We'll stay right there in James
chapter 1. As Jim said, and you can see
in your bulletin, the title of the message has to do with four
words that appear in these first few verses of the book of James.
The word faith, the word trials, the word patience, and the word
wisdom. The reason that I felt led to
preach from this passage is in our Bible study at 10 o'clock,
I've been going through Christ in the Old Testament and just
finished the second message out of the book of Job. Job was a
man who was tried severely, tested severely, went through many trials. And I wanted to preach this message. James has a lot to say about
trials. the trials of faith, saving faith
will be tried, it will be tested, and it's not to knock us down,
but it's to show the genuineness and the reality of the gift of
faith that God gives His people. Is my faith real or is it just
a sham profession? And I want to know. And James
speaks of that. He starts off, he says, James,
now this is the half-brother of Christ, I believe. You know,
Christ Mary and Joseph had other children. Christ was not born
of Joseph. He was born by the Holy Spirit,
a miraculous birth. But they had other children,
and this James here is one of them. I believe that's who it
is. But James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greedy. Now, this is
an epistle that's written to all true believers. But James
has in mind, as the Holy Spirit is inspiring him to write this,
a specific group of believers who are Jewish and who had been
scattered from their homes. throughout the Gentile world.
Now you can read about that in the book of Acts chapter eight.
We won't go there, but it talks about how in Jerusalem great
persecution came and they were scattered about, scattered abroad. And it says not only were they
scattered abroad just to hide or to be protected, they were
scattered abroad and it said they were preaching the word,
preaching the gospel. So we see even that persecution
that they were suffering in Jerusalem, had an ultimate goal of the glory
of God, to spread the gospel. You see, it wasn't his purpose
to contain it, to box it up in Israel, but he wanted it throughout
the world. Christ told his disciples, go
in all the world and preach the gospel. God has a people out
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. They're called the
elect of God in the Bible. I know there's people who don't
like to hear that, but that's what the Bible says. God's elect. And so they were scattered, and
James is writing to them to comfort them in the gospel. And he says,
my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse, that
word means various, temptations, that means testings. Now, testings
and temptations, think about Job, what he went through. And then what some of these early
believers went through, it's not something that you would
attach the word joy to. These are difficult times. Many,
many believers at this time gave their lives for the cause of
Christ. So what joy that James is speaking
of here is not how we feel. It's not feeling good. We're
not a masochist, that's a person who enjoys getting tortured.
No, that's not what we are. We don't go out and look for
persecution, but it just comes with the territory. If we preach
the gospel, it's the light that people by nature hate because
it exposes their works as evil deeds. It leads us only to Christ
for salvation, for forgiveness, for righteousness, and for eternal
life. And it won't allow us to go anywhere
else to find peace and comfort and joy. So this joy, and so
this joy is the joy that comes through faith, not through feeling. I'll talk about that in just
a moment. Verse three, knowing this, that the trying of your
faith. Now these testings are trials of faith. That means that
He's speaking of the chastisements of God. Now, not all things that
we suffer through are chastisements of God. Some of them are just,
we just suffer consequences for our own bad behavior. But he
says, your faith, and your faith worketh patience, that's the
word endurance, or perseverance, but let patience have her perfect
work. That means complete work. That
endurance, The perfect work, the completed work of endurance
is final glory. And it brings us to look only
to Christ. That you may be perfect, that
you may be complete. Now how does the Bible say we're
complete? You think about verses like Colossians
2, 9, and 10. For in Christ dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him. So this has to do with faith
in Christ. And he says, perfect and entire,
the word entire has to do with having all its parts. Nothing's
missing here. In Christ, we have everything
that God requires to save a sinner completely. No part of it's missing. It's not Christ did his part,
now you've got to do your part. If that were the case, it wouldn't
be entire. losing something or missing something
that you've got to fill in. And if that's the case, according
to the Bible, we'd all be doomed. He says, wanting nothing, lacking
nothing. If I have Christ, I have it all.
All forgiveness. The forgiveness of all my sins.
The forgiveness of my sins is not based on me confessing them.
We do confess them. But the confession does not bring
about forgiveness. What does? The blood of Jesus
Christ. You understand that? Forgiveness
of all my sins. Every sin you can think. And
somebody says, well, if that's the case, I'll just go out and
sin all I want to. Well, go ahead if that's what you want to do.
But that's not what a believer does. It's the completeness, every
part of it now, of righteousness. All the righteousness that God
requires of me is in Christ. And it's freely and fully imputed
to me. Charged to me. My sins imputed
to him, his righteousness imputed to me. Lacking nothing. You say, well preacher, I don't
feel like I'm complete. It has nothing to do with feeling.
In ourselves, we're still incomplete. Because we've not yet been glorified. But we have the spirit of God
within. We have the spiritual life, the
new heart within that brings us to look to Christ. And one
day, when we leave this body of death, we're gonna be complete
in ourselves. We'll be perfect. Well, verse five says, if any
of you lack wisdom, now that's the wisdom of God, because he
says, let him ask of God. If you want wisdom, don't look
to yourself. Don't look to the philosophers of this world. Don't
look to the teachers of this world. Look to God. Look to his
word, that giveth to all liberally who ask for it, and it braideth
not. In other words, if you ask for
knowledge and wisdom from God, he don't look at you and say,
well, you stupid idiot, you ought to know that already. No, we're
learners, that's what a disciple is. And it shall be given him,
but let him ask in faith. Now what does that mean? That
means ask according to God's word, and he says nothing wavering. Don't go anywhere else for your
answers. Don't go to yourself. Wavering, look at verse six.
For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with
the wind and tossed. In other words, don't waver between
the word of God and the word of men. That's what he's talking
about. He says, verse seven, for let not man think that he
shall receive anything of the Lord. If you look to the thoughts,
the ideas, the philosophies, the religion of men for your
answers, for your wisdom, don't think you're gonna receive anything
from the Lord. Look to God's word. And we look
to men who preach God's word. I'm telling you things that are
based upon God's word, you see. And then he says, a double-minded
man is unstable in all his ways. What is that double-minded man?
It's one who's tossed to and fro. It's one in whom the word
of God has not been settled. He's not talking about a believer
struggling with sin here. We all struggle with sin. The
warfare of the flesh and the spirit. We even struggle with
unbelief. We believe, but we have times
of doubt. We struggle. But what he's talking
about there is being like a person who claims to believe in Christ,
but for example, the issue of repentance has not been settled
in his mind. He or she thinks they were saved
under a false gospel. or a false religion. They haven't
been brought to repentance, so they waver. It's a double-minded
person, thinks two ways. Well, what does the Bible say?
There's only one way, and that's the way of righteousness by God's
grace in Christ. So with that in mind, look back
at these words. Number one, what is faith? I've
talked about that in the past several months, about faith in
the scripture. Here's what faith is. I'll give
you several views of it from the Bible. Faith is revealed
knowledge. You understand? It's revealed
knowledge. It's not a leap in the dark. It's not just clicking
your ruby slippers together and say, there's no place like home. This is not the Wizard of Oz.
This is the Bible. It's not a hope, a hope, a hope,
an empty hope. Faith is revealed knowledge by
which God brings us to believe in Christ for all salvation,
all forgiveness, all righteousness, all blessings and benefits of
eternal life and glory. Romans 1, 16 and 17, for I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, it's the power of God
unto salvation. To everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and the Greek also, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith, revealed knowledge, to faith, the gift
of faith that brings us to believe it. For it's written the just
shall live by faith. They live by looking to Christ,
that's what that means. It's not that the justified,
who are the justified? Those whose sins are forgiven
on a just ground. What is the just ground? The
blood of Christ. Who are the justified? Those who have been
declared righteous in the court of God's law on a just ground. And what is that just ground?
It's the righteousness of Christ imputed to them. They're talking
about our president today and yesterday about forgiving all
student debt. He may do that. But here's the
thing, unless somebody pays that debt, it's an unjust thing. Did you know that? Here's a novel
idea somebody said, you borrow money, pay it back. So he may have the power in his
presidency to forgive the debt, but if he forgives the debt without
the debt being paid, it's unjust. God won't do that. He placed
the sin debt of his people, his elect, on Christ, the surety
of his people. And Christ came and paid the
debt. Our faith is in the glory of
his person, who he is, God, manifest in the flesh, and our faith is
in the work that he accomplished, his righteousness, his blood,
by which we're justified. That's faith. Faith is knowing
and believing God's Word. The Bible says that faith cometh
by hearing, that's the spiritual ear that God gives in the new
birth, and hearing by the Word of God. Faith is a gift of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith, that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship. Created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, not because of, unto good works
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. You see, faith is not the product
of any goodness in us. Faith is not the product of our
decision. If left to ourselves, our decision
will always be wrong, and especially wrong in the matter of salvation. Faith brings us, by God's grace
and power and will, to receive, believe in, trust, and follow
Christ. Faith is looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. God gives us this faith
by the power of the Spirit in the new birth. As many as received
him, to them gave he power, the right to become the sons of God,
even them that believe on his name, which were born not of
blood, nor the works of the flesh, or the will of the flesh, nor
the will of man, but born of God. Faith is our spiritual connection,
union with Christ. For as many as you have been
baptized, have put on, in Christ, have put on Christ. What does
it mean, put on Christ? Believe in Him, rest in Him,
follow Him. Faith is our way of living. The
just shall live by faith. That means how? By looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of what? Our faith. It causes us to engage in the
struggle we have with our flesh, our sin. But it causes us to
find no hope, no joy, no peace, no... Except in Jesus Christ
crucified and risen from the dead, who is seated at the right
hand of the Father ever living to make intercession from us.
And if you get joy and peace and assurance anywhere else and
anyone else, you're a double-minded person. You understand that? My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but no matter how good that frame looks, no matter how
good men and women say it is, I dare not trust it, but wholly
lean on Jesus' name, on Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. That's faith. You realize it? Somebody said, well, I'm not
sure I have faith. Well, where's your hope? Who's your hope? Where's
your peace? Where's your assurance? Where's
your joy? You may be on the top of the
mountain today, but you may be in the valley tomorrow. But either
way, who's your hope? Who's your joy? You may be going
through the most severe trial you've ever gone through. The
most severe may be yet to come. God's in control, isn't he? He's
the one who's determined that. Where's your hope? Where's your
joy? Where's your peace, comfort,
assurance? Where's your motivation? Is it grace? Is it gratitude? Is it love? Or is it legalism? Mercenary. I'm just serving because
I want to get something out of it. Well, that's faith. Alright,
here's the second word. He says that the trial of your
faith, the trying of your faith in verse 3, trials. Now we've
talked about that. Those are testings. Here James
is speaking of testings by which God strengthens our faith and
preserves us under glory. Trials do not produce faith. Trials reveal faith. It is God alone who produces
faith and gives faith, isn't that right? But trials reveal
it, that's all it does. One of the most difficult parts
of the life of faith is realizing the fact that becoming a disciple
of Christ does not make us immune to these trials and tribulations. It's not a bed of roses, is it? Why would a good and loving God
allow us to go through such trials and tribulations? Think about
the death of a child. disease and injury to ourselves
and our loved ones, financial hardships, worry, fear. We could
talk about it all day long, couldn't we? Old Job lost his family,
lost his riches, lost his health. He even lost the fellowship of
his wife. You remember what his wife said?
Job, you're going through all this, why don't you just curse
God and die? Well, that's some encouragement
in. You know what Job said? Acting
in God-given faith, he said, the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
I know something about Job. He couldn't have said that but
by the grace of God and meant it. Neither could I. But why would God put us through
that? People reason today, they say, surely if God loved us,
he'd take all these things away from us. And after all, doesn't
loving us mean he wants our lives to be easy and comfortable? That's
what the health and wealth gospel says today. False gospel. Does he want us to be, our lives
to be easy and comfortable? The answer is no, he doesn't.
You know why? Because this world is not our
home. This world is not our hope. This world is not our salvation.
Christ is. And the Bible clearly teaches
that God loves those who are his children, whom he chose before
the foundation of the world, whom he gave to Christ and adopted
them in Christ, and that he works all things together for their
good. The Bible says that. That means
all things, even the trials and the temptations and the tribulations.
He works them too. So that's gotta mean that these
trials and tribulations in our lives are part of the working
together of all things for our good. Therefore, for a believer, not
a double-minded person now, but for a believer, all trials and
tribulations have a divine purpose. in our lives. Think about that.
Sometimes these trials, as I've said, are chastisements from
our Heavenly Father because we need some correction, we need
teaching, and mostly we need to be weaned away from this world.
Bring us to rest in Christ and value Him and His righteousness
even more. I quoted this in the earlier
message, Hebrews 12, 11, talking about chastening. Listen to what
What the Lord says about this chastening, Hebrews 12, 11. Now,
no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous. Now, hold
it right there. Remember what James said? Here
in verse two, James one and verse two. James said, my brethren,
count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptation. James
said, count it all joy. And over in Hebrews 12, 11, it
says, now no chastening, which comes from trials and temptations,
tribulations, for the present seem to be joyous, but grievous,
burdensome. There's no contradiction there. You see, what James is talking
about is the trying of our faith which brings us through by God's
grace. And the word in Hebrews is simply
saying this, while we're going through tribulation and trials
and all that, it doesn't feel good. We're not to be fakes. When Job lost his family, he
grieved. When we lost our son, we grieve,
still grieve. Still miss him, but I rejoice
because I know where he is. I know in his last days, he couldn't
feed upon the bread of this world, but he's now feeding on the bread
of life. Eternal. And that brings me joy.
You say, well, that's just a pipe dream. Well, if you think it
is, I'm sorry. It's not. How do I know that? Well, because I just have a good
feeling about it? No. It's because God says so
in his word. So he says in Hebrews 12, 11,
now listen to this. Now no chastening for the present
while you're going through it. Seemeth to be joyous, but grievous
nevertheless. I love this nevertheless. Afterward,
it yieldeth. The products say, the peaceable
fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Now what is that peaceable fruit of righteousness? I'll tell you
exactly what it is. When God brings us through these
trials and we come out on the other end, we come out looking
even more, valuing even more the blood and righteousness of
Christ. How thankful we are that Christ
is our Redeemer, our ransom, our righteousness. That's the
peaceable fruit of righteousness. It's not feeling good about ourselves.
It's looking to Christ. Feeling good about Him. Well, be assured that God will
forgive our sins. Because the eternal punishment
for our sins has been paid by Christ. through his sacrifice
on the cross. And here's the thing. God cannot
and will not charge us with our sins. How do you know that? By faith. What do you mean, preacher? By believing God's word. Didn't
he say in Romans 8.33, who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? It's God that justified. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
He's risen from the dead and seated at the right hand of the
Father ever living to make intercession for us. We have Christ. We have His blood, His righteousness,
and we're never to plunge headlong into sin using that for an excuse. We will sometimes have to suffer
the natural consequences in this life of our own sins and bad
choices, but God uses even those sufferings to mold us and shape
us for His purpose and for our ultimate good. I heard a man say one time, he
said, well, a believer will never plunge headlong into sin willingly. Are you kidding me? Read your Bible. Somebody said, well, believer
will never justify himself. Well, read the book of Job. Job
said, I don't deserve what I'm getting. The problem is, is if
God gave any of us what we deserve and what we've earned, it'd be
death and hell. Well, let's go to the third word, patience.
He says in verse three, knowing this, that the trying of your
faith worketh patience, but let patience have his perfect word.
What is patience? It's endurance. It's perseverance,
continuing in the faith. You see, all whom God saves will
persevere in the faith. They cannot lose salvation because
God won't let them. And often, you hear the acrostic
tulip, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement,
irresistible grace, and perseverance. I always say this, tulip ought
to be spelled with two Ps. Total depravity, unconditional
election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, preservation
of the saints, and then persevere. Why do we endure? Why do we persevere,
continue to the point that we cannot totally forsake Christ
and lose salvation? It's because God will keep us. He will preserve us. Listen to
Philippians 1 and verse 6, being confident of this very thing
that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ. If God starts it, he's gonna
keep it and finish it. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. What can separate us from the
love of God in Christ? Romans 8, 35 through 39, nothing. Nothing can separate us from
His love. He says in Philippians 2 and verse 12, listen to this.
He says, wherefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not
as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling? What do you mean work it out?
Does that mean salvation is by our works? No, look at verse
13. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do
of his good pleasure. Paul wrote in Galatians 2.20,
I'm crucified with Christ. That means when he died, I died.
When he was buried, I was buried. When he arose again, I rose again.
Nevertheless, I live, Paul said, yet not I, it's not by my power,
I'm not the source of it, but Christ liveth in me. And the
life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of
the Son of God, the faithfulness of Christ, who loved me and gave
himself for me. Trials cannot separate us and
cause us to forsake him. And when James says, let patience
have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, lacking
nothing, he's simply saying that it is complete. the completeness
that we have in and by Jesus Christ. This endurance that's brought
about by trials drives us to Christ in whom we have all of
salvation. That's what it's talking about.
It doesn't mean it makes us sinlessly perfect or even closer to being
sinlessly perfect in ourselves. It means that it drives us to
Christ who is our completeness, our perfection, in whom we lack
nothing. No parts missing. And then lastly,
in verse 5, he talks about if any of you lack wisdom. James
1, 5. What is that wisdom? It's the
wisdom of God revealed in His Word in and by the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the wisdom. 1 Corinthians
1, 30 says that Christ is our wisdom. We all lack wisdom in
ourselves, but all wisdom comes from God in Christ. We can't
even endure trials in our own wisdom, figuring it out. Remember
Job's three friends? They were trying to figure it
out, and they did it foolishly. We're to seek God's wisdom in
Christ by his word. What does God say about all this?
That's the wisdom. Wisdom is understanding that
we need to live life for the glory of God. Wisdom is the wisdom
of God in Christ showing us how God saves sinners, how God is
just to justify sinners like us. And during trials, it's God's
will that we recognize the folly of human wisdom and turn to him
in Christ and his word for godly wisdom. Why do these trials come? What are they for? That's wisdom.
Where do they leave us? Here's the wisdom of God. They
leave us with no hope but Christ. That's the wisdom of God, isn't
it? Wouldn't you rather have that wisdom than to listen to
guys like Job's three friends who tried to tell him, say, Job,
you look inside and see what you need to do to get this thing
off of you. Well, that's foolishness. Depend upon God. Plead His grace
and mercy in Christ. That's the wisdom of God.