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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the Internet. Your regular prayers and m- and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can And reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calbryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Last couple months, I’ve covered quite a few messages from the book of James. But I wanted to give you an outline or an overview of the book. The kind to kind of remind us of what we’ve covered. Not a lot of things new, but to reorganize it in your mind so that you will have a better understanding of the book. I title this message in times like these. So whenever you’re living, it’s in times like these. Well, it was in the first century, it was in times like those.

But today it would be in times like these. And we have a command given to us from the Word of God of things that God wants us to do, how God wants us to be. But we have a lot of trials in tribulation, temptations. And I wanted to explain those just a tad better. But I wanted to give you a copy of the note because you can add to this and study it later on on your own. James is a book that is written to those who know Christ as their Savior, their believers.

But they’re not just believers, these are Jewish believers. These are Hebrew Christians. And it says in verse one, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad. So some like to talk about the lost 10 tribes. Well, he wrote a letter to the 12 tribes. So I believe that they were remnants of all 12 tribes. And I believe in the tribulation period. Once again, they will be the 12 tribes of Israel.

So they’re not lost. God knows where everybody is and what tribe they belong to. And then in verse one, it talks about my brethren. But if you look there in your notes, I believe the proper response to the things that give us a greater understanding and appreciation is the why God did what he did. And we are to be thankful to the Lord because letter A trials that are designed to build character from the Lord in response from the Lord.

So we have a way that we’re supposed to respond to the various things that happens to us and the temptations that are designed to destroy character are not from the Lord. So there are things that God has sent our way to build our character and that’s what we consider to be trials and tribulations. See, you may have a financial difficulty, a health problem. May not have anything to do with the lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh or temptation, the tempting to do something that’s sinful and wrong, God explains to us in His Word that God doesn’t tempt a man to sin.

See there in verse 13, let no man say that when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted he any man. So this is why when Jesus Christ was here, Jesus Christ was not tempted to sin, he had no sinful nature. It was a mockery Satan wasting his time. And so you have these two things. The trials, tribulations, hardships, separate those from the temptations. He says in verse 14, every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.

And then whenever that is fulfilled, then it brings forth sin and and bring forth depth. So you have these two things. One is because you as a Christian can go through trials and tribulations, and we’re not talking about the battle of the temptations of being drawn away because of the loss of the flesh. And so even if you do right or if you do wrong, whether you’re saved or whether you’re lost, there’s trials and tribulations in the world. And whether you’re saved or whether you’re lost, there’s temptations in the world.

But you need to separate it too because the one God can use to build your character. The other one is to destroy your character. So you need to understand which ones are to build me and which ones are to destroy me. Because the temptations are the things that you could be tempted to do that will be destructive. Not good for your health. Because then your heavenly Father may have to chase you. doesn’t necessarily chase you because you have to go through trials and tribulations.

Hardships, it could be like I said, you can lose a job and you have hardships, trials. And does God still expect you to be faithful in the midst of trials? Yes. And if you are tempted by the devil to do something, to produce sin, and you’re drawn away with your own lustful desire, can God still use that though? Yes, God can use it. Because if you’re weak and you’re not going to obey God, God can allow the devil to have at you pre-reign.

And God can know ahead of time whether you’ll stand or fall. That’s That’s why he says, be careful of bragging about how strong you are because lest you fall. So you can fall. And he says, there’s many trials, many temptations. But with every temptation, even though within you there is the desire to sin, there is a way to escape that strong, poor desire to do so. And this is what the Word of God teaches. So the book of James is a book on how to live the Christian life.

And so we’re told that in these verses, like in verse 12, blessed is the man that endured temptation for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised of them that let him. So many things in life is to designed to determine whether or not do you really love the Lord. And so he breaks it down to us. at number two, the theme of the book. In other words, we say, what is the purpose of this book?

The Christian man is to produce the righteousness of God. And he says here in this verse, look there in verse 19. Verse 19, wherefore, that’s wherefore, in spite of everything else he said before this point. Therefore, he says, my beloved brethren, Christians, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man, get verse 20, the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. So then what would it be the will of God for the man?

It is God’s will for the man to produce the righteousness of God and the wrath of man doesn’t produce that. So now we have a key verse in the book that tells us the purpose of the book. How a Christian is to produce the righteousness of God. And many say the purpose of the book is talking about faith and works. Well that’s true but there’s more to it than that. But how does a Christian produce something. So we’re talking about what a Christian is to produce with his life.

And there’s three things that God has given to us here in this verse 19. If you look there in your notes by being swift to hear, swift to hear, and the verses that cover this goes all the way over there to chapter two and the end of chapter two. But whenever you read down here in verse 22, There’s something that you keep in mind. It says, and I have here to note number one, it is faith with no works, faith and no works.

And the second thing up there in chapter two is talking about works, no faith. And then in verse 14 down it talks about you’ve got to have faith and works. Now, look up here just a second. Here you are as a Christian. God wants you to produce the righteousness of God, not the wrath of man. God says it is not you having faith and then no works. In the second part of chapter 2, the first part, is talking about not having the works and no faith.

And then by the time you get to the end of chapter 2, it’s talking about faith and works. So the Christian life is not for you just to say, well, I got faith and no works. It is not for you just to have works and no faith because your works won’t match what the word of God says. I’ve had people tell me that you serve God your way and I’ll serve God my way. And I say if you don’t serve God God’s way, you don’t serve God.

So we’re to serve God the way God wants to be served. We’re to worship God the way God wants to be worship. We’re supposed to call that which is holy, which God calls holy. And we’re supposed to call that unclean, what God calls unclean. God’s the one that decides. So we’re supposed to listen to what he says, but look in verse 22. But be doers of the word and not heres only. In other words you heard, and you can say because I heard the word, oh I’ve got faith.

I’ve got faith in the Bible. I’ve got faith that God’s going to do this and this and this and this and this. But you don’t live like it. You don’t have any works that shows that you’ve got any faith in God’s word at all He says you’re just like the person who looks in the mirror Sees himself, but then goes like he never saw himself. He didn’t make any changes. There was no improvement. Nothing happened So what are you supposed to do?

Well, God says you’re not supposed to be here’s only See in chapter two, it’s not supposed to have faith only So there’s something else that goes with it. In the book of Hebrews it talks about things that accompany salvation. Here I am, I trust the Christ as my Savior. If I don’t have the things in my life that God wants me to have by natural consequence and the nature of the beast, you’re going to have thorns and briars in your life.

They’re not the things that you want. There are many of of God’s people that know what the Bible says, understand what it says, and then will purposely go against the Bible. Leon and I was talking to an individual this this week about a person who knows this, knows right, knows wrong, and they’re gonna do wrong anyway, right, Leon? Right. Just gonna do wrong, they’re gonna do it anyway. And I said, you never thought that what you’re now doing you would have ever done.

You never would have thought that what you’re now doing you would have ever done. You didn’t think you would ever go that far. But people don’t think. You see, the devil will try to get you a little bit separate from any kind of authority so that you could do whatever you want. that don’t stay close to the Lord are bent on destruction. And it’s going to happen just a matter of time. But look what he says in verse 25, but who so look at into the perfect law of liberty, continue it therein.

He been not a forgetful here, but a doer of the work. So here you got a man who’s got the faith but no work doesn’t produce anything. But if you will put the two together it would be great. It’d be wonderful. How many times I’ve seen people that go to church and you go to church all your life. And yet the word of God has never changed that person’s life. Never altered how they think, how they talk, where they go.

It’s just that church is a place they go I guess and it’s a temporary thing but it’s a like puttingruary on a sword. They don’t do anything to get rid of the problem, it’s just they go ahead and play a game like with the Lord. Like they’re not really serious and it’s just like if it often came by they put a quarter in. But like that’ll keep God off my back. Just enough to keep God from really whooping them real bad.

They don’t want to do too much bad just a little bit. Don’t want to do too much good just a little. And they want to just ride the fence and never get on one side of the other. Well they don’t grow strong in the Lord won’t accomplish my won’t have much power of influence in their life. Now look up there in chapter two then he’s talking about people that know the truth but they don’t all believe exactly the right way and he says that you become partial in verse four or you not then partial in yourself and you become judge of evil thoughts.

You’re going to the right places. You’re trying to do the right thing. He said, but whenever there’s certain people around, you act differently. You know, words, you’re not totally committed. You’re a fence straddler. You’re sometimes you’ve got the faith and sometimes you got the work and sometimes you got the work and you don’t have the faith and you’re but you’re not clear. And so he goes down through hearing he tells them and has to warn them. You’re doing things but not correctly.

In other words, if you’re going to run the race, you have to be a master in all things. In other words, you have to be disciplined in every area of your life. And so there’s some people who go to church but they’re wrong doctrinally. They’ll witness, but they don’t tell them the true gospel. There’s a lot of people who have a lot of weird beliefs. They’re doing what they think and their mind is right doing the works. There’s Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons and there’s all kind of people that are going to church, giving money to all of me, but their belief is wrong.

So they got the work, but they don’t have the faith, the true faith. And so God says, that’s out of balance. See the key thing is if you can get a balance between winning and training, I believe in soul winning. I believe in talking to people about the Lord. But I also believe in God in my life. I also believe that a Christian should read the Word of God and be close to the Lord and study God’s Word and pray and do all these other things.

I’m not just one side. If somebody says, well, Yankee doesn’t believe in just soul winning. That’s all he believes. That’s all he knows. Then they don’t know me. They’re not listening to what I say. I teach many things about this book. You never know from one Sunday to the next what I’m going to cover. Unless I’m in a series or something. And I cover from anywhere in the Bible. I teach anywhere in this book. And I go to almost every book as I teach.

In time, if a person comes to every service, they won’t get a great, I guess, balanced knowledge of the Bible. Now I can do that. But my goal is so when, but I need this other so I can stay strong enough to do that simple little thing because this devil will try to stop you, try to ruin you. And so he makes a statement down here in verse six. He says, but he despised the poor. They’re making bad choices.

They’re making decisions, but the wrong ones. And he says here in verse eight, if people fill the royal law according to the scriptures, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, you do well.” In other words, you got the word, but you don’t have the love. You’re doing the right things, but you don’t love. Your motive is wrong. What you believe isn’t exactly right. And as if a man keeps the whole law and offended what? One point is guilty of all of them.

He says, you’re doing a lot of things right, but there’s some things you’re not doing that’s right. That’s right for you. There are spots upon your garments, like having a white tuxedo, but somebody’s in a splash mud all over it. Well, it ruins it. And this is the way Christians are. And so he makes a statement down here, look there in verse 11, for he that said, do not commit adultery, said also do not kill. Now, if you don’t commit adultery, but you did kill, didn’t you still break the law?

So there’s Christians that they won’t get right in every area of the life. They just think it’s as long as I’m close. Do you think God just wants you to be close to him? I mean, a close end, something, or really, right there with the Lord. I think you use the best choice of words there, but you understand what I’m talking about. So in verse 12, he says, so speaky and so do, speak and do. So he says, be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

The work of the flesh is that you’re slow to hear. Swift to speak, swift to wrath. Have you ever seen anybody who can lose their temper? That quick. Never seen anybody like that, huh? Are you somebody like that? I tell you, I’d be honest. I can lose mine like that. Just that quick. And that doesn’t mean that you are, you know, you stay there, But for the moment, you have a whole sinful nature inside of you. It doesn’t take much to get you mad.

And if you’re swift to hear God, you’ll be all right. And slow to speak means you had to think before you speak. Slow down a little bit. Count to a thousand. Somebody said to count to 10. That ain’t long enough for some people. And, but if you’re not right, then you’re slow to hear what God says. See the Bible tells in the book of Hebrews in chapter 5, you are dull of hearing. It means you’re slow to hear, slow.

In other words, like you just turned God on. You don’t even hear God. So if you don’t hit, then you’re going to use your judgment and you’re not going to respond the way God says. So God said that’s not right. Now lookgroupon in James chapter 2 and verse 14. From verse 14 down to verse 26, then you’re talking about how you need the balance between faith and works. Because faith without works won’t work. And works without faith won’t work.

In the Christian life you have to have a balance between what God said and what you do. You’ve got to believe right so you can live right. And if you don’t believe right, you can live right. You can’t live right. You understand that? You can see that. You can see that right there. Can’t you see that? I knew you can. So he goes down through here and he talks and gives him illustrations. How that faith without works, it is dead.

It doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. In these verses, are we talking about how to get to heaven? We’re not talking about salvation. We’re not talking about eternal damnation and so forth. So when he says, if there can faith save him, no, it cannot save him. See up there in verse 14, he says, what profit would that the profit my brother? Though I man say he had faith and have not works can faith save him? No, it can’t. So we’re not talking about salvation from hell.

We’re talking about, can it save you from God’s chasening? Can it save you from the judgment of God? Cause every man’s gonna be rewarded for what he’s done. He’s gonna start with a loss. So you put this in the context and it will make sense. But see, many people take these verses. these are talking about for salvation. And so they’ve got to have old works. Yeah, you’ve got to believe it. You’ve got to do these good deeds too. No, we’re not talking about how to get to heaven.

We’re already talking to those who know Christ is Savior and explaining how that you need. Leave right and live right. If you believe right, you can produce the righteousness of God. If you don’t believe right, you cannot. This is why every time you come to church and You learn a little bit more truth. It’ll help you in your life. But if you go week after week or month after month and you never read the Word of God, you don’t go to church, whatever, then you will find out you cannot live right because you don’t believe right.

See Satan, little by little, you’d be surprised that the truth that is said on Sunday morning, Monday morning the devil is picking it out of your brain. Remember he used the parable of the sore went forth so and he sowed some seeds and the birds came down and he got the seed before it got Germany into the ground so he could grow. What do you think the devil, and use the statement and he says that the devil is like the bird that picks up the seeds out of your mind before you will think about it.

That’s why after a sermon is preached the best thing you can do to remember it is to go over it and over and over in your mind so that you can remember what was said. It’ll do you more good. But by Wednesday chances are if you’re like me getting over you can’t remember what I preached last Sunday morning. By tonight you might not even know what I preached today. Somebody working fast in order to get the things out of your mind or to get you a mind on something else so that that you can’t remember what was said.

All you know is, well, it was a good sermon. What did you preach on? Well, I don’t know, but it sure was good. How are you supposed to change your life if you can’t recall anything that was said, if you can’t remember? This is why notes write it down so you can try to remember because that’s why whenever you cover a certain verse underline that verse, not all of them. Otherwise that one verse won’t stand out. Just certain verses.

certain thoughts, some thing that you learn so that you can remember. They say a short pencil is better than a long memory. I don’t know how long your memory is. It doesn’t remember everything all the time forever. But a short pencil is better than a long memory and it can help you. Now look at the next statement. By being slow to speak, this is chapter 3, and get this uncontrolled tongue received greater condemnation. In other words, like he says in verse 1, my brother, be not many masters, not many teachers or instructors, because if you use this tongue to teach somebody, there is going to be greater condemnation upon you, greater judgment upon you, because somebody else might believe what What you said and what if you didn’t say the right thing?

See if you were not willing to learn the truth, but you give your opinion to everybody. What if people are following your advice? What if they literally follow your advice and it’s wrong? You ever think of the consequences that might make a difference in their life? I’ve had people that will lie and have lied about me. And people have believed lie. And if they believe the lie, it could chase their whole life. They could cause them not to ever go to church again because, you know, they…

I heard, I heard, I heard. And it can destroy their lives. Is that a wise thing to do? You got to make sure that what you say your tongue cannot be pain, but it can’t be controlled. It can only be controlled by the truth of God’s Word. So whenever you believe right, you could say right. And if you don’t believe right, you’ll say whatever comes into your mind. And doesn’t mean it came from God. But if in your mind you feel like it’s true, you’ll stand up on it and you’ll preach it and be totally wrong.

And what a shame. Now also the second statement I wanted to give to you on this, number two, uncontrolled tongue produces greater consequences. It talks about the tongue sitting on fire the course of hell. In other words this little tongue if you just do things with your life but don’t say a word. It’s not gonna maybe damage too many people. But you can take that one little tongue and you can inflame somebody that quick and hurt and destroy, cut.

And because of the tongue, you can hurt somebody, make somebody mad, bitter, what all kind of, and the consequences are unreal. But not only the consequences, but look at the next statement. Uncontrolled tongue reveal greater contradiction. You see, it says here in verse 10, out of the same mipersie that blessing, cursing, my brethren, these things ought not so to be because they contradict each other. God says this, you say this and hear somebody weaken the faith and they don’t know what to believe in.

You can influence somebody in the wrong direction. Bad consequences because the tongue is not controlled. Do you think that God wants us to produce the righteousness of God? Or with the tongue, are you supposed to produce righteousness by the things that you say? This is why you’ve got to be careful about what you hear, what you believe, what you say. Out of your mouth shall not come and built the communication. Out of your mouth should not come the gossip that destroys and ruins people.

You’ve got to be very careful. I have to be careful. Because then scriptures is to God’s children. And there’s times when we may have garbage upon our minds and we are very careful. And then there’s times when we may not watch what we say or do, but the consequences can be devastating. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, the teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. Part 2 of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast.

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The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at six o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.