Profiting from Trials: Part 1

Redeeming Grace Church

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We're going to look at today, the testing of your faith. We're going to go on, and I'm going to skip a

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Part 2 introduction. We're going to look at how trials profit us, profiting from trials.

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I could easily bring out different parts out of this, so we'll look at this as a

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Part 1. I've got verses in chapter 1, verses 1 -3.

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Let's go there, please, and into the wonderful Word of God. Chapter 1, verses 1 -3, and I'll tell you what

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I'd like to do. We're going to look at 1 -3, but we're only going to look at one point today, okay?

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We're going to take our time through this. I believe it's necessary to squeeze out all the truth we can by God's help, and to meditate on it, to ponder on it, and not to rush through it.

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There's a lot of rich truth in every verse that we'll be seeing.

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Now, what I'd like to do is, let me start with chapter 1, verse 1, and I'd like to read through verse 8, because that is really where this is all put together, and that's his point, in a sense.

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And then there's a change -up on the perspective of the rich and the poor. And he goes in a different direction there, but all this, the greeting to the twelve tribes is in verse 1, and then verse 2, all the way to verse 8, is what

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James is basically speaking to us about, and profiting from trials, that's what he's speaking of.

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So let's start with verse 1, chapter 1. James, a bond -servant.

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Now, that in the original is a bond -slave, a bond -slave of God and of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad. Greetings.

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And then he says, in verse 2, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, or endurance, perseverance, pretty much.

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And then he says, but let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect, that's the word mature, mature and complete, lacking nothing.

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Good words. And then he adds this in verse 5, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

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But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

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For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. Well, he's straight to the point, isn't he?

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And then he says this in verse 8, he is a double -minded man, unstable in all his ways.

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Well, let's pray and let's seek the Lord once more for His help and guidance and His anointing for all of us here as we dive into this wonderful chapter.

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Our Father, we once again come before You as Your people, and Lord, we don't claim anything of ourselves here.

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Actually, without Jesus, we are absolutely nothing. If we have Him, we have everything.

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Without Him, we're nothing. Not only do we don't have anything or don't have eternal life if we don't have

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Christ, but without Christ, we are absolutely nothing. And we confess this,

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Lord, that outside of ourselves, everything that we do, we realize it is

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Your Holy Spirit that must do the work. So, Lord, I would pray help us, not only help us, give us the grace to see the truths here that's before us, help us to apply them to our lives.

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Lord, it's not enough to sit here and hear Your Word. We must be doers. As we just sung,

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Lord, trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.

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So, Father, You're more concern, really, for our holiness than just happiness in our character and what

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You're making us to be. So, Father, within this hour, I would pray that Your Holy Spirit would come anoint me as I speak, speak the words of truth and the words of life that would be edifying and encouraging to Your people.

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Lord, as I've already studied this, but, Lord, it's made me see, as I looked into the perfect law of liberty, the mirror of Your Word, I have such a long way to go.

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But, Father, I just pray that You would lift us all up to the heights of heaven.

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Help us to see things from this book as You speak to us from heaven's perspective, the eternal perspective that's far greater than this worldly perspective that we have so often.

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We're so infantile, Lord, in the way we see things.

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Lord, I confess myself, as I've studied this text before us,

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I'm such an infant before You. Lord, I have so much maturing to do.

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And, Lord, I know it's the trying, the various trials that You bring our way, not only in the past, but,

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Lord, in the present, that causes us to grow, that produces patience, that endurance, that perseverance, a means to an end, to build character in us,

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Lord. So, Lord, it's all about being like Jesus. This is not about us.

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It's about Christ. So, Lord, as we look to Him, Father, to the

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Anointed One, and to the same Holy Spirit that gave

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Him the anointing, I would pray, Lord, fall upon us and breathe upon us, enlighten us, give us ears to hear, give us eyes to see, and give us a heart to perceive, and that we may obey

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Your truth, all for the glory of God. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, first he begins by saying,

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James. He introduces himself, and we've already looked at pretty much who James is.

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He's the half -brother of the Lord Jesus, right? And he goes on to say that he's a bondservant.

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Now, in the original, you can check this out yourself, but in the original text, the early manuscripts, it was said he was a bondslave, a doulos of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, dispersed abroad.

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And he says, greetings. Well, we need to see the

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Spirit of God to help us in these great truths. Let me start off by saying this.

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Perhaps you might have seen a bumper sticker. I see bumper stickers quite often. I'm on the road quite often. You see some pretty sorry ones.

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You see some that have some truth to it. But I have seen this one before.

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You might have read this one. It says, when life hands you a lemon, make lemonade.

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And I said, well, it may sound quite trite at first, but there's some truth to it. When life gives you a lemon, make lemonade.

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Think about it. It's easier to smile at that statement, actually, than to practice it, isn't it, and chuckle like we're doing.

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But the basic philosophy is really sound, if you think of it. In fact, it's biblical.

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And we're going to look at that principle today. Throughout the Bible, there are people who turn defeat into victory.

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That's what it's speaking of. Trial into triumph, instead of being victims, they became the victors.

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They were the overcomers. And that's what we want to be. Jesus gives us that promise that we can be overcomers through him.

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Only through him. Not outside of him. It's only in Jesus that we can be overcomers.

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That humbles us. It doesn't make us strut, does it? I know so many Christians that think, well,

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I got the victory. Now I can strut. Wrong perspective. Get ready.

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Some discipline. You're getting ready to go to the woodshed. Usually that's what happens, if they're

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God's child. Throughout the Bible, there are many people that has turned defeat into victory.

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Trial into triumph, instead of being victims, they are the victors. And they became the victors. And that's what we want, isn't it?

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That's what we desire to be. It's not easy, is it? It's a hard road. Let's be honest about it.

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It is a hard road. I tell my wife quite often, I say, Christianity is tough at times.

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It is. There's hard commands. The way of the cross is hard. But it does lead home.

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The cost is great, but it is very rewarding. That's what we want to look at.

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And James tells us that we can have the same experience today. No matter what trials may be on the outside, there are external trials, as we will see in James chapter 1, verses 1 through 12.

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Or there are temptations on the inside. See, it's external and internal.

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And there's temptations on the inside in verses 13 through 27. And through faith in Christ, and let me say this, through Christ alone, we can experience the victory.

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The result of this victory is spiritual maturity. And our goal is to be more like Jesus in everything that we do.

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Of course, we're going to fail in that many times because we're not perfect, are we? Jesus was the only perfect man that lived.

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The result of this victory, again, is spiritual maturity. So that's the theme throughout this whole book.

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It doesn't come easy, like I said. There are no shortcuts to it, let me say, and I'm sure you know that.

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I don't believe there is a shortcut. If there is, I haven't found one. But, again, it is very rewarding, isn't it?

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Now, if we're going to turn trials into triumphs, we must obey four imperatives.

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There's no way we're going to get to all this today. Let me just kind of give you a little journey, a few guidelines of what we're going to see and the direction we're going into in Chapter 1.

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There are four imperatives given to us in Chapter 1. These four imperatives are, number one, the word count.

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The word count we see in this verse, verse 2. And second is to know.

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Notice in verse 3, knowing, or I should say knowing. Third is let, in verse 4.

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Let, that's an important word, let. There's a yielding in let, a submission.

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And that's in verse 4. And also you see that in verses 9 and verse 11 as well, in the submission.

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And fourth is ask, ask. We saw that, didn't we?

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Ask of God. There's the asking, there's prayer. And that is found in, yes, verse 6 and then you can look at this in verses 5 and I believe it's verse 8 as well.

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So there are four essentials for victory in these trials. We're going to look at one today, okay?

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It's a joyful attitude. The joyful attitude in our trials. And there's also an understanding mind.

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We're going to look at that next week. Because as I was looking and studying, I said, there's no way I can pull out everything out of the, just the joyful attitude.

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This is going to take up most of our time here today. So I won't even finish that.

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But we're going to look at today a joyful attitude. And then in part 2 we'll look at an understanding mind.

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We'll probably have a part 3 and a part 4, who knows. Because I've got two other points here

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I'd like for us to see. A surrendered will and a heart that's willing to believe.

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That's all packed in here. You see how packed he is? And that's the

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Holy Spirit. There's such simplicity here, but there is such depth.

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And that's the Word of God, naturally. So let's look at this main essential for victory, a joyful attitude.

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A joyful attitude. And then Lord willing, next week, we'll look at an understanding mind. That kind of connects with this.

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We'll look at some practical applications at the end of this. And I'll try to bring out 8 purposes for the

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Lord's allowing trials to come into our lives to see how they can and will profit our souls.

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And I gather that from John MacArthur. I think you'll be blessed by these points.

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These simple but very strong applications.

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So we'll see how they can and how trials can profit our souls.

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Verse 1, it's already been said, he's James, the half -brother of the Lord. He's a bond slave, or not a bond servant now.

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The Scripture says bond servant. There is a difference between a servant and a slave. Keep reading the book that Brother Chad has suggested.

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You'll see that. MacArthur brings out the points there. And it's very clear and evident. The difference between servants and slaves.

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You can see that throughout history. But from the biblical viewpoint, we must see it.

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What it ties in. Because this will change your life. Especially the way we view the

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Lord Jesus Christ and who He is. He is the Master, the Lord. And isn't it wonderful?

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You can see this. Paul brings this out. We were once slaves to unrighteousness. Slaves to sin.

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He brings this out in Romans 6. But we've changed masters, right? We're slaves now to righteousness.

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Or should I say to the righteous one. So we have a good master now.

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Not a terrible taskmaster. The devil is a hard taskmaster, isn't he?

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But we have a good master. So James is a bond slave. He's a bond slave of God and of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad. Or dispersed. Greetings, he says.

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Now he begins his letter by describing himself as a bond slave. Of God and of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. There's a connection. The word doulos, if you've been reading through the book.

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I think this test is perfect, isn't it? It ties in to us studying that. Even though I don't think they've kicked off yet.

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But they're heading in that direction, right Ben? But eventually they will in the prayer meeting.

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But the word doulos is a great, it's a huge word. It depicts a slave. And what it refers to in the context is now a slave to God.

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And that's what he's saying. He's a slave to God. And God is his master. And the

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Lord Jesus Christ is his master. Meaning he is a person, this is what it means to be doulos, a slave.

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Deprived of all personal freedom. That is basically a definition of slave.

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And totally under the control of his master. But it's willingly and lovingly.

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And there's a great difference. And the master that he's serving isn't a bad master. He's a great master.

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Matter of fact, he gives great rewards. Wonderful. Absolute obedience, that's what it's referring to.

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Loyalty to his master. Who provided him with food and clothing and housing.

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That's the way James is seeing this. Was required of every slave, every doulos. In contrast to servant, which would be different.

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Which was very relevant in that time period.

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The doulos was born a slave. Born a slave. He wasn't brought into slavery. He was born into it.

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What was he thinking of? He's born again into that.

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That's what he's saying. I've been born again. I've been born into this. James had become a doulos by the new birth.

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Through faith in Jesus Christ. To be a doulos, a slave of God, was considered a great honor, by the way, in Jewish culture.

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Such Old Testament patriarchs as you can refer to as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, David, Isaiah, Daniel, are all described as God's servants, in a sense.

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And they were great men of God. But if we go to the New Testament, you see Paul, Peter, Timothy, Jude, John, many others, and even our

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Lord Jesus Christ, who all bore the title doulos, slave, by taking that title.

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What was James saying? He's saying that he's numbered himself with those that are honored, not for who they were, but whom they served.

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You see, that is the key we cannot miss. Whom did he serve? The living

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God and the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm telling you, you bring that into your life, that is life -changing.

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That's what so many people in Christianity today fail to see. Who Jesus really is, who

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God really is, and who we really are. If we see that from the lens of Scripture, it will humble us and bring us to see, you know,

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I am yours, Lord. As Paul says, what do you desire?

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What do you want me to do? You say it. You give the command. You're the master, and I will obey.

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Wow, we need to hear that. That sounds so simple, but isn't it sad, isn't it tragic, that most

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Christians have no earthly idea of what you're talking about when it talks about being a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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But that's what James is talking about here. He introduces himself like this. And again, like I said, he didn't come on the scene as being...

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He was very prominent, by the way, in Jerusalem. He was a great church leader, but he didn't introduce himself like that.

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He didn't introduce himself as a half -brother of the Lord Jesus. He could have. He had bragging rights.

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But did he? No. We see his humility. He comes and he begins his letter.

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James, a bond slave of God. Isn't that beautiful? And of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I'm a doulos. And then he says this. James is writing to the 12 tribes that's dispersed or scattered abroad.

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Depends on your translation. It means the same thing. Scattered or dispersed abroad. Basically to the

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Jewish Christians. That's who he's speaking of. And so primarily his audience were those

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Jews who had fled because of persecution. Now, this is important to know because we understand why he begins writing about trials.

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Because his audience, the people of God, the persecuted

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Jewish believers, were undergoing sufferings and trials and hardships and persecutions because of their faith.

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That is very important to understand because we see his audience.

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It's always important to see the audience. And he gives them the confidence, the hope, the strength to endure these trials.

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I don't know about you, but if I'm going through a trial or a hardship, I want to be encouraged.

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I don't want to be beaten down. I need some hope. I need some encouragement.

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I need somebody to strengthen me. Because in those times of trials and hardships and sufferings and persecutions, oh, and isn't

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Jesus a master of knowing how to pick us up and encouraging us?

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Well, James does that. He's actually taken that part as his slave, his bond slave.

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Jesus, under the mastership of Christ, James gives them a series of tests throughout this book by which they could determine the genuineness of their faith.

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Now, to a lot of people that would discourage them, but that encourages somebody if you're a child of God.

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He gives greetings. Now, let's look at this, and this ties in. He knows, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, he says,

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Greetings. What does that word mean? It means rejoice. It's a word of gladness.

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It means be glad. He is basically saying this was a common secular greeting, but to James the word was more than just a mere formality.

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As we say hello, goodbye, how are you? He says greetings.

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It was more than that. It had a deep meaning because he was saying rejoice. That's how he begins this letter.

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He expected what he wrote to gladden his readers' hearts by giving them the means to verify the genuineness of their salvation.

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So James knew that he would provide a great comfort to them in their trials, and that's what these persecuted

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Jewish believers needed. They needed comfort in their trials, and to them in their trials, which really

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Satan persistently uses to try to make Christians doubt that they're

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God's children and fellow heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan is the accuser of the brethren.

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He wants us to make us think that we're not God's child. Think of that. In the midst of a hardship or trial, like Job, his old friends come about, and they were good until after the first week, and then they started opening their mouths, and then things really got bad.

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It tells you a lot about sin right there. But what

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James is doing here is to test the genuineness of their faith. Let me give an illustration here, and I think it's a good illustration.

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It's not original to me. I give other commentators and MacArthur the credits for this.

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The test of genuineness of a diamond. Think of that. It's a precious stone, isn't it? Jewelers often place it in clear water.

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This is what a jeweler would do, which causes a real diamond to sparkle with a special brilliance.

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This is so true. As I was reading this, I jotted it down. I said, this is such a beautiful illustration about the testing of our faith, whether it's genuine, real, authentic, or is it fake?

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Is it a fraud? Is it a phony? You know, if you want to buy a diamond, which we've got a couple of young men here, including myself, to these nice ladies whom they're married with, you want to buy a real diamond.

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You don't want to buy a fraud, do you? You don't want to pay all this money for a fraud. But when the two are placed side by side, the genuine and the fake, the fraud, even an untrained eye can easily tell the difference, if you really look at it.

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In a similar way, even the world, here's the point here, even the world can often notice the marked differences between a genuine

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Christian and those who merely just profess to be a Christian. There's a vast difference.

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And that's what, as with jewelers, think of this, as jewels, there's a noticeable difference in radiance in the stone.

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And especially when people are undergoing difficult times, many people have great confidence in their faith until it is severely tested, right?

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Isn't that where you and I are at times? Until our faith is really tested, we see how is it going to hold up?

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By the hardships, by the disappointments, by all the trials. And how a person handles trouble will reveal whether his or her faith is living or dead, right?

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Whether it's genuine or imitation. That's why I brought out that illustration.

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I thought it was really good. Saving or non -saving. So this is the great lesson that James, by the

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Holy Spirit, teaches us throughout this chapter. And the whole book, matter of fact. Jesus said this in the parable of the sower.

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He explained that those seeds that fell on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy.

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Now listen to this. Yes, Sister Lillian knows where I'm going here.

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Afterwards. And these have no firm root.

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Don't you know, people, that they first get it, but did it really take?

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Depends on the heart. See, the heart is really the soil. What kind of soil is going on here in the heart?

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Well, Jesus says they believe for a while. And in time of temptation,

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He says, testing, in time of testing, they fall away.

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And that, the seed, and the good soil, these are the ones who heard the word and the honest and good hearts hold fast and bear fruit with perseverance.

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And when Jesus is talking about good heart, don't misunderstand. You know what He's saying. He's not saying that the heart's good.

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He's saying the soil's good. That's what He's saying. The soil was good.

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It was good soil. And the seed fell on good soil. And you know this in agriculture. Nothing's going to happen with that seed.

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It's not going to grow and it's not going to bear fruit unless it's in the right soil. And this is the way it is in the

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Word of God. Jesus taught that way. James teaches this way. So therefore, anyone who lives in this world endures some measure of trouble.

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This is a consequence of the fall. And we heard Brother Ben this morning reading from Genesis chapter 3.

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I don't know about you, when he was going through chapter 3 of Genesis there, wow, so much was coming before my mind.

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The whole fall of man and thorns and thistles and everything that's happened, everything we see today with the violence and the shootings and the killings and the thorns and the thistles and the pain and the suffering.

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But you know what? The Son of God came as a man of sorrows and took all that upon Himself, didn't

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He? So wonderful how Jesus reverses everything. Well, getting back to James, since trials are so productive, it is essential for us to respond rightly to them.

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That's the tough part, isn't it? How will we respond to these trials? It is essential for us to respond rightly and James helps us.

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Now this is to be a help to us, right? A help. And that's why I want to take it slow and not for us to miss any gems.

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We don't want to miss it. So James helps us greatly in this chapter in chapter 1 verses 2 -12 by giving us the five key means to persevering through trials.

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Again, they are number one, a joyful attitude. Let me tell you once again. In verse 2, a joyful attitude.

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Second, we'll look at an understanding mind in verse 3. Third, we will look at a submissive will in verse 4.

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Fourth, a believing heart in verses 5 -8. And fifth, a humble spirit in verses 9 -11.

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And then he tells us of the reward of perseverance. There is a reward, aren't you glad? It's rewarding in verse 12 and that is the reward of perseverance.

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So these are the means of perseverance. The first is joyful attitude.

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Let's look at this joyful attitude. Here is the positive rather than the negative, right?

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It is a positive. He says, my brethren, count it all joy. When?

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It's not if, it's when. It's coming. It's inevitable. You will fall.

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The word fall means basically encounter. Now this is interesting. As I was studying this, you will encounter various trials.

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You know what various means? It means different colored. It can come in all different ways, shapes, forms.

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It's going to come. It's inevitable, but it can come in all different ways. It has all different colors.

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First he says, count it all joy. Count it all joy.

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Let's look at that. The Greek word for count may be also translated considerate. The better word would be evaluate.

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I think that's the right. Count, evaluate. Evaluate. It's a counting word, but considerate.

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The word considerate is imperative because joy is not the human response to trouble, is it?

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We don't all of a sudden get happy. We don't have good feelings, do we?

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When you're hit with hardships and persecutions. Honestly, let's look at it.

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It hurts. It hurts on the outside. It hurts on the inside. People look at you like, are you crazy?

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Are you going to tell me you're to rejoice? We're going to look at this, what God means.

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Christians are under divine command not simply to be somewhat joyful in their trials, but to look upon these trials with all joy.

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With all joy. Now, I'm not saying you're going to be like this

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Cheshire cat with a grin all the time and you get hit with all this stuff.

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I don't care much about Christians that happy, happy, happy all the time and say, well, you go through the trials and you need to just be happy.

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I used to say, you don't understand, Terry. You really don't understand. The Lord's not saying that.

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So we're going to look at that. Jesus was a man of sorrows, right? But yet,

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Jesus possessed the greatest joy of all. And he endured the cross, by the way.

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We're going to look at that for the joy that was set before him. James is speaking of a unique fullness of joy, by the way, that the

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Lord graciously provides. This is what he's talking about. In definition, he's talking about a fullness of joy that God, the

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Lord, graciously provides His children by His grace when they willingly, and it is a choice, by the way, there is a choice, there's a willingness within our heart and uncomplaining to endure our troubles while trusting in Him patiently as God is making us patient, endurance, and making us persevere, in other words.

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So regardless of the case, the type, or even the severity of the distress,

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I should say, one may be grouped in one or the other.

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Now, in his commentary, Pastor John MacArthur says this, and he says this, and I think this is great.

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We, this is MacArthur, we are not just to act joyful in reluctant pretense, like, you know,

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I just mentioned the person with a grin, like the Cheshire cat all the time, but to be genuinely joyful.

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It is a manner of the will, not of the feelings, and should be the conscience, determined commitment of every faithful believer, and should be because God commands it.

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That's the reason. And he goes on to say, it is within the ability under the Spirit's provision of every true

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Christian when faith in Jesus Christ is genuine. James assures us, even the worst of troubles can and should be caused for thanksgiving and rejoicing.

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Listen to what he's saying here. This is good. And he goes on to say this, the more we rejoice in our testings, the more we realize that they are not liabilities, but privileges.

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There's the positive right there. You get a hold of that, you got a hold of the gem.

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He goes on to say, ultimately beneficial. There's a purpose for it. That's what we got to see.

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What is God's purpose? He goes on to say this, and not harmful, God's a good

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God, right? He's not meaning to harm us like so many people think. See, it has a lot to do with our concept of God, doesn't it?

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MacArthur goes on to say this, and not harmful, no matter how destructive and painful the immediate experience of them might appear.

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I thought that was so good. I said, that got me so stirred up. I said, you know, this has everything to do with how we react to trials.

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And I don't know about you, I failed the test many times by complaining and groaning and moaning. I'm being honest.

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I said, Lord, why have you brought this into my life? And all along, God is smiling like the

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Heavenly Father and the good God He is, and saying, you know, all this is for your good. Like Joseph.

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It's meant for evil, but it's for your good. God is a good

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God, and He will go through any length to make us more like His Son, won't

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He? Just chiseling away. I think many times, you know, with a fine piece of art and making a sculpture,

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He takes the hammer, and He takes the chisel, and He's chiseling away. Bam, bam.

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Doesn't happen all immediately. A little at a time. A little at a time. God's doing this.

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He wants us to make us into the image of His Son, Jesus. It comes with a hammer and a chisel.

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It comes in painful experience. It does not come easy.

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I'm telling you, and many of you can speak. I know each one of you can speak in different levels of trials and different kinds of trials, but all together, these trials are meaningful, and they will profit us and make us into something good, and that's what the

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Father sees. We've got to see what God sees, and the only way we can see it is go to this book, beloved.

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We cannot see it outside of this book. You know, you can read good books.

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I think Brother Keith sent me a text this week and reminded me of what Spurgeon says. Read good books, but live in this book.

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That's how you can see right there. Spurgeon's right. Thank you, Keith, for that. I needed to hear that. So I read a lot of books, and I was reading these commentators, and they're good, but I'm telling you, when

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I read Scripture, the mirror of God's Word, I tell you what, I love

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John MacArthur and other commentators, and Spurgeon and all the rest, and they're great. I'm just being honest with you.

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But when I read the Word of God, there is something that hits my heart.

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I mean, these other good books, they inspire me, okay? They encourage me. They hit my mind, but I'm telling you, the

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Word of God hits my heart. It pricks me. It purges me. It goes after me.

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Luther said it. He said it's alive. It comes after you. It takes a hold of you. It's so powerful.

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It's alive. Amen. It hits to the soul, discerning of the thoughts and the marrow.

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It's so life -changing. And when I read this book, when I think it can count it all, joy, wow.

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When you fall into various trials, when, in other words, it's coming.

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There's no way we can escape it. So get ready. It's coming. The main thing is being prepared for it.

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While we're going through this, is help us, Lord, to be prepared. Now, there's something else here about trials.

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So when we do face trials with the attitude that James admonishes, we discover that the greatest part of the joy, and I thought about this, is drawing closer and nearer to our

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Lord. I think that's the key. That's the purpose of it, is getting to know

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God. There's some scripture I got to say. Why? Because God is the source of all joy.

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What does the scripture say? That the joy of the

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Lord is my strength. It's His joy. By the way, joy, is what

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Paul says, is a fruit of the Spirit. It's part of that fruit.

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Love, joy. It's there. In other words, it is something divine.

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It is a fruit that comes on the vine. The joy of the

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Lord is my strength, scripture says. And we become more and more sensitive to His presence, don't we? When we draw closer to Him, we get to know

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Him closer, more intimate. His goodness, we get to know more of His goodness,

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His love, His grace, and who He is. And our prayer... By the way, we're going to look at this later.

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Our prayer life increases to a new level, doesn't it? As our interest and study of the

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Word of God goes into a greater level. And each of those ways of our joy in Christ increases more and more and our love becomes greater and bounds more and more.

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It increases. Now everybody's familiar with Hebrews 12, verse 2.

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Our Lord Himself, what does He say? The writer of Hebrews says, for the joy, the joy that was set before Him endured the cross.

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How did Jesus Himself endure this cross? It was because of the joy.

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Even Jesus had to see the joy that was set before Him to endure this painful, agonizing cross that He took.

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Despising the shame, the sinners that scourged

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Him physically. All of that was taking place and Jesus took it all because of the joy.

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Beloved, think of that. I want you to think of that. He looked beyond the trial to the joy that was before Him.

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He knew that joy would be His when the trial was over.

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And I want to encourage you, if you're going through a trial today, it's only for a season.

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It's only. Amen. It is momentary. Amen. It is momentary compared to eternity.

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Think of this. And once we get to the resting place, we can rest on the other side of the river and we can lay down our weapons and our pruning hooks and all that and all the clashing swords and we can rest beside the

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Master and we can say it's worth it all. That's what we've got to see. We've got to see the other side of it.

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You know, Satan wants to keep us from this book, from seeing that. He is a deceiver.

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And Tozer is right. Anything that keeps me from this book is my enemy. I've got to see it that way because if it's going to keep me from hearing the truth and obeying the truth and reading the truth, first we've got to read it.

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In order to meditate on it, we've got to read it. We've got to make a willing effort in every way we can to read and study this book.

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So it will help us in our trials. Our trials, it's first season. So I want to encourage you to that end.

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So when the trial was over, and in Jesus' trial, the greatest trial of all,

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He had accomplished the glorious work that was divinely ordained, that God gave

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Him. It was a command that Jesus obeyed to go to the cross.

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That was the Father's command. And then the Scripture goes on to say in Hebrews, for consider

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Him, there's the word consider, who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

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That word lose heart means faint or give up. The Lord doesn't want us to give up.

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He wants us to be encouraged and go on and go forward. So the writer of the

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Hebrews goes on to say in verse 3, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood, and you're striving against sin.

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And then a few verses later, then he explains in regard to the parental discipline.

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I think this is going somewhere. Listen to what he says. The writer of Hebrews says this, for the moment it, speaking of the discipline, seems not to be joyful.

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You're not going to sit there and say it doesn't seem to be joyful, but it seems to be sorrowful.

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But yet those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

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There is a yielding. The fruit comes later on. It doesn't automatically come, does it?

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Like in growing an apple tree or a fruit tree. There's time. There's cultivation.

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There's rain. There's sunshine. There's seasons that change. And then finally the tree comes up and then finally there's blossoms and then there's fruit.

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You know, all that doesn't come automatically, does it? And the Lord gave us these things in creation to remind us in our spiritual state, these things do not come fast and easy.

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It comes with cultivation. It comes with much seasons of change. It comes with a lot behind it.

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So I want you to think of this. I just mentioned about Jesus as being our example in this. If our perfect Lord Jesus Christ could endure the unimaginable agony of a cross that He did not deserve taking the world's sin upon Himself, how can we not endure willingly and with thanksgiving the immeasurable lesser and deserved sufferings that test us from time to time?

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I want you to think of that. Jesus wasn't deserving of it. He took so much more.

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That convicts me. And here I am deserving of it. How much more should we take this patiently and joyfully?

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Now my next question is, you're probably saying, Pastor, how? Well, there's a lot of answers

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I guess I can give. Can we endure such testing? Bless these children's hearts. But anyway, how can we endure such testing?

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They're going through some testing, aren't they? I had to squeeze that one in.

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Anyway, one of the testing is by learning, right?

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These little ones are learning something right now, I can assure you of that. Go with me to Philippians chapter 4.

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Let's just look at this real quickly. Like I said, I knew I wasn't going to get far today on this, but let's go to Philippians.

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Now you know as well as I do, Philippians is the joy book epistle.

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It's the epistle of joy. What's the theme of the Philippians? Joy. You can honestly say it is joy.

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And you think, that's one of Paul's greatest epistles. And it's a small one. And if you look at it, he only packs in what?

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Four chapters? I think it's four chapters. He wrote this from a dungeon. He wrote this from a prison cell.

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Back then prison cells were pretty rough. Go with me to chapter 4, and let's look at just a couple of verses.

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Look at verse 11, and look at verse 12. Verse 11.

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Let's back up. Let's go to verse 9, and take it to verse 12. And he says this in chapter 4.

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Verse 10. Let's go to verse 10. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last your care for me has flourished again, though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity.

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Verse 11. Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned.

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There's the key right there. This is how he can do these trials. I have learned in whatever state

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I am to be content. You know, that's the ultimate test of being godly is being content, or should

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I say quality. To be content. Verse 12. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound.

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Paul knew this. Everywhere, and in all things, I have learned.

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Those are the words, underscore learned. Learned, amen. Both to be full and to be hungry.

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Both to abound and to suffer need. And then he says in verse 13,

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I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. See who he looked to? Jesus Christ.

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Christ was his ultimate example. But I love that where it says there that he has learned.

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He has learned. He's learned to be abased. He's learned how to abound.

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Paul knew how to get along with humble means, which was food, clothing, daily necessities. And he learned how to live in prosperity, to overflowing.

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But it did not affect his heart. He was content. How many times would this affect us?

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If we went from extreme poverty to great riches. Next thing you know, that person is thinking he's something he's not.

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And he's on a pedestal higher than the clouds. And God knows how to knock him right down.

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But see what I'm saying? Not to Paul. Not to Paul. He didn't allow that to inflate his head or his ego.

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He learned how to be full and how to be hungry. The Greek word here translated to be full was used of feeding and fattening animals.

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But Paul knew how to be content when he had plenty to eat, and when he was deprived of enough to eat.

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Think of that. Now that is godliness. That is a godly man.

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And he learns that from Jesus, by the way. Because he says, I can do all things through Christ. Not through my strength.

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It's not how spiritual I am. Paul knew his real spirituality came through Jesus Christ.

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Well, next would be by God's grace. By God's grace. We learn it, but it is by the grace of God, right?

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With nothing outside of God's grace. Go with me very quickly to 2 Corinthians 12. I think you know where I'm going to go on this.

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Let's look at Paul's thorn in the flesh. Let's see what Paul says about this. Chapter 12 of 2

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Corinthians. Did I say 1 Corinthians? I might have made a mistake there. 2

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Corinthians 12. Well, let's look at verses 7 through 10.

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Just a few verses. Paul says this, At least I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations.

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God had given him many revelations. Actually, he was the one that experienced the third heavens.

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He puts it in the third person. You think it's someone else. I remember being in Bible college in person.

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Ah, he's talking about somebody else. I said, no, he's talking about himself. But he didn't want to focus on himself.

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That I was going to go around like a Pentecostal and saying, oh, I've seen visions of God that you haven't seen.

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In other words, I'm greater, I'm more spiritual. Paul didn't think that way. He was a truly humble man.

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And actually, the whole book of 2 Corinthians is more of a defense of his apostleship. He speaks in the third person.

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In other words, he does not want to focus on himself. This is a dead man.

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He says, I've been crucified with Christ. He meant it. So what is he saying here?

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He's saying, at least I should be exalted. I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations.

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A thorn in the flesh was given to me. You know what a thorn is. It hurts.

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It's painful. A messenger of Satan to buffet me.

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At least I... There it is again. He repeats it again. I be exalted above measure.

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You know, this man right here was a godly man because he feared sin. He feared pride.

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He feared being on top of it, of the mountain. He wanted to be humble. He wanted to be brought low.

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Well, God said, I'm going to give you many things to keep you down. And it's called suffering.

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And Jesus told Ananias, that right when Paul was chosen, many things he would suffer for my name's sake.

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He's a chosen vessel. He's chosen to suffer. Verse 8, concerning this thing

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I pleaded. And it hurt Paul. And he pleaded with the Lord.

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It must have been very painful for Paul to plead with God. With the Lord. Three times, he says, it might depart from me.

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Three times. In verse 9, he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

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God would not remove that thorn. He left that thorn in his side to keep him humble.

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Because that was the best place for Paul to be. He didn't want him to be exalted.

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So God answered his prayer there. And God says, I'm going to give you grace. I'm going to give you my favor to get through this pain.

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You know, that's why we're going on trials. God gives us grace to help us through these trials. And then, listen to what he says.

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And notice what he says here. This ties into our subject today so clearly.

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Paul says, therefore, most gladly. You get it? Most gladly,

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I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

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Notice that. He looked at sufferings and infirmities and afflictions and persecutions.

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This man was beaten. Look at his life. He was whipped. He was beaten.

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He was shipwrecked. He went through a lot. Not only physically on the outside, but inside he saw false teachers that were taking

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Christ's name falsely, preaching another gospel. He hurt inwardly. And yet, he said, all these things for me is that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

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He understood this. And notice where he goes with this. Therefore, I take pleasure.

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There's the word right there. He most gladly, he says, first of all, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities.

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And then in verse 10, he says, therefore, I will take pleasure in my infirmities. How many people want to say that?

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Wow. What a man of God. I'll tell you what, one of the greatest men of God that ever lived in reproaches and needs and persecutions and distresses, for Christ's sake, was it for Paul's sake, for Christ's sake, for when

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I am weak, then I'm strong. He understood. Amen, brother,

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I'm telling you. That is very powerful because he understood the weaker he was, the stronger in Christ he was.

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In other words, it's almost like this. You hit me with everything you've got.

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All you're doing is doing me a privilege and a favor. You stone me.

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If God wants me home, he said it. He says, to live is Christ, to die is gain.

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You're doing me a favor. He didn't fear death. This man didn't fear nothing but God and sin.

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I'm telling you, this man was a man that was dead to this world. This is so convicting to me because how worldly bound are we, how much we pamper ourselves and we cry when we have a little tribulation, like Rabiniel says, we burn the bacon.

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And we start crying about that. You see what I'm saying? We're so pampered. We're just so easy

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Christians. This man right here was the man that said to young Timothy, you endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, as brother

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Keith read this morning. You endure hardship as a good soldier. Wow. We can go on right there.

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That's just one example I'd like to bring out about this is how we can learn. It's by God's grace.

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God's grace is sufficient. So trials become... Wow, my time's already gone.

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How in the world? So trials became as much as... That's my trial right now is this time.

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I'm not going to have enough time to bring out all this I need to. He knew

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Paul joyed in all this because it was a blessing to him. If anything

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I could say today, look at a trial that you're facing with joy and positive.

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That is so hard, isn't it? But it is so true. Look at the other side of glory, that God in His goodness has designed it for our good.

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I tell you, if you get a hold of that, you can go through anything. Amen. Amen, brother.

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Now, Paul joyed in that. The trials was like a blessing to him.

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He knew they drew him closer to the Lord of glory. It allowed him the privilege of having fellowship with the

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Lord's sufferings. Doesn't he say that in Philippians 3 .10? That I may know

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Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.

01:00:02

He understood that. And they were divine means for keeping him humble, as we just read.

01:00:09

And even the apostle Peter encourages his reader. Peter said the same thing, addressing the audience that was suffering under trials.

01:00:18

1 Peter 2 .20. This is Peter in 1 Peter 2 .20. What credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience?

01:00:31

But if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it.

01:00:38

This finds favor with God. There is grace right there. Jesus said this.

01:00:45

And I believe, brother Keith, you sent me this text this morning. Jesus reminds His disciples, remember the word that I said to you.

01:00:52

A slave is not greater than his master. This is powerful. If they persecuted me,

01:01:00

Jesus says, they will also persecute you. It's coming. If they persecute the master, how much more will they persecute us?

01:01:11

But how wonderful. And I want to pretty much end with this. And this will be an introduction maybe to next week.

01:01:17

I'm sorry. I did not get a chance to get into everything I wanted to. But time's gone. But listen to what

01:01:23

Jesus says. How wonderful one day to hear our Lord Jesus say as to what

01:01:28

He said to His disciples long ago just before He was arrested in the

01:01:34

Garden of Gethsemane and went to the cross to bear the sin of the world.

01:01:41

This is what Jesus said. You are those who have stood by Me in My trials.

01:01:48

And just as My Father has granted Me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom.

01:02:00

Wouldn't you love to hear Jesus say that? There is nothing greater than that.

01:02:09

I'm telling you, you get a hold of that and compare that with trials today.

01:02:16

As Paul says, all the trials that he went through was like nothing compared to eternity.

01:02:26

The eternal worth is far glorious. Paul went through more trials than we would ever go through.

01:02:36

And the way he looked at it at the divine scale, he put all these trials on one side and the eternal glory on this side and the eternal glory is like this.

01:02:45

Wow! It outweighs them far more exceedingly.

01:02:53

And the people of the world wonder why a true Christian rejoices. There you go.

01:03:01

Jesus is worth it all. Oh, what a cost there is yet.

01:03:07

And Paul knew the cost. Jesus told us to count the cost and when we present the

01:03:12

Gospel to others, we need to give them the cost. Does it get better?

01:03:18

It does not get better. In the prosperity Gospel movement, they say that it gets better and better.

01:03:24

The best life now. They're in reverse. They're giving you another Gospel.

01:03:30

Amen. I mean, there's sufferings. There's a pain. There's a cross. That's the

01:03:36

Gospel. But Jesus is worth it all, isn't He? Jesus is worth it all.

01:03:41

We should take joy in this. That He even has counted us worthy to be partakers with Him of His holiness.

01:03:52

That we're partakers in His sufferings. That we're partakers in everything. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus.

01:04:01

And we share in it. Guess what? We're going to share in His glory too. That's what you've got to get a hold of is

01:04:09

His glory. This should be the source and motive of our joy. Well, Warren Roosby said it like this in his commentary.

01:04:19

Our values determine our evaluations. If one value... I'm sorry.

01:04:25

If we value comfort more than character, then trials will upset us.

01:04:33

If we value the material and physical more than the spiritual, we will not be able to count it all joy.

01:04:44

He goes on to say this. And if we live only for the present and forget the future, the trials will make us bitter and not better.

01:04:55

That is so true. That is so, so true. So may we take it in like Job 13 .15

01:05:01

says. Job understood it. When all that came on Job, God was ultimately the one that was allowing it.

01:05:13

See, he got that. We see the other side of it that he didn't see, but he knew it. And he prayed,

01:05:21

Though He slay me, I will yet trust in Him. I will yet have hope in Him.

01:05:28

Though He slay me. Think of that. So, look at how

01:05:34

Job was slayed. It was first season, by the way. But God brought the reward.

01:05:42

He even said He knows the way I take. And when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

01:05:48

That's what Job says. Paul says it. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed.

01:05:59

May we have the eternal perspective and see the glory on the other side. When God allows trials to come our way,

01:06:07

He does it for our good. Every joy and trial comes from above.

01:06:14

All of it. We believe in the sovereignty of God, right? And we need to live it.

01:06:21

So, Lord willing, next week, we'll look more into how we can profit from our trials on part two.

01:06:27

Let's pray. Father, we just embarked on this great study.

01:06:32

And there's so much here before us. Lord, as James points out in Your Word, may we count it all joy.

01:06:45

Not if, but when we fall into all various colors of trials that come our way.

01:06:53

The troubles. These things that break the pattern of peace and they break the pattern of our comfort and they paint supposedly our joy, but we know where the eternal joy lies.

01:07:06

It breaks the pattern of our happiness in someone's life. But, Father, we know what

01:07:11

Your Word says. It puts us to the test and it helps us to test our faith whether it's going to produce patience, whether it's going to make us bitter or better.

01:07:27

It's how we respond to it. So, Father, as we look at this, every trial becomes a test of faith designed to strengthen us.

01:07:36

This is a positive thing. So, if we as believers fail the test by wrongly responding, that test then becomes a temptation.

01:07:47

It's a solicitation to the evil. So, Father, help us not to fail the test.

01:07:55

May it prove that our salvation is genuine and authentic like the diamond in the water in comparison to the fakes and the frauds.

01:08:08

And most of all, Father, in the end, it produces endurance, perseverance.

01:08:15

Through these tests, Lord, we as believers learn to withstand all these things, the pressures of trials until,

01:08:29

Lord, You in Your time remove it as an appointed time. Even cherish the benefits.

01:08:34

Oh, Lord, this is so difficult for us. Because I see, Lord, and even in my own life, we're too earthly minded, we're too worldly minded, we're not eternally minded as we should be.

01:08:47

Help us to grow. Grow up in the full stature and the measure of Jesus Christ.

01:08:53

And we would ask for Your grace in this. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen and amen. Praise the