Our lesson this morning will
be taken from the book of James. Turn with me, if you will, to
James chapter 1. My subject this morning is the
joy of trials. James chapter 1. We'll be looking
at verses 2 through 4. He said, 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 you may be perfect and entire, wanting
nothing." The letter of James is written not to an individual as the Book
of Timothy, but it's written, and it's not
written to a certain church, but it's written to the twelve
tribes of Israel. It's written to Jewish believers
in particular. Now, truth is truth, whether
you're a Gentile or a Jew, but the Jews Having gone through
hundreds and hundreds of years of this mystery of the Gentiles,
they didn't understand that the Gentiles, that had just been
manifested. And even though the prophet spoke
of it from time to time, it wasn't something manifested. And now
it is. Jews, and in particular the Jews,
I believe, that were at Jerusalem, and they were under the pastorship
of James. This is not the same James that
was on the Mount of Transfiguration. This is James, the son of Alpheus.
He was the pastor of the church in Jerusalem. A huge church. We have no idea at the site,
but there was over 100,000 members in that church. There was as many as 5,000 converted
at one time, and 3,000 on another occasion. The gospel was manifested
and the fruits were being drawn in, harvested. And so there's
James being concerned with them, and there was unrest in Jerusalem. The book of James was written
about year 63. In year 70, Jerusalem was totally destroyed.
But there was already unrest there. There was already factions
and they were fighting and discontentment and things going on. So much
so, and then the Romans and their rule. And so many of those believers
were dispersed and scattered and they were all over the place.
And James having a heart for these people, wrote this letter. And so we can receive it as though
it's written to us, but this was where his heart was. This
was his people. This was those that he was pastoring
and concerned with. And we know that in Christ there's
neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female. We're
all one in Christ. That's what the Scripture tells
us. So why would a letter be penned to Jewish believers? Well,
because this was the beginning of the gospel age. We're at the
end of it. This was the beginning of it.
This was when things were first getting started. They didn't
have little churches everywhere in the Old Testament. But now
there are. And God's dispersing these people
on purpose, even though it may sound cruel to us a lot of times,
Things happen in a church and that church is divided, split,
gone off. Well, that's how the Lord sometimes
promotes His gospel. He locked Paul up in prison.
But he never said, I'm a prisoner of Rome. He said, I'm a prisoner
of the Lord Jesus Christ and through my imprisonment, God
opened a door for me to preach to the rulers. I'm preaching
to judges. I'm preaching to kings. I'm preaching
to royalty. I'd have never had that opportunity
apart from my imprisonment. And so we must look at this dispersion
in that way also. And this was a time of transition. It's the beginning of the last
days. Once, the scripture said, in the end of the world. hath
he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." We're
living in the last days. And more than likely, in the
last days of the last days. But this was the beginning of
it. And then another reason for this letter is why they were
dispersed. Persecution from radical sects
in Jerusalem and heavy taxes levied by Rome. and drove out
these believers. All kinds of unrest. You know, it's been my experience
over the years that most churches come about because of dispersion. They're born, born out of dispersion. The division comes to pass Some
go elsewhere, usually the believers, and a new church is born. For
whatever the reason, it was a painful and troublesome time. Jerusalem
had been the center of worship for thousands of years, and now
its longtime inhabitants are living among the heathen nations.
They're suffering a new kind of persecution. And they are,
for the most part, poor, despised, and struggling to survive. It's
a troublesome time, and most believe that the James who wrote
this was the James who was the bishop there at Jerusalem. Now,
we've looked at a few of the reasons for the troubles, but
we also know who sits on the throne, and why would God the
Father or these dear saints call such a thing to come to pass
in their lives? Well, the apostle tells us in
verse 3. The trying of your faith. The trying of your faith. These
troubles were afflictions and persecutions for the sake of
the gospel. These were not punishments that
God laid upon these people. These things were the same nature
as Abraham's trial. When God said, take your son,
your only son, take him up on the mountain and sacrifice him. That was a trial, wasn't it?
It was to try his faith and his love and his obedience and his
fear of God. And all true faith will be tried. It's going to be tried. Every
man's work, Paul said, shall be made manifest, for the day
shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and
the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. Says, I believe. Well, we'll
see. We'll see. If you do, God himself
will prove it. He'll prove it. It's the lot
of every believer that through much tribulation, they shall
enter into the kingdom. And I've seen this in my day
and am seeing it as I speak. Churches dispersed. Death. Distress. Distressed by who? Professing believers. Persecuted by unbelievers. And
I see people suffering all sorts of indignities and reproaches,
and these things are not a punishment. They're a blessing if you can
enter into why. There's no blessing in the trial. The trial is tough. He likens
it to a fire. There's no blessing in the trial.
The blessing is in why the trial is given and the result at the
end of the trial. They're sent to try your faith.
Now, there's several things here we need to talk about. First
of all, I want you to see this. He calls it your faith. Your faith. It's not our faith. It's your faith. And it's not yours because you're
the source of it, but because it's given to you of God. If
somebody gives me something, it's mine. Is it not? Huh? It's mine. Now, you sell
me something and I don't make payment, you can come and repossess
it, but if you give it to me, you ain't getting it back. It's
mine. It belongs to me. It's in my
possession. I don't owe anything for it.
And you don't repossess a gift. If I sell you something, then
you can repossess it if I don't pay. But if I give you something,
it now belongs to you. And God gives faith. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. It's not a reward for something
that you thought or did or intended to do. But it's the gift of God. And when it's given, it's given
with all of its graces. That's the next thing we need
to know. It's given with all of its graces. Paul told the
saints at Colossae that he gave thanks unto the Father which
had made them meet, giving them the ability, not just the faith,
but the ability that comes with the faith, the ability to believe.
the ability to be partakers of the inheritance of enlightened
saints. And faith's not something you
acquire by works. Faith is God's gift to His people,
and it's the seal of their election as the Holy Spirit opens to them
and assures them of the promises of God in Christ. Faith is accompanied with all
of its graces. It's accompanied with repentance.
You can't repent until you believe. You're led to repentance. And
it's the goodness of God, and His goodness is revealed to us
in Christ. Faith is necessary for repentance. There must be knowledge and understanding
to bring about this turning. And then faith is accompanied
with obedience. Paul said you obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine that was delivered you. And without
knowledge and understanding, no man will obey, and especially
in obedience by love. And faith's accompanied with
love. Faith worketh by love. And spiritual knowledge and revelation
of God in Christ generates love. That's what leaves us with love.
Faith is accompanied with perseverance. We're kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation. And faith is a miraculous work. It's effectual, the scripture
said, to the saving of the soul. It's effectual. were not of them,
Paul said, that draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe
to the saving of the soul. And faith is accompanied with
kindness. Be ye kind one to another. Well, can a believer be unkind?
Yeah, he can. Sadly, he can't. But he can't
by faith. When that faith is active in
the soul, he's going to be kind. He's going to love. He's going
to be merciful. God doesn't believe for you,
but he enables you to believe. He enables you to take Him at
His Word, to believe in Him, to believe Him, and to believe
all that He says. That's faith. In Hebrews 11,
verse 3, it said, Through faith we understand that the worlds
were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are
seen were not made of things which do appear. There's no other
way you can comprehend that except by faith. I wasn't there when
God created the world. And I can't buy these things
because they weren't present when the world was framed. And
I can't take these things and deduce how creation came to pass. And that's what scientists so-called
tried to do. You can't do that because faith
understands everything you see out here was not made from these
things. God spoke these things into existence. Faith is the gift of God. And
to those He gives it to, it's theirs. They possess it, and
it can never be taken from them. In John 10, our Lord said to
the Pharisees, they said, if thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
He said, I told you. You believe not because you're
not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow
me. That's my sheep. You're not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Now what's
this? And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hands. If God gives you faith, that
faith can never be taken from you. That faith will continue. It'll persevere. It'll last. These all died in faith, all
of them. Where his workmanship, Paul said,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. I'm not talking about all these things that men call
good works. These good works have to do with
faith, repentance, love, worship, things that unbelievers cannot
do. Peter said, you're a chosen generation,
you're a royal priesthood, you're a holy nation, bow. You should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people,
but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but
now have obtained mercy. And faith dwarfs other miracles
in every way. The leper was cleansed from his
leprosy, but by faith we see ourselves cleansed from all sin. Oh my, that dwarf leprosy. If we walk in the light as he
is the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. You hath equipped them who were
dead in trespasses and sins. Risen with him through the faith,
Paul said, of the operation of God. It's your faith. It's the gift of God, a divine
work in you. And then secondly, it's a tried
work. It's a tried work. Faith must
and shall be tried. Why? To manifest the glory of
God. These trials are not so much
about you as they are about God. If God gives you something, now
His name is on the line. You see what I'm saying? Salvation is a work designed
and purposed to manifest the glory of God, and so this work
will be manifested to the world, and especially to them that believe.
It's going to be manifested that it is of God. Now, understand
what I'm saying. I'm not talking about temptations
of the devil and trouble brought on by our misconduct. I'm talking about trials and
persecutions and afflictions brought about because of your
faith. And we're to count it all joy
when such things come our way and we see such things as evidence
of true saving faith. False faith will be tried and
found wanting. It'll be tried too, but it'll
be found wanting. False faith will perish in the
fire, but true faith cannot perish because it is of God. What God
gives, God preserves. That's right. Being confident, Paul writes
to the Philippians, of this very thing, that he which hath begun
a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Does this mean we don't struggle
to maintain it? No, sir. Of course we struggle
to maintain it. It's ours. It was given to us. Somebody gives me a car, I'm
going to maintain it. It belongs to me now, don't it? God gives you faith. Of course
you're going to struggle to maintain it. But while we're doing it,
we know who's really doing the work, don't we? Man manifests his affection for
a certain woman, and in time he gives himself to her and she
to him. What you do now, just throw his
hands up? Huh? He just throws his hands up,
does nothing, or does he now? Struggle. Struggle to maintain
that relationship. It's precious to him now, isn't
it? Huh? That's the same thing with faith.
They both engage in the marriage and the struggle for the unity
of it. And preachers edify the body
of Christ till we all come into the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man. That's what
we struggle to do. I'm looking at that union. I'm
looking at that faith. I'm looking at the one common
ground in the church among believers, Christ in you. That's what I
want to preserve. If you can preserve that, everything
else will find its place. And these trials do not damage
true faith any more than the flames hurt the three Hebrew
children when they were in the furnace. He looked in that furnace, and
he said, I see four men, and one of them locked under the
Son of God. They even have the smell of smoke on them when they
come out of there. Flames couldn't hurt. Only thing those flames will
do is burn away the dross. Now let me give you this over
in 1 Peter 1 and I'll quit. In 1 Peter 1 verse 4 it says,
We have in Christ an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
and it fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. Now listen to these verses. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though
now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations. He's talking about trials. That
the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold
that perishes, Though it be tried with fire, might be found under
praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Here's what he's going to prove.
He's going to prove that faith to be of him. And then you're
going to see the glory of that faith. The glory of that faith. And each time you see it, each
time you see it, you're going to be more and more patient when
the trials come. And as you see it, and as you
experience, Paul goes even further and he said, and the love of
God is shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Ghost. That's what
Peter's talking about. Through his prophet Isaiah he
said, I'll turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away thy
dross and take away all thy tin. what the Lord is going to do.
The joy of the trial is in understanding what it is, and what it's about,
and who it glorifies. And when you know that, you can
go through the trial with patience. Go through it with patience.
God to help us, teach us how to go through these trials.