I'd like to return to James chapter 1 and continue our look at faith. Just very briefly in review, In the first four verses, which we looked at last time, we saw the reason that we should count it all joy when we fall into diverse temptations. And that is because the trying of our faith, the testing of our faith, worketh endurance. And endurance is something that comes with time, with exercise of our faith. and making a God honoring decision whenever we're faced with those choices. And one of the goals, one of the things that we can expect from our endurance being strengthened over time is in verse four that says that we would become perfect and entire, wanting nothing, and that this means that we would be full of the graces, that we would be full of the maturity that a Christian ought to have. So as we endure temptation, as we exercise our faith in Christ, that those graces and that maturity will fill, and we will become, in that sense, complete in our faith. And we continue on verse five and I'll read through verse twelve. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, they give it to all men liberally and upgrade, if not, and it shall be given him, but let him ask in faith nothing wavering for he that wavered is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed for let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, but the rich in that he is made low. Because of the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with the burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth. So also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endures temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him. So in verse five, James says. In your Christian walk, when you are trying to have faith, when you're trying to endure these temptations and you lack wisdom, maybe you feel weak. Ask of God, ask of God. Let's go to Proverbs chapter two. And I'd like to look at how we would seek after wisdom, and I think this gives us a. A good picture. Of what that looks like, Proverbs. chapter two. And we'll read the first ten verses, my son, if thou will receive my word and hide my commandments with thee. So that thou incline on ear and to wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding, yea, if thou cryest after knowledge and lift up thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver. And searches for her as for hid treasures. Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous. He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity, yea, every good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul, discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee. That's a perfect description of what we're looking for when we are trying to endure temptation, that we would have discretion and that through wisdom from God, we will be preserved in these temptations. So first we see the the attitude that we should have in pursuing wisdom, that we should cry out for knowledge, that we would seek very adamantly before God for his wisdom, and that we would lift up our voice. And then it gives us what is the discovery of our promise, of our request, is that If thou seekest her as silver and searches for her as for hid treasures, that's something very valuable. Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. So in that verse, there's no wisdom is not in that verse, but the fear of the Lord is, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord. And if you turn over to chapter nine. It tells us. that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. So where is wisdom to be found? There's a lot of knowledge in this world. There's a lot of information. There's a lot of teachers and counselors. But where is wisdom, where is true spiritual wisdom? going to be found, it's going to start, it's going to begin with a fear of God. And that means that we we are humbled before him. We have a fear of a reverential fear of who he is. So we are compelled to listen to him. We are compelled to seek his guidance. If we turn to Psalm 25. We can see this played out in. In David. When he saw after wisdom. Psalm 25, starting in verse one. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Oh, my God. I trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not mine enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed. Let them be ashamed, which transgress without cause. Show me thy ways, O Lord. Teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation. On thee do I wait all the day. crying out to God. Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindness, for they have been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. According to thy mercy, remember thou me, for thy goodness sake, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore will he teach sinners in the way. That's what we're looking for. We're looking for God to teach us in his way. The meek will he guide in judgment and the meek will he teach his way. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. So in our pursuit of acting, of living our faith, of enduring temptations, this is what we're seeking. We're seeking that God would teach us his way. And this passage indicates that it is through meekness and through humility that that will occur. And then in Psalm 86, in verse 11, a very familiar verse, because it's so apt, says, Teach me thy way, O Lord. I will walk in thy truth. Unite my heart to fear thy name. So our goal is to walk in Christ's way. So we're saying to do this, unite my heart to fear thy name, because fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and that is how we will walk in his ways. So we need to approach God. We need to pray to God for wisdom in humility. But back in James chapter one, verse five, it says, let him ask of God and then it describes God. Who is this God? What is his character that we are coming to him for wisdom that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and they shall be given him. If I was God and I had. A multitude of. Minions. in my kingdom, and I had prescribed a way of life, I had prescribed truth, wisdom. And these people had continually shunned me, they continually forsaken my truth, they had continually distorted it, not been faithful to it. I would be very just to Keep my truth from them. I'm not going to let you tarnish my name. I'm not going to let you tarnish my truth. I will keep it to myself. Thank you very much. But this says that he giveth to all men liberally. He's not conservative or stingy with his wisdom and he upbraideth not. He doesn't. When we come again and again and again asking for wisdom because we've wasted it or we've spoiled it or we've done it imperfectly. He doesn't upgrade us for that. He is a merciful, a God of bottomless mercy, and he liberally gives his wisdom to those that are seeking it. And then verse six, it qualifies how we have to ask, which we've already discussed, but let him ask in faith. nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think, he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Hebrews 11.6, just back a couple of pages, tells us that without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So we cannot come to God not believing, we cannot come to God not believing he has the capacity to hear to answer our prayer, that he has the strength, that he has the wisdom. We have to come to God believing in faith. We have to believe that he is. So, we said before that faith is not just a belief in God, for the devils believe in God and tremble, but it is a belief that He is true, that He is right, that He is who He says He is. And so, this tells us that we have to come to Him believing that He is all those things. So, He's a liberal God. He is not stingy. And he's all powerful, so he has the capacity to fulfill, to answer any prayer that we have. He is not, we rank prayers in our mind according to the difficulty, the degree of difficulty. But in truth, it is not that we would come to God and necessarily believe that he will do what we ask, although that is not wrong to do that. But there is a sense that we come to God believing that whatever it is that we're asking is just as easy for him to accomplish, just as likely in God's realm, just as possible for him to accomplish than one of what we would call a smaller request. We are restrained in our abilities to accomplish things. We're restrained in our ability to. To understand how something could come to pass, think of someone that you love that is today and not a Christian. And you can't see, I think of Brother Zach and his and his brother, he can't imagine how that could come to pass, but Faith would say that we believe that it is just as possible as for God to allow you to come to church safely on Sunday morning. There is no constraints with God and that is faith. So that really affects how we come to him. So let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. Don't don't be the prayer judge for God. Don't decide what's too hard. Don't discriminate. Bring everything to him and believe that he is who he says he is. And then we come to verse nine. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted. But the rich and that he is made low. Because of the flower of the grass, he shall pass away for the sun is no sooner risen with the burning heat, but it wither at the grass and the flower thereof falleth and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth. So also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. So, James. He moves. He moves from talking about asking for wisdom and how we must have faith in God and who we're coming to. And then he comes to describe what the Christian looks like when he is in this state of receiving wisdom of God, of being in that, having that capacity. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted. This, like the second verse, counted all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, sounds backwards. Why would we rejoice in having a low degree and being poor and having a humble countenance? That's counter to our, to everything. that we that is around us today. But if we look at the word that low degree is based upon, it is the Greek word top. And in Matthew 11, 29, the same word is used. So let's use that as a commentary on this characteristic. And maybe we'll become convinced that it's actually a very desirable state. We'll start in verse 28 of Matthew 11. This is Jesus talking. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, for ye shall find rest into your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So Jesus himself is lowly. We know, in fact, that he is very rich in the kingdom of God, but as a man, he is lowly because he submitted himself to God's service. He was here not to do his own will, but to do the will of him that sent him. He was meek and lowly in heart. That is the key definer. He was lowly in heart. You may follow the law to a jot and a tittle, but have you missed the spirit of the law? And that is what we found in the New Testament. And that is what James is saying here is that it's not about whether you are rich or poor materially. Are you rich? in your own mind or poor in heart? Are you lowly in heart or are you puffed up in heart? Are you proud in heart? So, he describes the brother of low degree having reason to rejoice because he is exalted. And then we look at the rich man. If we turn to Luke 8.13, we have a very telling description of the rich. I'm not sure that's the right reference. 1221, Luke 1221. Starting in 20, but God said unto him, this merry man that is living it up, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. So he is a foolish man who is rich in himself, but not rich towards God. And then in Revelation 3, 17, it is even stronger. Revelation 3, 17. Starting 15, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou work cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. That's not the kind of rich man I want to be. But this is the rich man that James is saying is going to wither away. The flower of the plant may be beautiful for a time. It may be desirable. But as soon as the sun rises, which it does every day, it's going to wither away. So that is not the rich that we should desire. Instead, the good news is that not only can a poor in heart be, not only can a poor man be rich in faith, can be rich in wisdom, can be full of wisdom, but also a rich man can be full of wisdom too. But the connector, the connector is that we have humility before God. It is a heart matter. And that's what James is saying here. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, but the rich rejoice in that he is made low. So what ties the poor and the rich together? It's really about the state of their heart. The rich man before God, before having the wisdom of God, will be puffed up in himself. But after the wisdom of God, he will be brought down. He will be abased. He will be brought low where he belongs. And a poor man, he may not spiritually be lower than he should be. We cannot, in some sense, have too low of a view of ourselves, but he may think, oh, I'm so low. There's no way that God could reach me. But God can, and once he has that wisdom, he understands that actually he is exalted in Christ. So the rich is brought low, the poor is brought up, and they're in the wisdom of God. They're the same man. They're not in two different classes. They're the same. And that is what James is rejoicing here, is that they both have reason to rejoice, but they're taking different paths to the wisdom of God. First Peter five, verse five. Brings us all together. Pinpoints this this element of. Connecting the two types of people. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. For God resisted the proud and give us grace to the humble, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you. In due time, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. So when we are humble before God. Understand that he is mighty, which we've discussed. He will exalt us by giving us his wisdom. So we're casting all our care upon him in humility, and he will exalt us in due time. And that's the exaltation that we should really desire, not the kind that comes in driving a nice car and being a CEO of a great company. Thankfully, James is saying that if you were a CEO of a great company, that doesn't keep you, that doesn't keep you out of God's arm. His arm is not short that it cannot save. He can go to the very bottom of man. He can go to the very top of man. So we have this picture here of needing wisdom to faithfully execute our faith, if you will. So we seek wisdom humbly before God, believing that he is so powerful to help us through every temptation. Both the rich and the poor are recipients of the fear of the Lord. Maybe the best example of a rich man that received the fear of the Lord was Paul. If you would return to Philippians 3. Philippians 3 verse 4. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, that he might be boastful and confident in himself and not need anyone else's wisdom. I more, circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge, or the wisdom, of Jesus Christ, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them, but dumb that I may win Christ. So this man in his world, he was top notch, but God reached even him. And we well know the story of his conversion. What did God do? He abased him. He brought him very low. And then he became a great and faithful and enduring Servant of God, there is probably no example in the scriptures of a more enduring follower of Christ. But at the same time, if we turn to Luke 21, we can see how Jesus Christ exalts one that was very low in stature. Luke 21, 4. We'll start in verse one, actually. And he, Jesus, looked up and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury, and he saw also a poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said of a truth, I say unto you that this poor widow have cast in more than they all. For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God, that she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had." Before his disciples, he was saying, this woman, in my book, is exalted above all these other people that have cast in of their abundance that she has given all. So we see where Christ has reached out and he's pulled down the rich man to himself And he's brought up the poor woman to himself. So indeed, his arm is not short that it cannot save. So that should give us great hope. It is the spectrum of mankind. And we are all somewhere in that spectrum. We all can seek wisdom after God. And he will be liberal in helping us endure our temptations. Well, then we come to verse 12. James says. Blessed is the man that endures temptation, and are we glad that that man can be. From any background. Any. Class. In fact, in Chapter two, James really bears down hard on not having the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons. That you would not honor the rich man that comes in the door and give him a good place, but the poor man would sit under your footstool, no respect of persons with God. That is not what he's interested in. So aren't we glad that we can be included in this man that is described here? Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him. Now, this tribe is even better than the tribe at the beginning of the chapter. This tribe is indeed being tested, but there's a qualifier in this word. It is being tested with approval. So if you use this word to describe having tried something, you're saying that I have tested it and found it to be excellent. I found it to be two thumbs up. So blessed is the man that endures temptation for when he has been tried and approved. Unto God approved unto God. He shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them. That love him. So we have. This crown of life. Right now, we have a crown of life when we are able to endure temptations. The crown of life for us today is that we have life in Jesus Christ and we experience that today. We live in a new man. So fellowship with God is life that others do not have. They do not have spiritual life. So we enjoy this life presently, but also, of course, the crown of everlasting life will be the great hurrah, if you will. And so James is saying this is this crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him. This is what's given to those who have endured temptation and have been approved. God has said, well done, thou good and faithful servant. And wouldn't you like to have that said to you? I sure would. If we turn to Revelation 2.10. I think that's a seven. Let's make sure. Revelation 2.10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried, and he shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death. And I will give thee a crown of life. So we endure temptation. We're not really enduring to get the physical crown so we can put it up on our shelf with all our other trophies, our basketball trophies and soccer trophies, our spelling bee trophies. We're not going for the crown itself, but the crown is a symbol of status, it is saying, it is representing everlasting life, which is in God. So when James says, blessed is the man that endures temptation, for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him. It's really a describer of who these people are. So, today, if you are enduring your temptations with the wisdom of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, then that identifies you as being in this party, the ones who will receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. And that is the motivation that we endure. We endure for the love, because of the love of Christ. Because we desire to be conformed to His image and to follow after His way. So, this is a great motivation for us.