I'd like for you this morning
to open your Bibles to the book of James. James chapter 1. James chapter 1. I've entitled the message this
morning, The Trying of Our Faith. The trying of our faith, testing
of our faith. Years ago I was reading a pamphlet
written by one of the old writers back in the 1600s. I can't remember
who it was. I tried to find the pamphlet
and I couldn't find it. But he began the pamphlet by asking
three questions of self-examination. And he asked this question, number
one, do I have the faith of God's elect? You know, a lot of people,
you know, wrestle with the term elect and term election, and
they try to put their own spin on it. Every apostle talked about
it in the New Testament. It wasn't just for the Jews,
but it's for the church. God's electing grace. It's really
no use for us to sit around and talk about, well, am I elect
or not? What we should be asking, do
I have the faith of God's elect? Because God's elect believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ. The scriptures teach that. So
do I have that faith? That faith is the gift of God.
It's not of man. It's not natural to us. So if
we have it, It's the gift of God. It's the fruit of the death
of Christ. He said, if I be lifted up, I
will draw all men unto me. His lifting up means his cross.
It's his death on the cross for our sins. And drawing all men
unto him, he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to
me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. So
they're going to come to him by the power of the Spirit in
faith, God-given faith. For by grace are you saved through
faith, not that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast." So if you're sitting there thinking
that, well, I was just less obstinate, less rebellious, and more willing
than others who refuse to believe, you better think again. Because
that's not the case. That's not why God saves sinners.
He gives us faith to believe. gift of God. So do I have the
faith of God's elect? The second question you ask is
this, do I have the love of Christ in my heart? Now, if any man
loved not the Lord Jesus, he's none of His. Now, one of the
first comebacks that I had to that question in myself and others,
you know, was to say, well, I don't love Him perfectly. Well, we
don't do anything perfectly. We don't do anything perfectly.
There's nothing that we do or are enabled to do that we could
present before God as perfect and say, now, here is my righteousness,
here is my holiness before God. If we think that, then we're
self-righteous. But do I have the love of God,
the love of Christ in my heart? The Bible says herein is love,
not that we loved him, but that he loved us and gave his son
to be the propitiation." That's his death, that's his satisfaction
to the justice of God on the cross for the sins of his people.
That's the establishment of righteousness, it's in his death. You see, my
righteousness is the death of Christ, it's not my works. And
so, herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved
us and gave us his son, sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. And the Holy Spirit in the new
birth, the scripture says in Romans 5, sheds that love abroad
in our hearts. As he shows us in light of our
sinfulness and our depravity and our impotence, the sinfulness
of even our best works, the glory of Christ and his obedience unto
death, his burial and his resurrection for our whole salvation. And
that love is shed abroad in our hearts and it's in our minds.
We think about it. Read about it. We love it. We
rejoice in it. It's in our affections and our
wills that we want to experience more of the love of Christ in
our hearts. We want to be a reflection. Now,
do I have that love of Christ in my heart? And then the third
question the man asked was this. Do I have the hope of the gospel? The hope of the gospel. Now,
what is the hope of the gospel? Well, the hope of the gospel,
simply put, is the certain expectation of eternal life and glory. by
the grace of God in Christ. Now, if I have an expectation
of anything eternal, if I have an expectation or an assurance
of anything blessed in glory, and it's not totally wrapped
up in the glorious person and finished work of Christ, it's
not the hope of the gospel. Do you understand that? Because
the gospel is good news for a sinner. And sinners don't have hope in
themselves. We glory in the cross, Paul said, we boast, we have
our assurance, we have our hope in the cross of Christ. And that's
why he said, I preach Christ and him crucified. So those are
questions of self-examination. Well, let me tell you right at
the outset, that's what the whole book of James is about. It's
about test, testing our faith. I think about some passages of
scripture, and believe me, I'm not just rambling on here now.
But I think about some passages of scripture. I think about Matthew
7 quite a bit, where those preachers appeared before the Lord at judgment.
And they said, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name?
Haven't we cast out demons? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? And he said, depart from me, ye that worketh iniquity.
I never knew you. What a shock! Could you imagine
going through your life, in your mind now, thinking you're working
for the Lord, as most people would say, as they describe it,
thinking that you're doing the right thing in God's sight, and
then coming to judgment and finding out then, and only then, that
your faith was a counterfeit. That's a horrible thing. Later
on in Matthew 7, he spoke of the man who builds his house
on sand and the man who builds his house on the rock. Of course,
the rock there is Christ. My hope is built. We sing it.
Nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Are you building
your house on that rock? Or you're building a house on
sand. What is the sand? That would be man's works. That
would be man's professions. That would be man's experiences.
That would be anything that people... We sang that song, Hiding in
Thee. We hide in Christ. What are you hiding behind from
the wrath of God? Are you hiding behind a profession
you made when you were 12? I hear that a lot. Somebody says,
how do you know you're saved? Well, back when I was 12, I walked
an aisle and got baptized. Is that what you're hiding behind? Or, I had a dream. I hear that
a lot. Or, I saw a vision. Or, I've
never missed a service. Or, I always tithe. Is that what
you're hiding behind? Well, we sing it, we're hiding
in Christ. The cleft of the rock. And so,
these things are things that we can't just let slip by us.
That's why Paul wrote in Hebrews, I believe it's chapter 3, I may
have that wrong, but he said, He said, how shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation? Now, this salvation is so great
because it's from a great God through a great Savior and given
to great sinners. We're great sinners. You want
to know what you're great at? In God's sight, we're great at
sin. But he's great. at saving sinners through his
great Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So now, if we neglect
this now, where is that going to leave us? He says, well, we
won't escape. Well, the book of James is about that. It's
a study in self-examination. That's what the whole book is
about. It's not a very long book. Look at verse 1. I've always
said that if you want to find out what the meaning of the Scripture
is, first find out who's writing it, to whom they're writing it,
and what they're writing about. Well, we know God, the Holy Spirit,
is the divine author of all Scripture, all Scripture is God-breathed,
but he uses human instruments, and though we don't depend on
those human instruments, and we know it's not their word,
there is some value in understanding who the human instrument was,
and this is James. There's a lot of guys named James
in the New Testament. Two apostles were named James.
But I believe this James here is the oldest half-brother of
the Lord. That's who I believe it is. You
know, after Mary had the Lord, by the Immaculate Conception
and Incarnation and all of that, when he was born, not of man,
born of the Holy Spirit, her and Joseph had other children.
And this was the oldest brother, James. This James was a half-brother
of Jesus Christ. In the New Testament, when we're
first really confronted with him, he's an unbeliever. That's
in John chapter 7. Talked about his brethren, meaning
his earthly brethren, half-brothers, that they didn't believe on him.
They rejected him. And he told them why in John
chapter 7. He said the reason they can't believe is because
their deeds are evil. And what he's talking about there
is the same thing he's talking about in John chapter 3. You
know, when the gospel is preached the way it ought to be preached,
not only does it reveal the glory of Christ and his works, his
obedience unto death and his righteousness, it exposes the
rottenness and the filthiness and the evil of our best works.
You know, I mean, we can talk about all kinds of sins. Plural. And we can preach against
all kinds of sins. But when you go to messin' with
a person's, what they perceive as good deeds, and say, now that's
sin too. Then you're, as old grandma said,
now you're meddlin', preacher. Now you're meddlin'. You see,
that's what the scripture teaches in light of the glory of Christ
and Him crucified and risen again. Our righteousnesses, Isaiah 64,
6, are as filthy rags. Deeds of law, their deeds are
evil. They're dependent upon their
good deeds to get them right with the Lord, to get them into
heaven, to justify them. And the gospel, when it's preached
to right, will not allow that. The gospel says our deeds are
evil. The only deeds by which we can
be saved and justified before a holy God is the righteousness
of Christ, His blood, His works. And that's why James didn't receive
his brother. But after the resurrection, he's
mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15, and he came to a saving knowledge
of Christ, not because he finally got better, not because he decided
one morning, well, I'm not going to be as rebellious as I used
to be. I'm old now. No, it's because of the grace
of God, the power of God's grace in the new birth. That's how
he came. Somebody said, have I been born
again? That's another question of self-examination. Well, who
are you looking to? Who are you hoping in for salvation,
for righteousness, for life, for glory, for reward? That's an important subject now.
You see, these are questions of the test. And James went through
this. He says here he's a servant of God. That's a slave, a servant
of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. He mentions this term
when it's used in the New Testament, God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. The reason they put it that way
by the power or inspiration of the Spirit was to show that Jesus
Christ is God. He's put on the same plane as
God here. He's equal with God. Philippians
chapter 2, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God
because he is God. He's the second person of the
Trinity. He's very God of very God. He's the God-man. Joe prayed,
we thank you, Lord, that the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. He's God in every attribute of
His character, and He's man in every attribute of His character
of manhood without sin. He's God-man. And James now calls
himself a servant of God. Now, I want you to think about
something here. You know I see, I think this is revival season,
isn't it? I see it in the paper all the
time. A lot of times you'll see these ads in the paper, and they'll
always show the preacher's credentials, the evangelist's credentials.
I'm not saying it's all bad necessarily, even though sometimes it is,
because they, you know, they exalt the man and all that. But
think about what James could have said. Tonight, we're going to have
James, the half-brother of the Messiah, to preach for us. And they'd get a flock of people.
But we certainly want to hear him. But if they just advertise
him this way, tonight we're going to have a slave of Jesus Christ
preach to us. That doesn't sound, you know,
that's not good PR, is it? But I'll tell you what, that's
the most blessed place that any sinner can be. This word servant
there, it's a bondservant of Christ. And you know, it kind
of sets the tone for the whole book of James. It goes back to
the Old Testament in Exodus 21 Moses was given instructions
by God to set out the law of bond slavery. That's what a Christian
is. He's a bond slave of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And what that means is this.
He's a slave of Christ. Christ is his master. He doesn't
own himself. He's bought with a price. The
price is the blood of Christ. He doesn't own what he has. He's
a steward of the grace of God, and he recognizes that. What
I have I don't own. It's God's. It's to be used for
his glory and the good of his people, the salvation of sinners.
And he's bought and paid for. His master is Christ. He doesn't
own what he has, and he lives to serve his master. But it's
another important point here that you need to see about a
bondservant. He's not serving his master to pay a debt. And that's the key to the bond
servant. You see, what happened in the law of bond slavery, these
were laws that God instituted in the nation Israel for 1,500
years to preserve the land for that time period that he had
allotted it to them. Because he knew that if these
laws were not in effect, that they'd lose the land. And they
almost did if it were not for God's preservation. And one of
the laws he gave was the law of bond slavery, because when
a person became indebted to somebody else, Instead of giving up everything
that they owned in the land, they would make themselves servants
to the creditor. And they would serve for six
years, and on the seventh year they could go free because they
paid their debt. But if that servant, because
of his master's love for him and his love for the master,
decided that he wanted to stay a slave, a servant to that master,
He could choose to do that, and he was now serving not to pay
the debt that's been paid. He's serving because he loved
his master. And that's what this bond slavery
is. We who are bond slaves of Christ,
we're not serving Christ to pay a debt. The debt's been paid. Now, we didn't pay it. Christ
paid the debt. Christ paid the debt by his obedience
unto death. He paid my sin debt in full.
He didn't leave a penny for me to pay. And now we serve, Paul
called it, in newness of spirit. That is, out of love and grace
and gratitude. You hear me say that all the
time, I know, but I tell you, you can't stress that enough.
You say you're working for the Lord. Why? Now, go to the question,
do I have the love of Christ in my heart? If you're working
in order to gain or to earn God's favor and blessings, You don't
have the love of Christ in your heart. You understand what I'm
saying? Because that's not the kind of
love he shows. It'd be like these children here. They're born into your family.
Now, are you making them work, earn their positions in the family
as sons or daughters? Or are they there by birth? You
see? We serve Christ as we're constrained
and motivated by grace and love and gratitude. Thank you, Lord.
Because he's freely given us everything in salvation that
we didn't earn, cannot earn, and don't deserve. If God gave
us what we've earned and deserved, it would be eternal damnation.
You understand that? A bond slave doesn't serve for
that reason. A bond slave serves because he
loves the master. And that's what James calls himself
there. A servant, a slave, a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What an identification. Last week I preached on the unprofitable
servant. That's what this is right here.
You know, there's much profit in serving Christ, but it's not
profit that we earn. And it's not profit that we deserve.
And that's why we're called unprofitable servants. It's all that he earned. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He who
spared not his own son, how shall he with him, how shall he not
with him freely give us all things, all things in Christ. In him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are
complete in him. That's what it's all about. So
whatever James is talking about here now, as you go read through
the book of James, and I know people are confused by this book
sometimes, because I tell you why. They don't have the right
foundation. There's a foundation laid here. James talks about
it all the way through, but he doesn't stop and give the definitions
like Paul does in the book of Romans, because that's not what
the book of James is about. These are about tests of faith.
But this is salvation by grace, not by works. And so, as servants
of Christ, he says, we're spiritual brethren. James, a servant of
God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, to the twelve tribes
which are scattered abroad. Now, the twelve tribes is just
a way of referring to his Jewish brethren who knew Christ. Not talking to the whole nation
Israel, but he's talking to Jews who came to faith in Christ.
They were scattered abroad. Now, this book has truth for
all believers, Jew and Gentile, but mainly James is writing to
Jewish believers who've been scattered because of persecution.
Look over at Acts chapter eight with me. Scattered. If you've ever studied any Jewish
history, you may have come across the
term diaspora. I don't know if you've heard
that term or not. The diaspora. In Jewish history, the diaspora
refers to the time when the Roman legions, finally in 70 AD or
AD 70, came in and just wiped Jerusalem off the face of the
map. I mean, they leveled the whole place and every one of
the Jews were scattered throughout the world. That word scattered,
diaspora. Spora, you know what that is?
That's the seed. And that's what that literally means, going forth
sowing the seed. Now we know the nation Israel
didn't do that, but Jewish believers did, let me show you. Verse 1
of chapter 8, this is after Stephen was stoned to death after preaching
Christ in Jerusalem. And it says, and Saul, that's
the man who eventually became Paul, the apostle. Saul of Tarsus
was consenting unto his death, unto Stephen's death. He agreed
with those who killed the evangelist Stephen. And at that time there
was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem,
and they were all scattered abroad, diaspora, that's what that is,
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles.
Now they weren't scattered, they stayed in Jerusalem at that time.
Verse 2, And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made
great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of
the church, entering into every house, and hailing men and women,
committed them unto prison." That means literally dragging
them out of their homes, taking them to prison. And it says in
verse 4, now listen, let's underscore this verse in your Bible, in
your mind. Therefore they that were scattered
abroad went everywhere preaching the word. sowing the seed of
the word. You remember Christ in the parable
of the sower and the seed. They went forth preaching the
gospel, diaspora, diaspora, that's what that means, going forth
preaching the word. And this is one of God's means
in his providence of getting the word out to the Gentile world.
Well, that's what James is talking about here, those who are scattered
abroad. And he says, he tells them, he
says, greetings to you. He says they're preaching the
gospel, and that always brings persecution, because what I said,
it exposes false refuges. You know, people are comfortable
in their religion. You know that? I was. You were.
You get comfortable in your religion, and we just don't like preachers
or anybody come along and upsetting the apple cart, do we? We just
don't like anybody to rock our boat. You know, this is the thing.
Now, this is the thing about testing. You may be comfortable
right now. If your refuge is true, if your
refuge is truly Christ and Him crucified and risen again, you
don't ever have to be afraid of anybody rocking your boat.
Did you know that? I had a fellow in Albany come
to me one time. A man had written him a letter
questioning his salvation, and it upset the guy. He wanted me
to read the letter. And I read it, and I said, well,
what's wrong with that? He said, you see what he's doing there?
He's questioning my salvation. I said, well, that's okay. Let
him. Tenshin Miwan. Take it as an opportunity to
test your faith. When somebody questions your
salvation, who are you going to run to? You're going to get
mad at them? Would you rather have it questioned
at the judgment and find out then that it's false? I'm telling
you, if you can rock my boat, rock it now. Don't wait till
later. You know what? When somebody
questions that, that's an opportunity. That's an opportunity, number
one, for you to test your faith by the Word of God, and it's
an opportunity for you to witness of Christ. A man told a preacher friend
of ours about an issue they were arguing over. I can't remember
what the issue was, but he said, well, one of us is going to burn
in hell for this. And my preacher friend said,
well, if I burn in hell, I'll be the first one in history to
burn in hell for trusting Christ. You see, that's just not going
to happen. Nobody's going to burn in hell for trusting Christ.
If He's your salvation, if He's your all in all, if He's your
hope, if your hope is truly built on Jesus' blood and righteousness,
I guarantee you, you will never burn in hell. That's right. You know why I believe that?
Because this book says it, and this is God's Word. But the preaching of the gospel
always brings persecution. Christ told his disciples that.
He said, marvel not, when the world hates you, it hated me
before it hated you. They'll throw you out of their
religious services. John 15 and John 16. Paul wrote
in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 12, Yea, and all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Now, how are we
to look at these things? Well, look at verse 2. He says,
My brethren, this is spiritual brethren here now, Everyone in
this building today who is a slave of Jesus Christ is my brother
or sister in Christ. We're in fellowship with Christ.
Our fellowship is with the Father and Son. And here's what he says
now. He says, count it all joy when you fall into diverse, that
word diverse means different or various, temptations. The gospel is going to bring
persecution. because of the wickedness and
unbelief of men. Life is going to bring its trials. You've experienced them, and
you know there's more coming. There'll be trials as an individual.
There'll be trials as a group. All kinds. This life is a wilderness. This world is a wilderness. And
we're just passing through. We're pilgrims. This is not our
home. Don't hold on too tightly. Don't love it too much. It's
going to dissolve, isn't it? And it's a trial. I'll never
forget the person, when we were going through our trial of transition,
who left because they said, well, I just want to worship where
there's peace. And I thought, have you read
the Bible? Christ said, I didn't come to bring peace. I come to
bring a sword. Oh, there's peace with God in
Christ, isn't there? There's peace with one another.
There's peace within. The peace that passes all understanding. That's there. But my friend,
this life is one trial after another. And that word temptations.
Now temptations can be used variously in the Bible. This word here,
as James is using in this place, is trial. It's a trial. It's a trying of our faith. That's
what he's talking about. Saving faith will be tested. And thank God it will be. That's
what he says. Count it all joy. A faith that
is never tested is a false faith. Mark it down. Now sometimes temptations
means solicitations to do evil. That's when Satan tempts. He
deals with that later on. But here he's talking about the
trials of our faith that are sent by God. And he says, count
it all joy. That means consider it that way.
Evaluate it that way. This is how we're to think. This
is what it is to have the mind of Christ. Look over at Hebrews
chapter 12, just back a page. And in Hebrews 12, verse 1, listen
to this. He says, Wherefore, seeing we
also are compassed, surrounded about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, now that's all the ones who were tested and tried
for their faith that are mentioned in Hebrews 11. The Hall of Faith,
they call it. These people were tested. Abraham.
Well, he goes back to Abel. Abel was really tested on his
faith. His brother murdered him. Somebody says that was the first
murder. I don't believe it was. The first murder was committed
in the fall. Satan was a murderer from the beginning. He murdered
the human race. You see, second murder, man murdering
man, that was the first murder of man to man. But he goes back
to Abel and he brings it all the way up to those being persecuted
today for their faith. And he says in verse 1 there,
he says, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with
so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight
and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Now, people have tried
to identify that sin, but I'll tell you what, It has to do with,
we're going through these trials now. You see, we're temptations. And they're not easy. They're
just not easy. And what's our first impression?
Give up. Alright, let's just quit. Let's
just stop. That's unbelief. That's doubt.
That's the sin that so easily besets us. We're just ready to
quit, you see. That's why the Bible continually
tells us, faint not, faint not, faint not, persevere. And he
says, and let us run with patience. That's endurance. Endurance,
the race that is set before us. Now here's the race and here's
how we're to run it. Verse 2, looking unto Jesus, God our Savior,
the author, the beginner, the originator, and the finisher,
the completer of our faith. You see, this race, I'm not running
it because I've got so much faith in me or that I believe hard
enough. I run it because Christ is my
hope. And I'm looking under him, not
only as the guy, the one who got me started, but the one who
finishes it. Because he's my all in all, he's
the beginner, he's the finisher, and he's everything in between.
I like that. And he says, look what it says
in verse 2, who for the joy that was set before him endured the
cross. Now that cross, we can't even
begin to imagine the pain and the sorrow and the
feelings that our Lord went through in his earthly walk Even in the
33 years up to the cross, the sorrow and the pain and the agony,
but then when he went to the cross, his soul suffering and
what he experienced because of our sins imputed to him. He was made sin, the scripture
says. And he was made sin in the sense
that he came under the justice of God for our sins. that were
charged him in order that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him, that we might have a complete, full, righteous
standing before God based on his righteousness imputed to
us, charged to us. And he suffered, bled, and died.
And yet it says here, who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God. Joy! Now, that doesn't
mean that he was happy, happy, happy all the time. But it means
this. It means that he recognized the
reason for the cross, the victory of the cross, and the results
of the cross. The reason for it is to glorify
God as both a just God and a Savior. In the cross, in the death of
Christ, we see every glorious attribute of God honored and
magnified and revealed. as he justifies the ungodly through
the blood of Christ. That's amazing. That's the Shekinah
glory. There'll be nothing greater than
that. Every attribute. We see his justice and his mercy,
his holiness and his love, his righteousness and his truth,
all of it. Right there in Christ on the
cross in his finished work, that's the reason for it. We see the
victory of it in that Christ put away our sins, made an end
of sin and finished the transgression and established the only righteousness
whereby God could be just and justify the ungodly. And he arose
from the dead. And that's the results of it.
But not only that, the results of it have to do with bringing
his children to him. He said, I finished the work.
And he said, I'm going to bring all that you've given me to myself.
That's amazing. So back here in James, he says,
count it all joy. This is an accounting of things,
this is not how you feel. Because I'm going to tell you
something, Paul wrote in Hebrews chapter 12, that no chastisement,
and sometimes these temptations are called chastisements, that's
not punishment for sin by way of payment, but it's punishment
for sin by way of correction, edification. And he says, no
chastisement that we go through is fun or is joyous to go through
it. It's grievous. It's grievous. And I'll tell you, that's a testimony
to the grace and glory and power of God in Christ, because if
it weren't for Him, we could not endure. We couldn't make
it. It's God who keeps us, preserves us, and brings us through. And
so these temptations, and look here, he says, count it all joy
when you fall into various temptations. Now, that literally means fall
into them. You come upon them. Listen, don't
go out looking for them. Don't go out trying to create
them. Listen, if you identify with Christ and His people, they're
coming. You just count on it. They're
going to be here, and you're going to experience it. So we
fall into it. And the natural human response
to these trials is not to rejoice, but to complain, and to murmur,
and to doubt, and to cry, and not believe, and run away, and
give up. But he says, you count it all
joy. These are tests of faith. Verse 3, knowing this, that the
trying of your faith worketh patience. Now there's the theme
of the book of James. The trying of your faith. These
temptations, these trials show the nature and the reality of
true, God-given, saving faith. That's what they do. That's what
they're for. They don't create faith. Faith's the gift of God. He gives it from Christ through
His Spirit. But they reveal the true nature
of our faith. Do I truly believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ? Or am I just deceived? Am I fooling
myself? You know, the only way that you
and I can know for certain that we truly believe this gospel
is through these trines of faith. That's the only way we can know
it. It's not feeling now. You say, well, I just feel like
I do. Well, feelings come, feelings go, feelings can be deceiving.
You say, well, I just know in my heart it's true. Well, the
heart's deceitful, desperately wicked. Above all things, who
can know? You know, the only way that I
can know for sure that I truly believe in Christ, that I'm truly
resting in Him, is by these trials. That's the only way. You say,
well, it's based on the Word of God. Well, everybody says
they believe the Bible. That's true. Faith believes the
Word of God. Christ said the demons in hell
believe and tremble. They don't have saving faith. Think about that. The only way
I can know for certain is by the trying of my faith as God
my Heavenly Father puts it to the test. It literally means
to put someone or something to the test with the purpose of
discovering the reality, the true nature. Now, wouldn't you
rather know the nature and reality of it now than before you come
before God at judgment like those false preachers and find out
them? The psalmist believed that. Psalm 139, verse 23, he says,
Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, test me, and know
my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and
lead me in the way of everlasting. Lead me to Christ. Let us search
and try our ways in Lamentations 340 and turn again unto the Lord. As I said, these trials are not
temptations or solicitations to sin. Look at verse 13 of James
1. He says here in verse 13, let
no man say when he's tempted, I'm tempted of God, for God cannot
be tempted with evil. Neither tempted he any man with
evil, that is, but every man is tempted when he's drawn away
of his own lust and enticed. These trials are not temptations
to evil, they're sin of God to his people. They come in many
forms and degrees, persecutions over the gospel, circumstances
of life, heresies that creep into the church and may cause
division. They come in the physical realm, disease, weaknesses, all
these things. And in every trial, there is
a temptation for us to sin, not because God tempts us with evil,
but because of remaining sin in us, the warfare of the flesh
and the spirit. So how can we rejoice in these
trials? Well, let me just say this in
closing for today. You know, I've told you this
probably a hundred times. Yeah, you can get that for me. Thank you, Ron. You can get up
off your knees. I've told you this several times. You know, we go through these
trials and these testings, and I never feel good about myself
going through a trial. I can't think of any trial that
I've gone through that I can say, well, Bill, you finally
arrived, buddy. You've made it. You did it all right there, you
know. God ought to be proud of you. No. No. But here's what I always do coming
through a trial. I always feel better about Christ. And I always end up looking more
to him, going more to his word, going more to him in prayer.
You see, the test of these trials are not how well you do. The test of these trials is where
do you end up? Where do you end up? And if you
end up trusting him more, pleading his blood and righteousness more,
Loving Him more, thanking Him more, studying His Word more,
giving Him all the glory. That's the true test of saving
faith. You see that? And that's what James is going
to be talking about, even when he gets to work, you know. He's not talking
about how a sinner is justified before God. He's talking about
you say something, we'll prove it by the fruit of it. Where do you end up? I end up
With the same song that I always sing, my hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid rock
I stand, and all other ground is sinking sand.