I have to take your Bibles and
turn back with me to James, James, chapter one. James, chapter one. And entitled this message, the
purpose of affliction. And the work of patience. The
purpose of affliction. And the work. Of patience. Now, James begins this epistle
in verse 1, he says, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus
Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. Now, James makes known to whom
he is writing this epistle. He says, to the twelve tribes
scattered abroad. Now, we know that James is not
fully intending the Jews only. We know ten of those tribes were
not in existence. There are only really two left.
So we know He is speaking in spiritual terms here. He is talking
about the true Israel of God. He is talking about the elect
of God, the same as Peter. In Peter's epistle, you go over
a couple of pages, Peter writes this in verse 1, he says, To
the strangers scattered throughout Pontus and Galatia, Cappadonia
and Bithynia, And then he tells us who they are. The elect, according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood
of Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. So let us who are then the elect
of God, sons of God, true Israel of God, We who were chosen by the Father,
redeemed by the Son, called to obedience by the Holy Spirit. What is that obedience? It is
faith. The obedience of faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And when we are sanctified by
the Spirit of God, given a new life, that's what we do. We obey. We obey His commandment, which
is to believe. And then His blood is sprinkled
upon our hearts. So this message then of this
epistle is to God's people. Those who look to Christ and
the sprinkling of His blood for the forgiveness of our sins.
Therefore, in verse 2, He calls us brethren. He says, My brethren,
My brethren, seeing we are Redeemed and called we are the children
of Israel we are then brethren I Like that brethren You know
I got I had two brothers And I'll tell you this You are more
my brother than they are And they ever were We are more of
a family than they are Now what I said when he said hey your
mom and your brothers out here said no my behold my mother my
sister my brother And so bread and this is this then is for
you you that believe on Christ listen to what he says brethren
my brethren Listen count it all joy when you fall into divers
temptation divers temptations. Now, what temptations is James
speaking of here? Well, I want you to know, he's
not talking about temptations to sin. That's not what he's
talking about. There's no matter of joy, but
only grief. When we fall by temptation to
sin, it is a grief. It is a sorrow. this temptation
to sin does not then spring from God but rather from our own nature
or our own sin nature consider this if there were no
sin in me and I would never be tempted to it no matter what
happens around me You can let every temptation of sin come
upon me, and I wouldn't be tempted to it, because what? There would
be no sin there. But because there is, we are
tempted. We are tempted. James says in verse 13, he says,
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God
cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. So we know that this temptation
is not what he's talking about, temptation of sin. So our temptations to evil must
never be ascribed to God but must be confessed that they came
from our own wicked heart and evil actions. So to these temptations
of evil there is no joy to be ascribed but only sorrow and
confession. And that true when we are tempted
to sin and we see it. It is then that we are in sorrow
to confess our sins, confess our sins is what John says. Confess
your sin. If any man say he had not seen.
The truth is not in him, he's made God a liar, he's not he
doesn't have the truth. But we confess our sins, and
He is faithful and just. Therefore, these temptations,
in James 1 and verse 2, are not temptations to sin, but rather
trials and afflictions. So read it as He said, count
it all joy when you fall into different afflictions, different
trials. Trials. these trials and afflictions
are those that come by the hand of God for this purpose to try
your faith try your faith and so believer let us consider let
us count it all joy Because that all of our trials and afflictions,
all of our distresses, all of our persecutions, all of our
heartaches and troubles are not tokens of God's anger, but rather
tokens of His grace. Tokens of His love toward us. These trials are intended
of God. for our benefit, our growth,
to strengthen us and draw us closer to Christ. Therefore,
count it all joy when you fall into Tiber's temptations. Now some of these afflictions,
they do spring from our sins. Often times when we sin, we know
this, that God chastens us. These afflictions can be chastisements
of God. If you go to Hebrews chapter
12 and you read in In verse five, he said, Have
you forgotten that the exhortation was speaking unto us is unto
children. My son despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor
faint when you are rebuked of him for whom the Lord love it.
He chastened and scourges every son that he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. What son is he among the father?
They chasten not. For if you be without chastisement,
Where we are all partakers, then are you bastards and not sons? So as God chastens us, James
here is saying this kind of all joy. For if you be without chastisement,
then are you bastards and not sons? So what is chastening?
What are these afflictions show us? What do they testify that
God loves us? that he is a father, as our father,
he chastens his children and scourges everyone that he loves. So they are manifestations of
what? Not God's anger, but God's love. God's mercy. Surely, if God intended to destroy
us, all he would have to do is leave us alone. What if God left you alone? What if you felt no conviction
for your sin? What if you loved this world
and had no, no restraint? But now we are afflicted by our
sins, we are afflicted by the hatred of this world, and the
Lord will use these dark providences, these persecutions, these convictions
of sin, so as to cause us to look only to Jesus Christ, the
author and finisher of our faith. You see, count it all joy when
you fall into divers temptations simply because of this. These
afflictions try your faith. Affliction tries your faith. It moves us to trust only in
Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Isn't that what
affliction brings? When affliction's done its work, in the end, I
have no confidence in me. All my confidence rests in Him. The afflictions move us to love
and have compassion toward one another, don't they? I tell you
this, when I was a younger man, I could just pick myself up. I never really felt down. I never
really had low times. You know, when I felt a little
little depressed, I just go and pick myself up. And so when I
saw people that had had problems with with feeling melancholy,
I just say, man, just pick yourself up. Well, I said that God showed
me what it was till God gave me that affliction. And then
now what? I tell you what, I have compassion. Have compassion on
them. See, it moves us to love one
another. Affliction has purpose. Purpose. One hymn writer wrote
this God in Israel sows the seed. Of affliction, pain and toil.
These spring up and choke the weeds that would else or spread
the soil. Trials make the promise sweet
trials, give new life to prayer trials, bring me to his feet,
lay me low, keep me there. Is that true about trials? It
is. And so then I ask you, are you
afflicted? Dear brother, are you afflicted? Sister, are you pressed out beyond
measure? Is your heart broken because
of sin? Are you chastened by the hand
of God? Have you lost something so great? Are you under some dark providence
of God? Do you suffer the hatred of men
for the gospel of Christ? I'll tell you what, that's going
to be more frequent. The more you talk about Christ
in this generation, the more you'll be hated. I don't think
I've experienced that so much that people would snarl at you
a little bit, you know, when I was growing up, but now they
just hate you. It's coming. And the apostle here is speaking
to such brethren so that we would change our minds concerning affliction,
temptations and trials. That they are not for our hurt,
but rather for our good. And we should therefore, listen,
count it all joy when you fall into different temptations and
give thanks rather than murmur. You give thanks for your afflictions.
That's what James is telling you. Give thanks. Count it all
joy when you are afflicted. Consider, now go to Ecclesiastes,
and I will read you some things that are seemingly contradictory
to how we think and feel naturally. Ecclesiastes chapter 7, look
what Solomon says about certain things here. Heís given this by the Holy Spirit.
He said, ìA good name is better than precious ointment, and the
day of death is better than the day of oneís birth.î Now, which do we celebrate? We
celebrate some baby coming in the world or and we weep somebody
leaving. God says do the opposite. It's better. The death of one
of God's saints is infinitely better than his birth. It is better to go to the house
of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For that is
the end of all men, and the living will lay it to heart. You got
that? It's better to cry than it is
to laugh. How do you feel about that? We think it's opposite, right?
Naturally, human wisdom thinks, well man, it's got to be better
to laugh. God said no. And, you know, there's only one
group of people ever going to consider and count it all joy that they
fall into temptations and trials, the living. Only those born again
of the spirit of God are going to understand. Only the wise
will lay it to heart. And that's what James is telling
you. Lay it to heart. Count it all joy. You don't have
to change your mind about this thing. Count it all joy when
you fall into diverse Temptations. Those who are born of God understand
that God is that by mourning and by sorrow, we are drawn off
of this world and drawn to Christ. Isn't that true? Isn't that what
affliction does? Affliction draws us away from
the things of this world and it draws us to Christ. Remember somebody talking about
their kid, the little kid at the mall, and he was running out
ahead. He just couldn't get him and
whip him and do everything. Just couldn't get that kid to
stop running out ahead of it. So one day his dad just let him
go and he hid behind one of those pillars. And that kid, he turned
around expecting his dad just to be mad or whatever. His dad
was gone. And that kid fell down and well,
And when his daddy showed himself what he do, he took off to him. See, that's what happens, what
God does. That's what God does when he hides his face. What
do you do? Are you not fearful when he hides
his face? When you can't see him, when
you can't feel his presence, when afflictions and pains and
sorrow overwhelm your soul and you can't look up. What's God doing that for? Doing
it to bring you to him. Count it all joy. That's what
he's doing. Count it all joy. Draws us away from the vain and
carnal lust of this world and sets our hope upon the promises
of Christ, pardon, peace with God, eternal life. That's what
afflictions do. It is these afflictions that
God uses to set our hearts and minds on the things of Christ.
And in this, our heart is established with grace and peace. Hebrews 13, 9, he says, Be not
carried away with strange and diverse doctrines. It is a good
thing that the heart be established with grace. What God does, He
establishes us, settles us. Settles us. So then, brethren,
let us count it all joy when we fall into these. Diver's temptations
now know this. He's not saying that you're going
to feel joyful. Why, he says, count it, count
it all joy, because in your affliction, you're not going to be joyful.
Paul says these things are not joyful, but grievous from a chastisement. He says it's not joyful, it's
grievous. But listen, you need to change your mind about this.
Count it joy. Count it all joy. Because God intends it rather
for your good and growth. And what are the things that
trials cause us to grow in? Two things I want us to see,
faith and patience. Faith and patience. Look at verse
three of your text. Knowing this, count it all joy
when you fall into diverse trials, afflictions, knowing this, that
the trial of your faith worketh patience. Surely these afflictions
are for the initial purpose of trying our faith, trying your
faith. Even because they go against
whatever the affliction is, it goes against our human wisdom
and fleshly feelings. When we are in affliction, it
goes against our earthly reasoning and human wisdom. These afflictions appear to display
God's anger and not God's love. That's what they appear. It's
how it feels when you're afflicted. We are an affliction. We feel
as though God has abandoned us. See, this is why it tries your
faith, because faith must believe God's word rather than how we
feel or what we think. Afflictions make us feel and
think we're abandoned, but in truth, faith embraces that we
are not. It tries our faith. In fact, our afflictions, we
think that these things should be reserved for God's enemies
and not his children. But the opposite is true, that
God has purposed these afflictions. Matter of fact, they're necessary.
Afflictions are necessary. Now, I was talking to Glenn just
a second ago and thinking, well, you know, God could cause a flower
to grow without sun, without water. Without soil, God could,
couldn't he? But he did not choose that. He
chose to use the soil, use the rain, use the sun. And this is
so with our growth, God has chosen to use affliction. And you will not grow without
it. You will not grow in prosperity. In fact, you will grow fat. The
heart will grow fat and thick. Pride and self-righteousness
will grow in prosperity. But affliction strips us of all
that. It strips us of pride. Strips
us of self-righteousness. and sets our gaze upon Christ. It tries our faith. I'm going
to give you an illustration. The rich man and Lazarus. Rich
man. Remember, Christ said that there
was a certain rich man. He fared sumptuously every day. Now, listen, we live pretty good
in this country. But I don't think I fare sumptuously
every day. This guy had the best. Everything we think would make
us happy, this guy had it. He was wealthy. Now, we know
this, that this guy, he was obviously the elder of his family. He was
the one they all turned to for their religion because when he
was in hell, he said, Hey, send him back to speak to my brothers. He had his family. His family
looked up to this guy. Everybody wanted to be this guy. They were envious of this guy.
Everything he touched prospered. But the opposite was true of
Lazarus, wasn't it? Consider Lazarus. He was so poor
that he was forced just by starvation to beg at this man's gate. Listen,
I got a loaf of bread in my in my pantry when I got home. I
imagine there are probably two loaves. I probably got two loaves
of bread in my pantry. This guy had not one dime to
his name. He could not buy one piece of
bread. I never felt that kind of poverty.
Have you? This man was forced by starvation to beg for bread
every single day of his life. And if that wasn't humiliating
enough, I'll tell you this, isn't it
true when we have to ask each other for something, we're kind
of embarrassed? Can you imagine this kind of humiliation? And if that wasn't enough, God
sent sores. on this man to cover his body. And the only comfort he had his
dog came and licked his sores. Now. You think that's cute? We're not talking about our dogs.
They were not domesticated. Then those dogs were licking
his sores, hoping he'd die so they could eat him. By all appearances, which one
did God love? The appearance would be that
the man, the rich man, look at that. God gave him everything. But we know this, the opposite
was true. The opposite was true. God loved the man he afflicted. And hated the man he gave prosperity
to. Rich man was not loved by God
and his riches did not help him in the day of judgment. But see,
the suffering of Lazarus was a token, not of God's hatred,
but of God's love. It was a token of Christ that
Christ had redeemed him. This one who was born again of
the spirit. I want you to see that his affliction
was the trial of his faith. What a trial it was. would to God I would have just
a small portion of that man's faith. You know Job was tried like that
when he had everything taken. But consider this, Job got everything
back. This man died that way. Why did
God do that? God was trying his faith. He was testing his faith. Even
so, our afflictions are intended to try our faith. So without
faith, we know this. It is impossible to please God
in that right. If our faith is not God given faith, if our faith
is not by the grace and power of God, then what? We have no
real faith. We have no real salvation. For us to be received in the
presence of God, we must continually believe. Isn't that right? Faith is not a one-time thing,
is it? Faith is a constant, ever-present necessity. I've told you this. Faith in the Scriptures is intended
in the present tense. And it's always intended this
way because faith ten minutes ago and faith ten minutes from
now will not help me. I must believe now, and now,
and now. That's the only faith that counts,
isn't it? Faith now. And so we must have faith that
continues to believe upon Jesus Christ. He must continually be the object
of our faith For only by him are we justified and have peace
with God. And only those whose faith endures
are sons of God. Isn't that right? What if you
have somebody that believed yesterday and then then they cease to believe? Was their faith real? No. It was not God given faith. The
evidence of true God given faith is that it continues. Look at
Colossians. Look at Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter 1 and verse
19, and he said, For it pleased the Father that in him should
all the fullness dwell. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things to himself,
by him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in
heaven, and you, you were reconciled, weren't you? God made peace by
the blood of His cross. You were reconciled who were
sometimes alienated enemies in your mind by wicked works. Yet
now hath He reconciled in one body of His flesh through death
to present you holy, unblameable, unreprovable in sight. Listen.
What's the evidence of this? Look at verse 23. If ye continue
in the faith grounded and settled. If God gives you faith, listen.
It will endure. It will. To the child of God, there's
nothing more important than to know our union with Christ, isn't
that right? which union is known only by
faith in Christ alone. And if our faith is of God, if
it's of His grace and power, it will and must continue. So
God, in divine wisdom, uses these afflictions, these trials, in
order to prove our faith, not to Him, to you. Listen, I don't
want to be deceived, do you? I don't want to be deceived to
think I have eternal life like those Pharisees and then wake
up in hell. It is constantly my desire to
make my calling and election sure. And how is that? To continually
believe. To know that my faith is given
of God. And the way God proves this to
us is through afflictions. Afflictions. He uses these afflictions. Therefore, look, listen, Peter
says about these afflictions and the trial of our faith. Look
at Peter chapter one and verse six. He said, Where am we greatly
rejoice? What do we rejoice in our election,
our sanctification by the spirit, our faith in Jesus Christ are
being kept by the power of God. You rejoice in all that. You
rejoice in those things, don't you? We greatly rejoice. Oh,
so now for a season, if need be, You are in heaviness through
manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much
more precious than gold, that perisheth. Though it be tried
with fire, it might be found under praise and honor and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love,
in whom though now you see him not yet believing, You rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of
your faith, even the salvation of your souls. See, the trial
of your faith counted all joy when you fall into afflictions.
Why? Because it is intended to try your faith to prove it's
of God. To prove it. Not to God, but
to you. And when your faith is proven,
isn't it a joy? Isn't it a joy to know that my
faith has one object, Jesus Christ? Isn't it a joy to know that I'm
in Him? That I have His righteousness,
His promises of life? We who believe, we do rejoice
in our justification, but not only this, we glory in tribulations
as well. Now, why do we glory in such
afflictions and persecutions? Look at this back in your text. He said, knowing that the trying
of your faith does something. The trial of your faith worketh
patience. Patience. The trial of our faith. Do we really believe on Christ
or not? It is a point I long to know. Often it causes anxious thought.
Do I love the Lord or no? Am I His or am I not? If I am,
why am I the? Why this dull and lifeless frame?
Hardly could they be worse that never knew His name. You often
struggle with that? You see what afflictions do?
They cause you to think on these things. They move you to want
to know if this is true. It proves it. It moves us to the feet of Christ. Afflictions and tribulation manifest
the strength of Christ and our weakness. That's what it manifests.
It manifests our weakness and His strength. True faith. True faith in Christ is tested
because. We we know it is a gift of God's
grace. And if I continue to believe
on Jesus Christ, I know this, it must be God. It must be by
the power of God. That's what afflictions testify
me of that. This matter of faith is completely
of God. completely of God is the trial
that works another fruit of the spirit. This trial of our faith
works another fruit, which is patience. So count it all joy when you
when your faith is tried. And such faith always works patience. Now, what does he mean by patience?
That's that's important to understand what this word means. He doesn't
mean quiet waiting in meekness. Most people think of patience,
they think. I'm being patient. That's not the word. That's not
what it means. Matter of fact, when tribulation
works patience in you, you'll be anything but quiet. When afflictions
come, you will be anything but meek and lowly. In fact, the first thing that
affliction works in you is rebellion. Doesn't it stir rebellion? Don't you kick at it? Or do you
just sit there and quietly take it? If you do, I'd like to meet
you. I'd like to shake your hand,
because that's not me. And that scriptural proof is not David.
It's not Abraham. It's not any one of the patriarchs. The first thing that was stirred
in every affliction is rebellion. He does not mean a quiet, meek
waiting like we tell our children. Just go over there and wait patiently.
We want them to sit still and be quiet. When God is working
patience, He doesn't want you to sit there and be quiet. Matter
of fact, He's going to make you scream. He's going to make you
cry. The word means endurance. And
when we look at patience of Job, when Job endured these trials,
you've heard of the patience of Job, right? Well, how did
he act in these trials? Was he quiet? No, he was peevish
and fretful and fearful and angry. He was angry at men and angry
at God. That's what he was. So this. He was not quietly waiting for
deliverance. But he was very vocal in his
suffering under the dark providences of God, yet. His trial did work
endurance, didn't it? Endurance. Job was assaulted
by his family and friends, and often manifest his rebellion.
He cursed the day he was born. He vocalized his contempt when
God brought him his trials. And so when God brings us his
trials, we are not expected to sit quietly, but rather we are
provoked. These afflictions provoke us.
If you're ever going to learn endurance, you must first be
provoked. But in the end, what did we find
that Job? That through all of that, he
still believed. Isn't that right? He endured all of it. Therefore, we say that Job had
patience, endurance. This is the patience that our
trials of faith produce, even endurance in faith. I'll give
you a figure. There's an unbroken horse. An unbroken horse is a strong
beast. But it will not bear the slightest
weight. You put the slightest weight
on an unbroken horse and it will kick and bark until you get it
off. And the only way you can make
that horse endure weight is to put a rider on him and break
him. That's exactly what God does for us. That's exactly what
God does with us with afflictions. You take that same horse is broken
and what kind of weight can he bear? He has endurance. He learns endurance. So do we. So do we. This endurance for
us is spiritual. It is a spiritual burden. It
is a weight that we must bear and it is this submission. Endurance. Patience always yields
submission. First it ignites rebellion. But when patience has its work. Submission is always the end
result. So what is God doing by affliction
when he tries your faith? He is causing you to submit to
his sovereign will. That's what we're doing. Submit. To his sovereign will. Notice the trial of your faith
in worketh patient tribulation, worketh patience as a proof of
our text in the experience of the believer. This is an ongoing
and continual process, is it not? Are you always submissive to
the will of God? I'll tell you this, I understand
as we grow in this grace of patience, we are surely more submissive
now than we were before. But I'll tell you this seems
like it's always. Going over and over and over
again for me. I'm always having to learn submission. Submission. When tribulations come, the first
thing we meet with is rebellion and our affliction. We see no
good from it, only pain. We cannot see the hand of God
in it. We see and feel that there is no good that can come from
this. So we say in unbelief, I cannot bear this. Maybe I'm
the only one ever said that. I just can't bear it. But once the word of God comes
in power, when the spirit comes and we see that this affliction
is of God. When God reveals that this affliction
is not by chance, He reveals his word to us, and he says,
this affliction is by my hand. It is then we begin this matter
of patient submission. Submission is then produced. Behold, tribulation works patience,
works submission. patience, endurance is submission
to the will of God, and humility, humility. And when we submit
in our affliction is of God, we know, we know we have procured
this trial and confess that we deserve much worse. Isn't this
true? When the heart is broken, When
rebellion is put down by in our affliction, when we're brought
to the end of ourselves. It's then we recognize that surely
we deserve worse than we got. We deserve worse than we got. This trial of mine is not by
chance, but of God, I surely, we confess, deserve it. Behold,
impatience is working by putting our mouth in the dust. By His
rod we confess our sins and magnify His sovereign right. And in faith
we trust His promises that He will do us good. What is His
promises? He said this, I know my thoughts
that I think toward you. Thoughts of what? and not of evil. Only a submissive
heart can receive that. In the middle of your affliction,
you when patience is worked and you've submitted, then you can
receive that. How beautifully is this scene
in David? Give you an illustration of David. Remember, David had
committed that sin and he had confessed his sin and You know,
by the end of that confession, you say, well, man, look, David
is submitted. Oh, no, he hadn't. He was not
yet. He had not yet learned patience.
So what God did is he killed his son. And you say, man, look at David,
he's broken. Nope, not yet. Absalom, his other son. He had
to run for his life. You say, man, David lost his
kingdom. He lost his family. He lost his
child. Surely he's he's he's low as
he can be right now. Nope. There's that guy. See me
running right alongside and cursing him. And this is what David said when
David hit rock bottom. When his affliction brought him
to the end of himself, this is what he said. He said, If I shall
find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again. But if he say, I have no delight
in me, behold, here I am, let him do with me what seemeth good
to him. David believed, he said, If I'm
in Christ, he'll bring me again. And listen, if not, let God be
justified. You see what affliction does
when patience has done its work? You come to the end of yourself and your faith completely rests
in the hands of God. Your soul rests in his hands. Behold how tribulation and trials
of our faith work, endurance and submission to the sovereign
providence of God. Faith laying all our acceptance
upon Jesus Christ and see how God in love breaks our rebellion
and lays our soul into the dust. This is what it is. This is what
is James is talking about when he says faith worketh patience. And notice this. I'm going to
give you some highlights here because I don't have the time
to hold your place here and then go to Romans chapter Romans chapter
five. Because I want you to see that
the correlation between what James says and what Paul says.
What James says and what Paul says, they're saying the same
thing. Paul says a lot more, but James is saying the same
thing. Look, as he said, but let patience have her perfect
word. What does he mean by that? Let patience have her perfect
work. Look at what look what he says
in in Romans five, he says, therefore, being just by faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have
access by faith into this grace where and we stand and rejoice
in hope of the glory of God. Is that right? We rejoice in
those things. That's good. But notice this. We also not
only so, but we glory in what? What are we glory in? Tribulation. Why? Tribulation worketh what? Patience, endurance, submission
to the will of God. And notice this. Tribulation
works patience, but patience works something. Patience works
experience. What is this? Experience. The work of patience is experience. Evidence. Paul said patience worketh experience. Endurance in faith until we experience
the power, wisdom and grace of God in and under our tribulation. It's one thing to acknowledge
the sovereignty of God. It's one thing to come to the
end of yourself. It's another to experience it, isn't it? You come up here. You can acknowledge
it up here, but it really doesn't do anything until you've experienced. And so this patient, this endurance
gives us experience. Experience. So the more we endure
under and in our afflictions, the more we experience the power
and goodness of God to sustain us. The more we endure our trials,
the more we experience our weakness, our helplessness, our sinfulness
and our rebellion. Isn't that right? The more you
endure, the more weak you understand you are. When the furnace heats
up that gold, what rises to the top? All of the scum, The draws. That's what these furnace of
affliction does when patience is doing its work. It's working
the experience to know that I'm nothing. But the more my soul feels and
experiences my sin, the more also I see and experience the
power of the blood and righteousness of Christ to come. And now what you want to experience
of his love and mercy. Well, you ain't going to get
that until you first experience the pain. We experienced the power of his
salvation, the grace of God, behold, believer, it is the wisdom
of God that has chosen the trial of our faith, and we have no
control over it, its length or its duration or its power severity. Patience has its perfect work.
We will, by the experience, bow to the sovereign wisdom of God
who has purposed this trial for me. The trials are very intimate. God specifically gives us what
is necessary for us. How often we envy somebody else's
trial. You do that because I do. That's foolish. Most likely,
we could never endure the trial of that other person. Don Fortner said God is like
the pharmacist, you take you take two chemicals, each independently
will kill you. But you put them together and
they become a medicine that heals you. Too much joy. Would make our
hearts hard and self-righteous. Too much pain. and we would be
in despair. But God gives us just the right
amount. This is what we experience. We
experience his power in sustaining us. Have you ever been in trials?
You've been in trials. Are you still here? You still
believe? What have you done? You've experienced
the power of God sustaining grace, haven't you? You've experienced
it. And when patience has her perfect
work. Experience yields what confidence,
hope. Hope. When God puts you low and you
look only to Christ, listen to this, you will be confident that
he is able. To keep. That he is a. I'm confident in
that, aren't you? Trials put me in this. This is
the purpose of trials that I know this. He is able. He is able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. And this we see, we experience
the goodness of God, the goodness of God to help. Have you not
found God always in trials? Matter of fact, God himself says,
I am a present help. in trouble. All right. Have you
not experienced that an experience makes confident and confidence
does what makes not a shame? Because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts. Now, listen, what you and I want
is we want to go from faith to experiencing the love of God.
We want the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. Listen,
you will never get the love of God shed abroad in your hearts
without patience and experience and hope. You won't. You cannot have that without
affliction. What Philpott called the golden
chain and each link is necessary, you can't skip one. Sometimes we can be caught between
two for a very long time. until we're brought to submission,
until we're brought to the end and experience God's grace. So
you see then what what James is saying this counted all joy.
Because these trials are intended to prove your faith to you. That's
of God. They're intended to strengthen
you to endure these afflictions in this life. To give you patience, endurance,
submission. and let patience have its perfect
work. And when patience is finished, James says this, listen. That
you may be perfect, entire, wanting nothing. Now, listen, my patience
doesn't make me perfect. It just testifies of what Christ
has done. It testifies that I am perfect.
That he has made me perfect. And you know what I what I want
at the end of these things? I don't like anything. Christ is all. That's what affliction does. It proves that Christ is all.
Therefore, count it all joy when you're afflicted. I pray God
will bless this to you. Let's stand and be dismissed
and pray. Our Father, dismiss us with your
blessing and teach us. Forgive us our sins. Help us in our afflictions. Give
us grace to submit to your will, to endure in faith that we may
see this, that Christ is all. I ask you to do this for the
glory of your own name in Jesus' name.