All right, there we go. And the final conference you should go to 2 other conferences. The workers and elders conference who do not need to be a worker nor an elder to go.
And next year it is in Dubuque, Iowa. That is the closest I can get it for you.
Okay. The Buke Island and it said Phil Boones assembly there. They'll be sponsoring it and we think the meetings and the evenings will be at the college.
And the final thing you should go to is the believers Bible conference, which is every other year. It's not this year.
It's 2,024 between Christmas and New Year's. It is our goal to see a thousand people there.
We had 700 600 last time. I've been to one of those where we had a thousand.
There's nothing better than a thousand people singing how great they are. Okay. So, all right, enough of that.
I was at a conference in California and we were at the Yosemite Conference and the brothers speaking there is Dave Reeve.
I hate to mention this. And the brothers speaking there is Dave Reeve. I hate to mention his name because I might not drop off your list, but he's good guy. You would like him.
And Dave gets up and he's he was born and raised in California a really good guy and some who was asking me who I look like I look like him so he's up there and and he's got this little umbrella and it's out in the open air and amphitheater and the beautiful trees and Half Dome and he gets up there and he looks at us very intently.
It's all around the amphitheater and he says My name is Dave Reeve.
I'm a recovering Pharisee. I haven't participated or drank from the cup of Phariseeism for the last.
Hour. And I told that story to John and Carmen and he stole it. So I stole it.
And. You. It was the delivery, it was everything else. I'm sorry.
I'm just giving them a hard time because I have the microphone. Okay. Anyway, when we talk about marriages, part of the problem is we end up looking like And if you if you did a study or just casually read all the interactions Christ had with the Pharisees, none of them are pretty.
Right. It's up one where he says you're close to the kingdom of God, right?
And then there's a whole chapter, Matthew, that talks about how how the Lord indictes Phariseeism. And what is that?
What do we mean by that? It means that we We say one thing and we do another. It means that we are prideful.
In one thing and we are condemning and another. It means that we are how do we say
Condescending or excuse me we are we are self-righteous but we are condescending to others And if you take all those negative aspects of Phariseeism and you apply it to your marriage, you have created the perfect storm for divorce.
And so it seems like it's wise to deal with that, which is why we're looking at James.
And last night we started in James chapter one. Now I want to put your minds to Russ. I do not plan to finish the book of James, but we might be able to get through the first half of chapter 4.
If we have 4 or 5 more managers. But anyway, what, what we're going to do is we're going to look at James from this vantage point and seeing how this tension that happens both in internally and externally between you and your spouse is really fueled.
By this thing called the flesh. So I'll define that in just a second. So we're talking about the same language.
But I want you to know that that is the focus of this weekend because as I relate to you yesterday there are countless marriages and all it is is flesh.
It's the sinful nature that's been allowed to have a breath and when it took its breath it also was taking its breath from the life of the believer and suffocating the life of Christ out of that person's soul.
And so we want to be very, very precise. We want to have the skill of the master surgeon scalpel and carefully excise that is cut out that which should have been dealt with are put to death a long time ago.
So just from a theological perspective because I would feel better if I say it and you might not think so but I do that at the cross Christ took our old man as the old as the King James way to say it the old man and that is this this internal drive that has a predisposition to do everything contrary God.
Now, where did you get that? Well, you were born with it. Why was I born with it?
Because your forefather, Adam, We made a decision for the human race to adopt that as his normal way.
Well, where did he get it? From Satan. So in essence, Satan is your father, Satan is your father based on your spiritual Gianna family tree.
And when you put it in that light, you have, family tree. And when you put it in that light, you have, family tree. And when you put it in that light, you have inherited that.
It's in your part of your genome makeup Left to yourself always be rebellious to God and I don't mean like you know you're over there and I'm over here but we can respect each other you are violently opposed to God.
That's how that's how the scripture shows you what you are. Now that thing, that little entity, that sort of drive is excised from you at the cross.
And when Christ died on the cross for your sins, this is Roman 64, the old man was crucified with him.
So he took that, which has corrupted your mind, your will, your emotions, your body, and he took all of that old nature and he became sin for you.
And that's what it says in Corinthians. He became that sin. Now that has to do be a be very violent to the heart of God to be something so pure, someone so holy, someone without even a blemish and then to become the blackest of that which is black by taking on our sin nature.
How violent that must have been to the soul of God. Have you ever thought about that? There are certain things I see, I have seen in medicine that just really tear me up inside the child abuse case and all that and it just makes my in insights turn and twist.
Well, how much more so would the God of the universe have that sort of sensation, if you will, when he saw his perfect son become the sin.
For us. That's impressive, isn't it? And so what we find then is that old nature is then put to death.
His death was at death. But as he was raised from the dead, again, Roman 6 material, he gave us new life and specifically according to Galatians 5 he gave you his spirit according to second Peter chapter one he gave you the ability through his word to be a partaker of his divine nature.
You know what we call that? New spiritual DNA. Your genome of your spiritual being is now of God, not of Satan.
And so now he says, with that genetic makeup, now given to you at your new birth, your new life and his resurrection.
I want you to live it out. And so that's our challenge. That's what we call the sanctification process.
Now you'll notice that it's not an easy process. I don't know about you, but it has been just an hour since I've been a Pharisee, right?
It has, it's such an it's such an easy thing to live according to the ways of the flesh that then affect how I interact and talk with my wife or she interacts with me.
How I deal with the children, how I handle the emergencies and the non-emergencies of our walk through this world.
And so what we find in is we have this tension. This tension, according to Paul and Romans 7, where with my mind I want to do what's right, but when it comes down to doing it, I do the wrong thing.
Where does that come from? Well, that comes from An old man that has been debunked that has been stripped of all power and authority.
But has not been removed in the sense of never having an influence upon you. And so you have residents this defused, stripped, denuded old man.
But yet it's sort of whispers in the ear of the soul. That's what we're going to talk about today.
Where does Timation come from? Now I just want to call cover all of this because it really is part and parcel of how we have to work through our marriages and if we don't do that, we become too frustrated people that either will draw or will move apart emotionally or physically or sometimes even locationally and end in divorce.
And that's what I want to try to deal with. Now last night we introduced this idea of faith and he says count on all joy brother and when you are ambushed or or fall into various trials and knowing that it produces patience and let patients have its perfect work because it produces really, really stable faith.
And you get the idea that James is going to tell us in the rest of the book is going to say this is how you have stable faith.
So last night I ended and I ended in a way that I didn't plan to and that's and I really wanted to talk just in terms of sort of contemplation about what is faith.
I mentioned that it was much more than a hopeful outlook or an emotional positivity. It's a dependency that based on the person involved there is a sense of the person involved there is a sense of assurance, a sense of assurance, a sense of of assurance, a sense of how do we say assured or guaranteed goodness of God.
See there's a there's a confidence in the person. It's not like we are going to go to the bell-shaped curve. You know what that is?
That's where if you have all this random events that always comes out in the shape of a curve that looks like a bell and you, you know, just depending on time you will get various levels of blessing because of the thing called random chance.
Well the world takes that and they use they put in the word fate and they said well fate will allow you to have good things happen to you.
You know, that idea of fate is really a godless concept. None of this is just chance or randomness.
And you happen to be in the right side of the curve of blessing. This is the the the crux of faith is the trustworthiness and reliability of the other person.
Therefore, I had that person's integrity, God's integrity, God's fidelity, that is his goodness and his faithfulness, he will be the one that assures you of what will occur.
So when we violate faith, when we are unfaithful to God, it is not just a sterile sort of decision.
That's what I hear people say to me. Well, you know, if I did this again, I obviously wouldn't make the last choice because it was unwise.
So well, I'm glad you think it's unwise that you had 2 affairs and such, but you know.
That's not the issue. The issue. Is that you're not sorry about your outcome. You're not somebody who wished you wished who wished you had a wiser investment.
What's happened is when the faith issue is going on, because it's involving the integrity and the fidelity of the other person.
When you violate that faith and walk away. You're doing violence to the other person on the other side of the relationship.
That's why it's so difficult and marital infidelity. We do violence to the other person.
It's, it's expressed and graffitiing their lives, if you will. And this is what happens between you and God.
There is a disruption of the unity between the trusty and the one to be trusted. When this type of faith is violated, there's horrific grief because the loyalties that were established in bonding you together are now trampled and treated as if they're dirt.
Treated as if they're trash. So when this is done to God, the scripture says, you grieve the Holy Spirit.
The word grieve in the original language simply means a tremendous amount of sorrow, if you will, tears, the tears of God streaming down his cheek, if you will, not because you didn't do what he said, that's true, but there is a relational aspect, a fellowship, Konania aspect that is absolutely tortured between you and God in that breach of faith.
That if that happens in the heavenly realm, then that happens also on the earthly realm. Everything we have relationally is a mere parallel of what we have going on with our father in heaven.
And so we have time to understand that this idea of faith is so important to God. It, it's, it's, it serves to weld a closeness that is inseparable and permanent.
Thus, we call it eternal life. Now when you violate that with God by living hypocritically or living under the influences of the flesh of the nature of sin.
Then what that does is it creates a tremendous distance between you and God. What that does is it creates deception, self-deception in which you tell yourself things are okay when they're really this not.
And if that happens again, heavenly. How much more? Would it bleed over to a relationship to your spouse with a relationship with your children?
And people around you then begin to see this deception that happens in your mind's eye. This deception that seems to occur and you thinking it's absolutely the norm of reality.
And in truth, it's hardly the reality. No, I'd only need to say 2, to our one word to help give you an illustration of that and that's the word politics.
Every seems as if in every political scenario we have this spin and we have radio programs called the no spin zone.
Seriously, we are, we are trying to find and locate this deception. Well, it all started.
With this vertical relationship that was violently trampled. All right, so that little piece you may not feel better about that, but I feel much better about that.
All right, now we're going to get to the text, okay? And so I'm going to begin reading in verse 9 and we'll read through the next paragraph.
And I want you to, once I read it, I'm gonna give you what I think is the main thesis there.
So if you're in your Bibles, it's James chapter one. Remember I read last night versus 2 through 8.
So let's pick up in verse. Well I'm gonna read verse 8 for context.
He is a double-ed man, unstable in all his ways. That's a person who doesn't have faith that is asking in faith.
Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation but the rich in his humiliation because as the flower of the field he will pass away for no sooner has the sun risen with the burny heat than it withers the grass is flower falls and its beautiful appearance perishes so is the rich man also, or so the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.
Now that seems to be one of the most obscure out of place verses out of James narrative. In fact, it seems to me that if I were just reading this which I have for years like James you had like a senior moment and you just like went off on this tangent that has nothing to do with the flow of thought and that's very confusing for us readers 2,000 years later.
Thank you very much. But in reality, he isn't, he's not confused at all.
You see, when you're going through those those pressure moments where touch points are being are being touched by the hand of God those trials it causes you to be stripped of everything else.
Except you and God, there's no money that can save you. There's no there's no prestige or reputation that saves you, there is no protocol or process that saves you.
There's no sort of, this is what we do in the emergency that saves you. It's just you and God and that forces you to be dependent upon God alone.
And you know what that forces you to be dependent upon God alone. And you know what that does to you?
It makes you humble. And brothers and sisters the one thing that marriages need to need today is humility.
There is not a single marriage I know that won't be cured. I being humble. Owning it, owning it all and we're going to talk about that in a second but that humility has a way of curing everything.
How do I know that? Because in James chapter 4 he said God gives grace to the humble. Nothing better than the grace of God.
That's how it works. And so when this is all stripped away and it's just you and God, he puts it in this terminology and he uses the the analogy.
Of rich and poor physical processions and he says basically when you don't have much when you're poor that's a humble state just like when the trials strip everything off and in that humble state you should rejoice because now it's just you and God in the in the room alone and that's what it needs to be.
But when you've got other things that you're relying on like riches it causes you to default to a secondary sense of security.
Which is no security at all. Now let's go read the text. Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation.
What exultation is that? That is between you and God alone. You are in the perfect position to receive the grace of God.
But the rich in his humiliation, listen, although you might have something to trust in, I want you not to trust in it.
I want you to trust in me. You and me alone. Now this has been the many marriages that we have heard of and talk with and at least 2 of them the men have said this I have figured I have thought about the problems in my marriage so much and I think I know how to fix it and if and if and I've done the math over and over and I come up with the same conclusion every time this has got to
be the answer fix my wife. That is a direct quote. A direct quote. You know what is relying on?
His intelligence. And these things are not just intelligence. They are based upon the Word of God which has which has rulership, custodianship of everything else, including your thinking, including your emotions and including your reactions.
And there and and there is no other way to go about it. But to rely on say I'm a smart person, I'm well educated.
I know all the principles of human relationship and all you got to do is listen to me. Then, God, you just have to listen to me and this will work out.
No, that's that's that's not glory in your humiliation. That's glory in your own wit.
My friends, that is a dangerous thing to do. The gift of knowledge and perception is a wonderful gift, but it's also a dangerous weapon.
Knowledge puffs up. Let me tell you, does God have a cuffed up spiritual bone in his body?
No! And if you have his DNA What are you being coughed up for? See, this is what I mean.
It's very easy to identify our Phariseeism, isn't it? All right, let's move on.
Rich and is it because it's the flower of the field he will pass away that's what he's saying all that's what he's saying all that's what he's saying all that great intelligence and all that great analysis it's not going to make it kind of like riches don't make it.
For no sooner is the sun risen with a burning heat. Like the heat we just talked about back up there and the testing of your faith and versus 2 and 3.
Yeah, that heat. When that heat comes, it, it, it evaporates what could be humanly relied upon.
And so if you're somebody that's surfing the internet and going everywhere to find everybody's opinion about marital issues.
Now I'm not saying there's not going to be some helpful observation. But what I am saying is you don't depend upon another human being to solve your problems.
I will only limit my heart to trust you and you alone. So you give me, you speak to me, you show me.
Take away that which is voices in the wind and give me your voice now. He may use others voices on the internet, but the attitude is paramount.
And the search for solution. All right. The heat that it withers like grass, its flower falls in its beauty, a beautiful appearance perishes.
So the rich man will fade away in his pursuit. You see what he's saying? Humility.
That is the key. Dependence upon the Lord. Now, it sounds like a broken record. But it actually is the truth.
There is no other way to go about it. So before I go further, I'm just going to ask you to search your heart.
Of all the things that happen in your life. Are you counting on a formula? Are you counting on this marriage conference?
I mean, we've been doing it for 7 or 8 years. I'm not sure we made any progress.
You got the same guy.
But, but what are you trusting in? Because I can tell you that the person on the other side of the phone, if you will.
The the person in heaven. Just once you and him. To really have a unique intimacy. That requires your absolute dependence.
Dependence. That's not, you know, it doesn't mean you don't use your brain and it doesn't mean you don't have emotions, but you're ordering this correctly.
Sometimes I feel that we're not ordering it correctly. One marriage feud that happened in front of me was just 2 people.
Letting their emotions dictate their words and casting fiery darts back and forth, which we'll read about in chapter 3.
And they they were based on ill-fated logic. Not the Word of God. That's what I'm talking about.
Okay. Now, having said that, we sort of rounded out this first paragraph of the ideas of external trials producing stable faith.
But what happens is in the next paragraph beginning verses 12 through 18, you will find that there are internal trials.
Now this is that that goes back to what I mentioned at the beginning of this hour about the old nature and the old man, that it is diffused, stripped, denuded of all of its required obedience.
In fact, it even says that in Romans 6 that you no longer have to obey the flesh.
You now can obey the spirit and that comes that theme comes back to you. And Romans ate where the spirit is mentioned, baku times as if to say it's the spirit of God that gives you the new life and vitality, the energy to live that way.
I've had many experiences in my marriage where I was beginning and had began to feel very selfish, very like I needed something.
And I have I confess to you that it happens a lot after I've been on the road and traveling and and preaching and here I am just a regular Joe and I get home and I feel like everybody should kind of serve me.
And the Lord Jesus never had a moment like that in his body and he was way busier than me.
See, I can, I remember I feel I can just sense that sort of welling up within me and at that moment I had that temptation to be the most self-centered preacher in the world.
Now you can have that too. You can be serving and helping the assembly and helping one another and showing good works and doing it even unto the Lord.
But that internal thing is well, you know, I did do that. I should probably get a break here, right?
And we expect our wives and our families or our spouses to sort of understand that intuitively that's another fatal error.
Assuming that everyone else has privy to your expectations. And so what happens is you have this internal battle.
That's what it says in the next paragraph. Blessed is the man who endures temptation.
You see that word temptation? It's the very same word used up above for testing of your faith.
So in other words, the word trial is a neutral word. It can be used in a positive sense that is a non or a moral sense that it has nothing to do with sinning, but it can also be used in the sense of sinning.
And in this paragraph, because it talks about the flesh, it's obviously dealing with sinning. So he says, blessed is the man who endures temptation for when he has been approved.
You see that word approved? It means that you have gone under a test and you've proven that you have pure quality to you.
I mean it has this idea of genuineness. So when you endure the temptation you get through it, you bear up underneath it courageously, you will find a genuineness and you will therefore receive the crown of life.
Now, and the scriptures, there are several crowns, right? And the first one is the crown of thorns.
Now that's already been worn by somebody. Somebody's already been given that crown. His name is Jesus.
That was some crown to wear. There is the crown of rejoicing. Now that was Paul's statement talking about the Thessalonians.
And he's saying that when he's in heaven, you'll be you Thessalonians will be my like on my brow on my on my crown.
The the reason why I am glorying in the presence of God. Now it's not bestowed by God, it's just the reality of the moment.
But there are 3 that are bestowed by the Lord, and these are interesting, the crown of life is a reference has a reference to Revelation 2 10 with that church's difficulties and and it since seems to be this idea that you will be bestowed a certain sort of reward like the the crown of the Olympic Games as an achiever of coming through the trials, if you will, the difficulties of life, like in the Smyrna Church
as well as in these temptations. Their temptations were all moral, those were persecutions from without, but he will give you the same crown from the fighting, the good fighting that happens within.
So there is a reason to fight this fight. He's given you a carrot, if you will, a crown at the end of the rainbow.
So to speak. Now there's another crown. It's a crown of glory. The crown of glory is one that How is given to those who shepherd.
Who shepherd well. According to the attitudes of first Peter chapter 5, not for filthy lucre.
In other words, no secondary game. Now, it's referencing elder specifically in that context. But I think it could be applied to all shepherding.
And it turns out that everybody shepherd somebody it's not whether we do or don't it's whether we do it well or poorly and what I'm thinking here is that God may very well have a sense of a crown of glory to those who shepherd well.
And I think we we want to be good shepherds of our spouses, right?
And then finally, there is this crown of righteousness. Crown of righteousness which is in second Timothy chapter 4 8 and that particular scripture says that you were seen a Siva, S the crown of the character of God being have of his standard of righteousness just by love his appearing.
Now my goal in my Christian life is to gain all 3. Right? I know. Overachiever.
I don't care. I want all 3, don't you? Why are we settling for so little when God puts it out there to offer you?
I mean, you can have the easy crowd just by loving, disappearing. How hard is that? Turns out it's pretty hard because we love ourselves too much.
How about just the one about temptation? That's one. That's a big one. Chronological, right?
And then, of course, the last one about shepherding well. I want all 3, don't you?
I mean, I think that's great. So let's let's aim for that. Now let's go back to the text, okay?
It says this, a crown of life which the Lord has promised that to those who love him. Do you love him?
There's the crown. It's expressed in dealing with these internal fights with the old, defused old nature, but there it is.
Let no one say when he is tempted I am tempted by God. No, this is a second point.
The first point that we want to look at under these internal trials is that there is a call to endure and he gives you a reason to endure.
He wants you to endure with this idea of being approved. And then he says, I want you to understand, I want you to not only endure it, I want you to understand it of what's going on internally.
And when I'm done talking for this point, I want you to remember the following. Own it.
Own it. Do not defer it. Okay, now let's read it. Goes like this.
He says, let no one say when he is tempted, verse 13, I am tempted by God.
All right, stop right there. Did you know that was exactly what Adams sent to God? It's the woman you gave me.
That's the whole problem here. He was deferring responsibility to another human being, and then he blamed God for giving him that human being.
I'm telling you it was about 20 verses ago. He thought she was the greatest things in sliced bread and they didn't even have bread back then.
You see what I mean? See how quickly the old nature influences your thinking to make it someone else's fault.
Boy, I've done that. Who took by fill in the blank? And there was still in my pocket.
That's embarrassed. Yeah, we do it also. Has anybody seen my glasses? They're sitting on top of your head.
And you hate that? You look like an idiot, cause you are, okay? That's what that's about.
You see, now we do this and we are now blaming God. If you, you made me this way and you knew I had this in my history and if you would, you, you, you put this thing in my path and it's really your fault.
You know, young people are telling me that. It's not God's fault, okay? You are messed up in your thinking.
You are concluding the wrong things. You got to own it, baby. Look at it. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone.
He is not out there dangling in in front of you. You know where it comes from? Comes from the inside.
That diffuse, denuded, deconstructed old nature, still wants to pump a little bit of breath in yet, still wants to influence you, still wants to kind of manipulate you.
And what the scripture is saying is that manipulation is no longer what you are obligated to follow before Christ.
That's the thing you did because you couldn't stop it. After Christ, you got reasons to put to death the deeds of the flesh.
And this is what he says, but each one is tempted. What how? When he is drawn away by his own desires.
All right, this is kind of really impressive imagery. But this the imagery of these words here comes from the world of fishing, right?
And so when it says drawn away, that's like a lure. I like I lure on a worm on a hook.
Now, I used to be a fisherman and I and I loved it and I would catch all these fish but I don't do much of it anymore but I do enjoy it you know so we were in the Bahamas, We're down there and you know those guys they know how to fish all right So they, they were, we were lying fishing, you know, that I mean, there's no
pole. You just reel that thing. I don't know how you don't cut your finger off, but just reel that thing and pull it back.
So we're throwing these babies out and we're getting some fish. We're just pulling them in and some are big, some are small.
And then one time the line breaks. You know what it was? Barracuda. So that my Bahamian brother goes, oh, we can catch a barracuda.
I go, okay. And so he puts this metal thing on there and the barracuda clamps on it and it doesn't he can't snap the line because it's metal and we wheel in the barracuda and the things the teeth are you know and he's flapping all around and he would go and I said do you eat it he goes oh no we give it to the
Haitians
Yeah, I said, why do you do that? We can make you sick. Oh, okay. Apparently the Haitians love barracudas and not not the Spanish Wells guys.
But the point is, is that this is the imagery and you've got something there that has a little good a glitter and a little bit of potential a satisfying of an a little bit of potential a satisfying of an appetite you think you have and you go for it.
That's satisfying of an appetite you think you have and you go for it. That's the imagery.
So let's read it again. Where was I? Oh. Verse 14, but each one is tempted when he is drawn away.
Okay, now where is this? Where is this worm and hook coming from? By his own desires and that entices him.
See that's where we get this idea that although the old nature is rendered powerless, which is a quote for moment 6, It has measured influence and what God has done in his sovereignty.
Is he has allowed you to exist in a situation on this earth and which the power of sin is gone.
And he wants you to live as if the power of sin doesn't exist but it's voice, it's little whisper, its enticement is still there internally.
Now why does he do that? I mean, I would love not to have this tension in battle all the time, wouldn't you?
Well, the reason why he does that is it because he uses that to increase your faith. Remember the whole context?
He's building your faith. His building that relationship that happens between God and his creature predicated on integrity and fidelity in his person that he will provide for you and the scriptures are everywhere that just in the moment we have a faithful pie priest who will help us in our moments of temptation for he was tempted and all points as we are tempted and no temptations common to man except that which is except, no.
every,'s common to man. And God will give the grace for help and the time of need.
Now when you are in a moment and you have come through a life-threatening situation with another person, you know what you are, you're bonded.
You're bonded. Now whether you've experienced a life-threatening situation or not, my experiences from the world of medicine.
And when we've had a patient that was near death and we were working hard infusing blood into the trauma victim, getting their pulse and blood pressure back, losing them here and losing them there.
And finally, we, we crossed over and we're able to stabilize the patient. Everybody in that trauma room was best friends.
Because we went through the fire together and we came out on the other side. This is what God is creating for you.
And he's taking that which is evil and he's turning it around because that's his character and he's making it work together for good.
In fact, it says in Romans, that's exactly what he predetermined would happen with sin.
Or anything else for that matter. And so he takes it. Now I got to admit, that's pretty ingenious, don't you think?
I would just say, well, cost of doing business let's throw this one out and start all over.
God doesn't do that. He takes all those incredible temptations and that defuse, denuded, out of the way old nature.
And although it, ha, it allows its tentacles of whispering influence in your ear to then create a bond between you and him that becomes inseparable called faith.
How smart is that? Pretty smart, actually. I would never have done it that way. But he's willing.
Are you ready for this? He's willing to accept. Failure from you and I so that we could grow closer to him and to you and him.
That's what he's really to do. That's why the cross is so important. The cross, grants, payment of sin and therefore forgiveness not just at this moment in time but for all moments of time both past and ahead of you so now you're saved here you're now living 2,023 and you sinned because you flicked on the computer to your favorite pornography channel and guess what the blood of Christ has
been acted forward to cover that sin not so you can sit again But so that you would face that trial of temptation and turn away with it and become welded to the heart of God.
You've come through the trial together. Telling you this is the best way. Why? Because God did it.
So you've got those things going on inside, right? The temptation to be angry, the temptation to be self-centered.
The temptation to be lustful, the temptation to be prideful. Those things are moments of stepping stones of actually welding the heart of the universe of the God of the universe to the finite heart on this planet and God just loves that.
I'm serious. I think. He is really one smart person. So powerful.
All right, now let's go back to the text. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires.
Then when desire isn't is conceived. All right, now that's the the language of making a baby, you know, conception.
And he's saying, now when you have that desire there and it's it's calling going I'm over here.
Okay, that kind of thing. All right, when you marry that. With contemplation and therefore action, that's when sin happens.
Now you think about that. Think about the last time you chose to send. I'm not asking anybody to confess that you can do that to the Lord and each other.
But you just think about that. I remember I was sitting on the plane and I was thinking so selfishly and I thought oh I need to ask God to take that away and I said no not right now I'm too tired That was my mistake.
That was the moment. And what happened is I still continue to think selfishly. And on the plane, there's a phenomenon that happens.
Nobody gets off when the plane stops. So I'll go, oh wow, it's glad we're here.
I want you to move out of the way. I got a plane to catch too. And in my heart I'm going, oh, it's like really 10 s.
But I'm just getting all worked up, all worked up. I get off the plane, I'm all upset, I got to run to mine, I call my wife and I'm barking at her.
What does she have to do with anything? Absolutely. See what I'm saying? And that little moment of self-centered Expect to prideful expectation.
I should have cut off at the start. But I let myself think about it. I did not, I pushed it out of my mind but I didn't put it to death that's the difference there's a difference between not thinking about it because versus it going to death and the way it goes to death is this way you ready?
Oh god. I have to tell you something. Right now as I sit in row. 16 B, the middle one.
I am getting so anxious. And I would think that after laboring for these last weeks teaching the Word of God.
It would allow me to get off the plane first.
Perhaps you could have. Got me first class. Alright, is this confession of a preacher? Please don't mention it to anybody.
So because of that, I, I just, okay. I need you to take that away. You see, it's welling in my heart and I know what'll happen.
I know that if I continue to think this thought and or just not even deal with it, put it to death.
It'll grow. I'll buy into it. And I'll send. I don't want to.
That does violence to you and me and I'm tired of violating you. Would you take it away?
That's it. Everything I scripted for you in the last 3, or 2 min is actually the true. You know where it comes from?
Philippians chapter 4. With Thanksgiving, let your prayers be naked known unto God.
That's it right there. That is the spiritual. Dynamite of heaven. And I can tell you ask yourself, when's the last time you actually went through that version of my scripted?
Thank you. How many times do we actually say, well, I'll get to that later. And when I've gotten to it later, later never came.
And I send. See that? This is the internal thing that I'm talking about. And when we're talking about the stability of faith, it has to be done on the on that aspect of the soul.
We've got way too many, maybe you 2, but way too many young people who are being raised up and they don't know how to fight this fight.
They don't know how to deal with the flesh. They are they are tossed to and fro because the flesh is just treating them like a punching bad and they're getting beat up.
And I'm telling you, we've got to be a generation in the middle of parents and grandparents that can live this and articulate it and know uncertain terms to the generation before us because what's happening is we're losing them because in the internal side of their soul they're just literally failing.
I wonder how much we are too. All right, so let's get back to the text. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and entice then.
When desire has conceived it gives birth to sin. Now, you think that sin is an isolated thing, right?
You think that sin is okay, I send here, I know nobody saw it, I lost it after the woman walking down over there but you know nobody saw it it's just you and me God I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry please forgive me okay good let's move on you think that's the end of it don't you? Okay, good. Let's move on. You think that's the end of it, don't you?
No, no, no, no, great, dumb one. It actually says, sorry, that was very disrespectful to you. It actually says, sorry, that was very disrespectful to you.
It actually says, when it is very disrespectful to you, it actually says when it is fully grown.
It actually says, when it is fully grown, it is fully grown, brings forward death. Sin is never in a vacuum.
Sin is never won and done. Sin is a cancer that grows with its tenacles, its fingers that grab into the soul.
Sin is not isolated. Don't think that. Don't think it's just one vice.
It's just this one time. It never is one time. Death! Is a final outcome of the whole thing.
Oh listen, we've got to deal with the gravity of this issue. If we don't deal with the gravity, you know we are, we're double-inded.
We're unstable. We are not in any healthy sense of a relationship with God in heaven.
And you see, we'll stay, Steve, what do you, how does this work with God that I mean, all this is happening on the inside.
God could fix the Kanti. Well, this is where the record is set straight. Look at the next verse.
This is where I want you to remember the word own it, right? We want to own this. We don't want to blame God.
Now we want to realize something about God. Do not be deceived. You see that? That means you already are deceived when you call God out as the culprit.
My beloved brethren, every good gift. And every perfect gift. Now that's a very interesting statement.
He said as he clarifies this. He says every good gift, these are the ones that are from above, but but they're also a complete gift.
Perfect. Their purest quality of gifts. Don't you love it? Have you ever gotten gifts at Christmas time when you're really not sure what they are.
Oh, what do I use this for? Oh, we use it to clean out the hair out of your nose and your ears, isn't that cool?
No, it's not.
That's something I buy privately.
I don't buy it for the whole family to go, oh, it's a bad, he's got a lot of hair.
Yeah. That's not it. God gives. Yes, every time.
All the time. There's only one store in the universe where good gifts come from. It's heaven.
It's not anyone else, okay? So it says this every good and perfect gift is from above, comes down from the father of light.
See that Father of Lights, that's actually a reference to celestial stars. And what he says is this.
There are celestial stars in the in the sky in the heavens, heavenly above. And you know what?
They're flickering. There's black holes. They're shooting stars. They're changing all the time.
Not your phone. That's what he says. With whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
Or his own life will of his own will he brought forth by the word of truth. That we might be a kind of first roots of creation.
You know what he's saying there? God had it in his mind that he was going to do something so complete so direct, so final that he would actually create you a a sort of harvest that promises more harvest to come.
So if you're in this fight internally and you're fighting the lust of the flesh or the pride of life, believe me brothers and I mean you brothers.
The pride of life is our deal, okay? I'm not kidding. You, you and I can walk around, hide it perfectly.
No one would know, have that sort of false humility, and yet the pride of life is still there.
You got to be ruthless with the pride of life, okay? Sometimes it's bigger than the lust of the flesh, at least it seems like it.
And it doesn't show up right away. It shows up over time, 2025 years into marriage and now all of a sudden you're an arrogant idiot.
I had one man say to me once, I want an apology. I said, yeah, actually what you, what you deserve.
As hell. That's what you deserve. You don't deserve an apology. It's like saying that to God, you need to apologize to.
Let me don't. So listen, the pride of life, okay. That one was the one that you have to be ruthless with.
And if you're ruthless with that one. You have a chance. All right. Okay, so what time is it?
Okay, I got 5 more minutes, right? I think it's 5 min. I checked the schedule.
I even brought it with me.
1045. Okay. No. Now here's what I want you to see, okay?
He said if we're going to summarize this, I want to summarize versus 1213 this way.
You want to own it. Okay, you want to own, excuse me, you want to clarify it.
This is not from God. It's internal. Number 2, you want to own that. All right?
And number 3 on this one you want to have you want to understand it. You want to really know what God's about.
Don't let this internal trial warp your perception of who God is, that he has this owner of good gifts and he is the owner of perfect gifts and he is not a variation of the shadows he is solid for you so you can trust him in it.
You see what he's doing? He's increasing your faith, right? This is the kind of faith we need because the one thing that happens in trials and temptations as we begin to think God is not doing his job.
That's another lie. That's why it says don't be deceived. Now look at, look at how he introduces verse 18 the word of truth.
The word of truth. Huh. Didn't he just use the word deception? Yes, what's happening is the internal side is causing you to be deceived.
So what you need is a healthy dose of the word of God. So he says in verse 19, I want you to be swift to hear, hear what?
But we're trying, we just, in here and slow to speak what does that mean you be quiet so you can actually hear Slow to wrap.
Rath means fury. Anybody have fury here? You look at me like, yeah. Me too.
When we were first getting married. Our brother Rob Lenstead was counseling us and he sent to Janet.
What's Steve's greatest weakness? I was thinking she was gonna, you know, sit there for at least 4 h trying to come up with something.
It was about 4 s. Oh, that's easy. He's got a temper. I looked at her again.
On either.
I'm amazing married me because the proverb says do not be friend with an angry man yet lest you learn his ways.
Right. That was really convicting to me. I could teach my spouse how to have a feet.
How to have a temper. Brothers, you got a temper, you're gonna fear, you know what you mean?
You know what that means? You are letting your emotions rule your spirit. When the Spirit of God, the Word of God, is supposed to be ruling your spirit.
And if you think that's bad, it's worse. If you let the emotional side which has influence of the old nature.
Come and rule you, then it'll show up not just in fury, but in every other lack of self-control of your life, which is what it says in the next verse.
Filthiness, wickedness. Huh? So this is a big deal. And all that stuff comes flooding into the marriage and destroys 2 people that were supposed to be one.
Now they don't even want to see each other. Alright, I've used my, oh, I'm gonna pray and we're going to take a break because this is a natural spot to end and then we'll pick up, okay?
Your father. I would like to ask you to shed your grace upon us. Because as we talk about this text it It has a way of I don't know, searching us out.
Like we're so under, we're looking in a mirror. And I can, I confess to you, Lord, I do not like what I see.
And what I see is someone that is totally opposite of the Lord Jesus. And I want so badly that to be different.
I wish Lord you've heard me before. I wish you had a better man. Yet it sounds like when I say that it's it's it's a concept that's far from achievement.
But your word says it's Actually ready to be received. So we'd like to confess to you our souls.
That we're not stable. We think we are, but we're not. We need to be fashioned into the image of Christ for our stability.
So I'd like to ask you to do that. We contemplate these things and apply them to our marital situations.
Oh father, let it not in there. Let it be done there first with our wives with our with our husbands.
We become a Christ-like picture to our spouse. Both enraptured with the Savior.
So that all we could do is reflect him to each other. And when that is done, the most beautiful person of all glory will shine in our lives and we will be so satisfied we will be so joyous will be so content because finally God is put in his proper place between 2 human beings.
That should have happened in the Garden of Eden. Now you're giving us a chance to reverse that, that trend and make it a reality today.
We ask you to do so in Jesus name. Amen.