Now, this morning, I want to
direct our attention in the book of James, chapter 1. On this subject, trials, temptations,
and God's goodness. Trials, temptations, and God's
goodness. Now, I want to begin reading
James 1, verse 13, where he writes, 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. And then,
when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin,
when it is finished, bringeth forth death. 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." Trials,
temptations, and God's goodness. Now, as we go through the scriptures,
and many times you might read things that you don't readily
understand and grasp, you have to Go back and look at the context. You have to read the scripture
as a whole. The Bible itself tells us we
have to interpret scripture with scripture, no scriptures of any
private interpretation. It's all one book. We have it
divided into separate books of the Bible, Old Testament, New
Testament, verses. But we can't get bogged down
in that to the point that we don't see the message of the
book as a whole. And of course, that message is
summarized in the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This
is a book of Christ. I'm afraid that so many people
who read and study the Bible do no more than what the old
Pharisees and the scribes did. They just, you know, they get,
they memorize it, they'll wear it on their clothes, or they'll
have a bumper sticker on their license plates. I saw a football
game yesterday, and a fellow had it under his eyes, you know.
John 16, 33. That's what he had under there. And I thought, well, you know,
that's the way people are. You know, wear your religion on your
sleeve. And they do no more than what the old Pharisees did. They
just see it as a book of morality, a book of moral tales and examples,
and they don't see the true message. of Jesus Christ and Him crucified
and risen again. How God saves sinners. And so
sometimes when you come across passages such as this, you might
think it's a contradiction. For example, look back in James
1 and verse 2. He says, here in James 1 and
verse 2, my brethren count it all joy when you fall into diverse,
that means various, temptations. And then he speaks of these things
as coming from God. Peter spoke of that, the fiery
trial, testings and temptations. They're from God. And then here
in verse 13, he says, let no man say when he's tempted, I'm
tempted of God. Now, what's going on? Is there
a contradiction? Well, no, there's not. James is talking about something
else here. He's making the distinction that
we need to make, should make and can make. As we understand
how God operates, hear God's sovereign will, God's revealed
will, all in line for His glory, for our good, to exalt Christ,
to put us in the dust where we belong, and to lead us to Christ,
and to stay with Him, and to rest in Him. And one thing that
you need to understand about the book of James, you know a
lot of people have a problem with the whole book because,
especially in James chapter 2 when he starts talking about works,
the works of of believers. He talks about justified by works. He talks about Abraham being
justified by works. We have to understand, number
one, that James is not talking about justification of a sinner
before God. That's first of all. Figure out
what he's not talking about. His subject here is not how God
saves sinners. Now, that's all through the book.
It's here. He talks about the perfect law of liberty. That's
the gospel. And that liberty comes through
Christ. Paul said in Galatians 5, 1, "...stand fast therefore
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free." Our Savior
said in John chapter 8, He said, "...if the Son therefore make
you free, you'll be free indeed." And what he's talking about is
our freedom from the law, our freedom from sin, that is, sin's
condemning power. He's talking about our freedom
to serve God as willing, loving bond slaves. That's all included.
How did we get that freedom? We didn't get it by our works.
We didn't get it by our efforts. We didn't get it by our served
time. You know, somebody commits a
crime, they send them to jail for a period of time, and they
fulfill that time, and they say, well, they paid their debt to
society. That's not how we got our freedom. Our freedom didn't
come because we paid our debt to God. Our freedom came because
Christ paid our debt to God in full. We were shut up under the
bondage of Satan and sin and the curse of the law, and Christ
came and fulfilled that law. He fulfilled righteousness before
God. And that's how we were made free.
That's the perfect law of liberty. That's the complete law of liberty.
That's what that means. In other words, our liberty is
complete, lacking nothing, because of Christ. He's made us free.
We're free indeed. And so, when James jumps into
this issue of trials and temptations, he's not talking about how sinners
are made righteous before God. What he's talking about here
is this, that those who are made righteous before God in Christ,
those who are saved by the grace of God, there will be fruits
and evidences in their lives, the fruits of faith. Saving faith
has fruits, it has evidences. And he tells us saving faith
will be tested, it will be tried. And that's what he means back
up here in verse 2, the various temptations, that's trials. Those
are trials of faith. Saving faith has to be tested.
And it will be tested. And there are different kinds
of tests. There are different degrees of tests. You may not
know when they're coming, how they're going to come. You may
wonder how you're going to get through, but it's coming. Saving
faith will be tested. Sometimes it will be persecution
from the enemies of Christ, the enemies of the gospel. That's
a great trial. We read in the parable of the
seed and the sower how the stony ground here and the thorny ground
here, both who claim to believe the gospel at first, claim to
love Christ, claim to follow him, and then left the stony
ground here because of persecution over the Word. That trial came
and it exposed his false faith, his false profession. And then
the thorny ground here, he got distracted by the things of this
world, the riches of this world. That's another trial. And that
trial came to him and it exposed his false profession. You see,
that's what these trials do. They reveal true faith and they
expose false faith. Sometimes these trials come in
the form of chastisement for our correction. And you have
to be very careful there. Don't ever look at anybody else
and say, well, I know they're suffering because of such and
such. You don't have that kind of wisdom.
And you don't have that kind of knowledge. Only God does.
And besides, when you do that, you know what you're displaying?
Self-righteousness. Self-righteousness. But we ought
to be saying, Lord, why am I not suffering even more than them
for my own sin? And sometimes these trials, they'll
come from each other. They'll come from me, they'll
come from you. Sometimes we can try each other's patience, can't
we? We can do it. Things we say, things we do.
Attitudes, we can sure do it. So they'll come from each other.
Or sometimes these trials come from within. Some of you may not remember
the old comic strip Pogo. Pogo often said, we have met
the enemy and he is us. We are our own worst enemies. We have the warfare, the flesh
and the spirit. We still have a fallen human
nature that we have to deal with. It is warfare, the spirit of
God within us, the word of God implanted within our hearts.
Thank God keeps us from going to full measure of our depraved
nature, but it's a warfare. And sometimes we try ourselves. God allows that. God determines
it. These trials of faith are of and from the Lord. They're
given by Him in His sovereign power and His sovereign wisdom.
And we've talked about this. Why does He do that? Well, let's
go over it again. If you're like me, I have to
hear these things more than once. He gives them to humble us. to
show us that our hope and our strength and our assurance is
not in ourselves, but in Christ. I do this on TV all the time,
and I quoted it back in the Sunday School, my favorite hymn. My
hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
And I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus'
name. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is
sinking sand, even me, even you. So these trials are given by
God to humble us, and that's a good thing, because that's
what we need, and we need it all the time. Because our fallen
human nature, by that motivation, we're always tempted to be lifted
up and to exalt ourselves and to think ourselves better than
others. That's why the Bible says that we're to prefer one
another in honor. that we're to esteem others as
better than ourselves. I can do that because I know
myself better than I know you. I know my thoughts. I don't know
yours. But here's the kicker. God knows us all better than
we know ourselves, don't it? So it's to humble us. And secondly,
it's to drive us to God in prayer, to his word for strength and
comfort, to the fellowship of his people. That's why we need
each other. That's why we need to pray to
God through Christ. Thirdly, he gives these trials
to wean us from the world and cause us to value eternal things
more. In its essence, prepare us for
death. This world is not our home. You may be experiencing
a time of prosperity and health today, but it won't last. It
won't last. James spoke of that in verse
10 and 11. Look up at the rich in that he's
made low, he's humble, because as the flower of the grass he
shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen
with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof
falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth. And
so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways." It's not going
to last. Anything that you put value on
in this earth is not going to last. Peter said, the Word of
the Lord, it's forever and ever and ever. And that's Christ and
His truth. And then, fourthly, these trials
chasten us for our sin in a way of correction from a loving father.
In that sense, they identify us as children of God. They identify
us with Christ in his suffering. He told his disciples, he said,
marvel not if the world hates you. It hated me before it hated
you. The servant is not greater than the master. And then, fifthly,
they make us useful in the kingdom of Christ to help our brethren
going through trials. You may be going through a trial,
but it's all common to man, and every child of God goes through
them in some degree. You're not the first, you won't
be the last, and you're not the only one. That's right. So whenever you think about,
oh, woe is me, there's always somebody worse off. You know
that's so. Even the world knows that. Even the world knows that,
but we know it. And then, sixthly, to push us
in growth, in grace, and in knowledge of Christ. And here's the main
thing I believe that we could say of all trials that God sends,
all the temptations, that word temptations used in various ways
here in the book of James and in the whole Bible. Sometimes
it talks about, it means trials from God. But it's the very same
word here in James chapter 1 in verse 13 when he says, let no
man say when he's tempted, I'm tempted. Very same word, but
it's a different context. And here's what I mean. You see,
these trials are mainly, all trials are mainly, are mainly
given to drive us more and more and more and always and ever
to Christ. to Christ and His Word, to exalt
Him and show us our dependence upon Him. And then their test
of our faith. They prove our love and bring
forth the grace of patience and endurance. You see, we still
live in a fallen world. This is a fallen world. This
is a world in opposition to everything that we love, everything we believe,
and everything we stand for. That's why Paul said, don't be
conformed to the world. Whatever friendship you have
with the world, you see, separates a person from God. You can't
serve God in mammon. There's no fence straddling here.
I'm not talking about just having certain friends or acquaintances.
I'm talking about the world system, the world religion, the world's
way of thinking, the world's morality that stands in opposition
to the gospel of God's grace. How God saves sinners. The world
will laugh at it. The world makes fun of it. The
world ignores it. And then we still have a fallen,
sinful human nature. We do. You see, this corruptible
must put on incorruption, but it hasn't yet. Now, some say
that it has, but it hasn't yet. That's why Paul said he spoke
of the resurrected body in 1 Corinthians 15. You see, flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So we must be changed in
the twinkling of an eye. What all that change involves,
how to come about, the physiology of it, the spirituality of it,
all that, I cannot tell you. I would be derelict in my duty
as a preacher of the gospel to try to go into that. But I know
it's going to be a glorious thing. And I know it's going to be a
perfect body somehow, a spiritual body. That'll never die. No more tears. Isn't that something? But right now, we're not there,
and so we struggle. We have some of the same afflictions
and difficulties that we had before God saved us. Do you not
see that? You know, people say, well, when
God saves you, there's a great change. And boy, when they start
talking about the change, and what they think that change is,
man, You talk about a fantasy world. Now you want to talk about
fiction, that's where we can talk about it. Because there
is a great change. Now let me tell you something,
there is a great change when God saves us. But it's not the
change that the world thinks. It's a change of heart, it's
a change of mind, it's a change of loyalties, it's a change of...
Listen, before God saved me, I had no faith in Christ. Now
I'm a believer. I have faith in Christ. It's
a gift of God. I didn't have that naturally.
I didn't muster it up because I'm so much better or less obstinate
than anybody else. It came by the gift of God. When
God saved me, I repented of my dead works. I used to glory in
those dead works, just like Saul of Tarsus. But now I count them
all but dumb that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ. I have one hope of salvation. I have one righteousness before
a holy God, Christ and Him crucified. So we have these things to deal
with. Now, how are you going to deal
with them? How are you going to talk about
them? How are you going to think about them? How are you going
to understand them? Well, that's what James is doing
here. When our faith is tested, whatever trial it is, it's from
God, it's for our good, it's for His glory, It exalts Christ,
it puts us in the place where we belong in humility, submitting
to Christ, God help me, God be merciful to me the sinner. But
then there are temptations to sin. Now, verse 13, that's what
he's talking about. Temptations to sin. And here,
first of all, he gives us the reality of these temptations.
Now, we're to receive trials of faith from God with joy. Not
because we feel good going through them, but because they're for
our good. But we're to fight temptations
to sin because they're not good for us. And that's what he's
talking about in verse 13. Let no man say when he's tempted.
He's talking about being tempted to sin. God never tempts us to
sin. So let no man say when he's tempted,
I'm tempted of God. It's God's fault. That's what
he's saying. Don't say that. It's true, God will work all
things together for our good, even the bad things. That's all
things good and bad. He will work them together. He's
sovereign enough. He's wise enough. He's just enough. And He has in mind, He's in control. I know a lot of people don't
believe that, but He's in control. You know, the fact of sin in
this life does not mean that God's not in control. He is. I know preachers talk about God's
permissive will and God's directive will. I don't know about all
that, but I know that God works all things together for good
to them that love Him, who are the called according to His purpose.
He does so. And if He didn't, we'd be, of
all people, most miserable. So it's true. But now temptations
to sin are never good for us. Now somebody may say, well now,
aren't we eternally saved and therefore not subject to condemnation? The answer is yes. In Christ
there is no condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. Who shall I anything to the charge
of God's elect? It's God that justifies. God
who declared me righteous in Christ. Who can condemn me? It's
Christ that died. Yea, rather He's risen again.
Seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for us. When we sin we have an advocate.
Jesus Christ the righteous. So all that's true. But we can
still sometimes and do sometimes suffer consequences here on earth
for our sins. Think about David. We've been
studying the life of David in our evening services. David was
a man after God's own heart. David was a justified sinner. He was a sinner saved by grace,
and yet he fell into great public scandalous sin. Not that he wasn't
a sinner before because he was, and not that he wasn't a sinner
afterward because he was. sinners saved by grace. And yet
he suffered and suffered, his family suffered, his kingdom
suffered here on earth because of the consequences of his sin.
And so James is saying in that life, when you're tempted to
do evil, when I'm tempted to do evil, don't blame God for
our sin. Adam tried to blame God. Did
you know that? The very first man, the one who sinned and plunged
the whole human race under condemnation, he tried to blame God. He said,
the woman you gave me is the one who caused this thing. If
you hadn't given her to me, then I'd be all right. That's crazy. That's crazy. God tries our faith in the fire
of affliction, but he never solicits us to sin against him. He allows
Satan and evil people to do so, but he himself is not the author
of evil. He allowed Satan to tempt Job, and yet he's not the
author of evil. And the trials that the Lord
brings into our lives to strengthen us can also become temptations,
which rather than being a means to spiritual growth, can become
a solicitation to evil. But not from God. The trial is
from God. But where does the solicitation
from evil come from? Or to do evil? Look at verse
14. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his
own lust and enticed. There it is. It may be a trial
from God, meant for my good. But when it's a solicitation
to do evil, it comes from me, when he's grown away of his own
lust. You see, the nature of God is opposed to the nature
of evil. The Bible says, God is of purer eyes than to behold
evil, and canst not look on iniquity. God must punish sin. He doesn't
incite it, or solicit it, or cause it. Therefore, he cannot
himself sin. And so the source of these temptations
to sin is our own fallen, sinful, human nature. And if you're a
believer here this morning, you still have it. And you know it. All the time. You never get away from it. There's
never one second in your life that you could stand up and say,
now, this second I'm perfectly holy without sin. If you're a believer, listen
to it, the only sinless perfection you can and will claim is Christ
and Him crucified and risen again. But in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. Somebody says, well, alright,
in your flesh dwells no good thing, but somewhere else there's
a perfection. No. No. No, that's not scriptural
now. My perfection is in glory, Christ
and Him crucified. For as He is, so am I now in
this world. Because I'm in Him, I'm washed
in His blood, clothed in His righteousness, but in myself
I'm the old wretched man that Paul spoke of in Romans chapter
7. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I'm plagued
every day, every minute with sin, sinful thoughts, sinful
motives. I have to fight the warfare of
the flesh and the spirit. That's part of the trial of faith.
And when it comes to the temptation to do evil, it comes from me,
from my own lust. This is one of the things that
set Christ, the God-man, apart from us. Turn to Hebrews chapter
4. Somebody said, well, Christ, it says, He was tempted as we
are. He was tempted as we are. And
you know what? That's true. But there's one
exception with Him. Look at verse 14 of Hebrews 4. I want you to see this. This
is why He is our Redeemer. That's why He is our righteousness.
He's the God-man. And it says, seeing then that
we have a great high priest, that's the God-man. That's Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. And that is passed into the heavens,
literally passed through the heavens. That means He made it
to heaven. That's what that means. He got
there. Now, am I going to make it? Are
you going to make it? He did. All right. How did he get there? He's a great high priest. What's
a priest do? He represents a people before God. God's elect. He presents
the blood sacrifice. What was the blood sacrifice?
Christ presented his own body, his own blood. He's the Lamb
of God. He's the Passover. He's our Passover,
isn't he? He's our sacrifice. He's our
sin bearer. He was made sin, Christ who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
He took full accountability and responsibility for all my sins,
and he suffered unto death, even the death of the cross, and drank
damnation dry, paid the debt in full, and established righteousness
whereby God could justify an ungodly sinner like me. And he
ascended, he was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven.
That's our great high priest. And so he says, seeing then that
we have him, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
What is our profession? Our profession is salvation by
God's grace in Christ. That's our profession. So he
says in verse 15, for we have not a high priest which cannot
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Now, that's
the weaknesses of the flesh, not the sins of the flesh. In
other words, if you took a nail And you took it to the palm of
your hand or your wrist and stuck that nail through your wrist,
that's going to hurt. Isn't that right? That's an infirmity of the flesh.
What he's saying simply there is when Christ, when He suffered
under the stripes, the crown of thorns, the beatings, the
nails, it hurt Him just like it would hurt you and me. He wasn't numb to that pain.
He suffered. And not only did He suffer physically
in His body, He suffered in His very soul, the Scripture says.
We can't even begin to understand the inner being and workings
and emotions of the Son of God incarnate when He was made sin
and suffered. I know people try to get into
all that, but they're treading up on ground they should never,
ever go. There are people talking about
how he took our corrupt nature within himself. That's not so.
Let me tell you something. This is amazing to me. And this
is something that sets our Savior apart. What a Savior we have. This is amazing grace. At the very time that he was
on that cross, suffering as a sinner, but not a sinner. He was not
made a sinner. But as he suffered under the
sins of his people, all the sins of his elect people, his sheep,
made to meet on him, and he suffered the full penalty of all the wrath
of God upon those sins, at the time that he was at his lowest
point in his suffering, he never had an impure, sinful thought. Not one time. His faith never
wavered one iota. I'm talking about during His
lowest point on that cross. He had perfect faith. And let
me tell you this now, His love for His people never, never diminished
one iota. Perfection in Himself. He wasn't
contaminated. with our sins within his mind
or his heart, his thinking, his motives. It was total perfection. But listen, he was guilty because
our sins were accounted to him. He was cursed. He became a curse
for us because cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. Why? Because
of our sins laid to his charge. Am I right? He was, listen, Somebody
said he was just a mass of sin. Well, what does that mean? I
don't know what that means. They don't know what that means.
I'm finding all kinds of people saying all kinds of things from
the point of view, they don't know what it means. But let me
tell you something. Let me tell you something. It
was everything he went through based on our sin, charged him,
was real. It was reality. I'll tell you, it was the most
real thing that ever happened on earth, the way I look at it.
Because there's God turning his back on his son. My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? And what he went through, we
can't imagine. And you know, that's the pinnacle
of it. But you know, that started at
his birth. His suffering, actually, you
think about it. His humiliation never had a peaceful
moment on this earth. We've talked about that. But
look at it again, verse 15, We have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we are. Now look at the last part,
yet without sin. Yet without sin. He was tempted
just like us, except for one area. You see, that's what James is
talking about. When we're tempted, we always
have to deal with this solicitation of sin. Our own lust. Let me tell you, when you go
through suffering, don't answer me out loud. And I won't answer
you out loud. I will. When you go through suffering,
does your faith waver? It does, doesn't it? His didn't. That's the difference of what
James is talking about. When you're tempted to not believe, don't
blame God. That's your own lust, your own
fallen human nature. Mine too. When we go through
trial, when somebody else tests us, aren't we tempted to get
back at them, get vengeance, put them in their place? He wasn't. He said, Father, forgive them.
They don't know what they did. I wasn't just religious. Talk
with him. That's our Savior. Who loved
perfectly. You see what I'm saying? Now,
the trials that he went through were from the Father. Did you
know that? Every trial that the Son of God
went through was from the Father. You know, when he was tempted
of Satan, the Bible says after he was baptized, he was led of
the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. That was a trial from God towards
the Son, from the Father towards the Son. He had to meet those
trials, not in order to be qualified, but in order to show who He is. He's the Son of God incarnate.
And listen, alright, He stayed up on that mount 40 days and
40 nights and didn't eat a thing. Now, here's the infirmities of
the flesh. Now, if you went without food 40 days and 40 nights, how
hungry would you be? We can't even go a day. But if
we went without food 40 days and 40 nights, we would be really
hungry. Now, it's not a sin to be hungry. It's not a sin at all to be hungry.
While our Lord was just as hungry as we would be after being without
food 40 days and 40 nights. Well, what's the difference?
Well, when Satan came along and tempted him with bread, which
if he would have eaten, he would have had to have denied the father.
He had no fallen human nature. He had no lust within him that
would even entertain taking that bread to fulfill that hunger
in a way that would dishonor and deny the father. But you
know what? What if it were me? Are you?
We'd have a struggle, wouldn't we? We'd have a fight on our
hands within now, not just with Satan. I'm talking about I'd
have a fight with old Bill. I'm hungry. And it won't hurt. Just eat that bread. Just this
one. Oh, no. You see, that's the temptation
to do evil. Our Lord had the trial from the
father, but he had no temptation to do evil. He said this one
time, he said, Satan, the prince of this world, hath nothing in
me. There was no ally of Satan within the heart and the mind
of the Son of God incarnate. But you know what? Believer,
there is still an ally within us with Satan. Our own lust. Isn't that right? And that's
what James is talking about. Don't blame God, verse 15 of
James 1, when lust hath conceived it. But verse 14, that every
man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust. That's
what he's talking about. This shows us something about
sin. Sin's not something outside of
us. Sin's not a mass of anything.
Sin's not a lump of something. Sin is not a vial of anything.
There was a fellow who was a doctor, claimed to be a Christian. He
wrote a book and he talked about how sin is in the blood, the
physical blood. No, it's not. Sin is not a chemical
formula. It's not an amoeba floating around
in your brain somewhere. You can't sneeze it out. You
can't cut it out. You see, sin is transgression
of the law. Sin is rebellion. Sin is missing
the mark, falling short of the glory of God. Sin is a principle
within. I know people don't like that
word, but it is. It's a powerful principle. Paul called it a law
in Romans chapter 7. He said, I find a law in me. Worn against my members. It's
a law. It's a force. But thank God, so is God's grace
in Christ. And that's what, it's a lust,
that's what sin is, it's a lust, it's a desire. Now man's religion
can clean up the outside only in appearance, but not the heart. The heart's deceitful, of all
things desperately wicked. Who can know it? Jeremiah 17.
That's why salvation has to be redemption from the penalty of
sin and Regeneration. The new birth from the power
of sin. Not the power to stop sinning. That's it. None of us
are regenerated. None of us are born again. But
the power to run to Christ for salvation. The gift of God. Listen to what he says here in
verse 15. Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin,
and sin when it's finished bringeth forth death. Now he's not saying
here that lust itself is not sin. Because it is. I showed
that in Matthew chapter 5 when he talked about adultery, for
example. He says it's not only a sin to commit the act of adultery,
but to have the thought of it, to lust after a woman. Murder,
he says, it's not only a sin to commit the act of murder,
but to think in terms of anger so much so that you'd want to
murder a person. So sin is in the thought. Sin
is in the motive. Sin is an inner thing. Sin is
a heart matter. It's a heart problem. It's not
just outside. But what James is showing here
is the natural course of all sin. And here it is. Here comes
the lust, that's sin. But when it conceives, now that's
language like a woman having a baby. And that's what he's
talking about. That's the analogy he's using. It's like a woman
having a baby. Here comes the conception, that's
the lust. And then comes the birth, it
brings forth the act of sin, when it does that. And sin, when
it's finished, when it's completed and does its full work, what's
the result? Death. You see, all sin deserves death. All sin will lead to death. That's
why we need Christ. Jesus Christ. His name shall
be called Jesus. Isn't that His birth now? People
talking about His birth today. That's okay. I thank God for
the birth of Christ. How about you? The Incarnation. But here, before he was born,
the angel came to Joseph and said, Joseph, his name shall
be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. Turn back to Daniel chapter 9.
Book of Daniel. We're going to read this portion
tonight as our scripture reading, but I'm just going to read one
verse. Daniel 9 and verse 24. Remember what James said, sin,
when it's finished, bringeth forth death. You know what that
means? It's sin. If this problem of
sin is not taken care of in our lives, it's going to finish us
off. It's going to finish us with
death, eternal death. So what do we need? We need somebody
who will stand in our place, appointed of God, who can finish
it. We need somebody who can finish
sin off. Look at Daniel 9.24. Don't get bogged down in the
numbers here now. I'll get into that some other time. But 70
weeks are determined upon the people and upon thy holy city.
Now what he's talking about here is the time span for the Messiah
to come and do his work. And listen to what the Messiah
is going to do. To finish the transgression. Instead of the
transgression finishing me, Christ came and finished the transgression.
He finished it off. To make an end of sins. Instead
of sin making an end of me with death, Christ made an end of
sin on the cross. And to make reconciliation for
iniquity. You see, iniquity separated us
from God. Christ, the Prince of Peace,
He was made sin that God might be reconciled to us and we might
be reconciled to God. And He says, "...and to bring
in everlasting righteousness." That's Christ's righteousness,
His obedience unto death. "...and to seal up the vision
and the prophecy." That's talking about how all of the visions,
the Word, and the prophecy, and the types, and the pictures of
the Old Testament are sealed up in Christ. If you want to
know what they mean, look to Christ. And he says, and to anoint
the most holy, that is, his resurrection from the dead, his ascension
unto the Father, where he was declared before all to be King
of kings and Lord of lords. He finished. You see that? And so go back to James 1. Now,
let me just read these two verses and then I'll quit and I'll pick
up with him next week. So he says in verse 16, don't
err, my beloved brethren. Don't be wrong on this issue.
Don't stray away. Or don't go off on a tangent
here, you see. Don't stray away from the truth.
Don't get thrown off course now. You've got tribulations. You've
got trials from God. You've got temptations. But don't
be thrown off course. Keep your eyes glued to Christ.
Run the race of grace, looking unto Jesus, the author and the
finisher of our faith. And then he says, 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. Let me just give you just a brief
summary that every good gift and every perfect gift, the main
gift, the really one gift is Christ. He's the gift of God, the gift
of him. The gift of his righteousness,
the gift of redemption, the gift of life comes down from the father
of lights, that's the father of creation. With whom there's
no variableness, God doesn't deceive us, sin will. Sin will deceive us, our own
hearts will deceive us, but God won't deceive us and God won't
change. He made a promise to save all
who come to Him by Christ, all His people, and He'll keep that
promise. He'll keep it, He won't change,
He won't go back on it. I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. So look to Christ. Keep your eyes on Him by the
grace of God.