If you would open your Bibles this morning to the letter of James, we've begun a series last time on this letter. You will find it after Hebrews and before 1 Peter, page 1288 in your pew Bible. As we considered last time, briefly, James' first readers had been driven away from Jerusalem. Persecution was running wild, and they had been pushed away from their homes, from mother church, from their livelihood, into circumstances that were likely not very happy to live among people who were often not their friends. And James wrote this letter to Christians in that circumstance, facing life's trials, and he knows that this letter will be read by many who are in the midst of trouble. And even so, after the briefest of greetings, James opens with this command, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. What do you think? Does that sound harsh? You've got to be kidding, James. How could you be so heartless? Or does it seem fitting? Buck up now. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, get going. What do you think? James is saying this to you. And now that he has our attention with the equivalent of a left hook to the jaw, we have to step back, slow down, listen carefully to what he has to say to us, what God has to reveal to us through him that will revolutionize how we as Christians go about facing life's trials. And that's his goal. So here now, the Word of God from James, chapter 1, beginning in verse 2. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He's a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. But the lowly brother boasts in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. When the sun rises with the scorching heat and withers the grass, its flower falls and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive a crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. And so ends the reading of God's word this morning. Well, in these verses, James shows us that by faith in Christ, we can face life's trials regarding them with joy, believe it or not. Trusting God who is working in them and responding to God with confidence through them. In the first place, facing life's trials involves regarding them with joy. This is hard. It doesn't feel easy. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. Perhaps you've had that spoken to you when times were really tough. It wasn't very well received. But it does come to us as a command. It comes to us as Christians. My brothers, James said. It comes to the adopted sons of God who through faith have Christ as our eldest brother. And from time to time, and especially in James, he's going to refer to you all all the time as my brother. And I don't want the women to feel slighted. He's not a sexist. He calls you brothers, men. He calls you brothers, women, because in Christ you are sons of God. rightful heirs to what Christ has accomplished. And that's what he's speaking to you. When he speaks to you as brothers, he speaks to you as those who are part of the household of God, those who will enjoy the blessings of Christ both now and forever. So when you hear this, because I don't want to, brothers and sisters and brothers and sisters, that's not the point. The point is you're brothers in Christ to inherit. And I will use his language, and I don't want you to feel slighted in the least. Because it's through faith in Christ that all the sons of God enjoy equal standing. There is no Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free. In Christ, we're all equals. We're all sons of God. We're all brothers of Christ. And in him, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. That's where James begins. Whenever you hear him speak to you as brothers, he wants you to remember that's how he sees you. That's how he sees those who are listening. And he makes a point of this equality in verses 9 through 11. It seems out of place in this text, but I believe he's trying to make a point that sets up things he does later in the letter, and that is, my brothers, you're equal. Whether you have a little or whether you have a lot, you're equals. And so he says in verses, beginning in verse 9, he opens with this command, he says, Let him boast. You don't see that in English. It gets lost. Let him boast. Who? Who boasts? Let the lowly brother boast in his high position. And let the wealthy brother boast in his humble position. Both the lowly and the exalted in this world have found a new position in Christ. And it's the same. So brothers in Christ, by whatever measure you choose, whether by status or by riches, whether by your beauty or your strength, by your intelligence, by whatever, the only ground we have to stand on as Christians for boasting is the position that we have in Christ. If you have little in this world, you have reason to boast in Christ because in your place he humbled himself even to the humiliation of a cross so that in him you might be exalted as a son of God and inherit the kingdom of God. And if you have much in this world, you too have reason to boast in Christ who in your place never gave in to the cares of this world and never gave in to the deceitfulness of riches so that he was exalted in high and you have become humbled to be brought into the kingdom. Something that is impossible, Jesus said, for the rich man to do. With God, all things are possible. And in Christ, he's done this for you. So as a Christian, we can only boast in this status because as sons of men, like flowers of the grass, we'll pass away. For the sun rises with the scorching heat and withers the grass, its flowers fall and its beauty perishes. Exult in the Lord, boast in the Lord, because everything you know in this life is going away. And here James is drawing on Isaiah chapter 40, where God makes it plain that this refers to all flesh. Every one of you, be included. Our days are numbered. They will pass away. And all that we hold dear in this world will wilt, shrivel, and carry. But James adds a special reminder to those who have much in this world because when we have much and in America we have much and you'll see this throughout his letter he's concerned for us who have much that we might be tempted to think that we're exempt from this and so he adds so also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits right when he thinks he's on top just when he's got it all under control God will remind. So his point here, opening up, is he's addressing brothers in Christ who stand on equal footing with one another, regardless of what you have in this world. And he says to you, count it all joy when you meet trials. And notice that he does not say if you meet trials, but when you meet trials. Here's a newsflash. Some of you know it already. In the course of your life, you're going to have trials. Young people don't feel like it so much. But you have your own. and more are coming they come to us in ways that we don't expect we pray today and we often pray for those who experience the trials of illness and what not those come right to mind but you know the trials of life come to us through people and they come to us through circumstances they come to us in our own homes in this church in our schools at work, on the highway on the TV People come to you and circumstances come to you that are trying, that are difficult. No one's immune. No one gets a pass. Trials of various kinds are coming to a theater near you. And they have been designed specifically for you. Again, we mostly recognize those things that come because of some sort of lack. We recognize when things are missing. We know what it is to lack money, the ability to earn, the things that it can buy. When we lack our health and we're in pain or we have sickness or we're disabled, we witness death, lack of power. This is a big one today, is it not? Lack of power, political and social. The church feels helpless. Lack of peace because of conflict in our families. Conflict in our workplace. Conflict with our friends. Conflict in the world. But in the course of this letter, James is going to show us that trials also come through plenty. They come through the things, the good things that God gives us. They come, and in our flesh they become enticements to sin. So James would have us pray with Agur from Proverbs chapter 30 when he prays, Give me neither poverty nor riches. feed me with the food that is needful for me lest I be full and deny you and say who is the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God you see there's trials on both ends there is no escape in this world and so back to the beginning whenever you experience or however you experience a trial, you are to count it all joy, my brother. Not feeling very happy yet, Pastor. Sounds tough. Well, the key here is that James tells you to count it all joy. To reckon it all joy. In other words, to do the math. To look at this thing from every perspective until you discover and are convinced of the truth that whether it comes through people or circumstances, Whether it comes through lack or plenty, every trial is caused for joy because of where it comes from and because of what it's for. Every trial comes from the same person and every trial serves the same purpose. Which leads us into our second point and that is facing life's trials involves trusting God who's working. Trusting God who's working. In verse 3, James tells you why you can count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various sorts. He says, for you know. You know something. Or at least you should know something. But the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Christians, you can know, you can be certain that every trial tests you. And it's God who's doing the testing. Now your heart may sink a little bit when I say that. especially if you think God's test is some sort of standardized test against which you are being graded for your performance. We've already failed that test. We're sinners. We can't pass that test. God doesn't grade on the curve. So you need to know that's not the kind of test that he's talking about here. The testing God brings through trials is of a different sort and it's reserved for his children. It's reserved for his sons, those to whom he has already given perfect righteousness in Christ, who has stood the test, the standardized test. He brings this other test into our lives for a further purpose. The testing that he brings in trials can be likened to the testing that occurs in a blast furnace. Now, I don't suppose many of you here have ever seen a blast furnace. It's really hot. It's what a goldsmith will use to test gold, to prove gold. When you get that 14 carat on your gold necklace or that 24 carat on your gold ring, that tells you how purified that gold is. The goldsmith uses the furnace to heat the gold that's found in ore in order to reveal it, to have it come out, and to extract all the impurities so all that's left is pure gold. God uses trials to test and to prove our faith in the same way. He uses people and circumstances to reveal in us the faith that he's given us, to refine it so that it becomes more and more pure, stronger and more certain, more stable, more beautiful, more usable for Him. This testing requires care, expertise, a lot of heat, and a lot of patience. And it's in this way that God produces steadfastness in us. Steadfastness is a big word for patient endurance. He develops in us the endurance to keep on going when the going is tough. that strengthens our desire and empowers our effort to live more and more as he calls us. The endurance that puts into practice what we say, confession of faith, in what we do, our life. And as we read through James, that is James' major concern. As we wake up to the fact as brothers in Christ that we have been given this gift of faith that needs to be revealed and needs to be refined. And the way that God does that in our lives is through trial. Now fire is hot and children you know you don't play with fire. And so by nature and by nurture from our youngest age when things get hot, when things get uncomfortable we want to go away. By nature we want to avoid it. We want to put it out if we can. We want to control it if we must and we want to ignore it if we can get away with it. That's how we see trials. None of us here looks to walk into the furnace. But knowing this, James urges us in verse 4, he says, Let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Again, back to the goldsmith picture. The goldsmith refines gold for a purpose. He doesn't do it for fun. He does it to accomplish a pure product so that he can mold it into something that is perfect and complete. He has a purpose for His fernance. And God is refining your faith for a purpose so that He can mold you into someone who is perfect and complete. God's working on you in your trial. And He has a purpose to make you perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. And this is what Paul is getting at in Romans 8.28, probably one of your favorite verses. Romans 8, 28, where those who love God are given this promise. All things work together for good. I love that verse. When you step back with Paul, like we step back from James, we discover that the things that God uses for that good include sufferings in this present time. Includes tribulation and distress and persecution, famine, nakedness, sword, danger, hot fire. And in all these things and in every other trial, you can trust that God is working through every person and circumstance to reveal your faith, to refine your faith, to produce endurance in your obedience and to accomplish the good that He promises you in 828 and that He reveals and identifies in 829, which is to conform you to the image of His Son. This takes heat. This takes time. This takes His perfect care of you to bring you to that place. And it's always been so. Psalm 66, just really, James had to be looking at it. I'm sure he knew it. Just listen to these verses from Psalm 66, just for a minute, with this in mind, that God's at work through the pressures and the trials to create in us something beautiful, perfect, and complete. Hear the psalmist. Bless our God, O peoples. Let the sound of his praise be heard, who has kept our soul among the living and has not let our feet slip. For you, O God, have tested us. And you have tried us as silver is tried. The same picture, silversmith. You brought us into the net. You laid a crushing burden on our neck. You let men ride over our heads and we went through fire and through water. You did all that for us and we bless you, God, for you have brought us out to a place of abundance. That's the picture that James would have us see, that in our trials, God is doing that very same thing. He has always been working through trials to sanctify his people. And he will continue to do so for each of his own, for each of you until you receive what James promises in verse 12 of our text this morning saying blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those you love him. With this promise James lifts our eyes of faith from the heat of the furnace to the horizon to where we're going to the finish line where Jesus Christ will meet us in glory and we will inherit a resurrection life. We've seen the crown of life, he calls it. And it's only then that we'll be perfect and complete. It's only then that we'll lack nothing. We'll be free from trials that test our faith and we'll be full of joy and thanksgiving for all that God has done. And we will bless our God and we'll remember the trial. And we'll thank him. But until then, we continue facing life's trials by responding to God with confidence as we wait for this full effect to come. In verse 5, James describes God who loves us in Jesus Christ and who's refining us through the fire as the God who gives generously to all without reproach. What a beautiful picture of God. He gives generously to all without reproach. And James says he gives generously. He's saying not only that he gives abundantly, but he gives in such a way that there's no strings attached. He gives freely. He gives because he wants to, not because he has to. And he gives to you because he wants to give you something for which you owe him nothing. He gives generously. And what God gives, he gives generously to all, James says. Now this could pose a problem. Some people think James is referring to all men. We could go down that road, but I really think from the text this morning and from the letter as a whole, he's speaking specifically to all his brothers. He gives to all his sons, all the sons of God. It's to all his sons that God gives without playing favorites. Now, we'd all like to have the perfect family in this world and have no favorites. We'd like to treat all of our children the same. But we don't. We look at our siblings and we know which one's favorite to our mom and dad. God doesn't do that. He plays no favorites. He gives generously to all his children. And when he gives it, he gives without reproach, James says. He gives without any kind of criticism or scolding, because this would be with reproach. Well, here you are again. Why are you back here again? What did you do with what I gave you last time? Why do you need more? Did you lose it? Did you waste it? Okay, here's some more. That's giving with reproach. God gives without reproach. He gives, and he gives, and he gives, and he gives, and he gives. But as James reminds us, he gives to those who ask. He gives to those who ask. Therefore, in verse 5, James exhorts every brother in Christ, let him ask God, let him ask in faith. But, he cautions, let him ask with no doubting, without hesitation, without a lack of certainty. Let him ask in faith. He says this because faith's impulse is always to ask God. This faith that he's given us that he's working to refine in us and to expose in us and to develop in us that we will ask God in faith. The impulse of our flesh is to do it myself. I don't need help. And so we hesitate, whether we're afraid or whether we're prideful. It doesn't matter. We vacillate between two opinions. Do I really have this need? Why can't I take care of this myself? And is he really going to be willing to give it to me? I don't know if I have enough faith. And so we just go wishy-washy. And that's what he's warning again. The one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. He's a double-minded man. He's unstable in all his ways. he's here and he's there he had a pretty graphic picture ask in faith it doesn't mean how strong your faith is ask of the one who gives generously to all without reproach if you ask ask in faith and to ask in faith is to make our request known to God believing not only that he exists James will go on to say that even the devils believe that and they shudder that's not asking in faith We not only believe that he exists, but we believe that he will hear us and that he will answer us for Jesus' sake. He's God Almighty. He's able to give us anything. And he's our Father in Christ who is willing to give us all that we need. And according to 1 Corinthians 10.13, he is faithful. He's faithful. He's faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your ability. But with the trial, we'll also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Whatever he brings you into, he's faithful to provide for you to get through it, for you to have a refining experience, for your faith to be purified, for your faith to be exposed, for you to be made more beautiful and to look more like Jesus. Now, in our text this morning, James is careful to direct us toward asking God for something specific, and that's for wisdom. It's not the only thing we need from God. When it comes to facing trials, it's probably the most important thing we need. We're finite creatures, so these things come to us and we don't know how to understand it. We don't know what those things about it that God hasn't revealed to us. We see one end of this thing. We can't know the end from the beginning. We're called to respond to this trial in faith, trusting Him. And we can't know, and nor could we comprehend if we did, God's answer to the question that comes first to our mind, and that's the question, why? Why me? Why this? Why now? Well, God's infinite, and He is wisdom. He comprehends everything about the circumstance here and everywhere. He comprehends everything about the circumstance now and forever. And by His Holy Spirit, through His Word, He gives us all that we need to know to trust in Christ and to live for Him. Our flesh wants more, but we don't need more. It takes wisdom to understand that. Therefore, James says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, and he will give generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him. Ask him for wisdom. He'll give it to you. And the closest thing to the answer for your why question is going to be exactly what he's telling you today. Count it all joy, my brothers. Because God's at work in you in this. He's producing something good in you. And I pray that by his spirit today, God opens that to you. That you can walk out of here today with that answer to the why question. Why me? Because God loves me. Why this? Because it's what I need to serve His purpose. Why now? It's the perfect time. He's testing your faith through various trials to produce in you the steadfastness that will carry you onward toward the goal of perfection in Christ. He's doing His work. That work that Paul says, the work He's begun in me, I'm confident that He'll bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus. This is the work. And day by day along the way, by His Spirit, through His Word, He will show you wisdom for how to respond to the trial, for how to live toward other people, for what to do in the moment. If you're going to ask for wisdom, you've got to ask out of here. If you're waiting for that special delivery to come in the mail from God, it isn't coming. Right here. And more and more He will give you wisdom. And more and more you will be able to find yourself counting it joy in the face of a trial. What sounded to be harsh words in the beginning are perhaps the kindest words you could ever hear. That you would be able to step back and rightly understand what's happening in the midst of the trial you're in right now. You can count it all joy, even if it's painful. Even if it's deadly. Because you know that God is at work in you to refine your faith, to produce that endurance, and to move you toward the image of Christ our Savior. Beautiful. Now, if you're like me, you haven't been the most joyful about trial. This is Preparatory Sunday. I want to get you a kickstart today by asking you a few questions based on this text. You can just take home and mull. Question 81 of our Heidelberg asks this question. Who should come to the Lord's Supper next week? And it invites you to examine yourself to discover whether these things are true of you. Three things. Let me get you started in light of our text. Are you displeased with yourself because of your sin? In particular, from today, are you displeased by the fact that you often resent the trials that God sends? And that you often dig in your heels against them? But do you nevertheless trust that your sins are pardoned and that your continuing weakness, even these weaknesses, are covered by the suffering and death of Christ? Are you a son of God? Are you a brother of Jane? Is your only hope of rescue in Jesus Christ our Lord your eldest brother? Do you believe that God is at work for your good, especially in these trials, and trust that he will help you with your unbelief? And third, do you desire more and more to strengthen your faith and to lead a better life? Are you eager to be more able to admit that you need God's provision, especially wisdom? Do you want to be more regular and confident in the prayers that you raise asking for His help? Do you want to be more willing and more able to count it all joy when God tries you? If in faith you are saying yes to these questions, you're on your way to preparing for the Lord's Supper. because it's not for the perfect. It's for those who are being perfected through trial at the hand of our Lord God. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we come before you and we thank you for this word through James, a word that challenges us mightily. Father, in our flesh, we are resistant to this idea. Thank you for revealing the truth to us that we might by faith stand back and know and understand more fully what it is you are about and the circumstances of our life and that we would look forward to more and more the opportunity to reflect Jesus in how we respond to people and how we respond to circumstances that press in upon us. Help us to know, Father, that that pressure, that heat, that fire is intended to open us up to reveal the faith that you've given us, to purify it more and more, to strengthen us for the way and to bring us home to glory one day as image bearers of our glorious Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.