Principles of Handling Trials
The Truth of the Gospel Through the Book of James • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction:
Introduction:
The world can always notice the marked differences between those people that truly belong to the Lord and those that just have a mere profession of faith in Christ.
Just like with Jewelry, there is a marked difference in the radiance of the real thing and the imitation.
And at the same time there is marked difference in the radiance of a true believer and that of only a professor.
Many times we have absolutely confidence in our faith until that faith is severely tested by hardships and disappointments.
Now, how a person handles trouble will reveal whether his faith is living or dead, genuine or imitation, saving or non-saving.
A great example of that is the parable that Christ told in the Gospel of Luke chapter 8 on the sower.
Every seed that died, thus showing that the reception of the Word was not genuine, died through different kind of trials.
Trials usually separate the Christians from the people that simply make a verbal assent to the things of God.
I believe the is why the Lord allowed such persecution on the early Church; to separate the real believers from the fake.
You think for one moment that a person that does not have a true commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ will last when their life is on the line for following Christ?
Now, we understand that everyone who lives in this world will have to endure trouble.
Job said it best:
Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
In reply to one of his “friends” he said:
Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
The Psalmist said:
Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
Isaiah declared:
And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.
Solomon so desperately wrote:
Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.
God’s people are exempt from trouble, but how we respond to that trouble is what sets them apart from everyone else.
A person that is merely a professor of Christ will respond very differently from those people that are true possessors of Christ.
Jesus Christ promised that there would be trouble in this life.
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
Even Christ, in his humanity, wept over the way that Mary and the friends of Lazarus were grieving over his death.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,
Jesus wept.
Jesus was troubled over the actions of Judas
When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
Jesus was grieved at the prospects of his own death.
Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
The Apostle Paul said that he was afflicted in every way.
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
So, it is not that there will never be grief and sorrow over situations of life.
However, how one ultimately responds will be the test of whether the faith that that person says that they possess is real or not.
How one handles the trials of life is a good indicator of the reality of their faith.
James’s point is that when faith is a mere empty profession or mere sediment and is not based on firm and intelligent convictions over divine truth, the fire of trouble will butn it up.
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
The point is that if trials in the individuals life causes them to go away from serving the Lord, then that is proof that the faith was indeed not genuine.
As we have already said, the book of James gives tests on the genuineness of someones faith.
It is not merely in the profession, the profession must be backed up the reality of our responses to things in our lives.
The very first test is the test of strength of our faith.
As we look at verses 2-8, there are three areas that we need to look at to see hoe genuine believers ultimately look at their trials.
Notice I said, “ultimately.”
Many times, we do not look at these things this way at first; however, by Grace and the strength of God, we ultimately will.
I. A Persistant Attitude (vs. 2)
I. A Persistant Attitude (vs. 2)
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
“Count” is “ἡγέομαι” and is in the imperative mood; which is the mood of a command.
And the reason that that is a command is because that is not the natural human response to trouble.
So, therefore, our response to our trials becomes a matter of obedience.
Christians are under the divine command to be somewhat joyful in their trials but to look a them with all joy.
The Greek word “ἡγέομαι” means : “to consider, to regard or to lead.”
Now, that is interesting.
Believers are commanded to think about their trials in a joyous way, because how we think about our trials will lead the rest of our responses.
James is saying that a true response to trials will be fullness of joy that takes the lead on how we continually respond to trials.
Notice how Jospeh responded to his trials.
But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
This is not just a joyful act, in reluctant protest, but is genuine joy.
It is a matter of the will, not the feelings.
Because our feelings do not see trials as good; and they certainly are not.
But being that it is a matter of the will, the will steps in and remembers:
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
When faith in Jesus Christ is genuine, James assures us that even the worst of troubles can and should be a cause for thanksgiving and rejoicing.
The more that we rejoice in our testing, the more we realize that they are not liabilities but privileges, ultimately beneficial and not harmful, no matter how destructive and painful the immediate experience of them might appear.
When we face the trial with the attitude that James commands, we discover that the greatest part of the joy is drawing closer to the Lord, who is the source of all joy.
Because as the believer faces those trials we become more sensitive to His presence, His goodness, His love, and His grace.
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The joy of reconciliation caused Christ the joy that caused Him to endure the cross.
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
I mean, consider Christ who did what He did with joy, and your trouble has not caused you to shed your own blood yet, has it?
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
If your perfectly holy Lord could endure the unimaginable agony or undeservingly taking the sins of His people upon Himself, how can we not endure, willingly and with thanksgiving, the immeasurably lesser and deserved sufferings that test us from time to time.
Your ultimate response shows either the reality of your faith and the fact that the faith the you say that you have is false.
Other than Christ, the ultimate example of this kind of joy in trials in the Apostle Paul.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.