INTRODUCTION
Polycarp, a Christian in the early church who studied
under the Apostle John, was seized by some guards at an old age. He generously
fed the guards that had captured him. He then asked them if he could spend some
time in prayer. They agreed, and he spent time in fervent prayer. They then
took him before the governor and he was condemned and sentenced to be burned
alive. The governor exhorted him saying, “Reproach Christ and I will release
you.” Polycarp responded, “Eighty Six years I have served him, and he never once wronged me. How then
shall I blaspheme my King who saved me?”
John Newton, a pastor and hymn writer during the
1700s, said this a few weeks before he breathed his last breath: “My memory is
nearly gone, but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner and that
Christ is a great savior.”
Charles Spurgeon, a preacher in the 1800s, preached
His last sermon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle on June 7, 1891. He said this
regarding Christ: “If there is
anything that is gracious, generous, kind, and tender, yea, lavish and
superabundant in love, you always find it in Him. His service is life, peace,
joy. Oh, that you would enter on it at once! God help you to enlist under the banner
of JESUS CHRIST!”
These three men showed an unwavering zeal and fervor
for Christ at the end of their lives. And as you and I listen to some of their last words, we find ourselves desiring to imitate them. We want to love, esteem, revere,
and adore Christ just as they did. We
want to share in their level of Christian maturity. We want to get to the end
of our lives and utter words about Christ just as we hear from them.
But what we cannot miss in all of this, is that these men did not arrive at
this kind of maturity at the moment of conversion.
Rather, as you look at their lives, you notice that it
was through years of trials and tribulations that they came to this kind of
maturity in the faith. And so, if we do indeed want to imitate them...If we
want to love, esteem, revere and adore Christ as they did...If we want to have a
mature faith that is not lacking just like we see in them. Then we too must
endure trials and tribulations...More than that, we must learn to joyfully
endure trials and tribulations, just as they did.
And I believe James 1:2-4 will help us to do just this. Let’s read the text
again. “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you
meet trials of various kinds, 3 for
you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness
have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in
nothing” (James 1:2-4).
My Desire
My ultimate desire as I walk through these verses this morning is to help you be obedient to the first four words of verse two. The reason I say that is because verse two is a breathtaking command. The Lord is commanding us, through the Apostle James, to look at the various trials we meet with in this life and to, “Count it all joy.”
Now you know as well as I know that being obedient to that command isn’t natural. Nobody naturally encounters trials in this life and immediately counts them as joy! That simply does not happen.
Rather, our natural response when we meet trials in this life is
to wallow in despair, complain, murmur, and grumble. Our natural response is to
be like Israel in the wilderness when they were enduring the trial of hunger:
- Exodus
16:2-3 “And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against
Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and
the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the
Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the
full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole
assembly with hunger.”
Or when Israel was facing the trial
of thirst:
- Exodus 17:3 “But the people thirsted there for water, and the people
grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill
us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”
That is our
natural response to trials. And though
that is our natural response to trials, it is not how we are to respond to
trials anymore! The reason for this is because, since we are in Christ,
we are no longer a natural people.
- We are a people that have been
redeemed
- Who have the Spirit of Christ in
them
- Who have been adopted into the
family of God
- And who can now cry out “Abba
Father” to the God of heaven and earth.
- We are a spiritual people who have
the eyes of faith to see things that the natural man cannot see!
- And since all this is true, we are also
a spiritual people that can, “Count it
all joy when we meet trials of various kinds.”
BUT
just because we can now be obedient to this command, does not mean that it is
easy! That is far from the truth. This is a hard command to obey. But even
though this may be hard to obey, I believe that through listening to what James
has to say in faith, we can certainly begin to “Count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds.”
So as we look at the text, the first topic I want to focus on is, “What is a
trial?”
And I would define a trial as a problem, hardship, affliction or difficulty
given to us by God that examines, tries, tests, proves, and builds up our
faith.
You see this all throughout the Scripture:
- You see this in
our directly in the text that we are in today.
- You see this a couple of times in 1
Peter:
- 1 Peter 1:6-7 “In this you rejoice, though
now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested
genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is
tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the
revelation of Jesus Christ.”
- 1 Peter 4:12 “Beloved, do not be
surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though
something strange were happening to you."
- And you see this
in Proverbs:
- Proverbs 17:3 “The crucible is for
silver, and the furnace is for gold, and
the Lord tests hearts.”
So that is what a trial is, now we need to look at what James has to say about
the Nature of Trials!
The Nature of Trials
And
the first aspect of trials that James informs his readers about is that they
are inevitable. Notice how James does
not say, “Count it all joy, my brothers, if you happen to meet various trials
in this life.” That would not be good pastoral wisdom from James if he
was to say that!
And James does not in the business of giving bad
pastoral wisdom. Rather, he gives really good pastoral wisdom. Which is exactly
why he says, “Count it all joy, my
brothers, WHEN you meet trials of various kinds.” So He is telling his readers that it is not a matter of if they will
meet trials, but a matter of WHEN they meet trials.
And the inevitability of trials is true for every
Christ follower in here…it is true for those who are young in years and those
who are older, for those who are spiritually immature and those who spiritually
mature.
We see the inevitability of trials
perfectly in the life of our Lord:
- Remember when the wise men approached Herod regarding
the birth of the one who was called, “King of the Jews.”
- Herod, not wanting his kingship to be usurped,
questioned the chief priest and the scribes to determine were the Messianic
King was to be born.
- As soon as they informed King Herod that the King of
the Jews was to be born in Bethlehem, he immediately sent people out in order
to put Jesus to death.
- Then an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and said,
“Rise, take the child and his mother,
and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to
search for the child, to destroy him” (Matthew 2:13)
So Jesus was only an infant and was enduring a great
trial. But it is not as though that was the last trial he endured. There were
more trials that came his way. By far, the most significant ones were at the
end of his life.
- For it is there that you see one of his disciples
betray him
- You see the religious leaders falsely accuse him
- And you see his other disciples abandon him.
- Then you see him beaten, mocked, scourged, spit on,
and crucified.
All throughout our Lord’s life he endured trials, and
it will be the same for us. Trials are inevitable throughout the whole of life.
And this brings us to the second aspect of trials.
As you look at verse two, notice how James says, “When you MEET trials of various kinds.”
The term “meet” there means to “fall into the hands of” or to “encounter.”
It is the same Greek term that is used in the Parable of the Good Samaritan
when the Good Samaritan fell into the hands of robbers:
- Luke 10:30 “Jesus replied, “A man was going
down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and
beat him and departed, leaving him half dead."
- The Good
Samaritan was not out there looking for robbers. It was unexpected. He was
walking down to Jerusalem and before he knew it he was among robbers!
This is the image
James gives his readers regarding trials in this life. They are completely
unexpected. It is as though you are making your way through this life, and at
any given time you will inevitably fall into the hands of trials!
But is it not strange that trials are both inevitable and
unexpected? You would think it would be the other way around… that that which
is inevitable would certainly be expected!
But even as you
think about the trials that you have had to endure thus far in life, you know
what James is saying is true.
By way of illustration...you know that your
mother is getting old, that it is getting harder and harder for her to breathe
and that the doctor says she doesn’t have much longer. Then one day, she
isn’t answering your phone calls, so you drive over there thinking that your
mom may have passed away in her sleep, you solemnly open the front door and
walk slowly towards her bedroom door, you open it up, and see that your mother
is not breathing. And though you knew it was likely, you expected it on the
drive over to her house, and you trembled at the thought of it as you opened
the bedroom door……you still feel as though you fell into the hands of that
trial!
This is how trials
are. We know they are inevitable, but they are still in strange way unexpected!
And this brings us to the third aspect of trials.
Place your eyes back on verse two and notice how
James says, “Count all joy, my brother,
when you meet trials of VARIOUS KINDS.” The term “various” that James uses there means “of all kinds” or “multicolored.”
This same term is used in reference to Jesus’s healing ministry:
- Mt 4:24 “So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him
all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains,”
- So our Lord was
healing people with diseases of all kinds.
This term is also used in reference
to the many sinful passions that we were enslaved to before we came to faith in
Christ.
- Titus 3:3 “For we ourselves were
once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and
pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one
another."
- And
is that not an accurate depiction of our sinful nature before faith in Christ.
We were not enslaved to one passion, but to all kinds of passions and pleasures….to
greed, envy, jealousy, anger, rage, pride, and sensuality. All kinds!
So James is informing his readers that trials are of all
kinds. They are in every since multicolored. And his readers were not ignorant
of this.
As you look throughout this short epistle, you see that those whom James is
writing to are enduring a few different types of trials.
- First off, they are Christians of
Jewish lineage!
- That
meant they were persecuted by both Jews and Gentiles!
- Secondly, they were being oppressed by
rich people.
- James 2:6 “Are not the rich the ones
who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?"
- And Thirdly, some of them were
undoubtedly enduring suffering and sickness.
- James 5:13-14 “Is anyone among you
suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you
sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him,
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”
Now I do not think
James is speaking specifically to those trials alone! I think he is intentionally casting his net wide by using the term
“Various” here. I mean there are all types of trials that we Christians
are going to meet with in this life.
- The Bible informs us numerous times
that we are going to go through trials for Christ’s name sake.
- Matthew 5:11 “Blessed are you when
others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you
falsely on my account."
- John 16:33 “I have said these things
to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation.
But take heart; I have overcome the world."
- The Scripture also informs us of
trials that are not necessarily from persecution for Christ’s name sake, but
simply because we live in a fallen world.
- We
are going to endure trials such as afflictions, ailments, poverty, and death of
loved ones.
- And
if you simply look throughout the Scripture, you see Adam and Eve suffer the
loss of their son Abel; Abraham and Sarah suffering through infertility; Jacob
being lied to by his sons; Joseph being betrayed by his brothers; Moses leading
a rebellious Israel, Ruth becoming a widow at a young age, and David having his
life sought after by his son Absalom.
- And as we mentioned earlier, you
have the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s beloved Son, completely without sin, but he
most certainly was not without various trials.
- You see him being reviled, dealing
with a hardheaded group of disciples, being betrayed, falsely accused,
scourged, and then nailed to a cross.
And though James may not be casting
his net as wide as I am about to, I think it is helpful not to limit trials to
painful and hurtful things. I think they are even more diverse than that!
- Regarding
this, Charles Spurgeon said, “All
providences are doors to trials. Even our mercies, like roses, have their
thorns. Men may be drowned in seas of prosperity as well as in rivers of
affliction.”
- You
see being rich is a trial just as much as poverty is.
- Proverbs 30:8-9 “give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with
the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who
is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”
- You see, the trial of poverty will
examine whether you will trust God’s goodness in a time of need, and the trial of riches will examine
whether you will completely depend on the Lord in a time of abundance.
- Popularity
is a trial. It will try and examine your faith just as assuredly as being
cursed and reviled will.
- One of my favorite preachers in
Church history is George Whitefield. His earnest prayer as a young man was that
the Lord would not thrust him out into the vineyard yet. He did not believe
that he was ready to enter into the preaching ministry. However, him remaining
on the sidelines was not what God desired. Therefore, the Lord thrust him into
the vineyard at a young age. People had never heard anything like this young
man preaching the great truths of the gospel. They praised him. They applauded
him. They gave him more and more opportunities to preach and he became more and
more popular at a very young age.
- This was such a trying time for him
that he would account popularity and the praise of men as one of the most
difficult trials that he ever endured. He wrote in a letter in 1739 saying, “It is difficult, I believe, to go
through the fiery trial of popularity and applause untainted.”
So this is the
nature of trials. James teaches us that they are inevitable, unexpected, and
incredibly diverse!
Now, even in light of everything that I have
said so far, we are still not ready to look at all these trials and, “Count
them all joy.” And the reason for that is because we have only gone over the
nature of trials! In order to, “Count
them altogether joy,” WE MUST KNOW the sovereign purpose of Almighty God in
sending these trials to us.”
Knowing Doctrine
I place emphasis on the “We
must know” because of the beginning of verse 3. Look at how James says,
“FOR YOU KNOW that the testing of your faith
produces steadfastness” (James 1:3). You see, for James, the very root of
counting trials as altogether joy is good sound Christian doctrine! And we can
go even further than that, for James, it seems that the very root of obedience
to any command is going to be good sound Christian doctrine!
We can see this just in chapter 1:
- Look at James 1:5. James knows that
counting trials as altogether joy is difficult and that it takes the wisdom of
God to do it. Therefore he says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him
ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given
him.”
- So
the basis for us approaching God for wisdom is this, God is incredibly
generous, and that he gives to all His children without reproach.
- Look at James 1:6-9. James is going
to give us wisdom for two trials in this life…both poverty and riches. He says,
“Let the lowly brother boast in his
exaltation, 10 and
the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass
away. 11 For the
sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and
its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his
pursuits.”
- The
very basis for the poor man boasting and the rich man being humble is to
refrain from viewing themselves in an earthly perspective, and rather to view
themselves from a heavenly perspective….as they will appear before God at
death.
- Then look at James 1:13-15. James
knows that trials often lead to temptations to sin. And to make sure that we do
not blame God for the temptations that arise out of the trials that we endure,
James says, “Let no one say when he is
tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and
he himself tempts no one. 14 But
each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has
conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth
death.”
- So
the grounds for us not laying any charge against God for our temptations is
that God has no deficiency in and of himself whereby He could even be tempted
with evil, and also that God tempts no one. The root of temptation is found in
our own sinful hearts!
- Then James goes even further into
Christian doctrine to drive home the point that God will most certainly try and
test us, but will by no means tempt us when he says in verses 16-18 “Do not be
deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of
lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he
brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits
of his creatures.
- God would never tempt you. He would
never do anything for your spiritual harm! Rather, every good and perfect gift
that we have comes from Him. He never changes! He has always been and always
will be immeasurably good. A perfect proof of this is that, according to His
own will, through the preaching of the gospel, he caused us to be born again
(He saved us), so that we might be His treasured possession. A God that is that good to you would
never do anything for your spiritual harm!
So the root of
Christian obedience is good sound Christian doctrine! James knows this. And we
ought to take heed to this as well! We ought to seek to know all that we can
about the things of God so that we can joyfully and obediently submit to His
commands!
Okay, now back to our verses! The Christian
teaching that we are to know in order to “Count
it all joy,” is this, “For you
know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let
steadfastness have its full affect, that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking in nothing.” So this is God’s sovereign purpose in trials. This
is what we are to know. Let’s look at this closely.
The Purpose of Trials
As you look at verse three, you will see that the first
purpose of trials is to test our faith. Now there are two good and right ways we
can understanding this term “testing.”
- The first way to understand this
testing is to regard it as a test that would prove whether you genuinely have
faith or not.
- So the Lord dispenses afflictions,
suffering, persecutions, difficulties and other hardships to test the
genuineness of our faith...to see if it is a living faith in the Lord Jesus or
a dead faith!
- While I think this is biblically
true, I do not think that that is the way James is using testing here!
I think the best way of understand this
type of testing that James is speaking about is to view it as the testing of
silver and gold in order to purify them. We see this often in the Old
Testament.
One reason I like this way of understanding
testing is because I think it flows well with what we see throughout the rest
of verse 3, and also verse 4. It is clear that these trials are
producing something in us. They are accomplishing something. The Lord’s purpose
is evident in the very fact that these trials are producing steadfastness
leading to maturity! And this seems to be how the Lord tests His people
throughout the Bible.
- Psalm
66:10 “For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried”
- Proverbs
17:3 “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the
Lord tests hearts”
- Zacheriah
13:9 “And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one
refines silver, and test them as gold is tested."
- Isaiah
48:9-11 “For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I
restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined
you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.
So the
image here is the cleansing process of unrefined silver or gold. In order to
cleanse the silver and gold from its dross (or scum), you would heat a furnace.
Then, when the furnace is heated to the right temperature, you would stick the
silver or gold in there. The dross would then rise to the surface. Once it did,
you would scrape it off. And now that the dross is removed, you have pure
silver and gold!
So the metaphor in all of these is that we
are like unrefined silver or gold. The Lord, seeing that we are not as mature,
pure, and complete as we ought to be or could be, places us in a furnace of
trials that will be suitable for the removal of our sin, and our growth in
faith.
This is why something so bitter, such as
trials, can be so sweet. This is why something so unpleasant, such as trials,
can be endured with joy.
The trials
we endure are not purposeless. No trial that we ever endure in this life is
without purpose. We serve a sovereign Lord that rules over the entirety of
heaven and earth, the one that upholds the universe by the Word of his power.
He is the one that loved us and gave up His only begotten Son to death on a
cross for us.
So if we
are in the furnace of trials, then we know that it is our Heavenly Father that
put us there. And if it is He that put us in there, then we know that he has
done so purposefully. And that purpose is for the testing of our faith.
Now, that brings us to
the second purpose trials have, and as you look at verse 3 you see that they
produce steadfastness.
Look at the end of verse 3 and
notice James saying, “the testing of
your faith produces steadfastness.”
It is important to note that the term steadfastness that we
see here does not mean passivity or inactiveness. Rather it means, “Staying
under” or “staying power.” So the image I want to raise in your minds is a
heavy trial placed on our shoulders. This heavy and difficult trial is
producing “staying power.” So the trial is on our shoulders, we are bearing it
up, and as we bear it, we are growing in endurance.
And this makes since, if we were to never
encounter difficulty, hardships, afflictions, persecutions, calamities, or
anything like that then we would not understand what it would mean to be
steadfast and endure. Those types of fruit in the Christian life would not be
produced. Pertaining to this John Newton said:
- Many of our graces likewise cannot thrive or shew themselves to
advantage without trials; such as resignation, patience, meekness,
long-suffering. I observe some of the London porters(somebody appointed to
carry something) do not appear to be very strong men; yet they will trudge
along under a burden which some stouter people could not carry so well: the
reason is, that they are accustomed to carrying burdens, and by continual
exercise their shoulders acquire a strength suited to their work. It is so in
the Christian life: activity and strength of grace is not ordinarily acquired
by those who sit still and live at ease, but by those who frequently meet with
something which requires a full exertion of what power the Lord has given
them.
Therefore, since this is true, our
heavenly Father dispenses various trials our way in order to produce
steadfastness or “staying power” within us.
But we must not mistake
steadfastness as the end in and of itself. It is a means to an end. Look at
verse four where James says, “And let
steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking in nothing.”
From
that, we learn that the MAIN purpose of a trial is not steadfastness. The trial
isn’t placed on our shoulders merely for the sake of gaining endurance. Rather,
the main purpose of these diverse trials is our maturity; our conformity into
the image Christ.
But in order to get
to that type of maturity, we have to let steadfastness complete its work!
Did you notice how James said, “And let steadfastness have its full affect?” The reason it is so
necessary for James to say that is because letting steadfastness have its full
affect in the midst of a trial is not natural to us.
You
see, we naturally respond a couple of ways to trials:
- One way that we respond is seek to rid
ourselves of the trial. We do not want to make the most of it. Rather, we want
to be rid of it. We do not seek to make the trial our slave and use it for the
most possible spiritual good that we can. Rather, we want to escape it.
- The other way that we usually
respond to trials is to grow weary in the midst of it. We set our hearts and
our minds on enduring the trial, but then after a period of time, we give up.
We maintain spiritual fervor and zeal for a little while, but then self-pity,
disappointment, despair, and discouragement set in.
This
is how we usually respond in the midst of a trial. So James, in light of this truth, is telling us to actively endure
the trial. Let it remain on your back. Continue to stay under it until it
completes the work that it is supposed to complete! And if you should choose to
crumble under the weight of the trial, or throw it aside, then your faith will
not be strengthened as God intended for it to be strengthened.
Thus, we are to see this trial as given to us by our gracious
Father for the purpose of maturity, and thus get the most maturity out of it as
we possibly can!
So
when I played baseball at Faulkner State Community College, our baseball coach,
would have us run two foul poles before practice every-single-day. Now, two
foul poles every day for 9 months out of the year is a lot of foul poles….and
it gets old quickly.
Now, he did not make us run these foul poles everyday
because he burned with anger and wrath toward us. Rather, he made us run these
foul poles because he knew that a junior college baseball season is rough. You
play 5 games a week, two of which are double-headers (they are just one after
another). And you do this for 3 ½ months. So by the end of those 3 months you
have played close to 60 games. That kinda season will wear you out! And our
coach knew that, so he made us run these foul poles so that we could have
endurance to finish the season strong.
The problem was…..he didn’t monitor the foul poles! He
wasn’t out there looking! And we were 18-19 years old. Therefore, since he
wasn’t looking, often times we would skip running the poles, or when we did run
the poles, we would cheat a little bit!
But what inevitably happened is that the season came. Your
playing 5 games a week. Your getting worn out, and you are not playing the kind
of ball that you ought to be playing. And the reason we were not playing as we
ought to have been playing lies in the fact that we did not let the endurance that comes from
running foul poles have its full affect!
You see, this is the case in the
midst of trial. God has not given us these trials out of wrath or anger. He has
given them to us for the purpose of maturing us. When we seek to evade them, or
simply despairingly give up in them, we are going to be lacking in the
completeness and maturity that God means for us to obtain through the trial. Therefore, we must let steadfastness have
its full affect! We must be steadfast and immovable during these trials!
Now,
let’s look a little closer at what James says in verse 4. There James says, “Let steadfastness have its
full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Now,
I am just going to sum up perfect and complete, lacking in nothing with this, “that
you may be like Jesus Christ.” For Christ is perfect, complete, and not lacking
anything!
When you look at the Lord Jesus, it is hard to fathom the
perfection and wholeness of His person.
- Throughout Christ’s entire life, He
fixed His eyes on His Father in heaven and sought to be obedient to His will.
- In the wilderness, Christ perfectly
wielded the sword of truth in order to combat the temptations of the devil.
- He hungered and thirsted for
righteousness every day of His life.
- He had no sin, impurity, or
deficiency in His person.
- We learn that he commands legions of
angels to be obedient to His will, and also that he is gentle in all of his
dealings with widows, prostitutes, small children, and lepers.
- He had authority to command the
winds and waves to obey him, and also a meekness that patiently endured all the
evil that was done to Him.
- His earnest desire was not to be
served, but to serve.
- Not to have His feet washed, but to
wash the feet of his followers.
- He summed up his earthly ministry by
saying that He came to seek and save those who were lost.
- We see Him so set on the salvation
of His people that He endured the agonizing and cruel death of crucifixion.
- We see Him, on the cross, look at
those who pierced Him, and pray to His Father saying, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.”
- We see him while He is enduring the
agonies of the cross, look at a criminal that is being crucified along with
him, and say, “Today you will be with me
in paradise.”
- There
is no deficiency in the person of Christ. As you study His person, you will see
that He is perfect and complete, not lacking anything.
- And
for those of us who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ as both Lord and Savior,
we have a promise that our heavenly Father is going to conform us into the
image of Jesus.
- For
Paul says in Romans 8:29 “For those whom
he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,”
- And
in order to conform us into the image of Jesus, God is going to sovereignly use
trials that test and strengthen our faith.
Now, briefly, I just want to show a few ways that God does
this:
- Trials keep us from pride and
produce Christlike humility
- 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 “So to keep me from
becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a
thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me
from becoming conceited. 8 Three
times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My
grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
- Trials keep us from going astray,
and produce Christlike obedience.
- Psalm 119:67 “Before I was afflicted I went
astray, but now I keep your word.”
- Trials keep us from neglecting the word,
and cause us to seek a Christlike knowledge of it.
- Psalm 119:71 “It is good for me that I was
afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.”
- The more
hardships, difficulties, afflictions, and persecutions you endure, the better
you read and understand the Bible. Also, you begin delighting in the promises of
God as never before!
- Trials keep us from hard heartedness, and
teach us Christlike compassion toward our brothers and sisters in the faith.
- 2 Corinthians 1:6 “If we are
afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation;”
- Charles
Spurgeon Jr. said this regarding his father, “I know of no one who
could, more sweetly than my dear father, impart comfort to bleeding hearts and
sad spirits. As the crushing of the flower causes it to yield its aroma, so he,
having endured in the long-continued illness of my beloved mother, and also
constant pains in himself, was able to sympathize most tenderly with all
sufferers.”
- Trials rid us of sin, and produce
Christlike righteousness
- Hebrews
12:10-11 “For they disciplined us for a short
time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may
share his holiness. 11 For
the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it
yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by
it.”
- Trials rid us of prayerlessness, and
produce Christlike prayer.
- You see
this all throughout the Psalms…a trial comes upon the Psalmist, and then he
begins to pray fervently to Yahweh.
So, our heavenly Father puts us in the furnace of trials,
with the purpose of making us look more like our glorious Savior. This truth ought
to comfort us rather than bring us to despair.
Okay,
now that we have seen and listened to what James has to say, we can finally be
obedient to the first 4 words in verse 2 where James says, “Count it all joy, my brother, when you meet trials of various kinds.”
Count it all Joy!
You
see to “Count” or “Consider” is a verb that is to
be obeyed with the mind. It is not something you do physically….it is something
you do mentally. I think
about Paul in Philippians 3:4-8:
- Philippians 3:4-8 “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I
have more: 5 circumcised
on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew
of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to
righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the
sake of Christ. 8 Indeed,
I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord.”
- Paul
is speaking of his former life which is full of worldly glory. All that he was
before Christ was something that was esteemed by men. It was pure worldly
glory. This is what he is lifting up in his mind.
- Then,
he lifts something else up in his mind. And it is His life since he has come to
know, treasure, and esteem Christ.
- Then,
in light of knowing Christ, he looks at his former life….the life filled with
the glory of man….and counts it as loss compared to the surpassing worth of
knowing Christ!!!!
And James is telling us to do a similar thing with the various
trials that we meet with in this life. James is telling us to lift these trials
up in our mind, KNOWING that they produce steadfastness leading to
Christlikeness, and not to count them as loss, but to count them as ALTOGETHER JOY!!!!!
And do not misunderstand me. The trials are not the occasion for joy. Only a
mad man gets joyful about a trial! Rather, it
is what God is going to do in and through
the trial that is an occasion for joy. So
your joy is in knowing what lies beyond the trial. It will be that same
kind of joy that we see in Jesus as he endured the cross. Remember how Hebrews
12:2 says:
- Hebrews 12:2 “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
- There
was nothing joyful about suffering under the wrath of God on a cross!
- But
knowing that through His sacrificial death, He would secure the salvation of a
people that number more than the sand of the seashore, be exalted to the
heavens, and take His seat at the right hand of His Father, he endured the cross with
joy!
So our joy, like Christ’s joy, lies in knowing what lies
beyond the trial. We know that if we remain steadfast in this trial, we are
going to look more like the Savior that loved us, gave up His life for us!
And in our day and age, it is important to understand that when I say “joy” I do not mean that you are going
to be flippant, smiling, joking, or funny in the midst of these various trials.
That is not what joy is in the Christian life.
Joy
in the Christian life is resting satisfied in all that God has done, is doing,
and will do for you in the person of Jesus Christ. And if this is
Christian joy, which it is, then even during the severest of trials, we can
count it altogether joy. For we know that our Father desires our good in the
midst of the trial, and will shape us into the image of Christ through the
trial. And though we may have to carry
this trial for a period of time, we will indeed wear the crown of life forever
more!
Application
Alright,
let’s apply this:
- For unbelievers in here. I want you
to notice the term, “my brothers,”
in verse 2.
- Everything
that I have said today is for Christians. I know, by the authority of God’s
word, that trials are purposeful in the life of a Christian.
- But
as for you, I am not sure what hardships, difficulties, and afflictions are
doing in your life. I know that you are encountering them, but you have no hope
in the midst of them!
- With
that said, repent of your sin, and have faith in Jesus Christ. Then you will be
able to endure trials in hope, knowing that God is working in and through them
to make you look more like Christ!
- And for believers, we can begin to
apply this by repenting of our sin.
- You
see, if God’s sovereign purpose in trials is to actually further our salvation,
then how great of a sin is it to complain, grumble, and murmur as we undergo
trials of various kinds.
- Next, seek to gain a better
understanding of trials.
- Look
throughout the Bible, and seek to better understand how God uses trials in the
life of His children.
- Do
not stop at the Bible though, reflect on God’s providential use of trials in
your own life.
- If
you are young, and have not had to endure many trials, grab an older Christian
and ask them about God’s providential use of trials in their life.
- All
of this will help you to, “Count it all joy, when you meet trials of various
kinds!”
- Read Christian Biography
- This
will help you to understand how to, “let steadfastness have its full affect.”
- Saints like John Calvin, John Newton, George Whitefield, Spurgeon, Jim Elliot, Lottie Moon, Amy Carmichael, and Hannah Moore got the most out of their trials. The endured them well, and because they
did, they looked a lot like Christ in their later years.
- Thank God for the trials that you
have endured, or may be enduring right now.
- Seriously,
right now, you have a sin nature that shows itself to be in opposition to the
Spirit every-single-day. Trials help you in putting that sin nature to death,
so that you can live for the glory of God.
- Reflecting
on this, John Newton said, “I have reason to praise him for my
trials, for, most probably, I should be ruined without them.”
- These trials are necessary…so we
ought to thank God for them.
- Lastly, look forward in hope.
- One
day, the Lord of Glory is going to come on the clouds of heaven and take us to
be with Him, and so we will be with the Lord forever. We will have no more sin
nature. We will not meet with trials of various kinds. And we will dwell with
our Lord forever. And in His presence there is fullness of joy, and at his
right hand are pleasures forever more! Take great hope in that!
