This is my second message out
of James. And I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to start
preaching from this on Sunday night, going through John and
Peter. And maybe start preaching on
Bible doctrine on Wednesday night here. Go through all the doctrines
of the Bible. Things starting with the fundamentals. Fundamentals. I've been on my
mind months and months, and now is as good a time as any to get
started. But James, Chapter 1. James, a servant of God and of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the twelfth pride, was to flattered abroad,
greeting, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into
divers temptations, or different, different, all kinds of different
kinds of temptations. knowing that the trying of your
faith worketh patience. But let patience have perfect
work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to
all liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him."
Now I want to find my subject there in verse 3, knowing this,
that the trying of your faith, trying of your faith, Now when
James wrote this epistle, there are some in the churches that
he wrote to, they opposed it. They didn't like it. And there's
a lot of people who don't like it today. They reject it as being
without any authority. And they reject it because he
didn't call himself an apostle because he was the Lord's brother.
But they also reject it because it seems to be so different from
what Paul the apostle taught. Paul taught justification by
faith without words. that God justifies the ungodly
without works. David describes the blessedness
of the man, blessed is he who in God imputeth righteousness
without works. And so Paul was talking about
justification freely, and James comes along, and he says that
faith alone will not justify me. And so he says, you see how
the man is justified by his works and not by his faith only? Now
how do you go and reconcile the two? Well, Paul himself said
in one place, he says, you know, be careful to maintain good works.
And what Paul does is he talks about our justification before
God. That's something that God does for us in the courts of
heaven. And justification by our works,
is what justifies our faith before men. You see how Abraham's faith
was manifested by his works. And that's what he says. People
can't see your faith. They can only see how you act.
They can only see how you do. They can only see how you react.
They can only see what you talk about. They can only see the
things you do while you're in this world. That's the only thing
they can see. And so that's the difference in the two messages.
This blessed book of James is full of instructions for believers,
and it's on lots and lots of subjects. First of all, on patience.
It talks here about patience. You know, knowing that your patience,
your faith worketh patience, let patience ever perfect work.
And he talks about patience. You know, the patience of Job.
And then he talks about prayer, talks about humility, talks about
good works, talks about consoling the tongue. Oh, he talks a lot
about the tongue, and he talks about the difference between
the wealthy and the poor. He talks about having contempt
for the world, and he talks about what true faith really is. See,
the book of James deals with practical things. It puts believers'
responsibilities in this world, and it makes a great distinction
between believers and false professors. And there's lots of false, but
faith is counterfeit like anything else. The only one thing the
devil cannot truly counterfeit, and that's the love of God. He
cannot counterfeit that. He can't counterfeit love in
your heart toward God and toward your brethren. He can't do that.
He can't do that. He can counterfeit faith. Counterfeit
works. Counterfeit a lot of things,
but he can't counterfeit love. But that's why James here, he
shows a distinction between the believers and false professors.
First he says, and I dealt with this last week, James a servant. He delighted in being called
a servant, not an apostle, a bond slave. And you remember I talked
Sunday morning about Christ taking upon himself the form of a servant. And if Christ took upon himself
the form of a servant, James says, I'll be a servant. And
then he said, a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, he was
the Lord's brother, but he said, here, I'm a servant of him. I'd
rather be a servant of Christ and have a spiritual relationship
than to have a physical relationship. And then to the, you know, that's
what Mary. Everybody goes on about Mary. Now, you know, the
Catholics and everybody, even the Episcopalians, Lutherans
and all them, they go on about Mary. How holy Mary was. But
let me tell you something. Mary knew that her Redeemer was
in her womb. That her salvation come from
her own womb. And that she needed to be saved
by the grace of Christ, the blood of Christ, as much as anybody
else did. And that's why James said he
was read to be a servant of the Lord Jesus. And our Lord even
called her a woman, what have I to do with it? So then he says
to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, the twelve
sons of Jacob, and here, of course, he's talking about true Israel,
God's Israel, the Israel of God, the elect. And they're scattered
abroad, strangers in this world, soldiers, pilgrims, citizens
of another kingdom. And they're looking for a country
whose builder and maker is God. This country's not their home.
They're scattered abroad, out in all the world. And then look
what he says here. Now, my brethren, count it all
joy when you fall into divers temptations, knowing best that
the trying of your faith worketh patience. How are we to regard
these trials that God sends us, these trials? Count it all joy
when you fall into divers temptations, knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience. How are we to regard these trials?
How do we react under these trials? First of all, he says, my brethren.
He calls them his brethren. And he understands that all of
God's people in this world, they're going to go through trials. It
goes without saying, in this world ever believable and true.
Our Lord Jesus Christ says, my peace I give unto you, my peace
I leave with you. In the world, in the world, John
16, 33, in the world you'll have tribulation. But you be of good
cheer, I've already overcome this world. And he told his disciples,
he says, you know the world hates you. It hated me before it ever
hated you. And the reason it hates you is
because I chose you out of the world. And that's what upsets
people when you talk about God chose me. He didn't choose everybody. He didn't intend to choose everybody. Christ didn't intend to die for
everybody. God didn't make salvation possible for everybody. And that's
why the people hate Jews. It's because the Jews said, we're
God's people. And they said, Lord, you mean
to tell me that you're God's the only one true God? Yes, that's
what I mean to tell you. Well, we'll show you that ain't
so. And that's the way they do us. And that's why they waive
Jedi Lord, because He says, I come from the Father. You can't come
from God. You're just a man. You can't
be one of God's elect. You can't be chosen of God. You're
no better than anybody else. So what? If you ain't no better
than nobody else, you ain't done nothing. You know it's not us. We didn't make ourselves to differ
anyway. God did. Grace did. And oh, beloved, and
that's why He says, Timothy says, you know, all that will live
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But here we're going
to have these trials. What's our attitude to be? He
says, count it all joy. Count it joy? Well, you find
so many people in the Scriptures, they did. When John and Peter
and James were taken before the council, they were beat for preaching
the Lord Jesus Christ. It said in Acts 5 that they went
away rejoicing. That they were counted worthy
to suffer shame for the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says this,
he says, you know, I will rather glory. I'd rather glory in my
necessities. In my troubles, in my trials,
in my temptations, in my distresses, if I have Christ, I'd rather
have Him than anything in this world. My necessities, I'll have
them, but I've got Christ. I've got distresses, I'll have
them, but I've got Christ. I'll have troubles, I'll have
them, but I'll have Christ too. And everybody's going to have
these things, these necessities, but he says they'll have them,
but I've got Christ. So I glory in mine because I
know who sins. And oh beloved, that's why our
Lord Jesus says, blessed when, now this is absolute contrary
to the world, blessed when men shall revile you, say all manner
of evil against you, falsely for my sake, he said rejoice
about that. But that's not the way we do.
Most folks, whenever they hear somebody say something bad about
them, evil about them, they get mad and they want to straighten
out and defend themselves and straighten out and let everybody
know what the truth is. Listen, God knows the truth.
Don't never defend yourself. Don't never do it. Let me give
you three reasons why we should consider our trials as blessings.
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations.
First of all, here's the first reason why we should consider
our trials as blessings. First, because God's providence
brings our trials to us. It's not luck. It's not chance. It's not destiny. It's not Mother
Nature. It's not our sin. It's not our
failings. It's the providence of God that
sends our trials to us. It don't mean God's mad at us.
It don't mean that we've done something wrong. That's the first
thing. Fundamentalism in religious tells
you when you do something wrong, uh-oh, God's getting you for
that. But oh, no, no. For we know,
we know all things. That means everything. All things
are working. Work. Together, together, this,
that, the other thing, high, low, wide, down, depth, everything,
high, depth, what, all of it works together. Past, present,
future, left, right, all of it works together for our good,
to them who are called according to God's purpose. And oh, beloved,
it comes from our Heavenly Father. When it rains a lot, it makes
us appreciate the sun when it comes out. And when it's real,
real cold, it makes us appreciate the warmth. And so God sends
us these things to make us appreciate it when they're over. And secondly,
the second reason is that faith must be tried. Here's the second
reason why we consider our trials, that faith must be tried. Ain't
that what it says in verse 3? Knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience. God tries your faith that it
might work. It can't work if you ain't got
it. It ain't going to work. It's going to quit. It's going
to complain. It's going to murmur. It's going
to back up. Faith must be tried. The proof of your faith that
it works. And it can only be proved by
trials. Let prove all things. And trials
are given that we may know whether we're leaning on the arm of the
flesh, or we're trusting the Lord. Are we leaning on this
arm, or are we trusting the Lord? And that's what this faith is
what it tries us for. If I want to know the genuineness
of my faith, I have to have it tried. If I would know that I
haven't run insane, I have to have my faith tried. If I would
know that I'm not a stony ground hearer, My faith must be tried. Huh? The only way to know if
the foundation is sure is for the storms to come. That's the
only way to know. That's the only way. The only
way you'll know where in the world. How can I know I'm not
a stony ground here? You've got to have your faith
tried. Will I run in vain? Have your
faith tried. Will your faith work? Faith worketh. And oh, my. Here's the third
reason why. Not only because, beloved, that
faith can be proved, but look what
else it says here. Trials not only reveal faith,
but they work out and bring and encourage faith. Ain't that what
it says? Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh
patience. Trials not only reveal our faith to be real, to be true,
But they work, these trials work, they bring out, they encourage
patience. Now, when I was dealing with
this today and yesterday, there's a verse of Scripture that came
to my mind just like that, and I want you to look at it with
me in Luke 21. Luke 21, 19. Patience. We were talking about this the
other day. Somebody was telling me that
they used to hear, you know, trials, faith, work, and experience,
experience, hope, and hope maketh not ashamed. And this patience,
this patience, you know, this patience that he's talking about
here, it's not like you're going to a restaurant waiting in lines
to get in to eat. That's not the kind of patience
he's talking about here. I ain't got none of that. And that's
not what it talks about then, with faith, work, and patience,
and patience, experience, and experience, hope. And when he
says faith work is patience, that's not what, it's not about
standing in line to get something and just waiting patiently. That's
not what, patience here means the same word as persevere, to
endure, to be tried, to abide while this,
to abide where you're at, while. Troubles are on you. To abide,
to stay right where you're at when things are being tried around
you. That's why it says, you know the patience of Job? That
don't mean Job just sat around twiddling his thumb. He went
on living. He went on trusting. He went
on believing. He went on, beloved, honoring
God while he was being tried. And look here in Luke 21 and
verse 19. Look what this says here. In your patience, possess ye
your souls." Whose patience? Yours. You're
going to be patient. You're going to endure. You're
going to persevere. You're going to abide in God.
You're going to abide in His Word. You're going to abide in
the gospel. You're going to abide in the church. You're going to
abide in the faith. Whenever God sends a trial, is
He going to work this patience in you? Is He going to work this
perseverance in you? That's why He says, Patience,
trials work with experience, and experience patience. And
every time we have an experience and God tries us, it produces
this patience. It produces this ability to wait
on God. It produces this power, this
strength, encourages us to wait on God, because just as sure
as He tries us, there's an end to the trial. We've just got
to wait until we get to the end of it, and persevere, and be
patient. And there's a lot of folks who
don't have this patience. They can't abide in God. They
can't abide in the gospel. They can't abide in the scripture.
They can't abide in Christ. They can't abide in the church. Because they just get upset with
the way God deals with them. And that's why it says, you know,
trials not only reveal faith, but they bring out and encourage
patience. Oh, if God never tried us and
left us free from trouble, what kind of people would we be? What kind of people would we
be? Well, we'd be awful hard. I know I would. I'm hard enough
with the patients and with the trials of that. We'd be awful
hard. We would not have no pity or compassion on anybody. If
God didn't trial us and send troubles our way, then we'd just
be hard. We'd be hard cases. We wouldn't
be able to identify with anybody and what they went through. No,
no. We'd be high-minded. Oh, my. Well, I may demand that I'm lying.
Oh, they just want somebody to pity them. Oh, we get hard. But
oh my, if God didn't send us trials to work this patience
in us, we'd never learn patience. We'd never learn how to show
pity to anybody. We'd never have any compassion.
And we certainly wouldn't know anything about perseverance.
waiting on the Lord. Does that make any sense to you?
Does that make any sense? So there's three things. God's
providence brings our trials. Our faith must be tried. And
then trials not only reveal faith, but encourage faith. Now, let's
go back over here to our text again in James. Five blessings. I'm going to give you five blessings
in these verses here that we gain by the trial of our faith.
You know, it's a blessing that our faith is tried, that it's
proved. You know, God don't need our
faith proved to Him. It's proved to us. It's proved
to one another. You know, there's some of you
here, you that are here. You that are here, just as sure
as God lets us go another 15 years or 20 years, some of you'll
already be going to glory. But there'll be some of you being
right here, coming on Wednesday nights, Sunday night, and Sunday
morning. You know why? Because your faith
has been proved. It's evident you've got the faith
of God's elect. And what a blessing it is that
God tries our faith to prove it to us. I want to know that
it's real. I don't want to be slipped a
counterfeit. Yeah, I saw somewhere the other day, somebody had handed
somebody their dog to the dog. The first thing they'd done,
they held that thing up to the light, you see. Flipped it over this
way, that way, and every way. They won't get stuck with a phony. They won't get stuck with a phony
hundred dollar bill. Well, I don't want the devil to slip me a counterfeit.
God, here it is. You look at it. You pry it. You
put it in the fire. You do what you will with it.
I don't want A counterfeit. Prove it. Prove it that it's
real. Prove it that it's genuine. Prove
it that you're the one that gave it to me. Prove it that it's
the faith of God. Try it. Try it. That's what happens. Five blessings. First of all,
the first blessing is the trial. When God trials our faith, it
proves our sincerity. It proves our sincerity. If we
bear it without turning aside, Oh my, you think about this,
if we bear the trials of our faith without turning aside.
Now I know you might have thought about turning aside. You might
have felt like turning aside, but you didn't. You might have said, oh, I just,
oh, I just, I need to go that way, but you didn't. I feel like
I ought to go that way, but you didn't. You didn't. You face
sincere. And secondly, the blessing of
trying of our faith is it shows the truthfulness of our doctrinal
belief. It shows the truthfulness of
our doctrine. We believe that God is sovereign. We believe
that God orders all things for our good. We believe that we're
God's elect and that God chose us from eternity. sent His Son
to die for us, to shed His blood for us, to rise again from the
dead for our justification, called us by His gospel, sealed us by
His Holy Spirit, and promises us glory hereafter. But now,
it's one thing to know it up here. It's another thing to experience. It's another thing, say, God's
sovereign. It's another thing when He's putting you in the
fire to kiss the hand of His sovereignty and His providence.
Oh, when you experience God's hand, when you experience the
sovereignty of God, when you experience the grace of God,
when you experience the trials of God, when you experience the
truth of the gospel. And that's not just because you
heard them. We learn doctrine, but then we experience them as
they work out in us. Oh my, when you're sick, everybody
say, oh boy, tell you to trust God when you're sick. But when
God tells you that you've got cancer and you ain't got but
six months to live, and you've got to take all these treatments
that are going to make you deathly ill. You're going to experience,
you're putting into life and experience what you say you've
lived. Will you trust God dead? Huh? Oh my. Troubles when you have troubles
in the home? When the kids are out of pocket? They're rebels? Lie, steal, cheat? Marriage,
it seems like it's having trouble in the marriage. It seems like
you can't get along. It seems like you live separate lives. Trouble in the church. Trouble
on the job. You go on the job, people ridicule
you. You hear the awfulest language on the job. And then the troubles
you have in your own mind, in your own heart. And if you're
able to say, God's on the throne. God's on the throne. I'm in His
hands. And He can and will do what's
right by me. He cannot do anything but what's
right. It's impossible for Him to do
me wrong. And I know that He loves me,
and He gave His Son for me. And He knows exactly what's best
for me. Exactly what I need that takes
and conforms me to the image of Christ Jesus the Lord. He
knows what it takes. And oh, the third thing about
the third blessing is, your own faith in God is proved when you
cling to Him under temptation. Your faith. And God is proved when you cling
to Him. I mean cling to Him. You know,
I mean cling to Him. I mean, I don't know what else
to say. You know a little old baby gets scared. A little old
baby, you know a nigger will cry and you pick him up and they
just throw their arms around you, just hug up to you, just
cry as they can, squeeze you. That's the way we are with God.
We just cling to Him when He tries us. A faith that's never
tried, how can you depend on it? But if in your darkest hour
you said, Lord Jesus, I cast my burden on You, You'll sustain
me. You have and You will. I'm kind of taking it to You,
Lord. You'll sustain me. And you cry out to God, Oh God,
please keep my garment unspotted. And you find out that He sustains
you and helps you. You know then that your faith
is that of God's elect. You cling to Him during your
temptations and trials. You're afraid to trust yourself.
You're afraid to lean to your own understanding. You're just
scared to death to do anything else but to cling to Him and
say, Lord, I need You. You've got to sustain me. You've
got to keep me up. I can't go on without You. And
fourthly, here's the fourth blessing, our trials teach us the great,
great strength of our Lord in our weakness. I've quoted this
so many times, but let's look at it again. Over here in St.
Corinthians 12.9. We've quoted this so many times,
but let's just look at it tonight. St. Corinthians 12.9. Our trials
teaches us. Teaches us. The strength, the
great strength of our Lord in our weakness. When we learn, this is what these
trials do for us, we learn that when we think we stand, we pretty
much by ourselves, we find out we really can. And we learn that
Christ's strength is made perfect. when we are absolutely strengthless,
no power whatsoever. He says here in verse 9, where
Paul says there in verse 8, he said, For this thing, about that
messenger of Satan sent to buffet him in his pleasure, he said,
This thing I have assaulted the Lord three times, and it might
depart from me thrice. And he said unto me, My grace
is sufficient for thee. My strength, my strength is made
perfect in weakness. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. How many times have you been
without any strength at all? Any strength. And the Lord, whenever
you don't have any strength left to pray, to trust, to read or
anything. When you're just dubiously at
the end of the road, that's when Christ's strength is perfected.
Because you know you're standing because of Him and Him alone.
Now, I wish I stayed that week all the time. I wish I was like
that. I wish I never, ever, never, ever thought that I had any strength
at all. But every once in a while I do.
Every once in a while I'm presumptuous. Here's the fifth blessing of
our trials. Trials prove the purity of our
motives. God sends these trials, and this
is a blessing. They prove the purity of our
motives. And I'll tell you who they prove them to. They prove
them even to the devil. Not only to you, but to the devil.
It's like Job. When Satan questioned, And he asked, the question that
Satan asked was not about Job's conduct. It was not about how
he lived. He didn't come up to God and
say, you know, he don't live right. You know, he's not living
right. He's not living a dedicated life. You know that? That's not what
he talked about. He didn't say, you know, he quit
being a teetotaler. He didn't talk about his conduct
at all. You know what he questioned him
about? About his motive. About his motive. You know why
he serves you? For the same reason about every
other preacher tells you why everybody else ought to serve
God. Because if you serve God and give Him your best, He'll
give you ten times back. He'll make you healthy. He'll
make you wealthy. He'll make you wise. You sow
your seed faith, and boy, it'll sprout into trees. If you don't
want to care for that, put it on the door on your thing and
claim it for Jesus' sake. And that's what Satan accused
Job of. He said, he serves you for only
what he can get out of you. And oh, he don't care nothing
for you, oh God. He only cares that men thinks
he cares for you. But oh, God comes along and lets
him get tried, and he loses everything. And what does he say? Though
he slay me, yet I'm going to trust him. Huh? Oh, my. He blesses the taking God as
well as the giving God. Huh? He says we've received good
at the hand of the Lord, shall we not also receive evil? Oh,
my. That's a blessing that God proves
the sincerity of our faith. Oh, what blessings, our faith
being tried. And then look what it said here
in verse 2, here in James chapter 1, verse 2. My brethren, count it, count
it all joy. Just look at this word, count,
for a little while. You know the way the world counts?
They count gain as godliness. God's really blessing him. And
they look at the blessings because of what somebody possesses. They
look at the outward things, the possessions, the material things
that they have. They suppose that gain has gotten to them. Huh? Gain has gotten to them. And I heard Glenn Beck talking
about this afternoon. He was telling about this fellow
who got a little money. He said, the place I put it is
in the church. He said, I got more, I put more
in the church. I got more, I gave more and more
and more away. And the more I gave away, the richer I got. If you give for that reason, needless to say, the world counts
game as godliness. If God was for you, things wouldn't
be the way they are. You know that? Oh my, God's treating me so bad
I don't believe He loves me anymore. Oh, I thought you were supposed
to be happy, always happy, always smiling. Things are going wrong.
Praise the Lord anyhow. That's the way the world counts.
You know the way a believer counts? Lord, Lord, I don't want to murmur. I don't want to complain. Murmur. You know, when you go through
the Old Testament, you find what God does to murmurs. Oh, He hated
murmurs. And you know a murmur, when somebody
murmurs, you say, what did you say? They go off murmuring, you
know, what did you say? Say what you got to say. Quit
murmuring about it. And that's what they do. They
just murmur. They don't come right out and say anything against
God. They just murmur. And you say, Lord, this is the
way I believe it is. Lord, I don't want to murmur.
I don't want to complain. O Lord, conform me to the image
of Christ. Let my will, O Lord, be lost
in Thy will. We say that God's too good to
be unkind. He's too wise to do wrong. And
we'll say, I'm not getting half what I deserve. Naked came out
of my mother's womb, naked I'll return. And we count it like
this. I don't have to have the world.
And I don't have to have a lot in this world. But I do have
to have God. I do have to have Christ. I've
got to have Him. That's the way a believer counts.
And how does God count? Well, let me show you over in
Philippians. You know how God counts? Philippians 1.29. The way the world counts, the way the
believer counts, this is the way God counts. Counting all
joy. The way God counts. He gives it to us to suffer.
This is the way God counts our trials and suffering. He said
in Philippians 1.29. For unto you it is given in the
behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer. For what? His sake. For his sake. If he suffered in this world,
why wouldn't we? And I'll tell you another way
he counts it. Whom he loves, whom he loves, he rebukes and
he chases. son whom he receiveth, he rebuketh
and chastiseth." And if you have not received, not chastisement,
you're a bastard, not a son. And that word chastisement means
it's not a whipping, it's not punishment, it means that it's
a view to correction. It's a view to correction. You
know, we do our children that way. We know We rebuke and chasten
our children with a view to them getting better, getting stronger,
getting wiser and learning. And we know what's best for our
children. We say, this is what's best for you. And they'll say,
no, no, no, I don't do that. And then you say, honey, I know
what's best. I've been where you're at. I know what's best
for you. And if we're that way by our children, And we rebuke
them, and we chasten them with the view to correct them. How
much more would God do us that way? And ain't He grateful He
does? Oh, I'm grateful. That He's got
to hold the reins. He says, Whoa! That's about as
fast I want you to go. I want you to go this way or
that way. Well, He'll let you go. But He's got the reins. And Lord, don't ever... Oh, hold
them reins. And oh, and there's another.
He means for us and the world. to know what it is to trust Him. He means for us and the world
to know what it is to trust Him, for the just to live by faith. My own sister said to me, you
know, she's been in and out, in and out, in and out, in and
out, in and out of repentance. She told me one time, she says,
after all these years, and she don't agree with anything I believe,
after all these years, she said, one thing I can say, You ain't
been in and out, you ain't been up and down, you've been right
there. You know because the world's
watching. All them people down there where
I'm in, 30 years been down in there. And don't you think those
people ain't been watching and listening? And they see every
Sunday morning, you get in your car and you head toward service.
Sunday night you head toward, Wednesday night you head. Have
a meeting and pray. Why are you saying? God intends
the world to know and us to know to just live by faith. They look
to trust in Him alone. And here's another reason the
way God counts. He counts, He means to have all of our heart.
He's not going to share it with nothing or no one. And He counts
only those whose faith and has faith. And let me show you this. Go back over to 2 Timothy. That's
just about two books back over. One book back over from Hebrews. Back to the left. 2 Timothy.
I want you to see this. 2 Timothy 2. And I'll hurry. Oh, my. Look what he says here. You know,
he only counts those whose faith is proved. He said here in verse
17. 2 Timothy 2.17, and their word
will eat as doeth a canker, or as grand green, of whom is Hymenaeus
and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying
that the resurrection is past already," and watch this, "...and
overthrow the faith of some." Watch this now, The foundation of God stands
sure having this seal. The Lord knows them that are
His. Now He knows, He counseled those
whose faith has been proved. Now back over in our text. I
will, I've got to hurry on. Back over here in We're to endure
trials, you know, knowing this, that the trying, verse 3, knowing
this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, but let
patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire,
wanting nothing. Now, beloved, we're to endure
trials without wanting a quick delivery, that the works may
be done. Let patience have her perfect
work. The work's got to be done. The trial's got to do its effect. It's got to do what it's meant
to do. The lesson must be learned. Let patience have her perfect
work, that you might be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
We can't resign from the race. We must endure to the end, right
to the end of the trial. And this is that we may be perfect
and entire, that we may be fully developed and mature in grace,
that we may grow in grace, and perfect and entire, wanting nothing. And that word, wanting nothing,
means lacking nothing essential that would make us a strong,
strong believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. A believer being grounded
and settled in the faith. Now listen to these three statements.
If you don't get anything else I've said tonight, get these
three statements. Being grounded and settled in the faith. Wanting
nothing. Let patience have her perfect work, that you may be
perfect and entire. We must be gracious in love as
well as grounded in truth. We must be strong in practice
as well as sound in principle. We must be givers of mercy as
well as receivers of mercy. That's perfect and entire, wanting
nothing. And then let me ask you this
with the last thing there in verse 5. How can we count it
joy? How can we be happy? How can
we rejoice in the midst of trials? How can we have this patience?
How can we, creatures of time and sense, submit to the will
of God, resist our flesh, resist our wills, resist our desires?
Here's how it tells us, in verse 5, if any of you lack wisdom,
how to deal with these things, how to deal with these trials,
how to deal with these temptations. To get this patience. If any
of you lack wisdom, oh Lord, give us wisdom to deal with these
things. That's what he's saying. Give us wisdom to know how to
go through this world honoring you. Not murmuring, not complaining. Letting you be patient. Letting
our trials of our faith do the perfect work in us. And he says,
if any of you lack wisdom, what does he say? Let him ask God. Lord, I don't think I have sense
enough to do these things. I don't have the wisdom to do
it. I'm such a childish person. Oh, my. And then the Lord said,
let him ask of God. And watch what he does. He gives
to all. Not only does he give to all,
but he gives it liberally. And that word liberally means
he gives a whole bunch of it. Liberally is the opposite
of niggerly. Niggerly means, you know, just give a little
bit at a time. He gives liberally. He gives a whole bunch of it.
Gives it freely. And He gives it to all liberally. And then look what it says. And
He don't outbraid you. What does that outbraid mean?
That means when somebody comes asking for help, you start telling
them all the mistakes they made, that I ain't going to do this
no more. You done this wrong. You done that wrong. You failed
in this. You made a mess out of that. And you've failed at
this, and you've failed at that, and he begins to tell you all
the things that you've done wrong, and now this is the last time
you're going to ask me for this. No, God don't outrage you. He
don't bring up one foolish thing you've said, one foolish way
you've acted, one time you've murdered a complaint and got
aggravated. He don't bring up any of that.
What does it say? If any lack wisdom, let it ask
of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not.
And watch what it says now. And it shall be given him. Just ask God. You are weary,
and you can't ask too often, and you can't ask too much. And
it shall be given him. Oh, the trine of your faith. Worketh patience. Let patience
have a perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting
nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, ask
God. Let him ask God. And he gives
to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. Our Father, in the blessed name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, O God, thank you. Thank you for your
word. Thank you for the truth. O Lord
Jesus, thank you for the trials of our faith. Lord, if you didn't
try our faith, we would never know it's real. We would never
know it's true. We would never know that we trusted
you. So thank you. And God bless these
dear saints tonight, those whose faith are being tried right now.
those, dear Lord, you're dealing with. And we do come and ask
for that wisdom that comes from above that's peaceable, gentle,
easily entreated. Oh, give us that wisdom to live
to your glory, to keep our burdens and our trials in such a way that we honor you. Blessed be your name. In Christ's
name we bless you. Amen.