Okay, James 1, verse 13. We begin here. James says, Let
no man say when he is tempted. Now, this use of this word tempted
is a little different than the word up there in verse 2. tempted
to sin, tempted to turn away from God, tempted to be drawn
away. 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." Now, James
began speaking about trials. and having patience in trials
and asking God for wisdom in trials and rejoicing in trials,
being patient in trial, waiting in trials. And throughout the
book of James, there is a continual theme of the importance of the
will of God, of the Word of God. And specifically here, beginning
in this opening passages, James is setting forth the importance
of heeding the Word of God as opposed to our own word, to our
own wisdom, to our own way, to our own understanding. And so
he begins here and he says, if a man is drawn away, he's drawn
away of his own lust. Now this word lust means that
which is natural, that which is earthy. We think of lust in
our day because we're bombarded with it. We think of sex. That's
not what we're talking about here. We're talking about that
which is natural, that which is earthy. It's our own fleshly
wisdom, our own fleshly understanding attempting to have our own way. It's the opposite of what he
said up to this point. Now the flesh lusts to be God. That's what the flesh lusts to
be. Not in righteousness, just in power. Just to have the power
of God. The flesh loves to be our own
joy. The flesh loves to deliver self. The flesh loves to not wait on
one another or wait on God. To be our own wisdom. To be our
own provider. To have all that we want rather
than what God has provided and what we need. That's lust of
the flesh. Now, I want you to see the progression
here, and I want you to notice that these words are descriptive
of birth. Now, here in just a few moments,
James is going to give us the illustration of the new birth,
of being born of God. But first, he begins with this
progression of sin and bringing forth fruit unto death, and he
speaks in terms of birth here. Now, I want you to see this.
Verse 14, he says, Every man is tempted when he's drawn away
of his own lust and enticed. Here's the first word, enticed.
What was the first word of enticement to sin? To draw away from God,
to turn away from God. What was the first word of enticement?
Has God said? It was a question. Just a question. questioning
God's Word, what God said in His Word. Has God said? And that's
how enticement begins with a question concerning God's Word. Then verse
15 says, Then when lust has conceived What was conception? It happens
out of sight in the womb. Lust is conceived in the heart,
out of sight in the heart, like in the womb. What was the first
conception of lust that came about from that corrupt word
of enticement? The scripture says the woman
saw that the tree was good. She looked at it now. She saw
it was pleasant to the eyes, and to be desired to make one
wise. Then verse 15 says, Then when
lust hath conceived, it brings forth sin, and sin, when it is
finished, bringeth forth death. She took of the fruit of the
tree, and she ate it, and she gave also unto her husband. Adam's
the head. He's the federal head of mankind. And Adam took it and he ate.
Do you see how just this questioning of God's Word led to this looking
at that tree and thinking about it, to eating it, to giving it
to her husband, and he ate it. And sin entered in. And the eyes
of them both were open and they knew they were naked. What do
you think the next question was? We need a fleet of God. No. How do you think we ought to
cover this? Well, let's sow some fig leaves together and cover
ourselves. And so they did that. Then they
heard the voice of the Lord God. They heard the word of the Lord
God. They heard the word walking in
the cool of the garden. These fig leaves aren't enough.
What do you think we ought to do now? Let's hide ourselves in the trees. And Adam and his wife hid themselves
from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the
garden. So, James says here in verse 13, let no man say when
he's tempted, I'm tempted of God. Blaming God is the fruit
of this sin. It's the fruit, the lust of this
flesh James is talking about is what comes about by not heeding
this word, by not hearing what God says and trusting what God
says, questioning Him. It's looking some other direction
and it's going to bring forth dead fruit. And what was the
fruit that came forth? When God questioned Adam, the
man said, the woman you gave me to be with me. She's the reason
all this happened. You're the cause of this, God.
James says, let no man blame God for his own lust and his
own drawing away and his own rebellion. Now, verse 16. The
whole word here is about the Word. Now He's shown us the error
of that false word, that corrupt seed that brought forth dead
fruit, sin. Now He's going to show us the
incorruptible seed. Do not err, my beloved brethren.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh
down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. Every good gift, every perfect
gift is from above. What do you have that you didn't
receive? What do you have that you didn't
receive? If you're a believer, life, faith, repentance, love,
hope, righteousness, justification, sanctification, redemption, it's
all been given freely by God and His Son. Every temporal thing
you have has been given of God, of His Son. Cometh down from
the Father of Lights. He's the Father of Light. He
creates the light of understanding and the light of holiness. He
creates a new nature in which He gives wisdom and understanding. He does that. He's the Father
of Lights. And it's done through the Word
of Truth. It's not done through lies. It's done through the Word
of Truth. With whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning." James said, if you come and ask God
for wisdom, He doesn't upbraid. We will turn and upbraid. But God doesn't. No change with
God. Now I want you to note here,
we're still talking about the Word of Truth. There's no variableness,
there's not a shadow of turning with God. The same way that God
saves His children from the trial of sin and death that came about
by that corrupt seed, that questioning, as God said. It came about from
that corrupt Word and transpired into all these works to try to
cover ourselves, is what it brought forth. The only cure for that
is the Word of Truth. That's all. Verse 18, Of His
own will begat He us with the Word of Truth, that we should
be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. Now, are you helpless
to help yourself in your present trial? You were when you were dead in
trespasses and in sins. And you're just as helpless right
now as when you were dead in trespasses and in sins. Just
that helpless to help yourself. So am I. How did God save us
from the trial of sin and death? Here was the enticement of His
own will. Here's the conception. He begot
he us with the word of truth. It was the Word that chose His
people in Christ. It was the Word of the everlasting
covenant that lasts forever. It was the Word that predestinated
all things by His will. It was the Word that created
all things. It was the Word that gave the
written Word. It was the Word that was made
flesh. It was the Word that purged the people of sin and made satisfaction
at Calvary. It's the Word of the Gospel we
preach. It's being born of the Spirit
of Truth, the Spirit of Truth, of the Word of Truth. When He
comes, He won't speak of Himself, He'll speak of me, Christ said.
He'll take the things of the Father and He'll give them to
you. The Lord said, and the things that are the Father's are mine.
That's why I say, He won't speak of Himself, He'll speak of me.
And He brought forth life unto righteousness, not dead fruit,
not sin. He made His people a kind of
first fruits of His creatures. Now, every believer is just as
helpless to help ourselves and to help our brethren in this
present age right now as far as what only God can do. were helpless to do it any other
way than with the Word of Truth. With the Word of Truth. Of His
own will, He begot us with the Word of Truth and He makes His
people choice fruit of His creation. Now God's not a man that He should
lie. He's not the Son of Man that
He should repent. If He said it, He will do it.
If He's spoken it, He'll make good on it. And He has said that
it pleased him to save his people by the foolishness of preaching.
Not just any preaching, the word of truth. In the first hour,
and from then on. Salvation's not just a one-time
thing. Salvation is every hour continually. There's no variableness with
him, no shadow of turning with him. This is how he saves. Verse
19, Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear,
slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man worketh
not the righteousness of God. Swift to hear, to hear the word
of the truth. to hear the gospel of Christ.
The word of truth is the word of Christ, the truth. It is the
word of the gospel, the word of his grace. Sometimes Melinda
has to go to seminars where her employer will send her because
he owns the business and he knows if he goes to these seminars,
these are places where she's going to receive a word that's
going to tell her how to better his business. Well, the Lord's
speaking through James here and He's saying, there is no more
important word for you and me to hear than this word. Slow
to speak. Let it settle down in our heart. We've got to get these words
of our Lord in our heart. The problem between here and
here is there's a tongue in between. We've got to get them from here
to here, past that tongue. And let them settle down in the
inner man, in the heart. Look into God's Word. When you
hear a word, look into God's Word. When somebody asks a question
concerning God's Word, it's better, the Lord said, than to answer
right away. Be slow to speak. Be slow to
speak. Be swift to hear. Go to God's
Word. Hear what God says. Ask God.
This is His Word. Ask Him what He means by it.
And hear Him. And be slow to speak. Mary heard
the Word of the Lord and all that the Lord had done and was
doing with her and in her and with the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the Scripture says she hid all these things away in her heart.
Everybody was talking about it and Mary just hid these things
away in her heart and thought about them. Slow to wrath. God's telling us in this scripture
that we are grass. Throughout this word, He's telling
us we're grass. And He's telling us He reigns. We're grass and He reigns. The triune God is exalted in
this Word. The Lord of glory is exalted
in this Word. The Father of glory is exalted
in this Word. Christ Jesus, His Son, is exalted
in this Word. And men are declared to be absolutely
nothing. Powerless, helpless, impotent. Now, if we become angry at this
Word, full of wrath at this Word, who are we angry at? And why
are we angry? And if you give this Word to
a brother or a sister or a sinner in need of mercy, you give this
Word to them, and they're quick to speak and slow to hear it,
and they get angry about it. He says, you still be swift to
hear this word and you still be slow to speak and slow to
wrath. What's our anger going to do?
What's our wrath going to do? Nothing. We're grass. We're grass. So consider this next question.
What's your wrath going to do? What's my wrath going to do?
For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God."
Now the subject is still the Word. The subject is still the
Word of Truth as opposed to our Word and our wisdom and our fleshly
understanding. Alright? Verse 21, wherefore
lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and
receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your
souls. This filthiness and this superfluity
of naughtiness is excess. Excessive words. Excessive thoughts
that come from us about how that's contrary to this word. The Lord
said, if they speak not according to this word, it's because there's
no light in them. It's excess that comes from that
corrupt seed that began, as God said, Has He really said that
all fullness is in His Son? Has He really said that it pleased
Him that His Son have all preeminence? Has He really said Christ is
all and in all? Has He really said that if we're
going to behold the glory of the Father, it's going to be
in the face of Christ Jesus? Has He really said, this is My
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him and shut
your mouth? Anything that comes other than
what He has said is going to turn us away, just like that
first corrupt word questioned God and turned us from Christ. That's the purpose of it. That's the evil of it. That's
the defiling, overflowing naughtiness, the wickedness. He said, lay
all that aside. Lay all that aside. This is what Paul said, in Christ
are he and all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. God
the Father, God the Son, in Him are all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man
should trick you with enticing words. Turn you away from God
to look on that fruit. To just question Him enough to
just look at it and say, well, that looks good. I think that
would make me wise to do those things. It's going to open up
the floodgates of never-ending trying to cover up and cover
up and hide from the Word of God, the voice walking in the
cool of the garden. Let no man deceive you with vain
words, Paul said. Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit. Where's that going to come from?
After the tradition of man. That's our tradition. When did
that tradition start? In the garden. That's our tradition. That's the tradition of philosophy.
Everything that's not according to this word, if it flies under
the banner of Christianity, of Hindu, Muslim, whatever it flies
under, hocus pocus, magic, it don't matter what it flies under,
if it's not what God says, It's vain word. It's a tradition of
men. It's after the rudiments of the world. It's turning you
to the earthy and not after Christ. But he says here, receive with
meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. Receive
with meekness. You know, pride in your wisdom
will keep you from true wisdom. The hard ground can't receive
seed. It's got to be broken. Got to
be broken. You and I have got to be broken. And this word, it hardens and
it breaks. It does both. That's one aspect
of how it never returns void. When the Lord sent Isaiah forth
and said, go shut these people's ears and shut their mouths so
that they can't see, shut their ears so that they can't see and
they can't hear. You know how he did it? Go preach
the gospel to them. But this same word melts the
heart. This same word creates life. You don't have any education.
You don't have any honor. You don't have any awards. You
don't have any home. You don't have any cars. You
don't have any jewelry or any clothes. You don't have any color
of skin. You don't have any gender. You
don't have any country, any state of origin. You don't have any
denomination, any creed, or any station in the church before
God. You have nothing of this kind
or any other thing that you might use to elevate yourself above
somebody else to separate you from any other person and make
you commendable to God. And that's what we use all those
things for. Meekness is realizing I don't
have anything at all about me, in me, done by me. that's gonna
make God even recognize me. Meekness is realizing I have
nothing else I can do but listen to God. And He calls it here, the engrafted
Word. Receive the engrafted Word, the
implanted Word. This is another term for gardening
term, like He used there when He said the first fruits of His
creation. It's because that ground's broken
and the seed is planted, this incorruptible seed, this Word
of God is planted, and from it, God's going to grow His produce. He's going to do it. If you're
born of God, you're God's husbandry. You're God's husbandry. And he
says, and this word is able to save your souls. How did he say
this life begins? Of his own will begot he us with
the word of truth. This word planted into the heart,
which is able to save your souls. Listen to what Peter says in
1 Peter 1, 23. We're born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is grass,
and all the glory of man is as the flower of the grass. The
grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the
word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. Wherefore, laying aside all malice
and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings. As newborn babies, desire the
sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. If so be
you've tasted that the Lord is gracious. What did the Lord say? you're gonna have to become as
children, as children. Receive this word like a baby,
Peter said. That's what James is saying.
Same thing. Lay aside all of that filthiness, all of that
excess, and all that extra abounding, defiling, excess that we have, and receive
this word with meekness." He's able to save. Now, he says here
verse 22, But be ye doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving
your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the
word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural
face in a glass. I was thinking of those, you
know those, I don't even know what they're called, those magnifying
mirrors that ladies use sometimes, put their makeup on, I guess
they use them for, you know, where you look at them and, man,
I mean, you can see everything. You see every pore, every wrinkle,
every crevice, and everything in those things. Well, when you
look into this word this morning, right here, it's just like when
you looked into the mirror this morning. This Word shows you
what you are, just like that mirror this morning showed you
what you are. Now, the mirror that we're looking
into right here, this Word tells us that there's no good Word
in you by nature, that you're grass. You know, when you looked
in the mirror this morning, when you first got up, before everything
got settled good, and stretched a little bit, and you looked
in the mirror and just saw all the wrinkles and the swelling
and everything about you, you know, when you first wake up.
Well, this word tells us first and foremost, it's way worse
than you thought it was when you looked in the mirror this
morning. Way worse than that. No good thing, just defilement.
But as you look into this word of liberty, This is what Paul
said, for the believer, we all with open face beholding as in
a glass, in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. You see two things
in this word. You see that your flesh is grass. Everything about you is grass,
but you see the glory of the Lord in this word too. And as
a believer, when you look into this Word and you see the glory
of the Lord, He says, as you behold Him, He says, we're changed
into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the
Lord. He takes off the veil from the
heart and He makes us to behold the glory of Christ Jesus in
this Word. And He says, as He is, so are
you. He regenerates us, He gives us
life, and He recreates us after the image of Christ. But it never
stops. That does not stop with that
initial new birth. Every time we come to this Word,
there is a birthing, there is a newness, there is a refreshing,
a revitalizing, seeing Christ's glory, seeing the glory of the
Father in the face of Christ Jesus, and knowing when I see
this filth and defilement and fleshly grass that I am. And yet I behold in His Word
that He says, as the Son is, as my Son is, that's how you
are. You're in this world right now.
You haven't yet attained to what you shall be. But as He is, that's
how you are before God. And that's all that
matters, is how I am before God. in His Son. You're perfectly
righteous, perfectly holy, perfectly justified, perfectly sanctified,
accepted of God in the Beloved. He don't accept anything but
that which is righteous and holy. Accepted in the Beloved. We hear
it every time we come. As Luther said, we have to hear
it every time but every day because we forget it every day. And James
says here, that man who looks into this word and straightway,
verse 24, he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway
he forgets what manner of man he was. Forgets what he saw about
himself in this mirror. Forgot what he saw, what he heard
said about Christ. but whoso looketh into the perfect
law of liberty and continueth, he being not a forgetful hearer,
but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."
Now go back to the beginning for a minute. He said, let no
man say when he's drawn away that this is of God. And the
words of man are evil. Our thoughts and our questioning
and our turning and our excess is evil. And he picks up the
same warning right here, verse 26. Any man among you who seems
to be religious and bridle not his tongue, but deceiveth his
own heart, this man's religion is vain. He's saying a continual
the tenor of his life. This is his life. This is what's
in his heart. Why does the tongue speak? It
speaks out of the abundance of the heart. And what James is
saying here is if a man's tongue is continually unbridled, if
he's swift to speak against this Word, swift to add something
to this Word, swift to point folks in another direction from
this Word, swift to unbridle his tongue, He may seem religious. Now, get this now, if he seems
religious, you're going to look at this man and think he's religious. And you're going to think he's
religious because he's doing the things outwardly that makes
him appear and seem like he is truly a religious man, a pure
religious man. But the telltale sign is going
to be his heart's going to be revealed because of his tongue. And it has to do with what he
does with that tongue. He professes Christ is all. He
professes salvation is of the Lord. He professes that he's
no longer under the law but under grace. He professes that he puts
no confidence in his flesh. He professes that he's a true
Jew of the circumcision and not of the concision. He's not trying
to cut and compel and make anybody do anything. But, when he detects a splinter in
his brother's eye. He either unbridles his tongue
directly on the brother, or, which is usually the case, unbridles
it to some other brother about that brother. Critical. Speaking, not mean,
not necessarily harshly, just pointing out where he thinks
he's failing, where he thinks he's coming short, what he thinks
he's not living up to, what he's not doing. And that he may be
right in everything he says about the brother, but the evil, the
defilement, that's underneath it all is coming up from the
tenor of that old heart. And if this is all that's in
him, and this is a continual thing, he deceives his own. God's
not deceived. The brethren aren't deceived.
He's the only one deceived. And he's deceived himself. There's
bitter envying in his heart. He don't want God to have all
the glory. There's bitter envying in his heart. He doesn't want
the work to be fully of Christ. There's bitter envying in his
heart. He doesn't want God to do this by His will, by the Word
of Truth only. There's bitter envying in his
heart. He wants a part of it! And if he's got to knock a man
down with his sweet, kind criticism, in secret, he'll do it just so
he can crawl up on that man's shoulders and exalt himself to
the throne of God. Paul said his religion's vain. Pure religion and undefiled before
God and the Father is this, verse 27. We're still talking about
the Word of God. We're still talking about the
same subject. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the
Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their
affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. Visit
them. What are we going to visit them
with? What's pure religion going to
visit with? We're still talking about the
Word. What did pure religion himself visit you, comfortless,
and you, fatherless, and you, husbandless, and you, without
any comfort, any support, cut off in this world? Well, how
did he visit you? Pure religion himself, how did he visit you?
He visited in mercy. He visited in mercy. And this
is how He did it. This is His Word. This is what
the Master did. This is how He did it. He's praying to the Father. I have given unto them the words
which Thou gavest Me. And He says, I don't only pray
for them, but I pray for those that will have this Word because
they're going to give it to them. Just as you gave it to me and
I gave it to them, they're going to give this Word to somebody
else. He said, Sanctify them through thy Word. Thy Word is
truth. You want to know the theology
of those words? What the doctrine of those words
are? In John 6.63, he said, It is the Spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth nothing. That sounds real familiar to
what James said here, doesn't it? Your flesh is grass. The word of the Lord, by his
will, is what's gonna save your soul. That sounds like what Peter
said. Born of the incorruptible word,
the gospel. So lay aside everything else
and receive with meekness the engrafted word. As newborn babes
desire the sincere milk of the word. The Lord said, these are
the words. The spirit quickeneth. The flesh
profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you
are spirit and are life. That's what pure religion did.
That's how pure religion visited. And what do those say who have
received this pure religion? Who have this heart and this
word of grace abiding in them that's bridled their tongue,
that's given them this new heart to look away from themselves
and out of themselves to Christ only, to wait on God, to trust
God, to ask God, to beg God, to look to God in every situation. What is it? Peter had it. He said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe and we're sure you're the Christ. You know what
that means? You are the one who's going to
bring us to God. God and man in one and you're
going to bring an offended God and those he chose together.
We believe that and we're sure that's going to and we believe
your words are the words of eternal life. You're the son of the living
God. All right.