This morning we'll continue our
journey through this wonderful book, the book of James. I'd
like to say we're having a journey through James and we've been
blessed just at the first five verses and six verses that we've
looked at so far as the Holy Spirit has illuminated the Scriptures
and taught us the things of Christ. So let's read verses 1 to 10
of this chapter to once again see the context. I know we keep
reading over these same verses, but I think it's so important
when we study verse by verse that we always read the context.
Because too many people take verses out of context, tear them
out of context, and give them a meaning that they don't even
have. So it's always important for us to study the scripture
within the context of where we see it. James, a servant of God
and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are
scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into divers temptations. Knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect
work, that she may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to
all men liberally, and abrideth not, and it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth
is like the wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For
let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the
Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let
the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, but the
rich in that he is made low, because as the flower of the
grass he shall pass away. So last week we looked at verse
5 and we touched a little bit on verse 6 and verse 7. And as we learned in verse 5,
when trials come, and they do come to us, don't they? They
come to every single believer. And when trials come, we are
to ask for wisdom from God. A lot of times, our natural inclination,
as Donny Bell and I were talking about this yesterday, that our
natural inclination is to try to solve the problem ourselves.
It's natural for all of us. But that's not how it should
be. We should seek the Lord and ask for wisdom when the trial
starts. And it doesn't take long within
that trial for us to realize that we can't do anything in
the flesh. It doesn't take long for when that trial hits us,
right? And remember, they're ordained
by God for us to go through. They work patience in us. And
patience works hope, as we saw a few studies back in the book
of Ephesians. So as that patience being worked
in us, we need to ask God for wisdom while we're going through
the trial. We're not to lean upon our own flesh, which is
the first thing we do. If we're really honest, it's
the first thing we do. But we who are the people of
God, haven't we learned as we went through these various trials
in our lives? Haven't we learned more and more
that we're to seek God for wisdom? As I said to you before, I'm
a slow learner when it comes to these things. I think we all
are as believers. But these trials, these things
we go through, are for our good and for God's glory. Again, like
I said before, they're not meant to cause pain. God's thoughts
towards his people is good, not evil. Isn't that wonderful? To
know that no matter what we go through, God has a plan while
we're going through. He's already purposed what it
will accomplish, right at the start of it and even before that.
He already knows. Do you know he's already prepared
for the trials that we'll go through this week? He's already
prepared for the trials that we'll go through after the Lord
lets us live in 10 years? And in that whole span, He's
already provided for them. He already knows what's coming.
Nothing catches Him by surprise. Nothing. It doesn't go, oh, look
what happened in Wayne's life. No, it's planned and purposed
by God. So we can look at the things
we go through and go, Lord, You planned and purposed that to
work patience in me and to work hope in me. And who's our hope
in? Amen. It's in Christ and Him alone.
It's singular, isn't it? Our hope is singular. And we
learn, we must learn, this is what we must learn. We must learn
to be single-minded. You know that? We must learn
to be single-minded. To keep our eyes on Christ. And
we are constantly being taught that, aren't we? By the things
that we go through. By the situations that all of
a sudden spring up out of nowhere and we say, where did that come
from? Didn't catch God by surprise, did it? Nope. And then what does
it do? If we reacted the wrong way,
It works in us repentance, doesn't it? It makes us go to Christ
and say, oh Lord, I'm so sorry I reacted that way. Please forgive
me. Even if nobody else knows you're
doing that. Oh my. So no matter what season of life
we find ourselves in, we are being taught as believers to
be single-minded. To keep our eyes on Christ. And when do we need Christ? A
little bit? A medium amount? Or all the time? All the time, man. All the time. No matter what season of life
we're in, we need Christ all the time. And have you ever looked
back and thought, how did I make it before the Lord saved me?
You ever thought that? I admit, I said that. Well, the
Lord kept me. The Lord kept you. Even though
we didn't even know Him, He was keeping us the whole time. Because
we're His sheep from eternity. His love has been set upon us
from eternity. That's wonderful, isn't it? It's
absolutely wonderful. So the one who's ordered the
stars, can he keep us? No matter what comes our way?
Oh, he can, can't he? It's we who doubt. It's we who
struggle with unbelief, isn't it? Donnie and I were saying,
oh Lord, help my unbelief, because we get all riled up sometimes. I'm going to preach on, be still,
and know that I'm a God in the main service. And we were talking
about that, and I said, boy, this is good times for us just
to be still. Just to be still and sit in front
of the Lord and go, OK, I'm not going to say a word. And he said,
amen. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord. Amen. That's what it's all about,
isn't it? Preaching Christ and Him crucified.
Not getting caught up in all the things. And in trials that
we go through, we need wisdom. We do. We need wisdom. We who
are the people of God, we need wisdom. And we learn as we go
through these trials, again, to rest on Christ and Christ
alone. That's what we're being taught. To rest in Him. Do you
know we need wisdom a lot more than we need knowledge? You know
what? We need wisdom a lot more than we need knowledge. Someone
once said this, knowledge is raw information, but wisdom knows
how to use it. Knows how to use it. And also,
knowledge is the ability to take things apart. Somebody used this
example. Knowledge is the ability to take things apart, but wisdom
is the ability to put it back together. I can't tell you. I've taken things apart and not
had a clue how to put them back together. It's true. I remember watching
my brother take apart an engine. Travis, you probably had this.
He'd take apart an engine and he'd put little stickers on them.
So he knew where everything went back, and he put that thing back
together, and I was amazed. I said, how did you do that?
Well, he had the wisdom to do that, didn't he? He had the knowledge
to tear that thing apart, and he had the knowledge and the
wisdom to put it back together, and even better than it was when
he took it apart. It's amazing. And who gave him
that? Even though he's not a saved
man, who gave him that wisdom? God did. God did. Who gave the
wisdom for the vaccine that's out now. Who gave the men and
women that knowledge to put that together? God did. God did. He gave them all that. He gave
them the wisdom. Even though they don't even mention
God in any of this stuff. They're vaulting man up. But
we who are the people of God, we know where that came from,
didn't we? Don't we? We know where it came from. We
do. It came from God. So let's see in verse 6 here.
Verse 6 here brings forth that we're to ask in faith, look into
Christ. And we're not to waver. You know
what we're to do as the people of God? We're to take a hold
of the promises of God. And we're not to let go. Just
hold on to them. All those promises in the Old
Testament to Israel are for us. You know that, right? All the
promises in God are yea and amen in Christ. That means all the
promises of God are for me as one of God's elect, and for you
as one of God's elect. Isn't that wonderful? Spirits
used to say, lay a hold on those and don't let them go. Just hang
tight on those promises of God. Because that's what they are.
Look at this. Look at this. But let him ask
in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like
the wave of the sea, driven with wind and tossed. We saw there
in verse 5, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that
giveth to all men liberally. And abrideth not, and it shall
be given him. That's a promise to the people
of God. That when we're going through a trial or a tribulation,
if we ask God for wisdom, he'll give it to us. And he doesn't
just give it to us. He generously gives it to us. God is what?
Plenteous in mercy, isn't he? Not just a little bit in mercy.
He's plenteous in mercy. I think of how quick someone
can get me angry and I'm just, I'm madder than a wet hornet.
Is it so for you sometimes? People get you so mad, you're
just mad. And man, I don't like going to sleep at night mad,
do you? Because you wake up the next
day and what happens? You're still mad, aren't you? That's an awful
condition when you wake up and you're still upset about something
or somebody. Again, like last week I said,
and it's hard for us, we just need to give it to the Lord,
don't we? Just give it to Him. Oh, don't carry that burden.
And I know we got to remind ourselves because we all do it, don't we?
We all do it. We're all prone to do these things.
But again, we need to be single minded, looking to Christ. And
we see here that God grants the prayers of his people. And we
know according to his sovereign will, right? in a sovereign purpose.
Sometimes we ask for things, but they're not according to
God's sovereign will. Have you ever asked for something
in a time of something that's been happening, you've asked
for something, and then you look back on it like a year later
and you go, I'm sure glad God didn't answer that prayer. My
oh my. Because we ask amiss. We ask
not according to the will of God. But everything that we ask
according to the will of God, He will answer. He will answer. And sometimes even the answer
is no, right? Nothing. And then sometimes we
see mountains moved. And it's incredible. And we glorify
Him, don't we? We give Him all the glory and
the honor. and the praise. And we're to
ask these things in faith with nothing wavering. Don't doubt,
just ask them. Just ask them. So what is faith?
Who is the object of faith which James speaks of here? Well, faith
is that which relies on God's promises, right? That which relies
on the Lord Jesus Christ in whom all the promises of God are yea
and amen. So we rest in Him. We rely upon
Christ. And God's promises makes us sure
of obtaining those promises, don't we? If God promises you
something, you're going to have it. Think of this. Scripture
declares that all spiritual blessings are in Christ, right? That's
not just a statement of fact. That's a promise. And you know
what? Each believer has all spiritual
blessings in Christ. Every one of us, we have that
because God said that and we believe it, right? Now, there's
people who don't believe the Bible. And again, before the
Lord saved me, I didn't believe the Bible. But now, amen. I had
a talk with somebody yesterday and I said, what's my final authority? And they said, the Bible. And
I said, amen. You can show me in that Word, I'll bow to it.
But if you're going to give me your opinion or how you feel
about a certain subject and it goes against this Word, I don't
care what you say or what you think, I'm going to obey the
Word of God. And I know you are too. That's
how we are as believers, aren't we? God is showing us the truth
of the scriptures. He's revealed it to us. And faith
takes hold of those promises and lays hold upon them. And
we are to ask God without wavering. Listen to what Jack Shanks brings
forth on verse 7. He proclaims this. For let not
that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
Jack Shanks says this. He that wavereth or doubts. Here's
the principal truth of verse 7. Our prayers are not heard
by the Lord except when we have confidence that we shall obtain.
And for the believer, the only way we can have confidence that
God hears our prayers is through Christ. There's no other way,
right? The only reason we can approach God is through Christ.
There's no other way. And so we've been taught, let
us therefore come what? Boldly to the throne of grace.
Not being presumptuous, but come boldly and lay your requests
before God. Don't ever be afraid to bring
anything. Nothing, as I said last week, nothing is too small
for the Lord. Nothing. And I mean, be detailed. When you bring your prayers,
my oh my. He gives a good example. He gives
a good example and a good illustration that I found that Jack gives.
He said there was a rich man who took a poor girl shopping
in Toyland. And he said to her, you can have
anything you want. Anything. And she said, anything?
He said, anything. Anything you want. Well, she
thought this was too good to be true. So she went over and
picked out a little squirrel marked 25 cents. That's what
we do. Not realizing that we honor Him
greatly by asking for big things, too. He's God. Like I said, nothing's
too little and nothing's too big to bring to Him. Nothing.
And I'm not talking name it and claim it. You guys know I despise
that stuff. I just despise that stuff. That
is some of the awfulest things on this earth that people say.
But just bring your request to Him. He's either going to say
yes, no, or you're going to pause. Right? But remember that when
He answers your prayers, however He answers your prayers, it's
all according to His will. It's all according to His will.
Oh my. So faith relies on the promises
of God. Look at verse 7. For let not
that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
And notice in verse 5, it says, God that giveth. Our God gives
us our life. And not just the life of His
people, but the life of all living things upon this earth. He's
a good God. He's the one true living God.
And He's a good God, isn't He? He's good. He gives us life.
He gives us our existence. He gives us His air to breathe.
It's His air, right? He made it. He created it, right?
He owns it all, right? The water we drink? He owns it
all. It's all His. He created it. And we get the benefits. My,
and he gives us all the knowledge that we have. All the knowledge
that we've accumulated in our life is all being given to us. And that includes saved and unsaved.
Even though unsaved people don't acknowledge that, He gives them
wisdom and He gives them knowledge. But for His elect, for His chosen
people, He has, number one, provided our redemption, hasn't He? Think
of the wisdom of God that provided our redemption. Would you ever
think that a king would give his life for his servants? Any
story in the world? Well, I've never read a story
yet where a king would leave his throne and go and die for
his servants. Willingly. Willingly. That's
what our king did, beloved. All according to the foreknowledge
of God. He willingly came here to die
in our place. And think of it from the Father's
side. He gave us the gift of His Son.
He gave us the gift of His Son. Willingly. He chose us in Christ. My! And then He sends the Holy
Spirit, the Son sends the Holy Spirit, who's the Comforter,
who's the one who regenerates us. What comes first, faith or
regeneration? Regeneration, every single time.
I read something today and it said, the Scripture doesn't say,
have faith and you'll be born again. The Scripture says you
must be born again. That means regeneration. Regeneration
always precedes faith. Faith is a product. It's a gift
from God, but it's given to us. I remember Henry saying that
Faith and repentance is like this. So we're regenerated by
the Holy Spirit of God, then we're given faith and repentance.
And faith is like one side of the paper, and repentance is
the other side of the paper. But you must be born again. You
must be born again. You must be born again. That's
why our Lord stressed that in John chapter 3, didn't he? And
think of this too. Our great God's given us repentance.
He's given us faith. Oh, He's so good. And it all
comes by His wondrous, amazing grace, doesn't it? It all comes
to us that way. And he's also given we who are
the people, we who are redeemed by the Son of God, a blessedness
of new life in Christ. We're new creatures. We're new
creatures in Christ. It's incredible. And he's given
us eternal life, hasn't he? He's promised us eternal life
in Christ. And you know, we have that right
now. We're not experiencing the eternal life in the sense that
we're not, we have not left this body yet, but we have it right
now. Because we're secure in Christ, Scripture declares that
ye are complete in Christ. That's wonderful, isn't it? That's
wonderful. We have an inheritance waiting
for us. Praise be to God. And we trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ when trials come our way. And he said that they're for
our good and that they prove our faith. And we've studied
that so far in this study, that these trials come our way to
prove our faith, don't they? Whether it's genuine or not.
And what do they do? They wean us from this world.
Don't they? They make us homesick for heaven.
I had someone one time tell me, they said, man, that's fatalistic
when you said about dying, for us as believers, dying. And I
said, I'm not afraid to die. I'm ready right now. Well, that's
fatalistic. No, it's not. It's having hope
in my Savior. It's trusting in my Savior. It's
resting in Him. Death is just a doorway for we
who believe. That's all it is. Now, will we
struggle to breathe? and get our last breath as we
leave this world? Absolutely. Everybody does that. We have a peace right now saying,
if the Lord takes me home, I know where I'm going. All because
of His grace and His mercy. Not because of anything I've
done, but all because of what He's done. See, the world doesn't
understand that, beloved. They don't have the hope we have.
They don't have the hope we have in Christ. And they don't understand
that at all. Not at all. But we're new creatures
in Christ now. Did you fear death before the
Lord saved you? I was terrified of dying before
the Lord saved me. My! But ever since I heard the
good news, I've not heard any bad news. Have you? It's wonderful,
isn't it? It's absolutely wonderful. So
death is just a doorway for us. We're being weaned. We're being
weaned from this world. We're being weaned by trials
that come our way. We're being weaned from leaning
on the flesh. Because that's what we do. Let's
look at verse 8. Now we come to verse 8. We see
a warning proclaimed here. A double-minded man is unstable
in all his ways. So this is a double-minded man
or woman. And they're unstable, the scripture declares, in all
their ways. A double-minded man or woman is someone who is of
a double mind. And again, the context is very
important, right? That's why I had us read the
context of this verse. Very important for us of these
verses that we see here. And we see that God's people
have been taught by the Lord through various trials, that
our great God orders these trials to come our way. Remember we
looked at that when we studied, I think it was verse three, that
these trials come our way and they're ordered by God. They're
ordered by God. And through various trials, we
realize that God sends these trials our way, not to punish
us, but to prove our faith. Double-mindedness then suggests
inability and unwillingness to see as God sees, to see that
these trials are sent for our good. Double-mindedness doesn't
agree with that. So what's the cure for double-mindedness?
To be single-minded. That's the cure. To be single-minded.
To have our minds set upon Christ, no matter what the circumstances
are, to look to Him. And how prone we are to be double-minded. And we don't even know this until
the Lord saves us. We don't know how double-minded
we were in our natural state until the Lord saves us. Because
did we agree with God's will before the Lord saved us? Remember
what the Lord said to Paul? Get against the pricks. That
could be said to any of us in our natural state. Kicking against
the preps. My, oh, my. It hurts when you
kick them thorns, doesn't it? It hurts. It sure does. Imagine
the joy we would have if we trusted the Lord at all times. Brother
Marcus and I were talking about that this week. Imagine the joy
that we'd have if we trusted the Lord at all times. Now, we're
sinful, so we don't. But imagine the joy that we would
have if we did. My, oh, my. So we're being taught,
aren't we, through these trials to trust the Lord, to just rest
in Him. And while we're in this body
of flesh, we're going to struggle. There's no way that we're not
going to struggle. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah chapter 45.
May God give us grace just to trust the Lord at all times.
I'm going to read a portion in Ephesians while you turn there.
Ephesians chapter 4 verses 4 to 6, the scriptures proclaim this.
There is one body and one spirit, even as you are called, in one
hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
Single, single. See that? Single. One God and
Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all.
And then in John chapter 14, verse 6, you don't have to turn
there, I'll quote it here. John brings forth the singleness
of salvation in Christ when the Lord utters these words. And
the Lord is the one who really brings forth the singleness of
salvation in Christ alone when he says, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. So there's singleness there, isn't there? There's only
one way to heaven. We're of one body. He's the head.
We're the body. One faith. We have the same Father.
We have the same Redeemer. We have the same Spirit. One
baptism. and one God and Father over all.
So in the New Testament, that's bot forth, the singleness of
salvation in Christ. Now let's turn to the Old Testament
here in Isaiah chapter 45. Now idol worship was rampant
during this time, prevalent in this age that Isaiah wrote. But
we see bot forth in these words. This is just wonderful here.
Take note of the words none else in these verses. None else. There's
no hope but in Jehovah, beloved. There's no hope outside of Jehovah,
outside of Christ. Who is Christ? God incarnated
in the flesh, right? Look at these words of God. And
again, note the words, none else. Isaiah 45 verses 5 and 6. I am the Lord and there is none
else. There is no God beside me. I
girded thee, thou hast not known me, that they may know from the
rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside
me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. Singularity, right? See the singularity
there? Then look at Isaiah 45, verse
14. Thus saith the Lord, the labor
of Egypt and the merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sebans,
men of statute, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be
thine. They shall come after thee in
chains. They shall come over. They shall fall down upon thee.
They shall make supplication unto thee, saying, surely God
is in thee, and there is none else. And then look at verse
18. For thus saith the Lord that
created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth and made
it. He hath established it. He created it not in vain. He
formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord. And there is none
else. Singular. And then look at verse
21 and 22. Tell ye, and bring them near.
Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I, the Lord? And
there is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior. There
is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is none
else. Singular again. Thought forth,
and then turn one chapter over to chapter 46, and let's read
verses 9 to 11. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God, and there is none else. Look at that. There's
no one else who's God. There's one God, one true and
living God, and he's declaring himself, isn't he, in these verses.
I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the
beginning. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I
will do all my pleasure, calling the ravenous bird from the east,
the man that executes my counsel from a far country. Yea, I have
spoken it. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it.
I will also do it. Oh, my. Isn't that wonderful?
It's absolutely wonderful. So we see, then, the singleness
of our faith is in Christ and him alone. And we see the singleness
of our great God. There's no other God beside him.
None. None. in contrast to all the
dead idols that Isaiah spoke against during that time. My,
oh, my. So we're not to be double-minded.
We're to have singleness of mind as believers. Again, double-minded
is just the inability or unwillingness to see God as who he is. to see
things as they are. Double-mindedness always adds
to the finished work of Christ. Always. It concerns what we do
instead of what God has done. And we know that nothing is to
be added to the finished work of Christ. Double-mindedness
suggests a corporate venture, including God and man. It's not
true faith, beloved. It's unbelief. It's unbelief.
My, oh, my. Well, our great God. There was
another section I wanted us to go to, but we ran out of time.
We've run out of time, so I'll just close with this. We are
to see and look to Christ alone in the midst of trials and tribulations.
We're to be single-minded, beloved, and look to Him. We're not to
be tossed to and fro, right? We're to look to Christ and Him
alone. And when you're in a trial, ask for wisdom. I've learned
that, even since we started studying the book. Things that come up,
I'll say, Lord, I don't know how to deal with this situation.
You're going to have to give me wisdom. And He does, doesn't
He? He does. And what does He always give
us, though? He always gives us grace to look right to Christ
and to trust in Him. He's so good to us.