All right, James chapter one. I believe the Lord's given me
a message this morning that would be very, very helpful to God's
people. I hope it'll be as much of a
blessing to you as it was me in studying it this week. I titled
the message joy and trials, joy and trials. The book of James
was written by the apostle James. He is the half brother of our
Lord. And there's a lot of people who say the book of James shouldn't
be in the Bible. They feel like that it contradicts
Paul's writings that teach us that salvation is by faith without
works. And I've told you often, if you
feel like there's one verse of scripture contradicting another
verse of scripture, go back and look at it because you don't
have the right interpretation of one of those two verses of
scripture. No scripture contradicts another scripture. And James
never contradicts the Apostle Paul, salvation is by faith without
works. James simply teaches us this,
that faith without works is dead. Faith that does not have works,
faith that does not work, show itself by works of love, is not
real faith. Now we can't see faith, but we
can see actions that are produced by faith. The Apostle Paul teaches
us we're justified before God by faith in Christ. James teaches
us that our faith is justified. Our faith is proven to be genuine,
saving faith by our acts of faith. And true faith is most clearly
seen in time of trial. You think about Abraham. We'll
get to this here in a few weeks. The examples James uses are Abraham
and Rahab. Abraham's life was a life of
trials. The Jews say he had 10 great trials. And his greatest
one was the 10th one. And Abraham's greatest trial
was God telling him, you take Isaac, your only son, the son
that you love, and take him to a place I'll show you. And you
offer him there as a burnt offering. Now, what a trial that is, to
take your only child, your only son, who you love, and draw and
quarter him, lay his body in pieces, and burn it, burn it
with fire, consume it with fire. And Abraham was obedient, wasn't
he? Abraham got up and went. And
that's evidence of genuine faith in God. And we know Abraham didn't
have to kill his son, but Abraham fully intended to because he
believed God. He believed that God would keep
his promise and still raise up a seed, the seed from his son
Isaac, by raising him from the dead. But his obedience, the
point of all that is this, his obedience was evidence of genuine
faith. Rahab's faith was proven to be
genuine faith. When she hid those spies She
put her life on the line to protect God's people. And when she did
that, that's evidence that she really did believe God. And James
begins his epistle talking about those kinds of trials that every
believer goes through. He's writing specifically to
people who are under severe trial at the very time he was writing
to them. Verse 1, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus
Christ, to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting,
Now, James, like many of the apostles, just identifies himself
as a servant of God. He doesn't even identify himself
as an apostle, just as a servant of God. And you know, that is
the highest calling that there is, to be a servant of God. And that applies to every believer,
every believer here, every believer everywhere. All of us are servants
of God. One's not more important than
another. Don't ever fall into a trap of thinking, well, the
preacher is more important than, you know, the other people. He
dwells on a higher plane than others. No, he doesn't. We're
all equal. Every believer is a servant of
God. And I found this very interesting. James does not even identify
himself as the brother of the Lord Jesus. Believe I would,
but you? But he doesn't. He says he's
a servant of God. And there's a very important
lesson for us here. Now, we all love our fleshly
families and we should we should love them. But this is so now
the child of God, the family of God is more important. It's
a more important bond. Blood is thicker than water.
The blood of Christ is the thickest, tightest bond that there is.
And I wish this was original with me. It's not. I got this
from Brother Fortner. The family of God is a closer
tie to us than our fleshly family. Brother Fortner says it's high
time we start acting like it. It's high time. Now, that being said, our fleshly
family should never be ignored. We should love them, care for
them. But those ties are going to end one day. Ties with the
family of God will never end. It's high time we start acting
like it. Treating those ties is very important. We may not treat our family in
Christ here on this earth as well as we should, but that's
to our shame. That's to our shame. And James is doing here what
families do for each other. He writes to comfort the family
of God. That happens with your fleshly
family all the time. Savannah has a really, really
bad day at work, and she walks home from work. And you know
what she does when she's had a horrible day at work? She calls
her daddy. I'm two hours away. What can
I do? It's just comforting words. She just gets in a horrible fix
and the first thing she does is call her mama. Now her mama's
two hours away. It just worries her to death,
you know. Why does she do that? Because families comfort one
another. The Apostle James here is writing
to comfort the family of God. When he speaks of the twelve
tribes here, he's not talking about just national Israel. He's
talking about spiritual history, the family of God. He calls them,
verse two, my brethren. These are members of the family
of God. Now he's writing to them and
they're scattered abroad. Why are they scattered abroad?
Because they're under persecution. I mean, this persecution that
scattered them abroad is the real McCoy. People lost their
lives for believing the gospel. They lost their families. They
lost their jobs. They lost their home. They had
to head out from where they were, just with the clothes on their
back, or else they're going to be killed. Now they need comfort,
don't they? They need comfort. And the Holy
Spirit inspires James to write this letter of comfort to them.
And look what he says to his brethren, his family, verse 2.
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. And nobody in their right mind
finds joy in suffering. If somebody finds joy in suffering,
something's wrong with them, isn't it? And we do not pray
that the Lord would send us trials. None of us pray that, because
we don't want to suffer. And that's OK. Don't be hard
on yourself if you don't pray for trials. That's OK. Our Lord
taught us to pray that way. Deliver us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. And we don't need to pray for
trials, do we? Because they're coming. Our Father's going to
send them to us. And when those trials come, they
hurt. They hurt. Peter called them
fiery trials. They hurt. They burn. They're
trials of sickness, sickness of body that just, that wrack
the body with pain. They're trials of mind, mental
illness, when the mind and the emotions just don't function
right. And even though it may not be,
everything seems dark. Everything seems hopeless. There
are trials in the home between husbands and wives. Children
go off and break your heart, do something that they ought
not be doing. There are trials in the workplace. You know, when
you've got a job, that job brings trials, doesn't it? People you've
got to work with, people that hate God, you've got to go off
and deal with that every day. And then, if you lose your job,
there's a trial in that. There's a trial in something
all the time associated with your work. And the list goes
on and on. You know all these things. And
every one of them hurt. And we want to do everything
we can to avoid them, don't we? So how can I count it all joy
in a time of suffering trial? How can I count that all joy? Well, let me give you three things
from our text that I believe will be helpful to you. They
were very helpful to me. Number one, count it all joy to find
yourself being tried because these trials come from our Heavenly
Father for our learning. Now James says here, when you
fall into divers temptations, he doesn't mean that this happens
accidentally. You know, you fall down in a
hole or you just got bad luck or something. The word fall actually
means surrounded by. That host that surrounds us and
holds us in tight in this trial is a host that's been sent by
our father. These things come by the will
of our heavenly father. that he is too wise to make a
mistake. He's too good to be cruel. Earthly
fathers do what we think is best, but we're fallible. I look back
at things I did as a father and think that was a mistake. Never our heavenly father. He's
too wise to make a mistake. He's too good to be cruel. So
here's the cause, the reason to find all joy in a trial. The father only sends him to
his children. Only. Look over at Hebrews chapter
12. It's back one page. Hebrews chapter 12. If the father
sends us to trial, it means this, that we're his children and he
loves us. Now I can find all joy in evidence. I'm a child of God. The father
loves me. Hebrews 12 verse five. And you've
forgotten the exhortation, which speaketh unto you as unto children.
My son despised not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou
art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you
endure chastising or chastening, God dealeth with you as with
sons. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But
if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then
are you bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we've had fathers
of our flesh who corrected us and we gave them reference. Should
we not much more rather be in subjection under the father of
spirits and live? For they verily for a few days
chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit,
that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now I can find
all joy in being a child of God, can't you? And being made partaker
of his holiness. And this is what a good father
does for his children. He teaches his children. He makes
them mind. He teaches them to act right. Our heavenly father does the
exact same thing. Now, trials are never meant as
punishments. They're never sent as punishments
for us breaking rules, you know, breaking some laws. That's what
an earthly father does for his children. They break rules, you
know, you discipline them. But trials from our heavenly
father are never sent as punishments. Christ, our substitute, already
bore all the punishment the sin of his people deserve. So the
father never punishes his children. He teaches them. He teaches them.
He makes them obey. Let me give you a couple of examples. We're not talking about obeying
the law here. Something more important. What are we commanded to do? We're commanded to believe on
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're commanded as children to
trust the Lord. Look at Psalm 119. We're commanded
to trust the Lord. Does the Lord have to teach you to
do that? Does that come naturally to you? When a trial sweeps away
every other foundation of all the things that we want to trust
in and we're forced to trust in the Lord because we have no
other option, now we're obeying the Father. He sent us a trial
to make us Obey him to trust the Lord. Psalm 119 verse 67. Before I was afflicted, I went
astray, but now have I kept thy word. Now I've obeyed. Verse
71. It's good for me that I've been
afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. I was with Brother
Marvin Stoniker yesterday and he made this statement to me.
When his wife, Linda, was dying a number of years ago, she was
dying with cancer. She was in her last days and
she knew it. And she made this statement to her husband, this
cancer is the best friend I ever had. There's only one way, there's
just one way you can say that meaning, if you trust in the
Lord, if you trust him. We're commanded to trust the
Lord. He sends trials that teach us he's trustworthy, we can trust
Then we're commanded to love one another, aren't we? We're
commanded to be sympathetic with each other. But our hearts are
hard and cold and self-centered, aren't they? So the Lord sends
trials to soften our cold hearts and to make us love one another.
See, if he didn't do that, we'd see one of our brethren fall
into some trial and we'd think, well, they're getting what they
deserve. The Lord's teaching them. They did something wrong, the Lord's teaching
them. We think, eh, that's no big deal. Look at 2 Corinthians
1. But after the Lord's caused us
to suffer that very same thing, then you know how they feel. Now you know what they're really
going through, and you'll show them compassion, love, and sympathy. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God, even the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the
God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all of our tribulation,
that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble
by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. That's
why the Lord sends us trials, so we're able to sympathize and
comfort other people. Look at chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians. Verse 7. And lest I should be exalted
above measure, through the abundance of the revelations, there was
given unto me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to
buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. After all the
revelations and teaching that the Apostle Paul had from the
Lord, this is what he knew. I'd get proud of it. I've got
nothing to be proud of. Everything I know, the Lord taught
me. Everything I had, he gave me. But I'd still yet be proud
of it. I'd be exalted above measure,
so the Lord sent me this to humble me. Because if I get exalted
above measure, I'm not going to be of any use to you. And
that was Paul's sole purpose, to be of use to God's people
by preaching Christ to them. And that's why the Lord sends
these things to teach us to obey, to teach us to trust Him, teach
us to love one another. Now, we do not find all joy in
the trial and the suffering. But what we find all joy in is
what the Father teaches us, what he teaches us in the trial. And
since that's so, when we find ourselves in time of trouble
and trial, we'd be a whole lot better off if we wouldn't try
to find a quick way out of this thing. We'd be better off spending
time in prayer, trying to find out what the Father is teaching
us. Now you notice I didn't say what he's trying to teach us
because God never tries to do anything. We'd be better off
spending time in prayer to find out what He is teaching us in
this trial. We'd suffer less if we would
not seek to avoid the suffering. But we'd suffer less if we seek
to learn what the lesson is. Because when the lesson is learned,
the trial will be over. That's why the Father sends these
things for our learning. All right, second. We find all
joy in trials because trials reveal true faith. as opposed
to counterfeit faith. Verse 3, James 1, knowing this,
that the trying of your faith worketh patience. These trials
are trials of your faith. They're not punishment. They're
trials of your faith. Trials reveal genuine faith. The word he uses in verse 2,
temptations, means a proof, a proof. They prove genuine faith. They prove that these trials
prove my faith is not counterfeit. but it's genuine. And if I find
out that I have genuine faith in Christ, I can have joy in
that, can't you? The best example I can think
of is a ship. These large ocean-going ships
are amazing to me. Last time I was visiting with
Brother Clay Curtis, he took me down where you could see,
we were across the bay, but you could see across the bay there,
the docks, those huge cargo ships. I mean, these ships, one ship
just loaded with hundreds of those cargo containers. I mean,
just amazing to me. And then while we're watching,
passing by goes these big old cruise ships with thousands of
passengers on them. And it just amazes me. Those
tons of steel can float. I mean, I'm just amazed at that.
I never will figure that out. But now the only way, somebody
one day built one of those ships. They built it up on a dry dock
and they do whatever they do and it goes off into the water.
It goes off into the bay. And it floats. But there's just
one way you can find out if that ship's seaworthy. Just one way.
Put it out there in the deep waters. Put it out there where
those storms blow, big old waves, big strong winds and waves. Can the ship endure it? There's
just one way to find out. Put it out there in the deep
waters. That's faith. Isn't saving faith an amazing
thing? How amazing. It's the gift of
God that causes us to trust our most precious possession. Trust it completely to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Faith causes us to trust our
eternal soul to Christ. What an amazing gift. But the
only way you'll ever find out, is that faith genuine? Put it
out there in the deep waters. Put it out there in the deep
waters where those storms blow that God sends to His people.
Look at Matthew chapter 13. I think this is a good example
of what I'm saying. Matthew chapter 13. This is a parable of the sower. Stony
ground, the good ground, the heroes. Matthew chapter 13 verse
3. He spake many things unto them
in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow. And
when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls
came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places where
they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up quickly
because they had no deepness of earth. But when the sun was
up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered
away. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and
choked them. But others fell into good ground and brought
forth fruit, some 100 fold, some 60 and some 30 fold. He who hath
ears to hear, let him hear. Now look over verse 18 where
our Lord gives the interpretation here. What did he mean by this
parable? Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When anyone
heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then
cometh the wicked one and catcheth the way that which was sown in
his heart. This is he which received the
seed by the wayside, but he that received the seed into stony
places, the same as he that here at the word and anon with joy
receiveth it. Yet hath he not rooted himself,
but dureth for a while for when tribulation or persecution arises
because of the word by and by he's offended. He also that received
the word among the thorns is he that here at the word and
the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke
the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that receiveth the seed
into good ground, is he that heareth the word and understandeth
it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth fruit, some
an hundred, some sixty, and some thirty. Now, I don't want to
be a stony ground here, do you? I don't. I don't want to have
some joy in hearing the word and have something that looks
like a plant, you know, spring up, but then go away quickly. persecution comes. I want to
be that one that God puts root in his heart and grows, bring
forth fruit unto God. But the only way that I can know
if I'm not a stony ground here is to endure the heat of trials.
And if I endure the heat of trials and I still trust Christ, I still
cling to him, then I know I've got genuine faith. Now I can
have all joy in that, can't you? I don't have joy in the heat
of the trial. So I have joy, all joy in knowing I have genuine
saving faith. And that can only be revealed
in the heat of trial. All right, here's the third thing. We find
all joy in trials because trials teach us by experience. And that's
the best way for us to learn, by experience. Verse 3, James
1, knowing this at the trying of your faith, worketh, bringeth
forth patience. but let patience have her perfect
work, that she may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
Wanting nothing. Trials produce patience. Now
this patience is not just kind of staying there, you know, you
had to wait somewhere and you try to be patient, but that's not patience. The patience
he's talking about here is enduring. The word means enduring and cheerfully. Persevering. Now, the best way
that I can describe that, cheerfully persevering, the difference is
the difference between book learning and experience. Experience. Now, as long as I can remember,
I believe God's sovereign. As long as I've understood language,
I believe that so. If God's God, He's sovereign
in me. I believe that. You do too. But
I can rejoice in God who's sovereign. after he brings trials to show
me he's something he sovereignly brings them and he sovereignly
delivers from then I can rejoice in God's sovereign. Look at,
uh, let me just read this to Daniel. Do you know the story?
Daniel chapter four, verse 17, this, this trial that was promised
to Nebuchadnezzar. Why did God send it? This matters
by the decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of
the holy ones to the intent. This is why this is coming. That
the living may know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom
of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will and setteth up over it
the basest of men. That was the reason God sent
this trial so Nebuchadnezzar and all the people around there
would know God's sovereign. Did the trial accomplish his
purpose? When it was done, at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned
unto me, and I blessed, and I praised the Most High, and honored him
that liveth forever and ever, whose dominion is an everlasting
dominion. His kingdom is from generation
to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
And he doeth according to his will, in the army of heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his
hand saying to him, what do us matter? Nebuchadnezzar learned by experience. When he did, he rejoiced, praised
and honored the Most High. And God sends a trial. And beforehand,
we think that crushed me. I could never endure that. But
yet you do. God comforts you through it and
brings you relief. Then you know God's sovereign. You can rejoice. As long as I've understood language,
it's like I believe God's sovereign. I always believe the Lord will
provide. That's his name. So I believed it. You do too.
You believe that the Lord will provide. But when a trial comes
and it takes away every visible means of support that you have,
not just for tomorrow, but maybe even for the very next minute,
And you think, what am I going to do now? Well, I'll tell you
what you're going to do. You're going to trust in the
Lord. You're going to trust Him. And when He provides, whatever
it is you need, He provides food. He provides strength. Whatever
it is you need, He provides it. Then you know the Lord will provide. And you rejoice. I believe, I
always have. God's grace is sufficient. God's
word said it. If God's God, everything about
Him is enough for somebody like me, just a puny speck of dust
like me. If God's God, everything about
Him is sufficient for somebody like me. I believe that. You
do too. But when a trial comes and it
breaks your heart, it takes away everything that's always been
normal to you. And you think, I don't like this.
I don't like this new world. I don't like this new normal.
I can't do it. I can't keep putting one foot
in front of another in this new normal. And my heart is broken
in a thousand pieces. What am I going to do now? I'll
tell you what you're going to do. You're going to trust in
the Lord. And when He comforts your heart, even though it's
broken, He comforts your heart that you know God's grace is
enough. for me. That's not just something I read
in a book. That's what I've learned by experience. I can rejoice
in that. God's grace is sufficient. Trials
teach us to wait, to wait on the Lord and to keep trusting
him, even in the worst of times, even when it doesn't look like
it's going to turn out the way God promised, to keep trusting
him. Look at Hebrews chapter 6. To
keep trusting Him. Verse 13, Hebrews 6. For when
God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no
greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will
bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. Years after God
made that promise, Abraham still had no son. But he kept waiting. He kept believing God. And so,
after he patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Oh, what
a joy Isaac was to that old man. He found out God's promise, the
fulfillment of it, is even better than I imagined. And it was better
than that old man imagined. Because not only was Abraham
blessed, but the whole world was blessed. because the Savior
came through that sin, the seed of Isaac. Look at Hebrews chapter
12. We were reading here a minute
ago. This is the sum of what James
is teaching here. Verse 11, Hebrews chapter 12. Now, no chastening, for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but it's grievous. Nevertheless, afterward,
it yieldeth a peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which
are exercised thereby." See, it's not the suffering that we
find joyful. It's the end of it, the result
of it, and the goal of trials. The end of those things is this.
James says that we be mature, that we be lacking nothing, that
we not be lacking in faith in Christ, that we not be lacking
in trust for Him, that we not be lacking in love for Christ,
in love and care for His people, that we not be lacking. Now,
I don't want trials. I don't want to suffer. But I
do want that. I don't want to lack in faith.
I don't want to lack in love and care for you, for Christ.
So we find all joy in the results of trials. Now, I know what everybody
in this room is thinking. If you're not thinking it, as
you think about this a little while, this is going to cross
your mind. I don't know how to do that. I can't do that. I see where other people could
find all joy in suffering. I can't do that. I don't know
how to be happy while I'm suffering. Even if I do know it's going
to bring me to a good end, I don't know how to do that. Verse 5,
if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to
all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. Do you lack wisdom? Do you lack
wisdom in how to face these trials cheerfully? Do you lack wisdom
to completely trust the Lord? Do you lack wisdom to show love
and compassion to your brethren? Then ask the Lord. Here's encouragement to ask.
He giveth liberally. Liberally. Oh, He'll just give
you heaps and bounds of what you need. And He doesn't upbraid. He doesn't say, well, look at
you. Haven't I told you this before? Janet hates that. Somebody said, haven't I told
you this before? What's wrong with you? Haven't I showed you
before that I'm trustworthy? What's wrong with you? He doesn't upbraid. But in compassion,
he give it more grace. He give it more understanding. And while I may not, definitely
I do not find joy in suffering. I can find joy in that, that
he give it liberty. All right, Lord bless you.