The Believer and Trials

James, chapter 1, again, thank you for being with us. Now I have both good news and bad news. I understand there is a 20-minute gap, not gap, but 20-minute leeway.

The pizza may come anywhere from 4.20 to 4.40. And being part Italian, I don't like cold pizza, so if the pizza comes early, we will probably get done early. The bad news is that the pizza is late. I may just keep speaking.

So pray for pizza. James, chapter 1, verse number 1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers' temptations.

Knowing this, the trying or the putting to the test, the proving of your faith, worketh patience. Let patience have her perfect work, that she may be perfect and entire, wanting or lacking in nothing. And if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and abradeth not, and it shall be given him.

Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. 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. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, but the rich in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a 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 endureth temptation, trial, for when he is tried, when he is approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God.

For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.

Now, I'm sure that God will add his rich blessing to these very precious verses from the pen of the very, very practical James. The subject before us in this final hour today is the believer and trial. Some of the young believers may think we've had our trial listening to the same person four hours in one day is a trial.

And for young Christians, the idea of trial seems so foreign. And, you know, you're cresting just life is is good and you're just moving through life and, you know, no trials. I think that's probably not the case.

There are probably young believers here with trials, but certainly the trials seem to increase in both their frequency and intensity as you get older. Hope I don't discourage you by saying that, but it doesn't get easier in the Christian life. And of course, that is part of the kindness of God.

He didn't call upon an Abraham to offer his son at the beginning of his experience. It was at the end of his experience. He saved the greatest trial for the end because God was preparing him for it all along.

So it is both the mercy of God and the purposes of God that are part of the blending and the preparing of believers for trial. But I want to talk then about the believer and trial and talk to you, first of all, about believers who are planted, believers who are planted. So James takes up his pen and writes to believers who are scattered.

The word he uses is the scattering of seed as a farmer would scatter seed. He's saying where God has put you. The circumstances God has placed you in the difficult environment, town, office, home that God has put you in, God has planted you there to grow.

Your circumstances are of God's doing, God has put you there. And so he says, God has sown you where you are and you'll know as you come down the chapter, we didn't read it. You come down to around verse number 17 or 18 of his own will, begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits.

So God is looking for fruit amidst the trial where he's planted you. So let me just bring that practically for a moment to your situation in mind, assuming for a moment that it is not the result of your rebellion, but that which you couldn't control. God has brought you in the certain circumstances.

There are no circumstances in which you can be found into which God has brought you that. Are not circumstances God has allowed for you to bear fruit, we never can blame our circumstances. For our failure.

We never can blame the fact that. Here I am in this office, here I am in the school, here I am in this home, here I am in this community, here I am in this assembly. We never can point to our circumstances and say, if it weren't for that, I could be more fruitful.

James says in your trial where you are, God is sowing you, he has scattered you like seed. That you could bear fruit, so never blame your circumstances, God has allowed them, God has planted you, God has purposes there for you in that particular set of circumstances. Believers who are planted.

Let me talk to you about trials which are particular. And so he says, my brother encountered all joy when you fall into divers temptation. Whenever I see that word divers, I'm reminded of a dear older Italian man.

If you haven't guessed it yet, Italians aren't necessarily the sharpest knife in the drawer. OK, he he liked to preach and he made a chart and he made a chart of end times and it's going great at it. And, you know, if you go to Matthew chapter 24, it speaks about divers troubles and so on.

And on his chart what he had was a picture of a deep sea diver and all these troubles happening to him, you know. So that was his idea of divers troubles, troubles that divers got into. But you'll know that what we're talking about are diverse, different, unique trials that are particular for each individual and different for each individual.

Think of it just as various. OK, in first Peter, chapter one with it could be read alongside of James chapter one. He speaks of manifold, the manifold trials of your faith and so on.

So one man's trial is not another man's trial. God may call upon some believers to pass through certain difficulties and others don't go through it. I mean, when you turn to the book of Daniel, when you come to Daniel chapter two, it's Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and their lives are on the line and they're praying for God to reveal the dream of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel received a vision in the night and together they pass through that trial.

But when you come to Daniel four or is it Daniel three, rather Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are in the furnace. Where's Daniel? I don't know, but it wasn't his trial. When you come to chapter six, Daniel's in the lions, then where's Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? I don't know.

That was Daniel's trial. So there are trials that are common to all trials. Trials unique to all.

So that as you look in the word of God, great men, totally different kinds of trials. Boaz's trial, as he stayed by the land in days of famine, wasn't Joseph's trial. Joseph was sent ahead to preserve people and it's the famine.

And when you think of a David and place him next to some of the other great worthies of Scripture, David's great trial was those years of fleeing, living in caves, his life on the line day by day. Moses didn't know that, did he? Moses didn't know what it was to live in caves and yet both were great leaders. God was molding his man according to the need that he saw and developing them in keeping with his purposes for them.

So trials are unique. Think of a of a Peter and a James sitting together. Acts 13 in a in a jail cell.

And one day the executioner comes in and. James goes out beheaded. Peter, miraculous deliverance, why different trials, different purposes, God has his purposes, his trial for each individual believer, and so there can be trials in financial life.

There are believers who have known that men that have had businesses, men that have had careers and. Everything suddenly pulled out from under them. Either because of economic downturns or because of being employed for someone and suddenly the job is taken away, there can be trials in financial life, can be trials in family life.

Very, very few families escape heartache and grief. Whether it's in the children or in the grandchildren, whatever it might be, probably almost every family represented knows something of grief, wandering prodigals and those who are away from God today. Troubles in family life, trials in our frail flesh as we cope with illness, as we cope with weakness, as we cope with infirmities.

Trials in the fellowship, trials in the assembly can be a tremendous heartache to overseers, troubles with fellow believers, trials in every sphere. God suits the trial to the person. Sometimes people think if you are doing everything you should do, if a trial comes, it should be a minor one.

And the big trials are for people who really are in need of tremendous change. I find the severest trials in the word of God were for the godliest of believers. You know why? God could not trust Lot with the trial he gave to Abraham.

Lot could have never handled it. And God could not have trusted Job's three friends with the trial that he put Job through. The only man on the face of the earth that God could turn to and tell Satan, Job is the man.

He's my man. I can depend upon him in the trial. Could have never said that about anyone else on the face of the earth.

And yet Job goes through the trial and his three friends know nothing of it. So when you see a believer going through trial, don't sit back and begin to wonder what is wrong in their life. Retribution theology is what Job's three friends majored in, that whenever something happens, it's because God is punishing you.

That was the mistake they made. Don't you make the same mistake? The hardest, severest, difficult trials, deepest trials and griefs sometimes are reserved for the godliest, strongest, most consistent of believers. God can only trust them, can't trust the rest of us.

So you will then see here trials then that are particular for believers. But we learn here as well in verse three, the trials are purposeful. God has a purpose in trial.

One goal is, as here in the epistle of James, is to develop endurance, endurance, patience, let patience have her perfect work. And that word is endurance. Let patience have her perfect work, that she may be perfect, may be entire or perfect and entire, lacking in nothing.

So that God's trials are not whimsical. They are not spur of the moment. They are not indifferent.

They are not capricious. Every trial from the hand of God has a purpose in view. Now, I've mentioned in your outlines, if you have it, the just some suggestive thoughts as to different reasons for trial.

We usually think of, number one, that trial is punitive. What's God doing to me? What did I do wrong? Where did I go wrong? Why is this happening? Trials are punitive at times, but I would suggest it is the minority of times, the minority of times that trials come as a result of God needing to correct us, needing to correct us. God does have to bring punitive trials because we are subjects in a kingdom.

We claim to bow to a ruler. That's what it means to be in a kingdom, to have a ruler, to have a sovereignty, to be under its sway and to bow allegiance and own the rights of that person over my life. God says, if you're going to be in my kingdom, you can't act that way.

So there is punitive chastening because we are subjects in his kingdom. But there is also preparatory trials because we are sons in the family. God is preparing us, Hebrews chapter 12, preparing us for for the future.

I just mentioned Abraham. When did God prepare Abraham for Mount Moriah? How did God prepare Abraham for Mount Moriah? Hebrews 11 says that by faith, Abraham offered up Isaac, judging that God was able to raise him from the dead. Where did he ever learn that? Now, mind you, you know, don't think about putting the knife in God, raising him up.

He was going to reduce him to ashes. It's going to offer him as an offering. He was going to ignite the fire, consume the body.

Abraham said, God can raise my son out of the ashes. Where did God prepare Abraham? God began at the very beginning of Abraham's career. He staggered not at the promise of unbelief, but was strong in faith.

What was that? When he judged that God was able to bring life out of death, he considered not the deadness of Sarah's womb. God can bring life out of a dead womb. God can bring life out of dead ashes.

See, God was preparing him all along, began at the very first trial, began when he was struggling with his own inability to produce fruit for God. There is where God began preparing him and God had in view that ultimate trial. You might say, well, would it have been better if that trial hadn't been then? You know, he wouldn't have had to prepare him back then.

So, you know, why not just skip all the trials? Could I just for a moment point you to Mount Moriah? Let me just suggest two things. There's much more that could be said. Let me just suggest two things.

On Mount Moriah, Abraham learned something of God that he had never known before. So one great purpose of trial is to reveal God to us as never before. Jehovah Jireh.

Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he sought and was glad. So trial unveils God to us in ways we have never known before. But secondly, how many men do you know in the word of God who are types or pictures might be a better way of putting it, who are pictures of the father giving his son? We have lots of types and pictures of Christ.

You can go through the Old Testament to replete. The only one I know of is Abraham. Abraham had the privilege of being a picture of a father giving his son.

And there's only one man that I know of in the Old Testament who could say, I know a little bit, I know a little bit how the heart of a father felt when his son was upon a cross. He could have fellowship with God over Calvary. You think Abraham would trade that trial? You think he would have said, you know, why don't we just forget all these trials? And, you know, who needs the preparatory ones if we don't have to? No, no.

Abraham would have said, give me more. My to know God like that. So trials can be punitive because we are subjects, they can be preparatory because we are sons, they can be preventative because we're servants.

We read it earlier today, didn't we? For Paul says, I had a trial, I was being buffeted in my flesh, I had a thorn in the flesh to preserve me, prevent me from being lifted up or my service would have been in vain. I would have been disqualified. And so God sent chastening into my life.

He allowed Satan to buffet me. I prayed three times that it would be removed. But God said my grace is sufficient and so on.

So there was a trial. There was a chastening, there was something that God allowed Satan to do. Because he wanted his servant to be prevented from being lifted up, even the apostle Paul.

Even the apostle Paul was in danger. God said, I've got to prevent that, got to preserve this man's usefulness and preserve him from being lifted up. And so trials can be preventative because we are servants in the field serving him.

Trials can be also a way for God to proclaim his his grace. Because we are saints who are displaying him to the world. And what I mean by that.

Ever hear of anyone whose first attractions of the gospel. Was watching another believer as they suffered, as they went through a trial, as they endured an illness, as they were able to maintain a joyful, contented spirit amidst great difficulty. And that believer may have been wondering, why is God allowing this? And yet others were looking on, unsaved were looking on and noticing.

But if God can sustain them through this, they must be real. There must be something to what they have. So God at times allows trials to display his grace to others through that individual suffering, through that individual in the trial.

The grace of God is displayed. God proclaiming his his ability and his greatness through that individual. But James one reminds us of God perfecting God, bringing believers, maturing, increasing development, developing in us qualities and traits.

That only trial can bring. It's interesting. If you think of the children of Israel, Egypt, the Canaan, you know, all know the story so well and the different illustrations.

Exodus 12, God judges the Egyptians and the people of God come out. They learn God is the mighty redeemer. Chapter 14, they learn God as in a new way at the Red Sea, the God of incredible power who can redeem.

Chapter 15, the God providing rather 16, God providing the manna. Chapter 17, God opening the rock as trials come, as difficulties come at every stage they're learning something fresh about the wonder of the God with whom they have come into relationship. Except for one place.

You remember Mara, they came to Mara and the waters were bitter. And God revealed himself there. They leave Mara and they come to a place where there are 12 wells and three scoring ten palm trees.

Everything is good. But they learned nothing of God there. And that's every trial you can trace it.

They're learning God and it's their trials. But in the place of rest, nothing is learned. We grow more in our trials than in our heady days of comfort and ease.

Now, I'm not I'm not asking for trial. I am not interested in trial. But we do learn God in ways that we are too preoccupied with ourselves at other times to learn.

And here, James says, God is perfecting you, he's developing things in you so that you may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing. The sad, tragic reality is we're not going to be perfect and entire until we get home to heaven. So that means trials are part of Christian life, aren't they? God is working towards something.

So we have then here times that are purposeful, God moving towards a goal. But I want you to notice what it says in verse number three, rather verse number two. Kind of all joy when you fall into diverse temptations.

It is verse three, knowing this, that the trying of your faith. So let me talk about not just believers who are planted in times that are particular to you and times that are purposeful. Let me talk about faith that is proven.

Ultimately. Ultimately, bottom line, end of the road. Every trial is a trial of your faith.

What does that mean? It doesn't mean you're going to say I'm not saved anymore or I don't believe it all anymore. It just means this every trial you and I come into, however small, however large, is going to reflect in some measure what I think of God. OK.

Every trial is going to indicate what I think of God. Is he in control? Is God in control? Look at all the things happening to me suddenly. Look at all the calamity coming upon me.

Look at all the negative things suddenly buffeting me. Business is going bad and health is going. Does God know what's happening? Is God in control? You see, our our confidence in God is going to be determined by our concept of God.

What is your God like? Is your God faithful? Is your God righteous? Is your God omnipotent? Is your God kind? Is your God good? Did you ever hear a believer say things were desperate in the assembly? There were difficulties, problems, no one seemed to care. I was thinking of leaving, but then I realized I'm not there for the Christians. I'm there for him.

I'm there for him. He deserves it. Maybe maybe I don't think anyone else does, but but he deserves it.

So trials sometimes reveal, do I think he deserves it? Now, there are sisters here, you'll allow me just to speak kindly, but bluntly. There are unmarried sisters here. Unmarried sisters who could, with a snap of their fingers, have a man in the world that's unsaved or even have a man that's saved and linked with something else.

Is God deserving? That I should sacrifice natural joys. Out of obedience to his word. Is he worthy of it? Is God worthy that I should give up what seems so normal? Well, you might say, is that a trial that is a trial? A tremendous trial, you know, is a biologic clock ticks away and some of our sisters would long to have families and long to recognize, no, God deserves my obedience.

He is worthy of my obedience. That's the kind of God I have. That's the kind of God you have to trial is going to prove, what do I think of God? Can I depend upon him? Can I trust him? Is he deserving of it? Is he worthy of it? Is is he the kind of God who is really kind? Isn't that what Satan said to Adam rather to Eve? Your God isn't really kind.

He's withholding something from you. And he knows that if you eat, things are going to be better for you. And he's just a bit on the cruel side.

What kind of God do you have? What is your concept of God? James says trial is going to display what you think of God. If your idea is, why did he do this to me? What right does he have to take this from me? What right does he have to change my life? What right does he have to inflict this upon me, touch my health? That's your concept of God. The trial is going to.

Make you a rebel. Not God, it's you, how you react to the trial. But James says the trying of your faith.

Peter says the exact same expression. He uses the same exact expression, the trial of your faith. Every trial eventually will prove what I think of God.

So it is then every trial will test me in that. That's why we read in verse number 12. About the man who is approved, the man that endures temptation, receive a crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to whom? To them that love him.

You know what that means? That means no matter what Job, like I can say, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Job displayed that love for God, that no matter what, no matter what comes, no matter what he hits me with next. I love him.

And in love to him, I will endure the trial. And submit to what God is doing in my life. Now, that's a mouthful to say it's a totally different thing to live, totally different thing to experience.

And I know believers who have done that very thing. And. All I can say is I feel like I'm a poor flickering light next to the blaze of their testimony for God, enduring trial.

Recognizing it as a trial of their faith and having total confidence in God. But what are the resources then? What are the resources that are possible? One of the things that James does throughout his epistle is to reveal the character of God. So in chapter one, he says, you have a God who gives, gives wisdom.

You have a God who gives wisdom liberally. He tells us elsewhere, every good gift and every perfect coming down from above. So you have a God who not only gives and gives liberally, he gives what's good.

And he tells us also as we go through the chapter, as you come to chapter two, he tells us that this God who gives and gives liberally and who gives what is good, he's no respecter of persons, meaning he gives to everyone. It's not that the elders, they've got the inside track or the preachers have the inside track. Or if you're really a super duper Christian, you know, one of those six o'clock straight up and down Christians never had a fall in your life, never had a failure, no flaw that that's the one.

No, he gives impartially. Impartially gives to all. I don't like to use the word the weakest believer, but you know what I mean, he gives to everyone, he's available to all.

Tells us in chapter four where he again is speaking about trial and says in verse number six, he giveth grace, tells us chapter five, we have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is of tender mercies and very pitiful. Both those words, mercies and pitiful, are plural words. It means that his mercies are are in the plurality and his pities are in the plurality.

You'd have hardly thought, looking at what was happening to Job, that God is of tender mercies and very pitiful. But that's the God that Job was involved with. It's the God that you and I are involved in.

The resources in trial, the character of God. And knowing that character gives us ultimate confidence. This is a God that I can come to, a God I can trust, a God I can lean upon in the trial.

And while I may not see what is happening, while I may not understand what is happening, I can trust God that amidst it all, he wants to reveal himself to me and he wants to refine me and make me what he wants to be. So confidence is the result of my concept of the character of God. So let me just say just a word about confidence in God.

James tells us here in chapter one, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God. Now, what is the wisdom here? I don't want to take away. The idea of the why of trial, why is this happening? You recall, was it Rebecca when there when she was told that there were two nations in her womb and there was that struggle, she went before the Lord and said, if it be so, why? Why is this happening if this is the case? So there's nothing wrong with asking why? But I think the wisdom that is looked for here in chapter one of James has to do with not the why of the trial, not what did I do wrong and why is God allowing this? But I'd like to know God better through this trial.

And I'd like God to be able to develop what he wants to in this trial that I don't resist his his workings with me. I'd like to be I'd like to get from this trial what God intends for me. Oh, God, give me wisdom in the trial.

Give me the wisdom I need to deal with the trial in such a way that God will reveal himself and I'll be blessed through it. And so he says to ask in faith, nothing wavering. Notice, he doesn't say to ask for deliverance.

That's where we start. We start with the deliverance. And Lord, you know, if you can't deliver, then, you know, doesn't pray.

He doesn't say to pray for deliverance. That's what we want. Where's the door out? He says, pray for wisdom in the trial.

If any man like wisdom, let him ask of God who give it to all men liberally and abridged not and it shall begin. So we have resources, the resources, the very character of God who is allowing the trial for us. But now let me just talk about refining our our perspective for just a moment.

Notice in verses nine to 11, the brother of low degree is told to exalt and the brother of who is rich is told to exalt as well and that he is brought low. You can understand the brother of low degree rejoicing and being exalted, but the rich man and being brought low, I think that both really. Have the same thing in mind that as they go through the trial, the brother of low degree is rejoicing because he's beginning to appreciate his spiritual riches.

He may not have much of this world's goods, but to think he has a God who gives liberally, a God who even cares for him, a God who is interested in his growth and refinement. But what about the rich man? As he begins to lose his material things, he begins to realize what is really a value is what is spiritual and I can rejoice that even though the world might take away everything material I have, it can't take for me what is really a value. What is really of worth and he rejoices.

But just notice for a moment the the different phrases that are used in these verses. Notice in verse number 11, we have the grass, we have the flower of the grass and we have the grace of the fashion of the flower of the grass. Let me just put it like this, the grass, I think of that as just a normal in the ordinary, you know, just normal.

The flower is not the normal, but that which is beautiful. The grace of the fashion is what is best. We fear.

God put it in his finger, not upon the normal. Not even upon what is beautiful, we fear God putting his finger on the best. And so Job says, chapter three, verse twenty five, the thing that I greatly feared is come upon me and that of which I was afraid has come to pass.

What did he mean? What he meant was this. He said it may be that in their revelry, my sons have sinned against God. And so while they feasted, he fasted.

When they partied, he was praying, when they were singing, he was sacrificing. He was trying to preserve his family for God. And in one day he lost them all.

He said the ultimate fear I had in life, the final thing, that which was dearest to my heart. God has touched, I think that's poignant, that was telling, wasn't it? It almost crushed the old man. What he held so close, you know what happens as you get older, most of you young couples, you're accumulating things when you reach 60 and go past that 60 mark, you start getting rid of things because you realize they aren't the important things.

Relationships, family, children, grandchildren, that's that's what's important to you. That's what you really value now. That's what's so important to you, to see young lives preserved, to see them nurtured, to see those lives preserved for God, to see them going on in the right way.

And so the things you start giving them away, you know, and you don't need them anymore and they just seem to be a clutter after a while. And you realize what really matters are our relationships, those who are so dear. Job said, yeah, the possessions, the camels, the asses, the sheep, they were nice, but that wasn't what I feared.

What I feared was for my family. God has put his finger on my family. Let me just so you don't think I put this on a negative note, let me just fast forward to the end of the story.

When the story ends, God says to Job, Job, and here my memory is failing, so forgive me, you lost. I'll have to just give a number. You lost seven thousand camels.

I'm going to give you fourteen thousand. Job, you lost a thousand. She asked if you've got two thousand.

Job, you lost so many sheep. Double the amount at the end. Job, you lost seven sons and three daughters.

Job, I'm going to give you seven sons and three daughters. Well, wait a minute. Everything else was doubled.

Why not the sons and daughters? Why not fourteen sons and three daughters? One simple reason. When Job got to heaven, he did have fourteen sons and six daughters. What God was telling him is, Job, I took them, but they're with me.

Don't worry. I'm going to give you seven more and three more. And when all is said and done, you'll end up with double in the end.

The sheep, the asses, the camels, they perish. But those that I took, they're with me. You'll see them again and you'll have double the amount in the end.

Just as you did with everything else. The tender mercies and pity of God on Job, how kind, how tender, how gracious, how gentle he is in the trial, how wonderful to see how God dealt with Job. And having touched what was so sensitive, bring some added joy at the end with the assurance I may not have them for the brief time I'm upon earth, but I'll have them for all eternity.

Wonderful of God in his ways will all of us. But let me talk about reaching for the prospect. Notice what it says in verses 12 and 13.

Blessed is the man who endures temptation for when he is approved. There is the implication, isn't there, that the trial will come to an end. The trial will be accomplished.

It'll be done someday. So God says as he endures this trial, there'll be an end to it. I've got my purposes.

And when it reaches its goal, then the trial is done. So Peter says it is for a season. He tells us it's for a reason and it's for a season.

It's for a season. It's not forever. Now, there are some trials that seem like they go on forever, burdens that believers there in home life and in family life especially can sometimes seem to be endless and lifelong.

But yet every trial God has mapped out its beginning, its course and its end. So trials are for a season. But he tells us as well that out of that trial, there comes approval, that when he is approved, that's really the marginal reading there in that verse, that when he is tried, when he's approved, God putting his stamp of approval upon a man or woman going through a trial.

There's a man and I think it's a man, maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's a man in Romans 16, appellees approved in Christ. A man who was approved, his life bore this stamp, God approved of his of his life. And here are believers who are receiving the commendation of God.

They've come through a trial. God says they are approved, that they have been tried and they've come through it, as I intended, tremendous. And then there is, of course, linked with the afterwards that they may receive the crown of life.

Now, it is likely it is likely that this crown of life is something we will have at the judgment seat of Christ. But I cannot help but think that there is a present suggested application and it is just this. The crown of life is what life is all about.

We think of trials as interrupting our lives, we think of trials as being kind of detours in the Christian life that, you know, just get past this hurdle and let me get on with my regular Christian life. The man who goes through the trial and is approved, he realizes this is what life is all about. He gets the crown, the very best of life is his because life has brought him into a deeper, sweeter relationship with God.

It has opened to his vista new revelations of the character of his God. It has made him more like his Christ. And he says this is what life is all about.

He doesn't volunteer for trial. If you've been through trial, you know what I mean? You don't raise your hand and volunteer. I'm ready for the next.

Now, the Lord brings it. You look for grace, but you don't volunteer. But he realizes this is what this is, the very best of life to know God, to be like Christ.

This is what life is really for. Not for me to have my toys and settle down, but to know God in a more meaningful way. But you'll notice then the danger that he refers to here, and I think I have that in your outline as refusing the peril.

Verse 13, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. Trial is never an excuse for sin. We mentioned that at the beginning, your circumstances, the difficulty of your circumstances, where you are, the office you work in and the neighborhood you live in and the family into which God has put you and the relationships God has brought you into and the assembly where you are, whatever circumstance God has allowed, it is not an excuse for sin.

Let no man say when he is tempted, I'm tempted by God to sin. God can't be tempted with sin. And he tempts no man with sin so that God never brings us into a trial whose goal is my failure.

So when I say, well, what about what about the Lord's prayer lead us not into temptation? I don't think it's the idea that God leads us into temptation. I think it's the idea that the individual praying that recognizes his utter dependence upon God for preservation. And so he is crying to God for preservation, of course, that prayer will have greater significance to a remnant people who are being persecuted upon the earth and are being hounded from city to city by the tremendous forces of the Antichrist in a coming day.

But it has application to us as well, that we do not we do not feel strong enough in ourselves to endure. We are dependent upon God so we can never use our circumstances, our trial as a reason for either sin. And he was told, he says, despise not.

That word doesn't mean to hate. Same as earlier in the chapter, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. Christ did not hate the shame.

Christ thought it a very little thing. That's the idea of despising. It means to think very little of the shame.

He thought very little of in light of the glory and the joy and all that was before him. He thought it a minor thing. All that he endured, he thought, a minor thing in light of the tremendous joy he would have.

So he says, don't think your trial a minor thing, you know, just happens to everybody. You know, why get all upset about it? Why? You know, it's just so insignificant. I'm not going to bother praying about it.

I'm not going to bother being exercised about it. Just underwhelmed, overwhelmed, the other extreme. We're creatures of extreme being overwhelmed.

Why me? Why this? I can't handle it too much for me. Remember a sister who went through several trials, kind of back to back, and as they were wheeling her into the hospital for the third or fourth time, she said, does God know I'm not the apostle Paul? You know, more of the I just, you know, all this. I'm not Paul.

Why me? I don't think she was overwhelmed, but you understand, you know, sometimes we feel like, why me? You know, I'm trying to do everything right. I'm raising my children right. I'm I sought to do what was right.

You look at other Christians and they had totally different standards and their children weren't at all the meetings and their children were allowed certain things. And now they're saved and in the assembly and seem to be doing well. And my children, we raise them the right way.

We had them at the meetings, never miss meetings. They're not saved. They're in the world.

Lord, why me? Why this? Overwhelmed. Underwhelmed, overwhelmed. Paul says or rather the writer of Hebrews says we should be exercised, that God allows chastening, God allows trial.

And he intends us to be exercised before him about never use trial as an excuse. Every trial requires wisdom from God. And as we go through the trial, James reminds us here in his tremendous chapter, God's great goal as a purpose.

He's got something in mind. Someone has well likened it to the sculptor with his hammer and his chisel. You know, a good sculptor looks at a block of marble.

I look at it and I just see a cold block of marble. He looks at it. He sees something hidden within the marble.

And he begins taking his hammer and his chisel and begins chipping away. To bring out. What he has in mind as his finished product, some of the blows from the hammer can be.

Quite smarting. Some of the blows are just gentle taps just to remove a little edge here, another edge there, then there can be again the hard blow to take away a big chunk. Then again, the gentle, soft, skillful touch.

So God is doing with you and with me, I am so thankful a hammer and chisel are in his hands. The skillful hands of a master sculptor as he is making of you and of me what he has had in mind from all eternity, bringing you and bringing me into likeness to his son. When we get to heaven, we will look back upon Earth's trials.

And we will be thankful for every single one. However deep the grief, however hot the tears, however sleepless the nights, however burdensome the trial, we will look back from eternity and we will bless the hand that guided. We'll bless the heart that plans when thrones, where glory dwells in Emmanuel's land.

May the Lord help us and encourage us in light of the skillful. Wise hands of the master sculptor, shall we pray our father in the name of my son, we bow in my presence together once more, we thank you for the kindness and goodness of God to us in this hour that we have been together. We fear speaking on the things we have spoken on.

There is not one of us here who welcomes trial. We are frail. We are weak.

We fear that we will dishonor the in it. We fear that we will come far short of what is intended. And so we are not asking for trial, but we do bless you for a wise, kind, good, gracious God.

Thank you for a God who is of tender mercies and full of. Compassion and pities, we thank you for this, we look today then to bless thy word, we have spoken and undoubtedly in this company so large, there are many believers who know right now the reality of trial, some so burdensome they cannot mention it to others, some so heavy that they at times feel as though they will sink under the weight of it. To them, trial is a very real, present thing.

We trust there has been something said that will encourage and strengthen. Do remember, my dear people, today we give thanks to the again. We will soon partake of food once more.

Thou art good to us, even in the natural realm, providing everything that we need. We do return thanks and acknowledge the thank the again for the Lord Jesus in his own worthy and precious name. Amen.