Our Father, we call upon You in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We come to You today to worship
in thanks and in Your praises, to honor You in all that we do and say. Send
Your Holy Spirit to enable us to do these things. Send Your
Spirit to enable me to rightly abide in Your Word. Set forth
the Lord God to be my son. Send Your Holy Spirit to the
hearers to enable them to hear the Word and Pray that you might
plant it in our hearts, all of us. Bless us today for your glory,
our good, our salvation, our eternal welfare and our temporal
well-being. Bless our children downstairs
to hear your word, teachers to say, to attempt to teach them.
Bless all your people everywhere today. Give glory to yourself.
Forgive us of our sins, in Christ's name, amen. Turn with me to the
book of James, chapter one. I know what the bulletin says
we were going to study, but I could not sleep much last night. of
God. James chapter 1, verses 1 through
3. James 1, verse 1, 1 through 3.
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are
scattered abroad, greeting you. My brethren," he's writing to
the professing believers, "'Count it all joy when you fall into
different temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your
faith worketh patience.'" Now, that is what this book is all
about, Book of James. It's all about testing or trying
your faith, proving whether it is real or not. That's what the
try does, proves something. The Book of Romans tells us what
saving faith is. The Book of James tells us what
saving faith does. Okay? You know the difference. Faith involves two things principally. Well, this is everything. Faith involves the heart and
the life. The heart and the life. Whatever is truly in the heart
will be manifested in the life. The heart, scripture says, out
of the heart are the issues of life, what a man is, truth. The heart is where the affection
is. The heart is just a word meaning
the inner man, the affection, the desires. The heart is the
seat of desires. Boy, I want you to stay with
me this morning. The heart is where all your convictions
are, the real convictions. So just right here, I'll pass
it away quickly, but right here is faith. Heart faith. Scripture says, with the heart
man believes. That's really the only kind of
faith there is. Heart, faith, really believe
God. I mean really believe God, trust
God, His Word. We say believe God, we mean His
Word. Heart, faith, really trust Christ. I mean really trust Christ and
Him alone. Heart, faith, loves God. I mean loves God. Heart's faith loves Christ. Heart's
faith loves the gospel. How many people love the gospel?
Heart's faith loves God's people. This is real. Heart's faith. Heart's faith really loves, really
cares. Heart's faith desires hungers
and thirsts. to win Christ and be found in
Him. Heart, faith hungers and thirsts
to know Christ, to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.
Heart, faith longs to be just like Jesus Christ. Heart, faith. Alright, I said it's the
heart and the life. Whatever is in the heart, whatever is
in the inner man will come out in his walk, in his talk, in
his life. Someone who truly believes something
will act on it, right? Someone who truly believes someone
will confess them and do what they say. That's what this book is all
about, the book of James. And this doing, look at verses
22 through 25 of James 1. This doing is what this book
is about. Look at it, 22 through 25. Be ye doers of his word,
and not hearers only. He's seen me here on this day. Man is an absolute fool to see
himself as a woman. If any be a hearer of the word
and not a doer. He's like unto a man beholding
his natural face in a glass, looking at himself in a glass.
That's what this book does. It shows us a fact. Remember
the illustration. Mark. Ask the Lord to show you
yourself. And he does it through his word.
All right? He's like a man or a woman beholding
themselves in a glass, a mirror, and he beholds himself. That
is, a person is a hearer and not a doer. He sees himself and
goes his way and forgets what manner of man he was. Just forgets. But whoso looketh, look at verse
25, whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth
therein, that is, he walks therein, he being not a forgetful hearer
but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed
or his doing. God will bless his doings. Now, I'm going to say this one
time, and I'm not going to say it again. I'm not going to keep repeating
myself. This is something everyone—there's
not a new person in here this morning. Everyone has heard this
countless times. We're not saved by our work.
This is not talking about salvation. We don't work our way to that.
Christ did that for his people. We're not accepted by God by
our work. That's not what we're talking
about. But the scripture says, that by grace you say through
faith, and that out of yourself, not of works, lest any man should
boast. But we are his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. This is the whole point in salvation,
as Barney would say, to reproduce the character of Jesus Christ
in the human being. That's what it's all about. That's what salvation's all about,
not to scapegoat, not to give us a free ticket so we can use
them all in our merry way. No, sir. Okay. A man be blessed in his
doing. We're talking about blessings
here. All right, let's go to Matthew
chapter 7, will you? Matthew chapter 7. This is, right
now, this is the most important message we could hear. I say
we. Please believe me when I say
that my aim is at you. I preach it to you and myself. Whatever I say to you, I mean
it. Okay? Whatever you're guilty
of, I'm guilty of too. I'm a man of life passion. OK? And there's not one person in
here that I had in mind to carry this message. But I did have
in my mind every person in here. Including myself. OK? You just
got to believe in yourself. Even if you don't, may the Lord
give you something. Matthew 7, the Lord says in verse
24 through 27, Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth
the things, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built
his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and
it fell not. It was founded upon a rock. But now, every one that heareth
these things of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto
a foolish man or woman, which built his or her house upon the
sand. And the rain descended, and floods
came, and winds blew, and beat upon the house, and it fell.
And it was a terrible fall, a disaster." Right? It's us. If you want to
look at 1 Thessalonians 5, it talks about spirit, soul, and
body, the whole man. That's us. Built his house on
the rock. Crikey. Unmovable. Incarnate. Unseen, but incarnate. The one who builds their house,
their life, on sand. What is sand? The sands of time
are sinking. Name something, it's sand. Sand slips through your fingers,
no matter how tightly you hold on to it, it slips through your
fingers, right? Sand. Sand of possessions, relationships,
no matter what it is, it's sand, and it's worth sand. And it will
be known how or who is built on what. It will be known how. Rain, floods,
wind. Rain are clear trials sent by
God from above. You know where it rains from,
from above. Floods are things that accumulate and come up and
just drown you on the earth. When, you don't know where that's
going to come from. You don't know. It just happens.
So these things will reveal. Go back to the book of James,
chapter 1. So that's what this book is all
about. Do you want to know if you've had true faith? All right, it says in
verse 2, my brethren, count it joy when you fall into different
temptations. Joy. Joy. Yeah, because true faith
must be tried. It must be, it will be tried,
true faith. If we don't, if it's, God's not
trying to goad us. He's not trying to goad us. He gave them over. Let them have
exactly what they want. But he tried. So we count to
four. No matter how small the faith,
it will be tried. No matter how young the faith,
it will be tried. According to the wisdom of the
Father, He won't place too much on whomever, according to the
Greek faith. Just like you just want to nurture
or teach your children. You don't give them too much
when they're toddlers. You don't expect too much. The
older they grow, the more you do. Patience, he said, verse
3, the trial of your faith worketh patiently. Patience means to
wait on God. That's what all of us are going
to have to do the rest of our lives. This is what this life
is all about. We're waiting. We're waiting. Waiting on the redemption of
our lives. Waiting to see what God is going
to do. Waiting on the Lord. Patience. He's waiting. Patience means
submission. Patience means submitting to whatever happens. Like a dog. We use dogs all the
time. Good illustration. A dog, the
first thing you tell it to do is sit. Sit. It's hard to get a dog to sit
still. When he's young, the older he
is, the more he'll learn that and like it. You tell a dog to
stay, stay. That's the sort of thing for
a dog to do, isn't it? But you don't ever tell it to
stay too long, do you? We don't abuse it. It's what's
visible. It's the same with us. The Lord
says, wait. I'll show you. Wait on the Lord. Wait, I say,
on the Lord. Sit. Don't do anything. Stay. Wait. Nevertheless, sit and wait. It's hard to do, it's hard to
do. Patience is hard to come by, you know, it takes a while.
Verse four, but let patience have her perfect work, her perfecting
work. That means maturing work. That
means, what this is all about is making us like Jesus Christ.
That's what he calls there the inspired, that's all this is
about, that we might be made into the stature of the fullness
of Christ. You want to be like Jesus Christ,
don't you? Every true believer does. In
every way, don't you? It's going to take patience.
It's going to take patience. It's going to take trials. You
want to be a disciple of Christ. You want to be a real man, don't
you? You men who profess to be believers, you want to be just
like Jesus Christ, don't you? I mean a real man. Not like men
think of men, but how Christ says a man ought to be. You want
to be that way. Act like a man. Love like a man. Give like a man. Be like the
man. Jesus Christ. You do, don't you? You do, don't you? I want to
see every man nod his head this morning or else we're a double-minded
man. You ladies want to be a real
woman, don't you? The way the Scriptures tell us we're willing
to be. And if you don't, you're a double-minded
person, and you're unstable in all your ways. Look at it. Verse 7 says, Let not that man
think he'll receive anything of the Lord, a double-minded
man is unstable in all his ways. What we need is wisdom, don't
we? What we need is wisdom. He says,
if any of you lack wisdom... Now, knowledge is an accumulation
of facts. Anybody can come up with knowledge.
Any fool can see something and say, that's the way it is. They
must be concerned. Wisdom is putting it into practice. Wisdom, the old saying is, knowledge
is the horse, wisdom is the rider. Wisdom is acting on what you
know. Wisdom is acting. Anybody like wisdom? And it starts with me. How are
we going to get it? How are we going to know how
to act, what to do, where to go, what the answer is? If any of you lack wisdom, here
we go again. Verse 5, let him ask of God. That gives us all. Whosoever
asks, if any man asks, give it to all, liberally. He giveth more grace through
Jesus, liberally, and upbraideth not. That means doesn't chide
you for what you wasted, but you come back and say, I need
more. He gives you. He'll give you. How? Let him ask. How do you ask? Do you remember? Do you remember? You don't ask the myths. You
consume it on yourself, on love. It's just stuff. It's a strictly personal thing. And we do it with importunity. Remember that. It's not just
a one-time thing. I asked. Didn't you not ask? Well, I asked the Lord. He didn't
ask. Now, ask them. See that? Ask them. Continue. Ask. Turn with me to Proverbs,
the book of Proverbs. The whole book of Proverbs is
about wisdom. Proverbs chapter one. Let's just
browse through some of these verses, okay? Proverbs one, this
is the book of wisdom. God used a man named Solomon.
to write this book, who the scripture says was the wisest man that
ever lived. That's what he asked for, and that's what God gave
him. Well, that's what I want. I haven't got a viewpoint.
Look at Proverbs 1, verses 1, the Proverbs of Solomon, the
son of David, king of Israel, said no wisdom. Proverbs, said
no wisdom. The wise man will hear, and increase
learning. The man of understanding will
attain unto wise counsel. Verse 20, go down there, verse
20. Wisdom cries without. She utters
her voice in the streets. She cries in the cheap places,
the openings of the gates, and so forth. And says, verse 20,
how long will you simply walk that is foolish, ignorant? Will
you love simplicity? How long will you go on? You
have it? Chapter 1, verse 22. How long will you love ignorance? Scorners delight in scorn. Fools
take knowledge. Turn you, verse 23, turn you
at my recruitment. Behold, I will pour out my Spirit
on you. I'll make known my worth unto
you. Chapter 2, verse 1, My son, if
thou will proceed my word, and hide my commandments with thee,
so that thou may find thine ear unto wisdom, lie thine hearts
to understand, yea, thou priestess." That's asking, isn't it? Read
on down in verse 6, The Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth. Remember that. Out of the mouth
of the Lord is where it comes from. We're getting it out of
his mouth right now. Verse ten says, When wisdom enters
your heart and knowledge is pleasant unto your soul, discretion will
preserve you. Understanding shall keep you
to the memory. Look at verse, chapter 3, chapter
3, verse 1. My son, forget not my law, but
let thine heart keep my command. Length of day, long my peace
shall I have unto thee. Verse 5. Trust in the Lord with
all thine heart, lean not on the diamonds, only understand
me. Verse 7. Don't be wise in thine
own eyes, hear the Lord, and keep heart from evil. Get away
from it, put it down, get away from it quick. So the Lord says, trust, fear, and depart. Chapter 4, chapter 4 verse 5,
and you hear it, and the Lord enables us to do it. Chapter
4, verse 5, get wisdom now, get understanding, forget it not,
neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not,
that is wisdom. She perhaps shall preserve thee.
Love her, that is, set your heart to desire, your affection on
her, and she'll keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing.
Get wisdom. With all thy giving, get wisdom. Now you know Christ is wisdom. I told you before that you can
say, Word and Christ interchange. Christ's Word is wisdom. We need
Christ in us. What's that? His Word in us. If my Word survives in you, then
be in me. Remember what we said, if you
love somebody and really believe in somebody, will do what they
say and follow them and trust them and so forth. That's what
Christ said. Here am I decided if you do what
I say. All right? Go back to James 1.
Anybody act like wisdom? If anyone in here says they don't,
then they're good. Let him ask. Read on. Verse 5, let him ask. Verse 6,
let him ask in faith. What's that mean? Truly believe
in God, truly believe in his Word. Now, I believe this Word
is true. Do you believe this Word is true? Do you believe
every word of it is true? Do you believe that God cannot
lie? Now, he says something. It's not just a good way. It's
the only way. I mean, it's not advisable. It's
the only thing there is. Let him ask in faith. Would I
believe what you say? Absolutely. I'm not doubting
about this. I'm convinced. Nothing wavering. For he that wavereth like a wave
of the sea driven with the wind and tossed," that means up and
down, in and out, tossed here and there, blown around. Verse 7 and 8, "'Let not that
man think that he shall receive no thing of the Lord. A double-minded
man is unstable in all his ways. Somebody can't say, and I want
the Lord, I do, I want Him with all my heart, but I want this,
I do. No, no, can't do that. No man can serve too much, no
man can love too much. Our Lord said it. Look at chapter
4, verses 7 and 8. He says here, verse 7, they submit
yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, you'll flee
from him. This is God's Word. God can't lie. Draw nigh to God. He'll draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinner.
Purify your hearts, you double minded. In other words, disciples. Disciples. Disciples. That's what he's saying. What do you want? What do you want? What do you
want? He said, draw nines. What does
it mean, draw nines? It means where are you? It means
where do you work? It means where do you speak?
It means where do you speak a lot? Well, so-and-so wanted to be
here, but they couldn't. Yeah, right. Yeah, right. Come on, draw nines, he said. Cleanse your hands. Put that
down. Well, I can't. Go back to chapter
1 again. Chapter 1. Chapter 1, verse 21,
says this, "...lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of
knowledge, and proceed with meekness in granted words, and they will
save themselves." Lay apart. What's that mean? Put that aside.
Be done with that. Quit that. Stop that. Don't you
tell your children that? It seems like when there is a
person, however many years of their life, it seems like that's
all you're telling them. That's such an idiot. Stop that. Put that aside now.
Be done with that. I can't. I can't help it. Well,
now the fact of the matter, the fact is, the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit. Yes, it does. Scripture says,
the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, so you cannot do, you
cannot do the things that you would. Scripture says, things
that I would, I find not, or I don't know how to do. That's
what it says, things I would, you can't do that. But the Scripture says, I can
do all things through Christ, which is true. Now, it's either
so or Christ is alive. Believe that? All right, I can
do it. He can't. He can't. Then how
can I do that? Keep asking. Keep asking. Keep asking. Keep asking. Ask. And, but the king said, well,
are you double-minded, though? Are you? What do we really want
to do? What do we want? And we can't
blame God. Look at James, what he says here
in verse 20, verse 13, chapter 1, verse 13. James says, let
no man say when he's tempted, I'm tempted with God. God cannot
be tempted with evil, neither tempted can he be with man. Every man is tempted when he's
drawn away to his own love, his own desire and type. And here's the end of it all
in Las Vegas. That's right. I can't blame God. That's what
Adam and Eve did. And we do it, men have been doing
it ever since. Eve did exactly what she wanted to do. She had
a free will. She did exactly what she wanted to do. And she did not do what God said.
She did what looked good to her. What she wanted to do. And in
the very next breath, she said, he may certainly do that. And
the man did the same thing. That woman did. Men and women
have been blaming each other from day one and other things. Now, you, I'm in this. I do what I do because that's
what I want to do. Now, it's a fact, if we keep doing that,
God will give us over to it. You see, if we're physiologically,
biologically, physically addicted to a thing, that's the natural
law, that's what happens. But it's an ever-present thing. It's not hopeless for anybody.
As long as there's breath, as long as God is, as long as His
Word's true, as long as we're on the sound of it, Look at chapter
1, verse 17 and 18. Every good verse 16. Do not err
concerning this, beloved. Don't err here. We're playing
with... Go over to Galatians real quickly. Galatians chapter 5. I'm going
to take a few extra minutes. Galatians chapter 5. This is
also found in 1 Corinthians 6 and other places. Galatians 5. He says in verse sixteen, walk
in the Spirit and shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. That means
listening to the conscience of the Spirit throughout the day. So if the flesh lusteth against
the spirit, spirit against the flesh, the contrary one with
the other, so that you cannot do the things you would if you
led the spirit, you're not under the law. But here's the works
of the flesh. Here's the dealings, the leadings of the flesh. Adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, seduction, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, parricide, envy, murders,
trumpeting, and such like, and I told you before he's dead,
I'll tell you again, that they which do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God." It's that serious. Don't err
here, for the love of God. Do not err here. Your soul is
at stake. That's what James said. Don't
err here now. And our Lord said this, if any man teaches anybody
the contrary of this, he'll have a millstone Now, he says, it's on there here,
verse seventeen, but every good gift and every perfect gift is
from above and comes down from the Father of life. What's the
best gift? What's the essential gift? It's what we're talking
about. Wisdom and wisdom. It comes down. Verse 18, "...of
his own will begat he us with the word of truth." There it
is, the greatest gift, the gift that produces faith. The word
of truth. Verse 19, "...wherefore, my beloved
brethren, let every man be swift to hear." That means in a hurry.
This thing can't wait. Everybody else's everything can. Time is short. Redeem the time.
What does that mean? Buy the truth and sell it not. Everything else can wait. Yes,
it can. Put it off. Be in a hurry to
hear. Be in a hurry to hear. Read on.
And be swift to hear and slow to speak. Don't argue too quick. Don't... If you haven't put ten
minutes of thought into what you're hearing, then don't open
your mouth. That's what my parents would
say. Slow to rest. You know, the truth
makes us mad at first. It offends this flesh. That's
what it's designed to do. The truth is designed to defend
this flesh. Those that oppose themselves,
the truth opposes. And so the first thing we do,
you talking to me? Yes! But it's not me, it's God's
Word. You aiming that at me? Yes! Jeanette's very distant, everybody's
distant to you. Don't err here, Jeanette. Your soul is back. Stand over,
buddy. Distant to you. And would you
point the arrow at me to shoot me with? Don't ever hear from
them again. Don't ever. So it says, lay apart
all this. Verse 22, Be doers of the word,
not hearers only, deceiving your own self. Now, God has given
us some helps. A few more minutes. God has given
us some helps. Peter and Paul both built upon
what our Lord said. Here's what Peter said, he said,
He's given unto us precious promises that by these we might be partakers
of the divine nature having escaped from us. Do you want that? I don't want an escape, I don't
want, I don't want to put these things down, I don't want to
quit. Okay, here's what he tells us, he says he's given us precious
promises. What's the way to escape? Whatever
question I ask you now, what's the answer? The Word. The Word. Faith cometh by hearing. Faith is the heart of life. Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word. Faith to live by,
cometh by the Word. Faith to rest by, to give your
soul rest, cometh by the Word. Faith to stand by, not be moved,
comes by the Word. Faith to walk by, pass a straight
path, a narrow way, comes by the Word. Faith to run to Christ
by, comes by the Word. That's the only place it comes.
Here's some help, okay? And it all revolves around the
Word. We've already been saying prayer,
have not for we ask not. Ask, ask. Ask, ask. Every good
and perfect gift comes from above. Every good and perfect gift comes
from above. Every good and perfect gift,
everything we need, comes from above. The God of all grace.
We need all grace. He's got it all. And He likes
to give it. And He'll give it more. He waits
for it. Keep asking. We need it. Every
day. First thing in the morning. Diligently, hearing the Word,
hearing the Word publicly. This is the most important part
of the Word. Hearing it right now. Right now.
This is how God really blesses His people. Miss out, you've
done just that. Missed out. Reading the Word.
What are you doing the first thing in the morning? A wise
preacher one time said to me, he said, don't see any man's
face until you see God's face. Don't talk to anybody until you
talk to Him. Don't listen to anybody until you've heard it. Tapes. This is being taped. That's how important I think
it is. Go back and listen to it again and search these scriptures.
Tapes. Tapes. We're not taping these
tapes for my legacy. We're taping them for you. You're not going to get a word
from an unbeliever. You're not going to get a word
in season ever from an unbeliever. But you will. You might. You
probably will. Probably. And you're going to
need it. Don't get a help from him. Service
to others. Listen to me now. This is vital.
Our Lord said this. You think on things of others. And your problems will begin
to diminish. Yes, they will. You think on things of others.
This is what they ask of me, is to consume it all. Woe is
me. What do you mean, woe is you? Woe is him. Woe is her. Woe is that woman
out in Africa who's lying there watching her baby die of starvation.
Woe is her. While we sit on the couch and
our children are healthy. What do you mean, woe is me?
God's not pleased with that. All my troubles. What do you
mean all your troubles? Go somewhere where people have
nothing but troubles from the day they're born to the day they
die. Think on things of others. We don't even have to go that
far. We can look in our midst if somebody's got worse troubles
than I do. These fools out there say things
like this, God helps those who help themselves. That's called
love. Let me tell you who God helps. We need help, don't we? I need help. God helps those
who help others. Yes, He does. God helps those
who help His people, who do good unto all men, especially those
of the household of God. That's who God helps. Anybody
got questions? What do you have? Don't be a doer, a hearer of
doers. Go to my house. Make up your
mind. Buy a ghostwriter. Ask him to
make up your mind for you. I think it's already been made.
Thank you, sir, I really appreciate it. Keep asking, keep asking,
keep asking until you have the strength and the resolve. Every
touch of love gives life to life.