I'll be continuing to look here
in the book of James, first chapter. Last week we had looked at the
verses concerning the brother of low degrees being exalted
and the brother who was rich in that he was humble and that
was the thing that he was to be thankful for. We must never
desire to be raised up nor put down, except insofar as we need
to. And sometimes we need to be lifted
up. You know, sometimes our heads
hang down and the, say in the book about when Samuel was in
the, was a young lad, and it says
that the, lamp was burning low I think it was said in the temple
there where Eli was and sometimes the lamp does burn low and we
look around us and we can't find any real comfort and help and
we're troubled. We're troubled by the events
that surround us in this world and I think we've all come face
to face with that this past week as things unfolded as they did
and regardless of what your political leaning might be, such things
as that should serve to demonstrate to us the wickedness of men.
And the fact that we are just like that, and the only reason
we haven't done something like that is the grace of God and
the mercy of God to restrain us and to order our steps in
such a way that we are not in that. Because there is within
each one of us, whether we like to think of it or not, an evil
heart of unbelief and wickedness which knows no end. Now, I know
a lot of people don't believe that. And a lot of people reject
that notion. It's not politically correct
to talk like that. I mean, just think if you got
up in front of a Republican National Convention and you told everybody
that they were totally depraved, they probably wouldn't go over
very well with it. You know, they'd probably run
you out pretty quick. But the reality of the matter
is that if we're honest, we must confess that there is no good
thing that dwells within us, and only by the grace of God
do we stand and are able in any wise to perform things that are
good. There is much good that's done
by men in the earth, but we must never forget who the source of
that good is. The problem that men have is
they see good things take place as what we define as good, and
they think that men are the authors of those things, but they're
not, God is. and he causes the rain to fall on the just and
the unjust. And you know, there's like Brother
Barnard, I believe it was, said there's a lot of heaven on the
road to heaven, but there's a lot of hell on the road to hell.
And there's, you know, these things are all mixed up in the
world as we go about it. What can we do? What can a man
do to change that? Now, the politicians will tell
you they're going to change that. They're going to make everybody
get together. We're going to have unity. We're
going to have unity. Well, you know, only the Lord
can give men unity. And the only unity that there's
gonna be is the unity of God's people with Jesus Christ, because
we are at odds with others. I mean, we can't ever, you know,
we can go through life and we can live peaceably with all men,
but we can't have fellowship with all men. And we're not told
to have fellowship with all men, because we cannot walk, two cannot
walk together except they be agreed. And if we're in the company
of somebody who is at odds with Christ and they don't believe
that he is who he said he is and who we believe that he is,
then how can we have fellowship with them? I mean, we don't have
to shoot them or we don't have to fight them or we don't have
to argue with them. But we can't embrace them in
that notion And so therefore, we can't walk together in that
way. And that's what the Lord meant
when he said that he didn't come to bring peace in the earth,
but he came to bring a sword. And he would set at variance
a man from his mother and his father and his brother. You know,
these things will happen because all men do not love Jesus Christ. But we must never lose sight
of the fact the only reason that we do, if indeed we do, is because
of His mercy and grace that taught us to fear. It was grace that
taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious was that hour when
I first believed. And so the Lord raises men up
and He puts men down. He makes some rich and He makes
some poor. And if we're poor, we should
be rejoicing that the Lord has raised us up and exalted us.
And if we're rich, then we need to remember from where these
riches came and realize that our true riches are not in this
world or of this world, but they are those things that never fade
away. And so He says, Let me read this verse, and then
we'll read a few verses here. For the sun is no sooner risen
with the burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the
flower thereof falleth, and the grace and fashion of it perisheth. So also shall the rich man fade
away in his ways. Now, when he's talking about
the rich man, he's not necessarily talking about a man with a bunch
of money, but he's talking about a man that values whatever it
is he has in this world. He might not have a whole lot,
but he may still be rich in his own mind because he's depending
on this world. But all of us, it is appointed
unto men once to die. And after this, the judgment.
That is just a reality. Now, I know that you hear these
people, you know, well, we're just right on the verge of discovering
this new vitamin or this new treatment, or we've got this
way we're gonna make men just live right on. We're gonna just
do it. Well, the Lord's the only one
that's gonna make men live on, and he's already set that in
motion, and it is. done by him. It won't be done
by men, because as long as men dwell in this world, there will
be death. That will be the final end of
them. It's just the way that it is,
whether we like it or we don't. So, the fashion of this world
perishes. But he said, blessed is the man,
happy, is the man that endureth temptation. Now when speaking
about here temptation, we've spoken about this. Temptation,
we often think of temptation in relation to sin and well it
is, that is a temptation. But temptation in the scripture
often refers to the trials and troubles of this life when we
are tried in all things. And of course, this is especially
true as we understand that when the scripture says that the Lord
Jesus Christ was tempted in all ways, like as we are yet without
sin, it's not referring to the fact that he wanted to do something,
but he didn't do it. In other words, it's not speaking
about he was tempted towards sin, and he said, no, I'm not
gonna do it at the last minute. That's not the temptation that
he had. He was tried in all points, as we are. And so it is, dear
brethren, that this temptation that he's speaking of here, it
may include the temptation of sin, because as we'll see as
we get on a little further down, that is the way that we're already
leaning. And so temptation to us is often
an enticement. The Lord Jesus Christ was never
enticed by anything that the devil said to him. The thought
never crossed his mind that he would depart from the Lord. It
crossed the devil's mind. And he said, come on and do this. But as the Lord said in another
place later on in the gospel, he said, Satan has desired to
have me, but he has nothing in me. There's nothing in him that
would be enticed towards sin. He was without sin. And having
said that, you see, this is the place where a lot of people miss
the mark on what sin is. You know, they say, well, I didn't
do this and I didn't do that, and so therefore I'm without
sin. Well, sin is not so much in the fruit as it is in the
root. I mean, you know, it's not the
external things that men do that cause the wrath of God to fall
on them. It's what's inside that causes
them to do those things. You see, the Lord hates the sin
of men, not the sins. I mean these things are, they
pass away with the world, all of these things, it's the natural
course of men. But that which causes a man to
rebel against God, that's a terrible thing. And you see that, while
the Lord came to indeed satisfy the law for the sins that we
had committed, it is the sin that He has taken away. from
us. See, we're no longer, as Paul
said, reckon ye yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God. Now it's hard for us to grasp
that, but it is a true thing. It's not make believe, it is
a fact that there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. None. There's nothing that can
bring them under the curse of Almighty God, because He has
taken that away. Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation, for when he has tried, when he has gone through this
temptation, whether it be some temptation in the world such
as sickness, the death of a loved one, or whatever trial might
come upon him, or whether it is sin that he is enticed towards, blessed is the man that endureth
temptation. That is, that he's not turned
aside by it, he's not destroyed by it. Paul said that he was
tried in many ways, but he says, I'm cast down, but I'm not destroyed. You know, I'm weak, but I'm not
just completely brought to death because of the fact that Christ
is my keeper. And so, blessed is the man, happy
is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall
receive the crown of life. Now, some people read that and
they say, If he endures and if he is tried, the Lord's gonna
give him the crown of life. It says when. See, God's people
are born into a world wherein there is temptation and trouble.
And the Lord has given us an enduring of that temptation.
It's not always in ourself. See, we're not, I mean, when
a man is weighed down under the loss of a loved one, does he
endure the temptation by his own power? I mean, does he endure
that trouble and that trial by his own power? No. The Spirit
of God, who's his comforter, gives him grace, and his endurance
is in Christ. I mean, He's the one that causes
us to endure. It's not the Lord looking down
and saying, well, I wonder if He's going to endure. The scripture
says, He that endureth to the end shall be saved. How are you
going to endure to the end? There's only one way, and that
is if Christ is your endurance. I mean, He's the one who has
been tripped, tempted, tried in all points, like as we are. And yet He has not succumbed
to those temptations. So, happy is the man who endures
temptation, that is. Happy is the man who's in the
midst of it. Now, that's hard to believe, isn't it? See, you
can't, you can't, the Lord said in the book of Hebrews, which
we just looked in, he said, no chastening for the present time
seemeth to be glorious. See, it's hard in the midst of
the trouble to rejoice. I mean, if you lose a loved one,
sadness is gonna grip your heart. But you see, sadness does not
overcome us. Why? Because the Lord holds us
up. See, he is that one that caused,
so the chastening, is itself not the thing that causes us
joy, but it is the enduring in the midst of it as the Lord supports
us and keeps us. So blessed, happy is the man
that endureth temptation. That is, he is in the midst of
it, and Christ is there with him. Now he might not see that
right away. I mean, when Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego were thrown into the furnace, I mean, think about
what was going through their minds as they were going up those
steps, bound up like a piece of cordwood, and throwed into
that fire. The scripture says the fire was
so hot that the men that threw them in there were immediately
burned up. So, I mean, flames were probably
coming out of this furnace, and you know, what was going through
their mind? They were thinking, oh no, this
is probably gonna hurt. I mean, you know, but when they
were cast in the fire and the Lord was with them in the midst
of that fire, you see, they endured the trial. They were happy because
the peaceable fruit was brought forth by His grace to deliver
them. And so happy is the man that
endureth temptation, for when he has tried, he shall receive
the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that
love him." You see, that's a promise in itself. The Lord has promised
His people. They don't earn it by their endurance,
but they endure because the promise is given to them. See, that's
a big difference in how people look at that. Some people think,
well, buddy, God is pleased with what I did, and He's gonna reward
me. No. No, the reward of Almighty
God, the blessing of Almighty God precedes any blessing that
we receive. I mean, He's the one that sends
it. And He sends it in such fashion
sometimes in the midst of things that we can't appreciate until
afterwards. Now think about Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. And of course, I'm just, you
know, kind of surmising here. But think about them sitting
around telling their grandchildren about the day they were thrown
in the fiery furnace. Oh, what a glorious thing, right?
See, they were blessed. They didn't think they would
be. It wasn't any way they were going to be. In their mind, I'm
sure they figured, well, this is it. But oh, what a blessing
it was. And so the crown of life is given
to those that love Him. Why they love Him? We love Him.
Why? Because He first loved us. That's right, brother. Oh, what
a glorious Savior and Lord He is. Let no man say when he is
tempted, Now when he is tried or when he is enticed is a better
probably way to look at this word here. Let no man say when
he is enticed that I'm enticed of God. For God cannot be enticed
with evil as we spoke there, neither entices he any man. Now you know when Back when we
had hogs, a lot of times you couldn't get a hog to come in. You might want to get hogs in
a pen or whatever, and you couldn't get the hog to go in there for
nothing. I mean, he knew hogs are one of the smartest animals
that God made. Now, you might not believe that,
but if you've ever had any hogs, you know that they know what
you're thinking. They know where you want them
to go. And they don't want to go there.
But you know what's something that always worked? Is you could
get you a bucket and put you some corn in there. And you could
rattle that corn around. And that old hog, he'd start
thinking about that. And you could put that down in
front of him. And you could just lead him right
on in to the one place he wasn't wanting to go. Now that, dear
brethren, is what this is speaking of. So let no man say when he
is enticed to sin that he's enticed by God. Because he's not enticed
by God, he's enticed by his own bent towards the sin. Why did Adam sin? Because he
was enticed. And why was he able to be enticed?
Because he was a creature. See, all creatures are fallible.
And don't, now we, you know, this is a ticklish thing, and
we want to say the right thing here. God made all things. And just like Brother Al pointed
out there a moment ago, I mean, he says very plainly in the scriptures,
I form the light, I create the darkness, and I create evil. The Lord makes, He made the world,
He could have made the world without evil, couldn't He? Well,
of course He could. I mean, He could have done anything
He wants to, but the problem lies here when men think, oh,
well, if God is the author or the creator of evil, then He
can't hold us accountable for it. See, there's the big error. Well, see, God made His creation,
and He made them just like He wanted to, and He made you accountable.
Whether you want to be or not. Whether your reason will let
you be or not. It does not make any difference.
See, men can reason all day. Well, if God doesn't give men
free will, then He can't hold them accountable. Well, dear
brethren, He can hold you accountable. Why? Because He made you. There
again, that probably does not suffice the great intellectual
thinkers of the world, but it does not make any difference.
He is the absolute God and He does according to His will, the
army of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth. None can stay His
hand. And why would the potsherds of the earth, what have they
got to say towards Him? Now, we can see an illustration
of this in a very minute way in that if somebody comes against
you and sues you and you feel that the suit is wrong, you can't
call up Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court and say, hey, I
got this problem I need for you to rule on this. You don't have
any standing. See, you can't go to the Supreme
Court. Now, just multiply that by a
million times and think how foolish it is for a man to ever come
up with some argument or thought in his mind to accuse God of
something that wouldn't be right. God doesn't do right because
it's right. He does right because he's God.
And whatever God does is right. See, that's the definition of
what's right. It's what He says and what He
does, it is right. Now, there again, men don't like
a God like that. They like a God they can manipulate.
See, they like a God that's according to how they think. That's what
Paul said. He said they made God in their
own image. They think of Him like they are.
They think, well, you know, it's only right for God to abide by
the same thing He told us. No. See, He can send an evil
spirit. to Saul, he sent a lying spirit,
scripture says, to some of the prophets. He sent a lying spirit
to them. Yet we know that God cannot lie. What do we mean? We mean he's
not going to go back on what he said. If he said he's going
to do something, he'll do it. How foolish it is for men to
sit around with their moral judgments and try to apply them to God.
I mean, that just won't work. You don't have any place to do
it. I remember Brother Forbes one time was talking about But
that's the fella he knew. And he had become angry and he
said, and Forbes was telling him, you know, well, gods can
do all things. And he said, well, I'll curse
God. And Forbes said, well, go ahead.
And he let off, you know, all this stuff and he said, okay.
I thought you was gonna curse God. See, you didn't have any
power to curse God. You don't have any power to curse
God. I mean, any more than a witch doctor down in Haiti has got
power to curse you with some voodoo thing that he does. You
don't have any power to curse God. How would you curse God? I mean, the Lord shall have them
in derision. He has no rival. So let not a man think that he
can blame God for his sin. Where did that idea ever come
from? It came from the evil heart of men. It began in the garden,
didn't it? Lord, it wasn't me. It was the woman that you gave
me. You made her, Lord. You know, if you hadn't never
made her, I wouldn't have never done this. No. Let no man. Look, when the Lord
is pleased to bring you to a place of seeing your sin, it's your
sin. See, that's the place God brings
people. That's where he brought David, wasn't it? He said, Lord,
against thee and thee only have I sinned. See, it's not anything. I mean, we believe in absolute
predestination of all things by Almighty God, but let no man
say when he is tempted, I'm tempted of God. Because what's it say? He explains it. He said, but every man is enticed
or tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, just like the
old hog. Now, the hog might get in the
pen and he say, that's sorry, farmer. He said, he put me in
this pen. No, he didn't put you in the
pen. You put yourself in the pen because you wanted the corn. And so it is, that's the way
sin is. It's our sin. It's not somebody
else's. It's not something that we caused
to do it. And sin, every man's tempted
when he has drawn away of his own lust and enticed. He's drawn
to it, he desired it, he wanted it. Then when lust hath conceived,
that is, see there is a, there are stages of sin. There were
stages in Adam's sin, was there not? I mean, Adam was going along
blissfully through his life there, and I'm not totally convinced
that he didn't from time to time look over there at the tree that
the Lord had told him not to eat of and think, I wonder what
would happen if I did. Now, the Lord had already told
him what was gonna happen, not what might happen. He said, Adam,
in the day that you eat this, you're gonna die. Adam didn't
believe it. But he thought about it. And
when the woman brought to him, the thing, the scripture says
the woman was deceived. He wasn't. Adam wasn't deceived. He was drawn away of his own
lust because he was enticed by that which he'd already considered.
And so he did that which the Lord said he was going to do.
And lust, when it hath conceived, it bringeth forth death, just
like the Lord said. See, Adam was created in Scripture. The Lord created Adam upright.
He was going along just fine. Now, the Lord made him just like
he made him. But he didn't die till he did what the Lord said
he was gonna do. And he brought death upon himself.
Adam, in the day you eat thereof, thou shalt surely die. See, lust
conceived. And when lust conceives, it bringeth
forth sin. In his mind, he thought on it.
And see, that's the place, that's the difference, you see, between
the sinlessness of Christ and the sinfulness of men. See, we
think on evil. Christ never did. He was confronted with everything
that's in this world, but he never thought on evil. Never
occurred to him. But you and I can't walk down
the street without entertaining thoughts of evil. Oh, we may
not, we may not, you know, do it, but we think about it. And there came a time when Adam
not only thought about it, but he did it. See, when lust hath
conceived, it bringeth forth sin. Sin was brought forth. It
was like a birth. It came forth. And sin, when
it is finished, bringeth forth death. See, the Lord said to the Pharisees,
He said, you know, you say that if a man commits adultery that
he has sinned, I tell you, he said, he that looketh on a woman
to lust hath already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Now the Lord never destroyed any man for just thinking about
sin. Because I believe, I mean, I
can't prove this, but I would think because of the nature of
the way it occurred, that Adam had thought about eating of the
tree of life before he did. I mean, not the tree of life,
but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The reason I think that he'd
thought about it before was I don't think it just popped into his
head that moment that he'd eat of that thing, but I believe
he had thought about it. But see, the Lord hasn't passed
the sentence of death on men because they thought about sin.
He has passed the sentence of death on men because they not
only have thought about sin, but they've been enticed by it
and they have committed sin. And so it is that Adam brought
sin upon the world. And when lust hath conceived,
bringeth forth sin, sin when it is finished. bringeth forth
death. Graveyard's full of the proof
of that. Sin, when it's finished, that's
what happens. Now we know also that there's a lesson to be learned,
that we should flee from sin. I mean, we ought to resist the
devil, the scripture says, and he will flee from you. I mean,
we ought to stand against him. I mean, we're not just, you know,
lay down as doormats. We are to stand firm. How are we gonna do that, though?
It's gonna be only by the grace of Almighty God, who works in
us, both willing to do of His good pleasure, and He does do
that. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Don't get off on the
wrong track. Don't excuse your sin by saying,
well, nothing I can do about it, so I'm just gonna do it. Nor do you blame God for what
you do. Own what you are by nature. Recognize
what you are by nature. And flee from the enticement. See, if the old hog if he'd have
thought about it for just a minute and been able, he'd say, wait
a minute, I've fell for this too many times. Because it works
every time. It works every time. Just shake
that corn a little in the bucket and then he says, hmm, I think
I'll get me some of that corn because he forgets about what
the result of it is. Oh, that the Lord might teach
us what the result of it is. I'm not saying that's gonna deliver
you from it, but by the grace of God, he does make us aware
of these things. Oh, that he might teach us and
lead us, and I believe he will. See, I think the Lord takes these
things and he applies them to our heart and our mind, and he
calls us to be, as David, oh, give me a clean heart, oh God.
It'll cleanse my thoughts. Don't let me spend my time thinking
on these evil things, but Lord, give me a pure heart, a clean
heart, oh God. 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
or neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his
creatures. Every good gift. Now every gift
from God is good. Whether we think so or not. But
see, all the gifts that God gives us that are good, he causes all
things to work together for good to them that love God, who are
the call according to his purpose. And these are good gifts. even
when there are trials and troubles. They're good gifts because He
is good. There's no gift that comes from
Him that is not good. They come down from the Father
of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Now
see, that's in quite much in contrast with us. We're fickle creatures. We wax
cold and we wax hot. We say we're gonna follow the
Lord, and we don't. You know, we say, well, we've
learned our lesson, and we haven't. How many times have you said,
Lord, if you'll get me out of this
jam, I won't ever do that again. And like a sow which is washed,
we return to our wallowing in the mire. Why? Because that's what we are by
nature. But you see, every good gift
is from above, and Christ and the righteousness of Christ is
the best gift. Oh, what a glorious thing. Because
you see, when we could not deliver ourselves, and you can't, Christ
has delivered us. And he loves us. You see, he
loved us from the beginning. And he didn't wait till we got
straightened out. You're never gonna be straightened
out. He made you like he wanted you
to be. And the glorious thing is that
it's his spirit working in his people. that brings them to the
place he would have them to be as followers of Christ and no
other way. You can tell me what I need to
do every day and it's not going to cause me
to do it. You know, I talked to a fellow
the other day and he was talking about, you know, that him and
his other brothers, they get together and they hold each other
accountable. Well, I'm not saying anything
wrong with that. We are our brother's keeper and there's probably a
measure of good that could come from that. But a man's a fool
to think that because he's accountable to another man that that's going
to keep him from sin. We're not accountable to one
another in that respect. The Lord knows what we are. You
know what He knows about us? He knows we're dust. Thou worm,
Jacob. He loved Jacob. He said so. Jacob have I loved, he shall
have I hated. But He said, Thou worm, Jacob.
You maggot. See, I mean only the Lord. See, we think of that in terms
of disdain. The Lord just speaks of us as
He knows what we are. I mean, He knows you're down
sitting and you're up rising, you're going out and you're coming
in. And if anything ought to cause you to say, oh no, it ought
to be that. The Lord knows the thoughts of
your heart. But you know what? He loves His people anyway. Now
see there, that's the amazing The amazing thing about the grace
and mercy of Almighty God towards those whom He loves. Nothing
affects it. And you know all these people
running around out here, well you can be lost one day and save
the next, and you can go along here and do something wrong.
I knew a guy, in fact, as far as I know, still holds to this
notion that If you don't confess every sin that you've committed
that day, then you're not going to be forgiven for it. And in other words, you've got
to just always be praying. They call it being prayed up.
You've got to be right on the ball. I mean, if you do something,
you need to repent of it right then. Brothers, I told them,
man, I said, you ain't got any hope whatsoever. If your salvation depends on
you knowing what your sin is, number one, just knowing about
it, let alone actually repenting of it or actually being sorrowful
in the right frame of mind, you've got no hope. I mean if Christ
has not satisfied the law and the debt of sin that we owe,
and if he has not taken away our sin as far as east is from
the west and remembered it no more, we're done for. Because you don't even know what
your sins are. That your wife does. But you don't know what they
are. I mean, you've done things that you had no idea. Oh, that
the Lord might. That he might teach us what we
are by nature. You know, I say it over and over
again, but it's a true thing. There's only two things that
a man needs to know. What a great sinner he is. But
what a great Savior Christ is. Oh, come ye sinners, poor and
needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands
to save you, full of pity, joined with power. If you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all. Oh, that the Lord might Give
us a mind and heart to know what we are by nature and to cast
ourselves upon him, to call upon him this day for his mercy and
kindness to be shown to us. And he's ready to save those
that call upon him. May he give us grace to do so.