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Bro. Otis Fisher
If you'll open your Bibles to the book of James, the first chapter, and the thirteenth verse, we left off last week, at this point, he starts out by saying, let no man say when he is tempted, I'm tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it's finished, bringeth forth death. All right, to begin with, let no man say when he is tempted, he's tempted of God. Are we all tempted?
David isn't. Okay. So, everybody is tempted, but when he's tempted, he cannot lay it on to God. So, Joy, what is he tempted of? Yes, all right, but what does he see? Well, he says God cannot be tempted of evil.
What, in God's realm, looking from God's view, what is evil? Bill? Evil is what? All right. Sin is evil. Neither tempteth he any man with evil. Does he tempt you with other things? All right, he tests, but he does not tempt.
What's the difference? Test and tempt. David, all right, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed when he's drawn away. Now, Jesse, is it temptation if you're not drawn away?
First of all, what does drawn away mean? All right. So, to be drawn away, you have to be drawn away of something. To be drawn away of lust and enticed. Now, everybody, I'm sure everybody, has been tempted to be tempted, but it becomes sin when you partake of it.
Then, when lust hath conceived, lust, the desire of our old nature, joining with the temptation and sin, is born. The lust of the old nature joined with temptation. When that happens, sin is born. Now, we have the old nature.
He's still alive. We're not to live in it. We're not to trust it. We're not to follow it. There are no still births. You cannot escape the sin when temptation and lust get together. So, how are you going to prevent it?
Dennis? All right. So, well, do we all, are we all tempted? Is it a sin to be tempted? Yes. He's always sinned. That's just his nature. But now, we will hear things. We'll see things. When does it become sin?
We all are tempted. When does it become? All right. When you think about it. When you respond to it. The old nature has to be joined with something, and that's lust, as used here. That's right. That's not temptation.
Well, it may be temptation, but it's not sin. David? I see something, and then you kind of, you know, kind of pause and think over it. You see, that's a different kind of temptation. James is talking about a particular type where your flesh has already drawn you away from God and lust.
Everything that is distant. I think maybe that's a different type of temptation than the kind where Satan's going to lead you south. I think the wilderness tempts itself. I mean, it tempts itself. That's an outward temptation.
I don't believe you can make the impact of Satan good by doing that. It's a different kind. If you try to define all temptations by the impact of Satan, you're going to have a real hard time figuring out how these could ever be I say a word.
What do you say? 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. You have decided either to do it or participate in it.
The sin is only when conception has taken place. Do not err, my beloved brethren. 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.
He isn't. You can see something and act positively on it. The person watching you can do it and sin. Right? Every good gift, every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Now, every good gift and every perfect gift is anything not good in the original state. All right. So it falls from good to bad by the time Satan has a hold of it, by the time our flesh has a hold of it.
That's right. Everything. Everything is good and perfect in the original state. Now, this father of lights, that strange statement in the middle of the sentence, father of lights. Verge, let's see what that means.
What do you think? All right. Greg, what do you think? Greg, I want you to think about this. He is light in whom is no variableness, no shadow of turning. No shadow of turning. Diane, what does all of that mean?
Who has their hand up? Roger? May you think of God as the essence of all life. All right. God has a room in his hands of gifts. If God was not light, what would the source be like? Whoever he was to serve, there is not only a shadow, a form of darkness, but his light is coming in every direction.
It is a shadow of darkness. All right. That's good. Clarence? All right. That's good. Anyone else? Yes. Well, yes, but we're not talking about creation here. Each one of you in your mind, picture a light bulb.
Turn it on. Some of you have got a hundred watts and some fifty. Have you got it turned on? All right. Now, you turn that bulb around. What happens? No, you turn the bulb. It's hanging on a cord. You've turned it on.
Now you rotate the cord round and round. What happens to the light? All right. It burns no matter how you turn it. That's what Roger was alluding to, what Clarence was giving us. Light from the Father has no shadows.
It cannot have a shadow. If there's a shadow, it's not of God. That's right. Darkness pictures sin, and without God there's sin. Sin is the absence of God. Light also needs an organ of reception. What do I mean by that, Greg?
Your eye is that. To a blind person, it would not be effective. That's what the seed of Satan is. They're blind. They can't see the light. We see the light. Eighteen, of his own will. Now, of his own will means it was nobody else's will and that Jesus had a will.
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. He used the word of truth to beget us that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creature's creation. We should be a kind of first fruits. David, what does it mean, a kind of first fruits?
That's right. So, we go through the same thing Jesus did after he did. We have always been his as long as he is he. I cannot find a beginning. Bill, go to Colossians 2 .13. Greg, go to Ephesians 2 .5.
A man cannot be tempted unless he is drawn away and desires. Thirteen. All right, Greg, Ephesians 2 .5. All right, I know this is off a little bit, but let's look at this verse. Colossians 2 .13. Well, I thought the word also was in that.
Well, that's not the verse. We'll come to that in Colossians. So, where were we? What was the state of our existence prior to salvation? Dead and sentenced. I still think it's in there, but I don't see it.
Nineteen. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. Now, I do something that Greg doesn't like. He's supposed to hit me immediately. Let every man be swift to hear.
That means he hears immediately. Slow to speak. Greg, slow to speak. What does that indicate? That you've got a slow mind? Be very careful of what you say, and even slower to wrath. Now, wrath is what?
What other word could we use? Anger. That's right. That's right. That's so, so true. Now, we all know that. Do we remember it? If I would come up to you and say something that I knew you didn't like, would you remember that?
Well, you've got to watch it. You've got to be careful about saying things that are perfect. That's right. Because even if you don't intend to, they hear it. They are perfect. And they can forgive you, but they will never forgive you.
That's so true. So, that's kind of like the old saying, you can't unring the bell. You set the bell, and later on, you can't unring it. Yeah. And all of you trying, you just ring it again. Clarence? That's right.
So, I don't know of any of you that are quick to respond, but there are churches where people respond real quick. I'll do it. Sure. What is it? And then never turn around. Never do it. Never lift a hand.
First Thessalonians 4 .11 says,. And that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you. Stop talking so much. Shut up. There are some Christians that only God could love, and we have to remember that.
That's what? Yes. Yes. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. The wrath of man. Can you get angry about anything yourself, and work the righteousness of God? No, you can't do it. Now, you can be angry if someone finds fault with the word, or is blaspheming God, but that's a different kind of anger.
Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. It means super bad. Engrafted. Passive verb. Someone else has to do it.
The engrafted word. Someone else had to do that. Which is able to save your souls. Someone else had to do that. Wherefore, lay apart. You do that. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
Be ye doers of the word. The only reason you hear the word is what? The what? That's right. You hear the word to do something. You don't hear it to sit down, do nothing. You hear the word. 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. Do not mistake knowledge for obedience. You can be very knowledgeable, and still not be obedient. Hello, John. Who's that with you?
Knowledge without obedience results in nothing. Just like James says, as long as we look, we remember our face. 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.
Knowing without obeying is worse than vain, for it inflicts and injures injury upon our powers of our spiritual nature. Knowing without obeying. If we listen to David this morning and we do not obey, that's worse than if you never knew it.
Right? Right? Knowledge without obedience is a deceiver, for one is deceived into thinking that simply because I know the truth, therefore I am the truth. Lots of difference between knowing and doing.
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. 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.
Not what we believe, but what we do is our Christian. Christianity, only the doing must be rooted in belief. You do not believe anything until you do it. I can say I believe Einstein's theory of relativity, but that's as far as it goes.
You believe something if you do it. You believe you're a Christian, you do it. Fire is good, but it must be put to work. Water is good, but it must be put to work. All things are good, but they must be put to work.
Our first step is to look with a steadfast gaze. Two, next we must continue, so the look must be constant. Three, meditate. Four, do. I don't believe that you hear anything that does not cause you to do.
There's no freedom without service, no liberty without law. You came to church to get understanding. Therefore, a pastor or church is supposed to give, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, understanding.
That's what you're supposed to give, is understanding. If you come for any other reason, your time's wasted. Or if the pastor does any less, it's a waste of time. How many pastors are going to waste time this morning?
You do not come for emotion, gossip, fashion, or entertainment. You're not here to be entertained. You're not here to go out and talk about what sister so-and-so had on. Twenty-three, for if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass, he forgets soon as he moves away.
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. Think of this world without mirrors. What would it be to never have a mirror? Greg, we all use mirrors.
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.
Now, looketh into the perfect law of liberty, it says in, not for. Looketh for the perfect law of liberty. What's the difference here, in and for? David, looketh for the perfect law of liberty? Didn't know where it was, are you trying to find it, Diane?
Alright, definitely, definitely. If any man among you seem to be righteous, what? 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.
Can you have vain religion, Dennis? Can a heathen have religion? Yes, the world's full of religions. He's got religion, they got religion, we all got religion. 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.
How is it that a religious man can deceive his own heart, Clarence? A preacher that talks all the time about anything is certain proof of vanity. There is no power in vain religion. To bridle the tongue prevents talking all of the time.
My father-in-law says anybody that talks as much as that man does got to lie some. That's right. But at the same time, you're not talking all the time. I sat under a preacher once that never used a period in his life.
Yes. 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.
Pure religion. Sir? What do you mean? What do you mean? He said pure religion. Oh, yes. That's right. Yes. If you're doing an angel, then it does not bear fruit. Or if you're doing a good fruit, you're religiously saying to God what you believe, not expecting any association with that party, then that is pure religion.
That's right. If you do it for any other reason, you got on the wrong bus. Yes. Yes. That's right. That's right. We're to please God all of the time. All right. That finishes chapter one of James. Let's stand, and Dennis, will you dismiss us please?