Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. This is Gary Neron welcoming you to the Lamp and Light broadcast coming to you from the studios of Central Baptist Church in beautiful Ocala, Florida. Lamp and Light is a ministry taking a book of the Bible verse by verse teaching, as it is, to men as they are, without compromise or apology, speaking the truth in love, and our purpose is to give the lamp and light to all. Yesterday in our study of James chapter 4, we were talking about the folly of judging the spirituality of churches by the properties and beautiful buildings that they have. Let's continue there today. Now, here is our teacher and pastor, Dr. Andy Bloom. If we use the criteria of expensive buildings and all these things, then hey, does that mean that the Mormon tabernacle in Salt Lake City makes them more spiritual, more right with God than you? Does the Vatican make the Catholics more right with God than you? And we could talk about other religious edifices of other religions. Does that make them more right with God than you? You see, when we use the flesh, which buildings and things that appeal to our eyes would be, when we use that as the measure for spirituality, we're headed for fall. Now, this is a man who seeks and perhaps promises for himself in his heart prosperity and great things in the world without any regard to God. James here is just telling us here in James 4 16 this kind of rejoicing is evil If God's Word says it's evil than my friend. It's evil. You may have the attitude. Well, it's not that bad But if God's Word says it's evil it is evil I was sharing with the people in our church a true story from the mission field and People had an infant child that they had put in the crib for the night. And the next morning when they woke up and went to the crib to get the baby, they found the baby was swollen. It was black and blue. It was dead. And during the night, a snake had crawled into the hut, into the baby's crib, and bit the baby and killed it. Now, can you imagine the hatred that those people would have for the snake? And if you magnified that hatred a million times over, then you might get an idea of the hatred God has for sin. But here's the point. Can you imagine somebody saying, well, look, that is the nature of a snake. That's what a snake does. So that snake shouldn't be hated. And you shouldn't kill that snake. Well, I don't care what those people think. If I'm the father of that baby that the snakes just killed, that snake's going to be dead. If they want to put me in prison for 30 years for killing a stupid snake, then they can do it. But my friend, I am going to do it. It kills a baby. And I, again, that's the idea that is here today. We rejoice in our knowledge and we get the idea that, well, that's not that bad. And we look at this thing here and we're saying, well, look, it wasn't something that was wicked. It wasn't immoral. It wasn't stealing and bezzling or anything of that nature. And yet, the Bible says, all such rejoicing is evil. If we rejoice in God that our times are in his hand, and that all which concerns our life is at his disposal, and that he is our God, then this rejoicing is good. But, if we rejoice in our accomplishments, made without the will or consultation of God, then such rejoicing is evil. Now again, you may have large, expensive buildings, and it may be that God provided, and if so, rejoice. It was God's leading, and it was God's will. I think of Acts chapter five, verse 41. where he says, and they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. Peter and John had both been whipped for their stand for Christ and for preaching in his name. An unsubmitted man does not understand how a person can rejoice in these things. An unsaved man can rejoice in business prosperity that is not evil, that is not underhanded, that is all above board. He can rejoice in those things, but an unsaved man cannot understand the rejoicing, and even an unsubmitted Christian cannot understand the rejoicing that these apostles had here in Acts 5.41. The word boastings here in James 4.16 has the idea of self-confident boasting. pride. It is not something that shows God's power, nor does it give God glory. The word evil here is different than the word translated evil in verse 11. Here, it means evil in a moral or spiritual sense. It is wicked, malicious, and mischievous. In verse 11, it had the idea of speaking against someone, whether it was a lie or gossip or showing of discord. Now, think with me. When a man sets his heart and mind to the material, the family, the things of this life that are not necessarily wicked and vile, but our desires born in his own mind and the will of God is not sought. Or he only prays for God to bless his plan instead of seeing if it is the will of God. then that man is being evil in a wicked, malicious, mischievous, moral, spiritual sense. And the dreadful consequences of that is these are things that rob us of intimacy with God. Now, I may not see it quite that bad when I think in terms of evil, immoral, wickedly vile. However, this preacher doesn't count. It is what the Word of God says. And my friend, the Word of God is never, never, never wrong. Talking about the future and planning for it as though it were in our hands tends to make us arrogant and tends to strengthen our pride all the way around. This is evil. That is God's verdict here in the Word of God. Now, isn't it great that he warns us of these things? We can avoid shame in eternity By taking heed to these things now as the psalmist said in Psalms 119 verse 9 wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way By taking heed thereto according to thy word We should be so smart We should be wise enough to just obey the Word of God and seek Him in all our ways. As the writer of Proverbs says, in all thy ways acknowledge Him. Lean not to your own understanding. He shall direct your path. So we've seen the selfish inner man and the world, and the selfish inner man and the flesh. Now finally, we see here in James 4, verse 17, the selfish inner man and the devil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. That's pretty simple. That's straightforward, is it not? The selfish inner man and the devil. are almost like married partners. And Satan wants to lead you to omit as surely as he wants to lead you to commit sins. Omissions are sins that will come into judgment as certainly as sins of commission. We have an example of this in Luke chapter 19 verses 20 through 26. It says, And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here's thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin. For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man, thou takest up that thou layest not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that that I did not sow. Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?" And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him that hath the pound, and give to him that hath ten pounds. And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds. For I say unto you, that unto every one which hath shall be given, and from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away. Now you'll notice there that this servant that hid this talent in a napkin, that took this pound and put it in a napkin and laid it up and did nothing with it, he is called there in Luke 19.22 a wicked servant. And he's called wicked because he did not do what he was supposed to do. So what an illustration that is of a sin of omission. and does tell us that sins of omission will come into judgment just as much as commission. And so you may not smoke, chew, dance, or drink, but you don't witness, you don't pray, you're not faithful to God's house, then those sins will also come into judgment. Sins of omission, that is felon to do, what God wants us to do, are sins as surely as commission. Although eight of the Ten Commandments did specific acts, two of them command us to do things. Commandments 4 and 5 tells us to remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy, and to obey your mother and your father. And so when you have the do's and you don't do those things, then those come into judgment before God. Do we really grasp what this word sin means here? Him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Sin actually has no meaning unless we know God. If one has no idea of God, then he has no idea of sin. If God means nothing to us, then sin means nothing to us. There are people who do not do the forbidden things of God's Word, yet they are not doing what they're supposed to do. Some are not kind. Some do not witness. Some are unforgiving. And on we could go with the misery of some of them. One thing that brings great distress and hindrance to the work of the Lord is when we believers speak unkindly of others. And so as a result, Although we aren't doing those forbidden things of God's Word, we're not doing the things that we should do. To do good is God's way. If we know to do good and do it not, then it is sin, because it is not at all like God. Therefore, it is ungodly. This means that the sin of commission is no more real than the sin of omission. We can do wrong by doing wrong, and we can do wrong by doing nothing. Let us see some four instances here. It is a sin if we do not worship God. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness Psalms 29 2 tells us. This is your radio pastor pastor Andy Bloom saying May the Word of God be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your pathway today We want to thank you for listening to the lamp and light broadcast If you would like a CD copy of today's message by dr. Bloom send us your name mailing address and include the radio station by which you are listening and the date of the broadcast We would appreciate a gift of $5 to Lamp and Light Broadcast, 1714 SE 36th Ave, Ocala, FL 34471. You may also visit us on the website and freely download the sermons by clicking on the sermon library. That website is www.centralbaptistocala.org. Again, the address for the Lamp and Light broadcast is 1714 Southeast 36th Avenue, OCALA, Florida, 34471. And again, our website is www.centralbaptistocala.org. This is your announcer, Gary Naran, saying, May God's peace be with all that are in Christ Jesus. Sands from these sands.