Book of James - Ch. 1, Vs. 13-27 (08/26/2001)

Park Meadows Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:09

If you'll open your Bibles to the book of James, the first chapter, and the thirteenth verse.

00:21

We left off last week at this point. He starts out by saying, let no man say when he is tempted,

00:36

I'm tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.

00:46

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

00:53

Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

01:03

All right, to begin with, let no man say when he is tempted, he is tempted of God. Now, are we all tempted?

01:18

David isn't. Okay. So everybody is tempted, but when he's tempted, he cannot lay it on to God.

01:35

So Joy, what is he tempted of? Yes. All right.

01:49

But what is these? Well, he says

01:54

God cannot be tempted of evil. What in God's realm, looking from God's view, what is evil?

02:07

Bill? Evil is what?

02:36

All right. Sin is evil. Neither tempteth he any man with evil.

02:47

Does he tempt you with other things? All right.

03:07

He tests, but he does not tempt. What's the difference? Test and tempt.

03:14

David? All right.

03:59

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

04:09

Now, Jesse, is it temptation if you're not drawn away?

04:21

First of all, what does drawn away mean? All right.

04:31

So to be drawn away, you have to be drawn away of something.

04:44

To be drawn away of lust and enticed.

04:50

Now, everybody, I'm sure everybody, has been tempted to be tempted.

05:02

But it becomes sin when you partake of it.

05:13

Then when lust hath conceived, lust, the desire of our old nature, joining with the temptation and sin, is born.

05:27

The lust of the old nature joined with temptation. When that happens, sin is born.

05:35

Now, we have the old nature. He's still alive. We're not to live in it.

05:40

We're not to trust it. We're not to follow it. There are no still births.

05:50

You cannot escape the sin when temptation and lust get together.

05:59

So how are you going to prevent it? Dennis? All right.

06:30

So, well, do we all, are we all tempted?

06:41

Is it a sin to be tempted? Yes. He's always sinned.

07:00

That's just his nature. But now we will hear things. We'll see things.

07:07

When does it become sin? We all are tempted. When does it become? All right.

07:14

When you think about it. When you respond to it. The old nature has to be joined with something.

07:24

And that's lust, as used here. Lust. Now, for those, being tempted, we talk about being tempted.

07:36

We're always having that with people. It's not just being wrong with someone.

07:44

It's being wrong with someone. That's right. Away from that.

07:52

Any time that we engage in an activity that would cast someone else away from good, if we have already are, we have already present that step beyond that step.

08:09

If I can't do, I'm already a step beyond where you are. I'm already engaged in the sin.

08:15

I present something else. Something else that may or may not set the person.

08:23

But even if I'm not, if I'm just sitting here and something appears to fall off, am

08:34

I sinning? Am I tempted?

08:43

That's not temptation. Well, it may be temptation, but it's not sin. David. Two that I think

09:24

I can name. One would be inward temptation, which is what this talk is about today.

09:31

The other would be outward, another source of it. It's devil himself. To give you an example, if I were to make the statement that everyone who drives a car now is a devil, that would be a true statement.

09:52

It does not mean, though, that you can get down by riding a bicycle or walking.

09:58

So this statement of shame does not imply that the only way that we can get thrown away is with our own flesh and blood.

10:09

All it says is that everyone who is thrown away from God by their own flesh is sinful.

10:15

That's a true statement. But I don't believe it means that's the only way we can get sin. The statement is this.

10:23

From outside, and an example that Bill was kind of, if I see something, and then you kind of,

10:32

Bill kind of follows these moments and thinks, oh, we're having a bit of temptation, just like I thought. You see, that's a different kind of temptation than what we've been talking about today.

10:42

James is talking about a particular type where your flesh has already drawn you away from God and love.

10:50

Everything that is infinity goes on infinity. I think maybe that's a different type of temptation than the kind where they could have reached out.

11:04

I think the will is in itself. I mean, it's positive. That's an outward temptation.

11:11

I don't believe it makes sense to say it's a different kind of temptation.

11:18

I think if you try to define all the temptations I've been talking about today, you're going to have a real hard time figuring out how these could ever be tempted at all.

11:28

If you cannot be tempted by this type of temptation, then we're going to be tempted by something else.

11:35

We're going to be tempted by power, or in this example, joy, that's a different type.

11:45

Go back to the example you were saying earlier, when God is a part of you, and it's true, and I totally agree with you.

11:54

I'm not sure James is the only definition that people are going to take.

12:02

Is that a valid reason? I think I've said somewhere else what I've said, and I'm very positive about that.

12:11

It's difficult. I see something. You've talked about how the world tempts you.

12:16

You've talked about how it's not me. It's just me that's tempted. And there's a type of temptation, a kind of type of temptation, a type of temptation, by, not by saying, there it is,

12:31

I'm going to stay away from it. A type of temptation, by going closer to something else, that is good, rather than going to something else.

12:41

I think it wasn't about the temptation. It was about who set up your Bible, and we're fighting the temptation. And we're praying to fight the temptation.

12:50

When we are watching TV, and watching the baseball game on TV, I don't think we're fighting the temptation.

12:55

I think our heads are across the screen. We have to be careful, or you will be tempted.

13:09

Now may I say a word? I'm tempted. What do you say?

13:23

Temptation is when you're drawn away of your own lust. I believe that holds in any situation, whether it's lust of the eye, lust of the hand, whatever.

13:39

You have decided either to do it or participate in it.

13:49

The sin is only when conception has taken place. Do not err, my beloved brethren.

13:59

Do not err. What's he talking about? Greg? All right, in this case, don't be mistaken in thinking that God is the author of sin.

14:25

He isn't. You can see something and act positively on it.

14:33

The person watching you can do it and sin. Right?

14:46

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

14:54

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

15:01

Now every good gift and every perfect gift is anything not good in the original state.

15:12

All right. So, it falls from good to bad by the time

15:21

Satan has a hold of it, by the time our flesh has a hold of it. Brother, what he's talking about, that's the fact of the show.

15:31

Everything comes from God. That's right. That's right.

15:42

That's right. That's right. Everything is good and perfect in the original state.

15:50

Now, this Father of lights, that's a strange statement in the middle of the sentence.

15:59

Father of lights. Verge, let's see what that means.

16:05

What do you think? All right.

16:23

Greg, what do you think? The first thing that Jesus Christ promised us is to be of light.

17:03

All right. Greg? All right.

17:24

I want you to think about He is light in whom is no variableness, no shadow of turning.

17:34

No shadow of turning. Dion, what does all of that mean?

17:55

Who has their hand up? Roger? All right.

18:46

All right. All right. That's good. Clarence? Verge? All right.

19:21

That's good. Anyone else? Yes. Yes.

19:38

Well, yes, but we're not talking about creation here. Each one of you in your mind, picture a light bulb.

19:51

Turn it on. Some of you have got 100 watts, some 50. Have you got it turned on?

20:01

All right. Now, you turn that bulb around. What happens? No, you turn the bulb.

20:12

It's hanging on a cord. You've turned it on. Now you rotate the cord. Round and round.

20:20

What happens to the light? All right. It burns no matter how you turn it.

20:27

That's what Roger was alluding to, what Clarence was giving us. Light from the

20:34

Father has no shadows. It cannot have a shadow. If there's a shadow, it's not of God.

20:57

That's right. Darkness pictures sin, and without God there's sin.

21:04

Sin is the absence of God. Light also needs an organ of reception.

21:17

What do I mean by that, Greg? All right.

21:29

Your eye is that. To a blind person, it would not be effective.

21:36

That's what the seed of Satan is. Sometimes they're blind. They can't see the light.

21:43

We see the light. 18.

21:54

Of his own will. Now, of his own will means it was nobody else's will, and that Jesus had a will.

22:07

Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth.

22:12

He used the word of truth to beget us that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creature's creation.

22:27

We should be a kind of firstfruits. David, what does it mean, a kind of firstfruits?

22:46

That's right. So we go through the same thing

22:51

Jesus did after he did. We have always been his as long as he is he.

23:02

I cannot find a beginning. Bill, go to Colossians 2 .13.

23:09

Greg, go to Ephesians 2 .5. A man cannot be tempted unless he is drawn away and desires.

23:28

13. All right.

23:46

Greg, Ephesians 2 .5. All right.

23:57

I know this is awful a little bit, but let's look at this verse. Colossians 2 .13.

24:05

And you being dead in your sins, we know what dead is, and we know where it is, and your uncircumcision of your flesh, has he quickened together with him?

24:22

Well, I thought the word also was in that. Has he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses?

24:31

Well, that's not the verse. We'll come to that in Colossians. So where were we?

24:40

What was the state of our existence prior to salvation? Dead.

24:48

Dead in sin. I still think it's in there, but I don't see it.

25:02

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

25:11

Now, I do something that Greg doesn't like.

25:16

He's supposed to hit me immediately. Let every man be swift to hear.

25:27

That means he hears immediately. Slow to speak. Greg, slow to speak.

25:34

What does that indicate? That you've got a slow mind, be very careful of what you say, and even slower to wrath.

25:45

Now, wrath is what? What other word could we use? Anger. That's right.

26:08

That's right. That's so, so true. Now, we all know that. Do we remember it?

26:18

If I were to come up to you and say something that I knew you didn't like, would you remember that? Well, it's rememberable.

26:27

Yes. You've got to be careful about saying things that hurt you.

26:36

That's right. They hear it. They don't hurt you. They can forgive you.

26:43

But they won't remember you. That's so true. That's kind of like the old saying, you can't unring the bell.

26:51

You set the bell to ring and you can't unring it. Yeah. And all of you trying, you just ring it again.

27:00

Clarence? No. Dude, I was going to infer she's slow to speak.

27:20

Sure. I can't wait to talk about the church. That's right.

27:35

So, I don't know of any of you that are quick to respond, but there are churches where people respond real quick.

27:43

I'll do it. Sure. What is it? And then never turn around. Never do it. Never lift a hand.

27:51

First Thessalonians 411 says, There are some

28:10

Christians that only God could love, and we have to remember that. That's what?

28:24

Yes. Yes. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

28:32

The wrath of man. Can you get angry about anything yourself and work the righteousness of God?

28:46

Virg? No. You can't do it. Now, you can be angry if someone finds fault with the word or is blaspheming

28:58

God, but that's a different kind of anger. It means super bad, engrafted, passive verb.

29:27

Someone else has to do it. The engrafted word, someone else had to do that, which is able to save your soul.

29:37

Someone else had to do that. Wherefore lay apart, you do that.

29:48

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

29:54

Be ye doers of the word. The only reason you hear the word is what?

30:05

The what? That's right. You hear the word to do something.

30:14

You don't hear it to sit down, do nothing. You hear the word.

30:21

We're going to listen to Brother David this morning. I don't know what he's going to say. But we hear it to do something.

30:32

Do not mistake knowledge for obedience. You can be very knowledgeable and still not be obedient.

30:41

Hello, John. Who's that with you? Knowledge without obedience results in nothing.

30:58

Just like James says, as long as we look, we remember our face.

31:03

We can look in a glass and tell you every detail. But when you move away, you can remember the fact, but you can't remember the face.

31:18

Knowing without obeying is worse than vain, for it inflicts and injures injury upon our powers of our spiritual nature.

31:30

Knowing without obeying. If we listen to David this morning and we do not obey, that's worse than if you never knew it.

31:39

Right? Right? Knowledge without obedience is a deceiver, for one is deceived into thinking that simply because I know the truth, therefore

31:56

I am the truth. Lots of difference between knowing and doing.

32:03

Now, with God, it's the same thing. The Bible truth is given so that we may not only know the truth, but also so that we may do the truth.

32:17

There will be plenty of Orthodox Christians and theologian professors, theological professors, and students who will find to their great surprise to be among the goats at the last.

32:34

Not what we believe, but what we do is our Christianity. Only the doing must be rooted in belief.

32:44

You do not believe anything until you do it. I can say

32:52

I believe Einstein's theory of relativity, but that's as far as it goes.

33:01

You believe something if you do it. You believe you're a

33:07

Christian, you do it. Fire is good, but it must be put to work.

33:14

Water is good, but it must be put to work. All things are good, but they must be put to work.

33:23

Our first step is to look with a steadfast gaze. Two, next we must continue, so the look must be constant.

33:35

Three, meditate. Four, do. I don't believe that you hear anything that does not cause you to do.

33:51

There's no freedom without service, no liberty without law. You came to church to get understanding.

33:59

Therefore, a pastor or church is supposed to give, under the guidance of the

34:05

Holy Spirit, understanding. That's what you're supposed to give, is understanding.

34:14

If you come for any other reason, your time's wasted. Or if the pastor does any less, it's a waste of time.

34:25

How many pastors are going to waste time this morning? You do not come for emotion, gossip, fashion, or entertainment.

34:38

You're not here to be entertained. You're not here to go out and talk about what sister so -and -so had on.

34:47

Twenty -three, 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 he forgets as soon as he moves away.

35:03

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

35:16

Think of this world without mirrors. What would it be to never have a mirror?

35:27

Greg, we all use mirrors.

35:47

Think of your life without one. Twenty -five, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, the perfect law of liberty means it's perfect, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deeds.

36:18

Now, looketh into the perfect law of liberty, it says in, not for.

36:27

Looketh for the perfect law of liberty. What's the difference here, in and for?

36:37

David? Looketh for the perfect law of liberty?

37:04

Didn't know where it was, are you trying to find it, Diane? Alright, definitely, definitely.

37:35

If any man among you seem to be righteous, what?

37:40

Religious, righteous, religious. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man, religion, is vain.

37:55

Can you have vain religion, Dennis? Can a heathen have religion?

38:02

Yes, the world's full of religions. He's got religion, they got religion, we all got religion.

38:15

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.

38:26

How is it that a religious man can deceive his own heart? Clarence?

38:35

I think that this whole version of it, which is very related to the opposite of in my experience with the original report, of the outside of the church, the prayer of all the prayers, and all the rituals, the heart was not a period of love, it was usually a practice of truth, and it wasn't false, or they were doing it only for their own glory.

39:16

I think that's how it was. If you do that, by your deeds, you are religious.

39:23

If you're not religious, you must get to God. That's true. Diane? He was naked, and he walked away.

39:36

But what is really deep still, what you're talking about, in his walk with the others, in his walk with his wife, it was divine for him, right?

39:49

Did he part with you? Did he leave no trace? No. When he comes back and wants to do that dinner, he can't.

39:58

He can't handle it. A preacher that talks all the time about anything is certain proof of vanity.

40:11

There is no power in vain religion to bridle the tongue prevents talking all of the time.

40:21

My father -in -law says, anybody that talks as much as that man does has got to lie some. Brother Ernest, bridling the tongue doesn't mean to stop talking.

40:37

When you talk about bridle, bridle is not a human thing. Bridle is a human thing.

40:42

It's a human thing. It's a boy, girl, or a girl. So when we say bridle our tongue, I think what we're saying is if you had a tongue to say what

40:51

God would want you to say, you'd not be saying things so it's not so much that you're not talking, it is that you're certain of what you're saying.

41:04

That's right. But at the same time, you're not talking all the time, are you?

41:13

Well, I don't. You've got a portion of the Bible that's right about all that. You're right about all that.

41:19

It's appropriate when it's time to stop. It's appropriate when it doesn't go. No, it's appropriate.

41:25

You're right. You're right. It's appropriate. It's not that that's important. It's all important stuff.

41:33

I sat under a preacher once that never used a period in his life. Yes. That's right.

41:59

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their afflictions and to keep himself unspotted from the world, to keep his commandments without alteration.

42:26

Pure religion. Sir? Well, what do you mean?

42:37

What do you mean? Just one example.

42:52

Oh, yes. That's right.

43:10

Yes. If you're doing people who are unable to specifically back people's ideas, if you're doing it to get some kind of reward, then it does not bear fruit if it's not pure religion.

43:27

If you're doing it to people for a reason, to do it for pure religion's sake, to God, or to believe, not to expect any justification from that party, then that is pure religion.

43:41

That's right. If you do it for any other reason, you got on the wrong bus. The latter part was said from the fatherless of the world.

43:57

So? Yes. Yes. That your intent has nothing to do with the world.

44:06

That's right. But to please God. That's right. We're to please

44:12

God all of the time. All right. That finishes chapter one of James.

44:23

Let's stand. And, Dennis, will you dismiss us, please? Thank you.

44:33

Good morning. Wow. Those are hard enough.