When You Encounter Various Trials #1

Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, Founding Pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello, I'm Bill Wright. Thanks for joining us as we continue teaching God's people God's Word. Don begins a new message today, so without further delay, let's join him right now in the Truth Pulpit. When you read James and when you open it up, you find that he is writing to readers who are suffering in the midst of trials. Look at the first two verses here with me. Context is always everything, but it's especially true in James. It's quite possible that you've never seen the letter from the perspective that a full understanding of context will give to you. In James chapter 1, beginning in verses 1 and 2, it says, James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes who are dispersed abroad, indicating that he was writing to a predominantly Jewish audience. Greetings. Then he says in verse 2, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.

Stop there. James is giving us a template. He is stating up front what the purpose of his letter is. It is to encourage the brothers who are going through trials and to call forth from them a particular kind of response. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. Now that's not just an opening that covers the first 10 or 12 verses, and then he goes on to talk about other things. And this is so vital for you to understand, beloved, that throughout this entire book, chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are all designed to be part of an instruction to you, to me, on how to respond to trials. And you can see that by seeing the way that he concludes his letter, looking at the end of James, beginning in, let's say, James 5, verse 7. He says, therefore, he's gathering together everything that he said in the first four and a half chapters and said, here, therefore, is what I want you to take away from the instruction. He said, therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.

The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until it gets the early and late rains. You too, be patient, strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. And then he goes on and says in verse 10, notice the theme of patience, how he concludes like fireworks on the theme of patience as he draws the letter to a close. He says, as an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured.

And what did they endure? You've heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealing, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. Job enduring his trials with a sense of patience, with perseverance, and this becomes an illustration to bring the letter to a close. And then in verse 13 of chapter 5, he says, is any among you suffering? Then he must pray.

Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. So here's the point, and we'll see this more as we go through. He opens on the theme of suffering, of trials, and he immediately places the subject matter of the letter on the table and says, consider it all joy when you encounter trials of various kinds. He introduces it with trials.

He closes it with trials. So like a pair of bookends, he's gathering together all of this instruction in one way or another is related to your response and my response to trials as a Christian. Now, and so throughout the letter, I'll just say this again, because this is so important, and as you listen to God's word being read in coming Sundays, understand, remember, keep it in your mind that in one way or another as we read through that letter together on Sunday mornings, James is telling us how to respond to trials. Okay? That's so important.

I'll say it one more time. He is telling us how to respond to trials in this letter. Now, let me back up and just put this in the context of the theology and teaching of Truth Community Church over the years. I consider it an established fact that we understand as a congregation at least, whatever our different levels of comprehension may be individually, it is an established fact at this church and in this congregation that we understand that we are to trust God through our trials and we are to understand that our trials are measured out to us by the providence of God. His hand is in everything that comes to us. It's not that Satan has an independent ability to change the course of our lives contrary to the purposes of God in our lives. Satan is simply a tool of God, as we saw in the book of Job. Satan is simply a tool in the hand of God to accomplish his ultimate purposes. God is always overriding sin and evil and Satan to accomplish his purposes. And we have the words of Romans 8.28 telling us that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose. And so even if Satan attacks us, somehow God is going to turn that and work through it in order to accomplish good in our lives. That means that we can trust him. That means that our hearts can be at rest and be at peace, even as storms are buffeting us from many different directions. I consider that to be an established fact and what we have tended to emphasize is the fact that that means that we can have an inner response of tranquility and peace and quiet, I mean this in a positive way, quiet resignation as life comes to us.

Whatever the challenges may be, to say it's okay. I am in the hand of a loving, gracious father who is working all things according to his will. He has planned my life. He has given me the life that I have and therefore I can be at peace even while others might be in turbulence if they were in similar circumstances. That kind of peaceful, gracious, patient response is one of the marks of a true Christian. And it is what the doctrine of providence and an understanding of God's love and sovereignty over us, that's where it leads us is into this place of inner tranquility even as the storms are going on about us.

I consider that to be an established fact in our teaching here at our church. James is giving us, coming at it from a different perspective, he's augmenting that. He's giving us additional instruction that goes beyond simply that inner sense of tranquility and he is giving us instruction on how we are to actually behave in our trials and how it is that we are to think and what our response is and how that humble trust that we are talking about, how that works out then in real life. And so he's telling us how to respond to trials in many different ways.

And so we'll work all of this out as we go along. Now, if you've read James at all, if you've heard anyone teach on James, you know that it's fair to say that James is a blunt letter. He'll sometimes use words like you adulteresses in James chapter 4 and faith without works is dead and he says a lot of blunt things that we'll see as we go along. It's important for you to understand something really important as we consider the overall context of this letter. James is writing to his readers and by extension God has given this letter to us in love and that is evident in the way that James writes and addresses his readers. I'm not going to take you through each one of these references. In fact, I'm not going to take you through any of them.

You can count them on your own. But 15 times in these five chapters, James addresses his readers as brethren or beloved brethren. And so he is writing in a family spirit.

He is writing with a sense of family Christian love as he speaks to us. But that doesn't mean that he doesn't speak directly to us. Perhaps you have a spouse or you have a family member that you know loves you, but they speak directly to you. They will confront you and they will tell you things the way that they are and sometimes it stings a little bit.

Sometimes it's as though someone is stepping on your toes. But because of the context of the relationship, you receive the rebuke, you receive the counsel, you receive the direct instruction differently because you know that this person is writing to you, this person is speaking to you, I should say, in a spirit of love and the context of relationship tells you that. Well, the context of the book of James tells us and shows us decisively that he's writing to us in love even when he speaks to us so directly and gives us direct commands without apology.

We really need to understand that. And going just a step further, when we remember that James comes to us by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that blessed third person of the Trinity who caused us to be born again, who gave us new life in Christ when we were dead in our transgressions and sins, then this shapes and conditions the way that we should receive everything that is said to us in this letter. We receive it with a humble spirit. We receive it recognizing that he writes with our best intentions at heart and this is the very word of God to his people. So we recognize that James is telling us how to respond to trials. He's speaking to us very directly and bluntly, but he is speaking to us in love. In the words of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians, he is speaking the truth to us in love.

And that means for us, as we read it as the people of God, as we hear God's word and we read what James has to say to us, it means that we should receive it submissively, receive it gladly. We should do that and it means that we can do that because we understand that this is a letter of love written from one brother to another, telling us the way that it is and not catering to our temptations and our tendencies toward self-pity in our trials, but rather saying this is the way that you must respond. You cannot give in to self-pity. You cannot give in to pride and arrogance in your trials.

No, this is how you are to respond. That's why James is writing. And so at times we're going to hear him say things that are tough to hear. It's going to hurt. It's going to sting.

It's going to convict, but, beloved, you and I need to remember that we need this loving rebuke in our lives, even in our trials. This is a brother who has our best interests coming along, putting his arm around us and saying, let's get in the game. You could say it another way.

You could say, you know, that sometimes what we need is not another sympathetic word, but sometimes we just need a little kick in the pants to motivate us out of our self-pity and into the place of productive response to the trials that God has ordained for us. And so with that introduction, let's just go through the first two chapters here tonight very quickly, very generally. And what is it that James says in James 1, verse 2? He says, look at it again with me. He says, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, trials of all different colors that come. And why should you consider it joy? Because, verse 3, we know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. He says God has a purpose for your trials. God is producing endurance in you much the same as a coach puts his team through very difficult conditioning drills in order to bring them to maximum ability to perform in the midst of the game. When the championship comes, the prior training has prepared them to succeed. Trials, James says, build endurance in you so that you are able to run the race of life and to run it well.

Now, the word perfect here has more the sense of bringing you to maturity. We understand that true ultimate final sinless perfection awaits us in heaven when we're glorified. It's not that here on earth, but that you might be perfected, that you might be made complete and lack in nothing. And so, how is it, what is it that we find when we encounter these different trials?

What is it that endurance is designed to produce? How is it that we participate in that? How is it that we respond in trials so that that result attains? That's a key question, isn't it?

It doesn't just automatically happen like a thermostat adjusting the temperature of the room as it gets warmer or colder and just holding the temperature to a steady place. There's a place, there's a responsibility for us to exercise our effort, to consider and exercise our will and to act upon things. In the book of Philippians chapter 2, Paul tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. And so we are not simply passive in our trials. We are not simply passive in the Christian life. It is not true that we are simply to let go and let God and to make no effort in our spiritual growth.

That's not true at all. There is an element of effort that we contribute to as God works sanctification in our hearts, we are to put forth effort and James is helping us to see what that effort looks like as he shows us how to respond to trials. And so what is it that we bring to the table? Well, trials perfect us, James is going to teach us. Trials perfect us when we react in patience and humility.

Patience and humility. And as we go through the book of James, we see how he gives us positive instruction that implies the negative that we are to avoid. And so for tonight we're going to look at the first four of eight principles that he gives us to respond to trials so that we develop this kind of endurance that he speaks of. And point number one, we're going to go through these things really quickly. This is a different kind of instruction that we're doing here this evening. Point number one is that in your trials you are to do this. You are to respond in trust instead of bitterness.

Respond in trust instead of bitterness. Now, as we've said often, the carnal aspects of our character are prone to question God and to doubt God when trials come. Why would a loving God allow this to happen to me? Why would God take this loved one from me so prematurely?

Why these trials, why these health problems, why this or that? And we're tempted to doubt God in that way. Now, beloved, what James shows us is that rather than giving in to that realm of self-pity, he sets forth the promise that God gives wisdom in trials to those who humbly ask. Now, look at verse five and remember this.

This is so very important. Remember that what he has just been talking about is finding endurance in your trials. This is how the testing of your faith produces endurance. Where does this endurance come from?

How do you develop this endurance? Well, as he starts in verse five, he is expanding on his theme. He's not changing the subject.

He's starting to explain his theme. And so he says in verse five, he says, But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. And so when trials overwhelm you, when trials are too much, and it seems like you don't know where to turn, I've been there and I know you have been too.

God, I don't even know where to turn here. What you are to understand is that you are to slow yourself down. You are to actually go to God in prayer, whether you pray standing up, walking, getting on your knees, however you find it best to pray, and to lay your heart out and say, God, this trial goes beyond my ability to understand and to bear. I ask you, God, to give me wisdom to find my way through it. You actually pray that way. You ask God to give the wisdom that he has promised to give, rather than letting your heart and letting your emotions run away with you into places of confusion and doubt and bitterness.

You actually humble yourself and you actually do this. Now, I think that a few years in pastoral ministry have taught me that the people of God know to say this. The people of God will talk a lot about prayer, but the people of God who... It's a lot easier and it's a lot more frequent to talk about prayer in glowing terms than to actually get down and trust God and ask him for wisdom and to actually pray, rather than talking about praying in the midst of our adversity. We must recognize, and if you want to grow in the midst of your trials, you must recognize that actually praying and asking God for wisdom is the first ordained step that James has given you to act upon.

And this goes for whether we're rich or poor. Look at verse 9. Trials come to believers no matter what their earthly station in life is.

They come to us equally. They humble us at the foot of the cross, verse 9. But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position. The rich man is to glory in his humiliation because like flowering grass he will pass away.

For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed. So too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. He's saying that even the wealthy, they're not exempt from these trials.

They need the same instruction that the poor man does. Whether rich or poor, this is the common response to the common reality of trials in the Christian life. And so, beloved, what I want you to see is is that while we cultivate, while we cultivate that inner sense of calm that comes from the doctrine of providence, we go further and we actually pray, we talk to God, we ask Him, we request Him, we beseech Him, God give me wisdom in this with the confidence that He is a God who hears and that He answers that prayer for wisdom. And so we respond in trust instead of bitterness.

Now, where does that idea of bitterness come? Well, let's keep reading. Let's look at verses 12 through 18. He set forth the trust that should mark it and then in contrast we start to see something else. And we can see that he's talking about trials throughout here because he comes back to that even in this more immediate context. Trials, verses 2 through 4. Trial in verse 12.

Look at it with me. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial. For once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

And so he's talking about trials all along here. And now he goes on and says in verse 13, Let no one say when he is tempted or when he is tested. I am being tempted by God for God cannot be tempted by evil and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted, that is, towards sin when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

You see it there? Beloved brethren, every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will, He brought us forth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures. When He tells us and when He's teaching us to respond in trust instead of bitterness, He's teaching us to go to God humbly and to pray for wisdom in our trials and to avoid that temptation that makes accusations against God, that blames God, that questions His goodness in the midst of it.

Beloved, and I failed this in years gone by, and so I speak from sad, personal, negative experience. I know what it's like to question God, to shake my fist at the sky and say, God, why this, why me, why now? At the time, I even justified that response. James would have come to me in the midst of that and said, you should not speak that way. You should not talk to God that way. You should not blame God this way.

Rather, you should humble yourself. You should trust Him. You should ask Him for wisdom rather than accusing Him of doing evil to you. James tells us as believers, he says, don't blame God. He is not a tempter to evil. He's not tempting you to sin.

Your heavenly Father is the one who gives you good gifts, and even these trials He gives to accomplish good purposes in your lives. And so don't look at Him and think and harbor in your thoughts that God has ill motives towards you. Trust Him. Trust Him enough to ask for wisdom. Trust Him enough to believe Him for wisdom and to recognize that He is the giver of perfect gifts and that He does not vary or shift in His character. So you respond in trust rather than in bitterness, and that trust is expressed in believing prayer that asks for wisdom.

God, I don't know how this is going to work out, and this hurts. Please give me wisdom to show me how to endure and to live righteously in response to it. There is an active response of believing prayer that we offer to God in the midst of our trials.

Now secondly, and closely tied to that, is this. You are to receive the Word instead of speaking your mind. Receive the Word instead of speaking your mind. Now, having established a proper perspective on trials, James gives a summary in the following verses about what his primary point is and what the source of our response is and how we respond. Look at verses 19 through 21 now, James chapter 1. He says, This you know, my beloved brethren.

You see it again? My beloved brethren. You read this, and he's been so direct to us about responding in trials, and then he reminds you, I care about you is what I'm saying. This you know, my beloved brethren, but everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the Word implanted which is able to save your souls. James says, What you need in your trials is a humble attitude toward the Word of God.

You must come to God's Word and receive its instruction with a teachable spirit to humble yourself under the Word of God and rather than making accusations against God or simply speaking out your carnal thoughts in response to your circumstances, you be quick to hear the Word of God. You go to it in a hurry. You go to it often.

You go to it for extended periods of times and just like every one of you in this room are doing, when the people of God gather together, you're there to hear God's Word proclaimed. Be quick to hear it. Slow to speak your opinions.

Slow to speak your complaints. Slow to anger against the trials that are in your life. And rather than asserting your opinions and asserting your thoughts and your contrary desires, as we've said in the past, put your hand over your mouth to quiet your heart and adopt an attitude that says, God, give me instruction through your Word. Give me wisdom.

Give me understanding. Give me discernment. And God, I come and I humble myself. I receive your Word. Speak, Lord, your servant listeneth.

In other words, as you have an open Bible in front of you, you receive the Word rather than speaking your mind against the trials. My friend, I want to let you know of a special ministry that we have at thetruthpulpit.com that's very near to my heart. We have a ministry to those who are in prison.

And in the nature of life, sometimes we have loved ones that go astray and find themselves behind bars and spending significant time in incarceration. Well, we have a ministry to them. We send them transcripts of messages that I've preached from the pulpit of Truth Community Church. We do it on a weekly basis.

They get mail every week. If you have a loved one in prison that you would like to have us reach out to in that way, do me a favor. Go to our website, thetruthpulpit.com. That's thetruthpulpit.com.

Click on that. That's thetruthpulpit.com. Click on the link that says About, and you'll see a drop-down menu that will take you to our prison ministry. You can fill out the form and we'll be happy to respond and then join in with you in ministering to that one who is outside the normal course of society. So that's thetruthpulpit.com, the About link for our prison ministry.

That will do it for today. We'll see you next time on The Truth Pulpit. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.