Good morning. It's good to be
here. Let's open up this morning's service to the soft back handle
number two. Number two, God be merciful to
me. And if you could please stand. Dear Lord, I'll now confess my
sin, my shame and guilt I own. Behold, I'm a vile wretch, unclean,
who bows before your throne. O God, be merciful to me, and
all my sin forgive. The merits of your Son I plead
in Him, O make I live. If you should mark my sin, O
Lord, and sentence me to hell. Against your justice, not a word
my sinful heart could tell. But if you will accept the blood
of Jesus for my shame, surely your grace would be, O God, honoring
to Guilty and helpless, I believe
the gospel promise, Lord. I trust your Son, my Lord, receive
and take you at your word. Believing on the Lamb of God,
His blood and righteousness shall ease me of my awful load and
give my conscience peace. Be seated, please. Good morning. Jeff's been working diligently
on getting our sound problem fixed and I think we got it worked
out so we don't have to turn this off anymore. I'd like for you to open your Bibles
with me to the book of James, James chapter 1. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that
you would receive our plea for your mercy and that for Christ's
sake, you'd be pleased to show forth your grace in our hearts
For as we just sang, truly, Lord, we are a people laden with sin. We are in need of a Savior, an
advocate before Thee, one who is in Himself righteous and one
who is able to plead our case, and one in whom we are able to
find acceptance. We confess, Lord, that You are
sovereign in all things, particularly you're sovereign in salvation.
And we are completely dependent upon you, Lord, to apply the
blood of Christ, to choose us in the covenant of grace, to
regenerate us in the power of your spirit, to illuminate our
hearts with the truth of thy word, to draw us to thyself. Lord, we're helpless and dependent. We pray that you would do it
for thy namesake and for thy glory. For we ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. You have your Bibles open to
James chapter 1. My hope this morning is that
The Lord would give us the faith to believe that all that he does
is right, that he has each of us exactly where we need to be
for the salvation of our souls, that he does all things well.
This is not a matter of power of positive thinking. We're not
just going to bolster our ego by thinking, well, if I just
think strongly enough about it, I'll make it happen. Some might
read these opening verses in the book of James and come to
that conclusion. Count it all joy, my brethren,
when you fall into diverse temptations. Well, let's just pull ourselves
up by our bootstraps and grit our teeth and be joyful and then
it'll all work out. That's not what's being said
here. It's not what's being said at all. This word temptation,
you have your Bibles there in James chapter 1. And I love the way James introduces
himself. Now this, James, would have been
the pastor of the largest church in the world. The church at Jerusalem. This was James, the half-brother
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't refer to himself as
Pastor James. He doesn't refer to himself as
James the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ who grew up
with him and knew him very intimately. He calls himself James a doulos,
a bondservant, a bondslave, a slave of God the Father and of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What grace, what humility. God
gives grace to the humble. He resists the proud. Might he
give us such a spirit to be able to say, yes, that's my name,
but my position is that I am a bond slave. I'm a dependent
servant of God the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ. to
the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad. That's the church. There's no other way to understand
that. Lots of people will take this
and they'll talk about the Jews that were dispersed throughout
all the world and James is writing to them and that's true. But
for us this morning, the 12 tribes are all the people of spiritual
Israel. Those who have been circumcised
by the circumcision of the Spirit in the heart. those who are part,
as John saw the church, as the 144,000, 12,000 times 12. And there we are, the whole church,
all the elect of God, all those chosen by God in the covenant
of grace before the world ever began, all those who were redeemed
by the shed blood and successfully successfully saved by the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's who this is to. No one
else can understand it. No one else can believe it. No one else can enter into it. If we're going to be profited
by what the Lord has said, He's got to make us see our part in
the 12 tribes of Israel. the true Israel, the true children
of Abraham, the children of faith, those who have their only hope
in the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who
rest in the work that was finished from the foundation of the world.
That's who this is for. And if you can find yourself
in that group, then there's great words of hope and great words
of comfort for the circumstances that you're in right now. My brethren, we're all in this
together. This word brethren means born
from the same birth, from the same womb. And that's where we
are. We're all birthed in the same
way. We all come into the kingdom of God through the same miracle
of the new birth given to us by the spirit of God, by the
light of the gospel. We're all in this together. And I like what one brother said,
we're fellowshipping, a bunch of fellows in the same ship.
And that's where we are. And that's who this is for. Don't
think for a moment that your circumstances are different than
anyone else's. That will put you into a fit
of despair that will only damage your soul. This is to
the brethren, the brethren that are scattered. And we are scattered
in so many places. My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into divers temptations. Now, usually when we think of
the word temptation, we think of an enticement to evil. And
the word is used in God's word in that context. that we're tempted
by our flesh, we're tempted by Satan, we're tempted by the world
to sin. And certainly that is a proper
understanding of this word temptation, but here it means just the opposite. It means just the opposite. It means that God has put you
in a position where you are for the salvation of your soul. Count it all joy, my brethren,
when you fall into divers, many multicolored, that's what the
word means, variety of trials and temptations. Now here's the
truth. I'm not here to be a motivational
speaker and try to say to you, you just need to lift up your
chin and take a deep breath and believe harder. to tell you that
God puts his children in trials. He puts his children in troubles
and the truth is that every child of God is either going into trouble
or is in trouble or is coming out of trouble and that is for
the salvation of our souls. I'm here to say to you that your
circumstances ordained of God are for your good and for His
glory, and I'm not here to give you any promises that they're
gonna get any better. Did you hear that? Because as soon as you get out
of the one you're in, there's gonna be another one. There's
going to be another one. That's the way this word temptation
is being used here. It's being used to say to the
people of God, God put you where you are. David put it like this
in Psalm 119 verse 67. He said, before I was afflicted,
I had gone astray, but now I have kept thy word. My afflictions
have been used in order to cause me to acknowledge my dependence
on thee. That's what the Lord's doing.
And in the end, it's so good. It's so good. Count it. Reckon it to be. Consider it
to be something to be thankful for. Rejoice in the Lord, Paul
said. And again I say rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice
in Him. He's put you where you are. I love what, when the Lord sent
Moses to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt, he told
Moses, he said, I have heard the affliction of my people. Well, who put the people of God
in Egypt? He put them there, didn't he?
Who kept them there for 4,400 years? Who put them under the
bondage of the taskmasters? God did. God did. He was the one who put them there,
and He's the one that puts you exactly where you are, and He's
the one that put me exactly where I am. These are the trials and
temptations of the faith, and they're things that we fall into.
We don't look for them. We're not looking for affliction.
This word, this word fall, is only used three times in the
New Testament. You see that? My brethren, count
it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. It's only
used three times in the New Testament. And the other two uses of this
word shed a lot of light on what it means here. The first time
it's used is in Luke chapter 10. Well, you don't have to turn
there, but when When the Lord said there was a certain man
who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among
thieves. Remember that? The story of the
Good Samaritan. And everybody likes to think
of that story of the Good Samaritan as we being the Good Samaritan
and caring for the needs of our fellow man. And certainly that's
one of the applications of that story, but that's not the first
application of it. The first application of it is
that that one who fell among thieves is you and me. And the Good Samaritan. You remember
what happened? The priest came, And what's the
priest a symbol of? Ceremonialism. And the priest
looked at him, and he turned his head, and he went the other
way. And a Levite came, and a Levite looked at him and saw him there,
and he got on the other side of the road and acted like he
wasn't even there. What's the Levite? No for the law. And so
the ceremonies and the laws of religion have nothing to do to
help those who have fallen among thieves. There we are. In our Father Adam, we have fallen
among thieves. We have fallen to sin. We have fallen to those who would
rob Christ of His glory and salvation, ourselves. We've fallen in those
things, haven't we? And the Good Samaritan comes,
and who does he represent? He represents the Lord Jesus
Christ, doesn't he? Because what's he do? He has
compassion on him, and he binds his wounds, and he pours oil
and wine over his open wounds, which is a picture of the Lord
giving his spirit to those who have fallen in sin. And what
does he do? He takes them to the inn. He
takes them to the church, and he tells the innkeeper, he says,
take care of him, and when I come back, I'll repay you. What a
glorious picture. That's how we have fallen, isn't
it? Well, God ordained that fall. God ordained the fall of Adam.
God purposed the fall of Adam. He purposed your sin and my sin. Why? To show forth more of His
glory. The truth is that saved sinners
are the only thing that know anything about mercy. They're
the only ones who know anything about grace. There's so much
of God's glory that the angels can't enter into. Why? Because they've never fallen. So here we have fallen in our
father Adam in order for the Lord to portray and declare and
demonstrate his grace and his mercy and his glory to his people. The second time this word fall
is used is found in Acts chapter 27. And Paul has finished his three
missionary journeys recorded in the gospel in the book of
Acts, and he's now been arrested in Jerusalem. They've taken him
to Caesarea. They put him on a ship. They
put him under the authority of a man named Julius, who was a
Roman soldier, and he was headed to Rome to plead his case to
Caesar. And on their way, they stopped
in a little village called Fair Haven. It's all recorded there
in Acts chapter 27. It was a village on the south
side of Crete. And they waited there. The captain
of the ship said it's time for us to move on we want to go around
the island just a little ways over to Phoenicia Because it's
a better port. This port is not the scripture
says it's not commodious. It's not convenient for us We
don't like it here. So we're gonna move and the Apostle
Paul says I Counsel you Not to do this If you do this, much
hurt and much damage will come to us and to this vessel. And
the scripture says that the captain thought better than the word
of God. And so he struck sail and just
within a short period of time, he ended up in a storm all the
way over to Malta in a shipwreck. You remember the story, how they
tried to save themselves, and 127 men on that ship. And they,
Paul said, don't leave the ship. Don't leave the ship. The ship's
gonna, and the ship did, it crashed into the rocks, didn't it? And
in Acts chapter 27, it says that the ship had fallen into a place
where the two seas came together. Now what is that place? It's
the place where mercy and truth has met together. It's the place
where righteousness and peace have kissed each other. It's the place of Calvary's cross
where the two seas have come together and we've fallen into
that place. So, it's the only hope that we
have for the salvation of our souls. That God would cause us
to fall into these trials, into these afflictions, into these,
as the scripture says, temptations, in order that we might believe
God. Abraham believed God and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. Well, what is that in the context
of? I'll tell you what it's in the context of. It's in the context
of Genesis chapter 22, where God, the scripture says, tempted
Abraham. Did he tempt him to sin? No. What did he do? Take thy son,
thine only son, and make for him a burnt offering unto me.
And Abraham believed God. And Abraham told his servants,
the Lord's testing me, the Lord's trying me. The Lord's tempting
me, and it's for my faith. What I'm in need of more than
anything else is righteousness. What I'm in need of more than
anything else is peace with God. What I'm in need of more than
anything else is for God to show His mercy and demonstrate His
truth towards me, a sinner. I need to be found in that place
where the two seas come together. I need for the Good Samaritan
to come and get me to where I have fallen among thieves. That's
what I'm in need of. And so this scripture says, count
it all joy, my brethren, when God causes you to fall into trials,
afflictions, temptations. He's ordained them for you. Listen
to what Job said. In the first chapters of Job,
the scripture says that Job's servants came to him and said,
the Sabeans came and they raided your flock and taken away all
your flock and the Chaldeans came and they burned your property
and then there was a fire and then there was wind and all of
your children are dead. And what does Job say? He doesn't
say, damn those Sabeans. He doesn't say those Chaldeans,
that fire, that wind, that was that, no. He said this, the Lord
gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. When Samuel was called of God
as a young boy and Eli wanted to know what did God say to you? Tell me everything. Well, Samuel
had a word of judgment against Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas.
And he told Eli what the Lord had told him. What did Eli say?
It is the Lord. Let him do what is right in his sight. That's what James chapter 1 is
saying. It is the Lord. The Lord gives. The Lord takes
away. The Lord's put me where I am.
The Lord's keeping me afflicted. Why? So that Christ can bind my wounds,
pour the oil of gladness and the wine of the Spirit, bring
me into his church, Bring me to that place where the two seas
come together. I've fallen, but I haven't fallen
in a way that's contrary to what God has purposed for me. Turn with me a couple of pages
to the right to 1 Peter 1. Verse 4, the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ for his elect is described in verses 2 and 3.
And verse 4 says, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. If you listen
to preaching this morning or today, you will find that it's
nothing more than motivational speaking for helping people to
become more moral or more positive or more hopeful in their circumstances. If we're understanding that it's
the Lord that put us where we are and that He did it, in order
to make for us an inheritance, not in this world, not in this
world, but an inheritance that's incorruptible, an inheritance
that fadeth not away. Verse five, who are kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. Now that's my need. And that's your need. And we're
so short-sighted, aren't we? We just, we just think that,
you know, right now, today, and tomorrow, and next year, and
you know, that's, that's what life's all about. It's about
the salvation of our souls. Wherein you greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be, You are in heaviness through
manifold temptations. Now this word temptations means
the same thing that it means in James chapter one. These are
the trials, these are the afflictions that God mercifully gives to
his children. These aren't the heavy hand of
a God who's angry at you. This is his mercy. This is his
grace. That's why we count it all joy.
That's why we rejoice even though we're in heaviness. The Hebrew
says that these corrections are not pleasant for the season,
but in the end, what do they do? They produce the peaceable
fruit of righteousness. Where does that come from? Trusting
Christ. Trusting Christ. That's the trial of your faith.
That's what the Lord's doing. He's proving our faith. He's perfecting our faith. He's
increasing our faith. Have you ever said, Lord, give
me faith? Have you ever said, Lord, increase
my faith? If you have, and you've said
that with any sincerity, then these trials are necessary for
your faith. They're necessary. This is the
way he gives us faith. Being much more precious than
gold that perishes, this is the most precious commodity you have.
Not your possessions, your faith, your salvation, the hope of your
soul. Being tried with fire, yeah,
I'm in the fire. And the thing about the Lord
is He knows exactly how much fire, He knows exactly how hot
to make it, when to cool it down. And when He cools it down, thank
the Lord for it and get ready for the next one. Isn't that
the way it is? that we might be found unto praise
and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. I'm not here to make you more
hopeful that your circumstances tomorrow are gonna be better
than today. And I've told you, I've got somebody in my life,
every time I ask them, oh, tomorrow's gonna be a better day. And they're
living in hope that tomorrow's gonna be a better day, and it
never is. I'm not here to tell you tomorrow's going to be a
better day. I'm here to tell you that this
is what our merciful, loving, kind, tender God does for His
children in order to bring them into glory. And that's what you need, isn't
it? Lord, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. Whatever he does
is right. Go back with me to James. I tell
you what, turn to Romans chapter 5. Let me just show you one other
passage of scripture. Romans chapter 5. Verse one, therefore being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We're justified, he that justifieth and they that are justified are
all as one. If we're in Christ, then we're
not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
righteousness, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, we're
found in him, justified before God, in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ, through faith. by whom we have access by faith
into this grace. Wherein we stand. That's where
we're standing. We're standing on the rock of
ages. We're standing on the grace of
God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. If it is of grace, it can no
longer be of works. It's all of grace. It's all of
God. This is God's work. This is God's
work. God puts you right where you
are. Everything's right on schedule. Somebody says to me, well, I
want to know the will of God. You're right smack dab in the
middle of it right now if you're a child of God. That's where
you are. That's our God. I can rest there. I can rest
there. God's doing this, and then it's
got to be good. It's got to be right. and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. That's my hope. My hope is to
see the glory of God in the fullness of his glory. I look through
a glass dimly now, but one day I'll see him as he is face to
face. And not only so, but we glory
in what? In tribulation. temptations, trials, afflictions. These are the things that God
sends to his children. Knowing that the tribulation
worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope,
and hope maketh not a shame. I tell you, those people that
are sitting this morning listening to some false prophet, motivate
them into something of positive thinking, they're going to be
disappointed. Men are saying, peace, peace,
when there is no peace, and they're going to leave this world and
find out that they were wrong. They were wrong. I don't want
to be there. Lord, whatever you've got to
do between now and then, I don't want to be found wanting. I don't
want to be disappointed. The hope, make it not a shame
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. This is
God's love. He chastens those whom he loves. You spare the rod, you hate the
child. That's what the scripture says.
And if that's true for us, certainly that's true for God. But he doesn't hate his children.
He loves them. Oh, so much more than we could
ever love our children. And he knows exactly what they
need. Better than they know themselves. He's touched. with the feelings
of our infirmities. That's what the scripture says. God had to become a man in order
for him to be able to say to us, I'm touched with the feelings
of your infirmities, for I've been tried and tested in all
ways that you are, yet without sin. That's the difference. I know your needs better than
you know them. I feel your pain more than you feel it. I'm more
willing to help than you are to ask for it. Count it all joy, my brethren.
When you fall into divers temptations, knowing that the trine of your
faith worketh patience, and patience, when it is complete, makes you
what? perfect and entire, lacking nothing. And that's where I need to be.
I need to be found perfect and complete before God in need of
nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we ask that you would comfort and encourage your children this
morning. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you.