Sermons

All Sin Comes From Within

6/3/2012

GR 1643

James 1:13-18

Transcript

GR 1643
06/03/2012
All Sin Comes From Within
James 1:13-18
Gil Rugh

James 1, James has been instructing his readers about the matter of trials. And we noted that this includes all kinds of trials in “James 1:2, Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,” (all kinds of trials). So, whatever the trial, whatever the pressure, whatever the difficulty that might come into our life would be encompassed with what James has to say here. Whatever kind of trial it is, we see the sovereignty of God at work, and he has allowed that trial to come into our life for his purpose. His purpose is to mold us, to shape us, mold into conformity with his character to greater maturity. It is perfecting work that God is doing. Wisdom needed to make our way through trials and difficulties, we simply turn to God and ask him. If any of you lack wisdom, verse 8, let him ask of God and he will give it freely. But we must ask in faith. When you come to trust God as your Savior, you place your faith in Him. We often emphasize to people that you cannot trust Christ plus your good works, Christ plus your baptism, Christ plus your church membership. You must have your faith in Christ alone. Well then we begin a life that is lived in the same way. We are to have our faith solidly and completely in the God who has saved us.

So, when I come to in prayer, I come trusting Him, believing that he is the God who is able to provide everything that I need to live in a way that is pleasing to Him even in the most trying of circumstances. His grace is sufficient. Remember when Paul went before the Lord and asked him for deliverance from a trial that beset him from Satan. And God said No I won’t remove the trial, but my grace is sufficient for you. We come and find that sufficient grace. We are privileged. God says what a privilege it is to rest completely in me. Sometimes when being told to do something and they say let go and just settle down right now and you have that sense well I am afraid to let go too much. No let go, let go, and when you finally do, you find God is sufficient. I don’t have to be at the end of tension and partially trusting him and looking for something else. So, James is working through trials, reminds the poor, reminds the rich. In life the poor should keep their minds for believers, lower believers, their minds on the riches they have in Christ. And the rich who are believers ought to remember that these earthly riches will pass away, and all the true riches will be those that they have in Christ.

So, the balance there is to keep the poor man from being discouraged with what he has and keep the rich man from being arrogant and self-confident about the excess that he has. Verse 12 is a transition verse that moves us along still in the subject of trials. The subject of trials really goes from verse 2 down through verse 18 encouraging in trials. Some of them ask how this connects the rich and the poor. A reminder, we all go through trials, each are to be careful as we move through that we be handling it in a way that is pleasing to God. “James 1:12, Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” Similar to what we had in verses 2, 3, and 4. For our trials are having a perfecting work. So, when you persevere under trial, you endure under trial. That is shaping and molding and strengthening your character bringing you to greater maturity. You work through the trial; God’s intention is that you have his approval. You have passed through that test and the refining process. The ultimate end when this life and its trials are over, we receive the crown of life in the presence of the Lord, and you can enjoy this eternal life that is ours because he has promised it. Verse 12 pronounces that blessing, that inner joy and satisfaction, happiness with that internal dimension as we come through trials. “James 1:13, Let no one say when he is tempted,” a different translation here but we have the same word. It is the same word that has been translated trials up to this point. The end of verse 2, when you encounter various trials. So, we want to be careful that we are talking about the same thing but a different aspect of it. God brings trials into our life but never to lead us to sin, never to move us to sin. But every trial has that potential if I don’t handle it well, if I don’t handle it biblically. That is why I have to go to the Lord to get the wisdom to handle it. Because under pressure we’re being tested. And it’s easy to get frustrated with trials, discouraged with trials. Get so consumed with getting out from under the pressure that we fail to look to God. And maybe He wants us to handle the pressure and continue to live under it for a time.

So, he says in verse 13, “Let no one say when he is tempted, [when he’s under trial] I am being tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” And as we do, we think of trials in more of a neutral sense, and that’s the way James will be using it here. A trial can also have a meaning of temptation. And so, he moves to that side of trial, they say, because every trial has that in it. God brings into my life certain pressure. I don’t handle it biblically. That trial becomes an occasion of sin for me. An example of God bringing testing into a life; ‘Abraham take your son, Issac, your only son, the only one who the promises given to you can be fulfilled. Take him and offer him to Me.’ The bible says that God was testing Abraham. It doesn’t mean He was trying to get Abraham to sin. He was bringing a trial and a testing into Abraham’s life that would refine Abraham, strengthen him. And what we look at now, Abraham is the example of faith in scripture. If Abraham had said ‘no, it’s too much, I can’t do that. And I can’t see how it would be biblical, because all the promises you’ve given me have to be fulfilled in Isaac. So, I think You made a mistake here.’ Then he would have failed the test. He would have sinned. Because why? He would have rebelled against God under the trial. Now, the trial didn’t make him sin, but his response to the trial. So, we are remined, we can always have the confidence, nothing comes into our lives except that God who loves us has brought it into our lives. It’s allowing Satan to bring the trial, as he did with Job, indirectly working.

So, trials come into our lives. Be it a health issue. It could be a variety of things. But God is never bringing that there so that we will sin. We are His people. It’s like we do with our children. We might give them certain responsibilities, and it’s a pressure situation for them. But we’re not doing that, so they fail and get crushed. We’re doing that so they learn and grow and mature through that. That’s what God is doing. So, when we’re under trial, keep in mind, God has never brought that into our life, so that we would sin. Never to sin. You can’t say when the thought there, in the trial, to function biblically, that this must be what God wants me to do at this time. He must have brought this because He wants me to fail here on this occasion. Never true! That’s where I may have to go to Him for wisdom and say, ‘Look Lord, I’m stuck! I’m not sure what to do. But I am sure it’s never His intention that I do what is contrary to what He’s revealed in His word. So, I may have to pause and say ‘Lord, I come before You, I’m not sure how to proceed.’ For Abraham, do what God told you. Let God handle His own problems, if I could put it that way with respect. I mean, if He has you sacrifice your son, and He’s given you promises, He says will not fail, and they require the life of your son, you know what Hebrews 11 says? Abraham just assumed God was going to raise his son from the dead when this is all over. Let God handle His problems. I don’t often know why the trial is there. How it’s going to come out. I do know that God’s in charge. I do know He will provide the strength, the grace for me to handle it. I do know, never, ever, I stress this because I’ve actually had people, part of this church, in my office and they have sinned by their own admission. They say, ‘well I think it was God’s intention for me there.’ ‘I think He was going to bring good out of that.’ Wait a minute. God brings good out of our trials. But He doesn’t lead us into sin, to bring good out. I want to be careful of that, when trials come.

“God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”
Sometimes under trial, there’s the temptation to blame God. We’ve been studying the opening chapters of Genesis. And remember what Adam said to God, when God confronted him about his sin? ‘Well, the woman You gave me, she gave me the fruit to eat. God, You did it. You gave me this woman. This woman gave me the fruit. I ate it.’ Were’s the trail lead back to? God. Who brought this woman into my life? Who gave me the fruit? And resulted in my sinning? Wait a minute, you didn’t have to eat the fruit. But that idea, and see easily when we’ve gotten into situations, we can even take it back to God.
“God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” That’s it. Never His intention for anyone to sin. “He Himself [is never tempted to sin]. This has something to do with the impeccability of Christ, Matthew 4, when He’s tempted by the Devil; when we talk about the impeccability – could Christ have sinned or not? Impeccability has to do with sin and argue He could not have sinned. He was under a test; the Devil was trying to lure Him to sin. But He could not have, it would have been contrary to His character as God. The One in whom all the fullness of deity dwelt in bodily form.
But there you can see the test was there. That was a temptation by Satan. A trial that came into His life, and a testing. But sin was not required. And no sin came out of that in Him, because He was sinless.

So, you’re never tempted by God, to sin. Well, where does sin come from? Well, that’s the next verse. Verse 14, “But each one is tempted [to sin, in the context here] when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.”
God doesn’t tempt us to sin. Here He doesn’t even bring the Devil in as the one who is tempting us to sin. Ultimately, the responsibility for sin comes from within us. Now, the Devil would encourage us to sin. The Devil cannot make me sin. I’m encouraged by that. ‘I couldn’t help it Lord, he’s more powerful than me; he made me sin.’ No, there’s never any allowance for that in scripture. The Devil is a tempter. He will tempt us to sin. But the sin in my life comes from within my life. “. . . each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.”

Turn back to 1 Thessalonians 3. We’re talking about temptation and the tempter. In 1 Thessalonians 3, Paul was concerned about the Thessalonians. And the Thessalonians were going through trials.
Chapter 1:6 says, “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation.” So, they’d been going through trials. Chapter 2 talks about trials and suffering, difficulty. Paul’s experience, he knows the Thessalonians are experiencing, down in verse 14 of chapter 2, “. . . you endured [the middle of the verse] the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews [and so on].”
What’s Paul concerned about? Down in chapter 3, verse 5 – “For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you.”
The Devil is there to insert himself and to encourage us to function unbiblically. To handle the situation sinfully. But he doesn’t make us sin. He encourages us to sin. He may do things to make it easier for us to sin. But sin will ultimately come only from within. That’s why we are always held accountable for our sin. Remember we talked about Eve in the garden. The Devil did tempt her. God never denies that when Eve says the serpent gave it to me. But it never excused her, did it? The Devil is judged for his part in it. But the woman is also judged, because she didn’t have to succumb. But Paul knows, when you get to the pressures of the trials, like the Thessalonians were having; and you get the work of the Devil, to encourage them to handle it in an unbiblical way; you have the potential for a disaster. And Paul would have said, ‘I would have thought, we worked all that for nothing, because, you know, you really didn’t continue to walk with the Lord.’

So, back in James, as we come to this verse, we’re not denying that the Devil is involved in moving us to sin. We’re not denying that the Devil is involved in some of the trials that come into our lives, like Job’s. But even there, where he is, God is sovereign over that. The Devil only could touch Job in ways that God gave him permission to do it. So, he could take the life of his children, only because God said ‘yes, you can do that.’ He could take Job’s health, only because God said, ‘yes, you can do that.’ So, the Devil is involved in these things. And that makes the battle more intense. Paul’s trial, he said it was a messenger from Satan, sent to buffet me, 2 Corinthians 12, that he asked the Lord for deliverance from, and the Lord said no. But My grace will be sufficient because strength is perfected in weakness.

Back in James 1:14, “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.” This is where sin ultimately comes from, within me. My own desires. Because of sin, I’m corrupted. And even though I have been made new in Christ, the old is still there. Its power over me has been broken.
Romans 6, I’m not the slave of sin. I don’t have to obey sin. But sin hasn’t gone away. I still have selfish sinful desires that come up. So, what happens when a believer does sin? When an unbeliever sins, but here he’s concerned about the believer’s handling it well. “. . . each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.” A picture here, get carried away, you’re drawn aside, and then you’re drawn to the sin. The picture is like what they usually draw of a fishing, you know, you throw out the lure, and it is attracted, and the fish is drawn to that. Then it bites and he’s caught. So, what happens? Our lusts are stirred. Our desires, that word translated lust, his own desire. The desire can be good, and it can be bad. Same word used in the context for some things that are good things to be desired, some things that are not good things to be desired. Here, we’re drawn away, so obviously it’s in a negative sense. And enticed by his own lust. What happens? See something there, we are drawn to it. We see a process develops. You know, it comes to my mind, it’s there, it catches my attention. I’m drawn more toward it. The book of Proverbs talks about this in moral issues. And the young man walks by, enticed, drawn there, what happens? He doesn’t know the dead are in that house. It leads to the road to destruction. But drawn to that.

So, here’s how it goes. “. . . each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, by beloved brethren.” This is the process. Trials come, testing comes, difficulties come. With them, come opportunities for sin. I never have to take that road. What happens though? My desires come, if I don’t deal with that there, then I end up being drawn to it. The stronger the attraction becomes, the longer I focus on it, the more reasons I can see that that wouldn’t be that bad. What happens? Lust conceives. A picture here now of giving birth. You take the bait, and the result is sin. The outcome of sin is death. It’s always ruinous. The wages of sin is death. It always brings destruction. It always brings ruin. The ultimate penalty of sin is death. In Christ, we’re forgiven. But we need to be careful. Even believers, we can be what? Enticed to sin. Drawn to sin.

And you know, opportunities come in so many ways. We usually think of moral areas. Things aren’t going well in the home, between the husband and the wife. And all of a sudden, there’s a person there that understands, and I can talk to. All of a sudden, now, what? I’m being drawn away from my spouse to that person. No bad intention, I’m just, wait a minute. I started now, no bad intention, it just, the Lord going by. Well, wait a minute, you know where you’re going. Oh no, we’re not going to do that. How many people have come and sat down. ‘I never intended it to go this far.’ ‘I never intended for this to happen.’ Well, the best thing is, don’t provide the occasion for it to happen, right? Well, once you provide the occasion, then you say, oh I don’t know how that happened. Well, provided the occasion. You know, if drinking is my problem, there’s no sense in keeping the refrigerator stocked with beer. Oh, I’m not going to drink it, I just have it there in case we have company. I used to keep a jellybean jar at my office. Still have the candy jar. I put it there, because I thought that would be a nice treat. People come to visit with me, that’s how you know I like jellybeans. You know what happened? The time people came to visit me at my office, the jar was empty. You know, well I provided the occasion. That’s what we do with sin. We like to deceive ourselves. You know, we tell ourselves, well this is not going anywhere, this will be alright. This will be ok. But, you know, the earlier you deal with it, the easier it is to deal with. When I say easy, the Devil is never easy. But the sooner you cut it off, you remove the opportunity to the best of your ability, the better you are. Because it will only end in ruin. Sin is never beautiful. It’s like the lure, it looks so attractive. It’s never something good for the fish to bite on. I mean, it’s just never, I don’t even have to consider that. This can only go the wrong place, I’m out of here, period.
We’re “carried away [when we’re] enticed by our own [desires] lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”
You note the personalness of this here. There are no exceptions.
Verse 14, “Each one is tempted.” This is the way it happens. It’s an individual, personal thing. It’s easy for me to see it happening in someone else’s life. Tell them you better be careful. You better do this. In my own life though, you know, things can get blurry. And then you bring the pressures of trials that come, unsettled, and now we’re not thinking clearly. We need to think clearly. We need to think biblically.

“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.” Don’t think you will be an exception. God never is working to lead you into sin. I don’t know how often to stress this. You know how deceptive sin can be. I’ve shared with you. I’ve had people sit in my office and tell me that the immorality that they are involved in, as a married person, with someone else’s spouse, ‘I think it was planned by God, because I’ve had opportunities to share the gospel.’ You know, what do you say? I had an occasion where someone got saved out of that. That made it good? No! You know, we have to stop, sin is deceptive. It’s not something to play with. Not something, well, I’ll be alright with it. You know, I know what I’m doing here. I can handle it. We ought to be afraid of sin. It ought to be something I want to put space between me and it. Because as soon as ‘I can handle it’, I’m in trouble. You know, Joseph set the pattern when he was being tempted in Pharoah’s house. Just run out the door. You just get out of there.
So, all of this to remind, God is never leading anyone into sin. And sin will only bring ruin.
“Don’t be deceived, my beloved brethren.”

That leads us to verse 17. God doesn’t tempt us and lead us into sinful things. “But every good thing” that comes into my life, does come from Him. “Every good thing [given] bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.” Marvelous, the God we have. He wants to give us every good thing. When God allowed Satan to bring such disasters into Job’s life, it wasn’t just because He wanted to make Job miserable. It wasn’t that He just decided Job’s had it too good, too easy, too nice. I’m going to let him know what misery is like. That’s not God’s intention. He had good purpose. He’s going to develop Job, and his relationship to God. So, here we are, the impact of Job’s life has continued down through the centuries. God’s hand was on Job. It seems that Job and his wife, and his wife expressed it, that he had been abandoned by God. But he hadn’t. Stay the course. Keep trusting. “Every good thing [given] bestowed and every perfect gift is from above.” From above, from God. Same word used when Jesus talked to Nicodemus and said you must be born again. The word translated “born again” there, is born from above. We’re not talking about a second birth, obviously, in the context, but the word there, is the same as we have here; “born from above.”

Comes down from above. It comes from heaven, the dwelling of God. It comes down from “the Father of lights.” The God who created light. All the lights in the heavens. We’re talking about stars and that, that shine. Comes down from Him. And He mentions the lights, and that expression is used in the Old Testament as well. But you get the idea. He wants to bring it in, because He wants to talk about what happens with light. You can have variation. You can have shadows caused by the light. You can move outside the lights here, into the shadows. So, the God who created the lights in the heaven. At different times you look at different times and seasons and see changes and variation. You look at the moon and we can see, well, it’s a half-moon, it’s a quarter-moon, it’s a full-moon. You know, there’s shadows on it. This is the God who has created all of that.
“There is no variation” with Him. There is “no shifting shadow”, you have it here, or shadow of turning, as you have in your margin. In other words, a shadow caused by turning. A change. If I move to a different place, or turn around, shadows are cast in different ways. With God, He is eternally the same. So, there are no shadows caused by Him changing, is the whole point. There’s no change in God. So, I don’t have to wonder, well, I know He’s always before, brought good things, I know that’s the general pattern. But maybe here, this is something different. God is always the same. He’s always bringing good things into my life. Things that He brings down from His presence in heaven. It includes “every good thing, every perfect gift.” Every good thing that would be bestowed upon people. Every perfect gift. The gift itself, and the act of giving. God, as the giver, is giving it with intentions consistent with His character, for our good and for His glory. So, every good thing that could be given, every perfect gift, is at it should be, comes from God.

So, the contrast here that verse 16, “do not be deceived, my beloved brethren,” about sin and where it comes from and where the good things in our life come from. That is clear. One thing about sin, I sometimes say sin makes you stupid. Sin clouds your ability to think clearly. What’s happened to the people outside of Christ in their sin? They live confused lives, twisted lives, in constant rebellion against God, Romans 1 develops that. For us we know differently. So don’t get confused by it because as soon as I get sin in my life, you know what happens. I get confused and now my ability to think as I ought to be thinking as a believer gets muddled. And the more I get mired in sin, the more muddled my thinking becomes, the more confused I become, the more frustrated I become, and pretty soon I’m thinking God doesn’t even care. I mean, I’ve been trying but nothing’s come. Well wait a minute. I’ve put myself in it. It’s like a person who’s addicted to drugs and their solution to feel better is to take more drugs. They’re not moving toward a solution. They’re moving what? Further down a bottomless pit. And that’s where sin takes us down. As some of you have read “Pilgrim’s Progress,” John Bunyan’s great work. When Christian got off the path, the further he got off the path, pretty soon he couldn’t find his way. He didn’t even know how to get back on the path, he got so confused. We have to be careful once we begin to stray that way.

This whole thing, do not be deceived. Let me before we go on and leave this, come back to 1 Corinthians, chapter 6 verse 9. Paul uses this expression James is using here. Paul uses it on three occasions, and I think the context is interesting when he says “do not be deceived” as he writes to believers. In chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians, verse 9, what’s he tell them? “Do you not know the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.” There’s our statement. What’s he talking about? The deception of sin is the same kind of context we have in James when he writes it. Concerned that believers not get confused on this. Then he talks about sin. “Neither fornicators, idolators, adulterers, and thieves, covetous, will inherit the kingdom of God.” Don’t be deceived by this. Don’t have your thinking confused. Turn over to chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, verse 33. He’s been talking about those who would deny the resurrection of the dead and if the dead aren’t raised, eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow we die. Verse 33 “Do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good morals.” The same kind of context, sin. Because sin is so often presented to us as something attractive that we’re drawn to. That analogy that James used. Don’t get confused about sin and what sin really does. It’s not beautiful. It’s not desirable. It is something that will destroy you. Galatians 6 is the other time Paul uses this. Galatians 6, verse 7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man sows this will he also reap. The one who sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. Those who sow to the spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” There should be no confusion on these things.

So, you come back to James. There’s a concern. God inspires these men to warn about not being deceived and deluded. God is never moving us to sin. Believers sin all the time. Why do we sin? Why have I not lived a perfect life since I’ve experienced the power of God’s forgiveness? Well, I’ve let my own desire draw me away. Well, I think there’s just times when you know, I mean I think anybody would have succumbed. Maybe not anybody but most believers I know would have. What’s that got to do with it? Is God’s hand in this or is it not? So, God wants to bring good thinks into my life. He’s not withholding good things for me. This trial is not because God likes His children to be miserable or unhappy. He’s molding and shaping us, preparing us for the glory beyond compare. He is the unchanging God. His will and His actions in these things will never change. He is the good Giver. He is the giver of good things. Anything truly good, any gift that is truly what it ought to be, comes from God. That’s it. The devil never gives me anything good and the devil never gives me anything for my good. It sounds like when he tempted Christ what did he say? “Fall down and worship me and I’ll give you all the kingdoms of the world.” Can that be bad? Christ came to be king! Here you can have it, short cut. Don’t go through the cross. Would anybody say that would have been a good thing? Look at the splendor of the kingdoms of the world. He says they’re in my power. I can give them to You. No. It’s not for you and it wasn’t good and nothing that is contrary to what God says is His will is ever good in our lives. He only brings good things, and He always brings good things, and He never changes.

The greatest example, verse 18, “in the exercise of His will, He brought us forth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures,” our salvation. Sin brings forth death, but the sovereign God has worked and what? He’s caused us to be born again, born from above, received from above the greatest gift of all, the greatest blessing of all, salvation. It happened in the “exercise of His will.” Here’s what God has done for us, to us, and in us. He caused us to be born again. He “brought us forth.” That’s the work of God.

Come back to John’s gospel, chapter 1. John’s gospel, chapter 1, verse 12 “but as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” It is an act of His grace solely that has brought salvation to us. We were born by the will of God. He takes full responsibility, full credit for that action.

Come back to James. There are some other passages but come over to just after James, 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 3. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope.” What has God brought to the lives of us hopeless sinners when He caused us to be born again? It was to a “living hope.” He caused us to be born again. Incidentally that word here is “born again.” Peter uses, John used “born from above” in John’s gospel chapter 3. They are saying the same thing. John stressing the new birth comes from above when Jesus said, “you must be born again,” “born from above,” here Peter says “born again” talking about the same event. God, what did He do? He bestowed His mercy and grace and caused us to be born again.

Back in James, “He brought us forth by the word of truth,” “by the word of truth,” the word of God. An area here of great importance. As the church moves more and more away from a clear focus on the gospel and the word of God, as it moves more and more, we see things, well I’m being a testimony by my life. Well, no I don’t give a verbal testimony, but I give a life testimony. You know, no one is ever saved anywhere by observing a life. Never. It has never happened in the history of mankind. So we delude ourselves when we begin to be turned aside from the truth of God’s word. You must hear or read the truth of the gospel, the facts of the gospel, the propositional statements of the gospel if you are ever to be saved. You say, well I think my life models, our lives ought to be a support of the truth and they ought to support the truth of what we claim, that God has made us new. God’s character should be revealed in us, but no one gets saved. Oh, look at that. Yeah I live next door to Gil. Yeah, he’s a great neighbor. He keeps his lawn cut because a lawn service does it. He does all these nice things, yes. The Mormon who lives on the other side does nice things too. Does that person watching a Christian live a life come to understand that they are sinners and that the Son of God left heaven to come to this earth and die on the cross to pay the penalty for sin so they could turn from their sin and place their faith in Him and be saved? That can’t be demonstrated by a life. That has to be declared.

So, what James says here is crucial. God can bring salvation. People will say, well God can save people anywhere. He could save people in a part of the world who never hear the gospel. No, He can’t because He always acts consistently with Himself and He has revealed that you must what? Hear and believe the gospel to be saved. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ,” the word concerning Christ, Romans 10:17, there is no salvation outside of hearing the facts, I say hearing, but you might read it. the point is the verbal presentation of gospel. We as Christians shouldn’t be confused. We see the church excited to get involved in a variety of good works because they are being testimonies. I’m not against good works. Good works have a place, but you understand, no one ever was saved by observing a life. They are only saved by hearing and believing the gospel. This move in the church today away from the presentation of the gospel is a move away from the purpose and plan of God so it’s taking the pressure off, escaping the unpleasantness of being viewed by the world as narrow and judgmental and unloving. So, we’ll do the things the world admires and likes and the devil’s happy to have a lot of good things done but he’s not going to stand for having the truth presented.

So you are born again. “We are brought forth,” new life comes about, new birth comes about through the word of truth. We were in Peter, turn over a few pages just after James to Peter again, 1 Peter chapter 1. In verse 22 he says, “since you have in obedience to the truth,” note “in obedience to the truth.” What does he mean by obedience? The obedience of faith. You obeyed the truth and believed in Christ. That “purified your soul for a sincere love of the brethren so you should fervently love one another from the heart.” I’m not saying you shouldn’t be loving fellow believers, treating them in love, but that is the result of having what? Been exposed to the truth and obeying the truth. Verse 23, “For you have been born again. Not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable, that is through the living and enduring word of God.” Family members you would love to be saved; I’ve been trying to live the kind of life before them. That’s nice. Somehow if those family are ever going to be saved someone is going to have to sit down and tell them here’s the truth of the gospel. And that’s important because I may be thinking I assume God is working as I’ve been trying to live before them. Wait a minute. You want them to be saved you’re going to have to sit down and tell them that or someone’s going to have to tell them. I’m not saying you ought not to live a good life before them, a godly life, you must. But they won’t be saved by observing your godly life. They will have to hear the gospel. “We have been born again by that imperishable seed, the living and enduring word of God. For all flesh is like grass, all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls off, but” there is something enduring. “The word of the Lord endures forever. This is the word which was proclaimed to you.” The word that was gospelized to you, given that good news brought their salvation.

Back to James as we wrap it up. God did this so we “would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.” He’s writing remember, back in verse 1 “to the twelves dispersed abroad,” to Jews who had become believers who are scattered outside the land of Israel. They are “first fruits”. Who were those first to be saved on the day of Pentecost? Jews. The early church was Jewish. James writes here “we are a first fruits.” The first fruits were what? An indication of a coming harvest. The first fruits were given to God, brought in and offered to Him and they were an indication of a coming harvest. You see here these have been brought to God by His grace and they are an indication of what God is going to do. And here we are what? Two thousand years after James wrote this and we are part of the results of that harvest that that the first fruits were an indication. James would have had no concept that this harvest is going to go on over the next two thousand years as the truth of God is proclaimed, “the word of truth.” Which the devil hates so greatly, which he does everything he can to keep you from telling someone. Just talk about so many things and it’s like our mouths get filled with cotton when it comes to time to tell someone here’s the most important thing to me, the most important thing to you, the most wonderful message. It’s just hard to get it out. Why? The devil doesn’t want it out. My sinful remnants that are there don’t want to do it because I might lose a friend and I might you know, stir some animosity, but it's “the word of truth,” truth, truth. Paul had to ask the Galatians “have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” Jesus said He was hated because He told them the truth and “you’re of your father the devil and there’s no truth in him.”

So understand, the God that we have whether trials come or difficulties come and they will. James doesn’t say as we talked about in verse 2, if you ever encounter any trials it’s when you encounter the trials that are all kinds and they are overwhelming, remember the God that we serve. You can find the wisdom to handle it as you turn to Him in prayer and turn to His word. I don’t expect a direct revelation from God written on the blackboard, white board or whatever. It’s in His word. Lord I’m looking for Your wisdom as I fill my life with Your word. How do I handle this? Guide me step by step. Give me the wisdom. The sinful route is never His plan, is never coming from Him. It’s not an option. That door is closed. When I say it’s being pushed open a crack I want to slam it shut. I know, God will only bring good things and all the good things He brings will be part of what His purpose for me even through the trial because He’s the one who saved me. Do I have any doubts? I mean if He’ll bring me salvation when I was in a wretched rebellious condition, His enemy, how much more is He doing for me now that I’m His child? So, I know that every good gift comes down from my heavenly Father and there’s never any change in Him. He always has good. God “causes all things to work together for good to those who” belong to Him. That puts my life in perspective in every circumstance.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for what You have done for us in Christ. Lord it’s easy for us under pressures, the trials that come, we’ll not minimize the seriousness of those. Some of them go on day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. They seem more than we can bear. Lord Your grace is always sufficient, and we always find the wisdom needed to carry on as we turn to You. Lord our hearts are thrilled to know and be reminded again, You are a good God. You are a God who loves us. You’ve bestowed the wonder of Your salvation upon us. We belong to You and everything good that comes into our life comes from You. These things encourage us as we go through trials and difficulties. Lord may we prepare to deal with sin with firmness that needs to be dealt with so that You would be honored. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.




Skills

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June 3, 2012