Welcome to the online home of Providence Christian Church in Cape Coral, Florida. If you would like more information, visit us online at providencecapecoral.com. Now may the Lord bless the preaching and the hearing of his word. Good job, kids. Thank you very much. I invite you to remain standing. the reading of God's holy and inerrant word. Over the last several weeks, we've been looking at various things that God cannot do and how that makes him all the more glorious and how those inabilities of God are to the Christian's comfort. We've seen that God cannot learn. God cannot be confined to a space. God cannot be seen. God cannot look at wrongdoing. Last time, James told us that God cannot change. This morning, James is going to tell us that God cannot be tempted with evil, and I hope Uh, that this morning that will be a great encouragement to each and every one of us. So I'll read just a couple of verses here from James's letter. And then, um, one of the petitions that our Lord Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's prayer, um, in Matthew six. So give attention to the reading of God's holy word. James chapter one, verses two and three here, the word of the Lord. James says, count it all joy. My brothers. when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Unless steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Now turn down to verse 12. 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. Let no one say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it's fully grown, brings forth death." Now let's turn over to Matthew 6. Again, this is in the context of the Lord's prayer. Jesus teaches us to pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. This is the word of the Lord. Would you pray with me? Father, we ask this morning the words of David, that you would open our eyes, that we might behold wonderful things from this portion of your word. We ask this morning, Lord Jesus, that we would be given ears to hear and hearts that are prompt and sincere and obedient response to whatever it is you call us to know or to do or to stop doing. Lord, you are King of kings and Lord of lords, and those who have been bought by you We now belong to you. You are our master, and so we seek to serve you well. So give us hearts that are prompt and desirous to serve you in all things. We love you, and we pray these things in your beautiful name. And God's people said together, amen. You may be seated. One of the books that I read some, I guess, 30 years ago that really influenced me was John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. You may have read that back in high school. But it's a great story. It really revolves around two migrant workers named George and Lenny who hire themselves out to various farmers during the Great Depression, but their goal is to not be migrant workers. Their goal is eventually to save enough money to where they can buy their own piece of land and be their own boss, no longer get cheated out of pay, and so on and so forth. And so George and Lenny, they team up. They work together. And because there's wicked men who try to cheat them out of their pay, often Lenny would get discouraged. And Lenny would want to give up. And one of the things that George did was he would sit Lenny down and say, Lenny, I want to set before you once again what's coming. I know times are tough. I know we just got ripped off of this job. I know that guy cheated us. But I want you to think about the farm, Lenny. Think about the land. Think about the chickens. Think about the rabbits. Think about getting up every morning knowing that we're our own bosses. No one will ever tell us what to do again, Lenny. No one will ever cheat us again. Think about what's coming. And so with that encouragement, Lenny, setting his mind on the things that are coming in the future, was enabled to endure the struggles of the present. It's not unlike what James does in this epistle. He is setting before us a promise that those who continue to endure in their love for the Lord Jesus Christ to the end will receive the crown of life. It's a Jewish idiom meaning eternal life. Those who endure to the end will be saved. The very same thing James would have heard the Lord Jesus say repeatedly. There is the promise of this future that enables the Christian to endure the present. But with that promise of the future, there's also hope for the present. Namely, that God is at work right now. God is at work in your life right now, not being content to leave you sort of at the altar of decision and say, you know, I'll see you when you die, but rather, I have a will for your life right now. I have a desire for your life. And it's not to maximize pleasure. It's not to help us secure the American dream. Paul tells us very clearly in the book of 1 Thessalonians that this is God's will for you. Your sanctification. Or in the words of James, this is God's will for you. A fruit bearing, enduring faith. Not a said faith. Not a shallow faith. Not a religion of the lips. But a faith that is strong and beautifies the Lord Jesus Christ. That is God's will for you. That is His 3-year, 5-year, 10-year plan for you. Your sanctification. The strength and beauty of your faith. A faith that endures to the end. One of the things that James shows us here is that God uses trial to bring about His will in your life. We're going to talk about the purpose of trials. James spells it out pretty clearly here, why God sends trials. But with each trial, there is also danger. There's danger to us, which is why we will need the promise of this text. that God cannot be tempted with evil. The God who is our Father never sends trials in order to get you to sin or because He delights in your hardship, but He is always sending those trials to us to beautify and strengthen our testimony. So let's look at those three things this morning. The purpose behind trials. The problem that each trial presents. And then the promises of God. So let's start first with the purpose of trials. Look again at verses 2 and 3 of James 1. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." So, first thing he does is he says, consider, consider, or count it all joy, meaning get your mind right about the nature of hardship. That these are not random events. They're not meaningless events churned out by a cold and impersonal universe, but rather, through the renewing of your mind, count it or consider it joy when you meet trials of various kinds. That's a broad brush stroke there, meaning everything from the minor irritants of kids not getting ready on time on Sunday mornings, getting cut off in traffic, to the major stuff, the knee-buckling, faith-shaking things like health diagnoses or betrayals or divorce, things like that. So, in all these things, in these trials of all sorts, Get your mind right, recognizing that they're not meaningless, they are not without purpose, but they are sent to you for a very explicit purpose. What is that purpose? Look again at verse 3. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Now the word that James uses here for testing, it's rare, it's unique, it had a very explicit meaning in the ancient Near East and it came from the world of metallurgy. And it refers to the process by which a precious metal was made strong beautified through a process called testing. So as you might know, when you find silver or bronze or gold in the earth, it's not ready to be developed. It's full of impurities that not only compromise its strength, but also its beauty. It's filled with this stuff called dross. And you've got to get the dross out of the metal in order to beautify it. And so what they do is they melt the metal down, all the way down into a liquid state. The dross then rises to the surface where it is then scooped off the top. That process is called testing. It's a very explicit word. It's a very nuanced word with a very particular meaning. It's the word that James uses here. So when he says, God sends trials to test you, don't think of an exam at school. You know, pass or fail. But rather, think of a blast furnace. Think of a cauldron. However you want to think about it. Your faith is in this process of being strengthened and beautified through the trials that God sends to you. It is not in times of ease. It's not in times of comfort. It's not when everything's going well, when our faith is strengthened, or our testimony about who Jesus means to us is strengthened or beautified, but it's when it is tested. It's when it goes through the furnace of difficulty, and opportunities to demonstrate the genuineness of our affection and trust in Christ comes to the surface. See, that's why James can say, consider it joy. Count it all joy when you face trials of all sorts. He's not saying that pretend like you're glad this trial is here. Or that you love that inoperable tumor. But rather, count it all joy that in the midst of this and through this terrible thing, God is shoving you. to the Scriptures, searching out the promises you need to cling to. Through this hard thing, He is forcing you to grab onto the garment of Jesus saying, have mercy on me. Help me. He's not saying that we should feign indifference to pain or pretend like trial isn't difficult. Any more than Jesus enjoyed the Garden of Gethsemane? Or had a great time on the cross? But rather, as the book of Hebrews says, for the joy set before Him, the joy of completing His Father's will, the joy of redeeming us, He endured the cross, scorned its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. Much like a pregnant woman in the first trimester doesn't take joy in morning sickness, doesn't care for the contractions as the day gets closer, but do you know what she does? She endures the trial with joy because she knows what's coming. Presumably a child that's going to obey them all their life. Lord have mercy. So it is with all of us. What James says is, count it all joy. We don't live in a closed system, in a cold, impersonal universe churning out random, meaningless events, minor irritants or horrible tragedies. But God is in all of those things sending flames of fire to strengthen and beautify your testimony. And here's what I'll reiterate to you again. And I won't get tired of saying it, because it's true. But when I think of the people whose devotion, whose humility, charity, generosity with their wealth and with their home, the kind of people that I look at and I say, I want to be like them. Some of them are in this room. They all share something in common, and it's this. They all walked through a horribly dark valley of suffering. The Good Shepherd was with them the whole time, accompanying them through this dark valley, but nevertheless, He walked them through something that none of us would wish upon their enemies. They all came out on the other side, stronger in faith, And when they say, I love Jesus, those words are all the more beautiful because the world looks on them and says, why do you love Him? Look at what He did to you. And they will say, I never knew Him like I did until He walked me through that dark valley. It was then that the rod and the staff of my shepherd became most important to me. Sometimes it's in the darkest of valleys that Jesus' self-designated title, Light of the World, starts to mean much more, doesn't it? It's in those dark valleys where you have to squint. And it's in those dark valleys where the light becomes more real than it ever was before. Some of you can amen that, and I know that. We try, as we confess in our confession of sin this morning, we do everything we can to try to avoid hardship and difficult things. When James says, you know, brothers, you know, that it's in the testing of your faith, that your faith is strengthened. It's not when you're sitting on the couch. That's when your muscles atrophy, right? But it's when you're in the gymnasium. That your muscles are strengthened. It's the same with our faith. Before I move on to the second point, the problem that comes with every trial, let it serve as an encouragement to you. Something that one of my seminary professors would remind us of almost weekly. He would say to us, you're always witnessing. Brothers, you're always witnessing. And by that he meant that the people in our world who know that we call ourselves Christians are constantly making evaluations of the validity of our claims based on how we respond to trial. You're always passively communicating to those who are watching you the validity of your confession. So when you're slandered, and you don't return it, people say, there's something different about that guy. There's something different about that woman. She will not participate in gossip. Something different. When an inoperable diagnosis comes, regarding your body and you don't despair, but instead you entrust yourself to God. People say, what's the reason for your hope? When people see that we're struggling with a command of God and it would be so easy to do the things of our co-workers, but instead we obey God and leave the consequences to Him, they say, Maybe Jesus is real. Let it be an encouragement to you that the very people that you pray for today, it might be a spouse, it might be a co-worker, it might be a child that's walked away from the faith. It may be that the prayers you are uttering tonight for your child, your spouse, your sibling, will be answered years from now because they watched the way you clung to Jesus when hard things came. You're always witnessing passively, not always doing a good job, but you're always communicating something about the legitimacy of your confession. When hard things come, trust Jesus. Trust Jesus. And leave the consequences to Him. It may be that you will win those people over. better stated, God will win them over by using you as an instrument to testify to the validity of His Son as they see you cling to Him in the most difficult of situations. Amen? I love the fact that James says in verse 3, take a look there, for you know, you know, The testing of your faith produces steadfastness." It's an irregular thing for the New Testament to say that. I mean, James very well could have said, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for the testing of your faith produces. But he says, for you know this. You know this is how it works. The problem is, is that when we face trials, we forget that God is at work behind them. And instead of saying, have Thy way, Lord, not my will, but Your will, instead of doing that, we say, God, why are You doing this to me? What have I done to deserve this? Or haven't I kept my nose clean? You remember the disciples on the boat when the storm comes and Jesus is asleep? Remember what they said to Him? Don't you care? The wind, the waves, the storm, this frightening moment is all evidence that either you're not powerful or you don't care about me. Which is it? Brothers, you know this. But when trial comes, It's easy to wear blinders. It's easy to focus just on the hardship and to forget what you know. And then to slip into the temptation to believe that God is either not good or not powerful or that He is withholding something from you. God doesn't want you to eat that fruit because He knows that in the day that you do, you will be like Him. He is withholding good from you. Therein lies the problem with every testing, whatever testing opportunity, with every invitation to be grow in our maturity, in our faith, in strength of our faith and beautify our testimony, there is also at the same time the temptation to deny that God is behind this, that God wills good things for us. Where do we see that? It's actually in verses 12 and 13. Take a look there if you would. There's a bit of a sleight of hand here, but it's really rhetorically effective and lyrically beautiful what James does, and I'll explain. Listen to what he says. 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. Let no one say when he is tempted I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. And desire, when it's conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it's fully grown, brings forth death. James, whether you know it or not, has just told us something profoundly important for us to grasp this morning, and that is this, that every trial, every test God sends to us is simultaneously a temptation to walk away from Him. And the way He has done that is that in verse 12, the Greek word He uses for trial, is the same root word that he uses in verse 13 for temptation. It's not the exact same word, it's the same root. And it's translated one way or the other based on context, but here's the idea. God tests you, and with every test, it is simultaneously also a temptation. Every opportunity to move forward in maturity in Christ, to grow in more dependence upon Him, is simultaneously an opportunity to do the spiritual drift, to wonder, to harden our hearts against God, to stop praying, to show up in church, but not to give Him your heart anymore. Every test. tempts us to deny that He is good, that He is all-powerful, or that maybe He's just withholding good from us. So maybe a few examples here might help. So maybe for some people, your trial is another person's success at work. Someone gets a promotion. Someone gets not just a lateral move, but they get moved up in the organization. And that is a test for you. Or if you sit in seminary class with someone just like you and you have better grades than him and yet he gets a bigger church. That's a test. Bigger pulpit. Taller steeple. All those Napoleon things, right? It's an opportunity to say, I rejoice with him. I give thanks God. that you have blessed Him. I give thanks for the congregation that will be blessed by that man's ministry. It's a test. It's also a temptation, isn't it, toward evil? Towards envy. Why not me? Why not me? Why are you holding out on me? Is this some sort of punishment? Why are you withholding good from me? For others, the trial may be related to sexuality. The desire for a romantic relationship. But God hasn't given you a spouse or the spouse that you do have. You feel distant from them. And that's a test. It's a test that allows us to find all the joy that God offers to us. But right there in that moment of testing, in that moment of trial, is simultaneously the temptation to find it elsewhere. To enter into an illicit relationship. to run to pornography, or to do something else even more heinous. That testing, that trial is simultaneously a temptation to deny the Lord. And because that is true, because God is sending all of these blast furnace opportunities which turn into also occasions for temptation, we might conclude, well, if God is sovereign, if God sends these things, and these things come my way, and I end up sinning against Him, then surely God has tempted me. You did this. Sovereign one. But James, ever the realist, tells us something glorious about God. and something inglorious about us. Verses 13 and 14. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil. And He Himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it's fully grown, brings forth death. The glorious truth about God is He is unalterably good. He never looks upon evil and says, you know, that has a certain attraction to me. God can neither be tempted by something that is wicked or evil, because then He would not be unalterably good, nor can He set before us an opportunity trying to entice us to sin. Saying, I really long for you to rebel against me. God finds nothing meritorious within evil. Nothing about sin's promises appeal to Him. Therefore, He cannot be tempted to evil, or He would not be unalterably good, nor can He entice you. Because then He Himself would not be good. God cannot be tempted with evil. So God cannot in any way be blamed when we sin. Going all the way back to our first parents, right? Adam, what have you done? Well, it was the woman you gave me. You made her. I mean, I was alone. It wasn't good to be alone. I'm glad that you recognize that. But look at what you gave me. You made her. The woman you gave me. What's the woman do? I might have done this, but Satan, you know, your creature? He tempted me. He's crafty. And why'd you put the tree in the garden in the first place? You! You're the reason. You wanted this to happen. You tempted me. Well, the glorious truth is that God is unalterably good. does not find the promises made by sin appealing and the inglorious truth is that we sin because we want to. We sin because we want to. No, the blame can't be shifted to God's shoulders. We fall into sin We are tempted in the midst of the testing of our faith, we find the allure of the lies of our own doubting flesh, the lies of the world, the lies of the evil one, we find them appealing because we still have this brokenness within us. We do not abhor sin. We are not unalterably good. We are still prone to wonder. We are still prone to listen to the lies we tell ourselves, the lies Satan says to us, the lies of the world. With that in mind, James says, God is ever and always committed to your good and He sends those trials in order to beautify your testimony, to strengthen your faith. You sin because you still desire its promises. So it's with that in mind that we turn to what Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer. Would you turn over to Matthew 16, or it should be on the screen before you. This is one of those petitions. There are six petitions in the Lord's Prayer, and this is the one that causes us to scratch our heads, but today I want to give some clarity on this. given what we've just considered in the book of James. Look at Matthew 6, 13. Remember, all of this begins with our Father in heaven. Here is the petition. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Okay, so what's that? mean? The rest of the Lord's prayer is rather straightforward, but this one, this one's difficult, right? Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Notice what it doesn't say. It doesn't say, Lord, don't tempt me. That's an unnecessary prayer. James just told us that he won't tempt you. He can't tempt you to evil because then that would be evil. But it says, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. So the Lord doesn't tempt you. So it's not a necessary prayer to say, Lord, don't tempt me, but rather what this prayer is expressing and what Christians have understood about this text for some 2000 years is that Jesus is teaching us here the frailty that we all have. that we cannot live the life that God calls us to live. We cannot resist temptation. We cannot be delivered from evil on our own. And that this is a confession that we are making saying, I hate sin. I hate its effects. Please don't bring me to a place where the temptation will surpass what I can endure, but instead, free me from that. Free me from making a shipwreck of my faith. Free me from the kinds of behavior that would grieve your spirit or malign the name of Jesus. Father, protect me from me, from the world, and from the enemy of my soul. That's what it means. Do not lead me into temptation, but deliver me from evil. It is a confession of self-distrust. I don't trust myself. There is a crafty one out there. I not only have the lies of the world and the devil, but my own desires that still find sin's promises appealing. Help! Help me! Delivery. The Christian that has walked with the Lord for a time recognizes too well that we don't have it within ourselves to outcraft the crafty one. We don't have enough willpower or grit to put to death those sinful desires that still remain. But instead, we stand in need of an outside power. We stand in need of an outside Person, namely the Spirit of God. To convict us of sin and righteousness and to lead us in the things that bring glory to our God and protects us from maligning the name of Jesus. Protects us from making a shipwreck of our faith. That is the petition we make that Jesus teaches us to make every day. Give us this day our daily bread. Protect me this day from myself, from the world, and from the evil one. We all know men and women who start off well with Jesus. But through the testing that afforded them the opportunities to strengthen their faith, to beautify their testimony, they instead, they listen to the temptations of the evil one, they listen to the alluring desires of their own sinful hearts, and they have drifted further and further and further and further from Jesus. Jesus told us that would happen in the parable of the sower. Jen and I were just reading through it last night. There would be seed that would be scattered, and people would embrace it for a time, but then with persecution or the cares of the world, the seed gets choked out. There are those who have that kind of temporary faith, or a said faith, It's not a genuine faith, but it is a verbal faith nonetheless. It doesn't endure to the end. It doesn't bear fruit, because when the trials came, when the testing came, they instead listened to their hearts. Or they listened to the lies of the evil, and they listened to the lies of the world and said, I will go that way. You see what Jesus is teaching His disciples to pray? Father, protect me. Before I encourage you, let me give you a challenge. You know, we just passed the new year, and with that new year comes new opportunities for the new you. Well, many of us have defined that in terms of carbs and calories and how we look, right? And exercise. Not unimportant things. We've made resolutions in our homes to better steward God's creation, the bodies we've given us. We've resolved that shortbread cookies will have no place in our home for at least another nine months because somebody can't control themselves Those kinds of resolutions are not unimportant. But let me encourage you with something far more important in terms of resolutions. Let me ask you men, how many of you have resolved to spend more time in prayer with your wives at night? How many of you have resolved to sit down with her and to carry out the words of Ephesians 5 that you will wash her with the Word of God? How many of you resolve to have a time of worship with your bride every day and to encourage her in the things of Jesus? Wives, how many of you have resolved to ask God for help in submitting to your husbands, encouraging them in the leadership in the things of the Lord? To all of us, how many of us have resolved that this year we will not be cowards for Jesus? But we will look for opportunities and take them to be light and salt in a dark and decaying culture. You're counting carbs and calories and things like that. Again, not unimportant, but are you saying to God, give me opportunities today to share the beauty of Jesus and when they come to me, may I be strong and courageous and take that opportunity. There's somebody, somebody. That sounds like a resolution to me. I do like January 1st. I was talking to Skipper about this some weeks ago. It does feel like a new opportunity, a new start. You know what's glorious? Every day, is like January 1st with God, for my mercies are new every morning. Every morning. Resolve, men, to lead well. To lead tangibly. Express your devotion to God through your ministry to your wife. Lead her in worship. Pray with her. Get the Scriptures open. Show your kids it's real. Wives, submit and encourage them. Along those lines, resolve to do it. All of us, resolve to put sin to death. That we might not grieve the Spirit, malign the name of Jesus, or make a shipwreck of our faith. For today, God's mercies are new. Amen? That's my challenge, and this is God's promise to us. Jesus taught us to pray, Father, lead me not into temptation, deliver me from evil, grant me new obedience, fresh zeal for the righteousness of God, a fury of hatred towards my laziness, towards my own sin, that all of this is addressed to our Father. That petition, lead us not into temptation, remember, is not to sovereign Lord, to powerful monarch, but all of those things are true. He is sovereign. He is a powerful monarch. But He is also, Jesus says, your Father. You are asking for a good thing from your Father. You know, when my kids ask me for help, when they say, Dad, can you help me with this? Or when they were going to a sporting event, or they had some big event in their world, and they'd say, Dad, you're going to be there, right? Or are you going to be here when I get home? Or something like that. It wasn't a bother to me. It honored me. I want to be that. I want to give them those kinds of things, that presence, that help. And I'm evil. I'm a sinner. And I want good things for my kids. Do you remember what Jesus says? He says, which one of you, if your son asked for bread, would give him a stone? Or if he asked you for fish, would give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, Jesus knew how to draw the crowds. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your kids, how much more my Father will delight to give good things to those who ask. You're evil, and you delight in doing good to your kids. How much more my father, who is unalterably good, will he delight in giving you the very thing that you need? That is the assurance we have. When trials come and with them temptations and that recognized need, Lord, spare me from shipwrecking my faith. That is the very kind of prayer that our Father delights to answer. I shared a story with you some time ago from Charles Spurgeon. I'll share it again with you. And I do that because he shared it often. It's an encouragement to me. The Prince of Preacher can reuse stories. I can too. But this is a story he liked to tell. It was a married couple in his church. They had traveled through the Atlantic on boat when a terrible storm arose. And the wife got really frightened. But she went to her husband and said, are you scared? Are you frightened of this storm? And he said, I'm not. And she said, why are you not afraid? He then took out a sword. This is in the days that carried swords, I guess. He took out a sword and pointed it at her heart and says, are you afraid? And she said, no, of course not. And he said, why? He said, well, because the sword is in your hand and I know you love me. And he said, yes, dear. This storm is in the hand of the one who loves us. So now, I am not afraid. Such is the confidence that you and I have, Christian, in those times of grief and trial and perplexity. They do not come to you as random, meaningless events from a cold, impersonal universe churning out random circumstances. But all of the trials that come our way pass through the hands of one who loves you and says, come, come, come to me. And I will give you rest. And I will strengthen and I will beautify your testimony as I drive you deeper and deeper into My arms through these trials. And there you will see that I am a safe harbor for the storm-tossed soul. Amen? Would you pray with me? Lord, we know, as James says, we know that it is through the testing of our faith that You produce fruit-bearing and enduring faith. And yet, when those trials come, we are so prone to wander and to listen to the lies of the accuser of the brethren, to listen to the lies of our own doubting hearts and the lies of this world. Help us, Lord. to consider it all joy. For we know that You're at work in our lives. We ask that You would deliver us from those scenarios where our faith would fail, where we would grieve You through rebellion, where we would malign the name of Jesus, but instead deliver us from evil. For Your Son taught us to pray that. And our assurance this morning that you hear and that you desire to do this is that you are our Father. It's in his name that we pray. Amen. On the night the Lord Jesus was betrayed, he took bread. Thank you for tuning in for today's message. If you would like more information about Providence Christian Church in Cape Coral, Florida, visit us online at ProvidenceCapeCoral.com.