The focus this morning will be on verses 12 to 15. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings. 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. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God to give generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no docking. 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 is 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. For the sun rises with its 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 the crown of life. which God has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say, when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin. when it is fully grown, brings forth death. More than a year ago, I saw on TV a show that I thought was very interesting. It was about a company that was looking forward to the coming recession. And it seemed like all the companies knew that there would be an economic downturn. And this company, and it had, through a couple other recessions, had a different policy than really all of its other competitors. Its competitors, during those good times, had expanded. Had opened up new stores, and it tried to expand as much as it could. This particular company Instead of doing that, didn't open any new stores, just try to amass as much money as they could. And so when the economic downturn happened, it's competitors, or closing stores, or looking how to get out of leases, or laying off employees, or reducing their inventories, and all the rest. And they're struggling to survive. this company, and I don't remember its name, was ready to do just the opposite. During the recession, that was their time of expansion, their time when they would be opening new stores. And why? Well, they found from previous times it was very advantageous for them to do so. as they wanted to lease a place for maybe 99 years. It's when those companies that are leasing are very desperate as they have places that are vacant or looking around that they could get a nice long-term lease, much lower than all the competitors. As you'd open a new store and you just put in stocks or supplies, you could do so a lot more cheaply. As companies struggling to survive, manufacturers were giving discounts to get rid of merchandise. And so they had the money, the capital, to follow their strategy. To be moving forward when everybody else was coming back. When others were facing bankruptcy, they were using it as an opportunity to grow and expand. Now the economic situation that faced all companies was exactly the same. They were living under the same conditions. And for many it was a battle to survive. But for this one company, it was a golden opportunity to move forward. The exact same situation. But one company comes out of it much stronger, much healthier, with more positions, more stores open, more market share, more ready to make profits when the economics turns up again, versus the others that come out of it battered and beaten and on the brink of bankruptcy. The same thing is true in the spiritual realm. The people can face the same outward circumstances. In one person, it causes them to grow to maturity. For others, it causes great distress. The economy is not the circumstances, because the circumstances can be identical. The key is the response. What is the response? What you face in this life can either be a trial for you, which strengthens you, or a temptation that you give in to, that ultimately weakens you. And so, the first point to see is, when we go through a difficulty, are you facing a trial, and that's a word you find in verse 12, or a temptation. And the word being tempted is found in verse 13. A trial, or a temptation. And one of the first things we need to understand is that the same Greek root word is used for both of those words. for trial and being tempted. And it can rightly be translated either one of those two ways, and it depends on the context. And here it's rightly translated with different words. In verse 12, trial, and verse 13, tempted or temptation. That becomes very instructive for us. That the same experience might be viewed in two very different ways, from two very different perspectives. It can either be a trial that strengthens you, or a temptation which weakens you. It all depends on how you respond to it. Let's think of some typical situation. A woman had a problem with spending as a shopaholic. A man is troubled by internet porn. A student with drinking. For each one of those, an event could be a trial or a temptation. The woman meets her friend at the mall. They have lunch. The woman leaves and she's at the mall. If she finds herself just going past the stores and out to her car, she doesn't give in to that desire to shop. She's strengthened. She has said no to the temptation. You've got a man at work that is using his computer for a project, and completes it, and knows he has some free time. He turns off the computer. knowing that he's not going to look at something on the internet that he shouldn't. Next time it may be easier. You have students whose friends are saying, well, it's Friday night, let's go out and party, let's go out and drink and have a good time. Who says no and says, well, why don't we do something a little different this week? Why don't we go bowling? Why don't we see a movie? by having that trial before them, and not giving in to it. But on the other hand, if they do give in, if they allow that temptation to overcome them, then they are weakened. And they're more likely to maybe fall into it the next time, and the next, and the next. And what makes the event either a trial or a temptation is how they respond. The second thing we need to see as we look at these verses is that these verses emphasize the idea of personal responsibility. First in verse 13 where it says, let no one say. We're going to look at that a little bit more, but it's someone who shifts the blame to somebody else, who makes excuses. Who says, I'm not responsible for what's going on, somebody else is. We're not to be like that. And then verse 14 goes on to say, each person, and by his own desire, pointing out individually what is the case. And it calls us to recognize, first and foremost, the difficulty with sin is within us. People sin because we want to. You sin, and I sin, Because you and I want to. It's that simple. And that's not to say that the devil doesn't have a role in that, and that will be addressed a little bit in chapter 4. Or that circumstances can't be extremely difficult. You know, that student that's not wanting to get drunk, maybe all of his classmates have made a conspiracy to say, let's see if we can't get him drunk. And made it their goal for the semester to do that, to see that happen. But ultimately, even with those things, if you and I succumb to a trial, a temptation, it's because of a lure and desire that's within us. We give in to our sinful desires. We want to sin more than we want to please God. And God never singles out anyone for impossible tests that were bound to fail. 1 Corinthians 10 talks about how there's always a way of escape. You might compare what goes on in first grade where the first grade teacher gives the class ten spelling words and they have a week to work on it to get to know better. They're tested at the end of the week. Why? She wants them to improve, to be better spellers, to learn how to spell. She doesn't give them the 25 words in the last National Spelling Bee. It would be impossible for them to learn. And for the first grader who is diligent, who takes home the words, who practices them, their spelling ability sustains them. It made me know how to spell a couple of words that they didn't know before. It develops a maturity. Well, that's the same idea here. That a Christian, as they go through these things, as God leads them through these things, has a greater spiritual maturity. And so the goal, and the goal when God gives us a trial, or a test, is so that we might become more mature. in our faith. Think of Abraham with his son Isaac and how that would cause him to develop more in his faith. But the second point is we need to realize there are two paths that lead to very opposite results. The first way is that of being steadfast under trials, of not giving in when facing trials, but staying firm in the Lord. It's a path of steadfastness, of perseverance, of maturity, and ultimately of life. Notice how it's described. If you look at verse 12, it begins by saying, And the Greek word is Makarios, and some of the older members may remember when the leader of Cyprus was an archbishop named Makarios. It had that very name. It has a basic meaning of happy, but it's used throughout the New Testament with a heightened sense of God giving a blessing, that deep, inward joy that comes from God. And so, it's not just the happiness we might feel at a good meal and think of Thanksgiving coming up or seeing an entertaining movie or whatever. It implies that God has given a blessing, some great joy to us. And here we see one of the blessings that God gives at the end of the verse. He gives a crown of life. A crown of life. And I love that word, crown. It's the Greek word, staphanos, from which we get Stephen. I mentioned my son here. I like that name, crown. It could be the crown of a king, but it was most usually referred to the laurel crown that was given at the ancient Olympic games. That would have been given to the bishop. It would have been a crown that symbolized glory and honor. It was a crown to those who endured. Not to the guy who was leading the race halfway through and then stopped, but one who got to the end. Who ran the race according to the rules and competed in the right way. The Christian receives a crown. And unlike in the Olympic Games where only one gets a first place, all who compete and who run the race in the right way receive this crown. And notice it's a crown of life. The reward, the blessing that is given is life. We can think of abundant life here and now, but much more even the idea of eternal life. that we receive in the future. And so, steadfastness under trials leads to maturity, spiritual maturity, and ultimately to eternal life. Or B, we can see a contrast. The temptation, when it's left unchecked, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it's fully ground, leads to death. We have pictured here a downward spiral, as things in a person's life go from bad to worse. Now, outwardly, the sinner can be fun-loving, enjoying the pleasures of life, seeming to have it made. And often those are just a pretext, a covering up of the hopelessness and the shallowness of life, the despair of life. But there is an ultimate reality that's going to strike each one no matter how full or empty their life is. That reality is death. Physical death overtakes each one no matter how much you have, no matter how much fun you're having. But more importantly is spiritual death. I recently came across something from Hugh Hector, saying that he doesn't fear death. Well, he should. If he began to understand what spiritual death was, to be cut off from God, to be cut off from anything good, anything enjoyable, It should shake him and anybody else to the very core of their beings. It should be the most frightening prospect in the world. And I think many pretend that there's no reality to death, no reality to hell, because they can't deal with how horrible it will indeed be. And apart from repentance and faith, all sin works death in us. The consequences of sin, the outcome of our sin, the wages for our sin is death, we're told. And so there's a second path, which is temptation and sin and death, and ultimately spiritual separation from God, The knowledge of it is good for all eternity. Which then brings us to a third point. Which is, which of those two choices will you make? And really, they fundamentally both involve God. The first would be to blame God. We see that in verse 13. The person who says, I'm being tempted by God. That person is trying to blame God. I'm where I am because God has put me here, has put me through this temptation, this trial, and I've had to give in to it. And of course, that is something that has been part of mankind from the very beginning. You know, what happened in the garden? You know, Eve points the finger. It's the snake. Adam points the finger. It's Eve that you gave me. He's also pointing the finger at God. Shifting the blame to someone else. not taking credit for your own sin. Now, of course, we're smart enough today that we don't point the finger directly at God. But I think we do it, we tend to it in very subtle ways. This is the way God's made me. You know, I have this sexual orientation, and I was made this way. So I can't help it. You know, I have a problem with anger. That's the way God made me. That's part of my psyche. Or I grew up in a terrible situation. You know, I was abused by both my parents, unloved. Off and on the streets. I should have been home. Well, if you'd been around where I'd been, the friends, you know, the people that I knew, they were all into drugs. And alcohol, and all the rest. My psychological makeup, you know, I'm easily depressed. I have low self-esteem, something negative happens in my life, and I fall apart. How can I do anything else? I'm just not as talented, as smart, as good looking, or whatever it is, as others. All different ways of saying, I'm not responsible for what's happening to me. God has made me this way. God has put me in these situations. It's really God's fault that these things are happening to me. If he hadn't given me the makeup that I am, or the background, or the circumstances. You need to realize as you look at verse 13, such thinking is completely contrary to God. God can't be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. God is not like that. God doesn't put us in those circumstances so that we're doomed to failure. Think for a moment of the kindest, gentlest person you know. Whoever it is. Maybe some little old lady. Now can you picture them going with a semi-automatic machine gun into a mall and shooting it up? No. It's completely contrary to their nature, all that you know about them, doesn't fit their character. Well, in the same way, even more so, a holy God cannot look upon sin with favor, cannot tempt or be tempted. It has nothing to do with sin or leading people into sin. God is beyond the reach of temptation, either to be tempted by evil or to tempt others to evil. And it's really a reminder that we alone are responsible for our sins. And we're not in subtle ways even to blame God. Each one is to take that responsibility. To be able to say, the number one reason I sin tomorrow, and just as I sinned yesterday, as I sin today, is because I allow those evil desires to control my life. Well, what's the antidote? What can be done? It's very simple. We're to love God. Verse 12, the crown of life is promised to those who love Him. To those who love God. And this is really the key point. It's not so much how much I suffer, how much I'm able to endure, my quotient for enduring suffering, but the question of how much do I really love God? It's only through the Savior's love that we can cope with life and enter into glory. Our response must be to love God. That should be our motivation and our goal. Sometimes, as a pastor, you're meeting older saints. They may be living in a nursing home. They're not able to get out to church. They're retired, they're alone, out and have feelings of loneliness and failing health. And the questions asked to the pastor is, why am I still here? What does the Lord have for me to do? And I used to find that a very hard question to answer. But the answer really is very easy. It's to be able to say, perhaps the Lord has nothing more for you to do than for you to love Him here on earth for another year, or another two years, or however long you live on the earth. It's to keep focusing upon God and upon loving Him. and everything else, the trials of life, the joys, are put in the proper perspective. Loving God is the key, is the secret of making your way through this life to receive the crown at the end. Your progress isn't so much dependent upon your powers to endure, but the depth of your love, the reality of your love for Christ, the pervasiveness of it in your life. Does it pervade every single area and aspect of your thinking and action and doing? The crown is for those who love God. For application, I might mention, as I was thinking about a sermon title for this portion, I was thinking of the title, You Can Resist Temptation. Because that really is part of the message of these verses. To know that you do not have to give into temptation. God will bring some trials into your life. But He also, through the Holy Spirit, gives you the strength to say no. If you have the Spirit of God dwelling within you, if you're a Christian, you have that ability to say no to each and every sinful desire as it raises its ugly head. And how do you do that? It's by loving God, by loving Christ. The more you do, the greater your love, the easier it should be to say no to those sinful desires that are from within you. And how do you develop that? Read the scriptures. Read and think. See God. See Christ in the scriptures. How He reveals Himself. How He reveals His greatness. His awesome majesty. And then you incline your heart to love Him. Overwhelm yourself in the goodness of God. And you'll naturally be saying no to temptation. No to sin. No to those desires that are within you. And yes to God. Heavenly Father, we give thanks for the teaching of this portion of Scripture. I really encourage us to see these tests that we go through as trials that you've given to strengthen us. They're not designed ultimately that we'd fall and be hopelessly encased in sin, trapped by it. But it would show our love for you and our growing love for you. May each one of us truly love you and seek to honor you more and more in our lives. May we say yes to righteousness and no to sin. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Turn please to Psalm 119, Selection M.