Well, good morning. It's good to be in the house of the Lord. It's good to meditate and learn about his word. One thing I love about sharing the word is when I study, I learn so much. When Martin Luther was being sent off to preach in Wittenberg, he asked the father superior of the Augustinian order not to send him. He said, I have too much to learn. And Stoppard said, Martin, we preach best what we need to learn the most. And I think that's very true for all of us. So let me get situated here and then We will start. I always start my timer because one time I was preaching at a church and the pastor said, don't worry about time. Take as long as you want. So I did. And I made him mad. I don't want to do that today. Plus, if you preach too long, you lose your audience. I don't think that's very honoring to the Lord to lose your audience. Well, while I was thinking about what I could go over today, I wanted to preach something that could apply to all of us here. Sometimes, and it's OK to do this, but sometimes when you preach, you focus on a certain age or a certain issue, and it doesn't apply to the church as a whole. And I prayed about it and I decided that something that affects the youngest to the oldest in all walks of life is trials that we face and how we are affected by the trials and how we are to respond to those trials. Normally, when you're preaching through trials, you would probably exegete first Peter. but I'm only preaching today, and so we're going to just focus on a small passage in the book of James. Now, since we're jumping into the book of James and we're not going to go through the entire book, I want to do just a quick overview so we understand who James is and why he wrote the book. The most interesting thing about the book of James is his name. In Greek, it means Iakobos. And in Hebrew, and I'm not showing off, I'm not a Hebrew scholar, so if you have any questions Hebrew, go to Pastor Kerry, not me. And if he doesn't, there's my old professor at Liberty, his name is Dr. Yates. He's a brilliant mind, and he loves talking about all things Old Testament, and so if you have a Hebrew question, I always go to Dr. Yates. But in Hebrew, it is Yaakon, or Yaakov. And that does not mean James. It means Jacob. And so in reality, it's the Book of Jacob. So how did we come to get the name James? Around 1611, the King of England put out a decree to the Church of England saying, I want a new Bible translated to use in the Anglican Church. And so they did. And this was kind of a political move. And so they decided to change the name of Jacob to the name of the king, King James. And so from then on, it's widely accepted in the English language that the name is James. So I don't want to distract anybody. I'm not going to call him Jacob. We'll just stick with what the translators changed it to, and that is James. Now I do not want anyone to be confused because there's a few Jacobs or James in the Bible in the New Testament. The man who wrote the book of James was not the brother of John. This was not Jesus's cousin. But more or less it is the author of the book is the half-brother of Jesus. So this is the son of Mary and Joseph. This is the same James that is spoken of in Acts 12 and 15. And this is the same James that Paul talked about to the Galatians in chapters 1 and 2. Now this James became the Bishop of Jerusalem, and that is the mother church of all churches. And so we had a very prominent place in the early church. That also refutes to the mistake that people believe that Peter was the Bishop or the Pope of the church. That's not correct. It was the mother church is Jerusalem, and James was the pastor of Jerusalem. And so James, more or less, headed off the church in the first century after Jesus descended. Ascended, excuse me. When James wrote the book, the church of Jerusalem, of course, was widely made up of Messianic Jews, and that's to say they were Christian Jews. This is also the first time that we see in history a community of Christians. James, the book of James is an interesting book because this does not deal with a particular church issue. It's not even like an epistle where Paul is chastising a church or Paul is praising a church. The book of James doesn't really deal with any individual doctrines. The book of James is a vast resource of biblical New Testament Christian wisdom that James is sharing with his church. Now, when we understand what the church of Jerusalem was going through, that makes perfect sense, because they were suffering a lot of persecution and suffering under the hands of the Sahedrin. In fact, James was martyred by being dropped to the top of the temple mount and thrown from the temple building. And when the Sanhedrin found that he was still alive, they clubbed him to death. And so James understood the topic that we are going to be talking about. And that is in James 1, and we'll be doing 2 through 8. And James understood what it was to suffer. James understood the trials of a Christian. Now, if we were to do a word study on the word trial, we could probably come up with many different meanings. What James is talking about to the church, and yes, he's widely talking about talking to the Jews, but in reality, this has been used Jews and Gentiles alike, so he's most certainly talking to us. And the word trial that James talks about is a difficulty or an adversity that you experienced, and it will be one that will test your faith Mostly this sermon, I will be applying it to the individual Christian. So don't be thinking about any other person. Don't try to apply it. I want you to look in the mirror and apply this to your own self. However, before we would go on to the individual lessons, I want us as a whole church and those listening and share it with your other Christian friends. But I want all of us to understand that we have a major duty to our brothers and our sisters who are suffering and going through a trial. Do not turn your back on a hurting brother or sister in Christ. Do not ignore a distressed Christian's soul. Do not downplay someone's internal pain and struggling. Instead, we are commanded by Jesus Christ to show them the unconditional love of Jesus Christ that is naturally given to us when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, when our eyes were opened and we were saved by faith. This is so important to practice because the devil will often try to cause our brothers and sisters to stumble and fall when we are going through a trial. He tries to get us to turn away from God. And so if that were to happen, that is a failure of the church. I do believe we'll be held accountable when we stand before the throne of grace. Serving one another when we are going through trial is, again, nothing short than our Christian duty. And duty is another important word. In no place will you ever hear the word duty taken lightly. Through history or your job, duty is always taken seriously. A good example is during the Napoleonic Wars. the French and Spanish fleet faced off the British fleet off of Spain in a battle that was come to known as the Battle of Trafalgar. And this was such an important battle that it determined the outcome of the war and pretty much determined the course of history throughout the world. the British Royal Navy understood that this battle greatly depended on them, or the war, more or less, depended on them. And as they sailed into battle against the French and the Spanish, they were greatly outnumbered. And so Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson sent a signal to the fleet via his flagship, and all it said was this, England expects that every man will do his duty. What did he mean? He meant, you are in the service of His Majesty King George III. Do your job. Don't fail. And throughout the Bible, I find a very similar signal sent to the kingdom of heaven, or by the kingdom of heaven, to the armies of Christ. And it says, the kingdom of heaven expects that every Christian will do their duty. We are in the service of Christ our King. We need to act like it. And you are to do your duty by loving God's children. I don't believe you can be a child of God and show contempt and hate towards God's children. And that's true just here in this gathering, but also throughout the world. The kingdom of Christ expands far beyond these walls. We're not alone. Christians are everywhere and we are to serve them and love them no matter when we come in contact with them. And honestly, you don't have to look very hard to find a Christian that is going through trial. And so now, if you would turn to James 1, verse, I'll be reading verse two through eight. And James says, my brethren, count it all a joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let that patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives you all liberally and without reproach, And it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. So immediately, this is, again, I'm not perfect, okay, so I have a lot to learn, and I fail quite a bit, and I have to take it before the Lord. But immediately, I was convicted, and I'm sure many of you, especially our older brothers and sisters here who have gone through quite a bit of trials, they understand more than some of us younger ones, but immediately I was convicted. My brethren, count it a joy when you fall into various trials. When I fall into trials, I'm not usually joyful, it's hard. So I'm thinking, wow, what is James trying to tell us? And why in the world would we count a trial a joy? Well, let us turn to the words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 5. And of course, all scripture is inspired, but this is the words of Jesus while he was here with us on this earth. So turn to Matthew 5, and we are gonna be starting in the middle of the attitudes. Now, I'm very careful when I hop around. not to rip scripture and take it out of context. So this is not out of context. I've been very careful not to take it out of context just to fit my sermon. But we're going to skip around a little bit of the attitudes, and we're going to start in verse 4, and then we'll go down to verse 10, 11, and 12. Okay? So again, I've been very careful not to rip this out of context. But in Matthew 5 verse 4, Jesus says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. I'll go down to verse 10. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. And so Jesus is reiterating what I was teaching a little bit earlier. What exactly is Jesus telling us? He is telling us that in this life we will suffer for Christ. It's expected of a Christian to suffer because Jesus Christ suffered. However, it's not all just death and gloom. I don't want you to think it is. Because we have a father in heaven who will comfort us. Our trials will pass. This life, it's just a veil. It's a vapor. It'll disappear very fast. And our Father will comfort us. He will wipe away every tear. And then also, He will make our reward great in heaven. And so, no, there is hope for the Christian. It's not all death and gloom and brimstone and fire. We have a Father who loves us. He is a holy God. He has many attributes. And one of those attributes is love. He's compassionate and long-suffering and merciful. Again, another reason that we should count our trial a blessing and a joy is because trials are what bring us closer to our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Every time you're going through a difficulty, and it could be health, it could be your job, it could be school, it could be someone you love that you see suffering, which I think hurts more than if it's yourself, but it forces you in a relationship, you have a constant communion with Jesus Christ. You're constantly thinking about this trial. It's in the back of your head, and so you're constantly stopping and having to hand it over to the Lord. That's going to draw you closer in a communion with our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ. And of course, the most amazing thing is after our deliverance, once our trial's behind us, we get to see the power and the mercy of God. We get to see the fact that this great, amazing God cared and loved us so much that he delivered us. And then also we're amazed at how simple it was for God to solve, because in our head we were just at rock bottom, and then suddenly God, just like a vapor, just removes it. It was no problem for God. And so we get to see the power and the mercy. We get to see God put back together the broken pieces, and we get to see that our Savior is great and amazing. In Psalm 130, and honestly, the Psalms are amazing, not just 130, but this is just what came to me when I was writing the sermon. Many Psalms are really good to read and pray through when we're going through trials, but in Psalm 130, we see the very beginning, and you don't have to turn there, but we see at the very beginning a cry of help and despair. Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let your ear be attentive to the voice of my supplication." You can feel a desperation of the writer of the psalm of 130, begging God, Lord, hear my voice. Don't turn away from me. I'm all alone in my trial. I need you. There's a desperation. And then as we read through to the very end of the psalm, verses seven through eight, we see that there's mercy and we see that there's hope. Oh Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy. And with him, there is abundant redemption. And so, again, in trials, not just the physical is dealt with, but the spiritual. We're reminded that there is redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then it ends with, and he shall redeem Israel for all iniquities. And I believe that this is, even though this was the Old Testament, it's talking to the Jews, it's talking to the people of God. The church are the people of God today. And so this applies to us. He will cleanse us from all our iniquities. And again, like I said, Counting your trials as a joy is much easier said than done, but it is possible through the grace and the growth of the Lord Jesus Christ. So yes, brethren, count your trials as a joy. Now we go down a little bit to verse three. Then we see, know that testing your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Now again, I want to point out that the word in the Greek that here was translated in the patience does not describe a word that means to be passive or passive waiting. Instead, the word in the Greek would mean something more along the lines of being in a frame of mind that endures. And it definitely does not mean to be anxious, panic, in a state of worry, but rather in a calm state of mind which endures. Now this is important to understand because when you are trying to be patient in a trial, being patient in a trial is another trial on top of the actual trial. So the trial can get you to cause all kinds of sin. And so being patient, I found, is a trial itself. And so we are to be enduring and waiting on the Lord Jesus Christ. So this kind of patience that James is talking about to the people who were suffering major persecution is basically saying you need to believe that Jesus Christ is seated on the throne of grace. And Jesus Christ is going to be seated on the throne of grace through your trial. He is going to work his sovereign will and he will be glorified while doing it. Even if we were to be burned at the stake, I know that's dark, but many Christians have suffered great sufferings. Rachel and I were in England this past June, so we went to the Tower of London, and you saw the graffiti, which back then the graffiti was art, but you had the graffiti that was drawn on the side of these jail cells. Some of them were basically saying they will not defy the Lord their God. And then you go down to this pit, and it shows the rack, and it shows the manacles, and it shows like a clamp where it crushes you. There was all kinds of inhumane tortures. And yet during this time, Christ was on his throne. He was being glorified. He reigned supreme. And so understanding what patience was in this context, we have to understand that Christ understands what is best, so we submit ourselves to his sovereign will, and we patiently wait for his sovereign will, understanding that God knows better than we do. That's very hard. But so many times, when we get our own way, a few years down the road, you realize that is not what I should have been praying for. I really wish I'd have been in the will of the Lord. And those martyrs who were tortured have been in heaven now for 500 years, glorified. sitting at the throne of Jesus Christ, worshiping him in paradise. It passed. It's in a museum now. It's a thing of the past. And so they were tested, they were patient, and they served the Lord well. And now, their reward is great in heaven. Gaining this kind of patience, though, is not easy, and it does not come naturally. So how do we come to possess this kind of patience? It's so easy sometimes to read the Bible, understand sort of what it says, but then have trouble taking the words from the Bible and applying it to our life. And so I want to spend a little bit of time of how do you grow in patience during trials and suffering. James explains to us that the only way to gain this kind of patience is to have our faith tested. Why must we have our faith tested? It's not fun. Again, if we're in the prosperity gospel, what we're lied about in the prosperity gospel is if you just pray hard enough, good things will come your way. However, history and the Bible teach us that's not always the case. So why should we have our faith tested? Well, that's because faith is essential to our salvation. It needs to be tested so we can grow closer to God. Charles Spurgeon, in one of his sermons, explained that faith is as vital to salvation as the heart is vital to the body. Hence the javelins of the enemy are mainly aimed at this essential grace. These trials purge the imperfections of our life so that we may become strong in our faith. These kind of trials in our faith, in many ways, make us mature Christians. Paul talks about Christians who are lukewarm, Christians who are babies in the faith, Christians who are not able to take in meat. He says, I have to give you milk. Those kind of Christians are what is called the weaker brother. Now, again, Baby Christians, we need to encourage them to grow. However, we should never aim to remain a baby weak Christian. Instead, we are to live our life to grow in the faith, to become a mature Christian. And that's because many times weak Christians are often dangerous to the faith, especially if we have grown in our physical years, but we've remained immature in our theology and our faith. And the reason that's dangerous is because oftentimes, the older we get, the more we're used in our churches to, I feel like the new fad is mentoring, like that they give you this title, oh, you mentor people. Well, in many ways, That's been harmful because we have so many weak baby Christians in the faith that you have the blind leading the blind. And I've definitely seen that. So discord and trial and tribulation in the church, resentment in the church, mainly because no one is being fed. And so we need trials to test our faith, to grow in the faith so that we can become useful for the kingdom of God. In many ways, I use the Royal Navy as an example, but we are soldiers of Christ. What makes a warrior is hard training, boot camp. I was watching this podcast where the Navy SEAL interviewed all kinds of veterans. And he was interviewing a British officer who served in Iraq about 10 years ago. And the British veteran told everyone in this podcast that while they're in Iraq, his unit often would have to go on patrols, and they would often fall under attack. And they would have to call for help. And he said, it was widely accepted among everyone there, no matter what nation you were from, when you called for help, you prayed that the people who answered the call was the United States Marine Corps. He said, if it was anyone else, we never relaxed. But if it was the Marine Corps coming to answer the call, we just had to hold out until they got there, because we knew they were going to take care of us. Well, why is that? The entire world has respect for the Marine Corps. It's because in order to become a Marine, you go through rigorous training. You do not go to the Marine Corps to be a baby. There are no babies in the Marine. That hardened them. Their training hardens them. It makes them battle ready. And it makes them elite soldiers. Or excuse me, I should never call a Marine a soldier. It makes them Marines. The most important thing to remember is the trials that you learn in the Marine Corps when you go through boot camp changes you for life. You can pick out a Marine in the crowd just by the way they stand. They're changed. They will never, ever be the same again. From that day forward, they'll be Marines. The same thing as our trials. When you go through spiritual trials, you grow in the faith. And so when you accept faith, you're changed. When your faith is challenged, you're changed. When you go through hard challenges and trials, you're changed. From that day forward, you'll never be the same. You'll be close in communion with Christ, and you will love his church, and you will walk alongside others who need help. And so yes, trials change us for the better. Verses five through seven. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. Now, when I first read this, I had to stop and think, okay, what exactly is James getting at? Okay, so what does he mean, the word liberally, and then the word reproach stuck out to me? So, and also lacking wisdom. So you have wisdom, liberally, and reproach. Those are the three words that stuck out to me. When you go through trials, it's always a good idea to ask for wisdom and understanding. The reason is you don't want there to be a wasted trial. You don't wanna go through suffering and not learn anything. And so it is good to ask God for wisdom so that you can grow. Trials usually knock out our arrogance and our ignorance, and it replaces it with biblical wisdom. So, how can we do this? Again, this is one of those things where I can speak it to you, but I want you to understand, how do you grow in spiritual wisdom? There's only one way to grow in spiritual wisdom, and that is to be in the word of God. Trials drive us to the Word of God, where our hearts are open and ready to receive the teaching through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And so if you have, number one, a dead prayer life, and you have a dead devotion life, which has to do with being in the word of God, you're not going to grow in wisdom. That's a very dangerous place to be as a Christian. And so when you go to a trial, the devil, like I said, is going to try to get you to turn away from God. The way that you can keep that from happening is to make sure that you are in the Word of God, and that's a challenge, because usually when you sit down, you're anxious, panic takes over, you start thinking about what you're going through, and so that's where you need a good prayer life. You need to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to descend upon you, and He will answer you. He's not gonna leave you hanging. And through the trial, when you're in the Word of God, it's how the Lord will speak to you. liberally and without reproach. This is also important to remember when you're going through a trial. God in his infinite knowledge understands exactly what you need to learn. And he does not despise us for coming to him. Usually when we're in a trial, the devil will point out the sin. You're in this because you sinned. And so you are afraid to go before the throne of grace because you see him as a vengeful God. It is true, God hates sin. But it's also true that God is long-suffering and forgiving. And so James is reminding us here that you can go to the throne of grace. He will not hold you in contempt. He will not hold you in reproach. So go to the throne of grace, and he will give you an abundance of knowledge without despising you. In fact, we see verse six says to go without doubts. So don't have doubts, just go to God. Because doubts make us unreliable. It's also a sin. And when we are unreliable, we're useless to the kingdom. So put your doubts aside and go to the Father through the Son, Jesus Christ. He cares about you. He loves you. We see here in verse eight, now verse eight, I'm not gonna lie, it confused me. So I had to pray about this. Because I really wanted to understand what James was saying. And sometimes the Bible can be a little confusing and that's okay. But it says here to be caught in the middle of having faith and being a doubter is almost like being in no man's land. Okay, so verse eight, oh, verse seven, excuse me. Let no man that suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. And it says he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. So it's like being caught in between faith and doubting. Okay, so you might feel like, no, I can go to God. No, no, no, I can't. I can't go to God. And that's saying that you're being tossed back and forth like the waves. It makes you, again, useless to the kingdom. So this is a man or a woman who asks what is not open to the Spirit's answers. Or they ask and refuse to spend time in the Word, like I said earlier. Brethren, one of the most dangerous things you can do when you're asked to hear God's Word is to go out in nature and ask for a sign. God doesn't speak to us through signs anymore. He speaks through the Word of God. And so, go to the Word of God and pray to the Holy Spirit to speak through you. That is where you'll hear the voice of God. And so, brothers and sisters, we will face trials. We're going to face trials. And again, it can be all kinds of trials. It can be trials from your job. It can be a trial of being single. It can be the trial of being in a marriage. They could be persecution, like what the Jews were going through here, because remember how James died? I'm scared of heights. I would not want to be thrown from the temple. That would be a horrible way to die. It could be someone that's bearing false witness against you and destroying your credibility in the community. It can be health issues. It can be school issues. And it can be someone who broke up with you, and I think we've all had heartbreak at some time in our life. That's a trial. We shouldn't downplay that when someone's hurting. And it also can be someone who we love and we've lost. They've passed away. Again, another trial. But each trial will bring challenges that will make us doubt our faith in God. And so I would encourage each one of you to stand firm in the faith. live a life of prayer and be in the word. And when these trials broadside us as they often do, knowing that we have been liberated from the curse of the law, by the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ is such a blessing to keep in the back of our head, that we do have freedom in Jesus Christ, and that no matter what the trial is, again, God is in control. He's on his throne, and he is sovereign, and no matter what happens, even if we are having a difficult time, he is being glorified, and he will deliver you. And so with closing, Pastor Ernie said I can close however, whichever way I want. And so what I would like to do, I love giving benedictions. And so if we would stand for the benediction and then our brother can close us. And the reason I love benedictions is it's just nice to I don't know, go back out into the world where there are trials, but knowing that you've been prayed over and that there is a sovereign God in heaven. So as you go from this place, may the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen. Number 345.