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267.
House for his help.
Our God and Father, we come before thee now and thank you for what we've had before us so far in this conference. These things that have been brought before us would speak to us about how our walk ought to be in ways that would be pleasing to thyself and to thy Son. We just ask for help for this meeting. That there would be food convenient for each one of us here we would have ready years to listen to.
What has to minister to us and we thank thee most of all. What I saw our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it's in his name we cry.
I don't know that the mind of the brethren to proceed with the James one.
So much more teaching there that it's valuable for us.
What is the mind of the assembly?
What verse do you think we should start at?
Well.
Probably.
Verse 8 to the end.
OK, James, chapter one. We'll start at verse 8.
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree rejoice, and that he is exalted, but the rich, and that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth. So also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation.
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For when he is tried, he shall receive of the the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. 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 hath conceived, it brings forth sin. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Do not hurt, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
Wherefore lay apart all filling filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers, only deceiving your own selves. 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. For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he he being not a forgetful here, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 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.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
We didn't comment on verse 4 this morning. Let Patience have her perfect work, that she may be perfect and entire.
Wanting nothing? Well.
Perfection here is not a question of having no sin in our lives, but there are moral qualities.
That are formed in our character.
When we take these trials.
From the Lord we learn endurance, we learn God's patience with us. There's there's things that we cannot learn in the glory.
You can never learn that God is a God of comfort in heaven because you won't need it.
Or that God is a God of compassion in heaven because you won't need it.
But in the trials of life, we we learn the heart of God. We learn our own hearts too. How how untrustworthy they are.
But that patience, it's, it's a gradual process. It's not accomplished.
In even a few years, let patience have her perfect work. God has something in view in our lives.
Conformity to Christ, it doesn't happen all of a sudden. It is something that goes on those moral qualities.
Perfect more the sense of mature or full growth, not sinless perfection.
And then we come down to our chat, the passage that we started with here.
The apostle or he wasn't an apostle, as I said, James tells us that.
The brother of low degree.
He may feel himself left out.
But in God's sight he has the same standing as the brother who is rich in this world's goods. He has to learn humiliation. He has to learn that those material things that he has doesn't give him any special place in the in the presence of the Lord, he is brought down.
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That these material things that he may trust in are not really.
The divine things that really count in his life.
The person of low degree the poor man before God, He is exalted because he is before God in Christ. Is not partiality there special place for the poor man of the rich man?
No, no, a special advantage there. But then when we come down to verse 12, blessed is the man that endureth temptation or trial. There's a present reward in taking those trials from the Lord.
It says when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life. That's.
Could be looked upon in two ways. There is a present blessing when we take a trial from the Lord we have.
We have the joy of the Lord in our souls.
We grow in the understanding of the character of God. If we take those trials from the Lord, we learn something.
We get that crown of life, of course, crown of life is looking on to the judgment seat of Christ, and it's amazing that James uses the word crown of life in connection with enduring those trials in this life. It's mentioned in Samurai. I think it is in Revelation 2. That was a assembly that was suffering much persecution. Many had lost their lives in Smyrna.
Because of their faithfulness to the Lord.
And God promised them the crown of life. I was looking on to eternity, and the crown of life looks on to eternity here too. But the same crown is promised to the one who endures temptation. There may be a loss in your life and mine. If we walk with God, we may lose a promotion at work. We may lose something of a temporal.
Blessing down here, but the crown of life is promised. It will be given at the judgment seat of Christ to those that endure that trial that the Lord allows. We might say that in the case of the Lord Jesus.
He had temptations or trials from without, but never from within.
Never from within the Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. There was no response within the Lord to those presentation of of evil. There was no response in His soul. So the trial from was from without. And He has suffered everything that a righteous man could suffer. He endured these holy trials that we are Speaking of here.
But he and he endured, and he was an overcomer. Of course, the apostle goes on to speak of other types of trials here in the latter part of our chapter.
We Smoke spoke this morning at great length about faith and how faith ought to grow. Our faith ought to grow, and there ought to be that maturity, and John has spoken of that maturity and so on. And I'd just like to say for our encouragement as we pass on that, what has been a great comfort to me in taking up this subject of tests and trials and the trial of our faith and so on, is to realize that first of all, faith is a gift of God.
It comes from God himself, and He never tests us in the pathway above the measure of faith that has already been developed and given to us by God as a result of previous tests and trials in our life. So that when we stand at the judgment seat of Christ, if there's been failure in my life, I will have no excuse. I won't be able to say to the Lord Jesus, well, I didn't have the proper faith of the proper amount of faith. I hadn't grown.
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That to that certain level of maturity, I was tested above what my what I was able to bear and so on. No, we're going to realize that every test in our life was measured very carefully according to where we already were in our Christian growth.
We spoke, as I say this morning, of faith growing, and I've appreciated it in connection with the circumstances that God allowed in the life of Abraham, that man of faith referred to as the father of faith. Now sometimes thought of it this way. Suppose when Abraham had first been called out of ur the Chaldees, and answered that call by in obedience and by faith. Suppose he had been given immediately a great test.
Like going up to offer up his son Isaac on the mountain. I dare say he would have failed in that test because his level of faith hadn't grown to the to the point where it was up to that kind of a test. But Abraham experienced day by day the faithfulness of his God. He proved by practical experience in his life the faithfulness of his God. So that what that his faith had grown to such a point.
That when the test came, take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, and offer him up on one of the mountains, that I will show thee of why He was able then by grace, by faith, to take up that challenge, so to speak, and to in obedience and faith go. And we know by what he did in and what he thought that he had complete faith and confidence in God. I say that because we know by what he did.
That he had faith. He rose up early in the morning and James takes it up, mentions what he did. But in Hebrews I believe it is. It tells us he had faith by what he thought.
Accounting that God was able even to raise him from the dead. You know, I believe that Abraham had every thought that he was going to have to kill his son, but he didn't stagger at the promise. Why? Because he was sure that this was of God, and that if he had to kill his son, God was able to raise him up even from the dead.
Well, that that's just a little aside. We don't wouldn't know by what he thought that he had faith unless Scripture told us. But we know by what he did that he had faith. And as we were saying this morning, it's our works that justify us before man. Just to get back to this where we started here too, I believe again, it's important to understand the context of James and who he's writing to and why he speaks in this way of the brother of low degree and the brother who's rich.
Because again, everything in the Old Testament in Judaism was measured in this way. The man had wealth. He was it was a sign of spirituality and faithfulness. But what we learned from the New Testament and what these Jewish believers had to learn in the early church was that.
Temporal things were no measure as to spirituality or spiritual gift. I again appreciated in having traveled to many countries and again, just having been in Egypt. You know, in Egypt there are the very wealthy and there are the other in the assembly. There's no buffer zone over here. We might have the rich and poor that meet together as Proverbs says, but there's the middle class and the average guys like some of us who are the buffer zone in between.
In the assembly over there, there's not. There's the very wealthy and there's the other.
But it is so beautiful, it is so touching to see money doesn't talk in the assembly over there. Money has nothing to do with who has responsibility in the in the in the assembly. And it's been very precious to my own soul to see it practically carried out. So these Jewish believers, they had to learn that it was very different in Christianity, that all are equal now in that way, we all have the unsearchable riches of Christ.
We may have nothing of this world, we may have everything of this world, but that is not a measure of spirituality. That doesn't mean that the poor man is spiritual and the rich man isn't. That's not what it's saying either. I've known those who are very poor who are not spiritual. I've known those who are very poor who are very spiritual.
I've known those who are very rich who are not spiritual, but I've also known those who are very rich in this world's goods, who are very spiritual. And so it's not the standard in Christianity. We cannot govern it, govern on persons, spirituality or the place God gives them in the assembly by what they have, whether they have a nice suit or a nice house or a poor, poor closer or a Hut. That is not a measure. And I say that's what he was seeking.
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At least one of the things that James is seeking to teach the brethren here and for our encouragement and learning as well.
Apostle or James had spoken about asking.
Nothing wavering, not having mixed motives, not asking of God, and yet going about figuring out how I'm going to answer this problem myself, but just completely dependent upon God. And these two things brought in poverty and wealth are both circumstances that.
Can lead us to a place of out of dependence upon God if I'm poor.
I might say, what's the use of trusting God? Why ask? Look at my situation. I'm miserably poor. I don't have anything. Everybody else has something, I don't have anything. Why trust God? Go out there and get it myself. The wealthy says, why do I need to trust God? I've got it all. I don't need to ask God for anything. And so those are two extremes, but it's really circumstances that would bring us into a place.
Where we're not dependent upon God, not having a single eye, not completely trusting or wanting His will, but our own will gets at work.
So I suppose that's why Solomon said give me neither poverty nor riches. But I think too, you get a similar thought when Peter writes to the Saints as well, because they were in a similar situation. Again, as we mentioned this morning, they were used to the old order of things where prosperity was a result of following the Lord and faithfulness to the Word. And now they were concerned they were questioning things because.
They were going through what is termed as fiery trials. They'd lost everything. But what Peter brings before them is that while that which was earthly had been taken away from them, that which they had in a temporal way they had lost. They had an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, that fade did not away reserved in heaven for them. And so he could encourage them to go on to trust the Lord.
No matter what the circumstances were, no matter how deep the trial, they had something in Christ that could not be touched. And brethren, you and I have something in Christ that cannot be touched. If we trust in certain riches, we're going to Pierce ourselves through with many arrows, as I think it, Paul said to Timothy, we we can have wealth today and we can have poverty tomorrow, but if we are really in the enjoyment of what is ours.
And realize that we things are not measured by the substance, our substance, the substance of what a man has in a temporal way. Then I believe it's going to give us the grace and the energy of faith to run with endurance, the path that set before us to endure temptation. If we only look at material things, we're going to get discouraged. And there is a great movement today in Christian circles to measure spirituality.
By temporal things, brethren, that is false. And those that do that often end up very, very depressed, sometimes, sad to say, on the psychiatric wards of the hospitals of this world, because they may have a lot today and nothing tomorrow. And sometimes they're told that if they didn't get what they wanted in a material way, it's because they didn't have the faith, brethren.
There are those who are poor in this world but rich in faith and it's sometimes a joy to be with them. But I want to again qualify our remarks by saying that doesn't have to be so. You know, when the when the truth was revived in England and Europe in the early days, God raised up those who were ultra, ultra wealthy. Some of the nobility of Britain and Europe were raised up a faithful, godly men and women.
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And not just men, but women. Lady Powers Court opened her castle for the prophetic conferences. Many wealthy opened their wallets for the printing of the ministry that is still in print today. And that we can read and and enjoy. And so it doesn't have to. Wealth does not have to stand in the way of spirituality.
But but again, it is not a measure of whether a man is spiritual, because, as he says here, the grass Withers and the flower fades.
It's an it's a quote from Isaiah 40. Peter uses it as well in a little different context in his epistle. But what it really shows is when he talks about the grass and the flower in Scripture, it puts on a display for a while, but there's really nothing abiding. And the things of this world they can put on a display for a while. But if that's what we're trusting in brethren, if that's what we're looking for, if that's what we're measuring spirituality by, we're going to be disappointed. We're going to see an end of all perfection, as the psalmist said.
Because those things can spring up like the grass and the flower for a little while they look beautiful, but you run the mower over them, or there's a bit of a drought and they're gone. They they wither. But again, we have something like these brethren. That is, that it, that is for eternity, and that no matter what the circumstance, it will never fade away.
And there's also the thought that we.
Should be reminded of that.
The resources that we have.
Can be used for the furtherance of God's interests here below. So if those resources are put into His hands, and whatever the measure of them, they can be used for God's glory.
And there will be a reward in that coming day. The crown of life here is not in connection with martyrdom, although it's the same crown that is mentioned in Revelation 2.
But it's a reward. Crown brings before us the thought of reward, and that will be at the judgment seat of Christ. So if there's loss down here because of faithfulness to the Lord, that crown of life is promised to the believer. When we come down to the succeeding verses here, I think it's very important to see.
That the trials mentioned here, the temptations are of a different character. They come from within, they are unholy trials and we all have this temptation.
We Satan says that we can.
Find satisfaction and joy.
By allowing that old sinful nature to manifest itself.
And.
Sometimes we do this and we know that it only brings a sorrow and trouble into our lives when we allow that old nature which we all have to display itself. We can't blame God about it because our brother has said we are the ones that are responsible. We don't keep that old nature in the place of death.
There's a little poem, so a thought reap an action. So an action reap a habit, sow a habit reap a character, so a character reap a destiny.
So what we think about and pursue after?
Will form our character in the end, as it says here, Lust.
When it hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. That's the end of the pathway. However, it does bring a moral death into our lives too, because if we allow the those sinful desires to to gratify those sinful desires.
We're going to have a moral death in our lives. There's not going to be any fruit for God in our in our pathway.
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We sang in the opening hymn.
About how that when we are faint and ready to fail.
You'll give that which is wanting and make us to prevail. Well, I believe this involves endurance.
And.
You know I believe the Lord.
He never asked us to do anything.
What he gives us the ability to do it.
And I think of how David.
In the Psalms in Psalm 40.
He says I waited patiently for the Lord.
And he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also on horrible pit.
Well, I think there was endurance with.
David.
The circumstances were very difficult.
But he didn't throw up his hands in despair and turn against the Lord. He simply cried to the Lord.
And he knew there would be deliverance and there was. And David was delivered from the horrible pit.
Well, sometimes we're brought to that point, you know, where we're just about ready to give up.
We're faint and we think we're going to fail, but you know, at that point the Lord comes in and he does. He gives what is wanting and makes us to prevail.
But if we do give in to the flesh, you know the flesh wants to take easy. Street doesn't appreciate this idea of endurance.
And sometimes we do give in and there's failure come in. Well, I think that's really what it's telling us here in verse.
13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. God cannot be tempted with evil either. Tempted he any man.
God never tempts us to do evil or to give in to the flesh.
He give us victory over the flesh.
And it speaks in first Peter, I believe it's.
Well, just let me turn back to that in first, Peter.
I should say turn ahead to it first. Peter chapter 4.
And verse one first, Peter four and one. For as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.
That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh. That a loss of men, but to the will of God.
So we know the flesh desires to be pampered and gratified.
And yet we find here in First Peter that.
If we're willing to say no to the flesh.
He ceased from sin.
And their suffering involved with respect to the flesh, but.
To cease from sin brings joy and happiness into our lives.
I just thought of that connection there with first Peter. Respect what we have here.
It may seem like as James is going along, that it's a little disjointed.
At first he's talking about this thing and then he's talking about that thing, but really there is a flow in the inspiration of the Spirit of God and what James is penning. And he takes up in the beginning our own will and God's will. And are we willing to be subject to His will to receive all from His hand and complete dependence upon Him? Asking in faith because we want His will.
Well, he accomplishes Will.
First, He will. So if I just want His will and I'm asking for His will, He's going to accomplish it, no two ways about it. And then we get into situations where I just want His will, but I'm in a place where I'm in a trial and I've got to take a step and I don't know what to do. I'll ask God, He'll show you.
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And then He takes up the things that might take us out of a place of dependence upon his will.
Rich or poor?
And then he says now rather than.
Rejoicing and riches. Rejoicing that God makes nothing of wealth or the things that this world thinks much of.
Don't get down under the things that this world looks down on. Rejoice in the place you have in Christ and both of you, whether rich or poor.
Rejoice in the work of God in your soul and what He is desiring to produce and all that He's passing you through. Rejoice in that because He does have a purpose for blessing. He's working in your soul. He's interested in what He's doing and.
Your heart and my heart, and to bring it to its happy end. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation. He says there's the place to rejoice. There's a place for us to rejoice as in what he is doing and the like. And then he takes up and continues the subject, really contrasting our will, what comes from self and his will and what comes from him and what do we want?
What do we really want?
What does our will produce? What does His will bring? And that goes on then and the rest of the chapter in that way.
That's the very point that he makes here, Steve. He says, do not air, beloved brethren, how often we think that by yielding to that.
Wicked old nature that we're going to find happiness. These are the verse in Romans chapter 8.
We could just look at there.
Verse 13 or verse 12. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors.
Not to the flesh to live after the flesh, for if we live after the flesh, he shall die. They're there. That's again the moral death. But if He through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. You know, the apostle is saying here, we're not debtors to the flesh. Whenever we've allowed the flesh to act, it's always brought sorrow, trouble.
Affliction.
Government of God in our lives, we all have had the experience of that. We're no debtors to the flesh.
It has never brought any good in our lives.
Might note in passing that it doesn't say we are debtors to the Spirit because the Christian life is a life of liberty not to.
Not legality.
But the apostle or the James is saying this in our chapter here. He's saying don't make a mistake, that you think you can get happiness by allowing your will to act as our brother mentioned here, every good and perfect gift.
It comes from above. The good gifts, we might say, are those.
Temporal blessings that we enjoy. We've had a good meal here.
Today we have.
100 material blessings showered upon us, which we sometimes take for granted and are unthankful for. But all those good gifts, food and raiment, and 100 mercies that we experience day by day are from the Lord. Do we thank Him for it? Those are the good gifts. But there's this the perfect gifts too. Those are the those of a spiritual character.
Which we're enjoying today and which we have in the the word of God, the wonderful spiritual blessings that we can enjoy, which go on into eternity. So they all come from above, certainly don't come from any other source and from the Father of lights, that is, he knows perfectly all about us. He knows our.
Weaknesses. He knows our background.
He knows everything about us and he's perfect in all his dealings with us. No father here could say that he acts in a perfect way, but.
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The Lord has a special.
Love for every one of his children. We're all different, thank God for that. We're all different and the Lord has a special love for each one of us.
Plate of the high priest. There were 12 Stones. There were two stones on the on the shoulders. You remember the Onyx stones?
The six of the tribes of Israel engraved on 1/6 on the other. That's eternal security.
What the The stones on the breastplate were all different, Every one of them. You read that in Exodus 2829. God is a special love for every one of us. He knows our weaknesses. He knows our personalities. He knows our special needs. We speak in education today of special needs. Well, the Lord knows all that. He's a Father of light.
He knows us better than we know ourselves, and He is doing the best for us with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He's not fickle, not of one day and down the decks like some of us. But it's wonderful to have that confidence, Father. That's the relationship we have now with God, not even known in the Old Testament. How wonderful to know His care.
His his watchfulness, His mercy, his love and his perfect knowledge.
Of his children, that right, yeah, yes. And as we've been saying, and it's always good to go back to the context of a portion we're taking up. This is practical Christianity. This is our walk with God in the path of faith through this world. And I believe that's why he brings out the flesh here, because Satan seeks to hinder our walk with God through this world by bringing before us temptations connected with the flesh.
You see it illustrated with the children of Israel in the Old Testament. You know, the real conflict for Israel never started till they got into the land, but there was a conflict they had during their passage through the wilderness and that was a conflict with Amalek. And Amalek is a picture to us of Satan Satan's working on the flesh to hinder our walk with God through this wilderness world.
The reason I say that is because Amalek was the grandson of Esau, and Esau was one who sold his birthright for momentary gratification, as we might say for a bowl of porridge, just to satisfy his natural appetite for the moment. And when you trace the history of Amalek through the Old Testament, you find that this is the thought that carries through. I say again, it's Satan's working on the flesh to hinder our walk with God through this world.
And that's what he's seeking to do with each one of us. He puts before us temptations, just like he put before Eve certain things. She saw the fruit, He spoke to her, and Eve was tempted. And we know the sad, the sad result. But remember this too, in connection with Satan. You know, Satan is not all knowing and he's not omnipresent. That's reserved for deity. Satan puts certain things in our pathway, certain things before us to seek to corrupt our minds and to tempt us.
So that we act in the flesh and the result is sin and, and and so on. But Satan doesn't know what we're thinking. He can put things in front of me to corrupt my mind, but only God and the Lord Jesus know what I'm thinking. And so that's why so often in Scripture we're taught we're exhorted as to our our minds and what we fill our minds with. Are they filled with Christ? Are they filled with that which is good and lovely and pure and so on if they are.
Then Satan, when he puts things in front of us, whether it's through the eye or through the ear or any other Ave. then we're not going to be so vulnerable to those things that he puts in front of us. If our minds are filled with that which is a, it is of Christ. So I believe that's why he brings this out in James in connection with our practical walk of faith. It's Satan working on the flesh to trip us up, to spoil our testimony, to spoil our joy.
And Satan wants to turn every test that God puts in front of us into a temptation. And if we're not careful, brethren, he'll do that very, very thing. You know, Abraham had a test from God. He was tempted by God was a holy test, as John has worded it. He was tested if Abraham.
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Hasn't focused on God and what was before him from God and counted on God by faith. It could have been disastrous. It could have been disastrous and no doubt the enemy was right there to seek to corrupt his Abraham's thinking and to get him to waver in his faith. Thank God. Abraham trusted God explicitly. He rose up early in the morning with one object before him, and that was obedience to the word of the Lord and so on.
But when a test comes in our lives from God, let's be careful because if we don't turn to him in faith, in obedience, and for that wisdom that we spoke of this morning, that test from God, then can the the enemy can come and use as a temptation to lead into a very bad path.
I suggest for a moment our brother Wally read that verse in First Peter chapter 4, and there's an interesting expression used in that second verse, and that's the expression the rest of his time. Sometimes you hear the expression today. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
And I'd like to connect this with a verse that we have in Second Corinthians chapter.
5.
And verse 15.
And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. There's an object, isn't there? And.
There is that crucifixion, so to speak, of self there.
I was thinking of an illustration that we have also in Second Kings chapter 20.
And it's a very solemn portion that we have here, we have recorded here.
Hezekiah's illness or affliction and he goes before the Lord in this connection and he pleads with the Lord and the Lord answers Hezekiah here and in verse six it says, and I will add onto thy days.
15 years.
15 years.
OK, what took place during those 15 years? And that's that's the solemn point in this passage. And 2nd Kings Chapter 20. Well, we see that.
He imprudently exposes his treasures and the treasures of the Lord's house to the men of Babylon, and this displeased the Lord, and this took place during those 15 years that were added to Hezekiah's life.
The rest of his time, that's a solemn.
1St is a portion of the verse. And so the Lord was displeased with Hezekiah.
In connection with what Hezekiah did during those 15 extra years that he had given Hezekiah, let's just look at another verse very briefly in Joel.
The Lord is gracious sometimes, and I believe that we see a measure of grace expressed in the second chapter of Joel and verse 25.
Says And I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten.
The tanker worm and the Caterpillar and the Palmer worm.
Well, there's a measure of restoration, but I don't think it's full restoration. So there should be an exercise as to what we do with the time that we have remaining from this time forth.
But as you say, there is restoration, and there might be someone here today who's discouraged because you say, well, I've failed in the path of faith. I've allowed sin in my life. I've allowed the flesh to raise its ugly head.
00:50:12
But there is restoration. There may be, as you say, consequences. Sometimes the government of God comes in, but thank God, there can be in the soul at least full restoration. David sinned and there was full restoration in his soul, even though there was a governmental consequence for David and for future generations. But I think they're too. There's another point we don't want to miss in these verses in James. It doesn't say here, brethren, that when we're tempted, we're tempted of the devil.
That's not what it says. We're tempted of our own lusts. Isn't that interesting? You know, my mother used to have an expression she said used to tell me, Jim, the devil gets blamed for a lot of things he's not responsible for. Now, it is true sometimes the devil is right there like he was with Eve and with with others and sometimes in our lives. But when we sin, it's because we have a sinful, fallen nature and we allow the flesh to be fed and to raise its ugly head.
We can't always blame the devil. We have to blame our ourselves. And I believe this is is punctuated by the fact that there's a day coming on earth when the devil is going to be bound for 1000 years and Christ is going to reign and it's going to be a wonderful time unlike that this world has ever seen. But there is still going to be sin in the Millennium. Just read the last couple of chapters of Isaiah and other places and you'll find.
That sin will raise its ugly head and be judged morning by morning. And in the Millennium when people openly sin, they will not be able to say the devil made me do it. People say that now while the devil made me do it. But they won't be able to bring up that excuse to the judge when they're brought up morning by morning. Man will sin because he has a fallen nature, and the flesh in a believer is no different than the flesh in an unbeliever.
We find with Judas. Judas was an unregenerate man, and I believe remained so until the end. Satan entered into Judas to carry out the awful deed of betraying the betraying the Lord. But was the flesh any different in Peter a believer than it was in Judas? The Lord said Satan hath desired to have you that he might sift you as wheat, and we know that.
Peter acted in the flesh in a way that caused him to deny the Lord three times with those and curses. Now we know the devil was directly responsible there. But again, I say that's not what it says in our verse in verse 14. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed. So let's remember we sin even as believers. We sin because we still have the flesh, and that which is born of the flesh is flesh. It has not improved in any way.
Mr. Darby said we sin because we like to sing, and that is true.
I was thinking along this line that.
You know what we think about.
Forms our character and.
There is everything in this world to minister to the old nature and.
Just the look of the news stands and what comes through the door and so on.
And.
We know that our thoughts sometimes.
Are unholy.
And we indulge them, we savor them, we turn them over.
Beware, they couldn't lead to an action.
But I always was helped by.
What Mr. Darby said, because we all are assailed by these evil thoughts. If you haven't had that problem, I'd like to meet you, because I've never met anyone that didn't. We are all assailed by these evil thoughts. Vile intruders, as Macintosh says, they come into our unto our minds.
Unbidden, perhaps, but.
They do, they do sometimes find a lodging in our souls. But Mr. Darby said, and it was always helpful to me, How do we overcome that? You say it's a continual battle all day long. We get into ******* about it. If I have to stop and judge every evil thought that goes through my mind, it's it would be all day long. But he said by turning away from it.
00:55:16
We judge it by occupying ourselves with that which is good, precious word of God, the person of Christ, the hymn that we know. In that way we become overcomers. We.
The that thought does not find a lodging place in our souls. And you know if when sin breaks out, we'll say publicly something has gone on before.
That has been unjudged for perhaps.
Months or even years. And if we judge the thoughts which our brethren don't see, we won't have to judge the actions that they do see. And perhaps it will lead to something more serious. So I just dropped that remark because it has been a help to me. We're, we're, we all have this conflict, I'm sure. But isn't it wonderful to be able to turn to the word of God?
Occupied with those things which well, as Philippians 4 brings before us, maybe we should just look at those verses Philippians 4.
Eight finally, finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are are just what's over. Things are pure, what's over, things are lovely, whatsoever things are a good report. We all have all of this in the word of God, in the person of Christ.
If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.
There's something even worse here than blaming it on the devil.
Blaming it on God. It's in verse 13. Let no man say when he is tempted. I'm tempted of God, but God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted thee any man. And so we're have to do that too, aren't we sadly just say that this thing.
Upon me because God led me into temptation saying no, that's a very serious thing to do, we must not do it. If there's some thought that comes up, it's called a lost here desire that comes from within and we need to judge it as such. The problem is that we tend to judge others and even God by ourselves. And I think, well, I can change my mind so God can change his.
Brother Don Rule is reminding us of that at the Carrollton meetings, and I thought it was such a good point that he made that.
I tend to think of God as.
In connection with those things that I find in myself and it's very wrong to do that. And so here we find the the double minded man in verse eight. We might be tempted to think that God has different thoughts and maybe he thought one way about our circumstance yesterday, another way today.
Worth it somehow, because I'm capricious. I'm arbitrary in the way I act, that God is doing that with me, but he doesn't do that.
And so the Spirit of God goes right on verse 17, verse 16. We could connect the verse of verse 15.
And don't errors to.
Sin in that way, but it could also be connected with verse 17. Don't air, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights. And what is that Father? Well, He doesn't have any variable in this and there is no shadow of turning. He's marked by those lights. God is light, and so he doesn't think the way I think. As the heaven is high above the earth, so higher his thoughts above my thoughts, and I can't judge him by myself.
And so I need to take responsibility for my own actions. If there's difficulty, yes, God could have allowed that to come in my life. But if there's sin, if there's an evil thought or desire that comes, well, then I need to take responsibility myself. That has come from within, and I need to judge it as such and seek grace from the Lord to go on in a way that's pleasing to him.
Every every good giving.
Might be the thought in verse 17.
So we never receive anything bad in that way or.
Us there's there's nothing that leads to corruption that would come from God his way of giving is perfect so even the very manner of giving every good giving and every perfect gift is from above 1 There's no variableness you know it's been human history to.
01:00:22
Conceive of gods as being in the image, man, that that is idolatry. That's that's the basics of it.
And even as Christians, we think of God as being somewhat like us, and that's quite wrong. Is is so different. And the verse 13 is really very central, I think to this this whole.
Discussion and you emphasizing that very very important and then I'll just read again verse 17 every good giving the very manner of giving the very manner that a gift comes and the very incentives behind it there's nothing of.
A taint when it comes from God, He has no ulterior motive to drive you or whatever.
It's it's love, and so it's always a perfect given.
I think that's really the thought the Lord himself said, If ye being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more your Father which is in heaven?
And sometimes we might give a gift to our child. It might be a good thing, but we might give it in the wrong way, with the wrong spirit and attitude, or maybe even at the wrong time. Maybe we give something to a 5 year old that really shouldn't be given to that child until they're ten years of age. And our Father not only knows how to give good gifts, but he knows when to give them. He knows how to give them. He knows the circumstances under which to give them.
And so it's not just the gift itself, but I believe, as Bruce said, this verse really includes more than that. And Mr. Darby has a footnote in his translation that's very helpful in that, in that regard, that good, the good gift and perfect gift. It's almost the same word in the original because the thought is really not just the gift itself, but how and when it is it is given. And that really, if we understand that, brethren, doesn't that really help us again to accept?
His will in our lives, you know, sometimes we ask for something and it might be the right thing, but it might be the wrong time. There was a brother Dave was bringing before us how God sometimes says no to us when we ask for something, like with Moses and the apostle Paul. But sometimes it's not just no, it's not. It's not yes and it's not no, but it's wait a while. The timing isn't right. Are we willing to accept God's time?
A child is looking forward to a gift that they anticipate and the parent has promised for them. But maybe they got to wait till their birthday. And every day they ask and the father says, now son, daughter, the time isn't right yet the day hasn't come. Well, our God knows exactly as the Father of lights. He knows exactly not only what we need, but he knows when we need it. You know, sometimes we see a little expression and I understand it and I don't want to.
Bash it completely. A little model. Prayer changes things, I understand that, and we see prayer doing marvelous things in the scripture and so on. But I would suggest that more often, prayer doesn't change God's mind on things, it changes me.
It gives me the proper attitude to accept what God's will and God's time. And I think that's why sometimes God withholds something from us, or so it seems, until we come to that spirit of dependence. And while we're asking, he's got it right there, why didn't He give it to us yesterday? He wanted to bring us to the proper spirit and attitude so that when he gave it to us, not only was it his time and the good, the best thing, but we were in the proper spirit and attitude to receive it.
So I appreciate what Bruce said. I believe this 17th verse is more than just what is given. It's how it's given, the timing, and the spirit in which it is given.
Can I just say this too, not to go back, but we want to be careful too because we circus, we can never blame sin or failure in the path of faith on our circumstances or our situation. And brother, sometimes we find, and I want to be careful, but we find even sometimes amongst believers, true Christians, this thought to take us back in our life to some circumstance back here.
01:05:19
Some environmental situation that it has affected some failure or sin or caused some failure or sin in our lives now.
You know, we can overcome. I'm not saying our environment doesn't affect us, but we can overcome with the resources that we have in Christ. Everything, as we've been saying in these meetings is provided for us. And you know, some of the most godly kings in Israel rose out of ungodly families and situations. A king that did evil in the sight of the Lord, a king that grew our a young boy that grew up in appalling.
Circumstances in Israel.
Often was raised up to be one of the most God to some of the God most godly kings in Israel. You have it vice versa too. So again, we cannot blame our failure or our sin on our circumstances because there are always the resources not to be overcome. But we can be overcomers in any situation.
How wonderful that.
We have such a good.
And gracious God.
And.
It tells us here that of his own will, He begat us.
Wonderful to contemplate that God's desire was that you and I should be part of His family, that there might be a relationship with Him.
And he's made it all possible.
And I believe it's through the word of truth. Now in our hands we have the Scriptures. It tells us in first Peter that we're born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, which is the word of God. And of course in John One we understand that we're born.
Out of blood, not of flesh, nor the will of man, but the will of God. And so I believe God, he gives to us a brand new life, a new nature, and he gives us that which nourishes that new life. And it's the word of God as it tells us as we go on here, verse 21. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness, superfluity of naughtiness, receive with meekness.
In grafted word which is able to save your souls, it's I believe that which nourishes.
And so.
There's also reference to be.
Being swift to hear, well, I believe here this afternoon I'm looking into the faces of those.
That are swift to hear. You're sitting here because you want to hear the word of God. You want to hear God speaking.
No doubt you could be doing other things.
Pursuing the world in its interests, but to become a part, to sit in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, to have His word open.
And I believe it's a blessed place to be, to be sitting at the feet of Jesus, to hear His Word.
Well, sometimes we're more swift to speak than we are to listen, but I think if we're going to say the right thing.
We need to be listening first.
And it also speaks about being slow.
To wrath. Well, I do believe there is a place for wrath. Righteous indignation.
But we need to be careful that the old nature doesn't take over.
And we become angry because of the fact that.
We're experiencing adversity and difficulty in our lives. Sometimes, you know, we're called to endurance, but we're not careful. We might become very irritated because of the circumstances. And I think that's the old nature.
So there's a word back in the Old Testament that.
If thou faint in the day of adversity.
01:10:01
Thy strength is small.
Well, we're in a day of adversity at the present time.
But we have no reason to faint.
Because Christ is our strength. If we're relying on our own strength, definitely faith.
But I often think of how Paul, he could say I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Need to keep our focus on him.
Hymn #318.
Oh Lamb of God, still.
I never said I.
Did his own way. Everything said I wanted to be sleeping.
Whenever God transparent the sun.
Yeah.
01:15:20
2 verses in our chapter before we pray.
James One.
It's 22.
But be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves.
Verse 25.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continue it therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Blessed God and our Father, we have so enjoyed the reading this afternoon.
We thank Thee for answering the prayer at the beginning that there would be encouragement for us, and we just thank Thee for Thy Holy Spirit, our God, that would direct our hearts to the truth of Thy word. We thank Thee for what was brought before our hearts of the the goodness of God. We thank Thee, our God, that Thou art the one who purposes blessing for us.
And we are the ones who fail.
And we just would pray for strength for us to be able to go on in this world. Lord, we know these things. Help us to do them. And so we just thank thee for this time together. Thank thee for those who were used of the our God to bring before us these things. And now we just give thee our thanks for the time together. And we pray to bless our fellowship. We pray in thy name, Lord Jesus, Amen.