James 1:1-18, How Did You Do on the Test?

James which James chapter 1 starting in verse 1 to 18 here the word of the

Lord James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes in the dispersion greetings

Count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and Let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete

Lacking in nothing if any of you lacks wisdom Let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given him

But let him ask in faith with no doubting for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea

That is driven and tossed by the wind for that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the

Lord He is a double -minded man unstable in all his ways let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and Let the rich man in And the rich man in his humiliation because like a flower of the grass he will pass away

For the Sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass its flower falls and his beauty perishes

So also with a rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial for when he has stood the test

He will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him Let no one say when he is tempted

I'm being tempted by God For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and Sin when it is fully grown brings forth death

Do not be deceived my beloved brothers Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights

With whom there is no variation our shadow due to change of his own will

He brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his treasures

May the Lord add his blessings the reading of his Holy Word the common question students ask the conversation starter often after exams is

Well, how'd you do on the test? Was it hard? Was it on what you studied?

Were you prepared? Maybe was it the kind of test you were expecting you you study for a multiple -choice test, but it was an essay test

Were you or you just left up to yourself to figure out what to study? Maybe you have figured you got to study at all.

And so you end up you There was a lot of stuff then you memorize maybe you pull an all -nighter to cram

And then a lot of that stuff wasn't on the exam, I'd go of course maybe you can understand that You were made to study at all

So you learn more than what was on the test after all the purposes of a test is learn, isn't it? Or maybe the teacher or assistant did prepare you supposedly

But it was so misleading The preparation, you know, this is on the test. This is a study for that It was so different from what was on the test that you wonder if the teacher wanted you to fail

Ever had a teacher who you think wanted to fail you? Actually people who fail their test often blame their teacher

Or maybe it's athletics or music you want to make the team or the orchestra, but you know

There are only so many spots you have so you have to go through tryouts See if you're one of the best you're you're you should be in one of those spots the coach or conductor

Is going to watch or listen to you play some people would be so intimidated by that so afraid to lose

Afraid of being told that they're not good at good enough not making it or maybe

They're just so proud and they're not afraid. Maybe they're just so proud They can't believe they're being asked to to To prove they're good to have they have to have their skills appraised

Their attitude is it? You know, don't you know who I am? I'm the next LeBron James or yo -yo ma

They've been told all their life that they're so good. They're so incredibly talented. You're amazing, sweetheart

Don't let anyone tell you any different that the idea of not being believed Of how great they are of actually having to prove themselves

That offends them and they will not submit to it They won't put up with such humiliation the band the team the drama club

Broadway the Supreme Court Will just have to suffer without their brilliance That'll show them they think

How do you react to being tested Some people think that the very idea of being tested of going through tryouts having your skills or knowledge or character put on trial

That's just wrong No, you should be accepted as you are you know unconditional love after all right and Then in that atmosphere

Where you're accepted and you're told how great you are. So the philosophy goes They will flourish

If they're told they're geniuses They'll naturally absorb knowledge like a sponge and soon they'll win a

Nobel Prize If they're told they're their next LeBron James, we'll just go ahead sign them up for the

NBA and shoe contracts now The opposite is actually usually the case

Kids who are told that they're just great that they deserve the a they deserve the spotting Start on the team or the leading chair in the orchestra and if anyone doesn't give it to them

There's something wrong with them they often Kids raised with that their head stuffed with that kind of ideas that are often resent the obstacles that are put in their way

The long hours of practice that they have to do the implied criticism, you know, you still need to practice

You know your work that they're not perfect yet Then they get paranoid And maybe everyone's out to get them and they give up While on the other hand

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team after tryouts and Use that as motivation to become the best basketball player he could be which turned out to be

Arguably the best basketball player ever How do you react to being tested

Well, that's what James the servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he calls himself That's what he wants to tell you how to react to it.

He tells you you of God's people dispersed throughout the world Here in this passage.

Here's how you're to take testing. Here's how to regard it Here's how what to count it as what how to think of it how to categorize it

Where do you put it in your mind? This is just a horrible thing. I'm going through why horrible things happen to me or There's something better.

Here's how to take testing And how what not to count it as What to do when you're being tested and what it can do for you and we see that here in two two broad parts first there's testing for maturity and then there's testing for blessing

How do you react to testing? Want me to test you and see how we'll see how you react.

Well, you counted all joy Well, that sounds great. There's joy in every circumstance every test

Really how about your mother's funeral? How about if you catch your spouse in an affair

How about if you're served divorce papers? How about if the diagnosis is you have a month to live

How about if your son is sentenced to 20 years in prison How about a miscarriage

But if you're fired How about if you fail? You won't get the degree you were working for you won't get the career.

You've dreamed up How about if you're alone in a quiet house because you've just returned from burying your spouse

Count it all joy That sounds almost insulting doesn't it? You're just supposed to put on a plastic smile say praise the

Lord and pretend it is well with my soul No, not quite

First this is not what you tell other people When they're going through trials of various kinds that phrase various kinds.

It literally means multicolored trials It's a funny phrase in that multicolored trials, maybe blue ones blue trials of grief of depression

Red ones temptations to passion love lust or anger violent hatred yellow ones of cowardice

Frayed to stand up for what you believe Pressures being put on maybe green ones of greed and envy always wanting more things more cash

All kinds of trials not just temptations to sin not just not just persecutions from opponents of the faith but every variety of trying experience maybe from the boredom and the sleepiness as you wake up in the morning and You know, it keeps you from praying.

I mean the Bible or the worst the funeral of a loved one

Maybe the doctor giving you the bad news It is all maturing experience that God works good out of for us

Those who love him says in Romans 8 28. So yes count it all joy that you're being matured by God God is working good out of it, but don't don't

Some advice don't tell that to other people at least not at first When they're going through a horrible trial don't show up at a funeral with their mother in the casket and say count it all joy

Don't do that if you do you might be in a trial yourself, but you need to you need to take your own advice

Now sure they should look eventually for the maturing that they can get out of this experience the work that God is doing through it for their

Good that they should but your test at that moment is whether you will now grieve with those who grieve and weep with those who weep

James Can tell them and you later? to count it all joy and notice he addresses his readers us is his brothers later as beloved brothers

He's affectionate He's compassionate to those going through all kinds of trials and so should we be

Count it all joy because in verse 3, you know notice that you know I hope you know

Do you know? You know the sovereignty of God that he that he God controls the trials

The original readers knew why to count it all joy. They knew that God was testing their faith

Whether their faith was in the Lord and not in people not in family not in money

Not in whatever it is You're being tested about they knew God was in control of this test that they're going through they they knew that Do you know that?

Notice how that is implied here that God is in control of it. Why should you count all kinds of trials?

health trials career trials family trials Money trials you're running low

Your temper tried by a nagging child The trial of not having enough cash

The trial of being in another country where hardly anyone speaks your language And so you have to read notes to help you understand what's going on in sermon

That's a trial the trial of a cold distant husband The trial of a disrespectful argumentative wife

The trial of some unfulfilled desire The trial of not having any ice cream in the freezer

Oh, it's a trial the trial of gaining too much weight when you eat too much ice cream The trial of a boring preacher he talks too long

Why should you count all of it it without exception is joy, that's where you put it categorize it This is joy because your faith is being tested to produce steadfastness

Endurance well tested by who by God, of course, that's ensumed here. That's what they know.

Do you know that? It's implied here that God is in perfect control of these trials that they're that they are for his purpose

You can count his purpose joy Because he works good out of everything for us for the twelve tribes in the dispersion for those who love him for the church

The the original audience knew that God was in control and so they could look To God for his maturing work in every trial

Do you know that you know when we say God is sovereign is in control

Talked about this in Sunday school summit, but that are that not one molecule in the universe moves without his permission

Some say some even some well -meaning Christians Say and they think they're defending

God's honor That they say well, you know if you say that you see the sovereignty of God then that makes

God responsible for evil particular here which trials, you know, somebody's trying means it's something you don't like and You're being put through some of those things are equal

Do you think God is responsible for that evil? for disasters for Hurricane Florence For all the destruction

For the one -year -old baby that was swept out of a car and drowned what somewhere near Wilmington last week He makes

God responsible for the brain tumors and the car wrecks and the terrorist attacks everything And so they say well that can't be you know,

God just let the world go because of to honor our free will There's two problems of that first.

They say well they say if they're Christians that God is all -powerful Therefore, you know then he could stop these things

He couldn't stop Hurricane Florence. He could stop terrorism, but he doesn't he does that to protect our free will.

Well, how does that? Protect God's honor. How's that any better than what we believe?

You know if God sees Al Qaeda plotting a terrorist attack He's God and he knows all things and you see that they're plotting a terrorist attack and God doesn't expose that to the

FBI so that They can stop it How is that preserving our free will, you know,

I don't I don't get that we're But you care if you're one of the people on the plane that they hijack

I didn't you I chose to take a flight in a plane. I didn't choose to get hijacked. How's my free will protected? They say

God can't be in control because that makes him responsible for evil, but but still they say well he knows about the evil

He sees it coming. He has the power to stop it, but he doesn't do it to protect our free will

And how's that any better for his honor? How does that make God look better? Than what what

I'm saying what the Bible saying? How are they really protected God's reputation it put it this way if one of you

I'm not picking on the those who you have children, but such an example if one of you Parents allowed your child just just to run amok in here

I mean making a total mess tearing everything that could be torn, you know this tablecloth and ripping it up and Spilling drinks everywhere and throwing food and deflating our basketballs and whatever you know all that ripping stuff down from the wall and You just sit back and say well.

I've got to let my little darling have his or her free will You know How is that any better than if you had caused the mess yourself?

Yeah, I I don't get it You had the power to stop it But you didn't

It's still your mess And no, I'm not telling Justin to go back there and look after his kid I'm not

I'm not giving a head to him. They can make sure he's not causing the mess back there. I'm not I'm not doing that But even more importantly really so that's sort of philosophically more relevant to this passage here is if God is not in control

Of hurricane Florence or the tumors of the wrecks and all of it. Then how do we count them as all joy?

I Mean, how are they joy? How are they trying our faith? How are they producing? You know how

Endurance something good for us because God's not in control of them They're just things that happen and God wishes that they didn't happen

God is just as horrified and just as victimized as we are when they happen. So they are then purposeless suffering

You know, like there's that joke joke Joe told it in Sunday school that some people say well believe

God is sovereign You know when fall down us Fly to stairs. They won't thank God that's over. But you know

They tell that to think how ridiculous your position is. Everything is foreordained by God.

What's the alternative alternative? It's just random app events out of God's control and then you fall down a flight of stairs and why couldn't

God stop me? He doesn't care about me. He's not or he's not able It's just random suffering. There's nothing good out of it

How's that better how are you improve things by this idea that That God has let creation go amok

But maybe you think disaster happen maybe he'll rescue out us out of some disaster if we let him rescue us

But there's nothing good in the trials themselves. He's not tying our faith because he's not in control of the trials There's nothing good.

He's working out of them for us for those who love him And so you can then if that's the way things are you can tell your friend at the funeral of their mother

This is just horrible and you can weep like the heathen who have no hope Because there isn't any

You have a God who either can't stop the tragedies He's just wringing his hands and biting his nails hoping that bad things won't happen to us.

Hoping that that little storm and Atlantic Ocean doesn't turn into a big hurricane and start a lot of floods but he can't do anything about it because he's got to preserve our free will or So you have a

God either who can't stop anything or he can stop it and just doesn't care He just doesn't care about the disasters

So then count all the trials that's the case just count them as hopeless tragedies

That's worse, isn't it? But the point here is that we are to count all kinds of trials all the multicolored trials as joy

Because we are to know that our faith is being tested by God who is in control of them and He's doing it to produce steadfastness endurance staying power

Because he loves us We can count all trials Joy, because God is working good out of them

For us because he is in control of them You know, you need trials to strengthen your endurance in athletics.

The only way to produce endurance physical endurance is by trying Stretching exhausting pushing your endurance about as far as it will go

And then trying to push it harder now there comes a point in a workout whether you're running or swimming or biking or lifting or whatever you're doing when you when you cross the line into pushing your

Endurance and a lot of the workout ability is building up to that point. It's that crucial moment When you're really exhausted and you are you gonna keep going and that's when your endurance is stretched

Just last Tuesday night. I was I swam with a group a workout and we did 2100 yard repeats one 100 yard sprint every two minutes

There's a clock going every two minutes. We start another 100 yards the good swimmers

Which I'm not one good swimmers swim a hundred yards in about a minute 15 a minute 20

They're really good. It takes me about a minute 40 and I slow to about a 145 when

I get really tired and that means that I only have about 20 to 15 seconds until the next got to start the next

Repeat the next 100 yards now a first the first few it's not hard Hundred yards not not bad can sprint it

The first five or so not difficult, but it's when we get to get to 10 11

I'm exhausted. There's still 10 and 9 more to go You know the the end is not in sight to give you hope and it's then you want it

I want to quit and but it's then that crucial moment your arms or your muscles are burning exhausted

You don't feel I can go when you're get to the end you're breathing Yeah It's then when your endurance is stretched if you keep doing it

You want to get better than when the feeling of burning sets in When you're breathing hard When you really want to stop then when that feeling comes if you really want endurance when you count that feeling as Joy, this is what

I'm after this time right now. This is what I've been building for because I want more endurance

You need trials to strengthen your endurance You know, you don't feel like reading the Bible anymore

Especially if you're in Leviticus, you know, okay, I understand that or you're praying you don't feel like praying anymore

It's but it's in the morning. I gotta get to work I'm gonna sleep a little longer or going to church or giving you don't feel like turning away from pornography

You don't feel like denying yourself, but you've got to keep doing it and I think Christians these days well -meaning, but they often try to How to say

Prevent this in the wrong way you know instead of saying, you know, you need to be

Faithful to your to your marriage and instead of saying what you need to learn is endurance. You need to learn faithfulness

Keep going Instead of what saying that they'll often see what you need to do is you need to revive that First feeling of love and passion and they're always trying to revive that Or with the

Lord, you know, you instead of teaching you got to have endurance You just need to always go back to trying to go back to that first You know new experience when it was all new

Okay, I can kind of understand that is but you need to learn endurance and sometimes you need to tell people that you know

You may not have the feelings anymore. You need to persevere That's what

Christians me up to need be told In 1st Samuel chapter 30 David hit bottom and you think about it

He's been promised for years that he will be the king That's that promise he has but he spent years instead

Running away from Saul being chased over the countryside like an outlaw

He's you know, he's had to sleep in caves and on the ground This is you probably think

God told me I was gonna be a king I'm gonna have a palace and I'm a big bed instead. I'm lying on the ground in this cave trying to hide out

And he eventually had to retreat to Philistine territory because there Saul couldn't get to him With his man band of mostly riffraff, you know men who were just discontent with Saul Always there are always people like that who

I was discontent with whatever was in charge of the time and these Men attracted to David were like that And they thought it would be fun to join

David's outlaw gang and one day they came back to find to their camp that the

Amalekites had raided their home base and Philistine territory while they were away taking away all their family and their wives and their children and all their stuff everything they had

It says in 2nd Samuel chapter 30 verse 6 that David was greatly distressed His gang of malcontents was now discontent with him and they were thinking of stoning him

And it says all the people were bitter in soul All these trials he's put back would be a king

I'm supposed to be on top But now I'm treated like a fugitive and now after all that been through now,

I'm robbed and my family's been kidnapped Now the even the few followers that are that I have

I'm supposed to be leading a whole nation But these few followers I have are wanting to turn against me. I want to give up At the end of 2nd

Samuel chapter 30 verse 6 it says David strengthened himself in the

Lord his God He counted it all joy, he

Reminded himself of the promises of God. He believed those promises he in then he got up and went out and Rescued his family and the families of his men got a step back to If you hit bottom

Strengthen yourself and the Lord your God then get up and Be more than a conqueror

Let your steadfastness your perseverance mature and when it does

You'll finally be mature perfectly mature Not perfect as in sinless, but having at least to some degree

Every strength every quality that you need The love the joy the peace the patience the kindness the goodness the faithfulness the gentleness the self -control

Everyone you need maybe not each one Perfectly fully but you won't be completely lacking in any of them

If you let your endurance grow So if you want that Like an athlete pushing myself during a workout you want that endurance to be to grow to strengthen first count testing categorize it as Joy, you think this is what

I'm after. I'm after being a faithful Persevering Christian then in verses 5 to 8 asked for wisdom

If you're being tested and you are Then you need wisdom If you lack wisdom

Then ask God for it Wisdom is practical righteousness in everyday living.

Okay, you may think I've accepted God's in control That he's working good out of this trial.

I'm praising him in the storms. The song goes now. What do I do? There's a disaster.

There's a failure in the family. There's a bad report from the blood test from the MRI There's the demand that I have to support what the

Bible calls a perversion but not I lose my job or whatever Now, how do I handle it?

practically Pray for wisdom God gives wisdom Generously, he might reveal it directly in his word.

The Bible might address it He might give wisdom through the advice of a doctor or a friend or some book that you read

He has thrown out a lot of wisdom out there for you to pick up he's filled the universe with wisdom

If you can see it available to you if you're open to it So believe that God gives wisdom

Generously, he's not stingy about dispensing wisdom. He's not gonna be scolding you. Are you so stupid?

You didn't know what to do in this test Don't be double -minded about it Leaving the

Lord in one mind But not in the other You know the double -minded person says it unstable yet because he has two minds and he's shifting back and forth between the two

One a believing mind that looks to God's Word The other a doubting mind that thinks just like the world

So we have people who in one mind Believe all they might believe all the promises of God's Word about salvation about Christ and then are completely worldly About practical things

Maybe like giving Okay, I understand you got to get of a minimum got to pay your dues after all like any club

But you don't have to be generous our relationship with the church. It's just it's just for my consuming like a restaurant

What the world's taught them so he's unstable. He's going back and forth Between thinking and living like a

Christian on the one hand and like a worldly pagan on the other in time of testing

He doesn't know what to do So he's paralyzed. He's kind of stunned like a like a deer in the headlights what

I do I see this there's this thing with lights coming right at me and I'll stand here in the road figure out what's happening

God's Word says maybe pert, you know things maybe something like purge the evil person from among you But the culture says no way you're an individualist each to each his own

He can't decide because he's still partly in one mind worldly So he won't receive anything from the

Lord not until he becomes single -minded Wholeheartedly devoted to the

Lord willing to live practically by the Lord's wisdom Money is a test

It shows what you desire where your hope is whether you're poor or rich or somewhere in between You're being tested by what you do with your money

Every cent you have or want to have is putting you on trial showing you what you're made of If you want to see what?

See how you're doing in this test so far Look at your checkbook or your credit card statement or Your daydreams about you what you wish you could have

All if I could only have that mansion If you're poor and lowly you're being tested about whether your hope is in the

Lord whether Whether you believe that's where your exaltation will come from.

You're tired of being one of these lowly people has to drive some you know Car that's barely getting by you want to have the

BMW. That's where your exaltation will come from the money that can buy it with That dream of being rich so gambling the lottery appeals to you

You know, he only hit it big that's what it's always appealing to people then you'll be rich and then you'll be exalted and then you can boast

That's what you need. You need enough money to have your own BMW and plane and all that so spend that dollar for a ticket

That's your that's your ticket little out of your lowliness Or maybe if you're too smart to fall for that because you know the statistics that you're almost bound to lose

But you'll spend your whole life chasing dollars You still think it's the money? That's your way to be exalted the way to the life that you want but you realize it's gonna take work day in and day out and you're willing to do it because That's where your exaltation come over You're going after that gold the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow because you're sure that your money that your exaltation comes

From money James has boasted the exaltation from the Lord Well that he has already promised you a crown and will lift you up out of death and Gather you around the throne come we that love the

Lord and let our joys be known so you can endure trial Because you believe your exaltation

Comes from him the one who's in charge of the trial The rich should endure through trials because it reminds them of what all their money and their luxuries and their vacations and their insurance

Policies and their expensive doctors they can go to all tempt them to forget That they were humiliated in their sin and captivity to the world and the flesh and the devil they especially need to boast in their humiliation their mortality that they're

They're like grass that even though they can afford the best medical care the science can give

That they are flesh and all flesh is grass from Isaiah chapter 40 verse 6

James is quoting here All flesh is grass and it's beauty from the best salons even with the best suits and dresses adorned with costliest jewelry and sitting in the back of the nicest cars and Relaxing in the nicest houses is like the flower of the fields the grass withers

The flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it all the money in the world won't keep the rich from Fading away

The billionaire can spend his whole life chasing more billions, but he still can't outrun the

Lord and his own death the Christian rich need to remember that and so boast in their

Humiliation and their weakness the fact that they too will die and all that they work for will be handed down to who knows

To their children and who knows what they will do with it They need all we all need to remind themselves there ourselves to see through the facade of wealth

Because it's a facade. It's fake as soon as it's going to disappear People go to the Biltmore see that grand castle and the exorbitant wealth that you know

That's displayed there What they can get if only they get that much money And I think a lot of people go there to see what they dream of what they what they'd love

To get enough money to afford Maybe to remind themselves that wealth really is the ticket to the to the best life.

There's not a facade. It's not fake They could have this that they only get enough well, but they should do is visit the grave of George Washington Vanderbilt the man who had that estate built and Remind themselves that all his money so much of it squandered on his own self -indulgence

Didn't keep him out of the ground Boast and your humiliation I'm like grass like a flower of the field soon the

Wind of the Lord blows and I wither So you put your hope in the Lord and not in uncertain riches

Money is a test. How are you doing so far? There is testing for maturity and it's also testing for blessings starting in verse 12

If you're tested and you remain steadfast you endure you don't you don't maybe you don't feel the thrill of being quote in love anymore

But you stay faithful to your spouse You keep reading your Bible and praying and staying faithful to a member of a church you persevere if that's

The kind of person you are then blessed are you? Blessed means happy joyful And you'll be blessed and happy and joyful first in verse 2 you you count it all joy when you go through various kinds of trials

Because it expands your endurance and then in verse 12 You'll be joyful when you endure because when you have stood the test, you will receive what he calls the crown of life

Like that crown we heard about last week. Remember Paul crown of righteousness Talked about he said it was henceforth.

There is laid up for me from this bone onward It can see could see the crown just up ahead to be put on his head

After he endured having his head chopped off You'll be crowned with life

If you're faithful to death Your life comes from being right with the Lord And so the crown of rightness with him is the crown of life same crowns

I think and that's something to be happy about you're blessed God promises that crown he says at the second half of verse 12

To those who love him It doesn't say to those who keep his rules Although if you love him, you'll want to keep his rules

But it is the love that comes first religious people can keep his rules without loving him But there's no crown for that of righteousness or of life

The crown is promised for that same group of people that God determined to work good out of from every trial

You remember who they were? Who gets the crown? Who gets good out of every trial? Remember Romans 8 28

Same thing James says here. He works good at all works all things together for good not for everyone a

Crown is it promised for everyone? But for those who love him and are called according to his purpose

Then do we earn the crown blessedness eternal joy simply by loving God How do we love

God? Well because he first loved us He loves us first and then we love him and get a crown after enduring under trial

Somebody think well if he loves us, why does he try us when they just accept us? I thought once he test us for thought tests were unloving and they cruel

No, they produce steadfastness. They produce staying power. He tries every one of his children to give them that staying power

So they'll have the power to stay with him So is he tempting us?

No, he's trying But he's not tempting Even if in most trials there is a temptation

There's a temptation to quit to give up hope to be a to be adulterous to be unfaithful to be a money lover

Because you really want a mansion like that George Washington. I mean you've seen that Biltmore Estates George Washington Vanderbilt's house, man

That's what I want The trials may come from him but the temptation

Comes from the world telling us to conform to its greedy selfish consumerist ways

Are from our flesh from our own simple nature That's what we desire.

We crave that luxury are from the devil himself God tries but doesn't tempt

If you don't know that the problem comes from you Then, you know, you'll be wondering about him maybe

God's the problem So when you are tried rather than being faithful in enduring you blame your desire to give up maybe it's on God He put me through this trial.

So he's tempting me to give up to give in you think no You may think he's like a teacher that wants you to fail.

No, he's not He's trying you to produce endurance so you could have the blessing of joy of a crown of life.

The temptation Is coming from you. God can't be tempted with evil

There's nothing in him that is drawn to evil that evil appeals to like there isn't us he tempts no one with evil, but he does try them and If someone fails their trial

You know if Pontius Pilate and Herod they're called to do justice.

They're called to not murder an Innocent man that's put before them if they're tried if they are put on trial as They put

Jesus on trial They didn't know it. They were putting in Jesus on trial, but they were being tried to and if they fail

They are tempted by a vicious mob to do injustice to murder If they give in to that temptation

That's because they were enticed by their own desires to cave in to succumb to the crowds

Instead of standing up for what is right and God knew that they would do that and he put them in place to accomplish his plan, but the trial both the human one of Jesus and the spiritual one of Herod and Pontius Pilate The trial was from God the temptation to do evil

Came from Herod and Pilate if you fail if you give in to the world flesh and the devil

That's because you were you were lured away away from enduring Steadfastly continuing

God's way from resisting temptation That's because you believe the promises that Temptations whispered in your ear that that that God was

God's trying to keep something good from you He's keeping this delicious fruit

From you just just to deprive you it looks so good. He just doesn't want you to have it just because it's good

He doesn't want you to have your exaltation He wants to keep you down and no contrary to what he says.

There won't be any punishment for the sin. It'll be great It'll give you it'll give you the life that you want

That's what the desires Tell us We desire what temptation offers

Maybe a sexual experience The mansion that money can buy the vengeance.

We want to vent the friends we can win over the popularity we can gain We desire that instead of loving

God and that desire gives birth to sin which brings us to death God doesn't try us to kill us

But some he tries are lured away By the desires that are in them

And they're killed by those desires They prefer the cash and the self -indulgence the pride

To what God offers they they don't want to boast their humiliation They don't want to they don't want to be dependent on grace

And so they fall away they desired something other than God and so are drawn away to their death

The trial shows their lack of love for God And so that their that their heart is dead, but if you have life

You have if you have really been born again How did that come by the way

I mean, you're if you're dead you're drawn away But if you have life Is not by our will he says here in verse 18 notice that John says the same thing in john chapter 1 verse 13 that Jesus came to give life

And to make people sons of god born again not by The will of the flesh not by the will of man not by our will

But by god's will james says the same thing here in verse 18 of his own will Of god's own will we were born again not of the will of man but of god

Paul says in romans chapter 9 verse 16. It does not depend on man's desire or effort but on god's mercy here

Verse 18 of his own will of god's own will he brought us forth for from what from death from being dead in our sins our trespasses

From that death that that temptation was drawing us into but he brought us out of that death of his own will

So if you have that divine life You're you're not trapped in death Then you will endure you will persevere under trial.

You will be steadfast You will have that staying power that life in you

Gives you that power to stay perseverance Is a statement of faith says is the grand mark of a truly saved person that separates him or her from the what called superficial professors those who profess

Outwardly, but they're just a surface faith they say But they don't have it.

They don't persevere Those who say they believe but when trials come they fall away Showing their superficiality

So he says in verse 16 beloved brothers or sisters again affectionate Don't be deceived by sin by temptation

To be lured away by it Every good and perfect gift is from above From the father the creator of of lights and of light itself

And he's not double -minded He's not loving you in one mind. Well, you know tempting to destroy you in another

And you can't be sure if he's just unsteady like you are you might be unsteady. He's not

There's no shadow due to change because he's he's consistent And so if he has laid up for you a crown

Then you can be sure he will get you to have it He won't change his mind

He doesn't change his mind. He's not unsteady He'll get you through the trials that he's brought to grow your endurance.

Just as he said let there be light He also said let there be life

And so bringing us new life through what he calls here the word of truth through the gospel

He spoke life to us through the gospel He did that So that in verse 18, this is the purpose that he willed to bring us to life

Through the instrument of the gospel, you know faith came by hearing and hearing by the word of christ by the gospel so that For the purpose that we would be a he says here a kind of first fruit

First fruit that's an offering a sacrifice we will be Our whole person our body and soul and spirit an offering to the father given from this old creation

Salvaged out of this world is passing away. We will be given and as an offering

From this old creation to god in the new creation We will be a living sacrifice

We Will be a spiritual act of worship. He's testing us So we'll be renewed that we can be that we can be good and acceptable and perfect That's why

We count it all joy even even below the surface At funerals

Even when it seems that our world is falling apart God is working through it all to get us to that new creation alive

First fruits there living sacrifices blessed and joyous forever and thus

Surround the throne And don't you want to be there? Don't you see that it is better than anything the world has to offer even better than Biltmore estates or whatever ramshackle shack the world tries to lure us away with so endure believe

Don't be double -minded and unstable Have a single -hearted love for the lord desire him above all so much so You'll bear whatever you have to bear