James 4:11-5:6 Three Pitfalls of Pride

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan.

It is my turn to preach, woo-hoo. I enjoy doing this. And my name is Rob Knold, I don't know how many of you I know personally, so for those who don't know me, I'll do a quick introduction. So I've been here at Recast Church since the beginning, since it started, and been excited to serve and work here and just volunteer, right?

I'm just a participant here and a member here. I was saved at a young age, and I actually grew up as a missionary kid in Asia, in Korea and Japan, so it's a little bit of a different childhood, you might say.

And then I eventually went into the Navy. We got any Navy people in the house? Maybe a couple, right, Navy, go Navy. And then I've also, just, I don't know why this is just true of me, I love basketball.

Dave, do I like, I do enjoy basketball. And I like to play, although my body is slowly aging, but I love to watch basketball, and in fact, I just have to tell you all, I had a chance to see the Big Ten tournament semifinals yesterday.

I was in Indianapolis watching the game live, and I got to see that Michigan game ending.

There.

That was pretty awesome. So I really enjoyed that. But I have many other interests and passions, and one of those is God's Word. I've just enjoyed being involved in Bible studies and community groups over the years.

It's one of the passions that I have. I believe that God's Word is powerful, that it is central to our lives as Christians, and I just am excited to be preaching to you today from the Bible. That's the important thing this morning that we want to focus on.

James as the Brother of Jesus and the Book’s Practical Wisdom

And I will be in the New Testament. We're taking a break from Hosea, and we'll be in the book of James. So this morning, we'll be in the book of James. I have been preaching my way through James, but I haven't preached for, like, it's been almost a year.

So I'm going to review a little bit and just sort of give you some context so you know where we're at. James, first off, is the author of James. Big surprise, right? But which James? Who is this guy? There was an apostle named James, and it's important to note that that is not the James who wrote this book.

Most likely, he was martyred before this was written. So most scholars, most commentators believe that the James who wrote James was the brother of Jesus. Jesus had a brother named James. And that James, you know, it's interesting to note in the Gospels, it says that Jesus' own siblings didn't believe in him.

His brothers didn't believe in him during his earthly ministry. So that would include James, the author of the book today. But after Jesus died, was buried, and resurrected, he appeared to hundreds of people, including his brother James.

Can you believe? Can you imagine if you were his brother, Jesus' brother, and he dies, and then he appears to you physically? Like, that's got to be very life-changing. He put his faith and trust in Christ as his Messiah, and he went on to grow in his faith and became a leader in the early church.

We get to find out a little bit about James in Acts 15. We're not going to go there right now, but in Acts 15, there was a dispute within the early church. And Paul, the apostle, came to Jerusalem to consult with the leaders there, and it was Peter and James, this James who spoke up, who stood up, and who helped resolve and clarify that issue for the early church.

So we're going to dig into James, this book in the Bible, in the New Testament. And it is a very powerful, I would say pithy book, which means just concise and hard-hitting, and it's just right in your face.

The author just has a very direct writing style. James, the author, also is very practical. He focuses on how to live out our faith as believers. How to actually do it. How do you actually live it out?

What an important topic, right? We know the Bible's important. We know we need to read it and understand it. But then what do I do with that? James helps us understand that. James focuses on a few topics, like trials.

He says trials exist in our lives, hard things, difficult things. They exist so that God can help us grow, grow up in faith, in spiritual maturity, so that God can build us up in our lives. He emphasizes being a doer of the Word, not just a hearer.

So it's not enough to just hear the Word, you know, so you hear something in Scripture, but you actually have to put it into practice. He also addresses conflicts and divisions within the church. Conflicts and divisions happen, and he addresses those, especially between social classes, between the rich and the poor.

He just zeroes in on that topic, and you know that's relevant today as well. We have rich and poor, and we have division sometimes. And he says basically his message is don't show favoritism. Don't show preferential treatment to one group of people over another.

He says, no, we're all equal. He addresses the importance of controlling our tongues, that funny little muscle in our mouth that speaks words. It's the words we say that really matter, and he rebukes his audience for falling into a worldly wisdom and really just doing things the way the world does, like just sliding into worldliness instead of seeking God and seeking God's wisdom from above.

So that's a brief summary of the book of James so far, and now you're caught up to chapter 4. Chapter 4 verses 1 to 10 is right before the passage we'll do today, and verses 1 to 10 addresses some of the infighting and the division and the conflict within the church.

And people were literally attacking each other in the church, and James addresses the division and the bitterness, and he says it all comes from selfish desires inside of us. The problem is your heart.

It's selfish desires inside, and he zeroes in on the root of that, which is pride. We just think we're better than other people, and he tells us the solution, humility. Just humble yourself. Humble yourself before God, and God will lift you up in due time.

And that brings us to our passage today. So we're going to be in James chapter 4 verses 11 to chapter 5 verse 6, James 4, 11 to 5, 6, and I'm going to read it here. James is going to call us to humility.

He's going to give us some really specific direction, guidance, and warning, so get ready. He doesn't hold back, so buckle up, and here we go. James 4, 11 to 5, 6. Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.

The one who speaks against a brother or judges a brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge.

He who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow, we'll go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.

You do not know what tomorrow will bring.

What is your life?

You're a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.

Your gold and silver have corroded and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, are crying out against you.

And the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your heart in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person.

He does not resist you.".

Whoa.

On that note, we're going to pray now as the band comes to lead us in worship. God, we hear these words and it's a pretty heavy topic, a lot of warning, a lot of challenge. But God, we recognize this is your word.

It is powerful and effective. It is what we need. God, we trust that you can speak to us through your word and that your spirit is alive and can bring conviction where needed. And God, we pray for that today.

And God, we recognize that as we come to worship now, you are the God that we serve. You are the God that we love. And Lord, we recognize that you're the only one who deserves all the praise, all the glory.

And so God, we want to just turn our attention and our focus to you right now, God. And we want to lift you up. We do that now. In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks, man.

And thank you to the band for leading us in worship and just guiding us and directing us to the throne of God. I appreciate that so much. And we're now back to the book of James. So here we go. James is...

Some people see and read through it. If you've ever read through James, it's a bunch of... It's got so many topics, so many things it hits on, and it's hard sometimes to follow what's going on. And yet as you read it and study it, you start to see themes.

You start to see certain things repeated, and you see them kind of emphasized. And then you start to see how some of them connect together and relate to each other. And that's really what we're going to see today.

The passage we just read in James 4, verse 11 to 13, we're going to see how the need for humility that was just brought up in the preceding verses ties to these potential pitfalls of pride that we're going to be talking about in the sermon today.

James is basically giving us a huge warning in this passage. He is basically saying, hey, brothers and sisters in Christ, watch out for these huge pride pitfalls. They're basically traps. You're going to be tempted to slide into these things.

So what are they? The three pitfalls are the sermon outline for today, and so I'm going to list them off for you. Pride pitfall number one, speaking evil about each other. Speaking evil about each other, and it's verses 11 and 12.

Pride pitfall number two, presuming about the future. Presuming about the future, verses 13 to 17. And lastly, pitfall number three, hoarding wealth. Hoarding wealth in chapter five, verses one to six.

So that's the outline for those who love organization and structure and things like that, but we're just going to read through this passage and understand what it tells us about these three things today.

Speaking Evil Against One Another and the Call to Speak the Truth in Love

So pitfall number one, speaking evil. James starts out in this passage in verse 11 by clearly speaking to believers. He says right there in the first line, do not speak evil against one another, brothers.

He's talking to believers, brothers and sisters in Christ, and he says, don't speak evil. So what does that mean? What does it mean to speak evil? It essentially means to defame or to denigrate another person.

It means to talk down to them, to speak bad things about them, slandering them behind their back, bringing a harsh criticism with an intent to tear them down and hurt them. Those are all definitions or examples of speaking evil about another person.

And it's interesting that James doesn't really clarify here in this passage whether the things are true or not true. And the point I want to make is it doesn't really matter whether they're true or not.

True.

It's the fact that you're saying negative things with an intent to hurt and to harm and to tear someone down. So how many of us are good at that, honestly? Good at finding the faults of others and sort of highlighting those and talking about them?

Hopefully not, but it certainly is a fault that we can find. Often we find ourselves becoming professional critics and we like to criticize and gossip and run our mouth about everybody else's weaknesses and problems.

I mean, why do we even do that? Does it make us feel better in some kind of sick, demented way? Are we getting some happiness or joy or lifting up because in comparison we look better than the other person?

It's wrong. We should just not be doing that. Note that James is, again, addressing the use of the tongue. You may remember back from James 3, James says that taming the tongue is one of the hardest things that we can do.

We can tame wild animals easier than we can tame this muscle in our mouths. We can't, for some reason, controlling our tongues remains one of the most difficult things to do. And we do such damage with our words.

You know, Dave mentioned in the worship time, one minute we're praising God and then the next minute we're cursing our brother who's made in God's likeness. What are we doing? We have to evaluate our words, our speech, and we need God's power in us to do that.

And to expand on this idea of speaking evil against a brother, James goes on to say that speaking evil about your brother or judging your brother is actually becoming a judge of the law. It says you speak evil against the law and judge the law.

What is he saying? How is that possible? Well, when we speak evil or when we defame somebody else, we're doing the opposite of loving them, right? God tells us, love your brother. And when we speak evil, meaning we're tearing them down with our words, we're doing the opposite.

So we're essentially contradicting God's law. We're telling God, I don't care what your law says, I'm going to do this instead. This is what I want to do. And so we're essentially judging or critiquing the law, the very words of Christ, of God, to love your neighbor.

So then essentially your lifestyle and your actions and the words you're saying are now suddenly undermining God's law. And that's what James is getting at. What are we thinking? Who are we to tell God what's right and wrong, to judge the law?

That's not our role. And that leads James to ask his audience in verse 12 a very good question. Who are you? Who are we? We are imperfect sinners deserving condemnation. You know, we are not the judge.

God is the judge. He alone is the righteous judge who will judge all humanity and make all the right determinations. We are not that judge. So we have no place lording it over other people and talking down to them and critiquing them and criticizing them as fellow believers.

But we need to reconcile this point that James is making with the need for feedback. Wait a second, do I never say anything negative about anyone? Like, what if someone sins against me? Can I not confront them about that?

How do I do that? So we need to reconcile that really quick. And the answer is we do need to address that. It is a proper thing to address that, but the key thing is we have to have the right heart attitude.

And I think that's the critical difference between speaking evil to someone with an intent to hurt them and tear them down and speaking the truth in love, which is an intent to exhort them and show them their sin and help them turn from it and help them turn back to Christ.

So let me just emphasize this point by pointing out that Matthew 18 is scripture that actually tells us how to do that properly. It says, if someone sins against you, go directly to your brother or sister in Christ and confront them one-on-one and resolve that grievance, whatever it is.

If you can handle that privately, perfect. Do that. And we need to do that, right? Like if we're sinned against, it's not right to ignore that either. But do that in love and with wisdom and do that privately.

And then if need be, bring in another brother or an elder to support you if that doesn't resolve the issue. And then it can escalate from there. But that's all in Matthew 18 and our church bylaws actually talk about that very process, which is very important.

Conflicts within the church do arise. Sin does creep in. We're all guilty of sin and we need to resolve those issues properly. But we need to do that with grace and love and the support of the local church when needed.

But that's in contrast to what we're talking about today, which James is saying is speaking evil with the intent to tear the other person down. And that is clearly sinful. So that's our first point, verses 11 and 12, the pitfall of speaking evil about each other, defaming them, which by the way, demonstrates an incredible pride and arrogance, doesn't.

It?

It's an attempt to put ourselves above them and judge them and judge the law. So we have to check our words. God has gifted us with words, with language, right? Have you ever thought about how much of a gift that is, just the fact that we can communicate with each other?

God made us that way. He gave us our mouths and our tongues and our brains to communicate. What a gift. But how are we going to use that gift? Are you going to use it to tear each other down? Or are you going to use your tongue for good, to speak words of love, to speak truth, sometimes tough words of love, but exhorting, encouraging, building each other up and blessing those around you.

Presuming About the Future Instead of Saying “If the Lord Wills”

So now we'll turn to the second point, the second pride pitfall. This is presuming about the future, presuming about the future. And we're going to turn now to verse 13. And in verse 13, James shifts to his second point in the outline and addresses the businessmen, the merchants of the time.

Now this was not the wealthiest class in that time period. The landowners were the wealthiest, and we'll learn more about them in the third point today. The merchants were a notch below that. And I was thinking about this a little bit.

It might be kind of like the middle class today or the upper middle class or something like that. They had enough money, obviously, to travel, and they had enough money to buy things and sell things and make a profit, trade.

So they had some wealth, but they were not the wealthiest of the day. So this sort of middle class businessmen of the day, in verse 13, it addresses them. It says, "'Come now, you who say, "'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year and trade and make a profit.'".

It starts off simple enough, right? Really, it just sounds pretty innocent. He's describing somebody who's making plans for the future. But let's take a closer look at that verse 13. First, there's a presumption that you have plenty of time.

Notice all the time words in there. Today, tomorrow, spend a year. There's an assumption that I have plenty of time, all the time in the world. Second, there's a presumption of choice or of control. We can go wherever we choose.

We can spend whatever time we need. We could do whatever we want. So there's a sense that I'm in control. And third, there's a presumption and a confidence in our own ability. Notice it says, we can trade and get gain.

It's the confidence that I can just make money wherever I want and whenever I want. This is such a modern mindset. We start out, like honestly, when I was young and growing up, I mean, don't you reflect back on this?

And some of you are young right now, and some maybe closer to my age or beyond. But I think I've heard this and thought of this my whole life. I have my whole life ahead of me. I am a young person. I can have all the time in the world.

And secondly, about choice, don't we often say, I can do whatever I want with my life. I can choose whatever I want to do. And about our ability, often don't we think, I can accomplish anything I put my mind to.

I can do it.

Like, isn't that just the value system, the philosophy of this world? It is. It's the American dream. So what's wrong with it? Fortunately, James tells us in verse 14. So let's turn now to verse 14. James points out a harsh reality that we really don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.

As much as we might have confidence, we don't know what's going to happen in the next hour.

Right?

We are really so tied into time, aren't we?

And limited.

We don't know the future. God sees the future. He knows the future. And we're time-bound creatures living in the present with absolutely no control over the future ultimately. God has that in His hands.

And also just the length of our life. James is sort of pointing out the brevity of life. I think as I've gotten older, I've realized just how short life is. Time passes quickly, and suddenly it's gone.

And it's like a mist. Have you ever seen, like, a fog in the morning and then the sun comes out and it just burns off and boom, it's gone? And that's kind of a picture of the brevity of life. We don't choose when we're born.

We don't choose when we die. God alone has appointed the days we're going to live. Not us. We are not in control of timetables. And then verse 15 goes on, and we see we don't have the control that we think we have.

God ultimately is in control. It says there, if the Lord wills, that is the key question. But are we asking that question? Are we praying and seeking His will and His desire and His plan for our lives?

Or are we just plowing ahead, no consideration whatsoever for what God would want? So I'm going to pause here and say that this is not a ban on planning. Because it says right there, instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.

So there is planning involved there. And that was reassuring because my wife is a wonderful planner. She always helps us stay organized, especially on vacations. She thinks ahead. She plans ahead. She coordinates things.

She's communicating with people. And I lean on her heavily in that regard and appreciate her planning. Planning is a God-given ability, and it's a fantastic thing. So this is not speaking against planning at all.

But it is speaking against planning without God, excluding God from our plans. And I think, often I just think about this, it's so silly. God knows everything anyways. And He's in complete control of it all anyways.

Why do we try to plan and make schemes and plans without including God in it? He sees everything we do. And this illustration that we're looking at in James is very much looking in the business aspects, right?

The merchants. He's talking to the merchants and their business plans. So as you go to work and you're planning and preparing for whatever you do in your job, submit those plans to God. You know, He knows the future.

He knows what plans He has for you. And humbly submit to Him and seek His will. And by the way, saying the phrase, if the Lord wills, it's not like a rabbit's foot, a magic potion to sort of like, okay, now I'm safe.

No, this is not talking about just saying a phrase. This is talking about an attitude of the heart, humbling ourselves and submitting ourselves to God, seeking Him, bowing, praying, and seeking His will and His plan for our lives.

And I think this is especially hard, humbly submitting our plans to God, especially when our plans get interrupted and things don't go the way we want or expect, especially for those of us who are control freaks.

Are there any control freaks in the room? Just me? Leave me hanging? Or things just don't turn out the way we had hoped. I think Proverbs 19 .21 is really accurate in how it phrases this. Many are the plans in the mind of a man.

Many are the plans in the mind of a man. But it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. Are you willing to humble yourself and let go of your plans when God has other plans? And are you willing to follow His lead?

And whatever He ends up giving you as a result from your efforts, are you willing to accept it with a joyful heart? We're going to move on to verse 16 now. And James correctly calls us out here in verse 16 for boasting.

He says, as it is, you boast in your arrogance, and all such boasting is evil. By making plans apart from God, without submitting to Him and acknowledging Him, we're actually arrogant and boastful. It's calling out the sin that's in our heart.

And we think we can achieve anything we want, and we're essentially boasting in our own abilities, and that is what James is calling is evil. You know, do you see your life as a continuing right to do whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want?

Is that your view of life? Or do you see each new day that you wake up as an undeserved gift from God, with just a grateful and thankful heart, that He's given you one more day, He's preserved your life, He kept you alive for one more day.

Why? So you could serve Him.

So what's your attitude?

What is your heart attitude this morning? Verse 17 goes on to say, set a very high bar for us, a very high bar, whoever knows the right thing to do and doesn't do it sins. This verse highlights that it isn't just the sins of commission, the things we think about as sins, doing the wrong thing, doing things we know we shouldn't, those are sins of commission.

But what it also includes is the sins of omission. This verse points out that if you know you ought to do something, it's the right thing to do, but you turn away from it. Maybe you're lazy, or you're intimidated, or afraid, or whatever, too busy.

If you know the right thing to do and you don't do it, that also is sin. Whoa, how can we ever live up to God's standard, right? It's incredibly high. That is very convicting. But the bottom line is we need to listen to the Holy Spirit as He convicts and He leads.

Us.

So I want to point out a connecting word at the beginning of this verse, so. It can be translated therefore or so. So whoever knows the right thing to do. So it's pointing back to the previous passage.

I mean, this section of Scripture which is talking about planning, right? And I think it's interesting to see how it connects the two together. The connection of verse 17 to the preceding verses is saying that when we make plans, instead of doing so selfishly, we need to humbly include God in our plans.

And proactively, we should be looking for the good works that God has prepared for us to do. Ephesians 2 verse 10 says something along the lines of, God has prepared good works for us. He, in advance, has already prepared good works that He has for us to do.

The question is, are we planning for that? Are we intentionally looking for those things? So I'm going to summarize really quick now the first two points that we've covered. Pitfall number one was speaking evil about each other.

In our pride, we say bad things, putting others down, making judgments about them, judging them, judging the law. And then point two, presuming we have all the time in the world, and we have all the control in the world, and all the talent, and we can do whatever we want with our time, instead of humbly submitting our plans to God and pursuing the good things God has planned for us.

Hoarding Wealth, Injustice, and the Warning to the Rich

And now the third point, point number three, pride pitfall number three, don't hoard wealth. Oh boy, he's talking about our money. Let's see how this goes. James is addressing the hoarding and accumulating of wealth, which is just stuff, things, possessions, bank accounts, et cetera.

He tells the rich, weep and howl for the misery that are coming. This is not a good start to this section. So who are these rich people that he's talking to? We'll talk a little bit about these people.

They're landowners, based on the context. And we know that landowners in that day and age were the wealthiest class. They had the most wealth, and they were better off than the merchants in point two.

And there's differing views on whether these wealthy landowners are Christians or not. And I'll just explain for a moment that there was wealthy people talked about earlier in James, chapter two, verses six and seven.

And in that section, James basically identifies the wealthy people as those who are dragging believers into court and blaspheming the name of Christ. But I think... So some people think it's those wealthy landowners who are not part of the church, but I would disagree.

And I think the most likely interpretation of this text is that these wealthy landowners are present in the church because this passage is addressed directly at them, and he's talking to brothers here.

So he's addressing the church, and he's talking directly to these landowners. And of course, whether they're believers or not, we don't know for certain.

God knows.

But they're certainly not acting Christ-like, as we can see in this passage. And James is about to set them straight. So let's look at verses two and three. James talks about riches rotting and garments being eaten by moths.

They're gold and silver rusting. This is just talking broadly about accumulating wealth, more stuff than we need, and hanging onto it longer than we need, essentially hoarding wealth. People have always desired wealth.

And why is that?

I mean, wealth is a means to an end. It provides power and ability to have luxuries. There's a temptation to focus on that and to want to accumulate that wealth because of all the benefits it can bring you.

We want the nice things. We chase a certain lifestyle, a certain income level. But why do we want to get things in this life? Why do we want that? Is it going to bring us lasting happiness and joy? It's not.

Is it going to bring you the security that you crave? It's not. It won't. So James then doesn't hold back. He says the rust of their treasure will be evidence against them, and it's going to eat their flesh like fire.

This is the evidence that they disregarded eternity and the things God wanted them to focus on, and instead they just focused on accumulating wealth in this life only. So I want to also clarify at this point that wealth in and of itself is not the issue.

God can choose to bless wherever He chooses, wherever He wants. That is God's choice. And it's not the wealth itself that is sin, but it's our attitude toward the wealth, and it's our chasing after it, and it's what we do with the wealth, frankly.

Those are the potentially sinful issues. And the bottom line is we have to live with eternity in mind, focusing on the things God desires, giving generously as God has enabled, and investing in the things that God wants us to invest in.

Eternal things. What are eternal things? Loving other people, caring for others, serving, exhorting them. You know, that can involve challenging and difficult conversations as well.

Done in love.

Giving.

Giving generously. So, I mean, the bottom line is we can use our resources and the things God given us for bad uses or for good. And I'm reminded of the movie about Scrooge. Do you guys know the character Scrooge?

He, you know, he's hoarding wealth, right? It just came to mind. But I love the point in the story where he wakes up from this nightmare he's been having, and suddenly his perspective, right, is just 180, completely flipped.

And he is so joyful just to be alive. And he wakes up and he's, like, giddy about what? About giving away the wealth. I mean, he's just trying to find someone to give his wealth to as fast as he possibly.

Can.

He's just so joyful in giving. And I just found that thought to be convicting. I mean, here's just a movie that's popular in culture. How much more should we as Christians, who have been given everything from Christ, we deserve nothing and we're given everything from Christ.

How much more should we be just joyful in giving our wealth to others? I'm also reminded of this passage closely paralleling the Gospels and Jesus himself, who preached a sermon on the Mount. And in Matthew 6, verse 19, he says something so parallel to what James says here.

I just couldn't not read this. Jesus says these words, "'Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.'". Jesus goes on to direct our attention, though, to where it should be.

And where should it be? "'But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.'". And that's just such a good reminder, again, to focus on the right place.

But then Jesus ends it with a key point in verse 21. And he says, "'For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.'". This just gets to the root of it, right? It's the heart. It's where is your heart.

Jesus wants your heart. And by the way, just to clarify, we're not talking about the thing beating inside your chest, and we're not talking about just your emotions, which are so synonymous with heart.