In this episode of Through the Bible, Steve Schwetz and Dr. J. Vernon McGee guide listeners through a profound exploration of temptation and responsibility as framed in the book of James. Reflecting on personal losses, they share stories of comfort and how faith can answer the most challenging questions about life’s inexplicable tragedies. Join us as we look to the New Testament for wisdom on who is responsible for the trials that come our way and how understanding this can bring peace to our souls.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
SPEAKER 01 :
When unexplainable tragedies come into our lives, many times the first thing we do is ask, why? Some people blame God. Others blame each other. Some even blame themselves. But who’s really responsible? Welcome to Through the Bible. I’m Steve Schwetz, welcoming you aboard the Bible bus as our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, answers this important question in our journey continuing through the New Testament book of James. Now, Dr. McGee picks up today’s study in chapter 1, verse 13. So grab your Bible, and while you find your place, I want to share a recording of a letter that really touched Dr. McGee.
SPEAKER 03 :
I have a letter that comes from Arlington, Texas. I read your little book, Death of a Little Child, yesterday. My husband and I lost our little three-month-old baby girl nine months ago. She was very precious to us. And we loved her dearly. When I read your book, a peace seemed to come over me. It answered all my questions I had wanted to know. May I say to you that that little book came out of the first real sorrow that my wife and I had. We lost our firstborn. And I’m very frank to tell you, I was bitter, very bitter. I went to the Lord and wanted to know. Why he’d do a thing like that to me? Because across the hallway, there was a very wealthy couple from South Pasadena. They had a little one born to her, and they were having a cocktail party in their room there. And they were just living it up and cursing and swearing. They had a little one that lived. We had one died. I asked the Lord, why? And out of that, there came the little book. It was the message that I gave at the funeral of the little one. And may I say to you, I know now why God permitted it, because it has brought many, actually, not only to the Lord, it’s kept missionaries on the field. And God has used it. And this is an example of what we’ve been talking about here in this little epistle of James, by the way.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, for more than half a century, Dr. McGee’s booklet, Death of a Little Child, has brought comfort to grieving parents and those facing significant loss. And it is still available today. So if you’d like to read it or share it with a friend, you’ll find it available for free download at ttb.org. Or call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you locate it. Again, that’s Death of a Little Child is the title. And you can download it for free right now over at ttb.org. And we often get letters from our fellow Bible bus passengers, those family members who are grieving. And as you find your seat on the Bible bus, let’s pray for those who are hurting. Heavenly Father, would you fill us with your knowledge and wisdom, and as we study, comfort those who are burdened with deep sorrows. Surround them with grace and love, and then help them experience your peace that goes beyond our understanding. Help your word to resonate in our hearts, Lord, as we walk with you. And we do want to trust you more, Lord. It’s in Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen. Now let’s get to James 1. Here’s Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, friends, I want to read beginning at verse 13 again. We just got our foot in this particular section. Let no man say when he’s tempted, I’m tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he’s drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it’s finished, bringeth forth death. Now, that’s an important section for the child of God, I can assure you that. Now, as we have seen, God tests his own. But now James makes it very clear that God never tests man with evil and sins. And if you want probably a more literal translation of this first statement, listen to this. Let not one man being tempted say, I’m tempted of God. And if you’ll notice, he doesn’t use the noun temptation. It’s now the verb, the action, if you please. And the natural propensity and bent of mankind is to blame God for every fumble, all of his foibles, all of his faults and failures and filth, and even the fall. From the very beginning it was so. You remember, Adam said, the woman whom thou gavest me. He was really passing the buck there. And the woman, she did the same thing. She said, the serpent beguiled me. Well, may I say to you, all three were responsible for that matter. And today you hear questions like this. Why does God send floods and earthquakes and kills babies? And we blame God today for the greed and the avarice and the selfishness of mankind. That’s what sends floods and earthquakes. Man built too close to a river. And then when the river gets up, they say they’re having a flood. That’s where the river runs, you see. It’s more pleasant to build by a river. It’s near transportation. And it’s where business is. And it’s actually the greed and avarice of man that build down where it’s really dangerous to build. God has given a warning. on that sort of thing. And yet men pay no attention. Let me bring it closer to home. Now, if you’re going to live in Southern California, I want to say to you, you’re going to take a chance on an earthquake. You can be sure of that. We had a small one the other evening. My wife and I were sitting in the den and I was rocking as I generally do. And she said, didn’t you feel that earthquake? She was on the couch there. And I said, no, I didn’t feel it. She says, well, there was one. Well, the seismologists, they say that there’s a big one that’s coming out here. And yet people are still living in Southern California and they’re still putting up high-rise buildings. Now, don’t blame God if a slab of concrete falls off one of these high-rise buildings and kills one of your loved ones. Don’t blame God for that. It’d be much safer on the wide open spaces of Texas. I’m a Texan who wants to go back there. That’s where I lived as a boy. I don’t want to go back there. I know it’s better now than it was when I was just a kid growing up. But I want to say to you, I’m staying, but I’m not going to blame God. When people live here and the earthquake comes, the warning has already been sent out. Now, men today with their philosophies, they blame God. Pantheism, for instance, says this, everything is God, but good is God’s right hand and evil is his left hand. Well, God’s no extremist. He’s neither a rightist or a leftist, I can tell you that. And fatalism says that everything’s running like blind necessity. If there is a God, what happened? He wound this thing up like an eight-day clock and then he went off and left it. And materialism, its explanation is this. What’s the problem with the human race? Well, the loftiest aspirations and the vilest passions are the natural metabolism of a physical organism. May I say to you, that’s their explanation of it. Well, God’s answered it. For God cannot be tempted with evil. There’s no evil in God. All is goodness, all is light, and all is right. You remember how John put it in his first epistle, 1 John 1, 5, This then is the message which we’ve heard of him, and declare unto you that God is light, that is, he’s holy, and in him is no darkness at all. And the Lord Jesus made this very interesting statement, The prince of this world cometh, and he find nothing in me. And friends, that means there’s nothing in him. Every time he gets around me, he always finds something. Let me now introduce something that’s theological. And you’ll differ with this because I gave this when we were in the Gospel of Matthew. But will you listen to this? Jesus could not sin. And somebody says, why was he tempted? Well, he said in Matthew 4, 7, Jesus said unto him, the Satanites, written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Now, God wants to save from sin, and he does not tempt you to sin. He wants to deliver man, and he never uses sin as a test. Now, he will permit it, as we shall see in a moment. But he does not use it at all. And the Lord Jesus had no sin in him. The prince of this world cometh, founded nothing in him. Now, somebody says, then why was he tempted? Well, I’ll tell you why I think he was tempted, to prove that there was nothing in him. After he lived a life down here 33 years, Satan came with this temptation, a temptation that appeals to man’s total personality, the physical side, the mental side, and the spiritual side of man. Now, the Lord Jesus could not fall, and the testing was given to demonstrate that he could not fall. Because if he could, any moment there, your salvation mines in doubt. Because the minute he yields, then we have no savior, you see. And it was to prove that he could not. Let me illustrate that now with my very homely illustration. And I mean homely. I’m going back to West Texas. I lived there when I was a boy. My dad built cotton gins for the Murray Gin Company all over West Texas in those early days. And I can remember as a boy that we lived in a little town that was right near the, I guess, the west branch. Not sure whether it’s west or east branch of the Brazos River. And in summertime, there wasn’t enough water in that river to rust a shingle nail. But when it began to rain in wintertime, you could have floated a battleship on it. And during one of those floods, the Santa Fe Railroad had crossed right there near this little town. The bridge washed out was a wooden bridge. They put in a steel bridge, and that always gave to us in the town something to do to go down and watch them build that bridge. And then they finished it, and they brought in two locomotives and put both locomotives on top of the bridge, and they tied down the whistles. And all of us that lived in that little town, my, when we heard two whistles, we knew that that was something. We all ran down to see what it was, all 23 of us. And when we got down there, why, one of the brave citizens of the little town asked the engineer there, said, what are you doing? Well, the engineer said, we built this bridge, we’re testing it. And the man says, why, do you think it’ll fall down? And this engineer drew himself up to his full height, and he says, of course it will not fall down. Well, then he says, why are you putting out locomotives? And he says, we are proving it won’t fall down. Jesus was tested to prove that you and I had a Savior who could not sin. God can’t be tempted with sin. And God won’t tempt you with sin at all. Now, it permits it. Take, for instance, David. It says in 2 Samuel, The 24th chapter, verse 1, it says, and again, the anger of the Lord was against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah. And frankly, that was sinful. Now, somebody says, well, then God did then tempt him with evil. No, you need to get always in the Bible, the full story. And in 1 Samuel, you have man’s viewpoint of it. For man’s viewpoint of It looked as if God was angry with Israel and he just had David do this. Oh, no, no. We are told over in 1 Chronicles, this is from God’s viewpoint, in the 21st chapter, 1 Chronicles, verse 1 says, “…and Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel.” Now, who was it that did it? Satan was the one, and God merely permitted him to do it because… of his anger against Israel because of their sin. But God never tempts man with evil. Now, who is it that’s responsible then for our propensity to evil? What causes us to sin? Must be a cause. Well, somebody says, well, you just called attention to it. It’s the devil. Well, that’s not what this passage of Scripture says. Let’s look at it again, verse 14. But every man is tempted when he’s drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Now, we’re talking here about the sins of the flesh. And who’s responsible when you’re drawn away to do evil and you yield to evil temptation? God’s not responsible. And by the way, the devil is not responsible. You are responsible. A man got lost in the hills of Arkansas back in the day of the Model T Ford accident. And he came into a little town and there were a group of boys playing there. And he said to one little fella that was standing there, he says, where am I? Lost his way and no highway mark or anything. And the little fella looked at him puzzled for just a moment and finally pointed his finger. He says, Dar, you are? May I say to you, friends, God says, when you ask the question, well, who tempted me to do this? God says, there you are. It’s in your own skin. That’s where the problem is. Every man, every man, and this is the declaration of the individuality and personality of the race of mankind. Every man, just as each of us has a different fingerprint, each one of us has a different moral nature. We have our own idiosyncrasy, our own eccentricity. All of us today have something a little different. One man talking to another, he says, you know, says, everybody today has some peculiarity. And this fellow says, well, I disagree with you. He said, I don’t think I have some peculiarity, something unusual. Well, he says, let me ask you a question. He says, do you stir your coffee with your right hand or your left hand? Well, the fellow says, I stir it with my right hand. Well, he says, you see, that’s your peculiarity. Because he says, most people stir it with a spoon. Well, may I say to you, all of us have our peculiarities. One person may be tempted to drink. Another may be tempted to overeat. Another may be tempted in the realm of sex. The problem is always within the individual. No outside thing or influence can make us sin. It must come from within, and the trouble is here. The trouble is inside us today with that old nature that we have. A little boy was playing around at night, and his mother heard him in the pantry, and he’d gotten down the cookie jar. And she says, Willie, what are you doing in the pantry? Because she called out, where are you? And he said, in the pantry. And she says, what are you doing in the pantry? And he said, I’m fighting temptation. Well, he was in the wrong place to fight temptation. But that’s the place that a lot of grown people are today. Things are not bad, many things within themselves. It’s the use that’s made of them. Food is good, but you can become a glutton. Alcohol is a medicine. But you can become an alcoholic if you abuse it. Sex is good if it’s exercised in the area of marriage. And when it’s exercised out, why, you’re going to have an epidemic as we have today of venereal disease. Why? Because of the looseness today, the new morality. And today, the psychologist is helping us get rid of our guilt complex. That is, many of them are. I’ve been reading recently of many psychologists And I’ve known of a Christian psychologist who taught in one of our universities here. And he used to come to my Thursday night Bible study. And he told me one night that he said, you need to emphasize that guilt complex more than you do. He says, a guilt complex is as much a part of us as your right arm. You just can’t get rid of it. But the psychologist, the godless psychologist today, he says, climb upon my couch. Now he wants to say, are you religious? And the party says, oh, yes. You don’t believe in engaging in this sort of thing? A lady called me one day when I was pastor, and she said, Dr. McGee, the most frightful thing that’s happened to me, and she says, I have been having a real problem on the edge of a nervous breakdown, and it’s been due to certain trials I’ve been going through. And I went to a psychologist that my doctor had recommended. And he said to me when he found out that I was a Christian, he says, what you need to do is to go downstairs to the bar room and pick up the first man that’s there. And you’ll get rid of your guilt complex. And then there are those that today that say, what about your background? Did your mother love you? What happened when she conceived you and you were in the womb? And you say, well, my mother was caught in a storm, a rainstorm. And the psychologist says, well, that’s the reason you’re a drip. Well, he practically says that, and he blames it on the mother. Well, may I say to you that you could solve a great deal of your problems today where you’re blaming somebody else if you just go to the foot of the cross. And you would say to the living Lord Jesus, who right now is at God’s right hand, say to him, I’m a sinner. I’m guilty. And may I say, he’ll remove your guilt complex. And he’s the only one that can do it. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Proverbs 23, 7. Now, the solicitation to sin must have a corresponding response from within. And he says, you’re from your own lusts, an overweening desire and uncontrolled longing. And you’re drawn away. The Lord Jesus said, I’ll draw all men unto me. And the scoffer says, well, he’ll not draw me. Well, he’ll not force you. As we saw back in Hosea, he will only use the bands of love. He wants to woo and win you by his grace and love. And frankly, evil is attractive today. It’s winsome. This man, Moses, he was caught up at first with the pleasures of sin. And you can be enticed today and the hook can be baited. And before long, a man becomes an alcoholic or a young person, a dope fiend. When the desire, now notice this, then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it’s finished, bringeth forth death. When the desire of the soul, having conceived, gives birth to sin, and the sin, having been completed, brings forth death. Now, this is a tremendous statement. You see, conception is the joining and union of two, and the desire of the soul joined to the outward temptations. You remember the Lord Jesus said, if you’re angry with your brother, you’re guilty of murder because it begins in the heart and moves out to the action. He says, if you look upon a woman to commit adultery with her, you’ve done it because of the fact in your heart is where it began. And that’s where it always begins. Is temptation sin? Of course it’s not sin. The answer is definitely no. It’s when the conception takes place. when the thought in the heart is carried out in action. Martin Luther expressed it in this rather novel way. He said, you can’t keep birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair. Sin is the consummation of the act inwardly and outwardly. And it comes because you and I have that kind of a nature. It bringeth forth finally death. It’ll bring forth physical death finally. Ask the alcoholic about that. It’ll bring spiritual death and it’ll bring eternal death. The habitual and perpetual sinner never had a line of communication with God. May I say to you, the question then is going to arise, can a child of God sin? And the answer is yes. But we need to understand that God never uses that at all. Now, I have not concluded this section here by any means. I want to move a little faster beginning next time. But I want us to see, because God is bringing us down, friends, right where we live today. And James is showing us That this easy morality that we have, this easygoing looking at sin today, God has no part in it whatsoever. And God will judge you. He says he’ll do just that. Well, we’ll have to hold that till next time. And until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, we’re just starting our study in James. So if you don’t have your copy of Dr. McGee’s free notes and outlines yet, get them today. And if you listen by app, you’ll find them in the menu or to download our digital book titled Briefing the Bible, which includes all of Dr. McGee’s notes and outlines for our entire five-year study, visit ttb.org. If you’d rather have an abridged paperback version, then call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE. Again, that’s 1-800-652-4253. Now, for those who would prefer to write, you can reach us at Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109, or in Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C, 6B1. You can also email BibleBus at ttb.org. And while you’re sending that note, you know that we’d love to hear how God’s working in your life through what you’re learning on the Bible bus. So stories like this one from Steve in Kentucky mean so much to us. I want to thank you all for keeping Dr. McGee’s booklet, Death of a Little Child, available. I work in a library, and over the years I’ve been able to give it to patrons and friends who are looking for literature to deal with the loss of a child at least ten times, and also my friends and my late mother who lost a child before I was born. She listened to the good doctor every day and was tickled to death one time when he read her letter over the air. God bless you all. You are in my prayers. Well, Steve, I hope you too are tickled that we’re sharing your letter as well. So thanks for partnering with us to get out God’s word and to comfort those who are hurting. And here’s another great note. This is from Audrey in Amarillo, Texas. Wow. I continue, knowing that the Lord is there with me has brought me peace, and it is through Dr. McGee’s teaching that I have obtained peace. Thank you. Well, thank you, Audrey. Thanks for sharing your Bible bus journey with us. And what’s your story? Is God changing your heart and life as we study his word together? Would you write today and tell us about it? Or you can call and leave your story on our listener testimony line at 1-800-65-BIBLE. You can do that anytime. Now, in our next study, Dr. McGee shares a fascinating and little-known story about the life of John Wesley. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll be here saving a seat on the Bible bus just for you.
SPEAKER 02 :
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