Bob Lloyd - James - Unspotted from the World - Class 3 - Faith that is Real and Works

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1. 0:00

   This is Winfield Bible School 1998. Our overall theme for the week is Next Year in Jerusalem. This is class #2 with brother Bob Lloyd. His class title is Faith that is Real and Works. The reading for this class was taken from James chapter one from verse 12 to the end of the chapter.

2. 0:25

   It’s ending is made sets of these overheads and two dear sweet sisters have correlated them into into sets, so anyone who wants one of those may come up and have it at the end.

3. 0:45

   Did I say Don? Did I say David? They look alike. You can’t Don did it. Thank you. I didn’t know that I just they both begin with D too. Oscar Wilde, a famous British writer, is reported to have said I can resist anything in the world except temptation. Unfortunately, resisting temptation is not in style anymore.

4. 1:17

   Doing what comes naturally has become the end thing. Jesus told us to watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak now, just like the rain which falls on the just and the unjust, temptation falls on all of us. Ever since Eve had her fatal conversation with that serpent, mankind has been tempted.

5. 1:54

   Someone has said they that think they. Cannot Wander will be the first. To lose their way, the convicted embezzler who never dreamed that the temptation of greed would overcome him and land him in prison. The loving husband, the ideal wife, would have laughed in unbelief if they had been told earlier that they would yield to the lust that destroyed their marriage.

6. 2:25

   A young student at the Lions Academy named Napoleon wrote an essay on the dangers of ambition in his latter years. It was his ambition and his greed that destroyed him. Now it’s not a sin to be tempted. We’re all tempted. The Lord Jesus Christ was tempted, we read in Hebrews chapter 2 in verse 17.

7. 2:59

   Wherefore in all things it behooved Jesus to be made likened to his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. And then the most famous verse about Jesus being tempted is in the chapter 4 verse 15.

8. 3:29

   For we have not an high priest which cannot be tempted with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. So we’re going to be tempted. That’s that’s a sure thing. The problem is we must not yield to temptation. The purpose of our trials and our temptations is to perfect us, not to destroy us.

9. 3:56

   And they do, one or the other. They make or they break. God doesn’t want to break, He wants to make. He wants to make us better by overcoming our temptations. God tempted Abraham and a temptation was very severe. I know none of us have ever been put to a temptation as Abraham was to slay his own son, and he passed that temptation, that testing with flying colors, Jesus said to the Ecclesia and Thyatira, he who overcomes. And.

10. 4:31

    Keeps my works until the end. To him will I give power over the nations? You have to have something to overcome it. You can’t overcome it.

11. 4:42

    You may not think that you like to have problems. You may not believe that. That trials and obstacles and hurdles are good. So maybe I can I try to prove to you that they are. We went to a great ball game the other night. It was a wonderful game. The score was 100 and nothing. That’s not a good game.

12. 5:09

    You want a close game. You want them to to to vie with each other and and then your team always wins in the end, whether it’s the last quarter or the 9th inning or whatever it is. We have a tennis court out here. Any of you want to come out and play tennis with me?

13. 5:22

    We’re going to have a lovely time. My score will be love. You will serve to me and the ball will go that right by. I will serve to you and you’ll hit it back and it’ll go right by and you’re going to say you’re no fun to play tennis with. You can’t even return my serve. So you want someone who can return your serve at least sometimes.

14. 5:46

    You you want someone that can oppose you. In fact, I was talking to one of my friends at work whose grandson is ranked 6th in his age group in Texas as a tennis player, just a young teenager. But he and he came out to visit his grandfather and he wanted to play tennis, but he didn’t want to play tennis with people who weren’t very good because they would weaken his game. He wanted someone who could nearly beat him. He wants to win.

15. 6:12

    But you see, you want opposition in tennis. It’s no fun if you just hit the ball over and you never, it never comes back. You go to a play and you enjoy the play because there’s the villain and there’s a hero and all they vie back and forth and finally, in the last act, the hero overcomes the villain. You see, interesting plays, sports, all these things require opposition.

16. 6:37

    Well, life requires opposition. If, if if you didn’t have any challenges, life would be boring. Sometimes it’s we might like like it be a little bit more boring than it is when we think of some of the opposition’s we we have to face. But let’s try to look at our problems and our trials as something that God is allowing us to have to overcome so that we can be victorious for the Lord. Now we need to take responsibility for our lives, and that’s another problem in.

17. 7:12

    In the world today. Everyone blamed someone else. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent, and he’s called. Passing the buck and tell you a little story about a a governor down in one of the southern states of the United States, I think it was Georgia. He went to the state penitentiary to visit some of the prisoners.

18. 7:36

    Hawaii went there. I don’t know, I guess they vote too. But anyway, he he, he talked to a prisoner and he says, oh, what are you in here for? He says, oh, I got a bum rap. He says the judge was again me. He said I couldn’t get a fair trial. Talked to another, why are you in here?

19. 7:52

    He says, oh, if you had my family, my mother was no good. My father was a drug. It wasn’t my fault. It was my parents fault. Everyone he talked to was blaming someone else. Then he talked to George. He said, what are you in? Why are you in here, George? And George says, well, governor, he says, I, I committed a crime and I got caught. He says I’ve really learned my lesson. And he says I’m paying the price. He says, I hope when I get out of here I can prove to society that I have learned from my mistake, but I sure was guilty. The governor went back to his governor’s mansion and he wrote out a full pardon for George and he sent it to the warden of the prison.

20. 8:36

    He says, I want you to release George from prison. I want to get that guilty man away from all those innocent prisoners. If we don’t confess our sins, we still have them. And so James gives us a step by step description of just how sin takes place. It’s in James one verse 14. I’m I’m using the NIV new King James. Pardon me at this point, but each one is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts or desires and enticed any sin yet Nope, no sin.

21. 9:22

    Jesus was tempted at all points like as we are. He certainly had desires and he had lusts when he was starving, not having eaten for 40 days before now, I don’t think any of us have ever been as hungry as he was. He certainly had the desire to eat. Not a sin. You can tell by the way we do it here. There’s no sins being committed, I don’t think, at lunchtime. But we sure consume it, don’t we? I think the food here is very good. I hope you appreciate the, the hard work. These people are not Chris Adelphia’s, but they’re, they’re working hard to serve us.

22. 9:54

    And sometimes we ought to recognize them. Do we do that Good? Good. So every man is tempting when he’s drawn away of his own lust and entice you. You see something that you want, that you shouldn’t have no sin yet.

23. 10:13

    And then you keep looking at it. It sure would be nice to have that, wouldn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. I need it worth more than he needs it. And then when desire has conceived. It gives birth to sin, and sin, when it’s full grown brings forth death. I think I’m going to tell you a story here.

24. 10:35

    It’s a made-up story. You you’ll be able to appreciate the fact it’s made-up. I made it up myself and I’ve never heard anybody else to tell this one. Now I really prefer to steal other stories because this, this is an original one that’s kind of crazy, but you have balls. You, you, I know ladies love to shop in malls.

25. 10:55

    Well, when you go down to the, the, the downtown and there’s a big mall and I know Edmonton has the biggest mall, I guess in the whole world. And you’re walking down the center of the mall and, and you come to a store and you look inside and boy, it’s busy. Lots of people in there.

26. 11:12

    And there’s a sign over the top of the store. It says sin store. Oh, that looks interesting, doesn’t it? So you look in, you say, well, I’ll just go in and win the shop. You know, I won’t buy anything. I’ll, I’ll just see what’s going on. So you go into the store and a lot of people in the and, and you go look around the shelves and you see all these sins beautifully packaged and, and very attractively displayed. And he said, oh, look at that sin. Oh, that sure looks like a good sin to me, you know, as if sin could be good.

27. 11:45

    Oh, I wonder how much it costs. So you, you take it down off the shelf and oh boy, this is good. Oh, and you look at the prize death. So, so you go around a little bit further and you see on the other side of the story there’s another sin. Oh, I would like that.

28. 12:08

    You see, sin is fun. God, God’s very honest with us. Sin is fun, but it doesn’t last very long. Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. So yes, it’s appealing. Otherwise we wouldn’t be doing it. And you see another thing?

29. 12:31

    Oh wow, wee, oh wow. Just see how much that would cost. And you take it down death, you put it back. Can you? You walk up to the manager and you say, are you the manager of this store? And Harrell says yes. And I say, don’t you ever have a sale around here?

30. 12:48

    And Harrell says, Harrell says, we never mark down the price of sin. It’s always death. But we will often throw in 20 years of misery as a bonus.

31. 13:05

    So no sin got my umbilical cord following me. No sin has come when we’re tempted as long as you put the sins back. Now that what’s the moral of that story? Don’t go shopping in the sin store. Don’t even get near it. Stay as far away as possible because what happens so often?

32. 13:28

    We we don’t think we would do something. We just, you know, that represents sin. You know, I’ll never do that. I’ll never do. I’ll just get as close as I can, But you know, I won’t get over the edge. And we get too close to the edge and we go over the edge. And if I was going to tell another story, it’d be the chauffeur story and plug.

33. 13:49

    It in there because that’s the one you all heard. So the way to resist temptation is to cut it off at the. Pass to push the temptation right out and replace it with scripture. And we talked about that the other day. My favorite verse to. Get rid of sin is 1 Corinthians 10/13 because I know I’m being tempted. There’s no temptation taking me but such as this common demand. So I other people been through this. Lord Jesus Christ has been through every temptation that all of us have ever had.

34. 14:24

    But God is faithful, it will not allow me to be tied, tempted more than I can bear. So if you got a big temptation, God really trusts you, and so you’ll provide the way of escape. That you may be able to bear it.

35. 14:43

    Now come down to verse 19 of the first chapter of James, please. He proceeds to give us some wise advice. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

36. 15:09

    Now Paul in Hebrews, I believe Paul wrote Hebrews, but in Hebrews 5 we’re told of whom we have much to say and hard to explain. Since you are, you become dull of hearing. James says to be swift to hear, and Paul says you’re dull of hearing, just the opposite. So let’s try not to be dull in hearing, but swift to hear.

37. 15:33

    Now. Listening is an art. It’s a skill. A good listener. Is A and you have to work at it. And it’s been said that those who will not read have no advantage over those who cannot read. I’m going to just borrow that saying, lift it over to to hearing. Those who will not hear have no advantage over those who cannot hear. We were at the Shippensburg Bible School this summer and we had two, two ladies there who were signing. I understand it’s Sherry teaches signing. I I think that’s a wonderful thing. We have a deaf brother out our way, brother Robert Devine, and he’s off the air without someone to sign for him. So if you whenever you’re he, I’m going to be giving a talk someplace and he’s going to go.

38. 16:22

    He knows I have complete notes. He always calls me and I make a set of notes for him because usually we don’t have signers out our way for him. But we should not take for granted our hearing. But the fact you can hear doesn’t mean you always hear. There are people who can hear who who don’t hear because they they, they tune, tune us out.

39. 16:44

    And so much heartache could be avoided if we learn to be good listeners. Most problems that happen between husbands and wives are caused because they’re not communicating. They speak the same language. But they don’t talk. Most problems that occur between parents and their children occur because there’s no good communication. Most problems that occur between brothers and sisters in an ecclesia is because there is no good communication going on. Most problems that occur between ecclesias and ecclesias because there’s no good communication.

40. 17:40

    Going on to. Communicate is a skill, and the part of it that’s so important is the listening part. We we need to be able to open up and talk to each other and listen. And some people never listen. They just talk and then they wait while you talk, but while you’re talking, they’re thinking what they’re going to say next.

41. 18:07

    As soon as you’re through, then they start in and they never heard a thing that you said. So one of the ways to avoid that problem is by asking questions. And that’s the way Jesus taught. He asked questions. If if you talk to a Jehovah’s Witness, they’re talk, not told they’re teeth, they’re taught not to listen. They will talk and then they will stop a minute and let you sit.

42. 18:29

    But they’re not thinking. They don’t pay attention to what you’re saying. And then they then no matter what you’ve said and all the good proofs, you, they, they said, well, that’s nice. And they go right in again on there. So the way you can keep those people listening to you is keep asking questions.

43. 18:41

    What’s your name? You Jehovah’s Witness. Do you believe in Pastor Russell? Oh, yeah. He was a good guy. He won 144,000. And do you believe the Jews have any hope now? Oh, no. Which was right, Pastor Russell Or you, you know, But you you keep asking them questions rather than just telling him, you know. Well, you believe the wrong thing because you you think the Jews have no hope.

44. 18:59

    What about Pastor Russell? Oh, yeah, He had hope. He won the 44. You imagine that Pastor Russell made it and John the Baptist didn’t. That blows me away. But when we’re talking with each other, listen, whenever. Oh, I’m glad I don’t see this right now. But well, I do see it, Harley,

45. 19:24

    whenever I see somebody sitting like this, you know what? It’s body language. That means I’m trying not to listen to what you’re saying. He’s heard. He’s heard it before. It’s OK then. But really, if, if you want to really listen to people, even use your body, open up and listen and lean forward.

46. 19:51

    What is that you said? Is that right? Wow, you know I’m off the air. You sure? Are I’m coming apart? But when you’re talking to your husband or your wife, you and when you’re talking to your kids, don’t talk down to them. Get down on the floor and talk to them. What water, honey?

47. 20:20

    What come to daddy or mommy, you know, get on their level. It’s wonderful how communication gets better when we we just work at it. And that’s what that’s what that’s what James is saying Swift to hear.

48. 20:43

    If you want to be a good conversationalist, just learn to listen and you ask people questions. Boy, he’s a great conversationalist. If you, all you did is just listen to him. In fact, if people don’t want to hear from you, they want you to hear from them. And so the first point of James’s vegetation here is to be swift to hear.

49. 21:06

    Thanks, Harley. I could pick on him because I’ve known him since he was a baby. Let’s back again. It just seems comfortable, doesn’t it? Yeah. You ever fold your arms the wrong way? It doesn’t seem to comfortable.

50. 21:32

    Slow to speak is next. Some people engage their mouth before they put their brain in gear. They’re swift to speak and slow to hear. Just the opposite of what James is telling us. And how many times have we blurted out something and wish we could have reached out and pulled it back? It’s too late. It’s already been said, and somebody’s been. Hurt so often in families, we we say cunning remarks to each other we wouldn’t dare say these things to to people in the store, certainly to our boss and yet we say these are the very. People we love, we say mean things just if we could just bite her tongue and not blurt out something that will hurt. Is this helpful to the situation? Solomon says there is a time to keep silence and a time to speak.

51. 22:34

    He put silence ahead of speaking. Abraham Lincoln is credit to of having said this. It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Now when he said that, you know he was a he was a Bible student. Abraham Lincoln was in fact, he attended Bible classes in the city of Washington, DC when he was the president. But what Abe Lincoln was saying was really a a kind of a loose paraphrase of what Solomon said.

52. 23:07

    Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace. When he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive. So James is saying, be slow to speak and swift to hear. And then the third one of those was slow to wrath, and wrath was always in a hurry. Slow down. The old adage to count to 10 is is always good advice.

53. 23:37

    Never, never, never, never punish a child when you’re angry. If the child is misbehaved, send them to their room and cool off yourself. Get control of yourself. Before you go in and do whatever you feel is appropriate, never strike a a a child in anger. You be in control before you administer the punishment.

54. 24:03

    Alexander the Great was a truly great general, and on one occasion they were having a big party and Cletus was one of his generals. And Cletus was drunk. And during this drunken party he began to make fun of Alexander. And Alexander went into a rage and he grabbed a a javelin from a soldier and he just tossed it at Cletus.

55. 24:30

    But Alexander was a real good aim. He didn’t mean to, but that went right through the man’s heart and he fell down dead. And Alexander was overcome with grief. He he tried to grab the gavelin and kill himself. He felt so terrible to have killed his best friend. And he say he’s laid in bed for three days just moaning and groaning and saying, oh, Cletus, my friend, my friend Cletus. Now all it would have taken was a few seconds of delay and that man would have lived instead of died. Many people have died because we’re swift to wrath instead of slow.

56. 25:11

    To wrath. We can think of many Bible examples. One I’m sure that comes to your mind is Moses. Moses, the meekest man on the earth, yet they angered him with at the waters of strife that he went I’ll with Moses for their sakes, because they provoked his spirit. So he spoke unadvisedly with his lips. Slow to wrath.

57. 25:41

    Slow to speak. James is giving us very practical advice that we need to take home with us and apply in our own families. I wonder how many people will be kept out of the Kingdom because they have been quick to wrath and quick to say things and sometimes because of pride they then later won’t recant what they said.

58. 26:11

    I think that’s terribly sad. I think I’ll tell you my 12 magic words. It’s not in the stalk here, but it just fits because it’s on the subject of, of of we have to be willing to, to ask for forgiveness or we won’t be forgiven. James says forgive, confess our sins one to another. And so the story behind this talk took place in New Zealand. We was at a Bible school in New Zealand. And they, the, the parents of teenagers came to me one day, a couple of parents.

59. 26:43

    They said, would you be willing to give a talk to the parents just of teenagers after everything was over one evening? And I said yes, yes, sure. So they set up a room for us. And it was, it was not quite this many, but there was quite a few. There was, there may be 50 to 75 people in this room, all parents of teenagers.

60. 27:05

    Well, of course, I didn’t know I was going to do this. So I’m grappling and what am I going to say? So I, I thought I’ll tell them about my 12 magic words and I’ll tell them with you. And so I told them what they are. And they are, they are worth remembering and then worth using.

61. 27:17

    They were, I was wrong. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Now I think that husbands and wives should say those words to each other almost every day because we are wrong and we should be sorry. We should ask to be forgiven, and we certainly should love our spouse. But also during the talk, I, I, I told about a little plaque that was on the wall of a home. And the, the plaque, the wall, the rules, the plaque says the rules of this house rule #1 father is always right. Rule #2 when father is wrong, rule #1 applies. So after the class was over, this one sister turned to her husband and she said, what do you think of this talk? He says, I like the rules of this house. She came to me a little later in the evening with tears in her eyes.

62. 28:19

    She said, we’ve been married 23 years. My husband has never once said he was wrong. He has never once said he was sorry. He’s never once asked to be forgiven.

63. 28:36

    Now I hope he said he loved her. He didn’t. She didn’t go into that. And this is the fellow who liked the rules of this house Now, either she was married to the one of the most remarkable men I’ve ever heard of who for 23 and eight years was never wrong, never sorry, and never had needed to be forgiven. Or she had a problem husband.

64. 28:57

    And I don’t think it takes a rocket science genius to figure out which it is. Because you see, all of us, every one of you is wrong. There’s none, none righteous. No, not one. So you are wrong in your marriage, you’ve been wrong. With your kids, you’ve been wrong. With your bosses, you’ve been wrong with your clients. You’ve been, we’ve all been wrong. We ought to be big enough to say to others, but especially to God.

65. 29:30

    I was wrong. I I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. I think you can weave that into your. Prayers to God. You know it’s possible to go to bed every night sinless. Isn’t that a wonderful thing to realize? That every night you can fall asleep with no sins? Not because you didn’t do any, because we all do. Because God is willing to blot them out and cast them behind his back.

66. 29:56

    If you, if you confess them, if you don’t confess them, you still got them. And the sins that are going to keep us out of the Kingdom are going to be the sins that we weren’t forgiven for. Because God is not going to bring up at the judgment seat the sins that we have committed that he forgave. Now, if God is willing to forgive. Our sins like that why won’t we forgive each other and so I think every husband and.

67. 30:31

    Every wife should say almost every day I was wrong. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. We did this at A at a Florida Bible school years ago. And the next Sunday we were Jordanian in Ecclesia. They their, their, their Bible school ends like yours does, a little bit early. And then you go to an ecclesia on the Sunday.

68. 30:53

    And I went to the ecclesia on the Sunday and there was a dear old couple there. They think they both have since fallen asleep. They were both way up in their 80s and just a dearer, genteel, loving couple. And they came to me and said, Bob, it works. I said, what works? He says, your 12 words.

69. 31:12

    She says, yes, they do. And I said, well, let’s tell you the story. She said we got home from the Bible school and our smoke detector was going. It somehow set it off. You know, they go like that. It just drives you crazy, you know. And so he gets on a chair to, to get it off.

70. 31:34

    And he’s he’s not too nimble and he’s working on it. And she says, hurry up. And he says, I am hurrying, you know, and they’re yelling at each other. Finally, you know, the, the, this, this noise would grate your nerves. Finally he gets it off and he kisses that off the stair. And they look at each other and they both start saying together, I was wrong.

71. 31:52

    I’m sorry, please forgive me. I love you. And so there was a they, they had to share that story with me about two days later. But it, it works, it doesn’t work. If you don’t work it.

72. 32:09

    So let’s decide that we’re going to be slow to speak, swift to hear, and slow to wrath coming on down to James chapter. One verse 22. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he’s like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, For he observes.

73. 32:39

    Himself goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. He looks in a mirror and he forgets what he looks like. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and does not forgetful hear but a doer of the work. This one will be blessed in what he does.

74. 32:57

    There are a lot of people in the world that hear and never do there there. It’s in fact, colleges are famous for graduating a bunch of people with with theories and no practical knowledge. And but we’re talking here about spiritual application and not of the world. But there are there are people who know the truth and don’t get baptized. They, they, why would anyone want to rule themselves ineligible for salvation when when they know the truth. In fact, dear little Michelle, who’s flying back this morning just to be with her father, who’s very near death. He’s not a Christian Alpian, but she’s told. Us this morning how that he would. Defend the truth and talk the truth to his friends She’s come in from outside and and she her hope was that he might obey the truth before he died his life as all our lives are in God’s hands and we we just pray for Michelle and her on her journey homeward and that things will work out but. If you know and you don’t do what you know. What good is it to know?

75. 34:16

    In fact, Peter says you’re worse off. You’re worse off knowing the truth and not obeying it than if you never even knew the truth. To know and not to do is not to know. So we better be doers of this and not just hearers only. Because if we if we know the truth and we’re not obeying it. Baptized or unbaptized?

76. 34:41

    We’re a lot worse off than than those who that don’t even know it. It’s been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they’ve known it to turn away. So we, we must be doers of the word and not hearers only. So James has been building up a sequence of thought here, verse 18.

77. 35:07

    He tells us that we are begotten by the word of truth. By being begotten, we are the first fruits of a new creation. In verse 21, we are to receive with meekness the engrafted Word. In verse 2, any two, we now were to be doers of the Word. In every instance. It’s the Word, the word that begets us, the word that we are to receive and the Word that we are to do.

78. 35:30

    It is the word of truth as verse 18 says by His own will begat He asked with the word of truth. Now compare this with what his older brother Jesus Christ, his his Savior too said so Matthew Chapter 7 and again, these are words I’m only. Stirring up your pure minds by way of remembrance.

79. 35:54

    You know all of this. It’s that we know, but we don’t always do what we know to do. And so the whole thing is, once we know to do it, let’s do it. So Matthew 721 not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom, but he who does the will of my Father. So if we know the will of God and we’re not doing it, we’re not going to be in the Kingdom, says Jesus. Oh, many are going to come to me on the day of judgement. He says, Lindsey, oh Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and cast out demons in thy name and done many wonders in thy name?

80. 36:32

    So these people must have had the Holy Spirit, which we don’t have. We don’t have the power to cast out demons. These people did do some things. But they didn’t do enough. I will declare unto them, I never knew you depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Therefore, whoever hears these things of mine and does.

81. 36:54

    Them. I will liken him unto a wise man who built his house on the rock. You know the story. The rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it did not fall. It was founded on a rock. And the those who built their house on the sand, it collapsed. The whole point of the story is to be doers of the word. Not only is it important that we have the knowledge of the truth, and that’s terribly important, but now that we know it, we are obligated to do it.

82. 37:32

    A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, said Jesus. An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things. For out of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaks. But why do you call me Lord? Lord, and do not do the things which I say, If you love me, keep my commandments, said Jesus. There’s no use, I say.

83. 37:53

    Oh, the truth. Is the most wonderful thing in the world. Oh, I love the truth. I love the brothers and sisters. And I go. I go to meeting most Sundays, well maybe every Sunday here we have we have down in certain areas of this in the lower part of the of the old Canada 1 applies you calls them once sirs and a once. Sir is a person who comes to meeting every Sunday, but you’ll never see them at a Bible class, you’ll never see them at a lecture, you’ll never see them at a Sunday school. They show up for meeting.

84. 38:31

    We have a young man in our meeting who who comes in during the first team and leaves during the last team. And if you don’t preside or exhort, you never will know he’s there because unless you turn around and look, I’m glad he does that. I’m glad he hasn’t totally stopped. But I fear for one, sirs, I fear for those that are trying to get along on the minimum.

85. 39:03

    We have to go all out for the Lord. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love. You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. Are we doing what we know we ought to do? James is going to tell us how foolish it is to say one thing and do something else.

86. 39:40

    When Jesus did his first miracle, it was at a wedding, as you know, in Ken of Galilee. And, and his mother said to the servants, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.

87. 39:55

    Whatsoever Jesus had said unto you, do it. If you’re not baptized, that’s the first thing you do, right? But once we’re baptized, that’s not a lock on salvation. We, we, we just entered the race. We now must continue in good works. Ezekiel come to Ezekiel 33 because Ezekiel talks about people who came to Bible school. Well, it was.

88. 40:16

    Didn’t say it’s a Bible school. But they they got together and they enjoyed, enjoyed what they heard. Ezekiel 33 coming in at verse 30. As for you, son of man, the children of your people. Are talking about you beside the walls and in the doors of the houses and they speak to one another saying everyone to his brother. Please come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord would would you all please come to Winfield and and let’s hear the word of God.

89. 40:44

    It’s going to be preached all day long three classes a day. Let’s come and hear. So they come, verse 31, as my, as thy people. They come and they sit just like you’re doing, and they sit as my people and they hear just as you are now hearing. But they do not do them.

90. 41:09

    That’s the problem. We’ve got to do more than just hear. We’ve got to do more than just be here. We’ve got to put our beliefs into actions and deeds. So he goes. On and says, For with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain. Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant. Voice and can play well on an instrument, for they hear your words, but they do not do them.

91. 41:44

    Oh, I enjoyed that exhortation. Wasn’t that a wonderful talk he gave. But I, I’ve got, I’ve got a golf game. It’s our bowling night. This is the day we get together with the do this or we do that with, with our people at work or school or whatever it might be. How many Christadelphians come to meeting on Sunday and talk about the beauty of the truth and how much they love the brothers and sisters and then go out and live a different kind of life? During the week, it’s important that we practice what we preach. What you are is hollering so loud I can’t hear what you’re saying.

92. 42:24

    Doers are busy doing so James is going to give you an example of just how foolish it is to talk good and do nothing about it. It’s in James chapter 2 verse 15. If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, we have brothers and sisters who are in one.

93. 42:46

    Not so much in these countries, but even here there are those that that have need, have needs and and you know about their need. And one of you says to them, oh, depart in peace, be warmed and filled. But you do not give them the things that they are needed for the body. What does, what good does that do? Says James.

94. 43:05

    What does that profit? If you know somebody is needing something and they don’t have it and you got the wherewithal to help them, don’t just say good luck. Hope everything will work out all right. In fact, I want to want to read you a little poem. It’s not a Christadelphian, not exactly a poem.

95. 43:22

    It’s I don’t know what you call it, but this is how it goes. I was hungry and you formed a humanities club and discussed my hunger. Thank you.

96. 43:35

    I was imprisoned. And you? Crept. Off. Quietly to your Chapel in the cellar to pray for my release. Thank you. I was naked. And in your mind, you debated the morality of my appearance. I was sick, and you knelt in prayer to God for your health. I was homeless, and you preached to me of the spiritual shelter of God’s love. I was.

97. 44:01

    Lonely and you left me alone to pray for me. You seem so holy, so close to God, but I’m still very hungry and lonely. And coal, We can be like that. Even with our brothers and. Sisters, this book is being doers and not just hearers. James chapter 2 verse 17. Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works.

98. 44:36

    It’s dead, but someone will say, well, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works. I’ll show you my faith. By my works verse 20. But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only, for as a body without the Spirit is.

99. 45:01

    Dead. So faith without works. Is dead. Also, we’re not going to be getting the Kingdom by our works. But we’re not going to get into our Kingdom without our works.

100. 45:16

     Faith and works balance. Faith produces works, and the more we work, the more faith we can have. Chapter 3, verse 13 Who is? Wise and understanding among you, let Him show by good conduct that His works are done in the meekness of wisdom. Verse 20 of chapter 5. Let him know that he who turns a Sinner from the air of his way shall save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

101. 45:56

     James is telling us that the man who hears and does not do it, like a man looking at his self in a mirror, and he forgets what he looks like. The Bible is compared by James compares it to a mirror in Psalm 119 verse one O 5. The Bible is compared to a lamp in Jeremiah 2329.

102. 46:20

     The Bible is likened to fire and a hammer. James speaks of the washing of the water by the word in Ephesians and Hebrews. Describes the word of God as quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. James says it’s a mirror, and the mirror reflects what it sees. I want to read you a little poem that I have it typed into my Bible.

103. 46:49

     It’s by a man named Edgar, a guest. The name of the poem is myself. Here’s part of the poem. I have to live with myself. And so I want to be fit for myself, to know. I want to be able, as the days go by, always to look myself straight in the eye.

104. 47:15

     I don’t want to stand with the setting sun and hate myself for the things I have done. Edgar a guest was capturing the same thought that James had when he told us not to look in a mirror and then to go away and forget what we saw. So Edgar, A Guest says, I want to look myself in the eye.

105. 47:39

     You know how to do that? There’s only one way you can look yourself in the eye and that’s in the mirror. Because even with cross eyes, with dozes in the way, you cannot look yourself in the eye except when you look in the mirror. Do you ever look at yourself right in the mirror and say, God, you called me.

106. 48:01

     I’m sure glad you did. You didn’t do it because I’m so good looking. I know that and and you see a photographer will take our picture and he’ll touch it up and and with angles and lights and touch up, he can make you look like you don’t even look. And that’s what. That’s what people want. You see but a mirror just to tell you what it just reflects back what’s there.

107. 48:24

     It’s it’s a very truthful reflection of you. And so the last verse of his poem is goes like this. I tell you, I modified it just a little bit. He’s dead. So I didn’t get his permission. I can never hide myself from me. I see what others may never see. I know what others may never know.

108. 48:48

     I can never. Fool myself, and so whatever happens, I want to be forgiven by God and conscience free. James is telling us it is possible for us to deceive ourselves. James 126 If any man among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is useless.

109. 49:18

     It’s possible for us to actually deceive ourselves. The way we do it is we look in the glass and go away and forget what we saw. The correct approach is to look ourselves straight in the eye. Acknowledge that we are made by God, not our. Natural appearance is important, it’s what’s inside and God sees them.

110. 49:43

     God knows what no one else knows. Confess your faults then to God. You might as well tell him about him. He knows them anyway, and as long as you, he knows them and you know them and you don’t confess them, you got them. And all he’s asking you to do is confess them, and he’ll take them away.

111. 50:02

     If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive. Us our sins and to cleans us from all our righteousness. We don’t ever have to go to bed with a sin on our conscience.

112. 50:18

     And that’s what Paul says about husbands and wives of each other. Don’t go to bed angry. Make up before you go to sleep. Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath. Get forgiven and so remember that you are wrong. That you should be sorry. Can you imagine? Saying yeah I’m wrong, but I’m glad I’m wrong I. Mean, that’s the height of something, isn’t it? That we should ask to be forgiven and we should tell those we love that we love them.

113. 51:00

     Some husbands and wives don’t say I love you 3 words I love you. I say them to God. God knows my heart, He knows whether I love him or not. But I have found that when I say them, I hear them as well as God hears them. And when I say them to someone that I love, I hear what I say as well as the one I’m saying it to hears it. And my love for others grow as I tell them that I love them. And there are people who can’t say those 3 words. I love you.

114. 51:41

     If you can’t see them right away, get in the front of that mirror and say I love you. Work at it. Your salvation could be involved in this. Certainly the happiness in your home could be involved in this.

115. 51:58

     So James chapter one, verse 25, he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This one will be blessed in what he does. So the steps. To take to being blessed are look into the perfect law of liberty continue in it. Don’t forget what you heard.

116. 52:26

     Be a doer of the work. And the whole point of our Bible studies is to go from this Bible school and put into practice what we’re learning here so that we will be doers of the Word and not hearers only. So I’ve got five questions to ask you as we close. These are questions I want you to ask yourself and might as well be honest with yourself.

117. 52:57

     You, you know, if you’re telling your the truth, how is my life different because I’m a Christadelphian? I mean, is your life different? If your life is not different because you’re Christadelphian, then is Christadelphian faith having an effect on you? If we’re not different because we have committed our life to God, then we’re really just in name only, aren’t we? So question #1 how is my life different because of Mccrystal Jefferson #2 What effect does my study of God’s Word have on my everyday life?

118. 53:38

     See, the things we’re learning are to be applied and lived out. Number three, when I do my Bible readings, not if when I do do my Bible readings, don’t I? When I do my Bible readings, when do I shut up the book and forget what I just read? Start look at yourself in the mirror and walk it away.

119. 53:59

     Forget what you, what you saw do. Do we think about what we read after we read it #4 what am I doing today that I would not have done today if I had not read the Bible today? Or you can all say, well, I came to Bible school because of this. That’s right.

120. 54:18

     These are questions you can ask yourself. Maybe when you’re home, what effect is what you’re doing caused by your faith? And the last question, what am I refraining from doing today that I might have done had it not been for the fact that I did my Bible readings today? So James is a very practical man and he’s given us practical things to do. And let’s resolve in our own mind that we are going to be doers of the word and not hearers only. Sure that Brother Bob is a.