Passing Life’s Spiritual Tests (James 1:1-12)

Well, good morning to you and welcome back to Kootenai Adult Sunday School. Grateful to be back in this place again to spend time together in the word. Why don't you just hold your Bible like this and let it fall open to the 13th chapter of Hebrews and then turn over a page to the book of James because that's where we're going to be.

But all of your Bibles no doubt have a permanent crease somewhere in Hebrews and probably in 13. So open to James because that's where we're going to be. And let's begin with a word of prayer. Our God and our Father, we thank you for the opportunity this morning to gather, to gather in this place where we have air conditioning and comfortable seats on a hot day.

And so Father, with that kind of blessing, upon us there, it removes any excuse for us to be less than attentive to your word this morning. And so we pray you would help us in that. As we begin this study in the book of James, we ask your spirit to be our guide, our teacher, to illumine the text to us, to help us to take away from it what you have for each and every one of us, Father, that we might grow in the likeness of Christ in whose name we pray, amen.

The Practical Christianity of James

Well, Lord willing for the next few months, this is where we will be in the book of James. So it's our intention to work our way through the book at somewhat of a rapid speed, like 13 weeks through the book of James.

So that'll be a bit unusual, I guess, for us here, but that's the plan, 13 weeks in the book of James. And we'll spend our time together learning about practical Christianity, because that's really kind of the overarching theme of this book, practical Christianity.

James, the author and brother of Jesus, was the pastor of the church in Jerusalem, according to Acts 15 and verse 13. And the writing style of James shows a very close influence, I guess you'd say, of his older brother.

As we go through the book together, you'll notice there are all kinds of nature references that James uses to illustrate truth. And I think he learned it from his older brother, because Jesus also used lots of references to observations in nature to illustrate his teaching.

And as we work through James, we'll see references to things like grass and flowers and fig trees and good and bad fruit and the surf and the sea and gold and silver rusting and all of those kinds of metaphors and similes that came from the mouth of the Lord himself.

So James also, I think deeply influenced by all of that, brings it to bear in his teaching. And I think it's the figures of speech that James uses and liberally uses throughout these few short chapters that make the book very memorable.

It makes it a very memorable book and it makes it a beloved book among Christian believers for centuries. If you were to poll people and say, what's your favorite New Testament book? I think we perhaps would be surprised that the number of people would say, James, I really like the book of James.

I really like it, it's practical. The book is likely the oldest of the New Testament letters, written sometime in the middle there of the first century, probably sometime 80, 45 to 48. The book has a definite Jewish flavor to it, addressed to Jewish Christians that were scattered abroad, probably following the persecution that arose in conjunction with the martyrdom of another James, who was the brother of John, where we find that reported in Acts chapter 12.

So writing to these 12 tribes, verse one, who are dispersed abroad. Now, unlike the Apostle Paul, James does not elaborate on the person and the work of Christ. For that, we would turn to Paul's writings.

But instead, James focuses on the practical outworking of what it means to be a new creation in Christ. So this is a very practical book. This is a book that puts shoe leather to theology. How do I live in light of the reality that I am new in Christ?

The letter reads like a sermon, actually. It reads like basically a sermon from a pastor to those sheep under his care. We note the frequent use of the words, my brethren, or beloved, or beloved brethren.

You see those kinds of references all through this letter. And these are the kinds of expressions of affection and love that typically occur between a pastor and those that are under his care. There are many commands in this letter, lots of imperatives.

And they present really the standard of Christian ethics, or a standard, let's put it that way, an a standard of Christian ethics that James expects his hearers to be striving towards. For example, verse four, where he says, let endurance have this perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

So he expects them, and by extension, the Spirit expects us, to be striving towards these things. Yet, at the same time, James recognizes that we cannot and will not in this life entirely escape the grip of sin.

So for example, over in chapter three, in verse two, where he writes, for we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.

There he's talking about the use of the tongue. And so James just acknowledges the standard is here, right, Matthew 548, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, there's a standard, and we're to strive to the standard by the grace of God.

And yet, recognizing that we fall, we fail and we fall. And in light of that reality, James counsels his hearers, and by extension, us, to humble our hearts and to submit to a loving Father that he might pour out his grace upon us in our struggle against sin.

We see that in chapter four, in verses six and seven, where James writes, and he, that is the Father, gives a greater grace. Therefore, it says, God is opposed to the prophet, gives grace to the humble.

Submit, therefore, to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. So here's the standard, strive for the standard, recognition we all fall short in many ways, humble our hearts, appeal to the Father who loves him to pour out his grace upon us.

And that's James' approach to the Christian life. Now, it is well known that the German reformer, Martin Luther, did not like this letter. He had a lot of trouble with this letter because he had a great difficulty in understanding it.

He was a man of his time, he was a single-issue voter, one might say, and so he struggled, and he struggled with the canonicity of James. He didn't deny its canonicity, but he almost saw a canon within a canon and relegated it to, you know, sort of the side stage.

And I think that's because of its strong emphasis on the practical outworking of faith. Luther, you know, discovered that salvation is by grace through faith alone, and that was his rallying call. In fact, Luther calls the book of James, quote, a right straw, E-S-T-R-A-W-Y, straw, E, epistle, epistle of straw, he called it.

And that essentially means that he saw a little nutritional value in it. He said it's got little nutritional value for the believer. Incidentally, John Calvin did not agree with him on that, so it wasn't just, you know, the Reformation, they couldn't figure it out.

It was Luther who couldn't figure it out. But as one commentator noted, quote, straw is sharp and pricks people, which is what this epistle certainly does, close to quote. So yeah, it's sharp and it pricks, like a mouthful of straw.

But by the power of the spirit of God, the book of James will exhort us, it will encourage us, it will convict us, it will challenge us, it will rebuke us, and it will revive us in practical holiness as we pursue Christ.

Passing Life’s Spiritual Tests

The title for this morning is Passing Life's Spiritual Tests. Passing Life's Spiritual Tests. And we're gonna look together at chapter one and verses one through 12. So follow along. James, a bond servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes who are dispersed abroad, greetings.

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position, and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation.

Because like flowering grass, he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass, and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed. So too, the rich man, in the midst of his pursuits, will fade away.

Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Life is filled with many important tests.

The results of those tests shape our lives in very many ways. Sometimes we mess up and flunk a test, and we'll be granted the opportunity to study and take the exam again in order that we might pass it.

I can remember my first day at seminary. I'm 45 years old. I'd already been out of college for two decades and wasn't a particularly good student when I was there. I showed up to the first day of seminary and had to take an English proficiency exam.

Two hours were set aside to take this exam. I completed it in 10 minutes and then took 10 more minutes to review my few answers and then handed it in and awaited my grade. I am not an English genius, I can assure you, and so, yes, indeed, I flunked and flunked miserably, perhaps the lowest grade anyone ever got, the result of which was that I had to take bonehead English to begin and then had to take and pass that English proficiency exam before I could continue on.

In God's economy, we as believers must frequently take spiritual exams and take them in order to grow in our walk of faith and become increasingly conformed to the image of Christ. When we fail the exams, we have to study and take them again.

We have to study and take them again. Maybe you are in the midst of one of those exams or trials right now. Maybe that's where you find yourself. If you're not, you will be soon. You will be soon. So this morning, I desire to help each of us get ready by reviewing four necessary steps of preparation in order to achieve a passing grade on life's spiritual tests.

Four necessary steps of preparation. The first is found in verse two, and it is this. We must cultivate a right attitude. The first step of necessary preparation is we must cultivate a right attitude.

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. With this verse, James launches into the theme of the epistle, a practical Christianity that shows up for all to see in our day-to-day lives.

And what better place to start than with the trials of life, hmm? Actually, if you think about it, this command is kind of shocking to start out with. He doesn't ease into this, he just launches. And it could be offensive, really, if it were not couched in the loving context of brothers and sisters going through the same things together.

Look, consider it all joy, my brethren. My brethren, my beloved, those for whom I have deep affection, consider it all joy. The grammatical construction of this command to consider it all joy is expressed by James in such a way that it's to encourage the readers to make a decisive and once-for-all decision, and then a decision that is repeated again and again and again after that.

In other words, it's a command to order our Christian lives in such a way that the trials that come upon us are to be considered joy. And it's a decision we must reaffirm repeatedly. We need to make an attitude adjustment, one might say.

And what is that attitude adjustment? They, we, are to consider or regard every trial as pure, unalloyed joy. That's the attitude adjustment. Every trial is to be considered pure or unalloyed joy. Now, let's just establish a couple of things.

First off, joy is not the same thing as happiness. Joy is not the same thing as happiness. Happiness is circumstantially driven. Joy and inner contentment and satisfaction is the outcome of a decision grounded in faith.

In other words, joy originates in the mind and the heart's resolution to be, find contentment in the circumstances of life, to find satisfaction, we could say, in Christ, in Christ. And it's the outcome of that decision of faith that grounds, provides the grounds for a command to consider it all joy.

And it's not that trials are the only occasion of joy. That's not his point. There are other circumstances in which we are called to have joy, but it's the reality that in the trial, we're to have no attitude other than joy.

That's the point. Now, speaking about trials, and James makes three important observations, I think. First, that they are certain to come. Notice, consider it all joy, verse two, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, not if, when.

It's a certainty. If you are a follower of Christ and alive, if you will experience trials. You're in one right now? If not, probably before the day is out. If not, likely before the week is out. If not, for sure within the month.

There is a trial coming. There's a trial coming. Secondly, notice that they surround us unexpectedly. When you encounter, the word encounter, the Greek word behind it is used in Luke 10 and verse 30 for the man who fell among robbers.

You remember he was headed down to Jerusalem and it says he fell among robbers. You don't plan a trip to Jericho, rather. You don't plan a trip to Jericho and plug into your calendar robberies. They're gonna mug me, beat me, and leave me for dead.

That kinda like comes out of nowhere and comes upon you. Same word. When you encounter the trials, when you meet the trials, it's unexpected. They surround you and they do so unexpectedly. They overtake you like a robber, like a thief.

So it's not an if, it's a when. It comes at us unexpectedly. And third is that the trials appear in many and varied form. When you encounter various trials. Again, same word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament in Genesis 37 three to speak of Joseph's coat of many colors.

So as Joseph's coat had many colors, so our trials have many shades of color. They're varied. Now, what kinds of trials or temptations is James referring to? What kinds of things? Doug Moo in his commentary on James writes the following.

I think it's helpful. Trial refers to any difficulty in life that may threaten our faithfulness to Christ. That's a good working definition of a trial. A trial is any difficulty in life that may threaten our faithfulness to Christ.

That's a trial. That's the trial. Now, since James will discuss the internal temptation of lust later in the chapter, beginning in verse 13, which we'll pick up next week, I think it's certain that he is referring here to trials that come upon us from the outside.

So we'll call them external temptations. External temptations that may threaten our faithfulness to Christ. So, for example, persecution. Persecution. Certainly for the recipients of this letter, having been scattered abroad, they were experiencing real persecution.

Now, we have yet to experience it, God forbid, but it's possible. But persecution, for sure, is a trial that challenges your faithfulness to Christ, and it comes upon us from the outside. But here are some others that we can identify with more readily, I think.

Illness. Illness. You've had this lump on your anatomy that you've had for a number of months. Doesn't seem to be going away, and you finally get around to it if you're a man. And you make an appointment at a doctor.

You go to the doctor, and they poke and they prod a bit, and they say, you know, I think we should do a biopsy. They do a needle biopsy. They send it in. You're sitting on pins and needles. You get the results.

Hey, you know what, you've got cancer. You have cancer. That's a trial that comes upon you in that moment and will challenge your faithfulness to Christ. It will challenge where does your hope lie. Maybe infertility is something that has come upon you, perhaps for a season, perhaps longer.

That will challenge a woman and her husband. Injury is another. Nobody plans for a car accident. And yet, in a moment of time, your life has changed. A car accident, and now you're confined to a wheelchair.

Or an industrial accident, and you're now missing two or three fingers. And you're wondering, how am I going to go back to work? I work with a keyboard in a moment of time. Infirmity is another. Those of us who are aging experience it in our own bodies, and those who have care for parents experience it secondhand.

It can be a challenge to our faithfulness to Christ. Unemployment. You go on vacation. You have a great vacation. You get back from vacation, and you get to work, and the first day back, they call you and say, can you come down to the office?

We need to talk to you. And they let you know, hey, you know what? We're closing down this entire operation. And in two weeks, you're unemployed. What are you gonna do? Perhaps it's just the economy in general overtakes you.

It doesn't stretch like it used to. Do I go get another job? Do I start working two jobs, three jobs? What do I do? Perhaps there's a massive financial setback. Your entire business burns to the ground overnight.

What do you do? Relational strains. There's no pain like relational pain. A divorce, death of a spouse, death of a child. These are just a few of the common trials that come upon us by virtue of the reality that we live in a broken society.

We live in a broken world, and we're broken people. Sin is real, and it will threaten our faithfulness to Christ if we do not respond correctly. Beyond that, while it's certain that these things are trials, it's also likely here that James has in mind material prosperity and all that goes with it as also a trial to the believer.

Now, wait a minute. I mean, I get the poverty side, but are you telling me that it's a trial if I'm doing really well? Oh, yeah, it is. Oh, yeah, it is. Verses nine to 11. We'll get there. Speak of these things.

Some say James is the New Testament equivalent of the book of Proverbs. I understand why they say that. I'm not sure I would completely agree to that statement, but it certainly has wisdom built into it.

And Proverbs chapter 30 and verses eight and nine speak about the rich and poor alike and that they each have their own trials, their own troubles. Where Solomon writes, keep deception and lies far from me.

Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is my portion. Have you ever prayed like that? Don't let me be rich, Lord, and don't let me be poor. Why lest I be full and deny you and say, who is the Lord?

Or lest I be in want and steal and profane the name of my God. Deliver us from temptation, right? One writer said this. James feared that his people, like other Jews and like many supposed Christians, would imagine that an affirmation of Orthodox theology and membership in a community of faith was enough to please God.

He feared complacency more than persecution. He feared complacency more than persecution. He feared that people would be strong in knowledge, but weak in life. James says it's not enough to know. We must live what we know.

Enduring Trials as God’s Means of Maturity

The first step of preparation is we must cultivate a right attitude. Towards it all. We must cultivate a right attitude. Second, we must accept that there is no other way. We must accept that there is no other way, verses three and four.

Pick it up in two. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, three and four, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James grounds the reason why we are to consider our trials to be pure joy is because we know, the Greek word indicates an experiential knowledge, that they are not random or aimless. But as we bear up under them, rather than try to escape or evade them, they're actually being used by God to develop and display Christian endurance, the virtue of Christian endurance.

We know this is true. We believe it to be so. God is providentially at work in our lives. What befalls us is not random. It is not aimless. It is not without purpose. And if we will hold up under these, then God's great purpose in us will be accomplished.

But if we run, if we seek to evade, guess what? You get to take the test again, again. You know, you can never develop endurance unless you exercise. Isn't that right? You can sit on a couch and peruse YouTube videos about endurance and you won't grow one within it.

You will gain endurance as you get off the couch and begin to walk. We need to exercise in order to grow in it. But notice this, endurance is not the end in itself. Endurance is a virtue. But James says that's not the end in itself.

It's the means to the true end, which is maturity. Notice, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Verse four, let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect or mature, complete, lacking in nothing.

It is the true means of Christian character. Endurance produces Christian character. That's the point. And James is commanding them to let endurance finish its work. To have is the command. Where am I here?

Oh yeah, there it is, verse four. And let endurance have or to have, that's the command, its perfect result. In other words, don't seek to get out from underneath it. Let it do its work. When we prematurely try to escape from a trial, we cheat ourselves from the opportunity to refine our faith and mature in Christian character.

But all so often, we just want the pain to stop. We just want the pain to stop. Beloved, mark this down. Maturity is not the result of the number of trials faced, but the way in which we handle those trials and allow them to achieve their full and intended result.

In other words, one trial well held up under does more to advance one's likeness of Christ than a hundred that we short circuit by seeking to evade or avoid. Now notice that James does not specify exactly what Christian virtue the trials are developing.

Let the endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing. He doesn't tell us exactly what it is doing in us. It could be one thing, it could be something else.

It might be something obvious like patience. Oh, what is the Lord teaching? Oh, he's teaching me patience. Of course he is. That's like the throwaway answer. That's the Sunday school answer. What'd you learn about today in Sunday school, junior?

Jesus. Yeah, I know that, but. So patience, yeah, of course. Because who would say they're really patient, huh? So for sure it's patience. But it's likely something else too. And here's this, maybe many other things, and here's even the bigger surprise.

Maybe it's something we don't even know we need. Maybe it's something we never considered. While in light of both the difficulty of the various trials and the elusive nature of some of the lessons that we have to learn, we desperately need God's help, don't we?

We desperately need God's help. And that leads us to our third, and that is that we must employ divine assistance. We must employ divine assistance. We must cultivate a right attitude. We must accept that there's no other way.

Third, we must employ divine assistance versus five through eight. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

You just hear Jesus saying those kinds of things, can't you? For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord. Being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. It's simple here.

What James is saying is that the place to go in the midst of trials is to God. That's where we should go. We need to go to God in this, because it's from him that we will receive the wisdom to see our trials in their true light and to profit from them spiritually.

Spiritual profit will come to us as we seek the Lord in the midst of the trial. Now, biblically, wisdom involves insight into God's purposes and ways by application of biblical truth to life's situation.

So I'll say it again. Biblically speaking, wisdom involves insight into God's purposes and ways by the application of biblical truth to life's situations. In other words, as we pour ourselves into the word and let it wash our hearts and minds and change the way we see reality and begin to see it God's way, wisdom is an outcome.

Proverbs 1 .7 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 2 .6, for the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 8 .35, personifying wisdom says, he who finds me, that is wisdom, finds life and obtains favor from the Lord.

We need wisdom in the midst of a trial, amen? And where is it available? It's available from him who is ultimately the source of that trial. We're to pray. We're to pray. And notice we're to pray first expectantly.

Verse five, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. Who gives to all generously and without reproach and it will be given to him. That's a promise. That's a promise. God desires to give wisdom to his children.

He is generous and he gives without reproach. Now, to give with reproach is the idea of adding a rebuke. Adding a rebuke. It's like a father who tells his son when the son asks him for help studying for the exam, saying something like, yes, I'll help you study for your exam, but you should have done this two weeks ago.

That is a reproach. That is not how God deals with his children. He says, come, come. I will give you what you need. And I will not scold you. I will not frown upon you. I will not rebuke you for your weakness.

He knows that we are but flesh. We need to pray expectantly, believing his promise. He will give us the wisdom we need in the midst of the trial. We're to pray sincerely, verse six. But he must ask in faith without any doubting.

For the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. We have to ask in prayer, believing that God can and will answer because he has promised that he will. When we pray for God's wisdom in a trial and then we end the prayer with either a spoken or an unspoken, I don't have much hope in this.

Then we're not displaying a prayer of sincerity. In fact, just the opposite. We're like James says, again, using things, metaphors like his older brother, we're like the sea driven about by the wind. I mean, you go down to the ocean.

I mean, even the waves here, occasion. They're just, they splash back, forth, back, forth. That's what an insincere prayer is like. Well, I've tried everything else. I guess now I need to pray, right?

No. No, you need to pray. You need to pray. So we need to pray with expectancy. We need to pray with sincerity. Third, seven and eight, we need to pray with purity. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, for being double, a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

The daughter is a double-minded man. Looks to both God and man for help simultaneously or probably sequentially, back and forth. He's a wavering man. He's an inconsistent man. He displays the characteristics of unbelief.

He wants wisdom from God one day and the wisdom of the world the next. I prayed, nothing happened. And so now, I gotta take matters into my own hands. Such a man should not expect God to answer his prayers.

James tells us. If that's our approach to God in prayer, we should not expect him to answer. We're demonstrating the characteristics of a double-minded man. Now, we need an illustration here. We need an illustration, and there's a great illustration of what it means to believe God, not in perfect faith, but in consistent faith.

And we need to look to Abraham, don't we? We need to look to Abraham. Romans 4, verses 20 and 21, where Paul says, no distrust made him, that is Abraham, waver concerning the promise of God. What promise?

You will have a son. I'm 100 years old. You will have a son. But he grew strong in faith, Paul observed. Fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Yeah, but what about the Hagar thing?

Yeah, what about the Hagar thing? Not perfect in faith, but consistent in faith. For decades, for decades. That's a serious trial, a serious trial. In the midst of a trial, do you go to God? Or do you bounce back and forth between God and men?

That's the question for self-evaluation. Who do you go to? Who do you go to first? Who do you trust the most? We have to cultivate a right attitude. We have to accept that there is no other way. We must employ divine assistance and forth.

Appraising Poverty and Wealth by God’s Perspective

Fifth, we must correctly appraise reality. We must correctly appraise reality, verses nine through 12. Wisdom is what allows us to correctly appraise reality in the midst of the trial. Whether the trial is poverty or wealth, we must not get caught up in the circumstances of the trial and fail to see the things the way God sees them.

One of the outcomes of prayer is we begin to get God's perspective on things. And that is reality. His perspective is reality, not ours. As we gain his perspective, we gain a closer touch with reality.

Verses nine through 11. But let the brother of humble circumstances glory in his high position, and let the rich man glory in his humiliation. Because like flowering grass, he will pass away. Oh, there it is again.

There's Jesus again. For the sun rises with a scorching wind and it withers the grass and its flower falls off. And the beauty of its appearance is destroyed. By the way, we're gonna hear like the sermon on the mount, like running in the background here.

So too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. It is easy for a poor man to forget his position in Christ. That he is spiritually rich. And that the present poverty of this life, whether it be temporal or the rest of his life, will not last forever.

It will not last forever. Conversely, it's easy for the person who is rich in the world's material goods to forget that his position in Christ, which is a sinner saved by grace, right? The foot of the cross is level.

And for him to forget that like grass in a desert, his wealth cannot insulate him from death. All the money in the world cannot insulate one from your divinely, from your divine appointment. And the book of Ecclesiastes takes up these themes.

Another wisdom literature. The book makes clear that wealth cannot insulate one from the uncertainties of life. And that poverty is not forever. But God does not balance the books at the end of every day.

He does not balance the books at the end of every day. But all the trials are designed by him for one purpose. Verse 12, to fit us for glory. To fit us for glory. That's ultimately what this is all about.

To get us ready to pass into the presence of Christ. Verse 12, blessed is a man who perseveres under trial. For once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life. That's a genitive of apposition.

In other words, it's the crown which is life. He will receive the crown which is life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Blessed, you see it? Blessed is the man who perseveres under these trials.

Because once he has been approved, in other words, once he has successfully passed the exam or series of exams, we could say, he will one day receive the crown which is life. Which the Lord has prepared for him.

Specifically for those who love him. We could say it this way, whether rich or poor, the blessings only come to those who hang in there and persevere. We prove our Christian faith by our perseverance in the faith.

We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. That's the theological reality of it all. And the proof of its having taken hold in our soul is our continuance and perseverance and growth in the likeness of Christ into whose image we have been reformed.

Now sometimes we pass the exam with flying colors first time around, and other times we have to take it again and again and again and again. Probably more often we have to take it again and again and again.

But each and every time it's with purpose. Kind of like taking the bar exam as a budding attorney or the CPA exam as a budding CPA. There are multiple parts. You have to pass them all. Sometimes you pass one but not the other.

You gotta go back and do it again. They can pass them all. God has a whole battery of exams set up for each and every one of us. Tailored specifically for our benefit. And when our faith perseveres to the end, we will receive the crown which is eternal life.

And in the end, this assurance and hope is the greatest bit of wisdom any person could possess. Well beloved, we have just scratched the surface. May the spirit of God apply his word this morning to each of us in our area of greatest need.

Let's pray. Our father, the scriptures are very clear that you are actively at work in our lives bringing upon us designer trials. Tailored specifically to us and our need. Because you know us as no one else can, including ourselves.

You know exactly what we need to suit us for glory. And so father, we pray that by faith we would embrace what you are doing. That we would not play the fool, the double-minded man. That we would seek your wisdom, believing that you will grant to us what you have promised to us.

Knowing that each and every one of these is not random, not aimless, not without purpose. That it is surely and steadily conforming us to the image of Christ, making us like your son. And father, knowing that this will never be finished in this life, but in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, you will finish what you have begun and perfect us that we might live forever with our savior.