God's Nightingales Sing In The Dark

Father, we wait. We wait. We wait.

We wait. There are some things, brethren, in this church, they're waiting. And they've been waiting.

And they're still waiting. And they continue to wait. And You're our sure rock and our foundation.

And we're going to continue to wait because we trust You. And we know that You're a rock solidness under our feet. And so there we're stayed.

There are many things that we hope for. Lord, I desire the salvation in my daughter Charity. Lord, I wait.

I wait. I pray that You'd help in this hour. Please, in Christ's name, Amen.

Okay, brethren, you can open your Bibles to James. I am rejoicing at the opportunity to be back in this pulpit and starting a book of the Bible. And that book, Lord willing, is going to be James.

Today is that first message. James 1. I hope to deal with the first four verses this morning. James 1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

To the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. It's just right here at the beginning. Verse 2, when Christian, this is speaking to brethren, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

James is very much the realist. Not if we do, but when we do. Now right here at the beginning, James.

Okay, now listen to this. You don't have to turn here, but just listen to this verse in Acts 1. When they had entered, they went to the upper room. You know when they went there and they were waiting and the Spirit of God fell upon them on the day of Pentecost.

Peter, John, and James, and Andrew. Well, you see a James in there. Obviously, that James is the brother of John.

It's very interesting. Now he comes second to John. Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus.

There's another James among the apostles. And Simon the Zealot and Judas, this is not as scary, the son of James. You've got three James right there.

The father of Judas. You've got James, the brother of John. James, the son of Zebedee.

And then you've got this other one, the James, son of Alphaeus. But you know what happens? As you go forward, you've got these three James, and then we know that by the time we get to Acts 12, James, the brother of John, he dies by the sword. Herod puts him to death.

Now when you get to Acts 15, all of a sudden we're confronted by even a fourth James in Scripture. That James is obviously a head figure at Jerusalem because he ends up being a primary voice speaking about Paul and Barnabas and the things that happened out there on the mission field and what happened with Peter, you remember. Anyway, they sent a letter to Antioch and to the Gentiles there.

Well, James is at the head of this. After Peter gets done talking, James steps forward and he starts talking and he addresses these folks that are gathered together there. Paul calls him in Galatians the brother of our Lord.

And he says this, James, Peter, and John, they're the pillars. This James actually gets put first in that list of those that Paul deems to be the pillars there. Well, look, when you get to the Epistle, it just says James.

But the early church believed that this James is this half-brother of the Lord. And you know what? It makes perfect sense. Why? Twelve tribes in the dispersion.

Well, think with me for a second. We have James talking over there in Acts 15. And there's several things that jump out.

There's some similarities. Christians over in Acts 15, James calls them called by the name of the Lord. In James, he talks about the honorable name by which you are called.

So you have that similarity. Both, there's greetings. James has the oversight of this letter that gets sent to Antioch.

Greetings. You saw it right here. Greetings.

That is fairly unusual throughout the New Testament. And so you have that similarity. Also, listen.

He says, my brothers, listen. Listen, my beloved brothers. That comes up both in James and over there in Acts 15.

Anyways, twelve tribes. You know what? When we go through this Epistle, there's definitely a Jewish emphasis. Maybe it doesn't jump right out at you, but when you get to chapter 2 and it talks about when a rich man comes into your assembly, assembly right there is synagogue.

Also, the oneness of God gets emphasized. Also, you get that reality of the law. The law is talked about.

Very simply set forth, unexplained. It seems like the content of this letter definitely has a Jewish emphasis. He talks about the twelve tribes.

Here's the thing. Twelve tribes in the diaspora or the dispersion. Again, you go to the book of Acts.

When were the general Christian population at Jerusalem scattered? According to Acts. When did that happen? Any idea? Stephen. Right.

When Stephen was put to death. The idea that they were dispersed. Saul approved Stephen's execution.

There arose at that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. They were all scattered. It's around the regions of Judea, Samaria, except the apostles.

And it's interesting that James is indeed called an apostle. And he's called a pillar. Acts 8, 4, those who were scattered went about preaching the Word.

Acts 11, it says those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, Antioch. This is how the church came into being at Antioch. Now look, yes, twelve tribes can pertain to all Christians.

You get over to the book of Revelation and the picture of heaven is what? It's got twelve gates. There's twelve angels at each gate. And at each gate, you have the names of the twelve apostles.

Jesus Himself said to His disciples that look, you guys that have followed Me, you're going to sit on thrones and you're going to rule over the twelve tribes. The reality is, we know what true circumcision is, what a true Jew is in Scripture. But here's the thing, this epistle has some really pastoral tones.

He talks about brethren and brothers at least seventeen times. He often is saying, my beloved brothers or my beloved brethren. You know what it appears this epistle is? It's James was a key figure at Jerusalem.

And then all these Christians are scattered in this persecution. And James is writing a letter to his beloved brethren that used to be in the same church and are now out there scattered all over the place. And he's writing to them.

And yes, they're primarily Jewish Christians. That's what it seems that this letter is all about. Now just some things to emphasize about it.

You know what? This is very like the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is 111 verses. This epistle is 108.

The other thing that's really amazing about the comparison is there's a greater frequency of imperatives in this epistle than anywhere else in your New Testaments. There are 54 imperatives in 108 verses. That means what? There's one imperative every how many verses? Two.

You get an imperative here. That's the emphasis. That's the tone that we have.

You know what? Most major Christian doctrines are not mentioned in this epistle. This epistle is largely commandment. It is largely exhortation.

It is largely... You know what it seems like? It seems like it's coming from a pastoral leader who knows these people. He knows that they've been exposed to good, solid, fundamental Christian doctrines that he doesn't have to press them so much on, but is pressing them on how to practically live their lives. That's why you just get this abundance of encouragement and commandment.

And that is very much like, if we're honest, very much like the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus does not give us all sorts of classic doctrines, classic Christian doctrines in the Sermon on the Mount. There's a lot of pressing.

There's a lot of responsibility that's driven home. You know, little about many Christian doctrines here, not to mention the least of which is Jesus Christ Himself. How many times do you think Jesus Christ shows up in James? Just guess.

Jeff, you know? I ask him because he preached through it. He told us at our elders' meeting. He said when David Butterball... How many of you remember when David Butterball went through James? Only the guy that preached through James.

What was his first message? Do you remember it? So you just... Well, it was probably on these verses. But, brethren, Jesus Christ is spoken of twice here. And you see it once in these opening verses and then again when you get over to chapter 2. But just twice.

Now, Lord is spoken about, but Lord sometimes refers to Christ here and sometimes refers to the Father. And we'll sort that out when we get there. But this is apparently what you have is James writing to believers already acquainted with the fundamental Christian teaching, which would, of course, be true if they were all formerly in his own same church.

And making this a pastoral letter about practical living. It's very direct. It's very realistic to where we live.

It's very practical. He gives lots of vivid... I mean, we heard our brother Stuart Eliot talk about illustration. Oh, this book is just full of illustration.

What this author is doing, he's really encouraging these people that are scattered all over to face the facts about life and to face life the way they ought to face it. And given commands. Brethren, the Christian life is full of commands.

There are things that God wants us to do. Things that God doesn't want us to do. And so here we are.

You have v. 2. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials. That is our first imperative of v. 54. Now, brethren, the natural human response to trials, the natural response is not joy.

But here's the thing, there's absolutely no hint in our Bibles that when we become Christians that all of a sudden life gets easier for the Christian. And what that means, with this commandment coming at us, you recognize what this is. This is a commandment to respond unnaturally to the things in life that hurt, to the things in life that we don't want in our life.

That's what it means. And in order to do this, how do I respond joyfully to an event that happens in my life? Circumstances that come at me and hit me right between the eyes that I don't like. How am I going to respond to that joyfully? Which is the unnatural response.

Brethren, there's only one way. There has to be a conscious commitment on our part to respond in joy. And I'll tell you this, you're sitting there right now, and it's very easy to think about trials that you're not experiencing right now.

It's easy to think that you would rejoice in a trial that you're not actually experiencing. But you think when it comes that you would. But you really need to think about the things that are most difficult in your life right now.

You see, what this is, the things that you're experiencing right now tend to not make you joyful. And so there has to be... Look, if we're commanded to do this, what God is commanding us to do is really look at these trials that we're facing right now. I can think of three major ones in my life right now.

And you can too. Think about what it is in your life right now. And what God wants you to do is make a conscious commitment to face that trial with joy.

I mean, these trials are meant to do something. They're meant to deepen my commitment and my affection, my closeness to the Lord God. But this purpose, it's only going to be accomplished in one way.

If I respond right. I'm being commanded to respond to hard things with joy when a joyful response is not natural. And so we have to live unnatural, or maybe even the better word is supernatural, above that.

And so count. You see that? Count. Well, I know some of your Bibles say consider.

That's the idea. The idea is this, you've got to do the calculations. You've got to be thinking.

You've got to be using the mind. Do you recognize this? You will never respond. If you just go with your natural impulse, you will never respond to trials with joy.

It takes thinking. Counting. You've got to do the calculations.

There's got to be some kind of mental process, an intellectual process of consideration. Count it all joy. See, sometimes we can think, well, there are certain things that we can fight for joy in, and then there are some things that we get hit by.

It just, how can you even go? All. We count. What do you count? You count the days.

I keep counting the days right now until we take a trip to Thailand. We count money. You've counted dollars before, counted coins.

Count. Count. We're to stare the painful thing in the face.

Count it. We're to size it up. And brethren, I'll tell you this, it's right here at this point that makes the difference between misery and rejoicing.

Our misery or our comfort on how we sort through this up here. And brethren, we are people who don't live by sight. We're not supposed to live by sense.

We're Christians. Christians live above the world because we judge things not by sight. We judge things according to the Word of God.

Now Paul says, you've read this before, listen to his calculations. He looked at his sufferings and he said, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Now here's the thing, you know that comes from Romans 8. I don't think it's worth comparing.

He's done the calculations. The glory that's to be revealed. You know what's very interesting? Some translations say to us.

Some say in us. And I remember years ago when I was preaching through Romans, I forget which one of the commentators or preachers said this, but they said the reason there's a difference is because it's hard to exactly capture whether it's happening outside of us and we behold it or it's happening in us. And that literally, this is the idea of being confronted by glory that reaches out and pulls you in.

I mean, as you think about marriage like James was talking about, you recognize what we're dealing with and what's coming at us. It is a glory. You can hear, well, we're going to be like the angels and we don't marry.

But brethren, you have to recognize, we're talking about a glory that we behold and sweeps us in. It draws us into this. Our counting.

Brethren, our counting needs to be like Paul's. Our counting needs to be holy counting. And a Christian is thinking right when his counting is not understood by the world.

When they look at us and they say, you ought to be upset. You ought to be complaining. You ought to be shaking your fist at God.

We want to be that kind. When our whole life is a riddle. You know what a riddle is? A riddle is like this.

Okay, imagine you're there and you're in this situation and you've got a dear brother. And you love this guy. And somebody actually pulls out a whip.

And they hit him. They hit him hard. They produce welts.

Can you hear the sound? Can you hear the sound of a whip or a scourge on bare flesh? Snap! Snap! You hear the groan that comes from it. It's Peter. And you're hearing this.

You're watching this. But then your turn's next. They hit you with that thing 39 times.

They would hit you on the front. They would hit on the breast and on the back. 39 times.

You imagine what it would be like to be hit in a way that causes a welt by the Jews. That 40 lashes minus one. They hate you, but because of the crowd and because of Gamaliel, they've held back.

You think about being hit on the breast, being hit on the back. You've got welts. It would be something if you got hit once.

39 times. And now these guys walk away and they rejoiced because they were counted worthy to suffer. And you see, where does that joy come from? That joy comes from the fact that as they were walking, they weren't just thinking about the welt and how that welt made them feel physically.

They were thinking about what all of this meant. They were doing the calculations. Brethren, Jesus said, blessed are you when people hate you on account of the Son of Man.

Rejoice in that day. Leap for joy. Behold, your reward is great in heaven.

Who likes to be hated? Who likes conflict? Who likes that? Nobody likes that. Jesus is saying that look, if you think right, you would jump for joy. That's when you're counting right.

That's when you're doing the calculations right. Listen to what Paul said, in all our affliction, overflowing with joy. He says again, we rejoice in our sufferings.

Again, he says, sorrowful yet always rejoicing. Tears, sorrows, and groans are still a reality. But in that dark night, the dark night of your suffering, God wants you to sing.

Now listen to this. I pulled this up on my phone. You hear that? Let's let it go again.

Wait for it. You have any idea about this bird? You ever heard it before? Let's hear it again. Come on, sing for us.

You know what? Who said that? The closest that we have here is the mockingbird. That is what we had in England called a nightingale. Comes from the old English that means a night singer.

Do you know what? When we took the two British girls out to Uvalde to watch the eclipse, when that eclipsed, we were there in totality for like four minutes. It got black as night. And do you know what we recognized? Silence.

All the birds went silent. Do you know what? That's like the world suffering. They come into the darkness of their trials and there's silence.

Or they squawk or they croak and they complain like a raven. You know what God wants from us? To sing like the nightingale. That singing right there, He sings like that in the night.

Oh, He sings in the day too. And the Christians should sing in the day. But we should be night singers.

That's what James is calling for. We should be like the nightingale. Two possible alternatives to the trials we're faced with.

One is a righteous response. One is an unrighteous response. So to get to the place where we sing, when the rest of the world croaks and they complain, what do we need to do? We need to count.

We need to count. We need to do the calculations. We need to be thinking.

And so let's count. Let's do that. Let's do some counting.

Notice this. Notice what's in the text. Trials.

It doesn't just say this trial. It says there are trials of various kinds. You know what that is in the original? It's the idea of many colored.

You remember how Joseph's jacket or coat was? It was a coat of many colors. That's the idea here. God brings us into trials of many colors.

God has many different shades of color to exercise the faith of His people. Brethren, remember this. Different diseases have different remedies.

Some of us, God designs the remedy for our pride. Some, it's dependence on money or some idol we have or some selfishness. God has a whole assortment of various many colored trials.

And so again, we're counting. Let's count them. Not one of you Christians in this room is going to escape this list that I give you right now.

None of you. But brethren, you see what God through James wants from us. That we are to count it all joy no matter which one of these you find yourself facing.

We have death. Death is sore. Which one of us can imagine without actually being there what Susan Brown, the empty bed next to her, the silence where Paul's voice used to resonate through the home.

All the things he did that you just kind of take for granted and they're gone. The chair is empty. The clothes still hang in the closet.

Brethren, there's physical calamity. We know accidents happen. People get paralyzed.

People get disfigured. People have fires and they get burned. I mean, we've got trials where people lose limbs and people lose eyesight and we know, we know they're the kind of thing that you hope you can navigate life and they're not going to happen to you, but you can't navigate life and avoid death.

Because brethren, we're a young church, but already we've had some deaths and death is going to come. Papa, you just asked Papa. Papa's watched his comrades one by one.

Almost none of the people that Papa knew when he was young are alive now. One after another after another, including his own wife. And so we've got that.

There's cancer. There's heart attacks. You think about when you receive the phone call where you're told you've got cancer.

We heard about James talking about being told you've got... That's when my dad was told. You've got four months to live or six months to live or whatever. Get your house in order.

And those kinds of things happen. The sickness of all sorts. We've got the temporary illnesses.

You know them. My wife's coming down with a cold right now. You get these kind of things where it's like I get a migraine.

But you know what? When I get a migraine, is it a trial? Yes. But I expect that I'm not going to have it tomorrow. Ruby would expect she's not going to have a cold two weeks from now.

I think the Thai sun will cook it out of her at 108 degrees. You know what? We have all these things that come and they're uncomfortable, but they pass. You get COVID and for most people, it came and it went.

But then you've got chronic things. People have chronic illnesses like asthma or MS or Crohn's disease. We know about these things.

People get seizures. And there's all these things. We think about leprosy.

We think about we're in a blessed age. There's so many things that people used to get like cholera and TB. And you know, we can deal with those things today where there was a day when it just wiped out whole families.

People were faced with such death. And we've got things like dementia and Alzheimer's and autism and Down syndrome. And it's just all these things that can come upon us from a physical standpoint.

And we feel it. We're trying to maintain the outer body, but it's wasting away. And it's tough when your eyesight starts going and your hearing starts going and you start feeling different pain and things just hurt.

And brethren, it's one thing when you're ill, but then what happens is somebody you love gets ill. We heard about Mrs. Boardman having to watch her daughter die. It's one thing when you're sick and then you watch the person you love, the tears fall down their face.

And we've got that kind of thing. And then, there's just the dissatisfactions in life. Things that are just an irritant.

There's all sorts of things that people... You know, I'm too tall. I'm too short. I'm too ugly.

I don't like the color of my hair. I don't like the fact that I'm uncoordinated. I mean, there's all sorts of things.

They're an aggravation to us. And then of course, brethren, there's a whole labyrinth of financial woes. We're in tax season.

James is probably headed for some woes. You try to get it done and it's like, ah, you thought you were going to get out of it. Now you owe two grand or six grand.

And then audits. Is that fun? And financial things. You've got bills and you've got mortgages and then your job and the raise you thought you were going to get.

And so there's all the financial difficulties that come into life. You lose your job. And then you've got all that.

And then brethren, there are the trials with children. We have a trial with charity. I mean, Ruby thinks that probably the eczema situation that we went through before we went to Manchester, that was so bad.

It probably was kicked into high gear by charity renouncing her profession and everything that happened with her. You get children and they're lost. You get children and they're not meeting your expectations.

They're not doing well in school. They're not learning. The friends they have aren't agreeable.

They go on a course of life where you just feel this constant groan. And brethren, we have that. You know, you get where I have little grandchildren now.

And you know, when they're this big, well, you kind of have them all in control and they're somewhat submissive, but then they get older and you've got drugs and you've got their interaction with the opposite sex and even more and more parents that are having to deal with homosexuality in their children. And it happens to Christians and our children, our grandchildren, the pain that can come if we're counting all these things. Here it is.

And of course, you have the whole realm of persecution. And brethren, that's not just for faraway places. The truth as the Scripture says in 2 Timothy, that look, if you're going to live a godly life, you are going to be persecuted.

And you live a godly life in your neighborhood. You live a godly life in your workplace and you speak for Christ. And you remember what we're supposed to do? Expose the works of darkness.

You just go to work tomorrow and expose the works of darkness and see how well you're liked. And yet, that's what we're told to do. The look you get, the words you get, the discomfort you feel, the avoidance that you feel.

Oh yeah, there's a kind of persecution where they're laying the rod to your back or they're even putting you to death. I mean, we get that. There's that whole gamut then.

And then the fact that we have an enemy. He comes around and He torments us. Sometimes it's just bombarding the conscience.

Sometimes it's just in His temptations that He throws in our way. There's all sorts of ways that He accuses and He stalks. You know what, brethren, we have the trial of our own sin.

How many of you just groaned at, oh, seriously, I've been walking with the Lord this long and that's still a problem? That's still a weakness? And oh, you have the groans that come there with the battle. And brethren, some of us have greater disposition than others to lack of assurance, to struggling with depression. You get that kind of stuff that comes in.

And brethren, then there's the social things. You know, God has designed us. We are social creatures.

We like to have friends. We like to be liked. And some people feel socially awkward.

They feel like they can't talk well. They feel like they're just... You know, there's all this social stuff going on in media. And so many people, you know, you feel included or you feel left out.

And there's that. People are shy. People are socially awkward.

We're afraid of being witnesses. And there's so many phobias and fears. There's a reality behind those things.

Why they're there, maybe there's sin involved in it, but the truth is people go through all sorts of things and then you get married. James was talking about marriage. No marriage is perfect.

And then even there, it's like very rare is the case where husband and wife die like in an accident, like a pastor up in Austin died had a collision with his wife. Most of the time that doesn't happen. One of you is going first.

And so you've got that separation. And then, brethren, there's just the idea of loneliness. And that doesn't even have to connect necessarily with marriage.

The married people can be very alone. People in ministry, you know, pastoring can be a very lonely place. And loneliness.

We have just loneliness in life. For some, it's separation from loved ones. And it's just trials of stuff.

The thing is, we've got all this stuff. And it's like, you know, you have this thing over here and it yells at you. I'm bent.

I'm not right. I need to be cut. I need to be fixed.

I need to... And then, you know, you've got all the trials. Anybody ever have a trial with customer service? Now you're trying to get the thing fixed. You're trying to get this thing.

You call T-Mobile about some problem with your phone. You call this, that, or the other thing. Anybody have that kind of thing happen? It's like it's just an aggravation.

We get that kind of stuff in our life. For some of us, brethren, you've got all the interaction of the context of the church. It's like, I don't like this.

I don't like that. You feel like you're suffering spiritually because of this, that, or that. Somebody talks about you in a certain way or they don't interact with you.

They don't greet you the way they want. You just feel that kind of stuff. All the one-another problems.

You feel mistreated. The problem of all the things that just aren't how we want them to be in our life. And whether it's at work, whether it's in the church, whether it's with the house, the car, the boss, the woman that works with your husband.

I mean, you just get all these things. Co-workers, fellow students, teachers. The situations that just chafe on you.

The faucets that leak and neighbor problems and just conflict in life. Your own problem might be an overly sensitive conscience. For many, it's like there's a trial when other people have what you really want and it tempts you to jealousy and envy.

I want to be married. I want to have a child. And yet, the other guy's always getting the girl and they're always pregnant.

What's going on there? And you've got those kind of trials. Sometimes you look at people and it seems like they don't suffer. And I remember hearing this story.

I don't remember where I heard it, but there was a man in the church and a brother was saying to him, he was talking about all the trials he was going through, and he said, I don't have the kind of life that you have or you don't suffer trials. And this man began to weep. You know what happens when you face your problems with joy? There's a lot of times it seems like you're not suffering.

And some of those who rejoiced most, some of those who are the perfect nightingale in the dark hours, other people don't actually think they're suffering. You know, you actually want to be like that where other people say, I wish I was like you. You don't have any suffering.

Well, what would make you think that? This man began weeping because no one else knew how deeply he really suffered. Brethren, here's the thing. As we move forward in this, brethren, don't you have to admit, we have so many blessings.

We need to consider our trials. And it's that we need to. That's what's in the text right here.

But the truth is, brethren, most of us have so many blessings. We have so many things to be thankful for. Most of us are not in a concentration camp being tortured, eating maggoty porridge with dysentery and malaria.

Would you all agree? Most of us are not in that place. And so the thing is, oh, we have so much evidence of the kindness of God. But James' primary reason right here, his primary concern, is that we face our trials and recognize that in them there is a kindness of God that ought to produce joy.

That's where we're at. And so, we've got to enumerate the reasons to rejoice. Let us count them.

Let's think on that. You see, we need to be thinking birds if we're going to be singing birds in the dark. You've got to think.

You've got to enumerate all the reasons why we have for being joyful. Let's enumerate. Every single thing to be joyful about as a Christian.

Think about it, brethren. Everything that's a blessing. Every hope.

Everything that's delightful. Everything that is just overwhelming, awe-inspiring, glorious, beautiful, pleasurable. We heard about beautiful.

I mean, beholding the glory of the Lord. I ask you, congregation, tell me, what are the things? Before you list them off too much, we probably ought to just consider what the glorious thing is right in the text. What is it that's right here, brethren? What's the text say? Steadfastness.

That's what the ESV says. Some say patience. Listen, some say endurance.

But the idea here is, this isn't just being patient. Patience is in this, but the meaning of the word is the ability to stay put. That's the idea.

Steadfast. That ability to stay where you ought to be. That's what's produced by all of this.

Steadfast. Verse 3, you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Did you catch that? You know.

Brethren, do you know? It's one thing to say you know. That means making an assumption there. But do you know? Do you really know that? Brethren, let me tell you, ignorance is often right at the root of some of our biggest problems.

Ignorance is a cause of our sorrows. You will always find that the Spirit of God works through our thinking. Not through an absence of thinking.

You know what? I asked the Lord that I might grow. Did you watch how Newton thought so that by end of the song he was able to say what he said? You see, he had to do some real thinking. He had to work this thing out.

So let's think. What do trials do? Trials test faith. That's what it says here.

Trials test faith. What is faith? What is it? What is that? The assurance of things hoped for. Yeah, what do we hope for? We hope that God is going to be like Scripture says He is.

That He's going to be good to the promises that He's made to us. There's a hope. There's an expectation.

Brethren, faith comes down to what I believe about God and what I believe about what this God has said. That is faith. So, the trial tests that.

That's the idea. Do you know that? He says, you know. But we need to really think.

When the sun's shining, brethren, when the sun's shining down on me and everything is as it should be. Oh, it's so easy to walk out in the morning and say, praise the Lord. Thank you for my coffee and this is all good and this is great.

But, brethren, watch this. The testing of faith produces steadfastness. Now, that steadfastness is staying power.

Now, did you catch what he said? No matter what translation you have, it's the idea that James is not merely saying that when my faith gets tested, it shows whether I'm steadfast. Or it reveals that I'm steadfast. Now, it does that, but that's not what he's saying.

It produces. Brethren, have you ever seen a swordsmith? Have you ever seen how swords are hammered? You know, what we're being taught here is this. God sees to it that your steadfastness is produced.

It's increased. It's much like the swordsmith. He takes the sword and he takes a hammer and he heats that thing up and bang, he hits that with his hammer.

Now, you know what? His hitting the sword with the hammer showed that the sword could bear the blow. But it did more than that. Do you know what it did? It hardened the sword.

It made it tougher. It made it more resilient to future blows. That's the kind of thing that's being said here.

When you say, Father, and you've been there, Father, this hurts so bad. It's not just enough that you go through a trial. Brethren, there's got to be rejoicing.

You see, what the Spirit of God blesses that actually causes us to become more tough and more resilient in the Christian life is not just that you suffer. It's that you've gone through the appropriate thinking to get to the place where you realize and actually become the nightingale that is able to sing. The nightingale sings in the daytime.

He sings in the morning, in the morning beams of sun, but he sings in the dark night. How are you going to sing in the dark night? You've got to think right. And it's there that it produces something.

Oh, Father, this hurts bad, but I believe You're doing this for my good. It only works, brethren, if you suffer, so don't shun the suffering. And it's coupled with this rejoicing.

And you're only going to rejoice when you think right. And that's no passive thing. It's a commandment.

Brethren, it's a command. So we're not talking about just some meek rolling over, passive submission to the circumstances, but this is a strong and active challenge to you to respond where I deliberately lay hold of all those satisfying things and glorious things about Christianity no matter how bad it hurts. Is there anything satisfying about Christianity that you can think of even in the darkest seasons? If God took my wife, if God took my grandson, if God took children, if God took my health, can you think of anything that is very satisfying in being a Christian? Whether that's true or the sun shining? Can you think of anything? Look at v. 4. Steadfastness is not a cheap thing, but steadfastness have its full effect, or perfect work, that you may be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing.

Oh, brethren, you know what happens? What Newton said, we think to become perfect and mature and nothing lacking, Lord, send us revival. A lot of times when we pray for revival, that's exactly what we want. We want this outpouring of the Spirit from above that is basically painless, but fills us and makes us all glorious and happy and everything we ought to be.

Some blessed season, favored season like Newton talks about, but that's not what happens. And we have to think that way. That's not what happens.

But to get steadfastness. Brethren, steadfastness is staying in power. To stay where? Stay in the race.

Stay fruitful. Stay faithful. Stay the course of glory.

Stay in the course of fruitfulness. Stay in the course of maturity. Nothing lacking.

Brethren, you never arrive at verse 4 unless two things are a reality in your life. Trials and you responding in joy. And you can see it.

Trials plus joyful response. You know what? I remember I was talking to Ryan Fullerton years ago about the trials of being in the ministry. He said, brother, you know what? He said, when I was first a pastor with my fellow pastors, he said one trial of any sort of magnitude, he just said, just staggered us.

He said, you know what? Now, he says, we can have six things of that magnitude happening in the church at any time and still go home and play with our kids at the end of the day. You know what? That is how he stuck with me because that's exactly right. You know what was happening through the trials? That hammer was hitting that sword.

And they found themselves to be those sweet, singing nightingales in the midst of that. And then when you look back, all of a sudden, you recognize God has made me so resilient. God has toughened me.

God has made me with the ability to handle the next difficult thing that comes into my life. But it's always going to be if you're examining. Examine.

I've been doing that in light of this. I've been looking at what I would consider to be the three greatest trials in my life right now and examining them in light of this and recognizing that there is something glorious in all of this. And not the least of which is this, that brethren, what trials do is they cause us to really consider God.

You know this verse. Whatsoever the Lord pleases, He does in heaven and on earth. You know one of the things we recognize about our trials, I don't have them in my life because of an enemy.

Oh yeah, the devil may bring things like he did to Job, but it's only because God let him. Brethren, one of the things we have to come to grips with is that difficulties don't come by chance. What you have right now is perfectly designed for you.

And you know what? Every one of us, brethren, one of the things about trials that ought to cause us to rejoice is that Paul and Barnabas told the folks there, what is it? Antioch and the other places that through much tribulation, brethren, if there's really only one end, we're fellow heirs with Christ. We're heirs of God. Fellow heirs with Christ.

Provided what? We suffer. We suffer with Him. We're glorified with Him.

So if that's the only way, I mean, you've got to know it, brethren. God has His sight set on you. He loves you.

And He designs these things to produce what was produced in Newton. I asked the Lord that I might grow. And you know what happened in the end? He did grow.

It just didn't happen the way that He had hoped. And I think a lot of times our prayers for revival, brethren, as I've already said, it's that we want these spectacular things to happen without pain and yet even with His own beloved Son. Think of it.

As much as God loved His Son, He pressed such a cup to His lips. So brethren, steadfastness to where you're mature and perfect and complete. I want that.

Whatever it takes, Lord. I want that. But what else? What else can we say? If we're going to sing like the nightingale, we're going to sing in the black and the dark.

We're not going to be like those birds that all went quiet during the eclipse when things got dark. We're going to keep singing. We're not going to break stride so that even other people that look at us don't think we're going through any suffering to where they feel like, wow, we suffer.

Why? Because they come into the assembly with long faces. And they're not singing. Well, always me.

Well, brethren, so much self-pity. And one of the things that makes it difficult at times is when we look around and we feel like I have to go through this. No one else does.

But brethren, that's not true. Every one of us are going through something. And you know what? There's different intensities.

And sometimes we have to go through great intensity. But what are some other reasons? What else makes the nightingales sing in the dark? Tell me. What would you say? Joy comes in the morning.

You know what? The morning's coming. Because what's the classic text? The one I think of is momentary light affliction. Morning's coming.

And you know what? Even if we have to deal with whatever we're dealing with until our last day here on the face of this earth, morning's coming. The time is short. But you know what? Many of these things that we feel like, oh, there's never going to be an end.

Look back on your life. How many has God graciously brought to an end? The truth is many of them. Maybe not all, but many of them we came to an end.

The suffering was brought to an end. And so that's one thing. But just because my suffering is short isn't really a reason to sing.

Because it hurts nevertheless even if it's short. The issue is that what Paul says is that those momentary light afflictions are actually the thing that work for us an eternal weight of glory to which there's no comparison. No comparison to what? Obviously to the momentary light things we deal with here.

Brethren, one of the reasons that we fail to think right is because we don't let our thinking just be stretched to where it needs to be stretched. When a man under inspiration looks at our suffering, he says, you know what? The fact is that what lies for the Christian beyond this world is so... it is a weight that presses in with such glory. There is no comparison to anything you went through.

Not the worst thing that any Christian in this life could endure is even going to compare to that. Paul, he's being bit with sticks and stoned as though dead. And he's going through all this thing rejection and trials and false brethren.

And you hear this list. And in the same letter, he's like, yeah, though we sorrow, he says, we're always rejoicing. Well, you can always keep your eye on that horizon.

Keep the eye on the horizon. You're singing there in the dark, but you know what? You look out on that east horizon and pretty soon that sun's going to come up. And suddenly, the glory and that beauty of Christ and when we see Him, we're going to become as He is.

This thing is momentary. This thing is light in comparison. What else? What else just makes you sing even when it's dark? We're not without hope.

No, we're not. I mean, we're planted on realities. This is no fiction.

But brethren, one of the things we have to recognize too is trials, they humble us. Think about what humility is. Thinking small of self.

You get these trials that come and they make us recognize we're not in control. You know what they do? They separate us from an over-dependence in this world. Trials.

I mean, you hear Susan Brown, she said she just wants to go to glory. Why? Because she's the one left behind with the suffering. And she'd like to depart.

This is far better. But brethren, you know what happens in these trials? They help us realize what we love. James was talking about loving life.

You get into trials and it really tests because you know what happens? God gives and God takes away. And the things we count trials are always God taking away. We love when He gives and He does.

He gives us lots. But then He takes things away. Sometimes it's harder to have had and had it taken away than never to have had it at all.

But He gives and He takes away and God is in that business. But brethren, for the Christian, the thing that He's going to finally give us is never going to be taken away. And these things are always working something so glorious in us.

And brethren, there are watchers. You know, as we suffer, the world watches. And you should walk so that the world knows that you're living above your conditions and your circumstances and the things that hurt.

The trials that you're suffering are beneath the hopes that you have. And one of the things that I get a picture of in my mind is there's Paul and Silas, and they're at Philippi. And you remember what happened? The people cast the demon out of the girl and then the people came upon them and they began to attack them and the magistrates ripped their clothes off of them and they beat them and they threw them in shackles.

And you know what? About midnight, what did they do? There's our nightingales. They sang at midnight. And you know what Luke includes for us? You know what it says after that? What does it say? It says the prisoners were listening to them.

People are watching. Is there something to test what we're really made of? People are watching. Your families are watching.

Your co-workers are watching. People are watching. Here these prisoners are.

They're watching. Seriously, these guys, they got thrown in here and now they're over there singing. And you know who else is watching? We know from Job the devil's watching.

Devil. And you know the church is watching. And you're watching.

I watch. I watch how I respond to trials that come. Do you know what? When I find in the middle of the dark and the struggle and something that I just don't like that God has brought in my life, but in the midst of all of it, I just find that God is as precious as ever to me.

Christ is as glorious as ever. The reality that my sins are forgiven just resonates with me. Brethren, there is a reality that we feel, that we experience.

And brethren, you know, in the midst of suffering, have you not found that God has special consolations for His suffering nightingales? You know what? Have any of you been there where there are special discoveries of the glory of God when you're suffering? God is so real. God comes to you. Listen, I can remember Samuel Rutherford saying, my enemies threw me in the dungeon thinking to make that dungeon hell for me.

He said, God came to me and made it heaven on earth. Do you remember Wurmbrand? They beat the bottom of his feet with sticks and he said with every blow, I loved my tormentors more. Brethren, in the midst of suffering, God is close.

I remember one brother said, thinking of God with the pruning shears from John 15, He comes and He prunes the branches so that they become more fruitful. And I remember one brother saying, God is never closer than when He's there pruning. He comes close to us.

Brethren, you know what? I recognize on my worst day and the darkest season in this life that the glories of the Song of Solomon are still true. Christ is still my heavenly Lover. And He's saying, I want to see your face.

I want to hear your voice. And brethren, one of the things that Paul just relished in is that when he suffered, it made him more like Christ. He wanted to experience the sufferings.

I'll tell you, undoubtedly he did because he found something so joyful, so real, so fulfilling in that. And God made it so. Brethren, do you know someone who is weathered difficulty with unusual joy? I mean, can you think of that? Not all of us express it the same way.

Sometimes joy... I mean, joy in the first place is something we're experiencing on the inside. Different people show it on the outside differently. But do you know somebody that's gone through really difficult things and they've gone through it well versus somebody who hasn't gone through it well? What makes the difference? Brethren, let me tell you something.

People that fall away, I think if you track them, they did not go through trials well. You know what happens? They end up calling God into question. They end up saying, more like the raven than the nightingale, squawking, complaining.

Well, if God's like this, He's going to treat me like this and I'm out of here. Some people come into the church and they feel like, you know, there's things waiting them. I never forget the guy that came in and he needed a car and he called Carlos and he said, what do I need to do? Get a car.

Some people come to the church because they think they're going to get, get, get. All these things are coming. But Christianity, what God's telling us is, you know what? Through many tribulations, you enter.

You have to suffer with Christ. And when you rejoice through it, which takes thinking. The singing nightingales need to be thinking nightingales.

And you're going to be thinking through these things. And I'll tell you, when you can think through your sufferings as to all the reasons you have to rejoice, God is making you steadfast and resilient. He's maturing you.

He's causing you to grow. He's causing you to flourish. You know what the opposite of this, and we're going to get to it in the next message from this, is the double-minded.

And a classic example of the double-minded guy is the one that's ready to thank God when the sun's out. But then when the eclipse happens, he goes silent. Brethren, the people that you will find keep going and keep going and keep going, who are resilient, who are mature, who are growing.

It's the people that no matter what they're facing, they're thinking through all the glories, all the things that make being a Christian special and better. And they're thinking through all the hopes that they have and all the promises that God has given and what the character of God is like and how even Christ Himself had to walk a path like this. And this Christ that walked this path looks at us and He says, follow Me.

Brethren, we don't want to despise the hard path. There's something in us. I know, there's something in the flesh.

We don't like it. We want to be back from it. We don't want to be the one in the church that the whole church is praying for because things are falling apart in our life and in our family and in our health and in our marriage and all this that we're the special... But brethren, isn't that another thing that's glorious about it? Oh, it produces prayer.

I guarantee you, and you know this, your best days of prayer, your best times walking with the Lord are not when the sun's out and everything's good and the bills are paid. You know what trials do? They make us praying nightingales. And so, brethren, all of this has to do with our attitude towards God.

God's the ultimate source of all these trials. And in them, He never seeks the downfall of His people. He only seeks our best.

So, heaven-bound nightingales, I just appeal to you, sing in the dark because we have something to sing about. Father, I pray, give us to be a church of nightingales. I pray that in Christ's name, Amen.