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Wisdom For The Furnace (James 1:5-8 January 22, 2017)

I would like you to think for a moment about the greatest trial that you have faced in the last few years. Illness, loss of a loved one, a struggle with sin, depression, whatever your particular struggle was. Now I want you to think about what you felt and thought at that time. I suspect many, if not most of you, struggled mightily to see the blessing of God in your trial. You asked God – why? You may have even told God how unfair this was. After preaching through Job last year, a number of you shared that there have been trials in your lives that brought you right to the edge. All you could see was darkness. And at that time – if someone said – consider this trial all joy – you would have given them a piece of your mind. Some trials seem almost beyond our capacity to endure let alone rejoice in. Your young wife killed in a car accident. Your precious child developing cancer. Being diagnosed with a painful chronic disease. Being brought to financial ruin. In the furnace of suffering and hurt, it is so hard for us to step back and know – this is actually a blessing – this is in fact for my good – thank you God. At those times, it is so hard to comprehend how a trial that hard – that painful – that seemingly unfair – could ever be for your good and meant by God as a good gift. Even when your head tells you – God is good – this is blessing – count it all joy – – your hearts cry out – really? – how could this possibly be for good?

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Our faith can be shaken. Our trust in God can be shaken. And yet, as we saw last week, James begins his epistle in James 1:2-4 with these words:

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.

These are awesome words – but they are some of the hardest and most perplexing words in Scripture. Joy and trials do not seem to sit easily together. Last week we saw that what James was saying was this:

Don’t waste your trials! Instead: Know that they are a good gift from God to cause true faith to mature. But, even when we know this is true – it does not make it any easier to apply it – to believe it – to trust it when the storms of life are howling. We know this is a fallen world, we know the godliest saints all suffered greatly – Jesus suffered more than anyone – we know God works all things together for good. And yet – when dire trials fall on us – we struggle mightily to trust that God is working for our good. The Lord knows there are times when we will struggle – and James knows this. And so, in the verses that follow this opening command – verses 5-18 of chapter 1 – James tells us – when you struggle to find joy in your trials, consider these encouragements from your faithful God:

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• The promise of wisdom through faith 5-8

• The promise of reward after trials 9-12

• The promise of gifts from God 13-18 These are encouragements, aids, lifelines to help us when we are finding it difficult to maintain perspective and hope in the furnace of trials. This week and in the weeks to come I trust you will see just what an arsenal God has given us to help us in the storms of life. But before we move on – I want to talk for a moment about James’ style as an author. As we move through this book you will soon realise that he is nothing like Paul. Paul writes with very clear connections between his points. He is a preacher’s dream. You can readily see how each point builds and relates. Young preachers – start with Paul – not James. If you look at verses 5-18, at first glance he seems to jump from trials to wisdom to wealth to temptations to good gifts. It looks like three or four ideas just lumped together. Not so. In fact, James has one theme in mind and while the connections are not as easy to see as with someone like Paul – they are all there. The common thread in this section is encouragements to help us find joy in the midst of trials. This morning I want to look at this first encouragement:

• The promise of wisdom through faith 5-8 Basically, this passage teaches us this truth:

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When all else fails – try wisdom. There will be times when you have listened to James tell you to consider trials as joy – and you just fail. Consider this all joy … consider this all joy … consider this all joy … how can this be joy! Times when you simply cannot see God’s good guiding hand – His purpose in your suffering. Times when you will have no idea what God is doing – in your lives – or in the world. It will make no sense. It will seem wrong and unfair. James says that when this is you – then try wisdom. How do you do this? There are two things you have to do:

Ask God for wisdom Ask God in faith The first thing to do is to: Ask God for wisdom Look with me at James 1:5:

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If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

It sounds simple – and in one way it is. God, I am struggling – please give me Your wisdom to see this trial is actually a blessing from You. But there is a little more to this. To understand what James is telling us, we have to understand what it means to ask God for wisdom. Christians throw the term ‘wisdom’ around a lot. It is a very common thing for Christians to pray and ask God for ‘wisdom’ when faced with the decisions of life. I have listened to many prayers over the past few weeks – and I can tell you in many prayers I heard a plea for wisdom. There are a few phrases Christians use a lot in prayers. Father-God … If it be Your will … We ask for your wisdom … And if there is a decision to be made – a plea for God’s wisdom is almost universal. You are trying to decide if you should marry Fred, you’ve been offered a job in New Guinea and don’t know if you should take it, you are trying to decide if now is the right time to have a child – and so Christians very commonly pray for God to give them ‘wisdom’ in their decision making. I suspect there would be few if any Christians here who have not prayed for wisdom in the big and small choices of life. But, if that is you – then I want to ask you – when you prayed – and said God please give me wisdom – what did you actually mean by that? – what did you want from God? Recently, after some people had prayed and asked God for wisdom – I asked – what did you mean when you asked God for wisdom? Most looked at me as if to say – I don’t know – I just want wisdom. Not content to leave it there – I probed a bit more and it became clear that for most of us – when we pray for wisdom – what we are actually asking is for divine guidance.

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We want God to providentially oversee and guide our decision so we will make a good, biblical, God-honouring choice. Fair enough but I also made a further pest of myself and asked. So, when you pray for wisdom – how do you expect God to answer your prayer? More stunned looks. Nobody seemed to expect God to speak audibly or to send an angel. More probing. Most said something like – well He provides wisdom by bringing relevant Bible passages to mind – by having wise counsellors give us the same advice – by closing doors that are not His will. That is usually what we mean when we pray and ask God for wisdom. Am I right? Yes I’m right. Now, please listen carefully. I absolutely think we are to pray and ask God for wisdom and for guidance in the decisions and choices of life. I absolutely believe God does answer such a prayer and desires to guide us into making choices that honour Him. There are many passages that teach us this. However, it seems to me that when we ask for wisdom, Scripture indicates that we are asking for something specific – a resource, a blessing – to help us make wise decisions. In other words – wisdom does something to us that helps us make wise decisions. To explain this – I will see if I can unpack this, but what would help you is if sometime you did a study of the way Scripture refers to wisdom. For now, let me point out a few things. Proverbs 9:10 is perhaps the most famous passage on wisdom:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

This is a very important passage on wisdom. The fear of the Lord. Understanding the awe and majesty and immensity and power of God is the starting point for biblical wisdom. But perhaps my favourite verse on wisdom comes from Paul in Ephesians 1:17–19:

[I pray] that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the

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eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might.

Paul prays that the church might have the Spirit of wisdom – that they would know the hope – the plan of God in their lives – and the power and might of God to achieve it in their lives. These passages and others have led me to adopt this definition of wisdom:

Wisdom is a gift of God that expands our understanding of His power and glory and goodness such that we long to base our lives on His revealed word. In other words – you are wise when you understand how big God is – and we choose to obey this big God. Or I could put it this way – you are a fool if you say there is no God or if your God is too small – and you do not heed His word. Read passages like Isaiah 40 over and over and over. Let them sink into your soul – and you will start to become wise. We realise that God controls every moment in every place throughout all eternity. He does so without any error. He even manages to weave the rebellious sin of His fallen creatures into His plan. No trial occurs outside His sovereign will. No trial is outside His good purposes. When you know this in the depths of our being – you are a wise man or woman. This is very important.

When the world talks about wisdom – they mean that someone understands so much about the world and circumstances and human nature that they make good decisions. When the word – the Bible – talks about wisdom – it means that someone understands so much about God that they make good decisions and accept His good decisions.

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Let me say that again:

When the world talks about wisdom – they mean that someone understands so much about the world and circumstances and human nature that they make good decisions. When the word – the Bible – talks about wisdom – it means that someone understands so much about God that they make good decisions and accept His good decisions.

Notice that James is specifically speaking here about wisdom to help us endure trials. When trials descend – and you are failing to count it all joy – James says ask God for wisdom. Ask God to enlarge your concept of who He is to the point where you know with certainty in your soul that God is working good in your life even through this trial. So, now we are in a position to ask the question – what does it mean to lack wisdom? It means you are failing to trust that God is big enough and glorious enough and good enough to work out His plan even through your trials. You precious baby dies. You can’t see how anything good can could possibly come of this. You think – wow – if God did that to mature me – that is really callous. You can’t get any perspective. James would say – if you are struggling like this – then you lack biblical wisdom. So, you need to ask God. Notice that this means that when you ask God for wisdom – you are not asking Him to sovereignly reveal how to end the trial. No! You are asking the Lord to enlarge your understanding of Himself – such that we trust His plan and purpose – such that we rest easy – even in the storms of life – and are strengthened to endure the trial and come to maturity. Wisdom does not lead to escape but to endurance. So, putting this all together. In effect – here is what James is saying:

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If you are failing to rejoice in the blessing of God in your trials – then the problem is not God – or God’s plan – the problem is that your view of God is too small! So, ask God to give you a bigger view of Him.

We are so limited in our understanding of the world and history. We are so limited in our understanding of how every action and event flows towards God’s sovereign climax. We are so limited in our understanding of what it takes to bring a redeemed sinner to maturity. So, what we need to do is trust that God is impossibly awesome and as such we can trust that He knows what He is doing. This means that when you pray – God give me wisdom in my trial – you are praying – God enlarge my view of You – show me more of Your majesty – calm my fears by Your glory – let me accept your plan for my life – including this trial. In fact Lord, enlarge my view of You to the point that I rejoice in trials. Let me see if I can flesh out how this works. The doctor sits you down and says – I am so sorry – but you have Multiple Sclerosis. You struggle to process those words. You feel a tightness in your chest – the room swirls. Thoughts just flood in. Will I live? Will I be a burden on my family? How will I provide? I don’t want to be incapacitated and die slowly. The future suddenly seems so dark. You catch your self and say – you are a Christian – you are better than this. It doesn’t work. Your mind runs through every scenario and there is no way you can imagine that this can be good – for you, for you family, for your church, for anyone. It seems wrong and unfair.

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You have tried to be a faithful servant and this is your reward? Then, in the midst of this trial you remember this passage and you collect yourself and you pray.

Merciful Father, Almighty God – I am really struggling – I am really struggling. I feel anything but joy. Please give me Your wisdom and help me to see Your hand and plan for my life in this trial?

When you ask this in faith – God answers. This doesn’t mean that God will cure you or explain in detail how this is good for you. James is saying God will remind you of how incredibly big He is. He created everything. He knows the beginning from the end. He works everything together for good in the lives of those He loves. Precisely how God gives this wisdom seems to vary from case to case and person to person – but here are some ways it might work – some ways God might expand your view of Him. Perhaps God might cause you to contemplate Joseph and Job. You might remember Paul and Stephen. You might consider the life and death of the Lord Jesus. And you come to know in the depths of your soul that this same God who worked all things together for good in the lives of these incredible men who also suffered so much – is also at work in you. Perhaps passages on creation or the resurrection or the Second Coming – expand your grasp of God’s infinite power. Ah Lord God – nothing is impossible for You. Perhaps God reminds you that trials are light and momentary in compared to eternity. Perhaps God encourages you to be a testimony to those around you of how a Christian handles such serious trials. Perhaps God merely comforts your soul. In one or more ways – God enlarges your vision of Him – and this is the begetting of wisdom. Wisdom does not mean that you will always come to know what God is doing. Job never found out the purposes of God in his suffering.

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Wisdom does mean that you will come to trust God and you will be strengthened in heart and mind to hold firm even when you can’t understand. When you grasp this, you realise that this is a stunning promise – because James says that when we ask God for this wisdom – He gives generously to all without reproach. God delights to glorify Himself. When you pray – God show me more of your glory – this is a prayer that He delights to answer. We now come to the second thing James says to do when you can’t see the hand of God in your trial. He says to: Ask God in faith Verses 6-8:

But 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; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

While God delights to answer a prayer for wisdom – he says there is one exception – one time when God will not answer your prayer. God gives wisdom generously to all – unless you ask in doubt. Unless you ask as a double-minded man or woman. What does this mean? We need to look at these three words – faith – doubt – double-minded. I’m going to come back to what faith means – because James contrasts faith with doubting and being double-minded. So, I want to look at these other terms first and then come back to faith. Let’s think about doubt. The doubt James is speaking of is not so much intellectual doubt as moral doubt. This is not the doubt that wonders if God can cause trials to work good in our life – this is the doubt that says – I refuse to accept this trial – there is no way I will ever see this trial as a blessing from God. James helps us understand this when he says – he is a double-minded man. Double-minded – is literally – double-souled.

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His soul is pulled in two directions. It is the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other shoulder. You would like to trust God – but not if that means terrible suffering. You would like God to guide – but only if it leads to escape not endurance. So, you ask for wisdom – but you will only accept answers you like. Let me see if I can pull this together for you. I won’t name names to protect the guilty – but quite a number of times I have had very similar conversations to this:

Pastor Craig – I would really like to meet with you to get your wisdom on something.

OK – so we meet. Turns out they are contemplating a decision. It soon becomes clear that the problem is there is a choice they really want to make – but they know that this is not the best choice spiritually. I have been offered a promotion – but I have to work every Sunday. I want to marry the very beautiful, stunning Cindy – but I am probably the only one who thinks she is a Christian. I want to move my family to this idyllic beach town – but there is no even semi-decent church there. They turn up with all of these reasons why what they want to do is actually the best decision:

If I take the promotion I can give more to missions – no they won’t. If I marry the stunning Cindy I can help her spiritually – and if it turns out she isn’t saved I have a lifetime to witness to her – rarely works. If we move to the beach I can spend more time guiding my family spiritually – no you won’t.

Here is the reality – they are not after guidance – they are after permission. This is not my first drive around the block pastorally. I know what is going on. If they can get me to agree with them – they are off the hook spiritually.

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They can tell themselves and others – Oh – Pastor Craig agrees this is the best thing for us. No he does not! – So don’t even bother asking – OK! Their soul is pulled in two directions – the world – and the Lord. They want both – but Jesus is clear – you cannot serve two masters. They have made up their mind – they are just looking for someone to agree with them. They ask for wisdom – but there is really only one answer they want – wisdom that matches their desires. James knows we do this – and he knows we often do it when the trials of life are assailing us. I have heard it many times. This horrible stuff is going on in my life – so I asked God for wisdom. But, they are not asking for God to enlarge their view of Him to help them accept His path for them. What they mean by asking for wisdom is – First, I want a full explanation of why You did this – and second – I want the trial to stop – I don’t want any of this – My grace is sufficient for you stuff – because I have already decided – this trial is manifestly unfair and wrong – and it just needs to stop. That is my wisdom – and a truly wise God would agree. Brothers and sisters – too many of us merely play the game. We say the words – “God give me wisdom.” But even as we say it we know we will not accept an answer that says – My grace is sufficient – keep the thorn – learn to endure. We don’t pray in single-minded sincerity of faith that says – Your will not mine. We might pray the words – but we expect God to do our will! James says – if you are not willing to accept the answer that God gives if you don’t like it – you are doubting and double-minded. Doubt means we trust our plan for our life more than God’s plan for our life. Yet here is the reality brothers and sisters.

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God knows much better than you do what you need to make you mature and complete and lacking nothing. And what is more – there is no way we could ever understand fully the plan of God in our lives. Do you remember what God said to Job when He appeared in the whirlwind? He told Job that since he couldn’t understand simple stuff like how the Lord created the universe – let alone more complex stuff like who lives – the lion cub or the zebra. How could Job ever comprehend the hard stuff like the place of evil and suffering and trials in the lives of men? God told Job – I know you are suffering – but let My greatness and My goodness be enough. That is wisdom. Accepting that is faith. So now we are ready to look at what faith means. Faith is accepting the plan of God – whether we can understand it or not – whether we like it or not. We are not torn in our loyalty – we have already decided – Your will be done – whatever that means for me – because You know what is best. Proverbs 3:5–6 tells us what faith is:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

The faithful single-minded man says: I will trust the Lord with all my heart. The doubting double-minded man says: I will lean on my own understanding – thank you very much.

If the Lord’s plan lines up with my understanding – fine – we will not have a problem. If it doesn’t – then God and I have a problem. Here is the difference:

The faithful single-minded man says: I will trust the Lord – no matter what. The doubting double-minded man says: I will trust the Lord – if I like His answer.

Doubt questions the greatness and goodness of God.

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Doubt leaves us like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. One moment we will think we trust the plan of God in our lives – the next we will realise we don’t like it. And instead of persevering and enduring and becoming steadfast we are blown from doubt to despair to hopelessness. Imagine you are a relative of one of those who lost their lives when that lunatic drove his car into the Burke Street Mall in Melbourne on Friday. A baby, a child – lost in a moment of madness. Is there any way you could ever explain to a grieving mum that this can be used by God for good? No! You either have faith – faith that says – Lord I am hurting bad and even though I cannot imagine how You can work this for good – I trust that You do. And if you don’t have that faith – pray and ask God to give you wisdom. To enlarge your vision of God until you have that type of faith. Or you doubt. Doubt says – I thought You were good – but this is clearly wrong. I do not accept it. There is no anchor for a doubting soul. You blow from a form to faith to doubt to despair. Without wisdom undergirded by faith – you will be tossed around by every trial. Ask God for wisdom – but ask in faith. J.I. Packer describes the effect of this wisdom in our lives:

The effect of his gift of wisdom is to make us more humble, more joyful, more godly, more quick-sighted as to his will, more resolute in the doing of it and less troubled than we were at the dark and painful things of which our life in this fallen world is full…a wisdom that will find expression in a spirit of faith and a life of faithfulness.

Brothers and sisters – when all else fails – try wisdom. But know that you often won’t like the answer. The answer is usually My grace is sufficient – endure My son.

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But if you ask in faith – ready to accept any answer – to help you endure – God says – I will remind you of just how big I am – and that will bring you peace no matter the storm. We sang a new song today. I chose it and asked Murray to include it. I doubt many of you have ever heard it before. It is by John Newton and it was entitled – I asked the Lord that I might grow. It sums up much of what I wanted to say in this sermon, so I am going to read it out and ask you to listen:

I asked the Lord that I might grow In faith, and love, and every grace; Might more of His salvation know, And seek, more earnestly, His face. ‘Twas He who taught me thus to pray, And He, I trust, has answered prayer! But it has been in such a way, As almost drove me to despair.

Hear that? I asked for wisdom. I wanted to grow. I wanted to know God more. But I didn’t like the answer – it almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favoured hour, At once He’d answer my request; And by His love’s constraining pow’r, Subdue my sins, and give me rest. Instead of this, He made me feel The hidden evils of my heart; And let the angry pow’rs of hell Assault my soul in every part.

Hear that? I wanted a nice answer – but things got worse. The angry powers of hell assaulted my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand He seemed Intent to aggravate my woe; Crossed all the fair designs I schemed, Blasted my gourds, and laid me low. Lord, why is this, I trembling cried, Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death? “‘Tis in this way, the Lord replied, I answer prayer for grace and faith. These inward trials I employ,

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From self, and pride, to set thee free; And break thy schemes of earthly joy, That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”

Hear that? You asked for grace and faith. You asked for wisdom. What you asked for was for to break your pride and schemes of earthly joy. It is only when God shows us how big He is that we finally learn to trust Him in the storms of life and we find peace. Wisdom is a wonderful blessing – an incredible encouragement to help us endure the storms of life – but when we pray for wisdom – the answer is not wisdom to escape the trial – it is wisdom to endure the trial by giving us a greater vision of God and His glory and plan. And when we have this wisdom – then trials – every trial – can be seen as a blessing and a joy.