On October 29, 1941, Winston Churchill gave the commencement speech at his alma mater. Churchill had just led Great Britain through her darkest hour, pounded by German bombers night after night for months. London had looked to Churchill for their inspiration to persevere through that terror. He returned to his alma mater to deliver, if not the briefest, then perhaps the most famous commencement address in history. His alma mater was the famous All Boys School in London, Harrow. Churchill's career at Harrow had been less than stellar. In fact, he nearly flunked out three times. It's often the case that people like that end up making commencement addresses. Isn't that interesting? He stood at the podium to address the graduates. Never give up, he said, and he returned to his seat. And he got up again. Never give up, he said, and he returned again to his seat. Again, there was some scattered applause at that point. He got up a third time, stood at the podium. Never give up, never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never. In nothing greater, small, larger, petty, never give in except to convictions of honor or good sense. And I have the same thing to say to you this morning. As you further your education, as you make your way towards some kind of a commencement, I'm sure some of you are looking for that at some point here in the near future, I say the same thing to you. Never give up. Never give in. Never. You are enrolled here at Bob Jones University, but you are also enrolled in what I call God's school of lifelong learning. We find a description of the curriculum in God's school of lifelong learning here in James chapter 1. Most schools of higher education publish a catalog, a bulletin that explains their curriculum, encourages the students to take advantage of what they offer. And here in James 1 verses 2 through 4, we have the bulletin, we have the catalog for God's school of lifelong learning. James 1 beginning at verse 2, My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Now it's interesting, this catalog, this bulletin announces but one major in God's school. All students in God's school major in endurance. In verses 2 and 3, James tells us that everything in God's school of lifelong learning is designed to produce patience in the student. And if you belong to Jesus Christ, you've enrolled, and this is your major. Now, I don't particularly like the King James Version translation here, patience. Patience doesn't really strike the right chord. We think of waiting in a hospital when we think of patience. We think of sitting at a red light drumming our fingers on the steering wheel when we think of patience. That is not the idea here. This word actually comes from two words in the original language. The prefix means under. And the root word means to remain. And so the word means basically to remain under a burden and continue to make progress. When I think about this word, I think about the way emperors were transported in ancient times. There would be four guys, each with a pole on their shoulder at the end of what was called a brome. And that's how royalty was transported. Have you ever thought about that job of that guy who had that pole on his shoulder, mile after mile after mile? That's a picture of this Word remaining under the burden and continuing to make progress. Endurance. Perseverance. That's your major. That's my major in God's school of lifelong learning. Now, in most college bulletins, after the description of the major, there comes a list of courses in the major. And here in our passage, God also lists the courses in this endurance major. He says, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. knowing that the testing of your faith will produce this endurance, this perseverance. So what's the course list here? Diverse temptations. Now again, the translation here in our King James Version really no longer rings the bell 500 years after it was translated. When we think of temptation today, we think of inner solicitation to do evil. That is not what James is talking about. Why would we count it joy when we sense an inner solicitation to do evil? That's not the idea here. Rather, this word is perfectly neutral. It speaks of external circumstances that try us and test us. And the Apostle Paul gives us a list of these trials and testings over in Romans chapter 8. Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. Anything from persecution, to sickness, to financial setback, to interpersonal conflict, to time pressure, to stress is included in the course curriculum. I heard that many of you here are taking grad stats right now. That's on the course list for this major in endurance. And in fact, there are so many different courses. The word that James uses here is the word diverse. The word literally means multicolored. It was used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament of Joseph's code of many colors. The word was used in ancient times to describe stones of many different colors. You know, when I was a kid, we used to go to the beach, and I can remember as a kid going into one of those little hole-in-the-wall stores at the beach and buying a little card that had about 25 or 30 different stones of different colors on it. You ever see one of those? That's the idea here. These trials come in every different shape and size. And then there's one more word used here in verse 2 to define the curriculum. The word fall. It says we fall into various trials, into diverse temptations. And this word has the idea of something unexpected. Jesus uses this word in Luke chapter 10 in the parable of the Good Samaritan when it says that the man fell among thieves. That was something unexpected, uninvited, unwelcome. And that's the word that's used here about these trials that we face. They're unexpected. There's no announcement that they're coming. This word reminds us of, you know, the professor who tells you at the beginning of the semester, now you need to keep up with your reading because from time to time I'm going to give you a pop quiz when you come into class. That's the idea here. I guess we could say that God tells us that part of the curriculum in this school of lifelong learning are pop quizzes. He administers these trials, these tests at any time and we must be ready. So that's the description in the course catalog from God's school of lifelong learning. If you belong to Jesus Christ, you're enrolled. You are enrolled in this major, this major of endurance. You are taking this course of various trials. You may think it's strange that everybody in God's school majors in the same major, but there are schools like that. If you go to a Bible school, everybody majors in Bible. And in God's school, everyone majors in the same major, endurance. And there are two good reasons for that. Our passage reveals two good reasons why we all major in endurance. First of all, verse three tells us here that endurance proves the genuineness of our faith. Verse three uses the words, the testing of your faith. That word testing has the idea of testing to see that something is genuine. Now, many of you are younger than me. But I have hope that you have seen, because of Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network now, one of the classic cartoons from when I was a child, Underdog. How many of you have seen Underdog? The beginning of every underdog cartoon, you were introduced to underdog and his mild-mannered alter ego, the shoeshine boy. And I have burned into my memory the image of a person flipping a coin to the shoeshine boy and him taking it and crunching it between his teeth to see if it is counterfeit or genuine. That's the idea here. God says we're all in this major called endurance. We are having these various trials as pop quizzes in our lives and the reason that God does this is to demonstrate the genuineness or counterfeit quality of our faith. You see, Jesus, to Jesus, endurance is a central quality as far as our salvation is concerned. Three times in the gospels, Jesus makes this statement, but he who endures to the end shall be saved. What we do in the face of these trials is important because it is a demonstration, it's evidence to us that we have genuinely been regenerated by the Lord Jesus Christ. The primary evidence, I believe, in your life and mine that our faith is genuine is that we endure. that we keep on keeping on, that we never give up in the Christian life. And so the first reason that all of us are enrolled in the major called endurance is so that God can show us the genuineness or the counterfeit quality of our faith. And then verse four goes on to give a second good reason. why God's school has only one major, and it's endurance. And that is that endurance is the key to spiritual maturity. Verse 4 says that when we let endurance do its work in our lives completely, then we will reach spiritual maturity. The end of verse 3 uses three terms. It says perfect and complete and lacking nothing. That describes a Christian who has reached the goal that God has for them, who lacks nothing, no skill, no character trait that God envisions for His people. Now that's an amazing description. I mean, it sounds almost like a commercial. Christian, do you want to reach full spiritual maturity? Do you want to have everything that God wants you to have to be everything that God wants you to be? Well, then just write today for this secret formula. Except it's not a secret formula. It's actually something very simple. It's enduring in the face of trials. Why does God bring someone unlovely into our lives, someone hard to handle, someone hard to deal with, someone hard to love, so we can run as fast as we can in the other direction? So we can spend our days avoiding them? No, so that by enduring that situation in God's grace, we can learn to bear the fruit of the spirit called love. Why does God put us under so much pressure that we think we can't bear it for another week? Under so much pressure day to day that we must cast ourselves upon Him for strength so that we can quit, so we can find another job, so we can go another direction? No. So that by continuing to move forward under that burden, we develop the fruit of the Spirit called long-suffering. I could go on and on, but you understand what I'm talking about here. Enduring various trials is the key to spiritual maturity. Now I'm not just talking about grinning and bearing it here. Remember what I said about endurance. It means staying under the burden and continuing to move in the direction that God wants you to do by means of His grace and His enabling. So this is the school of lifelong learning. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're enrolled in the major called endurance. Now, enduring is a pretty straightforward thing. This is not a complicated major, but I will tell you that it is a long course of study. Oftentimes in this chapel, we have guys that are enrolled in the Master of Infinity program, and it's kind of like that. Enduring is not a complicated thing, but you and I don't get out of this major until Jesus comes or we die. It is a school of lifelong learning. Now, before I close, James asks us here to make two decisions with regard to this school, with regard to this major, with regard to this course of study. First of all, God asks each student to take the right attitude toward the major that they're in, the right attitude toward this school. In verse two, he says, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, into diverse temptations. God says, count it pure joy to be enrolled in this curriculum. Now, some of you are saying, wait a minute, Are you telling me that I'm supposed to feel good about trials? And the answer to that question is no. You weren't expecting that, were you? You see, this verse doesn't say anything about feelings. In fact, for the most part, the big part of the problem that we have when we face trials and temptations is that we emote. And those emotions grip us and we give in to them and we end up saying, I've had enough. I quit. But God doesn't tell us to emote. He tells us to think. The word count at the beginning of verse two is a thinking word. It is a word that speaks of mental evaluation. God is asking us to think about the situation, to realize when that trial comes down the road toward us that God is ringing the school bell and class session is in. God is asking each of us when we face the many, many different kinds of trials in our lives to realize that God is at work in each of them, educating us, bringing us to spiritual maturity. He's asking us to see the God-given value in those trials. And he's asking us to realize based on all of that, that we ought to have a sense of joy. Now, I didn't say happiness. You know what happiness is, don't you? Happiness is something that just happens. It's based on that same root. And it can just as easily unhappen. Joy is something different. Joy is based on this mental evaluation of what God is doing in my life. It's something deeper than happiness, something beyond happiness. I believe that a person can actually be unhappy and joyful at the same time. We are to count it all joy, even though those trials may be so difficult that they are breaking our heart because we see what God is doing. So first of all, we have to count it all joy that God has enrolled us in this curriculum and this course of various trials. And then the second decision we find in verse four. God commands us to let endurance have its perfect work, to complete its work in our lives. Some years back, I was part of a mission team that went to the highlands of Haiti. And some of you know Dr. Bell. I was there with Dr. Bell's sister, Sarah Bennett. She helps to direct the mission for Haiti. And on one particular afternoon, we had built a bunch of pews that we were taking to an outstation church. And so we got in a truck and we traveled the worst roads that I have ever seen in my life. But the roads weren't the most interesting thing that day. As we traveled, we would pass from time to time these little donkeys, about this big. And inevitably they had tied on their backs bundles of sticks. This is what they used to build their houses out of. This is what they used to cook there in Haiti. And so you would see these little burrows with these sticks on their back, and there would be a Haitian behind them with a switch keeping them moving. But every now and then, you would see one of these burrows that had lain down under the burden. And it would not move. Sarah told me that she had seen Haitians beat burros nearly to death. And with that burden on their back, they would not move. The only way to get them to move was to take the burden off of their back. Then they would get up. To me, that is a picture of many Christians in God's school of lifelong learning. God puts a burden on our back, a test, a trial of some sort, and he says, I want you to bear up under this burden, and I want you to continue to make progress in the Christian life, trusting me. And many Christians lay down under that burden and they say, no, no, I will not. And in fact, in some of our lives, this is the habit. God wants to do certain things in our lives. He wants us to learn certain lessons. He wants us to mature in certain ways. And each time he puts that burden on us, we say, no, I will not move. I will not bear that burden. I will not keep moving in the direction you would have me go. And so the second decision that I would ask of all of you this morning, you're enrolled. If you belong to Jesus Christ, you are in this major. The courses are being administered. When God puts that burden on your back, never give up, never give in, never, never, never, never. Heavenly Father, I ask that you will seal this lesson. It's not an easy lesson. That you'll seal this lesson to my heart, that you'll seal this lesson to the heart of Every believer here, we're thankful, Lord, that you say that in the midst of these trials, you'll never leave us nor forsake us, that you are a God of all grace and a God of all comfort, and that while we keep on keeping on, we can do so knowing that you will give us grace and strength to do just that. Bless these students, I pray, in their endeavors In these weeks, I pray in Jesus' name, amen.