The lesson this morning will
be taken from James chapter 1. James chapter 1, we'll be looking
at verses 13 through 20. The subject of these verses has to
do with what is of God and what is of man. That's where the confusion
is, that's where all the doubts and fears arise, because we can't
discern what's of God and what's of man. And it just generates
question after question after question with people who hear
the gospel. So I titled the message, Of God,
Of Man. Let's read these verses together.
James chapter 1 beginning with verse 13. 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 bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it's finished, bringeth
forth death. Do not err. That's what the apostle says,
beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above. Now he's going to tell you what's
of God. and cometh down from the Father
of lights, with whom 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 firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved
brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow
to write. For the wrath of man worketh
not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness
and superfluity. What in the world does that mean?
Abundance, overabundance of naughtiness. And receive with meekness the
engrafted word which is able to save your soul. I stated at
the outset of our study in James that the main subject of the
letter is to show God's saints how true faith is distinguished
from all the imitations professed by deceived men and women. And
that's a lot. That's a lot. I've been hearing
false professions and imaginations of men now for most of my life. They vary a little. They're the
same in some respects, but they all vary. And it's confusing. You hear this, you hear that,
you hear this. And so people question you when you become
dogmatic on an issue. And the scripture is dogmatic.
It's impossible to preach the gospel and not be dogmatic. And they say, well, so you think
you're right and everybody else is wrong. No, I think let God
be true and every man lie. That's what the Scripture says.
The thing is, find out what's of God and what's of man. That's
what we need to find out. Faith is the gift of God. It's
the work of God in you. And it is the way of grace. Paul wrote to the saints at Rome
and he said, it is a faith that it might be by grace. Has to
be a faith that it might be by grace to the end that the promise
might be sure to all the seed. The one thing religion don't
have is a sure hope. It's never sure. It's always
a maybe, it's always a might, it's always an if. But not so,
not so with the promises of God. The promises of God in Christ
are all yay and amen. There's nothing iffy about it. God's work is a sure work and
his mercies are called the sure mercies of God. So why so many
warnings concerning these things? Why is there so many warnings?
Because unlike substitution, faith is a work done in us and
not for us. It's a work done in us, and this
work, by way of this work, we're reconciled to God. I'm not talking about God being
reconciled now. God's reconciled by the death
of Christ. I'm talking about us being reconciled
to His reconciliation. You understand why? We're no
longer in opposition to it. And the way that comes about
is by faith. By faith. It enables us to be
reconciled to God, to walk with God, and to receive the inheritance
promised to us in His Son. Paul says this, God hath made
us meat. What in the world? Is he talking
about a T-bone? What's he talking about? Meat.
No, he's talking about has made us able. It's just an ancient
word, this book written back in the 16th century that was
a common word. The word made, it means he's
made us able, able to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light, or saints that have been enlightened. Concerning the believers, There are two forces at work
in the believer. If you read Romans chapter 7
earnestly, read it in prayer, ask God to give you the revelation,
what he's talking about in Romans chapter 7, you will discover
that there's two I's. There's one I that desires to
do good. There's another I that won't
do it. And he goes all the way through
there. And he's talking about the same
person. He's talking about himself. But in him, if you want to personify
it, there's two persons. There's an old man and a new
man. And these desires of these two forces are totally opposed
to one another. He always, all through the scriptures,
sin and grace, flesh and spirit. And the first one of these, these
two forces, is called man. That's what he calls it, man. I have not seen or ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him. But natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto
him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. With man, Christ said, it is
impossible. What is salvation? In any aspect. Without me, you can do nothing.
That's what Christ said. And this man is the product of
his father Adam, and as such is a product of his judgment,
his condemnation, and the curse that he's under. In Romans chapter
5 verse 12, I've quoted this to you so many times. Romans
chapter 5 verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. So what do you call these men? Man. Man. That's what you call them. Romans 5 verse 18, therefore
as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. And male or female, man, fallen,
depraved man, is what we are. That's what we are. David said,
we go astray as soon as we be born speaking lies. Now, there's
no other way that that can be except you're born with a depraved
nature. Now you look at it. You dissect
the sentence. That's what we used to have to
do in English class. Dissect the sentence. See if
what I'm saying is up. There's no other way that that
can be except for you to be born with a fallen nature. Job said, man. Or David said,
man. Man. What man? Every man. Any man. All men. Man at his
best state is altogether vanity. Job 15, 14. What is man that
he should be clean, and he which is born of woman that he should
be righteous? Now watch this. Behold, he putteth
no trust in his saints, talking about God. Yea, the heavens are
not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and
filthy is man? What man? Every man. Well, he's
not talking about me. Oh, yes, he is. Yes, he is. Which drinketh iniquity like
water. And listen to this. This is one
of the minor prophets. I don't know why they call him
minor. I guess because it's short. But listen to this, this is Micah
chapter 7 verse 2. The good man is perished from
out of the earth. He's not there. God said he opened
the windows of heaven and looked down to see if there's any good,
to see if there's any that did seek after him. There was none. And that's the
scripture Paul quotes from there in the psalm. Man that's born of a woman, Job
said, is of a few days and full of trouble. His mind, the scripture
said, is carnal. Natural. Natural. It's a product of himself. It's
a product of his father Adam. His mind is a carnal mind and
it's enmity against God. That means it's hostile. His
thoughts are hostility toward God. He'll take what you say
as advice or a recommendation, but when God says something,
boy, he fires up, that ain't something. One man in an argument,
Brother Russell was talking to him, and in an argument he said,
I don't care what the Scripture said. Whoa, there it is, the
carnal mind. Enmity against God. Not subject
to the law of God, and about everything God says is law, isn't
it? Does God just tell you to do something and then it don't
matter if you do it or not? No. Everything God says is a
commandment, not a recommendation. His mind is a carnal mind. It's
enmity against God, hostility not subject to His law or His
authority behind the law. Fallen man's walk is according
to the course of this world. What is that? That's the broad
road. That's what that is. A big highway. Not a little twisty
windy road. This is a broad road. It's a
straight road. It's a freeway. And it leads to destruction. It's a broad road. There's a
way that seemeth right unto a man. The reason it seems right is
because everybody else says it's right. It's a broad road. It's
a wide road. It's well-accepted, well-traveled.
Multitudes going up and down the road. And then he says this, I walk
as according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, and that takes
in all worldly religion. All false religion. All of it. And their walk is in the lust
of their flesh. They reason things out with a
fleshly reasoning and a carnal mind. They walk in the vanity of their
mind. That's what Paul said. He was
one of them. I'm one of them. You're one of
them. You walked in darkness. You walked in ignorance. You
didn't know what you were doing. People told you it's good and
you said okay. Somebody said come to the front, you come to
the front. Somebody said join church, you join the church.
We're ignorant. And our walk is in the lust of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
What's that mean? That leaves fallen man by nature
a child of wrath. That's what it does, by nature.
By nature. We're talking about man. I'm
talking about this force that works in us. And this man will not change. You can't change him. He's not
subject to the law of God. Now listen, neither indeed can
be. You're not going to make that
old man back. You better listen to me, because
if you don't, you'll never have any peace. You're not going to
make that old man bow. He ain't going to bow. He ain't
going to believe. He ain't going to trust. He ain't
going to worship. He ain't going to read. He ain't
going to love. He ain't going to show mercy.
And he's not going to change, not ever. Your only hope is for a new man. That's where the hope is. That's
what James is telling us. And this old man, he's a busy
man. He's got his finger into everything.
His character and reputation is described in detail in Romans
chapter 3, excluding him from anything and everything spiritual.
Paul said in Romans 7, 18, for I know that in me, that is in
this flesh, in this old man, in this fallen nature dwelleth
no good thing. There's nothing there that can
be used of God. That old man is nothing but sin. Nothing but sin. Nothing there
to use, nothing there to work with, nothing there to contribute
to the work of God. In Galatians 5 verse 17, these
people were being drawn away from salvation in Christ. Being
drawn away from any hope in the new man. They said, well, the
old man, I know he's hurt. He's bad, he's down, but he ain't
out. There's still a little good in
him. And here's what Paul says to
that, Galatians 5 verse 17, desires against the spirit, and
the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one
to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would,
either direction. Either direction. God's not going
to let you be as evil as that old man wants you to be, and
that old man ain't going to let you be as holy as you want to
be. And it's a warfare, and it goes
on every day of your life. You wake up to it, you go to
bed with it. You find it in yourself, why did I say that? Why did I
act that way? Why did I... What's wrong with
me? I'm trying to tell you, there's
an old man in there and there's a new man, if you're a believer. Now this man, the old man, is
corrupt, he's ignorant, he's blind, and so Satan has no trouble. with his ministers of righteousness,
to beguile men and women through his subtlety, and pervert, now
listen to this, the singleness, the simplicity, I read an article
this morning, and they referred to that simplicity as just being
simple. That's not what this word is
about. Simplicity, if you take a fraction,
we got some teachers in here, you take a fraction and you just
keep breaking it down and finally you come to a simple figure. This is it. This is how it is.
That's what he's talking about. The singleness of Christ. The singleness. You can't add
anything to it. I mean if you do, then it's you're
taken away. I've used that illustration when
I went to Washington, D.C. about the art gallery, standing
there. Man, I mean, this guy was huge.
He must have been close to 300 pounds and there wasn't any fat
on him. And he was over there like this, leaned up against
the wall. Kathy said, what's he there for? And I said, that's
so when you reach for your watercolors and you're gonna go up there
and touch up that painting, you ain't gonna get there. This is
what he's talking about here. They'll corrupt you from the
simplicity, the singleness of Christ. They don't care what
it is. They don't care if it's wearing
a hat, being circumcised, walking an aisle. Who cares? As long
as you don't look to Christ, Satan don't care where else you
look. That's who we are and why We are the way we are. We're
shaped by a fallen nature and influenced by a deceived world. But then the God of all grace,
according to his election of grace, sends his spirit into
the hearts of those he's chosen and predestinated to the adoption
of children. And he sends that spirit into
their hearts, enabling them to see him as he is, and cry, Abba,
Father." To know that provision has been
made for them because God has predestinated them to be His
child. And they're elect of God. Well,
how does the Spirit work in us? How is it that the Spirit of
God takes up His abode in us? Well, it begins with the hearing
of the gospel. Paul said this, here's what he
said, 1 Thessalonians 1, I know your election of God. What if I were to tell you that?
I'd call you aside and say, listen, I know your election of God.
Would you be interested to know how I knew that? Maybe so you
could see it yourself. He knew some of them's election,
and they didn't know. That's right. Well, how'd he know it? He said,
because when our gospel came, it came not in word only. It
came in power, and it came in the Holy Ghost. It came with
revelation and light and power. And you become followers of us
and the Lord. Why would you follow a man? Because
you see that man to be a servant of God. That's why you follow him. That's right. You've become
followers of us and the Lord. You submitted to our teaching.
You paused to consider what we're saying. finally had an interest
in the Word of God. It wasn't just a big black book
that lays on the coffee table with your family history in it. You picked it up and you looked
in there because somebody told you this is the Word of God.
You see what I'm saying? It came in power. It came in
the Holy Ghost. You become followers of us and
the Lord. And you turn to God from your
idols. You publish the gospel there, you become an example
of God's grace. That's right. Oh, it begins with the hearing
of the gospel. It pleads God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. How shall they believe
in Him of whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear
without a preacher? And those who hear do so because
they're born of God. is born of God. Read 1 Peter,
verses 23 through 25. 1 Peter 1. Paul said for me to
live as Christ, to be absent from the bodies, to be present
with the Lord. We have the mind of Christ, the
mind that perceives the true and living God, willingly receive
the things of the Spirit of God. Who else can do and enter into the rest of God
in Christ, but one with the Spirit of God. They that are led of the Spirit,
these are the sons of God. You're all the children of God
by faith in Christ Jesus. And concerning this new man,
Christ is all. He's all. To who? All that are
in Him. He's all. They don't know that right off
the bat. I mean, they know it in their head, but they don't
know it by experience yet. But they will. He's going to
cut off everything that ain't a hound dog. When He's done,
there's going to be a hound dog. He's going to cut off everything
that's not Christ. And then the unconverted, they're
left to themselves. Left to their own imaginations.
left to the rhetoric and darkness and lies of this world. They
left to themselves. People talk about, well, I lost
a fortune the other day. And they talk about being cursed.
No, I tell you what, if God curses you, here's what he'll do. He'll
just turn you over to yourself. A man told me one time, in fact
he was my oldest brother. He said, leave me alone. No, he said, for Christ's sake,
leave me alone. And I said, for Christ's sake,
I'll leave you alone. I will. I'll leave you alone.
Is that what you want? You want to be left alone? No,
you don't. No, you don't. You don't want
that. You don't want left to your own reasoning, left to your
own desires, left to your own want, left to be deceived by
Satan and his ministers. Wake up in hell, wake up in judgment,
in a Christless eternity. No, you don't want that. His whole life is described in
Ephesians 2, 3 as walking in the lust of his flesh. And that's
what it is. The work of man is always chasing
after the desires of the flesh, even when it turns to religion.
And this is where the difficulty is, discerning what is of God
and what is of man in this thing of faith. What can I tell you about that?
Well, man's work is always self-glorifying. It glorifies himself. One thing
I can say, you better not have one thing. Better have nothing. That's right. Every mouth may
be stopped and all the world become guilty, but not one thing.
You don't have one thing. You don't have anything. Man's work is always self-glorifying. Man's work is always appealing
to men. Man's work is always limited
and liable to fail. God's work glorifies God. What
part of it? All of it. If your faith don't
glorify God, you don't have faith. God's work always appeals to
God. Any of you like wisdom? Let him
ask of his brothers. No, I ain't one to say it. Says,
let him ask of God. God's work is always impossible
for man to do. Without me, you can do nothing,
Christie. And God's work is always a holy
work and never in any way compromises the character of God. The word
temptation in verse 13 is used in the broadest sense of the
word. It denotes anything that will try the reality of the work
of God in you. Anything. It may be affliction. It may be persecution. or it
might be some direct inducement to sin. When he's tried, the question
is, will we persevere in our faith or be apostatized from
it? If it be some allurement of the
flesh, then the question is, is my faith strong enough to
withstand the temptation? Now God does not tempt men to
evil. That temptation is holy of itself,
but God will prove his work by it. Man is drawn away of his own
lust and enticed, and when his lust hath conceived, it bringeth
forth sin. His desire gives birth to reality. His imagination gives birth to
action. And sin, when it's finished,
bringeth forth death. Listen to this, Ephesians 5,
6. And we better ask ourselves, I'm not going to get into exactly
what this is saying. I'd have to take my finger and
just put it in your face. And I don't want to do that. I'll let you put your own finger
in your face. Ephesians 5, 6, let no man deceive
you with vain words, for because of these things, what things?
Adultery, fornication, foolish jesting, on and on the list goes. For because of these things cometh
the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore
partakers with them. That's not a suggestion, by the
way. James 1.16, do not err. Don't err in this thing about
what's of God and what's of man. Don't err. It's a fatal error. Do not err, my beloved brethren.
Now watch this. He's going to tell us what things
are of God. This is given to show us the
work of God and what this work of faith is all about. He said,
every good gift. Every good gift. Every perfect
gift is from above. There's no incomplete gifts of
God. Every one of them is perfect.
They're all perfect. They come down from the Father
of lights. He's light. In Him is no darkness
at all. And in Him, there's no bearableness. I don't care what comes your
way. God doesn't change. Boy, we're changeable as the
wind, but God's not. Neither is there a shadow of
turning. God the Father, being the source of all light and gifts,
is the same. He's always the same. He never
changes. He never varies. He doesn't even
create an illusion. And that's what he's talking
about when he says not even a shadow. What he was before the worlds
were, he is now. What he purposed to do before
the worlds were, he still purposes to do. Nothing's changed. God never changes. Even the law,
which was a shadow of good things to come, never changes. Our Lord
said not one jot or one tittle, not even the punctuation mark
is going to be removed from the law until all is fulfilled. These things, he says in Colossians
2.17, are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. That's what created the shadow. This light given us of the Father
is to bring us into the unity of the faith, saving faith, true
faith, faith that works in us affectionately. It's to bring
us into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son
of God unto a perfect man. It's to bring us to see that
the perfect man is Christ. And your only hope is Him. When it becomes your only hope,
you'll have a good hope through grace. You can't put Him up here
on the mantle next to whatever else you've done. One man told me, I know that's
important, but we've got to have a little law. No. Can't be anything
up there but Christ. That's it. All Christ. Men are
not converted by their free will or by the will of others. They're
born of God, and what is born there comes from the preaching
of the gospel. Watch this, James 1.18. We're
talking about things of God. Here it is, of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth or the truth of the word. What you talking about? Well,
men get all kinds of truths out of God's book. Truth that God
created the world. But faith sees more than that. You see, you read about Hebrews
chapter 11. Read back. That whole chapter
is about that. They see creation coming from the Word of God.
There was nothing there to build on, nothing there to use. Everything
you see wasn't there. And God said let it be and it
was. And it had substance. He said, if you continue to follow
me and listen to me, you'll know the truth and the truth will
set you free. What is this truth? He said, I am the truth. That's
the truth of the word or the word of truth. He's always talking
about the gospel of Christ. And the differences in real saving
faith and the bare professions of men are countless. And some
are so close. that if it were possible it would
deceive the very elect. But it's not possible because
they've been given the gift of faith by God who will prove his
work and prove it to be effectual. And what he's begun he will maintain
till the day of Jesus Christ. We're kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed at the last
day. And the word kept In 1 Peter
1.5 that I just quoted to you, that word kept, that's an interesting,
it's the only place in the Word of God where that word is defined
this way. It means to be kept in a garrison. Huh? Kept and watched over in a garrison. Your angels, he said, do always
stand before your Father. Huh? What are they there for?
for your protection, your protection. Our Lord said, he said, don't
you think I could just speak the word? And my father had sent
10,000 angels down here. The idea is that there's a faithful
guardianship exercised over the children of God. They watched
over. He singles out, appoints pastors
who watch for your souls. That's what they do. They watch. Oh, and listen to this blessed
promise, now unto Him that's able to keep you from falling. Now here's the conclusion I heard.
James 1, 19. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
Let every man be swift to hear. What's he talking about? That
means be ready on a moment's notice. Be ready. Oh, but this
is coming up and that's coming up. Well, put it on the backlog. Be swift to hear. Be swift to
hear. This over here may affect how
you live in this world. This in here affects the world
to come. And believe me, all those things
that you treasure so much in this world, they're not going
to mean anything to you in the day of your death. Nothing. I don't care how much you accumulate. Be swift to hear. Be ready. Be
willing. Be submissive. Be quiet. Faith comes by hearing. It's
maintained and matured by hearing. And be slow to speak. You can't
hear while you're talking. Quit talking and listen. Listen. God's in heaven, you're on earth,
therefore let thy words be few. That's what he said. And slow to speak. Everything
that comes to your head doesn't require a statement. Just let it float up there for
a little while. It don't have to come out your mouth. Be slow
to speak. Think about what you're saying.
Give it some thought. Give it some prayer. And slow to wrath. Why? Because the wrath of men worketh
not the righteousness of God. I hope this has been helpful
to you. I went over my time. I'm making a habit out of it.
But I want to, I don't just want to stand up here and talk because
it's Sunday. I want to help you. I want to say some things that's
going to help you. You know, Luke, you taught these
men things. Your hope is that later on in
life, this is going to assist them. It's not just something
for the minute so I can get a diploma and go on about my business.
We want to help. We want to help. Go into all
the world. Teach every nation. That's what
I want to do. Teach. Point you to the things
of God. Oh.