Okay, open your Bibles to James
1. We'll continue our journey through
the book of James. It's been a wonderful study so
far as we've went through this book. Today we'll be in chapter
1 again. And so far we've looked at verses
1-12 in which James is giving instruction in righteousness
to the saints that he's writing to. And he's doing this, remember
too, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. So the true author
of these words is the Holy Spirit of God. James is writing it again
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit to the saints that are going
through times of trials and troubles. He's again encouraging them to
look to Christ and Him alone. The fact that these trials is
never doubted is brought forth. All of God's people will go through
trials. It's guaranteed. We all will
go through trials in this world because we're being conformed
to the image of Christ as we go through this world. And so
trials will come our way. They will come our way. They're
guaranteed. It does not say the duration
and how long they will be. It just says that trials will
come to the Lord's people. And praise God that all our trials
and temptations will cease the moment we're in glory. The moment
we're in glory, everything like that will cease. There'll be
no more pain, no more sorrow, no more sickness, beloved. and
we'll be in the midst of our Savior. We'll see Him face-to-face
like we see one another face-to-face. It's going to be glorious, isn't
it? It's going to be wonderful as we see our Savior. And we
will have no more trials, no more temptations. No more trouble
with this flesh. No more trouble with sin. It's
going to be glorious. So let's read verses 12 to 18
here in James chapter 1. We'll see the context of our
verses. James chapter 1 verse 12. Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of
life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no
man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot
be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every
man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then, when lust hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it 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, of
his own will, look at that, begat he us. We're born again by the
will of God. We're saved by the will of God.
Isn't that wonderful? With what? With the word of truth.
that we should be a kind of first freight to this creature. So
we see in verse 12 that James is writing to believers who,
again, who are going through trials and temptations. The word
temptations there in the Greek is tested. Tested. And we've
learned from our past studies in this chapter that this is
what a trial is. Temptation. It's a test for us.
It tests to see if our faith is genuine, doesn't it? We saw
that in our studies. The test comes and although they're
painful, they're not meant to be painful, they're for our good
and for God's glory. And so temptations there again
is tested. And these temptations and these
trials are sent by God. They're sent by God to us. Not
to try, man, so that we can see what kind of person we are, No,
again, these trials and these temptations are sent our way
to prove our faith. To prove whether it's genuine
or not. The Lord already knows we're
safe sinners, doesn't He? He already knows we're safe sinners.
He already knows who the people of God are. And you know what
else these trials do? These trials wean us from this
world. They make us homesick for heaven. They make us homesick
to be in the presence of our great God and King just to behold
Him. Just to see Him. To be done with
sin. Are you done with sin? My, oh my! Do you sin more than
you want to? Absolutely, right? Praise be to God, though, for
God's people. All our sins are washed clean in the precious,
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And our hearts are made
known by God's method of affliction. And these tests and these trials
are to draw out what's hidden in our hearts. And what do they
do? What's ultimately the end goal
of these is they draw us closer to Christ, don't they? We've
seen that in our studies. When this trial comes, what usually
happens is we try to fix it on our own at first. And then we
fall flat on our face knowing that we can't do it. And then
we run to Christ. And we stay there, don't we? From my experience going through
trials and temptations, I've always been drawn to Christ through
them. Always. Always. That's the end
result for me. I'm always looking to Him more
going, Lord, help my unbelief. You know, we came out today.
I walk over in the morning to turn everything on in the church.
And there was one bird. He was just singing. Oh, he was
just singing. I love birds. I could just sit
out on the porch all morning long and listen to those beautiful
little creatures. And this one bird, he was singing
away. I call it the Lord's Orchestra
whenever I come home. I say, well, the Lord's Orchestra
is going again. And it was just beautiful. And when we walked over here,
Vicki and I, for service, I heard him again. And I said to Vicki,
I said, you know what that reminds me? Every time I hear those birds
sing, it reminds me that the Lord takes care of those little
birds. And how much more valuable are we as the people of God than
that little bird? And what is that little bird
doing? He's singing praises, isn't he? Spurgeon used to say,
they go down to eat and drink, and then they lift their head
up in praise. Oh my, they're beautiful. They're absolutely
beautiful little animals. But it's a reminder for us that
the Lord takes care of us no matter what we go through. He's
our all-sufficient Savior, isn't He? And these trials that we
go through, they also prove to us our insufficiency. They prove
to us how insufficient we are. How weak we are. How frail we
are. Personally, you'd think that
I would learn. But like Donnie and I were talking
this week, we're slow learners, aren't we? We have to be taught these things
over and over and over again. Oh my. Isn't the Lord long-suffering
with us? Isn't He good to us? He's so
good to us. My, oh my. So they draw us closer
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then again, we realize our
insufficiency. And then we realize that Christ
is all. And we're constantly learning
this, beloved. And this is in contrast to what
men are proclaiming in the times of Jesus. And I've heard it even
in these times as well. They say this. They say, well,
if God knows everything, And He allows sin to happen and
He's the author of sin. I can't tell you how many times
I've heard people say that. And my answer is always the same.
God forbid. God forbid. And we see here in
this portion here that James, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
confronts this error head on. Look at verses 14 to 16. He's confronting that error right
here before us. See, there's nothing new under
the sun, is there? Man doesn't change. So they come up with
the same things against God. They've been coming up with these
things for 2,000 years. Beloved, there's nothing new
under the sun. Look at this. But every man is tempted when
he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust has
conceived it, bring it forth sin. And sin, when it is finished,
bring it forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.
But look at verse 13. Let no man say when he is tempted,
I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempted He any man. So this is something that was
occurring. People were saying, well, obviously they were saying they
were being tempted. And why couldn't God stop? He
says, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God.
We're not tempted of God when we sin, but people say that. Or they say, well, if God's sovereign
over all, why doesn't He just stop sin? We're going to look
at the answer to that question today. God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempted He any man. And then James says
in verse 16, Do not err, my beloved brother. Don't. Don't take that
to heart. What they're saying is wrong. Turn if you would to the book
of Matthew chapter 15. Now James writes these words
calling us to confess our guilt and to not implicate God in our
sin. To not say that God compelled
us to sin. But knowing that sin comes within
our hearts. And we saw that brought out in
the text, right? Because in verses 14, look at this. But every man
is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.
Then when lust conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin,
when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved
brethren." Look at this. This is the words of the Master
too. This isn't my opinion. This is the words of the Master
in Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. These are
the words of God incarnate in the flesh. Look what He says
here in verses 17 to 20. Do not ye yet understand that
whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and
is cast out into the drought? But those things which proceed
out of the mouth cometh forth from the heart, and they defile
the man." So it's not what's outside that goes into our body
that defiles us. It's what comes out of our heart. It's what comes out of our heart.
But these things proceed out from the mouth, Come forth from
the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceedeth
what? Evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts,
false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man. But to eat with unwashing hands defiles not a man." So
let's go back to our text. James knows that most people
have an evil tendency to blame God. when they find themselves
in trials. And this is wrong. Because by His very nature, God
is unable to either be tempted in the sense that we are tempted, as James will explain and we
see in verses 14-16 and verse 13. Nor can He Himself tempt
anyone Why? Because He's pure holiness,
beloved. He's pure righteousness. He's holy. He's not the God of
people's imaginations that's up there wringing His hands.
He's a holy God and the scepter of His kingdom is in His hand,
beloved, and He reigns and rules. That's our God. And He reigns
in righteousness, doesn't He? And He's holy. He's holy. So we should remember
that the pagan gods of ancient times were well acquainted with
evil. They often sinned themselves. But the true God of the Bible
cannot be tempted by evil. And the Scriptures teach that.
The Scriptures teach that there are some who are blinded by God.
Absolutely. There are some who are given
up to a reprobate mind. The Scriptures teach these things.
But as we see, James was compelled to deny that we are tempted by
God. That our sin has anything to
do with God. And this is again for our learning,
beloved. This is for our learning. This is instruction in righteousness
for us. Some may take the Scriptures
and teach that man are And women are blinded by God and given
up to a reprobate mind and then they use that to sin. Here are two truths. The first
is that when Scripture ascribes blindness or hardness of heart
to God, it does not make God the beginning of that blindness. When did we become blind to the
things of God? When did we become hardened to
the things of God. When did we become dead in trespasses
and sins? When Adam fell. When Adam fell. So let us never use those things
as an excuse to sin. God is not the author of sin.
So to ascribe it to Him is wrong. It comes from within ourselves.
We saw that in James. We see that in verses 14 to 16.
Let's read that again. But every man is tempted when
he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed. That comes from
within, doesn't it? Then when lust hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death. It's all from within us, beloved. Isn't it amazing that the one
thing that we do, that we contribute, is sin? And salvation is all
outside of ourselves? Isn't that interesting? We're the sinners and He's the
Savior. And that all comes from us. And
you know, when the Lord saves a person, we own our sin, don't
we? We now say, I'm a sinner, when
we didn't before. And praise God, we're now sinners
saved by the grace of God in Christ. So the Scripture asserts
that the reprobate are delivered up to their own deprived lusts. But is it because the Lord deprives
or corrupts their hearts? Absolutely not. We saw in the
Scripture. Absolutely not. by no means, because they're
already corrupt. They're born dead in trespasses
and sins, just like every one of us. We came into this world
dead in trespasses and sins. Now we who believe are alive
in Christ, praise be to God. But when we came into this world,
we were dead spiritually. My, oh my. The only one who came into this
world sinless is He who is the seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He who is God incarnate in the
flesh. We who are the seed of Adam,
we're all born dead just like our father Adam was. He died. He died spiritually, didn't He,
when He fell? Well, we're His kin, aren't we? That's why it's written that
this sin comes out from within us. It's natural. It's just like breathing for
us. Another question may arise that
since God blinds or hardens, is He the author of evil? The
answer is no. We saw that in Matthew. Sin comes
from within, not from without. We see it here in our text. Sin
comes from within, not from without. And God punishes sin, doesn't
He? He gives a just reward to the ungodly. Wages of sin is
death. That's a payment in the Greek.
It's like a Roman soldier being paid for their duties. My. Those who refuse to be ruled
by Him, they'll get their just reward. They'll get their pay. We don't get what we deserve,
do we? Remember last week we saw that Christ is our reward? He's our reward and glory. Oh
my. Let's read verses 14. Actually,
let's read verses 13 to 15. Let no man say when he is tempted,
I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempted He any man. But every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then, when
lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is
finished, bringeth forth death." So clear. And then we see in
verse 16, Do not err, my beloved brethren. Turn, if you would, to Genesis,
chapter 6. Now, we're warned in James, chapter
1, verse 16, not to charge God with sin. He alone is holy. He alone is righteous. So the
origin of sin is not in God. And no blame can be imputed to
Him. He doesn't take pleasure in evil.
No. Look at Genesis 6, verses 5-8. This portion here brings home
a truth, which is true for every born-again, blood-washed believer.
You know what that truth is? we found grace in the eyes of
God. That's the truth. Every born-again,
blood-washed believer has found grace in the eyes of God because
we were purchased with the precious, precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the only reason we are saved
is because, just like Noah, we found grace in the eyes of the
Lord. Look at this. Genesis 6, verses 5-8. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. What an
indictment. That's the natural state of man
right there. That's how we were before the Lord saved us. And
we still struggle with sin all the time, don't we? All the time. Now we're saved sinners, we who
are his people. Praise be to God. Look at this. And he repented to the Lord that
he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. God doesn't take pleasure in
evil at all. We see here. It grieved him at
his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man
and beast and creeping thing, and the fowls of the air, for
it repenteth me that I have made them. Now, there's the sovereignty
of God on display. This world is his. Every visible
and invisible thing is his. Every atom is at his control. Every molecule is at his control. Look at this though in verse
8. Now what's the difference between Noah and everybody else? It's right here. But Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. What's the difference between
you and I and all our family members and friends that we grew
up with? What's the difference between them and us? We who are
the redeemed of the Lord? We found grace in the eyes of
God. That's it. The only one who made us to differ
is God. Think about that. Think about
all the people you know in your whole life. People you went to
school with, people you worked with, family. And the only one who made you
to differ, and I to differ, is God. Because just like Noah here,
we found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And that's in the eyes
of Jehovah. That's the self-existent one
there in the Hebrew. in their vanity attempts to cast
blame for his vices and sins on God. You know why? Because every evil proceeds from
their heart. Oh my. Let's go back to our text. James here proves that God tempts
no one because He cannot be tempted with evil. Look at verse 13.
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God
cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man."
Literally, this means untemptable by evil. Untemptable by evil. That is,
God is not capable of being tempted. He's not capable of being seduced
by wicked and sinful men. Our great God is so pure. And
he's not influenced by evil suggestions. He's so pure that he's not tempted
or seduced by men. Therefore, we can conclude that
if God cannot be tempted to do what is sinful, he cannot possibly
tempt others to sin. Now let us consider God's will.
Can God's will be thwarted? Can anyone thwart the will of
God? Can anyone bend God's will to
what they ask for? Nope. God's will can never be
thwarted, right? Of course not. He wouldn't be
God. If his will could be thwarted, he wouldn't be God. So when man
sins, is the will of God done? Well, of course, because it's
part of the all things that God has purposed and planned. But
we're going to look here at God's permissive will and God's directive
will. Scripture says this, in whom
also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. Now, let's stop there. Daniel
says this. Daniel writes these things. It's
a stated fact in scripture that God's will cannot be stopped
by man. Now God's not the author of sin,
right? But he allows it to happen. He
does allow it to happen. But he uses it for his means. Man we saw, we're the author
of sin, aren't we? It comes out of us. Listen to
what Daniel wrote here. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. This is speaking about God. And none can stay at his
hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Now, people can say to
us, what are you doing? You can't say that to God at
all. He does whatever he pleases with
the armies of heaven. One angel killed over 100,000
men. But these angels are at his beck and call. They cannot
do anything outside of His permissive will. And man, he inhabits the earth.
None can stay his hand. Can anyone thwart the will of
God? No, absolutely not. No one can say, what are you
doing, Lord? So let us consider that the Lord has only one will,
but this will is seen in two aspects. There is the permissive
will of God, and there is the directive will of God. The directive
will of God was to put Joseph on the throne of Egypt, right?
Joseph was to go to the throne of Egypt. He's going to be prime
minister of Egypt. That was God's purpose. That
was God's will, that Joseph would be on the throne and that he
would save Israel. He would save Israel, preserve
their life in Egypt. Now, in God's permissive will,
Joseph's brother sold him into slavery. But God did not direct
those men to do that, did He? He didn't direct them to sell
Joseph into slavery. Because if He did, that would
make God the cause of their sin. And He's not. When Joseph was
put into Potiphar's house, God didn't direct men to put Joseph
in prison. But this was God's will. This
was His permissive will. And through that situation, what
happened? Joseph was bought. to the throne of Egypt. He became the prime minister
of Egypt, answering only to Pharaoh. So it was God's directive will
that Joseph was to sit on the throne, wasn't it? It was. It was his directive will. But
it was carried out by many events, which men did. Because that's
what men wanted to do. And little did they know it bought
about God's directive will. They had no idea. Our Savior's
death was the directive will of God, wasn't it? Wasn't it? Our Savior was sent to save His
people from their sins, right? That's what He was sent here
to do. He was sent here By God's directive, well, he's the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. And it was God's will
that Christ would die on that cross in order that he might
be our sin offering from all eternity. God had purposed and
planned that. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. So it was God's directive, well,
that Christ would die on the cross as a sinner's substitute.
But God didn't nail him to that cross, did he? Nope. God didn't nail him to
the cross. Wicked men did, right? Men in their natural state nailed
him to that cross. And God didn't direct Pilate
to sentence his son to die. But Pilate did that out of his
own cowardice, didn't he? He did God's will, his permissive
will. So God's directive will was that
Christ would die upon that cross. Turn, if you would, to Acts 2.
We'll see this brought forth. The man who drove the nails into
the precious hands of our Savior, he did that all by himself, right?
God didn't tell him to do it. He hammered those nails into
the hands of our Savior and the feet of our Savior. But in doing so, he did God's
will, God's permissive will. God allows a man to do these
things to carry out His directive will. Look at this in Acts chapter
2. And it's brought forth right here. Acts chapter 2 verses 22
to 24. Amen of Israel. Hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth,
the man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and
signs which God did by Him in the midst of you. As ye yourselves
also know, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. So it was God's directive will
that Christ would die on the cross. Look at this. Ye have taken and by wicked hands
have crucified and slain. Did God tell him to do that? No man did that, didn't he? Now
it was part of God's directive will, but God's permissive will
allowed that to happen, didn't he? Didn't it? It did. Whom God hath raised up, having
loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
be holding of it. So man did what their evil hearts
told him to do. It says, you're a wicked man. Took him up and crucified him
and slayed him. All the time, not knowing that
they were carrying out God's directive will. That's amazing, isn't it? Turn,
if you would, two chapters over to Acts. Acts chapter 4, we read
in verses 26 and 28. Again, we see that wicked men
killed the Lord of glory in God's permissive will, but in doing
so, they carried out, again, God's directive will. Acts 4,
verses 26 to 28. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against His Christ. There we go. For of a truth against
the holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and
Pontius Pilate were the Gentiles, and the people of Israel gathered
together. They were all against him. Look what it says here,
though. For to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done. So we see God's permissive will
allowing them to do that. And we see God's directive will.
that Christ would die upon the cross. My oh my. You cannot say that it's God's
directive will for any man to sin, though it is His permissive
will. And in verse 14 of James, look
at James chapter 1 verse 14. But every man is tempted when
he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. There it is. The source of our sin is ourselves. That which is inside, not that
which is outside. What does God have to do for
a man to go to hell? Amen, brother. Just leave him
alone. What does God have to do for
you and I to go to heaven? Everything. Everything. My oh my. So we see that God
mites out death for sin. It's the wages. It's the just
payment that God's law and justice demands. Look at verse 15. Then when lust hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished, bringeth
forth death. So if God directed a man to sin,
it would be unjust for him to punish him, wouldn't it? God doesn't direct anyone to
sin. We see here in these verses that it comes from within. We're
tempted when we're drawn away of our own lust and enticed. You know, in the enemy, he studied
mankind for 6,000 years. He knows everything that
makes us trip. We're no match for him, are we? But he can only do what our great
King allows. See, who's our own worst enemy?
Spurgeon said this, and I love it. Our worst enemy is ourselves. Because our sin comes from within. Comes from within. And then look
at what James writes here. When men make an error and they
blame God for their evil, our dear brother James here brings
forth in verse 16, Do not err, my beloved. That's divinely loved
ones. Do not err, my divinely loved
ones. Oh, my divinely loved brethren,
don't err. Don't err about God's will. It
is for sure that God's will will be done in all things, yet the
blame for sin comes from our own deprived hearts. Praise be
to God, though, the Lord Jesus Christ went to Calvary's cross
for His people. And He shed His precious blood
All our sins were imputed to Him. And He shed His precious,
precious blood to purchase our eternal souls, beloved. And now
we are clothed in the spotless righteousness of Christ. So men
do what they want. And God gives them free reign
to sin to the fullest. You know what? And you know why? They have no idea. that they
are carrying out God's directive will by His permission for them
to sin. Now, I can't explain it. I just
know it's true. As one of our grace preachers
said, Jack Shanks, he says, I'm not in the explaining business.
When you start to explain God, he said, you're in trouble. When you try to bring God down
to our level, where He could be understood by this natural
mind, and you're in deep trouble. Scripture declares this, Oh,
the depth of the rich is both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God. How unsearchable are His judgments, His ways past finding
out. And it goes on to say this in
Job 9, 10. Which doeth great things past finding out, yea,
and wonders without number. Lo, He goeth by me, and I see
Him not. He passes on also, but I perceive
Him not. Behold, He taketh away who can
hinder Him. Who will say unto him, what doest
thou? But his judgments and his ways
are passed fine tonight. Praise God for the mercy that
we have received in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.