I thought this book didn't belong
with the rest of God's Word. Do you know that? Martin Luther. I love Martin Luther. I esteem
him highly, very highly, more highly than myself. My, my. But
he said something like this. He said there's no evangelical
in it, no gospel of the blood atonement in it. And the word
blood is not in it, not mentioned. Word of Atonement, not Redeemer,
and so forth. And it speaks of works, and men
like Martin Luther, who the Lord brought out of works religion. You might say that, you know,
that they might think that it's speaking of salvation by work,
but it's not. It is not. Young Elihu in Job,
Young Elihu said in rebuke of Job, he rebuked Job and his three
older friends and he said, great men are not always wise. Neither
do the aged understand judgment. And that's for sure. No matter
how old we get, we've still got much to learn. Those men are
wrong. Martin Luther is wrong about
this book, as we shall see. Because this deals with so much
that we need so desperately. Wisdom. Things like this. This deals with trials. and why
we have trials. We need that. Wisdom. This deals with wisdom. And we're
going to see clearly, wisdom is Christ. This deals with patience. Do you need patience? Waiting
on the Lord is faith. This deals with true religion.
This deals with the works of faith. This deals with the tongue.
You need any help there? This deals with fighting among
one another. Anybody? Fighting within. This deals with the dangers of
riches. This deals with effectual prayer. Oh, I'd like to know something
about that. It comes back full circle to the very last verses
on patience. We need this desperately. James,
verse 1, James, he just says James. No title. He's an apostle. James, he calls himself a servant.
A servant. And he was and he is a servant
of God, a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how he has
served the church and served God's glory, and today we are
going to be served by Him feeding us wisdom and knowledge. To the
twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greet Him." Now, he is
writing at that time to the Jewish brethren that were scattered
all over the world at this time because of the persecution of
the church. Jewish brethren, but he's not just writing to
Jews, you know that. Because he is a Jew which is
one inwardly. True circumcision, as you know,
is not in the flesh but of the heart. So he's writing to us.
He's writing to believers. He's writing to God's true Israel
that are scattered everywhere. Like us. We're scattered, aren't
we? We're scattered. As Peter said, scattered strangers. Peter was writing to everybody. And so is James. All the believers.
Alright, and he says it, verse 2, My brethren, and what a blessed
word that is, a blessed term. He's not ashamed to call us brethren.
The Lord isn't, nor are we ashamed to call each other brethren.
We're just a bunch of sinners saved by grace. My brethren,
he says, first of all, count it all joy when you fall into
divers or different temptations or trials. Count it all joy when various
trials, and he's not talking about temptation to sin here. That's not joyful. That's not
at all. Satan tempts. God doesn't tempt
with sin. He's going to say that in the
latter part of this chapter. God doesn't tempt him out of
sin. And that's not pleasant. And that's not joyful at all.
If you endure it, yes. But if you fall into it, It's
awful, isn't it? What he's talking about here
are trials, and the word is often used, temptation, because it's
a test. So he says here, count it all
joy, rejoice when you fall into, or various trials come your way. Tribulation, persecution, afflictions,
and so forth come your way. Rejoice, he says. Do you need
to understand what he's saying here? How can I rejoice in a trial? But yet this is the
first thing out of his mouth. Why? Because if you are a child
of God, you are going to be tried from the day you receive this
faith to the day you die. Various diverse trials. And every child of God has them
all to some degree. Diverse. Every child of God. My pastor always said, God had
one son without sin, but he had no sons without trials. No sons. And even our Lord, like
us, was tried in all points, like as we are. Count it all
joy. Now, the first of these divers'
trials that tests faith is the test of persecution and affliction
of the gospel. Go with me to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1. There are diverse trials, different
trials, tribulation, persecution, afflictions, troubles in the
flesh, sufferings of body, mind, soul, sorrows, grief, just too
many to list. But 1 Thessalonians 1, and this is what Peter speaks
of first. This is what Paul speaks of first. This is what our Lord went through. This is what all of God's people,
when they're born again, this is the first thing that God puts
them through, this affliction or tribulation because of the
gospel, of the truth. that test faith whether or not
you're a true child of God. All right, look at 1 Thessalonians
1 verse 2. We give thanks to God always
for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. He's speaking
to the brethren, the church, like James. Remembering without
ceasing your work of faith, labor of love. And James is going to
talk about a work of faith. Your labor of love and patience.
Patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ and the sight of
God our Father. Knowing, brethren, we know you're
beloved, you're loved of God, you're the elect of God. Our
gospel came unto you not in word only, not just doctrine, not
in your head, but in power, life-giving power, in the Holy Ghost who
takes the things of Christ in much assurance, Do you know what
manner of men we were among you for your sake? And you became
followers of us, of the Lord, having received the word in much
affliction." First time. First time. And if you'll read
that story in the Acts of the Thessalonians, oh my, all who
believed suffered great persecution because of the truth. 2 Thessalonians
1. He writes another letter. 2 Thessalonians
1. See, this is proof. He said,
count it joy if you're hated. Christ said, for my name's sake. It's a bad thing for people to
despise and reject you and hate you and turn thumbs down on you
and want nothing to do with you. But Christ said, Rejoice! Didn't he? He said, blessed are
you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all
manner of evil falsely, lying on you, for my name's sake, just
because you believe the truth. He said, they did it to the prophet,
they did it to me, and this is how, one reason, this is the
first reason, you know and rejoice. That means you're a child of
God. First thing, you're a child of
God. This is the first test. 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 4, we
ourselves glory in you and the churches of God for your patience.
You're telling me that the book of James is not... This reads
the same, that patience and faith in all your persecutions and
tribulations that you endure. Talking about for the truth.
It's a manifest token. It's a clear sign. You remember
Rahab? Show me a sure token. Remember
that? Show me a sure token. Like the
blood, here it is. This is a manifest, clear token
or proof of the righteous judgment of God that you may be counted
worthy of the kingdom of God for which you suffer. It's a
righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble
you. You have enemies. David had enemies. You have enemies.
Isaiah had enemies. Jeremiah had enemies. They all
had enemies. Why? For the truth's sake. Christ said, marvel not, brethren,
if the world hates you. In fact, he said, rejoice. It's
not pleasant. It's painful, but it's proof. It's positive proof, number one,
that you believe the truth. That God, that you're one of
His sons, rejoice. Count it joy, James said. If you are of the world, the
world would love its own. That's what Christ said. Since
you're not, they don't. We want to be loved. We want
to be loved. And Peter said, you don't want to be hated for
your faults. We've got lots of those. But Buddy, Peter wrote
a whole book, 1 Peter, about suffering for Christ. It's positive proof. No tribulation, no persecution,
no faith. I was going to read that to you
from 1 Peter, but here's a good one in Acts chapter 5, and let
me just read it to you. Peter and I think it was James
and John were out preaching the gospel, and they came and got
them and beat them. They beat him up. And they said,
don't you dare preach this name again. And they said, we've got to. We've got to. It says, they left that place
rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame. Rejoicing in physical pain, And
so many people rejected him, but they were rejoicing. Positive
proof. Then there are diverse trials
and temptations through suffering, afflictions of body, mind, and
soul, and there are just too many to list. And we all go through
similar ones to various degrees according to the wisdom, according
to the purpose of our Father. He deals with each child. We
all have the same affliction, whether it be loss of loved ones,
whether it be sickness to various degrees. He tries each of us
according to his purpose in a different way. Lay something on you. Heavier than me, or me heavier
than you, but different degrees according to our Constitution.
Right? Just like we did with our children.
We were talking about the difference between Isabella and Sophie.
It's so different that you deal with them differently. The same,
but a different degree. Right? Because one needs more
than the other. One you can look at, Cross, and
she'll just be broken. And the other one, you're going
to have to break a paddle over her. And I'll not say which one
it is. But the point being that both
are going to get it. That both are going to be chastened.
That both are going to be tried because they're children in various
ways to the same degree. To the same degree, and we've
noticed and we saw before, God used Job as the illustrator,
or Christ as the ultimate illustrator. But Job, as a human being like
us, God put him through all of it at one time, proving to Satan and everybody
And to Job, when it's all over, that Job is God's son. And he's going to get through
this. How? I mean, God lays everything
on him. Man can't endure that. No, but
God's son can and will. Every time. And in the end, Job
rejoiced. He knows now. All while it was
going on, you know, at the beginning, in all this, it says, in all
this, Job said not, nor charged God foolishness with foolishness. But then, It looked like he failed,
didn't it? Then he went through chapter
after chapter, cursing his day, cursing the day he lived, questioning
God and so on and so forth, like we do. But in the end, he endured. He didn't leave. And so in the end, he needed
what? Patience. Patience. Wisdom. He didn't know. They're all trying to figure
it out. They're all trying to figure it out. Nobody can figure
it out because God doesn't give an account of His matters. You're
just going to have to wait. Why am I hollering? Because this is good news. This
is good news. Through all of that, divers,
trout, all of it, in the end, Job was still there, unmoved
away. And he got through. Why? Because
he's God's son. And God gave him the grace. He
said he would and he did. And in the end, he rejoiced to
high heaven for every single thing that the Lord brought his
way. Rejoice, James said. Count it
joy. Now, no trial. Hebrews says no
affliction, no chastening is joyful while it's going on. You don't fake that. It's pain. It's real pain. It's
real sorrow. It's real suffering, isn't it?
While it's going on, you don't rejoice, but you can. And should, the Lord said, rejoice
in everything, give thanks. Rejoice, I say. And again, I
say, rejoice. And Paul wrote that while he
was in prison. Didn't he? He wrote that in prison. He says, rejoice, I say. And
again, I say, rejoice. He's the one suffering, Paul
is. He's writing to us, telling us, rejoice. Because it's sent of the Lord
to try your faith. And this is such a precious gift.
It's life. Faith is life. To know Him is
life. It's not given to everyone. And
in order to find out if you have it, you've got to have these
trials. Like a boat. You can build a boat, but you
don't know if it's a boat unless it what? Floats. And God's people are going to
go through heavy seas. It's going to be a ship that won't sink with a captain
at the helm. That's what this faith is, a
precious gift. Well, so James says in verse
2, Count it all joy when you fall into different trials, knowing
this, verse 3, knowing this, that the trying of your faith
worketh patience. See, this is trying your faith. You see, if you endure, and look
at verse 12, look at verse 12, blessed is the man that endureth
temptation. When he's tried, he'll receive
the crown of life, not a crown for enduring, not a reward for
doing anything, but salvation, the helmet of salvation, the
crown of life, crowned by being with Christ, kings with Him,
priests with Him, not for anything we did, but for what was given
us. Rejoice, he said, you have this faith. It's not of yourself,
it's the gift of God. And you know it is, people. Some
of you, all of you, all of us have been through trial. You
thought, I can't get through this. But you did. So it's not of yourselves. It's
a gift of God. Some haven't. Some left. Some didn't make it through.
If they'd been of us, no doubt that is in the faith. So this
is found, Peter said, to the praise and honor and glory like
gold is tried in the fire. More precious than gold is faith.
It's life is what it is. And it's going to be found under
praise, honor, and glory. His. Not cursing, not dishonor,
not shame, not bitterness, but praise. Thank the Lord, I must
be one of His. And you know it sure wasn't me.
This has to be of the Lord, because I couldn't have done that. I
wanted to leave. I couldn't. Verse 3, knowing this, the trying
of your faith worketh patience. Knowing that the purpose, the
end of every temptation, every trial worketh patience. What is patience? What is patience? Well, very simply, when you think
of someone who's patient, what do you think of? Someone who
calmly waits. Calmly waits on the Lord. Waits to let patience have her
perfect work. That's what he said in verse
4. Let patience have her perfect work. Or in other words, wait
on the Lord. Wait and see what the Lord's
doing. Wait for a word from the Lord. Wait, wait. Patience. These
trials work with patience. Wait. Don't judge anything before
the time. Wait. Is this not our greatest
need? Along with faith? Patience? They go hand in hand. If you have faith, you're going
to have to wait on the Lord. He doesn't give an account of
His man. If you trust the Lord, He's in absolute control. You
don't know where He's going to. That's like the disciples, they
just follow Him. And they thought, why is this? Just wait. If you wait, you'll see. He'll
show you. One time He said, I have many
things to say unto you, but you're not able to bear them, and you're
not mature enough to bear them. Patience. And Paul wrote this
in the Romans, the same thing. He said, the trial of your faith
worketh patience and patience experience. You know, you only
really learn truth. You only really learn things
through experience. You can know things in your head, but you
don't know them until you go through them. Right? Experience is the best teacher.
That's the only thing. You can tell our children what
we will. We can tell them this and tell them that. And they
may do what we say just because we said so, but they're not going
to really know the wisdom of it and the truth of it until
they go through it. Right? And you can't teach that. You've got to experience it. So patience, experience, and
spirit's hope, when you go through something, that was so. It's
so-so. I know it's so-so. I know it's
so because I went through it, and that gives you hope. And it's just called hope because
it's not completely done and over with, but it's strong hope.
Why? I went through this, and He's
true. So it says patience. We need
patience. The trial of our faith worketh
patience to wait on the Lord. Wait on His grace. Oh my. We need grace for everything. To wait on His word. To wait
on His will. You know, God's will may be known. He's written a book here that's
full of His known will, His revealed will to us in everything. Every
single particular event in our life, we don't know. But the revealed will of God,
the principles of just everything we face are revealed. We need to wait on His Word,
His will. Watch. Oh, these words go together. Wait, watch, pray. We need to
wait on His will, His Word to direct us so that we don't run
ahead. We need to wait before thinking.
We need to wait before speaking. We need to wait before acting.
We need to wait. Now, we need patience. Not impulsiveness. Oh, my. We think too quickly,
irrationally. We speak too quickly, and he's
going to talk about that. Swift to hear, slow to speak,
slow to anchor. You know that we'll save ourselves
innumerable troubles by those three things. Is this book of
God or not? We need patience before thinking,
speaking, acting. We need patience to wait to keep
us from despair. We need patience to keep us from
despair. We wait. He said, wait. You'll
see the goodness to keep us from despair. We need patience to
wait to keep us from running before the Lord and what? Doing
what? Destroying ourselves. Hurting other people. It's the reason you tell a dog.
The first thing you teach a dog is to come. The second thing
you teach a dog is to sit. Heel. You don't move without
me. Why? To keep it from running
and killing itself. Wait. Drop. And this is what our Lord teaches
us. Come. Wait. Sit at My feet. Learn of Me. Wait. Follow. Speak. And on and on it goes. But what can we read in Psalms
that talks about waiting? I have like 50 verses. Psalm
25. Let's go over there. Psalm 25. I knew this would happen. I knew this would happen. My
time is up. Psalm 25. Alright, go over there
real quickly. You love these verses. You love them. You go to them
all the time, don't you? for help, patience. Psalm 25, verse 1, Under Thee,
O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in Thee. Let
me not be ashamed. Let not mine enemies triumph
over me. Let none that wait on Thee be ashamed. Verse 4, Show
me Thy ways, O Lord. Teach me Thy path. Verse 5, Lead
me in Thy truth. Thou art my God. On Thee do I
wait. All the day. Psalm 27. Psalm
27, verse 7 and 8. Hear me, O Lord, when I cry.
Have mercy upon me. You said in verse 8, Seek thy
face. Thy face I seek. Verse 11, Teach
me thy way. Lead me. Verse 12, Deliver me
not over to the will of my enemy. Verse 13, I would have fainted
unless I had believed That is, faith to see the goodness of
the Lord. Verse 14, wait on the Lord. Be
of good courage. He'll strengthen your heart.
Wait, I say, on the Lord. David says this how? From experience. Why do we turn to the Psalms
so much? Why do we get so much comfort from the Psalms? Because
David, the Lord, put him through so many trials. They gave him
wisdom and patience. And we go through the same and
we get great comfort. So, and I had, like I said, I
had dozens of others for you. Psalm 37 and on and on I go.
Wait, you'll see, the Lord's in control. We believe that,
don't we? We believe that. If you'll wait,
you'll see. No matter what it is, you'll
see. How? I don't see how this can be and
work. Just wait. You'll see. If we wait, we'll see. He's merciful. Oh, he's going to cast me out
now. I'm a goner. Wait. You just wait. You thought he
was merciful before. You just wait. You just wait. You'll see He's
working all things together for your good. I don't see how. Wait. You'll see. You'll see. Our Lord said in,
oh, He could say so much in a few words. He said, In your patience
possess your souls. That is, get a hold of yourself.
I'm God. But he says in verse 4, let patience
have her perfect work. In other words, be patient for
patience. I hope you're listening to me.
Some of you are. Be patient for patience. You're
going to have to wait. It doesn't come immediately.
It doesn't come with one trial. It doesn't come immediately.
It doesn't come with one message. Words like seed, you know, later
on, oh, that's what he said. Don't ask for it to end while
it's going on. No, it's going to end when he
says it is. Let patience have a perfect word. But ask for grace to endure it.
Ask for grace to be a witness to it. Ask for grace that it
might be found, not making us bitter, but under the praise
and honor and glory of our Lord. That's the reason He brought
it. That's the reason He sent it. That's the reason we live. That's the reason we're in this
world. That's the reason He put everything upon His people, not
only to teach us, but that we might be found. under His praise
and honor and glory, that we might bear witness, living stone,
witnesses of Him, like Christ witnessed a good profession.
Why was He here? To bear witness of the Father. Two marks of maturity. A mature person. And look at
verse 4, it says that you may be perfect and entire. Perfect
means mature, doesn't it? Not childish, not immature, but
perfect. No, it's not talking about sinless
perfection. No, no, no. But maturity. Two marks of an entire or complete,
full-grown person, as the Scripture says, that we might become in
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, manly,
like Christ, or a woman, a grown woman, not like a little girl,
not immature, not foolish. Do you need this? But two marks
of maturity, of strong faith, two marks of strong faith are
patience and wisdom. And they go hand
in hand. You can't have one without the
other. They go together. Patience. A mature person is
patient. Someone who's been through a
lot is patient. A little child has no patience
whatsoever. None. They just cannot wait on
anything. Got to have everything right
now. Get all upset and real easily mature. Let's just wait. And
wisdom. Wisdom. And it comes from above. They go together. Two marks of
immaturity. It's the opposite. Impatient and unwise. And these
things reveal themselves in our actions, our words. Impatience,
foolishness, childishness reveals itself in our words, first thing,
our words and our actions. We need to grow up, Norm. We
need to mature. We need to mature in all things,
to be wise. Not in the things of this world,
but in the things of God. Wise. And this wisdom, where
does it come from? Look at verse 5. If any of you
lack wisdom, the mask of God comes from above. This wisdom
comes from above. Now, when we're talking about
wisdom, what are we talking about? In other words, you want peace, you want joy,
you want contentment, you want comfort in affliction, you want
faith. Christ is all that. He is wisdom. Not only do we
look to Him for it, call upon Him for it, ask Him for it, But
we look at Him and know how to be wise, know how to think, know
how to talk, know how to act, know how to wait. He is wisdom. He is made unto
us wisdom. He is wise for us toward God,
kept the law for us. He is wise unto us. We behold
Him. We behold Him in His face. We
become wise like Him. It doesn't come overnight. It
takes a lifetime. He grew in the wisdom and stature
in thirty-three years. It takes us a long time. And I was going to have you turn
to Ephesians 4, but I won't, but it says he sends pastors
for the perfecting of the saints, for the maturing of the saints,
that we might grow into the fullness or the measure of the stature
of Christ. So, he says, if any of you lack wisdom, anybody? Anybody lacking in any
of these areas? Patience? Anybody? Anybody feel foolish and talk
foolish and act foolish and run ahead of the Lord and just can't
wait and don't feel like, ask. And James is going to deal
a great deal with prayer. Great deal of prayer. Oh my,
anybody like wisdom? Let him ask. It says, God giveth
all. That is, whoever asks liberally. I need a lot. I need a lot of patience, a lot
of wisdom, because I don't have much. I need it. And it says,
he upbraideth not. Don't you like that? He upbraideth
not. That is, he doesn't say, well,
what did you do with what I gave you? I've been teaching you all
these years. Haven't you learned anything
yet? No, he knows upbraiding. And he said, he'll give it. Solomon
was a wise man. He wasn't wise by nature. He
asked. When the Lord said, you ask anything
and I'll give it to you. Remember? What did He ask? He said, I need wisdom. I don't
know if I'm coming or going. I'm a child. And I've got to rule a kingdom. Would you give me wisdom to know
how to lead these people, how to talk, how to speak, how
to act, how to wait on you, how to look, how to observe, how
to watch, how to deal with people, and how to have compassion, and
how to have real judgment, and how to know, how to act, how
to speak, how to walk, how to talk. I don't have that wisdom.
I'm a child. He delighted in that. He said,
Solomon, since you've done that, I'm going to give you more than
anybody before you or anybody after you. And on top of that,
I'm going to give what you didn't ask for, riches. We need the
same wisdom of Solomon. He wrote a book of Cleisestes,
didn't he? All he went through. We go through it too, to a lesser
degree. We deal with people. We go through
things. We need the same wisdom. Where
did Solomon get it? From God. This is not the wisdom
man teaches, but God giveth. It's not acquired wisdom. It's
given wisdom. And God loves to give it, and
He'll give it liberally. And if you ask for it, He'll
give it to you. He'll give it to you. And we
have not, and James said this, because we ask not. All right.