The saying here in America goes this way, you fill in the blank, diamonds are a girl's best friends. Well, usually those diamonds, those gemstones, are set in a setting of gold. Also silver, platinum, precious metals. What's interesting to think about in regard to gemstones like diamonds and precious metals like gold is that they are both created or they are extracted by means of heat. A great deal of heat. I want you to have that image of heat, of being fired in a furnace, a crucible. I want you to have that image in your mind for thousands of years now. gold has been extracted from the earth in a rather simple process. Gold is usually found when it's mixed with other rocks and other sediment, and a chunk of that ore is crushed and it is ground into a powder. Then there are other chemicals, other dry agents added to that mix. The whole ball of it is thrown into the fire. That fire, as it gets hot, gold melts at 1948 degrees Fahrenheit. That's a little warm. When it melts, being as dense as it is, it falls to the bottom of that crucible. All of the impurities, the dross, the slag is on top. That's all scraped off. And the more you keep that gold in the fire, and the more you keep skimming off the impurities, the purer the gold. Keep that image in your mind. Last week we began a series of messages in the book of James, and I invite you to turn there with me. The book of James is a simple book. It's a small book. It's a very important book. It was written by the half brother of Jesus. Verse one gives us the from as well as the to in this letter. James identifies himself as a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a humble way for him to begin this letter. He doesn't talk about the fact that he has a half-brother, or he is related to Jesus as a half-brother, nor does he tell us remind us that he is the pastor of the most influential church in the early years of Christianity. He was the pastor of the Jerusalem church. He doesn't say anything about his ecclesiastical position or title, nor does he relate anything about his relationship to Jesus. Simply he identifies himself as a bondservant, a voluntary submission to this one who is, he doesn't identify as his half-brother, no, he identifies him as his Lord, his Messiah, his Savior. He's writing to the twelve tribes, it says in the end of verse one. That's a Jewish figure, and for James a Jew, a completed Jew, writing to this group of people as the twelve tribes. He's obviously putting his pen to paper with a largely Jewish audience in mind. And he says that these twelve tribes were dispersed, meaning that James is writing to a largely Jewish audience of converts. These are completed Jews who have been scattered around the area of Palestine. I gave you a timeline last week. Jesus died and was resurrected about AD 30. About AD 35-37 a very intense persecution broke out in Jerusalem where Stephen, a deacon in the church, and the Apostle James were both martyred. And it was shortly after that, after the persecution that scattered these believers from that early church in Jerusalem, it was after the scattering, shortly, that James wrote this particular letter. He's concerned for these people. Probably many of them were formerly members in the church he served. and now the numbers in that church were smaller. So he writes this letter broadcasting it out to the people that used to be filling those pews out of great pastoral love and concern for them. He didn't want them to negotiate their faith. He didn't want them to say one thing with their lips and then live another way with their life. He wanted them to be very consistent in what they said and what they did. And so he wrote this letter. At first glance, at first read, this particular letter appears to be a rather eclectic collection of exhortations of how to live an ethical life before the Lord. How to live with consistency. How to not be a hypocrite, but how to live the life you say you believe. He touches on a variety of different topics. But this is not merely an eclectic collection. It's not merely a group of exhortations that are rather haphazardly thrown together. No, he has reason for what he communicates here. He wants these people, wherever they might be, to display Christ. They have said they have believed, and their life has begun to change and transform. But now they're away from family, and they're away from friends, and they're away from the businesses that they used to own, and they're away from the employees that knew them. Now they're in another part of the world. They're scattered, they're dispersed. And James says, live the life that is true within you. Demonstrate, prove, verify that you are indeed among God's people. And everyone will know it by the way that you live your life. So immediately, without getting into anything else, James launches into the first area where he wants his readers to consider. Read with me, beginning at verse 2 through verse 12. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position. And the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass, he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass, and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed. So too the rich man, in the midst of his pursuits, will fade away. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial. For once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him." Now he says a lot in this one segment, in this first segment, and we'll have to spend some time here in this first segment. This morning we're only going to to wade in about knee-deep. I want you to look at Verse two, verses two through four, is basically what we'll cover this morning. I want to make two points here. These are the two main points in your outline. I want to talk about the nature of troubles and I want to talk about the purpose of troubles. The nature of troubles and the purpose of troubles. James is asking this question right out of the chute. How do you deal with difficulties, with afflictions, persecutions, disappointments, broken promises? How do you handle frustrations, misunderstandings, unfulfilled dreams, dashed expectations? What do others see when your heart aches? What do others see when you are deeply lonely? What do others see when you are fearful? What do others see when you are unjustly criticized? What do others see when t-r-o-u-b-l-e walks in your front door? Do other people distinctly see Christ in you? The last thing that is recorded that Jesus said in his upper room discourse, that's the discourse that Jesus gave when he instituted the Lord's Supper, right before he went to Gethsemane and prayed the high priestly prayer and then was arrested, subsequently crucified. The last word that's recorded that Jesus said in the upper room is this, John 16 verse 33, these things I have spoken to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation. The NIV renders it, in this world you have trouble. But take courage, Jesus says, I have overcome the world. One author quipped, we are born naked, wet, and hungry, then things get worse. Listen as I read a couple of passages from the Old Testament, Job chapter 5. One of Job's so-called friends correctly says this, man is born for trouble as sparks fly upward. As sure as it is when you are before a campfire and you see sparks rise, with that same certainty, man is born for trouble. Job himself replies a few chapters later, man is of few days and full of trouble. David says, Psalm 22, Be not far from me, my God, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. The Apostle Paul echoes the same idea in 2 Corinthians 4. We are afflicted in every way, perplexed, persecuted, struck down. And Jesus wasn't immune to all of this three times in the span of so many chapters. Does he say these words, or do we read these words of him? John chapter 11, he was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled. Chapter 12, Jesus says himself, now my soul has become troubled. We read in chapter 13, when Jesus had said this he became troubled in spirit and testified and said, truly, truly I say to you that one of you will betray me. Yes, Jesus knew and understood what trouble was all about. So trouble is everywhere. It's the usual. It is the everyday. Trouble is variegated. It is multi-colored, if you will. If you look at chapter 2 of James 1, verse 2, I'm sorry, he says, when you encounter various trials, that word various, if it was in relation to colors, would be translated variegated. multi-colored like Joseph's coat of many colors. So trouble surrounds us. It is everywhere. It has all kinds of shapes and colors and feeling to it. In the book of 1 Peter chapter 4, just a couple pages over, Peter writes, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you. No, trouble is not strange. Trouble is normal. Trouble is expected. Am I being a pessimist? No, I am being a realist. This is our life, is it not? Is there not one of us who is not regularly, daily experienced to some degree, some differing color of trouble? We have all experienced it. Now you've already observed, I'm sure, in James chapter 1 that James does not use the word trouble as I have so far this morning. Trouble is my word, it's not the biblical word. The biblical word that you read in verse 2 of chapter 1 is the word trials, unless you're using the King James translation, and you find the word temptations. The Greek word periasmos means trial or temptation depending on the context. It's a neutral word. That's why I chose the word trouble because it's neutral. It doesn't have necessarily a positive or a negative feel to it. It's just difficulty. It's frustration. It is angst. It is loneliness. It is pain. It is hurt. It comes in all kinds of colors, all kinds of words. But James uses the word trials. This Greek word means to try, to prove, to examine, to assay. In the world of metals, in metallurgy, to assay a piece of ore is to try it, prove it, examine it, and see what the metal content is of this ore. So trials, prove, test, try what is really inside of us. Now Satan, through these trials, through this proving, through this examination, wants us to fail the test. And he wants to expose in us sin. He wants us, in the midst of this fire, to say, thui, to all this God talk. He wants us to walk away. At that point, in that kind of a context, from that kind of a persona, we would translate this particular Greek word, temptation. That's the end. That's the desire of Satan. He wants in this testing to bring our defeat. So it is a temptation to evil. But we read in chapter 1 verse 13, God himself cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone. He never wants us to fail. He knows we will, but he doesn't want that. That is not his ultimate desire. And so in the context of chapter 1 verse 2, we translate this neutral Greek word as a trial. God wants us to pass the test. Satan wants us to fail the test. God wants, as a result of this testing process, He wants it to reveal our faith. Now it says in verse 2, when you encounter various trials. Not if. It will happen. God actively brings trial into our life. Not for the end that we fail the test. He doesn't tempt us He wants to prove us. He wants to examine, to see what really is inside. The word translated encounter in verse 2 is a compound Greek word. The root verb means to fall and then there's a preposition that's attached to it that means around. So the idea is that The word means to fall into something that is all around you, or to be surrounded by something. So what James has in mind is that these trials, these troubles, are on occasion going to be all around us. You've had days like that, where everything seems to be a struggle, a difficulty. problem. It just doesn't end. At that point you are encountering troubles of all kinds. You are surrounded by them. That's the nature of trouble. It's everywhere, it's multi-colored, and it is a test. What am I going to do with this? leads us to page two of your notes. The purpose of trials. There are two that I'd like to mention this morning. We could come up with a longer list, but this will get us started. First, troubles expose faith. Troubles expose faith. Now it's been, let's see here, about 37 years ago that I went shopping for a wedding ring. All wedding bands are not created equal. Did you know that? You could theoretically go into a jewelry store and you could come across two wedding bands that are virtually identical from the outside, as you look at them through the case, they're virtually identical except for the price tag. And one is much higher than the other. Why? Well, probably because of the higher gold content. The most pure gold is called 24 karat gold. Karat is a unit of measure. 24 karat gold means out of 24 parts there are 24 parts that are gold. 18 karat gold means that out of 24 parts, 18 parts are gold. The other six is an alloy like silver or nickel. If you have 14 karat gold, that's what the inside of my wedding band says, that means out of 24 parts, 14 are gold and 10 are alloy of some sort. So roughly 60% pure gold. Well, pure gold is rather malleable. You can hammer it, you can do a variety of things with pure gold. I don't want something that's going to be easily smashed on my finger. So I am very okay with a little bit more than 40% of this wedding band being made out of an alloy for strength and durability. I'm perfectly okay with that. but the more valuable gold will have to stay in the furnace for a longer period of time in order for all of the impurities to rise to the surface that they might be removed so that at the end you have 24 karat gold. So for precious metals there is a proving, there is a testing, there is an assaying process whereby we gain pure gold. Now God puts us into the furnace of affliction. for a reason. He wants to prove, he wants to test, he wants to assay, not gold, he wants to assay our faith. Because the fire of affliction exposes who we really are. It's very easy for people to say that they are Christians. And it's easy to act like one when the road is smooth, when the waters are calm, when there are shoes on your feet and there's food in your tummy. But who you really are is exposed when the road turns into rocks and the waves are over your head and one shoe falls off and you're waiting for the other shoe to drop. And when old mother Hubbard comes into the house and the cupboards are bare. You see, it's easy to say that you're a Christian, but people see that you're a Christian in the way you handle trouble. It's when you are in the fire of affliction, that's when the purity of your faith is exposed. It's revealed. Isaiah says this in chapter 48 verse 10 behold the Lord is speaking here behold I have refined you but not as silver I have tested you in the furnace of affliction Blessed is that man, that woman, who understands God's process of testing us, trying us, assaying us to discern what's really in your heart. And James writes this to this scattered people to both challenge them and assure them These troubles are normal. Make sure that they are exposing exactly what needs to be exposed. Namely, the character of Christ. A smooth sea never reveals the skill of a sailor. Look with me over at 1st Peter chapter 1, verse 6. In this you rejoice, you greatly rejoice, he writes, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is a good thing, a painful thing, but a good thing to be fired by God, to be in the furnace of affliction, because there God exposes our faith. I just thought of this this morning in the second chapter of the book of Philippians if you want to turn there with me Paul says this in Philippians 2 verse 14 do all things without grumbling or disputing so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world." It's for this reason Paul says don't complain in the midst of your troubles instead Let those troubles prove, display, expose whose you are and what you are all about. Rather than complain to God about your struggles, your trials, your troubles, trust Him and allow other people to see your trust. A complaining heart reveals unbelief. allow those trials to expose faith. Well I've already started on my second point, in the middle of my second point. Purpose of trials, number one, troubles, the purpose of troubles or trials, first troubles expose faith, second troubles enlarge faith. Troubles enlarge faith. Look with me at at verse 3, James chapter 1. We will encounter various trials and then he says, knowing, stop right there, remember this is a pastor who is writing to a goodly number of people that will be reading a letter that were former congregants in the church he served. And so this word knowing, in my thinking, causes me to ask, has he already said these things to these people? Is he saying, knowing, anticipating that they already knew because he already told them? I can't be sure. They're encountering various trials, knowing this, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. The NAS footnote says we could also translate that Greek word steadfastness. That's accurate. We could also translate that Greek word patience. We could also translate it patient endurance. It carries with it the idea of perseverance. Trials, the testing of our faith, produces endurance. It produces patience. It produces long-suffering. It produces steadfastness. It produces a perseverance. Now please don't get in your mind that this is some kind of passive, suck-it-up, gut-it-out kind of endurance. It's not that at all. It's very active. What James is advocating here, what he is pushing his people toward, what he is encouraging them to grab onto, is not to just sit back with their arms folded, just waiting for the trial, the difficulty, the frustration to just go away. No, he's not advocating them to be passive, but active. Active doing what? Thank you for the question. Active in choosing to trust God. Looking to Him for wisdom. Are we going to find that here in the next verses? Trusting Him for wisdom. Trusting Him for strength through that trial. look with me at Psalm 97 Psalm 97 verse 10 it says hate evil you who love the Lord And now the next couple of phrases he's going to talk about this Lord that we love. Hate evil you who love the Lord, who preserves the souls of his godly ones. He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. God preserves as I persevere. God delivers as I endure. and I am seeking Him. I am longing to understand Him. I am pursuing Him. Him who preserves. Him who delivers. The story is told of a man who brought a new dog home. He wanted to train this dog to be obedient. Not just a little obedient, but very obedient. And so he began by taking a piece of red meat that was succulent by itself merely in its aroma. He began by taking that kind of a piece of meat and placing it in a dish right next to the dog and then very sternly said, The first few times that dog didn't understand, didn't care, simply pounced all over that meat and enjoyed himself immensely. And then he was severely disciplined. This process was a process, but eventually the dog understood. If he didn't want to be disciplined, he didn't eat until the master said, okay. The owner of the dog noticed that as the dog became more and more obedient, the dog did not even look at the meat in the bowl beside him. His eyes were fixed on the master waiting for the okay to eat. Here's the point, victory over temptation, endurance through a trial, comes by gazing steadfastly into the eyes of the Master. He wants us to pass the test. He puts us in that fire of affliction, that furnace of affliction, in order to expose what we are really all about, and to enlarge our faith. He wants us to trust Him. When we learn to trust Him in little things, He will give us the opportunity to trust Him in bigger things. So we watch and we wait. We actively seek Him. Look at verse 4 in our text. James says, and let endurance have its perfect result. so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. He wants us to be mature. He wants us, whatever the situation is, whatever the trouble is, whatever the trial is, no matter how multi-colored it might be, no matter how surrounded we might be in troubles, He wants us to keep our eyes fixed on Him. In the verses two through four that we've been looking at so far this morning, there is one imperative. There is one command. It's in verse four. We translate it by the word have in English. Let endurance have its perfect result. In other words, James says, we must allow the furnace of affliction to do its job, rather than yielding to the temptation, walking away from the trouble, responding by bitterness, by complaining, by these kinds of fleshly ways. Rather than that, evidence of unbelief, We must allow the furnace of affliction to produce what God intends. Namely, a greater faith, a greater trust, a greater confidence in Him. Because we know that He will protect, He will deliver us from those, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians, those slight and momentary afflictions. Turn with me over to 2nd Timothy. In 2nd Timothy chapter 1, Paul says, I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard that which I have entrusted to him until that day. What did Paul entrust to the Lord? Was it not his faith? I mean his soul? He believed he had faith in the fact that God was going to deliver him ultimately from sin, from Satan, from himself? I am convinced that he is able to guard that which I have entrusted to him until that day. Look over chapter 4. toward the end of the chapter, verse 18. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. You know, it's at times like this, where we're in the middle of this first section in the book of James, I cannot help but turn to the last chapter in the novel to see whodunit. We've got to turn to chapter 1, verse 12. He says, James says, blessed is a man who perseveres under trial. For once he has been approved, that is, come through the furnace of affliction, he will receive the crown of life. Or maybe we might better translate that, he will receive the crown that is life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. You may notice that we haven't said anything about the beginning of verse 2 where he says, count it all joy my brethren. in light of all that we've talked about so far. Namely, God's personal, individual care on your life and my life to strategically allow or place us into a particular furnace for the purpose of exposing our faith and enlarging our faith in light of a God who loves us that much. James says, Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, because you have a God who cares for you, who intimately loves you, in ways you are only beginning to understand. When I read this in the original language this week, it brought a smile to my face and a sense of exultation in my mind. The first two words in verse two in the Greek text are these, all joy. Greek scholars, grammarians will say, well that's putting that phrase in the emphatic position meaning that this is how the Greeks would highlight something, where they'd put it in boldface text. There's a couple of ways they could do it. You can repeat something, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Peter, Peter. You can repeat something and it puts it in that kind of neon lights. You can also do that by putting something first. grammatically that it works in Greek. But the first thing out of the chute when James begins writing his letter is all joy. That does not mean that the pain, the suffering, the anguish, the conflict, the difficulty, the loneliness, I am not happy that these things take place. I don't pray for those things necessarily to come into my life. They're going to come regardless. God wants them to come because that's how he grows people. So in response to whatever's happened, and James is writing to a scattered, dispersed people who understand the furnace of affliction personally, the first thing he says is, all joy. You've got to listen to this by Warren Wiersbe. This is brilliant. Quote, when God puts his own people into the furnace, He keeps his eye on the clock and his hand on the thermostat. He knows how long and how much. We may question why he does it to begin with or why he doesn't turn down the heat or even turn it off. But our questions are only evidences of unbelief. Job 23.10 is the answer. But he knows the way I take. When he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. Gold does not fear the fire. The furnace can only make the gold purer and brighter. A young man was trying to establish himself as a peach grower. He worked very hard and he invested all that he had in his peach orchard. It blossomed wonderfully early one spring and then came a late frost. Immediately afterwards, he stopped going to church. He missed one Sunday, missed two Sundays, missed three Sundays, missed four Sundays. The pastor went and called on him. And he said to the pastor, this young man said to the pastor, I'm not coming to church any longer. Do you think I can worship a God who cares for me so little that he will let a frost kill my peaches? The seasoned pastor sat there for a few moments in silence, and then kindly, gently explained, God loves you more than he loves your peaches. He knows that while peaches do better without frost, it is impossible to grow the best men without frosts. And God's goal is to grow men, not peaches. The hymn writer captured it this way. We sang it just last week. When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design thy dross to consume, thy gold to refine. Let's pray.