the Lord said, oh no, Nicodemus, you've got to be born
of the spirit. The spirit of God has to come. He's got to
breathe life. The Lord said to Ezekiel, Ezekiel,
son of man, can these bones live? What did Ezekiel say? Lord, thou
knowest. If they're going to live, you're going to have to
make them live. Preach to them, prophesy to the
bones. Call out to the spirit of God
and ask him to come and to bless the message of the gospel to
the hearts of God's people. We can't see it. It amazes me after 18 years of
preaching the gospel, how many people can come week in and week
out and sit there and listen and not hear a word. Not hear
a word. It's just like water on a duck's
back. It's in one ear and out the other,
and it has no impact whatsoever. There's no rejoicing, no love
of the truth, no love for Christ. So it's God, give them wisdom,
give them wisdom. Enable them to believe, bless
them with faith. We can't see the Lord Jesus Christ
for who He is if He doesn't bless us. We'll never know Him as the
Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the
last. We'll never know that salvation
is of the Lord, that it's His work of grace. We just won't. We won't do it. We won't see
Christ as the beloved Son of God. How does God see the Lord
Jesus Christ? Here's what wisdom is. Wisdom
is seeing things as God sees it and believing that it's so.
How does God see the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, He tells us. He
said, This is my beloved Son. In Him I am well pleased. Hear Him. He's the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He's the only
one that satisfied the demands of my law. He's the only one
able to put away your sin. He's the only one that can make
you acceptable in the presence of God. He's your surety. He's the one that does everything
necessary in order to pay your debt. He's the head of the body. And everything that the body
does, every function of your body is dependent upon your head
telling it what to do. Even those involuntary actions
like your heart beating and other things that go on inside your
body, your brain's telling it to do that. If you don't believe
that, just cut your head off. See what your body's able to
do. The Lord Jesus, so it is with
the church. We're united to Christ. We're
in him, but we're the body. And every function of the body
is completely dependent upon the head. Lord, I'll not see
that. I'll think that I can function
apart from Christ. And he says, without me, you
can do nothing. Oh, Lord, I forgot. Give me wisdom. Give me wisdom. I lack it. I need it. We'll not see him as a successful
savior. We'll just not see it. We'll think that there's something
I can do. We're just a bunch of recovering
Pharisees, even as believers, aren't we? The unbeliever certainly
thinks he can do something, but the believer is always looking
to something in his life for improvement. Well, you know,
I think I can do better without it. And as if we can improve
our position with God by something we do. Lord, give me wisdom. I need Christ. I can't. I can't please God. You can't please God. He's pleased
with Christ. We'll not see the Lord Jesus
Christ as the fullness of the Godhead bodily unless the Lord
enables us. And we'll certainly not see ourselves
complete in him. You know, the word fullness in
that verse and the word complete in that verse is the same word.
So Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are
complete in Him. In other words, just as much
as the Lord Jesus Christ is God, so you are Christ. How can that be? It's called
grace. It's called grace. It's called
God putting you in Christ. So that as he is, so are we in
this world. It's not something we can achieve.
He's got to do it. He's got to do it every bit of
it. What's he doing? He's raising
children. And. That. The chastisement of the Lord
is not pleasant for the season, is it? But in the end, it produces
the peaceable fruit of righteousness. And that's what he's doing. So
James says, brethren, it's OK. God's got it under control. Everything's
on time and he's he's he's perfecting you. He's bringing you to that
place to where you're able to see that Christ is all and he
is in all. He's all your righteousness before
God. He's all your sanctification.
He's all your wisdom. He's all your justification.
Christ is everything. And whatever you see outside
of Christ is not as it is. What the Lord say in Isaiah chapter
42. What does God think of Christ?
Behold, my servant. That's what God says. God, the
father speaking, he says, look to Christ, behold, my servant,
whom I uphold, mine elect. This is the one I've chosen.
I've upheld him in whom my soul delighteth. I'm pleased with
him. I've put my spirit upon him.
He's the anointed one. He's the one who's come in the
full power of the spirit of God in order to accomplish the salvation
of God's people. And he cannot fail and he is
not discouraged. Oh, oh, that's what I need because
I fail all the time and I get discouraged all the time. Lord,
give me wisdom. Give me wisdom to see Christ
and Lord, whatever, whatever you have to purpose for my life
to bring me to Christ, to keep me in Christ. Give me the faith
to believe that all things work together for good for them who
love God and those of the called according to his purpose. As
painful as it might be. The farmer had six sons. He got
them up early before daylight every morning, took them out
to the field. They plowed behind the mule, and all they had to
work with was hand tools. One day the farmer was in the
feed store, and the guy at the hardware store, he said to the
farmer, he said, John, he said, I notice you working your boys
out in the field hard every day, and all they've got, these hoes
and rakes and stuff. And he said, I've got a tractor.
He said, and I've got herbicides and I've got rototillers. I mean,
I've got all the modern equipment and you'll be able to raise a
whole lot more crops if you'll just use some of this stuff.
And John said to the man at the hardboard store, I'm not raising
crops. So I'm raising sons. Raising sons. The world's raising crops. They're
filling their barns and they're building new barns. God's not raising crops. It's not about our possessions. It's not about our reputation. It's not about our accomplishments. He's raising sons for glory. And James says, my brethren,
Count it all joy when you fall because you are fallen into divers
temptations. The trials and testings that
I've sent your way. Why? Because these things are
designed by me for your good, for your salvation, for your
patience. Let patience have its perfect
work that you might be entire, lacking nothing. Complete in
Christ. You lack wisdom to believe that. You want to see yourself for
who you are. How does God see us? He that sanctifies and they that
are sanctified are all as one. I can't see myself that way.
All I see is my sin and my failures and God says, Oh no, I see you
in Christ. You're perfect in him. Lord, give me wisdom. Help me
to see things as you see them and to believe that that's the
way they really are. And if I see them any other way,
I'm only looking at them. In a distorted, fleshly way,
an unbelieving way. Give me wisdom. Need a lot of
it, don't we? Pastor.