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Bro. Bill Nichols
Okay, good morning. Yeah, we'll be here in a second. We're going to be dealing with James chapter one this morning again. Before we begin, John MacArthur said this about the Epistle of James. That's why I had the words mixed up.
John MacArthur said this about the Epistle of James. There are a number of ways to outline the book, to grasp its arrangement, the arrangement of its contents. One way is to arrange it around a series of tests by which the genuineness of a person's faith may be measured.
Then he provided an outline of the book. It contained an introduction followed by 13 tests. Last Sunday, we dealt with the introduction. That was verse one of chapter one and the first of the 13 tests.
That was verses 2 through 12. This morning, after a brief summation of the first test, we're going to take up the second test. The name he gave the second test is the test of blame and temptation. Whose fault is it?
Our text for this morning is James chapter one verses 13 through 18. I'm going to read that and then we'll pray. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am 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 has conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights, with whom is no variability, very variability, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will, he begat us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
And now let us pray. Most gracious heavenly Father, we bring thanks to you this morning for giving us your son, the way, Jesus, the only way that we may have a relationship with you. Thank you for giving us this time and with it, one more opportunity to study your word.
Thank you for giving us this place, a place of worship, a place of safety, and a place of study. Thank you for giving us this technology to reach out and bring together a body of believers who, though separated by physical space, are together in Christ.
And thank you for giving us this assembly of believers gathered here together this morning to worship you and your son. Take this message and mold it to make it safe to each person listening, just exactly what you want them to hear.
Take this assembly and mold each of us into the person you want each of us to become. And though that molding might necessitate discipline, yet we will count it all joy. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray.
Amen. Now, before we tackle the second question, who's to blame? I want to repeat something from last week. And I'm going to go all the way back to chapter one, verse two, and look at the verse that says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall in to diverse temptations.
James regards temptation as inevitable. You notice he said when? He didn't say if you fall into diverse temptations. He says when. That's various tests. And I'll use the word temptation, and I'll use the word test along the day, and that's going to mean the same thing.
Temptation is a test. It's a test, especially if you're a believer. At the same time, these tests are occasions for joy, not for discouragement. How many of you find that odd that your test would be occasions for joy, not for discouragement?
Don't we all find that a little bit odd? And you know why we find it a little bit odd? Because we're not walking quite close enough to God. If we were walking exactly as close to God as we need to, we would be like Jesus and take every temptation that we faced with joy.
At the same time, these are occasions for joy, not for discouragement. We can count it all joy in the midst of temptations because every trial becomes a test of faith, a test for the obedient, a test that the obedient believer will pass.
If you're obedient, if you're walking with the Lord and you're tested, you'll pass that test, and you'll be strengthened. Now, unfortunately, when we have that test and we pass it, that doesn't mean Satan's going to walk away from us and leave us forever.
Altogether, never to be tested again, never to reminisce or think bad or second-guess ourselves about the things that we did. That will happen. You face a test. You successfully pass it. Satan's going to sit on your shoulder and say, you messed up.
Maybe you should rethink what you did, but that's Satan talking to you. Remember that. That's for the obedient believer. Are there any other kind of believers besides obedient believers? Those would be disobedient believers.
I'm not going to ask anybody what percentage of the time you are disobedient believers, but I'm going to admit that I'm probably a disobedient believer more than 50 percent of the time. I'm told to do something and I just don't want to do it.
I say, well, Lord, not now. This is going to cost too much, Lord. This might cost me my job. This might cost me a friendship. Price is too high to pay. Well, did I pass or fail the test? Failed, but I want to say failed temporarily because what's going to happen when you fail the test by responding in the wrong way?
Well, it becomes a temptation. It becomes a solicitation to evil, and I have succumbed to that solicitation to evil. I have failed the test, and then what will happen to me? Well, before I get retested, I'm going to get retaught.
I found that out in teaching school. You give a test, they all fail. It could be their fault. It could be my fault, but I've always got to reteach it, and then when I reteach it, I've got to discipline them to make sure that they pay attention this time.
So after failing the test, the first thing that's going to happen to me is I'm going to be disciplined, not punished. We talked about that a week or so ago, the difference between punished and disciplined.
Discipline may feel like punishment, but the intent is different. The intent is to change the behavior. That's not necessarily the intent for punishment. So I went ahead and said, after all, he is disobedient.
Though he is disobedient, he is a believer. After enough discipline, you'll regret what you did. You'll repent, and you'll ask for forgiveness. How do I know that? Because we're talking about what? A believer.
We're talking about a believer. The believer that didn't do right the first time is disciplined, and he will be disciplined to the extent that later he'll do it right. He'll regret his action. He'll repent, and he'll ask for forgiveness, and when we do that, when we ask for forgiveness, Jesus is always faithful to cleanse us of all unrighteousness, and hopefully we'll do a better job the next time we face a temptation or a test, and maybe next time we'll pass it the first time.
So how does God respond to all of this? I'm not sure that's the question I wanted to ask you. That's what I asked when I wrote down my notes, but I'm going to go to 1 John chapter 1 verse 5 and read it, and I'm going to interrupt my reading of it to make a comment, and you may interrupt my reading of it at any time and make comments or ask questions.
That's part of what we're trying to do here. This then is the message which we have heard of him and declared unto you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
That's not where I was going to interrupt, but that is a good place. We can't be walking in darkness and having fellowship with Christ. If we're having fellowship with Christ, we must be walking in the light, and I'm going to talk about what it means to walk in the light in just a second.
So, I'm going to read that again. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not the truth, but if we walk in the light. Now, what do I mean when I say if we walk in the light?
If we are obedient, if we know what to do, if we know what's right, and we know what we ought to do, and we do it, that's the key. We got to know what's right. We got to do what's right. If we know what's right and we do what's right, then we're walking in the light, but if we walk in the dark, we lie.
Okay, verse 7 again. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Well, there it is. That's how God responds.
If you are walking in the light, what will God do? He will cleanse you from all sin. After you do what? After you become obedient, after you know what is right, and then repent from doing what's wrong and begin doing what's right, then Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's the part that I was quoting a while ago.
Now, we've talked about two kinds of people. What are they? Obedient believers and disobedient believers, who eventually become obedient believers. Now, the unbeliever is in an entirely different situation.
For him, the temptation will always be a solicitation to evil. For him, the test will always be a test that he will fail, and he will be punished. And how will he be punished? He'll be punished with an everlasting punishment.
So, every temptation that we face can be viewed as a test to distinguish among believers, I'm sorry, among obedient believers, disobedient believers, and unbelievers, what we call sometimes here in this assembly, sheep, lost sheep, and goats.
Okay, now we're going to jump to the section for today. This is new today. Let no man say when he is tempted. Now, every time I say the word tempted, you can read that tested if you wish. In the New King James Version, it says tested.
In the King James Version, it says tempted. But the temptation is a test. When I get a little bit later, I'm going to quote John MacArthur again. He's going to say tested, and then he's going to describe it as being tempted.
And that's because he's doing his study out of the New King James Version. Okay, that's just bookkeeping. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.
Now, James' point here is this. Every difficult circumstance that enters a believer's life can either strengthen him if he believes and obeys, and if he remains confident in his care, or he becomes a solicitation for evil if he chooses instead to doubt and to disobey his word.
That's the believer we're talking about. The believer can either obey and be strengthened, or he can choose to disobey and receive some discipline. God, by his holy nature, has no capacity for evil, nor any vulnerability to it.
Habakkuk 113 says this, Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity. God purposes trials to occur, and in them he allows temptation to happen. But he has promised not to allow more than a believer can endure, and never without a way to escape.
That was from 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13. You think you've got a temptation that's special to you? Well, it's special to you because it is a temptation of you. But there hath no temptation taken you, but such as common to man.
But God is faithful, and will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. So the believer chooses whether to take the escape that God provides them, or to give in and be disobedient and face discipline.
Kind of like Jonah. Remember Jonah? Jonah was given instructions to go to Nineveh, and Jonah was a believer, and Jonah did what? He disobeyed. He went exactly the other way. He went as far away as he could try to.
Well, we recount all the things that happened to him. He was cast over by the sailors to save the ship. The great fish swallowed him, swam back to the shore, spit him up on the land right where he departed.
Now he's in the same place he was before. He gets the same command after going through all of this discipline, gets the same request, go to Nineveh. And what does he do this time? This time Jonah obeyed.
He could have obeyed the first time, and that would have been unfortunate because then we wouldn't have a model out there that will tell us that even though we flagrantly disobey, even though God says right and we say left, even though God says up and we say down, even though God says forward and we say backward, God will bring us back to the same place and allow us to make that same decision again.
Can we feel that again? We can. We can. Jonah fortunately didn't. We can fail it again. You know what will happen again? If we're his. More discipline. Back retest. Someone referred to this time lost as the time the lotus ate, and I forgot.
I was Chuck Mystery that said it, and I can't remember where he got it, so I'm not going to do anything more with that. But what you lose in refusing to obey the first time is you lose the blessings that you would have had in the intervening time between the time that you were first presented with that opportunity to the time that you finally obey.
That time is gone. He can't get it back. OK, unfortunately. We are a fallen race. And we live in a fallen world. And as a result, too often we choose to satisfy some worldly desire rather than to do what we know is right.
Oh, we know it's right when we when we refuse to do it the first time. Jonah knew that it was right for him to go and preach to the Gentiles. But he didn't want to do it. Brother Otis used to say you always do what you want to do.
And at first I disagreed with that. And then I began to understand what he was saying. There's always a choice that you make and the choice that you make you make to do what you want to do. The thing that you want to do most is the thing you will do.
Sometimes it's a bad choice. Fortunately, God can and will make this bad choice. If you make a bad choice, you'll make this bad choice a point of discipline so that the believer will regret the choice he made, repent, ask for forgiveness, and make a better choice next time.
Okay, back to verse two. I started to say Hebrews, back to James chapter one, verse 14. But every man is tempted. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away off his own lust. Now, this is going to be John MacArthur in a minute.
I put in there the New Testament translation. I'm going to read it that way. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own desires and enticed. Now, John MacArthur says this about that. Drawn away is the Greek word used to describe wild game being lured into traps.
Just as an animal can be drawn to their death by attractive mates, temptation promises people something good which is actually harmful. The fact that he says drawn away by his own desires, MacArthur said this refers to lust.
That's what he's talking about. The strong desire of the human soul to enjoy or acquire something to fulfill the flesh. Man's fallen nature has the propensity to strongly desire whatever sin will satisfy it.
Now, I added this to his. Confronted by God's law, the sinner's rebellious nature finds the forbidden thing more attractive. Not because it is one's self-will. We want to do what we want to do. Back to MacArthur.
His own desires describe the individual nature of the lust. It is different for each person as a result of inherited tendencies, environment, upbringing, personal choices. Different people are tested in different ways.
We should not expect the same test that everybody else gets. We should accept a test tailor-made for us. The Greek grammar, MacArthur goes on to say, also indicates that these desires are the direct.
The Greek grammar also indicates that these desires are the direct agent or the direct cause of one's sinning. You sin because of these desires that you have. And again, as Brother Otis said, we always do what we want to do.
Enticed is a fishing term. It means to capture or catch with a bait. And it's a parallel to being drawn away. Being drawn away, being trapped by being presented something attractive, being lured away into something that's attractive.
And the end results the same. The animal in the trap is trapped. The fish attracted to the lure is caught on the hook. And I now went to 2 Peter 2, chapter 9. 2 Peter 2, verse 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust until the day of judgment to be punished.
That's what happens to the unjust, the non-believer. But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanliness and despise government, presumptuous are they, self-will, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
Whereas angels which had greater power and might bring not railing accusations against them before the Lord. But these as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of things that they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption.
And they shall receive the reward of unrighteousness as they did count it pleasure to riot in daytime. Spots they are, blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceiving while they feast with you.
Having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin. And the reason I put that in is what follows next. Beguiling unstable souls. Beguiling unstable souls. What's he talking about? I am speaking vain empty words.
Things I have no understanding of. Things I know nothing about. And what's going to happen is I'm going to lure unstable souls into doing as I say. Into doing like me. At heart they have exercised with covetous practice.
Cursed children which have forsaken the right way and are gone astray. Falling the way of Balaam, the son of Bethsaida. Who loved the wages of unrighteousness but was rebuked for his iniquity. The dumb ass speaking with a man's voice forbade the madness of the prophet.
These are whales without water. Clouds that are carried by the tempest. To whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. Now here it is. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity. Words of emptiness.
For when they speak great swelling words of vanity. They allure through the lust of the flesh. Through much wantedness. Those that were clean escape from them who live in error. Now I want to consider that passage in the text of what it's we've been dealing with.
Behavior during the time of testing. If a believer is obedient and faithful during tested, he is what? He's strengthened. But not only is he strengthened, wavering unbelievers who see his obedience are in turn strengthened as well.
So we have an obligation to do right. We have an obligation to know what is right and do what is right and be obedient. And if we're a teacher or if we are a mentor to someone or even if somebody's looking at us and we don't know that we're mentoring them, they see how we react.
If they see us be strong, it will help them to be strong. If they see us waver, it will allow them an excuse for their wavering. Wavering believers see his obedience and in turn are strengthened as well.
But if the believer is disobedient, not only is he disciplined, wavering believers see this disobedience. They don't see the discipline. They see the disobedience and are lured into wantonness and face discipline of the wrong because they're believers.
That's right. And because the leader is accepted, the congregation accepts it or is more likely to accept it. Does everyone in that congregation accept it? No. There's a remnant that will. And then you got to wonder about the leader if they continue to do that and they don't change.
If they continue to profess doing evil and don't change, you got to consider whether they are believers who are just disobedient for the time or whether they are really unbelievers that were put there for that particular purpose.
So we must keep in mind our behavior during testing not only affects us, it also affect or affects all those around us. Jesus said this in Matthew 5 13. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salty?
It is good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under the foot of men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick.
And he giveth light to all those that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. I want to say that in my own words.
Let those men around you see that you know what is right and that you do it so they can see your good works and they can glorify what? Your father which is in heaven. Verse 15. Then when lust, that's corrupt desire, hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.
Simple enough, springing forth from corrupt desire is sin. Springing forth from sin is death. This progression from death is the inevitable result that Satan always tries to hide from them, but we should never be deceived about it.
Verse 16. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Satan's great strategy and temptation is to convince us that our corrupt desires will somehow produce life and goodness for us. If we remember that Satan comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy, then we can more effectively resist the deceptions of temptation.
Well, we have that in John 10 .10. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and they may have it more abundantly. That's Satan. The thief comes in the night to steal, to kill, and destroy.
Verse 17. Every good gift, now I'm going to read it through and then I'm going to make a couple of comments. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights with whom is no variability.
That's not variability. Variableness needs a shadow of turning. Okay, the first gift is in that passage twice. Two different words. If you look it up in the Greek, it's two different words. The first word is dosis, and it's the act of giving.
The second word and every perfect gift is dorema, and that's the object given. So I'm going to read it a little bit differently. Every good act of giving and every perfect object given is from above and cometh down from the father of lights with whom is no variability, neither shadow of turning.
From man's perspective, the celestial bodies, now it says really the father, it says the father of lights, but that's really the father of the lights. It is the creator of the heavenly lights. That's what he's talking about.
The father of lights. From man's perspective, the celestial bodies have different phases. You go out and look at the moon last night, full moon. In two weeks, I think in two weeks it'll be gone. It won't be there at all.
And in two more weeks, full again. It goes through the cycles. It comes up in the morning. It comes up when it comes up. It goes down when it goes down. Sun's the same way. It comes up in the morning.
It goes down at night. It goes overhead. It changes colors as it goes. It comes up red. It's almost white at the top and red at the bottom. God doesn't follow that pattern. God is changeless. That's what that's talking about.
First John 1, chapter 5, verse 5 says this. This then is the message which we have heard him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Verse 18. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
His own will, that phrase translates a Greek word that makes it a point that this regeneration is not just a wish but an active expression of God's will which he always has the power to accomplish. That this phrase occurs at the beginning means James intended to emphasize that the sovereign will of God is the source of this new light, new life.
And then we're going to finish by reading Ephesians 2, 5. Even when we were dead in sins have God quickened us together with Christ by grace are you saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus for by grace are we saved through faith and that not of yourself it is a gift of God not of works lest any man should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which the Lord has before ordained that we should walk in them.
Any questions or comments? Well it's going to be kind of funny to listen to the sermon because that's perfectly aligned with the stuff that we'll be talking about later. In fact I'm going to steal about four or five of the passages that you read.
That's perfectly good. You're not stealing them because I didn't write them. I had a thought.
Earlier when you mentioned Jonah. He uh he certainly disobeyed but he's one of the only. It's one of the only examples you see where somebody had so much faith in God that it was part of the reason he disobeyed.
He didn't want God to save.
That is that is interesting. He thought that he had a better view of the world. The den of us do not God I'm good I'm with you all the way. I know you can do what you want to do but the den of us don't deserve being saved and he knew that they would get saved and he was afraid every one of them would get saved and then it would go away to the end after it's all done.
He sits on a mountain and pounces about it. Greatest revival of all times. Never a revival anywhere in the world where every single individual in the city was saved. Wow wouldn't you if you were a pastor wouldn't you want that to happen?
Go into a city wouldn't matter the size every person there comes to the Lord. Wow what a revival we had. What an unwilling servant. What an unwilling believer but he became willing didn't he? He was punished I believe he was punished to the point he had to die.
I think he died actually died when he was in the belly of the whale. Come back to life as a pattern for Jesus but that's just me. I don't want to add anything more but disciplined so severe and yet it altered his decision.
Next time he says yes I'll do it but he really didn't want to do it then. He felt like he was coerced into it. Okay that's great. Anything else? Well I'm looking forward to your sermon now. I already was but I'm now looking forward to it more times.
Let us pray. Most gracious heavenly father thank you for bringing us together that we may study your word and glorify your son. Bless us and keep us go through the services today in Jesus name we pray amen.