Jewels From James III and IV

And if you don't have your Bible, take your North Way notes. The scripture is printed in there. If you're new to us today, or you've maybe been out of town, and this is your first time in the last couple of weeks, we've started an expositional study. That's a line-by-line, verse-by-verse study of the book of James, allowing God's Word to speak to us, sort of in its own order. I'm going to know when you teach on themes, you kind of say, this is what we're going to talk about. But when you teach expositionally, God says, this is what's next. Well, folks, what's next today is the subject of sin. And it's not a happy subject. I've already done this once today, so I already, I kind of know what is going to happen in the next 30 minutes, because it's no fun. But that doesn't mean it's not important. Neither are taxes. Some equate these two things about the same. If you're an accountant today, my apologies, but that's... I think once you end this next half hour, you'll see why this is such an important subject. Let's read together from God's Word, the book of James. Now, the reason I put this in here is so you can speak the Word yourself. You can declare it. Would you do that? Out loud and together. James 1, 13 through 18. Ready? When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone, but each one is tempted, when by his own evil desire he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the Word of Truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. The Lord add his blessing to his Word in our lives today. Now, I want to begin today's message by asking you a question, and I'm going to ask you to vote. We just had a wonderful display here on this platform of some beautiful young children, very young, very beautiful. But I have a question for you. Do you believe that all of these lovely little ones, and all the lovely little ones that you all have, are born into the world, now listen carefully, good, innocent, and pure, but over time the environment, the society, the culture, the circumstances of life mess them up, and that's why they're the problems that we have in the world today. Or, and by the way, that's the popular view of the most universities and colleges in America, and that's the behavioral model, the B.F. Skinner and so forth. Or do you believe that as cute as these little ones are, they're created in the image of God and full of potential as we all know, their little hearts are diseased from birth. They're basically self-centered, self-promoting, and just downright selfish. All right, let's have a vote. How many believe the first? How about that? How many believe they're just all little sinners? Now, you parents, you parents, you know, first-time parents especially, if you can't imagine that little adorable thing that you were cuddling up, you're ever being a sinner. Let me help you. I can tell you, I can confirm, not only from observation, but from experience with my own three, that they are all terrible little sinners when they come into the world. They're a gift from God. They're lovable and huggable and photogenic and cute and adorable, but righteous, pristine and pure from day one, no way. And listen, new parent, just wait a couple of years when that little one is sitting in his or her high chair holding that little cup of grape juice, over your white carpet, and you say to him, now don't spill that grape juice, and they look at that cup, they look at that carpet, they look at you, and they just flip that sucker over, boom, all over the carpet, and they clap and cheer, yay. I'm telling you, they're sinners right down to the core, aren't they? They're sinners, and it goes on and on, and you can't even believe the way they figure out how to sin sometimes, can you parent? But sin is not something we here normally talked about very openly in our culture today. The S word is preferably hidden. It's back behind the scenes of our conscious mind most of the time. It's kind of like the C word, cancer. I mean, cancer is a silent, unseen, deadly killer. If left unattended, cancer will kill, and folks, sin left unattended in our lives is a killer. Unfortunately, because it's ignored, there's very little known about it. There's very little that's ever done about it, because people prefer to just sort of keep it out of mind, thinking if it's out of mind, it can't hurt me, and actually, that's not true at all. Let's see what James has to say about this subject, and I know it's not a pleasant one, but bear with me, because I think you'll find it a very helpful and important one. First of all, let's look and see in James 1 about sin's diversion. Romans number 1 in your outline, sin's diversion, if you're keeping those notes. The first thing that James says is when you fall into temptation and succumb to sin, the first thing he wants you to know is, listen, don't blame God, and folks, whether we like to admit it or not, many of us believe that it's God's fault that we have the problems that we do, and that's a prevailing mindset in the culture as a whole. Now, evidently here in the book of James, some were saying this. Here's the reasoning. Well, God allows trials. We saw that James 1, verse 2 through 4, and in the midst of that trial, sometimes I'm tempted to sin, therefore, if God allowed the trials, that means He brought the temptations, and if He brought the temptations, it's His fault that I sin. You see the sequence of that? And so they would argue, and they'd say, well, even Paul said, you know, when sin abounds, grace much more abounds, so it's okay if I sin more, because there's more grace, and folks, James says that isn't so. Don't buy it. The problem is, most people don't know the difference between a trial and temptation. Do you know the difference? Let me just spell it out for you, and I left a couple blanks in your notes. A trial is something that God allows or sends to test or purify your faith for the purpose of building character. Write that down. It's for the purpose of building character. When a trial comes, if you respond appropriately, you will be stronger in the fabric of your heart as a result. Got it? A temptation, on the other hand, is an enticement to sin that occurs in the midst of a trial whose purpose is to have you break fellowship with Almighty God. You see, temptations come to cause you to not trust God anymore and do what you want to do. You see the difference? And one New Testament commentator said, every trial has an inherent temptation in it. Every trial has the potential for temptation in it. Let me explain to you why you're writing that down. Let's say that you work real hard at your job, and you're due a promotion, and you walk in one day, and the guy, the next cubicle down, gets the promotion. Maybe it's even someone you brought into the company, someone that you know you exceeded in terms of performance, but somehow there was an unjust sort of system, and they got promoted over you. I know that's never happened to anyone here, but just make it up with me. Well, that's a trial. That's a test of your faith. Will you trust God in the midst of being overlooked? Will you say, Lord, I count a joy today because I know you have something that you're working in my life? That would be the appropriate response. But you see, in the midst of that trial, all of a sudden, a temptation arises in the midst to lash out. Well, that boss, who does he or she think they are to do this to me? Or that guy, he's a loser. He doesn't deserve this, and gossip begins to form in your lips. You see the difference? One is a trial. The other is a temptation to sin. God allowed the trial, but God didn't incite you into that temptation. See, God is not there tempting you to go ahead, just start gossiping. Go ahead, just start talking about your boss. Start complaining and murmuring. That's not the heart of God. You see the difference? And folks, it's very important that you distinguish that in the midst of what you're going through. Don't blame God for that inclination in you to sin. It's not from him. God doesn't use evil to tempt you. Do you understand? Let me use an analogy. Most of you know, I think the term country music is an oxymoron. Therefore, thank you. Therefore, I would not tempt you with an album or a CD of country music to say, oh, go listen to this. This will really be meaningful in your life. Because it has no appeal to me whatsoever. Despite what all the charts are saying. Well, likewise, you see, God is holy and evil does not attract him. You ever think about that? Listen to that thought. God is never attracted. Like, I wonder what would happen if I tried this. He never looks at something and say, man, I bet that would feel good. God doesn't have any problem with evil. He's not attracted to it at all. Therefore, he doesn't use it to attract or tempt you. Do you see what I'm saying? He doesn't do it. So don't blame him for it. Don't say, well, God, you allowed this in my life. It's your fault. And no, when it all comes down to it, I'd be a pretty good person if you didn't keep tempting me. What we tend to do, you see, when something happens in our life, we want to find someone to blame for our problems, to blame for our actions or consequences. God or someone else needs to be blamed. And folks, we are masters at blame shifting. Let me read for you directly from some truth-filled insurance claims that were handed in to some insurance companies from automobile accidents. Here they are. These are people who were not willing to take responsibility for their actions. Here's the first one. The pedestrian had no idea which direction to run, so I ran over him. The other car collided with mine without giving warning of its intentions. Here's one. I collided with a stationary truck coming the other way. The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I finally hit him. Here's one I relate to. I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law and headed over the embankment. You'll relate to this. I'd been driving for 40 years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident. These are all, an invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my car and vanished. We are master blame shifters, aren't we? James would say, wait a minute. The problem, the sin, the consequences aren't because of someone else. It certainly isn't God's fault. It's with you. The problem is within you. The pastor said this, after 30 years of pastoring, I've traced almost every single serious problem in each church I serve back to one person, me. And I can confirm this as well, dear ones. Most of my problems, most of the temptations I succumb to, most of the times I stumble and fall in my ministry, my marriage, my relationships, most of the time it's because of me. I wish it was because of you, but I can't blame you for it. Or God or anyone else. Most of my adversity, most of my problems, my heartbreak, my pain, it's because of me. Now some of you are nodding and smiling. I finally see that, right James? It's also true because of you in your own life. You see, it's my need, my mistakes, my poor judgment, my insecurity, my foolishness. I want to blame God. I want to find someone else to blame. I want to blame Satan. I want to blame demons, but it's me. It's me, O Lord, the spiritual ghost, standing in the need of prayer. Not my brother, not my sister. It's me, O Lord. So let's get that diversion out of the way. Let's not look for someone else to blame for our problems. It's me. Scripture says don't blame God. Number two, the seat of sin in our lives is the subversion that takes place in our own hearts. It's subversion of the human heart. You see, if Satan didn't exist, if the demons didn't exist, if you never had a hurtful past or one violation to your personality, you would still have an inclination in your heart to sin. Look at verse 14. It's the key verse right here. Look at it. But each one is tempted when by his own evil desire. Everyone say that. His own evil desire. He is dragged away and enticed. You see, sin is conceived not in God, not in trials, not in dysfunction, but in your own heart. And James doesn't pull any punches. He tells it like it is. He says stop the blame shifting. It's in you. Our deepest problem. You see, Scripture takes us beyond the symptoms. The root problem that you've got to deal with, if you're to be healthy and whole, is your heart. It's not an unfair God, unmet needs, personal pain, somebody else to blame for your past. The root problem is in you. And remember, that root problem is a killer. It's sin. Now, I've studied this and there's a there's a clear progression here. Follow it with me. It's sort of an anatomy of how sin works its death in us. You see, it starts with routine desires, normal desires. Folks, desires, how many of you desires are from God? Normal desires are from God. Desire for food and fellowship, desire for pleasure, relationships. God gives us normal desires. It's okay. But the sin nature in us causes a routine desire to become, what I want to use this term, a runaway desire. And a runaway desire says, I must have it. I've got to have more of it. I need it now. It's a fixation, a preoccupation. And we begin to connive ways to get it. You know what that's called? There's a four-letter word for that. You know what it is? Lust. Lust says, I've got to have it my way and I've got to have it now. And lust, if not addressed, opens you to number three, deception. Look at verse 16. Don't be deceived, James says. This sinful bent opens us to hear the enemy start to lie. Or our own conscience creates. You ever hear these voices? Ever hear someone say, when you're facing a temptation, ever hear these voices? It'll be so good. Hey, no one will ever know. You deserve it. You've been so good for so long. You deserve it. Go ahead. Don't be a religious prude. Come on. Ever hear that voice? Where's your spirit of adventure? You're just drying up there, aren't you? You see, all these lies, one after the other, lie after lie, they come to bring you down, to cause you to, number four, disobey the Lord and fall into sin. You see, when you yield to that temptation, you fall into the lie and you sin. And dear ones, can I tell you this? Even if you don't sin indeed, you become so preoccupied with fighting off the temptation that you're rendered basically incapacitated and you're of no real good to the Lord. And finally, sin, clearly James says, gives birth, when it's full-grown, to death. And so you see it? Routine desires, runaway desires, deception, disobedience, and death. That's the progression that stalks every one of our lives, if we're honest. And dear ones, read the Bible. What happened to Samson? What happened to David? What happened to other great leaders and prophets throughout Scripture? They all basically struggled with that internal sin problem, no matter how mature and godly they were. The root problem is getting at the sin that's in our hearts. Instead, we choose to look at all kinds of other things to blame, other people. They're, they're the reason I have these problems. You know, we're a culture of victims, aren't we? Victimitis kind of describes who we are. I have a theory. If you followed the news the last year, have you been kind of surprised the number of people that have been acquitted for what seemed to be very apparent crimes? Have you? I mean, I don't know how you felt when you heard the, the decisions, the judgments that came down, you know, the Reginald Denny beatings and all that, and take away all the racial overtones and all that stuff that's complicated. But, but basically what, what was said was those people were victims, and what they did was sort of a natural expression of what they were trying to deal with, that frustration inside of them. Or, you know, Lorena Bobbitt and some of these very weird things. It's all their past. And you see, victimitis kind of says, I'm not responsible. I did this because of something else. And we're, we're raising a whole culture of people who say, I'm just a victim. Don't blame me for my actions. One person says, this is becoming a bit of a joke. Historians are going to look back on the 20th century and marvel at our willingness, indeed eagerness, to accept the most absurd theories about ourselves. Why? Because we don't want to believe what the Bible says, which is that we're full of sin in our lives. We need the courage, don't we, church, to look at our own hearts and see where we're weak. Let me ask you a very pointed question. Which runaway, which routine desire in your life is just about to become a runaway one? What in you is just sort of lurking on the edge, waiting to become something that just gets a hold of you? Is it another person? Is it that promotion you got to have? Is it that thing that you just got to have? Is it that intimacy that you can't live without? And let me ask you, number two, what are you doing to prevent your routine desires from becoming runaway desires and falling into deception and disobedience? Do you have any context to bring that potential for sin into the light? Or are you just kind of holding off? One of my great fears about our church, as we grow and we start filling up the back sections and then eventually overflowing, I wonder how many of us will find it very easy to come and just sort of sit in the shadows and no one knows what's going on in our hearts. In the meantime, you see sin is just welling up, waiting, crouching at the door to cause better people than you and me to fall. There's two kinds of people hearing me this morning. Number one, there's some of you here today possibly who think this whole discussion of sin is boring and you wish it was over because you don't think it's a problem. I just have one verse for you. 1 John 1 verse 8 says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Problem in your life? I implore you to examine your heart according to God's Word and see what he says so that you can find the truth about yourself. That's the average American attitude, by the way. Sin's no big deal. No problem. But the second group, and that's the majority of us here today, are seasoned Christians who maybe have just gotten a little soft on personal sin in our own lives. And we've drifted along a little bit and we've sort of allowed ourself to accommodate some things and author Sinclair Ferguson writes this, when the Christian is young, his affections are strong and easily wounded by the presence of sin. But in later years, there may be less power, less sensitivity in them. There needs to be a growing mental conviction of sin if the believer is to remain stable in his profession. So that again, there needs to be a growing conviction. John Owen the Puritan said, there is no sinner like him that has sinned away his conviction of sin. In other words, there's no state worse than a sinner who's basically forgotten what's down inside of his heart. Dear ones, let me just say the wages of sin still is, I had a very vivid reminder of this just a couple of years ago. Roy Thompson and I were traveling. We went down to visit some buildings around the nation. We stopped at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Three churches we visited there, large churches. The final place we stopped to see was the Jimmy Swaggart Ministry Campus, and it was impressive, 200 acres, a 12-story circular office building, a 6,000-seat Family Ministries auditorium, a huge gymnasium with multiple gyms in it, dormitories, all kinds of other buildings all over this 200-acre campus, and as I walked from empty building to empty building and saw the grass growing up through the concrete and saw the broken windows and no people, it had an impact. It affected my heart. And I realized that this shell of what was once a world-impacting ministry basically had all fallen apart because of one man's inclination. I came back from that and have, on a number of occasions, pondered that. And I've resolved a couple of things as a result. I really only have a couple simple goals. Number one, I want to live my life and die without any major regret. I don't want to get on my deathbed and say, I wish I hadn't done that. I wish I had done that. And the second thing is I resolved that by God's grace I would never be an embarrassment to you. And I know I need God's grace through it. I cannot tell you that I'll stand against sin on my own strength because I don't think I can. But with your prayers and God's grace, I don't want there ever to be a day that someone walks on our new ministry campus and walks through our beautiful building with a handful of people trying to hold a worship service and have someone think, I wonder what might have happened here if Jay Passa had stayed faithful. If Jay had just kind of kept himself on God's path. You see, sin in me lures me just like it does you. And I believe God wants the same for you. He wants you to be able to say at the end of your life, I can live, I can die now with no regrets. And I can live and I can die to the glory of God fulfilling my mission and my purpose. Dear ones, let me just ask you, what desire in you right now do you need to get control of? What sin do you need to bring into the light and say, you know what, this is starting to become a real problem with me. And James is so practical. We're going to go through the next weeks and see all these different ways, he says, let the light of God's truth shine on that, so it won't come up as a cancer and choke the life out of your soul. When's the last time you had a good confession? And those of you who are Catholics here today, you know the times and maybe you went and told a priest what your sin was. The Bible says we don't need a priest for forgiveness. We have God's Son as our high priest, but we need, we do well to confess our sin one to another. That we might be protected from its power. 2 Corinthians 13 5, Paul says examine yourself. And number three, if you do that, you see, sin's diversion and sin's subversion will become sin's conversion in your heart. God will turn your desires around and point them in a direction that he can bless. And I've never seen this before. Look with me in James. Right after he warns about deception, the Lord says, every good and perfect gift is from above. Look at verse 17. You see what the Bible's saying? If you purpose to not go your own way, if you purpose not to succumb to those temptations, God says in my time, by my measure, in my form, I'll give you the desires of your heart. You see that? He said it doesn't say that. Well, turn to Psalm 37 verse 4 or look in the second page of the backside of the blue sheet I gave you. What does it say there? Delights yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Church, I don't believe you believe that. I believe we think, well, God can take care of my spiritual needs, but hey, wait a minute. He'll never take care of all my other desires. But the Bible says though, put him first. His righteousness in all the things that you desire, God will shape and use and fulfill. Because the Bible says here, there's no shadow or variation. He's not going to change. He's going to provide for you. And I've seen him do this over and over and over again. Let me just give you one personal illustration. I could give you a number of them. One of the things that was difficult for me when it came to entering into ministry was I had this conception in my mind that to be a pastor, to be in a church ministry was boring. Because I grew up in a church where there wasn't a whole lot of action. I don't know about you. I mean, I remember that when the sermon time came, they turned the lights down. I never understood that. Did you grow up in a church like that? Turn the lights on. I think, well, this is nice. They're making it easier for us to all sleep. I guess it was to bring focus, but I never got that. I remember one of the most exciting Sundays I can remember growing up in church was one day in a hot August day, the fan blew the pastor's notes off the pulpit and it created a stir up there. I said, ooh, this is exciting. I mean, something is happening here. So I had this thing in my mind that to be a minister, that's what I was going to be like. And I said, oh God, you can't be serious about this. But you see, I can tell you now, I said, Lord, if that's, I'll do what you want me to do. And I'm not tooting my own horn here. This was no easy decision. But I want you to know 20 years later, God, He knew what the desire of my heart was. He knew I wanted to be in something that was challenging and fast paced and making a difference. And folks, I couldn't be in a better place. I mean, I couldn't be in a faster paced, more exciting, more impactful place. In all the world, God's fulfilled the desire of my heart. Do you see that? And I'm not special. He wants that for you. And I wish I could come down and just put my arms around you and say, He wants that for you. And you've got to see that. Put Him first. How badly does God want to bless you? Let me just kind of end with this. At the end of David's sin bout, when he compromised and fell to the temptation to be with Bathsheba and so on, and then to kill her husband, the Bible says that Nathan went to David. And what did Nathan say when he put his bony finger in David's face? You are the man. David, you're the sinner. You're the one that caused this. But then listen to what he says, 2 Samuel 12, verse 8. Lord speaking through him, He said, I gave you the house of your master. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. In other words, God's saying, I gave you more than you could have ever wanted. But even if it wasn't enough, I would have given you more. But no, David, you had to do it your way. And the consequences, we all know, was a broken home and pain for the balance of David's life. Dear ones, let's not be a church where sin can just kind of crouch in the shadows. But let's be a people who help one another, bring into the light what we're going through so that God can see us through. I fear for some of us that we just sort of allow, accept that sin nature to dominate our passions. When God has a much better way for us. Let's not divert our attention and blame someone else. Let's not let sin subvert us and pull us down. But let's convert those desires into something that pleases God and causes us to live for His glory. Would you stand with me and make that a prayerful invitation to the Lord? Well, I want to say a couple things while you're turning in your Bibles to the book of James and getting out your outlines. First of all, thank you for all the surveys we got back about the seeding. Most of you like the seeds. Some of you want a little more of them individually. So we've taken that into account. We're going to give a little more space in each seed and a little more space in between. And just for the record, just so you know, we're not making this up. Only 10% of you wanted pews. I just think that's wonderful. I knew that was the Lord. It's been an interesting week. Did you enjoy spring and summer? That was Wednesday and Thursday. Now it's back to snow. It was an amazing week. Even on the building project, I don't know if you know this, but I'm going to share this, Jack. You can rebuke me later. When I was a kid, my mom and dad would say, I loved to play with erector sets. I wasn't all that good at it. They helped me to steer out of that career path. But when I got something built and if it didn't fit when I got to the top, what did I used to do? Oh, it was easy. I just bent that thing over and it worked. That was kind of my style of things. Well, you know what? That worked with erector sets. But at the end of last week, they found that when the beams got up there near the end, they weren't fitting exactly right. And folks, it's kind of hard to bend a two-foot thick beam. In the most beautiful days of the spring, they're taking steel down. Last week, I'm thinking, I know who's behind this little plot. Here's the good news. In two days, they corrected the problem and had the steel back up and past where they were this week. Somebody got really busy out there. And who knows what caused the problem, but in a brand new project like that, it was an interesting thing. But I'm just going to invite you all to pray. Every time you drive by there, pray. Don't just say, oh, is that great? Pray, because the enemy doesn't want this thing to be done. And it will be done, by God's grace. We're going to be in there September for sure. Not sure exactly what date yet, but keep praying about that. All right, are you ready to turn to James? And we're just going to read one verse today. And if you've been here with us for the last... Now, this is our fourth week. We're doing an expositional study in the book of James, line by line, verse by verse. We skipped verse 12, because I wanted to bring this message today on Palm Sunday. Let's read it together. Verse 12 of James 1. Blessed is the man... It's in your notes on the blue card if you don't have your Bible. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. During this past Winter Olympics, the greatest story behind this story wasn't Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan. Turns out Tonya's been a little quiet since 10 days ago. Her story's changed. The greatest story behind this story, in my estimation, was that of Dan Jansen, the speed skater who, in his last opportunity, the last race of his Olympic career, won the gold medal in the 1,000 meter speed skating competition. And if you know anything about the story, the reason why it was so emotional was that in previous Olympics, Dan had an opportunity to win, and each time something had gotten in the way. I think it was about six years ago or so, his sister died of leukemia the day before his big race, and he just didn't have the psychological edge to win the race. Then in, I think it was 92, he was a shoo-in to win the 500 meters and fell down, remember that? And I showed him slamming into the side and lost the medal. And then again, in the premier race, the 500 of this Olympics in 94, the abbreviated two-year version, the big race came, and again, Dan Jansen's the favorite to win, and he trips up again and loses the 500. All the commentators and everyone is saying, what is it going to take for this guy? Is there this monkey on his back? I mean, is it his destiny to lose the gold medal, which he should have, by all rights, won? And I'll never forget on that 1,000 meter race when he did it in world record time. And I remember the camera panning over to his wife and family all gathered and leaning over. And you remember what she said? If you read lips, you remember. She said, thank you, Lord. I mean, tears and this big explosion as this six- or eight-year weight of emotion was lifted off of her shoulder. I mean, that kind of thing. And then, you know, even the media was kind of congenial and said, isn't this great? I mean, you really deserved it. I mean, people like that kind of inspire me. How about you? You remember 10 years ago in the 1984 Olympics when Gabriella Anderson ran that marathon and the last lap, she couldn't stay on her feet. Remember that? It took her six minutes to do the last lap because she was exhausted. And while the commentators were up there in their air-conditioned booths, kind of, it's not real smart to be running when you're that tired. You know, it's true, but she's falling all over the track just to get to the finish line. What stamina and courage. I mean, those kind of people just inspire me. Well, I think of Dr. Ben Carson. He's a now nationally recognized pediatric cardiologist. You try to say that. Pediatric cardiologist who grew up in the ghetto, the inner city ghetto of Detroit, Michigan. And as an African-American ghetto kid was told, you'll never amount to anything. You'll never get anywhere. And God blessed him with a great mind and great skill. And now he's recognized because he didn't listen to all the voices