The wind's taken me along, barely
holding my tempo down. And if the rain would blow our
way, All right. OK James Chapter one let's read. Verses 16 through 22. Verse 22
will be. Text springboard, which would
take the message. It's also the title of the message,
doers of the word. James 1 verse 16, do not air
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. Of his own will," verse 18, James
1, 18, of his own will, he begat us,
begat he us, with the word of truth, that we should be a kind
of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
and he begins talking about this word, let every man be swift
to hear it, ready to hear it, slow to speak or comment upon
it, slow to wrath. Don't get mad at it. For the
wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore,
to lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, the
behavior of naughtiness, be received with meekness the engrafted word,
which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word,
and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Now, as I said, the purpose of
last Sunday night's message on this text was to show us, from
the Word of God, how we are to approach the hearing of the Word,
what we're doing right now, which is very serious, very serious. The eternal consequences of this
Christ said, My words are spirit and they're life and life. So
whenever we open this book and meet together, in the name of
Christ, He says, I'll be there. It's a serious time. We approach
the Holy God to worship Him. We open His Word and say, Lord,
speak, Thy servant, hear it. And we looked last week at this
passage And we saw how we were to approach the Word of God.
We just read those verses. How to obtain a blessing from
it. Now, the Spirit must bless. The Spirit must bless us if we're
to get a blessing. But we see that the Spirit uses
means, don't we? The Spirit uses means. And I
made this one statement. One of our ladies seemed to appreciate
it. And I think it bears repeating.
I said, God is sovereign. It is true that we will not be
blessed unless he blesses us and he. He is sovereign, but
you leave his sovereignty to him. And we need to take all
the responsibility that he that he gives up, that he. That he
reveals to us right leader, God's sovereignty to him. and don't
be fatalistic at all, hyper-Calvinistic about it. We are to be responsible. All right, verse 18 says we are
born again by this word. We are begatten. That's what
the word begat there is. We are begotten. We are born,
or as Peter said, born again by the incorruptible seed, which
is the word of truth. Peter went on to say in 1 Peter
1 that it's the gospel, that this word is the gospel that
we preach unto you. That's what God, the Holy Spirit,
uses to quicken, to give life to dead sinners. The Word of
God is quick and powerful. It gives life. It's the power
of God, dynamite of God, by which He gives life, which He does
powerful things, life-changing things, life-giving things. It's
the power of God unto salvation to raise a man or a woman from
the dead. and regenerates to walk in newness of life, create
a new creature, to walk in newness of life, a new creature in Christ.
Old things pass away and so forth. The Word of God is His doctrine. As I quoted to you from 2 Timothy
3, 15 and 16, the Word of God is His doctrine. All of the Word of God is given
My inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine. It is his teaching. It is how he teaches it right. The word of God is how God teaches
us and it's profitable for all things. It's profitable for reproof. And we need that don't we? Rebuke. We need that. Correction. If
we be without it, we're bastards, he said. It's for instruction. But we need a lot of that instruction
in righteousness. Admonition. We need admonition,
don't we? Exhortation. We need to be exhorted.
Encouragement. Comfort. We need that. Guidance. We need all of these things and
more, don't we? And this is where we get it from
the Word of God. This is how he teaches us. And the Word of God regulates
our lives. The Word of God regulates every
part of our life. The Word, the Bible, the Scriptures,
reveals Christ, who is our life. That is the primary thing that
the Word of God does to us first. The Word of God reveals Christ,
who is life. It also reveals and teaches us
to live like Christ. Right? All right? The Word of God shows us Christ. It shows us Christ who is the
way, the truth, and the life. It shows us Christ the way, the
truth, and the life. It also shows us the only way
to enjoy this life, doesn't it? The only way to live, right? So there you have salvation and
then the practical aspects of it. Right? You have Christ and
then you have Christ like that. All right? Let me establish this from the
outset. I've given that illustration
to you before about the woman who approached a young preacher
and said, there's a big difference between your salvation what you believe about
a salvation in my head there's a big difference and she said
your salvation is in two letters the oh do do do do that your
salvation is what you base it on my salvation is in four letters
the O.N.E. all my salvation is there is
it's done it's done salvation is done by someone for me by
Christ for me. You remember the Philippian jailer
who asked Paul, who came to Paul, cried out to Paul and said, Sirs,
what must I do to be saved? What must I do to be saved? Now, Paul, here's your chance.
Tell him what he must do to be saved, to obtain salvation. What must you do? All said what
he said. And we pray believe yeah just
on the Lord Jesus Christ trust the fan look to the Lord Jesus
Christ trust him it's finished work with your salvation and
you're saying you're saying the salvation of done deal. It's
a done That's what salvation is, all done by Christ. He did it all. It's a done deal. Now, let that be established
from the outset. And let it be established once
and for all. I quoted a verse from Hebrews last night on it.
It's a good thing that the heart be established with grace. That's what we looked at Sunday
morning, wasn't it? Grace. It's a good thing that your heart
be established, that you rest all your salvation right there.
Grace of God that's in Christ Jesus. So let that be established
once and for all in everyone's heart and their mind. Okay, that
when Christ by himself, not with our help, but by himself, purged
our sins. He took them away, blotted them
out. And the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, he blotted them out and nailed them to the
cross. He took the curse, he was made a curse. Salvation's
in Christ, and we're complete in Him. It's done. It's a done
deal. All right? There's nothing for
us to do to be saved. Do you hear that? I'll say that
to the world to hear me. There's nothing for us to do
to be saved. You say, well, my man's got to
repent. That's the goodness of God, isn't it? That's a gift
of God. That's a grace of God. Well,
you've got to believe. I know that one. That's a gift, too. Yes, we do have to repent. Yes,
we do call. Yes, we do seek. Yes, we do look.
Yes, we do ask, knock, and so forth, pray. Yes, we do believe
in all that. When it's all said and done,
he's the one that causes us to do it, right? It's by his grace.
By the grace of God, we are what we are and do what we do, all
right? So believing and faith, these are all his gifts. All who he elects will repent,
will believe, will call. All right? They will. Is that
settled? What must I do to be saved? Just
believe that Christ did it all. All the dead I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Just
believe that. And he's got to convince us of
it. He's got to make us believe. Well, what must I do to prove
I'm saved? Everything he says to do. And this is what James goes into
great lengths to talk about in the book of James. He goes in
the great lengths to say that merely saying we believe is not
salvation. But this faith is only revealed
or proved by what? Huh? We're afraid to say it.
Is that word taboo? It works, right? It's only revealed,
all right? Look at chapter 2, verse 20. Chapter 2, verse 20 through 22.
Will you know this? Well, if you're swift to hear,
you will. You'll want to know whatever
he says. Right? If we're ready to hear,
willing to hear, we want to know. If any man will know the doctrine,
will do God's will, he'll know the doctrine, the Lord says.
He said, well, verse 20, wilt thou know? O vain man, or now
he's talking to a man who who is a big talker only, old vain
man, that faith without works is dead. And it goes on to prove
this. Was not Abraham our father justified
by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Don't you see then, he says,
verse 22, how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith
made perfect? Ah, the world says, there, you
see, you're saved by works, too. You're saved by works, too. No, no, that's not what he's
saying there. And a lot of people, even some
great men in the past have misunderstood this. Martin Luther, he wanted
his book of James taken out of the Bible. You know that? He tried so hard to preach justification
by faith, and then he came to the book of James and couldn't
understand it, and he wanted it taken out of the canon of
Scripture. He didn't understand, you see, he just didn't have
the life that we have on the subject. I esteem Martin Luther
highly. But there's no contradiction
in what James is saying and what Paul was saying. Justified by
faith, and James is saying now, this man, his faith, He's justified
by words. Let me make this good for you. Abraham, James is saying here
now, he's saying to the man that Saul taught, who's a doctrinal
associate, he says, now, Abraham heard the word of God, and he
believed. Scripture says it was counted
unto him for righteous, instead of he believed God, and that
was counted unto him for righteous. That's what it says. But how
do we know he was, how do we know he believed? How do we know
he believed God? It says he went out, didn't it? He went out over, in Hebrews
11 it says that. It says that he went out from
his father's house and going into a land he didn't know where
he was going. God said, come out and I'll make you a great
nation of you and so forth and you'll be my son and come on
out. And Abraham believed God, he
heard God and he believed God, well how do we know he believed?
He went out, right? How do we know he believed? He
took his son up on that hill and he was ready to plunge a
knife in his heart and God said, now Abraham, I know, now I know
that you fear God. Now I know. Now I know. Now God knew. And it was by God's
grace and spirit that led him to do that. But nevertheless,
do you see that? That his faith was proved, all right? His faith was justified, proved,
revealed by his works. Do you understand that? You see,
there's no contradiction at all. There's no contradiction. His
faith was proved by his works. He was obedient to what God told
him to do. He didn't understand it. But
he was obedient to it, right? God doesn't call us to understand
everything, just to obey, right? All right. Now, the purpose of
this message, the purpose of this message is not, listen to
me now, this is important. The purpose of this message is
not to get anyone looking within, not get you looking within yourselves
to find reasons to believe you're saved, or evidences to give you
some comfort. No. You must look to Christ and
Christ alone. You must derive all your hope
and your comfort from Christ and Christ alone. Okay? Because
the best we can do is still imperfect. Right? And evidences come and
go. They come and go. And the day
when we wake up and find no evidences, then where is our comfort? Then
where is our hope? Well, it better be on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteous name. So you better derive all
your comfort and all your hope and keep looking to him. It says
examine yourself. Yes, look at yourself, but don't
look for comfort from yourself. All right. Is that clear? Is
that clear? All right, but it's also my purpose
to show you that all of Christ's people are, not only should be,
but they are truly Christ-like. They have the Spirit of God dwelling
in them. That's what Romans 8 says, doesn't
it? Any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of you.
And if you be led of the Spirit, be not servants of sin. All right? They have the Spirit of God dwelling
in them who the Spirit of God makes them willing and obedient
children. Correct? God has no obstinate and rebellious
children. God doesn't have any obstinate
and rebellious children. They're willing and obedient
children of their times when they are lawbreakers. God's people said this before. They're lawbreakers at times,
but they're not lawless, you see. Does that make sense to
you? They break the law every now
and then. They do rebel on occasion, but they're not the tenor of
their lives and their character. The very essence of their being
is not rebellion. fight and kick in the game. No,
they want to do God's will. They are willing and willing
to obey. Is that not correct? Huh? Sure
it is. Sure it is. All right. All his children delight to do
his will. Doesn't that tell you? That's
Christ, isn't it? He delighted to do it. Well,
if we're sons of God and being conformed to his image, then
we delight to do God's will. Don't we? We want to keep his
commandments. We're ready and willing doers
of the word and not hearers only. All right? Now, let me ask you
a question in light of what I just said. You just heard everything
I said. Does God teach his children do's and don'ts? Does he? Why, you better believe,
you better. What kind of father would he
be, huh? Do you teachers? Huh? If we being evil know how
to give good gifts and do and instruct and so forth and do's
and don'ts to our children, how much more shall the Holy Father
instruct his family? Right? Do's and don'ts. Of course he does. We instruct
our children. How much more, God? All right. It's my purpose. Look here at
chapter 1, verse 25. It's my purpose to show you that
look at verse twenty five. It says, Whoso looketh into the
perfect law of liberty, and continueeth therein. Now this is the freedom
that we have in Christ, this law of love that rules. You see,
love is the rule of a believer's life. Love is the rule, the principle
of grace within that motivates and constrains. The love of Christ
constrains us to do what we do. what he's talking about, the
law of liberty, and go on, and continueth therein, whoever looks
into this perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being
not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, listen now, look,
this man shall be, or woman, shall be blessed in his deed,
or his doings. This man or this woman who does
what he says will be blessed, there's a key word here, in his
doing, not for, but in his doing. Now, I'll show you that. Look
over at Psalm 19. Keep your place there and turn over to Psalm
19. Now, I hope you're praying right now. The Lord will make
you a hearer right now. You receive this word. This is
vital. This is vital, this is good,
this is profitable, this is a good message. We need to hear this.
I've tried it on, I've chewed on it all week long, and it's
good, it's profitable, it's helpful. I just can't tell you how needful
this is. It was to me, and so I know it is to you. It says
the man shall be blessed in his deed. It doesn't say for, but
because of, blessed in his deed. Look at Psalm 19. Verse seven,
Psalm 19, seven. Now the law of the Lord is perfect.
The doctrine of the Lord is perfect. The word, whenever you see the
word law, it just means the word of God, all right? It's perfect.
It converts the soul. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. That's the gospel. The word is
the gospel. Testimony is the gospel. The
word, it's all together. The statutes of the Lord are
right. Everything he says is right, rejoices the heart. The
commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear
of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the
Lord are true and righteous altogether, yet more than to be desired are
they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than
honey. And the honeycomb, here it is.
Moreover, by them, by your word is thy servant warned. And in
keeping, in keeping of them, there is great reward. The reward
is in the keeping of them. You see, everything the Lord
commands us to do is right, it's good, it's best, and it's calculated
to enable us to live and enjoy this life to its fullest. Right? To walk with Him, to enjoy God.
And in God's ways, which are right and true and just for us
to, are you with me? Come on. Come out there and slap
everybody across the face. Come on now. Everything God commands
and says to us is good. It's the best thing for us. It's the best thing for us. It's
not harmful to us. It's the best thing for us. enable
us to walk with God in His ways, which are the best way, the only
way there is, to be a man, to be a woman, and so forth. And
it says, in keeping them is there a great reward. A man is blessed
in his deed, in his deed, not for. You see, after we've done
all that is required of us, we're still unprofitable. I mean, there's
no merit in that. service our duty, so to speak. So he doesn't reward us for doing
what we're supposed to do, you see. The reward is getting the
blessing out of doing it. And he blesses the doing. You
understand what I'm saying? You follow that? His commandments
are not grievous, he says. They're not grievous. Matthew 11 is Verse 30, I think
he said, My yoke is, take my yoke upon you, verses 28 through
30. My yoke is easy. I don't bind heavy. He doesn't
bind heavy burdens on us, Debra. He's a kind, tender, gracious,
merciful master. The law. Now, I just don't have
time to try to distinguish between the curse of the law and all
the ordinances and so forth that God handed handed down for various
reasons, mostly to show us Christ. But Christ now is our master. All right? We're not, it's not
we're without law. We're under law to Christ, Paul
said. All right? And whatever he says, like Mary
said, do it. And he doesn't lay heavy burdens
on us. He doesn't give us things that we cannot do. He said, no,
do this. I can't, Lord. Oh, you're accountable. No. With the command comes the
power. His commandments are not grievous.
They're not grievous. He said they're light. The scripture
says the way of the transgressor is hard. He says if you don't
keep my commandments, then you're going to have trouble. If you
don't live according to the way that I tell you to live, you're
going to have trouble. It's going to be hard. You're going to be
hard on yourself. Sin's going to be hard on you.
It's going to rule over you and so forth. You understand where
I'm coming from? Now, let's just browse through the Scripture.
All right? Let's just browse through God's Word and see what
He tells us to do. All right? Ready here? Huh? Swift to hear? Isaiah, have your
Bibles ready. If I did a sword drill, you'd
stay awake. I'll make you read it. But I
won't do that. I've got too many I want you
to look at. But have your Bible ready, OK? Let's look at these
together. Isaiah 1, Isaiah chapter 1, and I will try to go through a little
bit, somewhat chronologically. Isaiah chapter 1, verse 18 and
19. Come now. This is the Lord talking. Oh, what blessed language. Grace
poured from his lips here, doesn't it? Come now. And let us reason
together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. Do you hear the blessed gospel
in that? Come now. Come now, he said. Come unto
me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. Come to Christ.
Come now. And let's reason together. You
can't put away your sins, can you? No, I can't, Lord. Well,
though they be as scarlet, I'll make them white as snow. Gospel's
right there, isn't it? Christ put them away. He washed
us. He washed us in his own blood.
We came out holy. Verse 19. If ye be willing and
obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. Right there was God's salvation,
and the next verse is a practical application of it. Right? Remember now, we need to be ready
to hear willing hearers. And more importantly, we need
to do what he said. We need to do what he said. Blessed
are your ears if you hear. If you just heard the gospel
there in verse 18, you're a blessed man, a blessed woman. You're
even more blessed if you do what he says. All right. All right. Now look at verse 20. Look there.
If you refuse and rebel, you'll be devoured with a sword. The
Word of God itself will condemn us. It'll rise up in the judgment
against us. Refuse Christ will die. Refuse
Christ's commandments will die. All right. All right. Look over
Psalm 119. Do you remember our study through
Psalm 119? I just lied to you. I didn't
go chronologically. I went backwards. But I will from here forward.
Psalm 119. You remember our study through
there? Well, I went back and read through it. And I'm ready
to study it again. We'll just browse through it
right now, though. But you know how it talks about the Word of
God. Every verse in Psalm 119 says something about the Word
of God. commandments, God's commandment.
Verse 24, he says, Your testimonies are my delight. They're my counselors. They give me good counsel. They'll
lead me in the right way. They'll tell me what to do. They'll
never lead me astray. They'll lead me in paths of righteousness.
Lead me to Christ and lead me to walk like Christ. All right? Verse 35, 35, Make me to, Lord,
and this is his prayer, make me to go in the path of thy commandments.
Now, that's where I delight. Verse 36, incline my heart unto
thy testimonies. Not just my head, but my heart,
and not to covetousness. Don't let me set my heart on
things down here, but let me set it on things above. And give
me an inclination toward you rather than the world. Verse
39, turn away my reproach which I fear. In other words, I fear
bringing reproach upon Christ in the gospel by falling into
sin. I fear bringing reproach upon
my family, on the church. I fear reproach, being a reproach. Turn me from that. Thy judgments
are good, thy judgments. Verse sixty-six, teach me good
judgment and knowledge, for I have believed thy commandments. Teach
me good judgment and knowledge. For I have believed thy commandments. Verse seventy-five, I know, O
Lord, that thy judgments are right, righteousness, and that
thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me, or corrected me, or chastened
me faithfully, all your judgments, your dealings with me. According
to the word you think you're faithful everything you do all
your chasings and all I know your faith. You're just everything
you say is right. You're a true and I'm a liar.
It says that in another place verse 104 through that precepts. I get understanding. Otherwise,
I don't have any right. I don't know anything. And the
wisdom of the world is foolishness. And this is all the wisdom I
care to learn in that you through that precepts, I get understanding
and therefore I hate every false way. Everything is not in keeping
with this. Our generation is so far removed
from the principles of God's Word that I tell you, I don't
have a clue anymore. Look at verse 105. Your Word is a lamp under my
feet. It lightens my path, a light
under my path. Verse 128, I steam all thy precepts,
everything God said, concerning all things, to be right to you,
not hard, right. This is the attitude of a child
of God. This is the attitude of a man after God's own heart,
isn't it? It's right. Everything God says
is right. I understand it or not. It's
right. I hate every false way. 163. Verse, yeah, here's the verse
I wanted to apply. I hate and abhor lying. I hate living a lie. I hate lying. It came forth from the womb,
speaking lies. Everybody else is a liar. Everything they say
is a lie. God is true. Every man's a liar. I said in my haste, all men are
liars. I hate no more lying. But thy law do I love. Everything
you say is true. It's true. Everything you say. Verse 164, seven times a day
do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgment. 165, great peace have they which
love thy law. Nothing shall offend them. Those that love God's word and
appeal to it and take comfort from it to nothing. Nothing's
going to move them. God's truth, God's right, whatever
he does is right. All right, turn over to John
14, John chapter 14. Let's hear it from, that was
from the Lord's mouth, wasn't it? Psalm 119. Well, the lawgiver The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Christ and his word are inseparable.
This is something I want to instill in us. Christ and this book are
inseparable. Right? He doesn't speak in an
audible voice. He speaks in there. If he's speaking
to you, it's going to be through there. And he speaks just as
really as I am now. through the pages of this book.
He and His Word are inseparable, inseparable. He is, like I quoted
a while ago, He magnified His Word above all of His name. He
said He had a name written on His thigh over there in Revelation,
that none but the righteous knew, had written on His thigh, the
Word, the Word. We see the Word in the Word.
We hear His Word from the Word. This is Christ to us. OK? This is where we meet him. This
is where he speaks to us. This is where he teaches us,
and so forth. They're inseparable. I know God
is spirit, Christ is spirit. You understand what I'm trying
to say, I think. Christ and his Word are inseparable. And again,
the Word is what the Holy Spirit uses to regenerate, to give life,
eternal life. This is eternal life, but you
might know him. The Word, we saw many things
there in Psalm 119, that The word is referred to as his commandments,
his law, his teachings, his precepts, his testimonies, his judgments,
his ordinances, and so forth. And the word of God is what the
Holy Spirit uses to conform us or mature us or make us grow
like Christ to the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ. It's right here. It's what he uses. In other words,
this is what he uses to make us walk upright in this world
before God and men. Christ, it was said of even Christ
himself, he grew in wisdom and stature. If you notice, he was
always about the temple where the Word of God was being preached,
asking questions and being asked questions. He was about the things
of God. Therefore, he grew in wisdom
and stature, right? This is what the Holy Spirit
uses. to mature us in the stature of
the fullness of Christ, and to keep us, as James said, unspotted
from the world. How many times does Christ say
here, if you keep my commandment? You ever notice that? Look at
John 14, verse 21. How many times He says that? Verse 21, He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth
me shall be loved to my Father, and I will love him, and manifest
myself to him in a special way, a very special and intimate way.
Verse twenty-three, Christ answered Judas and said unto him, If a
man love me, he'll keep my words. My Father will love him, and
we will come unto him and make our abode with him. He that loveth
me not keepeth not my sayings. The word which you hear is not
mine, it's the Father's. which sent me. Look at John 15,
verse 10. If you keep my commandments,
you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandment,
and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto
you, that my joy might remain in you, that your joy might be
full. And this is my commandment, that you love one another as
I have loved you. Look at verse seventeen. These
things I command you, that you love one another. Love one another. He said in another place, all
the law is fulfilled in one word, isn't it? Love. Love to God. The first part of the commandment
is to love to God. The rest is to your neighbor.
How much Did the Lord say through John over in 1 John about this? I mean, you've read 1 John many
times about love. How much does the Lord, that's
not John speaking, that's Christ. How much did he say about love
over there? Huh? Let me just quote you one here.
If a man say, I love God and hated his brother, he's a liar. That's plain language in it.
I don't care what he says, God says. He hateth his brother,
he's a liar. He that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
And this is the commandment we have from him, that he who loveth
God loveth his brother also. How much did Christ say to Paul
or through Paul over in 1 Corinthians 13 about love? Look over there. First Corinthians thirteen. How
much did you say about this thing of love over there? Oh my. It gives the characteristics
of true love. If a man or woman be void of these, at least the
principle of them, he has no God. Is that right, Terry Kensington? I'm not talking about perfection,
but the principles have to be there, don't they? He loved God, and these characteristics
of that love don't manifest themselves. He's lying. She's lying. Look
at it. It says in Man May, verse 2,
you may have the gift of prophecy, or a good preacher, or a teacher,
or understand all mysteries. He has some doctrinal knowledge,
all knowledge, and seems to have all faith, and he sure is a sound
in the faith, sure is a good theologian, and has not loved. He's nothing. Old Scott says, it's like dry
doctrine without Christ, without love. He's like a dog walking
through dry leaves. That's his way of putting it.
He's like a dog. It's just an offense to your
ears. It's an offense to God, too.
all this big talk and all this doctrinal knowledge. He said,
without the character and spirit of Christ and attitude of Christ. And he says he'd go do all this,
all these alms and so forth. Look at the characteristics of
love. Verse 4. Charity, love, suffereth long,
is kind, not mean. Charity, envyeth not. Charity
fawneth not itself, not puffed up. Love looks on things above
it. It does not behave itself unseemly,
at least not all the time. Seeketh not her own lovers, seeketh
the things of the object of its love. Right? It's not easily
provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoices not in iniquity, and so forth.
Verse eight, the finality of it all is love and ever faith.
Ever faith. My, my. Well, I've got a few more minutes. Christ said, keep my commandments,
my commandments. Look back, turn back to Matthew
5. I just thought of it. Matthew
5. Our Lord, he says, if you keep
my commandments, my commandments, and As I say, his commandments are
not grievous, they're right, they're true, they're just, they're
good. Matthew 5, you know, is his sermon on the mount, and
let's see what he commands us here in Matthew 5. Verse 7, he
said, blessed are the merciful. Now that's, God's people are
merciful, that's no doubt. But he's also instructing us,
reminding us that we're to be merciful, right? They shall obtain
mercy. Verse 9, verse 9, blessed are
the peacemakers. We saw that in James 1, or James
3, didn't we? Peacemakers. The wisdom that's
from above is peaceable. For they shall be called the
children of God. Peacemakers, reconcilers, peaceable people
who want peace. They're not fighters, but they're
not brawlers. They want peace. Right? Peace in the home. Peace in the
church. Peace with God. Right? Peace. Verse 16. Let your light
so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and
glorify your Father which is in heaven." What did Christ say
about how we glorify God? Huh? What did He say? Herein
is the Father glorified, that what? Am I quoted? Herein is
the Father glorified, that we bear much fruit. That's what
He said. That's how He said the Father
is glorified. Not by what we say, but by what we do. That's His claim. That's what Christ said. All right, look at verses twenty
two and twenty four eighty. Whosoever is angry with his brother,
without a cause, endangers the judgment. Verse twenty three,
you come to worship, you come to the altar, and you remember
your brother has something against you, not you have something against
him. You know, we all, James said, we all offend in many things.
And people have a great reason to be offended at us, and we
need to look at how we're offensive, not at how they're offended,
right? And that's what he said, your brother, or whoever it may
be, husband, wife, whoever has something against you, don't
come in here and pretend to worship. He said, don't come in here and
pretend that you're going to worship God and you're all humble
and meek and going to worship God. He said, you go home and
you reconcile with that person first. And both of you did gather
to come in here and worship. Now, what does he say? All right,
read on. Verse thirty, he says, If your
right hand offend you, cut it off. And he's saying, cut off
whatever occasion. Make no, what's the verse? Make no provisions for the flesh
to fulfill the lust thereof. Whatever it is, he says, that
would give you an occasion to sin, that you make provisions
for, cut it off, get rid of it. And that's the principle he's
saying. You have to get rid of it. Don't let it tempt you. Get rid of it. Is that not good
advice? It's not advice. It's a command. And it's good, it's right, it's
just. Verse 32, he says about divorce. He deals with that there. Don't divorce, save for the cause
of fornication, unless your husband or wife is running around, running
around on you all the time. That's what that's talking about,
fornication, running around on you. He gives that option there. The Lord Jesus Christ does give
that option there. All right, verse thirty-nine.
He says, don't resist evil, turn your cheek. A soft answer turns
the way right, doesn't it? How many people are going to
hit you on the cheek if they hit you once and you meekly turn? Verse 44 in chapter 5, verse
44, he says, Love your enemy. Bless them that curse you. Do
good. He says it will turn away wrath. It won't escalate it. If you rail on them and come
back at them, it will escalate. Things will just be worse. Is
that not true? It's just good commandment in
it. It's right. It's just. It's good. It's peace.
God's ordained peace. All right. Hurry on. Look at
chapter 6, verse 14 and 15. Look there. He says, In order
for your heavenly Father to forgive you, you're going to have to
do some forgiving. Now, what does that say? He's not going
to forgive you unless you forgive. These are his commandments, aren't
they? You don't pray for forgiveness
if you're not praying that the Lord will give you a forgiving
spirit. Right? Forbearing, forgiving, and so
forth. Chapter 7, verse 12. Hurry. He says, Well, all things
whatsoever you would that men do to you. Chapter 7, 12. This
is where they get the so-called golden rule from. Do unto others
as you have them do unto you. It's a good rule, Nancy. It's
a good rule. Good rule. Do. All right, verse
twenty-one. Not everybody that says unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom, but he that doeth the will. Verse twenty-four. Therefore, whosoever heareth
these sayings of mine, and what sayings? Well, what have we just
been going over, huh? What we do is reading that we
spent forty five minutes forty eight sorry I'm quit. Doing his
command whatever he said you know who's whoever here at the
sides of mine and do it then not right back where we started
won't care James one twenty two. I will liken him unto a. Who is over here at the sides
of mine and do it then he's a wise man he built his house on rock
solid truth on Christ, on Christ's word, on principles that are
true and right and just and the best thing to build your life,
your home, your family, your children. And this is what I
wanted to say in closing. So much is at stake, so much
is at stake in keeping and not keeping his
word. Listen to me now. You didn't
hear anything. Go back and get the tape. I want you to hear
the rest of it. So much is at stake. I just read to you where
the Lord said, He that keepeth my commandment and doeth them
not. He's a wise man. He that does heareth them and
doeth them not. He's on shifting sands, buddy.
His foot will slide in daytime. Right? So much is at stake in
not keeping or keeping His commandments. The consequences are great. Our
lives are at stake. Our souls are at stake. Our homes
are at stake. Our families are at stake. Our
marriages are at stake. Our children are at stake. It
tells us how to raise our children, how to be husbands, how to be
wives, how to be children. Doesn't it? how to be believers, so much
is at stake, so much is at stake here. And concerning which our
Lord gives intricate, detailed, implicit instructions concerning
everything, doesn't He? Doesn't He deal with everything? And if we do not heed the Lord's
words, if we don't heed the Lord's word, are we going to do well to be
angry when evil consequences come? And we said to Cain, Cain,
if you'd just listened to me and done what I said, didn't
it? Cain, if you'd just bought the offering, I said to Brian,
you wouldn't have been rejected. You'd have been accepted like,
huh? Is that right, Ed? If you'd be willing and obedient,
you'd lead the good of the land, huh? Doest thou well to be angry
if we don't? Oh, that the Lord would give
us the grace, the saving grace, to believe Christ is the saving
of our souls. and give us the grace to do what
he tells us to do in his Word. That sums up everything I'm trying
to say. Oh, that the Lord would give us the grace, and it is
by grace that we believe, to trust Christ, to really believe
Christ for our salvation, and the grace to do whatever he tells
us to do. Anybody quote Philippians 4.13?
You used to when you were in Arminianism, huh? one of your
favorite verses. I can do all things through Christ,
which strengthens me. We didn't know the latter part
too well, but we sure knew the first. I can do all things. Well,
you know, no matter if they abuse that verse, it's still true.
Paul said, I know how to abound, how to be abased, how to suffer
won, how to be rich, and so forth, and I can do all things by the
Lord's enabling grace. There's the key. There's the
key. It needs to be a willingness,
willingness, a willingness to be obedient and to do it, to
do it, and then call upon the Lord to give you the ability
to do it. That's the only place you're
going to have the ability, right? Without him, he said, You can't
do anything, because there's a law of war in your memory,
right? The flesh lusts against the Spirit.
So you're going to need real help, real help. But He never gives commands,
but what He doesn't give is the ability to keep them. I don't make unrighteous demands
on my child and give her things to do that I don't think she
can, right? that I don't think she can keep,
and things that I don't, I'm not willing to help her out with.
Is that helpful to you? Huh? Whatsoever He say, honey,
do. Do it. It's good. It's right. Huh? All right. Stand. Let's be dismissed
and pray. Our Lord, we We thank you, thank
you, thank you for your work of salvation on our behalf. Thank
you, Lord, for coming and doing everything for us. We're so glad
that salvation is done. It's done, it's done, a great
transaction's done. We're complete in Christ. How
thankful and all our joy and rejoicing is found there, that
ordered covenant that is so sure. in Christ. And we thank You,
Lord. And then, Lord, we do. We want
to be obedient to You in every way. We want to trust You by
obeying. We want to prove our faith. Lord, we want to show our faith
by our works. We want to bring glory to You.
We want to do what's right and just and true. And we want to
obey Your Word. We want to be willing, obedient
children, Lord. We do. We don't want to be rebellious
children. We want what's good for us. Whatever's
good for us, Lord, send it our way. Give us grace to do it. Teach us, Lord. Teach us from
your word. We have so much to learn. So
much to learn. Carry this with us throughout
the week, Lord. Enable us to put these things
into practice by your grace. We call upon you for all our
help and our strength to enable us. In Christ's blessed name,
we've met together for His honor and glory. In the glory of His
word and His name, amen.