Address—Marc Debu
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Let's look to the Lord for His help.
Her loving God and Father, we thank you that we have another opportunity to open Thy precious Word.
We thank You for Thy goodness to us, first of all, and the gift of Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And.
We just thank you for what he did.
And we think two of the group of people here together and how it's all because of the Lord Jesus Christ And Lord Jesus we we pray that we would follow more into thy footsteps and help us as we open thy word and there might be something for each of each one of us to apply in our lives. We pray this and thy worthy name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
Now tonight I would like to take up a very practical subject.
And that is some.
Aspects of our life, things that we do, things that we say that would show that there has been a change in our life because we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. And for that I'm going to mainly turn to the book of James. And I think the book of James is a very interesting book, and I'll start by reading the first verse.
And maybe give a little setting because I think it's a book that has often been misunderstood and because of that, probably been misapplied.
But it says in James chapter one and verse one James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad. Greeting.
So that will tell us right away who James was writing to, and it's not.
Christian, Gentiles, a Gentile Christians, it was to the 12 tribes that were scattered. And I understand that this book is the first epistle of the Old Testament that was written. It was written very early in the churches history before any of Paul's epistles were written. And I think that's important to keep that in mind. So he was writing to people that believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The most part, if you read through the book, you'll see that there's many warnings to put against those that professed to be Christians but that were not real. But that's not really going to be our focus tonight. But these were Christians that had very little of the Christian truth that we enjoy. Now we know that God chose the Apostle Paul to bring out, we might say, the highest truth that we have.
You know, he was the one that talks to, tells us about us having our new position as being in Christ. He was the one that God chose to reveal the mystery of the church and a whole.
Number of quite a number of things that we learn from Pauls epistles. And so when you think about it, the Epistle of James is an extremely practical book. There's really no doctrinal development what James wanted to do.
Or encourage these Saints to do was to walk in a way that showed that there was real faith in their lives. And so throughout the book he takes up different circumstances or aspects or acts in a in a persons life that would prove that there's real faith there.
And you know, sad to say today we live in a day where a lot of the truth that Paul.
UMM revealed to us has been given up.
And what I was thinking too is because of that, it's very applicable to the day we live in. But there's an audience here with a lot of people that are quite a bit younger. And a lot of young people here might say, well, I don't understand very much about the doctrines that the older people talk about in reading meetings. And that's OK. But the question might be, if that's the case, if I don't understand all these truths, can I walk in a way that's pleasing to the Lord practically?
And the answer, of course, is yes, you can do that. These Saints didn't know many of those truths either. Maybe some of these truths were kind of starting to be talked about.
But a lot of it seems to have just been brought out through the apostle Paul. And so these Saints didn't have many of these truths either that we enjoy very much today. And yet if they followed what was in this epistle, we'll see that they could lead practical lives that were pleasing to the Lord and that were a testimony to men around them.
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Let's turn to chapter 2 for a verse, and I think this is the verse that might have caused this epistle to be misunderstood, and it's verse 21.
James chapter 2 and verse 21.
Was not Abraham or a father justified by works?
Justified by works.
Now, probably most of you will say, now wait a second, We always talk about justification by faith here. It talks about justified by words. Which one is it? And this is, I think, really the key to understanding this epistle. And so I said, I want it to be very practical, but I do want to take a minute to explain what justification is. And for that, let's turn to Romans.
We have a beautiful verse there. Romans chapter 5.
And verse one.
It says, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So here it's justified by faith. Now go back to chapter 4 and verse 2.
For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the Scriptures? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
So in James we just read that Abraham was justified by works. Here it says that if he were justified by works.
He had were off to glory, but not before God, and the knot before God is the key to understanding this.
Both justification by works and justification by faith are doctrines that we have in the Word of God.
But we need to understand what the difference is to understand the book of James.
Justification by faith, the one we usually speak of and immediately think of when we hear the word justification has to do before God as it said in this verse. And what does it mean? Well, it means that a person who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ because we had that in chapter 5 verse one.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, when a person puts his trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, he has been cleared of all sins.
But not just that, he's now seen in a new position in Christ before God.
And in a condition where he can never be associated with sin anymore. So when God looks at a person who has put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, all his sins are cleared, But not just that, he looks at that person as somebody who has nothing to do with sin anymore. That's how God looks at us. And so that justification is wonderful and something to meditate on. That we were lost sinners can now be seen by a holy God.
That's totally separate from sin or sins being washed away by the blood of Christ and in a new position in Christ and in a new condition that is not connected with sin anymore whatsoever. That's wonderful, isn't it? So what does it mean then to be justified by works?
How could Abraham not be justified by works before God? And now here in James it speaks that he was justified by works.
Who he was justified by works, but not before God, but before men. What it means to be justified by works is that we act in a way, go through life in a way that our works prove before man that there is real faith. And so we'll talk about that a little bit when we later when we get to to chapter 2. But so we have to understand when we pick up the epistle to of James, the book of James.
That it's not talking about being justified before God. Everything has to do with our testimony before man. And by the way we act, we prove if our professional faith is real or not real. Now it is true. And when we mentioned that too, that there might be Christians that are real believers, but that live in such a way that men can't tell that they're believers, but they would not be justified by works. They would not be justified before men. And so that's that's very important that we understand that so.
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Abraham was justified by works, but not before God. Before that happened, he had to be justified by faith.
Before God and it's the same with us. The justification by faith comes first. And as a little aside, this morning after our reading meeting, a brother said to me, and I think it's a very good comment. He said you guys were talking about practical salvation and collective salvation and.
He said. I suspect there's some people here, young people, that don't know what that means, and it runs a little bit parallel to justification.
You know again, we're saved by grace, not by works, lest any man should boast.
And most often when we think of salvation, that's what we think about. We think about the gospel being preached and a person being saved by faith. You know, you think of the Philippian jailer when he cried out, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they could answer believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And thou shalt be saved, and that has to do. That aspect of salvation that we usually think about has to do with our eternal salvation before God, our sins being washed away by the precious blood of Christ.
But that's not the only aspect of salvation that we have, and in fact, most of the times that salvation is mentioned.
In the New Testament, it doesn't speak of that aspect of salvation. There are other aspects and.
So we have eternal salvation and then we have practical or present salvation. And we had a verse like that this morning. We talked about work out your salvation with fear and trembling. We said that it's collective salvation and maybe it helps if.
You think of salvation.
As being delivered from something in the Senate. When we speak about eternal salvation, we are delivered from the punishment of our sins because the Lord Jesus took that upon him. But when we speak of practical salvation, we are delivered from something in our pathway that would hinder us or stumble us. And So what these Philippians Saints needed to be saved or delivered from was the attacks of the enemy to cause a division in their midst.
And so that's a very practical thing. And if they would follow the Lord's example of lowliness, they would be able to do that.
But that really didn't affect their eternal salvation and had nothing to do with the penalty of their sins. And I'll read another verse that is in that aspect.
First Timothy, chapter 4.
First Timothy, chapter 4.
And verse 16, So Paul here is talking to Timothy, and he had left them at Ephesus because there were some problems there. Some people were starting to bring in bad teaching. And this is what he says to Timothy. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine or the teachings. Continue in them. For in doing this thou shalt save thyself and them not hear thee. Now obviously they couldn't talk about eternal salvation. Timothy had been saved many, many years before that.
He had spent many years laboring with the apostle Paul. But he says if you continue in the teachings, in the truth, you'll be saved or delivered from these bad doctrines that are being brought in, and those that listen to you will be saved too. And so again, that's a practical thing.
In Ephesians 6, we read about the helmet of salvation. That's a practical thing that's to keep our mind or thoughts from those wicked things that the enemy tries to insert and so will be delivered from that. And so you think about it, young people, you know, we all have a social circle. If you choose your social circle wisely and you choose your friends, the people you, let's call it, hang out with, if they are those.
That have a desire of the Lord to follow the Lord and to please them in their lives. That will be a great practical salvation. It will set you free or deliver you from all kinds of things that you don't want to deal with. If, on the other hand, you choose your friends to be those that have no desire to follow the Lord, you're setting yourself up for a lot of trouble. You're going to hear things you don't want to hear. You're going to be invited to activities where you shouldn't go. You're going to be invited to places where you shouldn't go.
But by making that wise choice and choosing the right companions, you, that's a salvation, That's a deliverance from temptation. And so it's good to keep those things apart. There is eternal salvation, and again, that comes first, but then there's a practical salvation too, and there's actually a third one, and that's a future salvation. And that is when the Lord will come and we'll have glorified bodies. We'll be delivered from these bodies of humiliation because now we're hindered by these bodies.
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There's still an old nature there. They're decaying, we're getting older and so on. And that will be what completes really our salvation when the Lord comes and takes us up. And so just as an encouragement, as you read the word of God and you come to save or salvation, always try to look at the context. Is it Speaking of eternal salvation, salvation from the penalty of our sins? Or is it more to do with something practical? Because if you think that everything has to do with our eternal salvation.
Then you will be stumbled, the verse we had this morning to workout your salvation with fear and trembling. How does that fit? By being saved by grace. It doesn't, but it doesn't mean the same thing. And so it's good to see things in their context. Let's go back now to the book of James.
And.
Like I said, James goes over different circumstances in a person's life.
And shows that there's a way now that we are supposed to react or act that shows that there's real faith within us. And the first one we have in the first few verses, we'll start reading verse two of chapter one. My brethren counted all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have a perfect work that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that give it to all men liberally and abraded not, and it shall be given him, but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. And so here's the first thing, and that is trials that come upon us in our lives.
And I can say this one thing, the several things that we'll go over tonight, every single person in this room will have to deal with them. And a lot of times a lot of the things that we go over to will go over are things you have to deal with on a daily basis. So it's extremely practical and it's extremely applicable to all of us. And it doesn't start at a certain age. It is applicable to the youngest ones here. And so this is quite the way to start a letter to somebody counted all joy.
When you fall into diverse temptations or trials.
It speaks of things that come upon us from without its trials from it out, things that the Lord allows in our lives. How are we going to react? And is our reaction going to show to this world that we're not the same as men in this world? And that's a huge thing because all of us in our life will go through trials. They don't, they don't all have to be huge trials.
But we go through trials, How are we going to react? And so James tells them here how they should act and react to them. And the first thing that he says is to count it joy. And that seems a pretty hard one to take. And James is not telling you that if you get in a car accident to get really happy and excited about that. We know that. But what is he saying? He's talking to those among these, you know, 12 tribes that were scattered to real believers.
And what we need to know is that we have a God who is in full control of whatever happens. And on top of that, it's a God who's a loving father, and he deals with us always for our own good.
And if God is in full control, then any and every trial that comes upon us from without is allowed of God. And if we keep that in mind, then we can find joy in those trials because we know that they are allowed for a purpose. God never does something without a purpose. And so whatever trial it is that comes in our lives, we can realize right away God is doing a work in me.
And that's a good thing, because what God wants to do is form us as we go through this path down here on earth, more and more to the image of His Son. That's why we are here. God is working within us. And it's true, He's sometimes working through us. But God is working within us because He wants us to be more like His Son, wants us to be fit for that position that we now have. And it says that knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have a perfect work, that ye may be perfect.
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An entire wanting nothing. And So what God has in view is perfection. But we know that perfection in Scripture means maturity. And so these trials, if we take them from the Lord, will help us to become more mature Christians. And we've all felt that in our lives. I think things have come upon us and we didn't know exactly.
Why and so on. And yet we learned lessons from it, lessons that may be to others that we're looking on. So more of the characters of Christ being formed in US. And it speaks of patience. And I think that's very interesting. You know, the first tendency when when there's a trial.
Is to pray to God that the trial might be over and sometimes trials are short, but we all know people that have gone through many and long.
Trials.
And we've seen the results of those trials when taken from God. There's there's something there.
That would not have been there if it weren't for that trial. And so we'd encourage each one of us, and especially myself, when we get into a difficult time, a trial in our life.
Realize that God has allowed it and it's for our own good, and it might not be very pleasant at that time, but if we go through it with Him, there will be fruit for Him, and that's what he says. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth.
To all men liberally and abraded not and it shall be given him. You know, I like to think of that, that, you know, most times when something happens to us, we don't know right away why.
That God wants us.
To not be anxious or desperate about it. It doesn't. I don't think this verse means that we pray and He's going to tell us exactly what He had in mind with that. It's something that we have to learn as we go through the process. Oftentimes at the start of a trial, you have no idea why this happened or why this happened now. But as we go through things and often even years after the trial may be over and you look back and you say that's why God allowed us in my life. He knew that.
Ten years down the road this situation would come up, and if it hadn't been for having gone through that trial, I would not have known how to deal with that or I would have reacted in a totally wrong way. But that trial helped me and so it's a good thing. And so that's why he can say, count it all joy. Let's go to verse 12 now. And it says, there, blessed is the man that endures temptation, for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord had promised to them.
That love him. What this verse tells us is that there is reward in trial. There is a crown of life and the future, but it also says blessed or happy is the man that endured temptation while we go through the trial. There is reward already today. There is reward already today. Now this supposes that we go to the trial and the way God intended us to go through it. We submit to it as coming from his hand.
And we learn from it that way because oftentimes a trial comes upon us and we rebel against it. We're mad at God, Why me, why this, why that? Or we get overwhelmed and we kind of get depressed because of it. Well, neither of those is really a good way to deal with it, but to realize that it comes from God. And then there will be reward. There will be growth. The next few verses.
Talk about little something else, and there it speaks of temptations from within. And that is because we still have a sinful nature within us, and if we allow it to act.
There will be consequences to these are not trials or temptations that come from God. God does not tempt with evil. He allows circumstances from without, but He does not tempt with evil. And I'll just read the end here because we need to move on.
It speaks of.
It's from our own lust, and it says in verse 15 when lust had conceived it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
So trials from without can bring blessing. Allowing the sin nature to act within us brings death.
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And the death that it speaks of is moral separation and our communion with God.
If we don't judge the sin nature within us, there will be a break in our communion with the Lord, and if we let it grow, it will affect all aspects of our life and we'll be at a great distance from God. So that's the first one trials. The second one, let's start reading in verse 21.
And again, I would say that if we react to trial submit to them.
It will be a proof of the reality of our faith because it's not normal for a man who's not safe to have a trial come upon him and rejoice in it. You know, we've seen people, we saw somebody here Tuesday, and he's not the only one tremendous trial. It's not normal to the world the way he reacts to it. And so it's a proof of our faith. And again, that's what justification by works is. It's the proof of the reality of our faith before man.
God doesn't need proof. The moment we are saved, everything is settled on that account towards God.
But it's nice to be able to display or to give proof of the reality of the faith within us. Verse 21.
I'll start in the middle and receive with meekness being grafted work which is able to save your souls. Now here will be salvation in the sense of eternal salvation that we spoke of. The Word of God reveals God's plan of salvation and if we receive it, there's salvation there. But be doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves. For if any man, be a hearer of the Word and not a doer.
He is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass, for he beholded himself and goeth his way and straightway forget it what manner of man he was. So here's another thing that we can prove the reality of our faith, and that is how we react to the Word of God. You know, anybody can pick up the Word of God and read it, but that doesn't prove that that person has real faith. What proves that we have real faith is that we submit to it and allow it to change us.
And tell you a little story, I think it was about 1214 years ago. Brother Stan Frazee was in Kirkland and he had the Sunday school and he asked for two volunteers to come up and two boys, I'm guessing about 12.
Somewhere around that stood up and I don't remember what he had. It might have been some chalk or a piece of charcoal and he made a big mark on the cheek of of the two boys.
And he said, run to the bathroom and look in the mirror. And they both did. And that's what the glass here is. It's a mirror.
And pretty soon one came running back and he was all smiling at a big charcoal mark on his cheek. And a little bit later the second one came back and he had washed it off.
And Brother Stan said that that's exactly what I was hoping what would happen. Because here we see the difference. Many people might read the word of God. It's like looking in the mirror and tells you, tells us a lot about ourselves, doesn't it, in the Word of God. But the first boy didn't affect him. They didn't do anything. He saw that there was a mark on his cheek that he didn't wash it and so on. And nothing had changed.
But a person with a real faith and desire to please the Lord would be like the second boy.
He washed it off. It had changed him. And so how do we read the word of God? Do we allow it to change us? Do we allow it to touch our conscience and say, yes, that's me. You know, it says let him that soul steal no more. Well, two of us here has not stolen something and might have been even stealing time at work by not doing the work you're supposed to do. When you read that, what are you going to do? Or you just continue doing that?
Are going to change and that's what the word of God should do to us. We read it. And if there's real faith there, there should be a desire to please the Lord and submit to his word and it should change us. It should change us as we go through through time. And so then the next verse, I think is really beautiful. It says, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work.
This man shall be blessed in his deed, and again blessed. She shall be happy.
It's kind of interesting to have law and liberty put together, the perfect law of liberty and Speaking of the word of God. Now, if you go back to the Old Testament, the Israelites had the law too. And I don't think any of them would have said this is a law of liberty. It was *******. They had to keep the commandments day after day. And if they failed, and they did, they had to bring a sacrifice over and over. It was *******. Uncle Steve here says curfew at 11, that means lights out.
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To a lot of people, that's not liberty, is it? That's *******. But when it speaks of the word of God, it speaks of the law of liberty. How can that be?
It's because we have a nature that wants to do what's in the Word of God.
We have a new nature if there's real faith, if we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, that's all it wants to do.
It wants to please God and so it's liberty to that nature. You know, if after meeting I would say to the kids here I have a bowl of candy, you have to eat it.
Great, I might have a bowl of Brussels sprouts and say you have to eat and that would be a little harder. And so we have a nature that when it tells us these things to do to to remember the Lord or whatever it is, that nature grabs onto that and says, that's, that's what I wanted to do anyhow. But of course, if we allow the old nature to have the rule in our lives, then it becomes ******* too. So by the way, we react to the word of God submitting it, let it affect us. Let it.
Growers form us into the image of Christ again, it's a proof of the reality of the faith that we have. In verse 27 we have two more. It says pure religion and undefiled before God and the father is this to visit the visit the fatherless and widows and their affliction and to keep himself and spot it from the world. So here we have kindness and it's to people that you usually wouldn't be kind to. You know, that's kind of interesting too. You know, the world knows a lot about being kind to your family and so on or your best friends.
It's a little bit different if it's the fatherless and the widows, that's a little harder. But again, it's a proof of real faith. And then it speaks of keeping ourselves separate from the world. And we'll probably talk about the world a little bit later too. But the definition for the world, the way it's used here, it's that system that man has set up in rebellion against God, and we need to stay separate from that. Have nothing to do with that.
All right, Chapter 2.
Sread umm.
I'll just have to read from the beginning. My brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord of glory with respect of persons, for they have come unto you your assembly, a man with a gold ring in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man and vile raiment, and ye have respect to him that weareth the gate clothing, and send to him. Sit down here in a good place, and say to the poor, Stand out therefore, or sit here under my footstool. Are you not them partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he had promised to them that love him?
OK, I'll stop there. So what this is Speaking of is that we should not be respecters of persons. That's another thing that's so natural to us. We judge people on outward appearance in all kinds of different ways. And that's not how the Lord walked in this life. You know, he, he, most of his time he spent with the people that were kind of the outcasts of society and so.
It's kind of a subtle thing. Oftentimes you don't realize it that we do it, but we prefer people that maybe be a little bit more like ourselves or whatever it is. You know, if I've read over, I read a little while ago of a study that was done a while ago and it had to do with people being hired and they said when a company has the opportunity to hire people in their interviewing and there's several people that have the same qualification.
Invariably, they're going to choose the best looking person if the qualifications are the same. Well, that's exactly what this is Speaking of. You know, it's a respecter of person and it's because of outward appearance. And we all do that. And when I was in college, I took one sales class. I had to take one sales class. And the professor that taught the class.
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Was teaching full time at a big university in a in a big city and he was teaching students that.
We're going for a degree in sales and marketing, something like that. And he said at the end of their three or four years in school, they all had to do an internship that had to do with sales.
And I had this one student that did this internship at a car dealership, a showroom, and I believe it was Audi.
And as the students were doing that, the teacher would go in and check up on them and talk to their employer and see how they were doing. Now, this professor had a friend who was at that time going to buy a car, and he was looking to buy an Audi car. And a professor asked his friend, can you do me a favor? And he said, sure. He says, I have a student there.
And I want to see if he's applying the lessons that I've taught him. I said sure, what do you want me to do? He says. I want you to go in, but I want you to dress way down. Don't comb your hair.
Wear whatever, no tracks it or so on, and say you're interested in the car. And so he did that and the student was there, and as soon as he saw this man coming in, he kind of politely shoved them out of the door, kind of telling him this was not the place he should be at.
And then the professor told his friend, you know, go into more normally dressed and buy the car. And he did.
The student failed the class. He had to retake the class because one of the things that the teacher had taught them that you can't go by outward appearance. We all know that there's people.
You know that have plenty of money and they don't care about outward appearance. You would never know. And then there's a lot of people out there that it all looks great outwardly, but they're drowning in debt to keep up that lifestyle or that appearance. And so it's just a little example, but it's something that we all should spend some time thinking about because.
I think we're all guilty of this. We're all guilty of this. The moment you see a person for the first time, you form judgment, either good or bad, and that's being a respecter of persons. And we should not be like that. The world is completely like that. And so if the world would see us.
Treat every person the same way. That would be approved, that we're different. The Lord Jesus did that. He, he, some poor person would come and grab onto the hem of his garment.
He didn't tell him off. That's not how he was. He went way out of his way to talk to a very immoral person Who would have done that? The Lord Jesus did because he had a care for souls. And if we judge people on outward appearance, we're almost already setting up a hindrance from ever being a testimony to that person. And so that's another thing to be careful about.
Let's.
Go a little bit further down in the chapter here.
I'm going to have to shorten this a little bit if I want to get through it.
Let's read verse 18 and here it speaks of good works. Good works.
If a man say, thou hast faith, and I have worked, show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.
Now believe us that there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble.
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? And then we have that verse. Was not Abraham or father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? And so here's another thing that will prove the reality of our faith, and that is if we're characterized by good works, again, it's not works to get saved. It doesn't go that way because the the Bible clearly tells us that all our righteousness is our good works. The way man thinks about it, earth, filthy rags.
Man in his fallen state cannot produce good works before God. It's impossible. So what does it speak about here when it says?
In verse 18, I will show thee my faith by my works. The works that it speaks of here are works as a result of a person already having faith, and then it says that faith without works is dead. That's a pretty solemn statement.
If we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in no way.
I'm intending that anybody should.
And doubt their faith or anything like that. If we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we are saved and that's, that's it, that's final. But isn't it? Wouldn't it be sad if we go through life and we have that faith? We think of all that the Lord Jesus had done for us and there's just no response in her life in doing things that please him. Because once we belong to him and our motives change and we do good works to please him, then it really those things become good works before God.
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You know, people that are not saved do things that we might say are good, and they are in themselves. There's nothing wrong with them, people helping each other, but they're not good works before God because they're still in a sinful position. They're still on their way to a lost eternity. But when we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ and we want to walk in a way that please them and do things that please him, God looks down and he's happy with that. Those are good works.
Before God and they prove what God has done within us. And so it's it's and then we have these these two examples and they're tremendous examples speaks of Abraham and think of could have been a greater thing that a person did that proved the reality of his faith in God. Now Abraham was about 75 years old when God promised that he would have a son and he had to wait till he was about 125 years before Isaac was born.
And finally, here's Isaac and he's been there for a number of years. Maybe he was, I don't know. Some people have said thought that he might have been a kind of a teenager when this happened. And God says, go and OfferUp your son Isaac. If there wasn't tremendous fate, there is no way that Isaac would have gotten up early the next morning. And when where God had pointed him to go, man would look at it and says, Abraham, what are you doing? You've been waiting for this son for I'm sure he was waiting for a son even before God promised it.
The son we've been waiting for decades.
And now you finally have him, you're gonna offer him up.
It's a proof of his faith in God. And then a little bit further, it speaks of Rahab, and we know the story. And what did she do? She committed an act that if she was found out, she would have been put to death. She was a traitor to her country.
Why did she do it? Because she hath faith in the God of the people of Israel.
And her faith was so great that she was willing to take a huge risk. And so those are good works, works that prove the reality of our faith. All right, let's go to chapter 3 and read from verse.
Two, for many things we offend all. If any man offend not in Word the same as a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
Behold, we put the bits bits in the horses mouth, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, with orsoever the governor listed.
Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasted great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindle Earth.
Now, this is a very obvious one, an extremely important one. The things that we say, you know, the tongue in itself, there's nothing wrong with it. The tongue is no worse than the hand or the foot or the knee. But why does it speak in this way of the tongue? It's because what comes of our out of our mouth reveals what's in our hearts, reveals what we've been thinking about.
And so this is important because it says, behold, how great a matter or how great I think it could be translated to a wood or a forest, a little fire kindling. You know, we've all heard stories of somebody being careless and not completely extinguishing a bonfire or something like that. And a gust of wind takes up an ember and before, you know, it's on the news and thousands of acres are ablaze and people lose their homes and people lose their lives.
Our words are extremely important. It has been said that because of some careless words spoken by people in authority, wars have been declared between countries and thousands of people have died. It started with a few careless words, and none of us are in a position of authority that our words are going to do that. But you know what? Our words can do something more. They can cause strife and division among the Lord's people.
That's solemn to think about, and it's not just us adults.
00:45:03
There's cases where kids have said careless words and it's caused division between families that we're happily going on together in a meeting and so we need to be very, very careful.
You know, to a certain degree we have some control and we have some restraint, but if we're thinking bad thoughts about people, at some point something's going to slip out. So be careful with that. It's not the tongue itself, but the tongue is the mouthpiece of what's within us, what we think about.
But we're occupied with and so there's, you know, it goes on. I'm running out of time, but it speaks quite a bit about the tongue and it speaks about does a fountain bring forth bitter and Sweetwater? How is that possible? How can we praise the Lord on Lords Day morning and the next day we speak mean words about somebody that doesn't make any sense. You know, an apple tree doesn't bring forth oranges, which nature is at work again. If we live in that new life that we have is going to be Sweetwater that it's bringing forth.
If we're occupied with the things of the Lord.
We're not all of a sudden say something mean about it about somebody else. That's not how it works. And so let's be careful, you know, in chapter 5 there's.
Speaks there of, of being treated unfairly. And I'm not going to go through it, but if you read the first half of chapter 5, it speaks of rich people that were treating their employees in an unjust way. And what the Lord says there or what James says is take it patiently. Know that the Lord in a future day, everything will be set right.
And so all of us here have been treated unfairly, and our first reaction is to stand upon our rights and say, hey, this was not right. That's not fair. How many times have we said that or heard that?
That's not how the Lord wants us to act. Take things patiently. Know that the Lord doesn't forget anything, and when He comes, He will set everything right. And I was thinking, I think it was yesterday in a reading meeting, we were going through Philippians 2. And the second thing there that it says of the Lord that he made himself of no reputation, but we said it could be better translated. He emptied himself. He laid aside willingly. He chose to lay aside his divine rights. Was he treated fairly?
Think about that. Was the Lord treated fairly in this life? No, not at all. What did He do? He took it patiently from the Father and He just kept on going. That's what the Lord wants for us. So I skip chapter 4 and I'm going to talk about that for the remaining few minutes.
So what we've had before us and it's not complete, there's other things that could be brought out, but what we had before us is would be if we are characterized by these things, be it reacting to trials, the things that we do, the things that we say.
The way we treat each other, if we do those things, the way that it's explained and laid out before us here.
That would be a practical life, pleasing to God and a tremendous testimony to men. But we need to realize that there's enemies that would like to prevent us from.
From living our lives in that way, and I think we have those in chapter 4 here in the first few verses. Let's turn chapter 4, verse one.
From wenscombe wars and fightings among you com they not hence even of your lusts.
That war in your members ye lust, and you have not. You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war yet you have not because he asked, not he asked and received not because he asked amiss that he may consume it upon your lust or upon your pleasures.
What is that speaking about?
It's speaking about the flesh that's within us, and that's the first of the enemies that stands against us to live a life that's pleasing to God.
And we might ask the question, what is the flesh? It's one of those things we hear often in meeting What's that fallen nature that's within us and that will remain there until the Lord comes to take us home. And here's one thing that we need to know about the flesh.
It's completely corrupt and it cannot be improved. So when we get saved.
That flesh does not get one bit better and if we allow it to act, this is will be the result. These first three verses, it's not a pretty picture, is it? Now it's been said that the flesh or the fallen nature was so bad that even God could not improve it. But the new nature that we have is so good that even God cannot give us something better. So that's something to realize.
00:50:16
We have that old fallen nature.
In US and it's not gotten any better since we've gotten saved.
We need to look at it and keep it in the place that God sees it.
In God's eyes, to a person that is believed, that is put out of sight at the cross, that old nature was put out of sight. That's not who we are anymore before God. And so it talks to us in Romans about keeping it in a place of death.
But here we see that if we don't act on that, what happens? There's all kinds of trouble. And if these things come up in our lives, we're not proving to this world the reality of our faith. It's a hindrance in our practical.
Verse Four. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be the friend of the world, is the enemy of God.
So here's the second one. We've had the flesh, now we have the world.
The third one will be the enemy, the devil, and these three work together. They work together. Where will we turn to? If we allow the flesh to act? It will be to the world, because the world is set up as a system to satisfy our flesh or fallen nature. And so whatever man wants to do, the world has made.
An activity, a place, whatever you call it, to satisfy that lust of the flesh.
And it's no different for a believer, because our flesh, our fallen natures, is still exactly the same. And aren't these solemn, strong words that James uses here adulterers, Adulteresses. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. And I think every, every true believer would be horrified at the thought of being unfaithful to their spouse. And yet very few think of how bad it is to be unfaithful to God.
And that's what it's Speaking of. If we turn to the world, if we go on with this system that will set up an enmity against God, that's exactly what we're doing.
We're being unfaithful to the one who gave everything for us. And so let's keep that in mind too. There's a whole system out there and it's extremely accessible. It's been set up so it's very easy to, you know, if you want to call it, enjoy it or whatever it is, it's right there.
But if we go to those things that the world has set up and enmity against God, we're unfaithful to the one who went to the cross for us.
Verse 7.
The second-half of the verse, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. That's the third enemy. It's the devil. It's the source of all evil. He was the one that was in the Garden of Eden and deceived man so that he fell and sin came into the world.
But I like what it says here. It doesn't say that we need to flee from the devil. It says that he will flee from us. How is that possible? Well, we need verse eight. Don't we draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you If we live a life in communion with the Lord and you know, you think of it as God being right beside you, the devil is not going to come close to that. You know, maybe some of you younger ones in school have thought it would be really nice to have a big strong friend that is a few years old or so. If the bully shows up, he's not going to pick on you.
Because maybe you have a Big Brother that's a few years old and he's a lot bigger than the bully. I know that's a poor analogy, but if we live close to the Lord.
The enemy can't come close. Now think of, I was just recently thinking of that in John 13, you know, it's the betrayal of Judas. And the Lord says that who dipeth the SOP with me? And he gave it to Judas. He's the one that's going to betray me. You know, giving Judas that thought was the last appealing grace to Judah. But he was so far gone, you know, it was hopeless. But what does it say? As soon as he took the soap, Satan entered into him.
And you think of that, that means that forever little time there was Satan and the Lord were in the same room. But what's the next thing it says? Judas went out right away. Satan could not be in the presence of God. If we live in communion with the Lord, close to the Lord. Satan has very little that he can do to us if we draw nigh to God, and the Satan will flee from us. And what does it say of Peter that same night?
00:55:13
Said he followed afar off and what happened? He fell. He fell because he was far off. He put himself in danger by not being close to the Lord. And sometimes we do that too. But we have a God who loves to restore. And you see him, I don't know would be what, 5053 days later, he's standing up in Acts 2 and he's preaching with power. In 3000, guests saved. He was in communion with the Lord just before that. He was in that room where the Holy Spirit will spore out.
If we are close to the Lord, the devil will flee for us, and we'll be able to live a life practically before men. That proves the reality of our faith. And it's important. Of course, we need to be justified before God, because otherwise none of this would matter what we said in this last hour. But it's important to us, to God, and to the world that we live a life that is practically pleasing to God. Let's thank him.
Our God and Father, we.
Thank you for these few thoughts and we all have to admit that these are things that we often fail in. And yet, Lord Jesus, we think too of how these are all things that are not hard to understand.
Help us, Lord Jesus.
To follow closer, when we look at night life, we see all these things brought out in perfection.
And we desire the same for us, Lord.
Help us with these things. Help us to think about these things, help us to apply them in our lives. Lord, we think of the many young ones here and we think of how we as older ones know that if if we follow the Lord Jesus closely, it will save us from so much sorrow in our lives. And it will be such a testimony to those around us, not just the world, but it will be encouragement to our fellow believers. So we pray for help for this Lord Jesus. And we thank you too, that many of these characteristics.
That we talked about, we've seen displayed in this past week here at Ken. Just pray, Lord, that it might be more and more, that we might be more and more like Thee, Lord Jesus, for the time that has left us here on this earth. Just thank you for thy love to us, for thy great goodness and thy worthy name. We pray, Lord Jesus, Amen.