Book of James - Ch. 1, Vs. 8-27 (02/06/2000)

Park Meadows Church

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Do you care to follow along? Turn to James, the first chapter in the eighth verse, please.

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A double -minded man is unstable in all of his ways.

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Russell, what's the word unstable mean? Okay. He'd be likely to change moods frequently.

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He would be erratic, temperamental, unpredictable, flighty, unsteady, changeable, uneven, inconsistent, undependable, unreliable, and all because they are never fixed.

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Double -minded man. What does God say about those that worship him when it comes to our mind and our heart?

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He says, I am a jealous God. David, what's that mean? Absolutely.

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He said there are no other gods, only me. Man may think he has other gods or that there are other gods, but there are not.

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He says, I am jealous. I want all of your attention. Anytime you come to me,

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I must have all of your attention. If I don't, you're a double -minded person. It is mentally impossible to think of two things at the same time.

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When you read, you're reading one letter at a time. Now, our mind works so fast, and it has a retention substance to it, that we actually think we can watch television and study the

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Bible at the same time. But you can't. Your mind can switch back and forth so rapidly that you're fooled.

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But your mind is only capable of one small bite at a time, just like a computer, just one at a time.

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A double -minded man, one that splits his time between many things or more than one thing, is never fixed in his way.

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At one time, he will swell with confidence in the flesh, and then in a little while, he'll be in the depths of despair, because he's depending upon the flesh.

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And you cannot. Verse 9, Have any of you ever gone to a banquet, didn't know where you were supposed to sit, you come in at the wrong end of the hall, and not realizing it, you sat down at the head table?

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Anybody ever done that besides me? Well, I caught on, what?

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I caught on pretty quick, and I moved in my own accord. But I tell you, when you get as old as I am, there's so many memories come that it interrupts your thinking.

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First thing I did was to look around and see who was watching. And of course, nobody was.

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It's always better to sit in the last chair, because it costs very little in any facet to be moved up.

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But if they ask you to move down, that gets rather embarrassing. But know you this, that a low degree does not destroy relationships among brethren.

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But the rich, in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass, he shall pass away, and he's soon forgotten.

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There's been myriads of men in the world over the history of time that no one remembers anymore.

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You remember for a while, I'll remember you for a while, but then, if you die before I do,

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I might forget you. You'll remember me for a while, but when you die, then others won't.

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So don't think that you're something when you're not. Verse 11,

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For the sun is no sooner risen with the burning heat, but it withereth, the grass and the flower thereof falleth.

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To go back to 10, I guess I didn't read it all, because as the flower of the grass, he shall pass away, soon forgotten.

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So also shall the rich man be, he'll fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation.

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Now, endure, who can tell me the meaning of the word endure, or endureth?

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Great, all right.

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Doesn't mean you like it, does it? Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the

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Lord hath promised them that love him. Now, do we receive our crown because we love him?

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David? No, because we wouldn't love him if he didn't love us first.

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So there's a way in which that state is true, obviously. The crown is given to those who love him, but they wouldn't love him if they weren't loved by him first.

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So the origin of the crown goes to God. We do not receive our crown because we love him, but all that receive a crown will love him.

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Right. I knew it was. Now we come to the word temptation.

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Blessed is the man that endureth, doesn't give up during the process, temptation.

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Temptation, the word means solicitation to that which is evil.

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Hence, Satan is called the tempter. As long as we're in this world, we'll be exposed to temptations.

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And needn't ever to be on the watch against temptations.

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Satan can present them in a form that seems so logical, so good, so nice, so easy.

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And it says when he has tried, when he has endured, when he has passed the test, then he shall receive his reward accordingly.

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The crown follows the contest, not before. Is it by fighting that we merit the crown?

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It is by active submission.

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We cannot do anything within ourself. Now, to be sure we understand the word crown.

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Greg, is this talking about eternal life? What's it talking about?

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Who said that? That's right. The crown is the reward at the end of the race.

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Paul is referring to, no, James is referring, and Paul did so much, to sports.

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When they had run a race, the winner received a crown of,

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I want to say olive leaves, but I don't know for sure if that's what it was.

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What? Yes. It was woven together like a crown.

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They didn't run for money like we do. All right, when he has tried, after he has been tried, not before.

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Go to Philippians 2 .13, please. You should know this by memory.

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What is it, Russell? Give me a paraphrase of that in your own words.

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That's good. It is not us that works in us. We do not work in other people.

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God works in each one of us, both to will and to do.

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He causes us to will. He causes us to do that which pleases him.

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Now, David, that just pretty well takes it out of the hands of all of us. You cannot get up some morning and say, well, today

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I'm going to do things to please God. It does not come like that.

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So you will understand in verse 12, blessed is the man.

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A blessed man is one that has received a blessing for himself. A blessed man is one that has received a blessing not only for himself, but he shares it with others.

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It's good to live next door to such a person. James 1 .13,

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let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God.

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For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.

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But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed.

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Now, I want you to follow real close. This is something very practical in our life.

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We face it every day. First of all, a man is not tempted until he is drawn away by his own lusts and is enticed thereunto.

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What does this tell us about Jesus being tempted of Satan in the desert? Could Jesus be tempted?

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What makes you say that? Why? Why?

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So verse 14 proves that he could not be tempted. Right? That proves

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Jesus could not be tempted. Right? Well?

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No, it's two different origins.

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From Satan's view, go ahead Greg. But could

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Jesus have been drawn away of his own lusts? Then he could not be tempted.

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That's right. And Satan did. Because that's all

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Satan can do. But Jesus was never tempted to do what Satan wanted done.

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Now, the scripture says Jesus was tempted, but that's from man's viewpoint. If we'd have been standing there, we would have supposed that he was tempted.

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Well, it could be. Because we're tested. When a man allows

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Satan, allows the thoughts of Satan to remain in his mind, and he meditates on it, he is already sinned.

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Now, there will be thoughts come in each person's mind. We've all experienced that every day.

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So, Russell, when does it become a sin? How long do you have to think about it?

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How do you let it go? Alright.

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You'll find it difficult to not give it any thought and to set it aside. That's right.

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That's right. Yes. It was all for me but the dot, dot, dot, dot.

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Alright. Alright. Now, Roger, I want you to give us a practical example of someone being tempted during the day.

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Man or woman. Boy or girl. When what?

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Alright. My favorite one and the only one

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I can ever think of in this situation is my wife's gone to the grocery store and is paying the bill and they give her too much change back.

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I ask each one of you, after it has happened, and it won't be that particular thing, but you know what

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I mean. Afterwards, immediately go back and think and recognize what was my very first thought when

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I realized what had happened. Not the second thought, Russell, but the first one.

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It is by that first one that you can check your spiritual growth. If you think they're covered by insurance, they won't miss it, such a small amount, you already sinned.

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I don't pay for it. Yeah, yeah. You see how we can come up with some wonderful excuses.

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Now, 15. Then, continuation. Then, when lust hath conceived, or when lust becomes pregnant, it bringeth forth sin.

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And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. The desire of our old nature joins with the temptation and sin is born.

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And there are no still births. It is sin only when conception has taken place.

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And this is when you allow it to slow down and you look at it. Now we come to verse 16.

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First of all, always keep in mind what the subject has been, or what it is.

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Who's speaking? To whom are they speaking? 16 has six words in it.

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Do not err, my beloved brethren. And that's it.

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What do you suppose that that could refer to? It'd have to be something that's just discussed, wouldn't it?

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Well, let me read you something. A very wise man wrote this.

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I won't tell you who it was, but I sent it to my pastor. You do by not doing.

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Steve, if I should ask you to turn on the dark in here, what would you have to do?

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No. If I should say,

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Steve, go turn on the dark, what would you do?

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Okay. But we never say that. We say, turn the lights off. But when we turn the lights off, do we not turn the dark on?

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Very seldom do we say, go in that room and shut the door. But we do say, we do not say, go in that room and shut me out.

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We say, go in that room and shut the door. When God closed the door of the ark, or did

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Noah close it? When he closed the door, it tells us he closed

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Noah in. What does it not tell us, Russell? Right.

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There was no way to prevent that, was there? So, by not shutting the others out, he did by shutting

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Noah in. So we do lots of things by not doing it. You follow what

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I'm trying to say? We never hear that the sky is full of sunshine.

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What do we hear? Yes. Jenny, what do we say when, what do we mean to say when we say the sky is full of sunshine?

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Oh, let me get a string. Whenever we say the sky is full of sunshine, we say what?

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Oh, you're thinking too hard. The sky is full of sunshine.

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We would normally say what? What? Not a cloud in the sky.

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Not many weather reporters here. Okay. Now, the point

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I'm trying to make, laboriously, is that God made sin by making righteousness.

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When he says, do not err, my beloved brethren, to think that God made sin, he did not.

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Yet, all things come from God, so people, the hyper -Calvinists say, well, he made sin.

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No. He made righteousness.

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He did not make sin in order to make righteousness. He made righteousness, and it brought sin, by the very fact that it was here.

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So, sin came indirectly by his producing his righteousness.

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You understand? Paul said,

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I had not known sin but by the law. Now, how many of you remember

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Sunday school this morning? What's he mean, I had not known sin except by the law?

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Greg, he didn't know what it was until there was a law.

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If there is no law, there is no sin. For I had not known lust except the law had said thou shalt not covet.

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Our knowledge of everything is based on opposites, the converse.

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Paul says, I know not what we have unless we can see the opposite side.

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So, when he realized the law was just to make him aware of what he should not do, then he immediately wanted to do it, but that was the sin side.

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17, is everybody with me up to here? You understand how sin got into the world without God making it?

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Now, he foreordained that the human race would fall, but he did not make sin.

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He just did not tell Adam that he was going to sin. So, Adam did it because he wanted to, just like we do everything we do because we want to.

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You're here this afternoon because you want to be. Every good gift, verse 17 now.

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Every good gift and every perfect gift is the word good in King James.

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Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the

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Father of lights with whom is no veriliness, neither is there shadow of turning.

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Once again, let me give you the definition of a gift. A gift is only a gift when it's given by a being that needs nothing and will never need nothing, has never needed anything.

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Therefore, it limits it to God. In my mind, that elevates the gift that he gave to us, his only begotten son.

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Now, I know we use the word at Christmas time especially, but we use the wrong word.

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We should use presents. We exchange presents, but we do not give gifts.

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I don't expect that to change any of your vocabulary, but it's the truth. The word here for light.

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Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, the originator of light.

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The word used is FOS, F -O -C -E. What is light?

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Let's ask the pharmacist. What is light, Greg? It's not matter.

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It's not matter? Are you sure?

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Well, it's energy, but it depends on the instrument you use to measure it.

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It becomes whatever it is you're using in which to measure it. Now, light is a glowing, radiating force, and it comes from certain substances.

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These substances enable the eye to discern forms and colors.

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You look around the room and you see color. Jeannie, why do you see color?

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You. Why do things look colored to us? Well, that's good.

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Steve, help her out, will you? Well, let's ask...

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Well, all of that's true, but let's ask the college professor.

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Russell, explain to us. Why do we see color? Light is when certain colors are absorbed and certain ones are refracted.

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Okay. Certain things absorb certain, you know, they're refracted off, and the ones that come through the sun are the ones that we can discern colors from.

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Okay. Greg, what is the color of the absence of color? Black.

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Black. What is the color of all colors? White. We see reflections.

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That's all we see. Very simple method to prove that. What is it,

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David? You can turn the light off.

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Right. If you turn the light off, it proves my statement. Now, we can know that something exists only because we can measure it.

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You follow? You look at a pew and you measure it with your eye.

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You measure it with tape measure. So we know only what we can measure.

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Now, can you prove that something does exist that you cannot measure?

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Is there something that exists that you cannot measure? What? What is it?

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All right. All right. The spiritual world we cannot measure.

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Therefore, we cannot see it. We see only what we can measure. Everything that we see is a reflection of that object.

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God can see everything. He can see everything in here, even if the light was turned off, could he not?

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So he doesn't look at reflections. He looks at the real item. That's why he sees our heart.

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That's why he can see our heart. The light strikes an object that reflects certain frequency rays, means that all of the other colors are absorbed, and it reflects only that which it cannot absorb, and we see it coming back as a certain frequency which we've named colors.

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Now, so every gift, all gifts are good.

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They all come from God. They come down from the Father of Lights. He is the originator of it.

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And we cannot see that which we cannot measure.

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This is the reason we cannot see the spiritual world, but God can. Light requires an organ adapted for its reception.

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Greg, what is that organ? The eye. Our eye is adapted in such a way, as Steve told us, that we can see reflections that come back.

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Now think with me for a moment. Why is it that the lost person cannot see spiritual things?

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Because he doesn't have the optical vision to see. That's right. They do not have the receiver built for that.

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They can see the world, but they cannot see the spiritual. God's the only one that extends and reveals himself to certain people.

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Then they can see. So they lack the capacity for spiritual things.

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Believers are called sons of light, and we find that in Luke 16a, because they have the new birth that brings spiritual capacity.

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Now we come to shadow of turning. A shadow is a shade cast by one object upon another.

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Shadow. Turning is a deviation of a straight course.

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I'd like for you to go to Malachi 3 .6. David, read that.

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What's it mean, you sons of Jacob are not consumed? So we learn from that, if God changed one little fraction of a degree, what would happen to us?

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That's right. So the only thing that keeps us here and in orbit and secure and safe is the fact that God does not change.

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Eighteenth verse. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

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The word for will here is bulimah. And will means it has a deliberate design, a deliberate intention, and a deliberate purpose.

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That's God's will. Deliberate design, deliberate intention, and a deliberate purpose.

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God made us by his own power. We've always been his for how long,

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Russell? As long as he's been

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God. Ephesians 2 .10.

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For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which

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God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. He ordained the path of each and every person on earth, saved and unsaved.

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If you doubt that, go read the story about Pharaoh. James 19.

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Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

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What he's saying here, Jesse, is stop talking so much. We all,

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I suppose, know some Christians that only the spirit of God could live with. Then he says the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

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I'm hurrying so we can finish. Wrath or gay.

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Do you realize that the wrath of man only exists in the field of revenge?

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The anger of man exists in the field of revenge.

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Always. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness.

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As David said last week, it's a wonderful term. It means an overabundance of wickedness.

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And receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

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But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

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Very quickly, Greg, what's the reason that we hear the truth? For what reason do we hear the truth?

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Anybody? Roger? Why do we hear the truth? Well, but for what reason do we hear the truth?

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That we can do it. We never hear it to keep to ourselves. Remember that.

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Here is a good teaching principle bound up in the 22nd verse.

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Hearing and doing. The college I attended had a motto of head, heart, and hand.

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We had the spiritual guidance. We had the head guidance by studying four hours a day.

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Then we had the hand input by working at our major four hours a day.

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And to me, that's the best way to learn. You cannot learn it all from books.

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We all worked at our major and then we learned more in the classroom.

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For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is likened to a man beholding his natural face in a glass or mirror.

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For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way in straight way, forgetteth what manner of man he was.

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In other words, you forget exactly what you look at, like. And did you realize this, that you've never seen your face?

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Russell, you've never seen your face, have you? Say no.

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But you say, but I look at it every morning. What is it you look at?

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Reflection. You've never seen it like the back of your hand. But whosoever looks into the perfect law of liberty and continueth or practice therein, he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

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So look at yourself in the mirror of God's word. For if any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

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A preacher or a teacher that talks all the time is perfect proof of vanity.

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There is no power in vain religion to bridle the tongue. My father -in -law told me one time, he was talking about,

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I don't know who, it wasn't me. You cannot talk all the time and not lie some of the time.

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Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this. To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

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The fatherless and widows were not provided for in ancient society.

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Unspotted from the world means free from all sin in the eyes of God the

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Father. Let's stand together. Jesse dismisses today please.