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Sing #100.
Now in a song of grateful praise to our dear Lord, the voice will raise with all his Saints will join to tell our Jesus hath done all things well #100.
Our Godfather, we thank thee for a few minutes to be together, to enjoy.
Some things.
Together of thyself open thy word to learn a little bit from it. Pray the doubt.
Plus this time together.
Give me thanks for the liberty.
And the privilege.
Do this in the hearts to gather together like this.
Thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen.
I would suggest, brethren, if it's the mind of the Saints.
The Epistle of James, chapter one for this reading. You don't need to continue it.
I thought there's so much practical instruction in this chapter for us. James, Chapter one, how many young people present with us very valuable teaching here.
The mind of the Brethren could we.
Take off this chapter for this reading.
James chapter one.
James, the servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes which are a scattered abroad greeting, my brethren, counted all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that she may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally.
00:05:29
Upbraideth not, and it shall be given him, but let him let us but let him ask in faith nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree rejoice, and that he is exalted, but the rich, and that he is made low.
Because as the flower of the grass.
He shall pass away, for the Son 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, for when he is tried 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 thee 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.
Do not err, my beloved brethren, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the Word, and not hearers, only deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass.
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful here, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Well, it certainly is a tremendous amount of practical teaching in this chapter.
Which we need.
We don't have anything about redemption in the book of James.
But you might sum it up by that verse. Show me your faith by your works.
As the Lord said, by their fruit she shall know that. And what James is emphasizing is the practical manifestation of your faith. It was written to a mixed company.
As we have here in the first first verse to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad greeting written to believers, Jews who had believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, not only in Judah and Benjamin, but in all the tribes. So it's really has a Jewish character to it. But of course, there's much here for the for the Christian as well.
Now James was not an apostle. He was the Lord's brother, probably converted after the resurrection of Christ, and he has particularly a ministry to the Jewish people.
00:10:12
This is one of the epistles that is.
Primarily for the Jewish dispersion. First Peter, second Peter, there's Hebrews and there's James. But in this epistle.
We do not have the height of Christian calling. We don't have Paul's ministry.
I believe that many of these believers were still connected with the synagogue.
But James is giving a test here as to who is real and who is not real.
By their their works.
Now we know that the book of Hebrew is was written later than James, where Paul calls upon the Jewish believers to leave that whole system of Judaism which was going to be.
Destroyed and to come on to Christian ground.
Well, in James we don't go that far, but he is insisting upon.
The faith, if it is genuine, to be manifest by the works of the individual. And so that is the theme of the book. It's very practical and in the first chapter.
He's dealing here with the trials. You might say holy trials and unholy, unholy trials.
The first part of the chapter is.
In connection with trials in the pathway of faith.
That come from the Lord.
Not connected with our sinful nature, but as you go on in the chapter, you have trials that are definitely connected with our sinful nature. You might call them unholy trials and how we should deal with them. So I think that the chapter, the book of James is very important for us to to meditate upon because it deals in the practical details of the Christian's life.
Important, as you say, to realize who James is writing to. And it's interesting that of all the epistles that are written to Jews, James is the broadest. He's not just writing to those of the dispersion, like Peter, Christians who had been dispersed throughout the known world through persecution and because of circumstances and for their faith. But as it begins here, he's writing to the 12 tribes. And it's interesting to notice in all of the four epistles that are written to Jews, which John has mentioned, it's never assumed that everyone that the writer is writing to is real.
And the Jews understood, Jewish believers understood this. And the Jews understood this because when you go back in their history, you find that on the one hand they were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea when they came up out of Egypt. But it says there went up out of Egypt a mixed multitude, and there were those who were not real. There were those who came because perhaps they saw the miracles, they saw the Providence of God in connection with His people.
They saw the provisions he made for them, but God brought to bear circumstances in the wilderness that brought out whether they were real or not. And that's what we have in the book of James. One of the things that the tests of the wilderness pathway do is they prove the reality of a person and the reality of our faith. And that's what James takes up in these five chapters. There's different subjects, of course, different ways it can be looked at.
But in a general way it's the tests and trials of the this life as proving the reality of the persons of the persons faith. Our first of all, are they real believers and God brought to bear circumstances in the wilderness for the children of Israel that showed, as it says with many of them. God was not well pleased and they fell under the governmental hand of God in in the wilderness. Another thing that trials do and we have this brought out in the book of James is they teach us in patience or endurance in the pathway.
00:15:02
As well, And I have no doubt we'll see that as we go on with these, with these verses. But to see that James is writing to these ones who understood these concepts that are brought out here. The other thing that's helpful to realize too is that in writing to these Jews, they were puzzled like they were in Peter when Peter wrote. They were puzzled as to why when there was faithfulness on their part.
They were suffering trials and difficulties. Now again, when you realize who he's writing to, you can understand it because under the Jewish order of things in the Old Testament, if a man was faithful to the Lord, the person was faithful to their God. Why, he made even their enemies to be at peace with them. It says he prospered them. He enlarged their coasts, as we had with Jabez prayer this this morning.
He gave them lands and cattle and large families and, and good times and so on. That was all part of the blessing under the Jewish order of things. And now there are believers, Jewish believers in Christianity who are seeking to be faithful to the Lord. And like the ones in Peter that Peter writes to, they've lost everything, been driven from their homeland. They've lost their their possessions. They're experiencing what he refers to as fiery trials. These ones here are having to endure things that perhaps many of us have never had to endure before in the past of faith.
And they're well wondering what is wrong. We've tried to be faithful to the Lord and now this. But what James and Peter and the writer to the Hebrews, no doubt the apostle Paul, what they seek to bring out is that it's a very different order of things in Christianity. And that while we may suffer trials and be deprived of many things in this life, remember there's something better ahead. There's a heavenly calling. There's a heavenly portion.
There's an end in view, and that's why in James at the end, in the 5th chapter, he brings before them the Lord's coming. That's the end of the thing. And Peter does that. Hebrews does that, always brings the end of the thing. We suffer for a little time, but there's something better at the end. So I think it's important to understand the context in which these Jewish, these writers were writing to Jewish believers.
We seem to have a mix of faith and works in the book of James that.
But someone else supplied a little expression that goes like this, that James is really relating a faith that works.
And you can take that little phrase two different directions. 1 The faith actually accomplishes something. It has a positive end. As was just mentioned, there is a result that are obvious from this kind of faith, but it's also a faith that works in that it laborers. And so there are things.
That come out positively in our lives as we display that faith in this world and so.
In fact, that's evidence in the book of James. Those works are evidence of the faith that prompted those works.
Nobody can see your faith, but they can see how you respond to things because you have faith.
So there's these, these two points of view about faith. There's a faith that works.
It's has a positive end point and it produces positive actions.
Someone has also said, and I think it's helpful in that connection, that in Pauls ministry we are not justified by works because we're justified before God in Pauls ministry, and it's not by works of righteousness and it's not by works of the law that we are justified before God.
Paul brings before us in Romans that were justified by grace, by the blood, and by faith, those three things, but that's before God. But in James we have to understand we're justified before men. And so it's our works that show, as Bruce has said, that we have faith. Tell me you have faith and you have no works to go with it. I can't see your faith, as Bruce said, but show me your works and I realize.
I'm going to know there's going to be a testimony as to your faith. Martin Luther never understood this and that's why he thought that the book of James was not inspired because he never understood the contrast between Paul's ministry and James ministry. Again, I say in in Paul's ministry, we're justified before God and it's not by works in James where justified before men and it is by works.
00:20:28
The Hebrew believers, the Jews were.
Or the ones that were addressed by James were passing through some severe persecutions.
For their faith in Christ, and as our brother said, they were.
At a loss to know why the Kingdom was not established and the Messiah had been crucified and they were suffering for the name of Christ for their testimony. But you know in verse two it says my brethren counted all joy when you fall into divers temptation.
Or trials.
It almost looks like a paradox joy when we fall into divers trials.
Now, it was perhaps primarily persecution with the Jewish believers, but we all have these temptations. We all have these trials in our lives one way or the other. And this is what you may say, holy trials. It's not because of the old nature that comes in later in the chapter, but.
There's some very valuable teaching here in connection with trials that come into our lives, and we all have them.
Do we manifest cheerful spirit when trials come into our lives, or do we complain and.
And.
Resist the the trial instead of.
Learning what the Lord has for us.
In the trial, are we in a proper state of soul, in other words, and it results from faith.
Looking beyond the trial to see the purpose of the Lord in the trial. How often we just see the trial and we want to be delivered from the pressure of the trial instead of understanding or seeking to know God's mind in the trial. As we've often been reminded, there's a needs be on God's part. I'm sorry, a purpose of love on God's part, but there's a needs be on our part.
For the trials that we experienced we're all in the school of God, we never graduate so the apostle says here well he wasn't an apostle James says here counted all joy when ye fall or be fall various temptations this could be in many areas of our lives financial.
Business problems.
Et cetera. But he says the Lord is trying you for a purpose of blessing.
We took up this chapter recently on the banks of the Red Sea with our Egyptian brethren who have been through circumstances and trials in the last four years and still face circumstances that we perhaps here know nothing about. We're not afraid this morning of someone busting down the doors and shooting us or carting us away because we're having a Bible meeting. We can evangelize freely. We can have the Bible in our home. We can carry it with us.
When we go out on the street. But they've been through some real trials and circumstances. And when we took this up, we pointed out that while it's true, we can count it all joy when we pass through difficulties and trials, knowing that the Lord has a purpose of blessing in it. Yet, brethren, we want to be careful in taking up that line of things that we don't give the impression that we ever become indifferent or callous to trials.
The trials that James brings before us were to are to increase our faith, to teach us to endure, to teach us to wake God's time, to break down our own wills and to teach us to rely on his will, and so on. There are lessons to be learned through every trial and circumstance that God allows in our in our life, and if we just grit our teeth and become callous and indifferent to those circumstances, we're never going to learn.
00:25:22
What God has for us and we're never going to get the ultimate blessing that he had that he intends for us in the in this life. And it's interesting at the end of this book, he says, I think it was read to us perhaps this morning or in the prayer meeting last night that in the end of this book, he says is any afflicted prey. Don't be indifferent to it. Are you afflicted? Are you going through some trial? Pray it casts us down. It puts us independence on the Lord. And then he says, is any Mary sing songs.
Songs And you know, I think you see a very beautiful balance with Paul and Silas in the prison in Philippi. Now scripture doesn't tell us what time of day they were thrown into the prison, but I suggest it was probably long before midnight or at least sometime before midnight. And I suspect that they felt pretty bad. Their backs were bleeding. They were probably wondering well, I got a message to vision to come over here and help someone and what good am I now? My our backs are bleeding. Our feet are fast in the stocks.
They felt what they had just been through. They didn't immediately sing it was until midnight. I often wonder if they didn't all of a sudden remember the verse in the 919th Psalm that says at midnight I will arise and sing songs unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. All of a sudden they realize that what God had allowed, as hard as it was, was right. That there was a purpose in it and a purpose of blessing. And of course, we know the story, and there certainly was.
But I say that, you know, we may not always rejoice right away. I've gone through a lot of circumstances and I've been down. I've felt pretty bad. I've shed a lot of tears. I've been wrung in my soul. It took sometimes a long time to come to the point where I could sing. But Paul said sorrowful, that's one thing, yet always rejoicing. The two things go hand in hand in the Christian life. So the trials here that these Saints were feeling.
James wasn't telling them to just grit their teeth and get through it, but he said remember, there's a purpose, there's lessons to be learned, and if you can see that and the end of the thing, then you can rejoice even in the trial.
Few weeks ago I had the privilege of being in the city of Philippi in Greece.
And there is an area there that.
The archaeologists have said was the actual prison of the Apostle Paul. Looking at it, it looked very small. Perhaps it was not, but it brought.
Quite a sense of.
Appreciation as gave me a new sense of appreciation as.
On the scene I reread Acts chapter 16.
And then an hour or so later, we're able to travel about a kilometer north of the ruins and we were by a Riverside and.
Although we don't know the exact location there, it had to be in the vicinity of where the Apostle Paul met Lydia.
And also on that same trip, we were able to view the city of Minneapolis.
Where the Apostle Paul first set foot in Europe and what what a blessing that was to have the Apostle Paul set foot in Europe and from there he went up to Philippi. We then had an opportunity to pass through part of the Sonica.
And then ended our trip in Berea and we thought of those that were more noble.
Than those in Thessalonica and that they searched the Scriptures daily and it was quite an experience to just retrace the path of the Apostle Paul just in those few places. But I couldn't help again, as you pointed out there under those circumstances and they were confining circumstances in that prison that at midnight there was a song of praise.
00:30:15
So remember what we've said about James, it's not so much the work of God for us, that's Pauls ministry. It's the work of God in US. And so we find here as we go on, he's allowing these trials to work in us. It's God that works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. That's one of the reasons for trials to bring us to the point where, as I said earlier, we set aside our own will and we submit to the will of God.
But it also teaches us to endurance or patience fact seven times in this book, you'll find the word patience often translated endurance. It's really the the thought in the in the book of James. It's to endure and the path of faith is a path of endurance. We're to run with endurance. The race that is set before us. It's not the Sprint. The Christian life is the marathon. The marathon runner, unlike the sprinter, has to learn to endure and go laugh after laugh.
And mile after mile, I was in Europe this summer when the Tour de France was on. And those bikers, they have to learn that it's a race of endure, of endurance. And not only are they on flat ground sometimes, but they go through the mountains, they go up and down, they go through all kinds of of weather. And it's mile after mile, day after day after day. And that's the that's the Christian pathway. And I believe, brethren, that the way our faith grows.
And our faith should grow. But the way our faith grows is to put it in operation. You know, the disciples came to the Lord on an occasion and they said, Lord, increase our faith. But the Lord really answered the disciples to show them that the way our faith grows is to put it in operation. I suggest it's not really an intelligent prayer for a believer to pray and ask the Lord to increase our faith. It's to take that grain of mustard seed.
And to put it in operation, you might have a grain of mustard seed, which the Lord likened faith to. And if you just hold it in your hand, you're never going to get anything out of it. But if you have the faith to go and plant it and to water it and to fertilize it in the proper way, it's going to spring up and you're going to get something very wonderful. And the Lord said to the disciples, basically, put your faith in operation and you'll be able to move mountains. And brethren, why is it that so often we don't see the answers to prayer?
And to faith that we ought to in our lives, we don't put it in operation.
Used to read as a young person and I still do, but as a young person, I used to read the stories of men and women of faith from past eras and men and women of faith in the era in which we find ourselves. Used to marvel, shake my head and say, wow, be tremendous to to see answers to prayer and experiences of faith like that. But you read and examine their lives more closely. You find they were willing to put their faith in operation. They were willing to prove.
Their God to prove their Lord and where they disappointed not for one moment. Now God doesn't always give great deliverance and so on. We read the 11Th chapter of Hebrews. There was great deliverances and then it says and others and they didn't accept deliverance. They had trials of cruel mocking. They were scourge, they were killed, they were sawn asunder. And so you say, did they all did they have less faith? These all died in faith. God had a better purpose for them, but nevertheless.
Why is it that so often we don't see remarkable things in our lives the way perhaps God intends? I say again, it's because we don't put our faith in operation. And when we put our faith in operation and God, until our faith is tested and God proves himself, what's going to happen? Why our faith is going to grow. And if you've put your faith in operation for 20 years, you've got more faith today than you did 20 years ago, not because you prayed for more faith.
But because you've walked the practical Christian life of faith, which is what James is bringing out.
Especially verse 35.
And of course, recently we've heard of a number of Christians.
Whose lives have been taken and.
You just stop and wonder how God allows this. But I think if we read the 35th verse of Hebrews 11, we'll have a better understanding of that says women receive their dead, raised to life again and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.
00:35:22
Yes, there is a better resurrection.
And I think that this can give.
Those that are passing through these deep trials, comfort.
God may not deliver. We think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They realized that God could deliver, but they also realized that they might not be delivered. And they had the same amount of confidence in both situations and how encouraging it is to see that.
I think we should be exercised to to know why the Lord has allowed these circumstances in our lives. We are know. We know the verses in Hebrews.
Chapter 12.
There where the apostle says.
No chastening for the present. Verse 11 seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless. Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Notice unto them which are exercised thereby. As our brother Jim said, we don't want to be stoical and laugh it off and say, Well, this happens to everyone.
We just have to live with it and.
Try to get through it as best we can. No, we should be exercised. Why? The Lord has allowed these circumstances. He has a purpose of love in it.
That comes out here understanding.
Why God has allowed these things? We don't get a perfect.
A perfect resolution of everything but.
We are. We learn dependence upon the Lord, and we learn His heart, and we learn submission to His will. All of these things come through exercise. We've often been reminded. Take your circumstances from the Lord and your difficulties to the Lord. Let's not allow the circumstances to come between US and the Lord. That's what happened to Peter when he looked upon the waves.
Boisterous.
And angry there he got his eyes on the waves, and instead of on the Lord, he allowed those circumstances to come between him and the Lord, and he began to sink. How often that is the case with us. What Jim says is very true. Our faith should grow. But isn't it strange that when a new trial comes in, our lives, though we've had deliverance again and again?
We manifest the same spirit of unbelief.
Where unbelieving believers?
I think we have to acknowledge.
You say it's good to be exercised as to why these trials are allowed in our lives and we when we have the trials, we may not know what to do, we know may not know where to turn. And so we get in verse five. If any of you lack wisdom, let a mask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. Sometimes we use this verse just for just general wisdom, for general purposes.
But I believe in the context here, this is asking for wisdom as to how we are going to respond to the trial that we're experiencing. There's so many different types of trials that we go through and we may not know how to act in different trials, but it's a good to be exercised as to why the Lord has allowed this in our lives and also how we are to respond to the trial that's been allowed.
I think that's very important because so often when we see a trial in another in the life of another child of God, we tend to quickly jump, jump to some conclusion as to why God has allowed that trial in that persons life. But I believe the lessons are learned in our own lives when we look within and ask why the trials were allowed in our lives and to realize too that trials as John and Tim have said.
00:40:16
Are allowed for different reasons. So often our conclusion is especially in looking at others, Oh there it must be the government of God, or there's some secret sin in that persons life, or that's the chastening hand of God upon that person. Well, God often does allow trials in his chastening, but there are many other reasons why God allows trials in our lives. One is as we've been saying, so that we'll learn to trust him more.
So that we'll know his heart. Sometimes it's be cut to prepare us, maybe so we can be a help to another who goes through a similar circumstance. He brings that out in the book of Corinthians. We can comfort others with the same comfort wherewith we are comforted of God. And sometimes, brethren, it's simply so there will be more fruit in our lives and glory brought to God into the Lord. Jesus has often been mentioned, but I'll repeat it.
That in the 9th chapter of John they brought a blind man to the Lord Jesus, and the conclusion of those that had brought him was there was some sin in the family. They said to the Lord, Who hath sinned this man or his parents, that he was born blind. The Lord said neither this man nor his parents, but that the works of God may be glorified in him. There was going to be glory and fruit and testimony brought in that man's life and into to the lives of those that witnessed his, his healing.
Because because of this circumstance, it didn't have to do with any family sin or sin in his personal life. And so we want to be careful not to judge in another, but has been brought out to look at our own lives. Why has God allowed this in my life. But on the by the same token, in asking for wisdom, brethren, we never want to question the ways of God with us. You know, it's not getting all the answers that gives us peace or increases our faith.
Remember one time taking the funeral of a young man and it was a very, very tragic and difficult circumstance. And I looked into a sea of hundreds of faces of young people who had come from all over the continent expecting answers. And I said at the beginning of that funeral, I said, I don't have the answers as to why God has allowed this tragedy to touch our lives the way it has today.
But I said, even if we never get the answers this side of heaven without submission to God's will.
And a recognition that He has allowed this and for a purpose. Even if we got all the answers as to why, we still wouldn't have peace in our souls. That's not what gives us peace, brethren. And you notice here, it's not wisdom as to why all this happened. It's asking wisdom to get through the circumstance to deal with the situation, not even asking wisdom to get out of the circumstance. These brethren were in these circumstances, they weren't going to get out of them.
But they could ask wisdom as to how to get through it and to deal with the situation day by day. And we may not see the removal of all the trials and difficulties this side of heaven, or even get all the answers as to why God has allowed this. But we can get wisdom, daily wisdom. You lack wisdom. All you have to do is ask. Ask in faith. He'll give. He'll give it just a little bit. And all He gives to all men liberally, it's just for some to all men liberally. And He doesn't upbraid us when we ask.
I might go and ask you for wisdom and you say, now come on Jim, you should know how to act in that situation. Our God never does that. We go to him for wisdom. He doesn't upbraid us for coming, and we can come again and again and again.
Verse in Job chapter 37 that perhaps.
Someone could comment on verse 13 where it says he causes it to come, whether for correction or for his land or for mercy.
Perhaps someone can comment on that verse?
Where was that verse? Bill 37 and 13?
00:45:04
Well, again, this was something that Jobs friends didn't understand, did they? They thought it was all for correction in Jobs life and there was some sins in Jobs life that he hadn't confessed and he needed to get it all out in the open and so on. But we know from the book of Job that's not why God allowed it. He was a righteous man, astute, evil, he was upright and so on. But it was really for it was really in God's schooling. He had lessons to teach him. So sometimes it is for correction as we've been saying.
Sometimes it's for the land. In other words, if we can apply it, I know this is Old Testament, but if we can apply it, it's like Jabez, he prayed that his coast would be increased. And we don't pray that our coast will be increased as far as temporal goods, but we can pray that in the spirit of the New Testament that we we would have a greater spiritual understanding and enjoyment of our blessings and that vast panorama of all that he has for us. And then he says, sometimes it's for mercy.
You know, sometimes God allows circumstances in our lives to keep us from certain things, maybe to stop us from going in a course. Why did the Mariners come down and wake Jonah up in the ship to stop him from going on the course that he was going, going on to turn him around. God allowed them to speak to him was an unusual source that God allowed, but it was in his mercy. But if you notice, Brother Bruce, the next verse in that chapter, I think you get a nice context.
Then it says, hearken unto this O Job, stand still and consider the wondrous works of God. This is very personal. What was allowed in Jobs life may have been judged by his friends, but what was Job to do? He was to stand still and consider what God was doing in his life. Job was going to get the blessing not by getting advice from all his friends. Not that sometimes our brother and I aren't helpful in their direction, but that wasn't where Job's blessing was going to come from.
That's where, well, not how he was going to learn what God was Pat the reason God was passing him through.
These very severe trials, No, you stand still Job, you listen to what I have to say. You consider what I've allowed. And when Job did that, then we go on in the book and we find he got the the purpose of blessing. And remember this, brethren, we sometimes say God allows things for a purpose, but that statement falls very short of what God, the reason God allows things. God allows things for a purpose. That's true, but it's more than that. It's a purpose of blessing.
You know, sometimes as fathers we might have a certain purpose or plan for our family, but sometimes in the end, it's just a selfish motive. But even in his correction, it's he chastens us for our profit, that we might be partakers of His Holiness. So it's not just that the difficulties and trials and tests are for a purpose, but they are for a purpose of blessing. And when we get a hold of that in our souls, then and only then can we thank God for the trials and rejoice in them.
There is a verse in Deuteronomy on. Can't put my finger on it there but.
It speaks of God's dealings with the nation.
In order to do them good at their latter end. And that is the purpose of the Lord in the trials that come into our lives.
We're going to see that trial in a different light, in the glory of the judgment seat of Christ.
But we need to be careful that we don't get bitter under the trial. We turn to Ephesians 4/6. I think we are familiar with this verse, but.
It speaks, the apostle speaks of the shield.
Of faith in the armor there in the chapter 6.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, but coming down in verse 16, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, Now the fiery darts of the wicket, that Satan, of course.
The trials here in Ephesians 6 are not connected with our old nature.
It is the trials, the the conflict that is occasioned by Satans attacks and one of his most effective weapons is discouragement. And if he can.
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Cause us to doubt the goodness that is in the heart of God. He has achieved His purpose and that's why the shield of faith is mentioned.
He tried it in the Garden of Eden, and he's still trying it.
To put a doubt in the mind as to the wisdom of God's ways with us. Especially this comes in in in discouraging times. It may be with health, it may be with losses.
Disappointments in rebel and relationships and so on. Satan is right there to insinuate that God doesn't love you. Why does he allow this to happen? You're going on for the Lord, so those fiery darts.
He will hurl with all his ferocity to break down our confidence in the Lord.
And.
The.
The danger is that we become bitter in the trial. How many people have succumbed to that? And any one of us can, because there's things in your life and mine that we cannot understand. Brethren, we don't know why this has happened in our lives. There's things in my life I'm, I'm sure in every one of our lives that we would not have chosen if we had our way.
We would like to get out of this pressure, but.
Satan is always there ready behind us there to to introduce a doubt in our minds. Well, another verse I just wanted to draw your attention to in Hebrews chapter. I think it's chapter 10. It's remarkable there that the apostle says.
I've enjoyed it. Verse 35 cast not away there for your confidence, which have great recompense of reward. Now we think of reward in connection with some work for the Lord in the gospel, in the ministry.
We usually connect reward with that, and that is true, But here the reward, the judgment seat of Christ, I believe will be, will be our confidence that the Lord is doing the best for us every day of our lives according to our state of soul. That confidence in the Lord's perfect wisdom is what God values.
And as it says in this verse, there will be a reward for that. Well, may the Lord keep us because the enemy is very active. And I believe that discouragement is one of his most effective weapons. All discouragement comes from Satan. And you need to be on our guard. Is that right, Jim? Yes. And we want to be clear too, that faith doesn't act foolishly either. Faith is reasonable.
You can't reason faith, but faith is reasonable. There's a verse I've enjoyed in Proverbs. I'll just read it. It's the last verse of the 21St chapter of Proverbs. There's two parts to this verse that I believe go necessarily together. Says in verse 31, the horse is prepared against the day of battle. That's one side and safety is of the Lord. And I've sometimes said you can't go out on the highway and trust the Lord, your vehicle to the Lord, if you haven't kept up the maintenance.
The horse has to be prepared unto battle. Faith is reasonable, and we don't want to give the impression that faith does foolish things. Faith counts on God. It's true. It asks for wisdom, but faith also always has light for what it does. There's no such thing as blind faith.
Faith is not a leap in the dark as some would say. Sometimes I've heard an expression someone has more faith than brains and it's not a scriptural expression, but I think there's some some truth to it. Faith acts on the word of God and the light that it is given for for the time. And when it has the word of God and light for the for the moment, then faith can act in the utmost confidence. It can rest on God because what God says, what God gives is sure.
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And that's why he goes on in these verses to show that sometimes we ask for wisdom in the situation and we don't get it. You say, well, I thought he gives to all men liberally and he doesn't reproach her up braid when we ask and we can come again and again. That's true. But the next verse, verse six of our chapter qualifies it. Brother, it says, but let him ask in faith. Nothing wavering. Now to ask in faith is to ask with complete confidence on God, to rest on the light that he has given. But I also believe it includes something else.
It concludes setting aside our own thoughts and agendas. You know, sometimes we come and we ask the Lord for wisdom, but we've already got a preconceived notion of what we should do and how we should deal with it. We're not going to get God's wisdom like that. We're not going to get wisdom liberally like that. We have to set our side, our own will, our own agenda. Because a man that waivers like the wave of the sea is a man that's driven back and forth by popular opinion or by whoever he asks. And you know yourself, you ask several people about a situation.
Ask five people, you might get 5 different opinions about how you should act and you vacillate back and forth. You waffle back and forth. Should I, shouldn't I, should I do this? And then you have your own agenda on top of it. That's a person that's driven like the wave of the sea back and forth. But a person who comes and asks in faith is going to get the wisdom of God when they have set aside, I say their own will, their own agenda and others opinions.
And in the beginning of verse five, we have any of you asked Wisdom, let him ask of God.
That's another very basic point for us as believers. James. Chapter 4 says the beginning of it. You have not because you asked not.
And very often we don't start out in a trial to even see that God is involved in it at all. It's a failing of faith, and we need to start right there to take up with whatever comes into our lives, whatever circumstances they are.
And see whoever may be involved, even if it was Satan as in the case of Job. Yet God was the one who allowed it. And having gotten to that point, then he takes up the whole point of faith here.
And then there's the question about how we ask.
The rest of the chapter, as I understand it, is challenges to this point.
That whatever God is allowed in our life is something that He's bringing in for a purpose of blessing, whether we understand it or not. And if there's one thing that we could get from Him in wisdom, that would be to really get that point. We may not understand until we get to eternity, to heaven, and have it finally showed to us.
But at least to see that He loves us and He does have a point of blessing right now.
In some way through that trial, that's a grand point to get a hold of. And so looking through it and seeing what's brought out after this, we find that.
There's all this instruction that we have in the verses they're coming to about not asking with a double mind, but then it has an example of two different kinds of believers, one who's rich and one who's poor. And it seems that they got the point. They understood that God had put them into circumstances whereby they could rejoice because their circumstance.
Their future had nothing to do with that circumstance.
And so after having given these examples, he goes on and talks about something else that can come in. As we go through a trial, if we don't see the hand of God in it, it's easy to get taken up with the fact that this one or that one is wrong. Me. And I'm tempted now to actually sin. It's no longer the trial, but now it's sin that comes from within.
Which I believe is what he's talking about next and verses 13.
14 and 15 and he says no, that kind of thought comes some doubt in the goodness of God, what we've been talking about.
The goodness of God is not challenged by faith, and yet we can doubt it. And that comes from inside. That's some lust. God didn't put that thought there. He says, Don't err, my beloved brother. And every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above. He immediately brings in the goodness of God, something that can't be challenged. And then having done that, he gives out an example of two gifts that God gives by which we may understand.
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That wisdom that he has for us, first of all, we have.
In verse 16 of his own will begat he us with the word of truth.
That we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. And so there's the divine life that He's given to us, by which we can even understand the wisdom that he's going to give.
We need that that we have by faith. But there's another thing brought in as well, and that's a little further on, and that is in verse, the end of verse 21 That you received with meekness and grafted word, which is able to save your souls and then be doers of the Word, not hearers only. And so His wisdom comes to us through the Word.
Every provision we have is given in an orderly way in this chapter comes from God. His goodness provides it all for us. We aren't to doubt, but the first thing we have to do is go to Him and ask, and He will give it.
Odd is in everything and he knows what he's doing.
We really don't need to question these ways, because As for God, His way is perfect.
But I think a secret to not being discouraged in circumstances is to.
Keep ourselves in the love of God. Now, Eric Smith, I recall often he would say we can't always trace the Lord in our circumstances, but we can trust it. How is it that we can trust it? It's because his love.
Has occasioned that even the difficulties in life are an expression of the Lorde love for us.
You know, when we contemplate what the Lord Jesus has done for you and me at the cross of Calvary, how can we question that He is for us? He has our best interests at heart.
All the time, in every place.
And of course, perfect love is that which casts out fear.
So I think it was Mr. Darby, he said. If we could only have.
A deeper, fuller appreciation of the love of God for us, the circumstances of life wouldn't have as great an impact upon us.
Because I speak to myself, we can become discouraged.
You know, because of what's happening in our lives.
But let's not be discouraged, Lord loves you and me. How much? Look at the cross.
And the Lord Jesus said as the Father.
Has loved me.
Even so, have I loved you.
That's the love of Jesus. Think about it. It's wonderful.
But he could also say, in speaking with his father, Thou hast loved them.
Who's the 10? You and me, How much thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Now that's the Father's love for you and for me.
So we don't understand all of God's ways.
Let's face it, as high as the heavens are above the earth, the Lord said So higher my thoughts above your thoughts, my ways above your ways.
But let's realize that He loves us. He cares for us, desires the very best for us and God.
He does. He makes all things work together for good to those who love him, who are the called according to his purpose.
Faith. It's just taking God at this word, and I believe that's the greatest favor that we can do. The Lord is to take him at His Word.
In simple faith, God appreciates that.
So when they came to Mara, they couldn't drink of the waters. The only thing that would make the water sweet was the was the tree a picture of the cross? And maybe we can't, as you say, see all, we see God's love in our circumstances, but we can always see it at the cross. And when we look to the cross, can we doubt his love and his his wisdom? But I just want to say in closing, this meeting is almost over. Maybe there's someone sitting here and you say it's OK to talk about trials and rejoicing in trials, but you don't know what I'm passing through. And it's just hard to give thanks.
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In the trial, you know, Ephesians, I'm sorry, 1St Thessalonians 5 tells us in everything, give thanks. That's tough, isn't it? And I don't have to admit I'll be the first one to confess. I don't always give thanks in everything. But just in closing, go to a verse in Ephesians 5 that I believe gives us the key to being able to give thanks and rejoice in the trial.
Ephesians 5 and verse 20.
Giving thanks always.
Now notice this not in all things, but for all things.
And until we come to this point where we give thanks for the trial, recognizing that it comes from the good hand of God, not until we come to that point can we give thanks in the trial. We must first of all realize, as our brethren have been telling us this morning, that this trial has come, this test has come from the loving good hand of our God and Father. And when we realize that and give thanks for it.
Then we can give thanks in it. So if you're struggling in a trial and you just find it hard to give thanks and rejoice in the trial, just look to the one who has given you the trial, realize his heart, give thanks for it, and you'll find it'll make a great difference in your being able to rejoice in it.
I make one little comment on that question and job.
For correction seems plain. The storm of waters comes that might bring a flood. For correction, for mercy, a storm of water comes, and it makes the crops grow, and we have food to eat. But what is for his land? All things were created by Him, and for his pleasure they were created. And so the rain comes, and this world produces, and it grows, and maybe in places that no one but God sees it, it's for his pleasure.
And so he may send a storm of rain for correction in my life, for mercy in my life.
But there is that which is just for His pleasure in my life, that which he desires to see and he takes delight in, and he longs for that communion of soul. And if there's that which is going to hinder what he can take pleasure in, and what's for His delight, He may send a storm of rain, too, for his land.
32 in the appendix.
No.
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Yeah.
Prayer, our God and our Father, we thank thee for.
This portion of Thy word, that Holy Spirit is brought before us, and we find it searches us deeply, conscience and heart. May Thy truth find its dwelling place in our hearts by faith. And we do pray that it might be so with us that our wills.
And every circumstance that thou dost allow in our lives, be yielded to thine own, that there might be peace in our hearts, and all that Thou does allow in our path.
To desire thy will alone, and depending upon thee to accomplish thy will.
Thy goodwill begin it all in our lives, for we were born in the purpose of Thy will, begotten by that precious word that feeds us and nourishes us, and wherein Thy will is so plainly given to us for our pathway. Help us not to be double minded, not to be seeking our own well with our lips, asking Thee.
For wisdom, but just wholly cast upon Thee in every circumstance. All these things search us, may it be so. And we do thank Thee for Thy goodness towards us, to give us that which is needful. And we give Thee thanks, our God and our Father, and the precious and worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen.