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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 monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can 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.

We’re doing a few messages on difficult passages in the scriptures. And so there’s not much I can teach you all that you don’t already know. So I just had a stirrup to remember on the things you already know, because you know, lest you forget. And sometimes know with the scriptures if you don’t use it, you lose it. So I hope that you haven’t lost everything. Take your Bible and turn to the book of James and chapter 1. James chapter 1, there is, no doubt, a very famous portion of scripture that’s found in the book of James, but it seems like everybody seems to forget there’s a chapter 1 before chapter 2.

And there’s a chapter 3 and 4. And they seem to forget there’s a chapter 5. So can faith save him always comes back to that interesting portion of scripture. Faith without works is dead. So what does it really mean? So let’s just take a little side trip. It’s really the main highway, believe it or not. But everybody thinks that James chapter 2 verses 14 down through there, that’s the main highway and the others are just, you know, tributaries, you know, they’re not the main road.

I believe that when you got chapter 1 and chapter 3 and 4 and 5, those are the main teachings of the book. Chapter 2 is only a brief little capsule of what all the rest of it’s talking about. And if you forget all of that, you don’t see the purpose of those verses sitting right in the middle of all of this. So it’s only just a brief explanation of all the other. So you can’t forget that. And if you just go to James chapter 2, which most people do, when especially you’re talking to an individual about salvation, they always seem to think that you’re justified for salvation by your works.

Because don’t you know faith without works is dead. So you’ve got to have your works. But let’s just pretend for a second you did have to do good works to go to heaven. If you did, doesn’t the novel next question come down as what good works? How many? How consistent do you have to be? When do you know you’ve done enough? And when do you know you haven’t done enough to know whether or not you are really saved or that you just hope you’re saved or think you’re saved or you know you’re not saved at all?

It really opens up a whole can of worms. And buddy, you’re not going to like what you get into when you get into that. And that is what produces all the different religions of the world because they have different sets of works. And how you can know your say because you did this good work, that good work, and how you can know you can lose it. And everyone who believes that your say by your works believes you can lose your salvation.

Isn’t that amazing? Here in James in chapter one, I want you to know to something. We are talking about works, but go to the place where it first talks about it. And it says there in verse two, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall in the divers’ temptations. He’s knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. The trying of your faith worketh patience. In other words, your faith is supposed to produce something. As you learn something from God, it produces something in your life.

And if it’s not producing something in your life, then the faith that you have is not working for you. See, when you go to heaven, it’s because you trusted Christ to do something. He will produce your salvation because you trusted Him to do a work. He did the work. And all you are doing is accepting the work that He did. So for salvation, yes, you’re always justified by your faith in Christ, in His work. Salvation is never you trusting your work because your work doesn’t count.

So once you have done that and you become a child of God, God says, now I’m going to allow you while you live in this world to be under a lot of testings, temptations, and God permits that. But he wants you now as a child of God to grow in the Lord. So he says here in verse four, but let patience have her perfect, and there’s that word again, work. So yes, faith without works doesn’t start in James chapter two.

It’s starting over here in chapter one to the believer, not to the lost man. But it says to let this work mature in you so that you can produce that which God wants to produce so that you in verse four are complete mature, lacking nothing in your life. So God has to be the one that knows what testings you need in your life, what temptations he will allow to come your way, though he does not tempt any man to sin.

But God can allow things to reveal to you what you need to strengthen in your life. God wants you to be strong in every area of your life. See, some people are very strong in certain areas, and weak in other areas. The key to being a long-lasting child of God in this world is that you’re strong in every area of your life. And if you’re not, you’re not going to make it because Satan will find that weak point in your life.

See, when Satan wants to defeat you, he doesn’t look at the strong points in your life. He finds the weak point. As it says concerning the Amalekites and the Old Testament, they watched for those that were stragglers. The ones that didn’t keep up the complainers, the winers. That’s the ones he can jump on and destroy. But anyway, he says, now concerning your faith, let him in verse six, let him ask in faith because you’re going to have testings happen in your life.

You can’t solve. You can’t answer. Temptations can become great. Testings can become great. So God wants the man to be tested that your faith can increase so that you are stronger in the Lord. But He says, let him ask in faith, not toss to and throw by every wind of doctrine that comes along, or like the wind that blows and tosses you to and throw. So then he says here in verse 8, a double-minded man is not a strong man.

A double-minded man is not a fateful man. A double-minded man is not that consistent. A double-minded man is he’s wishy-washy. Doesn’t know what he believes and why he believes it. So he’s not a strong man. So God says in verse 7, don’t let that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. So as you go down through here, you see where God says in verse 11, blessed is the man that endure temptation. Now we’re already talking about the believer, so we’re not talking about how to get to heaven.

We’re talking about God’s children. And he says, blessed are happy is that man that endures temptation for he shall receive something. See, we’re talking about you doing something and you receiving something. You shall receive something, as he says here, the crown of life. That’s not salvation. The crown is a reward and the rewards are earned. See, salvation is always the gift of God. It’s always free. It’s always because you have placed your faith in Christ in the work that he did.

See, the work he did was he went to the cross because he lived a perfect life. He didn’t have to pay for his sin. He had none. He died. for us came back from the dead and we’re accepting what he did as our payment for our sins. So it’s not salvation by my works. So nowhere does God say trust in your works to get you to heaven we trust in His work to get us to heaven. Now we’re talking about a totally different issue and this issue deals with your service to the Lord is to the child of God serving God as he ought to.

So he says that God has promised things to them that love him. So it’s talking here about you doing the work because God wants you to receive something. So he’s talking about receiving rewards and of course because he’s promised things to those that love him. So loving him is the motive that you and I are supposed to use as the reason why we do what we do. Why? Because I love the Lord. Why do I go to church? Because I love the Lord.

Why do I study His Word? Because I love the Lord. Why do I witness? Because I love the Lord. You take away your love for the Lord and all this becomes drudgery. It’s just like being under the law. You can do the same thing but it becomes legalistic and God doesn’t want you to be legalistic. He want you to have that freedom where you do it because I love him. Look what else he says here. In verse 16 there’s three words that’s mentioned here.

Do not err brethren because so many of God’s children will err. He says do not err my beloved brethren and the reason is because don’t blame God. Don’t blame God when you’re tested or tempted. As though God is the instigator of all the evil that happens to you. God can permit certain things but remember God knows every one of you and he knows me. And you may have messed up somewhere along the line by saying Lord I want to serve you.

I love you. Do with anything that you want. Boy, did you do it. Now you’ve really messed up. Now you’ve really gone too far. So what do you think God’s going to do? You think if you want to be used, God wants to use you. So God is going to teach you things because there’s so much you need to learn. Do not parent see the need for teaching their children, certain principles of how to live and how to work.

And so there’s all kinds of things that God has done for us. And so He makes this statement that God is going to give us all these wonderful opportunities to serve the Lord. Look in verse 20. Verse 20 talks about, for the wrath of man, work if not. Work if not. So we’re talking about things that are profitable and things that are not profitable. See the verse right before verse 9 where he says there in 19, you see there in verse 19, wherefore might be levied brethren, let every man.

And so he talking to the believer, swift to hear, and then he makes this statement, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For wrath, work if not the righteousness of God. So we’re talking about God’s children producing the righteousness of God in his life. And so that means that when you’re tested, you’re supposed to produce the righteousness of God in your life. When you’re tempted to sin, you’re supposed to produce the righteousness of God in your life. Can’t you see that?

It’s so simple and it’s clear. It’s written right there in black and white. It’s the word of God. So then he makes this statement down in verse 22. But be ye an underline that word doer. You see, it’s one thing to be saved and have eternal life and to say you love the Lord. If you love the Lord, live like you love the Lord. And how do you prove to God or to anybody that you love the Lord? Father, things you do, the choices you make.

Every choice, every decision reveals something because there’s a cause and effect. Why did you do that? Why do you think the way you think? Why do you live the way you live? Why do you say the things you say? So God’s Word is very simple, very good, but it’s talking about the believer and what he does, the believer. Look there in verse 23, for if any be a here of the Word and not a doer is likened to a man beholden as natural face in the glass.

So there is to be the doing of what God says. You see there in verse 25, who so looketh into the perfect law of liberty and get this, continueeth therein. He be not a forgetful here, but a doer of the, here’s that word, work. So you see, you have a lot of things that God says about work before you ever get to James chapter, James chapter two is only a little capsule of everything else that he’s talking about in this book.

He’s talking to the believer about producing the righteousness of God, about having the fruit in your life that you should have, and that God uses testings and trials, temptations to produce the righteousness. So God says that He allows these things to produce, of all things, patience in the child of God. You see, if you’re a patient, you don’t get soon angry. Phil would wrath, you’re slow to speak. But whenever you are like a stick of dynamite, short fuse and long fuse, when the Bible talks about in the book of Galatians, long-suffering.

If some people are not long-suffering, they’re not long-fused. I mean, you just strike the match and buddy, they explode. So they can just, you know, sit coming. So, but he deals a lot with the patience. That’s mentioned in verse 3 of chapter 1 of James. Look over there very quickly and look in chapter 5 of the book of James. Notice what it says in verse seven, be patient, therefore brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. I wonder how long we’re supposed to be patient unto what?

Until the Lord comes. That’s gonna be a long time. Or until you die, I guess we could throw that in there. Look at the last part of this. Behold, the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth and have long patience. See that word patience again? Look in verse 8. Be also patient, patient. God wants His children to learn patience, and you learn patience by learning how to trust God. Learning how to wait upon the Lord, because you know He carreth for you.

Impatience means you worry, you fret, you get filled with anger and bitterness and you fall apart. But if you’ll learn to be patient and look at something else why you’re in chapter 5. Look what he says in verse 19 brethren. If any of you do air from the truth, see we just read that in chapter 1 do not air brethren Because of thinking, something that’s not true, not understanding the reason for the trials and the testings that you have.

Don’t you understand that every good and perfect gift comeeth down from the Father above? And that in chapter three talks about the wisdom of God versus the wisdom of man, and that the wisdom of God is peaceable? Well look at that maybe in just a minute. Well look what he says there in verse 20, Let him know that he which converted the sinner from the era of his ways shall, and you ought to underline it, save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins.

This is to the believer. Not talking about the lost man. Talking about God’s children And some of God’s children that go astray. Now when you read chapter four, he says you are daughters. Ooh, Christians that are not living right, not doing right. And you notice when he says you’re save a soul from death, whenever it asks that question in James chapter 2, remember it makes his statement, shall faith save him? If you’re talking to the believer, are we talking about God saving us from hell?

That’s not the issue. It’s just not the context. We’re not even discussing that. We’re talking about God saving you, and can faith save you? And the answer there is no. Because we’re not talking about salvation. We’re talking about can it save you from death? Can it save you from the chastening? Can it save you from God’s anger? Can it save you from the error of your ways? Just have it. faith. No, God says, I’m going to reward you. And your discipline is so important.

Now, go back there to the book of James chapter 1. And look what he says down in verse 26. Verse 26 says, and if any man among you seems to be religious, Breitel is not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart. This means man’s religion is vain. In other words, here’s a believer that doesn’t bridal his tongue, but he deceives. You and I are talking about what a man says and what a man does, and therefore he is going to be either justified in your eyes as he’s a righteous man or he’s not doing the right thing.

He’s living like a lost man. Can God’s people live like lost men? Yes, they can. So God says, his religion, the outward manifestations of his life. That’s why we see some people say, He didn’t have any religion at all. And there’s other people who live very religiously because you’re judging by what they’re doing. So in James chapter two and verse one, he says, my brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect to persons. In other words, if you believe what God says and what Jesus did, then lived like Jesus did.

And Jesus didn’t have respect of persons. He wasn’t that away. So we’re supposed to live, think, and judge the way that He did. And then He uses an illustration about somebody that comes into your mist and they look like they’re very rich. And then you have somebody that looks like they don’t have anything. Which one do you cater to? Who would you treat with more respect? Some bum that walks in off the street, an old whino or somebody just drove in and they’re Lamborghini and got diamonds all over, and they’re just rich looking and all that.

Would you treat them differently? If you do, you’re wrong. You’re judging. And God says you’re impartial in your judgment. It’s not to be that way. I don’t even want to treat an adult differently than I treat a child. I want to treat them all the same. Because to me, if that child is trusted Christ, that child is a child of God, and so is this old person, I want to treat everybody with respect. That’s a child of God. If they’re lost, I’m still supposed to treat them with dignity and respect.

I think it’s just what we’re supposed to do. And as you go down through here, he’s talking about the things that you say, the things that you do. And so that’s why he says that in verse 12 of chapter 2, so speak ye. And so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. Because God says in verse 13, for he shall have judgment without mercy. We’re not talking about the lost man here. We’re talking about the believer.

So God is going to judge the Christian because of the things he says and what he does. And God is going to be fair in what he does. And so that’s why when you read in chapter two, verse 14, what does it profit my brethren? So there’s some things that we say and do that has no profit. And just to say, well, I have faith, but you don’t treat people the way God wants them to be treated. It’s not profitable for them and guaranteed it’s not profitable for you.

Even when you read in the book of Titus in chapter three, when it talks about, be careful to maintain good works for these are good and profitable on the men. You see, there’s things that are profitable. They have a good reason for it. It helps. It enlightens. You become an example of the Christian life. Somebody is watching to see what you say and what you do. People are learning from you. They’re learning from me. And sometimes we don’t always give the best impression.

So look there in James chapter 3. Notice in verse 1 where he says, my brethren, be not many ministers or masters, knowing that we and you ought to underline it, shall receive. So you’re going to receive some. See, God wants you to receive rewards. God wants you to receive the patience you’re supposed to have. But when you become a teacher, it’s even worse. You will receive the greater condemnation because you affect more people. You see, the higher you climb in your abilities to be used by God, blood, or the bigger the climb, the bigger the fall, and the bigger the fall, the bigger the splash.

And the bigger the splash, the more people that are affected. You can go down here and drop a little old pebble into the water and you will still see it has a little ripple in effect. Maybe not a lot. But now if something happens like a what they call the tsunami, does that cause a ripple effect? So you want to be greatly used by God? Well God the higher He lifts you up, the bigger the fall, the more people are affected.

So teachers or preachers, those who teach the Word of God have a greater responsibility because you’re affecting more people. And so he says here, shall receive the greater condemnation. So can just having faith save you from that? No faith cannot save you from that. And that’s the purpose of all of this. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a 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 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. 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.

just keep looking up.