Bob Lloyd - James - Unspotted from the World - Class 2 - Practicing God's Word

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   This is Winfield Bible School 1998. The theme for this week is Next Year in Jerusalem. This is the talk by brother Bob Lloyd and his theme is Unspotted from the World, taken from the letter of James. And today’s class is practicing. God’s word for the Bob. Well, good morning, my beloved brothers and sisters and young people, It is a good morning. This is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. I want to welcome those new faces which are here today that didn’t come yesterday.

2. 0:37

   And it’s a joy to see you here. I’m thinking of Ruth’s dibs right in front of me now, and I know there’s some others that have come up today. And so pleased to see you all and share our fellowship around the Word this morning. If you have your Bibles open to James chapter one, we’re going to begin looking at verse 5. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and that breadeth not, and it shall be given him.

3. 1:11

   But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, given with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.

4. 1:30

   That really ties in with what we talked about yesterday. Because remember we looked at verse 2 yesterday where James had told us, my brethren counted all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Now James realizes this is hard to do, to count it joy when you’re being tried, when you’re having problems, when you’re being tempted.

5. 1:53

   So he, he says, OK, if this is too hard to do, if you lack wisdom in knowing how to do this, then I tell you what you ought to do. We should then ask God to help us and give us this godly wisdom to see things in their proper perspective. And the wonderful assurance that comes from God is that this pair will be answered positively.

6. 2:20

   Sometimes God says no to our prayers. We don’t always get what we ask for. And rightly so, because some of the things I’ve asked for I shouldn’t have had, and what God gave me was better than what I’ve even asked for. But here’s a prayer that if you ask, God will say yes if there is a qualification.

7. 2:42

   If you ask in faith, nothing wavering. Now the the point is being addressed to those who lack wisdom. Now there are two groups of people who lack wisdom, and the first group is those who don’t know. And realize they don’t know. And then unfortunately, there’s another group they don’t know and they don’t know that they don’t know.

8. 3:20

   They’re the ones that says Mommy. I’ll do it myself. There’s no such thing as a self. Made man or woman. Now there’s an Indian proverb that that expresses this thought quite well. This is the way it goes. I can’t. Speak to it, say it in Indian, but in English it goes like this. He who knows not and knows that he knows not is ignorant teaching.

9. 3:45

   He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool. Avoid him. So the first thing we need to recognize is that we all lack wisdom. And of course you remember that Paul told us. If any man thinks that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know, so that know it all attitude cannot be helped. There are people who are so puffed up with themselves that you can’t teach them anything.

10. 4:17

    And now it’s not a sin to lack wisdom. Don’t ascend to lack wisdom and not knowing. That you lack wisdom. Solomon is an excellent example as a young boy. I believe he was about 19 when this took place. Since Second Chronicles chapter one you know the story very well. He has just ascended the throne in of his father David.

11. 4:39

    And imagine a 19 year old boy going to sleep at night and having God speak to him in a night vision that night God appeared to Solomon. This is two Chronicles, one verse seven. And God said to Solomon, ask what I shall give you. Can you imagine having God Almighty ask us what do you want me to give for you do for you?

12. 5:07

    And this young boy, 19, he was wiser than many 19 year olds because at 19, some people know everything. Mark Twain, he left home, I think when he was about 17. He said his father didn’t know anything. He came back at 25 and was amazed how much his father had learned in a few short years. But here’s a 19 year old boy who didn’t know and knew he didn’t know and asked God to help him.

13. 5:40

    And that’s the very point that James is telling all of us. He hasn’t appeared to us in a night vision, but he is really saying to each one of you. Ask me, and I will provide. And so Solomon said to God, Thou hast showed great mercy unto David my father, and has made me reign in his stead.

14. 6:04

    Now, O Lord God, let thy promise unto David my Father be established, for thou hast made me king over a people like the dust of the. Earth in multitude. Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people, For who can judge this thy people? That is so great. End of his request.

15. 6:29

    Verse 11. And God said to Solomon, Because this was in thine heart, and thou hast not asked for riches or wealth, or honor, nor the life of thine enemies, neither hath. Ask for long life, but ask for wisdom and knowledge for thyself, that thou mayest judge my people over whom I have made thee king.

16. 6:52

    Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee. What you ask for I will give you. That’s what James says. Ask and you shall receive, but ask nothing wavering you have to believe. What you’re asking for? And I will give you riches and honor and wealth such as none of the kings have had before thee.

17. 7:10

    So God is willing to pour out, to open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings on us if we really honestly, totally commit our lives to him. But we have to realize that we cannot do it ourselves. The people who are puffed up with their own self importance are not able to be helped.

18. 7:32

    The the Alcoholics Anonymous, which is very famous, a group, it’s all over. The world and I don’t know if you’ve ever been to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting or not. I don’t want to know, but I went to one. I was working with a, a medical Doctor Who was studying for me to be baptized and he was baptized, but he went to a A and he said to me, Bob, would you go to an, a, a meeting with me? I said, you want me to?

19. 8:00

    He said, yes. I said, OK, I’ll go if you want me to. Well, they have a book. It’s not like the ALS diary. It’s big. It has all the addresses of every a a meeting in the I guess, and and this was a big just California, but I guess they have them for everywhere now.

20. 8:19

    I thought since he always went to an A a meeting near his home and he lived over over on the complete other side of town for me. Out by the beaches and I live up by the mountains. In Southern California, he drove 2030 miles every week to to to spend an evening with me.

21. 8:35

    I thought, well. This would be my turn to go and, and go to his meeting where he goes. He was so thoughtful. He looked up in his book and found that there’s a, a, a meeting about eight blocks from my house. Now, I didn’t want to go to an, A, a meeting eight blocks from my house.

22. 9:00

    I, I’ve lived in that town for 40 years and I didn’t know who I was going to see. And they’re going to say, well, you’re here, huh? But he was only being thoughtful of me. So we went to the one eight blocks from my house and it was interesting. But they, they everybody who speaks in an, A, a meeting, the first thing he has to do or she when they get up, they say, hi, I’m Bob Lloyd and I’m a drunk. You have to say that every time because you are always a recovering alcoholic.

23. 9:37

    You can’t say I used to be an alcoholic or I used to be a drunk. And we can say we are sinners, can’t we? And we are, we are forgiven sinners, but we, we are sinners. But you see, they can’t be helped until they admit that they can’t help themselves. They have to surrender their life, they call it to a higher being. I was amazed at how many similarities there were in their meeting to a Christadelphian meeting. I’ve never been to one before and never been to one since. But they have the book.

24. 10:06

    The big book was it’s not inspired. It’s their book. But and and the and the the to be brother who is now brother. He we walked in together. He they never said, I didn’t know anybody there. I was so glad. But we walked in and we sat down and they came over to him and they said would you would you read for us tonight? I’m glad they didn’t ask me, but I didn’t. I would have, but I mean I don’t know they could. Tell each other, we walked in together now, now our brother has been sober for 10 or 15 years. You have a birthday if you’re in a a, your birthday is the last is the day that you stopped drinking. And so they had a birthday party that night and they had a birthday cake.

25. 10:52

    And this little old lady, she was about 75 years old and she had a, it was her 25th birthday, 25 years, she’d been dry and we sang happy birthday to her. But it was interesting. It’s based on very good principles. Again, what did Jesus say? Children of this world and their generation, wiser than the children of life.

26. 11:14

    They don’t know the truth, but they certainly take the principles of the truth and they apply it to help people get over being a drunk so. The alcoholic has to admit that he’s an alcoholic. And ask for help, or they can’t be helped. And we need to admit that we need knowledge and we need wisdom, or we can’t be helped.

27. 11:39

    Now, according to Webster, knowledge is defined as clear and certain perception of something, information, acquaintance with facts, wisdom, the faculty of making the best use of knowledge. Now there are some people who have a a whole lot of knowledge and no wisdom. We may know how to drive a car, but we don’t have sense enough to drive it safely. It’s important for us to remember that God, through James here, is offering to give us wisdom, which is the right use of knowledge.

28. 12:22

    And I’m always amazed at the amount of knowledge people in the world can accumulate. On something that is so unimportant, at least to me, it’s unimportant. I used to call on a company and one of the fellows there was a baseball buff. He could tell you you just name a year and he would tell you who won the World Series.

29. 12:40

    He knew the winner of the World Series since there was World Series and he knew the batting averages of all the the famous baseball players of old and, and all the ones that they were all we’re currently playing. He had thousands of facts and he’s fingertip or his tongue tip about baseball. He had to have applied himself to a lot of study to have acquired all that knowledge with no wisdom as far as I’m concerned. What good will that do you when Christ comes and the people on some of these quiz programs and they they they can rattle off stuff about.

30. 13:17

    I don’t even know what the category means alone. The answer to the problem question like so we we have to decide what kind of knowledge we want to have and then we have to ask God to give us the wisdom to use that knowledge in the right way. You want to come to Hosea please Hosea chapter 4 because he talks about this subject.

31. 13:45

    Hosea 4 and verse one hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel. So listen up. He says God is speaking for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. What what, what what’s the problem God? Well, they there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land.

32. 14:05

    And that’s sure true of our lands. We have a lot of people who have a lot of knowledge about a lot of things, but they have no knowledge of God. You know, some of these quiz programs, sometimes they’ll, they’ll answer questions about Greek mythology and, and movies and stuff and I don’t even know what they’re talking about.

33. 14:25

    And then there’s a simple question about the Bible and they miss it. They have no knowledge of God. Coming down to verse six, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject you that you shall be no priest to me, seeing you have forgotten the law of the God.

34. 14:49

    I will also forget your children verse six for I desired mercy and not sacrifice and knowledge of God more than burnt offering. We all of us know a lot of useless things that useless so far as our salvation is concerned. So what we need to do is prioritize our mind to acquire the right kind of knowledge and then ask God to use to give us the wisdom which he promises to do if we don’t, don’t doubt him to use that knowledge in a wise way.

35. 15:32

    So we’re back to the point that James is trying to teach us. If we know that we are supposed to be joyous when we are facing troubles and we have a hard time accepting this, we we, we know that we’re supposed to jump for joy when we have problems, but it’s not easy, then we should ask God for the wisdom to rightly apply this knowledge that we are to be joyous and tribulation. And then God will supply us with the wisdom to rightly apply this knowledge which we know.

36. 16:04

    But we’re having trouble applying that that I won’t repeat it but. I hope that made sense. Not only will God supply this wisdom. He will do it. Liberally, whatever God does, he does super abundantly. He, we remember when just we just read about Solomon, he asked for wisdom and he gave him all kinds of things besides wisdom.

37. 16:32

    And Paul tells us now to him that he’s able to do exceedingly abundantly. Above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in US. God wants to pour out blessings from heaven on us. In the parable of the prodigal son, he only asked to be treated as one of the hired servants, yet the father killed the fatted calf calf and put a gold ring on his finger.

38. 16:56

    Jacob left home with a rod in his hand and he came back with four wives, twelve sons, one daughter, 2 bands of of livestock. I’m looking down at Malachi. Almost said he came back with two bands of Malachi Shows how the mind could jump from one thing to the other. Two bands of a lifestyle. We’re going to go to Malachi next. Malachi 310 Because Malachi lays down a challenge to us. Just put God first in your life and see what I’ll do, says Malachi.

39. 17:26

    Just just try me. Malachi 310 Bring ye all the ties into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now. Herewith Seth, the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to accept it, just try me. Brothers and sisters, just try God, just put him totally first in your life.

40. 17:54

    Bring him what he has coming to him and see what he will do for us. He’s I’ll open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing on you. And there are people who will never receive that blessing because they’re never, ever able to let go of themselves and of what they think is important and put God first.

41. 18:17

    And so we often go through life lacking when God wants to bless us super abundantly. In Mark 10, we have the story where the Peter asked Jesus, well, what are we going to get out of it? He he’s just been sad because he loved this young boy, young man who came to him and asked what good thing could he do to inherit eternal life.

42. 18:44

    You know the story well. And he went away grieved because he had great possessions. We’re all pretty well blessed. If you go to places like Guyana or India and places in Africa, they don’t have great possessions. And sometimes the clothes on their back is about all they have when they sleep, sleep in a mud Hut or they don’t have much to give up. We have a lot, brother and sisters, we’re thankful that God has blessed us, but we mustn’t let what we have get in the way of the Lord.

43. 19:21

    And so Jesus had said it was harder for a camel, a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God than a camel to go through the eye of a needle. And they said, well, who can be saved? And he said, well, God, that man, it’s impossible. There’s no way you can be saved.

44. 19:35

    I mean, salvation is not a do it yourself kit. Without the Lord you cannot be saved. But he wants to give you eternal life. And so Peter, dear Peter, he says, well Jesus, we’ve left everything to follow you. What are we going to get? So we come into verse 29 and Peter, Jesus is going to answer Peter’s question. Jesus said to Peter and to the others, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or land, or wife, for my sake in the Gospels, tell you what I’ll do, says Jesus just. Same, same challenge as as, as Malachi, put me first in your life.

45. 20:17

    Put me ahead of your family, put me ahead of your career, put me ahead of your possessions, put me first and I, you will receive verse 30 a hundredfold. You know that that’s multiplying it by 100 and and that’s right now. That’s not in the future. Right now. God says if you put me first in your life, I’ll multiply by 100 times with look what he says with houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands.

46. 20:50

    Oh, you don’t have persecutions because that’s part of life. And besides. That in the world to come, eternal life. No one can read these verses and understand them and turn God down. This is an offer. It’s just not too good to be true because it is true because it’s coming, coming from the Lord. But but it means letting go of what we feel is important and letting God take over in our lives. And then he opens the windows of heaven and he pours out these blessings on us.

47. 21:30

    I was in a Bible school in New Zealand, then another one in Australia the same year with two back-to-back. It was a young brother there. Some of you may have heard of him. His name is Hong Tran. Winton knows him, and Hong Tran was a Vietnamese refugee who left Vietnam in a boat and landed safely and ended up in Brisbane. Never heard of Christadelphians or no Christadelphians in Vietnam at the time.

48. 21:59

    There were no, no, no, no Christians of any kind in that in Vietnam at that time. And he met Christadelphians. His whole family had been on this boat and they’re all Buddhists and he met Christian Alpheans and he fell in love with the truth. And he he decided to be baptized. And his uncle who was the head of the clan. And they’re, they’re very, very close knit in the Vietnamese. We have a Vietnamese couple in our ecclesia and another brother who wants nothing to do with the truth is ahead of their clan. And there’s problems because he keeps interfering with their spiritual life.

49. 22:37

    But this uncle of Hung Tran said to his nephew, if you get baptized, I’m putting out a contract on your life and the person who kills you will get $25,000 Australian money.

50. 22:57

    And Huntran had to be baptized in secret and had to go on hiding. See what Jesus is saying here. If you put me first in your life, you have to leave your brethren and your sisters and your father and your mother and your wife and your children. You got to put me first and hung Tran did. He became a Christian Alpha.

51. 23:16

    Now the good news, and it’s a wonderful story because the good news, they didn’t kill him, of course, that’s the real good news. But he his his his uncle relented after he saw he was steadfast and immovable. 1 to always abound in the work of the Lord took off the contract and now that young brother has married an Australian sister and they’re back in Vietnam teaching people the truth.

52. 23:43

    There’s a little occasion now in in Hanoi and he’s a moving force. God’s using him to to bring the truth to other Vietnamese right in in Vietnam. And it’s very dicey because it’s actually they frown on Christians being in Hanoi. So he he’s even suffering persecutions now. But the, the most of us won’t be murdered by somebody else because we get baptized.

53. 24:14

    We had people who’ve been cut off by their families. We had a sister in our pleasure. Have you ever heard of the Rose parade on New Year’s Day? We have a rose parade and we decorate floats with flowers. Well, this young Christian Adelphian brother went down to help every. It’s fun. You know, young people do it.

54. 24:29

    And you, you set up all night gluing flowers on these things. And it was a young girl who was a college student. She was there donating, donating her time, sticking off a lot. And they met, she was a very good Catholic girl going to a very rich Catholic school, very rich parents. And they fell in love and she became a Christadelphian.

55. 24:51

    And they, they ostracized her, cut off her, threw her out of college, wouldn’t pay for her college. She had to give up all of that to become a Christadelphian. But look, she got a whole new family. You see, she had a family she had to lay aside for a family much bigger worldwide of her brothers and sisters.

56. 25:14

    Now, not too many of us face those kind of persecutions, but we still let other things get in our way. So James tells us that God promises to give us wisdom liberally. And God says God won’t upgrade us, which means he won’t make fun of you. He won’t be. Critical if you lack wisdom, a a wise parent, you know, will be very patient with a little child who says, daddy, you know why? And that’s all kinds of questions because they learn we have a heavenly Father that realizes we lack wisdom. And if we ask him, he says he will give it to us and he won’t be critical.

57. 25:52

    He won’t upgrade us. He’s willing, he’s willing to bless us if we’ll just open ourselves up to him. Now, it’s possible to give God lip service and say, oh God, we want wisdom, but we’re really secretly angry with God. We’re having a trial or a problem and we we’re angry that God is. Doing this to us or?

58. 26:19

    Perhaps we have a temptation that we don’t really want to resist. This is a story about a little boy who was praying to God and he says, Oh Lord, make me pure, but not yet. And we could be like that too. I mean, we’re not really quite ready to give up the things of this life for God. And if we’re like that, we’re double minded. So James 1-6 and seven, let him ask in faith nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and touched.

59. 26:55

    Let. Not that man think he will receive. Anything of the Lord. Now I want to read this to you from the Phillips translation. I’m going to start at verse 5 and you just follow it in your Bible, whatever version you might have 5 through 9. If in the process any of you do not understand how to meet any particular. Problem.

60. 27:19

    He only has to ask God, who gives generously to all men without making them feel foolish or guilty, and he may be quite sure the necessary wisdom will be given him. But he must ask in sincere faith, without secret doubts as to whether he really wants God’s help or not. The man who trusts God but with inward reservations is like a wave of the sea carried forward and by the wind one moment and driven back the next. That sort of man cannot hope to receive anything from God. And.

61. 27:54

    The life of a man of divided loyalty will reveal instability. At every turn there is another aspect we want to consider in asking God for wisdom, and that is this. It’s not a shortcut to success. It’s not a shortcut to avoid studying. We can’t get down on our knees and say, oh God, make me smart so I don’t have to study.

62. 28:22

    We do have to still have to do our homework. We still have to put our our nose in the good book and faithfully do our Bible readings. I told the children yesterday, the young people, they won’t be called children, but I, I’m sure you all know this, but they didn’t know it, you know, You know, Solomon says if you don’t do your Bible readings, don’t bother to pray.

63. 28:45

    You know what’s in the Bible. That’s kind of a loose translation. I’ll read you right out of the King James. But that’s the sense of what if you don’t do your Bible readings, don’t bother to pray. And this is how that’s how Solomon put it. It’s in Proverbs 28 and verse nine, he that turneth away his ear from hearing the law that’s doing your Bible readings.

64. 29:15

    You hear the the law of the word of the Lord when, when, but when you turn your ear away from it, well, even your prayer will be an abomination. So. I know some people in the world that pray all the time, but they never read the Bible. God says don’t bother if we If you don’t have time to do your Bible readings, your prayers will be drier. You’ll notice that of your own self. But.

65. 29:43

    But you see, there are some people who want to do all the talking. Have you ever been around a person all the. Time this one poor fella. His wife was divorcing. Him. And she told the judge, my husband hasn’t spoken to me in 20 years. And and the judge was aghast. He said, is that right? He said, yes, your honor.

66. 30:03

    He said, well, why not? He said, I didn’t want to interrupt her. There are those kind you. See, and there are those kind with God, they want to do all the talking they want they quite happy to pray. And tell God everything they want they. Don’t have time to listen to God. So when we open our Bibles, God speaks to us.

67. 30:29

    So we we we must continue to acquire all the knowledge we can of the things that are important. Then God will give us the wisdom to rightly use that knowledge which we’re acquiring to bring glory and honor to His name. James one verse 8A Double minded man is unstable in all his ways, not not some of his ways in all his ways.

68. 30:56

    Now double mindedness is no doubt the cause of most of the failures in life, both in the truth and and out of the truth.

69. 31:05

    To be double minded is to divide the mind and the word worry comes from a Greek word that means to divide the mind. So if you’re worried, you have a divided mind. So I believe worry is a sin. And we know that a divided house, a house divided against itself cannot stand. Now again, the children of this world and their generation wiser than the children of life. If you go to any motivational seminars or you, you go to these, you read any of these books by people or how to tell you to be successful in life, they will teach you that you, you can’t be double minded.

70. 31:42

    We we, we have to know where we want to go. We have to make goals or how to get there and we have to make decisions and stick to them. The people who are most likely to be successful in life, and this is anything in life are, are able to make up their mind rather quickly.

71. 32:02

    They can gather the facts together and make a decision and when they get it, they usually stick to it. And the people who are failures in life are people who have a lot of trouble making decisions. They, they, they, they gather the information and they go back and forth and they can’t sleep and they think about it. And then they finally make a decision. Somebody goes, did you make?

72. 32:21

    Oh, OK, I’ll change it. In fact, one person said to me, so I have a very clean mind. I change it all the time.

73. 32:30

    So a double minded person is a person who changes their mind too often. We need to decide where we’re going. Again, if you go to any success seminars, they tell you have written down goals. I hope you do have written down goals because if you don’t know where you’re going, you probably won’t get there.

74. 32:52

    Alice in Wonderland is a little famous story, you know, that they tell the little children. Alice has come to a corner and there’s several roads going off. There’s a cat sitting up on the fence and she turns to the cat and she says which Rd. should I take? And the cat says well where do you want to go? And she’s well, I don’t know.

75. 33:09

    He says any road will do and if you don’t know where you want to go, any road will get you there. So we of all people need to be focused. We need to know where we’re going. We need to have a a goal of the Kingdom of God set in our mind. And when you have a goal and things come along that would detract you from your goal, you say, Oh no, I’m I’m going this way.

76. 33:35

    Beautiful verse that Jesus tells us to be take my yoke upon you and learn of me for meek and lowly in heart and you should find rest under your souls. But when you yoke up with Jesus and you’re going down the road with Jesus, I I have a picture of a little little cart with two donkeys and they yoke together and they’re going down the road together and they come to a fork of the road and one donkey wants to go this way.

77. 33:56

    One donkey wants to go that way. They can’t do that. They’re yoked together. They both now if you’re going down the road of life on the way to the Kingdom yoke to Jesus and you come to a a fork in the road and one Rd. looks pretty nice. It’s wide and it’s paved and it’s downhill and maybe it’s a toll road. We had came on a toll.

78. 34:18

    Road up here. A lot faster than the other Rd. But the road to the Kingdom is narrow and windy and sharp curves and harder to go. So if you’re yoked up to Jesus and you come to this fork in the road and you Jesus says we’re going to turn right and you say, oh, that other Rd. sure looks nice to me. You’re going to either have to suppress what you want to do and go with Jesus the way you should go or unhook from Jesus and go it alone.

79. 34:49

    And sometimes people do that. We sometimes people in the truth unhook their yoke from Jesus and try to go it alone and the end is failure and death that James one verse 8 double minded mind is unstable in all these ways. He only uses this word double minded twice. There it is in verse eight chapter 4 verse eight again, draw an eye to God and he will draw an eye to you. Cleanse your hand ye sinners and purify your hearts ye double minded.

80. 35:28

    So we must not be double minded. But he alludes to the fact of being double minded when he doesn’t use the words. Let’s look at some others. James 24. If any man among you seem to be no. James. Yeah. James 126 If any man among you seem to be religious and Bridleth not his tongue deceive with his own heart.

81. 35:51

    This man’s religion is vain. So if you if you are running off the mouth, you’re you’re you’re, you know, you’re double minded. We we all talk too much. Maybe I mean God, you know God. It gave you 2 ears, one mouth. Listen twice as much as you talk. So there’s double mindedness there. James 24 Are ye not then partial in yourselves and become judges of evil thoughts?

82. 36:17

    James 216 And one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, notwithstanding you don’t give them what they need for the body. What profit is that? You talk a good fight. Oh, I I care about the poor. I hope you’re going to get along OK. But we don’t do anything about it again. James 310, Out of the same mouth proceed. Blessings and cursings, my brethren. This ought not to be.

83. 36:43

    How can the same mouth say good things and bad things? Well, we know it happens, don’t we? That’s double mindedness, that mind saying good things and saying bang out of the same mouth. James 313. Who is wise man and a dude with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation. He’s worked with meekness and wisdom. If you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth.

84. 37:07

    So we can have be envious and have strife in our hearts and say how wonderful the truth is. And the problem is that’s being double minded. Now Jesus condemned double mindedness, although he didn’t use the word come to Matthew 6,

85. 37:28

    Matthew 624. No man can serve 2 masters for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. That’s double minded. Trying to serve God and trying to serve Mammon so. So being double minded could be our undoing.

86. 37:48

    We have to be single minded and focused on our goal. Revelation 3, verse 14 under the Angel of the Ecclesia of the latest sins, right. These things set the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, but thou art neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot.

87. 38:14

    Be one or the other. Don’t try to be lukewarm. The lukewarm is double minded. They’re neither this and they’re neither that. So because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. What was the problem? Well, verse 17 is because you say I am rich, I’m increased with goods and have need of nothing. Knowest not that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

88. 38:40

    I counsel thee divide me. Gold tried in the fire that thou mayst be rich and white remnant that thou mayst be clothed, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. Anoint thine eyes with eyesight that thou mayst see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chase it. Be zealous therefore, and repent.

89. 38:57

    There was, there was still hope. There’s still hope for us, brothers and sisters, but we got to realize we have a problem. We are, we have the tendency to be double minded and that we can solve the problem through God’s help. We lack wisdom. We ask God for it, He will give it to us, but we have to decide that the truth is everything in our life or it might as well be nothing.

90. 39:25

    If you say, well, I’ve got a good job and I’ve got a, I’ve got some hobbies that I like. I really enjoy those. And I’ve the family and I, we, we like to camp, we like to fish on Sundays. We like to. The truth used to be about #6 in my life. And now it’s number three. Well, it’s going in the right direction until it gets to number one.

91. 39:50

    It’s nowhere. If God is not first in our life, He might as well not be in our life because He really isn’t in our life. He won’t say play second fiddle to any other things that you think are important. Can’t be double minded with something else and the truth. And so we have to work at making sure that we are on fire for the truth. When I was a young boy, there was a song and I, I won’t sing it because I Can’t Sing and you’ll be glad of that. I don’t want to set the world on fire. I just want to start a flame in your heart. Now the old, old people may remember the song and the old young ones will not have a clue what it’s all about. But, but, but the, the, the, the thought of that is worth thinking about.

92. 40:44

    I don’t want to set the world on fire. I just want to start a flame in your heart for the Lord Jesus. The two that walked with Jesus from Jerusalem to Emmaus said did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?

93. 41:04

    If our heart is not right with God, then we’re double minded. It’s time to change and the good news is that we can. There’s no use asking God to help us if we’re only bent on pleasing ourselves. Joshua channel challenges the people of his day to not to be double minded and this is Joshua 24. It’s the last words we have recorded of Joshua now therefore fear of the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth. That’s what we should be doing right? Fear of the Lord and serve God in sincerity and put away the gods which your father served on this side of the flood. What gods do you have in your house? What is it that’s?

94. 41:49

    It causes you to be double minded. We have the truth here. We have television, we have radio, we have CDs, we have videos, we have worldly magazines, We have. Sports we have, gardenings we have none of those things necessarily are a sin. A lot of them are a waste of time, but. Anything that consumes your time and takes you away from the truth, you’re double minded. You read the truth all right, but something else is taking too much of your attention.

95. 42:29

    And so this, this is an important thing for us to learn as we look at James, because Joshua said, put away the strange gods that are among you and clang your heart into the Lord God of Israel. That’s what we must do too. And when Joshua said that they, they agreed they would do it.

96. 42:48

    Unfortunately, they, they said it, but they didn’t do it. And that can be true of us. Elijah, challenge the people who is there. How long do you halt between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. And if Baal, then follow him. If you don’t have the Kingdom of God first in your life, then go for whatever it is you want to do because you’re not going to get the Kingdom.

97. 43:11

    That’s harsh words, but they’re not ours. If there’s something in your life that you love so much that the truth is sometimes a bother, then that could be your God.

98. 43:22

    Whatever it might be, it’s a very poor God. So how long do we halt between two opinions? See, talk is so cheap. In Joshua’s day they said they would do it and they didn’t. In Elijah’s day, they they killed the prophets of Baal, but they kept right on worshipping Baal. We have a a zealous king in Second King chapter 10, and the name is Jehu and he drove furiously. We have Christadelphians who drive the same way and he he said all the right things, but he didn’t live what he said Fail.

99. 44:16

    And he he he says, is your heart in chapter 10 of second Kings. He he he sees John the dab, the son of Recab in verse 15 and he, he salutes him. He says, is thine heart right as my heart is with thine heart? Not a nice thing to say. Is your heart right with my heart if my heart is with your heart. There was another song years ago. I don’t even know the tune of this one. The other one.

100. 44:41

     I knew the tune, but I wasn’t going to hum it. This one, this one, the the the song title is If My Heart Had Windows, you would see a heart full of love just for you. Now what do we do when we have windows? We put blinds on them so that you can’t see out.

101. 45:04

     And I wonder if we had a if my heart had a window, would I pull a little blind down so that when you came up and looked in my heart, you wouldn’t see that I don’t really love you.

102. 45:17

     I mean, we don’t have windows in our heart, but in a way we do. God has a window into everyone’s heart. He he knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts. And so Hughes and your heart right with my. Heart. Then come up in the chariot with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.

103. 45:37

     And they rode together, and chapter 10, verse 31, ye who took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart, for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam who made Israel sin. So there was a fellow who talked to good fight and didn’t live as he talked.

104. 46:06

     Double mindedness is so common and it’s fatal. We need to keep reaffirming that we really do love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. We need to have this flame in our heart for God. Double mindedness and will be burned out and go away. We try to love the world at the same time we’re being double minded. John says do not love the world, don’t love the things in the world.

105. 46:36

     If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him, for all that is in the world the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh. And. The pride of life, not of the Father, it’s of the world. The world is passing away in the lust of it.

106. 46:54

     For he does. The will of God abides forever. So we need, as we study James, to realize we need this total dedication, total commitment, single mindedness, aiming for the right thing. And I have a silly story, but it it teaches a lesson. You can tell the story is not true. It’s too fantastic.

107. 47:19

     But the but the lesson is, is is a true lesson. Jesus told stories that weren’t true, but the lesson was true. Rich man and Lazarus was not a true story, but the lesson it taught. He took one of their own fables and used it against him. This story has to do with a farmer calling Farmer Jones. He was a very nice farmer and all the animals loved him. So they got together and said, what can we do to show Farmer Jones how much we appreciate what he’s done for us? So they appointed a committee.

108. 47:48

     That’s where you do appoint a committee, you know. So they appointed a committee of the pig and a chicken. And so the this committee gets off at a corner and then what can we do for Farmer Jones to show how much we appreciate? All of a sudden, the chicken says. I got it. I got it.

109. 48:03

     I got it, you know. He was a bird brain, but he says, what do we do? He says, well let’s, let’s serve Farmer Jones on ham and egg breakfast.

110. 48:14

     And the pig looked at the chicken. He said for you that’s a day’s work, but for me that’s total commitment. Now the moral of the story is God’s looking for total commitment from us. Total. We can’t serve 2 masters. Jesus said it couldn’t be done. We know deep down that we can’t do it either. Again, the children of this world are wiser than the generation of the children of light. A young medical internist went to his professor, a famous medical doctor, and he asked him what commitment does it take to be a good doctor?

111. 48:54

     The elder doctor said to the young man, either get your heart into it or get yourself out of it. And so that’s true of us and we got to get our heart into the truth totally, totally committed to God. And so coming back to James chapter one, verse nine, let the lowly brother glory in his axultation, but let the rich in his humiliation, because as the flower of the field, he will pass away. For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat, but it Withers, the grass and flowers falls, and beautiful appearance perishes.

112. 49:29

     So the rich man also shall fade away in his pursuit. Seems like a paradox, but the rich are made poor and the poor are made rich. Now it seems that James has changed his subject, but really he hasn’t at all. You start off with the premise. I counted all joy when you fall in the divers temptations. Now in verse 12 blessed is a man that endures temptations for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. In the meantime, it’s all connecting to give us a powerful expectation.

113. 50:03

     Verse five he says that God will generously provide wisdom required to properly endure the trials. 6:00 to 8:00 we learned the fact that underscored the double mightedness will keep us out of the Kingdom. Now in nine and 10 he commits comments on a problem that is the cause of much double mindedness or attitude toward money and material possessions.

114. 50:25

     Money itself is not bad or good, it’s the love of it that’s the problem. In James Day there were some really poor Christadelphians, so poor that the ecclesias around the world took up a collection to send to the poor, poor Christadelphians in Jerusalem. And so count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Let the lowly brother glory in his exhortation, and you go to the third world countries.

115. 50:55

     And these brothers and sisters are so full of the truth and they have nothing and they’re happy. Sometimes I see Christian Evans who have almost everything in this world’s good and and they’re miserable. Money does not bring happiness. It does help you to be comfortable in your misery, but it doesn’t bring happiness.

116. 51:18

     Now the warning to the rich is a humbling 1. Common characteristics of the rich is to be puffed up. Psalm One O 3 ISM verse 15 As for man, his days are like grass. We look at the grass and we’re being compared to grass. James compares this to grass. David compares this to grass. Isaiah compares this to grass.

117. 51:40

     Peter compares this to grass. Grass is a pretty fleeting thing, you know, you mow it up and you throw it in the trash. Man, man and his days are like grass. As the flower of the field, so he flourishes, for the wind passes over it. It’s gone, and this place remembers it no more. Isaiah says, Cry out, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the loveliness is like a flower of the field.

118. 52:10

     The grass Withers. The flower fades because the breath of God blows upon it. Surely the people it’s grass first Peter one verse 21. All flesh is grass, and all this glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass Withers and the flower fails. You know, we’re just only here temporarily. We, we mustn’t put our trust in the things of this world.

119. 52:34

     Again. We’re double minded when we are balancing the things of this life with the things of the truth. We have to have our priorities right. The truth must come first in our life. And so I’m going to ask you to make a commitment this morning. It’s right out of James and I’ll read it to you. It’s James chapter one, verse 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father exists.

120. 53:01

     So visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and keep himself unspotted from the world that’s. Pure religion. We’re going to deal with that in a in a future class. But now after you learn the verse, there’s more. I’m asking you, and don’t tell me if you do or. Don’t. It’s really none of my business. I’ve given these out in England and people bring them back to me and say and say here, here’s your slip. I don’t want them back.

121. 53:26

     This is for you. Oh, why English do that, Peter? But I promise this is not a vow. I promise to the best of my ability to comply with this definition given by James. Now, if you will take that, it’s got a place to date it and sign it. You put in your little Bible when you do, when you do your Bible readings, not if, but when you look out and you’ll say, well, on August, whatever today is, I signed that And it reminds you of a commitment you made today to God or whenever you signed it.

122. 54:02

     So I hope that you will take one and that you will sign it. And it’s, it’s really between you and God. But it’s so important that we realize that we have to be totally committed to God and his Son. And when we do that, He promises to open the windows of heaven. I’ll do exceedingly abundantly above all that you ask or think.