I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. I want to read the verses 10 through the end of verse 20. Ephesians chapter 6. Beginning to read at verse 10, and here we hear the word of God. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints and for me, that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. And then for our text, would you turn with me again to the book of James, the book of James, the epistle of James, chapter 1. And I want to read with you verse 12, which will make up the words of our text of this morning. So James chapter 1, verse 12. Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life. which the Lord has promised to those who love him. I want to repeat that. Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Thus far the reading of God's word. May God add his blessing to the hearing and the reading and the preaching of his word again this morning. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ gathered here in Salem with me this morning. If you know your Bible just a little bit, you will know how often it speaks of the blessed ones. And you will know how often it speaks of the blessed condition of those blessed ones. For instance, in the Old Testament we hear, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. whose sin is wholly covered, Psalm 32. Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound, Psalm 89. Blessed is the man that fears the Lord and delights greatly in his commandments, Psalm 112. And in the New Testament, we read, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, we know that in the Greek language, the word blessed contains the thought of being satisfied or being happy. And some modern Bible translations have actually substituted the word happy instead of blessed. But I'm not sure that is helpful translation for the meaning of the two words, blessed and happy, especially in this context, are not completely identical nor interchangeable. You see, you could be a happy person today. And if you're in the Lord, then you're also blessed. But someone could still be happy and not be in the Lord. And such a person would not be blessed. You see the difference? Properly understood, then, to be blessed means to have God's approval upon you. When your spiritual condition is so that God makes His face to shine upon you, Only then are you a truly blessed person. To be blessed means to have God's smiling face upon you. Happiness is a condition influenced by how you feel, not so for blessedness. Blessedness has nothing to do with how you feel about yourself, but it has everything to do with how God feels about you. In the context of this scriptural passage, there is a vast difference between being happy and being blessed. And we need to keep that distinction in mind as we open our text this morning. And then also, in order to understand our text, we need to know that the blessedness of which the Bible speaks is uniquely spiritual. It's not unusual to hear an unbelieving neighbor say that he considers himself blessed in the abundance of his possessions. I recently heard a man gushing about his blessing in winning the Ontario Lottery. But unless that man knew the Lord, little does he know that his wealth is not a blessing, but rather a curse. Because you see, a true blessing is a gift from above, and blessedness is the unique experience only of God's children. So very often we hear unbelievers tell us that they consider themselves being blessed, but tragically, unbelievers are never blessed, only cursed. In the fact that blessing of the unbeliever will testify against them in the day of judgment, because they refuse to acknowledge the source of their blessing, and unless they turn to Christ, they will remain cursed forever. into all eternity, and such people cannot know true happiness, for true happiness and blessedness never consist in the abundance of our earthly possessions, but it consists of a relationship with and to God through the atoning blood of his Son. An unbelieving man who is materially rich may appear to be happy. He may consider himself to be blessed, but really he isn't. And on the other hand, the believing man may be exceedingly poor, he may be a pauper, and he may be in dire straits economically. He may be struggling financially or physically, he could be at death's door and therefore appear to have no reason for happiness, and yet he would be the most blessed of all because he is in the Lord. You heard some of that last week. So then working with those definitions and distinctions, When our text speaks of blessedness, it is referring to a heavenly spiritual blessedness. It signifies knowing the blessings and the benefits of Christ's blood spilled on Golgotha. I return with you this morning to the letter of James, using as my theme, the blessedness of those who are tried and tested. The blessedness of those who are tried and tested. We want to consider, first of all, the blessed reward. And then we want to learn of the way of blessing. So the blessedness of those who are tried and tested, the blessed reward of those who are tried and tested, and the way of receiving that blessing. Our text of this morning reads, blessed is the man who perseveres into trial because when he has stood the test, or approved as we read in this translation, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And now it's helpful to know that in this verse, James continues to build on a concept he had already introduced and developed earlier in this chapter. He has taught us already, you will remember he has taught us already that trials and temptations are to be expected by Christians. And in the opening verses of this chapter, James tells us that those trials are not only to be expected, But as difficult as the truth seems to us, they are also to be received with joy. Trials and temptations are to be received with joy. It's a concept so difficult to understand and even more difficult to accept. From his letter, we hear James teaching us that trials or temptations can be caused by many different circumstances. Our trial may be that a serious illness affects our ability to provide for our family. Our trial may be economic hardship. It may be the loss of a job or an income. Our trial may be having to part with a precious spouse or a child even through death. Or that trial may be that trial may be having to turn down a career opportunity because of religious convictions. Our trial could be simply the pressures of our daily life and existence, which bring us constant anxiety or distress. And my dear people of God, if I were to sum it all up, I could say the concern over the physical and material well-being of ourselves and our families can be difficult, even painful and stressful. Many of you can identify with that. But spiritual problems can also cause great anxiety. Perhaps we're burdened because we had to part company from a personal friend, even a family member, because we no longer share a like precious faith with them. Perhaps we've had to sever our ties with someone we have loved and wanted to marry, but cannot because it would not be a marriage in the Lord. Perhaps our trial, our burden is that we are deeply concerned about laundering prodigal sons and daughters, straying grandchildren. Or there may be sin or the consequence of sin that weighs heavily upon our own souls and hearts and lives. Perhaps our own faith is not so much a daily joy, but a constant struggle against the fiery darts of the evil one. What I need you to understand here, congregation, is that whatever the case may be, difficult, painful circumstances in life can be of a physical or a spiritual nature. But, says James, blessed is the man who perseveres under these difficulties. We're inclined to shout, are you kidding? Are you kidding? You're not serious. You tell us that a man who perseveres under those circumstances is blessed? How can you say that? How can a man or a woman who is burdened with trials, how can you say such a person is actually blessed? That makes absolutely no sense. Does it make sense to you that we would consider a deeply troubled and burdened person to be blessed? Well, yes, indeed, it does make sense. if we understand the bigger picture. For you see, James tells us in our text of this morning that this blessedness consists in the crown of life. And by that, he refers, of course, to spiritual, heavenly, eternal life. In other words, then, James is saying that the man who endures, who persevered, who endures in these hardships, is blessed because he will inherit eternal life. People have to see with me again that the unbeliever can never speak about being blessed. This life is a blessing only when it is connected to the blessing of eternal life. Scripture is so clear on that when we're told that for an ungodly man who does not possess eternal life, it would be better that he had never been born. And so it is better, I could even say, it is more blessed never to have been apart from Christ. But understand this well with me. When James says that those who persevere under trials are blessed or happy, he means that not only will they be blessed in eternity, but they are blessed already now. In other words, despite the trials, despite their burdens, they are happy already now. Why? Because according to Scripture, this spiritual, heavenly, and eternal life begins already in this world. You see, God gives faith to his elect, and the gift of faith includes the gift of eternal life. But of that eternal life, a foretaste is given us already now. Oh, indeed, we get only a foretaste of it here below, but that foretaste is our blessedness. It is only a beginning, and we must wait for it to be fully realized in us on that last great day of the Lord. That's what James is alluding to when he speaks of eternal life as a crown. My dear people, are you beginning to get the picture? I'm sure. A crown, as James used it in our text, is a token of victory. When our text speaks of a crown, It wants us to capture the imagery of victory, victory over death. Oh, indeed, it's true that a crown is also a sign of royalty, but James is not speaking here of the crown of a kingly authority. James isn't using crown in that sense, no. In James' day, you see, they also had what we might call Olympics today. And instead of medals of silver, bronze, or gold, as we do, a garland or a wreath was given to the winning runner in a race or to a winning fighter in the arena. We could say that the crown is a type of a trophy given to the victor. And what's more, when the winner is given a trophy, it's his to keep. He takes it home. He puts it on the shelf for him and his friends to see and admire. That is now precisely the image or the concept which James wants us to capture. James says that crown that the Christian receives when he perseveres under trials is a symbol of victory, and it is a token of a permanent possession. My dear people of God, it's not unusual to see people, people whom we thought were committed Christians, become bitter and abandon the faith when life becomes hard, when their faith is tried, when faced with great difficulties in life. We see them becoming angry at God, turning their backs to Him. But here, James says, don't do that. No, instead, he says, press on. We heard some of that on New Year's morning. Press on. Persevere, he says. Let the trial have its way, he's told us earlier. And when the struggle which we call life, the struggle which we call life, when that veil of tears is done, when you have run the race and the fight is over, When all the weary night is past and the race is run, then those that persevere shall receive the crown of life. My dear precious people of God, the prayer in our baptismal form identifies that life is a veil of tears or stronger yet as a constant death. And it is so on many levels. Physically and spiritually, life is a struggle. Many of you can identify with that. But says James, if you persevere under those trials, you will inherit eternal life. And that's the reason for your blessedness. That man is blessed, says James, that man is blessed who perseveres under trial. And the reason for that blessedness is that he shall receive the crown, which is to live eternally in the Father's mansion of glory, and this crown that reward he shall receive at the end of his earthly journey. My dear precious saints of God gathered here with me in Bowmanville this morning, saints who walk this road of life with me, How do I explain that kind of blessedness to you? What words can I find or use to describe to you that blessedness? The early 12th century, Mount Vernon of Clairvaux wrote the hymn, O Sacred Head, Now Wounded. You're all familiar with it. And in that song, it becomes apparent that he, too, he cannot find the words to adequately express his gratitude to God when he says, what language can I borrow? What language can I borrow to thank thee, dearest friend, for this, thy dying sorrow, thy pity without end? Just so, well said. Where can we find the necessary words? How can we express our gratitude for God's great grace? How do we thank God for that crown of righteousness kept safe for us in heaven? Our text goes on. Our text continues and also contains another important thought. We read, blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, for he will receive the crown. In other words, James wants us to know that there is a way in which the crown of life is received. The crown is all of grace. It's all of God. It's all from God. But there is a way by which God makes that crown ours, and that is by the way of persevering. Blessed is he, says James, blessed is he who perseveres under these trials. People of God, we need to underscore every word here because you see, James says that the blessedness is reserved only for those who persevere. Or to say it another way, true Christians, true Christians, they're not simply spectators who can sit back in the bleachers, no. Christians may not expect God's blessing if they simply sit back and watch. Christians may not expect to be blessed if they refuse to involve themselves in and persevere in the battle. I don't need to tell you that trials of any sort, be that physically or spiritually, they're not easy to endure. And by nature, we want to avoid difficulties in life. That's what comes naturally to us, according to the text. One of the characteristics of being Christian is that we stand in sharp contrast from the world. And so, although the unbelieving worldling wants at all costs to avoid difficulties in life, it may not be so for the Christian. No, the Christian is to allow the trials to have its way of sanctification. The Christian faces his trials all the while patiently waiting upon the Lord. The first priority for the Christian in the face of any trial is not to try to avoid it or to escape it, but to persevere, and that perseverance must be allowing the trial to finish its sanctifying work. If the trial is to yield fruit of spiritual maturity, it must be allowed to run its course in us. Remember with me now, James has taught us earlier that perseverers must finish its work so that we may become mature Christians. My dear people, the interpretation here is staring us in the face, if only we will see it, receive it, and believe it. James is saying, James is saying, hear me well, James is saying trials are given. Trials are given by your heavenly Father to be a blessing for you. They are given to help us to grow spiritually and to mature spiritually. Trials are given us as a gift from God to help us on our road to God. Oh, the concept astounds us. It boggles the mind. But we are to joyfully receive trials as a blessing from the Lord. But we need to go on. We need to dig just a little deeper here. It is helpful for you to know that the same Greek word James uses for trial can be used to mean difficulties or hardships in life, and it can be used to mean temptation, or if you will, an incentive to sin. So then what is James talking about here? Is he saying blessed is the man who perseveres in resisting sin? Or is he saying blessed is the man who perseveres during great hardship? Well congregation, the context persuades us that James has both meanings in mind. My dear people, God, James calls us to persevere, both during times of great difficulty and in times when we are tempted to sin. But we need to understand that trials and temptations require different kinds, different sorts of perseverance. To persevere in a trial is to see it through to its completion. To persevere in a trial is to stand one's ground and to hold on no matter how difficult it may seem to be. Perseverance in trials involves a determination to refuse to run away from the difficulty so as to ensure that God's purposes in and through that trial, that they are not missed, but rather discovered and even enjoyed. Can you imagine that? James is saying that the difficulties in life are given us by God with a purpose as a gift to be savored and enjoyed. My dear saints of God, the thought boggles the mind, and yet James has already taught us that we are to count it all joy, count it all joy when you fall into trials, and to try to avoid those difficulties, as the unbeliever does, is to miss God's blessing of sanctification, holiness. Blessed are those who are faced with trials in life and endure them. But says James, James is also speaking of enduring or persevering when being tempted to sin, and that's quite different. To persevere in trials is to stand strong in difficult times, but to persevere in temptations means to hold on to, with bulldog teeth, what is right, and to persevere in resisting the temptation until such time as the temptation is either removed by the Lord or overcome by us in His grace. My dear precious people, God, James is telling us here that when we are tempted by our peers or tempted by the world, when we see the sparkling sights that dazzle, then we are to close our eyes to those sights. We are, James is saying, when the world, the devil, and our own flesh cause us to hear and to see the siren sounds of the world, then we are to cover our eyes and stop up our ears to them. We are to use our spiritual resources to say no to Satan and yes to Christ. James is saying, when you are tempted by alcohol or drugs or sexual immorality or pornography or any of those other temptations to sin, you are to say no It is to be as Jesus taught you in the Sermon on the Mount, better for you to cut off your hands or pluck out your eyes than to give in to the things that tempt you to sin. Later on in chapter 4, James will instruct us with the words, resist the evil one and he will flee from you. In other words, when Satan tempts us to sin, we are to stand strong and resist him. We are to persevere in our faith, knowing that the power of God which is in us is greater than the power of the devil. That's what James is saying here. And those who do, says James, they are blessed. My dear, precious, precious people of God, young and old, If we've been listening carefully, then we've begun to understand that James is again teaching you that if you persevere in struggling through your difficult trials, and when you persevere in your struggle against sin, then you will be rewarded by the Lord. That's the entire focus of James here. The Lord will reward your perseverance by blessing you And some of those blessings you will experience already now, and the rest you will receive when you have run the race and have fought the good fight. Put some of the pieces together with me. James is saying that it is through persevering that we prove our faith. It is through persevering that we demonstrate that our Christian profession of faith was genuine and sincere. True faith proves itself as true faith when it stands the test under difficulty. Isn't that precisely what Jesus taught us in the parable of the sower? Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root, he says. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing, they fall away. Think again of those people who get angry at God and leave. Not so for the true Christian, says James. The true Christian perseveres in his difficult circumstances, and he perseveres in his struggle against sin. That's also the emphasis of Peter's teaching in the first chapter of his first letter when he says, these trials have come, these trials have come so that your faith, which is of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though they're refined by fire, they may prove to be genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. So then, through perseverance in the face of trials, We prove our faith in this life. And when we have run the race, when we have stood the test, then we shall reap its rewards in the life, eternal life to come. My dear precious saints of God, especially those of you who are older among us, I don't need to tell you that life is full of trials. And young people, I don't need to draw a picture for you to emphasize that your life is full of temptations. It is the way of each child of God as we travel through this world. As we struggle on our way through the journeys of life, we are faced with many obstacles. First of all, there is the world, which lies in darkness and presses us from every side. It offers prosperity. If only you will bend a little here, compromise a little there, give a little, loosen up a little. Always the world entices us and seduces us by an attractive display of what she has to offer. It urges us to buy at the seemingly cheap yet costly price of our religious principles. Then there's the devil and the host of evil spirits to threaten us. Satan never comes to us with symbols clashing, announcing his presence, and warning us of the impending danger. No. Satan comes to us on slippered feet. Satan and his minions usually appear as angels of light, but don't let him fool you. He is cunning, crafty, and a formidable enemy. He's a master of seduction. All scripture warns you that the devil is a roaring lion who seeks to devour his prey. He seeks to destroy you. And that lion is the king of the beasts and the most powerful of them all. So the devil also is a ferocious beast. He's ready to pounce on the people of God who are helpless over against him when they stand alone in their own strength. They are poor and defenseless. Satan can and often does change his appearance. He does not always choose to scare you with his roaring. No, he usually seeks to win you with his cunning and his deception. And last, by no means, the least is the enemy which everyone carries within their own bosom, namely, our own corrupt nature, or as our catechism calls it, the old man of sin that still clings to us. Understand this well. The mere external power of temptation by the world, the devil, would have no power over us at all if our nature were not corrupt. The world and the devil would have no access to us if our own hearts would not be corrupt. The world and the devil could not tempt us to sin if our own fallen hearts did not allow it. And so, as you and I weave our way through this life, we're confronted and assaulted by the world, the devil, and our own fallen hearts, all seeking to destroy us eternally. And now James comes to us in a text and he says, stand firm. Stand firm. Don't let the difficulties of life bring you to hopeless despair. And don't give Satan room in your heart. Rather, persevere and count it all joy. When the race has been run, you will receive the victor's crown, the victor's crown of the crown of life. But the question then becomes, how? How is it possible for us to withstand such The Word of God warns us that we must endure to the end, but knowing our own weakness, knowing our own frailty, knowing our own corrupt heart, we ask ourselves, how can I ever do that? James points us the way in our text. In the last part of this verse, James speaks of those that love God, to them. is given the promise of the crown of life. There it is. Did you catch that? There is a relationship, if you will, there's a connection between persevering and loving God. What does that mean? Well, James is reminding us that God establishes a mutual relationship of covenant love and friendship between himself and us. Our love is not first. we love God because he first loved us. The eternal God loves us and has loved us as his chosen people from eternity. He has engraven our names on the palms of his hands and he prepares us for an inheritance in heaven. That love is so great that God gave his only begotten Son to eternal life with Him in glory. In that same love, we are adopted as sons and daughters of the living God. My dear people, God, capture this with me now. If the jubilant confession of Lord's day one, and life and death and body and soul, my only comfort is that I belong to Christ. If that jubilant confession is yours, then God has adopted you. as one of his children in Jesus Christ. That means that Christ has come to live in your heart. It means that God has so spread his love abroad in your heart that your whole world and life view is changed. He has made you into a new creation. You are now a friend of God and an enemy of Satan and of all his evil ways and works. You now recognize sin as sinning against the most high majesty of your God. And therefore, you condemn and you hate it, even as God hates it. And it is your desire, because of God's love, to fight against it. Oh, indeed, through weakness you will still fall into sin, even the most heinous of sin. You will still fall into that sin, but because of the life of Christ in you, your desire to fight against it, you will have a desire, and that will be made possible but only because God has made it possible. He's given to his people the desire and the ability and the tools with which to stand firm in the faith. My dear precious people of God, the text tells us that when a Christian has been tried by fire and perseveres, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Try, if you can, in your minds to imagine that scene with me. Life is hard, physically, spiritually. And the road is littered with obstacles and difficulties. The road is often uphill, rocky, even painful. And along the way, as we walk our way through the difficulties of life, there are so many difficult detours. But the Christian, he presses on, keeping his eye on that prize. And now here in our text, James pictures Christ as standing at the end of your life's journey, having in his hand a trophy, a crown prepared especially for you, which he places on your head. As you cross that finish line, you will be battered, bruised, perhaps even bleeding as consequence of your battle devil in your own fallen heart, but Jesus wraps his everlasting arms around you, wipes the tears of life's painful experiences from your eyes, and places on your brow that trophy for you to wear forever in glory. That eternal heavenly glory is promised to those who love God already in this life. Blessed is the man that endures. Blessed is he both now and eternally. Stand fast, therefore, people of God. Stand fast, be steadfast and immovable, fighting in the strength and the power of your loving God. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. May God make each of us into men and women and even children who joyfully endure trials and resist temptation, knowing that such endurance is evidence of a faith which culminates in eternal glory. Shall we pray? Father, we have sung it together. We've asked for courage to stand up for Jesus But we're also told that the strife will not be long. This day the noise and our involvement in the battle, but tomorrow the victor's song. And to those who overcome, a crown of life shall be.