James chapter 1, and we're going
to start reading verses 5 and go through 8. And then we'll
look at another passage. If any of you... what was he writing to? Verse 2, my
brethren, my brethren, 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. But let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of a sea driven
with the wind and tossed. For let not that man, let not
that woman, boy or girl, who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ,
think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable
in all his ways. Matthew chapter 7 And verse 7, our Lord is speaking
here. Matthew 7 and verse 7, Ask, and
it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asks, receives. He that seeketh, findeth. And
to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Or what man is there
of you whom, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone? Or if
he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things
to them that ask him? What man is there of you whom
his son asks bread? The bread of life. All things in
this Scripture point to Christ. Back to James chapter 5. That's
the title of the message. Ask. And I must confess to you,
this morning, as one who wanders, I do not ask. as I should. I do not ask as often as I should."
And here, in the Scriptures, it says to ask. Now this passage
in James, it's in context, we'll look at that, but I'm going to
look at the broader usage of this passage in James. But if
you want the general usage, you can go to Matthew 7, which we
just read, John 14 and John 15, Mark 11, verses 24 forward. It's the same
thing. Ask what you will and you'll
get it. But let not a man think that he'll receive anything.
Let him ask in faith. But this word ask, it just pops
up everywhere. So I looked it up, and that word
in the Greek strictly means in Mark, in Matthew, in John, it
means beg. It means beg. It could also mean
call for. Let him call for, if you lack
wisdom, call upon God. Desire. And lastly, crave. Crave. These four, the main one,
beg, was the first one that popped up. These are words of passion. Are they not? Desire. I believe
this word also has the connotation of pleading. beseeching, or an
attitude and posture of seeking mercy. You remember the leper
came down, Lord, he asked, if you will, at his feet. Worshipped
him, Lord, if you will. That woman with the issue of
blood, if I can just get to him, let ask any who lack wisdom, let
him ask of God. We ask a lot of things of one
another and we should hopefully fulfill that, but we cannot. Vain is the help of man oftentimes,
even brothers and sisters. We get discouraged with one another.
To ask someone, I think also indicates an admission of need. Think about it. If you lack wisdom,
I lack wisdom. And I need to ask God for wisdom.
It shows an admission of need. It shows subservience to the
one who is asked the question. So it goes in this definition
and connotation and indication of asking, it goes from low to
high. From us who are nothing and less
than nothing to him who fills all in all. especially the usage in the Gospels
that we saw and we read in Matthew 7, especially the usage in our
Gospels, truly it pictures one coming to another who answers. The one who has the question
needs it fulfilled, desires to have it fulfilled, craves for
it to have it fulfilled, begs for it to be fulfilled. So in
the Gospels, the picture is coming to another who does answer, who
can answer, and who has all authority to answer. And Melinda and I
were talking about this last night late. And I hate to say
this, but this is true. How are we supposed to come to
Christ as little children? Now let me ask you, parents,
you think about your children when they were little. I think
about Carol when she was little. Did they wear you out with questions? Yes. Yes. But as they get a little older,
do they still ask a bunch of questions? Cole's not looking at me, neither
are the girls. No children are looking. No,
we don't. Why? Pride. We were talking about Melinda's
father, and I've done the same thing. We'd be going on a vacation
or a trip, get lost, he would not ask for directions. Is it a man thing? Usually when
we're driving. Because Melinda's like, there's
a gas station, I'm not stopping at a gas station, just stopping.
She would run in, I wouldn't let her run in and go. Crying. The little child. That's how
we're supposed to come. And the scriptures in the gospels,
it says ask. He says here, ask if you lack
wisdom. He's specifically speaking about
wisdom and that has to do with the trials and the diverse temptations
in verse two. In verse three, knowing that
the trial of your faith work of patience. So it's kind of
in context, you ask for wisdom to see God's hand in all these
things. But I want to step back and look
at the broader picture because I am guilty, as I said before,
to my shame, not to be like a child, Not to ask. Ask. As I said, the context of this
passage in James, which will be here now for the duration,
the context is temptations, divers temptations. Verse 4, let patience
have her perfect work that she may be perfect and entire, wanting
nothing. And if any man lack wisdom, if
you lack wisdom, as stated, primarily in such times of heavy trial,
we are to ask God for wisdom. Show me how I can glorify you
in this. Show me why you are bringing it. Am I like Job? Am
I being rebuked for my stubbornness? Are you going to bring some of
my friends, Job's friends, try to correct me and corral me in?
Give me wisdom in trials to look to You and You only. But like
I said, I want to step back and I want to look at the broader.
And again, do not get angry with me because I see the gospel here
in verse 5. If any man lack wisdom. Who is the wisdom of God? You
cannot look at the Scriptures. I don't believe you can. I'm
learning this, I hope, more and more from older pastors and just
from the Scriptures. Paul said, I've determined not
to know anything among you except for Christ and Him crucified.
And so let me take this in a broader context. If any of you lack wisdom,
1 Corinthians 1 and verse 24, you
don't have to turn there. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and Christ,
the wisdom of God. And verse 30, but of Him are
you of God, are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom. So bear with me a little bit
as I show forth Christ out of this section. If any of you lack
wisdom, is there anyone here, and I know we're completing him,
and he fills the universe, and he's filled us, and he's our
all in all, but does any of you feel like you've arrived? Paul
says, I keep running, I keep striving, I keep looking. Oh,
we see in these verses the application of Christ. Is he not our great
need, our daily need, our true need in salvation and after salvation. So it is again that we must start
where God starts. God is over all and we beg for
wisdom in Christ. And Peter, unto whom coming?
We don't stop coming to Christ. If any of us lack wisdom, well
I understand Christ. That was the problem I had with
a preacher in Cain. It was Christ plus something.
Christ wasn't enough. And if I'm like Spurgeon, and
you have to put up with me, because as I said before, I'm the slowest
under-shepherd that there's probably ever been, but if the only complaint
that you have of me is I've got that one stringed guitar, like
Spurgeon said, and pluck on that string over and over and over
again, Christ and Him crucified, I believe like Tim James, listen
to a message by Tim James last week. You cannot drive off the
sheep. His sheep hear his voice and
they follow him. And as long as I am faithful
to proclaim Christ and his gospel, if this is not enough, then you
probably will leave. But you can't run off the sheep. Can't be done. So if you have Christ, you truly
possess the very wisdom of God. Have you and I, have we been
shown our total need of Him? His reconciliation, His pure
righteousness, His healing balm, His justifying grace? If not, ask God. If not, if any of you
lack wisdom, let him beg of God. Now, I know that it's not because
you ask that God has to save you. No, he, in Psalms 110 verse
three, makes you willing in the day of his power. One man asked me, he was concerned that he wasn't the Lord's. And he was crying for mercy.
And the only thing I've said is I borrowed some old writer's
thought and I wasn't going to say, you're saved, because I
can't see anybody's heart. But I did tell him a genuine
cry for mercy indicates mercy already given. We always preach the horse in
front of the cart. Does that make sense? We always
preach. Gospel preachers. Grace preachers
always preach the horse in front of the cart. Remember, God is
free, boundless. Our asking does not make God
respond. He has permeated us with sovereign
mercy. Then we will cry out or beg or
crave or desire to Him for wisdom. the passage in Matthew and it's
the same passage in John and the passage in Mark. What father
of you, if your son asks, will not give him? And our Father is so much more
benevolent than we. Now let's look at our passage
and I want to go through this a little bit at a time. Let him
ask of God. The second point, let him ask
God. Oh, to be ever reliant upon our
God, yet I could not get over this word, ask. Ask. Ask. Ask your pastor. That's fine. Call and talk among
yourselves. Ask one another, but do not neglect
the king of kings, the one who is all wisdom, who is all righteousness,
who can never do anything wrong, who has chosen our inheritance
for us. Ask God. Ask God. Now the saints of God have many
needs and these needs are all covered under the blood. They
are all addressed in prayer through our blessed mediator. Now, I'll
give you an example. Mr. Spurgeon used this example
and I looked it up and he's right. Just because Spurgeon says it
doesn't mean it's, you know how that goes. I'll be a Berean.
Apparently there is a church in England called St. Cross Hospital. I checked it out. It's still
there. It was established in 1132. Still
there. This is what it did. And it's out in the middle of
nowhere still. If you were a soldier or you were a wayfarer or if
you were a pilgrim and you were hungry and thirsty, you could
stop there. All you had to do is ask. And they gave you, it's called
a wayfarer's dole, a wayfarer's portion, which was they gave
you some drink and they gave you some bread. You didn't ask
for it, you didn't get it. You didn't know about it, you
didn't get it. Hence, that's why we gather here
together. When you leave here and you don't
ask God for mercy, you leave here and you don't ask God for
wisdom on how to deal with day-to-day situations, I'm free. I've told you. Ask. Ask. It's still there but it
only was given to those who asked. Now I ask you and I ask myself
this. This asking God, do we have need of clothing? Yes, Christ's
righteous, robes of righteousness. Do you know your need? Ask. Do you have need of washing? Yes, we need to be cleansed by
the blood of Christ. Ask. Oh, this is making it too
easy. You almost sound an Armenian.
I confer back to the scriptures. I'm not going to make salvation
harder than God makes it, but I want to speak it just as He
has revealed. And again, you know that because
you ask does not change God's mind. God is sovereign. He's
predestinated all things that come to pass. But I still see,
if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. He'll show you
your need. As I said, that word ask, it
presupposes need, it presupposes begging, it presupposes the position,
I'm asking, it presupposes a childlike attitude, all things that are
scriptural. What about growth and grace?
Are you concerned? And a lot of times we look at
ourselves, we don't see a whole lot, and that's probably for the better.
But you know, as well as I know, when Paul writes people, grow
in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you
concerned about that? Ask. Ask. To be conformed to His image,
ask. Do you have need of armor when
you go out to work? I know what it's like. People
beat you up, tear you up, spit you out. Do you need to have
need of armor? Ask. A helmet, a shield, a sword
it will be provided. Your feet will be shod. The armor
of God. David, when he was meeting Goliath,
he knew he had to have armor. He put that armor on. He didn't
prove it. That's what we do. We're going
to prove what is said is true. The armor of Christ is proven
over and over again. Buckler, sword, shield, ask. What about a consistency on our
way to glory? On our way to Emmanuel's land?
Like Pilgrim and Pilgrim's Progress. There's many pitfalls. There's
the slew of the spawn. There's the hill difficulty.
There's all these trials, all these things that we're going
to go through. Have we asked God to keep me
faithful? Keep me faithful. to learn through trials, like
it is specifically contextually in James. Ask. What about seeking our brethren's
welfare over our own state? Oh, that's tough. Because self
is, self wants to pigeonhole and stick itself in. Well, I
don't, this is me. Come out of yourself. Come out
of yourself. Come out of myself. To seek the
brethren's welfare over our own. Ask, how can I do this? How can
I be of service one to another? How can I be more selfless? Ask. Ask. And behold the wisdom of God. What about remaining faithful?
like Mary and sitting at the feet of Christ. Now Martha was,
she was a believer. She's concerned about all these
other things. And I know, when I used to work, sitting here
Sunday, thinking about tomorrow. Think how to work. No. Christ keep me. Ask for faithfulness. We gather so infrequently, as
far as the world is concerned, we work a lot more than we gather
together to worship. We gather together to worship.
Now, I'm not saying private, if you, again, as I've said this
time and time again, if, as parents, the only thing that our children
are getting is on Wednesdays and Sundays, shame would be to
us. There needs to be teaching daily. Daily, you look out, you
can take examples of it, right? All these different things we've
talked about in nature. And Spurgeon has a good book,
The Teaching of Grace in the Kingdom of Nature. Flowers, sun,
moon, all these different things teach of the grace of God. How
about loving one another fervently, as the scripture says? I don't
know if I do that, ask. As I say, it just hit me, It
rebuked me, seriously. All these different things, and
I'm sitting there going, if any of you lack wisdom, let them
ask of God that gives to all men liberally, and upbraids not,
and it shall be given him. Our problem is, we waver. We doubt. God give us grace to not doubt. What about, will we endure to
the end? Ask. Ask. You add. You fill in. Got a situation. How do I take care of this monetarily
and still meet and do this and do that and all these needs?
Ask. We don't have that kind of wisdom.
Some of us do. Some of us are very good with
handling these things. Some of us don't. Show me my
weaknesses. Ask. Ask, and it shall be given
him. Now I don't know, we still got
several weeks in Hebrews, but I think what I'm going to do,
because it's come up in conversations, is go through teaching on the
promises. I think I'm going to start that
on Wednesday. and seeing how all the promises are in Christ,
everything has to center around Christ, are yea and amen, but
how most believers do not take advantage. And I would say this
one right here, this is me, in everyday situations, every day,
ask. Ask. And every time your children
ask you something, like why this is happening or why that's happening,
or how come the leaves are green, and you start telling them about
photosynthesis, and how come the leaves fall when they do,
and you start telling them about that abscission layer that has
to be cut. Well, I know about that because I did forestry.
But when they ask you questions like that, you have an answer
for them. But when they're asking you,
you think, have I asked God for anything? I'm serious. I rebuked. How long does it have to go,
a trial, a difficult situation, a chastisement, before I will,
my tongue will get loose and speak, ask, ask. But in verse 6, let him ask in
faith, not wavering, not wavering. Romans chapter 4. You can look
at this one if you want. Romans chapter 4. Ask in faith. Romans 4 verses 20 and 21. Abraham staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised
he was able to perform. Now what has God promised in
our passage in James? It shall be given. It shall be given. Oh, like Bruce said, do we desire
to see sinners saved? Yeah. Ask. Ask for opportunities. Lord,
open our mouths, loosen our tongues, but let us ask in faith. Ask
knowing that God is able to do far more than we ask and simply
cling to Christ and all his promises, whether we see them or not. Hebrews 11 verse 39 and 40 and
these all having obtained a good report through faith received
not the promise. God having provided some better
thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect. And verse 13 in the same chapter. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth. There's
something about being persuaded that's without wavering. We haven't seen Christ. We look
back. They look forward. What does Christ say? Blessed
are your eyes, or blessed are you that have not seen and believe.
It's got to be by grace. You ever try to conjure up faith?
You ever try to conjure up? It can't be done. Are we thusly
persuaded of God's promises to us-ward? He is the Father of
lights, in whom is no variable, and is neither shadow of turning.
May He cause us to believe in Him, on Him, And this book, where are great
and exceeding precious promises? Let him ask in faith, not wavering. I think I looked that up. I thought
I had it written down here. I don't see it, but it's, oh,
okay. It's hesitate to doubt. It's
not firm, not wavering. It's not firm. You can't put
your full trust on it. For he that wavereth is like
the sea. Our last point, the alternative
is not good. I wouldn't want to be out on
a small boat in the sea, back and forth, and a double-minded
man. We just looked at last week or
a couple of weeks ago, you can't serve two masters. Nope, you
can't do it. The sea is always in motion,
it's never steady, never reliable, a double-minded man, two masters,
and we serve only Christ. It's never, ever Christ plus
something. It's only Christ. So may our
tender and merciful God keep that which He has started in
us, which we read back there in the back, Thessalonians. That
way He'll get all the glory through His name. Now I have one other
passage that I want to close with. And again, you put limitations
on this verse. I can't. I don't know. It's obviously
God's limitations, not mine. Psalms chapter 81. When I read
stuff like this, I get like a little kid. I just absolutely love it. Look at this verse. Look at this
verse. And by faith, may we look at
it together, Psalms 81 and verse 10. I am the Lord, sovereign,
righteous, all-powerful, thy God, and brought thee out of
the land of Egypt. There's the gospel. You can stop
right there. There's the gospel. He's the
Lord, our God. He brought us out of our sin.
He brought us out of our degradation. Now look at the next, look at
this next phrase. Open your mouth wide and I will
fill it. You have need of Christ this
morning? You have a need to be more like Christ this morning?
You have a need for God to counsel you in your affairs? Open wide, ask, and receive. Now, if that's not according
to our doctrinal theological statement, then I'll stand by this. And I'll
stand by the Word of God and to not rest in the Scripture
to my own destruction. Because I know that His Word
will not come back void. It will be successful. It's going
to hit either a saver of life and a life or death and a death.
It's always successful. And if you get time, see what
Spurgeon says about this, this verse. I just got to read it
again. I am the Lord thy God, which
brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide,
and I'll fill it. Ask. And we simply ask in faith,
and we shall receive it. to God be the glory. Bruce, would
you close this?