James 1. Last week we began our summer teaching series entitled James Living the Faith. And our plan for the summer is to rotate through some of our teaching elders as we move through this letter by James, the brother of Jesus. Some call James the half-brother of Jesus because he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and not by his earthly father Joseph. However, I know, we know brothers, brothers who grew up in blended homes or other circumstances and given consistent, common home life. They were full brothers in every sense of the word. And yet, as Pastor Tim pointed out last week, James doesn't call himself the brother of Jesus as he opens this letter, but a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amazing. Amazing, especially given how brothers tend to grow up together in a home. You know, there's always a little competition between boys growing up in a home. If you've got boys, I had two in my home, you know that. Who's bigger? Who's stronger? Who's faster? Who's gonna knock somebody off the king of the hill? And yet, here, James fully understands and accepts the deity of Christ. and his lordship over his life. I just find that to be just amazing. Our text tonight is verses 5 to 12. However, before we study the text, I want to confess something to you. Maybe this will be an encouragement for you as we study James this summer. I remember as a young man, as a teenager, and even into my early 20s, not really liking the book of James. I really didn't like the book of James. I didn't have this natural affinity for it. Not that I hated the book, but I remember every time I heard our pastor say that we're gonna study it, I just kinda like, oh, we're gonna study James? Even if the study was something else, if someone referred to a verse in James, I just twinge about that. I just didn't like what James wrote about in this book. Things like James 2.14, faith without works is dead. James 1 27 religion is pure and accepted by God is one that cares for poor people and widows and keeps itself unstained from the world I didn't like those verses in James. I Like those verses in the other books of the Bible that that said all I needed was faith. That's it. Just faith Now don't get me wrong because we're saved by faith alone. We know that James 2 16 not by our works I'm sorry, Galatians 2.16, but then why is James writing about all this work stuff? And I didn't want to, I'm sorry, I'm just being real here, I didn't want at 18 years old to hang around widows and poor people. And what about staying away from the world? As a young man about to enter the world, I liked what it offered. Not the most evil parts of it, of course, but I was okay with what I saw the world was in my semi-not-so-innocent 18 years old. Just let me have faith and let me live my life the way I wanted to. What was happening is that as a young man, the truth of the gospel written about by James was confronting me. In my immaturity, I said I just wanted to live by faith and leave the works part out of that. But what I really wanted was the freedom to do whatever I wanted, so I tried this some dim-witted religious argument that made me rationalize James as a lesser book, so really so that I could just kind of ignore it. And you know, by doing that, it set me back a long way. and my growth as a Christian. And you know, that's a common story. As Pastor Tim preached last week, the goal of God is to mature us, to perfect us by conforming us to the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible talks about how we're saved in three ways. First, we're saved by our faith, meaning we're already saved by our faith. Nothing more to do. Second, we're being saved every day, mostly from our sinful selves and the influences of the world as we live out our Christian faith. And finally, we will be saved when our end comes and our faith is strengthened by those things. That's the message of James. And the balance between our faith and our works is that faith works. And I mean that in two different senses. Our faith works in allowing us to live Christ-like. Living by faith really does work. And our faith works, as in the demonstration of our faith, results in working for Christ, under his lordship, Meaning our hearts are changed to possessing his heart, and we do the things that he's asked us to do. Now I know that's a long introduction, but I wanted to share with you my personal experience with James. James is a confronting book, but it's also extremely valuable to every true follower of Jesus Christ. So let's read our text with that in mind, starting at verse 5. We're going to go to verse 12. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He's a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Verse 9, let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass, its flower falls and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Last week, Pastor Tim laid the foundation in verse 2, says, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. Now people in my life group, they're gonna tell you that I'm a little fanatical when it comes to joy. I want more joy in my life. I'm a joy junkie. I cannot get enough of it. If we could only get the joy without the trials, right? If we could just get the joy without the trials. But we need the trials. We need the trials to experience more of Christ, to make His suffering and His victory more real to us, that we might treasure Him more. Our trials help us to do that, and the more we understand and treasure Christ, the more we savor Him in our life, the more joy we're going to experience even as we're maturing. And Pastor Tim ended with verse 4, And then right into verse 5, verse 5 begins with those words, And I like the way James wrote that. You go back to verse 4, he lays the goal of being made perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, and then immediately he writes, if anyone lacks wisdom. But notice, he doesn't accuse anyone of not having wisdom. And yet, think about it here. What's the most foundational truth here? Most fundamental truth is, every one of us lacks wisdom. Especially the wisdom that comes from above. Now, let me ask you a question. Is there anyone here who thinks you don't need any of God's wisdom? Anyone? No one? Good, because if you did, I think you'd have a screw loose. You'd need to tighten something up somewhere. James knows that we all need wisdom, especially in our time of trial or of testing. We need to know what to do, but he's kind enough to let us come to that understanding ourselves. Our trials reveal a foundational truth that we all lack wisdom. However, James also, in that verse, offers a foundational solution. Ask God. Ask God for wisdom. Why? Why ask God? Because we need him. We really need God. So put that together. Our trials reveal that we lack wisdom, but not only that we lack wisdom, but go even deeper in the foundation as we really contemplate all of that. We go further into the foundation and what we find is that even more, we desperately need God in our life. We need more than just his wisdom. We need him, every aspect of him. One of my favorite quotes by the mathematician Blaise Pascal, it's in your notes. There was once in man a true happiness of which there now remained to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent to help he does not obtain in things present. But these are all inadequate. because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable or unchangeable object, that is to say, only by God himself. Pascal properly and very effectively communicates the real need of every human being in the wasted and endless searching that those without Christ go through. Human difficulty reveals the need for God in everyone's life However, James is writing to the church This letter is to the church and what he's saying is to those who know Christ who love Christ Our need for God in our life. It hasn't lessened Rather, one of the gifts that the Lord gives us is His wisdom to help us navigate the storm and continue to pursue Christ in general. But let's make sure that we fully understand that what we're talking about here is wisdom and not knowledge. There's a lot of smart people out there, right? There's a lot of smart people. I know a lot of you. There's a lot of smart people in this room. There's a lot of smart people in your family, in your neighborhood, a lot of your friends, where you go to work. There's a lot of smart people. But when it comes to trials and testing your faith, intelligence, or how smart you are, isn't what's going to get you through it. It's helpful, that knowledge, but wisdom is what you need. Lots of people can study up on things, but the wisdom of how to apply the knowledge is what's going to get you through. Let me give you an example. I used to do a lot of my own auto mechanics. When you raise five kids, which I have, my wife and I have, the cars that they buy are very cheap. They got a lot of miles on them, but auto mechanics are not cheap, right? And every time I went to the auto mechanic, it always seemed to cost $500, every time. I don't know if you have ever had this experience. Didn't matter what needed done. It just seemed like every time I went to the auto mechanic, it was always $500. It was like ordering Chinese food. She always said, food's ready in 10 minutes. Never said 8 minutes, never said 12, never said 15 or 20. It was always 10 minutes. Go to the auto mechanic, it's always $500. It just always seemed to be that way, every time. Well, I was an engineer in manufacturing a long time ago, so I know a lot about machines. Cars are machines, right? I got a lot of tools, because before I was an engineer, I was a carpenter, so I've got a lot of tools. So I did what every good carpenter does when they want to know how to fix a car. You go to the mastermind called Google. And I would just look up how to fix a car, because Google knows everything. And I did that for about three years. I took care of all of our cars and fixed everything, never went to the mechanic. I was very proud of myself. Back then, I used to say on Facebook, how many thousands of days it's been since I've been to the mechanic, and would say, I'm auto mechanic free. If you're a mechanic, I'm sorry. I don't mean to offend you. And then one day, until the one day I misdiagnosed the problem with my truck and I blew the engine. Seized the whole thing up. I mean, I'm going down the road and that was it. I misdiagnosed it. What I realized was while I was smart, I was not very wise. I could often find the knowledge that I needed, but what I really needed was the wisdom to apply the knowledge in the right way. Google didn't have any of that for me in fixing my own cars or my kids' cars. When we face the hour of testing, we need wisdom. We need to ask God. We can go to the Bible during our trial to seek knowledge and understanding, and we certainly should. Many times the Bible has the answer we need to our specific need, but we need wisdom of how and when to apply that. However, the Bible isn't Google, where we can look up anything and watch a YouTube video about how to fix that. Wisdom is much deeper. Much broader than just how to fix something. Many of our trials that we go through, that you go through, I go through, very complex. Very complex. They deeply affect our physical life or our circumstances. And they're 100% spiritual in nature. Going to the Bible looking for a quick answer that's going to just solve it like that very often isn't the solution. It's through daily study and prayer, experiencing the many trials of life, hanging on to God as we remember what he's taught us in the past, as he speaks to our hearts now, as he reassures us through the trial, that's how we get wisdom to get through the trial. He's also given us this wonderful gift, the church, where there are others who are biblically wise, and through their experience of hanging on to God, God put them in the church to encourage us, to build us up, to walk through the trial with us. This is how we get wisdom. I can assure you that a year ago, as our church was going through some very difficult times, your elders sought the Lord intensely. We began meeting early on Saturday mornings before every elder meeting, which occur on Tuesday nights, and we meet here at the altar just to pray together. Very often what we prayed for was wisdom. Nine men, knowledgeable and experienced in many things, begging God for wisdom and how best to move forward. And you know what? We still do that. We still do it. We have no plans to stop doing that. And I believe that what we experienced over the last 12 months in our turnaround is the fulfillment of the rest of verse 5. If you lack wisdom, ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. You know what that means? God loves to give wisdom. He loves to give it generously. He doesn't hold it back from the genuine seeker of wisdom. He lavishes wisdom on those who ask for it. Christian, listen to this. James says that God gives wisdom, his wisdom, without reproach. He's not going to make you pay for the mess that you're in. The reason you're in the trial, it might be because you made some terrible choices. It may have nothing to do with anything that you chose to do. But either way, He's not holding anything against you or withholding the wise path for you. He will grant you the wisdom to those who are seeking it to see it through. Look at verse 6. And here's where we're going to tie it together with faith works in the introduction to the message. Verse 6, but let him ask in faith with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. You see here, James makes a qualifying statement here. There's a key to unlocking wisdom coming down from heaven. We need to ask God in faith. Faith is the key. Faith is what makes all of this work because faith works. But what kind of faith? How much faith? Are there measures to God dispensing His wisdom? The answer to that is yes, there is. First, let's take out the obvious. The man without faith doesn't have access to God's wisdom. Your friend, your neighbor, your co-worker, family member who needs Christ but is without him, no matter how smart, no matter how knowledgeable he is about many things, has no access to God's wisdom. He has no faith in God. Therefore, all he has, or all he's left with, is the wisdom of the world. Look at James 3, 13 to 18. Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there will be disorder in every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. The man without God The man without faith in God only has earthly or natural wisdom available to him. So we need to take them out of the equation here. They have no faith. They doubt. And verse 6 says that a doubting man is like a wave of the sea. The wind blows, churns up the waves, but the wave has no control over the direction it's going. The wind controls the wave, and so is a man who doubts God. And yet as you think about that statement in verse six, that's a little unsettling. Even to a Christian, that's a little unsettling. Because we all have doubts, don't we? Even as a follower of Christ, do you not still have doubts? we still have moments of doubt or unbelief. We're not mature yet in our faith. In fact, that's the whole point of this. We need wisdom to become mature in our faith, but how are we going to get wisdom if our sinful hearts still cause us to have doubts about God? Even more unsettling in verse 6 is verse 7 and 8. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." It becomes more and more unsettling as I read that. How many of us in the church can identify with being a double-minded man or a double-minded woman? It's natural. For every believer who evaluates his or herself to feel that we're double-minded even as we battle our own sin, does that mean that I must not suppose that I will receive anything from the Lord? No. And here's where we mustn't treat the Bible like Google. We need to understand the full counsel of God, not just go to one passage and look for a quick fix. We need to understand the full counsel of God. There's a story in Mark 9 where Jesus comes across a crowd and they're surrounding a father who has a son that has an unclean spirit in him. And the demon possession made the boy both mute and uncontrollable. And the father here is absolutely at his wits end. He doesn't know what to do. He's got no wisdom about what to do about this son of his. He's uncontrollable in his behavior. So according to our text then, in James, Did he have enough faith to receive wisdom from above? Or is he a double-minded man who should supposed to receive nothing? Let's find out here. Jesus asked the father to bring his son to him. And when he did, when the father brings the boy to Jesus, the spirit inside the boy went nuts. He went crazy. If you look in your notes in Mark 9 verse 21, and Jesus asks his father, how long has this been happening to him? And he said, from childhood. And it is often cast him into the fire and the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. And Jesus said, if you can, All things are possible for one who believes. Immediately, the father of the child cried out and said, I believe, help my unbelief. You see what the father said at first? He said, Jesus, but if you can do anything, does Jesus have the power to change his circumstances? Absolutely. In fact, he just chastised the crowd because he demonstrated it over and over. Mark 9, 19, and he answered them, O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me. Speaking of the boy, Jesus calls them a faithless generation. Well, according to James, you'd think the father wouldn't have much hope. In fact, Jesus' response was, if you can? In other words, do you still think I can't? Verse 24, immediately the father of the child cried out and said, I believe, help my unbelief. Do you see that? The father says, I believe, but help my unbelief. I have faith, but help my lack of faith. Doesn't that sound like double-mindedness? Yes! But it isn't. God doesn't look at it that way. How do we know? Because Jesus cast out the spirit and healed the boy. The father's trial was over. His cry of, Jesus, I believe, help my unbelief, was exactly what the Lord wanted to hear. God knows your struggle. He knows that there's a battle going on inside of you to keep faith. We still have a sin nature. But what He's looking for, is that from the intent of our heart, is that we're all in with Him. What He wants is that when it comes right down to it, though we may struggle, we're gonna follow Him, we're gonna follow God no matter what. That's what he's looking for. The double-minded man that James is talking about isn't like this father. It's actually more like the people in the crowd that are standing around watching. They were giving lip service to the Lord. They were there to watch A spectacular event to see what he would do. They didn't give Jesus their heart. They didn't cry out for mercy. They didn't come along with this father to ask Jesus to help their unbelief. They were observers. Not people who were all in with God. God honors the faith of, I believe, help my unbelief. Because in truth, that's all we got. And he honors it by granting wisdom so that we will mature in our faith and our unbelief becomes less. We're going to look at verses 9 to 12 quickly here. Verse 9 reads like a proverb. Verse 9-10, let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. You know, Proverbs has many verses that compare the lowly or the humble versus the rich and the proud. Asking in faith requires us to be like the lowly man. And you know, we see a practical example of that laid out in social media, don't we? Life is hard. Have you come across that yet? Life is hard. It is weighty. It is filled with trials. And some of those trials are short, but many of them are very long and last even a lifetime. Paul had a thorn in his side that caused suffering in him for a long time. That father in Mark 9 that we just read about, 921 said his boy had suffered from an evil spirit since childhood. That's a long time that he had been dealing with that. For many of us, whatever our struggle is, we may have suffered with it for a long time. I just visited my dad this weekend up in Western New York State. Been dealing with rheumatoid arthritis for 50 years. Now coming to the end of his life. He's been suffering at trial for a long time. And very often, after a particularly long day where we've been struggling with trial and weight of life and difficulty in life. We come home, we're tired, we're exhausted. Nothing on our calendar for the evening in fact. There's nothing on our calendar for who knows how long no one has nothing to look forward to no one has called and said Hey, let's do something together Not that you got the energy for it anyways. It's just you Netflix and a TV dinner That's all that you got Life has been very rough on you. And then you get on Facebook and Instagram and you see all the fun that everybody else is having. Especially this time of year when half of East Tennessee is at the beach. Pictures and captions and videos of people in the ocean. or up in the mountains, or at the pool, and they're all having fun with these perfect smiles and perfect teeth and perfect hair. And for many of them, you know that this is probably their second or third vacation in the last 12 months. You ever noticed how everybody on social media has it all together? They got life figured out. Their life is just sun and sand and smiles. That's not my life. I remember last week I turned 55, I put something on Facebook, I showed how strong I was, I just came in from a great workout, just ran a bunch of miles and came in and lifted some weights and it was like, and then this morning I went and I ran and the Lord humbled me because I had the worst run in my entire, at least two years. You didn't see me put anything on Facebook this morning, did you? I could barely run up that hill this morning. I couldn't even get to the top. Life is hard. It's difficult. Cindy and I just came back from Western New York State. I mentioned that a few minutes ago. Both of our dads are dying. Both of them are. One's with Christ, one's without. Next six months for both of us are going to be very hard as we make Frequent trips back up there. What we've got to remember is that what we see on social media is not real. Or better, it's incomplete. People only show the best part of their life. They only show the glamour of being all made up, and they've always positioned themselves for the best scenery, like I did last week. What you don't see are pictures of when they first roll out of bed in the morning in their threadbare pajamas or no makeup or hair all over and bad breath and knock over a horse. You don't see that on Facebook. It's in those moments when you're at the lowest part there that it's better to open your Bible and drink in from the fountain of life than turn on Netflix. James says, Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. So what does that mean? It means as a true follower of Christ, we're playing the long game. We're playing the future game. Earthly life is short. The rich and the beautiful may enjoy their wealth now, but there's no amount of wealth that's going to protect them from the ravages of life. Strength and beauty of youth fades very quickly. That's what's meant by verse 11. The young and the beautiful eventually become the old, fat, and dying like the rest of us, right? even more than the external. Verse 11, it's the pursuits of the rich man that have the worst effect on him, because it hardens his heart. It's not just the external, it's the internal that is affected by that. That's their humiliation. And ultimately, all of us end up in the grave, and for the rich who are without Christ, Eternal life is not going to be life at the beach. No social posting going on there. But what gives me the most encouragement is not that the rich and proud will fall. It's verse 9. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation. The key word there that really stuck out at me is exaltation. What is our exaltation? Verse 12 has the answer. Our exaltation is blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. The crown of life is our exaltation. There's five crowns listed in scripture. And this is one of them that every believer is going to receive. With the crown of life comes new life, new bodies that are perfect, beautiful. They are beautiful bodies. They're eternal. They're going to last forever. And where we're going to be? is better than the best beach resort that anywhere on this planet can provide. We're going to be in heaven and life will be perfect. That's worthy of an Instagram picture. But that's future. Is there an exaltation for us on this earth? And the answer is there is. And this is my final point here. And follow my thought pattern here. When I hear the word exaltation, one verse I automatically go to. It's one of my favorite in scripture. Philippians 1.20. According to my earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness Christ will, even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. Is there an exaltation for us on earth? Yes. Because the goal of every true Christian isn't that we will be exalted in this life, but that Christ will be exalted by our life and through Him being exalted by our life and the life of every believer, since we are in Christ, we are exalted in Him and we will be exalted with Him. We exalt Christ, and closing with this, we exalt Christ by standing firm through the trials. We don't give in to the trap of comparing ourselves to rich and proud, That's a path that leads to defeat. Just laid that out. Instead, we ask God for wisdom, we ask in faith, trusting that He will give us what we need to get through the trial, and we put our hope and trust in Him, and the result is increasing faith and a reason for joy in our life. Question for you tonight. Are you trusting God for your life? For your every day, every moment of every day life, are you trusting Him? And are you asking for wisdom? And in asking in wisdom, are you asking in faith? If you're not, if you're struggling with that, it's okay. I believe, help my unbelief. I believe the Lord wants to hear from you tonight. Let's close in prayer. Father, what tremendous truth. Lord, we desperately need you. We need your wisdom. We need your knowledge. We need the wisdom to apply that knowledge correctly. We need your power. to overcome our own sin, to overcome the influences of the world, that we might, we need your faith. We need the faith that you give us, Lord. We desperately need you. We're just like Blaise Pascal said. Inside of each one of us there is an infinite abyss that can only, there's only one thing that can fill that. It's the eternal, infinite, immutable, unchangeable God. Father, we need more of you in our life. Give us hearts that understand that. Let us ask, let us come to you, even tonight, even by ourselves tonight. If we're struggling with life, may we just come to you, ask you for wisdom, trust you, And that you will give us the grace that we need for tomorrow. Thank you, Father, in Jesus name, Amen.