So, this afternoon, we're going to be continuing our study in the book of James, continuing with our theme of suffering. In our last study in the book of James, we read about how James calls believers to suffer and what the goal of suffering was. James calls believers to suffer with joy and with spiritual maturity. that we ought to suffer in such a way that understands that God is sovereign over all of our trials and our sufferings, and that the Lord has an ultimate good purpose for each and every one of our suffering. James specifically pointed out to us that the purpose of suffering was to bring forth good fruit for the Lord, specifically the fruit of perseverance and endurance, and even more so, faithfulness in suffering, and our willingness to persevere and endure in trials for the Lord's sake, for His glory, and that it would bring us the benefit of spiritual wholeness and completeness. That we would be lacking in nothings, James said. And that this spiritual wholeness and completeness is the spiritual maturity that the Lord desires to work in each and every one of you here. And remember, brothers and sisters, the purpose of our redemption is to make us more like Christ, that he may be glorified through our lives here. And to grow in our sanctification is to grow in Christ's likeness. The two are the same, they're synonymous. And our suffering, our trials, are a means by which the Lord sovereignly uses to remove the dross of sin from us so that what will remain will be the pure and precious qualities of Christlikeness. This is one of the things that sufferings and trials accomplishes. This is why we are not to spurn trials or to spurn the sufferings, come what may. The beauty of it all is that the Lord graciously provides His grace and His wisdom to accomplish this goal in us. Like a good father, he does not just abandon us and simply tosses us into the deep end and says, figure it out. Go ahead. No, we worship a gracious and loving God who, in his mighty power and in his wisdom, supplies all his grace in abundance. And it is at this point that James focuses here in our passage that James points us to the sufficiency of God's grace and wisdom. And the last time we were in the book of James, the last passage focused on God's sufficiency of his word. And in this passage, we're looking at the sufficiency of God's wisdom. The two major points that we're going to see throughout this passage is spiritual wisdom and our suffering contrasted with spiritual doubt and our suffering. The last time we were in James, it was spiritual passions in our suffering and spiritual growth in our suffering. This time, we're going to learn about spiritual wisdom and how that plays in our suffering and when spiritual doubt comes in, in the midst of our suffering. Beginning in verse 5, James says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God. So James is speaking, as we read the last time we were in James. These early Christians, they're currently undergoing suffering because of persecution. The persecution was so severe, it caused them to be scattered hundreds of miles from their original home in Jerusalem. And James just finished speaking to these suffering Christians, and he aimed to encourage them by helping them understand the purpose of their suffering. Now he turns to those of us who are facing trials, who could be perplexed, confused. We might have questions still in our hearts. And as we read James earlier, the verses earlier, we can stop and think and we can say, well, I read this and I understand I am to count it all joy. I understand that my trials and sufferings are being used to bring forth fruit within me. But perhaps you might still be thinking, I just don't understand why this is happening to me. Common question. Why is this happening to me? Or why am I struggling? Why is it that I feel like I'm not making any progress in my suffering or in this trial? As if I'm spinning my wheels. It's like maybe I'm not learning the lesson that God has for me as I'm undergoing the suffering. This is the kind of confusion and perplexity that we can begin to experience when we're in suffering that we don't have all the answers and we don't fully understand. But the problem often arises that when we are suffering, we think that our greatest need is for answers. We think that our greatest need is, I need answers. If I had the answers, I can navigate this. Rather than thinking that the truth is what we need is God's wisdom, not answers to placate us or satisfy our finite minds. It is the wisdom that functions as our compass to help guide us through the storm of our trials. And we must begin first, James says, by seeking God and asking him for his wisdom. So here is the first challenge. The last time we were in James, the challenge was to not rely on our own fleshly passions. Right? Not to follow our own feelings and emotions, but now we read that the challenge is to not rely on our own fleshly, finite human wisdom, but to turn our gaze to the Lord and to rely on His infinite, glorious, divine wisdom. That's the choice. his knowledge and his understanding. So if God is sovereign over our trial, and in his infinite wisdom he sees fit that we should face this trial, then it is the Lord who can provide us with the understanding and wisdom, for he is the one who knows the end from the beginning. Furthermore, James says, that the Lord will give us wisdom, and that the Lord does so generously. So not only Can you come before this holy God, this infinitely wise God? You can come before him petitioning him for wisdom in your confusion, perplexity, and darkness. But then James goes on to say that when you ask him, he gives generously. This word in the Greek is haplos, which means without reserve or to give bountifully, bountifully, in abundance. The Lord gives all in abundance. He withholds nothing from us when we ask him for his wisdom. So not only does he give generously, but he does so, James also says, without reproach. So not only can we approach this infinitely wise God, not only will he give in abundance generously, James says, but he will do so without reproach. Well, what does that mean? It literally means without rebuke or without finding fault. The Lord will not take issue if you come to him petitioning him, asking for wisdom in this trial that is so overwhelming to you. You don't know what to do. You don't know where to go. You can't think and see properly. he will give it to you generously in abundance to equip you for the trial, and he will do so without reproach. He will do so without frowning upon you for having sought Him for His wisdom. We have such a gracious God that not only does He call us to seek His wisdom, He gives it generously when we ask Him, and He does not give it to us begrudgingly or reluctantly. He does it without reproach. But there is a condition. And it's in the next verse. Pay close attention. Verse 6. Pay close attention to what James says. He says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God. But here's the condition in verse 6. Let him ask in what? In faith. Let him ask in faith. So two things. First notice that at the beginning, the if. The word if, if any of you lack wisdom. The beginning marks a conditional statement. James is saying, if this, then this. So if you lack wisdom, then go and seek the Lord. There's your first part of that condition. So if you are in need of wisdom in your trial, in your suffering, and if we were all honest and humble, The answer should be an emphatic yes. I don't know of a single person who will undergo suffering and trials and say, I don't really need wisdom. I got it. That's an exercise in folly. So there's your first condition. If you are lacking, then you must seek the Lord. What else? It says, so if we lack wisdom, then we must ask God, and we have to ask God for wisdom. That's what we're approaching God for. Not simply coming before him to ask, remove the trial. Don't let me suffer. Take it entirely completely. That's not what James is pointing these believers or us today. It's not simply saying, ask God to remove it and he shall remove it. That's not what the text says. If you lack wisdom, go and seek the Lord for wisdom, that which you lack. And so, brothers and sisters, why would we waste our time seeking for answers and seeking wisdom where answers and wisdom cannot be found? And you might think, When have I done that? Am I guilty of that? I would say that if we turn to the words of the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 8. Let me turn there now. Chapter 8, verses 16 to 20. And then we'll see a similar situation with the Israelites. Isaiah 8, 16 to 20. It reads, bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples. I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion. And when they say to you, here it is, inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? to the teaching and to the testimony. If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no don. Listen, these words spoken by the prophet Isaiah are as true today as they were when they were first spoken as a rebuke to the people of Israel. The situation is the Israelites were facing suffering from the coming Assyrian invasion. And their initial inclination was not to turn to the Lord in this, not to seek him and his infinite wisdom, but instead to turn to what? Mediums and necromancers who speak with the dead. And this is a rebuke for our society today, is it not? Where the culture today promotes what? That when we suffer, the wisdom we need is not the Lord's wisdom, but rather the so-called wisdom of man. of dead men, nonetheless. And you think, you might ask, brother, what are you referring to? What dead men are we seeking? What dead men is this culture? I'll tell you. When we experience suffering in trials, that is referred to in this culture, in this day and age, as trauma, we say, I don't need wisdom from the Lord in this trauma. I need it from Sigmund Freud, or from Carl Rogers, or Carl Young. dead men. We are seeking wisdom, wisdom so-called, from the dead. And we have our own necromancers and mediums to mediate between us and these dead men. You see, this is the same situation here that the Israelites were doing too. or any other thing, not just those men, but anyone else, all these dead. And the irony is, they're not just physically dead. They're spiritually dead. And the culture seeks wisdom from physically and spiritually dead men. And we call that wisdom. We call that help. We call that advice. In other words, culture is teaching that when we face trials, we need to consult the dead. This is no different than idolatrous Israelites here in Isaiah 8. They seek those who chirp and mutter useless words, meaningless, vain sayings, futile secular psychologies with all of its vain human wisdom. This is something that is not just out there in the culture, but unfortunately has crept into the church. And it's being attempted to be married to God's word. Finite wisdom with infinite wisdom married together. It's an exercise in falling. So it's not just out there. It's here. And this is something that we have become so accustomed. We've become so used to it, because it's so out there in the culture. We practically drink it, and we don't even know when we run into it. And that we have now, unbeknownst to some of us, have started seeking the so-called wisdom of the dead, rather than seeking the infinite, holy, righteous, and gracious wisdom of God, who gives generously without reproach. So the God who gives wisdom generously in abundance, and we choose to seek mediums to tell us what we think we need to hear. Notice that James said, if you lack wisdom, then he said, what? Then ask God. This is why that if then is important. Because if you ask wisdom, he tells you what to do. Ask God. Seek after God. Don't seek elsewhere. Don't say, well, yeah, I will seek God, but I'll also. No. This is why we have to talk about the sufficiency of God's word and God's wisdom. Because if it truly is sufficient, then you don't need wisdom of man sprinkled in there in the midst of your sufferings. So secondly, James said what? We must also ask in faith and not doubt. That was also part of James' condition for asking God for wisdom. It must be asked in faith. So what is that? Faith. The word is pistis in Greek, which means to believe or trust. But it carries with it more in its connotation. It carries with it that actions based on trusting God will ultimately follow. Essentially, your faith is not a dead faith. There are the works, the fruit of righteousness that comes from your faith. And so when James says that you must ask in faith This is what he means, right? There is substance to the words which you proclaim to believe in this holy, righteous, and infinitely wise God. It is not faith to say, yeah, I have faith in God, but he can't really help me. Or he can't really help me on his own. I need to help myself too, or I need somebody who is dead to help me too. I need to mix it in there. I need to kind of get wisdom like a buffet and grab this and a little of that and a little here and put it all together and I mix it all up and I got my solution to solve my problem. But that is exactly what you see today so often in the culture and in the church. And this is actually a theme in the book of James, this whole idea of faith and then the fruit of action of righteousness following that faith. And we will read that, where real faith produces these fruitful works. So in this verse, when James says, when we ask God for wisdom, that we must have faith, it is a wholehearted trust and believing in the Lord and his gracious provision. And that we actually live according to this belief in such a way that our actions and works demonstrate that we truly do have faith in the Lord. And contrary to faith, following the text, doubt now sometimes you hear people popular apologists and whatnot today say that the opposite of faith is not doubt they say no no no the opposite of faith is unbelief but it's not doubt well I would say that they have clearly failed to consider the passage because where James is teaching he is clearly contrasting faith and doubt in verse 6 let him ask in faith without doubt the two don't really coexist well. If you are going to have faith in the Lord, then the doubt that is in your heart must ultimately be dealt with. James is contrasting two, because the two are actually in opposition to one another. And the word for doubt is diakrino, which is a very interesting Greek word. I'll flesh it out so that we have a better understanding, because I know some of you might have the question right now and be like, Well, I may have had some doubts. I may still do, especially in suffering. And is that not understandable? But that doesn't mean that all of a sudden I don't have faith in the Lord, you might be saying. I'm not saying that your faith is false because there's some doubt. But what I am saying is that to follow James's exhortation faithfully, the doubt that we have, along with our faith in our heart, must be dealt with and cannot just be simply left there and be like, it's fine. It's natural because I'm suffering and I'm confused. And there's so much overwhelming questions. The reality is we must deal with this doubt. Right? Remember earlier he was talking about spiritual maturity. This is what spiritual maturity and wholeness looks like. So, what is it with this word, right? So, this word has two connotations, right? This word doubt. Because James knows what he's doing, and the Holy Spirit working through James knows what he's doing when he writes this word. Two connotations. One positive, one negative. Positive aspect of diacrino is defined as discernment and judgment. This is a positive good thing. We need discernment. Especially when we're suffering. The negative aspect, however, is to waver or to vacillate. That's what this word and its negative means. So essentially, diachrono becomes negative when we overjudge. meaning we begin to overthink, overanalyze. And now we're becoming anxious, doubting God's provision, doubting His sovereign and divine providence in bringing us in this trial where we are. And so this is the negative connotation of the word. It's interesting because we would think that Well, I'm in this, I'm not doubting, I'm just exercising discernment. The trick is, what we think is discernment and just analyzing, examining, reflecting, could, in truth, end up being doubting in our hearts. This is the deceitfulness of sin. We can't be so quick to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt and dress up something in our heart that is actually failing to trust in God wholly and thinking, I'm just analyzing, discerning, reflecting. That I'm just simply analyzing a situation, weighing the options, so to speak. But James here is emphasizing that this propensity to become anxious and doubting over thinkers who has not become a overthinker amidst trial. And to think that we went through the trial perfectly trusting in God? I don't think so. So this overthinking becomes doubting, and we see that James compares this, continuing on, like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. It is a picture not of the perseverance and steadfastness of the spirit that James spoke about earlier in this epistle, But it is the opposite. There's vacillating, wavering. The mind is being tossed to and fro. It is essentially doubting. So rather than the steadfast faith in the Lord and a wholehearted reliance on the Lord's grace and wisdom, there's a wavering, doubting mind that, when faced with trials, questions not only the Lord's sovereign purpose and will, but even can begin to doubt the wisdom of God. There is an air of pride that rebels in the heart and questions God. whether internally or outwardly. Are you sure you know what you're doing, Lord? Can I actually count on you? Are you really a God that I can trust fully in this? Listen carefully. I'm acutely aware that suffering hurts, and it does hurt. And it can cause us to feel as though our head is spinning faster than we can even comprehend the situation. But that does not mean that we ought to start living in such a way as to doubt God's wisdom and sovereign will and purpose in bringing these trials in our lives. If it is for an ultimate good purpose, then we cannot lose sight of that. So then when we begin to waver and vacillate, we have lost sight of God's infinite, wise, sovereign grace. So we should not be doubting the wisdom of God. We should not be rebelling against it by questioning his authority and questioning his sovereignty and his predestined choices to bring these trials. And as we've been hearing from Pastor Paul in Romans 9, has the potter no right over the clay? Of course he does. And let this be a comfort to you, dear Christian. This is not something to be like, No, the reality is there's an infinitely good God and an infinitely wise God who is sovereign over your suffering, and this ought to be a comfort and a rest for our souls. It means that we can say with confidence that, Lord, even though I don't fully understand this, I know you do. Even if I don't have the full picture and have all the answers. And besides, if you had all the answers, what would you do with them anyways? Could you solve the problem? Could you fix it all? Be honest here. So even if we prayed and just petitioned God day and night to ask for all the answers in our suffering, what would you do with them? You have not the power to do anything, even if you had the knowledge. So when you look at it in this perspective, this is how we can begin to see how we are missing the point in our suffering arm trials. Rather, we ought to submit to his good purposes in our hearts and in faith and in our deeds. The heart of the issue is the issue of the heart. And in the heart of a doubter ultimately lies a question of authority. Who is in charge? Who's in charge of my life? And especially when we're suffering and trials come our way, the sinful, prideful tendency is to say, I know better than you, O Lord. I know better what I need to get me through this more than you. Ultimately, you see, this is a question regarding the sufficiency of God's word and God's wisdom. And that is what's put before us. Will you ultimately choose to trust in the Lord and His sovereign goodwill and infinite wisdom, or will you choose to rely on the folly of your own wisdom and self-centered passions of the heart? Seeking dead men, both physically and spiritually dead men. Dear Christian, what James is emphasizing here is that in our trials, if we get to a point where we are overwhelmed and we don't know how to move forward, we must then go before the Lord, humbly pleading for His grace and wisdom, that we can suffer these trials faithfully. Do not doubt the goodness of the Lord for a second, and don't begin to question His wisdom and His divine providence in bringing trials and sufferings. Do not turn to these things in the world, the wisdom of the world, with its deceitful philosophies and vain imaginations. The answer is not out there in the world or in society or culture. It cannot save you, nor the experts or the so-called experts of this day and age. Truly, it is the Lord who saves. He will rescue you in the time of trouble and be a fortress for you in your great time of need. Going on in verse seven, listen to this warning from James, and it's a dire warning. If you turn to the culture and society for wisdom and answers, if you begin to become pulled away in temptation to doubt the goodness of God and his provision and the strength and infinite wisdom that he has to deliver you, here's the admonishment. It says, you will receive nothing from the Lord. It's what it says. 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. We can read this in our daily devotionals or hear it time and time again. And it is very easy to kind of gloss over that part there. We should not suppose or expect to receive anything from the Lord? This ought to. Pause. This ought to put the brakes on us when we're reading and studying this passage in James. These should be terrifying words, brothers and sisters, that in our greatest time of need, in our suffering, the one thing we need more than anything else is strength and wisdom that comes from Christ, our Redeemer and our Lord. Do not look to man to save you in your day of trouble. This is foolishness. Psalm 40, as we were reading earlier, verse 4 says, Blesses the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie. Don't chase after deceitful lies and vain philosophies of this age. Psalm 146 verse 3 says, do not put your trust and hope in princes, in mortal man who cannot save. Again, Psalm 118 verse 9, it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. Therefore, why trust these humanistic methods? Why turn to these practices which have only been around for about a hundred years anyways, whereas the Word of God has been tested and proven time and time again through millenniums of suffering and trials? We're reading about it here at the time when James is even writing these early Christians who had to flee everything. Do you think that it was sufficient for them in the first century? Yes. Amen. And it has continued to be so. And you see it through the history of the blood of martyrs throughout the millennium. Millenniums. So when we get here in our 21st century, super sophisticated and modern age, It's still true. And we still ought to rely on the sufficiency of God's word and his grace and his wisdom. It's been tested. But want to know what I think is something that's really crazy about Christians in this day and age? Not saying all Christians, but just kind of see it out there. And you become so consumed with these humanistic concepts, taught at universities, taught in mainstream culture, that they are quicker to believe and apply these vain philosophies that are perpetuated from godless people than to read and believe and obey the divine truths and promises of scripture. And they are godless people. Freud, Jung, Rogers, very godless, all of them. Why marry it? with the text of God's word. It would make no sense. And that's what we do when we end up resorting to psychology and pragmatism and other therapeutic methods and self-help and things that are steeped in pseudoscience, new age beliefs. Name it and claim it, believe it and receive it. You may be listening to me right now and disagreeing, but let me show you. The word psychology comes from the Greek. It's two Greek words combined. Psyche and logia, right? The word logia at the end is where we get the suffixology, like biology, right? Theology, psychology. That's where we get it, right? Logia in Greek. It literally means the word or study of. So psychology is the word or study of the first part, psyche, which means what? Psyche today is taken to mean mind. So psychology is supposed to be study of the mind, right? But here's the problem, and here's the deception. Here's the switch. Psyche does not actually mean mind. It doesn't. You can go pick up a Greek dictionary. So this is the secular culture's attempt to redefine it. In Greek, it's literally translated to the word soul. Soul. So psychology is supposed to be truly the study of the soul. But there's the lie, because they don't believe in nor teach in the existence of a soul. Soul comes from who? God, the Lord, who created it. And so you are going to people who don't even acknowledge in their textbooks the existence of the immaterial soul created by God and they've switched the definition to make it mean, oh, we're studying the mind, but it doesn't mean that. If you want to study the soul, brothers and sisters, where ought you go? It really is that simple. They've replaced it, and we've been deceived into thinking that that's what it actually means. And I want to be clear. The reason that I'm so adamantly against psychology and the secular methods of mental and emotional health is because when we read the text here in James and elsewhere, because scripture is littered with this kind of exhortations, encouragement, and calling us and promises on how we ought to suffer, And so the reason why I'm so against it is here in James, specifically where we're reading and elsewhere, it's a calling all Christians to a unique and biblical way of suffering that honors Christ as Lord. And it glorifies God above all else in the suffering. James is calling us to suffer and endure trials in a way that understands and submits to the sufficiency of the word of God and the wisdom of God. But psychology, along with all these other humanistic teachings, are the antithesis of this great call. It's the opposite. Secular methods do not honor nor submit to the sufficiency of God's word and its divine power. They despise it. And just because you can find somebody who says, well, I know somebody who is in that category, camp, or teaches, and they don't. Yeah, but it didn't originate with them. It originated with other people well before they ever got a degree in it. So it doesn't acknowledge or submit to the infinite wisdom of God. And James says, we must seek God, not man. It's God who gives generously and abundantly, and we must approach him in true faith, without doubt, James says, without skepticism, as if the Lord's arm is too short to save us from our trials. We need to have faith like that of the psalmist who praises God and says in Psalm 40, I waited patiently for the Lord, He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and he set my feet firm upon a rock, making my steps secure. That's our God, that is our Lord whom we serve. Don't doubt these good promises and end up like James says, become like the wave of the sea that is tossed by the wind to and fro. Verse eight and final point. And final warning from James, the doubting Christian, he says, is a double-minded Christian. Double-minded, literally two-minded, split, split-minded, to have a wavering, vacillating mind. This person, James says, is unstable in all that they do. That is why it is of the utmost importance to understand we cannot afford to have a wavering, doubting heart that does not seek the Lord in true faith. especially in suffering because we very, very much need him and his grace the most during those times. So brothers and sisters, I don't want any of you to be unstable in all that you do. No, I want you to be able to proclaim like the heroes of faith before us who could declare boldly, the Lord has set my feet upon a rock and he has made my steps secure. So as we read the text in its entirety and James' writing concerning suffering, what's his main point of it all? It is this, suffering and trials come and they will come. We can truly consider it joy. knowing that the Lord is sovereignly working in our suffering to produce the fruit of perseverance and endurance in us, and that through trial we will grow both spiritually and become more spiritually mature so that we may be perfect and complete, wholeness, meaning we can have wholeness, spiritual wholeness, maturity. We don't have to be ruled by our fleshly passions. We can navigate through trials with the wisdom of God and not be tossed to and fro by our own emotions, our own feelings, Our own internal struggle, we don't have to be tossed to and fro. And neither do we have to be tossed about by what's taught out there, these deceitful philosophies. For God, who gives generously and equips us with his grace and wisdom, prepares us for the time of trial and suffering. He doesn't leave us ill-equipped. But only, James says, if we come to our gracious God in faith without doubting. For if we have doubt in our heart about who God is, or whether the Lord is able to truly see us through this, or if we doubt the wisdom of God and his sovereignty and divine providence in bringing about these current trials that we are now currently in, and we become double-minded people, claiming to be people who have faith in a mighty God, a mighty God who saves and redeems, but we're living and thinking like the opposite. And rather than our ways being secure, like the psalmist said, they will be filled with more griefs and more troubles, and I want you to be spared from this. If you fall to self-reliance, you will invite greater grief and troubles. There is no doubt about that. You will not be able to pull yourself up by your own spiritual bootstraps. And neither will someone else who is unspiritual or vain philosophies that are unspiritual, rooted not in the divine word of God and his infinite wisdom, but rooted in man's futile thinking, you're going to bring more trouble and grief. That's not what you need when you're suffering. You don't need more trials and more grief, more confusion, more perplexity, dead men chirping, muttering, necromancers, mediums. You don't need that. God's word is truly sufficient. And I want to point you to it, because I have the answers, but because I know where the answers lie. And I know if you try to muddy it up by marrying and intermingling this, you're not going to ultimately help yourself, but you will bring further grief. So brothers and sisters, if any of you doubt the Lord is who he says he is, this is something that you and anyone else in myself included must repent of with all sincerity. Because now that we're hearing like, oh, James is really talking about how sinful, how difficult doubt causes things to be even more. And we should take that seriously. So we ought to repent of that whenever it is present. I don't want you to just go in despair, like, oh my goodness, if I'm doubting, I'm double-minded. And I ought to expect to receive nothing from the Lord. I'm just, ugh, I'm doomed. What do I do then? You go to the Lord with your doubt and humility and repentance. Go back to the word to read about who he is, what he has done. Read about all that he has done and continues to do. And let him deal with the doubt in your heart so you can have a pure heart of faith as you approach him seeking his wisdom. You don't have to be stuck. So if we doubt who the Lord is and who he says he is, we must repent of it with all sincerity. And the Lord who knows you from before the foundation of the earth, right, it is the Lord who knows us. So if he knows us before the foundation of the earth and his divine providence has brought us to these trials, surely his wisdom ought to be trusted above all else. He knew that you were going to have to endure this before it even came upon you. Why seek people who have not a clue and could never tell you when your next trial is coming, and yet the Lord knows all of them from the beginning to the end? So why seek temporal finite wisdom of man versus God's infinite, holy, righteous wisdom? We must understand this, that we truly worship an all-knowing, all-powerful God. Let's just bring it all together in closing, right? In God the Father, we have a loving Father. And we're going to continue to read about that. We have a loving Father. In Jesus Christ, we have a faithful high priest who intercedes for us. In the Holy Spirit, we have a divine comforter. So therefore, dear Christian, what more could you ask for? What more could you even possibly require that the Lord has not already provided for you? Surely God in his infinite wisdom knows us and our trials infinitely more than we ever can. And it is this God and Lord who says to us and all of his disciples throughout all the centuries, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Let us close in prayer. Lord, so many people find themselves suffering and hurting, and I pray that when we go out into the world, we can go out into the world as lights to those who are suffering in darkness, that we can take this word seriously in our hearts, and that we can embody the word and how we live for you in faith without doubting each and every day, Lord, that we can come to you in humility and repentance when we ought to, and that we can live out this word, your promises, for your glory. Give us the strength that we need to face trials and to overcome victoriously. Amen.