Prison, we've been studying with the guys through James and Kyle and Matt and I have really enjoyed that. We've profited from that a lot. We've got just two verses left with them, so as soon as we get the clearance, we'll be finishing that up. But it's been so beneficial and refreshing for me that I wanted to bring something today from that. And so we're going to be looking today, if you want to go ahead and flip there, The Letter of James. And there's a lot of topics that we could talk about, and instead of doing just a complete overview, I thought that I would focus on one topic that really stuck out to me, and really the first thing that he introduces, and that's enduring trials with patience and with joy. And this is a subject, obviously, that's timeless and it's something that resonates with everybody. And I think even now, especially for us, we feel that even maybe more keenly. Let's just maybe begin with a little bit about James. I don't want to spend too much time on introduction, but I do want to lay down a few things that I think help us understand where James is coming from, who he's writing to, and that will help us understand this letter. So this is written by James, and we don't get anything other than just James. And so this points to a well-known James. I mean, this is James. He needs no introduction. So this is probably, most likely, James the brother of Jesus. And there's maybe four options to choose from of well-known James, but this James, the brother of the Lord, is the best option of that. And so, one thing that is helpful to know about James is that he played a leading role in the church in Jerusalem. And I think history has it that he was the first bishop of the church there. And so James is a leader in the church, and he's writing this letter, and he's writing it to Jewish Christians. And it says that these are the ones that were scattered, the twelve tribes of the dispersion. And so he's writing it to these scattered tribes, and this probably refers to the Christians who are from Jerusalem, and who were scattered due to persecution after the death of Stephen in A.D. 35. And so in Acts 6, We read that Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. And yet some of the Jews, these were those called from the Freedmen's Synagogue, they rose up against Stephen and they were falsely accusing him. And they had said that he was speaking against Moses and against God. And so they bring him before the Sanhedrin. And the Sanhedrin was basically the supreme court of that day for the people and for the church. And so they bring him to the Sanhedrin and they bring him before the high priest. And you probably know the story well. He gives his speech and they're not too happy with the speech. And they stone him. And then Saul approves of that. And we read that at that time a great persecution arose against the church, which was at Jerusalem. And they were scattered throughout the regions of Judea, Samaria, and Samaria, except the apostles. And then in chapter 12, or chapter 11, we read that those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only. And so we have a church in Jerusalem that's scattered, and it's separated from its leadership. There was local leadership. We read in chapter 5 in James that there's elders, right? He says, call for the elders to lay on hands. But still, they're separated from James, who was the leader of the church here. And so this explains the need for a general letter. And this explains why it seems like there's several people addressed here, several types of people addressed in this letter. And so in some ways, this really helped me to see this, in some ways this is kind of like pastoral oversight via mass communication, right? He's gotta send out this letter to his scattered flock. And so James is writing with deep pastoral concerns about his church. And so somehow he's become aware of a whole variety of things that have plagued the church and he wants to address these things. And so the letter, it was written probably sometime between the beginning of Paul's ministry around 8033, and then before the council, the Jerusalem council, which was 48 or 49. And so a good number is probably 45 or 50, somewhere in that ballpark for writing this letter. And just to give you a reference, James was martyred in 62. And so the background, I guess the conclusion of the background is basically that James, the brother of the Lord, He wrote this from Jerusalem during his tenure as leader of the church in Jerusalem in order to address various pastoral concerns in an effort to shepherd his scattered flock. And as expected of a pastor, James is going to encourage them. He's going to give them instruction. There's reproofs and there's even some sharp rebukes in here. And so that, just keep that in mind, that he's writing as a pastor here. And the structure of this letter, I don't want to go into it a whole lot, but it's loose. If you've tried to piece together this letter and give it some coherence, it's a little bit difficult. And I struggled with that. Luther actually said that James was just throwing things together chaotically. And you know that Luther had some, probably some overly critical things to say about this letter. But James moves quickly from topic to topic, and it's sometimes difficult to tell what exactly is going on. Some people don't recognize the structure at all. They say it's just kind of like Proverbs. It's a very Jewish letter, and it's a letter kind of, but it doesn't have the typical things we would expect. The ending is not much like a letter and all these sorts of things. So he's moving from topic to topic, but there is one unifying theme, and that theme is the outworking of faith. And so James is writing as a pastor, and he wants them to, their faith to be vibrant. He wants them to endure trials with patience and with joy. And he wants them to be perfect and complete, as he says, lacking in nothing. So he has Christian maturity in mind. And so he first speaks of trials broadly, and I want to go ahead and read those texts. And so, beginning at verse 1 there. James, a bond-servant of the Lord, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to 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. And then skip down to verse 12. Blessed is the man who endures temptation. For when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. And then desire, or when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. And then skip to the very last chapter, 5. And in verse 7, and this is connected to what comes before, we'll look at that. He says, Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and the latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed, we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and have seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate merciful and so what James is doing I've split this up kind of into three different things he begins with with trials in general and in these trials it helps to think of them as trial tests and and I want to spend a little bit of time just just understanding this term here. But you see from the text that he says, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. And then he links this to knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. And so he's linking these trials with testing. He's saying when these trials come, this is a form of testing. And so this is why I'm calling these trials, trial tests, and just understanding that that comes along with it. This is something that in his mind was the same. And actually, it's the same word that is later, just a little further down, it says, blessed is he who endures temptation. It's the same thing. And this word for trials here, in general, it refers to some sort of trial test with with a negative connotation, kind of. So it's often temptation. You know, lead us not into temptation. Or, you know, pray that you not enter into temptation. But there's other times where it's clearly not temptation. It's referring to trials, and the context there is important. So one example from Axe says, you know from the first day that I came to Asia, this is Paul, and what manner I was always living among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears, and with trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews." So the same word there. And so I think it's helpful to see that this is trials and temptations and trial tests, this all kind of overlaps. And so we have at first trial tests in general. And then he's going to address two specific type of trial tests. And he's going to address temptations. And then he's going to address oppression at the end. And so you have temptations, which you can think of as trial tests that come from within, right? That's what he points out, says this, you're not tempted by God, you're tempted by your own sinful desires. And so we have that from within, but we also have from without at times where we have oppression. And so those three categories, keep those in mind. I also want to point out too, there's a good example in 1 Peter, in his beginning, and actually it's, It's amazing because what Peter's saying in his introduction is basically the same thing that James is saying, and I'll just go ahead and read it, but also notice how he links testing with trials, and testing is proving the genuineness of your faith. And he says this, "...in this you greatly rejoice." Though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials." And that's the exact same word, various trials. That's what James is saying. That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So the genuineness that he's talking about is genuineness that's proved by this testing that comes through the trials. And this has the same idea here as what James is getting at. So if we look at the second use in James, the reason we know it's temptations is because right away he talks about this can't be from God. God is without temptation of evil. And so we know from the context clearly he's talking about temptation there. And so that's why the new King James has that as temptation. And so he begins, and what I'm gonna, what I'm arguing is, as James is a pastor, is, you'll see throughout all of this, a very keen pastoral insight. And so he's gonna weave together encouragements, and instruction. And so what I want to do is pretty quickly go through this. And we could spend, I mean, so much time even on this first this first point, and it's tempting to do that, but I'm going to go over it fairly quickly because I want to see some big picture type things of what James is doing, and then I want to bring it to a point that for us today, how we can apply this. But James is, throughout all of this, he's weaving together encouragements, and he's weaving together instruction. and instruction both in the way of teaching, so know this, and also instruction in commanding, do this, right? And then he's gonna bring in encouragements, both positive and negative, to spur them and to help them do this. So he begins with an instruction to count it all joy when you fall into many trials. And this is the first thing that he says And I think that's because given the situation that they're in, so they're scattered, they're being persecuted, we know from the letter that there's a mixture of poor and there's a mixture of rich, and that the rich are dragging them into court, they're speaking against the name of God. So we understand that there's quite a bit of trial going on in their life. So that's the first thing that he addresses. And he says, count it all joy. And it really is a shocking statement. And I think maybe something we might say today, more of our language is consider it pure joy when this happens. And maybe that strikes your ears a little bit differently, but consider it pure joy when you face these trials. And it almost seems I mean, you know, it's not something you would think to say to anybody who's going through something. I mean, it seems like that's what you would be told. Don't say this. I mean, it almost seems. It can almost seem offensive at times, you know, that consider it pure joy when I'm going through this, but we know that James wrote this and under the inspiration of the Spirit, and so we know that this isn't an oops, I didn't mean to say that, you know, I had learned better in my pastoral theology course, but what he's doing is he's saying the same thing that we saw that Paul was saying too. And the same thing that Peter is saying also. And so this is something that comes up again and again in the scriptures. And so it's there and it's there for our encouragement to strengthen our faith. But he doesn't just say for the sake of the trials consider it joy. He encourages them. So he begins with that. instruction, but then his encouragement follows. He says, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. So that's why, you know, this is why you can consider it pure joy, is because it produces endurance. Look at the fruit of this, is what he's saying. Look at God's purposes in this, and see that your faith is being tried and tested, and that it might prove genuine, and that is beyond value of anything in this world. And so, he tells them that they need to be patient. Or he says that it produces patience. And this patience, this is the idea of steadfastness, it's the idea of perseverance, it's the same thing in chapter 5 when he says the endurance of Job. That's what he's talking about. So he's saying, have this patience. This is what it produces, is the Job-like endurance. I mean, look at Job, and we'll talk about that later, but he's pointing to Job, and that's what he's talking about. In his people, he desires that that's what be produced in them. He talks about patience and about endurance. And I wanted to say just a word on that. They're very closely related. In Colossians, Paul actually just mentions them together. He says patience and endurance. And he talks about patience and long-suffering or endurance with joy. So again, that theme comes out. And he's just linking them together. So that's why I'm linking them here. And I think that's what James is doing. So hopefully that's clear. The next thing, he begins again with instruction. And he says, but let patience have its perfect work. Let patience have its full effect. Let it have its final outcome, its full fruit. That's what he's saying. And so he's instructing him in this, but he encourages him by saying this, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. So, you see there how he's weaving that in again. He's saying, I want you to be a mature Christian. This is what I want. And he tells us exactly what he means by perfect and complete. He wants them to be lacking in nothing. And this idea of perfection, of course, isn't sinless perfection, but this is used in scripture very often. A good example is in Corinthians 14.20. And it says, brethren, do not be children in understanding. However, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature. And that's that same word, be perfect, be mature. And so he wants them to be grown up in their faith. He wants them to be strengthened and to keep pressing on. And so the next thing he addresses is faithful prayer for wisdom and trials. And so this, when he says, pray for wisdom, it's very closely linked to what he's saying. I mean, and part of it, I think, you can imagine they're hearing this, and we've heard it so many times, but they're hearing this and they're probably struck by the fact that he's just told them to consider it all joy under what they're going through. And so maybe part of this is he's saying, look, if you're lacking the wisdom to understand how this could possibly be and how joy and how trials could go together, he says pray for this wisdom. Pray for wisdom to be able to bear up under these things and see the purposes of God. And I just want to point out in James 3, we can turn there, but verse 17 in James 3, He... James 3 verse 17, He's telling us about what the wisdom from above is. So He's saying, you need to pray to God for this wisdom from above. And this is what this wisdom is going to look like. The wisdom that is from above is first pure, and then it's peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And so these things right here, I think it goes together with his letter so well because he's saying, wisdom from above gives you all these things which help you endure trials and temptations with faithfulness. It's gonna give you, you know, it's first pure. If you're tempted to be impure, the wisdom from God is what you need. You need the help of the Holy Spirit, you need, you know, we can think too of the fruits of the Spirit. It's peaceable. It's gentle. So he talks about quarreling in here. He talks about backbiting and all those sorts of things. And he's saying that's contrary to the wisdom that comes from God. And so I think with all that kind of together, we can see what he's saying is when you have these trials, when you have these temptations, pray for wisdom from God. That this kind of wisdom with these fruits that you see would just be something that just overflows in your life. And so he begins, again, with instruction. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. And then he encourages them. He said, who gives to all liberally and without a reproach and will be given unto him. So he encourages them by pointing them to who God is. He says, you know who your God is. You know the scriptures. You know that God hears the cries of his people. You know that he gives good things. And so he's just saying, pray to him. You know that God is faithful and you know that he hears. And so he's giving them that encouragement. But then he says, by way of instruction, let him ask in faith with no doubting. Let him ask in faith, and then he gives here a encouragement that's negative because he says, for the one who doubts is like the wave of the sea. He's 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 he's trying to put an edge on his word, right? He's saying, you need to ask in faith because this is the man who doesn't ask in faith and he's unstable and he shouldn't suppose that he's going to receive anything from the Lord. And so for James, we see that joyful perseverance is very closely linked to wisdom and to prayer in faith. Next, we look at the blessing of endurance. And so here he's trying to encourage them, right, to say the man that's blessed, the woman who's blessed, is the one who endures in faith until the end. He says, blessed is the man who endures temptation. For when he has been approved, and that's the same thing that Peter's talking about when he says, the genuineness of your faith, that's the same idea. When he's been proven genuine by testing, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. And so then he also here is pointing them to promises that God has made. He says, God has promised this, this crown of life, this reward. So you see how he's just keeping these things up. He's showing them. He's like, these are the truths that you know. Look at these truths. This is who God is and you know his promises. And so he's trying to strengthen them there. The next thing he looks at is the source of temptations. He says, Let no one say, when he is tempted, that I am tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed, or drawn away by his own desires and enticed. And then later, right, he says, Don't be fooled. And he tells them about God, and he says, He says, Don't be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of attorney. So again, he's saying this is how God is. You know that God doesn't change and you know that he's good and that he does good. And so he's saying don't say or imagine that these temptations are coming from him because they're coming from your own And so that's what he shows, right? He shows the slippery slope to death, basically. And he says, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. And this is really a mixture of encouragement and instruction. He's telling him, this is the way that sin works. This is the way that, we'll see at the end of this letter, he's talking about if a brother has wandered from the truth. But he's showing how sin works. It just goes downhill, right? It begins with this desire and then sin, and then that leads to death. And so that's that section there. That's that trial test. So we had trial tests in general, and then we had the trial tests of temptation. And then we're going to move to look at the trial tests of oppression. And this whole entire section, and this is in chapter five, this whole section, I think, can be summed up with his words, be patient until the coming of the Lord. And that's what James is saying. He's saying, be patient until the coming of the Lord. And everything that is around this and in its context, to me it seems like he's using it to strengthen that one point. And so either directly or indirectly, what he's doing is trying to make that one point very clear. Be patient until the coming of the Lord. And so he begins with the therefore, so maybe we should just look above there, but he's talking about these rich people who are oppressing them. And he's saying that they're going to be judged. And so he says, come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. So that sounds like Jesus' words. And just kind of a by the way, a lot of what James says, you can hear echoes of Jesus' teaching. and a lot of allusions to the Old Testament as well. But anyways, he says, your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out. And the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasures and luxury. You have fattened your hearts as in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and you have murdered the just and he does not resist you. And then he says, therefore, be patient, my brethren. So I think he's linking that to that. So remember, this is a letter that's being cycled around, and you can pick out various groups, like this group right here, the rich. And it's almost like he expects them to overhear, like, let me rebuke them now, and you overhear this, and then he turns to them and he says, now, you hear what I've just said, that there is a righteous judgment coming. these wicked oppressors who are oppressing you will be judged by God. There is a judgment coming. And I think that's what he's getting at pretty much indirectly. And then he also says that the cries of the harvesters, the people of Mojahed Field, they've risen up to the Lord of Sabaoth, and he's heard. And so I think he's doing two things. It is a direct rebuke, and he's saying, you understand who this God is who you are sinning against. So I think he's getting at that. He's saying this isn't just God. He uses a very powerful name. All the names of God are powerful, but he uses a specific Old Testament name here. And so I think it's rebuking there, but I also think it's indirect to remind the people who are being oppressed, say, remember who your God is. and remember that He hears. And so, I want to take just a little time to to look at that name because names in the Old Testament were much more significant probably than most of us give names today. They weren't just a tag. Names were, they told you something about the person. And so the names of God are revelations of God. They tell us about his attributes, about his perfections. And this name in particular, Lord of Hosts, Lord of Armies, is a powerful name, and it has the idea of God as the King of Glory. And so if you were to look at all these examples in the Old Testament, I think there's 280 or something like that, you'll see it's describing God as the King in all His glory, surrounded by His host of angels. Right? He's governing the universe. He's the powerful one. And He's doing this in the interest of His people. because he's Yahweh. That's that special covenant name of God that, you know, I am that I am. And this, I think, is what these people would have automatically thought of. And they would have said, yes, yeah, that's our God. He rules in the interest of his people. And so we can see that James didn't randomly choose this name, but he He chose his name very specifically, I think, to directly remind his suffering brothers exactly who their God is. He's the Lord of Hosts. He's the King of Glory. And I think, too, that this would have called to mind a very specific event in history. And so not only would they have been seeing, reminded of who God is and of his attributes and that, but they would have been reminded how God has worked in history for his people. God's providence in his dealing with his people. And they probably would have, at least some of them, I would think, would have thought of Exodus too. And so this is when the Lord hears the distress of his people in Egypt. It happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. And then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out. And so some definite similarities here with the people of God that James is writing to. And their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them. And so the people are groaning and he hears and he remembers his covenant. God is faithful. And he acknowledges his children. And so this, I think, was something that was brought to their mind. It would have been very, very much encouraging. And even for us today, it's the same God. As we've read, James has pointed out, God doesn't change, and so that God is still our God, who hears, and who is powerful, who is the King of Glory. He's encouraging indirectly with that. But then, more directly when he tells them, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. This is encouragement, the coming of the Lord. It's coming. And then he gives them this picture of the farmer, and he says, see how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth. waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and the latter rains. And this is, if you read his letter, you maybe remember, he uses a lot of pictures like this just from natural, from the natural world, from things they would have known. A lot like, again, what Jesus would have done. So he tells them to look at the farmer. And then he says, you also be patient. Establish your hearts. So there we have instruction, right? Establish your hearts. Make your hearts strong and firm because you know these things are true about your God and you know the word that you've been taught. And you also know that the coming of the Lord is at hand. And so that last thing, it's a little bit of instruction and encouragement because he's telling them, he's instructing them, there is a judgment coming, but you also know that it's at hand. You know that it's near. So he's trying to encourage them to be patient there. So the next thing that he talks about seems very random. And so this goes back to kind of the struggle that I've talked about, putting some coherence to the whole thing. But I don't think it's random. He says, do not grumble against one another. So that's very clear instruction. Brethren, lest you be condemned, behold, the judge is standing at the door. And so I think what he knows as a pastor, again, I think this is his pastoral insight coming in. He knows that under these trials and temptations that people, first, are going to be prone to grumble. He knows it's going to be easy to complain and easy to grumble. And it's going to be against one another. And so that's the first thing I think he realizes. And so that links it there. But the second thing, he knows that grumbling doesn't promote patience. He knows that complaining and these sorts of things focus your mind on those things, on those trials, and not on Christ, not on God's promises, not on the things that we ought to fix our mind to, not on the firm foundation that we have. And so he's recognizing that. And then the third thing, he also recognizes that this is a serious sin. And sometimes it's hard to see that saying, well, we're just grumbling and complaining a little bit. But he sees this as a very serious sin. He says, lest you be condemned, behold, the judge is standing at the door. He's talking about judgment there. And so this is very serious. And I think the reason it is, in his letter, one major topic that he brings out is the idea of what he calls the royal law according to scripture. And so he's getting this from Leviticus 19 and this is love your neighbor as yourself. He says if you do this you do well. And this is something that Jesus and Paul, they both also brought out. They said the whole law can be summed up in loving God and loving your neighbor. And so he recognizes that grumbling and complaining against one another is going against this royal law according to scripture. And like James has said in his letter, if you break one part of the law, you're a transgressor of the whole law. And that's, I think what he's getting at there is So it seems like it's random right in the middle of it, but it fits. And I think it's very much like a pastor. It's just like, okay, this and now let me just tell you this. And so hopefully you can see, maybe that's helpful. That was helpful for me to see that he's weaving these things in and it gives some help. The New Testament writers, in thinking about this idea of the fact that the coming of the Lord is near, the New Testament writers would speak of this a lot. They said that there's a day of judgment, and it's near, and they would do this to encourage repentance, faith, and endurance. And one good example of this is where Paul's writing. He says, the night is far spent, and the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light." And so that's, I think, what James is doing here, too. He's just encouraging him. He's like, the judge is standing at the door, so let's cast off the works of darkness, and let's love each other, and let's be patient, and these sorts of things. The next thing that he moves to is enduring examples of timeless truth. and timeless truth. And so he's now pointing them to examples in the past. And he says, my brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. And so this here, he's encouraging them, he's instructing them all in one. He's saying, look at the prophets. You've got the word, you know this, and you know how God has worked in the prophets. You know how God has upheld his prophets. And you know that they were faithful. And he says, look to their example of suffering and patience. And he says that we count them blessed who endure, again pointing to the blessedness of endurance, those who bear up under these sufferings. He says that you've heard of the perseverance of Job, and you've seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate, and merciful. There's a lot there. Now, just look at the first part of it. What did all the prophets have in common? Well, the prophets, they were all righteous. They all suffered and they all endured with patience. And Jesus brings this out very well in Matthew 5. He said, 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 then he turns to Job, and you know Job, a man that probably needs no introduction here, but Job is the classic example of suffering and perseverance in the Old Testament. And James invites his readers to remember the end or the purpose that God had in mind. And so we read it and we get to see behind the curtain, but we know that Job didn't have that at the time. And so he's going through this trial and not able to know what was going on or why he was suffering or anything like that. But in the end we see that God shows himself to be faithful and that he works it out for his good. And so we have that example. So that's what James is saying. He says, look, you've got this and you have the added benefit of seeing how the Lord's working through that. And you get to see how he does this and that's still our same God. And he still works like that. And I think that's what he's getting at there. And he also tells him something which is so powerful. He throws in there that God is very compassionate and He's merciful. So again, he's appealing to who God is. And this would have almost surely reminded them of the time when God spoke His name to Moses in Exodus 34. And he says, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the Children and Children's Children to the third and the fourth generation. So, you know, that probably would have been triggered in their mind when they hear this. God is very compassionate. He's overflowing with compassion, with mercy. This reminds them of this revelation of God's character that we have here in Exodus 34. And so, trying to bring all those things together. James, we see, is a pastor. He's writing to his people. And he wants his people to have a joyful and a vibrant and a fruitful faith. He wants them to be doers of the Word. He wants them to endure. And he wants them to be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. And his first concern is to help them endure in the face of all these various trials that they're facing at the time. And he does this by weaving in, as I've tried to show, weaving in instruction and encouragement. And he does this by pointing them to at least three things, and these categories, I find them helpful, but they're not perfect, but they ended up all Ps, and so maybe that'll be helpful as far as remembering it, but he's pointing to God's perfections, or his attributes. and think of not tempted by evil. God is immutable. He doesn't change. He's the Lord of hosts. Remember we talked about the names are revelations of God. This tells us something about his power. He's very compassionate and he's merciful. So he's pointing them to the perfections of God. He's also pointing them though to the promises of God. He's pointing them to the fact that God hears our prayers. He hears his children and he remembers his promises. And also, he talks about the crown of life for those who love him. And then there's the promise that there's a judgment coming. And it's a righteous judgment. And that's good news. He's also pointing them to God's providence. He's pointing them to God's providential dealings with man throughout history. I struggle with this one a little bit. It's a little bit of a catch-all category. God's purposes, his providence, the way he's worked in history, what we have in scripture, we see God's faithfulness all the way through. These are the types of things that he's pointing their mind to. And there's a really good definition of providence I wanted to, this is not me, this is, Louis Burkoff provides this, but he says that continued exercise of the divine energy whereby the creator possesses, or sorry, preserves all his creatures. is operative in all that comes to pass in the world, and directs all things to their appointed end." And so there we have providence, and so we see how, clearly in the example of Job, pointing all things to their appointed end. That's an explicit, he points that out explicitly, he says, you know the intended end of the Lord in this case. But we also see in there, and we didn't read it, but he says that God has brought you forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. And let's actually flip to that. That's in James 1. And that's at 18. And he's just told them that every good and perfect gift comes from God. And he says, of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. And so we see God working and intervening in the salvation of man and providentially to save. And so we see those three things. We see him weaving together these encouragements and weaving together these instructions, all pointing them to the perfections, promises, and the providence of God. And this list really can be narrowed even further. So those categories can be rearranged, but hopefully they're helpful. But really what he's pointing them to is he's pointing them to the truth. It's very simple. He's pointing them to the scriptures, right? He's pointing them to the fact that these things have been revealed. He says, you know these things, and I want you to continue in these things, and these have been written for your instruction, and they've been written to strengthen you and to help you. And so he's encouraging them to hold fast to the things that they've received, right? That have been revealed in God's Word about His perfection, about His promises, and about His providential dealings with man. And so, in short, he's just telling them to hold fast to the Word. And, I mean, this really is no surprise. It's what the other writers of the New Testament do, too, in their letters. They're pointing them to the truth. They're pointing them to the Scriptures. They're pointing them to Christ, to their Savior, to their foundation and their rock. And that's the thing that they're going to continually bring them back to. So James is doing that very thing. And he's going to bring this point out, the fact that he's drawing them to God's word. He's going to bring this out in his letter. And he says here in 19, so just after he said that God has brought us forth by the word of truth, he says, so then, and so this is connected here, he says, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. And then he says, therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only deceiving yourselves." So you see how he's focusing on the Word there. He's saying you have this Word of Truth, and this is the Word of Truth that has saved you, and he's saying that you need to be quick to hear, swift to hear. And I don't think he has in mind our just everyday conversations here. It may apply to that, and it does. We should be slow to talk and quick to hear, but what he has in mind there is God's Word. He has in mind the truths of God. He says, be quick to hear this Word and to receive it. and also to lay aside all this filthiness and to receive with meekness the implanted Word. And he tells them to be doers of it. So receive it and then also do it. And so you see how central the idea of God's Word and His promises is to James and his message for them to endure and to be fruitful Christians and to live in such a way that their faith is active and that it works. So, in the last sentence of his letter, I said we would get to this, if you flip there, he's talking about bringing back the one who's gone away. He says, brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. And so he's saying, if any of you has wandered from the truth, what he's describing is somebody who hasn't endured. He's describing someone who, under the pressures of these temptations and trials, has not held on to the faith. And you see that what he links it to is that they haven't held on to the truth. He says they've wandered from the truth. That's the person who hasn't endured. So to endure is to hold fast to the truth. To not to endure is to fall away from the truth. And he's saying, He's encouraging them, bring your brothers and sisters back to the truth. And you'll save their soul from death, you'll cover a multitude of sins. And I think the parable of the sower proves this point so well, this is in Luke 8. And just listen to some of this language, and it just fits with what James is saying in his whole message here. Jesus says, the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear, then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no root, who believe for a while, and in a time of temptation, fall away. Now the ones that fell among the thorns are those, when they have heard, they go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. but the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep and bear fruit with patience." And so that's what he's bringing out here. I mean, that's the kind of hearts we want to have, right? We want to receive the word, this word which has been implanted, and we want it to take deep root, and we want it to bear fruit in our lives. And the opposite would be, or at least one of the examples that doesn't endure, is that in a time of temptation, you fall away. In a time of trials, you fall away. But there are those who hear the word with a noble and good heart, and they keep to it. And so, I think that brings together, at least it did for me, very clearly what James is saying. And just to recap, we have James writing as a pastor to his scattered flock. He's weaving together instructions and encouragements to help the church endure trials with patience and joy. He first considers these trial tests in general, and then he looks at a very specific example of temptations, a kind of trial test, and then he looks at oppression. And then his various instructions and encouragements are all drawing attention to reveal truth about God's perfections, about his promises, and about his providential dealings with man. In short, it's drawing them to truth and to the scriptures. And so, he's telling them, hide God's word in your heart and let it be fruitful. And so, to close, I want to ask, does this apply to us? I mean, this obviously is, we've looked at the context that this was given, but does Does it apply? And I think absolutely yes, this applies to Christians today. And I think there's two main reasons. There's probably more you could come up with, but trials and temptations are a fact of life. We know that. And even young children know that. I mean, it's something that in a fallen world we're plagued with and we groan and we wait for the coming of the Lord and desire that it would be soon because of this. But that's a fact, and Scripture also teaches that every Christian is going to face oppression and trials in a way that unbelievers won't, because it's going to be on account of Christ and His gospel, His message of salvation. And so, Scripture teaches every Christian is going to have that, and that we shouldn't be surprised if the world hates us. And then also, the second thing is that these truths that are undergirding the instructions and the encouragement that James gives here to his people are timeless truths, and they're rooted in Scripture, and these are a firm foundation. That's why I love that song we sang this morning. It's so much there, and it says, you know, how firm a foundation you say unto the Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent word. And it's so true, and that's, I think, what James is saying. He, you know, didn't write it, but he maybe could have. So these timeless truths have been revealed in the Scriptures for our benefit. As Paul wrote, for whatever things were written before were written for our learning that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Let me close with just some familiar words, and this is from Psalm 119, and so if you want to I'm going to flip there and follow along. Psalm 119, starting at verse 49. And I love these. This again brings together so well this idea of our patience and endurance with joy being upon the foundation of God's Word and His promises. And so, starting at 49, Remember the word to your servant upon which you have caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, for your word has given me life. The proud have me in great derision, yet I do not turn aside from your law. I remembered your judgments of old, O Lord, and have comforted myself. Indignation has taken hold of me because of the wicked who forsake your law. Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and keep your law. This has become mine because I kept your precepts." And then in verse 92, he says, unless your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. So in conclusion, we know that we all face trials, but God's grace gives us what we need, and we have the firm foundation that's laid for us here in His Word. And so, let us be patient, endure them with joy, and may we strengthen our hearts with timeless truth. We'll pray. Our great Heavenly Father, we thank You again for an opportunity to read Your Word, and Father, to let it wash over us, and Father, we pray to be planted deep in our hearts, and Father, as we go through various trials, and Father, as we even feel right now, very much, Father, even in the last few days, even today, Father, we feel a weight, we feel these trials, and we pray, Father, that You would help us bear up under these trials. We pray that with the help of Your Spirit, Father, with Your Word on our minds and in our heart, that we would take hold of these things, that we would take hold of Christ, our Savior and our our rock and father that we would we would endure and persevere and father we also pray that if any among us have have wandered father we pray that we would love them enough father to to draw them back to the word and to see them lord we want them to have life and we want their sins to be covered and father we pray that as this day continues lord that we would continue to feed on your word continue to be strengthened and we thank you and in christ's name we pray amen