Go back to James chapter 1. I
sat down last night and today at work doing phone calls and
answering questions. I started working on this. Last Wednesday we dealt with
the first four verses. And I started looking at verse
5 and I thought, why not go back to verse 1 and go 1 through 12. It flows a lot better like that.
If you just go ahead and go back, it doesn't hurt to repeat ourselves.
Can you remember all my outline last week? I asked Dickie, she
couldn't. She said, I can't remember. You
might remember some of it when I mention it, but it doesn't
hurt to review. If you're going to have a test,
You like a review, don't you? I remember in a preacher school
one time, Henry gave us about a three-page test. My heart was
just, I don't know why, but I was just so nervous. He said, we'll
just come into class one day and he said, I'm going to give you
a test. I still got to let the house. He gave us about a three-page
test. I thought, boy, I wish we could
have reviewed some here. And that's what we'll do for
these first few verses we will review. I titled this message,
Wisdom from Above. Wisdom. Godly wisdom. How good to God He gives us this
wisdom. What's that worth? Can you put a price on that?
It says over here, I marked this, I thought about it when I was
sitting over here. Listen to this. In Proverbs 3 verse 13, Happy is the man that findeth
wisdom. You know that poor man, there
was a poor wise man in the city. Remember he delivered this city?
And they didn't remember him. But I tell you what, I bet he
was a happy man. I bet he was. Happy is the man that findeth
wisdom. And the man that getteth understanding.
For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise.
It's better than what you can buy with silver and gold, and
the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies,
and all the things thou canst desire." That's a list. We can desire a lot of things,
can't we? All the things that you can desire are not, he didn't
say cannot, are not, don't even try it, to be compared unto her. The length of days is eternal
life. It is in her right hand and in
her left hand riches and honor, true riches and true honor. Her ways are the ways of pleasantness
and all her paths are peace. That's what this wisdom leads
to. She is a tree of life for them that lay hold upon her and
happy is everyone that retaineth her." Oh, what would you give
for that wisdom? And we'll look at this here in
a little bit. James, he says here, is a servant of God. We know all
things serve God. Is there anything made that does
not serve God? You know, even the wrath of man
serves God. It serves His eternal purpose.
For whatever reason, we cannot see in the little minute bit
of time that we have here in this life the whole purpose of
God and all that goes on. But even the wrath of man serves
God. Everything, the moon, stars,
everything there is, serves God. But James is a servant as well
as all of God's children are servants of God by grace. and
by a divine calling, called to be a servant, a willing bond
slave. I'm looking at some willing bond
slaves here tonight, willing to serve the Lord with gladness.
That's what Paul, serve the Lord with gladness. Only way to serve
Him. Only way. And James wanted to be known
as a servant, as a servant. But he's not only a servant of
God, but also of Jesus Christ. One is not served without the
other. You cannot serve one and not
serve the other. You cannot serve God and not serve His Son. He
that honoreth the Son honoreth the Father also. That's what
it says over in John 5, verse 23. He's a servant. Listen to what William Cooper
said. He said, To see the law of God fulfilled by Christ, to
hear His pardoning voice changes a slave into a son and changes
duty into choice. as a servant. And he writes it to the twelve
tribes God's elect, all the sons of Jacob. That's you and me too. We are sons of Jacob. And he
says, my brethren, speaking to his brethren in Christ, unbelievers
wouldn't appreciate this letter, would they? They wouldn't get
anything out of it. An unbeliever can take this letter
And he'll twist it and mess it up. But he'll not get the fruit,
the teaching, the lesson that's in it. Not at all. But those
who are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, that you appreciate
it. And you and I will learn from
this study as we go through this. We will learn from it, we'll
glean from it, and we'll grow from it. We can appreciate it. And count
it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. Now he's
not talking about falling into a temptation to sin. Is there
any joy in that? There's no joy in that. Not at
all. Even though trials bring about
some temptations like murmuring, that's sin. Complaining against
God. Quitting, almost ready to halt,
that's sin. But he's not talking here about
a temptation to just actually go out and sin. Because that's
shame. That's shame. You don't count
that as joy. That's shame. But the temptations
he's talking about here are those that are sin of God. They are
sin of God. I want you to turn over to 2
Corinthians. 2 Corinthians. 12. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7. Here's the temptations he's talking
about. Paul says here, And lest I should be exalted above measure
through the abundance of the revelations, there was given
to me a thorn, a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan,
Yes, sometimes God lets Satan buffet us, like he did Job. Lest I should be exalted, he
said, above measure. That's the kind of trials and
temptations he's talking about here. God the Father gives us
our trials to reveal the sincerity of our faith to us, not to him. Turn over to Genesis chapter
22. You know, I'd really enjoy studying this again. Sometimes
I don't think you really preach from something until you get
on about the third or fourth time or fifth time. You finally
start to get some understanding. Genesis chapter 22. Look in verse 11. This is Abraham getting ready
to offer up Isaac. And the angel of the Lord called
unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said,
Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand
upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I
know that thou fearest God. Did he not already know that?
Did he not? I tell you who knows it now.
Abraham. Abraham. God knows all things. He knows the sincerity of our
faith. He knows that. And so He gives
us these trials to prove to us the sincerity of it, the genuineness
of it. He says here, the trying of your
faith. Now listen, this is not only
a benefit to the person who's being tried to prove the sincerity
of it, But this is good for the whole body of Christ. Whatever
you've gone through, what you've gone through, Dolores, that's
good for the whole body of Christ. We've all benefited from it.
The whole body benefits from it. Not just the person that's
going through it, but every believer that's connected to the body
of Christ. This enables us to comfort one
another. Nothing will enable you to comfort
someone like going through the same thing. Nothing. Look over at 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Did I say 2 Corinthians? I've
turned to 1 Corinthians. Sorry about that. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Look at
verse 3. Blessed be God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God
of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that
we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble." Listen,
by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. You can't
be a comforter until you've been comforted in the same situation. Until you've had to endure it.
Then you can turn around and say, let me tell you. Let me
tell you where to go. We can only be comforted be a
comfort if we really know what it is to be comforted. That's
the only way. You can only point men to the
Great Physician, the God of all comfort, if you've been to Him
yourself. That's the only way. If you've
been to Him yourself. You cannot tell sinners about the grace
of God unless you've tasted of the grace of God yourself. You
can't do it. And we ought to be grateful.
We ought to be grateful for all that our Father sends our way.
He could leave you alone. He could leave you alone. He
said to the disciples concerning the Pharisees, leave them alone. You don't want God to leave you
alone. As hard as it is to comprehend, trials are a token of His love.
token of it. They truly are. Look back over
in Proverbs. I saw this while reading here.
Over in Proverbs. I can read it to you. I've got
it here. My son, in verse 11. My son, despise not the chastening
of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. Don't be weary
of his correction. I wish he would let up. Oh, you think I haven't felt
that in that business. I wish it would end. This is
one of the reasons this book has just really jumped out at
me. You know, you pray for, Lord put an end, stop, no. Pray for
the grace to endure to the end. Pray for it to stop. Just put
a stop to it. How about the grace? It'll taste
a lot better when it's over. It will. My son despised not
the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. For
whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father to the son in
whom he delighteth continually." It is a continual delight. Oh, we ought to be grateful for everything
God sends our way. His love is proof to us under
trial. And then trials do this. They
develop all the graces. Every grace of the Spirit is
developed and matured by trials. They grow no other way. They
mature no other way. They develop patience, kindness,
tender-heartedness, long-suffering, which is patience, love. It all
matures under these things. All of it. One of the greatest
counterfeits, one of the greatest counterfeits is faith. And trials prove it to be counterfeit
or to be real. That's the only way it proves
it. That's the only thing. Now he says, let patience have
her perfect work or her mature work. Don't seek an early release. As I said, I have done. I'm guilty
of this. This just slapped me in the face.
Don't seek an early release. Seek more grace to endure. The
results, I'm telling you this, concerning the whole body of
Christ, the results will be worth it. It's nothing like having a mature
body of believers. The results of this will be worth
it. He that endureth to what? The end shall be saved. Not he
that jumps off halfway out. He that endureth to the end Shall
we say? Wanting nothing in order to be
what we ought to be, patience must have her perfect work. God
has given us pastors and teachers. Look over in Ephesians 4. In Ephesians chapter 4, let me
see if I can find the verse. In verse 11, I didn't write the
verse down, but in verse 10, he that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill
all things. And he gave some apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. Why? For the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect and mature man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." That's
what he gives pastor teachers for. But he also gives us this. I
got this from Henry. He also gives us trial teachers.
I got this. It was good. He also gives us trial teachers
to teach us by experience what we've been taught out of His
Word. We hear of God's grace, God's sovereignty. You know,
sooner or later we have to learn that by experience, don't we?
Sooner or later. And I'm glad to do so. It's the
only way you're going to know Him. It's by experience. And then we learn to trust Him.
We learn to trust Him When we have no place else to turn. Boy, that's what trials are.
They run you into a corner. And you have no place to turn
but Him. When you know, when you know that there is absolutely
no way you're going to make it out, if He doesn't step in and
take over. He's the only hope you've got.
That's a good lesson. The best lesson you can learn
is that. He's the only hope you have. The only help you have.
The psalmist said this, Thou only makest me to dwell in safety. He had his armies. He had a big
army. No, he said Thou only. Thou only
makest me to dwell safely. You have learned a great lesson
when you have learned that Jesus Christ is your only refuge. His blood, His righteousness,
His person, Him alone. You've learned a great lesson.
Now, if any man lacks wisdom concerning the things we've just
covered, and these trials, and how to handle them, let him ask
of God. Let me read you something that
I got today. What is wisdom? Wisdom, I got
this today, I thought it was good. Wisdom is more than knowledge. It's more than information. It's
more than doctrine. And man can have all this and
still be a fool. In absolute truth. Wisdom is
the proper combination between truth and spirit, between faith
and conduct, between mind and heart. Wisdom is knowing the
will of God and loving it and yielding to it. Wisdom is discernment. It's discernment of heart and
discipline of mouth. Wisdom is to know the gospel
and not yield to opposition, opposition without or opposition
within. Wisdom is yielding to the gospel
of Christ regardless of frowns and flattery, regardless of friend
or foe. That's wisdom. Oh, that's the
wisdom we want. That's the wisdom we want. True
wisdom received from the hand of God, whatever He gives. Look over 1 Samuel chapter 3. In 1 Samuel chapter 3, look in
verse 16. Then Eli called Samuel. and said, Samuel, my son, and
he answered, Here am I. And he said, What is the thing
that the Lord has said unto thee? I pray thee, hide it not from
me. God do so to thee, and more also, if thou hide anything from
me of all the things that he said unto thee. And Samuel told
him every whit. And he had nothing from him.
And this is where he told me that God was going to kill his
sons. And look what he says. It's the Lord. Let him do what
seemeth him good. Wisdom receives from the hand
of God whatever he gives. Wisdom bears patiently what God
sends. Patiently knowing who sends it
and knowing, like that song that Mike just sang. That just went
right with this. He's too good. He's too good
to do And wisdom is spiritual discernment of right and wrong. And wisdom will do right. It'll
do what's right. And if you'd have this wisdom,
would you have this wisdom? Like I said, what would you get
from this wisdom? Oh, it's precious. Let him ask of God. Just ask
of God. Let him ask of God, not go to
school and study and do all that. Let him ask of God. Seek, the Lord said, and you
shall find. Knock and it will be opened. Ask and you shall
receive. No sincere sinner has ever sought
wisdom and been rejected. Not at all. And look here. Let him ask of God. Who upbraideth
not? He upbraideth not. You know what he's saying? He
doesn't remind us of our past failures when you ask Him for
wisdom. Son, I gave you one last week. What did you do with it?
Everyone of us is guilty of this. He never brings up the past.
Oh, isn't that a blessing? We can fall down on our face
and get back up and start all over again, fresh, as if it never
happened. Who can do that? Only the children
of God. He upbraideth not. He doesn't remind us of our failures
and our mess-ups when He gave it to us the last time. We remember it, but He upbraideth
not. That's good news. That's good
news. But he says this, in verse 6,
let him ask in faith now. He upbraids not, but let him
ask in faith, believing, nothing wavering, not doubting the grace
of God. You know, to doubt God is to
doubt His grace. It's to doubt all that He is. His mercy, His
kindness, it's to doubt Him. He says nothing wavering. Totally
resolved. absolutely resolved to do or
go where He sends. Resolved to do it. That's why
He's saying if you're going to ask Him, be resolved to do it. And God will give you wisdom.
He'll give us wisdom if we're absolutely resolved to do it. Wavering is this. It's divided attention. Like
the waves of the sea, you come up and it's high and foamy and
boy, it looks good, then all of a sudden it's flat. Zealous one day and cold the
next. Don't ask God for wisdom or directions if you're not settled on doing
it. We must be determined to go the
full distance if we want to ask God for wisdom, how to get there. Too many men, too many men ask without heart
of doing it. Too many. He says this though,
to the man who asks in faith, nothing wavering, he gives liberally. Abundantly. I mean, he gives
it liberally. He'll give you the wisdom. He'll
give me the wisdom to know exactly what we need to do, where we
need to go, and how. If we seek it this way. If we
seek it this way, he'll give it liberally, he says. Abundantly! When sought and asked for by
faith. Ready to do it. Ready to do it. One writer said this, most want
grace without trials. Most want the crown without the
cross. But wisdom gives both. You can't have one without the
other. If a person is uncommitted, don't
ask. Unsure, don't ask. Stay away. He said, don't let,
let not that man think that he'll receive anything of the Lord.
God is not to be trifled with. The throne of grace is not to
be trifled with. It's not to just see what he'll
do. I mean, it's to be totally committed
to whatever the answer is. He said, don't let that man who
waves like the sea, Don't let him think he'll receive anything
of the Lord. Not at all. You know, prayer and going before
God, that's one of the most serious things that a human being will ever do. It's the most serious
thing to us as believers. It's the most serious thing we'll
ever do is to go before the throne of God. Just like you did after
you read. Take this church before the throne
of God. Nothing more serious than that. We don't trifle with it. He said a double-minded man is
unstable in all his ways. Not just all his ways. Everything
about him. Everything about him. He's unstable.
He's unstable in it. Ready to go? Ready to halt. Go? Stop. We used to play that when
we was kids. We used to play green light, red light. One person,
you probably played it. I don't know. You played it.
You'd say, red light. Green light. Red light. Then
stop. Then go. Then stop. Then go. That's a
double-minded man. Really, what that means is two-faced.
It means two-faced. You're one thing in front of
the people. Then when you leave here, you're somebody else. You're
two-faced. Was it Elijah that said, why
halt ye between two opinions? If God be God, serve Him. Give
your whole self to Him and serve Him. If Baal be God, serve Him.
But don't halt between two opinions. If we're going to go before the
Lord, let us go with singleness of heart and purpose. Or don't
go at all. And then here he gives a difference.
James speaks of a difference here between the rich and the
poor believers. He says, let the brother of low degree, he's
not talking about spiritually here, not low spiritual degree,
we're one in Christ. We are all one in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's talking here about, he is
talking here about just the outward physical things that we have
and enjoy and things like that. And what he's saying here is,
let the brother of low degree, the brother who is, he's not
well known out there in the community, he's not a rich man, he may not
even be a well-educated man, and he's not even a leader in
the church or a leader out anywhere else. He's just a brother of
what this world would call low degree. Let him rejoice. Say, I don't
have anything. I'm nobody. Well, yes and no. Yes, you're nobody, but no, in
Christ you're somebody. Really? Are you a son of God?
Now are you the sons of God. Now. Now what kind of honor is
that? Let him rejoice because he has
the true riches I just read to you in Proverbs. He has the true
riches. He has true honor. He has true
wealth. All things, the Scripture says,
all things are what? Yours in Christ. All things are yours in Christ. He is as rich as the rest of
God's children. He lacks nothing. Has the same
inheritance. Inherits the same thing as the
rich man inherits. The rich man that's in the Lord. He has true
wisdom. He has true greatness. He is
a son of God. Therefore, let him rejoice. Let
him rejoice. You know, he may not have a job
like others have. He may not be able to bring home
the money that others bring home. But my soul, James says here,
let that man rejoice because he's rich in Christ. He has true
wisdom. He's the heir of God. My soul,
get your mind off these things, man. Rejoice in what you really
do have. Listen, he need not be envious
of his rich brother. He has as much in Christ as he
has. I tell you what, to have money
is a great responsibility. There was a believer who told
me this a few years ago. He said, I have found it to be
a greater responsibility to have money than when I didn't have
it. He says, it's a whole lot more difficult now than when
I didn't have it. Oh, let this man rejoice. Now
listen, let the rich brother, there in verse 10, let the rich
brother, he's rich, he's powerful, he's educated, he's a leader
out there, he's well known in the community. He's well known. He said, let him rejoice. Not in his riches, not in his
standing, not in his leadership, Let him rejoice in that God has
brought him down. See, the one he lifted up, this
one he's bringing down. And he made him to know who and
what he is. Not many rich people know that.
The Scripture says the poor entreat, but the rich speak roughly. They
say, who are you? Get out of my way. That's just
the way, that's the way natural, that's the way natural men handle
that position. It puffs up. Knowledge puffs
up. All that puffs up. The natural man. But this man,
this rich man here, he's been brought low. Let him rejoice
he's been brought low. He knows that he's nothing. Well,
that's the work of God. For a rich man to know he's absolutely
nothing. He can say with Paul, even though
he's rich and powerful in this world, he can say with Paul,
I am what I am by the grace of God. Let him rejoice in this, not
many mighty, not many noble, not many rich are called. And to think that this rich man
could be one of them. How hardly shall a rich man enter
into the kingdom of heaven. He said it's easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
the kingdom of God. And you know what? The very next chapter,
the Lord saved a rich man. The very next chapter, He saved
a rich man. He proves His sovereignty and
His power continually. Let him rejoice. This rich man,
let him rejoice because he knows. He knows this. He knows. God's
taught him this. He looks out into the field and
he sees these beautiful flowers and he understands. That's me
in society. But he knows this. In a little
while, the sun is going to come up and the wind is going to blow
and that flower is going to be dead. The beauty of it is going
to be gone. You're not going to be able to
tell the difference between the flower and the grass after a
while. When summer passes on and winter comes, you can't tell
the difference, can you? You can't tell it. Well, then
rejoice he knows that. That he knows that. Let both
the rich and the poor brother Rejoice together in Christ. In
Christ they are one. In Christ there is neither bond
nor free. Barbarian, Scythian. We're all one in Christ. Rejoice
together. Everything in this life will
perish. except what we have and what
we are in Jesus Christ. Everything else will be gone.
Everything. Blessed is the man that endureth
temptations. It's not blessed is the man who
started. It doesn't say blessed is the
man who's tried. It's the one who has endured to the end. It's
the one who went through it and came out still believing God. Let that man be happy. Happy. He's blessed. He's happy. That man is blessed
who can go through trials without murmuring against God And by God's grace,
endure to the end. Endure all the way to the end.
Now listen. He shall receive the crown of
life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. He shall
receive the crown of life, the crown of victory. He's not a
quitter. He didn't quit. And he's going
to receive this crown of life, and it's not because of his own personal efforts. It's because when God tried him,
the faith that he had proved to be genuine. And he endured
to the end. And he's going to have a crown
of what? Life. He's going to wear this
crown of life. Eternal life. Forever and ever. Let me read to you Job 23 and
I'll close. Over here in Job chapter 23.
Let me figure out here where I want
to start at. Let me start in verse 1. Then Job answered and
said, even today is my complaint bitter. My stroke is heavier
than my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I might
find him. You ever been there? Oh, that I knew where I might
find him. That I might come even to his
seat. That I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth
with arguments. I would know the words which
he would answer me and understand what he would say unto me. Will
he plead against me with his great power? No, but he would
put strength in me. He'd help me. Oh, he'd help me. There the righteous might dispute
with him or talk with him. Heaven suffereth violence and
the violent take it by force. You find a sinner who realizes
he's hanging over hell, he'll be violent about salvation. He'll
be violent about finding Jesus Christ. He'll be violent about
God being his Savior. He won't let up. There the righteous
might dispute with him, so should I be delivered forever from my
judge. Behold, I go forward, but he's not there, and backward,
but I cannot perceive him. On the left hand, where he doth
work, I can't behold him. He hideth himself on the right
hand, that I cannot see him. Listen, he knoweth, Scott Richardson,
a priest from this one time at 13th Street, but he knoweth the
way that I take when he hath tried me. How am I going to come
out of this? I don't know. He does. He knows the exact path that
I'm going to take when he's tried me. And now listen, I shall come
forth as gold. I'll come out of this, and I'll
come out of it as gold. Not dross. I'll come out of it
as gold. I'll receive the crown of life.
Well, I know I recovered a lot of ground, same ground, but that's
all right. That's all right. Maybe I got
a hold of it a little better the second time.