Well, let's open our Bibles tonight to James. And I want us to look again at chapter 1 verses 2 through 12 and I do not assume that we will be able to cover all of this section. I want to take my time with these truths because they're so rich and so wonderful. I want to read again James 1:2 through 12.

            My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing this that the trial or the testing of your faith works endurance. And let endurance have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally and abraideth not and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord. A double‑minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, but the rich in that he is made low because as the flower of the grass, he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with the burning heat but it withereth the grass and its flower falleth and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth. So also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endures trials, for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to them that love Him.

            Now we kind of ended our message last time with the phrase "them that love Him," and I want to begin this time picking up that same phrase. Loving God is without question the key to enduring all the trials of life. Perhaps it is the single most decisive evidence of a regenerate soul. If anything is true of a regenerate person, it is that they love God. That seems to me to be the bottom line. True Christians here then are designated as them that love Him. That is a title for Christians. What a lovely title it is indeed. And that is why they endure. They endure because they have a strong love for God. And no matter what the trial, no matter what the struggle, what the difficulty, they endure because love holds them fast.

            I think you can see that in any relationship. Any relationship even on a human level where the bond of love is very strong will sustain all kinds of adversity. And in those trials and tribulations and testings and difficulty that comes into the life of a Christian, the thing that holds us to the Lord, that keeps our faith firm is this strong bond of love.

            Some years ago, Gardner Spring was a pastor in New York City. And he wrote of the persevering power of love. And these are his words, "There is a vast difference between such an affection and that selfish and unhallowed friendship to God which terminates on our own happiness as its supreme motive and end. If a man in his supposed love to God has no ultimate regard except to his own happiness, if he delights in God not for what He is but for what He is to him, in such a sentiment there is no moral virtue. There is indeed great love of self but no true love of God. But where the enmity of the carnal mind is slain, the soul is reconciled to the divine character as it is. God Himself in the fullness of His manifested glory becomes the object of devout and delighted contemplation. In his more favored hours, the views of a good man are in a great measure diverted from himself. As his thoughts glance toward the varied excellence of the deity, he scarcely stops to inquire whether the being whose character fills his mind and in comparison of whose dignity and beauty all things are atoms and vanity will extend his mercy to him. His soul cleaves to God and in the warmth and fervor of devout affection, he can often say, `Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none on the earth that I desire beside Thee, as the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after Thee, O God.'"

            Now what he means to say by all of that, of course, is that the bond that ties a man or a woman to God is the bond of love, not just superficial affection, not just sentiment that is basically selfish, that is to say as long as I get from you what I want, I'll stick around, but a true bond of love that can endure any trial.

            Gardner Spring then poses a personal examination series of questions. And I think they're helpful. He asks the reader this, "Do you love God for what you imagine Him to be or for what He is? Are you pleased with His character and do you love every part of it? Do you love His holiness as well as His grace and His justice as well as His mercy? Do you love Him merely on account of His love to you, or do you love Him because He is in Himself lovely? Do you love Him merely because you hope He will save you, or do you think you should love Him if you supposed He would damn you? Is your love to God supreme? Whom do you love more than God? In whose character do you behold more beauty? Whose blessedness is the object of warmer desires or more vigorous exertion? To whom are you more grateful? It can be no difficult matter for you to reply to these inquiries. There may be danger but surely there can be no necessity of being deceived in a case so plain."

            Then he says this, "Supreme love to God is decisive evidence of the renewed heart." I love that. Supreme love to God is decisive evidence of the renewed heart. The people who endure trials, James is saying, are those that love Him.

            Now there are some things that do not prove true love. They do not prove the reality of living, saving faith. Outward morality doesn't prove it, there are many people who are outwardly moral who do not love God. Theological knowledge doesn't prove it, there are many people who know a lot about theology. That does not necessarily mean they love God. Religious activity doesn't prove genuine living faith. There are all kinds of people engaged in religious activity who do not love God. Even the conviction of sin and the fear of judgment do not necessarily prove genuine saving faith.

            What then does prove saving faith? Well certainly saving faith is based upon a genuine love for God. What proves that love is genuine? What is it that demonstrates genuine love? Well, that's what James is all about. That's what the whole epistle is about. And he tests whether you love God with a series of tests. First there is the test, and we'll look at this one later on in chapter 1, the test of blame in temptation. And then there's the test of how we respond to the Word. Then there's the test of an impartial love to others, the test of righteous works, the test of the tongue, the test of humble wisdom, the test of worldly indulgence, the test of dependence, the test of patience, the test of truthfulness and finally the test of prayerfulness. Now all of those are tests which a person who truly loves God will pass.

            But the beginning test, and what we're looking at in these verses, is the test of endurance through trials. It reveals whether love is really a strong bond, whether it is genuine faith. True faith sustained by true love perseveres in this test.

            Now back in verse 2 we noted last time that we will fall into various trials. We also noticed in verse 3 that this is to test the validity of our faith. Various trials come into our life to test our faith, to demonstrate the genuineness of our love. Peter writes about the same thing, doesn't he, in 1 Peter 1:6 through 8, as we saw last time. Then in verse 12, he basically sums up this section with similar statements. The man who endures trials is going to be rewarded and he will reveal himself to be one who really does love the Lord.

            So here we're dealing with trials as a test for genuine salvation which is based on true love. Remember the word for trial here is peirasmos from the word peirazo which means to put to the test. It is the test of living faith.

            Now last time we talked about the fact that we as true Christians are not only eternally secure from God's viewpoint, but we persevere from our viewpoint. Remember that? Very, very important balance. The true believer is held by the Lord, but the true believer also holds on to the Lord. He perseveres through trial. And so you can look at a person in a trial and see the validity of their faith by the validity of their love by whether or not they hold fast to their faith. If there is no trial and no tribulation that can destroy their trust in God, then they show themselves in that trial to have living, saving faith. If they bail out in the middle of that trial and sort of curse God or walk away from God or deny God or ignore God, then they show themselves to have dead faith.

            My son, Matt, was telling me about a man the other day who was married at one point in his life here at Grace Community Church. Went on to another church where he was on the staff in ministry. His wife divorced him and at this point in his life, he has absolutely no interest in the Christian faith. He has for all intents and purposes denied the faith, completely put it aside, shows no attraction to Christ at all. And what that tells me is that when put through a very severe test, his faith was proven to be dead and not living at all. On the other hand, how many people have gone through severe testing and demonstrated in the end that they had faith in God that was indeed living faith?

            But that part of the emphasis that James is concerned with is how we as saints can persevere through trials and make the most of them, how can we gain the most as well as demonstrate the genuineness of our faith?

            Well, there are several means to perseverance. Perseverance is the saint of God holding fast to his love and his faith. And what are the means? How can we persevere through trials? Even as true Christians, how can we gain the most out of our trials? How can we be victorious in our trials?

            Well, we're going to look at five key means to persevering through trials. First of all, we begin with a joyous attitude. We begin with a joyous attitude. Verse 2, "My brethren," and he means by that believers, Jewish Christians, yes to be sure, but nonetheless though they are the Jews, the twelve tribes scattered, as verse 1 says, they are Christians, they are believers. He calls them brethren all through this epistle, chapter 1 verse 2, verse 16, verse 19; chapter 2 verse 1, verse 5, verse 14, verse 15; chapter 3 again in verse 1; chapter 5 verse 7, 9, 10, 19 and I may have missed some. And some of the time he calls them "beloved brethren." So he's identifying them as fellow believers. And the word "my" has sort of a wonderful and warm word which has the effect of his identification with them in a common bond. So he embraces them, as it were, as his own Christian brothers and says, to begin with, if you're going to persevere through various trials, if you're going to come out triumphant in the end, you have to look at whatever the trial is and consider it joy. First of all, a joyous attitude.

            Now the word "count," count it, that's an aorist, it means consider it or evaluate it as joy. I mean, that's something you discipline yourself, in a sense, to do. Whatever it is, you say this is going to be joy, I will consider this joy, a conscious commitment to a joyous attitude. When Paul says to the Philippians in chapter 4, "I have learned in whatever state to be content," he says that just after he said, "Rejoice always, and again I say rejoice," and he said that while he was a prisoner. He had learned to do that. He had cultivated that. That's not something that happens by accident.

            So, my brethren, count it all joy, not just partial joy but all joy, when...notice that little word when, it's not the word "if," it's the word "when." In fact, it's the word hotan, it means whenever. And when used in this particular form with the subjunctive, it's in a sense saying whenever and believe me, it's inevitable. So whenever you happen to fall, parapipto, the idea of sort of stumbling into a trial, it's used here and I think it's used only two other places. Once in Luke 10:30 where the good Samaritan story is told and the man going down the road fell among thieves. That's the word "fall." It has the idea of being suddenly overtaken and surprised by thieves. It's also used in Acts 27:41 where Paul was taking a boat over to Rome and it says the ship fell into a place where two seas met. If you've done any sailing, you know when two bodies of water come together it can be very rough, it's like hitting a wall. And so, they fell into that place. Again, a sudden inadvertent overtaking in that condition. And so, the word then means an unplanned surprising inadvertent occurrence that sort of takes you over, peri means around. It surrounds you. It engulfs you.

            So, all of us in our lives are going to be sort of tripped up, surprised, shocked to fall into inadvertent troubles that surround us. And the intention of that means there just doesn't seem to be any clear way out. Christ had that. In Luke 22:28 He said to His disciples, "You have been with Me in my peirasmos, you've been with Me in My troubles, you've been with Me in My trials." And there's really no way out, they surround you. Jesus never sought troubles, but He always accepted them. And our dear Lord was even joyful in them. You remember Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2, looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame. He went through what He went through because He looked beyond the trial to the joy that He would be able to realize when the trial was over. In other words, what it would accomplish, what it would accomplish.

            Later on in Hebrews 12, I'm sure you're familiar with verses 10 and 11, it says, "Trials don't seem to be joyous at first, no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. But nevertheless, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are properly exercised by that trial." So when you see a trial coming, your attitude is to be an attitude of joy because you anticipate what perfecting work the Lord will do through that trial. You learn then to cultivate that right attitude.

            It was, of course, the Savior's way. He went through pain to joy. Should we expect anything different? Do you remember back in Matthew 10 when Jesus in effect said that? He said to His disciples as He was preparing to send them out that they should certainly not expect anything different than He had endured. He says in chapter 10 verse 25, it's sufficient for the disciple that he should be like his teacher. And what He was talking about there was not so much discipleship as modeling, but discipleship as suffering. And then in John chapter 15 He says if they hated Me, they will hate you. And if they persecuted Me, they will persecute you. And chapter 16 He says the day will come when men think they please God by punishing you.

            Can we rejoice because we see beyond? Can we rejoice because we have a vision that through the trial the Lord is bringing about some perfecting work?

            Notice John 16 for just a moment. I want to draw your attention to several verses there to help sort of elucidate this point. And really we've covered so much of the meaning of trials in our last message that we're just kind of adding on these means as an ending. For those of you who weren't here, I apologize for not having everything up to speed, but I trust the Lord will instruct you anyway.

            In John 16:20, Jesus says, "Verily, verily," and again He is really warning His disciples, "I say to you, you will weep and lament and the world will rejoice." In other words, He's anticipating His death and the world will rejoice but those who love Him will weep and lament. "And you will be sorrowful," I love this, "but your sorrow shall be...what?...turned into joy." And then He gives an illustration. "A woman when she is in birth pain has sorrow because her hour is come. But as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world." What a beautiful analogy. What a wonderful picture. "And you now therefore‑‑verse 22‑‑do have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice and your joy no man takes from you."

            Now I believe that that is applicable to the life of every believer. As we enter into some kind of a trial, whatever that trial might be, we need to have the vision that sees beyond the trial to the joy that's going to come when we have passed that test, when we have been strengthened by that. And so our response, back again to James chapter 1, is not partial joy, it's all joy...having come to a settled definite decisive conviction that we're going to face trials with the right attitude. We can have all joy.