I don't know, I think we'd rather have it some other way, wouldn't we? No, we want God's way, and God's way is the best way, and let's not doubt him, but let us accept from him, when trials and troubles are our portion, God doesn't send them to us to defeat us, but to show us his glory, and to strengthen us in the fight, praise the Lord, my strength is made perfect at weakness, now, I don't know if the apostle experienced that before, that trial, it wasn't as real to him anyway, and he, oh boy, he got after God, his thorn in the flesh, three times I asked him to get rid of that thing, it doesn't belong to an apostle, you know, and God said, my grace is sufficient for you, my strength is made perfect in weakness, and then he tells us God allowed it, that he might not get exalted, because God had given him such marvelous revelations of his glory, and of himself, that he was in danger of being exalted, and being feeling, I must be somebody special, you know, and God, in his great mercy, dealt with him, and then he found out, oh, I'd rather be weak then, that the power of God may rest on me, I don't want to get blown up, that God has to cast me aside, but I'd rather be weak, and trust him, and live in his presence, and just reckon with him, and so the James gets right to the point, right away, with you, and with me, and he tells us now, fellas, brethren, brethren, don't get discouraged, God's working, that's a sign that God is working, hallelujah, we think it's a wonderful sign when God is working, when we have no trial, no trouble, nothing at all, then we're right in the will of God, but just the contrary is true often, God's way with us is to teach us to become strong in faith, giving glory to God, I like that, I want to learn that better, and I know he wants to teach me better, hallelujah, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, I press on, by his grace, hallelujah, we used to sing, I shall not be, I shall not be moved, you know, they sang that song, and I'd think, oh come on, that's a ditty, but one day it dawned on me, God is looking for people that don't move, that are like a tree planted by the water, and they have their roots deep, and they don't move, they don't have to, they're rooted in God, now that's what God would like to work in all of our hearts more perfectly, I'm thankful, aren't you, can't we rejoice over that, praise the Lord, and then the apostle goes on here, of course, and teaches us some things, and he said, if you don't understand God's dealing with you, you lack wisdom, ask God for wisdom, God giveth liberally, and he won't upbraid you, and say, oh you ought to know that better than that, but he'll show you, he'll unfold his way to you, and then he says, let that man ask in faith, not wavering, any man that wavers is like the waves of the sea, they go up and down, toss around, he said, don't let that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord, now there's something about prayer there that's precious, what is we read in Mark about prayer, believe that you receive, and ye shall have, I must come to God in faith, I must be positive in my request, and not say, well maybe, maybe, and you know, doubt about it at all, if my faith is built upon the promise of God, what God has said, why God wants me to take a stand there, and say, Lord, I expect you to deal with me, to answer my prayer, I pray to you, I ask you, and you have promised to give, and God doesn't want me to waver then, maybe I have to wait a while, but he'll come through, he'll answer, and we shall receive his glory, and the apostle writes about those things, about believing God, and praying in that way, that we don't doubt, but we believe, and receive from God, then he goes on here, and talks a little bit more about the person that's tried, and tested, he said, when the, when we're really, patience has had its work in us, we'll come forth as pure gold, we'll really, God will work in us, and he is always working toward that end, your perfection, dear Lord, we talked about the God of Jacob, the other day, or these days, we've been thinking of him, and God taking that crooked stick, but God wanted to show what God can do, not what Jacob can do, he was really a foxy guy, and always trying to take advantage of things, until God had to help him, and God did, God didn't give up, and that's what encourages me, hallelujah, he doesn't quit with me either, and with you, but he'll work in us, and he'll cause us to be changed, because he loves us so much, hallelujah, now don't think when you're tried, it's a sign God doesn't love you, that's the devil, he tries to put that over on you, why if God loved you, why, my goodness, this wouldn't happen to you, no, and just the opposite, you can say, I'm in my father's caping, in my father's care, and he loves me, and I know he loves me, and he has a way out for me, he'll make a way of escape, that I may be able to bear it, every time, and that way is Jesus Christ, hallelujah, isn't that wonderful, it really is, and then the apostle goes on, and talks about trial, temptation, when we're tempted to do evil, he said, God doesn't tempt any man to evil, don't think you're tempted by God, but you're tempted by your own lusts, and your own nature, and the fleshly old man, something rises up there, and tempts us, and when he talks about how that begins, the temptation, and then we yield to it, and it brings forth sin, and sin brings forth death, my, that's something, but God doesn't tempt us to do evil, but when I'm tempted, there's something in me that isn't clean, maybe, you ever notice that, we were at, right up in Germany, and they were telling me, oh, we don't use screens on our windows, we don't need them, boy, and here we were having dinner, at this house, and flies kept coming in the window, and sitting on the food, and they have to shoo them away, and then they had these things, they cover it a little bit, you know, it was a pasty place, I look out of the window, there's the mischaufen, and you don't know what that is, do you, manure pile, they have that in the front yard, because that's their pride and joy, you know, and they dump that right there, outside the window for the dining room, and the flies were coming in there, you want to get rid of the flies, you get rid of the mischt, yeah, you get rid of the manure pile, and that's the way it is, sometimes, with our hearts, we are tempted, and tempted again, it's good to get to God, and say, God, what is there in me, something is there, that is drawing these flies, that's not right, and God will cleanse us, and deliver us, and he tells us here, this temptation that comes, and you can't play with temptation, God doesn't want us to, we want to escape, and he does help us to do that, and sometimes, we find that the best escape is to run away, get away from there, not play with it, not think, I can be strong, and I can overcome this temptation, I've seen that devastation that's worked by that idea, I can overcome this, I can handle this, and that's one of the great needs today, in our world, we get this idea, I can handle it, but then you don't handle it, I was reading statistics this week, about high school girls, that feel they can handle it, and they told us the statistics were, how many of them got into trouble on a date, they couldn't handle it, they thought they could, I can handle it, it's best to avoid those places, where there's temptation, and as Joseph ran away, and others we find run away, Paul tells the young men to flee youthful lusts, run away, don't try to stand up there and fight, but flee to Jesus Christ, and he will come to you, and he'll make you victorious, thank God for that, but here he talks about all these things, that come our way, and we can learn, we can see, hey wait a minute, that's my trouble, I don't want to go into that any further, so we'll stop there now, but you know enough instances yourself, and we need to learn these lessons folks, yield not to temptation, yielding is sin, each victory will help you another to win, oh I tell you, God has victory for us, and sometimes there's something that we need to be cleansed from inwardly, get out of our lives, we practice sometimes things that are defiling, and we think, oh that doesn't bother me too much, if you want to read something, read F .P. Meyer's book on maimed Christians, it's one of the finest chapters dealing with purity of heart, if you're right -handed, you cut it off, cast it from you, your eye, pluck it out, sounds very radical, but he'll go on and tell you there are people that don't go to the Museum of Modern Art, you see all these paintings of naked figures there, and it tempts them, so they don't go, and I know there are people that don't go to certain places, because they realize I'm facing temptation there, and rather than try to everything, why they'll say I have to avoid that, you'll have to excuse me, I'm not going to go there, not going to open myself to that, and you know those, he calls those the maimed Christians, those that have cut off those things, there are a lot of things, my friend, that you can't do, and God will show you the things you cannot do, you may be in trouble, some of us, and constantly being defeated, and God shows us, cut it off, sometimes it's a friendship, and we're led astray by some friend of ours, cut it off, get rid of it, don't yield, don't play with it, and here we're warned about these things, and so James is right, right, very modern fellow, talked about our other thing, he goes on to then, to speak about the word of God, he said, you know, we ought to receive with meekness the engrafted word that is able to save our souls, I like that expression, I know my brother Willie here, he understands that, somebody told me how he came and fixed up a pear tree for them years ago, I don't know how many grafts he put in that tree, got real wonderful pears, graft right in, and they all took, and he says, you should see my pears now, well, it became a part of the tree, was engrafted in there, grows, becomes a part of it, and somehow I believe God would like his word to become a part of me, and he'd like to plant it in my heart in such a way that it takes a hold of me, and that engrafted word, I should say, God, God, give me your word, make that word real to me, help me to obey it, help me to walk in it, let it become my portion, you know, it's a marvelous thing that God will do that, and then he talks about the fellow that looks in the mirror, sees himself, and then forgets what he looked like, I guess we've all had that experience, sometimes they get out, and my wife says, your hair's standing straight up, glad I have her to tell me, I look in the mirror, I see it, but I forget it, and so, you know, he says, that's the way a fellow that reads the word, and looks into the Bible, and doesn't do it, he deceives himself, that's the sad part, we're fooling ourselves, but then he talks about the man that looks, he deeply into that law of liberty, and he continues therein, he abides and meditates in it, that man will be blessed in his deed, thank God, what are we, hearers of the word, or are we doers of the word, you can come to meetings like this, and hear them again, and again, and again, and never really act on them, and that's a sad thing, but there's a possibility, it's not enough for me to hear, not enough for me to have a whole notebook full of notes, and all kinds of things, you know, and I think I know, I've got to translate that into action, and God has come that I might do those things, and that's where we're changed, by this living word of God, and as he goes on in the chapter, he talks about the things that are negative, we've been talking about the things that belong to a Christian, so we ought to live, and now he talks about two things that are negative, and he says the person that doesn't bridle his tongue, his religion is vain, say that's quite something, isn't it, how about it, we may know an awful lot, and still God says it's all in vain, it doesn't lay hold of you, it doesn't grip you, it doesn't change you, God wants to change us, and he wants to control these tongues of ours, and bring us under his control, but that person, no matter who he is, can be as spiritual as he wants to try to be, and impress people with his spirituality, if he doesn't bridle his tongue, it doesn't amount to anything, that's strong preaching, isn't it, aren't you glad you don't have to go to James Church, well you've got the book here anyway, but now he says pure religion, and undefiled before God is this, that we visit the widows, and the orphans, and their affliction, and we keep ourselves unspotted from the world, that pleases God, white garments, oh say, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh, Jude says, pull them out of the fire, but our garments, God wants them to be clean all the time, spotless, pure, hallelujah, and so we have this first chapter, and we ought to meditate in it, we ought to take it to heart, you ought to read it over, and say, my God, talk to me, and he's got a lot of things to tell us, hallelujah, but let us learn to believe God, shall we, is the Lord able to count on me, this year the Lord gave me that text in Hebrews 2, for our assembly, we ought to give them more earnest things to what we've heard, lest at any time we may let them slip, and the idea is there, we drift away from them, have you ever been in a boat fishing or something, and the boat drifted, they didn't have an anchor, and it just drifted along, and you were so occupied with your fishing, you didn't notice how far you drifted, but the current carried you away, it's very, you know, it doesn't make any noise, it's very easy to drift, and we must give more earnest heed to the things that we have heard, they drift away, we drift away from them, if you just think a minute, how far has the church drifted away from what we had as a testimony 25 years ago, I don't know, of course, maybe you know better than I, but you know, some of our things are growing dim, the testimonies, Christian Missionary Alliance, they got pretty, pretty fresh, some of the ministers, why do you still publish that book, the Lord for the body, that's error, they said, that A .B. Simpson's book, and you're responsible for promoting an error, can you imagine that, and another fellow, that's just paper doctrine, we don't experience that anymore, it's only on paper, well, they really got stirred up, and immediately the president had printed a book on divine healing, and offered it to anybody that was interested, and he prepared, I think, 400 copies, and he had several thousand ministers write in, they wanted that book, and he saw why we've neglected something, and then they printed the book we gave out at Christmas, Healing Voices, what testimonies, marvelous testimonies of healing, and God is the same, but we drift away from these truths, and maybe we don't preach them often enough, and persistently enough, maybe the preaching, the fault of the preacher, but we're so apt to drift away from holiness unto the Lord today, and compromise so many things, and we have to pay earnest heed to the things we've heard, and if the Lord tells that to us, we ought to take it to heart, and say, I need to pay earnest heed, I need to really give myself to his word, and become a doer of the word, and live in the word, and let that word be engrafted into me, and become part of me, that my whole life is gripped by it, and I live by it, and you know, I see that, and that verse has stayed with me, because I've watched everywhere you go, you find you don't have to do anything at all to drift, that current carries you along, and the world will carry us away from the things of God, if we're not awake, and know that we have to give earnest heed to the things we've heard, and hang in there, so let's do that, shall we?