In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing our limitations and relying on God's strength rather than thinking we can handle everything on our own. He shares statistics about high school girls who thought they could handle certain situations but ended up getting into trouble. The speaker encourages listeners to flee from temptation and run to Jesus for victory. He also highlights the need to pay close attention to the teachings of God and not drift away from them. The sermon concludes with a reminder to trust in God's faithfulness and not try to take matters into our own hands.

I'd like to have you turn to James, the first chapter tonight, and we just look here a little bit into this wonderful epistle. It seems that Martin Luther had a lot of trouble with it because it didn't mention grace so much, and faith, and so he called it the straw epistle. But it's something wonderful. It's something about the Word of God that it never gets old, you know. It's right up to date. Do you notice that? The problems here that he tries to help us overcome are just as pertinent today, just as real today as they were in his time. When you read the Bible, and you want to understand it, you have to think, what did this mean to the people James was writing to? What did it mean to them? Does it mean the same to us? There's always a lesson, always something for us, and here in James particularly, we find things that we need today just as much as they needed them in his day. We read these epistles, we call them the general epistles, because they're not directed to a certain assembly somewhere, and James writes to the twelve tribes scattered abroad. You remember the persecution that came on the church, and they were scattered. They went all around different places, and James writes to them, and he tells them now, and the first thing he starts out with is, count it all joy when you fall into divers trials. The NIV makes that distinction here, and that is right, of course. We are tried, there are trials that come. Count it all joy when you fall into different trials, because trials were patience, really perseverance, and when perseverance has its perfect work, the man of God is to be perfect. God is after your perfection. He wants to perfect his people, to bring them forth into the very image of Jesus, and he has to work in us to do that, and so when trials come, James says, count that all joy. Now, that is not the normal way we look at things. We don't look at trials. We like to sing, we'll soon be done with troubles and trials. Yeah, well, we need them, and when we're tried, God is simply testing us, and establishing us, and teaching us, here's a trial. What do I do with this trial? Well, count it all joy, first of all. Now, that's been hard for me. I got sick one day, and I really had a problem, and the only scripture I could get from the Lord was, count it all joy, and I said, boy, that fellow had a sense of humor, or something. How can you count it joy when you're suffering? Well, you can, because there's victory. That's the way thing, and these trials come that we might experience victory. We can overcome through Jesus Christ our Lord. In all things, we've been hearing that these days. Oh, God Almighty, how able he is for every situation, and here he tells us, well, you count that joy, because trials work perseverance, patience, patience, and the idea of holding on, continuing. Don't let go, but hold on, and you know, there's something about just that point there that is so precious for us to learn, and many people have learned that. They've learned it in answer to prayer, many cases. I remember just now, I was thinking of Pastor Blumhardt over in Germany. That man was a pastor in the state church, and he went to make a visit one day, and there was a woman there. Her last name was Didis. I don't remember her first name. I should know it. It'll probably come to me, but here that woman had been bothered by Satan. There was a lot of witchcraft in southern Germany for a long time, and somehow it got into some families and homes, and here was a case where this woman was depressed and felt that it was a power of darkness, and the doctor was there, and he came along. The minister came, and the doctor examined her, and he said, this is no case for a doctor. This is a case for the pastor. Those that can pray, and he put on his coat too to leave, you know, and somebody said, did you hear what the doctor said? I guess he heard it all right, but he took that to heart. Here's a woman in my church that is persecuted and bound and just under the Satan's power, it seemed terrible, and you know, he got the brethren of his church together, and they started a Bible study, and they looked into the Bible about healing, and they studied healing. They spent quite a bit of time, and in the meantime, of course, he would be called to pray for that woman. He'd go there, and the enemy would speak through her to him. You can't cast me out. He said, I know that, but Jesus can. That's what he said to her, and it went on for several years, two years, I believe, that just that trial, and after a while, every time he went, it got easier to get the victory, and one day, the enemy talked to him and said, I could stay if it were not for your persistent prayer. Now, that was an admission, wasn't it? But he kept right at it. He kept on praying and commanding that enemy to go, and you know, one night, he came into the room, and it was quite severe, and the enemy talked to her. He said, open the window that I can get out, and he said, you can get out the way you came in, and with that, that woman let out a scream. It sounded like a scream, but it was very clearly heard throughout the whole town, and the words were, Jesus is victor, and you know, that whole thing, that darkness went, and the enemy went right like that. She was perfectly free, but that was because of a holding on, a perseverance. God said it. I believe it, and I claim it, and these lessons are so precious for all of us to learn. We like instant victories. We like to get it right away. We're living in that kind of society, aren't we? Everything has to be right now, and you know, you can't hurry God. People try to, but Wirsby has written a book, God is in no hurry. It's a good little study to read if you find it somewhere. God's not in a hurry. God has given his word, and his word is forever settled in heaven, and God needs men and women who will claim his promises and stand on them. Rest in him. I was reminded about three, four years ago, I have several ministers, young ministers, starting out, you know, they're doing well. They're learning, and God is blessing them, and I certainly thank God for them, and they noticed, I noticed that they didn't quite agree with my concept of holiness, and my own son said to me, Dad, you don't bend an inch. I said, what for? What do you want me to bend? Which way? Well, you know, God's word is there. It's true, and you have to stand, and that disturbed me when I saw that, and I said, God, do you want me to fast? What do you want me to do? Shall I get aside and call on you? And the Lord spoke to me. I think it's Psalm 62, maybe, or three. My soul, wait thou only on God. Now, in the German Bible, it says my soul gets still before God. It's another good study. If you have a Strong's Concordance, look at the word wait, and see how many different shades of meaning there are in the word wait. You'll have five or six of them or more, and they all bring out different ideas of wait, but that's an enriching study, and this study, this word means just get still, just get still, and so I got that word from God, and I tried to pray, and it would always come back to me, just wait on God. Our expectation is from God. I think it was at least five months I couldn't pray. I never opened my mouth to make a prayer. I just sat at his feet, and he said, be still. Just get still. I am God. Our expectation is from God, and you know, I had a marvelous experience. After a while, everything fell into a beautiful line, and I think those fellows are just as ardently preaching holiness as I ever did, and God did it himself. He came to them and revealed to them the truth, and I'm not trying to tell stories about them because they're all very fine fellows, and they can all preach better than I can easily, but I thank God. We have to learn these lessons to just let God go. Let God do it. Persevere. Hang in there. We have a man in South Africa. He's gone to heaven now. His name was Geschwindt. He was a Swiss, you know, and they have some names like that that are a little hard to pronounce. Geschwindt, and he was in the Swiss army. Got sick. Don't know what kind of a sickness it was, but he kept getting weaker and weaker, and could not even feed himself. He had to have a nurse feed him, and finally, the Swiss army discharged him. They said, we can't help him. We don't know what it is. Can't do anything for him. Send him home, and there, when he got home, he began to pray, and he said, God came to me, and slowly, I would gain strength, and I was able to feed myself then, and it took a long time to build up that strength in the Lord, but I kept looking to God and holding on, and God raised that fellow up, and I think he ministered till he was 98, if I'm not mistaken, down in South Africa. Marvelous man of faith, but he learned that lesson. He believed God, and then he took the text from Hebrews 6, where we read about those who have gone ahead, and that you may also, by faith and patience, inherit the promises of God, and he went to preach that, and nobody would listen to him. They didn't want that. We had these, whatever, what their names were, Horton, I think, brothers from England, not Hortons, but wonderful, wonderful servants of God, and they had the ministry of Jeffrey's instant healing. People were healed marvelously. Nobody wanted to hear through faith and patience, but he told me, I had a wonderful experience of meeting him on a train, assigned to the same compartment, didn't know he was in Germany or anywhere. Just brought, God just brought us together, and he told me his story, and I certainly thank God for that, but I had met him before. Now this man, he said, today people are more open to hear my testimony. God does not always answer. I should say maybe he does, but sometimes there are hindrances, but God is glorified when his people will take their stand and will say God is true, let God be true, and every man a liar. All believe God, and you know those experiences, they built that man up into such a man of faith. He started printing in South Africa, and he has the most modern printing equipment in the world down in his mission station, and he never asked anyone for a penny, never had to write a letter. We'd like to enlarge our capacity and get a new press and so on, never did anything, never had to. He said, I just trusted God, and that runs into hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you have to get the mechanics to come from Switzerland and install the thing, but you get a roll of paper going in one end and finished booklets coming out of the other end. I tell you, it's quite a press, but they have them, and he has the most modern equipment, but he learned to believe God. He learned to trust God, and that's why James says here, counted joy. God's going to do something for you, and every time you and I persevere, we're built up in our own souls to believe God more, and that's why he says counted joy. Don't get discouraged, but say hallelujah. Now the Lord has victory for me, and his word is faithful, his word is true, and I'm just going to look to him and trust him and see what he will do, and sometimes we get nervous and try to help the Lord, you know, and as we've heard in these days, we mentor metal there. I want to have to do something here. It's taken too long. My uncle used to have that verse that somebody gave him in Zion, get so still that the victory can be all mine, and I've seen that man when things came into the church that would have upset the whole business, and all he would have to do is say a word, and he could straighten it out because people had respect for him, but he wouldn't. He'd just get still. We'd have morning worship. It would be still. He'd get still. He was waiting on God more and more, and finally there would be the victory, and nobody was hurt. Nobody was had to be sent away or anything like that. God took care of everything, but I've seen that happen. Get so still that the victory can be all mine. Hallelujah. I was thinking, I think I jotted down something here that Hudson Taylor, they asked him about his ministry and why God used him so, and he said, well, I'll tell you, the Lord was looking for one who was weak enough that he couldn't do it himself, and he found me. What a man, what a testimony that man had, what a life he had, but he got to that place where he was weak in himself and couldn't do it himself. He needed God, and so here you have that right at the very beginning of James chapter one here. Listen, he says, count it joy. Those trials work perseverance. They teach you to persist, and somehow or other, God works that way that we might be perfected, complete, perfect. You like his method? Yes. I don't know. I think we'd rather have it some other way, wouldn't we? No. We want God's way, and God's way is the best way and let's not doubt him, but let us accept from him when trials and troubles are our portion. God doesn't send them to us to defeat us, but to show us his glory and to strengthen us in the fight. Praise the Lord. My strength is made perfect at weakness. Now, I don't know if the experienced that before that trial. It wasn't as real to him anyway, and he, oh boy, he got after God, his thorn in the flesh. Three times I asked him to get rid of that thing. It doesn't belong to an apostle, you know, and God said, my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness, and then he tells us God allowed it, that he might not get exalted because God had given him such marvelous revelations of his glory and of himself that he was in danger of being exalted and being feeling, I must be somebody special, you know, and God in his great mercy dealt with him, and then he found out, oh, I'd rather be weak than that the power of God may rest on me. I don't want to get blown up that God has to cast me aside, but I'd rather be weak and trust him and live in his presence and just reckon with him, and so the James gets right to the point right away with you and with me, and he tells us now, fellows, brethren, brethren, don't get discouraged. God's working. That's a sign that God is working. Hallelujah. We think it's a wonderful sign when God is working, when we have no trial, no trouble, nothing at all, then we're right in the will of God, but just the contrary is true often. God's way with us is to teach us to become strong in faith, giving glory to God. I like that. I want to learn that better, and I know he wants to teach me better. Hallelujah. I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, I press on by his grace. Hallelujah. We used to sing, I shall not be, I shall not be moved. You know, they sang that song, and I'd think, oh, come on, that's a ditty, but one day it dawned on me, God is looking for people that don't move, that are like a tree planted by the water, and they have their roots deep, and they don't move. They don't have to. They're rooted in God. Now, that's what God would like to work in all of our hearts more perfectly. I'm thankful, aren't you? Can't we rejoice over that? Praise the Lord. And then the apostle goes on here, of course, and teaches us some things, and he said, if you don't understand God's dealing with you, you lack wisdom. Ask God for wisdom. God giveth liberally, and he won't upbraid you and say, oh, you ought to know that better than that, but he'll show you. He'll unfold his way to you. And then he says, let that man ask in faith, not wavering. Any man that wavers is like the waves of the sea. They go up and down, toss around. He said, don't let that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. Now, there's something about prayer there that's precious. What did we read in Mark about prayer? Believe that you receive, and ye shall have. I must come to God in faith. I must be positive in my request, and not say, well, maybe, maybe, and, you know, doubt about it at all. If my faith is built upon the promise of God, what God has said, why God wants me to take a stand there and say, Lord, I expect you to deal with me, to answer my prayer. I pray to you. I ask you, and you have promised to give, and God doesn't want me to waver then. Maybe I have to wait a while, but he'll come through. He'll answer, and we shall receive his glory. And the apostle writes about those things, about believing God and praying in that way, that we don't doubt, but we believe and receive from God. Then he goes on here and talks a little bit more about the person that's tried and tested. He said, when the, when we're really patience has had its work in us, we'll come forth as pure gold. We'll really, God will work in us, and he is always working toward that end, your perfection. Dear Lord, we talked about the God of Jacob the other day, or these days we've been thinking of him and God taking that crooked stick, but God wanted to show what God can do. Not what Jacob can do. He was really a foxy guy and always trying to take advantage of things until God had to help him. And God did. God didn't give up. And that's what encourages me. Hallelujah. He doesn't quit with me either. And with you, but he'll work in us and he'll cause us to be changed because he loves us so much. Hallelujah. Now don't think when you're tried, it's a sign. God doesn't love you. That's the devil. He tries to put that over on you. Why? If God loves you, why, my goodness, this wouldn't happen to you. No. And just the opposite. You can say, I'm in my father's caping, in my father's care. And he loves me. And I know he loves me. And he has a way out for me. He'll make a way of escape that I may be able to bear it every time. And that way is Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Isn't that wonderful? It really is. And then the apostle goes on and talks about trial, temptation. When we're tempted to do evil, he said, God doesn't tempt any man to evil. Don't think you're tempted by God, but you're tempted by your own lusts and your own nature and the fleshly old man. Something rises up there and tempts us. And when he talks about how that begins, the temptation, and then we yield to it, and it brings forth sin and sin brings forth death. Why? That's something. But God doesn't tempt us to do evil. But when I'm tempted, there's something in me that isn't clean, maybe. You ever noticed that? We were right up in Germany and they were telling me, oh, we don't use screens on our windows. We don't need them. Oh boy. And here we were having dinner at this house and flies kept coming in the window and sitting on the food and they have to shoo them away. And then they had these things, they cover it a little bit, you know, it was a pasty place. I look out of the window, there's the Mischhaufen. You don't know what that is, do you? Manure pile. They have that in the front yard because that's their pride and joy, you know? And they dumped that right there outside the window for the dining room and the flies were coming in there. You want to get rid of the flies, you get rid of the mischt. Yeah? You get rid of the manure pile. And that's the way it is. Sometimes with our hearts, we are tempted and tempted again. It's good to get to God and say, God, what is there in me? Something is there that is drawing these flies. That's not right. And God will cleanse us and deliver us. And he tells us here, this temptation that comes and you can't play with temptation. God doesn't want us to. We want to escape. And he does help us to do that. And sometimes we find that the best escape is to run away, get away from there, not play with it, not think I can be strong and I can overcome this temptation. I've seen that devastation that's worked by that idea. I can overcome this. I can handle this. And that's one of the great needs today in our world. We get this idea I can handle it, but then you don't handle it. I was reading a statistics this week about high school girls that feel they can handle it. And they told us the statistics were how many of them got into trouble on a date. They couldn't handle it. They thought they could. I can handle it. It's best to avoid those places where there's temptation. And as Joseph ran away and others, others, we find run away. Paul tells the young men to flee youthful lusts, run away. Don't try to stand up there and fight, but flee to Jesus Christ. And he will come to you and he'll make you victorious. Thank God for that. But here he talks about all these things that come our way and we can learn. We can see, hey, wait a minute. That's that's my trouble. I don't want to go into that any further. So we'll stop there now. But you know enough instances yourself. And we need to learn these lessons, folks. Yield not to temptation. Yielding is sin. Each victory will help you another to win. Oh, I tell you, God has victory for us. And sometimes there's something that we need to be cleansed from inwardly, get out of our lives. We practice sometimes things that are defiling. And we think, oh, that doesn't bother me too much. You want to read something, read F.B. Meyer's book on maimed Christians. It's one of the finest chapters dealing with purity of heart. If your right hand offends you, cut it off. Cast it from you. Your eye, pluck it out. Sounds very radical. But he'll go on and tell you there are people that don't go to the Museum of Modern Art. You see all these paintings of naked figures there and it tempts them so they don't go. And I know there are people that don't go to certain places because they realize I'm facing temptation there. And rather than try to enjoy everything, they'll say, I have to avoid that. You'll have to excuse me. I'm not going to go there. Not going to open myself to that. And you know, he calls those the maimed Christians, those that have cut off those things. There are a lot of things, my friend, that you can't do. And God will show you the things you cannot do. You may be in trouble, some of us, and constantly being defeated. And God shows us, cut it off. Sometimes it's a friendship and we're led astray by some friend of ours. Cut it off. Get rid of it. Don't yield. Don't play with it. And here we're warned about these things. And so James is right, right, very modern fellow. Talked about our other thing. He goes on to then to speak about the Word of God. He said, you know, we ought to receive with meekness the engrafted Word that is able to save our souls. I like that expression. I know my brother Willie here, he understands that. Somebody told me how he came and fixed up a pear tree for them years ago. I don't know how many grafts he put in that tree. Got real wonderful pears, grafted right in, and they all took. And he says, you should see my pears now. Well, it became a part of the tree. Was engrafted in there. Grows, becomes a part of it. And somehow I believe God would like His Word to become a part of me. And He'd like to plant it in my heart in such a way that it takes a hold of me. And that engrafted Word, I should say, God, God, give me Your Word. Make that Word real to me. Help me to obey it. Help me to walk in it. Let it become my portion. You know, it's a marvelous thing that God will do that. And then he talks about the fellow that looks in the mirror, sees himself, and then forgets what he looked like. I guess we've all had that experience. Sometimes I get out and my wife says, your hair's standing straight up. I'm glad I have her to tell me. I look in the mirror, I see it, but I forget it. And so, you know, he says, that's the way a fellow that reads the Word and looks into the Bible and doesn't do it. He deceives himself. That's the sad part. We're fooling ourselves. But then he talks about the man that looks he deeply into that law of liberty, and he continues therein. He abides and meditates in it. That man will be blessed in his deed. Thank God. What are we, hearers of the Word, or are we doers of the Word? You can come to meetings like this and hear them again and again and again, and never really act on them. And that's a sad thing. But there's a possibility. It's not enough for me to hear, not enough for me to have a whole notebook full of notes and all kinds of things, you know. And I think I know. I've got to translate that into action. And God has come that I might do those things. And that's where we're changed, by this living Word of God. And as he goes on in the chapter, he talks about the things that are negative. We've been talking about the things that belong to a Christian. It's the way we ought to live. And now he talks about two things that are negative, and he says, the person that doesn't bridle his tongue, his religion is vain. Say, that's quite something, isn't it? Hmm. How about it? We may know an awful lot, and still God says it's all in vain. It doesn't lay hold of you. It doesn't grip you. It doesn't change you. God wants to change us, and he wants to control these tongues of ours, and bring us under his control. But that person, no matter who he is, can be as spiritual as he wants to try to be, and impress people with his spirituality. If he doesn't bridle his tongue, it doesn't amount to anything. That's strong preaching, isn't it? Hmm. Aren't you glad you don't have to go to James Church? Well, you got the book here anyway. But now he says, pure religion and undefiled before God is this, that we visit the widows, and the orphans, and their affliction, and we keep ourselves unspotted from the world. Hmm. That pleases God. White garments. Oh, say, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh, Jude says. Pull them out of the fire. But our garments, God wants them to be clean all the time, spotless, pure. Hallelujah. And so we have this first chapter, and we ought to meditate in it. We ought to take it to heart. You ought to read it over, and say, my God, talk to me. And he's got a lot of things to tell us. Hallelujah. But let us learn to believe God, shall we? Is the Lord able to count on me? This year, the Lord gave me that text in Hebrews 2 for our assembly. We ought to give the more earnest things to what we've heard, lest at any time we may let them slip. And the idea is there, we drift away from them. You ever been in a boat fishing or something, and the boat drifted, and it didn't have an anchor, and it just drifted along. And you were so occupied with your fishing, you didn't notice how far you drifted. But the current carried you away. It's very, you know, it doesn't make any noise. It's very easy to drift. And we must give more earnest heed to the things that we have heard. They drift away. We drift away from them. If you just think a minute, how far has the church drifted away from what we had as a testimony 25 years ago? I don't know, of course. Maybe you know better than I. But you know, some of our things are growing dim. The testimonies, the Christian Missionary Alliance, they got pretty fresh, some of the ministers. Why do you still publish that book, The Lord for the Body? That's error, they said, that A.B. Simpson's book. And you're responsible for promoting an error. Can you imagine that? And another fellow, that's just paper doctrine. We don't experience that anymore. It's only on paper. Well, they really got stirred up. And immediately the president had printed a book on divine healing and offered it to anybody that was interested. And he prepared, I think, 400 copies. And he had several thousand ministers write in. They wanted that book. And he saw why we've neglected something. And then they printed the book we gave out at Christmas, Healing Voices. What testimonies, marvelous testimonies of healing. God is the same, but we drift away from these truths. And maybe we don't preach them often enough and persistently enough. Maybe the preaching, the fault of the preacher. But we're so apt to drift away from holiness unto the Lord today and compromise so many things. And we have to pay earnest heed to the things we've heard. And if the Lord tells that to us, we ought to take it to heart and say, I need to pay earnest heed. I need to really give myself to His Word and become a doer of the Word and live in the Word and let that Word be engrafted into me and become part of me, that my whole life is gripped by it and I live by it. And, you know, I see that. And that verse has stayed with me because I've watched everywhere you go. You find you don't have to do anything at all to drift. That current carries you along and the world will carry us away from the things of God if we're not awake and know that we have to give earnest heed to the things we've heard and hang in there. So let's do that, shall we? Let's say, Lord, You give me grace, Lord. I thank You for Your Word. I thank You for it. It is yea and it is amen. And Lord, I want to take that to heart. Now, help me to persevere. Help me, Lord, to hang in there and believe You and experience Your glory. Don't let me give up if I don't get the answer right away. Sometimes people even give God an ultimatum. Did you know that? Say, Lord, if you don't answer me by Monday, I'm going to go, sir, to the hospital and get that taken care of. You didn't do it. Or if you don't meet me in this situation by next Wednesday, I'll take, I'll go my own way or I'll make my own decision. Now, Lord, you do it. You can't do that with God. Who are you anyway? He's in heaven, he says, and you're on the earth. Let your words be few, swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to write. Oh, Jesus, how I need you. And now I thank God for this book of James. So practical. Right down to earth where we are and he helps us and God helps us and God wants to help us. Hallelujah. Oh, God, my father. Hallelujah. Oh, Jesus, we thank you for the reality there is in Christ Jesus. We thank you, Lord, that you don't give us just nice words, but there's reality in you and we can experience reality and we can all, oh God, be changed and build up in our faith and be made perfect. Oh, God, for your coming perfected, Lord, as we learn our lessons and as we go forward, not yielding, oh God, to temptation, not yielding to the flesh, oh God, in any way or the suggestions of the enemy. But we will look to you, Jesus, and we'll hear your word and believe your word and know that you are giving us every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above. And Father, we're looking to you to give us all that we need. And we thank you that you do change us, Lord, in these days. Give me a greater love for your word, Lord. Work it in all of us, a great love for the word of God that we may look into that law of liberty and meditate in it and look through it, oh God, and let it search us out and change us. Lord, we thank you for the power in the word. Amen. God bless you all. Thank you for coming out tonight. But we're in his presence and let's all look right to him and thank him. He'll strengthen us with might by his spirit. In the inner man that Christ may live in us. Hallelujah. And we may become rooted and grounded in love and be able and to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge that we might be filled with all the fullness of God. That's his purpose. That's his call, his provision. Hallelujah. Glory to God.