The Product of Trials | Sermon 2/6/2022

Apologia Utah

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James chapter 1, we're going to be in verses 2 through 4 today.

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James chapter 1, verses 2 through 4. I'm excited to preach this one today.

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It was a big help for me as I studied through it this past week. And I pray that it will be a blessing to you as well.

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The title of this sermon is called The Product of Trials. The Product of Trials.

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So here now, my friends, the word of the living and one true God. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

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And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

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Thus ending the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray, church. Father, we bless your name.

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Thank you again, Lord, for the opportunity to proclaim your word. God, please help us to know so much more deeply what it means to count it all joy when we encounter various trials.

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Lord, a lot of the people in this church have encountered many trials throughout their lives. Some are going through very hard trials now.

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Lord, let your word be the sweet balm and soothing medicine,

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Lord, to what they're going through now. Lord, I pray that you would speak through me and that you would be glorified in the service and as always, help me to speak in a way that is clear and helpful and let it always be true.

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In Christ's name, amen. So, last week we learned about the backstory of James, the half -brother of Jesus Christ and how

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Christ had saved him, resulting in James becoming a bondservant of the

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Holy Master and a pastor of the Jerusalem church. He is writing his epistle to the once Jerusalem congregation, now the scattered

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Jewish Christians throughout the Roman Empire. These saints have faced many trials.

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They've been driven from their homes. They have loss of possessions. They've been dragged into court falsely.

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It says sickness and persecution have come upon them. They've been slandered, it says, for the great name that they hold allegiance to.

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They've even experienced death amongst them. And Christians throughout the years of the last two millennia have faced varying degrees of similar trials.

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Within just the last 80 years, there was the rise of the Communist Party, so close to us that many of our own grandparents remember these days.

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Those in Romania in the 1940s said the invasion of the

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Communists made Hitler's Nazi Germany look tame. So much torture, so much persecution.

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So when preparing this sermon, I thought of Richard Wurmbrand's book, Tortured for Christ. He recounts how the

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Communists seduced the people to this great evil, even through the church there in Romania.

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Again and again, pastors and church leaders feared for their temporal lives over their eternal ones.

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They would often give lists of faithful Christians to the secret police.

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They would give state -approved messages with a similar mixture of Scripture and demonic reasoning as Satan did in the temptation of Christ.

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But when many faithful brethren weren't seduced by these wicked schemes, they suffered for their fidelity to Jesus.

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During his 14 years in and out of prison, Richard remembered a man he had shared the

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Gospel with, and this man had turned to Jesus Christ, whom he became a pastor over.

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So as he was in prison, he recognized that man he had given the Gospel to, they were in the same cell.

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And so they rejoiced, they were together. His wife and six children, this man said, were starving to death, and he had no prospect of getting out of prison.

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Richard asked him, have you any resentment against me that I brought you to Christ, and because of this your family is in such misery?

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The man answered, I have no words to express my thankfulness that you have brought me to the wonderful Savior.

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I would have it no other way, Richard, is what he told him. Joy was his despite his circumstance.

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He had counted the cost and found Christ invaluable. It was also strictly forbidden to preach the

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Gospel in prison. They didn't want it spreading in the prison. People were being saved all the time in this prison.

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Even guards of hardened hearts were being saved. But doing so to preach the

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Gospel would incur a severe, severe beating. I mean, sometimes they would put them in these, what they called the cold cells, where literally it was at freezing or below freezing temperatures, and the communist doctors, the prison doctors, would come by and check on them, and they would make sure that they weren't dead yet, and they'd come just to inches of dying, and then they'd come and they'd warm them up, and they'd get them better, and then they'd put them back in the cell.

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They'd do it over and over. They made them wear these bracelets where there was rusty nails in the bracelets, and if they moved or if they were shaking while they slept at night, they would feel the piercing of the nails on these bracelets.

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They would sometimes take funnels, and they would funnel rats into people's cells, and they would have these wounds, and so they never got any sleep.

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They would have to fight rats off of their bodies. I mean, these are the things that our Christian brothers and sisters had went through in Romanian prisons at the hands of communists.

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But what happened was, in this instance, there was a brother who was preaching to the other prisoners, and all of a sudden the guards came in.

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They burst in, and he was in the middle of a thought, and it says the guards took him to what's called the beating room, and what seemed like forever, they beat him severely over and over and over.

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And finally the guards bring this man back in, and they throw him on the prison ground, and the other men who were listening to the message previously were just startled.

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And so the guards go away, and the man's laying there on the floor, and he kind of comes to, and he stands up, and he kind of dusts himself off, and he goes,

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Okay brethren, where was I at? And he starts preaching the word of the living God.

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And he doesn't stop. He finishes his message then and there. So just these moments of glory would happen in the prison there all the time.

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These Christians saw moments of inexplicable joy, no doubt. Richard would see men praising

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God in delight as they breathed their last. And so are these extreme examples?

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In some ways they're normative to the Christian faith, and in others they seem far off to us.

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I understand that. But I believe what James is trying to get at is, no matter what the trial, the degree of suffering, or the cost to follow

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Christ, it will labor towards its perfect work of perseverance and endurance to the end.

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So let's consider now in our text how trials produce these glorious results.

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Starting in verse 2. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.

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So we typically don't couple joy with trials, do we? When we think of trials, we remember back to some of the most painful moments, the most frustrating times of our lives.

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Maybe it's when your parents divorced, or you faced an abusive upbringing.

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Maybe you were severely bullied in school, or maybe a sibling or a parent had passed away in your life.

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You think now possibly about career woes or health issues or sickness

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It seems like taking up residence in your home lately, and there's just no being rid of it.

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These are trials for us. Some have seen worse in this room. I believe that. I believe that.

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And there's, again, brothers and sisters across the globe who are seeing sometimes worse than us.

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Absolutely. But this isn't a call to exhibit artificial joy in the midst of these things.

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Okay? This is also not to say, while they're happening, it's like we're on these happy pills, and we are denying the pain that we feel.

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That's not what this text is saying. To understand it, we can often look at the Psalms.

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Brother Andrew just read one. In cries of desperation, the psalmist records all his pain, says things like he soaks his pillow at night with tears, that sleep escapes his eyes, and he wonders where God is.

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You could just read through probably ten of them, and you'll encounter a couple of those type of Psalms.

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He beseeches the Lord God, if you are far off, come near again to me. Strike down my enemies.

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Let your loving countenance be on me once again. Forgive all my iniquities, the psalmist typically prays.

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But how does a psalmist usually end his Psalms, in those particular type of Psalms, when he's in so much despair?

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He lists out his supplications and frustrations to God, but then as if taking a step back, and looking at it a different way.

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He looks at his calamity in a different light. He'll say things like, but I know

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I will see the goodness of God. I know I will see righteousness come forth from Zion.

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I will bless the Lord, he'll say, yes I will bless the Lord despite my circumstance. I know where my help comes from, it comes from the

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Lord. And He is my joy, my delight, my high tower, my refuge, and my deliverer.

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There's a shift there brethren, there's a shift there. Even Jesus in the

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Garden of Gethsemane places His cares before the Father and His humanity, but then

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He was able to resolve, not what I will, but what you will. So, consider it all joy, or regard it or count it all as joy.

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Pas is the Greek word, which means absolutely all.

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Every all. Absolutely every all. So we can look at this then in two ways.

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Consider all of it joy, all of trials are to be things we can look on and see

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God's sovereignty, His goodness and grace, and not look on it as only wrong, as wicked, but as joy.

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It's not to say just consider the job loss joy, but to consider the car crash joy.

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It's not to say just consider the flooding in your home joy, but also the foreclosure of it.

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Or just consider the broken arm joy, but not the panic attacks joy. That's not what it's saying.

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I definitely think this would be harder to say if you denied the sovereignty of God.

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If you didn't see the sovereignty of God in this, this would be much harder to receive. I don't know how anyone could do it.

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God ordained that through Abraham He would establish descendants innumerable.

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And yet, God says before that is to happen that his descendants will be in slavery for 400 years.

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He tells him that after he makes a covenant with him. The Lord has brought about exactly what must happen in order to get

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Christ's bride adorned and ready for her husband. It's all things, all trials.

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James could also be saying, count the trials all joy. All joy, let me explain.

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The trial should be regarded with all joy, complete joy, not partially hatred, not partially despair, mixed with some joy.

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It is all joy. Because in Christ, we can now go through these things and see

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God working all things together for our good. That's why

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James was able to say this confidently to a persecuted early church. Think about all that they went through.

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And he says this. It's almost like, bro, do you know what we're going through? And he goes, yeah, I know what you're going through.

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Of course. But you've got to count it all joy. Peter says similarly in 1

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Peter 1, he also addresses the scattered brethren after a beautiful reminder of the hope in Christ they have and what's waiting for them in heaven.

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Peter says, in this you greatly rejoice. Even though now for a little while, if necessary you have been distressed by various trials.

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Peter in this way wakes us up and we remember in light of eternity the trials we go through are for, as he says, a little while.

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A little while. We use that phrase often, a little while. We probably use it typically to mean something very brief.

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But that's what he relates our suffering here to. It's just a little while. Eternity is around the corner, my friends.

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Your suffering will not be prolonged. The light is coming. Hold fast. James will say later in his epistle, this life is but a vapor.

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So much more to eternity. Hold fast. He says, my brethren, my brothers, and directs his message to believers because there is a fundamental understanding that unbelievers could not consider any trial all joy.

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But they often consider it a curse. And they often think that it's a curse from God.

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They'll say God is cursing my life. He writes, brothers, 15 times in this letter, he makes himself one of them.

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This is personal for James. He's not securely and safely in Jerusalem.

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He's not in comfort. He doesn't write as one who hasn't felt what they have felt too.

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He is a pastor who has experienced the persecution after Stephen's martyrdom and is in danger often even to the

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Jews around him there at the Jerusalem church. He knows what they're going through. He writes as a partaker in their sufferings.

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He weeps with those who weeps, and he has joy with those who are full of joy. And as any good pastor does,

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I said last week that he's a fiery preacher. He's a pastor. As any good pastor does, he seeks to encourage them.

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What's important to remember is our joy is never divorced from or found outside of God.

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Meaning you will not find joy for trials without an intimate relationship with the living

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God. You just can't do it. That is one way how even

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Jesus got through the great suffering of the crucifixion. His Trinitarian connection and relationship within the

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Godhead and Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, shore up. Reinforce the bonds of your relationship to God.

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Weathering the storm can only come when you submit to the One who routes the lightning bolt and causes rain to fall on dry land.

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You're going through the storm where there's a Creator who sent the storm. Submit to Him through it.

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Hands down, if you aren't ready for the next trial, it's typically because you are not in fellowship with your

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God and His Word. We've got to reinforce. We've got to shore up. Strengthen what's there.

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James doesn't say if you encounter various trials. Let's just reread it just in case.

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Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.

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When you do. Of all Jesus' promises, this is probably the least we like in our flesh.

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No believer has a guarantee of a trouble -free and peaceful life here right now.

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Jesus preaches in the Sermon on the Mount, Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

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When people insult you. If we are faithful disciples, it's going to happen.

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It's going to happen. It's guaranteed, the Bible shows. John 16 .33

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These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace.

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In the world you have tribulation. He doesn't say you might have tribulation.

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He says in the world you have tribulation, but take courage. I have overcome the world.

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So in this world we will have tribulation. The effects of Christ's sacrifice,

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His reign from heaven as King, His vanquishing of all His foes, all of it will be fully realized one day, but for now

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Christians will wage war against the world, the flesh, and the devil.

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And it will be difficult sometimes. It will be the hardest thing that you ever do in this

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Christian life. It can hurt. But take heart.

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He has overcome the world and sin and the devil. In Christ you overcome these things.

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You are more than conquerors with Christ it says. Paul actually states it like a badge of honor in Philippians 1 .29

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For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.

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He says it's been granted to you to suffer for His sake. And what's interesting is

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I was looking at the lexical meaning of granted there. The Greek meaning and the root word of granted is rejoice.

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Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? So in other words, rejoice in Christ when you get to suffer for His sake.

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It's just right along with James. Sounds a lot like count it all joy, right?

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Again, Jesus knew this all too well. Jesus was tempted by Satan.

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He was attacked for forgiving sinners. He was betrayed by those closest to Him.

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He was abandoned by the apostles in the moment of need. And ultimately, sacrificed

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Himself for us on the cross to satisfy divine wrath. If Christ experienced this, so will we.

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He says a servant is not above his master. A servant is not above his master. You are a servant of Christ.

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You will experience these things sometimes. Some more than others in His sovereignty.

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But the difference here was Christ's attitude. Listen to this.

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This is amazing. Hebrews 12 1 -3 highlights this perfectly after going through the heroes of the faith.

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I love that passage, the heroes of the faith. If you go to Hebrews 11 and read through that, it's amazing.

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But the author of Hebrews says in chapter 12, therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

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And here it is right here. Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross.

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For the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

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For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself. Consider what

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He went through and He says, so that you will not grow weary or lose heart. Consider Christ's suffering so you will not grow weary or lose heart.

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So, that is to say, when you feel those things, what do you consider? Christ's sacrifice.

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What Christ went through for you and that will pick you up. That'll pick you up.

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But I thought that was amazing. Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. In the cross of Christ, Jesus shows us to count all trials of all types, joy.

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Next verse, verse 3. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

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We know the trial doesn't ever come by chance or is without purpose.

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How can we know that every single time? Because God says so in His Word.

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We can know with certainty because the Almighty has spoken and He cannot lie.

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We don't go into the trial alone, my friends. God ordained the trial to come to pass.

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But He's not some sort of cruel schoolmaster. But He is the one who as if assigns the test, gives the full answer sheet to get through it and promises to help us complete it.

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And holds our hands along the way. God says in Isaiah 46 .10,

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I declare the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done saying

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My purpose will be established and I will accomplish all

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My good pleasure. Let me ask you, in the economy of God and man, whose purpose wins out?

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God Almighty. God Almighty. He says in Isaiah 48 .10, Behold, I have tested you.

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God says I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. I have tested you.

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God's Word says He brings all things that come to pass. His purpose is established in them.

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And He is the one that brings the testing. And yet without sin. Without evil.

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Then we have the Holy Spirit -inspired James the Just who writes in agreement with these truths and sheds light on them that because of this sovereignty in the testing, it will produce in you a righteous endurance and perseverance.

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So, testing here means proving genuine. Testing means proving genuine, proving valuable.

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Like testing gold for its purity. Okay? Testing is the refining process.

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It's not testing you for the sake of testing. That's not what God does. It's testing to refine you and mature you.

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To cause you to endure to the end. Testing of the faith produces, or the word here is katergazamai, with the root word ergon, which is work.

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It works in you. Endurance. Steadfastness. Standing firm.

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Being unmoving. That's what this produces in you. So, it's like the testing of or purifying of your assurance.

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Of what you have hope in. Of how strong your belief is. That will work in you on immovability.

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Like the giant oak tree that endures lightning, storms, strong winds, snow, pests, broken branches, drought, but remains firm and rooted.

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It's tested, but proven. In some ways, we largely don't know what we're made of until we've experienced a trial.

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Right? When things are smooth and easy, we tend to start slipping and putting our faith not in God, but we put our faith in how easy things have been.

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The comfort we've had. Nothing bad has happened in a while. And then it comes at us and it smacks us in the face.

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Right? We know what kind of Christians we are in the moments of trial. That's where we're refined, he says.

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That's where you're proven. It's like coming up to a tree. I don't know why

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I've seen this before. I don't know if you've seen something similar. I mentioned the giant oak tree. Strong and firm, unmovable.

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But isn't it amazing? One time I saw a giant oak tree and it was split, they said, by a lightning strike.

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And part of it was black. But it was amazing. It did not hit the core of the tree.

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It was still alive. So part of it had this black thing coming off of it and looked burnt.

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But then the rest of the oak tree was thriving and its root system was down and deep and it looked stronger than ever.

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And in some ways, you look at that compared to a regular oak tree and you go, wow, that's an unmovable tree.

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It took a lightning strike and it took fire or whatever and it is still standing. And that's what happens with us.

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Still standing. Still here. Not because of our work. Not because of anything in us.

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But because of the one true God who holds us up, who gives us the faith to keep walking, to keep going.

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Consider this though. How do you get ready for the test? The test not only proves the faith has grown, the test grows the faith.

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But the preparation can also grow the faith. There are so many ways that the faith is grown here. How can you study for the next test?

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By reading and applying, of course, God's Word to your life. That is one big way that you can get ready for the next storm that's coming your way.

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The Word of God grows the faith. How do promises I take on faith grow me?

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They aren't mere promises, folks. They are the very words of God unlike any other document or book in all creation.

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They are God -breathed, spoken by the one true God. And when He says something, it will happen the way

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He said it. So He's made promises to all of you who are His bride, and He will make right on them.

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He will not be inactive. He will do what He said. We can have faith in those promises.

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Untested medical students will not become doctors. Untested men seeking your daughter's hand in marriage won't show you the kind of husband

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He will be to your daughter. Untested elder or pastor candidates won't show if they're ready for the pastorate.

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There's a testing. The movie that shows the characters go through trials together shows them later stronger in their bonds together.

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You ever see that? You know in a movie, they're kind of at odds with each other and they go through something and they go through all these trials and all at the end they're inseparable?

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Well, I think they took some of that from biblical principle, of course.

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Trials, I think, demonstrate here, according to James, they make us stronger, in a sense.

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When we go through trials and God is with us, our bond with God then gets stronger.

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I mentioned 1 Peter 1, verse 6, it continues on from the trials, and it says, so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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Here it is again. Faith is tested. It's tested by fire. I believe

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I've gone over this before, but I think it's worth mentioning again. Gold ore is not exactly the prettiest thing when they mine it.

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Gold is typically found in quartz veins or iron veins, and it's typically even running through parts of the gold.

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So when you get gold ore, sometimes it's not the best looking thing you've ever seen compared to our fancy jewelry, right?

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These things are then taken by the goldsmith, and he takes the ore and he puts it in the crucible.

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And get this, for gold to reach its melting point, the crucible must be heated to 1 ,943 degrees

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Fahrenheit for the gold to melt. The goldsmith then watches the gold melting, and little by little impurities and unwanted elements raise to the top of the crucible, which he then, the goldsmith, skims off the top in an effort to make the gold more pure.

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This is what Peter likens our faith to. Gold. In order for Christ to sanctify you to purity,

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He must put you in the crucible. You must be heated up. You must be put in the crucible.

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He must bring the heat of trials to refine you. But it will result, he says, in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to eventually go through this, but faith has action.

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Faith isn't passive. Faith is not dead. We're going to get to that in chapter 2.

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Saving faith that justifies will lead to faith that sanctifies. And with opportunities to accomplish just that.

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Counting it all joy when you encounter various trials is not resigning yourself to something and letting it just wash over you.

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Okay, the trials come. I'm going to count it all joy. I'm just going to let it dump truck over me.

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That's not what he's saying here as well. Okay, just resigning yourself. Letting the trial wash over you.

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Passively admitting defeat to it. That's not what we are to do. God never calls you to give up.

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God doesn't call you to give up. You've walked this far. Keep walking, folks. Keep walking.

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Perseverance is active. It's knowing the goal. It's knowing the triumph of Christ. Consider how muscles can only grow by heavy weight.

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You can think of the heavy weight as a trial in a sense. That's how muscles grow.

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From my understanding, micro tears occur in the muscle from lifting and as they heal, the muscle develops even better reinforcement in the muscle fibers when they're broken down.

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So, you get that? The only way to increase your muscle mass is to micro tear the fibers in your muscles when you're lifting the heavy weights, the trials.

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And when it heals up, you've got stronger muscles. And so what does that do?

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Over time, as it becomes stronger, you can endure heavier weights. You can endure heavier trials.

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But you need to work out the muscle. You need to experience the lighter trials and go through the heavier trials.

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And that's how similarly it is to muscles. Faith that is tested sees

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God's hand working in the circumstance and trusts the unfailing nature of the object of that faith.

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That is God Almighty. That is God. Faith in your best friend could be tested and it will fail you.

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It can fail you. Faith in your best friend. Faith in your spouse. Faith in your career.

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When those are tested, sometimes they will fail you. But faith given by God and in God cannot fail you, my friends.

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It cannot fail you. Well, I've seen people experience

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God's absence in their trial. God has sometimes not shown up for me, people say.

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But I say that's not true. I don't believe that. Oftentimes we are putting, again, faith in ourselves or other people or in, like I said, the period of stability we're in.

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Faith in the one true God transcends what we think, believe, see, anything like that.

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Anything we feel, especially. Okay? Verse 4.

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And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

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Look, we don't want to be Christians with simple platitudes or regurgitated slogans, right?

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Just like, count it all joy, buddy. It's going to be alright. You know what I mean? That's not what I'm telling you to do after this.

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You know, when your brother's like, can I talk with you? I'm going through something. You're like, you just got to count it all joy, man. There's more to it.

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That's what I'm trying to emphasize, okay? The truth is there, right?

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It's easy to see the text, but the trials aren't always easy. The text is there and it's easy to read, but the trials aren't always easy.

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In fact, they can be debilitating. Some of us have yet to walk through,

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I'm not trying to be a prophet, but some of us have yet to walk through what will be some of the hardest things in our life to come.

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That's true. That's true. In a room this size, there will be some of us who will walk through things we could have never expected to walk through in our lives.

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And that's not to be foreboding or to scare you. It's just a reality of what Christ has promised.

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But He also promises He'll be there. We often wonder why a specific trial hasn't ceased yet.

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Why is this still going on, God? It needs to accomplish its perfect result.

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It needs to accomplish its perfect result. It's that God won't stop what's necessary for your sake.

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He won't let up for you. He won't stop sometimes because it needs to do its perfect result in you.

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That seems off in some ways, right? But it would all be for naught if the

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Father didn't accomplish His perfect result. It would have resulted in horrible consequences if God had ceased the pouring of His wrath on His Son.

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If He said, okay, My Son is suffering. I'm going to stop pouring My wrath upon Him on the cross.

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It would have resulted in horrible consequences. It would have not led to Christ's exaltation and kingship, and it would have not led to our forgiveness of sins.

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Why hasn't it let up? He must develop in you what

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He meant to. Maybe we're sinning in the trial.

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Maybe we're sinning in the trial. Repent. Submit yourself to God's design for the test. Maybe you can't move past the pain of a broken relationship.

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Well, relinquish your bitterness and move forward in the trial. I've been fighting this trial.

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I have all these feelings against this person. Well, repent. You're still in the trial because you need to let go of that bitterness.

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I'm not saying that there's going to be this amazing healing moment. You still need to be obviously apologized to, and if someone's wronged you, you need to receive that.

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But we can, as Christians, I think, let go of bitterness. We can let go of it. Men, maybe you can't provide adequately for your family.

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Toss the pride and do whatever it takes. Whatever job you need to live up to your

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God -given duty, right? Facing chronic illness? A lot of times that comes with anger.

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God, why have you given this to me? Why do I have this illness? Why do I have this problem?

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Well, a lot of times we have to repent and give up our anger and submit to God in that and realize sometimes

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God brings us low so that He can bring us high. He brings us low so He can bring us high.

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He says, the humble will be exalted. And that's a promise. Quit fighting the trial and fight your sin.

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The trials will end, beloved. The trials will end. Sin will end. It will end one day.

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It will be over. Look ahead to the day when He makes all things new.

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That's what He promises. Beloved, behold, I am making all things new. He went and He's preparing a place for you.

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And one day, all these things will be over. These trials. This sin.

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Psalm 138 .8 says, The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me.

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The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me. Again, why hasn't it stopped, God? Why hasn't it stopped?

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Why am I still in this now, God? No. The Lord will fulfill

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His purpose for me. The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me. The psalm finishes with the psalmist making a request to the

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Lord saying, do not forsake the work of your hands, God. Do not forsake the works of your hands.

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He's saying, Lord, You created me. You placed me here on this creation. Fashion in me,

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God, the same heart that You have. Don't leave me where I'm at, God.

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And resoundingly, all through Scripture, God declares, I will never forsake

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You. I will never leave You. I will never start something in You without finishing it.

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I will bring You into my courts, He promises. James says, let endurance have its perfect result.

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Let the endurance, after it's been produced in you, have its perfect or mature result or work.

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God wants to bring you to maturity in this life, even. God is concerned about that.

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He is concerned about bringing you to maturity in this life. So many of us think this

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Christian life is just the baby life on milk. But so many times we're exhorted.

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You've been on milk for so long. It's time to get to solid food. Why do

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I have to keep preaching on the elementary principles? Let's move forward. He admonishes.

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In heaven, I'll grow and I'll mature and I'll have solid food there. No, no, there is a promise for that now.

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Maturity is when the house burns down and you're watching it outside as it's going to ruins.

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And you're not saying a false, sort of, again, the artificial, I'll praise the Lord. Of course, there's pain.

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There's all the things, your household, all that. Maturity is a faithful understanding that the

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Lord is working even though you don't see the end result yet. You don't see why yet.

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You may not even know why fully this side of eternity. You just have to have faith in God.

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It's a choice to give Him praise and glory in the middle of it. That's maturity. I will give

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God praise and glory in the middle of my suffering. Not even just at the end.

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Lord, I don't know why you're having me walk through this, but I won't become cynical.

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I won't be skeptical of Your promises. That's what we need to say, Lord. I will not become cynical.

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I will not become bitter. I will not be skeptical of what You promised or depressed.

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But trusting, praising, and walking in a way that confounds the world because I know who my

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God is. That's what we ought to say. Maturity is Paul's acceptance of what

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Christ said in 2 Corinthians 12 when the Apostle Paul asked for the thorn in his flesh, the messenger of Satan sent to buffet him, to be removed from him three times.

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Lord, remove it. Lord, remove it. Lord, remove it. And this is what Christ says to him,

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My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.

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That's how my power is perfected. That's what Christ says. Therefore, Paul says,

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I rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

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Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake.

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For when I am weak, then I am strong. Amen. Christ's power is perfected in your weakness.

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When you are in a trial and recognize, I can't deal with this, only Christ can, then

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His power will then be perfected in you. Their endurance is having its perfect result.

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You see, how can we expect to grow in holiness or in faith without trials?

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How can we expect, how do we exercise that faith? Right? How can we expect it to grow without the trials?

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Trials in many ways are the vehicle for sanctification. We're always so busy praying for the deliverance that we forget, right?

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We forget so often we're not discovering what God actually wants us to see in the trial.

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We're going, God, just take it away, get it out, get it out of here, don't let me be in this trial anymore, without going, okay

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God, I'm in this. And if it be your will, Lord, would you remove this from me and my family?

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Would you, God? But if you don't, Lord, you are still good and I will not curse your name and I praise you.

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And God, will you now, even in this moment of hurt and pain, will you teach me what you're doing?

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Will you grow my faith in this moment? Will you show me what I need to see in this, right?

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I think it's both. I think it's a little bit of both. It's not just, God, take this away, take it away.

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God, what do you want me to get out of this? There we will gain maturity.

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But what is beyond this earthly maturity? There is the word perfect and complete.

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See that second to last line? So that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

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That word perfect is used a lot in Scripture. And typically it's to bring about to completeness, in a sense.

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But this word here, complete, this is different. This is different.

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The word here is halakleroi. Halakleroi, and it's only used here and in 1

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Thessalonians 5 .23. That's the only time that word complete is used in the

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Bible along with 1 Thessalonians 5. Paul uses it in reference of being blameless at the arrival of Jesus Christ.

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Blameless at the arrival of Jesus Christ, or in a way, ready for His return. Ready for the judgment.

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That's how Paul uses it. In other words, trials that test the faith when considered with joy will produce endurance.

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And the end result of that endurance will be completion of sanctification presented to the

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Father blameless. Trials in your life are part of the path leading to the moment of God's recognition of Christ's righteousness imputed to your account.

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We have been justified, that is to say, declared righteous before God because of Christ.

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The penalty of sin, of course, is gone from us. But trials in our lives and our sanctification are bound together.

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Trials and sanctification are bound together. In sanctification, the power of sin has been conquered and is being conquered.

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Sanctification conforms you, it says, to the image of Christ. So that at the final day, the benefits of eternal life, that is justification, sanctification, all that will be complete and will result in glorification.

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Glorification. You know what, thank God He doesn't simply justify us and then leave us in our sin, right?

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We're not just declared righteous by His act, and then He just leaves us to live in wanton pleasure and sin.

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That would seem like an impotent or powerless gospel. He doesn't do that.

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He doesn't just promise justification, declared right. He promises, but I'm going to sanctify you even in this life.

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I'm going to make you more holy. I'm going to mold you into the image of my Son. So, if God justifies us though, why do we need to be sanctified?

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You ever had that thought? But if we're justified, why do we need to be sanctified? Why? If we're already declared right before God, why do we need to be sanctified?

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I've come up with five reasons why that I've taken out of the Scriptures. Number one, we are sanctified because in Christ, He is willed for us.

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It is in His Word. He is literally willed for us to be both justified and sanctified. Even though acts of sanctification don't merit salvation.

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He's just simply willed for both of those to occur in your life. Number two,

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Jesus started something in us, He says, and He promises to finish it. That means every step of the way.

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That's number two. Number three, holiness brings us closer to the Lord. Quenching or grieving the spirit in sin affects our relationship with God.

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That's why we're being sanctified. Number four, and I think this is a huge one, why are we sanctified in addition to being justified?

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Because we aren't to presume upon God's grace. We aren't to presume upon God's grace.

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That is to say, like in Romans chapter 6, Paul says, well then should we keep on sinning so that grace may abound, that grace may increase?

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And he says, may it never be. How have we who have died to Christ, who have died in Christ, continue to live in it?

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We've been buried with Christ, we've been raised to new life with Christ, and we've been baptized into Christ.

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He said, how then could we continue to live that way? He says, therefore walk in the newness of life.

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Your new creatures in Christ walk now in the newness of life. Don't presume upon God's grace.

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Number five, it also helps us to assemble for the worship of God now, and not just later in the heavenly gathering.

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I know verse four didn't use the language I just did with sanctification and justification, but the trials resulting in endurance is sanctification.

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Like I said, they are so closely together, and it will end in the completeness that God desires in you.

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Romans 3 -5 bolsters James' statement. It says, and not only this, but we also exalt in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, and perseverance brings about proven character, and proven character brings hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the

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Holy Spirit has been given to us. You see that? He says, we exalt in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation will bring perseverance, perseverance gives proven character in you, and proven character in you will then give you hope, and you will just keep going.

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You will keep enduring to the end. Those who endure to the end will be saved.

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I'm wrapping up here, okay? I want you to remember these things. I want to remember these things for my next trial.

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That when we ask, why does it happen to me? We know because God said, and we know because He's brought us through everything else we've ever endured.

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Do you typically forget the monuments in your life when you're in the midst of the new trial?

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We often forget the monuments, the things that God has brought you through here, and here, and in 2008, and this, this, and that.

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And when we're in the new trial, we forget all the things He's done. This is a call to remember.

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Remember all the things He's brought you through. He's never let you down once. He won't do it in the future.

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And because God has determined that you are His, and Christ has promised the Father to present you before Him blameless, fully justified, fully sanctified, and glorified.

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Like a master craftsman who grabs a gnarled, knotted, clunky piece of wood and starts to whittle, and craft, and fashion, and shape this ugly piece of wood into something of value.

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That's what Christ does for us. Jesus has determined to present you complete and perfect to His Father, and everything on the pathway to that reality is working towards that final day.

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Everything on the pathway to that reality is working towards that final day. He has determined the end result for you and has also ordained the means to accomplish it.

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2 Corinthians 4 .16 -18 exhorts us in this. It says, Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

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For momentary and light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.

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While we not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

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For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Our trials are as a momentary and light affliction compared to the eternal weight of glory waiting for you.

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Your trials are a momentary and light affliction awaiting not to be compared to the eternal weight of glory waiting for you.

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In your trials, we are to look to what is seen, not what you can see. Don't look to what is seen, but look to things that you can't see, which is promised in Scripture.

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Pastor Kent Hughes in his book on the Epistle of James recounts a brother who lived our text of counting it all joy.

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He says several years ago, the Presbyterian pastor Lloyd John Ogilvie underwent the worst year of his life.

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His wife had undergone five major surgeries, cancer, radiation, chemotherapy, and it wasn't looking good.

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Several of his staff members had departed from his church, large problems loomed, and discouragement assaulted his feelings daily.

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But Pastor Lloyd wrote this, the greatest discovery that I have made in the midst of all the difficulties is that I can have joy when

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I can't feel like it. And he calls it artesian joy, like a natural well of joy welling up to you that you can experience that with Christ.

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Pastor Lloyd says, when I had every reason to feel beaten, I felt joy. In spite of everything,

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God gave me the conviction of being loved and the certainty that nothing could separate me from Him.

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It was not happiness, it wasn't gush or jolliness, but a constant flow of the

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Spirit through me. At no time did God give me the easy confidence that everything would work out as I wanted according to my timetable, but that God was in charge and would give me and my family enough courage for each day, and joy was a result of that grace, he says.

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Joy was a result of that grace. Beloved, we above all have the only reason to rejoice in the midst of trials and suffering.

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We have the only reason. That is Jesus Christ. And the world doesn't understand it.

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The world doesn't know it. They don't get it. Therefore, we have all the more reason to show our joy when we encounter various trials.

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That sinful and miserable people who we once were would know one came and experienced the ultimate suffering for them, so that they may not suffer for all eternity.

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So, brothers and sisters, that's the call. Count it all joy. Not artificial joy, but count it all joy when you encounter various trials knowing what

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God is working in you. Let's confound the world with our joy.

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Okay? All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, please bless the message that went out.

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I pray that it would minister to myself and to your people. God, just much like the hymn that says we are prone to wander,

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Lord, we feel it. In a sense, Lord, we are people prone to forget. God, call to our recollection,

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Lord, call to our memory these passages, these truths, Lord, that whatever we're going through now, whatever is coming our way,

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Lord, we will remember who our God is and what You're doing. And that You are working in us,

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Lord, with these trials to produce endurance. And that endurance is working its perfect result that You, Christ, would present us spotless and blameless at the coming day.