Questions and Answers #28
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
James
1:2-8 My brethren, count it all joy when
you fall into divers temptations.
Now “all joy’ means you can’t add anything to it, the
whole thing is joy, period. Therefore it is pure 100% joy. And we see that
James is saying count it a 100% total pure joy experience when you fall into
divers testings. Now, who in the world would accept
this statement as sensible in man’s way of thinking.
But we are not asked to see things with man’s perspective but with God’s
perspective. And James is saying that when we are put to the test, to the many
various tests that God places us under, we are to consider it nothing less than
pure joy. Why?
3. Knowing this, that the trying of your
faith worketh patience. 4 But
let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting
nothing.
Romans 5:1: Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have
access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing
that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience,
experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh
not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us.
Now, the
“Moffatt” translation:1 Through him we have access
into this grace wherein we have our standing, 2 And we triumph in the hope of
the glory of God; 3 Not only so but we triumph even in our troubles, knowing
that troubles produce endurance, 4 And endurance character That’s the second
time you notice that is mentioned.) and character
produces hope, 5 A hope which never disappoints, since God’s love floods our
hearts through the Holy Ghost given to us.
“The Way Translation” which is a “Moody
Bible Press Publication.” Yes, 2 We
exult in the hope of something higher yet—the glory of God’s presence. 3 I will
further say that we actually exult in such afflictions 4 Knowing as we do that afflictions
develop unflinching endurance, and endurance develops tested strength, and
tested strength the habit of hope. 5 This hope is no delusive one, as proved by
the fact that the brimming
Notice that although some words may
differ, the main focus is “that hope which never disappoints” because of God’s
love overflowing in our hearts.
Notice that this part of Scripture starts with hope.
It says, “We exult in the hope of seeing God’s Glory.”
And we know that the Glory of God is His Doxa which
is His Opinion, assessment, and judgment. Therefore, we hope in having the very
mind of God is what we are seeing in this Scripture. Now, It
begins with faith, then moves into Hope and becomes fulfilled in Love because
God is Love.
Notice again it says, “We stand
in grace, and we hope for the glory of God.” Now, what does that
mean? The word ‘hope’ means ‘earnest expectation’. And we know that the
Glory of God is the Doxa of God which is His very
thoughts, opinion, assessment or the way He values things, and the judgments He
expresses when expressing His opinion.
You see, the fact
that we must go through severe testing should not even matter considering the
payload that you will have once you have passed through those trials.
Now, the facts are
that we look at the character of William Branham or Jesus and we say, “That’s
wonderful character. I want that.” And you can have it, but you have to
go through the same process that William Branham and Jesus went through to get
it.
Hebrews
The Bible says, a
trial will take place, and in spite of our prayer of faith, God will not answer
our prayers immediately; but, instead of things getting better, they will seem
to remain at best the same or at worst they may seem to get worse for us.
That’s exactly what Scripture says.
But what are we
told in God’s Word? “We exult in such trials and afflictions that are ours.”
The Bible says that is what this man did. When the afflictions come he got all
shouting happy about them, too. That is one thing I’ve never been able to
figure out. People, get excited when things are going the way they want them to
go and they shout, and get all emotional you know, and stuff like that. And
they will come to church and run the isles and shout and scream and say they
are having a good ole time, but when the trials come, why then are they so
quiet? And why does their countenance fall so flat and become so grumpy?
What happened to God? The Scripture tells us we are to
exult! We are to exult in the trials no differently than we are to exult in the
promises. We are supposed to be filled with “PURE JOY, ALL Joy!!! “Whoopee!” hallelujah!!!
just as happy and full of joy as when the blessing
fall on you.
Now, look! No man
can add to or take away from this Book without a consequence. So don’t mess
with it. Then how are you going to take this out of here when it says that you
are to be filled with pure 100% joy when you are facing the trial of your
faith.
So, If you can shout, “Glory to God!” over being healed; or when God answers your needs as
your provider, then you are duty-bound to shout, “Glory to God!” when you are
tested and tried, because that is exactly what the Scripture is telling us to
do here in James chapter 5.
In Hebrews 11:17-19, we read, “By faith, when Abraham faith was tried when he
was told to offer up Isaac: 18 and he knew the promise Of whom it was said,
That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even
from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
Let me ask you this question. When was
Abraham tried by God? Before God gave him the promise or after God gave him the
promise? Abraham was tried ‘after’ God gave him the promise. If you think the
promise of God will keep away the trial, you have missed the boat. The promise
of God will bring the trial; it says so right here in the Book.
Let’s see what
else the Book says. You know when It says, “It is written: in the Book, It
doesn’t mean somewhere in the Bible. According as I understand it, (I have been
told by scholars!) It means just exactly as It was
written of the cross: “It is finished.” “It is written” is identical in
meaning; that is, not so much the meaning as a word for word translation, but
the thought. “It is written”—“It is finished”—“I have spoken,” said God. That’s
It! And It will stand, and It
is the only thing that will stand. We had better stand with It.
In
Ps 105:19.
we read: Until the time that his Word came: the Word of the Lord tried
him.
God said to Joseph: “Sun, moon, stars, bow down! Sheaves bow down!” He came and told his
brothers and they said, “You really think so?” And Joseph said, “I’m just as sure
that is what the dream showed as I am standing here talking to you.”
They said, “We’ll find out.” So, you
need God for the trouble which comes from believing His Word? Joseph got hated.
That’s a nice feeling. Joseph got sold into slavery. He got lied about…falsely
accused...persecuted…put in prison. Until the Word that God gave him by promise
personally came to pass, he was tried and tested by that same Word.
In Hebrews
Notice, God’s Word tried him. Now, why is it that we
can exult? Why is it that we can exult in the trials of our lives and take the
trials in an exultant, rejoicing manner? In the first place, we have the
measure of faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for this very thing
and cannot operate without; it can move mountains and raise the dead. That
ought to take care of it. Also, it puts things in the past tense, because God
cannot fail, giving us the rest of faith while the trials go on. That’s assurance.
Now, that is not
the all of it. There is another part of this promise that we have here. The
scripture adds something else about this. It says, “we know
something.” And that’s the problem with Christians today,
they don’t seem to know anything, hardly, anymore. Now the old-timer’s did. The
Puritans knew the Word of God, and it carried them through all there trials,
and public rejection and mockery. But our modern people, they don’t know for
anything hardly concerning the promises of God and how god operates. They have
become just milk toast soft, and luke
warm.
Now, what is it that they knew? They knew that
tribulation works patience. That’s what they knew. They understood why God
tries our faith, and how He does it, and to what end results we should expect
because of it. And they knew that we must go God’s way if we are to arrive at the
joyful situation God promised us concerning them. They knew that the trial of
their faith worked patience; they knew that the only way anybody can get
patience is by being tried.
There’s no other way period, because that is God’s way.
You don’t have to like it but you can’t change it. So you might as well get
used to it.
Heb
10:32-39 says: But call to remembrance the former days, in
which, after ye were illuminated… What does illuminated mean? It
means you have become more knowledgeable about something, which we call
becoming enlightened.
PSALM 119:130a
says, “The
entrance of thy word giveth light.” (Ps 119:130a).
It is not the Holy Ghost that gives you light because He is a Person, but he
brings you the Word of God and the word of God is what gives you light. which gives you the light; because, if you have the Holy
Ghost and shut yourself away from the Word, you won’t get light, even though
you’ve got the Holy Ghost. You say, “Can I do that?” You’re capable of shutting
off the things of God. You are! The Word
brings light. “The entrance of thy Word giveth
(or bringeth) light.” And Psalm 110 tells us the word of God is
a light unto our feet. So it I sGod’s Word that gives
us light.
And It says in Hebrews 10: 32 But call to remembrance the former days, in
which, after ye were illuminated (After the Word of promise came to
you.) ye endured a
great fight of afflictions; 33 Partly, whilst ye were made a gazing-stock both by
reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them
that were so used.
When you are a Christian they are going to go after
you, for your own sake, because you love God; or they are going to fight
someone else that you have conversation with, you are living with, or
associated with, and they will fuss at you because of that. That is exactly
what Paul told you. Now, he said, “Ye had compassion of me in my bonds and took joyful the
spoiling of your goods, knowing…” Heb 10:34
Now, how many of
you tonight can be happy when you are dishonored? We get pretty ‘ouchy’ as any man living. If I want to give it to you, I’m
generous; but, if you want to take it…? It may not be exactly that I am stingy,
but you see I’m right-handed, and I keep my money in my left hand pocket. It’s
not too easy to get it. See?
Now the Bible says that you rejoice because you know
something. You take joyful the fact you’re spoiled. Why? They knew something;
they knew something. They knew that they had in heaven
Hebrews 10:35 A better and enduring substance.
Cast not away therefore your confidence (which
is faith in the Word of God) which hath great recompense of reward.” 36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the
will of God, ye might receive the promise. When do you get the
promise? After you are tried and endure.
And I’m not saying
you can’t get healed. I’m not saying God’s not doing something for you. But I
am saying that, just before you get the promises of God, you are going to
suffer, because God said so. There aren’t any shortcuts. [There] never have and
never will be. See? It says that ‘after’… You say, “I need healing.” God says,
“You need patience.” “I have to have some money.” God says, “You need
patience.” “I need to get my family in shape.”
God says, “You need patience.” I’m going
to tell you one thing: I’ve never seen God back up from His Word yet. He backs It up. He does not back off from It. And I never saw a man
to beat Him yet, either. That’s why one day a lot of folks are going to stand
in judgment and say, “I prophesied.” And He will say, “So did Balaam.” “We
healed the sick,” they said. “You sure did, but so did Judas.” He’ll say, “I
never knew you.” [Mt 7:33] God only has respect for those who preach the word.
You stick to His Word, because that is what God says.
Over here in the
book of James you have the very same thing. James 1:2-4 My brethren, count it
all (pure) joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing that the trying
of your faith worketh patience. 4 But
let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting
nothing.
It says here you will always want things
all your life, until you get patience. Once you get patience you will never
lack another thing. Whew! That’s tough preaching; I think we all had better go
home. That’s the lesson that Job learned, isn’t it? We won’t read about Job. We
read about Job the other night. We will read about him later on, maybe.
Dt 8:2. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee.
Now, don’t blame it on the devil. Hey!
Who is your shepherd? Huh? God. Then, why blame the
devil? Whose hand are you in? God’s. Then, why blame
the devil? I’m not telling you to blame God. [I’m] just trying to show you
something. “Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord…”
Notice It says ‘way’; not ‘ways’, but ‘way’. There is one way God leads: ‘way’ not ‘ways’;
and there is only one end to it. Our way will bring many things which are
various forms of death, but God’s way brings one thing. 2 And thou shalt
remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee (through) these forty
years in the wilderness, to humble thee, [and] to prove thee, to know what was
in thine heart, whether thou wouldest
keep his commandments, or no.3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to
hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest
not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth
not live by bread only…
What happened when they just wanted
loaves and fishes from God? They backslid, didn’t they? They couldn’t take the
teaching; couldn’t take the rest. You don’t live by bread alone. You don’t live
just by these promises here. You’ve got to live by what goes with the promise.
See?
You know what?
That’s the way man always does things. He takes everything out of the promises
of God, and he tries to put it right where he wants it. You can’t do that. [It]
won’t work. Look at verse 15: “Who led thee through that great wilderness…” Who? Who’s leading? God’s leading! Where is He leading
them to? The Promised Land! Oh, isn’t it beautiful? What do you want? You want
the promise? So did they.
How’re you going to get it? “Oh, I’m going to pray the
prayer of faith. Hallelujah! And I’m going to go flying right in.” Oh, are you?
I’ve got news (for you): Someone with a shotgun knows how to get those
high-flying birds. You know the Bible? There’s not only the place where It says, “They shall mount up with wings as eagles,” but it
also says: “They walk.” It also says “They sit,” and they also “stand,” too. It
also says “they get cast down.” Huh? Who? (That’s God.) “…Led thee through the
great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions.”
“Oh,” you say, “I can’t read It
that way, because I don’t like It.” “Who led thee through a beautiful, lush
valley, so quiet, so sweet, and there were birds and butterflies, and lots of
water, and there was that money tree; and, of course, there was even a
cigarette tree…(If you don’t think that is bad for
you.) and a little wine for your stomach’s sake.”
Is that what It says? Why
read It that way?
You say, “I don’t read It that way.”
Then, don’t get the connotations as
though you read It that way; or don’t ignore It,
because God does not change His ways.
The Bible warns us in Eccl 3:14-15: 4 I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be
for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth
it, that men should fear before him. 15 That which hath been is now; and that
which is to be hath already been; and God requireth
that which is past.
God does not change His ways. It says Dt 8:15-16: 15 Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness,
[wherein were] fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where [there was] no
water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; (16) Who fed thee
in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, (in order) that he
might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good…
But you say, “God’s got a funny way about
doing things good.” That’s why He said Isaiah 55]: 8 For my thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For [as] the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts.
And we know that some of the heavens are
millions of light years away and trillions of miles from here. So, forget your
way and get a hold of God’s and accept it as the natural way of Christian
living.
Now this process
of developing faith is not actually a strange desire of God to put us through.
See? Because a man with God back of him, and the measure of faith, can be
patient. He can’t lose, because he is “more than conqueror,” he’s invulnerable, he’s invincible, if he only knew it. For God
to try us is not strange! Now, if God sent a man or boy on a job,
that would be different. For us to tell somebody who is a brick mason
and doesn’t know one piano note, ‘A’ from ‘B’, to sit down and play, that’s
wrong, because you are asking that person to do what he can’t do. But, when God
leads us His way, it is because we are equipped and well able to go God’s way,
because God is not a ruthless tyrant. He is a good God Who does good things.
Now, what’s the
next step? The next step is that this man endures; and by his endurance becomes
patient. And, because he is patient, something else happens. And the Bible
calls it ‘maturity’, or ‘ripeness of character’. Remember what Bro. Branham
said not long ago? He said, “The wheat is in the chaff, but it is green, and
it’s got to mature.” And, how is it going to mature? We are going to be tried
as we have never been tried in our lives, so get ready for it.
This is the most
characterless age that God has ever allowed to be produced in this world. If
you can find character today, brother/sister, you are finding the highest thing
in this world. But you can’t find it today. The churches don’t have it, and the
world doesn’t have it. The kids in school said that Charles Van Doren had a right to cheat, be prompted, and to make all
that money, if he could get away with it. It was just too bad he got caught.
They said, “The government ought to do
more to help us than not help us. We ought to have the government do things for
us. We don’t need to be independent.”
Lying, gouging, chiseling, murdering. And
the church is ‘green’. It hasn’t got character. Why? Because the church has
been taught, “You don’t need to suffer.” Now, come on, you know what I’m
talking about. They’re taught a short cut. My brother/sister, character cannot
come apart from suffering.
It says in Heb 5:7-9 concerning Jesus: 7 Who in the days of
his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying
and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that
he feared (He was not heard because he cried and sobbed and fasted—he
feared); 8 Though
he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; 9 And
being made perfect, (How? By suffering…to get patience…to get character…and
only then) he became the author of eternal salvation…
Even Jesus Christ had to suffer to
develop character.
I PETER 1:3
Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to
his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible,
and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for you, 5
Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. 6 Wherein ye greatly
rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through
manifold temptations: 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious
than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with
fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ (WUEST) which faith was examined for thre purpose of being approved): 8 Whom having not seen, ye
love; in whom, though now ye see [him] not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory: 9 Receiving the end of your faith, [even] the salvation of your
souls. 10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched
diligently, who prophesied of the grace [that should come] unto you: 11Searching
what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory
that should follow. 12 Unto whom it was
revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things,
which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you
with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to
look into. 13 Wherefore gird up the
loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be
brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
This speaks of an end-time trial of
our Faith or revelation that is ordained to bring froth Glory, and a passing of
the test.
Remember in 1 Peter 4:12 we see that it
should not surprise us when we face our trials, because these trials are made
for the purpose of testing us. In fact we see in 1 Peter 1:7 that not only are
we ordained to these test, but we are also ordained to
pass them. WUEST TRANSLATION ....In which last season you are to be constantly
rejoicing with a joy that expresses itself in a triumphant exuberance, although
for a little while at the present time if perchance there is a need for it, you
have been made sorrowful in the midst of many different kinds of testings in order that the approval of your faith, which faith
was examined by testing for the purpose of being approved, that your approval
being much more precious than the approval of gold which perishes, even though
that gold be approved by fire-testing, may be discovered after scrutiny to
result in Praise, Honor and Glory at the time of the Revelation of Jesus
Christ;