Trials do serve a very helpful purpose in affirming to us either legitimacy or the illegitimacy of our faith.

And that is exactly what James has in his mind and this opening section of this wonderful epistle.

When you're suddenly laid off from work, when you get a frightening diagnosis from your doctor, or when you lose a loved one,

where can you turn for the comfort, stability, and peace you need?

Well, today on Grace to you, John MacArthur is going to show you biblical truth that can give you strength and even joy, no matter the hardship you face.

John's current series is titled Benefitting from Life's Trials, and it's a look at not only how to survive life's toughest moments, but also the good and loving plans God has for the trials he sends your way.

And with that, here's John.

Let's open our Bibles to the first chapter of James as we look together to the Word of God, verses 2 through 12.

While you're preparing for the study of God's Word together, let me just remind you that it is a common occurrence in life, certainly is in my life, and I'm in little doubt that it is in your life as well as a Christian.

To meet people who thought they were Christians, I think that's pretty routine, people who felt they were saved, believe they knew God, and then some severe difficulty came into their life,

exposed the reality that they didn't know God at all when they proved to be unable to deal with that severe trial.

Their faith was revealed, it was found to be dead faith, not living faith, non-saving faith. They were unable to hold on to the resources provided in those who really believe in God, and they foresook what appeared to be perhaps a genuine faith.

The kind of trials that come into life all the time are intended to do that, to sort of prod people out of their security, to awaken them to the fact that they either do trust God or don't in the diarist of human circumstances.

Trials do serve a very helpful purpose in affirming to us either legitimacy or the illegitimacy of our faith, and that is exactly what James has in his mind in this opening section of this wonderful epistle.

He is concerned throughout the entire epistle with the matter of living faith.

He is concerned with the subject and the issue of genuine salvation. And as we have noted, the whole epistle is a series of tests intended to reveal the legitimacy of someone's faith.

The whole epistle is a series of tests for living faith. The first one is the test of severe trials.

When trials come into our lives, they reveal that our faith is real or it is not. It holds or it does not.

We hang on to God and count on His resources or we don't. And that is something we need to know.

We need all of us to understand the strength or the genuineness of our own faith.

We need not only to recognize it in our own lives, but in the lives of other people as well.

Trials cannot destroy faith. I want you to know that. I want to keep emphasizing that.

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